I stake my belief fully in a landscape alive, conscious, and present. One could term this animism, if a word is needed. As I look around me, in this familiar and unfamiliar place, I let myself immersive my self into the landscape. Feeling the movement of the breeze, the glare of the sun beaming down hot and heavy, the gentle rain that brings more humidity, the big wild, tall trees littering the topography of a land recently ravaged by a ferocious hurricane. Some trees are bent, many are uprooted, others stand firm and solid, their vein-y roots sticking out unruly and staunch. I look at the world around me, the people, the streets, the ocean, and I let my self be overcome. I feel quite at home here, I feel it was perfect and auspicious coming back, but also, simultaneously, I feel a resistance. As if I am seeing the lay of the land for the first time, and appreciating it for all it has to offer, knowing it for the first time, and there are markers of knowing I have to encounter first before fully immersing myself within and with the spirits of this place.
I admit that another barrier might be the fact that I am not yet in my own home, I am in a temporary house. That perhaps contributes to the barred response I am getting.
Meanwhile, I read and contemplate, I take in the sun, and plunge myself into the minutiae of daily mundane life.
One benefit of this has been a re-acquaintance with different tarot traditions and other card systems of divination, after a two month hiatus. For example, LXXXI The Magician’s Deck by Quareia. I wrote a review of the deck many months ago, here. Rereading the book as I look deeper at the cards, I gain a new appreciation of the unique system of the deck, as I also learn to use it with a more practical approach in mind. Two processes of re-immersion, within the deck as within the landscape around me.
Another way of looking at it is, I am already here, I am within the landscape as I am here. All I have to do is be present and experience the being here with the land.
With these thoughts in mind I shuffle the cards and think, what does it mean to be within the landscape and experience it? It is foremost about relationships and experiencing relationships, of being aware and present, in medias res, in the moment. From these relationships and these experiences one begins to establish a rapport, to know the land, to begin grasp the personality of the spirits of the place.
From East to West, it is about finding the guises in the shadows, about guiding the impulse and the emotions with the finesse gained through working together, instruction and counsel. From North the South, one learns to ease the bloody passions through guidance, to temper desires, and subsequently one learns Temperance. In a landscape of shadow and disguises, an ally and guide is is favorable. Immersion is about steady guidance, discernment, and awareness.
What comes after?
The wisdom of knowing, finding, and learning. Tapping into ancient lines, and finding the knowledge sought, of apprehending that with limitations comes refinement, stability and maturity. Knowing what to kill and what to keep, the sophistication of the Inner Temple.
I know I have said this before, but I say it again, compelled by no one but my self, this deck is an amazing tool for any diviner, witch, sorcerer, or magician (person). With its polished and coherent system, beautiful and evocative art, one can glean a universe of realities, truths, directions, and counsel from the deck. A truly en-spirited work. Perhaps as I dive into the deck, and apprehend its depth of knowledge, I will likewise discover and become aware of this landscape as it is and as I am within it.
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Natalia Lee 