Monthly Reading for the Card of the Day - 1st Sunday

The root of this house connects directly to Spirit, but does so through a unique connection to Shakti (Earth).  The raw nature of this connection is great, and it sometimes takes courage to stand in the face of it.  What we are standing up for here is the choice related to the Soul.  Will the Soul seek creator through experience of the physical senses, or through the devotion and love associated with chivalry?

The path related to chivalry leads towards courage, and typically demands it over time.  A 'need' is assessed and a plan devised to accomplish the task.  The end goal then gets pasted over the conscious mind as the ego expands into the hero.  It will survive at all costs, driven by the power of love and fueled by the emerging progress.  There's a greatness to this path, for the hero is destined to arrive victorious.  There is a possible pitfall though.  If the hero becomes attached to the end goal rather than the love that is guiding him towards it, a lack of consideration can creep into the process.  In a purified form, the hero would be ruthless in his dedication to serving the cause of his quest.  He would be serving the queen, and nothing would sway him from that purpose.  But the hero is human too, and sometimes his own concerns would be mixed up with the overall purpose of his mission.  Here then would be a point where a self-serving nature could overshadow the conscious decisions made in the moment.   When ruthlessness is overshadowed by a lack of consideration the hero will suffer.  The power awarded to the hero should not be underestimated, to serve the queen is the the highest glory of the white knight.  But that same power can become crippling if the knight is not properly aligned with the chivalry that is required to wield that power.

The path of the senses leads towards an inner experience where the body itself becomes that which is desired.  At first though, the overwhelming rawness of nature appears too savage to interact with as a normal day-to-day activity.  The experience then becomes internalized, and the overall approach then becomes more of a religious or spiritual experience.  Here abstinence of sex has become the hallmark of this position, but it has not always been that way.  Originally the priest would approach sexuality through the process of removing all impurities from the physical, mental and emotional bodies.  He would then be ready to experience God through intercourse with his sexual mate, who would arrive as a function of his dedicated approach towards purity.  As a practice though, the priest would often fall short of the lofty goal that was assumed, and would fall prey to the seduction of his unbridled sexuality.  Thus, over time the priest became more associated with control of this sexual desire, rather than the activity of it.  Essentially, the priest abstains from sex in order to provide the most amount of conscious attention towards God.  This dedication awakens as a heightened sense of nature when done properly, which actually satisfies the sensual experience that was originally desired.  Unfortunately the call of the wild is relentless, and the question still beckons to the priest if he would allow his mind to wander once more.

The solution I have found for this dilemma then is to uphold as the highest the 'choice' that is presented, rather than whatever choice may actually be made.  This way, instead of griping about how bad a choice may have been, I can now attend to better analyzing how to make better choices.  Both sides of the choice are equally valuable, and understanding that then becomes the path, or solution.  Both choices are necessary, and though there may be a tendency towards one path or the other, there will be instances where the path less traveled will be recommended.  Being able to choose in that moment is critical to the emerging Soul, and the discernment as to which path to take then becomes the language of the Soul.  Thus, the crux of the issue here resides in the ability to allow the self to choose at will what path to take, which reflects back as a need to allow others to make the same choice without restriction.