The Two of Swords: Today's Tea and Tarot Blog

-- By Hyperion Night, of Beanblossom's Tea and Tarot

Stalemate. Crossroads. Divided Loyalties. Tough decisions. Avoidance.

As politics in America becomes more polarized, I've been thinking a lot about loyalty. Particularly about loyalty to ideas, and how that loyalty can turn those ideas into harsh ideologies. When is it time to take the blindfold off and reassess our beliefs about ourselves, about others, about the world we live in? I'd like to always live with the blindfold off. But that's not reality. Most of the day, we're on autopilot, running the same programs over and over without giving them too much thought, because who has the time?

In Tarot, one of the questions the Two of Swords may ask us is to consider where we've blinded ourselves, what we're not seeing. It asks if it's time to put down our ideas (those two swords), get up, and change position. The woman on the Two of Swords card in the RWS deck holds two swords which are obviously too big for her and must be terribly uncomfortable to hold in that cross-armed position. Her back is to the water, and a waxing crescent moon hangs overhead -- both symbols of the unconscious. And our blind spots generally are hidden by our unconscious. They're the things we don't want to look at, our shadow. But the burden of not looking them, not ripping off the blindfold, not putting down those swords, grows heavier over time. The look--scary and painful as it may be--is worth it.

If you or your client are at a stalemate, have reached a crossroads, or are avoiding a tough decision, this card suggests a re-examination of assumptions. Check your premises. Once the blindfold is off, an entirely new way of approaching the situation may become obvious.

As many of my friends descend into more extreme positions, I find myself backing away, staying out of it, keeping my mouth shut. And by doing that, I betray myself -- a loyalty, shattered. It looks like I've got a blindfold to remove too.