(What follows is a Rainring cards page which I pasted ‘by mistake’ as a post - so I’m going to run with the said ‘mistake’ and publish it here. These are the first six stages, three more follow. BTW, this is according to me - you won’t find it anywhere else!)
Directory of Meanings Set 9: Process Archetypes
NOTES
1. Set 9 also involves archetypes – those of process. It is based on the proposition that all psychic processes evolve in the same manner, following a specific template. The nine cards of set 9 provide the template
2. Each entry is structured as follows: After describing the image, there is a general reflection on the place of the card in the set as a whole. This is followed by the section which deals with detailed meanings. The last item is a summarising list of the divination meanings for the card.
3. The treatment of each stage of the cycle is of a thematic, rather than strictly historical type. Our concern is not to answer questions such as the precise conditions of the origins of the psyche, but rather to provide a model of the stages which will be of practical value in divination.
73. Projection: group – spirit (1 violet/purple) [stage 1]
The Image
It is night; perhaps the period just before dawn. In the left foreground a bearded man sits on the ground with knees drawn up and arms around his shins, gazing into a small fire. On the fire is a pot-holder in the shape of a globe, suspended by chains from a rod which disappears out of view in the right foreground. Behind the man, the shape of a wolf’s head can be made out, its eyes catching the firelight. In the middle centre of the image can be seen the silhouette of a figure sleeping on the ground. The landscape beyond is hilly, and there are a few faint stars in the sky.
The place of Projection in the Process Cycle
Projection: 1) stage one of the project: first movement of the spirit towards conceivable goals; 2) the distortion of what is by what is imagined, believed, felt to be
If Projection is the first stage of the cycle, the original Projection would logically correspond to the origins of the psyche. However, Projection represents only the beginnings of consciousness, so Projection must take account of a preceding stage: that of Crossing (out of the original Unconscious into consciousness). Crossing involves dislocation, disorientation, confusion and uncertainty, and in the cycle this forms the background out of which Projection arises.
Projection itself does not represent a stage at which there is no female polarity. Strictly speaking, we should consider Spirit and Will as constituting a co-equal first stage. The emotions of the Will open space for the light of Spirit to penetrate, but the shape or form of the universe is determined by the emotional responses (stage 2, Resistance) of the Will to the project first conceived by Spirit. So, our ‘first stage’ will be the study of this process of Projection.
The meaning
Projection: ‘a transforming change; the forming of a plan; the act of perceiving a mental object as spatially and sensibly objective’
To reach the stage of Projection means that you have come out of Crossing. In Crossing, you get to a point at which you realise that your own unaided efforts are not going to carry you forward. When something is completed, there is an inevitable ending; Crossing thus involves a death of some kind. Only when this is accepted are the conditions in place for the new to arise. Projection is like the first sense you have, at the end of the night, that dawn is near. At that point, suddenly, your spirit lifts, the weight of the past is lightened, and you begin to plan for the new day which you know will soon be upon you.
In Projection, you experience elements of inner tension or contradiction. On the one hand, your plans induce a feeling of optimism and excitement – the thrill of taking the first, tentative steps upon a new path. On the other hand, there is a strong element of resistance. First, you cannot easily shake off the womb-like sense of protection and support which the Unconscious offers at the moment that you let yourself go and allow life to carry you wherever it will. After all, that is what you knew before consciousness and, as at the moment of your birth, part of you longs to remain in that original womb. Second, this stage of Projection is one in which you are essentially alone. You cast around here and there, trying to orient yourself in this unfamiliar landscape, to find some kind of theme, direction, raison d’etre which will give coherence and purpose to your movement.
Just as birth is associated with pain, or at very least drama, so this passage into the new cycle – for such it is going to be – is likely to cause upheaval and distress. The familiar is behind you, the unknown ahead, and there is hurt in this situation. In fact, what will oppose you in Projection is this aspect of yourself that does not want to have to go through the struggle of giving birth to a whole new cycle. The job position you have held for many years has long given you security - you are reluctant to leave. Now times have changed and there is nothing further for you in this post. But can you face the job market, with all the distress and tension which this implies? To move on will always be difficult in some respects. Relationships too will be disrupted: you lose respected and valued colleagues, will have to deal with entirely new ones.
To sum up, Projection is going to require that you achieve inner balance – both in order to go forward and in order to withstand the challenges which lie ahead of you: for the disturbance of the status quo, the elaboration of the new project – this essentially spirit work - is going to produce a backlash from the Will (stage 2)
Note that Projection can also come up with the standard meaning used in psychology: ‘the attribution of one’s own ideas, feelings, or attitudes to other people or to objects’ (Merriam-Webster online) – you misread what is outside you because you distort it in terms of what is within you.
Divination summary
a new start, the end of a period of confusion, uncertainty and loss of direction; plans, projects, schemes; first tentative steps; the loneliness of the pioneer; solitary meditations; being misunderstood and unappreciated; doubts, misgivings, hesitations over the way forward; difficulty in shaking off the comfort of old habits and routines; overcoming resistance to change.
74. Resistance: group – will (2 red) [stage 2]
The scene is an interior, with both clothes and décor demonstrating elegance. Two women stand, one behind the other, facing towards us. The lady at the back has her gloved hands on the shoulders of the one in front. She wears an extravagantly large wide-brimmed hat, jewellery, and a tasteful gown in soft tones of red, trimmed with white. Her expression is sympathetic and concerned, in contrast to that of the woman in front, who leans forward, her hands resting on a table. She wears a two-piece gown in a strong red colour and looks angry and resentful. From the name of the card, we can easily surmise that she is resisting some suggestion or advice from the other woman.
The place of Resistance in the Process Cycle
Resistance: necessary opposition; friction of emotion against the unfettered impulse of spirit
Resistance can, but does not have to carry a negative connotation. Its appropriateness or otherwise must be judged on a case by case basis. In the process cycle, it represents the reaction of the Will against the ‘project’ as conceived by Spirit. This reaction is inevitable: we are dealing with the two polarities, which by definition are going to adopt extreme positions and then clash. It is the existence of strong assertion and counter-assertion which enables us, in stage three, to achieve a good balance. Polarisation causes problems which must later be overcome, but it is nevertheless indispensable and cannot be sidestepped. If the Spirit (Projection) has a clear bias towards thought, the Will exhibits a contrary one, towards emotion.
The meaning
Your standpoint is that of fluidity, an affinity with the Unconscious which makes you reluctant to buy uncritically into the plans and projects of Spirit because of all the avenues that will be closed off. This is an inevitable paradox: to choose one road means that you abandon others. Your resistance may simply be the result of a visceral opposition to what is being proposed; more positively, however, it is a determination to work through the potential consequences. Spirit’s enthusiasm has got the creative juices flowing, but you are aware that it can lead to naïve optimism, flawed reasoning, unjustified assumptions. Or Spirit can be very cerebral in its approach, and you see at once that the human touch is lacking, the feeling dimension has been sidelined.
In fact, it is Spirit that has the vision, the ability to imagine a line of conduct being imposed upon the infinite chaos of possibility. This is not your forte, but it is you who have the responsibility for exposing all the weaknesses and flaws in what has been proposed. What, you ask, will be the legacy of this project for the future? Is it just a product of inflated ego, or does it have enduring value? What is its creative potential: is it open-ended, promoting diversity, variety of expression, the introduction of original elements into the psyche? What will its impact be on relationships? Is this a male-dominated project which you feel will allow little or no freedom to the female side?
You are concerned with family matters. How will this project impact on children, on family life, on relations between men and women? Finally, how will it affect the community? Your ultimate concern is to promote desire. Are the expected outcomes desirable, and for whom? All too often, the spirit side initiates projects which, for all their intellectual brilliance, do not engage the passionate love and loyalty of feeling-sided people, because they lack ‘emotional intelligence’. If you are on the Will side, you want fun, enjoyment, amusement, entertainment, pleasure, especially sex.
The world in which we live is still very much dominated by negative aspects of Spirit – for example, devising ways of killing each other – to the detriment of the terrible pain felt by the Will. The desire for enjoyment, on the contrary, carries overtones of frivolity, immaturity, low intelligence, weakness of character. One definition of Resistance is this: ‘an underground organization of a conquered or nearly conquered country engaging in sabotage and secret operations against occupation forces and collaborators’. (Merriam-Webster) This quite closely describes the position of the Will on Earth at present. Unless and until these two forces of Spirit and Will come into a better balance, we will not have well-being in the psyche.
Emotional expression creates space for the light of Spirit. Opposition to emotion means opposing the expansion and development of Creation – it means favouring destruction.
The card Resistance will typically come up when there is ‘an opposing or retarding force’ (Merriam-Webster) – the normal definition: in other words, when such a force is coming either from you or to you. This word also means: ‘a psychological defence mechanism wherein a patient rejects, denies, or otherwise opposes the therapeutic efforts of a psychotherapist’. So, Resistance spans the whole range from necessary resistance to emotional repression all the way to denial of the truth about yourself: each instance must be evaluated individually.
Divination summary
resisting, opposing, acting as a brake – particularly in regard to over-intellectual schemes and projects; championing pleasure relative to duty, emotion vis-à-vis thought; supporting flexibility against rigidity, freedom of the individual against central control; showing concern for the future effect of present projects; protecting the interests of children, family, community; denying or being unwilling to recognise your personal faults or neuroses; refusal to listen to wise advice, being closed to feedback.
75. Balance: group – heart (3 green) [stage 3]
The Image
A young man is walking a tightrope above a landscape of mountains. To steady himself, he uses a pole, at each end of which hangs a pennant. Above one of these is a house motif, above the other, a cock. The youth wears a green waistcoat, breeches and shoes, a white shirt and red stockings. He has one foot on the rope and the other moves forward above the chasm to seek his next foothold. He gives - necessarily indeed - an impression of unwavering concentration.
The place of Balance in the Process Cycle
Balance:
the interaction of projection and resistance produces a third force: a dynamic balance able to catalyse further development – stage three
Balance is unique among the Rainring cards, and its importance powerfully emphasised, by the fact that there are two balance cards in the pack. One, balance umpire, refers to static balance and the other - this card – is about dynamic balance. Static balance involves Balance as a great principle or pillar of existence. Dynamic balance, as the image indicates, is an altogether more hands-on affair, where all Balance ensures is the minimum degree of equilibrium necessary to obtain and maintain forward progress. At Rainring, we regard Balance in general as constituting the third great force of the cosmos, after male and female (see below).
You are at a point where you have been able to achieve a minimum of reconciliation between male and female energies. This is either an inner experience that you are having, or it refers to you taking a mediating role vis-à-vis other people in the external world. It has to be recognised that Balance energy, in an external context, constitutes giving up on your own needs, desires and aspirations. The position which you occupy is that of being intermediate between the two poles of Spirit and Will. Balance is a heart energy card, and we have referred already to the heart’s connection with children. Like the child, Balance energy is the product of the fusion of male and female polar elements, and like the human child, in this position you cannot but bear the burden of this bi-polar makeup.
So Balance is a position heavily affected by pain in the relationship area: you are walking a tightrope between the polarities of Spirit and Will, whose interaction oscillates between attraction and repulsion, coming together and pulling apart. You are, in fact, the embodiment of their success in coming together. This ‘triangulation’ obtained by the presence of a third force, brings a minimum of stability to the enterprise of being▼.
Your ability to achieve Balance can be maintained only by you moving onward, and this means that inherent in Balance is the constituent of Formation, the next stage in the process cycle. You are not in an immovable and stable situation, but in one which requires you to make a constant adjustment to the strains, tensions and pressures brought about by the push-pull of interaction between the two poles. It also requires that Spirit and Will remain sufficiently ‘on the same wavelength’ for the project to continue to move forward.
In Rainring, we have two forms of Spirit-Will balance, the male sided one, corresponding to green (heart) and the female-sided magenta (conjugation).
The card Balance, as a heart group card, represents male-sided balance. Your natural tendency, in achieving this balance, is to favour the spirit side. You have not attained Balance by being completely even-handed, but by managing a minimum of accommodation between the two poles.
In fact, the Will loses out, because this balance does not sufficiently reflect her desires and inclinations, needs and aspirations. It is this lack of a truly even-handed balance between Spirit and Will which is reflected in the present situation of repression of the female or feeling side.
You find yourself in a position of self-sacrifice, putting others’ needs before your own. Your reward is more in what you make possible for others than in what you obtain as direct personal benefit. Once you have succeeded in achieving Balance, you know that the project in hand will take form and develop.
How does this translate into the inner world? Here, balance involves finding your true position somewhere between, and distanced from the poles. It is the psychological equivalent of you being an adolescent / young adult striving to discover your own identity. Discovering your inner balance force is going to give you stability, resilience, flexibility and self-assurance.
Divination summary
balancing competing forces, particularly male and female-sided ones; seeing both sides of the argument, tolerance; mediation, arbitration, searching for compromise; ability to keep moving forward; sacrifice of personal goals and desires in order to promote the common good; success in brokering agreement; tendency to be more sympathetic to Spirit than to Will; inner stability, resilience, flexibility; growing self-assurance.
76. Formation: group – form (4 orange) [stage 4]
The Image
The scene is set in a hot, dry landscape, perhaps in the heat of the afternoon. An older man, naked except for a simple blue cloth at his waist, and painted on face and chest with white markings, is showing some paw prints to an adolescent boy. The boy wears a similar loin-cloth in green and has red hair, but no body paint. He holds a blue stick in his hand with a curved top, presumably belonging to the man, and is following the instruction intently.
The place of Formation in the Process Cycle
Stages one to three of the cycle are concerned with the psychific conditions required in order for the project to take form and be realised in material terms. Stage 4, Formation, describes the beginning of this materialisation. This stage is unusual, in that it involves two components, or sub-stages. The kind of impetus given by the three preceding stages is, as we have seen, quite male-sided: it is biased towards Spirit, with its planning and rationality. The effect of this is that, at a certain moment, the impetus of Formation is going to grind to a halt. One of two things can then happen: the project falls apart - Dispersion
; or it receives new female-side input from the Unconscious (stage 5).
The meaning
Formation:
possibility actualised in form; project becomes fact; eventual stasis through lack of inspirational renewal
If Projection (stage 1) is a matter of theory, Formation by contrast requires you to be concerned with practice. Equally, whereas the beginning of a project necessitates that you gather impressions, which become in a sense the raw material out of which ideas are formed, Formation leaves all that behind and takes you into action - the whole buzz of theories and ideas needs to stop, the actual must trump the theoretical. Formation also involves you in education or training, so that this process of materialising ideas, plans and projects is one of learning as you go along. Your inner focus is therefore very much towards the future, since you will later feed back into the project what you are now learning.
Practical activity, building something up, contains an element of mystery – the feeling of never quite knowing where each new phase of the work will take you. This kind of absorbing work on a project tends to create a strong sense of identification, so that there comes a point where you feel that the way the work appears to the public sends them a message about you yourself. You see yourself as a pioneer, as the originator of this construction or scheme. As for your relationships, they have a very practical aspect: you are drawn to people who are ready and willing to support, even more to contribute to the work. All this combines to produce two results: first, you become passionately involved in the project, and this passion is maintained over time. Second, you acquire, as time goes on, an inflated idea of yourself: you feel increasingly what a special and valuable person you are.
One consequence of this is that you slip gradually into a state of inner rigidity and blindness, where you become insensitive to the warning signs that all is not well. Your concern for the future can become a failure to deal with what is right under your nose, to take the proper time and care needed at every point. What began as an adventure, full of passion and excitement, becomes a routine, a boring, unglamorous repetition, bogged down in endless small details. Your motivation falls away: You imagined a rapid and brilliant outcome, yet here you are – all that investment of time and effort, and what have you got to show for it? – An unfinished piece of work. Your inflated idea of your own ability and worth blinds you to the signs of impending trouble, deafens you to the warnings of others. You get impatient for results, begin to take short cuts: one too many and you are in trouble.
The qualities you require to launch a project, to drive it forward against all the odds, are not the same as those you need to carry it through the period of delays and setbacks, frustration and disillusionment. When the latter phase kicks in, you must bring something radically new to the table. The project will either collapse at this point and not be completed, or you must find inspiration, in order to progress to stage five. If these two situations represent one single stage, it is because the seeds of eventual stasis are present right from the outset: the materialisation stage was always going to run into trouble. This mirrors what happens in your inner world: there is always a moment at which the initial charge of enthusiasm, energy and drive runs out, and a ‘second wind’ is needed to renew impetus and carry you to a successful conclusion.
Divination summary
1) Work; progress, development; learning, training, education; leaving theory behind; materialising ideas; the passion and mystery of practical advances in work; identification with a project; sense of self-worth through achievement; work-related contacts. 2) Delays, setbacks, unexpected difficulties; frustration, disillusion, impatience, boredom, getting bogged down; taking short-cuts, lack of thoroughness, unwillingness to listen to feedback. 3) Collapse of project; either its abortion, or a re-launch from the ground up (e.g. under new management).
77. Input: group – unconscious (5 indigo) [stage 5]
The Image
The scene is of a snowbound landscape, with a frozen lake in the foreground and fir trees on the slopes behind. At centre, on the ice is an open sleigh, on which sits an older woman; next to the sleigh and in front of it kneels a young woman, almost a girl. The occupant of the sleigh wears only the scantest clothing, in contrast to the girl, who is clad in a thick fur and still, from her body language, appears to be cold. The older woman holds in front of her, on her palms, an open box, from which appears to emanate some kind of force. This, together with the strange, unfocussed expression in her eyes, and her apparent imperviousness to the cold, all suggest that she may not be present in her physical body. This may also explain the expression of awe on the young woman’s face.
The place of Input in the Process Cycle
The transition or crossing between stages four and five is the critical moment in the cycle. If it is accomplished successfully, then the cycle will move through to completion; if not, it will abort. The problem is that up to this point, the qualities of consciousness - reason, analysis, planning, organisation and so on – have been sufficient to enable development to take place. Input (stage 5) however involves the resources of the Unconscious. These resources are only available if contact can be made, and if what is offered is able to be received. Accomplishing these two things requires another dimension to be added, in order to cross the watershed and finish the work. We now look at what this requires.
The meaning
Input: eventual loss of momentum in the formation stage can be overcome only by new input from within or without. Conscious efforts fail; the unconscious must be accessed.
Your plans are in disarray; things have not turned out as you expected. You are in uncharted territory and do not know how to proceed. Should you turn inwards and look for your own inspiration, or would it be wiser to seek advice from others? In any case, surely you will have to be able to diagnose effectively what has gone wrong, before you can hope to apply a valid remedy? As if this was not enough, you have to cope with your own loss of confidence, not to mention the reactions of others. How are you going to extricate yourself from all this?
This is an intensely inner stage, and necessarily so. If we looked at it in the context of the ‘project’ of your entire life, for instance, this would be the point at which you discover that you cannot go on as you have done in the past: the ‘mid-life crisis’ as it has been called. During the early part of your life, you are carried forward by the stream of activities, events, goals and ambitions. But there comes a moment when you finally ask yourself: but what is all this for? Where am I going? What are my values? what do I believe in? The answers, clearly, will have to be sought within. This is a stage 5 moment.
At Input, there is a radical shift in focus. You can’t go on externally, so you are driven to look inside. Once you give up on the external struggle, you experience a sense of freedom. Perhaps you take a walk in the park, go off on a day’s fishing, visit an old friend. And you realise that you have been working so hard that you have forgotten even why you have been working like a soul possessed. The conditions which you have created around your previous frenetic activity no longer suit your present mood: you need time to think. You don’t need to deal with a hundred people clamouring for instructions, requiring decisions… you need to be with yourself and to go over things; or perhaps to talk matters through with someone not immediately involved, someone whose judgement you can trust.
Gone is the euphoria, the inflated sense of your own self-worth. You are in an altogether more sober frame of mind now. Where previously you were a slave of all the razzmatazz generated by the project, now you are obsessed by the need to find the key to unlock your predicament, the ‘magic bullet’ to kill off all your troubles. You stop telling everyone else what to do and start listening for advice on what you need to do. Whether the necessary input comes from a dream, an omen, a chance remark overheard, a talk with an ex-colleague, a web-site… whatever its source, the crucial issue is that you have acquired a state of receptivity and in that state the help which you need can reach you. Input does not have to come from a great dream or other inner catharsis; it can be from outside: the point is that your change of attitude attracts what is needed – from wherever.
In a broader sense, we go through our lives constantly receiving Input, whether from dreams, synchronous events, clairvoyance, art, poetry, quiet reflection as we walk on the beach…In general, it can be said that the less preoccupied we are with our own agenda, the less our minds are full of the buzz of thoughts, the better the access we can have to what lies beyond – to the Unconscious. Input is a card which can refer to any circumstance where you are in touch with, and get help from, the Unconscious.
inward focus; reflective attitude; listening to your inner voice; attempt to re-evaluate your situation; retreat from frenzy of external activity; collapse of manic pursuit of goals; loss of euphoria, deflation, ceasing to be full of yourself; search for help, new willingness to listen; humility, admission of defeat, failure or impotence, recognition of own limitations.
In the foreground we see what could well be a traveller, passing under an arch. He is a big ginger-haired man, carrying a staff with a wolf’s head carved at the top. Beyond him, through the arch we see the white houses of a town, in front of which is a melon seller with a barrow, and a woman customer who is in the process of buying a melon. An animal, apparently a wolf, looks on. Behind the town, the colour of the hills suggests that this is a dry climate.
The place of Achievement in the Process Cycle
The sixth stage of the cycle takes us to the card which represents the self group – Achievement. This combines two characteristics: first, it is again a stage concerned with action; second, there is an emphasis on the personality of the querant – the qualities and the investment of effort and energy which enable him / her to bring the project to fruition. The card Achievement refers to the period after Input – this period culminates in Achievement, but the card covers also the period leading up to that culmination. Achievement, as we shall see later, does not complete the cycle, yet it certainly does mark at least an initial stage of completion.
The meaning
Achievement:
the stage of concrete, finished results; sustained and, when necessary, revitalised action bears fruit.
Achievement is an unambiguously positive card. It signals either the fact that you have been able to carry to a successful conclusion the enterprise which you began in stage one, or that you will succeed in doing so. This stage is one where, once again, you are focussing very much on yourself. You push forward hard now with the necessary action, having learnt the lessons which were required of you to overcome the setbacks in the later period of stage four. Once again, you do not need outside help: not because you are wilfully deaf to it, but because you have incorporated into the project what was lacking. You now have, or can obtain, the resources required to finish the job. Your inner attitude is a far more balanced and moderate one – you have made the necessary accommodation with the female side, so eliminating the worst spirit side excess of some earlier stages.
Up to a point, you return to the stage one situation: you have to re-assess your plans and strategies in the light of your change of heart, to ensure that you are making the necessary change of direction, which will in turn lead to the appropriate corrective action. This period involves a lot of inner tension. You are all too well aware of having come unstuck once already. This has dented your confidence, and henceforth you will not be taking anything for granted. Whereas previously you were in throwing-caution-to-the-winds mode, now you have an altogether more sober mind-set. This is going to affect your relationships – on the one hand, you will be more tolerant and less dismissive of others’ contributions, but on the other, because the euphoria has gone, you are capable of more a thorough, on-going appraisal of whether others are pulling their weight effectively.
Finally, this new sobriety needs to extend also to your private life. In this stage, the main danger that you face is that of not having the resoluteness of purpose to carry you through to the end. This is a period of personal sacrifice, privation and self-denial, at least in certain respects. The temptation to kick over the traces, rebel against the discipline imposed by the task, is always there. If anything can still derail you, or at least compromise your completion of the task, it is this. For example, at this time you need to fall in love about as much as you need a hole in the head!
Once again, we have looked at the card in terms of its place in the great sweep of process of the project. And again, as with the other process cards, Achievement can appear under much more banal circumstances, such as, for example, a successful mini-moment within a much larger context: a good result in yesterday’s performance of the play; success in getting a bargain; a difficult moment at work well handled and so on. And there is always the inner dimension: just as there are inner processes continually at work, so there are moments when you successfully achieve inner goals – freeing yourself from the last feelings of wanting to return to cohabitation with an abusive ex-partner, for example.
Divination summary
dedication to completing a task, strong-mindedness, ability to maintain focus; inner tension, uncertainty over personal capabilities, shadow cast by previous difficulties; careful planning and re-evaluation; cool and level-headed approach towards both work and co-workers; tolerant and fair attitude; self-reliance, determination to run a tight ship; being demanding first and foremost of oneself.
(Communication, Completion and Crossing to follow)
