Rainring: post-tarot psychological cards

 

Directory of Meanings Set 8: Love Ways

NOTES

1. Group 8 is concerned with the Conjugation between male and female, and Set 8 reprises this theme, being a description of the journey from the solitary individual, through to Union and beyond.

2. The individual entry is structured as in set 7: the section on meaning comprising general, specific and summary sections, in that order.

 

64. Need:  group – spirit (1 violet/purple)

The Image

This is a night scene, with the full moon rising over an expanse of water, on which are silhouetted two swans. The foreground is dry land, with shingle, water plants and, on the right, the stump of a dead tree. A young naked woman straddles this stump. Her nakedness suggests that she is ‘moonstruck’ and her odd, uncomfortable posture implies that she may be involved in a solitary act of sexual arousal.

The meaning

Need: 1) the condition – requiring relief - of the individual emotionally, sexually, spiritually alone; 2) lack of essential prerequisites of health and well-being

A General

The card Need describes the condition of the individual who does not have an intimate partner, taking it as axiomatic that such a condition makes psychific[1] and spiritual wholeness impossible. We assign this card to the Spirit group, on the basis that once the contact with the Will polarity (in 65. Attraction) takes place, this begins the journey away from the solitary state of Need. Need exists at all levels: from the very basic one of the minimum requirement of food, warmth, sleep and so on, to the far more complex question of what is needful for psychific and spiritual wholeness and fulfilment. We shall deal mainly with the latter here.

B Specific

The intensity of Need varies greatly from one individual to another. If your Will (emotional) side is strong, when you have no partner you will experience acute feelings of neediness. If you are much more Spirit-sided, or your female side is severely repressed, you may feel very little need for a partner.[2] Again, body-centred people may experience Need more in terms of sexual than of emotional deprivation. At all events, felt Need is a de-stabiliser which is going to push you towards finding a partner. A sense of inadequacy, of failure readily attaches itself to the state of being single. You find it difficult to handle Need: it is not attractive to others, so you must attempt to hide it. If you have already had a partner, you will use the memory of this to try and give yourself moral support, counteracting your present lack of someone. You may well experience Need as an obsessive state – the search for a partner dominates your psyche.

You may well be confused by the force of this urge to escape from the solitary state of Need. However intense its sexual component, it is also driven by your heart – your need for emotional closeness and sympathetic vibration with another. Hence friendship - where there is no question of sexual attraction - can be a major palliative in your time of Need. But underpinning all the rest is the polarity issue: to be whole, we must unite with our polar opposite. You may also have a parallel movement in your inner world: to ‘make yourself attractive’ could well require working on yourself at some level. As for the opposition to Need, this comes from Need itself. In other words, when you are needy, you feel the need to get out of that distressing state as soon as possible.

To sum up, the central element in Need is the quest for the other. It is not only the need for sexual gratification, but above all the need for completion by the other polarity which provides the driving force of the single individual. Since outer and inner are but two sides of the same coin, there is a corresponding inner need for union: neither the emotional emptiness of Will Denial, nor the sense of being lost of Spirit Denial are conditions which bring any level of individual fulfilment. Finally, as we indicated at the beginning, the card Need can also refer to simple physical issues related to hunger, sleep deprivation and so on.

  
Divination summary

lack of a partner; unwelcome single status; sexual, emotional or spiritual frustration; inner polarisation and denial; emotional distress due to solitude; craving for companionship; urge towards psychific balance and fulfilment; lack of basic physical or psychological ingredients needed for well-being.

 65. Attraction:  group – will (2 red)

The Image

A young man and woman stand in front of a small fairground tent. He grasps her hands in his and they gaze into each other’s eyes. She wears a blue summer dress and matching sandals, he is in grey trousers, with a brown jacket and shoes. The tent is of a strong red, with symbols of the sun and moon displayed above it. It is set on grass among spiral trees. These natural elements are painted in a formalised style which lends a quality of other-worldliness and mystery to the whole scene.

The meaning
Attraction: the fundamental magnetic force between male and female which ensures pairing and proliferation.
A General

The second Love Ways card deals with the elemental condition of Attraction. This same word is in general use to describe both physical and psychological magnetism. This may suggest that psychological attraction, like its physical counterpart, is seen as being a natural phenomenon - we don’t choose Attraction, it chooses us. Attraction is the set 8 card belonging to the Will group, and it is precisely this attribute of magnetism which defines the Will. Although Attraction can be experienced as an inner phenomenon, it most characteristically concerns the outer world and the other, which is where we will direct most of our attention.

B Specific

This is a card which involves a complex mixture of emotions, actions and reactions. First, you will experience a strong element of losing control – you are in the grip of something stronger than you are. This produces two immediate reactions: first, a sense of inner unease, because your whole being is challenged; second, the desire to dominate the situation (in effect, the other person), in order to regain control. (In reality, submissive behaviour is a variation of this: the means by which, if you are this type of individual, you too seek to exert control of your circumstances, to minimise the sense of threat). Your opposition to Attraction, therefore, will come from deep within you, the part of you that is not ready to open the gates of your soul to…this unknown other. Paradoxically, another aspect of you feels already an impulse to protect and nurture this person. Furthermore, you project – imagine – the happy and fulfilled existence that may await you with this person. Part of you wants very much to achieve the goal of a shared life of harmony and balance with another. For, where relationship is concerned, the stakes are the highest possible: it is your opportunity for Completion: that is, for a true end to solitude, to your sense of never really being loved, accepted and understood.

 

In Attraction, you have not yet reached the stage of consummating your relationship. Nevertheless, because of the intensity and complexity of the emotions aroused, this state of Attraction is a shock to your system, and results in an unconscious withdrawal that you will likely not even be aware of. It counterbalances your conscious impulse to go towards the other.

 

The above refers to the big picture of Attraction. In a lighter vein, this card will occur when you ‘fancy’ someone in a quite casual context; also when you just feel drawn to a person for reasons unrelated to sex. On an inner level, it connotes your spirit being drawn to the feeling (will) aspect of yourself, and vice versa. Just as the stronger is the polarisation of two individuals, the more powerful the attraction between them, so in your inner world the more active your two poles, the greater your inner psychic dynamic. For example, to produce a great novel, the writer must have both a breadth of vision and understanding (spirit) and an acute sensitivity to emotion (will). The degree of success in marrying these two constituents in a harmonious manner will determine the quality of the finished work.

Divination summary

 

          
personal magnetism of yourself or another; drawing or being drawn to someone, whether by sexuality, charisma, common attitudes and interests…; hesitation, doubt, unease over a new relationship; losing control, wanting to assert oneself; desire to protect and nurture; projecting and fantasizing about a future romance; imagining harmony and fulfilment with another; corresponding inner dynamic of your own psyche.

66. Explosion:  group – heart (3 green)

The Image

In the foreground, a young man and woman, infatuated, gaze into each other’s eyes. They also hold each other physically, and we surmise that they are in love and either are or will shortly be in the making-love stage of their relationship. Immediately behind, and towering over them in an apparently threatening manner is a large brown bear. However, a vertical line of toggles in the centre of its chest tell us that the ‘bear’ is a costumed man, not an actual animal. The ‘bear’ is being held back by an individual in a fool’s outfit, who is holding it by a chain and grinning broadly.

The Meaning
Explosion: 1) the surge of orgasmic energy occasioned by the fusion of male and female; 2) falling in love; 3) dramatic event, upheaval, violent outburst
A General

Explosion is the set 8 card belonging to the heart group, and its core meaning concerns the coming together of male and female in the moment of orgasm. The meeting point of Spirit and Will is seen as being at the mid-point between the two, in the heart. The attraction between the poles must, because it is inherent in the nature of humans, lead to coupling. This produces children, but in our view the latter is not its driving force. Male, female and the magnetic force between them is, for Rainring, an inherent property of the psyche. The outer result is children; the inner one is Creation in some other form.

B Specific

Your inner aspect here is one of sympathy, in the sense of a harmonisation between yourself and another. What you and your partner – your polar opposite -  have in common is obsession: the imperative unconscious drive to unite. We tend to refer to this as the sex drive, but behind the physical drive is a psychific one. Your relationship is very much in the moment: unreflective, unselfconscious. You are carried away by the magnetic force of the attraction. This is a primitive energy overwhelming any sophisticated defences which you might have attempted to build against it. You are in the grip of powerful unconscious forces which are capable of shaking your existence to its foundations. At the same time, this is a kind of forced programme of education – learning that your body has its own agenda, and you cannot always keep it under control, i.e. subjugate it, using reason or emotion; you can be precipitated out of the fortress of your self-control and exposed to whatever life outside the walls has to teach you. There are occasions when your mind has to take a back seat, and you will have to wait for the force of desire to spend itself somewhat before it can return again to take part in your communication.

The opposition to this force is going to come from the context of long-term relationship at which you are trying to work. Such a conjugation-type relationship involves having to face many painful episodes, many moments of estrangement and alienation from your partner. If the force of Explosion between you and a third party intrudes itself into such a conjugation situation, it is going to add greatly to the difficulties of that long-term conjugation relationship. On the other hand, where there is a long-term relationship which is never going to achieve anything, the external force of Explosion, with its potential to split such a relationship apart, will on balance be a beneficial force.

To sum up, Explosion is a short-term phenomenon, and will cause you serious problems. In this state you lack balance: you are all ‘us’ and no ‘me’. You are intoxicated with the euphoria of infatuation and you cannot back off from it: It is your most powerful experience since the infant bond with your mother. It is going make you resist the demands of your self for space and light. But, in this moment of Explosion, all that is no more than a small cloud on the horizon.

Explosion also has an inner sense, which might arise at moments of exceptional psychific activity, such as for example during an intense phase of creative work by an artist or writer. If you are undergoing a major inner upheaval, particularly where Spirit-Will conjunction is involved, this card could show in a reading. Finally, it has been found that the Unconscious extends the meaning of Explosion to refer to any dramatic situation which the querant may encounter.

Divination meanings

being in love; infatuation, euphoria, loss of personal boundaries; infantile bonding emotions; living in the moment; being in the grip of unconscious contents; inflation; abandon; abandonment of responsibilities; repression of needs of self.

 67. Sensuality:  group – form (4 orange)

The Image

The scene is an interior. A young woman sits naked on a bed, perhaps on the floor. She leans her back against a bolster, her right arm being extended along it. Her left leg is bent with the knee raised, the right leg lies along the ground, bent at the knee and tucked under the other leg. Her left arm is draped loosely over her right thigh. She gazes languidly at her partner who lies on his left side nearby, the lower half of his body under bed covers. His eyes are closed and his arm is outstretched so that his hand rests on the upper part of her inner thigh. The entire scene is painted in shades of orange, and conveys a sense of satiety after sex.

The meaning
Sensuality: the expression of explosion in physical (sensory) terms; the sexual, the sensual and the sensory – inhabiting the realm of sense.
A General

Sensuality is the Love Ways card belonging to the orange Form group and is thus concerned with the physical aspect of relations between male and female.[3] However, the definition of Sensuality is much wider than this, and it refers in general to the predominant presence of the senses, seeming often to be closely linked to the card Sensation. In order to understand Sensuality it must be borne in mind that, whilst this is a fundamentally body-based vibration, other aspects of the psyche are nevertheless involved and must be taken into account.

B Specific

 

You are in tune with physical or material aspect of attraction, which expresses itself as sensual and sexual contact. This involves your spirit, will and heart energies being taken on a journey through form, rather as a blacksmith will rework metal, given a sufficient temperature, in order to temper it (make it tougher and more resilient). Sensual contact is a very powerful way of bonding individuals.

 

During periods of great sensual intensity, you are in a position of pilgrimage; an explorer of the realm of the senses. This exploration partly concerns the degree to which attunement with the physical can influence your psyche as a whole, and partly involves the extreme proximity of your self to that of another. The normal relationship position in Sensuality is that of Radiance, in which neither you nor your partner are dominating or submitting. In fact, sensual relations provide the opportunity for you both to play with the whole range of relationship options, but in an essentially co-operative mode of interaction. Where a repetitive pattern of domination and submission emerges, your relationship is likely to end up mired in a swamp and unable to evolve towards Union.

Sensual compatibility is a vital relationship ingredient. You may have great respect for someone’s mind, the tenderest feelings towards them, but if you dislike their body odour or the way they hold themselves, they cannot be a suitable partner for you. From a distance, you have a vision of what this person can be in your life; to be naked with them is to put that vision to the test. The primacy of Sensuality is a phase: it is the context in which you express yourselves towards each other with the utmost intensity. But your spirit side will not be content to remain in the state of inflation typically associated with intense sensual contact: it desires a return to the balance of clarity, upon which to build for the longer term.

In the wider context, Sensuality indicates the presence of sensory or sensuous inputs in a situation. Like the delicious aroma of food that permeates a kitchen, it seduces and delights the senses.  Or, where people are involved, it suggests that contact within a given social context is based on sensations, rather than (say) thoughts, intuitions or emotions. The presence of the card Sensuality does not mean that copulation is in progress or is imminent! The vast majority of sensual arousal arises from a glance, the touch of a hand, the response to a film, novel, publicity image – so it can be an inner reaction, as well as an outer expression. Sensuality, to borrow a phrase, is a broad church.

Divination summary

sexual actions, thoughts or feelings; body exploration with a partner (or alone); journey of discovery through the sensual; grounding partnership in the physical dimension; casual, peripheral or momentary sexual response; sensation-based interaction, pleasures of the senses, sensory stimulation, such as by food.

68. Procreation:  group – unconscious (5 indigo)

The Image

A young blonde woman is portrayed in close-up. She wears a green top and her right breast is bare. She is cradling an infant whose head, back and lower body are wrapped in a blue garment. The child’s eyes are closed, and perhaps it is sleeping. She holds the baby with her right arm and with her left hand strokes its fingers. She gazes at the infant with a strange expression, perhaps taken aback by the mystery of begetting.

The meaning
Procreation: the product of sensual love: physically as a child or psychologically as a new birth
A General

Procreation is the set 8 card which involves the participation of the Unconscious in the story of Love Ways. To procreate, according to the Chambers dictionary[4], is ‘to engender … beget … (or) generate’; the prefix pro- signifies ‘before (in time or place);…forth…; instead of, in place of…’ This would give Procreation as meaning either before creation or instead of creation – a strange linkage between the idea of the (Unconscious) ‘egg’ out of which creation emerges, and the idea of having a child as something made instead of creation – i.e. a pale substitute, reflection or ‘reproduction’ of the initial act of creation.[5] In the process cycle of set 9, the fifth stage, corresponding to the Unconscious, is Input. Procreation is a variation on this: in Procreation, the Unconscious embodies in the material course of love something from beyond consciousness and the world of form. Procreation is seeding. In the seed, the whole of life is dormant; Procreation is the seed out of which Creation will be born.

B Specific

In the fact of Procreation lies a mystery, identified by the cards themselves as ‘medicine’ – the characteristic ability of the seer, or magical property of objects. Medicine, in the Native American tradition, is your ability to influence the material world by the use of non-material force, or the use of things capable of exerting such influence. What produces babies is not just the meeting of eggs and sperm, but a disposition in the psyche which allows, indeed powers that meeting at which a soul agrees to incarnate.  When you have the card Procreation, the reference is either to this incarnation, or to an inner event. As a woman, you may give birth to children. If you are a man however, and in some cases as a woman, you give birth not to new physical life but to new life in the psyche. Procreation, for every querant, usually refers to this generative process. Its ingredients are the meeting of male and female within an enabling, dark space (the ‘womb’). Within this space is formed the ‘child’ who will emerge into the light. Inner Procreation will parallel this physical process.  

 

In Procreation, your inner state is that of frustration: you are like the chick pecking at the egg from inside, trying to break out into the light. You want to express yourself, either through the birth of another being, or through some inner creation. Balance is necessary for Procreation, both in the relationship with your partner and in your inner will-spirit configuration. However, the paradox here is that Procreation leads into a state of absorption – either with your as yet unborn or new-born child, or with yourself if inner generation is involved. The sensory centre of your universe becomes that which you have given or will give birth to; that centre shifts away from being your partner.

 

To sum up, Procreation is a state in which your spirit retreats, leaving an immediacy of sensation and the connection you have with the child, whether in your womb or new-born. This time of bursting forth from the seed is a highly volatile, flux-like period in which the exuberance of the life-force is paramount, and the kind of planning and calculating which spirit likes to do is submerged by the primitive unconscious urge of proliferation and renewal. You do not control the procreative urge; rather it controls you.

Divination summary

harmony leading to pregnancy; pregnancy, birth; focus on one’s new-born infant; sensual feelings related to the preceding (women); self-absorption, especially of one’s sensations; feelings of distance from and rejection of one’s spouse (women); unconscious impulses towards new understandings; birth of new inner experiences, sensations, feelings

69. Defence:  group – self (6 yellow)

The Image

The scene, an interior, is dominated by the figure of a young woman who sits on a carpet on the wooden floor. She faces us, her right leg being bent at the knee, which rests on the floor so that the heel of her right leg lies close to her groin. The Left leg is bent with the knee raised. She wears night clothes: a grey-blue dressing gown with hood over a white shirt, and a pyjama-like lower garment in yellow. Her feet are bare. Her right hand, positioned at her belly, holds the dressing-gown closed, whilst in her left hand she holds up a simple lamp which radiates light onto and around her. Her eyes are focussed inwards and her face, though beautiful, is set in a closed and determined expression. Behind and slightly to her right, in the shadows, we can make out the silhouette of a young man sitting hunched up and facing away from us. To her left against the rear wall we see the bottom rung of a ladder leading upwards.

The meaning
Defence: holding one’s personal ground in a couple or other relationship; in defence, protection of the self is emphasised, sometimes to excess
A General

Card 69 brings us to the self group of the Love Ways set. Conjugal relations occupy varying positions on the continuum between ‘me’ and ‘us’. Defence lies squarely at the ‘me’ end of that continuum. In its extreme form, it implies that there will be no conjugation at all; otherwise, it refers to a strong emphasis being placed on the individual within the couple. Defence is concerned to ensure individual identity is preserved within the context of Union, but it frequently goes over the top and becomes a protection of the self in circumstances where this does not promote the needs of the couple. Nevertheless, Defence is also involved in that most crucial human attribute: refusing the pressure of the group or crowd; individuality, a priceless asset for the human psyche, is unthinkable without Defence.

B Specific

You may have two motives in taking the position of Defence: the positive one is that of promoting your value and worth as an individual; the negative one is an avoidance of closeness driven by fear. You need Defence as a counterweight to Attraction – the latter pulls you towards the other, the former pulls you away. To achieve a successful relationship, you need to find the right balance between the two. So Defence is both your friend and your enemy – you must use it, but you cannot afford to let it take you over.

In the first place, you take the attitude that to become involved in a couple relationship should add to your life, not subtract from it. You will not give up on your own life, identity, pursuits and fulfilment just in order to satisfy the exigencies of your partner or even of your role as a parent. But does this not require a degree of hardening of your heart? Can you afford to judge every circumstance in your relationship in terms of how much independence it will cost you? This attitude will end up sending passion out of the window. Defence likes control, likes to feel which way the wind is blowing: you use your intuition to keep track of what is likely to come up. Your opponent turns out to be sexual passion, with its destabilising ability to sweep away your precautions.

So the second aspect of Defence shows itself to be one of resistance and refusal – whatever threatens your control is unwelcome; to be minimised at least and at best to be avoided altogether. This form of emotional risk-aversion destroys psychic balance, given its ultimate insistence in emphasising your virtues and value as an individual, and attempting to justify the minimisation of the place of the other in your life. When this has happened, it shows that you have gone too far into Defence.

Finally, this whole scenario can occur on an inner level also. For instance, if you attempt to follow a psychotherapy treatment, but refuse to countenance any possibility that your personality and identity may undergo changes, then you cannot possibly evolve and grow as a person. Similarly, in other situations such as your working life, if you cannot admit ignorance, inadequacy and error, then you will present an intractable problem for those responsible for your guidance and development.

Divination summary

self-protection; defending your individual identity; resisting submersion in the couple or group; assertion of your own self-worth; experiencing closeness as a potential threat; refusal to surrender control; resistance  to fluidity and change; tendency to withdraw from, or avoid engaging in sensual contact.

70. Pain / Twainsong:  group – communication (7 blue)

The Image

This is a split card, with two separate images. In the main one, that of Pain, we see a young man and a young woman who are clearly in the middle of a quarrel; they look both angry and upset; their expressions and body language imply both the tie between them, and at the same time the sense of alienation and estrangement which they both feel at this moment. There is no suggestion that one, rather than the other, might be at the source of their quarrel.

The second image, that of Twainsong, shows two snow leopard cubs play-fighting. We know this to be an activity which is both joyful, but also has the underlying purpose of helping them to develop the skills needed to survive in later life.

The meaning
Pain / Twainsong:  in the interaction of male and female in the psyche, joy and pain between them compose the arena – pain is dissonance, twainsong is harmony. In what follows, we will be dealing essentially with emotional, rather than physical pain.
A General

The Love Ways card belonging to the (blue) communication group is unique in the grid, in that the north mention is not a variation or development of the principal one at south. This card represents the two faces or aspects of the pilgrimage of male and female towards Union and beyond. This means that Twainsong is an alternative to Pain, and vice versa. This psychific journey will, in reality, comprise both of the elements on the card. The source of Pain is not simply the emotions brought to the surface by discord, but the context: the need of these two people to reach harmony, because of their commitment to the relationship: otherwise, they would simply walk away feeling somewhat bruised. This enduring investment in the couple means that when, by contrast, there is harmony, powerful feelings of joy are experienced.

B Specific

1) Pain: In the conjugation relationship, you are in continual oscillation – you move towards, then away from the other. Pain is characterised by the movement away, or retreat into your shell.

Psychological pain works identically to physical pain in this respect: it produces an involuntary withdrawal response. Psychological or psychific pain has its roots in the past. Your anger when I ask you to repeat what you just said, for example, is not proportional to the present hurt, but is the result of a resonating effect where all the accumulated pain / rage of an entire childhood in which no-one ever cared enough to listen to you is re-activated by this present incident. The rule is that whatever is not felt is stored, and it remains below the surface indefinitely, waiting for the chance for release. In order to reach the point at which my inattention today does not bother you, you would need to release all the old emotional charge accumulated (unexpressed) around this issue.

The source of pain could also be thought of as your inability to be flexible. Relationship requires a great deal of plasticity – you do not know in advance what to expect, how the other may react. This is deeply disturbing, because it carries the threat that you may at any moment be hurt, just as you were in the past, without warning or being able to avoid the pain. This is one reason why in an established couple you fall into repetitive routines of behaviour – in order to try to minimise the unexpected and unforeseen. This whole scenario carries with it the serious consequence of not being open to the new. In your couple, your partner ends up playing the role of the mother or father of your childhood.

It has been said that you come into the world as a blank tape and that within five years this tape is all used up – there is no further room to record new impressions. For this reason, you react always from the past, not being able to receive new impressions. If not 100% true, this is undoubtedly the approximate scenario. Making room on the tape is thus a huge challenge for every adult.

2) Twainsong: If Pain is characterised by a response of closing off from the other, Twainsong is the opposite. Openness is going to mean exposure to your pain, so there has to be a reason for undertaking this, and this is your desire to progress as a human being.

In one sense, we should think of such progress as being more a question of repairing earlier damage. It is only in the last few decades that there has been the first unequivocal understanding of the imperative need to clear the weight of unexpressed feelings accumulated since the dawn of the psyche. It is this process – dealing with will denial – that is capable of producing the ‘new age’, and none other.

This position imperatively requires you to have inner balance: if you are awash in feelings because your defences do not work effectively – for example, because of drug misuse – you cannot work on yourself effectively. Rainring has been designed to help you to be aware of where you are at – and if you are in heavy spirit denial, unable or even unwilling to use your spirit side to counteract emotional overload, you will not be able to cope with the demands of Twainsong. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Twainsong is the movement involved. If you evolve, you will pass from periods in which you and your partner get on well, to periods in which discord and strife seem to be the overwhelming feature of your relationship. Twainsong requires many virtues, not least a deep commitment to the process of working on oneself.

3) Pain / Twainsong: Finally, what can be said about this whole arena, in which you and your partner strive to broaden, deepen and intensify your relationship? First, the sexual component of such a relationship is not an optional add-on. You may, in the process of working on yourself, go through periods in which this component functions poorly; even not at all. But there has to be a powerful basic attraction, expressed through an equality in the self vibration between you (Radiance), because physical closeness is both a cementing force which at times may have a crucial role to play in your couple, and the catalyst for the union of souls. Secondly, Procreation (card 6 is an indispensable ingredient in this endeavour. This is high-octane interaction, in which you will experience not only moments of great joy and fulfilment, but others of dramatic loss of confidence, self-doubt, despair and longing for isolation in selfhood. You need, to handle this, a willingness to throw yourself off emotional cliffs, risk everything on the throw of a dice (emotionally-speaking).

To summarise, this is the one and only genuine arena for ‘spiritual’ development. You are not going to achieve fulfilment by sitting under a tree experiencing the non-duality between you and the world, the non-reality of the self. It is not that such experiences are fake; just that they do not deal with the fundamental issue of the estrangement between spirit and will. It is through Conjugation that humanity has a chance to heal itself and the psyche.

Divination summary

PAIN: feelings of hurt, distress, upset; alienation, being misunderstood; aloneness, despair, separateness; desire to withdraw from contact with partner; TWAINSONG: commitment to relationship; roller-coaster of emotions; personal growth with one’s partner; joy, happiness, fulfilment; experiences of not-two through sensual abandon; emotional risk-taking, use of insight and awareness in relationship

 71. Union:  group – conjugation (8 - magenta)

The Image

The central focus of the image is a young man and woman, seen in silhouette sitting naked on the ground. He has his arms around her waist, while hers are raised and bent – probably with her hand resting on her shoulders, though this is not discernable. Their position would lend itself to sexual union. The remainder of the image consists of an abstract pattern of swirls of colour, somewhat reminiscent of a sunset. These form a kind of cocoon-shaped enclosure around them, the ‘wall’ of which sends down a narrow, roughly tear-drop shaped extension between the upper parts of their bodies.
The meaning
Union: the end of enforced separation, psychologically, between male and female; freedom to be two-in-one
A General

As with all the magenta group cards, with Union, we are dealing with an as-yet-unrealised future, so here again I am obliged to project from what exists already in human experience towards what we can only surmise may be possible in a future without denial. I shall be beyond my personal experience, aiming to intuit what the cards which I have drawn on the subject of Union are trying to communicate. What follows will deal with the great meaning of Union; however, this card frequently occurs in readings in a far more familiar and banal sense.

In general terms, Union represents the goal and final stage in the aspiration of male and female towards each other.[6]

B Specific

You cannot slide from the stage of Pain / Twainsong into that of Union with no disruption or break in continuity. This requires a radical departure from self. In Rainring, we understand fulfilment for the human psyche as involving both a sense of personal uniqueness and an ability to experience yourself as part of a dual entity – us – comprised of two partners of opposite polarities. You will begin to experience Union at the point where you have this sense of identity with your partner – in the sense of ‘not-two’. The full realisation of Union, far beyond this, means reaching a point at which neither partner is any longer in denial. You cannot be in full Union with another soul if you have any repressed ‘negative’ feelings at all in their regard – hate, anger, fear and so on.

The attainment of such a state involves both ends of the other great polarisation of Rainring: between the Unconscious and the world of form. On the one hand, Union relationships are like trees which rise out of the soil of sensuality – this is not something that you can do purely at head or heart level. At the other end of the spectrum, the road to Union is going to take you through the whole catalogue of the unfinished (unconscious) business of male and female, spirit and will. This is because, ultimately, there is no absolute separation: whatever has happened in the history of the psyche between these two touches you and your partner, as it does each soul, in some degree.

The motivation for your struggle to realise Union is a very particular kind of freedom. We defined freedom as starting with the possibility of running your own life, free from outside interference. When the cycle comes full circle, however, you arrive at another level: freedom from fear that your self will be threatened by any other. This is because, when denial is cleared out of the psyche, you will find that there is no intention on the part of other individual souls to harm you. At this point you will both know and feel that, because we are all part of one psyche, we all belong together.

Your opposition to Union therefore comes from your desire as an individual soul to achieve personally. Union is the set 8, group 8 card: it is the double magenta vibration - a single vibration (colour) not softened by any other. The absolute logic of Union would take us back to the beginning: the single, undifferentiated state of existence out of which everything was born. For the cosmos to grow and evolve, it requires the balance obtained by the self vibration. Ultimately, what souls will have to explore is how to operate both viewpoints or impulses - I and we - in tandem.

The card Union will come up whenever your intentions are in this direction. Union is an aspiration as well as an attainment. And, as in all the cards, there is a purely inner dimension too: where you achieve a uniting of male and female aspects of your own psyche.

Divination meanings

Focus on uniting with your partner; sensual love with this intention; attitude favouring ‘us’ rather than ‘me’; successfully dealing with repressed pain and denial in your couple; experiencing you and your partner as one; any circumstance where male and female psychific elements are fused.

72. Play:  group – quest-ion? (9 – grey / brown)

 [We have decided to withhold the detailed meanings for all the cards of group 9 until we can publish all this material commercially. We are really sorry for the inconvenience this may cause. See 9 Ebb (set 1) for details – but also ‘subsequent modification’]