The full moon of September is the Word of Skill. Since I have reflected at some length on the general “wordy” feeling I get from September, I want to touch upon a different sort of “word” and “skill.”
Since I got the Shadowscapes Tarot some time ago, I decided to make a conscious effort to draw one of the Major cards daily and reflect on it in my journal. While I went through a slightly similar process in learning the feda, the latter was mainly done as a course of memorization. My goal with the Major Arcana was to look at the images, think about them, and feel them in comparison with the book.
A small deviation here: I am far too forgetful and too wacked out internally to completely trust my gut when it comes to divination. While I’m slowly sorting out how to trust my gut better, I am and will probably remain, a reader of books and will flip through them during all of my readings to figure out an overall interpretation. So when I say that my goal was to feel the Major Arcana, it can be said that I really had little idea of how it would turn out.
I surprised myself and found a lot of the imagery and symbolism of the deck resonated with me. I surprised myself even further when I found I could feel a great deal with each image, that I could “read” the thousand words contained in the image far better than I thought I could, to the point where I grew more confident in journaling my personal meanings and interpretations.
I feel that in some small way, my work with another tarot deck helped facilitate this experience, but I feel more strongly that my work with the ogam has been a more important influence. Tarot and ogam function and feel very different to me, even when you take it from the simplest level of difference: tarot cards are images, and the feda are, literally, words. To read either takes a different kind of skill, a different kind of sense. Learning to read the feda moves you into the realm of ideas, thought, and psyche. Learning to read tarot moves you into the realm of sense, image, and unconscious. Both support one another, and both operate differently from one another.
So when I sat down some time ago to begin working with a fairly emotional question I had, I expected to have a different sort of experience. I did.
I learned that I still don’t know what the hell I’m talking about.
The word of skill can be an unspoken one, one that is felt or heard through the gut. It can be the image of a word, flashing through the mind instantly as an insight or a revelation. It can be a connection between two mental images, or a bridge between two disciplines. It can also be something you cannot hear if you aren’t careful and quiet enough. You have to develop the skill of intuition just as you have to develop the skill to read. Just because one language uses different sorts of words doesn’t mean you can read them simply because they too are words.
As I wrestle with this question on a purely intellectual, interpretational level, I also have to come to terms with the emotional weight it has. I have been thinking about this for a long time. A very long time. My confusion and difficulty is due largely to the confusion and difficulty I’m having emotionally trying to answer this question, and that will always erupt in a divination setting. So I’ve looked for second opinions from other readers. Beta readers, if you will excuse the word metaphor.
While I can’t be sure I’ll ever come to terms with this question, or the myriad answers it has, I can come to understand what it means to speak, and be still; to read with skill.
