As the walker walks the line
Seven Veils – Peter Murphy
The day grows older
The moon appears
Reflecting on his heart
Heavy weighed and pierced
The walker looks at his days
Bad deeds gone by
For which he must pay
The moon and the sun
Partners in light
Separating reflecting one light
Hearing this confusion wane
Another image hits
The seven veils of mind
But the night
Feels the same
As a cool hot summers climb
With the voice comes no shame
As the walker hunts the line
Deep – 1989
Thanks to Esther and our other Tarot friends our Hero has now become a tadpole, and a blind one at that! What’s worse is that he’s stuck on a rock in the middle of a dark sea. His path is quite clear and yet he is apprehensive about diving into the sea to make his way forward. To make matters worse, when he reaches the shore he’ll have to face two more of those extremely annoying sphinxes with their strange questions & even stranger answers.
But if you look, his goal definitely appears to be worth it; and seeing as he’s already come this far he might as well go the rest of the way.
Being in the position of the tadpole is very difficult for us. We are stuck between the ego we are trying to give up and the true self which has yet to be fully developed – with a strong identity of its own.
It is very easy for us, at this point, to turn back because of this feeling of being in-between selves. Of course to go back is a mistake, because as we already know this leads to building Ivory Towers and ultimately to bruises.
The only real option is to go forward. And to go forward we have to swim across the sea (which represents the unconscious). Swimming for a tadpole is not a real problem, but swimming such a great distance through eddies & currents whilst blind will prove to be difficult. Our tadpole has only his instincts and intuition (unconscious) to guide him to the path to The City of the Moon where he can learn to develop his true self without his ego interfering.
If our tadpole wanders too far to either side of the path he will have to face one of the sphinxes who will attack him with many quizzes that can easily lead him further astray. I call these creatures Art & Money – two almost mutually exclusive ideas.
It will help our friend along his path if he can make a balance between the “struggling artist” (idealism, free self-expression, the wild, physical) and the “bored banker” (materialism, following all the ‘shoulds’, domesticated, mental) within himself. This balance and progress towards The City of the Moon can only be made one step at a time as this is a path full of self-learning.
This path can be completed, just give yourself time.
Divinatory Meanings
A difficult decision ahead, Courage required, The path forward hidden under illusion, A slow and difficult period of life, Development of the true self, Unconscious, Confusion, Feeling lost or helpless. Looking onto the unconscious mind.