Saturday, August 12, 2017

Queen of Clouds - Caged by Morality

Osho Zen Tarot. Queen of Clouds Swords Knight of Water Cups

Today’s card is the Queen of Clouds - Morality from the Osho Zen Tarot. Although the Queen of Swords is the queen I identify the most with, I sincerely hope this queen is nothing like me. Most likely she is a shadow aspect of me since I was raised, like many of my age, with lots of “do’s and don’t’s” and “should’s and shouldn’t’s”. I was supposed to know what was expected of me and if I failed to live up to these expectations, I knew I had disappointed my parents, which would hurt just as much as being sent to my room. Because of the fear of making a mistake, I build a protective cage of false security around myself and lived my life as obedient as I could. Within that cage, judgments about others grew rampantly and left me isolated within myself. Luckily cages can be broken or torn down, often by major life changing events and many years ago I experienced the freedom of The Knight of Water (jumper card). The world was so much bigger and more diverse than I ever could have imagined.
To mature from black and white morality to a multitude of colorful ideas and options about life demands a large recalibration of the mind and even sometimes a hard restart. Yes, it hurt but it was so worth the darkness, the pain and the tears. 
Spreading your wings for the first is scary but when the inner fluttering becomes too strong you finally understand your cage is not your home anymore.

11 comments:

  1. That 'all or nothing' thinking can be so detrimental. Use it for making moral issues a black or white choice with no gray areas, and it does become a prison. I think so many people judge because they see only one slice of reality, rather than a 360 degree view of it.

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    1. It is for sure. Today was the frist time I really noticed the bars that surround her and the bars over het heart area. I suppose flying free is mandatory for having an alround view. :)

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  2. There is freedom in realizing you no longer need to punish yourself for other's constraints and narrow visions.

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    1. It's a pity that we seem to learn the most essential lessons when we get older.

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    2. I agree. A lesson I am still working on.

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  3. I can relate to this - do/don't should/should not can harden our hearts to those who were not raised that way when we might learn from them. Your post alerts me I have taken this obedience into the world of work and have thereby only granted myself another dictatorial parent. My time for a hard restart :) Really love this post....

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    1. Thanks Laylah. Yes our inner parent can be overly strict and narrow minded sometimes. Wishing you good luck with the restart. :)

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  4. This is something I worry about as a parent. On the one hand, I think it's really important to instill a sense of ethics and some societal norms into a child. Otherwise, they can have a really hard, unpleasant time of it. And yet, I also want my children to be free thinkers who enjoy the world. It's a tough balance for a parent to achieve: 'no, you can't run around naked when there are strangers around', 'oh, what an interesting idea to mix custard and marmite rice cakes, how does it taste?' :D

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    1. I've experienced that explaining why they can't do or have to do certain things will help them to understand that it is often more about a social agreement instead of an absolute truth/law so you can still have your own opinion about it

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    2. That's a good way of explaining it, Ellen :) Though, as he's only three, I'm not sure he understands the concept of law yet - at the moment he seems to think it's a person like Father Christmas :D

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    3. Yes this doesn't apply to toddlers yet but a simple explanation for a rule is a start I guess. It feels less absolute

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