The Dreamer and the Seeker

I drew two cards when thinking of a good friend today, the Eight of Cups and the Nine of Swords. The Nine of Swords today feels like the dreamer, always remembering even when trying to rest. The seeker is the Eight of Cups, searching ardently for the source of the water, why they feel what they feel.

I foolishly propped these two cards on a low wall in the coffee shop this morning, and they slipped unceremoniously down the crack and into the abyss, I’m sure alongside several other people’s lost treasures. While I luckily have spare cards to replenish my favorite deck, I’ve decided to write this post and poem to commemorate these two cards, and as a sort of tarot prayer to my deck and my friend – what nice cards to know and let go of.

I know you’ve found yourself in sleep,
I know you’ve found yourself in thought,
I know you’ve found yourself at rest.

Walking towards inner friendship
outer means nothing less than mirrors
and how well we use these reflections
to see one another as points of light
not only hot needles in our eyes
or even just warm touches

The ocean knows itself by crashing against the land
so you should crash in ecstatic violence when you must
deep enough below, the currents never change.

The Nine of Swords shows a person in bed but awake, cradling their face underneath Nine giant swords. Allowing the swords to be painful thoughts, the subconscious is aching to be heard, only finding a voice in sleep and never giving the consciousness the rest it wants. So the figure reconciles old regrets, reconsiders painful thoughts with patience, and moves into themselves open to every dream without judgement. This is how we can know all of ourselves.

The Eight of Cups has a figure walking away from a pool and up along a stream, away from the eight cups stacked in the foreground. If he looking into the water at himself, he remembered the story of Narcissus and has chosen to search for satisfaction outside his own reflection. The Star card is 17, whose digits add to Eight also. Maybe the figure in the card has sensed they have been introspective long enough for now and is seeking a new experience, closer to the source of the water than before.