MISSIVE 38
Not in the Cards: Concepts Not Depicted in Tarot, vol 1
A Duel. Nowhere throughout the deck is evenly matched combat depicted, because there are no even battles, no fair circumstances, no fair outcomes. From an individual perspective, every conflict of significant risk to life and limb brings with it the accumulation of all previous conflicts. Even when someone fights someone else in truly single combat, that moment is informed by all battles and experiences past.
There is no danger that is not informed by all other dangers previously experienced: this is the growing threat that comes with the progression of Wands. The Five is a free for all; the Seven, an all on one.
The Nine is a lone survivor, wounded, holding his own against all possible threats. The warrior who survives until the Ten suffers the greatest pain and burden of all: carrying the staves of his fallen comrades home.
Wands presents conflict as ever-worsening odds, with no true victory possible. The battles we choose become part of the continuum of who we are; the challenge is to choose the right ones, and to retreat before our wounds are more than can be healed.
This is the first in a series of concepts I find interesting that are not present in Tarot, and an analysis of why they are not. What is missing from our divinatory book-without-a-binding that might be in other Oracles or divination techniques, and why?