Earlier I wrote an article about the RWS Tarot card, Four of Swords.
I talked about the startling resemblance between the card's imagery and a photograph of a the tomb of John the fearless, the second duke of Burgundy. The tomb dates back to the medieval times and shows a sculpture in the likeness of John laying supine on top of the casket with his hands clasped in prayer, just as the figure in the 4 of Swords card.
The article describing the piece explained that John and his wife, Margaret of Bavaria, laying next to him, were both depicted as laying on the tomb with his eyes open--they was awaiting judgment.
In other words, they had left the physical world, but they were in limbo. They hadn't been assigned their new place in the spiritual realm.
Many transitions are like this. We don't just go from one place to another in a smooth motion. Instead the journey stops and starts. And there is frequently a block of time when it appears that little is happening at all.
But these periods of apparent inactivity or gridlock often means that the action is happening internally or on some level where we are not aware of it. In astrology these periods might be expressed as planets in retrograde motion.
Although the people of Haiti and Chile may disagree, to many, it appears that 2010, to date, has been a time where little has been accomplished. The US Congress has effectively been rendered powerless over its gridlock--despite great effort, it has yet to pass health care reform, for example.
If you are feeling frustrated or stuck, take heed of the caterpillar's journey. It enters the cocoon where, it seems, it is rendered completely inactive. But when it emerges, it will have been transformed into a butterfly.
The early part of the year has been beset by a parade of retrogrades. As each planet returns to direct motion, it will release pent up energy.
Mars goes direct in less than two weeks.
But for now, we are like the warrior lying in the tomb in the 4 of Swords Tarot card.
Stay tuned.
