LETTING GO 8 OF WATER
THE SOURCE ACE OF FIRE THE SOURCE	GOING WITH THE FLOW ACE OF WATER	REBIRTH 10 OF CLOUDS
REVERSE	REVERSE	REVERSE
MOMENT TO MOMENT 2 OF RAINBOWS   REVERSE

LETTING GO

In this image of lotus leaves in the early morning, we can see in the rippling of the water that one drop has just fallen. It is precious moment, and one that is full of poignancy. In surrendering to gravity and slipping off the leaf, the drop loses its previous identity and joins the vastness of the water below. We can imagine that it must have trembled before it fell, just on the edge between the known and the unknowable.
To choose this card is a recognition that something is finished, something is completing. Whatever it is - a job, a relationship, a home you have loved, anything that might have helped you to define who you are - it is time to let go of it, allowing any sadness but not trying to hold on. Something greater is awaiting you, new dimensions are there to be discovered. You are past the point of no return now, and gravity is doing its work. Go with it - it represents liberation.


In existence there is nobody who is superior and nobody who is inferior. The blade of grass and the great star are absolutely equal ... But man wants to be higher that others, he wants to conquer nature, hence he has to fight continuously. All complexity arises out of this fight. The innocent person is one who has renounced fighting; who is no longer interest in being higher, who is no longer interested in performing, in proving that he is someone special; who has become like a roseflower or like a dewdrop on the lotus leaf; who has become part of this infinity; who has melted, merged and become one with the ocean and is just a wave; who has no idea of the 'I'. The

THE SOURCE

ACE of FIRE The SOURCE

GOING WITH THE FLOW

The figure in this card is completely relaxed and at ease in the water, letting it take him where it will. He has mastered the art of being passive and receptive without being dull or sleepy. He is just available to the currents of life, with never a thought of saying "I don't like that," or "I prefer to go the other way."
Every moment in life we have a choice whether to enter life's waters and float, or to try to swim upstream. When this card appears in a reading it is an indication that you are able to float now, trusting that life will support you in your relaxation and take you exactly where it wants you to go. Allow this feeling of trust and relaxation to grow more and more; everything is happening exactly as it should.


When I say 'become water' I mean become a flow; don't remain stagnant. Move, and move like water.
Lao Tzu says: The way of the Tao is a watercourse way. It moves like water. What is the movement of water? or of a river? The movement has a few beautiful things about it. One, it always moves towards depth, it always searches for the lowest ground. It is non-ambitions; it never hankers to be the first, it wants to be the last.
Remember, Jesus says: Those who are the last here will be the first in my kingdom of god. He is talking about the watercourse way of Tao - not mentioning it, but talking about it. Be the last, be non-ambitious. ambition means going uphill. Water goes down, it searches for the lowest ground, it wants to be a nonentity. It does not want to declare itself unique, exceptional, extraordinary. It has no ego idea.

REBIRTH

This card depicts the evolution of consciousness as it is described by Friedrich Nietzsche in his book, Thus Spake Zarathustra. He speaks of the three levels of Camel, Lion and Child. The camel is sleepy, dull, self-satisfied. He lives in delusion, thinking he's a mountain peak, but really he is so concerned with others' opinions that he hardly has any energy of his own. Emerging from the camel is the lion. When we realize we've been missing life, we start saying no to the demands of others. We move out of the crowd, alone and proud, roaring our truth. But this is not the end. Finally the child emerges, neither acquiescent nor rebellious, but innocent and spontaneous and true to his own being.
Whatever the space you're in right now - sleepy and depressed, or roaring and rebellious - be aware that it will evolve into something new if you allow it. It is a time of growth and change.


In Zen you are coming from nowhere and you are going to nowhere. You are just now, here, neither coming nor going. Everything passes by you; your consciousness reflects it but it does not get identified.
When a lion roars in front of a mirror, do you think the mirror roars? Or when the lion is gone and a child comes dancing, the mirror completely forgets about the lion and starts dancing with the child - do you think the mirror dances with the child? The mirror does nothing, it simply reflects.
Your consciousness is only a mirror.
Neither do you come, nor do you go.
Things come and go.
You become young you become old; you are alive, you are dead.
All these states are simply reflections in an eternal pool of consciousness.

MOMENT TO MOMENT

As this figure moves across the stones, he steps lightly and non-seriously, and at the same time absolutely balanced and alert. Behind the swirling, ever-changing waters we can see the shapes of buildings; there appears to be a city in the background. The man is in the marketplace but at the same time outside of it, maintaining his balance and able to watch it from above.
This card challenges us to move away from our preoccupations with other spaces and other times, and stay alert to what is happening in the here and now. Life is a great ocean in which you can play if you drop all your judgemtns, your preferences, and the attachemtn to the details of your long-term plans. Be available to what comes your way, as it comes. And don't worry if you stumble or fall; just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, have a good laugh, and carry on.


The past is no more and the future is not yet: both are unnecessarily moving in directions which don't exist. One used to exist, but no longer exists, and one has not even started to exist. The only right person is one who lives moment to moment, whose arrow is directed to the moment, who is always here and now; wherever he is, his whole consciousness, his whole being is involved in the reality of here and in the reality of now. That's the only right direction. Only such a man can enter into the golden gate.
The present is the golden gate.
Here-now is the golden gate.
... And you can be in the present only if you are not ambitious - no accomplishment, no desire to achieve power, money, prestige, even enlightenment, because all ambition leads you into the future. Only a non-ambitious man can remain in the present.
A man who wants to be in the present has not to think, has just to see and enter the gate. Experience will come, but experience has not to be premeditated.