THE CREATOR KING OF FIRE: MASTERY OF ACTION
ABUNDANCE KING OF RAINBOWS: MASTERY OF THE PHYSICAL	POSTPONEMENT 4 OF CLOUDS	SUPPRESSION 10 OF FIRE
		REVERSE
ORDINARINESS 8 OF RAINBOWS   REVERSE

THE CREATOR

The Zen mater in this card has harnessed the energy of fire and is able to use it for creation rather then destruction. He invites us to recognize and participate with him in the understanding that belongs to those who have mastered the fires of passion, without repressing them or allowing them to get destructive and out of balance. He is so integrated that there is no longer any difference between who he is inside and who he is in the world outside. He offers this gift of understanding and integration to all those who come to him, the gift of creative light that comes from the center of his being.
The King of Fire tells us that anything that we undertake now, with the understanding that comes from maturity, will bring enrichment to our own lives and to the lives of others. Using whatever skills you have, whatever you have learned from you own life experience, it is time to express yourself.


There are two types of creators in the world: one type of creator works with objects - a poet, a painter, they work with objects, they create things; the other type of creator, the mystic, creates himself. He doesn't work with objects, he works with the subject; he works on himself, his own being. And he is the real creator, the real poet because he makes himself into a masterpiece.
You are carrying a masterpiece hidden within you, but you are standing in the way. Just move aside, then the masterpiece will be revealed. Everyone is a masterpiece, because God never gives birth to anything less that that. Everyone carries that masterpiece hidden for many lives, not knowing who they are, and just trying on the surface to become someone.
Drop the idea of becoming someone, because you already are a masterpiece. You cannot be improved. You have only to come to it, to know it, to realize it. God has himself created you, you cannot be improved.

ABUNDANCE

This Dionysian character is the very picture of a whole man, 'Zorba the Buddha' who can drink wine, dance on the beach and sing in the rain, and at the same time enjoy the depths of understanding and wisdom that belong to the sage. In one hand he holds a lotus, showing that he respects and contains within himself the grace of the feminine. His exposed chest (an open heart) and relaxed belly show that he is at home with his masculinity as well, utterly self-contained. The four elements of earth, fire, water and sky all conjunct at the Kin of rainbows who sits atop the book of wisdom of life.
If you are a woman, the King of Rainbows brings the support of your own male energies into your life, a union with the soulmate within. For a man, this card represents a time of breaking through the conventional male stereotypes and allowing the fullness of the whole human being to shine forth.


In the East people have condemned the body, condemned matter, called matter 'illusory', Maya - it does not really exist, it only appears to exist; it is made of the same stuff as dreams are made of. They denied the world, and that is the reason for the East remaining poor, sick, in starvation. Half of humanity has been accepting the inner world but denying the outer world. The other half of humanity has been accepting the material world and denying the inner world. Both are half, and no man who is half can be contented.
You have to be whole: rich in the body, rich in science; rich in meditation, rich in consciousness. Only a whole person is a holy person, according to me. I want Zorba and Buddha to meet together. Zorba alone is hollow. His dance has not an eternal significance, it is momentary pleasure. Soon he will be tired of it. Unless you have inexhaustible sources, available to you from the cosmos itself ... unless you become existential, you cannot become whole.
This is my contribution to humanity; the whole person.

POSTPONEMENT

The woman in this picture is living in a gray landscape, full of unreal, cut out clouds. Through the window frame she can see colors and light and aliveness, and although she would like to move through the frame - as we can see by the rainbow colors appearing in her garment - she can't quite manage to do it. There is still too much 'what-if?' activity in her mind.
Tomorrow never comes, they say, but no matter how often it is said, it seems that most of us tend to forget the truth of it. In fact, the one and only result of postpoining things is a dull and depressing feeling of incompletion and 'stuck-ness' today. The relief and expansiveness you will feel once you put aside all the dithering thoughts that are preventing you from acting now will make you wonder why you ever waited so long.


Postponement is simply stupid. Tomorrow you will also have to decide, so why not today? And do you think that tomorrow you will be wiser than today? Do you think that tomorrow you will be livlier than today? Do you think that tomorrow you will be younger than today, fresher than today?
Tomorrow you will be older, you courage will be less; tomorrow you will be more experienced, your cunningness will be more; tomorrow death will come closer - you will start wavering and being more afraid. Never postpone for the tomorrow. And who knows? Tomorrow may come or many not come. If you have to decide you have to decide right now.
Dr. Vogel, the dentist, finished his examination on a pretty young patient. "Miss Baseman," he said, "I'm afraid I'm going to have to pull out your wisdom teeth!"
"Oh, my!" exclaimed the girl. "I'd rather have a baby!"
"Well," said Dr. Vogel, "could you make up your mind so that I can adjust the chair?"
Make up your mind. Don't go on postponing infinitely.

SUPPRESSION

The figure on this card is quite literally 'all tied up in knots'. His light still shines within, but he has repressed his own vitality trying to meet so many demands and expectations. He has given up all his own power and vision in return for being accepted by the very same forces that have imprisoned him. The danger of suppressing one's natural energy in this way is apparent in the cracks of volcanic eruption about to take place around the edges of the image.
The real message of the card is to find a healing outlet for this potential explosion. It is essential to find a way to release whatever tensions and stresses might be building up inside you right now. Beat on a pillow, jump up and down, go out into the wilderness and scream at the empty sky - anything to shake up your energy and allow it to circulate freely. Don't wait for a catastrophe to happen.


In Sanskrit the name is alaya vigyan, the house where you go on throwing into the basement things that you want to do but you cannot, because of social conditions, culture, civilization. But they go on collecting there, and they affect your actions, your life, very indirectly. Directly, they can not face you - you have forced them into darkness, but from the dark side they go on influencing your behavior. They are dangerous, it is dangerous to keep all those inhibitions inside you.
It is possible that these are the things that come to a climax when a person goes insane. Insanity is nothing but all these suppressions coming to a point where you cannot control them anymore. But madness is acceptable, while meditation is not - and meditation is the only way to make you absolutely sane.

ORDINARINESS

This figure walking in nature shows us that beauty can be found in the simple, ordinary things of life. We as easily take this beautiful world we live in for granted. Cleaning the house, tending the garden, cooking a meal - the most mundane tasks take on a sacred quality when they are performed with you total involvement, with love, and for their own sake, without thought of recognition or reward.
You are facing a time now when this easy, natural and utterly ordinary approach to the situations you encounter will bring far better results than any attempt on your part to be brilliant, clever, or otherwise extra-ordinary. Forget all about making headlines by inventing the latest widget, or dazzling your friends and colleagues with your unique star quality. The special gift you have to offer now is presented best by just taking things easily and simply, one step at a time.


Sometimes it happens that you become one, in some rate moment. Watch the ocean, the tremendous wildness of it - and suddenly you forget you split, your schizophrenia; you relax. Or moving in the Himalayas, seeing the virgin snow on the Himalayan peaks, suddenly a coolness surrounds you and you need not be false because there is no other human being to be false to. You fall together. Or, listening to beautiful music, you fall together. Whenever, in whatsoever situation, you become one, a peace, a happiness, a bliss, surrounds you, arises in you. You feel fulfilled.
There is no need to wait for these moments - these moments can become you natural life. These extra-ordinary moments can become ordinary moments - that is the whole effort of Zen. You can live an extraordinary life in a very ordinary life: cutting wood, chopping wood, carrying water, carrying water from the well, you can be tremendously at ease with yourself. Cleaning the floor, cooking food, washing the clothes, you can be perfectly at ease - because the whole question is of you doing you action totally, enjoying, delighting in it.