Throughout Tarot in the Land of Mystereum Major Arcana cards make cameo appearances in other cards to help connect you with the Tarot story.
They cameo visually in many places throughout the deck, and add layers of exploration throughout the 192-page Imagination Primer companion book. Major Arcana characters cameo in both other Majors and as well in Minors. This Presence-of cameo feature integral to The Land of Mystereum’s Fabric is to lifefully add to and inform Tarot character development through the tools of visual story and allusion ~ allusion being a function of those coolio and quick criss-cross-applesauce connections that are made or you make that enhance the nature of relationships between things . . . make more friends and companions of things rather than pointing “over there” in regard to them, like the Narrator says by action, “you GOTTA meet so-n-so!” I also felt that this multiple-cards-in-a-card visual allusion story technique furthers the Mystereum Tarot deck in a way so The Minors . . . though they can keep the integrity of their Everyday aspects . . . so that the Minors were not minimized.
Remember
that in Mystereum every Minor has at least one person or figure in it. You beg to differ saying, “Oh but this card and that card only have a scene or even simply geometry. Jordan.” Yes, they do, and they have you peering through the portal of the border. Don’t you tend to step in through that portal, as it’s your reading, right? So, that makes 1. Every card has at least one additional spectator or performer. You! Pretty good stuff in Mystereum. Pretty good stuff like Harold or Milo or Alice or Harry but better. It’s better ’cause YOU’re there with a constant invitation, though. A constant invitation to step in through the border and participate and / or watch and read the Tarot Mind Movie playing in your reading from your personal best seat! How do you play with YOUR cards? How do you watch your Tarot Mind Movies. Are you a wallflower? Are you a sunflower? A bit of each depending? Do you like to pause and research? Do you like to sight-read the track at speed for time? Either way and neither other ways, Good for You!
This visual expression of the cards in Presence-of cameos
as cards themselves journey around through The Land of Mystereum is at the heart of the very structure of Mystereum, it’s Fabric. We could call this opening up the epistemology of card divination, epistemology being philosophy of the study of how we know things. We could call the card cameo appearances a Tarot etymology that expresses snapshots of the origins, the lineage of each card’s archetypal and divination personality in their ongoing and living births to be developed through their appearances in the Empress-style Yoniverse of your readings. Interestingly enough, we can also simply say, . . .
Can You pick a face out of a crowd? Or, a hand?
“Cards in Tarot in the Land of Mystereum inform one another.” Cards in the Land of Mystereum literally inform one another in the visual story of the cards where they appear. They don’t start doing this after you learn them. They already do this,, and more-so start doing this after you meet them. Be inquisitive. Notice them in a “what’s that?” way, can pick their “face” out of a crowd so to speak, or a hand? Takes a little doing of course, yet play it like a movie . . . “Who’s that? What is THAT thing or person doing here? Wait, is that so-n-so’s hand?”
Have some fun opening up and exploring this cameo appearance
Presence-Of feature in The Land of Mystereum. It is there to assist you in card inter-relationships and to actively work with your intuition. It is also present to further inform the Imagination Tools gifted by each character in the Imagination Primer book. Pick a Major Arcana character in your Tarot in the Land of Mystereum deck. Then, one by one, go through your deck. See what full portions of the card and what out-takes or detail vignettes appear in other cards. Once you have walked through your deck and pulled a card’s hangouts, the Presence-Of places of the card you have chosen, ask yourself . . .”How does this card contribute with its appearance in this other card? What clue to this card’s identity does the guest appearance accentuate? How does it flesh out the card’s story? Are these cards the same yet simply at different scales? Siblings? Friends? Tenuously connected? Dreaming or imagining in hmmmmms? For example in the Imagination Primer the 3 of Swords expresses that it has never seen a Tower though has heard that one is formed when lots of unresolved 3-of-Swords moments get together. Something beyond its current grasp is formed when this occurs.
So, on to the Tarot Presence-Of Strength Cameos
Strength plays 10 visual storytelling parts in The Land of Mystereum , appears in 10 cards. There is the Strength card of course as XI, and as well XV The Devil, XX Judgment, XXI The World, 4 of Wands, Page of Wands, 2 of Cups, 4 of Cups, and 6 of Cups. It felt very natural for Strength to appear in this way as a perennial story-thread of card characters that further alludes to and contributes personality to the sense of place throughout these 9 cards in The Land of Mystereum.
Why doesn’t Strength appear more or less?
Well, maybe She + her He-Lion really does, and then again there are 9 appearances which 9’s mirror express more components of her natural fluency with her inner animal voice. This Mystereum visual character dictionary of storied appearances reaches out to symbolically spice up the deck in many places, like this 9-charactered stage in Strength’s play. Mystereum is not a deck of card soliloquies or monologues in a play, but expert skill in play IN a (theatrical) play. The whole deck is inter-related both in visual and spoken story, and each card embraces their identity as well. The Land of Mystereum is really a land, a place of divination in community with itself within and about where “All Similar, Each Unique.” Strength plays 9 gig, 9 sets in the 78 one-act Tarot plays in Mystereum.
9 Strength Cameos
1. XI Strength
Strength appears of course as Strength ~ indicates a natural fluency, not control, a natural fluency with one’s inner animal voice. She is beyond taming the beast. Her animal is integral to the personality of her voice.
2. XI Strength cameos in XV The Devil
- anima and animus, she-and-he-inner-spirit appear to temper ego. She’s on the left offering grapes. She is one of two in control here, wielding fluency. The Devil is not in control. She-and-He-spirits are. They can be imps themselves and play with earthly desires. They also embrace their passions fully.
3. XI Strength appearing in XX Judgment
- as the woman with offering-up-receiving hands on the right. Who is the guy on the left? And, that kiddo or midget on the left? Does that kiddo character appear in the 5 of Wands? We’ll have to see sometime in another Presence-of cameo article.
- appearing here, she can be representative of the power of a naturally conscious voice, the feminine receptivity to Judgment’s awakening or rebirth or resurrection or epiphany.
- Refer to XV The Devil, and in XX Judgment she is on the right now uplifting newness, the resurrection of the perennial in a naturalized garden.
4. XI Strength cameos in XXI The World
- Look closely up towards the top. One of the hands gracing the infinity of The World is Strength’s.
- This is a subtle cameo as she lends the natural voice of her living touch to The World.
- Strength reaches in to focus the natural clarity of The World’s infinite and infinitely dancing relationships.
XI Strength cameos in the 4 of Wands
- She peeks in from the (unconscious) left to freshen the established energies that are placed on the right as her energies pass into the presence of the magical Wand-orb centered at the base of the card.
- A visual HeLLO bringing new surprises to enhance the already established energies. She’s the one who brings those amazing pastries.
XI Strength cameos in the Page of Wands
- She brings fresh energies to speak to Your Royal Court.
- She’s up there at the tip of the Wand on the right. Well, half in, half out like The Hierophant on the left.
XI Strength cameos in the 2 of Cups
- She’s on the right ~ conscious.
- Her inner-outer voice complete, playful in its natural fulfillment of giving and receiving at one and the same time.
- Her outer, His inner. She’s on the right ~ conscious. He’s on the left ~ unconscious.
XI Strength cameos in the 4 of Cups
- She presents the earthly treasure of room-for-another that emanates from the volcano, the volcano itself a Yoniverse of the earth. WAIT! Are there more than one? Volcanoes? Yes. Earthly Yoniverses emanating? Would seem so. What do you think? The whole world feels to be a living and birthing thing. Babies. Geysers. Volcanoes. Chrysalis-Cracking them all, huh?
- Emanate Wet. Flap. Dry. Fly. Evolve. Repeat
- Do your feelings fly as high as the depth from which they come?
- Are the heights of your feelings rooted in your greatest depths?
XI Strength cameos in the 6 of Cups
- to further expand established feelings heralded in the sky, you exchange with filling voices. Welling.
- Isn’t this YOUR Cup seen up close in the forefront? Are you extending in a toast?
Best to your own alchemical team
supporting your Self in Your Royal Court of Higher Self filling the seats of Your Court to cheer on your expert skill expressed in play! Consider these characters to already have season tickets to cheer on your strong play. There are no cheap-seats in your game of life. Play well. Play with the vibrant motions established by Strength and her 8 closest friends. Here is expressed quite a band of allies for your journeys within and about. Play with the vibrant strength of their inner motion YOUR WAY! Strength may also be a symbol of your inner light that both reflects and is also unmoved by outside influences . . . like the lion laying restfully near, and there’s your next Birth Card Pair, the 2’s Tarot Birth Cards ~ Twos To Pair. Want a little more in depth 2’s talk? Check out Twos: Birth-Placing Clarity.
Check out previous Presence Of articles to discover more about the coordinated dynamism present to support and further inform your journey throughout The Land of Mystereum.
- The Presence Of The Priestess to see her guest starring cameos and further inform cards with her presence in The Land of Mystereum.
- The Presence Of The Fool to see The Fool guest starring in cameos that further inform The Land of Mystereum.
Thanks for visiting!
Best to this “Presence Of” series more fully elucidating one of the naturally hidden structures that are alive and well in Tarot in the Land of Mystereum to round out your inner team’s work. Who knew? Drawing pretty pictures is the smallest part of my job, or is it? And, the more you know, the more you enhance informing your intuition, the more you dance with coordination and the coordinated aspects in a scene. If you’ve ever learned to drive a standard transmission car . . . and how are you with it now? What about an automatic? How are you with it now? Similar to intuition I say, similar to Mystereum. At first there are a lot of things to keep track of, and then you simply drive. Strength’s energetic natural voice synchromeshing things, and Strength AS the core of confidence. They are both tangibly visual metaphors of the unseen and unmoved mover.
Explore your Talented Inner Inheritances With Strength
as you develop your natural voice into an ability. Talents are innate, abilities developed. They are also both whole worlds that can exist in the tiniest of things and the smallest of places . . . like the infinity inside you. Find yours with Mystereum! The world needs your voice in just the way it is natural for you to use it for your highest good.
Here’s Your BONUS Free Exercise
Need a vacation? Wanna know how to make work into hooky at least until you can get one? Or, wanna spice up work and possibly even have the fall-out of more vibrant performance?
- Pick two cards, any two cards.
- Take them to work with you each day for a week, and keep the secret all your own. No-one needs to know you brought your two giggling and irreverent friends from your morning coffee meetup with you.
- Before you say anything that day, think what each card would say like they are speaking inner crib notes to you. Then, say what YOU say.
- You’ll create many pregnant pauses . . . and the uncomfortable ones around you might tend to just bluster-blow-up and frustratedly answer their own questions as they stomp off to their next dump-victim.
- You may bring some vacay brightness to work that actually enhances your focus.
- And, once you aren’t dealing with Bluster Bopy Gossip Girl above, this brightness may dance your interactions and presentations up another octave.
- Give it a try. It’s your responsibility, though. I don’t blame Irma when I burn the pancakes. Forget indemnity. Express YOUR inner inheritance talents of a natural fluency of your inner voice by developing it into an ability!
Till Next time! Happy Thursday!
All images (c)2010 Jordan Hoggard. All Rights Reserved.
(c) 2012 Jordan Hoggard
Tarot in the Land of Mystereum is available signed by the author at www.jordanhoggard.com
Groc the videos at www.youtube.com/drawsalotmore