One of the more mysterious processes at work through the tarot presents itself as a paradox. We get to know ourselves in new and unexpected ways as the cards reveal to us what may have been previously hidden and outside of our awareness. However, as we meet and become acquainted, perhaps for the first time, with these different parts of ourselves, what is also being revealed to us is that we too are mysterious; as deep and as unfathomable as the universe itself.
The alchemical symbol for Antimony
At the start of our journey, peering in at the darkness terrifies us. We want to know what’s there before we enter so that we can make a decision right now on whether or where to take the next step. We know only what the mind thinks it knows and of that darkness, it knows nothing but fear.
Embracing this darkness does not mean that we become it. It simply means that we stop resisting it so that something else can take the place of the fear. And when it does, that’s when we experience, we are not the fear, we are not limited by it.
What is that something else for you? This is the invitation of ‘Antimony’ – the Grey Wolf - so-called because antimony when used as a substance in alchemy, ‘gobbled up’ base metals leaving only the gold. It initiated a purification process, in metaphysical terms devouring the person you thought you were so that what is truly you alone remains. The wolf’s hunger is savage. In Vedic astrology, it is analagous to the rapacious appetites of Rahu, head of the dragon and the North Node, who is only satiated when there is nothing left to devour. All striving to become ceases.
To this experience we are being invited to as a collective. What happens to us, our relationships, our interaction with others, when we experience what is also there alongside our fear? What world will it create? Aren’t you curious if nothing else?!
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