XXI - The World - How to pilgrimage
Offering for the Full Moon occurring on 16 November (AEST) - there is no audio recording this month while I’m travelling
A naked feminine figure is in the centre of the card, suspended in a blue sky, in an open, dancerly gesture. There is a flowing purple sash whirled around her body, and she holds a small white baton in each hand. She is completely encircled by an oval-shaped, laurel wreath of leaves, which is decorated by red ribbon in an infinity shape. In each corner, a figure appears to sit or emerge from a grey cloud; a human head, an eagle's head, a lion's head, and a bull’s head.
XXI The World from the Rider Waite Smith tarot
The World has come forward before for the full moon offering, and not long ago too. Last time, I spoke on themes of completion, things coming to fruition, but also simultaneously beginning and rebirthing. Where you re-emerge as something ‘new’, as in, transformed.
I suggest you take a look at that last article, and revisit some of the prompts, as I’ll resist rehashing from there. Today, we can assume that many of these themes can still apply to you. As I mentioned in the earlier article:
“life is not linear … It's a spiral, experienced through a never-ending cycle of life-death-rebirth. Each cycle is a weaving, where threads of wisdom and experience from the previous passage are braided into the next”
First off, I'm curious about this revisit, and how the two instances might be connected. I imagine each circular egg-shaped wreath from the image as a portal connecting each-to-the-other like a passage through which a journey or happening occurs.
What was going on for you in May, that might be showing up in connection to that now in November?
Something that has themes of entering and emergence, or something new that you’ve been integrating into life since then?
Some of you know that I’m writing this offering while travelling on my own - I’ve been calling it a pilgrimage - to see an old teacher, to perform ritual and duty on ancestral lands, and to tend to an important relationship. This has not been a holiday; at times it's been confronting, stifling, and painful, although I have also enjoyed beauty and love, had adventure, and experienced new things.
In his latest substack Martin Shaw wrote about “what we bring to holy places”, particularly that “we ourselves should be assisting in the goodness and depth of the place”. He goes on later to say “It’s not just where we pilgrimage, but how we pilgrimage”. In short, you can’t expect to be transformed by showing up any-old-how. And I’m not talking about being ‘good’ or ‘pious’ or ‘perfect’.
How have you pilgrimaged over the last few months?
I feel like I've been away for a very long time though, and much of it has been alone time. ‘Alone’ and ‘introversion’ are usually comfortable states for me, but it's been clear that this default way wouldn’t work in this place or journey.
I’ve had to participate differently.
In the image of The World, the figure’s nakedness is central, and also natural. It speaks to discarding what's unnecessary, superficial, and masking. A reminder that some of the things and ways that we identify as “How or Who I am” often bear little resemblance to a more honest Self that hides beneath.
Psychology sometimes talks about this in relation to attachment styles. It can be helpful to label a pattern (avoidant, anxious, disorganised, secure), but the risk is you then identify with it.
What is your default way of participating in the world?
Describe the behaviours and attitudes. Can you imagine resisting this pattern? What would that look and feel like?
My default ‘avoidance’ and introversion, has been up for review on this pilgrimage; but I haven't leapt to the alternate extreme of extroversion. When I’ve felt the ambivalence of ‘alone’, I’ve chosen to open up, toward expansive. Even small gestures can make me feel naked.
At times this has been easy, other times scary, and physically hurt my heart, but then I let that feeling stay, or it passes, and then something beautiful, or mundane, or even nothing happens. That's the point. You show up in your new way, regardless of any reward, recognition, accolade or ‘sign from the Universe’ that you’re doing it right.
This quote by Ursula Le Guin speaks beautifully to this;
“We're each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?”
As I write this I am still more than a week away from returning to Australia. I’m getting travel-weary and looking forward to returning to some familiarity and comforts of home and family. This pilgrimage that officially started 5 weeks ago (but had its emergence in May, for sure!) is soon to come to a close. I will re-enter the top-side world from this liminality.
When you’ve gone through a thing, it can be extraordinarily difficult to explain the experience to others or even understand it yourself. The change is often deep, subtle, and felt - it might not have language yet. So as you emerge, transformed through your participation on the journey, it can help to lean into ritual practices of remembering, meaning-making and articulating.
PRACTICE: EXAMEN
I’m pretty sure I’ve shared this before. It was taught to me by Dr Estes but belongs to the Jewish tradition.
The process is simple and prayerful. Once a day, evening is good, you take a few minutes to reflect on your day to ask “How did I do?”. The key is you access a benevolent voice to converse with - the voice of God, Goddess, the Universe, the Mystery. To honestly assess your actions and attitudes through the eyes of the Divine, allows you to remain naked but held. Then from this, you make a plan for “What then I will do tomorrow?” in response, remedy, or to get closer once more to this honest self.
The world and circumstances make us as much as we make the world as we move through it.
Mendy xx
Martin Shaw’s substack article ‘Never Bribe Your Own Conscience’
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wind's Twelve Quarters, Volume 1