Nine

“If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.” - Calvin Coolidge, US President.

Among the various divination methods, I find the tarot to be the most useful. The results I get from it, while sometimes cryptic at first, often provide great insight. 

Contrary to the claims of some, the tarot, while old, isn’t ancient. The tarot cards were created by the 15th-century Italian artist Bonifacio Bembo for the Visconti family of Milan. The cards were initially used for gambling, but since the early nineteenth century, occultists and others have found the tarot rich in symbolism and valuable for spiritual practices, such as divination and exploring deeper esoteric meanings.

In this blog post, I want to explore the role of the number nine in the tarot. 

The number nine applies to two cards of the major arcana of the tarot. The Hermit card is the ninth card in the major arcana. This card represents turning inward toward the unconscious mind.

If we double the number nine, which is a common practice in numerology, the number is eighteen. In the major arcana, the eighteenth card is the Moon. The Moon is an introspective card, just like its predecessor card, the Star. However, while the Star represents inner calm, the Moon card represents fear of the unconscious. The Moon card is the opposite of the wise hermit. It’s the animal side of humans. The Moon card can represent the Shadow Self, which can indeed be most frightening.

When one looks at the minor arcana, number nine is both bad and good. According to Rachel Pollack, author of Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, in the minor arcana, cards with the nine represent struggle and compromise. The Nine of Wands represents a strong defense arising out of conflict, resulting in someone ready to go on the offensive. In contrast, the Nine of Cups represents using physical indulgences as a defense mechanism to avoid conflict. We might think of these cards as fight-or-flight responses. 

Even constructive solutions have their duality. The Nine of Swords represents extreme pain and worry. In contrast, the Nine of Pentacles represents the enjoyment of the fruits of our labor. These two cards represent the fear of failure and the hope of success. Both of which are present in any endeavor.

Bluesky

“Blue skies smiling at me. Nothing but blue skies do I see.” – Blue Skies, composed by Irvin Berlin.

Social media is a big part of the modern Internet. Like anything, it evolves over time. 

Recently, there’s been a hard right turn in the evolution of social media platforms such as Facebook and X. And Truth Social was never an option for many of us, including myself. Thankfully, we now have an alternative because a positive new social media platform has arisen. 

Bluesky is my new home on social media. 

Bluesky is owned by Bluesky Social PBC. A PBC is different than your standard corporation. PBC stands for “public benefit corporation.” A public benefit corporation is still a for-profit company that generates profits for shareholders. However, unlike a standard corporation, it’s legally obligated to consider the public good in its decision-making process.

As a user, Bluesky has several advantages over other social media. One is that it’s designed to be decentralized. This means you don’t have a single company or entity controlling the network. This helps to reduce the risk of censorship. Another advantage is that you control the content you see on Bluesky rather than the corporation. This gives you the power rather than the corporation to filter content that goes against your values. But simultaneously, you’re not controlling what the other person posts. 

My Bluesky account is frater-tenebris.bsky.social. Stop by and say hello.

Chi

I recently watched a documentary by Lucasfilm titled Medicine in the Middle Kingdom. The subject of the film was Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The documentary was fascinating. It was respectful of TCM while at the same time avoiding the New Age nonsense so typical in the West. Nor was it full of the crass skepticism one finds so often. The interviews with Western scholars pointed out that TCM shows some effectiveness, even if they’re not exactly sure what is happening.

One of the many intriguing comments made in the documentary was about the Western understanding of Chi. Ted Kaptchuk, the Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard University, and the author of The Web That has no Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine, stated that translating Chi as ‘Life Force’ is incorrect because Chi is present in all phenomena, not just the living. Instead, according to Kaptchuk, “Chi is a statement of interconnectedness.” He went on to say that Chi is seen in TCM as an active part of a ‘Dynamic Harmony’ and therefore viewed as essential.

Here in the West, we’re beginning to better understand the world’s interconnectedness. The world’s ecosystem is often compared to a spiderweb, where pulling on one thread impacts another. Just like disrupting a thread on a spiderweb can cause it to become unstable, a disruption to the interconnectedness of bodily functions can set up illness.

While Western science is a powerful tool, Traditional Chinese Medicine has much to offer.

Facebook Problems

Dear Readers,
My Facebook page is currently down. I will continue posting here as a I work to resolve the issue with Facebook.
 

Thank you for your patience,
Frater Tenebris

Thought Experiments

Thought experiments have been around for ages and are powerful tools. The online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines thought experiments as “…devices of the imagination. They are employed for various purposes such as entertainment, education, conceptual analysis, exploration, hypothesizing, theory selection, theory implementation, etc. Some applications are more controversial than others.”

Recently, I came across an interesting blog by Adarsh Badri. On April 13, 2023, they posted “15 Philosophical Thought Experiments That Will Definitely Blow Your Mind.” The post includes “The Ship of Theseus,” “The Prisoner's Dilemma,” “The Trolley Problem,” and more. They briefly describes the scenario of each, what philosophical issues are explored, and a summary of its challenges. 

I think Badri provides an excellent service by posting these thought experiments. You should hang out on his blog after reading his post. It’s a good read.

Truth

"You can't handle the truth!" Jack Nicholson, actor, A Few Good Men movie.

We live in an age when the word ‘truth’ has started to lose its meaning. Some question the existence of ‘truth’ or whether any truth that might exist can be known. While others cynically use the word for branding, such as right-wing social media sites that distort the facts. 

I believe that the assault on the idea of ‘truth’ is primarily the result of our postmodern or Late Capitalist era. Postmodernists tend to include the idea of ‘truth’ within metanarratives, which they tie to historical and social context rather than being absolute and universal. As postmodernism spread through society, the possibility of knowing what was ‘true’ became increasingly problematic.

Some say we’re leaving the postmodern era and moving into a new one called metamodern. Whether that’s true (yes, I recognize the irony of that comment) is up for debate. Many conversations about metamodern as a new era concern the likelihood of moving away from the postmodern refusal to consider the possibility of the truth of some metanarratives. 

Metamodernism, whatever that may be, could and should include exploring the possibility of truth and whether we can determine it, even if we disagree on what it is. 

(A special thank you to Dr. Angela Puca for her insights into this topic.)