ARCHEIA SYMVOLIS

1385 P.C, THE ARCHIVES OF SYMVOLI

Upright Sun

The sun rises after a dark and cold night, which is to say, the motivation for this person to change comes from a place of overcoming hardship. When you pass through hard times and brightness pokes through the horizon, that in itself can give you a direction. It’s the promise of joy, liberation, accomplishment and all of these things. And in this case, though the Sun may be a celestial body, somewhere outside of our reach, the motivation to see the sun rise is still an internal motivation for the most part.

It’s not because you’re greedy to have the sun, it’s because you want night to come to close. You want better times, and sitting idly and not changing oneself is not going to bring you there. It’s recognizing the night was cold, recognizing suffering, and looking for a way forward.

Can the two be brought in balance? Is it possible to long for the sun, and to hold the moon and it’s night in equal appreciation?

A smile. A deeper question to posit.

Four of Coins

Now, you got the reversed version last we talked, so I think this card holds some value. The outcome we often want is represented here by the condor and the wife he holds so possessively. Sometimes we need to change because we want something. Now, is it always a matter of covetousness with this card? Not necessarily. The condor wants the stability of having his wife safe and always with him.

It can be a need to be on ground level that drives this person’s desires. But sometimes, it just feels good to have something to call your own, does it not? This story warns about possessiveness, and that in this case, bad change can come about because of an obsession to have something. A number of your wealth can become more important than how you use it. So whoever it is that will be changing, they must strike a balance between how much it drives them and how much it becomes an obsession. Else that change might be for naught.

This suggests to me the fickleness of mortal morals and ideologies. How people will go to great lengths to protect their safety in a norm, and a routine. And if that sense of security is brought to test, how quickly their virtue will be brought to test.

This… Supposes to me: That a pious man will be just as easily turned to kill, as a criminal man will be brought to piety. After all, the gods can be just as easily invoked as a scapegoat, as they are a motivation, if someone’s safety is threatened. Not just their physical safety, but their mental and spiritual safety. If they are forced to confront their own darkness, they would sooner abandon their own virtue.

Exactly. For me, I’ve come from a lowborn place. With my money now, I’m constantly in a fight with myself to not let it become an obsession. I worry about losing that money one day, but to let it consume me would make me the pious woman turned, as you say. But possessiveness isn’t all bad, sometimes. It’s to protect oneself.

Reversed Chariot

The virtues that drive change are described by the reversed Chariot. When the vehicle’s reversed, we lose our control, lose our road. The first virtue that comes to mind is tyranny. The lack of control drives someone to choke down on the reins, the only things they can control. This, in turn, makes someone authoritarian. I can also imagine a lack of direction leads to hopelessness, nihilistic views, and no drive to do what’s right and charitable. Or the wrong drive, for that matter.

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The reversed Chariot can also talk about stagnation, as if the cart’s overturned. When your ideals aren’t forced to change, we fall into patterns of ignorance and lack of compassion. The key to changing a person can often be challenging those ideals, forcing the wheels to turn, and putting them into situations where the norm isn’t the norm anymore. Those are what this card communicates to me, at least.

Stagnancy versus the need to move forward, direction versus being lost, lack of control, all things that will change the virtues of a person who we may be wondering about.

I thought about the idea of stagnation, agreeing with what the Archivist was suggesting forward. I would suppose the same could be said for every pillar of someone’s life, not just their moral code. I suppose it makes sense, in a way, when you consider the inter-connectedness and dependency of the pillars in our lives.

Think about your physical strength. Obviously, your muscles need to be tested regularly, so they can reform and regrow into something stronger, and more resilient. Could you not apply that same logic to somebody’s spirituality, and their mental facilities?

I suppose, in a way, allowing your own moral and ideological codes to be tested and even changed, regularly, is all a natural and healthy process.

“True, can also be a motivator. And you’re right with that. If I never practice a different spell again, I’d be a terrible spellcaster. Variety isn’t only the spice of life, but also the thing that gives us utility. Covers all our bases. To stagnate only limits oneself, or causes regression, I’ve found. I can even tell you times recently I’ve had to break stagnation, for my own sake.” The fourth card overturns.

Upright World

But, we’re onto the last two now, that being the likely outcomes for this person who is going to change. The first is represented by the upright World. The World is the final of the major arcana, and is the happy ending to a long series of trials one must overcome. That is to say, the change that this person will go through will ultimately leave them feeling fulfilled, a completeness like looking at a globe.

Everything laid out before them, they’ll see all that they worked towards and look upon the future with a smile. And being a creature of that world they’ll feel accepted within their niche and like they belong. The culmination of this person’s life work, after they’ve changed so much, will bring that kind of harmony that will allow them to reach and touch future lives and generations. Leave a legacy.

But to get there, they must travel through all the arcana. This means they’ll need to learn every lesson along the way, which may be an indicator that they must fail at some point in every step.

Mm, so this confirms our earlier discussion. About being in anticipation for the sun, while holding equal appreciation for the moon. If, you were, to equate the sun to reward, happiness and fulfillment, and the moon to loss, sadness and jealous wrath.

Such is the inter-connectedness of things that my mind has been awakened to.

Seven of Cups

“If you don’t look at the moon, you’ll only see the veil of night. Which funnily enough plays into the final card here- the Seven of Cups. The second outcome for this individual if represented by a story of a pauper who finds a genie in a lamp. The idea is that the other outcome is living in a world of wishful thinking, where you rely on outside powers to make you sultan.”

“If this person isn’t able to recognize what’s bad, and not learn from the loss and regret, then they’ll live in a state of idealism. The world will be tinted by the things they want to see, not what is actually there. The inability to face life without illusion will bring more and more sadness and pain. So that brings this person to the outcome of not changing, and only seeing what they want.

Or, believing they have changed, and not accepting the reality that they have only further cemented their stagnated virtues, poor motivations and wants for control. Said person will end up in a place where they need to touch reality, and they themselves aren’t going to provide an impetus to do it.”

Very true indeed. What a horrible fate such a thing would be.