Tonight…
Notebook #2: Unmesha
Tonight I would normally be teaching a teleclass. Because of a sore throat, I’m not. Instead, I’ll be adding some insights to a class I would have given that will either deepen or confuse it, or both.
The class is on the symbolism of The Blindfold. I’ve already written the notes for class, but the extra week my illness has given me before presenting it has lead to a deepened understanding.
A blindfold can produce either an inner light or an inner darkness in addition to an obvious external darkness. A blindfold can be more subtle than a cloth tied physically over the eyes. It can be a word or an idea, a feeling or a predilection, a deed or a memory, a talent or a samskara.
In the case of a non-physical blindfold, its effect is to focus or filter; to redirect immediate contact with the world as it is happening through a pre-existent perspective; to darken or lighten reality; to add qualities to it or remove qualities from it; to transform it; to give meaning to plain facts; in short, to make reality into a symbol.
This transformation can be experienced as taking place inwardly or externally; it can be felt as positive or negative. It can be a transformation to be sought after or undone.
The blindfold in the 2 of Swords is the first kind. In the 8 of Swords, it is the second kind.
– Wald Amberstone
Filed under: Tarot Musings, A Cup Full of Tarot, Unmesha on July 21st, 2007
Are you saying that the blindfold in the 2 of Swords serves as focus on the internal decision to be made whereas the blindfold in the 8 of Swords serves as filter to the external?
I don’t understand the term samskara. Samsara refers to, “The eternal cycle of birth, suffering, death, and rebirth,” in Hinduism and Buddhism. But how does this serve as a blindfold? How would this be a “subtle” blindfold?
David
Good question David, I too think amplification along those lines would be useful.
Samskara traditionally impression as traces from an action, an attitude that imprints an inclination on the subconscious mind by experience (from this or previous lives), which then color all of life, one’s nature, responses, states of mind
Five Samskaras are in buddhism the five qualities of mind that cause us to think we are a self. They are form (the 4 elements), feeling, consciousness, perception, formation. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sankhara
This false view of self causes us to suffer and accrue karma as merit or demerit. Without my references at the ready I believe this qualities include consciousness (As the illusion of continuity from perception to perception), memory, perception..
In this sense I think Wald is using the term, it is an attachment that creates illusion. In that way not so far a way from Samsara, Universial Illusion or Suffering.
Making more of the blindfold as linked to insightful possibilities as well as false (unnecessary) hindrances is quite useful.
A mnemonic I use for swords is to say: swords are words that twist back on themselves. The S-shape connotes incomplete self- referentiality, so as of a sort of half-baked cake (idea), or an thought that is not coherent because it lacks a completed compelling logic.
(Symbolized by the symbol 8 vertical and horizontal).
In the wonderful little Kabbalistic work on the English Alphabet: An Inquiry into its Mystical Construction by Robert Hoffstein.
The Letter S (shin) in Hebrew, tooth, stands for transmutation. Teeth grind and cut food in preparation for digestion. Likewise the s affix in English adds a natural multiplication to most words so the S as incomplete is very powerful it makes many.
Swords then as the symbol of thinking shows how it can be cantankerous and prone to division, strife. The s at both ends of the “word” cuts both ways.
David, in response to your question about the meaning of “samskara” it is, I believe, the Sanskrit origin of the English word scar. It means an indelible impression made on consciousness. The impression can be made by anything that causes strong feelings of pain or pleasure, joy or sorrow, or by anything you have ever strongly believed, even if you no longer believe it.
Samskaras are said to be the seeds of karma.
You’re basically right in how you understand the sense of the blindfolds in the two cards.
– Wald
93,
It’s interesting that the 2 and 8 relative to the Tree of Life could be seen as the introvert and extrovert of Mercury. How would you class the blindfold on the Justice Card? This corresponds to Libra ruled by Mercury also does it not?
Another thought is to look at the hoodwink symbolism. both as “to be tricked” and as initiatory blindfold in Masonry, etc. Hmmm again higher and lower mercury symbolism.
93