Meditation and found playing cards, Part One

I have, ever since the Sex and the City episode showing Carrie's new boyfriend Berger collecting playing cards he found on the street, been doing the same. Playing cards have a considerable graphic appeal, as well as the archetypal significance of the face cards. And the deck pattern-- the possibilities are endless. I have always been drawn to graphics--numbers~ letters~ geometric patterns. And I am a collector.....

I find it a curious thing that someone can lose a single playing card. Why just one card? At times I find a bunch scattered--that seems probable--and have even found a boxed deck--even more probable.

But it is the single ones--the scratched dirty mauled ones--that are most interesting. What does the appearance of a Jack of Clubs mean in one's life? Does finding a 2 of Hearts mean a love relationship is coming your way? I have thought that perhaps the universe was giving me a little message--but no message that I could surmise, came forth. Until today.

The Meditation

Today I meditated at lunch time. (I work alone). It was a guided meditation and it was deep and powerful. It actually brought me to tears several times. I reached a place of communion with what I have to describe as higher aspects of myself--one in a male form and one in female form. First the woman--with curly hair--and then the male, also with curls. As I approached them, I recognized them by feeling the overwhelmingly loving energy coming from them. First set of tears. The meditation guided you to be able to "climb" to that place whenever you needed to/wanted to and to take the light and love that you soaked up in that realm, back with you into your body and soul. Quite wondrous.

The next part of the meditation had you traveling to hang out with the ascended masters surrounding the planet in a ring or prism of light. I added my light to theirs and sent out love/light to those souls I saw below. I saw a vision of all the peoples of earth stopping what they were doing and looking up--rapt--a slow spreading of joy and release/unburdening. The planet was in quiet joyous awe. I saw my dad--so disillusioned with the world's corruption, smiling the clearest purest smile--released from that heaviness--my mom too--projecting her happiness through my father. Tears round two. My son even appeared--freed now from the pressures of life and able to compose music with real purpose. During the meditation my scalp tingled in several different spots, and I had waves of chills.WHEW!

The Cards

Wobbly, I left the office briefly feeling like I had not quite settled back into good old 3-d earth, when I came upon a smattering of playing cards in the parking lot next to the coffee shop. 10 cards in all I picked up. 

The turned over card is a Jack of Hearts.

I laid the cards out wondering what it meant. The three 2s caught my attention--I have been seeing 222 a lot in the last year or two. My high school jersey number was 22. And the number two figures prominently in my Human Design chart- particularly my Design sun location falls into gate 22 Line 2. This was getting interesting.

Then I decided to add the cards together giving the face cards the value of their natural progression J=11. The total is 64!! This rung me like a bell. Where to begin speaking of the significance of 64? 

On 64 

Wikipedia gives a good smattering. (Add 6 and 4 together you get 1 and 0--base 2 binary code--yes/no~ black/white~ on/off~yin/yang.)

There are 64 hexagrams in the I'Ching the oracular Book of Changes. The Hexagrams are symbols consisting of 6 lines--either broken or unbroken. The 6 lines of a hexagram are the sum of combining two trigrams. 

These eight trigrams were conceived as images of all that happens in heaven and on earth. At the same time, they were held to be in a state of continual transition, one changing into another, just as transition from one phenomenon to another is continually taking place in the physical world. Here we have the fundamental concept of the Book of Changes. The eight trigrams are symbols standing for changing transitional states; they are images that are constantly undergoing change. Attention centers not on things in their state of being -- as is chiefly the case in the Occident -- but upon their movements in change. The eight trigrams therefore are not representations of things as such but of their tendencies in movement. 

In Human Design--the 64 hexagrams became gates indicating the totality of genetic possibilities for human embodiment. Each gate has many (1080) sublevels and subdivisions providing for human differentiation. 

On 222

As it turns out, 222 is addressed within the hexagrams of the I'Ching. And also, of course in the Human Design system's Rave I'Ching.

The Rave I'Ching describes Gate 22 Line 2 this way:

Gate 22, Line 2

Charm school. The belief that style can mask nature. Sun exalted. The ability to successfully delude oneself and others. The possibility to attract others with an emotional style.
 
The I'Ching itself gives us this for Hexagram 22: 

GRACE has success.
In small matters
It is favorable to undertake something.

And for the second line:

Six in the second place means:
Lends grace to the beard on his chin.

The beard is not an independent thing; it moves only with the chin. The image therefore means that form is to be considered only as a result of attribute of content. The beard is a superfluous ornament. To devote care to it for its own sake, without regard for the inner content of which it is an ornament, would bespeak a certain vanity.

And an interpretation (and a useful website) here:

Take care to lend grace and dignity to small matters, while giving the weight of deep and careful consideration to matters of greater consequence. Though it should not be confused with true substance, an artistic flair can take one far in this world.

Hmmm. A message is taking form....

The Dragon

The cards I picked up turn out to be Bicycle Cards Dragon back design.

In Chinese astrology, 2012 is the year of the Dragon--a most auspicious year (as we know).

The Dragon is a legendary animal and it is symbol of the emperor in China. Since the Dragon is coated with mysterious color, Chinese consider that the dragon is unpredictable, untouchable and people cannot see its head and tail at the same time. Therefore, we can might see something unexpected happening in 2012.

A symbol of good fortune and intense power, this years dragon is the Water Dragon--water tempering the fire and creating a more balanced beast.

Stay tuned for Part Two--the interpretation.