Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. --from Bobby McGee, by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster
Not only is Justice a she, but so is Liberty. It's interesting that there is no tarot trump that conveys the idea of liberty, perhaps because the design of the tarot was pretty much set during the age of European monarchy. All the images of Liberty I attached to the sidebar this morning are related to the revolutions that followed the age of monarchy.
One thing I'm wondering this morning is whether, in all the middle eastern countries where revolutions are taking place, there is an image, a symbol or icon associated with that struggle. If there is such an image, I haven't seen it. Do you know? Also wondering if there is a symbol of freedom, liberty, democracy or whatever it is the people are hoping to create. If there is such a symbol, does it look like a woman wearing a long loose dress, carrying a torch of some kind?
I think of Liberty as an idea rather than something "real." Justice is a palpable force, a pure energy, but Liberty seems, to me, to be something we can't quite touch, no matter how we try. Perhaps the Liberty we seek has something to do with a half-lost memory of how great it is, between manifest lives, to fly free in the realm of spirit, unencumbered by these bodies that want food and drink, sex and other pleasures, that need so much to move around, also to rest. The limitations that are part of living inside a body are pretty intense. One of my great teachers used to say, "Infinite souls inhabiting finite bodies. It's a crazy idea!" It sure is. It has its up sides, too, should say.
As a double Aquarius, I know all about the yearning for freedom. One of my great friends nailed it when he said, "Reya, to you even happiness feels like a jail you have to break out of."
Oh yeah.
In the tarot there are many images that portray the situation of being bound. I think of the 8 of swords, 4 of pentacles, 4 of cups, for instance. Within the trumps, the Devil card certainly portrays a state of imprisonment. But there is no Liberty card, not in any deck I've ever seen. Hmmmm ...
17 comments:
Oh how I've missed your musings while I've been on my break. I like how that Egyptian liberty looks like Delacroix's, interesting. I am a Libra who craves balance in all things. Never had my cards read but now I'm quite intrigued.
Jeanette I can read for you anytime. Just let me know. Do you have my email?
There is also Columbia, the lady who watched over the citizen farmers of the early U.S. republic and led us to our "manifest destiny." My students love Delacroix's Liberty, btw, especially the "wardrobe malfunction." Obviously nobody messes with Lady Liberty, unless she wants to be messed with.
So the sheaves of wheat in the walking Liberty's hands ... maybe borrowed from Columbia?
For "America" (synonymous with "Columbia") leading the way west, see "American Progress" the 1872 painting by John Gast: http://cprr.org/Museum/Ephemera/American_Progress.html
Sorry, I think I left the .html off of website I posted. In that one, America is carrying a book and stringing telegraph wire! I think there are some images from the early republic of Columbia with sheaves of wheat. I'm remembering one of her watching over a farmer as he plows.
She's lovely! She has a book (the Akashic records?) and ... some string? Rope?
And she can FLY, wow. OK ... that IS Liberty.
Telegraph wire?? SWEET
Hey Reya,
I love the similar theme of how Liberty 'looks'.
One thing that was burned in my mind was the sight of people holding their mobile phones aloft during protests in the Middle East. Could this be a symbol of Liberty?
This was a sign (to me at least!) that Liberty can only be found in community, not isolation.
Something like this:
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/07/02/world/middleeast/0702-iran-user.jpg
yes they do!!
I love Columbia stringing telegraph wire. I'll bet she and Liberty invented the internet.
Rebecca I was thinking the same thing.
Harlequin - liberty is a community endeavor? That is a brilliant thought.
In Red Pine's translation of the Heart Sutra, he calls the state of enlightenment as "mind without walls."
Rumi says,
I, you, he, she, we.
In the garden of mystic lovers
these are not true distinctions.
To me, Liberty is something like seeing the allness of one, the oneness of all.
You mean ... the truth will set you free?
the truth is free of "you"! steven
Ha! Oh yeah, Steven. Well said.
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