Cards for the Day: R’d 3 of Chalices/R’d Knave of Chalices: Wedded Rocks and the Sky Deity

Today’s cards were an education to me. In the Samurai Tarot, the Three of Chalices is represented by Izanagi and Izanami, the wedded rocks at Futamigaura. According to legend, the Japanese islands are all the children of these two rocks (and the Samurai Tarot book notes that this card represents “creation”). The sacred rope, or shimenawa, that connects them weighs about a ton, and is made of braided rice stalks.

Then we have the Knave of Chalices, represented in the Samurai Tarot by Tenjin (literally “sky deity”), the deified form of Sugawara no Michizane. Tenjin has become the Shinto god of calligraphy, literature, and scholarship.

To me, the appearance of the god of scholarship along with wedded rocks is a sign to look closely at nature. How many of us ever before considered the possibility of rocks getting married? But rocks have a strong energy and are individuals. What can we learn from Izanagi and Izanami? What can we learn from the very idea of Meoto-iwa, wedded rocks? Can you feel the rock nature within you? in what way, if you are married, could (or should) your own marriage be considered a marriage of rocks? what wisdom can rocks bring to us about the institution of marriage? I have some ideas about this, but I think Tenjin is challenging us all to look into this matter ourselves.