Thursday, December 31, 2015

A New Year...


Further adventures of The Black Key... (detail) - digital - 2015, DS



"He spied a small blue flowerpot at the far edge of the garden, and, on impulse, knelt down and twisted the key into the hard soil which filled its interior.

'And so ends my involvement with this mystery', he said to no one, before returning to the warm interior of his car.

And, as he drove away, the winter landscape fading in his wake, he was already mentally erasing this futile excursion, and all the various disappointments it had entailed.

But, unbeknownst to him, a most curious thing occurred in the deep silence at the garden's edge. A sign? A portent? Who can say? For, who can estimate the many small miracles which might take place in the myriad corners of the world beyond a man's view?"

- excerpt from a Black Key vignette The Ace of Wands, December 31, 2015, DS

***


Despite the date on this post, what you are about to read is being written January 1st, 2016. A little sleight of hand there, folks, but that was my intention, and for good reason. In esoteric terms, December 31st and January 1st, are pretty much the same day, and/or the same door... an imaginary portal in an illusionary time-construct. A "year" is a relative thing; accurately determined by your placement on a map, but, in terms of actual human experience, it means nothing. It's of great use to historians, astrologers, and the like, however... in fact, you might say the entire Official World depends upon this illusionary time-construct, and, as denizens of said World, it benefits us to play along. No?

So, officially, it's a new year. And, as we humans are a superstitious species, we need signs, symbols and portents to assure us that, yes, despite all evidence to the contrary - such as dreary winter weather, for instance, or, well, just fill in the blank ______ - the future will be brighter.

But, no, I wasn't consciously thinking of portents - or, for that matter, Tarot cards - when I created the digital illustration (above) for this post. I was merely inspired to add another supplement to my ongoing Black Key saga. But, inadvertently, as things seem to go these days, creating a Tarot card is exactly what happened.

So, friends, followers and visitors to Mac's online memorial, it appears we've all drawn the Ace of Wands to herald in our new year, and, apparently (and no, I wasn't cognizant of this either), the Ace of Wands is a very fortuitous card, as we can see by the quotes below.