Time is a governing concept that provides a system for order and understanding change. Time is strange. As I grow older and acquire more life experience, my daily tempo changes, and my concept of a long or short amount of time has also changed.Â
I am a visual thinker. I often imagine our lifetime spatially. Each of our lives is a shape drawn by a line, as if our lifetime were a finite piece of string. If you take a piece of string and cut it to measure a lifetime, there are infinite shapes it can make with its length. These life shapes could be knots, spirals, hearts, zigzags, etc.; they all are any possibility of the same amount of time and distance traveled. This is important to visualize because we sometimes forget the infinite diversity of life forms into which we may shape our lifeline.
I am not sure what my shape will be in the end, but I often feel like it's a whirl, spinning outward but circling around past experiences so that each round is an iteration inspired by the past. In this way, my growth looks like the center of a flower or seed pod. It would be nice to have my life turn into a seed pod so that the seeds I began will spread beyond my lifetime when I die.
For the last couple of years, well, maybe ½ a decade, time moves swiftly now; I have been slowly practicing and studying Tarot. I am a novice. Experts who are reading this, have mercy in your judgment of anything I may say in the following sentences. These past two weeks I have been investigating the Emperor and Empress, cards 3 and 4 of the major Arcana. I am particularly interested in the Emperor. The Emperor is a current teacher for me in relation to systems and boundaries.Â
A few highlights include:
The Emperor says no, so the Empress can say yes
The Emperor carefully regulates their resources with systems and governance
The Emperor watches over the form or container for creation and production
The Emperor is rational and not governed by emotion
As I understand the untamed creative Empress who is lavishly enjoying her nature, who is fecund and desirable, I see the Emperor as the protector of the land of the Empress. The Emperor represents society and our adopted ideas for "best," "optimum performance," "value," and "power." An instructor told me that the dark Emperor heralds the mono-crop, extraction, and exploitation for the most significant personal gain. They are not holistic and considerate of others outside their reign.Â
During my intensive training for my permaculture certification, I learned about permaculture principles inherent in indigenous land stewardship. I learned permaculture not only as a skill set for gardening but also as a framework for life and project design. One of the principles is companion planting and plant allyship. This is the truth that individual plants thrive in the company of certain other plants. Companion plants share their properties with one another and, in doing so, strengthen each other's unique attributes and growth. The Three Sisters (corn, beans, and squash) are a clear and typical example.
I have never been interested in growing one type of flower or a mono-crop, not in a garden and not in a career. However, school and work suggest that there are certain pre-selected plants that we each should dedicate our lives to stewarding (careers). We are asked to choose one thing and dedicate our lives to growing it by studying it and then serving it with most of the day's hours. This is life, they say. This makes sense to the dark Emperor we collectively follow. It doesn't make sense to me. Companion planting and edge zones make sense to me. (Edge zones are the edges of ecosystems where new relationships and life emerge)
My Emperor is not the dark Emperor and I have recently employed his archetype. He has helped me set up a watering schedule that allows my Empress to grow perennials and annuals as she desires. My current daily schedule recognizes yoga and ceramics as companion plants to being an Executive Director, painting aids ceramics, and journaling keeps my soil healthy. My Emperor and Empress have a partnership. A partnership of desire and structure.Â
Back to time, what I am learning is that certain plants in my Empress' garden do not flower every season, certain plants will never be the show stoppers because they are the companion plants to the showstoppers. There are certain plants that will only live for one season. Some of my plants were planted long ago and hardly grow externally each year, but meanwhile, their roots are tap roots, deepening year after year, seeking their wellspring, and lordy, watch out, they may become surprise wonders when they finally mature!
I am learning that my life is my garden, and each season and year, I can learn to care better for what I love that is growing. I can also rip up and root out what I don't want. My garden's value is not only measured in what it yields quantifiably for others but also in how it feels to tend to it daily. My garden is personal and best understood by me. My garden is a type of victory garden.
What is your gardening style, and what are you growing? What does the creative Empress in you want to sow, and how can the Emperor design systems of support? What shape do you want your lifeline to look: straight, narrow, curved, or looped? What bright annuals are you caring for this year? What perennials have matured? What are you weeding this year? What have you learned about time as you’ve tended and cultivated your tender seedlings? Perhaps you have a mature tree that feeds others and doesn’t ask for all the care that it once did?
Hi Dawn, I can’t join on 1/19 but open to discussing another date. Would like to invite a couple of friends but will need some deets.