If you were reading this blog almost exactly a year ago, you’ll remember a little ditty entitled “The Devil is in the Details,” a look at how the infamous and frequently reviled Aleister Crowley changed the face of tarot cards, literally and esoterically, by including a one word mnemonic on each of the minor arcana, or trump, cards.
I’m returning to the subject of the tarot as a means of explaining how “The Bite“ will be evolving or, more accurately, devolving in the future.
As I noted in the “Devil” post, Crowley did novice tarot readers like myself (who, I’m sorry to say, will always retain the status of rank amateur) a great service by adding those mnemonics on the four suits of the minor trump cards. The majors, though, are a whole ‘nother kettle of fish.
Crowley himself wrote, “my tarot is not your tarot,” meaning that everyone will experience the cards in a different way. For instance, when a major card like “Temperance” or “Justice” shows up in one of my puny, six-card readings, I have a pretty good idea of the current situation or possible outcome, depending on the position of the card. However, I am still stumped by “The Hierophant,” and even close observation of the events that this card heralds hasn’t clued me in to what the Pope-based figure is trying to teach me.
But there’s one card that even non-tarot readers can immediately relate to and that’s The Wheel of Fortune (thanks Vanna!).
An important element in this card is the legend, “Regnabo, Regno, Regnavi, Sim sine regno,” translated as, “I shall reign, I reign, I reigned, I have no reign.” If you go clockwise around the Wheel beginning at the nine o’clock position, you can easily see how this translation plays itself out. Another Latin adage works just as well: “Sic transit gloria mundi” – All glory is fleeting.
As I’ve previously noted a time or two, I lost my full-time job a few years back, “lost” being a euphemism for getting kicked to the curb like millions of other Americans during our seemingly never-ending Great Recession. I’ve managed to keep the lights turned on and food on the table thanks to unemployment benefits, freelance work and my own native frugality. However, the benefits ran out in late March of last year, freelance is a rather sketchy business and even the best belt tightener starts running out of notches.
I definitely hit the “Sim sine regno,” or bottom, of the Wheel a couple of months ago when I took a seasonal, part-time position at a national toy store chain to earn a meager yet dependable source of income. All I’ll say about that little adventure is, I now know what it’s like to work for a manager who’s a 21st century version of Jeff Spicoli.
Just as that crazy gig was coming to an end, a good friend of mine gave me a heads up about a part-time position at her company. Within a week, she not only got me in the door for an interview, but the job was offered and gladly accepted by yours truly. Between this solid, thirty hours a week and my freelance work, I’m might actually be able to thrive instead of merely survive.
However, the one thing I won’t have a lot to spend is time, especially on this blog. As I’ve written before, “The Bite” has brought me great joy (and a convenient soap box for my personal pet peeves) but the god Mammon must be appeased as do the minor deities of the mortgage, electric and insurance companies.
I’m hoping I’ll still be able to write the occasional screed but, until I see how my back-to-the-workplace schedule plays itself out, “The Bite” will more than likely take a permanent hiatus from its weekly, TGIF posting.
As I take a turn on what I hope will be the “Regnabo” side of the Wheel, I’m counting my good fortune in having friends who watch my back and in the readers who have kept “The Bite” on their reading radar for the past 14 months.
Long may you all “regno”!
