It would have been so easy to be instantly angry.

The information I had decided was true left me feeling betrayed
wronged
taken advantage of.
My first instinct was to rage and rail and rant,
taking my frustrations out on a world which was going about its day,
unaware of the wrath about to be wrought upon it.

And then I stopped for a moment,
Seeking something resembling clarity before
my wroth wreaked havoc.
As wroth is known to do.

And lo and behold,
I beheld my low opinion of the information I believed to be true
was in fact,
lacking in fact.
Not to be trusted.
My initial impression of an unjust scenario
Was not only just
But of my own making.

Truth is held to bear
on an edge
where it teeters prettily,
never fearing the fall.
It has been honed to accuracy
by no fault of its own,
merely by being itself.

The clamorous din
tends to err on the side of things mistaken for truth.
Whereby an insistence of rationality
is discovered to be suspect
in light of what you know to be
versus what you will to be.
( Or not. )

~~~~~

About halfway through this I realized I should have been writing in iambic pentameter, because tip of the hat, but I didn’t and here we are. Today’s deck, The Shakespeare Oracle by A. Bronwyn Llewellyn is much loved. I am such a fan of Shakespeare and came across this deck being sold by someone who had never opened it, much less used it. But not all things are for all people and I was happy enough to get it. I wish I could use it more. The cards are massive, so nearly impossible to shuffle comfortably. I do appreciate the quotes that go with the minor arcana, and find the character choices to be very on point. It does help to have a base knowledge either of the characters or the cards, but there is a book which has been lovingly crafted to accompany. If the cards were smaller, this could be one of my most used decks, not just for reading, but for creating a contemporary connection to how relevant I find Shakespeare to be. Considering this deck exists, it seems I’m not the only one.

Using Viola as the Lady of Quills (swords) is especially inspired because it represents a youthful sort of archeteype most often referred to as Page, though I’ve seen Princess, Daughter, Hija. However, within the story of Twelfth Night, Viola, a literal Lady, dresses as the brother she lost during a shipwreck to become a literal Page for Duke Orsino. Page of swords is idealistic, hopeful in spite of the pain that swords embodies. Swords also mean anything to do with the mind, and learning things can cause all kinds of hurt. Ultimately her integrity remains intact and she never takes advantage of her position, though some of that could be attributed to her feeling unable to be in a position to affect change, carried by the currents as she seems to be. In many instances, there is little we can do to resist the flow of things, and it’s best to enjoy the ride as much as is possible.