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  2020-09-06

  Karmic Retribution

  On September 6, 2020, I drove down to Boulder, Colorado to spend the day with a close friend of mine. Wildfires had been raging across the state of Colorado for a few weeks and this day, the reality of the natural disasters was especially apparent. The entire Front Range was shrouded in grey fog of smoke. A bright red sun loomed overhead as ash gently pirouetted down from the sky. The air was thick with the stench of burning forests. And it was hot. It was like something out of a movie. Apocalyptic. Ominous. Foretelling some impending doom. My friend and I started our day with a walk down by the Boulder Creek. It was unusually crowded that day and a majority of the park-goers were not wearing facial coverings. Masks were (and still are) mandatory in busy public places and my friend and I were definitely shocked to see a lack of responsibility among what we thought was a community of informed progressives. We chose to wear our masks, not necessarily because of COVID etiquette, but more so because we were worried about breathing in all the smoke and ash in the air. You could smell the smoke. You could see the smoke. And it was clear to us that we also ran the risk of breathing it in. We never checked the air quality index to verify if the air quality was indeed poor, but we didn’t have to. We both had itchy eyes and scratchy throats and that was evidence enough to wear our masks if we were going to be outside. We made our way around the area, trying to find a place to sit and relax. We passed through a tunnel that ran underneath the road. Spray painted on its walls, in red paint, was “Chief Niwot’s Curse” and “Stolen Landz.” My friend and I both took pictures of the graffiti because it “spoke” to us in a way that art or a well-timed coincidence often does. Our country was birthed in blood and forged in violence. This got us thinking about how the United States might quite literally be “cursed,” so long as Americans collectively refuse to acknowledge that fact that we stole the land from Native Americans. My friend and I found a picnic table and immediately pulled out a Tarot deck to do a reading. Whether or not divination is an accurate reflection of reality, does not matter. The subjective interpretation of a story, (and the symbols therein,) is subjectively real. It’s also fun. And sometimes, it’s scarily accurate. My friend and I brainstormed a theme for our reading and concluded on “the story of 2020.” We shuffled the deck a few times. And then drew. The first two cards we drew at random were Temperance and the Tower, both of which are Major Arcana cards. We interpret the Major Arcana cards as the narrative archetypes, or overarching themes, for our reading. So, in this reading, the overarching themes for 2020 were Temperance and the Tower. According to Golden Art Nouveau Tarot’s explanation, the Temperance card displays “An angel performing a mystical rite to restore spiritual harmony, pouring water from one cup to another.” The Tower card depicts, “A blast from the heavens” that “destroys a tower that seemed unconquerable, its magnificent crown-like dome tumbling to the ground. Two people fall helplessly from the heights. The tower was built with such a forbidding design that it imprisoned them in their own creation, with no easy exit.” Golden Art Nouveau Tarot continues, “Seek liberation on your own, or the universe may give it to you in unexpected ways.” My friend and I saw these cards and immediately locked eyes, sharing a mutual astonishment. Amidst the tumult of 2020 – a global pandemic that changed the way humans socially-interact and go about their daily lives, an urgent call for civil rights, widespread systemic frustration, climate change fueling natural disasters, ideological warfare fueled by misinformation and social media addiction – the themes of destruction and spiritual renewal seemed to bear an eerie resemblance to everything going on in the world. We then drew the King of Cups. The King of Cups “is a steady presence in a turbulent sea.” He is kind, peaceful, keeps his emotions in check, and offers comforting strength in times of trouble. As a king, he is who the people look to for guidance. My friend and I interpreted this as the need to practice detached compassion in order to navigate the waters of 2020. With an upcoming election, the United States is more divided than ever. That division could easily lead people to “drown” in their emotions and “wash away” their civility. The rest of the cards we drew were wands, representing the element of fire. Spiritually, fire is connected with creative energy, action, willpower and ambition. As our home literally “burned” before our eyes, my friend and I thought about the desire for change that seemed to be “fueling” transformation. After our Tarot reading, my friend and I drove up into the mountains. We noticed some Tibetan prayer flags flapping in the wind and pulled over to take a closer look. At a higher elevation, it was even easier to see the smoke settling down below in Boulder Canyon, enveloping the land in this impenetrable haze. We were on top of the world and had a “clear” view of everything. *Photographs taken in Boulder, Colorado boulder, colorado, wildfire, global warming, climate change, destruction, stolen land, chief niwots curse, karma, karmic retribution, cause and effect, tarot, spirituality, intuition, perception, logic, past, present, future