by Mark Horn
Day 31: Tiferet of Hod in B’riah
The Six and Eight of Cups
_________within_________
One of the faces of Hod is Gratitude, and in today’s pairing in the suit of Cups, it seems that this middot, this virtue, is more on display in the Six of Cups, where the illustration can be read as a child receiving a gift. But the Eight of Cups is the card that corresponds to Hod. However, in that card, someone who seems to be the recipient of many gifts is turning away from them. So what’s going on here? Since I’m Jewish, let me do the traditional thing and answer this question with another question: Have you ever watched a very young child at play? There’s no need for video games or screens, or even objects that are labeled as “toys.” Children can find the wonderful and miraculous almost everywhere. And they can make anything into something to play with. At least until they (we) grow up.
We go from easily amused to easily bored. We need ever more things to distract us. And we lose our sense of Gratitude and wonder. That’s the story I see in the pairing of these cards. The seeker in the Eight of Cups is leaving those gifts behind in search of a lost sense of the appreciation of Glory or, as the daily liturgy puts it, the “miracles which are with us daily.”
In modern Hebrew, the word for “miracle” is nes, which in biblical Hebrew, meant “a banner or flag that points the way.” Most of the time when the word miracle is used, it refers to something big and powerful that stops us, gets our attention: it’s something that seems to defy the laws of nature, like a burning bush, for example. But the prayer in the liturgy is about (re-) awakening us to everyday miracles. And this is one of the messages of today’s pairing in the suit of Cups—to reawaken our sense of Gratitude for these everyday miracles. Because they are the garments of the Divine, they are signs pointing to the transcendence that is always available in the immanent. Rabbi Nat Ezray suggests that we make the awareness of nes a regular spiritual practice. And that “at a time when we might be so consumed with the daily news that we lose perspective,” we can restore balance to our lives by paying attention and by living in Gratitude for the daily nes.15
You don’t necessarily have to go off on a retreat and leave the daily world behind like the figure in the Eight of Cups to regain an appreciation for the daily miraculous. Simply sit quietly and bring your attention to the beauty that surrounds you. It can be anything—even something that is not conventionally beautiful. Wait quietly: the very nature of the Divine is to reveal itself in all its Divine ecstasy.
Day 31: Tiferet of Hod in Yetzirah
The Six and Eight of Swords
_________within_________
These two cards together make for a somber scene. The Six of Swords is one of the seven cards examined in this book where the faces of the figures in the cards are not visible. (There are several other cards with some faces visible and others turned away.) And in the Eight of Swords, while we can see some of the face of the bound woman, her eyes are covered so that she can’t see others. In the version of the deck I’m using, the background landscape in both cards is also grey. A hushed silence seems to pervade both scenes.
If any two cards show the psychological scars of oppression, these two would be at the top of my list. Yes, the Six of Swords has the “Compassionate ferryman” taking the two figures away from danger. But they carry their psychic wounds with them, weighing down the boat. And I don’t think of this vehicle so much as a boat, but rather that it represents the many escape routes of peoples throughout history. The Underground Railroad. The Kindertransport.
I lived for a short time in North Carolina in the mid seventies. Before moving there for graduate school, I had dated several African-American men in New York City. Though I knew that they faced challenges I did not, I was young and naïve: I did not notice them holding back anything of who they were when we were together. I would sometimes witness the daily indignities they dealt with; for instance, whenever we wanted to take a taxi, I would stand in the street to hail it, and my friend would stand back, his body language indicating we were not in any way connected. Only after the cab had stopped and I had opened the door would he step forward and move to join me. If he had been the one to try to hail a cab, not a one would have stopped. I knew how real estate agents and developers conspired to keep African-Americans in certain neighborhoods that bankers redlined for mortgages. But in North Carolina, it was another world entirely. There was no one in the gay group on campus who wasn’t white. (Not to mention that it was also almost 100 percent Christian.) The local gay bar was segregated: not that African-Americans weren’t allowed in, it’s just that there was no mingling or socializing between the groups. The only black people I met and spoke with were the people I worked with.
When I first arrived on campus, to help pay for my expenses, since my student loans didn’t cover everything, I got a job at the college cafeteria. Almost all the employees were black. The management was completely white. And for the first time, I saw the dynamic of cultural and linguistic “code-shifting” between the races.
When management was around in the kitchen or when the employees had to interact with students as they moved along the food line, I realized the language of these employees of color was subservient in a way that went beyond providing service. They kept their eyes down and did not meet the gaze of those they were serving. They kept their voices down and spoke softly, with deference. This was also how they treated me for the most part. Except because I worked with them in the kitchen, I also saw how they interacted with each other when management wasn’t on top of us. That was when I began to get a sense of who each one of these people was as a real individual. They code-shifted out of the language of the oppressed to the language of equals in a shared culture. It was a revelation. And I knew that this was a world and a culture I had never seen. These people were not at the march on Washington in 1963. These were oppressed people trying to live their everyday lives without bringing down further violence into their community.
Someone with no social awareness might mistake their deferential attitude as Humility. In a way you could say it was: it’s the enforced Humility that’s on display in the Eight of Swords. It’s the inauthentic Humility of people robbed of their dignity.
I experienced this once again when I visited India. While there, I met a man who was eager to befriend me. He was also extremely deferential, and at one point, he expressly and directly said that he believed India would be a better place if the British still ran it. The British had been gone for more than forty years, but the psychic scars of colonialism still affected people in many more ways than this. I bring up this particular example because it’s relevant to the pattern I see in these two cards.
Today this enforced, false Humility is under attack like never before. While it was extreme enough for me to see in North Carolina, that doesn’t mean it didn’t exist in New York back then—or now. Except that today more and more people of color are owning their dignity and demanding equal respect. And to many white people, that feels like a threat.
One of the meanings of the Eight of Swords is being blinded by one’s preconceptions and biases, so that today this card manages to be relevant on both sides of the issue at hand: enforced, false Humility and blindness to internalized racism. Not merely blindness, because the result imprisons and impoverishes us all.
May we all be free of our biases, conscious and unconscious. May we all live in dignity and with a Balanced Humility that allows room for others to live in dignity as well.
Day 31: Tiferet of Hod in Assiyah
The Six and Eight of Pentacles
_________within_________
Compassion in Humility calls for an outward movement of the soul. So while Humility is a pulling in to allow space for others, Compassion in Humility expresses itself in an outward flow of feeling of empathy for others. There is no room for judgment here. There is no room for pride.
Now, you might say, wait a minute, the merchant in the Six of Pentacles is clearly making a ju
dgment; after all, he does hold a set of scales. But this is not negative judgment; he is making a determination of what is the appropriate response. This is the Balance of Compassion that is Tiferet.
In the Eight of Pentacles, we have our workman, who knows that he is working not only for himself and not only for his family but also for others whom he will share with. He knows there is a spiritual component to the physical work that he does. Just as much as his craft gives him the satisfaction of work well done, the Compassionate sharing of the rewards of his craft also opens his Heart to Beauty and Truth. His Humility means there is space in his Heart for Compassion. And by expressing his Compassionate Open Heart, he engenders greater Humility.
Truly, the virtues on display in these two cards give each other strength. And as you continue this practice of Counting the Omer, you have a chance every day to practice and enhance these virtues. Today you have the opportunity to examine whether your Humility causes you to pull in so much that you seem or actually become antisocial. Don’t make the mistake of using Humility to be self-contained. For while Humility does require you to pull in to make space, it’s not about withdrawing. Compassion helps Balance this motion. And the focus of the figures in the two cards shows this. Not only is Tiferet itself about Balance, but in relationship with Hod, they both form a Balance of inward and outward movement. So by practicing Compassion, you will activate your Humility. And by practicing Humility, you will activate your Compassion. And that’s part of the Beauty of the Tree: touch one of the Sephirot and you touch them all.
Questions for reflection and contemplation: Day 31
1. (Wands) Think of someone you know in a leadership position who exemplifies Balance in Humility: it can be a world leader or a teacher you had when you were growing up. What is it about that person that demonstrates this quality in action? How might you bring more of that quality into your life?
2. (Cups) As you go through your day today, try to be aware of all the little miracles and say an inner prayer of Gratitude and Appreciation for each one. Such a prayer doesn’t need to be any more complicated than “thank You for this blessing.” At the end of the day, review your experience during the day: Is there anything you missed expressing Appreciation for? If so, express that Appreciation in a prayer just before bed. Notice any times when you felt resistance to this practice or when you felt there was something that did not warrant Gratitude or Appreciation. See if you can peel away the outer shell to find something within that calls forth your Appreciation.
3. (Swords) See if you can think of examples in your life when you have been witness to the Humility of the oppressed. You might not have recognized it as such at the time, but looking back with new awareness, you might discover times when you saw people express a mask of deference to others that was more an expression of a power imbalance than true Humility. When have you worn this mask yourself? How did it make you feel?
4. (Pentacles) Find an action you can take that will express the Compassion in Humility, something that will work to activate both Sephirot within you, and take that action within the week.
Day 32: Netzach of Hod
Finding Endurance in Humility Is Finding Victory in Humility
Today is the thirty-second day of the Omer, which is four weeks and four days of the Omer.
When I think of Endurance in Humility, I think of the steel within the nonviolent resistance of Mahatma Gandhi, who equated the ability to stand up in civil disobedience with the capacity to hold unlimited suffering.16 It was Gandhi’s teachings that inspired Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to train people in the practice of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience during the struggle for civil rights in the United States in the 1960s. And those of us who lived through that period witnessed this suffering as the Endurance in Humility of these brave protesters was tested throughout the South. You can see the horror of these images on YouTube today—police using attack dogs and fire hoses to disperse protesting schoolchildren, police on horseback trampling adult protesters, cracking skulls with nightsticks.
Then there was the bombing of a church during Sunday school classes. Four young girls were killed, and twenty-three others were wounded. Can you imagine how the protesters felt? How many wanted to stop turning the other cheek? How many wanted to fight back? Do you remember Dylann Roof, the young mass murderer who continued this reign of terror forty years later by entering a church in Charleston, South Carolina, and killed nine people in 2015? Do you remember the response by members of the church? It wasn’t a violent response. It was a response of forgiveness and sadness. I can’t rise to that response: the murder of eleven worshippers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2018 had me considering learning to shoot. I am not a pacifist.
Perhaps you’re thinking that I’ve spent a lot of time writing about racism and the civil rights movement in our country in a book on tarot and Kabbalah. But this is one of the great moral issues that every one of us in this country must face, both as a society and as individuals. Part of my path is the ongoing struggle to wake up from my own unconscious racism, to see how systemic racism works in the world around me and then work to help end it. For me this is a spiritual issue, the spiritual practice of seeing all people as b’tzelem Elohim. And the heart of the Omer practice challenges us to be involved as best we can. That’s why Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was in Selma, Alabama, marching with Rev. King. And it’s why Hillel’s words from two thousand years ago still challenge us today: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”17
Today, as we are tested by renewed attacks on the fundamental spiritual truth that we are all made in the Divine image, we are called to live that truth without self-righteousness but with Humility. Gandhi taught us that civil disobedience required discipline, care, and attention and that standing up to evil was as essential as working to do good. For Gandhi, one can only practice nonviolent action when the heart and mind are in synch; together, they lead the way of truth and love, which always win. Tyrants may seem invincible, but they always fall in the end.18
Gandhi lived with great Humility, yet not without dignity, strength, and courage. Humility isn’t a doormat. And Gandhi was clear that his practice of nonviolent civil disobedience requires discipline in order to Endure in the face of suffering. Gandhi found the Endurance in Humility. And that led to his Victory in Humility.
Day 32: Netzach of Hod in Atzilut
The Seven and Eight of Wands
_________within_________
Here we are in the middle of the week of Humility, and we have the interesting pair of the Seven and Eight of Wands. I’ve said quite often that Humility doesn’t mean being a doormat. And here the cards bear that out: Humility has great strength within it. Humility does not mean refraining from action. On the contrary, it is meant to be a strength. Claiming humility as an excuse for inaction is an evasion of responsibility.19
As you can see, there is no inaction going on in the Seven of Wands; rather, there is vigorous action in play. Because we’re in the suit of Wands and the world of Atzilut, we can consider this an action in the service of ideas and creativity. And looking over the key words that connect to these Sephirot, a good way of looking at this pairing is as the Determination in Inspiration. As soon as I think of these cards this way, the words of the great American inventor Thomas Edison come to mind: “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” But there’s more to these words than is usually quoted; he introduced this sentence by saying, “None of my inventions came by accident. I see a worthwhile need to be met and I make trial after trial until it comes.”20
Just how many trials did Edison make before finding the right filament for the electric light bulb to work? By his own report, he tried more than six thousand different materials before succeeding. Now, that’s Determination, Persistence, and Perseverance. He knew the strength of the original idea, and he didn’t let ongoing failure stop him. Even more importantl
y, after this success, he kept going on to invent more things. Because Humility means there’s always room for more Inspiration. Many people think creativity is a well that can run dry. But the Source of all Creation is active in every moment, and by doing this spiritual work, we can tap into this endless font of Inspiration. Indeed, authentic Humility can be a conduit to great accomplishment.
Day 32: Netzach of Hod in B’riah
The Seven and Eight of Cups
_________within_________
Today, in the suit of Wands, I wrote about the Determination in Inspiration for Netzach of Hod. And here in the suit of Cups, we can see the very same Sephirotic pair in a negative dynamic. Instead of Determination or Persistence, in the Seven of Cups, we have a lack of focus. So in the Eight of Cups, instead of waiting for Inspiration, we see someone who has given up too easily and abandoned the work.
This could reflect someone whose Determination and Drive are based on a fantasy, so that when faced with reality that person is willing to walk away in search of a new fantasy to chase. I’ve seen this dynamic too often in the world of relationship. There are people who have a fantasy ideal of a partner, with an impossibly long shopping list of qualities to be checked off, and when someone doesn’t meet up with this fantasy, the person is off in search of the next possible partner. Rather than approaching relationship from a place of Humility and a commitment to deeply listen to the other, these people are only thinking about what they think they want, so that they miss the totality of the person in front of them. This dynamic has only become more widespread with the advent of mobile dating apps.
I’ve also seen this dynamic at work in people who say they want to be famous singer-songwriters, authors, or actors. They imagine the rewards without actually sitting down to do the daily work (which is not always creative work—for example, applying for grants, networking, etc.) that leads to success. And in the end, their dreams remain empty and unfulfilled; then they blame the “system” for their failure rather than the fact that they haven’t done the work. And they walk away from their dreams embittered by their experience.
