This Weeks Card is the V of Wands. Melanie has depicted two men struggling with quarter staffs. The men are scarcely dressed and look like national geographic representations of "natives". At first glace, the card seems fairly positive. Although a person can certainly have his noggin busted open by a quarter staff. The staff is generally considered a basically non-lethal weapon. The loser will take his lumps, the winner will demonstrate he is top dog, and the issue between them will be decided. This is an image of Manly conduct my father would very much have approved of in his day.

Observe closely though the figure on the right. The tree behind him is in flames. The dimness of the card now reveals itself to be the smoke from those flames. Now suddenly the card is different, what story comes to mind when we view this card. Is the man in the mask protecting the fire, keeping the other man from putting it out, so he can raise crops on the razed ground. Is he trying to drive the other man off, so he can put out the fire himself. Or, are they both so caught up in their own dispute that neither is aware of the threat to both their lives erupting behind the man in the mask.

The faces of both figures are hidden from us, we are behind the one, and the other wears a mask. In this way Mel dehumanizes both characters. Giving us nothing to latch onto, and at some sub conscious level say to ourselves that's my boy. Just as old Hollywood Directors dressed Villains in Black hats, and the Lone Ranger in White, to play on the unconscious assumptions of the audience of the day. In those days, the conflicts where as starkly black and white as the dress of the actors. Good was good, and the bad guys where bad. Since Vietnam however our vision of the world has changed. As a Nation we learned that the world could be so very complex. That those we trusted with the blood and treasure of our Nation, could become as blind as the man fighting, with a fire to his back.

That's one of the prices of conflict. Winning can become as more important than what you set out to win in the first place. Peace has been so elusive, in so many places in the world. Palestine, and Ireland of course come to mind. They are well publicized in the West. Angola, and Afghanistan have seen wars that lasted an entire generation, and to the best of my knowledge the fighting in Angola goes on. Why, In part I think its just this, you can take almost anything from a man, but not his purpose. To a man, whose purpose and identity have become wrapped up in a struggle, in a cause, peace is not welcome. Even victory has its price, because without the war, what then, after the celebration, what is such a man to do with his life.

By the feet of the man on the right, what is the dog. I think it is meant to by a Coyote, Melanie includes the Coyote as a totem animal for the wands suit: A totem of the Trickster. The mouse is a totem of attention to detail. Together they echo the line of thought we have been following today. The men are so focused on the detail of their struggle they do not see the bigger picture, the fire, around them. And the Trickster: The Trickster is always there, the lies we tell ourselves to justify our conflicts. Not just the big lies of governments, but the little lies of our own little conflicts.

Its so hard to see clearly when you feel you have been wronged. Human affairs are about boundaries, and when someone crosses those boundaries, we want to strike out at them. Someone steals from us, lies to us, or rapes a woman in our life, suddenly the All Men are Brothers rhetoric falls on deaf ears. Conflict is part of our nature, and I am no pacifist myself. What is vitally important, is to be careful about the conflicts you engage in, or chose to support. Once a cycle of violence is begun, their is no saying when it will burn itself out. My wife's family is of Irish decent, for twenty years I've been exposed to that history, and that struggle. I hope they have achieved peace there, but I think history will need more time to truly judge that issue.

Divination: Strife, Opposition, Lack of Satifaction, Obstacles to overcome. Agitation.

Reversed: Complexity, Employ Caution is ones decisions, Excessive competition, Trickery.