Creative Prompts
Recently I’ve taken pleasure in exploring the stories and symbols behind the Tarot deck illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith.
With Covid doing its rounds again I’ve found myself holed-up in my apartment, enjoying this card in particular:
Jessica Dore writes about The Emperor in her book Tarot For Change. She writes that the card is often associated with grounding, like the four corners of a house or a table. She describes the power in stillness and invites us to consider our bodies a a house or table. A house “whose walls can stand still to witness many, many things, the joys and the terrors, with thick oak floors sturdy enough to bear the weight”. I love this invitation and used it as a prompt for my writing today. If you feel the call - and want to do the same - have fun with it and send me a message with your body-houses.
If I were to make my body into a house
I would start with the balcony
the part of me that extends into the outside world
not to forget the internal - but
to take pleasure in the part of me that dwells amongst others
that delights in open air and aesthetically pleasing space
the rooms are wide and open
tall ceilings filled with light
this house wants to invite the present
it will attempt not to dwell in time
at certain points, certain doors will stay shut
but always with the light glowing from underneath the rim
this house will creak and sigh
and all its pipes and workings will be complicated
and visible.
this house will be able to hold witness as the world walks by
others will be invited to step forward and paint
the walls and watch the candles flicker
this house will have a garden with sweet pees
this house will hold dreams
this house will be security
it will have nothing to do with markets or endless
ladders or incessant wanting
this house will have lime-green curtains and a warm
breeze, the smell of hot oil and peaches
and a bathroom with a tub
this house will have a blackbird that visits
its claw finger scooping up the black earth
and finding treasure.