The Ace of Swords
I mentioned previously, this blog contains the pages written for the Bonefire companion book, selected at random, taking the form of a daily pick. The deck, not asked for further comment, nor posed any questions in the light of said pick; merely to show me a preferred card to write of that day. Fair enough, that said, we are unable to see the natural procession each suit and some of my comments seem a tad incongruous, unclarified by context.
I mention this now as many of the suit of Swords were conceived extremely intuitively, the Ace was not one such card, something I refer to somewhat abstractly in the opening of the exposition of the Ace of Swords.
Disclaimer aside, I give you;
The Ace of Swords
The Bonefire Ace of Swords wastes no time in disproving my emphatic statement in the introduction to the suit regarding not 'actively' employing mind to design the Airy element. It was a relative latecomer to the party of completed canvas's. I deliberately left the remaining three aces -(after the changeable Ace of Wands) as artistic treats. When I finished an unappealing card and this could be thematic, a creative issue or even a card which cut to close to the bone, I had cards, stored as treats and they never listed horses or too many pentacles in their number.
For the Ace of Swords I desired a clean, uncomplicated image. Having decided to release all the Aces from the thrusty grips of the Rider-Waite deck; the sword is free to hover over the landscape. Pristine and unsullied, it proudly wears the crown, laurel and palm fronds; regal, it needs no owner to command it.
The Ace knows it's task; a fruit ninja, it slices cleanly and evenly though the apple, exposing the core of the issue. Resistance futile; one flash of the blade and all is revealed. We have reached the centre.
Bonefire Ace of Swords rules where intellect and thought are prized. Employ them right now above all else. There can be no space or time for anything more.
Beneath the Sword we find the other elements diminished, over-shadowed, but beginning to stir. The fire in the sunrise, warming the earth and awakening it's kin and loosening the watery emotions and intuition held tight, frozen in the snow-capped mountains, but they are slow to react where the Sword has acted reflexively and received it's answers.
In a reading we are implored to act swiftly and coldly, but warned, not in hast; without consideration of the consequences, such a weapon might do irreparable damage.
Divorced, as this sword is, from the environment above which it floats, it fails to notice let alone, make use of the love or intuition which might guide it towards a kind of wisdom. As such this suggests a kind of simple strength wielded righteously and lawfully.
The Bonefire Ace of Swords indicates; excessive, unbridled pride should be guarded against. The modern placing of love of intellect above all else. The dominion of modern man and his science over his own ancestral wisdom and that of the collective, natural history of the planet. The ego which tells you you are somehow superior and far above all you perceive is represented in the single, bright green eye which sits front and centre of the gold crown, holds you high and mighty in your universe. One is reminded that it was ever thus.
If your Sword of knowledge is too tightly held and too strongly thrust you will be left a 'chicken-head' when inevitably proved wrong. So remain open and fluid in your thought processes and be wary of allowing beliefs to become concrete, for whatever it is, that you hold dear and true will eventually become old fashioned, objectionable, conservative; ultimately open to ridicle and reduction to historical novelty.
The upshot; you are diminished and made irrelevant.
.....So there.
