Welcome to my contribution to the Yule/Winter Solstice Tarot Blog Hop. Our wrangler has instructed us to “to go back to the Dark Side of the Winter Solstice” and reveal “a useful message from the Dark or Hidden realm of life. I’ve been a little loose in my interpretation of this directive and chosen to focus on light in the darkness.
I’ve had this image in mind for the Ace of Staves a long time, but the long summer days are not the right time to photograph such things. To be honest, this is a bit of a last minute rush job for the purposes of this Blog Hop and I plan to re-photograph the image, but for the moment, here it is:
I thought that a match flaring into life was the perfect representation of this card – the beginning of fire.
Thinking about the image in context of this blog theme and the time of year, brought to mind Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tale, The Little Match Girl. It’s rather a sad tale, as many original, un-Disney-fied fairy tales are, but it highlights our relationship with light. Darkness is perceived as cold and something to be feared. whereas light is warmth and hope, even more so if fire is involved. Sometimes all it takes to bring us out of the dark is the light and warmth from a single match, and with it perhaps a glimpse of something more hopeful.
So many people struggle at Christmas, for many reasons, so my (uncharacteristically serious) message from the Dark Side is: Strike a Light, just a small one will do, and see if you can bring a little warmth and put a smile on someone’s face this holiday. Smile at a stranger, take a mince pie round to your neighbour, give your local dog rescue some treats (dogs can smile too, you know), buy the little girl’s matches and maybe save her life. Make a small gesture of light and see what difference it makes.
Wishing you love and light for your Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate) and a very Happy New Year 🙂
I hope you enjoy your journey around the rest of the Blog Hop:
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What a great image for the Ace of Wands/Staves…I love it.
Beautifully put. Thank you. I shall strike a light.
We are just hitting our long summer days here and the fire in that image really does represent my feelings right now. I think I almost sit at the opposite end wishing for just a little bit of darkness right about now! I like how this card also implies balance, as much as there is the fire and the brightness of that, in order to see the light, it sometimes has to be illuminated by the darkness.
This is so beautiful, Ania. And inspiring!
Thanks, Ania. Great image for the Ace of Staves, for one, and an important message for all of us. Interesting that of course the best context for photographing a flaring match is total darkness. We seem to need both whether we like them both equally or not.
Yes, indeed. There was much scrabbling about in the dark for this one 😀
Just thinking of the little match girl makes me cry… thank you for reminding me that not everyone is as fortunate as we are!
Yes, I’m always a little surprised when people refer to “a fairytale ending”, because very few of the characters “live happily ever after”.
There is a motto some place…”light up your corner”, encouraging each of us to share our small bit of illumination in our daily life. Doing so will collectively dispel the darkness of the world. It is great to set intentions, best to make them real…thank you for sharing in this hop the encouragement to give and be a light in so many simple ways with profound effects! <3