How to train your dragon... playing card style!

This post was inspired by a reading by a fellow member of the Order of the Black Ace. One of the cards in his monthly spread was the 9♥, which is one of the most difficult cards in the deck. In the original Playing Card Oracles, it was called Gilles de Rais, and in the Doors of Somlipith, it's Bluebeard.

Just to give you an idea of how challenging this card is, some of its meanings in the original PCO book include: overwhelming emotion; extremes of behaviour; compulsiveness; fears and insecurities; suspicions / jealousy; flowing tears / sorrow; compassion; humanitarian love. In the Doors of Somlipith, its keyword is dragon! Eek!

Definitely not a walk in the park, right? And it's very easy to get trapped in the illusion that this card means either total wretchedness or total holiness – in fact, I recall analysing the 9♥ many years ago from this perspective. But recently, my understanding of this card has evolved a bit.

More than just a sign of hazard, I'm beginning to see the 9♥ as a call to emotional mastery. Without recognizing our own inner voracity (the dragon), we cannot transform naturally selfish instincts into altruistic love. So, the following text summarizes some of my conclusions about it.

I think the 9♥ is one of the hardest cards to unravel, because of the way we tend to be susceptible to emotions. I can't think of anything that could throw us off balance and make us act unpredictably as much as emotions. Perfectly rational people can become nigh unrecognisable in the grip of powerful emotions such as passion, rage, grief...

But to merely cut away this possibility of extreme would be to block the waters of life itself. If you ever want to see what a world without the possibility of emotion is like, I recommend watching the 2002 film Equilibrium, in which a totalitarian regime maintains peace by subduing the populace's emotions with a drug. It goes to the opposite extreme... and still fails to solve the 'human problem'.

What is the lesson of the 9♥, then? I think 'humanitarianism' is too vague a word, to be honest. I believe the challenge is to acknowledge inside ourselves the possibility of extremes. We can be the cure, but we can also be the disease. So, our best shot is to recognise where our inner waters might be getting dammed up, poisoned, murky, even violent. Check if there are external or internal forces feeding this state. And, if the pressure is too much, seek proper channels of release, so that the dam doesn't collapse suddenly one day.

I once wrote that I believe Gilles de Rais / Bluebeard is the "vengeful twin" of the K♥, Nicomiah. He often shows up when the heart is thwarted for too long, bursting forth as a tidal wave to set things 'right'... usually by going to the other extreme. The way to deal with this is to learn to dialogue with this inner dragon, so as not to allow it to react emotionally in our place.

The dragon doesn't need to be killed, or locked away, It needs to be trained. It needs to be taught that it is not the only force that has a say in our lives. And it needs to be listened to, because it knows where our worst blockages – and our most dangerous emotional blindspots – are.

The 9♥ is a powerful card, and I don't think we are ever done mastering its lessons!