Cosmic Tribe Tarot
XIV - ART
Cosmic eye sees sparks crackling. Art is afoot on the globe. The creative virus spreads as planned. Visions erupt with desires as primal as hunger.
They demand expression. More sparks, ever more crackling. Art begets art begets the rainbow we create when connecting our hearts to the all.
Art is the harmony that results from the unity of opposites. It is the explanation of mysteries like "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts," that surrounds us as artists. Through each creation the cosmos reveals a little more about itself. Art then is one of the primary purposes of the human experiment that also gives our lives meaning and depth. Art flowers, art bridges, and ultimately art understands the intimate complexity of our experience. In the card, the alchemical combination of fire and water is the dominant metaphor for the unity of opposites. Water and fire are poured into a golden cauldron there combining to form the crackling sparks of creativity. An eagle-headed figure, symbol of water, and a lion-headed figure, symbol of fire, support and guard the cauldron. Their colors are inverted with the eagle assuming a fiery orange and the lion assuming a watery blue. The cauldron they support on their backs represents the mind/body locus of creativity. It combines the eyes of the eagle with the mouth of the lion. Below them a fire floats on a whirlpool of water providing an undulating steam which serves as energy-source and inspiration for the creativity happening within. At the top of the card, fire crackles while at the bottom, water swirls. Water symbolizes the pure feelings of the creative process: aliveness, excitement, fulfillment and joy blended with frustration and doubt. Water is the motherly love we pour into our art, the psychological safespace we create letting art happen. Fire, on the other hand, is the spark of inspiration; the illuminating visit by the muse. Fire conjures all of the ideas you have ever come across and recombines them in the creative process. But fire can boil water away, and water can douse fire. Alchemy means working through the apparent opposition of elements to achieve a new meaning by blending the right proportions at the crucial times to produce what the universe is waiting for. The card pictures the product of this alchemy as a resplendent rainbow being dancing in the cauldron. The rainbow being personifies the Art in each of us. But in a circular mystery represented by the rainbow ring around him, the rainbow being also conjures the elements to be unified. He both creates and is created by the artistic process. The rainbow being has an ephemeral lifeglow. His existence is tenuous and requires his full concentration. When the inputs and timing are altered even slightly, he reverts to a regular being.
