
When 2019 was ending someone lent me the book Prosperity by Charles Fillmore. I took it from the shelf this week. In the middle of the volume I found this passage:
" Whatever you form in the mind and have faith in will become substantial. Then you should be on guard as regards (to) what you put your faith in. If it is material forms, shadows that cease to be as soon as your supporting thought is withdrawn from them, you are building temporary substance that will pass away and leave you nothing." (p. 106)
At first it struck me as similar to that of a puritanical notion that striving for anything material/physical is futile and wrong. I wanted to treat the words as an oracle of the day. But my discomfort and curiosity compelled me to ask more. It took a li'l longer to connect the dots with the cards. But as usual when that AHA! moment comes, it's just amuzing (amusing + amazing ! haha).
Mr Enthusiastic, Page of Wands admires his newfound handsome thing, that thing that he's going for, looks at it with glassy eyes. He holds it up away from his body like a finished creation. Perhaps wishing for others to see how awesome it is and how cool he looks with it. Giving us a representation of the human capriciousness, the need for novelty, and the need for approval. These are shadows that cease to be when "supporting thoughts" are withdrawn. The reversal emphasizes the immaturity and fragility of his desire. Or else a disillusionment from worldly affairs signaling a detour to spirituality.
Mr Dedicated, Eight of Pentacles shows us another way. Not by vilifying the material world but by knowing it intimately. Hunched on his pentacle in pure focus without care if anyone should be around to admire, he labors with commitment and does not stop to count how many has he finished or what else is out there. Here, he is building a substance that do not seem to leave him as they stay up securely placed on a foundation. (Without a supporting thought).
The card combination shows a great example of the "as within so without" rule in regards to prosperity. For no matter how many promising wands come our way, without that which cannot be taken from us, we are bound to go from one shiny thing after another. A "temporary substance" that leaves us nothing in the end.
Interestingly, it reminds us that a good foundation is built not by merely guarding our faiths but more so through work. Work requires grounding the desired with intention and focus. (Again, the intimate knowing.) And in the process, the man discovers how and where he must put his faith in.
Long ago, I've read a quotation that goes something like: It's not about what you get after reaching your goals but what you become while reaching them.
Now, that is something you can put your faith in!
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