Peacemaking and the Möbius of Becoming

Before we start anything else, I invite you to take a close look at the beautiful new version of my cards. The purple is much deeper and the Möbius is now a visible part of the Peacemaker Tarot Major Arcana cards. They make my heart flutter! I’m just that proud of them. Part of the remake was giving myself the opportunity to go through and capture any little mistakes that were overlooked in the first printing. Additionally, as I read, it has become clearer to me that my cards focus on the communal rather than the individual. That means that the summer’s rewrite changed the cards’ emphasis from you to we.

Continuing to use Peacemaker’s Tarot Major Arcana in readings deepens their meanings for me. Thus, the deeper purple is not simply reflective of my deepening understanding of the cards’ messages, it also celebrates my trust of my cards as a valid way to explore Life’s questions.

As I work with the deck, the importance of the Möbius’ linking the side panels to the card’s central meaning continues to be revealed. A Möbius is a two-dimensional, one-sided surface with one continuous edge. What made this perfect as a symbol for my cards is that you can travel along this surface in two directions. In an effort to better understand the deck, I am writing multiple poems for each of the cards which will eventually become a book. As I write, other connections are being made for me.

In June I wrote about a Möbius connecting 0–Innocence and XXI–Wisdom. Now I’m discovering that the dyad of I–Learning and II–Purpose creates a Möbius of Becoming. I–Learning examines how we think — basically looking at how we balance art and science in our thinking and acting. How does information come to us, and do we organize it best in Story (Art) or Science (Fact)? Obviously, each one of us has our own gifts in both regions. And no matter what our learning style is, we’re going to have interests in different topics. Learning helps us to contemplate our gifts here. And in card II–Purpose we explore whether our gifts focus on working to heal the world or to celebrate it. Just as each card and activity has its own Möbius, the two cards, I and II, are connected. The more we study the individual cards and determine our interests and their applications in the world, the more opportunities we have to know ourselves and to explore our interests. It is in this exploration and learning that we become ourselves. It’s really very exciting.

I was just talking to my 10-year-old nephew. He likes math – for him, not quite so much for his Auntie – math is reliable. It makes sense. Right now, his interest is in figuring out how to do equations more quickly. I’m deciding how I balance my interest in both fact and story — discovery interests me because individual facts can astronomically change the story. New technologies are leading to new ways of knowing. New ways of knowing lead to new ways of wondering — and new subjects to wonder about. Of course, I work in both.

The II–Purpose card – Celebration and Healing – is my card. This is where I do my work, whether I’m doing spiritual exploration, reading cards, performing rituals, visiting patients or writing my Substacks for you. I express what I admire and learn in story and poem — and in Tarot cards!

Few people are either completely one or the other direction of these Möbiuses. We all are engaged in the complicated dance of each Möbius. There will be elements of these cards where we have greater affinities. All of us will also be curious about the gifts the other cards introduce — and it is through that curiosity that we acknowledge one another’s gifts. Only then can we begin to search for ways to collaborate, using our skills in complementary rather than competitive ways.

This deck is the Peacemaker’s Tarot cards. What does this Möbius of Learning and Purpose have to say to Peacemaking? When we know ourselves at this most fundamental level, we are learning about the ways of Peace in which we can engage most effectively. This is a question our world needs to be answered at this particular moment. We will answer it again and again, finding new and creative ways to work as Peacemakers.

It is so important that we come together to find ways that we can collaborate on projects and issues. Let us find ways in which we have let go of working against problems and instead work for solutions. These two cards form an important Möbius in becoming truly ourselves — our best Peacemaking selves. As I continue to write my Poems exploring my Major Arcana, I look forward to discovering the next Möbius with you — one that will allow us to find new ways of collaborating for Peace, new ways of forging the Peacepath together, new ways of Becoming what Peace needs from us. Until then…

Salaam, Shalom, Peace, and Blessed Be!