I plan to issue an article each Friday of November during this year’s National Novel Writing Month (2020), giving some kind of nebulous advice, to myself and others on how we might approach a heightened involvement with writing a big project.
For this first Communiqué, I want to talk about ATTENTION.
I’ve come to realize, after calling myself a writer for a long period of time, that it is not a day job that you come home from and turn off to relax away from, but rather something that is more like a calling that consumes you. If you want to be successful you need to let it consume you, and spend your time with it, which is why I often use even my ‘unwind’ time watching movies that I think might give me insight into the novel I am currently working on. For me, my projects are like a parallel world that make my everyday life make more sense, and the more time I spend crafting them, putting up the architectural plans and mapping their labyrinths, the more I discover about what I want the ‘real’ world to be. It’s complimentary, and so I find myself wishing to be stronger at making that world come alive, but also, there can be some detrimental effects to leaving the ‘everyday’ world behind to pursue these paths.
STRENGTH OF ATTENTION, then, becomes important. The ability to self-legislate where you put your heart. Whether you languish and drift away from responsibilities, which gives us the prototypical writer as absentminded loner, which is, no pun intended, definitely based in reality. Or if you are lucky enough to have the circumstances and wherewithal to make this life work for you, and through the strength of attention, properly apportion your time to have one foot in both worlds, it is, again, a tough path.
If you do have the ability to spend time with the world you aim to create, you can also focus on boosting your attention in a way that lets you keep your thoughts alive more, and to capture more fleeting impressions as they pass, to pin them down in words and sentences. This is the writer as butterfly collector. Able to spot the different types of beautiful colored flittings about your consciousness, and send them into a collector’s repose. What makes the difference between being a frozen dead thing and a living beautiful thought still vivacious is the ideal of STRENGTH OF ATTENTION personified in the Tarot Card STRENGTH. Which shows us how we can hold our mental apparatus, through the meanderings of the everyday, through all the impressions of the harsh world, and the art we imbibe, and the alchemical brew that it mixes up inside us as we shake along our path, like a maiden grasping a tiger by its imposing jaws. And I’ll leave you with the following description of the Strength tarot card, and see you again here on Friday with another impression of writing and its methods.
Strength Tarot Card Description
In this tarot card, you will see a woman who calmly holds the jaws of a fully grown lion. Despite the fact that the lion looks menacing and strong, the woman seems to have dominion over it. What is captivating is how gracefully she controls the lion. She is calm and collected, which is representative for being in control and disciplined especially in times of great adversities.
The fact that she is also holding the jaws of a lion also shows that she has courage. Her control of the lion without being too rough shows love and compassion. The blue background over the mountains shows stability and the kind of calmness that comes with being stable.
The lion is a symbol of courage, passion and desire which are very much part of the human feelings that are necessary for survival. But if these feelings are not put in check can lead to our eventual destruction.
Upright Strength Meaning
When you get the Strength card in an upright manner during your tarot reading, then it shows that you have inner strength and fortitude during moments of danger and distress. It shows that you have the ability to remain calm and strong even when your life is going through immense struggle. It also shows that you are a compassionate person and you always have time for other people even if it’s at your own expense.
Your resilience will greatly aid you, and your fearlessness means that you should have no issues speaking your mind.
Getting the strength card means that you are a very patient individual who is likely to accomplish anything that they put their mind to. Your resilience will greatly aid you, and your fearlessness means that you should have no issues speaking your mind. This card also indicates this kind of compassion will always be rewarded with having a lot of stability in your life either presently on in the near future.
The Haunted Typewriter 