12 Re-evaluation
12 Re-evaluation
What this card means... The motto of this card is reduce, review, rethink. The energy calls for stripping away all that isn't necessary.
“…because he hears a different drummer.”
Card messages in the Illuminated position.
+ Simplicity
(Atavistic, Circumscript, Minimalist, Retiring, Reduction, Monastic, Frugality)
- Reevaluation is a time for review and retreat. The nature of this experience calls us to go internal and remove extraneous distractions from our consciousness.
- It is may time to reduce one’s reliance on outside experiences and determine: is what I am doing really worth it?
- After a setback, it is useful to take a moment and re-evaluate. If what you are doing comes up short, simplify.
- Simplifying in mathematics means locating the lowest common denominator. In Buddhism it means detaching from form. Re-evaluate a situation by detaching from complex explanations. What remains when you stop analyzing?
Quotations relevant to this Pole
Quotations relevant to this Pole
- “Being is the great explainer.” Henry David Thoreau
- “Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing.” — Oscar Wilde
- “Nature is pleased with simplicity.” — Isaac Newton
- “How many things are there which I do not want.” – Socrates
Card messages in the Shadow position.
– Withdrawn
(Retarded, Confined, Internalized, Agoraphobic, Reclusive, Restricted)
- Perception may become clouded because one has withdrawn their awareness, it retards one’s ability to function in life. Fear causes contraction like a snail or a turtle retreating into its shell. Where has there been a retreat back into a familiar cover?
- Contraction is a retreat deep into oneself. What talents are not being utilized?
Quotations relevant to this Pole
Quotations relevant to this Pole
- “The world doesn’t understand me and I don’t understand the world, that’s why I’ve withdrawn from it.” Paul Cezanne
- “It is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness. A spirited mind never stops within itself; it is always aspiring and going beyond its strength.” Michel de Montaigne
- “If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.” — Wu-Men
Relevance in the Michael Teaching
The paired opposite to Growth, one way to consider these Goals in comparison is to think of them as speed of progress. Where Re-evaluation is applying the brakes causing a Reduction or (Retardation) of Essence’s natural proclivity to pick up speed and forget to “stop and smell the roses.”
Re-evaluation represents an Essence’s need to eliminate the many distractions that can occur with other Goals and focus on a few…but usually in some depth. If overwhelmed by this limitation, the Personality might simply “check out” and withdraw and in the extreme actually limits its own cognitive ability; such as those who choose actually mental retardation, or a minimizing birth defect like Downs Syndrome.
Yet, a majority of Souls in this Goal do not activate such physical extremes. Mature Artisan Henry David Thoreau, when he retreated to Walden’s Pond, was a psychically capable and intellectually bright individual. However, he was on a quest to see how minimally he could live and thus eliminate as many extraneous “worldly trappings” as he could to divine the essence of what was essential to life. In modern times, people with a autism or continuous agoraphobia (intense fear of attack and being overwhelmed) might very well be acting out this Goal.
Taking on few challenges, this goal is inspirational in that it shows the true ascetic person in action: like monks, nuns, or yogi’s. In some cases, this might manifest as beggars or hermits, who have reduced options or contact with the material world preferring the limited company of their thoughts instead of participation with whatever system they find themselves born.
Henry David Thoreau, Kim Reeks (aka – The Rain Man), Emily Dickinson, Helen Keller, the character Lenny in “Of Mice and Men”, Stephen Hawking,
When ever it is time to step on the brakes or clean out the closet, you’ve decided to do something differently. In doing so the first step is usually a reduction of what you don’t need before you can effectively begin to add anew.
But slowing down is something that few in the modern world seem to remember how to do or are allowed to do given the multiple of demands placed upon their time. The constant haranguing drum beat for more, more, more, faster, faster, faster, puts the brain in a continual state of alert and stress. Eventually, all stresses take their toll.
by Stephen Cocconi © 2012
For a Tarot Session or Channeled Consultation call: 209.768-4956 or email Stephen at channeling@themichaelteaching.com
