Overworked and Burned
The Nine of Wands and The Devil give a reader guidance on whether to stick or split
Welcome back to WiggleStick: a playful synonym for “divining rod” that, today, hopefully guides
toward an answer to the question they posed in a Substack Note!And, as always, if you’d like a bespoke poem and reading of your own…
Nine of Wands
Resilience, courage, persistence, test of faith, boundaries
The Devil
Shadow self, attachment, addiction, restriction, sexuality
Frustrated, wounded, with work left to go,
To carry on calls for some courage and faith.
You’ve got the persistent resilience, it shows.
But sometimes a boundary’s the way to be safe.You’re chained to the slab where the devil is perched?
Your shadow’s half-human, half-beast, and untamed?
Burned and restricted, addicted to serve?
Could secretly slip your head out of your chains.
As per usual, I’d like to draw a connection in a visual similarity between these two cards. The character from the Nine of Wands is standing in a very similar way to the male character chained to the Devil’s altar. Body facing forward, signifying he is in the present, head half-turned to the left, signifying his mind is half-focused on the past.
On the left card, he’s exhausted from doing a ton of work, on the right, he’s being lit aflame by passion, but his hand holds his back as if he’s saying “ouch,” and he’s apparently stuck where he is, unable to escape his situation.
The thing is, if you look closely at the characters on The Devil, their collars are almost definitely wide enough for them to easily slip right out, if they simply realize that they’re resourced to make the change. They’re trapped more by the promise of pleasure (the tail of grapes) and the memory of passion (the tail on fire) than by external circumstances.
The choice to stay or go can be a big one, and I’d caution against making it based solely on a Substack called “WiggleStick” (hahaha), but I think the cards are clear that while y’all are certainly resourced with the fortitude to stick it out, its also totally up to you to realize that you aren’t chained as tightly as one might think on first glance.
Just some food for thought.
The WiggleStick has spoken.
(Dramatic!)
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Thank you Geoffe. Your gift is strong! Your poem totally reflects what my heart is telling me 😊. Isn’t tarot wonderful?