The innocent is the topic of today’s Oracle card Sunday. This deck is Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet deck and is one of my favorite oracle card decks. The deck creator pairs Gibran’s own evocative paintings with verses from his book The Prophet. His poetry is so lush and full of meaning you might think his works are a thousand years old, but Gibran was born in Lebanon in 1883 and died in New York in 1931.
Laws for the Innocent
This card is number nineteen and the text for this card is:
You delight in laying down laws,
Yet you delight more in breaking them.
Like children playing by the ocean who build sand-towers with constancy and then destroy them with laughter.
But while you build your sand-towers the ocean brings more sand to the shore, And when you destroy them, the ocean laughs with you.
Verily the ocean laughs always with the innocent.
How oracle cards are interpreted is intensely personal and you may find different meanings in this card than I do. The keyword or subtitle for this card is “Law”. Most of us are all for laws, especially those that help us. But most of us also break laws with impunity. We act innocent when we decide which laws to follow and which to ignore.
None of Us Are Innocent
Look at traffic laws. Most of us treat them cavalierly, choosing to obey them when forced to, for example when someone is watching. Rolling through a stop sign, going over (or far under) the posted limit, passing illegally, and driving too closely are all laws we break daily. If asked, we all would say we need speed limits or could recount a time we narrowly avoided an accident due to running a light. None of us are innocent, but most of us believe the other person should be prosecuted to the full extent of those very laws.
Only Nature is Truly Innocent
The ocean is the only true innocent in this card if you accept that we aren’t really talking about children playing on a beach. Because building sandcastles and then kicking them over is fine; there are likely no unintended circumstances in destroying your own sandcastle on a beach. I think that is what the ocean laughs at.
Because destroying things you build begins to hurt more people, animals, or the environment the older you are. Signing a law against corruption and then intentionally breaking that law yourself harms political institutions. Buying a business to destroy it harms both the employees of that business and the client base. Destroying something without providing an immediate alternative truly does hurt the innocent, all while the ocean flows in and out and laughs.
What Clients are Saying about Sophrosyne Tarot
I was advised to ask open-ended questions instead of predictive questions which I thought was helpful because I never would have known if it weren’t for the reader. The reader provided the reading along with some advice too so the entire reading was very thorough and explained in an understandable manner.
Everything said was accurate and helpful for me to identify my flaws in order to grow as a person. I have learned a lot about tarot and what it does to help me.
I am familiar with Kahlil Gibran not so much tarot reading and interpretations. However I did order the deck and one of the books you recommended. I am expecting to receive the book today and the deck on Wednesday.
That is great, Lily! Let me know if you have questions.
Hi Diane,
1. Laws are for others so that they do not hurt me?
2. When the ocean destroys, then laughs, it thinks, I’ll show you who is boss.
3. Blog on. 😉