Surrender, Dorothy!

Whenever I do a tarot reading for a client and the 10 of Swords shows up, everyone cringes.

With swords representing the mind and the thoughts, attitudes, beliefs and communications of the mind, this card in a reading can imply ruin, despair, or a mental overwhelm that keeps one pinned in place.

But sometimes, immobility of the mind is just what the creative doctor ordered.

The card is a powerful illustration of the state of our contemporary mental lives–too much mental chatter from endless to-do lists, social media and email, and bombardment from other media sources. The mind becomes like an overstuffed file cabinet…or that body on the ground impaled by swords.

However, for me, the Ten of Swords often suggests surrender.

Not the give up kind of surrender. The give in kind.

The first meaning for surrender in the dictionary has to do with the relinquishing of control.

I’m the oldest of four children and the mother of three sons. I don’t give up control easily, even when it is the best thing to do in service to my work and clients. And as a creative entrepreneur, someone in business to make money from my creative work, it is easy to believe that I have to be in control of all aspects of my business and my work in order to be successful.

So, one of the challenges I face as part of this inner journey that I talked about in the last blog post is to relinquish control—for a while—of my business and my creative work so that I can open myself to new ideas, insights, opportunities and possibilities that want to come in. I must surrender.

Remember how Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz was warned to surrender before she entered Oz and was given her assignment to catch the witch? She didn’t give up her desire to get home. Instead, with her friends, she set out to retrieve the Wicked Witch of the West’s broomstick. Temporarily escaping capture, she and her four companions and Toto are chased around and through the castle by the witch’s guards until they are finally cornered. Dorothy stands surrounded and immobilized by the castle guards’ spears (her 10 of Swords). In that moment, she appears to give up. But in her surrender, she has an opportunity to act, using that bucket of water (an Ace of Cups disguised!) to melt the witch and remove a barrier to her happiness. She didn’t give up. She gave in to her experience and to her inner wisdom.

Surrender also means to give oneself over to a habit, emotion, or influence. Surrendering to the love for your creative work helps conquer fears in the same way that Dorothy’s surrender to her love for the Scarecrow melted the witch.

If we make space in our lives for the inner journey by developing a habit of silence, by feeling and expressing love and compassion for ourselves and our work, and by allowing the influence of that Higher Source, Divine Self, or the Muse, then we can restore and strengthen our inner well-being and our connection to that vastness within and without.

Otherwise, we get stuck at this Ten of Swords, never able to start the next level of the journey, to connect our inner worlds and our outer ones. So, from the Ten of Swords, some questions or practices arise for the week:

To ask myself on a daily basis, “How can I surrender to the experiences of today?”

To wonder as I create, “If I surrender to my fears and my love for my work, if I relinquish control, will my creativity flow more smoothly?

To observe how it feels to surrender, and how it opens space for more possibilities, allowing me to co-create with the Muse.

Where in your life do you feel immobilized? What would it feel like to surrender?

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