Let's add this to the list of things I'd never have heard of it wasn't for my partner. Fasces are an emblem or design motif that you've probably seen everywhere, without knowing they were. "It's like a bundle of sticks," Tex told me. "Wait," I said, "Don't you mean faggot?"
No, it turns out. He patiently went on to explain that this symbol for victory and strength is where we get the term fascism. The core idea is that a bundle is harder to break than a single stick. "AH," I said, "Like that monologue of Richard Farnsworth's in The Straight Story!" Yes, exactly -- only sometimes there's an axe or arrow blade nestled in there too, to show you mean business.
It was good timing -- I just so happened to have drawn the Six of Wands as my next sketching project. I felt like I was cheating, resorting to an actually well-known symbol for success and achievement, but at least I learned something new. Also, while I sat in the park sketching, a butterfly landed on my knee and stayed there for several minutes. I'm pretty sure it was a monarch.
When musician Glenn Donnellan began hollowing out a Louisville Slugger in hopes of converting it into an electric violin, I doubt he entertained the idea that soon he'd be playing the national anthem on it at baseball games across the country, or that YouTube videos of his performances would be watched by hundreds of thousands:
The pleasure in watching is owed just as much to Donnellan's skill as a musician as to the novelty of his instrument. Expect the bottom to drop out of the handcrafted violin market if anyone with a little patience can craft one out of a $25 piece of sports equipment. And how many other instruments are this handy in situations of self-defense?
The Tarot's four Sixes each represent a very special achievement, the sorts of moments when you feel you have truly realized your potential. Once we experience those moments, we spend most of our lives trying to recreate the situations that produced them -- in this way, you can become the source of your own inspiration instead of counting on occasional thunderstrokes from the Ace of Wands to point the way. The Six of Wands is where faith in yourself -- combined with the faith that others have in you -- creates a sort of vortex of reciprocity. It would be perfectly natural to find yourself taking a position of leadership or authority at a time like this; at the very least, you'll find yourself being appreciated and celebrated for the progress you've made, and the burden of others' hopes for you will be surprisingly light. It's a positive feedback-loop that you should keep spinning for as long as possible -- you can't ride high forever, but while you're up there you'll have a whole lot of influence over what comes next for you and those around you.
It took courage to come this far, and it will take more to proceed. Hopefully, moments like these will prove to you that certain hopes, dreams, and opportunities are worth exploring; like Donnellan's bat, in the right hands they flourish and become worth much more than the sum of their parts, but you'll never know for sure whether you have the magic touch until you actually try. Rather than predict success, the Six of Wands recognizes your vast potential for it -- the rest is up to you. [Via]
There are few cards in the Tarot that are as unequivocally positive as the Six of Wands. Suffice to say, whatever you're doing, it's working!
Every victory begins as the germ of an idea that you keep saying "Yes!" to, even when it seems certain that you'll be thwarted. The Six marks a period in which it becomes abundantly clear that success is yours. And while hopefully you'll be recognized by others for what you've accomplished, most importantly this card urges you embrace the idea of yourself as a winner -- you'll need deep reserves of confidence and optimism to take on whatever comes next. Don't worry about being too modest, it's okay to pat yourself on the back and let the praise of others warm you. As long as you don't let yourself become seriously obnoxious about it, the world should be happy to see you thrive.
That's the attitude we seem to be trying to confer to a rare variety of common katydids that's been springing up all across America. They're identical to their kin in every way -- except for their hot pink exterior, which makes them look sort of like miniature six-legged flamingoes. Blending in perfectly around flowering plants, these adorable little mutants have already beat amazing evolutionary odds in proliferating enough to be noticed (with delight) by humans, and if they can continue to keep predators fooled they may become downright commonplace someday. If you've been putting a lot of effort into something that you'd like to see come to fruition, then I think you just found your new mascot! [Via]
