Four of Wands

Signifying completion, homecoming, and restoration, this is usually a rather festive card of celebration. It being Halloween, however, I decided to draw from an example that is a little more haunting. The image above is from Jim O'Connell's journey to the "Throw-Away Temple" in Japan, where the bodies of 25,000 prostitutes were laid to rest in the mid-19th century:

"The women could not, of course, come and go as they pleased. Most were enslaved by debt they could never completely repay. During their service they could leave only for the death of a parent and once a year to view the cherry blossoms in Ueno. For most of the common prostitutes, the only real way out was through their own death."

Extinguished by earthquakes and diseases, women's bodies were dumped at the Temple each day, where they've remained interred ever since. O'Connell's description of the shrine as it currently exists (and his gorgeous photos) are incredibly gloomy, but it is strangely reassuring to know that these women were ultimately provided for, given a resting place of their own where the sheer weight of their numbers would grow to become undeniable, a place of rest in a world that literally heaved under their feet.

Visiting a place like this -- or even reading about it -- makes us contemplate our own sense of achievement. It practically demands that we pause and consider the trials and blessings that have led to this point, and that we revel in whatever freedom we've managed to eke out for ourselves among life's inevitable hardships, and, if possible, to gather with kindred spirits in peace and solidarity. The Throw-Away Temple is sort of an extreme phantasmagorical metaphor for this idea -- its visitors seem to pay a sort of otherworldly restitution. Consider it a reminder to keep the arrivals, ends, and achievements of others on your radar as well, you never know when someone might benefit from your example, or vice versa. [Via]