The Four Nines

I think it's especially appropriate that the Nines were the next foursome I was able to complete after I finished the Threes. In that post, I elaborated a little bit on how the number of a card helps define its meaning. The first three cards in the suit, the Ace, Two, and Three, formed a triangle of points by which the initial point could begin to gauge its own position:

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•. .•

The process, by which one point unfolded into three, doesn't stop there -- it's actually the beginning of a fractal design. Our triangle is now itself a unit that spawns two other triangles, like so:

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•. .•

•. .•. . . . . .•. .•
• . . . . . . . . •

If you have a hard time visualizing that, then look at this animated image, a perfect illustration at how this process would continue to play out. These three triangles would become a collective unit that would then become the crown of a set of 27 points, ad infinitum.

Many consider fractal patters like this to be a model of how the universe itself sprang into being. For our purposes, it's a way of imagining the classical elements compounding and unfolding and crystallizing into more and more concrete realities. Far descended from the pure, intangible realm of the Aces, the Nines are a looking-glass version of our everyday world and what we aspire to accomplish in it. All the danger, intrigue, idealism, bliss, and security that we hope to find just around the corner. Though the actual results often leave us unsatisfied, the carrot continues to dangle in front of us as our life fans outward from the present moment. The smarty-pants Nine of Swords shows the toll this takes on us as we occasionally realize the hopelessness of our constant effort -- but who can fault us for continuing to reach, again and again? Unless we cultivate anything to replace it, desire is the only force strong enough to usher us forward through the moments of our lives. It's written into nature itself.