[ I originally posted this in December of 2010. It ages so well, I decided to repost it. ]

Do you know the difference between the words discreet and discrete?

We’re more familiar with discreet.  A few synonyms are: subtle, cautious, tactful, prudent, and inconspicuous. (See Inconspicuously Unrelenting.)

Discrete, on the other hand, is less used. A few synonyms are: separate, distinct, and isolated. In college, I studied discrete systems as part of my Electrical Engineering and Computer Science degree. Wikipedia describes them this way: A discrete system is a system with a countable number of states.

In Black and White where I discussed the journey from 2 to 11, I talked about computers.  Well, continuing on with that theme, do you remember the early Atari games?  Remember how in games like Dig Dug you could only go in four directions?  This is an example of a discrete system (of movement).

A rudimentary discrete directional compass has only four positions: N, E, S, & W.

In Dig Dug, you could only move in those four directions.  In more advanced games, they added the diagonals: NE, SE, SW, & NW.  As computers have become more sophisticated, the number of degrees of freedom have grown, but they are still discrete, just beyond our noticing.

So now let’s play with these words some more.  Let’s review the synonyms of discrete, specifically separate and isolated.  When we apply those words to ourselves, they don’t feel very good.  When we feel separated and isolated, we feel stuck and imprisoned.

8 of Swords

One card in the Tarot that illustrates this archetype is the 8 of Swords.  A woman is blindfolded, tied up and surrounded by 8 swords.  She feels stuck, and thus experiences being stuck.

As I described once before, this woman resembles the woman on the 2 of swords, who is also blindfolded.

2 of Swords

One day I saw it this way.  At the 2 of Swords, the woman is wanting to travel straight ahead (forward, in one direction), but something blocks her way.  What she cannot see (due to the blindfold) induces fear that then causes her to pause and ponder her situation.

However, when she has gotten to the 8 of Swords, she has blocked all four directions, N, E, S, & W. There, she feels isolated and imprisoned.

However, the underlying message is that this prison is not only self-created, but an illusion.  Spirit says:

“There are still 4 directions that are not blocked, NE, SE, SW, & NW.  We cannot see those avenues (solutions), since we are still blindfolded, so we must feel for them and use our intuition to find them.”

The whole point of the 8 of Swords is to make a quantum leap (8) out of the repeating cycle of imprisonment.

And that’s where I got the made up word, which is the title of this article.  Eleven is not only disillusionment, but is also disimprisonment!

When something is discreet, it is hidden in the shadows and unseen by many.  Disillusionment is what happens when all of that is brought into the light and seen more clearly than before.

When something is discrete, it is isolated, kept apart from the others, trapped, and imprisoned.  Disimprisonment ends the separation and suffering and is sets us free.

The illusion is this: We think we are tied up like a dog on a short leash.  We were taught that being loyal meant obeying.  If we pulled on the leash, we got rapped by a rolled up newspaper.  If we whimpered or whined, we got whipped.

We thus belief that if we disobey, we’ll get beaten.

If we don’t subject ourselves to TSA X-Rays, we’ll get molested.

So, through 11, disillusionment we can say to ourselves:

I begin to see that I am the one that put on a collar.  I am the one that buckled it.  I am the one that attached the leash.  And I am the one that continues to obey despite the part of me that is screaming to be free.

And through 11, disimprsionment we can say to ourselves:

I can unhook the leash and remove the collar.

But recognize that to completely solve the problem, the collar has to come off. If I just unhook the leash and run free for a while, when my owner catches me, they’ll put the leash right back on and then pull at it more firmly.  After all, I’ve allowed them to do this for so many years, it’s just the usual way.

But it’s not the natural way.

You are going to see some poor dogs whipped by the newspapers for disobeying the rules. (Julian Assange is a prime example.)  However, eventually the dog owners will come to realize, one way or the other, that their rein is coming to an end.

Set yourself free!  Unhook the leash!  Take off the collar!

Take to the open field.  Dogs are meant to run!  It’s their birthright!

Monthly Tarot for February 2020

Somewhat Daily Tarot & Rune for 28 January 2020

Monthly Tarot for January 2020