Tarot cards and travel: Mastery of emotional objectivity
I’m into Tarot cards and usually pull a few each day to help me focus on areas of my life that might need some attention. I’ll regularly write about this inspiration in my blog.
The Princess of Cups is the visual representation of emotional acceptance, authenticity and objectivity.
The crystals on her seashell gown indicate her ability to look at things as they are rather than as she would like them to be.
Today I’m inspired by my draw of The Princess of Cups card, which is helpful to remind me to release the focus on how I’d like things to be, in favor of accepting the current world as it appears.
Of course a valuable lesson in any situation in life but in particular I love this message for travel. Increasingly in our world, marketing works in overdrive to deliver us the ideal image, the ideal selfie, the ideal creation of what travel means.
And in many cases, what the travel image means is something like, “Here I am, the only one at Macchu Piccu enjoying this lovely view that no one else can see.” We work to take the selfie in just the right angle that will imply it’s mine.
I’ve been in the position many of time. Especially in Europe as the world’s hunger for travel and seeing ancient cities like Paris and Rome increases. Prosperity across the globe is driving up the volumes everywhere.
The Trevi Fountain in Rome, for example, seems forever surrounded by thousands of other people with the same idea. I was so intent to have my own Trevi Fountain experience the last time I was in Rome, that I got up early in the morning and ran through the pouring rain to see the fountain in all it’s rainy glory virtually alone. It felt wonderful, as if I out tricked the system, but also very wet and cold.
We should want to readjust our expectations when traveling to these iconic areas and work to be realistic about the experience. Is it bad to depict being at a site with too many other tourists to make it a serene experience? Is there a way to make it serene on your own?
On this same visit to Rome, I randomly ran into my friend Tommie, who was visiting for the first time. We had a wonderful day walking around the city and finding nooks and crannies that had a lot less people buzzing around. But it was March in Rome and he mentioned the crowds were so intense he didn’t end up going into many of the attractions. I felt thankful that I’d done all this back in 1992 when I was studying abroad.
But it get it – it also didn’t appeal to me to be herded through the masses just to have one second to stop and snap a picture at a statue as the momentum of tourists push me forward without ability to say, “Stop, this is my experience and I need more time.”
In fact, without knowing it I’ve already curated the photos of this trip to Rome to only depict those without throngs of crowds, as if I was the only person with the idea to visit Rome in March. But then, do I want to remember all the other people?
Maybe that’s a “YES” because that was the authentic experience after all. I wasn’t alone. Not even close. Never. Even at the Trevi Fountain in the morning rain there were a few other people with the same idea.
So when the Princess of Cups suggests emotional acceptance, I wonder if that requires a shift in angle when traveling to crowded places?
View the world as it is, rather than how you’d like it to be.
I took the Princess of Cups to heart last weekend while in Chicago and visiting the sites with my friend Johnny. This trip is highlighted in another post Unwinding in the Windy City. First up was “The Bean.” It was a perfect holiday weekend day. 75 degrees. Sunny. House music festival in the park. A million people at The Bean and elsewhere.
It was new for me to be truly objective and mindful of all the people and how that can impact an experience. This mindfulness helped something click within me that opened up the experience at the Bean with Johnny. I felt really happy. Since I love photography and to communicate about my travel experiences, there were some options available to me.
It isn’t wrong to want to have your own private experience, and five years from now I’ll remember the way I felt with my friend Johnny and being mesmerized by the shiny surface. The other people won’t matter.
At the same time what’s presented to the external world matters too. Why should we continue to perpetuate the concept that it will be perfect when you travel? That you’ll have all the time in the world to sit in front of The Bean on a perfect weekend afternoon and do a yoga pose to get the best possible selfie for Instagram.
Because the reality is you won’t have this picture perfect option and you can still have a great experience in it all, if you work with acceptance.
I don’t have the answer. I love artistic photos, and sometimes a lady with a selfie stick and ice cream cone amongst a gazillion other people in the background takes away from the art of it all. I don’t know if that’d be interesting, but my mind is opened to finding new and different ways to depict the real aspects of travel.
Maybe I’ll start only taking pictures of other people taking selfies in front of iconic sites?
Maybe I’ll focus on photos that depict my true feelings at the moment, which could be that I want an ice cream cone.