Today’s card makes me a bit sad. It reminds me of something I used to do. If I catch myself now, I have to correct it immediately. While I’m no court of law, I do expect myself to hold some things sacred.
Truth is one of those. Here in the Shakespearian Tarot, the Devil shares this quote, “Sweet soul take heed of perjury”. It’s a line from Othello, The Moor Of Venice. One of the bard’s darker pieces, this tells the tale of a husband who murders his wife. I was going to say wrongfully murders, but really…is murder ever right?
But I digress. Today I want to talk about lying rather than murder.
Have you ever promised yourself something then not followed through because, after all, if you can’t lie to yourself who can you lie to?
Now think about that while you read the definition of perjury.
“The offense of willfully telling an untruth in a court after having taken an oath or affirmation.”
Willfully. Intentionally. Deliberately.
If we are in a relationship with anyone, the first one is with ourselves. If we can’t be true to ourselves, who can we be true to?
Now then, please note that I don’t see “fake it until you make it” as lying to myself. Not at all. That is actually telling myself the truth as it should be. That is rewiring my brain from negativity into positivity.
But there are, or were, things I told myself that were lies. Like…I was strong enough to do certain things alone. Or…I would set a boundary and then let someone else walk all over it.
The resetting of that boundary is something I had to do very recently. On the 4th of July in fact I had to clean up one of my own personal lies to myself. I ignored all the red flags about someone and gave them more chances to hurt me. And yeah, big surprise, I got hurt. Emotionally, not physically.
If I can’t tell myself the truth, how can I tell anyone else the truth? It really comes down to that for me.
What about you? How do you see perjury in the sacred court of your own sweet self?
Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.
Devil, Shakespearian Tarot, USGS 1993 [aff]