Oulipo and The Creativity of Limitation

Liminal Poem for Martin Gardner, 1981. Harry Matthews.

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Louis Boero April 3, 2025

There is no such thing as inspiration, only constraint. This is the maxim, conjured in Paris’s mid-century cafe culture, that launch the most radical literary movement of the 20th century. Oulipo, short for Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle, or "School of Potential Literature," is a literary movement founded in 1960 by mathematician François Le Lionnais and writer Raymond Queneau. At its core is the belief that constraints in writing are not limitations but opportunities, a way to unlock new creative possibilities. Unlike movements that emphasize raw inspiration or spontaneity, Oulipo treats literature as a structured process, where self-imposed rules and formal techniques shape and expand the act of storytelling.

The origins lie in the intersection of literature and mathematics. Le Lionnais and Queneau, both fascinated by patterns, sought to explore how structures could guide artistic creation. Their clearest historical touchstone was the sonnet; constrained by a rigid structure that required 14 lines of iambic pentameter, a rhyme scheme of three quatrains and a couplet, and a narrative turn in the 8th or 9th line, of all formats the sonnet allows its writer the least freedom. And yet, Queneau thought, it has produced an outsized percentage of the most writing in history. Writing, Queneau saw, has long been a process of limitation, it simply had not been explicitly about this. They were not rejecting the past but in discovering hidden formulas within it, reviving forgotten constraints, and inventing new ones. They saw themselves as "rats who build the labyrinth from which they will try to escape”. Literature, for Queneau and Le Lionnais, was not a wild stream to be navigated instinctually but a puzzle, a game, an equation whose unknown variables the writer must solve.

As the group developed, members created increasingly complicated, difficult and absurd constraints, with each producing, if not always successful, increasingly interesting results. One of the best-known Oulipian techniques is the lipogram, a text that avoids a particular letter. Georges Perec, one of the group’s most famous members, wrote La Disparition (A Void), a full-length novel that never uses the letter "e." The omission, far from being a gimmick, becomes thematically significant - the book is a mystery novel, with a detective searching for something missing that he can never find.

Another hallmark of Oulipo is explorative variation, where the constraint is found in subject and total freedom is granted in the language to describe the prescribes subject. This style of writing is exemplified in Queneau’s Exercises in Style. In this work, a simple anecdote about a man on a bus is retold in ninety-nine different ways, demonstrating the endless flexibility of language. The idea that style, tone, and form can radically reshape meaning is central to the Oulipian philosophy. Their constraints are not rigid rules but tools that force the writer to think differently, much like how a poet working within the sonnet form must find creative ways to express an idea within its strict structure.

Beyond individual techniques, Oulipo explores broader mathematical and algorithmic structures. Members have experimented with palindromes, sestinas, Fibonacci sequences, and even invented new poetic forms, such as the “snowball,” where each line grows by one letter at a time. Italo Calvino, another key figure and the writer who broke through to the widest audience, his shadow looming larger than the whole group, integrated Oulipian ideas into his novels, particularly If on a winter’s night a traveler, a work that constantly reframes its own narrative, shifting expectations with each chapter.

Though Oulipo began as a small group of French writers, its influence has spread widely. Digital literature, algorithmic poetry, and interactive fiction all owe a debt to its principles. The concept of constrained writing has found a home in computer-generated texts and artificial intelligence-assisted storytelling, where structured limitations guide unpredictable results.

Unlike other literary movements, Oulipo does not operate through manifestos or ideological declarations. It is not a rejection of tradition but an ongoing investigation into the mechanics of language. Writers working within its framework see constraints as a means of expanding expression rather than narrowing it. The beauty of Oulipo is that it offers an open invitation to any writer willing to experiment. Try writing a story where no word contains the letter "a." Rewrite a passage in a hundred different styles. Construct a poem where each line follows a mathematical sequence. The rules may seem restrictive at first, but within them lies a paradox: the more you limit yourself, the more your creativity grows.

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Louis Boero is a writer and critic.

Aravind Srinivas

Film

Some Thoughts on the Common Toad

Schnieder’s Toad. Iconographia Zoologica, c.1881.

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First published in Tribune, in April of 1946, just one year after the end of the Second World War, George Orwell’s thoughts on the humble toad become an ode to nature, and the enduring beauty of the world in times of hardship. As with almost all of the great English writer’s works, this essay is concerned with ideas of class inequalities within society. Adamantly opposed throughout his life to all forms of totalitarianism, both on the right and left of politics, he was an ardent democratic socialist whose writing was his form of activism. ‘Some Thoughts on the Common Toad’ has Orwell’s mastery of prose on full display, elegantly singing the praises of the amphibian, heralding the joys of spring, and reminding the reader that the lifeblood of existence is in the natural world, and we are more a part of it than the powers that be may want us to believe.

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George Orwell, April 1, 2025

Before the swallow, before the daffodil, and not much later than the snowdrop, the common toad salutes the coming of spring after his own fashion, which is to emerge from a hole in the ground, where he has lain buried since the previous autumn, and crawl as rapidly as possible towards the nearest suitable patch of water. Something – some kind of shudder in the earth, or perhaps merely a rise of a few degrees in the temperature – has told him that it is time to wake up: though a few toads appear to sleep the clock round and miss out a year from time to time – at any rate, I have more than once dug them up, alive and apparently well, in the middle of the summer.

At this period, after his long fast, the toad has a very spiritual look, like a strict Anglo-Catholic towards the end of Lent. His movements are languid but purposeful, his body is shrunken, and by contrast his eyes look abnormally large. This allows one to notice, what one might not at another time, that a toad has about the most beautiful eye of any living creature. It is like gold, or more exactly it is like the golden-coloured semi-precious stone which one sometimes sees in signet rings, and which I think is called a chrysoberyl.

For a few days after getting into the water the toad concentrates on building up his strength by eating small insects. Presently he has swollen to his normal size again, and then he goes through a phase of intense sexiness. All he knows, at least if he is a male toad, is that he wants to get his arms round something, and if you offer him a stick, or even your finger, he will cling to it with surprising strength and take a long time to discover that it is not a female toad. Frequently one comes upon shapeless masses of ten or twenty toads rolling over and over in the water, one clinging to another without distinction of sex. By degrees, however, they sort themselves out into couples, with the male duly sitting on the female’s back. You can now distinguish males from females, because the male is smaller, darker and sits on top, with his arms tightly clasped round the female’s neck. After a day or two the spawn is laid in long strings which wind themselves in and out of the reeds and soon become invisible. A few more weeks, and the water is alive with masses of tiny tadpoles which rapidly grow larger, sprout hind-legs, then forelegs, then shed their tails: and finally, about the middle of the summer, the new generation of toads, smaller than one’s thumb-nail but perfect in every particular, crawl out of the water to begin the game anew.

I mention the spawning of the toads because it is one of the phenomena of Spring which most deeply appeal to me, and because the toad, unlike the skylark and the primrose, has never had much of a boost from poets. But I am aware that many people do not like reptiles or amphibians, and I am not suggesting that in order to enjoy the spring you have to take an interest in toads. There are also the crocus, the missel thrush, the cuckoo, the blackthorn, etc. The point is that the pleasures of spring are available to everybody, and cost nothing. Even in the most sordid street the coming of spring will register itself by some sign or other, if it is only a brighter blue between the chimney pots or the vivid green of an elder sprouting on a blitzed site. Indeed it is remarkable how Nature goes on existing unofficially, as it were, in the very heart of London. I have seen a kestrel flying over the Deptford gasworks, and I have heard a first-rate performance by a blackbird in the Euston Road. There must be some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of birds living inside the four-mile radius, and it is rather a pleasing thought that none of them pays a halfpenny of rent.

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“Is it politically reprehensible… to point out that life is frequently more worth living because of a blackbird’s song, a yellow elm tree in October, or some other natural phenomenon which does not cost money’

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As for Spring, not even the narrow and gloomy streets round the Bank of England are quite able to exclude it. It comes seeping in everywhere, like one of those new poison gases which pass through all filters. The spring is commonly referred to as “a miracle,” and during the past five or six years this worn-out figure of speech has taken on a new lease of life. After the sort of winters we have had to endure recently, the spring does seem miraculous, because it has become gradually harder and harder to believe that it is actually going to happen. Every February since 1940 I have found myself thinking that this time Winter is going to be permanent. But Persephone, like the toads, always rises from the dead at about the same moment. Suddenly, towards the end of March, the miracle happens and the decaying slum in which I live is transfigured. Down in the square the sooty privets have turned bright green, the leaves are thickening on the chestnut trees, the daffodils are out, the wallflowers are budding, the policeman’s tunic looks positively a pleasant shade of blue, the fishmonger greets his customers with a smile, and even the sparrows are quite a different colour, having felt the balminess of the air and nerved themselves to take a bath, their first since last September.

Is it wicked to take a pleasure in Spring and other seasonal changes? To put it more precisely, is it politically reprehensible, while we are all groaning, or at any rate ought to be groaning, under the shackles of the capitalist system, to point out that life is frequently more worth living because of a blackbird’s song, a yellow elm tree in October, or some other natural phenomenon which does not cost money and does not have what the editors of left-wing newspapers call a class angle? There is no doubt that many people think so. I know by experience that a favourable reference to “Nature” in one of my articles is liable to bring me abusive letters, and though the key-word in these letters is usually “sentimental”, two ideas seem to be mixed up in them. One is that any pleasure in the actual process of life encourages a sort of political quietism. People, so the thought runs, ought to be discontented, and it is our job to multiply our wants and not simply to increase our enjoyment of the things we have already. The other idea is that this is the age of machines and that to dislike the machine, or even to want to limit its domination, is backward-looking, reactionary and slightly ridiculous. This is often backed up by the statement that a love of Nature is a foible of urbanised people who have no notion what Nature is really like. Those who really have to deal with the soil, so it is argued, do not love the soil, and do not take the faintest interest in birds or flowers, except from a strictly utilitarian point of view. To love the country one must live in the town, merely taking an occasional week-end ramble at the warmer times of year.

This last idea is demonstrably false. Medieval literature, for instance, including the popular ballads, is full of an almost Georgian enthusiasm for Nature, and the art of agricultural peoples such as the Chinese and Japanese centre always round trees, birds, flowers, rivers, mountains. The other idea seems to me to be wrong in a subtler way. Certainly we ought to be discontented, we ought not simply to find out ways of making the best of a bad job, and yet if we kill all pleasure in the actual process of life, what sort of future are we preparing for ourselves? If a man cannot enjoy the return of Spring, why should he be happy in a labour-saving Utopia? What will he do with the leisure that the machine will give him? I have always suspected that if our economic and political problems are ever really solved, life will become simpler instead of more complex, and that the sort of pleasure one gets from finding the first primrose will loom larger than the sort of pleasure one gets from eating an ice to the tune of a Wurlitzer. I think that by retaining one’s childhood love of such things as trees, fishes, butterflies and – to return to my first instance – toads, one makes a peaceful and decent future a little more probable, and that by preaching the doctrine that nothing is to be admired except steel and concrete, one merely makes it a little surer that human beings will have no outlet for their surplus energy except in hatred and leader worship.

At any rate, spring is here, even in London N1, and they can’t stop you enjoying it. This is a satisfying reflection. How many a time have I stood watching the toads mating, or a pair of hares having a boxing match in the young corn, and thought of all the important persons who would stop me enjoying this if they could. But luckily they can’t. So long as you are not actually ill, hungry, frightened or immured in a prison or a holiday camp, Spring is still Spring. The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it.

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George Orwell (1903-1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic. Best known for his allegorical and dystopian works Animal Farm and 1984, his written oeuvre spans genre and medium but is consistently displays a level of social criticism with a deep emphasis on class struggle around the world.

Film

The Two of Wands (Tarot Triptych)

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Name:  Dominion, the Two of Wands
Number: 2
Astrology: Mars in Aries
Qabalah: Chokmah of Yod

Chris Gabriel March 29, 2025

The Two of Wands is the card of childish will - the desire to take, to hold, and to say yes or no. This card is how we begin to make our way in the world and learn to control our environment.

In Rider, a man in red looks out from a castle wall over an expanse of sea and mountains. Beside him are two wands, and in his hand is a globe. He desires to control the world, to move ships, goods, men, and to expand his influence and power.

In Thoth, we have two large Dorjes: Buddhist wands symbolizing the power of thunder and the strength of the diamond. They are crossed, and from them six flames emit. The card is astrologically given to Mars in Aries.

In Marseille, we have two crossed wands. Four leaves emerge from the center, and two uprooted flowers frame the top and bottom. Qabalistically, the card is the Wisdom of the King.

The Wisdom of the King is Dominion.

Just as the Two of Swords relates to a child’s legs and first steps they take, the Two of Wands is the arms, the hands, and, ultimately, the fists. As the baby of the zodiac,  Aries is the  child who quickly  learns how to get what they want, to reach out and grab it,  and how to push away and reject what they do not want. To be safe and comfortable they need to control their environment. This is the force of Mars in Aries, the childish will applied to everything.

Just as children like to get what they want, so too do Kings. Their simple desires are sated, and their complex desires are worked towards by the people. This is often a desire for larger and larger dominions. 

Alexander the Great conquered out of a pure and childlike will, and wept when he had no land left to conquer, no new toys to play with. Heraclitus and Shakespeare alike recognized the childlike character of the Gods, that their wills were playful and fickle. The world, and the people therein are simply toys to exert the will upon.

The Rider card gives a fantastic image of this, the great globe itself reduced to a toy ball. This is shown perfectly when Charlie Chaplin’s Great Dictator plays with an inflatable globe. It is the pure, simple, childish will that wants world domination. 

While many great and terrible men have tried this, it is exceedingly rare that any of us will meet people like this. In our lives, this force appears as domineering individuals who want to control what’s around them, be it a neighborhood, a workplace, a house, or, especially, a relationship. We have all met very controlling people, this card shows us this desire for control is innate and childish.

When we pull this card, we can expect to deal with controlling figures, or a conflict of our own. Whether you decide to get out of the way or get your way, consider what it is that you will.

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Chris Gabriel is a twenty four year old wizard and poet who runs the YouTube channel MemeAnalysis.

CHANNEL, SOCIAL, READINGS

Film

Ascension is Now

Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, c. 1410.

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Molly Hankins March 27, 2025

Countless ancient cultures prophesied a time when the human race would  expand their consciousness and ascend into a higher frequency of existence. Commonly referred to as ascension, the major increase in anomalous activity of solar flares and magnetic fluctuations over the last 18 months are physical indicators that this process is well underway. The spiritual teacher Drunvalo Melchizedek has spent most of his life writing and teaching about how to prepare for this ascension. He understands it as a  shift from living in the head to our hearts and primarily identifying as part of the whole of life instead of as separate individuals. 

While a  more fundamentalist Christian take refers to this as  the rapture or end-times, Drunvalo’s interpretation of ascension is about integrating with different layers of reality via a shift in awareness that occurs internally. Both interpretations point to dramatic shifts in the physical world, but rather than those changes resulting in souls being raptured to heaven, ascension says this shift in consciousness and dimensional integration will result in humans creating heaven on Earth.

As of the date of publication of this article, we are between a lunar full-moon eclipse in Virgo, a practical, detail-oriented Earth sign, and a solar eclipse in Aries, an initiatory fire energy during a new moon. This period marks what Tibetan Buddhists call the Bardo - the period between death and rebirth - and it has a supercharged energy for cleansing destructive patterns. Across personal lives, global events, and scientific activity we notice new patterns are becoming the norm. In 2023 there were 13 X-class solar flares, which is the largest measurable class, well within the average annual range. In 2024 there were 50 and as of February of 2025, we’ve experienced 4.

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“What is happening at the macro planetary scale must also be happening at the micro-scale within us.”

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Oscillations in Earth’s electromagnetic field, known as Schumann resonance, have shown extreme fluctuation particularly since the lunar eclipse on March 14th. There has been a major increase in data blackouts, which means the incoming frequency exceeds the threshold our measuring devices can interpret. Induction coils, made of an iron core surrounded by thousands of insulated copper coils that are sensitive to rapid magnetic field fluctuations,  can seemingly detect energy only within a fixed range of parameters. We are currently living through a new era where our planet’s electromagnetic frequency is beginning to move beyond those measurable parameters more regularly.

These fluctuations are usually attributed by the scientific community to be the result of solar storms, geomagnetic activity and environmental factors, and yet lately we are seeing entirely new patterns of data. Still baffled by the discrepancies between Newtonian, Earthly physics and quantum mechanics, our current model of scientific understanding cannot account for the multidimensional upgrades taking place. Drunvalo’s teachings point to a theory that the fabric of our electromagnetic field is evolving along with our consciousness, experiencing a new range of harmonics beyond what can presently be measured.

In keeping with the famous occult axiom, “As above, so below,” what is happening at the macro planetary scale must also be happening at the micro-scale within us. This period of time between eclipses is what numerologist and astrologist Kaitlyn Kaerhart calls a realignment. In her Aries solar eclipse guide she writes, “Eclipses are wild cards. They open fated doors, close outdated timelines and rearrange reality in ways we don’t usually see coming. Aries is the sign of of selfhood, instinct, initiation and raw courage, and that’s exactly what’s being activated in all of us. This eclipse also falls on the Aries-Libra axis, so it’s not just about you. It’s about you in relation to others.” 

The solar eclipse this week also falls in the fourth week of the month, and according to Kaerhart, four energy is all about embracing a steady rhythm to create stability through structure and lay strong foundations for what’s to come. She recommends meditation, body movement and being in nature as a means of aligning with these changes so they become part of a strong foundation for our ascension of consciousness. As Drunvalo says, “When you are in your heart, nothing needs to be done to bring change. It will happen automatically and with grace.”

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Molly Hankins is an Initiate + Reality Hacker serving the Ministry of Quantum Existentialism and Builders of the Adytum.

Film

Mel Ziegler

Film

The Power of Fear

The Nightmare, Henry Fuseli. 1781.

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Suzanne Stabile March 25, 2025

I’m mindful that when I gather with my colleagues at an event that includes several keynote speakers, each of whom are speaking from their expertise, that I’m likely to be well received.  While others  talk about topics such as scripture, prayer, theology or perhaps cultural challenges that we face, I am talking to people about their preferred topic: themselves.  We all like to know more about ourselves, to understand why we do the very things we seem to not want to do, and to change ourselves for the better;  we just don’t know how to make the necessary adjustments.

In this series of articles, I’m exploring the emotions of shame, fear and anger as they are related to Enneagram wisdom.  Each of us  experience all three, and so we must have a healthy respect for each and use it for its value, acknowledge how each can be  helpful and harmful.  In addition, we need to be mindful of their power without allowing them unnecessary and unwanted influence in our lives.

Shame or fear or anger are respectively  the default emotions for each personality type.  For Enneagram Fives, Sixes and Sevens - the numbers that make up the Head or Thinking Triad - fear informs how they see themselves, others and the world.  If your Enneagram Number is within this Triad, it will be helpful for you to know what fear looks like and how you can manage the ways it shows up in your life.

I have often found that the stories we tell about ourselves and those we love help us become  more of who we want to be and less of who we struggle to defend.  My husband Joe is a truly gifted pastor, but he is also quite good looking and attracts attention from other women.  I usually handle it well but at one point when I was struggling with some professional choices in my work, I found myself over-focused on one woman’s  behavior and her desire for Joe’s attention.  

We both believe and teach that every person can benefit from having a therapist and a spiritual director and so I took the question as to why I was struggling to my therapist.   I guess I must have gotten a little whipped up because after a while he said, “Are you about finished with your need to talk about her?”  

Annoyed, I replied, “I might be. Why?”   

“Well, I wonder if we might want to explore why you are hanging all of your anxiety on that poor woman’s bones.” 

Anxiety in all nine Enneagram Numbers is transformed into either anger, fear or shame.  In thinking about and learning from fear, it is helpful for all three numbers in the triad to remember this:

A Seven’s fear is usually focused inward.  They are afraid of what they might discover within themselves.  Fives are fearful of the outside world and their ability to navigate safely.  Sixes are fearful of both, moving back and forth between the two.  Regardless of your Enneagram number, we need to be willing to observe our resistance to reality, our attachment to self-image, and our fear.  All three apply to everyone but Fear is especially problematic for Fives, Sixes and Sevens.

Sandra Maitri described the fear of a Five in one sentence, “Fives are afraid of engulfment.”  They maintain a private inner world,  observing rather than actively participating in what goes on around them, perhaps as a means of protection. This is  driven by an inner sense of scarcity and emptiness.  Afraid that nothing will be coming to them from the outside, they “act” like they don’t want anything and don’t care.  They can begin to believe their own performance and thus  limit their expressions of wishes and desires.

Fear causes fives to become observers of life rather than active participants.  They are run from too much engagement and too much involvement.  Part of the reason for this is that they have a limited amount of energy and every encounter of any kind uses the  resource that they fear will be depleted before they get back to the safety of what is usually known and predictable.

Sixes, on the other hand, are coping with anxiety instead of fear, though the two often get conflated.  Anxiety is about possible futures and that is where most of the mental energy of a Six is invested.  They tend to deal with their anxious feelings by finding someone or something to connect with that offers a bedrock of safety.  

This can regrettably cause Sixes to trust neither themselves or anyone else.   Those not trusting themselves are referred to as Phobic Sixes.  They are overly fearful and as a result they often give their allegiance to structures and belief systems.  Those not trusting others are known as Counter-phobic, meaning they are intent on proving they are not afraid by conquering the fears that hold the most power over them.

Sevens manage their fear with a smokescreen of activity.  They are the Number on the Enneagram that can reframe any negative into a positive almost instantly.  To experience anything as other than it should be threatens to bring up buried pain and unresolved grief.  Sevens live in the magical world of their imaginations where all is, or shall be, well.

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“A quiet mind is a place of knowing and guidance that gives us confidence to act in the world.  And when these qualities are unreachable, we feel fear.”

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The Thinking triad is about finding a sense of inner guidance and support.  And it is a very challenging proposition because these personality types have lost touch with what we refer to in the spiritual tradition as the quiet mind.  These are the people who trust what is in their heads over feelings or doing.  When they are in their Personality, the mind is not naturally quiet nor is it naturally “knowing.”  Instead, it is looking for a strategy that will make it feel, at the very least, okay enough to function in the world.

Our minds have the potential to help us settle down, help us feel supported and safely aware.   A quiet mind is a place of knowing and guidance that gives us confidence to act in the world.  And when these qualities are unreachable, we feel fear.  The three numbers in this Triad each react to fear in different ways.

Fives respond by reducing their personal needs and retreating from life.  They have a sense that they are too frail and insubstantial to safely survive in the world.  It feels to them as if the only safe place is in their minds, so they use their energy to gather and stockpile information.  It’s hard for them to believe they have what is required to meet the daily demands of life, so they move, somewhat seamlessly, between home and the world, and back again, hoping that they will have a new insight or understanding to give them the security to emerge.

Sevens, by contrast, move toward life appearing to be afraid of nothing.  They are outwardly so adventurous and entertaining it can be hard to understand why they are in the Fear Triad.  They are full of fear but not of the outside world, instead  they are afraid of being trapped in emotional pain, grief and especially feelings of anxiety.  Their escape route is to plunge into activity or the anticipation of the next thing they have planned.  It takes a lot of energy to hold at bay the hurts and anxieties of life.  For Sixes, attention and energy are directed both inward and outward in a rhythm that is calming and feels somewhat safe.  When they feel anxious on the inside, they greet the world like a Seven would with action, anticipating a favorable outcome.  However, if their expectations are not met, they begin to fear they will be overwhelmed by demands from others and incapable of performing proficiently.  So, predictably, they jump back inside of themselves like Fives.  Sixes look for an authority figure who is trustworthy, strong and authoritative whom they can follow.  They lose their inner guidance by seeking guidance from others.  While they are looking for enough support to become independent, they find themselves dependent on the very people and systems they were using in their quest to trust themselves and their own ways of seeing the world.

Fives are convinced that support is either not available or it is unreliable.  As a result, they try to figure out everything on their own.  The problem is that “going it alone” means they must reduce their need for anyone.  Independence with no path to interdependence is no solution at all.

Sevens try to break away from fear by pursuing substitutes for the nurturing they think they lack.  They go after whatever they believe will make them feel secure and long for satisfaction. They respond to the lack of guidance by trying everything as if by a process of elimination they could discover the nurturing and care they are looking for. 

Living in a culture where many institutions capitalize on pedaling fear and encouraging anxiety, is very difficult for those who are in the Thinking triad.  Contemplative practices can help calm the fear.  Responding from a quiet mind will always be helpful.  And for these numbers it is essential that you trust yourself.  

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Suzanne Stabile is a speaker, teacher, and internationally recognized Enneagram master teacher who has taught thousands of people over the last thirty years. She is the author of ‘The Path Between Us’, and coauthor, with Ian Morgan Cron, of ‘The Road Back to You’. She is also the creator and host of The Enneagram Journey podcast. Along with her husband, Rev. Joseph Stabile, she is cofounder of Life in the Trinity Ministry, a nonprofit, nondenominational ministry committed to the spiritual growth and formation of adults.

Film

Film

Iggy Pop Playlist

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Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and actor. Since forming The Stooges in 1967, Iggy’s career has spanned decades and genres. Having paved the way for ‘70’s punk and ‘90’s grunge, he is often considered “The Godfather of Punk.”

Film

The Six of Wands (Tarot Triptych)

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Name:  Victory, the Six of Wands
Number: 6
Astrology: Jupiter in Leo
Qabalah: Tiphereth of Yod

Chris Gabriel March 22, 2025

The Six of Wands is the highpoint of the suit - the fires burn their brightest and ascend, the efforts of the past cards are rewarded here. This is individuality, notability, and power. This is a card of victory.

In Rider, we have a triumphant man dressed in laurels, with another  carried atop his wand. His horse is cloaked in green, and he is cloaked in red. All around him,  figures hold up their wands and hail him as a hero returning from a victorious campaign.

In Thoth, there are six wands, two topped by lotuses, two topped by Set-creatures, and two topped with solar disks. Flames rise from their intersections. The wands are the orange of Leo, and the background is the violet of Jupiter.

In Marseille, the six wands form an X, from which plants and flowers emanate. Qabalistically, this is the Beauty of the King.

This is the end of the republic and the rise of Caesar, when one figure stands out above the rest. As Jupiter in Leo, it is a card of nonconformity and eccentric genius, not for the sake of standing out, but for the sake of gaining power. 

Many cards in  the suit of Wands concern the difficult amassing and keeping of power. This, however, is the desired state of the suit; the Ace sparked the fire, but it burns warmest and brightest at six, and only gets more difficult from here.

The same is true of victory, it is always short lived - a temporary reward in an endless power struggle. But this period produces immense change and revaluation can occur. What was slow and tiresome before now becomes easy, the victorious powers are able to move freely.

Rider shows us that  the victorious one is a “head above the rest”, able to see past the crowds and chaos. A line from Guilliame Apollinaire’s Victoire puts it perfectly:

Victory will be above all
To see truly into the distance
To see everything
Up close
So that everything can have a new name

The “New” motif of the Three of Wands comes to fruition here as the “Make it New” is now able to occur. This is God allowing Adam to name all the animals, according to his uppermost role. This is the renaming of months after Julius and Augustus, the Revolutionary government of France creating Thermidor, a new month, for a new calendar, and far more. Ancient Christians sought to change the pagan names of the planets and zodiac. To reshape the world in one’s own image is the will of God, and those that would be as Gods. These sweeping actions are only possible at the highest point of power.

When we pull this card, we can expect to achieve our desires, enjoy the rewards of our work,and  stand out in what we do. Be sure to make good use of this time and move things forward toward your long term goals. Do not rest on your laurels.

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Chris Gabriel is a twenty four year old wizard and poet who runs the YouTube channel MemeAnalysis.

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