Ramble On: Why My Inner Child Loves Led Zeppelin

Growing up, my brother got me interested in a little band you may not have heard of before. Led Zeppelin. They’re pretty good. You might like them.

Seriously though, I remember going to see The Song Remains the Same at a midnight movie, and I didn’t get it. I don’t remember much about the movie except that Jimmy Page seemed to be into some weird stuff. Something about an esoteric order called the Golden Dawn or such, I probably was told later.

Fast forward, and I now know that this is referring to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. I still don’t know much about it, but I do know that the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot card deck was created by people who were a part of the order.

Also, David Bowie, a significant influence on my interest in songwriting and performance, was fascinated by the group as well.

Well, here’s the connection to today’s article.

While at the Northwest Tarot Symposium, the closing workshop was put on by a person named Ethony. I don’t know Much about her either. However, I am open to Interesting experiences and perspectives.

Ethony was great. Full of spunk and energy.

I don’t remember the name of her presentation, but it had to do with releasing your inner child.

Before the session began, she had us each pick out a small mesh bag filled with trinkets and small figurines. We were instructed not to look at it until told to do so.

When she got to that part, she told us to take a look at our bag of goodies and think about what each represented.

For example, I got a red and white polka-dot mushroom in mine, and it reminded me of my college days of experimentation with psychedelic mushrooms.

Don’t Jump to conclusions about Me. I only tried them three times and did it with other friends who I assure you are “normal.”

The first two times were no big deal, but the third time was marked by the night I listened to The Velvet Underground and Nico album over and over again, all night long.

So… shiny shiny, shiny boots of leather later in the workshop …

We were instructed to randomly pull out a tarot card. This represented your inner child.

I pulled the Page of Pentacles.

I asked Ethony what the meaning of the card was.

“Oh, you pulled the Hobbit card!” She exclaimed.

Oh, really? You don’t say …

Ha! Of course I did. I am Bilbo Baggins!

Next, she instructed us to close our eyes and pull out a trinket from our bag, one at a time.

The first one was put at the top of the inner child card. Mine was a red maple leaf. This represented what was actively holding you back from releasing your inner child.

I immediately thought about my consideration of wanting to keep my home and not move south because of its proximity to Canada.

The second one was put at the bottom of the card. Mine was a skeleton key. This represented what is passively holding you back.

I had almost zero association tied to the skeleton key, and it remains a mystery.

My grandparents had a skeleton key for one of their doors, but that is the only association I could think of in the workshop. I will explore this later in another article.

The third one was put to the right of the card. Mine was a little white duck. This represents the next step and action to take to release your inner child.

When I had pulled it out earlier in the workshop, the white duck immediately reminded me of the white goose that had shown up in my active imagination in Ashland, OR, at the IASD conference a month earlier.

I had brought that active imagination sequence into this Symposium, as it had continued to be on my mind.

(Note: The thumbnail for this article is a picture of the final grouping.)

Bottom line, I think I get it and got it in the moment.

However, it took me a few days to fully appreciate it.

to release my inner child, I would be wise to work on integrating my Bilbo personal myth.

He is represented by my Hermit side and my Fool side.

I lean towards the Hermit side, and that keeps me stuck.

Interestingly, this Tendency also shows up in my astrological chart.

I am a Gemini rising, and that sign is ruled by the planet Mercury. My chart is therefore ruled by the planet Mercury, too.

And Mercury is in the 12th house, with my Sun sign, Mars, and Jupiter. This is a huge stellium, I have learned, although I don’t quite know what that means.

What my chart does say is that the hermit side is found in the 12th house, and the Fool side is represented by the first house, Gemini rising.

I find this fascinating. It makes logical and intuitive sense to me, at least.

Fast forward, and I also began to see how the figures were pointing back to one of my all-time favorite songs, one by Led Zeppelin.

Ramble On

Here’s a little snippet of the lyrics:

Got no time for spreadin' roots

The time has come to be gone

And thoough our health we drank a thousand times

It's time to ramble on

In closing, there is more to unpack from this exercise.

What does the Page of Pentacles represent? I think I understand this and will share later.

What does that skeleton key symbolize? Ah, the biggest mystery.

What is the white bird (Goose/Duck) trying to tell me is the next action to take? I believe I am getting closer to a better understanding of this.

I believe it is partly the Snowbird identity, but Likely something more, too.

overall, It was an enjoyable and Fun workshop, and I enjoyed the whole conference.

As I told my friend Jennifer, this group is not Necessarily my “tribe,” per se, but they are at least “tribe” adjacent.

I could see continuing to keep up on their shenanigans.

Weird wild Stuff.