MS-0020 · The Holding · card 6 of 7
Cairn
He keeps adding stones for travellers he will never meet, and always keeps one back against his chest.
- Element
- Earth
- Tense
- Habitual
- The hand
- That could not release
The card
He kneels on high ground and sets a stone on top of a stack that many hands built before him, on a path where no one is walking. Against his chest, in the crook of his other arm, he holds three more — including the banded one, which is the one he does not place. He builds for travellers he will never meet, out of the only material he is standing on. This card holds giving and keeping in the same body, and does not rank them.
To sit with
What do you always keep back, even while you give?
Who might find their way by what you've already placed?
Related cards
The AnchoriteThe card before.Nothing holds him in but the choice he makes again every morning, and every morning he stays.
DeedThe next card.He holds the title to everything he can see, and he would rather look at it than read it.
BallastThe section's first card.Every stone he lays in the boat steadies it, and every stone makes it harder to lift.