Ignoring Dissent

Can lead to missing possible dangers

Today I encountered the following quote from

Judith Terrazas Vaquero

, published over on

Sergio Gata Trigaza ⭕️

’s Tarot newsletter:

“And then what always happens when you speak the truth out loud happened. They smiled at him. They thanked him. And then they asked him to lock the door from the outside.”

I drew a Tarot card to explore it:

The Moon. A card that I’ve always associated with a need to be wary of hidden dangers.

To my mind, the card, and that interpretation of it, speaks perfectly to the quote, and indeed to the post from which I drew the quote.¹

Some years ago, legislation was introduced by the leader of a large organization, for consideration of the membership as a whole. It was poorly conceived, and improperly presented. Most likely neither of those problems was the fault of the organization’s leader, rather the problems were overlooked by those in the group charged with reviewing legislation for issues of that sort.

I’m a member of the organization, and indeed had been the leader of it some years prior. The leader who proposed the legislation was a good friend of mine, and I knew that I could point out the problems with it to him.

But, I also knew that it would do no good.

I knew that if I did so, I would be politely listened to, they would smile at me, and thank me. And then nothing at all would be done to fix the problems.

Not because of malice, or ill intent, but simply because of inertia. The proposed legislation had already been written. Thousands of copies of it had already been sent out both electronically, and through the U.S. Mail. Discussions of it had taken place, and the vote on it, up or down, was very quickly approaching.

It would pass. Errors and problems included. Problems that would cause larger problems as it was implemented. But there was no effective way to stop it, because once inertia sets in, such things take on a life of their own.

I did stop it though.

I stopped it by going public. I wrote an expose of the problems with it, and distributed that expose widely. Once I’d done so, the problems were actually recognized by all, and the leader of the organization withdrew his proposal from consideration.

He was angry. Really angry. He felt that he had been embarrassed. Without a doubt it harmed our friendship. I understand his reaction, I may well have reacted in the same way had our positions been reversed.

But, I saved him, and the organization from making an extremely serious mistake. A mistake that would have haunted him and tarnished his legacy for years to come.

Had I done otherwise, had I instead asked for a meeting with him and his colleagues the reaction would have been:

“And then what always happens when you speak the truth out loud happened. They smiled at him. They thanked him. And then they asked him to lock the door from the outside.”

Simply because things had moved too far along. Events were set on a course that would not be stopped.

Dissent would have been crushed. Not under the boot of totalitarianism, but simply by the movement of large events already set in motion.

The symbolism of The Moon speaks directly to our need to always be on guard against dangers or problems that we aren’t seeing. Complications that we don’t envision. Issues that will catch us by surprise.

When The Moon comes up in a reading, that is the warning it gives, and that we need to receive. To communicate if we are reading for another.

I think it would be fair to conclude that I am an overly optimistic person. Very rarely do I imagine that bad things will happen, and honestly I’ve been well served by the wheel of fortune as I’ve made my way through life. But we can’t be so optimistic that we miss hidden dangers, and that is the lesson we do well to draw from The Moon.

1. El Arquitecto del Silencio