62 Action

The scene doesn’t begin until the Director says, “action”! 

Film makers direction. 

Symbols and Color

• Unifying Set Image: The Club Clover – Action Axis. Signifies weapon for protection or attack.
• Common Border Color: Red – The Color of Raw Earth energy like lava.
• Background Image: A tornado of pure energy swirling in the Void of black.
• Alpha – Omega: representing one of the Motifs of the TAO.
• The Hyper Kid! Some people have been blessed (yet some teachers and
  parents can think it a curse) of having an abundance of physical vitality. Constantly in motion, this character is jumping in full extension. Once again, you have an interpretation to make: Is this person alive and vibrant, or hyperactive and out of control? Your projection will add a dimension to your reading of this card.

Implications of the Upright Position or Positive Pole

The image is of two masculine arms with hands clasped in a contest of strength. They are engaged with each other, as much as they might be against the other or for themselves. Each appears to be fully committed to stay the course until there a final outcome has been reached. Notice, I have not used, nor
was moved to say, ”victor”. In life, to stay engaged one may experience winning and losing of various engagements, but, for the Infinite Player there is only the choice to stay engaged and continue or become engaged in another game. If you see life this way, you will understand that your perception and your sense of life (Card 70 – Time) will feel like a continuous present, instead of a series of episodes your either reveled or languished or suffered through. But living is a verb that implies ACTION, and another choice is to hold life as something you act upon (Card 30 – Power and Card 32 – Aggression) or whether life acts upon you. (Card 24 – Martyrdom and Card 77 – Nexus).

Card messages in the Illuminated position.

+ Engagement

(directed acts, involvement, participation, solution, energize)

1. Jean Luc Picard declares, “Engage” and the warp drive sends the Enterprise to a new part of space. Get the hint?
2. Engagement promises something that thought and emotion cannot – direct interactive experience! Involvement calls us to: respond, compete, strengthen, experiment, refine and learn. All these are calls to action. Stay engaged! This is not a time for rest.
3. Action extends our minds into the tangible world and tests our designs or assumptions. What are you waiting for?
4. All these are calls to action: compete, strengthen, experiment, refine and learn. Stay engaged. This is not a time for rest.
5. Time for a stimulus to get things moving. Add some cash, hit the gas, or charge forward. You need a change in strategic position.
6. Any player will tell you it is better to get into the game rather than sit on the sidelines. However, now is the time to take a chance play, fight, charge in, or take the shot. You can do it!
7. Involvement calls one to: respond, compete, strengthen, experiment, refine and learn. All these are calls to action. Stay engaged! This is not a time for rest.
8. Goethe said, “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” You’ve cut enough bait. Time to learn how to fish. Catch a trophy!
9. From this card, there is a beckoning, a call for you to move, to risk. At this juncture of your life, will you at least consider taking action on your own behalf?
10. Time for a stimulus to get things moving. Add some cash, hit the gas, or charge forward. There will be a change in strategic position.
11. Satirist Erma Bombeck mused earnestly about her spiritual beliefs saying, “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could  say, “I used everything you gave me.”

Quotation that reflects the ideas in this pole…

• “Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.” ~ Andrew Jackson quoting Napoleon Bonaparte
• “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• “I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci
• “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, “I used everything you gave me.” ~ Erma Bombeck

Implications of the Reversed Position or Negative Pole

Kinetic energy is often frantic motion. It can be action without direction or progress. (Card 53 – Frequency and Card 29 – Mercurial). Try rubbing your stocking feet along a carpet sometime and then touch someone. ZAP! That shock will send someone or you right into agitation. (Card 27 – Impatience). When speaking about energy, we as humans consider it “wasted” until harnessed. That, of course, is a value judgment. For instance, we may appreciate the beauty of the Sun, or be in awe of the process of photosynthesis, yet only pay lip service to harnessing solar power to deal with our production energy needs. Why? Because, some forms of action are distraction. Finite Players, wanting the game to be in their favor or control and to “win”, prevent the actions of others rather than respond to them. If you see agitation come up in the negative pole of Action, look around and see who seems to be the one whose action is actually drawing you off task and consuming your energy. In terms of Sub Personalities, we call this pattern saboteur.

Card messages in the Shadow position.

– Agitation

(enmeshment, reaction, motion, chaos, push. pull, flounder, reaction)

1. Action implies a directed course or at least interplay between forces. What seems to be happening is someone is merely “going through the motions” and nothing more.
2. Agitation is action without purpose or interaction. Life is acting upon you like a rag in a wash cycle! Energy is expended but little is attained or procured. Cease motion for its own sake.
3. Are you taking real action, or just acting out? The difference is spinning your wheels but not advancing.
4. Goethe said, “knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough we must do.” You’ve cut bait long enough, start fishing! Minnows are an OK catch. Go for the trophies once you get the knack of it.
5. Your actions are being met with resistance at every turn. Stop your action for now and rest. 
6. Actor and pork sausage king Jimmy Dean nailed it about right action, “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” No matter what the situation, don’t wait for conditions to change, you change your reactions to the conditions.
7. If you have every heard the aphorism “a chicken with its head cut-off” it refers to how the autonomic nervous system will cause a body to shake or move uncontrollably. If you’ve experienced a trauma of such blunt force, sit down and recenter as quickly as you can. Your movements may add to your difficulties.
8. Life is acting upon you like a rag in a wash cycle! Energy is expended but little is attained or procured. Are you feeling wrung out yet? Change the situation or you might continue to be tossed around.
9. Motion is simply movement without forward progress. Action advances and produces learning. It is possible to be still, and yet be acting in a way that causes an effect? A moment of pause would be useful.

Quotation that reflects the ideas in this pole…

• “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” ~ Jimmy Dean

Relevance in the Michael Teaching

The Action Axis are comprised of Overleaves whose overall function is the containment, control, and placement of energy. Once the design or the form occurs within the Expression function, it falls next to application and utilization of what has been created. The energy dimensions of Actions are how much and how little (scope or volume), top or bottom, and how fast or how slow(speed). These are all control settings once a system has been turned on under the Expression heading. Thus, the volume of energy expended, and with proper moderation,  at the right time and place, is effective control with leads to success.

Action Overleaves and roles then are about putting in motion and grounding ideas and making them substantive and reproducible.

The dimensions in these  Overleaves can be seen as Perseverance and Aggression as a measure of speed, Submission and Dominance as a measure of bottom & top position, and the imbued in the Roles of Warrior and King show a preference for seeing the entirety of scope, or exerting the application of resources. A Warrior his sword, a King his Kingdom.

An Essence ignoring the choice of any of the qualities the Action Axis holds, is choosing to create a Personality without any of these Overleaves may be seen a deliberate omission. Why that omission was made is the subject for self exploration. Perhaps the Essence’s assessment of the skills or competencies under this Axis were sufficiently developed and of little or no concern to it for the lifetime. Either because Life Task does not focus such priorities because it have already achieved competencies already; or because the lacking of any Action in the Overleaves matrix might deliberately hinder or force unique adaptations which trigger growth.

Cultural Meaning

The Artist and the Businessman as seldom roles carried out by the same person. One seeks the other as the creator and the implementer; the one who has the idea and then the one who employs it or sells it in some way. So to, the theoretician or strategist is not always the best soldier on the battlefield , yet without whom the battle would have no plan of attack.

Symbiosis between these functions happens in business all the time. One can see the same interactivity in the function of the legislator expressing the “will of the people” in proposed laws, and the enactment and enforcement of the law as being a part of the executive branch. However, in both cases, the effectiveness or that interaction may be hindered because of other factors; namely, they do not inspire compliance.  Lacking enforcement of laws, produces the same kind of inequity and dysfunction in an individual as it does in a government or a business that fails to keep track of its accounting. The integrity of the either depend upon follow-through and accountability. When those are absent, a rift or distortion opens like a chasm between what is expressed and what is acted upon. Disintegration of whatever system or the internal world of the individual begins.

Action then, is far more than motion. Agitation alone, in a washing machine – to make a crude analogy, has very little positive effect without the application of soap…a guiding plan, law, or direction. Getting the clothes wet, like going through the motions of action, leaves a result that is dissatisfying. Why? Because there is a sense of wasted energy and ineffectiveness. Said another way, the interpretation for an Essence might deem that a lifetime was unsuccessful in the pursuit of its Life Task (Card 68) or other significant objectives. Inaction or misplaced action doesn’t lead stagnation, however,  it leads to reaction. And without any mediating or guiding thoughtful expression to guide it, effort is wasted and in the extreme is chaotic or exhausting.

by Stephen Cocconi © 2011, Updated, 2024

For a Motivation Cards Reading or Channeled Consultation call: 209.768-4956 or email Stephen at channeling@themichaelteaching.com