“The TAO giveth
and the TAO taketh away!”

An alteration of Old Testament, Job:1.21 

Game Changers & the Element of Surprise 

Symbols and Color

• Background Image: The Black Hole appears dark because the vast array of probabilities are so dense and pregnant with possibility, that it is the source of mystery; a cosmic birth canal from the unknown into the known, or the final fall into oblivion. The threshold happens at what is termed the Event Horizon: uncertainty of what might be. Such concentrations lie within Universe of the TAO as to rent a hole in the fabric of time and space. They introduce the variable of the unpredictable into the cosmic order itself. This image also appears as the negative pole of TAO Card 0, the Void, bringing it full circle of order within chaos.
• Border Color: White – TAO Set – Eternal Change without prediction
• Triality: Positive, Negative and Neutral. Masculine, Feminine, TAO.
• Alpha and Omega: TAO’s Book of Life, the Logos
• The Eight Ball: Symbol of Chance, Luck, or ill fortune; like “being behind the eight ball.”
• Lower Right: (Support Position): Hour Glass –  Everything is measured within Time

Implications of the Card when Upright or Illuminated

Nexus means crossroads, sometimes end roads. When this Card appears in the upright position, serendipity is upon you. In some cases, you can choose the change. In other cases, the changes happen to you. In either case, the result is generally beneficial for the moment or perhaps in the long run. Yet, it is the way that the TAO has intervened. Many might, and can rightfully believe, that synchronicity is at work, not everything is fated, nor even permanent. But like the TAO itself, it is what is right in front of you, in the here and now. It is common to feel displaced and need to reorient. What is up to you is how long you mourn or whine or revel in jubilance over the revisions. Best, to “get on with it” as soon as you recognize the evolution of circumstances.

Card messages in the Illuminated position

+ Serendipity

(Fluctuation, variance, multiplicity, transformation, liberation, synchronicity, conjunction, alteration)

1. You cannot predict the unpredictable only respond to it. If you made contingency plans to deal with the tangible, then your safety is assured. Stay awake!
2. You have just been freed up to try something completely different. Follow those bread crumbs even if they lead you into a dark forest. There is no witch to confuse you, just which way.
3. When relationships alter abruptly, their loss can, for a while, seem irreplaceable. Yet, an opening has occurred for new things to fill the gap transforming the shock into something extraordinary.
4. If something comes in from “out-of-the-blue” TAO, working with your Essence may have reshuffled the deck of probabilities to give you another chance, and sometimes to remove one.
5. Everything is topsy-turvey. This may be the luckiest day of your life. At least, find the luck in it.
6. If you have the element of surprise on your side, you can take a situation and completely shake-up the expected outcome. Seize it before it seizes you.

Implications of the Card when Reversed or Shadow

Chaos is freedom in absolute! No constraints, no discernable pattern, no reference points, nothing predictable and nothing to be taken as-granted; or expected. Many find such wildness anything but pleasant.  Now is not the time to despair but to reorient as quickly as you can. Don’t mourn losses that may, or may not, have occurred.  Whatever you thought should happen, or should have happened, it now on hold.  Reality has its own way of acting in the confluence of millions of factors that comprise it. Our plans, no matter how well designed or lain, can be vanquished in an instance. When certain options feel effectively erased you might be amazed to find that some obstacles which have blocked you have been removed. But in the greater scheme of things, you are still bound to deal with the alterations, whether you like them or not. A-Void-Dance, the negative pole of the TAO card, is still an option of choice, but then you allow circumstances to simply fall upon you; instead of picking up the pieces and seeing what you can build anew.

Card messages in the Shadow position –Erasure

(Decimation, divergence, disappearance, chaos, extinction, complication, recondite, elimination, disjunction, obliteration, conflagration,)

1. When options are suddenly decimated, the erasure can leave one stunned or reeling.  Extricate yourself from immediate trouble. Then assess what nexus of events changed to make it happen.
2. Undoubtedly things are fluctuating at this very moment! Jumbles of possibilities which don’t make sense pervade your thinking. It is difficult to get a handle on what must seem like a decimation of your plans. Wait. You’ll see how the terrain has altered once the dust has settled.
3. No one likes it when the “rug is pulled out from under them”. It could be that you’ve lost your bearings as to what you do or go from here. Remember, when one door closes, another one opens.
4. The Tower has been hit. All bets are off!
5. A relationship has altered abruptly, its loss can seem irreplaceable. Yet an opening has occurred for new things to fill the gap, transforming the shock into something extraordinary. 
6. Things have taken an interesting turn The course change will lead to an unexpected outcome.. The course change will lead to an unexpected outcome. Whether beneficial or detrimental will be determined how you respond to it.

Relevance in The Michael Teaching

A Nexus can be described a moment in time, where the trajectory of a time-line is interrupted in some way. There are 4 major ways a Nexus can occur:

1. Convergence of Parallel Realities where a blend of possible futures modify existing patterns.
2. Divergence of parallel realities such that variations of options not chosen get spun into existence leaving a person somewhat lightened to pursue their chosen course.
3. Creation of a new script supplanting the original set into your DNA and unconscious psyche…otherwise know as your Instinctive Center.
4. Erasure: A Complete deletion of time lines. It feels as if something didn’t or doesn’t exist.

Applied Michael Applications

In reality, branches of probability and opportunity are in constant fluctuation. Quantum mechanics suggests that infinite possibilities can exist but at any given moment, but once it engages you are committed to the ride. This is the basis for any reality. But the only one that counts is the one that you have the power to make a choice about what happens next.

Sometimes there is a “black swan” event. An event that is so unpredictable and rare as to note the appearance of a uncommon variant of the swan with black plumage.

Cultural Associations

“There are little cats and lions but in the Olympics sometimes the lion turns into a little cat, and the little cat into a lion.” Beach volleyball world champion Juliana Felisberta of Brazil

A reversal of fortune contrasts the sometimes stunning advances which may propel one forward on a direction which seems unstoppable. But this is what a Nexus is! An alteration in the fabric of one’s own space time destiny by reconfiguring the options available.

Ever heard of the Mandela Effect? Well the tendency to “misremeber” things or believed that events happened or did not on various date or to various persons is at the basis for what the Michael Teachings views as the appearance of a “parallel reality” interacting and possibly altering the conditions of this one. The bit of luck, bad or good, a flash chance, or a sudden collapse or opening of an option, are what we term a Nexus point. Probably the most potent one of recent history was the election of Donald Trump when several parallel realities torqued probabilities into a parallel reality that was not “destined” (i.e. probabilistically intended) to happen. It did. You have been on that trajectory ever since.

Carl Jung, Old Scholar and Analytic Psychologist, defined synchronicity, as a conditions whereby  “to describe circumstances that appear meaningfully related yet lack a causal connection.” Nexus events provide the mind opportunity to recognize these “shifts in reality” whether one attributes them to the subjective state of one’s psyche, or recognition or a large scale alteration of circumstances. In either case, the connecting factors indicate to those noticing these changes that there is a significance to them. Something that intuitively intersects some growing awareness entangles and summed into an intersection point. While not necessarily “causality” or some “intelligent design” the effect upon the person is one of new meaning and/or culmination. But when these unexpected turns of fate seemingly occur it is a crossroads where a person clinging to an identity can succumb to the psychosis of loss and “what if” or forge a new course and rise like the phoenix from the ashes.

Such synchronicities, though Jung did not openly subscribe to reincarnation, most likely would agree that a Nexus was similar to his version of synchronicity. Where parallel outcomes converged or diverged in a moment as to bring a person to face another round of adaptation (potentially growth and maturity) or to rigidify a view of the Self that rejects reality and clings to an identity, Ego structure, that would shelter it.