[caption id="attachment_6051" align="alignright" width="225"]
new growth on the backs of the old[/caption]
Writing in order didn't exactly work for me - probably because once I got past the obvious continuations of the one I pulled to start, I didn't know where to go next. Back to the drawing board, I suppose. Or the draw pile.
So what card did I draw? The element of Earth, in its hard-type form. All of the hard-type element cards represent those Gods of the Outside, multidimensional beings who became trapped in the three-dimensional world and had to decide what to do about it. They vacillate between incredible power and startling weakness, but are always dangerous.
The Outsider of Earth doesn't play as much of a role as his brothers and sisters, and there is a good reason for that: he's long-dead, his body and power cannibalized by his sons to create the civilization of Lemuria. They decided that the treatment of humans could not go on as it was and sought to do better by them.
His sons would argue that he sacrificed himself willingly. His siblings believe that his sons are liars and schemers. Which is true? The Outsider's not talking.
I've never been given a proper name for him, but I refer to him as Ymir and the meaning is carried clear through that choice, I think. This association works well - Ymir is associated by some scholars with the Germanic Tuisto, which is cognate with the Vedic Tvastr. Tvastr is called "chariot-maker" or Rathakara, and it was the sacrifice of the Outsider of Earth that allowed his sons to train the first human ratha to accept them as riders.
In a reading, this card suggests that the situation runs deeper than it appears and that motivations may be unclear. If it's clarifying a present situation, you should ask more questions and question your assumptions. If it's in the future, keep an eye out for cracks in the bedrock. If it's in the past, you may wish to reconsider the light the past casts onto the present.