An Awfully Real Gun

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Interpretation & Meaning

An Awfully Real Gun - a card from the inclusive oracle deck

Russian playwright Anton Chekhov commands:

“If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don’t put it there.”

In theater you want to simultaneously surprise and prepare the audience for the inevitable plot twist. You want it to make sense. In reality, life opens fire without a warning shot and throws all sense out of the window.

Be it a phone call, a text, a knock on your door, once s**t hits the fan you know that making sense of it will be a torturous process and that your life is forever changed.

When this card appears in a reading, something is about to shake your foundations, disrupt your certainties, figuratively bring you to your knees.

Possible references include: the loss of a loved one, the sudden lack of job security, an unforeseen separation, financial instability, a betrayal or a huge failure.

Whatever the case may be, you’ll have to deal with questions that have no answers and feelings that have no clear resolution. It will be a painful, enlightening process, something that may lead you to re-evaluate the path you’ve been walking thus far.

On a broader perspective, an awfully real gun might symbolize the structural or political crumbling of a nation, physical destruction, environmental damage, natural disaster.

As an alternative interpretation, it could hint at an exaggerated sense of vulnerability on your part. Even if there is no bad surprise around the corner, your mind might be magnifying the risk of danger and minimizing your ability to cope with it, making you feel helpless and doomed. Remember that fearing pain and uncertainty is normal, but letting that fear run your life can make life complicated.

This card ensures you can make refreshing lemonade out of all these lemons if you learn to accept the pain, the loss and the temporary lack of control.

Keywords: unsettling situation • mourning • failure • breaking down • certainties falling down • status quo collapsing • betrayal • loss • uncertainty • instability • surprise • disharmony • destruction • despair • unfathomable • fear • anxiety

Practical References

Places	Fire Station, Funeral Home, Emergency Room
Work	Funeral Director, Firefighter, Undertaker, E.R. Doctor, Soldier, Police Man, all jobs dealing with emergency or loss
Situations & Life Events	Funeral, Loss of a loved one, Emergency, Betrayal, Natural Disaster, State Collapse, Breakup. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Archetypes	The Widow, The Mourning Soul, The Scaredy Cat
Things	Emergency, Collapse, Disaster

Interpretation within the Game of Cracks

The Soil

In the Soil position, this card suggests a situation or environment characterized by uncertainty or a state of emergency. It could be a loss, a breakup, a moment of sudden financial instability. It could also be something small shedding an unsettling light on a situation or relationship previously believed to be clear and stable.

The Knot

As the Knot, this card symbolizes the tension between suffering a loss and gaining perspective from it. It's about the frustration of not finding answers and the wisdom that comes from simply asking the unfathomable questions of life. Whatever part of your world is collapsing, once the dust settles you'll be able to separate the things and people who stood strong through the storm from the ones that just were not solid enough.

The Eye

When this card shows up as the Eye, it can represent a mourning soul, someone who is processing an unsettling situation, a person who wants to get through the storm of their existence. It can also symbolize an individual who is motivated by fear and the impulse to avoid pain

The Fall

As the Fall, this card warns you against being blinded by pain or letting an unsettling situation completely hijack your life. Avoiding pain and listening to your fears might not be the right course of action.

The Hook

When this card appears as the Hook, it's an invitation to let yourself suffer, embrace your pain and just live one day at a time whatever emotional rollercoaster you're on. It can also hint at reasonable fears: if your instinct is telling you to be careful, there's probably a reason for it.

The Fruit

In the Fruit position, this card suggests an outcome that manifests itself through a new, unsettling reality. The status quo of the consultant's life will be extremely different.

Homework & Practice

In order to embody the teachings this card, you can:

Remind yourself that grieving is a highly individual process: don’t set expectations for how or when it should happen, accept feelings and reactions even if you don’t fully understand them
Think of the times in your life when the world seemed to crumble around you. Recall how hopeless and alone you felt and how you slowly made it out of the darkness.
Talk about your pain with your loved ones and don’t try to shut it down.
Ask for help: therapy can help you build the tools you need to face and overcome pain

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