It is fitting for any trickster to be known by multiple, often contradictory, stories and Sisyphus certainly enjoys such a legacy. Having cheated death not once, but twice he deserves his place in the trickster’s hall of fame. Maybe it is this truth that has caused modern western culture to center the story of his toil and existential angst over the tales of his sharp wit and anarchistic sympathies. There is little a historical text abhors more than a successful or satisfied liberationist.
Our common understanding of Sisyphus turns our toil under the rule of oligarchs into an inner existential conflict rather than an outer social crisis within a reality characterized by rampant class warfare. To free Sisyphus from his story as told by others is to free ourselves from the same.
Though we generally subscribe to the interpretations of Sisyphus as as laid out by famous absurdist philosophers, Albert Camus and Franz Kafka specifically, there are other interpretations that are much more useful to those of us who are not professional philosophers looking for a book deal. Our common understanding of Sisyphus turns our toil under the rule of oligarchs into an inner existential conflict rather than an outer social crisis within a reality characterized by rampant class warfare. To free Sisyphus from his story as told by others is to free ourselves from the same.
The Sun itself rises and sets as if it is a discus being pushed up a hill and allowed to roll back down again and again and again. This repetition of movement allows for all of life to exist upon this planet and affords both the solar and lunar deities their rest. If Sisyphus be Sol or the Sun itself, the eternal repetition is far from pointless or even mundane.
In the work of Manfred Kopfer, Sisyphus breaks off a piece of rock each time he reaches the top of the mountain. He then leaves it at the lowest point. In time this act will create level ground, effectively making Sisyphus one who moves mountains and therefore able to perform the kind of magic gods will tell us only they are entitled to enact.
In the Seven of Pentacles, we find ourselves in the midst of our work, rolling our rock up the hill. We might experience it as toil or maybe something much greater, but in either case, we are obligated in some manner, like Sisyphus, to continue.
The figure in the Seven of Pentacles leans on his hoe in either dread of the next shift or in a restful contemplation on how best to proceed with the work ahead. Work that we believe in or even love still works, it is the quality of our exhaustion that differs. Meaningless labor for the profit of others drains us and frustrates our desires to use our energy for ourselves. On the other hand, working toward a purpose both greater than ourselves and greater than profit itself can make our need for rest feel quite satisfying and comfortable.
We need work that we value and is valued by a society that rewards our efforts with not only financial compensation but due respect and ample amounts of downtime.
It is not the case that any old job is worthy of our labor as long as we do our best. How our livelihoods affect the quality of our overall life is more than simply a matter of our internal perception on effort itself. We need work that we value and is valued by a society that rewards our efforts with not only financial compensation but due respect and ample amounts of downtime.
It is a scientific fact that meaningful work or a feeling of purpose increases productivity and longevity plus it limits antisocial behavior. Prisoners assigned to dig a hole and then fill it back in day after day, go mad. Not from the labor, but the utter lack of purpose and satisfaction, they go mad from futility. It is meaning that gives life and work value not ease nor toil, but purpose.
Even Albert Camus had to admit at the end of The Myth of Sisyphus that we should understand Sisyphus as happy because ultimately the struggle towards the heights of one’s potential is enough in itself to fill the heart.
May we reject meaningless toil and elevate labors of purpose.
By Michelle Embree
Author of, Daydream Tarot: A Basic Guide for Visionaries
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