Traps and Transitions

  From the Bohemian Gothic Tarot today comes the Five of Pentacles:

A woman with a haughty demeanor stops in front of a doorway to St. Martin's church (Martin was the patron saint of beggars).  The children who cling to her have haunted looks, as if they are cold and hungry.  Crows have settled on the doorsteps, scavenging for whatever food they can find.  While the children are still very much in touch with their animal instincts of survival, the woman seems to have replaced hers with pride and prejudice.  This card encourages us to avoid the traps of the ego and to reach out for help when a need exists.

     The card pulled from the Oracle of Shadows and Light today is the "Angel de los Muertos:"

Dia de los Mueros (Day of the Dead) is a festival in Mexico and other Hispanic communities that celebrates loved ones who have passed, but does it in such a way that death seems a natural part of life not to be feared.  There are other types of death than the physical, such as when a person becomes so overwhelmed with life they want to give up - "I just want to die."  This angel reminds those who have come to those hard, devastating places that they don't have to allow life to crush them.  Life is a constant process of creation, and sometimes we have to allow a cycle to end and pick up the thread of another.