What Survives is Gold

This week I'll be using the Tarot of the Sidhe, created by Emily Carding and published by Schiffer. I'll also be using the Green Man Tree Oracle, created by John Matthews and Will Worthington with Connections as its publisher. Along with this oracle, I'll be adding information from Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom by Erynn Rowan Laurie. Today's draws are the Dancer Four (Four of Cups/Water) and the Beech:

          When I saw this card, Bruce Springsteen's "Glory Days" started playing in my head. Basically the song tells the story of people reminiscing about how good life used to be, instead of enjoying the one they have now. Again I was reminded of the words of Søren Kierkegaard: "It is perfectly true, as the philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards." Beech is sometimes included for Phagos - an additional part of the Ogham not originally used. It's message is represented by the question, "What lies beyond the threshold?" The beech is connected to written knowledge and learning, as its bark has often been carved with messages and thin slices of its wood were used for the first books. Both of these cards seem to suggest opening the mind wider than the narrow crack allowed by memories and rigid beliefs. How different my attitude might be if I were to adopt Robert Browning's ideas: "Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be" and "leave the fire ashes, what survives is gold."