Misguided Grasping

This week I'll be using the Motherpeace Tarot, created by Karen Vogel and Vicki Noble and published by U.S. Games. I'll also be using Noble's companion booklet published separately by Harper Collins. The other deck I'll be drawing from is the Toltec Oracle, a deck and book set created by Victor Sanchez and published by Bear & Co. Today's draws are the Ace of Discs and 'Miktlantekutli:'

          According to the companion book, this Ace represents a gift of earth energy - the birth of something in material form. The toddler, the acorns, and the jaguar cub all suggest resources are available for projects or opportunities if effort is applied. Miktlantekutli is the Lord of Death in Toltec lore; the impermanence of life was at the core of Toltec philosophy. Embracing this awareness meant a greater appreciation of the preciousness of life. Death was considered to be sacred because everything that was living was sustained by that which was dying. The death of a tree, its disintegration, and the return of its nutrients to the soil is an example. When we tightly grasp that which is leaving, we have no chance to welcome what comes.

The middle way is a view of life that avoids the extreme of misguided grasping born of believing there is something we can find, or buy, or cling to that will not change. And it avoids the despair and nihilism born from the mistaken belief that nothing matters, that all is meaningless.

~Sharon Salzberg