Wise Hope

This week I'll be using the Russian Lubok Tarot, created and self-published by Eugene Vinitski and Sergey Savchenko. I'll also be drawing from the Marseille Oracle, a deck created and published by Lo Scarabeo with a little booklet written by Isa Donelli. Today's draws are the Four of Cups and Fortune:

          The Four of Cups card shows a man lying in a puddle that he could easily get out of but doesn't. Sometimes it's easier to feed our apathy and melancholy with self-centered thoughts than it is to get moving. His friend in a boat keeps throwing life preservers at him - typical of people who want to help but just don't know how to do it. Eventually, he'll figure out that no one can help people who aren't ready to receive it. The Fortune card shows a barrel that could be full of anything. It is like waking up in the morning, not knowing what the day ahead brings. But one thing is for sure: whether we think the day ahead will be awful or will be good, we'll be sure to find it.

Wise hope is not seeing things unrealistically but rather seeing things as they are, including the truth of suffering—both its existence and our capacity to transform it. It’s when we realize we don’t know what will happen that this kind of hope comes alive; in that spaciousness of uncertainty is the very space we need to act. Yes, suffering is present. We cannot deny it. Wise hope doesn’t mean denying these realities. It means facing them, addressing them, and remembering what else is present... 

—Joan Sutherland