What We Put Into It

From the Ship of Fools Tarot, the Five of Coins; from the Wisdom of the Four Winds, Antares/Rehua:

What you put into life is what you get out of it.

―Clint Eastwood

Researchers in the U.S. found that people of lower socioeconomic status are actually more altruistic than those higher on the economic ladder. And what happens when these kindhearted folks are in need? People reach out to help immediately. The original text by Sebastian Brant says: "He who has riches and delights in them/ paying no heed to those in need/ will be forsaken, so that he too shall beg." Antares (the summer star), known as Rehua in Māori lore, was visited on behalf of the humans by two brothers - the benevolent lord of light and the angry lord of darkness. The deity gave the first lord three baskets of knowledge, but the latter's basket was filled with pain. As the companion book explains: "Gentleness came asking and gathered seeds of hope; Anger came demanding and garnered seeds of war." The acts and attitude we carry into life will affect the quality we get out of it.