Small Piles, Big Piles

The new tarot I'll be using this week is the Ellis Deck, created and self-published by Taylor Ellis. Today's card is the Five of Pentacles:

Look closely at the bottom of this image and you'll see a bunch of grasshopper-like bugs. Ellis tells the story of a kingdom that seems to have a never-ending basket of food, until one day massive hordes of locusts consumed all the fields. The people went hungry that winter but did not despair or become angry. They knew Spring would come again, but more importantly, they learned a great lesson about living simply and taking care of the resources they had. My mom, a world traveler, was telling me yesterday how awful the present exchange rate is for the U.S. dollar; you almost have to go to a Third World country not to lose money. Americans are a lot like the folks in this story; I just hope we will wake up and become wiser stewards of what we have left.

I'll be using the Oracle of Shadows and Light this week, created by Lucy Cavendish and illustrated by Jasmine Beckett-Griffith. It is published by Blue Angel. This morning's draw is "Angel de los Muertos:"

 

Okay, what's the one card you don't want to draw after getting the Five of Pentacles? Uh-huh, the Angel of the Dead. <grin> I have a collection of gemstone skulls in my meditation room, not for morbid reasons but as a reminder. I find it interesting that the word "fast" can be an adjective that means "quick" or a noun that means "a period of abstinence." Most humans are consumed with the first meaning, as we try to gobble up as much of life in as little time as possible. Unfortunately, we rarely appreciate much of it, because we quickly move on to the next new, exciting thing. But what would happen if we chose the second meaning and paused long enough to acknowledge with gratitude what is in front of us? Would we find a wealth that encourages compassion and generosity instead of a bigger pile of stuff?

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.