Viewing Our Options

From the Tarot of the Sidhe, Dancer Seven (Seven of Cups); from the Green Man Tree Oracle, Gooseberry (Iphin, Ifin):

Seduced by phantoms of the mind

Reality is left behind.

―Emily Carding

When we must make an exciting choice, all the options can look like a grand adventure. But if the decision is tough - say between radiation, surgery or chemotherapy - the options can all appear as frightening monsters. It's not just that we are optimists or pessimists, it is that we fail to accept that life is full of joy and pain, of gathering and loss. Yet we don't have to view our options through one lens but simply as it is.  Gooseberry (Ifin) has berries that are sweet, but it also has sharp thorns. One trait does not eliminate the other, just as life can be hard yet still full of goodness. There is no choice that won't at some point contain both. 

Not Suitable for Recycling

From the Tarot of the Sidhe, the Star; from the Green Man Tree Oracle, Gooseberry:

Sometimes the strength within you is not a big fiery flame for all to see, it is just a tiny spark that whispers ever so softly, 'you got this, keep going'. — Anonymous

Carding suggests that rather than searching the skies for hope and answers, we should look within for our own ember. There is some wisdom in this thinking - we must take responsibility for the direction we choose to go in. Yet, based on the Gooseberry card, we might take Krishnamurti's advice to "start as if you know nothing." Gooseberry was used centuries ago to ease the pain of childbirth. In the 19th century, gooseberry bush was slang for pubic hair, from which came the saying that 'babies are born under the gooseberry bush.' Rest, reflection and recuperation are needed now. But when it is time to begin again, perhaps birthing something new would be wiser than recycling old ideas.