Empathic Distress

From Tarot by Caro, the Queen of Cups; from the Holitzka I Ching, Hexagram 37:

Technology amplifies empathic distress. We’re exposed daily to the world’s grief in real time. Every tragedy can feel personal, every injustice, a summons to act.

―Shermin Kruse 

Though this Queen is quite comfortable with the world of emotions, she protects her cup as a giant wave threatens to sweep it away. Seneca reminds us, “Reason wishes to give calm to our emotions, not to root them out.” Rather than indifference or drowning, logic and critical thinking can guide our actions. Shermin Kruse offers three ways to practice:

• Pause Before You Fix - expand the space between stimulus and response.
• Redraw the Circle of Concern - distinguish what can be controlled from what cannot.
• Practice Connection with Boundaries - witness and assist, without allowing empathy to become ego (their emotion is theirs).

Hexagram 37 refers to family or kinship; it is a safe place where there is a mutual sharing of support. This group is what helps us have the confidence and strength to meet the suffering in the world with compassion that has cognitive boundaries.

Responsibilities before Recreation

This week I'll be using the Hoi Polloi Tarot, published by Reiss Games. Paired with it will be the I Ching Pack, a deck and book set created by Richard Gill with Anthony Clark and published by Aquarian Press. Today's draws are the Emperor and Hexagram 37:

          There are no scented candles burning or fresh cut flowers in the starkness of the Emperor's world. He doesn't have time for such niceties, as he has a kingdom to run. He's crunching numbers to make sure people will be fed, clothed and sheltered and making sure his troops are prepared to defend. Any rabble-rousers are quickly punished so that law and order reigns. He really isn't a curmudgeon; he's just got a lot of things and people to take care of with no vacation days on the books.
          Gill gives this hexagram the title "Family Concerns" and adds: "Patience and loyalty at home will bring advantage to all members of the family." The two trigrams combine to create wood over fire, a symbol that suggest the warmth and security of a home's hearth. Both these cards remind me that as long as I have group commitments (whether family or otherwise), there will be duties that take precedence over fun at times. Today (Valentine's Day) is a good example, as I will be sitting with my MIL who has dementia, then coming home to do payroll. But that's okay; we've learned to squeeze in the pleasures among the obligations wherever we can; we don't need a special day for them.