This week I'll be using the Victoria Regina Tarot, a deck and book set created by Sarah Ovenall with text assistance from Georg Patterson. This tarot set was published by Llewellyn. I'll be pairing it with the
Alchemist Oracle (aka Connected and Free), a deck and booklet set self-published by Lauren Aletta. Today's draws are the Five of Coins and 'Think with your Heart:'
Could there be anything more overwhelming than to not only be cold, hungry and penniless but to also have two young children in tow? Ovenall says this was the position of many of the immigrants in the 19th century; even those with jobs worked a ridiculous number of hours in horrendous conditions for very little pay. The Alchemist card suggests that when we find ourselves or others in physical need for whatever reason, we stop trying to apply an intellectual solution and act from the heart. If I am the woman who is struggling, then perhaps I should lay my pride aside and remember Sarah Conover's words:
My suffering does not set me apart: it makes me belong. I now know that my being with whatever arises is a purification, a lens polished with which I must stand firm against the waves of segregating myself from the world.
Yet if I am the watcher, I should not be afraid to expose my tender heart and listen to it. I could see the wisdom in the words of Stephen Fulder:
Pain and joy, love of life, and fear of death know no boundaries of us and them. We can all wake up to realize that our happiness depends on the happiness of our neighbors and vice versa, and our real safety is in togetherness, not intractable conflict.
