working together

In the Thick Of It – ND #34

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IV. The Emperor – The Brady Tarot

In the Thick Of It

It seems we’re in the thick of it all. Everything we’ve sown is preparing to be reaped. Good or bad; I guess it’s in the eye of the beholder.

As I sit here feeling the frigid North Wind arrive, chilling everything it touches and stealing my breath, I ask if there is anything we should be aware of or contemplating as we take refuge from the harshness ‘outside.’

I decide to ask for a message from a deck Karl gave me for completing my 1111 Devotion, The Brady Tarot. This deck is comprised of images (hand-colored linocuts) created by Emi Brady and is accompanied by a guidebook written by the renowned author and master tarotist Rachel Pollock.

Besides the exquisite artistry, I love how this deck is dedicated to the biodiversity of North America, and a portion of the proceeds is donated to some very worthy causes (Earthjustice and the Indigenous Environmental Network).

The Cards

I chose the way I usually do, shuffling the cards with both hands and holding my question in my mind. In this instance, I simply asked what we’re learning or need to be aware of unfolding in our lives.

I chose the Emperor card with the 5 of Roots underneath (ha – at the ‘root’ of the selection).

IV. The Emperor – The Brady Tarot

IV. The Emperor

“Rules, structure, authority, Father figures, including one’s actual father, but also anyone who fulfills that role. Some mothers are more Emperor than Empress. Dominance, control, but also the security that comes from structure and rules. In a conflict, the Emperor, as you, can tell you to stand your ground.”

There is much more descriptive information contained in the guidebook. Simply viewing the image, though, and using our intuition is instructive and illuminating. Plus, it’s not as though the ‘theme’ of patriarchy hasn’t been coming up in all sorts of contexts over the past several years.

5 of Roots – Scarcity – The Brady Tarot

5 of Roots – Scarcity

“Difficult times, hardship. This is one of those cards people do not like to see in their reading. It shows a time when we cannot avoid suffering, but must carry on, with the hope of better things to come. At the same time, the figures are not alone. They help and support each other.Thus, the card can indicate a relationship in which people become closer. But what will happen if their lives improve?  Will they reap the benefits of that closeness they have forged, or will they drift apart without the glue of hardship?

(…)

A family of moose trudges through the snow of a New Hampshire winter. (…) Winters are hard for moose, for they have nothing to eat but bark and twigs. The father seems to stand alert, while the bedraggled mother leads her child on the quest for food.

(…)

The mother looks particularly ‘ghostly,’ with the father less so. What we can see of the child looks healthy.

Even in such hard times there are signs of hope. Below the ground, still not accessible to the hungry family, five grass seeds have begun to sprout. Things are bad, the card tells us, but if you carry on and help each other, change will come.”

My Take

Our ‘emperors’ – those who have been in power and have no intention of giving it up easily – or even sharing it – are front and center in our experience right now. There’s been a lot of conquest to achieve power ‘over’ hence the top of the mountain) and heads on spikes are a good indicator of that ‘taking,’ as is the clenched restraint of the eagle. Allowing the eagle to fly free and unrestrained is not an option that’s going to be willingly offered by The Emperor.

The struggle around us is going to become more stark and the refusal to cede any ground more adamant.

The ‘Scarcity’ represented by the 5 of Roots is an apt, if unfortunate, foundation. But really, does this come as a surprise to any of us? No. The result of the struggle that’s playing out in the effort to bring more equality to the situation (topple the Empire – um, I mean The Emperor) is taking, and will continue to take, a harsh toll on all of us.

Ultimately, we will be asked to work together, in community, to overcome the oppression. We’ve planted seeds of concepts that can nourish us and make our country and world stronger. Before they truly take root and flourish, we’re going to have to help each other find nurturing and sustenance where we can.

As has been told to us by so many of the oracles we’ve consulted:  realizing that those in power retain their power by dividing the rest of us and pitting us against each other, and choosing instead to work together to survive and create a better world is what will save us.

The Old Way of power over is unacceptable. Those holding that power will, sadly, do everything they can – including not only hurting us but even going so far as to ‘sacrifice’ us – to remain in control. But working together, we can save each other and ourselves and create something far better.

(T+34)

A Second, Scarier, Quarantine – Day 559

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Storm Clouds, Portal of Blue – Photo: L. Weikel

A Second, Scarier, Quarantine

Only one short year ago, I wrote about the Spotted Lantern Fly (SLF), an invasive species that is decimating forests in Pennsylvania and spreading into other states as well. In that post, I discussed the quarantine our state is under and the efforts being made to eradicate this pest. But what I found most stunning when I re-read that post a few minutes ago was my use of the word quarantine – and the weird reality of this second, scarier, quarantine we find ourselves in.

My discussion of the need for us to work together to keep the SLF from spreading seems almost sweetly naïve. I was entreating us all to work together to kill off a bug with no natural predators in order to protect our forests. And of course, I assumed we would.

Surely we would work together to fight against the spread of a ‘bug’ with no natural predators for the good of us all. Right?

Kick Off Summer Right

I don’t need to tell anyone reading this post that Memorial Day Weekend 2020 is on track to be one of the strangest any of us have experienced in our lifetimes. As a direct result of our behavior, it could very well turn out to be potentially the deadliest of holiday weekends as well.

Only time will tell if that relates to humans as well as Spotted Lantern Flies.

I’d prefer to think this is a worse time for SLFs than my fellow two-leggeds, but it will take a lot of work to make it so. That’s especially true if humans feel the need to be petulant and wilful. Especially if we demand that nothing in our lives change in order to keep each other and ourselves healthy and ‘bug-free.’

Do Our Part

There are two ways we can do our part to make things worse for Spotted Lantern Flies than ourselves and our fellow humans.

The first is to make a point to be vigilant when outside, as surely all of us will be this weekend – and throughout the summer – to be on the lookout for the bug we can see: the Spotted Lantern Fly.

Here is a great article I read today encouraging all of us to take up the cause I advocated last year.  As I said then, and as I reiterate now, it takes all of us working together to beat this scourge.

Of course, the second way we can make sure this summer is worse for the SLF than for us humans is to kill (or at least minimize the spread) of the bug we can’t see. We need to use our heads. Not be dumb. The research is out there; it shows just how virulently the Coronavirus spreads through water droplets and aerosol particles that come out of our mouths and noses through coughing, laughing, talking, and singing.

Wear a mask when out in public. Stay away (by at least six feet) from people generally  – but especially from people who don’t care enough about anyone but themselves to wear a mask.

This isn’t a case of freedom. Or liberty. Requiring people to wear masks when it is scientifically proven that masks can prevent up to 80% of the spread of Covid-19 is a simple matter of public health and welfare. The right to live in safety from the spread of a highly communicable disease (that can be carried by people who have no symptoms and may not even know they have it) ‘trumps’ the so-called ‘infringement’ on the right of anyone to refuse to wear a mask.

The rights are not equal. You do not have the right to kill me. Or my friends. Or my relatives. Or even those I may not like or do not know.

Kill the Bugs – Not Each Other

While I’m not a big fan of killing anything, truth be told, I would much prefer we all focus our attention on kicking the need for quarantines of any kind. Let’s kill those Spotted Lantern Flies. (Here’s another link to good info on this.) Let’s also kill the spread of the Coronavirus. Every time we wear a mask we do our part to starve the beast.

Call me naïve, but I do think we can work together to save us all. I’m not liking this second, scarier, quarantine. But let’s hope I’m not writing about a third quarantine next year at this time.

(T-552)

Full Moon and Invasive Species – Day 158

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Full Moon and Invasive Species

I took the photograph above as I walked out of a meeting this evening about the Spotted Lanternfly. It’s a cool photo, I think, because not only is the moon shining in all her glory, but a car was driving by at the time, its headlights illuminating a path (a choice?) facing all of us.

The moon is going to be full tonight (actually, 7:12 a.m., EDT tomorrow morning), and is obviously illuminating and bringing to fruition a number of items, both great and small.

There is the release of the (redacted version of) the Mueller Report, shedding a great deal of light on the intricacies of the conclusions reached by the Special Counsel after interviewing something like 500 witnesses and examining documents and other evidence over the course of the past 22 months.

I’m not one to routinely or voluntarily read 400+ page reports, but I’m actually considering reading this one for myself. Somehow or another, I feel like it is something I need to read and see with my own eyes in order to both believe and reach my own conclusions.

There’s so much at stake in what has been investigated, particularly with respect to the astonishingly effective and pervasive ways in which Russia interfered in our 2016 elections (although they apparently began their calculated efforts to influence discord in our system in 2014 or even earlier). This is incredibly serious and I’m almost wild-eyed with disbelief that we have not come together as a nation in absolute outrage at the idea that, basically, our country has been hacked by a foreign power.

I simply cannot fathom that this infiltration and manipulation of our country and its pride and joy, its claim to fame – our free and fair elections – is not uniting us.

To say I am dismayed and heartbroken barely covers it.

More Than One Invasive Species…

And speaking of invasive species (or countries), there is the Spotted Lanternfly, which apparently arrived in Pennsylvania in 2012 on some imported landscaping stones. Since it has no natural predators here in the U.S., it flourished and was first reported as a problem in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 2014. Pretty much the entire area of Southeastern Pennsylvania is now under quarantine.

No matter where you live, you should check out what these critters look like so, if you see them, you can report it and get rid of it. We must protect each other by making sure they do not spread into any other counties or states. So those of us who live where we are under quarantine must educate ourselves and do what we can to prevent them from hitchhiking on us, our cars, our produce, etc., to other areas.

Right now, for instance, it is also important to notice egg casings and destroy them. The way these creatures practically inundate trees when they swarm is awful and disquieting.

So it seems this full moon is revealing the existence of invasive species of a couple different kinds.

The truth upon which we will succeed in ridding ourselves of both (or all) is working together.

(T-953)