A REVERSE TEN OF SWORDS, THE SUN, AND THE HIEROPHANT

New Tarot card story.

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“Alexa, play some music.” The streaming device on Ella’s desk started playing The Dog Song by Nellie McKay. Ella smiled and patted her little dog, Fletcher on the head. They had just themselves come back from a walk. Fletcher was now flopped half in, half out of his bed and panting. “You need a haircut.” Ella told him. She looked at the calendar tapped to the wall above her desk. Fletcher’s haircut was scheduled for next week. He would have to suffer through with his winter coat for a few more days. Ella sat down at her desk and opened her laptop. She went straight to her online bank account. Ella grinned with joy. The money was still there. It had not been a dream. The surprise inheritance that her grandmother had left her was sitting there in one giant lump sum in Ella’s savings account. It was the largest amount of money that savings account had ever held. It was the largest amount of money Ella had ever had in her possession.

Ella spun in her desk chair, laughing. No more scrimping. No more barely getting by. No more doing without. Ella couldn’t believe her luck. She had a meeting with a financial advisor this very afternoon to discuss investment possibilities and how to make her inheritance stretch even further. Ella knew that on the way to meet the financial advisor that she would stop at that boutique on the corner, the one where she did all of her window shopping and dreaming, except now she would go inside and buy something. Probably that cute embroidered dress she’d been eyeing in the window of late. Ella brought her hands together in prayer, looked up to the heavens and said “Thank you Grandmother Ester, who ever you are.”

Ella had never met her grandmother and she only knew bits of the story of why that was. Grandmother Ester had so strongly disapproved of Ella’s very Jewish father that she had cut her very own daughter completely out of her life. Ella remembered coming across an old black and white photo of a woman with a small girl. It had been tucked inside a shoebox in her mother’s closet. Ella had been in there trying on her mother’s lovely shoes. Stumbling in a pair of ridiculously high heels, she had bumped against some shelves. The box fell down, spilling its contents. “Ella, whatever are you doing in there.” Her mother said as she opened the sliding closet doors. Ella remembered her mother smiling at the site of Ella in those shoes and how that smile faded as she bent down and picked up the photo. Her mother had gazed at the picture with a look of sadness and then she picked up the box, placing the photo inside. “Enough dress-up play for the day. Out!” Ella’s mother had gently shooed her daughter out of the closet and never said a word about that picture. Ella could only guess that it had been a picture of her mother as a child with her own mother.

Ella sighed, thinking about her mom. She’d been gone for nearly seven years now and Ella missed her just as much today as the day her mother died. Ella wondered what her mother would say about Grandmother Ester leaving Ella her entire fortune. It sounded like Ella’s relationship with her mother had been quite different than the one between her mother and grandmother. Ella could not imagine her mother ever being so angry with Ella that she would cut her out of her life completely. Ella and her mom had been a team, often ganging up on Ella’s Dad to get him to take them to the beach or out for ice cream or keep the stray puppy. Dad was a push over. He always gave in to their demands. The three of them had been such a tight little family unit. Ella’s child memories were all filled with love and laughter. Ella looked over at the frame photo of the three of them sitting on her desk. It was just Ella and her dad now. Speaking of which, Ella was going to be late for her morning coffee with dad if she didn’t get a move on.

Ella slipped on her shoes, grabbed her bag and keys. She patted Fletcher on the head and said “Be good and don’t bark at the mailman.” Then she hurried out the door to walk the four blocks to the Mission Shelter. Ella’s dad spent every morning there stirring large pots of oatmeal and handing out bananas to any one who needed a meal. He used to only do it on the weekends, but since Ella’s mom passed and he retired, he spends every morning there. Sometimes he helps cook. Sometimes he hands out food and sometimes he just walks around chatting with people sitting at the tables and picking up dirty dishes. This morning, Ella found him sitting at one of the tables and chatting with some of the regulars that showed up at the Mission every morning. Ella looked at her dad. He looked a little thin, but other than that, he looked happy. She could tell that he truly loved working at the Mission and this warmed her heart.

Ella made her way to the coffee station and poured herself a mug of coffee. Then she made her way through the tables, saying ‘hello’ to some of the familiar faces, pausing here and there to ask about someone’s wellbeing. Her coffee was barely warm by the time she finally made it to where her dad was sitting. Ella’s dad stood up and hugged his daughter tight. “Good morning Sweet-pea! What’s the word mockingbird?” This was how he had greeted Ella every morning of her life. Ella smiled and took her seat. She said hello to Sam, one of the old timers who frequented the Mission and looked at her dad.

“Well…does this mockingbird ever have some news for you today.” Ella said with a grin.

COMFORT AND FIGHTING MY WAY THROUGH THE MUCK

Today's cards

2 Likes, 1 Comments - Cindy Maddera (@elephant_soap) on Instagram: "Today's cards"

I drew three cards: The Five of Pentacles, The Knight of Pentacles and The Three of Rods. Then I carefully read their descriptions. I looked at the three cards again and re-read the descriptions, but I could not figure out a way to spin them together into a tale. Probably because they were sitting too close to the now. I stared at them, long and hard and asked myself “where’s the story here?” The cards rang with a truth. You see, The Five of Pentacles represents the spiritual warmth of comfort to those in financial or physical need, like a blanket wrapping around you protecting you from the cold. Her opposite side is disorder and chaos and ruin. I feel like many of us are barely keeping ourselves wrapped up in that blanket. All it takes is for that blanket to slip from one shoulder or pulled free of one toe for us to feel the disorder, chaos and ruin.

The Knight of Pentacles, well, he’s a hard worker and he’s responsible. He has skills to get a job done, but he can also be idle and careless. He can become motionless, stagnant. I am the Knight of Pentacles flipping back and forth between hard working and stagnation. I’ve made some careless mistakes, like not anticipating the amount of coffee I would need every day. The regular old drip coffee maker is no match for a fancy espresso machine. I can’t even say that the hot mug of joe I drink every morning these days is comparable to the Americano with a shot of espresso that I would drink at the office. I might as well compare apples to oranges. They’re both a fruit. That’s the only thing they have in common. Idleness comes over me and I struggle to shake it. I was used to getting up and standing at my desk or walking the building. Now I pace through a 750 square feet of space while my dog follows me around carrying one of her stuffed animals.

That brings us to The Three of Rods, who offers great spiritual strength to someone contemplating what lies ahead. The reverse of The Three of Rods confuses me. It is “the end of trials, disappointment and trouble. I find that I want both of those things. I want the strength to contemplate but I also want all the trouble to be over and done with. Except this can be true for any time period in life. We get through this moment, only to be faced with a different set of trials, something else that must be contemplated. It’s just one big loop-d-loop. The Three of Rods is always with us whether we draw the card or not. It does not go unnoticed by me that the descriptions for two out of those three cards contains the word “spiritual”. Comforting our spirit. Strengthening our spirit.

I intended to mine these cards for creativity. So the story goes like this.

There was a great plague that swept over the land. It forced people to stay at home and venture out very rarely for food. A decree was issued that people must stay at least six feet apart. Families and friends became separated by this invisible germ wall. Working from home and homeschooling became the thing everyone did as opposed to the few who already had this life. To say that it was a great shock and struggle for many, is an understatement, but the people found ways to interact with each other. They colored uplifting messages with chalk on the sidewalks for those passing by, at the appropriate distance of course. They placed stuffed animals in windows for little kids to spot while they were out on their daily walks. They cheered out their windows for the hospital workers, who worked tirelessly to aid those stricken with this plague. The people found ways to see and visit with each other with a magical window called Zoom. There were many Zoom meetings, happy hours and birthdays. While they found some comfort in these things, they also worked hard at stopping the spread of the plague. They wore masks, washed hands, sanitized counter tops and mail and they maintained their distance from each other. All of that hard work started to pay off and little by little the doctors saw fewer patients. Then one day, they saw zero patients. The land was declared to be free of the plague and the people all went back to the way things were before.

The story the cards told was one I’ve already heard dozens of times. It is a story of overcoming trials and tribulations. I have told so many different versions of this story that I have lost count. But some stories are worth reading over and over again, especially on those days that just drag on and on and you don’t see an end in sight. Some times you need to remind yourself that there is an end to this loop. It just might be too far out at the moment for me to see it clearly, but if I put on my glasses, I can just make it out in the horizon.