Daily Cards: Week of September 27
Truth is the path of a listener
Hi Everyone,
Welcome to the first installment of a new weekly e-mail, Daily Cards. These are a spin-off of the daily cards I used to do on Twitter, without the character limit.
Onward,
Jessica
Image description: A hand is holding a tarot card, Page of Cups by Pamela Colman Smith for the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot. In the image a young person is holding a cup with a fish sticking out. Water flows gently in the background. Behind the card is the wood of a gray-painted porch, green grass and debris from the beginnings of fall.
September 27 | Four of Cups | A belief in magic
Around Equinox, Ignota Books shared a ritual for transitioning into Autumn by poet Bhanu Kapil.1 Through a series of actions involving water, one should “wait for the unexpected emotion that changes or charges your very real heart. And then: step through the indigo door, as Rachel Pollack said, into another world.”
I think there’s a threshold that exists only at the bottom of a very deep well. To get there, you’ll need: a willingness to trust fall; the capacity for true love (a.k.a. the ability to manage your fear);2 and a belief in magic.
September 28 | Knight of Pentacles | Move steady with an earthen hand
There’s an understandable tendency to rush through hard things, or compare our own timings to others’. But all gaits are paced differently in the underworld. And honestly, I think the more pressed you are the more dangerous. To move steady, on the other hand takes confidence, intention, and an earthen hand.
Slow-goers need not go it alone. Look for an old woman who knows how to win a big game the long way. Tell her you’ve been working so hard and you can’t see the light for the life of you. Ask her if she thinks this is normal.
September 29 | The Tower | May it be constellations you see, not just stars
Decay is one of many names for the ghosts that haunt what we think we can’t do without. But time is a protective talisman. Trust time, one more time, if you’re able. As far as I know, there’s no correlation between your readiness to start building and the next normal’s unfurling. But these things don’t get built in a day.
Do not get caught up in particulars. When the tower falls, may it be constellations you see, not just stars. As you make your way home, look for “the Pleiads…late-setting Boötes…the Bear.”3