Sabbats, Seasons, and Tarot Spreads

My heart ached when I turned this card over for today’s message in our Weekly Reading. It is the 5 of Pentacles, a card of hardship, poverty, and loss.

Especially coming from the warmth and love we celebrated with the 10 of Pentacles, the sudden shock, the contrast from warmth and security to the coldness and loneliness of this card is palpable. It’s real. It’s painful.

The saddest part of this card today is that this is all too real for too many people. There are truly hundreds of thousands of homeless people in the United States alone. We don’t like to think about them; we don’t want to think about them.

So we close our doors. We gather our friends and family around us, and we sit by the fire, enjoying the holidays. After all, isn’t that what Tarot just told us to do! We’re we just reminded that NOTHING MEANS MORE THAN FAMILY?

Yes, and now Tarot is tapping us on the shoulder and saying “Yes, but…” Who IS our family? Of course we have blood relatives. We have dearly loved “friends of the family” who are part of the family. And what about all those other folks…? What about neighbors? What about the service workers who trudge through the cold and snow to bring us our mail or our groceries? What about the dedicated firemen and police officers, and all the medical professionals who are “on call” despite the holiday season?

And what of the poor among us? Closing our eyes, closing our doors, closing our minds doesn’t make them go away. Nor does it make our obligations toward them go away.

Unfortunately we’re living in a world where helping others seems to have gotten a bad name. Compassion and service to others no longer seem to be preached from the pulpits or taught in our schools. People who do care about the welfare of others are termed “bleeding hearts”.

Well, folks, yes, my heart bleeds when I see living illustrations of the 5 of Pentacles. Doesn’t yours? If you can look at scenes of poverty and hardship and not be moved to tears, perhaps a bit of self-reflection is in order.

Am I being a bit harsh here? Perhaps so, but the 5 of Pentacles begs for our compassion and concern. We must do what we can. Maybe it’s only dropping a bit of loose change into a bucket for charity, but that’s better than doing nothing.

Do you have old clothes to donate to a thrift shop? Better yet, do you have old coats and jackets? Can you spare a few cans of vegetables to add to your local grocery store’s “Food Drive”? Of course you can.

Yesterday we focused on family, and now it’s time to broaden that view. We’re all family, really. We’re all part of the same human race. We’re brothers. We’re sisters. Let’s start acting like it. Let’s take care of one another.