Page of Pentacles and What Comes Next
In which we plan for a challenging future, because despair is not an option.
Today is a hard day. I thought I was keeping it together by keeping busy, but while putting together a playlist of protest songs last night I started crying when I heard Rhiannon Giddens singing “All You Fascists Bound To Lose” with the Resistance Revival Chorus and I didn’t stop crying for a long time. Consider this counterprogramming. Or spend today doing whatever it is you need to do to get through it and come back when you’re ready. I’ll still be here. The work will still be here.
I was planning to ignore that today is Inauguration Day, but that has proven impossible. So… I pulled out my favorite Tarot deck and asked the cards for a little consolation. I drew Page of Pentacles and, honestly, that feels exactly right. The Pentacles are coins, sure, but they’re also seeds. They hold a lot of promise, but they demand effort. Nothing comes easy with Pentacles, and I don’t expect anything to be easy as we spend the next four years—at least—pushing back against an authoritarian regime ruled by the worst excrescences of patriarchy.
I wrote about Page of Pentacles back in April, and everything I wrote then seems relevant now—the main difference being that our goals right now might be more about survival than pursuing our biggest dreams. I also get a slightly different sense of what the Pages’ liminality means as I consider this card today. We are most definitely in a moment of transition, a moment that is, I think, going to ask a lot of us to do apprentice work again—work that maybe we think we’ve outgrown. I chose Rayne Klar’s Page of Pentacles because I know this person. They are down for the cause. They’ve been through some shit, they have a lot to teach us, but they will do whatever needs doing—whether that means leading a training in what to do if you get arrested at the protest or cleaning up coffee cups and cookie crumbs after that training. A lot of the old ladies at my church are this person. (I have not ascended to their level yet, but I aspire to it.)
My card for the year ahead is Knight of Cups, and they are such a good companion for Page of Pentacles. Knight of Cups never gives up home and reminds us to do all things in love, even when—especially when—love is hard to find. And then we have the Hermit, the numerological card of the year. The Hermit makes a great mentor for these (symbolic) youngsters. Altogether, this is a powerful trio.
If you’re ready to start crafting an action plan, or if you are looking for some guidance for staying mentally and emotionally fit, allow me to recommend the latest issue of Croning, which I posted yesterday. This is also a free post.
Stay in your magic, friends. We’ve got a lot of work to do.