We’re all in this together

In this blog, I use the tarot to explore issues arising around the global financial and environmental crises

Part 1 of the reading
I recently lost a part-time job working with teens in an art program in Lowell, Ma. It provided about one-third of my income, and I subsequently lost my art studio. It all happened within a week.

Because the administrators at the job for teens didn’t want to hurt my feelings, they didn’t tell me I wouldn’t be working through the summer. They did a budget and realized they couldn’t afford to take me on but they were afraid to tell me. I only found out when I emailed to ask about the start date of the new summer schedule.

We’re all in this together. We MUST take care of each other here. We must speak honestly to each other about our finances, about job situations, about the rent we owe our landlords. We must. There is no way to handle these difficult times without honest and open communications.

I know my employers were going through a hard time. I know other employees there are scared of losing their work. I can be graceful enough to understand that they are scared, too. But I can also be upset with the lack of courage many are showing in this time of crisis. Be honest. Allow others the power they need to manage their own lives. Don’t think only about your own butt. Think about each person you work with, each client, and try to put yourself in their shoes. Be compassionate. Be fair.

The person leaving employment loses much more than money. They often lose the work friendships that go along with it, the joy of doing the work, the regular schedule that kept them sane. It’s OK to mourn this. The more you clearly and actively pinpoint what is upsetting you and you deal with it direclty, the less the grief will own you.

Part 2 of the reading
Our cores selves are so tied up in our jobs and in making money. How knocked down we feel when those are taken away. We have gorgeous children, or tremendous friends and we still think we are nothing because we have no money.

What power we could have if we tied value to our souls. What power we could have no matter what happened in the world if we felt we were worthy even if we had no cash. What authentic power we’d possess if we took all that energy and used it for meditation or reading profound spiritual works of literature, or doing rituals. What power we already have.

Most money triggers for all of us go way way back, down the paths of generations. We can study these by studying our parents’ relationship to money. Don’t look at it in black and white, they were poor and feared starving, is just one level of this. Ask yourself: How did they save money? What extras did they spend it on? What did they think of artists? What or who did they mock or disparage because of money?

It’s a way to begin untangling our social conditioning around money, and to find our healthy, pure and beautiful soul-self amidst the chaos. We’re going to have to go through these shifts no matter what. How we handle them — with fear or grace — is profoundly up to us.

I am a tarot reader: www.creativetarot.com

Tarot cards for this reading were:
Page of Swords, Ace of cups reversed, Emperor, King of Coins reversed, Three of coins reversed, Five of coins, Ace of rods reversed, Nine of swords, Four of swords, Seven of cups, Page of rods.