All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well." Dame Julian of Norwich
TAROT: Mother of Wands / LENORMAND: Fish, Snake, Clouds / ADINKRA: Adwo
Now that my sights are firmly fixed on the NYC election interference trial of 45, I find myself simultaneously hurled between two polar-opposite sentiments. On the one hand, I find myself reveling in the schadenfreude of 45’s misery: the courtroom is either too hot or too cold; he cannot mainline the Diet Coke to which he is addicted, because drinking it in the courtroom is not allowed. Nor can he front load his daily carbonated crutch because he cannot just get up and go to the bathroom any time he needs too. Plus, the bathroom is probably beyond disgusting to the notorious germaphobe. He probably has withdrawal headaches. He falls asleep and is caught with his head down and his mouth agape for all the world to see. Dowsy Don, right? As far as we know, he has no family or friends sitting in the gallery, and that is pretty pathetic. I suspect he would not want them there, to see him on display in such a disadvantageous light. He makes up the fact that “thousands” of his supporters are being kept in bullpens far from the courthouse Funny how these imaginary thousands are also being gagged as well, so that we cannot hear them articulate their indignation either. As 45 would say, “SAD.” He cannot refrain from flouting the gag order, and his attorney doesn’t dare poke him in the ribs for it. Instead his lawyer stands like a hostage in a kidnapping he willingly signed himself up for, having erroneously convinced himself that he would be the one to finally tame the beast that is 45. I take great pleasure in watching all of this.
At the same time, I hate that I love it. We should never be brought so low that we revel in the misfortune of others. We debase ourselves when we do so. It is the kind of moral debasement that causes otherwise rational people to justify the genocide of the Palestinian people by conflating a country with a religion so that to condemn the genocide committed by the country of Israel, to disagree with the US policy to aid and abet said genocide, is considered an act both unpatriotic and anti-Semitic. (Sorry to have flung this paragraph in the middle here, but I didn’t want it to go unsaid.) Shades of Civil Rights protests, of Viet Nam protests, of South African corporate divestiture protests on college campuses come to mind. Martin Luther King said that “anytime is the right time for right action.” Those protests, and these, too, are right action, in the right time. Protest against evil should cause discomfort and inconvenience, at a minimum. I am glad these are causing that. They have the support of both my pen and my dollars.
But anyway….. I don’t enjoy the fact that I enjoy 45’s misery. The Mother (Queen) of Wands is exactly the right card to have been summoned up today. Just as the sunflower she holds instinctively turns its face up to the sun, the Mother of Wands would never choose to unsee a thing. In this version, in Nyasha Williams’ Black Tarot, the Mother of Wands partially obscures her face with her sunflower, indicating her awareness that not everyone will agree with her take on things. Nevertheless, the Mother of Wands willingly shares her thoughts, hoping they will land in some welcoming lap somewhere, even if that lap is only the soft, yielding earth, which is the home of all of us, perpetrators and victims, guards and prisoners, judges and juries. It is important that I recognize the humanness of all the players on the stage, including 45.
Lenormand gives us Fish (Emotion), Snake (Trouble), Clouds (Disorientation), to confirm that what 45 is experiencing is difficult, painful, and will lead to his undoing, not just legally, but emotionally and mentally. In the end, I think he will be found guilty, will be required to serve time. Because of his mental condition, he will spend this time in a protected psychiatric placement. To paraphrase the poet John Donne, “any man’s [debasement] deminishes me.” 45 is a sign and a symptom that must be recognized and attended to in the collective. We are being shown, in human form, the consequence of racism, misogyny, classism, narcissism, and we are asked to take this consequence as commentary and object lesson. We are not what we have told ourselves we were as a country. Our faults and fault lines have been laid bare, anthropomorphized in 45. We see who we are. We have choice about who we decide to become, both individually and as a nation. The optimistic Mother of Wands would approve Dame Julian of Norwich’s comforting message which is the title for this post. Let us make this Tarot Queen and this Christian mystic out to be truth tellers, and not liars. We have that ability. We can choose to have that will.
Adinkra closes out the message with Adwo, the symbol for calm, peace, spiritual tranquility. As the trial(s) progress, and as the man unravels in front of us, I am going to do my best to see 45 through a wider lens; to be grateful for the lesson his being has unwittingly provided for the rest of us. I suspect any lesson is beyond his ken, and I will send him waves of compassion for that sad fact. May we remember John Donne’s words, that “[we] are involved in mankind.” May compassion replace schadenfreude, and may we set as our example of right conduct the clarity and creativity of the Mother of Wands.
Amen and Ase
P.S. If you’re interested in receiving a Lenormand reading, visit my website.
I agree. I dislike feeling this way, but it’s so hard to see democracy threatened.
Toward the end of his life, MLK also said, "“If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.” It's up to us to act so we are not dragged down any farther by those who would,