"I HOPE YOU ALL HOLD YOURSELF TO THE SAME STANDARDS YOU HOLD BLACK WOMEN TO" EVERETTE (ON THREADS 1/2/24)
TAROT: Strength / LENORMAND: Bear, Lily, Sun / ADINKRA: Gye Nyame
I write this first post of 2024 in the hopes that everyone has had a rejuvenating few days during the holiday season, and is ready to stand firmly in the place they have decided to be planted in this new year. I love the cards that have wanted to be included in this week’s post, and I can’t wait a minute more to share them with you:
These cards are sitting on the desk where I intend to spend way more time this year than last. Last year, I sat down here only once a week, to write these articles for you. This year, I intend to be steeped in writing in new, creative, life-affirming ways. Steeping (think tea) makes a brew stronger, does it not? Choosing to become steeped in writing calls for strength to withstand the very steeping. This year is a numerology 8 year for me. As it happens, and so I’m told, humanity itself is in an 8 year, so it was perfectly apt and still a wonderful surprise when the Tarot card today, from Courtney Alexander’s Dust2Onyx Tarot showed up as Strength (8.) The more we pay attention, the more we understand that coincidence isn’t really a thing. I love that. I love Alexander’s treatment of the card, as well. Here, Strength is a Black woman. How could she not be? She wears a jeweled hibiscus at her crown, to symbolize passion and clairvoyance. At her heart, of course, is the lion. Alexander writes these wonderful words: “The lion carries Strength with honor and courage because the lion knows that dominion, wisdom, and power are its birthright.” Indeed.
Is it that which makes America hate Black women so? The fact that we embody dominion, wisdom, and power? The evidence of such hatred is all around us. The latest example is the fate of Claudine Gay, president until yesterday of my own alma mater, Harvard University. Oh, how we rejoiced to see her named! How we prayed for her safety, and yes, for her strength, for how could we not know the storm that would come her way? Did our mothers not remind us that, as Black women, we would always “have to work twice as hard to get half as far”? As Charles Blow noted today on Tik Tok, it was not anti-Semitism or failure to source-cite that forced President Gay’s resignation from office. Instead, it was an organized, concerted, well-funded movement to make sure that she and we understand the way things are supposed to be.
And how ARE things supposed to be, you may be asking. I mean, I certainly hope you are NOT asking. I hope that you already know the answer. Trump-trumping Black women judges? Black women presidents of Harvard? A Black Supreme Court Justice? That is surely not what was meant when the rules for Manifest Destiny, for Patriotism, for American Exceptionalism were crafted. We were meant to think that such possibilities might perhaps one day be realized, but deep down, wink, wink ;0) ;0) the crafters and their heirs knew this was just a ruse to get the rest of us onboard. Kind of like granting “white” status to certain immigrant groups, who could bask in the consolation that they were at least deemed to be white, and therefore, theoretically closer to power, their continued poverty notwithstanding. Such ruses caused us to bang on doors that were closed to us, demand seats at tables that were not set for us, be glad if grudging room was made for us to squeeze in, but still with no cup or spoon to call our own. It is time for other doors, other seats, other tables, I think. The ones we craft and set ourselves. And for those who don’t approve, the French have a lovely saying: Tant pis.
A white woman I know on Facebook wrote a post the other day about the fact that her “guides” had told her that racism could be eliminated by white people doing past life regressions to remind themselves of their past non-white lives. She recounted her own life as “very Black-skinned, nearly naked” I don’t even want to tell you how many white women thanked her, praised her, agreed with her. If I may be allowed to have a moment here: W T F????!!! I suggested that she and her admirers might be better served by staying present in their current white iterations and delving into the real shadow work of their participation and benefits derived from America’s original sin/wound. Crickets, of course, was the response, as so often is the case when white doors are tapped on by black hands.
Anyway…Strength is the 2024 word for me this year. That is a thing, you know, right? Picking a word for the year, rather than making a resolution? I’m doing both. Lenormand gives the reason why: Bear, Lily, Sun are wonderful cards. How does one keep one’s balance in a world dedicated to one’s unbalancing? I resolve to be this Bear: It stands planted in a clearing surrounded by trees, and I am reminded of the Black Spiritual:
“We shall not, we shall not be moved. Just like a tree standing by the water, we shall not be moved.”
Writing from that place will insure my peace (Lily) and my happiness (Sun.) Adinkra rounds out the reading with the symbol we have seen before: Gye Nyame. It means Except God. This time, I interpret it as the assurance that “No weapon formed against me (or my sisters) shall prosper.” When I am not at my desk writing this year, I will be on my couch, with popcorn, watching the great dismantling and helping to plan what could and should come after.
Amen and Ase
Such a superlative piece of writing! ❤️💐
Thanks, Nan! ❤️