"I'm hard at it, working stubbornly on a series of different effects (grain stacks) but at this time of year the sun sets so fast that it's impossible to keep up with it." (Claude Monet)
TAROT: 8 of Coins / LENORMAND: Scales, Dog, Mountain / ADINKRA: Mware Wo
This morning, my partner and I went to see the wonderful Immersive Monet Exhibit here in San Diego. This Impressionist artist, known for water lilies and fields and forests wrote about painting the way some of the best writers write about writing: as though the creative urge is part of their life force, an impetus that both drives and soothes the spirit all at once. In the exhibit, one could almost feel the waves of this back and forth-ing, the need to aptly and accurately communicate through the hand and the brush what the eye observes, which, for Monet, was nature in its perpetually changing state.
In the title quote for this post, Monet laments how difficult it is to keep up, as the light is ever-changing. This writer is in full sympathy with Monet, as the landscapes about which I write: politics, race, metaphysics, are also in constant flux. Today, I had myriad subjects from which to choose: that the craven Court is running out the clock; that 45 must finally pay the Piper; that women are treated like hollowed out dolls with rape-y legislative puppeteers’ hands (some of them, female) thrust up them; that McConnell’s successor will be even worse than he has been; that Texas et al are still over-policing Black people, even for the way we wear our hair, irrespective of the Crown Act; that….; that….; that;….It is hard not to feel like our painter Monet, worried that there is too much to observe, take in, and reflect so others can see too; that the day grows late and the light grows dim, in far more ways than one.
Today’s Tarot card, from The Black Tarot by Nyasha Williams speaks to this urgent need to paint or write or otherwise work, with the Eight of Coins. In this rendition, a young woman sits at her worktable which is covered with different divinatory tools which she is wielding with as much talent and skill and attention as the very best painter or writer. She is absorbed in her task, doing work she was born to do as surely as Monet was born to interpret the light in Giverny; as surely as my hands are meant for this keyboard. It is right and good that we engage in the work we are called to do. It is also the case that, when the light is lost, however one wants to take that, there are antidotes one would do well to apply.
Today’s Lenormand cards, from my own Erika’s Lenormand of Hope show us some antidotes to fading light and spirit, with Scales, Dog, Mountain. The Scales card is not native to the Lenormand system, but is a card I asked my artist to create. I asked that she create a scale that was evenly balanced, but with daisies in one tray and coins in the other. Although such balance is not possible according to the laws of physics, it is absolutely possible according to the laws of metaphysics. Of course physics and metaphysics are two sides of the same coin. See what I did there? ;0) This is the card of cost-benefit analysis, of striving for the delicate balance, in this case, between work and rest. In fact, art can suffer when it is done from a place of constriction: one’s paintbrush can ruin a perfect canvas; one’s writing cadence can stutter-step, when desperation or haste or worry become art’s drivers. Meditation on the Scales card may be in order. The Lenormand Dog asks that the artist, whether painter or writer or diviner be a friend to their art by seeking out balance and rest. The Mountain itself is symbolic of pause, reassessment, rest, so that one’s good…better…best art can come from a refreshed place.
The Adinkra symbol Mware Wo represents commitment and perseverance. Sounds like more work, no? And yet, hard upon the Lenormand lesson, Mware Wo begs us to look closely at what we commit to and persevere at. (I know one is not meant to end a sentence with a preposition. My own cadence is stutter-stepping on that one, I suppose.) Perhaps the thing to work at in these challenging times is found in the Lenormand Scales. How can we bring physics and metaphysics to a deeper understanding of each other by understanding our selves to be as sacred as our work? The answer lies in the Mountain, at whose base we sit and ponder as we learn to be better friends to ourselves, so that our art might again soar and be seen. Thank you for the lesson, Claude Monet.
Amen and Ase
P.S. I’ve opened some space for readings. Find the information at LenormandwithErika.com
I was amazed/not surprised at how Monet’s thoughts about art are so like that of writers 🎨✍️❤️
Erika, your thoughts connecting artists like Monet with writers was right on the mark. And, as always, your thoughts on ;that... ;that... ;that... are so resonate. I CANNOT mask my outrage at the ludicrous opinions on Black hair by white folk. It's exhausting... and I'm whiter than salty grits, no butter! I can't imagine your own personal experience. You just keep doing "YOU," because it's working, and like Monet, your work is important and your message necessary!