Card of the Day: Three of Cups

This card is always a welcome sight. I love that warm, glowing color. It evokes that feeling of calm, juicy aliveness that happens when we feel seen, “gotten,” heard, and when we’re bubbling with curiosity about the mind and life of dear others.

All the 3’s in the Minor Arcana are associated with The Empress, an archetype that I am studying this Spring. She is all about connection. I heard a great distinction between The Empress and The Emperor on the Between the Worlds podcast episode about The Empress: instead of cataloging and counting the species of trees in a forest (The Emperor), The Empress sees how the trees are connected and related to everything in the forest. Nothing is small or unimportant. And the wisdom comes not in the so-called “objective” understanding of what’s in the forest, but in the immersion in and relationship to the web of life there.

I have been reflecting a lot this past week on my relationship to non-human beings. The way I’ve just pulled leaves off the plants in my herb garden—no asking, no thank-you. The way I’ve cut flowers for my own enjoyment—no asking, no thank-you. All the gross and subtle ways I’ve seen “nature” as both separate from me, and something that is there for my use. This is a devastating way that my own white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal conditioning has played out and impacted my life and the world around me.

So I’m also committing this Spring to attending to my relationships with non-human beings. Learning to listen, to ask, to offer something in return. To apologize for my extractive and non-consensual actions toward plants, animals, mountains and rivers. I sat by the river for awhile yesterday, and talked to the place—the land, the rocks and river. I felt so shy! I’m saddened at how much time I’ve lost in these relationships, but so grateful to be able to attend to it and repair now, with whatever time I have left in this beautiful, terrible world.

What are you working on this Spring? I’d love to hear about it.