Card of the Day: Three of Cups

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The Wild Unknown Tarot [/caption]

Happy Full Moon in Virgo, everybody. I love this card so much. It is the literal picture of the thing that feeds me, gives me joy, helps me process the bumps, and stirs my imagination and creativity. While the Ace of Cups holds all the possibilities of the suit and the Two points to deep one-on-one connections, the Three is about the group, the community.

That Silvia Federici interview I mentioned yesterday is resonating in me like an internal bell being rung; I’ve linked to it in my profile. (Warning: it’s brutal and heartbreaking.) One detail among the many that jumped out and pierced me was about the transformation of the meaning of the word “gossip.” Etymology: late Old English godsibb, ‘godfather, godmother, baptismal sponsor’, literally ‘a person related to one in God’, from god ‘God’ + sibb ‘a relative.’ During the persecution of women as witches (and “heretics” of all genders who were preaching liberation theology), this word came to mean what it means today: idle talk. In other words, it was used to stigmatize solidarity among women.

The more I learn about the history of Europe prior to the colonization of the so-called “New World,” the more the realization grows that the roots of the pain I feel in this current sociopolitical moment are DEEP. The power of people coming together in solidarity—and especially women gathering together—was recognized by the powerful as deeply dangerous. Public torture and violence served as a warning to everyone. These methods were “developed” and exported to the colonies that became the US.

At a recent gathering of women at my house, a friend and I were cleaning up a spill in an adjacent room. The women circled around the dining table were drinking and eating and laughing. Their laughter filled the house. It’s a sound that fills me with a joy so profound that it’s hard to express.