Tarot for the Times: 7 of Coins

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7 of Coins. It's as if my deck knows that the theme of this past month has been 'That's a lot to hold.'

Looking at this card, I know deeply the feelings expressed on the man’s face. He holds on to all of these coins, the full weight on his tired back. He has been walking with them for some time. Seeing the beetle makes him stop and think.

One of the many reasons I’ve named my publication ‘Fool’s Gold Editorial’ is that I want to more regularly extend the invitation to myself (and to anyone who reads this) to examine whether the things we’ve been holding at such high value are really worth that much at all. When I see the man breaking under the weight of all those gold coins, I am returned to this invitation. Is the gold worth more than freedom? Than a chance at a softer, connected, more meaningful life?

Those of us in ‘the West’ are born into a society that inherently values gold coins far more than most anything else, and really, it would be more truthfully said that we must value them, for if you don’t, you’ll end up as one of the people cast out to live on the streets. Valuing gold coins above anything else— quality time with loved ones, physical health, creativity, joy, sustainability, etc. — is the only way to survive in America. It’s hard to focus on finding a way to get free when all your focus goes towards trying to survive and provide for your family.

But what if the value of the gold coins was not in what they could buy, but in how they could be wielded as a weapon, a tool, when hurled against the pyramids behind the man? For just one person, the thought of doing so would be terrifying. To put yourself up against an entire pyramid, with everything you possess? Questions of post-coin-throwing survival would undoubtedly begin to arise. It’s a spiral intimidating enough to stop most people from going any further with the thought, and maybe that’s the point. It’s easier to continue carrying your coins down the road than it is to try and turn them into a tool for liberation. Especially if everyone else has agreed to uphold the status quo.

But what if everyone put their coins down? What if we worked together to imagine the kind of world that would supersede these coins?

For me, the beetle— the thing that makes a person stop and think— has always been nature. Being in nature has always forced me to reckon with the fact that the things we place so much value on, will one day very soon be gone. None of us, nor our possessions, will outlive the red rock canyons of Utah or the flowering ridgelines of Mt. Tahoma.

Not only that, but nature is proof to me that we are meant to be provided for. If we as a species could go back to living as part of nature, as a caretaker rather than a master, there would be abundance for all.

But fear not, the 7 of Coins is not all doom and gloom, despite how you may be feeling after my rambling. It does come with advice.

Remember that you do not have to carry the weight of it all yourself. This is the time to gather with your community, to find ways to carry the burden of grief and loss together. We cannot get through things in life alone, no matter what you have been told.

A wise man that I have the privilege of working for often says, ‘It can be hard to see the forest through the trees.’ This card invites us to zoom out and refocus on long-term goals and strategy. Change is the only constant in life, we must create sustainable ways to move with it, to move through It. Although it can be incredibly hard when progress is slow-moving, look to the natural world for reassurance. Even an old-growth forest requires at least 1,000 years to be fully restored. 

I’m planning to start doing more of these ‘random readings’ because I’d like to get more disciplined in both my writing and intuitive practices. If you enjoyed this and would like to receive more of them, throw a heart on this post <3

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