2 of Pentacles: Balance Amidst the Tempest

Last week was full of ups and downs and twists and turns, and I was pretty happy when the weekend arrived. On Saturday I took the kids out with me to buy herbs and we discovered a new park that turned out to be a lot of fun to play at for the little ones. After dinner we stopped by the bookstore, which is popular with everyone. Aside from the endless shelves of reading material there is a train set for Gabriel to enjoy, a lego station where Lourdes loves creating complex structures, and a nice café with cookies and espresso. All the good stuff in one location!

On Sunday we couldn't leave the house for very long because people were coming to remove our old toilet and install a new one. I had no idea how long that would take, so in the morning I took the kids to the arts and crafts store and we bought some materials with which to make Halloween decorations: some bake-able clay, acrylic paints, a sugar skull wood cut-out, and a ginger bread haunted house kit. I figured that if we were going to be stuck inside all afternoon at least we could have something fun to do! Indeed we spent hours forming, baking and painting our creations, far after the fixer-man (as Gabriel called him) had gone.

Halloween/Samhain crafts
O. Destrades

After I put the kids to bed I made some tea and decided to pull cards for my week ahead. The Aquarian Tarot is one I'd admired from afar for quite a long time, and about a month ago the Italian version was on clearance for a very low price, so I snatched it up. I'm glad I did, because the combination of stark fields of white with bright, flowing color is quite interesting and beautiful. And the card backs are stunning and a pleasure to behold! I plucked the deck from my overflowing divination bookcase, and settled down to read.

I chose a card on which to focus my energies for the week ahead and pulled:

2 of Pentacles

Aquarian Tarot - Palladini

The 2 of Pentacles encourages me to balance all of the responsibilities that I'm currently experiencing in healthy ways so as to avoid the feeling of being overburdened. Yes, there's a lot to do, and I have very few moments to just "sit." But that doesn't mean I have to let my circumstances own me. It's only been just under two weeks that Jorge's been gone, and I'm still working to establish a flow in our routine. That's been difficult because the week after he left most of the kids came down with a nasty virus and are only on a significant upswing now, after nearly a full seven days of illness. So I hope that this week we'll finally be able to fall into a rhythm. And crafty activities are my friend! The Halloween activities that we did on Sunday are a great example of how to provide something engaging for the kids to do while giving me a breather or two. And I need those little breaks now and then in order to recharge my batteries, and refocus my thoughts and energies. So my goal this week will be to allow the 2 of Pentacles to guide me and help me consider positive solutions whenever I start to feel like I'm slipping under the surface.

Sometimes all we need is to see our reality reflected in the layout before us, a confirmation of what we're experiencing, and how we're feeling. And like the 3 of Cups I drew the other day, and the 2 of Pentacles today, having a clear focal point can be a powerful and effective resource to help us navigate the inevitable bumps in the road, encouraging us to think creatively, and to empower ourselves to move forward in the most positive way possible.