Divination week of 1/9 - 1/15/23

Decks: Tarot of the Cat People / Leaves of Grass Oracle

This week it is hard to think of anything except the endless cycle of winter storms that has pummeled the part of California where I live. As I write today, large parts of the county are under a flood evacuation warning. I am working from home, and the community college where I work has become an emergency evacuation center at the ready. As the national news has covered, large parts of the infrastructure, homes, and businesses in Capitola, Aptos, and Santa Cruz has been badly damaged or completely destroyed. The rain and wind continue.

I’ve lived here almost 30 years and never seen this extent of damage from a single storm. I even had a tree fall on the building I was working in during an early 90s El Niño year. My husband was born here and lived through major, catastrophic flooding in 1982. So experiencing damage from severe storms is not new. It just seems like the length, intensity, and sheer amount of damage of these storms is truly unprecedented.

Fittingly, this week we are visited by the Queen of Cups. In a reversed position, all the water has run out of her cup: the skies pour down endless rain, tears stream down cheeks in sorrow, and the creeks and rivers are filled to overflowing. In turn, a Queen with an empty cup is most certainly unhappy, and in response the tides and waves whip up in anger, and we are lost in a sea of tumultuous emotion. There is no sense of control - we are at the mercy of nature and of time.

Paired with this is the Friends card (from my Leaves of Grass Oracle). Indeed, one thing we can and must count on in times of crisis are our friends. Personally, I find myself in tune with the collective (I have a lot of 11th house energy) and so when I think “friends” I think not only bosom buddies but also neighbors, public service workers, and generally anyone in the community who is in a position to help another. Not only must we keep ourselves safe, we must help keep our fellow humans safe as well. A friend is, among other things, someone who we can turn to in a time of need.

As the storm rages outside, we turn our efforts toward comforting ourselves and extending comfort and care to others in the means we have available and based on the resources we have. Be careful and be safe everyone!