"Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us." Maya Angelou
TAROT: 10 of Wands / LENORMAND: Tower, Letter, Fox / ADINKRA: Nyame Dua
Tarot gives us the 10 of Wands today, via Nyasha Williams’ Black Tarot. The card depicts a woman laden with bags in her hands, wood on her head, and a baby on her back. We are wont to wonder at both her strength and her grace, as her posture is balletic, her focus clear. For those of us who are Black women, the portrayal is a familiar one, as it is the way we are both expected and perceived to walk in the world. I even carry the concept all the way through in the coffee mug that is sitting on my desk:
Black DON’T crack doesn’t mean CAN’T or WON’T, however. This 10 of Wands woman would love for a car to pull up and carry her home, put away the groceries in her hands, lay that wood on her head in the hearth and light a fire, take that baby from her back and give it a bottle so she doesn’t for once, have to be the one to do it all. In the words of poet June Jordan,
“The fathers, the children, the brothers
Turn to her and everybody white turns to her.
What about her turning around
Alone in the everyday light
There oughta be a woman can break
Down, sit down, break down, sit down
Like everybody else call it quits on
Mondays
Blues on Tuesdays, sleep until Sunday
Down, sit down, break down, sit down.”
All of today’s cards call attention to the fact that wresting respite for ourselves, from whoever thinks they have ownership of it, can be a righteous and revolutionary act. My own Erika’s Lenormand of Hope shows up today with the Tower, implying the solace of silence and autonomy. Letter implies that respite wresting is the prescription and antidote for overwhelm, and Fox is the specialist who is wise and free enough to apply balm to her own soul’s soreness before she can attend further to the world’s demands.
Adinkra’s symbol Nyame Due refers to the sacred spot where rituals are performed. For me, that spot is at the keyboard. The Nyame Dua is cut “from a tree where three or more branches come together.” Which is to say that the keyboard becomes a sacred instrument when Spirit is invoked, when I write, and when you, Dear Reader, read. What might your own sacred spot be? Why? What do you do there that makes it sacred to you?
So, whether your spirit is bent in two by bridge failings, genocide dressed as self- defense, 45’s Faustian bargain which never seems to come due, women’s bodies bartered as chattel, give yourself permission to “sit down, break down, sit down.”
And then, when you are feeling better, as you will, be that taxi driver, that fire builder, that babysitter for someone who is not. These things, too, then become altar, worship, sacred space.
Amen and Ase
Thank you for this. ❤️
A beautiful word. 💙 (My husband uses the phrase on your mug all the time. I showed him the photo and he said, "Facts!")