This weeks reading using the Tarot of the Divine speaks to the two messages of building a solid mental foundation through your daily practice, whatever this means for you, and also that no matter how bad it looks, if you return to that practice and hold hope in your heart, things will get better.

The first card is the Page of Coins, in this deck represented by Beaivi Nieda, the goddess of medicine and healing from the Sami people in the Northern regions of Norway where the Sun represents and end to the long winter. This is a Sun deity who are usually male, but here since the sun brings back fertility and plants and animals its female. Her mother, Beaivi is also the goddess of mental health as long winters can impact mental health in very harsh ways.

You may be in a long winter, but you should know that the Sun will always return, and if you have set up a solid foundation of mindfulness to fortify your center, and you know how to find your center in the midst of darkness, you will be ok.

Next a slightly more extreme example – the Star represents Hope after a disaster. In this deck represented by the Russian folk tale of Alyonushka and Ivanushka, two children left all alone in the world after the death of their parents. And to make matters worse, Ivanushka turns into a goat after drinking water from a goats hoof after a period of extreme thirst. Alyonushka is strong though and she holds hope in her heart, and soon a merchant finds them and gives them a better life. (By marrying Alyonushka, so I’m not sure if that’s my definition of being saved, but I’ll go with that for now.).

Alyonushka had a strong center of hope and she prevailed, and so will you if you cultivate this strong center and have the ability to hold hope in your heart.

Finally the most extreme example in the entire Tarot of hardship – the Tower, represented here by the German fairytale of Rapunzel. Some towers are meant to fall, and after they finally fall we may actually feel relief at the chance to start over – always with our center and our foundation which will remain.

The card shows Rapunzel and the prince falling out of the tower after Rapunzel’s hair is cut off and they are found out by the Sorceress. They then spend a period of time apart and wandering the world, Rapunzel raising twins on her own and the Prince blind and lost, but they do eventually find each other again. And what’s more they are free of this tower.

Holding on to something that is not healthy is not holding on to hope, if your tower is falling, let it fall as it was never serving you in the first place. Go back to your center and rebuild, you will be stronger and happier for it. And if your tower keeps falling, you may want to look at what your using as a foundation to build it on.