6 of Diamonds.

A much nicer card this week - one which brings forth positive feelings, and longing, in my heart. 6 plates are laid out on a table, in preparation of a party, or a communal meal. Three sets of hands are helping to set the table - one with food, one with wine, one with flowers. There's appetizers, deviled eggs, a whole plate of vegetables. The plates all have the "coin diamond" pattern. The tablecloth behind them has a lovely leaf pattern. Ah, to return to the days when I could set the table for a communal dinner...!

The emotion I get (other than the longing to live in a better time) is warm, together, anticipatory. The vegetables look healthy, and that wine looks lovely! There's nothing better than sharing a glass of wine with dear friends... sigh.

The pamphlet reads "Charity" "Harmony" and "Cooperation".

Ah, I see it now... each individual is bringing something to the table. Just guessing by the hands, this might even be the same group as the 3 of Diamonds. And a potluck dinner is a wonderful example of cooperation!

My conflicting emotions are probably related to there being so little of this in my life... my husband is collaborating with me, but everyone else? Not so much. It's a hard, lonely, unharmonious time right now. I'm taking what scraps I can get (my dad is helping me be successful in the garden, at least - that's been a blessing). Most of my relationships are at least partly antagonistic - some in a good way (Cory) some not (my mother).

I don't want this to be a permanent state - I want to do... this, exactly this. Inviting people to my table, letting them bring what they have and what they are, and partaking together. Being friends. Working together, on things that matter.

May I draw this card without such painful feelings one day.

Dogme et Rituel, pg. 72.

The numbers change slightly as I choose different "views" on the reader. This is the next page in sequence.

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She(philosophy) reigned in Persia with the mages, who perished one day, as did the masters of the world, due to abusing their own powers; she has granted India her marvelous traditions and the incredible richness of her poetry, the grace and the terror of its emblems; she civilized the Greeks with the sounds of the lyre of Orpheus; she had hidden the principles of all the sciences and all the progress of the human spirit in the audacious calculations of Pythagoras; the tale was plain in her miracles, and in history, and as she endeavors to judge this unknown power, she mixes it back into a tale; she snorts at or build up empires through her oracles, making tyrants go pale upon their thrones and dominating all the spirits of curiosity or of fear. To this science, sayeth the fool, nothing is impossible; she commands the elements, knows the language of astrology and directs the march of the stars; the moon, at her voice, falls from the blood-streaked sky; the dead laid out in their tomb articulate in their fatal words the wind of the night that whistles through their skulls.

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Whew - purple prose, ahoy! But still... I'm having fun with this :) (Also: Everything really does sound better in French.)