the star
so here’s how the story goes: the gods create pandora, the first woman, to punish prometheus and the rest of men for stealing fire. pandora comes to them with a container full of pain and she opens it, releasing all manner of ill into the world. she closes it before one last thing can escape: hope.
it’s a story that’s never sat well with me, ever since i was a child devouring greek mythology. what was hope doing in that container, after all? was it a bad thing, to hope?
but on the other hand: i do get it. hope has always felt a little bit dangerous to me.
whenever the star has come up in readings i do for other folks, though, i don’t mention any of that. i say, oh, it’s hope, simple as that. as though hope is a simple thing. as though i don’t know that a potential consequence of hope is disappointment.
the thing about hope, darlings, is that it’s essential and not enough. coming in the wake of the upheaval of the tower, it can be a guiding star. but we have to make the effort to follow it, if we are to be guided.
this week’s deck: mesquite tarot
this week’s plant: lucy the succulent