Daily Draw- Ten of Cups (Day of the Dead)

Ghosts & Spirits Tarot- Ten of Cups

This is my very favorite card in the deck and I am always so pleased when I see it!  The Ten of Cups, the "happily ever after" card is usually a good one in most deck, but I particularly love Dia de los Muertos themes and art.

This is a traditional Mexican holiday which takes place on November 1, squarely between Halloween and Samhain, right before All Saints Day.  Despite the macabre theme, it is a jubilant celebration in which we remember the people we have loved that have passed over, and we understand that life is brief but when it's gone, love goes on and on (these are lyrics from Disney's animated Robin Hood, the scene in the hidden glen in which Maid Marien remembers her love for Robin.  If you have a nostalgia for it, you can see the clip here.  This was one of my favorite movies as a kid.).

Earlier this week, I talked a little bit about love bridging time and space, when the Two of Cups made an appearance.  Although it is cold comfort when we are missing a loved one, really death is only hard on the living, those of us left behind, and if we can be brave enough to face that pain our memories of love and warmth have enough to see us through most anything.

I live in a very happy marriage, crazy in love with a man who is absolutely perfect for me, who I couldn't have hand crafted to be a better for me.  I love him with my entire being, and I believe he feels the same.  The great paradox of this is, for me, that while I would not change a thing about my life, while Mark is absolutely my destiny and the soul mate I have been getting ready for my whole life, as well a being the one I will finish my days out with, this love does not diminish any of the ones I have had before.  I have room in my heart for this great, all encompassing love for Mark, and have probably loved him most of my life, but when I think of S, all I feel is warm and happy and grateful for that love, too.  They don't interfere with each other.

No one will ever hear me say I didn't love my kids dad, because I did, and regardless of what he may have said after the split, I believe he loved me.  I hope his now wife is what my husband is to me, but in that time and that place, there was love, and I try to keep that in mind when he is irritating me (which happens less and less as I get happier and happier).

The time and the place,and even the people, passing for a particular love, don't mean that the love has to end, even if the way we express it changes.  In fact, I believe that real love has no beginning, and no end.  Feels like I'm dreaming but I'm not sleeping (a little Mariah Carey sampling Tom Tom Club for ya'll).

"Love is from the infinite, and will remain until eternity.

The seeker of love escapes the chains of birth and death.

Tomorrow, when resurrection comes,

The heart that is not in love will fail the test."

From Thief of Sleep

by Shahram Shiva

Love is never wrong, and it doesn't simply go away.  It can be killed or denied, but real love is as infinite as the Universe.  I am comforted by this card, that this family, this man, these children, are mine for all eternity, and I am theirs, and there are bonds that cannot be broken by anything, even death itself.

This card is from Ghosts & Spirits Tarot by Lisa Hunt, published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.