IN SHORT:
UPRIGHT: Strong abilities in multi-tasking, balancing priorities, time management, checklists, and flexibility. Uncanny ease, and effectiveness when handling chaotic situations.
REVERSED: Spread-thin, care work is WORK, disorganization & flustered, overwhelmed, need for recognition. Fractured sense of self.
KEEP SCROLLING DOWN FOR IN DEPTH EXPLANATION
“We all do housework; it is the only thing all women have in common, it is the only base on which we can gather our power, the power of millions of women.“
-Mariarosa Dalla Costa, “A General Strike”, Originally published in All Work and No Pay: Women, Housework and the Wages Due. Falling Wall Press. [1975]
IN DEPTH: In the Two of Pentacles, a young mother closes her eyes and tries to just focus on her breathing. This is an all important skill. She needs to get to work, but before she can even think about that, she still needs to… fold laundry, do dishes, tidy the common area, change the babies diapers, clean the bathroom, prepare a meal, and then put the baby down for bed. Truth be told each one of these tasks hides a subset of other related tasks. It’s overwhelming, exhausting and stifling to the soul. She knows that if she looses her footing even slightly it all falls apart. And so she breathes. She finds a rhythm to her breath, and all of the tasks seem to just fall in line with the gentle calming ease of her breath. Each step in rhythm.
The Two of Pentacles is calm in the face of calamity–a master multitasker. This one is very capable and can handle life’s many challenges. The true challenge facing our Two of Pentacles is finding a sense of identity and self-worth to defend against being swallowed into blackhole of housework and childcare, unwaged, often unseen, and yet completely indispensable.
monthlysmokeandmirrors.com 