KEYWORDS: Nurturance, sustenance.
Nurturing is one of the most important components of the female principle. It is this quality that has rendered women the caretakers of the Universe (a dubious honor, to be sure). Woman is both mother and daughter interchangeably, illustrating the capacity for the flow of nurturance. This flow creates a mutually satisfying exchange of love energy, which blurs the traditional roles of each.
The Nurturer gives us sustenance and unconditional love, as well as the momentum to give birth to our ideas, dreams and projects. Once life has sprung forth, just as with the development of children, nurturing and sustenance support the manifestation of projects–our children of the mind. This is the second card deriving from the same source as The Empress in traditional decks.
The astrological sign Cancer is associated with the Nurturer. This lunar-ruled sign shows its strength in devotion to home, family and nurturance. Trump V is nothing less than the “Mother of the World,” applying this devotion and unconditional love on a global level. The moon, lunar or yin energy urges us to immerse ourselves in our emotions and to swim and bathe in the sea of our feelings without any need for differentiation or understanding. The experience of this immersion bathes us in the joy of unconditional mother-love and the warmth and security of the womb. Part of the image I chose for this card is the Venus of Willendorf. At 60,000 years of age, she is one of the oldest work of art yet to be discovered. Patriarchal archaeologists have tried to minimize her importance by reducing her to a mere fertility charm; she is more likely an ancient rendering of the Great Goddess. Her large, pendulous breasts are filled with the life-sustaining fluid of the Universe. She appears pregnant and faceless, as she is not a particular woman, but the Mother of us all, of all life.
Beside her, two open pink hands surround the golden globe, symbolizing the way she gently cradles the world while firmly maintaining its security. The background shows a gradation of the Cancerian colors, green and blue.
Because we live in a solar (patriarchal) world, these all-important lunar qualities are vastly underrated and devalued. Even militant feminists, in their zeal to be free of limiting traditional female roles, lend unwitting support to the devaluing of this lunar side when they maintain undue focus strictly on achieving what we have been denied as women. This struggle is economically crucial but need not require the neglect or disowning of the intuitive, nurturing side of ourselves, which has long sustained life and growth on this planet. These qualities may be far more common in women, but they are not exclusive to our sex. Thus it should not be our responsibility as women to be sole caretakers of the Universe.
Drawing this card indicates that the qualities of nurturance, unconditional love and care-taking are of profound importance at this point in your life. Own your own dependency needs; nurture yourself and don’t shrink from sharing the love of which you are merely a channel. It is a time of giving and receiving. Endeavor to do this with an open heart.
