Last Friday, I was doing intuitive Tarot and animal card readings at a local shop. Sometimes when you are doing readings you will notice that no matter how much you shuffle, one or two cards show up in most to every reading. I think of these “bad penny” cards that show up in multiple readings as being the theme, story, or energy that the collective human energy is experiencing right now. As I read for parts of the human collective, I get to see glimpses through these repeated cards of what is effecting the community.

The card that kept showing up in my readings was the Page of Cups. Many people have differing views on the court cards, but here I will only give my take on the Page of Cups. For years I have read with the late Robin Wood’s deck, and on the card there is a young blond girl by the sea shore. She holds a cup out, feeding a hummingbird water and at her hip is a pallet of paints. Over the years of growing my relationship with this representation, I have interpreted her as a person who creates art to express the feelings of the heart and a person who appreciates beauty in the simple. She feeds her heart through simple connection with nature through the hummingbird and stirs the flow of her heart in the expression of her art. She teaches us to look for the beauty around us and to connect to the simple joy in those moments.

Her pallet of paints brings the advice to create art. Now art is many things to many people. It can be cooking, painting, dancing, quilting, collage, poetry, or any type of creativity. You have to be the one who decides what you create as art. Art has this power to help us clear the mental and emotional air so we can see the true beauty of a situation. It doesn’t need to be great art to get the benefit of it, so let your inner critic take a break from berating you by taking away the importance and just let yourself play.

One story I tell when the Page of Cups comes up prominently in a reading is that I once had an art teacher who would have us do five minute warm ups before we got into our class work. One of the ones I remember was for five minutes we were to paint someone we were mad at or couldn’t stand. When we were done with the five minutes he told us to find release by either destroying the image or painting over it. This was an exercise to release what may be on our minds so we could dive deeper into our creativity. I have painted my inner critic and turned him to the wall while I create.

I think we as a collective need to be the Page of Cups, allowing ourselves time to appreciate beauty in simple moments, to express our hearts in art, and to renew ourselves in childlike play. Let this muse inspire you to create and get joy out of life.