These days, you can’t watch the evening news or open the daily paper without seeing some reference to Occupy Wall Street and the gathering momentum of public support across the nation. There is a lot of energy circulating throughout the world as people gather in public spaces to express themselves and to participate in a historical movement.

In Portland, Oregon, there are hundreds of people camped out downtown on Main Street, between City Hall and the Department of  Justice in support of Occupy Portland. A  make-shift community has been created that holds people from diverse political backgrounds and all walks of life are represented. It is a community within a community, and from what I can tell, well-organized: there are tent structures and tarps for shelter, a working kitchen, a sanitation area, people are available to communicate with the media and to give information to the public and so on. A utopian community has been created, where people share what they have and use consensus-based decision-making to solve problems.

The glue that binds the people of this movement together is their desire to express their collective outrage in regard to how wealth is distributed in the United States as well as other countries. Wealth is distributed unequally, this is not new information. What is different about this situation is that people are communicating their opinions and expressing criticism using a collective voice. The Wheel of Fortune has stopped spinning and people have found that they have lost their shirts, literally and figuratively speaking. People are without homes, without jobs, and generally without security, but they are not without voices.

I have been keeping a watchful eye as the first days of Occupy Wall Street began. As a tarot reader, I reached for my deck of cards, shuffled the deck and asked, “What do people have to learn from this situation?” I pulled the 6 of coins.

The following will explain some of the key themes behind the message of the six of coins.

Six of Coins

A few specific situations come to mind when I see the six of coins in reading: how we give and receive in relation to others, how our sense of identity can be altered by our sense of security and how we communicate our needs effectively with those around us.

Giving and Receiving

When you see the six of coins in a reading, ask yourself how you give and receive in relation to others. It is common for people to give and receive information, money, emotional or spiritual energy, skills, resources or time. Ideally, you will want to find a balance, and make equitable exchanges with the people in your life. This is important. You cannot be the one to solely give for long without feeling depleted. Nor can you continue to just take without giving back in someway. The trick is to create an exchange that both parties see as equal. You might consider doing what you should have learned as a child: share your tools and resources and recognize when you have something of value to offer and when people need your help. It doesn’t matter what you give. Some people have money, some people have skills, some people have time, some people have information and so on. Ask yourself: What do I have to offer others? Am I always taking, or do I give back in the ways other people need?

Security and Identity

It is no secret that your self-esteem can take a beating when you lose your job, lose your home, or lose anything that has value to you. I think of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: when your base is secure and you have enough food, shelter, and a job, you are free to venture up the pyramid and take on more meaningful life situations that are beyond mere survival. When our sense of security is shaken so is our sense of identity. Ask yourself: Am I resourceful? Do I identify as someone who has enough or not enough?How am I provided for? How do I provide for others? How can tools and resources be equally distributed so all people feel a sense of security?

Effective Communication

How we communicate with others is an important part of how we are perceived by others. Sometimes people get “locked” into a stereotypical role in a relationship because a predictable pattern has been established. You become known as a provider, a tyrant, a hippie, an intellectual-the only purpose these labels serve is to categorize others. As human beings we have many faults and we have a combination of good and bad characteristics. Sometimes we make the right decisions and sometimes we make the wrong decisions. Think about the energy you bring to your relationships and consider ways you can meet the other person half way. Do you make decisions based on strictly the facts or do you let intuition guide you in the decision-making process? Do you talk more than you listen? Maybe it’s time to listen 4 times as much as you speak. Do you want to be considered caring or thoughtful? Do you want to be feared? Think about what is needed to create a situation where all people feel comfortable and heard.

Tying it All Together

I believe that the key themes of the six of coins have something of value to offer society. This card reminds us, it is not about being right or wrong, it doesn’t matter. It is about the skills and resources we all bring to the table and sharing what we have when we are able to do so. By suggesting you think about the lessons that the six of coins describes, I hope that you are able to learn something new about the people you interact with on a daily basis.

Copyright © Tarot for the Times is by Traci A. Goodrich. 2011-2012. All rights reserved.