Parting the Mists

I love this card, and it definitely hits home for our family today. Our Kiddo started college this morning, and that is definitely one type of instruction. Also, I will be making jam, which is a traditional skill I learned from my Mom (plus gardening, canning, cooking, and more). I do wish I saw more skills being passed down from parent to child, whether it’s cooking, homesteading skills, or tinkering in the garage. It may seem a little thing to teach a child to cook or garden or fish, but the time and the sharing of knowledge is important to that relationship. And you don’t have to be a parent to do this – there are many ways to be mentors today, plus aunts and uncles can be awesome mentors too!

Also, the entire spread today just seemed wonderful, so I’m sharing it too:

Blessings!

10 OF ARROWS  – INSTRUCTION

MEANING: A parent passes on skills, wisdom and ancestral ways with love and tolerance. Instruction and communication are required between the generations to help use old skills in new ways.

READING POINTS: As our young people absorb and apply ever more complex technologies with bewildering speed and uncanny ease, the gap between the generations appears to get wider every year. When we interact with the young today, we must make a conscious effort to pass on traditional wisdom and skills and make the relationship with those disciplines as vital as ever. With the coming of the industrial revolution, the traditional relationship between father and son broke down. Shared bonding experiences like hunting, fishing, and the tending of herds and fields slowly eroded. Also, for girls, the “women’s mysteries” have faded as traditional societal roles have evolved and changed and personal instructional relationships, even among women across the age gap, grow rarer.

All generations lose out if the divide becomes too wide and skills, wisdom, and arts are lost. Just as no child will ever forget the first fish he catches or the first touchdown she scores, coached and encouraged by grandpa, the pride in achievement and responsibility present in good parenting is anchored in the gift of instruction. We lose these gifts of shared experience and patience, taught through the interaction of instruction, at society’s peril.

The Wildwood Tarot by authors Mark Ryan and John Matthews and artist Will Worthington