Security Systems Don’t Keep Us Safe. An Ethical, Compassionate Society Does.

This is a time when we might be tempted to indulge in extreme views. It’s an emotional time, and understandably so. However, my cards today counsel temperance, moderation, patience, gentleness. Also that we recognize that the walls and boundaries we are putting up (Nine of Wands reversed) to try to defend ourselves and our children aren’t going to keep us or them safe. Of course we will try our best. But look at the fence of wands on the Nine of Wands card. Could you slip through that fence? Of course you could.

I’m not saying this to send anyone into a panic. What I am saying is that in the end, fences, walls, boundaries, and security systems are not what keeps us safe. Someone can always slip through. Or fight their way through. Or take our own weapons and use them against us. What keeps us safe is sanity, civilization, presence, our collective sense of ethics and integrity. Those things have always been invisible, intangible. If we want to be more secure, we have to focus on those things–not physical walls and alarms and security guards. It’s easier to slip through a wall than it is to set aside your personal values.

Be calm and know that we have to patiently instill these values not just in our children but in ourselves and each other and our institutions and our way of existing in the world. We have to bring our integrity and dour compassion for others to all that we do. This is the path to safety. It’s a calm path, a path of moderation, of patience, of love, of compassion, and it’s a path for which we may need some divine guidance. The angels will help us if we ask. But we have to have faith and walk on this path with courage. This path takes strength.