A Moment with the Cards: A Good Cry Is a Spiritual Bath Part II - Empathy & Heart of Gold

Lately, when I pull oracle cards, I find myself not fully reading into them right away. I’ll take mental notes of my first impressions, but I really have to let them marinate for a few days or even a few weeks. That’s exactly the case for the cards I’m about to share today.

First, let me call back a reading I called A Good Cry is a Spiritual Bath because it is relevant. Tears play a huge role in my interpretation of these cards today.

The cards for today are Empathy from Paradise Oracle and Heart of Gold from Oracle of Great Mystics.

A Shallow Dive Instead of a Deep One

Visually, both cards exude softness, which is what one would expect from empathy, I hope. When someone tells you that you have a heart of gold, they usually mean that you have great personality characteristics that are marked by kindness and generosity.

For the sake of time-saving, I won’t do a deep dive on my interpretation of this because my personal reflections will say more than anything I could possibly imagine in a deep dive. I’ve been told that my entire life is literature. I didn’t do any special shuffling when I pulled these cards. I simply pulled a single card from the middle of each deck. The message was quite clear.

In short, be kind to yourself and everything and everyone around you. You deserve empathy and softness.

Personal Reflections

I began this morning with a song in my head and heart, like I do most mornings. This morning, it was No More Rain by Angie Stone.

Side note: Just as I was trying to find an accurate descriptor for this, I got choked up on my water. It was probably a coincidence, but that felt like some throat chakra action—or some throat chakra attack—because I got a lot to say.

I have a pretty difficult relationship with a couple of folks in my life. One of them came to a head over this past weekend, and in true Sparkle Noir fashion, I sat down and poured out my words on paper. Lately, I’ve felt more compelled to share those words because my heart won’t settle for just keeping them in my journal or writing them down to burn them. I had to let the person know how I felt, even if they never read any of it. I believe heavily in energy being a thing that can be manipulated. The thought of energy manipulation, or what some might call magick, is a bit abstract to most people. Even for the ones who believe in it, the words escape them on how to articulate it.

One way of channeling and directing energy is to write about it—bonus points for sharing it with its intended audience. A lot of folks don’t believe in doing that because it gives the other person undeserved access and power. Not for me, though. Once I write that four-page letter, like Aaliyah sang about, I’m done. Because I’ve had the chance to think about what I wanted to express and how to express it. A few extra thoughts may come later, but I think the energy that comes through my written words is more powerful than any access a person thinks they have because I let them see. I let them feel.

When I was a child, my mom used to jokingly complain about how soft-hearted I was. I was so soft-hearted that I literally wouldn’t hurt a fly. I used to get covered in mosquito bites every time I went outside to play, and my mom would joke that I would just sit up and let them bite me. She said I’d whine a bit while it was happening, but I’d never swat them away. I’d just take the bites and itch like hell for the rest of the night and the next day. I remember some of the adults saying I had sweet blood. I guess that was the best way to describe why the mosquitoes seemed to be attracted to me, in particular. Recalling this story now, I look at how some of the relationships in my life have turned out, and I see I do a grown-up version of it today with people instead of insects.

I’ve been complimented on my heart so many times. In my romantic life—which is nonexistent at the moment—I’ve been told that I’m wonderful, only for them to ghost me and pop up with girlfriends or wives a short while later. As mean and vengeful as I want to be sometimes, I literally have a hard time doing it. I don’t do baneful work very often for this reason. In my experience, return to sender work is usually okay, but if I get to the point where I want to throw a hex at someone, it comes at a cost. Usually, the cost is my health. I’ll get a cold out of nowhere a few days after the work is done, or all of a sudden, I’ll purge everything from my body until I’m so tired and dehydrated that I can barely get off the floor. Some folks do baneful magick for a living and experience none of that. Not me, though.

“Find that template for a good life lived and model your heart after it…” is what the guidebook says about the Heart of Gold card. It also says, “…but selflessness is not supposed to be easy. You must choose selflessness, which is not self-sacrifice, demanding you surrender and bleed so that others may drink.”

The guidebook’s description for Empathy says, “It is important to be attentive to the needs of the world, to give the world what can be given, joyfully, and with pleasure.”

Given my history with both literal and metaphorical mosquitoes, I hope you’re able to pick up what I’m putting down. Doing baneful things comes at a cost—or at least it does for me—but having one of the hardest-working organs in my body that is more valuable than gold that others can apparently see the value of, too, also comes at a cost. My purpose on this planet is to help others see heaven, however that looks for them.

When I first pulled these cards, I was in a good mood. I thought the cards and my ancestors speaking through the cards were acknowledging my heart of gold and were encouraging me to be more empathetic towards myself. I still think that was part of their message, but they can see things from a perspective that I can’t. I’m sure they had an idea of what was on the road ahead a couple of weeks ago and were trying to prepare me for the way that I feel now.

Don’t let it get you down, baby.

I didn’t even think about it when I typed that. It just flew from my fingers. Then I realized I wrote it, and the dam burst. A good cry is a spiritual bath.

The point I am making is that even when the heart is aching, love should not be given up, and love manifests itself in many ways. It seems contradictory to say that I yearn for the ability to not give a damn, but I literally can’t pass a dead animal in the road without feeling chills go through my body.

I'll close this with another song. I was listening to music on YouTube as I wrote this, but had briefly switched to some gossip video about a topic I don’t care about. After a few minutes of that, I decided to turn it off, and Jhene Aiko’s Tiny Desk concert appeared in my recommended videos. I’ve watched it before. I don’t follow Jhene closely, but I appreciate her use of sound bowls and have used her more spiritual songs in my meditation and root chakra work. I turned on the Tiny Desk concert, and I immediately understood why I needed to hear it.

The intro song Jhene sang was about a woman with a heart of gold. A man broke her heart, but she ended up finding her focus and turning into a beast (in a good way).

Here are the lyrics—https://genius.com/Jhene-aiko-lotus-intro-lyrics. My logo for my main brand is my name above a lotus. Alignment.

Jhene Aiko's Tiny Desk Concert - https://youtu.be/XVMJXZYgNfc?si=XhtNU7PzQ44uylSw