Tarot de St Croix - Five of Pentacles

What can I do today to help keep me on the course that will change my life for the better?

I've drawn the Five of Pentacles from the Tarot de St Croix, and at first it might seem like that is not a very encouraging card as a way to stay the course to a better life. We associate this card to feelings of being shut out and bereft. But the guide book says plainly:

'Balance your struggles with hope.'

In this scene, we see men waiting online, standing against a wall for protection against the cold wind. They are day laborers, waiting for the opportunity to work. Each day they stand on the chance that a local employer in need of manual labor will pick them up for a day's work. The selection is usually based on chance, a few men counted off and loaded into the back of a truck to be transported to the day's job.

Behind them is a church, and above them, looming and gigantic, is Our Lady of Guadelupe. The vision of the Virgin Mary took place in 1531, on a site (Tepeyac Hill, Mexico City) that had originally been a place of worship of a local goddess, the mother goddess Tonantzin, which the Spanish destroyed in 1519 to replace with a chapel to the Virgin Mary. The locals continued to worship there, and some addressed the Virgin as Tonantzin.
(Tonantzin comes from Aztec mythology and can be considered Mother Earth, Goddess of Sustenance, Honored Grandmother, Mother of Corn, Bringer of Maize.)

So, whether the Virgin Mary or Tonantzin, Gaia or Maid-Mother-Crone, we have the Goddess looming large over these men in their situation of desperation. She is a reminder not to give in to despair. Whatever our struggles, we should balance them with hope.

May the grace be given to us today to balance our struggles with hope. 

Tarot de St Croix, Devera Publishing 2013