
My question is: "How do I take a stand when I am being condemned?" I’ve used the Tarot of Jane Austen, and I’ve pulled Four of Coins.
Sitting at the table are John Dashwood and his wife from the book Sense and Sensibility. In the back are Elinor, Marianne and their mother as fading shadows. John Dashwood has promised that he would provide for Elinor, Marianne and their mother when his father dies. He does not do it. His wife prevents it. She wants to give hardly anything to them. John is like Pilate in the passage where Jesus is convicted. He condemns Jesus but says is doing it because the mob outside the palaces wants it. We will never know if he secretly thought Jesus death served him politically, as it served John Dashwood not to give money away so he could keep it. The girls and their mother are brave, they are not well-off, but live with their heads up high, making something of their lives.
How does the card apply to me? How do I take a stand when I am condemned? When I am condemned for what I do, what occasionally does happen, it is often out of fear. It makes me upset and sad (see the faces of the three in the back), but I do not make a scene when it happens (the girls and their mother stand in the shadow). I do go on living my own life though, with my own values, in my own way and manner.