The Five of Stars:

On grief, Regret and Forgiveness

The Crying Monarch depicts a monarch butterfly and a sunflower mourning five fallen stars. . What caused the stars to fall? This is a card symbolizing tragic events outside of your control — something terrible has happened. You are grieving a significant loss, failure, or regret of some kind. A heavy smoke is seen in the background, signifying the deep fog that encompasses depression and the ache of emotional pain. There is a lot to be said about the power of grief and regret: they can be both the prisons that hold us down and the catalysts that inspire us to change our lives. A person can grieve themselves into despair or use that grief to hold something important close to our hearts. You don’t have to let the grief go; you just have to transform it like clay into fuel for your spirit to keep going. But how? To move forward from the grief and regret held by the Five of Stars,, you must forgive — forgive yourself, forgive the world, forgive the circumstances, forgive those who have hurt you. Forgiveness is not weakness. It is a gift you give to yourself when you learn a lesson, when you make a mistake, when you recognize an imperfection in yourself. Forgiveness is the embracement of your humanity and the acknowledgement of the humanity of those around you.

If you’re feeling blocked:

Grief and regret may not have a physical form, but they can still weigh heavily on a person’s spirit. You might feel like all hope has been lost, a strong pessimism about the future, or a harmful attachment to traumatic events or memories. How can something with no shape or solidity have so much weight? If love is a force of nature, grief and regret are the dark matters of love: they are impossible without each other. It’s healthy to think about and process your loss or your mistake, but don’t lose sight of the love they are attached to, and don’t lose sight of the whole forest over one tree. The love you felt, the grief you feel — those are things you feel because you were courageous enough to venture into deep waters. They are a sign that your heart is working and your spirit is growing. Remember: without gray skies, blue skies would lose all meaning. That doesn’t make gray skies any less abysmal, but, like everything else, they are temporary. Better days are coming. So think of something you can do today to make tomorrow a better day, or focus on the things you loved about what it is you fear you’ve lost, and know that nothing that is saved is lost. Save what you want to keep by creating a tribute to it.

Creativity exercises:

Draw, paint, or otherwise create a sunflower going into as much detail as you can.

Create a love letter or tribute to someone who is gone that showcases the things you cherish about that person the most, or showcases all the things you come across that make you think of them

Get inspired by shooting stars: In a way, we are all shooting stars, manifested into a physical form for just the briefest moment of time.

Make something with the theme of tears: a pattern of falling tears, a poem about your tears, something in the shape of a tear drop.