I spent the entire day today in trance meditation, praying and appealing to the Gods to help the people of New Orleans.  I don't have much money and I cannot physically go down there to volunteer, so I only did what I could do to ease the crisis; I offered my services as practicing witch for the people.  This may sound strange to some, but it won't be all I will do as I plan on donating at least $10 to the Red Cross and encourage everyone who reads this to do the same.  Also, instead of going on vacation for Labor Day, stay home, pray, and gather with your loved ones to plan a way to send help to our brothers and sisters in New Orleans.

I started with a Tarot meditation, cast a circle, and asked the Gods to lend me the power to see a solution.  I asked them to answer the questions we're all asking...  What is the best thing we can do to relieve the suffering in New Orleans?  How long will it take to rebuild New Orleans?  What will resolve the problems caused in the wake of Katrina?  Will the people ever truly recover?

Key to the Answers: Six of Pentacles

A great amount of charity donations for a period of up to six months and it will take a period of six months for people to return to some sense of normalcy. I see box-like temporary shelters set up. Beware of a cold winter and a shift in the winds. Many will live a simple life that will reconnect them to the Earth. New Orleans will truly become a "new" Orleans. The Hummingbird in this card I created is very hungry and there are six flowers ripe with nectar for her to partake. The flood gates for food will open.

Current Influences:  Ace of Wands/2 of Pentacles/Devil/7 of Wands

We're already seeing the effects that these cards represent on the news. People are anxious and apprehensive. Difficulties balancing/juggling who gets or needs immediate help the most. Focus is on immediate gratification of physical needs. The Devil takes his toll on the weak. In the end, a renewed sense of strength and pride will come to the survivors. They will be defended by the military. Those leaving Iraq will come home to aid their own people here.

Answer Card: The Queen of Cups

The Queen of the Sea, Erzulie. Her Catholic counterparts are Saint Martha and Our Lady, Star of the Sea. She rules love, perpetual help, goodwill, health, beauty, and fortune. She brings benevolence, calm, and nurturing to children. Her appearance as an answering card suggests that besides monetary gifts, offerings associated with her are the things will bring enduring aid to the people of New Orleans: perfumes, bug spray, medicine, deoderant, tampons/maxi-pads, clean underwear, bottled spring water, white cigarettes, sweet treats, soap, cosmetics, shampoo, bread, tablets to purify water, white candles, bananas and other fruits. These gifts offered to the people of New Orleans in Erzulie's name will encourage this loa to lower the tide to aid in clean-up and rebuilding efforts. If you are Pagan, I suggest also setting up a prayer altar in a corner in your ritual room/space and dedicate it to Erzulie and appeal for her aid. Decorate the altar in blue and white, put out offerings of pink champagne or white wine with white sea shells or pearls, light white candles and visualize a giant white dove (a bird sacred to Erzulie and her catholic counterparts) flying over the city of New Orleans and carrying people to safety and shelter. Also to keep the people of New Orleans in your prayers, carry Erzulie's veve, use her veve as a background for your blog/web site, or knit a blanket with her veve and donate it to the survivors:
 

Side Note: Prayers and appeals to Papa Gede/Baron Semedhi will also help efforts to recover the dead and keep the dead from polluting the city. There is a great concern over disease. I had a vision of the spirits of very tall, large, thin black men with toothless smiles collecting and caring for the dead. These spirits are wading through the waters and are passing through broken buildings and abandoned houses looking for those who didn't make it through the storm. They are not morbid entities, but helpers. These kind souls promised me that families will find their loved ones and will be able to grieve properly so the spirits can rest. I believe that the men I saw were the ancestral guardian spirits of African slaves from centuries past.

I also dreamt of a giant white dove flying over the city dropping down from the clouds to carry children and women northward.  A woman's voice gently spoke to me a thick New Orleans drawl, "Don't forget my babies comin' home again."  Then I saw thousands of little white doves scattering throughout the sky and land.  I witnessed a car full of angry women trudging through high waters trying to get to higher ground.  One of them was too big to make it on foot.  Erzulie dressed in a white dove's gown, arms outstretched, reached into the car and the women floated into the air to a hill where they were discovered by men dressed in military uniform.  The big woman in the car previously could not walk and now she was walking.  I then saw a blond girl of about 18 years of age caught in a tree.  Her bare feet were bleeding and she was trying to climb up onto a roof of a house that caved in long before she could get there.  She was weeping.  The spirit of Erzulie entered me and I flew upward to comfort her.  She stopped weeping when I embraced her and a helicopter flew close by.

These are just some of the things I saw in my dreams.

And then a black man in a tattered blackish-brown business suit wearing a black cap with dark sunglasses rose out of the flood waters and approuched me.  He didn't say a word, but his smile said everything.  This was Papa Gede.  He handed me the Tarot cards: The Hermit and Three of Pentacles...

The meaning I got from seeing these cards were concerns about employment for the survivors. Those who first return to New Orleans will be hired as crews of many black men who have carpentry and construction skills. Within as little as three weeks there will be work for these men to feed their families. There are great journeys for master craftsmen to take. New Orleans is the life port of America. Guidance will come from corporate archietects who previously worked only to fatten their own wallets. Military factions previously headed for Iraq and some returning from Iraq will come home to New Orleans to help with rescue and rebuilding efforts. However some will never return to New Orleans and remain up north or west.

Already I'm seeing some of my visions coming true.  I saw a flurry of interviews.  The entertainment industry adopting families for eye-witness video accounts of the disaster.  More shelters will be needed.  I saw more caravans heading north.  A hard cold winter ahead.  Children separated temporarily from their parents and put in homes and schools while parents find/go to work.  The best success will come from keeping people hopeful.

We are all being asked to share our wealth, not just throw our money at the poor.