Part of the Sky Above Earth Below Oracle Deck I created. Mixed Media

Ant (Discipline, Order)
Ant hurries along its way, ever wary of the task at hand. The perfect portrait of the selfless worker; one who will live and die for the good of the colony. Even the queen lives her life in service, doing nothing more than laying eggs to populate the colony. Some ants act as scouts, others as gatherers of food and supplies. Certain species of ant even grow their own food, acting as farmers. And when there is a threat warrior ants will attack without thought to their own lives; knowing that they are serving others. Worker ants are often skilled architects, building vast tunnels, complex homes and planning against the elements. Ants use chemical markers, like pheromones, to lay paths and to communicate with each other. Because of this ability ants easily became linked with the importance of organization and communication; and of the rich benefits of teamwork. Widely distributed, ants can inhabit almost any biome and live on every continent; except Antarctica.

In Aesop's fable the ants work all summer to store food while the grasshopper sings. In the tale, when winter comes, the grasshopper is left starving while the ants are well placed with their collected food. As a morality tale it is meant to show the virtues of hard work, the idea that idleness brings want, and that work for today is food for tomorrow. The restless and non-stop nature of ants inspires the phase 'ants in the pants' for when a person can't seem to sit still. In some South American cultures fire ants, known for their powerful bites, are used in initiation rites. Most cultures see ant as industrious workers and have stories that mirror this belief. In Greek myth the Myrmidons, legendary brave warriors, were said to be created by Zeus and sprung from the ants that populated his sacred oak tree.

When ant comes crawling into a reading it may be time to examine your own industrious nature. Are you being disciplined enough to carry out the task at hand? Is there an order to what you are doing, or are you straying about willy-nilly? Do you know how to organize your life and how to work with others to find solutions? Making their home in the soil, or in trees and logs ants are symbolic of the elements of earth, and wood.

Stars and Constellations
Teamwork, Tandem, Communication, Duty, Symbiosis