You have been deemed the scapegoat in the situation.
What do you do? What DID you do?
This happens far more often than you think; when a group of individuals that you have professional, friendship, or family connections with, decide that everything that has happened is because of you.
Despite that not necessarily being true. It just happened that you were chosen to be the “It”
person.
In my readings, the Five of Earth card shows a mountain goat, resplendent in white fur and curved horns, being in the center of the fiery volcano, brimming with hot lava. The Full Moon on the card is partially obscured with gathering storm clouds as 5 bat-like winged creatures float in the night sky. The base and outer walls of the volcano have twisted, dark brown images of bodies and larvae, perhaps indicating that these represent human and spiritual “s&*t” that the goat traipsed upon while ascending the volcano. It is not a pretty picture, this card.
When this card appears in a reading, depending on whether it is upright or turned in reverse, it indicates either entering into a time where you are being blamed for all the bad things that has happened – or – that period of time that you were the one blamed has passed.
In Biblical history, the “scapegoat” was an actual ritual where two goats were presented to the temple priests; one was to be blessed and offered in a burnt offering to God and the other to have the participants to touch the animal to transfer their sins to the goat, who was then prayed over and taken out into the wilderness. This goat then would be consumed by wildlife and the sins would be released for the participants. In Ancient Greece, an impoverished or outcast member of the town was chosen to be the “sacrificial lamb” for the sins of the community. They would be fed and well clothed by the sinners (community) for a period of time, then sent or cast out of the city to live and survive in the country.
In my own learning, it is also the weakened runt or oldest of a flock of sheep or goats that the shepherds leave behind to satisfy the pack of wild dogs or wolves that is encroaching on the shepherd and his herd. His thoughts are to departed the area for safer pastures with as many fine, fatted animals that he can, and thus he chooses a lower-valued animal to save the rest of the flock. The wild dogs consume the offered lamb or goat, and satisfaction is given to the wolves who want to destroy everything.
Wikipedia cites a more modern and popular example of a type of sacrificial scapegoat. In the film The Bourne Legacy (2012), the subject is used: Buyer tells Cross that they are “sin eaters”, doing the “morally indefensible” but absolutely necessary thing, “so that the rest of our cause can stay pure.” The story is that a village has one person who is treated extremely well and whose job is to eat food symbolic of people’s sins, so that he assumes all their sins so that they can die in a state of grace. The sin eater is extremely old and weighed down by the sins of hundreds of people. A young man is being groomed to be a sin-eater. The old sin-eater dies and the first task the pure and innocent young man must do is eat the sins of the sin-eater including the lifetime of sins he has consumed which, by extension, includes the sins of all the thousands that have been absorbed by endless generations of sin-eaters. In other words, lured by the comforts to be provided by the adoring villagers, the young man becomes the most damnable person in history. His only hope is that one day, many years later, another young man will be similarly lured into eating all the sins that this young man will have to bear.
But back to you.
You have been chosen by the office, family, or circle of social acquaintances or locale to be the “scapegoat”. Your two choices are to fight it (and thus be considered a case of double indemnity because of your protestations), or passively absorb the accusations.
At this point, you are considering the first, and certainly questioning my thoughts on the second.
Consider this situation, a couple are torn apart by infidelity. Each blame each other for reasons why it happened, but ultimately, no matter what, only one is truly guilty -the one who has strayed first. I say that because for many couples, one partner’s sin somehow justifies the other to sin as well – not good for your image, however.
If you were not the one who cheated, then you will hear 1001 reasons why the other one DID cheat – you’re never home, never happy, never keeping the house clean, never paying enough attention, etc. While some of these things may be true in bits and pieces, despite all the conflict – YOU REMAINED FAITHFUL. So let the true guilty party rant and rave. Truth will reveal who exhibited the correct behavior.
If this is a workplace situation, document everything, including evidence of the actual situation that happened by making copies or printing out e-mails with the issues. Present them to the Boss. Present them to HR. Keep your distance and keep quietly cordial with co-workers and accusers) but get the true information into the hands of someone who will make a difference before you are asked to leave the company. If you do not take this step to reveal to HQ everything that is happening, then you do yourself no JUSTICE. Then, if you are asked to pack up your desk, you at least can tell the next employer that you were fired for being a “whistleblower”.
‘Nuff said!
