Profoundly Positive Tarot Reading
Dec. 30th, 2006 09:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qosIt's still very quiet at my house. I'm the only one up, and I'm rested and peaceful inside, moreso than I have been recently. My daughter's birthday party last night was the last of my holiday obligations, and I feel like I'm embarking on a well-earned rest.
Tarot.com is offering members a free Celtic Cross 2007 preview reading, and as I selected my cards, I was aware that the stillness within me was far deeper than I had been able to achieve when I was doing my birthday reading.
I'm also in a different place psychologically than I was two weeks ago. Since then, I've received an email from an old friend who is an angel to me, inviting me a "Closure" gathering at her house, a time for those of us who have been working hard on personal and spiritual development to get together and recognize and celebrate the closure that many of us seem to have achieved this past year. The invitation caused me to do some serious reflecting and offline journaling, and as I was telling![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
uncrowned_king the other evening, although I spent most of last year being frustrated (and somewhat ashamed) by my lack of progress in the area of building my spiritual direction practice, I was doing a lot of other work. In fact, I suddenly had the sense that I had been building the foundation on which this coming year's achievements will be built. In the Robin Wood deck, the Four of Wands shows a couple dancing together on a raised square platform. The wands are poles at the four corners supporting a white canopy. There is a sense of festival (perhaps marriage) and the Four aspect shows that it is stable. Last year was the year I built that platform. This year I intend to raise my canopy over it and dance.
The reading is fascinating: 3 Swords, 2 Cups and 6 Major Arcana.
My comments below are in italics.
1. Self - Eight of Cups: When the Eight of Cups is in this position, you may feel as if you have been exposed or violated. Something that was private, tender and vulnerable has been unveiled. It is your choice to either be the victim in this experience or to let adversity reveal some aspect of your nature, perhaps for the first time.
Sometimes this card represents an imbalance that plays out as dysfunction before the intervention can take place. Apparently you are strong enough to gain greater strength and wisdom from this challenging experience. Don't sink into self-pity. It's not easy to pick yourself up, process the experience, and come through it stronger and wiser than before -- but you can do it.
Yes, it's time to pick myself up and dust myself off. I am stronger and wiser because of my experiences -- I've made a point of learning from them rather than giving in to being a victim (I think that's one of the blessings of being a Queen of Swords). I also suspect that the "private, tender, and vulnerable" part of me being unveiled could be my intuition and vocation, which I have sheltered to the point of stifling.
Actually, re-reading this, I think it's even more a message that I don't pre-victimize myself and assume failure before I begin. Yuck! It's bad enough to remain a victim after hardship. It's worse to take on the role before I even venture out!
2. Situation - Death
(I could have told you that! At least, this has been myhope intention!)
The Death card in this position implies that a force of nature or a change in authority may be forcing you to change your accustomed way of doing things. While you may have no control over these changes, you can control your reactions to them. It is up to you to make room for the future rather than trying to forestall it with old thinking or habits.
Face the road ahead with a courageous willingness to respond to transformational energies without any resistance to what you are facing. If you earnestly do this, then no force will be able to overcome you.
To which, of course, all we Firefly fans cry out "No power in the 'verse can stop me!" Welcome, Grim Reaper!
Challenges/Opportunities - The Moon
I confess that this card always confounds me. But I like their interpretation.
The Moon in this position is a challenge to retain a modicum of self-consciousness while you sink deeply into your primal nature. As happens at full moon, something has loosened the flood gates of the collective unconscious and you are aware of the high tide as much as anyone.
It helps if you have trained your instincts and impulses not to override your self-discipline. When reason is eclipsed by feelings, your natural and psychic intelligence can provide a safety net. Once the floodgates of the unconscious are opened, you will be self-preserving and sensitive, leaving behind old patterns. Trust that your good reflexes will respond appropriately to what your sensors tell you is going on around you.
That trust is exactly what I've been lacking.
Foundation - Five of Cups
The Five of Cups in this position suggests that sometime in the past you faced a situation of great loss and pulled yourself back from the edge of despair, starting over from scratch. You know how it's done; it's not a mystery to you. You have learned not to put too much stock in the emotions of the moment and know how to avoid compounding your misery when things go awry.
As long as your inner values remain intact, external conditions can be amended, allowing you to catch up again. This is an important thing to remember. In the face of any current discouragement, you know that not all is lost. Some people spend their lives in a state of anxiety, fearful of scarcity. You have the ability to overcome that tendency -- with the help of your personal foundation. This is a source of serenity, when you remember it.
To me, this reinforces - or perhaps informs - my interpretation of the 8 of Cups. It suggests to me as well that the fear I feel of potential hardship, embarrassment, or loss as I contemplate starting my practice, the fear of failure, is something that should be faced with the calm confidence of someone who has come through much worse and survived. I've survived and been transformed by the Initiation of the Descent. I've been plunged into the Void and learned to dance in it.
Finally, I think, I come to the heart of my fear: that if I fail in my practice it's not just a business failure, it means that I was wrong about myself, about my truth, about just about everything I've built my life on. It's not just fear that I'll be rejected, it's fear that I'll be revealed to myself as an utter fraud.
Recent Past - The Lovers
At first, of course, I thought about my new relationships, but this has a different spin.
The Lovers card in this position suggests that you recently dealt with some strong attraction or difficult choice. Perhaps something dramatic happened, some kind of split or opposition, but not necessarily. Perhaps you have been harboring two different identities, and need to create greater integration within yourself. There is probably a lesson here to do with commitment.
This gets reinforced below.
Higher Power - Ace of Swords
When the Ace of Swords presents in this position, your Higher Self is blessing you with profoundly penetrating vision. By shifting your point of focus beyond the foreground, you have achieved perspective and long-range vision. Like an archer in the woods, you are able to shoot between the trees and hit the bull's eye.
Not only are you gifted with clarity of vision, you can also have a panoramic overview at this time. You can see the whole with all its parts and all their interconnections. Be grateful that your connection with your Higher Power is open enough to grant you such perspective, insight and clear sense of direction. In gratitude and humility, ask your greater self for your best course of action. You may already have received the answer.
Not much to add to that.
Near Future - Two of Swords
In a battle of wills, compromise may be needed in order for all sides to win. Soon your communication skills will be tested.
With the Two of Swords in this position, you might soon be facing a necessary negotiation that may involve offering an apology or conceding a point in a dispute. The purpose is to facilitate a win/win outcome in a controversial situation. Your mission is to strike a bargain that confers mutual benefits, even if you can never fully agree with the opposing party. Use this situation to find common ground.
Especially in the case where sentiment is involved, you must demonstrate an attitude that is open to the possibility that there may be merit in another's position. This does not require a sacrifice of essential principles. It may require arbitration that can support the resolution of tough issues. Compromise ensures that when one partner wins, the other does not lose.
My first thought was to think about my day job, but I think it's more subtle and profound than that. I think this is about the two parts of myself implied in the Lovers card: my conservative, risk-averse self, the one who wants security and safety for myself and my child; and the veiled one, the self who has yearned all my life to break out of the frame that binds most lives, to adventure in the stars, to broaden the hearts and minds of others by translating truth and beauty hidden by unfamiliar languages. Certainly the first line of the meaning above sounds like a charge to the Journeyer.
Blocks and Inhibitions - The Star
You forget to direct your optimism toward yourself.
When the Star appears in this position, you may believe that good things never happen to you. In some ways you stand in the way of your natural brightness, goodness and truth. Remember that the same love and service you extend to those around you is also being held for you. Try not to discount or resist your blessings.
Allies - Five of Swords
The Five of Swords in this position suggests the presence of someone who is intimately familiar with the competitive, stressful, inharmonious environment you are currently struggling in. That person can help you fathom the essential motives that produce the challenges you face; as you do, you will gain valuable insights. For one, you will become aware of who is manipulating behind the scenes and why.
Perhaps you will be shown some steps or approaches that could return the operation to a higher plane of accountability, communication and clarity. This ally not only can help you dissect and analyze the situation, but will have the best advice on how to weather stress and work around distortions. So don't just trust your own hunches. Talk to someone who has been in a similar situation and has the experience and empathy to help you.
I'm not sure who this ally is. Perhaps one of the risks I need to take is reaching out for a mentor in the spiritual direction community. Or simply to turn to my own director for that wisdom. When we first spoke, one of the reasons he agreed to take me on was my sense of vocation, and his interest in mentoring those in the clergy and spiritual direction, even though my own beliefs were not exactly a match with his own. I've been too afraid, too inhibited, too fearful of shame and failure to explicitly ask for his guidance in this area. I suspect that now is the time.
Advice - Temperance
Temperance in this position advises you to identify and seek the missing ingredients in your life. Marshal your known skills and abilities and do what needs to be done to complete your mission.
Prepare to use spiritual practices, studies or lifestyle changes that can assist you in your quest. A tremendous amount of benefit is available if you can organize yourself and be disciplined at this time.
Interestingly, this takes the concept of the Page of Pentacles, that of needing to take on the lifestyle of the chosen field not just study it, and takes it to the higher level of the Major Arcana. Interestingly, Temperance is the card associated with my sun sign, Sagittarius, but one of the cards I've felt least understanding of. I think my comprehension is about to deepen significantly. Organization and discipline are abilities that are inherent within me, but not ones which I have developed. Indeed, their lack of development -- inspired by fear -- is one of the major things that has been holding me back.
If you don't want to read the whole thing, the last card really sums it all up.
Long Term Potential - The Hermit
Stick to your profound quest. It's well worth the commitment and time it takes.
The Hermit in this position suggests that the line of inquiry you are following has great long term potential. Perhaps you are pursuing a passionate study or a spiritual quest. Any path of mastery will consume major blocks of time and energy. You may be old and gray by the time you answer the questions you are posing.
The pursuit of the answers will lead you through profound life-changing experiences. When you make the commitment to this path, others will support you out of respect. Your inner crone or shaman is getting ready to take her place in the seat of leadership and right use of power. Don't decline the invitation. Wrap your dignity around you and step up to the challenge.
Tarot.com is offering members a free Celtic Cross 2007 preview reading, and as I selected my cards, I was aware that the stillness within me was far deeper than I had been able to achieve when I was doing my birthday reading.
I'm also in a different place psychologically than I was two weeks ago. Since then, I've received an email from an old friend who is an angel to me, inviting me a "Closure" gathering at her house, a time for those of us who have been working hard on personal and spiritual development to get together and recognize and celebrate the closure that many of us seem to have achieved this past year. The invitation caused me to do some serious reflecting and offline journaling, and as I was telling
uncrowned_king the other evening, although I spent most of last year being frustrated (and somewhat ashamed) by my lack of progress in the area of building my spiritual direction practice, I was doing a lot of other work. In fact, I suddenly had the sense that I had been building the foundation on which this coming year's achievements will be built. In the Robin Wood deck, the Four of Wands shows a couple dancing together on a raised square platform. The wands are poles at the four corners supporting a white canopy. There is a sense of festival (perhaps marriage) and the Four aspect shows that it is stable. Last year was the year I built that platform. This year I intend to raise my canopy over it and dance.The reading is fascinating: 3 Swords, 2 Cups and 6 Major Arcana.
My comments below are in italics.
1. Self - Eight of Cups: When the Eight of Cups is in this position, you may feel as if you have been exposed or violated. Something that was private, tender and vulnerable has been unveiled. It is your choice to either be the victim in this experience or to let adversity reveal some aspect of your nature, perhaps for the first time.
Sometimes this card represents an imbalance that plays out as dysfunction before the intervention can take place. Apparently you are strong enough to gain greater strength and wisdom from this challenging experience. Don't sink into self-pity. It's not easy to pick yourself up, process the experience, and come through it stronger and wiser than before -- but you can do it.
Yes, it's time to pick myself up and dust myself off. I am stronger and wiser because of my experiences -- I've made a point of learning from them rather than giving in to being a victim (I think that's one of the blessings of being a Queen of Swords). I also suspect that the "private, tender, and vulnerable" part of me being unveiled could be my intuition and vocation, which I have sheltered to the point of stifling.
Actually, re-reading this, I think it's even more a message that I don't pre-victimize myself and assume failure before I begin. Yuck! It's bad enough to remain a victim after hardship. It's worse to take on the role before I even venture out!
2. Situation - Death
(I could have told you that! At least, this has been my
The Death card in this position implies that a force of nature or a change in authority may be forcing you to change your accustomed way of doing things. While you may have no control over these changes, you can control your reactions to them. It is up to you to make room for the future rather than trying to forestall it with old thinking or habits.
Face the road ahead with a courageous willingness to respond to transformational energies without any resistance to what you are facing. If you earnestly do this, then no force will be able to overcome you.
To which, of course, all we Firefly fans cry out "No power in the 'verse can stop me!" Welcome, Grim Reaper!
Challenges/Opportunities - The Moon
I confess that this card always confounds me. But I like their interpretation.
The Moon in this position is a challenge to retain a modicum of self-consciousness while you sink deeply into your primal nature. As happens at full moon, something has loosened the flood gates of the collective unconscious and you are aware of the high tide as much as anyone.
It helps if you have trained your instincts and impulses not to override your self-discipline. When reason is eclipsed by feelings, your natural and psychic intelligence can provide a safety net. Once the floodgates of the unconscious are opened, you will be self-preserving and sensitive, leaving behind old patterns. Trust that your good reflexes will respond appropriately to what your sensors tell you is going on around you.
That trust is exactly what I've been lacking.
Foundation - Five of Cups
The Five of Cups in this position suggests that sometime in the past you faced a situation of great loss and pulled yourself back from the edge of despair, starting over from scratch. You know how it's done; it's not a mystery to you. You have learned not to put too much stock in the emotions of the moment and know how to avoid compounding your misery when things go awry.
As long as your inner values remain intact, external conditions can be amended, allowing you to catch up again. This is an important thing to remember. In the face of any current discouragement, you know that not all is lost. Some people spend their lives in a state of anxiety, fearful of scarcity. You have the ability to overcome that tendency -- with the help of your personal foundation. This is a source of serenity, when you remember it.
To me, this reinforces - or perhaps informs - my interpretation of the 8 of Cups. It suggests to me as well that the fear I feel of potential hardship, embarrassment, or loss as I contemplate starting my practice, the fear of failure, is something that should be faced with the calm confidence of someone who has come through much worse and survived. I've survived and been transformed by the Initiation of the Descent. I've been plunged into the Void and learned to dance in it.
Finally, I think, I come to the heart of my fear: that if I fail in my practice it's not just a business failure, it means that I was wrong about myself, about my truth, about just about everything I've built my life on. It's not just fear that I'll be rejected, it's fear that I'll be revealed to myself as an utter fraud.
Recent Past - The Lovers
At first, of course, I thought about my new relationships, but this has a different spin.
The Lovers card in this position suggests that you recently dealt with some strong attraction or difficult choice. Perhaps something dramatic happened, some kind of split or opposition, but not necessarily. Perhaps you have been harboring two different identities, and need to create greater integration within yourself. There is probably a lesson here to do with commitment.
This gets reinforced below.
Higher Power - Ace of Swords
When the Ace of Swords presents in this position, your Higher Self is blessing you with profoundly penetrating vision. By shifting your point of focus beyond the foreground, you have achieved perspective and long-range vision. Like an archer in the woods, you are able to shoot between the trees and hit the bull's eye.
Not only are you gifted with clarity of vision, you can also have a panoramic overview at this time. You can see the whole with all its parts and all their interconnections. Be grateful that your connection with your Higher Power is open enough to grant you such perspective, insight and clear sense of direction. In gratitude and humility, ask your greater self for your best course of action. You may already have received the answer.
Not much to add to that.
Near Future - Two of Swords
In a battle of wills, compromise may be needed in order for all sides to win. Soon your communication skills will be tested.
With the Two of Swords in this position, you might soon be facing a necessary negotiation that may involve offering an apology or conceding a point in a dispute. The purpose is to facilitate a win/win outcome in a controversial situation. Your mission is to strike a bargain that confers mutual benefits, even if you can never fully agree with the opposing party. Use this situation to find common ground.
Especially in the case where sentiment is involved, you must demonstrate an attitude that is open to the possibility that there may be merit in another's position. This does not require a sacrifice of essential principles. It may require arbitration that can support the resolution of tough issues. Compromise ensures that when one partner wins, the other does not lose.
My first thought was to think about my day job, but I think it's more subtle and profound than that. I think this is about the two parts of myself implied in the Lovers card: my conservative, risk-averse self, the one who wants security and safety for myself and my child; and the veiled one, the self who has yearned all my life to break out of the frame that binds most lives, to adventure in the stars, to broaden the hearts and minds of others by translating truth and beauty hidden by unfamiliar languages. Certainly the first line of the meaning above sounds like a charge to the Journeyer.
Blocks and Inhibitions - The Star
You forget to direct your optimism toward yourself.
When the Star appears in this position, you may believe that good things never happen to you. In some ways you stand in the way of your natural brightness, goodness and truth. Remember that the same love and service you extend to those around you is also being held for you. Try not to discount or resist your blessings.
Allies - Five of Swords
The Five of Swords in this position suggests the presence of someone who is intimately familiar with the competitive, stressful, inharmonious environment you are currently struggling in. That person can help you fathom the essential motives that produce the challenges you face; as you do, you will gain valuable insights. For one, you will become aware of who is manipulating behind the scenes and why.
Perhaps you will be shown some steps or approaches that could return the operation to a higher plane of accountability, communication and clarity. This ally not only can help you dissect and analyze the situation, but will have the best advice on how to weather stress and work around distortions. So don't just trust your own hunches. Talk to someone who has been in a similar situation and has the experience and empathy to help you.
I'm not sure who this ally is. Perhaps one of the risks I need to take is reaching out for a mentor in the spiritual direction community. Or simply to turn to my own director for that wisdom. When we first spoke, one of the reasons he agreed to take me on was my sense of vocation, and his interest in mentoring those in the clergy and spiritual direction, even though my own beliefs were not exactly a match with his own. I've been too afraid, too inhibited, too fearful of shame and failure to explicitly ask for his guidance in this area. I suspect that now is the time.
Advice - Temperance
Temperance in this position advises you to identify and seek the missing ingredients in your life. Marshal your known skills and abilities and do what needs to be done to complete your mission.
Prepare to use spiritual practices, studies or lifestyle changes that can assist you in your quest. A tremendous amount of benefit is available if you can organize yourself and be disciplined at this time.
Interestingly, this takes the concept of the Page of Pentacles, that of needing to take on the lifestyle of the chosen field not just study it, and takes it to the higher level of the Major Arcana. Interestingly, Temperance is the card associated with my sun sign, Sagittarius, but one of the cards I've felt least understanding of. I think my comprehension is about to deepen significantly. Organization and discipline are abilities that are inherent within me, but not ones which I have developed. Indeed, their lack of development -- inspired by fear -- is one of the major things that has been holding me back.
If you don't want to read the whole thing, the last card really sums it all up.
Long Term Potential - The Hermit
Stick to your profound quest. It's well worth the commitment and time it takes.
The Hermit in this position suggests that the line of inquiry you are following has great long term potential. Perhaps you are pursuing a passionate study or a spiritual quest. Any path of mastery will consume major blocks of time and energy. You may be old and gray by the time you answer the questions you are posing.
The pursuit of the answers will lead you through profound life-changing experiences. When you make the commitment to this path, others will support you out of respect. Your inner crone or shaman is getting ready to take her place in the seat of leadership and right use of power. Don't decline the invitation. Wrap your dignity around you and step up to the challenge.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-31 08:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-31 10:44 pm (UTC)