Weekly Forecast: February 12-18
This week is bringing up a lot of feelings of guilt around what it means to have enough. Finding ourselves a step beyond the basics - being able to provide for ourselves and bring in a little (or a lot) extra - is activating a protective part of ourselves. There's an urge to fight the gifts we've earned and been given in the hopes of protecting ourselves against loss or criticism.
The Three of Swords is letting us know that this part of ourselves is deeply rooted to the point of being instinctual, a knee-jerk response to abundance that's far from accepting. Finding ourselves in the plenty of the Six of Coins has us feeling exposed and unworthy. Yet all we need to do is look at the illustration of the Six to see how alluring and healthy we are right now.
Why, then, is the Three of Swords churning in the background?
Being stable after a period of struggle gives our more complicated emotions and beliefs space to unfold. When we're not running around frantically - maybe trying to manage unnecessary drama or burying ourselves with mountains of stress - we are able to see ourselves more clearly, sometimes whether we want it or not. This can be confusing - why are all these unruly emotions surfacing when things are going well? Doesn't that mean that something's wrong?
This current period of stability, however, is the perfect time to gently engage with the turmoil of the Three of Swords. Just look at the imagery in the card: a clear heart pierced by three swords, hovering over an imposing mountain or, depending how you see it, a wave. There's pain, vulnerability, and immediacy here. This card reminds us that, when left unexpressed or unprocessed, painful feelings live on with the same intensity as when they first happened. Sometimes, with more that has been building up as they remain buried within us.
And yet in the curve of the heart on the right we see a wash of rainbow light, as if the glow of the Six of Coins is illuminating a facet of this experience we haven't seen before. What in our current moment of security is allowing us to see into our painful past differently? This is a wonderful time to slowly allow our new environments and our new lives to warm the calcified suffering we've experienced, allowing some of its sharpness to soften and dissolve.
The Knight of Coins sheds some more light on the situation. As we can guess, Coins (or Pentacles in the RWS system) signify the material world and our practices in it, including money. The Knight shows us that we're taking a new initiative in this area, perhaps seeking a new source of income or pursuing an opportunity in our current field. This action is the natural growth from our current situation and a path worth taking. However, it's shaking up our conept ourselves.
The Six of Coins deals with issues of exchange and power dynamics around money, sometimes through healthy generosity and sometimes through entrenched and unequal structures. This card is asking us to reconsider our roles. Are we more comfortable giving our wealth or recieving it? How might this role be shifting and how can we embrace a healthier attitude towards money that's empowering and dynamic instead of limiting and stagnant?
The Knight of Coins suggests that we're starting to ask for more and emerging into a more proactive space where instead of waiting for good fortune, we reach out and work to achieve it. This comes with increased responsibility, and perhaps a new way of relating with others.
All of a sudden we may find that people are looking up to us, asking for advice and support. This is pushing us to recognize that we've come farther than we thought. Where we once believed we were the beggars we find ourselves stable, capable, and in a position to help others.
This is all beautiful, slow, and natural growth. Our role here is to let it unfold gently, honoring both the exciting changes we're making for ourselves and the transfomation of our past hurts. Both can coexist together and we can find tender solace in the fact that we've come far enough to hold space for our more complicated emotions to emerge, be seen, and then released as we change.