Weekly Forecast: April 22-28
This week, my friends, is all about rethinking our relationship to change. It's a topic that's long overdue for editing and fresh energy, as these cards show so clearly. Just look at the polarized options springing forth from The Wheel of Fortune! The next few days give us the calming opportunity to bring some space and shading into a formerly black-and-white corner of our world.
As anyone who's dabbled with tarot knows, the cards have a cheeky sense of mischief. Not wanting to address a topic? All of a sudden pointed clarity is staring you in the face. Looking for a specific answer? The cards act coy.
In my opinion, there's no card that embodies this vague, teasing energy more than The Wheel of Fortune. It's initial impression is usually confusing. Just what on earth is going on with these mythical creatures congregating around a circle heavy with odd symbols? They're just hanging out in the clouds?
This is a card focused on the energy and inevitability of change. And, perhaps not so surprisingly, it's overwhelming and unknown qualities. Hence, the indecipherable wildness of imagery.
When we see the Wheel of Fortune we know that change is on the horizon. However, that's all we can decipher. There's no specificity, clear-cut answers, or details. The Wheel is spinning, but we don't know where it'll land just yet or what our new world will look like.
This week we're confronting and working through our initial reactions to a personal Wheel of Fortune situation: The newness and lack of clarity is overwhelming and, in our attempt to grasp some comforting certainty, we're reverting to old patterns.
Which brings us to the Five of Pentacles and the Ten of Cups. I can't help but chuckle a little when I look at these cards. Talk about polarized thinking! It seems as if we're approaching the upcoming change with a very black-and-white mindset. Either our Wheel of Fortune will spin and deposit us in the bucolic emotional utopia of the Ten of Cups or we'll end up in rags, struggling to survive.
In this sense, these cards urge us to take a breath and center ourselves before getting spun out into either manic idealism or fatalistic negativity. One of the wonderful things about change is that nobody knows how it'll unfold. Not us and certainly not some judgmental stranger ready to blame us for the outcome.
And so these cards are, with a healthy dose of classic tarot humor, pointing us back to ourselves and the present moment. What can we do to focus on our experience right now? To make room for change to unfold? And, most importantly, to care for ourselves?
The trick to the Wheel of Fortune is that is reminds us how change is a constant part of life. We're always navigating it, in one way or the other. We have practice. We have ourselves.
It always keeps spinning, but if we stay anchored in what we do know - aware of our desires, skills, talents, and sticky spots - we can always land on our feet and, better yet, work with the motion to grow.
Until then, all we can do is enjoy the ride, and know that the stakes are low so long as we continue to value and care for ourselves.
