Weekly Forecast: October 21-27

I love how this week's forecast is giving us a clear choice between mindful, embodied action and a frenzied action that leads to over-extending ourselves. Yes, you read the cards right: Temperance is urging us to find peace in the practice of the Two of Pentacles rather than the wild, unfocused careening of the Five of Wands.

Speaking to the elements at work, this is a week to ground ourselves in the wisdom of earth, staying close to our physical and material needs. Getting caught up in the world of fire and ambition is only leading to conflict and chaos.

Temperance can be a challenging card to work with; sometimes the angelic imagery seems unattainable and even haughty. Yet this week we're being asked to see how our higher self directs us towards healthy actions. What guiding instincts lead us to care for ourselves? How can thinking simply and focusing on actionable steps bring us closer to the divine?

Temperance also straddles these two worlds. You'll notice the angel has one foot dipped into the water and the other stabilized on the earth itself. Care and simple commitment to what we need to do in our everyday lives can be surprisingly transcendent. Let's see what this awareness brings to the surface this week.

The wands here are giving us a word of caution. While it's lovely to think we'll sashay into the embodied path of Temperance & the Two of Pentacles, the Five of Wands alerts us to an internal battle of sorts. Are we pretending or wishing we could just push forward and fill our time with action? Is there something threatening about keeping things simple and in the moment?

The wands are often emblematic of our society's obsession with productivity and accomplishment. Having the conflict-theme five in our reading is straightforward tarot-speak for "just chill out, please."

How might our desire to stay busy and keep striving be hindering us right now? What happens when we slow down and just focus on baby steps? And, most importantly, how does doing this distance us from our higher-self and Temperance nature?

I see this reading as an invitation to open up to the wonder and healing of being in the moment, particularly in our mundane lives. Looking to the jovial dance of the Two of Pentacles we can ask ourselves, "How am I doing something beautiful, transcendent, and joyful when I stay close to my own experience and actual, lived life?"

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Exploring the Minor Arcana: The Fives

In this series we'll be diving into the world of the Minor Arcana. Each segment will group the cards by number where we can engage in their themes and differences. For all the posts in the installment, click here.

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Just looking at these fives gives us a sense of the tension they hold. Scenes of loss and struggle jump out immediately - there's not much subtlety to these scenarios and we can easily infer their meanings with just one glance. The fives are indeed all about conflict; the moments when we're first put to the test and are forced to struggle with what's before us.

Interestingly, these cards also mark a middle place. As the halfway point of the numbered cards in the Minor Arcana they show us how challenge is unavoidable and perhaps even necessary to propel us onto the next stage of our journey. With this being said there's a lot of trial and error happening in the fives. Our first attempts aren't always the best or most graceful. In fact, as we can see clearly here, they're often heavy-handed and foolish. Yet we can't learn without making our mistakes, and nowhere is the sense of actively grappling with a challenge more present than in these cards.

Explore In-Depth Minor Arcana Meanings

The  Five of Wands shows an almost endearing scene of chaos. Five people struggle with five wands. It's unclear what they're trying to accomplish. Are they attempting to create a structure together or is each person simply trying to stand their wand upright? This card illustrates the confusion that comes with mindless action and ambition, especially when it's motivated by self-interest. Instead of communicating or collaborating, the figures in this card are flailing. 

For the Five of Swords represens situations where someone has gotten carried away with their ego. Using their words and actions to further their own needs with disregard for others has left a wake of hurt feelings and confusion in their wake. This card can be seen as a Pyrrhic victory. Though the person in the foreground may not realize it yet, their actions, although they may seem justified or even celebratory in the moment, have hurt and alienated them more than helped their cause. 

The Five of Cups is a deep card that almost invites us to come to a full stop. A loss has been suffered and is being felt acutely in the present moment. We see a grieving figure in a dark cloak looking downcast at three spilled cups. The emotion from this loss is consuming and unavoidable. Feeling through it, however, will ultimately clear the way to a new path forward, and two full cups wait to help them along on their journey. 

Finally, the Five of Pentacles brings us to the realm of material suffering. Here two beggars walk through the snow outside what appears to be a church. Without shelter or adequate clothing they're forced to focus on the immediate moment, pushing through the storm motivated only by their connection to each other and hope for something more. This card deals with issues of financial insecurity, fear of suffering, and lack of stability. 

While not a sunny bunch of cards, the fives invite us to look at our challenges as turning points. These are moments where we must prove our mettle and earn our wisdom. Though not simple to do, the lessons that come from these cards add meaning and weight to our accomplishments and life itself. What are your thoughts on the fives? Share in the comments below!

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Weekly Forecast: June 12-18

It looks like we have wandsy week ahead of us, darlings. This means action, action, and more action. We’ve got movement on our minds and our eyes are wide and focused. It’s a time to get at it and get things done, so off to work we go.

We’re all jazzed up, but… things start out a bit awkward. With the Five of Wands we get a less than seamless introduction to the week. Things feel at odds with each other, whether it’s with ourselves, others, or our plans. Things just don’t seem to be coming together in the way we’d like them to.

This doesn’t mean we’re not cut out of the task at hand. Hardly! We can look at the conflict depicted in the Five as part of a process that tests our skills and hones our vision. We’ll be asked to see what’s really worth our time. What is a problem we need to solve and what is simply a distraction?

Sometimes things are hard to teach us something new and sometimes things are hard because they don’t work. It’ll be our challenge to learn how to discern between the two.

The Five also sees us contending with egos, both our own and others. When everyone’s wielding big sticks there’s a high likelihood of someone getting poked in the eye, so it’ll be important for us to be mindful of how we interact with those around us.

Once we find a harmonious way to balance our tasks we’ll see the week take off with speed and clarity. The Eight of Wands shows us how we’ll be making great strides in whatever we put our minds to this week. Paired with the Five of Wands this card is giving us a hint that this is a good time to launch into something we’ve been putting off because it seems daunting.

All we need is a little push to break through to a space where decisiveness, daring, and hard work come easily. It’s a time for us to luxuriate in our skills and power at doing what we need to do. It’s a joyful rush of a feeling we’d be foolish not to savor.

At the same time, the Eight of Wands can lead us to overestimate our capability for work and tasks of all shapes and sizes. Why stop going when things are feeling so free and breezy? Well, just take look at the Ten of Wands to get a taste of how over activity can lead to burnout.

In the middle of the week we’re caught up in the rush of action. This is the suit of wands at its unbridled best. But being unbridled means being somewhat out of control, so it’s an abrupt transition when all of a sudden our bodies stop us in our tracks and tell us to hold up. Doing all that work? It’s made us tired and we’d just like to lie down!

The tasks start to feel heavier, and now we’re dragging our way to the finish line. Luckily, the finish line is approaching quickly. The Ten of Wands depicts the last slog to the end. We’ve really made our way through the second half of the wands. We might be feeling tired and burdened, but we’ll be so close to the relief of rest and the satisfaction of seeing something all the way through to the end.

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Weekly Forecast: Sept. 12-18

Cards from the Tarocchi di Donne by Gloria N. Castellucci

Life can be full of action. We find ourselves running from one thing to the next, writing out epic to do lists and checking off the boxes with a fast and furious sense of satisfaction. This can be exhilarating. We’re being productive! We’re kicking ass! We’re getting things done.

Being a productive badass is not sustainable in the long run, however. We’re human. We need to rest, we need to relax, and we need to have time to just be. The good things in our life don't need us to be running around frazzled to exist. They will still be there if we stop to smell the roses.

Strangely, this actually increases our power to accomplish our goals. We have time to remember why we’re doing what we’re doing, giving meaning and motivation to our actions. It's not always an easy thing to do, however, especially in our work-obsessed culture.

The cards for this week show a high potential for burnout at an already busy time. Action and activity are front and center - expect a full schedule and multiple people competing for your attention. Remaining mindful and grounded will be a challenge, but very worth it.

The Ace of Pentacles shows us that this is a very exciting moment. It’s also the carrot dangling above us, tempting us to overwork ourselves: There’s a new opportunity available involving our daily lives, most likely money. Who wouldn’t want to get a jump start and make this happen?

Pursuing money and a tendency to overwork are a dangerous combination. The Five of Wands suggests a delicate balance. There’s just enough on our plates that we’re able to juggle it if we concentrate hard enough. Add one more piece and our abilities are stretched too thin. We have to drop something or the whole thing comes tumbling down.

This brings us to The Tower, perhaps one of the more blunt cards and also one of my favorites. The Tower reminds us that we are at a pivotal moment. If we continue as is, overextending ourselves and focusing on action over mental and emotional health, we cannot accept the new opportunity without causing our balance to collapse.

In a beautiful way, the outcome depicted in The Tower redirects us to the Ace of Pentacles. It tells us that if we rush headlong into this new beginning we would squander the gift that is being offered to us. Here, these two cards remind us that good fortune is worth celebrating. 

We’re at the beginning of a cycle. There is no need to rush a good thing. In fact, doing so will only work against us.

If we take it slow and enjoy what we have while welcoming change at its own pace we can give ourselves the space and time to decide how to restructure our lives when the time comes. 

So relish the opportunities sent your way, take the time to reconnect with yourself and your motivations, and remember you have the choice to adapt as you see fit. This unknown future could be the best yet.