Weekly Forecast: February 13-19
Tarot Cards by Kazumi Niikura
What do we do with our feelings? Do we let our tenderness shine at full force or express ourselves more cautiously?
This is an interesting question to bring into a week that’s been overstuffed with meaning. The biggest presence, of course, is Valentine’s day. Who could miss the piles of heart shaped candies that have been in the grocery store since January? (I, for one, am more excited for the candy sales the day after Valentine’s.)
Regardless of your feelings about the holiday (cynical corporate commodification? Romantic bonanza? A bit of both?) the cards we’ve pulled for this week are quite lovey. Whether you’re feeling it in a sexy and spicy way or a platonic one, love and how we express it is on our minds.
So how do we honor this? What about our plans? Whether you’re single our coupled, there’s a pull to commemorate your relationships. A ladies’ night out? Treating yourself to some chocolates and a bubble bath? Some schmancy candlelit supper with your partner?
I’ve been rushing around feeling February gain momentum and now look where we are. Just a day away from Valentine’s and I have no plans. What I do have is a growing sense of urgency and several options I’m convinced I have to pursue. Valentine’s for all my friends. A romantic dinner. AND a decadent self-care ritual.
Funny thing is, I haven’t really sat down to think about it all. Do I really want to be doing all these things, cramming them into my already busy schedule? What’s important to me right now?
The cards for this week tell us to take some time to reconnect with ourselves. They also show us struggling between outer expectations and inner desires. Getting stuck between the two can lead to inaction, which would be a shame seeing as we’re feeling very sentimental and effusive. There’s no better time to be writing Valentine’s and professing love than when you’re feeling it.
Now is a good time to consider who we want to express our love to and how we’d like to do it. There’s no time to get stuck in prepackaged ideas about what love “should” look like. This is all about you.
The King of Cups is a somewhat conflicted card. As the ruler of emotions, he must maintain distance. Emotions are notoriously slippery things. They shift constantly and are hard to pin down. Their ephemeral nature is what makes them so enticing and powerful. We can’t force ourselves to feel a certain way, though we can train ourselves to observe our feelings from afar.
The King of Cups has mastered this skill. He is able to separate himself from his emotions and those of others. Just look at him peering at the cup in his hand rather clinically. This can be helpful during times of conflict or when you’re engaging with healing work, but holding one’s own emotions at arm’s length is also stifling. We need to feel things directly in order to fully experience both the joys and pain of life. We can’t always be king.
The Empress shows us another way of being. She’s been a guardian angel of sorts lately, popping up in the past few weekly forecasts. Clearly her teaching is not finished, and thankfully so, because her approach is decidedly much more romantic and rejuvenating.
This is a card that unabashedly revels in sensuality. Rather than draining her and making her weak, displays of joy and affection renew her strength. She is able to both experience her feelings and communicate them. With her powerful boundaries, she is able to block out any negativity without blocking out her own experience of life.
How does she do this? By remaining utterly inside herself. Not locked away or removed, but present. Just look at her cradling a juicy pomegranate, a symbol of abundance. She embodies her feelings instead of removing herself from them like the King holding his cup at a distance.
This is a week to consider what acts of love make you feel like The Empress: solid in yourself, warm, and loving. Perhaps you need a bit of the King of Cups’ remove to figure out what works best for you before you jump into action. Once that’s done, however, jump on in. Now is not a time to limit your expression. When you feel it, you feel it, so let the world know. Whatever you choose, make sure it’s joyous and brings you strength while communicating your love to others.
And the rest of it? Leave it by the wayside. Fancy dinners don’t hold a candle to your own authentic feelings.