Weekly Forecast: January 3-9
In a season that, in ordinary times, comes with a lot of pressure - ambitious New Years resolutions, plans for festive gathering, time spent with family - it’s reassuring to see a card that encapsulates the more poignant, quiet, and even melancholy side of the holidays and new year. Like the boat in the six of swords, the waters we’ve been traveling lately have been rough to say the least, and this week we’re gently floating into a turn of the collective page; a new chapter is beginning, but without bombast or fanfare. We’re simply arriving in new waters, a little weary but willing to steer ourselves through calmer waters.
Six of Swords / Six of Cups / Two of Swords
long journeys, tender homecomings, and food for thought
In a season that comes with a lot of pressure - ambitious New Years resolutions, plans for festive gathering, time spent with family - it’s reassuring to see a card that encapsulates the more poignant, quiet, and even melancholy side of the holidays and new year. Like the boat in the Six of Swords, the waters we’ve been traveling lately have been rough, to say the least. This week we’re gently floating towards a new shore; land is in sight, the waters are calm, and we can just begin to make out the contours of our new terrain.
The Six of Swords is a card that pulls at my heartstrings, something you don’t usually say about a suit that’s filled with violent imagery. Yet here I can see the truly bittersweet experience of viewing life as it is: the elation and tenderness of love; the fear of losing it; the frightening chaos and injustice of the world; the fascinating multitudes of color, beauty, and curiosity everywhere you turn. Taking this all in at once, accepting it, and moving forward holding all sorts of contradictions is difficult, adult work. In this Six of Swords, we see the middle of a journey rooted in this worldview. We’ve made a decision, set sail, and we’re halfway to the other side. What is it we’re reaching for this year? What hard work has shoved us off a familiar shore? And what can we just start to see emerging on the horizon?
This is a time to embrace the magic of the in-between, the animating tension of opposites, and the difficult but essential decisions we’ve made recently. We’ve been using our swords-y powers of discernment to chart our own path, and now is a good time to acknowledge the depth of these actions and to celebrate our integrity and bravery. Make room for all of the feelings as this card shows us that we have to leave things behind in order to effect any meaningful change. The Six of Swords is not without grief, but it also embodies the stirring of refreshing movement. We’ve done what we must and now things are just starting to unfurl. What has been set in motion? What is winding down, depositing us somewhere new?
As I type this I wonder if we may need to wiggle free of restrictive rituals, record-keeping, and reflection for the new year. Instead of making resolutions, why not look to our past actions to see what we’ve already committed ourselves to? We can then re-commit to those goals with more passion and specificity. Our reading shows a move from the cerebral to the emotional as we move from the Six of Swords to the Six of Cups. I’m delighted by this pair of sixes - we’re transforming! - and it’s rare to see the sharp and pointy swords segue into this flowing, feeling suite of water.
The Six of Cups, in particular, is a massively tender card. I’m imagining us reading the other shore shown in the Six of Swords and finding a cozy paradise. Perhaps we’ve made some changes in our everyday lives that have blossomed into something truly supportive. In what ways have we made our life more affirming? Think of the word “home” and see where it takes you - what homes have you cultivated, where do you feel the most yourself, and how much has this feeling grown over the past year?
When I think of the Six of Cups I think of the openness of childhood, that time when our true self was the default, bumbling around joyfully with interests, desires, and quirks on full display. We’re returning to this charmed place now, but with the strength of our adult selves to back us up. Whatever shame, repression, or discomfort we had to battle through to get here has been fought back admirably. It’s time to value and express ourselves in our full and weird splendor.
There may be some kickback towards the end of the week, however. The swords make a return, this time to the closed and cautious Two of Swords. We may feel tempted to close up like an anemone at the first ripple of danger. Take a look around, however, before making any hard and fast decisions. Is it justified fear or the shadow of something long gone? Old defense mechanisms can come up when we let our guard down. And, as we can see in the Six of Cups, sometimes we let in the wrong people either from openhearted naiveté over-enthusiasm. The good news is that we’ve learned so much - both how to enjoy life and to wield our swords to protect ourselves when necessary. It will be important to use this experience as a moment of clarification and motivation, not an excuse to go back or get smaller.
this week, embrace
Contradictory feelings
The sweet melancholy of being in-between
Rest
Enjoying simple pleasures, especially those that tap into your creativity/inner child/playful self
Trusted and true friends and family
Pushing through the desire to limit yourself out of fear
this week, avoid
Big changes
Intricate new projects
Dumbing-down your struggles and accomplishments
Over-analyzing what makes you feel good or brings you joy
Oversharing with people who don’t understand or appreciate you
get creative
Six of Swords: Set aside time to journal about the big change you’ve made this past year. In what ways has your thinking changed or clarified? Use your swords skills of observation, analysis, and discernment to see how your actions might point you to new and useful values. In other words, what do the things you’ve been doing mean about you, your life, and your goals?
Six of Cups: Devote a chunk of time (however much as you can) to treat for yourself. Think of it as a date: set a time, send an invitation, and set the stage for something tender, memorable, and meaningful. Some places to look for inspiration: What you loved as a child, something exciting that only you would enjoy, a collection of simple treats you can spread out as a sumptuous buffet.
Two of Swords: When you find yourself stuck, get curious. The swords are about our mental world and in this card we see ourselves backsliding from the growth of the six to the starting point of the two. But this can be helpful! Look around as see the why behind these thoughts. Are they self-limiting, shame-based, seemingly practical? It’s helpful to identify the places we go when we feel threatened so we can notice and then redirect moving forward. Treat this experience as an information-gathering expedition rather than a setback.
Weekly Forecast: April 30 - May 6
In tarot, the Pages embody the eager seekers within us. When we're younger we inhabit the Pages' energies almost constantly. The world is new along with everything in it. Because of this association, it's easy to look at the positivity and fascination of this group of cards with a hint of benevolent condescension. "Look, how cute! We're being energized by something new!"
In tarot, the Pages embody the eager seekers within us. When we're younger we inhabit the Pages' energies almost constantly. The world is new along with everything in it. Because of this association, it's easy to look at the positivity and fascination of this group of cards with a hint of benevolent condescension. "Look, how cute! We're being energized by something new!"
And yet we all know that the wonder of childhood came with a lot of mystery and intense feelings. This week, the Page of Wands isn't just showing us an influx of curiosity and a new direction. It's also showing us that following those sparks of interest can lead us much farther than we imagined, into powerful and meaningful territory.
If the Page of Wands is arriving on the scene to show us enamored with a new action, path, or practice, the Six of Swords is showing us that following that pull is leading us towards an important new phase. In other words, we've been doing some challenging and worthwhile work around our childhood. It's what's allowing us to embrace the Page of Wands and to feel unafraid about showing our enthusiasm and heeding our inner voice. This is leading to a powerful combination of feelings: joyful focus and deep processing. This week a quieter inward journey is finally able to break through into our everyday expression.
We can see this so beautifully and boldly in The Sun. This card is a radiant beacon of the self that shows just how triumphant the process of healing and integration can be. The journey to The Sun through the preceding cards of the Major Arcana is a long one. This tells us that the open-armed happiness shown here is far from silly or naive. The Sun has done the hard work of getting to know itself - the good, the bad, and the ugly (or the easy, the challenging, and the impossible) - and is choosing to find strength in vulnerability and to let its full self ride into the spotlight.
So it's not just all sunshine and daisies (or, in this case, sunflowers). It's all that and the rain that makes the flowers grow, the clouds that make the sun seem brighter, and the stormy weather that tests our abilities and motivates us to find our strength.
The cards for this week are asking us to acknowledge the hard work that we've done to step into the lessons of The Sun, and the big changes that we're undergoing as we choose to shine brighter. The Six of Swords highlights this bittersweet journey because, when we choose a brighter path that's true to ourselves, we also leave behind old ideas of who we are, relationships that no longer serve our best interests, and old dreams we once held. Even though these things aren't what we want, we're familiar with them and they hold a certain level of comfort.
The Six of Swords shows us the difficulty of this transition. We're on a journey towards a better, brighter shore. And we're carrying with us all the experiences and lessons that have made us who we are. As we look back at what we're leaving behind we can't help but feel a twinge of sadness as that familiar place grows smaller and smaller. There's something beautiful about this moment and it's giving us a crucial opportunity to acknowledge what we're leaving behind us, to recognize and feel our sense of loss, and process before we emerge into the brightness of The Sun. Reminiscing like this is only giving us a deeper understanding of how far we've come and where we're going. As well as clarity around what's really important.
So the energy of The Page of Wands is far from frivolous. It's a beautiful offshoot of the growth we've been doing. We can replace shame with action and excitement, knowing that we're giving ourselves an important and hard-won gift. We might be surprised to see how far these seemingly small steps will take us in the days to come.
Exploring the Minor Arcana: The Sixes
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.
From the conflict-ridden fives we emerge into the relaxing, harmonious world of the sixes. Here, the cards refelct themes of balance, peace, and sentimentality. There's an aura of rest surrounding the sixes (which makes sense after all the grappling that takes place in the fives.)
After emerging from a struggle we gain appreciation for what we have and a hard-won sense of relaxation. It's a time to enjoy, look around us, and contemplate how far we've come or even to process events from the past we were unable to examine without some distance.
The sixes aren't radical cards, at least at face value. Their way of existing in the world is more mellow, though there's still plenty of valuable action taking place. Instead of revolutionizing, the sixes deal with reevaluating. How can we look back on our past experiences in light of our lives right now? Let's look at the individual cards to see how these themes play out across the suites.
Explore In-Depth Minor Arcana Meanings
The Six of Wands is an emphatically victorious card. We can almost feel the sense of elation in the illustration of a celebratory parade. A figure sits astride a horse confidently, with a wreath perched on the top of his wand. This is the moment when our hard work and struggles breaks through to success. Action has built up to accomplishment, and now it's our moment in the sun. In addition to soaking up the adulation and contentment of victory, we're also given a chance to reflect back on our past deeds and make plans for the future.
For the Six of Swords is more muted. Here, victory was hard won and involves the wisdom of knowing when to leave a situation behind. We're off to seek better, more hospitable shores, guided by the wisdom we've gained from our past experiences. This transition is also time for reflection, particularly surrounding our knowledge. With this space we can now work to reframe our struggles, hurts, and challenges, evaluating whether they've hardened into insight or no longer serve us.
The Six of Cups is a joyous and tender card that sees us returning to a sense of emotional satisfaction. Embracing innocence and openness invites in sustaining and reciprocal relationships. This is a card of caring, pure connections, and basking in the glow of others. There's a strong nostalgic bent to this card and the six of cups can often point to reflections of our childhood or situations and relationships that speak to the child within us.
Finally, the Six of Pentacles ushers in a sense of material stability that allows us to behave generously and to consider how we want to share our wealth, both literal and figurative. Having firm ground beneath our feet allows us to focus on both building and giving back. As such, this card can also refer to moments when we have to contend with guilt around finances, or more generally what money means to us.
As balanced, reflective cards the sixes are almost interludes during a journey. During rest or periods of plenty we have more room to think, dream, and enjoy. For more detailed meanings, click above. What are your thoughts on the sixes? Share in the comments below!
Weekly Forecast: May 29-June 5
Sometimes it takes a little nudge to set us off in the right direction. Usually we envision ourselves doing the nudging – how can we better ourselves? How can we push ourselves to perform better, to seek more truths, and to get more done?
It feels nice to know things. To have a sense of stability and trust in your mind. “I can think through this problem,” we tell ourselves, and then launch into the comforting realm of lists and planning.
Many of us have, like the King of Swords, become masters of the world of logic. Unfortunately, we can’t be completely objective when it comes to ourselves. After all, we can’t step outside of our minds, try as we might.
That doesn’t stop us, however, for building up quite an illusion. We tell ourselves we are objective. We know what we’re doing and can see everything clearly.
As we do this, plunging ahead with those satisfying lists and plans, something else creeps in. The certainty we’re wielding like a sword to cut through any confusion of complexity starts to feel heavy.
We get tired of sitting on a throne like the King – certainty can remove us from life, making us feel lonely. And it’s not the most comfortable thing to sit on, all hard and inflexible.
Cue the Wheel of Fortune to challenge this worldview. Beyond challenging it, The Wheel actually turns it on its head. And this can be quite jarring.
We come into this week used to sitting on a solid throne – feeling in control of our lives and oh so comfortable making pragmatic decision despite the fact that we’re secretly starting to feel itchy and restless.
The Wheel of Fortune represents change, and change is what we’ll have. Something is coming our way that will have us reassessing our kingly stance. At first it won’t be so pretty. Who likes to tumble out of their throne? But this change will be necessary. It’s time to switch things up and move in a different direction.
We also must consider where on The Wheel we are. We might assume that since we’ve been embodying The King of Swords, in some ways the pinnacle of mastery in the Swords suite, that we’re on the top. If this is true, then as the wheel spins we plummet downwards, our fortune taking a turn for the worse.
In this case, we’d be experiencing a somewhat traumatic shakeup we’d then have to recover from.
But what if The King belongs on the bottom of The Wheel? He is the conclusion of the court cards, after all. Where can you go from being a king? What’s more, as individuals we are more than just the embodiment of one set of traits. Perhaps we can balance all four, a much more holistic way of being that makes us truly human and complex.
If this is true, then we’re actually ascending this week. Pushing through the end of one cycle and embarking on a new, more refreshing path.
The next card in the reading, the Six of Swords, points us in this direction. We leave the certainty of The King and set off across a mysterious body of water, heading towards a foreign shore. Our boat, however, is made of swords, showing us that we’re taking many lessons with us while abandoning the absolutism of The King.
So this week be aware of how a more balanced approach could serve you. Are you relying too heavily on the siren song of objective and analytical thinking? Perhaps you’re feeling burdened by a compulsion to plan, plan, and plan some more, reducing your decision making down to its logical components while ignoring your feelings?
The change that comes your way this week will be entirely out of your control, something that a King of Swords would find frightening. You, on the other hand, are a complex human being, and having mastered many swordly skills, are free to use this moment to take what you’ve learned in your toolbox and start learning new things.
Where are you headed this week and how can you embrace the change that’s always happening around you? How can you evolve and allow yourself to embrace your full complexity?
We’re using a different deck than normal this week, for no other reason that that it was the closest to my morning writing spot - nestled in bed under a crisp, white duvet. Our cards have a similar energy, a focus on finding comfort and rest in difficult situations. Because, as you’ve likely noticed, The Tower is starting things off this week. What’s crumbling or has crumbled recently? What is making you tired?