Weekly Forecast: May 14-20
Can life be as magical as we'd like it to be? Oftentimes we're told that a feeling of enchantment doesn't fit into modern life, especially modern adult life. We hear about "adulting" encompassing taxes, doctor's appointments, and budgeting, but never vacationing, creativity, or letting loose. This false distinction leaves a lot of be desired. And sometimes it call us with its siren song: act busy and bedraggled and you'll seem more responsible. It's just how it is. We don't have a choice.
Can life be as magical as we'd like it to be? Oftentimes we're told that a feeling of enchantment doesn't fit into modern life, especially modern adult life. We hear about "adulting" encompassing taxes, doctor's appointments, and budgeting, but never vacationing, creativity, or letting loose. This false distinction leaves a lot of be desired. And sometimes it call us with its siren song: act busy and bedraggled and you'll seem more responsible. It's just how it is. We don't have a choice.
These cards tell a different story. It's one we're all experiencing, even though we may not see it that way. Because life is strange and surprising. No matter how set our schedules are or how many responsibilities we have, a little bit of magic finds it way in. In fact, as these cards suggest, it may be hiding in plain sight.
Because we're taught to underplay our successes and joys, these parts of our life often get glossed over. They're simple, they're fun, and they're also fleeting. Or are they? The Nine of Cups shows us at a special time in our life. All our relationships and creative inspirations stand behind us, happily tended to and ready to offer us support. The array is so simple we might even forget it's there. What's more, the work we've done to cultivate them may not have even felt like work. And yet it's paid off splendidly.
This card is telling us to be proud of the beauty we bring to our lives. Instead of skipping over it, looking for conflict and struggle, now is a time to look deeper. What can we learn from what comes to us with ease? What message can be found in joy? It may also be a time to re-consecrate these beautiful parts of our life. The magic, in other words, is right here, in our relationships, in the work we do channeling our creativity into something real, and in the good feelings we experience when we're working to create a beautiful life.
The Page of Swords represents invigorating intellectual curiosity. Cups are all about feeling, sensing, and intuition. While their energy flows through our lives constantly, it can easily go unexamined. Luckily, we have the mental acuity of the swords to bring some clarity. This Page is all about open-minded examination. Traipsing into the subject of our creative and emotional successes with a clear-head and light heart will bring us some fascinating insights.
Inspecting what's working and trying to uncover ways to encourage and foster our good instincts is leading us into uncharted territory. The Moon is a card that shows us how strange and mysterious we are at our core. No amount of conditioning, responsibility, and control can overcome the fact that, at our most basic, we are creatures too. In The Moon we see how powerful our instincts and intuition is.
Feeling at ease and enjoying life is allowing us the space to explore this side of ourself in The Moon and see how our lives are infused with magic. It just requires a shift in perspective. The Page of Swords is able to explore The Moon's influence on our life while remaining agile. It's easy to get lost in the loopy world of The Moon. Luckily we have this Page to help us navigate and keep us on our path.
In the days to come we'll be seeing more mystery at work in our lives. Excitement in the everyday, meaning in the mundane, and an extra shimmer in the things that bring us joy. Just looking a little closer will enhance this even more and allow us to see how we can be both stable and fulfilled while being visionary and open to the unknown.
Weekly Forecast: May 7-13
It feels so good to put a plan into action. After spending lots of time in our heads creating strategies, imagining outcomes, and weighing options, this week we're putting our feet on the ground and committing to making things real.
The Three of Wands is a card full of excitement, expectation, and anticipation. Our ideas are still tender and new, untested by the world, and yet we've tapped into something special within ourselves. It's the intoxicating feeling of choice. We can choose to do things. We can make things happen.
It feels so good to put a plan into action. After spending lots of time in our heads creating strategies, imagining outcomes, and weighing options, this week we're putting our feet on the ground and committing to making things real.
The Three of Wands is a card full of excitement, expectation, and anticipation. Our ideas are still tender and new, untested by the world, and yet we've tapped into something special within ourselves. It's the intoxicating feeling of choice. We can choose to do things. We can make things happen.
This card is big and visionary, and I love its bravery. It's one thing to imagine possibilities, getting lost in the world of lists and brainstorming. Making moves to bring these ideas into reality is a whole other ballgame, and this week we're walking onto the field, a little jittery, but mostly raring and ready to go.
And what do we run into? Why it's The Tower! Everybody's favorite card!
Of course I'm being sarcastic here. The Tower, with its themes of destruction and chaos, is usually met with groans or outright fear. Yet in this reading it has a very important message that gives us a helpful choice to navigate all the potential shown in the Three of Wands.
The Tower shows us the downside of structure, particularly what happens when the structures we have at work in our lives can't contain us, our energy, or our hopes and dreams. Left unheeded, this pressure can lead to destruction. Yet we always have the choice to look at The Tower and make changes, using it as a catalyst to take the change into our own hands and not let the pressure build to an inevitable, surprising explosion.
Action-movie level talk of explosions aside, The Tower this week is showing us how the buzz and action coming into our lives in the Three of Wands is tempting us to fall into old patterns. I love how the artist and creator of this deck, Jonasa Jaus, uses an insect as the protagonist of the Three. Is there a better metaphor for the early, exciting stages of creativity than pollination? And what a fascinating contrast between the vibrant, happy wildflowers in the Three and the epic titan arum in The Tower!
If we're the buzzing insect here, busy traveling from flower to flower, the gigantic titan arum represents a nearly-irresistible temptation. We're feeling a pull to go to The Tower despite the fact that it's not the flower we need to be pursuing at all. In fact, it's quite toxic.
What I love most about the Three of Wands is that is captures both the tenderness and bravery of setting off on any path. When we do this we have to be mindful of our energy. When something's new and budding it needs care, attention, and gentleness. Not to mention focus. In the early stages of a new project, creation, or endeavor we have to remain focused, humble, and in the moment.
In this reading, The Tower shows us a temptation to force our newly budding plans into repressive and overbearing structure. This can show up in a desire to overwhelm ourselves with expectations, judging each and every action and burying ourselves in a pile of "shoulds." Our plans should unfold this way. We should be feeling like that. It should look like this.
Clearly, some form of self-sabotage is at work. Why are we moving from the new growth of the Three of Wands to the cataclysm of The Tower? The Six of Cups appears as our final card to add some insight. This card speaks to nostalgia and early patterns of relating to the world. Taking a risk and committing to a plan in the Three of Wands is bringing up a lot of fear and pressure stemming from how we were taught to look at the world as children.
Interestingly, this card is also showing us a way through The Tower, one that has us bypassing its destructive intensity. Embracing The Tower wholeheartedly (or doing nothing to process the issues it brings up) is leading us towards emotional overwhelm and a desire to control and force our newly burgeoning plans into stale old frameworks. Hardly a goal any of us is consciously working towards! Instead, we can ask ourselves some loving and probing questions. Just what about our new plans and creative ideas is making us feel fearful? Why are we feeling the urge to snuff our our enthusiasm with heavy expectations and judgment?
If we can meet ourselves in this place, lovingly addressing our fears and traveling back to the conditions that they came from, we can enter into the healing space of the Six of Cups. Here, we have the ability to look back at the source of these pressures with all the wisdom we've accrued as adults. It doesn't have to be a big, frightening Tower moment. It can be a gentle moment of reconnection and an act of recommitting to taking our creativity and energy seriously. That means giving it all the space, lightheartedness, action, and bravery it needs to grow.
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.
Weekly Forecast: April 23-29
This week is all about ease, expression, and unfurling. We're full of energy and passion that's being directed by a calm sense of wholeness. This is not a time to question, poke, or prod the good that's arriving. Deep down we know that we've been working hard to invite this kind of energy into our lives. Now that it's here all we have to do is embrace it and let it work its magic.
The World appears as our first card, setting the stage with its visionary, harmonious nature. Here we're being asked to believe that we belong wherever we are. The World invites us to look beyond all the hats we wear as we shift through the many areas of our life. We do a lot navigating our responsibilities, relationships, and goals. What lies underneath all these roles? The World speaks to the deeper parts of ourselves that are always present in our lives. With The World we are at once wholly ourselves and wholly apart of everything around us.
Having this awareness is no small task. Balanced on our ever-spinning globe we must come to the realization that life is always changing and we are always changing. What, then, remains constant? This is an excellent time to explore our true nature. What have we been learning about ourselves? What traits, beliefs, and ideas populate the center of our being? This card also suggests that we've been doing a lot of rewarding and difficult work. Now all the spinning parts are coalescing into something much more stable. It's worth taking a moment to acknowledge just how far we've come.
The World also asks us to take a larger perspective and in doing so, liberate ourselves from any limiting ideas of who we are. Are we acting mostly as mothers, fathers, partners, helpers, workers? Which roles have been the most comfortable and which have chafed at us?
The World asks us to look beyond the labels we've accumulated. Perhaps there is something we've rejected that needs to find its way home and perhaps there's parts of our personalities that are ready to be shed, becoming part of ourselves only in the sense that they're now in our past.
Having a good understanding of our shifts is allowing us to appear with pure and clear intentions. Awareness, not judgment or control, allows us to be truly human, seen as a wonderful whole. All The World asks for is gentle awareness, an open mind, and openness to what's appearing before us.
From this position we can accomplish so much and the Six of Wands sees the harmony of our self-understanding and acceptance manifesting itself in our actions. This week is an incredible time to reveal what we've been working on and to allow what's been inspiring us to have its time in the sun. Because we're clear on who we are, allowing our self to be seen is no longer quite as scary. We may find ourself possessing a level of confidence beyond what we imagined was possible.
The Six of Wands carries with it all the energy, excitement, and intensity of being in the spotlight. Sometimes this experience can be overwhelming. We'd rather retreat into our safety zone, hold our projects and passions close, rather than deal with some of the discomfort that comes with being openly celebrated. This week, however, The World is guiding us, acting as a lesson we can return to: We belong here. The ease we're experiencing this week, including the praise and attention, is a natural part of our unfettered self-expression. We're coming from a beautiful place. It makes sense that others can see this beauty, too.
Plus, it would be a shame not to follow this happily illuminated path. The Ace of Wands concludes our reading for the week, holding a promise of further growth and good fortune. I like to see this as a hand reaching out to us, bearing the gift of inspiration and motivation. We're uniquely able to inhabit our full potential right now, and doing so is allowing our hard work to continue with ease and success. We get to arrive in every situation with just ourselves and this week we're diving into the core of who we are, allowing this self to guide our actions. With The World in our corner, we can sashay up to any situation, fully in the moment and ready to engage as the beautiful, specific beings we are.
Weekly Forecast: April 16-22
I'm tickled that we're getting such a harmonious reading just as mercury stations direct. This week has a clear path for growth opening up in front of us. Better yet, that path is lined with good times, focus in work, and the promise of adventure .
Sometimes happiness is the most difficult emotion to describe. We have a lot of training, after all, waxing poetic about hardship and struggle. Just look at all the songs about the agonies of love or films built around miscommunication and conflict (I'm looking at you, romantic comedies that would be 2 minutes long if people would just communicate normally!). These heightened feelings suck up all the oxygen in our lives, demanding attention and sometimes giving us lots to hide behind. It's easy to go on about existential struggles, but what about the positive - our success, growth, and happiness?
I suspect that a lot of this has to do with feeling fearful. We don't want to appear boastful, full of ourselves, or greedy. And we also don't want to tempt fate. Fully embodying our happiness makes that happiness visible which in turn makes us feel vulnerable to criticism or rejection.
So there's more to this reading than meets the eye. We start things off with the Three of Cups - we have a lot of celebrate, indeed! Hiding or downplaying what's going well in our lives would cheat both us and the people around us out of a necessary and important good time. It's worth pushing past any feelings that we might be tempting any lightening bolts from emerging from a cloud to knock us back into our place. That seems unlikely when you put it that way, doesn't it?
Letting our happiness flow freely is also a way of reaching out. How can we make lasting relationships based solely on suffering? This card is showing us that there are many people around us ready and willing to raise their cups to toast our achievements and their own. Collective celebration lifts us all up and builds positive experiences that bring us together and that we can draw on in trying times to come. For now, however, all we have to do is show up as our beautiful, flourishing self, welcoming anyone else who comes to join the party.
The Eight of Pentacles centers our reading around the idea of work. This card reminds us that happiness is a practice we must commit to over and over again. Far from being simple or effortless, happiness takes work. Like anything, it's easy at times and hard at others. The illustration on this card shows us just how much strength and abundance we can bring into our lives when we prioritize and commit to cultivating our happiness. I see this Eight as a reminder of how much stands behind our achievements. It's not blind luck or purely good fortune. We stand behind our accomplishments, willing to guide our progress and tend to all the little facets of life that need care. Now all those little practices have grown into something quite big and majestic. And that is worth celebrating for sure.
We move from the hearty tree in the Eight of Pentacles to the sprouting branch in the Ace of Wands. Taking our happiness seriously and celebrating it wholeheartedly is bringing good things our way. Instead of a hand popping out of a cloud and throwing a lightening bolt at us for being too cocky, we have a hand holding the promising start of something new. All we have to do is reach out and grab it. With a crowd of supporters cheering us on, I have a feeling we will. We just can't do it by making ourselves small or hiding for just how far we've come.
Weekly Forecast: April 9-15
It's easy to feel like we have to go it alone. I'm picturing a solitary, determined hero, squinting into the sunset before galloping off into the wilderness. We have a bit of a cult of self-sufficiency at work in our culture. It sure comes with its own rugged allure, but it can also become exhausting. When we act like our world is shaped only by us it's easy to buckle under the pressure. We can see success as ours and ours alone, and unfortunately the same goes for failure or shortcomings.
But what happens when we bring our unique talents and skills together as a collective? Isn't the sum of our parts greater than any individual skill? What can we accomplish when we ride into the sunset together?
This week we're primed to reach out and find support, solace, and inspiration in the connections we have with others. In fact, we're enjoying it right now. Our communities are blossoming and what might at first seem like pure enjoyment and fun is actually a precursor for some serious (and seriously magical) accomplishment.
The Three of Cups shows us the richness of connection we're enjoying at the moment. It's a truly special thing to be able to celebrate our successes and struggles with others. This is a week to reach out and share your growth with those around you and in turn hold space for their victories. There's a lot of good work being done right now and it's our job to make space for its splendor instead of rushing past it towards more work.
The toast shown in the Three of Cups is turning into a powerful alliance for practical growth, as we can see in our next card, Three of Pentacles. Think of sharing laughter, good times, and celebration as planting seeds. We never know what will sprout up from the joy we share with others and building partnerships and collaborations can be lighthearted and freeing.
We often look at connections as binding. They tie us to a place, a way of being, or a plan of action. Ties, of course, can give us structure, but they can also be constricting. This week is asking us to consider a different metaphor: friendship and collaboration as a solid foundation that gives us great creative freedom. Working in conjunction with others (and benefiting from each person's diverse skills and abilities) expands our horizons radically. We're no longer limited to what we can accomplish by ourselves.
The Three of Pentacles illustrates the burgeoning energy that arises when we find like-minded co-conspirators. Many exciting plans are in the works and this is the perfect week to assemble your dream team, envision all the goals you'd like to accomplish, and think big with fellow visionaries. This space can act as a sanctuary, injecting a sense of satisfaction and meaning into our already busy lives. Giving ourselves the time to talk about our dreams with others and hatch plans that bring our skills together is allowing us to engage with the usual barrage of responsibilities, bill paying, and, yes, tax season, with refreshed energy and purpose.
The Seven of Wands shows us how we can feel empowered to tackle the multiple facets of everyday life when we have a solid team behind our backs. We're all in this together and the strength of our relationships, both personal and professional, are propelling us towards some serious productivity and mindful action.
Weekly Forecast: April 2-8
When I turned over the three cards for this week I immediately thought of a word for each: direction, expansion, and decision.
This week has an abundance of clear and decisive energy. Whenever The Chariot appears we can be sure that we're ready for a challenge. It's an easy card to place yourself in. The wind is at our backs and the reins are in our hands. As the heroes of our own stories, we've reached a place where we've become comfortable and confident in our skills and we're eager to go forth and test them in new situations.
I like the restless energy to this card. Imagine the anticipation at the start line before a race begins. We're flexing our muscles this week, figuring out the extent of our strength, and filled with ambition to use all the tools we've got.
The Chariot also appears to give us a brief moment of contemplation before the race begins. What is it that's driving us? What hard-won skills and abilities are we excited to use and develop even further? Starting with this awareness gives us a better sense of why we're itching to get started. When we know what we're working with we have a better chance of directing our actions effectively and consistently.
The Chariot, and this reading in general, deals with the mastery and integration of opposites, making it all the more wise to identify and cultivate awareness of the two ends of spectrum we're working with. In The Chariot we see how much power can be generated when we mindfully and willingly harness opposites, balancing, for example, traits like rest and action, acceptance and ambition, or complexity and certainty. Think of the reins of the charioteer. What opposites have you harnessed to drive yourself forward?
If this card seems a little intense and controlling, The World appears to show us that our very human effort to guide our opposing ideas, desires, and habits towards victory (driving a chariot with a tiger and a fox isn't easy, after all) has been worthwhile and immensely illuminating. The World is telling us that our struggles are sacred. Without them we wouldn't be able to break through to this new place of open possibility. In The World, opposites come together, melding and blending into a rich and dynamic tapestry. We can relax our grip and take in new vistas.
We can think of this card as a breakthrough where new, unforeseen, and even visionary possibilities present themselves. The World is a very complex, joyful, and nuanced card. Leaning into complexity and directing our gaze into the future will give us much more information and clarity than we had previously.
Our goal this week is to simply take this all in. We end our reading with The Queen of Swords, a card that tells us we have a lot of sift through. Our minds are more than up to the task and these three cards paint a harmonious picture. Approaching this new information with clear eyes and a sense of flexible curiosity is giving us an opportunity to make healthy and invigorating changes. What's more, this card shows us that we're more than able to make choices that align with our desires and values. The Queen of Swords asks us to cut away all our needless doubt and confusion and let ourselves be led by our accomplishments, desires, and larger vision.
Weekly Forecast: March 26 - April 1
I wanted to use The Pagan Otherworlds Tarot this morning to match the season. For some reason the nature-based feel of this deck reminds me of Spring. And interestingly enough, we have the flow and action of Spring coming through in the meanings of these cards. Though our direction and motivations seem a bit confused.
We can see that The Knight of Cups and The Magician are facing away from each other. There's a sense here that our dreamy inclinations are in conflict with our desire to get things done. One one level we're looking forward, eager to make our mark on the world - charging ahead, creating, and changing. On the other we're feeling pulled to follow a pensive and more winding path. In other words, we want to charge full speed ahead, but our head is in the clouds.
What to do, then? The Ten of Wands shows us that we're prioritizing the practical over the romantic. The Magician's desire is to harness energy and create change. And that's certainly happening! We're finding our plates full this week, as we navigate multiple commitments, projects, and ideas. This enthusiasm, however, is disconnecting us from ourselves. In a way, we're experiencing a bit of an addiction to productivity. Quickly, the focus on The Magician is turning into the overwhelm of the Ten of Wands.
The Knight of Cups shows us another way. Perhaps we're feeling the call to squash our creative, passionate nature with a rush of busy energy. The Knight of Cups has the unbridled passion and at times bombastic emotion of a teenager and occupying his shoes can be vulnerable. This week we may find ourselves thinking that it's not practical to follow our whims or investigate curiosity for curiosity's sake.
The Magician and the Ten of Wands are telling us that stifling this natural expression can lead to detachment and burnout. We can stop to smell the roses as we navigate all the tasks we need to accomplish. The Knight of Cups invites us to interject moments of beauty and pleasure, romance and imagination, into our daily lives.
These acts, in fact, put the "magic" back in The Magician. It's easy to look at this card and see ideas of power, mastery, and creation. Yet The Magician also knows to leave space for inspiration. That strike of lightening is actually the key to all his accomplishments. With one hand raised and another pointing to the ground, The Magician is a conduit for this energy, not its master. All he has to do is lay out his tool in preparation for that important moment.
Instead of skipping this key experience and fast forwarding to action - rushing mindlessly from one task for the next or doing for doings sake - The Knight of Cups reminds us that a starry-eyed and rapturous enjoyment of life is a key component to our productivity, not a detraction. So while we might feel that taking a walk in the middle of a big project is a frivolous waste of time, it may actually be the perfect condition for inspiration, breakthrough, and wisdom to strike. What's more, it allows us to fully inhabit ourselves so that when we make magic, we're making it from a grounded place. Our actions are meant to serve us, not sap our energy needlessly.
Weekly Forecast: March 19-25
The Eight of Cups has been following me for the past few weeks. It's been coming up in readings, conversations, and my thoughts as well. Though I'm pretty sure I've called each of the 78 cards a favorite at this point, I've been especially drawn to this eight lately.
Why? It's a beautiful and brave card. Seeing the German artist Kitty Kahane's interpretation of it is especially moving. This card shows us important moments when we dare to ask for more. Not more in a greedy sense. Or more in a arrogant sense, either. The Eight of Cups shows us daring to expand our emotional worlds, opening up to the vulnerability of who we are, and seeking fulfillment despite "having enough."
It can be a lonely journey - we are following our own instincts, after all - but, as this card shows us so beautifully, we bring our connections, relationships, and joys with us. The "enough" that we may be tempted to stick with ends up being the supportive foundation that allows us to journey into the unknown. We can see this in the water flowing between the two cups - one in the hand of the journeyer, the other standing solidly on the ground.
Breaking from the status quo and choosing to look for more adventure, connection, or fulfillment can be nerve-wracking. Doing so involves exposure; we're taking a risk and stepping away from the pack. And indeed, this sentiment shows up in our next card, the Nine of Swords. Taking the first steps towards something new is bringing up a lot of anxiety this week. We'll be grappling with our monkey minds as we feel pulled to turn over every stone, analyze every move we've been making. Did we look weird when talking about this new passion project? Did we bumble through a presentation? Look foolish and unprepared?
Making new headway is never easy. Otherwise it wouldn't be new. There's a certain learning curve that, while being inherently stressful, is also very necessary. In fact, it's what drove us out of the comfort and stability of the Eight of Cups in the first place. That was too simple and familiar. Now we're grappling with the feeling of being a stranger in a new land. Remembering where we came from can be a helpful antidote to our Nine of Swords feelings, both in the sense that it can give us contrast - we needed something new for a reason - and support - we have a beautiful life and rich connections to draw from in this tender new phase.
The Nine of Swords does carry with it a deep sense of grief. It's personal. We're leaving behind an old idea of ourselves. Digging under the top layers of whirring thoughts and fears to uncover this will be helpful as we process our experiences this week. What part of ourself do we have to say goodbye to as we begin to learn new things and engage with the world more fully? Though it may seem odd, it's easy to get attached to the idea of a past self, especially when we're just emerging into something new. Think of it as a butterfly yearning for the safety of its cocoon. We can't return to being caterpillars, cozily ensconced in darkness. We've turned into something with wings and it's time to learn how to fly.
While the churning emotions of the Nine of Swords can fell all-encompassing, they're just another stage in the process. Soon, surprisingly, they'll fall away into an action-packed and comfortably (who saw that coming?) public phase. The Four of Wands is a lovely affirmation of the risks we've been taking. Yes, growth can be hard, but when we face it head on we emerge into the freedom and possibility we've been seeking.
The Four of Wands deals with the dynamism of structure. Our new situation is allowing us to be both free and focused. The emotions and thoughts of the cups and wands are invigorated with creativity and action. We're finding the environment we need to move full steam ahead with our passion projects. This is quite the roller coaster of cards, so it will be important to treat ourselves with care in the days to come, leaving lots of room for quiet processing in between all the happenings. And, most importantly, reaching out to our support network to gain perspective on our growth.