Weekly Forecast: January 22-28
Distraction as self-deception.
Sometimes we're in the throes of something powerful and wonderful. A recent development or breakthrough had made our lives easier - hard work is paying off, our efforts are producing results, and best yet, it's not full of struggle and challenge. It's just flowing.
Things can get tricky here. We want to keep our success and ease, bottle it up so we can use it whenever we want. Or, better yet, have it be the baseline for our lives. What would be better than all sunshine and rainbows and accomplishments?
This is controlling behavior, and at the root of it all is fear. We're afraid about what it means when the good thing ends, or when we're no longer blessed by plenty. Instead of accepting this uncertainty, we're tempted to fight it. But guess what? Thinking about everything that could go wrong, planning for it, and envisioning it... it puts a lot of energy towards an imagined negative circumstance.
Suddenly we're no longer able to take advantage of the goodness that's unfolding before us. Instead of taking stock of all our skills and hard work and letting the pleasant reality we've spent so much time manifesting just be, we run off in our thoughts. What could go wrong? How can I stop it? Yes, maybe it's better to work in this area, putting up defenses instead of building into the future.
The Seven of Swords represents such inner trickery. We want to use our thinking, controlling minds to eliminate any issues. The figure slinking off carrying a pile of swords has a satisfied smirk on their face. Stealthily, they've been able to avoid the crowd of people just visible in the background. They've averted confrontation and done so with cunning and quick thinking.
Yet to the right we have the Seven of Pentacles, a card of satisfaction and hard work if there ever was one. This suggests that we're caught between two worldviews this week - our actual, tangible success (that's rooted in actual, tangible work) and a scenario of fear and necessity that involves sneaking and stealth. Is there something in our lives that seems too good to be true? Would we rather second guess than celebrate and acknowledge it?
In a way, the Seven of Swords has a more clearly defined mission than the Seven of Pentacles. The silhouettes in the background give us a sense of urgency. "If I don't run off with these swords now, they'll catch me." Never mind if "they" are potential collaborators, friends, or allies. It's easier to feel justified and entertained when we have a force acting in opposition to us. In contrast, the Seven of Pentacles is a little quaint. It's just you and your vine of pentacles, blossoming. Sure it's a lovely sight, but where's the drama? This card holds within it the challenge to find beauty and satisfaction in life without the crutch of fear and opposition.
Clearly, this is a sticky area right now. The Eight of Swords sees us overwhelmed and struggling with both versions of our current situation. We're feeling a lack of agency here, though perhaps the mild panic is a call for quiet in disguise. Moving away from a fear-based interpretation is scary. Without the menacing, vague crowd in the background we have just ourselves to answer to and hold accountable. Taking a break and time to address and comfort our fears will go a long way in allowing us to open up to the bounty that's actually unfolding in our lives.
We may be at a new phase that will take some bravery to commit to and achieve. We're slowly mustering the courage, and doing so will require looking into our use of fear to keep ourselves small. The water pooling around the figure in the Eight of Swords, however, shows that the shift is happening and natural. We just need to be aware, mindful of the importance of this growth, and brave enough to peek out and see how hospitable and welcoming the world is to our vision.
Yearly Forecast: 2018!
The new year is a heady and exciting time. We don't have many opportunities for a clear "before and after" and this is the big moment where we can say "that's all said and done, now it's time for something new."
And lordy could we use something new right now. It's no surprise that two of our three cards are in the suit of pentacles, rules of all things earthy and solid and stabilizing. If there's been any theme to the past year it's been one of upheaval and... well, I don't want to sound dramatic and say calamity, but... you know what I'm talking about.
And at the same time the surprising and destabilizing events of 2017 have offered a helpful and deeply contrasted backdrop to all the sweetness and beauty showing up in our lives. There's a gift in being able to see all the goodness with such intense clarity; however, it's too dramatic to sustain in the long run.
2018 is going to be a year when we work to recalibrate this imbalance, directing ourselves towards the concrete, nitty gritty aspects of life. Think our ability to truly cultivate, nurture, and change our surroundings.
Beautifully, we have the Nine of Pentacles giving us a vision of peace and plenty. We have much more than we were able to see amid the wildness of the past year. Now our gifts are emerging and we can see and enjoy the places, people, and practices that enrich our lives.
What's more we've developed an extremely useful skill. Our passion and sense of justice is now reigned inso that it can channel its powerful ability to effect change. Consider the falcon held by the sumptuously dressed figure in the Nine of Pentacles. Once swirling through the clouds, hunting and screeching (I'm thinking about all the time I've spent bemoaning and complaining about political events), it's now been trained to harness its skills, guided by a higher power so that it can achieve important objectives with precision.
What part of ourselves, now that it's had the time to vent its animal needs and frustrations, has returned to us and is ready to help us on our journey?
The Nine of Pentacles directs us to appreciate and tend to our gardens. What do we need to do to make our lives blossom? Having a life that offers both protection and expansion is key. 2018 will be giving us plenty of opportunities to grow ourselves a lush life. Now is not a time to turn away from joy and satisfaction - it's deeper in meaning than we might initially think. This year is a time to plumb the depths of happiness and explore the bravery that comes from caring for oneself.
There's a public role in all this, too. The Four of Pentacles shows us feeling empowered and stable in our lives. While we might not know it, our actions are inspiring others and the way we choose to live our lives is providing new and exciting blueprints for others to follow.
We have just enough to care for our basic needs and a sense of satisfaction for having earned it. At the same time, we may be using this accomplishment to limit ourselves out of fear. While we can all enjoy our state of being content, it's also important to think big. Staying safe limits our contact with the rest of the world and cuts us off from sustaining relationships and our own potential.
We're emerging into a better awareness of our skills and resources. Interestingly, there's a part of us that hasn't come onto our radars, a hidden talent or gift, if you will. What's more, this part of ourselves is clearly visible to those around us. Maybe we just haven't found a name for it yet and maybe we're afraid fo express an integral part of ourselves. Is there something we haven't dared acknowledge yet, a dream, skill, or trait we're somehow convinced we can't embody?
This exciting new aspect will shine through no matter what we do to hide it. Look to friends and family to illuminate this hidden talent. It will be key in our expansion this year and seriously change our self-perception and abilities for the better.
All these pentacles shows us how important feeling stable is right now. Yet this energy can be stodgy and limting on its own. Luckily we have the Seven of Swords to lighten the mood, directing us towards adopting a sense of play and trickery to balance out our earthy selves in 2018.
Pentacles are often motivated by the desire to be safe. Sometimes, however, in erecting boundaries and limits we block out things that can help us grow and that enlarge our worlds helpfully. The Seven of Swords reminds us not to take our desire for safety too seriously. We don't know everything and embracing an intellectual openmindedness along with a somewhat naughty sense of play will jazz up our lives and keep us from becoming too ponderous and conservative in our actions.
This card also ushers in an exciting air of experimentation. Maybe some things can be simpler than they seem and maybe we don't need as many structures and trappings of power as we may think. Shaking up our own established routines and views will bring the verve and energy necessary to push boundaries and expand into places we can't even envision.
So relax, spread out and enjoy your riches, let your light shine outwards so others can see you, and don't take it all too seriously. Expanding into this year will be joyous, profound, and revolutionary. We're replacing reaction with mindfully channeled power, want with fulfilled wishes, and old ideas with playful innovation.
I can't wait to travel this path with all of you - Happy New Years!
Weekly Forecast: Oct 24-30
There’s some sneaky and shifty energy afoot this week that seems fitting since Halloween is nearly upon us. You may find yourself lingering around the edges of an issue, being overly evasive, or feeling defensive. You might not even know why. We’re often the best at hiding from ourselves.
To be wild is to be wily. Surviving means living in the moment with just the goal of getting by. But we can’t live in this state forever. We need to thrive. Eventually we must let our guard down and roll over to reveal our soft underbelly. Life is stagnant without tenderness and vulnerability.
Say you get close to one of these opportunities to open up and grow. It feels alarming to let go and show your soft side. You’ve been told all your life to be alert and watchful. You could get hurt, you could get rejected. These are not neutral associations! Your alarm bells go off. This is the deep-seated creature part of us. It does not speak in nuanced tones. Run! Get out! Fight back!
Some of us hear these alarm bells before the moment is directly in front of us. We can smell the danger far off. Someone is going to ask me to show up. I’m going to have to take a risk. I might need to ask for help. We learn to head off these situations by keeping our spines pointed outwards in all directions.
And let’s be real. Spines look cool. You might see someone particularly spiky and think, “Man, they really have it together. I mean, look at those solid boundaries!” They appear calm, cool, and collected, but that’s because they keep the world at spine’s length.
This is what I mean when I say that there’s a shifty, wily, maybe even naughty tendency highlighted for this week. Your spines are up. And I mean this with a lot of tenderness and affection.
I have a huge soft spot for the seven of swords. It depicts the self-satisfaction that comes with getting away with something. The thrill of escaping an unpleasant situation. The glee of knowing something that others don’t.
"No one can even get close to hurting me!" we boast. I can’t help but love the trickiness inherent in all of us.
The Wild Unknown’s version of this card also highlights the restlessness that comes with constantly having to guard what you have. In this case, a trove of swords that suggest you’re holding back what you really think in order to protect yourself.
The fox, a symbol of cunning, peeks out from behind its bushy tail with one eye open. You must be eternally vigilant to keep your true self hidden. You feel you must carry your anxiety with you like a talisman: "I must constantly worry about slipping up otherwise I won’t be protecting myself," you say. This is exhausting.
And what are we hiding behind these bushy tails? Our spines? This week’s reading gives us a beautiful answer: The Star.
The Star is as luminous, inspiring, and comforting as it seems. We look to the stars for inspiration and to sense our smallness. We are also reminded of our place in the universe. Though a black expanse of space separates us over an unfathomable distance, we are made of the same matter.
The ten of wands shows us that if we continue as is, ignoring our need to grow in vulnerability and express our true thoughts, we’ll get lost in the woods. We see the brambles and branches of the ten of wands looming ahead. They tangle over each other and the light behind them is dim. This is a card of losing sight of goals, of being lost in tasks and in details.
As a symbol of our own divinity, The Star points us back to our inherent magic and the gift that we have to give to the world. If the stars can shine across the darkness for millennia undaunted, we can muster the courage to let down our spines, peek out from behind our tails and let our true selves shine through.