Easter Tarot reading

[pegkerr]

As we have done for the last, oh, ten years or so, Laurie Winter (l_a_winter did my traditional Easter tarot reading for me on Sunday. She used the Robin Wood deck.

Before we started, we talked a little about the question. I had been thinking all weekend that for years I've asked variations on the same question, something to the effect of, what do I need to know about getting the writing started again, or opening up my creativity or something. I thought about something that Laurie told me once a couple of years ago, that continuing to do the same thing over and over, hoping for a different result is the definition of craziness. So this year I decided to make my question as open-ended as possible:

What do I need to know?

In my attempt to try to do something different, I didn't so much shuffle the cards as sort of smear them about on the table and then re-stack them. Since Laurie wasn't sure how the cards were oriented before I started, we decided to skip paying attention to reversals.

The Signifier: Five of Wands. Conflict, obstacles, unsatisified desires, strife, indecision. It's about ritualized, stylized combat, same old, same old conflict.

Situation Surrounding You: The Chariot. Everything is moving very fast. Has to do with balance, yin/yang, about being carried along.

Recent past: Justice. Decision making. Weighing and balancing.

Bridge or barrier: Queen of wands. Could be another person, but more likely it's about focussing your own energy. Pay attention and turn toward positive energies.

Near Future: Four of wands, which depicts a dancing couple under a huppah. It's about partnership, romance, rest, harvest, home, fruits of labor.

Root: Eight of swords. This portrays a bound, blind-folded woman, surrounded by water and swords thrust into the ground, but as Laurie pointed out, the woman's feet are unbound and the path before her is free and dry. She can cut through her bonds whenever she wants. It is about feeling trapped, but in fact it is an illusory binding.

Goal: Queen of Pentacles. Feminine energy, creativity, peace and plenty. Basking in the fruits of her own creation. Pentacles have to do with material comfort and money.

How you see yourself: Six of cups, showing a young boy handing an even younger girl a cup heaped with flowers. About nostalgia, home, childhood, an idealized flower-covered vision, what you wish was happening.

How others see you: Queen of swords. Decisive woman. Laurie pointed out that it is related to the Justice card. She tests the wind, makes her decision and makes it stick.

Hopes and fears: Death. (Whoa.) It is a card of radical transformative; can be both a hope and a fear.

Outcome: The Magician, a very strong card. Everything you need is already within you.

Since there were enough major arcana (four) to do another reading, Laurie laid them out.

The Chariot leads to Justice. You are carried along toward the decision. At this point Laurie drew another card, the Ace of Cups, another card which indicates that everything you need is already within you. It's about making decisions with your heart.

This leads to the Death card (radical transformation). The next card drawn was the Nine of swords, which depicted a woman with her face turned down, with nine swords hovering over her head. This is about imaginary night terrors, fears, second guessing.

This leads to the Magician, one of the best cards in the deck. Having all the tools and being completely capable of using them.

Comments

[handworn.livejournal.com]

Well, situations with variables, like cards, are a bit different. People play blackjack over and over and get a different result every time. (As is true for so many things, if it were never true no one would do it.) It's only in the aggregate that the result of blackjack is the same, though I can't think of a parallel for the aggregate effect for tarot.

In religion, much of the result of prayer seems to be an internal benefit-- a coming-to-terms, or an ability to focus, for example-- which sounds like it amounts to the praying person talking to him- or herself. Perhaps some of the benefits of tarot work the same way.

[kijjohnson.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a good reading.

Worth noting, for someone trained as I was, the three queens. Very much all about you and your resources. Also interesting is the missing one: Queen of Cups. My assessment would have been that you've been too reliant on Cups energy (and its sometimes squishiness), and the reading is forcing you to acknowledge the other aspects of your character.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Having all the tools and being completely capable of using them.

Yep. That's what I'd say about you. :)