The Weekend Tarot Reading — Sunday, May 1, 2011

Editor’s Note: If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article tells you how to use the spread. You can visit Sarah’s website here. –efc

By Sarah Taylor

The light shines on to something previously hidden; change is effected; decisions appear on the horizon.

But of course we would have The Sun after it featured in this week’s tarot article! Its rays are still reaching across the days and illuminating this weekend’s tarot reading. How beautifully apt.

The Sun, 6 of Swords, 7 of Swords - RWS Tarot deck.
The Sun, 6 of Swords, 7 of Swords from the Rider-Waite Smith Tarot deck. Click on the image for a larger version.

This is change — change after the light has been shed on something, after it has emerged from the shadows into clarity, finally identified if not yet fully understood.

As the article on The Sun and its accompanying comments suggested, The Sun is never anything but a positive card. If we don’t fully identify with it when it is drawn for us in a reading, it is because we have in some way blinded ourselves to its influence in our lives. We might be looking the other way, willing some other source to bring us light when it is so obviously shining on us from another angle. We might have chosen, consciously or not, to block it from our awareness. It is, nevertheless, there, inviting us to come to it as the child on the back of the horse welcomes us into the picture with open arms.

We might even be the horse itself: head bowed, monochrome, perhaps so preoccupied or introspective that we cannot see that the very thing that offers us light and colour — the full spectrum — is, literally, right on top of us. That, I feel, is a message to bear in mind strongly over the next few days. Where do we have immediate access to joy, so astonishingly close and yet we choose not to take it up on its offer to us? The Sun, to me, feels like a visual form of extroversion — the answer lying outside of us, or at least outside of the inner circles that we tend to travel in. “Look around you! Look around! Just what is it that you’re not seeing?”, is its exhortation to us.

And there may be good reason for us not to see if we look to the next card. The Six of Swords is about a shift — not always geographical, but a change in geography comes up often enough for it to be closely associated with the card. If illumination leads to a shift and transition, then perhaps there is a part of us that is invested in blocking out the light. After all, even if we tend to say to ourselves that we’re up for adventure in all of its forms, it is usually adventure on our own terms. We like controllable adventure.

Consequently, change, when it comes knocking, doesn’t always wear the guise of ‘adventure’. Often it heralds a blurring or outright dismantling of the lines of our comfort zone that can feel like too much to take in and too much to hold. If we turn towards the light of The Sun, might we not become blinded by it? Might we not have to give up a story about ourselves that we have held for so long because at least it gave us some structure to a life that, without it, might feel like it was falling apart? The thing is, the disintegration that we fear is actually forward motion, evidenced by the vessel in the Six of Swords moving from left to right. It is also the movement from choppy waters into calm — even if the destination is as yet unclear. There are unresolved emotions, certainly, but I feel that the message here is to be patient, to give the situation, and ourselves, time. The journey is slow and it isn’t over yet, but it is steady.

The Seven of Swords is interesting here. In previous discussions, I’ve tended away from the self-serving interpretation of the card and all the judgments that can be attached to that, and towards the notion of ‘self-interest’. It is an interpretation that I’m holding to today.

In the image, a man is tip-toeing away from a tournament with five swords in his arms, leaving the other two by the roadside. Why is he doing this? Why does he not take all of the swords? Why are the swords there in the first place? Most importantly, what feelings does the card bring up in us?

“Self-interest” is a charged term — a bit of a moral hotspot. I think that will be apparent in many of our emotional reactions to the Seven of Swords. Most of us are brought up to distinguish right from wrong, good from bad. But what happens when the reality is less than clear-cut? What happens if it is in our own best interests to choose a certain course of action? Taken a step further: What if being self-interested is doing the best we can with the resources we have at our disposal? What if acting ‘selfishly’ is separated from its consequences? Because who really knows what the consequences are going to be?

Self-denial is self-destruction.

This quote by Neale Donald Walsch from the “Conversations with God” series comes to mind here. It is provocative — as is the Seven of Swords — but it is food for thought. When the light shines and transition is in the offing, the risk is that we move into uncharted territory… and the gift is that we move into uncharted territory. Seen through this lens, everything is up for interpretation, nothing need go unquestioned. This extends to how we act in any given situation. If we carry the light of The Sun with us, and take it to heart, however, we can no longer explain our behaviour away as an unconscious act. As much as the Seven of Swords is ambiguous, our awareness around it need not be.

18 thoughts on “The Weekend Tarot Reading — Sunday, May 1, 2011”

  1. Charles wrote:

    “Also eco11′s message concerns me. A couple that lives in my building were just arrested too, and their child is in a foster home. I am concerned, but since there is nothing I can do, I am trying to avoid taking on that energy. Now eco is (perhaps justifiably) worried, but projects fear onto one of the least fearful cards in the deck, seeing the innocent child on The Sun and worries about lurking threats. But the message of The Sun is that we are in an environment that supports us, without any peril. If you reread my analysis of this layout, I specifically said that any blocked paths (e.g. going to jail instead of living your free life) are a protection, a diversion from a path we should not take. Who are we to say that eco’s friend might not be in the one place most beneficial for her? This layout might be interpreted as a message that the incarcerated friend is on a new, better path that is blessed by the Sun. The passage to a new life might be difficult, but we can rise to the challenge and be better for it.”

    This is such a hopeful interpretation and is like a cure. The sun is spreading over this situation,healing it. Thank you. Thank you. I needed a new perspective. And this one continues to heal and inform me.

  2. Is anyone else perceiving the similarities between each of our posts (as distinctly separate dialogues) compared to this weeks spread itself? This is kinda cool, let me see if I can put it into words..

    Each of us is walking the ‘path’ of the Sun, attempting to pierce the veil to awareness and live through en”light”enment.

    We each speak of crossing a mental plane from un-knowing to knowing: generally speaking, the pathway of the swords. It feels that a precipice of sorts has been reached, a decision process that puts each individual at the bow of their ship, realizing that thoughts, words, and rationale are all limited in scope but infinite in measure (the monochromatic quality of the 6S). It’s a sobering, calm effect, but also could get mental if spun in the head the wrong way (where fear comes from). That’s the brief, written version of how I see the 6 of Swords within each of our dialogues.

    The 7, and I’m gonna stretch this really quick, is where the swords suit gets unique. Since the 6 of swords leads into the 7, an aware person would realize that their physical (Jeopardy-esque) minds could only contain so much. Therefore, an aware person would take only that which they could use, or carry, leaving those thoughts that weren’t able to be carried behind.

    ..Which brings me (and each of our internal dialogues within ourselves) back to the beautiful Sunshine: the ‘path’ we’re each trippin’ out on.

    (..so it’s a lot bigger, and looks a lot cooler’ in my head’, but that’s the best I could do with language right now.)

    Peace,

    Jere

  3. Sarah, thanks for clarifying that for me. I was thinking more from a reader’s perspective, reading tarot for one’s self as divinatory or theraputic (I might call that “meditative”). If you read cards for yourself, these issues blur together. This is one of the great problems in reading your own cards. Since I read for myself more often than anyone (as maybe we all do) I try to understand the cards as having objective meanings that only differ in their application to a situation. That isn’t easy.

    Jere, it seemed like you were reorganizing Eric’s thoughts around Sarah’s. And perhaps he IS my trigger. I vehemently oppose his sort of fearmongering. It makes everyone crazier and makes the world a sadder place. I have to completely ignore what he is saying, now I only subscribe to Sarah’s RSS feed and ignore the rest of the site. I have extreme misgivings about writing on his site, I feel like I’m drawing web hits that help fund his effort to make the world a more miserable place. I don’t like it one bit. But I apologize to you for allowing his negativity to infect me. Can you see why I’d like to keep that separate from our discussions? But I suppose it was improper for me to make a fuss, this is Sarah’s spot and she sets the tone.

    eco11, you are thinking along the same lines as me, when you wonder if we bring on troubles with our fears. My buddhist sect believes in a principle called “one-ness of self and environment.” If we are fearful, we draw fear out of the environment, because there is no boundary between ourself and that which is outside ourself. The Sun is a message to look on the bright side and not dwell in the shadows, or the shadow falls on all of us. Of course this is difficult. We have a doctrine about “easy vs. difficult acts.” The difficult acts are things like having faith and taking enlightened actions. The easy acts are things like kicking a mountain over the sun, or wearing down a million-ton stone into a tiny pebble by brushing it with a feather once every ten-thousand years. Ha.

  4. Charles,
    Your take is very interesting and, indeed, I have considered your take on my friend’s situation too. (And, as I entered into my “interpretation” this week, I did so with the caveat that it was influenced subjectively.)

    Sometimes the dilemma of an overriding “the meaning of the cards” is that of the observer effect in quantum physics. The observer affects the observed.

    In such, we have also learned that history is subjective. It is not “what happened,” but what was interpreted to have happened by one person in one way and possibly another person in another way.

    I also think of dream work, of which I have been involved on many levels for numerous years. When dealing with an “archetypal story,” the dream (oracle.etc.) always belongs to the dreamer first. But it can ALSO belong to the observers/listeners through their interpretations/through their psyches – but the stories/interpretations they find/see in the dream (oracle, etc.) may not be projected onto the dreamer. The dreamer may hear the stories/interpretation and accept or reject them as part of his/her own.

    On all levels, archetypal stories will affect the consciousness as to its consciousness in that moment. Therefore, one story may just delight you as a child, open a new door for you as a young adult, and offer a completely different deeper look as a mature person. All are correct.

    My own interpretation of the sun this week sort of echoed Sarah’s earlier article on the sun, where sometimes, we struggle with accepting the light for fear that the other show will drop. And sometimes, it does. Do we bring that on with our fear? I don’t know.

    I certainly remember seeing no evil in the big city as a young student and walking straight into it.

    I also agree that fear-mongering is non-productive and can be negative and infectious and is not a healthy thing to indulge in.

    What I do know about fear, is that if its there, then, if one runs or hides from it or denies it, it can grow stronger and powerful. It one faces their fear, it may be a horrible trembling that goes through their system. And then they can deal with it face on. Most brave acts are not devoid of fear. They feel it and move through it.

    Again, thank you for your comments. They were very thoughtful. And I appreciate them. Your participation in this provocative and deeply thoughtful weekly reading always adds to it for me.

  5. Charles – I would say that one of the main differences between the two approaches is that with divinatory tarot, it is the appointed tarot reader who speaks — chanelling, as they are, some form of higher authority — while the client tends to listen.

    With therapeutic tarot the therapist, i.e. the appointed tarot reader, may well know what the card means in a divinatory sense, but they take a step back and allow the client to talk. In this latter conversation (i.e. the conversation that the client/analysand is having with themselves), nothing is censored and everything is permitted — which is why it is important that they are in an environment where they feel safe to do so.

    The blurring of the line comes, of course, when we ask ourselves where do the two sources of information come from? Are they perhaps not the same source? What I would suggest then is that they can be broadly categorised (and I do mean broadly here) with alchemical terminology that I am familiar with. In divinatory tarot, the information tends to come from the “upper vertical”, in therapeutic tarot, it tends to come from the “lower vertical”. Or that is how I understand it.

  6. Alright Charles, (now that my tongue’s been bleeding all day), I won’t debate this with you but I will point out the fact that my initial post was an ‘analogous Metaphor’ to “..organize MY thoughts..”.

    I do enjoy reading your interpretations, as I appreciate as many points of view that I can handle.

    Side note, I see you’ve a trigger. This is the safest site I’ve ever found for getting out my funk to the light of day.

    Peace my friend,

    Jere

  7. Sarah, I’m not sure I recognize much difference between those two approaches. In both cases, we receive a message from the cards as an external source. We cannot help but but interpret it according to our own Selves, to some degree. But the difference, to me, seems to be whether we are aware of our subjectivity, or not; whether we are listening to the cards, or talking back to them. But you are correct, Sarah, that we must be able to discern what we are doing with the cards. That is enlightenment. Whether we see ourselves reflected in the cards, or whether we see the cards reflected in our lives, seems to me to be the crux of the matter.

    I believe that it is not our ability to interpret cards or layouts that will lead to an enlightening transformation of our Selves; but that it is our efforts to learn how to interpret these abstract archetypes that will transform us. This is why some occult traditions refer to Tarot as “pathwork,” each card represents a part of that path, not a destination. Even our projection into a card as pathwork starts with some objective meanings as “seed” for our experience.

    Well, perhaps we are talking about six of one, half a dozen of another. So let us return to our general subject of the moment, The Sun. Everyone’s favorite stoner scientist, Carl Sagan, once said, “We are all made of star-stuff.” The Sun shines brightly at the center of our universe, all life depends on it, all life was created around it, the matter that composes our bodies was made in it. If we do not recognize its illumination of our lives, we dwell in the shadows.

  8. “I’m of the opinion that if we make our duty to ourselves the first of our duties, then like the sun, we radiate outwards.”

    Perfectly put, indranibe. A great reminder.

  9. Charles – I think what you bring up here are two different uses of tarot, each legitimate as long as they are accompanied with awareness and the appropriate support.

    — Tarot as divination – which involves “getting out of the way” and allowing the meaning to come through

    — Tarot as a therapeutic tool – which involves projection and subjective immersion in a card **within a safe environment**

    In the first, the meaning comes from without; in the second, from within. Would you say that there is a place for both, as long as we know what we are dealing with at any one time?

  10. Perhaps this is an appropriate time to deal with an important issue on reading cards: projection. IMHO the cards have objective, standard meanings at their core. Well, at least objective enough that you should be able to tell when you are pushing your meaning onto the cards, rather than listening to them.

    I mean, we could all do that. Let me take a crack at it, modeling after Jere. The Sun: a nuclear furnace, a symbol of nuclear radiation. 6S: the boat is a containment vessel for a nuclear reactor, the swords represent control rods in their up position. And the 7S represents Prometheus stealing fire from the gods, symbolic of mankind learning to generate his own energy (e.g. nuclear). And of course that is all pure rubbish, I just made it up. There are enough objective signs in this layout to rule out this interpretation.

    Also eco11’s message concerns me. A couple that lives in my building were just arrested too, and their child is in a foster home. I am concerned, but since there is nothing I can do, I am trying to avoid taking on that energy. Now eco is (perhaps justifiably) worried, but projects fear onto one of the least fearful cards in the deck, seeing the innocent child on The Sun and worries about lurking threats. But the message of The Sun is that we are in an environment that supports us, without any peril. If you reread my analysis of this layout, I specifically said that any blocked paths (e.g. going to jail instead of living your free life) are a protection, a diversion from a path we should not take. Who are we to say that eco’s friend might not be in the one place most beneficial for her? This layout might be interpreted as a message that the incarcerated friend is on a new, better path that is blessed by the Sun. The passage to a new life might be difficult, but we can rise to the challenge and be better for it.

    I admonish people not to project fears and insecurities onto the cards. Tarot does not exist to scare people or give them negative messages. We do that often enough on our own. Much of the study of Tarot is getting ourselves out of the way of the cards, to learn how they speak to us, to listen carefully and separate our mental chatter from the interpretation. This might be a parable for life itself, we should listen to our own authentic selves, and try to see things as they are, not like fearful people say they are.

  11. Sarah, your articles give me such comfort every single week – not about the huge world around – not about the movement of the heavenly bodies – just small opportunities to fine-tune ourselves, and in so doing, our lives.

    This week’s reading comes at a time when we are all re-thinking our public image – the notion of duty to the world vs duty to ourselves. I’m of the opinion that if we make our duty to ourselves the first of our duties, then like the sun, we radiate outwards.

    If we give ourselves, love and care, and kindness and gentleness, and understand that we are privileged (suffering and all – everyone suffers – that’s unavoidable), and that with such privilege comes certain power which if wielded responsibly can ALLEVIATE some of the suffering that comes with the vicissitudes of life, then we are already on the road to a better world and a happier life. Because, if you don’t have happiness, or love and care – how to you give it to someone else? You can’t give what you don’t have, but these things are essential components of life, so it makes sense that we find a way to give them to ourselves. And how do we do that? Through meaning. We look for and find meaning. And then we give it to ourselves.

    It seems so elementary, I’m surprised it’s not more widely practised. I suppose we know why – control – religious, state, familial (which comes from religion and the state – the personal is political) – but still, the lack of this basic understanding surprises me.

    I expect what’s happened is that in dealing with all the big stuff, we forget the small things, and I keep noticing over and over again, through my life, through my work – the devil lies in the detail – it’s always the small things.

    Thanks again, and hope you’re well,

    Indrani

  12. Didn’t mean for that to sound fearful, man. I’m honestly not afraid of the shit, I just have a healthy respect. To me, it’s similar to a loaded gun: I wouldn’t go giving every kid one, but I wouldn’t mind poppin’ off a few rounds for target (or a bow and arrow if you prefer).

    The stuff is here man, it aint goin’ away if I close my eyes and plug my ears.

    And yes you’re correct, this is the tarot corner. Could you make a list of the subjects that are ‘not included’ in tarot, so I’ll have something to reference next time?

    ..I allow my brain free reign to make the connections it does. My words were the analogy I was using in order to interperate and understand the spread. I won’t limit my response or imagination, regardless.

    (..pesky little animals crapping all over it.) Sounds like somebody needs a hug.

    How about some Love-mongering?

    Take care man,

    Jere

  13. Wow Jere. Just think of the risks in our “shared nuclear environment.” I mean, what if all life on earth were totally dependent on nuclear energy, like maybe a massive fusion reactor, it would be so big that it would have to be kept like 93 million miles away, we’d see it up in the sky. That would be unthinkable!
    And then there are those dangerous “heavy isotopes” that you think should be restricted to research labs. According to modern cosmology, at one time, the universe was perfect, nothing in it but hydrogen. And then a big experiment occurred, big fusion reactors started spewing out galaxies full of heavy elements. The whole perfect scheme got polluted with stuff like nitrogen, carbon and oxygen, and metals like iron, and then bits of it congealed into little spheres covered with pesky little animals crapping all over it. Quel horreur!

    Look, Jere, I can understand if you’re here on Eric’s site because you want to participate in the massive fearmongering, of which he proudly represents the extreme loony fringe at the far edge of the Overton Window. But this corner of his site is about tarot. Could we stick to the subject and leave Eric’s rabid fearmongering outside, where it belongs?

  14. The Sun, path of awareness, and eyes wide open. Of growth and symbiotic evolution. Of ‘seeing’ for oneself the expressions of what is. Of change that offers hope.

    I want to cross-reference tangent this spread with Eric’s podcast on wednesday regarding the nuclear charts. I say tangent, because I want to draw an analogous correlation that will organize my thoughts regarding our shared nuclear reality.

    Six of swords.. This is science in the age of enlightenment. The mountain has been climbed, the seas have been equanimously travailed. There is exploration and discovery ahead. ..This is where the faculty of mind is supposed to take on the equilibrium between strength and capacity, and wisdom through understanding.

    We’ve realized, it’s in our face, the dangers of nuclear technology. We’ve played with it enough to know that it aint goin’ away anytime soon.

    The seven of swords let’s us understand that we ‘still’ have the matter to deal with,.. it didn’t go away, it just transformed. And transformation is key to the seven. The seven is about working through the logistics of dealing with the specifics.

    As far as the heavy isotopes go, we’re going to need to experiment on this stuff in some lab somehere, in order to better ‘understand’ it’s, and our, relationship to ourselves and this planet.

    This IS Pandora’s box. Once it’s open baby, ya just gotta deal! (But hey, we’ve been dealin’ for an infinite amount of years anyway.. just be aware of your environment).

    ..definitely a rough sketch, but I wanted to throw something out for synchronicity’s sake.

    Jere

  15. Forgive me while I have been going through so much fear and terror this past week. I have a loved one who has shockingly found herself in jail and in “the system.” All her freedoms are no longer her own choice.

    That in mind and heart, like a block of fear, my “whole system” is trying to process and get a handle on this all and may definitely temper my own interpretation of this layout.

    I see the sun and innocence, the wide free open naked baby, so certain of her right to sun that she does not look or stop or censor herself. She is oblivious to dangers or even shadows or darkness.

    I see the shrouded woman with her child (her innocence) beside her traveling into Hades and Pluto, crossing the River Styx, paying the price.

    And, oddly, the third card is the spirit taking, running away with the swords that would pin and control her and dancing with them. An unstoppable spirit. This last card is the most hopeful of all.

    I once knew a man who they said could be ordered to dig a hole all morning and fill it up all afternoon and he would still find a way to make it fun. An unstoppable spirit.

    There are tragedies in this world that cripple some of us. Others, as they say, will take lemons and make lemonade. Perhaps I need to look beyond my own shocked core.

  16. Interesting spread, as always. When I see consecutive numbers of the same suit together like this, I sometimes look at the numbers separate from the suit first. In this case, I see the 6s and 7s as their plain, unadorned playing cards with “pips.” The layout of the pips is significant. The traditional 6 layout is two vertical rows of 3, one tradition I studied views this as a channel, like two walls, allowing the energy to flow in a specific direction.

    The 7 layout is the same as the 6, but with one pip in the middle of the channel, usually asymmetrical, nearer to one end than the other. This would indicate turbulence or a blockage of that channeling of energy, even an ending of the flow in that direction. Whether that flow is blocked at the beginning, preventing energy from even entering the channel, or blocked at the end where all that force will just pile up with nowhere to go, is ambiguous.

    So leaving aside the Sun for a moment, in the 6S, a punter is pushing us down a channel to a new destination (well, it looks like crossing a river or lake, but allow me this allusion). We are crossing troubled waters, leaving a wake, to arrive at the other shore. We have made a choice of destination, the punter will ferry us to our destination without expending our own energy. Here, the swords can be interpreted as always: symbolic of mental activity and cutting down a problem by making a decision.

    Now in the 7S, someone else has made that decision for us. The swords, the tools we had planned to use, were swiped. Now this channel is not available to us, it’s blocked. We may have a couple of swords left, but they’re insufficient to do the job in the way we had planned.

    Now let’s pull in the Sun. It radiates positive vibes on both cards. We may have had trouble coming to the decision to ride the ferry and arrive at a new, unfamiliar territory. We may have been the victim of what we feel were unfair circumstances, by someone else blocking our path. But these are both good things. Perhaps those 7 swords were the right tools for the wrong job, or would have channeled our energy into a dead end. So it is better this way, it is fortunate that our plans were thwarted. So we will take a different path, and ride the ferry in a new direction, propelled by the good fortune of the Sun, over to the new land, where the light will shine down upon us, just as it does on everyone.

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