The Weekend Tarot Reading — Sunday, March 18, 2012

By Sarah Taylor

“When we begin to awaken to our true Selves and our full potential, relationships often crumble and people disappear out of our lives — often in extremely disruptive ways. The fear factor can be high. The ego will try every trick in the book to keep us off our true paths. This is a good time to remember that only love is real.”  — Lisa Frideborg Lloyd, tarotize.com

The first thing I want to do today is to draw your attention to the Weekend Tarot Reading of Sunday February 26, three weeks ago. In it, we had the same three cards that we have today, although this time two of the cards are transposed.

The reading on February 26: The Moon, Queen of Cups, The Tower

Today’s reading: The Moon, The Tower, Queen of Cups

Synchronicity is well and truly at work here, and the message that it seems to be conveying first and foremost is that today’s reading offers an opportunity to gather ourselves, review events in our lives, and see — and, more importantly, feel — where we’re at. I do not take this to be a second event of a Tower-like nature in one month. There might be two distinct permutations, or sub-themes, but The Tower in both readings refers to a single overarching theme, pattern or experience.

So, again, we are in the realm of interpersonal relationships. Here, though, the focus has shifted — and I take my cue from the Queen of Cups in this. Last time, I described the Queen as follows:

“When we are aligned with our emotions to the extent expressed in the Queen of Cups — a state that is amplified by The Moon — then we can take in all that emerges with empathy and openness, the shores of our own psychic seas ready to birth and offer to our embrace what it is that is surfacing to meet us.”

In that reading, it seemed that the Queen was aligned with The Moon, the chalice in her hand held up to the landscape that was cast into shadow and filled with creatures that described a sense of ‘instinct’ that was separate from the rational life that we lead in the daylight hours. The Queen added a watery quality — one imbued with a depth of feeling and a deeply feminine idea of receptivity and containment. Her psychic world, as such, was able to stretch out and encompass the landscape of The Moon in a loving acceptance. Nothing left out, nothing discounted as unworthy or as ‘not belonging’.

This week, the Queen’s attention — attentiveness — shifts to The Tower and the two figures falling from it. The love that she radiates can now be felt in the void into which they are being cast. In which case, it isn’t a nothingness they are being flung into; it is a presence, subtle and perhaps not easily trusted when everything is subject to change and dismantling. But there she is, chalice raised again, attending to the next thing that is focusing our attention.

The quote by fellow tarot-reader Lisa Frideborg Lloyd couldn’t fit any better. Lisa’s quote is a good example of the embodiment of Queen of Cups energy: it is gentle, it comes from a place of empathy, it exhorts us, with sensitivity, to open ourselves to viewing our circumstances another way — one that speaks from a position of empowerment and liberation. As I mentioned in the previous article, there is a good reason why The Tower, in the Mayan tarot, is called “The Released Man.” It might not be a pleasant experience; it might feel like our very foundations are being shaken. But just what might be coming in that we need to make space for?

The Tower can feel frightening because it comes with the necessary force to make changes that we were previously ignoring or denying. It is ‘last resort’ medicine of the most therapeutic kind. Except this medicine feels more like an elixir in the hands of the Queen: cups are of the heart, not the mind or the body. Heart medicine might not be any less decisive in its impact, but the compassion runs deep and can be felt if we choose to look for it.

At this time, be gentle with yourself, and ask for help if you need it. The Queen’s presence is proof enough that it is there. Listen to the wisdom of your heart.

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 explains how to use the spread.