The Weekend Tarot Reading — Sunday, March 25, 2012

By Sarah Taylor

This week, we have three minor arcana cards in our reading: the Three of Cups, Two of Wands, and Eight of Swords. The first thing that this tells us is that we are in the realm of the quotidian. This doesn’t mean that the reading can be construed as less important than those that contain major arcana or court cards, like last week’s reading. Rather, it means that the focus is on the practical steps that overlay our psychological, emotional and spiritual development. And this reading is nothing if not practical.

Three of Cups, Two of Wands, Eight of Swords -- RWS Tarot deck.
Three of Cups, Two of Wands, Eight of Swords from the Rider-Waite Smith Tarot deck. Click on the image for a larger version.

Its message to us? We can either choose to stay trapped, perhaps seeing ourselves as victims of circumstance, or we can free ourselves to dance with life.

The Three of Cups and the Eight of Swords represent two creative choices, the Two of Wands representing the ‘fulcrum’ between each choice, each of the wands in visual association to its adjacent card. The Twos in tarot also denote duality, and duality is experienced through contrast. And here there are two contrasting states: heart, mind; abundance, barrenness; participation, isolation.

Unlike The Hanged Man, where we are ‘strung up’ for a period of time without the option of escape, the Eight of Swords puts the power in the figure’s hands: her bonds are pretty flimsy, and if she moved enough, she would be able to free herself from them, remove her blindfold, and see that the swords are neither being brandished by adversaries, nor are they encircling her completely. Water lies in shallow puddles by her feet; the emotions are not being engaged — there is no connection to heart. Instead, what feel closer are her thoughts, what she believes, where she elects to focus her mind.

In the Three of Cups, we encounter the dance with life that I mentioned in the opening paragraphs. This is a card that, on the surface, speaks of joy — but I feel there is a deeper meaning to the idea of ‘joy’ in the context of this reading. How about we substitute the word ‘joy’ with ‘exaltation’, which is about an elevation of feeling rather than one where the meaning is narrowed to a sense of pleasure. When it feels like things are not going our way — worse, when life offers us a raw blade — we have the opportunity to view life from an elevated perspective.

Amanda Painter wrote this comment on an article on the Threes in tarot in 2010:

the threes seemed to be bearing this out perfectly (even the three of wands carries the tension/apprehension of releasing the ships to the wide world, fate unknown) except for the three of cups.

“harmony?!” i thought. “harmony doesn’t jive with the tension theory!”

and then i thought of music: of three-part harmony, specifically. that seems a more functional equivalent to the three of cups. it’s not tension in a negative sense, but a functional tension akin perhaps to the tension that makes a triangle a stable geometric shape.

Maybe it is the stability offered to us by the Three of Cups that can support us more than anything else in times when we feel we are falling — or the surrender to a rhythm that might not make sense to our ears, but which is there nonetheless. In joining the dance, we rise above our circumstances and open ourselves to the possibility that there is an organising principle that for the most part remains hidden from us, glimpsed in moments and sensed through the eyes of our intuition.

Moreover, the reading today is being quite prescriptive as to which of the two outside cards we are being directed to: the figure in the Two of Wands is turning his back on the Eight of Swords while holding the world up to the Three of Cups. Not that it wasn’t a no-brainer to start with, but the presence of the Two of Wands serves as an emphasis: this isn’t a ‘both/and’; it’s an ‘either/or’, because we cannot be in both states at the same time. We either dance with life, or we resist it; we either trust and move with the rhythm, or we become stuck; we either see ourselves as helpless and alone, or we see ourselves as surrounded by support. We choose the former and we become active participants in the shaping of our experience of the world — and, by extension, the shaping of the world itself.

“It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves.”
“What you resist, persists.”

— Carl Jung

“The moment I let go of it was the moment
I got more than I could handle.
The moment I jumped off of it
Was the moment that I touched down.”

— Alanis Morissette, Thank U

 

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.

12 thoughts on “The Weekend Tarot Reading — Sunday, March 25, 2012”

  1. (((((((Huffy, KathyC, Amanda, Rob, Burning River, alpssmile, stormilarue)))))))

    “I feel so much emotion at this juncture–grief over what’s been lost in the seasons past, acceptance that it is the past, a measure of closure on a part of my life now over. Also relief, and an intermittent sense of exaltation. Liberation. A sense of support, unseen but felt in the moment of surrender. I’ve freed myself to dance with life, and stopped resisting; stopped trying to repair the life I had, or seek security in the known. It’s frightening, and sorrowful, and open-ended. Between this life and this death is something I can’t possess. But in that space is the only authentic path available.”

    Amen.

  2. Yesterday I did an intensive day of meditation, with a wonderful Japanese zen master (I’m a crazy mixed up buddhist, love all the different traditions) and at the end felt very sad. That happens to me quite often when I do a lot of meditation. It used to worry me at first – but over the years I’ve learned to respect that sadness, and realize that we carry a sadness in our hearts that we normally shy away from. And I’ve learned not to fear it – because close to allowing that sadness to be, there is also the joy of letting one’s heart be touched by life. Was so touched by your words, Rob – sounds like you’re doing amazing stuff. And what a coincidence Alpssmile – lucky you! You say “and still I doubt” – but I think that the doubting only stops wit enlightenment – and who’s enlightened? Good luck Amanda, feeling pretty aarghish meself! Big hugs to you all. xxx

  3. Here I stand as well … On the precipice between insanity (doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results) and dancing with two left feet on new ground, alive and engaged. The choice seems clear in this reading. Holding the whole world in my hand …a precious possibility blinded/cordoned by fear? The synchonicities in the reading and comments here deliver a most relevant message in this moment for me. I am presently working a “tryout” week as a staff practioner during a metta retreat that was proceeded by a conversation with Leigh Brasington about the next step. Wow, Huffy and Rob44 ! And still, I doubt.

  4. Well, for a spread that is following on so many others that so many of us are finding mirrored in our particular lives and choices, it doesn’t get any clearer, does it?

    Can inching my way in the direction that is obvious count? as decision? Movement by me is now required and imperative and I am clear only that I cannot go back, but the future is terrifyingly unknowable. Oh, well. Here we go.

  5. These readings have accompanied me through many turns of the river over the past year. Looking back, there have been so many that illuminated turning points, dramatic or subtle. I remember in particular ruminating on a Tower reading last autumn, which presaged some deep and final changes in my core relationships. And a reading given me in response to that rumination, which I’m still absorbing.

    Those changes among others colored the tenor of my winter, as I struggled with an ongoing inner tension. It was a tension that defined so much of the past three years of relative stasis, after an intensely active and magical phase of my life. In that latter time I came to feel becalmed, even abandoned by the winds of destiny. It has been a painful time of isolation and loss in some ways, though mixed with summer seasons of transcendent beauty and special times with special people.

    The arc of the story of this phase has written itself out now. After months, really years, of deliberation in a kind of limbo, wrestling with what seemed to be a stay-or-go question more geographic than anything, I’ve decided to move on to new territory. I know little of what lies ahead, can’t see more than the next small step down the road. But like the story of the traveler whose lamp lit the next few feet and thereby helped him crossed a landscape, I’m traveling by faith as much as sight.

    This is indeed about letting go, flying off the cliff…releasing the past and rising above circumstance. I feel so much emotion at this juncture–grief over what’s been lost in the seasons past, acceptance that it is the past, a measure of closure on a part of my life now over. Also relief, and an intermittent sense of exaltation. Liberation. A sense of support, unseen but felt in the moment of surrender. I’ve freed myself to dance with life, and stopped resisting; stopped trying to repair the life I had, or seek security in the known. It’s frightening, and sorrowful, and open-ended. Between this life and this death is something I can’t possess. But in that space is the only authentic path available. So here we go…thanks Sarah.

  6. Reading that link now, Huffy – I am torn between feeling and knowing the truth of it, and the conditioning of millennia that tells me that the only profound and ‘real’ love to be experienced is the love between two, select people.

    Aha! Yes: that’s the difference between the Three of Cups and the Eight of Swords. Gottit! 🙂

  7. Once again – you describe right where I am at right now dear Sarah. Thank you. I didn’t know these wonderful words from Jung. And I’d just read similar words on re-reading this wonderful piece on cultivating loving kindness for ourselves and others (metta) by one of my favourite buddhist teachers.
    http://www.leighb.com/ayyametta.htm

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