The Weekend Tarot Reading — Sunday, November 27, 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 explains how to use the spread. You can visit Sarah’s website here. –efc

By Sarah Taylor

Keep chipping away. Small, considered steps make progress. This is not a time for fiery gestures and emoting. This is about dedication, and detail. The reward is self-sufficiency and a skill that you can bring to bear on your world.

The cards this week move from left to right through a progression of numbers: 6, then 2, then 8; 6 + 2 = 8. For me, the first two cards find expression in the third, which is the sum total of its predecessors; we reach the state the figure in the third card is embodying by experiencing both the Six of Swords and the Two of Swords.

But let’s go back a step. Looking at this reading, we have two Swords and one Pentacle. Traditionally, the first suit in the minor arcana is Wands: spirit, creative drive, libido. Wands are pre-emotion, pre-cognition, pre-action. They are the spark of inspiration — fire-based as they are — that brings life into being. Next come the Cups — the emotions that are introduced into play based on that spark. We then have a thought, or thoughts — Swords — leading out from our emotional state. Finally, we bring all of these to bear in how we interact with our environment — Pentacles. Therefore, Swords and Pentacles are the more ‘manifest’ of the suits in the minor arcana: they are action-orientated, doing­ness cards. This reading is about movement through our world, and how we negotiate what it is that we are creating with our inner spark and our feelings.

In this case, the cards indicate that we are moving from one place to another. The Six of Swords can be as literal as making a geographical move. It can indicate a move in status or relationships. It can also signify a psychic movement from one state of mind to another.

What the three figures are leaving behind them are choppy waters that may well have tested them. This speaks of turmoil of some kind. Now, however, they are turning their backs on it and smoother waters lie ahead, even though they might not be able to discern specifics: The landscape seems moonlit, detail is scant, and the six swords standing in front of them impede their view. Thoughts at this time might be easing, but there is still a lack of clarity. Perhaps this is a time to accept that we are too close to our ‘material’ to be able to see clearly, and that a better course of action is to put our heads down and to keep on moving.

There is no outboard motor to rush us to shore, nor can we rely on external factors to fill our sails and ease our efforts. Having said that, we are the masters of our own destiny. We are moving under our own steam — slowly, yes, but methodically: We have time to feel our way and to make choices, just as the punter standing at the back has the ability to test out the bed beneath before finding a place where his pole has purchase, which gives him the leverage he needs.

I wrote the following in an article on the Two of Swords (From potential into action: the Twos in tarot):

If Swords are about thoughts, then the Two of Swords concerns itself with the balance of opposing thoughts. Unlike the Three, Ten and Knight, these swords are not being used actively, nor are they inflicting damage. They are pointed away from each other. Be that as it may, any equilibrium is only temporary — it is a truce, a holding position. The swords may be held in check, but their blades still shine in the moonlight, a reminder that they can, indeed, cut and wound. …

If the Ace of Swords is thought in service to a higher order, the Two is the moment when sword is united with sword, and discovers that it has another purpose. Thoughts can be creative, and they can be destructive. Both are needed on the physical plane. For now, however, they are poised, waiting. It can go either way.

As with the figures in the Six of Swords, the woman in the Two is shrouded in moonlight. As with the water they are moving into, the water here is calm, slightly rippled. Still waters run deep. There is a sense, again, of not knowing. Given that swords can be used creatively or destructively, what is the next step? The Two of Swords, balanced as it is between possibilities, hands that choice over to you, just as the choice of which course to plot is given to the figure holding the rod in the punt. What is indicated clearly, though, is that new choices can be made, and different directions can be taken. Progress is slowed down because we are not yet in daylight, fully cognisant of the consequences of our actions. Maybe just as well, then, that we cannot zoom along at will.

Finally, we come to the Eight of Pentacles, which, as I mentioned earlier, seems to be the sum of the Six and the Two. Here, we find the shift: From analysis and mental activity to craft and physical activity, and from the half-light to the daylight. The figure feels unfettered compared to the other four: We can see his face, no longer hidden by aspect or by blindfold. He, too, sits on a bench like the two figures in the punt, but this time he is in a state of animation. When I look at his expression, I see one of satisfied concentration. His body language is open, his focus directed at the pentacle that he is shaping.

Eights are the number of action and its antithesis, inaction. But all the Eights have one thing in common: It is up to the individual to act on what is available to them, and no-one else. There is the invitation to self-sufficiency and initiative. The reward for this is marked.

Right now, it might feel like you are being guided down the narrowest of paths, but you have freedom within that — and it is taking you to a destination that might as yet be unclear, but there is enough light to take things step by small step, negotiating and renegotiating at every point. Minor arcana cards are about the detail of everyday life — and here the focus is on the word “detail” itself. Slow and steady wins the race. If, that is, it is a race; if there is anything to be ‘won’. Perhaps, instead, there is something to be gained, at the expense of no-one else, and through your own sweat and dedication. You are doing nothing less than shaping your world.