The Weekend Tarot Reading — Sunday, August 11, 2013

By Sarah Taylor

There is a “pay it forward” feel to today’s reading — the idea of being offered something at a time of trial or challenge, and then being able to pass on that gift in a way that brings balm to the soul’s darkest night, whether yours or another’s, or both.

On July 28, the reading witnessed an appearance of three Aces: Wands, Swords, and Pentacles. What I observed then was that the Ace of Cups was conspicuous by its absence and in fact may have been emphasised by that absence. As if the responsibility were ours to meet the complement of the three Aces with our own creation and incarnation of the ideal of unconditional love that is embodied by the Ace of Cups.

In other words, it was up to us to put in the effort to bring Love to the matter. It might have been that it was harder to muster up love than it was to access our powers of creation, or to gain insight, or to bring something into physical form. But that was the task that was being allotted to us, if we chose to take it on.

Here, this week, we are now being asked to take it further.

In the Four of Cups, the figure sitting under the tree is closed off to the same Ace that was absent in the reading two weeks ago. The Ace of Cups is being offered to him, and yet he has chosen to make himself non-receptive to its presence. This state is optional; it rests with him to change his body-language and his mind-set, to open his heart to a force that is waiting for him to let it enter him.

And it seems that he takes up the challenge, for the cup reappears in the next card, in the hand of the questing Knight of Cups. The Knight is about the same age as the figure in the previous card. I feel he represents the same person, except here he is anything but disillusioned. Here he is full of crusading zeal — but this crusade is on behalf of love. For the love of Love. To discover Love through its myriad expressions.

The Knight has taken up the mantle of love and become Love’s advocate in the outside world. The Knight is not yet King: he still believes in some way that love is a romantic ideal that sparks his fighting spirit. Love is demonstrative; it is a public display of affection. That doesn’t mean, however, that the love is any less sincere. The Knight’s intentions are pure; his dedication to his path is one that also leads him to maturity as King and to a different idea of what love can be: Love that is non-discriminating and unconditional; love of oneself radiating out as love for everything.

For now, the Knight is riding out in service of the Ace of Cups in the way that he knows how: he has taken the cup extended to him, and now in turn extends it to the figure in the Ten of Swords. Divine love has been given human form, a particular version. If this version doesn’t feel up to the job, the suggestion here is to look beneath the exterior trappings of what it appears to be, and to see what lies at its heart.

Love, in the intersection of Knight of Cups and Ten of Swords, has become a conscious act that brings healing and succour to someone in need. The Ten describes a situation that has bottomed out: the worst has passed, but to the person held in place by the swords, it may not feel that way.

Nothing less than full surrender has been asked for in a situation. With the Ten of Swords, that surrender is often not optional (The time for that was in the Four of Swords). It is the point where giving up one’s ideas about oneself is no less than the stripping away of an identity, and that experience can feel like a form of death. That death makes space for the dawning of something new and altogether more authentic: in the Ten, the skies are clearing, implying that the Sun — illumination — is about to make its presence felt.

Key to this shift in experience of Self is the Knight who is marching into the picture, his hand outstretched, his love given. The figure might not be able to see it yet, pinned down as he is, but the Knight is there nonetheless. The message is clear: the cavalry is coming; the gift an offering of love. Liberation is in the air.

Astrology/Elemental correspondences: Four of Cups (Moon in Cancer), Knight of Cups (the airy aspect of water), Ten of Swords (Sun in Gemini)

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.