By Sarah Taylor
This week’s tarot reading follows on from last weekend’s reading, which featured the King of Pentacles, the Nine of Pentacles, and the Five of Pentacles. I concluded the reading with this observation:
“It is up to us to turn within and find what has been calling to us, inviting us into an encounter that has the ability to transform our lives in ways that might not be immediately visible, but which renew our connection to ourselves and each other.”
Here, we have just such a moment. The first two cards give the reading a broad theme: this is soul work that we’re doing.
The major arcana in tarot (the 22 cards that stand in addition to the Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles) are focused on the overarching matters of individuation, a word from analytical psychology which describes the process of becoming uniquely oneself — in other words, to separate from family, friends, expectations, societal norms, and previously unquestioned ‘must bes’, ‘must dos’ and ‘must haves’. When a reading has one or more major arcana cards, we know we are facing one of those encounters that have the ability to enable us to become more of who we really are, and to listen to and follow our soul’s calling.
There is a collective nature to this too: none of us is separate from the world around us — nor from our past, nor our future. What we say, what we do, what we think, and how we feel have more impact on our world than we can perhaps imagine. And the same goes for how others’ actions, beliefs and feelings can affect us — most particularly our families of birth and our ancestors.