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 tells you how to use the spread. You can visit Sarah’s website here. –efc
By Sarah Taylor
An opportunistic move means a burden needs to be carried; victory ensues.
Two things come to mind immediately when I look at this week’s tarot reading.
The first is that, yet again, we have Wands. Last week, we had two, and the same goes for this week, although the numbers are different. If I take a step back and look at the readings as being connected, then there is a surge of energy — or will — that has moved across the weeks. This might be part of an ongoing story, where there is a narration or sub-text that is being woven by the cards, or it might speak of a broader theme — in this case, one of fire, drive, impetus.
The second is that the third card stands apart from the other two in terms of the feeling it evokes. The Five of Swords and the Ten of Wands have, to a greater or lesser extent, a connection with conflict and challenge, while the Six of Wands (which has made regular appearances over the weeks) is associated with victory, or a graduation of sorts. How does the first card, especially, lead on to the third? Let’s take a closer look.
In each card, a figure holds an item, or items, representative of its suit, upright in his hand. From this, and the way that they are all placed dominantly in the foreground by artist Pamela Colman Smith, I take the view that this is a linear narration of a development as the protagonist moves through various states as the cards progress.
Also, look at how he is carrying each item. In the first card, two swords are resting in the palms of his left hand, another in his right. He is holding them rather casually given that they are carefully honed weapons. What to make of that? In the Ten of Wands, he is pitted against all ten wands that now seem to overwhelm him. He is not easily able to wield any one of them, and needs both arms to cope with the burden. In the final card, the figure carries his Wand capably and with authority. There is no need to struggle, and yet the rather relaxed attitude of the first figure has gone.