By Sarah Taylor
Courage. Regenerator. Master.
There is no explicit presence of the element Air in today’s reading; there is no allocated space for your thoughts to lead you through this leg of your journey. Instead, they play a supporting role to your creativity, your emotions, your connection to your body and those things of use in the world around you.
I have tended to view the Rider-Waite Smith version of the Seven of Wands as an emergence of the unconscious, and the ego-based reaction of resistance: an armed figure who is alone save for the six wands that rise up to meet him, held by no-one. This breakthrough into awareness is echoed in the Voyager Tarot.
The imagery in this version of the Seven of Wands is archetypal, representative of the world of Spirit; the only hint of human-ness is a hand holding a stone cross. There is a sense of one’s being brought into the presence of something larger than oneself, a form of reckoning, a confrontation.
The word “confrontation” can conjure up images of conflict and aggression. It might be that these are by no means new to you. They have been with you all the time; they are you: the you that has felt little peace, the you that has fought to hold something in check, and which is now asking for you to let it go, and let it in. In psychotherapy, the term “confrontation” is a wake-up call, and the message it carries can come through to you like a gradually brightening light, or a strident alarm that throws you out of bed. Either way, you have always been the architect of your own awakening, and you have the means to work with it.