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.