The Monday Tarot Reading — Monday, August 25, 2014

By Sarah Taylor

If Crow medicine appears in your card spread, you must pause and reflect on how you see the laws of the Great Spirit in relation to the laws of humanity. Crow medicine signifies a firsthand knowledge of a higher order of right and wrong than that indicated by the laws created in human culture. With Crow medicine, you speak in a powerful voice when addressing issues that for you seem out of harmony, out of balance, out of whack, or unjust. … You must put aside your fear of being a voice in the wilderness and “caw” the shots as you see them.

As I performed ceremony to prepare for this reading, Crow flew over me, sounding its unmistakable call. The passage quoted above is part of the entry for “Crow” in the book Medicine Cards, by Jamie Sams and David Carson.

That The Hierophant appears at the centre of this reading is confirmation of Crow’s message: to follow your inner calling towards what you know in your bones to be true, rather than anything that’s ‘true’ simply because you’re told that it is so, or because you are asked to toe a party line. This is about Truth as it is imparted to you; the truth that you feel at heart.

Like the writing on The Hierophant, this is your moment of pause and reflection, being, as you are, your own “teacher,” “advisor,” “initiate,” “inner teacher,” “spiritual father.”

The Hierophant as an active archetype is also aided by The Moon: today we have a New Moon in Virgo — the New Moon marking the time when the veil between the worlds of matter and spirit is thinnest. Just as there is no Sun to cast its light on the Moon in the dark, so we are immersed in our own psychic darkness, reliant on our typically less-practised senses to guide us through the night of the soul. I find the mirroring between the two major arcana cards subtle yet powerful: the gently parted fingers against the faces of both figures, feminine and masculine; the light source behind the Moon revealed over the forehead of The Hierophant.

There is wisdom — great wisdom — in inner contemplation. There is wisdom in trusting one’s Self and the knowledge that resides therein. In a world where we can garner any number of opinions by simply typing a line into a search box and hitting “Enter,” the repository of personal truth that we hold is a greatly under-used resource. If this reading emphasizes one thing above anything else, it is that we have the means and the responsibility to use it.

Intuition and wisdom. It feels like these are exemplified by The Moon and The Hierophant respectively; they are two sides of the same coin. And they come together in such a beautiful, passionate, erotic way in the final card.

The Six of Cups takes us out of the transpersonal and into more human realms — the realm of an encounter. Whether it is inter- or intra-personal, one thing feels clear: the result of that pause and reflection to find your own truth has little, if nothing, to do with detachment. You are not going within to transcend and distance yourself through your superior insight. Your insight may well be superior — but that’s only because it is coming from a place that has a higher perspective. Otherwise, there is nothing remotely ‘superior’ about it.

Nope, you are going within to merge, to swoon, to fall into the arms of life, to sweep it up and off its feet with the feelings that emerge from the very depths of you. That is the wisdom in this reading. You are having an encounter of the flesh. It might feel fated. I wouldn’t be surprised if it does. It has been a long time coming, this meeting with a part of you that has longed to hold and be held. If it comes in the form of a particular ‘other’, know that they are simply reflecting something back to you. If it comes from inside you, there is no less reason to feel joy at the reunion. Both are the same, just in different forms. Trust it — in spite of any and all voices to the contrary.

Since Crow is the keeper of sacred law, Crow can bend the laws of the physical universe and “shape shift.” This ability is rare and unique. Few adepts exist in today’s world, and fewer still have mastered Crow’s art of shape shifting. This art includes doubling, or being in two places at one time consciously; taking on another physical form, and becoming the “fly on the wall” to observe what is happening far away.

Astrology/Elemental correspondences: The Moon (Pisces), The Hierophant (Taurus), Six of Cups (Sun in Scorpio)

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.