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
Two things are calling for your attention, your energy, your commitment. One of them feels settled, apparently undemanding — offered up as it is to you — and immediate; the other involves risk, hard work, careful nurturing, with no guarantees. It is time to use your heart.
This week’s reading is about what is manifesting in your physical world, and how you are reacting to that. In it, two Pentacles cards — the Knight and the Seven — sit either side of the Three of Swords, and instead of working with the cards in linear fashion, I feel compelled to start at the centre and move outwards to each flanking card, and then to move back from them to the centre. This is a process of moving away from intellectual analysis and into a place of intuitive enquiry; it isn’t the swords that I see as dominant in the Three of Swords, but the heart.
Your heart is the heart in the middle, feeling torn by options that seem to put you in a state of conflict with yourself: the sword on the left (the Knight of Pentacles) crosses the sword on the right (the Seven of Pentacles), and both are met by the sword in the centre — you in the midst of it all.
The Knight seems to be offering you something that simply requires you to reach out and accept it. Either that, or he is putting something on show for your perusal. It seems like a straightforward transaction, and it seems safe. But I am drawn to the armour of the Knight himself, and particularly the spur on the Knight’s heel. Why is he so heavily fortified? Does the offering come with a condition, or a price? More importantly for me: who does it really belong to? What is yours? What is someone else’s?
The Seven of Pentacles has come up a lot in recent tarot readings. What it tells me here is this: you have done so much; you have put in so much. It might not look like it, but something is beginning to bear fruit. What’s more: it has been done by your own sweat and toil. As you stand back to survey it, this is your work you can see growing before you. The figure is not nearly as richly attired as the Knight, and yet the ground is producing more than it does in the Knight of Pentacles. Indeed, fragile thought it may be, you have nurtured something to life through effort and dedication. What I notice as well is that the figure, too, has his own pentacle — one that is ready to be taken just like the one being offered by the Knight. But he doesn’t seem to be aware of it. Is he perhaps closer to the achievement, or attainment, of something than he is currently aware of? And what stops him from picking it up and taking it as his own?
And back to the Three of Hearts at centre. Swords are thoughts, but it isn’t thought that is going to get you through this. It is the heart. Your heart. This is an invitation to remove the influence of analytical thinking for a moment, if you can, so that you can access something that beats with its own vitality and wisdom. Once you do that, you will know which way your heart is asking you to go.
Very true dear Sarah. And it’s so hard to ‘disarm!’.
Timely as always Sarah. The journey seems clearer when seen from this angle. It’s the traveling of the map that’s tricky. Lead with the heart, the cards say. Somewhere between doing and not doing is a river that carries us, if only for a time, toward a certain bend.
You are welcome, Huffy!
The more I sit with this, the more I feel this is metaphorical – delineating two different ways of operating in, and interacting and creating with, our world. Do we go in with armour, taking the option that seems safe, or do we put ourselves out there sometimes with all the concomitant risk?
In other words, these aren’t two external options; they are two internal options. The Knight isn’t someone who is approaching from outside, nor is the figure in the Seven of Pentacles. They are how you choose to approach your own heart.
Thank you Sarah. Really really needed this right now. xx
Charles – such a beautiful interpretation, thank you. In other words, there is a simultaneity to the options as well as the possibility of seeing them as “either/or”.
B.C. – “The heart is its own reward.” Yes. Yes!
SiS – Really?! I loooooove that observation! š
maria – Absolutely, that came very strongly through to me last night as I was reading the comments – armoured vs. vulnerable, and the risk of being with that vulnerability.
Amanda – Does it feel any different, or is it of any relevance, if you substitute “too late” for “just in time”? I think Half’s comment about looking forward vs. looking back is apropos here. Hugs.
I usually read the 3S as a symbol of making decisions that cause your own suffering. It is about what we THINK we want, but causes us emotional distress when we get it. Like you, Sarah, the Sword in the center of two Pentacles really stands out. Since I often read as pairs, the left pair and the right pair suggest two different ways that the 3S can affect the Pentacle cards. Air (Swords) and Pentacles (Earth) are antagonists, so these decisions and distress can disturb the (usually implacable) Pentacles.
In the right pair, the 7P is evaluating the growth that resulted from his work. Perhaps he is agonizing whether his crop will bear fruit at all (Crowley named this card Failure, an interpretation I usually avoid). The decisions he made in planting and tending the vines cannot be changed now.
In the left pair, the Knight is bound by his role and position (you can see I’m playing with this royal lineage idea I just discovered). His path was set at birth, perhaps he is agonizing over whether he can live up to his role, or whether he is suited to it.
I see the pairs as symbolizing that agony over our decisions, outwardly or inwardly. The Knight must find the strength within himself to resolve his inner doubts. The gardener must see the strength in the work he has already done, and be assured of the good results to come. In a way, this card is about faith in ourselves, and the things we have done, to stop agonizing over our past decisions and look forward. We must have faith that what we will get is what we need, rather than what we want.
These readings are always so dead on, it never fails to amaze me. But this one in particular — just staring at that heart puts me at ease and reminds me of what I already know: the heart is its own reward.
sorry, forgot PM 11:04 PM EDT.
: D
NEW Moon @ 11:04 EDT!!
Yes Amanda, I completely concur. In astrology, it is a little like the difference between the easy sextile and trine (which many folk equate). Sextiles seem to speak of windows of opportunity but that aren’t always taken, bringing regret. Sextiles often require more effort or coaxing. Trines differ; more like right place and right time slot neatly with ease. I like how astrology adds subtle nuances to our interpretative resources. Granted, one can’t always find a specific chart resonance, and one is then left with general principles.
General principles and specific situations experience some friction.
Having said this, I do feel that the gnosis differs between tarot and astrology in terms of guidance. Sometimes complexity is better and sometimes simplicity. I am enjoying the simplicity on this occasion. Amanda, I think sometimes there is real pain and regret when others fail to recognise what we wish to show them and share with them. It can be intensely difficult to come to terms with.
But maybe that is when we are looking back, more than when we are looking forward…
then there is the conundrum of: when you finally feel your heart opening, but for another in the picture, that may come after one hurt too many, and too late.
sure, in terms of self-development, there may be no such thing as “too late.” but relationally…
this is soooo interesting, especially as regards the knight–the armored quality. thank you!
Amen, indeed! <3
Of course, sometimes doing involves saying. I find it interesting how so often we are hidebound by fears because we reason to death.
This is the area where challenging ourselves is vital. I don’t really believe in prayer anymore but it feels to me that sometimes we need transcendent help in letting go of our habituated tendencies.
Amen to the heart space. Let it be! <3
In other words, you have to step out and risk something. And you do this by liberating your heart in order that it can feel.
Half – We act when our heart tells us to act, even if it contradicts the more rational side of our natures. How to tell what our heart is saying to us? You feel it. It is a warm glow; an expansion; a cosmic “yes”.
This is brilliant! Spot on to where my own situation is at – I echo Amanda.
Interestingly though, I feel the problem is bigger than confirmation of what the situation is. There is great validation in receiving such confirmation. But it isn’t just knowledge that is affected by the analytical tendency – but also the action part of the piece.
I for one struggle at times with the whole analytical bent leading to ‘needing certainties’ before acting. There is the issue of faith and love in the heart and this comes out strongly from the article and its conclusion.
However, patience and timing have the element of mystery about them. We don’t know (can’t analyse) how long it will take the fruit to ripen on the bough. And it is often knowing the timing part of the piece that is so frustrating. Even when we find faith and love and direction on the core decision, we can feel hamstrung by the timing aspect of the action component – which can keep us stuck in indecision.
I have no answer on this.
The question is ‘When do we trust on the timing and when do we act?’
The knowing/confirmation alone about the issue only translates to a feeling. Everyone fears acting prematurely and scuppering the fruition process by not trusting.
I’ve laboured the point enough! Any thoughts Sarah (or anyone?)
I think I might have to rethink the importance of ritual and structure in a future article – this reading was done – by necessity – on a train out of London, with an argument ensuing between the train guard and a passenger … So who knows what turns the flow on and off? š
I’m with Amanda… How did you know ? (HUGS)
If I did, Amanda, would you believe me when I tell you that it all looks perfect in there? š
did you open me up and peer in as i slept? uncanny, sarah. thank you.