The Weekend Tarot Reading — Sunday, July 28, 2013

By Sarah Taylor

The Ace of Wands, Ace of Swords, Ace of Pentacles. Three of the Ace cards, in order of their appearance in manifest reality, from left to right. An evolution; a choice to use them, or not to use them. But they are being offered to us, as a gift. They are there for the taking, if we choose to take them.

Everything, and nothing. It is up to us.

Ace of Wands, Ace of Swords, Ace of Pentacles -- RWS Tarot deck.
Ace of Wands, Ace of Swords, Ace of Pentacles from the Rider-Waite Smith Tarot deck, created by A E Waite and illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith. Click on the image for a larger version.

When I drew these three cards for today’s reading, I drew them in this order: centre, left, then right. The Ace of Swords is the fulcrum — the focal point, in a reading where there is a tremendous amount of potential from which to choose.

The Ace of Swords, as the pure potential of air — thought — is asking us to exercise discernment and insight over our focus: it asks us to be wise in how we ask for the energies of each card to be manifested in our lives, how we choose to work with them.

Most important, what we choose, knowing that our relationship with them is never a one-way street.

The Aces, by sheer virtue of their presence, are being activated in our lives; and they work through us too. How do we want to offer ourselves up to what they have to give us? How will we open to their gifts, knowing that they are ours to ask for, and, once we do, that they will partner with us in ways that will be both conscious and unconscious? We have a considerable degree of power over our intentions to harness their energy, but when we do so, we are also creating space for the unexpected — to what we cannot see, to the wisdom of divine intervention, to the opening of ourselves to the magic of the cosmos.

“We are eminently practical,” they say.

This is the key message of today’s reading; this is what the cards are telling us. We can use them. We hold in our hands the keys to creation — of erotic energy (Ace of Wands), of our ability to think and to discern (Ace of Swords), and of our ability to bring something down into physical reality (Ace of Pentacles).

We can make visible, significant changes to our lives with these gifts. What are we going to do with them?

This asks of us a willingness to act, and the humility to understand that we do not hold the answers to everything, nor can we know fully how they are going to operate in our lives. This is a reading of receptivity, openness to welcome them in, and of surrender.

If the feeling around the three cards is vague, or not fully knowable, then that is exactly the kind of state that the Aces present to us. They are pure archetype. We cannot encompass them in our physical bodies nor in our minds or imagination. We approach them obliquely, we brush against them and ask them in. We go on intuition, knowing that our intuition — that part of us that works directly with God — is wiser than our small selves. We can get in our boats and point them in the direction that feels right for us — that is the “intention”. Yet there is a point past which we trust to the power of the ocean to move us: that is the “surrender”.

I’m spending a lot of time trying to describe the feeling around the Aces, because it is this feeling that they engender in us that is important. There are no specifics that I can relate about what to do with them, and that is the point. The reading this week is to alert you to their presence, and to describe the qualities that they bring. The rest is our personal journey with them, whether we decide to open awareness to them or not, whether, if we do, we choose to draw them down and create something, or not.

In our hands, the Aces can be as sharp as a precision instrument. They can also be as indistinct as a sense of something that we cannot put our fingers on. They can be both at the same time. And if we start to feel that we are somehow going to lose out, and that we can feel nothing happening, that is not necessarily a reflection of the Truth. What we can do is to maintain vigilance — to put feelers out for when they are communicating with us, and to ask them what it is that they want to show us. When we receive our answers, that is our cue to act.

Wands are creative energy — it is the juice that we feel flowing through our bodies when we are turned on in the broadest sense. We can feel it viscerally, and with it comes a need to bring something into being. With the presence of the Ace of Wands, we are being shown that we have the potential to create something — that power is there for the taking.

Swords are the power of our minds. It enables us to parse information into what is useful and useless to us. At its purest, it is an idea that makes sense to our very core. We have the potential for clarity — that power is there for the taking.

Pentacles are our tangible world — they are what we access with our five senses. We use our creative energy and our thoughts to direct matter, which then forms a physical experience around us. We have the potential to be master manifesters — that power is there for the taking.

To have all three Aces lined up in front of us is a rare invitation: an invitation to embody all three qualities.

What do you want to create? What do you want to think? How do you want to direct your juice and your thoughts to create your reality?

At centre, the Ace of Swords emphasises the force of intention. Because what you do will have results, and so implicit in the reading is to be cognizant of what you ask for, knowing that what you do ask for will appear in ways that you may recognise and ways that you may not, but which will have their uses too — and ones that are custom-designed for our own destinies. We are meeting Spirit halfway.

Finally, there is one card that is implied by its absence: the Ace of Cups. Given that this is a three-card reading, my feeling is that the Ace of Cups, even though it cannot be contained in the layout, is very much present. Perhaps even emphasised.

What does the Ace of Cups mean to you? As the card representing unconditional love, how do you want to see that in your life? How do you want to feel it? Can you love yourself and everything else enough to do the other three cards the justice that you feel is warranted? It is, after all, the divine’s love of us that brought us into being. What do you want to love into your life right now? What will you nurture through your heart, through you, and into the world?

The choice is yours, entirely.

Astrology/Elemental correspondences: Ace of Wands (pure potential of fire), Ace of Swords (pure potential of air), Ace of Pentacles (pure potential of earth)

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.

15 thoughts on “The Weekend Tarot Reading — Sunday, July 28, 2013”

  1. Thank you so much Sarah, I am new to learning the tarot, as I have been guided to self learn for now, and there are not many people that I feel go into the tarot with so much soul guidance and to be able to look at the cards and interpret is something I wish to aspire to and learn for myself. Of course I read them intuitively, but I feel learning the symbolism and positioning and all the rest of it takes time to master. Thank you for such a detailed account of how you interpret the cards, the reading now made sense to me even more. I love your work, please keep sharing and I’d love more lessons if you feel guided.
    Blessings Ele

  2. Wow! This reading made me feel such happiness! I’ve been grieving many endings and transitions over the last few weeks. I am thrilled to start thinking of new beginnings! I feel such hope now… and a little anxiety that I’ll somehow “miss” the opportunities that may arise. My goal is to open my heart, mind and soul and allow “new” to come to me! Thank you!

  3. Sarah,

    Perhaps the Ace of Cups is missing because that’s the piece that we need to bring into the picture to gain the value of the other three? All the great things that are being offered are all unlocked through love – but that must come from within.

    Brian

  4. Well, isn’t it that if you combine successfull the energies of “The Lovers” as you described last week … something new is born from the union?

  5. Thank you, Sarah. I was kind of thinking the same way, but I wasn’t sure and I just really wanted some clarification.

    This set of cards is a very positive message and I appreciate it.

    Awesome and God Bless. 🙂

  6. Great questions, Lionheart! I do see the readings as a continuous string of energy, and – I know this might be a frustrating answer – that the way they fit together will be an entirely personal experience of them. They might also run concurrently, addressing two different matters.

  7. Good questions, Miss Sarah. As I have worked with the tarot decks before, mostly the Rider Waite and Thoth, I see the energy within the cards and I try to discern that energy. So, to see three ones together in a reading, speaks of a powerful new beginning. But, I wonder what type of beginning this reading indicates since there is such a clear combining of energy. I mean we have a new beginning or fresh start with creative expression which brings an outcome of new resources. It sounds great, but if I look at last weeks reading, I wonder what the synergy is really trying to say. And, should I really tally in last weeks reading with this weeks? I am really unclear on this. And, do you look at these readings as a continuous string of energy, do they carry forward, or are they unique within their individual timing?

  8. Thank you, everyone!

    Lionheart – Yes, it is very unusual. My invitation is to ask you what “unusual” might look like to you, or what it is in your life that might be starting to feel unusual.

  9. Sarah,
    I have had several tarot readings in this life time and, truthfully, it seems unusual to get three aces in one sitting. I wonder what that indicates?

  10. “This is a reading of receptivity, openness to welcome them in, and of surrender.”

    Surrendering to unconditional love is the gift you give us here, Sarah! Thanks so much for the reading. After all the readings we have had, with many cards coming up again over the weeks, this is surely the one that tells us it is time to leave the past behind and begin to create the real and authentic life we want for ourselves. The potentials are all there for us in mind, body and spirit. Yes!!!

  11. There is indeed magic in the air just now.

    (I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself from drawing the 4th card!) 😉 Your discipline is impressive, though not half as impressive as: “We hold in our hands the keys to creation — of erotic energy (Ace of Wands), of our ability to think and to discern (Ace of Swords), and of our ability to bring something down into physical reality (Ace of Pentacles).”

    Extraordinary, Sarah. Thank you

  12. What I also LOVE about this is all the delicious space in each card and the hands!

    Really thrilling draw!

    Thanks Sarah!

  13. It’s quite interesting that you pull three aces for the week that has that double trine lots of sextiles thingy

    The first thought that sprang to my mind when seeing the cards (haven’t read the text yet) was “It’s like the chance of a new beginning, a reset, start over time” – which is obviously clouded by what’s happening here for me.

    Off to read…

  14. Thank you for this lovely reading, dear Sarah – so spot on for this moment. I love the absent/present Ace of Cups – particularly as unconditional love seems to be the key to it all – and I’ve never felt this so strongly as I do now.

Leave a Comment