The Weekend Tarot Reading — Sunday, June 17, 2012

By Sarah Taylor

The reading this week is short and very much to the point: there is a decision to be made, but whatever circumstances you have been through in the past few months have stood you in good stead in terms of knowing what you want, knowing what you don’t want, and discerning the difference between intellect and insight.

The Three of Pentacles describes a time when we are undergoing an apprenticeship: it feels that the picture wants us to identify with the figure on the left, who is looking to the architect and the friar for instructions as to how to proceed next. The presence of these two figures is indicative of the support that is available to us, and from which we have been learning and continue to learn. Through our connection to someone/s or something/s who understand both planning and structure, and the importance of a spiritual foundation (in other words, bringing a sense of meaning to our lives), we are able to hone our craft.

Implicit in this is the idea that one day we will no longer need either, because we will have internalised both teachers: we will become our own architect; we will be able to listen to, and follow, our own spiritual guidance.

This time of being able seek inner counsel is perhaps closer than we have given ourselves credit for. In the next card, a lone figure stands with his back to us, facing seven cups resting on a cloud. He is us, and we have a decision to make. Each cup in the Seven of Cups holds something. Some seem fairly obvious — the snake and the dragon; some seem tempting at first but might not live up to their promise — the shiny baubles cascading from the cup directly in front of us, and the laurel wreath seemingly denoting victory but held in a cup on which appears a skull; while others feel altogether more mysterious — the head, the castle, and the shrouded figure at centre.

That figure in the centre is being framed by each of the other six cups; its arms are raised, its palms open to us; the shroud over its head is edged with a red aura. It feels like love, or passion — for something or someone, patient, gentle yet insistent, with no need to reveal or explain itself. It is, simply, an invitation. In fact, the more I see the Seven of Cups, the more I feel that, sure, we might think there are any number of viable options available to us, but that really there is only one that builds something enduring (the architect) and feeds our souls (the friar), and it requires the kind of faith from us that is able to step into the mystery. As if in response to this, the figure in the foreground — us — raises its arm, a human opening in turn to the divine.

Having said that, some of the experiences in the cups might be more immediately constructive than others, but all of them eventually lead to the same destination: each sits on the same cloud, and I believe that clouds like this in the Rider-Waite Smith deck symbolise God. No-one is left behind.

For now, though, the Four of Swords is asking us to go within and seek our own connection to our inner guidance — what we have internalised through our apprenticeship — in order to exercise discernment. We will do this using heart wisdom: the swords, associated with mental activity, are suspended, and the moment of choosing is the domain of cups: our emotions. Here, we need EQ, not IQ.

Together, the three of the Three of Pentacles and the four of the Four of Swords make seven — the Seven of Cups — the number associated with the divine, and the one that focuses everything of ourselves that we bring to the matter at hand. We have it in us to step into the mystery. What it takes from us is a moment to catch ourselves at that point of choice, and to move within. It is there that we will find everything that we need to take that next step.

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.