The Weekend Tarot Reading — Sunday, June 24, 2012

By Sarah Taylor

I am going on sabbatical for the next few months in order to devote more time to my counselling studies. This will only affect my mid-week articles; I will continue to write the Weekend Tarot Reading on Sundays.  — Sarah

Two weeks ago, we had the Eight of Swords in the central position of the Weekend Tarot Reading. It seems that with its reappearance this week, there comes a reminder that if we are experiencing limitation, it might be useful to consider the possibility that we are responsible for holding ourselves hostage to a situation. In essence, we have the ability to break free from an idea or belief that is limiting us.

There is such a contrast between the first card on the left — the Two of Cups — and the Eight and Seven of Swords that lie to its right. It seems as if there is a struggle ensuing, the key to which I refer to in the first paragraph. Here we have head vs. heart, conflict vs. communion. The figures on the Swords cards are lone.

Where is it that we tend to undermine ourselves in matters of the heart? What is it about how we feel about love and relating that drives us to feel that it is a scarce resource, that it is somehow limited, and that we need, in some way, to act on our own behalf before someone does the dirty on us? Or, perhaps, we withhold a part of ourselves, or the truth (Swords being the spoken word), for fear of being judged and abandoned.

The thing is, however, it is beliefs like this that are the ones that leave us isolated. We are the perpetrators of our isolation. Thoughts that damage are turned in on ourselves, and we are the ones who become sole agents in our experience, distancing ourselves from the involvement of others that could spell participation and community: the tents in the background of the Seven of Swords seem like the tents of a tournament, where people come together in friendly competition, celebrating their losses and achievements, cheering the winners and consoling the runners-up. No-one is left out — apart from the figure in the fez who seems to have decided that it is best to operate outside the rules of the game, taking for himself what could be shared with others.

Sometimes I see the Seven of Swords as a necessary adjustment in the balance of power. Here, I am not so sure. From the figures united in the Two of Cups, we come to two separate figures, female and male, who are cut off from the world and each other — both of their own volition, whether they are aware of it or not.

Remember, Swords are the realm of ideas and beliefs, so this sense of separation need not be physical, but rather one where we keep something to ourselves, or keep something from ourselves, rather than admit — let in — all of ourselves into relationship with others.

There has been a lot written on Planet Waves about Gemini — my tarot column being no exception — and this reading feels like a variation on this same theme. Gemini is about duality, and this can be found outwardly in terms of our experience of the world and its dualistic nature. This duality, however, is a projection of the duality that we find inside ourselves, so integration happens first from within, which is then reflected without. Which is why the reading emphasises the single figures in the two Swords cards.

So ask yourself this: Forget for a moment about what you withhold from others out of fear or a misguided sense of needing to control something. What is it that you keep from yourself? What is it that you feel you cannot admit to yourself, and as I mentioned above, what you cannot admit into yourself, i.e. your consciousness? That’s easier said than done; after all, it is called the unconscious for a reason: we cannot be aware of it. What we can do, though, is to stop fighting, stop grasping, stop stealing away. Just stop.

We can feel into our immediate situation, rather than what we fear (Swords) might or might not happen. What is really here to meet us? Maybe it isn’t what we most fear. Maybe it is a part of ourselves that has been there all along, calling for our acknowledgement. Maybe we are the better — the more whole — for it. Maybe, without it, we can never be fully in relationship, always preparing to be disappointed, or to take before it is taken from us.

So stop. Open yourself to what is in front of you. It has the ability to bring deep healing to you and, by extension, to others.

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.