By Sarah Taylor
This week’s tarot reading — the final one using the Xultun Tarot deck before I move on to a new deck next week — is a simple one. It is all minor arcana, which means it deals more with external events than internal processes. However, don’t be fooled into thinking that ‘simple’ means insignificant. Every moment is an act of self-definition, and this is no exception. It will feed into larger, soul-based themes; it is a proving ground for your own evolution.
The first card that I laid down, as per a clear instruction from my intuition, was the middle card — the Five of Cups. This feels like the pivotal card. It is being emphasised. It is a watershed moment.
The Xultun version of the Five of Cups is not so different from its Rider-Waite Smith counterpart that you cannot see the same theme to the story being woven. The figure in the card stands facing a small temple, arms crossed, head bowed, a look of defeat on her face. This defeat seems to be mirrored in the glyph enclosed in brick-red rock under her feet. There is sorrow, but not one where there is an ‘opening to’ the pain of the situation. Here, there is a ‘closing off’, a disavowal.
The Mayan temple might be in the distance — hence its being smaller — but what feels more important, making allowances for perspective aside, is that it is dwarfed by the figure. There is a contraction of Spirit in that moment that she closes her arms around herself, closes her eyes — a decision not to look. Cups are feelings and here three are spilled. Perhaps there is a feeling of disillusionment, of not wanting to do this anymore. The atmosphere feels futile — punitive, even. “Why me?” “What did I do to deserve this?” “Why can’t I get a break for once?”
What she is doing is punishing herself. She is ostraciser; she ostracises herself. It is her decision to view her circumstances as a deliberate hindrance. It is her choice to act on that misunderstanding by shutting down. And in that moment of shutting down, she cuts herself off from the divine. She is, in essence, starving herself.
And for what? Because if she were only to look in a different direction, she would see something entirely different: two cups waiting for her, evocative of the Two of Cups: love as it is expressed in this world of opposites. And perhaps it is just as well those other three cups have been upended. What was in them needed to be spilled. It might have felt like blood was being spilled, but it was poison being released. The temple in the background asked for its sacrifice, yes. But in that moment of lost insight, she didn’t consider this possibility: it wasn’t her blood that it wanted; it was asking her to relinquish something that no longer sustained her. And so she has. All it asks from her now is to open her eyes and correct her vision.
Something offered itself to her. It seemed viable, and yet somehow was off-kilter. Look at the expression on the Servant of Jades’ (Knight of Pentacles) face. His eyes are open, and yet he seems deeply burdened. Yet there is nothing obvious that is burdening him. Outer appearances hide something that troubles, only betrayed by his lowered eyelid and the downward turn of his mouth. Funny too: there seem to be two Suns in this picture, but they are both subterranean. There is a mystery at the heart of this card, a contradiction, and the logical focus is on loss because nothing else seems to make sense. Both figures face each other, the cups spilled between them. Something went awry in spite of intent.
Or did it?
Because the gift here is not the Servant: it is the jade that he holds out to the figure in the Five of Cups. That jade is the pathway to the final card, the Eight of Jades. In the Eight, the figure has taken the jade — has, to all intents and purposes, turned around to change perspective — and is actively working with it. She has turned away from the three cups and towards the two remaining cups — what was worth conserving — and the energies are flowing again.
Back to the drawing board. But it is a new and improved drawing board, with more information, more resources, and an opportunity to acquire skills and abilities that will prove valuable and which will generate returns.
A situation has given you something. It might ask you to see it differently; it might ask you to look at what you have not been seeing. But it is a nugget of gold in the making. Identify it, take it, use it. Don’t close yourself off to your connection to a higher wisdom. Open yourself to the possibility that anything lost was lost for your better interests. It was something you could drop. You no longer needed it. What you have within your grasp will free you up to do your own Great Work. It is time to forge ahead. Just remember to keep your eyes, and your heart, open.
Astrology correspondences: Servant of Jades (Capricorn), Five of Cups (Scorpio, Neptune), Eight of Jades (Pisces and perhaps Taurus).
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“Just remember to keep your eyes, and your heart, open.”
Ours senses, eyes, ears to the heart may be more closely inter-related than we suspect.
Away, sitting in the stands at my son’s baseball tournament all weekend, there was the sweetest little (angel) boy just two years old that was such an enjoyment. For myself and several other parents we were lucky enough to have him wonder over to play and visit with us. Yet several times when grandma thought he was going in the ‘wrong’ direction, or did something she thought was not quite right (?) she came over to say “no” and picked him up to bring him back by her. When she did this, he obviously knew he had done something disagreeable to her and the most interesting thing happened.
As she picked him up while being reprimanded and carried away, he closed his eyes and went lip…almost dead like. Obviously, it seemed he had literally closed himself off to what she viewed and he in turn associated as bad.
When I think of this, and your reading here Sarah, personally I am sure I did this too when I was young. I was a very sensitive child and still remain. Yet when young the association lines are very blurred. When my parents fought, I would put the pillow over my head at night not to hear. Or, if I was being punished, or my siblings were yelled at, I almost went into some kind of trance of self-denial. Well, we all have our coping mechanisms.
Squashing a child’s young, innocent spirit is the worst thing people can do. It is as you say literally developing in them defense mechanisms -closing offs- to what intuitively they know to be true in order to cope. I think it is our personal and societies reclaiming of this innocence which is a struggle in our life, but so necessary to work through. It is aferall, the original promise of knowing inherently what we are and what we came here with to do.
Thank you Sarah for this beautiful reminder in your reading.
Thank you, dear xtica! I’m so sorry about your situation. But yes, we’ll be ok – it’s a scary, stressful time, but my spirit has never felt so strong – and I’m sure it’s the same for you. Lots of love and luck and hugs to you.
I need to study this reading and the cards. They hold something special for me, and your language resonates with what I have learned about myself the past couple of years. I feel that I am in the 8 of Jades card, though with vivid memories of my recent journey through 5 of cups and the Servant or Knight card. That card can be a man I loved or my own inner masculine. The personalities are similar! How seductive are those empty cups. I gain perverse pleasure in licking the dregs, hoping to taste what I thought I wanted, what seemed to be a workable strategy long ago. How wonderful that you point out the 2 of cups remaining, patient. Holding the magic I need and want. Three are empty, but those two hold the perfect medicine. Maybe after a little more time carving Jades in the 8 card, I’ll carefulling bring those two full cups into my temple.
sarah thank you so much from the bottom of my heart-
as i mourn having to let go of a home and trying to find a place to go with my animals and keep my eyes and spirit up and heart open, your reading reaches me just in time. much gratitude and blessings to you in honor of your gift-
huffy my friend, once again, we are in psychic sync and my experience mirrors yours-
a special hug goes to you-we will be safe wherever we land-may it be so!
I’ve really enjoyed this deck, Sarah, and I look forward to your next pick. I’ve appreciated the fresh insights these images provide, as well as the graphics themselves. And, as always, thanks for your talent and wisdom at interpretation. A gift to us all.
‘it might ask you to look at what you have not been seeing’. Wow, so timely… all the reading is.
Thank you Sarah!
“…anything lost was lost for your better interests. It was something you could drop. You no longer needed it. What you have within your grasp will free you up to do your own Great Work. It is time to forge ahead.”
Wow, Sarah! This both expands on and crystallizes the amazing dream I had this morning – all the more amazing, because it’s the first time I’ve been able to remember an entire dream in *years*.
Thank you!
Thank you for your timely and insightful reading. It means more to me than you could ever know. Thank you.
“What she is doing is punishing herself. She is ostraciser; she ostracises herself. It is her decision to view her circumstances as a deliberate hindrance. It is her choice to act on that misunderstanding by shutting down. And in that moment of shutting down, she cuts herself off from the divine. She is, in essence, starving herself”. This expresses so perfectly something that is just becoming conscious for me, it’s just all so helpful.
Oh boy, Sarah – your reading has knocked me for six, seven, eight… Last Friday I reached one of the lowest points I have in years, a place where I didn’t expect to myself again, though I always feared it in the last two years or so. Won’t go into details, but as usual it’s about finances, survival. I went into a total state of panic, but came out of it really quickly, which I’m normally unable to do. A part of me sees that there’s something that I have to let go of, and there’s a part of me I have to claim back. No easy feat, but I’m getting there. Your amazing piece says it all. Thank you dear Sarah. Will read and re-read it with great care.