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
There is something that is asking for your attention that is rising up from beneath; there is resistance to meeting with it, and yet it has the potential to create a powerful sense of inner and outer harmony. There is nothing to fear here — apart from the unknown, that is — and most of us know what a formidable opponent the unknown can seem to be. But is the unknown what it seems? Is it ever exactly like what it seems, when we are on the outside, trying to look in?
In the first card, we have The Moon — cast in shadow, where we are invited to move deeper to hear those whisperings of the soul that I referred to in the mid-week article. The Moon speaks to us of a time when sharpness of eye and intellect are of little use to us. When it is dark around us save for the milky glow of Luna, relying solely on our vision to navigate can limit us significantly. Rather, we can employ the other senses at our disposal. We can smell, taste, feel and hear our way to a better understanding of the landscape we are navigating — using them inwardly as well as outwardly. We become alert to the as-yet-undiscovered. Most importantly, we can use our intuition, which is the language of the soul. Here, in the light of The Moon, intuition can be a phenomenally effective mode of navigation.
Intuition helps us meet those things that we find difficult to name. Like the crustacean crawling out of the water, they rise from a place that lies on the outer edges of our everyday lives. They are ancient, they bypass our intellect, they seem to want to communicate to us differently. In fact, when we apply intellect, a by-product of our analysis is often fear. And so we can react by trying to push what is surfacing back down whence it came.
This is what I witness in the Seven of Wands — the figure opposing six wands that rise up towards him. Wands are focused on energy, creativity, drive. When we resist the callings of the unconscious — that which rises from beneath and which will always have its out, in spite of our best efforts — we are also resisting access to a repository of rich creativity. The figure in the Seven of Wands holds one wand — but look what he is pitting himself against, which he could be harnessing to work with instead. As I have pointed out in past articles, there are no other human figures in the card. This is a battle that the man is fighting alone.
It is at this point that we can ask ourselves: Is this fear real? Look back at The Moon, where the dog and the wolf howl in unison. They are the denizens of the night. They are also within us — our shadow inhabitants. Dog, wolf and crustacean frame the pathway through the terrain, lit by the golden glow of the Moon herself. And the Moon is there to assist us, sitting as she does in the sky, in deep meditation, showers of golden light illuminating the scene beneath. How to harness the power of The Moon in order to reunite with the other six wands? By speaking the language of the Moon: by feeling into our bodies, and into the spaces between thoughts and words. The Moon is negative space. It is implied. It is feminine. We hear it by being receptive, rather than assertive.
When we are receptive, we drop our guard and our pre-conceived notions about what we will find. Look back at the figure in the Seven of Wands. Look at the wand he is holding with both hands; look at the way he is positioning his body. It is as if he is trying to ward off something to his left — something that he is not quite seeing yet. Because if he did see what he was resisting, would he be quite so committed to his course of action? For in the final card, the bowed face of the glowing Moon is now a rainbow of Cups; the landscape basks in the illumination of the Sun (consciousness); the unfamiliar creatures are now human — two couples, adult and child, representing the marriage of the soul. Ten is the pinnacle of the pip cards (the minor arcana excluding the court cards), and here we experience the pinnacle of Cups, or emotions. This feels like release and a celebration: an opening to ourselves when we open to the mystery that lies at the heart of who we are.
Lovely article as always, Sarah.
As someone who was born as a double Chariot, I am always studying the 7’s of the deck whenever they come up. I agree with your interpretation about the 7-Wands and would like to add a few more comments. In this image, the figure is also wearing two different kinds of footwear, what does that say to the viewer? To me, it can mean a couple of things: either things are not what they overtly appear to be, or that the figure in the card is either confused about their options or has not yet fully made a choice (which fits well with your post)… but either way, there is some sort of internal/external division that is at work here underneath the obvious outer drama. This too hearkens back to the Moon card. But this is an inner struggle appearing to be an outer one, that is how I usually see this card/archetype.
But there can be a another/deeper? message to this card as well… that for some people, this card also can mean that their challenge in life is to take up the struggle for Spiritual enlightenment and in order to do that one must be willing to be committed and yet willing to look like a fool (the boot and shoe choice may be seen this way) to the outer world. This could be seen as the call for the Spiritual Warrior within to begin her/his wake-up process. Since 7s to me often hint at initiations/change, this interpretation also fits well, in come readings including this one. This can be seen as the human in us beginning to wake up, to acknowledge that there are forces within and without that need to be understood and, in some cases, overcome… as with the 7 of cups; the warning about excesses. The “battle” is not so much an outer one, but an inner one and yes, one that can only be undertaken by each individual, hence the aloneness of the figure in the image.
I love this reading, with the deep conscious on one side, the human part of us in the middle being called to wake up and get into better alignment with what is really going on and not getting stuck in appearances, and the beautiful rainbow reality world that can come from this waking up. Love it!
And, synchronistically, a dear friend sent me this link to a new movie coming out on 11.11.11 that speaks to this moment of Awakening that we are all experiencing. Here is the link if you’d care to take a look: http://thrivemovement.com/
Blessing of Peace and love to Everyone