{"id":33014,"date":"2011-01-09T15:05:14","date_gmt":"2011-01-09T20:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=33014"},"modified":"2011-01-09T15:05:14","modified_gmt":"2011-01-09T20:05:14","slug":"the-weekend-tarot-reading-sunday-jan-9-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/reading-tarot\/the-weekend-tarot-reading-sunday-jan-9-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"The Weekend Tarot Reading – Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator<\/a> using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article<\/a> tells you how to use the spread<\/em>. You can visit Sarah’s website here<\/a>. –efc<\/em><\/p>\n

By Sarah Taylor<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a reading about making a choice, and the consequences that come from that. There is a clear and logical progression, and although I tend not to approach three-card readings in terms of ‘past-present-future’, what is clear here is that the second and third cards stem from the first: they are contingent upon it.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Devil, 9 of Swords, 5 of Wands from the Rider-Waite tarot deck, drawn by Pamela Colman Smith. Click on the image for a larger version.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Devil represents a point of decision where that decision is not made entirely freely. The Devil comes into play when our decisions are driven by our imbalances, by the shadowy corners of our psyche, by desire that comes with a price attached to it. Perhaps all three of these are simply a different way of saying the same thing.<\/p>\n

The number of (human) figures in each card moves from two, to one, to five. The Devil often speaks of a situation made in relationship to someone else, but it is also about the relationship that you have with yourself. As a result, something is coaxed out of the darkness so that it comes into the light of consciousness; and this experience is frequently a painful and uneasy one. Once the moment of The Devil has passed, we are then left to sit with the confusion and chaos. This process is one we do alone. When we are in despair, no-one is able to share that with us. We feel isolated and lost. The chains that once bound us to someone or something have morphed into the nine Swords that now weigh down on us from above, dominating our experience.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Swords represent our thoughts and mental processes; and it is our thoughts that shape how we experience our environment. When I look at the Swords, I see that they are leading my eyes off the right edge of the picture, as if the tips are embedded in the neighbouring card. There is a knock-on effect here, where the individual touches the collective. Our inner experience now manifests in the world around us. We draw our battle out from within and project it on to others. This is usually an unconscious process, emphasized by the figure in the Nine of Swords, hands over eyes. While everything seems to stand in our way, while everything feels like an uphill struggle, and strife becomes the order of the day, we remain unaware that we have brought this perception with us. Our eyes are still<\/em> covered, even when we believe we are seeing clearly.<\/p>\n

So The Devil has bound us to a course of action that stirs things up rather than calms them down, and we experience that disruption internally as well as in the world around us.<\/p>\n

And yet …<\/p>\n

By leaving the reading at that point, we run the risk of falling victim to the same narrow viewpoint that the figure sits with on his bed of despair. Perhaps we have the advantage of perspective when we stand outside the cards, and it is this stance as observer that I’d like to offer here.<\/p>\n

Because it is the attachment of judgement<\/em> that I believe is the real sticking point in this reading. What if the decision that was made in The Devil were, if not necessary, then valuable? Internal imbalance demands equilibrium, and sometimes the path to that correction does not run smoothly. It can be uncomfortable, agonizing, heartrending. But I would like to suggest that if life does not contain its share of discomfort, agony and heartbreak, then we are not doing it correctly. Binding ourselves in judgement about what we should do, how we should feel and how we should think can distort our experience by adding suffering to pain — and that doesn’t simply affect our thoughts, but also our ability to function creatively (the Wands in the third card).<\/p>\n

Who’s to say which decisions are the ones that ultimately liberate us? We all face The Devil and its fallout in our lives. It is where and how we choose to wage the ensuing battle that seems more significant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 tells you how to use the spread. You can visit Sarah’s website here. –efc By Sarah Taylor This … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":470,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[183],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/470"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33014\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}