{"id":33630,"date":"2011-01-23T13:54:24","date_gmt":"2011-01-23T18:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=33630"},"modified":"2011-01-23T13:54:24","modified_gmt":"2011-01-23T18:54:24","slug":"the-weekend-tarot-reading-sunday-jan-23-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/reading-tarot\/the-weekend-tarot-reading-sunday-jan-23-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"The Weekend Tarot Reading – Sunday, Jan. 23, 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free\u00a0tarot spread generator<\/a> using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread.\u00a0This article<\/a> tells you how to use the spread. You can\u00a0visit Sarah’s website here<\/a>. –efc<\/em><\/p>\n

By\u00a0Sarah Taylor<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This week’s reading is about endings and new beginnings.<\/p>\n

Whenever Death appears in a reading, I look at the surrounding cards to explain the quality of that death. Death rarely means physical death. Here, it feels like a death of a part of the self that no longer serves: a death that makes way for a new energy in the way of creativity and connections.<\/p>\n

\"Death,<\/a>
Death, 6 of Wands, 4 of Wands from the Rider-Waite Smith Tarot deck. Click on the image for a larger version.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although liberating, Death is rarely an easy process to go through. When a part of what we are familiar with is giving way — a habit, a belief, a way of life, a relationship — it may even feel like we are dying. Fears can start to crawl out of the woodwork; anxieties, new and long-forgotten, make an appearance; the world can feel unfamiliar and uncomfortable. These are the states that accompany the shedding of an old skin and the emergence of a new one. The ego identifies with the loss and believes its time is up. What it is experiencing, however, is simply a humbling and the stripping back of defences that were, themselves, the very obstacles to growth.<\/p>\n

In the first card, Death rides into the picture, harbinger of change. It might be clad in black armour, but its horse is white, and it carries on its flag a white rose. There is a sense of yin and yang here. That in everything there is balance, and with loss comes renewal. What seems particularly important here is the sense of ceremony. There needs to be a mourning period for what has passed, symbolized by the figure praying beside the prostrate body of a man. The sun rises above his mitre. The observance of loss brings in new light — new life.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It looks like Death is travelling across the card, from left to right. This is the process of time moving forward, and its concomitant change. If that is the case, then the two young figures at the feet of the horse mark the entry of new beginnings as the old is left behind. The child on the left is wearing the same colour blue as the blanket covering the figure on the ground — the transition of the old into the new — while the older girl turns her head over her shoulder towards the ensuing card, as if stretching out to meet it: the 6 of Wands.<\/p>\n

The 6 of Wands is associated with triumph, and I feel that the message here is an acknowledgment of what has been endured, and what has been achieved. It is as if the card is saying, “Well done!” The accolades that the rider is receiving have been earned. Wands deal with creativity, so he has triumphed in a creative sense. Something has been born from the ashes of death. The direction in which he rides is the same direction in which the figure of Death is heading; his horse is in a similar pose — although the black heraldry and sparse ground has given way to colour, the animal in the 6 softened by draped, green fabric. The black-and-white flag carried by Death has been replaced by a Wand topped with a laurel wreath, emblem of the victor. The carapace of armour is now a red robe, as if the hardened exoskeleton has been shed leaving a softer covering underneath.<\/p>\n

Then, metamorphosis: in the 4 of Wands, it comes together. Or, rather, they<\/em> come together: two figures standing side-by-side, one wearing the red of the rider in the 6, the other wearing the blue of the prone figure in Death. Not an ending, but a rebirth and an integration. And they are waving, beckoning. All it takes is a step through the opening framed by the Wands to re-enter life, a new phase of creativity and a new sense of connection. It is there, calling to us. Welcome!<\/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\u00a0tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread.\u00a0This article tells you how to use the spread. You can\u00a0visit Sarah’s website here. –efc By\u00a0Sarah Taylor This week’s reading is about … 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\/33630"}],"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=33630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}