{"id":72478,"date":"2013-12-08T14:14:44","date_gmt":"2013-12-08T19:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=72478"},"modified":"2013-12-08T16:14:51","modified_gmt":"2013-12-08T21:14:51","slug":"the-weekend-tarot-reading-sunday-december-8-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/reading-tarot\/the-weekend-tarot-reading-sunday-december-8-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"The Weekend Tarot Reading — Sunday, December 8, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

As I was shuffling for this week’s reading, the Four of Pentacles slid out the deck across the table, face-down. Call me superstitious, but I see “pack jumpers” as a particular form of synchronicity: the card isn’t only putting itself forward for the reading — it comes italicised. It is a focal point in the layout.<\/p>\n

\"Eight<\/a>
Eight of Pentacles, Four of Pentacles, Justice from the Rider-Waite Smith Tarot deck, created by A E Waite and illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith. Click on the image for a larger version.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Four of Pentacles paints a clear picture. The figure of a king sits outside a city on a stone throne, his limbs and his head occupied with the task of holding on to the four pentacles in his possession. He cannot move. He can’t even look around and see what lies behind him. <\/p>\n

As a king, he seems devoid of subjects, who may well be in the city, leader-less, due to their ruler’s preoccupation with the matter at hand. The matter in<\/em> his hands, on his head, under his feet.<\/p>\n

Pentacles describe the physical world. Here, the traditional idea of a king has been up-ended. Instead of exercising his authority as ruler, he is being dominated by the very things over which he<\/em> should have dominion. Priorities have shifted, power structures have changed, and ‘king’ has become ‘subject’.<\/p>\n

He looks tired. His eyes are shaded, the lower lids heavy and bagged. He is hunched and sitting awkwardly, feet on tiptoe. He is off balance in every sense of the word. How does he have room to think or feel, let alone move? His arms curl around a pentacle that sits over his heart. He is a veritable fortress, barricaded by the physical elements of his circumstances.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How did he get here? He worked hard to accrue what he has. The Eight of Pentacles, to the left, suggests the foundation to the story of our king. The Eight is about the application of a skill in order to accrue something of value. It describes the disciplined focus of one who is building their world. The man in the Eight is dressed simply. He is humble. The completed pentacles are at a distance from him; he does not (yet) identify himself with them fully.<\/p>\n

However, at some point, the importance of what he has created has grown to the point where he is now in thrall to it. As I mentioned last week<\/a>, Fours are pauses, and here there is a pause that is both inevitable — there is no room for movement — and also a potential opportunity to participate in a situation that is calling for change.<\/p>\n

And change it will. It always does. But will the king let go, or will his precious pentacles be prised from him? The final card suggests that the outcome will be fitting, and unequivocal.<\/p>\n

Justice is meted out once all the evidence is weighed and the sword of truth has been wielded with integrity. Notice the evolution of the figures’ positions in all three cards, from left to right. There is an expansion, a change in demeanor, until Justice herself sits fully upright on her throne, liberated from bias, grounded, clear-eyed.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the effort that we put into something can no longer justify the status quo. Sometimes what we are holding on to is what is holding us back. And sometimes we are granted liberation through the swift verdict that Justice brings us. It might feel like we are losing something of value, but in this case what we are losing is what prevented us from moving, growing, resting easy and dedicating our focus to what merits, rather than consumes, our energy and attention.<\/p>\n

Astrology\/Elemental correspondences:<\/strong>\u00a0Eight of Pentacles (Sun in Virgo), Four of Pentacles (Sun in Capricorn), Justice (Libra)<\/p>\n

If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free\u00a0tarot spread generator<\/a>\u00a0using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread.\u00a0This article<\/a>\u00a0explains how to use the spread.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Sarah Taylor As I was shuffling for this week’s reading, the Four of Pentacles slid out the deck across the table, face-down. Call me superstitious, but I see “pack jumpers” as a particular form of synchronicity: the card isn’t only putting itself forward for the reading — it comes italicised. It is a focal point … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":470,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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\/72478"}],"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=72478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}