Hi all – I had scheduled to begin a new blog post series this week, long before the horrific events in Israel and Gaza transpired. This blog post is not intended to adequately address the events of this past week, of course. In my conversations with Jewish and Israeli friends this week, I have not found any good words to share. There are no words right now, for me.
But – and this is important – I realized something about the simple healing work that I have been coupling with Tarot wisdom in recent years: it is especially healing work for everyone to have access to, right now. And so, I decided to share anyway.
The period of time lasting from today, October 13th, through to the end of the astrological month of Libra, October 22nd, is a time frame that Mary Greer connects to the energies of the 4 of Swords in her classic, Tarot For Your Self. Before today, we were in a time period connected to the archetypal experiences associated with the 3 of Swords, which of course can be a very difficult experience for anyone. The 3 of Swords in the Rider-Waite-Smith-inspired decks usually has an image of a heart with 3 swords piercing it. It’s a devastating-looking card. Our collective tragedies and heartbreaks often occur at times governed by these energies, unfortunately. Waite gives the 4 of Swords card the following meanings: Vigilance, retreat, solitude, hermit’s repose, exile, tomb and coffin.
I recorded a 15-minute video giving a quick summary of the times and energies that we are moving through right now, along with a small energywork exercise which I hope will help you navigate through everything, heal, and rebalance during the last days of the month of Libra.
Thank you for taking time for your self care! It is so important. – LK
I’ve been reading the Tarot for nearly 24 years now, officially, and if there’s one misconception that I’d love to clear up once and for all, its the one where people think that the Tarot “tells you your future.”
Usually, the thing that the Tarot is actually best at doing for you is giving you great advice.
Where the court cards are concerned, the advice is often to emulate a certain personality, or to carry THAT sort of a person’s energy. Another way of phrasing and summarizing the advice that any court card could be said to be giving you is to say, “you have a person in your field of experiences right now that is important to your soul’s actualization in this life. Learn from this person, and develop your own self with the best of the energies that you are shown. You are to become more like them in some way.”
The main thing to learn from ALL of the court cards, as far as their “meaning” goes, is that each and every one of the usually 16 court cards is dealing with some aspect of the MASTERY of that suit’s energies. There are some distinctions to be drawn, to be sure, between a king and a page, a queen and a knight, etc, but every single one of them represents an aspect of the MASTERY of their suit. Mastery, therefore, is my one-word summation of the courts for my students. Just remembering that you are dealing with all the trials and tribulations of personalities and egos mastering four different energetics should tell you a great deal about what happens when court cards come up for you.
I speak a lot more about pages versus knights, queens and kings, and even about a few specialty decks’ different takes on court cards’ names, such as the Daughters of The Moon Tarot’s Maidens, Mothers and Crones, in my Tarot for Beginners course, but just remembering that you’re dealing with integrating either mastery of emotions, mastery of creativity, mastery of communication, or mastery of manifesting when any of the court cards come up is sometimes all you need to know in order to get the “big picture” of what the Tarot needs to tell you.
But whatever you take from your Tarot reading, PLEASE remember that the Tarot isn’t telling you your future. It’s not. It’s reading your energy and advising you. Your future is your own making, no matter what cards come up. If you have court cards come up, your future will be the best it can be if you master the energies of their suits well.
In my social media feed, which contains many new and practicing intuitive readers, I often see the same frequently asked questions about the Tarot pop up. One of the most common questions is “How do I read reversed cards?” .. or, even, “Should I read reversed cards?”
Allow me to begin my answer with a story – about my own life, and how my own readings have presented reversed cards to me over the last quarter century or so.
About ten years ago, I came to a juncture in life. My marriage no longer worked, and my work life needed to change, because it was beginning to burn me out. Productivity and work life success seemed to be the major focuses in my life, but I realized that very rarely did I consider or value my own feelings, emotions and heart.
Tarot readings and yoga were huge supports for me during what turned out to be seven years of upheaval and transition after transition. In all honesty, a lot about what I learned during my readings could easily be seen as “negative,” as it was a very challenging time on many levels, but reversed cards were not the source of the negativity in the readings. In fact, the reversed cards helped me work through and make sense of these times more than any of the other cards did! You see, when reading reversed cards, three key truths seem to always hold:
A reversed card indicates an energy or experience in potential.
A reversed card show you where to focus your attention and efforts.
A reversed card gives you something to actually DO.
And so, when reading at a challenging, disappointing time, the reversals showed me what COULD be if I was attentive and mindful and focused enough to mainfest it. They showed me things that could happen if I worked hard enough, and also showed me areas that I could be sabotaging myself in if I wasn’t careful. What reversed cards NEVER seem to show me, however, is some experience akin to the exact opposite of a card’s upright meaning. I’ve come to think of a reversed card very similarly to an upright card, as for as what it “means” or represents, actually; after all, if a card has shown up in a reading, its’ energies are present. The first thing that the mind does when it sees an upside-down image is try to turn it the right way up, so that it can be understood. Similarly, when an upside down card appears in a reading, the question that you can always pose to yourself is “how can I work to turn this card upright in my life experience?”
Something that I had a much harder time with during my years of challenge was the absence of cards that I would have dearly loved to see show up in my readings. For the longest time, years and years in fact, for example, there was nearly a complete absence of cup cards in my personal readings. I knew that this was because I had neglected my feelings and emotions for so long, and I really wanted to see cups start showing up. When they eventually DID start showing up, they at first came into my readings as mostly reversed cards. I was overjoyed that they had appeared at all, though! I applied the three truths I just listed to these reversed cups when they began to appear. A potential for a more joyful, happy time was indicated by their arrival, even in reverse. Their positions often showed me where to focus my efforts, what to pay special attention to getting right, and showed me where to take action. By 2016, I had cleansed my life of nearly all negative influences and people who drained me energetically, and by 2018, I was on a new path, with a lot of emotionally satisfying and nourishing relationships and experiences finally showing up for me. The cup cards finally started appearing in my readings upright!
Thank you for reading my blog!
If you like my writing and it helps you make sense of the Tarot a little, you might enjoy some of my Tarot classes and courses, too. For 2021, I’ve put together a really great deal on a package of online Tarot classes and courses for you! Below, you’ll find a bit more description of the package, and a video of me walking you through everything you get if you choose to purchase the package.
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Healing with the Archetypes is the web home and blog for Laura Kirkendale’s Tarot teachings, writing and journaling. Laura has been reading, collecting, studying and teaching all things Tarot for 23+ years.
