Week of June, 20th, 2016
It may feel like you’re going through the same cycle that you’ve felt caught in for some time now.
But if this reading is anything to go by, you’re in a process of being able to unravel something that has been so bound up and knotted that you haven’t been able to get to the kernel of truth at centre, no matter how you’ve approached it.
But, just like readings in the recent past (including the one from last week, June 13), this reading is making one thing clear: A sense of meaning may have been eluding you — a spark of recognition that would throw everything into perspective and clear the skies if only you could step back enough from your own mind to reach it.
Clarity is not going to come from the mind. You are not going to solve this problem at the level where it was created.
It is your connection to your body, the earth, and a devoted nurturing of yourself and others that have the capacity to calm a mind in the grip of an over-active imagination and the burden of a world that may feel preternaturally heavy.
Look at the cards at centre and on the right.
Both Sevens; both featuring figures dwarfed by environments that are either dimmed (Disks) or hostile (Swords).
The use of perspective is marked here and drives a particular point home: your relationship with perspective is skewed.
If you are giving more focus to the beast in the Seven of Swords and the disks blocking out the light in the Seven of Disks and to the feelings that they stir in you, then you are already tilting the balance away from autonomy and into powerlessness.
Sevens are mid-points. They describe that moment where you might ask yourself, “What next, for crying out loud?!”
They describe a moment in your life when, in actuality, you are not pitted against any one or anything as much as against yourself.
It is a moment of faith-testing — a time when you can buy into the bullshit or choose to reach for something different that has the capacity to emerge if you could stop fighting, stop fearing, stop thinking, stop worrying — and look.
Look inside you: what stories are you weaving? What feelings are you feeling? What beliefs are you holding to?
Then, look around you: what is really going on? What truth is it reflecting — and are you as powerless as you believe you are to change your mind about it, even if only for a moment?
Remember, though, that the solution does not lie at the level of the problem; to change your perception you are being asked take a lateral approach.
By all means remain aware of that beast bearing down on you. By all means remain aware of the lack of light. But get busy with the ideals that are held in the first card, the Queen of Disks, while you’re doing this.
Get away from your screen, your job, your crap habits, and get into nature, whether that be your garden, a beach, a park, a field.
Not just once, but regularly. Make a habit of it — and habits can be hard to establish, so you might need to put a little backbone into it and force yourself up and out of your chair even, and especially, when you don’t feel like it.
Mother yourself and others, in whatever way feels appropriate for you.
You don’t feel like much of a mother? Then take a broader perspective on the concept of ‘mothering’ (including the perspective taken here): cook a meal, offer or receive a massage, feed yourself some good music and some quiet time, get a creative project off the ground — particularly the ones you don’t believe you can do.
Start a vegetable garden — start it in a flower pot on your windowsill if you have to. Notice any resistance to doing this. Do you treat your own growth and care in the same way?
I think we tend to believe that ‘natural’ should come easily — that it should be easy to look after ourselves, to act in our better interests, to devote that attention to others.
Sometimes, it is not, especially when we have been so divorced from what is nurturing and natural in our upbringing and in the world at large that we have lost touch with our groundedness, our roots.
Like re-planting, fertilising, and irrigating an under-watered and under-fed plant grown in shallow soil, we must shift our own habits towards rootedness if we are to thrive. It doesn’t take much; you don’t have to do everything. Just one small step is a phenomenally good start, and 100% better than nothing at all.
And you have the choice, right now, to get moving on it.
That is, unless you want to feel like you’re interminably held to ransom by boogeymen, bullies, obligation to obsolete responsibilities, and the sheer, ridiculous weight of misperception.
Do you? If you’re not sure, then perhaps you need that Queen of Disks in your life more than you anticipated.
She’s calling you. Better still: she’s here for you, too.
About the Author:
You can find Sarah at her website Integrated Tarot, and on Facebook.
[All cards are from The Röhrig Tarot deck, created by Carl-W. Röhrig © US Games, Inc.]