It's in the cards...

On life's journey, many of us look for guides or points of direction to help navigate us. These guides can come in many forms, from self-help books, to religion, to wise people that cross our paths. Any number of things can be bits of a map that help us find our way through the maze of life. One of these such things is the Tarot.

 

 

 

 

The Tarot has a direct correlation to the occult and can commonly be thought of as magic, but for me it is a guide. I am by no means a trained cartomancer or anything even close. I'm just a spiritually open individual who believes in the significance of our lives in relation to the stars and the possibility that messages can be transmitted to us in a variety of ways, if we open up our soul to the communication, or essentially tap into the connections to the spiritual plane, that already exist.  I believe the tarot is one of these pathways.

 

Again, I am not properly schooled in the ways of the tarot and I don't normally do readings for anyone other than myself. I'm not even sure if I can call what I do a "reading". It's more of a "fortune" of sorts. I focus on something, most often my present situation or dilemma, or just anything that is currently on my heart. As I'm focusing, my thoughts and energy are directed to the deck of tarot cards in my hand. I touch them, manipulate them and shuffle them however I see fit. This process can often be different depending on my state of mind at the time. When I feel as though I have sufficiently fondled the deck to my liking, I must pull a card. I usually only pull one card, but sometimes more if the cards choose me; meaning they fall out of the deck while I'm shuffling them, or an additional card comes along with the original card that I pull. That card, or cards, becomes my "fortune" or message.

 

Because I'm not really great at memorizing what all of the cards symbolize, I use a website to translate the meanings of the cards I pull. It gives me a detailed overview and description of the card and it's significance within a reading. I process the information and apply it to my situation as best as I can. Occasionally I will pull the same card twice or three times within a short period of time (like a week or two). For me, this symbolizes the importance of the message and my previous inability or unwillingness to process the message and apply it to my life.

 

Today I pulled a card and an additional card followed. The tag-along card happened to be the card that I had last pulled... the Five of Swords. My new card was the Five of Cups. Clearly the message of the Five of Swords was not properly received by my stubborn soul and it had to be reinforced today.  

 

The Five of Swords is all about self interest and finding the solution that is the best for one's self... something that I know I've been afraid to do, but have been achieving in subtle ways over the last year or more.  I believe that the most important choice ahead of me in the self-interest department will involve a major change.

 

The Five of Cups is about loss and how loss initiates change and grief is our emotional resistance to change. I have been grieving quite fully for over 2 years now. My grief has changed forms, but what has always remained ever-present is the resistance to change.

The losses I have suffered have spawned quite a few changes in my life. So many of those changes have been the catalyst for positivity, yet I resist change as if it were an evil force to which I have no defense and for all my resistance, the changes continue to take place. I believe they are destined to do so, whether or not I'm playing along.

 

So my "fortune" for this day, which has held it's own small, yet significant bits of change, is that I must embrace what is in my own personal best interest. Often times when I do what is truly best for me, it is also best for the other people involved in my situation. I can not act in a narrow sense, satisfying my short-term urges while ignoring my whole self. This will cause me much pain in the long run. I must also embrace the loss that will inevitably be the catalyst for a major change; a change that I hope will bring me much joy. Resistance is futile and change is inevitable. I can either accept the ebb and flow that is my journey or work against it, dragging myself upstream in a pointless battle against the process and flow of the universe.