Okay! I've had some sleep, so now we tackle the interpretation of the spread described in last night's/early this morning's blog post, Diving In with The Empress Spread.
I was hoping that some sleep might open my eyes a bit to this reading, but I must say that I am, as always, a bit unsure of how to connect the dots between these cards and their positions in the spread. But, we shall soldier on and see what we can see. It's hard to be objective about a reading done for yourself, especially if there's a specific outcome you ight be hoping for, or a decision that needs to be made that you're hoping the cards will help you with. Personal bias is a reading killer, and can cause us to try to twist the meaning of a card to fit what we want it to mean, instead of what it is trying to tell us.
*** A quick aside: I know I said a lot about woo-woo and hoopajoop yesterday, and today I'm using verbiage that indicates that I think the cards are speaking to me, sending messages, etc. I am merely personifying the cards - I don't think of them as actual entities. it's just easier to speak about them this way to get the point across. ***
So NOW, let's get down to brass tacks.
My first card was the 6 of Wands, Reversed, indicating that the thing that I love (remember the question was "WHAT do I love?", not 'WHO',) is delay, conquest, and defeat. I think that perhaps this is telling me that I may actually have come to depend on disappointment, rather than focusing on overcoming the hurdles I face day to day. It's certainly easier to complain about or lot in life than it is to actually go about affecting change upon our lives.
My second card was The Hermit, Reversed, indicating that I nurture others through immaturity and foolishness. Perhaps By being the damsel in distress, with my woe is me attitude from the first card, paired with my sometimes childlike behaviours, causes others to want to care for me - which is a form of nurturing on my part, my feeding their need to care for others or be the knight in shining armour.
Obviously, I am reaching here, to connect these cards to tell a story, but so far - it works. let's continue and see if we can keep the story going.
My third card was Strength, and answers the question "What emotion is flowing?" I do feel that I must be strong to endure the things and people in my life that I have had to endure. I also put a lot of focus on being a stable and strong parent to my children, and a good partner to my fiancée, and becoming successful at something. Anything. preferably art. I'm good at art. The Strength card may appear to counter the previous two cards, but remember, a strong person can still need help, can still ask for help, can still need to be rescued, and is totally allowed to whine about life from time to time.
My fourth card, The High Priestess, is the signifier card in this spread, tackling the question, "Who am I?" The High Priestess enforces the Strength card's description of my emotional state, as well as ( I think) accurately describing many facets of my personality and self. She is a strong, fertile, feminine archetype, whose keywords like intuition (I liken that to my love of psychology,) resourcefulness (in my art and cooking I am a firm believer in using what is at hand to achieve the desired results,) independence ( I do value my alone time and do not base my opinion of my self on my relationship status or my connection to others,) and growth (personal growth is something I am constantly nurturing in my self,) really do connect to my perception of who I am.
The fifth card asks "What power do I exert?" and I drew Gaia, Reversed. When upright, Gaia (or The World in traditional decks) is about fulfillment and completion, the rewards of hard work, and finally getting the doors of the world open and clear to you. Reversed, she's about incompletion and sloth, limitation and restriction. Now, lets go all way back up to the first card I drew, and see that perhaps this is part of the problem mentioned there - my love of delay, conquest, and defeat. Looks like the cards are laying out a warning to me to get up off my butt and start REALLY working toward my goals instead of doing things halfway.
***More often that not, a negative card that comes up in a reading is one of two things - a thing that has happened/a reminder, or a warning of what your current path is leading you to if you do not enact change. Many people see negative cards in spreads in the positions of future, or the answer as etched in stone calamities, when in reality, they are just opportunities to change your 'fate'.***
The sixth card, The Fool, is the answer to the spread's question of "What stability do I maintain?" To be honest, I have issue with the question itself, which seems quite unclear. I showed this layout and my results to a good friend and fellow tarot reader, and he said, "So you maintain my stability, yup." He is going through a bit of a tumultuous period in his life, and as one of my best and closest friends, I have endeavoured to be present for him as much as possible. He sees himself as the Fool for a number of reasons, and though I do agree, I think the Fool card can represent both of us in our current stages in life. The Fool here stands for possibility, courage, ecstasy, creative expression, risk-taking, trust, adventure, and choice. For my friend, The Fool is his card because he's setting out on a new phase of his life and so has a bit of adventure and choice and ahead of him - he turns to me to talk through stuff and clear his head, so I offer stability to him in that regard. For me, the Fool's open door to possibility makes me think of my constant attempts to find the thing. You know, that thing, the thing that will earn me money, or artistic fame, or whatever else I am constantly seeking. The stability here is perhaps a lack of stability, as I constantly seek out new distractions and artistic diversions.
The seventh card asks, "What is being born?" and I drew the Four of Swords, in reverse. This card is a card I describe to clients as the 'sit back and wait' card. It counsels that one must be objective and cautious, and plan one's next move before acting. In reverse, the meaning is quite similar, representing repose, solitude, economy, precaution, circumspection, and exile. It advises that not only is objectivity required, but a removal of self from the situation. So What is being born here? Perhaps its advising me to go about enacting the required change in my life mentioned in earlier cards, but doing so with great caution and much thought, possibly going so far as to remove myself from activities/places/people in order to gain perspective.
The final card drawn is the Six of Cups. This position asks the question, "What fertile grounds await?" So what is ahead of me, if I follow the advice found in this reading? The Six of Cups is about initiation, pleasure, regeneration, revitalization, memory, and ecstasy - so short answer? Looks like I need to take a vacation and come back with a clear mind and heart, in order to face my problems with new perspective.
Vacation, you say? Where do you get that from? From the Four of Swords.
I'll take a vacation - lord, I NEED a vacation! I need a spiritual and physical escape from my current troubles.
Well, I hope that working through the spread this way has helped those of you reading this gain some insight into connecting the cards to one another in a spread to tell a story about the client or about yourself.
Please, comment below with your thoughts!
Next blog: The Menage A' Trois Spread - Romance Readings in a Poly World
I was hoping that some sleep might open my eyes a bit to this reading, but I must say that I am, as always, a bit unsure of how to connect the dots between these cards and their positions in the spread. But, we shall soldier on and see what we can see. It's hard to be objective about a reading done for yourself, especially if there's a specific outcome you ight be hoping for, or a decision that needs to be made that you're hoping the cards will help you with. Personal bias is a reading killer, and can cause us to try to twist the meaning of a card to fit what we want it to mean, instead of what it is trying to tell us.
*** A quick aside: I know I said a lot about woo-woo and hoopajoop yesterday, and today I'm using verbiage that indicates that I think the cards are speaking to me, sending messages, etc. I am merely personifying the cards - I don't think of them as actual entities. it's just easier to speak about them this way to get the point across. ***
So NOW, let's get down to brass tacks.
My first card was the 6 of Wands, Reversed, indicating that the thing that I love (remember the question was "WHAT do I love?", not 'WHO',) is delay, conquest, and defeat. I think that perhaps this is telling me that I may actually have come to depend on disappointment, rather than focusing on overcoming the hurdles I face day to day. It's certainly easier to complain about or lot in life than it is to actually go about affecting change upon our lives.
My second card was The Hermit, Reversed, indicating that I nurture others through immaturity and foolishness. Perhaps By being the damsel in distress, with my woe is me attitude from the first card, paired with my sometimes childlike behaviours, causes others to want to care for me - which is a form of nurturing on my part, my feeding their need to care for others or be the knight in shining armour.
Obviously, I am reaching here, to connect these cards to tell a story, but so far - it works. let's continue and see if we can keep the story going.
My third card was Strength, and answers the question "What emotion is flowing?" I do feel that I must be strong to endure the things and people in my life that I have had to endure. I also put a lot of focus on being a stable and strong parent to my children, and a good partner to my fiancée, and becoming successful at something. Anything. preferably art. I'm good at art. The Strength card may appear to counter the previous two cards, but remember, a strong person can still need help, can still ask for help, can still need to be rescued, and is totally allowed to whine about life from time to time.
My fourth card, The High Priestess, is the signifier card in this spread, tackling the question, "Who am I?" The High Priestess enforces the Strength card's description of my emotional state, as well as ( I think) accurately describing many facets of my personality and self. She is a strong, fertile, feminine archetype, whose keywords like intuition (I liken that to my love of psychology,) resourcefulness (in my art and cooking I am a firm believer in using what is at hand to achieve the desired results,) independence ( I do value my alone time and do not base my opinion of my self on my relationship status or my connection to others,) and growth (personal growth is something I am constantly nurturing in my self,) really do connect to my perception of who I am.
The fifth card asks "What power do I exert?" and I drew Gaia, Reversed. When upright, Gaia (or The World in traditional decks) is about fulfillment and completion, the rewards of hard work, and finally getting the doors of the world open and clear to you. Reversed, she's about incompletion and sloth, limitation and restriction. Now, lets go all way back up to the first card I drew, and see that perhaps this is part of the problem mentioned there - my love of delay, conquest, and defeat. Looks like the cards are laying out a warning to me to get up off my butt and start REALLY working toward my goals instead of doing things halfway.
***More often that not, a negative card that comes up in a reading is one of two things - a thing that has happened/a reminder, or a warning of what your current path is leading you to if you do not enact change. Many people see negative cards in spreads in the positions of future, or the answer as etched in stone calamities, when in reality, they are just opportunities to change your 'fate'.***
The sixth card, The Fool, is the answer to the spread's question of "What stability do I maintain?" To be honest, I have issue with the question itself, which seems quite unclear. I showed this layout and my results to a good friend and fellow tarot reader, and he said, "So you maintain my stability, yup." He is going through a bit of a tumultuous period in his life, and as one of my best and closest friends, I have endeavoured to be present for him as much as possible. He sees himself as the Fool for a number of reasons, and though I do agree, I think the Fool card can represent both of us in our current stages in life. The Fool here stands for possibility, courage, ecstasy, creative expression, risk-taking, trust, adventure, and choice. For my friend, The Fool is his card because he's setting out on a new phase of his life and so has a bit of adventure and choice and ahead of him - he turns to me to talk through stuff and clear his head, so I offer stability to him in that regard. For me, the Fool's open door to possibility makes me think of my constant attempts to find the thing. You know, that thing, the thing that will earn me money, or artistic fame, or whatever else I am constantly seeking. The stability here is perhaps a lack of stability, as I constantly seek out new distractions and artistic diversions.
The seventh card asks, "What is being born?" and I drew the Four of Swords, in reverse. This card is a card I describe to clients as the 'sit back and wait' card. It counsels that one must be objective and cautious, and plan one's next move before acting. In reverse, the meaning is quite similar, representing repose, solitude, economy, precaution, circumspection, and exile. It advises that not only is objectivity required, but a removal of self from the situation. So What is being born here? Perhaps its advising me to go about enacting the required change in my life mentioned in earlier cards, but doing so with great caution and much thought, possibly going so far as to remove myself from activities/places/people in order to gain perspective.
The final card drawn is the Six of Cups. This position asks the question, "What fertile grounds await?" So what is ahead of me, if I follow the advice found in this reading? The Six of Cups is about initiation, pleasure, regeneration, revitalization, memory, and ecstasy - so short answer? Looks like I need to take a vacation and come back with a clear mind and heart, in order to face my problems with new perspective.
Vacation, you say? Where do you get that from? From the Four of Swords.
I'll take a vacation - lord, I NEED a vacation! I need a spiritual and physical escape from my current troubles.
Well, I hope that working through the spread this way has helped those of you reading this gain some insight into connecting the cards to one another in a spread to tell a story about the client or about yourself.
Please, comment below with your thoughts!
Next blog: The Menage A' Trois Spread - Romance Readings in a Poly World
I do love how you tell a story with your readings. I agree with your interpretation of the Fool in that place in the spread; you are a rock for others and while you may not be stable in your journeys and adventures, you are the stability in the lives of others.
ReplyDeleteI feel incredibly honored to be a student of yours.
Oh wow, honored? THANKYOU! You're a great student, and friend :)
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