Energies to focus on today — A three-card tarot reading
The cards again are eager to share their message this morning. I shuffled the cards a few times, and almost immediately, upon asking the cards about what we should focus on, embrace and release today, three cards fell out simultaneously. I took them in order from top to bottom. Our first card is what to focus on the card. The Eight of Swords.
The Eight Swords, at first glance, can be a scary card for some. It shows a woman wearing a red dress standing alone in a barren landscape. She is bound with a white sash around her upper body, and a white blindfold covers her eyes. She is surrounded by eight swords stuck into the ground with their handles up. She appears to be trapped and helpless. We see a small amount of water running on the ground and a town or castle in the background.
I mentioned that she “appears” to be trapped and helpless. Because this is what we all think if we found ourselves in this situation, we would first think we were doomed and probably give up. Some of us, however, would try to find a way out of the situation. And that is where this card gets interesting. You’ll notice that her feet are free. And the white sash around her is not very tight. If she wiggled, I’m sure the sash would slide down to her waist, and she could pull off her blindfold. If she did that, she could see she had many swords to protect herself when she returned to town. This card appears scary at first, but sometimes you have to see things from a different perspective to see what’s going on. And that’s what this card shows us.
On another level, this card shows eight swords. Swords represent thoughts from our conscious mind. The par to four brains we directly control. These swords can very easily represent a multitude of thoughts and ideas. Each gives us a different approach to solving the problem ahead. So in many, the cards also give the idea that there is more than one way out of this situation. And that’s where our focus should be today. We may be feeling trapped. Or feeling like we’re not sure how to get ourselves out of a situation we don’t want to be in anymore. But there are always options and ways to get out. If you’re unhappy in your current situation, spend some time today thinking about how to get out of it. You might surprise yourself with what you come up with.
Our next card shows us what to embrace today. That card is the Death card.
I know what you’re thinking. Should we embrace death? The answer is no. Just as we saw in the eight swords, nothing is as it seems in the tarot deck. This card is not about “death.” Let’s repeat that.. this card is not about death. We see Death on his white horse riding into a village. A king is lying dead on the ground beneath Death. We see a religious figure praying or pleading with Death. There are two children; one turned her face away from death. She chooses not to believe or accept him. The other child stares at him, unafraid. In this, we see four differing attitudes toward death. We have acceptance from the king, begging by the priest, one child disavows it, and the last is curious.
We also see the sun setting behind two towers in the background, which is, in a way, another kind of death — the death of a day. But we don’t fear this moment in time. We often embrace it because it represents that a new day will come. And so this card speaks to us of transformation and change. Because this card is from the Major Arcana, this card is about the kind of change that is out of our control. And it can be scary when things change for us, and we can’t stop or change it in any way. It happens to us but not because of us. And that’s the thing this card asks us to embrace today. It asks us to embrace a change that is coming that is out of our control. If we fight it, it’ll be harder to deal with. We’ll probably spend a lot more time and energy than we would if we just accepted the change is happening. Maybe we take the advice for the eight of swords and take a look at all the ways we might change it to our advantage. The cards don’t tell us that a change is coming or when it’s coming; they only ask us to embrace the change that comes.
Our last card today shows us an energy that we should release. This card is the King of Cups.
This card shows a King sitting on a throne that seems to be floating on water. The water is a little turbulent, and we can see a sea creature in the background on the right side of the card and a ship on the left. The king appears to be looking out at the world around him. His crown is ornate; He wears a yellow cape, a sign of optimism, and a blue robe, a symbol of the water surrounding him. He holds a cup in his right hand and a scepter in his left that also looks like a cup at the top. Looking closely at his face, I can see that there seems to be a femininity to him. Clearly showing that he is a man in touch with his emotions and intuition. The suit of Cups is connected to the element of water and represents our emotional mind and our intuition. Kings often represent mature persons or maturity in general. Often maturity means being responsible, making good decisions, and being smart about using our resources. And we see all of those qualities embodied in this King.
This card landed in our what to release spot today. This card asks us to let go of old emotions today. Think of all the emotions that we carry with us from day to day that no longer serve us. That has no use to us. But we carry them anyway. They continue to affect us even though those situations are long gone. The hurts, the pain, the frustration, anxieties. Whatever it is, dig deep and find those emotions you are hanging on to that you no longer need to hang on to. Let that stuff go. It may be emotional to do this; you may need to find a quote place to sit and think so that no one will bother you. It might not be easy; as we see in this card, the waters are a little choppy. But you’ll feel much better after letting these emotions go.
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Thanks again for reading, and have a great day!
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