Focus, Embrace, Release. What do the cards have for us today?
March 14, 2023
Welcome friends. I hope your week is off to a great start. This morning I started meditating on today’s day and the reading. When I began shuffling the cards, four cards jumped out immediately. Today I’ll do the three-card spread dealing energies to focus on, embrace, and release. Because I got four cards today, I’ll use the fourth to leave us with a thought for our day. Here we go.
Our first card representing the energy to focus on today is The High Priestess. She sits on her throne between two pillars, one dark, one light. A veil behind her adorned with pomegranates blocks the way and our view of what lies behind her. Although if we peer through the openings on either side, we can see that it is a waterscape of some kind. She wears a crown adorned with the moon, and a crescent moon sits at her feet. She wears a white cross, and her dress and robes flow at her feet like water. Being the second card in the Major Arcana, she is the balance to the energy of the Magician. And while the magician is the master of earthly elements, she completely controls aspects of the mind. She is a guardian of secret knowledge. The knowledge that we come by through meditation and spiritual work. And this is where she tells us today that we should focus our thoughts and energies on our intuition. To trust our instincts and to follow them. She asks us to let that guide us throughout our day.
Our next card in today’s spread shows us what to embrace. This card is The World.
We see a woman, a dancer, wearing only a sash loosely around her body. She holds two rods in either hand. Surrounding her is a wreath with two red ribbons that appear like infinity symbols. The wreath itself is also a symbol of infinity, seeing that it has no end or beginning. The wreath symbolizes the completion of a cycle or a journey. In this case, The World card is the last in the Major Arcana and is often seen as the end of the Fool’s Journey through life to reach enlightenment. In the card’s corners, we see four heads, symbols of the fixed zodiac, and the four elements. The head of a man represents Aquarius (air), the head of the eagle is a higher symbol for Scorpio (water), the lion is Leo (fire), and the bull represents Taurus (earth).
This card tells us to embrace the completion of a journey. That journey may be different for each person. You might be working on a project that is nearing completion. Or you may find yourself seeking retirement soon. Or you might find that you start looking for a new job. Relationships that no longer serve you might end, which could very easily reflect the coming equinox and the end of winter. As with all cycles, an ending is always the beginning of something else. The wreath and the ribbons of the card show us that as one cycle ends, another begins.
Our next card shows us what energy we should release today, the Eight of Pentacles.
The eight pentacles show a person sitting at a bench working. He holds a hammer and chisel and appears to be making or fixing a pentacle. This card has come up a lot lately, or at least I feel like it has. This card shows a kind of pipeline of sorts. There are six pentacles on the side of the card, with one on the ground and another on his bench. The one on the ground could indicate that he hasn’t gotten to or fixed it yet. And this is where my energy is drawn today. To the pentacle on the ground. The one he has yet to work on. But he doesn’t seem bothered by the one on the ground. Nor does he seem like he’s rushing to get to it. This is the energy to release today.
Let go of that desire to rush through things to get them done. Sometimes we create unrealistic to-do lists. Or we have bosses with expectations greater than we can handle. Rushing through our work to “get it done” can compromise the quality of our work, which is not good for the people we work for or us. This card asks us to take pride in our work today and let go of the things we cannot finish. This doesn’t have to be all about work. Sometimes we have things we must do at home that may go unfinished for a while. On the other hand, this card isn’t giving us permission to procrastinate. It’s simply asking us to let go of those feelings we have when we have to leave something for another day. Let it go and come back tomorrow.
When I was shuffling earlier, a fourth card also fell out of the deck. Usually, when this happens, it’s because the message needs to be heard. So I’ll include this card as well. This will be something for us to think about throughout our day. The card is the Two of Swords.
The card shows a woman seated on a stone bench. She is blindfolded, holding two swords, one in each hand, with her arms crossed over her heart. Behind her is a large body of water with a few rocks and an island in the distant background.
This card always spoke to me about choosing between two things. She is blindfolded, but in this card, it is self-inflicted. She’s blinded so that she can focus on the decision before her. Swords represent our thoughts, and here we have two thoughts. Her arms cross over her head to indicate that she is closing off her emotions as she has with her sight. The water in the background suggests that emotions are at play here with these two decisions that she is wrestling with, but with her back turned to it, she is also trying to block out that. So here we have two thoughts that need to be deliberated. And a person trying their best not to involve their emotions or sight to make this decision. Being a card to think about today, consider how you make decisions today. Are you the type of person who needs to retreat to amen a decision? Or do you rely on all your senses and all the information available? Consider this today and see where the thought takes you.
Thanks again for reading. If you enjoyed the reading today, please leave a comment and let me know. Also, if it resonated with you, I’d love to hear about it. If it didn’t resonate with you, consider sharing this with a friend who might need to hear this message today. Thanks again for reading, and have a great day!
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