Vision Quest, Planet Waves’ 2016 annual edition, has been published. Order all 12 signs at a great value or choose your individual signs.
By Sarah Taylor
Just like last week (with the Prince of Stones, Aeon, Three of Swords), this week’s spread holds a Court, a Major Arcana, and a Minor Arcana card from left to right respectively — only this time we have Queen of Stones, The Sun, and the Nine of Stones. So, quite a different picture.
Queen of Stones, The Sun, Nine of Stones from the Haindl Tarot deck, created by Hermann Haindl. Click on the image for a larger version.
To me, it offers a chance to grow up and into something different from the story depicted in last week’s cards.
Perhaps the opportunity to redo something, or to shift something, or to grow and nurture something that runs in parallel. Where, when, and how this happens will be individual to your circumstances, but the sharing of a) the same configuration and b) two members of the same the Court (Stones) are enough for me to know that they, like the web of Grandmother Spider, are interconnected; and, like the strands of her web, they will forever be shaped by their meeting.
And here’s another parallel: the river of blood on the right of Aeon seems this week to hold the current potential to spring into a full-bloom, full-blooded red rose in The Sun. The clouds last week have parted; the eye and the foetus have become blazing Sol in an alchemical reaction where the rain has brought beautiful life to the land below.
Instead of three Swords — “Mourning” and conflict borne of thoughts at odds with each other — there are now nine Stones, or Pentacles. The mind has found a grounding presence. There is an identification with the world of nature; there is a guiding force that nurtures a connectivity to our roots.
What does this mean for you?
In some way, you no longer feel separate from a world that not only holds you, but gives you life. It may be an entirely visceral experience of belonging — but it will not be a belonging to another person; rather, it’s belonging to life itself. Which may well be felt as the blooming of a belonging to yourself, or the potential for that.
There is the potential to feel part of something bigger, but in a way where you are neither lost nor rendered helpless. Far from it. For this is the kind of participation that needs you; it asks for you because you have something to offer, and you also see what is offered to you. It’s not simply an exchange, though, or some kind of cool, rational transaction — though it might make more sense than anything you’ve come across for quite some time. No, this exchange has meaning to it. It holds heft and depth. It is rooted — and there’s that connectivity again. It feels old — ancient, in fact. Yet it may also have the sheen and fragrance of something sprung fresh from the earth that has held and fed it.
New ideas based on old principles. A new vision that your soul has known forever. A new offer or journey that has been walked in myth, in stories, in others’ tales over and over again. A moment of striking realisation that brings something out of the shadows, and now — now — you can see where you’re going. At the very least you can see as much of the road that you need to see. You have an idea that you have all you need, and simply by putting one step in front of the other, that road will rise to meet you.
The written readings for all 12 signs of Vision Quest are available for instant access, and so are the audio astrology and rune readings! Order all 12 signs here, or select individual signs here.
This rising of the road is the support implied by the Nine of Stones. This version of the card is called “Material Gain.” In a later version, Haindl changed it to “Delight in Existence.”
This is more nuanced. We’re not talking about material possessions, and how much you can get, so much as understanding and seeing what you already have available to you. You become richer through the acknowledgement of the riches around you, particularly in the natural world: the riches of nature and life, yes; and also the richness of the patterns of thread after thread after thread that weave you into a fabric as vibrant as it is diverse.
This is not a concept. It’s not an intellectual exercise of thinking your world different. You will be able to feel this quite tangibly in some way in a particular area of your life. You will have a felt sense of existence and your active role in it.
But because this is tied into last week’s reading, that idea of choice that was central to the three cards’ meaning still holds today.
It happens through you, instead of your waiting for it to happen to you. You are the initiator.
How?
I’ll leave you with the words of Rachel Pollack in part of her description of the Queen of Stones in The Haindl Tarot: The Minor Arcana:
“Taken one way, the little figure [at the mouth of the maze] represents creation, which begins with the Goddess, the center, and works its way through the stages to the outside. Taken another way it shows the soul entering the labyrinth, in search of sacred truth. Can we join with the Grandmother and remain ourselves?”
Astrology/Elemental correspondences: Mother of Stones in the West (the watery aspect of earth), The Sun (Sun), Nine of Stones (Venus in Virgo)
If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article explains how to use the spread.
Wonderful, Sarah! So affirming! You have a real gift for uplifting interpretation.
Thank you, Jude <3
Dear Sarah,
This one blew me away! Thank you so much for being the conduit of these precious words that seem to me to come from somewhere beyond, just when I need them most…these really spoke to me: “In some way, you no longer feel separate from a world that not only holds you, but gives you life. It may be an entirely visceral experience of belonging — but it will not be a belonging to another person, but rather to life itself. Which may well be felt as the blooming of a belonging to yourself, or the potential for that.”…and strange that I hear this after a visceral experience I had a two days ago, when Life seemed to be once again bringing me to a door where I could reach out for those ‘materials gains’, as it spoke exactly the words from my dreams….but this time, I was able to laugh at myself and the way Life was teasing me, and I suddenly knew what I really wanted…..I share with everyone here, a poem that flowed out from this experience….as your words make me re-live that all over again…..taking me to that space beyond words….
Beloved Life
dear Life,
don’t be my mistress.
don’t seduce me
with your closeness,
humming the tune
of my dreams,
don’t make me weak
in my knees,
whispering the words
I’ve so longed to hear,
exploding into the stillness
of this sleeping soul,
don’t weave a stole
with memories and songs
long-forgotten,
luring me into the warmth
of an embrace unwrapped.
don’t be my mistress, dear Life.
be my beloved,
so I can lay myself down
under the wide open night,
naked and whole,
feeling the still wind of my dreams
and desires unmet, resting
upon my star-spangled skin,
turned on by myself,
stoking my endless longing
for you, my beloved –
this one gorgeous life.
Amazing & beautiful poem!
Your beautiful poem has something to say to me, too, Priya. A bloom(ing realisation and confirmation) in the Sun. Thank you!
I don’t recall ever having had a dream with such a recognition of sound. It was simply a man’s voice, calling my name. The voice, a sound coming from the way, way past, or it was projected from the future, yet having a presence like none other felt in now. A voice I had never heard before, still so intimately familiar was the sound, and feeling from another realm. A presence I would know projected forward, and/or a voice I already knew so very well. I did not know (exactly) who’s it was, yet at the same time I was so Attuned to it’s sound. His distinctive call immediately woke me up.
Sarah, your reading is a resonating work of art.
Exchanges and Initiation! was that of my dream this weekend. The rest of the week so much energy moved with (in); personal realizations, revelations, sychonicities (more than usual), inter (woven) connections, quickening manifestations and recognitions offering thoughts completness. ..Too much to say, and a bit achey, exhausted from the major down, (or up) load now.
What a striking dream, P. Sophia! I have always paid huge attention to voices that speak to me as one in authority – but an ancient, knowing authority. Timeless, even. Always, always at the right time, and with just the right information.
Happy St Brigid’s Day to all wise women of the world.
Imbolc (traditionally February 1 in Gaelic culture) is dark and windy here in the U.K. The winter will be short; spring cleaning can begin.
My cat bounded onto my bed at four this morning, having been out partying all night. He was frisky and eager to share his delight at the early onset of lighter times and warmer weather.
Similar good omens for Groundhog Day tomorrow, America. It’s in the belly.
I hear you, and thank you Geoff!
I will be celebrating all week, as in the frozen north of the U.S, I am reinventing Imbolc, still focused on the hearth as the woods stoves burn round the clock. We do feel the light, and the naked trees begin to blush and plump their buds with the longer days. Other than that, we are long long way from Spring. I wish you sunshine!
I smiled when I read your words this morning, Geoff. I can feel the expectation of the season’s turn in the ethers, if not quite in the air yet 🙂
Sarah, Grandmother Spider in this deck is confirming all the recent readings. I have been sleeping with my spider medallion around my neck every night, and waking up with new writing, clarity, and connections as the web of creation weaves around me.
Thank you for the reading. This deck is growing on me.
You’re welcome, Carla! I always think of you when I think of Grandmother Spider, btw.
Thank you Sarah. So much of this week’s reading rings true to me. As I read your description about material possessions and your further explanations regarding an understanding of what you already have available to you, I was reminded of a line in the Sheryl Crow song “Soak up the Sun” where she says: “It’s not having what you want, it’s wanting what you’ve got.” The purpose of Sheryl Crow’s song is not to ponder what you don’t have but instead to look up at the sun and “lighten up” by discarding your desires of wants and “woo-be-to-me” and celebrate living.
As we enter the labyrinth of life we often forget why we are weaving the intricate webs of life that support and sustain our life structure- some of us want to escape the weaving altogether, I know that often I would like to. But we can’t escape weaving anymore than the spider can for all of us must do something that supports our living. The questions become, how do we focus ourselves on the mundane and is the mundane something that can’t be found or is separate or apart from the sacred truth?
Many religious clerics believe the mundane is their manner of finding the sacred truth, pondering the rose, cleaning the floors of the temple, contemplatively eating the orange, breathing each breath in and out, watching an elder person smile, having sex, playing with a beloved pet. Doing anything or nothing that brings one to the present moment, including lying in the grass and soaking up the sun. ☺
If the cards are meant to express that we have all we need inside of us to create and express ourselves in this world, and that our active participation is to allow ourselves to be conscious and appreciative in living the present moment of existence, then one can’t help but acknowledge and feel an abundance of peace and sure footedness while moving (and weaving) through the labyrinth of life. It gives clarity and serenity and for artfully and skillfully drawing that to our attention, I thank you!
And I thank you, Pisces Sun, for your contribution, which rang clear as a bell for me. I’m very grateful to you, and to everyone else, who takes the time to write thoughts, comments, interpretations, experiences. I love them – and I know there are others out there reading who love them too!