By Sarah Taylor
The way that certain elements in this week’s three cards are communicating with each other — or appearing not to communicate with each other — drew my interest immediately on turning them over.
The Star, Knight of Swords, Five of Swords from The Röhrig Tarot deck, created by Carl-W. Röhrig. Click on the image for a larger version.
Let’s look at the key relationship described by the figures of The Star and the Knight of Swords (the King of Swords in the Rider-Waite Smith deck) first. It is these two cards, what they refer to, and how they correspond that form the focus for what is going on and how you might be experiencing this.
First up: card type. As a member of the tarot’s major arcana, The Star is associated with what is happening on a Soul level. A major arcana card speaks to the evolution of who you are, and who you are being called to become, at the very core of you. Soul is disinterested (not “uninterested” — “disinterested” is significantly different in meaning) in the demands, distractions and strictures of your day-to-day life. What it is interested in is its expression through the unique being that you are. It seeks expression; it seeks evolution; it seeks your willingness to partner with it in order to bring it through.
The Star’s sense of remove from the day-to-day is particularly powerful, because it is one of the transpersonal cards in the major arcana: the earlier cards describe the soul journey at a personal and individual level; the later ones — after The Hanged Man — shift away from the personal and broaden the scope of who it is that we understand ourselves to be. We are no longer separated individuals. We are intricately and inextricably connected with everyone and everything. When we hit the latter part of the major arcana in a conscious way, we stop paying lip service to the following phrase and really begin to understand and experience it:
“As above, so below; as within, so without.”
As we grow, so we remove our blinkers and feel the full force of a relationship with life that, if we were to move into it fearlessly and fully, would render most of our hang-ups, our worries and our petty pissiness immediately obsolete.
The Star is rendering something obsolete. Can you feel it? She is disinterested in the conflict that has happened to the right of the reading, in the Five of Swords. She is disinterested in apparent “Defeat.” She is present, self-contained, unmoved, and simply radiating. She radiates light, while the Knight focuses it. This is the difference between the transpersonal and the personal; it is the difference between Soul and an aspect of the personality. They are both doing their jobs perfectly — and their presence together offers both contrast and, paradoxically, a way of working together to move something through.
So there is the Knight, focusing his inner beam of light — consciousness, awareness — on the figure in the Five of Swords. His back to The Star, he holds a black moon in his head at the same level as the star in that first card. His eye is light-filled while hers is black. Light and dark, dark and light, expressed through the transpersonal and the personal.
The Star is described as the “Conjunction with universal intelligence.” The Knight of Swords is the manifestation of personal intelligence and its application in your life. Simultaneously, they are demonstrating something to you, as you stand in the Five of Swords, dwarfed by buildings that have been reduced to mere shells by the shells hurled during a battle. Because the Knight, as an aspect of you, is activating your capacity for wisdom and insight, and drawing your attention to the reality that you, in spite of everything, are looking at a star. The Star.
Full circle.
Maybe you feel loss. Maybe you are afraid. The mind is a powerful thing, and has the ability to concretise your thoughts into all manners of reality. Likewise, when used in service to Soul, as opposed to enslaving it, your intellect can create enough space in your certainties to let some light through.
And here is the light: what you are beginning to understand is that the flow, the grace, the inspiration that are The Star are not, and never were, unavailable to you. They are right here, closer than you think. She is right here, closer than you think. Far, far closer than you think.
Astrology/Elemental correspondences: The Star (Aquarius), Knight of Swords (the fiery aspect of air/Gemini), Five of Swords (Venus in Aquarius)
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.
She is right here, closer than you think. Far, far closer than you think. (‘watching’ your back too).
(Thank you Sarah)
You’re welcome, pam!
Lovely, Sarah! and so apropos of my moment. Grateful for your eloquent explanation. Thank you.
Thank you, too, aWord. I’m grateful to the cards and their guidance in bringing that eloquence through — because I can’t lay claim to a single word of it.
is it any wonder, I was waiting for this? sarah!
love.
Biren 🙂
Perfect, thank you <3
You’re welcome, Amela!
Sarah, I read this after a down the reasoning around the circle day. Eric knows because I have told him but I tell no one else I have been trying to find my mother’s cats homes since she died. She had about 25, and a significant number are feral. If she had been right minded she would have left them with claws, but she wasn’t right minded, and they are all declawed. Financially it is killing me, and from a life point I have no life other than work and doing all the things to clean boxes, feed, etc. you can’t image how many shelters, how many people, and how much I have done but still have them all. I was able to get an agreement for the friendly ones, but NO ONE will take feral declawed cats. I have to get out from under this. Today was another set back. There was a very reasonable loving couple, but he was crazy and brought blood from me and the gentleman. I understand why they left, but I was so low and feel so unloved. I began to question everything and felt unloved and unloveable.
I went around working with myself for several hours until I got to the point of saying, “ok, you need to love yourself more, that’s what you need right this moment.” I felt better. I then read your tarot for the week, and I felt better.
So tomorrow, back to trying to figure out what to do. Who will take 7 extremely feral, leaving me with10 I still need to find homes. If I could find a place for extremely feral it would be a start.
Any lovely Planet Waves visitors with ideas or answers?
Tana – I have no practical suggestions to give you, unfortunately. But it sounds as if you have a lot of strength and perseverance, and that you will eventually find homes for your cats.
But I would like to share some advice that was given me last week – when the situation back home with my folks had got out of hand, and I was really panicking. A friend of mine advised me to stop the fretting and worrying, and to sit down and pray, to ask for assistance with the problem. After doing this, I felt a great sense of peace and calm – and more ready for the next crisis, when it emerges! I wish you lots of luck – and send you love and light. ((()))
Tana — While I can’t do anything here, I hope that life brings you the assistance you need.
My sense is, when external circumstances have neither been caused by you, nor are you able to exert the kind of control you feel you ought, that loving yourself is the one thing that might make all the difference. You can ‘home’ yourself first. The rest will take care of itself.
Tana, what an inheritance or legacy from your mother!
I am a cat lover, so keep that in mind as you read my offer.
As Sarah says, home yourself. What is your responsibility here? Whose life? The cats? Your Mother? Yourself?
Undomesticated cats who have been rendered dependent without a chance of surviving on their own as feral animals are living a half-life. What is the truly compassionate solution if they do not want to be or are not able to be someone’s pet and companion?
Be willing to set yourself free. You have done well. You are doing well. Be willing to do what is necessary.
All the best to you, and condolences on the loss of your mother.
Dearest Sarah, your readings always resonate so strongly with me – and this week’s is so very powerful. Thank you so much!
((((Lizzy))))
Synchronicity! Letting the Light through. Thank You for your focusing guidance.
Love & Light
You’re welcome, Racquel. Synchronicity feels very much like Star territory to me.
Sarah, perhaps one of the most beautiful, loving and humane words I have ever seen written are yours: “…soul is interested in its expression through the unique being that you are. It seeks expression, evolution, and your willingness to partner with it in order to bring it through.” Thank you
Thank you for your lovely words, Pisces Sun. Though I have strongest feeling that what I wrote is an example of that self-same expression of Soul. When I’m doing my job well, I’m an interpreter rather than a writer 🙂
As we grow, so we remove our blinkers and feel the full force of a relationship with life that, if we were to move into it fearlessly and fully, would render most of our hang-ups, our worries and our petty pissiness immediately obsolete.
This reading illuminates the personal reading I had with you recently. I appreciate how the cards in my personal readings over time keep up the dialogue in the Weekend reading week after week.
Thank you!
((((Carla))))
Thank you to everyone for your comments. All were reall great suggestions. Thank you to for giving me goos reasons to step back and look at everything and make this my life. Thank you all.