By Sarah Taylor

This reading is as clear, clear, clear as the body of light that shines from the centre of the layout. You have a choice; and you are being guided towards the direction that serves you, and others, best.

Three of Wands, The Star, Three of Swords from the Röhrig Tarot deck, created by Carl-W. Röhrig. Click on the image for a larger version.

Before I turned the cards face-up, I was prompted to draw them in a different order from the one I am used to — and found myself laying them down, first centre, then right, then left. I pay close attention to any changes in how this happens, because it plays into the significance of the emphasis of the reading.

At the centre of the reading sits The Star. Or, rather, The Star radiates from the centre of the reading. I find it interesting that the card is related to the card at centre last week — Strength: corresponding to Aquarius and Leo respectively, the cards are complementary opposites. What you bring to yourself in Strength, you then extend to groups and others in The Star.

Flow, grace, inspiration, connection, touching the transpersonal: The Star (card 17 in the major arcana) is what you move into when the necessary destruction of The Tower (card 16) has done its job of clearing away the obstacles on your particular, singular Soul path. This is you, right now.

And what are you, as The Star, turning away from, and what is it that you’re looking towards? The order that the cards were drawn in — first right, then left — only emphasises the direction in which the figure in the central card is focussing her attention.

Two “Three” cards, placed symmetrically in the layout: this indicates the choice that The Star is clearly making (The Star = “clarity”). The Threes in tarot are associated with the state in which you find yourself when you have moved out of the binary and into complexity — where you find yourself when you are no longer looking in a single mirror, or at the other, but dealing with multiple reflections, or circumstances. Where, in short, you are no longer entirely accountable for, or able to direct, what is happening around you.

The Three of Swords represents a lack of mental/thought-based clarity caused by the presence of a “third” coming in — whether a conflicting idea inside you, or a conflicting idea introduced by someone or something outside you. They are really one and the same. What heretofore had seemed straightforward — hey, remember when you hand a handle on things, and you could guide your experience because you were the only one in the room? — now feels a little less so. Or a lot.

In the card, a big wooden door dwarfs you and bars the way. Or does it? Isn’t that simply your mental reaction to a set of circumstances where you have had no choice but to hand over some control to other/s — other/s who might have other ideas? The door is one you have closed — on possibility, on trust and co-operation, on being accountable for your own piece of the deal, and knowing which parts of the deal are not yours to handle. Sorrow.

Sorrow at a sense of feeling the limitations of something — but also the sorrow of feeling the limitations offered up by the human experience. But sorry is only one side of the story, as it is only one side of the door. Because on the other side of the door, if you look carefully, is a starry sky. The same starry sky that is the backdrop to The Star. And remember — she is looking somewhere else; the door is not part of her experience. She sees the other side so fully that she is looking somewhere entirely new.

You, too, have the potential to see the other side so fully that you are looking somewhere new.

The Three of Wands. Virtue.

“Integrity,” “Self-confident,” “No compromizes.” [sic]

What you are fully accountable for is you, your reactions and your actions. What you walk in the Three of Wands is your own path through the complexity — because that is the act of self-definition that shines out of you as a breath-taking beauty. You are a beacon of living, feathered light. And you are accompanied by the very elements of what could have, if you saw only the door, caused you pain — the very things, the very people, the very circumstances. It is you who has shifted this by changing your thoughts into self-defined, right action.

The possibility that you walk towards, by implication, is the Four of Wands — a threshold-crossing into a new state. An invitation extended to join something, or someone/s, through a conscious act of commitment. But that’s only the possibility, and it is not yet visible. For now, hold to your integrity and self-confidence — hold true to yourself and your vision — as you step away from conflict and keep the vision of The Star as your guiding light. Can you feel it? Exquisite!

Astrology/Elemental correspondences: Three of Wands (Sun in Aries), The Star (Aquarius), Three of Swords (Saturn in Libra)

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.