By Sarah Taylor
This week’s cards are both an echo of last week’s reading and a way of reframing the experience that they described, showing you what you are able to build based on your emerging understanding of what matters to you.
Last week, we had The Tower at left, the Ten of Cups at centre, and the Ace of Disks on the right. Here, the Five of Swords describes the aftermath of The Tower in a more tangible sense. The Lovers brings the Ten to a broader, deeper archetypal point in the present; and the Six of Disks describes how the Ace of Disks is able to express itself in the near future. And so, on to the cards, their detail, and their collective message.
Five of Swords, The Lovers, Six of Disks from The Röhrig Tarot deck, created by Carl-W. Röhrig. Click on the image for a larger version.
As far as the Weekend Tarot Readings have gone recently, you will have been no stranger to “Defeat,” or the Five of Swords. This has now happened; it is in the past — albeit still making its presence known in your life and forming the foundation to where you are now. It is the gateway through which you have stepped into your current experience.
The Five of Swords is conflict — conflict that seems to rip and tear away the fabric of a part of your life. Swords are mind-based. This experience is, first and foremost, a mental conflict, or a war of words — either the ones you have had with another or others, or a war you have experienced in yourself, which you projected on to your outer landscape. It has been sharp, painful, at times unforgiving.
However, what it has done is given you the opportunity to connect with your inner light — the guiding star that brings you closer to a sense of yourself and your truth. There was so much in the way, and it served no-one to keep that truth hidden. As painful as the Five of Swords is when the conflict is underway, what it has done is to create the contrast to conflict: peace. Or, rather, peace of mind.
It can be hard — sometimes seemingly impossible — to recognise the presence of peace when the immediacy of your predicament looms large. It is there, though. Only by knowing defeat can we know what defeat is not, and it is that which endures, no matter how hard it seems to reach, how distant you might feel from it.
It is (t)here.
And so on to the card at centre — the experience that you are in or you are moving into. Many people have a “Two of Cups” response to The Lovers: that idea of romantic love that brings two people together. The Lovers, as a major arcana card, is broader than that, more profound. It is not about that heart-fluttering feeling you get when you first meet someone; it is the state of falling into matter and communing as both sky and earth, spirit and soul, masculine and feminine.
The first card of the major arcana that features two people, The Lovers is duality. Through it, you bring down a disincarnate state and make it incarnate. You are birthed into Eden and what it means to inhabit the human condition.
“Twin,” “Love,” “Attraction,” “Approach,” “connection,” “Uniting of Differences.”
You become more than just I. You are now You and Me. It is a cosmic coupling, and so in The Lovers expressing itself through you, you become aware of what it means to be fully human. And with that, comes choice.
Yes, The Lovers may come to you in the form of another person, but the greater message of this card is that this person, and you, are part of a grander plan. This is the plan of your soul’s evolution on this earth; it is how you acknowledge that there is simultaneously separation and unity — and that without the Other, there is no “you.” We are One, together. We are in this human condition and the only sane and loving choice is to embrace it, knowing that we are all mirrors to each other.
This is the current laying of a new foundation upon which you are building the Six of Disks. After Defeat, and through The Lovers, you know Success. The triangle formed by the six hematite spheres in the Six of Disks is strong, enduring. It is able to support not just you, but others too. Perhaps a family, perhaps a circle of friends, perhaps a collective with a shared vision. And that vision is based on the truth you found when all seemed to collapse around you.
This is a moment in time that defines a re-emerging strength of conviction and service. From one, to two, to many, that light is born by holding to what you know, and holding to what you can co-create from that knowing. First, though, that mirror: can you feel that you are not alone? It is time to start living that out.
Astrology/Elemental correspondences: Five of Swords (Venus in Aquarius), The Lovers (Gemini), Six of Disks (Moon in Taurus)
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.
Sarah, thank you for your service. Your clear insight and explanation of what is really going on consistently gives me the encouragement to keep going even when I feel like I cannot take another step. Tough gig here on planet earth, 2015. Your talents help so much and are immensely appreciated.
Megs,I hear you. ” even when I feel I cannot take another step. Tough gig here on planet earth….”
Yet amazing too …don’t you feel ?
” The Lovers is duality ” …. ” connection”
I hope you can “feel that your are not alone ? ”
I know for myself ” It’s time to start living that out “.
Thank you Sarah for shining the light here with this Weekend Tarot
Hi Sarah! Thank you for this and last weeks readings, always. When I saw the center card, X of Cups in your reading last week i immediately thought dreams, wishes, joy, appreciation, divinity worship and partnership, and
or co-creation. I was a little perturbed (realizing utoh! I may need need a closer, re-valuation here) with the idea to even consider mentally contemplating that this image was maybe, in someway just a step, and not an endall ideal to hold tight to. Rather, as you suggested, it was in the order to move through.. After a few days.. I understood. And it hit me to also have a look at the current Sabian Degree of Juno’s placement which seemed personnally relevant to me, cause he is currently in my 11th house and has been treaking along, picking up speed.
I was struck how the Symbol, and Keynote of Juno’s position at the time was so relevant to your reading of first destruction of the tower to that of a heavy storm, and in my memory of the rainbow, the 10 of cups make, in the Rider Waite Tarot deck.
Today’s reading the same message applies as you say, but as you explain i do feel the cards are more tangible and grounded. Today Juno sits one degree advanced, at 26+ Degrees. It’s cooresponding Sabian Symbol 27 Leo to paraphrash, speaks of the Alpha (dawn) and omega (the concluding peak experience) are “opposites, yet the same”. In a (key)word, ILLUMINATION… What timing this is with the solstice. We literally, practically bring this new cycle down to earth.
If anyone is interested, here is the Sabian Degree and Symbol of Juno’s position last week, from Dane Rudhyar’s interpretation.
SCENE TEN: RELEASE
(LEO 26°):
AFTER THE HEAVY STORM, A RAINBOW.
KEYNOTE: Linking above and below, the Covenant with one’s divine nature, promise of immortality.
In the Bible the rainbow is the sign of the Covenant established by God with Noah (the cyclic “Seed man”) guaranteeing that no longer shall the destructive power of Spirit (the Shiva aspect of the Divine) be used to destroy life on earth. As we come to the third level of the scene of “Release,” we find the man who has been able to weather the cathartic storm face-to-face with his divine Archetype; because he has been victorious, a link has been established with his divine Soul-being. Both the human and the divine partners should remain thus linked. H. P. Blavatsky’s last words are said to have been: “Keep the Link unbroken” — the Link she forged With the Trans-Himalayan Brotherhood that had sent her into the darkness of nineteenth-century materialism for this purpose.
At the first stage of this thirtieth sequence, the symbol of the rainbow shows us the need to maintain a state of open communication between the Sky and the Earth within our total being — not for the sake of finding an ever-elusive “pot of gold” at the end of the rainbow, for this end is never to be reached, but in order to face the totality of our individual selfhood as it is projected in the many-hued dome of our sky-flung consciousness. After every successfully met crisis, the REVELATION OF WORTH comes to us, and with it comes the promise of success, if only we do our part.
5 of swords is Venus in Aquarius. How did I miss that through reading after reading when that card showed up. To emphasize the pastness of that Five of Swords effect, the other two cards today are sixes. And next steps. Outcomes, should I choose to accept the outcome. This reading confirms my Solstice meditations that on this day, and the Solstice 6 months from now, Shift happens.
Thank you!