Weekend Tarot Reading — Sunday, Oct. 4, 2015

Posted by Sarah Taylor

In this week’s reading, Sarah Taylor explores the idea that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” The Lovers brings you into the world of duality and choice, but paradoxically there are more choices available to you than you might think. It comes down to whether you want to walk the same path/s again, or choose something that may feel riskier (because it’s new), but which is creatively more in tune with who you are.

By Sarah Taylor

Between Scylla and Charybdis; between a rock and a hard place; the devil and the deep blue sea. The Lovers have a choice to make, and it may be useful to bear in mind that the most immediate choice is not the only one available to you. Nor the second, even. Let’s look at both of those choices first.

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

To the right of The Lovers sits the Nine of Swords. Cruelty. This is the card that comes after the Eight of Swords (seen in the centre in the linked picture here), its presence implied in this reading, where the protagonist — you — felt trapped by circumstances, unable to find a way out, when in reality it was simply your mind and its fixation on a particularly narrow set of circumstances that held you in place.

Now, the Nine is the concretisation of your predicament, your indecision and misgivings solidified into barbs and razored edges that you’re wont to turn on yourself. The Nine is regret, pain, anguish, worry.

“Why did I let that happen?”
“What if I’d made a different decision?”
“I knew I’d fuck it up.”

The most painful part of the Nine is not, however, the truth of your circumstances, but the supposed ‘truth’ you buy into without subjecting it to thorough, dispassionate scrutiny. It is also the supposed ‘truth’ you buy into when you’ve forgotten your blood-red heart beating in your chest, and the love that it holds — for yourself, for others.

You don’t need to go there. You’ve been there before and you know what it feels like. This time, you have a choice not to go there. The Lovers lie at centre, choice embodied.

What else can you choose from? To the left of The Lovers lies the Five of Wands. Wands are associated with creative energy, whether that’s artistic, performance-orientated, sexual — anything where you feel that fiery drive in the pit of your belly and an urge to harness and make use of it.

Except with the Five there is a sense of being separated from the truth of what you want and need to create. There is a lack of fully owning and directing your creativity. When the Five of Wands is in activation in your life, something feels like it’s holding you down and back. Nevertheless, the yearning and drive remain. You can do this. There is the potential to break free from the strictures of inertia and ambivalence and come to stand fully by your own side. The Five speaks of the quest to find your inner authority by getting behind your creativity. Who’s going to support what you’re doing if you don’t?

And so there are the two obvious choices: self-denigration to the right of you, disorganisation to the left. Back to the card at centre, which has its own message.

In the Tarot de Marseille, one of the oldest incarnations of the tarot, The Lovers depicts not two people, but three. As does it in the Rider-Waite Smith tarot: the man, the woman, and the angel. Here, in The Röhrig version, we have three hands. The third choice is a creative one that isn’t immediately available if one is stuck in the land of duality. In our world of up-down, in-out, back-forth, masculine-feminine, we tend to forget that we are on a sliding scale of experience. We don’t need to choose between two black-and-white options: looking between the obvious, we find the shades of grey.

The paradox is that duality offers every option under the Sun.

Maybe it is that you find yourself at a point where there are two very familiar roads in front of you. One road is associated with the negative self-talk that has the power to undo what you have worked towards but so far never quite attained. The other road is associated with a lack of cohesive effort to bring to fruition what has been calling you to shape it into existence for — how long, now, dear reader?

Because, make no mistake, there is something beautiful that is present in your life. A balance that creates a third way. You are being watched over by angels as you sleep. Maybe now you can wake up and see what is available to you — what has been available all along. The power and will to step into a version of yourself that has creativity at its core. Your desire to bring something to life, to bring it down to earth, to feel the rush of life through your veins.

It’s not an illusion. You can do it. Time to steer away from what has always felt fatalistic and shift tracks, shift out of familiar patterns, reach for what is there. And take it.

Astrology/Elemental correspondences: Five of Wands (Saturn in Leo), The Lovers (Gemini), Nine of Swords (Mars in Gemini)

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.

5 thoughts on “Weekend Tarot Reading — Sunday, Oct. 4, 2015

  1. GwenGwen

    Thanl you Sarah! This reading really speaks to my current predicament. I have been stuck between a rock and a hard place for far too long now, wondering if that light at the end of the tunnel is the right direction, or the on-coming train! Thank you for reminding me that it is The Creative which needs to be taken off the back burner and brought to a boil! I always look forward to enjoying your insightful wisdom with my Sunday coffee!

  2. P. SophiaP. Sophia

    ((Sarah) . Thank you once again!! Both this, and your last reading have been so aligned with my current being and living the phenomenal gift as you described. I cannot even express in words how this resonated, where i was, when i read that two Sundays ago.

    This week, I love the three hands and your path of conscious interpretation of “angels watching over you while you sleep”. The dreams I have been having the last few night have been literally speaking to me. And I am now following their direction and inspirational intent. Finally allowing for, opening new creative space. Knowing what comes in may not be immediate, but it will. Rearranging the puzzel pieces of what I already have available. I am confident I am now taking my own hand and leading myself in the most purposeful way.

  3. Pisces SunPisces Sun

    Thank you! I can’t help but think “Message from the gods!” Earlier today, I was reminded of this passage by the sufi poet Rumi: You are the unconditioned Spirit trapped in conditions. The Sun in eclipse. There is a light seed grain inside. You fill it with yourself, or it dies.”

    How often we set boundaries on ourselves believing we have only limited choices, our choices our boundless if we allow our creative love-filled source to guide us! Eric posted earlier today about Mercury stationing direct later this week and our personal and collective need to shift our state of consciousness. The only way this can be done is to draw upon our creative source and be willing to stretch our boundaries. It looks like the cosmos may also be conspiring to assist us, and the Tarot cards may be the talisman we need to remind us! The Aries Point (Mermaid embracing the Seal) and its opposite, 1 degree Libra where Mercury will station direct (butterfly pierced with a dart) described by Dane Rudhyar in Sabian Symbols are: potentiality of consciousness (AP) and sudden awakening (Libra). We have choices and pure potential within us to drive our lives to dreams beyond our imagination, as for me, I will shoot for the stars and beyond! Thanks PW for conveying the messages!

  4. DaveDave

    Very well put Sarah. I’m at a place in my life where I can appreciate your comments as well. So thanks for this. I shall consider it at length. And act on it too.

  5. LizzyLizzy

    Thank you so much, dear Sarah. Wonderful, as ever.
    And thank you for your comment, Pisces Sun – especially for this: “The Aries Point (Mermaid embracing the Seal) and its opposite, 1 degree Libra where Mercury will station direct (butterfly pierced with a dart) described by Dane Rudhyar in Sabian Symbols are: potentiality of consciousness (AP) and sudden awakening (Libra). “

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