A full spread.
YOU DREW TEN CARDS:
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Environment
Three of Cups
Cups: Interacting. Emotions and relationships of all kinds. Dealing with people. Think of two people toasting each other with wine glasses.
Three: Having a plan. Formulating a strategy to accomplish a goal.
Maidens in a garden ground with cups uplifted, as if pledging one another. Divinatory Meanings: The conclusion of any matter in plenty, perfection and merriment; happy issue, victory, fulfillment, solace, healing. Reversed: Expedition, dispatch, achievement, end.
Time to celebrate your accomplishments, reap the happiness you’ve achieved. Happiness in family relationships, friendships, work. A sense of joy envelops all you do. The cup of life tastes sweet. Reversed: Anything enjoyed to excess can lose its value or worth. There’s a price to pay for overindulgence. Happiness turns to sadness, joy to sorrow, pleasure to pain. Emphasis on the sensual instead of the spiritual.
Three maidens in flowing robes raise high their cups in a place of flowering fruits and foliage. They are pledging friendship. Divinatory Meaning: Conclusion of a matter in plenty, perfection and gayety. Happy issue, victory, liberality, abundance. A healing to come. Reversed: Excess of physical enjoyment and pleasure in the senses.
Exuberance and joy, love abounds.
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Obstacles
The Pope
Spiritual wisdom and authority. Orthodoxy. Petitioning another for help, or someone is petitioning you. A person who deserves respect and, at the same time, wariness.
Marriage alliance, captivity, servitude; by another account, mercy and goodness; inspiration; the man to whom the Querent has recourse. Reversed: Society, good understanding, concord, over-kindness, weakness.
The Heirophant is the link between God and man — the high priest on earth. His are the ways of tradition. He is our spiritual guide who transcends the material world.
The master of the sacred mysteries wears the triple crown of a pope, signifying the creative, formative, and material worlds. He holds a sceptre terminating in a triple cross. At his feet are crossed keys, a gold one for solar energy and a silver one for the unseen forces of the moon. The two tonsured priests kneeling before him again indicate duality, for one garment is decorated with the white lilies of spiritual thought and the other with the red roses of desire. He may represent the Pope, but more likely the idea of a pontiff who is master to the masses. He is the ruling power of external religion, whereas the High Priestess teaches only in secret to initiates. Divinatory Meaning: Preference for the outer forms of religion. The need to conform, to be socially approved. Reversed: Unconventionality, unorthodoxy, openness to new ideas in any field. Danger of becoming superstitious. Can be the card of the inventor as well as the crackpot.
This card speaks of a spiritual rather than a worldly power and authority. The priest offers wisdom and rational knowledge, creative intelligence and inspiring perceptions. You are gaining insight and a stable understanding of your life and surroundings. This knowledge is not necessarily a religious one, but rather a profound and sensible understanding. The High Priest in this card may symbolize an influential friend, adviser or teacher. Reversed: Beware of lies and misleading information.
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Above
Five of Pentacles
Coins: Obtaining. Providing for yourself. Establishing a comfort zone. Taking risks with resources. Think of the thoughts and feelings you experience when you buy a lottery ticket.
Five: Challenging yourself. A monkey wrench. Things don’t go as expected and you’re challenged to grow. Or you may be deliberately challenging yourself.
Two mendicants in a snowstorm pass a lighted casement. Divinatory Meanings: It foretells material trouble above all, whether in the form illustrated – that is, destitution – or otherwise. For some cartomancists, it is a card of love and lovers – wife, husband, friend, mistress; also concordance, affinities. These alternatives cannot be harmonised. Reversed: Disorder, chaos, ruin, discord, profligacy.
A destitute couple pass under a lighted window. The unfortunates in outer darkness have not yet realized the inner light. Note that the Fives of each suit are negative cards. Divinatory Meaning: Material trouble, loneliness, destitution, spiritual impoverishment. Could mean unemployment, loss of home. Dark night of the soul. Reversed: Money regained, new employment, good companionship, new interest in business or spiritual matters.
The Pentacles deal with money, finance, business, prosperity and security.
Five of Pentacles: Ruin, financial collapse.
In the heart of stability a new interest is opening connected to a spiritual, planetary, or cosmic dimension. The negative dimension can be a reversal of fortune, a bad doctor, a descent into drugs or alcohol, a venal financial advisor, a swindler, an unscrupulous industrialist, a stock exchange crash, or nervous depression.
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Below
Queen of Pentacles
Coins: Obtaining. Providing for yourself. Establishing a comfort zone. Taking risks with resources. Think of the thoughts and feelings you experience when you buy a lottery ticket.
Queen: Encouraging. Getting things done in a calm, understated way. Using persuasion rather than force.
The face suggests that of a dark woman, whose qualities might be summed up in the idea of greatness of soul; she has also the serious cast of intelligence; she contemplates her symbol and may see worlds therein. Divinatory Meanings: Opulence, generosity, magnificence, security, liberty. Reversed: Evil, suspicion, suspense, fear, mistrust.
Time to enjoy what you’ve earned. Rest secure in the knowledge that your wealth, material comforts will continue to flower as long as you stay at it and apply your creative powers to tasks at hand. Reversed: Not taking care of business or acting responsibly where your financial affairs are concerned. Depending on others to help you. This kind of behavior can cost you security and independence.
A queen sits on her throne, which is covered with symbols of fruitfulness — cupids, goats, ripe fruit. A rabbit is in the foreground and a bower of roses is above her. She contemplates a pentacle which she holds in her lap. Divinatory Meaning: A woman with black hair and black eyes. She is intelligent and thoughtful, a creator on the physical plane. She uses her talents well. Generosity, opulence, security, freedom from material lack. Reversed: Duties neglected, dependence on others. Suspicion, fear of failure and lack. Mistrust of those close to the seeker.
A wealthy, generous woman.
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Behind
Ace of Wands
Staves: Creating. Creative energy. Think of building a house with wooden planks.
Ace: There’s a first time for everything. Beginnings. A seed that will grow.
A hand issuing from a cloud grasps a stout Wand or Club. Divinatory Meanings: Creation, invention, enterprise, the powers which result in these; principle, beginning, source; birth, family, origin; the beginning of enterprises; according to another account, money, fortune, inheritance. Reversed: Fall, decadence, ruin, perdition, to perish; also — not unclouded joy.
New beginnings. The birth of an idea that leads to action. The start of an enterprise or new challenges. You are filled with a sense of optimism, eagerness, enthusiasm, excitement, and boundless energy. You can sense the potential. You are looking forward to what’s ahead. Reversed: Difficulty in getting something started. False hopes. Misdirected energy. You are lacking motivation, ambition, or drive to face the challenges. You don’t want to attempt anything new.
A hand comes out from a cloud holding a flowering wand. In the distance is a mountain peak surmounted by a castle. Divinatory Meaning: The beginning of an enterprise, creation or invention. A birth, the starting of a family or of a fortune, possibly an inheritance. Reversed: The new enterprise may not materialize. Clouded joy, false starts.
Fresh starts bring spiritual awakening.
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Ahead
The World
The spirit which permeates and connects all living beings. Learning something by direct experience. Feeling connected to others. Seeing other living beings as sacred. Finding permanence in an impermanent world.
Assured success, voyage, route, emigration, flight, change of place. Reversed: Inertia, fixity, stagnation, permanence.
The final stage, a circular mandala symbolizing achievement, jubilation and culmination of a well-lived life. Just as the world is round, the cards of the major arcana can be seen as a circle, beginning with the fool and ending with the world. A new circle will begin on a higher plane with a greater goal. Reversed: Ultimate failure as opposed to ultimate success. A bleak future, no hope of progress.
A wreath of leaves surrounds the dancer, who holds in each hand a magic wand. The four corners of the card show the four animals of Ezekiel and the Apocalypse. This is a slightly different version from that in Key #10. The wreath symbolizes Nature on her regular course, and also the crown of the initiate, which is given to those who master the four guardians and thus enter into the presence of unveiled Truth. The dancer represents the final attainment of man, the merging of the self-conscious with the subconscious and blending these two with superconsciousness. This card implies the state of cosmic consciousness, the final goal to which all the other cards have led. Divinatory Meaning: Completion, reward, assured success. Triumph in all undertakings. Arrival at the state of cosmic consciousness. Can mean also movement in one’s affairs, travel. Reversed: Fear of change. Earthbound spirit attached to one place or profession. Sloth and stubbornness. Refusal to learn the lessons of life as shown in the other cards.
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You
XIII
XIII – Death. Something has come to an end; it will only continue in a new form. Our shortsighted view of life as unchanging is challenged. A warning against hubris: you too can be brought low by natural forces.
End, mortality, destruction, corruption. Reversed: Inertia, sleep, lethargy, petrifaction, somnambulism.
The Death card strikes fear in the hearts of most people when it should be welcomed. It is not an evil card. It is a card of change, of transformation. It is the darkness that precedes the light, the death that is necessary for rebirth to take place. It is another turn on the Wheel of Life. Death and life go hand in hand. Both are linked as part of the eternal process. Life ends in death. And from death comes new beginnings. Where The Hanged Man represents a suspension between two states, death symbolizes the end of the old and the start of something new. Death tells us to be open to new adventures about to begin. Reversed: Fear of change, especially the future. Clinging to old ideas or values that are no longer relevant. Not a good time to make the break. Stop grieving for the old ways or what you’ve lost.
The mysterious horseman, Death, rides a well-bridled horse, and moves slowly across a field. He bears a black banner emblazoned with the mystic rose, which signifies life. On the edge of the horizon, the sun shines between two towers. All are powerless before the rider — king, child, girl, fall prostrate before him, while a priest awaits his coming with clasped hands. The card represents the death of the old self — not necessarily physical death. The sloughing off of fleshly desires. He who realizes that death must be conquered by the regeneration of the soul is on the way to attaining eternal life. Divinatory Meaning: Transformation, change. Sometimes destruction followed or preceded by transformation. The change may be in the form of consciousness. Sometimes it may mean birth and renewal. Reversed: Temporary stagnation, tendency to inertia.
This is not as ominous as it seems despite the title and image. Whatever card came before it will be strengthened by this card. To continue to grow in the future, sometimes the only way is to lay the past to rest in some sense. Then your soul can be reborn. You can expect a strong spiritual rebirth. Any setback that you may be going through at this time can bring you a new understanding and new hope. Reversed: Foresees distraction without renewal.
“Permanent impermanence, I am the secret of the sages: they know they can only advance on my path. Those who incorporate me become powerful minds. Those who deny me, seeking vainly to escape, lose the delights of the ephemeral. My permanent destruction opens the way to constant creation.”
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Others
Eight of Wands
Staves: Creating. Creative energy. Think of building a house with wooden planks.
Eight: The efficiency expert. Through the use of discipline and structure, you reach peak efficiency.
The card represents motion through the immovable — a flight of wands through an open country. Divinatory Meanings: Activity in undertakings, the path of such activity, swiftness, as that of an express messenger; great haste, great hope, speed towards an end which promises assured felicity; generally, that which is on the move; also the arrows of love. Reversed: Arrows of jealousy, internal dispute, stingings of conscience, quarrels.
Things are moving fast, bringing you closer to your goal. Results are coming in quickly — and you must keep things in order. Sometimes indicates a journey. Reversed: You can’t handle the pace. Things are stacking up against you. Events may overtake you. Life is passing you by while you stand still.
A flight of wands is shown passing through open country; they seem to be coming to the end of their course. Divinatory Meaning: Haste, hope, movement in affairs. The arrows of love, messages, letters, journey by air. Reversed: Arrows of jealousy, quarrels, domestic disputes.
Confidence brings success.
The perfection in this center is displayed by extreme concentration, things reduced to their essentials, represented by the two cut flowers. Creativity has become extremely focused: this is the perfection of someone who knows how to draw a circle in a single line. In sexuality, we reach sublimation, pure creative energy, orgasm. Power becomes non-violence, the ideal of the martial arts: combat without combat. Authority emanates from the individual and imposes itself without a gesture. In this state of extreme contemplation, effort no longer exists, and we are tireless. If this card should have a negative side, it would be paralysis, the stopping of all movement, an extreme perfectionism bordering on asphyxiation.
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Illusions
Page of Pentacles
Coins: Obtaining. Providing for yourself. Establishing a comfort zone. Taking risks with resources. Think of the thoughts and feelings you experience when you buy a lottery ticket.
Knave: Learning. Curiosity. Becoming interested.
A youthful figure, looking intently at the pentacle which hovers over his raised hands. Divinatory Meanings: Application, study scholarship, reflection; another reading says news, messages and the bringer thereof; also rule, management. Reversed: Prodigality, dissipation, liberality, luxury; unfavourable news.
Approach new projects with a schoolboy’s wonder and enthusiasm. Study hard, apply what you learn and you’ll reap positive rewards. Seek out solid, well-researched information before making any moves.
Reversed: Not using your intelligence to guide you. Your actions bespeak of ignorance, closed-mindedness. Should listen to the advice of others, learn from their experience. Don’t allow your nonconformity to lead to difficulties, losses.
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To Come
Justice
Justice: Fairness. Impartiality. The institution of justice, i.e. the judicial system, courts, lawsuits, judges, lawyers, etc. Judging someone’s deeds. Being judged by others.
If a balance in your life has been reached, success cannot be too far behind. Sound judgement and awareness are called for here. Complete triumph of the spirit is impossible unless you tap into your soul and mind. Only then will material success be within your grasp. This card means that you may be judged for your actions in the world soon. This may be positive or negative — it depends whether or not you’re found wanting. Reversed Meaning: Injustice, harsh or unfair judgment by others.
Fulfillment, balance, perfection; not synonymous with symmetry.
Strength: Power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity. Reversed: Despotism, abuse of power, weakness, discord.
A woman over whose head we see the cosmic lemniscate, symbol of eternal life, the same as that shown in the card of the Magician. She is shown confidently closing the lion’s mouth. Around her waist is a chain of roses — the union of desires which creates such strength that wild, unconscious force bows before it. For a consciousness that is aware of the sign of Eternity above it, there are no obstacles, nor can there be any resistance. Divinatory Meaning: Spiritual power overcomes material power. The triumph of love over hate, the higher nature over carnal desires. Reversed: The abuse of power, the domination of the material, discord. This card suggests the need for meditation as a help in controlling the animal passions.