A full spread.
YOU DREW TEN CARDS:
-
Environment
The Sun
Well-being. Warmth. Security. Peace. Innocence. Optimism. Clear perception of that which was glimpsed in the Star and obscured in the Moon.
Material happiness, fortunate marriage, contentment. Reversed: The same in a lesser sense.
In The Sun we are free. Free of our burdens, our material concerns. We have traveled far since beginning the journey as a Fool, and yet we come to this stop along the way even younger than when we began. That’s because we are young in mind and spirit. Enriched by the past experiences of our lives, we begin a new stage in life on a higher plane, wiser and more confident. We have been reborn many times on this journey. And we will be reborn many times more.
A naked child mounted on a white horse holds a banner aloft. The child rides without saddle or bridle because he represents perfect balance and control between the self-conscious and the unconscious. He seems to have emerged from the walled garden behind him into the glorious sunlight. Four sunflowers, corresponding to the four kingdoms of nature — mineral, vegetable, animal and human — are turned toward the child, signifying that all creation turns to man for its final development.
Creativeness, life forever renewed. Nature, the mother of all growth and life.
Attainment and material happiness. Good marriage and happy reunions. Achievements in art, science and agriculture. Studies completed, liberation; pleasure in the simple life. Reversed: Future plans clouded; possible broken engagement; loss of a valued object unless vigilance is exerted; voided contract.
At the end of the long and dark night will always be the light. Let the sunlight warm you and give you strength to overcome any difficulties that may rise up before you. Wholeness and harmony can be achieved if you can keep the sun in your heart. This is a card of triumph and rewards greater than gold. Reversed: Complete failure, loss of hope. At best only minor success can be attained.
The beginning of a new life in which past difficulties are left behind.
-
Obstacles
King 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.
King: Controlling. Using force and authority to impose one’s will.
The figure calls for no special description; the face is rather dark, suggesting also courage, but somewhat lethargic in tendency. The bull’s head should be noted as a recurrent symbol on his throne. The sign of this suit is represented throughout as engraved or blazoned with the pentagram, typifying the correspondence of the four elements in human nature and that by which they may be governed. Divinatory Meanings: Valour, realizing intelligence, business and normal intellectual aptitude, sometimes mathematical gifts and attainments of this kind; success in these paths. Reversed: Vice, weakness, ugliness, perversity, corruption, peril.
-
Above
Nine of Wands
Staves: Creating. Creative energy. Think of building a house with wooden planks.
Nine: You deserve it. You receive rewards due to your own efforts.
The figure leans upon his staff and has an expectant look, as if awaiting an enemy. Behind are eight other staves erect, in orderly disposition, like a palisade. Divinatory Meanings: The card signifies strength in opposition. If attacked, he will meet the onslaught boldly. With this main significance there are all its possible adjuncts — delay, suspension, adjournment. Reversed: Obstacles, adversity, calamity.
One last test will require you to draw on all your abilities; a final defense, for which you are prepared. The fight is on familiar turf and you will win out in the end, arriving at your destination with your achievement intact.
Reversed: You are being made to deal with something that you aren’t yet ready to face. Your path is blocked. Adversity lies ahead.
-
Below
Nine 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.
Nine: You deserve it. You receive rewards due to your own efforts.
A woman, with a bird upon her wrist, stands amidst a great abundance of grape vines in the garden of a great house. Divinatory Meanings: Prudence, safety, success, accomplishment, certitude, discernment. Reversed: Roguery, deception, voided project, bad faith.
You’ve earned great success and have much to enjoy. Skills honed in business world can help you manage your life overall. Your abilities can take you wherever you want to go; you’re not dependent on others for success. Reversed: Gains have been (or could be) lost. Bad decisions may be at fault. Didn’t pay attention to what others were telling you. Expected yields aren’t forthcoming.
A mature, well-dressed woman stands in her vineyard. There is a manor house in the background. The falcon on her wrist indicates her thoughts are as well controlled as the bird. Divinatory Meaning: Material well-being, accomplishment, prudence, safety. There may be an inheritance from this woman or, if she seems to be the seeker, she will receive more wealth. Wisdom. A life well-organized. Reversed: Roguery, dissipation, voided project, bad faith. Possible loss of home or friendship.
Hard work will bring success.
A material stage has been completed, giving birth to a new one.
-
Ahead
Five of Swords
Swords: Defending. Self-defense and setting boundaries. Think of drawing a line in the sand with a sword point.
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.
A disdainful man looks after two retreating and dejected figures. Their two swords lie upon the ground. He carries two others on his left shoulder, and a third sword is in his right hand, point to earth. He is the master in possession of the field. Divinatory Meanings: Degradation, destruction, reversal, infamy, dishonour, loss. Reversed: The same; burial and obsequies.
All your emphasis is on winning. But victory itself may not be much of a reward. It could even be a loss in the long run. You must think of all the consequences that may arise — especially those who might get hurt, including yourself — before you come out swinging. Reversed: Same as upright, but with stronger emphasis on likely defeat and feelings of pain, loss, and despair that follow.
A man looks scornfully at two dejected figures, whose swords lie upon the ground. He carries two swords on his left shoulder, and a third sword, in his right hand, points to the earth. Storm clouds fill the sky. Divinatory Meaning: Conquest over others through physical strength. May betoken a threat to the subject of the reading. Reversed: Weakness, chance of loss and defeat. Stormy weather ahead.
Further struggles may bring defeat.
-
You
Six of Wands
Staves: Creating. Creative energy. Think of building a house with wooden planks.
Six: Keeping it going.You’ve established a pattern or rhythm which allows things to run smoothly. Things are going well and you’re in a position to be generous with others or even to give up some of your goals for others’ benefit.
A laurelled horseman bears staff adorned with laurel crown; footmen with staves are at his side. Divinatory Meanings: The card has been so designed that it can cover several significations; on the surface, it is a victor triumphing, but it is also great news, such as might be carried in state by the King’s courier; it is expectation crowned with its own desire, the crown of hope, and so forth. Reversed: Apprehension, fear, as of a victorious enemy at the gate, treachery, disloyalty, as of gates being opened to the enemy, etc.
Once again, through hard work, intelligence, and a clear understanding of the objectives, you achieve your goals. You have the drive, ambition, and desire — and a belief in your abilities — that lead to success. But even though you’ve earned your place, you’ll have to work to keep it or someone might take it from you. Victory cannot last forever. Reversed: Victory eludes you. Not strong enough for the challenge. Letting others beat you. Keep trying, you may be successful yet. Need to develop faith in yourself and a desire to win.
-
Others
Queen of Cups
Cups: Interacting. Emotions and relationships of all kinds. Dealing with people. Think of two people toasting each other with wine glasses.
Queen: Encouraging. Getting things done in a calm, understated way. Using persuasion rather than force.
Beautiful, fair, dreamy — as one who sees visions in a cup. Divinatory Meanings: Good, fair woman; honest, devoted woman, who will do service to the Querent; loving intelligence, and hence the gift of vision; success, happiness, pleasure; also wisdom, virtue. Reversed: The accounts vary; good woman; otherwise, distinguished woman but not one to be trusted; perverse woman; vice, dishonour, depravity.
You are protected by love, warmth, and caring. Good time to pursue the creative arts — poetry, music, literature. Open yourself up to new visions, new possibilities. Follow the prompting of your heart. Reversed: Emotions out of control, leading to self-deception, false hopes. Confusion reigns. Caught between the worlds of reality and illusion without knowing which way to turn. Be careful not to fall victim to deception by someone you think shares your best interests.
A queen sits on her throne contemplating an ornate, closed cup, signifying that what it contains of dreams and desires is not to be told abroad. Her throne is surrounded by the waters of the subconscious and is decorated with ondines (water nymphs). Divinatory Meaning: This is a woman with light brown hair and hazel eyes. She is the beloved, the good wife and mother. She has the gift of vision, is poetic and imaginative. She dreams, but also acts out her dreams. Love, happy marriage, vision. Reversed: May be a good woman in some ways but is sometimes perverse. May indicate dishonesty, immorality.
A just, loving and creative woman.
-
Illusions
The Empress
An idealized feminine spirit. One’s home, nation, or land. Nurturing. Protection.
Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of days; the unknown, clandestine; also difficulty, doubt, ignorance. Reversed: Light, truth, the unravelling of involved matters, public rejoicings; according to another reading, vacillation.
-
To Come
The Fool
Foolishness. Nonconformity. Devout. Humor which illuminates a situation. Unexpected good advice.
Folly, mania, extravagance, intoxication, delirium, frenzy, bewrayment. Reversed: Negligence, absence, distribution, carelessness, apathy, nullity, vanity.
Who but a fool would leap headlong into the void, seemingly uncaring about the potential dangers, trials, and challenges that lie ahead? The Fool’s innocence is also his charm and what makes him so attractive. The Fool is untouched by life, but ready for the experience. He represents purity of action. There is no time for analysis or strategy. He doesn’t look behind him. He only looks forward. The Fool needs no encouragement to begin the journey. He does not need to test the water. He’ll find out when he steps in it whether it is warm or cold.
His motives are pure. He seeks to discover. His quest is for life — and he is willing to give it a chance, come what may. The Fool lives to live.
The Fool is a believer in all things, especially the potential that life holds. But ask him to be elaborate, and he’ll smile and say, “Find out for yourself.” His source of knowledge comes from inside. He trusts his instincts — he instinctively “knows”.
The card tells us to take the plunge, follow our heart, listen to the inner call. We are being told to face the risks, even tempt fate. The card also reminds us of the power of our imagination and our dreams. The message is simple: all things are possible. Reversed: A thin line divides the act of The Fool from foolishness. The need to exercise caution, not to charge ahead foolishly. It also could mean that you are holding yourself back, not paying attention to your instincts. You say to yourself, “if in doubt, don’t do it.”
The Fool is depicted as a youth lightly stepping to the edge of a precipice surrounded by lofty mountains. He looks out into the distance; the abyss at his feet holds no terrors for him. A dog barks at his heels. The wand over his shoulder is a symbol of the will, and the wallet contains the stored-up knowledge of universal memory. The rose he carries is white, to indicate freedom from lower forms of desire.
The Fool is about to enter the supreme adventure — that of passing through the gates of experience to reach Divine Wisdom. He is the cosmic Life-Breath, about to descend into the abyss of manifestation. Every man must journey forward and choose between good and evil. If he has no philosophy, he is The Fool. He must pass through the experiences suggested in the remaining 21 cards, to reach in card 21 the climax of cosmic consciousness or Divine Wisdom.
Divinatory Meaning: The subject of the reading faces a choice in life — a choice of vital importance to him. Therefore he must be careful to use all his powers to make the right choice. Reversed: The choice made is likely to be faulty.
Unencumbered and unnumbered. Although the Fool may seem like an innocent, it is one of the most complex and human of all cards, containing as it does the holy innocence of a wise man. But the fool is also a trickster and a charlatan, with all of the human contradictions and problems that we all face every day. The fool is neither male nor female, good nor evil, angel nor devil. It is the symbol of human potential and new beginnings, rising up to meet all new challenges that come to it on its long road. The Fool prefers to look forward to the future rather than dwell in the past. Reversed: Beware of foolish lack of forethought.
Freedom, Great Supply of Energy
The fool has a name, but he does not have a number. He represents the original boundless energy, total freedom, madness, disorder, chaos, or even the fundamental creative urge. The key phrase of The Fool could be “All paths are my path.”
The Fool evokes an enormous burst of energy. Wherever he goes, he brings this vital impulse with him.
This card, an inseminator of energy, will exacerbate, nourish, or despoil the surrounding cards. The Fool is a mirror of The Nameless Arcanum, which could well be his skeleton. The Fool shows us that the capacity to act is also acquired through the initiatory crossing through madness and death.
