A full spread.
YOU DREW TEN CARDS:
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Environment
Ten of Wands
Staves: Creating. Creative energy. Think of building a house with wooden planks.
Ten: Enough already. You’ve attained your goals, but find them unsatisfying. Time to begin something new.
A man oppressed by the weight of the ten staves which he is carrying. Divinatory Meanings: A card of many significances, and some of the readings cannot be harmonised. I set aside that which connects it with honour and good faith. It is oppression simply, but it is also fortune, gain, any kind of success of these things. It is also a card of false-seeming, disguise, perfidy. The place which the figure is approaching may suffer from the rods that he carries. Success is stultified if the Nine of Swords follows, and if it is a question of a law-suit, there will be certain loss. Reversed: Contrarieties, difficulties, intrigues, and their analogies.
You are carrying a heavy load — more than you can handle, more than you really want. Things weigh you down. You must share responsibility with others before continuing. Get rid of what you no longer need.
Reversed: Someone has made you responsible for their problems, or led you astray. You are near collapse.
Having completed its cycle, the Wand divides into two, opening up to make a place for a white axis. In the following stage the next element will be the Ace of Swords. It can symbolize an angelic vision of sexuality; energy no longer circulates inside or outside but crystallizes like an androgynous diamond and becomes pure spirit. The individual is no longer in the sexual or creative domain and has passed on to other interests: for example, an artist who has become a teacher, a person who has discovered a vocation as a healer. The negative aspects include bitterness, the uprooting of reality, a lack of faith in life, the painful surrender of power through a loss of energy, or a failure.
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Obstacles
Eight 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.
Eight: The efficiency expert. Through the use of discipline and structure, you reach peak efficiency.
An artist in stone at work. Divinatory Meanings: Work, employment, commission, craftsmanship, skill in craft and business. Reversed: Voided ambition, vanity, cupidity, exaction, usury.
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Above
Nine of Cups
Cups: Interacting. Emotions and relationships of all kinds. Dealing with people. Think of two people toasting each other with wine glasses.
Nine: You deserve it. You receive rewards due to your own efforts.
The goodly personage is feasting to his heart’s content, and abundant refreshment of wine is on the arched counter behind him. Divinatory Meanings: Concord, contentment, physical bien-etre; also victory, success, advantage; satisfaction for the Querent or person for whom the consultation is made. Reversed: Truth, loyalty, liberty; but the readings vary and include mistakes, imperfections, etc.
There’s a place in our lives for material satisfaction, as well as spiritual happiness. Life should be enjoyed for its earthly pleasures, too. We should take steps to ensure our physical as well as mental well-being. Reversed: What at first seemed like happiness leaves you feeling empty and unfulfilled. Spending too much time enjoying the sensual pleasures at the expense of spiritual growth and development. Living life in the shadow of false values.
For the first time in the series, leaves are turning down as if wilting. It is the end of flowering, the autumn of the heart; a period of mourning is required so that a new dimension of love can appear. This is a stage of wisdom where we accept the end of an emotional cycle and let go of what has already been lived. This sacrifice presumes a profound love of humanity present in each being, a detachment, a denial, produced by conscious love. Negative aspects are all states of emotional crisis, nostalgia, unwanted solitude, fear of lack, and despair.
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Below
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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Behind
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.
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Ahead
The Devil
An unexpected, last-minute challenge or temptation. Unbridled passion. Gross sensuality. Greed. Materialism. Unreason.
Ravage, violence, vehemence, extraordinary efforts, force, fatality; that which is predestined but not for this reason evil. Reversed: Evil fatality, weakness, pettiness, blindness.
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You
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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Others
Five of Cups
Cups: Interacting. Emotions and relationships of all kinds. Dealing with people. Think of two people toasting each other with wine glasses.
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 dark, cloaked figure, looking sideways at three prone cups; two others stand upright behind him; a bridge is in the background, leading to a small keep or holding. Divinatory Meanings: It is a card of loss, but something remains over; three have been taken, but two are left; it is a card of inheritance, patrimony, transmission, but not corresponding to expectations; with some it is a card of marriage, but not without bitterness or frustration. Reversed: News, alliances, affinity, consanguinity, ancestry, return, false projects.
Unhappy endings, broken relationships. Time to pick up the pieces and start building again. See what you can learn from your losses. Turn your back on the past and look to the future. What’s gone is gone. Hold on to what you have, no matter how little it is. Reversed: Although a loss has been suffered, there’s no reason to feel hopeless about the future. Things will start looking up again. An old friend may hold the key.
A mysterious figure in a dark cloak looks at three fallen cups, while two others stand upright behind him. In the background, a bridge leads to a small castle. Divinatory Meaning: Vain regret, loss, but with something left over. Inheritance, patrimony, but not up to one’s expectations. Can mean marriage, but may carry with it bitterness and frustration. Rejection of pleasure. Reversed: Hopeful expectations, a new alliance, return of an old friend.
Love gone astray, loss, need for reassessment.
The Five represents a temptation, an aspiration, a bridge, a transition toward a new world, but one that keeps part of its activity based in the old world.
We turn our hearts toward God, yet without scorning human affections.
Here the central cup decorated by glorious flowers marks the emergence of new feelings that can even go as far as fanaticism. It is the discovery of faith, a euphoria that carries us toward a higher being or someone we view as such. It is also the first time the heart opens to a solution that may be good for humanity. The negative aspects can be blind trust in any guide, an emotional imbalance, as well as lack of faith, disappointment, and bitterness.
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Illusions
The Magician
I – The Magician. Tricking or taking advantage of others, or you are the one being tricked. Thriving outside society’s norms; “beating the system”. Physical or mental dexterity. Travel.
Skill, diplomacy, address; sickness, pain, loss, disaster; self-confidence, will; the Querent, if male. Reversed: Physician, Magus, mental disease, disgrace, disquiet.
The Magician is one of the most practical of the Tarot symbols. He represents the powers we each possess to create meaning and purpose in our lives. With one hand pointed to the heavens, the other pointing downward, The Magician tells us that this creative power resides both within and outside ourselves — but always within reach. The Magician seems to be saying, “Open yourself to the forces surrounding you, the life-giving powers, the powers of creation — draw them to yourself, transform yourself into whatever you wish to be.” Reversed: You are blocking your creative energies. Or you are afraid to experiment, to try new things. Your self-confidence is lacking because you are unsure of yourself. At the same time, the card could be telling you not to be so self-assured, that what worked once may not be right this time.
The Magician has above his head the cosmic lemniscate shaped like a figure 8 on its side, symbol of eternal life. Above his waist is a serpent devouring its own tail — a well-known symbol of eternity. In his right hand is a wand raised toward heaven, while his left hand points to the earth. He is drawing power from above and directing it into manifestation. On the table are the symbols of the four suits of the Minor Arcana, signifying the natural elements of life: air, fire, water and earth. Roses and lilies in the garden about him show the cultivation of desires. He represents the personal will in its union with the Divine, which then has the knowledge and power to bring things into manifestation through conscious self-awareness. Divinatory Meaning: Will, mastery, skill, occult wisdom, power, diplomacy. The ability to take power from above and direct it through desire into manifestation. Reversed: The use of power for destructive ends. Weakness, indecision.
This card is only one step away from the Fool. It relates more to a stage magician or entertainer than a character of high holy magic — more like just another trickster you might meet along the way. This is a fortunate draw because it suggests progress, moving forward in your life towards success. It also tells of a deeper, worldly understanding of your environment. This card suggests that a decision needs to be made with confidence, but that it should be well thought out. Reversed Meaning: Beware of hesitation or unwillingness to confront reality.
Beginning and Choosing
The Magician bears the number one. This figure contains the whole in potential; it is like the original point from which a universe emerges. For The Magician all is possible.
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To Come
Page of Wands
Staves: Creating. Creative energy. Think of building a house with wooden planks.
Knave: Learning. Curiosity. Becoming interested.
A young man stands in the act of proclamation. He is unknown but faithful, and his tidings are strange. Divinatory Meanings: Dark young man, faithful, a lover, an envoy, a postman. Beside a man, he will bear favourable testimony concerning him. A dangerous rival, if followed by the Page of Cups. Has the chief qualities of his suit. Reversed: Anecdotes, announcements, evil news. Also indecision and the instability which accompanies it.