A full spread.
YOU DREW TEN CARDS:
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Environment
Ten of Cups
Cups: Interacting. Emotions and relationships of all kinds. Dealing with people. Think of two people toasting each other with wine glasses.
Ten: Enough already. You’ve attained your goals, but find them unsatisfying. Time to begin something new.
Appearance of Cups in a rainbow; it is contemplated in wonder and ecstasy by a man and woman below, evidently husband and wife. His right arm is about her; his left raised upward; she raises her right arm. The two children dancing near them have not observed the prodigy, but are happy after their own manner. There is a home scene beyond.
Divinatory Meanings: Contentment, repose of the entire heart; the perfection of that state; if with several picture-cards, a person who is taking charge of the Querent’s interests; also the town, village or country inhabited by the Querent. Reversed: Repose of the false heart, indignation, violence.
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Obstacles
The Star
The first step in a search for truth. A hint of a larger truth which has yet to be perceived in full. Reconciling opposites by dissolving their individual identities.
Loss, theft, privation, abandonment; another reading says — hope and bright prospects. Reversed: Arrogance, haughtiness, impotence.
The Star is a card of calm and peacefulness. Hope and joy. Comforts and pleasure. Things feel good. There is order in nature once again. We can rest and reflect and turn our gaze to the heavens. The Star will guide us to our destination when we are ready to begin journeying again. The Star will illuminate the path for us. It will also protect us under the night sky.
The Star is another card of personal reflection, meditation, and contemplation. It’s a reminder to turn our gaze inward and be guided by an inner light; to trust ourselves and our intuitions. We’ve come so far, learned so much, at last we are becoming enlightened.
The card also tells us to be at peace with ourselves, be true to ourselves, and bring love into our lives. The card encourages us to feel good about ourselves.
On a spiritual level, The Star is our link to the higher plane. It tells us to open our minds and let the light shine in. To grow in spirit, awareness, and knowledge and to apply all we learn in pursuit of even higher knowledge.
Reversed: Eyes closed to future possibilities. Gaze focused downward instead of up to the heavens. Feelings of insecurity and disquiet. Need to latch onto your dreams again.
An eight-pointed star signifying radiant cosmic energy and surrounded by seven smaller stars, radiates solar energy on the young girl kneeling on the land, her right foot upon the water. She pours the Waters of Life impartially from two ewers into the pool of universal consciousness and onto the earth — which represents matter. The bird is the soul resting in the tree of life.
The Maiden is eternal youth and beauty. She is Mother Nature and is identified with the Empress and the High Priestess, as well as with the woman in Key #8 who tames the lion. The card represents the Waters of Life flowing freely and perpetually renewing creation.
Divinatory Meaning: Hope, courage, inspiration. No destruction is final. Unselfish aid will be given. Good health. Spiritual love. Reversed: Stubbornness, pessimism, doubt.
A card of good fortune and hope, regeneration and recovery after a long period of adversity. Like the promise of each new dawn, another and better day is upon us. You can now find enlightenment in the future and belief once again in your dreams. Reversed: Warns against becoming blinded by the light. Take care since all that glitters is not gold.
To act in the world, to find your place.
The Star represents a stage in which an individual finds his or her rightful place to act in the world ina way that will embellish and nourish it from the spot the individual has made his or her own. It sometimes prompts us to not decide between apparently irreconcilable options but to conciliate the two. This card is traditionally seen as a sign of luck, prosperity, fertility. It symbolizes generous action. It is also associated with divine love, hope, and truth (which emerges from the well completely naked). It represents a creative realization that presumes its author has found his rightful place.
The Star’s conscious and generous relationship with Nature points the way to ecology, shamanism, and all the beliefs that take the planet as a living being into account. If The Star is spilling her jars into the past or into emptiness, we will need to ask why she is wasting her energy this way and what unresolved knot is indicated.
“In the infinite multiplicity of beings and things, I have found my place — in the world and in myself, for it is the same thing. I no longer need to keep looking, I no longer hold any image of myself; I am in my rightful place. Here and everywhere I am attached by my own choice.”
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Above
Seven of Wands
Staves: Creating. Creative energy. Think of building a house with wooden planks.
Seven: Going deeper. You become aware of deeper levels of meaning and hidden motivations. You’re no longer satisfied with superficial answers.
A young man on a craggy eminence, brandishing a staff; six other staves are raised towards him from below. Divinatory Meanings: It is a card of valour, for, on the surface, six are attacking one, who has, however, the vantage position. On the intellectual plane, it signifies discussion, wordy strife; in business– negotiations, war of trade, barter, competition. It is further a card of success, for the combatant is on the top and his enemies may be unable to reach him. Reversed: Perplexity, embarrassments, anxiety.
You are facing adversity and challenge — and still holding your ground. You must draw on your inner strength and personal faith to deal with this latest challenge. Something is coming to a head. An unexpected confrontation looms on the horizon, yet you are not afraid. Reversed: Not willing to confront your problems. Would prefer to turn and run. Feeling a sense of anxiety. Uncomfortable about what’s ahead. Disturbed by choices facing you. Lacking willpower.
A young man on a rocky hill grasps a flowering wand. Six others rise up against him. In Queen Elizabeth I’s time, men fought in this manner. Divinatory Meaning: Man holding his own against adversaries. Strife, stiff competition in business, war or trade; success against opposition; courage in the face of difficulties. Reversed: Perplexity, embarrassment, anxiety. This card is also a caution against indecision.
Today’s problems lead to future.
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Below
The Emperor
Stability, power, protection; a great person; aid, reason, conviction. Reversed: Benevolence, compassion, credit; also confusion to enemies, obstruction, immaturity.
Material power and authority. Safety and security. A reminder that even the mighty will fall. The necessity for earthly power to work in tandem with spiritual values. The fate of one’s kingdom, whether it be a nation, an office, or a home, depends on the spiritual state of its ruler.
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Behind
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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Ahead
Knight 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.
Knight: Focusing. Single-mindedness. Determination.
He rides a slow, enduring, heavy horse, to which his own aspect corresponds. Divinatory Meanings: Utility, serviceableness, interest, responsibility, rectitude. Reversed: Inertia, idleness, repose of that kind, stagnation; also placidity, discouragement, carelessness.
Hard work produces desired results. Stay on the path, don’t deviate. Outline your goals ahead of time, then make a plan for achieving them. Don’t leave things up to chance. Choose tasks in keeping with your abilities. Reversed: Impatience will lead to failure. Be careful not to go in too many directions at the same time. Not applying yourself as you should. Don’t narrow your pursuits so that you exclude opportunities as they arise.
A knight rides a heavily caparisoned horse through a freshly plowed field. He balances the pentacle symbol carefully, as if he were displaying it but not really looking at it. Divinatory Meaning: A black-haired, black-eyed young man, materialistic, methodical. Card betokens utility, serviceableness, patience, laborious toil, responsibility. May represent the coming or going of a matter. Reversed: Inertia, idleness, stagnation. A young man of careless habit.
A trustworthy friend.
“Matter has been spiritualized. It has become fertile and is the mother of eternal life. We have vanquished death. I am ready to undergo endless changes knowing that within my profound essence, there is an immutable core. This is what will give origin to the new riches of the Earth that will take on concrete form in the Wand. I am already carrying in my right hand the beginning of a new cycle of activity, a creative wand.”
Wand in hand and astride a receptive blue mount, this knight is advancing through a countryside lit by a star in the form of a pentacle. He represents the act of going beyond matter into creativity, a culmination that opens new horizons. He is also someone wealthy enough to create something new or a new purpose beyond material considerations. In the strict sense, the Knight of Pentacles can represent a journey or a move; in this instance a quest connected to the body, creativity and one’s place in the world.
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You
Knight of Cups
Cups: Interacting. Emotions and relationships of all kinds. Dealing with people. Think of two people toasting each other with wine glasses.
Knight: Focusing. Single-mindedness. Determination.
Graceful, but not warlike; riding quietly, wearing a winged helmet, referring to the higher graces of the imagination which sometimes characterise this card. Divinatory Meanings: Arrival, approach — sometimes that of a messenger; advances, proposition, demeanour, invitation, incitement. Reversed: Trickery, artifice, subtlety, swindling, duplicity, fraud.
Following your dreams or traveling down your intuitive path could lead to fulfillment and satisfaction. A time for mental stimulation. Live your vision. Reversed: Lost in a world of dreams, cut off from reality. Motives are insincere. Be on guard against duplicity, fraud, or trickery. Someone may tell you what you want to hear just to get the better of you.
A knight riding quietly and wearing a winged helmet, symbol of imagination. He is contemplative, not warlike; he bears his cup firmly as the horse prepares to cross the stream and approach the distant peaks. Divinatory Meaning: A young man with light brown hair and hazel eyes, of high intelligence and romantic dreams. Love may come from him to the subject of the reading. He may also be the bearer of messages. May indicate advances, a proposition or an invitation. Reversed: Propositions should be carefully looked into. There may be subtlety, fraud, trickery, rivalry.
A bright, cheery youth, possibly a lover.
The way of love has reached its conclusion: it will now become a concrete force.
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Others
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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Illusions
Strength
Strength. Inner strength. Fortitude and resoluteness. Avoidance of distraction and temptation.
This signifies the need to face new developments with courage, fortitude and moral fiber. The card implies setbacks and difficulties to overcome. You will need an inner strength and resources to overcome these adversities. Reversed: You will not be able to overcome your obstacles due to your lack of moral and spiritual strength.
Creative Beginning, New Energy
Justice. Equity, rightness, probity, executive. Reversed: Law in all departments, bigotry, bias, excessive severity.
The Justice card is about bringing balance and harmony into our lives and what happens when we don’t.
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To Come
The Lovers
Love and attraction as forces which overpower rationality and social mores. Romantic triangles and complications. Sensual motives underlying seemingly virtous actions. Choice. Choosing goodness over sensual satisfaction. A marriage or committed relationship. Creating a formal mechanism by which two energies can be combined.
Attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome. Reversed: Failure, foolish designs.
On its simplest level, The Lovers represents the act of union between the male and female spirits. Man and woman together are a potent creative force.
On another level, the card speaks to the next stage of a development — the point at which we move forward to begin building for the future with another.
A third meaning relates the male and female sides to a personality that exists within each of us — men and women alike. The male side represents the intellect, which is linked to the outer world, through conscious thought and reason, whereas the female is our connection to our unconscious self.
The card also acknowledges the emergence of sexuality within each of us — a change in our physical bodies and emotional and intellectual framework that both separates man from woman and at the same time creates the dynamic tension that draws us together. Similar tensions exist within ourselves as we try to live in both the external and unconscious worlds simultaneously.
Divinatory meaning: Choice between diverse allurements; the struggle between sacred and profane love. Attraction, beauty, harmony of the inner and outer life. The power of choice means responsibility. Reversed: Parental interference, danger of marriage breaking up, quarrels over children. The possibility of wrong choice.
This is the card of your emotional life with its ups and downs; it suggests conflicts of the flesh as opposed to those of the spirit. It also points to a good relationship or marriage and flows over into the making of positive decisions in your life. Reversed: A wrong choice will be made. Sexual infidelity may rear its ugly head, and you may be in for sexual difficulties as well.
Union, Emotional Life
“I am the sun of the Arcanum, the white sun: almost invisible but casting my light upon all the figures. I am this star: the joy of existing and the joy that the Other exists. I live in ecstasy. Everything fills me with happiness: nature, the entire universe, the existence of the Other in all its forms — the Other who is none other than me.”
“I am the awareness that shines like a bright living star in the center of your heart. I renew myself at every moment; at each instant I am being born. At your every heartbeat I am uniting you with the entire universe. It is from me that come the infinite connections joining you to all creation. Ah, the pleasure of living! Ah, the pleasure of becoming one! Ah, the pleasure of doing what I love! Messenger of the permanent impermanence, I am reborn every second. I am like a newborn archer launching arrows at everything his senses can capture.”
“I am not kindness; I am not ambition for well-being or triumph. I am unconditional love. I will teach you how to live in wonder, recognition, and joy.”