A full spread.
YOU DREW TEN CARDS:
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Environment
Four of Wands
Staves: Creating. Creative energy. Think of building a house with wooden planks.
Four: Making it happen. Your efforts result in concrete manifestation. Initial success.
From the four great staves planted in the foreground there is a great garland suspended; two female figures uplift nosegays; at their side is a bridge over a moat, leading to an old manorial house. Divinatory Meanings: They are for once almost on the surface — country life, repose, concord, harmony, prosperity, peace, and the perfected work of these. Reversed: The meaning remains unaltered; it is prosperity, increase, felicity, beauty, embellishment.
Your accomplishments leave you feeling satisfied. Because your goals have been achieved, you feel a sense of peace, security, and happiness. You can take time to rest, relax, enjoy, and count your blessings. There’s a feeling of harmony in the air. Reversed: The same as upright, but with somewhat less intensity.
A garland is hung from the tops of four flowering wands; two maidens lift up bouquets of flowers; near them is a bridge over a moat, leading to an old castle. Divinatory Meaning: The coming of romance, harmony, prosperity, peace. The bounty of the harvest home, perfected work, haven of refuge. Reversed: Here the meaning remains unaltered; it is still prosperity, increase and bounty, but in lesser degree.
Unexpected wealth brings popularity.
Desire has become reality. The work of the artist enters the world and enjoys success.
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Obstacles
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.
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Above
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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Below
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.
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Behind
Queen of Swords
Swords: Defending. Self-defense and setting boundaries. Think of drawing a line in the sand with a sword point.
Queen: Encouraging. Getting things done in a calm, understated way. Using persuasion rather than force.
Her right hand raises the weapon vertically and the hilt rests on an arm of her royal chair; the left hand is extended, the arm raised; her countenance is severe, chastened, and suggests familiarity with sorrow. Divinatory Meanings: Widowhood, female sadness and embarrassment, absence, sterility, mourning, privation, separation. Reversed: Malice, bigotry, artifice, prudery, deceit.
Learn to rely on your mind; hone your intellectual abilities. Learn to see both sides of an issue, analyze carefully, free from emotions before deciding which action to take. Reversed: Don’t look at things from a narrow perspective. Don’t shut yourself off from the truth by closing your ears to other points of view.
A queen seated on a throne looks out over a cloud-filled landscape. Her right hand raises a sword whose hilt rests on the arm of her throne. She looks sorrowful and grave. (Note the storm clouds in all the Court cards of the Swords.) Divinatory Meaning: A dark-haired, brown-eyed woman, subtle, keen and quick-witted. May signify widowhood, sterility, privation, separation, acquaintance with sadness. The sword of spirit penetrating matter and informing it. Reversed: A woman of artifice, prudery. May betoken narrow-mindedness, intolerance, bigotry.
A sharp, clever, highly qualified woman who demands respect will offer advice.
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Ahead
Seven 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.
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, leaning on his staff, looks intently at seven pentacles attached to a clump of greenery on his right; one would say that these were his treasures and that his heart was there. Divinatory Meanings: These are exceedingly contradictory; in the main, it is a card of money, business, barter; but one reading gives altercation, quarrel; and another innocence, ingenuity, purgation. Reversed: Anxiety about money.
You have a lot to show for your efforts, but you are not sure if your achievements are what you want. Weighing your options about the future. Also, taking a moment to reflect on your gains. Reversed: Difficult choices facing you about finances. In doubt about which way to turn. Afraid wrong choices could lead to loss or debts. Be careful not to make rash decisions. You want to abandon project, undertaking.
A strong young farmer leans on his hoe as he watches his crops growing. Is he indolent or just contemplative? Divinatory Meaning: Pause during the development of an enterprise. Possibly a stalemate with more energy needed before it can proceed. Growth or material possessions without effort. Reversed: Cause for anxiety over money. Little gain after much work. Unprofitable speculations.
Career advances ahead; use caution.
Spiritualization of matter and materialization of spirit have been achieved. Ideas move into action in the world and produce money.
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You
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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Others
Two of Swords
Swords: Defending. Self-defense and setting boundaries. Think of drawing a line in the sand with a sword point.
Two: It takes two. A dialogue. Weighing and comparing different possibilities.
A hoodwinked figure balances two swords upon her shoulders. Divinatory Meanings: Conformity and the equipoise which it suggests, courage, friendship, concord in a state of arms, affection, intimacy. Reversed: Imposture, falsehood, duplicity, disloyalty.
You can’t decide. Instead, you close your eyes to what faces you. You step back from the situation, taking time to get your emotions in check, to ponder things in silence. You can’t remain aloof forever; soon you will have to decide. Reversed: Although a decision has been made, and action has been taken, it is too early to tell if it was the right thing to do. Only time will tell. Either way, things are beginning to move.
A blindfolded woman balances two swords upon her shoulders. She sits on a bench with her back to the sea. The crescent moon looks down upon her. Divinatory Meaning: Balanced forces, stalemate, indecision, impotence, a temporary truce in family quarrels. Reversed: Release, movement of affairs, sometimes in the wrong direction. Caution against dealings with rogues.
Gold circumstances rising out of adversity.
The intellect remains passive, waiting for an action.
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Illusions
Ten of Swords
Swords: Defending. Self-defense and setting boundaries. Think of drawing a line in the sand with a sword point.
Ten: Enough already. You’ve attained your goals, but find them unsatisfying. Time to begin something new.
A prostrate figure, pierced by all the swords belonging to the card. Divinatory Meanings: Whatsoever is intimated by the design; also pain, affliction, tears, sadness, desolation. Reversed: Advantage, profit, success, favour, but none of these are permanent; also power and authority.
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To Come
Page of Swords
Swords: Defending. Self-defense and setting boundaries. Think of drawing a line in the sand with a sword point.
Knave: Learning. Curiosity. Becoming interested.
A lithe, active figure holds a sword upright in both hands, while in the act of swift walking. Divinatory Meanings: Authority, overseeing, secret service, vigilance, spying, examination, and the qualities thereto belonging. Reversed: More evil side of these qualities; what is unforeseen, unprepared state; sickness is also intimated.
This card signifies a somewhat halfhearted approach to solving the problems facing you. Not taking things seriously enough or having a full understanding of the problem and what it means to you. Reversed: Unexpected problems lurk in the distance.
A lithe young figure — either young man or maiden — holds a sword in both hands while walking over rugged land. Wild clouds are gathered about him. He looks around as if expecting an enemy. Divinatory Meaning: An active, dark-haired, brown-eyed boy or girl. Betokens vigilance, scrutiny, spying for either good or evil. Reversed: Unprepared state; unforeseen events; may possibly mean illness; imposter likely to be defeated.
A clever, even mischievous young man. Be ever watchful.
Young inexperienced energy. Hesitant, unsure, non-initiative.
My thoughts are still contradictory. I hesitate before the duality of concepts. I do not know how to cut, to give the blow that will separate subjective from objective. I am not a party to anything: I am still incapable of taking part, of committing myself.
The intellect of the Page still needs to be honed and shaped. Does he know how to use his weapon, or should he put it back in its flesh-colored sheath? This figure, who possesses the foundations of intelligence, lacks self-confidence. Like all the Pages, his position demands both caution and perseverance. The negative aspects of this card would be lies, self-depreciation, intellectual confusion, verbosity, halting and poorly organized thought, and verbal aggression.