Today's Tarot - 4 of Swords

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Three card reading about career change

Q. With the changes in the economy, I've taken my career in a new direction. It is a little un-nerving to start something new at my age. Am I headed in the right direction?

A. I've been working with my mentor, and re-reading some of her writing...I feel drawn to approaching this like a 'yes/no' reading, amped up a little bit. Adding a little of my own spin to her card lay-out, let's approach it like this. Three stacks of cards (like we've done before), but with the left stack being the main yes/no indicator, middle stack is cautions, things to watch out for, the right stack things you are doing particularly well or working in your favor. Ace is yes, no ace is no (easy enough, right?)

Things in your favor - ACE of swords

Cautions - Judgement

yes/no ACE of wands

The ace of swords is associated with the element of air, and the sword on the rider-waite deck is straight up. "Up" is a strong energy and concept around this card. Ted Andrews reads this a "Unique new rhythms of success" in his Animal Wise Tarot (www.dragonhawkpublishing.com). I think this speaks of two basic reassurances...that your new path is on the UPswing, and holds a very positive energy right now. I understand from my Mentor Joy (www.psychicjoystar.com) that the astrology right now is powerful and positive as well, which crosses right into the second point...good timing. Your natural rhythm is spot-on for switching...I 'hear' "good timing".

I picked up the "Animal Wise" cards since you've liked them before. In this deck, Judgement is associated with whales, who can dive to incredible depths, so it is read as "new depths of creativity". Does your new career use your creativity more than in the past? Often creative work is more free-form and less structured than more traditional, didactic jobs. The are also more insecure in a lot of ways. The caution here is in second guessing yourself. The first-impulse feeling I got from the card was "trust your judgment". I've heard self-employment is a big trend, and it feels like being "on a trapeze without a net"...but it is also a big opportunity to learn, and one of the big lessons is to hone your judgement, and to trust your judgement.

Finally...drum roll please...ACE of wands, so yes, you are on a good path with this choice. It is 'frog' read as "fertility and new beginnings"...perfect for what you are doing, and encouragement for your new beginning. The from on the photo is bright green...green is, remember, associated with growth, healing, and to some degree wealth. (not everyone uses green money...but there are traditional reasons, I suppose, that we chose that as the color of our currency...green, growing, is a good thing to associate with it anyway)

Like they say, it's all good. Hope this helps. Keep up the good work!

Today's Tarot - 2 of Swords

The 2 of swords is often read as "mystical unity" or some reference to re-joining, or reunification or one-ness from many. I suspect it is from the crossed swords on the classic Rider-Waite artwork.


I was reading earlier, doing research for "The Vampire Diet" when I came across an interesting statement..."We believe the body is the vessel for our spirit." (Valentine, Cunningham Kindle version, location 116-18) On the surface, this seems like a very enlightened thing for a diet book to say. It is certainly head and shoulders above the body-focused diets that have been popular in the past.


Yet it just doesn't get real mind-body unity. Yet again, it smacks of the way modern medicine uses holistic-ish things in a modern medicine way...like prescribing an herb in the same way you would prescribe a medication...holistic health doesn't work that way.


Neither does real whole-ness, mind-body connection OR the 2 of swords for that matter. (YES - you know I'm loving the chance to put my two favorite topics in one blog post, holistic health and tarot!)


Think of this spirit-in-the-body concept as water in a glass. Yes, it is IN the glass, but the water and the glass are not ONE, they are not a holistic unit. The glass can break, but the water doesn't.  You can evaporate the water, but the glass continues essentially unchanged. While this is a beautiful example of how the spirit can continue after death...it isn't an example of wholeness.


While alive, the mind, body and spirit are unified in a much more integral way. The body isn't the spirit's muscle car. The body is deeply inhabited, right down to the cellular level. We are more like water in a sponge than water in a glass. Either way, the water and the thing holding it can be separated, but while together, the integration is more complex, deep, and thorough...more sponge than "vessel".


That is one of many lessons the Two of Swords can teach. Not the structural differences between a glass and a sponge...the idea of real unity. At this level, the analogy becomes even less like water in a glass or a sponge, but more like salt dissolved in water. The card hints at unity taken to another level, a cosmic level. We are one with the cosmos even more than salt molecules are one with  the water molecules in the ocean. When you are talking about all-that-is, that kind of unity can be a very powerful idea.


So mad props to the authors for teaching about body-spirit connection in a diet book, but I think it is worth remembering we are more than souls in a vessel, we are spirits saturating the material world, which can be both comforting and empowering, exactly the intent of the 2 of swords.


Source: Valentine, J., Cunningham, J., 2003 "Weight Solutions: The New Body-Mind-Spirit Approach"  Kindle edition, originally with Trafford Publishing.