A Few of My Favorite Things Spread

A couple of weeks ago, Ellen of Greylady's Hearth shared this spread on her blog. She picked it up from Magpie Tarot. I felt it was a spread worth sharing further. And, feel free to continue the chain of sharing, or try the spread in private.

You need to separate the cards into piles: Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles, and Major Arcana. The fifth position is optional, but it does pull the spread together nicely. Shuffle each stack and pull a card for the following questions:

Wands: Where does my confidence shine?
Cups: What brings me joy?
Swords: Where do I feel wise?
Pentacles: What makes me feel safe & secure?
Major Arcana: Which underlying energy will make it all possible?

For an additional bonus: the Quintessential Card - Overall Theme of the Reading - You can visit an earlier post for a more detailed explanation on how to do this. Basically, you add the numerical values of the cards, reduce to a number between 1-22, and match the number with its Major Arcana Card.

My Results:

Wands: Where does my confidence shine? Queen of Wands - When I'm in control of my circumstances and aware of the next action which needs to be taken. Totally me. As long as I know what I'm doing, why and when, I can do just about anything I go after.

Cups: What brings me joy?  6 of Cups - Sharing knowledge and skills obtained in my past with others. Love this. When I write a story, my past is right there with me, between the lines, within the words. Not enough to be a biography, but enough to give it direction, a little spice.

Swords: Where do I feel wise? Knight of Swords - When I am active and committed to a concrete goal. If you can see it, you can be it. So, true. If you can put the flag post in the ground, all you have to do is work as hard as you can to reach it.

Pentacles: What makes me feel safe & secure? 3 of Pentacles - Using my skills, talent and knowledge to create, with the chance to share with others. True. There's no safer place to be than lost in your own creations, as long as you remember to come up for air every now and again.

I love how all four of these seem to sync with who I am and what I want to do with my life. It also gives me a needed push to get back on track. All I've ever wanted to do is write and share my creations, my novels and stories with others. So, I need to get committed and in control. :)

Now...
Major Arcana: Which underlying energy will make it all possible?  Justice - Balance, maintaining a proper balance and calmness in my commitments. Most of you are aware of my many interests. Between those and normal day to day obligations, I find it difficult to establish a good balance. Perhaps that should be my first goal: to establish a balance, create boundaries.

Bonus...
Quintessential Card - Overall Theme - Lovers - Choice - a life decision - deciding which path to follow. All of it comes down to picking the path I want to take. Where do I want to be in a year? Or, 5 to 10 years down the road? That is the question which needs answered, and then the goal will be clear and the balance will come.

Hope you all don't expect me to answer that here and now, lol. I have a vague idea, but it's not clear enough to narrow it down to a single goal. Guess I need to work on that.

Hope you enjoy the spread.

April Theme - Face Your Fears

Rider-Waite Tarot

As we leap into April, you may find yourself coming to a standstill after your March successes. Isn't it crazy how we second-guess ourselves the closer we get to triumph, the closer we get to being happy?

Notice, the woman is not bound at the legs and the swords do not cage her in. She can leave this situation any time she wants. The problem is she can't use her eyes to see, or her arms to help guide her out. But, if she really wanted to leave, she would find a way - tiny steps forward, or even a shout for help.


"The clue to this card is the blindfold - symbolizing confusion, oppressive ideas, isolation from other people in similar situations; what political liberations call mystification' - keeping people down not by direct force, but by training them to believe in their own helplessness." ~ Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack

The bondage in this card is self-imposed. Your own thoughts are confusing and trapping you in a situation, in which you see no apparent way out. In order to move from this situation, you must face your fear, see things clearly, and make decisions based on an understanding of what's really going on.

"Each of us must confront our own fears, must come face to face with them. How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives. To experience adventure or to be limited by the fear of it." --Judy Blume

Some of us spend so much time looking into the past, readjusting it to what should have been that we fail to see today. A paralyzing fear takes hold when we try to adjust what we do today, and what that action will bring tomorrow. The fear of the unknown brings us to a standstill, so instead of moving forward and being present, we feel stuck in one place, in one routine.

In March, we focused on starting something, striving toward success. We found success, along with failure, but we kept going. You may have hit a wall, realized what success might bring, uncovered a fear you wasn't even aware of. Don't stop, push past the fear and keep achieving and failing.

April brings us the energy of fear, but it doesn't have to stop you in your tracks. Identify the fear, give it a name, and face it head on. Always remember, fear is usually of something of which does not exist at that moment. Our imagination creates the worse possible scenario in order to keep us safe. This is an automatic action of the brain, but you can adjust it, reinvent its reaction, and remove the feared scenario. Imagine something wonderful developing from your action.

"Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones." --Thich Nhat Hanh

Activity for April: Write about your fears, about the imagined scenarios which stop you in your tracks, and delve into why you may be creating such scenes. And then, write about what you started in March, why you began, and what you hoped to accomplish. See your fear for what it is, your imagination, and continue toward success.

Good luck in your journey.