
Today’s Tarot: Telling Attention




Anything can be a superpower if it is something that you can do that is needed, wanted or in any way appreciated.
For example, I am always amazed at my husband’s near magical ability to pack stuff into small spaces. I swear he’s part Timelord, and makes anything bigger on the inside.
I’m better at knitting. I get satisfaction from taking string and two sticks and making something actually useful.
The Queen of Swords is about learning, accepting, incorporating and using your superpowers, whatever they may be. It is about living your truth. It is about all the been there, done that in your life. Yes, by all means, keep learning – always – but at the same time it’s OK to know stuff. To paraphrase a television commercial, you know a thing or two because you’ve seen a thing or two. You are the only judge of what your thing or two may be. If your superpower is that you are a brain surgeon – thank all goodness you exist. If your superpower is that you give a great manicure, that’s cool too.
Anything you do that makes you happy counts.
One thing that we all can do is – do. Some days, just to put one foot in front of the other, to keep moving through your day is superpower enough. Even if you have to stop, retreat or endure in a different direction than before, persistence is a superpower.

Worry, anxiety and fear comes to us all, some more than others. It isn’t an emotion to be ignored or belittled. If the risk and problems match the emotions, plan and act to ease them. If the emotions far outweigh the actual situation, that too is a call to action. The action is to understand and when needed to reach out, to speak. Share the weight of it. Even in the alone times, whisper to the ethers, and the web of the world will hear.

Sometimes new beginnings come to you unexpectedly
Today’s Tarot with the 6 of Swords: Flow and perspective.
I haven’t canoed much.
I grew up in a very rural, mountainous place. It was great for outdoor things, known for rock climbing and white water kayaking. Not a lot of paddling across a placid lake going on there. But, like surfers, kayak enthusiasts know a fair bit about going with the flow, navigating the fast currents and avoiding the kill-you-dead rocks.
I don’t kayak either, but I appreciate the flow thing. When I first read about yielding, go with the flow interpretations for the six of swords, it made immediate, innate sense. That’s kind of how canoes and kayaks work.
Often there are minor arcana cards that echo a major arcana card only with lesser intensity and sometimes a bit more optimism. I see two connections between the six of swords and the major arcana. It is an antidote to the Hanged Man. Flow is forward movement.
Sometimes the card has a perspective, broad view, gestalt feel to it, like a lesser known interpretation of the Tower card. Here that connection to perspective and the big picture is unlocked in the artwork on the card. Think of the view for the person paddling and steering the canoe. The close and narrow view is filled with obstacles, sharp swords. The larger view, where the figure is looking, is open, smooth, obstacle free water. In short, use the larger to steer by, while giving an occasional glance to the near obstacles and issues. It always amazes me that there is never any leaks or breaks around the swords. But let’s not be pedantic. The artist might just be showing the card suit and number. It feels like an important aside: Keep an eye on near terms obstacles and potential problems, but steer according to the larger view. Look to the wider horizon then flow toward the good parts.
Daily meditation style one card tarot reading with the nine of wands.

“Wear your experience, you’ve earned your scars.” comes through here.
It isn’t to say wallow in past experiences or let past injuries dominate your mind now. There is a difference between release and denial. We can’t deny extant fact. Our experiences don’t disappear. They are part of the path that brought us to where we are now. They are in part of us. The difference lies in how those things are integrated. They are part of us, yes, but what part, how big of a part and what part that part plays in our current life are malleable.
I also relate this to a mental image that came through near to New Year’s Day. The swarm of small tornadoes across a USA map outline is still there, but not as strong, as if the lines are drawn in grey instead of black. The sense of taking stock, of crawling out of the wreckage to begin to survey the damage is starting to strengthen. Here I mentally/intuitively ‘hear’ the song “Beyond Thunderdome” by Tina Turner from the movie of the same name. In particular, the lyrics “Out of the ruins, out of the wreckage, can’t make the same mistake this time” come to mind. Granted, this is one of my favorite movies and songs from the mid 80s, but it fits this time, and this energy.
Whatever your Thunderdome has been, you don’t have to live in it. Walk out and walk free, move beyond it, but own the fact that you were there.
The Seven of Wands specifically is associated with effort, challenge, sometimes conflict. When you combine that with the wands’ suit meaning of your relationship with yourself (the element of fire, inner passions, philosophy, spirituality, etc.) It brings mental challenge to mind.
It may have to do with setting healthy boundaries, protecting your inner world and mental health from unhealthy connections. That is work, but it is worth the effort.
It may have to do using planning and strategy to overcome a challenge. Working smarter, not harder, is always worth the mental effort.
There is an element of success, or being on the path to success, over conflicts and challenges even though effort is required to achieve that success. On of my favorite interpretations comes from Ellen Dugan who adds overcoming conflict with “Style, wit and humor” to the mix. That always brings characters like Han Solo from Star Wars, Captain Mal from Firefly or Deadpool from Marvel comics to mind for me. Thom Pham dials in to this same energy when he portrays the Seven of Wands with Obyron, the bon vivant warrior in Game of Thrones. So the advice here would be to keep your sense of humor and meet challenges with your own flourish. That will be worth the effort in how it helps to keep your stress levels down if nothing else. Laughter is good medicine.
Wishing you a day of style, humor and overcoming any obstacles that comes your way.
The Five of Pentacles makes me feel sad today. It has tendrils of tragedy, misfortune, and fear. It is one of those things that makes me stop, and as we have talked about before, take a little inventory. Is it me? Is it any sort of real threat? Is there something I’m missing or need to do? Or is this an energy from outside myself, a purely “the current zeitgeist is ringing my bell” empathic feeling. It seems to be the latter. I have to travel for family reasons but there is no logical, physical reason that would explain the card’s vibe. This is a coins/pentacles card. As a reader, not only is it always good to stop and consider if a strong emotional reaction is product of our own psychology (as opposed to a purely intuitive reaction to the card) but the suit of pentacles or the suit of swords points to the real world and cold logic straightaway.
Given all of that, I don’t see any real world, my issue, or logical reason for this visceral sort of reaction to the card other than maybe the continued political news here in the U.S. Maybe I’m reacting to the passing of Justice Ginsburg …but there is so much else so wrong and has been for nearly 4 years now.
The card has more of a sense of more foreboding now that I write this than it did at first blush when I filmed the card-draw video. You all know how writing is a more potent connection to intuition for me than working with YouTube is.
The parable of the grasshopper and the ant comes to mind….as does the squirrels and chipmunks busting around the neighborhood in a prehybernation frenzy. The “Pre-hibernation Week” episode of Spongebob was pretty close to reality from the look of these guys.
Today’s Five of Pentacles gives us the same advice. Fall is a time to harvest and store and budget and take care. It might be a hard winter. I hope I’m wrong, but that hurricane on the horizon feeling is back. If it is wrong…great. If not, be safe and be well.
Please prove me wrong.
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