I’m a tarot enthusiast for a reason: Every time I turn over the cards I find something new to explore.
This explains why, for those who’ve had the experience of getting a reading from me, I can’t help but make exclamations when flipping over our spread for the day. Sometimes what I see is delightful - shoutout to the lovely person who got The Empress next to The King of Pentacles the other week; now that’s a combination I’ll be journaling about! - and sometimes it’s intriguing and mysterious, much like a complex story you don’t know the ending to yet.
The other day I stumbled upon a tarot mystery. No matter how long you’ve been reading or studying, the cards will give you new directions to chart. That day I’d taken the time to do a rare long-form reading for myself. I wanted to see where I was heading and what I should be focusing on. The two central cards were The Eight of Cups and The Emperor.
Now I’m no stranger to the Eight of Cups. It’s a card I easily identify with and have worked with personally throughout my practice. I love its poignant image of a solitary figure walking down a moonlit mountain path, away from a wall of upright cups with just one spot empty. In it, I see a theme of bravery - asking for more fulfillment, challenge, or insight when, by the standards of society, we already have “enough.”
I’ve also come to love The Emperor who, with his severe stance and associations with rules and structure (and, let’s be real, patriarchy), rarely endears himself to people straight off the bat.
Together, however, these two cards had me scratching my head and eager to start sleuthing so I could solve the mystery they were posing. Why would I be taking a big emotional leap towards more rules? How on earth would that be liberating or fulfilling?
Whenever I read or teach tarot, I point to these moments as the invitation of the reading. So much of what tarot gives us extends beyond the time when we’re sitting down and interpreting the cards. It’s why, in my opinion, tarot is so powerful. We have to make connections and actions in the real world to bring our readings to life, either through honoring their message or taking steps to uncover less-than-clear meanings.
While I could spit out any number of sentences describing what these two cards were saying - moving towards a more solid routine, choosing to live with more structure, embracing frugality and ambition, etc., etc.,etc. - none of them resonated deeply. My intuition was telling me that I’d have to wait and see; that the experience of living the reading would illuminate just what facet of The Emperor I was feeling pulled to integrate.
As I moved through the week holding these two cards in my mind, I was surprised to see how so much of the hard work I was doing, while not exactly fun in the moment, left me feeling peaceful and empowered. I sat down at my desk with determination, editing my website and finishing a massive backlog of bookkeeping. Each task I completed made me feel connected to my work, aware of my resources, and inspired to make changes.
I had to gift myself structure, value my time, and harness my willpower in order to do that work that uplifts my life. And, like the figure in the Eight of Cups, doing it took bravery and felt (at least in the beginning as I opened my laptop in the early morning) as difficult as starting a hike up a mountain pass. At the end, however, I felt as empowered and capable as The Emperor sitting on his throne.
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