Expectations vs. Reality x 1,000

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This is the kind of reading that really tests my resolve. If I just snuck these three cards back in the deck and reshuffled, would anyone be the wiser? But, yes, I’d know, and, as experience has taught me, I’d also be cheating us out of a helpful message. Tarot, at its core, is about revealing something that has the potential to help our present situation. As unsettling as this reading is, it’s the one we need to see this week.

Our cards read like a sentence: Attraction (the Two of Cups) leads to love (The Lovers) that soon collapses in despair (the Nine of Swords). Yikes. Next, please?

Like the swords suit itself, this reading is piercing and direct. Often the best advice is simple, clear, and cuts through illusions. Yet does it all have to be as dire as these cards first appear? Sure, we’re not going to feel great about it, but the disappointment we suffer this week is actually the sign of a meaningful accomplishment. A longstanding illusion is wearing thin and coming to its end, if only we let it. What is a truth that you’ve been wishing wasn’t true for quite some time? How might this delusion’s spell be losing its hold on you?

This week, we might be ready to give up an old ghost once and for all. An idea, fantasy, or vision we’ve held in our minds and chased after, running us ragged. But we may need to experience this loss - chase it and lose it - in miniature before we’re ready to move on. (Whether it will feel miniature, is another story.)

We’re going to start from the back here, in the dark night of the Nine of Swords. This card, oddly enough, is our friend this week. Be on the lookout for moments when you just want to put your head in your hands: you’ve had enough, you’re overwhelmed, and you can no longer argue, work, move, or distract yourself out of an upsetting realization. All nines reflect the fullest embodiment of their group - a sort of perfection that’s actually achievable in real life. While it won’t feel good, we’re reaching a moment when our mental process has taken us as far as we need to go. We know enough. This knowledge paves the way for change, but first we need to relinquish control and just feel the weight of whatever has been following us. If we end up here, it’ll actually be a huge achievement; the main goal will be treating ourselves as kindly as possible as we go through the emotional storm of the moment. Just feeling it shows we’ve come far enough to be truly in touch with ourselves and the entire reality of our situation.

I’d like to take a moment here to reiterate a point that comes up frequently here: All readings occur on a spectrum. Especially collectives ones. So while this sounds intense, it’s likely that many of us will experience these cards on a much smaller scale. To have a little fun with this, let’s try something new here:

This reading could unfold on a spectrum ranging from:

A small disappointment ←————--→ Major upset and ending

All of this is happening in the realm of the cups cards and their themes of emotion, connection, and deeper meaning, which means our experience will be inextricably tied to our feelings. The Two of Cups shows a simple scene full of potential: two people meeting and touching hands while each grasping their own cups. They’ve seen each other, reached out to make a connection, and are about to join in a toast.

While this image is resoundingly romantic, it also appears in the very beginning of the “cups story.” We’re just at the second step - two forces have come into contact - of what could be a much larger journey. Yet our second card takes the situation to an entirely different level. We’re feeling something enticing, new, and emotionally resonant and we’re jumping ahead, not just to a cups card farther down the line, but to an epic and intense Major Arcana card: The Lovers.

This all makes me think of the issue of mistaking a snack for the main course. It’ll be important this week to pay attention to where we romanticize situations and, in doing so, create undue pressure or project our wishes for reality. The jump from the Two of Cups to The Lovers is so far-fetched it’s almost ridiculous. But it’s also deeply, endearingly human. There’s a part of us that’s yearning for connection to the point of seeing it everywhere, and there’s something wonderful about that. Yet we need to be careful not to invest so much in new sparks that we end up catapulting past their potential and into the despair of the Nine of Swords constantly.

We also need to see the moments where we find ourselves in the Nine of Swords - despairing, upset, let down, or isolated - as helpful signs that we’re overshooting our goals and, perhaps, in the process of saying goodbye to dreams or expectations that don’t really suit us.

Yes, I know, we came so close! But we can’t have this card in our reading without me ranting about my favorite in a checkerboard pattern in the entire tarot deck! Just check out this beauty in the Nine of Swords: red roses enclosed in squares of vibrant yellow interspersed with calming blue tiles depicting the signs of the zodiac. Something cosmic and comforting is happening in this dark night of despair. How might we tap into this energy?

I’m seeing a theme here of putting undue pressure on one situation to fulfill all our needs, and while this reading appears to be all about romance, this could touch on any part of our life that makes us feel deeply: our vocations, communities, passion projects, and more. In what ways have you made a habit out of putting all your eggs in one basket? And how might you actually find comfort and inspiration in a wider tapestry? (Note that the red roses also appear in The Magician card, a deeply creative and generative archetype.)

Look to your community for support (all signs of the zodiac, in other words, have something valuable to offer, (even the Geminis ;)), get our of your head, and place the energy you just loaded onto this single situation in different facets of your life as you start to move forward.