Finally, a Chill (yet profound!) Reading

I’m writing this week’s reading from my kitchen table. My house is a mess, signs of a weekend full of cooking and playing and hosting strewn everywhere: a laundry hamper, unfinished projects, dishes in the sink. I’d rather do this reading for you then tidy up, anyways. And this is how I like my tarot: taking place in real life.

We have a lovely example of this very energy in our reading, but instead of domestic fullness it’s a profusion of connection. The Three of Cups centers our reading around relationships - the bonds that give our life shape and substance. Yes, this card is known for joy and celebration (the Rider-Waite-Smith version is called the “party card” by some because it features three people raising their cups in a toast) but it also encompasses the nuances of true intimacy and how we become closest when we share the full range of our human experience with others - coming together and raising our cups in celebration of our joy and our mess.

If relationships are our theme this week, they’re illuminating two very potent parts of our larger life story through two Major Arcana cards. I have to take a moment to say that I am jazzed, delighted even! by these two cards. We haven’t seen either in quite some time, and I was just talking to someone about how our first card, The Hanged Man, has been absent in just about every reading I’ve done in 2023. So what’s the deal with this enigmatic image? The traditional Rider-Waite-Smith illustration features a person suspended upside down by one foot from a t-shaped wooden structure. I’ve had people worry about this picture, thinking it refers to an execution by hanging. But no, the person here has a strangely beatific smile on their lips. They’re very much alive, almost smugly comfortable, as a golden halo shines from their head.

The Hanged Man appears in our lives when things appear to be in limbo. I say appear because the secret to this card is that a moment of calm and a sensation of suspension can sometimes signify an integral step of a grand journey. If you’re feeling lost or unfocused with yourself at the beginning of the week, be gentle. I’ve talked a lot about the sevens in the Minor Arcana - how they encapsulate the tricky energy of a fairytale, the moment when the hero is lost in the woods and has to wander around looking for a solution to a seemingly insurmountable problem - and The Hanged Man has this energy, magnified. Instead of struggling, however, The Hanged Man leans into the lack of clarity and tries to find comfort in it. Do a little reverse searching as you begin this week, asking yourself where you’ve felt stuck. How might it feel to embrace this experience while looking to the future assuming things will shift and work out wonderfully?

Writing all this, I feel like this message is resonating with a lot of our previous cards, both recent and farther in the past. I’m thinking of the Six of Swords and, yes, our old friend the Five of Pentacles. But also the Four of Swords and Four of Cups from last week. Those cards urged us to put down our ambition, our edginess, our desire for peak experiences and just rest. Perhaps doing so has allowed a larger theme of this necessary stasis to come into focus. Can you see where The Hanged Man has been active in your life over the past few months? Look for feelings of stalemate, boredom, even a lack of energy and drive. This week appears to hold both an opportunity for greater understanding (what has gotten us to this point) and a meaningful breakthrough (where we’re going). It’s as if we finally hold the power to press play on a part of our lives that has been put on pause.

Friendships, community, family, and lovers will play a crucial role in this experience. Now is a time to draw those who truly understand you close. What can they tell you about the larger story of where you’ve felt stuck? The Three of Cups touches on themes of reciprocity, mutual support, and uplift. So, in addition to feeling big feelings and thinking about the bigger picture (all intensely “Major Arcana activities”) I’d strongly suggest just having fun. Even though The Hanged Man and Temperance are lovely and comparatively gentle cards, they still have a strong gravitational pull. It may be easy to get too self-serious, lost in the weeds, or tied up in abstract debates with yourself. Talking with others, lightening up, and enjoying yourself will help massage these bigger issues out without hands-on effort. If anything, The Hanged Man tells us that doing less, letting go, and waiting for other factors to emerge is a valuable strategy.

Our final card, Temperance, really highlights this approach. Finally, we have a reading that focuses on themes of softness and moderation! Following the path of The Hanged Man, in other words, is depositing us in a place of Temperance. Now that sounds like a sustainable and long-lasting solution to me. No extra striving, no difficult Minor Arcana cards that show us distracted by details; we’ve integrated something big, now we can rest.

This does make me think of the card for November (and August and September), the Five of Pentacles, whose vibe is exactly the opposite: suffering, difficulty, and struggle. A shift is on the horizon, it seems. Temperance is where we start to successfully blend and work with the energies of life. Difficulty, in this card, isn’t a personal failure or reason to collapse just as success isn’t forever or a reflection of self-worth. We can see this in its traditional image: an angel pouring water back and forth between two cups. And, ~*tarot nerd moment*~ what do we have in this reading immediately before? Three cups!! So it really seems as if our interactions with others - intimacy, support, love, reciprocity - hold a big key in this moment. Could it be we’ve built a lovely network for ourselves? That we’re not going it alone? I say yes to all of this, and also sense a little tarot mystery. This week, look to connections to see where your long-held difficulties are starting to shift. It may be that cherishing and inviting in other people to our lives is giving us the ability to press play, move on, and grow.

This is more of a tarot PSA. With 2/3 of our cards being in the Major Arcana, I strongly suggest resting as much as possible. Take it easy - big things are happening under the surface! Yes, these two are gentle, but that may make it extra tempting to go ahead at full speed. Doing so is a) not necessary and b) runs the risk of surprise burnout. Channel the cozy figures in this illustration of Temperance and nap as much as possible so that your big changes have plenty of time to integrate gently.