🔑 Finding the Key at Long Last

Rest and reflection before steering towards the unknown; on the other side, deep meaning.

After a pair of intense, major arcana heavy forecasts, we’re ending a period of connection and personal growth. I’m seeing this reading as at the culmination of an arc, one that has us landing in the hallowed halls of The Hierophant.

The spiritual counterpart to The High Priestess, the card that began our reading last week, The Hierophant illustrates knowledge that has found a home and community. We’ve been searching for some time, and as things coalesce we’re coming out of an experience of knowledge as individual and on the outskirts and into an experience of knowledge in the warmth of shared understanding.

What I mean by this is that we’re entering into some sort of hallowed space this week. It may take some time to ascertain where and how this is happening, but our first two cards instruct us to be gentle when demanding clarity and specifics. Instead of the pointed and exacting members of the sword suit, we’re graced with the two most gentle and nuanced in the group: the four and the six.

In other words, we’re gently approaching a meaningful truth, one that brings us out of the shadows and into complex, welcome, and messy community. We also happen to have two swords cards as our central pairing in the monthly forecast, so this week is set up to be one where our big questions of the moment receive answers at last. Thankfully, these answers don’t come from rigorous interrogation or research; rather, they come from heeding our internal wisdom to reflect, slow down, rest, and then move forward with all our fears, doubts, tender hopes, and complicated history alongside us.

This brings us to our central card, the poignant Six of Swords. I feel such a pull looking at this image, one of my favorite in the deck. We’ve seen a lot of this card over the past few years and this time has been asking us to trust our instincts - our migratory pull towards what’s next - as well as our ability to learn, discern, and choose.

Anyone who’s explored a tarot deck knows that the swords suit is challenging. Our ability to think and communicate is incredibly powerful. To make something from seeming nothingness (a central part of the world of the High Priestess) and then send it out into the world? It may be what makes us truly human, and this power can help, harm, or heal.

This week we’re being asked to sink deep into our core self (again, The High Priestess from last week has so much wisdom to offer - what did you learn about this process and how can you continue it now?) and trust that we can use our swords wisely.

The first step is to put them all down and enter into the stony chamber of the Four of Swords. I’m struck by how this card is joined by another featuring an interior, The Hierophant, so it’s as if we’re leveling up our inner world, going from the individual solitude of the Four and into the social, traditional Hierophant. Rest and reflection, then, are the antechamber before a greater sense of belonging. Do we have a clue of what we need springing up in our individual practices, thoughts, and beliefs? Are we finding community in these beliefs at long last? Either could be the case, but know that the culmination of this week’s reading is likely to be impactful and touching.

But back to the Four. In this space, we’re invited to give ourselves the space and quiet we need to be present with our thoughts. Use the sharp power of the swords to delineate boundaries for yourself that protect your peace and invite in the quieter voices of your personality and selfhood. I can’t help but tie in the recent conclave since The Hierophant happens to be “the tarot card formerly known as The Pope.” Who, then, is in your inner conclave? Which parts of your self join in that conversation? What leadership are you trying to summon, which values are you trying to enthrone as you move forward into this next chapter in your life?

Spending time in gentle contemplation is paramount for us as we begin the week. In another allusion to The High Priestess from last week’s reading, we’re calling on both our intellect (the three swords “we know” hanging on the wall) and our intuition (the fourth sword emerging from below). Look back to what you were trying to feel into and plan around last week; it’s likely that some gentler, more easily implemented answers are emerging through rest, meditation, dreams, and other pursuits that honor both the sword side of ourselves and the cups side.

I mention cups because even though our reading is swords-heavy, our central card features a journey across the water. As the element of cups, water symbolizes emotion and spirit. What sea of emotion are we traveling over? What path does our spirit urge us to follow? Be open to the input of both, especially when dealing with complex, difficult, and bittersweet situations. The Six of Swords has a lovely message - that it’s imperative that we move forward while embracing our challenges, both past, present, and even future. We don’t need perfection to move towards community, communion, and deep belonging. In fact, they may be the very tools necessary to unlock to doors to the security, spiritual and otherwise, we’ve been seeking for so long.