♾️ Out of the Darkness and into Strength

This forecast comes at such a funny time for me. Drowning in an unexpected case of “the grumps” despite everything being just fine, I lazily flipped over our three cards expecting something average that would nonetheless be difficult to write about. I told you I was grumpy! Not the best attitude to bring to a tarot reading at all.

Yet tarot is, for an esoteric system, pretty humorous. Our first card, The Devil, glowered up at me from its dark lair. Was this a reflection of my sour mood? I felt both seen and insulted! And then the happy (smug?) Nine of Cups? Telling me everything is better than fine, great even? The nerve!

And, of course, we end the reading with 2024’s card of the year, Strength. This is where things get interesting. It’s as if this card is asking us to reexamine our first impressions. I’m imagining the whole reading getting folded so that Strength and The Devil line up, with the Nine of Cups divided in half between them.

Which is all to say, this week asks us one crucial question: What struggle have we been misidentifying as a weakness when it is, in fact, a strength?

What have we be shaming and shunning - relegating to The Devil’s lair - that needs to be brought into the light and integrated as a key source of our personal strength?

Following the image of the our reading folded in on itself, I’m feeling that the first half of our week will introduce us to our “what” while the second will deal with the process of understanding and integration.

All of this hinges around the polarizing Nine of Cups. Some people find this figure charming and self assured, others smug and boastful. The latter interpretation may be the most helpful for us this week. In what ways have you been shaming, contorting, and mislabeling your satisfaction?

The Nine of Cups deals with the world of emotions, intuition, spirituality, and meaningful beauty. These are not things easy to measure, replicate, or explain, and as such can quickly be pushed aside by our culture. Tie this to The Devil’s themes of decadence and hedonism and you can see how the two could get confused. The beginning of the week may highlight ways in which we subconsciously or semi-consciously view our experience of the Nine of Cups - happiness, fulfillment, admiration, pleasure, connection, love, transcendence, to name a few - as indulgent, immature, and irresponsible.

I love how the disturbing animalistic imagery of The Devil, however, transforms into the majestic power represented by the lion in Strength. Are we actually being brave when we prioritize, celebrate, and emulate the themes of the Nine of Cups? How has pursuing these avenues in life led to expansion, self-knowledge, and an increased capacity to act according to your values?

When we have a reading that deals with confrontation and healing, I always want to err on the side of gentleness, which is why I’m advising that we start off the week just observing what comes up. Where do you notice a sense of shame or disgust around feeling like the Nine of Cups? Look for this in yourself and others, be accepting and kind, and do what you can to let the experience move through you.

The Nine of Cups shows a moment of culmination, so it’s likely that some true beauty is coming into focus in your life. Blessedly about feelings and not cold, hard facts, the Nine of Cups instructs us to notice where we feel lit up and content. As the week progresses, our ability to hold this gently and accept it will increase. What’s tricky is that we’re being asked to value our felt experience over tangible results. Is The Devil being summoned because we doubt the validity of what makes us feel whole?

Thankfully, Strength is here to roar all of this ridiculousness back into the bushes where it belongs. Look to last year when we were engaged in a twelve-month tour of this card to see how you’ve learned to stand up for yourself, advocate for what matters, and trust in the security of your values rather than material possessions or measurable achievements.

Having Strength at the end of the week also points us to a place of power. This would be a good time to use your skills to advocate for something meaningful, stand up against injustice, or simply exert some muscle when it comes to how you structure your life, big and small. Be sure to set aside some time to commend yourself for growing your own strength, too. Whatever is being integrated in the moment, it’s a long time coming and the result of so much hard work.