Hello there, tarot friends,
I realize I haven’t done much in this new space, Everyday Arcana, and have been toying with the idea of posting weekly-ish reflections. By the time Wednesday rolls around, I’ve usually had several weird “aha!” moments with the Weekly Forecast, along with sundry observations about the cards. It’s this winding, unfolding quality of tarot that I love most: the reading itself extends far beyond the cards on the table, revealing its mysteries in our everyday life.
That being said, I started this section of my newsletter with the intention to scoot around my perfectionist self and make things as *low pressure* as possible. No set schedules, anxiety-producing deadlines, etc. So! Let’s play around here. Maybe this will become a regular feature, maybe not. But for now, it’s time to explore the cards a little deeper.
Random embodied tarot experience: Finding myself becoming the Eight of Swords in the shower??
I’ll be honest: I was very salty about this week’s reading. Sometimes I write something and look back at it only to think: uh oh, I think I just owned myself. So when our reading focused on themes of exhaustion, perseverance, and integrating hard-hitting messages… let’s just say I was well aware of how that was currently manifesting in my life.
The Eight of Swords is one of those cards you sometimes (or all the time) want to slip back into the deck before anyone sees that you’d pulled it. A person bound and blindfolded amidst a wall of pointy swords? No, thank you, I’m good. And while it’s tempting to disappear a tarot card, it’s just as tempting to assume you know it’s entire meaning in your life because it seems so obvious.
Not long after I posted the forecast, I stumbled downstairs to take a shower, feeling bleary-eyed and burnt out. The Eight of Swords is associated with the element of air, but as I stood in the shower, I realized I was standing just like the figure in the card, and that air is not the only element in play. Warm water cascaded down my front to pool at my feet, just like it does in the Eight of Swords, a soothing presence in a card showing the injuries we can cause by spending too much time in our heads, up in the air. We need to embrace out emotions, be soothed by our beating hearts, and let the water flow.
I hugged myself tighter and halted the train of worry and rumination rumbling through my head. I felt the warmth of the water, focused on the stable base of my toes as they rested at the bottom of the shower, imagining them soaking up the energy of the water, relieving me of my burdens, if just for a while.
Doing tarot readings is funny in this way - the interpretation comes before the experience. I’d written that it would be helpful to step out of our minds and take solace in the realms of the heart and body, but the message didn’t hit home for me until I experienced it in the shower.
Small moments, but impactful tarot lessons. The reading isn’t over until you’ve lived it yourself. And who would’ve thought the Eight of Swords would have such a soothing side to it, after all?
Tarot Quote of the Week: The World
Backstory: I’ve kept a running document where I record inspiring and interesting quotes along with the tarot card I think they embody. Recently, I thought I’d lost this treasure trove during an iPhone snafu, only to discover it hidden in some backup files. Hooray! I’ll be sharing some of these quotes moving forward, and highly recommend the practice as an engaging way to expand your understanding of tarot cards.