It’s time for another weekly Tarot reading!
This week’s reading was conducted using the Gilded Tarot by Ciro Marchetti.
Taking the deck and shuffling it, I pulled three cards: the first would be a card to show us what our Overall Experience of the week might be like; the second would be Guidance/Advice Tarot is offering us for our consideration, and as empowerment to move through the week; and the third card would show us a Possible Outcome of our efforts by the week’s end.
This week’s video reveals the cards for our reading:
If you prefer to read the post, here it is:
Our cards for this week are:
- Overall Experience: The High Priestess
- Guidance/Advice: Justice
- Possible Outcome: 10 of Swords
Your Week in Tarot: The High Priestess, Justice, and 10 of Swords, from the Gilded Tarot by Ciro Marchetti.
The High Priestess, representing the Overall Experience of this week, asks you to trust your intuition. This is a week to listen to the still, small voice that speaks from within. This is a week of inner guidance and wisdom.
If decisions need to be made this week, The High Priestess is a card that suggests waiting (she adopts a “wait and see” approach) for further information. You don’t have all that you need to make a well-informed decision.
And speaking of information, this is a card of news and messages. This can be news or information of a “sensitive” nature, information that’s on a “need to know” basis, or that requires some level of confidentiality (symbolized by the the scroll held by the woman on the card; it can be a visual pun for keeping information “under wraps”).
All of that could suggest information coming to you. On the other hand, The High Priestess can suggest that you have information that maybe you should be holding on to, and be selective as to who you share it with. It’s kind of like not giving out unsolicited advice—let people come and actually ask for the information or knowledge you possess, which is a clearer signal to share what you know. In this vein, just because you know something doesn’t mean everyone you know needs to know it.
Not all information is for public consumption.
Also, The High Priestess can represent the deeper study of metaphysics and esoterica. So if you are a student of the intuitive arts (astrology, numerology, palmistry, dreams, Tarot), how might you be able to deepen your studies this week?
On the other side of the veil, The High Priestess can indicate a state of independence. She is stationed between two poles, which can suggest polar opposites. So, if you are a bit too dependent on others, consider how you might practice being a bit more independent this week. If you find yourself being fiercely independent, how might you allow others to assist and support you a bit more this week?
The High Priestess is a card about balance and being between the two extremes.
When Justice, our Guidance/Advice card for this week, weighs in, its message is to seek balance (I’m sensing a theme…) and equilibrium.
As with The High Priestess, if you’re needing to make a decision of some kind this week, Justice encourages you to look at the situation from all sides, to weigh the facts and the evidence, to weigh the pros and the cons, so you can make the decision from a place of being well-informed.
If others factor into the situation in any way, Justice suggests striving for the best and highest good of everyone involved (which includes you!). You are being asked to demonstrate fairness, neutrality, and impartiality, which will help others release their own biases and prejudices.
Going deeper, or higher, depending on your perspective, Justice is all about the Spiritual Law of Cause and Effect. The Law is “no respecter of persons,” and operates the same for everyone, whether one believes in it or not (it’s the impartial aspect of Justice). In this sense, everything works for the best and highest good of everyone all the time–despite how the outcome appears.
So, if we are ever challenged with an outcome, a result (the effect), we may need to take a look at the intentions and actions that came before (the cause).
Our Possible Outcome card, the 10 of Swords, is one of the more troubling cards in the Tarot, and causes many people to shudder when it comes their way.
For me, every card has an aspect of shadow and light (much like the poles depicted on The High Priestess card, one being black and the other white), so this will be my approach with the 10 of Swords.
From a shadow perspective, when the 10 of Swords appears, things are coming to an end. For some, this will mean the worst has happened. This can suggest ruin, failure, doubt, suspicions, and betrayal (the sense of being “stabbed in the back”). It can mean hitting bottom. It can mean overkill (one sword would’ve done the trick—but ten is mighty excessive, yes?).
The “point” is really being driven home here, which leads me to…
The lighter side of the 10 of Swords, which is asking you to examine the thoughts that keep you stuck. Fear paralyzes us, causes us to choose inaction. The same can be said for over-thinking a situation, which causes “paralysis by analysis.” The same holds true for (self-) doubt.
When it comes to betrayal, this is what Spirit once revealed to me: When we experience a betrayal by another, it is somehow reflecting how we have betrayed ourselves. In this sense, the 10 of Swords is asking us to consider in what ways are we not being true to who we are (for that is what betrayal is).
Now, I’m not so much a Pollyanna that I don’t realize that Life can throw some extreme challenges our way at times. But, at the core of those challenges, there is the message (Swords are about communication) that something needs to change—some way of living (Swords are also about lifestyle) needs to (finally!) come to an end.
And some of us need to get the message in a melodramatic way so it will get our attention and wake us up. When this is the case, the 10 of Swords is asking us to stop having that “Young & Restless” moment—and turn off the TV. You don’t need the drama anymore (I always hear Mary J. Blige singing “No More Drama,” which has strains of “The Young and the Restless” in the song).
If you are prone to “drama,” what do you get out of having Life present situations and events to you in such a way (How do you contribute to it and engage in it?)?
And I’m Pollyanna enough to end on this note: When we do hit bottom, there is only one way to go—and that’s up.
And that wraps up our reading for this week. I look forward to sharing this space here with you again next week!
Until then…have a Tarot-tastic week!
life of HIMM 