157. Soul Tarot 101: The Tarot is an Invitation
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In this episode, we continue on our exploratory deep dive of the Four Pillars of Soul Tarot by considering each Tarot card as an invitation, rather than a symbol of what will be, or not be. We’ll also look at some ways that we can consider the invitations of Three of Swords and Queen of Wands, and I answer a listener Q about how to begin to take our readings from understanding to implementation.
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About the Episode
On today’s episode of T-WS, we talk about the upcoming Spring Equinox, and the significance of moving from Pisces season (The Moon card) to Aries season (The Emperor).
We also continue on our exploratory deep dive of the Four Pillars of Soul Tarot by considering each Tarot card as an invitation, rather than a symbol of what will be, or not be. We look at some ways that we can consider the invitations of Three of Swords and Queen of Wands, and I answer a listener Q about how to begin to take our readings from understanding to implementation.
Support the AAPI Community
Our hearts are broken, raging, and standing in solidarity with the AAPI community after the horrific events of this week (and always). Listed below are supportive resources, places to donate + action items to engage with:
Red Canary Song
Anti-Asian Violence Resources
Red Canary Song Vigil
Asian American Federation Linktree
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Action Items and Resources by @kimsaira & @annie_wu_22
Land Acknowledgement
Honoring and acknowledging that this podcast episode was recorded on the unceded land of The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, currently called Portland, OR, with the deepest respect to the Kalapuya Tribe, Cowlitz Tribe, and Atfalati Tribe.
Please Note
CW Tags: systemic oppression, death, violence, white supremacy, domestic terrorism, trauma, grief, extinction, environmental degradation
The content in this episode contains references to systemic oppression, death, violence, white supremacy, domestic terrorism, trauma, grief, extinction, and environmental degradation. We have done our best to identify difficult subject matter, but the labels may not be comprehensive for your personal needs. Please honor your knowing and proceed with necessary self-awareness and care.
Transcript
[Introduction]
[0:00:00]
Hello, Wild Souls. Before we start today's episode, I just want to take a moment to honor and acknowledge the events that have unfolded this week. We experienced a horrific mass shooting, one that killed and took the lives of eight people, six of them being Asian American women. And there has been further harm by the media, by the news, by the people reporting and speaking on this because it's not being called what it is, which is a hate crime.
This is not an isolated incident against the AAPI community. Crimes against this community have been going up this year alone by 150%. This is white supremacy. This is how it behaves. Everything, from the way that this shooter was arrested, to the way that this was reported on and handled, has to be named, has to be called what it is.
If it makes you uncomfortable, I really invite you to unpack and investigate that. It's the only thing to call it. And I'm naming it here today, because white supremacy, like every single other system of oppression, wants us turned away from the truth, from pain, from uncomfortable conversations, and really would rather prefer us numb, in denial, in doubt. And that's not what I'm about, and that's not what we're doing in this space.
So in honoring and naming that, I want to center and really offer my love, my solidarity, my support of the AAPI community. And I want to really encourage listeners to do the same. So there are links to donate to supporting these communities in the show notes of this episode. If you are able to donate, I highly recommend that you do so. And even if not, please spread the word. Please share information. Please share ways to donate. Please continue to spread the word, and support this community in a time of enormous grieving and exhaustion. To all of my listeners, I love you. Thank you so much for being here.
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(Instrumental intro music)
[0:02:44]
Hello, Wild Souls. And welcome back to Tarot For the Wild Soul podcast. I am your host, Lindsay Mack, and as always, just so grateful, so thankful to be gathered with you in this virtual space. Thank you so much for being here today.
So today we're going to dive into the third pillar of Soul Tarot, looking at how each and every Tarot card that we pull is really an invitation, rather than what will be or not be. We sort of talked about this a little bit in the previous eps, but we're gonna dive into it with a couple different examples, like, “How can this card be an invitation? Here's how.” So I'll provide some of those examples and talk a little bit about how I really think, I know I say this, like every episode that I talked about the colors of Soul Tarot, but I really think this particular one, that each card is an invitation, is one of the most certainly transformative.
It has a really, really big impact and can really shift not just sort of the flow of our readings and the way that we communicate and empower our clients by not telling them, “This is what this card is bringing to you. This is what's happening,” in a sort of a concrete period at the end of the sentence way, but rather, naming for them, giving them the opportunity. “This is an invitation, here's some ways you can take that invitation. Here's what it's inviting you to pay attention to”.
[0:04:14]
It’s a cornerstone of Soul Tarot and a really potent way of looking at how these cards can come up. There's so much to it and so many ripple effects that are so positive and beautiful that go into, I think, playing with this idea that each and every Tarot card is an invitation, because some folks do say that, that they consider cards as an invitation. But sometimes if we get down to the nitty gritty and this is true, even for myself, I will sometimes catch myself in little moments where I'll think like, “Oh, this is what this is bringing.”
And I forget, you know, that when I leave some spaciousness around it, when I consider that I'm in a collaboration with this card, that it's an invitation for me rather than to me, it really changes kind of the energy in the room, so to speak. And my relationship with our card frees me up to receive different downloads and understandings about it, create new meanings, which is what we're going for. So we're going to talk about that, and I'm going to answer a listener question.
But first, I want to talk about the fact that we have a pretty huge event happening in the next few days, which is our Equinox. So we're moving through our Spring Equinox here in the Northern Hemisphere, the Fall Equinox over in the Southern Hemisphere. It's a very powerful day, on the Wheel of the Year, so to speak, on the spiral of the year. It also represents a very, very big day, in terms of the zodiac flow of the year.
This is really the start to 2021. And, you know, starting a new year is super spiralic, right? We can start a new year, kind of energetically a little before the year a little bit, but I have really felt, personally, you may feel differently, like we're still kind of in 2020. And honestly, we may still feel that way, there’s a lot of reasons why we feel that way (Lindsay laughs). Life is like exactly the same as it was a couple months ago, for many of us, but there's something that's gonna start to feel like it's really shifting over.
[0:06:30]
There's kind of a final click that happens once we move out of Pisces season into Aries season, we're really firmly rooted in the new year, and that's that's always how I've felt about it. And I think leaving a space of welcoming and delight for that kind of freshness is really lovely. So we're going to talk a little bit about that today here too, just how big it is to move from Pisces season to Aries season. We spoke in Monthly Medicine, I've always named that March is really a bridge month, really carries us from one very distant destination to another destination that feels worlds and galaxies apart. Moving from The Moon card to The Emperor is really something. Moving from The Tethered One (The Hanged One) to The Tower, as each are related to Pisces and Aries respectively, it's a big leap. It's a big deal.
It's a massive shift in consciousness. Really, if we're looking at the seamless flow from one to another, we're in a Death time right now. Pisces is the Death time, capital “D”, of the zodiac. I don't know that it's really, ultimately, Scorpio season that is the death time with a capital “D”. I think it's in there. I think Scorpio season is such a profound time of transmutation, regeneration. It's really the time where we kind of click over the in-between time, a liminal time, between fall and winter that is absolutely in its own way, a profound moment on that death spiral.
But Pisces season is really it. Like, it's a big deal. Essentially what we're talking about is the little sprout leaving the seed pot. That's what's going on. That's what we're feeling at the very core, the very heart of all the liminality, all the intensity, all of the anxiety that we're all feeling there. Of course, our worldly rooted external specific events that are contributing to that, absolutely no question. There's collective stress and trauma and grief and exhaustion and burnout that we are all feeling. That's a given.
[0:08:57]
I always feel this during Pisces season. And I know that I'm not alone, because I've been doing this podcast for many years, and I've heard many people express that Pisces season is hard. It is also a gift, a friend, a helper unlike any other. It says, “I don't want you walking into this new year with anything that you're not meant to hold, so I'm going to draw everything up to the surface that's been lying dormant, that's been lying inside. I'm going to bring it all up. So it essentially can like, pop open. So it can be acknowledged. So that it can be cleared and healed. Anything that's been really festering.”
When we're in that kind of process, we don't know we're not at the point where we can see healing, where we can feel the relief. We're just kind of in the inflammation part of it. We're in the drawing up part of it. So Pisces season is a huge death time, it does represent doors closed, closing and huge endings. It's the end of this year. It's the end of this time. It's the end of this shared experience that's brought us from 2020 to now. So we're feeling all of the things. It's really intense.
The Moon card is also very famous, as is Pisces season, for drawing up echoes of the past, so it can really feel like, “Oh, I'm back in this. I haven't grown. I haven't changed. I'm the same.”
My teacher Michelle always says, and I find it so useful … She always reminds me: the external embodiment of something is the last thing we see in a very long line of huge internal work. So when we see the fruit on a tree, the flower on a tree, there's a lot of work that's had to go into that. There's a lot of undoing, shedding, clearing, preparation, a lot of internal growth before we see that little sproutling come up through the soil, before we see those buds, see those flowers. And you are there. That is you. That is where you are right now.
I'm sure it feels like nothing's going on and nothing makes sense. And everything's really liminal and uncomfortable right now. Those are facts. That's just reality. And it's high-degree Pisces time working on us, making sure that we're really not bringing anything into this new time that we've outgrown, we're just no longer meant to hold anymore.
So in our minds, very often, we can think about that. And imagine like, “Oh, we just understand intellectually, this thing doesn't match us so we're just going to let it go.” And we know that in reality, it's not often how it works.
[0:12:02]
How it often plays out is that we have an old pattern, or a familiar pattern, arise. And the things around it are no longer reacting in the same way. It's very clear through the contrast that's coming up that we've outgrown it in some way, that it no longer serves the whole. It could be that we have expanded to this point. And we're really just, again, spending our time in this season, clearing out, reviewing, reflecting. Is there any kind of part in the bigger chain of what I do, how I live, how I operate, that really needs some healing and repair? That maybe I need some accountability or support or tending or processing on?
Sometimes with Pisces season, it just starts with like, I'm going to acknowledge this is in here. I'm going to acknowledge this is here. I didn't know it. I didn't see it. Like, it's very much a key signature of this time. And the Equinox is the moment where we crossed the bridge, where we crossed that threshold, where we move from, really, the time on the Zodiac spiral, where we have we can see the least, where the night is absolutely at its zenith, where nothing is clear, nothing is sure, absolutely nothing.
And once we move into Aries season, things start to kick up, things start to move. This is a movement from The Moon, which is about rooting into liminality, the void, not knowing discomfort, allowing things to come up to the surface to be processed and we can see them, but we also can't.
The Emperor is like the sun dawning over the mountain. It's the mountain itself. It's the wingspan of the bird. It's the fresh air in our lungs. It's the scream and the shout of the newborn baby. It's the moment where life begins again, and we are moving toward that. And it's so powerful, because The Emperor is so much about rooting into this idea that we have a right to be here, fundamentally, as a birthright at our core, at our soul.
[0:14:26]
No one can take that away from us. Every one of us has something that is crucially important to bring. We matter. We matter. How can we step up into the world and share that? Even though we may have really big trauma about that, really big fear, really big doubt, huge conditioning.
“I can't take up space. There's no way.” You know, some of us aren't as challenged with that. Some of us are really challenged with that. How can we be with that, you know?
In kind of the sub area in terms of the ruling planet, you know, we have The Tethered One for this time really keeping us in this state of suspension so that, again, we're in that chrysalis so we don't leave that chrysalis until we're ready. And then when we move over into Aries, we shift into The Tower, which is actually quite welcome.
It's really wonderful to be in Aries/Tower energies. Intense. Aries season is extra (Lindsay laughs). I say this as an Aries. I love this season, but it's also, like, a lot. The Tower is really the emergence from the chrysalis. It's really the chrysalis falling apart and us kind of emerging as these butterflies, different in this new world where we have the opportunity to take all of the internal work we've been doing and match it to some external change. So this is really powerful.
[0:16:04]
And you know, from an energetic standpoint, we've had a lot of these recently, because we're in such unbelievably crucial times. We're in a life or death time right now. Like, we're deciding basically, will the planet continue to support life as we've known it or not? Or, you know, what does it look like? So it really is asking more than ever before, from moment to moment, accountability, presence, personal responsibility, and there's so much about the Equinox that really holds this.
There's a lot that's coming up for us right now in Pisces season that is, I don't know how to verbalize it. What I can say is that energetically, this threshold is very, very important. And whatever is coming up for you now, today, in the next few days, I highly encourage you to really offer your attention to it without judgment, to just notice. How are you? Where are you? What are the themes and the patterns of this time?
It's been very fascinating for me to do that work myself. A lot of illumination around the themes of this moment that certainly in Pisces fashion don't feel new. They feel like visitors from the past, but that's the beauty of this season, is the last tendrils. Pisces is the best at that. If there are any threads, they're going to really take the time to clear them out of the tapestry so that we can come into the world in a kind of rebirth energy. And be really, really solid in what we're bringing into that time.
This threshold, this Equinox portal, is really potent. And if we want to lean into it, in whatever way feels right for you, it's a really powerful time to reflect and meditate on that theme, on like, “What is getting shared? What's the chrysalis you're dropping, you're shedding? How can you bow to it, thank it for what it's brought you and move forward into a time when you're flying, rather than crawling in your little caterpillar body?” So, it's very big. I certainly feel it. I always do.
These points within the wheel are big for me in my body, and I think probably most of you are feeling too. So really welcoming The Emperor, welcoming The Tower. It’s a great thing.
[0:18:59]
Today we're looking at: how can we consider each Tarot card that we pull as an invitation? So again, for many of you listening, you might be like, “Yeah, like I already … That's old news,” which is totally fair. Maybe you've never thought of it this way.
So the Tarot is a pretty poor predictor of the cycles to come. That's not to say that there aren't exquisitely talented people who are put here on the planet to help folks plan and prepare for the cycles ahead, who can really see and divine those in ethical and integral ways. I mean, totally bowing to that. But in general, on a day-to-day basis, as a root, core understanding, the future is not fixed, so Tarot can't really reliably predict it.
The Tarot can't really do or work outside of the general systems of life, you know. It can't really. We're just really attaching it if we're only using it to see what's over here, what's over there, what's coming, what might be, what's then, what's now, or what's then rather than what's now. We're sort of attaching it to a kind of a tool that might be utilized for bypassing. That's not always true, but it can absolutely be true.
The future is dictated, is woven, is born from our actions today, in this moment, and it's very, very challenging to show up in as much care and support and presence as we might want to, if we are unwilling to pay attention to what is happening inside of us, to what is asking for our attention. It's not to say that we ever want to utilize that as an excuse not to show up, not to lean into discomfort, not to prioritize the people that we're serving or caretaking. There some people listening to this who haven't had a fucking moment to themselves in a year and a half.
So I want to really acknowledge that. I never want to put more pressure on our capacities or resources for self tending, but what we're talking about is just acknowledging. What we're talking about isn't going in, unpacking, exploring, discovering. You can do that. Sometimes it’s just as simple as saying, “There is so much rage here right now. I feel messy and hurt and upset and exhausted. That is here. That is present. I feel so sick and tired of the same old bullshit.” (Lindsay laughs) You know, like whatever it is. Just acknowledging that can open up so much.
[0:22:15]
Sometimes that's ultimately the key we're looking for, almost 95% of the time, I think, is just looking, looking, looking, looking. What can shift this? Change this? Help this? Make this go away?
The first step is really just acknowledgement. Witnessing, if we can. Processing, if we have the means or the ability in that moment. Recentering, soothing, tending, in whatever way we can.
What does all this have to do with the Tarot? Well, if we are available, to lean into the Tarot as a tool to mirror back to us the invitation that's happening within the heart, within ourselves, what we're most being invited to offer and devote our attention to, it can really help us come home to what is. And the more we're available to come home to what is, the more we're actually available to show up in our center in the moments that matter, weaving and creating and birthing the most aligned future that we possibly can in this moment for all beings, for all beings.
It can really help us to step into another level of personal responsibility. It can be extremely powerful to move into that space. So this can happen when we are utilizing and looking to each card that we pull as an invitation. So this is often very subtle. It's also not the rule or the way; it's just a way, and if we were really wanting to bond more with our decks, create and form meanings and intimate connections with these cards that feel like they're really ours, that feel like they're really rooted in our own experience, starting with the Tarot as an invitation is a really powerful way to do that if we feel kind of contracted or conflicted or anxious or boxed by the cards we pull.
[0:24:34]
This can come up for a lot of people if we pull, like I would say, a big card coming with a big energy, like the Death card. The mind is always working to protect, to understand, to seek, to know, so if the mind sees a card like that we may have so many beautiful, grooved sets of experiences, so much evidence of the Death card being a gift and a treasure to receive that we may not worry about it.
But for some people, right situation, right time, we can pull a card like that, and the mind can start to spin, “Well, what's that going to bring me? Do I have to prepare for something? Is it telling me, you know, whatever? Is it trying to give me like a heads up in some way?”
And that's not something that I can ever say, I used to be really like, “Never ever,” but I'm always growing and evolving and softening and getting more humble, and who am I to say that something is always or isn't always, right?
The piece about the Tarot only living in the present moment, or really flourishing in the present moment. That's not even just saying like, “I know something about the Tarot that other people don't.” Obviously, there's so many cultures that have used the Tarot for divining what's to come. And I have nothing but respect for that.
It's just simply to acknowledge that the future literally is not a fixed thing. So it's very hard to root down and create a foundation in that idea, when the future is always changing along with us. And really reclaiming that, along with our free will, I think, is a very important part of the way that we're being invited to investigate Tarot now.
But it's not always that a card has to show up in one way, in another, right? We're just moving into this idea of consideration, like, what might this be bringing? What invitation might this be bringing forward for me? How might I be asked to pay attention to that? You know, so it's not always that cards like that, big or sort of however they land with us ... It's not that it never lets us know, “Hey, you know, there's maybe something that you're being invited to prepare for.” But even that is softer than, “Oh my God, this is coming.” Right?
Because likely, if we're in the Death card, even if we are not at the point where the leaf is leaving the tree in an external way, if it is a more externally-rooted Death card experience, we are letting go of something very tangible. We're in preparation for that typically, for a while, until that happens, you know, so even that is an invitation. So what does this mean and feel like? And what does it mean to shift from, “This is what this card is or will be,” or, “This is what I'm supposed to do,” to just looking at it as an invitation? Again, this can really, really create spaciousness around cards and is a really, really subtle shift.
[0:27:48]
So let's take some examples. Let's go right to the heart of this, and let's talk about Three of Swords.
So Three of Swords: very traditional meaning, pretty over-cultural definition of this, this is like a betrayal. It's a stab in the heart. It's a stab in the back. This is a foreshadowing of a hard, tough thing to come. And I get it, you know, because all we need to do is look at the imagery on it to feel like everything in my body/mind experience does not want this, right?
So, if we're looking at it from a perspective of this has been, will be. Has been? Maybe, absolutely. Sometimes if there hasn't been a specific circumstance that matches the traditional meaning we can start to get into a little bit of a swirl of doubt. You know, if we're really hooked on the meaning of “Oh, this card indicates a betrayal of some kind” and our client goes “I'm not aware of that,” it can cause us to have a feeling of lack of confidence, whatever.
Sometimes we can look into this card, if we pull it, we can get worried. “Well maybe something happened I didn't know about.” Whatever it is. Very often there are times when we pull Three of Swords, and it matches that and it'll come up around what has been, and it's a big opportunity to honor and acknowledge something, absolutely. We're not saying that never happens. Again, in this episode, we're just leaving space. We want to create space on the other side. Like, that side is pretty well established. This other side is not so much. So what's on that other side, right?
[0:29:36]
We don't necessarily know how this card has shown up, will show up, for anyone. What we do know about Three of Swords is no matter what got those swords into your heart, no matter what put the sting, put the crunch, put the pain there, whether it's very old and is being activated by something totally random and subtle, or very clear and overt, or something you know, that's happening right, right now. It's super fresh and super, again, specific.
The invitation of this card never wavers, never variates. No matter what, this card is an invitation to tend a deep, heart wound, pain that we are in, that is living underneath, typically, some really loud mental strategizing.
When we get hurt, when something happens, when we're uncomfortable, we want to figure it out. We want to fix it. We want to deal with it. We want to make it okay. We can sometimes go into old patterning. We can regress. We can pull away. We can isolate. We can push forward. We cannot take the space we're really needing, because the mind being the helpful little Engine That Could, that it is, wants to make it better.
[0:31:10]
It wants to say, “Okay, we're uncomfortable. Let's fix it by doing this. By making up with this person, by distancing from this person.” Don't get me wrong—sometimes that is the answer. But even if we're taking a very clear action, that task of actually going to the rawness, going to the pain, taking those swords out of the heart and pressing our hands against the wounds and the blood and the tears, it's a step that we most often skip.
It's a step that we totally, understandably, don't want to take in this process, because it's incredibly intense to feel those feelings and to let them wash over us, and to let them crack inside of us and break open and clear out that pain again and again.
It's a big sting, this card, but it's in you. We all carry grief, we all carry wounds and trauma that are enormous. And when we look to Three of Swords as an invitation, rather than what is or what will be, we leave a massive amount of space. We're actually occupying a much more integral, empowered role as reader because we don't know whether or not this card will be representative of a betrayal, a heartache, a backstabbing. We actually don't know that. And to put that inside of our clients heads, it's ethically pretty, you know, it's a challenging space to occupy, right?
[0:33:03]
We may feel like we're doing the right thing by preparing them, but is it really helpful to someone's nervous system to be on high alert? I don't know. You know, it's something I think about a lot, having a trauma-informed practice, and it's something that I opt not to do and I think is a good rule of thumb to come back to this place of consideration.
The invitation, again, it never variates, never, ever wavers no matter what the circumstance, what the situation. Anytime we pull Three of Swords, that opportunity, that invitation will await us. There's never going to be a time where that's not going to await us, and it's amazing because the brain is just so loud and present, like I'm always surprised when my mind is whirring and clicking, trying to fix, trying to figure out, and I get really agitated and the energy gets so heightened, it's always a surprise, like “Oh yeah, like I'm hurting, I’m confused. There's pain here, there’s tears here. Oh my word.”
You know, there's something, always, that is a bit surprising. It's kind of the last place we go. We don't make a lot of space for grief. It's super raw and uncomfortable. So it makes sense that we don't.
When we consider the invitation of Three of Swords, it makes a lot of room in this card, it empowers the client and you to establish a kind of a practice of self tending, that is priceless and timeless, that is a completely evergreen practice, which is like we may really come up and come forward. We may really express our truth. We may take action immediately. We may not have room to do this Three of Swords grief work for a while. And yet, it will eventually come for us.
[0:35:18]
So when we pull this card in a reading and it shows up as an invitation, sometimes it's just a gentle reminder. Sometimes it's just here to say, “Hey, there's more here than you're saying. Hey, there's more here than you might realize.”
Or you may be really leaning into the how, the how not to, the structure, the strategy, “What do I do about this?,” instead of dropping into the feeling space. There's something in your heart, there's a message in your heart that's trying to get to you, and it can't, because you're trying to avoid the pain, very transformative, to lean into this card in this way. And that is really, I think, ultimately, what it's bringing, that's what's possible with this card. It's really quite beautiful.
Then, even if we are in a situation where, heaven forbid, where we are betrayed, you know, we do have an incredibly painful shock when it comes to the behavior of someone, it will still ask us, the heart will still ask, “Please be with me, please witness, please, please make space for me.” So, again, incredibly powerful invitation. Incredibly powerful.
Another really nice example of invitation as it pertains to Tarot cards we can speak about, maybe Queen of Wands, that's another great example. So this is a good example, because Queen of Wands doesn't really have a clear directive. It doesn't have the same kind of interpretive qualities as a card like a Minor or a Major has.
The Court Cards very traditionally are, you know, range from like, literal physical descriptions of other people to aspects of ourselves, but not typically rooted in a kind of an actionable, invitational container, which is what I teach. But it's not super typical. Typically, it is way more about qualities of person, or a personage. So how might we break this down? What might the invitation of Queen of Wands be?
[0:37:45]
First of all, I just invite you to sit with that and check in against your own knowing, because likely, you have some brilliance in you that kind of knows already. There may have been a little feeling, a little flash-like sensation. When you even hear the name of this card, Queen of Wands. If you breathe that in, what happens? That's your first clue. That's something. It's a breadcrumb trail. What is this card inviting us into, right?
The key to checking in with a card invitation, which often wildly variates or is really different from the “interpretation” of the card, you have to listen to the card. You have to be willing to be with not-knowing. And not immediately go to a book, not immediately get “the answer,” because the books and answers and teachers and courses are wonderful, but they can't ever match or hold a candle to the brilliance that lives in you.
So sometimes just playing with like, “How does this card make me feel?” is the start, you know, and sometimes if the card makes us feel kind of shitty, we can call upon the Four C's of the Tarot. We can call upon the pillars to check it out, like, “Can I get curious about this? Can I bring critical thinking to this if I'm, you know, whatever it might be?”
So here's one way to start playing with Queen of Wands, and I'm really going to draw this circle. It’s going to be very, very wide. So we look to Soul Tarot, as with most different schools of thought, we look to The Queens as being ruled by the element of Water. The other Court Cards tend to really be super different; different elemental rulings from school of thought to school of thought, person to person.
Some people say The Kings are Fire, Earth, you know, Air, and the exact same different pairings and rulings are typically assigned to even The Pages and The Knights, like there are as many combos as you can imagine here, but The Queens most often are rooted in Water, very often that, or rather, not very often, we may see something different but that's typically the case.
[0:40:27]
You also get to check in around your own knowing. Do The Queens feel like Water to you? Do they feel like a different element? You may want to explore that.
The Queen of Wands, because Wands are Fire, is ruled by the double elementation of Water and Fire. So Water and Fire. How does that make you feel? You may think of Water like putting out a Fire. You may think of magic. I often do, like the idea that someone could hold Water and Fire in their hand, together. It would require some kind of alchemical process, some kind of magic perhaps, to allow the Fire and the Water to exist simultaneously, like what is that balance that's created?
One really powerful, this is also the way I teach Tarot Anchoring and all of this is covered in Rewilding the Tarot which is my new kind of Soul Tarot foundations course that's open for enrollment now (you can sign up and learn more here), that's kind of where we start with Tarot Anchoring too, that process of forming and building an anchor with a certain card. We start with associations. So the thing that helps me, my in road with Queen of Wands is a cauldron.
So think about the fact that in order for the Water to remain kind of whole and intact, and in order for the Fire to remain whole and intact in relationship with one another, we need some kind of different element to help us hold both.
[0:42:09]
So with that being said, we have Earth, it’s a really, really important part of a cauldron. Water, being warmed over open flame, like that inside of a vessel. We need a vessel for that to happen in. We need some kind of cauldron. We need wood, which is an element that is rooted in the Earth range. And we also need oxygen. We need oxygen to keep the flame going, like we need balance to help this really flourish.
And that says a lot about Queen of Wands. You know, this card is often known as, like, the witch of the deck, the magic-maker of the deck, the being that calls us back home to our magic, and this is a powerful thing to consider, because it really starts with elemental balancing.
It's sort of rooted to The Magician as well. The Magician has to go through that kind of consideration too, that the vessel that The Magician is an occupation of the body, that this earthly vessel, we really see in The Magician card visually, that that vessel opens when everything around it is balanced, when we're in right relationship with timing, with what's in highest and best.
And there's something inside of Queen of Wands that's very similar. It is about tending the vessel. We are the cauldron that is both being heated, our water sort of bubbling and being heated by that flame, and we are the flame doing the warming.
So how do we work with both parts of us? We need that vessel. We need the channel. We need our practices. We need our tools. Our own ways of connecting in with those energetic sources to help us.
[0:44:11]
So the invitation of this card. You can see that it could be so many different things, that I could never tell you the exact invitation that would sum it all up for you. But a couple of different options are an invitation to drop into how these themes make you feel. Like, how do the ideas of cauldrons, of magic and witches and Fire and Water, how do they make you feel? What are the associations that come up around that for you? Where does it put you in mind of? What kinds of things do you want to do when you think about that?
For some people, the Queen of Wands has a super sexual component for them that it really puts them in touch with that energetic center and, of course, sets up a huge center of creation and can be expressed in so many different ways. Not all of us are sexual beings. For some people, it activates them on a purely creative, action-based level.
For other folks, this is about deepening into an area of study of magic. It also can be a time when we're being asked to sort of check in with what is being brewed in our cauldron. I often have, in my kind of field research and my tracking and just, like, noticing, when I pull Queen of Wands, it's often when I am in some kind of doubt about my magic. When I feel like my work or my creative expression or who I am, isn't enough in some way. I have put that together and noticed that.
[0:46:01]
One place to start exploring in terms of the invitational element of Queen of Wands, is: could this card be inviting you back home to the absolute necessity, and beauty and worth and value and gorgeousness, perfection, of your particular magic?
Maybe it's not about you necessarily feeling that it's great. Maybe it's just about acknowledging that just by virtue of you being here, it's spectacular. It's beautiful. What you're bringing today is absolutely amazing. That you do have. You are your own gatekeeper to these practices. You can play. You can weave. You can create your own meaning. You can find your way into magic.
All of us are different. For some of us, this is a practice we get to with knitting, with painting, with wool crafting, with being present on the front lines, with catching babies with, you know, taking care of our community. There's no shortage. This is not just about like, casting spells, although that's a pretty fucking beautiful part of it.
“How does it make you feel?” is the first place to start. And beginning with those sort of root elements of the cards can be very, very helpful. Like Fire and Water, thinking about: how do those two things coexist? What are the elements that can help them along? That can be really, really powerful.
So an invitation to come back home to our magic in some way, to be in the embodiment of our inner cauldron. You know, what does that bloom open for you in terms of the way you consider this card? That's really where we want to start thinking about it. So another wonderful thing about looking to each card as an invitation is that it makes room for us to weave into being our own brilliant, wise knowing about these cards.
[0:48:01]
So I'm going to shift over to the question that was asked by Erin, whose inquiry is, “I was wondering if you could help with some suggestions for how I can move from doing my readings to actually implementing the things brought forward. For example, when the question is ‘How can I best tend myself?’, I sometimes find it overwhelming even when I can decipher what the cards are suggesting. It often feels like I need to form completely new habits, or the brain kicks up a big fuss about, say, a Four of Wands answer. How can we be gentle with ourselves while actually acting/changing behavior as a result of a reading?”
This is such a good question. I think that overwhelm is super real. And I think that starting with bowing from a place of total compassion around again, like, I don't want to over romanticize the mind, but our minds are always just trying to help, even if it really doesn't feel like that. (Lindsay laughs) And I think in these moments (because overwhelm really comes from a mental space, right?), it's not like the soul gets overwhelmed. Which by the way, doesn't make it any less valid or important.
I think we first can start with like, “Okay, there's overwhelm here. What information might that be bringing me when I say the Tarot lives in the present moment?” I mean, like, actually in the microcosm of the present moment that actually might be a whole different branch to start to root into and see, if you want to unpack, what is at the heart of this overwhelm? What is it the heart of the mind sort of coming in and being like, “Well, how can I actually really make this count? How can I implement it? How can I, for lack of a better way, come in and sort of control the experience, you know?”
[0:50: 23]
So it may be as simple as you just remembering and naming for yourself like, “Hey, sweet brain, thanks so much for trying to like, control all aspects of this to, you know, try to keep me safe and well. I've got it, but thank you.”
And then sort of leaving some space to make a shift, then just simply asking yourself, “What's one sort of thing that I could hold in my heart today, that might keep me a little closer to the sweetness, the magic, the medicine of this card?” So if like, let's say, let's play with what you mentioned here, Four of Wands, right?
Sometimes, for me, pulling Four of Wands, I don't do anything special. I don't go off and play. I don't take the day off. Sometimes, actually, when I pull Four of Wands, it's a wonderful confirmation of the need for space. But sometimes it's about finding pleasure. In a very big deadline, or whatever it is, you have permission to be really subtle here. I think the answer to this is giving yourself permission to not have to make it anything so apparent, to not have to kind of take it all and implement it all.
Because again, it sounds like your mind is sort of popping in the front seat and really being like, “I got the wheel from here.” (Lindsay laughs) You know, and in those moments, you want to just say like, “Thanks, sweetheart, but I'm going to put you back in the car seat.” And really just I want to divert and defer to the card itself. Like, “What would you have me now? How would you like to be expressed?” Sometimes for me, personally, this may not resonate for you, I have to tune in with my inner little kid, and say like, “Hey, we have this card today. How would you like to play with this card? Are you needing something from me? Is this a message whatever it is?”
So I think the first piece “How can we be gentle with ourselves?” is really just to remember that what's happening in your cases is as understandable and as appropriate and valid as it comes. Like, it's just the brain being the brain. And you can also play with how it might feel to honor the good intentions of the mind. And to really just say, “Okay, great, there's overwhelm here, there's information. That's information.”
[0:53:05]
Maybe that's a reflection to other ways that my mind comes in and actually dusts up and creates a lot of overwhelm, rather than just letting me find my way. That's an unlearning that can sometimes be long, right?
So I think being gentle with ourselves just starts with noticing without necessarily feeling like the overwhelm is a problem. And also, acting/changing behavior as a result of the reading. I don't know that we have to. And maybe that's the key that can help relieve this pressure for you.
These cards are just invitations. So if you pull Four of Wands, you don't have to do anything with that. That's just a gentle invitation, like, can you leave room for play? It might be as simple as like playing a video game with your kid or with your partner or with yourself. Unless video games are like a deep, rich part of your medicine and your self care and your delight in the world, and then in which case that wouldn't be so strange or new for you.
But sometimes it's as simple as, like, making space for something that you know will stoke some play energy. Sometimes it's certain music. It's just like, “How can you hang with this card?” It's almost like a cup of tea that stays warm all day. How can you sip on it? How can you, you know, whatever it is? And I highly recommend that if you pull a card that this comes up with maybe like keep it out all day, and just be like, “Hey.”
And gently start to see what happens when you can bring about a little bit more gentleness. Because I hear you when you say like, you understand the reading and implementing it, it's different. I don't know that it's a problem that we're not implementing it all the time. And I think a lot more gets infused. Sometimes we need like, a couple rounds with something to be like, “Okay, I'll try that out.”
[0:55:26]
Basically, be gentle with yourself. And you asked, “How can we do that?” Making space for those feelings, really leaving room to investigate that overwhelm, to be really gentle and really sweet with that itself. And to explore some potentially pressure-free, maybe typically unusual ways of really just letting the card kind of steep into your day or your life and let it sort of be a candle that's just lit in the background, supportive, that you can gaze up anytime that it draws your attention.
I think sometimes cards just work for us in the background, sometimes. And again, we can lean in if and when we need it. Yeah, sometimes, I don't know. I think you're touching on a bigger process. It's like we can have all the tools and then like, how do we actually show up and use them? I think sometimes we get to the point where we don't do it, we don't do it. Helps to know that we have them and then all of a sudden, like we do, and then we may never go back to it again.
So I think dropping into slowly but surely like deeper comfort, deeper familiarity, with that more spiralic way, really just taking the pressure off of yourself, essentially. I think this question is so important and noble, but also knowing that being gentle with yourself starts with just being gentle with how you actually work with implementing a card’s energy into your life. That's important too.
I hope that was useful. It was a wonderful question. Thank you so much for listening, loves. I adore all of you. I hope you have an absolutely glorious Equinox. Again, if you want to learn more about Rewilding the Tarot, it is open for enrollment. Material is dropping very, very soon. You can click the link on the show notes or go to tarotforthewildsoul.com to learn more or to sign up. And until we meet again next week, please take exquisite care of yourselves.
[Conclusion]
[0:58:46]
(Instrumental exit music)