160. Spiralic Growth with Two + Three of Wands

 

This month on T-WS podcast, we are diving into the beautiful, flaming heart of the Wands suit, exploring a different Wands card or card pairing each week.

In today's episode, we are exploring the Two and Three of Wands, navigating their similarities and differences, and unpacking helpful ways to begin to deepen our understanding of these potent energies.

 
 

Air date:
April 9, 2021

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About the Episode

In today's episode, we are exploring the Two and Three of Wands, navigating their similarities and differences, and unpacking helpful ways to begin to deepen our understanding of these potent energies.

We also answer some listener questions about these two cards, talk about how we can approach the Wands suit on a whole, and dig into the sweet and exhilarating New Moon in Aries coming up on 4/11.

Our Listener Questions [0:29:41]

  • “Two and Three of Wands are really hard for me to ground into. Every time I learn something, I can't remember which it applies to. They're both so aloof and so similar. Can you help teach us about these cards, how they play off of each other, how they're unique in a way that will hopefully stick in my brain and body?” —Aviva

  • “For me, the most boring cards are the Two and Three of Wands. They are so similar, and when either comes up, I really don't know what to think. Yes, we're lighting the fire and taking it further. But is that all there is? Thank you for your amazing teaching and insight. You've changed my relationship with Tarot.” —Anonymous

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: patriarchal conditioning and capitalism

The content in this episode contains references to patriarchal conditioning and capitalism. 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 Loves, it’s Linds. 

Just wanted to share very quickly the exciting news that all of the beautiful course content and the course materials for my brand-new offering, Rewilding the Tarot, are now up, live, ready for you to view and engage with immediately. 

So if you've been thinking about taking the leap, the container is officially open and ready for you, if and when you do feel that call. 

Rewilding is a self-guided, foundational Tarot course for anyone who wants to dive into the fundamentals of Soul Tarot, and of working with their deck in a soul-guided way. And this course contains gorgeous audio and video lessons, stunning workbooks, an incredibly robust and comprehensive Q&A database to support you in any questions you may have along the journey, and so much more. 

So you can learn more about it by going to tarotforthewildsoul.com or Soul Tarot School. And if you do feel that call, I look forward to serving you there. 

Thanks so much, Loves.

(Instrumental intro music)

[0:01:19]

Hello Loves, and welcome back to Tarot for the Wild Soul podcast. I am your host, Lindsay Mack, and as always, just so thankful, so grateful to be gathered with you in this virtual shared space. Thank you so much for being here with me today. 

So it is Aries season. And as such, we're going to be diving into the heart, I think, the heart of cardinal fire in the Tarot, which is The Wands. Even though The Wands aren't technically, by the book, cardinal fire, they really… this feels like the perfect time (Lindsay laughs)

Cardinal fire, rather than fixed or mutable — though of course those are swirled in there, too — feels like... Aries season just feels like the absolute right time to dive into this really kind of misunderstood suit. Kind of deeply complex, which really speaks to the nature of how complex, I think, fire energy in astrology and just sort of elementally, is just… it's so big. It's just — it's capable of so many things. 

And so we're going to dive into sort of a different Wands card, or card pairing, or energy each of the three weeks of April until we get to our May Monthly Medicine. 

[0:02:48]

And yeah, I would be remiss, with all this talk of cardinal fire, if I didn't speak about the New Moon in Aries that's happening on Sunday, the 11th of April. Phew... big. Feeling this one. 

In some ways, this feels like a very, very big leap into sort of — I mean, who knows how these things really play out. But certainly, the opportunity, what's possible inside of this, whether or not we sort of feel it, or whether or not we see it with evidence sort of outside of our lives — this New Moon in Aries may be kicking off a new time, as new moons are always. These gorgeous times where — these beautiful new cycles and these moments when it really lets us know, cyclically, something new is happening. 

It's Ace energy, right? It's, we're handed something, and really anything is possible. And sort of the seed that we're being handed is that of Emperor medicine, that of Aries medicine. And Aries is, in and of itself, the new moon of the zodiac. This is the birth of a brand new cycle, you know, in our year. So really, we kind of have a rebirth wrapped up in a rebirth with this New Moon in Aries, which is really, really beautiful. 

At its core and at its heart, we are planting seeds in a way that really feels best and resonant to us around our desire, our freedom, our permission, checking in with our relationship to taking up sacred space. 

Now, when we think about that, a lot of the time, I think most of us jump to, like, speaking to a group, you know? Like actually kind of, like, being a leader of a large group of people. And if that's you, you know... and really, the term “leader” is sort of, you know... can be interpreted in so many different ways. And leadership can look like so many different things. 

But Emperor energy can come up around us telling someone how they made us feel, you know? Our willingness to say, “Hey, this was the impact,” you know (Lindsay laughs), “of what you said. You don't need to give me anything. I don't need to hear your story or your excuse. I just needed you to know, this was your impact.” That's big Emperor medicine. 

Being able to say, “Hey, I would like more of this. I would like more, I'd like to see you more. I'd love for you to see me,” you know? “I would love to connect more, love to…” That vulnerability, that's all inside of The Emperor. 

And then, you know, a huge part of The Emperor too is also, like, the freedom to know that another person, another situation — they don't have to do, ever, what we want them to do. But it's the freedom and the vulnerability to speak it aloud. 

So there is something to this New Moon in Aries that is very much connected to us stepping forward and saying, “This is what I would like.” Even if you're just doing it quietly, privately, on your altar. It's a time for very big dreams, very big visions. 

“This is what I desire. This is what I'm hoping for. This is what I'm longing for. This is what I feel is within me. And I may not know how to get there, but what I'm hoping for, this is it.”

Noticing what's coming up for you, like, what themes are arising for you. You know, we often have to think outside of the box when it comes to this energy. But really, we have an opportunity at this New Moon in Aries, to kind of rebirth, to start something new. The slate is being wiped clean, in many ways, and we get a chance to really review. 

Although new moons are not always a review time. I think when we're thinking about this idea of sort of Aries on New Moon energy, it’s such a big birth, that I do think that sometimes it can be really valuable to check out the seed pod that we're sort of outgrowing and bursting forth from, you know? 

Like, what was the night before the sun dawned? Like, what was that seed pod? What was that time about? Sort of checking in with the Pisces of it all before moving into Aries. 

So yeah, what is it inviting us to pay attention to? And what new things are we really feeling drawn to take a leap into? It could be so private, personal, internally directed. Or it could be very much like, “Hey, this is what I'm about. This is who I am. This is where I'm at,” in a way that nobody needs to give you anything for it. 

Like, remember, it's always — like, we're humans, right? We do this, we hope certain things have impact. We hope certain things elicit sometimes a particular response. We can't ever control another human being. We can't ultimately even control the outcome of circumstances. 

So really just being aware of that and saying, “You know, no matter what, this is my choice. This is what I choose to do. This is how I choose to step forward in Emperor energy.”

It's a really powerful one. And I encourage you to let it move through you in whatever way. You may not work with it so traditionally, whatever traditional is — like at your altar with candles, or however you flow with new moons. Maybe that you celebrate, you know, responsibly, with friends in a socially distanced way. 

It could be that you have a really powerful sort of, like, time with yourself outside. It could be that you treat yourself that day. It could be that you just rest and do nothing. That's — as an Aries, that's a really nice Aries trait that not many people (Lindsay laughs) talk about. Being willing to really just take time. 

It's a good kickstart to that too, you know. To be able to say on a new moon, like, “I choose to work with this New Moon in Aries energy by taking space. By shutting my phone off, or by turning it on only to engage with what I choose to engage with — beloveds, and friends, and stuff that really lights me up.” Beautiful, right? 

So wishing everyone an absolutely beautiful New Moon. 

[0:09:43]

So The Wands — mm. I mean, in the history of my career as a teacher of Tarot, which is... you can't possibly teach this without also being, like, an eternal student. Because there are things that I've said about certain things in the Tarot that I'm like, “Wow, I so have outgrown that,” or hits so different for me now. I think probably most folks who teach or talk about the Tarot, or even work with the Tarot, would agree with that. 

But I would say out of all of the aspects of the Tarot, The Wands are the most nebulous, right? They're the part of the Tarot that I would say, of my students, it's the most challenging to grasp. And so if you feel that way, you are not alone. They're not simple. 

The problem is — and I'm speaking very broadly here — The Wands have been really overly simplified, and for better or worse. We're not saying it's good or bad; we're just observing. 

Pamela Colman Smith, who illustrated the Smith Rider Waite Tarot and created those beautiful images for that deck, had a very strong vision for The Wands suit that really is rooted in some pretty strong kind of patriarchal force and ego. And that's really informed, you know… it's hard to overstate the impact, the ripple effect of that deck and Pamela Colman Smith's illustrations, her artistic interpretations — or their artistic interpretations. I’m not sure of Pamela Colman Smith's pronouns. 

But it's hard to overstate that. And so so many decks have drawn from that. And depending on the book you read, depending on the tradition, there's a real range. Like, it's hard to drill down on kind of what these cards are. 

And they — I think, really, of all the suits in The Minors, wildly vary, and in beautiful ways, from deck to deck. Because we also have folks who've sort of honored the more traditional leanings of The Wands and have said that, “That is so not how I see them. I'm reaching out. I'm branching out into another way.” And we have, you know, some decks that really explore it as connection, as connecting with ancestors, as reclaiming sexuality, working with energy. 

And really, that's sort of a — that in and of itself is sort of a universal theme of The Wands. It's, like, working with available energy. 

[0:12:24]

We all have these flames that live within us. They all show up differently. Like, how are we working with that? 

It's ultimately what the fire signs learn anyway, you know? The fire signs all have different kinds of flames that live within them, different kinds of fire that flow from within them. How do they work with that fire? It's a very important, tempestuous element — requires a lot of respect, tending, and care. How do we work with them? 

The Wands are really, no matter kind of how we interpret them, look at them, they're here to be our guide for that kind of work in our lifetime. How do we work with “The Flame,” capital T, capital F? 

If you're not a fire sign, if you don't, “have any fire in your chart,” although likely, you probably do if you have some stuff in your fire houses or some aspects to things. But I believe you and I honor you, if you feel, like, completely not like a “fiery” person. 

You still have an inner flame. It just may show up differently than someone else who has a different kind of elemental connection. It may be that your fire shows up really differently than another person's. 

And it's really important, I think, to move out of this aspect of this idea that fire looks like one thing or shows up in one way. A huge bonfire with a beautiful group of people that we're all singing in, and cooking food in, and roasting marshmallows on, is very different than a ritual fire. Which is very different than a candle lit in the middle of the night on our altar, or that we're reading in front of, or whatever it is. 

Flames, the core of them are the same. It's the life force; it's the pulse. It's the warmth of the sun that cracks open the seed. 

Wands help us move. They help us go, period. They're the thing that's the impetus that moves us forward in a very human way, in terms of our drive, our ambition, our desires, right? They help us move forward.

In a much larger way, The Wands really help us to work with the kind of flame we've got. Sometimes for us, if we're really... if we have beautifully fiery, hot (Lindsay laughs) feelings, and sometimes those really big feelings extend into rage, into anger, maybe into jealousy, into anxiety, The Wands can help us to work with that. They really can. 

They can help us to say, “Hey, how can I cool this? How can I be with this? How can I honor that my heat goes all the way up to this high? How can I take personal responsibility for those really powerful experiences without shaming myself and without causing harm, you know, to myself or others by acting out of those, you know, in a way that maybe is not the best for all?” 

That doesn't mean that by virtue of us being angry, or being deeply in our rage, or even having a conversation with someone where we're being very direct about how their energy or their impact has brought that up for us — that's not what I'm talking about, right? So we know. We can feel that. 

The Wands are in the hot emotions. The Wands rule over that. They honestly rule over a lot of the things that we have a lot of shame about. 

So it's a big thing. And it makes sense that we haven't quite dropped into the core of The Wands collectively, because I think collectively, as a planet, we're pretty used to suppressing all the stuff that comes up in The Wands. We don't like to look at anger. We want to sweep that the hell out of here. We don't like to look at really extreme feeling. 

Even at excitement. There's a lot of delight, excitement — there's a lot of emotion, there's a lot of emotion on display in The Wands. You're shining your light, you know? It's very, very powerful. And really, again, they're so personal, because all of us are going to relate to them in a completely different way. 

[0:17:01]

What I can say that might be a very, very useful touchstone for folks who really just want to be like, what are these cards? Like, what is this suit? 

A great place to start is to, again, think of your inner wand as a kind of a pilot light. 

It's the thing that drives you. It's the thing that really makes you who you are. The Wands reflect that light in us that, again, some folks have as just this beautiful candle that just shines so brightly, so steadfastly. Some folks have wild bonfires, wildfire energies. 

And all of us are entitled to our feelings about that. Maybe some of us would prefer to be more of a candle (Lindsay laughs) versus, like, a giant fire. I actually think that's so part and parcel of what The Wands are. We're often really uncomfortable with those pieces. And it just speaks to sort of the overcultural narratives as a whole. 

The Wands really say, “Embrace your fire. Embrace how it comes through you. Honor who you are. Honor these big, bold, raw, primal feelings. Primal feelings. They're allowed, they’re okay.” 

They also, as a suit — we really look, in Soul Tarot, this teaches us how to wisely use our available energy in the world. What does that mean? 

Again, everyone's pilot light is different. Everybody's working with a different sort of cup, with different amounts of spoons, with different capacities for creation, for energy, for output. 

And we really shame ourselves for that sometimes, don't we? Unless we've really done our work on that. Which, I mean, I bow to you with the greatest of respect, if you are like, “I have done my work on this.” Like, bowing to you (Lindsay laughs), like, hugely.

But a lot of us, if we feel like, “Oh, fuck, like, this person is so capable of doing XYZ,” they just may have a very different pilot light than you. 

We also do sometimes, some of us, go through stages where our life, you know, is a little stacked, a little full, for one reason or another. And it can be harder, you know, to get things accomplished in the same way someone else might be because of whatever circumstances. 

So The Wands really say, “Can you, in the Ace of Wands, say ‘yes’ to you? Can you honor where you are today? Can you utilize that flame and start letting the cauldron simmer a little bit? Can you honor this fire, how it’s showing up today, and what it can help you to create, how it can help you to move through the world?”

[0:20:09]

You know, in each of The Wands cards, we sort of navigate a different experience that's related to that, right? 

In the Two and Three of Wands — which I won't go into now, because we're going to talk about them today — you know, we get to look at that. They're really kind of advanced cards, I'd say, because they're almost, like, so subtle that it's hard to nail down sort of even what they are (Lindsay laughs), you know? Because they contain invitations that we're often not even, like, thinking about. 

Four of Wands is about play. If we have a big fire, if we even have a little fire, like, we need a little play. We need that. Fire energy must have that. It wants joy, it wants balance. In order to keep a fire going, all elements have to be balanced. It can't all be fire, right? It'll burn itself out. We need more to help stoke it. 

You know, in the Five of Wands, we really learned how to work with messiness, medicinal messiness. Creativity often breeds, like, a lot of feelings of contraction, frustration. That card really helps us to navigate that and honor where we're at.

We learn to celebrate ourselves in the Six of Wands. When the fuck have you learned how to do that? I've never learned how to do that. Like, that's inside of that. That's also a part of working with our fire, is joy, celebration.

Seven of Wands — such a complex energy that is so worthy of respect and consideration. Seven of Wands is essentially: “Is it appropriate for me to defend myself, to speak on something to take action? Or am I actually projecting onto this, and do I need to kind of pause? Is something happening here, or is nothing happening here?” That question is — there's no answer to it. Really, anytime we get Seven of Wands, it's the opportunity to reflect on that, like, “What is that?” Right? 

Eight of Wands — working with times where there's a lot of potential, a lot of really big movement, a lot of things moving around us. How do we work with that? Like, when something's in process. How do we hold ourselves? 

Nine of Wands — how do we honor periods of rest in the midst of big creativity? You know, rather than kind of shutting down and coming back, and shutting down and coming back... just a different rhythm. 

Ten of Wands — learning how to delegate. Learning how, in the long term, to give certain things away that are not no longer yours to carry. How to drop certain things forever. It's a very powerful — it really just is, over the course of the flow, how to keep the fires burning bright. How to not let them get too burned out so that you have no fire anymore. 

Or how to, like, sort of burn too hot. How do we keep the flame balanced so that we are moving, living, kind of going step by step through these processes of life where the fire can stay as sort of temperately balanced as possible?

You know, if there's too much wind, too much thinking, too much, you know — it's going to blow the candle out. If there's too much water, you know, it can blow the candle out. If there's too much earth, that can snuff the flame out. Then if there's not enough, we see effects of that as well. So we really want to honor that and just look at that. 

And it's a work in progress, right? Like, we all are. So in a nutshell, that's The Wands and how you can start to think about it and sort of start to work on your relationship with it. Of course, there are a million different ways to look at The Wands and connect with them. 

[0:24:02]

So in this particular episode, this episode is called Spiralic Growth with Two and Three of Wands. So Two and Three of Wands are cards that I certainly get asked about a lot. In my questions that I fielded from the community, these were asked about far and away more than any other Wands card, which I completely understand, because they're really seemingly quite baffling. 

And I don't know that I can have a solid answer on what these cards even are for y'all. Because I do think the Wands are so personal that it's hard to say, (Lindsay laughs) you know, like, what exactly, precisely they are. 

Of course, then we'll talk about the invitation. We'll talk about how they work together, because they kind of do. And I'm actually going to start with some questions, because the answer to the questions that were asked about these two cards — I'm just going to lead right into the lesson. 

But before I do, I had mentioned The Wands being connected to cardinal fire, and I wanted to expand on that. So again, this isn't sort of in any textbook, that The Wands are connected to cardinal fire, which would be Aries. But to me, they really are rooted in sort of the Aries experience predominantly. 

And I think that can be said of all of The Minors. The Cups are so about the Cancerian experience. They are also about Scorpio and Pisces, to be sure. It's water, and I never want to — no one's excluded (Lindsay laughs) from this. But it is, like — it's really Cancerian, that journey. Swords — super Libra, oh my gosh. Like, we're always trying to sort of balance, feel into things, we want to go deeper, we want to find our way. The Pentacles — so Capricorn. Building, tending, nurturing something over time. Very hard work. Of course, there's so much more to Capricorn than that. 

But deep medicine in that way can help us to really feel into this sort of cardinal energy. It also makes sense to reflect on the suits as cardinal because so much of what's inside of The Minors is really advice for life. Like, the hard, gnarly, human moments — like, how do we work through them with grace, with presence? How do we show up and really allow Tarot to be sort of a mirror for the experiences of life? 

I think, you know, reflecting on The Wands as a mirror for the themes of Aries is pretty powerful. Like, everything we were talking about — like, what's your pilot light? How do you work with it? 

Aries is like a fucking... that's a powerful-ass fire. It's really strong. And Aries has very strong feelings, very strong energies around it, very strong emotion. A lot of available fire. And even when we meet a very grounded Aries, you know, whatever that means to you, there's a lot of fire there that usually shows up in one way or another (Lindsay laughs)

And how are we choosing to use it? How are we respecting that fire? How and in what way can we honor that? 

So much of Aries is also pioneering. That's very much rooted in Wands. It's very much about sort of pioneering, wanting to step out, wanting to expand, wanting to explore. There's also a lot — you know, part of Aries’ sort of job in this lifetime is to do their own self study, so that they can guide and help other folks through what they're going through, based on their own experience, having gone through the same thing. So that's totally The Wands. 

So much of The Wands is: “What is in highest and best for me? What works for me?” 

Not from a really selfish “me, me, me” way, but actually in a way that serves everybody. Because when you're not trying to be something you're not, when you're not over-promising, when you're not trying to get something done in a way that is not really your style, your pace, your rhythm, your flow, you're actually free to be rerouted to something that does serve you. 

Which is why Ten of Wands, which is an incredible energy, is the last card of The Wands suit. Because it's a reflective point. What are you carrying? What are you taking on that is not in service of this pilot light? What can we remove so that your energy can shine so brightly so that you can really devote it to the things that matter to you? Is there even just, like, one thing you can take off your plate? 

We're just constantly working with that. We have all this available energy, all this available capacity. And all of us are on different journeys with, like, “Do I deserve to have space? Do I deserve to rest? Do I deserve to have more freedom, more ability to move around? Like, who am I to do this?”

Like, you know, we all go through those things. And so really honoring that as sort of the journey and how I think it — it's a perfect time, you know, this season of cardinal fire. Of course, we’ll be in, like, Taurus season in a week, but you get it (Lindsay laughs). To talk about, yeah, The Wands.

[0:29:41]

So — oh my gosh, Two and Three of Wands. So before I get into this, I'm just going to start with the questions. And I'm going to read two out of the many that I received about these two. 

So the first one I chose is Aviva’s. Aviva asks, “Hi there. I heard that Lindsay's taking questions on the Wands, so here's mine. Two and Three of Wands are really hard for me to ground into. Every time I learn something, I can't remember which it applies to. They're both so aloof and so similar. Can you help teach us about these cards, how they play off of each other, how they're unique in a way that will hopefully stick in my brain and body? Thank you. Love you.” 

(Lindsay laughs) Love you, too. 

Anonymous asks, “For me, the most boring cards are the Two and Three of Wands. They are so similar, and when either comes up, I really don't know what to think. Yes, we're lighting the fire and taking it further. But is that all there is? Thank you for your amazing teaching and insight. You've changed my relationship with Tarot.” 

Thank you, darling. Okay, so here's facts. They are weird. They are, I understand, boring. And they are pretty similar, actually. 

But what we're doing in the Two and Three of Wands is that we are painting a picture that extends past, that extends and includes both cards. So really, it's a part one and a part two. And that can be really useful to think about that, right? 

In part one, we're ready. We're waiting, you know? We're waiting for something, we're waiting for something to bloom. And when I say part one, I mean Two of Wands. You know, we're sort of waiting to be told, waiting for the right moment (Lindsay laughs). Well, you know, told by that knowing inside of us. Waiting for timing to align. We're preparing for our journey. 

In the Three, we are, in many ways, preparing for a journey, but it's very different. In the Three of Wands, we've really taken a journey. What we're ready for in Three of Wands, it's something very different and yet connected. 

In that sort of part two of that sort of Two and Three of Wands double feature we have here, we're honoring the path we've taken. And we understand that we're about to leap into something new. But we're hanging out in the middle of both of them, because it's not quite time to go into the new thing. But we're not quite going back into the old thing. We're in a very specific space of holding, of waiting. It's not so much a preparing as much as it is a wrapping up and acknowledging. 

[0:32:44]

So the two of them feed into each other. And when we look at both of them together, it's essentially this beautiful journey of growth spiralically, because we are always — and when I say “spiralically,” I mean being available for anything that arises. When we think of linear journeys, we think, “Okay, I'm going to start at A, and I'm going to end up at B, C, D in an orderly fashion.” 

And we all know that doesn't really happen in life all that often, right? We're hitting, like, little mile markers along the way. We may not have realized we're going left when we sort of thought we'd go right. And sometimes those left-hand turns, while unexpected and sometimes even just plain old unwelcome (Lindsay laughs), can yield to really important life experiences. Maybe not experiences that we love all the time, but ones that are really, really important for our continued expansion and growth. 

So when we speak of growing, of spiralic growth, specifically, what we're talking about — what I am talking about (Lindsay laughs), in particular — is growing in a way that honors the unexpected. That honors that when those unexpected things come up, again, they can bring us into spaces and directions we never even dreamed possible. 

Also, this kind of more spiralic growth holds a space for the fact that — you know, there's a wonderful quote, and I'm so sorry, because I don't know who this quote is attributed to. And I don't even know if it's actually attributed to anyone in particular. But the saying, you know, “Remember when you wanted the thing that you now have?”

That's very much like Three of Wands. There's very much kind of a journey of growth that we see spread out over these two cards, where we're kind of starting, we're waiting, we're hoping. In the Three, we've done a lot of what we wanted, and we're preparing to move into the next thing. 

And it's not meant to be this sort of exhaustive, constantly striving, capitalistic thing. It just is, like, we're always growing. If you're alive, you're always growing (Lindsay laughs). And so even when you're honoring, like, “I have so much. Everything’s so good,” your soul is still going to kick in eventually and go, “And what am I exploring next?” you know.

So it doesn't need to be ever from this energy of, like, “I'm bored. I'm tossing out the old.” It just is that if we're really growing, expanding, we're likely outgrowing and moving into something new. 

[0:35:38]

So here's a good example, ripped from the headlines of my own life, right? Two of Wands — when I think back at Two of Wands, I think back to moments when I wanted, I had a dream about something in my career, or in my life, where I wanted to do courses, right? It takes time to figure out, like: how do you do a course? Like, who can help you with that? What do you need? 

That's really Two of Wands. We're collecting information. The dream is there. The cauldron is... the ingredients are all in the cauldron. They're officially simmering. It's happening. It may not be time to jump on it yet, but it is happening. 

So honoring that and saying “yes.” Like, this is occurring, you're already on your way. You're cooking it, simmering, real nice. You're building flavor. 

Now, the work with Two of Wands is very multitudinous. It's often not what we think. The work that comes up in Two of Wands is being with ourselves when those feelings arise, like, “This is never going to happen,” right? So woof, it's hard to be with that. So being with that, being with the feelings of, “What if I miss it?” Like, “What if I'm preparing, and, like, I missed my exit, and I'm not going to make it?” You know, all these different things. 

Again, fire is hot. So working with the feelings that come up underneath the thing we're doing is The Wands work. Honoring the fact that when those feelings come up, like, “I'm so exhausted, and I have this deadline. What am I going to do?” 

Two of Wands can help you. Like, you're doing it, and maybe the deadline can be pushed. Maybe you can have a conversation. You know, is there something that can be done that can help you? Is there something else that you can move off of your plate? That's very Two of Wands. 

Like, while I'm sort of in this moment of looking at this globe, so to speak, or moving toward this new destination, sort of, how can I look at all the things around me to really help me to to move in that specific direction? So we can think of it as, like, we're doing that, right? 

Now the Three might be where I am today, where I'm launching a new — I just launched a new course. I’m preparing to do Tarot for the Wild Soul. I remember sort of when I wanted, and dreamed in, a new website, and now it's happened. And I'm also on the cusp of many, many different new projects, some that are very much in my heart as a dream and a desire, and some that I have no idea about. It's just a general feeling of moving into something new. 

And so when we're in Three of Wands, it's a really, really specific energy where we're called upon to sort of reflect on how far we've come and give ourselves fucking credit for that. Like, when did you want? Like, how did you get here? How hard did you work? What did you do, did you have to sacrifice? 

Like, even just your life in general — like, you're alive today? That's a fucking miracle. And you deserve all of the fireworks, all of the parades (Lindsay laughs) for that, you know? Like really, for real. 

And so that is part of the invitation of Three of Wands. Like, “Wow, look at how far I've come. Look at me, look at what I've done here. And look at what is possible. Look at all of these different things that I still feel like I want to bring into the world, that I still want to explore, that I still want to experience.”

“And yet here I am in the middle, learning how to be with both. Learning how to celebrate myself and learning how to trust in the timing. Learning how not to jump, you know, into the next thing too quickly. Learning how to be until it's time.” 

[0:40:10]

I know I'm using a lot of cooking metaphors, but I am Italian and cook, and my family cooks. And in a lot of cultures and in a lot of cuisines beyond Italian — I can just only speak from my own experience — a lot of cooking, especially... my family's from northern Italy and southern Italy. Especially with the southern Italian relatives — although big bow to the north as well, I can only really speak for that. A lot of it is, like, letting things go for longer than you might be comfortable with. Like letting sauces or gravies cook, like, all day. Like, all day long, low and slow. 

That's the — you have to do work on that. Because we may feel like, “Well, I want it now. I'm so excited to eat it.” Or, “What if it's going too long or too little?” Like, a lot of it is just running on a feeling. It's running on, like, an intuition, like a communication with the food. And really just being like, “This feels right. It tastes right.” It’s so much about feeling. 

That's very Wands. It really is. Like, cooking is a great metaphor; we use fire to do it. Really, that sense of not jumping into something. Not taking, sort of, your soup off of this flame until it's cooked, right? 

So they're the same only in the fact that they really help us to hang out with what's here before the next leap. That's very Wands. You can sort of speak to that in all of The Wands cards, actually — like, hanging out in what is before moving forward. 

Fire always wants to, like, “pew, pew, pew!” Especially Aries, like, “I'm ready, I'm going.” Life never moves fast enough for an Aries (Lindsay laughs)

So that's very Wands. We learn how to hang until something's ready, right? Until something is ripe, ready to be picked. 

But that's sort of where they stop being similar to one another. They're both really quite distinct. But they do dovetail into one another. How we can make them distinct, is simply by starting to play with this very light, very sort of zoomed-out invitation. And then seeing how you and your own personal practice start to weave together a more intimate understanding. 

[0:42:53]

In the Two of Wands, we are in a state of preparation. We are preparing for something. It might be something known to us or not known to us. It's not about prediction. We're always preparing for something. 

Sometimes we know it, and sometimes we don't. Especially now, in this time on the planet, there's very little that we know (Lindsay laughs), for better or for worse. It's very much about the moment, right? And so check in with your own life now. What are you preparing for, right? Like, you likely have something. 

And it's not about being out in the future — what are you doing today that you're preparing for later? Like, we're always doing something. But it's really about timing. 

And this is sort of about the larger energy, like what we're dreaming in, what we're hoping for. What vegetables, what ingredients are we chopping for this soup, for this broth? Like, what are we preparing? Again, we're always preparing. But there's a big journey between shopping for the vegetables, harvesting the vegetables, chopping them up, getting them into the water or the broth, and eating, right? There's a big journey. 

And so the Two of Wands basically says, how we can start to work with it in a reading is, the invitation of this card is to be deeply, deeply present with a preparatory process. 

You are preparing for something in ways that you may not even be appreciating right now. Internally, you're preparing. Sometimes there's no external preparation whatsoever. Sometimes the preparation is completely internal. Sometimes we don't even know why. 

It's just saying, “How can you be in that state of preparation?” It's not time to go. It's really time to be in the preparation. How and what, or rather — how can you be present with that? What might be asking for your attention? How can you kind of sink into that space, really be present for the pleasure of chopping those veggies, and be with the feelings that come up? 

“Am I going to miss something? When is it going to happen?” You are preparing. You're preparing. 

[0:45:20]

And the invitation of the Three of Wands is to say, ”You're in a time of transition.” It's a very distinct energy. Preparation and transition are very — transition is you're in something. Preparation is you're waiting for the whistle to be called. That's how the two of them, you can find distinction with them. 

Three of Wands says, “You're right in the middle of these two beautiful landscapes in your life, these two beautiful kind of energetic markers.” Inside of this transitional time, there's an invitation and an opportunity to honor about and celebrate, what got you here? What got you here, right? 

There's so much work, time, sacrifice, closing our eyes and leaping. Being like, “I don't know, I guess,” (Lindsay laughs) you know? It's intense, right? 

And where we're going, what's next — we may feel it, we may sense it, we may not really know. We can't get... I don't want to say to the next thing. Every moment in life unfolds from where we are now. Every moment in life — you know, where we've been, what we've unpacked, what we've walked through, moved through. It does prepare us. We're always in a state of beautiful preparation for the next thing. We're just always evolving in this life. 

So how can we be with that? That's how we can be with that. By understanding we're in a transition time. 

We are absolutely preparing to move into some kind of new space, something new, some kind of big — eh, I don't know if I want to use the word “upgrade.” Because I don't know that it's up, down, or anything like that. But just a different way, be it subtle or very overt, of utilizing our gifts and skills on the planet, in one way or another. 

It could be, like, we call in some support. And all of a sudden, we have some more space for our writing, or we have some more space for doing nothing. That's sometimes Three of Wands. Like, we're honoring, like, “Whoa, how has it been like for me to do all these things without this support? And now that I have this support, as I stand in the middle, where is that going to guide me next,” right? 

It's a wild thing, really wild. But we sort of learn, The Wands are really about how to hang out in the flame. How to let yourself be a part of that soup, how to let yourself really be cooked, be transformed to come together with all of these different elements. 

So Two of Wands is really about preparing, knowing that we're in some kind of internal or external preparatory process for a leap, for a shift, for a big “yes” of some kind. The Three is about being in a sacred transition time where you're already in the process. You're already moving. 

But we're being asked to really honor and acknowledge: what got us here? And what are we preparing — and in that way, we are in sort of a preparatory process — but what are we transitioning into? What are we being asked to explore or offer? What might we have to walk away from in order to move into the next thing?

[0:49:00] 

So that is really… that's sort of my two cents, in a nutshell, on the Two and Three of Wands. It’s a great place to start. I think it's a strong place to start. And to consider for yourself sort of how those two things feel distinct to you. 

And when you've been in those situations. You know, when you've had those experiences, maybe you didn't even know that you were having them. But we've all been in them. So yeah, really reflecting on that is — yeah, is quite potent. 

[Conclusion]

So thank you so much for listening, Wild Souls. It's always such a pleasure to be gathered with you in this space again. I adore all of you, and until we meet again, please take care of yourselves.

(​Instrumental exit music) 

 
 
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