230: Calling Ourselves Back with Six of Pentacles
Jump to:
Listen | Show Notes | Transcript
Happy Pride, Wild Souls, from one queer witch to another! 🌈
Air date:
June 12, 2023
Find this episode on:
Apple Podcasts
Stitcher
Spotify
Listen
About the Episode
Happy Pride, Wild Souls, from one queer witch to another! 🌈
Our Anchor Card for the week ahead is Six of Pentacles. In this card, we are being invited to reflect on our relationship to balance and exchange -- what we give, what we receive, and how we might do more or less of one or the other, depending on where we might be feeling any imbalances. Six of Pentacles can help us to call ourselves back, to shift the patterning around over giving, or holding onto things too tightly. This card wants us to be circulating our energetic capacity, and filling our cups more robustly, as needed.
Plus, we answer two listener questions! One about how we can respect other folks' alternative styles of Tarot reading, and the other about how we can build a relationship with a traditionally positive card that triggers us -- in our listener's case, about the Strength card.
Lindsay’s Links:
Got Q's for the podcast? Ask them here!
Download the free Ultimate Soul Tarot Card Guide here
PODCAST EDITOR: Chase Voorhees
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTIONISTS: Meghan Lyman, Terri Wanjiku, Annelise Feliu, Valerie Cochran
PODCAST ART: Rachelle Sartini Garner
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: birth, invisible labor, economic marginalization, capitalistic structures, systemic racism, white supremacy, and ancestral trauma
The content in this episode contains references to birth, invisible labor, economic marginalization, capitalistic structures, systemic racism, white supremacy, and ancestral trauma. 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]
[0:00:05]
—
(Instrumental intro music)
Welcome to Tarot for the Wild Soul, a podcast that explores the Tarot through an inclusive, soul-centered, trauma-informed perspective for growth, healing, and evolution. I'm your host, Lindsay Mack.
—
[0:00:20]
Hello loves! It's so, so good to be back here on the Tarot for the Wild Soul podcast with you, Lindsay here, and I've really missed everybody. It made sense not to do a podcast episode last week, but I still missed tuning in and touching in, and I'm so happy to be back. Not that I was away, but you get it (Lindsay laughs). I hope that you're all doing well. And again, Happy Pride, Happy Fucking Pride to my queer family, to all the gorgeous, gorgeous expressions of queerness and of identity and of expression, you know, that happen on this beautiful spectrum that we're all a part of. I love you all, and I'm happy to be here with you.
We have just a really nice episode today. We're going to tune in about the card of the week. And then in the spirit of not having done a podcast episode last week, and then because also our question, our card of the week, rather, is Six of Pentacles, which is so much about balance, and both/and, I decided to answer two listener questions. So we have two listener questions. We have a nice little reading for our card of the week.
Before I dive into that, I just want to let everyone know who might be interested, that I've actually been doing for the past week, a little special summer sale called “Self Tend and Tune In” (Lindsay laughs). And that's basically a bunch of brand new offerings coming out this summer, three to be exact, and we're retiring The Threshold 2023 because we're about at the halfway point of the year, and that's typically when we do that. Then I leave the rest of the year open to kind of collect information and tune in about the new Threshold that I'll be offering in December. So that little sale is happening until end-of-day, Monday, June 12.
So basically, long, long — not a long story, but long story, short, potentially TL;DR is I'm doing three new offerings. We have a new round of Spiralic Tarot for the Summer—or Winter for those of you in the southern hemisphere—which is a big download about the season ahead. And it's just incredibly useful, really sweet. I've now been doing it a year and people love it. So if you're looking for more like down-to-the-ground, nitty-gritty guidance on the upcoming astrological seasons and the season as a whole, from the Summer Solstice to the Fall Equinox, we have that for you. It’s on sale until end-of-day today.
I'm also doing two new kind of mini-courses. One of them is called Soul Tarot for Self-Tending, which is basically an offering for folks who want to learn how to use the Tarot in the style that I teach it, to tend to and witness themselves through whatever might be going on, through seasons of challenge or contraction or trust. I've obviously done offerings on this before. This one has really a full breadth of that information that I have to offer. You can't really read for yourself in the same way that you might when you're feeling really rooted and good, and when things are sort of going at your normal pace. In those specific kinds of complicated, contractive situations, it can be very helpful to read in an alternative fashion. And so, we talk a lot about that, methods to do it, cards that can help, and that's on sale until end-of-day today.
And then, I have an offering that has been in the works for a while that has been wanted and asked for for a long time, and it's simply called The Court Cards. And it is all about the Court Cards, how to understand them, how to kind of get a baseline for them, how to kind of tune in with your own knowing about them. And those are going to be out in July and August, respectively, but they're on sale now. And even after today, they'll still be open for enrollment and available to purchase. You just will not get a discount.
And Threshold is for sale for 50% off. So if you want to dive into all that, it is there for you at the link in the show notes. And if you hear this after the 12th, again, still open for enrollment, and if it makes sense for you, you can dive right in. So thank you for being here. That's my schpeel. That’s the only thing at the top of the show that I have to say about business and things.
—
[0:05:14]
So Monthly Medicine for June was huge, really big deal. This is a very big month, as I mentioned in Monthly Medicine, who knows how that will be experienced—very tangibly, concretely, very joyfully. Our theme for the month is “breaking away.” Breaking away can be incredibly intense, and usually brings up a lot of brain stuff. But it can be immensely joyful, such a celebration, such a big deal. I do feel like there is a significance with us reaching this midway point of the year. And it being we're moving into Cancer season on the Summer Solstice, which is roughly the midway point of the year, at least energetically speaking, and Cancer is connected to The Chariot.
So it kind of all feels like, you know, with The Chariot card, I'm learning part of our journey in The Chariot card—the reason I'm talking about The Chariot is because 2023 is a Chariot year period. But I'm starting to learn that I think that around the halfway point of the year, we kind of leave those Chariots, and then get our bearings around like, “Whoa, this is really different. I'm out of this womb and in a new world. What does that feel like?” And so, the breaking away of this month does have to do with those big final pushes, and us kind of being birthed in some new way out of this Chariot, and into something new, which requires a high degree of care and sensitivity. So that's still very much important and of the moment for all of us this month and beyond, and for us to recognize that there's going to be a lot of stuff that we're gonna be invited and supported around letting go.
It might be something incredibly internal and nonspecific, something that maybe only you could name. If you have a really high degree of control around something, or if there is a place in which we're sort of feeling like, “Oh, I really want this to happen,” it might be that, you know, to someone else that doesn't look as big as it does to you. But letting go of that control, opening to a higher degree of surrender, like, all of that, can be hugely supportive this month.
And then beyond that, if we're, like, literally moving, literally letting go of relationships, literally shifting jobs, literally letting go of a part of our work, or shifting around in some important way, June is very ripe for that. So some of that will just kind of be happening, and some of it will require us kind of reaching and leaping into those things. It's really about fully acknowledging, like, this is over. This is over, and I don't know what comes next. That's very Chariot, very Chariot, that like, “I recognize this is dead. It's over. I have to move into something new.” And we're lifting and building on that work this week with our card of the week, which is Six of Pentacles.
[0:08:25]
So I love Six of Pentacles—not that my editorializing about how I feel about this card really makes a difference. I appreciate all the cards, but Six of Pentacles feels like a well that never really stops deepening with its capacity, with its beauty, with its passion. It's kind of like it's got a lot of energy, this card, and I love that about it.
So when we work with Six of Pentacles, we're being called to touch upon a number of different things. This card has a very broad root system, very, very broad. I believe that, at its root, Six of Pentacles is about reparations. It's about redistribution of energy, maybe wealth, of like — I think very concretely, and not abstractly, it is about that: it is about equity, rather than equality.
Even in the Smith Rider-Waite card, we have an experience of somebody who has money, helping somebody who is more down on their luck. And I do think that there's a lovely, kind of beautiful vision that I have of what's possible in the Smith-Rider-Waite, which is that we can feel really kind of lost in the soup in Five of Pentacles. We can be searching for those Pentacles, and then we can find those Pentacles, move through that experience of the soup, and then help others who are in the soup, I keep saying “the soup,” but in just the muck and the mess and in need, you know?
So that's what I think what this card really invites us into, is this idea of redistribution in an equitable way; that we have to really think about that and reflect on that and open to that, as sort of a natural part of living in alignment and living in balance and living with greater understanding and relationship of equity and repair, right, between all beings, including the earth, and especially our fellow human beings. So that's a huge part of it.
And if we're going to take the root of that we can widen and extend that out to where I think this card can really help us to land, which is very important, around how we give and receive energetic compensation, how we are nurtured, how we nurture, how we support, and how we are supported, how we give, and how we receive.
[0:11:19]
And there's a very big, massive, cacophonous emphasis right now on that. There's a lot of work and not a whole lot of receiving. There's a lot of giving and not a whole lot coming back. There's a ton of wealth moving to, like, ten people up at the top, while so many people are working and not receiving what they deserve.
And you know, I think, with Pluto in Aquarius, us having moved into that a couple of months ago, and we're going to be moving through Pluto in Aquarius for the next, you know, 20-plus years. I do believe that there's going to be a change in that way from, like, 10 people at the top getting 90% or more of the wealth to a much more equitable distribution and kind of community-based landscape emerging. Let's hope. That's the prayer, and that's the work, obviously, right now. And we are being invited this week to think about that on a more micro scale. We're always invited to see it on a macro scale, obviously, but in terms of a micro scale, where do we have work to do around this? And I imagine a lot of us do.
And I just want to pause here and say that, for those of you listening to this and thinking like “Well, yeah, Lindsay, I mean, I give a lot and don't get enough, don't get what I deserve in return, there's a lot of invisible labor, there's a lot of that,” I want to say that I see you. And I also want to acknowledge, before we even get to what I have to say about this card, that there are a lot of systemic factors at play that make true kind of untying of these knots and true creation of, like, perfectly equal, we-give-we-receive-in-equal-measure. I don't know that that's possible for a great many of us right now. Not because of us—because we're not working hard, not because we're not willing to do the work—it's just, systemically, a lot of it is set up for us to not have those needs be fully met.
And in turn, I think a great many of us are very used to kind of saying, “Well, I need. I'm going to keep this. I'm going to make sure.” That we're not as comfortable saying like: where does this need to be a little looser and a little freer? Where can this be redistributed a little bit or handed over or passed down? So, systemically, there's some factors at play. But I still think that a lot of work is possible inside of this card, depending on our situation.
[0:14:17]
So this month, for some of us listening to this, this is about letting down the belief and the need to always be fixing, giving, and see what it might be to receive, to ask for more, to ask for better, to really invite people up to a different level of witnessing and respect of your work and labor. And if it's invisible to them, making it visible. There's a big kind of risk involved, which is rejection or someone saying no. So it's completely understandable that we might just say, or feel like saying, “I don't even want to. Meh, I'll just do it.” And that's a really hard thing to break.
But this week, the theme of this week is “Calling Ourselves Back with Six of Pentacles.” So for those of us who find ourselves, constantly giving our pentacles, but kind of doing what we can with a little bit less than what we give; the cup is always a little empty. This week is an invitation to look at that, to maybe feel, you know, safe and in a way—I don't know what safe means to anyone—but in a way that doesn't overwhelm our capacity to cope, or maybe in the presence of another loving space holder or friend, to feel potentially the rage, the resentment, the grief, the bitterness around not having those needs met. Those are very important things to, I think, feel, and to acknowledge, and to really see, like, “This isn't fair. Like I, you know, I deserve different,” you know?
If we've been going for a little while, really giving something our all, and we just don't have that return—we serve and we're not getting that return—we want to, this week, think about really pausing with that. Because it doesn't mean that we're failing, it doesn't mean that we're not worthy of that, it doesn't mean that we're not worth those beautiful Pentacles.
Sometimes with this kind of work, not all the time, but sometimes not getting that return to our serve might mean there's something different that wants our attention. It might mean that we're serving in some of the places that just aren't going to return. And that's good information. It could be that there's always been a return to our serve, and now it's different.
So this month, especially, we want to really examine that and just say like, “Okay, like there's been enough kind of experimentation here: I've tried many times, it's just not coming back to me in the way that I want and need. And so I'm going to try to consider something different.” And we don't need to know the whole thing, but we really want to think about that.
[0:17:26]
And think about, like, if we haven't really felt that sense of fullness or satisfaction, or like we're being seen, or like there is kind of a certain return happening, there's an opportunity to change that. But we have to really reflect on what needs to be let go of, what needs to be broken away from, in order to call ourselves back, in order to call something new in. So that's the first key point, this is the first major important anchor to our work in June: in order to break away from what doesn't serve, we have to think about what hasn't been serving for a while, what's been out of alignment, out of balance.
It could be we've been overpaying, it could be that we've been overgiving. That is its own pain, too, to say, like, “Wow, I’m giving away too much to this relationship, or here, or there.” It doesn't even mean that there's been, like taking advantage. It could just be we just didn't know what we didn't know. So we can reflect on that and just say, “Okay, now I know, and that's hard. But today's a new day, and I can do differently.”
And then we want to think about the opposite end. Like, where do we feel like we're just needing, needing, needing, needing, needing and it's never enough? If that's there, we want to really deeply, deeply look at that, right? We want to look at the trauma underneath that. We want to look at where the block in the flow is. We're wanting to look at, like, where we're holding on to something way too tightly, where we don't feel that freedom, that full kind of stretch, that full offering. We really want to open up to that because the more we staunch, the more we hold on to something, the more it's going to decay, and the more it's going to create problems.
So we want to be more free to offer. We want to be more free to give. We want to be more free to share. We want to know that if we share, if we distribute, if we open, if we kind of extend, that doesn't mean that we're going to have nothing. Nothing is finite. Of course, there will be exchange and flow in both directions, right?
[0:20:01]
So this is as simple as if we are a masseuse, there are times when it's important for us to get bodywork. And there are times when it's important, and when we have a lot, that we want to give, you know? For anybody who does one-to-one work, readings, you know, anything like that—if we're open and if we're willing, every patient, every student, every client is for us, too, right?
Every student, even if we're speaking our worth, or we’re remaining calm in a challenging situation, or our client or our student is saying something exactly what we're going through, and we feel the medicine, we feel the trust, and we feel the rootedness coming through us, sharing it with them, that's a receiving for us, as well. That's why my teacher, Michelle, always said, “You know, any reading you give is a reading for you, too. Any session we give, is a session for us, too.” And having been back at readings for a little bit, I'm loving it. And there are times where I'm really quite stunned (Lindsay laughs) by the similarity between what someone's asking me and what is coming through me, you know, to support them.
So this week, that's what we're being called to think about: we're being invited to call ourselves back.
If we feel really grabby, really clutching—we don't really want to let go of anything, we're a little scared to, like, let it flow, and we're kind of holding on—we may think we're in a space of safety, when we're really in a space of fear and really in a space of decay. Like, the longer we stay in that chrysalis, the more we have… like, eventually, we're just going to rot and turn into kind of soup in there. So, we want to think about calling back the parts of ourselves that, at one time, whether it was an ancestral trauma or whatever it might be, that at one time got scared that there wouldn't be enough, and so we started to grip very tightly.
This is true for any of you who are having trouble letting go of a relationship, feeling like, “Well, I'm never going to find someone that good.” Not to put this—like, human beings are all worthy and beautiful, but like, of course, you will. If you're telling yourself, “Oh my gosh, this person's imperfect, and not really giving me what I need, and I'm not really satisfied, but I gotta stay because I'm never…” there's someone better awaiting you—I promise you that—(Lindsay laughs) with time, you know?
If we're holding on to resources, if we're holding on to offerings, if we're holding on to something we used to do, because we don't, don't, don't want to let it go, we are holding on to something that is slowly dying in our hands. And we want to breathe new life into it, by sharing it, by opening to new ideas, by letting it go potentially. So that's one way we call ourselves back.
[0:23:16]
And for those of us who are maybe too free to give it away, we want to call ourselves back by saying: not everything is for everybody. This isn't necessarily a job for me, this isn't necessarily on me to give. That's where we can pull in and work with our Guides and our Spirit helpers and say: is it in my highest and best to offer this?
I’m not even talking about money, because Pentacles aren't about money. It's about time. If you're always the person making concessions for other people, that is a calling back to self that you want to examine. And that is how we begin to break away from the things that don't serve, from the habits that don't support, from the behaviors that really are just not helping, that is really how we start to let go and say goodbye to the relationships that just aren't really filling that tank, you know.
So yeah, we want to think about that balance, equity, giving and receiving, exchange. These are the themes of this week. Like, where are we in that spectrum? How do we feel about it? What feels good there, you know?
So it doesn't mean we have to make big moves, but if we're called to make some big moves, just do so and see how it feels, you know, to call back, in either direction, what's in alignment, to call back a sense of safety about exchange and sharing, redistribution, or to call back a sense of, like, trust and knowing that what you have it's safe to keep it; it's safe to nourish yourself with it. It doesn't all have to be given away. Because it's, you know, if it's not coming back in a way that is satisfying, if it's breeding resentment, or if you're feeling angry or exhausted or burned out, there's something to look at there, you know.
I do think The Pentacles are very connected to the body. So we want to be paying attention to the body this week and just noticing, did I just feel like a real flash of anger around doing this for this person? Do I feel a lot of regret about—grabbing my tea—do I feel a little regret about kind of doing that? Or do I feel, again, that sense of anger or resentment, like wishing we could go back on it, and just saying, like, you know, “I don't want to?” Or, you know, are we constantly kind of not giving, because we feel like, “Well, there'd be nothing left for me,” but in a way that isn't really helpful? In a way we're finding like, we feel a little bit more brittle and a little bit less flexible and open.
So that's our invitation because that is one of the key points in supporting us in this process of breaking away. What do we want? What do we deserve? How can we kind of widen or loosen, in order to allow things to flow a bit more freely? That is the question.
[0:26:28]
So thank you for hanging in there with me around that. I literally cannot believe, like, next week on the podcast, we're gonna be talking about the Solstice. Like June is flying! I just can't believe it. Okay, so now that we have dropped into our Anchor Card of the week, I'm going to answer two gorgeous listener questions. One of them's a quickie. The other one is—both of them are lovely, but the other one is just really beautiful and deep, and I can't wait to get to both.
So this first one is from Anonymous. Both of them are from Anonymous.
Anonymous asks:
Greetings Lindsay,
How did you end up being able to genuinely respect other people's Tarot practices that differ from your own?
Now that I've clarified my own approach to the Tarot, I sometimes find myself having a “yikes” reaction to Tarot readings that offer firm predictions, for instance.
Thanks in advance for considering this question.
Well, I mean, okay. Thanks for asking this: it's twofold. I do not always respect other people's Tarot practices that differ from my own. I don't (Lindsay laughs). I sometimes have a real distaste for it, and there will always be people whose practices I will never endorse because of that. And I am also a teacher, and at the heart of my—and I think I have, like, I love teaching. I love teaching people. And so I've always been able to appreciate where people are on their journey. And if someone is a colleague of mine, or a fellow reader that I am not in a teaching relationship with, and their practice is very different from mine, but it is not harmful, then I absolutely can respect it. Because I just, I don't think my style of reading is for everybody. Not everybody wants this.
People don't care. Like, a lot of people don't care about being empowered. They want to be told what to do. A lot of people do not care necessarily about—I've mentioned it on this podcast before there is a tremendous—most of what is taught with intuition and with Tarot, even if it's called soul led, it's just ego. It's just ego. That’s it. It's like hearing the answer you want when you want it, getting what you want when you want it. It's not life. It just isn't. So I respect that.
And I'm not saying I'm some enlightened asshole, because I have plenty of ego, have had plenty of ego, have said many things that I'm like, “Oh my god.” Talk about yikes (Lindsay laughs), you know? So I want to be straight up. And I'm sure like in 10 years, I might listen to some of these and be like, “Oh my God, what the fuck was I thinking?” So that's just, I feel like everyone's where they're at. And I do think for some people, that's fine. So when some people are just where they are, in the core of their practice, I think that's great. It’s great.
Not everybody has to agree with me. Not everybody may have… my perspectives on the Tarot have been hard won because I'm living my practices with them. And so if other people are living other practices, like, they're just not, it's not a problem, you know? They have wisdom to share. And so, I think that's fine.
[0:30:47]
But for my students, someone who I'm teaching, I am in a unique and very privileged position to be able to hear their perspectives on the Tarot, and with their consent and permission, to be able to invite them into something different, maybe, about the card. And some people are not available for that. They are not interested in that. Some people are, and I think that's fine.
So I don't always respect everybody's takes on the Tarot, you know? I don't think we have to. It's very different from saying, “Oh, there's room for everyone.” I do think there's room for everyone; I don't necessarily respect everyone's viewpoint. That being said, that doesn't, I would say there’s a small percentage of people that I feel like I don't respect, you know, their perspectives. I just think most people are doing what they're doing. They're absolutely not seeking to cause harm. They're just interpreting in the way that makes sense for them. It's just different than how I would do it. And that, I do have respect for because I think everyone deserves to be served by whoever is going to make sense for them.
So I hope that wasn't too strange of an answer. But I mean, that is part of, to speak very vulnerably, that is part of why I think, in spite of wanting to have—and by the way, I may, at some point have guests on the podcast, again. But it historically has been very difficult because I like to talk to people who have different perspectives than I do. And there are times where their perspectives veer over into, like, stuff I don't agree with, and that's tricky. And then, of course, y'all, as listeners, are like, “Why did you allow this person to say this?” when the truth is that, like, they're a guest on my podcast. I can't control what they're saying.
But that's what I do have, like a kind of a wish list of people that I've been talking to and trying to get on, and honestly, there just really hasn't been—now, it's a logistical technical issues before. Now, it's just time; the time just isn't there. But um, yeah, I don't know. Because I think everybody has their own genius with it, and it's not going to be my way, you know? So there's a lot of people I respect and a small portion of readers that I don't (Lindsay laughs). So, hopefully, that's useful to you. So the “yikes” is that, you know, I have that sometimes. It is what it is, you know?
[0:33:49]
Okay, so our next question is from another Anonymous, and Anonymous asks:
Hi Lindsay,
I can’t start off this question without first showing gratitude to you and all the work you've done throughout the years. I've been a longtime listener of this podcast, and have been a student of several of your courses, and I owe so much of my deep relationship to Tarot to your wisdom.
Thank you, Anonymous, truly.
My question is: what strategies or advice do you have for building a relationship with a traditionally positive card that triggers you?
I am a Black woman and find the Strength card to be particularly challenging and triggering for me. Black women are conditioned to always be strong, always be resilient, and there is, of course, the “strong Black woman” stereotype, which I have found to be very damaging and dehumanizing to our culture, as if we're not allowed to be vulnerable.
When I pull the Strength card, I know my Guides aren't telling me that I deserve to constantly suffer through life. But whatever the message is, I can't see beyond the pain of what Black people have had to suffer through for centuries, and how we're just taught to deal with it.
Do you have any deeper insight into the Strength card and what it means? Is it okay to take this card out of my deck, so I don't see it when I pull? Or do you have any strategies for building a better relationship with this card?
I know you don't share my identity. So I would never ask you to provide context from that perspective, but I do value your overall advice. Thank you.
Anonymous, thank you for trusting me with this question. And while I don't share your identity, I see you. And I would also point you—I raved about Rashunda Tramble, who is a Tarot reader that I just think is one of the most brilliant writers and minds that we have out there. Like we're so lucky to have Rash’s writing. Rash wrote something about the Strength card in a similar fashion. So I will, if I can, and if it's still up online, we will link to it in the show notes. So if you want to take a look at what Rash has to say, it may be useful to you. It's been a minute since I've read it, but I remember being particularly just moved and in awe of it, just because Rash is amazing. But I just want to say, I really see you and have such empathy for this question. So I will speak to it, you know, again, in trusting me with it and from my own perspective.
[0:36:14]
So first and foremost, I just want to give you radical permission to take that card out of the deck. And I just want to extend that to everyone. If you have a card that just really feels like it's not an ally for you, it's not a supportive Anchor, it invites you into beliefs and into things that feel really traumatic or triggering or upsetting, take it out. 100%. Like I think we should feel permission to do that. Anytime we don't want to see a card, there's like—no is a complete sentence, like we can just remove it. That's it.
But you asked me also what strategies or advice do I have about building a relationship with a, traditionally “positive” card that triggers you. And I want to speak to, potentially, some ways to reflect on Strength in a different way, that may be of use to you, that may not be of use to you. So you also asked me like, “Do you have any deeper insight into the Strength card and what it means?” So I'll share with you how I teach this card.
So Strength is the first card of the second line of the Major Arcana, in some perspectives. In other perspectives, it's card 11, because Strength and Justice are interchangeable in different schools of thought in the Tarot. So that's interesting because either Strength is kicking off Line Two of the Tarot or it's splitting the Majors in the middle of Line Two of the Tarot. Either way, it is a big presence in Line Two. It's Leo, so it's Fixed Fire. So I'm going to reflect on it as the start of Line Two of the Tarot.
[0:38:06]
Line Two of the Tarot is the line of questions, and the line of undoing what we've known, and undoing some of our relationship to control an ego. This is, again, in a very broad sense—this isn't about you, Anonymous, and it's not about us when we pull this card. I'm just backing way, way up, so we can come forward. So with Strength, what we want to do is think about how it relates to this from this broad perspective. So again, Line Two, which is where we find Strength, that's where we land after The Chariot. 2024 is actually a Strength year. So this is, again, the start point of this journey, and it tells us what we will require to go on this journey. That's true of Line One of the Majors, too.
To go through Line One we need Magician. Magician really sets the tone, which makes sense. It's Mercury, it’s production, its communication, its creation. It's a very Mercury line. Line Two is a very Leo line: it's all about the heart. And because Strength, in the Smith-Rider-Waite, is one of the only cards to have, one of the very few cards to have an infinity loop on it, we know that we are working with and dealing with an element of magic that is present, an element of Spirit Guided-ness, an element of relational kind of connection between us and Spirit and whatever it is that we're being invited to pay attention to.
Strength is an invitation to deeply tend to and reflect on the wounded parts of us, the parts of us that are defended, the parts of us that are scarred, the parts of us that feel way too tender, and that seem really maybe even a little scary; like the depth of our anger, or the enormity of one of our responses, or the way that if we feel rejected, we might like to turn everyone out, shut a door, close down, you know?
Strength is actually about reflecting and staying open; keeping the heart open inside of that kind of response. And I'll put it in another perspective: if our child is really struggling, is super angry, is really tantruming, rather than snapping at them, losing our temper—which I understand happens with parents, and that's, it's okay—ideally, we're going for: you are really upset, and I'm right here. We're not afraid, we're not letting the waves rock us—we're holding all of it.
If we look at the human on the Strength card, the human, they're not defended, they're not wearing like a special lion-proof suit. They have their hand, they know, I believe: “My hand could get bitten off (Lindsay laughs), like I could get attacked and I am approaching anyway, with consent, with permission, with… I'm here and I'm present. I'm not going to be afraid I'm not going to let this lion—that's a part of me—make me turn away from myself.”
And the lion, in turn, the part of us that wants so fucking badly to be seen and accepted and witnessed, to not be rejected, and to feel all the feelings, has a part of us saying, “You are feeling everything. This is really intense, and I'm still right here.”
[0:42:12]
Strength is about witnessing the parts of ourselves, the toughest feelings, and staying with them, loving them. And in that way, because of that, that is where the magic of the infinity loop happens. There is a transformation that occurs when we stay, rather than go away, when we're willing to stay heart open, rather than closed—and obviously, we don't do that if it's, like, legitimately not safe like with another person, like, truly, we need to move away—if we are willing to do that, both the lion and the human are transformed. The human is transformed. The lion is transformed. Everybody changes, everyone softens, everyone is received.
So sometimes the lion is outside of us. Sometimes the lion involves another person, it's a hard conversation, there's something to kind of really bear witness to here. A lot of the time, the lion is in us. It's an invitation to put a hand directly on the heart of something hard; something that feels tough and painful.
So I wonder, Anonymous, please write me and tell me how this lands. I wonder if you might consider Strength card as a reparative balm to some of this systemic pain that has been placed on you as a Black person; that this is actually about you, and maybe even calling in your beloved ancestors. I, in my own work with Strength card, it's completely different, but I find myself being drawn to work with my ancestors with Strength a lot. Because sometimes I'm working with something that feels really hard to witness or stay with and it's familial or inherited and ancestors help me with that.
So I wonder if this is about you, when you pull it, bearing witness to and placing directly, you may even, with the Strength card, when you pull it, as a ritual or as a practice of Anchoring, regardless of what it's telling you. Place a hand on your own heart and say, “You matter. You do not have to be strong. You do not have to be resilient. You are allowed to be sad, you are allowed to feel weak, you're allowed to need help,” like, speaking directly to the wounds and staying with the rage, staying with the anger.
Because I don't think at all that it's your Guides telling you, “You have to suffer through life” I actually think—I mean, I don't know what your Guides are telling you, of course—but I think it's actually the opposite. I think your Guides are actually like, “Yes, this part is allowed to be witnessed, this part is allowed, too.” Because sometimes we're that person, and sometimes we're the lion, right? So, in that way, it feels like your lion might need more attention than the person of it all.
[0:45:35]
Because I hear you, and in an, obviously, completely different way, the perception of needing to be resilient all the time is beyond exhausting, beyond humanizing. So I think that when you say you can't see beyond the pain of what Black people have had to suffer through for centuries, and how you're taught to just deal with it—again, I'm bowing to that with the deepest of just my whole heart and acknowledgement—I think that Strength is, potentially, directly arriving as the balm for that. And you saying to yourself, “You don't have to be strong. I'm here to witness those feelings. I'm here to witness you in that,” you know?
Sometimes I really do think it's about the opposite because it takes a tremendous amount of strength to be witnessed by somebody in just saying, “I am tired, I don't want to be resilient, I don't want, like, I don't want that.” So, I think that it's about what the lion needs just as much as what the human is doing, you know?
And perhaps, you know, there's a conversation to be had, that maybe the way that we've all been approaching the Strength card is rooted in a form of white supremacy, is rooted in a form of capitalism, that the focus is on the person, you know, taming this lion, or showing up to this lion because there is value in that, in staying heart open, undefended. But really, where we should be focusing on, is the lion being like, “Yeah, I have these teeth, and I have to use them to protect myself, and to make sure that I'm not going to get hurt, and to make sure that no one is going to harm me.”
So I think that it might mean that you take it out of your deck completely. It might mean really looking at it as a true balm and a reparative to some of the pain that you're talking about. And seeing it as a, you know, a way to call in, I don't know, ancestors or Guides or whomever might feel supportive for you to work with, and just say, “I want to be witnessed in my own suffering, I want to shake off this mantle, this perception that's been placed on me that is bullshit and not true.” So that's my two cents, with enormous humility and respect and with the deepest of bows to you.
Because I think the strength in you asking this question, in Strength card there's awareness, there's heart openness, there's willingness, like, there's all of the pieces that make Strength what it is. It's Leo, it's Fixed Fire. Like, we're fixing the depth of our heart, on the wounds in us that need to be looked at, that we'd rather not look at—that’s Strength—that we'd rather turn away from, that feel hard to face.
So, I hope this helps. Please do write me, let me know how this lands with you. And thank you, again, for trusting me with this question. I mean it when I say that I'm very very honored to have been trusted with it. Hopefully, I did it, and you, some justice.
[0:49:12]
Thank you all so much for listening. I love being a part of this community. And I also just wanted to mention that I am cooking up, I mentioned this before, kind of like, it's not Patreon, but like sort of for people who want to pay a very small amount to get bonus podcast stuff and kind of like lessons and card pulls, like, not a course but not this, I'm working on something and have a lot of ideas in mind. And I'm probably going to be launching it in the next month or so, and I want to know what you'd like to have on there.
So, if you're interested in like, you know, some bonus content or bonus information, what would be exciting? What would you want to see episodes on? What would you want kind of audio about or writings about? I have my own ideas but would love to hear from y'all.
So, thank you for being here. And if you want to take advantage of our little sale that's happening, please do so. The link is in the show notes. Okay, love y'all. And until we meet again, please take exquisite care of yourselves.
—
[Conclusion]
[0:50:41]
This podcast was edited by Chase Voorhees, podcast art by Rachelle Sartini Garner, and this episode was transcribed by one of our absolutely brilliant and beautiful transcriptionists, all of which you can learn more about or read about on our website, tarotforthewildsoul.com.
If you wish to dive into more of my work, learn more about Soul Tarot, work with me in any kind of capacity, I'm always creating new things for us to do together. But you can find out all about our self-led courses and classes and new offerings on tarotforthewildsoul.com. And if you want to be the first to know about any new offerings, any new projects that I'm doing, if you want to benefit from discounts and early birds, and all kinds of lovely, newsletter-only offerings, you can sign up for the newsletter at the link in our show notes.
And finally, if you have a question for me to answer at the podcast, or if you'd like to work with me live on the podcast, or if you'd like your question answered on the podcast, please click the link to Ask Lindsay and send me your Q’s. Thank you so much for being here.