Introducing: The Reader of the Pack

[Hermit]

When I was in grade 7, my mom bought be a Rider-Waite tarot pack. I've been turning cards off and on ever since! If my math is right that's just about 30 years!

So the deal is pretty simple. Each week I'm going to turn some cards and give a reading for the coming week. I'll let you know which cards in which order, give my interpretation, and of course leave the interpretation up to you as well! Stay tuned!

Hermit, the Reader of the Pack.

[dianna]

Now that is a great idea Hermit ... will you use a particular spread for the readings? I will look forward to this

[neonblue]

Fantastic news Hermit! Yaaay...

I for one, have a lot of respect this form of Divination and will be keeping a regular eye on this thread...

[Hermit]

So my formal reading is usually done using the celtic cross. For this particular reading I'm going to either lay 3 cards (start, middle, end of week), or a 7 day spread for more details.

[Hermit]

3-card spread

1. Two swords reversed.
2. Nine swords reversed.
3. Ten cups.

The week-end is going to be influenced by a conflict occurring earlier in the week. Do I piss or get off the pot? Am I or aren't I? Tea or coffee? By Monday, you're going to fall out of bed and ask yourself, why am I even trying? Do not despair! Even though the obstacles seem to be over mounting the more you push yourself into thinking about issues you can't control, namely falling out of bed onto swords you have no control over, and no one is holding, the more you feed the negative energy. Take a different approach. Look up! See the positive around you and believe, trust that good things are on your way.

*Now where I find this significantly bizarre is that this reading is absolutely spot on for the kinds of molarchy I've been going through this week re: relationship issues (namely, lack of one on the backs of probably the most passionate tryst I've ever had!). So I'm going to be thinking about end of week maybe seeing romance entering the air again.

This might not be romance for you! This could be the start, instead, of something deeply positive and trustful. A bright future working as a team, intimacy on the level of friendship, deep friendship, or otherwise.

To recap: the swords, or obstacles, that you are holding over your own head are actually only in your head. You have two choices: you can remain upside down, and fall onto them, or realize that everything about them is...well...horse shit and good things are coming, if not already here!

Here are the cards as turned:

[dianna]

Interesting ...

Swords With Cups in a reading can produce poetic words of love as easily as raging rants that might appear in the heat of the moment.

[Christine]

Thank you Hermit, this is a great idea. I am going to write up my interpretation, what came to me this morning. A couple of interesting points here, one is that since you are pulling the cards they will have a personal interpretation, they are shown publicly and so each of us that sees the spread will also find a personal interpretation evoked and then then there is the overall or potential for a collective interpretation ... me likes.

So here, free flying off the top of my head. First thought was a reading for the chalice and the blade.

The two of swords reversed, the person (people) are at a cross roads, the swords across the heart, protecting the heart indicating it needs protecting or inversely (how I read it) the heart is not yet open. The female (indicating the feminine force) doesn't see the great ocean of potential at her back, though undeniably to the viewer it is there. This person, could be seen as Justice or Truth is blindfolded therefore must look inwardly, going deeper into the shadow or dark unconscious realms (personal or collective).

This is definitely shown by the ten of swords, great sorrow or even death, confronting the inner shadow is a painful excursion this is why most avoid it at all costs. Reversed is the final resolution, and from this grief and the letting go of the tears, the release from self persecution the potential that is hidden within is released.

The ten of cups, wow! We see the ten swords that have now pierced the heart and with heart centered consciousness life returns full flow, this is seen by the joining of the lovers and their offspring two children dancing, this can be interpreted that they have released their inner child. Indicates great abundance, health, happiness, harmony - beauty.

[Pluto's Child]

Great readings Hermit & Christine, I can really relate to them.

I think we are at the start of a new cycle, the point where the the Guardian of the Threshold has to be passed, this is the "ordeal" of the swords, but it's only as real & as dangerous as our unconquered fears allow it to be.

[Hermit]

Last night after work, I had another interpretation of that reading. This one, not so positive, but more of a warning.

Which is where the interpretation came into play. Looked in the way I laid out the cards visually, doesn't it seem interesting that the 2 of swords progressing to the nine of swords drain, or rather fill, ten cups in a rainbow that is being celebrated as a positive moment by a family. I'd also like to point out the man has a hole in is head. That's also interesting. It might be a figment of my imagination of an artifact of the image. It's also interesting to note the woman's dress is dark red, and flowing... or is it saturated with blood? And the couple themselves, they form a "cup" or a feminine welcoming triangle...standing in a similar cup in the landscape (see the v-shape of the couple and mirror it with the v-shape of the landscape they are standing in...and then we have the shape created by the negative void between the children's joined hands and legs.

It came on the heels of a little voice in my ear reminding me of the dangers of reading cards: namely, one can become so enamoured in the testament of the cards themselves that one hardly proceeds a day without turning them over. The difficult balance is to read them without becoming enslaved by them.

These are tools, in some cases ancient and venerable tools. But like all things ancient and venerable, sometimes things can attach themselves to them we are not aware of, or are ignorant of, or the repercussions of the tools themselves are not fully aware to us. On that note, I'm going to continue to turn cards once a week, continuing to invoke the Archangel Michael before I turn, and after I turn.

[Hermit]

3-card spread

1. Queen wands reversed
2. Three wands reversed
3. The Sun reversed

(HMM! I wonder who this reading is about!??! )

So there is either someone hanging around being a bit of a twit, or twitch behaviour being engaged in by one's self. Someone who is attempting to gain some kind of proficiency or (more likely) recognition of such without necessarily engaging in the activities that require that actual earning of said recognition. The desire may be to reach out, to find allies in pushing forward an agenda, when in reality staying on one's own shores may be a better idea. Wait and given time, the world around you will right itself out.

This isn't to say there aren't any silver linings in your future this week, but what it is saying (I suspect) is that the current means and ways of attempting to achieve growth are failing to provide the full benefits of the results not because you're not trying, but....

...there's an old saying amidst the 12 step community (I believe John Bradshaw may have started this very quote) about banging one's head against a wall repeatedly to try and open a door, and when the door won't open the first bang, just hit your head harder, then harder, then harder.....

There are better, more proficient ways of achieving one's goals. Rather than extrospect (is that a word? I like it, I'm owning it) about it, the time now is to retreat, to go within, to not act but reflect, consider; you want to back up the bus, drive out of the cul-de-sac, and look at the map. Check where you are going.

The cards, as turned: