Weekly Tarot: July 12th - 18th

***Note: I created this spread, and I read tarot intuitively meaning that I was not formally taught in any way. These are my thoughts and intuitive reactions to each card in each position, and these interpretations may not resonate with you, personally. This is in no way meant to predict certain events.***

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Card 1: What is changing this week? -- Ace of Wands (Reversed)

Traditionally, the Ace of Wands in the upright is about starting out on a new path and feeling the surge of energy that comes from knowing exactly where you’re going next. When upright, this card indicates a renewal of passion, restored energy to use towards a goal, and divine inspiration at play.

However, in the reversed position the Ace of Wands becomes less positive and motivating. Here, it is indicative of internal anger, frustration, a lack of movement forward, and more so a lack of inspiration and motivation. The Ace of Wands reversed tells us of a time ahead where we’ll feel unmotivated, lazy, and straight up directionless.

This week, we’re going to lose whatever sense of focus and direction we’ve been able to hold on to lately. It will certainly feel bleak, and maybe a little depressing especially if you’re the kind of person that bases your identity on your productivity or ability to keep going when things are hard.

In the reverse, the Ace of Wands also warns us about distractions away from our goals. While this may be a little necessary right now because we’ve collectively been going pretty hard, it’s important to recognize a lot of the changes that happen this week as mere distractions and not as hard and fast derailments. We’re still moving in the right direction, whether we want to or not, but this week will feel like a bit of a detour at best or a total halt at worst.

Given the intensity of the last few months, this makes sense. If you’ve ever heard about “caution fatigue” this reversed Ace of Wands definitely reminds me of that. It’s the idea that paying such close attention to big, humanitarian causes is inherently exhausting and sometimes actually leads us to work against them instead of for them just because we get so tired of caring.

Remember that it’s okay to have moments like this when we just lose the will to keep going for a bit. Not only are these moments normal, but they are necessarily part of any journey because we are human and don’t have access to infinite energy. We just don’t. 

Journal Question: Where am I holding myself to superhuman standards? Where am I burning out? What does the Venn Diagram of those areas look like?

Card 2: What is supporting us this week? -- Seven of Cups

I know in this deck, this card looks kind of negative and scary. The imagery on this card really harps on the negative side of illusion rather than the positive interpretations of this card. However, I really do believe that the Seven of Cups energy is supporting us right now in the sense that we are being reminded of how many options we truly have at this juncture. 

There are many cups in the air in front of us right now, and within each of them lies a separate reality that we can choose to take or refuse. Note that there is no one cup here that offers an objectively better outcome than any of the others, though we may each be able to rank the cups from best to worst offering. I think that’s what the Seven of Cups is here to give us this week -- the peace in knowing that whatever comes next is truly up to us.

We have a lot of options right now, so many that we might not know what to do with them, and this may even be fueling the Ace of Wands reversed energy that is so directionless and stuck. However, having so many choices is great at this moment because right now we can explore a little bit of those options before making the choice that will best suit us. We have the room this week to remember that nothing is set in stone, for better or for worse. 

I think lately there has been a lot more emphasis in the mainstream on astrology and its predictions for the rest of the year because we are feeling so desperate to get out of the mess we’re currently in. However, I also think this has been hugely detrimental to us because it gives us the sense that every single thing is predetermined and we are powerless to change the direction of history. 

Personally, I always look at astrology like a roadmap: it points out the general landscape of things, highlighting what you have to work with. A roadmap, though, cannot predict how you drive, what kind of music you listen to in the car, or who you have in the car with you. It can’t tell you how that drive is going to be for you, or how much traffic there will be, or if you’ll experience road rage. You will know where the mountain ranges are, where the sharp turns will be, and which stretches of road have the highest speed limits, but the roadmap has absolutely no bearing on whether you’ll choose to stop and take in the mountain view, whether you’ll slow down before dangerous curves, or whether you’ll speed. 

At this time, I think it’s important to remember we still have control over a lot of things in life. We may not have control over whether we enter this huge period of global change, but we do have control over where that change lands us in the future. We have so many options for how to work with the current energies and astrology, and this week we are being asked to see those options as something that bolsters us up rather than confuses us.

Journal Questions: 1) What have I accepted as fated? Where do I have control in that same subject?
2) List all the positive things that could happen in the next 6 months.

Card 3: What is the biggest challenge? -- Six of Cups (Reversed)

In the upright, the Six of Cups is all about childhood memories, nostalgia, and innocence. This is often read as a soulmate signifier in love/relationship tarot readings, and represents deep, past life connections and relationships. The Six of Cups holds an energy of profound, child-like emotion: it’s all the beauty and nostalgia of remembering your grade school day dreams.

In the reverse, the Six of Cups presents quite the challenge this week. Along with the shift of feeling directionless (Ace of Wands Reversed), we will be losing touch with our far-fetched hopes and dreams. We’ll feel plopped down into reality and hit the ground with a loud thud. This week we’ll feel like adults in the worst sense of the word. 

The Six of Cups reversed brings with it cynicism, jadedness, and living in the past. It is that feeling of remembering all the most embarrassing things you’ve ever done, and the narratives of self-deprecation that come directly after. No one wants to feel this way, but it makes sense -- we’ve been hardened by the ongoing trauma happening around us. We feel emotionally calloused and bruised without seeing any hope for reprieve in the near future.

In a nutshell, we are over it and we wish we could go back to 2019 and appreciate it just a little bit more. “How stupid I was to ever complain before,” we barate ourselves over and over every single day. 

But the thing is we had no idea what living through something like this would feel like, and that fact is not our fault. Reminding yourself of that truth will be paramount to overcoming the challenge this week. 

The challenge here is to allow yourself to wallow a bit, to feel the weight of the year we’ve lived so far, but to do so without surrendering to those feelings of cynicism and a loss of innocence. There is still so much good to experience in our world, there is still so much love to be had, and there are still childhood dreams that we can chase and achieve.

Journal Questions: 1) What was your biggest dream as a child? How can you honor that dream today?
2) What feels like play to you? Make a list, and commit to doing one of those things every day this week.

Card 4: What is the biggest opportunity? -- The Lovers (Reversed)

At first glance, I think we all have an idea about what this card might mean this week. Obviously, The Lovers upright usually denotes healthy, soulmate-type romantic relationships. Most people who don’t know anything about tarot would intuitively read this upright as a good sign, and reversed as a bad sign. 

However, I’m going to offer a more symbolic interpretation this week that isn’t so directly about relationships and love. This isn’t just because I don’t really feel comfortable predicting breakups for a collective of people each with very unique love situations, but also because I honestly think this card is more about disconnection and toxicity than it is about any of that.

The way I’m reading this card is as the opportunity to break away from things that aren’t serving you and therefore towards things that nurture you, individually. I think The Lovers reversed brings us a very important message this week about moving on from anything toxic in our lives -- it’s time to “break up” with any dead weight you’re carrying. “Dead weight” can be anything from literal toxic or generally unfruitful relationships, to routines you’re still doing that don’t do anything for you, or even a specific diet plan you’re just not feeling anymore. 

It’s up to you what it is you need to let go of in order to get closer to yourself. In my experience, the first thing that comes to mind is likely the right thing to act on. Don’t be afraid of that -- this week the biggest opportunity is this exact process. 

This is also a sign that if you haven’t given yourself too much love and attention lately, now is the perfect time to do it. The energy I’m getting from this card is completely in line with Devyn Penney’s e-book coming out tomorrow all about internal intimacy, so you might want to check that out too.

This week, the idea is to love ourselves the way we would love a partner, and further, to love ourselves enough to drop the things we don’t need anymore. It’s totally okay to purge your life from time to time to strip down to what really matters and really deserves your attention. 

It’s important to remember that whatever you’re “breaking up” with this week is something you’re doing out of love for yourself and not out of hatred or resentment for that thing. Letting go is an act of love and frees up so much energy to do more with, both internally and externally. 

Journal Question: What am I still holding on to that isn’t serving me? Why is it hard for me to let it go?

Overall Message -- Three of Pentacles (Reversed)

When upright, the Three of Pentacles is all about reconciliation, reconnection, creativity, and teamwork. Usually this is a great card for collaboration as a means to great wealth and prosperity. However, in the reverse the Three of Pentacles actually highlights a time for working alone.

We still have a lot of internal work to do before we get together to fight the good fights. Because of that, now isn’t a good time to forge ahead in unions, connections, friendships, or groups/teams. In fact, if you try to you’ll likely be met with a great deal of disharmony and misalignment. 

This isn’t because whatever you’re working on isn’t worthy of your collective dedication, but it’s instead a result of the fact that everyone is on a different page with their individual growth and development right now. Every single one of us is being confronted with a very individual and unique path of realizations, healing, and internal work, so much so that we are bringing that “baggage” to every space we enter. As you can imagine, that makes for a very chaotic team environment at any level.

Take this time to work independently to discern what you want and how you’re going to move towards it. Pay close attention to when you feel in conflict with yourself, and explore what might be fueling that feeling. Now is a great time to de-clutter your thoughts and beliefs and work on personal projects. It’s also a great time to literally talk to yourself if you’re into that, or to meditate and pray if you’re into that. 

Journal Questions: 1) What are the top 3 things I want for my own, individual life? Is there anything I can do this week to move me towards those things? 2) Am I afraid to work independently? Why or why not? 3) What are my most burning questions right now? How would I answer those questions if they came from a friend?

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