Weekly Tarot: July 19th-25th

***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? -- Six of Swords

The Six of Swords is a lovely card to have in a message about change. Notice on the card there are choppy waters on one side of the boat, and calm waters on the other -- the Six of Swords is all about the journey forwards through difficulty to calmer circumstances. It is about the climactic moment in any story when you can finally see easier times coming as you come out of rocky challenges.

We are definitely moving forward to a period of a calmer world. It may feel like things aren’t quite as “on fire” as they were a few weeks ago, even though there is still a lot of conflict to resolve. Resolution isn’t as pressing and doesn’t feel as dire, allowing us to relax momentarily and enjoy this clearing in the woods. That being said, the astrology for the rest of the year doesn’t look so calm, suggesting that is is just a clearing in the woods and not a sign that we’re out of them just yet.

The Six of Swords invites us to enjoy the ups and downs of change, and to especially savor the ups. It’s also a very emotional card indicating a transition by way of releasing baggage. This week we’ll feel lighter if we choose to let go of heavy things we’re still carrying and don’t want to anymore. 

What is changing this week is the emotional environment that we are in: previously, we were adding more and more things to the list of what we are carrying, and now we’re able to release some baggage. 

Another part of this card is the sense of movement forward, though it isn’t exactly swift movement. This change is welcome considering how stuck and directionless we felt last week. This week that stuckness is changing as we hop back on the path and see real progress coming for us. Enjoy the inspiration, lightness, and movement that comes this week.

Journal Question: Do you like it when things calm down? What’s your first reaction when you get a break? Why?

Card 2: What is supporting us this week? -- Queen of Swords (Reversed)

When upright, the Queen of Swords is all about healthy emotional boundaries, independence, and direct communication. There are many interpretations of this card in the reverse, but the meaning I’m intuitively feeling is allowing our emotions to guide us this week. 

We have been under quite a bit of emotional stress and all kind of chaos for quite some time at this point, and we may have turned away from our emotions in the process of trying to deal with everything. That’s a completely normal reaction -- when we are feeling too many feelings (especially uncomfortable) it’s perfectly natural to numb ourselves to the influence of our emotions as a defensive (and protective) mechanism. 

However, in turning away from an influx of negative emotions, we often turn off all of our emotional senses altogether as a result. This week, our emotions are back perhaps with some much needed information. We get a lot of our information to make decisions and basically live life from how we emotionally react to things and the likelihood is that we’ve been missing out on that compass by avoiding our nasty feelings lately. 

This week, we are supported by our emotional selves to help us move forward. We are leading with our hearts, not our heads, and it feels good for the first time in a while. 

This type of support might not feel comfortable to all of us, since we are socialized to mistrust our emotions in favor of fact and logic. For those of us who struggle to let our hearts lead, we may have a tricky time this week allowing our emotions to bolster us up. 

Even though it’s difficult to trust our emotions, the Queen of Swords reversed definitely points to a breakdown in logic and reasoning, as well as in objectivity, so if you heavily rely on those things to guide you it will be a difficult week. We are meant to listen to our hearts and give our heads a bit of a break this week, and going against that energy may lead us more astray than fumbling through it.

Journal Question: 1) Do you prefer to lead with your head or your heart? Why?

2) Are you comfortable with your emotions running the show? Why or why not?

Card 3: What is the biggest challenge? -- The Fool

Though The Fool can be such a positive card -- it indicates a fresh beginning, a leap of faith, and embarking on a fruitful journey -- it’s what is challenging us the most right now.

With beginning something new there is always fear; fear that things won't work out, fear that you’ll fail, fear about the challenges that may arise. When we take a leap of faith, there is always lingering doubt in our minds, no matter how hard we try to shake it. Starting something new is scary because it means we’re ending something else. 

After all, starting something new is about leaving comfort behind in some way, and as humans we’re built to seek comfort and avoid discomfort as much as possible. We dislike change because it means we are out of our comfort zone and have to re-learn lots of things.

This week, we’re faced with the hard parts of starting something new. I think at this point, it’s pretty clear to a lot of us that things in this world aren’t going to “go back to normal”; we have been too far away from “normal” for too long to believe that this is some temporary detour. 

On the one hand, we may be rejoicing at the prospect of a new world on the horizon. On the other hand, we may be terrified not knowing what is coming next. Facing that fear of the unknown is our biggest challenge this week.

We are learning to start over and with that learning to live with fear and doubt in the back of our minds. We may not be able to eradicate these very human aspects from our human lives, but we are able to quiet those influences enough to pursue love and courage instead. 

Our task this week is to face those fears and doubts and take a leap of faith anyway. It’s time to embrace all the emotions and reactions that come from embarking on a new journey -- the good, the bad, the uncomfortable, and the hopeful. The challenge here is to take it all in and to understand that changing and growing come with all of these facets and experiences.

The biggest challenge here, in my opinion, is shifting the perspective to understand all of the opposing feelings here as neutral and inherently part of the stage of change we’re in. The challenge is to open ourselves to all the sides of this and to the rollercoaster of emotions knowing that every moment of it is not only completely natural and normal, but also knowing that the full experience is what makes the experience of beginning to change.

Journal Questions: What do you think is the purpose of faith/hope in our lives? What do you think is the purpose of doubt/fear?

Card 4: What is the biggest opportunity? -- Two of Pentacles

The Two of Pentacles tells us about balance and the flow that we experience when we live in alignment. This card is all about juggling things that we were previously having a hard time juggling, it’s about getting our sh*t together, plain and simple.

With the sense of coming to a clearing in the forest this week also comes the space to get things in order that we may have been neglecting. This week we have the opportunity to get routines back in check, catch up on work, and finally meal prep. If you feel aligned with this energy, you’ll feel suddenly ready to organize your life and it won’t be nearly as exhausting as it probably has been lately.

If we choose to take advantage of the break we get from chaos this week, we’ll be able to give many things our attention without feeling depleted and exhausted. The more we get done, the more energized and aligned we’ll feel.

This week, if we choose to, we’ll feel like we’re gracefully juggling all of our responsibilities plus some. This is a beautiful opportunity this week with not very many caveats -- truly different from many of the opportunities we’ve had recently. 

With the Two of Pentacles as our opportunity, we have access to a bright and brilliant energy that could really give us a confidence boost as well. Being able to balance so many aspects of life could have us feeling stronger and more capable all the way around. Plus, we may get the energy boost we need to really take care of ourselves physically by cooking some healthy meals and doing exercise we haven’t been able to make time for until now. 

Let yourself feel good about how much you can do this week. 

Journal Questions: Is balance hard to come by for you? What helps you maintain balance when it’s hard to do so?

It’s going to be a great week! Enjoy the rest from chaos, brand new beginning feelings, and brilliant organizing energy!

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