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New Year's Tarot reading
Jan. 1st, 2018 11:56 am
Starting the New Year off with a New Year's spread. This is a seven-card spread I nabbed somewhere off witchblr a year or two ago. Let's see what we've got...
1. What do I leave behind in the old year?: Here I have the Queen of Wands, who is usually a pretty cool lady that I am not certain I'd want to leave behind. As water of fire, she brings drive, passion, and some volatility to matters of the heart. Louis dubs her the "Career Woman," explaining that she represents balanced family and career interests, which is not a balance I'd want to leave behind if I had by some miracle achieved it. His Queen of Wands is an extroverted spirit with a love of competition and a good head for business, which just doesn't sound like me at all (perhaps I should stop pretending that I should be)? But since I'm doing this reading with the Raven's Prophecy deck, the Queen I should consider most carefully is Stiefvater's: powerful, ambitious, and stubborn; she wants the world and can be overbearing to get it. This Queen wants to fix everyone's problems and will take them on whether you want her to or not. It is possible that this card is telling me to let go of the desire to take on the world, since it's impossible and is basically just resulting in me being in my feels about everything all the time.
2. What do I open up to in the new year?: Here we have the Knight of Wands, earth of fire, who also brings drive and passion and volatility to whatever he's up to, but he tends to be more up to material or financial projects. In combination with the Queen, I suspect I am being told to chill out a bit on being uselessly bleeding-heart about everything and focus on concrete things I can do. Louis' Knight of Wands represents "Escape from Difficulty," embodying creative energy and signaling that change is in the air. This Knight can signal big changes like moving or getting a new job, which are things I am seriously considering pursuing this year if I cannot get a raise. Stiefvater's Knight of Wands believes fully in herself and is driven to move swiftly and confidently, with no self-doubt to hold her back. In combination with the previous card, I do think I am getting a consistent message to fret about the rest of the world a bit less and do concrete things to improve my own life more.
3. Key opportunity of the new year: The Four of Coins is basically the miser card, which seems counterintuitive at first--having the opportunity to be miserly sounds kind of shitty, yeah? Louis titles it "Holding Tight," or "Maintaining the status quo," both of which also sound shitty and also in direct opposition to the previous card. However, it also represents financial security and the chance to enrich oneself. While it can warn of being too stingy and materialistic, it also represents sound financial sense. Stiefvater's interpretation of this card, represented by the clinging vines, is that the querent's relationship with money is strangling them. So the opportunity here is either to have more money or have a psychologically healthier attitude toward money; it's hard to say.
4. Key challenge of the new year: The Seven of Coins; this one's got climbing vines instead of clinging ones. The "Perseverance" card represents taking stock of one's progress and slow, steady growth. In its positive aspect, it can indicate that while the querent has plateaued for a bit or feels like their hard work on is not paying off, it actually is, and consistent efforts will pay off eventually. In its negative aspect, it can indicate feelings of depression, failure, or wasted effort. Stiefvater interprets this card as warning of a decision that has to be made carefully and with careful assessment of prior efforts, because you have to decide if you'll have what you need if you stay on this path. This seems to me like it could easily be referring to the apparent stagnation in my job; it could also be indicating that doing a second draft of Tess is going to be quite challenging as well. Or it could be both, I suppose. I'm 30 this year, which I suppose is as good a year as any to reevaluate where I am and how to get somewhere better on any number of fronts.
5. Hidden concern: The King of Cups, drawn from the bottom of the deck, often represents a fatherly mentor sort of figure, of which I'm not sure I have much of any. Perhaps that is the concern--especially at work, my ME and CEO are both pretty laissez-faire and I feel like I'm being allowed to stagnate in a way that I'm less than entirely pleased with, especially if I'm interested in developing skills that are outside my training and job description. This card can also indicate a situation in which caring and empathic assistance are crucial, in which case I guess the concern would be that I'd burn out and disengage. Stiefvater's King of Cups is an interesting figure, a counselor and diplomat, but also sometimes manipulative--a person who knows how other people's emotions work but can keep their own under wraps. Stiefvater suggests being "mindful of subdued emotions" and trying to channel the King's positive qualities of diplomacy and guidance. So I guess the concern is either the risk of distancing myself too much from my own feelings--especially if I take the advice that seems to be accumulating in the previous cards, and getting out of my feels about the world at large and focusing on concrete stuff--and I guess doing concrete stuff that doesn't make me happy (?) or being insensitive/manipulative/uncaring to the feelings of others because I'm trying to get off the All Feelings All the Time train. This is also the only card in this spread that isn't a Wand or a Coin, and in fact it embodies both of the other suits, so maybe the general idea is that I run the risk of ignoring those elements of my life and getting out of balance.
6. Deep wisdom/advice: Drawn from the middle of the deck, we have the Nine of Wands, "Strength in Reserve," indicating standing your ground or standing up for yourself. This card indicates that you may have been hurt in the past and therefore assumed a protective/defensive posture. This could very easily be about employment. One theme of this card is that the conflict it represents is some sort of final challenge, one that you're in a good position to get the best of, and that once this challenge is overcome you'll have accomplished something important. Stiefvater warns that "The final step is something that is going to test your inner strength to its utmost, something that depends on all the experience and skill you've built up to this point." So yeah, the deep wisdom here is that something is going to be hard, but at least I'm more prepared for it than I thought? This upcoming year sounds potentially very taxing.
7. Key theme of the new year: The Page of Wands, fire of fire, basically a doubling of the Ace of Wands, depicted in this deck by a single lit match. There were definitely a lot of wands in this spread already (and coins, basically just wands and coins all day every day). The Page, named "Esprit de Corps," embodies daring action, vitality, and good news. Good news is on the way, new opportunities arise, a job or career change is possible, you might begin a new venture, exercise is good. The querent has "energy, optimism, and enthusiasm at your disposal." Stiefvater calls the page "Courageous... childlike, confident, and undaunted." She advises finding that sort of fearlessness and spontaneity in oneself, abandoning the concerns that would prevent you from taking on a new course of action, and "just let[ting] yourself be a creative visionary." Sounds terrifying, but I think it fits in with previous cards about pursuing concrete action, making tough decisions, not giving up, and all that stuff. In other words, it's time to turn off the news and buckle in on improving my life, and that I shouldn't chicken out of making big changes or tough decisions.
Oh, yikes. Just this reading makes me want to go back to bed.
