Interaction
with Language
Throughout previous chapters, I’ve had cause to say things like “this tells a story” or “this forms a narrative.” Tarot interacts with language in that it creates and is created by language. In other words, tarot readings form words: phrases, sentences, and stories. And words, and the structure of language, can help form a tarot reading.
The Grammar of Tarot
Why should studying grammar matter now? Either you studied it in grade school, or you didn’t and you’ve gotten along just fine without it. But the grammar of tarot can help you deepen your readings. The words and phrases that constitute a reading should make sense and should have life. Too many people find that tarot readings just sit there, flat and lifeless, like a list of facts.
Consider the readings we’ve already explored.
In chapter 4, we talked about constructing a narrative from a Past-Present-Future layout. Instead of saying this is the past and this is the present, it’s important to weave them into a story. The guiding principle I offered was: [past] and therefore [present], or [past], but now [present]. In grammatical terms, past and present are treated as independent clauses, with a conjunction or a conjunction phrase connecting them.
An independent clause is a whole idea, complete unto itself. Each clause could be a whole sentence, but the connecting phrase forms a more complex sentence from the two clauses together. Does that sound like gobbledygook? Let’s go straight to the cards.
In chapter 4, we used the following interpretation of the past card of the Ten of Swords and the present card of the Nine of Wands: In the past, you were defeated, and therefore, you are now guarded, cautious, and distrustful.
“In the past, you were defeated” is what I mean by an independent clause. You could use it as a whole sentence. It has a subject (“you”) and a predicate with a verb (“were defeated”). “You are now guarded, cautious, and distrustful” could also function as a whole sentence. The subject again is “you,” the verb is “are,” and there is a dandy string of adjectives.
The long sentence connecting past and present is lively; it could be the beginning of a screenplay if “you” was replaced by “our hero.” Instead of just rattling off the qualities of each card, forming phrases and sentences into a story allows you to make the reading truly animated.
Tarot Words and Sentences
Sometimes a card isn’t going to be a whole sentence (or clause). Perhaps it’s just a word or phrase. And here it can be very helpful to remember parts of speech.
When you first learn to read tarot, there is a tendency to read every card as a noun or an adjective. The Ten of Swords is “defeat,” and the Nine of Wands is “cautious, guarded.” Indeed, most of the simpler guidebooks will give meanings in just this way.
Instead, try looking at an entire reading as if it’s a sentence. In this way, you’ll see that a reading needs nouns and verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
Nouns, you may recall from grade school, are persons, places, or things. This means they’re specific and individual, and when a reading seems particularly vague, it might help you to look for the nouns. Often, a noun is what is known about a reading, and a noun is a commitment, by the reader, to a definite focus in the reading. (Remember, in chapter 1 we learned that such commitment helps the Psychic Child to come out.) When you say something like “the Emperor is your boss” or “the Two of Cups in reverse is your former job,” you are using nouns to make your reading grounded and specific.
Verbs are action words. “Doing” and “being” are actions, and finding the verbs in a tarot reading helps the reader understand behavior. “Happen” is also a verb, and querents obviously want to know what is happening. A reading needs to address some or all of these questions: What is the querent doing now? What has he done in the past? What will he do next? What should he do? What should he avoid doing? Verbs are an important part of the majority of the questions that a querent has, yet when you learn the meanings of tarot cards, verbs are largely absent!
Adjectives describe nouns (your job is difficult), and adverbs describe verbs (things are happening quickly). Your reading will give information about nouns (the specific Who-What-Where that every journalist is taught to ask) and verbs (what is happening, will happen, might happen, happened in the past, etc.) and should also be descriptive. The Knight of Swords is not just a man but an aggressive man; without the adjective “aggressive,” there’s no real information.
Sample Grammatical Reading: A New Job
The querent asked me, almost tongue-in-cheek, “Will my awesome new job be awesome?” I used the six-card Yes/No layout from chapter 4 (illustration 44).
The first thing that struck me about the reading was the strength of the no. This isn’t just no, it’s no way! The only upright card is the one that depicts the querent leaving the “awesome” job.
The next thing I saw was the twos. Fully half of these cards are twos, and there are twos in literally every position: a two each in the past, present, and future. Everything is about balance, I saw, and everything is out of balance.
Finally, there are four cups—two-thirds of the reading. The querent cares about feelings, even while talking about her job.
What is the grammar of this reading?
To answer that question, the task here is to find nouns, verbs, and descriptive words in each time period—past, present, and future—and to find how they connect. Connections are almost always conjunctions, remember, and are usually and therefore or but now.
I’d been asked specifically about a new job, one the querent had accepted but hadn’t yet started. It’s easy, then, to assume that the cards of the past have something to do with the old job or the reason she left it.
Here’s what I said: You felt unsupported in your old job. Your relationships there had broken down, and you were unstimulated. You weren’t learning anything or being inspired in any way.
The noun for the Two of Cups reversed is “relationship,” and the adjectives are “unsupportive” and “broken/damaged.” The Page of Cups reversed is a person (noun) whom I identify as the querent. The adjectives are “unstimulated” and “uninspired”—no ideas emerge from the Page’s cup of inspiration and wisdom.
So far, we have no clear verbs. We don’t know yet what’s happened. So we look at the present: You got tired of waiting. You were frustrated by being in limbo, so you made a move without knowing all the facts. You just assumed that the things you couldn’t see were okay.
I relied rather heavily on my Psychic Child here, but I think you can see exactly where this information came from.
The Two of Swords reversed is the end of a period of waiting, and there’s a suggestion of unwise action. Perhaps the person in this card is still blindfolded and acting without fully completing the waiting period. The upright Two of Swords is someone who doesn’t know all the facts, isn’t ready to make a move, or is stagnating in a difficult or dangerous situation. The basic situation isn’t necessarily reversed when the card is reversed; there is still danger, but the person is now acting, moving. Here, then, is our verb.
The Four of Cups depicts someone who hates what he has, without realizing there is something even better available. In reverse, this card is someone who embraces the possible, who sees that he can act and can embrace the blessings life offers.
Together, the present cards show someone who has embraced a course of action, even when it wasn’t quite time. Seeing the blindfold, and noticing the way that these two cards seem to align, I think that the Four, too, isn’t seeing everything there is to see.
The querent jumped into a new job because she was tired of waiting for the right opportunity. She probably accepted the first job offer she got, and she didn’t ask a lot of questions during the interview process.
Our verbs, then, are “acting,” “accepting (the job),” “ignoring (the facts),” and “assuming (that it would all work out).” We know what happened: the querent jumped on a job offer with little information. Our verbs are specific and descriptive.
Now we can look at the future: You’re not going to be able to keep your balance at the new job. You’re going to be stressed and overwhelmed. You’re going to hate it, and before too long, you’re going to walk away. The only good part is that, when you do go, you will have really learned important lessons and will have grown from the experience.
The meaning of the Two of Pentacles reversed is being overwhelmed, out of balance, and stressed. It’s all adjectives. Here I added a noun: the new job. It was easy, in this case, to figure out the noun since the querent told me her question! I’ve also got a verb, and again, it was easy to guess that a card showing a person walking away was an action card. The Eight of Cups is a card of progress (as are all eights), and here it is about leaving something behind even though it’s still good (since she’s going to hate her job, I’m guessing “good” means prestigious or lucrative) for a higher level of some kind. This I interpret as lessons learned. With five reversals in this reading, I’m going to look at the one upright card as very positive, and look to it to help the querent. Here, it tells her to leave.
The querent was quite satisfied with this reading. She confirmed the accuracy of my description of her past job and of how she accepted the new one. She was willing to suffer in this new job for a while to build her resumé, and she interpreted the Eight of Cups as exactly that—she’ll be able to walk away with better credentials in her field, and the awful stress will have been worth it. This was interesting for me, because, like many readers, I always find it awkward (or worse) to give bad news to the querent. Here I had a querent who was excited about the future, and I told her the job would be a terrible experience. But instead of taking it badly, she took the news in the best possible light. It was a lesson for me in being a truthful reader and facing the darkness squarely.
Obviously, when reading the cards, I didn’t just use grammar. Indeed, you can see that I used all the techniques we’ve learned so far: interaction with pattern, interaction with layout, and cards interacting with each other, as well as trusting my Psychic Child. Language is one more component, one more interaction, that adds depth to a reading.
Most importantly, I think that looking at the grammar of a reading helps you avoid common mistakes. Grammar helps to prevent you from simply reciting meanings, or even meanings-in-position, and allows you instead to turn the reading into a narrative. This narrative can be applied to the other interactions we’ve learned. For example, the pattern can be telling a story; it can be a noun, verb, or adjective. In fact, the layout itself can determine the grammar. Consider our Vitruvian Man layout, with positions for “doing” and “should do.” If you’re interested in designing your own layouts, having room for a range of storytelling words is an important component to consider.7
The Tarot Subject
Here’s another thing that I remember from grade school: a teacher writing a sentence and asking us all to figure out what was the subject and what was the predicate. The subject is the noun that the sentence is actually about, and the predicate is, well, everything else. In the sentence “My boss is a jerk,” the subject is my boss. In the sentence “I hate my job because my boss is a jerk,” however, I am the subject; it’s about how I feel. The boss is just part of the description of why I feel the way I do.
These are exactly the kind of sentences that might show up in a tarot reading. In the previous example, “My work is unsupportive” and “I am uninspired” were two sentences ( based on the Two of Cups reversed and the Page of Cups reversed, respectively). “Therefore, I hate my job” is implied, especially because the cups pattern indicates strong feelings.
Now, there are some interesting things going on with these sample sentences about the jerky boss. First, “because” is a conjunction, a connecting word, so you might see “I hate my job” as one card, “My boss is a jerk” as a second card, and “because” as the space between them.
As examples, a Seven or Eight of Pentacles reversed or a Ten of Wands might indicate unhappiness at work, while the Emperor reversed or the King of Pentacles reversed could be a jerky boss. Any of those cards might also mean other things, but pairing them might cause you to derive this particular compound sentence.
The other thing to notice is that in the sentence “My boss is a jerk,” the subject is not the querent.
One of my pet peeves regarding the tarot is what I call the “psychotherapy syndrome.” Every tarot reading is treated as a psychotherapy session, and every card is treated like a component of the querent’s psyche. Nothing is ever about other people or other things. This is why the environment position is so important in the Celtic Cross layout, and why the Influences reading is so helpful. These layout positions point away from the querent, to other people, places, and things (nouns). You want, as a reader, to be able to see past the inside of a querent’s head and heart and into his whole world. Not only does this make for a better reading for the querent, but the challenge is greater for you, and gives the Psychic Child greater opportunity to step forward.
This is not to say that the psychological aspect of a reading is without value. Far from it! Discovering the querent’s inner feelings, her secrets, her dreams, is very much a part of a tarot reading. Just as the Celtic Cross has an environment position, it also has one for hopes and fears. Indeed, that position is inherently psychological, as it implies that one’s hopes and fears are one and the same! In chapter 4, during the sample Influences reading, I suggested to the querent that a card represented the subconscious, while the querent insisted it was another person. Contrary to avoiding the psychotherapy syndrome, I was insisting the querent was the subject while she thought the subject was a particular dean.
The trick is not to eliminate psychology, but to incorporate it along with an understanding of the outside world. Let the querent be the subject, but let other people, places, and things be the subject as well, depending upon the card. Have an open mind to the language of the tarot, and interact with it intuitively, letting the Psychic Child guide you.
Sample Reading: Another Person’s Reading
A friend contacted me with a request for a favor. He’d done a reading for himself and was having trouble interpreting it. Could I look at the reading and help?
This is a situation I’ve found myself in quite a few times, where someone else asks for my aid with a reading. It’s tricky for a number of reasons. First, it’s simply not my reading. As discussed in chapter 1, a reader develops unique, personal interpretations for various cards over a period of time. Many people don’t treat the Four of Wands as a card of marriage, but I do. Contrarily, Waite sees the Five of Cups as a troubled marriage, but I never use that meaning unless other nearby relationship cards demand it. So for someone else to lay out a reading, with their own understanding of card meanings, and then ask for my opinion, of necessity means that my take will be different, not because the other person is wrong, but because we each have a take on the cards that is uniquely our own.
Another problem here is that the other person may be using a deck I don’t know well. If it’s the Waite-Smith, or Hanson-Roberts, or Robin Wood, or some other deck I use myself, then it’s not an issue. In the sample reading I’m about to discuss, the reader/querent used the Deviant Art, which is a deck I’ve never used. I don’t connect with that deck, so I chose to read largely based on the cards as I always understand them, not based on the Deviant Art illustrations—so right away a piece of my ability to flow with the reading was lost.
The final barrier is the lack of psychic connection—to my cards and to the experience of the reading. I haven’t touched or laid out these cards; I’m just looking at them.
Despite all these issues, I do find I can give effective input in these situations, and I have always said yes.
My friend sent me a simple reading of a unique layout. (Since the layout was invented by a mutual friend, I chose not to “steal” it for this book.) It was a layout of the snapshot type, giving facts and advice about a specific situation—in this case, my friend’s romance.
The last position in the layout was explained to me as “What am I not seeing?” The King of Swords was here.
The cards and our conversation revealed that my friend and his boyfriend had recently broken up, that he felt it was temporary, and that he was waiting it out. A twos pattern emphasized the couple-ness and the waiting. I asked him to send me a picture of the reading so I could look at it and see lines and movement.
Immediately I saw the Two of Cups to the right of the King of Swords. In the Deviant Art deck, the King of Swords looks to the left, so he was looking away from the Two. I asked, Is it possible he cheated on you?
Here’s the Two of Cups, one of the most romantic cards in the deck (the card I used on my own wedding invitations), and here’s another man, disconnected from it, looking away from it. Another man. In addition, the other man was looking to the left, making me feel that the ex was cheating with someone from the past.
Absolutely not, my friend insisted. He suggested that the position “What am I not seeing?” could be a secret (cheating) but could also be something like “What am I in denial about?” or “What do I know but refuse to acknowledge?” In truth, that could still be cheating, but I had given my friend the information and then proceeded to give him a different interpretation. It’s possible, I suggested, that the King represents qualities that your ex has. The King of Swords is judgmental, sharp, perhaps arbitrary, perhaps cold. I suggested that he might not be seeing that this situation could recur, again and again, and not just be a one-off. If you get back together, I said, there might always be times when he is like this, when he pushes you away. This won’t be the only time you go through something this harsh with him.
Fundamentally, my friend and I disagreed about what or whom the subject was for the statement represented by the King of Swords. I believed the subject of the secret was the ex: he is keeping a secret. My friend thought he, the querent, was the subject: What am I not seeing?
Was the King external—a situation in the real world—or internal—something my friend was thinking or feeling? Although my friend and I disagreed, it was, ultimately, his reading, so I offered an alternate interpretation and left it at that.
About three weeks later, it turned out there was, indeed, another man from the past, although he might not have been in the picture at the time we did the reading.
Subject/Object
What’s important here is the question of subject. Instead of thinking of sentence structure, you might think of subject/object. The subject is the one with a point of view, the actor. The object is acted upon. When feminists talk about women being “objectified,” it means they are being treated as if their role is to be acted upon: gazed at, pursued, desired. All of which is great if you also get to be the subject: gazing, desiring, and having a point of view all your own. In a relationship, two people are both subject and both object; they love and are loved, they each have views and desires, and each is desired and viewed.
In the sample reading from the last section, we struggled to determine if the querent was the subject of secrecy ( keeping what he knew from himself) or the object (someone else was keeping a secret from him).
There are a number of cards in a standard tarot deck that have inherent subject/object questions. The Seven of Swords is an example. The Waite-Smith deck (and Robin Wood after it) depicts a thief. The meaning is theft or betrayal. But is the querent the subject or object of theft? Did the querent steal, or was the querent robbed?
Psychotherapy syndrome has the querent as the subject of almost everything, as if there’s no outside world with which to contend. It’s powerful, then, to look at a reading as if it contains different subjects and objects, as if the querent is engaged in the world and the world engages back. Interacting with the language of tarot helps that happen.
Storytelling
Another way to interact with language in a tarot reading is through storytelling: turning the entire reading into a narrative tale.
This is a book about interacting with the tarot, and not about story structure or narrative arcs or any of that, but we can briefly look at the elements of a story and how they can become a part of your tarot interactions.
The protagonist is always the querent. While the querent may be the subject or object of a specific tarot card, sentence, or phrase, the reading as a whole is ultimately a story about the querent.
There is a goal or incentive. In a story, it can be anything from “save the world” to “boy meets girl.” Often, the querent’s question relates to the goal. It might not be expressed that way, of course, but the querent has something in mind, whether it’s a relationship, a new job, or something else. Maybe the querent isn’t aware of any such goal and simply wants life to go well, day by day. That, too, is a goal.
There are obstacles. Maybe it’s a villain—a rival or an authority figure causing trouble—or maybe it’s the querent’s own bad behavior, or perhaps it’s fate. If the querent’s question isn’t about the goal, it’s about obstacles that are getting in her way. In Greek tragedy, the hero has a fatal flaw that causes his own downfall, often by ignoring the will of the gods. This is tremendously interesting for the tarot reader, who can help a querent see his own shortcomings and also show him what is inevitable or inescapable (usually connected to the major arcana) so that the querent can accept his fate and avoid the pain and tragedy of fighting it.
In addition, there is often, in a story, a guide or some kind of help. In the hero’s journey, the mentor is a key figure in the tale. For purposes of tarot, we can look to the reading to see what people or conditions help the querent.
Of course there is a resolution. Whether happy ever after or tragic, there is an outcome to facing the obstacles: They are or are not overcome. The lovers end up together or they don’t. The ship sinks or it doesn’t. With tarot, we can help the querent see the outcome of the steps she is currently taking, so that she can decide if she likes that outcome or not. If not, we can go back to the story and see what plot points have to change in order for the end result to change.
In a story, the protagonist also has some sort of character arc. Generally, we expect the hero to grow, change, or progress in some way (unless he’s James Bond: 007 never changes). Look to a reading to see the opportunity for growth that the goal and obstacles present.
We can look at sample readings already presented in these pages and see if they fit the basic story structure.
The Influences sample reading in chapter 4 (illustration 20) has a simple narrative. The querent’s goal is to do well in her career. The obstacle is the way the institution conspires against her ever getting tenure. Help comes from the dean who is represented by the King of Wands. The pattern of major arcana suggests there aren’t a lot of options for her except to keep doing what she’s doing (fate plays a role). Thus, the character arc is limited—she doesn’t seem to grow much here. The outcome is that she continues to struggle and continues to succeed, but just barely.
What about the sample grammatical reading at the beginning of this chapter, “A New Job” (see illustration 44)? The querent’s goal is two-pronged: to advance her career and to enjoy her new job. She will achieve one goal (career advancement) at the expense of the other. The arc—the potential personal growth—is enormous, and the obstacles are considerable. Here is a situation that will cause immense suffering but will ultimately be rewarding. It’s an opportunity not just for the querent to advance her career, but for her to learn about herself, and about walking into situations unprepared. She will have no allies in this and will have to rely on herself.
Just looking briefly at these two readings, we can see how storytelling can add another whole layer to the interaction with a reading, and how it is also a powerful interactive tool with the querent. Telling querents a story engages them and lets them see their own journey.
Homework: Sentence Structure
I asked the question “How is my day going to go?” and laid out the following three cards (illustration 45):
Homework Questions
1. What is the subject in the question?
2. What is the object?
3. Which card or cards represent the subject?
4. Which card or cards represent the object?
5. Which card or cards represent a verb?
6. Which card or cards are adjectives about the subject?
7. Will my day go well or badly?
8. What parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions) might be represented by the Queen of Wands? By the Page of Wands reversed? By the Nine of Pentacles reversed?
9. Form a sentence based on these three cards.
Homework Answers
1. The subject is “my day.”
2. I am the object; “my day” will have an effect on me.
3. I think “my day” is the Nine of Pentacles reversed, although you might have drawn a different conclusion.
4. The Queen of Wands clearly seems to represent me, since I asked a question about my day and I am a woman, who would typically be represented in the tarot by a queen. By the way, it was a very sunny day when I laid out these cards, so the sunshine seems to reinforce that that’s me during this day.
5. If I am the first card, and the third card is my day, then the second card, the Page of Wands reversed, is the verb that acts upon my day.
6. I am going to go back to the third card. This card is not just “my day,” but a description of (adjective about) my day.
7. Simply reading patterns will tell you that two reversals in a three-card reading isn’t good.
8. The Queen of Wands is the object/noun (me) as well as adjectives about me.
The Page of Wands reversed is a verb (acting upon me or my day) and may also be a noun (a person who acts) and adjectives or adverbs (describing the person or the actions).
The Nine of Pentacles reversed is the subject and a noun (my day) as well as adjectives describing my day.
9. There are many possible sentences. Here’s mine: I will approach the day happily but will be thwarted by someone else’s mood or negative message, and will end up frustrated at home.
The sentence can be broken down as follows:
Queen of Wands: Me, approaching my day with bright sunshine. The noun “me” is modified by the adjectives “happy” and “sunny.”
Page of Wands Reversed: The verb is “thwart.” My day is thwarted by a moody (adjective) person (noun) or a negative (adjective) message (noun).
Nine of Pentacles Reversed: My day (noun) ends with me frustrated (adjective) because (conjunction) I’m stuck at home or something happens at home that isn’t good.
You’ll notice that every card had adjectives associated with it. This is because tarot cards are vivid and descriptive.
If your interpretation was different from mine, that’s okay.
Homework: Subject/Object
Homework Questions
1. For the reading in illustration 46, form a sentence in which the Page of Pentacles is the subject and the Seven of Swords is the object.
2. Now reverse it: the Page is the object and the Seven is the subject.
3. Can they both be objects?
4. Can they both be subjects?
Homework Answers
1. The querent is a student who gave generously to an unworthy person who didn’t repay him. The querent/subject gave generously, and the thief/object is the unworthy recipient of generosity.
2. Someone (perhaps the querent) has been stealing or sneaking off with money or gifts from someone younger and more naive. The thief/subject stole from the Page/object. Be very careful when you think the querent is the subject in a case like this. A querent is likely to become offended if accused of stealing! It may be necessary to tell a querent he is a thief, but it’s usually best to ease into it, as I did in this sentence by saying “perhaps the querent.”
3. For both cards to be objects, a third card should be the subject. If the querent was robbed (object of the Seven of Swords) and also has received generous help from a young scholar (object of the Page of Pentacles), then a third card would generally indicate who the querent is. There’s no sentence structure otherwise.
4. Yes. The querent can be both the student and the thief. Look to other cards to determine who was robbed, if you can.
Exercises
Exercise: Sentence Structure
This exercise will guide you through the analysis of a simple reading, such as the previous homework reading, using sentence structure.
1. Before you begin, formulate a simple question. Now look at the sentence and determine what the subject is.
2. When you’re ready to begin, take several deep, cleansing breaths, and center yourself.
3. Ask your question out loud.
4. Shuffle the cards until you feel it’s time to stop.
5. Lay out three cards, from left to right.
6. Do you see the subject of your reading? Which card is it? The subject is a noun. What adjectives describe this noun?
7. Do you see the verb in your reading? Which card is it? The verb acts upon the subject or object. What adverbs describe the verb?
8. What other parts of speech do you see?
9. Form a sentence about your reading.
10. Repeat this exercise several times, until you feel confident in your ability to read sentence structure.
Exercise: Subject/Object
This exercise will also guide you through the analysis of a simple reading, such as the previous homework reading, using sentence structure.
1. Begin by taking several deep, cleansing breaths, and center yourself.
2. Shuffle the cards until you feel it’s time to stop.
3. Lay out two cards, from left to right.
4. Read the cards out loud as if the first card is the subject and the second is the object.
5. Now reverse it: the first card is the object and the second is the subject.
6. Can you form a full sentence for each version of the reading?
7. Repeat this exercise several times, until you feel confident in your ability to read sentence structure.
Exercise: Lonely Love Life Revisited
In this exercise, we will continue the Lonely Love Life reading from chapter 5 (illustration 43), this time looking for story and narrative.
Again, you may do better setting up the reading with your own cards to look at, to allow yourself to really feel the reading. Take some breaths to center yourself before you begin.
Questions
1. The Vitruvian Man layout (illustration 28) gives the querent a choice: Where you’re going (right foot) versus what you should be doing (right hand).
• Tell the story of what happens in the case of the right foot.
• Tell the story of what happens in the case of the right hand. Remember, the right hand is the position of “what you should be doing” and should be the preferred choice (if they are different).
• Is it a different story if you tell it about all four cards? What’s that story?
• Remember that these stories are about a reading we’ve already begun. The story should make sense for the protagonist who has already emerged in this reading.
2. What is the querent’s narrative arc? In other words, what is the protagonist’s journey?
3. What are the goals, obstacles, and resolution?
4. Are there any allies?
5. Is there wisdom to be gained?
6. Write your thoughts in your journal before reading my response.
My Thoughts
Before telling the story of the right hand or the right foot, I recall that there are other stories in the spread.
The story of the left hand is, The querent has been reborn, but she is so overwhelmed that she cannot enjoy her transformation. All she sees is the burden she carries. The left hand has a beginning and a middle, but no resolution.
The story of the left foot is, The querent wasn’t feeling too good about herself, but an affair awakened her sexually, and then hurt her.
Now we can get to the right foot. Two majors in this position indicates she’s entering into an important period, and her next decisions are crucial. The Magician denotes a person (often a man) of considerable personal ability. He’s the “whole package.” The altar before him has the four tools of the tarot, indicating he has equal power over all aspects of life. In general, I wouldn’t think that the Magician is misusing his power unless he’s reversed, but Strength reversed gives me pause.
Strength is a card that represents a clear choice between the power of compassion (upright) and the power of brute force (reversed). It is often a spiritual card, and a card that reveals deep psychological states of being. With this card combined with the Magician, in a reading that is oriented around relationships, and keeping in mind that the querent has already made a bad choice about a man, I read the story of the right foot as: You will meet a man who seems to have everything and be everything you want. You’ll be attracted to him for his strength and ability, but he is not a good-hearted or kind man. He may be a man from the past or someone you (the querent) don’t know yet. This last part was in response to the querent’s question “Is it my ex-lover?” Maybe. The cards don’t say.
Once again, this is a story without an ending. That’s where the right hand comes in. I could not have understood the right foot without seeing the right hand as its counterpoint.
In the right hand, we see the King of Wands reversed. Read on his own, he is often an older (over thirty) man with a difficult temperament. He tends to be bossy and abrupt. But he is paired with the Six of Pentacles. This is a card of generosity; it can mean the querent receives a gift or help of some kind—there is a benefactor. This card often means a person (the benefactor), although it can also be read as a situation.
The story (or chapter) of the right hand, “what you should be doing,” is this: The querent will meet someone who is awkward and perhaps even unpleasant. As she gets to know him, though, she’ll find that he is generous, charitable, and good.
Combining the right hand and foot, I get the following: The querent will end up in a position of choosing between two men. One is obviously attractive and seems to be the one she wants, but she should instead look at the other one, the one she initially didn’t like. If she pays attention to this man, she’ll find him to be truly good, someone who will give money instead of taking it, someone worthy of her.
Looking at this choice, and at the Six of Pentacles, I asked the querent if she was involved in any charity or community service work, and she said no. I suggested that she might get a call in the near future, asking for her help in some community, church, or charitable project, and that she should say yes. It seems like, with the Six where he is, and the story told in that position, she might easily meet this particular man while doing such charity work. It also seems consonant with what Spirit wants for her—to look away from the past and forgive, charitably.
Previously, I interpreted the King of Wands reversed as the ex-lover, and now I’m saying the Magician is the ex and the King is someone new. How can this be? The interactions of movement told a different story than the interactions with layout and with language. This is fine. There are many stories within a single reading, which is how so much information can be gleaned from only twelve cards. The beauty of reading interactions is that they’re not all the same. By reading the movement interaction and the interaction of the meaning of the card in the position of the layout as two separate things, I can find more stories to share with the querent, more sources by which we may uncover truths together.
The querent’s narrative arc is as follows: She had a transformation (the divorce), which began her journey. She faced multiple obstacles, first in feeling burdened and alone, and then in being betrayed by a lover (plot twist!). Her goal is to find the right man, or to be happier and less burdened by her own aloneness (although she really doesn’t like that option). Her ally has yet to be met—he is the benefactor seen in the Six of Pentacles. Perhaps he is her future lover, or perhaps he’ll help her find him. Her true wisdom will come not when she finds a lover, but when she lets go of the past and learns to forgive.
The Querent’s Response
The querent listened attentively to all I had to say and promised to make another appointment soon. As of this writing, I do not know the end of the story.
In my years of reading tarot, I’ve developed a grudging acceptance of not necessarily knowing how stories turn out. It can be frustrating, but as long as I know I’ve helped in the moment, I can live with it.
7. With this in mind, perhaps you could revisit the exercise that closes chapter 4.