TE-8

Additional Tarot Spreads for Clarity

Okay, so let’s say that you did the bracket and figured out which of the five element readings you needed. You did the reading. Aaaaaaand you still don’t know what to do. This is okay. Life is complicated, and sometimes you have to get to the core of the issue before you can address it.

We’re going to do an example reading from beginning to the end of the process that might help, and I’m sharing three additional spreads to help parse out some steps you can take after your elements reading to clarify.

Water Reading for Ophelia

For the first reading, I didn’t have any volunteers, so we’re going to borrow a lady from Shakespeare and see if we can help her out.

Ophelia wants to figure out why her life is such a sodden mess. Ophelia’s situation has gotten complicated. Her boyfriend, Hamlet, comes back from abroad all moody and distant. I mean, his dad has just died (under rather suspicious circumstances) and his mother remarries pretty quickly (to his uncle, no less). You’d expect your partner to lean into you after a trauma like that, but instead he’s started wandering the halls of the castle, talking to himself. Her position at court is therefore at risk because if they’re going to break up (because it certainly feels that way and he’s acting totally weird), she’s not going to be in the royal family at all. Also, her dad is always working, it seems, and she’s on her own a lot.

Now, should Ophelia have ordered this very anachronistic book from Ye Olde Llewellyn Publications and had completed the bracket, she would have found out so much about herself. It turns out that her emotional self needs attention right now. Her home is secure (if drafty), her material needs are met, she stays in good shape by swimming (sorry), and she spends a lot of her downtime in the library, so she is intellectually fulfilled. A water reading it is (heh).

She does the water reading and finds that her mother’s absence in her adolescent years has caused her to seek out attention from anyone around her. She tried to adopt Gertrude as a mother figure, but Gertrude has been distant. This is disappointing, as they both have a lot in common and would seem to be a good pair. Alas, their only connection is Hamlet, so when that’s gone, Ophelia is adrift. (I’m so sorry.)

Since she can’t fix her mother problem, what can she do? Surely the cards have some deeper advice to help her out before she starts drowning in emotions. (I can’t stop. Please send help.)

One of these two readings will help her simplify the problem further. If you do an element reading and come to an impasse, you can submerge (again, I’m so sorry) yourself in one of the three following readings to get some clarity.

Each of them will serve the same purpose, and whichever you choose is entirely up to you.

Three-Card Spread

Card 1: The problem in front of you.

Card 2: What needs to change?

Card 3: How do you change it?

Three-Card Reading Example: Ophelia

After doing t he water reading, Ophelia found that she had a lot of emotional stuff that was still hanging out there. It was making her angry and frustrated, and she’s not sure what to do.


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Card 1: Queen of Swords Reversed

The problem in front of you.

I think that women have a bad rap when it comes to gossip. I think that men gossip, too, but our society allows them to criticize other people and situations without having to cloak it in secrecy or meanness. This is the way it is right now, though, and you’re being a gossip. Don’t use your words to hurt—use them to help. If you have some criticism to hand out, do it with your head up and meet their eyes. Don’t be sneaky about it. That says more about you than it does about them.

Rather than turning on other people, the Queen of Swords reversed tells us that Ophelia’s first instinct is to turn on herself. After all, she is in a patriarchal system where women’s only currency is their virginity and ability to breed. She’s been raised her entire life, therefore, to strictly curtail herself and any emotional overwhelm that she might feel consumed by, as this would knock her resale price down.

Card 2: The Hierophant

What needs to change?

You may need to find a teacher or counselor to unlock the mysteries. Remember that you are not always the smartest person in the room. Every person has something to teach you. You have to study—people, nature, feelings, whatever—so you can open the world. The world doesn’t open to the lazy, and with immersion in a subject, you can begin to own it.

What needs to change is that Ophelia doesn’t have the tools she needs to fix her problems. She is sorting through so much right now and needs a professional to jump in and help sort through it. Ophelia needs to find a counselor who does have the tools and can show Ophelia all her options and how to wade through them (that one was an accident, I swear).

Card 3: Two of Pentacles

How do you change it?

You often get this card when you’re keeping your balance well amid rough weather. Keep light on your feet and don’t lose sight of your goals. Regardless of how crazy the world can be, as long as you maintain your balance, you’ll be just fine. Remember, the Buddha said be kind to everyone. You are part of everyone. Don’t involve yourself in other people’s issues. Just mind your business and reach out if your business involves getting assistance.

Despite her rigid surroundings and limited upbringing, Ophelia is an independent thinker. She is still very strong and independent, but this doesn’t mean she can’t ask for help. There is no shame in getting counseling or medication to help with mental health issues. There is nothing wrong with asking for help. Ophelia will be able to keep her balance and maintain her strength without sacrificing her mental health. It’s okay to ask for help.

Summary

Luckily, a traveling monk is also staying at the castle. He notices her lingering gaze on the brook and asks if she’s okay. She breaks down and admits that she feels trapped and that she is a pawn in a game of men and can only see one way out: suicide. The good monk asks if he can disguise her as a nun and help her escape in the dead of night. She arrives at the monastery’s adjacent nunnery and finds that the sisters pursue studies in history, literature, and astronomy. She lives out the rest of her life in the company of strong, independent women who have conned all the patriarchy into thinking that nuns are submissive. Suckas.

The Bridge Spread

I learned this spread from my friend Beth Maiden of www. little
redtarot.com, and it’s just perfect for this “after the reading” reading. If you get to a place where you feel like you know the plan but don’t know how to get started, the bridge spread will work beautifully for you. We’re going to use my buddy Ramon as an example.

Card 1: You where you are right now, at the apex of the bridge.

Card 2: The shore you left behind. This card represents the past.

Card 3: The journey’s lesson. How have things been so far?

Card 4: The river. Unconscious influences on you now, what lies in your subconscious, and what your intuition wants you to know.

Card 5: Your next step. Here’s where to focus in the short term.

Card 6: The shore you are heading for. This may be an indication of your overall trajectory, or if you have a specific goal in mind just now, this card speaks to that.

Card 7: A guiding star: A source of support to guide you.

Bridge Reading Example: Ramon

Ramon is having trouble figuring out his work situation. He did an air reading and knows that his current job isn’t working out. He knows that he needs to go back to school but isn’t sure if he should change jobs before or after school. He knows that he needs a change but isn’t sure the best way to get there.

Card 1: Seven of Cups

You where you are right now.

If wishes were fishes, you’d never go hungry. If you have dreams, take the time to write them down and make an action plan to make them happen. It’s a vital place to visit, but you can’t live there. This is the card that shows you where you could go. You need to clarify your dream, create a plan, and manifest the hell out of it.

Ramon has been daydreaming about going back to school for so long that it seems like an unattainable goal. Where he is right now is a little disheartened. Still hopeful, but it’s been so long.

Card 2: Three of Swords

The past.

Ouch. Pain. Like, searing, heart-falling-out pain. The thing about pain this severe is that it’s purifying. That’s literally the only good thing about this card. Sometimes you have to feel all the pain before it will go away. Remember that holding pain inside can cut you to pieces. Releasing it, even if only to yourself in a journal, is one of the most amazing things you can do. If you don’t want those words lying around, write them down and burn them.

Ramon has had a series of awful jobs, at which he’s had to deal with homophobia, racism, and harassment. Each time he finds a new job, he makes a little more money but eventually will run into the same crappy behavior from coworkers. The three swords represent heartbreak—no wonder he’s so anxious about moving on.

Card 3: Four of Wands

The journey’s lesson.

You are on the path to success. You are pointed in the right direction. You can pick up more tools on the way if you need them, but I tell you it’s time to start walking up the hill. Do not stop. Do not get to the end of your life and realize you didn’t finish that book because you were screwing around on Facebook. Do your Job. Not your Muggle job, your real Job. The one you were put here to do.

The Four of Wands traditionally shows four wands tied together with ribbons at the top, like a bower or a chuppah. You can see past the bower to a path that leads up a hill to a beautiful home. With each job, Ramon gets a little more money, a little more confidence, and a little closer to his goal. The journey’s lesson for Ramon has been that when he expects better, he’ll receive better. He didn’t just happen to find jobs that paid better, he expected better from himself. His confidence has grown, and he would no longer settle for the same stuff he did before.

Card 4: Queen of Pentacles

What your intuition wants you to know.

The Queen of Pentacles welcomes you into her lap for a snuggle. Comforting, loving, and compassionate. She is calm wherever she is because she chooses to be there. She doesn’t overreact. She doesn’t lose her balance. She decides how she’s going to feel, how she’s going to act, and who she’s going to allow in her life. She has the BEST BOUNDARIES EVER. Feet on the ground, steady and reliable.

Ramon’s intuition wants him to know that he deserves good things. He deserves a job where people respect him and where he can make a living wage. The Queen of Pents is solid and reliable, and so is Ramon. He’s a good person with a good heart, and his intuition is screaming at him to believe in himself.

Card 5: Nine of Wands

The next step.

Do not let the same people who messed with you before do it again. Protect yourself. Remember that people always tell you who they are. Your job is to listen, believe them, and then take care of yourself. You have done this before, you know. You know how to set boundaries and you know how to enforce them, but knowing how to do it and actually doing it are two very different things.

Ramon has challenges ahead of him, but he’s so close to achieving his dreams. He needs to find a job that allows him to attend school. He can take online classes or evening classes. Lots of people do it, but Ramon has never considered himself able or worthy to do it. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s absolutely going to be worth it.

Card 6: Ace of Cups

Where you’re headed.

Your cup runneth over with blessings. Be sure to be grateful. Happiness is afoot. Blessings abound. Accept them, acknowledge them, and say thank you. The universe conspires to shower you with blessings. Let it. If you’re not in a place to say thank you, start with “at least.” At least you have power. At least you woke up today. If things are solid, kick into the thank yous. Thank you for the little things and the big things, too.

Ramon is headed toward fulfillment. He just needs to get there. Everything will be okay.

Card 7: Ten of Swords

A source of support to guide you.

Oof. You just got stomped on quite a bit. Do us all a favor and stay down for a while. Watch Broad City and eat comfort food. You’ll stop bleeding eventually. The great part about this card is that you have actually reached rock bottom. Congratulations. Only one way to go from here.

The Ten of Swords isn’t always interpreted in a positive way, but I see it as excellent news for Ramon. This is as bad as it gets. Working at this “better than the old but not as the good as the dream” job will help him pay his bills while he attends college. He might even be able to find a job in the field that he’s interested in. He needs to understand that he’s never going to go backward.

You are Here Spread

Sometimes you will know exactly what you need to do to fix things but have no resources at all to begin the process. You are weary in mind, body, or soul or are otherwise stuck, and although the impulse for change is there, the ability just isn’t. This is okay. I have a reading for that.

Card 1: Where you are.

Card 2: What’s holding you up.

Card 3: What you’re dragging in from the past.

Card 4: What you should reach for.

Card 5: What you can hold on to to pull yourself forward.

You Are Here Reading Example: Ginger

Tarot readings are not just about telling the future. Actually, they’re mostly about not telling the future. They look at what you’re dragging in from the past, what you’re stewing in in the present, what you need to fix, and what you need to stop touching. (It’s never going to heal if you pick at it!) I have a good friend—Ginger. This friend has had a rough few years. Death of a loved one, breakups, loss of employment, and painful and unexpected disability. It’s been hard. Ginger is at a place right now where looking into the future won’t help a bit. I can tell someone that everything is going to be okay until I lose my breath, but if you’re that beat down, it’s just empty promises until it happens, you know? If they can’t believe in themselves, they’re not going to believe that I believe in them, either.

We did a spirit reading but got the sense that it was just too soon for her to think about a new spiritual path. She was struggling thinking about tomorrow. We decided to scrap the spirit reading for a while and use this one instead.

Not looking into the future. Not trying to figure out what’s next, just—What do I have? Where am I? How can I work with what I have?


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Card 1: Ten of Swords

Where you are.

Ginger needs to understand that this is bad, but it’s not forever. She’s starting to get so used to bad stuff happening, that she thinks that it’s normal. It’s not normal. It’s a string of bad luck. She should try to realign her thinking to help pull herself out of this depression a bit.

Card 2: Three of Cups

What’s holding you up.

Find your community! Do what you can to surround yourself with like-minded people and enjoy the companionship. Lean on them, be silly with them. Call your bestie right now and make plans to hang out. It’s good for you. Sometimes you have to dance because the real world has gotten so dark that if you don’t chase down a spark and make it grow, you’ll become part of the darkness. Don’t join the darkness.

She has a great support system of people who actively adore her and would do anything for her. She’s starting to feel guilty for asking for help lately, but she’s been in need. She should remember those times that she supported her friends. She has always been there for her people and needs to let them be there for her.

Card 3: Four of Cups

What you’re dragging in from the past.

Don’t settle. Don’t pout either, but make sure that this is what you really want. Fussy and ripe for hissy fits and eye rolling. Apathy is easy to ignore. Don’t wanna. Don’t want to change, don’t want to take my medicine, whatever that medicine may be. You have to look deeper than the apathy. Why don’t you want to change? You know these behaviors make you sad, and yet you won’t put them down. Consider the why of holding on to the listlessness and figure out how that’s paying off for you. There’s a payoff for “meh.” Whether it’s the reward of not failing (you can’t fail if you don’t try) or the reward of being comfortable, decide if it’s worth being stuck.

Ginger has never been lazy a day in her life. She’s worked since she was fourteen and has always supported herself and her kiddo. Since the disability and losing her job, she feels lazy. She’s forgetting that this is just for now, and that her health comes first. The shame that comes with not being able to work is part of her history and taking care of herself is not.

Card 4: The Hierophant

What you should reach for.

Her doctors have a good plan for her recovery, and even though the healing has been slow, she has made progress. She should continue meeting with her health team and doing her occupational therapy, and most importantly, she needs to keep track of her progress in a journal. Having this evidence of progress is going to help her feel as if she’s accomplishing something (and she totally is).

Card 5: Six of Cups

What you can hold on to to pull yourself forward.

Seek joy and don’t stop until you find it. Be sure that you’re taking time to live in the present. Warmth, happiness, and silliness abound. Remember to accept blessings given without being paranoid. Innocence is not always a bad thing. Trust that the universe calls you beloved. When we were small, we didn’t chase happiness—we just found it.

Ginger needs more silliness in her life. Even though she’s at home a lot, she can still invite friends over to watch movies, enjoy dinners together, and call her out-of-town friends. She can take up a new hobby to keep her hands busy and take time to read all those books she’s got piled next to her bed. Her life will be as rich as she makes it.

Additional Exercises

I have an anxiety disorder because I never learned how to properly deal with stress, so my brain instead built up this elaborate catchall of “what to do when stuff goes sideways.” My brain instructed my person that if I clean the entire house at 2 a.m., I definitely won’t get laid off. If I eat a salad instead of that fantastic taco, I will suddenly feel better about my body and myself. It’s almost like a catch and release program for my particular neurosis. It seems that if my family or friends are under stress or undergoing loss, I feel the need to pile more things on myself to create some sort of hyperaware force field around them. If I stress out, everyone will be just fine, right?

Well, no. That’s actually really stupid, but it’s the way that my brain works. Whether that’s a fixed neurological pathway or really ingrained behavior, I’m not sure. What I do know is that if I need it to stop—that constant braying of fix it, fix it, fix it—then the best thing I can do is sit down.

After I sit down, I try to get back to the basics. What can I control? What is clearly and wholly outside of my control? Usually, the problem is like 99.9 percent out of my control. It feels like more, though, right? It feels like we’re to blame for everything that goes sideways in our world. What ego. What absolute self-centeredness. What I can handle is me. I can control my tarot cards, too. I can handle my reactions and emotions to things. Since I’m a cardslinger, I can use my cards to help me through.

I decide which part of my life this particular problem belongs to. Since I am a witch, I use the elements to do this. Witches absolutely love their elements, by the way. They bring us right back to basics.

Home/Earth

I mentioned this earlier: if you can draw a map of your home and then draw smiley or frowny faces on it, it helps immensely. You can sit in the middle of the room and take the emotional temperature of the rooms in your home. Do you hate the paint? Does the furniture remind you of your ex? Do you hate your whole house, and it’s time to move? Touch base with yourself emotionally to make your house into a home. Pull a card to tell you which direction you should move in. Did you pull Temperance? You might need some balance between your things and your partner’s things. Did you pull the Devil? Maybe it’s beyond rescue and time to move. Even if this involves just clearing away things you haven’t touched in a year, this is your home. It’s supposed to support you.

Mind/Air

Are you frustrated or disengaged at work? Some folks are the most destructive when they are bored. That “do something” energy spins around, knocking over lamps and messing with relationships. The best thing to do when you’re anxious or bored about work or even to just refresh your mental acuity is to visit your brain objectively.

Hello, brain. How’s it going? Ooh, not so great, huh? You’ve been doing this work for four years, and it’s become completely tedious? And you work with a bunch of a-holes? How frustrating. Tell me, then, the following things:

What do you really like to do?
Do you need more education to do that?
If you’re doing what you want, can you do it somewhere else?

I encourage you to pull out your cards for this exercise. Let them confirm and tease out what the problem is. And then—and this is really the important part—do something about it. Change your job. Go back to school. Find a new position. For this reading, I recommend three cards: where are you now, where you need to go, and how you do it.

Whatever you do, remember that the whole point of it—over everything, really—is to be happy. It’s difficult to achieve happy when you spend forty-plus hours a week at a place you can’t thrive in.

Body/Fire

A simple exercise to get to the base of your physical self is one of gratitude. Draw a map of your body and include all the scars, bumps, wrinkles, scuffs, and stretch marks that you can.

For each event—for that’s what all of these were, events—I want you to pull a card telling you how that event changed your life, for good or for bad. That childbirth, that broken leg, those fifty pounds gained/lost/gained again. I want you to ask the tarot one question: How did this shape me?

Pull a card for each bump and bruise. Each scar and ache. See how they shaped you. Do you pull the Empress for your stretch marks? The Strength card for your surgery scars? They made you into something different, and sometimes it’s difficult to remember to assimilate the changes into who you are.

You’ll find that even the rough patches were for a cause and that those events led you to who you are today. Say, “Thank you, body, for getting me here. For protecting me. For coming out on the other side.” Say thank you and safely burn the picture, letting the ashes fly away with your gratitude.

Water/Heart

A lot of times the emotional overwhelm is either from an overabundance of emotional drama or from not knowing what your baseline feels like. As I mentioned earlier, I have an anxiety disorder, so my baseline runs high. I can tell (or my partner can tell) if things are going wackadoo on me because I exhibit certain behavioral tells. I have circular thinking. I get upset over small things that normally wouldn’t matter. I fidget a lot. When these things start up, I have a seat with them and pull out the suit of cups.

The cups are aligned with emotion, and I use them to tell me what is a big deal … and what is not. What I can control and what I cannot.

Make a list of four or five stressors, write them down, and pull a card for each. You can put the cards back in the deck after you’ve written which card goes to each stressor. When I do this, I ignore the standard meanings of the cards and go for the numbers. If I pull one through five, things are manageable, or I can put them down. If I pull six through king, I need to attend to them. After I put them in order (crisis/king first), I get to work.

These rituals are simple but powerful. It’s important to remember, however, that the power comes after you start the work. It isn’t enough to recognize that there is a problem. You also have to do something about it.

Soul/Spirit

A lot of my clients are surprised when I ask them what their relationship with spirit is. I suppose it is an unusual question. I see matters of religion and spirituality as hugely private, and so don’t often “go there” with my clients.

I have found, however, that I can tell if there is a lack of spiritual alignment. You can have the best job, the best partner and take care of your physical self in an amazing home, but if you don’t have a spiritual element to your life, there is something lacking.

This doesn’t mean go to church, or temple, or synagogue every week. This means find a practice outside of your day-to-day, outside of you. You can volunteer, go for a walk in the woods, spend some time with friends once a week. Whatever it is. If you do decide to go for a more traditional spiritual exercise, though, try this:

Pull one card for each question, then listen to that card.

Cards, what can I focus on right now—today—to enhance my spiritual self?
How can I connect more thoroughly to my community?
What can bring me peace?

Remembering that a connection to “other,” to “outside,” is a spiritual connection. You can find answers in books, in a sacred space, or in a walk in the woods. You can even find it across the table from a dear friend, talking smack and cracking jokes. Spirit can be structured or loose, intense or relaxed. As long as it exists, you will see a difference in your life.

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