I had that darn Katy Perry song ‘Last Friday Night’ stuck in my head for months this year. You know, the one that has a chorus singing T.G.I.F. T.G.I.F. T.G.I.F. louder and louder. Well, after a week back at work, I couldn’t agree with that lyric more. So just for fun I thought I’d explore the Tarot of Thank God It’s Friday.
This is how I normally feel by Friday… Continue reading
I have to attend a long meeting after work tomorrow and already my spirits are sinking at the thought. So just to amuse myself (and hopefully you too) I thought I’d contemplate the Tarot of meetings. Continue reading
We had a look at The Empress recently so it seems only fair to check out her counterpart, The Emperor. He’s one of the Life Lessons (Major Arcana) cards so he carries a bit of weight in a reading but as he’s found early on in Life Lesson Tarot he’s not too complicated. What does he represent?
He’s your dad.
He’s you as a dad.
He’s a hard worker, or, the need to work hard.
He’s the one meeting out discipline or the need to be disciplined.
He’s successful. Gets things done. (Cause he works hard and is disciplined. The knee bones connected to the thigh bone.)
He’s where you experience limitations.
He’s good at saying no. (Whereas The Empress is the yay-sayer.) Note: He’s not a hard arse. That’s more the King of Swords. The Emperor has expectations but he’s not cut-throat or mean about it. Just firm.
He’s rules and regulations.
He’s every authority figure. Authority in general. Policemen in particular.
He’s the rock you can lean on. But also the immoveable object in your path.
He’s your inner critic. (Whereas The Empress is more like your inner encourager.) That voice in your head that reminds you what a loser you are.
He’s the screws turned tight. The control freak. Obsessive compulsive behaviour. When I was a teenager I had to have 16 teaspoons in my Milo (an Australian chocolate drink). Had to. 16 exactly. That sort of thing.
He’s in charge. The patriarch. Your boss. The dominator in S & M situations.
He rules. Sometimes with a fair hand. Sometimes with an iron fist.
He makes you feel safe and secure. Will defend his loved ones to the death.
He loves routine.
He’s self-controlled. You can’t rattle him no matter how much you try.
And he makes no apologies for all of the above.
You need to exert a little Emperor energy if you want to achieve your goals. Forcing myself to write on this blog every day no matter how #$&% I feel is tres` Emperor. (Actually #$&% represents tiredness more than anything else. Not a very exciting emotion huh? But day-to-day life exhaustion is my mortal enemy when it comes to writing. You can’t write if you can’t think and you can’t think if you’re tired. I’ve been off work for the last two months caring for an ill family member and go back to my day job tomorrow. So it’ll be interesting to see if the quality of my posts are affected. I’ll be drawing on all The Emperor reserves I have to write them I can tell you. Teaching children is like pouring your energy down a black hole every single day. Lucky I enjoy it.)
How you feel about The Emperor card will tell you a lot about how good you are at setting boundaries in your life and/or about your relationship with your father. So how do you feel about The Emperor? Please share.
As I said yesterday, you can achieve success in various ways according to the good book Tarot. Here are the ones that stand out for me from the Life Lessons part of the deck.
The Emperor: Success achieved through hard work and discipline. For some reason potty training comes to mind. After a lot of practice and concentration every kid eventually manages to swap nappies (or diapers as they’re called O.S.) for undies (as we call pants here in Australia).
Wheel of Fortune: Success as part of the natural ups and downs of life. Sometimes things go your way for no particular reason. More of it I say.
The Sun: Living the life of your dreams e.g. You love being a mother more than anything else and you get to be a stay-at-home mum.
The World: The ultimate success. Where you’re at peace with your life in every way. Not only are you living the life of your dreams but in doing so you’re contributing to the broader community.
Because these are Life Lesson cards we all get to experience them at some stage in our lives (hopefully.) And let’s not forget the Court cards when it comes to success. Getting a king or queen can signify mastery of a particular area of your life.
So there you have it. Any other suggestions?
The Empress isn’t a card I relate to real well being the multiple swords woman Queen of Wands live-in-my-head kind of gal that I am. She and I really need to work on our relationship. So to that end I thought I’d spend some time tonight conjugating her meanings. Off the top of my head, here goes:
She’s your mother.
She’s the nourisher extraordinaire who likes to bake. Muffins and cupcakes her specialty.
She loves babies. But she can be the nester from hell. Her baby nursery straight from Vogue Living.
She’s creative. Maybe an artiste.
She’s good at growing things. A gardener par excellence!
She likes to knit or sew while watching TV at night. Her hands can’t sit still.
But she can also be lazy. Have a cleaner or just lets things go. She finds chaos creative.
She’d walk a mile to help a girlfriend in trouble.
She likes being pampered. Chocolate, massages and spas are three of her favourite things. In fact if she could, her staple diet would consist of chocolate and champagne. Yep, you guessed it, she’s a bit on the fleshy side (fleshy, chubby, whatev!)
She’s the bubble wrap mother fighting her children’s battles for them.
A girl’s girl who likes a bit of glam and dolling up. Pass the make-up please.
She’s super sexy. Loves doing the deed. In fact you’d be lucky to have her as a partner because she’d be tres` inventive in bed.
But watch out because she can make you feel smothered. In which case you need to run, fast!
She’s more your hotel kind of girl than camper. Likes soft sheets and breakfast in bed. Likes to stay in her dressing gown half the day. But she enjoys looking at nature and will go bush if there’s someone to do the hard yakka for her.
She likes to party all night. Play. Have fun. Enjoys cocktails on the beach at sunset.
She spends a lot of time lying on the couch reading fashion magazines and shopping online. She’s a frills and lace kind of girl. Dresses not jeans.
She loves nothing more than a natter with friends over a good cup of tea.
This is not definitely not me (I live in jeans and t-shirts and drink way too much tea ’cause I’m too lazy to cook) but does this sound like you or someone you know? Please share.
Lance Armstrong is all over the news at the mo so I thought it’d be fun to tell his story Tarot style. You know, as it’s been reported. I’m not his judge and jury.
Seven of Swords: The Tactician. Otherwise known as The Sneaky Bastard.
Six of Wands: The Winner. In a reading this card would come up in the past position for Lance.
Wheel of Fortune: Experiencing ups and downs. And when you’ve been way way up you’re bound to fall way way down. But kudos to him for beating cancer and getting back on his bike. There is still something to admire there.
The Tower: The fall from grace. Breakdowns (that would be his team-mates). Revelation (that would be about him).
The Devil: An obvious choice. Living in denial. Making winning your god.
The Moon: Revealing hidden depths. And boy are they murky. Makes you want to take a long hot shower when you listen to his team mate’s stories.
The World: And this is all happening on a world stage.
Three of Swords: There is real grief being felt over Lance. People feel like they’ve been stabbed in the heart, and fair enough say I. He was our hero. Note how the swords in the card don’t drip blood i.e. The wound isn’t fresh. This is because the betrayal occurred in the past.
I feel a multi-million dollar tell-all confessional book contract coming on. But what would I know being the non-psychic Tarot reader that I am? Sometimes my intuition is spot on and other times I couldn’t hit the future with a ten foot pole if I tried.
Feel free to add your own suggestions re the Lance Armstrong story in the comments section below. Anyone?
Today we’re going to explore what The Tower + The Six of Cups signify when they turn up together in a reading. Let’s look first at the shades of meaning each card carries.
The Tower: Reaching breaking point. Having a breakthrough. A dramatic shift in circumstance. Being blasted out of your comfort zone. Being woken up. Destruction. Your foundations being shaken. Enlightenment.
The Six of Cups: First love. Living the fairytale. Living in a fantasy world. Being delusional. A person or event from the past.
Note: The order the cards appear in affects the message you’re being given.
The Tower + The Six of Cups:
Someone breaks up with you but you refuse to accept it.
Breaking up with someone and running home to your parents.
Experiencing a difficult life event which makes you delusional.
Receiving money from someone out of the blue and using it to fund your dream life.
The Six of Cups + The Tower:
Breaking up with your first love.
Meeting up with someone from your past which triggers a revelation about yourself or your past.
Being delusional which results in a serious incident.
A fantasy novel you’ve written gets published.
Any other suggestions?
There’s a numerology trick you can do with your birthdate to work out which Tarot card rules you each year. I’ve found this formula very reliable and will share it with you one day (if you ask me I’ll share it with you tomorrow.) Next year I’m going to be living under the influence of The Devil card and I’m nervous about that.
Last time this card ruled my year I met a guy who broke my heart and was utterly miserable. But here’s the thing, eventually I was forced to acknowledge that it was my choice not to be in that relationship. He did things that didn’t sit well with me. This caused me to reluctantly break up with him the first time and criticise him so that he broke up with me the second time. There were more times than that but I won’t go on. Pathetic isn’t it. That’s who you are in The Devil card. Are you listening Rihanna?
I am the queen of what I call ‘Relationship Interruptus’. In other words, my relationships have been very short-lived. But that particular experience taught me that I’m responsible for this situation. That it has been my choice. Because I’d rather write than have a partner.
I also got my weight under control for the first time in my life during that year. Because I was so miserable I undertook a strict diet that changed my body chemistry. And that brought me a great deal of satisfaction. The Devil card contains great power if you can tap into it. That’s his gift. This is how The Devil is your friend. As well as the fact that he acts as a massive warning warning danger danger alert card to prevent you from making terrible mistakes. And we all need one of those, don’t we?
As for next year, well, I have very strong poverty consciousness so I’m guessing I’m going to be hit where it will hurt most, in the wallet. I’m planning renovations in April-May and am worried this is going to chain me to a debt burden I’m not currently equipped to manage. The Devil card would suggest this is indeed the case. I’d be much better off waiting until the following year when I’m under the influence of The Tower card to do my renovations. The Tower represents breaking down old structures, loll. But the issue will be whether I can wait. My house is falling apart and is uncomfortable to live in and I feel under pressure from my daughter to make it nicer for her too. The Devil often involves social pressure. He says you should never let others make choices for you but when it’s your children it’s hard to say no.
People are scared of The Devil card for good reason. It’s hard to face up to your weaknesses. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do it or not. (But if any of my friends are reading this post no doubt you’ll remind me and thanks for that.) The Devil card needs to look good and scary or you might not pay attention to him.
How do you feel about The Devil card?
I had my first Tarot troll yesterday. Somebody left a message on my Facebook page ‘The Tarot Teaclub’ saying I should Continue reading
What I love about Tarot is that although it can be waffly at times (You’re laughing at me right now aren’t you? Cause you think I’m stating the obvious, huh?) it also says some things very clearly. And one of its clearest and most powerful lessons is about what it takes to be successful. Not in the worldly materialistic sense of owning houses and rolling in cash but in the Tarot sense of being who you want to be in the world. And it’s not money or friends or titles or degrees that gets you there (although they can help), it’s something very surprising. Ready, for it? You’ve been waiting all your life to hear this haven’t you? It’s….. Continue reading
The Tarot Teaclub 