A Tarot Reading is Storytelling
Our lives are created by the stories we are told and the stories we tell ourselves. When we bring those stories into our consciousness we can create an opportunity to tell a new story if we find our current one limiting.
The images and symbols pictured in tarot cards string together ideas that reflect our stories infinite ways. One card can tell a quite a story by itself and stringing more cards together increases the complexity of the story.
Our reaction to a tarot image or images gives us a clue about our own personal story and may indicate an avenue of inquiry.
For example, I have a history of ambivalence and downright antagonism with the 9 of Pentacles, pictured here in the most common Waite Smith tarot deck. I’ve jousted with this card for years every time it came up for me.
“A woman of means, success, dreams made into reality by her own hard work and discipline.”
My response to this image had been one of recoiling from the apparent taming of this poor woman, heavily laden with brocades, walled off from the great outdoors and keeping a falcon captive. I related more to the hooded falcon than to the women herself, my inner voice screaming out “I. Will. Not. Be. Tamed!!!” A reaction like that alerts me that here is where work is to be done.
She became a regular guest showing up in key positions in several readings in this past year, during which I did a self-guided journey into Conscious Emergence into Elderhood, and became the ultimate key for a major reframing, healing and integration in my own personal story. By the end of this year, the falcon had shifted from being a captive to being my emissary to the Wild, and the woman shifted from being tamed to being a woman of dignity and grace carefully cultivating a garden sanctuary of Beauty. The energy tied up in victimhood released into integration and fulfillment with a purpose. Now when I look at the card I relate to her in this new way and feel serenity and expansiveness.
The final reading of this year she once again took center stage and catalyzed a greater understanding and acceptance.
In the reading, the signfier card is the High Priestess, which is one of my tarot profile cards. She is in the center of the reading and the rest of the cards are drawn for each of the symbols; The snake, the two pillars, the mask she wears, and the High Priestess herself.
The deck I’m using here is the Shining Tribe Tarot by Rachel Pollack.
The 9 of Pentacles showed up as the High Priestess’s representative in the world (such amazing synchronicity is common in tarot!); The snake is represented by the 5 of Trees; the High Priestess Pillars by the 4 of Rivers and the 3 of Birds; The High Priestess Mask by the 3 of Trees. I also added an extra card for closure-the 7 of Trees. Under the 9 of Pentacles is the High Priestess, and I also added the Magician, because he is the mirror image of the 9 of Pentacles.
Rather than go into detail with an interpretation of this reading, I’m following the suggestion of my brilliant coach, Carolyn Cushing, to create a story from the reading, that demonstrates its meaning and effect on me. After several starts, laden with too many details and wanderings, it evolved into a poem. After all, the value of a reading is not in the details, but in the quality of change it catalyses, enabling us to drop the old story and live a new one.
Thank you for your interest. Leave a comment to let me know what you think.
“HOMECOMING
(Redemption of the Nine of Pentacles)
And finally, she knows who she is.
She remembers,
she forgets, and
she remembers again.
And she is content.
Her roots reach deep into her incubating soul
cradled in the nighttime treetops,
listening to the whispers of the Wild.
Her arms reach up into the heavens
remembering where she came from
and draws the magic down into her garden.
She knows the rhythm of things,
when to release and when to receive.
She knows she is One with the Mother who receives it all.
She brings water to a thirsty desert and grows a garden of great Beauty.
The emanating joy waves at passersby, inviting them in.
And those who enter hear their own Wild whisper that recall their place
in the Circle of Life.
She knows who she is,
She tends her garden,
And she is content. ”