Tarot Time: Under pressure

The tarot reading for this month, as usual, is for all of us as a community. While we may not always be on the same path or stage in life, it is my hope that we can all learn certain lessons together and allow the cards to offer some guidance. The message this month reflects on how we react in times of restriction, coping with feelings of helplessness, and staying motivated during these chaotic times.

Community Reading

The Eight of Swords brings a message of feeling confined, restricted, and trapped. When this card enters our lives, it usually indicates a situation in which you feel powerless. When we feel this way, it is easy to get caught up in the wave of helplessness and lose sight of what is important. Moments like this usually involve listening to guidance that comes from the deep feeling of knowing what is right. Now is the time to find stillness so that you can hear the guidance coming from your inner self, higher self, or higher power.

This card in the particular deck I used shows a swan caught in some thorns. The swan thrashes around in a panic, worsening their situation, and deepening their despair. Above the swan is a little hummingbird (a messenger) with some golden light behind it. It tries to help the swan, but the frantic creature is too stressed and busy to hear what the hummingbird has to say. I think a lot of us can relate to feeling so uncertain and lost that we lose our connection to our guidance. This card is here to remind us to find stillness so that we can discover the way to move forward.

The Page of Wands brings us a message of renewed energy, motivation, and drive. I find this promising; it looks like a lot of us will be able to keep our eyes on the prize once we find stillness in the chaos we are experiencing. Wands is a fire suit, bright and passionate, and the Page is optimistic and ready to learn. The best lesson the Page of Wands has ever taught me was to learn to be motivated by my failures and to honor the opportunity to try again while applying what I learned through it. The Page wants nothing more than to just dive in.

The other message I feel from the Page is to remember that progress takes creativity. If something doesn’t seem to be working out the way you planned, it doesn't always mean that the path was not meant for you. Sometimes this is an opportunity to examine how your old approach was just not working for you anymore, and that it is time for a change. The Page of Wands doesn’t see the point in trying something the same way over and over again and is not afraid to try a new method. This is an invitation to examine the ways we have operated before and to think outside the box when coming up with new alternative approaches.

The last card gives us some more encouragement. The Seven of Pentacles is about getting a return for all of your effort, inspecting the harvest, and working out the timing of the big situations in your life. In this card, our figure is examining the growth that they have been tending to for quite some time. Some of the fruit looks good, but is it really ready yet? This card reminds us that in order to reap the rewards of our efforts, we need to consider the long game. It may have felt satisfying to get the result we hoped for earlier, but some things need more time. This card reminds us that some things cannot be rushed; we are not always in control of how things come back to us. Most importantly, it reminds us that some things are worth the wait.

Healing exercise

Overall, our reading focuses on getting the right perspective and how we feel when we are not in control. This month, journal about how you feel and react when something is completely out of your control. Do you handle it well? Do you give up, keep trying the same thing, or take some time and adjust your approach? Do you know when to surrender to the circumstances and adapt in order to overcome? How do you think people, in general, react to being out of control?

What would you consider a constructive way to use moments like that? There is no right or wrong answer—the purpose of this exercise is to get in touch with how you feel and react when life seems to cast you in an unexpected and turbulent direction.

After spending some time reflecting, write to yourself from a place of calm. What do you want the panicked version of you to know? Write this while you are feeling grounded and compassionate to yourself, and remember to read it when you feel yourself spinning out. What do you think you will need to hear at that moment? What guidance would you give to someone who is feeling overwhelmed and restricted? Speak to yourself on the page as if you are helping a friend, and save it for when you need it the most.

Jae Melland is a tarot and rune reader at Lotus of the Moon in Richland. You can schedule readings with Jae by emailing her at jae.melland@gmail.com. Jae also has walk-in hours at Lotus of the Moon Fridays and Saturdays noon–3 pm