Tarot Time: When you’re feeling stuck

This month, we have opportunities presented to us to work within and analyze our toxic patterns and see why they are so hard to break free of. Parts of this process will be liberating, enlightening, and healing. However, there will be times when this process feels overwhelming and even discouraging to us as we experience energetic lows and setbacks. If properly prepared, these roadblocks can be powerful tools that we can use to heal ourselves and each other.

Community Reading

The Three of Swords has been flipped in the reversed position, indicating that a lot of us are trying our hardest to process and work through our grief, disappointment, and sadness. Pushing feelings aside and moving forward is a pattern most of us are familiar with, and while we know it is not healthy, we are still catching ourselves doing it. At the end of the day, what does it actually even mean to process grief properly? We often get through the initial first wave of it, only to be caught off guard when it rises up and overtakes us later (often at very inconvenient times). This may cause some frustration, as we are often conditioned to see our ability to get moving again as an indicator of our mental and emotional fitness (it's not).

The Five of Cups elaborates on this message, pointing out that many of us are trapped in old patterns that are hard to break free of. Now is a great time for collective healing on a deep level and examining how generational patterns relating to trauma and grief may be holding us back from being there for ourselves and each other. These patterns can often lead us to self-sabotage or even self-destruction. Relearning how to avoid these traps can seem overwhelming. This card, along with the reversed Three of Swords, wants us to remember that healing is not linear, and a setback is not a failure. Try not to get discouraged if you feel that you are not living up to where you thought you would be on your journey.

Luckily, the Three of Pentacles indicates that learning from each other and providing support can be extremely beneficial on our paths to healing old wounds. A lot of us can relate to each other, and have a lot of advice to offer, even if we ourselves have not yet mastered these lessons. There will be times we are called to be the student in this, and times we are called to take on the responsibility of the teacher. Remain receptive to this energy and be mindful of the part you play in the collective healing. Some of us are deep in our personal healing, and others are called to use every advantage they have to assist others at this time. This is a group effort, but we all have our own strengths to rely on and our own ways of contributing. The best part is that this can lead to a larger breakthrough in implementing these lessons into our lives in a tangible way, which is a major part of the battle.

Healing Exercise

Wherever and however you record your reflections, take some time to sit with yourself this month and reflect on the theme of collective healing. You can ask yourself different prompt questions, or use the ones provided here.

What needs to be healed within you? What are some of the toxic patterns that you have been trying to break free of and where did they come from? What needs to be healed collectively? What toxic patterns do we as a society have and how do you contribute as an individual to heal that? How did you contribute to the problem? How do you fit into the collective healing? What do you think your first steps need to be?

Take some time to reflect on this theme and see what answers bubble forth. We will all play a different role, some active and some more passive. Where do you see yourself fitting in here?

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 on Fridays and Saturdays from noon–3 p.m.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash