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At the center of the issue lie two opposing or
counterbalancing forces. Your quest, Kay, is represented by the Chariot
- a very energetic driving force toward change and accomplishment, in
which you have control of the direction, but it has a power of its own.
Counterbalancing this is the Two of Rods, the launching of a quest with
great potential: You have set a creative force into motion, like
sending a fleet of ships to sea, and now you must simply wait, balanced
and contemplative, and see what returns. How different these are!
Perhaps you want to energetically drive your quest, and recognize the
need to carefully balance this with a certain amount of patient waiting
for the right circumstances to unfold.
Your standpoint on the topic, the unconscious basis for the
way you
view your quest, is the Sun - a very strong, bright, happy optimism! -
yet it's reversed, suggesting that you feel, "Yes, but not yet!" Your
conscious thinking - what's on your mind - is the Queen of Cups, also
reversed: again, "not yet," but you look forward to seeing yourself as
a woman with mastery in the realm of emotion.
In your recent past is the Four of Cups, re-evaluation. You've
reflected upon the emotional content of your life and felt that there
was something lacking. The card shows a figure contemplating three cups
before her, not yet fully aware of a fourth being offered to her from
out of the clouds.
Moving through the central process of action/waiting, we find
your near
future: the Nine of Cups. Yes!- now a smiling figure is surrounded by
cups - definitely emotional fulfillment.
Note that Cups, the suit of emotion, are very strongly
represented in
this reading... but the next card is the Five of Pentacles, in the
position of representing yourself in relation to this quest. It shows a
pair of outcasts wandering disconsolate, suggesting that you feel a
sense of loss and deprivation. Pentacles relate more to material
matters but this card could also stand for a sort of homelessness of
the heart if that feels apt to you.
The next card is for those closest to you - your closest
family and
friends - and here is Temperance, the need to regulate one's emotions.
There seems to be a call for calm, patience and clarity in this part of
your life.
Your hopes and fears are the Ace of Swords; swords being
intellect and
ideas, aces being new beginnings. Is a bright, sharp, new way of
thinking stimulating your hopes? Here it's reversed, suggesting you
fear a delay in realizing it.
The outcome, at last: The Emperor. In this context he probably
represents the partner you'll find - although it can also mean finding
these qualities within yourself. The Emperor is a strong male figure,
confident, logical, powerful, authoritative and benevolent, very
well-grounded and able to translate potential into success.
I go three cards beyond the traditional pattern, thus:
The first is an optional action on your part. It's the Ten of
Cups. In
emotional fulfillment even more splendid than the Nine's, a man and
woman gaze into each other's eyes surrounded by cups and rainbows.
Meaning: You take the action of entering into a truly fulfilling
relationship with that Emperor you find.
The next is the result of that optional action. Oh, very good!
- the
Ten of Pentacles! - you enter your castle together! This card's
reversed, so don't expect this to happen right away.
The final is the ultimate outcome, regardless of your actions
- the
personal growth resulting from undertaking this quest. It's the Three
of Rods. Remember the Two of rods, where you stood looking out to sea
after the ships you just launched? Rods are creative energy. In the
Three of Rods, your ships come in.
Congratulations!
Now I had the feeling there was more to this, so I cut the
deck and lay
out another reading on top of the first. Interesting! - while the first
was clearly centered around the emotional aspects of your quest, the
second is full of coin-like, material-world Pentacles - it's about your
work.
Here the counterbalancing influences are absolutely
fascinating. The
Seven of Cups and the Moon - I see two ways to read them, both of which
may be accurate.
First: Both of these card can represent a sort of emotional
imbalance,
and taken together they say - well, at the most extreme, "Bipolar!" -
the tendency we all have at times, in varying degrees, to swing between
wild ideas and dark moodiness. The "manic" card is the Seven of Cups:
gleeful bright illogical images leap forth from the cups, from fruit
and flowers to cobras. The Moon is the "depressive," a dark feminine
moodiness. This suggests that at times you're very excited with great,
rather wild ideas about your work; but when you swing to the dark side
you say, "No, it'll never work out...."
Second: I picked up on this after reading what you wrote about
yourself
(which I didn't do until after laying out the cards). You're thinking
about getting into dream work for a living! No two cards could better
represent that than the bizarre images of the 7 of Cups coupled with
the nighttime image of the Moon.
Here your standpoint is the 7 of Pentacles: you wait in your
garden for
the produce to ripen. Deep down, you feel that you're not ready for the
next step. And indeed the card is reversed: "Not yet." On your mind,
the 6 of Pentacles: fairness and generosity with your talents and the
rewards thereof. You want to have enough for yourself, and to share
with others.
Relative to your work, your recent past shows fulfillment: the
9 of
Pentacles is a harvest card - like the 7, but now, now, a woman in her
garden with the produce fully ripe. Whatever you began before, it's
worked out well; you're ready to harvest and move on, it seems, because
- through that central 7 of Cups and Moon - we move into the Ace of
Pentacles: a new beginning.
Yourself, in relation to your work, is the Empress. Ah! -
look: the
very epitome of a woman who has absolute mastery of the intuitive
realm! You, in your very essence, are SO capable of succeeding at the
work you want to undertake.
Your closest family and friends: the Four of Swords - a knight
in armor
lying in silent meditation, while swords hover over and beneath without
touching him. What with this lying on top of the Temperance card I laid
down for the first reading, I began to suspect that the friendship
aspect of your life is very quiet right now, and I see from what you
wrote that this is true. These cards are very positive and imply
gathering strength and learning to master your emotions during this
period of relative solitude.
Your hopes and fears relative to your work: the Queen of
Pentacles. You
both hope to master this realm of your life, in a womanly intuitive
way; and fear that you may not be ready or able.
The outcome: the Queen of Swords. This shows you as a master,
again in
a womanly intuitive way, of the realm of intellect and ideas. Before
knowing what work you wanted to undertake, I wondered if it was an
intellectual career or if educational achievement, such as a college
degree, was involved. In light of your interest in dream work, it could
mean that you'll successfully integrate the intellectual and intuitive
aspects of the work. It's reversed: this degree of success will take
time to achieve.
Your optional action, in this case, is inaction! The 8 of
Swords shows
a woman standing bound and blindfolded with swords stuck in the ground
all around her. It suggests a lack of clarity about the ideas
surrounding you to the point of feeling absolutely unable to act.
If that's your course, then the resultant outcome would be the
Ten of
Rods: bent under a heavy bundle of rods you carry - creative energy
becomes a burden.
The ultimate outcome is a sweet, lighthearted card, the 6 of
Cups: two
children with their cups filled with flowers. It represents a sort of
nostalgic return to what was best in your childhood. As an ultimate
outcome, I'd guess it means that through the work you choose, you'll
come full-circle to develop and fulfill the potential of something that
was very dear to you as a child.
But you, Kay, are the best interpreter of all of this. What do
you
think?
Joy
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