Reading tarot for yourself…
When you get the Lovers in a reading I always say this card is about CHOICE ; about us having the choice to connect with whom or to what we love, and the good news is with the Lovers, the choice is ours, we get to choose.
It’s one of those wonderful affirming and yet infuriating cards, because having been told it is our choice, we still have to choose.
I laugh when clients pull it as an advice card, because while it is affirming….it doesn’t necessarily give you the how? I imagine Eve in the garden of Eden, over flowering with beautiful plants and flowers and fruiting trees, and how she decided out of all of it, to pick that apple and take a bite out of it. She wanted to taste it. She chose the apple. She followed her desire.
The Angel bringing Divine Guidance overlooks the two Lovers
If you look at this card the dominant feature are the beautiful wings of an Angel above the naked pair. So there’s always a lovely feeling that divine guidance is at play and has brought you to this choice, so listen to her guidance.
The two card combination I pulled today were the Lovers and the King of Cups.
Reading a two card spread…
And here I was, taking the metaphor a bit too far, in a garden of Eden that is the Kruger national park with its huge skies, sunrises and sunsets and starlit nights and roaring lions and elephants and giraffe and buffalo and snakes and birds and hyena and bugs. Staying with friends, in their lodge on a private game reserve, nothing on the agenda that day except to enjoy and explore what was on offer.
The Lovers reflected it all. Everything I could choose to hope for in a holiday.
And so, I was very interested to see the King of Cups as the second card I pulled, as a clarification card, if you like, that gives more context to the first card in a two card tarot reading.
The king of cups is the king of his realm. The realm of emotions. He is the king of understanding other people’s emotions and his own using his emotional intelligence and maturity. At his best he inner sovereignty over his emotions.
This king sits on a throne in a turbulent sea of emotion. He is managing his emotions even though he feels a bit ‘at sea’.
Because he has deep emotions, something they get the better of him and he can feel over emotional. And all kings like to be in control. They are kings. And so if the King of Cups is feeling too much or has conflicting emotions he may no longer feel in control and that can be uncomfortable for a King. They don’t like feeling vulnerable.
Relating this to myself the king of cups gave the Lovers more context. I was also feeling a bit at sea with conflicting emotions. Here I was in the garden of Eden having a wonderful time and I was also feeling vulnerable. Not used to spending a lot of time as part of a gang it felt as if my ‘emotional intelligence’ was picking up everyone else’s emotional dynamics as well as my own, and in the process I had lost my own sense of inner authority. I wasn’t feeling centred.
Admittedly I had completely abandoned any attempt as my daily morning practice of energy medicine and meditation as for the last ten days I’d been sharing a room and in the process seemed to have lost connection to my peaceful safe centre.
Again a lesson to learn. Whatever the circumstances, I am definitely someone who needs to set up my day so that I feel centred. Indeed I love my morning practice. I move, breathe, walk, meditate, dance, journal (or write this blog), hum, shake, whatever combination seems right for the day to connect ‘my’ peaceful loving core wherein all possibility resides.
Hey ho. We live and learn.
Do come and have a tarot reading with me.