Tarot Reading: Making a Decision

(Warning:  long post) I thought I'd start a new blog feature of sharing Tarot readings that I've done. It'll be a good learning tool for all of us readers out there. As I've mentioned before, I don't consider myself to be psychic and my style of Tarot reading is not predictive.  I'm not adverse to a little forecasting, however, as long as we all understand that our own actions and intentions heavily influence the outcome of any situation.

Those of you who read Lunaea's blog know that she is on a quest for a new home.  She lives in a rented house in the woods outside of Santa Cruz, CA but her landlords want to sell it.  She spied an online listing for a house in Watsonville, some miles to the south of Santa Cruz, and thought she might rent it before she gets her final "walking papers" from her landlords.   She asked me to do a reading for her, to help clarify her choices.  She gave me kind permission to reproduce our email exchange here.

I'm sharing this reading because I think it's a great example of how Tarot readings should work.  Successful readings points out issues that we would otherwise overlook, and help us set our intention and take action toward creating the life situation that we want.  (It also helps that Lunaea herself is an experienced Tarot reader.)

I think you'll enjoy listening in to our conversation!

First, we clarified her choices.   I asked Lunaea:

Is your choice between:   moving to this particular house or staying put?   or is it between: moving to this house or looking for another place to live?   or all 3 choices?

She responded:

Hmmm....

I believe the choices are:

Moving to that house or staying here until after the new year, without looking any further for now.

If I stay here until the new year, then the choice opens up again, perhaps without my HAVING the choice, really, as my landlords won't guarantee anything right now beyond the next three months. I'm being trusting that the right place will come at the right time, including the possibility that being HERE is the right place. I know that sounds awfully vague! My rental agreement is up at the end of this month, to be renewed for another three months after that if I choose. Or I could give notice, assuming that the other house wants to rent to me.

So, with that clarification, I created sacred space, asked for wisdom and guidance, and laid out the cards.  (The spread I used is based on one created by Teresa Michelsen. I used my Gaian working deck-in-progress, including the cards that are not yet finished.)

Here's the reading and my comments:

Choice #1:  move to the Watsonville house
Advantages:  Ace of Fire.
    A new start.  Lots of energy and excitement around it.  New passion, creativity, sense of self.  That's good!

Challenge:  the Sun.
    I read challenge cards as if they were reversed.  So - potential for burnout.  Too much intensity.  OR - not believing in your own good fortune.  Feeling like it's "too good to be true."   Muting your own happiness.  (also - is it hotter in Watsonville than it is in Boulder Creek, and will that be a problem for you?)

Your potential for happiness: Bindweed. (Devil)
    Hmmm.   Doesn't look too good, does it?   A more positive reading of this card would signify the opportunity for you to free yourself from whatever it is that binds you.  So maybe there would be something about living there that would support either 1) becoming more "bound" or 2) freeing yourself from that which oppresses you.  In some ways, it's your choice.  But it's definitely a challenging card.

Choice #2:  stay put until New Year's.
Advantages:  Eight of Air.
    My card shows people sitting in circle, taking council to address community issues.  One person holds a talking stick and the others listen.  The 8's signify the challenge of making your goal of the 7 (see below) manifest in the world.   My sense is that you might want to take council either with your local sisters or with the Priestess group.

Challenges:  Nine of Fire.
    Hmmmm.   My card is similar to the Motherpeace 9 of Wands.  A man sits in the lotus position, meditating.  His body is lit up from within, "inner fire."  Kundalini rises, chakras are spinning.  Personal power.  Since it's in a challenge position, I would read it as a reversal.  It will be a challenge to own your own sense of self-empowerment if you decide to stay put another 3 months (probably because of the insecurity of being at your landlord's choice.)      

Your potential for happiness: Four of Air.
    Four robin's eggs in a nest, protected by branches and leaves from predators.  Safe and secure, a retreat, a time out.  Incubating new ideas, thoughts, plans, prayers.   Hmm, sounds pretty good.

Most important thing to keep in mind when making this decision:
Seven of Air.
    A hiker studies a map before setting off on a climb.  Planning, strategizing, studying all the options then making a choice and setting a goal.   
    I think this may refer to you being "in a place of power" as my dad used to say, when making the choice of where to live next.  Does this place in Watsonville look appealing because you want to be proactive rather than reactive, once the landlords make a decision?  You might want to take the next 3 months to plan and strategize. 

Of the 2 sets of 3 cards, which 3 are more appealing?  Does either set strike you as "that's it"?

For me, the strongest image is of the 4 eggs in the nest -- stay put for now.  But you may have another take on it.

I hope this helps!!

Lunaea replied:

Thank you so much! Lots to think about, and I'm mulling. Tomorrow I will actually see the house in person, which will either confuse me more or give me some feeling one way or the other.

Your potential for happiness: Bindweed. (Devil)

When I did a little reading for myself this morning, I drew the Devil card for "Positive things about the Watsonville house" and I had much the same thoughts as you -- something about being bound or breaking free of bondage. I was using Hanson-Roberts, so it was a regular devil card, and it always puzzles me, since that isn't really in my cosmology. On the other hand, the idea of the devil I know (my current situation) being better than the devil I don't know (moving) is a possibility....

Most important thing to keep in mind when making this decision:
Seven of Air.
...Does this place in Watsonville look appealing because you want to be proactive rather than reactive, once the landlords make a decision?  You might want to take the next 3 months to plan and strategize.

Yes, I am much more inclined to be proactive than reactive -- it's my Fool/Emperor! :-) It's good to have a reminder to plan and not have another crazy stressful move that takes a year to recover from..... Hmmmmm.... mull mull.

After she visited the Watsonville house, Lunaea revisited the reading and wrote to me about her impressions of it and the choice that she made:

Choice #1:  move to the Watsonville house
Advantages:  Ace of Fire.
    A new start.  Lots of energy and excitement around it.  New passion, creativity, sense of self.  That's good!

After visiting the house, this was apparent. The situation was almost completely opposite to where I am now -- in town, close to neighbors on all sides, in south county rather than north, etc. -- and so my whole routine and (excuse the expression) life style would have been shaken up considerably, which can indeed lead to new creativity and activity.

Challenge:  the Sun.
    I read challenge cards as if they were reversed.  So - potential for burnout.  Too much intensity.  OR - not believing in your own good fortune.  Feeling like it's "too good to be true."   Muting your own happiness.  (also - is it hotter in Watsonville than it is in Boulder Creek, and will that be a problem for you?)

Though, like you, I tend to read the Sun card as pretty positive even when reversed, in this case I would say that the Sun card in the position of challenges and disadvantages is almost literally about sunniness -- being too much in the open, in the light, too exposed, too illuminated. With neighbors so close, the privacy and sense of being removed from the world would be gone. Also, it IS hotter and generally sunnier there, with more of a southern California kind of feel than a Santa Cruz-y feel, much less a Boulder Creek-y feel. I kind of felt like a moist forest creature exposed to a hot sunlit day. That doesn't mean that it wouldn't necessarily be pleasant once I got used to it, but that it would be a big change in atmosphere for me.

Your potential for happiness: Bindweed. (Devil)
    Hmmm.   Doesn't look too good, does it?   A more positive reading of this card would signify the opportunity for you to free yourself from whatever it is that binds you.  So maybe there would be something about living there that would support either 1) becoming more "bound" or 2) freeing yourself from that which oppresses you.  In some ways, it's your choice.  But it's definitely a challenging card.

Interestingly, as I think I told you, in the reading I did for myself before I asked you, I got the Devil card too. And later that afternoon, playing with some new cards (Victorian Romantic Tarot), I asked again for a card about moving to that house, and guess who popped up? :-) In that deck, in case you don't know, the Devil is a woman, very beautiful and inviting (in fact, here she is on a bag that she is inviting me to buy: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5504345 ). When I visited the house yesterday, all these Devils made a lot of sense. There is much that is fabulously attractive about the house -- the house itself is spacious (for one person, anyway) and beautiful, with all the original Craftsman details, like lovely built-in bookcases, brass hardware and doorknobs and lighting fixtures, huge closets, great tile, a clawfoot bathtub! Outside there is a pretty little enclosed garden with mature roses and lavender and jasmine, vegetables and herbs in a little kitchen garden patch, a small koi pond with a fountain. The neighborhood is on a cul-de-sac of eight similar pretty houses, all well-maintained and with nice friendly people living there. So, what's not to like, you may ask? This great little enclave is smack in downtown Watsonville, with no other residential neighborhoods nearby, and loud traffic sounds at all times from the busy main street that is half a block away. Even more than that, at the end of the cul-de-sac is an elementary school! And the lovely little garden of "my" house shares a common fence with the school's athletic field. Having lived about half a mile from a school once before and still been occasionally annoyed by the shrieking, I can only imagine what my everyday working reality would be like at this place. So there's where the Devil comes in, because I was sorely tempted by all the wonderfulness into thinking that I could adapt and learn to tune out children-noise and traffic and all that, and I could feel the spell of the place and the nice landlord's encouraging words starting to convince me. But by the time I was pulling in my driveway here, the spell had been MOSTLY broken, and I was able to see the Devil clearly, and the potential for being bound by something that felt like a good bargain at the time and now was stealing my soul! :-)

So I said no.

Choice #2:  stay put until New Year's.
Advantages:  Eight of Air.
. . .   My sense is that you might want to take council either with your local sisters or with the Priestess group.

Yes! And continuing doing my networking, letting the community help lead me to the right place.

Challenges:  Nine of Fire.
. . . It will be a challenge to own your own sense of self-empowerment if you decide to stay put another 3 months (probably because of the insecurity of being at your landlord's choice.)   

Yes, I see this as the challenge to flip that reversal back over and be strong in my sense of personal empowerment, and not let the flame waver because of fear of having to move. If that happens, it happens, and I need to trust it will happen in the right time, and that I will feel good about it.

Your potential for happiness: Four of Air.
. . . Safe and secure, a retreat, a time out.  Incubating new ideas, thoughts, plans, prayers.   Hmm, sounds pretty good.

Indeed! :-) I have a little decorative nest with eggs that I usually put out in the spring, but I'm going to put it on my main altar now as a reminder.

Most important thing to keep in mind when making this decision:
Seven of Air.
. . . I think this may refer to you being "in a place of power" as my dad used to say, when making the choice of where to live next.  Does this place in Watsonville look appealing because you want to be proactive rather than reactive, once the landlords make a decision?  You might want to take the next 3 months to plan and strategize. 

This really was extremely helpful yesterday when I was feeling that devilish temptation -- I've been impetuous so many times before when it comes to moving, and it's time to break that pattern! I think it must be my Sagittarius rising working in cahoots with my Pisces moon -- no logic involved, all emotional and impulsive action taken right NOW! Virgo gets left to clean things up later. :-) Thanks for lending me some Capricorn sense!

Thanks, Lunaea, for letting me share this reading.  May you find your new home — the right place — at the right time.  Blessed be.

Comments

[JLB]

Joanna, thank you and Lunaea both for sharing this - I found it very helpful. Also, I haven't had a chance to comment recently, but the sixes are just fantastic, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about the Guardian of Fire. It's really awesome to watch the rest of the deck evolve.

Best wishes to you this autumn,
Jade

[joanna]

Thanks Jade!

Glad you found the reading helpful. And thanks for your kind words about the deck. I have a fire lit under my behind right now to finish the rest of the deck ASAP so that I can turn my attention to decluttering my house, purging, cleaning and repairing so that we can put it on the market. And I refuse to do any of that until the deck is done.

I put in ten hours on the Guardian of Water yesterday!