June 11 – Big Upset; Feeling Defeated

Hello, and welcome back to TenPaths Tarot. I’m really glad to see you again.

And before we get into this reading, I want to take a look at the cards and just tell you broadly what I am seeing here, so that you know whether you want to read on or not. The first thing I see is we’re talking about someone who thought a dream was going to come true. This dream could be a romantic relationship. It could be a business venture. It could be an opportunity to go to a school that you wanted to go to. It could be to be invited into a group that could propel you forward. There are any number of things this could be. But this dream did not materialize. Something happened and it was crushing. It was a major disappointment. And what you’re wondering now is, “Can I get over this? And how do I get over this?” Because you’re feeling stuck.

And so we start out with the oracle card, and it is The Sturgeon. Now, the sturgeon is an interesting fish. It’s ancient. It was here 66 million years ago, at the end of the cretaceous period. Who would have thought that, after all of these years surviving, it is now critically endangered. Habitat destruction has been one cause. But this fish was taken advantage of. It was harvested for its eggs, for the roe, for caviar. And so we took advantage of the sturgeon, and that has led to its near-demise.

And so we’re starting in with that mindset. We’re wondering if we can get through this, because we’ve had such a major setback ourselves.

Let’s look at the recent energy. And we started out with two pages. We have the Page of Wands and the Page of Swords. Now the wands talks about our dreams, and so this page moves forward with his dreams. The Page of Swords moves forward with what he believes. He has great ideas. He sees a future. He is moving straight ahead. He is sure he knows what to do. He’s confident. He sees potential everywhere.

And so then we move into this dream with The Lovers card. Now this could indeed refer to a romantic relationship. But The Lovers can talk about any kind of relationship, or something that is extremely important to us. And so whatever you were envisioning, that is what you wanted more than anything else.

And then there is a turn. Looking at all of the cards, I have to assume that there was a shake-up. And this shake up made you so emotional– beyond belief emotional! The Ace of Cups shows an outpouring of emotion—a flood of emotion. And we know this is negative emotion because above this card, in the recent energy, is the Three of Swords. Three of Swords refers to terrible disillusionment; terrible heartbreak; something really devastating. And when I see those two together, of course I think of a romantic breakup. But it could be a separation from anything that was important to you—that dream that you saw. And for some people, it could have been a goal that now seems impossible to reach. Whatever happened, something just crushed you.

And so now we’re moving into your current energy. And we start at a pretty stable place. I’m actually amazed that we went from this turmoil to the Four of Pentacles. So this person is taking a look at the rest of his life. The pentacles represent our material life here on earth. And this person is stable enough now to relax into things. Four is a number of stability, and it’s a sound foundation for moving forward. So he has calmed himself down.

But then we go from that to that Three of Swords. We’re back to thinking about the loss of our dream. I asked for additional cards to clarify the Three of Swords, and two cards sprang from the deck at once—the Two of Wands and the Five of Wands. The wands represent our dreams. And in these cards, everything is stagnant. In the Two of Wands, the figure just stands there thinking about which way to go. There’s no forward motion. In the Five of Wands, there is motion but it doesn’t go anywhere—it’s confusion. And so with this great pain came this stagnation; hopelessness toward moving this dream–or any dream–forward. We are in a state of mental numbness almost.

And so what does Spirit recommend? The next card is the Queen of Pentacles. The queen, depicted as a tree of life, is well rooted in the soil. So there is growth there. And what I think you’re being advised to do is to concentrate on something other than dreams right now. Pentacles refers to practical matters here on earth–finances, work, job; things that just have to get done in your day-to-day existence. And Spirit is advising you to distract yourself from this emotional state. And if you do that, it helps you to become more firm moving forward.

Now there is the cautionary card, and that’s The Star. And I thought, “What a strange card to get as the caution,” because the star often represents spiritual guidance. But the figure is again pouring out emotion. Because I wasn’t entirely sure why this card was here, I asked again for clarification. And the clarification card was, again, the Ace of Cups.

We got a second Ace of Cups! So dwelling upon our emotion—allowing ourselves to feel this this intense feeling for an indefinite period of time—isn’t healthy. You’re going to have to limit how much you think about this. That is the cautionary note here.

And Spirit says, “I can guide you while you’re going through this, but not when you’re in this overreaching state. You’re going to have to calm yourself.”

And I know that’s difficult. I’ve been there myself. When your emotions are all churned up, it is so hard to make them stop. And then your mind starts racing. But Spirit is suggesting, find something else to focus on. If you need to, find a new dream; work on project. However, if the upset was with a romantic partner, rushing out and finding a new romantic interest may not be helpful right now, since that overreaching emotion is likely to sabotage things. Spirit is saying, practical matters are better to focus on.

And so that is Spirit’s message for you. I’m so sorry that you are having to go through this, and I hope that things resolve in the near future.

Bye for now.