Finding Strength in a two card tarot reading.
A two card tarot spread is invaluable when you want a little bit more information on a situation…
gain perspective
have a question
don’t know what to do
For instance, and it’s a bit personal, but to give context to the example of this blog and to show what a helpful friend the Tarot can be….. my question was around some newish friends, a group that had known each other for years. I was really really enjoying their company and being part of the ‘gang’. The ‘newby’. However I was also conscious that it was early days and I shouldn’t be presumptuous and I was still trying to gauge the chemistry/language/dynamic/rythmn of communication of the group. I didn’t want to get it wrong. However I was finding myself spending far too much time wondering about it and it was really bugging me so I decided to ask the tarot for some insight and advice.
The first card I pulled was the 7 of pentacles which says..
Nice work, you’ve already made a good investment (in this relationship/project/situation) and things are going well, nicely established, lot to build on. Now you are at the half way stage and it’s the time for a bit of a pause to consider how you’d like to continue. Quite often this card speaks of persistence, but equally its a good moment to take a look, get some perspective. You might want to make some tweaks, your might want to take a slightly different direction. This isn’t a moment to give up, it’s a moment to build on what you have achieved.
As I stared it, the seven of pentacles seemed a pretty good description of the situation. The ‘trouble’ was I really really liked this group of people and I didn’t want to get it wrong and my anxiety was affecting my overall enjoyment and freedom to do what I wanted, when I wanted, because I was hesitating…. ‘would I be invited for a walk?’ Do I wait for the text? Or initiate? Go for a walk anyway or wait…
It makes me smile as I write, a grown woman of over 70, worrying like a teenager when you’ve just got into/ met a new gang you like
The tarot rarely lets me down and so I pulled another card for advice. And I pulled Strength.
Being your natural self and not allowing your Ego to get in the way…
Strength is all about all about communicating in a way whereby your purest intent (most genuine self) is received, heard, without letting your ego (pride) get in the way. I could say, It’s about getting yourself across without being too ‘in your face’. I see this card as the dance in relationship, with others, with ourselves. The eternity sign a figure 8 suggests a weave of energy, chemistry is at play.
One of my favourite moments of interpreting The Strength card was for a client who was in the early stages of a passionate romance with a man who was a bit elusive, as can be the case in the early days of romance. The dance, the negotiation, the positioning. Moments of intense intimacy and then distance. You are getting to know each other. Strength is all about communicating without being challenging (on the tarot card we see her whispering into the ear of a lion) which suggested in this relationship she doesn’t ‘confront’ the masculine ego by asking too many direct questions, demanding answers, expecting any answers for that matter, as most likely as in the early stages of any relationship no one knows for sure how they feel or where its going to lead.
Equally taming the lion/ego, is also about taming your own ego, so that we can co-exist, after all the lion, our ego is a marvellous creature and who wants to tame that raw wildness in our nature. It’s about having the strength to communicate from the pure feminine principal, and be able to come from pure intention without the need to be confronting or demanding. It may require a little negation, a little seduction even. In her white dress she bends down over the lion and whispers into his ear what she wishes him to hear. And thereby tames the wild ego of the lion.
When I see the Strength card in the work place I have often said ‘if you want to get your point across you might let the other person think it’s their idea’.
What I liked about receiving this advice was the encouragement to BE yourself but don’t push it. Communicate without stressing. i.e. keep your ego/desires/fears out of the way, communicate from who you really are, that inner strength without agenda or anxiety. Here is what I wrote about Strength and courage in 2021
Good advice don’t you think. And so interesting the Tarot has a card that describes such subtlety. I was awfully glad the Tarot didn’t say compete, or back off, or be careful, or a million other pieces of advice any of the other 77 cards might have expressed.
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