Monthly Archives: March 2016

Case Study: Ten of Wands

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Predict for husband and wife, and you stain them. Predict on life, and you bring ruin and cut their years short. Predict good or harm for young children, and the astrology teacher forbids it.

What they said in the past still holds today. Whether you’re a real astrologer or a tarot reader, love between husband and wife, children, and above all death are still things you shouldn’t predict. The same goes for taking a reading for someone who is ill or has a very heavy problem.

This case was a younger colleague at work who asked about their grandfather, who was ill at the time, and how things would go. They actually drew 3 cards, but the one that stood out most was the Ten of Wands.

The Ten of Wands card: a figure carrying a heavy bundle of ten wands

My very first thought was a huge burden, as heavy as it gets, about to run out of strength, not knowing when they can put it down. Normally this card isn’t all that negative. It’s more the mood of just feeling tired, feeling weighed down. But when it comes to health, and for someone who is bedridden at that, it’s much worse, like being at the very edge of a coma.

The number 10 shows the end, the last point. The power of Fire has run out completely. There’s no drive left to keep going, and the body and mind are both worn out.

In astrology, it’s also Saturn in Sagittarius. That means hope, progress or recovery is shut down, held back, blocked by Saturn’s power, which makes this card look even more negative.

What I read at the time was starting to run out of strength, starting to be unable to fight on. But at that time there were still the cards next to it, which could turn things a bit more positive, so I gave advice and encouragement.

But in the end, what nobody wanted to happen happened. The one who was saddest was of course the person themself, but the one who was also sad was the one who read the cards for them. Maybe this is why the old saying tells us not to predict on life: how long someone will live, whether they’ll make it. Because in the end, if it does happen, the one who suffers is still the one who said it.

So this was a very important lesson: with fragile matters, it’s better not to take the reading at all, especially life and death like this. Finally, I’d like to offer my deepest condolences to that younger colleague.

Case Study: The Tower

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The other day I read the cards for a younger person I know, using a new way of reading that picks and mixes from several schools. Roughly, it goes like this:

  1. The person asking shuffles the cards as much as they like, then cuts the deck as usual. While shuffling, they keep their mind clear and focused.
  2. Then I spread the cards out in a half circle.
  3. The person thinks of a question. How many cards to draw per question depends on what fits. The first time it might be 3 cards, and after that, if they want more detail, they draw 1–2 more at a time.
  4. But if they don’t have a question (which happens a lot!), I do a general reading, and they draw 4 cards:
    1. Card 1, Fire: projects, work that’s about to start, or ideas and creativity that are about to come up
    2. Card 2, Water: love, family, emotions
    3. Card 3, Air: problems, obstacles, communication
    4. Card 4, Earth: money, home, where you live, property

 

In the example I’m giving today, card 4 (Earth) was The Tower. This is how I read it:A tower struck by lightning, standing for The Tower card

  • There’s probably some renovating, building or moving house.
  • Something happens suddenly that stops the work on the house from going on.
  • Money problems, for example needing money for an emergency (but I didn’t think that was it, because even though Earth stands for money, the picture is a building, so it’s more likely the house).

What was actually happening: the house was being renovated, but the builder couldn’t carry on with the work for legal reasons. That matched what I first thought.

 

 

After the reading, today that person came to tell me that bad things had happened: they lost their house keys (physical things, sudden), they were in a car accident (physical things, sudden), and other things happened at home that I hadn’t actually mentioned, because during the reading I had focused more on the problem with the house.

What’s interesting about The Tower

  • The Tower is the card of Mars, which shows force. So something may happen that has an impact on the person asking.
  • Because it’s in the Earth position, what gets hit may be their home, money, land, or even the person themself.
  • Usually The Tower can be read as a clear-out: getting rid of the old and building something new in its place.

Tarot Reading: Forex Trading

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Today is a bit different. Making money has been very important to me lately, so I wanted some reassurance and drew cards to see how what I’m doing now is going. These are the cards I drew (no spread at all, just 3 cards).

Eleven Rider-Waite-Smith cards: three in a top row, and a set of three with one card below it on each side

Q: The first question I asked was how my Forex trading will go (top set)
  • When I first saw them, it stung. It was like being told that I’m still not happy with my results. That hit a nerve, because the second card already says this war has both losses and wins. But looking deeper, I could feel that this pain and failure are exactly what will let me beat this market. Look at the three swords on the first card, and the three swords in the hands on the second card. It’s as if the cards are saying: take those mistakes and use them. Look at other people’s mistakes and use them to make yourself stronger. I may be disappointed and wipe out my account sometimes, but that’s normal. The third card seems to say I’m on my way, starting out. What I need now is to control my emotions and not rush too much.
  • Looking at the pictures, you can see that the Three of Swords has dark clouds behind it, but on the Five of Swords the clouds are starting to blow away. I feel these two cards are connected: the Five of Swords is what happens after the Three of Swords. The figure on the Five of Swords holds only 3 swords, and those 3 probably came from the Three of Swords. In simple words, what will get me through the bad times is using my past mistakes, dropping some ideas, using only what I need, and then everything will get better.
  • What’s interesting about the first set is that with a Thoth deck, I definitely couldn’t see it in a positive light, because the pictures are extremely negative: grief and defeat. But look closely: swords are thoughts. That means what’s going on now is that my thinking is still negative. The Three of Swords is clinging to principles I learned before, and those thoughts are quite deeply rooted. The Five of Swords is clinging to what I think and what I want to happen, thinking only on my own side. In short, the whole problem is clinging to my own thoughts. So the best way is to let my thinking be a bit more flexible, like the RWS Five of Swords, where some of the swords are thrown away.
  • The Air element in this set is really strong.
  • The Three of Swords is the Saturn in Libra card. It’s like right now I’m trying to put a frame around my ideas about trading: what’s right and what works. Doing that makes me stressed and obsessed, and inflexible too.
  • The Five of Swords is Venus in Aquarius. Half of me wants to be carefree with nothing to carry, but the other half wants change, something new, a better life than before, and I have to tune the two together. But because the two are so completely different, one side has to tone itself down to make them fit, for example by trying less hard to change things, or by being a bit less silly.
  • The Knight of Cups almost has no role, but I actually think it’s an important card about controlling emotions and where I stand now. Right now it’s like starting over again: control your emotions well, and don’t let your mind wander off easily.
  • The RWS Knight of Cups is Fire, and Cups are Water. When two elements this opposite come together, you have to be very careful.

Q: How will it go if I trade by scalping (left set)? Any advice? (the single card below)

  • From the cards, I feel I could do well at this. But to be a good scalper, you have to be decisive (after thinking it through properly, mind you). You have to dare to make decisions, and better still, you have to know the method really well. If you can do these things, you’ll succeed (it’s the Ten of Pentacles, after all).
  • What’s interesting about the Ten of Pentacles is: is it an advice card or an outcome card?? As advice, it says you need fairly deep pockets and need to be a bit prepared, with both money and the time to sit at the computer. As an outcome, it’s success, plain and simple: so much income that you can sit at home playing with the dog.
  • The advice card is the Four of Pentacles. What I see in it is that I’ll have to sit trading at the computer all day. I’ll have to be tight with money, but from another angle, I’ll have to protect my capital well, because as a scalper, money comes fast and goes fast.
  • What’s interesting is that on both the Ten of Pentacles and the Four of Pentacles, the figures are sitting, and sitting as if they’ve grown roots, unable to go anywhere. Even though the Ten of Pentacles is a good card, you still sit at home and can’t go out, because you have to take care of your trading. With the Four of Pentacles, even when you do get to go out, you still have to sit and worry about your trades.
  • In short, trading as a scalper has a chance of making me rich and successful, but it may cost me sitting and watching the computer screen all day.

Q: How will it go if I trade swing or long term (right set)? Any advice? (the single card below)

  • The second set also looks likely to succeed, but it trips up at The Tower. Looking at the overall picture first, it should be a moderate kind of success, nothing spectacular, but I may wipe out my account first. And this time it won’t only wipe out money, it’ll wipe out all my ideas about trading. After that wipe-out, things should get better. Profits grow while I’m off traveling. It’s a good sign, but it has to hurt first. Personally, I think the outcome card is The Empress. Look at the field of wheat in full bloom: it feels like being a trading god, ready to harvest. And this way of trading looks much less stressful than being a scalper. On this side, it’s like sitting still and waiting for the profits to come in.
  • The Tower is a very interesting card, because it’s extremely negative. It means destruction, sweeping everything away before something new comes. Put simply, clear out the old to get ready to build the new. Here it could point to many things, such as money, thinking or ideas.
  • The Three of Cups is a good card, but it can also be a warning: even when profits grow, don’t get so carefree that you forget to come back and take them. Get too carefree, come back and find a loss, and don’t say I didn’t warn you.
  • The advice card is the Five of Cups. As soon as I saw it, I knew this card connects with The Tower, because in trading there’s no such thing as always making a profit. So trading this way may bring more losses than wins, but in the end it still makes a profit (look at the 2 cups still standing). So the best thing about trading this way is to accept the (small) losses, because in the end this kind of trading is about making a profit, not about being right.

 

This is the first time I’ve drawn this many cards and written them up seriously. I felt the thoughts kept flowing out. I got stuck here and there, but once I saw the connections, the writing went really smoothly.

But in the end, I still can’t decide which way to go. I actually drew these cards this morning, and this morning I was quite sure I’d go with scalping because I saw the Ten of Pentacles. But after typing it up and looking deeper at each card, I feel they’re each good in their own way, and in the end both succeed. In my heart I think I’ll have to try both, and whichever suits me best is the one I’ll go with.

Drawing cards like this is fun in its own way. Next time I’ll have to find a question and try laying out the cards like this too.