Tara-Cards

Your compass navigating the tarot

Month: June 2022

THE ACE OF CUPS OF THE TAROT: EUPHORIC BEGINNINGS IN LIFE AND LOVE

June 28, 2022 / / 0 Comments
Tarot cards - The Ace of Cups a large hand is open with a golden chalice bearing an inverted M resting in the palm. From the chalice, 5 streams of water flow down to a pond on which waterlilies float. There are water droplets all around and below the chalice. Above the chalice is a dove, facing or flying downwards into the chalice, holding within its beak a cross within a circle, or a wafer that is imprinted with the cross and circle.
The Ace of Cups

Overview and common meanings of The Ace of Cups in Tarot  

When the Ace of Cups shows up, divine love and empathy flow through you.  The Ace of Cups is about beginnings and love.  Alternate names in varying decks:  Happiness, abundance.

Begin today. Declare out loud to the universe that you are willing to let go of struggle and eager to learn through joy

Sarah Ban Breathnach

Common Meanings

The Ace of cups can indicate that a love connection – whether it be a romantic connection or that of a parent and child, takes priority above work, finances, and projects.  It is also the card of “good vibes,” in friendships and camaraderie and love.   A card of new beginnings, The Ace of Cups is “pregnant with possibilities, and can sometimes denote an actual pregnancy.

The Many Faces of The Ace of Cups

The reversal, or shadow side, of the Ace of cups demonstrates self-love and reminds us that before we can love others, we first need to love ourselves.  Reversal can indicate fertility issues, blockages in creativity, insecurity, doubt and feeling unable to trust the people you should be trusting.  The shadow side can also indicate feeling emotionally drained due to the need to care for another.  It can be a sign of being attacked by emotional vampirism. It is also a time to trust these insecurities and look beyond what you want to see, to what is.   A reversal in a love reading about a new relationship can also be a warning that this is not what you wish it to be. Dependence, jealousy, avarice, or bewilderment. 

Description of the Ace of Cups

Emerging from clouds, a large hand is open with a golden chalice bearing an inverted M resting in the palm.  From the chalice, 5 streams of water flow down to a pond on which waterlilies float.  There are water droplets all around and below the chalice.  Above the chalice is a dove, facing or flying downwards into the chalice, holding within its beak a wafer that is imprinted with the cross and circle. 

Themes of The Ace of Cups

  • Artistic
  • Beginnings
  • Compassion
  • Creativity
  • Emotional
  • Feminine
  • Growth
  • Love
  • New Relationships
  • Water

Aces

Aces, as number 1’s, in every suit always offer an invitation to risk, to begin, to say yes. They are the beginning of a new cycle.  In the suit of cups, you are saying yes to a bigger and better life, joy, relationship.  Aces bring the natural vitality of their suits.  They are aligned with the divine and represent beginnings instincts, and new opportunities.

Elements of the Card and Associated Symbolism

  • Hand – understanding and realization of spiritual force
  • Chalice- subconscious mind
  • Dove- divine love flowing through subconscious to conscious
  • 5 Streams of water- the five senses (sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch) flowing from the subconscious mind
  • Pond with waterlilies – the awakening of the human spirit
  • W or Inverted M – The ambiguity of water, mercurial and changing, subconscious. 

Herbs for The Ace of Cups

  • Caraway – incites passion while providing protection, helps establish loving bond
  • Cinquefoil – Balance; The five points of the leaf represent love, money, health, power, and wisdom
  • Daisy- abundance, joy, happiness, transformation
  • Damiana – stimulates a healthy libido; enables us to be more open, and connected within ourselves and with others
  • Pine – rebirth, wisdom

Questions that the Ace of Cups asks us

  • Is there new relationship energy around you right now – be it romantic, or even friendships, and if so, how can you honor that energy?
  • How can you focus more on self-care and self-love in your day-to-day life?

That is the Ace of Cups, fresh and shiny with euphoric new beginnings.  Wishing you a week of basking in the beauty that new brings to your life.  Please leave comments, ask questions, or reach out for a reading. Thank you for reading and please join me next week for the 2 of Cups.   

THE MINOR ARCANA OF THE TAROT HIGHLIGHTS WHERE YOU ARE NOW

June 23, 2022 / / 0 Comments
The Minor Arcana tends to deal with the more day to day aspects of life…where you are.  The Minor Arcana tends to be more self-actualized lessons and choices that you can make about your journey going forward.

Overview and introduction to the Minor Arcana of the Tarot

While the Major Arcana tends to be major life events and deals with the big stuff, The Minor Arcana tends to deal with the more day to day aspects of life…where you are.  The Minor Arcana tends to be more self-actualized lessons and choices that you can make about your journey going forward.  I often like to think of them as course correction cards.  Perfect for the compass. 

The Minor Arcana consists of four suits, much like standard playing cards.  The suits within the Minor Arcana are Cups (water), Pentacles (earth), Swords (air), and Wands (fire). Similar to the individual septenaries that exist within the Major Arcana, each suit of the Minor Arcana also takes its own journey in the first 10 cards of each suit – a climb, a fall, a resolution. 

Pip Cards in the minor arcana of the tarot

The Minor Arcana, as mentioned above, consists of four suits.  There are within each suit 10 numbered cards, which are referred to as “pip cards.”  In modern decks, these pip cards also have pictures, in traditional tarot decks they did not, and so, were the closest cards within a tarot deck to a traditional deck of playing cards.

Court Cards of the minor arcana of the tarot

Each suit also has four court cards or face cards.  These are Page, Knight, Queen, King, and they are collectively referred to as the court cards. 

The Suits of the minor arcana of the tarot

Cups

Cups, which represent the element of water, generally deal with watery elements like emotions, feelings, relationships, and heart connections.  Cups remind us of the importance of fluidity, intuition, healing, and cleansing.  Water is a feminine element and reflects the subtle power that often resides within women:  sympathetic, flexible, cleansing and fluid. In varying decks, cups are also known as vessels or chalices.

Pentacles

Pentacles are associated with the element of Earth. Earth represents things that are tangible. Things like money, physical or outward consciousness health, finances, work, and creativity. They are more about the external things around us and how we create it, shape it, transform it, and grow it. Pentacles are also associated with the ego, self-esteem, and self-image, growth and development, nature such as plants and trees and how we can keep the world around us healthy as well as how we can ground ourselves in our life.  In varying decks, pentacles are also known as discs or coins. 

Swords

Swords, which represent the element of air, are thought processes and intellect, rationality, knowledge, power, change and masculinity.  As swords can often be double edged, so too does the masculine rational energy of the swords suit present a duality of finding balance between intellect and control.  In varying decks, swords are also known as blades and feathers. 

Wands

Wands – The element associated with wands is fire, so wands bring an energy that is hot, wild, unpredictable. It is a primal energy in which we also see mysticism, creativity, resolve, power, insight, ambition and expansion, original ideas, and the seeds through which life springs forth. Fire can bring with it inspiration in creating new things, or it can be destructive, like a destructive forest or house fire. In varying decks, wands are also staves, scepters, or pipes. 

That is a brief overview of the Minor Arcana and each suit.  I will be talking more in depth about the characteristics of each suit in the coming weeks. Next week we are going to start with the Cups suit, with the Ace of Cups.  Thank you for reading and as always, please reach out with questions, comments, or to schedule a reading. 

COMPLETION AND SUCCESS: THE WORLD TAROT CARD

June 13, 2022 / / 0 Comments
The World Tarot Card When The World Tarot Card shows up, it indicates a completion of a cycle of life, success, and joy. It is one of those cards that is totally positive, even in reverse. Literally the world is your oyster, and it is time to take a breath and rest in that success for a bit before beginning a new cycle of life.
The World

Action is the normal completion of the act of will which begins as prayer. That action is not always external, but it is always some kind of effective energy

William Inge

Overview and Common meanings of The World Tarot Card

When The World Tarot Card shows up, it indicates a completion of a cycle of life, success, and joy.  It is one of those cards that is totally positive, even in reverse.  Literally the world is your oyster, and it is time to take a breath and rest in that success for a bit before beginning a new cycle of life.  Alternative names in varying decks – The Universe, Completion, Infinity, Fulfillment.

Common Meanings

A card of deep joy; of dreams coming true. In a reading about home matters the manifestation of your dream home.  Relationships are fulfilling and loving, and if you are in a long-term relationship, it can indicate the next phase – marriage, moving in together, starting a family.  Can also indicate that the cycle of this relationship has come to completion.  Be sure to acknowledge the journey you took together and accept that it is time to move on for both of you.  If you are wondering about career/money, it indicates achieving goals, promotions, gifts received.  It can also literally mean world travel. 

The Many Faces of The World  tarot card

The shadow side – or reversal of the World can indicate a readiness to move on, but feeling blocked in some way – self sabotage, imposter syndrome, not feeling deserving of the good. Can also show up when there is a need for closure.  Unmet dreams, delays. May indicate need to evaluate what is and is not working and make some adjustments from there.  In any event, the shadow side of The World is still positive but could indicate that getting what you want is going to take longer than you wish. 

The Journey of The World

This is the final card of the third and final septenary of the Major Arcana, which is about the spiritual world and attainment of enlightenment, of reaching goals.  There is a sense of wholeness and completion that arrives with The World.  You have achieved what you have been working towards.  This is a great time to pause and express gratitude for where your journey has taken you this far; also, a good time to reflect on the lessons learned and vision how you want the next cycle of growth to manifest for you before leaping into the next cycle. 

Description of The World Tarot Card

A female figure dominates the center of the card.  She is clad in a loose purple wrap that covers her hips but leaves her top half naked and flows off, the ends trailing.  Her left knee is bent.  In her hands she carries two wands.  She is surrounded by a Laurel wreath or garland with red twined around in the shape of an X both top and bottom.  The four corners of the card contain an angel, eagle, lion, and bull.

Themes of The World

  • Accomplishment
  • Completion
  • Happy Endings
  • Integration
  • Joy
  • Reward
  • Success
  • Self-Love/Acceptance
  • Wholeness
  • World travel

The Number 21

The number 21 signifies shelter, calm, and tolerance during a transitional period in life, and getting ready to start a new chapter or phase of life. Take some time to celebrate milestones, no matter how big or small.  You are exactly where you need to be at this instant.  life is continually going ahead in a more positive direction.

Elements of the World Card and Associated Symbolism

  • Female figure – the cosmic dancer, one with the universe with one foot on the ground and the other in the air, indicating the necessary combination of physical and dreams
  • Laurel wreath – victory
  • Ribbon – tied in an elliptical representing infinity
  • Wands – balance of opposites – logic and magic or intuition
  • Angel, Bull, Eagle, Lion – the four elements – water, earth, air, fire
  • Purple Wrap- the color of divinity; reminder that we are all connected

Herbs for The World

  • Alfalfa – luck, prosperity, overall good fortune
  • Banyan – luck, success, good marriage
  • Basil – success
  • cinnamon – love, power, and positivism; the strength of love
  • Irish Moss – Improved revenue and overall good luck

Questions that The World tarot card asks us

  • What cycle in your life is coming to and end and how can you honor and celebrate that success and completion?
  • Is it time for you to re-evaluate a goal you have been working towards and determine if it is still something that you want?

That is The World – the attainment of spiritual, material, and emotional success.  It also brings us to the end of our journey through the Major Arcana.  Wishing you a week in which you pause to be in gratitude for your journey thus far and where you are now.  Smell those roses and give thanks. 

Thank you for reading and as always, please reach out with comments, questions, or to request a reading.   Please join me next week with an introduction to the Minor Arcana, and the beginning of that next journey through the Tarot.  I will continue to guide you as your compass on this journey. 

Best wishes –

Tara

INTUITION MARRIES INTELLECT IN THE JUDGEMENT TAROT CARD

June 7, 2022 / / 0 Comments
Tarot Card - Judgement The top half of the card is dominated by an angelic winged figure blowing a horn from which hangs a white flag separated into 4 quadrants by a large red cross. Under him are naked men, women, and children standing in coffins in the shadows and all with arms raised
Judgement

Overview and Common Meanings of the Judgement Tarot Card

When Judgement shows up, it is often an indication of a crossroads in life and the need to make big decisions that will alter the course of life going forward.  It is important that in making these decisions, you tap into your intuition as well as your intelligence and use the experiences from your past to guide you into a better future.  Alternative names in varying decks – The Angel, Awakening, Fame, Rebirth, Spirit Guide, Time.

To liberate yourself from your own self-judgment is to liberate others from it as well. To love yourself is an act of love for the world.

Vironika Tugaleva

Common Meanings

Let go of your old identity and step into the new form of who you really are.  Judgement is a personal wake up call and take a look at our past actions and determine how we judge ourselves based on them.  This may also take the form of a wake up call in a new relationship with our spiritual beliefs, higher power, God, guides, whatever they may be.  Judgement may also be a call to some form of sacred service.  Judgement is all about how we judge ourselves. When Judgement shows up, it is time to decide about your past because wonderful changes are on the horizon that you can only embrace once you have addressed and resolved all of the past issues.  Have you behaved with integrity and honesty?

Regarding home, when Judgement shows up it could indicate being drawn to an old property or place that holds happy memories, and you will need to decide regarding property soon.  Relationships move into new phases, reconciliation, or even possibly renewing an old relationship.  In career, Judgement almost always indicates that success and financial improvement is pending, but also a draw to something that has more meaning going forward.

The Many Faces of Judgement

The shadow side – or reversal of Judgement indicates Insecurity, not revealing your true self, a need to let go of a dark facet of yourself.  Often times the shadow side of the judgement card indicates that you are not heeding the messages from the universe about your path.  These messages and lessons will keep showing up until you learn them. The shadow side is also a gentle reminder about the negative self-talk and inner critic in all of us, and the need to silence that inner dialog.  You do this not by ignoring it, but rather by facing it squarely and addressing all of these fears and concerns, one by one.  You may  just find that these mountains, are in fact, molehills after all. 

The Journey of Judgement

Remember that we are almost to the end of the third and final septenary of the Major Arcana, which is about the spiritual world and attainment of enlightenment.

We have reached a sanctuary with the sun, but before our journey can be complete, we need to make some decisions and gain some acceptance of our past.

Description of the Judgement Tarot Card

The top half of the card is dominated by an angelic winged figure blowing a horn from which hangs a white flag separated into 4 quadrants by a large red cross.  Under him are naked men, women, and children standing in coffins in the shadows and all with arms raised. 

Themes of Judgement

  • Acceptance
  • Insight
  • Liberation
  • Life altering decisions utilizing a combination of intuition and intelligence
  • Purging of guilt or sadness from past experiences.
  • Redemption
  • Spiritual Emergence
  • Self-awareness
  • Self-forgiveness
  • Transformation
  • Willingness to be transparent and honest about who you are

The Number 20

The core essence of the number 20 is about teamwork and working for greater good.  Paired with the meaning of the Judgement card, it indicates a need to play well with your own past and subconscious and find peace going forward.

Elements of the Card and Associated Symbolism

  • Angel – realization and redemption 
  • Horn/Trumpet – the sounding of the trumpet calls upon us to review our past and decide. 
  • Mountain ranges – insurmountable obstacles
  • People (the dead) rising – resurrection and rebirth
  • Red and white flag – unification of opposites; a crossroads in life

Herbs for Judgement

  • Golden Seal – healing success
  • Sunflower – adoration, self-respect, loyalty
  • Tea Tree – Removing uncertainty and improving harmony
  • Tobacco – peace, personal strength, and confidence  
  • Wisteria – Increases vibrations, encourages spiritual opening, conquers difficulties, and attracts success.

Questions that the Judgement Tarot Card asks us

  • Are you at a crossroads in life and have already made the subconscious decision to move in a new direction, and if so, what steps do you need to take to bring that new direction to fruition?
  • Have you taken the time to take a personal inventory of your life up to now and what you can let go of in order to live more aligned with who you are now?

That is the Judgement Tarot card.  Wishing you a week in which you take the steps to bring your highest and best dreams to fruition.  Thank you for reading and as always, please leave comments, or ask questions, or reach out for a reading.  Please join me next week for The World!

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