Transitions; mapping a path forward.

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Jun 21

Welcome to this Solstice Tarot Blog Hop! The theme of this hop is Transitions. Hopefully you have arrived here from Raine’s post. If not, you can check it out afterward by following the “PREVIOUS BLOG” link at the top or bottom of this post.

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Back in August of 2020, members of the Tarot for Creatives Meetup were working with the Fool archetype as we all navigated though various personal and global changes brought on by the Covid pandemic. Many found themselves with extra alone-time on their hands due to lock-downs and/or job loss and had shared they were trying to make the best of that time by working toward various personal goals. Many of those goals revealed a desire to have transformed into some better version of themselves by the time the pandemic lockdowns were over. With that in mind, I shared with the group this tarot practice I’d been developing for mapping out a path to a goal with the cards.

This practice can actually be done in two ways. The first, which I won’t go into detail about here but I will describe briefly, is a manifestation practice. This would involve choosing a card you feel best represents your starting place and another card you feel best represents your end goal. From there, you would choose cards to represent the steps in between with the intention of manifesting success in those steps to eventually reach your goal in the way you have mapped out. This practice can be difficult because it requires the ability to be honest and clear-sighted about where you are and what it will take to get where you want to be. Additionally, if you are feeling in the dark about how to reach your goal, you will not have the insight needed to lay out your path effectively. Instead, we performed a more predictive version of mapping a path to a goal.

"We are kept from our goal not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal." --Robert Brault

Using the tarot predictively to map a path to a goal puts the focus on revealing what stands between you and your goal so that you can map out a path that accounts for the obstacles. Here are the steps just as they were written out for the meetup members:

Pull your fool card from your tarot deck.
From the remaining cards, choose a card to represent your goal.
Shuffle the Fool and the Goal cards back into your deck while focusing on meeting your goal.
Look for the Fool and place all the cards above it at the bottom of the deck.
Look for your goal card. All the cards between the Fool and your Goal card is your path.
Without changing the order, lay the cards out on a table beginning with the fool and ending with your goal.

The role of the Fool, here, is to help set the intention of wiping the slate clean as you set out on this path toward your goal. At step one, if you have more than one tarot deck to work with, you may want to compare the Fool cards in each deck to decide which one you want to work with before you begin.

It’s important to note, that I didn’t provide any instructions to the meetup members on how to set a reasonable goal. I will, though, share what we learned from the results of the various goals set because it was educational and could help you in deciding what goal you would like to focus on.

One member in attendance was a published author working on their next book. Because the process of writing and publishing a book was already familar to them, they set a very concrete goal of reaching the next step and ended up with the smallest spread of about 5 or 6 cards. Another member set Self-Love as their goal. With hindsight, it is clear that this is not a concrete goal in that one could spend their entire life working to achieve this or constantly improving upon it as one grows as a person. The goal of Self-Love therefore resulted in a spread of over 60 cards!

My own tarot spread ended up somewhere in the middle with 21 cards (including the Fool card and my goal card). I have since lost my notes, so I can’t tell you exactly what my goal was. Judging from the Four of Wands that I used to represent my goal, though, I would guess that it had something to do with strengthening my support system or sense of community in Philadelphia. I had moved to Philadelphia from Brooklyn, NY only a couple years earlier and the practice of “Covid Pods” only made me more aware that--unlike most Philadelphians--I have no family to speak of in the area.

Although I had not predicted the need for some goal-setting tips, I did forsee the need to break down some potentially large tarot spreads. So meetup members were additionally given the following list of what to look for in their spreads. I will share the answers from my own spread as example.

A. The number of cards between the Fool and your Goal: 19

*The Isidore Tarot* by Bethalynne Bajema © 2018 by CreateSpace Independent Publishing.

B. The number of Major Arcana Cards. List them here: 8

Emperor, Star, Hierophant Rx, Sun, Wheel, Magician, Temperance Rx, Empress.

C. The number of Coins/Pentacles. List them here: 5

Five of Coins, Ace of Coins Rx, Eight of Coins, Page of Coins Rx, Six of Coins.

D. The number of Wands. List them here: 4 (excluding goal card)

Knight of Wands Rx, 5 of Wands Rx, Six of Wands Rx, Ace of Wands.

E. The number of Cups. List them here: 1

Knight of Cups.

F. The number of Swords. List them here: 1

Knight of Swords.

G. What else do you notice?

Beginning with my goal card, you will see in the image of Wands cards above that the Four of Wands came up reversed, as did the fool itself. I could have decided to turn the deck in the direction that would have the Fool upright. But I decided to take these two reversals as meaningful. The Four of Wands generally relates to something that happens publicly or, at least, with witnesses. I often associate this card with weddings or other milestones where one is seen by their community to cross a threshold of some kind. Additionally, the number 4 relates to stability. For these reasons, it seemed like a good card to represent a solid support system. The fact that it comes up reversed tells me that the work ahead of me to achieve this is primarily inner work. And the reversed Fool confirms this for me.

Next, I notice that two suits only have one card each: the Cups and the Swords. This is good news to me as the most agonizing tarot spreads tend to be full of Swords and Cups. Interestingly, the Swords and Cups cards are both Knights. So these likely don’t represent any type of obstacles but just that at these points along my path, I will need to invest some focused Cup (water, emotional intelligence) or Sword (air, mental) energy in order to move forward. And because both Knights appear upright, this energy will likely be focused in a more outward direction by taking some type of concrete action in connecting with those who may become part of my support system.

This brings my attention next to the Wands suit because that is the only other place another Knight will be found. The reversal gives the Knight of Wands a different energy than the other two Knights and this feels appropriate since it is found in the same suit as my goal represented by the reversed Four of Wands. Interestingly, most of the Wands cards appear reversed. The Five of Wands Rx and Six of Wands Rx speak of some inner battle and coming home to self. The only Wands card that appears upright is the Ace of Wands. To me this indicates that the one outward action called for here is an act of sending out a positive signal to those I would like to draw into my life.

Where there are more cards in a suit, I find myself looking for sense in the trajectory of the cards more than in the individual cards themselves. The very first card in my spread is a Coin card and looking at the Coin cards only, I see a story that begins with lack and ends with balanced generosity: Five of Coins, Ace of Coins Rx, Eight of Coins, Page of Coins Rx, Six of Coins.

Although one of my first thoughts about how to tackle this large spread was to focus on the Major Arcana Cards, I find the path of the majors to be more difficult to read: Emperor, Star, Hierophant Rx, Sun, Wheel, Magician, Temperance Rx, Empress. What does stand out to me is that these start with the Emperor and end with the Empress. So maybe there is a story here that moves from establishing clear boundaries and ends with a sense of abundance that can be shared with others.

Overall, mapping a path to a goal with the tarot turned out to be a worthwhile activity in my opinion. It also taught us a lot about goal setting. What goal do you think you’d like to map out with the tarot? Have you already tried something like this before? Let me know in the comments!

xo
kim

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Thank you for stopping by and I hope you are enjoying this Solstice Tarot Blog Hop on the theme of Transitions! Much love and thanks to Jay Cassels for putting this blog hop together ♥ Please continue on to Joy’s post by following the “NEXT BLOG” link at the top or bottom of this post. Thank you for reading!