I found this spread in the companion book for the Shadowscapes Tarot – it’s designed to help look at the different things you’re balancing – whether they are creative projects, work, commitments, emotional things… and identify the different factors at work. I’ve felt like I’ve been juggling different aspects of myself with difficulty recently, so I asked simply how I could bring my life into balance.
1. (bottom) Myself – Ten of Cups
What am I bringing to this situation?
The attainment of serenity and peace – feeling good, secure, joyous…but not taking this for granted. Recognition and understanding of where I am – I expect happiness and success, but won’t waste it.
2. (left) Creating – The Moon
What’s in the process of being created?
Belief in illusions? Or a doorway to the hidden unknown, as long as I don’t give in to tricks and distractions. Beyond the realm of the comfortable and predictible….incredible things hide there, and they’re emerging.
3. (right) Destroying – Three of Pentacles
What’s in the process of being destroyed?
Teamwork, the beginning of a venture. Functioning together as a unit. Is this telling me to go it alone? I’ve been craving more me-time – is it time I simply claimed some? But the position is really about something that’s being destroyed at the moment. Could it mean that with all the things I’m juggling at the moment, that I’m neglecting to work together well with other people?
4. (top) Wind – King of Swords
The external environment surrounding the situation. Is it beneficial, or harming?
Truth and determination. Commitment. Wisdom. And strength and success as a result of these things. But the King of Swords is also sort of removed from the real world, like he’s lost touch somehow. Linking this back to the Three of Pentacles.
The full picture
The message I read here is that I could be spreading my energy to thinly. I’m in a good place, I feel strong and secure, I’m enjoying and appreciating the projects and things I’m involved with. But these things involve other people too, and, maybe because there are too many things going on, or maybe because I’m acting selfishly, I’m not being a team player, not being generous with myself. But while I’m doing/not doing this, I’m finding new depths inside myself – perhaps because I’m spending so much time with the tarot (!) or it could be because I’m trying out lots of things, I’m letting inner secrets and abilities bubble to the surface, and that feels good.
I’m a 30-something writer, artist, tarot reader, and perpetual explorer of the space between thought, feeling, and action.
I believe that spirituality and ritual are for everybody. I’m about the journey, in all of its messy, non-linear, chaotic iterations. I am excited by anticapitalist business and living with my whole entire self present. I use tarot cards to bring forth hidden truth, and ritual to affirm my commitment, over and over, to my ever-shifting path.
