5 of Cups is not a happy card. 5/cups is about disappointment, sadness, letting go with regrets, self doubt and feeling like you made a bad choice. This card can also denote a breakup or loss but the emphasis and tone of this card is to feel so very alone and a little lost. I don't like this card, but you know what; sometimes we lose and that is part of this crazy spiritual journey we are on. Losing often will teach us more than winning. Walking away brings more gifts than staying. That is the challenge, knowing when to stay or walk away. If you are feeling that right now, take heart because its only when you are standing within your courage and seeing things as they are, can you change them and yourself, for the better.

1. Recently I had a setback and it was... I felt...
2. I am learning from my loss by... and moving forward by..
3. I am taking responsibility for my bad choice by... and I am learning from that the following...
4. I am learning to 'bloom where I am planted' by doing the following...
5. (bonus question) I am saying Goodbye to... and letting go of feeling guilty

I could not have said it better myself!

I love, love, love this excellent article on Tarot written by the fabulous Lesley Kinzel over at
www.xojane.com!

Tarot Reading For Skeptics, Cynics, Nonbelievers And Side-Eyers I'm giving you the divination-for-personal-growth hookup, yo.

There were a few years there in my early and mid-20s that I fancied myself a Wiccan. It was a good fit, as it allowed me to enjoy the stories and the candles and the ritual (more on my love of ritual in a future post) with none of the negativity I associate with the church religions I grew up around (this is not to say that church religion is, intrinsically, negative, just that I personally have negative connotations with it). Whereas churchy faiths were often sexist and over-reliant on guilt as a motivator, Wicca was womany and foofy and chill. An it harm none, whatever you’re into, dude.

Eventually I fell out of it, and my Silver RavenWolf books went to the local Goodwill. But there was one aspect of this phase of my life that I never quite gave up, even as I moved away from religious thinking in all but the vaguest, hand-wavingest terms -- I never quit my love of tarot.

Read more here...

Finishing off the week we pull the 10 of Pentacles, the height in domestic stability and contentment. I know that where I live there was a nasty little cold snap after a warm up and that had me nesting back into my home.

To me, one of the meanings of the 10/Pentacles is a nice snuggly evening in with those you love around you; the Norwegians have a great word for this; koselighet, a word roughly translating as coziness; with warmth, good food and warm candlelight/lighting. For a country that has as much winter darkness as they, developing a warm domestic bower is a lovely adaptation.

1. When I spend an evening in I feel...
2. I feel comfortable/safe in my home when...
3. I need to create a feeling of coziness by doing... it is important because...

Today we get the King of Pentacles. Whenever we see a court card it can mean a situation, a person, or a psychological type or outlook you need to cultivate for yourself. This King reminds me of a genteel Duke walking about his expansive property; this man's got his mind on his money and his money on his mind! He is steady, conservative, slow to react and usually makes long term investments rather than 'flash in the pan'. This King is patient, security-focused and quietly competent.

1. I am managing my wealth in the following ways...
2. I am avoiding dealing my own wealth management because...
3. I am securing my future by...
4. My financial challenges are... but right now I can do the following...

Today I pulled the Ace of Wands. I love to see this card. Embodying this card would be the star player on your team or lead salesperson. This card is opening the throttle and letting yourself fly; working and being in flow at near to full capacity and loving every minute of it.

When the Ace appears we feel very creative, enthusiastic, vibrant and hard working (without it feeling like work). The artist in his studio for a 10 hour bender and ends it feeling invigorated; this is the Star that Mario receives to win the day.

1. When I think about the following I feel very creative, enthusiastic and confident...
2. The last time I felt like the Ace was... and I need to do the following to bring that feeling back...
3. The last time I did something very difficult and succeeded was... and I felt...
4. I have this creative project that I really want to launch, I have been hol

For Today's Tarot I pulled the 5/Pentacles. The 5/Pentacles is my anxiety card. This five is also the card of being rejected, an outsider looking in, the one on the losing side of something. This card also speaks to our financial insecurity and worry over scarcity. Following the 7/Swords from yesterday I am going to stay on the story here and ask you to reflect on rejection.

Did you know that brain scans of people undergoing social rejection light up the same areas as when we experience physical pain? Sometimes we get rejected for no good reason at all, and it still hurts, doesn't it? Sometimes there is a good reason why we have become an outsider and there is a lesson for us in that space.



1. In the past I was rejected by... and what I learned from that was...
2. I still harbor feelings from the past when I was pushed out... it affects me now in these ways...
3. When I notice someone else being rejected it makes me feel... I deal with it by...
4. What I have learned from being an outsider is...

The seven of Swords can often mean someone who is being dishonest with you but today this is about how we are dishonest with others. This is the "thief" card and while it can often mean outright stealing, it can also be as subtle as seeing someone who needs assistance, and not giving it. Passive aggressiveness, gossip that harms, controlling people or events without appearing to; all of that goes with this card. As easy is it is to decide that when a negative card comes up it is not about us, yet sometimes it is and we need to examine our behaviors and the reasons for them.

1. Nobody knows this but I have been dishonest about...

2. One time I saw someone who was being treated badly, I did not speak up or help because... now I feel...

3. I have been passive aggressive about the following situation... the reason why is.... why I am not being direct is...
4. I am avoiding "facing the music" in the following areas of my life...

Seven of swords can be a toughie but where it is the hardest is where the real work can be done to heal, to correct and to decide that there are better ways to do things. Our souls love the light may you stand in your own.

Not too long ago,  I was at a large event waiting for the doors to open and my line to fill with eager clients. I had two gentlemen pass through my way and toss off a quick,

“Oh I bet the ladies are going to LOVE you!” while not breaking stride past my table. Ever the feminist I rejoined, “Well you know… Tarot is for men, too!!” they laughed and in fact did not take me up on my offer to read for them.

I would say 90% of my clientele are in fact women but is this truly a “women’s thing”?

A review of history places women in the unique position of being spiritual seers, ranging from cultural beliefs that the power of the changing moon ruled over women to the idea that women were thought to be the dark (yin) the mysterious dark power. A power that was so disturbing, in fact, that witch hunts were thought necessary to curtail this mostly feminine power. The great witch hunt during the inquisition mostly brought the elderly, the unmarried, the local herbalists, healers and fortune tellers all women believed to be in danger of losing their souls as a result.

However, our earliest literature describes in detail the power female oracles have had over heads of state, army generals and philosophers alike.

Today, even in places where women are disenfranchised the most, do we see them retaining the foothold over the mysterious, the nonlinear, the inner knowing. So normative it is that it is known as “women’s intuition”.

Modern society often scoffs at intuition; fortune telling, probability casting, with some men disempowering the act, “oh well, you know how silly women are… rational men like us have no need for ‘fortune telling’.”

Women with significant intuition have had an interesting journey; from having immense power and influence over society, to eventually being feared and hunted to today’s mixture of bemused patronization. As women have gained in so many areas in the last 100 years in the western world, truly a revolution for equality, there has also been a loss of seeing women with intuitive insight as something deserving of respect.

The tarot journey taken by Rider Waite Smith (Rider Waite deck) and later by Crowley (Thoth) continues the themes of women as holders of intuitive knowledge but also under patriarchic control.

Cards such as the Empress and even the Queens continue to express women as mothers and wives, considering only care-taking as the primary role for women. Except for the Queen of Swords perhaps, but even then she is the unmarried sister. 

Later on, the Tarot underwent some revolutionary norming with the birth of the 70s feminist Tarot deck by Vogel and Noble, Motherpeace and the Feminist Tarot by Gearheart and Renny. There was significant revision of these roles that continues in many decks today. One of my favorite examples of this is the Gaian Tarot which has turned King, Queen, Knight, Page into Elder, Guardian, Explorer and Child thereby releasing the gender/power dynamics from the Tarot.

Post post modernism loves all things anachronistic, and we see evidence of this in the cult following that is supporting the Housewives Tarot, using images of the quintessential 1950s housewife.

In many ways, women have come so far that this stylized domestic bliss is seen with endearment which is a far cry from the 60s and 70s earnest and revolutionary efforts to break from the domestic woman role. Post post post feminism, perhaps?

Regardless, it seems easy for today’s man to dismiss what he considers to be a “woman thing”. This is a person who is not considering that throughout time wars were waged, land was conquered and ships launched all by the voice of a woman who could see just a little further on up the road.

Some men might do well to pay attention and listen to inherent intuitive observations by the women around them rather than dismissing it as folly.

But whatever our male gender decides to do or not do, women around the world and in every culture keep the torch burning ever believing in their own intuition and curiosity for information outside of time; a legacy that extends back to the very dawn of humanity.

Rounding out our week we finish up with Justice. WHADDA week, I tell ya! Starting off with the gut feeling that something is up we use the Ace to shore up our boundaries, move ahead with Chariot, gain the world and finally come to a place of balance and equilibrium.

Justice is one of the Virtues in the deck along with Temperance and Fortitude (Strength). Justice in a reading can be about reaping what you have sewn in the past either for good or bad. Or working to be fair and settling all natures of accounts, getting your affairs in order or even a legal issue. I often see Justice appear when there is a strong need for fairness and balance.

1. In my life I need to strive for balance in the following areas...
2. Is there a legal issue I should be dealing with and if so what are my action plans?
3. Right now I understand I am cycling through the cause of my following past actions which are...
4. I need to settle accounts (financial, personal, who do you owe lunch to?)...

Wow... interesting, interesting! We are seeing quite a progression this week! We started with Ace of Swords the great boundary maker; shoring up and patching up the holes and vulnerabilities in our lives. Then we moved to the Chariot; now that we are self contained we can move quickly and assuredly towards that distant shore with confidence and had work. The culmination of all that effort gifts us with the dancing world.

The World is all about the present moment and living in integration, accomplishment, and fulfillment. It is the book you've just completed, the child you just gave birth to and are looking into her sweet face. The sigh of having arrived. The fruit of your productive labors and it is good.



1.When I have accomplished my goal it will look like this...
2. This is what success looks like to me...
3. Living an integrated life would feel like...
3. Other times in my life where I was fulfilled were...I did that by... and I felt like...