I received the Tarot of Pagan Cats deck I ordered yesterday.
This morning I did a reading, asking the Pagan Cats if they could give me some advice on how I could best work them.
I drew the following cards:
10 of Pentacles – XIX-The Sun – 5 of Swords – VII-The Chariot – VI-The Lovers
The message: “We are rich with meaning (10 of Pentacles). For you, we are a blend of high intuition (10) and logic (swords). Don’t let us make you dizzy with our silliness (5 of Swords), we are just being playful. Bask in our wisdom (XIX-The Sun), let us take you for a ride (VII-The Chariot) and we’ll make a great team (VI-The Lovers). Don’t be overly serious. Let your intuition kick in.”
These cats are sneaky! I originally read 10 of Pentacles as 10 of Cups, which gave me the impression they were telling me to use my intuition (cups) along with logic (5 of Swords). They tricked me in a sneaky, cat-like kind of way into interpreting how they were suggesting I work with them. How crafty of them!
The querent is a female artist who’s hit a dry spell. Lately she’s been worrying, thinking maybe she’s lost her edge. She fears she’ll never be able to produce the quality of work she’s produced in the past.
“It feels like my creative well is dry,” she confided. “At first I thought I could shake this off, but it’s been a few weeks now and it’s starting to scare me.”
Her question was simple: How Can I Replenish the Well?
I decided to cast a 5 Pointed Star tarot spread to address her question. This is a positional spread where each point of the Star discusses a certain aspect of the problem/ situation/ circumstance of concern.
After thoroughly mixing the cards, I selected the following cards to address her question:
5 Pointed Star Tarot Spread – Replenish the Well
Position 1:The nature or basis of the situation/ issue/ circumstance, or the reason for the question:
Page of Cups as the nature or basis of the situation suggests a couple of things to me. First, it literally suggests creative (Cups) thoughts (Pages). Second, it gives a sense of perhaps being overly emotional about the situation and not trusting her own intuitions, which certainly could put a damper on generating new ideas.
Position 2:The querent’s thoughts or mindset, conscious or unconscious:
Quite literally, 0-The Fool is zero. Nothing. Coupled with Page of Cups as creative thoughts, we see the querent’s situation capsulized in the first two cards: as far as creative thoughts / new inspirations are concerned (Page of Cups), there are none (0-The Fool).
Position 3:Additional information or comment that may impact the situation (can be known or unknown):
2 of Pentacles in the third position suggests a sense of uneasiness/ imbalance, and perhaps a fear of disappointing self or others. There is also a sense of discouragement. These feelings could be causing her to bounce back and forth, between hope and despair, accomplishment and the lack thereof, which could be stifling her creative faculties and affecting her ability to make careful, balanced decisions.
Position 4:The Answer, Advice or Solution:
Knight of Cups suggests the real problem is a lack of faith in herself and her abilities. She needs to re-develop her self confidence. Knight of Cups suggests she should learn to recognize whether she’s acting on fear-based emotions or out of genuine enthusiasm for her passions and interests.
Position 5:The Probable Outcome based on the current energies surrounding the situation/ issue/ circumstance:
Queen of Pentacles furthers the advice of Knight of Cups. If the querent follows the advice of Knight of Cups and resurrects her faith in herself and her abilities, she’ll be better equipped to take on her challenges and figure out effective ways to deal with them.
Clarification Card:Ties the reading together and often gives a direction to consider for achieving a suitable outcome:
V-Hierophant is a card of tradition, encompassing specific, daily routines and rituals. Instead of worrying about a lack of inspiration or a dearth of ideas, perhaps the querent could set a daily schedule that would put her in front of the computer (she does digital design) whether she feels inspired or not. Sometimes the Hierophant can represent an older or more experienced person who passes his or her knowledge on to a student or apprentice. Perhaps the querent could consider offering online classes to beginners who would love to learn the basics of digital design, and in doing so, recover some of the spark and excitement she believes she’s lost.
Hopefully, one or more of the insights provided by this reading will help the querent in resolving this issue.
When you draw cards every day like I do, it’s probable you are going to get ordinary information more often than not. I think this is because card readers, at least the ones I know, tend to be introspective and do not live a roller-coaster life where weird and wild things happen to them on a regular basis.
Many of my daily draws simply confirm something I already know.
A case in point:
My sister visited over the winter holidays. On the morning of her departure (while she was still snoozing on the sofa), I drew my cards for the day and got:
29 Woman – 20 Garden – 8 Coffin
The Enchanted Lenormand Oracle – Caitlin Matthews & Virginia Lee
Here’s how I interpreted the spread, straight from my personal journal:
“The social activities/ festivities (Garden) with my sister (Woman) come to an end (Coffin).”
And that was exactly what happened. Later that afternoon, I drove my sister to the train station and watched her board for her trip back home. I felt a little depressed (Coffin). I love my sister (Woman) and I had enjoyed hanging out with her (Garden).
One bitterly cold, dreary day last month, I awoke with one of my usual morning headaches (3.5 on a scale of 1 to 5). After chugging down two ibuprofens with a cup of black coffee, I proceeded to do my daily draw using the (rather enchanting) Enchanted Lenormand oracle cards by Caitlin Matthews & Virginia Lee.
Too unmotivated to ask a focused question, I simply asked the cards to tell me how my day would go.
I drew:
20 Garden – 3 Ship – 36 Cross
The Enchanted Lenormand Oracle – Caitlin Matthews & Virginia Lee
Here is the meaning I scribbled down in my journal that made the most sense:
Socializing/ frivolity (Garden), taking a break / moving away from (Ship) responsibilities / hardships/ duties / deadlines (Cross).
In other words, just goofing off….
Ha! I smirked. We’ll see about that! There were plenty of items on my to-do list I could tackle — if I set my mind to it.
Feedback: Wouldn’t you know, this is exactly what happened. I didn’t do anything I was “supposed” to do. I frittered the day away and completely avoided my duties/ responsibilities, despite knowing in advance the day was likely to play out this way and I could have changed the outcome through awareness.
This is part of the beauty of being able to read cards. You can increase your awareness of the prevailing energies and with this knowledge, if you make conscious choices and decisions, you have the opportunity to alter the outcome.
Obviously, I did not practice what I preach on that particular gloomy day.
In a few short months, it’s probable that my son will be moving out of state to attend grad school. I’ve been going back and forth with myself, stressing over whether I should sell my house and move into an apartment or stay where I am. There are strong pros and cons for either option.
I decided to throw an Answer Spread* using ordinary playing cards to address the question.
Answer Spread with Playing Cards
This spread is read in columns.
Column 1 = Near Past / Current Situation
2 of Diamonds, 3 of Spades
I’m worried (spades) that I may lose (spades) money (diamonds) if I sell the house. 3 of Spades is a card of loss and 2 of Diamonds indicates a money exchange.
Column 2 = The Answer
2 of Hearts, Queen of Spades
Column 2 shows a woman (Queen) who is feeling distressed (spades) over the loss (spades) of a son (2 of Hearts). As “The Answer,” it suggests I may be too emotionally distraught (hearts followed by spades) to address the issue at this time.
Column 3 = Influences that May Affect the Answer (especially the bottom card in Column 3, known as the Pivot Card).
7 of Hearts, 6 of Clubs
In Column 3 we have hearts followed by clubs, suggesting working through (clubs) emotions / emotional feelings (hearts). Kapherus* suggested that 7 of Hearts could represent second chances with a more positive outcome the second time around, and 6 of Clubs can represent an opportunity to resolve problems and issues.
Notice the spread contains three red cards and three black cards. This often signifies that the answer could go either way, or that the answer is currently up in the air. With the three black cards all topping the three red cards, I get the sense that, for the moment, no decision will or should be made. It’s a dead stop for now.
All in all, the spread seemed to suggest that I need to work through (clubs in the Pivot Position) thoughts and feelings of emotional (hearts) and financial (diamonds) loss (spades) before I can make a decision that’s right for me.
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*I learned this spread from the excellent Art of Cartomancy site by Kapherus. As I write this, he has taken down his site, much to my dismay, and that of many other cartomancers. Should he decide to come back online, I will put up a link.
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Would you have read the cards a similar way? I’d like to know.
Blessings,
Mary Hawkins
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