Future Tarot

On Monday, Miss Michele drew the Queen of Pentacles as our card of the week. It is interesting to reflect each day on how the Queen of Pentacles influences our lives. Each of the Court Cards have distinct representation within our lives and, as family-oriented women, the Queens often resonate with Miss Michele and I more closely than other cards.

In Tarot, there are four Queens -one for each of the suits- and each Queen is unique. The Queens collectively, however, share many traits. They represent a degree of evolution and growth, a level of mastery and talent.

Queens are self-assured, confident, able, and committed. They are aware of their place in the wider world and understand their power, their command, over themselves and their environment. They are the matriarch of their family and the leaders in their field. Queens know that their role is vital to the health and happiness of those around them.

Queens as Family Women

• A Queen of Pentacles builds a warm home and welcoming hearth. She is committed to providing the best for her family. She focuses her time on making sure every member of her family has what they need to be happy and successful. She is also concerned with self-worth, personal identity, and social standing. Many child-stars have Queen of Pentacles mothers, those women who encourage their children to be the best, stand out, perform, be great.
• A Queen of Cups makes herself emotionally available to her children. You’ll often find a Queen of Cups choosing to stay home rather than work. She’s often the school mom, spending her days in the school canteen or helping to manage the school fundraisers. She’ll also spend time in the home creating an environment where every member of her family feels her love, from the careful folding of sheets to home-cooked meals.
• A Queen of Wands is inspired and passionate. She’s the advocate of charity and causes. She loves adventure and can be enthusastic and excitable. The Queen of Wands might organize camping trips and vacations for the holidays. She gets her children invoved in craft activities and after school sports. She’s the story-teller who wants her family to dream and imagine, she wants her children to grow up confident and filled with a fire for life.
• A Queen of Swords is motivated and organized. This Queen keeps an orderly home and maintains and manages the structure and routine of her family. It is often a Queen of Swords who will work outside of the home, providing for her family financially as the bread-winner and setting an example of hard working loyalty. The Queen of Swords encourages talking, family dinners, and one-on-one time with each member of her family. She might not show outward affection as easily as other suits but wants her family to do well and to achieve.

Queens as Career Women

• In the workplace, the Queen of Pentacles often works in very textile ways. She’s hands on and wants to be actively involved through each stage of the process. These women tend to lean toward hand or machine crafting with woods and fibers. They often make excellent chefs or gardeners with an eye for preciseness and the hands for fine-skilled, light-touch work. These women see trade and commerce as balance and often find themselves trapped trading hours for dollars, they risk under-valuing their craft but are also in the position to create work wherever they choose to as their business is their talent.
• The Queen of Cups is a healer and carer. You’ll often find these queens gravitate to jobs where they can be of service to others. Because of the emotional intensity of their careers, these Queens are at risk of stress related illnesses. They are prone to depression and are often very sensitive to the moods of those around them. This makes them excellent doctors, nurses, carers, counselors, therapists, even teachers. When a Queen of Cups chooses a career it is usually one where she feels deeply and can be involved on a personal level, she needs to feel like she makes a difference in the lives of others.
• A Queen of Wands will flourish in a career where she users her creativity and inner fire. She’s a risk taker and may choose to be involved in active roles that take her outside, traveling, or into adventure. These queens often become writers, landscapers, designers, and artists. These queens may also be those outstanding women who join the military as pilots or in other intense and traditionally male positions.
• The business world is often the frenzy in which a Queen of Swords will find greatest satisfaction. These strong-minded women handle numbers, routines, and people. They make excellent public speakers and politicians, accountants, lawyers, and architects. The Queen of Swords will enjoy putting her intelligence and communication skills to use in her career and is results focused and action empowered.

No matter which path a Queen of any suit may take, their inner sense of worth and confidence helps them excel and achieve. These women are capable and talented.

Finally, I want to acknowledge that just because we consider these Queens a ‘she’, these traits are not gender biased. There are elements of these Queens in all of us and in all of those around us to varied degrees. Queens represent a feminine energy. Warmth, emotional availability, caring, and gentleness, being generally considered feminine aspects, are not exclusive to women or to any particular age.

Can you see yourself in any of these Queens? Can you begin to imagine how the roles these Queens play come together with the other court cards? In what other ways do you think the Queens might influence our lives?

Last week, Miss Michele and I were tied up with other things and couldn’t host our usual Future-Tarot.com Tarot Chat (10am EST Wednesdays). Deb Wunder, a Future-Tarot writer, was there and was generous enough to fill in for us. Thank you Deb! Below is the reading Deb gave Tarot Chat regular, Wendy. And stay tuned today because Miss Michele and I will be here in a short while with this weeks Tarot Chat then later tonight (11pm EST) our very own Miss Michele will be giving free readings on RadioXShow!

[Wendy] So, do you read tarot as well?

[Deb] Yes, do you want me to read for you?

[Wendy] I won’t say no, I was hoping for a reading today. I think I’d like a general future reading if that’s okay with you. My husband and I want to start looking at buying our own house if that helps give direction?

[Deb] The first card is the Ten of Cups, or in my Native American Tarot Deck the 10 Vessels, that always indicates fulfillment and happiness. Things are actually pretty good where they are now and it’s not that you don’t like where you are living, but that you are both feeling it is time to move forward.

[Wendy] Absolutely.

[Deb] I get the sense that a new house will let you complete your family and that that’s part of what this desire is about.

[Wendy] That’s interesting because children have, at times, been in our discussions but nothing is set in concrete.

[Deb] The next card is the Eight of Cups (8 Vessels) which in my deck is labeled “Indolence”. I have always seen this more as ‘contemplation’ but, in this case, I think there is an element of over-thinking things. Over-thinking leads you to miss opportunities. It is kind of like not seeing the forest for the trees. Thinking it through before moving is not necessarily a bad thing, because it is important to have all the pieces in place.

[Wendy] Wow it’s amazing that you say that. I told hubby that I feel we’re missing opportunities. That’s a very good point.

[Deb] Don’t let yourself get paralyzed by that. The last card is the Six of Wands (6 of Pipes in my deck), which is labeled “Victory”. I think you will move, even if not in the next few months, and that it will be to the place that is absolutely right for you and your husband. Your new home allows you to achieve your real goals but as with all victories, there will be a cost. I don’t think it will be too large in your case but remember that winning the war may entail losing a battle or two. Keep persevering and you will make it to the other side.

[Wendy] That makes sense. Someone we know with medium capabilities recently told us that we keep missing opportunities because we are too caught up thinking of how to do things. We miss vital clues to progress on our paths. I’m trying to think of the way she worded it, oh, find the path to least resistance. She was saying that we were being our own worst enemies.

[Wendy] Thank you, again, for taking the time to give this reading.

Sometimes making choices that are in your families best interest isn’t as straight-forward as one might originally believe. At one of our recent Future-Tarot Live Chat Sessions, our good friend and host at The Echo of One, Mysti, was faced with just such a choice. To stay with a job that was demanding more of her time than originally promised or to spend more time with her children…

As a mother, I know how difficult it can be to weigh up considerations like income and me-time with the needs of two small children and Mysti’s decision could influence her life in so many ways. What advice would the Tarot offer for this difficult question?

[Mysti] Am I making the right choice in this job.

[Serenity Bly] *ponders* Interesting, lots of introspection, thinking, choices, right now especially. You’re examining your options, carefully and I feel like that’s the right way to go about it. Six of Cups in the past. Four of Swords in the present. Knight of Cups in the future.

[Mysti] I’m struggling with this as the agreement made when I took the job isn’t being upheld. One person has made changes and I can’t adjust my schedule.

[Miss Michele] YES… you’re WISHING it could have been differently, back to what it was before.

[Serenity Bly] You’ve had to seriously consider your… I want to say ‘moral’… outlook. You want to be true to what you believe is right and good and you’ve embraced that, letting things happen as they will but really wearing your heart when it comes to your decisions.

[Mysti] Given the situation in our home with J, it is a very emotional decision to make.

[Serenity Bly] The cups is very much your focus being on your family and wanting to keep that for yourself. You got into it because it was something you could bend around your families needs, not the other way around. The four of swords brings you to the point where you’re looking at your options.

[Mysti] My time is truly more valuable at home with the kids than in a paycheck. That’s exactly it!

[Miss Michele] About the cups–was just going to say exactly that! I think it also indicates a need for rest. So family first, decisions second & family in the future. Step back and look at what is lacking in your life and how you can best fill that void.

[Serenity Bly] And just from the vibe I’m getting from you and the knight of cups odds are you’re going to choose to walk away from the swords and really return your focus back to the family. But that doesn’t really mean giving up an income. The knight isn’t all on the home front. He’s in transition, on the move, making choices that will bring the family to a firmer ground.

[Mysti] You’re right about the income thing.

[Serenity Bly] It’s time now to look at what the best choices are for your family, where do they need you most. Can you make this job work around that? Because the swords shows that you really do have the chance now to turn things to your favor. If what their asking you to do doesn’t suit what you need to be doing, negotiate. These minor arcana puts everything in your hands.

[Mysti] So I’m very much on the right path in the choice I will make. I just need to prepare everything so that it’s an easy transition with full instruction. As it was stated, there would be no room to negotiate. And I absolutely cannot spend 8-10 hours in the office in one day. Especially not with all that’s going on, and that’s okay.

[Serenity Bly] With today’s technology 8-10 hours in an office is a waste of time. Get them a copy of Tim Ferriss’ book, The Four-Hour Work Week. If they gave you 2 hours in the office you’d get as much done as you would in 8. Tighter deadlines often lead to increased productivity. And everything else you don’t have to do IN the office.

[Mysti] Considering what I do and their fear of any info getting out about the business they won’t work out an arrangement like that. I can’t do billing at home and payroll must be done in office. It’s really ridiculous!! But that’s my boss for ya. lol

[Serenity Bly] What kind of environment is the office? If it’s closed (not public), and clean, you could always set up the kids to come into the office with you.

[Mysti] I did that… On Monday afternoon and it was HELL. There ended up being all the kids that work on the crew in the office… DOGS in the office… I was going WTH!

[Serenity Bly] *raises eyebrow* Wow, sounds like a nightmare.

[Mysti] I’m going to carry through with my plan for the week then. I’ll get everything organized (as they really stink at that! They had 2008 files in with 2009!!!!) leave full instruction in the work holy grail and leave it ready for transition.

[Serenity Bly] I guess it comes back to following your heart. Things in your family changed for very serious reasons recently so they’ll understand if you opt to put your focus 100% back to the boys.

[Mysti] Yes, Serenity! Major changes and complete disruption in our own family. Not to mention lack of sleep for me = a much harder time focusing on small details like this position entails.

[Serenity Bly] Some things you just can’t plan for, Mysti. And you’ve had an experience, you know going back to work won’t be so daunting next time you do it because you’ve done it and survived. Sometimes we just have to roll with the punches life is giving out.

[Mysti] Thank you!!! I know all about rolling with the punches!! Mr. S assured me of that!

With travel agents and exotic ideas filling her mind, Stephanie wanted to know what she might expect during her two week cruise through exotic waters and how spending those two weeks ship bound with her oldest daughter might affect their relationship. We drew a Celtic Cross Spread to find out what was in store for Stephanie.

The Three of Cups, the heart of the matter, shows your upcoming holiday with your daughter as a period of growth, an opportunity for you to explore your relationship together and, also, quite literally, just a time of celebration and fun. There’s nothing to worry about in that regard. You will have a good time.

Forces crossing you, in this case, forces working in your favor, shows up in the Nine of Pentacles… The purity of the mother/daughter relationship will be very strong, where your daughter will look to you as her female role model and mentor, and you will have the opportunity to give her what she needs. To plant the seeds that will help her solve her life’s problems and grow as a woman.

The past influences are showing in the third card, the Five of Rods. In the past, you’ve had battles of wills with your daughter. You never fully trusted each other, and there were patterns of trying to “one up” each other. This is your fear this time around, but it should not manifest as long as you keep your awareness of your role as the Nine of Pentacles mother-figure in your mind.

Influences passing out of existence are shown in the King of Rods. This trip, being “just the girls” will actually allow you personal growth, away from your husband. You will re-establish your own sense of independence and your daughter will be happy to see you not only acting on your own, but leading the way. You have the opportunity to temper this leadership with your feminine caring and softness and bring it back to your everyday life. This trip has the potential to change many areas of your life if you grasp the opportunity, which leads us to the fifth card in this spread.

The King of Cups “crowns” you, showing your goals, options and the possibilities that lie ahead. Maintain that sense of responsibility, tempering it with your feminine guidance and abilities as a good listener to maintain the energy of the trip and the strong relationship with your daughter that manifested on this trip.

The Three of Rods sits before you, showing, quite literally, the trip you’re taking, but, much more than that, the possibilities in front of you—both to explore your own independence and to strengthen your relationship with your daughter. Expect deep, potentially life-changing conversations along with fun memories on this trip, incidents you will laugh about for years into the future. Miss Michele loves this card, as it shows a man standing on the seashore, looking out onto the horizon, in awe of the possibilities in front of him, packed, and eager to embark on his journey, both practical and spiritual. This is also a card of detail, so be keenly aware of things like remembering your passport, tickets, following signs so you won’t get lost, confirming reservations, etc. There’s no bad cards in this spread that show hassles on this journey, but the Three of Rods is a well-prepared traveler.

The seventh card, The Chariot, is used to describe yourself and your state of mind. You’ve been looking forward to this journey for a long time. It’s been a major focus of your life and you want to make the most of it.

In the eighth position, the Eight of Rods, shows your environment and those around you. Things are moving rapidly, change is happening. Expect an element of adventure on the trip… be aware not to overextend yourself. Balance fun and activity with relaxation and self-exploration.

In the Ninth Position, the Seven of Cups shows your dreams, hopes and expectations about this relationship. The Seven of Cups is, literally, the daydream card… *nothing* is impossible on this trip! Dream of doing something wild and crazy? Go for it. Sit on the beach all day sipping margaritas? Do that. The world is your playground and nothing is out of reach. This card works with the Eight of Rods to show you will stretch your personal boundaries and try things you’ve always imagined but never had the gumption to do. Your daughter will experience this growth right along with you!

The Four of Swords in the tenth position shows what will come with this trip, and it holds a warning… for starters, you may return tired, possibly ill (nothing serious). Here is where the Three of Rods’ warning comes into play, as well. Don’t neglect the details of taking care of yourself, rest when you need it, balance fun with relaxation to emerge refreshed.

In reference to your relationship with your daughter… there will be a struggle to maintain all you’ve learned together on your trip when the stress and busy-ness of everyday life returns for both of you. Sit back, relax, and bring yourself back mentally to the mind-frame of the trip… remember that whenever things get challenging and you and your daughter fall back into your old behavioral patterns. This trip has the potential to change your lives, but you have to be open to that possibility and allow it to.

Keeping strong reminders of the trip—photographs, a scrapbook, special, wacky souvenirs—will help you maintain perspective.

Miss Michele isn’t trying to work her way through the deck in order, but the Three of Cups is today’s daily throw!

Today’s energy, once again, will focus on celebration and relaxation, although I know I want to finish up several projects in order to be able to focus on interviews on Monday.

It makes sense, as I can practically feel the love in the house this weekend–we are just enjoying each other’s company, not talking a lot, just liking the chance to be in the same room together on our respective computers.

Since today’s entry is short, I want to remind everyone that time is running out to get your 13-card reading for 2008 at the special discounted price of $10. Miss Michele will introduce a new special for February shortly!