Pick A Card: Your Personal Tarot Reading For Spiritual Guidance In September

For this tarot reading, focus on the imagery of the three piles of cards below, and pick the one that speaks to you the most. Then find the corresponding reading below. 

Each reading will consist of three cards, and the three cards in the reading will be interpreted as:

Card 1: Past.

What happened in the recent past and how has it carried over into your present? Are there lessons to be revisited? 

Card 2: Present

Is there something under the surface in what you are experiencing now that you haven’t considered or need to understand? 

Card 3: Future

The possibilities the future holds. How does this card feel to you? If you don’t like where this card is going – how can you change your perspective and actions? If you like what you see – how can you act to ensure that it comes to pass?

Pile 1 

Pile 2

Pile 3

Pile 1 (Deck: Smith – Waite)

Past: 9 of Swords, Reversed

In the distant past, you have been through a time of intense worry, which has made your near-past about working through the aftermath. In your recent past, you returned to your normal sleeping habits. You worked through your fears and stressors, and started feeling like things returned to their old patterns and rhythms. While you’ve worked through the inner turmoil, you’re still impacted by some of those intensely negative feelings. You may still feel a bit of paranoia and maybe even some negative self-talk and catastrophizing based on those difficult experiences. 

Present: 2 of Wands

There are lots of possibilities before you – an entire world of them as a matter of fact – but you also feel secure in your comfort zone and are  reluctant to leave it. To really start out on this grand adventure, it’s going to take developing a plan. With such large long-term goals and a world of possibilities, allow yourself to take time to make that plan. Once you have it, you’ll be faced with a difficult choice: to move ahead with that plan, or stay in the security of your comfort zone.

Future: The Fool, Reversed

There’s nothing wrong with diving in and experiencing all that life has to offer, and haphazard progress is progress, but it leaves a lot of unrealized potential on the table. Jumping before you get a good look is a big game of trust with the universe. You’d be better served if you had crafted a plan of attack. There’s a naivete to not planning something big and just throwing caution to the wind and going with what comes.  It’s still more adventurous than doing nothing, and it shows a brave trust in the world, but make sure you scope things out before making a big move.

Pile 2 (Deck: Crow Tarot)

Past: Knight of Pentacles

In the recent past you’ve put a lot of hard work in on something big. Your practical, methodical, reliable approach yielded a lot of results and set the stage up for success. You were steadfast, diligent, and careful in your approach. You didn’t leave one stone unturned, and put in consistent and exhaustive effort to ensure the greatest possible outcome you could. You demonstrated that quality is not an act, it is a habit. Step by step through your habits you built something solid and reliable. Your fastidious work created an excellent foundation which you can use as a springboard to your success. 

Present: Four of Swords, Reversed

After all the work you put in during that Knight of Pentacles phase, you’ve put yourself in real danger of burnout. There’s an old adage about sharpening the saw, it’s a reminder that your most valuable and important asset in work is yourself. You need to take a moment and rest, and allow yourself to recuperate. It may be hard to allow yourself this downtime, especially if you feel you’re in a state of flow or in the zone, but not making time for yourself isn’t going to yield better or faster results. 

Future: King of Pentacles, Reversed

Workaholic tendencies are hard to fight, and once they take hold it’s easy to look at every moment in life as transactional. It can build wealth, sure, but at what cost? Failure to take care of yourself ultimately results in a failure to take care of family and community and all of the energy in the situation collapses inward, which leads to short-sightedness and selfishness.  It’s too easy to step over the line between creating meaningful, resilient plans  and being a control freak. If that line is crossed, it will drive people, and ultimately meaning, away.

Pile 3 (Deck: The Light Seer’s Tarot)

Past: Death

Recently you’ve experienced a big shift. You ended one cycle of transformation and started anew, bringing all of the lessons forward with you.  It was a time of chaos that ultimately led to rebirth.  You’ve had growing pains, and had to let go of things that no longer served you, but you’ve navigated them successfully and are hopeful you can apply all of the lessons to a new set of experiences. You have gained a newfound awareness that has made you consider a new path. Remember that the one concept that is always with us – the one unchanging constant – is change.

Present: Four of Swords, Reversed

After all that change, it’s important that you allow yourself time to rest, and give yourself space in which to integrate all of your lessons into your life and habits. Rest is important, and without it growth is stunted. Your life will be full of challenges, and you’ve recently completed some big changes. It’s important you rest before the new challenges and the new cycle presents itself. Take some time to meditate on the lessons that you  learned, and give yourself some grace.  If you continue to push yourself after a time of so much change, it will take you longer to recover.

Future: Knight of Swords

You’ve made your big changes, gotten the appropriate amount of rest – now it’s time to be active and charge forward. There are few things more exhilarating than a cause to be passionate about, it can inspire you to sprint towards the future (and success!). There’s real, bold, hero energy here. You’ll know exactly where you can apply your talents, and exactly what needs to be done. It will be a period of strong, decisive movement and intense momentum towards a goal you feel passionately about.