Thought Catalog Agency

The Emotional Wound You Keep Picking At (And How To Heal It), Based On Your Zodiac + Tarot

ARIES

Your Card: Four of Pentacles, reversed

The Four of Pentacles indicates that you need to let go of the past to move forward—this is the emotional wound you’ve been carrying. It has kept you from trusting others. You live in constant fear that people who get close to you may have ulterior motives. You project old pain onto new experiences. In order to heal, you have to start with accepting that you can’t change what happened to you, but you can do something about not letting it control you. Reframe past heartache as lessons. Make an effort at being less guarded. 

TAURUS

Your Card: Nine of Cups, reversed

There was a shattered dream that left you devastated and that you can’t keep dwelling on. It could be that your career expectations weren’t met, or maybe that a relationship ended with someone you thought you’d spend the rest of your life with. Your hopes were destroyed in a major way and you haven’t moved on from that. In order to heal, you’re going to have to seek true contentment within the depths of your being. It’s okay to want things, but you should never rely on the external world for your happiness. Let yourself grieve. Feel what you have to feel, then look forward to the future. The things truly meant for you will find you, but you have to be open and willing to embrace them—the only way to do that is to let go of that which didn’t work out. 

GEMINI

Your Card: The Lovers, reversed

There’s lingering pain in your heart. You haven’t allowed yourself to truly process all the emotions left behind after a previous breakup. The relationship was one plagued by a lack of harmony and it caused imbalance in your life. What you experienced left you with some deep emotional wounds that you have to confront in order to move forward. To release that baggage, you have to start with focusing on self-love. Be gentle to yourself. Get back in alignment with who you are, your values, and your desires. Start prioritizing yourself and your well-being. Take some time for introspection and to properly process any trauma this relationship may have caused you. 

CANCER

Your Card: Five of Swords, reversed

You’re carrying some heavy resentment that’s keeping you from moving on in your life. You still haven’t gotten over the way a situation played out and how someone caused you extreme heartache. This person deceived you or betrayed you in some way that deeply affected you. Holding this grudge has started to control your story. It’s bleeding into your present, and if you’re not careful it can dictate your future. You’re going to have a way to forgive and find closure. This doesn’t mean reaching back out to the person who hurt you, or even forgetting what they did to you, but just choosing forgiveness in order to move forward and heal. 

LEO

Your Card: Knight of Pentacles, reversed

Someone was careless with your heart, and nothing has been the same since. There were promises broken that may have involved disloyalty, and it has really affected how you carry yourself now. Anytime you find yourself getting closer to another person, you run away or self-sabotage out of fear. You’re afraid of commitment because you don’t want to suffer another betrayal. You tell yourself you’re over it, but you know that’s a lie—you don’t quit picking at the wound. You’re going to have to confront your pain and work through your trust issues if you ever want to heal. 

VIRGO

Your Card: Nine of Swords, reversed

There’s some guilt or shame you’re carrying over some past mistakes. You can’t quit placing the blame on yourself, and it has invited self-loathing into your life. The emotional turmoil it has caused you has started to erode your mental health—you’re plagued by anxiety, stress, and maybe even depression. You’re going to have to find healthy ways to cope. It’s also important that you get to a point where you stop blaming yourself. It might take seeking out therapy to help get you to that place. Healing is going to involve some deep introspection and processing unresolved emotions.

LIBRA

Your Card: Seven of Wands, reversed

There’s some experience in your past that left you with deep insecurities. You’ve repressed the pain and emotions surrounding it, but it’s something that you pick at subconsciously every time you compete and compare yourself to others. You’re going to have to examine these insecurities and inner conflicts. It starts with processing what hurt you in the first place. You have to realize that, no matter what it was, it was never you that had any shortcomings. You can heal from these feelings of inadequacy, but it’s going to require you to be radically honest and vulnerable. 

SCORPIO

Your Card: King of Swords

The emotional wound that you can’t quit picking at is one that prevents you from freely expressing what’s in your heart. Someone manipulated you and deeply hurt you, and it has changed how you carry yourself and how you connect to others. You keep people at arm’s length and let yourself be guided by what you think, instead of what you feel. This is healthy to some degree, but in your case you get carried away with made up scenarios in which everyone is out to get you. You’re going to have to work through the pain of your past and really work at being vulnerable again. Evolve from your heartache, don’t let it control you. 

SAGITTARIUS

Your Card: Three of Wands, reversed

You’re haunted by the past—by what could have been. Things didn’t work out the way you would have hoped, and ever since then you’ve become lost in the nostalgia. There was either a failed romance or a situation in which you didn’t achieve your desired outcome. It destroyed your self-esteem and it has made you shy away from life in some ways. In order to heal, you’re going to have to start with making it a point to let it go. There are things out there that are yours for the taking, and the sooner you stop living in the past the sooner you’ll find them. 

CAPRICORN 

Your Card: Three of Swords

You can’t keep picking away at your heartbreak—one that stems from loss, trauma, or upheaval. It has plagued every aspect of your life with great sadness. This pain has affected you on an emotional, mental, and physical level. If you want to heal, you’re going to have to stop dwelling. You have to pick yourself up and prepare yourself for what comes next. Process what happened, honor your emotions, and move on from the experience wiser and stronger. You can overcome this. It’s not bigger than you, so don’t let it dictate your life. 

AQUARIUS

Your Card: Ace of Cups, reversed

An emotional loss has left your world feeling so cold and empty. Someone made you feel unloved and it has robbed you of your spark, power, and creativity. It’s time to let that go and focus on your joy, well-being, and all your hopes. In order to heal, you have to honor how truly magical, valuable, and beautiful you truly are. Only then will you be able to get back to your true self and knock out the walls you’ve built so high around yourself. 

PISCES

Your Card: King of Cups, reversed

Someone led you on for their own beneficial gain. The heartache that came from being used has left you isolated and withdrawn. In your solitude, you go over and over what you could have done differently and all the red flags you missed. A part of you finds it hard to forgive yourself for placing your trust in the wrong person, but you have no fault in this, Pisces. There is beauty in being vulnerable. You took a risk, and it didn’t work out in your favor. That’s on them. They never deserved you. Learn from the experience and let your heart open up again.