This Is How Your Old Flame Remembers You, Based On Your Zodiac + Tarot
Aries
Your Cards: Ten of Wands, Two of Swords, Eight of Swords
They remember you kinda like the way you remember great sex: You always try to recreate it but it never really gets better than that (if this analogy makes any sense). They caused you great pain but now they have to carry the burden of love lost as you walk free. You might think they broke your heart, when in actuality, they broke their own. This person was a romantic masochist of sorts, and while they deeply regret the hurt they caused, they still feel like a victim.
Regardless, they wish they could say sorry. They want to thank you for showing them patience and gentle love. Sometimes they consider reaching out to you only to talk themselves out of it right before they hit send. They think it’s best if they let you have your peace with their absence. With the Eight of Swords, they fear you wouldn’t approve of them still even after all this time. They don’t want to disappoint you anymore because that would mean they still haven’t changed.
Taurus
Your Cards: Six of Wands, Prince of Swords, Four of Swords
They remember you the way you remember a dream. When you first wake up, visions are vivid, only for you to forget the details a minute later. You’ve both sort’ve forgotten about each other. When someone mentions their name, you feel the memory but can’t recall the origin. When they hear your favorite song, they remember a feeling but not a thought. Neither of you were emotionally ready for love, so you blacked out the sequences. At the time, though, you meant a lot to them. Their heart held you on a pedestal. They thought you were a creative visionary of sorts, and they loved to hear you talk. They thought you had something to say. They don’t remember your words, but they remember how you moved them.
This connection in particular had the power to either change you both for the better or destroy one another. I think it was the latter in this case. You both faced demons yet couldn’t pull away from each other. Though you both tried so hard to consciously make it work, festering underneath the surface was the subconscious desire to tear each other down. If you saw each other on the street, you’d both turn your cheek and be okay with that.
Gemini
Your Cards: Prince of Pentacles, Queen of Wands, Ten of Pentacles
They remember you the way you remember your first childhood crush: As a sweet innocent love spared by the reality of life. I think that you two already had your time together. Perhaps in another life. Your love has already served its purpose, and as heartbreaking as it was to say goodbye, this is a beautiful thing. This love wasn’t practical in the real world. The chemistry wasn’t enough to productively navigate relationship obstacles.
You were meant to know one another yet heartbreakingly not meant to be together. Saying goodbye was the right thing to do. Though you both loved each other, being together would have held you both back from your greatest potential in life. You would have only grown resentful of one another.
You have both made peace with the past. It no longer hurts to look back and reminisce on what was. Just know they think very highly of you. They still believe in you, more than most people in your life do. I think if you saw one another in public, you’d both smile and say hello.
Cancer
Your Cards: Queen of Wands, Seven of Swords, Two of Wands
They remember you as the one that got away. Honestly, congrats. Who doesn’t love being romanticized as “the one that got away”? The thing is, though, you never really got away because you were never truly theirs. When you first met, they were almost too afraid to say hello because they knew eventually they’d have to say goodbye. Something about you made them feel insecure. Cancer, you’re so emotionally intense they thought eventually you’d get bored of them and move on. Deep down they felt like they weren’t enough and so it wasn’t even worth trying. All efforts to be with you would’ve been futile because they were convinced eventually you would’ve figured them out.
They were only meant to long for you, not be with you. You represented a future that no longer existed. You were the sun and they were the moon, never out at the same time. They were the night chasing daylight. If you two ever met again, I think it would last only briefly. Emotionally intense at first, only for it to burn out soon after. They would kid themselves into believing that this time you would be there to keep only to get their heart broken again. You are the one that got away and you will keep getting away.
Leo
Your Cards: Queen of Pentacles, Three of Pentacles, Ten of Pentacles
They remember you the way you remember a character in a book: When you read the author’s descriptions of imagery, it is merely an abstraction. We know a character might have big eyes and a small nose, but descriptors are nonspecific. What exactly does the character look like? Everyone visualizes literature differently. That is how they remember you. You are a feeling and a thought. They can’t quite see your face yet they remember the details. They can’t picture your eyes, but they remember the intensity of your gaze. They’ve forgotten the curve of your smile, but they can feel its warmth like sunshine after rain.
They remember you as if you were an idea. You are like a concept to them. Your time together was real, but something about you feels like fiction. They’ve preserved you in their head exactly as you were in the past. Like the heartbroken artist, they’ve immortalized you like art so they never have to let you go. They have created an eternity where this abstraction of past love can live on forever.
Virgo
Your Cards: The Hierophant, The Emperor, The Hanged Man
They remember you as the one that made them trust in love again. Because of you, they’re not afraid to take chances. You taught them how to find inner guidance through reflection. Though you two didn’t work out, they realized that they are okay with that. If it was meant to be, it’ll be. They trust in that now because you showed them how. Neither of you are bitter people, so there are no hard feelings. You both accept that sometimes outcomes are merely a matter of circumstance and there is nothing you can do about it.
Appearances can be deceiving, and honestly, Virgo, you can come off rather shady. You earned their trust over time, which opened you both up to a deep and honest connection that wasn’t ruled by just lust. There was fairness and forgiveness. Both passion and compassion. They still trust you with their life. Poetically speaking, I think you two will be in each other’s lives forever. To what capacity, literally speaking, is still unknown, but it’s more fun this way.
Libra
Your Cards: Three of Wands, Queen of Swords, Prince of Swords
They remember you the way one longs for the summer when it’s winter. We take the summer for granted sometimes. It’s too hot. Too sticky. Too Gruesome. Too unbearable. Then comes winter and we crave the warmth again. They didn’t realize how much vitality and beauty you brought into their life. A lot of the time, they were too caught up in all the things they lacked. You saw meaning where they saw absurdity. Where you saw magic, they saw logic. You valued creativity, and they valued objectivity but you saw no fun in that.
But through your gentle grace and appreciation for aesthetics, you ignited something within them. Though your time together was brief, there was something special that you two shared. Together, the world no longer existed. You both existed separately somewhere across the universe. You showed them a side of life they never saw. Now they are a pessimist with hope.
Scorpio
Your Cards: Seven of Swords, Princess of Swords, Death
They remember you the way a sad song plays in your head on repeat. Your time together is embedded in the music they listen to every time they want to think of you. It’s a comforting sadness you feel on rainy days when the sun still shines. They don’t want to let you go emotionally because nothing is more painful than waking up to the reality of your absence. There was something about your appearance that felt poetic. There’s mystery embedded in your presence. The second they thought they had you figured out, the more they wondered if they ever knew you at all.
I find Death to be one of the most emotionally intense cards in the tarot deck. Love and death are closely related. We grieve the death of a loved one the way we grieve the end of a romantic relationship. There is this initial denial that a person who was once our entire world is completely gone. It’s hard to comprehend the thought that you’ll have to continue life without them. They always take a piece of us with them that we’ll never get back. And just like in death, when someone you once loved is forever gone, you are still haunted by their presence in the embers of what was once a fiery romance.
Sagittarius
Your Cards: King of Pentacles, The Tower, Six of Pentacles
You were the one that told them the truth. I think this person had a lot of privileges they didn’t necessarily deserve in life. As a result, their arrogance got the best of them. People let them get away with shit until you came along. You loved and nurtured them but you also didn’t take their shit. With The Tower and Six of Pentacles, they might’ve realized at some point that you aren’t the one to fuck with. They miss the hell out of you, and honestly, they respect you for standing up for yourself.
They spend much time replaying past conversations and analyzing your criticisms of them. Almost obsessively repeating lines from arguments as if it were a tape recording. They see validity in your critiques and wonder how many other people agree with you. Your love has caused them to look inward in a way they never have before. Things may have ended on terrible terms but at the same time, I think you two healed something inside one another. With The King of Pentacles, they are making serious efforts to better themselves. You have such a way of impacting people’s lives for the better.
Capricorn
Your Cards: Prince of Cups, The Sun, Seven of Cups
They remember you the way we remember our childhood. Your love brought back this magic we only feel as children back to life. As they melted in your arms, their worries seemed to melt away too. With The Seven of Cups, there’s this chilling melancholy. Sometimes we get so caught up in our imaginations, that we lose sense of reality. I think for them, remembering you like a dream feels safer but it’s not practical.
Capricorn, many think of you as deeply serious but this isn’t true. Though you take life seriously, you never let go of your inner child, which is why you fight so hard to achieve your dreams. You have an unwavering sense of self. You’ve always known who you are and what you wanted out of life for as long as you can remember. On the outside, you come across as cold and unaffectionate, but once someone breaks through, they find you are much softer and bubblier than they thought. Your sweetness caught them off guard, but they loved the challenge it took to get there. You showed them how to have fun no matter what you’re doing. You taught them to laugh at pain and cry for happiness.
Aquarius
Your Cards: Four of Swords, The Emperor, Nine of Pentacles
They remember you like scars left by a knife. The way things ended left a bitter taste that tainted all the sweet memories. You’re both still processing what happened. It might take a long time before you can both see the situation objectively. With the Four of Swords, there is a sense that they are still healing. Perhaps these wounds will never completely fade away, and for now, the sting of all the deceit still lingers.
With the Nine of Pentacles, there is a part of them that wonders what could’ve been had things gone differently. It’s like there is still this invisible string that ties you both together. You both can’t quite shake this lingering energy. There is a weird balance to this energy. When you hate them, they love you. When you miss them, they forget about you. Rarely do you both sync up. With The Emperor, there will be a day when you forgive each other. We’re only human and there is only so much we can do when we’re stuck in love.
Pisces
Your Cards: Three of Wands, Nine of Wands, Ten of Pentacles
They remember you as the right person who came in at the wrong time. They think you’d like them better for who they are now. They’re much more confident since the last time you saw them. They think you’d appreciate their new sense of style and demeanor. With the Ten of Pentacles, I don’t think the idea of “right people, wrong time” applies here. With this card, it’s saying if you’re the right people, then there is no wrong time. Take that as you will. Perhaps it’s better to accept what is and trust the universe with what isn’t.
With Three of Wands, this is something they like to believe because it gives them a reason to keep striving. They’d like to think it would all work out if they had a second chance with you. They feel like things were supposed to work out but something outside of their control wouldn’t allow it. They believe that the outcome of the situation was unfair and that they deserve a second chance. Whether or not you two cross paths again, you can both find peace in the thought that you are exactly where you are supposed to be.