Inverted Swords, Eight of Pentacles and Love in Relationships: Sample Tarot Readings From the Tarot Forum
Relationship Reading
The first card is The Defining Card. Placed in the Center of the spread, it describes the energy that currently identifies the person I am reading.
Nine of Pentacles, baby! You are on the make. Things are pretty fairly balanced and you've worked hard to get where you are now.
The next card is your Influencing Energy. This card overlays the Defining card and tells us about energies both negative and positive that are effecting you directly.
You have the Eight of Pentacles as your influencer. You rely primarily on yourself for survival, which is not a bad thing. It's like Dolly Levi's late husband Ephraim Levi says, “If you're going to live from hand to mouth you'd better be ambidextrous.”
And like Dolly Levi, you rely on your own talents and skills to keep food on the table, a roof over your head, etc.
The Goal/Destiny card goes beneath the first two. It gives us the main objective of the client or the next likely move.
The Three of Cups in your goal card seems to compliment my Hello, Dolly reference pretty nicely. You seek out the company of others, friendship and possibly a relationship. Basically you have what you need materialistically and now you'd like “A dainty woman, a fragile woman, a sweet heart, a mistress, a wife!” (Okay, maybe not in those words, but you get the idea. I'll stop my references to Barbra Streisand movies now.)
To the Left of the Defining Card is the Distant Past Influences. This card can represent events or energies that come from as far back as your childhood or as recently as several months ago. Sometimes this energy is what lays the groundwork for the current situation.
The Devil in this position really contrasts with the present. Basically it was a very difficult time for you and you really didn't see yourself where you are now. It's like you were just trapped for the longest time and there seemed to be little hope of anyone coming to the rescue.
Above the Defining Card is the Recent Past Influences. This energy is obviously more recent than the Distant Past and once again could be something that's been brewing over the course of several years or even just a few weeks.
Even more revealing than the Devil card is the High Priestess in the recent past. Everyone sees certain cards one way. The way I regard the High Priestess is that she represents the faith aspect of religion. She tells us to do the right thing and leads us on the straight and narrow and we will be rewarded.
This didn't work out for you. There was no reward for your suffering and you basically turned your back on faith. This isn't to say that you are not a religious or a spiritual person, it's just to say that you recognized that you were on your own and no one was going to free you but you.
To the Right of the Defining Card is the Future Energies Card. This represents energy that may or may not be a strong factor in the near future. I always tell clients that this card is mutable and even if the outcome seems bleak it is entirely up to them how it plays out.
The Future looks a lot better for you than your past ever was. The King of Swords stands firm and strong. Like Conan the Barbarian, you have gone from a weak little boy, to a slave, to a thief and soon you will be a King by your own hand! (How'd I go from 60's romantic comedies to The Governator in one reading?)
Now at the bottom Left of the Celtic Cross I lay the Logic Card. This is how the Reality of the situation appears to you based on the solid evidence.
The King of Pentacles pegs you as the ruler of your kingdom. You've built this Kingdom from nothing and you are obviously very proud of it.
Above The Logic Card is the Outside Influences Card. How the energies of others are effecting you in the context of this reading.
Well, you've got Three Kings in one reading. Pretty amazing but it shouldn't surprise you all that much given that you've drawn some very powerful energies.
Here you have the King of Cups. Somewhere along the line you met some people who fulfill you on the emotional level. Your strengths compliment each other and you find yourself in great company.
Next up is the Ideal Outlook, or how you feel about the situation over all.
Now, for someone who had to turn their back on faith, there is a part of you that still looks up at the sky. The Star represents this divine intervention that never seemed to help you when you needed it. So you wonder, just what was that High Priestess talking about? You had to reward yourself right? Or was there someone watching over you who helped you to become a stronger person?
And last but not least, The Summary Card. The main focus of the reading and what advice to draw from the reading.
The Eight of Swords is your final card. It reminds you that you have always been in control of your situation.
So, you have a pretty positive reading. I guess the advice I would take from it is to keep doing what you've been doing. Just always remember that even though it feels like you are alone there is always someone rooting for you to win.
Work Related Reading
All right. (I have edited out their screennames for privacy.) Note that I am using the Robin Wood Deck.
Focusing on your energy I shuffled the cards and have drawn three.
The Past Card focuses on the earliest influences over the situation. For this you drew the Two of Pentacles (coins) in the upright position.
There's a very shaky beginning here and I feel like it's surrounding a project where you didn't have a lot of resources to go on, so you're forced to make do with what you have.
The next card focuses on the Present influences. The Hierophant in the inverted position (Rx) is someone in a high position. Possibly a boss or a someone else who has the resources to help you but continually makes excuses.
When I see the Hierophant in this position I think of the boss from Dilbert. He expects his employees to work miricles but he doesn't give them a lot to go on. He basically pats himself on the head and if you fail, he doesn't see it as a failure on his part.
The last card is the Future card or the likely outcome. Like I tell all of my clients this is not a "set in stone" card, everything about the future is mutable.
The Ace of Cups is in the inverted position. It's like there's this strong fear that things won't work out for you because you feel like you're not being given enough help. But I think what the Past Card can teach you is that being someone who is use to starting out with so little, you've managed to take yourself pretty far.
The advice I would take from this reading is to not allow others to slow you down. Take the help you have and put as much of yourself into it so that at least you feel like you came out on to pin the end.
I hope that's been helpful.
Uncertainty
The first card is The Defining Card. Placed in the Center of the spread, it describes the energy that currently identifies the person I am reading.
You've drawn the Seven of Swords. Let me go into some of the details on this card. There's a cloaked man and he's perched on a stone wall outside of what appears to be an army's camp. He's holding several swords which he seems to have pilfered and he gazes at potential witnesses with a scowl of mistrust and contempt.
Similarly I see you perched on a wall and ready to run at the first sign of trouble. Only instead of swords you've taken every possible shot you can think of and are holding it in reserve so that when this large group turns on you you'll have at least some defense against it. Insults, incriminating evidence, anything you feel will give you an edge.
The next card is your Influencing Energy. This card overlays the Defining card and tells us about energies both negative and positive that are effecting you directly.
The Page of Pentacles in the inverted (Rx) position represents betrayal. A feeling that someone took something important from you and left you feeling hurt and vulnerable.
The Goal/Destiny card goes beneath the first two. It gives us the main objective of the client or the next likely move.
You seek attention from The World. It's like you feel mostly vulnerable because you were alone when this happened. It's something that took away your basic sense of security and now you just want to be surrounded by people who care about you so that this can't happen again.
To the Left of the Defining Card is the Distant Past Influences. This card can represent events or energies that come from as far back as your childhood or as recently as several months ago. Sometimes this energy is what lays the groundwork for the current situation.
The Queen of Wands calls from the Distant Past. You were once in control of the situation and what happened to you now couldn't have happened in the past. Again the Queen shows me this sense of security, you in a position where people obviously knew you were there.
Above the Defining Card is the Recent Past Influences. This energy is obviously more recent than the Distant Past and once again could be something that's been brewing over the course of several years or even just a few weeks.
The Nine of Wands takes us a step down. It's like you left the secure situation to try to build something that was your own and thing were going great. You had a lot going for you such as confidence and the fact that you drew a “nine” card in the upright position tells me that you did not see any possible failure coming and you had no reason to believe there was one.
To the Right of the Defining Card is the Future Energies Card. This represents energy that may or may not be a strong factor in the near future. I always tell clients that this card is mutable and even if the outcome seems bleak it is entirely up to them how it plays out.
Now you've drawn the Page of Wands in the inverted position. Again, it's this event, this betrayal that hurt you so badly. I just feel like the confidence you carried with you got terribly set back because of this event that, again, you just didn't see coming.
I imagine you as this kid in the playground who was trying to build this magnificent sandcastle. All of a sudden this bully comes along and kicks the sandcastle down, throws your pail out of the sandbox and knocks you over before running away laughing.
Now at the bottom Left of the Celtic Cross I lay the Logic Card. This is how the Reality of the situation appears to you based on the solid evidence.
The Knight of Swords is there. You have a strong mind and this is what you are using to try to bring yourself back to the level of confidence you had before. Again, it ties in with that Seven of swords. You're using all of these little mental tricks to tell yourself that you are in fact better than the people who hurt you. When it comes to the final fight you'll pull those tricks right out of the bag.
Above The Logic Card is the Outside Influences Card. How the energies of others are effecting you in the context of this reading.
The Four of Swords in the Inverted (Rx) position may bring you a little comfort. Whatever these people, or this person did to hurt you didn't help their situation at all. In fact it may have hurt them even more.
Next up is the Ideal Outlook, or how you feel about the situation over all.
The Six of Pentacles in the Inverted position reinforces my impressions from the Page of Pentacles. Basically this event shattered your faith in those surrounding you. You may start to question everyone, eye every person you pass with suspicion, or even just avoid situations where someone could possibly hurt you in this way again.
And last but not least, The Summary Card. The main focus of the reading and what advice to draw from the reading.
The Six of Wands in the Inverted position is trying to tell you that allowing fear and mistrust to consume you is going to hurt you even more.
This event, whatever it was, obviously changed you. It taught you that the world is not always a secure place and that even when it seems like things are going our way, a single pebble in the road can trip you up and force you to lose everything you've worked for.
The only way you really lose is by giving up. There's a proverb that says “fall down nine times, get up ten.” I really hope you decide to get up that tenth time and not allow this event to force you to withdraw from the world.
