A Self-Constructed Daily Draws Reading

So first and foremost, on Monday I recieved the news that my store will in fact continue to trade with the new ownership. The Fool’s message of trust and faith in the universe came through for me. As soon as I received the news I was of course elated and felt a great weight fall from my shoulders, but with further thought I’ve begun to question whether I actually do feel happy and rewarded or whether I feel like I am simply plodding along, like the lovely SJ brought up in my Seven of Pentacles post. I feel like this may require a reading in the future but at this moment in time I’ve decided to create a free flow reading from the 6 daily draw cards I have drawn so far this week. I’ve never done anything like this, so bare with me, as it is a learning process more than anything else :).

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Self Constructed Daily Draw Reading – Shadowscapes Tarot
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Page of Swords

Starting with Monday’s card, the Page of Swords, we see a young girl allowing herself to be lifted and carried away so as to have some time to think clearly. The Page of Swords can represent a messenger bringing us challenges, and often it is these challenges that stimulate personal growth. To me this is representative of receiving the news that we would continue to trade. In the Shadowscapes representation the Page cradles a Cygnet in her lap which I see as representative of how this dilemma or quandary may affect the smaller things in our life. Another aspect of this representation I like is the use of black and white, symbolic of her ability to look at the balance of black and white around her without condemnation. I need this right now, for truly neither side is positive or negative, but rather holding both posibilities within themselves.

The Hermit
The Hermit

Linking this to both Tuesday’s card The Hermit, and Thursday’s card The Hanged Man, I am feeling a strong pull towards the need to spend some real time thinking about what I want out of this life! My job is not overly stimulating, and a lot of the time I feel mentally weakened purely from a lack of said stimulation! The Hermit is all about being alone and discovering truths about yourself. And coming after the Page it suggests a need to remove myself even further from distractions, for as we see on the card he has climbed even higher than the Page, above the flight of the birds themselves.

Queen of Cups
Queen of Cups

The fact however that these two cards fall either side of the Queen of Cups makes me feel that this personal development will both lead to and out of a connection to my true well of emotion and what it is I really want. I have always been drawn to the Queen of Cups, seeing her as the person I wish to become. I am deeply emotional, but can often allow these emotions to overpower me unlike the Queen of Cups who has full control over the waves of emotion!

The Hanged Man
The Hanged Man

So maybe this is saying that as a result of this introspection I will find a deeper connection to my wellspring which will in turn lead to The Hanged Man’s acceptance and willing surrender. For what does The Hanged Man represent but an end to the constant struggles we impose upon ourselves. He urges us to let go of our control, and what we think we need, to in turn reverse our view of our situation and hopefully come out with the realisation of where we then have to go.

Page of Wands
Page of Wands

Following on from this personal reversal we find Friday’s draw, the Page of Wands. I see the Page of Wands as someone who has just discovered/rediscovered their sense of Self, what fuels their Passion, or something Inspiring. The place in the spread to me suggests the re-discovering aspect of this Page, but it could also mean that out of The Hanged Man I may discover something new. She urges us to be Creative, Enthusiastic, Confident and Courageous, all things which I wish to be more prominent and know I am, but are just currently lying dormant.

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Six of Pentacles

Then finally we have today’s card, the Six of Pentacles, the card of flowing material energy. This was the hardest card for me to interpret in this constructed spread. I don’t know who I feel more connected to, the Plant receiving the energy or the Piper releasing it. I feel like I put so much of my energy into this job and all I receive back is a monetary reward. My soul receives very little nourishment! But if we look at the card more closely we see that the balance between the two is more delicate than otherwise assumed. For while the Piper releases his energy in the form of the flow of Pentacles feeding the Plant, the Plant is in turn adding buttress to the wall on which he sits. I see this as symbolic of the cycle of dependency between those who have and those who don’t and that by helping out someone less fortunate we may in fact allow them the opportunity to do so for someone else in the future. An interconnected cycle of energy :). But how does this link to my situation? If I look at it as flowing on from the previous 5 cards then maybe it is telling me that through this journey I will receive knowledge of where I wish to be and then with that self knowledge I will in turn be able to feed back into the universe and help others who wish to grow and expand as well.

I think it is clear from this that I need some time alone to think over where I am and where I want to be, and that hopefully by doing so I will get back in touch with my true inner self and discover what it is that makes me happy and feeds my soul! I really enjoyed trying to find a thread through these daily draws, and might even do them more often. I hope you also enjoyed this experiment 🙂

Until next time, live well xx

In Search of True Love – Knight of Cups

What’s this Ms Shadowscapes, you think I need to learn more about the Court Cards? I haven’t spent enough time on them lately and you feel I need a little more? Ah, ok, if you think so!!! Today, once again, I drew a Court Card in my daily draw :P. The Knight of Cups to be precise. When I turned him over I was a little frustrated, but then I thought that it was quite appropriate after my night last night. I went out for drinks with a few mates from work and towards the end of the night we were talking about me and my romanticised view of the world. I have to admit, I am a romantic, and often fall into looking at the world through a romantic lens. They were trying to say that perhaps I would be better off if I tried to look at my situation more logically and realise that my idolised wants may be making it harder to find exactly what will make me happy. I didn’t really know what to say to this, for I can’t really do anything about my heart or its power over my thoughts, it’s just so natural for me. I’m a lover. I love love, I live for it! Just like the Knight of Cups.  It’s funny because when I first started out studying Tarot I did a few little questionnaires to find which court card best represented me at this stage in my life, and every single one of them came up with around 70% Knight of Cups (with a touch of the Knight of Wands and Queen of Cups). And to be completely truthful I understand why.

The Knight of Cups is the classical ‘Knight in Shining Armour’ off on a quest of love and light, seated upon his white horse of purity and hope. He is absolutely compelled to follow his heart above all else, for good or for ill, looking to his emotions to provide a map for his direction in life. He is someone who follows his heart rather than his head and draws upon his intuition and inner direction rather than thought to make his decisions. He is a romantic and sensitive soul who idealises love and responds so very deeply to life, appreciating beauty in all its forms and understanding both the pain and happiness of others. This can have its downfalls though, as he can be temperamental and over emotional, prone to mood swings, jealousy and melodrama when his feelings and dreams aren’t centred. Also if his emotions aren’t set in action and real life they can often get the better of him and turn into melancholy or depression.

He is also seen as an imaginative dreamer and a visionary in realms of love, emotion and art. What is important to note here however is the difference between imagination and fancy. In Rachel Pollack’s “Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom” she says that imagination may lead us to “an awareness of underlying spiritual truth” whereas fancy produces only “fantasies that may excite, but ultimately lack real meaning”. This is definitely a trap that the Knight of Cups can fall into. He could sit for hours upon hours daydreaming about when his prince will come and sweep him off his feet. Or when he will finally get that chance to storm that castle and save his princess from the evil queen.

Knight of Cups - Shadowscapes Tarot
Knight of Cups – Shadowscapes Tarot

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Weekly Reading Number Two: The Four Elements Spread

For those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile you may be wondering what’s been happening with me and The Alternative Tarot Course! It’s been three or so weeks since I posted my last weekly reading, which means that I have been on week two of the course for way too long!! It’s not that I have been struggling with it per say, it’s more that the procrastination bug has taken hold. That and life has just seemed to run away from me recently. So, having a few hours spare today I decided that it was high time for me to do the Weekly Reading for Chapter Two: Four Suits, Four Elements. This chapter was all about the four suits/elements of Tarot and how they interact with each other. It’s been an interesting chapter for me, as I struggle a bit with open ended exercises, probably the perfectionist in me wanting to get to the right answer :P. But at the same time it’s been great to think further about how the elements interact and what it means when they aren’t present.

So here we go, “The Four Elements Spread” by Beth Maiden. The idea behind this spread is to look at how the four elements influence a situation in your life. There are five positions in this spread, which are as follows:

1: Your situation at this moment (centre)

2: The Earth of your situation (bottom)

3: The Water of your situation (left)

4: The Air of your situation (top)

5: The Fire of your situation (right)

When I sat down to begin this reading I was unsure exactly what I wanted to ask the deck about, do I ask about my emotional state, about where I am in my life right now, or a way to move to a place where I am more stimulated and satisfied, I had so many things to ask that I decided I would let Shadow and my subconscious tell me what I should focus on. So here we go 🙂

Four Elements Spread by Beth Maiden
Four Elements Spread by Beth Maiden

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A Serene Contented Embrace – The Ten of Cups

This morning when I woke up I was still thinking about yesterday’s draw. So I decided I would ask another question for my daily draw today. I grabbed my deck, started shuffling and asked “What is the possible outcome if I choose to follow yesterday’s advice and buy my one way ticket to France?”. What was the Shadowscapes’ answer you ask? The Ten of Cups!!! I don’t think I have words to describe what happened when I turned over this card. It was as if everything was falling into place, I was speechless, happy and excited, but overall speechless.

Ten of Cups - Shadowscapes Tarot
Ten of Cups – Shadowscapes Tarot

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The Dreamer and The Builder – The Seven of Cups

Dreams and Desires! We all have them, some of us choose to act upon them, while others put them aside for the more safe option. I’d like to say that I am of the first persuasion! I’ve always thought that life is best when your doing something you love. When I was at university I decided to go against what my brain was telling me, leave my Psychology degree and pursue a degree in Acting. For that is my dream. And for five or so years I followed that dream, and it made me a very happy man. But there are always times in life where we hit a roadblock and have to put our dream on hold. Why all this talk of dreams you ask, well today I drew the Seven of Cups, the card of Dreams and Desires.

Traditionally the Seven of Cups stands for wishful thinking, a plethora of options or choices before us, illusion, and imagination. Usually what we see are seven cups filled with both positive and negative wishes. The old saying ‘be careful what you wish for’ comes to mind when I look at the Rider-Waite-Smith card. But when I look at the Shadowscapes card, which is the deck I drew from, I see something different.

Seven of Cups - Shadowscapes Tarot
Seven of Cups – Shadowscapes Tarot

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A Birthday Blessing

Today is my birthday 🎉, and instead of doing a daily card I decided that I would give myself a bigger challenge and in turn learn a little more about myself and the year to come. So I popped over to Little Red Tarot, my go to for all things tarot related and decided that I would do Beth’s New Years Spread, for your birthday is truly the beginning of a personal New Year 😃. And as you can see Cosmo decided he would like to help out 😊

Birthday Reading

While there are 10 cards in the picture above this is actually a 5 position spread. Beth constructed it with the interactions between cards in mind, how their energies support each other or if they show any tension/conflict.

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Blissful Simplicity – The Six of Cups

So for those of you who aren’t in Australia, today is a public holiday! Normally I would be quite excited by this fact however I unfortunately have to work today 😭. But, seen as it is my birthday tomorrow (hooray) the guys from work and I are heading out tonight for dinner and drinks, and maybe even some Karaoke 😃. So when I awoke today I was filled with a happiness that comes from knowing your evening is going to be filled with the loving energies of those who are dear to you 😊. And when I drew my card for today I was pleasantly surprised to see the Six of Cups ðŸ˜ƒ.

Six of Cups - Shadowscapes Tarot
Six of Cups – Shadowscapes Tarot

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A Radiant Vitality – The Sun

So first I must apologise for being a bit lax in my posting. The reason is twofold. Firstly, my last two draws have been repeats of recent draws and I was unsure as to what they were trying to tell me so instead of posting I decided to ponder 🤔. They were quite opposite cards too, on Friday I drew the King of Swords and yesterday it was the Ace of Cups. My second reason is that I awoke Friday morning feeling incredibly drained and by the end of the day a cold had throughly worked its way in 😭. But today I am feeling a little bit better, despite having worked 10 hours yesterday, so I am back and ready to write.

When I first flipped over today’s card I thought the Shadowscapes was teasing me. The Sun. The complete opposite of what I’m feeling. I’m weighed down, congested and feeling really low on energy and what shows up The Sun.  Not only that but it is a beautiful 33 degrees Celsius outside, the sun is shinning, the birds are singing, and I’m stuck inside with an 8 hour shift. Cruel Shadowscapes, very cruel!!

The Sun - Shadowscapes Tarot
The Sun – Shadowscapes Tarot
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An Unexpected Splendour – The Three of Cups

Exuberance, Friendship, Community, Joy. No one would ever say that they do not enjoy these things. The Three of Cups represents those moments of unexpected joy, especially when linked to being a part of a group. Those times when you are bursting with energy and feeling on top of the world!

The Three of Cups - Shadowscapes Tarot
The Three of Cups – Shadowscapes Tarot

In the Shadowscapes card we see three Sirens offering each other a cup full to the brim of their loving energy. The joy and exuberance that they are experiencing as a result of their being together is so strong that it has formed a bubble within which their happiness is amplified. Just like those moments when we are spending time with loved ones, and all our other problems just seem to fade away 😊. However the bubble is also a symbol of the spontaneous and fleeting quality of these situations. Unfortunately they do not last forever, but that just makes them even stronger.

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That First Ripple, That Effervescent Bubble – The Ace of Cups

I think my deck is playing a cheeky trick on me today. After commenting in yesterday’s post about how few cards from the Suit of Cups had come up in my draws, what does my lovely deck decide to give me today, not only a Cups card, but the very beginning of the Cups’ energies, the Ace of Cups. I wonder what this could mean for the day!

Ace of Cups - Shadowscapes Tarot
Ace of Cups – Shadowscapes Tarot

An opportunity for a new emotional experience. The beginnings of love, happiness and compassion. A furthering of your internal attunement. This is what the Ace of Cups is all about.

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