TAROT

Six of Cups § Six of Swords § Eight of Pentacles

The Six of Cups tells us to assess who we trust. Trust is a form of innocence. It is an acceptance of the possibility of betrayal and destruction. The more pronounced the power differential, the greater the risk. The difference between genuine trust and forced vulnerability is honesty in its simplest form. Trustworthy parents, teachers, and leaders will make sure everyone has the information they need to make decisions, prepare, and succeed. We need clarity about our environment and our status within it. Without this, we cannot consent. This card appears to remind us that gut feelings count as information. Incorporate your understanding of the centuries of indoctrination it has taken to normalize cultures of force and use that knowledge to inform what your other senses also recognize. While you are at it, consider your own power and influence over others. You might try to please someone you look up to without paying attention to what that does to people who look up to you. Now is the time to stop playing with anyone who cannot show up, tell the truth, and be accountable. Trust is not faith—it’s a contract.

The Six of Swords is the remedy. There are two types of departures. The first is running toward a desire; the second is to flee from something. The Six of Swords applies to the latter. This kind of travel is introspective and (at least somewhat) solemn. Between your life today and your life in the future, there is a journey that allows you to become the person you will be when you get there. If you choose to, you will experience deep and satisfying growth within yourself. Nothing is static. Change is the only constant and the Six of Swords teaches us to utilize and appreciate the time it takes to accept the end of one way of being and the beginning of another. The Swords refer to our mind and our thoughts, meaning that they will mark the hours of our loneliness and suffering, but they will simultaneously offer us the clarity we need to recreate our confidence. The Six of Swords is a card of resourcefulness and resilience. It tells the story of the process by which we overcome.

The Eight of Pentacles relies on focus to maintain both her practical life and also her dreams. She will support any method of focus. Holding the thread is all that matters—do it however it works for you. Her advice for those who struggle to keep their mind on what is in front of them is to first let it be OK, meaning neutral, that this is the case. You deserve the satisfaction of completing your projects and fulfilling your commitments. You can and will find your own unique habits that allow you to enjoy the feeling of accomplishment. The Eight of Pentacles is medicine on her own. She has a warehouse full of tools and supplies, she has space for you to make what you want and be as you are. High stress causes the brain muscle to limit its functioning to just what is necessary. In this mode, we stop generating intellectual solutions and become less engaged with our empathy. The Eight of Pentacles wants us to lose ourselves in activities that matter. An anti-intellectual culture is exhausting and we must remember to revive ourselves, to rest our minds by engaging in actions that make us feel the most like ourselves. It is this that restores our vitality. May we take care of our humanity.