7 of Pentacles from the Rider-Waite tarot deck – Image via Wikipedia
So, reading The Night Circus has gotten me wanting to run away with the circus. Unfortunately, the best I could offer as a contortionist would be the Wheel or Plough poses from yoga—although let it be known that I did fly through the air with the greatest of ease a few years ago, swingin’ (as all good monkeys ought to) upside down from a trapeze and doing a couple catches at a one-day Chicago trapeze school. Anyway, I’ve decided it’s probably safer for me to just sit indoors at a table, so I’ve started studying the tarot. I’m not saying I’m convinced of the fortune-telling aspect of it, but my inner-Jung that believes in a universal consciousness is positively fascinated with the archetypes represented among the cards, as well as how tarot can be used simply as a means of personal meditation. It centers the mind on an aspect of life to reflect on, brainstorming proactive ways in which to drive one’s own future, to the extent one can. This is useful for a scatterbrain like me whose overly analytical mind will otherwise spiral in any number of directions at any given time. I swear, it’s like the hamster cage at the pet store with all my little thought-rodents sprinting (and going nowhere) inside their wheels.
Anyways, the only reason I bring this up is because I can’t help but share that the day after I wrote my previous post, “The Roads Newly Taken,” I drew the Seven of Pentacles card (also known as Seven of Coins), pictured above. In that previous post, I had literally written “Am in pausing-to-take-stock mode” and “I just need to stop now and then to assess the situation“; I also said I was “placing the needle back on my same broken record.”
What a nice supplement, then, provided by this card, which means (according to but one source among several that I’ve taken to cross-referencing):
“The Seven of Coins is the card of assessment. It represents those plateaus along the path of life – the times when we can and need to rest and take stock of where we are and what we should do next. It is not uncommon for us to find ourselves in a rut in life, banging our heads up against the same brick wall and trying out the same solution to the same problem. […]
If we are to grow as human beings and not be content with revisiting the same plateau all our lives we need to make sure we are making good and conscious choices. These choices need to reflect where we are in our life today – our feelings, dreams, ambitions – and not our goals from yesterday or those unconsciously passed on to us from our parents. It is fine to drop once-held ambitions which are no longer relevant to us. This does not equate to a failure if we did not complete these goals but rather a success that we are able to be honest with ourselves and move forward in a more truthful way. Perhaps our dreams are now more ambitious as we realize we are stronger than we previously thought, or maybe they are less as we feel the need to slow down. Either way, the most important element to consider is the truth derived from sincere and honest contemplation of who we are now and what we need or want for ourselves at this time.
Huh.
The Fallen Monkey 
February 24th, 2012 at 19:01
Ditto for why I like tarot cards too. Also, because of the pretty (here are a few images from my deck): http://www.astroamerica.com/t-hans.html
February 27th, 2012 at 15:15
Ooh, so pretty! I can’t wait to get my first real deck…I’ve been testing out whether my interest in learning will be sustained for the long-run with an iPad app. 🙂 It’s a lovely one, though, that offers a choice of a few popular decks, and I figure choosing a card there can’t be any more random (or should I say “meaningfully coincidental”) than drawing from a physical stack, for the time being.
By the way, I totally forgot you did tarot – I think we’ve talked about this a while back. I’m so excited to finally learn; you can help me practice readings over Skype. 🙂
February 25th, 2012 at 09:20
It seems you are receiving signs from the universe, via the Tarot cards. I think there is something to them. My signs show up in rock lyrics, for example, someone once quoted the name of a Jeff Buckley song (Dream Brother) when I was discussing something my boy Julian had told me about him having a ‘soul’ brother, and then, I went to read Buckley’s lyrics and was gobsmacked at some of the words, for they were most meaningful.
Keep your eyes and ears open for those signs, they manifest in many ways and it sounds as if you’re aware of them, which is a great thing for many have no clue or belief in them.
February 27th, 2012 at 15:19
Alannah, it’s so perfectly appropriate that you would receive your signs through music! Love Jeff Buckley, too.
I do indeed keep myself aware of the signs and see how they manifest in so many ways around us. Tarot has just become a fun way of controlling when I can get a sign. 😉
February 27th, 2012 at 15:40
I like Tarot cards too, you never know what they’ll say and as you say, it’s a fun way to look for signs 🙂
February 25th, 2012 at 11:43
I actually used to be quite cynical towards things like that but in the last couple of years opened myself much more to a more spiritual approach. And although I still think that those signs are always there, but you only recognize them as such when they become relevant to you, I totally agree with Alannah that keeping your eyes open will make these things “happen” more and more often. Quite magical and a great experience, I think. 🙂
February 27th, 2012 at 15:25
I absolutely agree that those signs are always there; it’s just a matter of knowing to notice them. Like I just commented to Alannah, tarot has just given the chance to determine when I see some of them. 🙂 Some days, of course, the cards seem more meaningful than others, and of course it can often get like horoscopes where you’re sometimes backing meaning into them. In the meantime as I still get acquainted with it in general, I figure the cards at least prompt me to think about something I maybe hadn’t been and should be from time to time. They’re almost more an ink-blot test for me, making it as much psychological as spiritual. 🙂
August 31st, 2018 at 15:40
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