Current challenges, Future outcome spread

Ancient Italian Tarot, 7-card spread from 'Tarot Bible' by Sarah Bartlett 

Cards are numbered 1-7 starting with the bottom row, left side.
1. Personal challenge right now
2. Relationship challenge right now
3. What holds me back?
4. What motivates me?
5. Where will I get support?
6. What decision do I need to make based on 1-5?
7. The outcome

The draw suggests that my current challenges are higher profile in my life than I might have expected. Four out of seven cards are majors, and there's an ace. This would seem, then, to be a time when I could make some important changes in my life, if I choose to.


It's easy to forget that the direction and quality of our lives is based almost entirely on our choices. Every single day is filled with choices and decisions that impact the outcome of our lives. Whether we choose to make them consciously so that we move in the direction of our dreams, or allow things to happen to us and wonder what went wrong, is up to us. Daily. The 2 of Rods reminds me of this. My challenge right now is to take up my personal power. Will I remember it? Or will I choose not to take it up and just let days and weeks and years slip by?

There is always the danger of going to extremes--being run over roughshod by life, or on the other hand, cracking the whip and running over other people yourself. The Charioteer is a fearsome fellow and a warrior, but he has his equilibrium and is in control. The horses in The Chariot card here are the same colour and their  heads and feet echo the same posture, suggesting harmony. Even choreography. The card suggests that it's important to address any imbalances in my current relationships, not to give away my power, and not to allow myself to be a victim of someone else's. And also, not to be a victim of myself, the sense of running myself down.

So far the cards are telling me to step up to the plate, take the reins of my own life more firmly. Wake up from a sleepwalking state, in a way. They suggest I might be in a kind of stasis now...so what holds me back? The Knight of Wands is a fiery character who charges headlong into the fray. What he does NOT lack is personal motivation. He doesn't care about logical reasons or game plans. If you told him the object of the game was to charge toward the edge of a cliff, he would be vaulting his horse into the abyss before you could finish explaining that the winner of the game is the person who can get closest to the edge without going over. The card suggests that what holds me back is a lack of fire. Not that I lack motivation in improving my life, but that I seem to be waiting for this overwhelming motivation to take me over and send me in one direction or the other. It's like I am waiting for gut instinct to tell me when to go. But it might not be gut instinct that is what is called for here. It might be that I am waiting for something to take me over and drive me onward, when this sort of thing is probably not going to happen, given my comfort zone and the type of person I am.

The Knight of Wands and his horse are both pointing me toward the Ace of Coins, my true motivation. The horse in particular seems to be pointing right at the Ace of Coins. I am motivated by physical results, the tangible, the comfortable, the stable, the steady. I enjoy contentment, security, freedom from worry. The Ace of Coins embodies all these things. But the Ace also shows new beginnings and new directions. I am motivated by starting new projects. What holds me back from finishing them is a lack of fire. Where can I dredge up that fire from, or at least my own version of fire? (Since it's pretty plain that I never going to be the type to just go nuts like the Knight of Rods.) This is a question to ponder.

Sympathy from the Devil? The card that is meant to be a source of support is the Devil card! The card seems to be begging to be read in combination with the card next to it The Fool, which shows what change I need to make as a result of the previous cards. The Devil seems to be absolutely shaking his fist in rage at the Fool, who is blithely heading in the opposite direction away from him. The Fool is not impressed by the Devil's posturing and temptations. He is in his own space, ignoring both the fury and lures of the Devil and the warnings of his little dog not to stray too close to the cliff's edge. He just doesn't believe anything bad can happen to him. He has faith in a benevolent universe. He believes things will work out all right in the end.

I guess this combination shows that I can get my support from realising that I'm not a bad person. I'm not lazy or worthless. I don't have to believe bad things about myself or believe that I must change things in order not to be a bad person. Changes can come not to improve me, not to make me 'good not bad' -- 'the winner not the victim', 'thin not fat', 'enlightened not confounded' -- but because they are a joyful part of the journey that is its own reason for being.

The Hanged Man is like one big question mark over this entire spread. The Hanged Man looks at things upside down. He sees things flipped over. Why is he doing this? It's not fun to hang upside down, it makes the blood rush to the head, puts uncomfortable stresses on the body; there must be some reward for this. The reward is the completely new perspective on things. The Hanged Man invites us to consider new ways of going at our goals -- ways we might never have imagined until we tried them, ways that seem the complete opposite of how we thought we should behave. The Hanged Man shows me two things -- the outcome of the current challenges is uncertain, but dependent upon my willingness to put up with discomfort and a bit of self-sacrifice.

I am speaking in generalisations here because I don't necessarily want to tell you ALL my business. But I have ideas of what specific things in my life are being addressed here, and in a personal reading for a client, I would go into those specifics of their lives to make the message of the cards very clear and relevant and easy to understand and relate to.