Your Week Ahead: January 16 to 22, 2022 – Free Yourself

There appears to be a kind of build up of energy this week that needs some awareness and application of wisdom. We are being asked to have a vision, be curious and partake of the offerings life is presenting us with so that we may benefit in terms of advancing our skillset. However, we may be feeling that there is a lot to do and that we need to do it alone. There might be a revelation that will come to help us out as a result of what we are undertaking. Let’s have a closer look.

We start our reading and our week on a light note. Feeling free to study and investigate certain potentials in our life is the principle message here and it is important to follow this impetus for growth. The page signals a time or mentality of learning and expansion in how we can apply ourselves more productively in our current or future work.

The attitude of openness and optimism opens doors to perspectives that give us the chance to better ourselves. With the suit of pentacles highlighted here, the page’s approach describes how we can build our self-worth by having more value to offer the world.

Rather than meet with certain fears or the anxiety of failure, as is sometimes the case when we begin a field of study, we seem to be experiencing a weight of some kind. This suggests to me that we may have a lot to study and we could become disheartened at the thought of not having much time for anything else.

Since there is often more in our lives than simply the time we spend studying, we may in fact be feeling as if there is too much to look after. The 10 of Wands suggests a kind of “there isn’t enough of me to do all of this” mindset. Or we could feel as if what we might be trying to do will lead to our exhaustion.

This figure is clearly holding more than he can handle. However, the message is also about seeing things through to completion. What is interesting in this reading is the appearance of The Tower. If the next step is the releasing of the burden, what is causing that release? Moreover, what is this burden about? This heightens the imagery of the man not seeing where he is going because he has too much to carry.

The Tower’s influence is about changing a situation that is stuck and freeing us to be more authentic. The disconnect here is with the page. Why are we at one moment curious and open, and the next, overwhelmed and needing release?

Could we benefit from a little strategy? Do we need to pace ourselves and not be so troubled by the possibility that we won’t have enough time or resources to succeed? The fact that we moved so quickly from the page to the 10 describes that we need to be patient with ourselves and not expect too much too soon.

The Tower is describing a realization of how we can keep ourselves locked into a pattern of exhaustion or defeat when our mindset is not properly calibrated. We need not be so defeated so early. Something here suggests that we are holding too tightly to a notion of perfection, and that we can still experience advancement by simply enjoying the process.

It might be helpful to approach this week in a less serious way. This doesn’t need to be hard. It can just be fun for now. It isn’t even necessary to know the end result or how we will apply what we’re learning. Perhaps we will have that flash of insight. When we look at this deeper, having the disposition that one wants to work hard and get it right has its roots in a strong work ethic and of pleasing our teachers and bosses. It is also the trap of wanting to appear respectable and responsible.

What we often fail to see is how our moments of “failure” produce the highest achievements. This is most noticeable in older people learning something new, and perhaps why it is harder for them to just have fun with it. While the young person still has a vision, the older individual is unnecessarily distracted by mastery.

It is also true that certain younger people are too quickly defeated by perfectionism. This anxiety too is about adopting the persona of being too mature so that we meet the expectations imposed on us by our authority figures. This can be a complex subject and it requires some time and delicacy. What is central is how we prevent success by overemphasizing its importance.

This could very well be the message of The Tower here. In The Matrix, when Morpheus says to Neo, “Free your mind”, he is saying to be free of all definitions previously imposed on it so that he can be free to discover who he truly is. When Neo falls to the ground and “fails”, he is in this process of giving up this burden. He is giving up what is holding him back. It is only after he abandons the expectation that he needed to be “the one” that he finally realizes who he is and the power he holds.

The meaning of this week’s reading is: don’t do things the same way you always did. Those expectations are holding you in a mental space that is old and outworn. The time for mastery will come later. For now, don’t worry about it. Pace yourself and apply your maturity by approaching the day with balance and optimism. The rest will take care of itself.

Affirmation: I am trying out something new and I allow myself to be free to learn without any expectations. I don’t have to get it right, and I will not worry should I get it wrong. I express my desire to grow and expand beyond what I have known about myself. For now, that is enough. I am enough.

Thanks for reading, and I wish you a wonderful week!

Daniel Palmo

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