Perhaps the best thing we can do when we feel confident and knowledgable is to know when we don’t know. To understand when we have limited understanding or are traversing in areas with less experience than we thought, is a sign of strength and of perseverance. We don’t always have the answers but we can still approach whatever we are doing with mental fortitude so that the confrontation with the unknown is not overwhelming but empowering.
This week’s reading seems to suggest this kind of evaluation and that we shouldn’t be disheartened if we feel agitated at our apparent lack of energy. We get the opportunity to evaluate where we are, what we are learning and how well we are doing despite our insecurities. We dip into some material midweek that might have us feeling perturbed. The message here is to keep going.
To start us off, the King of Swords represents our ability to discern and to impart. He is portrayed here counselling his page about his lantern that is stuck in the branch, while others listen to his wise advice. He is very structured and his inherent quality is a balanced insight into how things around us should function. He sees things fairly and shows how we can proceed clearly toward our objectives with ease.
We may be in this role for ourselves or others, yet there is something stirring in the background. “Do I really know the answers or do I play the role of one who does?” There is a time when our knowledge is tested by our ability to embody our wisdom. The 9 of Swords could represent a testing period and we could feel all those self doubting questions arise within us.
The world may loom a little larger and our rest could feel cluttered, or “stuck in a tree branch” by the sensation that we aren’t enough. It is as if the darkness contains the mystery of all that we haven’t experienced yet. The dichotomy of these two cards urges us to be kind to ourselves and to not force anything so that we exacerbate any feelings of unworthiness or being unqualified. Our weaknesses are not exposed to others in the way that we may think, and we aren’t inviting calamity by being unprepared. Know when you don’t know, take a strategic step back, and see this is a time to be calm and stable, and to evaluate from that premise.
If we don’t dip into the unknown, how can we ever have the ability to address it. It’s okay not to know. It might actually feel refreshingly honest to say, “I haven’t done this before so I’m learning as I go.” In this way, we don’t get involved with the nightmarish figure standing over us because we are sidestepping what it wants to magnify. If we move on from its illusory presence, we wake up from that influence and see that we aren’t really as weighed down as we thought.
The two figures in the 7 of Coins look at this small creature and see how insignificant it is. The end of the week shows how we can take stock of what we have learned in the proceeding two cards and connect to nature once again. We are all students, we are all learning and growing. There is so much that is already working so well, so when we emerge to see that, we can appreciate the energy that is growing and that we are tending to.
If we apply our innate wisdom, we can truly utilize our experiences in a way that is always beneficial. We can approach the light and the dark, the known and the unknown, and our confidence and insecurities with an equal hand and a gentle mind. In our humility, we can become masters because the ego doesn’t have the stage to broadcast how much it is in control. In due time, this will be a step along a path of incredible value. Keep going.
Affirmation: I can be comfortable with applying myself well and knowing when I can do something better. I allow myself the space to learn and grow, and I can feel good about my journey of wisdom and experience.
Thanks for reading, and I wish you a wonderful week!
Daniel Palmo
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let us be awake.
Unfolding Tarot 
what an interesting post! very helpful, thanks
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