Your Week Ahead: March 10 to 16, 2025 – Nalagiri and the Lion

This week’s reading feels like an echo of last week’s cards, like a second chapter or sequel. I love these little synchronicities. Our lives are full of them, and I think the more we are open to them and invite them, the more we see them. This week, The World lies between two beautiful cards. One of compassion and awareness, and the other of unconditional love.

When The World card appears, we are reminded of the cyclical nature of life. We stand balanced and poised between two experiences as we sense one chapter closing as another opens. This is a moment when we come to an understanding of who we are and what we have accomplished. The lessons contained within this growth cycle have been learned and integrated within our being.

Integration here is about a certain level of mastery. This definition may feel a bit large in scope but the sensation of really knowing the answers, of feeling them deeply, brings about a calm confidence that doesn’t require proof of validation. We don’t simply know something, we are living it. Knowledge here is about moving something out of the intellect and into our DNA.

One can learn all there is to know about any given subject. However, it will always remain an abstract, intellectual idea. You read it, watch it or hear it. Only until it becomes digested through one’s personal interaction with it do we glean the true meaning. On a deeper level, if something remains purely intellectual, it is because we are not involved with the material to make it our own. Once we pull it into our sphere of activity, we do things in our own way and with a vision that is personal. This is how we bring mastery to things, regardless if they are about large things or small.

It is as if one learns about psychotherapy from books and lectures. We get a good grasp of many subjects, techniques and approaches. It is only until we start applying those insights into our own lives and our own experiences do we start to have true insight. The person that has endeavoured to apply themselves in such a manner will stand apart from others as one who has embodied the merit or value they stand for.

Of course, this kind of growth never stops; once we embody something, we invite its application to the next stage of application. This is how The World card can be about small things or large things. Generally speaking, we are discussing a chapter in our lives that has presented us with lessons and challenges that we have now learned and understand on a deep level.

What has led up to this realization is the energetic mastery of our will. We have understood that simply tearing around unhinged will not produce anything of value. Indeed, it will only continue the perception that fighting needs to be validated. The Strength card is about cutting through that perception and interrupting the causal circumstances for that unhinged energy.

This is about awareness and how we apply it. We can see this as patience and empathy, as compassion in action. Empathy means to bring understanding and space to that which is asking for healing and guidance. It doesn’t mean rushing in with our answers, rather, it is about listening. A lion who is lost in his rage needs something to interrupt his fevered need for conquest. He isn’t smothered with answers that aren’t his. He is understood. “We hear you oh great lion, we hear you and love you. You are our fearless protector. Be at peace. Breathe and be at peace.”

The woman in this card has mastered the lion’s energy and is not bound to it, so it is she that interrupts the interdependent links. She exists outside of what the lion is caught in. In this way, the lion’s rage and passion are sublimated into their higher expression. This woman represents our ability to do this in some area in our lives. The fact that we are doing it successfully is only heightened by The World card. These two cards indicate that, it is only by interrupting a pattern that we can truly surpass it. It is not even so much that we “need” to approach things differently. We ARE approaching things differently.

There is a beautiful story about how the Buddha was walking and was confronted by a rampaging elephant who was running toward him in a fit of fury. As the elephant approached the serene Buddha, his pace gradually decreased and decreased until it became a gentle, peaceful walk. The Buddha did not move. He only interrupted the elephant’s rage by gazing into his eyes with loving compassion.

When we pass through The World card, we experience a new paradigm. It is as if we create a new space to enter into. The 6 of Cups represents that space. When we are free to be ourselves, we open up to the deeper levels of love and compassion. This card reminds us of the way the innocence of childhood is so important. It reminds us how it felt like to be taken care of and to be free to play and be curious.

It is a beautiful card about sharing, of giving and receiving, feeling loved and heard, and not judged. When I see the 6 of Cups, I often hear in my head the quote from Jesus saying, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

This is also often a card of recognizing that we have known the people close to us from previous lifetimes. So, it hearkens a time when we enjoy that recognition and rest within its space of unconditional love. That is certainly the space that is open after we walk through the portal of our self mastery. We truly have something beautiful to offer others.

ps. Something about this reading (and last week’s too) is also indicative of the upcoming Full Moon Lunar Eclipse on March 14, and the New Moon Solar Eclipse that immediately follows it on March 29. The Spring Equinox, also a time of rebirth and a new cycle, is positioned between them on March 20.

Affirmation: I have the ability to bring my best qualities forward. I bring understanding and active listening to those areas which need a loving hand. I sense a way forward that will create new opportunities for these qualities to be present and shared. I am at peace; I am in Peace. This is a new time.

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

Daniel Palmo

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