Seven Philosophical Readings with the Tarot

On By benebellIn cartomancy, Spirit Keeper's Tarot, tarot, tarot community

#7philosophicalreadings

I hope you’ll try this out, join in, and share your own posting or video response to these philosophical readings with the tarot. Or if you prefer, use your favorite oracle deck.

Here’s the premise. You’re going to be using the cards to answer seven classic philosophical questions.

Before you start, you’ll set the intention that the cards will know how you’d respond to the questions deep down, on some soul level. So every card reading will reflect what you really think, how you really feel about the answer to the given inquiry.

I’ll be using my Spirit Keeper’s Tarot Vitruvian. For each question I will only be doing a single card draw, but please don’t limit yourself to that. If you’d rather do a three-card reading for each question or design a simple spread for each, go for it!

For those familiar with how I’ve designed the SKT, I’ll be using The Seeker version of Key 0 for my significator, Spirit in Search of Science. Then I’ll shuffle, meditate on the question at hand, and then turn over the cards looking for The Seeker. The card behind The Seeker will be my answer to the question.

Let’s begin with the classic trolley dilemma, shall we?

Question #1

A runaway trolley is racing down the tracks toward five people who won’t be able to move out of the way in time. There’s a side track with one single person. You can pull a lever to divert the train onto the side track, preventing the death of five, though it will kill the one.

Do you pull the lever to divert the trolley from killing five, but then it would kill one, or do you take no action, leave the trolley on its natural course, and kill five? Ask the cards what you would do.

The point of this exercise is to not answer with your conscious mind, but to make room for a more subconscious and truthful response to reveal itself through the cards.

Key 8: The Force (The Tamed Lion). This is the Strength card from the Major Arcana.

Here we see the symbol of the north lunar node and the awakened kundalini first pictured on Key 1: The Magus. (This link here takes you to a gallery of all SKT cards to check out The Magus if you’re curious.) The astrological correspondence here is Leo, featuring strong energies of one who seeks to be a hero.

And if I had to choose between whether I interpret the visuals in this card as “taking action” or “taking no action,” I would say the maiden in white is taking action, gently and with great compassion, albeit most certainly doing something.

Even the key phrase, “The Tamed Lion,” suggests action– taming the circumstances, interfering with the course of feral nature.

So I think I have to interpret this card draw as indicating that I would take the action of pulling the lever to kill one but save five, and live with the consequences of having killed that one.

Question #2

What difficult truth about the human condition are you ignoring? The cards will reply with a response specific to you.

Key 4: The Emperor (Commander of Intellections). This card is the power of self-determination. I interpret this reading as conveying the unimpeded free will we all possess, but the reason we believe in fate, destiny, or even force majeure (“Acts of God”), where extenuating circumstances beyond our control happen to us is because at an earlier point in time, we failed to acquire the personal power to divert that circumstance.

We always have the opportunity to acquire the power and the self-determination to do virtually anything, to perform any miracle. It is simply that we fail to take sufficient initiative do so.

Question #3

What does it mean to live a good life? This is what the cards reveal about what living a good life means to you.

Archangel of Healing (Angel Who Salves and Purifies). This is the King of Cups from the tarot courts. For me, the Archangel of Healing represents a feminized deity who personifies compassion, spiritual, psychic, or karmic healing, and of the four alchemical elements, might be more closely linked to water. And so given my background, that personification is Kuan Yin or even Marici, one of Kuan Yin’s disciples.

I interpret this card as saying that to live a good life is to transmute as much of my personal energy as I can, ideally all of it, before I leave this earth, and give that transmuted energy back to the world in a manner that can salve its open wounds. To live a good life is to take cues from Kuan Yin and to do what I can within my abilities to embody that spirit.

Question #4

Where does your self-worth come from? This is the truth about your self-worth.

Oh nuts! On all things holy I affirm and testify I shuffled these cards thoroughly and went out of my way to randomize them, to make sure no two cards that were side by side in the deck for one reading would remain side by side in the next.

Nonetheless, here we get Key 4: The Emperor again in answer to Question 4. This is also the card that answered Question 2 (What difficult truth about the human condition am I ignoring). I’ve also fanned out the first three cards when I turned the deck over.

Actually, it’s quite meaningful that The Emperor shows up for both Question 2 on difficult truth and Question 4, self-worth. My self-worth comes from self-determination, or to be more specific, when I have acquired the power to control my circumstances, I feel worthy, and when I have failed to acquire the power to control my circumstances, I don’t feel worthy.

Question #5

What had existed before our universe was created? This is an inner knowledge you’ve had latent within you since your own creation, a knowledge you were born with.

Key 20: Apocalypse (Last Judgment). This is Key 20: Judgement from the Major Arcana. (::shakes my head:: Readings with my SKT deck never cease to amaze me.)

I interpret this as a pre-existing universe. What came before the universe we live in now was another prior universe, which was then destroyed in an apocalyptic manner, which gave birth to our universe. Whether what lived and thrived in that universe was anything like us, I couldn’t say, but they were for sure sentient.

Question #6

Are you ethically obligated to improve yourself? The cards reveal the answer you really believe deep down.

The Shining Dew (Waters and Waves). This is the Knight of Cups from the tarot courts. Knights are about very active, kinetic energy, energy in movement. This is active movement of divine waves through the material realms. The horse pictured here is the twin to the pale horse in Key 13, the Death card, and I call this twin horse Life.

Encircling the medallion in the foreground are two phrases merged together: dabo pacem in finibus vestris  (“I will grant peace in the land”) and gladius non transibit terminus vestros (“the sword shall not go through your lands”), Leviticus 26:6.

Ooh. If I’m being honest with myself and attempting objectivity, this card could in theory be interpreted either way, given the context of Leviticus 26:6.

I confess I’m having a bit of a struggle over what answer is coming from my conscious, willful state and what answer is the core truth coming out from somewhere deeper, more latent. Am I trying to consciously impose an answer on myself and suppress the deeper, latent answer trying to come through? Or are the two one and the same and I’m just confused?

So, doing my best to work through that struggle, I think this card is saying to me that it’s less a question of whether I’m ethically bound to improve myself, but that I am without question ethically bound to improve the world I’ve been put in. The answer to both questions is the same, though. Upholding a duty to improve the world I’ve been put on is upholding a duty to improve myself.

Question #7

What is Divinity? This is your perception of Divinity and how you would express to others what that perception is.

This is the exploration of religious epistemology. If you want to follow the steps of moral philosophers, then another way to phrase Question 7 is, “Is there a God?”

For Question 7, I randomized the cards by distributing them into three card piles, repeating the question, “What is Divinity?” like a mantra as I distributed the cards one by one into those three piles.

I then chose any one of those three piles to start, and I opted for the right-most card pile. And it turns out the significator (Key 0: The Seeker) was in the very first card pile I chose.

The Ivory Shield (Power and Authority of Water). This is the Queen of Cups from the tarot courts. I’m also intrigued by the top-most card in that pile I chose: the Archangel of Healing, which came up earlier for Question 3.

Also, how nuts is it that the three higher-ranked courts from the suit of Chalices (Water) shows up in these #7philosophicalreadings — Archangel of Healing (King of Chalices), The Ivory Shield (Queen of Chalices), and The Shining Dew (Knight of Chalices)? Here for Question 7, the Archangel of Healing is leading the charge again (top-most card in the pile), though the actual answer is The Ivory Shield.

For me at least, this card is a strong, unequivocal message that Divinity exists. I want to share the entire entry for The Ivory Shield (Queen of Chalices) with you, taken from the Little White Book, Vitruvian Edition:

You are shielded against ailments, disease, and infirmity. Malefic energies that can cause malady or emotional afflictions are present in your space, challenging your vitality, and so the Ivory Shield appears in your path to help you preserve your own wellness.

Inscribed around the Queen’s shield: Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me. Her shield features the mmusuyidee, a West African symbol of purification and protection.

When the Queen of Chalices appears, you may be experiencing a dark night of your own soul, an alchemical darkening stage of your life path, and she is here to give you shelter, to accompany you by your side as you make your way out of danger. She is your defender as you walk through the valley of shadows.

Know that she is present. Know that you are not alone in your dark hour.

Okay, but back to the question presented: What is Divinity?

Answer: The Ivory Shield, the Queen of Chalices (Cups).

Divinity for me, then, is what protects and safeguards. It’s the name I invoke for personal superpowers. It is a state of emotional balance, of heightened emotional development.

How would your deck of cards answer these seven philosophical questions for you? Try out the seven readings for yourself and if you’re so inclined, share your reading results. I want to hear what all of you have to say through the interaction with your cards, so please use the hashtag #7philosophicalreadings and comment below with a link.

If you’re using the SKT for #7philosophicalreadings too, then don’t be shy about reading the card entry in the Little White Book, which comes with your deck inside its box. If you’re working with the black and white SKT First Edition, the majority of the Little White Book Vitruvian still applies for you, which you can download here. And of course there’s the Medium White Book.

The Seven Philosophical Questions

  1. The Trolley Dilemma: Divert the course of nature and kill one to save five or let nature take its course and let the five die?
  2. What difficult truth about the human condition are you ignoring?
  3. What does it mean to live a good life?
  4. Where does your self-worth come from?
  5. What had existed before our universe was created?
  6. Are you ethically obligated to improve yourself?
  7. What is Divinity?

18 thoughts on “Seven Philosophical Readings with the Tarot”

    1. Haha that happens to be so often… I have a deck with me in my handbag for months and months, never find myself taking it out to use at the day job, and then.. the ONE DAY there’s a reason to fish it out and do a reading at the office, I decided to take the deck out of my bag the night before. Argh!

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  3. I wanted to do this with your deck but I’m still coloring. I posted this in Instagram (thefoxandthetarot) but thought I would share here too. LOVE this! Going to go through your book and dive deeper into the cards meanings.

    1. The Trolley Dilemma: Divert the course of nature and kill one to save five or let nature take its course and let the five die? Queen of Swords – I would divert the course of nature and kill the one. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” – Spock

    2. What difficult truth about the human condition are you ignoring? Six of Pentacles – to me this is about the karma we are creating in this life time. And yeah my soul has a hard time with why people have to do an eye for an eye.

    3. What does it mean to live a good life? Nine of Pentacles – Oh this is so right on for me – I call this card the Secret garden card. To me this card represents creating something beautiful with a purpose of healing and growth. And it allows for my introvert self to have a place to escape to and do my work that is quiet and peaceful.

    4. Where does your self-worth come from? King of Swords and Page of Cups – Science and philosophy and childlike curiosity of sense of awe. I do pride myself in seeing the big picture and dig knowledge/thoughts/facts and at the same time believe in fairies and magic.

    5. What had existed before our universe was created? Page of Pentacles – Another younger version of the universe

    6. Are you ethically obligated to improve yourself? Two of Wands –You have a choice but if you want to be more you must expand your experiences.

    7. What is Divinity? Empress and 5 of swords- Love and compassion over hatred and conflict.

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  4. Dan R

    Deck & Selection Method

    I used the Thoth deck and utilizing the method in Operation 1 of the OOTK, I opened up the four worlds, then turned over the top card of each pile until I reached the “layer” containing my Significator (Queen of Swords). I then read the 3 cards that were on the same “level” as I was. Admittedly a weird selection process…

    Question #1 – Trolley Dilemma

    Fire: 9 of Disks, Water: Queen of Swords, Air: Prince of Disks, Earth: Hierophant.

    To be honest, I’m not too thrilled by my particular interpretation–three very earthy disk cards surrounding my airy Significator… a lot of slow moving energy. On top of that, the one “action” card (Prince of Disks) is the airy part of earth, elementally inimical to each other. I interpret this as my freezing in the moment (3 earth cards), the result being five people die, then me being at war with myself (Air of Earth Prince OR Earthy Prince conflicting with airy Queen) for not having at least made a conscious decision one way or the other. Like I said, not impressed with what the cards were suggesting.

    Question #2 – What difficult truth about the human conditon am I ignoring?

    Fire: ran out, Water: Fool, Air: ran out, Earth: Queen of Swords

    Since I consider myself a spiritual seeker, the Thoth Queen of Swords can show my attempt to raise my consciousness (clouds=Yetziric plane) above my material nature (severed head). Once again though, in the Earth pile (enemy of Air), I struggle, remaining “in my head” quite a bit (supported by two air cards in this reading). The reason–the truth found in the Fool card that I am ignoring. The Fool wants us to boldly set out on an exciting adventure, full of joy & wonder (Water pile) and take the leap of faith necessary to move forward in life. Unfortunately, I can’t help but focus on the tiger & crocodile, representing my fears. Thus, I ignore the LIVING of life. Again, the truth hurts here in this reading, but it gives me something to contemplate on (but isn’t that an airy thing to do and still staying in my head?).

    Question #3 – What does it mean to live a good life?

    Fire: 8 of Cups, Water: 4 of Cups, Air: 3 of Swords, Earth: Queen of Swords

    OUCH–the hits keep coming… well, here goes. I take the presence of the first two Water cards in these questions to indicate that living a good life is about living our emotions & valuing our relationships. The highest representation of these feelings is, of course, self-giving other centered love. Also, 2 Waters=reflection upon reflection=mirror=self-reflection & contemplation in life. Unfortunately, looks like airy Queen is struggling again in the Earth pile, meaning I am battling on emotional front. Two slow moving water energies here mixed with two Airs = conflicting mind & heart where we get withdrawal/indolence (8C), apathy/disillusionment (4C) and sorrow (3S). ‘Nuff said.

    Question #4 – Where does your self-worth come from?

    Fire: Priestess, Water: Knight(King) of Wands, Air: Queen of Swords, Earth: 5 of Swords

    The first thing I noticed is that, with the exception of the Significator herself (who is in the Air pile), all cards are elementally ill-dignified with respect to their pile. Note that the symbology I’ll be referring to is from the Thoth version of the cards. In the Fire pile, my self-worth comes from success (or not) in my passion to seek hidden answers behind the veil of illusion (maya) where the Priestess resides. I try to ride the camel (letter gimel) out of the material plane (fruit & gems in front of card) to cross the Abyss (Tree of Life path) into spiritual unity (Kether). Unfortunately, Water card in Fire pile = very slow progress (delay with regards to Benebell’s WIND reversal interpretation). In the Water pile, I would like to aspire to the passion & energy of Alexander the Great exploding out of the fire on fearless Bucephalus when it comes to my spiritual “campaign”, but water dampens my efforts. Finally, my self-worth is measured in the binary result of my success or, in this card’s case, defeat in my spiritual pursuits. This card symbology shows matter over spirit, BUT being ill-dignified actually helps in this case, resulting in the realization that setbacks are only temporary and to continue fighting the good fight.

    Queston #5 – What had existed before our Universe was created?

    Fire: Queen of Swords, Water: 3 of Swords, Air: 7 of Swords, Earth: Death

    The airy Queen in the active Fire pile indicates that I’m a little more active & comfortable with this question than others. The airy Sorrow card in the elementally neutral Water pile says to me “Sorry, but you won’t find your answers to this question through the use of intellect & rational logic.” This message is reinforced by the airy Futility (Thoth version) card in the Air pile (it’s futile to try to think your way to an answer of the nature of the Universe pre-creation OR the futility of explaining the Kabbalistic Three Veils of Negative Existence as your pre-creation answer). In the last pile, Watery Death is very comfortable with Earthy foundation. I feel I’m being told “Be practical, don’t worry about pre-Creation. Instead here is your practical message to consider. As Water nourishes Earth, Death nourishes Transition nourishes Unification nourishes Transition nourishes Life nourishes Transition nourishes Death, and so on, and so on.”

    Question #6 – Am I ethically obligated to improve myself?

    Fire: Queen of Swords, Water: Prince of Disks, Air: 2 of Disks, Earth: 9 of Disks

    A repeating pattern from Question #1… 3 Earth cards surrounding my airy Queen (2 of them a repeat of Question #1 also!). So, I choose to focus on the new card, Earthy 2 of Disks (Change in Thoth system) being antithecal in Airy plane of intellect & possible challenges/conflicts. So, quick answer to the question of being ethically obligated to improving oneself is NO (considering the differing directionalities of the energies of Air-up & Earth-down). However, ignore this “obligation” at your own peril. The card itself reinforces the “only constant in this world is change” approach, along with the harmonious yin/yang and endless serpent symbology means improvement, and thus change, is strongly suggested. It’s up to me to exert free will and make the choice.

    Question #7 – What is Divinity?

    Fire: Queen of Swords, Water: Priestess, Air: 5 of Wands, Earth: 8 of Disks

    A nice “light” question to finish things off. Elementally, all cards are comfortable in their respective piles, so I’m going to read them “straight up” with no modifying influences. The Significator says to me “Dan, you can’t think your way to spirituality and Divinity itself, so step off the comfortable intellectual plane and explore elsewhere as well. An answer (not the only one of course) can be seen in the only Major Arcana card in the mini-spread…the Priestess. Divinity in my case might be a path directed to the Divine Feminine part of my nature, which has been long ignored in this material world. On this path I might find spiritual harmony on the middle path between the two pillars in the card. The Priestess is behind the veil of illusory “reality” in the Thoth system (as opposed to in front of the veil in the RWS), so use the Will of your spiritual bow to pierce the veil. How to do this and access Divinity? The Priestess’ meditative pose, closed eyes, endless serpent mask, and moon related symbols all point to going within. FEEL Divinity in the stillness, then bring it outward and EXPRESS Divinity (self-giving other centered love) in the outer world and EXPERIENCE the boomerang effect. The 5 of Wands states that there will be strife & struggle in the spiritual quest, but reminds me that I must compete against these obstacles. The Thoth 8 of Disks (very comparable to the RWS 7 of Pentacles message) called Prudence suggests that I keep sowing my spiritual seeds, nurture them with higher self-inspired, real world actions and be patient. I will reap what I sow.

    Final Thoughts (finally!)

    To use Benebell’s term, I hope I wasn’t overly “woo woo” in my interpretations & answers. That’s what I felt, so that’s what I wrote. While I’m at it, I apologize for the length of the answer. As you can tell, I jumped in with both feet in this exercise. To Benebell, thanks for the exercise and I hope you have more of these in the future. As for me, the experience was, at times, uncomfortable but, ultimately, informative.

    Dan

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    1. Oh, wow I love your reading method though! That’s such a cool one!

      Yikes to some of these hard-hitting truths that glare back at us, no? =P

      It’s also so interesting how a couple of the more analytically-minded rational-based folks who tried this ended up getting “put back in place” (lol) by their own cards with these readings about how life is more about emotions, relationships, etc. That’s so interesting!

      Also re: Question 7, Priestess or the High Priestess card in the Majors came up for many folks who did these 7 readings. Nuts!

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  6. Lauren

    Hi, it’s me again, Lauren. I pulled my cards last night after work (restaurant job/dinner service shift) and had to sleep on it before I could study and interpret my cards. My draw for the first question and the final question make immediate sense to me.

    I’m using the only deck I own – the basic Rider Waite Smith, and reading meanings from Holistic Tarot.

    Question 1: Ace of Cups is true for me because I would choose to take no action and hope divine intervention, luck, angels, divinity or a force of nature would intervene. That’s my reading on the Ace of Cups – overflowing divine luck, chance or nature would take hold. I don’t need to take any action in the first scenario based on my reading of the Ace of Cups in this draw.

    Question 7: Death is absolutely the meaning of Divinity for me. I have ‘Live to walk The Path, Die to see the Light” tattooed on my arm. This is a statement that came into my mind many years ago while pondering the meaning of enlightenment.

    All my other draws are in reverse, which I find very interesting. Only question 1 and question 7 pulled upright. How interesting.

    Question 2: 7 of Pentacles, Reversed. The meaning as written in Holistic Tarot applies directly. I am hesitating / ignoring/ postponing using my gifts and putting myself out there in the world because it’s over very high importance to me to bear fruit and I’m in fear that I won’t. In a sense, I have over invested in my own ‘spiritual growth’ without sowing seed to support my material needs. The difficult truth about the human condition I’m ignoring is that I have to try in order to succeed. I can’t continue to hesitate. My potential and my gifts will be a complete waste if I don’t at least try. Try and fail, try again, try again, finally succeed. It all starts with at least trying.

    Question 3: 4 of Cups, Reversed. The first word that strikes me is Emergence. The meaning as written in Holistic Tarot applies directly. I once had a Shamanic journeying experience that I came away with the insight: Join the living. I often tend to hide out in my introversion. This has been a big issue for me on every level – financially, socially, relationally — so to me what does it mean to live a good life means Emergence, in my interpretation of this card.

    Question 4: Justice, Reversed. Where does my self-worth come from? The meaning of this card is very powerful – I absolutely believe I am the ‘scapegoat’ of my family and have not received a fair shake – but on the other hand everything that has happened to me has happened for me. This is karma. I love this card showing up here. It feels a bit like a bitter truth to swallow but man it leaves a lump in my throat and chills down my side with how much it resonates.

    Question 5: 10 of Wands, Reversed. My interpretation of this card is that to ponder this question too deeply will take me to the brink of sanity. I need to meditate on this a bit. Unsure of this card meaning here.

    Question 6: Judgment, Reversed. This makes a lot of sense to me with my Justice in reverse earlier. My thinking has not always be clear sighted due to having a distorted sense of self-worth and a false narrative due to discrepancies in the story of my family. I need to consider this card draw carefully to find deeper insight.

    I loved this exercise! Thank you for taking me deeper into the Tarot!

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  7. Sarah

    I finally got around to doing these questions (Thank you for this exercise, Bell). I used the Vitruvian edition of the SKT and I used the whole deck but Spirit in Search Of Science as my signifier. I did a one card draw for each question except Question 4–bc I got the Stronghold of the Flame, I picked another card as ‘the message’.

    1. The Erudite (my birth card). I interpret this as meaning yes, I would pull the lever to save 5 even if one died. It would be agony to live with the knowledge that I allowed one to die. The Erudite embodies the Seeker of Wisdom to me.

    2. The Keeper: Spirit in Petition of Spirit.
    Yikes. For me this is embodying Man’s Search for Meaning. Although I don’t feel like I’m ignoring this particular human dilemma, I do feel like I’ve neglected the quest and not given the pursuit honest energy and work.

    3. 9 of Orbs. Venus. Virgo. Earth
    Yikes again. Guilty. I worked hard and I have a fairly comfortable life in retirement. I suspect there’s a warning in this card to not isolate myself too much.

    4. Page of Wands with the message Ace Of Chalices. This feels right on for me. The wands are indicative of the creative artistic impulse (among other things) and the Chalice to me is reinforcing my self worth stemming from my friends and family, as well as my artistic work.

    5. 2 of Wands. The Discerning One. There was a preexisting world. They were energetic, industrious, maybe arrogant and very creative.

    6. 2 of Swords. The Blind Seer. Yes, one is ethically obliged to improve oneself. The struggle is between the Ego and the Spirit. Go inward and be calm to break the stalemate as it is easy to choose Ego.

    7. 7 of Swords: The Rogue. Moon. Aquarius. Well gosh this has got me puzzled. Perhaps my approach to divinity is uncommon. Or do I have an uncommon idea about divinity? I am a skeptic and yet I *feel* there is more than what meets our eye. Is Chaos the Divine?

    Bell thank you again for posing these questions! I have to say that the Vitruvian deck is lovely in the hand—the cards slide beautifully without sticking. The images and rich and the palette mystical and soothing.

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    1. Haha Seven of Swords for “What is Divinity?” Love it! I do think it is revealing what you said about being a skeptic and yet intuiting that there must be more than meets the eye.

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  8. Karen

    The Seven Philosophical Questions

    The Trolley Dilemma: Divert the course of nature and kill one to save five or let nature take its course and let the five die? justice card. I think the 5 are going to die.

    What difficult truth about the human condition are you ignoring? The Hermit. When I try to write commentary I sound like a privileged ass, but I can see this to have validity.

    What does it mean to live a good life? 3 of cups. Friendships, dancing, refreshments, celebrations, yup yup yup

    Where does your self-worth come from?10 of wands. Clearly I value myself only when I am over burdened and stressed out beyond ability to function. I need to work on that.

    What had existed before our universe was created? Queen of Swords. Before the patriarchy there was a different world of feminine energy that relied more on thoughts and ideas than emotions and material goods?

    Are you ethically obligated to improve yourself? Ace of cups. I read this as a no. Each person is on a different path and has free will to create their own ethical journey.

    What is Divinity? I love this answer: 2 of Pentacles. Like the Force in Star Wars movies there is only a constant juggling of the Yin/yang balance,white/dark… there is no good or bad, just what is right now.

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  9. pequena427

    1.) So as I was shuffling the cards, although I tried keeping my mind blank, I already knew I’d opt to kill the one, because what else *could* I do, even if I didn’t like it. ROTFL, I got the Gardener (7 of Orbs) which seems to me to be spot on with the pragmatism involved (Taurus and Saturn) and vague sense of discomfort.
    2.) I first pulled the 8 of Sword/ The Captor for this and was all like, “Whaaaaaat?” I’m pretty sure I’m aware of this truth (abuse of the innocent) because of the fair amount of activism work I do. I chalked this up to trying to do it while in a rush, so later that day I decided to do it again, same method, to clarify the meaning, and got the Magician. I’m inclined to read this as I need to be aware of the Divine spark that resides in us all, victim and oppressor alike. But I’ll probably be ponder this for a little longer.
    3.) So as I mentioned in step 2, time had passed between the first and second draw and much shuffling was done. And I got the 8 of Swords/The Captor again. My interpretation of this is that to lead a good life means to stand up for the innocent who are being taken advantage of. Maybe I need to do *more* activism?
    4.) I pulled the Sharpshooter/8 of scepters here. This felt pretty spot on, especial because of the Air and Fire associations this card has (the two elements I resonate most closely with). I also had a bit of a laugh as it’s another 8.
    5.) I got The Contender/ 5 of Scepters. LOL, I guess whatever it was, it was pretty exciting to watch.
    6.) LOL, I pulled the Chariot. By this point, I was amused (in a pleasant way) about the composite sketch of who I am the cards were creating. Clearly I have Very Specific Thoughts about things, especially when it comes to ethics and just as clearly I am moved to take action.
    7.) I got the Archangel of Mysteries. This actually stopped me in my tracks a bit as I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to get. I found it very comforting actually.

    That was fun 🙂

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  13. Fyr

    i wouldn’t normally share this, but i got some fun results:
    using RWS deck

    1. trolley: 10 of swords reversed
    – i would drift the trolley to hit all six people? hopefully not. as there is one dead person on the card who was intentionally killed, i’d say i’d pull the lever.

    2. difficult truth: the world
    – as i shuffled several cards fell out. i glimpsed 2 cups, 4 cups, put all back and rephrased the question as the one truth i ignore the most and got the world. do i ignore everything as in being human is difficult truth in itself. or something regarding relationship of people to their environment, destruction of environment comes to mind, but that’s something i actually try to live mindfully of. i’ll pull more cards about this

    3. good life: the moon reversed
    – good life is to … have a dog? sink deep into illusions, madness and fears and loose all touch with reality? i would honestly welcome any tips here

    4. self-worth: emperor reversed
    – being able to challenge authority and rigid structures

    5. before universe: knight of pentacles
    – a hardworking guy? then i looked at how he holds the pentacle and looks at the land – maybe a template for this universe

    6. improve yourself: 3 of swords reversed
    – no, but you will be forced to by pain or there will be more pain

    7. divinity: 7 of pentacles reversed
    – the hardworking guy from before universe now hates his job and it’s lousy results 🙂 i can’t find any satisfactory serious interpretation here

    thank you for sharing this interesting exercise

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