Weekly Forecast: September 10-16
What does it look like when we take care of ourselves? Lately, it seems like elaborate baths filled with fancy oils and crystals are all the rage. Or maybe a profound meditation practice? A walk outside? Yet sometimes caring for ourselves diverges from the popular and palatable (and photographable) practices du jour. The Star shows us mulling all this over at the beginning of the week, seeking ways to connect to our source that are deeply personal and, relievingly, private.
An introspective and rejuvenating card, The Star is inviting us to fall gently into the core of ourselves. Only when we're there can we ask, "What do I truly need right now?" If that's mindfully bathing with your quartz crystals, go for it! If it's more like reading Science-Fiction novels and eating beef jerky or listening to music while staring at the ceiling or drawing autobiographical comics, that's exactly what you should do.The Star invites us to lean into our unique desires and celebrate them, to follow our feelings with the goal of offering ourselves the care and kindness we often reserve for others.
So what happens when we dive into our inner sanctum and give ourselves space to nurture ourselves? We just feel amazing, right?? The remaining cards for this week tune us into a different, more complex reality.
Sometimes when we give ourselves space to relax it also makes room for more difficult emotions to emerge. Caring for ourselves means honoring the entirety of our emotional experiences, even those that are difficult and distressing. In our case, this week is all about the Ten of Swords, a spiky, bittersweet, and challenging card, to say the least. It looks like we're settling into an important truth about ourselves that, although beautiful and necessary for our growth, also requires us to shut a door on something in our lives.
The Ten of Swords represents the end of a cycle, the final chapter of the "story of Swords." With this suit we're dealing with the many ins-and-outs of our thoughts: their power to shape the world around us and their ability to reverberate outwards through the ways we communicate them. In the ten, we've reached the end of a difficult journey. It's time to shed some old ideas about ourselves, particularly the one's that have held us back or wounded us. If there's anything helpful about the the Ten of Swords, it's that these issues are obvious and unavoidable. In other words, we know exactly what is causing us pain and exhaustion.
Why might this be bittersweet? Whether we've inherited these ideas, picked them up from relationships, or absorbed them from the culture around us, we're familiar and attached to them. Maybe we feel like we're abandoning part of our upbringing by saying no to these patterns, betraying an idea that's been so important to us, or walking away from a relationship that has seen us through so much. The Star reminds us to tend to ourselves - to feel our feelings and let them flow through us - while prioritizing what rejuvenates us over what weighs us down.
Our final card, the Four of Cups, offers an important clue. In addition to feeling attached to these cutting sword thoughts and experiences, we may also be using them as a distraction from our calling. A classic card of ennui and dissatisfaction, the Four of Cups appears in an almost comic position after the Ten of Swords. After all the processing and suffering and over thinking there's... boredom? We may be making things too complicated for ourselves in an effort to avoid getting down to the exciting and vulnerable business of being ourselves.
This is an affirming card because it shows us that we've already grown beyond the Ten of Swords. Once we say our final goodbye we might be surprised to vault into a different state of being. It may be so uncharacteristically pleasant and calm that we feel wary. Hence the Four of Cups. Where we're expecting drama and deep, slogging emotional work we're instead finding peace. And for a second, it feels empty and strange.
The Four of Cups is an important reminder that embodying The Star - filling our cups with what regenerates and sustains us - feels good. And when we're used to feeling "bad," struggling through choices and decisions, we get suspicious when things are easy. This week is a time to replace that thinking, equating deep satisfaction and the magic of natural focus with progress, instead of immense effort and tough going.