Cards of the Day
Full disclosure, I was really dissatisfied with today’s tarot card pulls, but after sitting with it for a little while, as much as I hated it, I realised that today’s cards were a timely reminder and a warning.
Today I pulled a reversed Nine of Swords, followed much later by the King of Pentacles, also reversed. The first is a card of hope (that is the reading I am going with), while the second is a card against getting greedy. Let me explain.
Nine of Swords, reversed
Depending on who you ask, the Nine of Swords often depicts being caught in a nightmare. On the face of this card (especially the deck I have here), the person has woken up from a horrible nightmare, crying with fear. The normal reading of this card is that the querent is trapped in a nightmare or is haunted by a trauma that keeps waking them.
Reversed though, there’s two ways to read it. One can read it as waking up from the nightmare — if you’ve been jolted awake, the fear and anxiety that gripped you in that nightmare is still present, but there’s a sense of the nightmare receding, that the worst is over. At the very least, one is safe and comforted; the blanket covered in roses and zodiac symbols highlight hidden support. This is the hopeful, optimistic reading, but there’s a catch; you still need to actually work to overcome the nightmare/anxiety that has you in its grip.
The other way to read this is one of greater despair, that the nightmare/fear has you deep in its grip and you are falling ever deeper. I chose not to read it this way, because that felt a lot like giving up, and I want people to keep going. Or rather, I want to keep myself going, because there’s so many things I want to do, and even if I do not have the resources to do them now, I can aim to achieve them in the future. It’s just my impatience that makes me feel like taking shortcuts to get to the dopamine hit, but the more I work to it, the better the sweet payoff will be.
(And now that I am writing about that, it makes me question how I celebrate things, but that is a separate issue and not part of today’s entry.)
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So, that means so far Nine of Swords (reversed) is a pretty good and optimistic card, right? Why would I be dissatisfied? Well, that’s because yours truly had itchy fingers and decided to pull a second card.
King of Pentacles, reversed
Generally, the King of Pentacles is seen as a great card. Upright, that is. He represents doing the hard work to achieve success, and being able to provide for those who depend on him. This is a card about recognising your successes and the steady work taken to achieve them.
Reversed though, the King of Pentacles is a warning. No longer is he the man who gives generously because he has the resources and power to do so; he has lost his power and his kingdom due to mismanagement and greed. And that was the keyword that jumped out to me this morning.
Greed.
A reversed King of Pentacles is about a man who has lost his grip on a prosperous kingdom, falling from grace due to indulgence, mismanagement, and greed. And unlike other cards, there’s only negative attached to the King of Pentacles when it’s inverted.
Reversed King of Pentacles and Nine of Swords
Taken together, I chose to read this as “Just because the nightmare is ending, does not mean you can let down your guard and go easy on the throttle.” In fact, I view it as a much-needed reminder, that there is still a long way to go, there is still much that I need to do.
So while I can and should celebrate the small victories, I must not allow myself to grow complacent. My journey isn’t over by a long shot, so I should proceed according to my plans. Circumstances are no longer as dire as they once were, but neither are they set in stone.
So I shall continue fighting and working through this nightmare that keeps me up at night.
How would YOU read these two cards?
