Often you know the answers, but still you need to hear it

Saw a girl the other day,  well not a girl,  she came to me on her 35th birthday, bringing two best friends to listen on the reading.

She asked about a man she had been dating for two years and drew
2 cups R,  5 of swords,  7 of swords

And I looked at her sorrowfully and said,  oh honey,  he's not good for you.   He is not returning your affections,  your love card is reversed and then you have both the betrayal cards,  he is stealing your swords and making you feel bad about yourself,  and misbehaving towards you.

Her friends looked at her triumphantly,  apparently I had passed the test.   Then she told me she had just broken up with him but she should have done it two years ago.  When they first started dating she had hoped he would be 'the one'.  But when the conversation moved to exclusivity he refused and she let him.   No wonder there were all those swords.   He was never 'unfaithful' because he never promised fidelity but that is such a slippery argument.  She agreed that she should have broken up with him there and then,  but somehow stayed in the relationship for another two years before realizing it was going no where.   We discussed setting better boundaries and listening to people's words, especially if their actions follow suite! If they tell you they are not ready or willing to have an exclusive relationship,  and you want one,  you have to realize that you are not going to get one with them.

She said she knew everything I had just told her,  and I said 'yes,  and then a stranger with 78 pieces of cardboard could tell you it,  without knowing a thing about you!  Next time listen to yourself better.'  She sighed ruefully and promised she would try.  She said she felt affirmed in her decision to stop seeing him. Sometimes we want something so badly,  we lose sight of what we are compromising in order to hold on to it.

Lots of 7’s

In case you’ve just dropped into the blog, earlier I went through each individual card (you can look them up by typing the card name in the top left hand corner next to the B - or just starting at the very beginning of the blog and wandering through) Now that I’ve gone through the suits, I am going through the numbers. What does it mean if you draw lots of sevens in your reading?


Seven links with the Chariot in the Major Arcana, a card of will power and drive.


Seven is a powerful number in our lives, forever linked with the seven days of the week and the famous phrase ‘on the seventh day God rested’ – meaning seven is a natural number of stopping and thinking, work and evaluation, introspection and contemplation.


In tarot, the 7 of pentacles is literally thinking about the fruits of your labor, the 7 of cups is having too much choice, not knowing what to think, the 7 of swords is betrayal, someone stealing your capacity to think, and the 7 of wands is the struggle to find your voice, to defend your thoughts to the world. If you draw many 7’s in a reading, the cards are telling you to stop, watch your choices, think very clearly about the matters at hand.



I can't always credit the images, I don't always know where they came from but when I do know, I always try to acknowledge the artist.
The image of the Chariot is by Joe Bandel
The beautiful cloud photo was taken by Angela Craggs
And the lovely last image is by Michael Devine
I don't know where the first image came from, if you do, please let me know...

Seven of Swords

These are the difficult cards in the tarot – not difficult to read, their meaning is clear, but difficult to bear. Here, someone is sneaking in and stealing swords. However, two swords remain, you are not defenseless and possibly you didn’t really need all 7 of those swords, so perhaps with hindsight, you can see that it wasn’t all bad. But in the moment, you feel the searing heat of loss but worse than loss, the sense that that things were purposefully/maliciously taken from you. You will feel betrayed or deceived.

Of course, you may be the one stealing the swords. You may think it’s just office politics, or how things are done, but you may need to look at your own actions – are you betraying someone? Are you acting in bad faith/taking things that you shouldn’t? Sneaking off? Shirking responsibility?

The Inner Child cards read this quite differently… there you are, trapped into being the good one, staying indoors, doing your work, looking longingly at the world outside. Lots of people relate to that image really strongly.