Tarot card of the day, The Five of Swords
The First Decan of Aquarius
See the giant figure in the clouds? That’s The Water Carrier, Aquarius. At times the Tarot can be talking entirely literally. I have drawn the Five of Swords reversed twice in a row today, asking for a general advice card for the collective. What’s literal about that, one may ask. Well, we’re in the sun sign territory of the first decan of Aquarius, calendar-wise, and the card that represents this block of time is….The Five of Swords. The dates of the first decan (10 days) of Aquarius are 20 January - 29 January
It’s as if the Tarot is saying, “well, today, and the next few days, is being typical of the first decan of Aquarius.”
Except that today the Five of Swords has been drawn upside down, or reversed.
The Five of Swords upright: stress, tension, conflict, argument, facing a challenge, mortification, embarrassment, conflict, defeat, resilience, recovery from a defeat, or beware hubris/arrogance in a victory with disastrous consequences down the line. Stormy weather. Notice the clouds.
The Five of Swords reversed: passing storms, resolutions and reconciliations. Or resentment and revenge. Recent stresses and conflicts may be drawing to a close, or moving into a new phase, usually for the better but this is not sorted yet. There may be resentment. We need to watch our words, mend fences where this is practicable, minimize damage and review or reinforce our boundaries.
No-one is ever delighted to draw the Five of Swords. Why would they be? But every card has a job to do, and that job is a vital and necessary one. The 78 cards in a Tarot deck have to be able to address anything at all that has ever happened, or can happen in the entirety of the human experience for good and ill.
Clouds
In the UK, we are literally today, experiencing the passing of one storm, and preparing for another one to arrive tomorrow. The zodiac sign of Aquarius is named after the constellation of Aquarius, The Water-Bearer. Aquarius is an air sign and its quality is Fixed, denoting the height or depth of winter. rather than Cardinal or Mutable. Why is Aquarius an air sign and not a water sign? Air carries water. Clouds carry water. The water of Aquarius is airborne.
To the ancient Mesopotamians this time of year, Aquarius was known as 'the curse of rain,' and meant the very real and present risk of potentially devastating floods, especially as this was liable to coincide with the time of snow melt in the mountains way upriver.
The world's great flood myths (of which there are many) are thought to come from the real life story of the worst that Aquarius season can do, as seen from the human point of view at least, from Sumeria and Gilgamesh, to ancient Greece, the story of Deucalion, and the Old Testament and Noah's Ark.
Aquarius now also stands for space exploration and travel. Our spacecraft are the new Arks, if only for exploration and not rescue. Earth is our one true home. If we ever leave for good, then give it time, we won't be human any more. WE will become "The Greys.”
"If you can see a thing whole ... it seems that it's always beautiful. Planets, lives.... But close up, a world's all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life's a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern. You need a distance, interval. The way to see how beautiful the earth is, is to see it as the moon. The way to see how beautiful life is, is from the vantage point of death." - Ursula Le Guin
Aquarius is embodied in The Star card, as illustrated below in The Gilded Tarot.
Stars are born and stars die. The stars shine out all together, and yet alone. This is the star of Mankind, meaning Humankind, the species. The animal that is MAN. All of us.
The Star
Bridging water, land and sky
Cloudy, cool Aquarian eye
Reasons, gauges.
Rain assuages
Pours, refills an empty jar
Learning, thirsty, leads us far
But Hope outshines all other stars.
-Katie-Ellen Hazeldine
Photo by cottonbro studio on http://Pexels.com
The message of the Five of Swords is to go high, zoom out, examine, evaluate or re-examine our strategies for handling stress or conflict. Neither using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, nor accepting disrespect, allowing others to trespass on our goodwill.
How may the Five of Swords apply closer to home right now?
Thank you for reading.
Back soon.