The cards always tell the truth. It’s just that sometimes the reader has a hard time discerning what that truth is. Or as in the past two years, a hard time accepting the truth they see.
My Divination for 2020 had the cards to show what was coming, but I didn’t have the context to see it – I couldn’t imagine things would get as bad as they got.
I promised myself – and all of you – that I wouldn’t make the same mistake in 2021. When the Ten of Swords showed up I said “This is the third card that repeats from last year’s reading. I minimized it then – I won’t do that again.”
The main theme in last year’s reading was “much of 2020 will continue.” That certainly happened. The Wheel of Fortune and its randomness were in the central “heart of the matter” position, and the Ten of Swords and its pain were in “the final outcome.” That wasn’t a positive reading. I tried to put a positive spin on it, encouraging people to “take steps to change course and create a different future.”
Divination works best when it’s specific and focused. Readings for a wide community for a whole year are necessarily vague. But this was my reading, and I paid attention. I took a few different steps and I created a slightly better future: 2021 was a better year than 2020 – though still far from a good year. Could I have done better with more and different countermeasures? Perhaps. That’s something to keep in mind for 2022.
This is one of the reasons I advise everyone to keep records of your divinations. You can go back and see what you got right and what you missed, and learn to read better next time. But also, you can see what you did to strengthen or mitigate the future you saw coming. Divination shows what will be, not what must be.
So with 2021 in the rear view mirror, let’s take a look at 2022.
As always, my question for the cards was “what does the new year hold for me and mine?” The closer you are to me, the more this applies to you. If you do ritual with me in my back yard, it’s very relevant to you. If you follow a Pagan polytheist path like me, it applies a fair amount. If you’re a casual blog reader, less so. But the fact that you’re reading this post means there’s some connection between you and me, so I would not recommend dismissing it as irrelevant.
I’m reading with the Celtic Tarot, which seems to speak to me better than any other deck. I’m using the Celtic Cross spread, because it’s the best I’ve found for broad readings such as this.
The first thing that stands out is that there are two cards repeated from last year’s readings. And guess what – both of them were also in the 2020 reading.
The Six of Shields moved from “what is coming” in 2020 to “what is passing” in 2021 to “the heart of the matter” in 2022. This is a card of giving, and especially in this deck, a card of balanced giving. This is giving what you can, not giving till it hurts.
It’s supported by the Page of Shields, which is in the “in the far past” position, though I think its position in the Celtic Cross is of minimal importance here. What I see is the Page meditating on her shield, which forms a foundation for the person in the Six of Shields to aid those who need it.
The other card repeated in all three readings is the dreaded Ten of Swords. It went from “you as you see yourself” in 2020 (who among us didn’t feel like the Ten of Swords many times in 2020?) to “the final outcome” in 2021, which I called a painful ending that could be avoided with proper action. This year it’s in the “major influence” position.
I learned my lesson in 2020 – I’m not going to sugar coat this card. But as I read it here, it’s important to see the whole card. A bad situation, defeat, severe injury… but also the beginnings of a sunrise. There is hope in this card. Not “it’s going to be OK” hope but rather “you can get through this even though it hurts like hell” hope.
The Six of Cauldrons in the “what you seek” position is pretty clear. After everything we’ve been through in the past couple of years, we just want some nice pretty flowers. In his guidebook to the Celtic Tarot, Kristoffer Hughes calls this the nostalgia card. It’s a nice thought, but it’s not happening.
The core of this reading is in the Page of Shields, the Six of Shields, and the Ten of Swords. Deep spiritual practice, giving (especially the kind of giving that allows people to build their own security) in an environment that’s going to look and feel an awful lot like the past two years.
So, what do we do about it? The Knight of Swords in the “what is passing” position says it’s time to stop fighting foolhardy battles. The Eight of Cauldrons in the “what is coming” position says it’s time to move on. I call this card “I like it here – why do I have to leave?” We may not like where we are here at the beginning of 2022, but at least it’s familiar. At least it’s predictable. Something new could be worse.
Or it could be the rocky path to something deeper and more meaningful.
The Seven of Swords is in the “you as you see yourself” position. In 2019 I wrote a meditation on this card (I’ve got to quit titling blog posts “meditations” – no one reads them) where I said that while I cannot defend the ethics of espionage, it happens, and those who don’t do it are at a disadvantage to those who do.
Stop charging into battle like a knight on a dragon. Move on to something deeper, something more spiritual, something more magical. There is work that needs to be done that’s dirty, but necessary.
No one goes to the witch who lives deep in the forest if they have other options. Witches do what is necessary, even when it isn’t all pretty and clean and legal. What kind of witch do you want to be?
The final three cards are brighter… quite literally. The Three of Wands speaks of opportunity and the need for action. I’ll have more to say about opportunity in next Tuesday’s blog post. The Nine of Wands reflects the fear of further injury, but also the confidence that such injuries will not be fatal. And the final outcome is the Ace of Wands: the essence of inspiration and new beginnings. Great good can come from this year, but we have to make it through this year first.
You may have noticed that there are no major arcana in this reading. That’s unusual, though not extraordinary (the odds are 36 to 1). When I have a reading with no major arcana in it, that typically means that it deals with the small stuff and with ordinary effort.
What we accomplish in 2022 will not be done with flash and dramatics. There will be no grand revelations, no return to the past, no deus ex machina deliverance. It will be done with quiet spiritual practice, with a commitment to deeper things, and by doing the kind of things that require careful planning and stealth.
After the last two years, I’ll take it.
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