I’ve never seen a reading with so many swords that makes me feel so happy. Sure, we have two obvious cards in play - the King of Swords and the Two - but look closely at the Wheel of Fortune and you’ll notice another sword jauntily propped against a sphinx’s shoulder. That’s four total! Our week is full of insight and sharpness, dear readers, and it’s coming from many sources.
We begin on an empowering note: The King of Swords shows us approaching life with hard-earned wisdom and confidence. You may remember that our monthly reading features the Knight of Swords as our opportunity card. Think of ways you’ve been practicing your communication, advocacy, and research skills this month. How have you grown? And, most importantly, in what ways are you ready for a promotion?
I like to look at court cards as personas or attributes we can adopt in our external lives. Having practiced the “skills of the sword” throughout September, we’re now reaching a level of mastery, moving from knight to king. Yes, I said mastery. This is a time to be bold and view your achievements with pride. No mincing words - we’ve been doing hard work! It’s important to give ourselves credit, especially so that we can trust ourselves as we approach some complex and meaningful decisions.
As I look at the King of Swords this week, I’m feeling the need to recenter around agency and self-leadership. You’ll notice that all the swords court cards features clouds in the background. These characters are not afraid of conflict, difficulty, or confusion. In fact, they’ve learned to use their skills to the best of their ability to navigate a changing and challenging world. They don’t wait for clear skies or even expect them, they simply cut a path forward and work with what’s there.
We may feel a sense of trepidation or unease when it comes to stepping onto the throne of the King of Swords this week. Surely we need to train more? Do more research? Let someone else do it? But there’s no one better suited for the job than you, and this week holds some supportive surprises when it comes to charting a path forward and moving beyond powerful blocks.
I’m talking about the Two of Swords, a card that’s reclaiming its spot from last week in the center of our spread. Is this exciting? Frustrating? Both? The Two of Swords is a card where simple decisions can hold a great deal of mystery. If you’re not clear on what this card is holding for you, think of areas of your life that have felt surprisingly difficult: decisions you’ve held off making for months; simple questions about your next steps that stymie you; problems with multiple, confusions solutions.
I’m quite enamored with the pair of cards that flank our mysterious, frustrating Two of Swords. Yes, we have the King showing us to be bold, assertive, and decisive, but we also have the Wheel of Fortune reminding us that chance, luck, and change always have a hand in our futures. I’m feeling this pair as a wholesome and delightful partnership. This week we’re stepping into the role of the King of Swords - becoming wise and decisive leaders in our own lives - and remaining receptive to the changes happening around us. It’s likely that some shift outside our control will arise later in the week, making our path forward clear. When we form an alliance between our personal agency and chance, we can propel ourselves out of stasis and into something glorious and new.
I don’t usually offer a prescriptive way to engage with the cards, but here’s one you can use if you feel called to since this array is so straightforward and pithy!
Use the beginning of the week to get right with yourself and step onto the throne of the King of Swords. What have you learned? How strong are you now? What information have you been gathering? Trust in your wisdom and powers of discernment. Write out a plan. Get clear on what you want. Then… wait.
A choice or issue will reappear in the middle of the week. It might be a repeat from last week and, as such, could feel annoying and repetitive. Haven’t we been holding these two swords before? But something’s different! We have the sword of will that we’ve been practicing with through the King of Swords, but we’re still waiting on new information. So practice patience and curiosity and hold the course. It’s not time to make a decision just yet, but it is time to go inward and get aligned with yourself spiritually and emotionally.
At the end of the week the Wheel of Fortune takes a spin. It might be big, it might be subtle, but hidden amidst the change is the final sword we’ve been waiting for. Use this insight to fuel the plans you’ve set with the King of Swords earlier in the week, but be open to pivots and edits. The Wheel of Fortune is a powerful card and when we step into its energy - working with change instead of fighting with it (or arguing with it!) - we give ourselves powerful fuel to propel us to a place of meaningful growth.
A final aspect of our reading I’d like to note is that there are four swords present in our spread. Last week we ended with the fourth card in the Major Arcana sequence, The Emperor. That card was ponderous and heavy, showing us preoccupied and even limited by questions of order and stability. Our time spent wrestling with this card was fruitful, however, and this week we’re thinking for ourselves, using our swords skills to write, choose, and enact what order and stability really means to us. It’s a work in progress - we’re writing the rules as we go - but the words come from us and are helping create and maintain a life with boundaries that uphold what really matters.
This week embrace:
self-leadership, pride in your accomplishments, trust in your ability to discern and decide
complexity, multiple possibilities, and conflict as facts of life - parts of the scenery, not insurmountable obstacles
taking time to reconnect with a question, choice, or crossroads
signals from your intuition - dreamwork, meditation, spiritual practices can yield some powerful insights this week!
the exhilaration of change!
This week avoid:
prescriptive ideas of what life “should” look like (aka lingering after-effects of The Emperor from last week)
waiting to be ready, perfect, or unimpeachable
zero-sum thinking, naïveté, bashfulness
fighting change, turning away opportunities, refusing to let in outside input
I love how your readings always align with the ones I do for myself - I've been pulling the wheel a ton the past couple months!
My bunny and I really enjoy listening to the audio script of these. Thank you for the reading. These really help give clarity to the craziness that’s been August and September