Tarot For Tough Times: From Rage to Clarity

We move from rage to clarity with a five-card tarot spread aimed at collective guidance and grounded action. Emotions are honored, choices are sharpened, and the understanding of what gifts, roles, or ways we can each be of service is brought into focus. 

Main themes:

• Queen of Cups as emotional regulation, intuition as a way to nurture, and honoring all the feelings in the body
• Two of Wands as a way to come to the crossroads, and channel what we intuitively need each day
• Wheel of Fortune as spiritual migration and civic participation
• Sun as illumination of harm, the beauty in the details, and a new day coming
• Eight of Pentacles as intimacy in doing the work, bringing our human art and compassion to the world each day

Check out my Instagram so you can come back to these cards and just take this reading as you need!

Links:

My links

Background track is Slowly, like an Aching by Jay Taylor

Chapters

• 1:32 Naming The Fear And The Purpose
• 2:57 Tools Over Promotion
• 5:08 How This Collective Spread Works
• 7:25 Boundaries, Possibilities, And Consent
• 9:45 Posting The Spread And Access
• 11:39 Shuffling With Collective Intent
• 13:30 Queen Of Cups: Holding The Flood
• 17:26 Two Of Wands: Channel The Charge
• 20:54 Wheel Of Fortune: Join The Turning
• 24:49 The Sun: Illuminate Pain And Paths
• 27:50 Eight Of Pentacles: Do The Work
• 32:01 Closing Reflections And Resources

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:46

Hello there, my dear ones. I know right now things seem crazy and horrible, fearful, and they are. I am not here to diminish how you feel in any way because I am feeling that exact same way with my country. The United States has become an incredibly hard place to live in. The realities are really hard to bear. And it feels weird as a content creator, as a tarot reader, as a witch, as a practitioner of these crafts, to come on here and try to promote some of these things, even though I do fully believe that these tools are exactly needed in times like this, the idea of promoting and of marketing feels off. It feels out of alignment. It feels weird to come on here and try to engage with some of these things the way I would normally do when the reality wasn't so dark and dim. But this is where we are at. But more than anything, because I do believe that these tools are exactly appropriate to use in times like this, what I'm gonna be doing today is pulling a spread. We are gonna be pulling a spread together. I have written the spread and I will be posting the cards that are pulled with the spread positions on my Instagram. So if you would like to go over to my Instagram and follow, I will have that there so that you can then use the spread for yourself. What I want to gain out of this is not a sense of marketing or promotion, but guidance and clarity. As I mentioned in my introduction video, that is exactly what the tarot gave me, and it still gives me to this day. When I am struggling with any sort of situation or reality or truth, personal, political, collective, whatever it is, I always come back to my tools. I lean on these just as the way I did 10 years ago. In fact, I probably lean on them more now than I did when I was first learning because I know the power that they have to hold me in a place of witness, of care, of reflection, and coming home to that wild spirit within. That place that no matter what is happening in the external world, when I connect to this place, this place within me, it is the truest form of coming home. This space within me and in you is a space that nothing can touch. When I connect to this place within, even when I am coming with my baggage and my pain and my hurt, I find this place softens me. This wilderness, this ecosystem within each of us is where we can bring all of our bullshit and still be welcomed and loved. It is a part of ourselves that is so connected to the most intimate parts, not only of ourself, but of this wild living world, that whenever I connect to this in a reading for myself or when I am engaging in a reading with a client, I always focus on this space within. I always focus on how do we connect and start here and then shift into the external. But before I go and start pulling a bunch of cards from my deck, I want to just highlight a few things. First and foremost, I am not a predictive reader, so I am not saying that the cards that come forward, whichever ones they are, will absolutely happen. What I am saying is these are potentials, these are possibilities. Looking into a mirror of reflection, these are things to consider. If at any point I say something that fully resonates, please lean in with me. If I say something that doesn't resonate, leave it where it is. It's totally okay to do that. I am also going to be using my hush tarot today. The way that I pull or decide which decks that I work with is on my shelf, I have them all alphabetized and laid out in their boxes, and then each day that I go to use a tarot deck, I just go down the line, and now we are working with the hush tarot. And I have to say, this one is one of my personal favorites, and you will see why when I pull the cards. The next thing that I will say is as I just mentioned, this will be up on my Instagram. I will put it in my stories, in my highlights, and as a post because I want you to be able to go to any spot on my social media and take the spread and use it again if you need to next week, next month, tomorrow, whenever and wherever you need to take this spread, you will have it. And if you want to come back to the cards that were uh pulled and chosen here, you will also be able to reflect on those cards so you do not have to do any sort of memorization. The final thing that I'm gonna say is that I'm going to be taking the audio from this video and uploading that as my podcast episode. There will be no blog post accompanying this because I think being on two different platforms is plenty. Being on YouTube and then being available in audio format, I think is enough for us. And then again, having those sprinklings of social media references in there, that's plenty. So let's just start pulling and shuffling these cards. So, insight into the spread that I wrote quickly for this video. I really wanted to highlight things that we need to hear energies around the situations that we're going through. And to be clear, I you can definitely take this and apply this to a more personal situation, but I am definitely pulling in a more collective landscape right now with how horrific things are just with this administration in Minneapolis, with the way that things are progressing. I really want to use this spread to highlight how we as a collective can use this guidance and this clarity to our wants and needs so that we can help make sense and then make change in this situation. And I wrote this spread thinking with those things in mind. So, as you will see when we start to do the pulling, that that is what my focus is with this reading. So let's give these a few more shuffles, and then I will pull five cards over. This is a five card spread, and then we will start pulling them over and see what cards come and see what cards come forward. One more key breathing. Always. This is possibilities that may come if we take this spread and align it and use it and do whatever else we need to. What possibilities may come through from this situation? At the very top, a message that we need to hear. A message you could take this from the divine, from a deity, from your ancestors. Whoever speaks to you, this is a message that is coming through and forward. And then finally, something to support us. As we are engaging in all of this, what is something that is here that we should be leaning into for support? All right, starting off with our situation card, and I will do a shot, like a you know, a top-down shot at the end, so you can see all of them individually. But our situation card is the Queen of Cups, and I feel this is in perfect alignment with the situation. Right now, there is such a primal visceral rage that we are feeling with the injustices that this administration is causing. The fact that they are completely disregarding the law, the fact that there seems to be no consequences for their actions brings up that rage. And it brings up this deep, deep pain. It brings up this sense of we need to not only protect and fight for what is right, what is good, what is true. It brings up this awareness, especially for those of us like me who have privilege. We're starting to see the emotional undercurrent that has been here with us in the evolution of our communities, of our societies, of our very country. We are starting to tap into this emotional undercurrent, maybe for the first time. Maybe for the first time, and that is something that people like me need to sit with. We are also recognizing this rage because it's not even about political opinions, it's about what's right, it's about morality, it's about humanity, and no one in the entirety of the tarot is going to connect us more to our spectrum of emotions than the Queen of Cups. No one is going to engage us more fully in a sense of intuitive knowing, in a sense of the ripple effect of some of our emotions. I know for me, I am definitely feeling that with how much I was told by certain people, by certain news outlets, by you know, certain media things, like from all places, all walks of life, I was told, and we were all told, we were overreacting. That this was never gonna come to pass, it wasn't gonna happen, that's not right, that's not true, and our deepest intuition knew that was a bunch of bullshit. And now we are here, and that wellspring of all the emotions with the Queen of Cups, it is all the emotions. There is also a sense of intuition, of ritual, of the deepest form of compassion that we can hold, and we are seeing that right now as well. But with the cups being double water, queens are all based in water, they start in water, which means in that emotional, intuitive, liminal flow state. But here we have double cups because we have the queen and then we have the suit of cups. All those emotions are coming to the surface, and I think it's high time that those emotions, as hard as it is, because with the queen of cups, the shadow side of it is that we can just feel so pulled. We're we're angry, we're sad, we're joyful in this spot, we're scared, you know, we're numb, we're we're so many things. And that's what the Queen of Cups reminds us is that we are feeling, we are we are feeling a situation on every level, and with that comes varying emotions. So a way that we can regulate the situation of just this collective rage, this collective wellspring of fear, of anger, of love for our neighbors, and love for what is good and right, and this rage at just what is happening in this situation is figure out a way, and we will get to that with this card. What can support us? How we can manage that that push-pull, that pendulum, that flow of emotions that can feel very overwhelming is to not try to diminish the emotion. The Queen of Cups never teaches us that we should diminish our emotions, but where do we apply them correctly? Where do we cathartically release them? Where do we channel them? And that's where the intuition of the Queen of Cups comes in, that we recognize that with rage or anger or fear, we may need to step into the body and get a little bit out of head and heart. I know for me, yoga is the best way to do this, or going on a hike or being in nature, kind of getting out of my processing centers helps me actually process it when things feel too much. The queen also recognizes where can we channel this? Where can we apply ourselves to the task? Also, where can we cathartically release? Do we need to go to a rage room? Do we need to go sit with our community? You know, we need to find the ways and the places for our emotions to be as regulated and as supported as possible. So let's move right into something that's here to support us. And we have the Two of Wands. And I love that here we have it as a lightning rod. You can easily see why this deck is quickly one of my favorites. But the lightning rod represents this channeling of energy, this potential of energy that may come, it may not. We are at the crossroads with the Two of Wands. Wands is all about our spirit, and two is all about us and them. Might be us and another person, it might be us in this situation, which here it is, is because this is the card that supports us in this situation. But with this card, we are at the crossroads, and this beautiful little bird represents this higher knowing, this bird's eye view, this need to kind of see the situation for what it is. And then when the lightning strike within us happens, again within the spirit, we channel it into a sense of purpose and direction. So, especially because we pulled this card that is so emotional, Queen of Cups, we now say, how do we channel those emotions even more? Channeling them into recognizing where we can use the power of our dollar, the power of our energy, the power of our focus, the power of our voice of our community. Where do we start to channel all of this into something that serves? I'm not saying that we can never go online and just vent to the internet. We all do that. It's part of the package deal of being on social media. But this card, especially with the Queen of Cups coming in as our situation card, tells us what are we feeling and how do we channel that. And maybe the channeling is getting off of social media, recognizing that it is no longer of service, it is just fueling those other emotions that keep us stuck in the cycle, just that kind of constant doom scroll, and we just can't get out of the feedback loop. The beautiful thing about the Two of Wands is that it is a reminder that at any given moment, the way we channel at that crossroads, the direction that we choose is going to be different from one day to the next. We are not going to be the same every day. And this card reminds us that at different points in time, we actually need to be doing different things. So on the days where we are just raging, we are so angry, we are just seeing fucking red, then maybe we need to go and remove ourselves from social media at that crossroads. We don't choose social media, we choose going outside. I know it's cold as hell right now. I mean, I know that. Or maybe it's going out for a coffee with a friend and really just kind of finding ways to just get out of that rage space by being with like-minded people, by being with community, being with the people who love us the most. Maybe that's what we need to do. When we're feeling really called to do something to the collective, to help the collective, where can I be of service? The two of wands says that today is the day that maybe I donate. Today is the day that maybe I go and use my time a little bit, maybe I educate myself a little bit. When we are in a space of really feeling those emotions, as I've been saying, the two of wands comes in and says, Well, today, how do we channel this into a new potential? And a potential that serves. Even if the potential is just getting all of that rage out by going outside and screaming, I don't care that that's what it is, that ultimately serves. And that's what we want to be focusing on is how do we take those emotions and then each day apply them like this lightning rod into a channeling, into a decision made, into a focal point that goes from possibility into action. So let's talk about what we can do. And here we have the Wheel of Fortune with my most favorite depiction of the Wheel of Fortune with this little sweet ant on the sleeve, and he's looking up at this flower overhead. I could not ask for a better card to come forward for what we can do. The Wheel of Fortune is truly one of my favorite cards because to me, this speaks to not only change, but spiritual migration. And it might be really hard to see the forest for the trees right now. And I'm not trying to love and light what is happening. Please understand. That what is happening is horrific. It is awful. It is unnecessary. It is doing nothing. But one thing that it is doing, one thing that it is doing is highlighting that because that this is so not normal, this is so horrific and cruel, and again, just not serving any other point than the cruelty, than the violence, that it doesn't have to be this way. It really doesn't. So what we can do is step into this in whatever way we can. Step into it to not turn away from it. Now I'm not saying that we don't take breaks or take rests, that we don't let this consume our whole lives. We still have to live. When we are going out in the world, there are still things to laugh at. There are still moments to be grateful for. There is still beauty to be had. And we see that with this ant looking up at all of these beautiful flowers, there are still things that are just good and true. And some days we do just need to take a rest. And that's where the Two of Wands is here to support us and reminding us that today's maybe the day where this at this crossroads, I choose rest. I choose to not engage, I choose to not step into this space. I just need time to shore up my energy so that when I do step into this space, I am of service. But the wheel of fortune says in this space of spiritual migration, that even when we are taking a rest, that we don't turn away. We are part of this world. And the wheel of fortune also reminds us that what happens in any way in a political space happens in a personal space. In any way, what happens in an individual space happens in an interconnective. This is very much of this is very much, excuse me, an as above so below card. When we are working with the Wheel of Fortune, we have to recognize that we are part of this. Whether that's our community, whether that's any form of change we can and wish to make from a vision that we hold, we don't exist in a vacuum. We don't exist isolated and alone, even if that thing is just simply social media, things affect us. And the wheel says, How do we use this, these changing tides? And how do we take this movement and again use it in a way that serves? How do we use and seize on this moment and be part of it in whatever way we can be? Not everyone's gonna be able to protest, not everyone's gonna be able to donate right now because before all of these things were happening, people were struggling. So it may not be donation, it may not be protesting, but it may be helping make sure that you are part of a community watch group for the horrible bad men, right? It may be making sure that community needs are met. It may be education, it may be advocacy, whatever and wherever your strength is, it is needed in this huge changing wheel that's moving forward. With each day, this card says that when we are able, how can we take this strength? And especially because, again, we have this sweet little ant here. I don't know if it wants to pick up. We have that strength of an ant. We are carrying such heavy loads, and we shouldn't have to carry this much. Again, I am not trying to love and light this, but because we are carrying so much, how do we then take that and use that in a way that serves us, our families, our neighborhood, our community, and that ultimately serves the bigger picture? That ultimately serves something somewhere in the space of change. The wheel reminds us that the ripple effects from our actions, we are not going to be able to even see or comprehend all the ways that those ripple effect that those ripple effects move out and take shape. What we should be doing though with this card is recognizing with the invitation that we are a part of something bigger, that as we are moving into this space, when we align into channeling that potential, how do we channel it in a way that gives us guidance, direction, focus, and purpose? How does it connect us to the beautiful? How does it ripple out into spaces that extend past us? Because it's not simply about us, it's about all of us, it is about the world, it is again what is good and true and right and just. It is about all those things together, and the wheel says that in that circle of everything, where are we helping pushing the wheel forward? So now moving clockwise in our rotation of the spread. The next card we have is a message that we need to hear. And we have the sun. Now I just did my deep dive on the sun on the podcast and the blog, so you can go and check that out if you want to get some deep, deep insight into this card. I also do have it on the Wheel of Fortune as well. I've been slowly working my way through the majors. Um, the next one is judgment and then the world, and then I'll start moving into the minors. So unfortunately, I don't have deep dives available yet for these cards. I am getting there, but I do have them on these two. So please go and check those out, and I will see if I can link them here in the description box. But the sun is the message that we need to hear, and I can't think of a more beautiful card of reminder that yeah, there's a lot of hard emotions, there is a lot of pain, there's a lot of anger, rage, terror, whatever. There's also a lot of recognition that some of this is not necessary. Like, there is a recognition that it doesn't have to be this way. So, where do we need to make the change? And that's all true. But the sun reminds us that illuminating the hardships, illuminating the pain, illuminating all of the things that we don't want to be illuminated, also reveals where the light can come through. It's almost kind of in a way like the sun reveals the problem and also helps to reveal a solution to the problem. If we're just seeing at how hard it is to be, let me say it this way, if we are seeing at how hard it is to live in this reality, this is not normal. We should not be living like this. The sun says, where can we make the changes so that we come back to normalcy? Where can we recognize that the sun, even if it's illuminating solutions that we may not like, again, maybe really hard, and we may feel like we are stepping into places and moments and times and situations that feel like we're out of our depth? How do we also recognize where we can channel our own inner fire, our own light? The sun is illuminating the beauty and the brutality in this world together. It is revealing where we need to take up space, like we talked about with this card. It is revealing where we need to radiate beauty out, and the people of Minnesota are doing that in such incredible ways. They are showing up for their communities, they are showing up with the love of their neighbor, and that is a solution. It's also highlighting at how horrific these ICE kidnappings are, these raids are, and how unjust they are now with the loss of life, you know, children, all of the things that I could say. But it's also revealing here where there are details that we might have missed. It's revealing the beautiful spots and maybe sometimes the hard-to-see places. The guidebook even mentions with this card that the sun will highlight the iridescent feathers of our raven. They look just black, but when we actually shine the light up to them, we see it how they hold so much more color. So, in a situation that feels really dark and really black right now, where is the sun shining and illuminating the colors that are there as well? And I think that this is a beautiful reminder for us in these times that a new day is going to come. And some days it feels like we may not be able to keep up with the days and things are moving too fast, and they are. And that's maybe where we come back to choosing to take a rest one day. Again, it's all together, it's all part of it. So some days we may choose to take a rest, but the sun reminds us that a new day brings new potential, it brings the possibility of eventually waking up to a day where we don't have to live like this. The sun reveals that with each new day coming up on the horizon, we can, with the support of that channeling and that focus at that crossroads, do what we need to do for ourselves and for the collective. And finally, our last card, which is a possibility that may come in from all of this work that we have been doing, is our Eight of Pentacles. It's hard work, it's needed work. And just like here, we talked about how the black feathers of the raven, when the sun shines on them, we see all this beautiful iridescent colors, we see things that we haven't seen before. When we start to be part of this change, helping to push the movement forward, helping to push our community forward, helping to push truth and justice and whatever it is forward. Here we recognize no action is too small. Here we recognize that whatever it is we can do to help ourselves and our families, our vision, our community, again, whatever it is, the collective as a whole, here we recognize the intimacy is in the action. The intimacy of showing up for neighbors you do not know because it's the right thing to do. The intimacy of recognizing where you are past your limit and you need to take a rest so that the next day you can show up a little more right as rain. You can show up a little bit more with that awareness in your actions. That's what this card is about. Showing up and doing the work, manifesting based on that vision, like an artist using his tools to create all of these different beautiful pieces. That is what we are. Each of us are an artist in this community, in this country, in this society, and each of us contribute our actions, whatever they are, our strengths, our truth, our gifts, whatever they are. And we use that to bring the art and the beautiful into this world. It's not fully devoid of it, although, again, not love and lighting this, it is hard to see that and to recognize that right now. Some days it's really hard to even find the space to laugh because what's funny? What's funny, you know, but it is so imperative that we bring the laughter, the beauty, the flowers, the nature, we bring all of that in because that will show up in our actions. Looking at some of these people in this administration, the cruelty is the feature, not the bug. The cruelty is exactly the point. I don't want my actions to reflect that. Now, my actions are definitely going to reflect my absolute burning rage, you bet. But my actions are going to reflect the things that I love the most. So I'm going to speak up for those things that I love, the communities that I love, right and wrong, things like that. I am going to go outside and love nature to pieces. Because she gave me life and she is supporting me and she is helping me through this. And I owe it to her to say thank you and give back. My actions and our actions are going to reflect the beauty. They are going to reflect the light. They are going to reflect that channeling, that focused energy. Because when we do that, we recognize we are not alone. And we start to realize that even though we should not be living like this, this is not normal. We shouldn't have to show up like this. But what other alternative do we have? To not act like this? To not make anything beautiful, to not be a part of the change in some way? No way. No way. Even if part of the change you are making is a spell that you are doing. Speak into my heart, because that's what I've been doing. It's all there. It is all in the details. It is all in the colors and the feathers of the raven. It's all there. And that's the reason to show up. That's the reason to do the hard work, the good work, the beautiful work. So that is the reading. I really hoped you like this. I hope it provided some clarity, some peace of mind, some purpose, some direction. I hope it provided just whatever you needed. I know, as I said at the beginning, Tarot will always do that for me. And if you need a really beautiful deck, and I do not, this is not a you know an affiliate thing, I cannot recommend this deck enough. And I'm going to show you the top-down version so you can see the cards better. But this deck, man, the reading just hit today. It's so beautiful, it's so lovely. So if you are looking for a beautiful deck in your life, I highly recommend the Hush Tarot. And again, I don't get a kick pack, I don't get anything. It's just a deck that I have worked with and used and loved for a very long time. And I will be doing a review of that on this channel as well. So now I'm going to leave you with the images of these cards. Please take them, see what you're seeing, and apply it. And again, please check out my Instagram so you can come back to these cards and just take this reading as you need. Thank you so much for being here with me, Wolfling, for being a part of my pack. It means the absolute world. Take care. Bye.