Tarot Reading For 2023.

As I prepared to pull this Thoth Tarot theme card for this reading for 2023, I saw in my inner eye the image of a bright flame burning in the darkness.

It flickered and was pushed and pulled in different directions at times by the currents of air around it, but it always returned to a steady centre and it was never extinguished. As I continued to watch, many similar flames sprang up all around it to enlighten the darkness with warmth and radiance, and my heart was filled with a sense of loving connection and active hope.

The first thing I noticed when I turned over the Four of Swords was the beautiful and soothing colours of emerald green and cobalt blue.

Traditionally this card represents a period of rest, recovery, and relative peace after a difficult and anxious period. So it feels to me that in comparison to the last three years 2023 will not seem quite so explosive and disastrous and you’ll have a chance to regroup your energy and recover from the relentless hammering of previous years.

I definitely welcome the thought of that. However, the warning of this card is to understand that this is only a temporary respite and it’s unwise to ignore the problems and conflicts that continue to underlie your immediate environment and wider social sphere. As tempting as it might be to retreat, lick your wounds and make compromises for the sake of enjoying some peace, you would then be passing up the opportunity for a more long-lasting and truly harmonising solution. This applies to both personal situations and relationships, and to what is happening on the wider world stage.

Swords represent the mind – thought patterns, beliefs, and the way we communicate with each other. The number four represents stability and a firm foundation from which change and expansion is possible, if you’re willing to embrace it. The negative aspect of the four is clinging to convention, tradition, and the way things have always been. So, maintaining a flexibility and open-ness of mind is absolutely key to making the most of 2023.

How can you and I best do this? First of all, it’s important to know your own mind, and I don’t mean on just the conscious and egoic level. There are two other levels of awareness highlighted by this number four; they are spiritual consciousness and the subconscious. So often people think, speak, and react from trauma deeply buried in their subconscious that has not been recognised and understood. Think about the times you’ve found yourself displaying a shockingly over-emotional reaction to something relatively minor that’s been said or done to you. This is the subconscious in action and its the level of awareness from which most of the world operates. this unresolved trauma continues to impact relationships and how you see and experience the world until and unless you shine the light of consciousness onto it. This wounded aspect of you requires a listening ear and a compassionate heart to healed and soothe it. This is true for every human on the planet.

Spiritual consciousness is the awareness of your soul and your higher mind, the quiet inner voice that speaks to you from deep within and is able to see beyond all cultural, societal, and familial convention. The Four of Swords represents meditation, taking time out to still the insistent demands of external distractions. This is how you can most effectively access both your subconscious and your spiritual consciousness. The healing green of this beautiful card also suggests the wisdom of seeking a healer or therapist’s guidance if you know you need extra help to reach into accessing both these states of awareness. My vision of the flame, flickering but remaining bright and true and always returning to central alignment, is a beautiful representation of what meditation can provide.

So, 2023 brings a quieter, more restorative year, when valuable time is best spent on inner exploration and self-knowledge (including spiritual awareness, however that looks for you). But that’s not the end of the story as this meditation space must not become an escape from life’s harsh realities and an avoidance tactic. From this calm inner place and space, you must then move into conversation and engagement with others, remaining true to yourself without defensiveness; AND you can be open to truly listening to and negotiating with those others to find genuine, long-lasting conflict resolution. Relationships, both personal and wider, can be encouraged to expand into greater harmony and shared understanding because all human beings have a deep need to be fully seen, heard, accepted, and understood.

If you seek insight for problems and make plans to address them by engaging all four levels of consciousness this year, if we all do this, then I believe we can lay the foundations for innovative solutions that hold peace, justice, and compassion at their heart. While we’re all stuck in our unrecognised trauma and imprisoned in a blinkered mind that refuses to include any ideas that threaten carefully built, maintained and fiercely protected belief systems, it’s just impossible to effect change. So, a good mantra to go by throughout 2023 is be fully present, pay attention, tell the truth, and don’t be attached to the outcome.

Image: “Breathing” by Alonsa Guevara

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