The Wisdom of our Souls
It feels like ages since I posted anything tarot related here, which means that it probably is. There's been plenty of tarot goodness happening, new decks, new practices, lots of readings. I've been reading Rachel Pollack's book Soul Forest, which includes a lot of her "wisdom readings", which she developed in her previous book A Forest of Souls. These are readings asking a "big" question, for example What is spirit?, using the wisdom of the tarot to look at ideas and concepts beyond the individual. The readings are always fascinating, so I've been trying a few of my own.
I've had a few tarot querents ask about their soul purpose lately, such a lovely question and just my kind of reading, I love helping connect people to their deepest, most mythical self. Having a sense of our soul purpose, the work (in the broadest sense of the word) we can do to find personal fulfilment and also to make a difference to our world, is a powerful thing. So I asked the tarot how each of us can do this, how we can all connect more deeply to our soul purpose. I used the Motherpeace tarot, and asked four questions:
1. What is our soul purpose?
Strength
2. What helps us to align with that purpose?
Nine of Wands
3. What holds us back from aligning with our soul purpose?
Ace of Cups
4. Guidance from the tarot
Shaman of Discs
Here's what I make of the cards:
1. Our soul purpose is simply to connect deeply to that which gives us strength. To what allows us to be authentically ourselves, the wild parts of ourselves as well as the tame parts, without mask or persona. Our soul purpose is what allows us to connect to all the parts of our self, and also what allows us to connect authentically to other beings, however different from ourselves.
2. This card echoes the first one - we align with our soul purpose simply by sitting in our own power, by letting our inner flame burn bright, by letting ourselves shine. Perhaps too many of us are out of alignment with our soul purpose because we give our power away. Unconsciously or otherwise, we focus our energy and power on our unfulfilling day job, on relationships which are not reciprocal, on whatever we do our of habit or because society / the world / other people seem to expect it of us. We align with our soul's purpose by taking back our power.
3. Hmm. Diving in deep to the source. Our purpose is to connect to the source of ourselves, so at first this seemed a strange card for what holds us back from aligning with our soul purpose. But actually it makes perfect sense, because we can lose ourselves in those waters, merge back into the universal consciousness and forget that we are an individual with a purpose in the world. If we are too passive, only ever riding the waves of life, we risk our soul purpose remaining for ever just out of reach. There's a reason the first two cards are fire cards, our soul's purpose is something we need to align with consciously, with a level of awareness and focus. We dive deep into ourselves to find it, but then we must make the choice to bring it into awareness and then into manifestation.
4. And the guidance from the tarot tells us exactly this. We are only aligning with our soul's purpose if we are out there in the world, manifesting that purpose. Doing the work, taking the steps, and taking our time. This is the work of a lifetime, and that's OK.
How do you align with your soul purpose, and do these cards help you with that?
I've had a few tarot querents ask about their soul purpose lately, such a lovely question and just my kind of reading, I love helping connect people to their deepest, most mythical self. Having a sense of our soul purpose, the work (in the broadest sense of the word) we can do to find personal fulfilment and also to make a difference to our world, is a powerful thing. So I asked the tarot how each of us can do this, how we can all connect more deeply to our soul purpose. I used the Motherpeace tarot, and asked four questions:
1. What is our soul purpose?
Strength
2. What helps us to align with that purpose?
Nine of Wands
3. What holds us back from aligning with our soul purpose?
Ace of Cups
4. Guidance from the tarot
Shaman of Discs
Here's what I make of the cards:
1. Our soul purpose is simply to connect deeply to that which gives us strength. To what allows us to be authentically ourselves, the wild parts of ourselves as well as the tame parts, without mask or persona. Our soul purpose is what allows us to connect to all the parts of our self, and also what allows us to connect authentically to other beings, however different from ourselves.
2. This card echoes the first one - we align with our soul purpose simply by sitting in our own power, by letting our inner flame burn bright, by letting ourselves shine. Perhaps too many of us are out of alignment with our soul purpose because we give our power away. Unconsciously or otherwise, we focus our energy and power on our unfulfilling day job, on relationships which are not reciprocal, on whatever we do our of habit or because society / the world / other people seem to expect it of us. We align with our soul's purpose by taking back our power.
3. Hmm. Diving in deep to the source. Our purpose is to connect to the source of ourselves, so at first this seemed a strange card for what holds us back from aligning with our soul purpose. But actually it makes perfect sense, because we can lose ourselves in those waters, merge back into the universal consciousness and forget that we are an individual with a purpose in the world. If we are too passive, only ever riding the waves of life, we risk our soul purpose remaining for ever just out of reach. There's a reason the first two cards are fire cards, our soul's purpose is something we need to align with consciously, with a level of awareness and focus. We dive deep into ourselves to find it, but then we must make the choice to bring it into awareness and then into manifestation.
4. And the guidance from the tarot tells us exactly this. We are only aligning with our soul's purpose if we are out there in the world, manifesting that purpose. Doing the work, taking the steps, and taking our time. This is the work of a lifetime, and that's OK.
How do you align with your soul purpose, and do these cards help you with that?