Run Over by the Chariot

Ever have one of those weeks where every day the Card of the Day is a major arcana card? And not one that elicits squeals of delight when you turn it over? That was last week. Hanged Man. Chariot. Tower. Tower. Chariot. And it was that kind of week. Part of it is that I’m in a Chariot year (based on my birth card), but still – enough is more than enough sometimes!

So I started thinking about *why* it was a pooky major arcana card week. If I’d picked different cards each day, the same events would nonetheless have transpired, so why did I feel so upset because of the cards I drew? (Okay, setting aside the fact that I haven’t reached complete nirvanic detachment yet, and I still become upset about things. Evolving takes time.)

What if, instead of the Tower card on Wednesday, I had drawn the 10 of Cups? All the things that happened Wednesday would still have happened – only I would have looked for the 10 of Cups in them. So instead of being distressed that my grandfather was hospitalized with his fourth heart attack, would I have looked at the event as being able to offer and to receive the comfort of family in dealing with the situation? (He’s doing fine now – he’s still in the hospital, but he’s telling jokes to the staff, and demanding cookies, and telling my grandmother he’s ready to go to McDonald’s.)

Or what if I’d drawn the Eight of Pentacles on Friday instead of the Chariot? Instead of feeling run over by my workday, in which the interruptions had interruptions, would I have instead focused on the fact that my day was filled with difficult situations, but ones which I had the skills and experience to manage, and that everything worked out by the end of the day?

I do think the card a day practice is invaluable in learning the Tarot, and in learning to deal with one’s life and self. I have decided, however, that any day on which I pull a difficult card, I will pull a second card for an alternate viewpoint for the day, and try to balance the two as I move through my day.

And, of course, having decided this, I haven’t pulled a difficult card all week! I’ll post about it as soon as I have a day with that result.