IT’S EASY TO GET LOST. And by “lost” I mean more than just driving around Harvard Square, crying and trying to find the grocery store (which I may have done pre-GPS times…more than once). I’m talking about the kind of lost that feels like you’ll never find your way out, like there may not even be a way out, and even if there was, you’re too damn blind to see it. Dramatic? Maybe a little. But that drama is real, or at least feels real when it’s happening. And usually it’s subtler than a big existential crisis. Even if your life is completely together on the surface - which in this day and age probably means: holding down a steady-full time job, being able to pay all your bills and have enough left over for emergencies, being in a stable relationship, having a comfortable home – you may still experience that uneasy feeling of just not knowing where the fuck you’re going (AKA lost).
When I feel this way, and, man, do I feel this way sometimes/often/more than I like, my first inclination is to DO something. But then the cycle of thinking that precludes the doing, begins: “Well, what do I do? What if I do something and it’s the wrong something?” So “doing” just turns into “thinking”, which just turns into “wasted energy” and more “lost”. No bueno.
The one thing I’ve found that I can do in this situation, before the actual physical doing, is to remind myself that maybe we’re all here for a bigger purpose than even our biggest material life goals. Here’s where I turn to one of my favorite spiritual tools, Tarot, to act as my mirror. Because action without alignment is just as productive as scrolling through your phone endlessly without purpose, or joy.
This two-card spread is one of my favorites for getting back into alignment, because its basis is the idea that we are all here on this planet, in this human existence, to give to the world and also to receive from it. It’s not one sided, and the more open we are to receive, the more able we are to give and vice versa.
TWO-CARD TAROT SPREAD:
- What I’m here to give to the world
- What I’m here to receive
What you have to give and what you have to receive may be changing all the time, but there’s probably a through line there too. Judgment, for example, is “my card,” in that my birthday is August 20th and so I’ve felt a connection to it, for a very long time, but it only recently started appearing in my daily Tarot readings.
Rachel Howe, the talented creator and channeler of the new Small Spells deck (seriously one of the best decks I’ve ever used and a new fave) says this about the Judgment card: “Shedding of the ego to reach the soul. Things as they really are becoming clear to you. Clarity about what’s important. Letting a new self –emerge...”
Seeing the card appear in this two-card spread this morning, was exactly what I needed to remind my brain (pretty sure my soul was already on point) that whatever action that we take is part of a much grander and more magical story than it may seem appear on the surface. And that we’re never really lost.
Melissa Nierman co-facilitates a monthly Tarot Salon at Hauswitch every fourth Tuesday of the month, which provides a super fun, structured time to nerd out over magic and practice the Tarot together. The next Tarot Salon is Tuesday, September 27th from 7-9pm.
