Okay, so it’s just about two weeks late if we’re counting from the Solstice (when I’d originally intended to do this), but it still works out.
I just did a “year ahead” Celtic Cross spread for myself – as I do every year – and holy crap, did I ever get a positive reading. 😀
So. With Miss Sugar’s New Year, New You project in mind, and with Neil Gaiman’s 2012 New Year’s Wish close at hand, and both of them encouraging me (and you) to Be Brave and Try New Things, I think this reading is particularly pertinent (and quite the relief to receive, I don’t mind telling you).
Here we go:
Fell out of the deck: No-Thingness (5 of MA), upright
Signifier: Celebration (3 of Water), upright
The Situation: The Rebel (4 of MA), upright
Crossing Card: Laziness (9 of Water), upright
The Past: The Creator (King of Fire), upright
The Future: Healing (King of Water), reversed
Influences, Conscious: The Burden (6 of Air), upright
Influences, Unconscious: Existence (1 of MA), upright
Internal View: Understanding (Paige of Water), upright
External View: Adventure (Paige of Earth), reversed
Hopes and Fears: The Outsider (5 of Earth), upright
Outcome: Flowering (Queen of Earth), reversed
Current/Overarching Influences: Letting Go (8 of Water), upright
Up-Coming/Underlying Influences: Sharing (Queen of Fire), upright
See what I mean about the awesome? 😀
Okay, so how do I break this down?
The card that fell out of the deck is the card of “absolute potential” – both in the sense of “anything could happen” and in the sense of “go for it!”. Given the rest of the reading, I’m inclined to take this as a “go for it”, myself.
My signifier is… okay, usually this is my “poly” card. And it might or might not refer to that (going by the rest of the reading… probably not. It’s a very me-centric reading rather than a reading about relationships, though I know that Relationships come into it somewhere, just because it’s a year-ahead spread and I’m not a solitary creature, even if I’m a solitary witch). So I’m looking at the Three of Water and seeing it as: Joy, getting the hang of this emotional stuff, being able to dance in spite of – or even because of – some wild weather that Life has brought me. Being comfortable in it. Finding happiness in it. (Here’s hoping).
The Situation is very much about coming into My Own – getting (more) comfortable with my dominance, being more of my own boss, being the source of my own power and so-on and so-forth.
Crossing that, of course, is the nine of water – which, in spite of its upright position, is one that I take as a warning not to get complacent. Recognize your accomplishments, sure, but don’t stop there. Keep going!
My Past and Future cards are an interesting pair because they’re both Kings. An upright King of Fire in my past – meaning that the foundation I’m building on, where I’m coming from (and what 2011 was all about, I suspect) is my creativity. I think it’s interesting that what I’m building towards, from that foundation, is Healing (the King of Water, reversed). I haven’t had the King of Water show up in a reading in a while, so I’m having a “Hmmmmmmm, that’s interesting” moment over seeing him in this position. Huh. There’s a thing. 🙂
My aware/conscious and unknown/unconscious influences cards are also Interesting. They’re less of an obvious matched pair, granted, but: It’s like I’m aware that this is going to be Hard – that it’s going to be stressful, that running my own business(es) is fraught with stress and heaviness and is really hard work, that being The Boss Of someone else in a power-exchange dynamic (in an effective, appropriate way, at any rate) is going to be difficult when it comes to bearing the weight of two people’s well-being rather than merely my own. What I see in the “unconscious influences” position is a reminder that, actually, I have everything I need to do this stuff – yeah, it’ll be hard, but I’m totally capable of doing it, handling it, taking it on and carrying every ounce of it (maybe even doing it well). I have everything I need, I just need to step up, step in, and do it. (Very encouraging, that one, I’ve got to say!)
My Internal and External View cards are… I think they’re best viewed in context with my Hopes and Fears card. The Internal and External View cards are basically two different ways of looking at the same situation. My Hopes and Fears Card is – it’s a fears card, this time around, and in this situation it relates directly (and very, very closely) to my Internal View card. I fear being an outsider, never “breaking in”, never being one of the Cool Kids who are all zipping around above me getting their Awesome on. My Internal View card is basically saying the same thing. The door may be open, but I’m not yet certain that I’m “allowed” to take off and fly, not yet certain I’ll be welcome in that flock of Amazing Creatives in all their soaring glory. My Eternal Views card (and my unconscious influences card, really) say something different. They say “step forward, try it out”. They echo Neil Gaiman’s wish that I (we, all of us) take risks, attempt adventures, try new things and risk succeeding at them.
With that in mind, I can step up to my “Outsider” card and push through the metaphorical gate that I think is shutting me out in order to move on to my Outcome card (also an Earth card, and a good progression from the other two Earth cards in this line-up).
My Outcome card, I don’t mind telling you, is an extremely positive one. The Queen of Earth (internal focus) is all about coming into your own (a bit like the Emperor/Rebel in the regard). In this spread, I read her in particular as referring to my sense of security (as in: emotional security). If “The Outsider” (five of Earth) is insecure about hir place and/or hir sense of belonging, the Queen of Earth is one’s sense of belonging, is the very embodiment of security and sense of place. Because she’s reversed, I’m reading her as referring to my finding my “place” in the world, rather than her referring more directly to my financial or material security – though she’s touches on those as well.
My remaining influence cards – current and up-coming – fit well with the rest of the reading. My current influences card is “Letting Go” (eight of water). I think it relates directly to my Internal View (and fear) card and my Future card – I think the healing I’m due to be doing is specifically what will let me Let Go of the attitude of non-belonging (or, perhaps, the healing is, itself, that Letting Go). If I can – when I can? – do that, I will move on to my Outcome, a sense of personal security, of self and of place, that is, itself, influenced by the Queen of Fire – the lady of radiant, abundant creativity, drive, and personal power. I am looking forward to manifesting these two queens in myself. To come into my own power, to bloom into everything I can be.
Wish me luck. 😀
Meliad the Birch Maiden.
Urban Meliad 