Sabbats, Seasons, and Tarot Spreads

Yesterday our “Weekly Reading” opened with a bit of good advice: Take care of essential tasks this week. Stay focused on what matters.

Now, as our reading continues we’ll be “narrowing down” this advice, looking for specific ways to apply it in our lives over the next few days.

What have we here? The 5 of Candles appears. The deck I’m using, BTW, is the “Yuletide Tarot” from Kristoffer Hughes and Erin O’Leary Brown. It’s a favorite for the holiday season. In in, the suits are changed a bit to correspond more closely with Yuletide ideas.

• Wands are Candles
• Cups are Good Cheer
• Swords are Candy Canes
• Pentacles are Gifts

So here we have the 5 of Wands, dressed up in holiday garb, yet the meaning remains the same. It’s a card of competition disguised as sport, of fierce rivlary in a friendly game. It’s one person trying to out-do another — and all the while, probably laughing it off. “Hey, buddy, don’t take it so seriously. I’m just joking with you… just having fun!”

That’s the spirit of the 5 of Candles, but it shouldn’t be the spirit of the holiday.

I’ll admit to being somewhat puzzled by the card illustration here, and I’ll confess to having somehow misplaced the guidebook for the Yuletide Tarot — a good example of not paying attention to things, as suggested by yesterday’s Page of Canes.

My guess is that these two fellow are squabbling a bit over something — maybe it’s important, maybe not. Tne candles are a bit crooked, the guests have left the table. Hmmm… that does happen at holiday meals from time to time.

Now, let’s take these ideas and put them in perspective with yesterday’s “theme card”. We want to focus on what really matters this week, not get side-tracked, not be led astray by unimportant things. My take here is that maybe we all need to “keep a cool head” this week. It’s not about proving a point. It’s certainly not about trying to out-do each other as to who has the biggest tree, the most gifts, the best light show.

Today’s draw is all about defining our goal for the week. LET’S KEEP OUR COOL, SET RIVALRIES ASIDE, AND FOCUS ON THE TRUE SPIRIT OF THE HOLIDAYS.