Sabbats, Seasons, and Tarot Spreads

Where are we today? Honestly, I’m swamped where I am. I usually have the Weekly Reading blog post written and ready to publish before I end the day and close the studio, but life here has been more hectic and fast-paced than usual. I’m falling behind.

So now it’s Thursday morning already, I have another busy day scheduled, so today’s reading post will be short and to the point, and that’s part of what today’s card can mean.

We have the King of Wind — usually called the King of Swords. The suit of Swords is about our mental processes, our ability to think, and especially our ability to communicate our thoughts to others, clearly and concisely. I’ve been faiing here since the start of the New Year.

Earlier, for my New Year’s divination, I drew cards from tarot to guide me through things I needed to learn in 2026. Effective communication came up for January! Little wonder I’m struggling here with the blog.

As a writer and novelist, I don’t usually have problems putting my thoughts into words, but lately I seem to be all figuratively tongue-tied. I keep changing my mind about the format I want to use; I’ve started off in one direction then gone in another. In short, I’ve messed up, muddled up, and ended up with a confusing heap of almost meaningless words.

This is what the King of Swords is all about really. He points his sword in our direction and says “Speak up!” He tells us to say what we mean and mean what we say, and I learned long ago that those simple words are a big part of what makes life “work” — in family, love, business, or whatever!

The fourth position in our collective reading — as I’m now outlining the spread — deals with the lessons we have to learn, the benefits we can gain from changing uncomfortable behaviors, or sometimes a warning about the problems we’ll encounter if we don’t “shape up” and “fly right”. I’m throwing that last one in because of the blue jay symbolism of today’s card.

Blue jays are often considered rather noxious birds. That make a horrible, but distinctive “rattling” noise. And that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve been rattling around, flapping my wings, and just having a hard time of it all.

So, a quick recap. The problem we’re dealing with? A bit of selfishness, a tendency to give “lip service” to the whole idea of loving others, helping others, doing charitable acts. We’ve been called to account for it, and we’ve looked back at our actions with a critical eye, realizing that we do need to be more honest with ourselves.

The King of Swords offers us a way to clear our heads a bit, the courage to speak up, and the understanding of the need to communicate openly and honestly. This is what I’m trying to do here.

Hopefully I’ll get my head on straight; maybe life will settle down a bit and I won’t be rushing around through the days. Maybe I’ll even get caught up on a few of things I’ve fallen behind on! But saying all that is just another way of offering excuses.

I won’t offer excuses. Excuses don’t change things. I’ll offer an apology for all my scattered thinking over the past couple of weeks, and I’ll try to do better in the future.