Coffee & Tarot #1 – Daily Card(s)

I love tarot. LOVE. I even listed it in my dating profile, which interestingly enough piqued the interest of a few men. More than anything else I talked about, more often than not I have been asked about tarot. I’m not sure if it’s a disappointment for them to find out that I use them to meditate and not to predict the future. Though I love tarot, I am by no means an expert. My brain is a tricky one and often has a glitch when storing information. What does that mean? It means that I’m not one of those people who can randomly extract information about any given card. Tarot is rich in symbolism and each card has so many intricacies, there is no way I could remember it all. I guess it’s a good thing I only do this for my own amusement and never tire of Googling a card. 

I’m not exaggerating when I say that I use tarot daily. I do. After getting my morning coffee, I pull at least one card (usually way more) every day. Why? Because it gives me something to think about and ponder on throughout the day. When I first started pulling cards, sometimes getting the “scary” cards would feel like a real bitch slap. Now though, it feels more like an annoying alarm clock. A reminder to wake up and pay attention. A sort of check in that gives me an opportunity to see if I’m falling back into old patterns. Pretty much every card in a deck provides an opportunity to think about life, where I’ve been, where I am at, and where I want to go. 

ANYway, I thought it might be fun to start writing about the cards I pull. Disclaimer: As I mentioned above, I’m not an expert on tarot, I’m just a lover of tarot. When I write about tarot, I’m sharing my thoughts on any given card…. Mixed in with information I’ve gleaned from books or good ol’ Google. Feel free to correct me if I get anything “wrong”. 

So, lets get this party started! 

• Deck: A Jane Austen Tarot Deck
• Pulled Card: Two of Diamonds- Adaptability (Charlotte Lucas)

A short recap, for those who are not familiar with the 1813 novel by Jane Austen. In the book Elizabeth’s good friend, Charlotte Lucus, decides to marry not for love, but for a stable future. The man she decides to marry (Mr. Collins) is super annoying, but otherwise harmless. He’s kind of a groupie of a character in the book, named Catherine de Bourgh. Lady de Bourgh is a wealthy and pompous older woman of English aristocratic society. She’s also Mr. Darcy’s aunt. (Mr. Darcy is the book’s leading man). Given the time period that the book is written in, being a spinster with limited funds would have very much restricted Charlotte in many ways, as well as burdening her parents with having to provide for her. Marriage to Mr. Collins was an attainable solution for her to avoid such a spinsterhood future. When Charlotte tells Elizabeth the news, Elizabeth is shocked and strongly opposes Charlotte’s decision.

 Is Charlotte making lemonade out of life’s lemons or is she just making a sour match? Is she foolish? Or is she cleverly playing the hand that life dealt her? 

When using playing cards for the purpose of tarot, diamonds represent the material world and are basically the equivalent of the pentacles suite in the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. For those of you who are not familiar with that name, Rider-Waite is the best known tarot deck, a deck that most replications are based off of. When I think of the Diamonds/pentacles suit, I think of things that are tangible in the physical world, home/work life, goals, and life plans. Tarot cards are also numbered, which adds to the meaning to each card. When I think of the number two, I think of  duality, harmonizing, balance, choices, and things like that. 

Tying it all together…. So ya pulled the Two of Diamonds – Adaptability. Whatever could it mean? 

Even though Elizabeth Bennett disapproved of the marriage, I think Charlotte Lucas was able to soberly look at her life as it was and made her choices based on her reality and not wishful thinking. Though there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wishful thinking or dreaming big, there is also nothing wrong with practical thinking either. There are pros and cons to both and what works for one person, might not work for another person. Elizabeth thought Charlotte was making a mistake, because she couldn’t see herself marrying Mr Collins. Later in the book when she visits Charlotte, she finds that Charlotte has orchestrated a very simple and nice life for herself, one that she is quite happy with. Sure, she has an annoying husband, but she’s strategically made it so she rarely has to see him. In the 1800’s, as a married woman she has much more freedom and respect than she would have had not being married. Charlotte showed adaptability in making a choice that presented itself. 

When I pull this card, it makes me ponder adaptability in life. First off…. Her exact situation DOES NOT, I REPEAT, DOES NOT translate to modern day life. You can be single!!! It’s okay! The card is figuratively speaking! You do not need a life partner to complete you!!! You can build a life alone!!! 

Ok, now that I got that out of the way, let’s talk about this card. When I pull this card, it makes me think of this joke about a man at sea in a rowboat that gets capsized during a storm. He was forced to tread water, but he was a man of faith and kept saying that God would save him. When a helicopter flew over him and threw down a rope, he declined, saying that God was going to same him. Then, when a lifeboat came by, he once again declined saying that God was going to save him. Eventually he died. When he got to heaven, he asked St Peter why God didn’t save him. St Peter said, “He sent you a helicopter and a lifeboat, what more did you want?” 

Yes, yes… definitely a lame joke but it helps make my point. My point being that sometimes in life we have an idea of how we want things to play out, but life doesn’t always cooperate. In times like that, can we see what the big picture is? Can we keep an eye on our endgame? Could it be that that’s the most important part and not so much how we get there? 

In the case of Charlotte, she wanted to be independent from her family, a home, and basically a life to call her own. That was her endgame. The bumbling Mr. Collins was so busy being a groupie to Lady Catherine de Bourgh, he was hardly involved in Charlotte’s life. In fact, the only reason Mr Collins wanted a wife was because of the influence of Lady Catherine. It was a love match for neither of them yet fulfilled both of their needs. Charlotte ended up with the life she desired because she was adaptable. Charlotte played the game of life with the pieces she was dealt and crafted a life that ultimately fulfilled her. 

Some questions this card might make me ponder on: If life is being uncooperative, where can I adapt? Am I being rigid in my expectations? Can I get creative with what life dishes out in my direction? How can I make the most of my life right now, with my current reality? 

I’m sure that everything I have written can be picked apart, based on where it lands on any given person. And that’s awesome! And that is why I love pulling a daily card…. It’s kind of a conversation starter for my brain. It’s by no means a concrete answer, but it has generated ideas that have changed or reinforced how I think about certain things. And depending on what is going on in my life, the same card can bring up different ideas every time it shows up as my daily card. 

As you can see, it’s easy to use a card as starting point and the more you think about it, the more thoughts and ideas start bouncing off of it. And this is why I love using Tarot as part of a daily meditation practice. Let me know if you have a similar practice and in which ways yours differ. I’d love to hear about it!