The Bridge: A Reading with The Playing Card Oracles, Alchemy Edition

Today’s reading comes from _The Playing Card Oracles_ by Ana Cortez, illustrated by C.J. Freeman (U.S. Games Systems, Inc.). I have chosen to use _The Playing Card Oracles, Alchemy Edition_ (also by Cortez and Freeman), for this reading.

"The Bridge" is a layout designed to provide a general look at the energies in play in my life.

The Bridge

(6 of Clubs in the center)

The Playing Card Oracles, Alchemy Edition

Past: KING OF SPADES / Earth / Mardoc

• Dominating personality, conservative, direct, reliable, predictable
• Slow thinking but decisive in action

The Playing Card Oracles, Alchemy Edition

Future: KING OF HEARTS / Water / Nichomiah

• Enjoys the present moment: love for art, music, food, merriment, beauty
• Receptive, sentimental, generous, gluttonous

The Playing Card Oracles, Alchemy Edition

Gifts of the Present: THREE OF SPADES / Earth / The Beggar

• Choice, challenge, change, thoughtful manifestation
• Need to move forward, let go, put the past into the past
• Need to stop feeling like a victim, stop living in the past, stop tolerating a “poverty state of mind”

The Playing Card Oracles, Alchemy Edition

Obstacles of the Present: QUEEN OF CLUBS / Air / Leah

• Priestess, dreamer, imagination, knowing of the unconscious mind
• One whose vocation is difficult to understand from a traditional point of view
• Powers of the creative mind, mental illness, delusion

Synthesis

Bridging the King of Spades (who makes me think of the planet Saturn in astrological terms) and the King of Hearts (reminds me of the planet Jupiter) involves quite a transformation from past to future! I can look at Court Cards as actual people in my life or as aspects of my own personality and ego that need to be explored and understood. How interesting it will be if I am truly on the bridge between conservative, reliable, practical Earth and sentimental, love-the-moment, excessive Water!

The Playing Card Oracles (original edition)

The Beggar (3 of Spades) seems an odd choice to represent “Gifts of the Present.” In the original Playing Card Oracles deck, this card is called The Grave, but its meaning corresponds with that of The Beggar in the Alchemy Edition. The Gift is an opportunity for me to “let go” of a past that no longer serves, a burden I have been carrying for too long. It is time to choose what to save and what to bury.

The Queen of Clubs represents “obstacles of the present.” To put it quite simply, the card suggests that my own mind, thoughts, and imaginings are obstacles to me right now. I am intrigued by the description, “one whose vocation is difficult to understand from an traditional point of view.” Yes, that’s me, for sure. It is a challenge for me to be understood and appreciated by those with a “traditional” outlook (like the King of Spades, LOL). And so perhaps my own past nature or personality is partly responsible for turning the Queen of Clubs into an “obstacle”?