A Reading with Karma Cards

Today I am using Karma Cards: A New Age Guide to Your Future through Astrology, a deck devised by Monte Farber, with cards illustrated by Linda Garland (Viking Studio).

My question: What kind of situation/mood/atmosphere can I expect to encounter or prepare for?

This deck is based on astrology and consists of Planet cards, Sign cards, and House cards. For my reading, I draw one card from the Planet group, one from the Sign group, and one from the House group.

My results are: The South Node / in Leo / in the 12th House

Wow, it’s obvious that this is not going to be one of those light-hearted, skipping-through-the-daisies readings!

SOUTH NODE: For those who don’t know astrology, the Moon’s south and north nodes are imaginary points that mark off a sort of celestial equator. The North Node is also known as the Dragon’s Head, whereas the South Node is called the Dragon’s Tail.

Astrologers have different views on the meaning of the nodes in a chart. Options include: no meaning at all; past and future karma; how you relate to your environment; points of good luck and bad luck. In the guidebook to the Karma Cards deck, Monte Farber writes that the South Node card prompts us to “stop, look, listen, and remember.” It’s a reminder that I may be going against what I know are my own best interests.

LEO: The sign Leo rules pleasure, romance, self-expression, pride, sports, acting, and entertainment. We associate it with royalty, warm affections, generosity, openness and frankness. Leo has a strong desire or need to be proud of what it is doing and respected for it.

TWELFTH HOUSE: This house is about “the inner you” and “how you don’t want to project yourself into the world.” It is the house of secret fears, secret enemies, and self-undoing. Here we find that which tends to “negate our ego.” Matters governed by the 12th House include some religions, large institutions (government, the military, corporations, hospitals, prisons). Here there is a strong desire for secrecy or, at the very least, privacy.

When asking the type of question I am asking, we are instructed by Monte Farber to use the blue panels on each card for our answer. For The South Node in Leo in the 12th House, we receive these three statements:

• Spiritual: There will not be self-confidence to create your faith
• Mental: Anxiety about taking a chance on hidden tendencies
• Physical: Trouble resulting from the impressiveness of large institutions or overwhelming events

If I weave all of this together, I get a sense that (at this moment in time anyway) I am not likely to have the self-confidence to create my own faith system or spiritual path because I have a lot of anxiety about how hidden tendencies might come across or manifest. This mental anxiety is based, at least in part, on the significance or power of large institutions (or institutionalized beliefs?) There is a “fear of coming out” vibe here that tells me I am not yet ready to take a public stand in the spiritual or faith arena. I am still too unsure of how to present or reveal hidden tendencies that may not be received well by “the establishment” in the physical, material world.

Alternatively, I can view these cards as representing different situations/moods/atmospheres in the spiritual realm, mental realm, and physical realm. The "hidden tendencies" causing my mental anxiety may or may not be related to my faith. The trouble from the "impressiveness of large institutions or overwhelming events" might have nothing to do with the other two. I could be looking at the possibility of health or financial problems connected somehow to large institutions or overwhelming events.