Reading Our Life Path

Some people look at Planet Earth as a Life School.  I guess I could be considered one.  We all go through stuff here in this cosmic classroom, we all get our lessons, if we choose to accept. 

Some of these lessons are easier than others.  Some are downright pleasant.  Other lessons are more difficult, challenging.  Some are just f---ing hard.  But all of these lessons, large or little, pissy or pleasant, are here to help us grow.   

I've been doing a lot of clean up on my computer recently to make room for all of the new videos that I have been creating.  Memory.   I need more memory.  Today I came across a recording of a Life Path reading that I had with a trusted spiritual counselor back in 2022.  I had been going through some of the aforementioned challenging life stuff at that time, some particularly perplexing lessons, and I needed some help grappling with some ideas.  I needed some guidance on what to do with them.  I needed some help with where to go.

Our session took place on zoom, that virtual platform that skyrocketed back in 2020 due to the world event that took place that spring.  The session would begin with a tarot card reading, a classic chalice and wand spread. 

After a quick hello and a reminder of how the session would proceed, we simultaneously created sacred space.   I relaxed into a meditative and prayerful state as a series of random cards were selected from the deck by my counselor who with great care and spiritual guidance drew the cards and placed them, unseen, face down on the table in the chalice and wand positioning.

All of my cards came out reversed.  Every one of them.  This is very rare.  The energies involved in reversals indicate a lot of struggle and wounds, but also healing and growth.  In other words, as my counselor put it, “I had dished out a lot in what I was going through at the time.”  Which was not a bad thing, since we have to go through it at some time or another if we want to grow.  So, I responded, “Here we go!”

The reading began with what would be considered the central situation or topic that “Spirit” or “The Universe” would be addressing that day.  The card that came out for me was the 10 of Stones (in some decks it’s the 10 of pentacles).  It has to do with my physical and financial happiness and wellbeing.  Root chakra stuff.  Since mine came out reversed, well, it means they saw that I was struggling.  I was facing some challenges then and here I am today, 16 months later, and I still am. 

Time is showing its weird face.  Moving so quickly in some ways yet barely creeping along in others.  But I think I am finding a way forward.  It’s so important that I do.  This is one of my central LIFETIME lessons.  I have talked about that here before.  I understand.  I have got to learn this lesson, or accept the consequences.  My choice.

But Life is always looking out for me.  The Universe always has my back.  I know this, and the next card that came out in this reading said as much.  It was the crossing card. The card that is connected with the card of the central situation, the only card that in this spread cannot come out in reversal, expresses the main message of the situation, the most important, the "what else I need to know" about this situation, and the card that was drawn for me, was Strength. 

Strength, a major arcana in the tarot deck, is a very powerful card.  The depiction on this particular card shows a naked woman stepping out of a swamp, wrestling with a large snake.  We understood this to represent me, in fact always possessing this level of strength, taming my own inner self. 

The snake symbolizes our own spiritual journey, our spiritual energy, and this naked, this vulnerable woman, is wrestling it for control.  I am wrestling for control.  My life.  My choice.  My will.  Control of my own spiritual journey.  Asking for what I want and allowing Life to take me where I want to go.

Her standing outside of the swamp indicates that she has already gone through the hardest part, but it doesn’t mean the path forward is easy, it is, however, easier than what she has been through.  The take away message…the bigger the life change, the truer we are to our deepest selves, the freer we feel when the snake is tamed. We overcome.  The truth…we are already strong.  We just get stronger.

And that’s just the first two cards of the reading.  I won’t go through the entire reading here, but rewatching this video was a powerful reminder of where I was and where I have come.  It is also a powerful reminder of where I want to go.  It reminds me to keep going.  And I am.

I gleaned some more mantras from this session and I would like to share them with you here, because who couldn’t use a good mantra from time to time.  And if per chance you struggle with any of the same root chakra and heart chakra challenges that I do, then you just might appreciate them as well.

The fifth card out in this reading represented ME.  The card that came out in that position, in the reversed position, was the Failure card.  Ha.  Hmm.  It’s the card of material failure.  This card asked me to really look at how I feel challenged on the material level.  Do I feel like I can’t create abundance for myself?  Are there blockages that I can’t control around that?  Is it a fear that I have?  This is a card that you just don’t want to get in a reading at all.  OK.

I immediately heard my dad’s voice in my head and saw him in that position towering over my balled-up body, “You set your goals too high, you are always going to fail.”  Crazy how some shit just gets stuck in the cracks.  And so much of that is gone, thankfully.  It has been cleaned up in my life.  But I’m dealing with the last little bits and it has to get purged, purified, or it will keep me poisoned.  I don’t want that.

Why not say instead:

1.    Failure is not an option.

2.    If I set my goals too high, I will always reach really high.

3.    Failure is not even a part of me at all.  Strength is the only thing I recognize and my ability to create and to go in the direction that I want to do.

4.    I set my goals high and therefore I always go so far.

5.    I set my goals high and therefore I always achieve so much.

6.    I do such amazing things with that.

7.    I am so proud of myself.

8.    I’m so good at this.

And more to keep that Root Chakra balanced:

9.    I am safe no matter what happens.

10.  I have abundance no matter what happens.

11. I have a network of people who will support me no matter what happens.

It’s like physical therapy for your heart (and root) one of her other clients said.  And it’s like that other beauty, if we say them enough, we get neurons firing together and wiring together.   Win.  Win.  Grow.  Grow.

So, with the help of my counselor, we turned that little gem around and I have some cool mantras from it…thanks dad.  You have truly been one of my greatest teachers.  I love you for that.  I love you.

The other gem that came out of this session, although there were so many, centers around Happiness.  This card came out in the seventh position which address what I need to know about my hopes and fears.  The card that came out in this position was the Six of Cups…in the reverse.

The Six of Cups upright is a beautiful happiness card.  There is a lot of stability in it.  There is a lot of opportunity in it.  It speaks to memories and people from the past returning.  It holds a promise in the future.  There is a lot of lasting happiness and hopeful energy represented by this card.  Mine is turned upside down.  Afraid that happiness won’t be lasting.  That I have missed the opportunity.  That I won’t find that happiness.  The promise in the future isn’t even really there.  Is that my fear?  Is that my doubt?  Is that my worry?  Was it?

Well guess what?  I get a chance to look it in the face, my fear.  I get a chance to work with it.  I get a chance to intentionally say to myself what I want. I get a chance to manifest.  Enter some more mantras.

Happiness mantras:

1.    My happiness is lasting.

2.    My happiness will always be here.

3.    If I don’t feel my happiness, it will always come back.

4.    I have not missed any opportunities.  My soul would not let me miss an opportunity.  If I need it, it will come back to me.

5.    My future is always promised to me.  It is beautiful.

6.    There is always something greater I am headed for.  That could never change.

The next card out was the final outcome.  It was a card I had received in a previous reading.  This time it came out in the reverse.  My final outcome card was the Nine of Swords.  Nines are endings in the tarot.  In the reverse it could mean that it wasn’t done yet.

The energy coming off of this card in the reading that day, was felt to be from an outside energy that was attached to me.  It wasn’t coming from me, myself.  On the card is a graphic image of a tortured bird, laying in a nest, with nine swords driven through his withering body.  My counselor said it represented someone who was stuck, maybe in his own comfort of being in a state of misery.  She reminded me that just because that bird was laying in that nest of swords, tortured, in sheer agony, did not mean that he didn’t feel secure there.

And even though it was clear, and the Universe was making it clear that I could not pull the swords out for this poor little bird, there was a possibility that in the final outcome, when all was said and done, healing was possible.  There was hope that the swords may get taken out, the bird might get healed, the situation could and might just take care of itself. 

So, in the end, this Life Path reading, with all of the reversals, with all of the twists and turns that it took, was not the horror that it could have been.  My future is always promised to me.  There is always something greater I am headed for.  That could never change.

But just to check in, with the Universe that’s got my back, since it has been almost a year and a half, I have another reading scheduled with my counselor next Tuesday.  A lot has transpired since the last reading.  A lot has happened.  A lot of choices have been made.  A lot of growth has taken place.  I’m excited to see where this Life Path goes.

Here is a link if you would like to have your own Life Path reading.  Every day is a winding road, don’t you know.  Live.  Learn.  Grow.  Enjoy the journey. 

Lindsey Scharmyn Spiritual Guidance Sessions