The 2 of Swords speaks to me of trust and wisdom; blending mind smarts and heart smarts, solar and lunar, assertive and passive. It speaks to me of allowing my extroverted, solar, assertive side to submit to my introverted, lunar, receptive nature. The truth is that trusting my hidden, shadowy, more intuitive side will not harm my more outward, rational nature. In fact it will enhance it and allow me to be more flexible, full developed and multi-dimensional. I get the sense of initiating myself into the mysteries of the unseen

The Ace of Pentacles shows an adorable hedgehog barely visible among the surrounding leaves and vines. He seems a shy little creature, just peaking out to let you know that he’s there even if I can’t see him. He reminds me that sometimes the work needs to be done in the shadows and outside of the view of others. It’s a reminder that groundwork needs to be done and small steps taken before goals can be achieved. These small steps should not be disdained because they may lead to amazing things.

These two cards combine to remind me that if I plan to pursue a career as a Tarot reader then I need to become more comfortable trusting and working with my intuitive, psychic nature. This may prove to be a challenge for me because it’s so different from my usual modus operandi but I think it’s a key component to succeed at this transition. I also need to accept that even succeeding in this new endeavor probably won’t give me the external validation I used to receive from my past career. I’ll be helping people in smaller ways that might not be visible to anyone else. I’ll need to develop different validation tools.

When I first looked at the Ace of Pentacles I thought the hedgehog was a mouse. This was interesting to me because during a shamanic workshop I learned two of my power animals are cougar and mouse. I’m more at home with cougar’s assertive, aggressive energy. Mouse is a quieter, shyer energy. I think drawing this card is also telling me it’s time to do more work with mouse energy