I’m more than halfway through the September Tarot Challenge and today’s prompt is “What am I guided to initiate right now”? I like the word initiate. The word as we use it today dates from the 1600s, but its origins are in the Latin initiatus which means “to instruct in mysteries or sacred knowledge”.[source] The word initiate contains the connotation of going deeper, making a more integral change to one’s self.
Today’s spread is different! No Major Arcana and just one court card!
Initiate and the Ace of Cups
The Ace of Cups is about beginning a path that takes one through the deep waters of the subconscious. I knew right away what this card was about because I’ve previously been encouraged to start my meditation practice back up and I haven’t. Meditation is the best way to teach the mind to be still so that information from the subconscious and those dark waters connecting all life. Very clearly the Tarot is encouraging me to initiate a new meditation practice.
The next card is the Nine of Wands. Here a warrior takes a moment from the battle to dress their wounds and evaluate what to do next. What does this have to do with initiate? 
This card is an encouragement. It reminds me that the battle isn’t won, I need to keep on and not rest on my current gains. I’m only at the start of this path. Watchfulness and further effort are still needed. I’m feeling proud of my gains this month, but more work is before me.
The Queen of Cups as Initiate
The lotus rises from the mud, through the water, to float and bloom. As such, it is a symbol of rebirth and creation. The Queen sits on a huge lotus blossom in contemplation with a stork, also seemingly in contemplation, before her. Storks represent many things, but in Native American lore they represent “insight and spiritual guidance”.[source]
So today’s reading is fairly precise. What do I need to initiate? A meditation practice because I’m not at the end yet and the guidance from and connection to the unknown within myself aren’t complete.
How This Challenge is Helping Me
With the challenge over halfway done, this is a good time to check my progress. I’ve limited social media access to my desktop computer, removing all apps from my phone. My moods almost instantly stabilized and lifted and by replacing that time with this challenge in the morning and reading books in the evening, I feel like I’m getting somewhere.
I’ve been reading “Building a Second Brain” by Tiago Forte which I highly recommend. A future blog post will cover how it works for me, but in a nutshell, it moved me from being passive to active. Activity certainly lifts my mood and I can now set goals and see what I want to do. I definitely feel like an initiate to a new way of personal productivity.
What Clients are Saying about Sophrosyne Tarot
I was advised to ask open-ended questions instead of predictive questions which I thought was helpful because I never would have known if it weren’t for the reader. The reader provided the reading along with some advice too so the entire reading was very thorough and explained in an understandable manner.
Everything said was accurate and helpful for me to identify my flaws in order to grow as a person. I have learned a lot about tarot and what it does to help me.
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