The Tarot Year: January 22-31

the decan

the V of swords is the first of the Aquarius decans and is named Defeat. it’s not the most painful of the sword cards, but it’s not pretty.

what does the 5 of swords mean in tarot?

argument, conflict, despair, giving up, being beaten, lacking resources, lacking support – by any reckoning, this is a difficult card. hold it, and you’ll see how those swords prick your thumb. this card draws blood, even if it doesn’t slay.

what does the 6 of wands mean in tarot?

at the end of this decan, in exactly six months’ time, the decan will be Victory, the VI of wands. the V of swords shows a victor, but it’s called Defeat because everyone is defeated here. the smirk of this victor smacks of arrogance, an attitude that only keeps conflict alive. this card asks us to think about our attitude to defeat – no matter what side of it we are on – maybe even more so than defeat as an event.

the card I drew to interpret this decan, which covers January 22-31 in the Tarot Year, is the II of pentacles – Harmonious Change. it’s not the first time in this year of blogging that the first card of the previous decan comes to talk to the first card of the next.

Harmonious Change comes to help us shape our attitude towards defeat. our projects, our work, our results – ourselves – all have to be tested. otherwise, we risk deluding ourselves. the balance, skill, energy, and spirit of the II shows us how to navigate a trial by fire – trials we must learn to accept as an essential part of the alchemy of life itself.

are you struggling to move on after a negative experience? need help thinking about what to do next? want to know how the cards can help you work through a defeat?

Visit my readings page to book a reading or drop me a message online!

the advice

restoring balance after defeat is the first priority

let go of treasures that keep you in ego, and not enough in spirit

the more something annoys you, the more you can learn about yourself from it

defeat feeds on shame; shame is how we defeat ourselves. win or lose, refuse shame

reframe defeat as a stepping stone, then find your next step

pick up what you can and start again

catastrophe or opportunity? find the doorway in the defeat

stand-alone; fail alone. get help

when defeated, reconnect. you’ll feel better

first time success is the exception; life is marathons, not miracles

victory and defeat are rare; failure though is everywhere. keep going

if it’s really the end, make it a resolution too; resolve your affairs or you yourself will be unresolved

the symbols

choppy sea, choppy sky – the wind of the mountains blowing tunic and hair to the right. these are the winds of change – and who’s to say whether for better or worse? the defeat here is not physical so much as internal, and all the more overwhelming for it.

the scene is a natural landscape, and our focus is on the man-made symbol of the sword, in the main. so is the composition of those swords that is crucial. two point up, one down, one right, one forward – to are touching the bottom of the frame – whether you are left or right handed, you will notice this card is ‘stabbing’ your thumb.

but no-one is dead here – the emphasis is on sufficient injury to stop fighting. in other words, part of the defeat here is the self-defeat of giving up. the shame of abandoning something dear to us is often more painful than the loss itself.

combined with the jagged, diagonal dynamics of the sky, the energy of the card is chaos, disorder. but unlike the defeated solitude of the IX of swords, and the defeated body of the X, the losers here are not lost, or dead, simply beaten.

but how did one beat two? because they did not work together. why don’t they pick up a sword and fight on? one faces left, into the past – the other covers their face, and so faces inwards. these directions suggest they have given up because they have lost the mental battle.

there are total defeats, but they are relatively rare. but no-one gets a second chance if they don’t give themselves a second chance. perhaps all defeat is self-defeat in the end. that border across the bottom is another useful clue here – this is a stage card. misery needs an audience to hear our “woe is me”.

defeat is an emotion that feeds on shame. here we have the pain of defeat and the shame of defeat, or, perhaps, a display of negative emotions intended not so much to process the defeat, is to garner the attention needed in order to recover – like an infant whose screams exceed their injury but can only be soothed by reconnection with their protector.

of course, the card can literally mean a defeat, simply that. but it’s more likely to indicate in a confusion, giving up, being overwhelmed by negative emotions, failing to see opportunity, failing to accept the inevitability of change in life.

it could represent a victor as well, but very different from the balanced victory of the VI of wands. this is the victory of aggression, vindictiveness, even bullying. such gains are short lived, and the arrogance of the victor invites further conflict.

the II of pentacles arrives to show us a different way, asking us to think about seeing Defeat in terms of Harmonious Change.

those juggling pentacles are, after all, kept inside the loop of infinity. harmonious change comes when we connect our material purpose to our higher, spiritual purpose. the defeated figures in the card have been vanquished, perhaps, because they did not have a high sense of purpose to sustain their efforts.

the sea of the II is far more dangerous than that of the V – and far more is ventured upon it. those clouds are jagged and windswept – but they don’t pour down rain like the III of swords. again, we defeat ourselves by believing in defeat.

if we choose instead to see every setback as a spur to spiritual growth – if we react to defeat as a lesson rather than a crushing, emotional blow – if we see opportunity inside catastrophe – then we may recognise it’s not too hard to pick up the pieces of what we lost, what is broken, not too hard to begin again, to try once more.

life is failure. everything is failure – but failure on the way to something else, to something better. everything that has ever been replaced by something else is or was a failure, ultimately – and nothing living and breathing rests can say, “this is perfect, I’ll stop here”. we go on.

we have no choice but to grow, and therefore no choice but to come to terms with defeat as both an ending and an opportunity, a doorway even. if our attitude is well-tuned, we will never experience defeat, because every setback along the way will be nothing more than the gift of a signpost pointing us towards what really works for us, the future that is truly ours.

beneath the surface

the cards present images of struggling on, and giving up – of toil and resignation – of struggle and defeat. the last couple of blogs, this polarity has been reflected in the Tree of Life, with the two cards effectively opposite each other on the pillars of mercy and severity.

here, there is no direct pathway from the second sephira, Chokmah, to the fifth, Geburah, so we look at where they may intersect on the Tree. the pathways do indeed meet, their intersection being the third sphere, Binah, assigned to Saturn.

in old astrology, before the discovery of the outer planets, Scorpio was ruled by Mars, Pisces by Jupiter – and Aquarius by Saturn. with the II of pentacles being a Capricorn card – and Capricorn ruled by Saturn – and with the ancient connection of Aquarius to Saturn – it’s not too much of a stretch to interpret the relationship between these cards on saturnine terms.

we might say the hard work of the II has led to mental exhaustion and defeat. their skill in juggling becomes careless through tiredness and leads to mistakes, and defeat. they have too many projects on the go – they lack focus – and the result… is defeat.

the message of Saturn here is the place limits around work – do your hours, but no more. pay attention to your life outside of work and nourish yourself with it. know your limits – expand them – but do not exceed them. work together and achieve more; stand-alone, fail alone. make work reflect the higher order of the cosmos, or what you create may be chaos.

another message is to understand the play of time in our lives. often when Saturn shows up we see something broken, lost, or failing. here I’m thinking of the V of cups, the VII of pentacles, and the III of swords as examples. it’s not for nothing Saturn is called a malefic planet in astrology.

but Saturn at root is an agricultural deity, ruling harvests, and therefore time. the bad rep comes from the embedded association with death – the astrological glyph for Saturn is based on the image of a scythe – with the idea of reaping the harvest corrupting into “the Grim Reaper” over the centuries.

but the solution here is to mediate between the II and V as Saturn does on the Tree – by reminding us of the role time plays in all our lives. defeat is a setback, but time will go on – this is not the end. so the struggle will go on, and it will be better for experience.

whether we are winning or losing, maintaining a realistic attitude towards change helps keep us moving forward. some defeats never make sense – there are hands that life deals us which are so utterly appalling as to defeat all effort at recuperation, reframing, or interpretation. there is stuff that defeats the mind, whether we like it or not.

but most setbacks, somewhere down the line, appear to us as somehow necessary – even as helpful in a way we didn’t understand at the time – and keeping an open mind about what might happen in the long term can help us to manage great difficulty.

if you have a higher power (or several) put your trust there – trust that what is happening now is a stepping stone, not a final destination, and when the moment is right, allow yourself to think about dusting yourself off and working out the next step, however small.

in astrological terms, the V is Venus in Aquarius. we may need to interpret the card both in terms of how the planet is defeated and how the sign is defeated. Venus tries to bring love, harmony, and organic growth into the world. Aquarius demands change, and rules technology, powered by its modern rulership by Uranus – planet of revolution.

the defeat goes both ways – radical ideas or inventions can often destabilise or destroy a finely balanced society or ecology. revolutions are usually powered by passion, which turns into fanaticism, which becomes aggression, and violence. revolutions defeat themselves, ultimately, by passing into a new orthodoxy – often an even more repressive one.

perhaps the industrial revolution seemed like a great idea at the time, hurray for change and all that, but who’d have thought it would bring us to the edge of extinction, and a technology-based economic system creating the biggest gap between rich and poor the world has ever seen.

Venusian energy presents a model of change that risks stasis, or a lack of progress, but the slower, more gently evolving change of nature may be the best model. that said, with such a drastic situation, perhaps only drastic action will work – including radical new technologies to get us out of the mess we are in – at least that is what some believe.

defeat here is both new ways and ideas not taking hold, and the toppling of an existing order. that’s why the II comes to speak to the V. prepare for change before it happens, it says. bring change into line with higher purpose. understand the necessity of change but make it work for everybody.

change does not have to be chaos and defeat. to be alive is to exist in the process of change. we cannot resist it, but that doesn’t mean we need to let go of the steering wheel.

finally, the numerology tells us our response to defeat, and the cause of our defeat, is connected – when we lose balance, we lose all. restoring balance after defeat is the first priority. once equilibrium is restored, we are able to continue.

the figures in the V seemed to be abandoning the fight. abandoning things is one way of ending a situation but it is deeply unsatisfying. often what we think is finished haunts us as an un-lived life, or just plain comes back to bite us in the ass.

if the defeat really is the end, remember that a real ending is a resolution, not simply a 'stopping'. so resolve your affairs, or you yourself will be unresolved, and that’s not a happy place to be.

with thanks to the decks and designers – the RWS of Pamela Colman Smith with Mary Hanson-Roberts, Chris-Anne's Muse and Lightseer Tarot, RuPaul’s Drag Race Tarot, Manara, Kim Krans's Tarot, Siri Rose’s Cascadia Tarot, Elisa Poggese’s Sensual Wicca Tarot, Nicoletta Ceccoli’s Tarot, Antonella Platano’s Tarot of the 78 Doors, Jack Sephiroth’s Heaven and Earth Tarot, Marco Proietto’s Capobianco Nero Tarot, MJ Cullinane’s Crow Tarot, and Star Spinner Tarot by Trungles.