Oct. 12 – Oct 18, 2026
- The Reading
- Thinking About the Reading; Questions for Journaling or Reflection
I briefly considered focusing this reading entirely on what might happen in the world, politically, for next week because things are so hot right now; but I changed my mind because 1. The energy when I dip into it is spinning like the blades of a fan and I’m not putting my hand in that and 2.) What can we do about it, anyway?
The only thing we can control in life is our environment and how we inhabit it. If a bomb blows up somewhere across the world, what can we do? Absolutely nothing. Nor could we have stopped it beforehand.
Forecasting the energetic trends is the specialty of some readers, but after doing this for a long time, I much prefer to keep it closer to home. That said, our cards for what the week might bring and how we could react most positively to it:
- 6 of Swords
- 3 of Swords
- King of Pentacles
- The Emperor, reversed
- 9 of Wands
That is a lot of emotional territory to cross, next week, and we may at times feel like we’re dealing with so much at home, we can’t pause to look up and see the bigger world. And ultimately we slide into home plate the same way we started: alone.
Not that alone is a bad thing. There’s an old proverb that says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” This reading is one hundred percent fixated on a major move that withdraws us from a situation. From a situation. Not into a situation, where presumably we’d have the distraction of others.
6 of Swords is the active phase of having made a decision or resolution; this is not the slack and easy last week of December, when we’re stuffed full of food and merriment and football, deciding how we’ll eat better and go to the gym and stay on a budget in the new year.
Oh, no. The vibration of the Tarot six is JANUARY FIRST, friend. Are you going to put down the maple syrup and eat a hard boiled egg and black coffee for breakfast and sign up online for that gym membership, OR NOT? Are you a serious person or what?
Haltingly, and sometimes wincing as we think of what got us here, we take a faltering and probably not wholly enthusiastic step into the new future.
6 of Swords is that energy, only we are leaving behind all the consequences of our poor communications. Words can be harsh, and you can imagine what a pile of particularly savage ones it would take to upend your entire life and abandon ship.
But nobody said those words, or perhaps went along with some bad communications and did not speak out, but ourself. This is a solo act.
3 of Swords follows closely and that is a clue to what we might be leaving; it’s a dysfunctional relationship. Three people rarely make a relationship of any kind work, because two invariably take sides against the other at the first sign of discord. So again, someone walks away. Alone.
King of Pentacles? Well, hurray! But there is only one king in a kingdom, not co-kings or a rotating roster of kings. It falls on the king to provide leadership and set the course, and so, finding ourselves out there without backup means we have to figure it out; there is no one else.
Reversed Emperor. There’s no energy this week for big picture thinking; focus on the details you can control. And at last, our finish line? The notoriously and always singular 9! The nine vibration in the Tarot suits is a position of summing up before the final act. It’s the pause before going onstage to make sure all the zippers are up, the hair is perfect, and the notes you’re clutching for the presentation aren’t out of order.
What an exceptionally clear reading! A week in which: you might find yourself extricating yourself from an unsalvageable situation that has become highly dysfunctional due to bad communication and misunderstandings; you might have to shore up your food, money, and situation shelter with some real lasting effort; and at the end of it, you must review what you’ve done with a clear eye and the awareness that you’ve prepared a new and ongoing foundation for your responsibilities and obligations.
Oh, is that all? Yep, that’s all. But we could go really fast this week.
Questions for Journaling or Reflection
What specific patterns of communication (or silence) have contributed to a situation feeling unsalvageable, and what would it look like for me to take a clear, deliberate step away from them this week—even if that step feels faltering or lonely?
Where in my life am I being asked to act as my own “King of Pentacles”—providing stability, resources, or leadership without backup—and how can I focus on the concrete, controllable details rather than the bigger picture I can’t yet see?
As I move through this transition, what am I deliberately leaving behind, and how does the idea of arriving “alone” (rather than into a new situation) feel in my body and emotions right now?
At the end of the week, when I pause to review what I’ve prepared (the “9 of Wands” moment), what evidence will show me that I’ve begun building a more solid, self-reliant foundation for my ongoing responsibilities?
