April 20 – 26, 2026
Last week, I did a one card energy reading followed up by some Lenormand cards for context. I thought it made for a good forecast, but I think mostly people want more specifics and direction. What direction are we supposed to have right now, though, when everything is so confused, and confusing? How do we plan our steps, on what seems to be shifting sand?
It’s not easy but under all the yelling, anger, and incivility our actual lives are still chugging right ahead. Yesterday I looked at the daylilies in my yard, with their long buds cinched up tight into pale goldy-green pods, and I thought, “How pretty it will be in a few days when all these bloom, and make a big show.”
And this morning, voila, there they are. Not in a few days. Now. Today. They don’t care about the worries of the world. Something on another level, a syncing up of day length, moon phase, rain, and warmth, stirred their energetic hearts and popped those buds open.
In our more familiar formula, and in line with considering how we might shape our world instead of letting it shape us, our cards for today are:
- 2 of Swords, reversed
- 6 of Wands, reversed
- King of Swords
- The Moon, reversed
- 8 of Pentacles, reversed
Oh, hello 8 of Pentacles, still reversed are you? He was also reversed in the New Moon Energy reading. He’s got plenty of company with three more of these cards reversed. 2 of Swords reversed? Can’t make a decision. 6 of Wands reversed? Can’t even get up the energy to fake it ‘till you make it. 8 of Pentacles reversed? Complete loss of confidence in old and trusted skills.
And the Moon, reversed? Oh, this pains me. The Moon spends a lot of time quietly reminding us that we have another side, entirely, from our waking (conscious) life and maybe we should access it once in a while. When upright, the Moon encourages us to look at things in a different way from the usual and customary. So when reversed, that option is not available or functional. We’re stuck with the single viewpoint, and that is a real limitation.
But we do have King of Swords! Hurray! (Cheers weakly.)
How to reconcile this decisive card of action with the reversed cards? He’s the only active card on the board. He’s the single energy that can actually do something, but he’s surrounded by apathy, single mindedness, and indetermination. We have to put ourselves in the role of the King of Swords, then, this week. The other cards are the odds he’s facing.
King of Swords is considered a “mean” card in Tarot, and that always annoys me. People who have trouble committing or making hard decisions judge harshly people who take control. Cari Mugleston, an intuitive medium, makes the point that when we judge somebody it is because we are jealous that they allow themselves to do things that we wouldn’t. Oh, snap! Think about that one for a minute, I’ll wait.
…so let’s take that into our reading, and consider if we’d ever allow ourselves, especially when finding a situation to be absolutely dead in the water, to take control and do hard things, even at the risk of people getting mad about it. Because maybe that is what we face this week.
The suit of Swords is all about communication; but it is particularly about communicating who we are to the world. Or I might say, who we are in the moment, because we’re always changing and shifting (if we’re growing.)
Kings are about the courage to be active and direct events. That’s completely in opposition to being surrounded (energetically) by indecision, lethargy, narrow-mindedness, and apathy. It looks like a week in which to be bold and take the lead, rather than waiting for somebody else to get their act together.
Asking Lenormand how we might see this scenario play out, we get:
- Fish
- Coffin
- Heart
- Star
- Garden
That’s a story of the sudden and emotional end of something that’s been abundant and has provided well for a time; but oddly, this does not turn out to be a bad thing, as the energy shifts toward the end of the week to something much more hopeful and positive – and shared by many.
As this layers in with our weekly reading, I would interpret it as the decisive action we must take if we are to step into the King of Sword’s energy; we might have to make a decision that affects people and they may be emotional about it – but once it is done, it is recognized as a necessary and good thing, after all.
