Eight Useful Tarot Spreads Day 2: Balancing Action

Image description: A tarot spread, using the Steampunk Tarot. The spread includes Strength, The Moon, The Sun, the Queen of Pentacles, the Ace of Wands, and The Star.

This is the second in my series of posts reviewing/trying out the eight spreads in Evvie Marin’s Eight Useful Tarot Spreads for Times of Resistance and Change. Today I’m trying out the Balancing Action spread.

This is a six-card spread designed to help us figure out which of our actions are helping and which are hurting, and what we should move towards and step back from, as well as balancing cards to help bridge those polarities.

love the design of this spread, and I am looking forward to using it many times. (I am in the middle of a year-long collaborative art project, the Tender Year, and every Sunday our prompt is to “challenge the binary.” You can read about that project here. I think that this spread will be a brilliant addition to my binary-challenging Sunday tools!)

Lately (a long lately), I have felt so far out of balance when it comes to my work life. Even now, I am writing this post rather than having the bath I had promised myself earlier today. I feel like I am constantly overwhelmed, constantly exhausted, constantly running on fumes.

So I came into this spread looking for some clues to point me towards balance in my work life.

The top row, left to right, is “Helpful effects of my actions: Strength,” “Balancing energies: The Sun,” “Harmful effects of my actions: The Moon.”

The bottom row, left to right, is “Where to step up: Queen of Pentacles,” “Balancing energies: The Star,” “Where to step back: Ace of Wands.”

The first thing I noticed was all those majors. Four out of six cards, just like yesterday’s spread! And the fact that the Sun, Moon, and Star all made an appearance.

Here’s how I read it for myself –

I am making progress, and I am resilient. My actions (this constant forward motion I find myself in) is not all bad – I am developing my strength, my ability to sit calmly with the monsters I face, my compassion in the presence of pain. Since most of my work is with marginalized communities and trauma recovery, this was encouraging.

But on the other side, the more challenging aspects of The Moon – hopelessness, a sense of feeling lost and unsure, confusion. I’m not taking enough time to rest, and it is leading me to dark places.

I can balance this with The Sun (the goth in me hisses at this thought, haha). Focusing my efforts on things that renew and energize me, and balancing the despair of that Moon with the resilience of Strength. I also think I should go outside more often. It does help.

Then, where to put my energy.

Step up to the Queen of Pentacles. Step back from the Ace of Wands. I saw these two cards and immediately felt the whoosh of affirmation – I do need to focus on building sustainability into my work (I need to start charging for my work, which is a running theme in my life lately). Step up to the challenging necessity of assigning monetary value to my labour (without falling into violent capitalism! Sliding scale will always be present in my narrative therapy and group facilitation work). And step back from taking on more projects right now.

And how to balance those? The Star. Have hope. I don’t need to keep adding new work to my plate – I can stay focused on what I’ve already committed to, and trust that I’ve chosen wisely. I can balance my fear of stepping up to material stability and my fear of stagnating, and just let myself sink some roots down into that pentacle energy and let that frantic desire to always be starting something new slip a little further to the back.

Phew!

I can think of so many other situations where a spread like this will come in handy. This evening I facilitated a discussion for the bisexual/pansexual/asexual community group that I run, on the topic of The Closet in all its nuance – as a place of oppression, safety, choice, pressure; coming out as liberation and as frustrating expectation. It was a really great conversation, and also fits with this idea of balancing action.

You can find this spread, as well as the entire delightful book, on Evvie Marin’s website, Interrobang Tarot. And she just added a PDF download option, making it even more perfect!

I’ll be back tomorrow with another post, trying out the Emotional Arrow spread.