You have been offered the freedom to follow your heart; do not let the opportunity go by.

The card that lands in the Situation position refers to the circumstances you find yourself in with regard to your concern.

When the Nine of Coins is in this position, it means you are supported by an established enterprise that will provide for you while you increase your knowledge and abilities. All that is required in return is that you thrive and flourish. It is a great trade. This is an unusual situation -- take advantage of it to pursue your interests and develop your talents.

Remember to stay humble. You are benefiting from some larger institution or structure and you want to take care not to poison the waters for yourself or others who will come after you. Be receptive to the benefits and the advantages and make sure you give fair value in return.

2. Challenges/Opportunities - Page of Swords

You have the opportunity and position to influence the thinking of those around you.

The card in the Challenges/Opportunities position reflects how you can use creativity to turn a crisis or challenge into an opportunity.

When the Page of Swords (in some decks, a Princess) is in this position, sharpen your mind and raise your intellectual and intuitive antennae. Recognize the patterns of thinking affecting those around you. You have an opportunity to influence the assumptions of those who interact with you on a daily basis.

By using new vocabulary and presenting new ideas, you can change conditions and help refine or upgrade shared goals. Raise awareness with quiet but steady input from the sidelines. The Page does not draw attention to himself. He positions himself in the world as a servant of powerful people; he or she is often the source for their better thinking. Perhaps at present your greatest strength is your humility.

3. Advice - Ace of Pentacles

Take small, steady steps toward your long-term goal and you will accumulate magnificent results.

The card in the Advice position suggests a course of action which will harmonize what you want with what is currently possible.

The Ace of Pentacles in this position advises that you apply nature's lesson of compound interest and develop your project gradually. A slow and steady buildup -- visible or invisible -- makes change and growth inevitable. Akin to the changing of the seasons, you do not notice this trend from day to day. As the year comes full circle, however, you cannot miss the changes.

This card advises that if you work a little bit every day toward your long-term goal, at some time in the future you will discover that you have accumulated magnificent results. The secret of achieving success does not lie in inflating your dreams to grandiose levels; instead it comes about by choosing your direction wisely, while humbly and faithfully taking one step at a time.

4. Daily Lesson - The Sun

The highest response to fulfillment and abundance is to share that golden energy with others.

The card in the Lesson position represents the personal investment or sacrifice required to derive full benefit from your current situation.

The Sun card in this position requires that you receive with gratitude all the positive energy being directed at you. In the course of experiencing it, be sure to pass it on as unsullied as you received it.

Don't view yourself as superior to or worthier than others. Follow the example of the sun in this card, beaming forth and shining indiscriminately on all who enter your domain. Don't hoard the energy that flows toward you.

5. The Near Future - the Hanged Man

A time of surrender approaches. As your dignity, control and cherished self-image are stripped away, you will rediscover the deeper and more authentic parts of yourself.

The card in the Near Future position indicates which way the wind is blowing with regard to your situation. If you follow the Advice card, however, you can improve on or neutralize tendencies.

The Hanged Man card suggests that you may soon face a test on how far you have outgrown the victim mentality and its companion, that helpless, hopeless feeling. Your situation may quite likely feel bleak during this time. Remember, however, that whatever you lose from a purge are things that never were yours in the first place.

Practice graceful acceptance of what you cannot change. Use the "enforced downtime" of the Hanged Man situation to truly acknowledge your offenses and repent of them, for yourself and for all who might have been harmed. If you do your homework and accept the necessary adjustments to your previous style and world-view, you may gain a whole new perspective on who you are and why you are here. This alone will help vindicate all that you have been through.

The basic unfairness of the situation may or may not ever become apparent to others, and perhaps that is not the point. The point is to get back to your unadorned truth, at the core of you, and resolve never to get so far away from the essentials again.

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Tarot reading from tarot.com; images from the Morgan-Greer deck.

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