What’s Holding You Back: Tarot Pick a Card
We all have roadblocks in our lives. What makes it hard to overcome them is understanding what the obstacles are and how to confront them.
One of the tools you can use is tarot, and with this pick a card, you can tap into your intuition to reveal deep truths about your life. It’s easy and fun: all you have to do is select one of the piles of cards above that sticks out to you the most.
After you select your cards, choose below or scroll down to your pile.
In this reading, I’m using the Everyday Tarot and the Work Your Light oracle decks (these are affiliate links that support my tarot reading). I’ll be asking the universe three questions: what’s holding you back, how it’s holding you back, and what to do about it.
Now let’s discover what your personal obstacles are.
Pile 1
What’s Holding You Back
Sometimes, the people closest to us, like family or friends, are who hold us back. Your first card, the Ten of Cups, speaks of domestic bliss and the harmony of close relationships.
There are a few different ways I could read this card. The first is the less nefarious meaning: you care about your family, friends, or community and can’t imagine sacrificing their needs for your desires.
This is an admirable reason in many circumstances and I can’t fault those for prioritizing the people they care about. They might really need you to make personal sacrifices for their wellbeing, such as children or elderly relatives, so you wouldn’t feel right or happy ignoring them.
But even if that’s the case, you need to consider the other meaning.
The people who are in our lives can pressure us to live in ways that aren’t in alignment with who we are. These pressures may not be fair or even realistic. It’s also possible these pressures aren’t direct, but subtly implied and passively enforced.
Either way, when someone is in a situation like this, they tend to become more unhappy and their health suffers.
The truth is that most of us in these circumstances can make small changes over time to pursue our desires without alienating or hurting our loved ones. However, we become so used to these pressures that we don’t even try and end up creating a permanent obstacle in our lives.
How It’s Holding You Back
One of the problems with living a life out of alignment with who you truly are is that you get burned out – fast! Your second card, the Knight of Wands, Reversed, exemplifies this problem quite well. This is a card of passionate, ambitious energy setting itself on fire.
I sense that, despite the objections and criticisms of the people in your life, you’ve tried to pursue your passions anyway. But you’ve done this in secret and in small bursts, leading to you not being able to give it the proper focus it requires.
When you love doing something, it physically hurts you not to pursue it. That’s because it makes your body restless, leading you to spend that energy elsewhere.
But nothing is as satisfying as doing what you love.
There’s another problem you may not have realized as well. If you don’t spend enough time on what you enjoy doing, you don’t have enough experience to do it as well as you would like. You may also misunderstand why it is you like it and what parts you enjoy most.
This can result in you applying your interests into the wrong projects during the time you do have. Imagine an artist who spends her time drawing, when instead, she’d be happier painting. However, she never spent enough time to truly understand how to pursue her passion for art effectively.
That’s how your family, friends, and community may be holding you back. Because even when you do try to pursue it with what time you have, you’re not able to make the most of it.
What to Do About It
Most of the time, when I do readings on topics similar to yours, I recommend setting aside time to pursue your passion. While that remains true in your case, the third card in your spread suggests a different approach.
Your oracle card is Don’t Dim to Fit In with the wisdom message “How are you dimming your life in order to fit in?” Here, the figure on the card is blinding themselves by covering their eyes. Their sense of self is then splitting and fading into the background.
What you need to do is confront the problem head-on. In whatever manner you can, you need to let the people closest to you understand why you need to pursue your passion. Otherwise, you’ll continue being blind to what it is that makes you happy and slowly lose your identity.
I sense that there’s a part of you that needs their acceptance. It’s not an option to continue living as you are out of alignment.
This is a tricky proposition for some of you. Imagine someone who is gay and isn’t certain their family will accept them. But continuing to live a false life won’t make them happy and may lead to them making others unhappy too. Imagine, for example, that they end up marrying a woman and having children, only to slowly erode at the happiness of everyone because of their misery.
That’s the problem with living out of alignment with who you are. It tends to build resentment over your responsibilities to others and hurts relationships. Don’t allow yourself to live this way. You may need to slowly transition into pursuing what you love. Some will accept it – others won’t. But remaining as you are is a recipe for disaster and nobody deserves that, including you.
Pile 2
What’s Holding You Back
This is unusual for me, but when I drew your first card, the Queen of Cups, I sensed that it was referring to a particular person. Court cards can indicate a person in your life or about to come into your life. In this case, someone with great compassion is holding you back.
I don’t believe this person is bad – rather the opposite. This is a person you deeply respect and admire, so you don’t want to disappoint them.
No matter how much you may admire someone, there’s always something about you or what you want to do which they may not approve of or even like.
Because of your other two cards, this person may be a maternal figure, mentor, or even a significant other. They have a lot of influence on how you live your life and you consider their opinions before acting.
This is causing a lot of internal turmoil for you because there’s something you want to do, but you aren’t sure how this will transform your relationship with the Queen of Cups.
But be forewarned: this person is very sensitive and intuitive, so there’s a good chance they’re already aware that you want to do something different. That means they’re able to see your growing discontent.
Unfortunately, they may assume this discontent is about your relationship with them instead of the true issue: you want to act independently.
There’s a part of you who has become somewhat codependent with this person. You rely so much on how they react that you won’t do anything until you know how they’ll respond to that action.
How It’s Holding You Back
Your hesitation is manifested in your second card, the Seven of Cups, Reversed. Here we see the suit of cups repeated, suggesting that you may be closed off to future relationships. This is a card of opportunities, and in its reversed position, there’s more emotional confusion.
The Queen of Cups is holding you back from making a decision, and because of that, you aren’t happy. Again, this person doesn’t mean to do this, but the effect is the same.
When we don’t want to disappoint someone, we’ll limit the opportunities and even the people we meet. If your Queen of Cups is a significant other, you may not be going out into the world and making friends. Instead, you spend all your time with your significant other. This may be happy and comfortable, but perhaps you don’t have a friend that you can enjoy some of the same hobbies with.
For those of you who have a maternal or mentor figure in this position, I sense that you’re unable to move beyond their sphere of influence. This is likely affecting your career prospects.
Did you know one of the most influential aspects of whether someone will stay in a position is whether or not the environment is toxic? If a person has great coworkers and a good boss, they may stay in a position doing what they don’t like or doing something unethical! Likewise, someone will leave a job they love or one that does charitable work because of a toxic environment.
That’s the unexpected influence a good person can have on another without realizing it.
What to Do About It
Your final card is the Pillar of Light with the wisdom message “Your vibration is rising. You are the oracle.” What you need to do to move beyond your Queen of Cup’s influence is to take emotional responsibility for your life. You lean too much on the familiarity of your relationship with them.
However, there’s a fortunate note I would like to mention here. Even though the Queen of Cups is an obstacle, I don’t believe they want to be. Because this person has such positive energy, I believe they’ll support you in the end, though some of you may have some minor conflict at first. That’s to be expected since you’re moving beyond them in some fashion, and that may be surprising – but they will accept it, and any conflict will be brief.
For those of you in a romantic relationship, this is a great opportunity for the both of you to find hobbies or do something separate from each other. Continue doing things together, but enjoy your sense of independence.
As for those of you with more maternal or mentor-like figures, you need to believe that you can graduate from being their emotional dependent to becoming someone who can act on their own. This is a bit like a coming-of-age experience in which you move into a new role, like in your career or education. That means you could end up with quite a physical distance between you and your Queen of Cups. That’s okay. You’re growing into your own person, and they’ll like seeing that person manifest into their full potential.
Pile 3
What’s Holding You Back
Ouch! According to the Seven of Swords, you’ve faced an unexpected betrayal. This can come in many forms, so you may or may not have been aware that it happened. One reason for this can be seen on the card itself: the thief hasn’t taken everything you have. Some of you may even be facing a betrayal right now.
But what kind of betrayal?
Judging by your other cards, it’s likely related to your career or personal passion. That means your obstacle is likely a coworker, peer, or even some sort of competitor.
I don’t get the sense that you betrayed yourself, which means what’s holding you back is somewhat out of your control. You’re going to have to accept that your loss happened and work to gain it back.
But who is this thief exactly? The Seven of Swords is a cunning figure who may have seemed friendly at first. As soon as you let your guard down, however, they snuck in and stole whatever they could.
What you need to recognize is that they didn’t take everything you have. It probably feels like that right now, but this thief didn’t come upon their prize honestly – you did.
That means you can get it back through your own hard work.
That said, you need to be aware of how they betrayed you in the first place. Is there someone you’ve put your trust in prematurely? I don’t believe this person is that close to you to begin with and the relationship is more “professional” and cold.
Even so, we sometimes treat people like a friend or close companion before they deserve it. That’s fine in some circumstances, but in more competitive situations, which I sense you may be part of in some way, you may be inviting someone into your life with bad intentions.
How It’s Holding You Back
The betrayal you faced had financial or material consequences, as indicated by the Ace of Pentacles, Reversed. Your progress has been tripped up and stalled, causing you to run straight into a wall.
This was a stunning and surprising hit to your career or passion, so you’ve had to take a step back just to breathe. Unfortunately, you weren’t prepared to face this consequence and don’t know how to get started again.
That’s the danger of finding yourself in a situation like this. Once you lose momentum on certain things, it can be a trial to get going again.
I sense the betrayal also caused you to question if your efforts are even worth it. After all, if this happened once, won’t it happen again?
That’s not a helpful perspective to have. While most are betrayed at some point in their lives, it’s rarely often, and with the right precautions, it can be prevented entirely.
So what’s really suffered from all this is your self-confidence. You aren’t sure you can manifest and defend what you desire.
Why bother, then? Well, do you feel better now after your betrayal at point zero? Yes, you need to catch your breath and create a plan because where you are isn’t going to make you happy in the long run. Just because you were knocked down doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to stay down. You won’t like it.
It’s not easier to just give up if it means being unhappy in the future.
What to Do About It
The last card in your spread is You’re Already Doing It with the wisdom message of “Stop overthinking. Keep facing your true north.”
There’s a reason I spent so much time dwelling on your lack of self-confidence. That’s because you already have all the tools you need to reach the same heights and even exceed them. Protecting yourself from betrayal is an entirely separate skillset, unrelated to your career or passion, which means the two issues are different.
Don’t feel like you have to redefine and rework your approach. Instead, spend that time considering how to better evaluate the people you come into contact with and who you work with.
You also need to see these skills as separate because it’s the reason why you were able to succeed in what you were doing, but the other person had to steal. You have an unusual gift that other people want to take for themselves. That leaves you in a superior position and one in which you can outmatch them.
Except when it comes to underhanded tactics. They were able to fool you because they used a strategy that isn’t helpful in your life path. If it was helpful, it would have already allowed them to succeed.
Be aware of those who are less skilled in what you do. Don’t assume the worse of those in your network, but be wary of sharing your trade secrets unless you have a close relationship and feel as if you would be friends outside of your career or passion.
See to it that you don’t fall to their immorality either: chances are, it will devour your sense of self-worth in a different way and you’ll lose confidence in the honest way of doing things. You’re so much better than that just like you’re better than the one who betrayed you. Remember that.