Kitchen Table Tarot

The Hanged Man, 9 of Swords, The Emperor

Hello friend, and welcome to my kitchen table. I wish you great joy and optimism in the coming year and hope that you have your mind and heart set towards goals that will fulfill and enrich your life and the lives of those around you. Remember that your aspirations don’t have to be large or complicated to be valid. Anything that contributes to your peace and harmony is worthwhile, no matter how small. I personally will be watching my pentacles a bit more closely and trying to read the books I already have instead of adding to my growing to-read pile! If you’d like some encouragement for your own goals, please feel free to leave a comment about them. As always, if this reading resonates with you, I hope you may find some clarity. If it isn’t for you, I’m glad you’re here too. Let’s get to these cards.

The overall picture I see in this simple spread is that of experiencing significant angst over being stuck somewhere you don’t want to be—and having difficulty finding the way out for lack of your own boundaries. You may have found yourself going through trial after trial that has kept you in a state of suspension, as represented by the Hanged Man. The image on both this and the traditional Smith-Waite card speak to me about the state of dangling in a way that is difficult to extricate oneself from, but also the act of gaining new perspective. Even the slightest shift may help you see your situation as someone might from the outside of you/the people closest to you. Perhaps seeking the counsel of someone with a vastly different viewpoint could help you see where things have been dead-ending for you, whether it’s in yourself, what you’ve been doing, or the company you’ve been keeping. Are you stuck in a rut on life’s treadmill? Are you losing hope in the progression of your life, just doing the same things without any opportunity to change or do something different? If the people in your life discourage you from seeking another path when your intuition tells you to try new things, you could benefit from outside eyes. If you’ve been waiting in the wilderness for a sign from spirit, perhaps this card is a sign that you need to stop waiting and forge your own way.

The 9 of Swords describes the hopelessness that comes from whatever has you suspended and the fear that tinges the idea of becoming unstuck. If you’ve been spinning your wheels doing something that doesn’t work, and discouraged from deviating from this particular path, the idea of forging your own way might be terrifying. If you’ve been convinced that the current course of action—whether it’s a job, a relationship, a creative endeavor, or a group effort of some other kind—is the right way and your own feelings, intuition, and initiative are always wrong, of course the notion of striking out on your own will cause anxiety. It may be time to examine who around you would discourage you to trust your own instincts and reading of a situation and why. Who benefits from you stalling out or doubting yourself? What do others stand to gain from your obedience? No-one who genuinely cares about your growth and contentedness would insist on you waiting for a change to come—or doing the same things over and over again to your own detriment. If others encourage your helplessness, it’s important to examine the shadows for the why. Interrogate any sense of powerlessness that has left you hanging and terrified—this is your life, and you deserve to move freely in it. If you’ve made mistakes you can learn from them, but don’t let them keep you in a cage, convinced you will make them again without someone else’s intervention.

To this end, the Emperor is here to tell you to take up space. The power to direct your life is inside of you. It is not power over all and everyone—just you. Being stuck and stripped of your own authority over yourself is a temporary state. If you have been minimizing yourself to fit in while waiting on help to arrive, then you may have forgotten who you are. You are the expert in you—nobody else. Only you can figure out and decide what you’re about, what you want, and how capable you are of living for yourself and your highest good. If you’ve been going along with someone else’s song but you can’t quite pick up the tune, maybe it’s time to write your own. If others have been trampling on your boundaries, assert them now. You do not exist to please everyone. You are not a golden retriever. Not everyone is going to love you or approve of you, and the Emperor card is telling you to internalize that or stay stuck. This is not a license to be an asshole—you can still be kind and diplomatic and should always strive to do so where possible—but you are allowed to disagree, question conventional ‘wisdom’ (or whatever the status quo is where you are), and be yourself. If everything feels wrong, find your center, assert your right to exist, and start pushing back against those who just want you to heel, sit, and stay.

It isn’t always easy to wrest control of your life back from those who feel they know what’s best for you, so I offer you the encouragement to sit with yourself and give thought to what it is you want and how you might go about pursuing it. As I’m fond of saying, thinking is free—and it can help you free yourself. Remember that you are a powerful being, you are worth the life you want, you are worth loving yourself, and you are always welcome here at my kitchen table. -KTT 🌻💛