Weekly Reading – July 18, 2021

The Page of Swords – A Key to Innovation

This week in one of my personal readings I drew the Page of Swords using the Tarot of the Divine. This card can be the harbinger of new ideas coming from a place of wit and optimism. The story behind the card in the Tarot of the Divine is that of Princess Parizade – an Arabic folktale.

A quick summary of the story is that Princess Parizade and her two brothers were set adrift on the river by their mother’s jealous sisters. A royal gardener raised them, but one day passed away and they weren’t sure who would care for them. One day Parizade was kind to an old woman who let her know about three magical objects at the top of a mountain. In order to reach the top of the mountain they would have to ignore the taunts of spirits, for if they didn’t they would be turned to stone and never reach the top. The two brothers insisted on going on the journey without Parizade, but they were unable to ignore the taunts and turned to stone. Parizade tried next. Using all of her courage and her own “Medicine”, or ideas, she decide to stick wax in her ears so she could not hear the taunts – she climbed the mountain and as the taunts came she laughed at them. She reached the top of the mountain and received the three magic objects that allowed her to heal her brothers, heal the Gardner’s garden, and discover their true lineage and return them to the home of the Sultan. It was then that they were reunited with their mother.

I decided to pull some cards from one of my favorite Oracles – the Literary Witches Oracle – to understand the page of swords further, and what I needed to unlock it. I pulled Maria Sabina who knew a thing or two about healing medicine. She was a powerful shamanic healer who used psilocybin as part of her medicine, as well as the power of her poetry. She lived in the mountains of southern Mexico.

I find it interesting that I pulled an “old woman” from a mountain with a magical story to help understand this since that’s exactly what happened in the story. Even more interesting that it emphasizes non-traditional medicine and healing a key to unlocking your own innovation.

This week I encourage you to use your own non-traditional medicine, what ever that may be, to find keys to innovation. Maybe its innovation in your own healing process, maybe its innovation in how to help others heal. Maybe its storytelling and poetry as medicine that unlocks new ideas for you.

Whatever that is trust that medicine, and you will find your own magic objects at the top of your own mountain.