Years in the past, once they have been feeling misplaced and directionless and leaning too closely on their vices, Edgar Fabián Frías forged a spell on themself. As a part of the method, the L.A. primarily based artist, therapist and magical practitioner determined they’d pull a tarot card and get no matter they chose tattooed on their arm.
As luck (or the universe) would have it, Frías pulled the Power card. Since then, they’ve had a line drawing of a female determine leaning comfortably in opposition to a big orangutan on their left bicep. “Fuerza” (Spanish for energy) is written in blue ink beneath the picture. (The standard Power card often depicts a lion somewhat than an orangutan, however in tarot, every little thing is open to interpretation.)
“It helped me on my therapeutic journey, and I discover the cardboard typically connects with people who find themselves attempting to get better or discover themselves,” Frías mentioned. “It’s like an angel or a information that comes at simply the proper second.”
For those who too really feel like you possibly can use some Power power in your life, you’re in luck. Tarot practitioners say the Power card is 2024’s card of the yr. That’s as a result of 2+0+2+4=8, and Power is the eighth card in most fashionable English-language tarot decks. Identical to honoring the seasonal rhythms of the yr or the phases of the moon, working with the cardboard of the yr is usually a approach to body and contextualize a particular time period.
“Once we discuss concerning the card of the yr, we will take into consideration what energies are related to it that may assist information or help us or probably give us some clues into the theme of the yr,” mentioned writer and artist Sarah Religion Gottesdiener, who additionally leads tarot workshops.
For instance, in 2023 — a Chariot card yr — Eliza Swann, founding father of the Golden Dome Faculty, a thriller college for artists with branches in New York and L.A., moved homes 4 occasions. (The Chariot card is historically related to motion and momentum).
“I by no means had a extra insane transferring second,” Swann mentioned. “And I assumed, ‘Properly, it’s a Chariot yr.’ It helped me take a look at this loopy motion as having a mythic framework.”
For Frías, 2023’s Chariot yr was an invite to ponder the course of their life, the place they have been headed and the components of their life the place they didn’t really feel empowered or in management. On this Power yr, they plan to consider methods to obtain, name in and domesticate energy to make huge modifications occur.
“It’s about turning inward towards ourselves and opening up our hearts,” Frías mentioned. “Some name it the aware and unconscious coming collectively.”
In the preferred and iconic tarot deck, often called the Rider-Waite-Smith and first revealed in 1910, the Power card depicts a girl in an extended white costume leaning over a lion with its tail between its legs. An infinity signal floats over her head, suggesting she is likely to be a divine determine, and he or she appears to be utilizing light strain to shut the lion’s mouth and calm it. The lion radiates a wild power, however it seems up at her with one thing like belief. The lady is serene and unafraid.
The divinatory that means of the cardboard is “energy, power, motion, braveness, and magnanimity,” based on the little white guide that accompanies the deck.
When the cardboard is reversed (that means it reveals up the wrong way up in a diffusion), it means “abuse of energy, despotism, weak spot and discord.” However most tarot readers say the imagery of the cardboard suggests a extra broad and expansive interpretation.
For Gottesdiener, the cardboard is a reminder that energy is commonly mushy and unforced and that we will take a look at our true natures with compassion. “There’s this relationship with animal nature or animalistic intuition,” she mentioned. “She’s greeting this beast, this king of the jungle, and he or she’s not afraid of it. She’s greeting it for what it’s.”
This might lead us to see 2024 as a yr to reacquaint ourselves with want, pleasure and play, she mentioned. “We’re going inward to satisfy the beast. [In 2024,] we’ll be tasked with serious about ‘What are our true natures?’ and ‘What do they should flourish and develop?’”
Swann mentioned the Power card is related to Cybele, an iron meteorite that was celebrated as a mom goddess in Anatolia (the area now referred to as Turkey). “I consider Power as this actually stunning, divine, female ecstatic power — this wildly scorching meteorite,” Swann mentioned. “And I consider her because the goddess of settling the rating.”
On the collective degree, Swann sees Power card power in all those that are rising as much as make their voices heard. “All of the labor unions putting is Power,” they mentioned. “The power of organizing and making issues extra equitable is Power.”
However the card additionally has a shadow facet, Frías mentioned. This consists of feeling overwhelmed, pessimistic, letting feelings management you, self-hatred and constructing partitions between your self and others.
“In 2024, we have to hear with our hearts and develop practices that assist us domesticate hope, eagerness, pleasure and pleasure,” Frías mentioned. “Particularly when it’s arduous to take action.”
For those who’d wish to strive working with the power of the Power card this yr, there are many simple methods to start out. Frías often retains the cardboard of the yr on their altar as a reminder to search for the assorted methods its themes may present up over the subsequent 12 months. For those who don’t have an altar, you may make the cardboard the image in your telephone’s dwelling display screen or tape a photocopy of it in your nightstand. (A picture that represents energy to you’d additionally work.) You can also collect buddies to speak about your individual strengths.
“We’re taught to be humble and never title our personal strengths, so saying them out loud could be an excellent apply,” Swann mentioned.
And since Cybele’s festivities occurred across the spring equinox, Swann suggests imagining planting the seeds of your needs now and watching them erupt within the spring. “On the person degree, Power is about working with the power of want to realize objectives and dealing with your individual strengths, no matter they occur to be, so that you get concrete outcomes,” they mentioned.
Maybe, most easily, you may simply meditate on what energy means to you. “You’ll be able to take a look at the place it’s important to be stronger, take a look at the divide between what you say and what you do,” Gottesdiener mentioned. “You may also be actually aware about the place you, your self, is likely to be within the card together with your relationships and your life.”
The last word purpose, she mentioned, is to take the archetype out of the deck and convey it into your life.
