The Scary Tarot Reading That Almost Made Me Cancel My Bali Trip
Today, I’m writing you from a beautiful balcony in Ubud.
This last full moon, April’s pink moon, was a milestone for me. April 29th was my 31st birthday and two days later I flew to Bali for six weeks of sunshine and spirituality.
I’m staying at a gorgeous Airbnb run by a Balinese family. My host, Eka picked me up from the airport and promptly invited me to his baby’s blessing ceremony on May 10th (which of course, I’ll tell you about). I wake up to roosters crowing and children playing in the courtyard. A woman named Ketut brings me tropical fruit and an omelet every morning after she lights incense and places a Hindu offering on the shrine outside my room. I watch the sunset from my balcony and fall asleep with the windows open.
I am SO loving life right now.
I promise I’m not trying to make you jealous. The reason I’m telling you this is to give you some context for what I’m going to share next.
So, this dream trip? I almost canceled it.
Before I booked the trip, I asked my tarot cards if I should go, and got a resounding yes (the Sun, the Magician and the Star, three of my favorite cards in the deck).
So I booked it. The Universe made me do it!
But as my trip drew nearer, fear set in. Was I crazy for doing this alone? There was so much that could go wrong. Again, I turned to my cards, asking what my Bali experience would be like. The cards had given me a “good” answer before. They’d do it again, right? Right!
And then I got the Ten of Swords. Yikes.
If you’re not familiar with the Ten of swords, the Rider-Waite version shows a man lying face down on the dirty ground with ten scary swords sticking out of his back.
Needless to say, I did not feel very comforted.
So I shuffled again and drew another card. You know, just in case.
Ten of Swords AGAIN! Double yikes.
Over the next couple months, the Ten of Swords kept showing up in my readings. I was starting to wonder if I was literally going to get stabbed with huge medieval swords upon my arrival at the Denpasar airport. Or at the very least, my plane would crash.
A few days before my trip, I was talking to a friend about emotional wounds. (This was the same friend who drew my attention to my “getting bullied” wound that I blogged about a few weeks ago.) I said to her, “Monica, I feel like I have million emotional wounds to work through. How am I supposed to heal them all?”
To that, she said, “No, you don’t have a million. You probably have about ten.” Her theory is that everyone has five to ten core wounds.
“Ten wounds…” my intuition whispered, “...Ten of Swords”.
Ah. So that’s what the card meant. Bali would be where I’d heal my ten wounds.
That I could handle.
So that’s what I’m working on for the waning phase of the Pink Moon. I’m shedding the false beliefs that have kept my wounds from healing.
For me, tarot is a way to channel my intuition. I sometimes use the “traditional” meanings when I read cards, but often times, my intuition nudges me towards a different story.
How do you read your cards? Have you ever gotten a “bad” tarot card? How did you interpret it? Let me know! I’d love to hear from you!
Thank you so much for reading, and never forget, you’re powerful :)
Have a magical day!
Julie
P.S. The worst thing that has happened so far in Bali was finding a gecko in my shoe. (Which was horrifying, but you know, I survived.)
P.P.S. >>Again, here’s the free Waning Moon Tarot Spread printable<<