Moving through Business Disappointments with Three of Swords
Image of Three of Swords card from Pagan Otherworlds Tarot
A few months ago, I experienced a crushing disappointment with something related to my business. Something I’d hoped would go one way didn’t, and left me feeling ashamed, enraged, confused, and scared.
Almost immediately, my brain clicked into action mode. Yes, sure, I was upset — but what could I do about this situation that could shift it, or make it better? I could give up, just say fuck it and move in a different direction. I could shut down, and try to avoid that disappointment (or any kind of disappointment, for that matter) in the future. I could take action in a different way, and hopefully get a different outcome. But which action was the right one to take? I swirled and fretted, stuck in my well meaning, but totally obsessional thoughts.
Finally, after getting nowhere with my mental gymnastics, I turned to my Tarot deck, and dropped in with Source and my Spirit helpers.
“Guides, I’m in the shit right now. I’m lost, scared, confused, and so frustrated. I want to understand what happened, why it happened, and what I can do about it. If you have any medicine for me around this situation, an Anchor that could help me to understand what I’m meant to do about this right now, I would be so grateful to receive it.”
I ran my finger across the top of my deck, and pulled a card when it felt like a yes to do so.
It was the Three of Swords.
I immediately wept. Not out of fear or frustration, but out of understanding, gratitude, and resonance. The frenzy of my thoughts melted away almost instantly, and I was left with the truest truth, the only thing that could be known to me in that moment: there was grief here, it was asking to be centered and tended to, and that had to come before anything else. As soon as I understood that, there was a cracking open, a spaciousness that formed within me, and the tears came pouring down.
Three of Swords is not traditionally a card that we associate with business matters, and yet it couldn’t have been a more helpful, shining Anchor for my experience with this raw and vulnerable disappointment. How was I able to connect with the card in this deep and meaningful way?
When it comes to our business and service, I truly believe that there is no greater tool for our recalibration and perpetual re-centering than the Tarot. When we honor each Tarot card as being for us, not to us, and when we are open and curious about the medicine that each card is capable of bringing to a myriad of situations, a powerful shift can occur. When that kind of practice and process is centered, all cards flower open and can become wise guides for us around any situation, even in the case of unexpected pulls, like Three of Swords.
In this case, Three of Swords was such an instant reminder of the grief and disappointment that lived under the surface of my noisy, swirling thoughts. It dissolved the separation between myself and that pain in a moment, bringing me closer to those wounded places. It flooded me with self compassion. This pain needed my love, my tending, and my attention, first and foremost. Clarity about next steps would come, but for right now, there was nothing to fix, or solve. I hadn’t done anything wrong, and while hugely raw and painful, it was okay for those hurt and upset feelings to be here.
All entrepreneurs and creatives go through periods of immense doubt, worry, insecurity, and disappointment, no matter their success or skill level. It is a painful, but very real part of the flow of what it is to be of service. In our totally understandable, human desire to troubleshoot, clear, or even bypass an experience like this, we can sometimes inadvertently skip over the most important step: tending to our sweet, sensitive selves.
When it feels challenging to shift from the ego/thinking mind’s attempts to fix and solve, it can be useful to touch into our Tarot practice. We can lean on it as a loving mirror for the present moment, and engage with each card as a supportive Anchor and guide—even the unlikeliest or most unexpected of cards can bring huge medicine to us in difficult moments.
If you’d like more support around this, I recommend checking out my free quiz, “What Season is my Business in?,” which includes a free mini workbook around supportive Tarot Anchors and helping practices for each season that we might be moving through.
If you’d like to learn more about Three of Swords, and how to view it as a medicinal anchor for deep soul work, click here to listen to this podcast episode all about it.
If you are interested in learning more about how to weather these kinds of seasonal experiences with your business and service, I invite you to consider joining me for Heart of Service, my upcoming Spirit led business course that runs from October 8th to November 19th, 2021. Enrollment is open now and will close on October 6th at 9pm ET/12am ET.
For a full syllabus, course FAQ, and who this offering is for (and not for), click to learn more.