Tarot Taps for Wednesday the 17th of September 2025

Present The Star reversed

Imagine standing under a night sky, but the stars are blurred by heavy clouds. You know they’re up there burning, bright, eternal but you can’t see them. That’s the energy of the Star reversed. It’s hope dimmed, faith faltering, a sense of “why keep wishing when nothing seems to change?”

In the present, this card whispers of exhaustion and discouragement. Maybe it’s the kind of discouragement that comes when you’ve poured so much into someone or something, and the return is only silence. It’s not that the light is gone; it’s that it feels distant.

“When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness.” — Desmond Tut

“The darkest nights produce the brightest stars.” — John Green

This card as the present says the test isn’t whether the light exists it’s whether you can keep believing when it feels blocked.

What Hinders/Helps The World

Here’s a paradox: the card of completion sits in the seat of help and hindrance. The World means the cycle is ending, the lesson is integrated, the curtain is closing. But what if the struggle is that someone refuses to let the curtain fall? What if the story’s been told, yet the characters keep trying to squeeze out one more scene?

As a helper, the World says: embrace closure. Step into the new chapter with both feet. As a hinder, it suggests denial the refusal to accept something is finished, whole, done.

“Every exit is an entry somewhere else.” — Tom Stoppard

“And suddenly you know: It’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.” — Meister Eckhart

“The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning.” — Ivy Baker Priest

The World here pushes: endings are not failures. They are doors. The hinder comes when we try to drag a closed door open again.

Past The Empress

The Empress is the mother, the nurturer, the fertile ground of love. In the past position, she shows that the roots of this situation grew from a place of care, creation, and abundance. There was warmth, tenderness, and maybe even the dream of family wholeness.

But the shadow of the Empress? Overgiving. Loving so much that you forget to require reciprocity. Giving without boundaries until you’re drained. The past energy says someone here stepped fully into that maternal, providing role and it has shaped everything since.

“Taking care of yourself is part of taking care of others.” — Jennifer Williamson

“The art of mothering is teaching the art of living to children.” — Elaine Heffner

“You cannot pour from an empty cup.”

This is the soil everything else has sprouted from: love, but also overextension.

Root Six of Swords reversed

Picture a small boat meant to carry someone from stormy waters to safety. Upright, this is the escape, the healing transition. Reversed, it’s that boat stuck in the fog, paddling in circles, refusing to leave the storm behind.

The root of this situation is resistance to moving on. Someone clings to the storm, telling themselves, “It will calm down if I wait it out,” instead of realizing they have the oars to steer away.

“You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.”

“We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.” — Max De Pree

“Sometimes the hardest part isn’t letting go, but rather learning to start over.” — Nicole Sobon

This is the anchor dragging at the bottom: the refusal to leave behind what is already proven stormy.

Crown Eight of Wands

This is the burst of arrows flying through the air speed, clarity, momentum. Mentally, there’s a craving for movement. The mind is saying: “I can’t stand still any longer. I need change, and I need it fast.”

In contrast to the stuckness below (Six of Swords reversed), the Eight of Wands at the top is the soul’s desire to break through the inertia. The mind wants the truth, communication, action. It’s impatient for resolution.

“Act quickly, think slowly.” — Greek proverb

“The future depends on what you do today.” — Gandhi

“Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet.” — Sarah Louise Delany

The crown pushes for speed while the root drags its feet that’s the tension.

Near Future Four of Cups, clarified by The Sun reversed

The Four of Cups is the discontent card: arms crossed, gazing at what isn’t enough, missing what’s offered. The clarifier, Sun reversed, shows that the dissatisfaction is tied to illusions about happiness. Someone is caught in “it should look like this” and can’t see the blessing in front of them.

Together, they say: expect a phase of boredom, apathy, or emotional withdrawal. The Sun reversed adds that the joy feels clouded not gone, but obscured.

“Comparison is the thief of joy.” — Theodore Roosevelt

“You’ll never be happy if you always look for what happiness consists of.” — Albert Camus

“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” — Dalai Lama

This near future is about missing the obvious good because of clinging to a false idea of what joy should look like.

You & Me Strength reversed

This is the place where patience runs thin. Upright, Strength is gentleness, control, quiet courage. Reversed, it’s outbursts, loss of composure, or exhaustion of will.

Here, the bond between “you and me” is strained not enough inner calm to tame the lion. This card says frustration boils, and compassion is hard to sustain.

“Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.” — Joyce Meyer

“He who angers you conquers you.” — Elizabeth Kenny

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” — Nelson Mandela

This shows where the struggle lies: staying calm in a situation that provokes fury.

External The Hierophant

Institutions, authority, tradition external forces are shaping the moment. This might be family expectations, cultural rules, religious values, or simply “the way it’s always done.” The Hierophant says there are outside frameworks dictating what’s “right.”

“Tradition is a guide, not a jailer.” — W. Somerset Maugham

“When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge.” — Tuli Kupferberg

“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” — Joseph Campbell

The external is heavy with judgment or expectation.

Hopes & Fears Page of Pentacles

A small seed of possibility. The hope: a fresh start, a new beginning, something stable. The fear: immaturity, wasted effort, another false dawn.

This Page is the student eager to learn, but unsure of their footing. It suggests a longing for renewal, but doubt that it will last.

“Do not despise the small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.” — Zechariah 4:10

“The expert in anything was once a beginner.” — Helen Hayes

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” — Arthur Ashe

This shows a desire for fresh stability, but a fear it may crumble again.

Outcome Three of Swords

Here’s the climax: heartbreak, truth through pain. The Three of Swords is the cutting of illusions, the raw honesty of disappointment. It’s never a soft landing, but it is clarifying. Sometimes, it’s the exact break needed to clear the fog.

This card says the outcome of this storyline is not denial it’s the truth, piercing. Painful, yes, but also freeing.

“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls.” — Kahlil Gibran

This ending is about clarity born through heartbreak a shattering of the image so that real healing can begin.

Patterns / Reading the Room

Heavy Major Arcana (Star, World, Empress, Strength, Sun, Hierophant): this is a karmic, life-shaping story not a trivial phase.

Repetition of 8 energy (Star = 17 → 8, Eight of Wands, Strength = 8): this is about resilience, personal power, endurance.

Progression from apathy (Four of Cups) to heartbreak (Three of Swords): someone’s dissatisfaction turns into clarity through pain.

Tension between root and crown (Six of Swords reversed vs Eight of Wands): stuckness vs the craving for speed —the soul wants to move, but the boat hasn’t left yet.

👉 The whole spread tells a story of discouragement, stuckness, and illusions finally being shattered. Hope feels dim (Star reversed), cycles beg to end (World), but clinging persists (Six of Swords reversed). Momentum builds (Eight of Wands), but apathy clouds joy (Four of Cups + Sun reversed). Strength is tested (Strength reversed), external forces weigh in (Hierophant), and while there’s a hope for a new seed (Page of Pentacles), the outcome is the raw truth (Three of Swords).

The promise here? Pain leads to clarity. The denial will not hold forever.