❓ Do you feel that you are the hero of your own life story? Are you aware of the talents you have? Do you know what you enjoy doing? What excites you?

💡 The realization that I am magic is the start of the hero`s journey. The four elements: air (♠swords 🗡️), earth (♦️ pentacles ⭐), water (♥️cups 🏆) and fire (♣️ wands 🌱) are all at the hero's disposal. The magical sword provides clarity of thought and decisiveness, the pentacle or coin enables the hero to provide for all material needs, the cup or the holy grail is the divine spark within that helps us connect with our soul and the wand makes it all happen, since it is the will to grow that initiates every first 1 step.

2 Secret

❓Do you feel that you know what your life purpose is? Do you ever think about the meaning of it all? Do you feel there is more to life than is generally thought?

💡 The secret is what makes life worth living. Each life journey is a quest for the secret of life, also called the holy grail or the philosophers stone. The secret is represented by the phases of the moon 🌓🌕🌗 that control life`s tides: its highs and lows. The full moon is symbolized by the ouroboros that represents the eternal life cycle of death and rebirth. The snake is a powerful symbol for female spirituality that sadly has been demonized in many patriarchal traditions. This card can also represent duality, being torn between 2 opposites.

3 Earth

❓ What does harvesting mean to you? How about growth? Or abundance? Do you enjoy what the earth has given you? Is it enough for you? Do you lack something?

💡 Earth is the spiritual sister of Venus. Both represent female energy in its expanding form (1+2=3). Earth means growth, creativity, harvest, the sacred feminine. The Venus symbol ♀️ is made up of a red circle o; meaning completion, coming full cycle, and a blue plus symbol + that represents positivity. The vertical line of this plussymbol or cross is the connection between heaven and earth and the horizontal line is the connection between all beings on earth. Where these two lines meet is the center of all being.

4 Stone

❓ Are you able to express your emotions? Do you tell others how you really feel? Do you allow yourself to cry when you feel hurt? Do you show it to others when you feel vulnerable?

💡 If Venus is turned upside down: meaning the cross + is on top of the circle o, the scale tips from the non-overruling natural power of Earth to the worldly ruling power of the stone. Its emblem is the Globus Cruciger (Lt.); the symbol that worldly rulers use to assert that worldly power is sanctified by god. It is often a mixture of religion and politics that comes into power, growth comes to a halt and what is left is barren stone. On the upside, stone can provide stability, be harmonious and complete like the 4 elements.

5 Detour

❓ Have you ever handed over the control of your life to a person of authority - a religious leader, a parent, a teacher, etc.? Was that a good decision? Do you trust others with your life? Do you have enough faith in yourself be your own leader?

💡 Going on a detour can be experienced as positive or negative; it takes more time than going the direct route, but it may lead to enriching surprises. Esoterically speaking, it can be a detour to try to experience god by means of a guru or any form of institutionalized religion instead of connecting directly with god. This is represented by the upper point of the triangle. The two low points of the triangle 🔺 symbolize that people are used to submit to hierarchy: either because we are taught to do so or because we feel that we need someone to guide us on our journey. Trying to gain a spiritual connection through mediation and giving your self away to authority can lead to great harm. Card 5 can represent initiation, but also reminds you that you should always be the hero of your own journey and never give control of your life away to anyone else.

6 Choice

❓ What are the choices you made in your life that you regret? What choices in your life are you proud of? Is it easy for you to make decisions?

💡 Card 6 represents choice. The two triangles together - one facing up 🔺 to the heavens and the other one pointing down 🔻 to the earth - combined form a hexagram or the Seal of Solomon ✡️. This symbol is well-known in many religious traditions such as Hinduism, Judaism and Islam. The esoteric meaning of the hexagram is the ability we have to deal with the dark forces and negativity that encounter us in life. The choice where we want to go - to the light, or into the darkness - is a matter of our god-given free will.

7 Journey

❓ Have you ever left your familiar surroundings behind to go somewhere completely unknown? Perhaps when you went on a long journey, or left your parental home, or went for a completely new career? How did that make you feel: excited, anxious or both? How do you feel about when you look back? And looking forward: are you open to explore unknown territories? 

💡 The hero`s journey comes at a crucial stage: the choice (6) has been made to leave the familiar behind and be the hero of your own life's journey. Number 7 is often considered one of the holiest numbers and the number of the hero going on their quest. Going out into the world, departing the known to explore unknown territories evokes exciting and sometimes frightening feelings. The hero has self-knowledge and will gain knowledge of life by being open to the duality they will inevitably encounter. The yin yang symbol ☯️ shows that the law of correspondence - as above, so below - guides the hero on their path, since knowledge of the self is knowledge of it all.

8 Strength

❓ Do you feel strong enough to express your true self? Do you accept your femininity? And your masculinity? What do you consider masculine or feminine? How do you appreciate femininity and masculinity? What is strength? Is it physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, spiritual? What makes you feel strong?

💡 True strength is when the forces of yin and yang, masculine and feminine are integrated and duality is overcome. Venus and Mars recognize that they are one and the same and instead of only seeing the other, you experience your self in the other. When we turn 8 horizontally we see a lemniscate, the infinity symbol ♾️ that represents the interconnectedness of all.

9 S-top

❓ Do you ever feel lonely? Do you ever feel alone in a crowd? Are you okay when you are alone? When do you like to be alone? Do you allow yourself to do nothing? 

💡 It can be lonely at the top, but it doesn`t need to be! Esoterically speaking, arriving at the top means coming to wisdom, being free from restricting concepts such as time and space, being all-one instead of being alone. Although the 9 is often associated with loneliness, the pentacle on top of the mountain not only symbolizes the human being on their own, but also their ability to shine their light 🕯️ in the world. Here, the first part of the journey comes to an end, before a new cycle starts. Now is the time to stop and just be at the top.

10 Fortune

❓ Do you ever feel like you were born under a lucky or an unlucky star? If you think of the lives of others, do you feel you have been more or less fortunate than them? Do you envy others for their good fortune? How does the bad fortune of others make you feel?

💡 Here it is the wheel ☸️ of fortune that spins: the card of transformation, of the unexpected, of luck and destiny. What goes up must come down and vice versa. This means that change is a given, but how we deal with the highs and lows of life is up to us. The 10 is 1; the start of something new paired with 0; the cycle itself: 1+0=1; so another cycle can start! Aquarius ♒ Scorpio ♏ Leo ♌ and Taurus ♉ represent stability within transformation. The esoteric meaning of this card is expressed in the formula in the SWR tarot: Rota Taro Orat Tora Ator: the wheel of tarot teaches the law of Hathor - the Egyptian goddess of love ♥️ and dance  💃 Or: the wheel of tarot speaks of the secret of Hathor: meaning that one should always keep on loving and dancing, despite lives` challenges.

11 Balance

❓ Have you been given your fair share in life? Have you given others their fair share? Are you able to keep your balance between polarities? Do you consider yourself to be a fair person? Is the world a fair place?

💡 Just in the middle of the 22 cards, we encounter card 11, immediately after the spinning wheel that has now found its balance ⚖️ and has come to a halt.  Now is the time to take a pause and make up the balance of your life thus far. 1+1=2: finding balance between polarities. Balance is the card of justice and fairness for those who observe the law of cause and effect, also known as karma.

12 Surrender

❓  Have you ever felt stuck in life? Have you ever been in a situation where you would have wanted to leave but weren`t able to do so? Maybe when you were in a bad relationship, or were hospitalized, or when you had to do a test. Would you have felt better if you could have left that situation? Did you learn anything from being in that situation? Would you have done something different in hindsight? Are you able to accept being in a situation that you don`t like to be in, but need to be in? When you were stuck in a situation, where you completely trapped, or was there a part of you free? Which part?

💡 Every hero is familiar with the situation that they would like to leave, but are - momentarily - stuck. And they know that the harder they fight it, the more stuck they become and only lose more valuable energy. Card 12 is surrender: 1+2=3, which eventually leads to growth. No matter how stuck you may feel and feel that your life is completely turned upside down, your thoughts are always free. No one can own someone else. Even if it doesn`t feel like it: we are all free. Think optimistic thoughts, turn your thought pattern around and experience that true freedom can never be taken away.

13 Transformation

❓ Do you just own your belongings, or do you sometimes feel that your belongings own you? What would happen if you would lose them all? How does losing someone you love make you feel? How do you deal with death? Are you able to say farewell? Can death be liberating? Did you ever lose something or someone that wasn`t just a loss, but also a liberation? Is there life after death?

💡 For real transformation to take place you often need to surrender (12) to what is, even if you don`t like it and want to resist it. Card 13 is about losing it all: that may sound frightening, and it can be, but if you are willing to give it all up - in most cases the ego and preconceptions of what we feel we are entitled to - you have a world to win. In the end we all have nothing: no thing that we can take with us into another world. And when you realize you have no thing, you ultimately have nothing to lose. Consumerism and materialism keep us bound (15), surrender (12) sets us free. 1+3=4: it may seem as if all is dry and barren and growth has stopped, but the mystic white rose 💮 on the square banner signifies that life blooms.

14 Path

❓ Are you a moderate person? How do you feel about moderation? Do you ever feel like you overate? Or drank too much? When is enough, enough for you? Do you like to live in the fast lane? Or do you like to take it slow?

💡 The advice of this card is to be moderate. The hero is still on their path towards the secret of life. Although it is within sight, the hero should focus on the process and not on the outcome. The triangle 🔺 of striving towards wisdom gets concrete shape ⏹️ and is crowned by the circle ⭕ of eternity. Card 14 is all about following your own path: the self (1) is taking shape (4) and takes control of its own life path (5).

15 Bound

❓ Have you ever been dependent of something? Alcohol, drugs, gambling, a person etc.? Been addicted to something or someone that you know is actually toxic for you, either physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually? What did you tell yourself about your dependence: I can stop whenever I want, or the pros outweigh the cons? Do you feel compassion for someone who is addicted? Do you really know why someone is addicted? Do you think it`s difficult to stop addictive behavior?

💡 Card 15 shows what happens when you experience the darkness instead of the light. The pentacle turns upside down 🔃 and you find your self bound by dependency of that which once made you feel good. 1+5=6 which means that the choice is there to turn the pentacle around and free yourself from boundaries. If you confront your own anxieties, you may experience that even the devil 😈 can be a bringer of light - Lucifer - because even in the most trying of times the flame of hope 🔥 continues to burn inside you.

16 Freedom

❓ Do you think that some people are worth more than other people? Or that some people are better than other people? Are there good people? What about bad people? Do most people show their true colors? Do you also sometimes present yourself in a more positive light than how you really are? Does your ego sometimes get the better of you? Do you ever feel exposed? What is freedom for you? Can losing your mask be liberating? 

💡 What goes up, must come down. There are many tales of humans building towers to get closer to god. Card 16 shows the human misusing their abilities (1) to make the choice (6) to elevate themselves above their fellow beings. This happens when they allow their egos to get the better of them. This isn`t the mountain of wisdom, like in card 9, but the tower of a bloated ego. No matter what riches 💰 you accumulate throughout life, everyone can lose everything in the blink of an eye, god willing. And what you may gain from such an experience in return is true freedom: freedom from the need to want more, have more, be more. True freedom is being free from the need to build castles in the air, or a house for god ⛪ because divinity doesn`t need a house of splendor; nature 🎋 is its home.

17 Harmony

❓ Have you ever felt completely at peace with yourself and the world around you? Do you witness nature, or are you a part of nature? How do you feel about other living beings, do they have anything with you in common? Did you ever have a bond with someone other than other human beings? How did that being make you feel?

💡 Card 17: harmony signifies a time in which you feel at peace with your own being as part of the world that surrounds you. You do not only see water, earth and stars in nature, but are aware that you are water 🌊, earth 🌍, stars ✨and nature. Here the hero is blessed with new energy and healing. The hero is aware of their ability to realize dreams because they can connect to their subconscious and their soul. There are 1 big + 7 smaller stars which totals 8: another reminder of the lemniscate, the symbol of infinity.

18 Rise

❓ Did you ever fear that you were losing your mind? Do you consider yourself to be sane? Have you ever felt depressed? Or overcome with sadness? Did you ever fear that it would stay that way? What helped you to get out of that situation?

💡 Card 18 is one of the portal cards in tarot. It means that the hero needs to find the strength within themselves to rise up and out of the waters of the subconscious, so they can make the conscious decision to continue the quest for the holy grail.  The moon 🌔 refers to the fact that this can be mentally challenging: one can fear to become luna-tic. The weeping 💧 eye  🧿 in the sky shows that being incarnated - leaving the water to come into being on this earth - means enduring inevitable pain. But if you are able to rise above that and go past the towers, you can see that a new dawn 🌄 is awaiting you on the horizon!

19 Fun

❓ Do you laugh a lot? Was there a time that you laughed or smiled more than you do now? What puts you in a good mood? Do you allow yourself to just go out and smell the roses? What`s keeping you?

💡 This card is all about having fun! Enjoying life and being caressed by the 19 beams of the sun. Card 19 is 1: the start of the hero`s journey paired with the 9, the card of coming to wisdom. 1+9 added up turn into fortune (10): the wheel ☸️ of lady luck, another circle, just like the circle of the sun 🌞! 10 again is 1; another start after having completed one cycle, paired with 0 - the cycle itself - so a new cycle can start! The point in the middle of the sun is the center of the solar cross or wheel cross, referring to the wheels of the chariot of the sun goddess and symbolizing the concepts of space and time.

20 Waking up

❓ What does the word rebirth mean to you? Did you ever experience an aha-moment? Did you ever experience that you could truly let go of old pain and start anew? Is something keeping you from making a fresh start?

💡 Almost at the end of the hero`s journey - and on the brink of a new beginning - they find themselves transformed. Their former self has gone through all the highs and lows of life and is now in the process of waking up. Card 20 is 2+0: the secret (2) is unveiled (0), the body and soul have had enough nourishment and the caterpillar 🐛, this earthbound creature, is transforming into a butterfly 🦋, ready to spread its wings and become a creature of the sky, a form of the higher self.

21 Completion

❓ Did you ever feel healed after being injured, either physically or emotionally? Do you ever feel that you are whole?

💡 If you look closely, you see that if you turn the world dancer or the completion card (21) around, it`s the mirror image of the hanged one or surrender card (12). Surrender is a path to completion: once you were bound and unable to move, now you are free and life has come full circle. The hero`s wand (often depicted in card 1 in the Magicians hand) has multiplied by the end of the journey into 2 wands and the hero is free from any restrictions and duality. The world dancer transcends categories such as female and male because they integrated both dimensions in themselves. Therefore the name of this card is completion and its number is 21 because 2+1=3, which is growth. Placed on top of each other - card 21 on top of card 12 - you can see the Ankh: A Tau cross T with a circle O on top, referring to the fact that both surrender and completion are intrinsically linked and express the secret of eternal life.

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