Description

A young person stands and is looking intently at the viewer. She is fashionable and is wearing a red, white, and brown dress. She has on a black hat, red gloves, and boots that are both comfortable and practical. She holds a lantern in one hand and a globe in the other.

These are hands that know hard work – the person holds the tools of their trade and wears workboots.

She stands on a boardwalk, with a lamp post behind her. One staff is leaning against the lamp post, while another stands apparently unsupported in the foreground. It appears that a flame is emerging from the foremost staff, but on second glance it could be a cloud or the smoke from a chimney. Behind her is a modern looking city, including a river with a bridge and three shipping vessels.  The sky glows red and orange behind her, but it is not clear whether it is sunrise or sunset.

There is a city in the distance. This is a card that includes solitude, not loneliness.

The traditional image depicts a person standing on the ramparts of a castle, looking over a landscape with a prosperous bayside village and mountains in the distance.

Keywords

Reversed

Frustrated anger.  Playing it safe. Fear of failure. Lack of planning. Stagnation.

Upright Meaning

One is focused on planning/ambition/executive powers, entrepreneurial vision. Life is brilliantly lit, the mind is flooded with ideas, but one is not yet ready to apply them (or one may be overwhelmed with energy and ideas, and they are coming too fast to get them all down on paper). It is a time of planning, with action soon to follow. Visionary, big ideas and dreams, it is possible to accomplish one’s goals if one avails oneself of the resources that are available. A good time to invest in one’s projects.

Fertilization of ideas, pending action. Planning and preparation. A time of focus on overall strategy and greater plans. What is the scope of your vision? Professional success, Fulfillment of purpose, Maturity, achievement. Courage in starting an enterprise. Self-discipline brings success. Competency. One stands at a threshold. Choices, bringing together ideas in a new way. Intuition combined with the scientific method. Preparation for travel.

Standing in one’s domain, gazing into the world from a secure and protected stance. Success, Peaceful times in one’s own life, looking out over one’s domain from the ramparts of one’s castle or fortress. Note that the peace is the result of prior effort and preparations-

Contemplative effort: this is the stillness before the storm of activity. Planning and preparation. A time of focus on overall strategy and greater plans. The risk here is setting one’s sights too low. What is the scope of your vision?

In business terms, this is the time of planning and doing a SWOT* analysis – preparing the tools and assessing resources and projects. The ships are being readied and sent out, they have not yet come in. The energies are being set in motion, but the activity is in the distance and not yet visible.

(SWOT = Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat)

Reversed Meaning

Overreach.   Dissatisfaction with one’s position and success. Boredom. One is thwarted or blocked from further achievement. One’s castle has become a cage. One thinks one has all the answers and refuses to take advice or counsel from others. Feeling trapped and stuck.

One’s efforts to hold onto one’s position and standing will fail. One is willfully blind and refusing to see what is actually going on.

Loss of perspective: one is caught in the details and cannot see the bigger picture or the overall needs / requirements of a project or situation. One is stuck in the weeds and cannot see the forest for the trees.

Doubt and uncertainty surrounding an endeavor. Procrastination. Imposter syndrome.

One is risk-adverse to one’s own detriment. Unwilling to take the needed steps to advance, for fear of failure. Forever researching options and planning, but never actually doing. 

One knows what one wants but has no clear strategy for how to get there. Failure due to poor planning and preparation.

A difficult beginning that can with care still succeed.