Mar 21

Mar 21 A Tarot Spread For Body Love

This spread is all about looking at our relationship with our bodies and how our body journey relates to our self-love journey. For this body-love tarot spread, we’re using the Neo Tarot deck.

This will be an easy three-card spread, generally speaking, they’re going to be “past,” “present,” and “future.”

Past — where we have been on our journey
Present — where we're currently on our journey
Future — where we're headed on our journey, if we continue on this path

1. Tarot Card Reading Past Position

So the first card we got is the four of cups. This is a card of being so dissatisfied with what you have because you're focused on what you don't have.

We've neglected to recognize the miracle and the beauty of our bodies. We've neglected to realize how amazing they are and how important they are. They are beautiful vessels that carry us through the world.

The body is what allows us to really, really, feel our feelings. Everything from stomach butterflies on the first date with someone who will eventually become your partner to that feeling of elation when you walk across the graduation stage...our body lets us feel these.

Four Of Cups Tarot Reading For Body Love.jpg

Plus, our bodies are doing a million things a day without us even thinking about it. How amazing is that, right?

So in the past, we've had a very, very harsh and dissatisfied approach to our body. We've looked at it, we've thought, “Huh? I think I can do better. I think I can be better. I think that other people have it better than me and I want more. I'm not happy and I'm not going to even engage with my body because I’m so dissatisfied”

The four of cups is often a card of dissatisfaction. It's kind of dissatisfaction, though, that is a little bit smug or even a little bit naive. After all, who are you to discount and sideline your body in that way?

Your body's amazing and magical.

In the Neo Tarot guide book, the themes for this card are:

Detachment
Introspection
Contemplation
Dissatisfaction

So, we actually may have a history of being more in our heads about our bodies and not actually being in our bodies feeling them, attuning into them, and listening to them, right?

We have been very much in our heads about our relationship with our body and thinking about it. Ruminating about it. Even this person in the card looks like they've been here for hours, just stewing.

They’re thinking about all the things they would do “if only my body was different,” and, If only my body was different, I’d be able to feel this way and do this thing.”

This is really just illustrated in the card here itself. There are three cups ahead of them, and there's one cup that they are being offered, and they're just kind of like… “Huh? This is not what I wanted at all.”

They don't realize the richness they have.

Going back to the guide book, it reads, “taking time out when you feel discontent is the only way to process your feelings. Your dissatisfaction doesn't automatically mean you're taking things for granted. It means you need to protect your energy so you can better evaluate your next move. If you need to retreat for a while in order to appreciate opportunities in a new way.”

Yes, do it. Look carefully and honestly at your choices, and reset. This is a great reminder because we don't actually want to make ourselves feel bad for being dissatisfied.

We just want to feel the dissatisfaction, see what it has to say, and then we can let it go.

The self-care guidance that comes with this card is to, “wrap yourself in a big heavy blanket. Lay face up under the covers or even under a blanket fort. Breathe deeply and think about how good it feels to recharge.”

We weren't made to go 100 miles an hour every day. There's nothing wrong with isolating yourself for a while and enjoying the stillness of just being just you and your thoughts come out when you're ready.

So, in the past, we’ve been discontented, isolated from our bodies and disconnected. The object here is not to berate us for feeling this way. The object is to make sure that we understand that those are emotions or feelings and that we can choose a different path forward if we want, finding ways to self-soothe and support ourselves through the process.

2. Tarot Card Reading Present Position

So let's move now to the second card in the spread, which is the present moment card.

And this card that we pulled is the knight of cups — representing an aspect of ourselves that is really ready to set out on this new emotional journey with our bodies. A journey completely committed to love.

And, there’s also a sense of being a little bit young, almost like there hasn’t been a true or deep love yet. They were never ready for it before but they could be ready for it now. Everything before this has just been kind of surface level.

The Knight Of Cups Tarot Reading For Body Love.jpg

So it's almost like you can see them there at the edge of the shore. Even the horse has like one foot up as if to ask, “ Are we going or not?”

I think that that points to some hesitation on our part, too.

There's a little bit of push and pull here. There's one aspect of ourselves that's like, “yes, I'm ready! Let's do this,” and then the other aspect is like… “I have never done this before, I don’t really know what to do.” That second part is probably more like our primal animal nature and it’s connected to fear.

It's important to note that this is the same suit as the first card we pulled. So these are two cups cards coming up for us in a row. That tells me that this journey is not one of our actual bodies or physical bodies.

It's actually more in our emotional body, or even our heart, where we're taking this journey.

Cups are the suit of emotion and water, but more importantly, for this suit is that one of its keywords is “love”.

According to the Neo Tarot book, the knight of cups is somebody who's:

genial
romantic
charming
devoted — especially devoted to the pursuit of love.

They're motivated to act on their natural loving impulses and it's in their nature to love themselves. It's just who they are. That's who they are here to be. It's just their essence.

And I feel like we're right now we're just on the cusp of learning to really step into that aspect of ourselves and to really embrace it.

Can you come to terms come to terms with the fact that we are love and that we’re embodying love every moment?

Every moment spent withholding love and every moment spent in the discontentment that we saw in the four of cups, is a moment that takes us away from our true selves.

3. Tarot Card Reading Future Position

So let's move now to our final card in the spread, which is the moon card. This is a Major Arcana card, so this tells me that there's a little bit more heft, a little bit more energy around this card.

I actually really like the colours in this spread because it's very green, and green is the colour of the heart chakra energy. So as you read this, try taking a moment, putting your hand on your heart and just breathe.

I think after you read this spread and go through this reading, I think it would be really helpful for you to spend some moments in heart meditation and I just want to remind you that this is a place that’s always there and always available to you.

If we also look at the arc of the story in this spread, we go from this state of lots of structure, lots of blocks, angles, and shapes — we move into a space with fewer shapes and more fluidity.

And then, finally, we step into total fluidity. So that means in the past we had this really ordered, structured, and rigid way of managing ourselves and managing our bodies.

Right now, we've kind of let go of some of those structures, or were at least open to the idea of letting go of some of those structures and just flowing. We see that reflected in the shore on the knight of cups card. And then, there's the moon that comes right after it.

So let's dive into that moon card. This can be a tough card because it's about our subconscious mind. It's about dreams. It's kind of this realm beneath everything else.

In this card, you see this kind of like a scorpion in the water. And you see the moon reflected in the pool so that scorpion represents any shadow aspect of ourselves that is going to come out to be seen to be illuminated by the light and then at that point. That's when we can integrate it!

So I think that the root of some of our body concerns, body issues, or some of the reasons why we're having difficulty embracing our bodies ...the key is going to be in that scorpion that emerges from the waters.

There's some shadow aspect of ourselves that’s keeping us locked in this pattern.

The Neo Tarot guidebook says that the keywords for the moon card are:

instinct
illusion
the subconscious realm
reflection

That reflection piece is important and it points to the possibility of us doing mirror work, so that’s something to think about!

The guidebook says “receiving this card was often a sign that you are or should be releasing your sense of control over your emotional primordial inner world.”

It’s also a card about our dreams so if dream journaling or dreamwork is calling to you just make a note of that.

Like I mentioned earlier, mirror work is a great tool. Also, just generally being more reflective and receptive than active and full of movement would be beneficial on your body love journey.

For example, can you take a day off and do nothing? Not be anywhere or do anything with anybody? Just be in your own energy for a while and see what comes up. And if you're not able to take a full day off like that, then you might be able to find 15 minutes in the day where you can go to your bed and just lie down in the dark.

You don't have to listen to a guided meditation. You don't have to do a yoga stretch or anything. Just lie there and see what comes up. Whatever emotions come up, for example, if you lie there and you think, “this is stupid, I could be doing XY and Z right now.”

Then there are some beliefs you have about yourself that you're ready to examine and potentially even release.

Ideally, you should be able to just lie there like a happy baby. Looking up at the ceiling maybe seeing patterns in the spackled ceiling and just feel full of hope and optimism.

Body Image & Tarot

If you’re on a body love journey, then using tarot can be a very helpful tool. If you have questions, need some support, or would like to book a reading, then please reach out and I’ll be happy to help you.

Part of why I’m able to help is because I’ve already been on this journey for quite some time and I’d love to share what I know with you and see how we can help you transform your relationship with your body.