Bringing order to our lives can mean a lot of different things. And in a time when so much about our world feels chaotic and out of control, sometimes it can mean a lot to be able to tackle one particular task, goal, or objective. Or you might be looking to check something off your list and feel satisfied with how you’ve completed it.
But how can you figure out how to approach a challenge when it feels like you don’t know where to start?
If you’re overwhelmed by possibility, if you aren’t sure how to make decisions that will bring you to the place you want to end up, the Tarot can be a great tool for reflection, awareness, and organization.
Giving yourself a chance to step back and assess what you really want may give you a new perspective on how to achieve those goals.
The Relationship Between Virgo & Mercury
We’re currently in the Sun’s season of Virgo, a time of Mutable Earth, of flexibility and adaptation, of wrapping things up.
Mutable signs take the ideas and initiation from Cardinal signs, the focused energy and deliberate work of the Fixed signs, and polish off the details, putting everything together and getting us over that finish line.
Ruled by Mercury, Virgo is often known as a sign of perfectionism of high standards — but this sign is also thoughtful, astute, deliberate, caring, organized, and reflective. Virgo doesn’t come sweeping in like a high-maintenance diva, demanding that we change everything at the last minute, needing to seize control or strip away power.
Instead, Virgo energy wants our work to be the best it can possibly be, to reflect our greatest intentions and most brilliant ambitions. Virgo wants us to shine – to sparkle, to glow — and when we embrace this steady, thorough, attentive energy, it often becomes a bit easier to clarify our goals and to make plans to reach them.
The Relationship Between Virgo & the Hermit
Virgo is tied to the Hermit in the Major Arcana, a figure of awareness and introspection who reminds us that stepping out of our regular routines and looking at our desires, fears, ambitions, and skills through a new lens can help us move forward in a more clear, intentional, grounded way.
Spending time alone can calm us, soothe us, and remind us of who we are beyond our accomplishments, talents, or perceived value.
This archetype moves at its own pace and isn’t driven by fear, uncertainty, or anger. Instead, the Hermit is deliberate and methodical, gradually uncovering its own needs and interests, making a plan for every single step forward, and shining its light in a way that brings definition and insight into work, relationships, and ambitions.
It may feel like Virgo and the Hermit want us to go through every part of ourselves and our work with a fine-toothed comb, identifying even the tiniest flaws and mistakes.
And I would be missing an integral part of this energy if I pretended that there wasn’t a bit of that desire present, a need to find the pieces that don’t work and refine them until everything fits together seamlessly — but that’s not the whole story, not the complete picture.
Virgo wants us to feel sovereign within ourselves, wants us to deliver work and ideas that reflect our fullest, truest selves, and wants to be of service in a way that elevates everyone.
Rather than getting caught up in multiple contradictory ideas, rather than twisting ourselves into knots to please other people, Virgo and the Hermit crave authenticity and honesty, clarity of perspective, and a deep and lasting sense of truth.
So how can we take this energy and put it into practice?
When you look at that big ambition, that far-off objective, how can you channel the heart of Virgo in a way that gives clear steps and a straightforward process? This new spread can help you harness the authenticity of Virgo, the flexibility of Virgo, and the perseverance of Virgo.
What are you ready to pursue? How hard are you willing to work towards your goal?
Bringing Order to Your Life Tarot Spread
Before you begin drawing cards as part of this spread, make sure you have a clear vision of what you are working towards and what you hope to gain from the cards to empower your movements.
A simple, vague idea like “I want to be successful” or “I want to fall in love” holds too much ambiguity — but a goal like “I want to gradually invest more time and energy into my writing so that I can support myself financially within the next two years” makes space for definitive steps forward, which is why I’ll use it in the sample reading below.
What do you envision for your future?
How specific can you be about what you want to accomplish?
In addition to the spread template, you can also explore this sample reading that I’ve put together to help you understand how to utilize this layout.
As always, this is simply an example and is not meant to be a reading for anyone or any situation in particular.
Card One: An Insight Into This Goal
The Hanged One
A Major Arcana archetype representing stagnation, sacrifice, and stalling, this card sits in a moment of waiting.
The breathless pause before the permanent shift of Death, the Hanged One (or Hanged Man), is a lack of action, a forced pause, a reluctant break from progress and growth. While sometimes this provides a shift in perspective that helps us reevaluate the path that we’re on, other times it speaks to a dead end: a goal we’ve been pursuing that is no longer within reach.
In this position, this card could have a variety of meanings. But in looking at the rest of the cards in this reading, particularly the success represented by the 10 of Pentacles, I see the Hanged One as a representation of emotion, fear, or anxiety.
There may be a desire for financial stability, a creative professional life, security, and success. Still, there are also many worries that this particular dream may not be possible. And in a moment when progress feels stalled, it can be hard to stay optimistic that eventually, movement will begin again.
Yet the Hanged One is not the end of the road — instead, it’s an invitation to consider a new way forward, a new path.
How would looking at this goal in a new way create different opportunities?
Card Two: A Potential Obstacle to Be Aware of
The Devil
The second and final Major Arcana figure in this reading, the Devil, is traditionally associated with addiction, destructive behaviors, and abuses of power. The simmering tension that comes before the Tower’s destructive chaos, the Devil, urges us to pay attention to control, limits, and struggles.
- How much control do we really have over ourselves, our environment, and our future?
- Where is our control slipping, and where are we grasping to it so tightly that other things are slipping through the cracks?
- How is our control tested, and how do we respond to limits that we ourselves have not set?
As an obstacle, the Devil seems right at home: there will be challenges around all of the things that we can and cannot control when it comes to pursuing this goal. Yet the Devil is not always a card of strict negativity or defeat — instead, this archetype serves as a wake-up call and a warning.
- How does constraint provide protection, and how might it be limiting progress?
- How can we find a balance between control and freedom, particularly when pursuing big dreams?
- When thinking about creative work, inspiration, and security, when is control useful, and when does it hold us back?
Card Three: A Potential Success to Anticipate
10 of Pentacles
The 10 of Pentacles is a card of stability, legacy, and abundance. It is also a card of joyful security and community contentment. Here, we see the seed planted with the Ace of Pentacles fully grown and bearing fruit, having created a solid foundation for growth and sustainable systems for future prosperity.
In this position of success, the 10 of Pentacles signals satisfaction and happiness, a sense of having more than enough, enabling us to share our bounty with those around us.
While the Hanged One and the Devil indicate that there will be internal challenges to overcome, this card shows that there is still massive potential for triumphant joy.
Card Four: A Detail or Aspect to Be Attentive to
Ace of Pentacles
A card that was already hinted at with the 10 of Pentacles, the Ace of this suit of Earth, calls us to begin investing in our own future. Fully grown trees take years to reach those soaring heights, and they begin with a small, single seed — and with this card, we are asked to begin the process of nurturing and caring for a long-term project, dream, or objective.
As a detail to be attentive to, the Ace of Pentacles asks us to be aware of what we are building and to not discount the efforts that we are making now.
- What could this beginning eventually become?
- How can we take full advantage of all of the potential at our fingertips?
- How are we honoring our sense of faith in our work by starting a new creative project that could eventually offer financial stability?
Card Five: Practical Advice for Your Next Steps Forward
Knight of Wands
The final card in this reading and the only court card to come forward, the Knight of Wands, is an explorer and a daredevil, someone passionate and courageous. Bringing a spirit of adventure and an abundance of ideas to every project and journey, this Knight is dynamic, charismatic, and unafraid to take risks in order to achieve everything they want.
Knights always push us to consider how we are balancing the element they utilize, and this figure of fire wants us to give equal weight to our desires and to our sense of duty.
In particular, this Knight often has a hard time finishing the things that they start, so as a card of practical advice, we’re being urged to settle in for the long haul and not give up on a creative project even if it doesn’t seem to be clearly and obviously contributing to our financial future.
- How can we focus on our long-term goals even while keeping the present exciting and engrossing?
- What fresh designs or imaginative insights can we bring to our work?
- How can collaboration keep things moving forward with power and magic?
- What sparks our brilliance, and what keeps our creative fires burning?
This reading is generally encouraging and offers a lot of practical advice for creating a plan for a solid financial future.
Pentacles and the suit of the Earth are slow-moving and responsible, patient with progress, keeping their eyes on the prize — but that glimmer of passionate creativity with the Knight of Wands still makes a lot of space for the joy in writing and collaboration, urging balance between inspiration and practicality.
The Hanged One and the Devil both encourage reflection and awareness, asking us to be conscious of the ways that we control our growth and progress and the times that we should throw caution to the wind and trust our instincts.
Supporting the self financially with writing is absolutely possible, but it requires attention, awareness, thoughtful work, patience, and organization.
Bring Order to Your Life This Virgo Season
As you think about the big dreams you want to accomplish, as you imagine the future that you hope to create for yourself, use the energy and precision of Virgo season to be clear about what you are working towards.
- Which details can you flesh out?
- How specific can you be about what you want?
The Tarot can help you take action toward deliberate action and real success, but first, you must identify your desires.
Make sure to consider:
- How can you be authentic to yourself?
- Which dreams are worth the effort, and how can you begin moving towards the life you crave?
This post features cards from the Lumina Tarot.