The Weekly Three: September 25th, 2023
Whose expectations are you trying to live up to? Also: WHY?...
Welcome to The Weekly Three! Each Monday, I share a three-card Tarot spread to help you focus your intuitive energy in real life, and take action with intention inside your business.
I pull these cards with the collective energy of my community in mind, but if you want a custom spread of your very own, you can get it right here.
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The Big Idea: Clear it all out and make way for what’s next. It’s coming whether you like it or not.
I don’t know how we managed this, but this is the last week of September. The Autumn Equinox just happened this past Saturday (happy Libra season!) and we’re in the home stretch of 2023.
The season is changing, I assume from my limited Los Angelino understanding that the leaves are changing (somewhere, so I’ve been led to believe…) and our plans are changing.
We’re gearing up for the introvert’s nightmare: The Holidays.
We always hope we’ll be left alone to sip hot chocolate and watch our favorite movies on chill (and chilly) nights with the people we love. That we’ll get to walk through a fancy neighborhood on a clear night and look at the decorations without a care.
Instead, we are thrown into a maelstrom of obligations, stress-doing, and literally and figuratively having to “be at the party.”
I am already tired. Often, I feel robbed of the joy I looked forward to for this time of year. And for that very reason, I love this week’s spread.
The III of Swords is a card of heartbreak, and you’d think that was bad, right? Well, I mean, it is bad—it’s not a thing that feels good or that I would wish on anyone (that I like) in any way. But the interesting thing about this card is that there is an aspect of knowing. Like, you found out he was a cheating on you? That seriously sucks.
And also? Thank fucking goodness you know, and you can drop him like NOT a hot potato, (because we still want that, preferably with melty cheese and maybe some chili etc, ) but like a slimy lying dickwad that you would just DROP, no analogy needed.
This card says “ouch,” it says “pain,” and it also says “I’m realizing.” There are thoughts and ideas forming about the ache in your heart, and perhaps those are a lot clearer than the way the pain feels.
The VI of Wands is a celebratory card. This card represents a win along the way. You might not have achieved your ultimate goal yet, but you’re onto something big and you’re to be congratulated.
It’s also a very secure card. You’ve got support behind you and you’re headed in the right direction. And not only are you winning, but you totally expected this and you get to be smug about it.
The interesting thing about both the III of Swords and the VI of Wands is that, astrologically, they’re associated with very fixed-energy moments in time. When we encounter these kinds of situations in life, it’s easy to feel like things will never change: If you’re heartbroken now, grief can feel never-ending. If you’re winning now, sometimes you think you’ll always be on top.
And in this particular spread, these two cards feel representative of things that have already happened and can’t be changed…
Which brings me to our last card, a Major Arcana card: The Tower.
I consider this the entirely undiscerning lawnmower of the Major Arcana. For better or worse, we’re about to raze whatever’s in this garden—overlong grass, perfect petunias and all.
Whichever one of the many meanings of this card we look at—unexpected disaster, breakthrough insight, fiery orgasm—we can be sure of this:
Things are different afterward.
There is an unavoidable change that knocks us over the head.
In Your Business: Forget what you’ve done before and plan what’s next with balance in mind.
I know I don’t have to say this twice for you to get what I mean:
I am really fucking sick of expectations that I didn’t agree to.
And-but-also: giving in to those expectations is always at least somewhat under our control! THANK GAHD.
The Sun will be hanging out in Libra until October 23rd, and during that time our focus tends toward things like diplomacy, relationships, fairness, balance and justice.
A Full Moon is coming up in the sign of Aries on Friday the 29th. It’s the fourth and final supermoon of the year and it’s asking us to wrap it up. Acknowledge the harvest you’re bringing in, show some gratitude and release what’s no longer needed.
Translation: log the past stuff in the books, put them away (or light them on fire, your choice,) and decide what you want for this upcoming season.
And with The Tower pointing the way for us this week, know that it doesn’t have to look like anything you’ve seen before.
Expectations and past precedents don’t have to define what you do next. Change is good.
I think part of the tension we often feel during this time of year comes from the idea that the holidays are supposed to look a certain way.
Or the idea that it’s somehow a shame to spend the holidays by yourself.
Or the idea that your friends don’t count as your family.
Or the idea that showing people care also extends to yourself.
There are a lot of expectations that come from a million different places—our families, society at large, even ourselves—that we feel like we MUST fulfill, and these expectations end up extending to our businesses as well:
The mad dash to get our numbers up because this is our “last chance.” We’d better have some special holiday offers or else we’ll “miss out.” The thought that we can capitalize on other people missing out because they’re “checked out during the holidays, those lazy fucks.”
Like, damn.
Fabricated capitalist urgency much?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan on all of a sudden not having a business come 2024. So, I’m not sure what kind of world-ending “missing of chances” we’re talking about here…
Sure, grab your opportunities as they come. But balance is now, and has always been, the real key.
You don’t have to do it like you did before—you don’t have to do it like anyone has done it before. Do it in a way that allows for the scales to be balanced for you.
Until next week,
Zoha
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About The Author:
Zoha Abbas is a writer, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach who aims to explore the small business conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. She is the CEO and Creator of The Ownership Method, a coaching practice where she helps fellow entrepreneurs and small business owners do business better through data, divination and dismantling harmful systems.
For inquiries, please email: zoha@theownershipmethod.com