Analysis Paralysis and Tarot Overload
… or Death by a Bunch of Swords
You know that feeling when you have a difficult decision to make or exciting area to explore, but you just don’t know where to start, so you turn to the tarot?
You’re so excited to be able to use this powerful tool on something important. You’re not just asking if your ex is going to call you (or whatever it is that feels so vital in the moment but then is a little cringe-worthy a month later). Instead, you’ve started thinking about how tarot helps you make some moves in your life. You’ve done the hard work of actually learning how it all works. You understand its depths! Yes! We love it!
Back in the scenario, you use a thoughtful spread where you consider the kinds of outcomes that you might experience if you make choice A or B or C. And you see the cards and … they’re just totally useless. Like absolute garbage, total nonsense, just so unhelpful.
They’re all similar, or you’re coming up blank, or, worst of all, they tell you what you already know. It’s the kind of reading that tells you the safe bet looks super safe, and the risky option is really risky, and the middle of the road option sure could go either way. And goodness, wouldn’t it be good to know how to decide?
Wow. Genius insights there, tarot. Really wise wisdom.
I know I can’t be the only one who has experienced this. Right?
It might be the question you’re asking or your knowledge of the cards. Or maybe you come up with some excuse about why you messed up your shuffling or cut in the wrong place or you weren’t properly grounded. Hey, maybe that’s true! But it’s probably not the cards.
And if you’re an intermediate or advanced reader, it may not be the question or even your intentions—my favorite culprits for unclear readings. And if it’s not those usual suspects, then it’s something more fundamental and more profound about understanding what you need in order to make a decision. More information is not better information; it’s just more.
Divination is great for information gathering, but it’s a receptive activity. It’s usually not actionable by itself. Having more information doesn’t necessarily help you actually use that information.
The readings that show you everything you already know should feel empowering because they tell you you’ve done it! You have all the knowledge! But they’re more often just a little bit devastating because you know, somewhere inside you, that you’ve hit the limit of your knowledge. There isn’t more for you to unlock within the mysteries of the Collective Unconscious. There’s nowhere else to explore.
And that means there’s nowhere else to run and no excuses left for procrastinating. Yikes, tarot. Take it easy!
At this point in your readings, where you run into the same answers again and again, you’re not doing anything wrong in your divination. It’s just that divination can’t do for you what you want it to do. You can’t escape the need for a decision, and there’s no card coming to rescue you from yourself. You know everything the cards have to tell you about the questions you’re asking. Now it comes down to you and what you do with that information.
I think we all know that the cards can’t make a decision for us, but we usually expect that they can help us make that decision. And these moments of piled up information don’t feel helpful. That’s because when we don’t understand the basis for our decision-making, the cards are just new confusing inputs. They’re like well-meaning friends with advice we just can’t use. It’s like “Thanks for that!” Now I have even more things to think about (or new ways to think about the same things)!
When you’re trapped in your thoughts, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, and if you run into this again and again, even after consulting tarot, it can be easy to feel trapped. You’re just stuck in total indecision. And when you’ve invested emotional or even mystical energy, it can start to feel like a drain or a burden, as if divination itself is the source of a new problem.
Trust me. Divination is not your problem. It just also isn’t your answer, at least not the way you’re doing it.
Maybe you’re starting to think about the 2 of Swords. That card of uncertainty between options and needing to turn inward to really understand? And damn, but those swords sure are heavy when you’re holding them like that.
Yeah, that may have been where you started. But we’ve actually moved way past that.
Let’s do some tarot math with the This Might Hurt Tarot by Isabella Rotman
This inability to move forward despite having everything you need is 8 of Swords energy. It’s the perfect card for when you feel trapped by your own thoughts. There’s an easy way out. You just can’t find it because you can’t see clearly. And you don’t know how to start. (But is that really the problem?)
For me, this card is typical of analysis paralysis. It’s a Swords card, so it’s in the mind. And it’s an 8, so it’s double 4, super solid and stable—and in this case that 2 of Swords and 4 of Swords energy just makes it super stagnant. But the indecision does not come from a lack of information. It’s excess.
If you know the traditional (i.e., Golden Dawn) tarot astrology correspondences, you may know that the 8 of Swords is associated with Jupiter and Gemini, which makes it an expansion of thoughts. It’s the card that helps us understand that too many inputs can make it impossible to decide what to do.
And when that happens, the decisions will get made for us. Eventually, the 8 of Swords passes through the 9 of Swords to find its resting place in the 10 of Swords. Picture the 10 of Swords, the Rider/Smith-Waite version where all that mental energy has just fully destroyed possibilities.
Yes, there is a new dawn rising. There is a way forward. But a lot of those decisions you couldn’t made will have been made for you. We don’t get to take them all into the new dawn. That might seem reassuring in the throes of indecision—at least I don’t have to decide!—but hindsight and lost opportunity may leave you regretting your choices (or lack thereof).
The 10 of Swords is a card of endings after mental disempowerment. Disempowerment is not what we want. That’s not why you come to tarot, not if you’re the type of reader who gets through my blog posts.
So how do you decide? How do you start?
You actually have to dig in to what’s keeping you from starting. As I hinted at earlier, the 8 of Swords conundrum is rarely a question of how to start. Starting is easy. You just do something, anything, that gets you closer than where you were before. Boom. You’ve started. You can Google how to start. You don’t need to go to tarot for it.
But what can’t you simply look up online? You can’t just look up what’s preventing you from starting. A search engine is terrible for that. But tarot is a great tool for that.
That’s because tarot is an incredible tool for understanding fear, and fear is a large part of what prevents you from starting. It’s definitely not everything, but it’s an important something. It’s why so much of my work touches on shadow work, even if indirectly.
Pair some shadow work insights with information on your inner motivations and your archetypal nature, as revealed by tarot of course, and you’re on your way. Add in practical guidance on how to start, and learn to forecast what to expect once you’re on your way. Now that is powerful. That’s tarot to transform your life.
No, literally, that’s a lot of what we’ll cover in my powerful new three-month small-group coaching program Tarot to Transform Your Life. It’s a small intensive group, and you have to apply, so apply now. (You don’t have to pay or commit to paying when you apply.)
Of course, not everyone has the time, interest, energy, or finances for a three-month program this fall, so I’ll get you started with a new tarot challenge that can at least help you put things into perspective: Tarot Overload.
Sign up for my newsletter and follow me on Instagram to be the first to hear about it when it launches!