Cards Drawn
Old Chapter: 7 The Chariot
Threshold: 0 The Fool
New Chapter: 13 Death
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 10 MINUTES
Lasting change rarely begins in the physical world. It begins in the unseen, then gradually becomes visible.
Over the last four Journal Entries we explored an old chapter ending, the threshold that prompted the turning of the page, and the new chapter beginning to emerge. We explored this through the suits of the Tarot in the order of creation, or manifestation.
Swords → Cups → Wands → Pentacles
Thought → Feeling → Action → Physical Reality
Part 1, Swords, Thought
Old patterns of thinking, beliefs, stories, assumptions and mental clutter.
The question became: “What way of thinking has completed its purpose?”
Part 2, Cups, Feeling
As the mind changes, the emotional landscape changes with it. Emotional dependence gives way to emotional freedom.
The question became: “What way of feeling no longer belongs to the person I’ve become?”
Part 3, Wands, Action
New thinking and new feeling naturally lead to different behaviour. Rather than acting from proving, pushing or seeking external validation, action becomes an expression of who you are. The question became: “What way of acting belongs to this new chapter?”
Part 4, Pentacles, Physical Reality
Eventually the external world begins to mirror those internal shifts.
Work. Money. Home. Health. Relationships. Everything tangible.
The question became: “What am I creating now that reflects who I’ve become?”
Today we move one step deeper.
We are exploring an old chapter and a new chapter through the Soul Expression.
Your soul is here to experience life through you. Growth is part of that experience, but I don’t believe the soul arrives with a rigid curriculum of lessons to complete.
You may notice that I have deliberately left the Soul Expression until last. Truthfully, it belongs at the beginning.
The prompting begins with the soul. That prompting influences our thoughts. Our thoughts influence our feelings. Our feelings influence our actions. Our actions shape the physical reality we experience. Through those experiences, the soul continues to grow.
So why place it at the end?
Because after fifteen years of giving psychic readings professionally, I noticed something happening.
When people began with the soul, many unconsciously stepped back from their own participation. It became easy to believe that the soul was doing the work on their behalf.
The thinking became, “That’s okay. My soul is sorting it out.”
Trusting your soul is a beautiful thing. Handing your life over to it is something entirely different.
Too often, this became a form of spiritual bypassing. People stopped questioning their thinking. They avoided difficult emotions. They delayed taking action. Instead of participating in the unfolding of their lives, they waited for the soul to do it for them.
That is not how I have come to understand the relationship between the soul and the human experience.
The soul isn’t an escape from being human. It’s expressed through being human.
It expresses itself through the choices you make, the conversations you have, the courage you summon, the boundaries you set. Through the risks you take, the life you build.
The soul may whisper the invitation. But it is the human who walks through the door.
🧭 Soul Expression
The experience your soul is inviting you to step into.
Before we explore these cards, there is something important to notice. Unlike the previous Journal Entries, every card in this reading belongs to the Major Arcana.
The Minor Arcana reflects the landscape of everyday life, our thoughts, emotions, actions and the physical reality we create.
The Major Arcana speaks to something deeper. It reflects the experiences your soul is inviting you to have.
This is not simply a chapter about what is happening around you. It is a chapter about the experience your soul is inviting you to step into.
🧭Old Chapter
The soul experience that has reached its natural conclusion.
The Chariot is often associated with movement, determination and success. Yet perhaps this old chapter is not really about movement at all, and more about self-directed movement.
The Charioteer isn’t being carried. He is directing, deciding, and exercising his will. He is holding opposing forces together and steering them towards a destination.
That is a powerful way to live for a season. Eventually, however, a different question emerges.
What happens when your entire identity becomes the driver?
Everything becomes something you have to manage, to steer, to make happen. That can become exhausting.
One of the most fascinating details in the Rider Waite Chariot is that there are no reins. The sphinxes are not controlled physically. They are directed through consciousness, intention and will.
The chapter now drawing to a close is one where personal will has been carrying too much of the responsibility.
The journey itself was never wasted. It refined you. It taught you to distinguish reality from illusion. It strengthened your character, gave you greater discernment and revealed what truly matters.
Even if there were moments when you felt as though you were simply spinning your wheels, something much deeper was taking place beneath the surface.
You were being refined.
🚪Threshold
The prompting that invites your soul into a new chapter of experience.
Then we arrive at the Fool.
If the Chariot represents mastery, the Fool represents something entirely different.
The Charioteer knows exactly where he is going. The Fool does not. That is not ignorance. It is trust.
One card says, “I know where I am going.”
It is certain.
The next says, “I am willing to discover where this path leads.”
It is curious.
These are two completely different relationships with life.
The Chariot seeks mastery through control.
The Fool seeks wisdom through experience.
If you have ever followed a spiralling path, you will know that you eventually return to where you first began. Except you don’t. You return to the same place with greater wisdom, greater maturity and a different perspective. The journey continues, but at another level.
One small symbol on the Fool continues to capture my attention. The white rose.
White has long been associated with purity, but perhaps purity is not something that is achieved. Perhaps it is something that is uncovered.
After all the striving, all the questioning and all the refinement, perhaps the soul becomes simpler. It might know more now, but it no longer needs to complicate everything.
🌅New Chapter
The new experience your soul is inviting you to live.
Then we come to the Death card. Interestingly, I don’t believe the Death card is the story. It is the consequence. The real story has already happened.
The Chariot was the journey.
The Fool was the willingness to begin again.
Death simply acknowledges what has already become true.
Transformation is rarely something we suddenly do. More often, it is something that becomes visible after enough refinement has already taken place.
For many years I explained the Death card through the image of the caterpillar becoming the butterfly. Today another image feels more fitting.
Imagine a sculptor standing before a block of marble. The statue is not created by adding more marble. It is revealed by removing everything that does not belong.
Michelangelo is often credited with saying something along the lines of,
“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”
Whether those were his exact words or not, the image captures something profound.
Perhaps this chapter has never been about becoming someone different, but gradually removing everything that was never truly you. Old beliefs, old identities, old fears, old roles, old obligations, old stories.
The soul isn’t trying to add another layer. It is revealing what has always been there underneath. That is refinement. The gradual removal of what is superfluous.
The Death card is not asking you to become someone new. It is inviting you to let go of the identities that have already fulfilled their purpose. When those unnecessary layers fall away, what remains is not a different person. It is a more fully expressed version of who you have always been.
Perhaps the old chapter wasn’t preparing you for the new one but revealing the person who is now capable of living it.
✨ Guidance
The soul may provide the prompting, but it cannot make your choices for you. It cannot have the difficult conversation, take the first step, set the boundary or begin again. Those experiences belong to the human life you are here to live.
If this Journal Entry has highlighted anything, let it be this. You are not waiting to become someone else before your next chapter begins. It begins the moment you choose to participate in it.
Perhaps that is the purpose of refinement. Not to change who you are, but to remove what no longer belongs, until your choices begin to reflect the person who has been there all along.
The refinement has already taken place. Now it is time to step back into the world and allow that more fully expressed version of yourself to have new experiences. To meet new people. To walk unfamiliar paths. To discover what becomes possible when you no longer carry everything that was never truly yours.
After all, the soul isn’t fulfilled by standing still. It is fulfilled through being lived.
🌿 Life Area Breakdown
❤️ Relationships
Every relationship invites a different version of you to emerge. You may notice yourself letting go of old roles, old expectations or old ways of relating that no longer reflect who you are. The invitation is not to become someone different for others, but to allow your relationships to be shaped by greater authenticity, honesty and presence.
💼 Work & Purpose
Your work is not simply what you do. It is one of the ways your soul expresses itself through the world. You may feel drawn towards opportunities that ask for more of who you really are, rather than more effort. This is less about changing direction and more about allowing your work to reflect the refinement that has already taken place.
💰 Money & Resources
Money often reflects the relationship we have with ourselves. As old fears, identities and beliefs fall away, you may find yourself making different financial decisions because they naturally align with the person you have become. The question is no longer, “How do I get more?” but “Does the way I use my resources reflect who I am today?”
🧠 Personal Growth
Perhaps the greatest shift is recognising that growth is not about constantly becoming someone new. It is about participating more fully in the life that is already asking to be lived. Every choice, every conversation, every experience becomes another opportunity for your soul to express itself through being human.
⚡ Three Micro Moves for Momentum
🚪 Walk through one door (agency)
Choose one conversation, one opportunity or one decision you have been postponing and take the first step. The invitation has already arrived. Your participation is what brings it to life.
🎭Release one identity (refinement)
Notice one role, expectation or story you continue to carry that no longer feels true. Thank it for what it taught you, then allow yourself to put it down.
🌿 Say yes to one new experience (living)
Do something your old chapter would have talked yourself out of. Meet someone. Visit somewhere new. Learn something unfamiliar. Give the more fully expressed version of yourself an opportunity to experience life.
⚓ The Anchor
Walk back into the world. Participate fully.
Let your life become the place where your soul is expressed.
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