Tiny Tarot Story
Read a short story inspired by the Two of Swords.
Selena knows she had a problem, but she doesn’t want to deal with it. Dealing with it will require deciding how to solve it, and her problem is that she doesn’t make decisions whenever possible.
✨
Take now, at the check-out counter of a chain lunch spot. She stands in front of the illuminated fridges, frozen between the soup and the prepared sandwiches. Around her, people move effortlessly, as if their minds and bodies could chatter endlessly without awkward pauses. She leaves with nothing but the regret that she didn’t bring lunch herself, and eats an old granola bar that she got for free once.
✨
Or three days later, as Selena decides whether to accept a job offer in Washington, D.C.. Her floor is scattered with pro and con lists and journal entries containing visions of two futures. Now she sits on her bed, waiting for someone to make the right move for her. Wishing at least, she had someone to call.
✨
She never responds to the call for the adventure. Ghosts the email entirely. She’ll head to D.C. for when she’s braver. The next lifetime, perhaps. As much as she wanted to be bolder, this feels right.
✨
What Selena doesn’t know is that somewhere in Ohio, a man has spilled lemons in a supermarket. And a girl has tripped and twisted her ankle. And her mom asked to be out sick Monday to take care of her daughter. And her boss said no, absolutely not. And the mom doesn’t want to keep choosing between this and that, so she makes a change. And three years later, that now-successful woman meets Selena at a conference in Manhattan, and appreciates that Selena offers her a mint. And offers her an interview.
✨
What Selena doesn’t know is that a decision has already been made for her about her future. Sometimes it takes a while for our lives to make sense.
See this story on Instagram.
Two of Swords Reflections
Musings
We’ve all been there, paralyzed by a decision. Should I stay or should I go? Should I pick between three suitors, or live my best life as a single inn-keeper—oh, wait, that’s the plot of Mamma Mia 2. Should I head out-of-state for college or commute? Should I take the road less traveled or is the well-trodden road good enough, thank you? Should I accept my boyfriend of three months’s invitation to a New Year’s Eve party, or go to my friends’? Should I have a bacon, egg and cheese for lunch like I want to, or stick to the yogurt I brought (a frequent conundrum for me)?
Often, when we’re standing at the foot of two (or three, or six) branching paths, tarot readings are ways to poke the two conundrums from unexpected angles, see what wisdom might fall out which will help us make a better choice.
Before I get into this next part, let me establish this:
I believe that tarot can be a tool for making brave and bold decisions.
And I do believe that decision-making is a crucial skill. Making wise, thoughtful choices that are aligned with your intention is a way to live without regret.
But I also think the Two of Swords is, in some ways, a card of surrender. Yes, surrender—not choice. The figure in the card is frozen between two options, unable to take a step. She’s putting pressure on herself, as if this one choice will determine the rest of the quality of her life.
Obviously, there are choices we make that determine our lives—but often, they’re completely unintentional. The decision to wake up later than usual and, by doing so, miss your carpool the day the driver gets into an accident. The decision to go to a party and meet a girl from two towns over who will become your best friend, saving you from the hell of high school cafeteria politics (you know now, somewhere out there, you have an ally).
And this idea can get dark quick, with all the little moves that can lead to major accidents. (The decision to take the elevator, not the stairs, in a Final Destination movie. The decision to look at your phone while walking in New York as you pass by an open grate. I need not go on—you get it).
Here’s what I’m trying to say with these examples: There’s a lot out of our control, and those out of control factors define our lives. Case in point? We didn’t ask for our great-grandparents to meet, our grandparents to meet, our parents to meet—and yet here we are. Clearly, we’re operating in a larger system, a symphony too expansive for us to hear entirely. Normally, we only hear only the few notes we contribute. But we can hear flashes of the melody in life’s coincidences, the way things miraculously come together.
In the book The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire, Deepak Chopra writes about the freedom that comes once we acknowledge we exist within a large, mysterious system: “We never really know what direction life will take, what changes those small butterfly flutters of intention and action might cause in our destiny. And at the same time, it also tells us we can never truly know the mind of God. We can never fully understand the how, where, and when of anything. We have to surrender to uncertainty, while appreciating its intricate beauty.”
There are things in our control, and for our mental health, we have to believe that matters. The Two of Swords is a card that calls for a mindset change, not a choice. When you’re faced with a decision, start by knowing yourself. Knowing what you want. Knowing the signs of your body (what sits right in your gut?) and the signs of the universe, if you’re into that sort of thing.
And if you’re aligned in what you want, any path will get you there. Take Path A, Path B, Path 34. Some might be quicker than others. The whole point is, you don’t know where those paths will lead, what views and surprises and mysteries they might contain. You never will; you never did. So relax! Surrender! Enjoy the journey.
Of course, there’s still pressure to make a decision; and of course, that pressure may be stressful. But how would things change if you eliminated the illusion of a “right choice,” and instead thought of a decision as, “the step down a path?” And you remembered that every second of every day, you do just that: Step, step, step right along.
All the Two of Swords asks is that when the universe is kind enough to grant you an impasse, a moment to use agency, you act in alignment with your intention, your higher self. And act in a way that will make you proud.
Journaling Prompts
What’s the hardest decision you ever made? What factors did you consider when you were making it? How did you make the decision? What was the fallout then, and now?
Is acting impulsively counter to acting wisely? Does wisdom require time?
What’s the most important decision you’ve ever made?
Are you proud of the decisions you’ve made?
When was a time someone else’s choice impacted the course of your life?
How do you make hard choices?
When do you know if something is right?
Do you believe there’s a “right” path you should be on?
Start a Story of Your Own
Write a story of your own inspired by the dynamics present in the Two of Swords card, starting with this sentence. If you email me your story, I’ll share it in the next newsletter.
By the time she thought about what she was doing, it was already done. There was no taking it back now.
Extra Credit
Make a decision using the flip of a coin.
Read about the power of intention.
Ask yourself the important questions, without the pressure to land on answers. Start the process of getting to know yourself better. Think of it as practice for game time. You never know when game time will come.
Thank you for posting this. The Two of Swords seems to be appearing a lot for me the last couple of weeks, and I appreciated reading your perspective of it.