Today’s Tarot: Embracing Your World
Embrace, in traditional Tarot, is known as The World or The Universe. It is the last card in the Major Arcana of the Tarot, which is the suit that reflects the spiritual and psychological aspects of the journey we embark on called Life. Being the last card, it can represent completion and endings.
From a spiritual or universal perspective (our figure on the card emerging from the world, with the universe as his backdrop), this card is about seeing the bigger picture, about having a higher level of awareness. You know when we have those moments, those realizations where we understand the meaning of life and how everything is connected—and it makes sense? That’s Embrace. We have those moments where we have embraced Life in a big way—only those moments can sometimes seem fleeting, elusive, and sometimes hard to hold on to.
This level of awareness is also indicated by the halo of green against the nimbus of yellow, which expands to become orange and red. Superimposed on that nimbus of enlightenment is a large lotus. The lotus represents the Crown Chakra, which is the energy center located at the top of the head, which has been called “The Thousand-Petal Lotus.” This chakra is the center of your link to the Universe and your higher consciousness, which is the connection to wisdom and spiritual insight. Our figure’s arms are raised, hands open, showing his willingness to be receptive to the Divine Guidance and Wisdom that comes from this connection.
There is a heart on the card, which has branches growing from it, and enveloped by a sphere of blue light, all of which is located at the center of planet Earth. For me, this suggests that at the center of everything is love. In metaphysics, love (the heart) is considered to be the unifying force that connects everything (the branches). We are called to love one another in this world. But that can only happen when we are first willing to love ourselves.
This card asks us to fully embrace Who We Are. We are to see ourselves as whole, complete and perfect beings—regardless of the appearances and the expressions we experience in our daily lives. And as you embrace this Truth about yourself, seek to embrace the same about your fellow human and spiritual beings, no matter what they think, say, do, and believe. I know—that’s a tall order!
But we can do it. As we fully embrace ourselves, we change, we grow, we evolve—and that evolution permeates out and changes our world–one person at a time.
