January/February 2012 Cosmic
Working the Vices and Virtues of the Tarot
by Karen M. Rider
Eight Life Patterns
1. The gilded cage: Are you compromising your personal integrity by staying in a relationship that is unhealthy or deceitful for the purpose of financial security and ego gratification? The vices that bind a person in this pattern are greed, lust and pride. The virtues that empower a person toward change are love, purity, humility and courage.
2. Mom loved you best: Do you equate the depth of a parent’s love by the size of the inheritance left to you? Or the way other siblings are treated? This life pattern deals with confronting the vices wrath, greed and pride. Growth comes through the energy of the virtues patience, charity, humility, courage and diligence.
3. Playing with the Queen of Hearts: Do you flit from one relationship to the next like the elusive monarch butterfly, exclaiming, "There are no good men/women out there," even though you have dated many, finding not a one acceptable? Vices that bind a person in this life pattern are lust, envy, pride and greed. Virtues involved include chastity/purity, humility, kindness/compassion and love.
4. Dead or alive: Are you unable to come to terms with the loss of a loved one? Often, there is wrath/anger at the person who passed away, and sloth in that the person refuses to do the work to move on with life. Overcoming this pattern involves the energy of the virtues patience, love, peace and fortitude.
5. Gypsies, tramps and thieves: Do you experience “use and abuse” by friends, co-workers or loved ones? The hostile situations typical in this life pattern are associated with the vices sloth, greed and pride. Virtues that empower change are diligence, love and courage.
6. La mirage: Do you feel unfulfilled despite all that you have acquired in life? Vices present in this life pattern are gluttony, greed and envy. Release from this pattern involves the energy of temperance/justice, charity and humility.
7. For better, for worse or just for now: Can you tell if someone, even yourself, is entering into relationships as matter of convenience versus true commitment? Vices evident in this life pattern are gluttony, lust, and envy. Virtues that empower change are temperance/justice, chastity/purity and compassion.
8. I’ll have the Reuben: Do you perpetually take care of others with no consideration for how such caretaking impedes self-actualization — for yourself and the other person? Life lessons in this pattern are taught through the vices pride, gluttony and sloth. Virtues that empower change are humility/courage, temperance/justice and fortitude.
— Karen M. Rider
Tarot cards are a symbolic language, and like the Da Vinci Code, contain a road map for avoiding unhappiness and finding true spiritual fulfillment, according to Karen Hollis, a Connecticut-based tarot reader.
The tarot deck contains symbolism related to the “seven deadly sins.” Countering these seven vices are virtues, which have the power to facilitate the soul’s growth toward enlightenment and redemption.
| Seven Vices and Virtues |
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Lust
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Chastity/purity
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Gluttony
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Temperance/justice
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Greed
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Charity/love
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Sloth
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Diligence/fortitude
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Wrath
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Patience/peace
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Envy
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Kindness/compassion
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Pride
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Humility/courage
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Hollis has developed a new understanding of the tarot that points to eight life patterns revealed in the relationship between the vices and virtues and the circumstances that cause us to get stuck in life, impeding the soul’s growth toward a fulfilling life.
According to Hollis, these eight life patterns manifest in many different ways (see sidebar), but commonly appear in relationship struggles, in a family inheritance squabble, in the role money plays in relationship to ego and self-worth, in the quest for love, and in maintaining boundaries with other people.
Not everyone faces the same life pattern and not every person deals with more than one pattern in a lifetime. Until the soul (or life) lesson associated with a pattern is learned, people often find themselves repeating the same pattern — with different people and circumstances.
“Tarot cards tap the subconscious mind — each life pattern revealed in the cards casts a bright light on the truth of what is creating your pain and helps you examine how to get unstuck from your unhappiness,” explains Hollis.
“If you understand your mental and emotional energy is being drained into a situation that engages one of the seven vices, then if you so choose, you can do something to change your situation. Typically, this involves tapping the energy of one of more of the seven virtues, consciously or even subconsciously, in thought and action,” says Hollis.
Learn more about Karen Hollis at www.readingsbykaren.com.