Divine Timing Tarot Reading: Almond Blossom

This Tarot reading is intended to reach you at just the right time.

Step into the rich tapestry of Algarvian folklore with a Tarot reading inspired by the tale of almond blossoms and a Queen from distant lands. Using the Tarot of the Moors, this reading uncovers themes of love, adaptation, and renewal, offering insights into your current challenges and opportunities. Let the cards guide you as we explore how the wisdom of this timeless story connects to your journey today.

This reading was originally recorded as an Insight Timer live and used the Tarot of the Moors by Gina Thies.

Transcript

This week's tarot reading,

Our spread is based on a story,

So I'll talk you through the spread and then we'll go ahead and pull some cards.

And as many of you know,

Here in the Algarve is where I live,

And this time of year is wonderful in the Algarve.

We start to get the almond blossoms coming out.

They've been out since about mid-January and they haven't gone full bloom yet just because we've had a really,

Really cold snap,

Which feels actually like a really long cold snap.

But they're coming and this month they're going to be in full bloom and it's absolutely beautiful,

Looks like snow on all the trees and on the ground underneath them.

And there's a story from here in the Algarve associated with the almond blossoms.

It's based in historical times,

It's one of these folk stories,

All the kids learn it at school.

And today I'd like to tell you that story and use it as the basis for our spread.

So imagine,

If you will,

A beautiful,

Clear blue sky,

Very similar to what I've got just out the window here.

And under that wide blue sky is red earth with trees full of green,

Dark green leaves and orange oranges.

And so we have the big,

Wide blue sky and we have the orange groves underneath.

And travel across this landscape until you see a big castle in a walled town with little sort of medina-like passageways through the town all the way going up to the castle.

And this is the castle of Silvidge,

It's about 50 kilometres from where I live.

And in this castle,

Once upon a time,

Lived a prince and his wife,

The queen.

And these two were very,

Very much in love.

So if you went across this landscape with the wide sky and the orange groves and you saw the castle at the top of the town,

You might see there in the castle the prince and the queen telling stories to each other,

Laughing together,

Playing games,

Walking together,

Doing all the things that young people in love do.

And they were very,

Very much in love.

But the queen was sad.

The queen was not from here.

The prince,

It was his castle and the queen had come from abroad and married into his family.

And the queen was from a land far,

Far to the north,

The land of ice and snow.

And she missed this land.

So as happy as she was under the sunshine with the prince,

She missed her homeland.

It was a long way away.

And she wondered if she'd ever see any of the landscapes of her homeland again.

And so they carried on in their lives,

Very much in love,

Spending time together,

Tending to affairs of state,

Doing all of these things.

And one day,

It's been cold,

It's been winter,

They hadn't been up on the castle walls for a long time.

And from the castle walls,

You can see the whole landscape spread out below.

So they went up.

The prince said to the queen,

Come on,

Come on,

We're going to go up on the castle walls.

See what we can see with this kind of knowing glint in his eye,

Because he knew what they were going to see.

So up they went up the steps onto the castle walls.

And they get up and it's this sort of crenellated walls.

And you can look out over the crenellations,

You can look out through Arrowslips,

It's a fortified castle.

And you can see the whole land below.

So out they went,

They looked out,

Nice big warm cloaks on because it was this time of year,

It was freezing.

And what they saw was a blanket of white on all the land.

And the queen went,

It's just like my homeland,

I feel at home.

Of course,

It wasn't snow,

It was these almond blossoms.

So the prince had had all these almond trees planted so that the queen might look out and see the blossom of the almond and be reminded of the snow and be reminded and feel just for a moment that she was closer once again to her homeland.

So that's the story.

It's quite a well-known Algarvian story.

And we're going to,

Our spread today is based on this story.

So you've got the person who is at home,

In this case,

It was a prince.

So this position here of home is your comfort zone.

What's going to be your comfort zone this week?

Then we've got a person who is away,

The queen.

And so this is what's going to be outside of your comfort zone this week.

And here in the middle,

We've got love.

Where is the love going to be this week?

And then over here by this position of the queen,

We've got longing.

What might you find yourself longing for or missing this week?

This is perhaps the most significant position in the spread because it's the gift,

The planting of the almond trees,

This transformative gift which transforms the landscape and transforms the experience of these two lovers.

So we have the gift,

The transformative gift.

And then here we have two positions for the impact.

So we have the immediate impact of this gift,

Which was that the queen felt just for a moment as if she was at home.

And then we have the long term impact of this gift,

Which is that this became a story that all of the school children in the Algarve learn when they're at school and they do pictures of it and everything.

It became a story that is being told at this very minute around the world.

And of course,

The almond trees are still here.

We have almond trees all over the Algarve.

And they're wonderful,

I've got to say.

When you pass by them at this time of year,

They do have this feeling of joy.

So we have the immediate impact of the gift and the longer term,

Wider impacts of the gifts.

And this is our spread for today.

So I could,

Of course,

Only use one tarot deck for this spread.

And it's the Tarot of the Moors by Gina Theus.

The Moors being the people who lived in that castle in Silvish and all over the Algarve.

Algarve as it was then.

So I'll invite you to take a deep breath and just ask to receive what you need.

So if there is something that you're working through at the moment,

Then you might ask to receive some insight on that.

Or you might just ask to receive what you need and allow the universe to bring whatever you need to you.

And then our first position is home.

So what is the comfort zone this week?

And we've got here,

It's one of my favourites,

The Four of Swords.

So the Four of Swords is a card of rest.

And I would go so far to say sacred rest.

So this is often depicted like this in a church or a place of worship as a sort of resting place.

So I'd say sacred rest.

So the comfort zone this week might be as simple as deliberate rest,

Sleep,

Being in your bed,

Lounging around on your sofa or whatever other resting supportive spaces that you have and not doing very much at all.

This is what you might feel inclined to this week.

This is the comfort zone.

Away then,

Or you know,

The Queen's experience,

Being out of your comfort zone.

What will be outside of the comfort zone?

This week.

We've got the Mallika of Cups or the Queen of Cups.

So this is a,

The cups is about emotions and the Queen of Cups is often someone who is very in touch with their emotions,

Able to express their emotions,

Able to hold their emotions in that cup.

One of the things I really like about this particular deck,

The Tower of the Moors,

Is that a lot of the queens and the empress and characters in the cards look straight at us.

So you can see her looking straight at us in this card.

And so this is a very sort of open and frank look on her face.

So there's something there about being willing to communicate on an emotional level,

Willing to share emotionally,

Willing to listen emotionally and take notice.

The position this has come up for is the out of the comfort zone position.

So what this tells us with this Four of Swords here and the Mallika of Cups here is that this week it might feel easier to do nothing,

To rest,

To withdraw in some way.

And some of the things that might be more challenging or might demand a little bit more effort from you are around this sort of emotional experience,

Processing your own emotional experience and sharing it with others,

Communicating in some way and possibly also processing other people's emotional experience.

Because we all do that when we live in families or with other people or even when we're working with other people,

Whatever our sort of close-knit communities are.

We're all processing our own experience all the time.

And we're also processing the emotional experience of those around us because we transmit.

We as humans are transmitters,

Aren't we?

We sort of transmit where we're at emotionally,

Sometimes intentionally and sometimes non-intentionally.

So the emotions might feel a little bit more challenging this week and you might find that you do just want to withdraw and rest and have a bed day,

Whatever it is.

All of which is okay.

You know,

This is life.

Sometimes there are weeks like that.

In the middle,

Though,

What do we have?

We have love.

Okay,

So where is the love this week?

Oh,

This is interesting.

We've got the ten of swords.

So given that that malica of cups was in the outside of the comfort zone position,

This makes sense.

So the ten of swords is a card of difficulties.

You can see here someone's laying on the ground and being stabbed in the back with all of those swords.

It's not always the first,

Most comfortable,

Easiest card that we can draw.

Swords is about the mental experience.

It's about the mind.

So firstly,

Any of these difficulties that you may feel that you're experiencing in love may be associated with thoughts,

Thought beliefs,

Narrative stories you're telling yourself or that others are telling you as well.

Some of these swords will belong to you.

You'll have put them in yourself.

Some of them might belong to other people,

Either individuals around you or narratives on a sort of cultural scale.

But these ten swords represent beliefs that are not serving you.

So in love,

I think you need to be very aware or we need to be very aware this week that we might be carrying around some beliefs which are hindering us in some way.

Now what I really like in,

Again,

The Tower of the Moors and a couple of cards,

Usually the ten of swords,

This person sort of lying here on the ground is on their own.

In this card they're not.

Someone else has come along.

It's not clear whether they're an ally or an enemy or just someone who happens to have come across this scene.

But they've come along.

So this person lying here with all the swords in them isn't going to lie there forever.

Something is going to change.

And I always like to imagine that this person who has come along and happened on the scene is going to perhaps maybe help remove some of the swords,

Maybe help clean the scene up a bit.

So this week,

Emotional processing,

Expression and communication might feel outside of your comfort zone.

You might just want to run back to bed at some point.

And there might be challenges in terms of not what's actually happening in love,

In relationships,

But in the stories you're telling yourself about what's happening.

But the resource here is really this other person who can maybe help to untangle things a bit.

So what that tells you is that although the rest is going to be the comfort zone,

It's worth stepping out of your comfort zone and having those conversations,

Having that clear communication,

Turning your face towards the people that you are in relationship with and communicating on a heart level.

It's worth it.

It might be work,

It might not be easy,

But it's definitely worth it.

What do we have then for longing?

What is the longing that we may experience this week?

And it's a three of swords,

So it's interesting this three and ten of swords coming up together.

And again,

This is one of the cards which is,

If you read it on a very surface level,

There's definitely some discomfort in there.

And it's often read as being about heartbreak.

You can see the swords going into the heart.

What I like about this card,

Although it is a swords card,

It's about the mental,

It's about the stories we tell ourselves.

The heart,

Although the swords are in it,

The heart is present in this card and there's water in this card,

Which is also associated with the heart and with emotions and also with intuition.

So although there may,

I think it's just a reinforcing really of the same message.

Although there may be some swords in there,

The heart is really there as well.

And the other message of the three of swords is about healing.

So with this card,

What I always,

Always say is that,

You know,

We are shaped by our experiences.

Absolutely.

We are not defined by them.

That's a really important thing to know.

You are not defined by your experiences,

However much you're shaped by them.

And in this context of healing and in this position of longing with all the other cards that have come up here,

I think what we have is a complex emotional landscape for the week,

One where we might be longing for some healing.

And this healing can sometimes take time.

And again,

It's dependent on this ability to reckon up.

Yeah.

So I've been talking about processing emotions,

But actually,

Firstly,

Recognising emotions at all.

You know,

Do you know what your emotional landscape is today and during the rest of the week?

This is a question that you can ask yourself.

You know,

What is my emotional landscape at this moment?

And then going on to process it.

So although it looks quite challenging so far,

It's one of those double-edged swords,

Isn't it?

That,

You know,

These challenging experiences where we might have to step out of the comfort zone.

We might have to face some things that have happened that we don't necessarily like,

That feel,

Don't feel good.

Healing is possible.

And just by that very act of facing up to things and being prepared to work with them and to hold the space for yourself and for each other,

For healing,

The healing comes as a natural result of that first step.

And again,

Because we have this other figure in the card here,

I think there is a theme of collaboration,

Of working together this week.

The gift then.

What is the transformative gift which can really make all the difference this week?

So if there's one position in this spread to pay attention to,

It is this gift because this is where the transformation happens.

I wonder what it will be.

Oh,

We've got another sword.

It's the nine of swords.

So really,

Really a lot going on perhaps mentally this week.

A lot of the nine of swords often shows someone who's sort of in bed at night,

But awake.

So think of the kind of things that keep you up at night.

All those anxieties and worries and pain that come in the middle of the night.

They don't come at any other time.

They come in the middle of the night.

And you start to wonder all sorts of things you might start to wonder.

And that is just really an affirmation that this process of confronting all the tangled things in the mind is a process of transformation and of healing.

Two important things about this card.

One is that the swords are suspended in the air.

They're not real swords.

They are the things that your mind thinks are swords in the middle of the night when everything's dark.

And the other is,

I mentioned when the ten of swords came up,

That in this deck there are a couple of cards which traditionally show one person.

And in this deck has two.

And this is the other one,

The nine of swords.

So often it depicts one person up on their own in the middle of the night.

But here we have two people.

And so they're perhaps conversing.

I always think this person looks very,

Very steady and very quiet,

Very calm and like they might be listening to this person.

So there's also an invitation there to invite transformation by holding space for yourself and others and also finding someone to hold space for you.

So if you are someone who's experiencing a lot of uncomfortable swords in your life,

And we've got three of the most uncomfortable swords cards that has come up in this reading,

Then this really,

Really is an invitation to reach out to somebody who can hold space for you.

So whether that is a friend,

A family member,

A professional,

Like a counsellor or someone,

This is something that can be transformative.

And it is in this position of the gift.

So,

You know,

What is the gift that transforms our experience this week?

It is this,

Again,

Confronting or recognising our beliefs and the thought patterns which may be tormenting us.

Being willing to be with and sit with our emotions,

And then holding space and seeking places where you can have space held.

This is the key.

This is what transforms this week and the impact of that on the individual level.

It's a two of one.

So look at that complete change in energy in this spread.

You know,

We've had swords,

Swords,

Swords,

Swords,

And this one cup card and this invitation to examine our thoughts and our emotions and to confront the ones that are most troubling.

And when we do that,

Look what happens.

We have a change to firstly of suit to the wands.

The wands is about fire.

It's about energy.

I associate the wands always with energy work.

And the two of wands,

It's an early card.

So we've had a nine.

We've had a ten here.

We have had a three and four as well.

But we've had sort of cards that higher up in numbers towards the end of the cycle.

And here we have a two.

So,

You know,

New possibilities opening up.

So really,

Really,

However much you're tempted to withdraw.

And,

You know,

That is valid as well.

If you're not up to facing the hard things,

That's fine.

That's valid.

There's no judgment on that.

If you do find the courage to face the hard things and to seek spaces that can be held for you to do that and to examine them and to transform them,

Then you will absolutely have a change in energy.

New things will open up.

Your own energy might feel better and you'll be able to keep getting this sense of like a vista opening up.

So,

You know,

Some of these cards feel quite closed.

With this one,

You've got expansion.

You've got space.

So you can invite in a change of energy just by being willing to approach and sit with and work through any old or stuck or uncomfortable energy that you might have been with this week.

And then the wider impacts of doing this work.

And we've got again,

It's another cups court card.

It's the princess of cups.

So the princess of cups.

All of the court cards have already learned the lessons of their suits.

So the princess of cups already knows where she's at emotionally.

And you see that she's carrying her cup.

She's been she's filled it up with water.

Got a beautiful lake in the in the background.

And I can tell you here in southwestern Iberia,

This is a lake is a blessing.

And it's a place of relief in a landscape that can become very dry.

And so there it's so,

You know,

There is this water and she's able to go and fill up her vessel with the water that she needs.

And she's able to be with it.

I always imagine the princess of cups is someone who is sensing into emotional experience and savoring it.

So the queen of cups has the emotions and kind of knows what to do with them and how to process them.

And the princess of cups is more sort of exploratory,

More about sensing into well,

What is what is this like?

And what does this feel like?

And perhaps finding or recognizing those emotions without necessarily needing to jump straight into processing them.

So I think this is about renewal.

I think this is about.

Also,

You know,

It being another court card,

The court cards can sometimes represent you or aspects of you,

And they can also represent people around you.

And the queen or the mannequin and the princess of cups,

They will know each other.

So so by the mannequin of cups doing this work,

The wider impact is good for the people around her,

The people who are in that court with her.

So so for you,

The wider impact is that you are modeling how to cope with all of this when it does feel a bit too much.

And that is good for those around you,

But also it's good for you.

You get this sort of wide openness.

So that's this week's reading.

And I'll summarize it in just a moment.

I feel like I should be drinking very mindfully from my cup.

OK,

So to summarize the reading,

We are challenged to step out of our comfort zone this week.

Our comfort zone is very comforting.

It's about rest and withdrawing and kind of not not being involved,

Not participating.

And what's outside of our comfort zone is might be emotional processing and particularly in relation to the kinds of thoughts,

Narratives,

Beliefs and happenings,

Which are heavy.

They feel heavy.

They feel perhaps like too much and they tangle us up.

We have wonderful minds.

We're humans and and and we can plan and we can create and all of these wonderful things.

And sometimes we get tangled up in worrying or what if or I think this bad thing is happening.

And all of those kinds of thoughts are thoughts that really deserve to be.

Deserve to be.

Acknowledged and examined,

So we have permission to go back into our comfort zone and rest whenever we want to or feel that we need to.

But we also have this invitation to look at all of the narratives in our mind,

All of the emotions that we're holding and process them and allow for healing.

And this is a transformative process.

As soon as we do that.

And what this deck,

The particular cards that have come up in this particular deck tells us is that that is something that we might do with the help of other people,

Then.

In fact,

That's really important.

I'm going to emphasize that we need to hold space for ourselves for this work and for each other.

But we also need to still seek help where appropriate.

And there is help around.

There are people around who can help us to process these emotions,

Whether those are friends,

Family,

Loved ones,

Professionals.

Don't try and do it all on your own.

But when we do that,

We do get this change of energy.

We get the two of ones,

This kind of re-energizing of ourself and new things opening up for us,

An ability to be with our emotions and in a slightly different way and to be able to show others how they can be like that with their emotions.

So I think this is very much a community tarot reading,

A reminder that we are all dealing with our own thoughts.

We're all searching for our own healing and that we can hold space for each other.

And it's good for us and for each other when we do that.

Okay,

That's this week's reading.

Thank you very much for joining me.

Reviews

I’m very happy to listen to this summary today, the story set the scenario very well 💕 👸- and appreciate your insights thanks again !

As you indicated in this title, today, for me, this was exactly what I needed. Thank you for sharing your gifts of these readings. 🙏🏽

Creative tarot reading with a powerful message! Thank you 🙏🏼

Very helpful to hear this talk. TY