In this post, we’ll learn what the Jack Of Spades shows us about dealing with the idea of…struggle.

And, at the time of this post, we are a few days away from a New Moon in Aries…a New Moon that tells us to act in our best interest…to reinvent ourselves! (More on that at the end of the post)

The Jack cards always represent a dynamic, “young” energy.  It speaks to one having innate talents, but immaturity and a lack of self-discipline can undermine that vital “young” energy.

With the Jack of spades, the energy can be erratic and inconsistent.

The Jack of spades is a wonderful representation of….drama.

As a matter of fact, the Jack of Spades is considered to be the card of the actor.

 

On the show, Downton Abbey, one of Violet Crawley’s lines (played by actress Maggie Smith) is: “Why is life always a fight to the American.”

 

As I worked with this card, I kept wondering: Why do we (Americans) love to live in and through drama? (Did you know that America’s birth card is the Jack of Diamonds?)

 

Why are our troubles and hardships so important to us? It can seem that we strive to have the most woes among our friends and if our life is smooth and peaceful, well, we’re boring and viewed as either hiding something or crazy.

 

The crazy thing is, life isn’t meant to be hard, full of troubles or sad. The Universe is not made of woes and sorrows, the Universe is about expansion, joy and bliss (and we are innately that!)

 

You see this sense of wonder and joy in a small child—they have it because they’ve yet to have it taken away from them. If the Universe wasn’t about joy and wonder, babies would be born feeling sad and lonely and depressed.

 

We do use conflict and strife to expand. Conflict gives us contrast, so we can view something and say, “I don’t like that; I don’t want that.” We can then look for the opposite and go for that. This is a part of the Law of Polarity. The dark is not dark unless the light lets us know it‘s dark; the light is not light unless the dark lets us know it’s light.

The Jack of Spades sits in the Mars line (Mars & Uranus)

While Mars speaks about  action  and how to receive what we need to reach our goal, it also speaks to going about things differently then the traditional way of attaining something new.

 

There can come a point, when you feel like you have to go out and get it. A panic might set in because the idea of not concerning yourself with the how-to’s and not running around like a chicken with your head cut off in the typical “masculine” way of reaching a goal, will feel odd, maybe even scary.

So, we busy ourselves, we worry, we go back to past patterns, our friends keep asking, “Why aren’t you hustling? Why aren’t you out there pounding down doors?”

The struggle is what we seem to be so fond of. It’s like a badge of honor, proclaiming that because we are struggling so much,  we must be working really hard and our struggle surely is greater than anyone else’s struggle, which means we must be doing it better and when we reach our goal, parties and more badges will be delivered to us, cuz you know…..we walked uphill through the snow with no shoes to reach our goal!!

 

We love to talk about how hard things are, how many battles we’re facing to get there and as creatives, we feel even more in love with the struggle, because isn’t art about drama?

 

What good is a painting full of butterflies? What good is a story with no conflict? What good is a slam poem without some turmoil to raise Cain about?

How can we portray real life if we don’t live in struggle, so we know about the pain?

 

Oh the beautiful pain…or as Dr. Smith would say on the TV show Lost in Space…”the pain…oh the pain…”

 

The spades suit is all about the challenges and struggles in life. They help to fine tune us, to make us wiser, stronger and with each battle, we step up.

 

But with a life of lawsuits over every little bad feeling; kids given prizes for no reason; pills to take away all and any pain, do we even allow challenges to uplevel us?

 

The Jack of spades is the drama we love, the pain we love to taut and the struggles we’d rather focus on, instead of becoming more because of our struggles.

 

The low side of the Jack of spades is to stay in the struggle.

 

If we glorify the struggle, keep talking about it, keep the struggle energy our main focus, keep our thoughts, feelings and environment pointed at the struggle, what are we accomplishing?

More struggle.

That is all.

Just more struggle.

 

On the flip side, the high side of the Jack of spades is about situations that act as your initiation into a new way of being. That is how to view this card. It is a reminder of those things that come along to help us become better.

We might learn about a new way of eating that makes us feel better, or take up some study that makes us more aware of our potential, or meet someone new that helps us see ourselves in a more positive way – all of those types of experiences uplevel our lives in some way and that is what the Jack of Spades represents.

Here’s the twist:  you can better yourself without the erroneous idea that it takes struggle. You can take what seems like a challenge and use it to uplevel yourself. You can have the dream job, the relationships, the home, etc., without going through the drama.

As I’m writing this, I’m going through one hell of a struggle. I know I drew this card because I needed to hear this. It sucks when it feels like life has thrown shit in our face and is laughing about it.

I’ve been angry, felt immense hurt and that my happy rug was pulled out from under me.

To be honest, I wish a handsome knight in shining armor would come sweep me up and take me into the sunset, promising all will be well.

Instead, each day, I have to face how I’m reacting.

Am I sending out a distress signal? Or, am I holding onto the truth that my non-physical, connected Self has it all under control and I just need to get out of the way and trust.

The Jack of Spades card doesn’t indicate challenges or that we will be facing struggle (like the 7 cards might), but it does indicate that what we might be going through can be a doorway to something much better. We just need to stop resisting and stop getting caught up in the struggle.

This card is a reminder of your transformation and that while it might still make you twitchy to be going about things in a new way, you WILL succeed and fulfill your desire.

 

Don’t glorify any struggles. Use them to point out what you don’t want to have in your life any longer, but then move forward. Don’t rehash the old stories. Don’t let your thoughts run wild with the old stories. Don’t let the low vibrations linger and keep you down. Release them.

 

Exercise:

 When you begin to have any erratic, inconsistent thoughts, feelings or you feel panic about something that has happened to you, take the time to sit down with a pen and paper, take some deep breaths and write them out.

Get them out of your body/mind and onto paper. Fold the paper up and write on the outside:

Universe, Dept of Ego Panic

Attention: Jack

Put this folded paper away somewhere.

Now, go do something creative.

**The New Moon in Aries coming up on the 7th: What better time to reinvent yourself than this?

Many times when difficult, unexpected things come along, it gives us the perfect opportunity to do just that – to step back and see if  how we are currently living is really what we want, or is it just habitual?

This New Moon is conjunct Uranus – the planet that shakes things up and says, “Hey, you are more than you think you are, so you should really get out of your rut and go check out what that is!!“

 

If you’re feeling the urge to try something new or things have happened to you that seems to be forcing you to change – the energies to do that are ready for you – create that leap!