Gaia, Mother Earth, is our world card. Just as Gaia gave birth to everything, so her card represents birth, new beginnings, fulfillment, achievement and satisfaction. It’s the payoff for hard work, the triumphant end of a cycle and the beginning of a wonderful new phase of life.

Hera created the Lernaean Hydra, a poisonous, many headed, invulnerable snake, specifically to kill Hercules. The Five of Swords feels like that: not only defeat, but impossible to avoid defeat. Like youve been set up to lose, and maybe you have. But how we deal with failure is at least as important as how we deal with success. Learn from your mistakes and move on.

Sometimes, it feels like youre stuck floundering in the night, and that a new day will never come. But, as the old saying goes, it’s always darkest right before the dawn. Hang in there!

The Four of Cups reversed is a wait-and-see card. It may feel like nothing is happening for you, or not happening fast enough, like the tide has rolled out leaving everything beached and unmoving behind it. But things are brewing far out to sea, and a change for the better is coming soon.

Artemis was the goddess of childbirth, of all animals, of the hunt, of agriculture, of death and rebirth, and of the Moon. These traits are identical to those of the great Mother Goddess of the Neolithic. But an all-powerful female deity didn’t fit ancient Greek ideals, so she was demoted. Likewise, the reversed Ace warns that your success may have obstacles.

Iris, goddess of the rainbow, was also a sea goddess who seeded the clouds with water she carried from the oceans. Likewise, you should feel healed, renewed and revitalized now, happy and content and possibly very fertile!

Karen Chance