Cards for the Day: Be Patient. Plan. Wait Until the Time is Right to Take Action

There is a time and a place for everything. Sometimes, if you act too soon, you can spoil everything. There is a theme in my cards for today: patience, and planning. There are some changes that we would like to make quickly, because they are important to us. Sometimes we crave the Tower and the dramatic changes that it can bring. But not all change is meant to come quickly. In the Samurai Tarot, the Knave of Swords is represented by Oboshi Yuranosuke, the leader of the 47 ronin, a man who planned, in secret, for more than a year to avenge his master’s forced seppuku death. He’s reversed, today, though — it isn’t time for his plans to come to fruition yet. First, he has to gather a group of ronin, make plans, let the matter settle so that everyone lets their guard down. The Priest, according to the book that comes with the Samurai Tarot, advises, “Flow through time like a leaf in a current. Impatience does not pay.”

I hope none of us are embroiled in plans of bloody revenge, like Oboshi Yuranosuke. But this advice is useful for all sorts of goals. (Actually, his story makes me think of a woman I know who planned for a year to leave her abusive husband — I hope none of you face this type of situation, but it is a good example of a time when planning can be paramount.) To make our goals manifest, we cannot expect them to come about in the course of one day. Instead, we have to plan and prepare. Even something as simple as cooking dinner requires planning and preparation — otherwise we may not even have the ingredients that we need on hand. If you have a goal that you are desperate to achieve, take a step back and break down the steps that must be completed for you to reach that goal. And some of those steps may have substeps! Plan when each step will take place, even going so far as to schedule the steps on your calendar. Trust me, planning and scheduling can go a long way toward bringing about the thing that you need to have happen. Saving money for your goal may be another part of the scheme.

What we don’t always realize is that planning and preparing for a goal is an exercise in trust. We trust that somehow we will manage to accomplish each step. There is a lot of faith involved. Because it doesn’t just depend on us. While we are preparing for our goals, we are still like leaves in that current on the Priest’s card — swept along by the events of our time and place, and flowing with those events. If we want to progress, we have to let the flow carry us forward, but we also cannot control it — not entirely. We’d like to completely take charge with our creativity and enthusiasm. Instead we have to be patient and trust. We have to make our plans, complete our preparations, and bide our time.