Practical Tarot: Learning to Drive a Stick Shift

In the past, several people have tried to teach me to drive a stick shift. It never worked out — and, in fact, my learning to drive at all was delayed for about a decade until it dawned on me that I could actually drive if I didn’t have to deal with coordinating an accelerator pedal and a clutch.

But then our car died, and so did the next one. And we had the chance to buy a car that we like a lot — but it has a manual transmission. My husband thinks he can teach me to drive it….so we bought it. But I couldn’t resist asking my tarot cards how this is going to work out. I asked:

1. What is my biggest obstacle in learning how to drive this car? Answer: reversed Eight of Pentacles. Looks like I may have a bit of a chip on my shoulder — the attitude that no matter how much work I put into this, it will not work. False starts. The idea that I am not wired to drive this kind of car. Anxiety!!!

2. What is my biggest strength in learning how to drive this car? Answer: reversed Queen of Pentacles. I think of this as sort of a Queen cubed: someone who is good with details, good with dealing with practical matters, much like the upright Queen of Pentacles, but in this case, the level of attention to those details is overthought to the point of absolute obsessiveness. Oh, I can do obsessive overthinking attention to detail. Yes, I can. It’s what I’m best at! How nice to know that there is at least one aspect of life where obsessive overthinking can turn into a strength…and how interesting to know that I have some reversed Queen of Pentacles in me. (I tend to think of myself as more of a Queen of Cups type.)

3. What will be the outcome of me trying to learn to drive this car? Answer: (of course I wound up drawing two cards!) Three of Wands and Seven of Pentacles. I will get out of this effort what I put into it (Seven of Pentacles) and, I will also get out of it what I expect (Three of Wands). Thanks a lot, cards. If I was hoping for a “you are not going to be able to drive this car, please don’t even try” reading, I didn’t get it…

A final note about these cards: it makes sense to me that out of three cards pulled for this issue, three are from the suit of pentacles. Driving is definitely a practical, material matter–and one that all too often involves the exchange of money (pentacles look a lot like coins, don’t they?).