7 of Wands - Riding the warble, being courgeous

full moon tarot offering for 11 July 2025 (AEST)

Jul 10, 2025

Just a heads up, there won’t be any post from me this Sunday. I’m taking a couple of days of solo retreat this weekend - a simple self-guided spiritual quest at the Santa Teresa Spiritual Centre, so I’ll leave all obligations to the side for the weekend.

I’m also opening up a few spots this month for the special 90-minute Tarology sessions using the Celtic Cross. These are conversational and co-creative psycho-spiritual inquiries of an issue or question you wish to explore. You can go here to book online.

Full moons are a time of illumination and revelation, bringing what may be hidden and out of sight to light.

Each full moon, I draw a tarot card at random and offer a perspective and suggestions for soul work and psycho-spiritual inquiry.

Use whatever shows up as the opening for deeper inquiry. You can enhance your experience by way of journalling, making art, meditation or even simply holding the images and enquiry in body-mind.

A person stands on a rippling mound of grassy earth that appears to be the edge of a drop-off. Their stance is wide-legged, in a full frontal orientation, and the expression on their face appears startled. They are holding a long sprouting wand with both hands, angled across their chest, with their right arm up and their left arm down. They wear a short green tunic over a light green undershirt and orange leggings. They have a boot on their left foot and a slipper on their right. In front of them, and a little below them, are 6 more wands that stand more or less upright at different heights. The sky is clear, light blue.

7 of Wands from the Rider Waite Smith tarot

The storytelling here looks pretty obvious. A person stands defending themselves, with their wand and their body, against 6 others holding wands. A battle of one against many. They are on high ground, so there’s a sense that they are defending a correct position.

Where in your life or from whom might you feel attacked by? What belief, idea, value or sense of self is causing others to come after you?

The kind of empowered attitude necessary to hold your ground when you meet strong majoritarian opposition is not easy. That capacity is often truncated, i.e prematurely cut off, in many of us, either because dissent or defiance was met with punishment, rejection, or harm, or appeasing and turning the other cheek was encouraged. Alternatively, we may overreact and lash out in a way that is ultimately detrimental - attacking defence is not the same as holding to what you value.

The 7 of Wands is demonstrating a way to hold steady, hold your position and resist the forces coming for you.

How might you respond to a surprise attack? What is your default?

Wands, being of the fire element, naturally evoke energy, vitality and power. In numerology, disruption is at the essence of odd numbers (i.e. even = balance, odd = off kilter). Seven’s in numerology can signify a (disruptive) turning point. It's helpful to remember that while harmony is truly sweet and all, safety isn’t a place to live. Safety is more a place you know you can return to, so you can venture out, explore new endeavours and challenge your capacities.

In this instance, the disruptive vitality inherent in the 7 of fire is supporting a kind of un-safetyness, which may also be exhilarating in that it's an opportunity to express your will (power) and build confidence in holding strong as you stay by what you value.

What I appreciate about the 7 of wands is that the central figure is not being painted as a (super) hero. They’re not looking particularly cool and classy in their resistance. They are instead a little startled or aghast. They’re also standing precariously on the edge of a cliff. They are wearing different shoes! - as if they were caught by surprise and hurriedly donned the first things they could grab. It doesn't look like they planned how they might address the mob; they are just responding the best they can in the moment. They are being courageous.

How are you courageous? If courage feels far for you, who in your life is courageous? How can thinking of them and calling on their character help you?

My point is, that you shouldn't think you shouldn’t show tenacity or defend your position on an issue just because you might fumble your words, shake and wobble, and look a little messy.

Like I said earlier, most of us probably aren't well-versed in conflict or defence. But in his classic book, Waking the Tiger. Healing Trauma, Peter Levine talks about “riding the warble” when “renegotiating” trauma. That when we move between the pull of an old pattern (back off, collapse, lash out) and a desire for a new way to be (hold steady, remain strong, willfulness), this will naturally be destabilising and wobbly. The reward of being able to hold the tensions in these two opposing forces is the potential unfolding from within that this transformation may bring.

EMBODY IT:

If you are quite in the thick of this kind of embattlement, though, it can’t hurt to have a sense of what holding ground in this way might feel like. I would go directly to the card itself and embody the shape and movement of the figure.

Stand with legs wide, feet out and knees a little bent. If you don't have a sprouting wand lying about, grab and mop or broom handle. Pulse in the wide squat and feel the energy in the legs, arms and chest as you stay in the strong shape, holding the rod across your heart and lungs, and breathing deeply. When you come out after several breaths or a minute, notice any new feelings or qualities in your body and mind. Repeat often.

Any Thread with Dr Mendy Neralic

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