Tarot Tuesday: The Lever, Four Cards for the End of Pluto Retrograde

Pluto turns direct on Thursday after five months retrograde, and the thing that has been stuck since May starts to move. Not because you pushed harder. Because the fulcrum shifted. So this week’s spread is a lever, and you read it the way you would use one: find the load, find what it has been resting on, find where to push, and see what lifts.

Four cards. The first goes across a stone: the load. The second is tucked face down beneath it: the fulcrum. The third is laid on the left end, pressing down: the weight. The fourth sits apart on its own stone, lifted: what rises.

Deal it now if you have a deck. If you don’t, pull four at SASS Tarot and lay them the same way.

⚔️ THE LOAD, STUCK SINCE MAY: Eight of Swords

A mole stands wrapped and blindfolded among eight swords planted in grey ground, a pale sky behind it. The Eight of Swords is the trap you could walk out of if you took the blindfold off. This is what Pluto has been sitting on since May: not locked, just unlooked-at. Name it before you turn the next card.

🦡 THE FULCRUM, FACE DOWN: Four of Pentacles

This one goes in blank side up, because that is how a grip works: you cannot see what you are holding on to. Turn it over and a badger crouches on a bare rock under a grey sky, holding on. The Four of Pentacles is the thing you would not let go of, which is the thing the whole load has been balanced on. Most people never flip this card.

🐅 THE WEIGHT, WHAT YOU PUSH WITH: Strength

A tiger stands in dark hills under a loop of stars shaped like infinity, red flowers at its feet. Strength is force that does not need to be loud. You have been using it for five months and getting nowhere, because the fulcrum was under the wrong spot. Keep the weight where it is. Thursday moves the fulcrum.

🛶 WHAT RISES: Six of Swords

A capybara rides a raft across grey water, six swords standing at its prow. The Six of Swords is the crossing: not the arrival, the leaving. What lifts on Thursday is not the answer to the stuck thing; it is your ability to move away from the spot where it was stuck. That is enough for a week.

Now look at the fulcrum. If it sits close to the load, you have been pushing with everything you have for almost nothing, and that is the part that ends Thursday. Let the long end do the work.

Tarot Tuesday runs every week in Daily SASS, the free astrology newsletter. Get it in your inbox, or pull your own cards at SASS Tarot.