Tarot Cards for Agency

It's not an exaggeration to say that agency means everything to an entrepreneur—exercising our ability to make decisions is an absolute must every single day. In fact, most of us left our 9-5s because we felt stifled and over-constrained, leaving us craving the ability to make decisions for ourselves, on our own.

There are many cards in the Tarot deck that can point us towards action, but which most directly offer of the opportunity for you to exercise your entrepreneurial agency? I'm sure there are a million opinions on the question... and here is mine:

The Magician

[ACTIVATION]

It's hard to imagine any list of Tarot cards dealing with agency wouldn't start with The Magician. This powerful card possesses the most potential for granting agency of any in the deck, not least of all because it is card Number One.

Technically The Fool comes first as card zero, but even a cursory glance will tell you that there isn’t a whole lot of agency being exercised by the figure in that card; he appears to be wandering, almost as if blown along by the wind. He is certainly not using his agency to choose a destination and reach it—in fact, he’s at risk of stumbling blithely right off a cliff, so let’s pass The Fool by in our conversation about agency cards in the Tarot.

The One card, on the other hand, represents initiation. The Magician is a spark, a vital sprout bursting from the seed of the zero, full of energy and potential that is just beginning to be realized.

The Magician moves us from haplessly drifting along to taking control and initiating action, and you can feel that energy when you look his pose as he reaches to the heavens with his right hand and points to the earth with his left. He looks like a conduit, ready to channel energy between planes, ready to create the magic that is our will becoming the actions that literally manifest our desires.

And our Magician is not playing around. He stares straight at us, breaking the fourth wall, challenging us directly to act. His table is laden with all the four suits, and his special power is to activate them to initiate, sustain, and complete the process of deciding what to do and doing it, or, in other words, exercising our agency.

Strength

[CHOOSING COMPASSION]

The key to this card is recognizing that we humans cannot use brute force to subdue a ferocious lion; sometimes the best way to exercise our agency, and achieve the goal of seeing our will fulfilled, is to connect with compassion... even if it feels scary.

The Strength card reminds us that we can choose to be gentle and kind, to others or to ourselves. The reward for doing so can be incredibly empowering.

Aces

[OPPORTUNITIES ARISE]

Aces are a delight and a pleasure to pull in business readings. In each case, a mysterious hand materializes and offers us something beautiful, the symbolic essence of the suit in its most bursting-with-potential form. 

Aces offer up a rich opportunity. Whether we’re in the realm of Brand (Wands), Marketing (Cups), Systems (Swords), or Product (Pentacles), there is significant potential, but don’t make the mistake of thoughtfully grabbing for it just because it’s there. 

The Aces offer us a tantalizing possibility, but it is up to us to exercise our agency and decide whether or not we want to, or can, pursue it. Do you have time to pursue a brand new opportunity right now? Or is this heavenly gift just a distraction in disguise? 

Choose wisely whether to pursue the opportunity or pass on it, especially if you have a tendency to chase the new as a way to procrastinate and put off areas of your business that desperately need work.

Sevens

[WEIGHING OPTIONS]

Sevens are a tricky group of cards, and it can be hard to glean the unifying theme when we look at them side by side. A desperate defense, a glorious array of options, a thief, and boredom in the face of bounty—what could all of these cards have in common?

The single commonality here is that we are asked to imagine, consider, or choose our path in a critical moment. Which move do I make here? How do I best navigate this challenge or opportunity? 

The Seven of Wands

The first of the four Sevens asks us what we want to do during an attack: fight, or flight? The artist clearly has a bias here, with her figure depicted standing his ground. But notice that the figure does have the higher ground here, giving him the advantage—do you have the higher ground? Or are you fighting an uphill battle destined for failure, or at least enough struggle that the outcome may not be worth the it? It’s up to you to choose whether to beat a strategic retreat (no shame in that!) or stand your ground.

The Seven of Cups

This card asks us to imagine all the possibilities before us, and then do our best to distinguish the options that lead to setbacks or disaster from the ones that are likeliest to benefit us. Think of Indiana Jones when he had to choose the right grail in order to escape face-melting doom. Examine the full breadth of the landscape, and exercise your agency to choose thoughtfully.

The Seven of Swords

This Seven is one of the most playful cards in the deck, and I can’t help but smile a little when I see the exaggerated tip-toe of the central figure as he sneaks away with a bunch of pilfered swords in hand. This card asks us to consider the benefits and the risks of getting a little clever, sly, or tricky.

But hold on just a minute; let’s take a closer look at our gleeful thief. Notice that two swords are being left behind. Notice that in his haste, the figure is holding the sharp ends of the five swords he has managed to hold onto. There are warnings in this card about what can go wrong when you go behind someone’s back, so as always, exercise your agency with caution and awareness.

The Seven of Pentacles

Contrary to how this card is often interpreted—as a celebration of a healthy harvest and hard work paying off—I see the Seven of Pentacles as a card with a glaring contradiction. A man rests his head on a farming tool and gazes at a bounteous crop of coins, and should be reveling in the payoff or reaping the results of patience, perseverance, and thoughtful investment.

However, when I look at this figure’s face, I don’t see anticipation or relief, or even patience, I see disaffectedness. The farmer looks bored. He looks like he’s trying to make a decision between a bunch of options he’s not really feeling. He is in a state of total suspension, his feet pointed in different directions, indicating an inability to choose a path forward.

This card is also known as The Lord of Success Unfulfilled, and its core contradiction is that in the face of all this bounty, all these rewards to be reaped, the farmer is still feeling… meh. He doesn’t want any of the coins he has produced, they aren’t fulfilling and it’s frustrating to him.

When we draw this card, we have a difficult decisions to make. You may know what you need to do already, but you really, reeeeaaaally don’t want to. This is a key moment to decide to use your agency and DO SOMETHING, because you’re not going anywhere if you don’t.

Knights

[FOCUSED ACTION]

Knights are the passionate, romantic, and brooding teenagers of the deck, and together, they paint a beautiful picture of what it looks like to exercise agency.

What’s most interesting about this set of cards is that they demonstrate the four stages of taking aligned action: reflection, initiation, commitment, and charging forward. This progression doesn't follow the normal Wands=1, Cups=2, Swords=3, Pentacles=4 pattern that is most commonly followed, and I've rearranged them accordingly below.

A word to the wise: don’t be bothered by the fact that Knights are historically associated with men and masculinity—all humans possess a hearty mix of attributes that we are socialized to think of as “masculine” and “feminine,” and these cards were developed within the context of a patriarchal, binary-obsessed social structure. So when you’re reading Tarot I suggest completely ignoring the traditionalist depictions of men and women and just focus on the gender-agnostic message underneath. Anyone can jump on a horse and charge forth.

The Knight of Pentacles

This pensive Knight gazes deeply at the pentacle in his hands, looking for an answer, trying to decide. He is the Knight with the least forward momentum of any of them, i.e. none whatsoever, but he is still the one I most associate with agency. In pausing to consider options, in looking inward and deeply considering his options, this Knight is taking the time to decide what he really wants.

This Knight's horse has four hooves planted firmly on the ground, indicating a lack of readiness to commit to an action, a state of indecision, and deep consideration.

The Knight of Cups

This Knight initiates action, moving forward with purpose and steadfastness. Look at how even his gaze is, and how carefully his horse is treading. The cup he holds seems almost to guide him forward. Cups are related to water, but this Knight has wings on his helmet, suggesting a level of freedom—he is choosing this path, choosing to follow his cup, and exercising agency in charting his route forward with care as he may not yet be fully committed.

This Knight's horse has three hooves on the ground, indicating careful treading and slow-flowing, steady movement forward.

The Knight of Wands 

Wands are so feisty, and this Knight presides over such a charged, passionate card. Our Knight is planted firmly and confidently on the back of his rearing horse, preparing to take off at a gallop. There is a lot of interesting stuff going on in this card (peep those pyramids in the background), but for the purposes of this article I'll just say: everything about this figure screams agency. The Knight of Wands is free, stave held aloft, ready to gallop into the sunset.

This Knight's horse has two hooves on the ground ready to push off, indicating a transition from tentative progression to a commitment to aligned action.

The Knight of Swords

One of the most active cards in the deck, and certainly the most dramatic action for a Knight card, the Knight of Swords knows what he wants and tears after it. Perhaps due to the sword in his hand, this Knight appears to be charging into battle, laser focused on his goal and ready to fight off any challenges encountered on the way.

This Knight's horse appears to have zero hooves on the ground, indicating speed, ferocity, and total dedication to advancing forward.

Okay, that wraps it up! Agency is woven throughout the whole Tarot deck, but if you draw one of the cards above, make sure you take full ownership of your ability to use your discernment to make choices that are truly aligned with your goals. 

Also, guess what?? I’m writing a book!! It's called:

Consulting the Deck: Transformative Tarot for Business

It’s going to break down the business-related meaning of every single card of the Tarot so you can perform your own readings to get yourself unblocked in your business ASAP.

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