AUTHOR’S NOTE: File under “Every card has both positive and negative meanings.”

It is generally assumed that the Sun is an entirely favorable card that bodes no evil; even when reversed it suggests a “passing cloud” rather than a gloomy long-range forecast. But there is another way to look at it.

I recently performed a professional reading for a client who was facing a bureaucratic gauntlet of reviews and approvals and wanted to know how it would fare. The upright Sun was the outcome card, suggesting that it would all work out for the best in the end. When it didn’t, at least in the short term (there may be a “Plan B” in the offing), I did a postmortem on the reading to see what might be learned.

In the past I’ve written that the Sun when upright can imply “too much of a good thing.” This can manifest as a bad sunburn, or as an uncomfortable revelation that ideally should have remained under wraps. In the second case I described it as “The glare of the Sun illuminates all the dark corners and leaves nothing concealed, particularly those things that can’t withstand the light of day.”

In the case at hand, although no justification was given for the refusal, in retrospect it looked to me like something shady about the submittal may have come to light during a slapdash review by the bored paper-pushers (there is a story behind that perception in the other cards that I won’t get into*) that triggered a rejection. My suspicion is that the shortcoming would have been more serious than merely failing to “check all the boxes.” It originally struck me that the apathetic officials would not delve too deeply into the background of the application, but perhaps they didn’t have to, and being the plodding sluggards that the cards convinced me they were, they dismissed the proposal summarily without bestirring themselves to offer remedial advice.

The lesson for me is to explore both faces of the Sun during a reading and not draw my conclusions entirely from its optimistic “bright side” without poking into the dimmer recesses. It may be a stretch to find the concurrent negativity but, as this instance clearly shows, ignoring the potential can leave half the story untold. In the “soundtrack of my life” I can now hear the Rolling Stones chiding me about having had “another standing in the shadow,” but it seems I wasn’t listening at the time. Give me a piece of chalk and I’ll write on the blackboard 100 times: “Every card has both positive and negative meanings.”

*OK, OK, here you go! My spread had five positions: a “Current Situation” card (in this pull it was the Thoth 6 of Disks, auguring “Success” whereas the RWS version only promises “disbursement;” this was the first “red herring” but I saw no cause for alarm); two “In-Process Factor” cards that will either reinforce or offset one another (more on those below); an “Action” card showing how to proceed (here it was the Aeon [Judgement], about which Aleister Crowley said “always represents the taking of a definite step;” I advised my client to act promptly to nudge the matter in the most auspicious direction but the verdict came back too soon for that to happen); and an “Outcome” card (the allegedly glorious Sun as noted above).

The “In-Process Factors” gave me the most pause: they were the Thoth Knight (RWS King) of Cups, Mr. “I Don’t Want to Stick My Neck Out,” and the Thoth Knight of Disks/Pentacles, Mr. “I’m Going Strictly by the Book Here.” They were most likely senior public servants who were just putting in their time so they didn’t even break a sweat in their denial of approval.