Archive of columns.
9/8/98: This week's question:
Yes, absolutely! But he's going to have to get a few things straightened out in his personal life first, and hopefully learn a few important lessons along the way!
Cards 1 & 2 lay out the Question--he's looking for an ally, almost a twin, someone to share in the fun and the troubled times too. But he's worried about a tendency he has to be over-protective in relationships, which sometimes causes problems.
Card 3 shows the Challenge of this situation, and it tells us that Leo has some major spiritual lessons he's supposed to learn here. The Hierophant in this position is highly significant--this talented young man is facing one of the most important learning experiences of his life!
Card 4 is the first Cups card we've seen yet in this reading, and since Cups are the suit of the Heart and our question is about the Heart, we should pay close attention whenever they appear.
Card 5, Leo's past, is the Empress--always a significant card. Here I think we get a special understanding into what has most influenced young Leo's relationships with women in the past--he's had an intense connection with a strong mother-figure, perhaps even his own mother. But though it was a positive relationship, it nevertheless has colored and impacted all of his other relationships with women--and here I think we're getting some real clues into the nature of this larger life lesson Leo has to learn.
Card 6 is the future of the situation, if things continue to flow in the same way they have in the past. In this reading, Leo is getting a warning--he has a tendency toward greed (not necessarily a bad thing in his profession), perhaps instilled by this strong mother figure we saw earlier; if he doesn't learn the lesson the Hierophant is offering, his love of money might triumph over any hope he might have of finding True Love.
We learn a lot about Leo in Card 7--this is the Question He Was Supposed To Ask, and look who it is: The Queen of Cups! Our second Heart card, and it's Her Majesty Herself!
I think what this is telling us is that Leo knows exactly who his True Love is, but he's worried to even admit this himself, because of all the issues we've mentioned before that have stood in his way--his overprotectiveness that always scares women away, his greed that gets in the way of relationships, and this strong mother figure that he's always comparing other women to.
Plus, you know, this card is Princess Grace herself--and I think this is so significant that I'm going to go way out on a limb here and say that I think Leo's secret True Love is Gwyneth Paltrow, this generation's version of Grace Kelly! Either that or Princess Stephanie, which would be a real mistake. Just a wild guess, but I'm often right about these things.
Card 8 shows us those archetypes that are acting around Leo, influencing what he's doing--no surprise that it's Oppression. Clearly people are standing in the way of Leo and True Love.
Card 9 is the role Leo is supposed to assume for himself--Charity. So now we know the Lesson the Hierophant is teaching this young man: He has to overcome his tendency toward greed and start giving away his money--and only then can he find True Love! If not, well, Sorrow is his fate.
But I think it's clear he's going to find his True Love, and very soon! The Queen of Cups makes that quite clear!
Madame Esmeralda responds:
Wrong, wrong, wrong! Damn, Esmene, why do you have to always turn perfectly good lemons into pre-sweetened Kool-Aid?
First of all, there is hardly a positive card in the whole reading. We have Regret, Sorrow, Greed, Oppression--and you think this adds up to True Love?
Plus, the Queen of Cups is the Ice Queen--not the most auspicious symbol for True Love, Gwyneth Paltrow or not (which I do agree with you about that, she is today's Grace Kelly).
But that has nothing whatsoever to do with Leonardo DiCaprio.
I agree there's a connection between the Greed card and the Charity card, and that they're key to understanding the message of this reading--but did you ever think that maybe he's just too Greedy in Love? And that maybe the Lesson that Leo has to learn here is to be generous with his Love?
No, Leonardo DiCaprio definitely will not find True Love this year. He will find Sorrow, and he will learn to Regret his behaviors, and he's going to feel Oppressed on all sides, but maybe, just maybe, he'll learn some valuable lessons on how to treat the women in his life, and that's with Charity and generosity.
And that's how Madame Esmeralda sees it.