I am curious what a reading will bring up regarding my spiritual development through time to the present, and where I am headed.

Thanks in advance!
Rook

when I originally read your request all i could think of was "what are you looking for really?" because i am not sure what answers you are looking for or what you really mean by your question which is probably why someone hasn't did a ready for you yet. because these type of question will always be what you choose and not what the cards will tell you because they should tell you the same thing.  
I did a three card spread with nine cards. i was thinking of doing a different spread but decided on this one because i wanted to see the past, present to get to know you better the look into the future.

The first row is the "Past" and the cards i drew were Strength (R), VII Wands (R) and The Moon (R)
In your past did you have to battle to get where you are now, struggle, look hard and walk a path that was dark with very little light? Maybe two strong figures blocking, looking over and worrying about that path you are trying to take or should be taking in their eyes?
The last card in each row connect to the top card of the following row. so in the "Present" row I drew the VII of Swords,  X of Wands (R) and The Fool. So, in the VII of swords we see and person carrying a heavy burden.  Carrying something that shows conflict, cutting away from something but carrying that burden into the present.   Covering that card is the X of Wands (R) we see and person carrying yet another heavy load (burden) and working hard to do so. In this card we don't even see his face so our focus of the pictures is a straining back that even though you have chosen that burden it is a stress on you. You are trying to be The Fool. In Tarot terms that is not a bad thing! The Fool is a young person starting out with a blank slate and trying to rediscover the world. This is what you want. You want to be free in spiritual terms again and find your own place in a new or old world.
The Fool leads us into the "Future" row into the V of Swords once again showing us that you are once again picking up conflict and trying to finding your way from the past and present to get what you want in the future. You will have to be careful on the path you choose because you want to be the person holding the swords on the card and not the person walking away from them or the person on the beach standing on the edge of the water crying. Choosing the path that path that is right for you. The V of Swords leads us to the II of Wands (R). What you want can always be yours and you can hold the world if that is the hard work that you put into it. Choose your battles carefully.  On top of that card is the V of Cups which end the spread with no other rows or cards that this card can touch so it is cleary up to you. What you make of your struggles.  You can choose to "cry over spilled milk" or look to what you have a not turn away from it.  You have five cups just because three is tipped over doesn't mean you have to turn you back on the two cups that are not.   Look into them (yourself) and found what they have to offer to your spiritual growth and what you want.

good luck with all and blessed be.

George

Thank you so much, this is indeed very intriguing.

On the first point, the question you ask, what am I looking for really?  That is quite pertinent to the actual question, especially when looking into this reading you have done.  The reading is certainly very applicable to my life path.  And to me it clarifies precisely the issue which you brought up, what am I really looking for?  I feel like I am on some kind of spiritual life, and I have tried to seperate that from my life.  Tried to divide the everyday life from a seperate inner journey.  So when I read your description of the cards that have come up, and it is all about my life, it sort of slapped me in the face if you will, that my spiritual journey IS my journey through life, thus any spiritual development is directly linked to those struggles and decisions I make in that regard.  My external life and my internal 'spiritual development' are intimately linked, and I think I need to cease this division between my spirit and my material existance.  And I think to be honest, I am not entirely sure what I am looking for.  I suppose what I intended for was some guidance in my spiritual life.  I sort of feel like the fool, that is an applicable card for the present, I sort of feel like I am blindly stumbling my way through life spiritually speaking, learning more as I go, but there is forever so much more to learn.

The two strong figures from the past can only be my parents.  They have always looked over my path, and worried about it somewhat I think.  They used to be a blockage, at first physically, forcing me to take up hobbies of my brother, following that mentally.  Because of their worry I felt like I could change nothing, so whilst studying at university and realising I was not going in a direction I wanted to go, I felt trapped, and continued down that path I did not want.  But then for the first time in my life I rebelled, at first in secret, changing courses into something I was far more interested in, and then telling them after this change was made so there was nothing to be done about it.  To my shock they weren't upset, in fact my father was somewhat relieved as he felt I was going in the wrong direction as well.  Since then I have been free from their influence, they still worry about me but I have come to realise they do not try to influence me at all.  My decisions are now my decisions, and I have come to rely heavily on my intuition in making these big decisions, perhaps related to the moon?  Its funny, my brother has stated in the past that I have never had to work for what I have gotten.  He has worked very hard academically while I was seen as more easy going and had everything fall onto my plate.  I think a lot of my fortune has been trusting that intuition, making decisions and backing myself into them.  Its not easy to do when you are the one passing up one oppurtunity for another based entirely on guts, sometimes even taking the 'lesser' oppurtunity (eg financially taking a lower paid job over another because of a gut feeling).  But fortune has always smiled on me when I have done this, so it appears like everything is handed to me on a silver platter to those who see only the destination I ended up in and not the journey I took to get there.

The present seems to be all about carrying burdens, and working hard to do so.  That is so accurate.  My basic day is to get up in the morning, get children ready for school, take the children to school.  Go to work, work all day in an environment with lots of work and no staff to delegate to, whilst also juggling various home-based business, such as banking, organising new car details, paying bills and so on in my lunch break.  Work till late, travel the hour home.  Make dinner, put kids to bed, clean up.  If I am lucky I might get 20 minutes to myself in the evening.  I think this is the burden of your average working father.  I do long for the fool, to be free.  I flourish in freedom to kick off my shoes, crank the tunes and just be me.  To work slow, have fun doing it, and just cherish the moment, but it is hard to do that when the list of duties is long and getting longer by the day.  I think the new world is the way to go, and that is what this reading has shown me.  I need to incorporate that free me with the industrious me to find a way of making a happier more sustainable lifestyle, but still being highly productive.

So I have a question regarding the V of swords.  Is this card representing a choice?  I think I can see the three scenarios quite clearly, what they might represent.  I think this is saying that my future depends a lot on the decisions that I will make, and if I stay the path, and continue to work hard, I may end up where I want to be, and what I want to be in the future.  Do you think the five cups could be representing stages of life?  Child-hood, teen and young adult are done with, they have been written, but my middle age and later life are still to come, and there is a lot there that is still to come to pass.  I can achieve a lot in that time, and I can still get whatever I want out of my life, if work hard at it.  I think I know where I want to be way down the track, now I just need to work my way there.  And now is the time to initiate this...

This is a synchronic reading I think, I was just talking to my partner how I need to re-evaluate my life, who I am, what I am, and what I want in my lifestyle, and figure out how to get there.  This has helped a lot, I think I know what I have to do.

Thanks you so much.

Kind regards,
Rook

yes and no,  i would say it's more of a warning though.   what i felt when i saw the V of Swords was you need to be the winner in the card and not the losers. because that would be good for you and help you get to where you need to be. so the conclusion would be to make the right choices.  In general the Tarot are not about telling the future but making it clear to you/me/everyone to make the right choices to get to where you/we want to be.



Could it represent the stages of life? no and yes. to me, in this reading, it was telling me that you are dealing with spiritual aspect of your life.  but that doesn't mean it doesn't represent your life in stages. if life is just spiritual path anyway then yes it could.  it really is an interesting thought isn't it?

if you have anymore question feel free to ask!  

I see what you are saying about the warning, and I can see how I can take on board that advice, but I feel I need to sort of compose myself in figuring out just what that destination is, (what I want) and figuring out what steps I need to make to get there, only then will I be capable of making the 'right' decisions.  Otherwise I am just fumbling in the dark.

Actually, I was struggling, trying to tie the tipped over cups to my spirituality and it just hit me.  In terms of spiritual 'paths' in the form of religions, I have tried a few different forms, and haven't come across anything that 'sits right' with me...  Do you think perhaps this imagery could be related to the focus being on turning my back on these paths instead of continuing on trying new things?  I guess the development of a negative attitude towards religion & spirituality since I have not yet found the right path, instead of continuing to try to find the right path?