What If the Thing Holding You Back Is Already Losing Its Grip?

Weekly Collective Tarot Reading

The Devil · Five of Pentacles Reversed · Six of Wands

Maybe moving forward doesn’t always begin with becoming someone new. Sometimes it begins when an old version of you stops feeling so convincing.

This week’s cards were The Devil, Five of Pentacles reversed and Six of Wands. When I saw them together, the first thought that came to me was this:

What if the thing that has been holding you back is already starting to lose its grip?

Not because you suddenly fixed everything, woke up completely fearless or experienced some dramatic transformation overnight. Maybe something in you has simply started to change.

An old pattern doesn’t feel as natural anymore. A fear still appears, but you believe it a little less. A situation that once made you question yourself no longer has quite the same power over you.

I think we often imagine growth as something very obvious. We expect a clear before and after, but sometimes the real shift is much quieter. You stop agreeing with the story you’ve been telling yourself.

The Devil and the Things We Stay Attached To

The Devil is one of those tarot cards that can look dramatic, but I actually find it much more interesting when I think about it as a card of attachment. It speaks to the things we stay connected to even when part of us already knows they aren’t really helping anymore.

A habit. A relationship dynamic. A fear. A belief about ourselves. A role we learned to play because, at some point, it kept us safe, accepted, needed or in control.

The difficult part is that these things don’t always feel obviously bad. Sometimes they just feel familiar, and familiar can be incredibly convincing.

Maybe you’ve told yourself for years that you’re not confident enough to do something. Maybe you’re used to being the person who stays quiet, keeps the peace, waits for permission or assumes other people know better.

Maybe there’s a part of your life where you already know something needs to change, but the old way still feels safer. That’s what makes patterns so difficult to see. We don’t always experience them as patterns. Sometimes we just experience them as “me”.

I’m just like this.

But maybe not everything you’ve repeated for years is actually who you are. Maybe some of it is simply what you learned.

Five of Pentacles Reversed and the Moment You Start Coming Back

The Five of Pentacles reversed changes the feeling of this reading for me. Upright, this card can bring up exclusion, lack, loneliness and the feeling of being outside looking in. Reversed, I see it more as the beginning of coming back.

Not necessarily because every external problem suddenly disappears, but because your relationship with yourself starts shifting.

Maybe you stop defining yourself by what didn’t work. Maybe rejection doesn’t automatically become proof that something is wrong with you. Maybe you notice that the situation you’ve been waiting to change isn’t the only place where your life can happen.

And I think that distinction matters.

Sometimes we spend so much time trying to repair the thing that made us feel unwanted, unsuccessful or not enough that we forget to ask whether we even want to keep standing outside that particular door.

There’s a point where trying to be chosen can become more painful than choosing yourself. Maybe coming back to yourself begins there.

Six of Wands and Being Willing to Take Up More Space

Then comes the Six of Wands. I don’t read this only as “success is coming”, because that feels a little too simple for these three cards.

To me, the Six of Wands asks what happens when you stop hiding so much of yourself. What happens when you start believing that you’re allowed to be seen, that you’re allowed to be proud of something you’ve done and that you don’t have to make yourself smaller just because being visible once felt uncomfortable?

I think a lot of people want more confidence, but confidence isn’t always something that appears before we act. Sometimes it comes after we stop obeying every fear we have.

You speak even though part of you worries how you’ll be perceived. You try something before you feel completely ready. You let yourself enjoy progress without immediately finding a reason why it doesn’t count. You allow something good to actually be good.

That can sound simple, but for someone who is used to protecting themselves through doubt, self-criticism or staying small, it can be a very real shift.

Maybe the Pattern Is Still There, but You’re Not the Same Person Anymore

This is probably the part of the reading I find most interesting. We often think we need to completely get rid of an old pattern before we can say we’ve changed, but maybe that isn’t how it works.

The fear can still show up. The old thought can still appear. The temptation to go back to what is familiar can still be there. The difference is that you start noticing it.

And once you notice it, you have a little more space between the pattern and your response. You can think:

Oh, I know this one.

Instead of automatically believing it.

That space can be tiny at first, but I think that’s where a lot of real change begins. Not in never feeling insecure again or becoming a completely different person, but in realizing that an old fear no longer gets to make every decision for you.

The Story I See in These Three Cards

The Devil shows the attachment. The Five of Pentacles reversed shows the beginning of stepping out of the story of lack, rejection or not being enough. And the Six of Wands shows what might become possible when more of your energy is available for actually moving forward.

For me, this isn’t really a reading about becoming more successful. It’s about what happens when you stop giving so much authority to the part of you that has always expected failure.

And maybe that’s worth noticing this week.

Not just where you still feel stuck, but where you’re already different. Where do you respond differently than you used to? What no longer hurts in quite the same way? What are you less willing to tolerate? What have you started wanting for yourself that an older version of you might not have allowed?

Sometimes we’re so focused on how far we still have to go that we completely miss the evidence that we’ve already moved.

A Reflection for This Week

Maybe sit with this question for a moment:

What still appears in my life, but no longer has the same power over me?

And maybe another:

Where am I ready to stop treating an old fear like it still knows what’s best for me?

You don’t need to force yourself into confidence. Maybe just notice where you’ve already stopped believing some of the things that used to keep you small. ✨

Want to go a little deeper? 

If you’ve been feeling disconnected from yourself lately, I created a free guide with 10 gentle ways to start finding your way back to yourself.

Download the free guide here. ❤️