The number seven has long been associated with luck. But what constitutes luck? Can it be created or earned? Or is it simply something that finds us when we’re least looking for it? Luck comes rushing in when we’re willing to open the door. It is the match we light for ourselves, knowing we have all the tools to build a fire; tinder, dry kindling, logs, enough but not too much air, and water of course for those matches that get out of control. Luck loves to be looked for, wants to be found, but isn’t always what or where we think it should be. That’s why we call it luck.

Luck has much to do with positive thinking. It also has to do with being in the right place at the right time. When you combine optimism and timing you harness the power to acknowledge favorable synchronicity. Synchronicity sprouts from within you, is personal, uses your own understanding of divine to your advantage. The Seven of Wands is about allowing yourself to shine your own light on every situation - and to bask in it - without needing to force your rays on someone who might get burned by a different color ultraviolet.

I often associate sevens in the Tarot with time. When related with astrological cycles, sevens in the pattern of ten are like the last quarter moon, the last point of tension or struggle, where we look at what we have to release. This period of observing takes time - considerable effort at doing nothing - strength of patience as we come to understand our truth. In Letters of the Dragon, Bruce Lee elaborates on the critical power of patience matched with the concept of yielding: “Yielding will overcome anything superior to itself; its strength is boundless. The yielding will has a reposeful ease, soft as downy feathers - a quietude, a shrinking from action, an appearance of inability to do (the heart is humble, but the work is forceful). Placidly free from anxiety one acts in harmony with the opponent’s strength. One does not move ahead but responds to the fitting influence.” The Seven of Wands teaches us about the pause we need to cultivate in order to witness and respond appropriately to our own fire. Without the proper time, the Seven of Wands turns sour, reactive to its environment, even angry. As we prepare to invest ourselves in groups, communities and conversations this week to which we might not be accustomed, we must look at our own experience of these situations with curiosity. With care. With willingness to take the space needed that keeps our fire safe from being put out and from hysterical wild-running flames.

Each fire sign represents a different modality of fire. Sagittarius is mutable - moving, changing, adapting fire. It is the candle that carries the light. Jupiter entered Sagittarius last week for a year-long stay. Mercury currently retrogrades through Sagittarius with a swagger that should shift to more sincere steps in a couple of weeks. On Thursday, the Sun will enter Sagittarius, strengthening our inner flames. Sagittarius is the fire that follows inner light to reach outer expansion. The Seven of Wands adapts, allows, arrives simply with willingness to witness. This week, pause to see yourself. Let time bring you luck as you attest to your own experience. If something feels urgent, it’s probably not. In acting as your own jury and judge, notice how you have less to prove to someone else and more abundance of light and luck. Find peace in your self-evidence and ease as your responses to your external environment naturally find their footing.
