Where Focus Goes Energy Flows

Or, the secret to success hidden inside the 7 of Wands

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Forbes reported this week that Taylor Swift is on track to become a billionaire by the end of 2023.

One of the most interesting parts to me about Taylor Swift’s existence is that for every diehard Swiftie who bought four versions of the same $30 album on vinyl so she could pin the four slightly different record sleeves together on the wall to create - let me check my notes - a picture of a clock, there is an equal and opposite reaction in the form of someone who despises Taylor Swift so much that they can’t help but publicly post some of the most hideous comments I’ve ever seen about an artist on social media.

Taylor Swift, who seems to break one world record after another these days, is the highest grossing and most chart-topping artist of my generation. Of maybe any generation?

And you know what that necessarily means?

Taylor Swift is the most mocked, criticized, and trolled artist of my generation. And of maybe any generation.

In the words of Dita Von Teese:

“You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s still going to be somebody who hates peaches.”

In the words of tarot, you can’t get the 6 of Wands without the 7 of Wands. It’s basic physics.

So one takeaway from the 7 of Wands (and Taylor Swift apparently) is that confidence and success do not come from convincing ourselves - deluding ourselves, really - that everybody is going to like us. Because they aren’t. True confidence is knowing that not everyone will like us and doing our thing anyway.

I started to think more deeply about the 7 of Wands this week when I heard something in the shower, where I do some of my best podcast listening. In essence:

To live out our dreams, we must accept - once and for all and then be done with it - that we cannot look to others to accept or approve of or validate our path. The minute we do, we are done for.

Let’s take a closer look at the 7 of Wands to unpack this. What’s going on in this tarot card?

For starters, the haters and naysayers can’t actually reach the figure in this tarot card. What does this mean?

The figure in the 7 of Wands has the higher ground. This means that the naysayers below - of which we can only see the tops of their wands - can’t actually reach him. Nonetheless, he is so worried about them that he has turned to face them with his full body and is completely consumed with fending them off.

He has now stopped doing his actual work - serving the community, creating his art, studying his craft, building his empire, pursuing his joy. He is so preoccupied with what others may think and whether others approve of or validate his path that he is no longer even on it!

The irony, of course, is that this small mob of an opposition is feckless. When we are on our right path, on our higher path like the figure in the 7 of Wands, and we are committed to a goal and believe in our heart of hearts in its inevitable achievement, the wands of doubters and naysayers and critics simply don’t matter.

Another thing to consider is the manifestation wisdom that “where focus goes energy flows.” Where is the focus in the 7 of Wands?

We most effectively manifest the good we want in our lives by focusing positively and wholeheartedly on whatever that aligned and authentic endeavor is for us. Why? Because the energy of the Universe flows to those areas where we place our divine attention.

So when we set a goal and start pouring energy into achieving it, but then let ourselves get distracted by the immense competition in our industry, or the lack of support from friends and family, or the fear that people will judge or mock us, it’s like a leak in the pipe. Energy seeps out little by little here and there and takes away from the focused flow in the direction of our goal.

The 7 of Wands reminds us to stop, look around, and check in on our alignment. Where is our focus? Is it where we intended energy to flow, or has our ego caused a leak somewhere that now needs patching?

When we entertain thoughts of doubt, fear, limitation, or inadequacy, whether they come from our own inner monologue or comments from others, we are opening our vision of success up for debate. We are saying to ourselves, others, and the Universe that we aren’t completely decided and committed to our dream and that we are still hearing positions and gathering votes.

If energy flows where our attention goes, and our attention is kind of wishy-washy and still apparently a little hesitant and insecure and undecided and has a backup plan in case the journey gets a little too cringe, energy is going every which way and will manifest a little bit of everything. In other words, a whole lot of nothing really.

And finally, the poor guy in the 7 of Wands is so distracted and overwhelmed by energy that is quite literally beneath him that it’s affecting his performance and progress!

How could we possibly know that from this tarot snapshot? Because homeboy can’t even put on a pair of matching shoes!

In the original Rider-Waite-Smith artwork for the 7 of Wands, one foot is sporting a page-like loafer situation and the other is in a calf-length boot. (Go ahead and scroll back up to the photo. I’ll wait.) This is often interpreted to mean this person has been caught off-guard with an attack, like he heard some midnight militia alarm, got dressed in the dark, and had to rush out of the house to defend the village against invaders. While that could be the case (perhaps if you read tarot predictively, which I don’t), I think what this tarot card more likely represents is the scattered energy and unfocused mindset many of us harbor by choosing to entertain the bullshit around us.

In fact, being smart and vigilant enough to ignore the bullshit around him is precisely what got Odysseus and his crew home safely from the Trojan War in the famous Greek myth.

As Odysseus’s ship approached the notorious isle of the Sirens - magical creatures with a song so ghostly and hypnotic that any man who heard the tempting tune would lose his mind, veer off course, and crash his ship into the island’s craggy shore and meet his end - Odysseus knew he needed a plan to avoid a 7 of Wands situation. He had his crew fill their ears with wax (the earliest ear plugs!) so they would not be able to hear the lure of the Sirens. And Odysseus, whose ears would not be plugged because he was just too curious about what the Sirens’ song sounded like, had his crew tie him tightly to the ship’s mast and promise to ignore his desperate pleas to be let down until they were safely away from the Sirens’ island.

The plan worked!

Odysseus knew that there would be temptations, tricks, and naysayers of all sorts trying to veer him off course on his hero’s journey. But he was so committed to his vision of success - safely returning to Ithaca to his wife Penelope and a grand hero’s welcome - that he had also committed to the vigilance necessary to see it through to the end.

Taylor Swift knows it too. She has been bullied, heckled, and trolled endlessly at every stage of her career. But she has been so committed to her vision of success - playing her songs for millions of people around the world - that she is also committed to the vigilance necessary to see it through to the end.

Can you imagine Taylor Swift paying even half the attention to Facebook trolls that we pay to things that may not even be actual criticism but merely things we have read criticism into because we ourselves are not convinced our goal can be achieved? Or because we are not convinced we are worthy of the type of success we dream of? Or because we think our dream is stupid? Or that we are stupid?

What if there is (some version of) a $650 million-grossing Eras Tour in your future if you just decide on your vision of success, believe in its utter inevitability in divine timing, and let go of the rest?

What if? How does that make you feel?

Where our focus goes, energy flows. The 7 of Wands invites us to recall where we want energy to flow, and to forget the rest as best we can.

If you find your conviction wavering, here’s a tarot spread to help you regain focus and recommit to your vision: