Man, I gotta tell you, for the longest time, I thought the Six of Clubs in a career spread was just some throwaway card. Like, congratulations, you achieved minor progress. Keep going, buddy. Basic stuff, right?
I mean, you read any book, and it’s all about small victories, gentle promotion, or maybe finally getting that project signed off. It’s the card you pull when you’re really hoping for a big Major Arcana hit—The Magician, The Chariot—something that screams massive shift. But no, you get the Six of Clubs and you think, “Great. I paid my bills this month.”
But my practice log from about four years back, man, that tells a completely different story. It was proof that sometimes the universe just jams the same message right down your throat until you finally listen. I was going through this hellish, demoralizing job hunt. I’d quit a toxic place, thinking I was hot stuff, ready to walk into the next big thing. Turns out, the market had other ideas. I applied everywhere. Got interviews. Did the song and dance. Then nothing. Weeks turned into months.
That’s when I started pulling cards daily. Not for big readings, just a one-card draw before I booted up the laptop to send out the next batch of sad-sack applications. The question was simple: “What’s the clearest path for me to get a stable paycheck right now?”
My Practice Log: The Stubborn Six
I kept a physical notebook for this stuff. Didn’t trust the phone apps. The log looks like a lunatic wrote it, but it’s real.
- Entry 1: 03/14/Year X.
- Entry 2: 03/27/Year X.
- Entry 3: 04/05/Year X.
Shuffle was sloppy. Focusing on that big corporate Marketing Director job. Felt good about the interview, but my gut was twitching. Pulled one card. Flip. 6 of Clubs. My note: “Ugh. Fine. Steady progress. Keep showing up. Feels like a consolation prize.” Threw the card back in the deck. Ignored it completely. Kept grinding on the corporate applications.
Got the rejection email from the Marketing Director gig. It was cold. Felt like a total kick in the teeth. Spent the rest of the day feeling like a fraud. Did a second reading that night. Same question: “Seriously, what’s the path?” Shuffled the deck three times, cut it clean, and drew from the middle. Flip. You guessed it. 6 of Clubs. My note: “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! This isn’t small progress, this is failure! What is this card even good for? Maybe it means ‘move forward,’ but where the hell to? Still, I wrote down: ‘Small steps away from failure. Don’t stop moving.’.”
I stopped applying for the big jobs. The stress was killing me. I had maybe three months of savings left. I remembered this tiny, specialized consulting side-hustle I’d started years ago and totally abandoned. It was a joke, really. Charging small fees to a handful of people for niche advice. I spent two days setting up a better website and sent a few emails. No expectation. Just exhaustion. Pulled a card before I hit ‘send’ on the emails. Question: “Is this side thing even worth the time?” You know what happened. 6 of Clubs.
This time, it hit me different. It wasn’t about “small progress” in the massive corporate world. It was about choosing a small path that was actually mine. The card wasn’t talking about the size of the victory; it was talking about the choice of terrain.
The Realization and The Paycheck
I kept that small consulting thing going. I didn’t look back at the corporate job boards. I focused purely on that tiny niche. And man, those small steps started piling up. The first month, I made enough to cover half the rent. The second month, all of it. By the end of that summer, that ridiculous little side gig, the one that the 6 of Clubs kept pushing me toward, was pulling in more money than the big corporate director job I had failed to get.
I went back to the log a year later when I was finally stable. I saw the three consecutive 6 of Clubs entries. It wasn’t telling me to keep walking toward the corporate job. It was telling me to turn 90 degrees and walk steadily down the path that was right next to me, the one I hadn’t noticed.
So, when you pull the 6 of Clubs for your career now, don’t just think “minor progress.” Think, “Where is the small, steady road that I am currently overlooking because I’m chasing some distant, shiny object?” That’s the real meaning. That card is your permission to choose the humble, sure-footed path that is already available to you, even if it looks ridiculously small compared to what you think you should be doing.
Trust the small path. Sometimes, the deck just wants you to build your own road, one step at a time. And trust me, that road pays better in the long run.
