Spiritual evolution is of a cyclical nature. It does not look like an ascending line on a graph. Instead, it is like an upward spiral.

When we have learned the lessons of a certain phase of our life, or have come to master a spiritual concept after enduring its inherent trials, we arrive at a place of victory and recognition, being joyful at having “graduated” (6 of Wands). Although that joy is just and the pride seemingly justified, the spiritual warrior knows that things do not stop there.

Take a look at this gorgeous Wheel of Fortune card. The spokes on this Wheel are the ten arms of the lady. Each of its turns is a life teaching, a lesson to be learned. And the spiritual warrior is like a small sphere being passed around the wheel from hand to hand; from blindness to pure sight and back to blindness; from fear to love and back to a different type of fear. A lesson that we have learned gains a new level of complexity in the next round. The number of cycles seems eternal. A human incarnation is but a bleep in the never-ending dance of Kosmic evolution.

We were blind; now we see a little bit. Yet our eyes aren’t prepared to take in the full light of The Star that is in sight but not within reach. That is why The Star is there: it is the goal of final illumination that we trust that we will reach even if we will not be in our present form. What we do for now is dwell in each karmic lesson, and surrender to each challenge that we must graduate. We do so with a sense of victory and joy but with awareness that just as the hands of the universe have brought us to the present conclusion; they will soon sweep us up and bring us into the next journey of learning for our evolution. When we resist, we self-inflict hurt. When we go along with our eyes on the finish line (The Star), with hope and faith in our transformation, we participate consciously in not only our personal growth, but in the evolution of consciousness and of all life. We unify with the spiral that comprises the entire Kosmos.