Pick-a-Pile Tarot Reading: Who Were You in a Past Life?

Today I am not going to scare you with karmic debts or daunting unfinished lessons. Nobody owes anybody anything, and there is nothing that urgently needs to be worked through. We are simply going to peek behind the veil of the past and see who you were in a previous life, just out of curiosity. Sometimes that kind of light, outside perspective is exactly what helps you understand yourself better in the present moment.

You have four options in front of you. Each one describes a completely different fate, era, and personality. Try to feel your story rather than choose with your head and logic and mathematical calculations. Go with that inner sense that is almost never wrong, the one that lets you immediately feel “this is me.” Then we will take a look at who you were back then and what, from that distant past, has quietly carried over into this life. Because something always does, and it has nothing to do with mysticism. It is simply you.

All tarot card images in this post are from Tarot of the Divine © Yoshi Yoshitani.

Option 1

Veni, vidi, vici… In a past life, you were an ambassador of a mighty empire. You were a person of cold reason and carefully chosen words, skilled at negotiating and keeping your composure where others lost control and sometimes consciousness. Diplomacy was your second language, except it felt completely native, not something drilled into you within the walls of an institution.

You loved the arrival of that triumphant moment when the masks slipped from your opponents and their hidden motives became obvious. When you could back someone into a corner, but did it with elegance and precision, without unnecessary noise, leaving them nowhere to retreat. That was when the real negotiations began, free from pretense. You loved clarity in everything, keeping a firm grip on everything around you. You loved to win beautifully. Ideally in such a masterful way that the person who lost would thank you and invite you to a family dinner.

But what exhausted you most in this work was not your enemies. It was your own people. Allies who tried to grab all the glory for themselves. Rivals within the same delegation. People who formally stood shoulder to shoulder with you but were quietly plotting how to take your place as fast as possible. So you often had the feeling that reaching an agreement with an opponent was a hundred times simpler and more straightforward than with those who called themselves your own.

This need for total control and the constant state of being on guard created certain problems that you automatically carried into your personal life.

You did not leave your critical thinking style at the office. You carefully brought it home with you. The constant competition with your “allies” taught you one thing: no one can be fully trusted. Everything must be kept under control. And so at home you built the same system. Not as a tyrant with iron fists, that would have been too crude and too primitive for you. You operated on a much more subtle level. Exercising control through care. Creating conditions in which getting by without you was nearly impossible. You called it stability and sincerely believed it was the right way. You could withdraw your support just as coolly as you gave it. Because dependency holds tighter than any fear. That you knew for certain.

Much has carried over into your present life.

You still love to win more than almost anything. You enjoy it when your plan works, when everything falls into place exactly as you calculated. Sometimes the pleasure comes not so much from the result itself, but from the fact that it all went according to your script. You know how to get what you want, even if that means bending the rules a little. Quietly, mid-game, without drawing attention, so that others do not notice right away, and by the time they do, it is already too late to do anything about it. They just have to admit that you are once again a few steps ahead.

Option 2

Thirty below outside? No big deal! The penguins handled it, so I can too. In a past life, you were a young female reindeer herder in northern Sweden. A harsh climate, long migrations, and a herd that was definitely not going to move itself. You had no patience for pointless gatherings and gossip, for someone dancing by the fire washing down herring with moonshine while others did the work. You noticed all of that immediately. And you remembered it. While everyone else was having fun, you already knew that dawn would not wait and that the reindeer were not going to line up in a neat column on their own. Honestly, they do very little on their own. Reindeer, what can you say.

You loved to work. You loved that feeling when everything is moving in the right direction, when the result depends directly on your hands, your endurance, and your stubbornness. But you took on too much and gradually became more and more convinced that you were the only one doing things right. Everyone else was just kind of passing through. It was not easy for others to exist alongside that kind of ironclad certainty. Even the reindeer had a hard time, and if they could talk, you would have heard plenty of complaints about the early wake-up calls, and also about the fact that some of them ended up as food and clothing.

Not much has changed in this life. Your life still resembles an endless race.

You hustle, you try to be everywhere at once, do everything for everyone, and keep tabs on anything that can possibly be controlled. And the most ironic part is that you still attract reindeer. Except now they walk on two legs, wear hoodies, and say they are “just not ready for anything serious yet,” bolting at the worst possible moment with their antlers catching the winter sun. Apparently it is hereditary. The question is not where to find normal people. The question is when you will finally let someone else hold the reins for a while. I promise you the herd will not scatter, and you, at long last, will be able to relax and stop keeping count of every antler and hoof.

Option 3

À la guerre comme à la guerre. In a past life, you were an influential lady of the French court. Charmant, is it not? Not merely a decoration for the tired eyes of counts and bored marquises, but the true director of everything that happened. Intrigue, influence, the careful placement of pieces on the board, all of this was your element. Events unfolded “on their own,” but you knew perfectly well whose hands had quietly guided them. And you did it with such elegance and skill that no one could point a finger. It just happened. A coincidence. These things occur.

You helped your favorites with grace, while never forgetting to send the bill. Of course, no one technically “owed” you anything. They simply all remembered who it was that made their star rise. One glance, a well-timed pause, the right phrase, and gratitude for your patronage was renewed for another season, or better yet, for life.

With rivals you were ruthless. Very ruthless. They did not simply lose the game, they disappeared from it entirely. Circumstances just had a way of arranging themselves. Bad luck for the lady. Fate is a cruel thing, and besides, she should not have been walking around in such a tight corset. So it was hardly surprising that someone might accidentally add just a little more lead than necessary to her face powder and, voila, the schemer was already being carried out of the ballroom.

What irritated you most of all were those who made a point of performing their high morals and deep spirituality. At the French court, of all places. You did not believe in that kind of theater for a single second. Too good to be true, which is exactly why you preferred to neutralize that type early. Preventive measures, so to speak.

For you, external perception always mattered more than the internal reality. The position you held. The role you played so brilliantly. The reputation built on a foundation of defeated rivals. This life suited you perfectly. You were in your element. Like a fish in water, even if the water was poisonous. You had long since developed immunity to it.

In this life the scenery has changed, but the essence remains the same. Except now instead of a court there are relationships, and instead of titles there is the image of a perfect partnership. How everything looks from the outside still matters deeply to you, to people who, when it comes down to it, do not really care. You keep pouring energy into maintaining a flawless image, even as something inside is starting to crack at the seams at the most inconvenient moment. And that is precisely what makes it so hard to ask yourself the one simple question. A deeply uncomfortable one, but you already know what it is. For now it is just easier to straighten your crown and check how you look in the photo.

Option 4

In a past life, you were an elder of a farming community in North America. A person responsible for the land and its cycles. While everyone else was anxious about today’s rain, you were already thinking three seasons ahead. The gift of strategic thinking came with a bonus: a quiet sense of loneliness and distance, because not many people enjoy living with someone who tries to plan even the weather.

An entire community depended on you. The harvest, the winter, the food stores, neighbor disputes, sick children, broken tools. All of it was yours to carry. And you simply did not have time to decode other people’s silences. So you valued real, solid alliances. Straight talk, a clear division of roles, no sulking and no things left unsaid. Someone saying “everything is fine” with a strained look on their face irritated you on an almost physical level. For you it was always easier to talk everything through and move forward.

You placed stability above emotion, demanding composure from yourself as much as from others. You could wait a long time, endure, keep your spirits up, believe in the harvest when everyone else had already given up. That was your strength, and at the same time your way of cutting off anything that felt like too much feeling.

In this life that same strategy still kicks in automatically, but alongside it something new has begun to stir. Now you want not only to survive and keep the system running, but to simply feel warmth, the possibility of closeness without calculation, and feelings without a mutual benefit agreement.

Somewhere inside you that elder still lives, with a plan ready three seasons out. But your heart is already telling you that sometimes it is okay to set the agenda aside and just feel. And for you, that is probably the boldest step of all.

This reading has shown that you are not a random collection of habits and reactions. Every trait you carry has a story behind it. Sometimes that story runs longer than a single lifetime. And the things that sometimes seem strange about yourself, why you react a certain way, why some things come naturally while others feel like pushing through a wall, all of that often has roots that run far deeper than childhood and upbringing.

If something you read resonated with you, wonderful. It means you found something that is yours. If nothing did, that is perfectly fine too. Sometimes a story is too layered to fit neatly into a single description, and that in itself says something interesting about you. These things do not always click right away. Sometimes you need to step away and come back after some time has passed. It happens that something which barely registered today hits home tomorrow. We all read ourselves differently at different times, and that is perhaps the most interesting thing about this whole exercise: it is always a little bit about you. No matter which option you choose.

If this reading stirred something in you and you want to go deeper, the free Ancestral Wisdom Rune Spread is available at AskRunes.com to help you connect with your lineage and uncover the gifts passed down through generations. And if you are curious to explore the full arc of your soul’s history, the free Past Life Tarot Spread is available at AskTarots.com to guide you through the major events and lessons of a significant past incarnation.

My wonderful girls, if no one has told you this today — I will. You are capable of more than you can imagine. I believe in you, even when you have doubts. So stop waiting for the perfect moment or for someone else’s approval — start building the life of your dreams. No one but you can do it so beautifully and so easily.

With warmth and without illusions,
Yours Sofia Veles