The first three cards, which represent the past, are the five of wands, the seven of pentacles, and the five of pentacles. The five of wands tells us about games and trickery. Precious time was lost in reporting Relisha missing, because the perpetrator was playing games with everyone from Relisha's family to her school, and later on, to law enforcement. The seven of pentacles is a situation of carefully waiting for fruit to ripen on a cultivated tree, with tells me that initially, a sincere effort to find Relisha was actually made. It came up empty, as we can see with the five of pentacles. Note that we have two fives here, which can mean five of anything, or the fifth of something........we may have the fifth month, which would be May; or we may have five weeks. The suggestion in the seven of pentacles is that this investigation will take some digging and some legwork before it comes to fruition.
The three cards which represent the the present are Death, reversed; the two of pentacles, reversed; and the Hierophant. When Death appears reversed, we are being told that there is stagnant energy about, as in movement is stalled. The two of cups is a water card; once again, we are reminded that water is part of this entire picture. But as this card falls reversed, there is not only instability in the physical environment, such as rain and varying water levels, but disagreement between the community and investigators about finding Relisha. In the future, the Hierophant foretells some agreement, however. He represents codified conformity and community. Individuals in Relisha's community still feel that authorities have dropped the ball on this situation, though. The reader should note that the numeric value of the Hierophant is also five.
The future of this effort brings us the ten of wands, reversed; the Emperor, and the ace of swords. The ten of wands reversed speaks to the recognition of failed efforts. I say "recognition" because it is followed by the Emperor, who is a decisive male figure with a certain amount of authority. Combined with the Hierophant in the last three cards, he can give searchers a lot of help and direction. The last card is the ace of swords, which augers success, but also tells us that new methods must be employed here. New tools, and possibly an aerial view, either connected to this search; or in some other process, yet yielding clues, nonetheless; will be helpful. But it will happen, and in the meantime, no clue, phone call, message, tip, or sighting should be overlooked or discounted.
Time constraints and time frames are very hard to deduce from Tarot, but it looks like five is a symbolic number, this time. It could be five weeks or five months, or the first week after the fifth month, or the five could mean something else, entirely. This reading gave us something else, though; it showed a few of the challenges in finding this little girl.
