Open your eyes and take ownership

Themes and patterns, seeing the way things are going, that's largely the whole point of divination, and the title of this post is very much the message the universe has been giving me through the tarot cards recently.
The 'see' bit, in addition to the new way of visualising the High Priestess which hit me recently, has come through the 9 of Swords, one of the less subtle cards about seeing, and today the 5 of Cups.
As always it is interesting to see other people's perceptions of the cards, and contrary to the rather pat interpretation where the querent is looking at the sorrow implied by the spilled cups while not seeing the fact that two of the cups are still standing, there is a completely opposite interpretation. In the case of this card coming up as action or advice, it is telling the querent to examine the sorrow. Go into the reality of your situation and feel the depths of the pain, it seems to be saying.
Never one to fight shy of deciding that a situation is beyond redemption or a person is a nasty piece of work, unusually for me, this card has brought up a saying in my head inspired by the 5 of Cups, and in fact letting a saying rise up in my mind is one of my favourite ways of understanding a tarot card. The saying here is 'no good crying over spilt milk'. So the message is clear here: I must face my reality, and must not mope about it.
A further push in this vein has come from the number of cards representing authority I have been drawing recently. I have made a fresh acquaintance with the whole of the Swords court, for example. The King of Swords has just kept on coming up, as has the hierophant. It is very plain that I am the authority here, and must make my own decision based on my own judgment.
That's the trouble with doing things like just walking out of an unsatisfactory job, as I did in September. Authoritative action makes the universe expect more of you. Which just places the question back in my lap: what do I see in my life and what am I going to do about it, which will use and ameliorate my own power and authority?
One thing is certain - and readers who didn't know me when I was younger will probably be surprised at the way I used to wobble and tend to follow other people's advice - decisions will be made around what suits me. I think and hope that I will have another decision coming up in the next week or so, and am getting the universe's message loud and clear.