On episode 24 of Living Tarot, I talk about how to plan your year with the tarot. Tarot is an excellent tool for planning out your energy for the year and how to resource yourself for and challenges that might come your way.
- I speak to some common misconceptions about what you can do with a year ahead tarot spread.
- I break down the fool card and why it is an excellent card to embody moving into a new year.
- I discussed the many areas of life that a year ahead tarot spread can help with.
- New Year’s Resolutions can be helpful but planning with the Tarot can be so much more intentional and powerful and personal.
There is so much planning that we do around the new year but often our energy and spiritual lives are neglected.
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Transcript:
Sheila M 0:05
Welcome to Living Tarot. I’m your host Sheila Masterson. I’m a tarot reader and teacher, an energy healer and medium, and creator of Practical Tarot for Everyday Intuitives. Each week on this podcast, I’ll share my own experience of embracing and growing intuition and interview guests about how they heard the call of intuition, embraced the adventure, and embodied the tarot along the way. Join us and learn how you can stop second guessing, empower yourself through intuition and live intentionally with the tarot.
Welcome back to Living Tarot. In today’s episode, I’m going to talk all about how to do an effective year ahead Tarot spread. And what it really means to surrender to the full card energy that a new year brings. So, when we talk about yearr ahead Tarot spreads, I do get a lot of questions from people. And I had a friend the other day asked me the question, since you don’t consider what you do to be fortune telling, how do you approach a year ahead spread and what can people really gain from it? And this is actually really good question because I do stress all the time, I don’t consider what I do to be fortune telling. I don’t really believe in true, you know, historical fortune telling because I believe that we all have free will. And our fortune, so to speak, will shift and change as we shift and change our minds. So with that in mind, I want to talk about what you can really learn from doing a year ahead spread for yourself, or doing a year ahead tarot reading with me. So it’s not just about fortune telling, it’s really about planning your energy for the year. So many of us, especially if we own a business, if we have a career, if we have a family life, if we have a relationship, we do a ton of planning when it comes to the new year. We plan ahead for vacations, maybe not so much right now, but in general; we plan ahead for financial things; we plan ahead for changes and shifts that are coming down the road in our career or new offerings or new types of business that we’re going to be bringing in. And this type of reading is no different because we’re really looking about energetically prepping ourselves for the new year. And so that means paying attention to the kind of challenges that are coming up, and the kind of energy we bring in to meet those challenges. So it’s really kind of like an audit. It’s like an opportunity to check in personally on our strengths and weaknesses. It’s an opportunity to check in on the strengths and weaknesses of our relationships. It’s an opportunity to, without our emotional buy-in; one of the things I say about tarot all the time, is that it has no bias, it has no buy in, the cards are going to show you what they’re going to show you whether you think you deserve to see it or you think you don’t. So it is a super effective tool in getting an unbiased view of our strengths and weaknesses, and the ways that we’re really showing up in different areas of our lives. So that’s what I have to say about that. But whenever we talk about the new year, we really can’t talk about new beginnings without talking about the fool. And the fool in the tarot is really just a beautiful opportunity to surrender to what is. When we’re new at something, if we’re new at a job, if we’re new at offering a certain type of business, we know that when we go in there is going to be a certain something or a large number of something’s that we don’t know because we’re new. We are a brand new beginner. We are learning as we go. And the fool card is really about leaning into, you know, our intuitive impulses, our ideas, the exciting, thrilling, creative things that come up in our minds. It’s really about leaning into opportunity and doing that without allowing too much anxiety or too much stress to really cloud your vision for what you want moving forward. So there’s nothing wrong with kind of that inherent anxiety coming up, but what we don’t want is for it to suppress the things that we really want about the year. And when we take that kind of full leap where we just kind of jump into something without knowing the exact prescribed way that it’s going to work out, we get a different opportunity to experience things. And so, you know, we might have our planning, and we have some idea of what we’re doing, but we don’t have everything figured out. And it’s kind of that, you know, leap, and then figure out where you’re landing while you’re kind of descending. And you know, there’s nothing wrong with approaching your year in that way. Some people really like to be spontaneous; some people really struggle to be spontaneous. But when we’re standing on the precipice of a new year, we are always really embracing that fool energy. We’re trying to let go of anything that might have served as a bias or a filter through which we were seeing the past year, and really allow ourselves to dive in without any preconceived notions of what’s going to happen, what should happen, and really open ourselves up to the possibility of what could be and asking ourselves questions. You know, this is why this time of year, we find everybody making their new year’s resolutions, and trying to hold to those resolutions. And I don’t particularly love resolutions, because I think that often, they are largely created by society rather than personal. But I do think it’s an interesting time of year to really do this type of audit with the Tarot. When you’re looking at, where you’re coming from, where you see yourself going over the next year, and what kind of energy you’re going to be working within because when you do that, you have the opportunity to set yourself up for better self care, better success. You have the opportunity to see what kind of support system you might need going forward. And it’s not just about seeing you know, what’s going to happen, or planning for this thing to happen to you; it’s really about being open to what would really serve you in this moment. Maybe in the past, all of your resolutions have been about, you know, health or fitness, but this year, you need to take into account, you know, mental health. 2020 has been a really tough year, really, really tough year for most of the world. It’s been isolating; it’s been different. And a lot of people have been struggling with mental health. And maybe that’s something that you want to prioritize this year instead of the external things that we can kind of get rewarded and patted on the back by society for; really taking the opportunity to think about what you personally want. And there’s never been a better opportunity for that than right now because so many of us are isolated and we don’t have kind of the outside influence of what everybody else is thinking and saying in front of us all the time. So that’s my little bit for resolutions, but I do want to talk about doing your year ahead reading and what that really means. So when we talk about planning for the energy of the year, we’re talking about planning as a whole for what we’re moving into. So I’ll talk about it a little bit more in the new year, but 2021 is a hierophant year, which is a different kind of energy. So you can think about how you approach the type of energy of the hierophant. You can also think about, you know, if you draw a card that represents the energy of the year, how do you approach that card? What is your relationship with that card? What is your relationship with showing up in your career that way? Or how do you feel about showing up in your interpersonal relationships that way? And so when we start to see like an overview, we have kind of a filter that we can put all of our learning, and all of our ideas and thoughts for the year through. So for example, if you were looking at the hierophant year, you would say, Wow, yeah, I’m really gonna have to step up in a big way as my own teacher for this year. And that might be in my career, it might also be in my romantic relationship. You’re gonna have to kind of see how it plays out. And like I said, I’ll talk about that more specifically in the new year. And and what that really means. But when we’re talking about doing our own planning for the year and doing our own year ahead, spread, we really want to look at each month, what kind of energy we’re going to be dealing with and again, we’re not looking at that to say, oh, gosh, in February, the tower card is coming up so everything’s gonna fall apart. That’s not what we’re saying. Again, we’re talking about that kind of energy and often, when we approach that type of spread in this way, one of the things that happens is we find that it’s not necessarily an external experience. So for example, if we pull the tower card for February 2021 and then in terms of how to approach that energy, we pull the eight of pentacles, we would say, Okay, I’m going to be going through some sort of tower type experience. Often, because when we’re doing a personal spread like this, it’s about our own personal experience, it’s maybe more likely to be a crisis of confidence, or a struggle with identity, which could have something to do with the outside world, absolutely, you know, could have to do with a relationship ending, it could have to do with some sort of career change, and it could have to do with us having our baseline of who we think we are shook. And so it’s not that that’s not a big deal, but it’s not always this, you know, catastrophic I’ve lost my house, I’ve lost my relationship, I’ve lost my job. It’s not always that. It’s usually a more internal process and more about something that’s going on for you personally.
Hey, there, I wanted to let you know that I’m currently accepting bookings for my career ahead tarot readings. These readings are designed to help you see the energy of the year ahead, to close out anything that’s been holding you back in the present year, and help you expand into your highest level in your career or business. Each reading happens to go through the year, month by month, talk about what you’ll be dealing with and how to best approach any challenges or hiccups that might come up in the year ahead. I have very limited bookings around the holidays. And I’m starting to get booked up into the new year as well. So if you are interested, please head on over to the show notes for this episode or check out my website at starsagespirit.com. And if you’re more of a do it yourself kind of person. I’ve also created a DIY year ahead Tarot guide that will lead you through a very similar spread to what I do with my clients, and help you to define what you really want out of this year and see any challenges and how to approach them through the year. It is an entirely personal reading, it is a very accessible price point, and you can use it over and over. So it’s not specific to next year. And it’s not even specific to this time of year, you can use it for your relationship around your anniversary, you can use it on your business anniversary, or your birthday, the options are really endless. So if you are interested in purchasing your own DIY year ahead guide, you can do that by heading over to the show notes today.
And when we pull the card to handle how to approach that energy, so for looking at the tower, and we pull the eight of pentacles, for how to approach that energy, it’s even more subtle, because we’re seeing that with the eight of pentacles. The approach to dealing with that is really to kind of put our nose down and just keep working on what we’re doing. So it might seem like a generally disruptive card, but the medicine as my teacher, Lindsey Mac likes to say, is to show up in a way where you’re just kind of approaching the mundane, everyday tasks that you need to get done. And you’re not allowing yourself to get pulled off track by that tower energy. And then you know, you could also pull other cards as an approach, maybe you pull five of pentacles as an approach and that’s saying, you know, find some support, maybe you need some financial support, maybe you just need some friends to show up for you and give you an ear to speak into and really give you a sounding board, when you feel like you’re struggling about you know your own identity. But it’s not really about saying like, I’m doomed to the tower card, because I pulled it for February. It’s really about seeing energetically what’s going on with you and how to handle some of the ups and downs of the year and how to kind of energetically support yourself. So if you see, you know, for example, I struggle with patience, this is not a mystery. I’ve talked about it often on this podcast. So if I had say, maybe all spring I have, you know, the hanged one, a temperance card, and the eight of wands reversed. I might be like, Well, shit, I am going to be dealing with some delays, I’m going to be dealing with having to deal with patience and cultivate patience and how can I do that? So every month I would be looking at the approach that okay, maybe I need somebody else to come on board as like an assistant in my business to keep me on track, when I start getting wacky, and like, way out ahead of myself, maybe I need to hire someone who’s going to be like, slow down, like it is time for you to slow down and somebody who’s going to be supportive of me, as I enter into an energy that I find particularly hard to be within. Does that mean that it is objectively hard for everyone? No, I just know that it’s not my strength. So I might resource myself by saying, Hey, you know what, my friend, you know, Carol is super, super patient, and she teaches me so much about being patient. I’m going to make sure that I talked to her once a week in February, or I’m going to make sure I talked to her once a week in May. And really giving yourself the opportunity to learn from the people in your community, who maybe have strengths where you don’t, and to give yourself, you know, maybe you say, no, forget it, I’m just going to make sure that I have weekly therapy set up all spring, and I’m just going to deal with it that way. And I just need to kind of vent things out. Or maybe it’s, you know, I need to up my exercise routine, so that I can get that frustration out somehow, you know, it really depends on what support card you’re pulling up there. And so I think that that’s one of the best ways to approach things, is really to imagine yourself planning your approach to each energy. And it also has the added benefit of keeping us from playing small, because often, when we’re approaching a new year, we kind of especially after the year that we’ve had this year, we might want to kind of keep things as stable as possible and not change too much and be you know, maybe a little bit rigid in what we’re expecting. But what’s interesting about seeing these cards laid out in front of you, is that it really forces you to be accountable to what showing up there. So if you’re feeling like you want to be in…I’m trying to think of a good example. If you’re feeling like you want to be in the ace of cups or the ace of cups reversed and the approach that you’re getting is to be in like the 10 of cups, then you’re going to know that you have to get a little bit outside of your comfort zone. And maybe you can find some sort of community or some sort of coach or some sort of advisor or partner, even, who can really push you into a place of feeling like you can share more emotionally. And that’s really important because it keeps us in authenticity. So it keeps us from getting too far into the what society expects us to do in the year, and what our resolutions are expected to be, and really keeps us accountable to what we really need, rather than what we think we should do. So it keeps us from should-ing on top of ourselves. And if you are a business, for example, and I do a ton of business career ahead readings this time of year, it also helps you plan for how you are going to energetically be feeling throughout the year. And I cannot stress the importance of this enough. Because when you run a business, or when you’re inside of your career, you’re very forward focused and you’re thinking about the next thing all the time. And you might be chasing shiny object after shiny object. But what’s really important is to stay authentic and true to yourself. So if you see a couple challenging, you know, quote, unquote, challenging cards coming up for yourself over the spring or through the winter, you can say, Okay, I’m going to focus on the things that I’m already offering and pushing those out as much as I possibly can to try to get more clients for my current offers, rather than trying to use all of my energy to create something new. So it also helps you be more efficient in your business, which if you run a small business, you know how important that is. I know how important that is. And trust me, I have tried to fight back against, you know, the energetic feelings of the year. I don’t like to be told what to do. You know, I think I can control everything and I’ve always found myself in a losing battle and it’s in those moments where I can actually focus on my approach card to each energy that I find myself feeling like I have some semblance of control back and I can start to integrate a little bit better. So it keeps us in that energy of being curious, of embracing that fool card energy and it allows us to surrender without the fear that we won’t be able to handle whatever comes our way. And as you go through the year, one of the coolest things about doing a year ahead spread is that life informs divination. So as you live out these cards in your daily life, it will bring a fuller and deeper understanding of how cards show up for you in your spreads. So you’ll get quicker in your tarot spreads, you’ll have a deeper understanding of different situations, and you will have a very embodied feeling of each card, and what the experience is for you, personally, of being in that card. So that when you do future spreads for yourself, you recognize that energy right away. And on top of that, you know, how you’ve best dealt with it, or you know, what your tendency is when that energy comes up. So I know when I’m going into temperance, that I’m going to fight against it with every fiber of my being I do not enjoy that feeling and I find it difficult to surrender within that. But I also know that I have friends who are very good at being in that energy and friends who I can be like, okay, just literally tell me what to do right now because I’m being crazy and I’m doing this, this and this. And I can get the support that I need to be within that energy. And as you go through the year, it builds that fuller sense of understanding. So when you do your spread, I also encourage you to keep notes as you go through each month. So when you feel like you’re in that tower card energy, you’re writing in your journal about it, you’re saying, hey, this, this and this are how it showed up, and then maybe the next time that card comes up, you’re like, Oh, I recognize that tower, I’m going to be having a little bit of an existential identity crisis, so I know I can call on this person, this person and this person to set me back on track. So that’s one of the things that really adds to the fullness of doing that type of spread. And it is one of the parts of doing that type of spread that I think often gets forgotten. But it’s really important to come back to because that is where you will see the greatest benefit over time, especially if you’re still in the experience of learning the tarot or if you’re just like getting back to the tarot, and you’re wanting to kind of kick things up a notch, or you’re wanting to bring a deeper understanding of your deck and how it shows up in life. It’s a really wonderful way to do that. So if you are interested in getting a career ahead tarot reading with me, you can check the show notes for today’s episode, or head over to my website, starsagespirit.com and book a reading there. Or I set up a very special DIY, do it yourself year ahead tarot guide, which is on sale right now and will be probably into like the first week of the new year. This guide is, I’m biased, but I think it’s the coolest thing I’ve ever made. And it was, like so many things I do, partially channeled by spirit, partially me. And it is a guided meditation and PDF that will take you through doing a full year ahead spread. And the meditations work along with this four part spread. And what’s really, really cool and the part I’m most excited about which is like super corny, but I’m still really pumped about it, is that I created a Tarot Wheel of the Year. And it’s basically just a little wheel, that it’s a little arts and crafts moment. So you can cut it out, you can fill in the cards that you got in your reading for each month and then you can place it on your board, a bulletin board in your office or by your bed. And each month you turn the wheels so that the card that you’re on is up at the top. And what’s super cool about it is that then you have it in a place of prominence. You’re referring back to it regularly and you do have more of an honest conversation with yourself about how you are living within that card in that moment. So I know I’m biased. I think it’s super cool. I’m really really proud of it. I think it’s like the coolest thing I’ve ever made. And it’s available for purchase right now, either in the show notes of today’s episode, or you can head over to my website, starsagespirit.com, and you’ll be able to find the link to buy it over there as well. So that’s all I have for you today. I will see you all back here next week.
Thank you so much for listening to Living Tarot. If you love today’s episode, please leave us a review and subscribe. So that you never miss an episode. This helps us reach even more budding intuitives. Feel free to share on Instagram and tag me @starsagespirit and let me know what you learned, what surprised you, and what you’d like to hear even more of. As always, if you want to hear more about my courses, or book a reading with me, or for full episode show notes, you can head over to starsagespirit.com