tarot – Page 2 – Star, Sage & Spirit

August 10, 2020July 14, 2020

No One Wants to be in the Middle Cards of the Tarot

I’ve been reading tarot professionally for many years now. The more I read, the more I become aware of the resistance we have as humans, to facing challenging situations. Many clients come in hoping I will tell them their struggles are over. That they are right around the corner from finding the right relationship or their dream job.

I wish that I could make it so. Unfortunately, I can’t will it to be true. I can only read what I see and what I see a lot is how we get in our own way. We think that everything should go as we planned it out. We think life is a complicated calculus equation, in which I did this work, so I should get that result. When, it doesn’t work out that way, we get frustrated and impatient.

And I’m not blaming you, reader. I do this, too. You better believe I have been struggling through some very real Four of Swords “YOU NEED TO REST NOW” struggles myself.

In the Minor arcana of the tarot and even in the Majors, the beginning cards are where we are in something new and exciting. It is the feeling of being renewed and energized. This is when we feel ambitious and excited to see what our pursuits will bring. The latter cards are the opportunity to reap the rewards of our hard work and our progress and to acknowledge our hard work and how far we have come.

The middle cards tell another story, entirely. The 4-8 in each suit and the middle line of the Major Arcana, show the struggles of daily life. The constriction, overwhelm and self-doubt that progress brings.

Unfortunately, most of life is about getting down in the muck and working things out. Most of life takes place in these middle cards. Maybe we are struggling to work through a conflict with the Five of Wands, or having to leave something behind without knowing where we are going with the Six of Swords, or grieving with the Five of Cups. All of these are struggles we face almost daily as we move towards becoming the truest and more whole-hearted versions of ourselves.

Sure, the celebration of the Ten of Cups, or the relief of the Nine of Pentacles look good from the outside. When we are in the struggle, all we can think about is the relief we will feel on the other side. But when we get to that place, we have a greater appreciation for the journey that got us there.

The middle cards of the tarot make us strong. Take the middle line of the Major Arcana, for example. We move through finding moderation and tempering our reactions with Strength, to the suspension of the Hanged One, and finally through the release and rebirth of Death to Temperance. This is not for the faint of heart. We confront our deepest fears and surrender control. In fact, we learn that control is merely an illusion.

It’s in these struggles that we find ourselves, we reinvent ourselves, and we move forward with growth and conviction. But human nature wants us to skip the struggle and reap the rewards. That’s why there are so many of us looking for a way to get rich quick or reading articles on the top stock tips to try to pick the one sure thing that will allow us to retire early. With everything that is happening this year in particular with the Covid-19 Pandemic, the struggles for equity for black people in America and all over the world, and so many people fighting for LQTBQIA rights, this year has challenged our collective desire to quickly move through discomfort.

Don’t skip the struggle. This isn’t to glorify suffering. No one wants to struggle, but to struggle, to persevere, to make mistakes, that is what makes us human.

I have always believed tarot is a resource that empowers us to keep pushing forward when we feel discouraged and reminding us that it’s okay to fall down, as long as we keep getting up and moving forward. Tarot reminds us that progress is our goal, not perfection.

August 3, 2020August 2, 2020

Lessons from the Strength Card

The Strength Card from the Modern Witch Tarot

This month as we move into Leo season, we are presented the opportunity to embody the wisdom of the Strength card. In the Tarot, the Strength card is the card that carries the energy of Leo season. As a Leo, I find that people often simplify the essence of Leo into someone who is boisterous and overbearing, while overlooking the qualities that make Leos great.

The Strength card represents these qualities well. With Strength we are confronted by our inner beast and how we react when we feel threatened. It’s a card of advocacy and using your inner fire for good . It’s an invitation into taming the reaction that comes up when we feel triggered by something.

The brilliance of this card is that it’s an ongoing process. We get a little better with every opportunity we are presented to practice. It’s not about the quick, big success but the progress we make over time. It’s about the baby steps. And, slow and steady progress that delivers us to deeply understand ourselves.

Strength shows us how to cultivate resilience in confronting our own shortcomings and reactions. It asks us to be loyal to ourselves above all else. This can be very challenging as it brings us face-to-face with the conditioning we experienced growing up.

The Strength card confronts us with how we react when we feel threatened. It asks us to observe what we think about those reactions and what we were taught about them from the time we were young. What were you taught about showing emotion? What were you taught about your responsibility to stand up for yourself and other people? Were you taught to ignore bullies? Were you treated as if you were weak or scared because of that reaction? Did you feel a need to confront every bully and right all wrongs? Did you enforce your perspective on others?

Strength asks us to stare into the face of these reactions and try to approach them with gentleness and understanding. Almost as if you are trying to gentle tame a beast. It still exists but, in what ways can you learn to cultivate the positive qualities of it and ease the vicious ones?

Strength is one of my favorite cards and one I have worked with for a long time. I consider it a great ally of those with trauma and a fighting spirit. In moments when I have felt that overwhelming desire to fight back, I have paused and tuned in to that Strength card and asked myself why I’m feeling that way, and if this is something that needs a big reaction. Sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes the answer is no. But, it’s allowed me to have a greater sense of agency over my reactions and has allowed me to give up the feeling of helplessness that often frustrates me.

For that reason, I’ve decided to offer a two part Strength Card Embodiment Workshop this month. This workshop is a celebration of resilience and will dive deep into tempering your reactions and meeting yourself with gentleness when you feel triggered. The point of this and other embodiment workshops I have offered is to bring awareness to the wisdom of the physical body. When we are feeling these emotions and triggers, they also show up in the body and can act as a powerful signal to let us know to pay attention and take action. For most of us, it’s easier for us to recognize the physical feelings in our body than it is to be aware of our emotions. In part 1 on Wednesday, August 12th at 7 PM ET we will discuss theory of the Strength card, practice some embodiment exercises, light movement, guided meditation and journaling. Then, you will have a week to create an intention for our new moon ceremony.

Part two will solidify lessons learned in part one and give us the opportunity to shed the last bits of extra fire we stirred up in part one and will include a New Moon in Leo Intention Setting and Healing Ceremony live over Zoom on Wednesday, August 19th at 7 PM ET. (If you’re saying, wait Sheila, the new moon is Tuesday, August 18th – I know, but it’s best to wait until the moon moves out of it’s dark phase to set the clearest intentions.) This ceremony will be an opportunity to get really clear on what you want to cultivate as we close out the Summer. You can sign up here.

July 27, 2020July 26, 2020

How to Reflect and Grow with the Tarot

The Wild Unknown Tarot and my Tarot Journal

Tarot is a wonderful tool for reflection is my number one use for it in my own practice.

This week I want to talk about how to reflect and grow with the tarot. A big part of this is by capturing your readings in a tarot journal. This will show you different phases of your journey. We often under-value our progress. It happens so gradually over time we miss how much we have learned.

That’s why one of my favorite spreads is my tarot for reflection spread. This spread is designed to bring you face to face with where you are now and what fears might be holding you back. Often those fears cause contraction that keeps us small and hovering inside of our comfort zone.

One of the great things about the tarot is that it can show us very directly what we think is true and compare that to what is actually true. Fear often acts as a mask that hides these things from us but in confronting fear head on with this type of spread we can take away it’s power and give ourselves an actionable way forward.

This spread was designed for readers of all levels. I use it once a quarter just as a check-in for where I am in my life and my business, but I also check in with it if I find myself reading on the same subject over and over.

I’m sure you’ve been there. Turning a card over, then drawing another, and maybe just one more until you’ve pulled like twenty cards and you’re completely confused.

I get it! We all do it but it can get really confusing if you’re reading on the same exact topic everyday.

That is why I use my Tarot for Reflection Spread. I created this spread to help separate fear and anxiety from true intuitive desire. I notice that I have a tendency to get locked into these little anxiety cycles and I struggle to pull apart what is real and true from a story that my anxiety is telling me. I know I am not alone in that and that is what drove me to share this spread.

Using this spread, we start to notice common fears that come up. This can lead to major breakthroughs. For example, maybe you notice that every time you approach a new relationship you have a tendency to start comparing it to all of your past romances and sabotage yourself – a real Seven of Swords vibe.

Maybe you notice that every time you are up for a promotion at work you work you start talking up a peer instead, or deflecting compliments from supervisors because you are afraid moving into a new position will mean failure – a real Moon Card feeling.

This knowledge is power because you will see how you react to fear and what you use as a crutch when you are feeling it. When we see these behavior patterns, we can interrupt them as they are happening and empower ourselves to embrace the fear as simply more information. This is the real beauty of the combination of journaling your tarot spreads and regularly using this Tarot for Reflection Spread.

If you would like access to this free offerings, you can find the Tarot for Reflection Spread here. As always, I would love to hear about your experience, so if you try one of the spreads please, send me an email and let me know how it went (Sheila at starsagespirit dot com) or tag me on instagram (@starsagespirit) and let me know how it went.

July 20, 2020July 14, 2020

Breaking Up With Your Tarot Deck

The Starchild Tarot Deck – My OG Tarot Go To

I’ve been going through a breakup. No, not with my partner…with my tarot deck.

Since I started reading, I’ve been relying very heavily on my Starchild Tarot Deck. I pined after it. I looked at it on instagram longingly and finally bought it three years ago. It was truly love at first sight.

Although I learned on the Coleman Smith Rider-Waite, the Starchild Tarot became my go-to for both personal practice and with client readings. It was my first deck that really worked well, for both and during almost every reading I would hear, “Those cards are beautiful.”

So what changed?

It’s not that I’ve lost that loving feeling. I still resonate with the cards and I think this deck is STUNNING. (There has not been a reading I have given with this deck where people haven’t commented on how beautiful the cards are.)

But I’ve noticed a shift lately. The deck just isn’t resonating the way it used to. I find it harder to relate to. It doesn’t seem to be able to handle this big pandemic energy.

I have heard other readers talk about this but this is the first time I’ve experienced it personally and I think it’s something that is hard to completely comprehend until it starts happening to you.

Sometimes I find myself just staring at cards that used to easily trigger my intuition in a second or two and feeling a little bit dumbfounded.

So I experimented a little. I tuned into my intuition and asked which deck I should use at that moment. I switched to the deck that came to mind, just to see what would happen. (Sidenote: I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a moment when I genuinely thought I was losing my intuition. The struggle is real, even for a pro.)

Sure enough, I was back up to speed right away. Things lit up and stood out the way they always do and I had no problem reading for myself or others with it.

I’ve known for a long time that some decks aren’t meant to go everywhere with us and after reading with this one for three years, it might be time to retire it as my go-to. It could be temporary, as in “We are on a break.” Or it might be long term, where we see each other occasionally but don’t connect in the same way we used to.

I’m not sure yet. All I know is that I’m feeling the pull to try something new.

Lately though, I feel myself entering a different life stage and I’m starting to sense that this deck and I need a little break. It’s okay….it’s mutual…even if it does feel a little sad. I still get nostalgic for my lovely Starchild Tarot. But I know this is a time for exploration. I’m entering a new stage as a person and a business owner. After all, I turn 35 in a month and I hear that’s when you finally get wise (I’m lying. I don’t hear that. I just want it to be true.)

So if you have been finding yourself feeling like you aren’t quite resonating with your favorite deck anymore, it might be time to see what else is out there. Open yourself up to new tarot horizons. You don’t have to drop your favorite deck like a bad habit. It just might be time to allow a new deck and energy into your life.

A little space and a little time might bring you right back to where you started but, we all need a little change sometimes.

July 6, 2020July 3, 2020

Virtual Tarot Parties In the Age of COVID-19

I started reading at tarot parties almost two years ago. It started as a small part of my practice. I did a girls’ night here, a bachelorette party there. With everyone at home on lockdowns, this has become such a huge part of my business.

People are missing connection and are tired of just drinking and chatting on Zoom. I’ve been fielding a lot of questions around these parties so I thought it might be a good idea to share a post about what an online tarot party is like.

I do each party over Zoom because there’s a lot of flexibility through that platform and it’s worked amazingly so far. The party host schedules the time that’s best with me for groups of 4-11. Once everyone is on the call, I do a little intro about me and what I do. Many of my clients are first-timers so they sometimes have misconceptions about what happens during a reading or what they can or can’t ask about. So I use this time to set expectations and explain how the technology works.

Then, I place most of the group into a virtual breakout room and go into a separate breakout room with the person I am reading for. They get to have privacy for their reading.

We typically do a brief 15 minute reading before I swap them back into the other room with their friends and bring someone new in with me. You would be surprised how much you can learn in 15 minutes. Some people come in with specific questions they want answers on or an area of their life where they are looking for guidance. Others are just looking for a general reading.

I follow the same process until I’ve read for everyone.

I love this option because it still allows me to do a face-to-face reading and it honestly works the same as it does if the person is physically in the room with me. COVID-19 has forced us all to be creative but it has also allowed me to reduce my pricing for parties a bit because I don’t need to commute and I can read for anyone, anywhere in the world. I have met so many amazing people all over this country and even a few in Europe.

When we are finished our individual readings, I bring us all back into the main room and the excitement is palpable. Everyone has their own little reading to chat about. Usually everyone is having cocktails and really excited about what came up. Sometimes I answer a couple more questions before I hop off and leave the group to hang out as long as they like.

Especially in the age of so much distance, it’s nice to have something even deeper to connect over. I am still doing bachelorette parties, girls’ nights, birthday parties; any celebration that COVID-19 has put a damper on, I can help brighten up from afar.

Social distancing has really brought me a newfound understanding of the connection that these virtual gatherings provide for people. I’ve noticed clients open up to their friends more about what struggles or victories are coming up for them because so often, tarot is validating for people. After the reading, having the time to go back in and sit with friends and talk about what came up, has opened up whole new conversations for friends.

It’s amazing to see and be a part of these connections. And, at a time when things can feel very heavy, it has reinvigorated my passion for my work.. If you have any questions or are interested in a session you can send me an email at sheila at starsagespirit dot com. I would love to work with you.

May 4, 2020May 3, 2020

Tarot for Real Life – A Spread for Focus in Business

Last Week I covered how I use tarot for timing in my business. Today I’m going to talk about how I use a simple three question spread to find focus when I’m feeling overstimulated or overwhelmed. These aren’t gimmicks. These are the real life spreads I use regularly.

Here is a picture of the spread:

Deck: Threads of Fate Tarot – The Weaver Tarot – Journeyer

I started by asking: Where should I direct my attention right now in my business? Eight of Coins. You might recognize this one from last week since it also came up in my last spread. I won’t get too into the weeds on explaining this because it’s higher level tarot stuff but it’s very relevant that the same card showed up in two different spreads about my business in the same day.

This card tells me that setting up sustainable systems and finding consistency in my daily work is most important right now. This is interesting since I’ve been spending a lot of time recently trying to set myself up for long term success with a heavy time and energy investment now. I’ve been working hard to break the habit of over-working and an addiction to business that I learned from sixteen years in corporate America.

My goal in leaving my corporate job was not to start my business and continue to work crazy hours and fill up any spare moment with more work. That is a habit I formed from working my full-time day job and running my business on the side while also teaching yoga.

This card is a reminder to set up a business that is individual to me and that it’s okay if it’s extra work on the front end to figure things out. That work will give me the schedule that I want long term, in order to feel stable and nourished.

Next I asked: How will this area help me grow? Ruler Of Coins (King of Coins). This card tells me that not only will it help me build longevity for my business but it was also help me develop consistent streams of income. King of Coins is about doing the work to find abundance and a sense of structure and wealth. This definition of wealth is not just about money, but also about wealth in different realms of life such as health, happiness, and relationships.

So not only will doing this work help me structurally in my business, but it will also help my attitude toward my work and help my career be supportive of me having a life outside of work as well. That’s what I need!

Finally, I asked where can I find support to move forward towards this stability: The Moon Reversed. This card is a clear sign of needing support and encouragement to face my fears. The moon is all about shadow work and walking alongside your fear, rather than letting it run your life. It gave me a good chuckle because I have been working with a group of lovely holistic entrepreneurs to help me with the launch of my first tarot course, and so much of what we do in the group is about talking through fears and breaking down limiting beliefs. It is a place I already know that I find a lot of support in navigating imposter syndrome and talking through technology problems.

I know that the relationships I’ve built with these folks over the past three months will continue as we all continue to grow our businesses going forward. I’m happy to know that this community will continue to be a reliable source of encouragement.

As you can see, this spread gives me clear direction on how to move forward, how those steps forward will help my business grow overall and where I can find support if I start to find myself derailed. The spread answers my questions and gives me an actionable path forward and ways that I can navigate challenges if they arise.

If you would like to learn to read tarot for yourself, my course, Practical Tarot for Everyday Intuitives, is a great way to get started. This is a seven week tarot course that helps you go from tarot newbie to tarot-reading wiz by using my tarot-informed decision making method to tune into intuition and move from indecisive-procrastinator to confident decision-maker. Registration is only open until May 8th at 11:59PM ET and won’t be open again until the fall. If you are being called to come home to your intuition and your own inner knowing this is a great place to start. You can sign up here.

Also, a quick reminder that virtual tarot readings, distance reiki sessions, and gift certificates make a great socially-distant Mother’s Day gift. You can purchase them by booking through my scheduling tab or you can send me an email if you want it to be a surprise.

April 27, 2020April 27, 2020

Tarot for Real Life- How I use Tarot in my Business for Timing

Last week on the blog, I talked about one of the most popular readings I do with my clients and how Decision Maker Readings help clients evaluate each option in front of them and make the best decision possible for them.

This week I wanted to talk about how I personally use tarot in my business. To an outsider this seems like a wacky idea but I’ll give you a few examples of how tarot provides me with clarity when I’m making business decisions or overwhelmed by options.

My own practice with tarot is less about future prediction than it is about getting information about current circumstances. I use it as a tool to interrupt the cycles of anxiety and overthinking that are common in my life. They always have been there, but since going into business on my own, the cycle of anxiety has become a little bit worse at times.

With the current state of the world this is no different. Tarot helps me shift my mindset and offers opportunities for me to be still and tune in to what I need most.

So how does this work? I’m going to use a few spreads over the next couple weeks to show you.

This is the real deal. It’s how I’ve made tarot my business super power.

I want to start with spreads for timing. When I notice myself procrastinating making decisions or just generally putting off work that is giving me anxiety I like to sit down with my deck and do a reading on timing.

Right now I have a new offering that I am still in the development stage for. I am extremely excited about it and because I will get super amped up and carried away this is a situation where I use my deck to come back down to earth and slow down. Here is a picture of the spread I pulled.

I started off by asking what will pursuing this idea to add to my business. The Four of Cups tells me that it will probably not be the solution to all of my problems but that it will add a different level of emotional satisfaction to my work. It will help take some of the current burden off of me that I feel on a weekly basis. (It’s hard to go too into detail here because I am keeping this idea under wraps for now).

Then, I moved on to asking about when I should focus on developing it. You’ll notice a line of cards here. I pulled one a month for the next few months. With the eight of cups showing up right away in May, I can see that if I can really feel finished with the launch of my course and like I’m getting settled into a flow with things it might be a good time to start. June shows the wheel of fortune reversed which shows me that I might have trouble getting traction towards new ideas this month and that it’s probably not the best time to start something new. Finally, in July with the eight of wands, I see where action meets opportunity. This card is all about action that is in alignment with focus, and usually quick results.

So It looks like May is an option but that I might not feel like I am really hitting my stride until July. I also note that if i don’t have time to get started in May, to give myself some space and time to rest in June and not try to force it to happen then.

Finally I asked when I should release this new project. This spread shows a very interesting spread. Where on the line below I pulled the eight of cups and the eight of wands, I now have the ten of cups and the ten of wands. I always notice progressive cards like this when they show up in a spread. It’s also interesting to see the eight of pentacles. That’s three eights in one spread!

Eight of pentacles is really about tending to the everyday background work that makes a project a success. It’s not the fun stuff, but that which is necessary to build things. So I see for one month after I start that I will be in creation mode. Figuring out technology, systems to make things work.

Then, two months after I start the project I would be in ten of cups reversed, a moment of reflection on how I can make this project more joyful and fun for me. How can I make this sustainable and supportive with all the other work I do?

Finally, the Ten of Wands tells me this will be more work than I anticipate on the front ends and that it will likely be a few months after I start developing it before it can really be out and ready to go.

All of this is information I use to make the best decisions for me. I also put it into the context of what I’m doing in real life. So I know that I am releasing my tarot course the first week of May. I wouldn’t suddenly drop what I was doing and throw my full resources into something new just because the cards suggested it. I use them to inform my timing and how I want to use my energy over the coming weeks.

Next week I will break down a spread that helps me adjust my energy and attention when I’m feeling overwhelmed by new ideas. Stayed tuned.

In the meantime, if you want to know more about using tarot in daily life, please join me for my FREE Training, Tarot for Real Life – Get your Shit Together with the Tarot. It is a FREE (YES 100% FREE) Three Part Live Training on The Top mistakes beginner tarot readers make, the neuroscience of why tarot is a great tool for interrupting the anxiety cycle, and the steps to start reading for yourself in everyday life. Part one took place on Friday 4/24, but you can watch the replay if you sign up now and you’ll catch the other parts later this week. You can sign up here.

April 19, 2020April 19, 2020

Tarot for Real Life – Navigating the Crossroads

What’s possible with a tarot reading?

I have been thinking about this a lot as I’ve been creating my first tarot course. So many of my clients are brand new to tarot when we start working together. They’re introduction to tarot is usually through some of the common pop culture tropes that I spoke to in my last two blogs, detailing tarot in pop culture which you can read here and here if you missed them.

They don’t realize that tarot can help inform choices in your daily life, bring insights about your year, or act as a mirror to some of your deepest fears and anxieties. Sure, tarot is a fun experience and it can be exciting and compelling to get a reading. However, tarot can also be functional in your everyday life.

Today, I want to talk about how I use tarot to navigate transition both personally and with clients. Using tarot as a tool for navigating transitions in career or personal life can provide insight that is invaluable. It is also the most common theme among the readings I do.

People find themselves at a crossroads, unsure which option is best for them, or torn between what they know is best and what they feel obligated to do. A Decision Maker Reading can help to start to tease those things apart.

In this type of reading, I look at the many different options available to the client. I pull cards based on each possibility and we look at what they can learn from those possibilities.

This is the reading I did when I was ready to leave my corporate job. I knew it was time to leave but I had so much fear about leaving. I equate money to stability so the idea of giving up a corporate paycheck was insane to me. I had a good job that provided a lot of autonomy and flexibility. I felt foolish for even considering letting it go. But I was also feeling a very strong pull to come out of the spiritual closet and start to share about what I had been experiencing for the past few years.

I wanted to take my healing work full time and I was feeling a strong pull to do that. Even with lots of signs that I was on the right track, though, I still felt unsure. I spent my entire career in corporate America and giving up all that hard work to go out on my own seemed kind of insane.

So I sat down with my deck and gave myself a reading. I asked what I would experience if I stayed at my current job. Then, I asked what I would experience going out on my own. Finally, I asked what I would experience if I found something part time to help me feel more stable as I started to grow my own business.

Going out on my own full-time was the clear winner. These type of readings aren’t really about getting a yes or no as much as they are letting you know what you will experience with each option.

I was anxious and overwhelmed by how scary it felt to let go of the structure I had in my life and throw myself full force into my own business. I never wanted to be a business owner. I never had a desire to live an entrepreneurial lifestyle. It seemed very stressful to me (sidenote: it can be at times). But the cards also gave me insight into how I would feel.

With this reading, I did take note of the Star showing up in this part of the spread telling me I was honing in on a career that would not only bring healing to the world, but also to myself. I would be tending to my own wounds by helping others heal and grow. It showed strength and empowerment.

When I looked at staying at my old job, I pulled a lot of cards indicating burnout, resentment, and feeling undervalued. I already knew that was how I was feeling in my heart, and I think I also knew that it wouldn’t change, but there was a small part of me holding onto the idea that I might be able to stay there and keep running my business on the side.

Logically I was drawn to finding some part time work while I started to run my business. However, I could see clearly in the spread that I would end up feeling too burned out and overwhelmed by trying to manage another new job along with my work. The cards were spelling out that it wouldn’t be much different than how I was feeling at my current day job, so why go somewhere else and struggle the same way for less benefits.

The spread showed me what was possible in each scenario. It validated what I was already feeling, and gave me specific information about each option. It didn’t decide for me. I took that information and made a decision that I already felt intuitively drawn to. It validated my own intuition.

This is what I do with the Decision Maker spread with my clients. They get to list out the many options at their crossroads and see where each path leads. It’s not all about good or bad. Not every reading is so clear but you might see something like, the new job you were eyeing looks like your dream job, but if you took it you would have to do a lot of presentations and public speaking and you hate that. The purpose of the spread is to show you that so you can reduce decision-making anxiety, and be as prepared as possible.

I see tarot as this mirror that provides a reflection of what is possible. I love doing these readings and I am so excited to start teaching other people about these readings in my upcoming tarot course.

Starting this Friday, April 24th at 3 PM ET I will be hosting a FREE three-part training called Tarot of Real Life: Get Your Shit Together with the Tarot. This training will talk about the top three mistakes people make when starting to learn the tarot, discover the neuroscience behind how tarot helps with decision making, and learn the steps to start reading tarot quickly and effectively to manage anxiety and learn to trust yourself. You can sign up for that free training here. Or you can get on the waitlist for my Tarot Course, Practical Tarot for Everyday Intuitives here.

And of course, if you are at a crossroads and learning tarot is not your thing and you just want me to do it for you, you can sign up for a Decision Maker online reading you can do that here.

January 20, 2020January 20, 2020

How to Calculate Your Card of the Year

If you follow a lot of witchy folks like myself, you’ve probably heard people saying that The Emperor is the card of the year for 2020. We use numerology to arrive at this card (I will show you later in this post how to do it).

My interpretation is that the Emperor is kind of like the theme for the year As a collective we will be focused on how to build new structures to stand the test of time. We will be looking at our daily work and routines and restructuring to make space for new things. This might mean letting go of some of the activities that were integral parts of your daily life for years.

Whether that means letting go of friendships or just seeing certain friend groups less frequently, stepping into a new role in your life (like mother/father, husband/wife, or boss) change, even change that we are looking forward to, comes with growing pains.

You might be holding on to your old ways of doing things or trying to force new areas of your life into old systems. When you find yourself being met with resistance, pause and pay attention. Notice that resistance and ask yourself if what you are doing is necessary or if it is even helpful. Sometimes we hold on so tightly without really asking ourselves why.

So how can we find some assistance in handling this change to our structural systems? We can use the medicine of our own Card of the Year.

In order to calculate your own personal Card of the Year, you just need to add together your birth month, birth day, and the current year.

So for example: My Birthday is August 20. So I would calculate 8+2+0+2+0+2+0 = 14

So my personal card for the year is Temperance. If you know me and follow my tarot journey, you know that is hilarious for me, because while Temperance is a lovely card, I struggle with finding moderation in my life.

If you get a number higher than 22, just add your numbers together again. So 23 would be 2+3=5. (Also important to note that 22 is the Fool card). Once you have your number you can find the corresponding major arcana card:

1 Magician

2 High Priestess

3 Empress

4 Emperor

5 Hierophant

6 Lovers

7 Chariot

8 Strength

9 Hermit

10 Wheel of Fortune

11 Justice

12 The Hanged One

13 Death

14 Temperance

15 The Devil

16 The Tower

17 The Star

18 The Moon

19 The Sun

20 Judgement

21 The World

22 The Fool

*a note on The Fool Card : The Fool is technically numbered 0 or 22

So why bother to do all of this?

Your personal card can help give you more perspective for your focus for the year. So for myself, I might look at the Emperor card and see how I’m setting up structures and systems to make my business a success. I’m in the midst of the hard work of getting established and growing, which is wonderful, albeit, not always exciting work. But it is necessary work.

So when I look at Temperance as my personal card, I can bring that energy into these systems I’m trying to build. For me, the Temperance card is always about giving myself some grace and learning to be patient. I have a tendency to throw myself into things 150% with little regard for sleep, normal hours, or moderation.

The combo of these two cards is offering me guidance. I need to find a slower pace than I will want to while building my business. In order to establish something sustainable, I will need to move more like the tortoise than the hare. I am slowly setting up systems for myself while being wary of my tendency towards burnout. I will need to make self-care not just a priority, but one of the weekly, if not daily, scheduled items on my list.

This is something I have known for a while but seeing it in the cards reinforces for me how important it is for me to have structure. When I don’t have structure and a schedule I will simply work until I drop.

It takes a certain kind of person to see this and think “Dammit, now I have to take care of myself!” but that’s just how I am. That’s also how the tarot is. It will bring you to what you need, exactly when you need it.

I know I am not the only entrepreneur who struggles with this proclivity to over-work.

But enough about me and my own experience. What about you?

Now that you have your cards how can you figure out what that means for you? Here are a few journaling prompts to get your on the right track.

How can the energies of these two cards work together?

What is your general attitude towards building structure in your everyday life?

How does your Card of the Year apply to self-care and prioritizing yourself, before you get too busy to do so?

How can your Card of the Year help you achieve your biggest goal(s) of 2020?

I would love to hear about your experiences. Please feel free to share in the comments or via email. I enjoy hearing your insights.