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The last place I wanted to find myself at the beginning of the second (third?) wave of the coronavirus pandemic was in a busy emergency room, and yet, there I sat, waiting to be taken away for a head CT.  

As I made jokes with my sister, who thankfully was allowed to stay with me while I waited, I wondered how exactly I ended up in this predicament.

It all started earlier that day with what was supposed to be a routine eye exam. I thought I was doing a good thing for myself. Getting my eyes checked for the first time as an adult. I have perfect vision but because I have some other health issues that can show up in the eyes, I figured it wasn’t a bad idea to get a baseline for where I am as an adult.

It was all going great until the doctor dilated my pupils and took a look at my optic nerves. The tone of the whole appointment changed and then I had to go through a whole battery of extra tests to make sure nothing was wrong with my range of vision or color perception. All ending with me smack dab in the ER on a day when I was supposed to be editing my podcast, taking a business strengths training, and running a Q&A call for my tarot course. 

From there, a bunch of seemingly unrelated symptoms suddenly came together. I would have noticed them sooner if I wasn’t so used to getting bad headaches from years of migraines, and if those migraines didn’t also make nausea a somewhat regular part of my life and if I didn’t have great balance from years of yoga. 

Here I was several months into having all of these symptoms without really noticing.

Sure, it’s normal in a year like 2020 to disassociate from your body. I’ve seen it in almost every energy work session I have done this year. It is a hard time to be human and everybody seems to be having a hard time keeping their essence fully grounded in their body.

Anyway, the point of telling you all this is to say that I was ignoring the big things. I knew I needed to change the way I was doing my work. I needed to be more specific with what services I wanted to provide. I needed to adjust my rates. I had to pay attention to the insane expectations I was putting on myself. And for the first time since I started working for myself full-time, I had to pause and put my needs first.

I know that rest is revolutionary, but whether it’s nature or nurture, I have always struggled to slow down and trust that it’s okay to do less. I worked multiple jobs even back when I was in high school. I continued to do it when I graduated college and was working full time. When I quit my corporate job in May 2019, I was working there full-time, teaching yoga, and working on my business part time.

I was always doing. Listening to entrepreneurship and marketing podcasts while I was driving to the studio to teach. Creating yoga playlists and testing them while out on a run. Working out during conference calls that didn’t require me to be at my desk. I never allowed myself a moment to just be.

I tried to approach my own work in the same way. And it did not work.  So here I am in the longest, most round about way telling you what lessons I’ve learned this year.

Lesson 1 – You are a human first. As in, take care of yourself before you are losing your mind and before you end up in the ER. You can do this in small ways, like exercising, giving yourself down time, reading – whatever your thing is. Do more of it. More than you think you need. And drink more water.

Lesson 2 – You can’t do it alone. Even if you have trauma that leads you to believe that it’s safer and easier to not rely on anyone but yourself, you can’t do it all by yourself. Everyone needs someone and for me that has been the gift of my community of entrepreneur friends, or as my boyfriend calls them, my business witches.

 This awesome pack of brilliant, Intuitive people have encouraged me, talked Magick with me, inspired me, lifted me up on bad days, commiserated with me, checked my work, and all around had my back through the ups and downs of a very crazy year. I have only met one of them in person (and socially distanced) but they have all redefined internet friends for me. 

Entrepreneurship is lonely enough but add in a global pandemic and it is an even more isolating experience. Having a community has been so grounding and and powerful for me. I am so grateful for all of the friends who have talked to me about work, finances, confidence, disappointments and who have celebrated every victory with me as if it was their own. I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have that.

Lessons 3 – You aren’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea. I have said it before and I will say it again. You’re not for everyone and also maybe even more importantly, they may not be for you. I learned a lot about being more intentional about the work I want to do and who my ideal client is. It is hard for me to not want to help every single person who asks me for something but I tried to do it, and it was exhausting. 

Especially when you are a soloprenuer. You need your attention to be focused. When you have a team and you’re huge and famous you can chase every idea around if you want to. But when it’s just you, you have to be focused and efficient.

Lesson 4 – Sometimes the answer is not more training or education or anything else new. As a Sagittarius rising it is hard for me to accept that more education is not always the answer, but this year I came face to face with my tendency to avoid doing the work by just continuing to learn. If I’m learning, I’m not ready to do it yet, and therefore I can’t fail. I invested in myself more than I have since college this year and it was absolutely worth it, but I also realized how much I needed focus along with that. Now I realize I don’t need more, I just need focus.

Lesson 5 – No one is coming to save you. You have to save yourself. Sad but true. There’s no knight in shining armor who is going to save you from your own bullshit. You gotta put on your big girl sweatpants (yoga pants? Onesie?) and get to work. You have to make yourself, your happiness, and your health your number one priority. It might sound selfish but it’s not. When you take care of yourself you aren’t putting that burden on your loved ones and you are showing up as your best self in your relationships.

There are so many other lessons, big, small, heart-breaking, and uplifting but I have already gone on so long. 

So I will just say this…Sometimes I am truly overcome by the immensity of my gratitude at just being seen and heard. 

Growing up I spent much of my time feeling like an alien. I am a natural extrovert, so the sharing comes naturally, but the truth is, it’s been met with mixed results in my personal life. Some people find it endearing and other find it extra. The past year and a half of truly being out and sharing so much of myself so publicly has been scary. But every step of the way I have felt supported; by my community, my business witch friends, and even strangers.

I have received countless messages from people , some who I’ve met and some total strangers, who have read something on one of my social posts, or heard something on Living Tarot that resonated with them. 

I certainly hoped for that, after all it’s been my mission to help other people feel less lonely on their own spiritual path, but the scope of the reach of the podcast (in just a few months) has been beyond what I imagined. If you have messaged me, written a review, sent me a letter or told your friends about my work, I cannot thank you enough. I promise I remember every single thing and it astonishes and overwhelms me.

After the year we have all had, I am going into the last few days of the year feeling mentally exhausted, frustrated, and definitely in need of a break, but I also feel immense gratitude to even be in the game. 

I never wanted to be an entrepreneur because I thought it was too much hard work. I was certainly right about the amount of work – holy shit! What an understatement! But I also love what I do. 

If I hadn’t taken on this hard work I wouldn’t have seen what it was like to create something from scratch, from my own mind – to pull it down from the ether and put it into form. Even more thrilling was watching people learn from that work and even take what they learned in Practical Tarot for Everyday Intuitives and actually apply it in their lives to find clarity. The feedback I received on something that was truly a labor of love was beyond any award I received in 13 years in corporate America. 

I think that resilience is overvalued and over promoted by hustle culture, so I won’t say I have been resilient this year. Instead, I’ll say the more important lesson I have learned is compassion for my humanness.

I have been humbled repeatedly this year, and the only way to take care of myself has been to learn to give myself grace. I have allowed myself to show up vulnerably and imperfectly.  I have made mistakes, and been corrected. I have stopped treating my body like something that can wait until I have a minute. I have stopped putting my health last and I am privileged to be able to make it a priority. Most of all I am striving to make caring for myself and my physical and mental well being a part of daily life, even when it’s not convenient.

It’s easy when you are young and relatively healthy to think that you can prioritize everything else first. I vow to put myself, my health, and my joy first in 2021 and I hope you will do the same.

Thank you for being a part of my world through this crazy year.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the goal for the year that I set way back in December 2019.  

I really wanted 2020 to be a year of appropriately valuing my time and effort after feeling very much like I hadn’t been doing that for most of my life.  But beyond everything else, I wanted 2020 to be a year of ease over effort.  

Like so many of us I have been a strong subscriber to hustle culture my whole life.  Until I left my corporate job last May, I’d become accustomed to working multiple jobs my entire career.  From the time I was 16, I worked multiple jobs, and even as a corporate professional I taught yoga on the side and also ran my own business.

By the time I put in my notice last year, I was exhausted mentally, physically and emotionally.  I said I would take a break, try to relax a little.  Try to surrender effort and just focus on what I needed to focus on.  But the anxiety of running my own business got the better of me.  

I went right back into hustle mode.  I made connections, I hosted tarot parties, started relationships with event planners, held a residency at a local winery, booked hundreds of client appointments and ran a yoga teacher training.  All of which were wildly rewarding but still A LOT.

So I vowed that I would put an end to that in 2020.  I would go with the flow and find ways to find both efficiency and ease in my work.

To follow along with that theme, the Star, Sage & Spirit Blog will soon be making a transition to the Living Tarot Podcast.  I have been working my tail off in the background to put together something powerful, connective, and honest.  

I wanted to talk about intuition in the context of how it comes into play in our daily lives.  I’m looking forward to sharing insights on boundaries, asking good questions, tarot, energy work, and connecting to your own intuitive voice.

I also have had so many friends who have generously offered to chat openly with me about their experience and share their insights and wisdom directly with you.  These conversations have been an absolute delight and I know you will get so much about hearing about not just the spiritual side, but also the practical side of intuition.

So you might be wondering, what does this have to do with ease?

Well, my friend, I find it easy to talk.  If you know me, you know this is true.  As much as I LOVE writing and the blog has become such an outlet for me and all of my ideas and progress over the past year, I was starting to feel a bit bogged down by the hustle of it.  It didn’t come easy to me even though I loved what I was talking about.  I always felt like it was authentic, but not quite where I wanted to be.

So I sat down, I meditated on it for a month or two and the answer became very clear.  I have always been a person who communicated most effectively with my voice.  I have been a singer my whole life, and actress for years, Iprocess thoughts and emotions through speaking about them to friends and loved ones (and a therapist).  

Speech and conversation come so naturally to me and it is how I’ve connected with so many of the wonderful healers, friends, and teachers in my life.  There is something so special and connective about listening to spoken word and storytelling.

I am so excited to bring you my own musings on intuition, tarot, energy work, and also to interview so many amazing friends and business people I admire.  

The Star, Sage & Spirit Blog will continue in it’s own way with show notes and insights, and will also occasionally be updated with new posts that don’t translate as well to spoken word.  You will also find posts on the blog still leading up to the Living Tarot Launch.

Thank you to all of you who have been loyal readers. I hope you will join me in this new venture as well.

Living Tarot launches with nine episodes on September 9, 2020.  It will be available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and anywhere you listen to podcasts.  I’ll be posting more over the next two weeks about what you can expect and who you can look forward to hearing from.

Peeking my head up since I have been in a little book bubble.  I have been reading up a storm lately and I’ve read some truly cool and witchy books.  I thought it would be fun to put together a witchy summer reading for all of you. These are my favorites that I have tackled this year.

Initiated by Amanda Yates Garcia.  I’m going to try to keep it cool but, I am a total fangirl.  This book is not only incredibly interesting, but also beautifully written.  Garcia tells her coming of age story, raised as a witch on the west coast, and then later, all over.  Her writing is breathtaking and so honest.  I read this book in a day, and if you are a fellow intuitive, you will probably relate to the expression of underworld journeys and struggles with self-doubt.

You Were Born for This by Chani Nicholas.  This book is like a beginner’s guide to astrology and I particularly like the simplicity of Chani’s teachings because I’m somewhat of an astrology beginner.  She also gives you a quick guide on her website to read different aspects of your chart which I found very helpful.  This book is part haunting, self-discovery memoir and part guide to your own personal astrology.  Equal parts heart-breaking and empowering and another one that I read in a day.  The fun bonus of this, is that if you have the birth time and place of friends or loved ones you can also get insights about them as well; perfect for happy hour socialising.

Auras: The Anatomy of the Aura (A Start Here Guide for Beginners) by Eliza Swann.  I heard Eliza on my mentor Sarah M. Chappell’s podcast and I just loved everything she had to say about magic.  This book is exactly as it says, a beginners guide to understanding energy fields and how to read them.  I love the variety of approaches to understanding energy fields in this book. This variety is indicative of an experienced teacher, since so much of energy reading and healing is individual and totally personal.  This book will give you the tools to get started.  While it’s not the lightest read, it offers practical exercises to start developing your skills and I loved all of the diagrams and step by step guides. Also, because of those guides, I do recommend getting the old-school, paper copy of this book so that it’s easier to go back and reference.

Conjure Women by Afia Atakora.  This book is a work of fiction but a beautiful depiction of the way that magic is passed down through generations in a family. Spanning several generations from before the civil war to post war struggles with violence against newly freed black people in the South.  This book paints a beautiful picture of the bonds of women and it made me cry multiple times.

Untamed by Glennon Doyle.  I know, it’s a basic bitch beach read but it is also brutally honest and very well written.  Get ready to laugh, cry, and dog-ear the heck out of what might be the most quotable book I’ve read this year.

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel.  This is the first fiction book on the list and while it’s not directly about witchy stuff, it does involve a crime and a character who is haunted by a literal ghost from his past.  (Fun fact: Emily St John Mandel also wrote a book, Station Eleven, about a global pandemic back in 2015, so she may just be a little witchy herself.)

The Fake Date Agreement by Tanya Gallagher.  This is outside of the witchy realm and I admit it, this is a shameless plug for my dear friend Tanya’s book.  We went to high school together in the suburbs of Philadelphia and we have stayed friends since.  Her latest book is joyful and fun and brings total Christmas in July vibes and is perfect for a long day at the beach or an afternoon in your backyard hammock.

That’s all I have for you today.  I would love to hear what’s on your witchy summer reading list.  What did I miss?  Let me know in the comments so that I can add it to my summer reading list.

PS. While I’ve included links to the amazon pages for each book, I recommend ordering through your local bookstore or library rather than putting more money into Bezos’ pockets.

© Sheila Masterson 2020 All Rights Reserved

As a privileged cis white woman in this world, and especially as someone who does healing and spiritual work, I felt it was important for me to speak to what’s going on in the world.

Until a month ago, most of my clients have been people I know personally, and those who were referred by clients. If you have met me in person, it’s unlikely that you wouldn’t know where I stand on all things.  As a good friend of mine said, “You have no opinion that you don’t feel a need to share.”  Blame it on my Leo sun or my Sagittarius rising or even the call for justice and balance that I get from my libra moon.  I am a woman of conviction and an advocate for those who are oppressed.

But in the past few months I’ve brought in a whole new bunch of clients who have only met me over the internet or through social media posts.  I’ve also seen some people stop following me after all of my sharing of content by black craters and activists this week. 

First of all, let me say that I am ashamed that it might be unclear from my website who I serve and what my philosophy is.  I am embarrassed that it took this kind of violence in the world for me to recognize that I am not as transparent in my beliefs as I think I am. I have not been actively anti-racist and I am pushing myself to do better.

I want to be clear when I say that I believe in the Black Lives Matter Movement.  I have lived a privileged life and I have seen blatant racism play out in front of my face on numerous occasions.  I am horrified by the mass incarceration of black people in this country, the murder of unarmed black men and women by the police, and the casualty with which these things are viewed as someone else’s problem by white people.

I have extensive trauma-informed training that I apply in both my yoga practice and my healing practices but I am continuing to train with black teachers and healers to learn more about being inclusive and understanding forms of trauma that I have not personally experienced.  I know that training from a variety of sources will make a more well-rounded healer and a better ally for black folks in my community.

It is with great humility that I continue to learn from people who are experts in anti-racism work and dismantling white supremacy.  I am continuing to read and reread resources that I have found helpful for understanding and dismantling my own privilege.  I will continue to seek out teachers who teach about trauma-informed practices that aren’t just based on the white experience.  I will continue to learn from mistakes I have made and take correction from people with more experience.

Since the start of the pandemic I have been donating 50% of workshop proceeds to local food banks, but I want to do more going forward.  Because I am still newer to my business and don’t have as much income consistency as I would like, I am looking into ways that I can donate my time and energy.  My goal is to find ways that are long term and sustainable and will grow and scale with my business. 

As it stands, I plan to offer scholarships to workshops and trainings, specifically reserved for BIPOC students.  This is something that I know I can commit to long term and that I can scale as my business grows. I will also continue to donate a percentage of my income to charities like the The Loveland Foundation and Therapy for Black Girls.  Mental health care is particularly near and dear to my heart and an area where black women are underserved.

You will also now find this statement on my website:

As a facilitator of healing, I believe it is my responsibility to stay open and hold space for your experiences without judgement.  My practice is trauma-informed and anti-racist. I accept people of all backgrounds therefore my space is one that is safe for LBGTQIA clients and I strive to be non-harmful toward BIPOC clients.  Know that when you have a session with me, you have no need to explain yourself or defend your experience.  I honor whatever your experience is and I meet you exactly where you are.   Know that wherever you are coming from, whatever pain you are working through, my space is not one where you need to minimize your feelings or carefully select your words.  You can just be who you are.  I am an imperfect person but I continue to learn and grow and I will continue to do my best to make my healing work a place where all people, and especially those marginalized, feel welcome.  I continue to listen deeply and learn from you.

Finally, I would like to offer the following resources for those interested in anti-racism work.

Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad.  I read this book last year but I am rereading it now and getting even more out of it.  Layla’s work is challenging and confronting and provides real steps for you to dismantle your own internalized white supremacy.

A Lifetime in Quarantine with Sabia Wade (@theblackdoula) – Trauma Skills and Nervous System Understanding for BIPOC.  This training on Somatic Work and Nervous System regulations was presented by all BIPOC teachers and taught me so much about different skills for regulating that were outside of my past trauma and PTSD trainings, which have mostly centered around the white experience.  I cannot express how moving, helpful, and cathartic I found this training to be, even after all of my past trauma experience.  This training is not currently open but when it does open back up I HIGHLY recommend purchasing it.

Skill in Action with Michelle Cassandra Johnson.  This is not a course I have personally taken yet but I have several peers who have and speak very highly of her work.  It is something that is on my list and that I plan on taking by the end of the year.

Thank you all for being a part of my community.  I am honored to continue to do this work.

I’ve been teaching my tarot course to a group for the first time ever. Before this I only taught one-on-one but it’s so nice to see how people learn in a group and I have been loving it.

One of the consistent questions that comes up very often is “Why can’t I hear my intuition?”.  Maybe you’ve said something like that yourself.  Or maybe you’ve looked at a professional reader and wondered how they do it.  How do they hear or see something?

Our instinct is always to try harder.  More effort will produce results.  If I just think harder, if I just meditate harder, if I just keep trying, I will make my intuition work by sheer force of will. 

Unfortunately this is the exact behavior that makes it so hard to hear our intuition.

We are conditioned to that.  We grow up believing hard work pays off and if we haven’t seen the results we want then we should just work harder.  It’s okay that our first instinct is to go to our trained behavior.

The truth is that it’s less effort that actually helps.  I think prayer is us asking a question to God, Source, The Universe, your higher self  (pick your fave) and meditation is listening for the answer.  Intuition is what happens in the middle.  When we start to relax, we are able to hear little impulses or messages coming through.

Our only job is to notice what comes up.

The reason it’s so hard for us to hear our intuition is because we are trained to ignore it.  We are trained from the time we are very young to outsource our wisdom.  We go to school and church. We learn from our parents.  All of that is really important.  What we miss out on is the ability to learn and experiment with what is best for us.  We aren’t taught to listen and to hear our own intuition.

I fully believe we can return to this inner hearing with a little guidance and practice.  So often what I’m doing in a tarot or Reiki session is validating what a client already knows intuitively.  They just need to hear someone confirm it so they don’t feel crazy.

If you think that you can’t hear your intuition, I promise that it doesn’t mean that you don’t have it or that it’s not talking to you. 

In fact, I bet I can prove it to you right now.  We are most aware of our intuition when it is trying to keep us safe.  So I bet you have had an experience that you couldn’t explain that goes something like this: You meet someone for the first time and just had a bad feeling about them right away. You don’t know anything about them but something just feels “off”.  They are perfectly nice to you and seem personable and normal. You immediately ignore it and just assume you’re being judgemental or jealous.

And what happens when we get those impulses? We start explaining them away.  Maybe I just saw something that looked off. Maybe it was a coincidence. Our brains are lazy and they want to logically explain things that don’t make sense away.

Maybe you start a friendship or relationship with that person only to find out, a short time later that they are actually manipulative or a liar, or even violent.  Then you blame yourself, for not knowing better because you had that “off” feeling early on and wouldn’t trust it.

So then we end up right back where we started – confused, not trusting our intuition, or just plain thinking we don’t have it.  And the cycle continues until we start to interrupt it and train ourselves to listen to and question those intuitive impulses.

This month I am opening the doors again to my High Priestess Embodiment Workshop that is a training entirely on how to connect to your intuition.  The High Priestess is the card that reminds us of our ability to connect to our intuition in any moment to find what’s best for us.  This workshop is entirely virtual and combines lecture, meditation, journaling and a mini yoga practice to help you get in touch with your own intuition.  You don’t need any tarot training or understanding as this is an intuition workshop.  If you are interested in learning more you can sign up for the waitlist here to be the first to know when the doors open.

I can hardly believe it’s been a year since I left my corporate job and went full time with Star, Sage & Spirit. As much work as it is it does feel a bit like I blinked my eyes and year flew by. Hard to believe that I wrote my first big post over a year ago.  I was so scared to put it out there and just look at me now!

I am so proud of what I’ve done this year.  For the first time I can remember, I gave myself some time to rest.  I took a couple months over the summer to actually chill out.  For as long as I could remember, I was a person with multiple jobs.  Becoming my own boss allowed me the true luxury to have time to think about what I really wanted to be doing with my time and energy.  I am so grateful that I got to do that because I really needed it.

By the time the fall rolled around I was busier than I had ever been. October is a big time of year as a tarot reader but I really packed it in with a Spiritual Expo, a residency at Chaddsford Winery, workshops, speaking at two different events and yoga teacher training.

Over the past year I’ve done readings and treatments for hundreds of people, I’ve taught 300 + yoga classes, and quite a few workshops.  I also launched my first online workshop with my High Priestess Tarot Embodiment workshop back in February and my first course, Practical Tarot for Everyday Intuitives which just started this month.  I am so excited to be doing this work, and honestly happy that I already had the plans to take my work online this year.

Covid-19 threw a real wrench into my plans for the year in all realms of my business.  As much business as I do online, a lot of my clients are dealing with ongoing challenges to their finances, child-care, and exhaustion.

I am very grateful that I made a plan for my year back in December that already included getting more of my business online.  I don’t know what I would have done if I had to start from square one.  

I am also grateful for my community.  I have met so many other incredible soloprenuers this year and having that community back in my life has helped me feel more confident and less alone on this path.  I’m a social person and community support has been one of the most important things for my growth this year.  I have a wonderful community of friends who push me outside of my comfort zone and keep me accountable to myself.

This year has brought so many lessons for me and I wanted to share them today.  

Lesson 1: No matter how much you want someone to show you the path, everyone has to cut their own.  

No one has the exact blueprint for you, except for you.  This is a tough pill to swallow for people like myself who love to have a blueprint for how things are done.  

I wanted to know the right way.  I read books, did a lot of business and marketing training, but ultimately I’m the boss.  I have to decide how things work.

Sure, I’ve benefited from the help of other entrepreneurs and coaches, but largely when you work for yourself you have to be willing to adapt, let go of things that aren’t working.

Setting “work” hours was a simple and effective way to keep myself from losing my mind.  It sounds silly but I learned this back when I started working from home at my last job. I am the type of person who will just work always if I don’t set some boundaries on my time.  This kept me from scheduling clients at all hours and also forced me to step away from my work and do stuff for fun.

Lesson 2: You’re not going to be everyone’s cup of tea.

Everyone has their own idea of how work is done.  This goes across fields but I think it’s especially present in my tarot work.  I spend A LOT of time taking apart the ideas and preconceived notions people have about tarot from religion and pop culture.

Some people come in expecting me to talk to their loved ones in spirit just because I’m a medium but in general I keep tarot separate from mediumship. To me they are two different channels.  Sometimes a spirit might pop in but for the most part when I’m doing a tarot reading I am tuning in to the energy of the person sitting in front of me.  I’ve had several people disappointed or frustrated because they don’t understand that being a medium isn’t just having a constant conversation with the other side.

I’ve learned to have more clear service descriptions and to enforce boundaries around that.  Some people handle this better than others, and I have to accept that some people will always feel entitled to more of my time and energy.  That is true no matter what job I’ve had.

However, the clarity that this has given me around my work has been invaluable.  I’ve spent this year crafting and reworking my offerings into something much more clear and refined and now the clients that I have are very aware of what they are buying and are open and present for the work.  I cannot understate how important this has been.

I was also fired from two different yoga studios over the past year.  Both of those were because I wasn’t willing to bend to the will of people who wanted to make more profit off of my hard work.  

I have always been a person that speaks up and asks questions when other people are afraid to. I don’t mind going first.  That said, going first is tough.  It often makes you the disrupter but I have made a point to always ask in a constructive way even when I understand.  I received some truly nasty feedback, but I also know that it’s not really about me and that helped me bounce back.

The moment you make peace with people not liking you, is the moment you are free.

At the end of the day, you are the person that needs to feel comfortable with the energy exchange no matter what the job is. When you worry about people liking you, or what they think, you stop valuing your work in an authentic way.

Lesson 3: You have to LOVE the work.

I love my work.  I have felt drawn to healing my whole life and it wasn’t until I found Reiki and energy work that it clicked.  

I also love watching things come together for people with tarot.  I often feel like I’m confirming thoughts or feelings my clients have and validating their own intuition.  Watching people grow and trust themselves more has been such a gift.  

This is also true with teaching tarot.  Watching students begin to understand how their intuition works for them, trusting themselves, and having tools to better advocate for their needs has been so rewarding.

Being true to keeping the love alive did mean taking a step away from mediumship this year.  While I do love the work and it has brought about profound transformation for me and others, It can also be very draining.  In particular with everything going on right now with covid-19 I’ve had to take a step away from this work.

It is hard for me to keep my vibration high and keep a clear connection to the other side when I’m experiencing a lot of fear myself.  It has also just been a very transitional time for A LOT of spirits which has made it difficult to hear through the noise.

Lesson 4: You have to be willing to shift over time.

(Insert COVID 19 joke here) Obviously this year has been one of having to let go of the formats we are used to and that has been true for many businesses.  One of the things I’ve realized with switching to so much customer facing time, is that I’ve needed to shift my expectations of myself.

I’ve spent most of my career sitting at a desk so this was a big adjustment and I underestimated how tiring it can be to stay present when you’re face to face with clients.  I’ve adjusted my schedule a lot.  I have also shifted my offerings and noticed how much I enjoy teaching.  It allows me to do the same things I do one on one but reach more people.  This wasn’t my original plan when I started a year ago but I have adjusted and really loved teaching and building community.

If there’s anything I’ve learned from all of my healing work it is how much we all truly have in common.  I hear similar struggles shared by so many clients and teaching in workshops, free training, and on online forums allow me to speak to these things that are so collective, and it helps us all feel less alone.  Especially when we are physically isolated.

Lesson 5: Walk Your Talk

If you’ve been reading the blog you have seen me posting all about how I use tarot in my business but there’s a lot more that I do to incorporate my work into everyday life.  I truly learn so much from my own spiritual practices that I work to share with students.  Teaching from experience keeps me grounded and accountable to keep up my own work.

I even did my own business year ahead spread to celebrate.  

Looks like the theme of the next year is going to be getting more clear about what I really want to be doing.  Getting more comfortable with boundary setting when it comes to my work and being more discerning about what still feels in alignment for me and what I might need to let go of.  I can still be a little guilty of doing a lot of free labor because I just want to help everyone so that’s been on my radar for a while.

I also see a greater opportunity to feel more stable. Although a lot changed this year and a lot of unexpected challenges came up, I think that I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t and how to give things up that aren’t working.  This year looks like it will give me an opportunity to set up greater structure which will hopefully save me time and energy.

I also have made a point to find support in the areas where I struggle.  So this year I’ve invested in some technology to make things easier and a tech support person for when I get stuck.  There’s tremendous value in saving myself that stress, even if it’s a bit of a stretch financially.

Lesson 6: Be afraid but do it anyway

This is maybe the most important lesson I’ve learned so far.  Growth only happens when you get outside of your comfort zone.  I’ve done a lot of uncomfortable things this year.  Putting myself out there on social media is scary.  It opens me up to criticism and it brings me face to face with imposter syndrome but in those moments where I’m most scared, I know there’s a lesson on the other side.  It’s usually not so scary once I actually do it.

I still have days when fear runs the show but they are fewer and farther between.

I am so grateful to be one year in.  I’ve learned so much.  I have the most incredible clients and students and I am so happy to be doing this work.  I also have an incredible group of fellow entrepreneurs who have offered advice and community to me and I’m very grateful for them as well.

I also wanted to give a shoutout to my partner, Mike.  He’s always here behind the scenes giving me hugs when I’m discouraged, editing my training videos and audio, and taking beautiful photos of me.  Thank you for supporting my vision, even when I’m not great at articulating it.

Finally, in honor of my one year anniversary and to thank all of the amazing clients and friends who have supported me this year, I am offering a FREE online workshop this Friday, May 22nd at 1PM ET in partnership with Healers Wanted.  My Lovers Card Tarot Embodiment workshop will teach a blueprint of how you can best advocate for the love and support you need in your life, not just from others, but also from yourself.  You can sign up here.

© Sheila Masterson 2020 All Rights Reserved

The Netflix binge continued into week four of our quarantine here in Pennsylvania.  I figured I would make the most of it by bringing you more Tarot in Pop Culture.  

This week I watched Wine Country which Stars Maya Rudolph and Amy Poehler and came out a few months back.  

When it first came out, I had multiple friends reach out to ask if I was getting paid $475 per half hour for tarot parties.  No friends, sadly, I am not.

Wine Country tells the story of a group of friends who go for a trip to California Wine Country to celebrate one their 50th birthdays and to reconnect as friends.  Amy Poehler’s character has a tight itinerary for the entire weekend which includes tarot readings for the group.

The reader arrives and complains about how the house was not marked and then says “I’m a psychic, not Magellan.”  That gave me a good chuckle.

I find that frequently clients expect me to read their minds.  I should know why they are getting a reading but being psychic isn’t like I’m reading your mind.  Things don’t come in as clearly as we speak to each other as humans.

But I digress.

Anyway, Amy Poehler’s character greets Madame Sunshine, who comes into their rental house, immediately insults the space declaring she will have to “smudge the heck out of the space”.

Then she states that they need to go to a different room that is not “contaminated”.

The rules of social grace also apply to being a tarot reader. I would never walk into someones home and insult their space or the energy of their house.  I might notice if something was off but I wouldn’t through jabs at a host or hostess.

Then she finally sits down to read.

What I found most interesting about this is that she reads for each woman in front of the rest of the group.  She doesn’t ask any questions or get any insight as to what they want to focus on. She simple pulls a card and then starts reading.

As a rule, I try to keep readings at a party off to the side so that people can have privacy, since readings can tend to become very personal very quickly.  If I can be in a separate room, it’s even better because it allows the client to feel more comfortable opening up. I’ve given some really powerful readings in that type of environment, even though they are typically very short readings.

As a rule I try not to ever give a reading in front of other people, unless the sitter specifically requests it because you can’t be sure of what will come up and how comfortable they will be talking about it in public.

However, in a movie, I see how it can help for comedic effect and to move the plot along.

I also find it interesting that she pulls one card per person. You can certainly gain some insight from a single card pull but not nearly as much as with a few cards, and even with short readings you can usually find enough time to pull at least three cards.

The second sitter who come up for her reading asks Madam Sunshine a question, which she ignores and just continues her reading.  Not only is this rude, but it’s also a no-no. Questions are like the filter you put the card through, so if the sitter has a specific question in mind it can completely change the meaning of the card.  That’s why I always offer clients the opportunity to pick a topic or a specific question at the beginning of their reading.

Then, she pulls the Death card.  She reads it as transformation and metamorphosis and I was thinking “Finally, a movie that actually doesn’t use the old death card = death trope”…but I thought too soon.  In the next breath says, “But it can also mean death is coming.”

By the time, she gets around the group reading, the women are all so freaked out and discouraged they tell her not to bother.  She pulls the cards, looks at them and says, “Yeah, you’re right, nevermind.” This sends the group into a panic asking what it says and is it bad.

This part puzzled me because she pulled the Seven of Cups, The Four of Wands, and Temperance.  She tells them they surround themselves with battles, that they have been intertwined and dueling for thousands of years, and that they need to shed their tough shells that have built up over time if they are going to remain friends.  There’s a lot of secrets. Finally she says, “From one old lady to another, get over your shit, cause it is later than you think. That will be $475.”

I would have read that same spread as trying to fit too much into a short period of time, a message to focus on quality time, not quantity and to focus on the moment of connection, and try to stay present with each other.  There’s healing to be found in our connection with our friends if we can get over the pettiness that keeps you bickering. Bring your focus back to the strengths in your relationships and what brought you together in the first place.

As for getting paid $475 for a half hour reading…I laughed out loud.  Sadly, that is not my rate right now, but I did get a kick out of it.

Overall I found this representation to be pretty typical for hollywood.  I was a little disappointed but I also recognize where it is a convenient plot point to stir up tension between the friends and also added a certain level of comedic effect.  And of course, it’s important to approach readings with a sense of humor, so I suppose they nailed that.

If you are interested in a tarot party, I am currently offering online tarot parties as an option for a fun socially-distant night in with friends.  I allow clients to hang out in the virtual zoom room and chat with each other, while I do readings in a separate breakout room where I do the individual readings.  You can email me sheila@starsagespirit.com to book now.  

© Sheila Masterson 2020 All Rights Reserved

Since we have been stuck at home for a while now I have been getting deep into my Netflix queue and catching back on both some good and bad shows.  Among those I was long overdo to watch was the last season of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix. 

And there, early in season two (Season 2 Episode 4 to be exact)  an episode featuring a tarot reader. I was thrilled to see what kind of portrayal this show would offer.  I find the perception of tarot in pop culture to be interesting. Over and over in older movies or scary movies, there’s this trope of an old, haggard-looking reader who pulls the Death card and predicts the death of our beloved characters.  I wanted to tease out a couple of recent references of tarot in the media to explore what is accurate and inaccurate about these portrayals.  

In this episode, a mysterious Tarot reader arrives at Dr Serberous’ House of Horrors seemingly out of nowhere.  She rushes in from the rain and asks if she could give some readings.  

A few moments later, Sabrina arrives, and is offered a reading which she skeptically decides to sit in for. The reader draws the magician card and says that he’s a handsome trickster that few women can resist.  Then she draws the 3 of swords and the tower reversed.

Sabrina is transported into a daydream/alternate world where she suspects her boyfriend, Nick, might still be seeing his exes or sharing private information about their relationship with those same exes.  In a fit of frustration she refuses to be his assistant in his magic show act for the school talent show. However when the talent show comes, her jealousy gets the best of her again and she volunteers to be an assistant for his last trick.  The trick makes her float in the air on her own, which is at first exciting. Then, one of Nick’s exes increases the power of the spell and she keeps floating up, through the roof of the school, and through the atmosphere until she’s floating through space, frozen solid.

We are taken back to the present moment where a stunned Sabrina says to the tarot reader, “That’s not actually going to happen, is it? I’m not going to freeze to death in outer space?”

“We don’t read the cards, child, the cards read us.  They whisper secret truths. In this case it’s not the boy you need to fear.  Believe your trickster and him alone. You need not fear the dark path…”

Next, Sabrina’s friend Theo sits down for a reading.  The readers pulls the Knight of Swords and The Wheel of Fortune and Theo is transported into a daydream/alternate reality.  Theo, who also happens to speak and communicate with spirits, gets advice from an ancestor to use the magic that Sabrina’s family has access to, to help him fully transition into his truest form.

In the middle of the night, he sneaks into the Spellman house, finds a spell to help with gender transition and completes it on his own.  When he wakes in the morning, he is finally in the body that aligns with how he feels and he is thrilled. By the end of the day, things have taken a terrifying shift, as he discovers that a side-effect of the spell has started to turn his body into a tree.

When he comes back to the present moment with the reader, she advises him that it’s a warning to not try to do everything on his own, and to reach out for help early on, to get the support he needs with the process.

The cut-away daydreams are a pretty dramatic representation of a reading but this whole episode, as character after character gets their readings, we see how the cards are just presenting information about what we might experience if we follow a particular path.  The characters get insight into their fears and what might be clouding their perceptions. They also get advice that reinforces what they already know in their hearts.  

Sabrina gets reminded that lying once doesn’t mean that person is always a liar.  Theo learns that he has the love and support of a lot of people who want to see him get what he wants but in a safe and supported way.  And each of the rest of the characters get their concerns validated while also getting some direction and confirmation of their own intuitive hunches.

I really appreciated this representation of the tarot.  The show itself goes through a bit of a spookier, creepier lense but in general the way that tarot is presented is more in line with my reading style.

No, I don’t transport my clients to an alternate reality where their worst fears play out.  What I do see is that so many clients come in with very real fear in their hearts. They want guidance, and often they are afraid they will hear that their greatest fear will come true.  

I’ve had several people tell me they aren’t ready for a reading yet because they aren’t prepared to hear what they might be fearing.  (I even have people who are nervous to be around me now because they are afraid I’m going to “sense” something about them that they might not want me to.)  

There’s a lot of wisdom in waiting to have a reading until you can be totally open.  I find that the best readings come from clients being really willing to question their desired outcome.  Often, we are missing some part of the bigger picture and tarot offers the opportunity to focus on that.

What I particularly liked is that the reader in this episode didn’t tell the characters what to do, but offered them information to inform their decisions.  This is something I have always said. Tarot is about getting more information to inform your decisions, not about the cards or the reader making the decision for you.  It is a practice in empowerment.

The whole thing is ruined a bit by the reader having an agenda in each of the readings she gives.  Good tarot really involves removing your own opinion and ego from the equation, but as far as everything I’ve seen in movies and TV shows this wasn’t too bad.

Overall I found this episode to be accurate in its portrayal of tarot.  I do wish we could do without the old, haggard, lady-in a-turban trope and the idea of tarot only being done in a creepy environment.  However, in terms of how tarot is typically portrayed in the media, I really liked this use of the cards to move the plot along and offer each character insight into their concerns, even if the show is cheesy.

© Sheila Masterson 2020 All Rights Reserved

I actually wrote this blog at the beginning of last week, before everything changed so drastically.  It’s even more appropriate now that so many different entrepreneurs and self-employed folks are having to majorly adjust the way they do business to try to survive in lean times.  

This week I watched as all the local yoga studios in the area began to close their doors. I talked to friends, students, and personal clients of mine who were experiencing intense anxiety to balance safety, sanity, and still keep the lights on.  It is a hard choice to make because I know for myself and so many of my teacher friends, we all feel tremendous guilt letting our students down. And those of us who teach full time also have a lot of fear about how to make ends meet in the meantime. 

It’s all really perfect timing because I have been working specifically on my Moon Card Tarot Embodiment workshop.  Last weekend I did this workshop all about the Moon card and working with your shadow. The class was about facing the scary emotional things that we try to breeze over.  It’s about the end to spiritual-bypassing and the beginning of radical honesty. It’s about learning to sit with discomfort, and make no mistake, my friend, these are VERY uncomfortable times. 

The fear and anxiety are very real.  This kind of disaster brings up major base level, root chakra issues of safety security, health, and financial freedom.  People are feeling fear on a lot of fronts and while I planned this class back in the fall for Pisces season because the Moon Card is the tarot card for Pisces, it couldn’t have come at a better time.

I’ve been dealing with my own brand of shadow work lately.  Sharing yourself in a public way, on the internet can open you up to criticism and imposter-syndrome and I’ve been dealing with a bit of both.  It’s okay. I’m a tough cookie, but I did want to talk a little bit today about how to navigate working for yourself when you feel discouraged.

I’ve learned so much about the importance of community over the past few months.  I’ve said it before but it’s worth repeating: working for yourself full-time can be very lonely.  You don’t have a tech support team, or people to brainstorm with, and you don’t have anyone patting you on the back when you do a good job.

Since I started teaching yoga I’ve had a deep appreciation of community.  It helped me get on my feet when I was a new teacher and I continue to feel supported by so many of my teachers friends.  I feel it especially during times like these when we are all feeling the crunch.

I’ve also seen how wonderful community has been for our yoga teacher trainees with our first teacher training this year.  Our students really stepped up and supported each other in the kindest ways as they began teaching and finding their own voices.  They continue to do so even after they have all graduated and are getting out on their own and it’s so amazing to watch.

In December, I participated in a virtual business planning retreat for female entrepreneurs.  During the retreat I had a chance to bond with so many amazing women from so many different industries.  It was a wonderful opportunity to brainstorm problems and get new ideas and support through the community.  I also have a new entrepreneur buddy, Megan, who is an audiobook narrator, and who I chat with every week about how we are doing with hitting our weekly goals.

For the past month and a half I have been in an incubator program with eleven other awesome witchy, creators.  The purpose of the program is to break through mental blocks and limiting beliefs, and to give us a practical pathway to follow to create our first program launch.

I have been working really hard on my first tarot course and it’s brought up a lot of imposter syndrome and internal stories.  I tell myself the market is saturated. So many other programs already exists. Who am I to teach? Can I even teach something that came so naturally to me?

My coach, Sarah, and her community have allowed me to ask these questions and show up with an undefended heart for feedback and constructive criticism.  The program has also allowed me to participate in others’ success and cheer on my peers while they are doing their own deeply vulnerable work. Every victory for them feels like one of my own.

So I wanted to write this today as an ode to everyone in my community and all those who have been a listening ear to me so far, all those who have reached out over the past week, and all those who will reach out in the future.  I am lucky to have each and every one of you in my life.

And if you are a budding entrepreneur starting your business in the wake of a global pandemic and looking for support and community, don’t hesitate to reach out and find your own group of like-minded friends.  It’s impossible to understand the value of having someone who understands your struggle, listens intently, and offers feedback until you experience it. There are tons of facebook communities, instagram friends, local community groups.  Find your people and don’t be shy. You never know who will be able to help you out when you’re feeling down or who you will be able to help out.

If you are looking for ways to support me during this time, I will be offering live yoga classes online via the studios I teach at and my own instagram (@starsagespirit) and facebook.  I also offer tarot readings and distance reiki via videochat and I am extending my hours to accommodate In addition, if you missed my moon card class yesterday you can send me an email and if you will provide a donation, I will send you the link to watch the replay.  

I am also doing an online spring equinox workshop this weekend, Saturday, March 21 from 11am-1PM.  This workshop will welcome in the new season with a half vinyasa, half restorative yoga flow, intention setting for the new season, and a healing guided meditation to provide healing and stress relief. Yoga is a wonderful way to get back in touch with your body and to help you feel more grounded and peaceful during this time of heightened stress.  You can sign up here.

10% of the proceeds from both workshops will also be donated to the Aim High Studio Food Kitchen in Collegeville, PA to help them serve and nurture my local community in Montgomery County, PA in this challenging time for so many less fortunate families.

I will be updating more throughout the week so be sure to keep an eye out for more online offerings to help you from going stir crazy.  Stay healthy and safe out there.

© Sheila Masterson 2020 All Rights Reserved

When I was a kid, Are you Afraid of the Dark was a show on Nickelodeon, where a bunch of teenagers, who called themselves “The Midnight Society”, sat around a camp fire in the woods and told scary stories.  I was way into it. Spooky stories, campfires, unsupervised youths…it was basically what I imagined being a teenager would be like.

Although as an adult it begs the question, where were these kids parents and why were they allowed to start fires in the woods alone at night?  Aren’t forest fires a concern? Do most teens even know how to start a fire?

But enough motherly questions…

I was thinking about this show as we entered into Pisces season on February 19th.  The tarot card that coordinates with Pisces is the Moon and the moon card is all about sitting with discomfort and embracing our shadow side.  Less of the thing that goes bump in the night, and more the thing that goes bump in all of our interpersonal relationships. This kind of scary is what we try to hide in all our close friendships and intimate interactions.

The fact is we are all afraid of this dark.

During their transitional time of the year, when the weather is starting to warm (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere), it can be a time of deep reflection.  We are far enough away from our entry into the new year to have lost touch with our goals or resolutions for the year, which can bring about a lot of shame.  

The moon card is all about exploring deep truth within ourselves.  Are we ready to make the changes we might have agreed to at the beginning of the year?  Do we want to hold these resolutions for a real reason or do they just sound good to us?  Why might we be struggling to focus on goals that are supposed to be important to us?

These questions and this exploration can bring up deep shame that is self-imposed or even learned from our family system.  Remember, you don’t need to have a background that is rife with trauma for shame to be an expertly wielded weapon in your world.

The fact is we are all afraid of this dark. The uncomfortable things that come up in our daily lives.  We all struggle to be ourselves because we’re afraid of being judged. We crave connection and we all sit in our own little pods, hoarding the dark and heavy things about ourselves and presenting just the parts that we access to be socially acceptable.

Even the way people present those things on social media is very curated and neat.  A picture of a woman saying how she struggles with depression with one single, beautiful tear streaming down her cheek, all while the rest of her makeup is perfect.

Give me a break, Instagram Ingrid!  

I’m currently participating in a business incubator program to help me authentically create and market my first ever full tarot reading course.  I’m in the program with ten other creators and entrepreneurs and I’ve been watching the moon card play out in real life over the first month of our interactions.

So many of these folks are coming forward with deep shame and imposter-syndrome about their own experience-level or their product itself.  So many of us deal with very real emotional wounds that keep us afraid of stepping up as the most authentic version of ourselves. It is hard work and I’m so honored by the vulnerability and raw honesty of the people in this program with me, because so often they are voicing the things that I’m feeling, but struggled to articulate.

It’s been enlightening for me to notice and be coached out of the ways in which I hold myself back.  I haven’t even fully shared my Facebook business page because I’m worried what people from my “old life” will think.  I’m worried all those ex-boyfriends, old co-workers, high school friends will think I’ve gone off the deep end.

Modern American society is focused almost entirely on achievement, wealth, and doing as much as possible to succeed.  We tend to glorify an underdog story of hard work and strife and we vilify those who things come easy to. But only if that underdog story isn’t too messy.  Only if it’s short-term and fits into a lovely little story package.  

We have so much programming that working harder, longer, or faster is the solution to everything.  We embrace a culture of business. How many times have you asked a friend how they are, or been asked yourself and go automatically and without really thinking to the phrase “I’m good, just soooooo busy.”

These are things we all do.

The moon card invites us to slow down and take stock of the things that make us uncomfortable.  It’s an invitation for us to observe the less social-media-ready side of ourselves. It reminds us to turn away from the cult of busy-ness and  acknowledge what comes up when we sit still and take stock of how we are spending our time and energy or how we are showing up in our work and personal life.  The moon is a reflection of what is just under the surface, that we might be unconscious of, but if we take a moment to pause and look at our behavior pattern, might come to the surface with a host of unpleasant emotions.

The more we can do this work and not feel afraid of the messy thing that might come up, the more we grow and change.  This shadow work is about showing up and starting to see ourselves in clearer light, to understand our behaviors, and to begin to anticipate when shame and doubt come up for us.

When we face the darkness, it loses its power.  It becomes less frightening.

This month, I am doing an in person Moon Card Tarot Embodiment Workshop at Nectar Yoga Studio in Phoenixville, PA on Saturday, March 7th from 1:30-3:30 PM.  This workshop will combine discussion and theory on the Moon Card, pranayama and breathwork to release shame, yoga, meditation, and journaling.  I am looking forward to holding space for deep emotional processing. With this type of radical self-honesty we can release ourselves from being a prisoner of shame.  There are still a few spots left in this workshop and you can sign up here.

© Sheila Masterson 2020 All Rights Reserved