Weekend Send-Off: Cozy Times

Well, it’s cold here at last! Unfortunately, it’s been raining constantly, too. After three cloudy and damp days spent hunched over my computer putting the finishing touches on the updated Year Ahead Readings I felt like the tech version of Gollum. Seeing the sun today has been deeply enlivening and I’m hoping to spend some time taking in the fresh air and putting my garden to bed.

Though I have to admit I did have a blast adding some more magic to these readings. I have a special place in my heart for making artsy PDF booklets and readings (just ask my tarot students! I think my Tarot Basics class book is 30+ pages) Amidst all that magic, I did have some time for tarot-related explorations, such as…

Benebell Wen’s Experience of Creating and Publishing a Tarot Deck - “Behind the Scenes of the Glamorous Deck Collector”

I love Benebell Wen’s unvarnished explorations of being a metaphysical practitioner. Her site is full of amazingly frank and helpful resources - spreasheets on how to make a tarot business work, legal insights, and now the realities of creating your own deck.

I’m sure many of us have casually mentioned creating our own deck and even more of us have produced indie or self-published tarot or oracle cards. Well, now we have a much better picture of what it looks like behind the scenes. Spoiler alert: it’s a lot of work!

Asali Earthwork’s Thoughts on Court Cards

We had so many courts pop up in our collective reading at Tarot Club last night that it was such a pleasure to stumble upon this nice overview today. Courts can be the trickiest to learn since they open us up to questions rather than answering them, but this refreshingly straightforward investigation should be helpful to anyone trying to navigate these sixteen cards.

Repeat Tarot Card - Three of Cups

More than just this week, this card has been all over my readings for over two months now. Not that I’m complaining; its jovial and community oriented tone is always welcome (and has some complex facets to boot.)

Most fascinatingly, it appeared in a reading at a party a few weeks ago. Instead of the usual questions about love or career, the querent wanted to know about the political situation in the U.S. You know, light party fare! This appeared to show what we can do to be more involved: work together and show up in-person in our communities to lift each other up. Now that I can get behind.

Listening, Reading, Watching

After following Sarah Gottesdiener on instagram for ages, I was delighted to see her launch a podcast on magic with Amanda Yates Garcia. Strange Magic approaches tarot and other practices from an intersectional feminist lens and has been featuring interesting episodes on each of the Major Arcana cards. Definitely worth checking out if you need another tarot podcast in your life.

Outside of the woo-sphere, I’ve been really enjoying the show Homecoming with Julia Roberts. I was NOT expecting such a tense and artful show full of oldschool cinematography techniques! It’s a visiaul treat and easily digestible with 30-minute episdoes.

And, yes, I have picked up another depressing book, but it is truly and deeply amazing - The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II by Svetlana Alexeivich.

And now, finally, our card for the weekend:

Ace of Cups

Message: Stay alert and excited for a beautiful emotional gift: a new connection, important realization, deeply felt feeling, or moment of transcendent beauty.

Embrace: Connections, socialization, emotional honesty, curiosity, open-mindedness.

Let Go Of: Hyper-rationality, emotional repression, fear of being seen, predictable routines.

Guidance: Something magical could happen at any moment and no other card encapsulates the sustaining joys of the unknown than the Ace of Cups. Look forward to profound experiences and allow yourself to look for them in unexpected places.

Weekly Forecast: November 12-18

This week we're skirting around an issue that means a lot to us and, while we have a larger intuitive understanding of what we're dealing with, our conscious minds need to do some catching up. It's tender territory, in other words, but one we're slowly approaching and very ready for. 

How do we recognize this area of our lives? It's big, expansive and requires us to change our understanding of our capabilities. Look for a feeling of anticipation, the fizz of the alluring unknown, and a healthy bit of trepidation around a change, pursuit, or project.

What's quite beautiful about this group of cards is that we start with the Queen of Cups, one of the most intuitively robust in tarot. This queen knows that her power comes from her connection to herself and she respects her feelings as harbingers of wisdom instead of unwanted distractions or signs of weakness. Rather than "I think therefore I am," this card says, "I feel therefore I am." Her knowledge begins with her personal experience.

In this reading she tells us that deep down we're aware of what we need to be growing into; we've been taking the time to nurture it from a small seed into a sprout that's ready to be planted. The idea might not be in full focus, but the feelings surrounding it most certainly are.

What's interesting here is that we have a court card about intuition instead of a heavy-hitting Major Arcana card like the High Priestess or The Star. This means that we're easing into a new understanding of ourselves, experimenting with a persona like we might try on a new and daring outfit in the hopes that it suits us. 

Judgment, with it's far-from-subtle blaring trumpet, gives us a refreshingly straightforward answer. We're onto something here! The Queen of Cups outfit we're trying on fits us so well that people are cheering when we step out of the dressing room.Tapping into our intuitive selves, whether it's through a new interest, career path, or form of expression, is bringing us a new sense of fulfillment that's radiating outwards and making some very positive splashes in the world around us. 

Of course, this is also a lot to take in, especially if we're coming from the tender seed stage! The Two of Swords sees us retreating into familiar territory to regroup and reassess, almost as if we're trying to moderate the loudness of Judgment's trumpet blast. 

This is all well and good - the Two of Swords features heavy water motifs showing that intuition can still be included with the intellect - but we may want to watch out for retreating too far and using our rationality to reason ourselves out of a necessary change. 

Still, we can move forward at our own pace, giving ourselves plenty of time to acclimate to the large, resounding scope of Judgment's message. We can always consult ourselves as we chart this path, editing as we go. The Queen of Cups, however, tells us to follow our hearts above all and trust in the immense power of our instincts. We're on a very rewarding track and our deepest self knows it. 

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Book Review: The Creative Tarot by Jessa Crispin

There’s no shortage of tarot book on the market, as we all know. But how often does one come along with a refreshing new focus that can add to anyone’s practice? In The Creative Tarot, editor, author and tarot expert Jessa Crispin provides us with an insightful exploration into tarot’s relationship to creativity that’s full of new connections to the cards.

Book Overview

The book itself is designed for anyone engaged with creative pursuits - artists, in particular. You don’t, however, have to identify as one to gain something from this book. In my many years studying tarot, I’ve found that reading multiple sources with only generalized tarot meanings can be confusing and overwhelming. What’s more, it’s difficult to flesh out the cards into all their possibilities. Sure, we may know that the Five of Cups deals with grief and loss, but how does that tie into career, love, or creativity specifically?

Approaching tarot from the creative perspective gives the book an engaging and helpful sense of structure. Limiting herself to this vantage point, Crispin intersperses her card descriptions with ties to artists and artwork that reflect their themes and issues. So, for example, the Queen of Swords becomes tied to the photographer Sally Mann, whose piercing photos of her children required her to insert a sense of detachment from her role as a mother in order to capture her uniquely magical and feral images.

Giving the reader these stories and associations is a priceless addition to our tarot meaning database. Each card description has several pages of text followed by suggestions for works of art to explore. These include paintings, films, songs, and dances. I love the added dimension Crispin gives with these options for further exploration. Indeed, the indelible experience of taking in art marries perfectly with tarot’s wordless and often inexpressible deeper meaning.

Writing Style

The overall tone of the book is wonderfully colloquial and eloquent. We can see Crispin’s voracious intellect in her writing without feeling alienated. It’s an engaging and accessible read that also challenges us to seek out the artists embodied in the cards and make our own associations. Now that’s my kind of approach to tarot!

The book concludes with a massively helpful section on spreads. Crispin’s own tarot practice has evolved around creative issues and clients so she has a lot to offer in this arena. Her spreads are concise, useful, and include helpful example readings to give us a sense of how they play out in real life. I’m looking forward to using these as I navigate my many creative projects and plans.

And now into the details of the book itself.

This Book is Wonderful for…

Anyone who identifies as creative (though, in my humble opinion, I think we all should embrace this title!) and those looking for new and refreshing tarot meanings and associations. She specifically addresses themes of creative block, doubt, success, monetization, and integrity, among many others.

Crispin’s card meanings are treasure troves of art and information. I have a massive reading list from this book alone and found myself googling multiple artists and artworks while reading!

Creative Tarot is also a great tarot book for those who are more on the intellectual end of the “woo spectrum.” Crispin is wonderfully intelligent and has a pragmatic approach to tarot that’s accessible for many, especially those who don’t feel comfortable identifying as spiritual or interested in divination or the occult. For example, her section on tarot history is refreshingly up-front and dispels many alluring myths around the cards with dry humor.

Skip this Book if…

You’re looking for a more esoteric approach or a strictly introductory text. While Crispin covers a lot of ground in a very accessible way, this book isn’t designed for a complete tarot beginner looking for a traditional approach. This book is also focused on the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition, so for those looking to study another system look elsewhere.

Strengths

• Clear and concise writing

• A helpful “tarot FAQ” in the introduction perfect for those on the fence and concerned about some of the myths and misconceptions around tarot.

• Helpful structure - Crispin limits each card description to a few pages and divides her book into sections on the major arcana while dividing the minor arcana by number instead of suit (an approach I find massively helpful when learning!)

• Evocative and intriguing connections to art - this my favorite part of the book. It truly opens worlds to the reader and provides priceless associations with anectdotes, stories, and artworks.

• Engaging tone - this book is far from dry and moves at a lovely pace. You can imagine Crispin sharing her stories with you personally and get drawn into her unique perspective and personality.

Weaknesses

• The artists Crispin references are predominately drawn from Western art history

• Some assumptions about the reader having a specific body of knowledge. This book doesn’t hold your hand and jumps straight into sometimes academic reflections on art and history (this can also be seen as a pro!) that may be intimidating to some readers.

Conclusion

Overall, this book is a wonderfully engaging journey into the often-neglected connections between tarot and creativity. I can see myself gifting this book to my smart and creative friends who are curious about using tarot as a tool for inspiration and guidance in their projects. And I’ll definitely be purchasing a copy to use as a reference and point myself towards inspiring creators and their art.

Weekly Forecast: November 5-11

Why is it that we often choose to highlight our struggles instead of our happiness? This week's reading challenges our assumption that the most difficult things deserve the most attention. What can happen when we take abundance seriously?

As a young teenager filled with angst, I spent a lot of time listening to Elliott Smith and crying with theatrical intensity. Of course, I was having a hard time navigating the formidable wilderness of high school, but I was also finding comforting stasis in my sadness (just ask my livejournal!) 

I built up a wonderful and well-tended myth around the difficulties in my life and used them as a shield. Of course my life was meaningful and important - just look at how hard I was struggling! But I was also relatively cozy and had a lot of wonderful things occurring at the same time. Rather than give those attention I tended to my angst with the diligence of a master gardener. And, as one would expect, it flourished while the rest of my life stayed the same.

This week we're being asked to lift our heads from the difficult or frustrating and do the more challenging work of nurturing and highlighting our abundant joy and success. Having these cards back to back - the intense Three of Swords with the celebratory Three of Cups - suggests that we've been trained to see one instead of the other. Perhaps we're even choosing to highlight our struggles as a way of protecting ourselves. Is the open happiness of the Three of Cups boastful or ego-driven? Is it leaving us vulnerable to criticism and judgment?

I think of how easy it is to wax poetic about the latest struggle in your life only to come up with a few measly sentences to describe a major accomplishment or beautiful moment. Focusing on the fear - the Three of Swords - limits our expression and growth. So much can happen when we're unabashedly broadcasting our strengths and dreams, one of the most important being that is attracts friends and allies who want to join in on the party. 

And, yes, it can be difficult. There will always be Three of Swords experiences in our lives. Turning our back on the concurrent Three of Cups moments, however, keeps us in a limited place. We can struggle forward with joy, too. It's more complex, sure, but far more meaningful.

Speaking of meaning, The High Priestess is holding down the other end of our reading with patient wisdom. Her presence elevates the magic of the Three of Cups, telling us to direct our attention to what's growing, giving back to us, and bringing us closer to other people. Doing so is awakening an important sense of purpose and uncovering some pretty profound insights. 

The High Priestess chooses to see the world as a place full of mystery and meaning. What's more, she positions herself as an important keeper of knowledge. Her presence here inspires us to turn her curious gaze towards the Three of Cups moments in our lives. They are, in her eyes, full of important and magical connections worthy of study. The Three of Swords has had more than its share of time in the spotlight. Now it's time to discover that the Three of Cups has to tell us about ourselves and the world around us. 

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Weekend Send-Off: Seasonal Transitions

This week has been a nice, slow re-entry to post-Halloween life and I’ve finally had time to do some strategic business planning and dive back into creating blog posts and newsletters for you all. Maybe I’ll miss the hectic event schedule of October in a few weeks, but for now I’m taking the time to breathe deeply and re-center.

Here are some of the highlights from the past seven days - please share yours in the comments below!

Tarot Discoveries - Tea-Soaked Letter by Anna Burch

I love seeing tarot show up in pop culture, so it was fun to discover the cards in the music video for this delightful song. That three of swords looks ominous!

Witches in the News - “Real-life witches practice everyday magic in the Triangle”

It’s always nice to see positive mentions of witchcraft, metaphysical practices, and paganism in the news, so this feature by The Daily Tarheel is an all-around joy. And although the comment section isn’t the kindest, I did get a chuckle out of the grab-bag of defensive responses!

Repeat Tarot Card - Four of Pentacles

It seems like a lot of us have been feeling the urge to hold our resources tightly this past week. The Four of Pentacles sees us valuing stability and wanting things to stay the same, if only just for a little bit…

Listening, Reading, Watching

For some reason whenever I go to the library I pick up a bunch of intense books. Rarely do I come home with something lighthearted and simple (though I could probably use it!). Case in point: this week I checked out The Lucifer Effect by creator of the Stanford prison experiment, Philip Zimbardo (it’s amazing) and Sabrina, the latest graphic novel by Nick Drnaso.

I knew nothing about Sabrina going in and devoured it in one sitting. Perhaps foolishly, I assumed it’d be at least somewhat happy (there’s flowers on the back!) but, no. It’s a riveting and devastating look into our current relationship to truth, hardship, and social media while being uniquely and utterly itself. I highly recommend it to any graphic novel fans out there or anyone looking for an insightful and artistic take on our modern times. Though maybe not for general uplift an merriment ;)

And now, finally, our card for the weekend:

Two of Swords

Message: Focus in on a big choice in your life right now.

Embrace: Gathering facts, trusting your instincts, making space for information to come through.

Let Go Of: Confusing what could be a straightforward choice into something more dramatic, needing absolute clarity.

Guidance: It’s important to give ourselves time and space to mull things over; however, being too isolated can block out connection and creativity. The choice at hand can be exciting and expansive if we let it.

Samhain Reflections

I lovingly joke that counting the times I hear “when the veil between the worlds is thinnest” during this season would be a full time job. It’s true that October, home to the holidays Halloween and Samhain, has a strong association with the otherworldly. I’ve always loved this time of year because it seems extra magical: when else are we permitted to play with the spooky, imaginative, and uncanny sides of the human experience with such abandon?

This is also the busiest time of the year for a professional tarot reader, so finding time to squeeze in my personal celebrations has been a bit of a challenge. And what’s more, there’s some tenderness and pressure tied to Halloween as well.

A quick trip through “witch instagram” will give you hundreds of examples of rituals and tarot spreads to conduct for Halloween or the pagan holiday Samhain. And, in true instagram fashion, all of these are laid out and photographed alluringly with candles, crystals, flowers - the whole ritualistic shebang.

So you won’t be surprised to hear that I was pressuring myself to come up with something meaningful, elaborate, and photogenic. And, as seems to always be the case, my internal judgment and expectations lead to… nothing.

To be fair, I’d been running around hosting a big party and reading at several others the weekend before. When the 31st came around I was plum tuckered out. And, since Halloween and Samhain deal with all things ancestral (what’s behind that thin veil), I had a lot of emotions tied to contacting them.

I think it’s easy to get caught up in the “shoulds” of any situation, and witchcraft and magic are no different. With instagram things get trickier. Those photogenic altars are meant to telegraph profound and developed personal practices. Many of them are. But they often gloss over the more challenging aspects and experiences.

For me, ancestral reverence and communication can be an emotional and complicated practice. Not all of us have straightforward or uncomplicated relationships to our ancestors. Many were complicated people making the best of a complicated time. Working with them can be an emotional experience and that side, I’ve found, is rarely shown online.

So instead of having a lush Samhain ritual, I simply sat and experienced my feelings. Grief, love, emptiness, and searching - all of them were enough to handle as I focused on making a very ancestral meal of pierogis/vareniki and relaxing the best I could.

And this morning? I got up early, clearer and more focused, and called my beloved ancestors into a circle for a tarot reading. The time was right and it was more than enough.

Weekly Forecast: October 29 - November 4

Why is it that success and growth brings up feelings of inadequacy, self-sabotage, and disbelief? It's easier to hide behind conflict and trouble. Struggle gives us an easy sense of meaning. It's there, it's obvious, and it's not threatening to others. 

This week, The Devil is popping up just as we turn an unexpected corner. Rather than bemoan his presence, however, we can see it as a positive sign that we're onto something good.

"Now how does that work, Gina?" you might be wondering with a very healthy dose of skepticism. Ignoring The Devil can be tricky at best and inadvisable at worst. Yet here I am confidently telling you that this card, rather than being a sign on bad habits and troubles, is something to embrace, say hello to on your way forward, and then leave by the wayside to go about his Devil-y life.

The Devil thrives in darkness and confusion. And this week we're bringing the illumination of the Eight of Cups and the ambition of the Three of Wands into his cave. Suddenly the power and mystery of the shadows have become banished by our own light and vitality. It's just not so scary when we face it head on. And The Devil we're dealing with may be quite small in comparison to our new, formidable self. 

The Eight of Cups and the Three of Wands are telling us that we're making huge strides and doing some very brave editing in our lives. I love how artist Ricardo Cavolo depicts the Eight of Cups as vines tearing down a pillar to reveal a single flame. Though we may not have always understood our actions leading up to this moment, our search for something more has torn down some huge obstacles. This process is intuitive and instinctual. The Eight of Cups represents the priceless kind of hard-won clarity that comes from trusting ourselves even when we don't understand the path our growth is taking.

A deep and emotional pull has brought us into the fiery realm of wands. We've made some space for ourselves and have discovered a new and budding sense of direction. This might feel a bit like going back to the drawing board or taking a bold risk in changing our focus, but our fears aren't springing from a lack of energy. In fact, what we're onto is doing quite well. The Three of Wand shows us at a pivotal moment where the path ahead isn't at all what we thought it would be. In fact, it's much better, and that's where the siren-song of The Devil comes in.

Our task this week is to hold the torch of our passion high and to avoid the temptation to become small again. As we can see in the Eight of Cups, we've long overgrown our containers. In fact, returning to that formative experience of trusting our emotions (and remembering how ready we were for something more) will help us embrace the new path we're facing and embrace all the signs that it's one worth taking.

Doubting the affirmation and opportunities that spring up right now serves to keep us in a limited place we've long outgrown. Just because it doesn't look like what we imagined doesn't mean it's false or dangerous. Going back to the limitations we've worked so hard to overcome is no longer an option and grappling with those small spaces has made us strong and innovative. Now's the time to embrace the adventuresome spirit of the Three of Wands and see where allowing ourselves to be big and seeking can take us. 

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Weekend Send-Off: Getting Spooky

I don’t know about you, but I’m a huge Halloween fanatic. In recent years, however, I’ve fallen off the wagon of making epic costumes. Some highlights from my glory days: going as a shrimp tempura roll, a toaster (very impractical for dancing), and Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle.

But this year is a return to form! After months of ebay searching I finally found the perfect dress for my Beetlejuice-themed costume. I’m going as Lydia Deetz in the wedding scene, heinous 80s red dress and all. It feels wonderful playing with costumes again. There’s something so magical about the outer and inner transformations that happen when we change our appearance.

I hope you all are having a magical lead-up to Halloween (please share you costumes in the comments below!) and are enjoying the effects of the full moon a few days ago. And now, without further ado, some highlights from the week.

Tarot Discoveries - The Spolia Tarot

A dear friend of mine was generous enough to bring his epic tarot deck collection to this month’s Tarot Club meetup. I find that seeing the decks in person and handling them is the quickest way to see if they resonate with you. One of the standouts was the gorgeous Spolia Tarot, whose gilded edges and lush collage artwork is proving to be irresistible to me. I may have just ordered a copy...

Woo Humor - Mercury Retrograde

Got a good laugh out of this piece from The New Yorker - “This is Not a Drill: Mercury is in Retrograde.” Who can resist a little healthy joking around everyone’s favorite-to-bemoan astrological event?

Repeat Tarot Card - The Lovers

The Lovers has appeared in a few profound readings this week, pointing to a lot of challenging and rewarding choices along with some good old fashioned romance.

Listening, Reading, Watching

It’s that time of the year where I re-watch my favorite animated series, Over the Garden Wall. It’s a magical story of two brothers who get lost in the woods and references all sorts of famous illustrators. Plus, I have a feeling you could view it as a bit of a Fool’s journey…

I’ve been reading a fascinating book on hallucinations called…wait for it… Hallucinations by the wonderful and inimitable Oliver Sacks. It’s been fascinating getting a neurological perspective on a subject that’s so fraught and, interestingly, tied to the spiritual community whether it’s through ecstatic visions or the use of hallucinogens. I’m especially looking forward to the next chapter on “Phantoms, shadows, and sensory ghosts”!

And now, finally, our card for the weekend:

Four of Cups

Message: Take time to process an already full plate of emotions!

Embrace: Reflection, solitary practices, reminiscing about the past.

Let Go Of: Criticizing what you have, pressure to be more active.

Guidance: There’s a lot of experiences and feelings that have been accumulating. Now is the time to set aside time and space for things to settle. Treat yourself tenderly and see if you can see your past experiences from a new vantage point.

We're All Creative Creatures

“I’m just not a very creative person…”

How many times have I heard this phrase, both inside and outside of my tarot studio? It seems that most of us have a strictly “paintbrushes and poems” vision of the creative process. If we’re not engaged in the arts of music, painting, photography, etc. well, we’re just not creative.

I have a major bone to pick with this idea. Most of the people I meet have already made several creative decisions before they make it to my office. Maybe they took a new route on their way over or found an innovative solution to an argument with their partner from that morning. Maybe they tried a never-before-seen combinations of toppings at the salad bar! What I’m saying here is that creativity can be so interwoven with the mundane that we’re not even aware of it.

Take a look at tarot, for example. The Minor Arcana consists of four suits: wands, cups, swords, and pentacles. We embody all four of the suits as we move through life and the wands are most commonly associated with creativity. In the broadest sense they mean motion and putting ideas into action. In other words, simply moving through the world requires it. Many of the things we do have never been done before. They started as ideas and we bring them into being through our actions. It’s all part of being human.

Reclaiming our creative identity is massively healing. Behind all the statements of “I’m just not creative” is a secret longing. Simply be reframing our experience to include creativity in our everyday existence we open up further avenues for expression. That could lead to picking up watercolors as a hobby or just gaining the confidence of seeing ourselves as an integrated person, one whose creativity isn’t limited to the arts or our output.

Tarot Card for Creativity

• The Suit of Wands

• The Magician

• The Fool

• The Sun

• The Empress

• The World

• Three of Pentacles

• Seven of Cups

Creativity can look like…

• Problem-solving

• New projects

• Taking initiative at work, home, etc.

• Communicating ideas

• Organizing

• Decorating

• Artistic pursuits

• Planning