Questioning the Tarot: The Magician

Welcome to Questioning the Tarot, a series exploring the questions posed by each tarot card in the deck. Use these questions to guide your readings, personal practice, or explore new facets of their meaning. Inspired? Do add your own questions to deepen your practice. Reading for another person? Simply change the pronouns!

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02 - The Magician

Big Picture

• How and where am I being asked to take action and initiative?

• How can I embrace my role as the protagonist of my own story?

• What is manifesting itself through me?

Personal

• What comes naturally to me?

• Where is my personal energy flowing right now?

• What tools (talents, skills, aptitudes) am I working with?

Social & Romantic

• How can I be present with the people I care about?

• What types of people fill me with passion and inspiration?

• How can I act on what I desire?

Work & Creativity

• What past accomplishments show the range of my skills? How can I be proud of them and show them off?

• What moves do I need to make to bring my dreams and visions into reality?

• What environment allows me to focus on doing and get into a state of flow?

• How can I get out of my own way and embrace the ease that comes with doing what I love?

Weekly Forecast: August 8-14

Where do we hold our grief? At the surface, a tender heart beating in plain sight, or hidden away behind layers of our choosing: busyness, identity, stories we tell ourselves and others? This week represents a parting of the curtains, one that reveals a surprising path forwards, but also the heart of our suffering. Whether you’ve been grappling with a known grief or have one that’s bubbling up from your past, this is a time to gain new insight while allowing yourself to be transported to a new and refreshing vantage point.

What’s most interesting about this reading is that it features two of the most visually simple cards in the deck. Both the Eight of Wands and Three of Swords have no human figures in them. Instead, like the Marseilles tarot and playing cards, they feature the symbols of their suit. Eight wands fly in unison towards the ground. Three swords pierce a big red heart. As much as these images are clear (and, in the case of the Three of Swords, upsetting) they also embody a helpful simplicity. This is what we’re dealing with right now. How should we approach it?

I’ve been thinking a lot about healing lately and the assumption in our culture that it’s a linear process, a job of sorts that we have to complete before taking on anything else. Our cards for the week completely scramble this idea. Instead, we have action and growth leading us through healing. Action, in other words, is part of the process. This week, t’s not in our best interest to wait around, languishing, until we’re suddenly “better” or cured of difficult emotions. They may come up, but they may also be surprisingly de-fanged in a context where we welcome them with space and acceptance.

So while grief and pain do factor into this week, growth and motion are happening every way we look. Just look at The Eight of Wands! This card tells us we’re in a time of plans and work coming together with glorious effectiveness. Launch into action, release your arrows, and let the immediacy of getting things done carry you forward. Embrace clarity and decisiveness - this card will touch many areas of our lives and is one worth enjoying. We can trust that any ease, bravery, or conviction comes from lots of planning and practice, so don’t hold yourself back and follow through with both old plans and new. Pivoting, adjusting, and making intuitive decisions (often in the heat of the moment) are all supported by this card.

What if this season of change, coming-together, and refreshing action leads us smack into a puddle of grief? These cards invite us to welcome the experience not as a diversion or mistake, but as a sign that true healing is happening. Growth and healing are holding hands and running side by side, not standing in line next to each other and waiting. Are we pushing up against sharp edges from our past? Bumping into new hardship? This big, obvious heart tells us that we need to go through, not around, our hard feelings. Sure, the skies are blue in the eight of wands, and then grey in the three of swords, but they quickly turn blue again in our final card, the Page of Swords. This character gives us a way and an inspiration for better understanding the root of our suffering. Stepping into this page’s shoes of curiosity, analytic power, and open-mindedness will help part the storm clouds of emotion and give us a sharpened perspective.

Ways that The Eight of Wands could manifest this week:

• Things finally coming together leading to fear of success, overwhelm, feeling unprepared

• Seeing yourself moving on from old grief unexpectedly, wanting to remain tied to it out of a sense of loyalty

• Decisiveness and clarity you struggle to reconcile with your idea of yourself and what your life could be like

An important part of the Three of Swords is that it is the only illustration of rain in the tarot. We see lots of sprouting fields, resplendent gardens, and lush landscapes, but where is the rain to feed all of this growth? It’s here in the Three of Swords, perhaps one of the most unlikely cards to find sustenance and abundance hiding. How can you see your grief, suffering, and other challenging emotions as sources of growth? The water that feeds and fuels what’s growing in your life? The mental acuity of the Page of Swords suggests that we’re more than ready to see with clear eyes and not get swept away by our emotions. It’s possible, we’re ready, and we can walk through the Three of Swords, feeling our feelings, and letting them be transformed into nourishing rain.

this week, embrace:

• Motion & movement

• Following through on plans

• Productivity and checking off to-do list items

• Experiencing your feelings freely and without judgment

• Taking a new perspective when looking at old problems or struggles

This week, avoid:

• Running from difficult emotions

• Self-defeating stories when experiencing said emotions

• Turning back or giving up

• Having to be right/sticking to old stories just to avoid being “wrong”

Get creative:

• Eight of Wands: This is such a kinetic card that I want us to avoid overanalyzing it. So, either just keep it in mind as a token on inspiration that reminds you to trust your energy, stay in the moment, and learn by doing, or make some time to experiment with a practice that brings you to the state of flow embodied in this card. I’m thinking automatic writing, dancing, and improvisation of any kind.

• Three of Swords: I should have been more explicit up top: I love this card. Maybe it’s because one of my number one hobbies as a teen was listening to Elliott Smith and crying, but I think it’s also because there’s something beautiful about being in a place where you have to express your emotions and can truly experience both the bitter and the sweet simultaneously. So, for this week, I highly encourage you to dig up some old tried and true crying jams and let the tears flow. Or, if that’s too raw (which I completely understand), go back and remember what was happening when those songs cut right through to the center of you. There’s a facet of this card that deals with old/ancestral/primary wounds - do some exploring here and see what wisdom they might have to share with your present self.

• Page of Swords: Is this card the nerdiest in all of tarot? I think so… Gift yourself some time this week to get curious and research something interesting. It may be tied to the topics brought up in the Three of Swords and Eight of Wands, too. Is there some new source of information or knowledge that can help you cut through issues that once felt intractable? Remember, though, you’re the one wielding the sword and choosing which ones to pick up in the first place. If anything doesn’t feel right, leave it where it is and move on. Ideas that are meant to shape our story should give us new life and inspiring clarity.

A Tarot Spread for Self-Discovery

I designed this spread to delve deeper into ourselves in the present moment. Use it to gain a better understanding of who you are and, most importantly, who you’re becoming.

Weekly Forecast: August 1-7

Well, judging by the cards above, August is starting out with a bang, not a whimper. A bang that leads to plenty of whimpering? I think so.

As we can see, we’re visited by one of the most arresting images in tarot, The Tower. A humbling experience, this card shows us what happens when a structure we’ve staked our sense of security on crumbles spectacularly. There’s no way around it; this is a challenging and often painful experience. Yet it’s important to note this: whatever is crumbling was meant to fall.

The Queen of Cups is extending her graces throughout the month. Not only is she leading us into the week, she’s the official “card of the month” in August’s forecast. This queen challenges us to remain connected to both our emotional/intutive selves and our practical selves. Rather than seeing these forces as in conflict, The Queen of Cups embraces the complimentary nature of passion and responsibility. Can we use our practical, problem-solving skills to be responsible for our own passions: desire, beauty, and connection?

Having The Queen of Cups leading off both this week and the month as a whole is telling us that the skills we’ve been practicing (and the facets of ourselves that we’re becoming acquainted with) are coming into focus right now. In fact, they’re the key to our growth and, perhaps on some level, survival.

Because, yes, The Tower can sometimes show us moments when we have to deal with something that feels annihilating. And, like everything in tarot, this occurs on a spectrum. Each of our experiences of The Tower this week will vary in intensity. It could be an external event, a shift in our self-perception, or something we’ve depended on crumbling before our eyes.

Take time to devote your loving attention to yourself this week, and reacquaint yourself with all the ways you’ve stepped into prioritizing your emotional and spiritual development. This is a time to re-commit to any self-care and spiritual practices that make you feel whole, centered, and alive. The Queen of Cups isn’t a flashy card at first glance, but she emits a magnetic pull, one of a person who knows themselves deeply and is committed to staying present for all facets of life, including the painful parts.

I wonder, too, if The Tower may represent a backlash to the new and increasingly bold ways we’ve been drawing boundaries to protect our inner space and creative/romantic/spiritual lives. Again, remembering that The Tower needs to crumble will be pivotal. In some cases, we don’t even need to participate in the collapse. If there’s someone around you being harmfully dramatic or reactive, simply stay in the lush and healing world you’ve been cultivating for yourself. Like the Queen of Cups, keep your foot dipped into the waters of your emotional truth, feel the beauty of the world around you, and let it all nourish you no matter how intense the rest of the world may be.

The King of Cups enters the scene and I’m feeling this card as an external presence. Look for someone in your life whose emotional maturity equals yours and whose ways of coping, understanding, and living with The Tower compliments your own. In other words, there’s partnership to be found in this moment of difficulty that may end up being pivotal. Think of allies, supporters, and mentors: who can stand with you and reinforce your experience of reality?

There’s no way around it, this is challenging energy. Yet I can’t think of a better team to face the intensity of The Tower. I’m also reminded of the immense difficulty of witnessing something or someone crumble. Both The Queen and King of Cups embody fluid, strong, and healthy boundaries. If you feel pulled to rescue, compensate, or intervene in someone else’s tower moment, don’t. There’s so much to take in from the seat of power you’ve carved for yourself - rushing into someone else's flames won’t help either of you.

This week, embrace:

• Re-committing to your personal practices

• Prioritizing beauty, deeper meaning, and spirituality

• Emotionally mature supporters and partners

• Your choices to lead a life that works for you

• Facing uncomfortable truths

• Embracing the healing potential of collapse, endings

This week, avoid:

• Getting sucked into drama, bids for rescue

• Catastrophizing

• Reacting immediately instead of reflecting

• Savior-complexes

• Changing your beliefs, choices to accommodate others

Get creative:

• Queen of Cups: It feels like we’ll need a sanctuary this week. I have several ideas: 1) An actual space - make a nook that really goes for it in terms of showcasing your romantic, poetic side. Pillows and string lights? Objects of beauty? Line them up! 2) A ritual you can turn to - think of something that makes you feel connected with your body and emotions. Meditation? A languorous bath? A walk in nature? Hold this in your back pocket and use it when you encounter The Tower. 3) A mental space - if you don’t have one already, think of a place you can travel to in your imagination. Like option 1, it should contain things and exist in an environment that makes you feel both safe and inspired. Unlike option 1, it’s not contained by the pesky rules of reality! Get decadent and travel there when you feel the destructive pull of The Tower.

• King of Cups: While we’ll likely have a King of Cups IRL, I think this would be a good opportunity to identify King(s) in other places. Who do you view as an emotional role model? Someone who inspires you with their maturity, poise, and dedication? I think we run a risk of playing it small this week or muting our seeking dreamer selves, so this person or people should be trailblazers, too, people unafraid to live life on their own terms: authors, poets, artists, and more. List or simply visit these people’s work as you go through the week so you can remain connected to your larger self and a world beyond however the tower is manifesting right now.

• The Tower: This one in simple: wait. If something is collapsing in your life, just let it fall. The Tower can invite panic and frenzied action. Resist the impulse. Time allows the fire to die down, the clouds to disperse, and the reality on the ground to become real.

Questioning the Tarot: The Fool

Welcome to Questioning the Tarot, a series exploring the questions posed by each tarot card in the deck. Use these questions to guide your readings, personal practice, or explore new facets of their meaning. Inspired? Do add your own questions to deepen your practice. Reading for another person? Simply change the pronouns!

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01 - The Fool

Big Picture

• What journey is just beginning?

• What requires a leap of faith?

• Where/how am I being reborn?

• How can I trust that things will work out?

Personal

• What part of me is emerging?

• Where am I being asked to have faith?

• What does my intuition have to say about what’s next?

• What risk am I yearning to take?

• How can I embrace a beginners mindset?

Social & Romantic

• Where do I need to let go of expectations and surrender to what’s unfolding?

• What relationships make me feel youthful and free?

• Who are my allies in life and how can they help guide me?

Work & Creativity

• What risks do I need to take in my career or creative life?

• Where might I need to start anew?

• What are my most important skills?

• How can I streamline my process, focusing only on the essential?

A Tarot Spread for Bonding with Your Deck

a new spread has arrived!

This one was inspired by a lovely reader who reached out asking for a spread to get to know their deck better. Click the image above to learn more and get reading!

Weekly Forecast: July 25-31

Sometimes the most straightforward readings are the hardest to write about. I drew these cards on Sunday and immediately felt a sense of excitement and recognition. Here is a reading about gratitude, abundance, and important next steps in search of something meaningful. Wonderful! So why was it so hard to sit down and translate these cards into words?

Rather than force it, I decided to do what usually calms me when I’m feeling edgy and creatively thwarted: cleaning. I thumped around my house, flinging closet doors open, excavating odd tchotchkes from forgotten corners, emptying drawers of shriveled tubes of ointment and scattered cosmetic samples. I had all sorts of narratives about what was “happening” chomping at the bit, ready to run free and take over - something was wrong, I’d lost my touch, if I didn’t write now, I’d never write at all! Antsy and irritated, I channeled these feelings into action, noticing the treasures that surround me: the row of photographs above the mantel, a bouquet of flowers from a friend, a bedspread that I unequivocally adore. Laying my hands on actual objects in my home was calming and kept the stories at bay.

After ceremoniously dumping an armful of items that have always irritated me into boxes for donation, I felt a wave of calm come over me. I’d made a change, removed small things that tied me to stale memories or unhelpful feelings (hello, the guilt of keeping weird gifts you don’t actually like!); I felt both cleansed by my stomping about and connected to my environment.

And then I had a hearty chuckle. Standing there actually panting from irritation and exertion, I realized that I’d completely enacted the story of our first two cards: the Nine of Cups and Seven of Swords. Here, we see a need to focus on our emotional connection to what gives us meaning in our lives (cups) while diverting the restlessness and meaning-making that can distract us from what really matters (swords). Underneath both of these cards is a massive upwelling of energy - creative, ambitious, irrepressible. Which begs the question: What is trying to come through you this week and, most importantly, how do you feel when creativity comes knocking? It may be wily and strange, even uncomfortable. Where do you go when you feel this urge to change, create, or grow? Do you mistake this burgeoning energy with something else entirely or try to repress it?

It’s going to be important this week to cultivate a sense of curiosity around this. Some of us may be well acquainted with how creative energy moves through us. Others, like myself, might not recognize it at first. Treat this topic as a new land to explore. Gather your notebook and get out into the field to observe.

It’s likely that there will be some challenge and conflict involved. The Seven of Swords is a sneaky character, and there will be a tendency this week to overanalyze the situation, perhaps as a way of escaping something good and generative. What stories do you tell yourself about your ability to change your life? Where do you go and what do you do to escape exciting and challenging growth?

The Nine of Cups leads the charge this week and, while being a resoundingly positive card, it is nonetheless quite confrontational for some people. Watch out for fears and limiting beliefs around displaying happiness, satisfaction, and affection. And, most of all, being content with what you have. It will be helpful to look around you and see what bounty you have to offer. Is your perception of your resources, both emotional and material, in line with how you present yourself to the world? You may want to ask trusted others about where you hide your talents, gifts, and the sparkling parts of your personality people want to see more of.

While we can expect some prickliness, this card tells us that these things are already here. It’s not a question of seeking, building, or cultivating. Look around you (clean your house?) and get friendly with the abundance in your life, especially emotional and spiritual abundance. Gather strength and confidence from your close relationships, call up old friends, reach out, and share what you have.

There’s a pull to escape into the intellectual realm in order to avoid and protect this week. The Seven of Swords has been popping up left and right these days. Have a sense of humor about your trickster self, but don’t take their messages seriously. This week is a time to sit with your feelings and your gifts, not spin elaborate stories about what they mean or explain away beauty and wonder.

A powerful pull to walk towards the unknown arrives at the end of the week. It turns out staying where we are and being curious about ourselves is leaving space for a new path to emerge. There is some melancholy and wistfulness here, however. The Eight of Cups is a profound and mature card. What path are you headed towards that is yours and yours alone? This is a card that asks us to consult our deepest self about what’s next and no one else. You may find it helpful to retreat from outside information and excitement so you can better tune into yourself. The new steps, however, are emotionally powerful and can lead to something immensely heart-centered and nourishing. Trust yourself and make room for fear and trepidation; the risk is worth if if you’re heart is with you.

This week, embrace:

• Counting your blessings

• Being proud of what you bring to relationships

• Connecting with cherished friends and new acquaintances

• Finding and engaging with creative outlets

• Observing what wants to come through you

• Tuning into your intuition for guidance

This week, avoid:

• Naysayers!

• False modesty

• Overextending yourself

• Seeking solace or safety in “more” (people, possessions, projects, etc.)

Get creative:

• Nine of Cups: Cups are all about feelings, so resist the urge to overanalyze this prompt (hi there, Seven of Swords, we see you!). Think about the beautiful, nourishing, and consistent things you have going for you in these three areas of your life: relationships, spirituality (or, depending on your belief system/preferences, creativity/intuition/nature), and beauty. Write down three things for each. Get creative with the categories, too, or simply float over them and just think of nine things you’re grateful for right now that give you a sense of connection to your best or higher self. These are your nine cups. Spend the week caring for them and appreciating them (and practicing holding them aloft for all to see without shame).

• Seven of Swords: This week, I’m feeling the call to balance this card with an element not present in our reading. Think of it as reading the negative space in our spread. Like my very quotidian personal example of cleaning the house, the intellectual intensity of the swords is best tamed by the grounding element of earth. So, think pentacles this week - what can you do to get our of your head and into your body? Some suggestions: exercise, massage, gardening, and…yes… good old fashioned house cleaning.

• Eight of Cups: Ooh, I really feel like this card is going to lead us some places. There’s a lot of mystery here, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the new moon on Thursday. Since we have a lot of supportive energy here (happy, high-level cups cards), it may be helpful to choose and create the darkness we’ll be charting our path through. Find some time in the dusk or evening to be with yourself. A stroll down the driveway or through the neighborhood would do. But make it magical and meaningful, guided by the question: What steps can I feel my inner self start to take and how can I help clear the path in my outer life?

Weekly Forecast: July 11-17

Would you believe I’m excited about a reading that starts out like this? And yet… things are coming together despite being difficult. This week we can lay down our swords, rest, and start to see the fruits of our labor and the wisdom of our grief.

Starting off with the Ten of Swords may not look easy, yet I’m heartened to see this card here. Tens are endings - what difficulties, heartaches, or challenging stories are reaching their conclusion for you right now? Your ending may not feel like an ending at first. In fact, it might feel overwhelming, a deluge of feelings. The Ten of Swords can represent moments when our emotions catch up with us. No matter how much spin we put on things (we’re fine! Life is fine!) eventually our evasions can’t hold up to our fears, tenderness, and exhaustion. Falling face-first onto a beach may not seem like the ideal outcome, but take some time to hear the waves and feel the wet sand on your cheek. Is it really so bad to just be with yourself?

If you find yourself laid low or simply overwhelmed at the beginning of the week allow plenty of space just to experience things - your life, yourself - simply as they are. The beautiful story in our reading is that the faceplant of the Ten of Swords leads us to the peaceful safety of The Four of Swords. Can you lead yourself to a calmer space of rest? Or, better yet, let those around you guide the way?

This week carries a massive opportunity for healing and relief. Allow simplicity to guide you. An overload of swords weighs us down in spectacular fashion (I’d argue that the Ten of Swords is the most brutal-looking card in the deck) - where can you let go of memories, ideas, convictions, plans, and all other denizens of your mind that hamper your growth? While we’re in a process of shedding this week, something new is emerging, but it won’t be found in forceful thinking, arguing, or aggressive searching. Instead, the Four of Swords asks us to consider the slippery, poetic impressions that intrigue us. Make time for rest so that you can dream, listen to your body, and be open to ideas or observations that feel elusive and mysterious.

While we’ll be in our heads for some of the week, it’s time well spent. Have you been running fast, staving off feelings through action and productivity? Perhaps feeling like rest and consideration is indulgent or cowardly? Maybe these thoughts are some of the pesky, cutting swords sticking in your back. The Four of Swords is a gloriously healthy manifestation of the mental energy of its group; allow yourself to treat rest and discernment (particularly the kind that involves waiting) as essential parts of your process rather than distractions.

We leave the land of mental processing and emotional healing towards the end of the week and visit the final card in our monthly forecast. This is a tarot emphasis on the power of these swords cards. Resting and taking time to tend to our hurt while jettisoning any toxic beliefs is in the service of the larger story at work.

Remember that our card for the month is The Chariot - if you’ve been feeling sluggish, unmotivated, and disconnected from your mission and willpower, pay special attention to the messages coming through in your experience of these hurtful swords. You may have some unfinished business to deal with that, once tended to, will allow you to move forward with newfound purpose.

On the other side is the Seven of Pentacles a card of both fulfillment and dissatisfaction. Make room for this uncomfortable combination! Dare I say embrace it? Because if we accept that we are happy with what we have and we want, celebrating our success and growing to new places will feel a lot easier.

I’d also like to point out that the Seven of Pentacles is a hearty reminder to check-in on our everyday and material life after doing so much soul-searching. See how your life is still chugging along? See all the things you’ve built, the projects and routines you’ve cultivated? Spending time here is a wonderful antidote to the heady world of swords. Tend to your garden and see what futures you can imagine now that you’ve put down some swords and have your feet on the ground.

This week, embrace:

• Feeling those feelings! Especially the difficult ones

• Accepting vulernability

• Re-centering around intuition

• Examining your routines

• Small actions with tangible results

This week, avoid:

• Rushing through big feelings

• Ignoring wounds

• Catastrophizing

• Reinventing the wheel

• Self-criticism

Get creative:

• Ten of Swords: Part of this card can touch on self-inflicted wounds, and I think it’d be helpful to direct some compassion here this week. The Ten of Swords doesn’t have to be ten huge swords pushed into our backs - it can be more of a death by 1,000 cuts, tiny sniping comments we level at ourselves constantly. Think of one or two cutting remarks you direct at yourself frequently and come up with a replacement statement - something loving, supportive, and constructive. Practice substituting this kind remark for the cruel one when you notice yourself becoming judgmental.

• Four of Swords: Because swords can be so harsh, I think this week is a good time to really soften the edges in our lives. So, a very simple suggestion: buy yourself some flowers. Put them in your bedroom and enjoy the soothing cheer they bring. (Who knows, maybe they’ll help usher in some of the elusive insights shown in this card?)

• Seven of Pentacles: Before we can refine, change, and finesse we have to know what we’re working with. Spend some time this week appreciating the cycles, routines, and rituals you have in your daily life or a specific project (Pentacles, after all, often refer to our professional/work lives). After some observation and reflection, take some time at the end of the week to write down the seven things that make you feel satisfied and grounded in this area. This is the foundation that you’re building on.

Weekly Forecast: July 4-10

Well, my friends, it looks like this is a week for breakthroughs. In good old fashioned tarot-style, we have to wade through some interesting and potentially frustrating waters first. Yet despite the presence of two sevens - cards characterized by their slippery, teasing nature - this is a comparatively low-pressure week. If we introduce a sense of lighthearted play into the tasks at hand we may be surprised at how quickly things move.

Have you been worrying about how much work you’re going to have to do to make a change? Fretting (dare I say, stressing) about how long of a way you have to go? Although you may not feel graceful or poised, this week holds some important and impish lessons around dreaming, planning, and manifesting.

Let’s start with the two sevens we have this week. Two! I think this pair is asking us to embrace the theme of a spiritual challenge. However you choose to define spirituality, this is a week where imbalance, restlessness, an unrelenting desire to seek out answers is bringing us to an important crossroads. The answers we’re seeking are new, personal, and only we can wade through the swirling mists of our subconscious to tease out their meaning. If we do, however, the meaning will be sustaining and powerful.

I’m interested in the dynamic between these two sevens. The Seven of Swords is a naughty character who shows up in moments where we want to avoid responsibility, take the easy way out, or break some rules. It’s also a swords card and this is what’s really coming through here - that perhaps the self-deception is in arguing ourselves out of what we really want. What if the shortcut we’re trying to take is the one that circumvents dreaming, yearning, and reaching beyond what we know? The figure in the card is running in one direction while looking over their shoulder: Where in your life do you feel split? Where do you notice your automatic response moving you away from your greatest wishes and desires?

Since the arc of our reading takes us towards the delightful Ace of Wands, it seems as if the impulse of the Seven of Swords needs some correcting. We shouldn’t be running away from an opportunity so invigorating and lovely, right? Self-deception, particularly in the vein of the swords cards - arguing yourself out of your desires, collecting information about how what you want isn’t feasible, realistic, etc. - may be appearing with strength and vigor as we start the week.

And yet the Seven of Cups is right here. This card is asking us to trust that we won’t be overwhelmed by our visions for the future, or that exploring options won’t shoot us into the farthest reaches of space, untethered from everyday life. In fact, this is a wonderful time to take stock of your fears around wishing and dreaming. What stories and arguments (the swords being carried in our first card) do you use to convince yourself that imagining a better future is bad, dangerous, or foolish?

This would be a wonderful week to dive into your interests, daydream, and turn over ideas in your mind without worrying about logistics. Doing so may massage a greater vision into clarity, but it’s important to step away from expectations and look at the world (and yourself) through the eyes of wonder. You’ll notice that the figure here is a black silhouette; it may be helpful to take a break from who you think you are and just spend some time playing and experimenting with new identities, ideas, and roles. The Seven of Swords easily gets stuck in their own head. In the Seven of Cups we see the pleasure and freedom of stepping outside oneself.

What’s happening while we tease out the tricky world of the sevens? A new option is working its way towards us. I’ve been thinking about the aces a lot lately. Not only are they alluring and exciting (some people refer to them as “the wish cards” in tarot) but they represent moments when we must step back from trying to make things happen and practice waiting, being receptive, and working on ourselves. That’s what we’re seeing here in our two sevens: how can we work on our fear of what we want, drop our swords - the ideas of how we should be, what we should do, and how we should go about getting it, and wait for the next step to reveal itself.

The Ace of Wands is definitively a next step. If aces are gifts from the outside world revealing themselves to us, and wands are action… you see where I’m going. So if you’re feeling antsy with all this dreaming and self-reflection, fear not. A promising and potent idea for what should happen next is on the horizon. Try not to rush or get lost in the seductive grips of control and open up to what has yet to appear.

And how will we know the Ace of Wands when it appears? It’ll resonate on an instinctive level (do check with your body to see if your creature-self is on board), feel exciting, promising, and new, and be just the first step. The trick of the aces, beyond noticing them when they arrive, is to simply accept their invitation and see where it leads, one thing at a time.

This week, embrace:

• Gently questioning self-limiting beliefs and actions

• Feeling uncomfortable with change

• Daydreaming, envisioning exciting futures

• Experimenting with new/unexplored facets of your identity

• Activities that take you out of your (ego) self

• A promising new path or next step

This week, Avoid:

• Giving up because of a lack of clarity

• Using fear as an excuse to avoid change

• Getting caught up in details

• Retreating from your social life

Get Creative:

• The Seven of Swords: This card, aside from having a very engaging “main character,” is also soaked in tarot’s color of creativity: yellow. There’s two ways to engage with this energy. 1) See if you can channel your angst around change, growth, and restlessness into art. Circumvent the swords’ penchant for analysis and do something quick, impressionistic, and from the heart. 2) Devote a day, preferably early in the week, to wear yellow. See how it feels to embody the positive aspect of this card instead of the burdensome swords (aka thinking). If you have yellow shoes, I especially recommend wearing them. The red shoes and hat represent being driven by impulse and passion - what happens when you’re driven by life-sustaining creativity instead?

• The Seven of Cups: Make a date with yourself to do some daydreaming. To expand on the ruling element of cups (water) I suggest doing this in the bath. Sink into the water and allow yourself to dream about the lives you could live, starting now. In situations where we’re taking big leaps, I think that rituals are especially important to nudge us out of the everyday and into something more soft and supportive. Mindfully select scents or oils for your bath, listen to some relaxing music, maybe even meditate before stepping in. The key is to be open, receptive, and ready to dream freely. Don’t focus on logistics or our pesky friend “reality.” See what happens and what dreams stick in your mind long after the tub has drained.

• Ace of Wands: This is more practical than reflective. I think that this card has an aura of social possibility this week. Go out during the weekend with the intention of being open and receptive to any messages, connections, or opportunities that may come your way.