Take care of your life, see the world, take time to heal.
I’m up early, writing this forecast as the kitchen windows show only black through their glossy panes. The refrigerator breathes its electric hum. There’s a cup of coffee, freshly brewed and sitting by my hand.
These readings are a practice I’ve been doing for years now. I just went back to my website to check - I’m not a person who gets into chronology or counting, it turns out - and there it was: 2017! I’ve only missed a handful here and there; it’s wild to me that this ritual has been so enduring. Eight years of tarot readings!
I talk a lot here about the things I love about tarot: that it’s an art of intuition; that it reflects so many facets of the human experience; that it invites each person’s wisdom, often hidden, to join the conversation. I also love how it’s different each time, inviting us to enter into a specific moment, to take risks, to interpret differently.
This is all to say that I’m writing this reading from a place of tenderness. Sometimes these spreads come easily, sometimes they’re just what I need, sometimes they inspire confidence. Yet the thing about doing tarot readings very week for eight years is that sometimes they also just sit there: a group of images that give off a feeling more than an obviously discernible, straight-up meaning.
It’s my job as a tarot reader to dive in there, to collect threads and show how they tie together. Yet as many of you know, tarot readings are much easier to do when you aren’t as invested in the answer. This week, personally, I’m very invested in the answer. So I’m going to do a little experiment. Am I abdicating my role as tarot reader here on the substack? Maybe just a little. But there’s also such a lovely, wise, and involved group of readers here and I feel called to call on you! So I’ll give a sketch of these cards below, but leave the rest up to you:
What do you see in this week’s cards?
Only read my thoughts below if you feel you need them. I think it would be especially cool to jump in cold with no other input. And, as a dear friend of mine says, there are no wrong answers! Share your interpretation, intuition, and insight in the comments below. Maybe we can crowdsource a reading together? I’m so curious to see what we’ll create.
A brief & optional rundown of what I’m seeing:
The Knight of Pentacles starts our week with a call to get dogged and determined when it comes to long-term growth. What seeds to we need to plant now for our upcoming future? Think practical steps, putting one foot in front of the other, and prioritizing small, dedicated gestures over large, pivotal ones.
Mid-week things open up via The World. This card has been around for a while now, suggesting that we’re at a point of culmination, wholeness, and/or breakthrough. There’s a contrast here that takes us from the sequential focus of the Knight of Pentacles to the wide vista of The World. It’s likely we’ll be taking in some information, feeling into the true reaches of our potential, and getting a glimpse at the pivotal next chapter in our development.
We end with the beautiful, soothing Star. Healing, gentleness, and introspection are on the menu. There’s a relationship here, too, between personal healing and collective care. We may be able to strike a delicate balance, a healing win if you will, between tending to ourselves, the world, and those around us.
Some big contrasts:
Practical pentacles —> big-picture spiritual Major Arcana cards.
The material, everyday —> the cosmic.
Wide-angle views —> specificity, enclosure.
Some interesting commonalities:
Celestial bodies! The World and The Star.
Spheres: the pentacle, world, arguably the star?
In this deck, specifically: black and white. Very interested in the shapes these colors form in The World vs. The Star.
So what do you think? I’d love to hear. Share away below and we’ll see what happens. And thank you as always for being a part of Incandescent Tarot.