If you’ve been following my work through Incandescent Tarot, you’ll notice a new look here. It’s been a joy translating this new iteration of my work and practice into a new container, Alchemag, and it’s an even bigger joy having you all here for the ride.

Think of Alchemag as the larger vessel, a new publication, and a vibrant ecosystem that folds tarot into larger themes of time, culture, and spirituality - the forecasts you know and love are still here, simply finding a new home in a larger space.

Many thanks to all of you who shared feedback about the changes, it’s always such a delight hearing from readers! (And special shoutout to Katie, who I ran into in the wild here in Durham the other day! 👋 )

As always, I love hearing from readers so please feel free to respond to this email or comment on beehiiv. I’m still getting a handle on the new platform and, to be honest, the commenting user experience is a little clunky.

Another option for community engagement - my favorite part of this ecosystem, tbh! - is on its way, so stay tuned! Until then, let’s dive into a new set of cards for October…

The World card has quite the reputation. As the grand finale of The Fool’s journey, it comes with an air of accomplishment - one rotation of the cycle is complete! You’ve gone from stepping off the edge of the world as The Fool to floating above it with an angel’s-eye view. How can this be anything but glorious, fulfilling, and free?

Yet it turns out that reaching The World, while something to celebrate for sure, comes with the stomach-turning feeling of reaching great heights.

I’m thinking here of The Hermit, a card we’ve been embodying throughout the year - it’s the official card for 2025. At this stage in The Fool’s journey, we’re cold, tired, and determined, led forth by the light of a single star and completely alone. From this perspective, The World looks rosy, indeed. Once we get there we can take off our thick cloak, move with ease, and see far in every direction. Yet we’re also exposed, inhabiting a fully delineated and obvious center. This is a position of presence and authority and awarness, and with it comes responsibility. What do we do when we can see thigns clearly, including our place in the world and, therefore, what we owe it?

Recently, I’ve been feeling an approach to the space of The World emerging in myself and others. There are so many major transitions happening, life shakeups, and the skins of personas shedding to reveal something new underneath.

I’ve been getting into rambling conversations with certain friends, the kind of people who can writhe with you in satisfyingly perfomative indignity. Is this what adulthood really is? Why is change so demanding? It’s amazing how easy it is to forget the painful angst that comes with stretching towards new behavior - the struggle that goes into training new muscles and the sweat and tremors that give you away as an amateur. Many of us are feeling this way right now.

One part of divination is noticing patterns, including in how you speak. I’ve been noticing myself telling a story often lately about how when I was going into labor I had the idea that I wouldn’t get my hair wet. This may have come from one of the first women in my prenatal group to give birth. She forwarded the rest of us a video, gracefully edited, in which she sat placidly in a tub wearing a tasteful and stunning red lace bra.

I was captivated! Jessica made it look so easy! Glamorous, even. Yet I forgot to take into account that Jessica had already given birth two children. As I sped through the darkness in the early morning on my way to the birth center, I imagined how it’d go: me in a tub choosing with serene werewithal which breathing exercise to do next, hair dry.

Needless to say, my hair got wet and then some.

I’m sensing a similar experience with The World this month. This is a card we’ve been circling for some time (it’s appeared in several previous readings) and, as we all know, the actual world we live in isn’t exactly giving a placid impression at the moment.

Rather, we’re being invited to step into the gravity of our awareness. The changes we’ve been building towards are reaching an important conclusion this month and it’s the type of experience that is going to feel demanding and heavy, joyful and significant. In short, we’re going to get our hair wet.

Seeing this experience of stretching, effort, and meaning as a sign of true growth is our biggest challenge. Conceptually, it’s easy to project ourselves past the point of the lesson itself and into the phase when we’ve mastered it, yet The World isn’t this card. The World is when we embody a new way of being and that process isn’t gentle. Pay attention to when, where, and with whom you’re actively practicing new ways of being - doing the thing - and how it shows you new perspectives, including the responsibilities these perspectives give you.

As someone who’s seen a new part of the world, what can you do to help others reach your position?

The backstory for this moment is the tender, affecting Six of Cups. Our intimate relationships have either been a place of support that has helped us ascend to the position of The World or an arena in which we’ve been practicing the skills we need to culminate this latest chapter of our growth. Or, perhaps, both.

Look to your connections to see how you’ve been doing hard but worthwhile things. This could show up as:

The people we hold close to use will both help support us and provide the feedback that helps us grow. That being said, this is a month to practice receiving input, including criticism, with grace and even appreciation. Hard messages can help us hone our beleifs and guide our actions if we see them as gifts rather than insults.

An arena that’s could be particularly impacted this month shows up in the curious, questioning, and restless Seven of Pentacles. Work, practice, labor, and routine are all fertile places to channel both the support of the Six of Cups and the brave expansion fo The World. Look to how your allocate your time and resources has been impacting your energy, ability to show up, and deeper sense of meaning or place in the world.

Again, The Hermit appears in the background of this quest; it’s likely that you’ve been interrogating how your work (broadly defined) aligns with your sense of greater purpose in life. The tricky part this month, however, will be to resist urgency and turn away from the temptation to make drastic changes. Instead, embrace the introspection of The Hermit, the sense of perspective and possibility of The World, and the support of the Six of Cups to simply observe what’s unfolding.

We’ll have plenty of time to effect change in the coming months. Until then, see what’s been working, what’s been lit up by the insights you’ve gathered througout the year, and what might be ready to become compost for future endeavors. While the month will be busy for sure, so much of the meaningful work we’ll be doing involves practicing presence, awareness, and, above all else, savoring the ending of a large and impactful cycle.