Wellness er, Thursday - November 30, 2023

I've spent much of the last two weeks sorting my daily tarot card pulls from the last two years – starting December 11, 2021, the day I left Michigan to begin my soul journey in earnest. I've used the Tarot! app on my iPhone for about five years, pulling a card every morning as soon as I wake up and screenshotting it. This sorting process I've been undergoing has me looking back through each day's tarot screenshot, recording the date and the tarot card in a Google Sheet, and then sorting and counting and analyzing the patterns I see alongside major and minor events in my life during that time. Some of this is fodder for the soul journey memoir I am working on, and some of it is because you can never take the researcher out of the academic :P

I decided to do this week's Community Reading by using the Tarot! app, which last I checked cost $2.99 on the app store. (I have an iPhone.) It's a handy tool for my daily practice and has definitely helped me familiarize myself with the Rider-Waite-Smith iconography and meanings, even as I do not prefer that deck for my longer form readings. Still, because it's considered "the standard" tarot deck in many ways, and because it's in the public domain, the imagery gets repeated through many, many other decks, which makes it a good deck to learn from (if one wants).

Also this week, I came across this great little spread by Theresa Reed, a long-time no-nonsense tarot reader known as The Tarot Lady. You can sign up for her free newsletter, and she appears in many podcasts. Plus, she's published many books! In her newsletter this week, she writes the following, which sounded like a great spread to do for the community this week:

One of the tarot spreads I share in the book is Three Things, Right Now, a simple layout for those times when you feel overwhelmed. Grab your tarot cards and pull one for each of these questions:

What is one thing I can take off my plate right now?
What is one habit I can change right now?
What is one kind thing I can do for myself right now?

Take some time and journal your answers. Sit with whatever you wrote for a minute. Then, start taking action.

So, here are this week's community pulls for these questions!

What is one thing I can take off my plate right now?

In the RWS deck, this is a card that speaks of "love, harmony, reciprocity, friendships, soul mates, internal balance." It might seem weird to take this off your plate right now, but when a so-called "good" card (and you know I don't actually believe there are good or bad cards in tarot...but I know some of you believe that) is pulled for a question that asks us to ditch something, we have to think of it as a way to lighten our load towards this good thing. So let me ask you this:

How many of you are paying too much attention to others and not enough attention to yourself right now? Sometimes, in an attempt to balance things, or call things towards us (like love), we fail to focus on ourselves first and foremost.

I think of this pull of the 2 of Cups here as the antithesis of the deck having yelled at us with the 4 of Swords, that is: REST, m*th3rf&ckers! Self-care FTW! And all that. So, this pull is the universe reminding us that we don't always have to be worried about balance and soul mates and harmony. Sometimes we can be lonely and angry and let things stew in our own juices for a hot minute, just to let those underlying grievances O.U.T. That, in itself, is a form of glorious self-care.

What is one habit I can change right now?

This card tends to speak to us of nobility, strength, passion, and honesty. But it's not like the tarot is telling us to be dishonest! Instead, I look at the image on this card and see a king about to stand up, about to move. He sees something in his line of sight that's making him want to take action—which is a rare feeling for kings in the tarot (they're generally seated for a reason, having learned their wisdom through practice already, and they let the Knights take care of things for them). This king, tho—this divine masculine energy (cuz, remember, it's not about a gendered man necessarily)—is the universe reminding our masculine brains, our thinking selves, the parts of us that want to jump to action to STFU and STFD. That's the habit to break this week—not every fight is yours to fight. Sometimes you DO get to sit back and remember that you've accomplished a lot already in your life, you've won your wisdom, and today you get to rest on your kindomly laurels.

What is one kind thing I can do for myself right now?

Here's another instance of a "bad" card feeling like it's being pulled for a good question. So let's spin this on its head: The five of pentacles is typically a card about loss, adversity, and being broken in some way. But it's also a card about finding help through companionship, knowing that the light coming from inside the building is warm, that asking for help gets you out of a stew. So, be vulnerable, as this card on its face seems to scream, and ASK FOR HELP with something important to you this week that feels heavy and weighty on your own. Seek guidance from others. Be vulnerable and ask the questions. The charity card (six of pentacles) follows this one in the deck, so you never know what forms of abundance might come to you if you ask for help.

Love you all! Have a safe and wonderful weekend, and see you next week!