For me, tarot is a form of prayer, the ritual more important than the outcome. It’s the space I carve to hold the doubt, hope, fear, and desire that lives between the past and the future, the known and the unknown. It’s a practice that cradles me in the present, magically soothing what lurks around worrisome corners.

But where does the inexplicable magic of the tarot come from? Is it the universe whispering through the cards? Archetypal images reaching into the psyche across centuries? Or a higher self sharing messages from the beyond?

Though tarot is here to help us better inhabit our questions, the other day I came across a podcast that hinted at an answer.

The Neuroscience of Transcendent Tarot

Hidden Brain’s podcast episode titled “Waking Up Your Spiritual Brain,” introduces us to psychologist Lisa Miller, who studies the psychology of spirituality at Columbia University. Her research has been focused on understanding if the human brain contains a spiritual dimension and how spiritual awareness might be both a healing and protective mechanism against suffering.

After 15 years of brain scans the findings boiled down to this:

(Below is my attempt at a witchy Bill Nye break down of brain scans. Enjoy—but also, find your own primary sources).

1. We are all wired for spiritual awareness

“Everyone on earth has the capacity to be in a deep transcendent relationship through which they know the deeper force of life.” — Lisa Miller

Miller found that all of us have the capacity for spiritual awakening based on four neural circuits that light up in our brains when we’re having a transcendent experience:

1. Default Mode Network: First this network becomes less active, quieting the mind to bring us fully into presence in the here and now.

2. Bonding Network: When this network comes online it gives us the felt sense that we are loved and held—by God. Allah. Universe. Spirit. Ancestors. Community. Nature.

3. Attentional Network: When this network awakens we shift from the Dorsal Attention Network (DAN) which is about control and goal-oriented achievement, to the Ventral Attention Network (VAN) which opens us to the deeper meaning behind where life is guiding us.

4. Parietal Network: This network helps us hold the simultaneity of our individuality and interconnectedness. We are droplets of water in a wave. Petals on a flower. Stars in a constellation.

2. Transcendence is possible regardless of spiritual practice

Miller found that regardless of spiritual practice—religion, forest bathing, chats with Spirit, morning meditation, community service, and, I would argue, even tarot—shifts our brains into what she calls dun dun da daaaaa: TRANSCENDENT AWARENESS (CUE THE 👼🎺ANGEL TRUMPETS🎺👼).

What is transcendent awareness? That feeling of awe we have when we’re connected to something greater than ourselves.

3. Spiritual practice makes our brains buff 🧠 💪

While we all share the same neural correlates—the circuits in the brain that give us the capacity to feel transcendence—having a spiritual practice is what lights them up more frequently. And the more we get lit, the buffer our brains become.

Brain scans found that people with regular spiritual practices saw cortical thickening in areas of the brain having to do with perception, reflection, and orientation. These are the same areas that thin out during recurrent bouts of major depression.

A.K.A. Spirituality acts as a protective mechanism against depression. Miller also found spiritual practice is 80% protective against the onset of addiction in adolescents.

So what does all this science mumbo jumbo have to do with tarot?

My take is that the practice of tarot has to power to bring us toward transcendence. To ground us in the present. To inspire feelings of awe. To open up a little portal between us and the cosmos, reminding our souls of their special place within the universal tapestry.

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The Magician at the Wheel

Having a spiritual practice like tarot can help us shift back and forth more easily between what Miller calls “achieving awareness” and “awakened awareness.”

• Achieving Awareness:

  • Focused on plans, actions, and outcomes.

  • Helps us study for the test, do our morning pages, or plan a trip.

  • Asks: What do I want and how can I get it?

• Awakened Awareness:

  • Focused on intuitive perception, receptivity, and discovery.

  • Helps us find our calling, connect to our creativity, be moved by life’s experiences.

  • Asks: What is life showing me now and how can I learn from it?

These two forms of awareness are represented by our card of the year, the Wheel of Fortune and its teacher card (see the “Calculating Teacher Cards” section of this newsletter), the Magician. Both cards and states of awareness are needed to live a balanced life.

• Achieving Awareness → The Magician:

  • Calls in our power to manifest, alchemize, and create our reality.

  • We need Magician energy and achieving awareness to step into our agency and build the life we want. But when the Magician is overplayed we become controlling, stressed, and unable to see how best to use the resources available to us.

• Awakened Awareness → The Wheel of Fortune:

  • Calls us to flow with fate and experience life as a series of discoveries.

  • We need Wheel of Fortune energy and awakened awareness to remind us that life’s beautiful wheel is always turning, presenting us with new insights and intuitive hits that can change our path at any moment, so we don’t have to hold so tightly to specific outcomes or goals. But if we get stuck in Wheel of Fortune energy, we become victims to life’s twists and turns, feeling tossed about by the bumps in the road.

Magician at the Wheel Tarot Spread

When we go through moments of uncertainty, transition, or change, we can easily get caught in the shadow sides of the Magician (control) and the Wheel of Fortune (victimization). But when we place the Magician behind the Wheel of our lives, we stop white knuckling it and learn to gently steer as the road opens before us.

So grab your deck, and let’s hit the road.

• Pull out the Magician and the Wheel of Fortune cards from your deck and place them side by side.

• Think of a current shift, change, or transformation that’s unfolding in your life.

• Beneath the Magician, pull one card for each of the prompts:

  • What actions will support me through this transformation?

  • What needs to be alchemized as I transition?

  • How can I soften my grip on the destination or outcome?

• Beneath the Wheel of Fortune, pull one card for each of the prompts:

  • What roadblocks are actually spiritual stepping stones?

  • What signs should I look for to tell me I’m on the right path?

  • How can I surrender to the mystery that is unfolding?

Spiritmaxxing

• “Engaging Your Spiritual Core with Dr. Lisa Miller” a podcast episode diving further into Miller’s work.

• Miller’s Three Doors Exercise which transforms life’s boulders into stepping stones.

• Dance as a collective pipeline to transcendence and two songs that can get you in the mood: “Spirit in the Sky” and “I Met God on the Dance Floor.”

XO

ALTARU TAROT

Ways to Work with Me

• Book a one-on-one reading

• Book a personal party

• Book a company event or consultation

• Follow my Instagram @altarutarot for bite-sized tarot lessons

It was fantasy books that first got me to read. What drew me to these stories was each character’s unique magic power. Fairies and their wish granting. Mermaids and their enchantments. Witches and their spells. I dreamt of stepping into their fantastical worlds so I could discover what untapped magic lived in me.

Fast forward 27 years and cue the Professor Trelawney meets Field of Dreams memes.

Instead of stepping into someone else’s fantasy, I built the tarot card world I wanted to live in.

In early June, Elemental Tarot was born. I had the privilege of spending 6-days with a crew of beautiful humans at Maraviglia—a childhood home turned working farm and retreat* center. Together we slung cards, talked feelings, and speculated about the connection between the minors, the natural elements, our bodies, and you know, the universe (my tarot nerd dream 🤓).

I’ve been sitting with the magic of that week, unable to encapsulate exactly what happened. The shift felt tectonic, subterranean, root level. A clicking together—at once seismic and subtle.

I’m learning how the magic we contain unfolds over time. Some is innate. Some we cultivate. Some only comes when life calls. I’m learning that magic is both a present creation and a future belief.

6 lessons learned leading a tarot retreat in Tuscany

1. The circle is sacred

There is a reason the alchemical symbol for ether is a circle. There is a reason that so many cultures that strive for equanimity sit in the round. This celestial shape, with no beginning and no end, doesn’t contain hierarchy or manic pixie bro individualism (the corporate ladder could never). All parts of the circle are equal and essential to creating the stability of the whole (pixie bros included).

Walking into the retreat, I could feel my ego bucking. It was trying to understand what type of leader I needed to be to ensure the experience was valuable to those who trusted me with their time, money, and hearts. But the circle showed me a new way to lead. It asked me to let go of what I thought I’d come to teach, and open up to what we could collectively unlock in one another. It was not about the me, but the we. (Guys—should I start writing haikus?).

2. Read with beginner’s eyes

After years of reading, it becomes easy to pull a card and assume we already “know” what it’s trying to show us.

As I listened to the interpretations of both first-time readers and 40-year tarot practitioners, new stories began to unfold. Details I’d never noticed started to appear and I was reminded why tarot is so powerful. Card meanings shift and change because we as readers are always shedding our skins and seeing the world anew. Looking at the cards with beginner’s eyes, opened me to the symbols that wanted to speak in the present.

3. Tarot cards are patron saints

Whenever a card popped up repeatedly, a retreat attendee we all fondly called Mama Jer Bear, gleefully exclaimed, “You’ve got a stalker card!”

I like to think of these “stalker cards” as our non-religious patron saints, gently (or sometimes not so gently) guiding us toward their wisdom. For what is a patron saint but an advocate of a particular cause, activity, person, or place? Stregnth came to remind someone of their vulnerability. The King of Swords appeared to help another find her voice. The Devil reminded one of their capacity to break cycles. The Empress invited someone into her sensuality.

Across readings, one card continued to visit all nine of us, the Nine of Pentacles—a person in a beautiful garden with their bird, reminding us of the importance of slowing down to enjoy the beauty of life.

4. Our words are spells

My therapist always says, “Shame cannot continue to exist in the same way when it is shared.” Same goes for the fears and insecurities that plague us.

Whether it was sharing in the circle or on the page, together we cracked metaphoric windows, threw open doors, and gave voice to the hopes, dreams, desires, and curiosities that showed up in spread after spread.

Since the retreat, I have seen newsletters get launched, overdue conversations get broached, love affairs begin, old dating patterns end, dreams get chased, trust be built. This is not an accident. We cast our words, and our words became spells.

5. Our bodies speak in elements

Day after day we brought the tarot to life through somatic exercises. These are movement practices we connected to the natural elements, which privilege the body’s felt sense first. Day after day the world around us seemed to respond.

On Earth/Pentacles day, the energy felt the most grounded and restful. Fire/Wands day had the highest temperatures and the most internal agitation. On Water/Cups day it rained (just a sprinkle, for flair), tears flowed, and dreamscapes came alive at night. And on Air/Swords day the wind whooshed around us as we hummed in unison—sending my mind into visions of The Craft when they call the corners.

We remembered that our bodies are made from the merging of elements. They are our truest mother tongue, one that requires no words to be understood.

6. Tarot is all around us

When you spend 4+ hours a day immersed in tarot, the world takes on a symbolic magic. A lizard is no longer just a lizard, but a messenger. Fireflies become nature’s way of lighting your path. The caterpillar, a reminder of what you’re becoming.

The greatest gift tarot has given me is a deeper capacity to see magic in the mundane. These cards and their symbols, started as a game so many centuries ago, want us to play with life. To look out into the world and see what cheeky hand the universe is laying on the table, and find the humor, both dark and light, amidst it all.

Fairy Sun, Mermaid Moon, Witch Rising

So about the magic powers.

We were standing together in the dark behind Maraviglia with nothing but the stars and a rave-worthy display from hundreds of fireflies, when someone asked:

“Sun/Moon/Rising—Witch, Fairy, Mermaid?”

For those unfamiliar, Sun/Moon/Rising is a common question from astrology enthusiasts. I view it as shorthand for—”What are your magic powers?” I’m no astrologer, but Sun/Moon/Rising roughly translates to the magic connected to:

• Sun - Your personality

• Moon - Your emotions

• Rising - Your impression on the world

I loved this question because it hinted at the play that’s essential to discovering what makes us feel powerful. This is where our magic lies, we just need the audacity to claim it.

Among our group of nine I saw so many magical powers.

Tarot reader. Actor. Book Designer. Friend. Food Afficionado. Florist. Psychic. Patron. Mother. Lover. Illustrator. House Builder. Dreamer. Grandmother. Writer. Burlesque Dancer. Comic.

🧚 Fairy. 🧜 Mermaid. 🧙‍♀️Witch.

Your Magic Power Tarot Spread

Now it’s your turn. Pull out your deck and go discover your magic ✨

1. What magic power has always lived inside you?

2. What new magic power are you currently nurturing?

3. What self limiting beliefs about your magic are you releasing?

4. What practice can you cultivate to support your magic?

Strange Powers

More ways to find your magic.

• “Strange Powers” by The Magnetic Fields. Check out the video to see the protagonist’s choice for Sun/Moon/Rising—Fairy, Mermaid, Witch.

• If you’re already subscribed to the newsletter and want to be notified first about the next retreat, reply to this email or DM me on Substack or IG to let me know!

• Book a tarot reading for a guided look at your magic.

XO

ALTARU TAROT

*For me, the word “retreat” carries a particular weight, one that connotes privilege in its many forms. This experience was just that—a privilege, an opening, an experiment, one that underscored importance of creating accessible versions of this work for more people. This is a 7th lesson that I will be sitting with for years to come.

In celebration of the most rainbow-forward month of the year, we’re diving into tarot card color theory.

History of Hues

Color theory is the study of colors and the way they interact with each other, our emotions, and our behavior. When I hear the term “color theory” I picture bespectacled creative directors and fashion designers with fistfuls of clothing swatches, but color theory is not some modern invention. Like most things, it goes back to Aristotle and it affects us all.

A quick timeline of color theory:

3150 – 30 BCE | Color as Symbol | Ancient Egyptians believed color held symbolic meaning, connecting each one to concepts like rage, purity, fertility, and rebirth.

330 BCE | Color as Element | Aristotle believed all colors came from a mixture of light and dark and grouped them by one of my favorite frameworks: the elements—earth, fire, water, and air.

1660 CE | Color as Spectrum | Isaac Newton became the original illuminati by upending 2000 years of color theory when he shone a light through a glass prism. He revealed that white light contains a visible spectrum of color we now call a rainbow—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

1810 CE | Color as Emotion | Johann Wolfgang von Goethe challenged Newton’s scientific perspective by studying color through the subjective emotional impact it has on the viewer. Though scientists didn’t stan this theory, it became popular among philosophers and artists.

While there are many more people who influenced color theory, I like marrying Goethe’s work with that of the Ancient Egyptians. Building a symbolic language that evokes emotion when we look at the cards helps us understand the hidden messages they contain and the stories our subconscious is waiting to reveal.

So let’s learn how to build our own symbolic color systems!

Taste the Rainbow

To me, tarot is an artistic practice first. Just like works of art, when we look at the images on the cards in different color formations new stories arise, reflecting back the way we see the world and ourselves.

Let’s build a rainbow bridge between your tarot practice and your own symbolic color system.

How to Build a Symbolic Color System

• Choose one color in your tarot deck. For those that are differently sighted—choose any color that stands out to you. Alternatively you can look at shadow and light or saturation. Whatever you see, you’re building a visual schema that’s specific to your view of the world.

• Make a list of all your associations with that color. Let your mind run wild and deep. Emotions. Foods. Seasons. Moods. Cities. Animals. Songs. Ages. Eras. Conjure your own synesthesia.

• Pull all the cards in the deck that are dominated by that color.

• Write down what you observe.

  • What story do the cards tell?

  • What mood do they evoke as a collective?

  • What different energies emerge across the foreground and background of a card?

  • How do the number of colors impact the card’s narrative?

Additional Exercises

• Look at all the colors across different groups.

  • Suit (Pentacles, Wands, Cups, Swords): How does each suit’s color story differ?

  • Number: How do the Aces compare to the Kings or the Fives or the Sevens?

  • Arcana: Do the three lines of the major arcana tell different color stories?

• Do a tarot reading solely based on color. Then interpret the same cards relying on other tarot tools (intuition, traditional card meanings, symbols, numbers, etc.) How do the readings differ? How are they the same?

Building a symbolic color system takes time. You are constructing a scaffolding on which to hang your multi-colored wardrobe, and soon you’ll be mixing and matching color with your other tarot skills like Cher and her rotating closet.

Color Across Cultures

Color is a wordless language that can shift mood and meaning with a flash of its coattails. Like rivers of wet paint, it merges and diverges across cultures and time.

The colors below are what show up in the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck, but if periwinkle or some other color is prominent in your deck, add it to your schema! Behind each association are years of myths and legends. What will yours be?

And, because it wouldn’t be a tarot newsletter without it, a few key words from the culture of tarot:

• Red: Passion, willpower

• Orange: Directed action, creativity

• Yellow: Illumination, enlightenment

• Green: Growth, manifestation

• Blue: Truth, knowledge

• Purple: Spirituality, intuition

• Black: Protection, oppression

• White: Purity, potential

• Grey: Neutrality, unknown outcomes

• Brown: Stability, grounding

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Your True Colors

No extra bits and bobs this month, just an early aughts pop culture reference meets tarot nerd moment.

Miranda and Andy in their cerulean blue and brownish-gold smocks just living their best, imbalanced Two of Cups life. Can’t believe how their colors match the card.

May you find the symbolic (or literal!) gold at the end of your rainbow 🌟🌈

XO

ALTARU TAROT

P.S. A little gift from the queer gods at NYC’s 34th Annual Dyke March

Every year is ruled by a tarot card and every card is ruled by an element. In 2026 we’re spinning with the fiery of Wheel of Fortune and its spokes—the suit of wands.

As soon as we hit Aires season (a fire sign no less!), the saying burning the candle at both ends took on a whole new meaning. My creative output doubled, but so did the hours spent at both my day job and night job (aka tarot).

In the process of writing a book about the natural elements and their connection to the cards for my upcoming tarot retreat, I learned the very real difference between the elements as theoretical concepts and the impact they have on the body when you’re caught in the tilt-a-whirl of their season. While I wrote a 92-page book (🥹), bloodwork at a recent doctor’s appointment showed me that unbalanced fire energy was, quite literally, burning me up from the inside out.

Getting burned shows us when heat is too hot and where we might need an oven mitt, sunscreen, or a frank conversation to protect us as we tend to our inner flame.

In the tarot, the journey from the 1 to the 10 of wands is a reminder that the fiery final bundle of sticks is not what we’re expected to hold forever. The 10 teaches us what to use as kindling so we can return to the ace knowing how to direct our creative energy in a way that won’t burn us out.

The Wheel of Fortune and the wands ask:

What are we burning for in this life and how can we support ourselves when the flames get too hot?

Ring of fire

The Ring of Fire is a geologic zone in the Pacific Ocean that pops off more intensely than firecrackers on the 4th. It is the most volcanically and seismically active area in the world, home to 75% of volcanoes and 90% of all earthquakes.

As tectonic plates dive under one another, pressure builds until the pulsating heart of the volcano, the magma, is forced to the surface in a blazing eruption.

Fire energy can feel this way—our creativity, desire, passion, rage, and joy all erupt when they’ve been kept under wraps for too long.

Johnny Cash said it perfectly when he sang: Love is a burning thing / And it makes a fiery ring / Bound by wild desire / I fell into a ring of fire.

No one said following our passion, our fire, is easy. Like a volcanic eruption, what spews forth will completely recast the landscape. But the Wheel of Fortune teaches us that the fastest way through these moments of remaking is to keep on rolling through the flames.

In my book, Elemental Tarot: A somatic journey through earth, water, fire, air, and ether, I write about fire’s power to alter our inner and outer landscapes. It shows us what needs to be burned down before we can see the person we’re becoming through the flames.

Here is a little preview for you all 😊

The Flaming Heart

Of all the elements, fire has the power to transform the most rapidly. It incinerates the unnecessary and illuminates what needs to change. It is metamorphosis incarnate. Both destroyer and creator, fire takes any raw material and remakes it in the creative image of its flames.

Expansive, radiant, and powerful, many mythologies depict the theft of fire from the Gods to help humans survive. Without fire we could not easily nourish ourselves, keep warm, or transform the energetic center of a house into a home.

Fire purifies, burning away the excess, leaving only the potent, beating core of what is most essential.

In the body, the fire element is represented by our hearts. To do something “in a heartbeat” is to move like fire, quick and unapologetic, toward the object of one’s desire. Because of this rapid movement, both fire and our tickers need constant fuel to keep them alive.

Like a phoenix, torched for the very first time

When we finally give ourselves permission to burn through what no longer serves, we can be reborn like the phoenix.

A player in ancient Egyptian lore—the phoenix is a mythological bird associated with the worship of the sun and immorality. At the end of its 500 year life, it would build “a funeral pile of spices and aromatic gums, lighted the pile with the fanning of its wings, and was burned upon it, but from its ashes revived in the freshness of youth.“

In this numerological 10 year, a year of simultaneous endings and beginnings, how can we prepare our pyres? How can we offer what no longer sparks joy to the flames so we can transform as we take flight into the next season of our lives?

Freeing the Firebird Tarot Spread

• What is ready to be burned?

• How will I be transformed by the fire?

• What will rise from the ashes?

Your claim to flame

• Playing With Fire—Learn how to work with the fire-wands connection in your tarot practice.

• The Summer Reset: 5 Things Every Chinese Medicine Doctor Wants You to do Right Now—Check out ’s recommendations on how to stay balanced as we move into peak Yang/Fire energy in the northern hemisphere.

• Tarot for the Wild Soul—Read ’s new book. The cards are grouped in a way that’s breathing fresh air into my practice. “The Waiting Room: Tarot Cards for Liminal Seasons and Unclear Times” has been particularly potent.

Burning hot for all of you!

XO

ALTARU TAROT

I began my trip to Tuscany by first stopping in Rome (perché, one must always stop in Rome). First, I performed the ancient pagan ritual meets La Dolce Vita tradition of tossing a coin into the Trevi Fountain to curry favor with the water gods. The single coin wish? To return to Rome instead of a two-coin one to find a Lovers kind of love (#stillsingle).

Next, I took a Three of Wands-style pilgrimage to pay homage to one of my patron saints, Niki de Saint Phalle and her Giardino dei Tarocchi. Though I’m not religious, The Tarot Garden was as close to a holy Hierophant site as I’ve ever found. (You can read about my adventure to The Tarot Garden here).

The following day I left the land of mopeds and macchiatos for the rolling hills of Tuscany. When I stepped out of the car at Maraviglia, the elements embraced me in welcome—water gurgled hello from the nearby pool, the afternoon sun warmed my travel weary muscles, earthy rosemary and sweet honeysuckle rose to greet my nose, and the wind softly caressed my skin. Unobstructed by man-made buildings and palazzos, the elements moved freely. And so, I realized, could I.

That night, 11 of us sat around the dinner table as the owners of Maraviglia, a married couple named Francesco and Francesca (🥹) walked us through their home and told us about a special tarot deck that had been made by a visiting artist. She’d used the archetypes and lore of their beloved farm to create a tool that captured the transformative power of the land.

I don’t know how to describe my time at Maraviglia other than to say it was imbued with The Magician’s magic.

Watches were replaced by The Sun.

Phones by intimate conversation.

Workout classes by countryside walks.

Rushed solo meals by languorous communal dinners.

For the first time in a very long time, I was able to let my body lead instead of drill seargent-ing it into life’s next chore, task, or to-do. I luxuriated (because time and space in this fast-paced world is, unfortunately, a luxury) like the Nine of Pentacles in the abundant life Francesco and Francesca had built on their olive grove, wondering what it would take imbue more of that abundance into mine.

On my second to last day, a voice came to me like The High Priestess from on high. Mine but not mine, familiar yet unfamiliar.

“I can’t do this anymore,” it said.

We’ve all have a ‘this’. A job that’s misaligned with our values. A relationship dimming our light. A dream still waiting to be chased. A societal script we’re told is an Oscar winner but feels more like living inside a soap opera.

With my nervous system calmed, my body nourished, and my head clear, I could finally hear what my spirit had whispering when it nudged me make the leap and book the trip. It was time to step off the Wheel of (Mis)Fortune I’d been riding, to set down the Ten of Wands burdens that were no longer mine to carry, and to make some tangible changes in my life.

Before I left Maraviglia, I planted one small Ace of Pentacles seed with Francesco and Francesca—the hope of one day hosting a tarot retreat at their beautiful farm.

Elemental Tarot is that retreat.

Take the leap by Wednesday, April 15 and apply to join. Just 4 spots left.

Interested but still have questions? Schedule a free, 15-minute exploratory call with me here.

Retreat details below.

ELEMENTAL TAROT | June 7–12, 2026

Six days at Maraviglia, an organic olive oil farm in Tuscany, exploring the four elements—earth, water, fire, air—through tarot, ritual, embodiment, and the landscape.

🔮This retreat is for you if you:

• Feel called to deepen your tarot practice (new or experienced readers welcome)

• Want to reconnect with your intuition and creativity

• Are craving spaciousness, restoration, and inspiration

🌿What’s Included

• Daily elemental tarot classes

• A bespoke ALTARU TAROT workbook with journaling prompts, tarot spreads, and somatic exercises

• Individual 1:1 tarot reading with Leila

• Elemental rituals connected to the land that will help you get embodied

• Olive oil tasting, wine ritual, market visit

• Yoga, pool time, rest, and those beautiful Tuscan evenings!

💌Investment

The retreat is all inclusive (lodging, food, experiences, tarot classes). There are three pricing tiers depending on your room selection:

• $1500: Shared room

• $1800: Shared room

• $2000: Single room

✨Vibes

Get a sense of Maraviglia’s energy here, here and here.

Sign up for a free 15-min. call

Apply to join

XO e ciao ragazzi 🤗 🇮🇹

ALTARU TAROT

🌿Elemental Tarot: I’m hosting a 6-day tarot retreat in Italy (June 7-12, 2026). You’ll learn to read intuitively and transform your connection to your body by exploring the elements of tarot through somatic practices, delicious Italian meals, and time spent wandering through the olive groves of Tuscany. Learn more here or apply to join. Curious but not ready to commit? Reply to this newsletter to set up a 15-minute exploratory call with me.

❤️‍🔥Erotic Tarot: Roleplaying with the Cards | Virtual Workshop | April 1 | 6:30pm EST | Sign up

Happy Spring Equinox! Eid Mubarak! Merry Mercury Direct! Awesome Aires Season!

March 20th kicked off the astrological new year and if you didn’t feel it before, your fire horse is about to start trotting at record speeds. Giddyup!

As the seasonal wheel turns, it is extra important we find a personal recipe to support our minds, bodies, and hearts as they carry us through the change. The equinoxes are known for their playful turbulence—the unexpected rain, the way the temps rise and then drop it like its hot, the sudden outpouring of invites, events, and asks that come from all corners and social spheres.

To better understand how to saddle up for this Wheel of Fortune year, we’re going to look at this season through the lens of The Wheel of the Year.

The spokes of the Wheel of the Year

In the 1950s and 60s, a time when so many earth-based traditions had fallen away, it was the whimsy of some British Neopagans and Wiccans who formalized the concept of Wheel of the Year, a new system to reconnect with the rhythms of the natural word.

They combined the four equinoxes and solstices with four ancient cross quarter festivals observed in various European and Celtic folk traditions to create eight distinct moments of celebration across the year (because who doesn’t love a party?).

Let’s break the wheel and its festivals into parts.

The Equinoxes & Solstices

• Equinox: A day when there are equal hours of light and dark (not just an overpriced gym)

• Solstice: A day with the greatest or fewest hours of light (depending on the time of year and your hemisphere)

Equinoxes and solstices are the opening ceremonies for the four seasons (shift the below by 6 months for southern hemisphere alignment):

• 🌸 March 20 - 23 | Ostara → Spring Equinox: Germination, awakening, inception

• 🌞 June 20 - 23 | Litha → Summer Solstice: Abundance, illumination, vibrancy

• 🍂 September 20 - 23 | Mabon → Fall Equinox: Gratitude, preparation, release

• ❄️ December 20 - 23 | Yule → Winter Solstice: Rest, renewal, reflection

The four cross quarters are the midpoints between each equinox and solstice.

• 💐April 30 | Beltane: Growth, blooming, passion

• 🌾August 1 | Lammas: Harvest, ripening, sustenance

• 🎃 October 31 | Samhain: Descent, pruning, communion

• 🕯️February 1 | Imbolc: Purification, kindling, potential

These eight seasonal moments are the spokes of the Wheel of the Year, signposts for our memories and lived experiences. They show us that time is cyclical rather than linear, a reminder of life’s endless capacity for transformation and rebirth.

What personal season of change do you find yourself in?

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Seasons greetings, happy meetings

Cultures all over the world have traditions and rituals to celebrate the Spring Equinox.

In the northern hemisphere it’s a time for gathering. A time when our internal pilot lights get relit. IKYK what I’m talking about. It’s that first sunny day when you remember that the orb in the sky actually produces heat, the birds are gossiping about who’s knocked up whom, and everyone sparkles like a keyed up vampire in Twilight

In the Middle East and parts of Asia, the Spring Equinox coincides with Nowruz a New Year’s celebration where one jumps over fires to cleanse the prior years bad experiences and seeds are thrown into moving water to let go of misfortunes.

In Mexico, thousands of people gather at the sacred Mayan site, Chichén Itzá, to watch the sun cast a serpent-like shadow down the temple steps, a symbol of renewal.

In Egypt, Sham El-Nessim, or the “smelling the breeze” is a 4,000 year old tradition that marks the beginning of the agricultural cycle. Egyptians gather to spend the day outdoors reconnecting to each other and the natural world.

In India and Nepal, Holi is a celebration of spring. Bonfires represent the triumph of light over dark and the destruction of evil. The festival of colors, where participants throw powdered pigments, symbolizes blooming flowers and the equanimity of all.

What do these festivals tell us about the human instinct to gather in moments of renewal?

How do you celebrate your own moments of rebirth?

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A recipe for renewal

Tarot is an elemental practice that can be used to guide us through the seasons of our lives. To leverage the Wheel of the Year and its ties with the elements of tarot, first you’ve gotta know what’s in the proverbial pantry. Let’s take a look.

Seasons + Elemental Tarot Suits

Each season (containing two festivals) is associated with an element, and that element is tied to one of the four suits in tarot—swords, wands, cups, and pentacles.

• 🌸 Spring Equinox | Ostara + Beltane | Swords | Air - Fresh ideas, rediscovered voice

• 🌞 Summer Solstice | Litha + Lammas | Wands | Fire - Passionate play, creative action

• 🍂 Fall Equinox | Mabon + Samhain | Cups | Water - Intuitive digestion, emotional reflection

• ❄️ Winter Solstice | Yule + Imbolc | Pentacles | Earth - Grounded movement, embodied rest

Next we’ll connect the eight spokes of the wheel with a tarot card. The Board of Official Tarot Things (members: one…a.k.a. me) has assigned these correspondences. Take what works, spring clean the rest.

Spokes of the Wheel + Major Arcana Correspondences

• 🌸 March 20 - 23 | Ostara | The Empress - Birth of a new cycle, planting seeds

• 💐April 30 | Beltane | The Magician - Manifestation, directed creation

• 🌞 June 20 - 23 | Litha | The Sun - Celebration of delight & joy, ripening prosperity

• 🌾August 1 | Lammas | The World - Harvest, gratitude, reaping the bounty

• 🍂 September 20 - 23 | Mabon | Judgment - Reflection, preparation, taking stock

• 🎃 October 31 | Samhain | The High Priestess - Intuition, walking between worlds

• ❄️ December 20 - 23 | Yule | The Hanged Man - Perspective, waiting for the return of light

• 🕯️February 1 | Imbolc | The Tower - Releasing stagnation, clearing space for what’s to come

Finally, the Wheel of Fortune is placed at the center of the Wheel of the Year, reminding us of the inevitability of change and the promise of renewal.

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Recipe for Renewal: An equal-parts, witch’s Negroni spell.

Use these Spring Equinox suggestions, create your own recipe, or mark the season with something that reminds you of the ways you’ve grown since Yule, the fall equinox, or last spring.

• One part air: The German practice of Lüften, early morning walks, bird song, music, a free write for fresh ideas

• One part Empress: Searching for signs of life, early season fruits, planting one seed (literal or metaphorical) to nurture until the fall harvest

• One part tarot: A three card spread

  • What am I sweeping out the door?

  • What am I inviting in the window?

  • What will be the first sign of renewal?

Spring in your step

Some seasonal seasoning to keep this equinox spicy.

• List of foods, botanicals, moon phases, and other Wheel of the Year associations from Sea Witch Botanicals

• Free 20-minute reading (March 25) with me for members of the queer community at Brooklyn Pride Community Center

• Erotic Tarot Virtual Workshop (April 1) to get you ready for the sensual and sexy Beltane

• Elemental Tarot Retreat (June 7-12) to learn to work with the elements and the cards to read intuitively and reset your nervous system. Reply to set up an exploratory call.

XO

ALTARU TAROT

Hello my post v-day bunnies 💓 🐇

This month’s tarot missive is a bit steamy. If that’s not your vibe, feel free to x out of the newsletter. If it IS your vibe, keep reading for some triple X tarot.

A role by any other name…

We all play roles in life: parent, child, sibling, lover, friend, neighbor, coworker, activist.

Roles are constructs that provide relational context, connecting us to ourselves and others.

Roles hold our multitudes, allowing us to flex and flow between our many parts.

Roles invite experimentation, bridging the gap between the protective ego of today and the self of tomorrow.

Roles can be be runways that deliver us from fear, shame, sadness, and self-doubt into bravery, pride, happiness, and self-belief.

A role can be many things:

• Alter ego

• Stage name

• Shadow self

• Pen name

• Persona

• Avatar

David Bowie had Ziggy Stardust.

Beyoncé has Sasha Fierce.

Diana of Themyscira had Wonder Woman.

RuPaul Andres Charles has RuPaul.

Gloria Jean Watkins had bell hooks.

Dr. Jekyll had Mr. Hyde.

So what do roles have to do with tarot?

The cards shed light on the roles we play in life so we can transmute or embody them more fully in the real world. Today we’re donning our actor’s chapeaus and using tarot to explore the use of roles in sexual roleplay (though LARPers need not be discouraged).

Accessing the roles we want to play in our sexual dynamics can be difficult. We live in a world where desire and erotic expression are profoundly shaped by societal expectations. While some societal realms can be generative, others—purity culture, heteronormativity, gender roles, race politics, and even the romance myth—can place us in boxes before we’ve explored our embodied experience of pleasure.

When the role we want to play doesn’t vibe with the role we’ve been societally assigned, it can be easier to send that self into hiding, to shroud our desire in darkness.

As an occult practice, tarot gives us permission to explore unseen parts of self. It can help us answer the question: what role would I step into if I wasn’t afraid to be witnessed?

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Role reversal

So what is roleplay? It is the acting out of a particular character or persona.

But in the bedroom, roleplaying is not about becoming someone different. It’s about embodying parts of ourselves we don’t get to play with in the light.

The BDSM community is built on this principle—personifying parts to connect more deeply with the whole. Like tarot, BDSM contains archetypal frameworks from which roles are developed—top/bottom, dominant/submissive, sadist/masochist, etc. Through informed consent “play partners” step into these roles and build “scenes” to experience sexual fantasies, repair trauma, and unravel staid ideas of how pleasure should look and feel.

Tarot, with its rich scaffolding of characters, imagery, and symbolism, can also help us create new worlds to play with and process our kinky and knotted parts.

Consider how tarot archetypes could be leveraged to construct roles that—

• Support your most disempowered self

• Bring your shyness out from hiding

• Let your “doer” finally be

• Free your worry wart from fear

• Give your attention seeker the spotlight

• Hand your control freak the reigns

• Unleash your inner animal to play

Who would you be? How would it feel? In what ways would you transform?

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The role you were born to play

Ready to pull back the curtain on your sexual self?

On March 4th from 6pm -7pm EST I’m hosting:

Erotic Tarot—Roleplaying with the Cards

In this workshop, we’ll explore how tarot archetypes can be used to craft erotic personas — energies you can consciously embody in the bedroom and beyond.

You’ll walk away knowing:

• How to use tarot as a lens to explore and express aspects of your sexual identity

• 13 tarot archetypes reframed through sensuality, flirtation, carnality, and kink

• How to “tar-hoe-ify” any card in the deck 😜

• Which of the 13 archetypes is most alive in this season of your life

Plus you’ll receive:

• 3 sexy tarot spreads for solo or partnered play

• A curated list of sex-positive and gender-expansive tarot decks

Maybe your inner Empress is longing to be nourished.

Maybe your inner Devil wants to play with fire.

Maybe your inner Emperor be ready to take control.

Whatever archetype is stirring — this workshop gives you language, structure, and permission to play.

❤️‍🔥Join me for a sliding scale $10-$25❤️‍🔥

See you there, tar-hoes :)

Disrobing your role tarot spread

For a taste of what’s in store, this tarot spread can be used for your personas in the sheets and out in the streets. Slip into (or out of!) something comfortable and have a go.

1. What role have I kept hidden?

2. How can I de-robe from self protection?

3. What will it feel like to let myself be seen?

4. What will I get to explore as a result of this shedding?

5. How will I expand as I embody this role?

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On a roll

I’m on such a roll about roles that we’ve turned into (dinner) rolls. Here are more ways to unravel the roles you no longer want to play so you can embody the ones you were made for.

• How do we step into new roles? By breaking old cycles! March 18th 1-2pm EST I’m hosting a free workshop in partnership with CreativeMorning’s FieldTrips: Working with The Wheel of Fortune: Tarot for Breaking Cycles and Claiming New Beginnings. 💫 SIGN UP 💫

• Love in a Fucked Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell, Together by Dean Spade. His theories about the romance myth are closely tied to Carlos Yela’s work in La otra cara del amor—mitos, paradojas y problemas, and bring a fresh perspective on the roles we play in love.

XO

ALTARU TAROT

In 2026 we’re wheelin’ and dealin’ with the WHEEL 👏 OF 👏 FORTUNE👏!

We’ve just ended a 9 or Hermit year and now we’re turning to the 10. We’re shifting from destination-less paths, to cicuitous routes. From a single snake to an endless oroborus. From exploring the unknown to trusting in fate. From individuation to collective integration.

Just like the famous game show, when we play with the Wheel of Fortune, sometimes we’re up and sometimes we’re down, but regardless of how we spin one thing is for certain—it’s going to be a hell of a ride.

The wheel is a powerful technology. Today, people are freaking out about AI but imagine being alive when the wheel was invented. Absolute pandemonium, I’m sure. Historians say that the invention of the wheel was an iterative process—one of much trial and error—and iteration is the energy we’re rolling with in 2026. We’ll be riding cycles and circles, always with the reminder that while it can feel like we’re hamsters in a wheel, forward momentum is on our side.

Conceptually wheels represent:

• Continuity

• Momentum

• Cycles

• Integration

• Interconnection

Wheels steer ships, make pots, and store energy. They help us transport heavy loads, reduce friction, and carry us over large distances that would otherwise feel insurmountable.

Wheels are also symbolic guides, showing up in belief systems all over the world.

• The Dharma Wheel represents Buddha’s Eightfold Path or wise view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration.

• Ezekiel’s Wheel is seen in Jewish and Christian texts as a symbol of the omnipresence of God.

• The Chakras are Sanskrit’s seven spinning “wheels” of the body’s energy centers.

• The Medicine Wheel is used across Native American tribes to represent the four directions, stages of life, seasons of the year, states of being, sacred medicines, and the elements.

As this Wheel of Fortune year begins to turn, ask yourself:

What cycles and patterns am I ready to integrate?

Where can I hitch a ride with momentum to get where I want to go?

Big Wheel Keep On Turnin’…

Buckle up because the Wheel of Fortune is an absolute carnival of symbolic debauchery. Through the clouds we spy book reading animals, angels, and mystical creatures. We’ve got alchemical symbols, mixed with alphabets, and spheres.

Though there’s a lot to parse out, the visual richness of this card means that no matter what you’re moving through this year, the Wheel of Fortune has something for you.

Symbolism of the Wheel of Fortune

• The wheel represents life’s unpredictable yet interconnected turns of luck and fate.

• The spokes are alchemical symbols that remind us there are many ways to transform. Starting at the top and moving clockwise: mercury (fluidity), sulphur (combustibility), water (dissolution), and salt (crystallization).

• The letters on the wheel

  • Roman letters—Depending on where you start reading, they spell taro (tarot), Tora (sacred text), orat (Latin for “speaks”), or Ator (Aka Hathor—the Egyptian goddess of love, laughter, joy, dance, music, fertility, and beauty). These combinations show us that even a small shift in perspective can change everything.

  • Hebrew letters—Yod (י), Heh (ה), Vav (ו), Heh (ה)—can be transliterated to Yaweh or God, a sign that the spiritual is always entwined with our human pursuits.

• The snake reminds us of the spiritual things we shed as we descend into the material world.

• The jackal embodies the transformation we undergo as we ascend into spiritual knowing.

• The animals in the four corners are connected to the fixed signs in astrology. Their fixed nature is tied to stability, endurance, and consistency, the ingredients most needed when life (aka the wheel) is serving its ups and downs. Starting from the lower right hand corner:

  • Leo | Fire | Wands | Courage

  • Scorpio | Water | Cups | Spiritual Vision

  • Aquarius | Air | Swords | Intellect

  • Taurus | Earth | Pentacles | Strength

• The Sphinx represents mastery of the wheel’s energy. It is a reminder that every rotation it a resurrection, and invites us into the paradox of wisdom gained from both our mundane and mystical experiences.

• The clouds show us that spiritual wisdom requires getting lost in the clouds of our own cycles before we learn to feel our way out.

The carnival, full of its merry-go-rounds, ferris wheels, and tilt-a-whirls, is an apt metaphor for the Wheel of Fortune. Sometimes we’re on a karmic ride that feels breezy and exhilarating. Others, it’s more like being trapped inside a Gravitron.

Some rides are a one time deal. Some we love when we’re young but lose their fun as we age. Some are experiences we’ll have again and again until we learn, on a cellular level, that no matter how much Dramamine we take, they will always make us sick. And some we’ll ride our entire lives, a cherished part of what makes life worth living.

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Give it a Whirl

This year is all about surrendering to the flow of life.

This means less planning and more presence. Less me and more we. Less “I already know” and more “How else could this go?”

Some themes you may meet as you ride the Wheel of Fortune.

Themes

• Flowing with fate: Trusting that roadblocks and rejection are just sacred redirection. This means going with the flow even when the flow isn’t going. And flowing with the go even when you’d prefer to be slowing.

• Eyes on the horizon: How do you prevent motion sickness? By keeping your eyes on the horizon. A steady, future forward gaze will make life’s daily bumps feel smoother.

• Holding your center: Staying solid at your core despite the pull of the past or the future. Being firmly planted in your present.

• Expecting the unexpected: Becoming a pro at navigating unpredictable moments and understanding that the only constant is change.

• Dissolution for personal evolution and social revolution: Asking what must we dissolve and wash clean to evolve? What new connections and schools of thought can we explore?

• Getting off the wheel: Less hamster, more ham, sir! Abandoning the wheels we no longer wish to partake in. Remembering that opting out is always an option.

• Circle as sacred: Ditching the ladder and the linear for the circular and interconnected. Understanding that we are all equidistant from the center when we’re living in the round.

• Letting mystery be the meaning: Allowing the mysteries of life to be our biggest teachers.

• Kaleidoscopic consciousness: In the words of Christopher Marmolejo, striving for a “constantly shifting perception that moves toward a both/and orientation.”

• Integration as integral: Remembering that what seems whole is still made of parts and to become whole we must integrate within ourselves and the collective.

Turn! Turn! Turn!

The Byrds said it perfectly when they sang:

“To everything, turn, turn, turn

There is a season, turn, turn, turn

And a time to every purpose under heaven”

What would it be like to be radically present in whatever turn you find yourself in?

To Every Turn There is a Season Tarot Spread

1. What turn of the wheel do I find myself in?

2. What is the energy of this season?

3. How can I surrender to the cycle?

4. What can I learn as I ride the wheel?

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Rollin’ on the River

Some resources to keep you rolling until next month’s newsletter.

• “Proud Mary” - Watch the absolute queen, Tina Turner, sing this ditty about rolling with what life brings your way.

• 💫 Sign up 🧚 for a free 20-minute New Years reading with me if you’re part of the queer community. Readings take place at Brooklyn Pride Community Center this Wed., January 28 from 6-8pm EST.

• Elemental Tarot - My 6-day retreat in Tuscany where we’ll be getting embodied and integrating the lessons of the Wheel of Fortune with the four elements—earth, wind, water, and fire.

XO

ALTARU TAROT

Elemental Tarot Retreat

Elemental Tarot is a 6-day tarot retreat that I’ll be hosting in Italy, June 7th - 12th, 2026.

Nestled in the Tuscan hills at Maraviglia, a conscious living center, we’ll explore the birthplace of modern tarot and learn about the power of the cards to help shape and navigate our lives.

Whether you’re a seasoned practitioner or just beginning your journey, together we’ll discover the four elements of tarot—earth, water, fire, air—and learn how to interpret the cards and our personal stories in conversation with the natural world.

Through the elemental foundations you’ll:

• Learn about the connection of the elements to the four suits of tarot

• Develop your ability to read intuitively

• Integrate somatic knowledge into your tarot practice

RETREAT INCLUDES

Accommodation + Meals

• Lodging for a 6 day/ 5 night retreat at an olive oil farm in Monte San Savino, Tuscany

• Vegetarian, home-cooked meals with produce sourced from Maraviglia’s organic farm

Tarot

• Bespoke tarot workbook designed by ALTARU TAROT with journaling prompts, tarot spreads, and rituals

• The Maraviglia oracle deck based on the archetypes of the farm

• Daily 2 hour class about the elemental suits of tarot

• Individual, one-hour tarot reading or instruction with me, Leila, of ALTARU TAROT

Activities

• Elemental rituals that blend an aspect of the farm (olive oil, wine, pool, etc.) with an embodied practice to bring the four elements to life

• Free time for rest and reflection on your personal and spiritual goals

• Farmer’s market visit in the charming town of Monte San Savino

• Olive oil tasting with the farm’s producer

• Olive grove walks

• Wine ritual

• Yoga class

• Pool time

Pricing

All accommodations and activities listed above are included in the price of the retreat.

• Sliding scale: $2,100 - $2,600 USD

• Payment plans can be arranged

In Your Element

In the land of the esoteric, ideas and dreams are nurtured to fruition by working with the rhythms of nature.

This elemental work moves in six month cycles. Marked by the solstices and equinoxes, elemental opposites balance each other on either side of the seasonal scales, reflecting our innate ability to transmute and transform.

Right now we’re in the midst of a potent elemental transition.

Our card of the year is shifting. The earth-bound Hermit, who taught us to strip away everything and connect to the roots and bones of our lives, is handing off their trusty staff to be remade as the spokes of the Wheel of Fortune. 2026 will be a year brought to life by fire, action, and inevitable turns of fate.

• 🕯️🌾The Hermit asks: What ways have you rooted more firmly in your beliefs? What outdated beliefs have you uprooted?

• 🎡🌀The Wheel of Fortune asks: How can you turn more fully toward your passions?

We sit in the balance of the solstice. For those in the northern hemisphere, the winter solstice is a time of collecting water. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), water is the deepest expression of Yin energy: darkness, cold, receptivity, and contemplation.

For those in the southern hemisphere, the summer solstice is a time to open to this year’s fiery bounty. In TCM, fire is the highest expression of Yang energy: heat, connection, joy, and play.

Exactly six months from today, the intentions we set free in this moment will be coming home to roost. The element you’re bathing in will have transformed into its opposite.

• 🔭🪞The solstice asks: What perspective will you gain by collecting or reflecting on the elemental lessons of this moment?

The Elemental Bridge Tarot Spread

1. What dreams do I hope to make a reality six months from now?

2. What elemental* season am I in today?

• Am I earth—grounding into the daily habits and building blocks of my material life?

• Am I fire—alit with passion as I take action on my creative pursuits?

• Am I water—flowing with my intuition as it shapes my relationship to all things?

• Am I air—expanding my world through new ideas and ways of communicating my vision?

3. What elemental season is on the other end of this six month cycle?

4. What will be my bridge between seasons?

*Elements connected to the major arcana cards can be found here

Let Our Powers Combine…

More ways to work with the elements

• Digging In - Unpacking the earth element

• Playing with Fire - The wands as kindling for life

• Get or gift a one-hour tarot reading

XO

ALTARU TAROT

The Wicked Witch of the West flew into my life on All Hallows Eve.

Just hours after yet another “I can’t do this anymore” moment about my career, I sat across from my therapist as she asked:

“Who is the counterpart your sunny, presssure-to-be-positive Pollyanna? Who is your underworld witch and what should we call her?”

Though I know little about the triple threat book/play/movie Wicked, the story’s witchy scapegoat villain, Elphaba, was the first thing out of my mouth.

The following day a friend suggested we watch the movie. Settled on the couch with our Yogi tea, they asked, “What’s your fortune?”

The label of my tea bag read, “You are unlimited.“

My friend gasped, understanding the mystical weight of the message. When I asked what it meant they said, “Oh, you’ll see” (…and you will too in section three of the newsletter!).

Wicked is a retelling of the Wizard of Oz from the perspective of the Wicked Witch of the West, the story of how the Good and Wicked Witches came to be.

Like every good enemies-to-friends narrative arc, the witches Glinda and Elphaba battle and then befriend one another. Yet when the two are faced with a morally dubious demand from the Wizard, they’re ripped apart by the expectant eye of Oz.

Glinda, so used to the capitalistic exchange of obedience for love, chooses to follow the Wizard’s instruction, the well trod path, the Yellow Brick Road.

But when Elphaba is asked to bend her newly discovered power to the nefarious whims of the Oz empire, she refuses to conform, to trade herself and her morals for societal acceptance.

Naturally, a fight between the witches ensues.

Just like a psyche split and longing for reintegration, the Good and Wicked Witches try to reason with one another.

Glinda sings:

You can still be with the wizard

What you’ve worked and waited for

You can have all you ever wanted…

Elphaba sings back:

I know. But I don’t want it

No, I can’t want it, anymore

Something has changed with in me

Something is not the same

I’m through with playing by the rules of someone else’s game.

Too late for second-guessing

Too late to go back to sleep

It’s time to trust my instincts

Close my eyes and leap.

It’s time to try defying gravity.

As a clash of pink and green, light and dark, “good” and “wicked” unfolded on screen, I recognized myself not just in the anti-hero Elphaba, with her fiery passion and fierce opposition to injustice, but in her counterpart, Glinda, the good witch, an over-achieving, but popular people pleaser.

All of us contain both a Glinda and an Elphaba. A side of ourselves that just wants to be “good” so we can be loved. Another side that knows conscribing to “good” will banish our most alive parts.

An “I can’t do this any more” moment is where we push back against the gravity of the given, where we lovingly let go of who we thought we had to be and step into the power of who we really are.

The job that no longer resonates.

The relationship stuck in stasis.

The hobby turned hustle.

The calling left to collect dust.

The body begging for loving attention.

The persona built for other people.

What is your “I can’t do this anymore” moment?

Where in your life are you ready to defy gravity?

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Defying Gravity

This month, New York City’s 111th* mayoral election was an IRL defying gravity moment (believe me when I say I don’t love giving airtime to the political circus, but this feat was more magic than Ringling Brothers).

went from a little known member of the New York State assembly to the Democratic Socialist mayor of one of the most capitalistic cities in the world.

How did this happen?

Born in Uganda to parents of Indian-Muslim decent, after a two year pitstop in Cape Town where he “saw inequality up close”, Mamandi’s family settled in Morningside Heights, New York. African, South Asian, and American, Mamdani’s mixed background stands in stark contrast to the United States’ version of the Yellow Brick Road: White, Christian, Nationalistic.

Just like Elphaba, both his difference and his privilege (he too came from a wealthy family) is what made him see injustice more clearly, what drove him to set off in search of a socioeconomically creative path to help the people of Oz…er, New York City.

Instead of the typical top down approach, Mamdani engaged the roots of New York’s diverse communities, speaking with a wide swath of real New Yorkers about what concerned them most.

But, plot twist, just like Glinda, his campaign videos, delivered playfully in languages such as Arabic, Urdu/Hindi, and Spanish reflected this multicultural method. Most importantly he brought humor (and with it hope) back into the political arena by connecting his campaign messages with time honored New York traditions.

Though many believed a win wasn’t possible, Mamdani trusted not only in his own power to make change, but in the power of the collective to topple the political status quo. Mamdani dared to defy gravity. He dared, and then he did.

When we are trying to defy the gravitational pull of what feels inevitable, it is easy to fly toward an all or nothing mindset.

Burn it down to the bolts! Rip it up at the seams! Pull it out at the root!

But any gardener knows the toughest roots take determination, a bit of humor, and a vision for the beauty that will grow in the root’s place. This mentality is the integration of our inner Glindas and Elphabas—the pink of the flower upheld by the green of its stem.

Where has your difference, your inner Elphaba, given you the perspective to forge change?

Where has your charm, your inner Glinda, given you the power to connect and inspire hope?

*(I’m looking at you numerology stans. The 111th mayoral election, as in 111 for an upcoming 1 year…? BBE—big beginning energy—is afoot! 😉)

Leaving the Yellow Brick Road

In both The Wizard of Oz and Wicked, the Yellow Brick Road represents the world we know—the path of promised prosperity, the route of least resistance, the place where painful truths are exchanged for convenient fantasies.

For so many both in Oz and society, there is comfort and safety in the Yellow Brick Road, in its brightness, clean edges, and clarity. But following the pre-forged trail without question can make life feel, well, limited.

“Unlimited, unlimited, unlimited,” Elphaba sings in *Wicked’s “*Defying Gravity” (queue the tea bag fortune!) She knows that her power, her magic, is not something that can be bottled by the known world—a world that didn’t accept her, a world that shunned her difference until they found a way to extract it for themselves.

Elphaba’s choice to forge her own path is what earns her the wicked title. Coming from Middle English, *wikked* means “evil in principle or practice, morally perverse.” To those in power, that’s exactly what Elphaba’s morals were—a perversion of the staid route that built a yellow road off the backs of enslaved animals.

Elphaba’s raw honesty about the missteps of Oz is the mirror she holds up to the underbelly of society. It is her sensitivity to suffering, not her supposed wickedness, that makes her a threat.

With Elphaba’s magic out of the caldron, the spell of the Yellow Brick Road is broken. She knows her power will carry her into the unknown world where all parts of her will be able to fly free.

Leaving the Yellow Brick Road Tarot Spread

This Hermit Year has been rife with metaphors of pathless paths and journeys down unlit roads. We’ve learned that all of us, at some point or another, must leave route we know in order to understand if it’s truly meant for us.

• What is your Yellow Brick Road?

• Where is the unpaved path calling you?

• What feelings might arise as you leave the familiar route?

• What tools, guides, or mantras do you need as you step into the unknown?

• What power will you reclaim as you choose your own direction?

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Flying Solo, Flying Free

Musical reminders that when we fly free we’re never flying solo, because we’re in the company of our most honest and alive selves.

• “Defying Gravity” as sung by Cynthia Erivo and Arianna Grande.

• “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” This is a fabulous 1973 clip of Elton John doing his thing.

• “Jericho” by Iniko shows us that after we leave the Yellow Brick Road, we’re ready to topple empire.

XO

ALTARU TAROT

P.S.

I visited Salem, Massachusetts for the first time last weekend.

Did I watch Hocus Pocus? Yes I did.

Did I get my aura read? You bet.

Did I take a quiz at a broom shop and get “Defying Gravity” as my broom type? If the Witch Hat fits 🌝 🧙

Every fall along the Atlantic Flyway in the northeast of the U.S., hundreds of bird species descend upon cities as they make their way south for winter. While it’s easy to write off this seasonal shift as a “birds will be birds” moment, for millennia animals have not only been markers of time but venerated as magical message bearers.

In tarot, animals are messengers too. They remind us of the intuitive knowledge that springs from our animal selves, to be open the wisdom of the natural world. Some animals are companions to the tarot archetypes while others are symbolic, imbuing the characters in the cards with their power.

Let’s see who shows up in the mystical menagerie and what they have to teach us.

Animals of the Tarot - Major Arcana

The Fool | White Dog

🐕 White dog - innocence, protection, guidance

The Magician | Snake

🐍 Snake - duality, transformation, eternal cycles

The Emperor | Ram

🐏 Ram - strength, determination, leadership

The Chariot | Sphinx

⚪ White Sphinx - conscious willpower, duality

⚫ Black Sphinx - unconscious desire, duality

The Lovers | Snake

🐍 Snake - temptation, knowledge, choice

Strength | Lion

🦁 Lion - wildness, courage, passion

Wheel of Fortune | Human, Bull, Lion, Eagle

👶🏻 Human (Aquarius) – intellect, clarity of thought

🐂 Bull (Taurus) – strength, stability, headstrong mentality

🦁 Lion (Leo) – courage, leadership, vitality

🦅 Eagle (Scorpio) – spiritual vision, higher awareness

🐍 Snake - transformation, descent into the material realm

🦊Jackal - transformation, ascent into spiritual realm

🎱 Sphinx - resurrection, wisdom, balance

Death | White Horse

🐎 White horse - purity, transformation, inevitability

The Star | Ibis Bird

🦤 Ibis bird - wisdom, healing, resilience

The Moon | Lobster, Wolf, Dog

🦞 Lobster - subconscious fears, wisdom,

🐺 Wolf - wildness, instinct, intuition

🐕 Dog - domestication, rationality, loyalty

The Sun | White Horse

🐎 White horse - Purity, vehicle for happiness, harmony

The World | Human, Bull, Lion, Eagle

👶🏻 Human (Aquarius) – insight, communication

🐂 Bull (Taurus) – strength, culmination, transformation of spiritual into material

🦁 Lion (Leo) – courage, leadership, fortitude

🦅 Eagle (Scorpio) – spiritual vision, new perspectives, transcendence

Animals of the Tarot - Minor Arcana

PENTACLES

9 of Pentacles | Snail, Bird of Prey

🐌 Snail - patience, tenacity, perseverance

🦅 Bird of prey - discipline, focus, mastery

10 of Pentacles | Dogs

🐩 Dogs - loyalty, protection, familial bonds

Knight of Pentacles | Black Horse

🐎 Black horse - dependability, practicality, diligence

Queen of Pentacles | Rabbit

🐇 Rabbit - fecundity, energy, abundance

King of Pentacles | Bull

🐂 Bull - tenacity, stability, prosperity

WANDS

Six of Wands | White Horse

🐎 White horse – energy, progress, triumph

Page of Wands | Salamander

🦎 Salamander – resilience, transformation, enthusiasm

Knight of Wands | Horse, Salamander

🐎 Horse – energy, adventure, drive

🦎 Salamander – adaptability, courage, passion

Queen of Wands | Black Cat, Lion

🐈‍⬛ Black Cat – intuition, protection, independence

🦁 Lion – confidence, sovereignty, passion

King of Wands | Salamander, Lions

🦎 Salamander – endurance, creativity, vitality

🦁 Lions – authority, courage, leadership

CUPS

Ace of Cups | Dove

🕊️ Dove – peace, love, purity

Two of Cups | Griffin

🦅🦁 Griffin – duality, divine authority, protection

Seven of Cups | Snake, Dragon

🐍 Snake – temptation, wisdom, transformation

🐉 Dragon – illusion, power, desire

Page of Cups | Fish

🐟 Fish – surprise, imagination , inspiration

Knight of Cups | White Horse, Fish

🐎 White horse – grace, romance, pursuit

🐟 Fish – communication of emotion, creativity, intuition

Queen of Cups | Mermaids, Fish

🧜‍♀️ Mermaids – empathy, depth, sensitivity

🐟 Fish – the unconscious, emotion, dreams

King of Cups | Fish

🐟 Fish – balance, compassion, serenity

SWORDS

Page of Swords | Birds

🐦 Birds – curiosity, ideas, messages

Knight of Swords | White Horse, Butterfly, Birds

🐎 White Horse – determination, action, swiftness

🦋 Butterfly – change, intellect, clarity

🐦 Birds – perspective, speed, taking charge

Queen of Swords | Butterfly, Birds

🦋 Butterfly – wisdom, transformation, perception

🐦 Birds – truth, communication, freedom

King of Swords | Butterfly, Birds

🦋 Butterfly – evolution, mastery, insight

🐦 Birds – logic, clarity, authority

Witches and Their Familiars

Why are magical beings like those shown in the tarot so often accompanied by animals? Because the sharp senses and instinctual urges of our furry, flighted, and fishy friends are easy to anthropomorphize.

When speaking in allegory, as the tarot often does, these innate animal behaviors become symbolic shorthand. They highlight mannerisms that can break through the tamed human facade to reveal the animal within us all.

But no pairing of human and animal may be more powerful than the witch and her cat.

This duo rose to infamy during the European Witch Trials. Records as early as 1400 claim the connection: “woman burned by inquisitor for changing self into form of cat and killing children with Devil’s aid.”

Forced confessions from so-called witches revealed that cats spoke to them and commanded the inculpated to “serve them”. But anyone who has a cat knows, this isn’t new information. Serving them is all we do.

Over the centuries, this association made its way across the Atlantic to the Salem Witch trails of 1692. Women living with cats, especially black ones, were accused of housing fluffy embodiments of the devil known as familiars.

If you’re not familiar with familiars (mine was sitting on my chest as I wrote this) they’re recognized in European folklore as spirit guides or inter-dimensional beings. They typically take the form of an animal that aids a witch with their mystical bidding.

One particularly famous familiar is Satan the Cat who, in a 1566 witchcraft trail pamphlet, was accused of offing everything from butter to babies at the behest of his master.

But there is a counter tale (pun intended) to this negative narrative of woman and cat. It started a few thousand years before witches and their feline friends were being burned at the stake for simply existing.

Bastet the Baddie

In Ancient Egypt, the cult of cat was strong thanks to their powers, both mystical and mundane. Excellent mice and cobra catchers, cats guarded grain stocks against infestation and the spread of disease and were upheld and protected as trained hunters and beloved as house pets. Evidence of this reverence can be found in the statues and gold amulets of cats sanctified in the Egyptian god Bastet.

Linked with Sekhmet, the lion-headed mother of destruction and creation, Bastet is the god of home, fertility, and protection. Often represented with a cat’s head on a woman’s body, Bastet was one of many Ancient Egyptian gods known for their shapeshifting and species-bending presentation.

The ability to shape shift ties back to the western conception of witches and their powers. In Women Who Fly: Goddesses, Witches, Mystics, and Other Airborne Females, Serenity Young writes:

“Shapeshifters are unnerving because they cannot be contained within the primary categories of species, suggesting other, uncanny possibilities that subvert fundamental beliefs about what it is to be human.”

Witches, with their ability to move beyond the roles society casts them in, have always been shapeshifters. They move with the wisdom of animals, listening and adapting to the subtle changes in their environment, working with what is to manifest what’s to come.

Finding Your Familiar Spread

This month’s spread is about finding the animal energy that wants to work with you.

What do the animals we share this planet with have to teach us about living a more magical life?

They show us how to protect what we hold dear. To play without reason. To love without pretense. To intuit without question. To exist without apology.

They remind us that we too are animals. That the magic we crave is not inside our screens but within us, an instinct just waiting to be remembered.

1. Pull out all the tarot cards in your deck that feature animals. If it’s not the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, don’t worry! Choose whatever animals you see or pull whichever ones coordinate with the animal cards outlined in the first section of the newsletter.

2. Give the cards a shuffle and ask, “What animals want to work with me in this moment?” Pull one to three cards.

3. Review the symbolic meaning of each animal. You can look at the definitions in this newsletter, search the many free resources online, or tap into your intuitive associations.

4. With the rest of the non-animal cards in the deck ask, “What do my familiars want me to know?”

5. Finally pull one additional card to answer the question, “How can I connect with my animal nature?”

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Furry Friends

I have a confession. This month’s newsletter is just an excuse to write about my cat.

Geoff came to me, pre-ordained in December 2024, through a friend of a friend. I tried very hard to rename him something witchy or even Egyptian, but whenever I looked at his dopey, handsome face, his eyes said one thing:

It wasn’t until my downstairs neighbor sent me a poem written by an 18th century English poet about his beloved cat, that I realized the literary weight of Geoff’s name. The heartfelt ode begins, “For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.”

Though Geoff has many talents (stealing my pita bread, giving high fives, murder…though not at my behest), like all familiars, his most important skill is mirror magic—reflecting back the unconscious patters in which us human animals sometimes get tangled.

When I’m stressed, he yowls for my attention as if to scream, “Girl! The vibes are off!”

When I go zombie mode looking at my phone, he head butts it out of my hand.

When I’m not feeling well, he sits on my chest like a purring nurse.

He’s always there to call me back into nature’s rhythms, back in tune with my animal self.

But this isn’t an advertorial for Petfinder.com. It’s a call to remember that if we tap into the natural world, we’ll find familiars all around us, sharing their magic so that we can remember our own. The birds singing on the window sill. The friendly hello from the neighborhood dog. The bees buzzing in the garden. The rat scurrying aross the road. The deer appearing in the yard.

Instead of trying to get them to speak our language of schedules, and expectations, and studied behavior, what if we what if we slowed down and learned to speak theirs? A language of seasons, and sunsets, and rest, and play.

Are we ready to listen?

Animal House

More ways to get buck wild with our animal friends.

• A wonderful article about why “we should talk to animals more” from friend, fellow bird enthusiast, and author of Wild NYC: Experience the Amazing Nature in and Around New York City, .

• Animal Spirit Deck by Kim Krans

• The witchiest lines from English poet Christopher Smart’s Jeoffry poem:

“For he counteracts the powers of darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes. For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life.”

Happy early Halloween, ya filthy animals ;)

XO

ALTARU TAROT

We’ve arrived in the 9th month of our 9 year amid eclipses, and raptures, and equinoxes, oh my!

If you’re feeling topped up like a ballon before it blows, welcome to the party.

For those alive during the party on December 31st, 1999, this moment feels strangely reminiscent.

Back then, we were all waiting for an impending disaster charmingly called Y2K. Computing experts theorized that when the clock struck midnight we’d descend into cyber purgatory. Humans would enter the next millennium, but computers would shoot back to the year 1900, wreaking havoc on banking, travel, and utility industries or any digital system that used numbers.

It was the closing of a numerological cycle with a lot of loose ends to tie up before we moved into the next. Panic ensued. Action was taken. Hearts were braced. And then? Well we’re here, aren’t we?

This is your brain on 9 energy.

In the tarot, nines represent:

• Intensity

• Fullness

• Culmination

• Graduation

• Integration

The nines are the last pitstop before renewal and transformation. They’re that final mile a of a marathon, the minute before school lets out for the summer, the day before the baby is born.

The anticipation of what lies on the other side is so potent it might make you feel a bit batty! 🦇

Nines tend to feel stuffed because they contain all the lessons of the previous eight cards in their suit. In their fullness, nines invite us to reflect—on the past to remember how much we’ve grown and into the future to remember our capacity for continued evolution.

The 9th circle of…

This year we’ve spoken much of the Hermit’s Journey, and the nines are part of that progression. They represent the circuitous routes we must take with our minds, hearts, bodies, and spirits before reaching the enlightenment and wisdom the Hermit seeks.

In more mundane terms, nines encourage us to take a final lap so we can dot our i’s and cross our t’s before we move into what’s coming next.

While the nines follow different trails as they strive for completion, they’re also linked—their colors alone an evolution from darkness to light.

As a collective, the cards move through what I like to call the Final Four. No, not the March Madness basketball bracket, but the final four stages before metamorphosis. And boy, do these cards feel like a wee caterpillar leveling up to butterfly status.

During the Final Four, nines move from fearing to → fighting to → fulfillment to → flourishing. Let’s take a look.

• Nine of Swords: Fearing

  • Unable to look at the future for fear of what it might hold

  • Keywords: Anxiety, limiting thought patterns, breaking illusions, clarity, energy shifts

• Nine of Wands: Fighting

  • Fighting fear but glancing over one shoulder at the emotionally fraught past

  • Keywords: Rage, resistance, exhaustion, perseverance, determination, resilience

• Nine of Cups: Fulfillment

  • Facing the present head on, fulfilled and grounded in gratitude for what's been overcome

  • Keywords: Gratitude, satisfaction, trust, dreams, wishes, hope

• Nine of Pentacles: Flourishing

  • Flourishing in material abundance while looking toward the future with confidence

  • Keywords: Pleasure, achievement, material abundance, confidence, self reliance

No matter where you are in your evolution, or how many cycles you’ve been through, remember, the cocoon is just as important as the bloom.

What stage of metamorphosis do you find yourself in?

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The 9th Knot

When we tie up loose ends, what do we get? Knots.

While knots are often referred to as something that must be undone, they are also points of connection, security, and unity. This is evidenced by the role knots play in the artistic heritage of many cultures, few more prominent than the tradition of the Celts.

The practice of Celtic knots can be traced to back 500 CE, though its inception is hotly debated due to historian’s views on the legitimacy of oral versus recorded history. (As a tarot reader, you know I’m team oral history.)

In his book Celtic Art in Pagan and Christian Times, John Romilly Allen said, “There are eight elementary knots which form the basis of nearly all the interlaced patterns in Celtic decorative art.”

When these eight elementary knots are combined, they form a ninth entity—the Celtic knot. It is an artistic emblem that speaks to the interconnectedness of all things.

These ancient patterns are a reminder that we’re tied to our histories through both story and symbol.

9 Knot Spread

Celtic knots embody the lessons of the nines. They show us that creating the self we wish to be means tying together the all knotted selves that came before.

Grab your cards to tie together the loose ends of these past nine years and discover who you’ve become.

1. Who was I in the beginning?

2. What balance did I find?

3. What community did I build?

4. What stability did I create?

5. What challenges did I face?

6. What harmony did I make?

7. What ambition did I chase?

8. What rewards did I discover?

9. Who have I become?

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9-ty Night

Before I sign off, some more knotty nine finery.

• Sarah Faith Gottesteiner’s deep dives into the nines: 9 of Wands | 9 of Cups | 9 of Swords | 9 of Pentacles.

• The tit amulet (nope, I’m not kidding) associated with the Egyptian goddess Isis. This depiction of a knotted rope was a powerful symbol of protection. Knots were also seen as something that could bind and release magic. Our fave ;)

• A reading with me if you’d like to tie up some more 9 year loose ends.

XO

ALTARU TAROT

P.S. Writing this month’s newsletter? A nine of a time 😅

A Tale of Two Stories

John Lennon famously said, “Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end."

While many of us know the story of John Lennon’s passing, there is beauty in this sentiment.

It’s the idea that if we keep telling our story, a narrative we can call our own will eventually rise to meet us. And if not us, the people we’ve impacted or generations that will come after us. Because our stories are not just our own, they are the threads of our shared humanity.

Narrative psychology taps into this belief. It posits that people are fundamentally storytellers, and explores how the stories we tell about our lives impact our emotions, well being, and how we orient to the world.

Tarot functions much the same.

Those that have received readings from me have heard me say this before—the cards we pull are irrelevant. It’s the story we build around them that eases our worry, opens our minds, and heals our hearts.

I’m not suggesting we put a Pollyanna polish on everything or force ourselves to look on the bright side (cuz let’s be real, a Tower moment is a Tower moment). But how can we use tarot to reframe the things we’re going through?

How can we tell tales that house both the beautiful and challenging aspects of life?

How can we build narratives we can live inside?

From Negative to Narrative Nancy

(For those named Nancy—respect to your moniker which means “grace”. I’m intentionally poking fun at one of the many gendered colloquialisms that’s befallen the English language.)

Known for their work on narrative identity, Jonathan Adler (not to be confused with the interior designer) and Dan McAdams have said:

“One of the most crucial choices we make in telling our stories ( . . . ) is where we start and stop the different chapters of our life story.”

The same goes for tarot reading! The lens through which we see our readings can make them tales of ruin or redemption.

So ask yourself, is that card you pulled a damnation or an invitation?

A Tale of Two Stories Spread

1. What is the story I'm telling myself?

2. Where am I being invited to find a new perspective?

3. What parts of the narrative are ready to fall away?

4. How will my story change with this new lens?

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The Strangers Project

The Strangers Project is a pantheon to the power of story. Shepherded into the world by my dear friend , the project is a love letter to our shared humanity. Part collective art installation, part group therapy, part magic, The Strangers Project is a free space that invites people to answer the question:

What’s it like being you?

Since its inception in 2009, The Strangers Project has amassed more than 100,000 anonymous, true, handwritten letters. A celebration of the full spectrum of human emotion, these letters show all the ways our stories are connected and remind us that connection is key to our survival.

To me, each letter is like a little tarot reading, a snapshot of someone’s psyche and soul at the time of writing. Below are some favorites that show the wonder of staying with our story.

In celebration of this beautiful project, I’ll be offering free tarot readings on Saturday, September 6th from 2-6pm EST at the Stranger’s Project in the World Trade Center Oculus in New York City.

Come write your story and get a reading. We’d love to see you!

Story Time

More on the power of stories.

• The Strangers Project - You can connect Brandon’s work on Instagram and Substack

• Change Your Story, Change Your Life - A podcast episode from Hidden Brain about how to tell stories that enhance our wellbeing

• The Future Needs Better Storytellers: Designing with Imagination in Mind - Written by , fellow substacker, designer, storyteller, and systems thinker, this post explores the question: “What stories are shaping your choices right now and who is benefitting from them?”

• “Strangers” - A Lucius cover of The Kinks song whose lyrics remind us that on the road of life, we’re never really strangers.

XO

ALTARU TAROT

Happy Full Moon, witches.

Two weeks ago we learned about The Hermit’s Journey.

Today we’ll dive deeper into:

1. Each of the journey’s phases

2. Identifying where you are in your own Hermit’s Journey

3. Tarot pulls that can support you along your way

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One small step for Hermits, one giant leap for Hermit kind

No matter what journey you’re on—whether it be a relationship, work, creative endeavor, illness, new home, etc.—The Hermit’s Journey is a framework that is meant to be used cyclicly, just like the phases of the moon.

Let’s dive in.

The Void | New Moon

Being outcast, othered, or separate from society

In Maggie Smith’s poem, “How Dark The Beginning,” she writes about how any new day, any new start, begins in darkness.

“We talk so much of light, please

let me speak on behalf

of the good dark. Let us

talk more of how dark

the beginning of a day is.”

The New Moon is the entrance into the dark beginning or the Void. It stirs a deep but unseen feeling that something’s amiss. A knowing that the status quo is no longer enough to sustain the self.

Indications you’ve entered the Void

• Dark dreams

• Searching for something, but not knowing what

• A sense of being on the outside looking in

Tarot Prompt

• What am I being asked to see inside the darkness of the void?

The Illumination | Waxing Crescent Moon

The call to walk a different path

The Illumination opens us to the excitement and terror of a novel possibility. It starts as a small agitator—a book that reveals a new room in your mind, the person who makes you realize you have people, the change of pace that finally grounds your nervous system. Now that you’ve awoken to this shimmering invitation, it’s impossible to unsee.

Signs you’ve seen the Illumination

• Floods of new ideas

• Detailed daydreams

• Nostalgia for a world you have yet to leave

Tarot Prompt

• What new path has recently been illuminated?

The Precipice | First Quarter Moon

Feeling lost amid the doubt of others and the self

Your unconscious is calling you. You know it’s time for a change. But the societal narratives you’ve been living inside are roaring loud.

Don’t go.

It’s dangerous out there.

Are you sure that’s a good idea?

You’ll be all alone.

Why choose to struggle?

These voices of doubt are trying to protect you from the unknown but you already understand—the known world is what you need protecting from.

Clues you’re on the Precipice

• Feeling lost

• Wanting to move forward but not knowing how

• Embodying the squeaky sound of indecision (ee-er, ee-er, ee-er)

Tarot Prompt

• How can I thank doubt and move into trust?

The Walking Stick | Waxing Gibbous Moon

Using external tools to navigate the new road

The Walking Stick is both the preparation and first step onto the new path. Tools for the journey have been gathered. Your pre-journey self has learned these resources are essential, and at first, they will be. They represent the world you know, the one that, even though it may no longer fit, is still called home.

Ways you’re wielding the Walking Stick

• Making itemized lists

• Donating what you no longer need

• Streamlining your “essentials”

Tarot Prompt

• What resources do I have that will support me on my journey?

The Lantern | Full Moon

Learning to navigate by the inner light of intuition

You’ve found yourself in a new, mysterious world. Things look, feel, smell, taste, and sound different. You are different.

Suddenly tools from the old world don’t work like they used to. The new world calls for experimentation. Without the guide of pre-scripted narratives, you must turn inward and let your intuition lead.

Signals you’re leading with the Lantern

• Time spent listening

• Moonlit walks

• Creative play as intuitive experimentation

Tarot Prompt

• What experimental practice is my intuition leading me toward?

The Rocky Path | Waning Gibbous Moon

Longing to turn back. A belief that the old path will be easier than continuing to traverse the unknown

Though you’re learning to follow the light of your intuition, the impending return of darkness is sending fears as big as boulders rolling down your trail. Maybe it’s easier to pack it in and head home.

The Rocky Path teaches us that intuition must learn to walk hand in hand with our fears and doubts.

This concept is beautifully underscored in a speech in the film Conclave (A movie about the Catholic church, cannot be mentioned without recognizing the deeply complicated and sometimes problematic nature of religion. Take what resonates, and leave the rest). Replace the word “faith” with “intuition” in this quote and you can hear the Rocky Path’s resonance.

“Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand in hand with doubt. If there was only certainty and no doubt there would be no mystery and therefore no need for faith.”

Place trust in your intuition. Its knowing is circuitous.

Realizations you’re on the Rocky Path

• Ah-ha moments that come months down the road

• Stop signs you learn to recognize as green lights

• Roadblocks that reveal themselves as divine redirection

Tarot Prompt

• What challenge or fear is here to redirect me into expansion?

The Incantation | Last Quarter Moon

Putting newfound intuitive knowledge to the test

The Incantation is ignited when a familiar challenge reappears. You recognize it as your sticking point, the place you always seem to stumble.

But this time, there is space between the friction and your reaction. This time you’re able to see a new way of engaging with something old. This time your intuition decides to weave a different web.

Tip offs you’re initiating the Incantation

• Choosing curiosity over foregone conclusions

• Breaking free of old contracts

• Taking the scenic route

Tarot Prompt

• What intuitive knowing is ready to be put into practice?

The Return | Waning Crescent Moon

Sharing the wisdom gained in solitude with society

You’ve been journeying for a while now, and guess what? You’ve seen some shit. Shit that's softened and strengthened you. Introduced you to your intuition. Taught you how to commune with yourself. Maybe you’ve even started to think hey, it’s not so bad out here alone.

But the wisdom you’ve gained is stirring.`It knows that one of the many reasons we journey is not just to connect more deeply with ourselves, but with others.

Returning to the place you began—be it physically or metaphorically—reveals all the ways you’ve changed. You return as a lantern for those needing guidance in the dark. You return to learn from those that have gone on their own Hermit’s Journey, ones you might not ever get to take. You return to nurture your little corner of the world, one piece of lived wisdom at a time.

Recognition that you’re in the Return

• Revisiting emotionally charged places

• Repairing things you’d left for broken

• Reconnecting with community

Tarot Prompt

• What do I need to revisit, review, reconnect with, or repair?

Fly Me To The Moon

More ways to connect our Hermit to its teacher, the Moon.

• The Moon Book: Lunar Magic to Change Your Life —Use this book

  to work more with the moon phases

• A song about being on the Precipice—”By Design” by mmeadows

• The Assessment—A dystopian film about the journeys we take amid trying circumstances. Beautiful performances by all involved, where do you see aspects of Hermit’s Journey in each of the characters?

Can’t wait to hear what you discover on your Hermit’s Journey.

XO

ALTARU TAROT

This month we’re learning about the Hermit’s teacher card. Our Heavenly Mother! The Original Illuminati! Our Lady Luna! The Moon 🌝

What is a Teacher Card?

Every major arcana card has a teacher (or two). A numerology-linked counterpoint, a devil’s advocate, a personal advice giver that says, “Hey little one, feeling stuck? Why not look at it from this perspective?”

Calculating Teacher Cards

• Identify the number of the year and its tarot card. In 2025, 2+0+2+5 = 9 and The Hermit

• Find the major arcana card whose digits add up to the number of the year

• The Moon is number 18 → 1 + 8 = 9

• The Moon is the Hermit’s teacher card

Who is The Moon?

The Moon represents:

• The unconscious

• The unseen

• Emotions

• Intuition

• Spirits

• Dreams

• Illusions

Just like the Hermit’s lantern, the Moon’s light teaches us there is only so much we can learn in daylight, only so much we can ingest through conscious thought.

Its soft illumination invites us to dip into the unconscious and swim with fresh emotions, budding dreams, and spiritual questions, acclimating to the waters before we bring these ideas into awareness.

Thanks to its watery, Piscean ruler (shout out to the astro nerds—the Cancer/Moon connection is also true!) the Moon’s light ebbs and flows, sometimes plunging us into moments of complete darkness. And the darkness, my friends, is where the Hermit/Moon journey begins.

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The Hermit’s Journey

The Hermit and the Moon are both journeyers across the landscape of the soul and the sky.

As with the main characters we know and love in folklore, literature, and film, long journeys are integral to these two tarot archetypes. But the main character we’re talking about today is you, cutie.

(Main Character Energy not to be confused with Main Character Syndrome)

When we study main characters and the stories they inhabit we start to see patterns. Author and mythologist Joseph Campbell pulled these patterns into a schema called The Hero’s Journey. While this narrative structure is useful in interpreting what events drive growth in a character as they face various challenges and tests (think Odysseus from Homer’s “Odyssey” or Luke Skywalker in Star Wars), it has also met criticism for centering the masculine, externally-focused development arc.

As a response to the Hero’s Journey, Maureen Murdock, a Jugian-oriented psychotherapist, created The Heroine’s Journey. Her goal was to address the “psycho-spiritual journey of contemporary women…that involves the healing of the wounding of the feminine that exists deep within her and the culture.” We can find examples of the Heroine in films like Barbie, Poor Things, Mulan, and the Hunger Games.

Well, in my response to these binary views of human adventure, I’ve created The Hermit’s Journey. Linked to the eight phases of the moon, The Hermit’s Journey integrates both external and internal worlds, the masculine and feminine, and the individual and the collective to help us navigate moments of darkness with curiosity, and if we’re lucky, a little humor and grace.

Why connect the Hermit’s Journey to the moon? Because as the Hermit voyages into the dark unknown, each night the moon casts the world in a different light, creating portals through which the Hermit can explore new aspects of the spiritual self.

The Hermit’s Journey

1. The Void | New Moon: Being outcast, othered, or separate from society

2. The Illumination | Crescent Moon: The call to walk a different path

3. The Precipice | First Quarter Moon: Feeling lost amid the doubt of others and the self

4. The Walking Stick | Waxing Gibbous Moon: Using external tools to navigate the new road

5. The Lantern | Full Moon: Learning to navigate by the inner light of intuition

6. The Rocky Path | Waning Gibbous Moon: Longing to turn back. A belief that the old path will be easier than continuing to traverse the unknown

7. The Incantation | Last Quarter Moon: Putting newfound intuitive knowledge to the test

8. The Return | Waning Crescent Moon: Sharing the wisdom gained in solitude with society

Leaving the Ordinary World

One aspect of The Hero’s Journey that I love is the crossing from the Ordinary World into the Special World. It’s a reminder that all life’s adventures do one of two things:

1. move us physically into unfamiliar places to experience and explore new things, or

2. move us emotionally, painting our current surroundings in new colors

Below is a spread to prepare us for our Hermit’s Journey and the crossing from the conscious to the unconscious and from the darkness into the light.

Leaving the Ordinary World Spread

• What journey am I contemplating?

• What is keeping me from beginning?

• What tools do I need to guide me?

• What might I discover about the world and myself?

• How will I expand as a result of my journeying?

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Another Step on the Journey

Many of you have asked that I break these newsletters into shorter, more frequent missives, so this is the end of Part One of The Hermit’s Journey. I’ll be sending out Part Two during the full moon in Aquarius (a perfect sign for visioning) on August 9th. In the meantime, more on the journeys of Heroes and Heroines.

• A straightforward breakdown of the Heroine’s Journey by The Heroine Journeys Project

• The Hero’s Journey from a writing perspective

XO

ALTARU TAROT

We’re halfway through our Hermit year and after six months of slow growth, the vibe is shifting. Can you feel it?

Even if you can’t, the earth can. We just passed through the solstice, the longest or shortest day of the year depending on your hemisphere. The sun’s light is changing and so is our view of the things around us.

Solstice celebrations are about gathering, and after months of hard/freeing/lonely/enlightening (honestly, pick your adjective poison) solo exploration, it’s time to gather and see what our individual lessons look like through the lens of collective integration.

Light—whether it's the midday sun or a cozy evening fire or the Hermit’s lantern—reminds us that darkness cannot exist without its counterpoint. That no matter how heavy we feel, levity is always available to us. When Hermit work starts to feel too weighty to carry alone, it’s time to recommit to our themes of:

• Entrances and exits: Brining the clarity found in solitude back to the collective.

• Sightless seeing: Divine presence as our guiding light amid darkness.

• Individual intuition vs. collective consciousness: Remembering our intuition is informed by what we’ve learned from the collective, and the collective is informed by each individual’s contribution.

Let It Be Light Tarot Spread

• What light can I gather around?

• Who is the community I’m sharing it with?

• What will we learn surrounded by its glow?

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What Kind of Hermit Are You?

Though the solstice is about coming together, much more solo learning will unfold between now and the end of the year. If that spikes fear your little heart, remember the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“What lies before us, and what lies behind us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

Understanding the hermit that lies within reveals the unique wisdom we have to share with others. But how do we know what kind of hermit we are?

A quiz, of course. (Be still my Teen Magazine heart!)

WHAT TYPE OF HERMIT ARE YOU?

Take the quiz to find out:

1. Your hermit type:

   • 🌲Nature Babe

   • 📚 Wisdom Keeper

   • 🕯️ Shadow Seeker

   • 🔥Torch Bearer

   • 🎨 Oracle Artist

2. The tarot archetypes you can work with

3. A personalized tarot spread

What does each Hermit archetype bring to the collective?

• Nature Babe: Helps us move at the speed of Earth Time. Understands what we have to learn from nature and that we’re a part of it.

• Wisdom Keeper: Connects dots and gleans insight from many forms of information—books, music, art, science—to reveal universal truths.

• Shadow Seeker: Uncovers what’s hiding in the spiritual shadow of the collective. Embodies what’s present but unexplored, painful but unfelt, dreamed of but yet to be actualized.

• Torch Bearer: Alchemizes personal pain to connect with and lead others out of moments of darkness.

• Oracle Artist: Creates a vision for the collective future through their art.

Which archetype are you?

Here Today, Hermit Tomorrow

In the spirit of levity, that’s it for this month. Now grab your hermit hobby and bring it into the light. We’ll return to our hermitages tomorrow.

XO

ALTARU TAROT

In tarot, each suit is ruled by an element. Don’t know what that means? Let’s make like a groundhog and dig in.

The elemental suits give us insight into the parts of self that may be at play in a reading.

• Wands = Fire = Creative Self

• Cups = Water = Emotional Self

• Swords = Air = Cerebral Self

• Pentacles = Earth = Embodied Self

Reading with the elements in mind loosens our grip on a card’s prescribed meaning and connects us with a spread’s overall energy.

An air-infused reading could feel heady or fraught with over thinking. A water-heavy reading might signal a well of unexplored emotions. A fire-forward reading may conjure inspiration or “act before you think” energy.

And then there’s earth.

The earth element is an invitation to explore:

• Stability

• Livelihood

• Growth

• The Home

• The Body

• Grounding

In this year of mutable earth, the earth-ruled Pentacles teach us how to make the ephemeral, physical.

Pentacles ask: what practical magic can we cultivate in our daily lives? How can we use that magic to ground our hopes, wishes, and dreams in reality?

I Feel the Earth, Move, Under My Feet

Earth is our card of the year’s element.

While the earth-ruled Hermit may seem like they have their head in the clouds pondering universal unknowns, true Hermit energy can find the spiritual anywhere, even in the mundanity of the material world. The Hermit understands the physical and spiritual realms are inextricably linked, their duality a portal to the magic of the other.

Learning to infuse our daily lives with hints of the divine is a mapless process, but when we look at the Pentacles as a series of tangible becomings, they guide us like landmarks on our personal map of self discovery.

• Ace of Pentacles: Planting the new seed of a new self

• Two of Pentacles: Learning to ride the ebb and flow our energy

• Three of Pentacles: Building support through community

• Four of Pentacles: Maintaining healthy boundaries

• Five of Pentacles: Learning to ask for help

• Six of Pentacles: Balancing the acts of giving and receiving

• Seven of Pentacles: Assessing and clearing what no longer serves

• Eight of Pentacles: Leaning into our sacred work

• Nine of Pentacles: Celebrating the self through tangible rewards

• Ten of Pentacles: Sharing our prosperity with others

Moving through the 1-10 of this suit is like building a house. The Court cards are how we live in it.

• Page of Pentacles: Cultivating curiosity about the physical world

• Knight of Pentacles: Creating steady and consistent practices

• Queen of Pentacles: Nurturing the self and the collective

• King of Pentacles: Leading from a place of security, abundance, and generosity

We may visit these pitstops multiple times in our lives, each trek revealing different learnings. Where are you in your own journey of becoming?

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Earth Time

Where fire, air, and water rapidly transform, earth pulls up a chair and stays for a while.

Earth Time shows us—to build things that last, we must go slow and take our time to grow.

Earth Time refuses to move at the speed of chronos or measured time. Instead, it lives by that which guides the Hermit’s pocket watch—kairos. With kairos, the perception of measured moments fade away leaving the expansiveness of pure presence. Kairos is embodied by things so timely we slip into a sense of timelessness.

If chronos represents our best laid plans, then kairos reminds us to expect the unexpected.

Examples of kairos—Witnessing someone’s first breath. Witnessing someone’s last. Getting lost in a moment. Finding yourself in movement. The unexpected invite. The perspective changing insight. A good conversation. An even greater kiss. Considering a redwood. Contemplating the stars. Every. Damn. Sunrise.

If kairos feels so expansive, why do so many of us get caught in the speeding wheel of chronos? Well for starters, capitalism (which in some ways incited the invention measured time). But for finishers, when we slow down we feel more deeply. And deep feeling is a reminder of our human bodies and their capacity for both pleasure…and pain.

Speeding up into chronos creates a blurring effect, the illusion that we won’t get caught in any one state (especially the more challenging ones), for too long. So while the linear clock ticks, the pain keeps us running and the pleasure keeps us chasing.

Instead of spending our “time” zonked out on chronos, how can we bring ourselves back to our bodies, back to Earth Time?

The remixed wisdom of the great Shirley Cesar would suggest connecting with the bees, trees, potatoes, tornadoes.

(J.K.)

We get grounded.

Down to Earth

In a world focused on the growth aspects of earth energy—growth mindsets, and productivity hacks, and hustle culture—getting grounded is radical.

Where is your life calling for more grounding? Consistent nourishment? More sleep? Dance breaks? Contemplative walks? Embodied rest? Grass gazing? Writing rituals?

While this question is ripe for a tarot pull, grounding our bodies before grabbing our decks, is like preparing the soil for the wisdom that’s about to sprout.

Getting Grounded Exercise

Go outside. Smell the air. Touch the ground. Look at the sky. Listen to the birds.

Can’t get outside? Lay down on your floor.

Can’t lay on the floor? Put your feet (or some part of your body) on the ground.

Can’t put your body on the ground? Feel the weight of your sacrum in your seat.

If you’re lacking energy, call it into your body through your grounded parts.

If you’re feeling frenetic, send that energy back to the ground through your roots.

Do this for 5, 10, or 15 minutes. Even better? Let your body tell you how long. No phone. No music. No meditation. Just you and the ground, hanging around on Earth Time.

Getting Grounded Tarot Spread

• What aspect of my life needs grounding?

• How can I call it in?

• What might come up as I move out of urgency/stagnancy and into the grounded present?

• How can I support myself in the transition?

• What will grow as a result of this shift?

Earthlings and Their Earthships

Altering our physical space can completely transform the equilibrium of our bodies.

It was on a trip to Taos, New Mexico, in search of an environment that could transmute my body’s hyperactivity, that I saw my first Earthship.

Though the New Mexican landscape can sometimes seem extraterrestrial, Earthships are very much of this world. Built from natural and recycled materials—think tires, plastic and glass bottles, reclaimed wood, etc.—Earthships create off-grid self-sustaining dwellings that transform trash into treasured homes.

In many ways these structures are the physical representation of a thought I carry with me often: everything in life gets to be compost if we let it.

Build it and You Will Become

Though I can’t build an Earthship in NYC, I can alchemize my apartment.

Olga Naiman, author of Spacial Alchemy, writes about transforming the places we inhabit to transform ourselves. She believes how we arrange our space in the present is a spell that calls in the self we’re becoming.

How to Alchemize Your Space

For our purposes a “space” could be your home, your work, a bag, or a mental place you inhabit.

1. Notice how your space makes you feel in your body.

2. Clear away what doesn’t resonate with your future self—items connected to outdated beliefs or old patterns.

3. Sit in the post-clear void and see what whispers back.

4. Select items that represent the new ideas or philosophies you want to connect with.

5. Integrate these pieces into your rituals and routines.

6. Assess, on a regular basis, how your body feels in your space and repeat the process as needed.

The void part of this process is how earth-led transformation works—things can lie fallow for months at a time, with no discernible movement. But then one day, it’s spring, and the part of your life you thought would be dormant forever, blooms.

This month, what’s one earthly possession or body-bound habit you can clear away? What do you imagine will bloom in its place?

Breaking Ground

• A conversation with Jenny Odell, author of Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock. Jump to 17:30 to hear her talk about chronos and kairos.

• Pam Grossman of The Witch Wave interviewing Olga Naiman author of Spacial Alchemist. While some of the conversation is a bit too consumerist for my taste, the concepts have good bones.

Permission to move at the speed of Earth Time, earthlings 🛸 🫡

XO

ALTARU TAROT

Run, Tarot, Run

When the world feels big and scary my immediate instinct is to run and hide—in my apartment, my head, or even inside my own tarot practice.

Though I’ve covered many miles doing mental loops with the cast of anxieties in my mind, eventually I always realize the only way to live is by putting my feet on real-world pavement.

Our tarot practices can fall prey to the same sheltered loops. Maybe we start taking the tarot a bit too seriously. Maybe we ignore it for fear of bumping into an emotional challenge or behavioral mirror. Maybe we harp on making the “right” interpretation instead of the intuitive one.

This shut-in behavior is the shadow side of our card of the year, the Hermit.

Though it’s nice to believe we can build protected worlds that aren’t impacted by other people, things, or events, the healthy Hermit knows the difference between solitude and isolation. A life sequestered in isolation is a like seed trying to live without soil. Isolation cuts us off from the context in which we exist. And context, dear friends, is everything.

No Spread for You!

In tarot, the practice of assigning meaning to card positions is called a “spread.” Spreads teach us how to read contextually. Common ones include:

• Past - Present - Future

• Head - Heart - Spirit

• Situation - Action - Outcome

• Or the ever popular Celtic Cross

When we start reading tarot, these pre-fab spreads can be extremely supportive. Similar to the pre-fab life paths we’re served at birth like school-work-retirement, or dating-marriage-baby, or idea-creation-monetization, spreads act as bumpers that guide us when we’re honing our skills and learning how to listen to ourselves.

But when we dabble in tarot for long enough, we realize certain cards speak to us across spreads, decks, and seasons. Ones that land with an extra bit of oomph when they hit the table. When we push aside the tarot spreads, lower the bumpers, and let intuition lead, we see tarot (and like, life) isn’t a pre-scripted narrative but a conversation. Each subsequent pull or experience adds a unique voice that shapes the story. What would happen if we let ourselves be surprised?

Here are some examples of this conversation in action:

All alone the Three of Swords spells heartbreak. But Three of Swords followed by the happiness of the Sun gives “Since You’ve Been Gone” energy.

The Lovers could signal a new partnership. But when the Lovers meets up with the High Priestess and the Moon? The person you may be romancing is yourself.

Queen of Pentacles could signal self care when paired with Nine of Pentacles or community care when aired with the Ten.

This month let’s break out of the pre-fab notions of how we should engage with tarot. Instead of picking up our decks, how can we pick up on a conversation that transcends the four-cornered boundaries of a card?

The challenge: Let your world speak to you in tarot.

When we look up from our decks we can find tarot symbology everywhere.

At the playground.

On the street corner.

In the shop window.

On the subway platform.

Enshrined in street murals.

Inside your local watering hole.

If you look at the world as your tarot deck, what themes come through?

Are the Cups following your thirsty ass? Are the Nines driving you to your edge with their “almost but not quite yet” message? Maybe the Majors are spelling it out for you big archetype style.

I’ll be posting a note on Substack where you can respond with photos of what you find.

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I Saw A Sign

As you know, the tarot is fluent in symbolism and metaphor. Hermit work is learning to notice and interpret how the world speaks in much the same way.

Is an animal appearance ever just an animal?

Is that number combination truly random?

Is the word you keep seeing just a word?

To be honest, I have no idea. But what I do know is the world feels more connected and magical when we imbue it with creative meaning.

In her book Signs: The Secret Language of the Universe, psychic-medium (I know, hang in here with me for a second) Laura Lynne Jackson discusses how the universe (or god/dess, ancestors, higher self, etc.) is always communicating with us if we’re willing to listen. Jackson emphasizes that while some signs are more common—ladybugs, flickering lights, coins, repeating numbers, etc.—we all have the capacity to build our own symbolic language that lets us know we’re supported.

This way of viewing the world made me think of how tarot can be just a deck cards or, if we let it, give us a rich vernacular to vocalize what words alone can’t always capture.

Being open to these signs is how the world will speak to you in tarot this month. So take off the headphones. Set down the cell. Sit with your surroundings.

Maybe the tarot speaks to you in snippets of other people’s conversations. The song playing at the grocery store. The name of that podcast episode. The book title in the window. Maybe it's the appearance of hearts, wands, coins, or swords. Maybe it's a color, an image, or a number.

What signs speak the loudest?

How do they sound?

When do they appear?

You Talkin’ to Me?

Speaking of non-traditional forms of communication, have you heard of The Telepathy Tapes? I’ve debated for months about whether or not to write about the podcast but it’s just too witchy to pass up.

Launched late 2024, the podcast quickly became Spotify’s most played, briefly bumping one that rhymes with Hoe Slogan from the number one spot.

Its main claim? Autistic children with limited to no verbal ability can telepathically communicate with their caretakers, teachers, and each other.

I’m not going to get into the how, why, or even the validity of this claim (though I encourage you to check out the pod and come to your own conclusions), but I do want to highlight a philosophical concept the podcast discusses at length: the materialist versus idealist paradigm.

There is a lot to say on the topic but basically:

Idealist = I think therefore I am

Materialist = I am therefore I think

An idealist looks at the world from a mental standpoint, believing reality is fundamentally mental or spiritual in nature and that what we experience is a construct of our own minds, which is impacted by our beliefs and values.

Materialists view the world from a, well, material standpoint believing the only thing that can be truly proven to exist is matter. This view means that all things, including consciousness, are a result of material things interacting with one another.

The Telepathy Tapes posits that the reason so many of us—including the scientific community—balk at the thought of studying something like telepathy, is because we’re stuck in a materialist paradigm where only that which can be measured can be real.

In materialist reality where the material alone doesn’t always make sense, what if we made room for the magic that cannot be measured? What conversations would we have? What reality would we find?

Signing Off

Some more idealist fodder to get you connected to the symbols and signs of the universe 🌀

• The Telepathy Tapes as well as a rebuttal “Telepathy: Is it for real?” by Science Vs.

• Laura Lynn Jackson and Jay Shetty chatting psychic abilities

XO

ALTARU TAROT

Perfection. What is it and why do we strive so hard to find it?

According to the dictionary, perfection is the condition, state, or quality of being free or as free as possible from all flaws or defects.

Embody perfection, it seems to say, and you will be free. But anyone who has chased perfection knows freedom is quite the opposite of what one finds.

Virgo, the astrological sign linked to our card of the year, The Hermit, is known for its pursuit of perfection.

As an earth sign, Virgo’s exacting eye grounds ideas and concepts with precision and rigor. Virgo energy is much beloved when we are architecting new systems, constructing buildings that will stand the test of time, baking an 18-step cake, or organizing things, events, and people. Even (or perhaps especially) in the seeming chaos of nature, Virgo finds divine structure. This build-it-and-they-will-come mentality connects Virgo to its higher purpose—being in service to collective.

Where Virgo sometimes loses the plot is not being able to see the forest through the details of the trees. Virgo’s sightless pursuit of perfection is also rooted within its astrological archetype, the Virgin.

Virgo and the Virgin

The Virgin has long been a saccharin symbol of perfection.

In her book The Virgin’s Promise: Writing Stories of Feminine Creative, Spiritual and Sexual Awakening, author Kim Hudson states that the archetypal Virgin is defined by their promise to live up to the community’s expectations of perfection, even if they’re contrary to the Virgin’s true desires.

Sure, one version of this promise is not doing the deed until marriage, but all of us, consciously or not, have made similar vows. When have you traded on the promise to be a version of yourself in exchange for acceptance, connection, accolades, or love?

This is where the Virgo Virgin’s striving originates, not from ego but a deep need to be in community. In some ways, living up to the Virgin’s Promise is a devotional act, honoring what the community wants and executing it at the highest level. But unchecked devotion to the other can cut us off from the needs and desires that make us who we really are.

Where is the Virgin’s Promise showing up in your life?

Where do you feel like you have to be perfect to be seen?

I’m Perfect = Imperfect

Though they may seem worlds apart, the Virgin and the Hermit live along the same evolutionary line.

The Hermit is the Virgin freed of their promise of perfection, someone who has learned to listen to their inner voice and knows that working in service of their spiritual liberation is how they can best serve the collective.

When the Hermit returns from solitude, the perspective they’ve gained along their journey allows them to lovingly challenge and expand society. They are no longer afraid to point out how the promise of perfection keeps all of us small.

Instead of trying to banish our secret desires, our dreams that others might find silly, our deviations from the status quo, the Hermit helps us play in the imperfect—it is what gets us to stop, breathe, notice, tussle, bump, and grow. They show us that imperfections are not meant to be erased but explored so we can expand.

Embracing imperfection is what gives us true freedom.

The Perfect Storm

The transformation from Virgin to Hermit can feel a bit like being a hermit crab without a shell. In the transitional void between selves, we’re just little balls of goo waiting to take shape, but this time on our own terms.

Lucky for us, this month is a perfect storm of planetary shake ups that will shove (not push) us to become the T.H.O.Ts—Those Hermits Over There—we all are.

While I’m not an astrologer, I do tune into the cosmic forecast when things are feeling particularly spicy and this happens to be the heaviest hitting month of the year. Planets are blasting through our perfectionist tendencies like a power washer, so put on your rain gear as we review some of the highlights.

• ❤️‍🔥 Venus in retrograde (Mar 1 - Apr 12): We’re breaking up with the patterns we’ve collected to hide those supposed “imperfections,” and fears about our worthiness in love.

• 🌘 Full moon eclipse in Virgo (Mar 14): Eclipses are movers and shakers and this one is asking—how can I create structure within spontaneity? Spontaneity within structure?

• 🕸️ Mercury in retrograde (Mar 15 - Apr 6): Mercury is Virgo’s ruling planet and connected to the intellect, communication, and the heady ways of the mind. ‘Tis the season to review unhelpful mental narratives and clear out those perfectionist cobwebs.

• 🍃Spring equinox (Mar 20): Time to turn over a new leaf, witches! Regardless of your hemisphere, the light is shifting. What aspects of your life is it illuminating?

Sometimes retrogrades pull us back into outdated habits at the exact moment we’re craving the forward momentum of a new season. This friction doesn’t have to be inherently annoying. Instead we can use it as practice for putting down perfection.

Perfect says repeating something we know isn’t in our best interest is a failure of self.

Imperfect says repetition is a chance to get curious and see what else we can learn.

Practice Makes Imperfect Tarot Spread

“At its root, perfectionism isn’t really about a deep love of being meticulous. It’s about fear. Fear of making a mistake. Fear of disappointing others. Fear of failure. Fear of success.” — Michael Law

Okay Mister Law! Come at us why don’t you.

Well, in this month’s spread we’re going to be practicing letting go of perfection. Because practice, as you know, makes perfect ;)

Perfect Ending

Just a few quotes about perfectionism to carry us through the storm.

• “Perfectionism is not a quest for the best. It is a pursuit of the worst in ourselves, the part that tells us that nothing we do will ever be good enough.” — Julia Cameron

• “On this sacred path of Radical Acceptance, rather than striving for perfection, we discover how to love ourselves into wholeness.” — Tara Brach

Remember, you’re imperfect, just as you are.

XO

ALTARU TAROT

Y’all, it’s rough out there right now. Governments are shaking the walls, the planet is shaking her head, and we are left shaking in our boots.

So! It’s a perfect time to do what rapper Unk proselytized through the speakers of my youth, “walk it out.”

(Where are all my 2006 teens?)

In times of upheaval and transition, walking it out is how the Hermit, our card of the year, metabolizes the world and comes out on the other side enlightened. Sounds simple enough, no?

Meandering mapless through the literal or metaphoric wilderness is a custom that cuts across cultures. Native Americans have the vision quest. The Scandinavians had Årsgång. The Japanese have shinrin-yoku or forest bathing.

These walks are a form of ritual learning that requires the seeker to face the wilderness alone in the name of spiritual self discovery.

As someone who loves a map (or a plan, or a checklist…), the thought of walking into the world without one, especially a world I no longer recognize, sends me screaming like a pre-teen in the first act of a horror movie. “DON’T GO OUT THERE STUPID! IT LIVES OUT THERE!”

It. The great unknown.

Living in the era of answers, the unknown has become a psychic boogie man. The immediacy of the Internet and AI’s pretty bow summaries have made us all forget that slowing down to sit with the unknown is an integral part of being human.

The Hermit’s anecdote to our collective forgetting is an invitation: walk into the wilderness of the world’s questions and see what you find. Because though the unknown holds fear, anxiety, and danger, it’s also home to curiosity, imagination, and possibility.

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Finding our way through wayfinding

While the Hermit sets out on spiritual quests without a map, they are not without tools! The glowing, six-pointed star that guides the Hermit down pathless path of the unknown is seen across many religions and cultures. It represents divine knowledge, the merging of masculine and feminine, the elements of the natural world, and the integration of the self and the collective.

For centuries, our ancestors used light and other natural elements to guide them through the wilderness. This practice, now known as wayfinding, uses the stars, moon, and wind to navigate landscapes that appear unknowable to the untrained eye.

Polynesian wayfinders memorize the rising and setting positions of hundreds of stars to sail across miles of azure waves.

The Inuit traverse sastrugi, land waves, by interpreting the movement of wind as it glides between ridges and whips through clouds.

Bedouins follow the rise and fall of celestial bodies and weave through wind-carved dunes to travel through the desert.

These enigmatic landscapes are full of unanswerable questions and endless mysteries. That elusiveness is what inspired our ancestors to look beyond the horizon of their knowing and discover the beating pulse of their connection to the universe and their survival.

Though we may feel adrift inside a harsh and unforgiving landscape, the Hermit reminds us that we come from the moon and the stars and we carry their guiding light inside us.

Now is the time to explore the things we don’t understand.

Now is the time to navigate the great unknowns.

Now is the time to remember our light shines brightest in the dark.

Navigating the Wilderness Tarot Spread

More paths to tread

• Moana and Moana 2: Did I get the idea for this wayfinding newsletter while watching Moana on the plane home from Hawaii? Why yes. Yes I did.

• The Hawaiian Star Compass, developed by Master Navigator Nainoa Thompson. What compasses have you created to guide you to your true north?

XO

ALTARU TAROT