Imagine your attention is like a stream. All day, notifications, headlines, texts, photos, videos…

Everybody asking for the click.

But at some point during your morning, you pull out your humble Tarot deck and draw a card or two.

It’s not just the act of pulling the card or cards - that would be an analog version of the attention stream.

In this version of the daily draw, you pull a card or two and ask: “What am I being called to notice today?”

This simple act, this mini-meditation, is just long enough for you to tune into yourself for that brief moment.

What catches your attention?

Is it the waiter’s stark, white gloves?
The red haired woman sitting opposite another red haired woman?
The daffodil?

What about the crack in the window in the upper and lower left?

Write down what you notice in your journal.

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👀Now your task is look for what you noticed in the card showing up in your day.

Maybe your appointment is in suite 14.

Maybe it’s a flaming red head on the street.

Maybe you try to mimic the waiter with the stark, white gloves and are very polite and formal with everyone you meet.

Maybe you catch the feeling of the card as you witness a mother handing her child a sandwich.

I call this the Tarot scavenger hunt.

👉Did you stay engaged with your scavenger hunt, or did you get distracted?

It’s okay if you got distracted.

In a way, the daily draw is like a meditation practice. The goal is to continually return to self again and again through the cards.

Is that not valuable in the daily war for your attention?

I encourage you to stay with the practice and see what it reveals.

One last thought before I go.

I’ve been reading Time Loops by Eric Wargo. In it, he explores the possibility that information can move backward in time, creating loops between our future and past experience.

Without getting too far into the weeds, one idea is that your future self may be influencing your past self.

And since my version of the daily draw involves drawing a card and then revisiting at the end of the day, there is an opportunity to create a time loop of your own.

Try this:

• Pull a card in the morning and record your impressions as previously described

• At the end of the day, record your reflections for the day and any ways you noticed or embodied the card during the day.

• Then spend 60 seconds or so focusing on the most emotionally or symbolically significant event of the day, with the intention of sending that impression back to your morning self. (Weird, yes. But try it.)

• Now the morning prompt becomes what is future me trying to get past me to notice?

I’d love to hear what happens when you bust out of familiar reality tunnels with this version of the daily draw!

The feather was just outside my front door the other morning.

I put it on the altar with the 2 others I have.

Keep reading.

I saw an interesting pattern in my Tarot pulls for July.

When I totaled how often each numbered and court card appeared,

then grouped them by frequency,

I got:

4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 2, 1🤔

Hmmm….

Last example-

The eclipse today pulsates at 20° Leo. That’s 5° from my natal sun and less than 1° from my son’s natal sun.

The lunar eclipse later in the month is 2° from my brother’s sun.

What does all this mean?

I have no idea.

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Despite that fact that there is NO WATER in the current astrological sky, I’m going to use a water metaphor.

Sometimes you just gotta ride the wave and see where it takes you.

Hindsight is 20/20 as they say.

But more than that — make sure you’re in the friggin’ water.

I’d say this July and August there’s a lot of energy afoot or maybe afloat.

So get in.

Wade out past your knees.
Let a wave knock you sideways.
Get sand in your bathing suit.

Bring a boogie board.
Bring a GoPro.
Dig a hole in the sand so deep it starts to fill with water.

The eclipse window is a fantabulous time to ask Tarot some probing questions

• What is happening that I don’t have words for yet?

• What feels significant, even though I don’t know why?

• What wants my attention, not my explanation?

• Where am I being changed without realizing it?

• What am I trying to understand before I’ve fully experienced it?

• What can remain a mystery?

• What is easier to see if I stop looking for an answer?

• Where am I standing on the shore instead of getting in?

• What happens if I follow the current?

• What wants to be lived now and understood later?

These are the kinds of questions I suggest just pulling 2-3 cards and riffing on. Just say or write down whatever comes to mind.

See what comes up.

That’s your message.

Maybe it makes some sense now, or maybe not.

Such is the Oracle.

I want to pull this one aside before I close.

• What would I notice if I assumed nothing was wrong?

Recently, I recognized that I was waking up in triage mode.

What does that mean?

It means I was waking up with the assumption that there was a stack of problems in my life, all waiting for me to solve them in the order of urgency.

WTF??????

Right then and there I resolved to wake up and speak my choices and intentions into the somewhat hot and dull air of the morning. (I’ll share my air conditioning woes with you another time).

Big shift.

Let Tarot help you with that shift.

Ask some of the prompts and see what comes up.

And then share your findings in the Tarot Underground. We’ve got a seat waiting for you.

And here’s the thing I probably should have emphasized more when I first offered it:

This is basically how I set up every paid Tarot reading I do.

Not necessarily with three cards every time, but with the same thinking process.

How do I take someone’s question and figure out what we actually need to ask?

What information do I need from the cards?

What should each card be doing in the reading?

How do I build a spread that fits THIS question instead of grabbing something generic off Pinterest?

That’s what we worked on in the workshop.

We used the humble three-card spread as our laboratory, because three cards are enough to do a surprising amount once you stop thinking only in terms of Past / Present / Future.

If you missed the live workshop, you can still get the recording for $27.

You’ll learn how I approach questions, create spread positions, and build readings from scratch so the spread actually fits the person and the situation.

If you want to get better at moving beyond memorized spreads and start thinking more like a reader, this is a very good place to begin.

Grab the recording

This month is an eclipse month, with eclipses at 20° Leo and 4° Pisces.

This month’s Tarot spread is designed to give insight on the twists, turns, and wildfires of August. Let me know what you throw and what you’re “predicting”. We’ll do the best we can with this wild card month.

P.S. My Sun is 25° Leo and my brother’s Sun is 6° Pisces. Which means we are right in the thick of it!

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August Monthly Tarot Spread

Center Card: The Month of August

This card represents the overall energy, atmosphere, or central theme of the month.

Top Card: You

This card represents you during the month of August.

It may describe your energy, your role, your mindset, or how you are showing up during the month.

Left Card: Growth or “Take a Bite” (North Node)

This position shows where you are being invited to grow, expand, or take a bite out of something.

What are you ready to pursue?

Where are you being encouraged to move forward, experiment, or claim more?

Right Card: Release and Surrender (South Node)

This card shows what you may need to let go of during the month.

What has completed its purpose?

What are you ready to release, surrender, or stop carrying?

Bottom Card: Your Best Approach

This is the advice card.

It shows the most helpful way to approach the month, work with its energy, and respond to whatever develops.

You can also pull one oracle card after completing the spread. Use it as a final message, theme, or punctuation mark for the reading.

That’s your August map. Write down in your Tarot Journal.

You don’t have to understand every card immediately. Let the month reveal the reading as you live it.

And when you want a place to talk it through, the Tarot Underground is here for you.

The dryer has never worked right.

Weirdly, when I picked out and paid for the washer and dryer from Home Depot, the order was written up for a different brand altogether🤷‍♀️.

When I noticed it, I decided to let it go.

It was the same price.

Not worth the hassle of changing it.

So when the dryer wasn’t drying, I wondered if I had messed up.

The house had many other problems, so I just let the dryer error signals slide.

Finally, after eliminating other possibilities for the malfunction, I hit up property management about having the vent cleaned.

Well lo and behold, someone had put a screen at the exit of the dryer vent -
to keep critters out I guess.

And that screen was clogged up with lint as thick as a piece of corrugated cardboard.

Someone had installed that screen as a safety mechanism.

But now it was choking the whole operation.

Back in the day, I memorized a bunch of Tarot definitions. And I still employ them today.

But what makes a good reading breathe is improvisation.

You probably memorized definitions as a place to start.

Totally fair.

But what happens when those definitions don’t quite fit?

-You might think you need more keywords

-Or a better system -

-Or maybe throw some oracle cards in there.

Well friend, adding more stuff to the mix is not the answer.

Think about it this way.

You memorized definitions and keywords to begin reading. You weren’t meant to recite them forever.

Now it’s time to improvise.

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Try This

Shuffle your deck and pull a card at random.

Say out loud 3 off the cuff impressions about the card.

1. My Tarot books in bookstores

2. Little things become big things

3. Keep your eyes open in Colorado

Do it a couple more times.

How did that feel? Lighter? More alive?

For bonus points you can write down the card you pulled and your 3 off the cuff impressions and put it in an envelope.

Pick a day in the future, maybe next week, maybe in 3 weeks and write your chosen date on the envelope.

On that date open the envelope and read what you wrote.

Does anything land?

I bet it does.

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Details

📅 Sunday, August 2

🕑 12:00 - 2:00 PM Central

💵 $27

🎥 Recorded (so if you can’t attend live, you’ll still receive the replay.)

The three-card spread may be the most underused tool in Tarot. With just three positions, you can explore decisions, relationships, shadow work, creative projects, dreams, spiritual practice, and questions you haven’t even thought to ask yet.

In this two-hour workshop, I’ll show you how to stop relying on pre-made layouts and start creating spreads that fit your question.

So instead of cutting the lawn (again), I whipped up these Tarot activities!

Activities go from easiest to hardest (in my opinion)

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Tarot Word Search

answer key at the end of this article

Court Card Matching

Match the court card with the appropriate slogan. My version of the answers are at the bottom of this article.
NOTE: we won’t all have the same answers!

I’ve included court card images from the Pagan Otherworlds Tarot for you to ponder. Slogans are not grouped in any particular way - meaning the slogans beneath any particular group of cards are not limited to that group.

• Go big or go home

• Comfort you can count on

• Can you hear me now?

• Like a good neighbor, I’m here

• When you care enough to send the very best

• Curiosity has entered the chat

• Putting your ideas to work

• Follow your heart

• Cutting through the B.S.

• Planting the seeds of tomorrow today

• Show up like you mean it

• Come as you are

• Cut through the story

• Big ideas. Bold directions

• Know. Decide. Act

• Heavy on results

5 things your Tarot deck wishes you would ask

Tarot is surprisingly flexible in the breadth of answers it can provide. Try these out to see how far you can push Tarot.

1. Describe X situation from the past. What was the lesson? (pull as many cards as needed)

2. Teach me to X. (fill in X and maybe ask for the steps?)

3. What outcome would surprise me, but still satisfy the real need? (for a sticky situation)

4. Is this mine to solve? (also for a sticky situation)

5. Even if I solved this, what would remain difficult? (for a situation you’re very determined about)

Answers

Page of wands -curiosity has entered the chat

Page of cups - when you care enough to send the very best

Page of swords - can you hear me now?

Page of pentacles - putting your ideas to work

Knight of wands -go big or go home

Knight of cups - follow your heart

Knight of swords - cutting through the B.S.

Knight of pentacles - planting the seeds of tomorrow today

Queen of wands - show up like you mean it

Queen of cups - come as you are

Queen of swords - cut through the story

Queen of pentacles - comfort you can count on

King of wands - big ideas. bold directions

King of cups - like a good neighbor, I am here

King of swords - know. decide. act

King of pentacles - heavy on results

Like activities like this?

The Tarot Underground (FREE Circle group) is loaded with them.

Join the Underground

It seems like this moment is particularly important to feel into with a Cancer new moon, and Mercury retrograde in Cancer.

My daily draw seemed to reflect some of this new moon watery darkness.

Hanged Man 6 of cups and the moon 🌕

I knew the moon would come up since the new moon is tomorrow. A day of soft focus and reflection. Don’t push. Remember.

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2 Tarot Underground LIVE events

👀FREE - July Tarot Cocktail Party

Come if you want low-pressure practice, fresh ideas, and actual experience reading cards with real people.

🗓️Saturday, July 18 at

⏰12:00 PM Central

💰FREE
Cocktail Parties are NOT recorded. It’s a be there or be square kinda thing. So for goodness sakes be there!

The doors to the Tarot speakeasy are creaking open once again… 🔮🍸

Join us for this month’s Tarot Cocktail Party, an informal gathering where we pull cards, swap stories, ask questions, and explore whatever strange little wisdom the deck decides to serve up.

Newbie? Nervous? Convinced everyone else knows what they’re doing? Perfect. You are among friends. There are no Tarot police here. No secret handshake. No pop quiz on the meanings of the 7 of Pentacles.

Bring:
✨ A deck
✨ A question (for yourself, your cat, your situationship, your career, your weird dream… whatever)
✨ A spread you’ve been wanting to try
✨ Or just your curious little goblin self

Real-life questions make for the best readings, so come ready to play in the deep end a bit. But there’s zero pressure to perform. You can read, watch, listen, experiment, ramble, or simply hang out in the velvet booth and sip the psychic atmosphere.

➡️JOIN THE UNDERGROUND TO JOIN THE COCKTAIL PARTY

🗝️Unlock the Hidden Power of the Three-Card Spread

Come if you want to stop second-guessing your spreads and learn how to build the exact reading a question needs.

📅 Saturday, July 25

🕑 2:00-4:00 PM Central

💵 $27

🎥 Recorded (so if you can’t attend live, you’ll still receive the replay.)

Minimum of 5 registrations. If we don’t reach five people, everyone will receive a full refund.

➡️Register Here⬅️

Most Tarot readers never really outgrow the first three-card spread they learned.

Past. Present. Future.

Body. Mind. Spirit.

Situation. Challenge. Advice.

They’re useful...

But they’re only a tiny corner of what’s possible.

The humble three-card spread might be the most overlooked tool in Tarot.

In this workshop I’ll show you how three cards can become an almost endlessly flexible way of exploring questions, solving problems, making decisions, uncovering patterns, and finding surprisingly specific guidance.

We’ll experiment together and build spreads on the fly so you leave with ideas you can start using immediately.

What we’ll explore

✨ The amazing possibilities of the three-card spread structure

✨ How to invent your own spreads instead of relying on someone else’s

✨ Better questions that produce richer readings

✨ Ways to get more insight with fewer cards

✨ How to recognize when a simple spread is actually the strongest choice

Benefits of this workshop:

• You stop collecting spreads. Instead of hunting Pinterest for “the perfect spread,” you can create one in under a minute.

• Your readings become more personal. The spread begins serving the question instead of forcing the question into a pre-made template.

• You build symbolic thinking. This is Tarot literacy beyond memorizing card meanings.

• You trust yourself more. Inventing spreads quietly rewires the belief that there’s a “Tarot Police” watching over your shoulder.

• You become a better question asker. The biggest upgrade isn’t the spreads. It’s learning how to frame a question so the cards can answer it.

• You’ll never feel “stuck” with only three cards again. That alone makes everyday Tarot practice more approachable.

Most people think a Tarot spread organizes the cards.

I think it organizes your attention.

It’s less like a layout... and more like an AI prompt.

The spread tells the reading what kind of answer you’re looking for.

What kind of information would actually help me?

Many folks ask a question, slap down a few cards and hope for the best.

That’s like when someone plops down in the chair in front of me at a party or event and says, “Tell me stuff.”

Yes, occasionally people do that.

Do you go to Google and type “tell me stuff”?

When the doctor says, “Tell me what the problem is”,
do you say, “I dunno, you tell me?”

Okay I’m being very sarcastic, but you get the point.

The QUIT method guides you to crafting a spread that reveals insights instead of slap dash card reading.

The Process:

Before you even shuffle, decide what kind of insight would be most helpful:

• advice?

• prediction?

• blind spots?

• encouragement?

• risks?

• timing?

• next step?

• options?

• hidden influences?

• what to stop doing?

• big picture?

Each answer creates a different spread.

The QUIT method

Q - question

U- question under the question

I - information (see bullet points above)

T- tasks (give each card a job)

Notice we haven’t even shuffled cards yet.

Examples:

Q: Is he cheating?

U: What do I do if he is cheating?

I: my options and next steps

T: his actions - blind spots - next step

His actions answer the literal question “is he cheating?”.

Blind spots help me see maybe why this happened or something I’m not seeing about the situation.

Next steps give advice on what to do if he is cheating, whether the answer is yes or no.

Q: Am I on the right path?

U: Will my efforts yield the results I desire?

I: analysis of what I’m doing to achieve the result

T: the path - keep doing - stop doing

The path shows the general trajectory.

Keep doing shows what is in alignment and what to continue.

Stop doing shows the opposite.

Q: Why am I stuck?

U: What fear or story am I buying into?

I: perspective shift or reframe

T: apparent block - real block - the opening

Apparent block describes what appears to be the problem.

Real block is the fear or story at play.

The opening is the perspective shift to clear the block.

Once you realize a spread is really just a way of directing your attention-

You stop collecting spreads and start designing them.

Not because I need another deck, or I have some big artistic vision.

I’m making one because I’m going through something.

It’s been over a year now since I’ve been going through a Dark Night of the Soul or a Dark Night of the Ego.

Maybe it’s my Chiron return rolling right into my Saturn return.

Honestly, I don’t know.🤷‍♀️

The kind that interrupt old patterns.

The kind that point you back toward what matters.

The kind that remind you of who you want to become.

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That’s the purpose of THIS oracle deck.

🌟Part symbol study.

🌟Part art therapy project.

🌟Part conversation with my higher self.

So if you’re going through something, maybe you’d like to make an oracle deck too.

Pick your Poison

I’ve gone round and round trying to come up with some criteria or some ways of explaining the different elements that could be used in an Oracle deck.

Too complicated.

So, I’ll tell you what elements I’m including and hopefully you can extrapolate to your own deck.

Lenormand

I’m including lots of Lenormand cards.

It’s not cheating or against the rules to incorporate cards that already exist in your deck!

Tarot, Lenormand, playing cards, Kipper, other Oracle decks…it’s all fair game.

Lenormand cards are so simple and iconic. I find myself thinking in Lenormand all the time. (Kind of like how you dream in a non-native language).

And, I’ve always thought the deck really lends itself to being expanded (unlike Tarot).

So anyway, Lenormand is IN!

Affirmations

I will be including affirmations with lots of beautiful images.

I tend to be a pessimist by nature, and affirmations do seem to help.

I found this image on Pinterest and am a fan of the scrapbooking style.

Note that the affirmation is written in first person and includes a command. That’s ballsy!

I plan on having a mix of more general affirmations, like pictured above,
And more specific, vision boardesque type of affirmations.

Archetypes

The 22 Major Arcana of the Tarot are archetypes. You will also find archetypes in various other decks.

Many archetypes are old and dusty.

The archetypes in my oracle deck will be contemporary and maybe a bit tongue in cheek. Pop culture references work well here.

The archetypes will include elements of the natural world. Cuz that turns me on.

Think animal oracle decks, plant decks etc.

Reality Transurfing

Being a lifelong learner, I have to be learning something new — always!

In this case, I started studying Reality Transurfing in probably December of last year.

Reality Transurfing uses Law of Attraction principles and puts a finer point on many of the practices.

I plan to create cards around what I’m learning and what I want to remember into the deck.

That’s the beauty of creating your own deck. You can custom tailor it to YOU!

Where to go from here

There are a lot of questions to be answered yet.

👉what medium?

👉how many cards?

👉is there a time frame to this project?

But I’m not going to worry about that right now. I’m gonna get started and I’ll let you know how I’m doing further down the line.

I just need one more technique.

One more deck.

One more spread.

One more approach.

One more system.

Then my readings will really take off.

The funny thing is, if you think back to the best readings you’ve ever received, they probably weren’t complicated at all.

You didn’t walk away with ten action items.

You remembered ONE thing.

One insight.

One sentence.

One realization that changed something.

1. Deconstruct the Deck

There are hundreds of Tarot decks, most are 78 cards (22 majors, 16 court cards, 40 minors). But they are definitely not all the same.

When you get a new deck, lay out all the majors.
Then each suit.
Then the court cards.

Look around.

How does this deck communicate?

Is it direct or subtle?

Dark or playful?

Ancient or modern?

What symbols repeat?

What themes are present?

Tarot is a visual language, so spend some time taking in the images.

2. Build Correspondences, Not Definitions

Notice I didn’t say memorize meanings.

I said build correspondences.

A definition is a dead butterfly pinned to a board.

Ask yourself:

What does this card mean to me right now?

Not forever.

Not for all humanity.

Right now.

The Three of Wands might speak about expansion today and impatience tomorrow.

Both can be true.

One of the best ways to build correspondences is through a daily draw.

If you’d like to build a daily draw practice, can I interest you in the FREE class below? 👇

Another is simply describing what you literally see on the card.

Your filter matters. So spend some time speaking your impressions, even if it’s just to yourself.

3. Learn to Ask Better Questions

A bad reading often begins with a bad question.

As I often say:

Garbage in, garbage out.

Should according to who?

What outcome are we measuring?

• Money?

• Happiness?

• Relationships?

• Career growth?

A vague question produces a vague reading.

A focused question produces a focused reading.

Instead of asking:

“Should I take this job?”

Try:

“Will I earn $100K at this job within a year?”

“How will I like the general working environment?”

“What is the stability of the position being offered?”

Tarot loves specificity.
Give it something concrete to respond to.

4. Build Your Own Spreads

This might be the most underrated Tarot skill of all, and is Tarot’s invisible super power.

Most readers treat spreads like furniture they bought from a store.

A well-designed spread is like a treasure map.

It leads you directly to what you’re trying to understand.

Learning to create spreads changed everything about the way I read, and it can be a game changer for you too.

5. Read for Other People

This is the one.

This is the big one.

I believed that too.

I was wrong.

Reading for other people is what builds the skill.

You can study swimming for twenty years.

Eventually you have to get in the water.

The same is true with Tarot.

Reading for others teaches you how to stay with a question, trust your intuition, communicate clearly, and find the signal hidden inside all the noise.

This is Tarot in practice.

The Real Secret

Most Tarot readers are collecting tools.

What they really need is repetition.

When you pull a card, ask yourself:

How does this card answer the question?

That’s it.

That’s the whole game.

A weak reading wanders.

A strong reading aims.

The best readers I’ve known aren’t walking encyclopedias.

They’re focused.

They stay with the question until they find the answer.

If I had to start over tomorrow,

• I wouldn’t memorize more meanings.

• I wouldn’t buy more decks.

• I wouldn’t learn astrology sooner.

I’d get the nerve to read for other people much sooner.

Because that’s where Tarot stops being in the head and connects to the flow.

But all the usual routines are NOT working for me —
Newsletter included.

So enjoy this week’s newsletter in the form of a zine.

You’re welcome.😉

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Me and the Knight of Swords on a Quest for air conditioning

If you’d like to print up this mini-zine, here is the file. 👇 Note, if you print in black and white the images are too dark. So I advise printing in color if you are going to print.

Quest For Air Conditioning 2026 06 09

2.26MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

On another note, if you want some fun Tarot activities for the summer, join us in the Tarot Underground!

Next Live event: Tarot Cocktail Party June 20th.

So I am republishing a newsletter I wrote back in April.

Maybe you missed it.
Maybe you forgot it.
Either way, here it is.👇

I asked the Symbolon deck:

What belief is blocking me around money that needs to be transformed?

And I pulled a blank card.

I didn’t even realize the deck had a blank card.

But I’ve been reading long enough to know that when it comes to card reading, everything happens for a reason.

So I asked my intuition what is the message of the blank card?

And what came through was immediate:

Fill in the blank.

What belief do you want to install?

Because whatever belief I decide is “the problem”…

…that becomes the problem.

Now, let’s pause here, because this is where people get tripped up.

There was no meaning on that card.

Nothing to memorize.
Nothing to look up.
No tidy little keyword waiting for me.

And yet… the message was clear.

Not because the card had a meaning.

But because I knew how to have a conversation with it.

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This is the part nobody tells you about Tarot or any other divination system.

Sometimes the cards are symbolic.
Sometimes they’re poetic.
Sometimes they’re blunt.

And sometimes…

They hand you a blank page and say:

You tell me.

When you’re in that space, Tarot stops feeling like a test you’re trying to pass…and starts feeling like something you’re inside of.

Like a dream that’s still unfolding while you’re awake.
Like a scene that keeps opening the longer you look at it.

You don’t need more meanings.
You need to know how to meet the moment.

Stop asking:
“What does this card mean?”

Start asking:
“What is happening here… between me and this card?”

Even if the card is blank.

Try This

Pull a card today and pretend you’ve never learned Tarot.

No meanings.
No guidebook.

Just:

“If this were speaking directly to me right now… what would it say?”

“If I knew what this meant it is…”

Say the first true thing.

Don’t fix it.

That’s where the reading starts.

Yeah but does it actually work?

When you’re reading for yourself, you already know the terrain.

So when something lands, you’ll feel it.

It will just click.

Like food hitting a hungry stomach.
It settles. It satisfies. It makes sense.

That’s your signal.

When you’re reading for someone else, it’s a little different.

You’re not trying to be right. You’re trying to make contact.

So instead of freezing up and searching for the perfect meaning…

just throw something out there.

You can say:

“This looks like…”
“This feels like…”
“This reminds me of…”

Tell a quick story.
Borrow a line from a song.
Reference a movie moment.

Use anything that already carries meaning.

Because what you’re really doing isn’t explaining the card.

You’re pinging something in their psyche.

And when it lands, you’ll feel that too.

They’ll lean in.
They’ll nod.
They’ll say, “yes… I get that.”

That’s the reading.

Not a perfect interpretation.

A moment of recognition by the person you are reading for.

So I guess the takeaway is that the cards don’t have inherent meaning. They have meaning that arises through interaction.

So what are you waiting for?

P.S. - If you’d like some interaction in a safe space, join us in the Tarot Underground. Thursday is readings exchange…

Number 3 is the step a lot of people don’t bother to do.

And when you skip this step, what you have is a bunch of cards talking all at once.

And you, as the reader, get confused or overwhelmed.

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The question matters

Think about it this way:

When you go to the doctor and get face-to-face with that person, they ask:

“Why are you here?”

You DON’T say:

“I don’t know. Why don’t you guess?”

✅So yes, it’s good to come to Tarot with a question.

Don’t skip this step

The next step is the spread.

One of the big advantages of Tarot is that you get to craft every spread position to maximize insight.

The purpose of the spread is to create lanes for the cards so you know:
“This card is talking about the problem.”
“This one is talking about what you’re aware of.”
“This one is talking about what’s hidden underneath all of it.”

Otherwise it’s just ten Tarot cards yelling in a mystical group chat. 😄

Crafting your own spread positions

For example, you could ask a vague question like:

“Why am I unhappy?”

That’s pretty broad.

And why questions are usually not terribly revealing.

But then imagine creating spread positions like:

• What’s draining me?
  

• What am I ignoring?
  

• What wants to change?
  

• Where can I gain momentum?
  

Now suddenly the question has focus and the cards have lanes!

The cards you pull might support those positions.

❌They might challenge them.

🖼️They might completely reframe them.

And all of that becomes information.

Let’s take a closer look👀

Back to “Why am I so unhappy?”

In this spread we’re exploring:

1. Whether there’s a head vs. heart conflict

2. Where the internal tension is showing up

3. What action could help restore movement or momentum

Because emotions often shift once energy starts moving again.

In this spread we’re exploring:

• Whether the cards confirm what we already suspect is going on

• What might be hidden beneath the obvious explanation

• Whether we’re missing an entirely different angle on the situation

The “What If?” position

The final position is a wild card.

This gives the cards permission to throw a curveball.

Maybe they confirm the story.

Or maybe they tell us we’re barking up the wrong tree entirely. 🌳

Sometimes the most valuable insight in a reading is the thing we never would have thought to ask.

In this spread we already know we are worried about something and we suspect this is what is making us ultimately unhappy.

✅ Worries
Start with what’s already obvious.

Maybe you already know you’re anxious, overwhelmed, or mentally spinning.

Great. Make that a spread position.

Give the worry a lane.

✅ Core Issue / Repeating Pattern
Next, go deeper.

What’s underneath the surface emotion?

Is there a core issue driving all of this?

Is there a repeating pattern keeping the situation alive?

You could use one of these positions… or both.

✅ How to Transform the Situation
Finally, we ask the cards for direction.

Not just:
“What’s wrong?”

But:
“What helps this change?”

Because insight is powerful, (that’s the WHY), but we need guidance on HOW to create change.

Are you digging this?
Join the Tarot Underground on Circle for FREE and check out the 40+ card spread deck in the Spread Lab. 🧪

Is he Odin hanging from the Tree?

Is he the Buddhist principle of non-attachment? (If so how did that make it into the deck?)

Is he the planet Neptune? or the Element of Water?

Why is his face so serene?

Why is he sometimes portrayed as Judas with bags of gold?

Is he Major Tom lost in space forever?

Why is he upside down and hanging from a single foot and not the neck?

I’ve been writing this newsletter once a week for 4 years now and I always pants something.

I like pulling stuff out of the air and making something of it.

I tried creating an editorial calendar and it never worked for me. So I have allowed the newsletter to be the place where I create what I want, how I want.

But today, I’m stuck. Really stuck.

I’ve been going through a lot lately, and last week was just a lot. Again. The air element of my brain is stuck on pause.

I saw a starling with a baby garter snake in my front yard the other day. I keep thinking that’s some kind of a sign. A sign of what?

The diminutive starling was pecking away at the snake. And the snake was playing dead.

After a few moments, it picked up the snake and flew away!

That’s what surprised me.

That the bird was able to hoist the snake up into the air with it.

Was the snake the Hanged Man? Just playing dead and hanging in loose coils as the bird forced him into the air?

Wow, so far this newsletter is interesting, but I still don’t have a point - nor any answers for myself.

What changes if I stop trying to force this? (A Hanged Man question).

I guess this becomes a (hopefully) engaging stream of consciousness piece where readers can catch a glimpse of themselves, heads bobbing in Neptunian froth-filled waters with no shore in sight.

What if I flipped the script? (Another Hanged Man question).

If I flipped the script, I would stop being the Tarot teacher and embody the Tarot, not worrying about whether or not anybody “gets it”.

Well the Hanged Man in the Rider Waite is portrayed with a halo. He must be filled with the faith or spirit of something, I suppose.

Or maybe it’s just cock-eyed optimism.

How can I operate with faith and cock-eyed optimism in this situation?

I could go ahead and publish this newsletter as is, knowing it will be whatever it will be, and this is all leading somewhere.

Like the snake playing dead and being carried up, up, and away by the bird —
Like being adrift at sea with no wind for the sails —
This is a season of surrender.

Well, so be it.

Meanwhile the cards are over here trying to communicate through:
✨ weird associations
✨ symbolism
✨ intuition
✨ stories
✨ jokes
✨ emotional resonance
✨ dream characters

I want to hereby give you permission to stop studying and start PLAYING with the cards.

Tarot started out as a game, after all.

And there’s actually a reason for this.

When you treat Tarot like sacred stone tablets handed down from a mountain somewhere…

you get tight.

You start trying to be correct instead of perceptive.

The cards stop being alive and start feeling like multiple choice questions.

But when you play with the cards?

Something shifts.

Your brain loosens up.
Your intuition starts making connections.
The symbols start moving again instead of sitting there like laminated commandments.

You stop asking:
“What is the correct meaning?”

And start asking:
“What does this feel like?”
“What is this reminding me of?”
“Where is this trying to go?”

That’s when readings get interesting.

That’s when Tarot becomes a conversation instead of a test.

So this week:
we play. 😈

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The key here is that traditional meanings are absolutely useful.

Whether you learned them from Mary K. Greer, Biddy Tarot, a book, a teacher, or years of experience…

that’s still only step one.

Step two is interaction.

Or to borrow a rule from improv:

Yes, and…

That’s where Tarot starts talking back or making a snarky comment under it’s breath.

Sure.
The King of Pentacles is an established businessman.

YES, AND:
he kinda looks like a rapper who made it out the neighborhood and now owns the label.

Suddenly the card has texture.
History.
Personality.
A lived-in feeling.

That’s how you discover which direction a card wants to go in a particular reading.

Let’s try another one.

The 4 of Pentacles is about holding tightly to resources.

YES, AND:
this looks like someone trying to keep a small business alive using everything they’ve got.

In a reading, I would actually say, “Do you own a small business?”

Now the card starts feeling human instead of theoretical.

And yes, at first this can feel a little awkward.

And you may worry that you sound like you don’t know what you’re talking about.

But here’s the thing:

When you’re talking with someone in a reading, they’re not grading your performance word by word.

And when you hit the insight…
you’ll know.

Just like a comedian knows when the joke lands.

The whole conversation suddenly clicks into place.

That’s the moment that matters.

How to play with your Tarot deck

Write Tarot memes
I’m sure you’ve seen these from time to time. A tarot card with the people saying funny things in cartoon bubbles.

Write ridiculous definitions
Make up something crazy around a card you pull at random. Be outrageous! You’re not trying to be correct or insightful here, you are purposely being off the fucking wall!

Take a picture of yourself acting out a Tarot card and post it somewhere
Pick any Tarot card you want and act it out. AND THEN post it. That’s the fun part.

Make up a playing card game using Tarot
If you’re someone who plays card games, make up a game using Tarot cards. If you do, be sure to come back and share it with us! Bonus points if it’s a drinking game.-

Predict the plot
Pull cards during a movie or TV show and predict what happens next.

For Members of Tarot Underground. Join for FREE!

🍸🔮 Tarot Cocktail Party: Constellations & Chaos

This month we’re throwing the Tarot cards into little social circles and seeing who they hang out with.

Because apparently cards with the same number have things in common.
Who knew.
(Well… Mary K. Greer knew.)

We’ll start with a couple playful warm-up exercises to loosen up your brain meats and get you out of “WHAT’S THE CORRECT MEANING?” mode.

Then we’ll explore some clusters like:

🦁 Strength + the 8s
Power. Pressure. Endurance. Creative force.
Why are so many of the 8s about effort, mastery, boundaries, and momentum?
Why does Strength look calm while the 8 of Swords is internally screaming?

😈 The Devil + the 15s
Temptation? Attachment? Material reality?
The “I can’t because…” constellation.
Also possibly: excellent sex, bad decisions, and your third iced coffee at 9 PM.

Bring:
🍷 a beverage
🃏 a deck
✨ your observations, hot takes, and unhinged symbolic theories

No Tarot Police.
Just a bunch of humans seeing patterns in cards with funny pictures on them.

I’ve been asking questions…
pulling cards…
getting answers…

…and still feeling like:

“…yeah, but that’s not it.”

It’s very Mars–Saturn conjunct in Aries.

I want movement.
I’m getting friction from all angles!

Perhaps you can relate.
You want clarity from a reading.
You’re getting… “loading preview”

If you’re like most people you assume:
“I failed that reading”
OR
“The reading wasn’t clear.”
OR
”The cards don’t want to tell me right now.”

Let’s look at this from a different angle.

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A friend asked me why someone in her life was letting a total moocher stay with her.

She expected a clean answer:

“This is bad. This is wrong.”

In fact, before we even pulled cards, I said, “Tarot reading aside. She needs to ask her to leave.”

That was the response from the cards I expected to see.

So we pulled cards.

I laid out a structured spread:

• her friend

• the moocher

• the situation between them

• the conflict

• the outcome

The outcome?

Positive.

Which made absolutely no sense.

Because that didn’t answer the question or the expectation.

And this is the moment where most people bail.

They either:

force the cards to match their expectation

or

decide Tarot is vague and shrug it off

or

come up with some generic platitude to say in the moment.

If a reading doesn’t answer the question…

it’s not done yet.

So instead of interpreting harder,
I changed the angle.

I pulled two more cards:

• what the moocher’s intention was

• what her friend was getting out of the situation

And then…it clicked.

This wasn’t freeloading.

This was someone being allowed to stay
because they were helping her process grief.

The situation made emotional sense.

The “positive outcome” made sense.

Everything snapped into place.

The first answer wasn’t wrong.

It was just incomplete.

Here’s the juicy part

And this is where a lot of people are right now, myself included.

Not just in Tarot.

In life.

You’ve asked the question.
You’ve taken a step.
You’ve gotten some kind of response.

But it doesn’t fully land.

So your brain goes:

“I must be off.”
“I must be blocked.”
“This isn’t working.”

When really…you just stopped too soon.

(Giant billboard note to self as a Saturn in Aries native.)

Mars says: move.

Saturn says: slow down and get it right.

Put them together and it can feel like:

trying to drive with the brakes on.

So people (like me) panic.

They abandon the question.
They rush the answer.
They settle for something that kind of fits. (Sooo sick of doing this🙄)

But this moment?

It’s not here to stop you.

It’s here to deepen the question.

Not everything opens up on the first pull.

Not every situation reveals itself at the surface layer.

Some things require you to:

• stay with it

• turn it slightly

• ask one better question

• and then another

until the structure underneath reveals itself.

So the next time Tarot “isn’t co-operating” pause and go deeper.

What’s the question behind the question?
What’s another angle to look from?
Keep drilling till you hit pay dirt!

If you want to level up your readings and

stop memorizing meanings
stop second-guessing yourself
and actually stay with a reading until it clicks—

that’s exactly what we practice inside Tarot Underground.

Certified Tarot Police free!

Where is this whole Tarot thing going?

The people who get Tarot…
get it.

You don’t need convincing.

You’ve felt that moment when you lay down a card and something clicks.

And it’s not intellectual.

It’s not, “Ah yes, the traditional meaning of the Two of Swords…”

No.

It’s closer to:

something just made contact.

Yes metaphorically.

Yes poetically.

But also personal contact.

You can call it:

• your psyche

• your intuition

• the collective unconscious

Or you can admit that

you don’t actually know what you’re interfacing with.

And that’s the part many of us are afraid to say out loud (because it might be demons they told us).

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Tarot via the old operating system

Was built for a world where:

• reality felt stable

• meaning was inherited

• the mystical had to be coded in symbols to survive

So we got:

Kings.
Angels.
Judgement Day.
Hierarchies of heaven and earth.

But look around.

That language is fucking archaic.

Many of you have bumped right up against that fact.

We’re not waiting for angels anymore (well some of us aren’t).

We’re experimenting with consciousness directly (DMT anyone?)

We’re dissolving the boundary between inner and outer experience.

We’re talking about:

• psychedelics reopening doors that were slammed shut

• contact experiences that don’t fit cleanly into “imagination”

• young people having truly epic out of body experiences on purpose

• a growing sense that reality responds when you engage with it

So let’s talk about the Judgement card

Because this is where it gets uncomfortable.

The old image:

Graves opening.
Bodies rising.
Angels calling souls to heaven.

We don’t believe that literally anymore.

Not by trumpets.

But by:

• sudden clarity

• identity collapse

• “I can’t live like this anymore” moments

• massive paradigm shifts

Collective memories are surfacing.
Patterns are breaking.
Entire versions of self are being… exhumed.

Not one person at a time.

All of us at once.

Here’s the part people won’t like

AI just changed Tarot forever.

AI can already spit out card meanings faster than any guidebook.

It can summarize spreads.
Cross reference symbolism.
Pull mythology.
Compare decks.
Translate systems instantly.

Cool.

But that’s not the revolution.

The revolution is what happens when AI gets paired with your symbolic language.

👉Your patterns.
👉Your journal entries.
👉Your recurring cards.
👉Your weird dreams.
👉Your personal mythology.

Suddenly Tarot becomes a mirror with memory.

And that mirror gets sharper over time.

It starts noticing:

“You pull the Seven of Pentacles every time you’re about to abandon something too early.”

“You associate The Moon with creative breakthroughs, not confusion.”

“You keep asking relationship questions when the real issue is self-trust.”

That’s powerful.

And slightly terrifying.

Once again, exactly what are we interfacing with?

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But wait, there’s more😲

There’s another trap here.

Infinite self-reflection.

AI makes it soooo easy to stare at yourself forever.

A spiritual hall of mirrors.

Narcissus didn’t drown because reflection was bad.

He drowned because reflection became his entire world.

Tarot wants to return you to life.

🌟To better choices.
🌟Better relationships.
🌟Better work.
🌟Better timing.
🌟More courage.

The point is participation.

👉Go build something.
👉Leave the job.
👉Start the relationship.
👉End the relationship.
👉Take the trip.
👉Write the book.
🌱Plant the damn seed.

So should anyone even bother to study Tarot now?

Absolutely.

More than ever.

Because symbols are alive.

They are ancient enough to carry universal patterns:

Mother.
Death.
Power.
Betrayal.
Love.
Sacrifice.
Rebirth.

Those themes are not going anywhere.

The Lovers still matters.

Death still matters.

The Tower still matters.

But symbols also evolve

The original creators of Tarot weren’t carving commandments into stone tablets.

They were participating in an evolving symbolic language.

And now so are we.

Every time you pull a card and derive meaning from direct experience
you are helping update the system.

Quietly.

Collectively.

In real time.

Pulling cards when your life is on fire.
Pulling cards when nothing is happening.
Tracking patterns.
Then watching where reality expands beyond them.

That’s how the language stays alive.

A dead symbol system becomes a dead language.

A living symbol system becomes a guidance system.

And Tarot feels very, very alive right now.

The future of Tarot probably won’t be led by people arguing about Rider-Waite card definitions on Reddit.

It’ll be built by readers willing to experiment.

That’s what we do inside Tarot Underground.

Come join our motley crew.

The cards showed a lot of energy, activity, and movement.
The mother seemed be to traveling …
I even said it’s like she’s crossing everything off her bucket list.

I almost didn’t say that because my logical brain jumped in and said, “That can’t be right.”

The woman in front of me was probably in her 60’s.
Which meant her mother was at least mid 80’s, probably older.

But I’ve learned over time that the cards don’t lie.

So I simply said, “This looks like someone traveling and doing everything they ever wanted.”

The comment about the bucket list came as I was describing what I was seeing in the cards.

I think I had a few more details about the mother, and what I said seemed to be landing with the daughter—

-Even though my brain kept telling me that the amount and energy and vitality being described here didn’t make sense.

After the reading, the woman told me that her mother had passed away -
And suddenly it all made sense.

🌟Of course she was full of energy and vitality.
🌟Of course she was experiencing new things and having the time of her life.
🌟Of course she was crossing things off her bucket list!

The lesson here is: Call it like you see it!

Tip 1 - Start describing, not decoding.
Say, “This looks like…” and just describe the card itself. (Yup, it’s that easy). “This feels like…” works as well.

Tip 2 - Let the meaning unfold as you speak
You will make connections as they come out of your mouth. (Not the other way around).

Tip 3 - Anchor into what’s present in the reading
I almost always put the questioner in the reading and I will say, “You are showing up here as…” The creates clarity instead of doubt.

The key here is that you don’t need the full interpretation before you speak.

You will feel unsure mid-sentence. Keep talking. The clarity catches up.

The Magician

• Is this a PSYOP? Where is my attention being directed?

• What agency do I have in this situation?

• What tools are at my disposal?

  ---

The world is… loud right now.

Not just headlines.
Not just notifications.

Something deeper.

A kind of static in the air.

You can feel it even if you don’t watch the news.
I don’t watch the news.

It hums under everything.

This morning, I woke up and saw water pooled on my altar
In big luscious, liquid drops..

For a second—WTF?

Then I realized…

The air is so thick with humidity, the salt had pulled water out of it.
Condensed. Collected. Made visible.

That’s what this moment feels like.

Everything invisible… becoming visible.

WTF???

Everything unspoken… starting to gather weight.

I’m thinking about Ian McGilchrist and his words about the left-brained sickness that permeates every seeming nuance of existence anymore.

The servant, the left-brained, rational mind has not only taken over and is driving the bus-
But it’s hallucinations now powered by AI.

What we need now is more mythos: image, symbol, and story.

It’s time to stop asking:
“What’s the solution?”

But instead ask:
“What is this trying to show me?”

Hmmm…I’ve got a pocket sized set of symbols right here in front of me called the Tarot deck!

If you asked me the why behind this newsletter, this is it.

I want to get the tool of Tarot into as many hands as possible so we have some hope of navigating the unknown territory ahead.

And here’s another piece of this…

If Tarot is a language of symbols—
then it has to stay alive.

Because symbols that don’t evolve…
start to lose their punch.

And we don’t need soft serve symbols right now.

We need symbols that hit.

That land in the body.
That feel immediately recognizable.

So instead of asking:

“What does this card traditionally mean?”

Ask instead:

“What does this feel like… today?”

The answers are often much simpler—
and much more honest and applicable to the situation!

Modern Tarot

Here are some of my “modern takes” on Tarot symbolism. My take is absolutely not the only take. I invite you to play with the symbols and come up with your own.

There are many truths in right-brained land. (Yes, that’s hard to swallow, but go with it for a moment.)

Judgement

• the “coming out card”

• awakening to parts of yourself you have kept closeted

• hearing the call of your soul and responding

The Devil

• I can’t because - your limiting beliefs

• false promises of society (work hard and get the retirement package)

• could you be lying to yourself?

The Tower

• “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold” - W.B. Yeats

• No one is coming to save you

• I hope you have a plan B

Temperance

• Ignore the pendulum

• The poison is the medicine - depending on the dose

• Extreme healing modalities: ayahuasca, huachuma, ketamine

The Bottom Line

You don’t need more information.

You need a different way of seeing.

Because when everything starts to feel unstable…
when the center can’t hold…

meaning doesn’t come from the outside anymore.

It’s something you have to make.

That’s what Tarot is for.

Not answers.

Orientation.

So pick up a card.

Say it in your own words.

And trust what hits.

Tarot isn’t something you learn by reading about it.

You learn it by doing it.

So if you want to get out of your head and into the conversation—

Join us at the next Tarot Cocktail Party

(​join the Underground for access)​

Bring a question. Pull some cards. And let’s see what they’re actually showing you.