Excuse Me While I Read My Tarot - A Reading for the New Year

 

I can’t believe that 2025 has already come and gone. Now it’s time for me to set my intentions for 2026, work out my goals, let go of things that no longer serve me, and draw my annual New Year’s Tarot reading. Since many of you may be getting set up for the new year with your own goal-setting and tarot spread, I thought I would share my process here.

I found this awesome 12-card spread on the blog of Biddy Tarot, one of my favorite tarot instructors on the internet. Rather than a month-by-month breakdown of my year, this one focuses on key lessons, aspirations, and specific life areas, including relationships and emotions, work and finances, health and well-being, and spirituality and fulfillment. I love this because it aligns with my goal-setting. 

I started with a bit of meditation just to clear my head of any stray worries or obligations. It’s always good to have an open mind and heart. I used the Wild Unknown deck by Kim Krans, given to me by a friend. I love this deck for the striking visuals. It’s not so great if you need clues from the artwork to recall the card meanings, though. I also noted that the Strength card (#8 in the traditional tarot deck) and Justice (#11) had their numbers swapped in this deck. I assumed it was a printing error, and since the cards are Major Arcana, the number doesn’t really matter so much as the subject of the card, so I read them that way.

As I turned each card, I jotted down the keywords and meanings, noting any reversals. Because I am not as familiar with this deck and because I have other decks and descriptions I like a lot, I also referred to those. In all, I read the cards four times, noting the meanings from the Wild Unknown deck, Biddy Tarot’s website, the Light Seer’s deck, and the Original Rider Waite: The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by A. E. Waite. Some of you might be surprised to know that while most of the meanings were the same or similar, there was quite a bit of divergence between them, which is one of the reasons why I like to refer to as many different resources as possible and not just rely on my own memory and/or intuition when reading cards for myself. Sometimes, the meaning just doesn’t fit.

If you’ve been following along on the podcast, you’ll recall that Amber, Christen, and I have been using AI quite a bit lately for various things. I mainly use it to clarify my thoughts and distill them into actionable lists. Since so much information was gathered in this 12-card draw, I decided to share my notes with ChatGPT to see if the results matched my own conclusions. I gave a brief description of myself:

Assume that I am a 61 year old white female, widowed with 3 grown children, a son-in-law, step-granddaughter and several couples who consider me a second mother figure who is a part-time travel agent, podcaster and blogger that loves to craft, what would the following 2026 New Year Tarot reading mean for me? Break it down by each card using the descriptions provided.

I followed this with my complete notes for each card, including all four resources. I was delightfully surprised by the accuracy of the interpretation. ChatGPT even managed to derive several highly relevant points that I completely missed – almost as if I’d had a reading from someone else because it eliminated the natural bias that occurs when reading for yourself or someone you know. 

If you’d like to see my complete notes, I’ve linked them below. You can also view the ChatGPT results. I’m going to keep these two versions together to refer back to throughout the year. I know that Christen has used ChatGPT to help her with her goal-setting for 2026 (hopefully she’ll share that with us!), so I might do the same, adding this tarot read to the prompt for further clarity. 

Let me know what you think! Was ChatGPT spot-on, or way off? Would you use it yourself or would you just go with your own instincts? I’d love to hear about it!

2026 New Year’s Tarot Spread

2026 ChatGPT Interpretation

Heard it on the Podcast - March 13, 2024

  

Did you miss a link we mentioned on the podcast? Here's a quick post we do most Wednesdays to share any links or information from the podcast. We'll also keep a running post on the "Links from the Podcast" tab so you can refer back to any previous episode. Here's the links for this week:

13-Mar-2024

S4E11: A Look at Tarot

Some of the decks we discussed:

• Rider-Waite Tarot Deck:
  Read more on Wikipedia or buy on Amazon
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Tarot Deck:
  On Amazon
• Meryl Tarot:  On Amazon
• The Golden Girls Tarot Cards:  On Amazon
• The Zombie Tarot:  On Amazon
• Lenormand Cards:
  Read more on Wikipedia or buy on Amazon
• Light Seer's Tarot:  On Amazon

This Podcast Got Me Thinking

Hello and happy October! I am excited that Modern Musings opened the month up with an artes magicae topic such as Palmistry. I have always had a love for anything esoteric, supernatural, and occult. And what better time than the month of October to explore those topics. As we mentioned in the podcast, we are not very experienced with the art of palm reading. I really felt like I was having a sleepover and reading my hands as if I were a teenager. I had a blast participating in that episode and it got me thinking. 

You may or may not know that I have a grimoire. Well, the black cat’s out of the bag. What is a grimoire you might ask?  It is a book of knowledge (some call it a book of shadows) that I am putting together of all things artes magicae, if you will. It comprises all that I am learning, studying and putting to use. I have a little bit of everything in my book from herbs, moon water, affirmations, chakras and tarot. I have a whole section dedicated to divination, but I have not dedicated much of my time to it. After the podcast, I decided that I should move forward with my notes and exploration. 

I have hopes to study and explore many forms of divination, and really get a feel for the ones that interest me the most. There are so many different types of divination, it can be overwhelming. I have a deep interest in knowing where a technique comes from, how it is named, and how it compares in another culture. Let’s just say that when I asked Google how many types of divination there are, and I clicked the link for Wikipedia, I almost fell out of my chair, I counted almost 400!  I was so excited to see the nomenclature and explanation of why some words end in ‘scopia’ and some in ‘mancy’. The reasoning being that ‘scopia’ was more scientific whereas ‘mantia’ is more mystical. Yes, I am a nerd, and etymology excites me!

John William Waterhouse - The Crystal Ball

I hope that we can touch on this topic more in the future. I know all three of us have enjoyed discussing tarot cards, although tarot is my favorite, I would like to know more about reading tea leaves, rune stones, scrying, dowsing rods, and more about tapping into my intuition by opening that so-called third eye. What are your thoughts? I would love to know what you think. Tell us in the comments. 

My Take on Astrology

Hey guys, Christen here. This week on the podcast we dove into the topic of astrology.  Well, I guess you could say we cannonballed into it. I know that the three of us,  Amber, Cindy and I, really enjoy discussing topics like astrology, numerology, tarot, crystals, and spiritualism. There are so many topics that I know we want to discuss, and during the podcast we  sometimes barely scratch the surface. 

Observing  the Earth’s position with regards to the sun, stars and moon has been a practice for thousands of years. Only in the last few centuries has that science diverged into astronomy, leaving astrology in the dust. Many consider astrology to be a pseudoscience.  There was a strong pull away from astrology when scientists argued that it could not be proven by fact. Ultimately, once we were able to prove that the earth revolves around the sun, the two “sciences” split ways, and astrology became the scientific fact, and anything else is considered pseudoscience and parapsychology. So Capernicus, the leading mathematician and astronomer of his day, decided that he would follow astrological phenomena, and not astrology, and boom, astrology is “fake news”. He was a Pisces (just saying), and he studied at the University of Bologna - no joke! The shift actually happened over a longer period of time, but astronomy phased in and astrology phased out. But astrology has never died. Over the past 200 years, there has been a new wave of interest in the occult, esoteric topics, and parapsychology. In the 1840’s with spiritualism, and in the 1970’s with the New Age movement, many of the beliefs within astrology have seen a resurgence and are still followed today.

Even so, I will sometimes swap out the words astrology and astronomy by mistake. I have always enjoyed the study of outer space and the ideas of the beyond pertaining to astronomy, the study of space and the universe, but astrology is a topic that has piqued my interests far beyond the facts and figures of astronomy. I was drawn to it at a young age. I know we have mentioned that my mom used to have some books by Linda Goodman, Sun Signs and Love Signs , that went into detail about each zodiac personality type. I discovered those books and was hooked. 

When I got older, I bought a book for myself that I highly recommend called The Secret Language of Birthdays: Your Complete Personology Guide for Each Day of the Year by Goldschneider and Joost. This book features a two-page, in-depth personality report for each day of the year. I have lugged this book from home to home, and it was always a favorite when guests came over. I could almost guarantee that someone would open it and take a look. I often would crack it open myself if I met a new person and happened to know their birthdate. It was an easy way to “get to know'' someone without having to be too nosey.

I will admit though that using the book, or any horoscope, zodiac website, or book to discern a person’s characteristics is not the best way to get to know someone. In reality, it can create a biased opinion of someone, and cause you to inadvertently treat them differently than you would if you had met them and learned about them organically. It is like knowing the future or a possible future outcome, and making different choices based on something that might or might not happen in reality. For example, I know that people born under the Cancer sign are prone to be temperamental according to many personality trait sources, however one Cancer in my life that I am very close to is probably one of the most level-headed people that I know; I actually admire her for it. Had I read that she was temperamental, I probably would have avoided her, and missed out on an opportunity to build the relationship that I have with her today. I know another Cancer, and love-her-to-death, she has a volatile personality that is easily triggered. Cool as a cucumber and volcanic emotions are far from similar, yet they both have the same astrological sign. I have to consider Nature vs. Nurture and wonder how their environment and raising come into play. But I digress... astrology is a tool, and just like a hammer, you can build things, and you can smash things, so use the tool wisely.

Another tool that interests me is Witches’ Almanacs. I have never purchased one, but I am thinking of getting one this year. Very soon actually. The LLewellyn’s 2023 Magical Almanac should be available here in July, from my favorite publishing company, Llewellyn. This almanac, like the Farmer's Almanac, gives the reader guidance based on the sun, moon, and stars, but from a metaphysical approach. If any of this interests you, I recommend checking it out. I have used the internet to pull dates and put them into my own day planner in the past, so I look forward to adding this to my planning rituals. 

I will be sure to follow up once I get one and look forward to sharing it with our readers. I would love for you to share as well. We love to carry the conversation over to our MMC chat group on Facebook. I hope that you enjoy listening to our podcasts as well, if you are not listening, then you are missing out on part of the conversation. Be sure to click on the Listen link at the top of this page or find us on Apple Music or wherever you get your podcasts. We also have a YouTube channel where you can listen to the podcast or watch an instructional video.

According to Astrology...

I don’t want to just throw out my exact age here since I am considered the “maiden”, but I’m going to because the reason that I am the maiden is that I’m the youngest, I’m unmarried, and I don’t have any children (unless you count my students). I also look at life with a sense of childlike wonder which hasn’t changed no matter how many things get thrown at me. That, being said, I was born on November 28, 1983. Why is this significant? Knowing the predictions behind your birthday can be incredibly important.

What even is astrology anyway?  On our upcoming podcast, we will define astrology and discuss the meanings behind it. Is astrology pseudoscience? Does it predict the future? According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, it is a “type of divination that involves the forecasting of earthly and human events through the observation and interpretation of the fixed stars, the Sun, the Moon, and the planets.” Astrology is very old. It has been around since ancient Babylon (18th century B.C.). I cannot say whether astrology predicts the future or not, but I can tell you what it says about me.

My Life Path Number is 6: Life Path numbers help you figure out where you are going in life and help you understand deeper aspects of your personality. Being a 6, I have the compulsive need to change the world creatively. I have a desire to uplift and inspire others and I am seen as a stabilizer and a problem solver, according to Christine DeLorey of Creative Numerology. You can calculate your number here.

My Zodiac Sign is Sagittarius: Zodiac signs can give you an insight into your basic personality traits (for better or worse). Sagittarius is the ninth zodiac sign and it stretches from November 21-December 21. According to Sarah Regan of Mind Body Green, a Sagittarius is always seeking freedom and adventure but they are also very stable and rational. My strengths are adaptability, generosity, and a great sense of humor while my weaknesses are impatience and the fact that I say what’s on my mind too much.

Sagittarius is a Fire Sign: Each of the 12 astrological signs falls under one of the four elements which are earth, air, fire, and water. According to Sarah Regan of Mind Body Green, fire signs are “passionate, dynamic, and temperamental.” Fire signs are high-energy and tend to move at a faster pace than other signs. Fire signs also tend to be more impulsive than other signs.

The Sagittarius symbol is The Archer: The archer's arrow is always pointing upwards which means that Sagittarius is always aiming higher in life whether it is spiritually, emotionally, or financially. The arrow pointing up also “expresses wisdom and honesty” according to Astrostyle.

My Ruling Planet is Jupiter: Every Zodiac sign has a ruling planet and your ruling planet influences how your sign is expressed. The planet Jupiter, in astrology, is associated with luck, optimism, and positivity. According to Andrea Lawrence of Exemplore, Jupiter influences activities, and encourages goal-setting, chasing dreams, curiosity, and risk-taking. Jupiter is a ruling planet for knowledge-seekers.

My birthstone is Topaz and Citrine: Birthstones represent a person’s birth month. According to Farmer's Almanac, topaz symbolizes love and affection, and citrine can calm and heal. I often wear a citrine necklace or carry citrine with me for personal healing and good vibes. It just so happens that it’s my birthstone, and its color is amber, like my name.

I was born on a Monday: The day of the week you were born can also hold significance according to Vedic Astrology. According to Dr. Pratibha Singh of Eastrohelp, people born on Monday make unpredictable and emotional decisions over practical decisions. People born on Monday are also very creative, romantic, and can be very jealous lovers. Monday-born people can also be quite vengeful if they are stabbed in the back. Oftentimes, Monday’s child thrives in problem-solving careers.

I was born in a Waning Crescent moon phase: According to MoonGlow, the lunar personality of a Waning Crescent Moon is that of a “thinker.” People love to talk to “thinkers” because they make great conversation and are good listeners. Aside from that, people born during a Waning Crescent moon have a creative way of thinking (or overthinking), are artistic, imaginative, and can easily come up with creative solutions to problems.

I was born in The Year of the Water Pig: Per the Chinese Zodiac, “Pigs are diligent, compassionate, and generous. They have great concentration: once they set a goal, they will devote all their energy to achieving it. Though Pigs rarely seek help from others, they will not refuse to give others a hand. Pigs never suspect trickery, so they are easily fooled.” Pigs are also calm in the face of trouble, can handle problems carefully, and have a great sense of responsibility to finish what they start. 

My Lasso of Fate is The Lovers Tarot card: “The Lovers tarot card denotes someone who makes choices from the heart. This is someone who needs to emotionally and intellectually connect to every aspect of their lives,” according to Astronumerology.

There are many debates and theories on astronomy. One could say that you could change aspects of your personality to align with your horoscope. Is this an exact science? No, it isn’t. Is it fun? Yes, it is. Astrology combines some of my favorite parts of divination. If someone who knows me reads this, they would probably say all of the things above describe me. Is it fate? Was I born to be the way that I am? Astrology says yes. It’s all about perspective. Coincidence? You decide. I don’t even ready my horoscope regularly.

I want to hear from our readers. How much faith do you put in astrology? Let’s continue the conversation in our Facebook Group: MMC Chat.

Literature, Magic, and Inspiration

Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed our podcast this week about oracle cards. I have to confess, I have never been much of an oracle reader. I have been reading tarot cards for 28 years. I bought my first deck at Waldenbooks, a now-defunct bookstore in the local mall. I grew up in rural Texas, and reading tarot cards was not something that someone advertised or talked about. In fact, I didn’t talk about my interest in the metaphysical or tarot cards until college when I discovered a fellow enthusiast in Christen. Fast forward 20 years and now we are doing a podcast together.

My first deck 

I didn't buy my first oracle deck until a little over a year ago. I had never really been interested in oracle decks in the past, however, I was hanging out with Christen and Cindy one night when Cindy’s friend, Christina, came over with her oracle cards. She took out her many decks and she explained what each deck meant. Then she proceeded to give me an oracle reading from her many decks. I became fascinated with the idea of the cards.

It took me a while to choose a deck. There are many different kinds of oracle decks and many different sizes. Then one day I ran across the book Literary Witches: A Celebration of Magical Women Writers and “The Literary Witches Oracle Deck” by Taisia Kitaiskaia and illustrated by Katy Horan. Being a writer and an English teacher, I knew that this was the deck I had been waiting for.

Literary Witches book and deck

The Literary Witches Oracle Deck celebrates 30 magical female authors such as Mary Shelley, Toni Morrison, and Flannery O’Connor through symbolism and spiritual insight. The cards are perfect for those who seek wisdom from strong, creative women. The deck, in other words, is a literature lover’s dream.

The deck features 70 cards, 30 of which represent the personality aspects of the female writers featured in the deck, and the other 40 cards contain symbolic objects from the authors’ works and the ideas they represent. 

My three favorite cards in the deck:

• Angela Carter, the Identity card: If you draw this card, it means you are probably having some form of an identity crisis. You need a better sense of who you are. Angela Carter’s writing is all about finding oneself even in the face of adversity and tragedy.

• Emily Dickinson, the Soul card: If you draw this card, it means that it is time for you to make a major life change and venture into the unknown. Emily Dickinson and her writing pushed against the conventions of her time and encouraged readers to think beyond the confines of their minds.

• Mary Shelley, the Loss card: If you draw this card, it means that you are probably dealing with something that is disrupting the cycle of life whether it is a birth, a death, or a major life transition. Mary Shelley suffered many losses in her life and it showed through her writing and her exploration of life through her novel Frankenstein.

How can you use an oracle deck? There are a few different ways that I like to use them:

1. Single card layout: Basically this is your “card of the day.” You should shuffle the deck and draw a card. This is your daily card and you should reflect on the meaning of the card throughout the day.

2. Three card layout: This is generally a “past, present, and future” card layout. When using this layout, you should ask the cards a specific question while shuffling to get a better reading on the past, present, and future of the situation. This is the reading that I usually do when I use my oracle deck.

3. During a tarot reading: You can use your oracle deck in conjunction with your tarot deck. Shuffle your deck and draw a single oracle card before or after your tarot reading. According to Biddy Tarot, you can use your oracle deck to understand the general or underlying theme of your reading.

Past Present Future Spread

Since buying my first oracle deck, I have since added two more to my collection, but my heart always goes to my Literary Witches and the wisdom they bring through their writings. What makes a witch a witch? The magic and inspiration inside them. One day, I hope to follow in their footsteps.

Do you have an interest in oracle or tarot cards? Please share your experiences in the comments below, or in our Facebook Group: MMC Chat.

I've linked the cards I mentioned in this article with our Amazon Affiliate account. As an Amazon Affiliate, Modern Musings earns from qualifying purchases.

Exploring My Inner Self Through Oracle Cards

I’m no stranger to the metaphysical. I remember reading my mother’s copy of Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs from cover to cover growing up, followed by “Love Signs” and a whole host of other astrological and parapsychological texts. I’ve been intrigued by the paranormal, supernatural, spirituality, and philosophy my whole life, and I don’t believe there is one real and complete answer to our existence that we humans are capable of understanding. That leaves me open to explore a lot of different theories and ideologies without completely ruling out any of the others. I like it that way. I call myself a “Christian” because I follow the ways of Jesus, the Christ, but I don’t even pretend that my belief explains everything or that we know all there is to know.

That wasn’t always the case. Not that long ago, I had allowed myself to worry that things like horoscopes, tarot cards, and empathic or intuitive messages were connections to the Devil…something to be feared and avoided. But even then, curiosity got the better of me (who among us has not sinned?), and I began to understand that everything is not so black and white. After all, if the prophets of the bible, or the saints who performed miracles, are truly sent from God, then who is to say that others, even you and me, can’t receive divine enlightenment, too? And thus my journey into the realm of metaphysics, which, by the way, is a term originating in the 16th century to describe “the things after (or beyond) physics”, and is based in great part on the philosophy and teachings of Plato and Aristotle.

I won’t get into the history of metaphysics here (Wow! What a great discussion that would be!), but I will say it’s a huge and wildly divergent field, and it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information available. That’s why I decided to start out slow, with something I could dip my toes in, and of which I had several friends with a bit of experience. Thus I began to explore tarot and oracle cards.

I didn’t know where to start, so I figured a basic Rider-Waite tarot deck would suffice, and I found one on Amazon. I had intended to stop there, but I happened to glance down at the “recommended” purchases list, and there was a beautiful deck of Oracle cards that caught my eye. I had absolutely zero experience with oracle cards other than an occasional single card pull by a friend who uses them almost exclusively. But this gorgeous deck had me intrigued, so I had to check it out.

The deck was called the “Work Your Light” oracle deck, written by Rebecca Campbell with artwork by Danielle Noel. This 44-card set incorporates digital photography and computer illustration to create a surreal landscape of fantastic images in hues of pink, purple, and teal, which eventually became one of the inspirations for our Modern Musings logo. I just couldn’t quit looking at these cards.

The imagery was what called me, but what really spoke to me was the content and message of the cards themselves. The “Work Your Light” oracle deck is filled with positive energy and potent messages meant to guide the user to deepen the connection to one’s intuition, thus aligning your life to your soul’s purpose. That really resonated with me, because I had recently been striving for clarity in my life’s purpose through my One Little Word project, and I was currently working on the word explore. I was drawn to the idea of “working my light’, which also aligned with my Christian beliefs.

To become familiar with both decks, I decided to begin a daily one-card pull from both the tarot and the oracle deck. I don’t have a lot of fancy rituals that go with my morning reads, just a simple shuffle (three times for my numerology Life Path Number) while asking “What do I need to know? What do I need to think? What do I need to do? What are you trying to tell me?”. After that, I then cut the deck to reveal the card for the day. This daily practice has, for me, become a very useful tool in growing my spirituality, introducing a bit of mindfulness into my day, giving me insight into my personal beliefs and thought patterns, and helping me become a better and more intuitive person.

My inquiry into tarot and oracle cards has definitely piqued my interest in all things spiritual and metaphysical. I’ve grown more curious about astrology, numerology, meditation, prayer (something I’ve practiced since I was 13-years-old), chakras, crystals, palmistry, and more. Do I believe everything I hear or read? Absolutely not! But I do firmly believe that I can cherry-pick as much or as little as I choose, retaining the concepts and theories that work for me while disregarding anything that doesn’t. I especially believe that I should go into every consideration with an open mind, because even if I don’t take everything at face value, I can often find at least a grain of truth, and who’s to say where that might lead me?

Do you have an interest in oracle cards or the metaphysical? I’d love to hear about it! Share your experiences with us in the comments below, or in our Facebook Group: MMC Chat.

I've linked the cards I mentioned in this article with our Amazon Affiliate account. As an Amazon Affiliate, Modern Musings earns from qualifying purchases.

Heard it on the Podcast - February 23

Did you miss a link we mentioned on the podcast? Here's a quick post we'll do every Wednesday to share any links or information from the podcast. We'll also keep a running post on the "Links from the Podcast" tab so you can refer back to any previous episode. Here's the links for this week:

23-FEB-2022

S2E9: Oracle Cards

• Rider-Waite Tarot Deck:  https://amzn.to/3I9kWOW
• Work Your Light Oracle Cards:  https://amzn.to/3BG57wR
• Spirit Animal Oracle:  https://amzn.to/3sZzn1M
• Celtic Spirit Oracle:  https://amzn.to/3IdluUb
• Galaxy Oracle Deck:
• The Secret Language of Light Oracle:  https://amzn.to/3p5FCQA
• Jane Austen Tarot Deck:  https://amzn.to/3Ioma9m
• Literary Witches Oracle:  https://amzn.to/3hbdZBg
• Literary Witches Book:  https://amzn.to/3hfwfsV
• Divine Circus Oracle:  https://amzn.to/3h905iV
• Cirque du Tarot:  https://amzn.to/3sbn2rU
• New Orleans Oracle Deck:  https://amzn.to/33HsSrF
• Music Oracle Deck:
• It Playing Cards:  https://amzn.to/3IhmBCi
• Coffee Cards:  https://www.etsy.com/listing/590905742/coffee-cards-1796-fortune-telling-oracle
• The Food Healing Oracle Deck:  https://amzn.to/3JL0TH1
• The Metaphysical Cannabis Oracle Deck:  https://amzn.to/3LNQMmJ
• Food Fortunes Card Deck:  https://amzn.to/3p8w0Es
• Just a Girl Who Loves Strawberries Journal:  https://amzn.to/3p9Pad3

As an Amazon Affiliate, Modern Musings earns from qualifying purchases.

What the universe was telling me...

Hi everyone, it’s Christen here! This week on the blog and the podcast we are discussing Oracle cards. I hope you have had a chance to listen to our podcast; if you haven’t, be sure to check it out. Each week on Wednesday, we release a new episode, but occasionally the podcast will have a fun episode we call Excuse Me While I Read My Tarot. The name is funny to me because sometimes I just have to stop what I am doing and conduct a little reading. I know that my mom can’t start her day without her daily reading as well. 

I got my first oracle card deck shortly after my first tarot deck. I have used those same decks for almost 2 decades. This year though, I decided that I wanted to add more to my options. I had been keeping an eye on this one set in particular and when I saw it at a holistic fair several weeks back I couldn't resist it. 

The reason that this deck was so tempting was because it was an entire deck dedicated to my spirit animal, the unicorn. I have always been obsessed with unicorns, but had never considered them my spirit animal until recently. I loved them as a small child and all through my teen years up to young adulthood. I would collect images online and download them to a file on my computer or pin them to my wall. For a while there, it seemed that unicorns became less popular and my love for them, although it did not fade, was dimmed by adulthood. I sometimes wonder if I just stopped seeing them. But, I found myself “secretly” loving them. It seemed shameful to love something so childish, and with my arrival into the working world, anything fantasy, cartoonish or too colorful needed to be kept private. I wanted to fit in with corporate America to be taken seriously. Somewhere in there I lost myself. Too quickly did I become this cookie-cutter call center employee. Black pants, black shoes, and dress shirt. I would have loved to be able to wear a unicorn shirt to work, but I was too afraid to be myself. 

In recent years, it seems that everywhere I turn, there is a unicorn – it’s back in style. Not just kid’s attire, but things made for grown women and men, too. Does everyone love unicorns as much as me? Heck, they must, because it seems that there is a unicorn printed on just about everything these days. Did the unicorn go away and make a return, or was I just ignoring it for all this time? Was it a little reminder to me from the universe that it was “ok” to be myself? Quite possibly. 

So since I have been feeling not quite myself lately, I thought it was perfect timing to purchase that unicorn oracle deck I had been fantasizing about. I have been ready to invite the unicorn back into my life. I feel that with all the changes that have occurred in my life, I have slowly forgotten who I am and what brings me joy. Typically the unicorn represents uniqueness, surreal beauty and purity among many other qualities. For me, the unicorn represents self love and acceptance, mystery, divinity, creativity, joy, adventure, and childlike wonder.

The oracle deck itself is very lovely and I feel it represents all of those qualities. The deck was created by Diana Cooper and illustrated by Marjolein Kruijt. There are 44 cards in the deck and they have a full range of interpretations. My favorite card so far is “Create Your Vision,” which depicts a unicorn (of course) but along with it, a winding gold staircase leading up to a mysterious palace in another realm. The card tells you to do what makes your heart sing, and that you are being nudged forward. All of the cards have uplifting messages, and the handbook that is included, offers several ways to use the cards for personal insight.

​​

Diana is a well known author of oracle cards and books varying from angels, mythical creatures, ascension, and personal development. On her website, you can have a reading with her oracle cards. She has 9 decks to choose from and you can pull up to three cards. This is a great way to sample her decks before you buy, plus you can get a little reading without having to provide your email to get the results! It's also a great way to see what oracle cards are all about. 

We hope that you check out our podcast coming out this Wednesday where we dive a little deeper into oracle cards and our ways of using them as an intuitive tool. Do you have a favorite oracle card deck? We would love to hear your thoughts. Join in on the conversation here on our FaceBook chat. 

Excuse Me...

Hey this is Cindy Murray and I wanted to pop on here for a minute to tell you about a little segment that we will do from time to time that we call “Excuse Me While I Read My Tarot.” This series is a fun excursion into the art of tarot reading and the many ways we use it to look deeper inside ourselves and enhance our daily lives. But before we get started, let’s take a look at some common misconceptions about tarot cards and how they are used.

Reading tarot cards is a popular practice and different people use Tarot readings in different ways. Some historians speculate that tarot cards may have started in ancient Egypt, but in the strictest sense, tarot originated as playing cards in 15th century Italy, and were used to play games not unlike the traditional playing cards many people use today. In fact, the original cards are still used today in many parts of Europe to play various card games without occult associations, and other than a 15th century sermon by a Dominican preacher who condemned them for their use in gambling, they were not really censured at all until more modern times.

Fortune-telling with cards, called cartomancy, began some time in the 14th century and eventually found its way to the Tarot and other decks of cards, including the common playing cards used in America today. Sometime around the 18th century, Tarot decks began to be produced specifically for these card-reading purposes. One of these, the Rider-Waite tarot deck, is quite famous and is often the one that comes to mind for people here in the U.S. This deck was first published in 1909 and contains a bounty of religious symbolism, including Judeo-Christian icons, as did many of the preceding decks. Imagery includes the Pope (later renamed the Heirophant), the Papess (renamed the High Priestess), Adam and Eve, the Devil, angels, and crosses. The cards are really just a very elaborate “symbol code that depicts universal and natural laws and principles that are shared by all the world’s great religio-spiritual traditions.”

So enough of all that history! Let’s talk about what’s going on with tarot cards today! While many practitioners interpret the cards as a form of divination, or fortune-telling, just as many (or more) use the cards as a sort of cue or prompt for daily insight and enlightenment. Much in the same way a therapist might use a Rorschach ink blot, the interpretation of the symbolism on the cards can be a useful tool to examine the beliefs, behaviors, and thought patterns of the individual. As stated by the tarot for dummies website (cited below), “The purpose of a tarot reading is to help you see your past and present thoughts, words, and behaviors more objectively.”

For me, personally, I like to look at the cards as a good way to start my day with a little mindfulness and reflection. I certainly don’t see them as anything at odds with my Christian beliefs, and I know a good number of Christian faithful who use tarot cards. However you want to interpret the cards, we hope you will enjoy what we have to share and will accept our readings with the spirit in which they are given.

Information in this article came in part from:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot

https://www.dummies.com/religion/paganism/correcting-major-misconceptions-about-tarot/

https://tiffanyleebrown.com/tarot-religion

If you would like to learn tarot, this is a great website:

https://www.biddytarot.com/tarot-card-meanings/