Happy 2019 everyone! I hope you all had a great 2018, despite global challenges, etc. I’m excited and raring to go for this year. I have big plans and am looking to pour my enthusiasm and energy into all my items.
Tarot Inspired Life, releases in 7 days. SQUEEEE! Ahem, I hope everyone enjoys it and takes the information within and applies it to their own lives. I’ll be doing book signings this month in Seattle (for the ALA Mid-Winter Conference), and at the various conventions I’m attending this year.
I am still trying to figure out how to do more book signings here in PDX and in select places around the US/Canada. You can find all this information over at the book companion site: www.tarotinspiredlife.com. It also contains downloads, informative posts, and other book-related info.
This page is a place holder for this year’s full series of planning spreads. I had a ton of fun doing this last year. However, that first 36-card all at once glance was hard. So this year, I’ll be doing monthly updates as they happen. Then I will link everything back to this page for easy reference. Just like last year, I’ll post a detailed overview of each set of cards and how I think they’ll influence the month.
This year I chose Ethony Dawn’s Awakened Soul Oracle to provide the themes. I’ll use a tarot deck for each month’s how, and then select cards from the Mudras for Awakening: The Energy Body Deck to serve as as awareness while along the journey. I’ll keep the mudras card at my desk and use the recommended positioning as necessary.
What I love about doing these planning spreads is the flexibility of how you can build ritual and structure in with any sort of cards. As you look through this spread, and read each month’s details, look for pattens. Some cards might have similar colors, others may have similar names. All these little insights help in understanding the readings and add to interpretation.
Anyhoo, here’s the overall theme spread for all 12 months using the Awakened Soul Oracle. I still need to pick the tarot deck, so I’ll get January’s post up tomorrow; complete with notes. Until then enjoy this small visual peek into my new year!
My themes for 2019. You can click the image to make it bigger. Cards from the Awakened Soul Oracle.
January Theme: Song How: 8 of Swords Helper: 14. Harmony
February Theme: Desire How: 2 of Swords Helper: 13. Fluidity
March Theme: Devotion How: Knight of Wands Helper: 40. Reverence
April Theme: Leadership How: Page of Cups Helper: 21. Determination
May Theme: Silence How: 6 of Pentacles Helper: 31. Inner Truth
June Theme: Mantra How: Ace of Swords Helper: 19. Commitment
July Theme: Family How: 9 of Wands Helper: 10. Fearlessness
August Theme: Surrender How: The Hierophant Helper: 36. Higher Knowledge
September Theme: Truth How: The Moon Helper: 38. Spiritual Truth
October Theme: Mantra How: Ace of Swords Helper: 19. Commitment
November Theme: Authenticity How: 3 of Cups Helper: 25. Brilliance
December Theme: Shadow How: 3 of Wands Helper: 28. Freedom
The last sunset of 2018. Taken at Gabriel Park in SW PDX.
Welcome to the 2018 installment of a NYE Spread. I performed this spread during the day because in a few hours I’ll be reading tarot at a local private event. This year’s spread is from Lori Lytle and is called Pomegranate New Year Tarot Spread. This six card spread caught my eye because it has a combination of future casting and magical attraction.
Once again I used Benebell Wen’s Spirit Keeper’s Tarot as it’s still December. I’m sad to say this reading will be the last time I work with this deck exclusively. According to what Lori says, the spread has no fixed layout, so I made my own circular pattern. (I did, for a brief moment, think about shuffling the deck, picking six cards, and then tossing those into the air and randomly selecting their order. However, it’s a bit chaotic to record in a blog post.)
My layout for the Pomegranate New Year Tarot Spread by Lori Lytle. Cards are from the Spirit Keepers Tarot by Benebell Wen.
Card One: The Outlook for the Year Ahead. The Empress. One of my birth cards, I feel right at home drawing her on the first shot. Next year is going to be big. I am promoting Tarot Inspired Life, teaching classes, touring, and I have two new books I want to work on. This is all in addition to reading tarot and all the other cool things I do. She is my creativity, and reminds me about the abundance of all I do. So indulge in what I do best: write, art, tarot.
Card Two: Where My Luck Lies. 7 of Pentacles. The title for this card is The Gardener, and I agree. My luck for next year lies in knowing when to plant a new seed and when to harvest. Timing is key there. So I need to listen to my intuition and get a bit of help from astrology and other systems for sharing new projects and moving forward with other items.
Card Three: Plant These Seeds Now. 3 of Cups. Considering we’re closing out 2018 with the word I picked for the year “connection”, I think I’ve done a good job of building my circles. Time to continue connecting and celebrating with my community and those I love.
Card Four: Put This On Hold For Now. Ten of Pentacles. I view this card as the “legacy” cards. It’s the stuff I’ll leave behind because I’m not going to have kids. While I want to leave behind a body of work people can enjoy and respect when I am gone. This is not what I should focus on this year. Instead, I’ll be planting new seeds, writing new drafts, and working on the elements for new works.
Card Five: What is Already Growing. Page of Pentacles. I planted a lot of new ideas and seeds for new works this year, so I can rest knowing that these plans are in motion and working on my behalf. I’ll be listening out for the messages my guides, spirits, and helpers have so I can continue to nurture this growth.
Card Six: Do This to Attract Abundance. Two of Pentacles. Hah. This one is too perfect. I have issues on finding the right balance. I tend to get in the “flow” of things and hyper-focus on what I am doing until my body is sore, or it’s way to late for bed. In order for me to have more abundance, I need to learn the cycles of work and play more. If I’m not physically or mentally well, then my work suffers and people around me suffer.
What NYE spreads are you performing tonight? Let me know!
We’re down to the last days of 2018. What a wild ride this year has been. Here’s a recap of everything I’m proud of for 2018. I also had many great clients and reading events. Thinking about them all puts a smile on my face.
The big thing I did this year was accept a contract from Llewellyn for my first book, Tarot Inspired Life. It’s a dream come true for me, years in the making. I received my author copies a few days ago, and have been hearing from friends that they’ve received copies. I’m both elated and nervous but that’s par for who I am. While copies are available in some stores and online at Google Play right now, the official street date is January 8, 2019. So there’s still time to preorder your copy now!
I also got some professional pictures taken of me for the book and all my sites. My photographer, Christy Carr, was fabulous in keeping me focused and helping me feel like a rockstar, despite my mind-body issues. I’m so grateful for her help.
A box filled with copies of Tarot Inspired Life
In addition to the book release, I separated out the two tarot domains I own. Inner Compass Tarot, the business site, got moved over to www.innercompasstarot.com. The www.tarotinspiredlife.com domain has been repurposed to promote my book. I spent most of autumn and winter creating worksheets, templates, and other downloads. I plan on posting book specific entries over there.
Classes
I taught Pop Culture Tarot with Rose Red at PantheaCon this year. We had a full room full of eager attendees who learned many ways to integrate tarot and pop culture references in their cards and spreads. Each table created a unique spread, which we collected, and I created a fun download as a keepsake.
Ruth Ann and Wald Amberstone asked me to run a Breakfast Round Table at Readers Studio this year. I chose to focus my discussion around how we as tarot readers can promote great change in the world as we’re going through all these political, social unrest, and environmental changes. I was blessed to receive many awesome responses to this question and have integrated many suggestions into my personal practice.
While I din’t teach at NWTS this year, I did focus on producing a quality conference for everyone to enjoy.
Publications
The year in review posts are especially important for me to see what body of writing I produce out into the world every year. Much of what I wrote throughout these months, won’t be released until next year, so it creates this weird perspective where I feel like I haven’t done much of anything. However, as you’ve seen I have.
The editor asked my advice for the Sage Advice Experts Roundtable. I’m one of six experts answering the question “What is your favorite card in the Tarot and why? Or cards, if that works better.” (Link goes to the PDF version because the print issue sold out.)
I cowrote the booklet with Rose Red, and for some reason only my name shows up on this. We attempted to give a good structure and victorian backdrop for this deck which features Arthur Rackham’s art.
This was a HUGE project and an honor. I wrote the tarot introduction section, the keywords, how to use the cards, and created two spreads for this David Bowie inspired deck by Davide De Angelis. I also ended up being a primary editor for the whole book which he and his wife co-wrote.
Rose and I continue to produce episodes of Tarot Visions. We added a new member to our team who has taken over audio processing. While I enjoyed processing episodes, having our new teammate doing them gives me the space I’ll need in 2019 to tour for my book. We’re still interviewing people and we’ve also expanded our solo episodes to discuss our own practices and thoughts. I also took small breaks during this year to focus on TIL edits and website work.
Lifestyle
My word for 2018 was community. I wanted to make better and stronger connections to my friends and to share who I was with the world. I think I’ve done a good job of that with my various platforms.
Visited the sea otters at the Oregon Coast Aquarium at Newport, OR.
I stepped away from Facebook on my birthday and haven’t logged in since. I feel less stress and it gives me more opportunities to talk about what is going on with friends over the phone or email, or… gasp.. in person! I’m still active with Facebook Messenger, as many friends use this service to communicate. I am also very active on twitter. For some reason, I don’t see twitter as threatening to my mental stability as Facebook.
You’d think that with all this new time on my hands, I’d have read a lot of books. Sadly, I only got through 27 books. One of the books in my current reads pile I’ve been working on since last year! Sheez… maybe I need to read more.
I DID get caught up on podcasts this year. Podcasts got weird for me after my dad died in 2016, and it felt like a huge relief to get most of them current. Perhaps this is one step along my grieving process?
A lot goes on in my head. Last year I lost a dear friend and my personal counselor. While I’m sad and miss him, I’m happy to say I found a new counselor to help me navigate my brain and the challenges of being bipolar. I feel more grounded, heard, and helped through the difficult changes. It can be hard to admit mental health challenges, so if you’re struggling…please know I’m here. I hear you. I hold space for you.
I continue to listen to my body and give it what it needs. I exercise, get massages, and see a chiropractor. I also am working on changing my perspective of my body and self image. I’m still facing pita pain in my neck, and as such, I am eager to add acupuncture into the list after the new year.
I look forward to 2018 drawing closed and seeing what 2019 has to offer. I have big plans for this next year: adding new services to the Inner Compass Tarot site, new blog posts here and at the tarot inspired life domain, and yes, I am working on new book ideas. I’ll also be teaching and traveling. There’s never a dull moment in my life.
This about wraps it up for 2018. I look forward to 2019 and what surprises it has in store for me. More travels, more words, more thoughts, more tarot!
What achievements have you done this year? What are you looking forward to doing in 2019? Let me know!
Winter 2018 Solstice Spread using The Spirit Keeper’s Tarot by Benebell Wen.
In her December newsletter, Joanna Powell Colbert shares a wonderful Solstice spread. In honor of the shortest day of the year, I chose to do this reading. I timed the reading as close to the actual solstice hour as I could.
The Spirit Keeper’s Tarot is a great deck. However, it’s not for the faint of heart. A bit confusing at times, the readings I do for myself have blown me away every time a card spills out. It’s definitely one I’ll draw when I need the universal clue-by-four. I’ve been working with it for my daily draws this month and felt it was only fitting to use this perceptive deck for this spread. Enjoy!
1- Darkness / Dismemberment / Brokenness What have you lost? What are you grieving? What is broken within you? (If you get a positive card in this position, you might want to read its shadow side or reversed meaning.)
3 of Cups: The 3 of Cups represents community, celebration, a coming together. While this year has been my year of community, I also feel a sense of loss in this area. I want to feel a part of something greater than myself, to connect with like-minded individuals, and yet… I am home and do much alone. I am bipolar and sometimes I feel like I don’t belong, even when I do. So, part of me wonders how I can get what I want and recognize it when it does happen.
2- Promise / Rebirth of the Sun / Renewal What is the promise of renewal that will come with the dawn of Winter Solstice?
Knight of Wands: The dawn heralds the return of the light, of fire. I am a Leo and my chart is filled with fire. Creativity is my passion, and I look forward to the fire returning fast and furious to fuel my desires of new works, new ideas, and studies.
3- Integration of Dark and Light How do the darkness and the dawn intertwine? What wisdom do they create together?
Wheel of Fortune: Out of all the cards drawn, I think this is my favorite. Darkness and dawn are part of the cycles of life. They will always be there, going around and around, as our planet circles the Sun. I feel as if I’m being called to honor my own cycles. To expose and to understand my inner cycles of light and darkness. To know that while the mania and depression exist, they are also a part of me, and why I am the way I am. And it’s perfectly okay to have them.
4- Gift of the Darkness / Remember What is the gift of the broken time, hidden in the darkness? What longs to be remembered and restored?
Queen of Swords: I had to look this card up in Benebell’s guide for she changes the court card names around. One of the first things I read on this card is that the figure is left handed. So am I. So I feel as if I need to restore and honor my own “left handedness”. I interpret this as in blazing my own path. Yes, the queen is left minded as well, logical, calculating, but she also doesn’t deal with crap from others.
With Tarot Inspired Life almost out in the world, I need to remember not everyone will enjoy it. Not all reviews will be good, and this is okay. I need to just keep my head down and blaze my own path. And continue to share my knowledge, my insight, and my path with others.
What Solstice Spreads have you drawn upon this holiday season? Have any insights on this reading you want to share? Please feel free to leave a comment below.
Images from The Shadowscapes Tarot by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
Two weekends ago I visited a dear friend, Callie French, for an afternoon of holiday cheer and tarot reading swaps. There were six of us, all from the past summer’s tarot class. We drank wine, caught up, and talked tarot.
Once we settled down around the dining room table, Callie turned our attention to the reading swap. The spread she set us all up with had five cards and no real name. With all that goes on during winter, I thought it was a lovely spread and a great gift to have it interpreted by someone else.
The spread positions are: 1. Center: You in this current moment. 2. Above: The guiding light which shines down. 3. Below: This anchors you. What gives you a foundation. 4. Left: This is what you need to give. 5. Right: This is what you need to receive.
I used The Shadowscapes Tarot for my cards. This is how my friend interpreted the images on the cards. The notes below are almost what my friend said, verbatim.
Me in the center: Knight of swords. Magical, Strength and flight, different perspectives. I’m prepared and can deal with the crap. Look to the Stars.
Guiding Light from above: Seven of wands. Learn how to sort things out. Let the beauty come out from the crazy. Two dragons.
The anchor from below: The high priestess. Owl for wisdom. Going inward. Tree is rooted and spirals up. More stars. Balance of day and night.
What I give on the left: The hermit. Learn to balance the need to be alone and be out. Put thought into being out versus inside. What goes on must come out. Beauty, strength and purpose is key.
What I receive on the right: 6 of swords. Receive messages from my dreams. Ugly duckling and the swan. Strong spiritual connection. Nurture myself.
My takeaway is while the next few weeks are going to try my core, I should center and return to my anchor (tarot and spirituality and creativity), allow myself the freedom to pick and choose where my engagements are, and to listen to my dreams, guides, and symbolism.
If you try this spread, please let me know how it went for yourself by adding a comment below.
