Category: Blog

Here we go, it’s the last month of this year’s tarot planning session. Thanks for hanging in there and reading my thoughts.

In this post, I’ll attempt to demystify December’s 3 card mini-spread from my Overview of 2018 spread. To recap, the three decks I used were The Enchanted Map, Triple Goddess Tarot, and Spirit Cats. I chose these 3 for their ability to give me concise info and for their ability to work together. The Enchanted Map card represents the theme of the month. The Triple Goddess card elaborates ways to achieve the theme. The Spirit Cats card gives me a guide card whose energy I can call upon when I need support.

Theme: #8 Come Together
How: Knight of Cups
Helper: balance

The final theme is Come Together. This card is the culmination and expression of having learned love. What a great card to wrap up the final month (and this series). December a month when the cultures around the world try to “come together” (locally, nationally, globally). I’ll be using this card’s energy to reflect on my relationships, both good and bad. Two of my personal words this year were Community and Connection and everything I have done this year has been to strengthen my ties with those I choose.  I’ll get mushy this month and tell people how I feel. It’ll be awkward, but I am so grateful for the awesome peeps in my life.

Showing me how to do this is the Knight of Cups. I liken this knight to Galahad, the pure, the one who retrieved the holy grail. This knight might be on the move, visiting friends and celebrating events, but he does it with honesty. The knight of cups evaluates each relationship and connects to those energies. They are passionate. They are not afraid to share the emotions and let the tears fall. The greatest gift we can give one each other is the gift of emotion; to really share what we feel with others and let others know how they make us feel. Embodying this theme is all about connecting to people.

Varo Tiptoe Sky is December’s spirit cat guide. She’s on the card for balance and this is a good reminder here. Sharing and letting the feels train pour out is always good, but you gotta make sure you’re not over-doing it. She’ll keep me centered and grounded as I learn just how much love and gratitude to dump on my friends. She’ll also remind me how to find my own temperance for when the emotions threaten to overtake me.

And this closes this year-long series on using tarot (and oracle cards) to help guide you through a year’s worth of planning goals, working on projects, and going deeper in your own life. I doubt I’ll be doing the same 36 card layout next year. This was a lot to process and deal with (both on a blog writing level, and on a reading processing level). Guess we’ll find out what I decide to do near the end of this month.

Do you have any cool year-long planning spreads or ideas? Let me know, I’m always on the lookout for these things.

In this post, I’ll attempt to demystify November’s 3 card mini-spread from my Overview of 2018 spread. To recap, the three decks I used were The Enchanted Map, Triple Goddess Tarot, and Spirit Cats. I chose these 3 for their ability to give me concise info and for their ability to work together. The Enchanted Map card represents the theme of the month. The Triple Goddess card elaborates ways to achieve the theme. The Spirit Cats card gives me a guide card whose energy I can call upon when I need support.

Theme: #11 Balancing Act
How: 8 of pentacles
Helper: passion

Balancing Act is perfect for that November energy where winter holidays meet the daily hustle. If this month looks like past Novembers, I’ll need to use this theme as a shield to keep away energies which drain me. This card forces us to examine what we are doing in our life. Where are we doing “too much”? How out of whack do we feel? If there’s areas that can be moved out, to cut them. It’s time to take back a life spinning out of control and build in some sanity.

The 8 of Pentacles leads the charge on how to do this. It takes dedication, focus, and yes…hard work to bring some balance into life. We need to be sure the path we’re setting down is do-able and achievable. If the balance is external (like cleaning or decluttering) then there’s definitely hard physical, and mental, work to be had. And we must be strong in our convictions to stick to the plan, no matter what. That’s how I’ll be achieving balance this month. With luck, this becomes a new habit so I don’t have to repeat the cycles again and again.

The spirit cat of this month’s name is Ember and she’s all about passion. Passion is perfect for this planning cycle because without being in love with what you’re doing, it feels like pulling teeth. I believe anything we love doing (like writing or reading tarot) should be fun, first and foremost. If it stops feeling fun, or if I find myself dragging ass to do it, then I need to stop and re-evaluate what is going on. Do I axe the activity from my life, or do I find the passion. Ember will remind me what passion is and where I can find, kindle, and keep it going.

In this post, I’ll attempt to demystify October’s 3 card mini-spread from my Overview of 2018 spread. To recap, the three decks I used were The Enchanted Map, Triple Goddess Tarot, and Spirit Cats. I chose these 3 for their ability to give me concise info and for their ability to work together. The Enchanted Map card represents the theme of the month. The Triple Goddess card elaborates ways to achieve the theme. The Spirit Cats card gives me a guide card whose energy I can call upon when I need support.

Theme: #48 wishing well
How: wheel of fortune
Helper: mystery

Goals, and achieving them, are some of my favorite things to do. It’s one of my primary focuses around Inner Compass Tarot. October’s Wishing Well theme is all about understanding the fertile ground of goals and what ingredients it takes to achieve them. We can wish for whatever we want, but receiving those wishes takes a few ingredients. Some of it we put in and others come from fate, the universe, or whatever external forces you believe in. So, this month, while I’ll start planning for 2019, I’ll also let the Samhain energies to channel their ideas and thoughts into what my life should look like as well.

The Wheel of Fortune spins, spins, spins. So many lessons, so many ways life turns out. This card reminds me…  No matter how hard we push, things happen in their own time, in their own way. I see this card blending perfectly in with the Wishing Well theme. The universe is out there and I need to harness the energies it’s way, not force it into my own.

Esmerlda is this month’s spirit cat guide. She embodies mystery. If there’s something not known, she’ll run towards it. Mystery is never easy to guess. And I need to remember to enjoy those moments when they come. We’re only human, and there’s so much out there we do not know and maybe weren’t meant to know (waves at Cthulhu). So it’s time I make peace with this and allow the magic to spur new wishes in my life.

In this post, I’ll attempt to demystify September’s 3 card mini-spread from my Overview of 2018 spread. To recap, the three decks I used were The Enchanted Map, Triple Goddess Tarot, and Spirit Cats. I chose these 3 for their ability to give me concise info and for their ability to work together. The Enchanted Map card represents the theme of the month. The Triple Goddess card elaborates ways to achieve the theme. The Spirit Cats card gives me a guide card whose energy I can call upon when I need support.

Theme: #27 home
How: 4 of Cups
Helper: unconditional love

“Home is where…” okay, yeah, we all know where this quote goes. September is time to think about what home means to me and to mirror these values both in myself as well as in my physical space. Autumn is here and I associate September with comfortable settings. Finding places to snuggle in and read, wearing hoodies, and cozy clothing. As the leaves on the trees turn colors, I too, need to work on stabilizing my heart.

The 4 of cups is the best “meh” card out there. It describes a longing, for something we don’t have yet. It’s the card of daydreams and in my line of work, they are necessary. Time to take my mental images out for a good look and match them up with what I think home and comfort are. I need to be careful, I don’t want to get trapped in these illusions, for they will always appear better in my head, than they do when I implement them.

Helping me solidify these items is Aiko, the spirit cat of Unconditional Love. Throughout this month she’ll remind me that love and home are one in the same, and if I am placing limits on either of these two items…well, then, it’s not true unconditional love. Part of loving is to learn to accept a person, or a situation (or home) for everything it’s made of, even flaws. So, while my dreams provide some design and insight into what I want my home to look like, I cannot limit what that vision will become. Time to accept the flaws.

In this post, I’ll attempt to demystify August’s 3 card mini-spread from my Overview of 2018 spread. To recap, the three decks I used were The Enchanted Map, Triple Goddess Tarot, and Spirit Cats. I chose these 3 for their ability to give me concise info and for their ability to work together. The Enchanted Map card represents the theme of the month. The Triple Goddess card elaborates ways to achieve the theme. The Spirit Cats card gives me a guide card whose energy I can call upon when I need support.

Theme: #35 Education
How: 8 of Swords
Helper: cuddles

I swear, I didn’t hand pick this card for August. The month most kids go back to school in the States is the same month I’m being asked to delve deeper into those subjects I don’t know well. It’s time to go back to school and learn something new. I have a lot of classes (purchased online), so I’m thinking I’ll make my way through the classes I have not finished. Expand my mind, my horizon, and learn something new this month.

I’ll use the 8 of Swords to help focus my attention as I work through this material. I need to pull myself out of feeling stuck. We’re never truly stuck, we just forget about the options surrounding us. The blindfolded person featured on many 8 of Swords cards remind us that we have many senses to work with. If one doesn’t provide a strong enough answer, then another will. Sometimes, when I’m learning new material, I’ll close my eyes and let my ears soak in the voices speaking. Cutting the visual clutter down helps me focus more and gives me a clear headspace to learn more.

Fluff, the cat of cuddles, is this month’s guide. The card’s message is time to disconnect from the external and to reconnect with the body. It’s a perfect compliment to intense learning situations where we focus so much on the brain and the work, but forget about nourishing the body that houses it all. I’ll use this energy to check in while I’m learning. Let part of my lessons be how my body reacts to what I am doing. And to give it the stretches and attention it needs to keep me working at my best.