Tarot News blog has news and information of interest to the tarot community.
Endings and New Beginnings
The calendar change provides us with energetic support for personal change.
It is the first week of December! Somehow, this year more than ever, this first week of December feels like a special thing. It is not just about the holiday season. It is about the idea of beginning a new month that is also the last month of the year.
This has me thinking about endings and beginnings, and about how those two things almost always come in a set. That is, it is hard to have and ending without a beginning that follows.
Both endings and beginnings are things that we can anticipate with great excitement. They are also things that can fill us with dread and anxiety.
Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, said “Change is the only constant in life”.
In tarot, there are many cards that can speak of changes, endings and beginnings. Later in this newsletter I will discuss three of them.
There are so many songs and poems that speak of changes. Like it or not, changes are a huge part of life.
As we approach a new month, and look forward to a new year, we may also be embracing endings and beginnings on a more personal level. There may be things we want to end, and things we long to begin. Some of these may be things we have control over. Some may happen whether we want them to or not. Some may be things for which we must wait patiently.
I think that the calendar changes, like a new month or a new year, provide the energy to help us create changes in our own lives. This is a good time to ask ourselves some questions.
What am I ready to release?
What would I like to embrace?
The changing calendar can provide us both motivation and energy to make it happen.
The StaarCorner
The platform we have chosen for StaarCon 2021 Online and our hybrid conferences in 2022 and beyond is Accelevents. They offer a robust platform that is easy to navigate and offers great opportunities for interaction and networking.
This means we have switched our ticketing from Evenbrite to the Accelevents platform. If you happen to follow an old Eventbrite link, it will tell you that tickets are no longer available.
To get your tickets for StaarCon, simply find the ticket portal on Accelevents and use the code STAAR2021 to get a ten per cent discount on your ticket selection. Or you can visit the StaarCon website and go from there.
At StaarCon 2021 there will be times when you will have to choose which events you want to attend. Do not worry, though, because all classes will be recorded and made available to you to watch and enjoy after the conference is over.
Ticket prices for StaarCon range from $5.00 to $499, depending on which events you choose. There is guaranteed to be something that fits your interests and your budget.
I am excited about the talented presenters we have for StaarCon 2021, as well as the opportunities for networking and socializing, even in the online environment.
Recently added to the schedule are a Friday night event, The Tarot Show with Kate Mura. Our Saturday evening entertainment will include Tarot Improv with Mitchell Osborn. We have even scheduled some Saturday evening discussion groups and a Sunday morning Tarot Art and Artists Breakfast. Of course, you will have to BYOBreakfast, but we will provide the everything else!
I can’t wait to see you at StaarCon, so get you tickets now!
Tarot Stories, Trends, and Blends Live on Zoom
Join me Thursday, December 17, 7 to 9 pm EST, for a tarot webinar that will increase your ability to find meaningful information in every reading.
While a single tarot card can give a great deal of insight, the skill of tarot reading is in understanding how the cards work together to tell a story. This class will teach practical techniques for combining the meanings of cards and connecting the cards in a reading.
This will be the last Zoom class until February 2021, as we prepare for StaarCon in January.
Class fee is $37.50. Register now on Zoom.
Two-Card Tarot Spreads
In a time of endings and new beginnings, two-card tarot spreads can be very enlightening.
Pull a card for what is ending, and another for what is beginning. Or pull a card for ‘Goodbye’, and another for ‘Hello’.
Perhaps you might feel the need to pull a card to discover what you need to actively release, and what you need to actively pursue.
Look at the interplay between the two cards. Are they similar or dissimilar? Do they tell any sort of story?
The Week in Review
This week I shared a blog post about how tarot and poetry go together.
I have two free events on YouTube this week. You can find my upcoming and archived tarot meetups and free tarot classes on my YouTube channel. Make sure you subscribe while you are there!
My Facebook business page is where I do live readings most Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
I am also live on the StaarCon page on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
From Around the Web
A new month has arrived! Here is your December astrological forecast.
Barbara Moore shares her instructions for a Tarot Advent Calendar.
As we consider endings, here is an End of Day Tarot Spread from Nancy SageShadow, AKA Nancy Hendrickson, who will be speaking at StaarCon.
Cards for Your Consideration
So many tarot cards speak of change, endings, and new beginnings. Three that seem to do it most bombastically are Majors 13, 20 and 21. That is, Death, Judgment and the World.
If you happen to see all three of them in a spread, you know your world is being rocked, not necessarily in a bad way.
The question is, how do these three cards differ from one another? We know that they can all speak of endings and new beginnings. Here are some specific differences.
Death can refer to a specific life change, like getting married, having a baby, or getting a new job. The changes Death seems to ring in are often related the activities of daily life. On an emotional level, Death can be about coming to terms with the changes of life that are inevitable.
Judgement can involve looking to the past, to gain closure, perspective, and understanding. In this card we see the final analysis. Judgement can also be about a wake-up call that brings enlightenment and deep internal change.
The World is about attainment and completion. The ending here comes because the task is complete, the mission is successful, and it is now time to move on. The World can also ask us to change our perspective from the microcosm to the macrocosm.
Events and Tours
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 3 Issue 49
December 2, 2020
Metaphors
Metaphors are all around us. They help us find the meaning in life.
We learned about metaphors in high school as a literary device. In adulthood, many of us discover that metaphors can be a source of spiritual growth and understanding. I believe that the universe often speaks to us in metaphors.
One definition of ‘metaphor’ is ‘a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, especially something abstract.’
Sometimes we will have a small, mundane experience that causes us to think about something bigger, and more far-reaching. Sometimes a small problem will make itself known to us. That problem may be a metaphor for a much larger problem. The small problem gives us the opportunity and insight to deal with the larger problem.
We can find metaphors for situation in life when we observe nature. When we watch the behavior of an animal, we might see it as a metaphor for a current situation. From that, we may find wisdom and insight.
Understanding the power of metaphors is part of the journey of every person who studies tarot or astrology. In metaphysics and spirituality, we understand that symbols have power. They may have power to communicate, to inspire, to evoke, or even to invoke.
To understand metaphors from a spiritual perspective is to understand the power of symbols.
It is a mistake to think that everything we see or experience has deeper spiritual meaning. Some things do, and some things don’t. Yet, it is also a mistake to neglect to look for a deeper meaning, especially when we are struggling.
Metaphors are often the breadcrumbs the universe leaves for us to help us find our way, and to help us see our way forward.
The StaarCorner
Brenda Elizabeth will be teaching two classes at StaarCon. I had the opportunity to sit down with her recently to record a conversation for StaarCast. Brenda is a fascinating and talented person who freely shares her knowledge and skills with others.
In this episode, we learn about her journey as a psychic medium, and how meditation and cartomancy have helped her keep her balance.
You can watch the video, or download the episode wherever you get your podcasts.
Please visit the StaarCon page to learn more!
Join us For Classes and Meetups in December Online
We all have to make many changes in our annual holiday traditions this year. I am sad that I won’t be able to have my Holiday Open House, or my Winter Solstice Celebration at Dream Angels this year. Yet, that doesn’t mean the holidays won’t be merry!
I have added a full calendar of classes and meetups to my YouTube channel, and will also be teaching a class on Zoom.
I am grateful for our international tarot community, and for the technology that allows us to gather together all year long. During this season of gratitude, joy, and renewal I am especially grateful for these opportunities to share a love for tarot and spiritual growth with people I have come to know and love so dearly. If you are not already a part of these events, please plan to join us; we have so much fun and learn so much together!
Tarot Works with Metaphors
When we learn to read tarot, we learn that each card can be a metaphor for something that happens in life. Sometimes the cards will appear in a way that is really literal, as well.
For example, the Wheel of Fortune may appear when you visit a casino.
When you work with your tarot cards, look to see if any of the cards might be speaking of something literal. Most of the time, though, you will find that they speak most often in metaphors.
For example, Major Arcana 13, Death, rarely speaks of a physical death. Very often it can speak of a change in life, like marriage, pregnancy or a job change. We can see how the concept of death works as a metaphor in this way.
Very rarely will the Fool really speak of stepping off an actual cliff. Rather, it may beckon you to boldly begin a new journey. Or, in may caution you to look where you are going.
The Magician may not tell you to actually practice magic as much as it will remind you of the power you have in your life.
The more you look for the metaphors in tarot, the more easily you will understand how the messages of the cards apply to your life.
The Week in Review
This week I shared a blog post about Daily Tarot Devotionals. I offer three easy and meaningful daily tarot practices that you can do at any level of tarot experience.
You can find my upcoming and archived tarot meetups and free tarot classes on my YouTube channel. Make sure you subscribe while you are there!
My Facebook business page is where you need to be to watch for the live readings I do on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
I am also live on the StaarCon page on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
From Around the Web
It’s Thanksgiving this week! Here are some Thanksgiving tarot spreads to try.
Identifying Gratitude: A Thanksgiving Tarot Spread from The Moon Queen.
Here is a Thanksgiving Tarot Spread from Cher Green.
This Tarot Spread of Gratitude comes from Magical Omaha.
Cards for Your Consideration
Any tarot card can make us think of a metaphor or can ask us to look for the metaphor within a situation.
The Hanged Man may offer a particular message in this matter.
The Hanged Man is in an uncomfortable position. Yet, by accepting this and not struggling against it, he has found enlightenment.
Necessity has taught him to see things from a new perspective.
When we notice the metaphors in our life, and find their messages, we do the same.
Events and Tours
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 3 Issue 48
November 25, 2020
What Can We Create?
Creativity and spirituality are closely aligned.
I firmly believe that we are all creative people. We may not all have specific talents; not everyone can draw or play an instrument. Yet, creativity is part of our human nature.
We even refer to our concept of Higher Power as “Creator”, and our universe as “creation”. Indeed, creativity is all around us, and part of who we are.
Our creativity may in in the way we solve problems, or the way we perceive things. Our creativity may simply be in the way we enjoy the passage of time.
Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where we can collaborate with others, either in a professional capacity or for our own enjoyment. A good collaboration brings out the best from all its participants, and often creates a product that no individual could have done alone.
If you believe you are not a creative person, think again. You are. You just need to figure out the way in which you are creative.
It’s important to make time for creative thought and creative projects. Creativity needs to be a priority in some way for all of us.
Technology allows us to produce things we would not have been able to do in years past and allows us to collaborate with people who are far away.
There is a deep connection between creativity and spirituality. Both are ruled by the element of Fire. Both rely on inspiration. Both help us be the best and most we can be.
When we create with others, we connect with them in a special way. When we create, we connect with our Higher Self, and our Higher Power.
Understanding our creativity helps us to understand our potential. To visualize something is to help bring it in to being. I like to think that we are co-creators, along with Higher Power, of our lives, and our future. I believe this is true individually, and as a planet.
What can we create for ourselves?
What can we create in our communities?
What can we create for our planet?
Our creativity is the power that moves us into a hopeful future.
The StaarCorner
Check out this week’s edition of StaarCast, featuring Toni Puhle! We are so excited that Toni will be teaching Kipper cards at StaarCon. My interview with Toni was so fun and interesting. She is a powerhouse of divination knowledge and community building.
You can watch the video or download the audio wherever you get your podcasts.
I am also happy to announce that we have chosen our online platform for StaarCon and are once again selling tickets for this exciting conference which will now be completely online in January 2021. Visit the website to learn more and reserve your tickets!
Join us for a Tarot Class on Zoom
Tarot is a book of spiritual wisdom in picture form. With it, we are able to learn about ourselves, communicate with others and understand our world.
The sixteen Court cards of the tarot, that is, the Kings, Queens, Knights, Pages, are some of the most versatile cards in the deck. The Court cards can help us understand ourselves, our talents, our fears, and our motivations. The Court cards can also represent the people around us and help us understand our relationships with them.
On Thursday, November 19, from 7 pm to 9 pm EST, I will be teaching about the Court cards in a class called “Your Journey Through the Tarot Court”.
In this class you will learn a variety of ways to interpret the tarot Court cards when they appear in a reading and find all the possible messages within them.
This class is appropriate for tarot students at all levels of experience and knowledge.
Class fee is $37.50. Register now on Zoom.
Tarot for Creativity
When you are working on a creative project tarot can be a great tool to assist you. You can pull tarot cards at random to give you ideas. If you are writing a story, for example, you can use the cards to help with character and plot development.
If you are not sure about where your creativity lies or how to develop it, you can pull cards to help find your direction.
If you are feeling blocked, you can ask the cards for tricks to help you find your creative flow.
If you are involved in a collaboration, you can use the cards to help you understand the group dynamics, and the best ways to communicate with one another.
Tarot itself is a creative endeavor in every aspect. It takes creativity to make a tarot deck. It takes creativity to develop a tarot practice. For this reason, tarot is the perfect tool to assist in in your creative development.
The Week in Review
This week I shared a blogpost for serious tarot readers about three difficult things that can happen at the tarot table and how to handle them. Read Holding Space at the Tarot Table.
Join me on my Facebook business page, my YouTube channel and the StaarCon Facebook page for regular livestream events.
From Around the Web
This website and blog about a Dad who has learned to sew clothes for his daughter is inspiring and fun.
Liz Worth has a tarot spread for creativity.
Here are Five Ways to Improve Your Creativity Through Meditation.
Here’s an amatuer creative collaboration done from afar with my song sisters. We call ourselves “The Three of Cups”.
Cards for Your Consideration
A clue that creativity is vital to our existence is that so many cards in the tarot deck can reference it. All of the Fire cards, which includes the suit of Wands and more than a quarter of the Major Arcana cards, could be considered a reference to creativity on some level.
Beyond that, the number Three is, at its essence, a reference to creativity. Thus, all Three cards can in some way make us think about creativity.
Let’s specifically consider the Three of Pentacles. While we know that this is a card of work, employment, recognition, and mastery, we can also see within in some creativity. We can even see creative collaboration.
Sometimes this card will come up to discuss creative solutions. It might ask the question; what can we do to make this work? Sometimes the Three of Pentacles might say that our creative efforts will be appreciated by others.
We often think of creativity only in terms of the element of Fire. Yet even the earthy Three of Pentacles holds within it some evidence of creativity. Many of us enjoy jobs where we can use our creativity. The Three of Pentacles may speak of such a job.
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 3 Issue 47
November 18, 2020
Unconditional Love
What is unconditional love?
We all talk about love a lot. We ‘love’ our friends’ posts on social media. We love the new Netflix series we are binging, we love the cauliflower crust pizza, and, of course, we love our family and friends. We love our country, our car, our dog, and our favorite band, too.
The truth is, within the heart is plenty of room for the fascinating, the frivolous, and the functional. We use the word ‘love’ to describe things that bring us joy, make us laugh, and inspire us.
We also have plenty of room in our hearts for the people in our lives. There are a lot of different ways that we feel love for people. We feel romantic love, parental love, familial love and platonic love. Sometimes our relationships with the people we love bring us a sense of happiness, safety, pride, and companionship. Sometimes they bring us grief and sorrow.
When we consider our closest relationships, the obvious goal is that we should love each other unconditionally. What does unconditional love mean?
Unconditional love is generally defined as love with no strings attached. Unconditional love is not based on action, transaction, or negotiation.
Unconditional love is necessary because we are all human, and humans are imperfect. Unconditional love means that we love each other knowing that we will sometimes fall short of each other’s expectations, and we will sometimes make mistakes.
Unconditional love does not mean that we can’t hold each other accountable, or that we shouldn’t have boundaries with each other.
Unconditional love is reserved for those people closest to us. When we are able to give and receive unconditional love, we enjoy a special blessing.
Unconditional love allows us to operate from a place of emotional security that helps us grow, heal, and explore life in a fearless way.
The StaarCorner
This week our new StaarCast episode features my conversation with Jenna Matlin. Jenna is a fulltime tarot professional and tarot business coach. At StaarCon she will be offering a practical workshop on the best ways for tarot professionals and other readers to offer sessions online. In the age of pandemic, this is an especially helpful and necessary topic.
You can watch the StaarCast video, or listen to the audio wherever you get your podcasts.
We expect to have our StaarCon website modified to reflect StaarCon 2021 Online as soon as Friday this week, so make sure you visit us and see everything we will be offering in January.
Join us for a Tarot Class on Zoom
Tarot is a book of spiritual wisdom in picture form. With it, we are able to learn about ourselves, communicate with others and understand our world.
The sixteen Court cards of the tarot, that is, the Kings, Queens, Knights, Pages, are some of the most versatile cards in the deck. The Court cards can help us understand ourselves, our talents, our fears, and our motivations. The Court cards can also represent the people around us and help us understand our relationships with them.
On Thursday, November 19, from 7 pm to 9 pm EST, I will be teaching about the Court cards in a class called “Your Journey Through the Tarot Court”.
In this class you will learn a variety of ways to interpret the tarot Court cards when they appear in a reading and find all the possible messages within them.
This class is appropriate for tarot students at all levels of experience and knowledge.
Class fee is $37.50. Register now on Zoom.
A Tarot Spread about Love
Here is a tarot spread you can use to help you grow in your ability to love yourself and others.
Arrange the cards in any pattern that feels right.
Let Card One show you something you can do today to be more loving toward yourself.
Let Card Two show you something you can do to heal from heartache and grief.
Let Card Three show you something you can do to attract more love into your life.
Let Card Four show you something you can do to be more loving toward someone in your life.
Let Card Five show you a place in your life where you need to be careful about your boundaries.
Let Card Six show you a way to expand your heart and feel more love around you.
The Week in Review
This week I wrote a blogpost about Three Ways Tarot Helps Us. I also taught a class on YouTube about the Suit of Pentacles.
Barrett Urmy interviewed me on his YouTube channel this week. I enjoyed our conversation!
If you missed my live broadcasts on my Facebook business page or on the StaarCon page this week you can watch them in archive.
From Around the Web
Lifehack has some important things to share about unconditional love.
Healthline shared an article about this topic, too.
Psychology Today asked if unconditional love is truly possible.
Cards for Your Consideration
There are so many tarot cards that can speak of love. We see romantic love in the Two of Cups, for example. We see a loving family in the Ten of Cups. We can see relationships in the Lovers, and marriage in the Four of Wands and the Hierophant. We see charity in the Six of Pentacles, and friendship in the Three of Cups.
My favorite card to speak of unconditional love is the Ace of Cups. Here, we see the full potential of love, and the spiritual nature of love. We see the open heart chakra, and the limitless ability that the heart has to heal, to love and to grow.
Very often we might interpret the Ace of Cups as a new relationship. Yet, there is so much more to be found in this card.
Our ability to love one another is the surest proof of the existence of a higher power who loves us. The Ace of Cups evokes a sense of that infinite power of unconditional love.
Events and Tours
Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 3 Issue 46
November 11, 2020