In prior posts and through social media I’ve shared a bit about my annual practice of doing a Wheel of the Year tarot reading. Recently, I began offering this spread for clients as well (both in person and via MP3, contact me to book!), and have been so humbled and touched by the responses I’ve received. Given the often personal nature of tarot, and the vulnerable feelings some have shared with me in response to readings, I wanted to share a bit about my personal tarot practice.
For this spread, I pull 13 cards: 12 representing the months and one as the overarching energy of the year. Rather than a prediction of what’s to come, I use these cards as meditative prompts, exploring the ways in which these archetypes and energies may support and guide me through my daily life. I also enjoy using pairings of these cards as “anchors” or “signifiers” in subsequent readings. Exploring the relationships among cards, perceived conflicts or clarifications, gives further depth to my understanding throughout the year.
Towards the end of 2018 I was healing from emotional trauma and a shaken sense of self, the rocky culmination of several years of moving (often 2 steps forward, 3 steps back) towards greater alignment with my Self. To pull the Hermit as the overarching theme of 2019 seemed like kismet, a call to go inward. Writes Biddy Tarot of the Hermit’s medicine, “You leave behind the mundane to set off on a journey of self-discovery, led only by your inner wisdom and guiding light,” though I also deeply appreciate Mesquite Tarot‘s interpretation: “she chooses her withdrawal– not a loneliness purposeful recovery of truth in silence; a stillness in which she sees clearly.”
And how true that was! Exploring my relationship with this card, learning to listen to my intuition and inner knowing, brought about an internal sea-change, a reexamining of assumptions, boundaries, relationships. To follow one’s own compass is by no means an easy endeavor, encompassed best in a quote I saw recently: “Your growth will make stagnant people feel uncomfortable. Your boundaries will make toxic people feel uncomfortable. Your healing will make those who hurt you feel uncomfortable.”
As we approach 2020, the start of a new year and a new decade, I feel a collective energy building, a sense of moving forward with intention into the unknown. While as a tarot reader I have a prior understanding of the Hierophant, my card for 2020, I look forward to exploring the ways in which I may be more aware of its message in the coming year. I credit Lindsay Mack’s Tarot for the Wild Soul episode “Taurus and the Hierophant: Becoming our own wise teacher” for shifting my perspective on this card, and highly recommend listening. Offering a reclamation of the card, Mack describes it’s ability to support our “stepping into a balanced space of inner wisdom and self examination”– certainly a worthy pursuit for the coming year!
Whatever your intentions may be for the coming year, if you even chose to mark this calendar shift, I hope it is a year of profound growth, healing, and joy for each and every soul reading this. Here’s to more and more radical self-care for all in 2020!
