6 of Wands is about being recognized and praised for your work.
I pulled this reversed, which shows that we’re hesitant to be seen, not quite trusting the attention we’re getting. Sometimes that can be when we’re feeling imposter syndrome, and we don’t think we deserve attention. Today it feels different, like we are trying to control the type of attention we receive.
First, there is nothing wrong with getting or wanting attention. But when we start trying to control how people react to us, that usually means we feel something off with our work.
The invitation here is to check in with yourself about the work you’re doing. And be honest so you can make adjustments where needed. Are you doing things that you’re proud of and excited about, and putting your best effort in? That’s the important thing. When your intention and work are lined up, it feels different than when you’re doing something to get a certain kind of attention from certain people. And receiving praise for aligned work is a totally different feeling, too. Be open to surprises in who responds and how, and trust that your work will resonate with the right people.
You deserve to do work that makes you happy first and foremost, and you deserve the sincere attention that will bring you.
.
.
Dramatic lighting courtesy of the impending Scorpio season.
Daily Tarot: 2 of Pentacles
Really gentle check-in and course correction today. Something’s a little off balance, it just needs a nudge from you to get back on track. No grand sweeping gestures, though. Those are just as un-balancing as major lapses. If you haven’t been taking great care of your health, for instance, today’s not the day to go totally raw vegan package free all at once. Or to totally give up and just live on red bull. But like, do eat a vegetable. That kind of thing, small corrections that don’t overwhelm your system.
We are constantly rebalancing ourselves, nobody gets it right all the time. It’ll always be a little wobbly but you just have to keep going, because you are constantly given new chances to come into balance. This is just one.
Daily Tarot: 3 of Swords
You can’t avoid pain in life, but you can choose how you treat yourself when you’re in pain.
Where we get hurt emotionally, sometimes we compound the injury by denying our pain. We tell ourselves it’s dumb to feel that way, we tell ourselves to get over it, we tell ourselves to toughen up — basically we use the logical mind to fuck up our soft, intuitive heart. In RWS-inspired decks, this card usually shows a heart pierced by 3 swords. Which feels like the heart asking for your focus. It’s totally normal and necessary to pay attention to that! You wouldn’t ignore a broken leg, don’t ignore a broken heart. You deserve to feel your feelings and heal your wounds.
This new moon is a good time to set intentions for healing and balance, and it’s so nice to have an intention come from the heart. You can literally ask your heart what it needs. It’ll tell you. Put your hands over your heart, take a few deep breaths in and out, and when you feel tuned in, say hey heart, what do you need for healing this moon cycle? Notice what words, sounds, images, and emotions come through. That’s your answer.
Mine says more service, more laughter and more sleep.
Happy new moon, and love to you all.
Daily Tarot: The Devil
Powerful dark moon medicine tonight. A visit from all the parts of yourself that you’re ashamed and afraid to face. Just for today, let them show up without trying to push them away, hide them, or control them. We do so much violence to ourselves in the name of control. Because we’ve learned that certain traits are bad and having them means we’re bad, and we have to make sure that we also feel bad about how bad we are. So we control ourselves in all kinds of external ways to keep the “bad” parts locked up inside. We repress, self-medicate, isolate, punish. And when controlling ourselves doesn’t make us feel better, we go further outside and try to control other people through manipulation or coercion, and on a bigger scale, systematic oppression. Where do you think you got the idea that you were bad, after all?
.
Today the Devil is offering up a mirror of all that we don’t want to face, so we can integrate and heal that on a personal level and on a global level. We can pass on something besides shame and blame, but we’ve gotta have compassion for ourselves first. You can’t share what you don’t already have.
I’m thinking of something @heatherhogandc wrote this week: “speaking our shame starves the beast.” So whatever you’re keeping chained up out of shame, face it. Starve the beast that is your conditioning to believe you’re bad. Choose to love all parts of yourself. That’s how you start to break the bonds of repetitive, addictive patterns, and stop doing violence to yourself and others.
Daily Tarot: 8 of Discs
Time to re-commit to your creative practice. Whatever it is that gets you feeling creative and in tune and more you, give that priority today, and see if you can show up to it for a bunch of days in a row.
The 8 of Discs/Pentacles is all about you showing up. Be there every day for your creative practice, just see what happens with it today.
And this practice is creative because it involves you, because you are a vessel of creative energy. It doesn’t have to be something where you produce, or show anyone else, and it doesn’t have to be in the arts. Running, watching the sunrise, talking to people -those are all creative, too.
Your practice is a physical anchor for creative energy to flow through you. That energy is definitely here, as we saw with The Magician yesterday. Your practice gives it a way to come through.
#MeToo
Me too, #MeToo, god, all of us.
To all the people who have shared their stories, I see you and I believe you and I love you.
I hesitated to share this, because I’m tired of the onus being on the survivors to prove their humanity or justify pain. I don’t want this to end up being a one-off hashtag. I don’t want to appeal to anyone in positions of power to believe us because they already know and don’t care, and that’s a lot of why I’m angry.
.
But I know how much it can help to have someone believe you, and to hear that someone else has gone through this. It helps me. If I can help anyone, I offer it gladly. It is possible to hold immense anger and love at the same time, which I know you know.
And to anyone who’s experienced sexual assault or abuse and chooses not to post about it, I believe you and I love you, too.
.
.
• photo by me, dead #ghostpipe in the woods
Daily Tarot: The Magician
Your job right now is to bring forth an idea from the void and give it form. Do you have a cool idea about how to make the world better? You’re the perfect person to take on this idea. Don’t believe it? Look around, you have the resources and time you need to make it happen, starting now. It’s ok if you don’t have everything mapped out. Let the inspiration work through you. Let it be even cooler and bigger than you can imagine.
If you don’t have that one amazing idea at hand right now, crank up your creative practice so you can flow some ideas through your channel. Just put pen to paper (or medium of your choice) and go, not stopping to judge or edit. When you’re tired, look back on what you’ve done and see what idea sticks. It’ll probably be something pretty cool, possibly an idea you’ve had before, but definitely something you brought through like magic.
.
I’ve been feeling this, like I want to have an exciting project going, the kind of thing I daydream about when I’m doing mundane things. So I’m going to commit some time in the morning to writing and drawing, and see what comes through.
.
.
I came to the cards tonight holding a lot of pain for myself and others, and asking to be shown a way through. This feel like the universe saying to each of us, if anyone can spin this straw into gold, it’s you.
Daily Tarot: Knight of Pentacles
This Knight is a great example of the power of attention: he’s got this one Pentacle, he’s totally focused on it, and he’s not trying to do anything else at the same time. And that’s his quest: to be still and present with this one Pentacle.
We all have spontaneous moments of this kind of presence and focus, where we get absorbed in a task and time doesn’t matter. So when we get this card, we’re invited to practice this kind of focused, embodied attention.
You can put your full attention on only one thing at a time. Whatever you’re doing right now, be fully in it. You’re not going to miss out on anything. Trust your timing, trust that you’re in the right place. There’s just this one step right now. You can take the next one when it appears, but not before.
.
.
I really needed to see this card today, I’ve been trying to do too much at once. It’s a bit of an ego blow when I have to face the fact that I can’t plan everything. So I’m pulling it back, trusting that I’m where I need to be, and practicing being aware of my space.
.
Another Knight of Pentacles thing is that I’m realizing that I’ve been on this slow and steady daily tarot sharing path for a couple of months now. Writing these posts has become a very dear practice to me, and I’m grateful to everyone who’s been here with me. I’m going to keep going as long as it makes sense, so please let me know if you have any feedback.
Daily Tarot: 9 of Pentacles
You’ve worked really hard, and now it’s time to enjoy the fruits of your labors. But like, really consciously.
9 of Pentacles is a lovely safe-feeling card that reminds us how important it is to NOT always be closing. That’s not healthy or sustainable. You’ve gotta have both sides of every coin, and the other half of gain is gratitude. Because if you never fully appreciate what you have, you’ll never feel like you have enough. And you don’t want to end up a bitter billionaire who’s always grabbing for more, yet completely unable to enjoy anything. Whatever you have right now, appreciate the fuck out of it, just as it is. Trust that you will still have enough if you pause the hustle for a minute. Say thank you to the actual stuff in your life, your home, your food, your belongings, the experiences you’ve had, yourself, other people, the universe. Try it out, see what happens.
Daily Tarot: The Sun
Happy Friday the 13th! I hope you all have had a great day. I definitely have. Thanks to @cultpartynyc for hosting me for readings and to @goldendomeschool for organizing the goddess of love procession, and to all the awesome people I got to meet today.
.
Onto the card: The Sun is pretty much the main “everything is cool” card. Even the creepy old books that seem to predict some new way of feeling shitty in each card tend to agree that The Sun is pretty good.
And I think that’s because as creatures living on earth, we are LITERALLY SOLAR POWERED. There’s a reason ancient (and current) people worship the sun, and it’s the reason we just feel happier on sunny days. We talk about light as a metaphor for understanding. We say we feel “warm” when we experience kindness. We sense the sun’s elemental life-giving nature even if we aren’t conscious of it. That’s The Sun card, just shining some clarity, energy and joy into your life today.
.
The sun is always there, even when we don’t see it, so this clarity and light is also constantly available to us. You can tap into it when you need it. If you’re having a tough day, invite some Sun card energy. The Sun also works with the inner child, who also always exists, so you can access this energy through things that are fun for kid-you. Go outside and run around, draw a picture of the sun, sing a song, play. It might sound hokey to adult-you, but it is incredibly effective. Playing and connecting with the sun energy helps remind you not that things could eventually be ok, but that they ARE ok right now, and that there’s a giant ball of scientifically proven energy out there keeping you and everything you know alive, day and night. It’s such a weird, wonderful confluence of events that add up to your existence, and it’s good to remember how young, small, and special you are.
Daily Tarot: 7 of Pentacles
We’re all on the same page when I say the essence of this card is Buffy’s “I’m cookie dough” speech, right?
If not, I guess you can watch 7 seasons of that show until you get to that scene and this reference finally makes sense, which, as it turns out, is also the essence of this card.
But basically, Buffy explains baking as a metaphor for growing up, and growing into yourself.
It’s about waiting, becoming. The time period after you’ve put all the effort in and you’re letting the ripening/baking/waiting stage happen. The key is to let it do its thing in its own time. You’re not going to help if you get in there and try to push things along.
You can take care of other preparations in the meantime. Make space for whatever’s cooking. Get out a plate. It is happening, rest assured. And keep your body moving, that really helps the buzzing excitement from feeling like anxiety (at least it does for me).
.
This is exaaactly where I am today, don’t know about you. So many things in the works, and I was feeling really anxious. I sat with it, and it felt like it was coming from uncertainty, so I danced around like I was fronting Future Islands, and now I’m back to excitement.
A Procession for the Goddess | Friday the 13th, Union Sq
This Friday evening: Along with @goldendomeschool and other sacred artists, I'm participating in a beautiful sacred procession for the goddess of love! See below for info if you'd like to join.
************************************************
Repost from @goldendomeschool
The Golden Dome School presents "SHE HAS RISEN!" a procession for the GODDESS of LOVE on FRIDAY THE 13th in Union Square! This happening is part of the SENSE festival organized by @artinoddplaces with support from @foundationforcontemporaryarts
************************************************
GODDESS WORSHIPPERS OF NYC UNITE! The procession begins at 6pm at the corner of 14th and 8th - we will be marching a giant altar down to Union Square and proselytizing for the Goddess. If you would like to join please e-mail elizaswann@gmail.com
**************************************************
Great forces of creativity, growth, and love, great inventive imagination that has grown the diversity of life, mystery of the unfolding of form from energy, great powers of the trees and the grasses, the sunlight and the rain, great currents that move the continents and tides of the ocean, we send you love and gratitude and ask for your help. DEAR GODDESS OF LOVE - HELP US TO OVERTHROW ALL TOXIC CAPITALISTIC SYSTEMS OF GREED AND EXPLOITATION IN FAVOR OF LIFE AND LOVE FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL BEINGS. HELP US END ALL WAR AND ALL HIERARCHY. LOVE IS THE GATEWAY TO PARADISE. LOVE IS YOUR WAY. It seems impossible. It seems beyond human strength. Please lend us some of your power. Open our eyes and ears to inspiration. Release the obstacles that confront us, and draw in the resources, the luck, the ideas, and the energies that we need. Help us to succeed beyond our expectations for the restoration of Earth's health and bounty and the reinstatement of human harmony with all of creation. BLESSED IS LIFE AND LOVE. BLESSED AM I. SHE HAS RISEN. SHE IS LOVE. SHE IS HERE. I HAVE RISEN. I AM LOVE. I AM HERE.
*prayer based on Starhawk's BLESSINGS from her book "The Earth Path"
Daily Tarot: The Tower
AKA le maison de dieu, the house of god. AKA the universe saying, my house my rules, you’ve outgrown this pattern and it has to go.
.
We all want to change and evolve but sometimes we get stuck, and we’re too afraid to let go of what’s familiar, even if it’s not right for us anymore. We’re like baby birds stuck while hatching, and the universe cracks open the shell for us.
So when the Tower appears, you are invited to let go. That stuff is done, you don’t have to keep holding onto it. The really great thing is that you are getting what you asked for! Change is happening and it’s all for your ultimate good! And you don’t even have to do all the tedious demolition work.
Your job is to stay out of the way of the wrecking ball, and not sneak any bricks into your bag when you think no one’s watching.
You take care of you, and work on some practice where you say, if this is leaving that means it’s making room for something better for me. Stay grateful, little birds. You are losing your shell but you are getting wings.
Daily Tarot: 7 of Cups
Today I had a specific question: how can we stay centered and focus on service when there is so much terrible scary stuff going on in the world?
.
And here’s what came through:
Remember that a lot of what’s happening is meant as a distraction tactic, to overwhelm and immobilize you.
.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, come back to who you really are and what really matters. You are here to make the world a better place for everyone. You can be sad and angry and still full of love for your fellow humans who are suffering. You can be scared and still help. You are strong enough to help.
.
Part of the overwhelm comes from knowing there’s a lot to do, and not knowing where to start. There are many ways to act, but they’re not all for you. There’s only one action you have to take now. Do the first thing that comes to mind. You’ll come to the others in time.
.
There are a lot of distractions, but there is only one truth. You likely already know what that is. You’ve gotta act on the truth, not the distractions. Limit your media consumption. Look at what’s actually happening, not what people are saying about it. You can stay informed without reading the entire internet or watching 24 hours of news.
World Mental Health Day
I’m thinking a lot about mental health and how so much anxiety and depression is a side effect of the capitalist, racist, misogynist, homophobic system. And today I can find only my anger about it, but not words.
What Emily Price wrote is so beautiful and important, I want to share it with everyone — see below. Thank you for this. ❤️
And everyone else out there feeling angry, sad, sick: I love you and believe in you and I’m committed to making this world better with you.
. . .
#Repost @thevoluptuouswitch
Art by @chiefladybird
・・・
“The solution to the mental health crisis, and there is one, is not individual. Systemic oppression and its products are the cause of most mental illness. We will not heal 'mental health crisis' without decolonizing, dismantling cisheteropatriarchy, and providing monetary/land reparations to marginalized people. Mental health is often, and sometimes understandably, represented as a reason we struggle to participate in liberation. As we find ourselves under the crushing weight of late capitalism, it can feel impossible to figure out how to just survive on our own, and then we feel inequipped to struggle for justice. And we are right: we cannot heal and survive on our own. Without dismantling systems of oppression we will *never* heal the mental health crisis. They are linked and born of one another. I am here for women, femmes, queers, GNC and trans, black/brown/native folks surviving, healing, and thriving. I am not here for taking examples of toxic white supremacist patriarchy and violence in the news and calling that the 'mental health crisis'. The real mental health crisis is the crisis to survive under white supremacist cisheteropatriarchy while late capitalism intentionally makes care inaccessible. The solution to these problems is not in reform of oppressive systems or personal privilege, but in entirely dismantling that which oppresses us. Our lives, minds, and hearts depend on actual liberation. The solutions to mental health crisis are outside the systems we currently have. Mental illness is not separate. It is based in oppression.”
.
.
artwork 'Poison' by @ chiefladybird #worldmentalhealthday
Friday the 13th: Tarot at Cult Party
I’m super excited to offer tarot readings at @cultpartynyc this Friday from 12-4pm.
If you haven’t been there yet, please know that it is an intersectional feminist witch shop and therefore AMAZING.
🍀
Come on out if you have a question or need to sort stuff out, or if you just want some magic and good vibes to start off your weekend.
🍀
Walk-ins welcome, or DM me if you want to reserve a spot.
60 min and 30min readings available.
Daily Tarot: 4 of Cups
Time to clear out the feelings closet to make room for the new season! The 4 of Cups speaks of emotional processing, moving through whatever you’re feeling now, rather than rushing into another type of feeling to escape. Once you deal with the emotions you’re holding back, then you’re all clear to feel something else.
.
Lots of times the best way to move through stuck/tough feelings is to cry. Put on a sad movie or some Gillian Welch and settle in for a feels-fest.
.
And you definitely don’t have to move through all your stuff alone, there are good friends and trustworthy professionals to help. Today I received a beautiful tarot reading from @etshipley, and she held space for me as I talked through a lot of feelings and cried. I highly recommend booking a tarot or astrology reading with her.
(I’m not just the president of Feels Club, I’m also a client.)
.
When you’ve moved through some feelings, you’ll feel lighter. You might also hit a slightly manic punchy stage like I’m in right now, which is when you know it’s definitely time for bed.
.
So tldr: Cry, get some sleep, face the new stuff in the morning when you have space for it.
Daily Tarot: The Emperor
It’s kind of wild to get this card for the 2rd time in exactly one week. Clearly there are some bigger cycles at work here. So in addition to The Emperor’s invitation to step into our power, we’re also asked to look back at last Sunday/Monday. How have we stood a little taller in our lives this past week? How have we built containers for what we desire? How have we served as organizers and protectors for other people?
.
Something this card brings to me today is the reminder to respect natural structure. As in, don’t get too carried away with your own power that you get hubristic and think that the laws of nature don’t apply to you. Don’t try to force something to work just out of your will. If you build a house in the desert, don’t expect a lawn. You can have some cool cactuses though, if you pay attention to what fits the structure of the ecosystem.
Knowing our limits, respecting others’ free will, lifting up other people, and working with the greater structures of nature are all parts of being a good Emperor. There’s absolutely enough room for everyone to step up as the authority for their own life, including you.
Daily Tarot: 10 of Swords
You’re at the end of the road with a pattern of thinking and overthinking. Your mind is amazing and powerful but it’s not meant to handle everything alone. It’s time to get your body, heart, and spirit in the decision-making game.
.
The good news is that you’re done with this go-round. 10s in tarot are influenced by the Wheel of Fortune, so they have that feel of moving in cycles. The flow here is pulling you away from this place of overthinking and offering you a new start. You’d have to fight pretty hard to keep yourself stuck here. Can you do that? Yes. Is it worth it? Probably not.
.
Whatever you’re trying to figure out, take a break from it. At least for an hour, more if it makes sense. Then when you go back to it, give your mind a hand. Ask your body how it feels about the situation. Check in with your heart and intuition. Ask a trusted friend for their perspective. Draw a picture or do a dance about it.
.
This can be a scary-looking card, but it’s a very helpful mirror to see when you’ve thought all you can, and it’s time to try something else.
.
.
Card modeled by Hudson, who has never overthought anything in his life.
Daily Tarot: 9 of Swords
9 of Swords shows up when our thought patterns are messing with our state of mind. Sometimes even literally keeping us up at night. And the invitation here is to look at what’s bothering us, make it conscious so we can face it. Facing stuff is never as bad as we imagine, that’s why this card shows a nightmare, not total ruin or everyone hating you.
.
Personally, I’m not feeling anxious but I am messing up my sleep schedule lately. I’m staying up late to write and think and I’m not my clearest self late at night. I’m also sabotaging my future clarity by burning too much midnight oil. And in looking at the reasons why I’m staying up late, part of it is an avoidance tactic, cause if I’m tired and foggy I have an excuse to not face my stuff.
.
So I’m listening! I’m looking deeper into this pattern. And going to bed now.