Maybe a goal you’ve chosen this year involves this…
Knight of Cups: An act of love
You might feel this…
Judgement: A call to serve others
In which case you’re this…
King of Wands: My hero
My resolution this year was this…
Three of Cups: Start up a dinner club with friends to experience the amazing food we have here in Melbourne.
However, this happened…
The Tower: Omicron
And my friends…
Eight of Cups Reversed: Don’t want to go anywhere outside their comfort zone
So I joined a bushwalking club instead…
The Empress: Enjoying nature
This week my youngest daughter said she would join my dinner club. We went to this high-energy Japanese eating house in the city, Yakimono, where I enjoyed the most wonderful smoked paprika raw tuna steak AND spent precious time with a child who is always super busy…
Nine of Cups: Feeling sated
So I get to participate in two new hobbies this year #win
We’re in the pause between Christmas and New Year. A time many have off from work. In some ways, this is my favourite part of the Christmas season. The manic rush of Christmas has passed and there is time before the New Year to reflect. But maybe you prefer another part?
Let’s explore the different stages of the Christmas Season…
We decorate the house…
Ten of Pentacles: Taking part in valued traditions
Catch up with friends for a drink…
Three of Cups: Socialising
Buy presents…
Six of Pentacles: Giving and receiving
Rush around like mad at the end to get everything done…
Ten of Wands: Being overextended
By Christmas Eve, you hopefully begin to feel this…
Ace of Cups: Spiritually renewed
Beit through your faith, by listening to carols, or by spending time with loved ones.
On Christmas Day we spend time with family.
Hopefully, it felt like this…
Ten of Cups: Counting your blessings
Rather than this…
Three of Swords: Reigniting old heartaches
Maybe by the end of the day you experienced this…
Nine of Cups Reversed: Food coma or other over-indulgence
We now have a week between Christmas and New Year.
Which is a great time for this…
Four of Swords: Restful contemplation
Before the new year comes around.
When we do this…
Ace of Swords: Set a clear direction for the next twelve months
What is your favourite stage of the Christmas season?
The celebration of the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere has ancient roots…
The Moon: Hidden Depths
Going back thousands of years, possibly tens of thousands of years, maybe even hundreds of thousands of years, into prehistory.
And it’s not hard to see why!
December 21st marks this…
Wheel of Fortune: A turning point
It’s when the Earth pauses in its tilt away from the Sun, before heading back towards the light.
This is a truly significant moment in the year and would have had deep meaning for our ancestors.
The Earth turns towards the light just before the northern hemisphere is plunged into the bleakness of the most challenging winter months, when the weather is freezing and food scarce…
Five of Pentacles: Hard times
The winter solstice commemoration was created to remind us during the darkest of times that the world is turning back towards the light.
It is a celebration of this…
The Star: Hope
And is the true origins of the Christmas festival we now celebrate at this time of the year.
It’s when the Earth takes a pause in its tilt towards or away from the Sun. It appears to take stock of its progress, before moving in a new direction.
We can do the same!
If it’s the Winter Solstice where you are, it’s a good time to do this…
Two of Pentacles: Weigh up what you care about most
Then you can…
The Magician: Set goals for the year ahead
The Winter Solstice is Nature’s New Year!
If it’s the Summer Solstice where you are, stop and do this…
Seven of Pentacles: Reflect on your progress
The Summer Solstice is a good time to celebrate your achievements, and fine-tune your goals for the second half of the year.
But what does the word solstice mean?
Page of Swords: Learning about words
The word solstice comes from Latin. Sol meaning Sun and sistere meaning to stand still. Originally, we thought the Sun leaned towards us, instead of us towards it.
In celebration of the solstice, I’ve just submitted the latest chapter of The Tarot Teaclub to Amazon for publication. I’ll let you know when it’s available to read.
World leaders at the G7 summit in England this week added fuel to the flames of the most pressing conspiracy theory of our times: Did Covid-19 escape from a Chinese lab?
Let’s explore the Tarot of this a little, shall we?
The origins of the current world-wide coronavirus epidemic are currently unknown…
The Moon: Hidden depths
But from the start, various media commentators have speculated that the virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology…
Page of Swords: Developing A Theory
The most compelling evidence for this is probably…
Death: The fact that Wuhan was the epicentre for the first large-scale outbreak
Meanwhile, scientists around the world have continued to insist this virus spread from animals…
Eight of Pentacles Reversed: It’s not man-made
Although that doesn’t rule out the lab completely, as the Wuhan Institute stores samples of the closest-known relative to Covid-19…
Seven of Swords Reversed: Acting suspicious
These samples were collected in 2012 when some miners fell sick with a mysterious illness…
Temperance Reversed: Feeling unwell
The Chinese virologist whose work is at the centre of these allegations insisted in a recent interview that the claims are baseless…
Knight of Swords Reversed: Feeling slandered
However, China’s ongoing refusal to allow an independent investigation into the lab makes this hard to believe…
The Moon Reversed: Muddying the waters
The High Priestess Reversed: Feeling unsure
If certain leaders didn’t seem hell-bent on blaming the Chinese for this epidemic, they might be more willing to co-operate.
The death of Prince Phillip, consort to Queen Elizabeth, has made news around the world this week. Let’s dive into the Tarot of this a little bit, shall we?
With his passing, Britain has been plunged into this…
Five of Cups: Mourning
The British press has been united in lauding him…
Knight of Cups: The knight in shining armour
Even though they spent years doing this…
Five of Swords: Sticking in the knives
Prince Phillip was definitely…
The Emperor Reversed: A fallible man (aren’t we all?)
However, he was also…
King of Wands: A man of great achievements
I currently run a Duke of Edinburgh club at the school where I teach. Prince Phillip created this award scheme to encourage personal growth in young people. It has been incredibly successful in this endeavour for many decades, and I am proud to be a part of it.
But perhaps his greatest achievement was this…
The Lovers + Queen of Pentacles: Supporting his wife and queen
It wasn’t easy for him to always walk two steps behind the queen, but he did.
Judgement: Serving a higher good
He had to give up this completely…
The Fool: Freedom to do what he wanted when he wanted
His experience must have felt a lot like this at times…
On Easter Sunday we remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ. According to Christian lore, his emergence from the tomb 2000 years ago proved he was the son of God. For Christians, this event signifies the new life we can experience when we embrace the Word of God.
Judgement: Being called to serve
But before Easter was a Christian celebration, it was a pagan one.
Three of Pentacles: Building on strong foundations
According to St. Bede The Venerable, the word ‘Easter’ was derived from ‘Eostre’, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and fertility. This is also where we get the word ‘oestrogen’ from (Makes sense that a female hormone would be named after a female being). Many of the traditions and symbols that play a key role in Easter observations have their roots in Her celebrations.
The Empress: Fertility & growth In Tarot, first comes The Empress, THEN The Emperor
The very date of Easter betrays its pagan origins. It is always celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. Nothing related to the date of Jesus’s death at all. However, full moons and equinoxes were highly significant for our European ancestors.
The Moon: Hidden depths
The period of fasting that precedes Easter is a reminder of the dire food reserves our ancestors were left with at the end of winter. Rations needed to be used sparingly. Much of the good stuff was gone. We suffer as they did.
Five of Pentacles: Feeling poor
The eggs that birds produce as daylight starts to increase would have been one of the first fresh foods our ancestors could lay their hands on. Same same for rabbits. Their breeding season begins mid-February. These were the first signs of new life. Thus their significance to the ancient Vernal Equinox celebrations: A festival of gratitude that the darkness was receding and the natural world was springing back to life.
Seven of Pentacles: Reflecting on the new shoots sprouting
Egg rolling and egg decorating customs were created to acknowledge the life-saving role of eggs at this critical time of year.
Ten of Pentacles: Family traditions
At its core, the Easter story has always been a reminder that no matter how bleak the world may seem, things can get better.
The Wheel of Fortune: The ups and downs of life
Whichever version of the story you prefer, Easter is a time of hope.
I love this David and Goliath image. Two men and a tractor turn up to dislodge the massive cargo ship currently stuck fast in the Suez Canal. It feels like a metaphor for these crazy times. There’s us with our little arsenal of tricks trying to deal with the overwhelming corruption and stupidity of the world.
The stuck ship is this…
Wheel of Fortune Reversed: Putting a hold on everyone’s plans
Those two men are this…
Seven of Pentacles: Wondering what the bleep they signed up for
The tractor is this…
Seven of Wands Reversed: Battling against overwhelming odds
The rest of us are this…
The Fool: Enjoying a bit of light-hearted relief on the internet for once
Of course, the blockage of one of the world’s largest shipping channels is no laughing matter. It is a very big, very expensive problem for companies which ship goods around the world. It will impose a cost that will eventually be passed down to us consumers.
But maybe, like Covid, it’s another sign from the universe that we all need to slow down and reflect on just where society is at in this moment.
Like many others, I spent the Christmas-New Year period glued to Bridgerton on Netflix. An 8 part series produced by the wonderful Shonda Rhimes. Based on a series of Regency romances written by Julia Quinn in the noughties.
Let’s investigate the Tarot of Bridgerton, shall we?
Obviously, it falls under this category…
The Lovers: Romance
As is typical of this literary genre, the female protagonist Daphne is…
The Fool: A naive ingenue
And the male protagonist, the Duke of Hastings, is…
Knight of Wands + The Devil: Dashing and damaged
They both come from…
Ten of Wands: Wealthy families
The plot is centred around Daphne’s attempt to…
Four of Cups: Get married to another member of the ton – a word used to reflect a member of English high society during this period of history
In order to improve her chances of appearing desirable, and, so he can avoid appearing available, she and the Duke make a pact to…
The Lovers Reversed: Pretend to fall in love
And we all know what happens when characters pretend to be in love…
The Magician: They create that reality!
But before there is any chance of a happily ever after…
Seven of Wands: They must battle many obstacles…
Not least of which is…
The Moon: Their own personal faults
One of the things I love about this series is the rich array of supporting characters, whose own stories are explored in some depth.
There’s the eldest Bridgerton son, Anthony, head of Daphne’s family…
The Emperor Reversed: A dysfunctional autocrat
Daphne’s mother, who sometimes provides…
The High Priestess Reversed: Terrible counsel
My personal favourite is Eloise, Daphne’s slightly younger sister…
Seven of Wands + The Empress: A raging feminist
Also notable is Eloise’s best friend, Penelope Featherington…
Three of Cups Reversed: The wallflower at every ball
There’s also the mysterious Lady Whistledown, who provides biting commentary on the London season, without ever revealing her true identity…
Knight of Swords Reversed + Seven of Swords: A sneaky barbed wit
Bridgerton has been brilliantly created by Shonda’s protege, Chris Van Duesen, who is an absolute…
King of Wands: Master of his craft
The tone is…
Six of Cups: Hyper-reality
The books and the era have been…
Wheel of Fortune: Given a modern spin.
This allows the series to have interesting conversations about…
The Empress + The World: The role of women in society
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