September: The Month According to Tarot

Soul Cards Tarot by Kristine Fredheim
Image by Victoria Constantino

This month includes its fair share of focus on both the material and the mental. To keep us from getting too heady about things, we’re reminded that it’s good to get out and have fun, to enjoy ourselves and live life, even if only to get out of our own heads for a while. We’re being guided to do the inner work, to be sure, which comes in the form of being more self-aware, paying attention to our thoughts and choosing ones that are more positive, therefore deliberately improving our vibration. We’re also reminded that we’re powerful, we’re worthy, and we’ve got what it takes to achieve our goals. But it’s also good to have fun along the way—in fact, that might be the most important part. 

Q1: Overall energies of September: Four of Pentacles

The Four of Pentacles brings a stable, grounded influence for September, especially in the areas of home, family, relationships, finances, and career. We may be asked to focus on solutions and imagine ourselves in the better circumstances we desire. Supporting those desires with the belief that we are worthy of living our dreams and fully capable of achieving and realizing them is a powerful aid to our manifestations. The Four of Pentacles says stability is imminent and not only possible, but ready and waiting for us to line up with it and receive it. Believing in our stability and happiness can help shore up our vibration.

Q2: Week 1: Six of Wands

Great expectations… This week, victory is at hand. Small and large gains may come in the form of physical manifestations, ideas (which are also manifestations), or vibrational improvements. Our guidance is to look for and nurture an improved mood and a more positive outlook, and expect good results to come flowing in. We can expect to see positive results. Our expectations are powerful, and when our expectations line up with our beliefs, we are capable of creating any set of circumstances and any manifested reality. A powerful aid this week may be to remind ourselves of good things we’ve already manifested. Expect great things to come to you and they will. 

Q3: Week 2: Five of Pentacles

This card can indicate a turning point or change in our material, physical lives. The guidance this week is to stay focused on the solution and forget about the issues and challenges, as those only hold power when we give our attention to them. What we focus on grows. To allow improvements to enter our lives, we’re being encouraged to spend time visualizing ourselves in the state manifested and to vibrationally line up with the energy of what we wish to create. If we want to experience more wealth, we can find the feeling of abundance on any subject. We may be abundant in a certain area, and finding a feeling of appreciating that abundance can help to grease the wheels on all other subjects and allow more abundance of money, positive relationships, opportunities, and anything else we desire to flow to us. This week, the advice is to focus on what’s working and forget the rest. 

Q4: Week 3: Queen of Swords

This queen is all about the power of the mind and guides us to focus on the positive—what serves us, what we desire, what is good. We may be called to use the power of the mind this week to shift our momentum and get it going in a more positive direction. Once we’re vibing or trending in positive directions, it gets easier to stay on a positive wavelength. From there, we can watch things shift around us for the better. It’s all about the energy we hold and the vibration we are projecting out into the universe. 

The Queen of Pentacles is a non-nonsense, clear thinker who knows her own power and is steady in it. This card can also signify that creative ideas are flowing in now in a most potent way. Pay attention to your ideas this week; write them down, but don’t just let them sit and grow stale. Act on them when you get the notion! There is tremendous power in inspired ideas. They are the gifts of the universe, the seeds that hold within them the possibility of great transformation, ideas that can change the world. 

Q5: Week 4: Seven of Swords

The Seven of Swords can signify a shift in thinking. If we have been doing the vibrational work and ensuring we are vibrationally in a good place, we can expect to see a shift in our thinking, focus, and point of attraction. This card can simply indicate the desire to do so. If we wish it, we can live it; if we dream it, we can do it. What we are being, where we are vibrating, magnetizes similar energies to us, thanks to the law of attraction, which states, that which is like unto itself is drawn. We are what we think; we live what we think. The Seven of Swords may urge us to shift our thinking in ways that benefit us and to think more positive thoughts to get more positive momentum going, which in turn improves our vibration and allows us to receive what we have been asking for. 

Q6: Guidance for September: Three of Cups

There is a celebratory, playful, collaborative energy at hand, ready for us to receive and work with, or rather, to enjoy. Positive collaborations may yield fruitful results, whether creative or professional. Our guidance this month is to have fun, to do things that bring us joy and take our minds off of the mental focus that is so prevalent this month. While it’s good to be aware of our thoughts and make the effort to focus in ways that serve us—which often means deliberately choosing thoughts that are more positive—this card also encourages us to lighten up and do things that give us a sense of lightness, freedom, and buoyancy. In moments of fun and laughter, we open the valve for good things to flow in; in that state, everything we have asked for can come to us. The key is to take our minds off of making something happen, to just have fun and let go, to truly enjoy ourselves in the moment. (Read: Fun is important!)

August: The Month According to Tarot

Soul Cards by Kristine Fredheim
Image by Victoria Constantino

As the eighth month of the year, August is associated with the energies aligned with the number eight, which, symbolically, is a lemniscate (the infinity symbol) turned on its side. Whatever it means to you, the number eight is filled with potent symbology that may include a reminder of our eternal nature and the infinite progression of things, of time, of change which is constant, and growth, evolution, and abundance. This month, the cards tell a story about trusting ourselves, finding balance and harmony, and letting in what we’ve been asking for, which may require making room by letting go of the old stuff. Some good, old-fashioned self care and fun outings with friends or loved ones may be in order to help us gain perspective over the weeks ahead.

Q1: Overall energies of August: Ten of Pentacles

Tens are often associated with completion and fulfillment. The Ten of Pentacles may indicate financial prosperity and the receiving of abundance and resources. It can also tell of prosperity in business and career as well as fulfillment in areas of life concerning the physical world, which may include relationships and overall life goals.

How to make the most of the energy this month: Because our expectations and beliefs inform our reality to a large extent, expecting things to come our way draws them to us like a magnet. We’re all capable of living abundant, prosperous, fulfilling lives in which we are living our highest manifested reality, and this card says great things are on their way. This month’s guidance is to practice living in the now moment, appreciating yourself and your experience wherever you are and whoever you are now. 

Centering yourself in the moment can help with releasing expectations, blocks, and resistance. Go easy on yourself; if you find yourself veering into lower-vibe energies like worry and fear, catch yourself, stop, and recalibrate. Practicing doing this produces positive results over time and steers your habits of thought and energetic momentum toward the positive, creating new energetic pathways and more beneficial habits and thought patterns, and ultimately, more beneficial outcomes. Reaching a positive critical mass tips the scales toward the positive and manifests what you’ve been asking for, instead of what you’ve been pushing against. Going with the flow can be key.

Q2: Week 1: Six of Pentacles

Associated with harmony, balance, and family, sixes are positive numbers to come up in a spread. This happy card tells of harmony on the home front, of balance and peace in finance, career, and relationships. The Six of Pentacles indicates joy in areas of life associated with the physical world, like money, love, jobs, and relationships. If that’s not looking likely this week, this card is gently steering you toward a mindset of balance and peace and reminding you that you create your own reality through your vibration, which attracts like energies (thanks to the law of attraction, which posits, ‘that which is like unto itself is drawn’). 

How to make the most of the energies this week: Consider where your heart is guiding you. What feels good? Who do you like to be around? What makes your heart sing? Who or what brings you joy? Go there, do that, be with those people. Doing more of what makes you happy leads to more positive outcomes in the end. Feeling good is your indication that you’re in alignment with your truth. Sometimes following your heart means tuning out distractions, going against the grain, and ignoring the often well-meaning advice of others. 

Q3: Week 2: Ten of Wands reversed

It’s time to release your burdens. The weight you’ve carried is unnecessary and most of the time, you never needed to carry it anyway. But we don’t always know the extent of our own burdens or how to let them go. Sometimes we’ve carried them for so long it feels like they’re part of us. Though the weight we’ve carried may have made us strong, we may have forgotten we’ve been carrying that heavy load; maybe we hardly even feel it anymore. But we don’t have to carry it any longer. We’re lighter without it, for sure, and more free—more able to be ourselves, unfettered and lighthearted.

How to make the most of the energies this week: Coming back to your truth, who you really are, your core essence of self, may be of the greatest importance this week and beyond. Though the journey may begin here, the full unfolding is often a process that takes time. This card’s message is to be gentle with yourself. Love yourself enough to let go of what doesn’t serve you. Loving yourself unconditionally is a powerful way to forgive yourself. Trust yourself and who you are now. Breathe. Relax. Flow. Know that you’re powerful, you’re amazing, and you’ve got this.

Q4: Week 3: Knight of Swords

Knights are often messengers and swords are associated with the element of air and the realm of thought. A new message or idea may be trying to make its way to you now. This could be a creative or intellectual idea or concept, such as a business idea, plan, or development. There may be an offer or opportunity awaiting you. If you work with ancestors or guides, they could be urging or encouraging you to take some action. This knight represents a quickly moving energy that is coming in strong and coming in fast. Whatever or whoever it is, it’s headed your way with sure and swift momentum.

How to make the most of the energies this week: Keep your energy shields up and protect your boundaries, as this card can sometimes indicate someone on the offensive. When it comes to acting on ideas and taking action, aligned action—which comes from a place of alignment with the higher self or inner being—is the most fruitful kind of action. Action for its own sake is like stabbing in the dark and hoping to spear an apple. Flowing where your emotions guide you can allow your mind to be the powerful receiver it is meant to be.

Q5: Week 4: Ace of Wands

Where wands are associated with the will, passion, intention, and manifestation, aces bring new beginnings. The Ace of Wands heralds new beginnings, opportunities, and perhaps job offers. Rekindling romance or sparking a new flame is indicated. You may be experiencing a rebirth or transformation of some kind. Allowing the new to flow to you without doubting it or pushing it away ensures you can receive more of what you’ve been asking for, but be aware: it may not arrive in the ways you expected it to. 

How to make the most of the energies this week: Remaining open to possibilities you may not have considered before can open the right kinds of doors. You may feel inspired, confident, ambitious, and spontaneous this week—go with it! Allow yourself to have fun and branch out; explore new terrain and embrace the unknown. If you’re a job seeker, put yourself out there and apply for new opportunities that feel aligned. Similarly, if you’re looking for romance, allow yourself to be found, whether that means joining a new platform or joining groups of like-minded folks in your area.

Q6: Guidance for August: Two of Pentacles

Balance, focus, choices, decisions… These are the focal points of the Two of Pentacles, and it’s what we’re being guided toward this month. When the path is unclear, we can tune into our guidance and trust the options that feel good rather than the logical decision, as our emotional guidance will never steer us wrong. When life feels like a balancing act, it may be good to take a time-out to gain perspective on what’s really important, on what can stay and what can go. This card can sometimes ask us to recalibrate and consider what is more deserving of our attention, to set priorities and choose where we spend our time.