Tag: spirituality

Blog, Monthly Tarot Readings

October: The Month According to Tarot

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Soul Cards by Kristine Fredheim
Image by Victoria Constantino

This tenth month of the year holds vibrant new possibilities. The number ten is all about completion. And where there is an ending, there is always a new beginning. Something new is in store and it’s up to us how we greet it. We may find it useful to visualize and focus where we want the energy to go, so it increases the momentum of what we want to manifest. In October, we can dream big and open our hearts wide to receive what is in alignment for us.

Q1: Overall energies for the month of October: Ten of Wands reversed

This month sees us releasing burdens and old energies, and generally clearing out what does not serve our highest good. While this can happen on levels we are not aware of, such as while we’re sleeping or in the form of subtle shifts in the subconscious, we can support this work by setting the intention to clear all that does not align with our highest good and welcoming in energies that are healthy and aligned for us. We may see situations shifting and things falling away as a natural part of the energetic work we’ve been doing. if we’ve been holding onto something that just isn’t moving forward, it may be time to let it go. As we release our grasp, what has been stagnant can flow. We’ll see more progress once we are able to truly let go on a heart level.

Q2: Week 1: Seven of Cups

This card asks us to consider what we’ve been spending our time focusing on and whether that is something we really want to allow to take up our headspace. We may unintentionally be making something unwanted bigger by giving it our attention. Those shifts mentioned above can also apply to the mindset, as this week our highest and best way forward may be to start focusing on what we do want to make bigger and on where we want to be. The message is to nevermind the getting there, as that’s not our work but that of the universe. This week, we may be called to consider our goals, refine them, and set new ones as we feel guided to do. Our intuition may have a little something it wants us to heed, some new directions it wants us to follow.

Q3: Week 2: The Hermit

Our guidance is calling us this week, and support is all around. It’s up to us when and whether we want to call on our allies and lean into our inner strength and wisdom. Going within can provide clarity and new understandings. An idea like a seed may be gestating, waiting for us to water it with our attention so it can sprout. To find it may require digging deep. Journaling, meditation, and otherwise going within will serve us well this week and perhaps, as we plunge into the depths, we will uncover a gemstone, something that can light our way and show us where it will benefit us to go. This week may call for a divine reset, and getting plenty of sleep will support us on all levels. We are opening up to new wisdom, new gifts and abilities that are part of our true essence. We may be finding the truth within now and seeing new facets of ourselves that help us to gain a greater understanding of who we are.

Q4: Week 3: The Emperor

The Emperor is strong, and his foundations are solid. We may be asked to lean into our innate wisdom this week, and to consider ways we can support the strengthening of our foundations. This week may see us headed toward greater security and we can support this by planning for our future and taking measures to ensure the comfort of our future selves and that we are provided for. Making plans and arrangements to support this is indicated, and we are also supported with this work this week and beyond. Energies are coming in to help us prepare for the road ahead and help us lean into our strength and wisdom so we can make the choices that will most benefit us now and in the days to come. The Emperor can represent a wise, strong leader we can lean on for support or look to for guidance. This person can show us that we have the ability to succeed, prosper, and grow.

Q5: Week 4: Ten of Pentacles

Business and career aspirations are supported now, as are financial planning and investing. The future holds something bright, and we have great abundance available to us now. As we drink from the well of gratitude this week, we may see our hopes, wishes, and dreams materialize before our eyes. Others may show us that we, too, can walk the path of abundance, whatever that means to us. We can allow ourselves to be inspired by our own dreams and hold the vision of our highest and best possibilities, wishes, hopes, and desires. We are allowed to want what we want, and it is good to want more for ourselves. It is good for our cup to be full and this week we may realize that we cannot fill the cup of others, or at least, not in any meaningful or lasting way; we each have to learn to fill our own cup. We can be the wayshower helping others as we live by example and align with our highest and best possibilities.

Q6: Guidance for October: Knight of Cups

An offer is at hand. Travel and adventure are indicated, as is going with the flow. This month, we can best serve our goals by allowing ourselves to get into the flow state and opening our hearts to receive. Something magnificent is waiting in the wings; it’s so close all we have to do is pull back the curtain and it’s there. We may be rekindling romance or reigniting the flame within our hearts that allows us to want more for ourselves, to fall in love with life again, to realize that there are no limits other than our own minds. It may be time to fling the doors to our hearts open wide and realize that every day holds bright possibilities. There is nothing we cannot do, be, or achieve, as long as we will allow ourselves to do it, to be it, to receive it.

Blog, Tarot Reflections

The True Nature of Tarot by Diane Wing: A Review

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10th anniversary edition
Marvelous Spirit Press, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-61599-584-4
Paperback, 346 pp., $27.95
Reviewed by Victoria Constantino

Released this year in an updated 10th anniversary edition, The True Nature of Tarot by Diane Wing is an exploration of a beloved system of divination that continues to increase in popularity and widespread use. Prefaced by eight chapters filled with guidance and approaches for beginners and seasoned tarot readers alike, at the heart of the book is an index of interpretations for each card and a compendium of card combinations with possible meanings. Chock full of helpful information and insight, The True Nature of Tarot is a valuable guide for both professional tarot readers and seekers.

An understanding of tarot as “a dynamic tool that reflects where we are on the path,” Wing notes in the book, aids us through life as we grow and seek deeper wisdom. A tool for reflection, tarot offers a method for us to connect with the divine and the truth within, to understand ourselves on deeper levels so that, ultimately, we can discover our own answers. “The ultimate goal,” Wing writes, “is self-mastery, where you do not need to consult those external to you; you’ll be able to tap into your own intuition and your own sovereign judgment. When you master yourself, you master your destiny. It will no longer be a question of prophecy, but rather creative direction.” And part of the value of tarot is as a tool that can help us to achieve self-mastery. It is a tool for spiritual growth and development, something that can guide us on our path to self-sovereignty.

Spreads, approaches to reading and interpreting cards, detecting patterns in readings, and guidance on choosing a practitioner are some of the book’s highlights. Of exceptional value is the guidance on tuning into the intuition, psychic development, and preparation techniques such as grounding. The True Nature of Tarot is packed with useful information that evidences the author’s deep understanding of tarot derived from a decades-long practice. This is a book that belongs on any reader’s or seeker’s shelf.

Blog, Tarot Reflections

Tarot: The Journey Within

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Decks: Soul Cards Tarot & Blue Bird Lenormand
Image by Victoria Constantino

Tarot is a reflection of ourselves. When we hold a deck, a sort of energetic transference takes place. It is a connection that takes place all day, every day, and it is as natural as breathing. Anytime we hold something, we are connecting with its energy. It may not be a conscious connection, but it happens nonetheless. When we consider that everything is energy, this isn’t so surprising. Those who are sensitive to energy can connect with objects in this way and obtain any information they may hold.

Anyone who has worked with energy tools, like pendulums and tarot, for any significant period of time will tell you that you can get a skewed or false reading if your energy is off, or not aligned. If you are upset or impatient or having a bad day, for example, or if your thoughts are scattered or you are experiencing anxiety, the cards will reflect this. That is why it is so important to breathe deeply or otherwise connect in to a place of peace before entering a reading, whether you are receiving it or performing it, for yourself or another. Many practitioners develop their own rituals around this, and often, those may include prayer or calling on higher guidance or allies for a message. It can simply involve calling on the highest truth and light to assist with the reading. This is a way of ensuring the truth and accuracy of the cards and interpretation, and that it comes from a place of light to bring clarity and wisdom to the querent.

The way we approach a reading is also connected to the expectations we have for it. If we enter a reading with doubt that it will be of any value, then the cards will reflect that. However, if we enter the reading in a place of trust or positive expectation, expecting clarity to come from it, then that is what the cards will deliver. In precisely the way that the cards reflect our energy, they are also a powerful reflective tool that allows us to peer within. Of course, we can ask the cards anything, which opens up infinite possibilities of exploration for us. If we are examining what we need to release that we may not be aware of, or anything that may be coming up for clearing and healing, or even how best to go about doing the work of healing, the cards can be a valuable tool that allows us infinite insight into our interior landscape.

When we are attuned to our intuition, we can gain exponentially greater value from a reading. In this ideal interpretive space, we can go far, far beyond what the guidebook says to find the meaning and interpretation that is meant especially for us and our specific situation and experience. Certain symbols on the cards may catch our eye, for example; those can hold meanings that we can interpret in ways that are particular to us and, in this way, provide us with unique value. Trusting our instincts when it comes to the interpretation is key, as it opens us up to a greater flow of information. As soon as we doubt, we put up blocks to anything that might want to come through. Overall, tarot provides a medium through which we can tap into deeper and deeper layers of healing, awareness, and understanding that bring us further in our journey into the interior.

Blog, The Healing Journey

Trusting the Process

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Photo & painting by Victoria Constantino

Imagine you’re driving down a road at night. The only illumination is coming from your headlights, and beyond that, the rest is a mystery, shrouded in darkness. You trust that the road continues beyond what you can see, so you keep driving, the guidelines painted on the road snaking off endlessly into the hidden distance.

The healing journey is a little bit like that, and so is life. We keep going, because we trust that there will be a next thing, and a next, that we won’t suddenly cease to exist or fall off into planar nothingness. The healing journey is ours to navigate. It’s important that we trust the guideposts to show us the way. In order to see them, though, we must be paying attention.

Doing the work sometimes means navigating through darkness. Sometimes our only light comes from within, but our inner light is the brightest light of all. Once we uncover it, we remember who we are; we remember our truth. We may reach a point where we decide that we want to discard everything that covers up that light. Through a process of healing, clearing, and releasing—one layer at a time—we discover how brightly we can really shine.

As long as we keep moving and keep desiring to heal and grow, we will. No matter how blocked off we are or how deep our pain, we can reach that heart-opened place of allowing where the answers flow to us and the guideposts light up like beacons. Where we flow easily in alignment with our higher self and receive our highest guidance as naturally as we inhale breath into our lungs.

The more we trust, the more we let go of our grip and relax the need to control outcomes. That’s when things start to come together. Great ideas flow to us, solutions spring up in our path, and we realize suddenly how far we have come. We look back on the times we leaned into trust and flowed with the process, and understand that it led us to exactly where we needed to be.

Blog, The Healing Journey

Opening the Heart

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Photo & painting by Victoria Constantino

We hear a lot about opening our hearts, but what does it really mean and how do we do it? Opening the heart can be a very different experience for each one of us, but ultimately, opening the heart is about allowing ourselves to feel what we hold within. All of the emotions—the pain, the joy, the heartache, the loneliness, the happiness, the excitement, the thrill of being alive—all of it. If our hearts have been closed for a while, it can be challenging to know where to begin. When we allow ourselves to feel what is there, we may have a lot of unpleasant emotions to work through. Emotional release is an important part of the process. Usually, when we close our hearts, we are shuttering it against the pain and the things we don’t want to feel, look at, or deal with. We may have been so busy or focused on other aspects of our lives that we haven’t taken time for ourselves in…how long? That phrase we hear so often, “doing the work,” sounds hard, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are some places to start:

  1. Write out your feelings. You can burn the paper as a symbol of release or write everything out in a journal.
  2. Go out into nature and let your heart have its say. Really listen.
  3. Spend time with animals.
  4. Connect with people who make you feel—whether they inspire you, bring you joy, or make you laugh.
  5. Laughter is the best medicine.
  6. Meditate. Don’t force, flow. Allow your mind to quiet and become a receiver. You may be surprised to hear, or feel, your heart speak when the mind is silent.
  7. Spend time in self-care. This can mean a lot of things, from physical routines to listening to music. When you focus on simply caring for your body and mind, it brings cleansing, purification, and renewal.
  8. Listen to music that moves you. If you play an instrument, play to your heart’s content. Lose yourself in the music. Really feel it.
  9. If you are artistically inclined, paint, sculpt, craft, draw. Do whatever it is you do and flow.
  10. Getting into the flow state is a powerful way of attuning to our core essence. Some achieve it through listening to music, others through physical activity like dance and running, and others from creating art. There are many ways to get into the flow state. However you access it, you will know when you get there. Hours go by that feel like minutes. You become so completely absorbed in something that you lose all sense of time and your physical location. You are simply one with your focus.

Many, if not all, of the above are not only ways of opening the heart, but also ways of healing. That isn’t so surprising. The heart is powerful. It’s where the soul resides. It’s the center of our being-ness and the throne of our core essence. It is a treasure trove, an endless cave of wonders just waiting to be explored. There may be shadows to face before we can enter the splendor of the cave, but they are paltry in comparison to the magnificence that awaits us. Those shadows are well worth confronting; they don’t like being looked at anyway, and dissipate when we face them. Once we gain safe passage to the beauty that lies within us, we have taken the first step to the most beautiful and rewarding journey we will ever take.

Blog, The Healing Journey

The Pilgrim’s Path

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Image by Victoria Constantino

Before we can rise like the Phoenix from the ashes, we first have to burn.

Before we can rise to the summit, we must first climb the mountain.

When we are meant to walk the pilgrim’s path, it rises up to meet us. Once we take the first step, there is no turning back, and the journey we take changes us forever. Our own shadows take form, writ large across the path, and we are unable to pass until we face them. Fear, illusion, our own weaknesses and shortcomings, all take shape and demand we look at them. They confront us, and there is no choice but to do the inner work. It is only through healing that they dissipate, allowing us safe passage.

This journey may take place once in a lifetime, and it only happens for some. At the end of it, we stand looking at ourselves as we were when we first began, and find we are hardly recognizable. The person at the start of the journey was mere clay, unshaped, formless. The journey itself is what moulds us.

Numerology Readings

Daily Reading: February 5, 2021

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Image by Victoria Constantino

As the fifth day of the second month, today may bring positive change, ushering it forth with certainty, stability, and sureness that may be swift or catch us by surprise in the strength of its arrival. Good news is indicated today overall. Today may bring expansion and fulfillment. Now through the next few weeks, we are guided to be aware of our thoughts, words, and actions more so than usual; a keen awareness of our environment and our internal landscape will serve us well during this Mercury retrograde period. We best honor ourselves when we believe in our own potential and capabilities. Keeping our expectations positive will go far. We are reminded that we receive what we believe and that others often deliver to us what we expect of them.

All of the numbers in today’s date add up to twelve, and three. New manifestations are being borne out of partnerships and collaborations. We may find ourselves aware of our own potential, and also of the need to reclaim our power and sovereignty in certain areas of life. Personal freedom is in focus now. Staying aligned with our purpose and goals and reminding ourselves of our achievements and personal growth may be helpful. We are capable of great things, and every moment holds the potential to begin something magnificent. Allowing ourselves to fully experience joy will help us to grow and also heals the heart. This weekend, consider doing something nice for yourself and for someone else. We are guided now to fill our own cups so we can show up in the best way for ourselves and others. 

Mantra: I welcome positivity, growth, freedom, and positive change. I stand strong in my sovereignty and integrity. 

Numerology Readings

Daily Reading: February 4, 2021

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Image by Victoria Constantino

As the fourth day of the second month, today brings in strong stabilizing energies. We may notice shifts taking place in our lives, minds, and hearts that are helping to strengthen us on all fronts. Energy that begins in the heart or the mind can flow outward to inform the rest of our lives. We can bring in this energy more strongly and help to integrate it within us by flowing and allowing ourselves to receive it, and by releasing resistance. Today, noticing where we feel blocked or what feels out of alignment can be a gift; as we notice this resistance, we can set the intention to clear it and welcome in energies of ease, grace, and allowing.

Forgiveness helps us to find closure and stability within ourselves. Forgiving ourselves and others is strongly in focus today. Forgiveness first takes place within the heart. We can decide to forgive, and it is good to set this intention, but forgiveness is not complete until it is felt and all aspects of the past released. We can gain clarity on what we may still be holding onto that isn’t serving us, on what we need to let go of, by writing it out. We are guided to follow our instincts regarding steps we can take to gain closure. When we forgive, it also helps to clear karma and allows us to move on and exit cycles in our lives.

All of the numbers in today’s date add up to eleven, and two. Eleven being a gateway number that contains energies of passing through into something new, and two holding energies of partnership and cooperation, we may be working with our team in spirit, with our higher self, and divine allies as we work toward moving into the next steps in our lives. We may be seeking a higher path, and today we can gain clarity on our next steps through meditation, tuning into the intuition, and listening to the heart. Noticing the thoughts, memories, and fragments of song that arise unbidden in the mind can also provide clarity, as they may be messages from our support team.

Mantra: I breathe in the highest light and exhale all that does not serve my highest good. I breathe in the light and love of pure divine consciousness.

Numerology Readings

Daily Reading: January 30, 2021

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Image by Victoria Constantino

As the thirtieth day of the first month, today may see us leaning into partnerships and co-creating new goals and dreams. Manifestations are imminent. You may be becoming aware of shifting energies as you continue on your healing journey; tuning into these shifts can bring clarity on whether the changes will benefit you and allow you to course-correct as needed. Trusting your instinct and your inner guidance is important now. Maintaining strong boundaries, energetic as well as emotional, is highlighted. Keeping your energy pure, clean, and strong is key. Now especially, in this time of great energetic shifts, it is important to ensure we are tuning into our higher guidance. This begins with maintaining high levels of energetic cleanliness, which is a critical precursor to aligning with our intuition and inner knowing. We are guided to continue clearing blocks, especially those at the heart. When you tune into your heart, what does it say? Considering what your heart needs at this time can be a stepping stone that leads you back to your path and guides you to the next steps on your spiritual journey. The zero in today’s date carries strong aspects of creating in partnership with the divine. Tuning into the heart with the intention of connecting to the Source within may unlock a treasure trove.

Adding up all of the numbers in today’s date brings us nine, a number of enlightenment, expansion, and spiritual growth. We may be unlocking new levels of clarity and understanding regarding our life purpose and soul mission, and accessing deeper layers of creativity, intuition, and wisdom. This is a time in which, en masse, as a collective, we are desiring freedom in stronger ways than ever before. Our requests are always answered and we are guided to continue seeking personal sovereignty and to release our grip on resistance and any blockers we have to allowing things to shift in our favor and to bring us the desired state of being we seek. A vast expanse of opportunity surrounds each one of us, and we are each worthy and deserving of the infinite possibilities that are available to each of us at all times. We simply have to allow it in. This is a potent time of manifestation. We are guided to visualize and feel the desired state of being, to see it in as much detail as possible and to keep building on this visualization more every day, even if only in small moments throughout the day. We are reminded that it is okay when our desires, dreams, and goals shift, change, and evolve, and that this is a natural process that aligns to our own growth and evolution. When we don’t allow change, we stagnate. Nothing is certain but change, and as we flow into the shifting energies with positive expectations and trust, without resisting the change, we are allowing wonderful things to come to us.

Mantra: I trust in my ability to receive what is good and beneficial to me. I release all resistance to positive manifestations and allow them to flow to me with increasingly greater ease. 

Numerology Readings

Daily Reading: January 18, 2021

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Image by Victoria Constantino

As the eighteenth day of the first month, today brings energies of manifesting financial abundance and new opportunities that can lead to increased prosperity. The new developments coming about now are helping to usher out the old and anything that is not working for us. Allowing yourself to tune into positive expectation, excitement, interest, and hope can encourage new ideas that can lead to improved manifested states. We are guided, as always, to stay positive in our thinking.

Adding up all of the numbers in today’s date brings us fifteen and six. We can expect to see energetic improvements through change and expansion. We may also have the growing sense that positive changes are just on the horizon and are encouraged to lean into those feelings, as they are evidence of things unseen coming into being. We may be growing in our awareness and experiencing further spiritual growth, development, and expansion, especially if we are putting in the work. This can be through reading, meditation, and anything we are doing to nurture and develop our spirituality. We are asked to continue using discernment when tuning into any information, as there many different sources of information that are of higher and lower frequencies, and that are more or less aligned to the truth. Developing a keen sense of intuition takes time, patience, and practice, but is well worth the effort it takes to strengthen it. We are divinely supported in our intentions to improve on all levels. 

Mantra: I welcome abundance and new opportunities that are aligned with my highest good. It is easy for me to focus on the positive.