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December 22 through December 28, 2025

The Moon spends the first three days of the week in Aquarius, promoting loving activities with friends and family, as well as adding a few surprises to the mix! As the sign of the zodiac known for encouraging the unexpected or last-minute shifts, let's keep our days and plans open and flowing, adjusting as needed to make these a memorable few days. Venus will join the Sun and Mars in Capricorn on Wednesday, adding a loving energy to all we do, say, and think for the next six weeks. We’ll drift along from one thing to another on Thursday and Friday as the Moon cruises through spiritual Pisces, and has us contemplating all we’ve accomplished this year, as well as what we hope comes into being next year. Saturday and Sunday are all go under an Aries Moon, whether we’re traveling, clearing up holiday remains, or simply taking advantage of the fiery astrological "weather" to accomplish great things!

World’s Smallest Problem-Solver Tarot Spread, by T. Susan Chang

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

When it comes to tarot spreads, I am a great believer in keeping it very, very, very simple. As is true for many readers, my first real experience with tarot spreads was the Celtic Cross, that hoary old standby with its spooky, spell-like phrasing: What covers you....what crosses you...what lies behind you, etc. etc. I enjoyed the incantatory rhythm of the Celtic Cross, and the way it invited long, pondering insights from both client and reader.

CLIENT: Should I act on my crush?
CELTIC CROSS: Let's examine why you're asking that question! or: Let's reframe the problem! or Love yourself first!

With its 10 talkative cards, the Celtic Cross offers a huge holistic download of information. Sometimes that can be an excuse for not really answering the question—either because we're not sure we can, or because we don't think it's a constructive question, or because we feel it ought to be re-framed in a more affirming light. These are all valid motivations. We want to help the people we're reading for, and we want them to experience the reading as positive. We don't want a starkly phrased question to lead to melodrama and angst. On the other hand, as the late, great Rachel Pollack once said to me, "Who am I to say whether the question is good or bad?"

The Celtic Cross always offers depth, and sometimes offers clarity, but what I so often found was that the person sitting with me wanted answers. And over the years I found that sometimes the best way to get them is JUST TO ANSWER THE QUESTION.

If I want to know whether it's a good idea to quit my job and try something new, I don't necessarily need to know everything about how my insecurities get in the way, or how my friends and family influence my decision, what could possibly go wrong and whether that is likely happen, and so forth.

Honestly, all I really need is two cards. Card One: Suppose I stay at my job. Card Two: Suppose I try something new. And while weaving in and out of the labyrinth of connections in a big spread may make me feel fully seen and heard by the forces of the cosmos, it also might help me put off any kind of actual decision.

Over the years, the two-card reading has become the little black dress of my tarot wardrobe. And there is one two-card reading in particular that I absolutely, positively cannot do without. I use it for myself, I use it for friends, I use it for strangers—and I hope you will use it too. Let's call it the World's Smallest Problem Solver Spread—or maybe just The Problem Solver. Because, as I've been trying to hint, life is short.

The Problem-Solver Tarot Spread
To use the Problem Solver, you're only going to have to draw two cards. ACTUALLY, you're only going to have to draw ONE card. The other one you're going to choose, on purpose.

Card #1: The Problem.

One of the core principles I teach in my new book, The Living Tarot, is this: Everything in life is in tarot. Rather than looking at the card—which forces you to extrapolate from the keyword in the little white book ("Energy! Authority! Balance!" Huh?)—look around you. Your rollerball pen is not a tarot card. But if it were, what would it be? The Ace of Wands? Close enough! This is what I call, "Tarot Backwards" (Chapter 2): we start with the thing itself, and then we figure out where it lands in tarot.

So, using our tarot Backwards technique, let's ask: What's the problem? Is it romantic disappointment? Work drama? Writer's block? Whatever it is, choose a card to describe it—and don't be too fussy. The 8 of Swords may not be a flawless portrait of your inability to finish your novel, but today, it's close enough!

Here are a few suggestions for cards and the problems they might represent. Of course, there are no wrong ways to do this, so feel free to come up with your own:

I recently gave this spread a spin with my online Living Tarot class. The results were fascinating. For example, Bette had the brilliant idea to use the 7 of Cups to represent her journey with ADHD, with which she'd been diagnosed at age 57. With its beclouded, phantasmagoric display of distractions, the 7 of Cups seemed like an apt representation for a mind pulled in too many directions. Her solution card? The 4 of Swords! Looking at the symbolism of the cards, it was easy to imagine the chaos of the 7 of Cups slipping into a contained "frame" in the stained glass corner window of the 4 of Swords.

Bette told us how the "Power of the Pause" (a concept used in ADHD coaching) had transformed her mental landscape, helping her to slow down and process; how a practice of "inner sensing" helped her find her "transcendent point" on the way to regaining focus. As always, I was struck by how simply and elegantly tarot spoke both to the challenge and its resolution.

Another reader, Tina, chose the 3 of Swords to represent the heartbreak she'd been going through with her younger sister. We talked about the visual parallels between the two figures on the cards in her deck, the Rose Tarot. We used astrological correspondences to consider the Saturnine remoteness of the 3 of Swords (Saturn in Libra) versus the solar immediacy of the Strength card (corresponding with Sun-ruled Leo). We talked about the contrast between rain and sun in the Rider-Waite-Smith versions. And we talked about the way maintaining a positive and heart-centered yet also strong and non-deferential posture might produce healing for both Tina and her sister.

As is always the case with tarot, there is no single right method for interpreting even a single card. Some may look first at the images themselves, at symbols and the body language of the figures on the card. For others, the cards might be a personal window that opens onto past memories and dreams. For others, the meaning comes to life through keywords and esoteric correspondences.

With time, the same spread with the same cards can evolve, yielding different meanings as our circumstances change. This, I believe, is because tarot is an infinitely flexible language, but the story it tells is always the story of our own lives. As we grow and change, so do our cards—and there is no better companion on our lifelong journey than the living, breathing tarot.

Once you've completed your Problem-Solution card, take a moment to stand back and appreciate it. You may "get it" instantly, or it might take a little while. Even if the answer seems obvious, don't dismiss it too quickly. You can take a picture on your phone (maybe even set it as your wallpaper for a couple days). You can carry the cards around in your wallet, or put them under your pillow. You can write a spell. For as long as the problem remains a live issue in your life, make sure you have easy access to the reading and allow its layers to unfold. When the issue resolves, the spread's work is done.

I share lots of simple techniques like this one in The Living Tarot: Connecting the Cards to Everyday Life for Better Readings. Whether you're a veteran reader with decades of client work under your belt, or you just bought your first deck yesterday, I hope you'll find many ways to strengthen and refresh your practice in its pages!

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2023. All rights reserved.

My husband owns a body shop, and lately he has been finding marbles of different colors and sizes all over the place. In the last week, he has found 30 of them in various locations. I know this sounds crazy, but I'm writing to ask what you think this may mean or how we can go about discovering that for ourselves. Thank you!

Margaret

Astrea:

There is nothing crazy about asking about an object that keeps coming to a person. My husband finds all sorts of balls; just yesterday he found a nice new softball.

Finding the same object over and over, especially in such a short period of time as your husband has found his marbles (which he never really lost!) means that he is being told something by a Higher Being. This may be a Guardian Angel or one of his Spirit Guides, but someone from beyond the Veil is trying to get through to him.

Often our Guides and Angels will send us tangible objects to focus our attention on things we need to learn or change in our lives. Some people find feathers from their Angels' wings. Some find money, pennies or dimes every day. The type of item is a clue to its message; different items carry different messages.

Round things are like periods at the end of sentences. Periods mean slow down, stop, meditate, think, affect change. For example, if your husband is a smoker, it may be he's supposed to find the strength to quit. Whatever the message (and it may only be revealed to him), it means he is about to make a life-altering decision. This is a decision he was supposed to make years ago. He's been putting it off but he can't any longer.

My numerology friends may scream at me, but Grandfather said that numbers in tens mean self-worth and self-confidence. He believed that the number three was for REMEMBERING.

Your husband has found 30 - an impressive number - of these marbles in a short period of time. Put the 30 with the marbles and you get this message: He has three months to remember and make a decision he should have made thirty years ago.

That information will be revealed to him as soon as he figures out what happened ten years ago to change his mind about his career. Perhaps the mechanic ritual of repair and replace is no longer what he wishes to do. Maybe he's tired of being the boss, or maybe he's finally meant to begin to make a living with some talent he's been hiding and ignoring for the past ten years.

It has to be something like that. Is the body shop a prequel to him becoming a famous artist, perhaps a sculptor? If I were to read for him, that's what I would tell him.

Thirty days from now, this big change is going to hit him. I believe you'll be as excited about these changes as he is because he's coming into his Spiritual Self. You've been trying to get him there for a long time, so I rejoice with you!

*****

Susyn:

Marbles have been around since ancient times. In fact, one can find references to them as early as the Roman Empire. Marbles seem to have been developed for play, and were essential pieces for many games throughout history. They continue to be a favorite possession of children, who even compete to win them.

There could be a number of reasons why these marbles seem to be appearing in your husband's body shop, so I will offer a few ideas for you to consider.

Metaphysically, when one encounters a certain object, animal or idea over and over, there are certain spiritual messages that Spirit is trying to send to the recipient. Marbles are often related to childhood, playfulness and nostalgia about the past.

Their appearance may be trying to tell your husband to work less and play more, or remind him of simpler, happier times. Because the marbles he is finding tend to come in a variety of shapes and sizes, they could also be indicating a need for variety in his life.

We can also look at this phenomenon from a paranormal perspective. There have been many reported, documented incidents of toys or objects appearing or disappearing when child-like spirits or poltergeists are present in a home or store. If your husband also begins to notice tools missing or out of place, or if there are other strange phenomena happening in the shop, you may want to consider the possibility that the body shop is haunted.

If you believe this may be true, research the history of the body shop's location. Try to learn what structures or businesses were located there before your husband came into possession of the building. Often the history of a location can reveal or affirm the possibility that a spirit from the past is lingering there.

Of course, the most practical explanation is that someone else has access to the body shop when your husband isn't there. Children or teens may be entering after hours, playing with marbles, and then leaving their toys behind. While this makes sense, I assume this was the first thing that came to your mind and that you've already ruled that out.

Regardless of the cause, keep in mind that metaphysically, these marbles represent a certain ideal or message when they appear. Whether the source is normal or paranormal, they have captured your imagination and sparked your awareness. Now that you are paying close attention, it won't be long before you discover the cause and/or meaning behind this fascinating phenomenon.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.