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June 26 through July 2, 2023

Mercury will move into the sign of Cancer today and we can finally step back from all the lightning-fast thinking that's been a hallmark of the month! Combined with the easy going Libra Moon on Monday and Tuesday, we'll all take a step back to re-balance and regroup. Things could seem a bit ethereal under Wednesday and Thursday's Scorpio Moon, especially with Neptune (the epitome of ethereal!) turning retrograde on Friday. For the next five months the planet that rules spirituality, soulfulness, the occult and the unseen will travel backward through Pisces, the sign it rules. This cycle will bring new visions to life, reveal the answers to questions we haven't been able to answer, and clear out any illusions or misconceptions that have been holding us back. Fun times are the theme of the day under Saturday's Sagittarius Moon, while Sunday's Capricorn Moon will give us a choice; do we want to clean out the garage and have a rummage sale? Or do we want to drop on the couch and catch up on our streaming or napping?

Turn Your Daily Tarot Draw into a Powerful Affirmation in 4 Steps, by Ru-Lee Story

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

When I was just starting to get comfortable with reading tarot cards, I found myself struggling to connect the abstract meanings of a card with the practicality of everyday life. I knew what it was supposed to mean when I drew the Six of Cups in the morning, but how could I apply that meaning when I was drowning in a complicated task at work later in the day?

One of my favorite methods of incorporating my card of the day is by turning my card into an affirmation. It's a relatively quick and low-effort activity, and the result is a ready-made intention to whisper to yourself when your day gets challenging or unpredictable. For my new book, Your Tarot Toolkit, I created three affirmations for every card in a traditional tarot deck. But maybe you'd like to go a step farther than having a prebuilt affirmation from a book–maybe you want to develop your own affirmations. If that's you, read on!

Step 1: Brainstorm. Grab a notebook, a computer, or a voice memo app, and free-write some of the words and ideas you associate with your card. You can certainly jot down items that resonate from any guidebooks or reference materials you use, but make sure to add some of your own ideas, too. You may associate the card with a person in your life, or a period of time from your past. Even if it seems opposite of the card's traditional interpretation, it's worth making note of.

Step 2: What elements of the card do you want to cultivate? Is there an energy that you'd consciously like to invite into your daily life? Is there a person in your orbit who you'd like to spend more time with or learn more from? Is there a memory or even a hurt that the card calls to mind, something that you'd like to make more space for? Make note of anything you can think of.

Step 3: Conversely to step 2, what elements of the card would you like to avoid or work around? Are there more negative, unhealthy, or dangerous aspects to the card that resonate with unhealthy patterns or behaviors in your life? Does the card remind you of someone in your life who you'd like to take a step away from, or build some boundaries with?

Step 4: Now for the fun part—let's put it all together! Take a look at the list of words, phrases, and ideas you've assembled. Do a few of them jump out at you, or feel particularly relevant to your current circumstances? Begin by turning those words or phrases into affirmations. The best affirmations, in my opinion, start with a strong, firm opening. I like using phrases like, "I am," "I have," "I believe," etc. Take a strong opening like that, and pair it with one of the concepts from your list.

A few notes as you craft your affirmations. Like intentions, affirmations work best when they are phrased positively and in the present. To that end, I advise against starting with something like, "I want to" or "I plan to." If you're working with an element that you want to cultivate, begin instead with, "I am capable of" or "I will." Don't give energy a space to wiggle out of your intention sideways. Be firm and confident in the affirmation you create.

What if you're working with something you want to avoid? You should resist beginnings like "I won't" or "I don't." Instead, make your affirmation a positive statement of how you will navigate around the potential roadblock. For instance, rather than framing an affirmation as, "I won't let distractions keep me from working," you might say, "I am focused and mindful in my work."

Let's do a few examples! I mentioned the Six of Cups above, so let's stick with it. For step one, some traditional Six of Cups words might include nostalgia, past, family connections, and memory. When I draw the Six of Cups, I always picture my family Christmases/Hannukahs growing up. So I might write down family holidays.

For step two, the Six of Cups encourages me to make regular time for my ancestor worship. It's also a reminder to be thankful for the incredible, warm family in which I grew up. And as for step three, the Six of Cups can warn against living too much in the past. I want to make sure that I'm living in the moment as much as possible, while still learning and drawing from the past.

Now let's create an affirmation from all of this! A theme that emerged during my brainstorming was the connection to family and ancestors. That's what I'm going to work with for our example. Here are a few affirmations I might write:

• I am connected to my family.
• I have roots made of love.
• I believe in my ancestors' presence.

What if you draw a card that tends to have more negative than positive associations? Take, for instance, the Tower. What affirmations could you write from a card that speaks to crumbling foundations and overturned plans? (And particularly, how might you phrase it in a positive, present-focused way?) Well, the Tower all but demands that we be flexible, patient, and understanding–with ourselves and with others. When you experience a huge shakeup of any sort, it's more important than ever to practice grace. No one is at their best during these turbulent times of life, and so the affirmations you write could aim to cultivate the energies needed to survive. For example:

• I can weather ups and downs.
• I will be gentle with myself when things are difficult.
• I have more resilience than I know.

There are as many possibilities for tarot card-based affirmations as there are cards and people to draw them! Affirmations are a form of what I call "Tiny Witchcraft." They are small, low-energy spells of sorts, words you can whisper to yourself as you get ready in the morning or in the midst of a difficult meeting at work. They don't require any materials, and the time commitment is minimal. As a disabled practitioner, I love this kind of magic, and I hope it can be a useful tool for your toolkit as well! And speaking of toolkits, there are tons more activities and ideas for incorporating your tarot practice into your daily life in my book, Your Tarot Toolkit.

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

I have had a number of readings from several different readers, and while they have all been extremely nice, not one reading has come to pass. I was recently fired from a job that I loved: supervisor of a large animal hospital. This was unjust, and I was completely knocked off my feet. A new CEO came and several people were discharged for phony reasons. I was told through readings, however, that I was going very far with this company, and that I would be quite successful. I live alone with seven animals to care for, and now have no income. I am single and was also told that I would meet the love of my life - that was said years ago. Do you think the psychics were clueless, telling me what I wanted to hear, or is something else going on?

Blessings, Carol

Dreamchaser:

Carol, I am glad you asked about this. I am sure there are others with similar questions.

Basically, free will changes outcomes. There are no two ways around that fact. Let's use the job situation as an example. The new CEO came into the office, started to work, got entrenched in some politics and changed the outcome by choosing something different from what he had planned upon his arrival. In the case of this CEO, no one could predict his change of heart, as it was a CHOICE that he made midstream. As I said, free will changes outcomes.

When things happen to us that set us back, we have two choices. We can sit around and cry over what could have been, or we can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and look for what could BE. I got so frustrated with things not working out in my life the way I thought that they were supposed to that I FINALLY decided to take a "backseat" to Spirit.

What I mean by that, Carol, is I just watch what happens in my life. For example, I have notoriously bad taste in men. I seem to pick guys who are just VERY wrong for me. So I asked Spirit to move men I meet out of my life as quickly as possible if they are not right for me. You would not believe the pace of men moving in and out of my life!

Now I could choose to sit back and cry because I really like someone who is not there anymore, or I can find peace knowing that he was not right for me in the first place. I try to use this approach with ALL situations in my life. Granted, I am human and often fall short, but I can always wake up tomorrow and try again. You can do the same thing, Carol. The CEO messed up your plan - so get a new plan. The Christian Bible promises life after death. It is time for a rebirth, Carol.

I do not think that you were told what you wanted to hear or that psychics you talked to are full of nonsense. I think that the situations happening around you are due in a large part to someone else's free will and choice. I think you need to open yourself up to new job offers and to new love. The job became not right for you. The politics under the new regime would have made you crazy. It did not start out that way, but it evolved that way due to people choosing strange alliances and listening to new opinions.

You are being shown via gut instincts and strong feelings of "knowing" what to do next with your life. It would behoove you to listen to yourself and follow that path, no matter how bizarre it may seem. The path is leading you out of lack and into your new future. Follow it with faith.

I wish you wholeness.

*****

Astrea:

People get readings for a million different reasons, with a million different attitudes about doing it. As I've often said, going to TOO MANY readers about the same subject in the same time period (psychic surfing), is a bad idea. It's not as harmful to your spirit as asking the same reader the same questions over and over to try to get reassurance or a different answer, but it's right up there with things that make readings NOT come true. If a person has Faith, the Universe will support the most advantageous outcome. Without that, there won't be anything cooking at all!

A common situation with readings, especially NUMEROUS readings, is that NONE of it makes enough sense to come "true." When a person gets many different readings from many different readers on the same subject, there SHOULD ALWAYS be optimistic points that are common threads. However, people INTERPRET what we say to them in unique ways. You should at least be able to take SOMETHING from a reading that helps you, and most of the time, that's possible.

Also, people I read for frequently insist on putting words in my mouth! "I'm sorry, I don't see him calling you this weekend." "OH, so you're saying it's over, then?" ARGH! While I'm on the soapbox, another problem is when someone says, "But the OTHER readers all said..." GRRRR! I'm not saying that this is what you did with those readings, but since I can only see what I SEE, I can't say why other readers saw things as they did.

When I read my horoscope, I extract from it what I think is relevant and discard the rest. I'm sure I am guilty of seeing things the way I WANT to when I interpret them. Lots of times, I'll look back with an "AHA" of twenty-twenty hindsight.

I remember reading for you right after you lost that job. I remember how disappointed you were to hear that you wouldn't be vindicated, and you and some of the other people who were fired would not be rehired again. We ran out of time before any kind of Love Reading could be done, but in my log, I see you saying, "Will I meet the love of my life?" to which I replied, "Not until you decide you want to meet that person."

Personally, I never know what a person WANTS to hear when they come to me for a reading until I've had a minute or two to get comfortable with their vibration. While I'm rarely accused of telling people "what they want to hear," I have been wrong on MANY occasions. We're not Gods here - we're people just like you. We're just using the spiritual gifts we were born with a little differently than most people do.

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.