Time flies, doesn’t it?

It’s hard to wrap my head around how my practice with this tool has grown over the past year. After dabbling with tarot a few times with friends, I bought my first decks in May of 2019 and my learning snowballed from there. Two tarot journals, 5 tarot (+ 2 oracle) decks, several online and in-person classes, and a few different altar arrangements have made this an interesting year. From starting an instagram page, to joining the Biddy Tarot Community, to reading directly for over 100 strangers online, and sharing my thoughts with over 400 people on Instagram, friends, family, and whoever is joining me in this space, reading this post, right now. From the frustration, to the mental blocks, to the beautiful hours long conversations I’ve had over the cards with friends, to the moments the symbolism of the cards are so clear that I feel as if they were hand drawn for me.

My practice with the tarot goes beyond the “visibility” of my work (the insta, the blog, etc.), but I point these aspects of my journey out in part to marvel at all that I never thought I would do when I picked up my first deck. I thought that I would focus on just reading quietly for myself, maybe a few friends once I got more comfortable, but I quickly found a desire within myself to share. To connect with so many lovely people online, readers, enthusiasts, and tarot newbies alike, and finding myself in a space that I hadn’t pictured before. I’ve considered myself at times more introverted, sometimes “anti-social” even (up for debate of those were my own thoughts or ideas inherited from others), so with each new connection, each new reading, and each new conversation that left me excited and inspired for days, I was surprising myself over and over with the trust that I was building in myself to build relationships with people in this way, many of whom I have never and likely will never see face to face.

It’s interesting to reflect on these types of connections in the time that we are in now, because this is one case in my life in which I was learning to understand that community isn’t always built face to face. People often ask me how I can read for others over the internet, sometimes over a call or just via a writing exchange, and my answer to that question applies to how I’m able to connect with others online at all. Our spirits, our energy, our gifts can transcend digital space and time. Technology in this area is a tool and those who use it well know how to allow themselves to come through. I’ve been inspired by so many others who are transcending this medium so well, I hope that I can follow their lead and do the same.

I don’t know if I want to share “things I’ve learned” over this past year, or tips with you in this particular post. I have lots of ideas of writing that I want to share, but those will be in posts to come. For now in this reflection, in this moment of gratitude for all that this tool has shown me about the world around me and myself over this time, and all of the learning and growth that is to come, I’ll share with you the first reading that I posted on my Instagram page. It seems fitting to reflect back on as Gemini season starts again, and I’m being asked to consider some new dualities, some new information, but some lessons and patterns that are still in many ways the same.

From May 21, 2019: The High Priestess and The Fool Reversed

“In this change of season, both astrologically and as it aligns with transitions in life, lean into the spiritual awakening brewing underneath your surface. Something otherworldly has been whispering in your ear, see if you can lean in and focus on what it’s been telling you. The Fool reversed suggests that you might be holding back, thinking so much about the “what if”s that you start to get in your own way — but trust the path that you’re on, let the mystery of the moon guide you, and the reassurance of the High Priestess comfort you along the way”

I still have that feeling at times of something otherworldly whispering in my ear. As I continue to navigate through new life transitions, new situations, and experience transformation through my relationships to others and myself, my hope and my commitment is to continue to listen to those whispers. Continue to be open to the directions I feel pulled. Keeping an open mind, an open (and protective) spirit, an open heart, and see where I might go.