On New Year’s Day, Cyndera Quackenbush welcomes Julienne (Jules) Givot back to the Archetypal Tarot Podcast to revive a long-standing tradition: a collective archetypal and tarot reflection for the coming year. The episode serves as a contemplative portal blending tarot, archetypal psychology, lived experience, and cultural reflection after a difficult and grief-laden 2025.

The core archetype drawn for the year is The Amateur, selected from the Identity Pursuit archetype board game (no longer in print). Rather than framing the future through mastery or expertise, the hosts explore the Amateur as a figure of humility, love, experimentation, and community.

Light aspects of the Amateur:

Doing something for love rather than reward or compensation

Following the heart without needing certainty or expertise

Allowing messiness, openness, and shared learning

Creating the path by walking it, together

Shadow aspects:

Undervaluing oneself or one’s work

Exaggerating or misrepresenting skill or authority

Cultural dangers of “false experts” and influencer culture lacking depth, lineage, or accountability

The Amateur becomes a response to collapsing patriarchal systems, toxic productivity, and ego-driven power structures. In a time of upheaval, the hosts argue that not knowing—and admitting we don’t know—is both honest and necessary.

A recurring insight is the movement away from the lone hero narrative. Healing and survival are framed as collective, relational processes, not individual burdens. The Amateur archetype supports community-based learning, mutual care, and shared responsibility, especially amid political violence, war, and systemic injustice.

Cyndera shares personal experiences offering donation-based tarot readings illustrating how amateur energy can reduce pressure, invite openness, and foster authentic connection—while still raising questions about value, sustainability, and self-worth.

Two additional archetype cards pop out in the podcast! Listen in to hear all about The Poet and The Victim.

Cyndera draws Judgment from the Major Arcana, using Natasia Rowland’s Tarot Emblemata deck.

Key interpretations:

Awakening after devastation

Truth revealed; what was hidden can no longer stay hidden

Liberation from old constraints (symbolized by broken shackles)

A collective rising—not individual salvation

Judgment is framed not as punishment, but as reckoning, clarity, and rebirth. It echoes upcoming astrological themes (notably the Fire Horse year) suggesting that small sparks from 2025 may explode into unavoidable illumination in 2026.

The hosts close by weaving the Amateur and Judgment together:

It’s okay not to know.

It’s not all on our shoulders.

Love, community, creativity, and faith (in whatever form) are sustaining forces.

The future is not about perfection or mastery, but participation.

Mantra for 2026: