The Ask a Tarot Reader segment is back! This month, we have a timely question from a listener named Kristen, who asks:

what is the difference between a personal card of the year vs. the collective card of the year? How would we relate to them differently and how might they affect us differently? My personal card of the year is always the next year’s collective card - I’m specifically, and personally, wondering what your thoughts are on the experience of living with a tarot archetype 2 years in a row (but maybe in a different way).

Listen in as we explore the ins-and-outs of personal birth cards and the card of the year and how they can inform each other and the year ahead.

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Well, dear listeners, we certainly start 2025 with a bang! It’s such a delight to be back recording for you all. Our welcome to the New Year is packed with court cards. Yes, you heard right, 4/4 of our cards are in this group: two queens, one king, and one knight. Phew! January is poised to be full of action, characters, and adventures. We’re being asked to assume the poised and insightful position of the Queen of Swords while dealing with the boisterous and unceasing energy of the Knight of Wands out in the world around us. Reading between the cards, I’m sensing that the wisdom of our card for 2025 - The Hermit - will come in handy. Our challenge is in taking refuge in the false moral or emotional high ground of the King of Cups. What are we trying to protect ourselves from when we pretend we’ve got it all figured out and that the world doesn’t touch us? The Queen of Wands illuminates a path through the challenges of the Knight of Wands that sees us assuming a passionate, powerful, and authentic position of personal authority. Buckle up - it’s a wild ride, but with huge potential for zesty and fruitful growth. Listen in for the whole reading, including me waxing poetic about the passage of time, the first (and only other) time I turned over a spread with all court cards, and losing my mind over this impressive array!

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Hello dear subscribers! This forecast is coming to us in a different format because of some unexpected delays this week. But I will not be defeated! We’re going audio because, to quote this perennial wisdom: ‘done is better than perfect.’ (See the unintentional “remix” at the beginning of our recording 😆.) Listen in for a full rundown of this week’s energy (challenging but rewarding!) as well as the classic “things to embrace/things to avoid” segment. If you’d still like to read, click above to access the transcript! We’ll be back with the usual written reading next week. Thanks as always for being here and best of luck in the holiday chaos! A check-in for the monthly reading is also coming tomorrow.

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Listen in for a tarot snapshot of the final month of 2024 and reflections on our tour of the Strength card over the past twelve months. Our card for December is Temperance, pointing us to a gentle assimilation of all the lessons we’ve learned about Strength and a period of grace (and hopefully ease) as we conclude the year. We’ll be pulled to make some poignant decisions about leaving parts of our lives behind in search of what we know is right via the Six of Swords while trusting our internal compass to guide the way. Our challenge this month is everyone’s favorite catastrophic tarot card, The Tower. Will some things crumble in our lives? Perhaps, but our opportunity card - the Eight of Cups - suggests that our choice lies between seeing endings as solely unjust and painful or necessary parts of our growth.

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An exploration into Judgement, the Ten of Cups, Queen of Swords, and Two of Pentacles for November 2024.

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Judgment heralds a month of revelation, reckoning, and a final stop before we wrap up our exploration of the Strength card in 2024. While it’s undeniably intense, this card is bolstered by a loving and supportive environment shown in the Ten of Cups. How can we let our relationships and pursuit of meaning bolster us as we approach a momentous change? Our theme card for the previous month, the Queen of Swords, occupies the “challenge” position, urging us to move away from the strategies that worked so well recently. We’ve integrated them successfully and now is a time to step into the jovial shoes of the Two of Pentacles. Our opportunities lie in a lighthearted approach, small tweaks to our routines that let in some fun and experimentation, as well as a vision towards a freer, more expansive future.

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Listen in for October’s monthly forecast where the Queen of Wands invites us to take a seat, integrate the lessons we learned from the Knight of Swords last month, and envision a new future. The King of Wands brings both tension and inspiration as the call to do more, produce more, and be more alluring threatens to take us away from our unique perspective and personal healing. We may want to gracefully exit this challenging scenario, but our actual challenge card, the Eight of Cups, instructs us to stay with difficulty and turn away from the distractions of amorphous “better things.” Finally, our opportunity is the beautiful, luminescent card: The Star. Healing can be found in staying with ourselves, learning from the tensions that arise, and committing to our practices of mindful presence, reciprocity, and gentleness. Press play for the full reading and don’t forget to share your takes, insights, and questions in the comments below!

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Strength is back! This month we have our hand’s on the lion’s head, so to speak, as we grapple with a central personal challenge. This is the kind of challenge that, if we approach it bravely, can propel us to the next level. I have a feeling that September will be a month we’ll look back on as a when we really stepped forward and into a deeper relationship with ourselves. Our environment is shown in Justice, a card that instructs us to take our values seriously while remaining open and flexible. Our challenge, the Queen of Pentacles, shows a pull towards playing it safe and getting lost in the details of routine, daily life, the domestic sphere, or the material. Yet our opportunity lies in the Knight of Swords: rushing towards challenge, asserting our ideas, sharing our thoughts, and engaging with the world. Press play for the whole forecast and don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Once again, I’m sharing this with everyone, 1) because it’s fun and I’ve never been good at paywalls, and 2) because our entire reading for August was Major Arcana cards. How are you? Still alive? Reeling from profundity? or just plain tired? Let’s talk about it!

Of course, you can press play above (or in your podcast platform of choice) to hear my in-depth thoughts on the cards as they unfolded over the month, but you can also scroll down for some more lighthearted reflections. And get a look at the cards for September.

Speaking of September, I’m having a visceral experience of autumn approaching. Maybe it’s years of internalized back-to-school energy, but this time always seems ripe for preparation, reinvention, and some generalized nervousness. I’m watching the light change here in North Carolina and seeing the first leaves grow tired and change color around the edges. I’m also thinking about how this time marks a new year in some traditions which has always felt instinctively right to me. How have you been experiencing fall and its many transitions?

Oddly and not surprisingly given our cards, I’ve felt like I’ve been in the busy fall season already. August was a blur of work, adventures, and guests. I felt energized and called to do a whole bunch of home projects and yardwork which prompted some spontaneous magic, see below, and left me feeling recentered and reconnected with my home.

So much was happening, in fact, that I didn’t read or watch as much as usual. I did the classic “check out too many intense psychology and non-fiction books from the library” move that leaves me with a stack on my bedside table that I’m too exhausted to read properly. (Me treating my reading like The Hierophant when I really want a steamy beach read a la the Queen of Wands?)

I did honor my need for stupidity by going to see Twisters in the theaters. While an unhinged trailer for a Christmas action movie starring The Rock, Chris Evans, and a horrific muscular CGI polar bear was more jaw-dropping than the movie itself, I thoroughly enjoyed being swept away by frenetic action sequences and oddly chaste romance. In tarot speak, this was absolutely a Seven of Wands meets The Fool scenario.

And in the tarot world, I found myself moving away from personal readings and just letting this massive, honking monthly forecast take center stage. I did, however, keep pulling Strength as a daily draw. I guess some things require emphasis, but at this point I think I’ve gotten the message!

But, to go deeper as we wrap up this recap, having Strength as our opportunity card this past month was such a robust invitation to look at how we’ve been preparing for this moment of transition. Things are about to get more specific in September (which may be a welcome change after our existential deep-dive tour of the major arcana!) and now is a good time to ask ourselves: What is the major issue I’m working on this year?

As usual, please share any insights, experiences, questions, or comments below. I adore hearing from you all and this community has some incredible gems of wisdom! Don’t forget to scroll down for our reflection prompts and our cards for September (you’ll never guess what our first card is…).

Reflection Prompts for August 2024

The Fool

* Where did you take risks, a leap of faith, or commit to stepping into something new this month?

* How did you honor your true nature, wishes, and instincts/intuition?

* What did you learn about who you truly are and how you can begin again?

The Devil

* What did taking these chances bring up for you?

* Where did you notice fear, self-sabotage, and harmful thinking in your life?

* What patterns felt stale, limiting, and old? How did you commit to shedding them?

The Sun

* Where did you notice yourself pretending to be farther along your path, fine, or fully healed?

* What did you learn about discerning between important self-growth and keeping up apperances?

* How did you develop self-trust this month?

Strength

* When, where, and how did you show up for yourself?

* What did it feel like to honestly observe and accept difficult parts of yourself, the world, your experiences?

* What do you know now about your next steps working with these issues?

…and, finally, the cards for September!

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Podcast Episode Show Notes: Featuring Quinn Diacon-Furtado

Episode Title: Exploring Gender, Magic, and Memory with Quinn Diacon-Furtado

Episode Description:

In this episode, we are thrilled to host Quinn Diacon-Furtado, a multifaceted writer and creator who delves into the intricate realms of gender, magic, intuition, and memory across various genres. Quinn's unique perspective and creative journey offer a rich tapestry of insights and inspirations.

Guest Bio:

Quinn Diacon-Furtado is a writer and creator who explores gender, magic, intuition, and memory across multiple genres. They are the author of the young adult thriller, The Lilies, published by HarperTeen. Their newsletter, The Slow Read, delves into current book recommendations and cultural reading trends through the lens of Quinn's personal experience with reading (dis)ability. A 2022 Lambda Literary Fellow, and former middle school and high school teacher, Quinn holds an MFA in Creative Writing for Children from Hollins University.

Key Topics:

- The Lilies: Dive into Quinn's young adult thriller published by HarperTeen. Explore the themes, characters, and inspiration behind this captivating novel, which tells the story of four students at an elite private school who find themselves trapped in a time loop reliving their worst memories and greatest regrets. Together, they must grapple with the truths of their pasts in order to find a way out of the loop, before the fabric of time can fully disintegrate. This thriller explores queerness, generational patterns, and how secrecy can rot institutions (and the people who uphold them) from the inside out.

- Tarot and the Creative Process: Learn how Quinn uses tarot to inspire and guide their writing.

- Using Your Practice to Inspire Action: Hear Quinn's thoughts on tarot, community, and bringing your spiritual practice into the real world.

- The Future of Tarot & 'Spiritual Technology': Listen in as Quinn discusses their thoughts on where tarot is headed and the intersection of spirituality and social media.

- Personal Practice and Ancestor Work: Learn about Quinn's persona practice, favorite resources, and frequent tarot card visitors.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Rust Belt Arcana Tarot

Raymond Buckland Romani Tarot

Using Tarot in the Writing Process: Leveraging Tarot Readings as a Creative Catalyst

The In-Betweens: The Spiritualists, Mediums, and Legends of Camp Etna by Mira Ptacin

Clearing Spaces: Inspirational Techniques to Heal Your Home by Khi Armand

The Morgan Greer Tarot

Connect with Quinn Diacon-Furtado:

Website: thisisquinnswebsite.com

Newsletter: theslowread.substack.com

Instagram: @ya_quinn_ya

Join the Conversation:

Have questions or thoughts about today's episode? Share them in the comments of the substack post for this episode or message directly at [email protected]. Don't forget to share and rate and review the podcast on your favorite platform!

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This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit incandescenttarot.substack.com/subscribe