Your Creative & Magical Life

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Dreading the holiday push as your creative well runs low? 

In this episode, featuring recurring guest Arianna Smith, we explore the tricky balance of managing and riding our creative energy — and our obligations — while tending to our body's need for rest.

The episode starts with a little catching up — we chat about recent offerings and some of the new perspectives we're inhabiting around creativity and visibility. We also talk about devotion versus discipline, and how "internal consistency" can sustain our craft when external output wobbles.

Then we get into the coming holiday season and the tricky paradox of slowing down at time when we're called upon to travel, cook, spend money, clean, and decorate. 

Which bring us to the Fours of the Tarot — Four of Pentacles, Four of Wands, Four of Swords, and Four of Cups — and how we understand these archetypes and the messages they offer around slowing down and restoring energy. 

Arianna offers a quick Tarot pull to see which Four wants to speak to you, which you can follow with this three-card spread, if you want to go deeper:

+ What's blocking me from slowing down?

+ How can I connect with the Four that showed up for me?

+ What's a next good step to help me take it slow?

Finally, we explore cycle-aware planning that actually fits real life: seasonal shifts you can feel in the air, lunar timing for planting and illuminating, and hormonal rhythms that explain late-night bursts or sudden dips better than any productivity tip. 

Come for the tarot, stay for the relief of a kinder rhythm, and leave with one small change you can make today. If this conversation helps you, subscribe, share this episode with a friend who’s running on fumes, and drop a review so we can keep making thoughtful episodes for you.

Check out Arianna's work and hop on her email list here!

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. 

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Study & practice Tarot, astrology & creativity in Cosmic Garden.

Get a copy of my workbook, Tarot for Creative Spirits.

Book a Tarot or Creative Cosmology reading.

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Cecily welcomes back to the show Ariana Smith — twin, Alaskan homestead kid, IFS-certified therapist, copywriter, and professional tarot reader — to explore how place, family, and parts work can shape a creative and magical life. We wander through Alaska’s quiet woods and loud storms, talk nervous systems and city overload, and laugh about moose logic while tracing how nature trained us to notice what others miss.

Then we flip the spread to group tarot. Reading for more than one person adds a witness, a third perspective who can validate, challenge, and playfully call in truth. We share real stories of family and group readings, and discuss the subtle ethics that make shared sessions feel safe. You’ll hear how certain card pairings — like Judgment and The Empress — speak like a creative bullhorn, and why good readings often expand complexity instead of forcing false clarity.

We also get into the act and necessity of play and explore the various “play personalities,” like director, storyteller, explorer, and collector. Discover simple ways to host a low-pressure tarot night and give your guests a little magic they'll remember forever. We close with a Tarot pull on how to invite more play into our lives today. 

If this episode resonates, please: subscribe, share with a friend who loves Tarot or Alaska stories, and leave a review to help more creative spirits find us.

Some things we referenced in this episode: the book Feel Good Productivity by Ali Abdaal, The Liberation Tarot and Light Seer's Tarot, and check out Arianna's Sounding Board Sessions and her Pitch Party on November 5!

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. 

Learn more & join us:

Subscribe to the newsletter.

Study & practice Tarot, astrology & creativity in Cosmic Garden.

Get a copy of my workbook, Tarot for Creative Spirits.

Book a Tarot or Creative Cosmology reading.

Shop our bookshop.

Message the show & share your thoughts!

What happens when the tower that has confined you for decades finally falls? Artist Chantal de Felice spent twenty years as the primary caregiver for her mother who struggled with mental illness. When her mother passed in 2020, Chantal found herself suddenly free – and completely unprepared for that freedom.

This conversation explores what happens when we're given a second chance to discover who we are. After her mother's death, Chantal sold her car, gave up her studio, and became what she calls a "tumbleweed" – traveling, making art, and slowly learning who she was outside of her caregiving role. For four years, she's been wandering, creating field recordings in nature, making paintings, and most importantly, learning how to identify her own needs after decades of putting someone else first.

Water emerges as a powerful healing element throughout Chantal's journey. From daily ocean swims to finding lakes and rivers wherever she traveled, immersing herself in natural bodies of water became a ritual of reconnection with her body and senses. These experiences mirror the imagery of The Star card in tarot – a figure pouring water between vessels, representing the flow between conscious and unconscious realms, and the promise of renewal after devastation.

Now working on an illustrated memoir based on fifty journals filled during her wandering years, Chantal shares how she's transformed her relationship with money, creativity, and love. Her story is a testament to resilience, healing, and the courage to rebuild an authentic life after loss. For anyone who has felt trapped by circumstance or is seeking to reclaim their creative spirit, this conversation offers both practical wisdom and profound hope.

+ Follow Chantal's on Instagram, or via her website and Patreon.

+ Check out The Evanesced Tarot by Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle mentioned in this episode. 

+ Check out The Rebis issue on The Star (The Devil issue just became available for order, as of September 2025).

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. 

Learn more & join us:

Subscribe to the newsletter.

Study & practice Tarot, astrology & creativity in Cosmic Garden.

Get a copy of my workbook, Tarot for Creative Spirits.

Book a Tarot or Creative Cosmology reading.

Shop our bookshop.

Starting Monday, I'm opening doors to a six-week guided adventure to refresh, revitalize, and re-enchant your creative practice! 

In this shorter episode, I share a little preview of what's included and how it works.

If you'd like to receive emails this week revealing more of the magic inside Creative Channel, head over here.

For all the details — and to come along for the ride! — head over here.

Doors close August 25. We begin September 1. 

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. Learn more & join us:

• Join the newsletter and receive the first 3 journaling prompts from Tarot for Creative Spirits (the workbook).
• Subscribe to Typewriter Tarot's Substack.
• Check out upcoming events & workshops.
• Work one-on-one with Cecily (book a free curiosity call).
• Book a Tarot reading.
• Shop our bookshop.

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In this episode, I talk with Arianna Smith, a licensed therapist, copywriter, and Tarot reader who helps therapists, spiritual seekers, and healers tap into their intuition and reclaim their power, both in life and in business. Arianna incorporates EMDR, human design, internal family systems, and intuitive development into her work supporting clients, whether in healing or marketing. 

In this conversation, Arianna shares about her experience coming to Tarot, through a therapist she worked with and her card-reading grandmother. But it was only recently that Arianna decided to bring Tarot into her work more publicly. 

Arianna shares about the nudges she received to integrate modalities and own her Tarot prowess while also holding boundaries that respect her various disciplines.

We also discuss what it can look like to bring Tarot into a therapy space (whether you're the patient or the therapist); taking steps to "own" a Tarot practice more fully or publicly (in our own unique ways); powerful connections between addiction, recovery, and Tarot; and we pull a couple cards — The Lovers and 10 of Wands, which seem to depict two ends on a spectrum of of self-acceptance and care.

And we leave listeners with a two-card Tarot spread to try on their own:

CARD 1: What is a value that can be guiding in your spiritual journey?

CARD 2: How can you release the burdens you're carrying around this?

Join Arianna's Weekly Wordsmith newsletter here, and check out her work and services here at ariannasmith.com.

** Arianna also recommended Abbie Atwood's Full Plate Podcast for a decolonized and expansive approach to disordered eating.

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. 

Learn more & join us:

Subscribe to the newsletter.

Study & practice Tarot, astrology & creativity in Cosmic Garden.

Get a copy of my workbook, Tarot for Creative Spirits.

Book a Tarot or Creative Cosmology reading.

Shop our bookshop.

Message the show & share your thoughts!

In this episode, I pull cards for a community member's quandaries and questions. 

This seeker writes that they SEE the cards sitting there across the room, but can't bring themselves to reach for the deck, shuffle it up, and commune with the magic. The drudgery of work is draining their energy, when all they want is a life "dripping with wonder and holy strangeness." (Ugh, don't we all!)

I talk about how this is a really common experience for magical people trapped in the mundanity of 'consensus reality' (and capitalism!), having to always earn money, when we really want a life that feels so much more enchanting, wide-ranging, and substantive. 

This seeker asks the cards for HELP, and for insight into a series of recurring dreams about floods. So, I get out my deck, consult the cards, and share what I see! 

(I meant to get to two listeners in this episode, but had too much to say about the first, so expect another episode soon.)

You can submit your stories and questions for a Tarot reading on the show by emailing me at [email protected]. Send some insight into your experience: a strange situation, a challenge, a desire, a creative predicament, a series of synchronicities, a supernatural encounter... and include a couple questions for the cards! I'd love to hear from listeners across the lands, so don't be shy. 

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. 

Learn more & join us:

Subscribe to the newsletter.

Study & practice Tarot, astrology & creativity in Cosmic Garden.

Get a copy of my workbook, Tarot for Creative Spirits.

Book a Tarot or Creative Cosmology reading.

Shop our bookshop.

Message the show & share your thoughts!

✨ If you're finding this in June... CHECK OUT THE SUMMER SYNERGY SPECTACULAR — to support and celebrate 8 years of Typewriter Tarot! ✨

In this episode, I share five key insights about the impact of academia on our creativity, particularly within fine arts graduate programs. I attended one myself — a LOOONNNNG time ago — but I've also worked with a number of creative people who have also been through such programs (so, I've got lots of anecdotal evidence). 

I share my own experience going through such a program (the upsides and downsides for me personally), and offer some important things in general to think about if you're considering such a program or have been through such a program already. 

If you have thoughts or experiences to share about MFA programs, email me at [email protected].

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. 

Learn more & join us:

Subscribe to the newsletter.

Study & practice Tarot, astrology & creativity in Cosmic Garden.

Get a copy of my workbook, Tarot for Creative Spirits.

Book a Tarot or Creative Cosmology reading.

Shop our bookshop.

Message the show & share your thoughts!

In this episode, I dive into the HUGE topic of Capitalism and how it impacts our Creativity. I share 5 BIG THINGS I see within this tense relationship between the two, and what that often means for us as Creative Spirits. 

Let's explore... how Capitalism infiltrates our thoughts, beliefs, aspirations, and the way that we create — often without us even realizing it... what could it be like if Capitalism were not such a giant pair of handcuffs on our Creativity... and how we can open things up and de-capitalize our inner selves.

I get all into it! I hope this episode offers some new perspective, insight, or even a min-breakthrough!

ALSO DON'T MISS:

+ The History of Tarot workshop with Christopher Marmolejo is Wednesday, May 7, from 4-6pm CT on Zoom. Register for $33, or become a member of the Creative Magic Collective for the same price. A recording will be available for those who can't attend live. 

+ My workshop on Creative Wholeness is happening Wednesday, May 13, from 6:30-8:30pm CT. I'll offer a framework / map for truly living a more creative and magical life, spelling out the key elements I see in cultivating more creative freedom, flow, and joy in our creative practice. HRegister for $17, or become a member of the Creative Magic Collective. A recording will be available for those who can't attend live. 

I'D LOVE TO SEE YOU THERE!

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. 

Learn more & join us:

Subscribe to the newsletter.

Study & practice Tarot, astrology & creativity in Cosmic Garden.

Get a copy of my workbook, Tarot for Creative Spirits.

Book a Tarot or Creative Cosmology reading.

Shop our bookshop.

Message the show & share your thoughts!

In this episode, we explore The Tower (no one's favorite card to receive!). The Tower is a card that can shake things up, to put it mildly, and bring about great change. 

My guest is rather familiar with The Tower's energy and impact, and shares about their personal experiences with this card as we explore this archetype of disruption, awakening, and reorientation.

My wonderful guest is Robin Gow, a trans poet, writer, activist, educator (and demonologist!) whose YA novels include Gooseberry, Dear Mothman, and A Million Quiet Revolutions. Robin has also published multiple books of poetry, teaches self-defense classes, makes earrings, and leads workshops for kids, teens, and adults.

Our conversation explores the various meanings and implications of The Tower — from breakdowns to break-ups to coming-out moments. One of Robin's most profound Tower experiences was their coming out as trans / nonbinary, which set Robin free in many ways, but also came with losses and grief.

We talk about how The Tower can function on the macro and the micro level, on the COLLECTIVE LEVEL, and in the subtle, inner realms, but also in our homes, offices, and communities. (Robin and I both share a couple examples of Tower times when our inner and external worlds were eerily in parallel!)

We also get into...

+ how Robin got into Tarot (it involves a little witch shop in a tiny town!)

+ using Tarot in a creative practice and navigating late-stage capitalism as a creative spirit

+ wisdom for showing up and stepping back when it comes to engagement with the world, activism, and building community during Tower times

+ advice for folks who are pulling The Tower in their readings

+ Robin's experience growing up in a haunted house in Pennsylvania!

In this current Tower moment, we hope this episode offers something helpful, inspiring, or even magical!

You can follow & support Robin's work: on Instagram as @robin_gow_poet and @transdemonologist, visit Robin's website, purchase copies of Robin's books!

We referenced the The Raven's Prophecy Tarot by Maggie Stiefvater.

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. 

Learn more & join us:

Subscribe to the newsletter.

Study & practice Tarot, astrology & creativity in Cosmic Garden.

Get a copy of my workbook, Tarot for Creative Spirits.

Book a Tarot or Creative Cosmology reading.

Shop our bookshop.

Message the show & share your thoughts!

In this episode, I talk about one of the foundational beliefs of my work — that creativity is an energy, not a personality trait, nor an exclusively human feature. 

I explain 5 elements, aspects, or implications of this belief and what it means for us as creatively inclined humans.

I'm curious to know... does this resonate for you? Does it change the way you think about creativity?

Expect a few more "5 Things" episodes about things like Creativity & Capitalism, Creativity & Academia, and The Creative Process. And let me know what else you want to hear about — send me an email at [email protected].

Thank you for listening! If this episode serves and supports you, please take a moment to leave a rating and review. Or share with a friend who might appreciate this exploration!

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. 

Learn more & join us:

Subscribe to the newsletter.

Study & practice Tarot, astrology & creativity in Cosmic Garden.

Get a copy of my workbook, Tarot for Creative Spirits.

Book a Tarot or Creative Cosmology reading.

Shop our bookshop.