Open Wide

I’m a sucker for card decks. When I was younger, I collected playing cards. These days, I seem to be quickly amassing a tarot card collection. The interpretive element to the cards gives the decks a coherence, range, and depth of meaning that playing card decks lack. It gives them more personality and lets me tickle my historian fancy by thinking about the ways that knowledge gets borrowed, adapted, stolen, learned, incorporated, changed, and rejected as different people and different traditions interact.

Today’s deck initially drew my eye for its minimalist artwork and juxtaposition of black and white with focused, strong colors, but it’s held my interest for the ways that it incorporates an eclectic hodgepodge of different magical practices and narrows them down into an extremely focused interpretive point. The Naked Heart Tarot uses crystals, animal familiars, shadow work, tarot, and sacred geometry to focus specifically on getting your heart right as the first step towards manifesting your goals. I have yet to decide what I think about this particular point to the deck. On the one hand, there’s an awful lot of people out there who get so caught up in self-work that they fail to do any urgently needed work outside of themselves, but on the other, there’s also an awful lot of people doing the urgent work who could seriously stand to stop fucking it up by doing a little self-work first. Either way, I unabashedly love the individuality of the deck.

Today’s draw:
Six of Swords
Three of Pentacles
Nine of Cups

Deck:
The Naked Heart Tarot, by Jilian C. Wilde

Today’s reading is an optimistic one. You’ve been in an ongoing transition for the better. You aren’t quite there yet, but if you lean into it rather than fighting it, the outcome looks good. Follow turtle’s lead and let yourself go with the flow: let go of the past while staying grounded. And don’t go it alone! Draw on the help of friends to help keep you steady, focused, and secure as you move on to the next thing. If you stay the course, you’ll soon find your cups overflowing with good things. Consider opening your heart and sharing the spoils of your success once you have them — why go to all that work just to end up drinking alone?