Visualization
A woman activates her third eye.
I have been involved in divination, magic, and metaphysics for a few decades now. Over that time, there have been many different trends and fads, as well as evolution that feels like actual community growth.
One significant change I noticed is that these days, many spiritual people speak of ‘manifestation’ rather than magic(k). What is funny to me is that many manifesters don’t acknowledge or understand that what they are doing is magic. At the same time, I could make the argument that many of them really aren’t doing magic at all and are finding that their efforts to work with the energy around them fall far short of their goals.
Sometimes they ask me why their efforts to manifest their desires are not working. Many of them seem to be lacking a crucial step in their manifestation practice. That step is to visualize the desired results happening in real time; not as a prayer, not as a daydream, but as a reality. We need to see it and believe it to make it happen.
This is easier for some people than others. Not everyone has an active ‘mind’s eye’. Not everyone has the imagination to construct such a visualization. Yet, this concept of the power of using visualization to set intention and create reality is truly ancient wisdom.
The Emerald Tablet is a Hermetic text, thought to have been composed or compiled somewhere between the 2nd and 8th centuries AD. Like tarot itself, the Emerald Tablet was attributed to the deity Hermes Trismegistus. Its famous dictum "As above, so below" expresses the idea that the inner world of mind and spirit mirrors and influences the outer world of matter. This is the root ideology of magic and manifestation. We find a similar expression in The Lord’s Prayer when we say, “On earth as it is in heaven.”
In the late 1970s, Shakti Gawain brought these ancient concepts into the modern world with the book Creative Visualization. This book takes a more practical, meditative approach, teaching us to use mental imagery and visualization techniques to manifest desired outcomes.
In the mid-1980s, Esther and Jerry Hicks took this concept and turned it into the “Law of Attraction”. In 2006, Rhonda Byrne brought this message to mass audiences with The Secret.
Many people, myself included, feel that the Law of Attraction exaggerated and oversold the concept that we can change anything we don’t like in life with our thoughts. It’s not surprising that these days social media is filled with people discussing their manifestation journey with unrealistic expectations and a lack of understanding of effective techniques.
When we set out to work with energy to bring about a specific change, we need to be able to see the change we want as if it has already occurred. If we are unable to visualize it, we can write about it or create a drawing or collage. One way or another, we can’t make the vision happen if we can’t somehow see it happening.
Pixie Arcana for StaarCon 6 by Pamela Steele.
The StaarCorner
As much as StaarCon is an amazing place to learn, grow, and be creative, one of the things I love best about StaarCon is the opportunity to spend time with old friends and make new ones.
For me, this often happens over the meals we share. StaarCon does not have a designated meal plan. We want each attendee to find the food that is best for their budget, diet, and tastes. At StaarCon 6, we are delighted with the number of dining options available to us.
At the hotel itself, The OZ Restaurant serves breakfast. They have a generous breakfast buffet that includes Heart Smart options.
The Fusion Lounge is our hotel bar, serving light bites with a view of the garden courtyard and waterfall pool. Eat and drink with your StaarCon friends inside or poolside.
The Made-Market at the DoubleTree has freshly brewed coffee, snacks, and quick grab-and-go items.
When you leave the hotel, you have a whole new world of options awaiting you. Just across North Military Trail is a plaza called Garden Square Shops, which has a Publix grocery store. Floridians know that the ‘Pub Sub’ is one of the best sandwiches around. Each guest room at the DoubleTree is equipped with a microwave and refrigerator, so easy, economical meals are at your fingertips.
Also in Garden Square Shops, you can find Greek and Mediterranean food at Mr. Gyros, a family-owned gem voted Best Casual Dining by the Palm Beach Post.
The Outback Steakhouse is in the same plaza. A few of us enjoyed a meal there on the Thursday before StaarCon 2022!
If Italian is your thing, check out Allora Pizza and Pasta. If you prefer a Guinness and some shepherd’s pie, Paddy Mac’s Irish Restaurant is in the same plaza.
Within a mile of our hotel and conference center, you can find food for every taste and every budget. Whether you prefer Japanese, Mexican, or Vegan, Palm Beach Gardens has something to offer.
The sessions at StaarCon 6 will give us plenty to discuss with one another. The fabulous restaurant within and around the hotel will allow us to feed our bodies with amazing South Florida cuisine and feed our souls with thoughtful conversation and friendship.
StaarCon 2022 attendees dining at Outback Steakhouse.
Tickets to attend StaarCon 6 in person in Palm Beach Gardens are now available, along with guest rooms at the DoubleTree at a favorable rate. Get your tickets and book your rooms now! We look forward to seeing you in October!
StaarCon 5 attendees dining together at the hotel.
StaarCon 6 presenter Kooch Daniels presenting at StaarCon 5.
Virtual Presenter Spotlight: Kooch Daniels
Palmistry, Symbolism, and the Stories Hidden in Your Hands
Today we’re turning the spotlight on Kooch Daniels, one of the Live Track presenters for StaarCon 6 and StaarCon 6 Virtual. Kooch N. Daniels, MA, is a professional intuitive, author, and palmistry expert based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the kind of teacher who has spent decades following her curiosity wherever it leads, and that curiosity has carried her a long way, including all the way to India.
Her fascination with esoteric traditions and what lies hidden behind the veil sent her traveling to study palmistry, and that trip turned out to be a turning point. It set her on the path to becoming a professional hand reader and, eventually, the author of The Art and Magic of Palmistry. Along the way she studied eastern mysticism with a number of teachers, most significantly the Tantric scholar Harish Johari and the beloved hugging saint Sri Mata Amritanandamayi. That blend of scholarship, devotion, and hands-on practice runs through everything she does.
A Lifetime of Books and Divination Tools
Kooch is remarkably prolific. Working often with her husband and frequent co-author Victor Daniels, PhD, she has written and created a long shelf of books and divination decks, including Stars, Cards, and Stones, Tarot at a Crossroads, Matrix Meditations, Tarot D’Amour, Awakening the Chakras, and Sacred Mysteries: The Chakra Oracle. Her newest project is The Zodiac Light Oracle, a 48-card deck built on the nakshatras, the 27 lunar mansions of Vedic astrology, illustrated by Pieter Weltevrede.
Tarot is only part of the picture. Through her practice at Mystic Secrets, Kooch offers readings across tarot, astrology, palmistry, runes, and chakra work, and she teaches all of it too. If there is a thread connecting these systems, it is her belief that they speak to one another, and that learning to read one deepens your ability to read the rest.
What is she bringing to StaarCon 6?
On Sunday, October 4th at 9:00 am on the Live Track, Kooch is presenting Divination Skill Building: Unveiling the Secrets in Your Palm. It is, by her own description, informative and fun, a relaxed look at how to actually read a hand.
Rather than a lecture, this one is a show-and-tell class. Kooch will share the essential techniques she uses to read palms, then put them to work on the hands of willing volunteers, exploring the symbols there and talking through what they might mean. The goal is to help you build real confidence with palmistry and, in true tarot-community fashion, to give you a new tool you can fold right into your existing readings. Bring your questions, and maybe your own hands.
This will not be Kooch’s first time at StaarCon. She previously presented Using Your Birth Chart to Create Astrological Tarot Spreads at StaarCon 5 and Finding Tarot Secrets in Your Birthdate at StaarCon 2023, so longtime attendees already know she has a gift for making complex systems feel approachable.
The presentation will also be streamed live on StaarCon 6 Virtual through StaarCast.com, so if you cannot make it to Palm Beach Gardens in person, you can still pull up a chair and read along.
About Kooch Daniels
Kooch N. Daniels, MA, is a professional intuitive, author, and palmistry expert based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the author of The Art and Magic of Palmistry and co-author, with Victor Daniels, of many books and decks including The Zodiac Light Oracle and Stars, Cards, and Stones. You can find her readings, books, and classes at mysticsecrets.net and follow her on Instagram at @kooch_daniels.
StaarCon 6 presenter Kooch Daniels.
StaarCon 6 presenter Bex.
Presentation: Divination Skill Building: Unveiling The Secrets in Your Palm
Date: October 4, 2026
Room opens: 8:45 AM EDT
Session begins: 9 AM EDT
Duration: 45 minutes
A woman with her tarot cards.
Magic with Tarot
Tarot is a tool of divination, but it is also a tool of magic. In its simplest form, magic can involve attraction or banishment. In other words, what do you want to increase in your life, and what do you want to decrease?
As soon as I say this, most people ask whether they can perform attraction and banishment at the same time. My answer to this question is always no. We need to focus on one goal and one visualization at a time.
If there is something you want to attract into your life, go through the deck face-up and find the cards that most clearly reflect your desires. Place those cards on an altar, or your reading table, or another special place in your home overnight. As you place them, state your intention and practice your visualization. You can shuffle those cards back into the deck in the morning.
If there is something you want to banish, find the cards that represent that, and place them face down. I like to do that with some vehemence and say aloud, “I banish you!” The visualization should depict what your life will look like once this problem no longer exists.
As with all magic and manifestation, we need to understand that we do have a significant ability to shape what life looks like with our minds. At the same time, the Law of Attraction has a statute of limitations, if you will. There is what is possible and what is not possible. We cannot manifest what is impossible to manifest, no matter how hard we try. We can manifest all that is possible for us, and doing so can make a huge difference.
Monday, June 29, 7 pm to 8 pm ET: Solstice Magic Members-Only Livestream on YouTube.
The Week in Review
The big news this week is that we will be changing the times of two of our live reading multicasts. Effective this week, we plan to do Your Friday Weekly Wrap-up at 9:30 am ET on Friday mornings and Your Saturday Psychic Sampler at 7 pm ET on Saturdays.
You will find the benefit of this change immediately, since I will be teaching at the Mandel Public Library on Saturday and will not need to cancel the livestream!
If you are near West Palm Beach, please do plan to join me for a free, one-hour, all-levels tarot class at the Mandel Public Library in downtown West Palm Beach this Saturday, June 27, at 1 pm.
On Monday, June 29, at 7 pm ET, members of my YouTube channel are invited to join me for a members-only livestream. We will use the energy of the recent solstice to power some magic and divination.
The TarotScopes for July are now available to our members on YouTube.
Are you interested in being a professional tarotist, or in growing as a tarot pro? On Saturday, June 27, Katrina Wynne is offering a free Incubator Circle. I’m doing the last session of the day on running a successful tarot meetup. It’s free to register for sessions, but space is limited.
From Around the Web
Theresa Reed has readings for you for the Full Moon in Capricorn on June 29.
Buckle up! Mercury goes into retrograde from June 29-July 23. Vogue has information for each star sign.
ElviTarot has a Tarot Guide for the June 2026 Mercury Retrograde in Cancer.
Tarot cards with a focus on the Ace of Swords.
Tarot Wisdom For the Week
The brow chakra, or third eye, is the seat of our intuition and imagination. We use the brow chakra in divination. We also use it in visualization.
When I am preparing for divination, I often will take the Ace of Swords and hold it to my brow to help bring clarity to my intuition, and then to my throat to bring clear expression to the reading.
To increase the power in magic and manifestation, I will hold the Ace of Swords to my brow to assist in creating a strong vision. Even if you are not good at picturing things in your mind, the Ace of Swords can help bring life to your magical vision.
Unseen hands leafing through a calendar.
Upcoming Events
Christiana and Amy Forman working together at the University of Miami, 2017.
About Christiana Gaudet
Card and Craft, Inc.
Southeastern Tarot Artists and Readers, LLC.
Christiana Gaudet
770 SE Indian Street, Suite 10
Stuart, Florida 34997-5604
Locations in Port Saint Lucie, West Palm Beach, and Stuart, Florida!
Email cgaudet@cardandcraft.com
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Call toll free 866-99TAROT (866-998-2768)
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Schedule Appointments, Mentoring Sessions, or Purchase Gift Certificates Online!
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Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 9 Issue 25
June 24, 2026
Christiana Gaudet Your Tarot Fairy Godmother banner.
