I was taking a yoga class the other day (on video, of course) and something the teacher said stuck in my mind. She said, “The breath is the bridge between mind and body”.

I was struck by this for two reasons. First, it’s a simple yet powerful truth. Second, I often say in my own teaching that the breath is the bridge between the mundane world and the magickal world, and between our mundane mindset and our meditative mindset.

This got me thinking about the power of breath, which is something I write about often. It also got me thinking about the idea of bridges.

A bridge is a platform that helps us get from one place to another. It is also a device that helps us make connections. In the world of personal growth, spiritual understanding and divination, bridges are an important concept.

We think about heaven and earth being connected by a rainbow bridge. We speak about making a bridge between two people who have had a hard time communicating, or who have had a falling out.

In a tarot reading we build bridges between the cards to see the story unfold. We make an energetic bridge in order to connect with the person for whom we are reading.

In mediumship we make a bridge to the other side, in order to have communication with our loved ones in spirit.

We build other kinds of bridges, too. Education can be a bridge to get to a new career. A difficult job can be a bridge to get to a better opportunity.

Our divination tools are bridges as well. We can use tarot as a bridge between our Higher Selves and our conscious mind, or between the subconscious and the conscious.

During these difficult times, many people feel inclined to reach out to folks with whom they have not spoken in a long time, building bridges of reconnection.

In our divided society, it is important for us to build bridges of understanding and compromise with those with whom we disagree.

Every day, in ways both spiritual and mundane, healing and practical, we are building bridges.

The StaarCorner

When you visit the StaarCon website, you can see some of the presenters who are planning to be with us for our first conference.

StaarCon will also feature an exhibition hall that we are calling ‘StaarMart” which will be open to the public. If you are an artisan or reader, you can now purchase your ticket to vend in StaarMart, and to attend StaarCon. Please reach out to me to discuss you plans to be a vendor at our conference.

The Doubletree Hotel has reserved a block of rooms for our guests at a special confernence rate! To reserve your room please call 561-622-2260 and press option 1. When calling please identify that you are with STAAR CON- Group Code SAC. You can also book on our STAAR CON website on doubletree.hilton.com.

Bridge-Building Tarot Spread

Here is an easy tarot method to help you build the bridge in a relationship, or in your life as you are striving toward a goal.

Pull one card to represent you. Pull another card to represent the person with whom you are trying to connect, or the goal you are trying to achieve.

Now pull a card, or a few cards, to represent the bridge. Pull as many cards as you need to give you the information. This will tell you what you need to do, or the steps you need to take, to build the bridge.

The Major Arcana, Magical and Mundane Live on Zoom

Get your ticket now to join us for our next Zoom class!

On Thursday, April 23 at 7 pm EDT I will be presenting this interactive class which takes a deep dive into the twenty-two Major Arcana cards.

Whether you are a tarot beginner, professional, or somewhere in between, you will find this class enlightening and entertaining.

The twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana are considered to hold the “Greater Secrets” of tarot. In this class you will learn their spiritual lessons as well as the information they may reveal in a reading. You will also learn which Major Arcana cards to use to manifest your desires.

The Major Arcana cards are here to assist in our spiritual growth and our divination. They can also be powerful tools in creating our future.

Register now for this exciting live class. Class fee is $37.50.

The Week in Review

This week I shared a fun tarot exercise on my Community Blog. Whether you are a new or experienced tarotist, you will enjoy Venn Diagrams for Tarot Understanding.

Each week I share live videos on my Facebook business page and archive them on my YouTube channel. I also do occasional free tarot classes on my YouTube channel, such as the one scheduled for this Sunday!

From Around the Web

During these times, self-care and an attention to wellness is so important. Check out some of the great ideas had by Janet Meredith.

I loved this article from The Atlantic, The Perks of Being a Weirdo.

I found this communication tarot spread. It seems to fit in with this week’s theme and might be helpful for those confined in smalls spaces with their loved ones during this time of quarantine.

Cards for Your Consideration

There are many tarot cards that could speak of bridge-building. Both Temperance and the Six of Swords come to mind. Each offers not only the concept of bridge-building, but also ideas on how bridges could be built.

The card I want to dive into as a card of bridge-building is the Lovers. While so often seen only as a card about romantic relationships, the Lovers is associated with Gemini, and the element of Air.

That means that decisions and communication are important aspects of this card.

The Lovers can speak of how we build bridges to one another. It can also speak of how we need to integrate disparate things into our lives.

Whenever we must find balance, we must first find a way to build a bridge. The Lovers can speak of this concept.

Upcoming Events and Tours

Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 3 Issue 16
April 15, 2020

This is a sacred week for many. Yet, the usual celebrations will be observed a bit differently this year. As sad and uncomfortable as that may feel, there is an opportunity for spiritual growth inherent in our current struggles.

Our traditions, family gatherings, and community rituals are an important part of our lives. This situation which forces us to deviate from our usual annual customs offers us a unique opportunity.

We must pick through our traditions to find within each one its core of meaning. Rather than going through the motions as we do each and every year, we must find ways to hold our celebrations in our hearts. We must take comfort in the inherent spiritual truths, rather than in the beauty of their trappings.

Next year we will be able to return to our normal customs, and they will seem sweeter than ever before, because of the sacrifices we have made this year. And, by making these sacrifices, we will bring to our celebrations, this year and every year forward, new meaning and new understanding.

Most spiritual celebrations held in the spring share a theme of resilience, spiritual promise, and rebirth. As we look out our windows and walk through our neighborhoods, we can see signs of nature’s rebirth, unaffected by our current sorrows.

We see within nature the promise of rebirth fulfilled.

We see within our own families and communities the strength of our resilience.

Let our celebrations this year, though certainly diminished, be no less joyful than any other year. Let us find and celebrate the meaning of our traditions. Let us hold in our hearts the promise of renewal, which we need now, more than ever.

The StaarCorner

This week we are happy to welcome Reverend Kevin Lee to our roster of presenters for StaarCon! Reverend Kevin is the pastor at the Metaphysical Chapel of South Florida. He is a paranormal researcher and a certified spiritual medium. It is our goal to offer a wide range of topics and presenters at StaarCon, and we are happy that Kevin will be bringing his skills, wisdom and experience to share with us.

We are also excited to announce that tickets to StaarCon are now available!

Visit the StaarCon website to see our growing list of presenters, and to get your tickets!

Sign up now for the official StaarCon newsletter to get all the updates as they happen!

A Three-Card Tarot Spread for Finding Renewal

Try this simple tarot spread to give you a focus for your personal renewal.

Let the first card represent something that you are releasing in order to be renewed.

Let the second card represent something within you that is waiting to be born.

Let the third card represent something within you or around you that inspires your renewal.

The Major Arcana, Magical and Mundane Live on Zoom

Get your ticket now to join us for our next Zoom class!

On Thursday, April 23 at 7 pm EDT I will be presenting this interactive class which takes a deep dive into the twenty-two Major Arcana cards.

Whether you are a tarot beginner, professional, or somewhere in between, you will find this class enlightening and entertaining.

The twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana are considered to hold the “Greater Secrets” of tarot. In this class you will learn their spiritual lessons as well as the information they may reveal in a reading. You will also learn which Major Arcana cards to use to manifest your desires.

The Major Arcana cards are here to assist in our spiritual growth and our divination. They can also be powerful tools in creating our future.

Register now for this exciting live class. Class fee is $37.50.

The Week in Review

This past week, along with my regular weekly live videos, we held Global Tarot Circle on Facebook Live, and Cards and Conversation Tarot Meetup on YouTube Live. You can see all these videos in archive on my Facebook business page and my YouTube channel.

I shared a blogpost this week about the ways that predictive self-reading works, and how the pandemic has shown up in the cards.

From Around the Web

One of my favorite Easter traditions as I was growing up was singing the Hallelujah Chorus on Easter Sunday. Here is a rock version that puts a new twist on my old favorite.

From the Llewellyn blog, a piece by the late Donald Michael Kraig about Passover.

Here is a Growth Mindset Tarot Spread for Spring by Carrie Mallon.

Cards for Your Consideration

This week let us consider the four Aces as cards that express the promise of renewal. Each Ace is like a seed, or an egg. Of course, both seeds and eggs are important symbols in many springtime spiritual rituals and holidays.

When we see an Ace in a tarot reading, we often interpret it as a new beginning; the start of something new. Yet, Aces also describe the essence of something, or the source of something. This aspect of the Aces is so important this week as we must reduce our holiday celebrations to their very source and essence.

I often see the Aces as the most powerful and spiritual cards within the Minor Arcana. Although they speak of a beginning, they hold within them the promise of a journey, and the attainment of a goal.

Upcoming Events and Tours

Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 3 Issue 15
April 8, 2020

During difficult times, do you notice that you feel more tired, more stressed and more irritable? Of course, some of that is simply the effect of the difficulty you are facing. But, in a time of widespread crisis, some of what you are feeling is the distress of others.

Most of us have some level of psychic ability. Some of us identify as empaths. That is, those who easily feel what others are feeling. If are psychic or empathic at all, it’s likely that you are dealing with more than your own stress. Right now, you might literally be carrying the weight of the world.

Even in normal times, you might feel the pain and heartache of others, both physically and emotionally. You might not even recognize that what you are feeling is not your own.

Those who perform readings for others are especially at risk for this. Some readers become physically ill after an especially powerful reading. Often, this is because they are so strongly feeling what their client is feeling.

Whether you are a reader, a healer, or just a sensitive spiritual person, there has never been a better time to improve your ‘psychic distancing’ techniques. You don’t want to limit your intuition. Yet, for the sake of your own wellbeing, you need to be able to limit what you experience.

Meditation is the quickest and easiest way to do this. You need to send energy to your root chakra at the base of your spine, and then send energy into the earth, to ground yourself. From there, breathe energy up your spine and out of your crown chakra in all directions. Let that energy fall to the ground and create a protective shield around you. Let it sink into the ground and cycle up again, constantly refreshing you, connecting you to the earth, and protecting you.

Unlike many meditative exercises, you can do this one in less than three minutes. Or, you can take your time and stop at each chakra, spending a few moments clearing and releasing energy in each energy center.

On a more intellectual level, try this. When you feel anxious, or when the energy around you feels heavy, take a step back. Is what you are feeling really coming from you, or is it coming from outside you? Remember that just because you can feel something, or know something, doesn’t make you able or responsible to fix it. Simply exhale, and release the energy, and return your attend to your own affairs. You can send a quick prayer or affirmation if you like.

This next thing may sound counterintuitive, but it’s the truth. The best way to relieve yourself of empathic pain is to run toward your psychic gifts, rather than away from them. Some people try to shut their intuition down. This usually causes more pain, not less.

The more psychic development your do, the more psychic tools you learn to use, the more control you will have of your energy. The more developed your gifts are, the more ability you will have to deal with the energies around you.

That means that now is a great time to learn tarot, work with oracle cards, and study psychic development!

The StaarCorner

One of the things that excites me the most about StaarCon is the broad range of topics we will be covering. We will have plenty of tarot classes for tarotists of all levels of expertise. We will also have classes in other methods of cartomancy, including Kipper, Lenormand, and oracle cards. We will explore other aspects of magic and mysticism from many cultures.

Whatever your areas of interest are, we will have classes and workshops to inspire you.

During these difficult times, it’s important to have something to look forward to. Plan to attend StaarCon in January 2021! Tickets, with early bird pricing, go on sale today!

A Tarot Spread for Empaths

One question we might often ask is this. Is the discomfort I am feeling mine, or am I picking it up from someone else?

Here’s a tarot spread to help with that. Arrange the cards any way that feels right.

Card One

Let this card describe or explain what you are feeling.

Card Two

Let this card tell you where this feeling is coming from.

Card Three

Let this card reflect your energy, without this thing you are feeling.

Card Four

Let this card tell you what you can do to release this feeling.

Card Five

Let this card tell you what, if anything, you need to do in response to this feeling.

Zoom Classes Live and on Teachable

Our first class on Zoom, Finding Meaning in the Minor Arcana, went so well that I have scheduled another Zoom class in April! Of course, all premium classes that were scheduled to be held in my Palm City office are moved to Zoom until we are able to meet in person again. Then, I will continue holding classes on Zoom as well as in person in Palm City.

Those who missed the class and would like to purchase the replay will be able to do so at Card and Craft Academy on Teachable. Those who took the live class will be granted access to the replay at no additional charge.

I was so pleased with how easy Zoom was to work, and how much it felt like an in-person class. It was great to be able to include people from all over the world.

The class I’ve added to the calendar will take place on Thursday, April 23, at 7 pm EDT. It’s called “The Major Arcana, Magical and Mundane.”

The twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana are considered to hold the “Greater Secrets” of tarot. In this class you will learn their spiritual lessons as well as the information they may reveal in a reading. You will also learn which Major Arcana cards to use to manifest your desires.

The Major Arcana cards are here to assist in our spiritual growth and our divination. They can also be powerful tools in creating our future.

Register now for this exciting live class. Class fee is $37.50.

The Week in Review

Check out my latest blog post. It’s about using tarot to interpret dreams!

Join me on my Facebook business page for Global Tarot Circle tonight, and check out the weekly live videos I do there.

Join me Sunday on my YouTube channel for Cards and Conversation, and discover videos there dating back through 2014.

From Around the Web

I was honored to be part of this video put together by Sasha Graham. Watch Messages from the Tarot Community During Covid-19.

This article on The Inner Voice really inspired me.

On a lighter note, if you are looking to have some socially-distanced fun with your friends during quarantine, try this online version of Cards Against Humanity!

Cards for Your Consideration

We can consider the Eight of Cups as a card of social distancing in general. The Eight of Cups can often speak of feeling of abandonment. Yet, it also speaks of the need to walk away from something, or the process of distancing yourself from something.

This works on a psychic level, too. As much as something might knock on the door of our brain, the Eight of Cups gives us the power to turn our back to it and walk toward something else.

Upcoming Events and Tours

Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 3 Issue 14
April 1, 2020

What unique times we find ourselves living in! As scary and uncertain as things seem right now, there is significant spiritual power, and a weird sort of privilege, in being asked to experience something that has literally never happened before.

Each of us will encounter different kinds of challenges during this time. Yet, there are some things that we will all have in common. One of those things is stress!

The irony here is that, when I Googled to look for ways to reduce stress, most of those activities are things that we can’t do right now. We can’t go to the gym or the yoga studio or get together with friends. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to connect online, and plenty of ways to develop a fitness practice in our own homes.

We all have to find ways to cope with stress. So often, we deal with baseless fears; anxieties that aren’t founded in fact. Unfortunately, our current situation offers us legitimate things to fear. We spend a lot of time finding ways to relieve and release our baseless fears. But how can we cope with fears that have a basis in fact?

If we let fear rule us, we become ineffective. We have to be able to live our lives and cope with our new temporary reality.

One important component in this fight against fear is to have hope. We must maintain a hopeful vision for the future. Another important component is to make sure we are doing everything we can to protect ourselves and the people we love. We must make common-sense decisions that will give us the best chances of a good outcome.

In these difficult times, we each must rise to the occasion, and live within the circumstances in which we find ourselves. That means that we all must find ways to cope, have lots of hope, and use the soap!

The StaarCorner

Plans for StaarCon, our international conference to be held in Palm Beach Gardens in January 2021, continue to move forward. We are optimistic that our current struggles will be behind us by then!

Since soap is on our minds this week, I want to tell you about a vendor who will be at StaarCon. Zuri Eberhart of Yatzuri.com.

The Yatzuri Shop sells a great selection of crystals and magical tools. Zuri also makes soap, bath scoops and other body care products. Not only are Zuri’s creations high quality and hand-crafted, they are Reiki-charged!

Visit her website now, and plan to stop by Zuri’s table at StaarCon, where she will be happy to teach you about the magic of crystals, herbs and candles.

Finding Hope in the Cards

Now is a great time to study tarot, or to deepen your tarot practice. If you have time, you can begin a Card of the Day tarot practice. Do this by pulling a card to study, contemplate and journal about every day. You can also watch YouTube tutorials, take online classes, and read blogposts about tarot.

You may even want to consider a tarot mentorship with me!

Tarot isn’t just about asking questions and receiving answers. Tarot is a book of spiritual wisdom in picture form. Each card offers lessons for life and hope in difficult times.

During times of high anxiety, it is important not to focus that anxiety into tarot reading. Rather, look to tarot for comfort and hope. Let tarot offer you spiritual understanding and strength in difficult times.

Join us for a Class on Zoom: Finding Meaning in the Minor Arcana

My first Zoom class will be tomorrow, Thursday, March 26 at 7 pm EDT.

The Minor Arcana is comprised of forty numbered cards and sixteen Court cards, divided into four suits. Although the term ‘Minor Arcana’ means ‘lesser secrets,’ there is nothing minor or lesser about the amount of information, inspiration and insight you can derive from these cards if you understand their meanings fully.

In this class, newer tarot readers will develop strong skills for working with these cards when they appear in a reading. Experienced readers will add new understanding and techniques to their tarot practice.

Class fee is $37.50. Register and receive your link on Zoom!

The Week in Review

This week I took a break from writing about tarot and instead shared a blogpost of my favorite lesser-known dystopian novels. It seemed appropriate, and many people have some extra time to read these days.

During these difficult times I am doing a lot of free live videos on both YouTube and Facebook. Please subscribe to my YouTube Channel and Like my Facebook page so that you can be notified when I go live.

From Around the Web

Professional tarot reader Denour Lacoste has just created her new YouTube channel. Check out her great review of Hoodoo Tarot, and hit subscribe while you are there.

While you are checking out newer tarot voices on YouTube, don’t forget Marion K Tarot, who is offering some great readings for your sun sign!

Here’s the Master List for the 2020 Ostara Tarot Blog Hop. See what a group of tarotists each had to say on the same topic.

Cards for Your Consideration

I bet a lot of my tarotist friends will agree that we are all feeling the Seven of Wands right now! There is so much taking our attention, and so much to worry about.

The Seven of Wands suggests a defensive posture. At this time, we must be on guard, and be vigilant against infection. At the same time, we want to be aware of our strength and ability to handle the pressure we are under.

When we consider the character in the Seven of Wands, we see that he deftly handles everything that comes at him. He is a giant. No matter what the world throws at him, he will succeed.

We must be like this character. We must be able to hand many things at once. Yet, we must do it with confidence, and know that what is thrown at us will be no match for our abilities.

Upcoming Events and Tours

Tarot Topics Newsletter
Volume 3 Issue 13
March 25, 2020