#themed tarot

Pile 1 - Scream (1996)  Pt. 1 - What makes you a survivor? (3oW, Temperance, The Star) 

The original Scream was a delightful frightfest that sparked controversy among older adults when it first aired (too graphic, too crude, was seen as irreverent when the discourse was that violent media made others more violent). However, the critics and audiences that loved and related to it understood that real life itself was messy and it could feel a lot like fending for yourself out there. With this energy, you are the star of the show herself, Sidney Prescott. What stands out to me is that Sid was a girl who was trying to mind her business and keep her head down after the very publicized murder of her mother, and it was hard to escape the whispers constantly trailing after her. Sidney gets caught in the machinations of others, but instead of letting her agency be stolen from her, she critically assesses her circumstances and reacts quickly afterwards, and will think on her feet and fight back even when it appears like she's outmatched. For my pile 1s, I feel like this ability of yours to roll with the punches is going to enable you to stand on top this year. In a lot of ways, I'm getting that you will have quite a lot of eyes on you this year (perhaps some of you are already in the public eye or you're moving into a position where you're in the public eye!), but you keeping your head clear is not only going to guide you through most of the obstacles you might face, but it will guide you to where your opportunities will be greatest, too! My pile 1s are resourceful and great at thinking on their feet, trusting yourself and your instincts will help you be at your most powerful this year. You're not only the survivor, you're the star of your own movie and you know it!

Pt. 2- What makes you Ghostface? (QoC, 9oC, AoS)

As soon as I drew your spread, I heard "GREAT TEAM PLAYER" and then it was confirmed to me by your cards lol. The thing that was most notable about these pair of Ghostfaces was their elaborate team work (lol well at least until things unraveled)! Billy Loomis and Stu Macher shocked Woodsboro by a slew of murders that they were on the verge of getting away with until the very end, which was coincidentally when their teamworking efforts faltered and allowed for the survivors to retaliate. To be even more specific, this happy, bubbly sort of energy reminds me of Mister Knife-Swipe himself, Stu Macher! One of the things that shocked many characters and audiences alike was actually that the popular, well-liked jock Stu was the other Ghostface and I feel like Stu's sociability, emotional intuition, and carefully projected front allowed for him to escape suspicion for so long. For my pile 2s, I'm getting that a similar quality of attunement to people and projected extroversion (you could just be reallllyyyy good at faking it it till you make it, if you're naturally more introverted but in a job like customer service requires lots of energy and social engagement) hides how sharp you actually are. I know Billy Loomis is Stu's friend and probably was also a popular kid, but there's a lot of focus on these particular qualities of Stu that helped him go as far as he did. The other message I'm really strongly getting is that as long as you're able to 'keep your eyes on the prize,' you are well-equipped to get everything you want and meet your goals, even if it's in a more traditionally competitive field. For example, if you're in a position like sales where your coworkers are actually your competition, that attitude of affability and cooperativeness that you project would probably make them more likely to help you and see you as less of competition, even if you still are and you're actually winning! (This is a very specific scenario, but I feel like a couple of you are out there in these specific circumstances). The final advice here is to be warm and friendly as you can, but keep your boundaries and goals a little bit closer to your chest and you can actually make it to where you wanna go!

Pile 2 - Scream 2 Pt. 1 - What makes you a survivor? (The Emperor, 3oS, The High Priestess)

Scream 2 was notable for solidifying the core trio who would basically be in almost every Scream movie thereafter, and what do they all have in common? Surviving the initial brutal tragedy of Woodsboro. For Gale, Dewey, and Sidney, Woodsboro left a mark on them that they each coped with in different ways. Having lost someone precious to them personally in the murders committed by Billy and Stu, Sidney tried to move on with life and have a fresh start in college, but she struggles with bouts of suspicion and paranoia, even with her new boyfriend, because her last one ended up being a serial killer. Dewey, on the other hand was left physically injured with a limp and wounded arm from lingering nerve damage and channels his grief from losing his sister into protectiveness over Sidney. Finally, the ever-pragmatic Gale Weathers turns her experiences into a best-seller to skyrocket her career, but it doesn't stop the alienation she feels when it estranges her from Sidney and Dewey, who she actually cared about and were also affected by her works and dealing with their own scars. For my pile 2s, I am very much seeing this feeling of recuperation and healing after an event that left its psychological (perhaps even physical) mark on you. For a lot of you, like the core trio, you might have put your faith in someone or something (like a greater institutional body, for example) and were very much let down afterwards. But, you haven't given up, you carry yourself like the healing, wounded warrior that you are, and try to make it through each day as okay as you can be. In a lot of ways, this event has caused you to withdraw inwards as well, and it's far from a bad thing because now you have the chance for internal recalibration. You are now breaking down the person you were before and taking only the things that matter to you going forward, and becoming someone who trusts their own internal compass and intuition more. You should, because at that exact point in your life when everything is stripped away, you're the best equipped to see people, things, and situations as what they are instead of what they pretend to be. Your personal power this year is tied to renewal and rejuvenation of yourself, but you're going to have the additional superpower of seeing right through the heart of things. People will try, but they can't fool you anymore!

Pt. 2- What makes you Ghostface? (10oC, AoW, 2oW)

In contrast to the previous Ghostface partners, your individual pursuit of your own goals is what sets you apart this year. Mickey and Nancy were merely partners of convenience, each holding their own reasons for taking up the mantle of Ghostface, which is why their partnership ended in betrayal. However, the dogged determination and careful planning to circle and isolate their targets is what enabled these Ghostfaces to have such a high kill count. Mickey might have wanted fame and Nancy may have wanted revenge, but you, dear pile 2s, only want your own peace. You want to chase your own happiness and drop any weights holding you back from pursuing your passions like yesterday's garbage, and it's that desire that is driving you forward. While this reading is not necessarily intended to be read in a specific temporal format, I get the feeling that for you, it kind of is a progression this way; perhaps you might have started this year with your foundations rocked and your trust shaken, but as you move through the year, you will find yourself going from incubation to hatching and darting forward. You will know yourself and know what you want, but you're not gonna let the pursuit of your goals be only the means to an end; you will enjoy the process as well as the endgame, and it doesn't matter if you have to do it by yourself. But what does matter is that you actually enjoy the ride there, because it's all about you this year. Perhaps it was this sentiment that enabled Mickey Altieri to continuously hold the title as one of the most prolific Ghostfaces to this day; he absolutely had a hell of a time wearing that mask.

Pile 3 - Scream 3  Pt. 1 - What makes you a survivor? (3oP, The Sun, The Chariot)

Scream 3 is in a really unique spot, and it served as the blueprint for how future films were produced in the future. Scream 2 in 1997 was one of the earliest examples of a script being leaked to the internet (the Ghostface killers were supposed to be different people, and you could kind of tell it was set up this way!) so future Scream films after this point had several fake-out scripts, something which is even addressed in-movie because each fictional actor cast to play a Woodsboro had a different script. Scream 3 itself went through a couple of re-writes because of an increase of mass shootings in schools (The Columbine high school shooting had an especially large impact on Scream 3's original plot), so this film has an all-around reputation for being very odd even by longtime fans. However, there's an interesting element of unresolved and unaddressed issues for characters who are a little older, a little wiser and a little more jaded as adults, but there's another interesting theme of supporting each other through addressing collective traumas, more so than the first two films. Our core trio, even though they might not want to be, are old hands at dodging serial killers and sniffing out nefarious intentions, in a way that doesn't even necessarily faze them as much anymore. Sidney, Dewey, and Gale have actually started to look past the killings in a sense to ascertain why they are happening, and have stepped into a more proactive role when it comes to keeping themselves safe as a unit, too.

Devastating things have not stopped happening to them by this point, but where it may have left some unable to cope with these extreme circumstances, these three have incorporated their experiences and produced things that only they know how to do. Sidney works as a women's support hotline counselor for California, with her experience helping her be an empathetic and safe space for others who are also suffering. Dewey has become an adviser for the Stab 3 film, helping inform the film's producers on what actually occurred in his life. Gale Weathers continues to be on top of her career and very much in the spotlight. The three may have some issues between each other, but it is so quickly put aside and they collaborate quite effectively as the new Ghostface resurfaces. In a weirdly similar way, I get the energy of mastery through collaboration for my pile 3s. Maybe you are involved in some projects at work or in school that have taken up a good chunk of your time and resources that will finally wrap up this year, and you'll be all the more skillful for it. Like our survivors, I expect that what you have learned through your life experiences is going to be synthesized in a way you didn't necessarily expect, but in a way that ended up bringing you a lot of fulfillment and potential opportunities for future development. Even through the record-high kill counts and issues arising from a checkered past, Sid, Dewey, and Gale are in top form as they rise to the occasion, and the constant underlying thrum of forward momentum drives not only the movie, but the franchise forward. This already ran SUPER long lol, but I feel like this is also reflective of a long and winding journey for you that is also coming to an end, but the skills, experiences, and connections you have accumulated will shape your next few decades probably (some of you might be hitting your Saturn Rx, there's definitely a maturity-through-hardship energy that seems very Saturnian lol). Your personal power this year is tied to laying out your foundations for the next big chunk of your life here; you have aggregated lots of wisdom and experience and putting those lessons into practice is going to bring you the greatest yield and growth!

Pt. 2- What makes you Ghostface? (The Moon, The Sun, PoC)

The first thing I thought when pulling out this spread was that some of y'all might be in the family way! LOL it's a phrasing that I usually don't use, but perhaps some of you are on the verge of becoming parents or welcoming other additions to the family you are building. With the sun and the moon coming out in both of your spreads, it really does seem like this is a bridging of your internal and external circumstances that makes me think of accomplishing some goals you had for a long time. For example, perhaps you recently accomplished the goal of being a doctor, which took you years of study, residency, licensure exams, etc. And then somewhere in studying to be a doctor, you also started to have thoughts about having a child or a specific pet or improving your singing, and then after becoming a doctor, you suddenly find the perfect partner(s), come across the exact breed of dog you were thinking of, or find an opportunity to join the local karaoke club. If this example makes any sense sense (sorry if it's a lil disjointed!), I see that the efforts you have physically concentrated towards your goals also have influenced and attracted the other, more subconscious desires you wanted but hadn't worked on as extensively. This is very similar to our singularly operating Ghostface (at least, pending no retcons lol) Roman Bridger. Roman's primary motivation was revenge, and he concentrated his not-inconsiderable wealth and resources to becoming the only solo and most prolific Ghostface killer, but his secondary one was also family (he did it all sorts of wrong, of course). Having been denied the family that he was born to and craving their acceptance, he might have terrorized, killed, and finally pushed away the very last blood family he had left, but he did get some of that acceptance and recognition in the very end. For the longest time, he knew he was an abandoned child and brother, but by the end of Scream 3, he made sure that the world knew this, too. The idea of family comes up a few times throughout this part of the reading, so I think that for those of you who are in the process of actively building up your family/working on family dynamics, this may be a core driving force for you this year. Keep an eye out for interesting happenings around Leo season as well, since you got The Sun twice!

Pile 4- Scream 4 Pt. 1 - What makes you a survivor? (9oW, 8oS, QoW)

Scream 4 came after an 11-year gap between it and the last Scream release, and with it, a whole new generation to boot! We're taken back to high school with Sidney's cousin Jill Roberts as the seeming protagonist, and she's just trying to have a good time with her best friend Kirby, her film club friends, and welcoming Sid back to Woodsboro. But, things never stay peaceful in Woodsboro, and despite the focus on the new girl Jill, Kirby is actually the traumatized new final girl by the end of it. With Scream 4, the tension between the established legacy (represented by the classic characters of Sidney, Dewey, and Gale) and the desire for newness drives the narrative, which culminates in a horror that simultaneously feels new and familiar. There's this tiredness and resignation to Sidney, somebody who aches for peace but knows that she's too used to not getting it, along with the desire to protect her little cousin Jill and preserve her innocence and safety for as long as she can. For both her and Kirby, it's the level of betrayal occurring and being left for dead, really the closest anybody's come to killing Sidney in a long time, that brings up the stakes. How does this relate for my pile 4s? Well, I'm definitely sensing the exhaustion, the anxiety, and the feeling of being burnt out and operating on fumes for a long while now. I think for quite a lot of you, you've been in less-than-ideal circumstances for some time, and been stuck in a situation which has been draining you bit-by-bit. And at this point, you'd probably thought you'd seen all there is to see about this shitty thing, and then you got hit with another whammy, which was maybe why it felt so familiar but new at the same time. This is really specific, but maybe some of you live with an extremely difficult partner, family member, or roommate who had been pissing you off for a long while now, but then you just learned that they did something else that left an extraordinarily bad taste in your mouth. You are likely a survivor in the true sense of the word, meaning that you've been only just surviving, for a long time. However, just like all storms pass, you're coming into an energy where you get back up and leave that energy/situation for good. The Queen of Wands is all about reclaiming that personal power, passion, and energy for yourself. You're going to stop spending it on things and people that never add value to your life, and you're going forward to make your own kingdom as you want. In the movie, the media refers to Sidney as a "celebrity victim," but while Sidney is certainly victimized, she survives, and gets back up to march forward with her own life, and so will you.

Pt. 2- What makes you Ghostface? (9oC, Strength, 9oP)

It's very fitting that the same qualities which make you a survivor also count towards making you a great Ghostface; all of these cards reflect the idea of getting what you want and having the guts to persevere through obtaining it. While Charlie makes for an interesting Ghostface, it's Jill who actually embodies this ambition the best. Jill Roberts thought Sidney was old and washed up, and thought it was her time to get a slice of the fame pie, so she cooked up a web of murders and betrayals so she could end up on top. The ambition, self-centeredness, and the consistent concentration of efforts to this end goal make her almost admirable (most Ghostfaces are flawed and have many pitfalls, after all, it's why they never win!). However, where Jill tripped up in her arrogance, I feel like my pile 4s can actually pull off what they want. You have big dreams and you know you want more than the life that you are currently living, these cards are showing me that you do already have the skills and the wherewithal to accomplish them. Perhaps, in reference to the first part of your reading, you have to cut out what's holding you back. Anything Jill deemed was an obstacle was swiftly and calculatingly removed by her, and while you don't need to be as ruthless, your bullshit-cutting sword is there for a reason. You have many great things that you want and that want you back on the horizon for you, and embodying these particular Ghostface energies will help you accomplish whatever you set your mind to.

Pile 5 - Scream 5 Pt. 1 - What makes you a survivor? (The Star, 3oC, 4oW)

Coming off another 11-year gap, Scream 5 hurls us into another generation of "requel" characters who are loosely connected enough to old legacy characters to be interesting, but definitely fresh enough to capture the attention of younger viewers who can get drawn into the franchise. With this in mind, we have a new protagonist entirely in Sam Carpenter, the secret daughter of Billy Loomis who struggled greatly with her mental health, addiction, and family throughout her youth when she became aware of the secret of who her biological dad really was. In a strong parallel to how Sidney began the franchise, Sam feels a striking sense of paranoia with anybody getting too close to her, because she knows that other people learning that she's the daughter of one of the most infamous Woodsboro serial killers will put her and her sister's life in danger, and the sudden, phantom-like visions she has of the dad she's never met popping up to encourage her violent impulses push her to take anti-psychotics to suppress them. All-in-all, Sam begins the film as a mess, (which is completely understandable), but, I'm drawn to the liberation she feels at letting those secret weights rattle off her and the realization that hits her when she learns that she doesn't have to be alone in all of this. Since she was young, Sam has needed to lie about some things that were fundamental to her understanding of who she was, and could never be her whole self because she internalized that being Sam would be enough to break people apart. So, it is after the terror of having those secrets exposed and brought to light in the ugliest fashion that she stopped giving a fuck about holding on so tightly to them and being more proactive in how she addressed situations in her life.

Sam stood her ground when others forced her hand, and stopped holding herself back to successfully defend the things and people that mattered most to her. While these circumstances might not exactly be yours, pile 5s, I do get the sense that like Sam, you attract attention pretty much anywhere you go. However, also like Sam, I feel like some of you may have struggled with the negative/unpleasant scrutiny for things that you couldn't help about yourself, and maybe you struggled with whether to hide them away and pretend they don't exist or fully embrace them throughout a couple of points in your life. However, also like Sam, I feel like quite many of you either have or you will embrace yourself much more fully this year, and it's that action that will draw marvelous outcomes towards you. You may have also felt that despite the attention on you, there weren't a lot of people around you who hadn't bothered to really get to know you, but this is something that's changing as well! You're going to end up among like-minded others who will love and appreciate you for who you are instead of only what you present as (for some of you, this may be in a romantic sense as well if it applies to you!), and you'll feel very free and uplifted by people who genuinely want to see you thrive. Your greatest personal power this year is tied to a more authentic expression of your genuine, whole self, for it will bring you so many others who can be your people for life!

Pt. 2- What makes you Ghostface? (The Moon, PoW, The Chariot)

Scream 5's Ghostfaces were a very interesting departure from previous movies, because all previous Ghostfaces up to this point had a very direct tie to either the main protagonist (Sidney) or a previous Ghostface (Billy). Instead, Scream 5's Ghostfaces were literally just obsessive fans lol. Though I think this made the motivations a bit weaker than their predecessors, one thing I am lingering on is the level of integration and the longer-term nature of this planned Ghostface attack. This was one case where the Ghostfaces were actually extremely integrated into their target groups, with Amber becoming a core friend of Tara's in high school (potential ex? the older scripts I think had Amber as Tara's ex) and someone that she turned to for safety and care, while Richie found Sam in Modesto and became a serious and seemingly supportive boyfriend across a longer period of time. This very much mirrors the dynamics and planning of Stu Macher and Billy Loomis as the original Ghostfaces, whose teamwork and integration allowed them to almost successfully complete all their goals at the 1996 Woodsboro Massacre. (Also like Billy and Stu, their bond is also romantic, but it's far creepier because 20-something Richie groomed teenager Amber) The capacity to appear as such a concerned friend or concerned partner while knowing you're the one holding the knife the whole time actually does take quite a bit of skill to pull off, and for my pile 5s, I think it's the quality of being to mask your real emotional reactions while projecting something else that can help you a lot this year.

This is slightly different than my pile 1s' Ghostface attributes (though, you may feel drawn to that one, too!) because theirs tended more towards extroversion, lighthearted affability, and a general social bubbliness to mask the sharpness and cleverness of the moves they were actually making. Yours comes off as more of a mysteriousness, more like people don't actually know what you're thinking, but it comes on more of an afterthought of what they project on you. To illustrate what I mean, I do have a really specific example coming to mind; perhaps a loved one or close friend of yours was dating a really shitty person, and although you may have hinted that they were far from your favorite person, you likely did not outright say that you disliked them. And then one day, your friend comes to you sobbing saying that their partner broke up with them, and they'll remember you saying kind things and being sad for them, but in actuality, your face may have only changed a little and internally, you were cheering for this asshole leaving... but you infused just the right amount of care into your words and gestures for their minds to fill in the blanks for you. This ability to be a chameleon based on whatever you pick up from your environment while being very discretionary with what you're actually thinking and feeling is definitely a quality that can help you this year, especially if you are in an environment where people around you can be less than trustworthy (think competitive work or school environments where there's a blind eye turned to sabotage). You can sit, you can plan, and you can read the room without putting yourself too much at risk for it... Deploy this ability accordingly, and you'll glide through lots of turbulent environments.

Pile 6 - Scream 6  Pt. 1 - What makes you a survivor? (7oP, AoS, 9oS)

My sweet, sweet hard workers and overthinkers, what say you? If you're anything like dear old Sam Carpenter in Scream 6, you're tired of being tired and paranoid as hell. After the big secret about her parentage (good ol' serial killer daddy Billy Loomis) being outed by her murderous boyfriend and her sister's murderous high school classmate (ex?), Sam has been dealing with the repercussions of those events in the age of social media, where everybody has an opinion and will stalk her and her sister from insta posts in minutes. Sam's seriously stepping up into her guardian role and making up for lost time by taking care of her sister and caring for the other survivors of the most recent Woodsboro Massacre, but it's not been easy because she's always constantly paranoid of both another poser Ghostface attack and assholes on the internet who want the Carpenter sisters dead for what Billy and Stu did. Like the movie's setting in the Big Apple, the energy around you, too also feels frenetic, fast-paced, and potentially crowded. It can honestly be a killer combo to navigate all sorts of internal panic and chaotic thoughts while simultaneously fielding a chaotic external environment, too, so I feel like most of y'all need to catch a breather, like Sam. I feel like one of the biggest things about this movie was how much Sam pushed herself into assuming this hyper-vigilant carer role after almost losing everything in the Woodsboro Massacre, and her lack of safe spaces is further exacerbated by being spurned the few times that she does actually try to seek help for herself by going to therapy. And what she found out was that this was a coping mechanism, not actual recovery.

While my pile 6s might not have a Ghostface after them, I do feel like that you are juggling a bunch of things right now and you're trying to keep your effort and attention on not dropping them all. However, I think you are also at least a little aware of what burning the candle out from both ends does, so I'm here to tell you that your greatest personal power is tied to your capacity to sit the fuck down for five minute increments at a time just to stare at the ceiling and empty your mind a bit. Let your shoulders drop, even kick your feet up and blast some music, too if it helps. You don't have to give up your dreams and if you feel like you're working through something important, it probably actually is important. Buuuuut, your body is probably going to be screaming at you for system maintenance sooner rather than later, so really get ahead of the curve here and disengage as often as you possibly can. You're not really resting if you're doing other stuff in the meantime, and you'd be surprised with how much of a difference slowing your pace a little is going to make towards your overall stamina and capacity to keep going. Pace yourself, it's going to be important this year.

Pt. 2- What makes you Ghostface? (10oP, 4oW, 3oC)

I have to say, I had an inkling about which Ghostface you'd best channel.... And I think the cards confirmed my hunches lol. Uniquely, this was the only Scream movie where we had both a cop and an entire family be Ghostface killers, but it's also not about them lol, so much as it is about the impact they had on one particular character. Sam Carpenter has been carrying the shroud of Billy Loomis on her back for most of her life, and had plenty of people accuse her of or actually try to manipulate her into becoming another serial killer exactly like her father, which is what the Bailey family tried... and kind of succeeded at, to their downfall. They dragged out and nearly killed all of her remaining loved ones, challenging her to put on her father's Ghostface costume so they could pin the deaths on her, but when she does, none of them were left alive to say anything at all.