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I wanted to share a little story from a reading I did recently (with permission, of course, and with all the names and details changed to protect privacy). Sometimes, seeing how the cards work in a real-life situation is way more powerful than just reading about card meanings.

So, let's talk about breakups.

They are the absolute worst, right? It’s not just the sadness; it’s the confusion. You can get stuck in this loop, replaying conversations, wondering what you could have done differently, questioning if it was the right decision. It’s like being lost in a fog.

A lovely soul, we'll call her Clara, came to me in the middle of that fog. She was a few weeks out from a really painful breakup and felt completely stuck. She didn't want to ask, "Will we get back together?" (which is always a tricky question for the cards anyway). Instead, she asked something much more powerful:

"What do I need to understand about this situation to help me move forward?"

I loved that question. It’s about seeking clarity, not a prediction. So, we pulled three cards: The Situation, The Obstacle, and The Advice.

And wow, the cards did not pull any punches.

The Situation: Ten of Swords

The first card was the Ten of Swords. This is the ultimate "oof" card. It shows a figure lying face down with ten swords in their back. It’s dramatic, it’s intense, and it’s completely final. My first job here was to hold space for Clara and validate her pain. This card was saying, "Yes, this feels as bad as you think it does. This is not a minor setback; this is a true, painful ending." There’s no ambiguity here. It’s not "maybe," it's "over." For Clara, seeing this card was weirdly a relief. It confirmed that her grief was justified and that she wasn't being dramatic. It gave her permission to stop looking for a way to fix it. The story was over.

The Obstacle: The Moon - Reversed

This is where it got really interesting. The obstacle, the thing keeping her stuck, was The Moon, Reversed. Upright, The Moon is the card of illusions, confusion, and fear—the very fog she was in. When it’s reversed, it means the illusions are starting to fade. The secrets are coming to light, and clarity is beginning to dawn. So, wait, if clarity is returning, how is that an obstacle?

Because sometimes, clarity is terrifying.

The fog of "what if" and "maybe" can be a strangely comfortable place to hide. It allows you to avoid the sharp, cold, undeniable truth. Her obstacle was a subconscious resistance to seeing the situation clearly, because the truth meant accepting the finality of the Ten of Swords. She was clinging to the confusion because the clarity was too painful to face.

The Advice: Knight of Swords

And what was the universe’s advice for how to move forward? My guy. The Knight of Swords. This Knight is my absolute favorite. He is not a feeler; he is a thinker. He charges forward on his powerful horse, sword held high, ready to cut through nonsense with the speed of thought. He is about radical honesty, decisive action, and forward momentum.

The advice was crystal clear: Be the Knight.

The time for lying on the ground (Ten of Swords) is over. The time for hiding in the fog of confusion (The Moon Reversed) is over. The advice was to take the sharp, clear truth, get on your horse, and ride. This Knight doesn't look back. He doesn't second-guess. He moves forward with the power of his convictions. It was a call to action—to make a clean break, to cut ties, to stop replaying the past, and to charge ahead into her future, armed with the truth she now understood.

The Clarity

Seeing these cards together created a huge "aha!" moment for Clara. She realized she had been clinging to a fantasy, and that the confusion was a self-preservation tactic to avoid the pain of the truth. The cards didn't tell her anything she didn't already know deep down, but they laid it all out on the table in a way she couldn't ignore.

It gave her permission to stop feeling and to start thinking her way out of the loop. It validated her pain while simultaneously handing her the sword she needed to free herself.

A Collective Tarot Reading for October

Hey everyone, it’s Grace. Autumn is officially here, and for me, that always feels like the universe is giving us permission to slow down, get cozy, and turn inward a little. It’s the season of pumpkin-spiced everything, comfy sweaters, and my annual re-watch of the entire Buffy series (okay FINE I do it more than annually). It’s a time of transition, and the cards I pulled for our collective energy this October are reflecting that mood perfectly.

So, I shuffled my new Synesthesia deck, which is a whole trip, and asked what we all need to know for the month ahead. And wow, the cards told a story. We got the Eight of Cups, The Hermit, and the Queen of Swords.

Let's dive in.

The Main Energy: Eight of Cups

The main theme for October, the big energy we’re all swimming in, is the Eight of Cups. Picture this: a figure is walking away under the light of the moon, leaving behind eight perfectly stacked cups. The thing is, the cups aren't knocked over. There's no big drama here. This is the energy of consciously and quietly walking away from something that is no longer emotionally fulfilling. This isn’t about a dramatic exit or a big fight. It’s the quiet, personal realization that, "This isn't it for me anymore." The cups represent what you’ve built (a job, a relationship, a belief system) and on the surface, it might look perfectly fine to everyone else. But you know, deep in your soul, that there’s a missing cup, an emotional fulfillment that you just aren’t getting.

This October is asking us to be honest about what isn’t filling our cups. It's that feeling when you've been playing a game for hundreds of hours, and you log in one day and realize the magic is just... gone. You've completed all the quests you care about, and even though the game is still there, your heart is ready for a new adventure. This month, many of us will be feeling that call to leave something behind. It takes a huge amount of courage to walk away from the "known" and into the "unknown," but this card assures us that we are moving toward a more authentic emotional landscape.

The Challenge/Invitation: The Hermit

So, where are we walking to? Well, the Eight of Cups journey leads us directly to the path of The Hermit. This is our challenge for the month, but I like to think of it more as an invitation. The Hermit is a wise, solitary figure standing on a mountaintop, holding a lantern containing a single star. He has deliberately withdrawn from the noise and chatter of the everyday world to go on a quest for inner wisdom. This month is calling us to do the same. After you walk away from what is no longer serving you, there will be a space, a quiet. The challenge is to not immediately fill that silence with distractions.

The invitation is to embrace solitude. It's a call to log off, put the phone down, and just be with your own thoughts. It’s like a single-player story expansion after a long multiplayer raid season. It's just you and your own inner world. The Hermit’s lantern symbolizes our own inner wisdom. This month, we're being asked to be our own guide, to listen to our own intuition, and to find the answers not from external sources, but from the quiet light that is already shining within us. It can feel a little lonely, but this is sacred, necessary work. This is where we process, heal, and find our own truth.

The Advice/Outcome: Queen of Swords

And what is the result of all this soul-searching? We have the potential to emerge as the magnificent Queen of Swords. She is the advice and the outcome for this month. This Queen is the embodiment of clarity, truth, and healthy boundaries. She sits on her throne, sword held high, with a look of sharp, clear-eyed wisdom. She has been through some things, and she has learned from them. She is no longer swayed by emotional drama or clouded by wishful thinking. She sees things exactly as they are, and she speaks her truth with precision and honesty.

After the emotional journey of the Eight of Cups and the introspective quest of The Hermit, you will gain incredible clarity. The advice here is to embody this Queen. Use your intellect and your experience to cut through any remaining confusion. Set firm, healthy boundaries that protect your peace. Communicate your needs and your truths clearly and without apology. The potential outcome of this month’s journey is that you will integrate this powerful energy into your being. You’ll feel more independent, more clear-headed, and more in command of your own life than you have in a long time. She is the version of you that has befriended her own mind and uses it as a tool for liberation.

So, this October is a powerful journey inward. It's about having the courage to leave the familiar behind, the wisdom to seek answers within, and the strength to emerge with unshakable clarity.

If you're curious about the new deck, I'm doing a little series over on my TikTok on how I am breaking down the calling cards & interviewing the deck. If you want to buy your own copy of this deck, it's linked when it's first mentioned

let's talk about something i have pop up in my life pretty often: what's the difference between a tarot deck and an oracle deck? is one better? do you have to choose a side like it's the console wars?

the short answer is: they're both awesome, and no, you absolutely do not have to choose a side. but they are different tools, designed to run different kinds of programs, they garner different types of conversations. let's break it down.

// Tarot: The Operating System

Think of a Tarot deck as a full-on operating system, like Windows or macOS. It has a very specific, consistent structure. You always get 78 cards, broken down into:

22 Major Arcana (the main questline)

56 Minor Arcana (the side quests)

The Minors are then broken into four suits (Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles), which are like your core system resources.

This structure is its greatest strength. It's a complete, complex system designed for deep, granular diagnostics. When you want to analyze a situation from multiple angles (eg. the root cause, the challenge, the subconscious influence, the path forward) the tarot's framework is an incredible tool. It’s like having a full developer's suite for your life.

// Oracle: The Standalone App

Oracle decks, on the other hand, are like a collection of brilliant, standalone apps. They don't have a shared structure. An oracle deck can have 30 cards, 50 cards, or 100 cards. There are no suits, no Major or Minor Arcana. Each deck is its own unique universe, built from the ground up by its creator.

One deck might be about animal spirits, another about moon phases, another might have affirmations. The freedom is the point. An oracle deck is designed to do one thing really well: deliver a powerful, thematic, and often very direct message. It's less of a full diagnostic and more of a potent, targeted piece of advice or a spiritual weather report.

// Which is Better?

That's kind of like asking if a strategy guide is better than a lore book for a video game. They're different tools for different quests!

I’ve got friends who are hardcore tarot readers who live and breathe the RWS system. I've also got friends who create the most beautiful, insightful readings with oracle cards alone- in particular, a friend I have read for me often comes to mind. And I have friends (like me!) who are happily multi-platform.

Seriously, don't let anyone gatekeep you. You don't have to be Team Tarot or Team Oracle. You can be both. It's not a competition; it's about building your personal toolkit.

// Different Tools, Different Conversations

The most important thing to know is that they foster totally different kinds of conversations with your intuition.

I go to my Tarot deck when I want to debug a complex problem. "What are the specific, intersecting energies at play in my career right now, and what is a step-by-step path forward?" It gives me a detailed schematic.

I go to my Oracle deck when I want a high-level theme or a spiritual check-in. "What is the primary energy I need to embody for my highest good this week?" It gives me a gorgeous piece of concept art to inspire me.

Sometimes I even use them together, pulling a tarot spread and then using an oracle card as the "main theme" or final piece of advice.

So yeah, explore both! See which system resonates with you. Maybe you love the structured logic of tarot, or maybe you prefer the poetic freedom of oracle. Maybe, like a lot of us, you find that having both in your toolkit makes you the most effective developer for your own life.

Ancestral Garden: From Trauma to Green Witch Power! Could the long-forgotten seeds in a garden hold the key to unlocking generations of hidden wounds... and ignite a powerful magic within you? Today, I'm sharing how uncovering my ancestor's garden became a profound journey into understanding her trauma and blossoming into my own path as a green witch. Stay tuned to explore plant symbolism, historical context, and the noteworthy power it unleashed in me! If you enjoy this, please like and subscribe for more witchy wisdom! Have you ever wondered if your family's history is etched into the very soil beneath your feet? I dug deep into my ancestor's garden and unearthed a hidden narrative of trauma and resilience that ultimately unlocked my pote

So the other day I came home from work, and I’m pulling my tips out of my pockets so that I can change into my pajamas for the evening. Its then that I feel suddenly compelled to put the $5 into the offering bowl on not mine, but my wife’s altar. (I follow the celtic pantheon, she the egyptian). So I toss it up there and take off my pants before I think: Since when do I put money in an offering bowl without contemplating the reasons behind it. I take it back out and glance at the bowl suspiciously.

It is at this moment I get the strong sense that someone would like me to offer them the five bucks. Knowing a bit about shady spirits or deities with whom I may not want to associate, I say, “I don’t offer anything to anyone unknown.” It was then I did a tarot draw, asking who this entity was and why the hell they need my $5.

The reading was The Page of Cups, Death, Ace of Swords with a bonus card (stuck to the ace) of the 7 of cups. To me the reading wasn’t very clear and the 7 of cups made me feel as though the entity was either lying or withholding information. I declined to offer. I also had my wife pull a three card draw (in case my deck wasn’t clear enough or whatever) and from her oracle deck she pulled: Resistance, Gift, and Sleep. I suspect whomever was resistant to answer the question twice, wanted the gift and that I should sleep on it. Cue 3 nights of stress dreams.

The first two were about my Exes. That’s fine, I’ve had a fair amount of emotional trauma from them so I assumed it was just that part of my life being processed by my brain. The last dream was work-ish related where I picked up a second job (in addition to my full time regular one) in which I was working in a fast food restaraunt whose main export was churros. Delicious right?

Well it was my first day. And I was alone. And I didn’t know how to make a churro. Nor work the register. Eventually crew members sauntered in to help, thank god.So I was shown how to use the register and how to make churros by a baffled team who couldn’t understand how I didn’t get trained.

Then I take a customers order.

The man has brilliant light blue eyes like the sky, a dusting of a silvery beard over his cheeks and jaw, a cute button nose with pink cheeks and a horse shoe ring of short but wild white hair around his head. The man proceeds to tell me with the most intense unblinking stare he can give than he doesn’t have a lot of money but he REALLY needs, and I quote, “This kind of meal right now.” I ask him how much money he has. You guessed it.

He has 5 dollars.

In the dream I don’t think anything of it and leave a co-worker to figure out how to find him a combo meal for $5 while I cook it up. Except the flat top isn’t in. Fine I’ll use the grill. Throw meat on grill. Come back and its covered in gooey black melty crap. Someone had left ALL the black plastic utensils ON TOP OF THE GRILL. It was a hot mess. I don’t know how to clean up melted plastic off a grill. And all the while, 5 bucks is waiting for his meal. Then I wake up.

So witchy tumblr, I need to know. WHO THE FUCK IS $5?

If it helps I’ve been searching for a deity to add to my main worship that deals with the dead specifically. I don’t know if this is one who does or one who is taking advantage of the knowledge that I’m looking.