Love and Laughter

/ Twist the Leaf / Leave a comment

Today’s meditation was skipped

•    •    •    ◈    •    🌱    •    ◈    •    •    •

Daily Mental Health Prompt: Seek a positive message to carry with you throughout the day and offer perspective.

The Gay Marseille Tarot - The Empress Card

Today’s draw is The Empress card, which is traditionally a representation of a nurturing energy of strength and empowerment without losing that “softer side” in the process, abundance, fertility, the divine feminine, and Mother Earth.

The Empress has then been combined with an affirmation from the Pass Around The Smile Positive Guidance Cards, which says, “Choose. You choose how you feel, react, and perceive everything in your life. Choose to only see through love and positivity.”

That is, essentially what this Card of the Day exercise is all about. Positivity and optimism. Seeing life through a lighter lens than the one pessimism puts in front of my gaze every single day.

I may not be able to change the glasses entirely to completely see life in another perspective, but I can at least help lighten things a little bit so that enjoying life isn’t quite as much of a struggle.

The message in today’s cards is a reminder that it is love and laughter that provides us with the greatest and healthiest possible positive influences we can tap into. Remember to add these things to your life wherever you can, and it will help you lighten up the darkness just a little bit each day.

DECKS USED: THE GAY MARSEILLE AND PASS AROUND THE SMILE POSITIVE GUIDANCE CARDS

#DiscordTarotholicsMar2026 Challenge
Prompt for March 22nd : Do the Interrobang Spring Spread

Welcome Spring Tarot Reading with the Ronda Tarot

This spread goes from bottom to top. We begin in the underground, with death and decay.

Death/Passage: What died for me in the past season?

Two of Cups – You don’t feel like you’re getting the help, support, and connection that you need from those around you, and you’re not sure if this is because you’re not giving what you need to in order to get what you need, or if something else has somehow changed the flow between you and others which is now hindering things.

Decay/Fertilizer: How does that passage fertilize what comes next?

The Hierophant – It opens up the opportunity for you to examine more closely how things have always been, and consider if you are being too rigid and there are changes that need to be made.

Next, we consider the perennial, and turn our attention to any old growth due to renew.

The Perennial (Rebirth/Renewal): What renews or rekindles for me now?

The Moon – Spring always brings with it a certain level of uncertainty. This is because business slows down at this time of year. Add to that the extra amount of uncertainty currently going on with your business and career path, and it’s no surprise that you are feeling fearful and jumping at shadows at this time.

To Tend & Cultivate: How can I best greet and tend to it?

Two of Swords Rx – It’s not about getting rid of your fear and uncertainty, but rather sitting with it and allowing it to linger so that you can understand it more before making decisions on where to go from here and what actions need to come next.

Finally, we look above ground to consider the annuals, the unplanted seeds, and our garden plans.

The Annual (New Growth/Seed): What do I plant next or start afresh?

Eight of Pentacles – Don’t allow these feelings of uncertainty to cause you to doubt your long-developed skills and abilities. Remember that some things are just simply not within your control, no matter how much you want them to be.

To Plot & Plan: How can I best prepare to make sure that it thrives?

Ace of Pentacles – Try new things, and keep an eye out for opportunities for growth. Remember that the Hierophant (above) said that you may need to shake things up a bit.

DECK USED: RONDA TAROT

@lightningwildflower‘s March Reflection to Action Challenge
Prompts for March 22nd and 23rd

Tarot Reading with The Gay Marseille Tarot

Sun conjunct Neptune: How can I deepen my spiritual or personal practice?

Five of Wands Rx and The Fool – Don’t worry so much about what other people may be saying or thinking. Their opinions have no place or weight in how you do your own practice.

It’s all well and good to listen to their opinions, and take into consideration their beliefs and ideas. Just make sure to forge forth and allow yourself to find your own way, as you always have before.

Context: “Weekend warriors” of the cultural appropriation variety freak me the fuck out.

Spiritual: How can I reconnect with my inner compass and find direction?

Queen of Wands and Knight of Swords – Put enthusiasm into fostering your passion for learning new things. Fall down more rabbit holes, and collect more knowledge.

Other elements included in this reading:
Pressed Pansy Flower for Hearing the Heart More Clearly
Staghorn Sumac for Connecting with Nature and the Wild Within
Carved Jade Japanese Kitsune for fostering Wisdom and Cunning
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: THE GAY MARSEILLE
Daily Self Kindness

I asked Z to sew in an inner pocket into the lining of my jacket (with a zipper) to keep my passport and documents in so that its easier to keep them with me at all times.

Gideon’s Challenge – Scavenger Hunt

/ Twist the Leaf / Leave a comment

Scavenger Hunt

All the
little details
of a time
left behind
create
opportunities
for appreciation
in unexpected
places
like a
scavenger hunt
for artistry
long lost
to years gone by

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

❤️ Self Care Saturday (On a Sunday)

/ Twist the Leaf / Leave a comment

These Saturday readings are (not usually) bearing in on any one thing or event in my life, as the question used is asking for a more general outlook. This is a self care exercise, and is not meant as a predictive reading… although that, too, happens on occasion.

The question is… What do I need to focus for self-care through the week ahead?

Self Care Saturday Oracle Reading with the Таро Оракул Полнолуния

Earth – Idleness – Take care that the moments you spend in idleness are of the healthy variety. If there is something else you could be doing that would make you feel better, you should be doing that instead. Actively make choices this week to do the things that make you feel better, rather than just wallowing in how you feel now.

Air – Fire – In choosing those things that invigorate you and light you up (as suggested in the Earth position of this reading), you create a spark of life that can burn away the mental fog you’ve been experiencing and allow for greater clarity.

Water – Easy – Loosen up. It’s okay to feel your feelings, and it’s okay to let others see you feel your feelings. Even when you can’t explain them or fully understand these emotions yourself, give them room to exist without expectation or requirements.

Fire – The Earth – Practicality is required this week. No pie in the sky expectations allowed.

Waning – Heart and Rider – Remember that allowing your emotions to show is not the same thing as wearing on them on your sleeve for other people to take advantage of. Neither does just allowing yourself to feel your feelings mean that you have to surrender yourself to their control.

Waxing – Sun and Mountain – Use hope and optimism to scale mountains and overcome obstacles. Difficulties are easier to deal with when you confront them from a place of hope and optimism rather than pessimistic dissent.

Take Away – It’s time to get a handle on the languishing habit that you’ve developed. Make choices that lead to feeling better, because what you’re feeling now might be comfortable but isn’t particularly good. Allow your emotions to have a bit of space to just -be- this week, and keep expectations in check.

DECKS USED: ТАРО ОРАКУЛ ПОЛНОЛУНИЯ (Buy Ukrainian!)

Lighting the Way

/ Twist the Leaf / Leave a comment

Today’s meditation was skipped.

•    •    •    ◈    •    🌱    •    ◈    •    •    •

Daily Mental Health Prompt: Seek a positive message to carry with you throughout the day and offer perspective.

Bianco Nero Tarot - The Moon Card and Affirmators! Evening Mantras

Today’s draw is The Moon card, which is traditionally a representation of uncertainty, illusion, anxiety, fear, the unknown, and the subconscious.

The Moon card has been given, combined with an affirmation from the Affirmators! Evening Mantras deck, which says “Focus on the happy, not the crappy.”

Stop allowing your fears to take the lead!

Uncertainty and the unknown have a tendency to start off small and grow quickly until they take over everything else. Pretty soon, those fears are massive and the unknown seems insurmountable.

This is what causes stagnancy, and allows our fears to become the main focus in our lives.

The message in today’s cards is a reminder that the positive aspects in your life have the ability to help light your path when things seem dark and scary. In doing so, it can help you in overcoming your fears, as it keeps those fears from growing. This requires a choice that has to be made again and again, though, to actually focus on those positive aspects and allow them to light your way through the dark.

DECKS USED: BIANCO NERO TAROT AND AFFIRMATORS! EVENING MANTRAS

#DiscordTarotholicsMar2026 Challenge
Prompt for March 21st : Do the Spring Equinox Spread

Spring Equinox Oracle Reading with the Roots and Wings Oracle

Tulips – Loyalty / Forgiveness: Where do I need to practice forgiveness to foster stronger loyalty?

Crafty – Don’t judge so harshly those that have acted in self-serving ways. If these actions weren’t meant to hurt you, but only allow this other person to get ahead in some way, perhaps it’s time to let go of the resentment and unhappiness they had inadvertently caused you.

Robin – Compassion / Patience: How can I give myself more compassion and patience?

Journey – Accept that you still have a long way to go in your journey. There’s still a lot to learn. Stop expecting yourself to already know and understand the lessons life hands you before you’ve even have had a chance to learn them.

Rose Quartz – Unconditional Love: How can I be more open to offering unconditional love to others?

Gratitude – By acknowledging the gratitude that is their due, and expressing gratitude freely.

I’ve run into a number of people that see “gratitude” as a bad word, but in reality, it is simply opening yourself up to acknowledging your good fortune and where that good fortune came from. Appreciation doesn’t carry with it a debt.

Rabbit – Fertility / Abundance: How can I encourage more abundance in my life this Spring?

Bound – Ease up on your tight grip of control and release yourself to be more open both with others and with new experiences. When you hold the reigns so tightly, you end up closing yourself off from “going with the flow”. It’s that “flow” that allows for new experiences, unexpected pleasures, and joyful moments.

Aquamarine – Calm / Courage: What do I need to help me to stay calm and courageous in the face of adversity?

The Sun – Hope and optimism. When you continue with these practices that allow you to foster hope and optimism in your outlook and your day-to-day life, they also provide you with the tools needed confront adversity with a more calm and courageous outlook.

Butterfly – Transformation: What sort of transformation is waiting for me this Spring?

Death – You are going to need to shed some of your past accomplishments in order to move forward into new ones that the future holds for you. Things change… even when you don’t want them to. Letting go creates far less obstacles to growth than trying to hold on so tightly.

Clover – Luck / Protection: Where in life will luck play into protecting me from potential harm?

Inner Vision – Prioritize your intuition over reason and logic. If it comes down to a debate between intuition or reason, lean into your intuition without hesitation. You won’t be sorry.

Other elements included in this reading:
Black Spruce Needles to Boost Self-Confidence and Positive Thinking
Dried Rosebuds for Potential and Beauty Waiting to Unfold
Dried Purple Heather Flowers for Independence and Luck
Clear Quartz for Fostering Greater Mental Clarity
Desert Rose for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: ROOTS AND WINGS ORACLE

@lightningwildflower‘s March Reflection to Action Challenge
Mars trine Jupiter Prompt for March 21st : What risk feels aligned and worth taking?

Tarot Reading with the Bianco Nero Tarot

Reading Summary: Forsake your moments of comfort and contentment (Nine of Cups Rx) to go after (Six of Swords) something greater (Ten of Pentacles).

Take Away: Bed rotting and stagnancy may feel “good” in a very temporary sense, but they are getting you stuck in a rut that does nothing for your movement on your path and your future outlook.

Instead, take the risk of getting going on doing something about this unhealthy tendency, so that you can revitalize your movement towards a better future and further progress on your path.

That means if you’re going to lie down for a nap, you take a nap, not spend the time fucking around on your phone. It means disposing with the temptation to doomscroll instead of meditate. All of these small negative influences hiding behind the ruse of “comfort” and “relaxation” are not getting you anywhere.

Other elements included in this reading:
Scotch Pine Cone for Purging Negative Influences
Foraged Oak Branch with Moss and Lichen for Perseverance
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: BIANCO NERO TAROT
Daily Self Kindness

I took a break earlier to do a little play time with Miss Luna.

Gideon’s Challenge – On Fire

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment
Sunrise on Fire

On Fire

Set aside
your worries
as the day
dawns bright
and step out
into the
cool kiss
of morning dew
to witness
the world
on fire

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

A Little Morning Stability

/ Twist the Leaf / Leave a comment

Today’s meditation was skipped.

•    •    •    ◈    •    🌱    •    ◈    •    •    •

Daily Mental Health Prompt: Seek a positive message to carry with you throughout the day and offer perspective.

The Re-Ection of Tarot - Queen of Pentacles

Today’s draw is the Queen of Pentacles, which is traditionally a representation of a receptive alpha energy, personality, or person in the area of one’s resources, financial stability, health, home, labors, manifestations, or other aspects of the physical realm. This often translates into a supportive or nurturing energy or entity in the areas of one’s health, home, and financial responsibilities.

The Queen of Pentacles has then been combined with an affirmation from the Affirmators! Morning Mantras deck, which says, “I radiate patience like a GD guru. (Mostly because I’m too exhausted this morning for tantrums)”

(I am embarrassed to confess I had to go look up what “GD” means to figure out it means goddamn. Bless those who put this type of information out there on the internet for old farts like me.)

My mornings are… well, pretty much identical from one day to the next. I wake up in pain, I get dressed, I eat and feed Miss Luna. I race to work. I work. I come home and shower and eat again. I do my physio/yoga and meditate. I do readings (for myself and for my clients). I eat again. From there? The day splinters off into different things depending on what’s needed or what’s scheduled from driving a few hours to go visit an elderly friend (or cross the Canadian border) to doing a shift or two at other jobs I hold down, to working on my business at home, etc. The mornings though? They all start off the same.

I don’t have time to be an ass. I don’t have time to be grumpy. I don’t have the energy to waste time on anything, which includes being unable to check my phone. And oddly? I like this stability and sameness. I’m not sure I could handle it in my entire day, but starting my day off with a stable daily routine helps me feel like each day is a little less chaotic.

The message in today’s cards asks us to consider what we might change or add to our lives to foster a greater sense of stability in our day to day? Maybe not checking the phone until you’re out of bed, or setting up a specific morning routine. Perhaps just stepping out on the balcony each morning for a breath of fresh air and a sip of tea or coffee. What might make your mornings a little better each day? And, in doing them each day, have the effect of encouraging your day to feel a bit better as well.

DECKS USED: THE RE-ECTION OF TAROT DECK AND AFFIRMATORS! MORNING MANTRAS

#DiscordTarotholicsMar2026 Challenge
Prompts for March 19th and 20th

Tarot Reading with Luna's Little Twin Stars Tarot and The Purring Prophet Oracle

What good is ready to come into bloom in your life with the approach of Spring?

The Hanged Man and Window Bird – You will be given the opportunity to slip back into a mental space where you can more easily understand the perspectives of others.

Sometimes when things are feeling chaotic, you have a tendency to step back from your observation of others and your efforts to understand what lies beyond yourself. These are moments in which you temporarily lose an important part of yourself.

The peace and pause that is coming your way will allow you to reclaim this part of yourself once more, giving you the space necessary to begin reaching for that greater sense of understanding your pursuit of alternate perspectives provides.

What can you do to encourage the arrival of this good?

Eight of Wands Rx and The Camera – Go slow and use these moments of slowness to ensure that you’re doing what you want, instead of simply performing for others wants and desires.

Others may take your slowing down as an opportunity for them to monopolize more of your time. Make sure that you have boundaries in place that will not allow this to happen. Your time and attention is your own… it does not belong to them to do with as they wish.

Other elements included in this reading:
Staghorn Sumac for Connecting with Nature and the Wild Within
Pressed Pansy Flower for Hearing the Heart More Clearly
Rose Quartz for Gentle Kindness to Self and Others
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: LUNA’S LITTLE TWIN STARS TAROT AND THE PURRING PROPHET ORACLE

@lightningwildflower‘s March Reflection to Action Challenge
Sun Enters Aries, Mercury Direct Prompt for March 20th : What decision am I ready to make?

Tarot Reading with The Re-Ection of Tarot

Reading Summary: To actively move forward (Knight of Wands) into a more self-serving mindset that leaves behind (Seven of Swords) your defensive feelings (Nine of Wands beneath Ace of Cups).

Take Away: The feelings from last fall in the “being picked on” variety have been hard to shake off as things continue to not go in the direction that you want them to. Part of the reason for this is because you are not being self-serving enough in your actions to resolve the problem.

Instead of hanging back and allowing your defensive emotions to take the wheel, it’s time to step forward and act in your best interests.

Set aside what isn’t working anymore, and move forward in the direction of your wants and needs with a selfish intensity.

Other elements included in this reading:
Black Spruce Needles to Boost Self-Confidence and Positive Thinking
Dried Purple Heather Flowers for Independence and Luck
Raku Bear Medallion for Protection and Stalwartness
Calcite for Gently Calming the Mind and Stimulating Insights
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: THE RE-ECTION OF TAROT DECK
Daily Self Kindness

I was in desperate need of a nap, and took one today instead of fighting it as I normally would.