Missing Flawed Trend

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Today’s meditation was skipped.

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

Erenberg Tarot's Eight of Swords and a card from the Art From the Heart Affirmation Cards

Today’s draw is the Eight of Swords, which is traditionally a representation of willful ignorance, self-imposed restrictions, turning a blind eye (especially when it can be harmful to self), and entertaining a victim mentality.

The Eight of Swords has then been combined with a card from the Art From the Heart Affirmation Cards, which says, “I have control over my perceptions, decisions, and actions. When you consciously choose to fill your day with the highest priority actions – those that truly matter to you – you created deeply meaningful and inspiring life.”

Sometimes it’s difficult to open ourselves up to our own faults and flaws. We lash out at others without realizing having done so, we allow snark to get in the way of genuine conversation, etc. These things happen. It’s a part of being human.

Stress, anxiety, or a hyper focus on a particular thing or theme can blind us to unhealthy ways of dealing that can leave us (and those around us) floundering instead of coping.

This is why it’s important to work at looking outside yourself and your own perceptions to enlist a greater perspective. In doing so, we are given the opportunity to adjust our approach into something more caring, kind, and open. The key is in wanting to do this, though, instead of falling back on unhealthy defense mechanisms.

The message in today’s Eight of Swords and affirmation card is a reminder that it’s important to open our eyes and look honestly at how we are treating ourselves and others. Are we leaning into abusive self defensive maneuvers? If so, it’s time to be honest about that and seek a better way do deal.

DECKS USED:  ERENBERG TAROT AND ART FROM THE HEART AFFIRMATION CARDS

@lightningildflower‘s August Reflections Challenge
Venus opposite Saturn
Prompt for August 21st : How can I honor both desire and responsibility?

Oracle Reading with the Runs of Sea and Sand Deck

Reading Summary: Don’t waffle (Haste) when asked to make a decision (The Boat), go with your gut (The Deep).

Take Away: Your intuition always knows. Think of how many times you’ve followed your gut and it’s been right… and how many times you’ve -not- followed your gut and looked back later to realize that you absolutely should have in the first place.

If you catch the whispers of your intuition when they speak deep inside you, it will tell you which direction to turn. The key, is in the fact that this guidance comes in a whisper. You have to listen for it.

Let that quiet intuitive voice be your guide, and take care not to allow logic and reason (or fears and uncertainty) to step in and usurp its position in the lead.

Other elements included in this reading:
Conch Shell Knots for Concentration, Clarity, and Determination
Great Scallop Shell for the Flowing with Beginnings and Endings
Cowrie Shell to Connect with Wealth and Fertility
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: RUNES OF SAND AND SEA DECK

#DiscordTarotholicsAug2026 Challenge
Prompt for August 22nd : Where in life do I need to be serious and buckle down?

Tarot Reading with the Erenberg Tarot

Reading Summary: Lean into those things that you have excelled at and still have more room to advance (Eight of Pentacles). This isn’t about winning or losing (Five of Swords Rx), nor about doing things the way they’ve always been done (The Hierophant Rx).

Take Away: It is in creating and sharing your artistry that you truly excel. These cards indicate it’s time to look beyond the ways you have heretofore been going after this pursuit, and to stop looking at it as a pass or fail endeavor.

Work at viewing your creativity an adventure and an exploration, for it needs to be treated as such. Dive in with the excitement of exploring something new and letting your curiosity run rampant, instead of tripping over feelings of obligation or responsibility.

Just because you make money through your creative spark doesn’t mean it has to feel like a chore.

Other elements included in this reading:
Dried Cedar Bundle for Protection from Negative Influences
Green Calcite for Finding Balance Within the Self
Citrine for Energy Lift (easing the weight of heavy energies)
Carnelian Agate Mushroom for Focusing On Aspirations
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: ERENBERG TAROT
Daily Self Kindness

I’m putting extra effort and mindfulness into tempering my negative inner narrative, especially in reference to how it starts to reflect how I see the world around me and those in it.

Gideon’s Challenge – Seeking Peace

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Silverdale Waterfront Park and Pier

Seeking Peace

if I slip beneath
the surface
don’t worry
that it’s too cold
or that I float
still and lifeless
in the limbo
of water’s hold
for I’m just
pretending
the reaper
has come to
say hello
and revisiting
a moment
of peace
remembered
and then let go

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

To Unburden the Soul

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Today’s meditation was a ten minute #DailyCalm session from the @Calm.

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

Wheel of the Year Tarot - Nine of Swords and The Healing Mantra Deck

Today’s draw is the Ten of Swords, which is traditionally a representation long journeys coming to an end, painful endings, lessons learned the hard way, deep wounds, and sometimes can indicate loss or betrayal.

The Ten of Swords has then been combined with Sharing Shame card from The Healing Mantra Deck, which says, “When I share my deepest pain, I give myself permission to be.”

Sometimes, when we trip over one of our own triggers, or someone else trips them for us, it can feel like the end of the world.

Yesterday I had that experience for myself when my closest friend spoke words to me that echoed the insidious negative self talk that has whispered in my head for decades.

He did not use these words in the same context as that narrative in my head, and yet because I’ve heard that narrative all day every day for years on end, when the words came out his mouth, I immediately heard them in the same context as that narrative.

As a result, even though we talked things out after my panic subsided from this experience, I spent the rest of the day quietly bleeding on the inside while pretending I was fine.

It wasn’t until I got home and could be alone that I allowed myself to cry, but even then it wasn’t until I shared with someone (Gideon) what was going on in my head and what I was feeling that I started to feel as if I was becoming a bit more steady.

And here’s where the message in today’s Ten of Swords and affirmation card come into focus. Sometimes when you’re hurting, keeping that pain to yourself only prolongs the hurt and uncertainty. Am I magically all better now that I’ve talked out what was going on in my head with someone? No, I admit that I’m not; but it does help. It helps to share, even when we don’t want to and would prefer to just crawl up in a corner alone somewhere to lick our wounds.

DECKS USED:  WHEEL OF THE YEAR TAROT AND THE HEALING MANTRA DECK

@note.project August Journal Prompts
Prompts for August 19th through 21st

Cartomancy Reading with Yoga The Spiritual Liberation Playing Cards and Vicious Garden Game Cards

Something I want to make more space for in my everyday life

Bloomeria, Nine of Spades (Rubber Plant), Clotted Murff

Strength training, hiking, and other activities that push at your current limits.

You want to participate in more of the activities that foster physical stability, aware that in doing so you give your body a chance to feel better and flourish, and also ease some of your gut health problems in the process.

Fear and uncertainty hold you back, as well as your unwillingness to work through the additional pain involved.

Something I want to spend less energy on

Two of Spades (Snake Plant) atop Two of Diamonds (Gerbera Plant), Wumplebud

You want to spend less of your energy waffling in indecision to the point that that indecisiveness begins to upset the balance of everything in your life.

Indecision spreads and overpowers one segment of life at a time. It starts off small, and grows so quickly and easily that it begins choking out the good stuff in your life in no time flat.

A boundary that supports my well-being

Three of Hearts (Poinsettia Plant), Scuttlebloom

Take care you are not bending over backward just to please others. Groveling for their attention and good favor is not healthy for you or them.

Remember that it’s possible to course correct with dignity, instead of by debasing yourself or your values.

Other elements included in this reading:
Pressed Pansy Flowers for Hearing the Heart More Clearly
Dried Red Maple Leaf for Adaptability and Connection
Gneiss Stone for Patience in Moments of Discomfort
Carved Rhyolite Leaf for Facilitating Calm Transitions
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: YOGA THE SPIRITUAL LIBERATION PLAYING CARDS AND PLANTS DECK FROM THE VICIOUS GARDENS BOARD GAME

@lightningildflower‘s August Reflections Challenge
Steadiness Prompt for August 20th : What does steady progress look like for me?

Tarot Reading with the Wheel of the Year Tarot

Reading Summary: A little uncertainty and discomfort (The Moon) while still being in tune with what’s right for you (The Lovers). Focusing less on what feels good (Knight of Cups Rx), and more on what feels right (The Lovers).

Take Away: Steady progress means slowing down in order to become more in tune with what truly aligns with who I am and who I want to become, instead of allowing uncertainty and discomfort to cause me to halt, or the temptations of pleasure to tempt me into charging forward without a clear direction.

Sometimes it’s hard to accept that what -feels- good isn’t always what’s right for us. This is true with activities, with people and relationships, and with the choices we’re confronted with every day.

It’s only in slowing down that we are able to feel our way through what is right for us… and what isn’t.

Other elements included in this reading:
English Elm Seeds to Encourage Flexibility During Growth
Cave Aragonite Stalactite for Fostering Tolerance and Understanding
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: WHEEL OF THE YEAR TAROT
Daily Self Kindness

I talked to J today about how the words he said yesterday hurt me.

Gideon’s Challenge – Frustrated

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Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)

Frustrated

When no amount
of product
can make
the fly aways
calm
the corkscrews
relax
the cowlicks
settle
it becomes
a challenge
to not pull out
the razor
and start
shearing
it all off

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

The Ride Along

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Today’s meditation was a ten minute #DailyCalm session from the @Calm app.

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

Star Power Tarot - The Lovers

Today’s draw is The Lovers card, which is traditionally a representation of love and relationships, long term contracts, harmonious unions, and making choices that are geared toward what is best for you.

The Lovers card has then been combined with a card from the In This Moment Mindfulness Affirmation Cards, which says, “In this moment, I flow with life and let go of control.”

Every day we make choices in what we engage in, and what we choose not to engage in. Sometimes those choices are good ones… and sometimes not so good.

Usually, the not so good choices in this area, come about because we let our emotions or the demands and expectations of others take over our decision-making process, and during times when others are making decisions or pushing expectations upon us that do not align with our authentic selves or our desires on who we wish to become.

The message in today’s Lovers card and affirmation are a reminder that it’s okay to let go of control once in a while. Just make sure that when you do, that it’s during time when you can continue to float for a time along the path you’ve chosen for yourself, and not get pulled off course.

DECKS USED:  STAR POWER TAROT AND IN THIS MOMENT MINDFULNESS AFFIRMATION CARDS

#DiscordTarotholicsAug2026 Challenge
Prompts for August 19th through 21st

Tarot Reading with the Unofficial Shel Silverstein Tarot and Strange & Eerie Cryptid Creatures Oracle

Philosophical Question: Can we understand good without evil?

Ten of Cups Rx and Hugag

No. Like many things in life, humanity has trouble understanding certain concepts without something in opposition to compare it to.

This doesn’t mean that there can’t be good without evil, though, only that we cannot understand one of these concepts fully without being able to make a comparison to the other.

As an adult, where am I neglecting myself at this time?

Ten of Wands and Tsmok

You are putting too much pressure and unreasonable expectation upon yourself instead of doing what comes naturally to you. In doing so, you are neglecting needs that have been with you throughout your entire life and you know are necessary to be healthy and happy.

Stop trying to juggle and put the burdens down now and then so that you can get the time in nature that you need

How can I begin to resolve this pattern of neglect?

Death and Yowie

Stop ignoring your needs to get out and nature among the trees and connect with the soil and roots. Ignoring these needs will not make them go away or fade. It just makes being able to fulfill them seem more illusive.

Other elements included in this reading:
Staghorn Sumac for Connecting with Nature and the Wild Within
Foraged Parmeliaceae Lichen for a “Breath of Fresh Air”
Dried Cedar Bundle for Protection from Negative Influences
Conch Shell Knot for Concentration and Clarity
Green Aventurine for Harmony and Balance of the Heart
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: THE UNOFFICIAL SHEL SILVERSTEIN TAROT AND STRANGE & EERIE CRYPTID CREATURES ORACLE

@lightningildflower‘s August Reflections Challenge
Awakening Prompt for August 19th : What part of me feels more awake or aware today?

Tarot Reading with the Star Power Tarot

Reading Summary: The judgy bitch (Judgment and Empress Rx) and the problem solver (Magician) that insists the old ways are the best ways (The Hierophant).

Take Away: Why break the wheel? If it’s not broken, why fix it?

The above was written this morning when I first pulled these cards. Indeed, the judgy bitch and problem solver were both very much awake and aware today.

Conflict happened due to the former, and was resolved (I hope) because of the latter. Things were broken that I didn’t realize were broken… things need fixing that I hadn’t realized needed fixing.

Now, the judgy bitch is living in my head picking me apart, and the Empress Rx is a reminder that I can allow my negative inner narratives to bleed me dry on these words spoken that were not meant in the way they were heard and taken… or I can be kind to myself and try to let it go.

Other elements included in this reading:
Staghorn Sumac for Connecting with Nature and the Wild Within
Conch Shell Knot for Concentration and Clarity
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: STAR POWER TAROT
Daily Self Kindness

When I got home and could have some time to myself (with Gideon), I bawled my eyes out concerning something someone said that severely tripped my triggers earlier today.

🎨 Weekly Creativity Prompt – Fragile Things

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Prompt: “Pull at least three cards and use them as the foundation to tell us about the life of a very delicate or fragile object or person.”

Creative Writing with the Wayhome Tarot

The dandelion tuft stands tall in the grass,
(The Fool)

proud of its lions mane of white
(Six of Wands)

A soft breeze tussling it’s delicate fibers
(Temperance)

until a stronger one makes them take flight
(Three of Wands)

And the now bereft head watches with a sigh
(Death)

as its seedlings float away out of sight
(Ace of Pentacles)

DECK USED: WAYHOME TAROT