Emotional Subjectivity

Today’s meditation was eight minutes of ten minute long #DailyCalm session from the @Calm app. (I got interrupted.)

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Maroon Tarot - Four of Cups

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

Today’s draw is the Four of Cups, which is traditionally a representation of dejection, refusal of assistance, contemplative moments, meditation, and feelings of apathy.

The Four of Cups is then joined by the “Abduction of Psyche” card from the Because Art Heals deck, which says, “Grief is the echo of love’s intensity. My grief is love enduring.”

You’re allowed to be sad. It’s okay if others can’t relate to your pain or experience; that doesn’t make it any less valid or any less yours.

Just as everyone grieves differently, so too do people process their emotions differently… and I’d venture to say even experience them differently.

I have an elderly friend that lost her husband of 40 years just a few years ago. She often comments on how it seems like other widows have “gotten over” their loss far easier than she is, and worries that bringing up her husband “too much” will be seen as annoying or uncomfortable. (In my opinion? It keeps his memory alive.)

Today’s cards are a reminder that we all experience our emotions differently, even when we share common ground with others. There’s no set time-limit on how long you love someone or how long you mourn their loss. We all have to take these things at our own pace… and that’s perfectly okay.

DECKS USED: MAROON TAROT AND BECAUSE ART HEALS

@ambitiouslyalexa’s February Journal Prompts
Prompt for February 25th
: What connection looks like for me

Tarot Reading with The Magical Realism Tarot

Reading Summary – New opportunities (Ace of Pentacles) to get to know others and integrate them into your life (Two of Pentacles) in healthy ways through mutual interests (The Lovers).

Take Away – At first glance, this looks very self serving. As if meeting others is simply opportunities to use them. That’s definitely true in some cases, especially in a work environment.

The Lovers card, though, turns this into an opportunity not to -use- others, but to find a good fit with others for companionship and mutual benefit.

That means that although you see connection as opportunity, it’s not just one-sided and you don’t expect it to be. Instead, you seek connections where both benefit equally in a balanced way.

Other elements included in this reading:
Deodar Cedar Cones for Fostering Clarity and Spiritual Connection
Foraged Oak Branch with Moss and Lichen for Perseverance
Foraged Acorn for Protection during New Beginnings
Carved Rhyolite Leaf for Facilitating Calm Transitions
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: MAGICAL REALISM TAROT

#DiscordTarotholicsFeb2026 Challenge
Philosophical Prompts for February 25th
:

Tarot Reading with the Maroon Tarot

What is love? 

Nine of Wands and Wheel of Fortune – Love is knowing what it is you truly value, and the willingness to protect and defend it no matter what comes.

You can’t protect what you don’t acknowledge. Love requires acknowledgement first of all. In acknowledging it, you acknowledge its importance to you. This allows love to be more than an idea and become something solid and real. (as per these cards, of course)

Is love ever logical?

Four of Cups and Page of Cups – These cards indicate that love is an emotion, and like all of emotions, it’s not based in logic.

You can instill logic upon it to help better understand it, but it is an entity all its own independent of reason and logic.

Other elements included in this reading:
Foraged Purple Heather Sprigs for Independence and Luck
Foraged Ponderosa Pine Cone for Resilience and Adaptability
Labradorite for a Focus on Mental and Emotional Healing
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: MAROON TAROT
Daily Self Kindness

This is a catch up post, and I’m not entirely sure what the self kindness was for this day.

Gideon’s Challenge – Eager Beginnings

Daffodil Sprouts

Eager Beginnings

Crisp air
and a bit of chill
brush against
the skin
as the
newly sprouted
reach up
to break through
soil
long frozen
in green tips
that offer hope
of colorful blooms
soon to come

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

Conceptualizing Stability

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.

Manga University's Manga Tarot - Queen of Coins and Love Affirmations

Today’s draw is the Queen of Coins, 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 Coins has then been combined with the “Intimacy” card from the Love Affirmations deck, which says, “In the warmth of our closeness, I find a sanctuary.”

These cards bring up whether or not the stability we seek really lies in more money or a long-term career. It brings up the idea that perhaps we are looking for stability in the wrong place.

Maybe it’s not about something we build through monetary wealth or contracts, nor something we do on your own. Rather, perhaps stability is about the connections we make, the people you invite into our lives, and the love we foster there.

In this case, you could be wealthy and established… and still feel scarcity on a soul deep level. That scarcity could continue to drive you forward to achieve more and more, but yet never manage to slack that feeling inside in the process because we are focused on the wrong goals in an effort to do so.

The message in today’s cards asks us to look at stability through a different lens. One that has nothing to do with wealth, contracts, work, or successes in these areas, and rather through the lens of who we allow into our lives and the stability those people help us to create.

DECKS USED: MANGA UNIVERSITY’S MANGA TAROT AND BECAUSE ART HEALS CARDS

@de_tarotjuf’s Love Is All We Need Challenge
#detarotjuffebruaritarotchallenge

Prompt for February 24th : How can I soften the storms that come with love and friendship?

Tarot Reading with the Manga University's Manga Tarot and Moon Witch Oracle

Curiosity, The Star, Ceres – Connect with both sides of the equation by being curious about how these storms came about in the first place.

Sometimes people just want to be heard.

By seeking to understand, you foster hope in others that these conflicts aren’t the end of the friendship or relationship. This effort is a display love and compassion for both yourself and others, even through the rocky moments.

@ambitiouslyalexa’s February Journal Prompts

Prompt for February 24th : A way I can support myself better

Manifestation, The Sun, Hecate – Make achieving your goals fun instead of a chore or obligation.

When you make a game out of it, creating a sense of fun and challenge in the process, you won’t view changes with the intense dread or uncertainty that you often experience during times of change and uncertainty.

DECKS USED: MANGA UNIVERSITY’S MANGA TAROT AND MOON WITCH ORACLE
Daily Self Kindness

This is a catch up post, and I’m not entirely sure what the self kindness was for this day.

Gideon’s Challenge – The Proposition

Fancy Restaurant Table

The Proposition

An evening out
to wine and dine
(no wine
for me
of course)
with offers made
and promises given
as a proposal
to change my life
is set down
upon the table
and refused
because
it’s just
not for me

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

Baring the Soul

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.

Student Tarot v3 - King of Cups and Grateful AF Cards

Today’s draw is the King of Cups, which is traditionally a representation of a projective alpha energy, personality, or person in the area of one’s emotions, relationships, emotional intelligence, creativity, or intuition. This often translates into authority figures that are emotionally supportive and understanding, possessing both compassion and strong leadership qualities.

The card has been combined with the “Murals” card from the Grateful AF deck, which says, “You can take a boring-ass building and let an artist paint their soul all over it and – BAM! – that sucker becomes cool AF.”

This affirmation card also expands on the phenomena where neighborhoods that have beautifully done murals on the walls of their buildings often experience a lower crime rate.This hints at the idea that bearing one soul in creative ways connects with others in a universal manner.

The message in today’s cards suggests that sometimes we lead the way with those around us by sharing a piece of our soul with them, and that this act of vulnerability is also a great strength, inspiring others by connecting to them with depth and meaning.

DECKS USED: STUDENT TAROT No5 AND GRATEFUL AF CARDS

@ambitiouslyalexa’s February Journal Prompts
Prompt for February 23rd

Tarot Reading with The Botan Tarot and Fated A Pocket Love Oracle

What I need more patience with

Three of Coins and Self Love – It’s okay for breaking old habits (like not asking for help when you need it) to take some time.

Stop being so hard on yourself when you forget that there is help available to you or fall back on the mindset that you shouldn’t be asking for it. Learning to treat yourself as you treat others instead of less than.

How to connect with greater patience in this area

Page of Coins and Allow Divine Timing – Remind yourself that this is a learning journey, and you are working towards learning a new skill. (The skill of asking for help without guilt or self recrimination.)

Like all skills, learning this new skill will take time, and how quickly or slowly you pick it up is not on your own schedule, but at whatever pace the universe decides to allow it. Some things we pick up quickly, and other things take time… and that’s just the way it is.

Other elements included in this reading:
Turtle Figurine for encouraging Slow and Steady Progress
Gneiss Stone for Patience in Moments of Discomfort
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: THE BOTAN TAROT

#DiscordTarotholicsFeb2026 Challenge
Prompts for February 23rd and 24th

Tarot Reading with the Student Tarot v3

A card to help identify what to be grateful for this season.

Seven of Swords – It could be worse.

That’s the thing about hard times and struggles. It could always be worse. Sometimes you just have to be grateful for the shit on the bottom of your shoe, and the fact that it’s on the bottom of your shoe instead of having fallen into it face first.

Take time to appreciate that all those “could be worse” scenarios aren’t a part of your reality. Celebrate that you have it easier and better than it could be.

A card to help identify something to celebrate this season.

Eight of Pentacles – You’re not starting from scratch. You have a lot of experience under your belt to help support you as you move forward. This experience gives you a leg up, allowing you to be more sure in your actions and aware of what will work… and what definitely won’t.

Other elements included in this reading:
Foraged Parmeliaceae Lichen for a “Breath of Fresh Air”
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: STUDENT TAROT No5
Daily Self Kindness

I got myself all caught up on orders today.

Gideon’s Challenge – Nightlights

Morning Sunrise in Pink

Nightlights

A beacon
in the night
still glows
in the dawn
even as
color splashes
like spilled paint
over the horizon
and turns
the world
momentarily
pink

Photo © ZenStatePhotography