Whimsy
Little bird
in a tree
high above
and watching me
flying high
among the blue
with wings
of clouds
and a
birds eye view
Gideon’s Challenge – Whimsy
Author: Twist the Leaf
Posture and Presence
Today’s meditation was a nine minute long #DailyTrip session with the @Calm app.
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The @hippiepixie333 #Escapril2026 Challenge
Prompt for April 12th : invisible string
Daily Mental Health Prompt: Seek a positive message to carry with you throughout the day and offer perspective.
Today’s draw is The Strength card, which is traditionally a representation of inner strength, persuasion usually through means of compassion, influence and/or manipulation, and courage.
I did a meditation once that provided guidance on posture during a meditation practice. It spoke of imagining a string pulled taut from the tip of the tailbone up along the spine and the nape to come out of the top of the head, and guided the listener to align themselves with the string.
The prompt “invisible string” immediately made me think of this advice when combined with the Strength card. I might sound like an old lady here, but posture is important. Not just during meditation, but how we carry ourselves is important.
It can be the difference between appearing to a predator as suitable prey or not. It can be the difference in getting the job that you’re going for or not. It can be the difference between being treated with respect by others or treated poorly.
I watched a movie the other day (which wasn’t particularly great) where this concept was really driven home. A man with an antique goes into a high end antique dealer’s place of business. He’s all hunched and his head is down. He makes a trade with the dealer and as he’s leaving, the dealer tells him “stand-up straight in my shop”. The young man’s posture changes and you see the difference in how others see him in that change. He goes from looking like a bum to looking like someone who belongs in a high end antique shop. He no longer looks like a victim, but instead like someone to be reckoned with.
This type of change doesn’t come from clothes or money. It doesn’t come from raising one’s station in life or the job. It comes from how you carry yourself and how you present yourself to others, even when you don’t realize others are looking.
The message in today’s Strength card and “invisible string” prompt is a reminder that posture is a hidden strength within us that helps guide the world around us to understand our place in life and how we are to be treated. It’s something worth working on.
DECK USED: PETER RABBIT TAROT
#DiscordTarotholicsApr2026 Challenge
Prompt for April 12th : Do Spread 2
@lightningwildflower‘s April Energetic Shifts Challenge
Soften Prompt for April 12th : Where can I soften my expectations for myself?
Reading Summary: Can you imagine a future where we are no longer able to recognize even the gentle list of creatures in nature, and scream for help when they appear? In the Anchor card, we get a peek at what that might be like.
Both the Death card and the Forest Tears card display darker colors that connect with the background of the Anchor card and that dystopian concept of a world where nature is so rare that it becomes terrifying.
There is a lightness to the Forest Tears card, though, that also speaks of transformation from the Death card into the Forest Tears, and then eventually to The Shift card.
In The Shift card, we see hope in the rainbow of colors that match those in the Anchor card’s rainbow.
All in all, this speaks of a journey of confusion to order… especially if we include the trees in the three bottom cards which are tangled in the Death card, then straight in the Forest Tears, and then showing growth in The Shift card.
Take Away: Just because something is unfamiliar and scary in the beginning of change and transitions doesn’t mean that it’s bad, nor bad for you. It takes time and struggle to adjust when a new reality begins to form from the ashes of an old one. It’s not just a question of immediate adaptation.
Stop forcing yourself to adjust and adapt immediately and keep going. Change takes time… it’s rarely ever immediate. Allow yourself the time and space to breathe into the new reality before you, and to feel it out and observe.
Only once you’re sorted, will you then begin to grow.
Other elements included in this reading:
Time Flows Bamboo Carving for Encouraging Healthy Growth
Bird Figurine for Fostering Hope, Positivity, and Renewal
Turtle Figurine for encouraging Slow and Steady Progress
Rose Quartz for Gentle Kindness to Self and Others
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy
DECK USED: GALLERY IN A BOX v.1 AND THE EARTHCRAFT ORACLE
@Lionharts #TheAprilTarot Root & Rise Challenge
The Roots Prompt for April 12th and 13th
Where am I already living in alignment with what I know?
Prosperity atop Admiration; Ace of Cups
Money isn’t everything.
Yes, money can make life easier, and if you manage to get just the right balance of it, it can make life less stressful. At the end of the day, though, it’s not what makes you happy… which is something that I already know.
This reminds me of a “friend” I once had when I was younger. In school, he was bound and determined that by the time he turned 20, he would make his first million… which he did. And that’s great! The problem was that he expected everyone else to think the same way he did and treat money as the end all God of everything as he did.
One day when I was down on my luck, he told me that I had to “get my priorities in order”. That I’d had so many opportunities to make a buck that I had passed up, and he didn’t understand why I had turned away from them.
When I explained that these opportunities went against my moral compass and what felt right to me, he laughed and thought it was a joke. He thought I was a joke.
He wasn’t particularly happy then, always seeking a new project, someone to swindle, and his next dollar… constantly driven and never satisfied. Sometimes I’ve wondered if he ever found happiness or if he still miserable and pushing for more.
I’m sure I’ll never know. I cut him out of my life and have no interest in looking him up at this point.
What currently allows me to feel safe enough to move forward?
Seven of Pentacles and Boy Significator
I am responsible and steadfast. Through the sense of responsibility I have created stability within my life and sustainability for the life I live.
That often means that frivolity passes me by because I’m too busy tending to my responsibilities and stability I’ve created. At the same time, it is the stability and the work that I have put into it over time that allows me to feel safe enough to keep going in areas where things feel unstable or uncertain.
Other elements included in this reading:
Handcrafted Sigil for Healthy Sustainable Energy
Dried Rhododendron Leaf for Fostering Confidence
Scotch Pine Cone for Purging Negative Influences
Desert Rose for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy
DECK USED: PETER RABBIT TAROT AND THE ANIMAL CHILDREN ORACLE
This is a catch up post, and I’m not entirely sure what the self kindness was for this day.
Gideon’s Challenge – Prideful
Prideful
A deep breath
as chest swells
and chin
tilts high
as a moment
of satisfaction
flows
through senses
providing
a little spark
of energy
to light
the way forward
Photo © ZenStatePhotography
❤️ Self Care Saturday (On a Sunday)
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?
Earth – The Fool Rx – Practicality needs to rule this week. There’s no time for frivolity and carelessness. Measured steps are best while keeping your eye on the path before you and what lies ahead.
Air – Eight of Air atop The Tower – Don’t ignore the shit storm. Get in there and get your hands dirty. It’s only through opening your eyes to what’s going on around you that you can respond appropriately in the moment, and thus prepare for how to come out the other side with a plan.
Water – Nine of Water atop Eight of Fire Rx – Remember that there is no need for speed right now. You are paying attention and watching the chips fall. You are not meddling. Instead, you are using this time to slow down and connect with your feelings and do things that make you feel better and happy. Doing these things will assist you in getting through this temporary trial in a healthier manner.
Fire – Queen of Fire – Don’t lose sight of what’s important. You need to foster this vision within you right now. Remember what you’ve worked for so far and stay true to the vision you have for where you want to go and who you want to be. Just because the ground shakes doesn’t mean it has to knock you off course.
Waning – Stork and Bouquet – No one is going to be leaping into the fray like a knight and shining armor to save you this week. Let go of the hope there’s an easy solution out there. That’s not what this current journey you’re facing is about.
Waxing – Star, Birds, Key – That’s not to say that there isn’t plenty of hope to go around still. Make sure you are listening to what other people are saying, for there are answers in the advice they try to provide as well as the chatter that goes on between them.
Take Away – Pause. Breathe. Listen. Although you need to be sustaining movement through carefully thought out responses and reactions, it’s far more important to pay attention and glean what you can from the situation as well as from others. Make sure any actions you -do- take this week are geared toward the direction you want things to go in and the person you want to grow into. Base your decisions upon these future goals.
Other elements included in this reading:
Zodiac Wheel spun to land between Libra and Scorpio
Scotch Pine Cone for Purging Negative Influences
Foraged Parmeliaceae Lichen for a “Breath of Fresh Air”
Gneiss Stone for Patience in Moments of Discomfort
Raw Clear Quartz for promoting a Sharper Mind
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy
DECKS USED: THE GOOD TAROT AND DUSK TILL DAWN LENORMAND DAWN EDITION
The Museum Curator
Today’s meditation was skipped.
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The @hippiepixie333 #Escapril2026 Challenge
Prompt for April 11th : the last lie
Daily Mental Health Prompt: Seek a positive message to carry with you throughout the day and offer perspective.
Today’s draw is the Queen of Wands, which is traditionally a representation of a receptive alpha energy, personality, or person in the area of one’s passion, drive, willpower, determination, values, and principles. This often translates into themes that have to do with being supportive of others projects and passions, or searching for inner truth within your own values and principles.
Curate a collection of your interests, passions, and desires; picking and choosing what it is that you add to your collection, rather than just dumping everything in without thought of the consequences.
Treat your interests like a museum.
When museums create their displays, they don’t put on display everything that they have in their possession. They pick and choose what they put out for the public to see.
In this same way, it’s important that we take care to pick and choose what interest we decide to pursue. These interests shape our lives, and become pieces of who we are. If we have too many of them on our plate at once, we never really get to fully explore any of them… and more often than not end up overwhelmed and burnt out.
That is the last lie that we tell ourselves before burnout, after all. The lie that we can just add one or two more things to our plate of responsibilities and interests and things to be done… and will still be able to handle it just fine.
No. We won’t.
The message in today’s Queen of Wands and “the last lie” prompt his a reminder that there’s only so much time in a day and only so much energy in a body. Pick and choose where you spend your energy instead of trying to spread yourself too thin, and as a result you will more greatly enjoy those interest and passions you put your energy into.
DECK USED: STAR CLUSTERS TAROT
@lightningwildflower‘s April Energetic Shifts Challenge
Check-in Prompt for April 11th : What is my energy level telling me today?
Reading Summary: You want to stay home today (Four of Clubs), and you accept that just because you don’t like the consequences of the choices in front of you (Five of Diamonds) doesn’t mean that you don’t have choices (Seven of Hearts).
Take Away: Just because there’s no harmony (in the 7❤️) to be found within you concerning the options you have to choose from, doesn’t mean that you still don’t have choices you can make.
• You could stay home and relax in the nice stable security of a familiar space, wallowing in that stability and enjoy some stagnancy.
• You could head out and do what you need to do today, including the travel and whatever chores there are to be done up north.
If you do the first option, you upset someone you care about and give in to unhealthy habits. If you do the latter choice, you deal with being tired and in pain, but you get some stuff done that needs to be done.
Neither one sounds appealing, but you already know which one you’re going to choose.
Your energy level for today is telling you that there are no real satisfactory options available to you at this time, and you need to make your choice based on the healthiest choice available to you, with consequences considered.
Other elements included in this reading:
Foraged Lodgepole Pine for Resilience, Growth, and Renewal
Beech Pods for Realizations that Foster Personal Growth
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy
DECK USED: RADIO CAT PLAYING CARDS BLACK EDITION
#DiscordTarotholicsApr2026 Challenge
Philosophical Questions for April 8th and 15th
What is Divinity?
Lemon, Four of Swords, Eucalyptus
Divinity is “God / The Universe” at rest and dreaming.
[Note the sleeping individual in the Four of Swords and the sleeping koala in the Eucalyptus card, combined with the “no one’s watching” from the Lemon card and the parrot seeing the world as “upright while upside down”. ]
These cards introduce the idea that our reality isn’t real. That instead of reality being a material, objective world, it is a subjective, cosmic dream occurring within a universal consciousness (God / The Universe). This is called the Dreaming God Theory.
Thus, and answering the question with this theory, the cards are saying that divinity is the dreaming “God / The Universe” that creates our reality within its dreamscape.
What existed before our universe was created?
Lemongrass, The Moon, Rosemary
These cards continue to expand upon the Dreaming God Theory from above by saying that before our universe was created there were many gods working to together (the “successful teamwork” and bee hive in the Lemongrass card); and that a debate over the creation of life (the weeping “goddess” toying with a baby in its carriage) ensued due to uncertainty that arose over repeated past efforts always leading to the same results (well trodden path” in the rosemary card combined with the sideways look from the owl on that card).
By this interpretation, it means that prior to our universe being created by a dreaming “God”, there were many such gods, all working together to create life; perhaps experimenting with how to create sustainable life.
Other elements included in this reading:
Clear Quartz Point for boosting Mental Clarity
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy
DECKS USED: STAR CLUSTERS TAROT AND THE ESSENCE OF THREE ORACLE
This is a catch up post, and I’m not entirely sure what the self kindness was for this day.
Gideon’s Challenge – Delight
Delight
Pops of color
appear in
surprising places
as spring
warms the earth
and awakens
slumbering flowers
to coax them
free to bloom
and share
their enthusiasm
Twisting the Leaf 