Fresh Air
Weather cools
and clouds roll in
as long summer
finally breaks
and blue skies
are concealed
the air clearing
of wildfire smoke
as raindrops fall
and the world
is cleansed
of the cloying
touch
of summer’s
tenuous grip
Author: Twist the Leaf
📆 Transitioning from October to November
Here and Now I Exist – Who you are now, in your entirety.
Strength and The Cardinal – You are building up strength for the approaching holiday season. It will take all that you have within you to get through the weeks ahead and come out shining brightly for all to see.
The Slough – What is to be left in the past as you move forward.
The Empress and The Scrying Ball – You’re going to have to leave behind a lot of the spiritual and divinatory practices that you enjoy and that foster within you a sense of well-being in order to make room for the busy weeks to come. You can return to them in the new year.
What Lies Ahead – An ideal state or ideal self you are seeking at this time.
Knight of Pentacles and The Hunter – Do not let the rush of the holidays fluster you. Stay calm and collected and keep moving steadily forward.
Limitations – Negative influences, opposition, or ill will.
Eight of Wands and Lolita Muerte – Rushing and pride are both your enemy in this quest for steadiness and balance through the weeks ahead. Do not let your pride get in the way of taking things at a measured pace.
The Boon – Positive influences, higher guidance, or divine intervention.
Seven of Wands and The Mind’s Eye – Remember that priorities and your values need to be your main focus. Even when it feels like the world is against you, be sure to reconnect with that moral compass of yours and the values you seek to foster in your life.
The Wound – An unpleasant past experience or event that is ripe for some support and healing.
Ace of Cups and Predator’s Eyes – You are not unworthy or undeserving of love. Don’t let those fuckers that tried to knock you off, steal what’s yours, and leave you behind make you feel “less than”. This wound is healing, but is still in need of more tending to.
Nostalgia – A positive past experience or event to acknowledge, reflect upon, and enjoy.
Four of Wands and The Window – Combat that past experience just mentioned with acknowledgment of all the times people have made you feel comforts and at home. You may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but you have found some that are happy to know you, care about you, and consider you a friend.
A Warning – Something coming that can be prevented or overcome.
Knight of Cups and Spellwork – Watch out for manipulators trying to press influence over you to force you to their intent and purposes.
Empowerment – A future opportunity to work toward.
The Hermit and Jack o’Lantern – Remember that you have control over who reaches through the veil to contact you and how much influence they have in your life.
DECKS USED: TAROT OF HAUNTED HOUSE AND THE HALLOWEEN ORACLE (trimmed naked)
Loosing the Chaff
Today’s meditation was skipped.
Today’s draw is the Knight of Pentacles, which is traditionally a representation of a projective and active beta energy, personality, or person in the area of one’s finances, resources, health, home, labors, manifestations, or other aspects of the physical world.
With his horse nothing but bone, this knight looks defeated. He is chained to his purpose (the coin), and just as dark hands in the pit pull at the steed’s remains, so too do they pull at the chains attached to his purpose. And yet, those grasping hands of darkness do not touch him, indicating if he were to put down his burden, he could step free of the darkness and it’s cloying grip.
What responsibilities are we holding onto that need to be let go? Where in our lives have we stubbornly chosen to continue to to hold tight, even at our own detriment?
Today’s card asks us to examine these things, and encourages us to set loose the chains and free ourselves from them before they do us more harm.
DECK USED: THE CORRUPTED TAROT
#DiscordTarotholicsOct2022 Challenge Prompt
Topic for October 30th: Do the Thinning Veil Spread
What spirits have come to visit and walk with you while the veil is thin?
Surrender – Those spirits that still linger in your memory and you have struggled in letting go of as a result.
How are these spirits assisting in keeping you safe?
The Key – They assist in reminding you of the purpose to come, and the transition that needs to take place in order to take the challenge of the next few weeks head on.
What should you offer to these spirits that are watching over you?
Enchanter – Show them that you understand the value of what is coming and take up the challenge with determination.
What cycle from the past do your Ancestors hope that you will break?
Apprentice – It is time to see yourself as more than capable of taking on these challenges head on. There’s no reason to panic when things are slow, as you know that they will turn around from past experience.
What do you know deep within your bones?
Ascension – That you are on the right path in your life and spirituality, and that your growth is going in the right direction.
What do the Spirits and Ancestors need for you to learn?
Portal – There is more to be had if you are open to it and the changes that are needed to allow it to flourish. You have to choose what you want to flourish and what you want to wither and leave behind.
A message for you from the Spirits and Ancestors
Wayfarer – Continue to consult and follow your inner compass in all things.
DECK USED: EARTH AND BONE ORACLE
HealingThruTarot’s October Shadow Work Challenge Prompt
Question for October 30th: How can I build more inner strength for my growth?
Reading Summary: Stay open-minded (Ace of Swords), even in unpredictable times (Wheel of Fortune), instead of letting those unpredictable times close you up and beat you down (Five of Swords).
Take Away: You have a tendency to retreat into yourself when feeling vulnerable. In order to build that inner strength you need to foster growth within yourself, you need to stay open-minded and communicate your problems during these times, instead of shutting out and/or shutting down.
DECK USED: THE CORRUPTED TAROT
This is a catch-up post, and I cannot remember what my daily self kindness was for this day.
Gideon’s Challenge
Temptation
I don’t want
to fold in
on myself
and curl close
into a tight bud
alone
and scared
but instead
wish to unfurl
and let you see
all of me
to the very core
and claim me
yours
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 – Four of Staves / Kodama – Hold sacred the home this week. The home that is your shelter, yes… but also the home of your spirit and home of your soul. Take care of your body and cherish this time you have left before the rush begins to enjoy both the home you live in, and those in your life that your soul calls home as well.
Air – Wheel of Fortune / Wanyūdō – Make sure when it feels like things have gone awry that you are using optimism to mitigate the effects of these moments. Nothing is quite as bad as it looks… until you allow it to become so.
Water – Knight of Coins / Nurikabe – For emotional stability you need to take things slow this week and not overwhelm yourself. Steady, persistent progress is best.
Fire – Eight of Staves / Nozuchi – You are going to feel the need to push and rush. Make sure that you aren’t getting out of hand with it though, or you will suffer emotionally as a result, as will your relationship with Gideon (as indicated in the Water position in this reading).
Waning – Lady and Cross – Do not allow those that you love to become a burden this week. Sometimes that means turning people down concerning what they want from you… at other times it will require looking at your responsibilities from a different perspective.
Waxing – Stork and Ring – Commit yourself to the changes that need to take place this week in order to get ready for the rush that is coming. Everything done during this time has the potential to lift you up and make things better, but you have to commit instead of lingering in complacency.
DECKS USED: YOKAI YOCHI TAROT AND SIMPLY HALLOWEEN LENORMAND
Burning Candles
Today’s meditation was skipped.
Today’s draw is the Ten of Wands, which is traditionally a representation of overwhelm, burnout, struggling under too much responsibility, and can indicate a need to do some prioritizing and delegation.
In the imagery of this card, a gargoyle ferries a carriage through the fog, the look on the gargoyle’s face determined as he splashes through the water and pulls the carriage forward.
But how long can they go on like that? Sooner or later, they’re going to burn out. They’re pushing too hard, and it’s going to catch up with them eventually, just as it does everyone that burns the candle at both ends.
DECK USED: THE VAMPIRES TAROT OF THE ETERNAL NIGHT
Mr Lionhart’s Seasons of the Witch Challenge Prompt
Questions for October 28th thru 31st – The Veil
Spirits surrounding, will you head my call, can you give me guidance or not at all?
Top Left – Watch out for those that might try to pull you into pointless dispute or debate. They are just wasting your time and energy.
Cards on the table, ancestors respond, shareth your wisdom from somewhere beyond…
To Right – Make sure you are staying focus on the transition ahead into the holiday season. There are many distractions that will try to tempt you away from what needs to be done. Only through focus and determining for yourself what is truly important will you be able to stay on track.
Of blood and bone, of skin and seed, what part of you lives on in me?
Bottom Left – You carry forward both good and bad traits from your ancestors including the ability to find peoples’ triggers and use them to nudge others to your purpose, as well as a determination and drive that pushes you to try too hard and do too much and always be seeking more.
I honor, the witch within, my lineage, roots, my craft and kin, and as I walk between darkness and light, what shall bless my Sabbath night?
Bottom Right – In practicing rituals that you have done since you were a child you will find peace, and a connection that will give you answers if you are open in seeking them.
DECK USED: DAUGHTERS OF THE DARK ORACLE SET 1
#DiscordTarotholicsOct2022 Challenge Prompt
Question for October 29th: Bewitched – What lies beneath the mask that you show the world?
Reading Summary: You hide from the world both just how much you depend on Gideon (King of Cups). Specifically, how much you need him to help you in setting aside those things that hurt or frustrate you (Eight of Cups) in order to focus more on what makes you happy (Nine of Cups).
Take Away: Vulnerability hides there behind the mask of self-sufficiency and independence. You pretend to be far stronger and self reliant than you are because you do not want others to see how much you depend on them. How much you need them.
This vulnerability frightens you, and so you hide it away.
DECK USED: THE VAMPIRES TAROT OF THE ETERNAL NIGHT
This is a catch-up post, and I can’t recall what my self-kindness might have been.
Twisting the Leaf 