Spirit of Adventure

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.

Witchling Academy Tarot - Knight of Wands and The Little Yogi Happy Notes

Today’s draw is the Knight of Wands, which is traditionally a representation of a projective beta energy, personality, or person in the area of one’s drive, passions, willpower, principles, inspiration, or enthusiasm. This often translates into themes that have to do with rash behavior and a go-get’em attitude toward the things that matter to that person.

The Knight of Wands has then been combined with an affirmation card from the Little Yogi Happy Notes deck, which says, “Promise me that you will never forget that you are more courageous than you believe, stronger than you appear, and smarter than you think.”

The courage to go after your dreams, often lies not in those things that you have already learned, but in the openness to explore new things and be wrong.

Being wrong as a major part of the learning process. It’s through being wrong that we discover new ideas and concepts, new methods, and principles.

The message in today’s cards is a reminder that discovery requires a spirit of adventure. That spirit of adventure allows you to be courageous and dive in to discover new things and bring to light new passions. It allows you to step past the fear of being wrong in order to dive in and explore.

DECKS USED:  THE WITCHLING ACADEMY TAROT AND LITTLE YOGI HAPPY NOTES

One Card Tarot Journal Activity by @mariasofia_astro
Chapter 2 | Entry 6 – Love and Relationships
Affirmation :
I attract love to me.”
Prompt : Use the card you draw to understand the qualities you most seek and desire in an ideal partner. Write a love letter to that person.

Tarot Activity from The One Card a Day Journal by Maria Sofia Marmanides - Astro Tarot - Justice Card

What feelings came up when I pulled this card?

Satisfaction. I have an excellent partner, and when I was shuffling the cards, I was wondering if the card pulled would tell me something that’s missing in my relationship with him… or give me a glimpse of what makes us work so well together.

It’s the latter, and I found that pleasurably satisfying.

What elements of the card’s meaning resonate with me and this prompt?

The Justice card is about balance. Sometimes that translates into cause and effect, but often it also speaks of the world’s need for balance. That’s what creates cause and effect in the first place, after all.

Relationships also need balance. There’s a give and take to them that allows opposites to connect and work together. Gideon and I are very different, not just physically but also in how we think, how we were raised, our problem solving methods, our energies, leadership styles, and much more. It’s those differences that create balance in our relationship.

What in the artwork spoke to me?

What drew my eye first is that this planet depicted on the card has the scales balanced on top like a tree growing out of its earth. It’s fully attached. Which means if the scales go out of balance, the world will tip and spin out of balance in one direction or the other.

If -that- happens, those scales are going to swish through and disrupt the clouds, knock off kilter the sun and moon, and scatter the stars. The colors of daytime and night time will get mixed together in a miasma. A mess. Eventually? When the spinning stops, those scales will no longer be balanced at the top, but hang from the bottom.

This all speaks to me about just how delicate balance can be, and how hard it can be to not just achieve, but maintain.

My prompt response and reflections.

My Beloved,

I often feel like you love me -more- than I do you. I feel that you take on the lions share of making sure that our balance works, and that I’m often the one more cavalier and careless in our relationship.

I know that this isn’t true, but sometimes I feel that way regardless of this knowledge.

Today’s prompt and card are a reminder to me that even in these things like expressing our love for each other and the care taken in each other’s feelings and experiences? There’s a balance at play. One that works for us, and has worked for us going on eighteen years now.

What makes us different connects us the strongest. Just like puzzle pieces that fit together to create a beautiful picture, we fit, compensating for each other and filling in “the gaps” as we connect with each other year after year.

I love you. I love us, too.

– Yours

Other elements included in this reading:
Green Aventurine D20 and D6 Dice

DECK USED: ASTRO TAROT

#DiscordTarotholicsJan2026 Challenge
Prompts for January 26th and 27th

Tarot Reading with the Witchling Academy Tarot and De la Nuit Lenormand

What do you feel you deserve?

Rider, Ten of Swords, Mice – Degradation for your failures, and the opportunity to pick yourself up after them to try again.

It’s not enough to fail and pick yourself up afterward. You feel that its important to punish yourself for that failure, as if in doing so it will drive your to try harder the next time around.

(Yes, I know this is extremely unhealthy and I’m working on it.)

What do you actually deserve? 

Key, Seven of Wands, Birds – The opportunity to fight for what you believe in and for the cheerleading of others to be the key to your success.

You aren’t in life’s battles alone, and you deserve those that want to cheer you on to be there for you. You deserve their support, and the successes that their support can offer you if you’re willing to accept their help.

Other elements included in this reading:
Foraged Lodgepole Pine for Resilience, Growth, and Renewal
Deodar Cedar Cones for Fostering Clarity and Spiritual Connection
Dried Red Maple Leaf for Adaptability and Connection
Aquamarine for fostering Wisdom and Clarity
Carved Rhyolite Leaf for Facilitating Calm Transitions
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: THE WITCHLING ACADEMY TAROT AND DE LA NUIT LENORMAND
Daily Self Kindness

I bought more apples. This is a daily kindness not only because I enjoy them, but because I’ve been avoiding buying them lately due to their current prices.

Gideon’s Challenge – Verdigris

Old Mailboxes

Verdigris

Artistry
long forgotten
left to decay
as if no longer
of value
to anyone
and yet
here I stand
breath
stolen
as I admire
beauty and
craftsmanship
no longer
held dear

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

Misinterpretations

Today’s meditation was skipped.

•    •    •    ◈    •    ❄️    •    ◈    •    •    •

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

Interim Tarot 1st Edition Beyond Borders - Five of Wands

Today’s draw is the Five of Wands, which is traditionally a representation of conflict, tests, trials, and struggle in the area of one’s passions, drive, determination, principles, values, and willpower.

The Five of Wands has then been combined with the Pearly Ammonite card from the Lavish Earth Crystal Affirmation deck, which quotes Anais Nin to say, “ Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”

Not all conflict is external. How many times do we misinterpret what we see in our head? Once a week? Once a day? Once an hour or a minute?

In tarot we have a thing called the “stalker card”. This is a card that repeats again and again throughout a person’s personal readings because we are missing the message. The card keeps coming over and over until we find a way to interpret the message that gets across what’s trying to be said. This is because just because you got “a message” doesn’t mean that you have gotten “the message”.

The mind does this too. It will repeat patterns of thought and bring up certain subjects over and over until we find what it is our brains are trying to tell us that we’re missing.

The message in today’s card is a reminder that sometimes those repetitive thoughts continue to play us because we haven’t found the meaning in them yet that’s waiting to be discovered. Don’t shove them away, but pause and listen instead. What is being said (or not said) that you’re missing? What message in a meeting is seeking getting your attention?

DECKS USED:  INTERIM TAROT AND LAVISH EARTH CRYSTAL AFFIRMATION DECK

One Card Tarot Journal Activity by @mariasofia_astro
Chapter 1 | Entry 16 – Self-Care and Personal Development
Affirmation
: “I accept with grace that certain events have led to feelings of regret or disappointment.”
Prompt : Think about an event that didn’t turn out the way you wanted or expected. What does the card you draw say about why that event happened, the way it happened, and how you can release any negative associations you have with this outcome?

Tarot Activity from The One Card a Day Journal by Maria Sofia Marmanides - Hollow Knight Essence Tarot - Judgement Card

What feelings came up when I pulled this card?

I’m not sure what the name of this feeling is.

It’s when all eyes are on you and there’s a moment of surprise, and then something similar to shyness. Your head dips and your stomach stinks a little bit as you retreat slightly from all those gazes pointed your way. Trepidation, maybe, with a hint of embarrassment? That’s not quite right, but I don’t have the words for it.

What elements of the card’s meaning resonate with me and this prompt?

The Judgement card is often about our lifelong path, as well as who we are and want to become. It can also, quite literally, be about judgements; our own or that of others.

The meaning of this card begs the question… Through whose eyes are you viewing this event, and through whose judgments are you perceiving it? Are you really disappointed in the outcome? Or is that disappointment because you feel someone else would be disappointed?

What in the artwork spoke to me?

The artwork for me (today, at least) is all about those big black open eyes, inscrutable and all staring out of the card in my direction. The figure on the throne looks out at me, but so does the throng below and around her.

My prompt response and reflections.

A lot of the harsh judgments and disappointments you direct toward yourself are bred through unreasonable expectations of your performance. These unreasonable expectations are not yours, but are usually spurred on by what you learned from others in your past to be “acceptable”.

When thinking of these disappointments and failures, then, it’s important to get in touch with and examine how you truly feel about them, rather than connecting with what you believe you’re supposed to feel about it.

Other elements included in this reading:
Metal and Enamel D20 Die
Banded Agate D6 Die

DECK USED: HOLLOW KNIGHT ESSENCE TAROT

#DiscordTarotholicsJan2026 Challenge
Philosophical Prompts for January 21st and 28th

Tarot Reading with the Interim Tarot 1st Edition Beyond Borders and Petit Lenormand Delvinia

Is it true that pleasure is the root of all true evil?

Mice, Four of Cups, Dog – Good and evil are counterbalances that often lie in subjective perspectives, rather than in grounded definitions.

Evil is its own entity, and although its roots are often fed by pleasure, evil does not originate from pleasure.

Are all emotions irrational?

Bear, Ace of Wands, Moon – Although often arbitrary and capricious, sometimes emotions are a rational response to what is going on around us and what we value.

This means that although our emotions can often be irrational, there are certain situations where they are rational as well.

Other elements included in this reading:
Scotch Pine Cone for Purging Negative Influences
Foraged Parmeliaceae Lichen for a “Breath of Fresh Air”
Bloodstone for Encouraging Fearlessness

Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: INTERIM TAROT PETITE LENORMAND DELVINIA
Daily Self Kindness

I’m going to bed early tonight instead of fighting to stay awake, in the hopes that I can possibly catch up on a little sleep.

Gideon’s Challenge – Together

Sunset over the Straight of Georgia, BC

Together

Can I hold
your hand
when the lights
go out
and the gps
stops working
and there’s
no one
left to call
for help?
Where will we go?

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

Finding the Positive for January 26 – 27

Manga Tarot's Eight of Wands, and Luna's Sentimental Circus Tarot's Three of Wands

January 26 – Mental Health Card of the Day

Today’s meditation was skipped.

•    •    •    ◈    •    ❄️    •    ◈    •    •    •

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

Today’s draw is the Eight of Wands, which is traditionally a representation of action, speed, alacrity, fast paced events or change, or having a target goal in your sights that you are charging towards.

The Eight of Wands has then been combined with an affirmation card from The Little Yogi Happy Notes deck, which says, “Go where your heart carries you.”

Follow your heart without reservation or hesitation.

A lot of times it happens that even when our intuition is trying to lead the way, and our heart is speaking up to say what it truly is that we need to be doing, our brain gets in the way. This is true whether it’s choosing a path in life or reading the cards or even deciding on dinner.

Our hearts (and our intuition as well) often don’t speak with a shout, fanfare, and neon signs. They whisper, and if we’re too busy listening to our brain tell us what we “should be” doing or saying, we can miss these whispers. Sometimes even when we hear them, our brain interjects after the message with something louder, causing us to hesitate on acting on that whisper we heard.

The message in today’s cards is a reminder that in spite of the fact it thinks it does, the brain doesn’t know everything. Sometimes you have to follow your heart no matter how loud the brain shouts otherwise.

Trust me, even if you prove the brain wrong, it’s not go to retaliate, nor is it going to shut up. The whispers of your heart, on the other hand, can get quieter and be harder to hear the more you ignore them. The encouragement in today’s message is to not ignore them, because those whispers are guidance upon your path to a happier life.

DECKS USED: MANGA TAROT AND THE LITTLE YOGI HAPPY NOTES

January 27 – Mental Health Card of the Day

Today’s meditation was skipped.

•    •    •    ◈    •    ❄️    •    ◈    •    •    •

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

Today’s draw is the Three of Wands, which is traditionally a representation of the first active step in a journey, progress towards a goal, and the seizing of opportunities.

The Three of Wands has then been combined with an affirmation card from The Language of Letting Go deck, which says, “Letting go of being right.”

I have met so many people in my life that I have a hard time admitting when they’re wrong. Even when there is empirical evidence right before them, they will continue to insist they are right or walk away rather than saying they’re wrong about something.

I can’t really say that this has ever been one of my struggles, at least not when interacting with others. I find it extremely easy to just turn around and say “oh, you’re right. I didn’t know that.” Or, “sorry, I was wrong.”

I get it, though, because admitting that you’re wrong means you’re admitting that you’re fallible, and a lot of people see this as a weakness. This is especially true if when you admit that you’re wrong, and the other person decides to gloat or be an ass about it, which also happens a lot.

The thing is, though, knowledge is something that we gain over time, and a part of that involves being wrong before we can be right.

Now, if only I could take that same mindset and apply it to myself, so that when I am wrong about something on my journey or in my life and I discover this, I don’t beat myself up over it. For you see, it isn’t my being wrong in front of others or admitting that I’m wrong in front of others that’s the problem… it’s when it comes to being wrong in the face of my own expectations and judgments.

The message in today’s card combo is a reminder that being wrong is a part of life and there’s nothing about it that can’t be fixed by just admitting you’re wrong and learning from your mistake. This is how we make traveling our path smoother, no matter if we’re traveling the journey side-by-side with others, or on our own with our personal self talk and treatment as the only one passing judgement.

DECKS USED: LUNA’S SENTIMENTAL CIRCUS TAROT AND THE LANGUAGE OF LETTING GO CARDS

Gideon’s Challenge – Cotton Candy

Fisherman's Wharf Floating Buildings in Victoria, BC

Cotton Candy

There are places
in this world
where childlike
wonder lives on
in the every day
and cotton candy
is available
any time
the craving strikes
and visiting
is worth the time
as long as
you don’t stay
too long

Photo © ZenStatePhotography