tarot journaling

Choosing Your Moments

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Today’s meditation was skipped.

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The @GlitterbyInk #FebYOUary26 Moments & Memories Challenge
Prompt for February 4th : Choice
Daily Mental Health Prompt: Seek a positive message to carry with you throughout the day and offer perspective.

Starlit Gleaning Tarot - Four of Swords

Today’s draw is the Four of Swords, which is traditionally a representation of taking time to rest, recuperation after a trying time, and stillness for restoration and meditation on the events that have brought you to this place as well as where to go from here.

You have to make the choice to rest when you need it. There’s always going to be more stuff to do.

That’s the thing about being a workaholic, right? There’s always so much to do. Lists and lists of stuff to do. And that’s just the stuff that -needs- to get done. Then there’s the stuff you want to get done, the stuff you’d -like- to get done, and the stuff that you really don’t want to do but you should get done.

All of that… even before we get to the stuff that’s not even related to work. Stuff like food and fun, rest and enjoyment and relaxation.

The fact is, though? No one can “burn the candle at both ends” forever. We all need rest and recuperation, and the longer you put it off? The more time it’s going to take to recover.

The message in today’s Four of Swords and “choice” prompt is a reminder that just like going to the bathroom and putting food in our bodies, rest is important and can’t be put off forever. We either make time for it willingly, choosing when and where it happens so that we get what we need… or our bodies and minds will make that choice for us when it they break down due to neglect.

Better to choose to rest when you can rather than putting it off and having that choice taken from you. So make sure that you are practicing your right to choose, and give yourself the rest and recovery you need when you need it.

DECKS USED: STARLIT GLEANINGS TAROT STARRY EDITION

@ambitiouslyalexa’s February Journal Prompts
Prompt for February 4th :

Tarot Reading with the Mindful Tarot and Reclaim Oracle Extended Edition

What I want to feel more connected to

Belonging, Five of Pentacles Rx, Change – You want to feel more comfortable asking for support when you need it.

Times when you need help from others invariably happen during moments of uncertainty caused by change. You don’t have to confront that uncertainty alone. Ask for help from others when you are feeling vulnerable, uncertain, or tapped out.

How to foster a stronger connection in this area

Control, The Fool, Sincerity – Let go of the control that you work so hard to hold onto, and be a little more free with that side of yourself that craves fun.

When you let go of control and decide to be a bit more reckless, you allow more authenticity of who you truly are hidden away inside to escape. This authenticity naturally draws people to you, and that draw is fostered by the fact that at these times when you release control you aren’t holding yourself apart from others as stringently.

Other elements included in this reading:
Foraged Oak Branch with Moss and Lichen for Perseverance
Holy Leaf for fostering Strength, Endurance, and Boundaries
Scotch Pine Cone for Purging Negative Influences
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: MINDFUL TAROT AND RECLAIM ORACLE EXPANDED EDITION

#DiscordTarotholicsFeb2026 Challenge
Philosophical Prompt for February 4th : Does love feel different to different people, or is it a universal emotion?

Tarot Reading with the Starlit Gleaning Tarot

Reading Summary – We relate to love through how we have experienced security and contentment in our past lives (Ten of Earth atop Anemesis). This secret knowledge (The High Priestess) is the driving force concerning how we experience love in the present (The Chariot flying off to the right/future).

Take Away – There are similarities because we are all human, but also differences… because we are all human.

These cards speak of past lives, but I think possibly it’s just as true that this answer could speak of our own pasts in -this- lifetime. We understand love through what we have experienced, whether it’s in past lives or in our current lifetime. Thus, it looks and feels different for everyone.

The answer here in these cards is that love is universal in that everyone can experience it, but -how- they experience it is subjective.

Other elements included in this reading:
Staghorn Sumac for Connecting with Nature and the Wild Within
Foraged Oak Branch with Moss and Lichen for Perseverance
Dried Red Maple Leaf for Adaptability and Connection
Bird Figurine for Fostering Hope, Positivity, and Renewal
Carnelian Agate for Inner Drive and Focusing On Aspirations
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECKS USED: STARLIT GLEANINGS TAROT STARRY EDITION
Daily Self Kindness

I made J drive because I was tired and wanted to relax for a bit.

Tarot Self-Portrait

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My Entry for the Your Tarot Self-Portrait Challenge.
Just sneaking under the cut-off with only two days left to enter!

001

I have to watch out for the Gloominous Doom
As he likes to visit with his pit of gloom
My nearest and dearest know what to do
I depend on them to steer me true
[Faeries Oracle – Gloominous Doom]
One of the biggest recurring challenges of my life has been my depression. I had my first Major Depressive Episode at the age of fourteen and have had a number of them since. When not in an episode I deal with long-term dysthymia. I depend on my loved ones, and especially Gideon, to help me in keeping track of my mood levels and helping me identify when I appear to be slipping into that pit of a depressive episode as well as help me in finding my way back out of it again.

A survivor, I am
I fight the good fight
There is no swerving from battles or strife
Determination
Is how I confront the struggles in life
[Stolen Child Tarot – Five of Wands]
I am strong and determined. I don’t allow others to push me around or allow them to sway me from what I know is right… and what I know is mine. This card’s imagery is about determination and empowerment to me, and it speaks to that strength within me that demands that I stand strong and demand the best from myself and that others “toe the line” where I am concerned or pay the consequences.

002

Grounded and sure footed
I am who I am
My moral compass and inner voice
Guide me true
Again and again
[Earth Power Oracle – Magnetic North Pole]
I live my life by the guidance given by my moral compass and my intuition. Both of these aspects work together and speak to me through an inner “voice” that is never wrong. I have spent my life learning to better trust myself and that voice, and in doing so have become more and more grounded, and more and more sure of who I am and comfortable within my own skin. I know my weaknesses and my strengths, and am happy to share the lessons I have learned to help others find their own direction as well.

Sometimes this means
Putting on a fierce face
and plowing through obstacles
no matter the pain or the pace
[Tarot of the Hidden Realm – Ten of Swords]
My history is filled with obstacles and accidents, painful moments and instances that could easily be considered moments of victimization. Instead of allowing these moments or the residual effects of those moments to drag me down, I face these experiences with a snarl of force and determination, knowing that each of these experiences are going to hurt… but if I face them head on I will make it to the other side, having survived and ready to move on.

003

I juggle a lot
and I’m busy as a bee
Responsibilities require balance
that I appear to manage with ease
[Hush Tarot – Two of Pentacles]
I started adulthood at 16 when I emancipated from my parents, and signed a mortgage at 19. I have spent the majority of my adult life juggling at least four part time jobs and a home business, as well as sustaining a healthy relationship with my twin sister, a long-distance high-demand relationship with my partner Gideon, and a close friendship with my best friend. There is also self care, of which there is an excessive amount because of the need for daily physical therapy and occasional recreation, my spiritual path and my tarot practice. Most people would never guess that I juggle so much, or carry so much responsibility. I shoulder it all. I balance it all. The key to balance in life? Is flexibility. Scales are not still and stagnant. They sway… and like those scales, in order to balance life’s responsibilities we too must sway and constantly adjust.

In truth, though,
Life’s not about balance or battles
Life is about adaptability
Perspectives
And learning from the trials
[Wayhome Tarot – The Hanged Man]
I see the struggle and strife and trials I have gone through, as well as those things I will go through in the future, as learning experiences. They have allowed me to see things differently, and changed my perspectives over time. Whether it is the chronic, constant pain or being the victim of a crime, there is a benefit and a lesson to each experience if I am open to seeking it out and taking that new, different perspective in. Every different perspective I find changes me in some small way, opening me up to something new and giving me more… more understanding… more empathy… and more knowledge with which to navigate the world and relate to those within it.

CHALLENGE HOSTED BY TAROTHOLICS ON DISCORD