heaven help the company of...
...FOOLS!
L to R: Prisma Visions Tarot, Herbcrafter’s Tarot, Luminous Void Tarot, Embroidered Forest Tarot
(I have no other Grateful Dead or Biblical references in this love letter. AFD jokes are not my forte.)
Nevertheless –
Blessings for this fool-ish new moon!
This love letter is about fools and spring. Then it's about learning and wisdom. I'm useless for good AFD pranks, but I love a relevant juxtaposition.
The Fool is a beloved archetype in tarot. Every culture has a variation of it: tricksters, sacred clowns, jesters. They hold space for jokes, ignorance, foolishness, and such.
The tarot's Major Arcana nearly always starts with The Fool and ends with The World. The World is an archetype for wholeness, completion, integration, wisdom, union, delight, joy.
Not surprisingly, a common metaphor is to see the journey from The Fool to The World as a representation from inexperience to mastery.
Here's the Rider-Waite-Smith Major Arcana:
Super clear, linear journey.
AND YET –
Can the trickster archetype not also be a truth teller? The Fool is simply in disguise.
I mean, a linear sequence is only one way to think of this set of archetypes. But there are other ways:
The Fool —> The World —> The Fool
Who's the wise one now?
You probably already know my answer: YES/AND
For me, the learning process is a beautiful example of this connection of childlike inexperience to mastery to childlike play:
You start a class or a new skill, feeling incompetent and clueless. With mastery comes the capacity for delight and joy—in other words, PLAYFULNESS.
I mention this for 2 reasons:
1. Siderealchemy has classes now available! Self-study style, which means you get to follow your best timing and schedule.
2. Figuring out how I self-study has been one of the greatest gifts I've given myself in the last few years.
More details:
1. Siderealchemy classes:
Dive Into Your Deck & Light Your Lantern
These are foundational classes for tarot and oracle practice. I know they're powerful, that they'll shift your entire understanding, whether novice or advanced, of divination decks. More info on them below, including some discount codes that are only in love letters.
2. Why I love self-study:
I've taken a LOT of classes in the last 2 years, most of them self-study. It took a while to find my groove—I'm neurodivergent and I don't want to get pulled into a ton of screen time.
But once I figured out some tweaks to support my brain, I have been SO. GRATEFUL.
In part because I love learning. But even more because huge opportunities for learning have become more available, more accessible, and more affordable than ever before.
The most recent example: I'm taking a self-study herbalism class. I've been wanting to study herbalism for YEARS, but I've been reluctant because classes didn't fit my schedule or I felt too overwhelmed at the pacing of live classes. I went to an herbalism conference 5 years ago and it was amazing. But it also confirmed that my brain doesn't absorb this knowledge all that readily.
So, I opted not to take live classes because they all felt too pressured. But last year I registered for a self-study, and I've only recently had time to explore it.
I blazed through the first 2 modules, because they were mostly about intuition and not much about plants. Now, I'm in module 3 and I'm going to give myself at least a month, maybe 2 months, to go at a loving, leisurely pace.
It's been amazing and I feel like a genius, honestly. (I'm not a genius.) But genius in the sense of elation for figuring how my brain best functions with this format. And also because I'm learning at a pace that doesn't make me feel rushed or pressured or stupid.
I'm sharing all of this not to convince you that I'm brilliant at herbalism. I'm not, obviously.
But I do hope the example encourages you, if you lack confidence in self-study.
And to ask, sincerely, if you'd want to know some of the ways I approach it. Because once those things got clear, all my learning became delightful.
If you are curious, hit reply and let me know! I'll find a way to share.
In the meantime, if you're interested in Dive Into Your Deck & Light Your Lantern, you have 2 options for both classes:
~ Self-study only
~ Self-study + a 1:1 session with me – Because sometimes nothing beats direct, in-person support.
Yes, these are 2 separate classes, and yes, I recommend taking them both. They are separate so that they better support the learning process.
If you choose to register for both, please use these discount codes:
~ For both classes as self-study: [redacted]
~ For both classes as self-study + 1:1 session: [redacted]
Discounts are valid for the entire spring season.
New moon is a time for setting intentions. Spring is a time of beginnings. In tarot, the Fool often appears mid-stepping, on the brink of a big leap?
What are you leaping into at this fool-ish new moon this spring?
Here for the foolishness,
S.
--
Siderealchemy
she / they