my favorite question about tarot & oracle practice
We're in a sweet portal of Imbolc, lunar new year, the end of Mercury retrograde. It's a good time to plant seeds and set intentions. I also believe it's a great time to learn, to nurture your expansion.
That's why I've timed Dive Into Your Deck and Light Your Lantern to happen at this time. Hopefully by now you know about them, so I wanted to share one of the best things I've learned from teaching them.
If you attend my workshops or classes, you'll hear me say that some of the most important moments come from student questions. I've spent over 25 years in some kind of educational setting, and it's always been true.
The fan-fucking-tastic question, posed to me, was:
"What's the best thing that's come out of your tarot and oracle practice?"
(If you've been around me for a while, you know that I'm terrible, seriously awful, with "best" and "favorite" questions. I mean, the answer to the "favorite song" question is a playlist.)
After I answered some other questions in order to think about this challenging one, I had my answer:
Tarot and oracle have given me confidence in my intuition that I didn't gain from other practices.
Confidence because tarot and oracle practice requires you to be in the position of authority, of interpretation. Regardless of how new or experienced you are, pulling cards means you have to decide what they mean.
If you determine that they're too complicated or you're not wise enough, you get to claim that interpretation too. It's happened to me. That's when I shuffle and pull again.
One of the ways I've witnessed my confidence grow is realizing I don't panic about decisions or even conflict. I consider carefully; I choose from a place of groundedness; I course correct as I see better ways or make mistakes.
Another way I've witnessed my growing confidence is that I choose some decks specifically to challenge conditioned beliefs. I love finding decks that confront social norms. Pushing your edges is often uncomfortable, but doing so with inspiring art makes it a lot easier.
Why this matters: one of the best ways to strengthen intuition is to find beliefs you take for granted, to determine whether they truly are real for you.
For example:
You might (be unconsciously conditioned to) believe that women should always be agreeable and accommodating—as I once did.
If so, you might think your intuition is telling you that an assertive woman with leadership skills (which might be you) is overly bossy.
But is she (or maybe you), really?
The conditioned belief has the same answer—every. damn. time—to that question.
Whereas intuition—the real thing, not conditioned beliefs masquerading as it—allows you to know, truly know.
I wanted to share this question because the purpose of Siderealchemy is to support people sharing and amplifying themselves to the world. One of the things I love about intuitive work is that it lands differently for the individual. Confidence is a powerful experience for me. There's a great video testimonial from a student about her experience from these classes, which is, naturally, different from mine.
These are all topics we explore in Dive Into Your Deck and Light Your Lantern, my foundational courses for tarot and oracle practice. I'm not planning on teaching them live again, but I am planning on teaching different classes this fall, that build on this foundation.
Class starts on Friday, so don't delay if you want to join us!
Whatever seeds you're planting, whatever intentions you're nurturing, whatever things you're learning, may they grow your confidence, so that you amplify what you share to the world.
Blessings,
S.
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Siderealchemy
she / they