Finding A Way

I recently did a reading where a woman sadly noted to me that all her plans of what to do during  her enforced Covid slowdown were not coming to fruition.  She was not setting up her new blog, not reading all the articles she wanted to,  not exercising daily.  Despite the slowdown she was still feeling stressed. 

I know we often have high ideals for ourselves,  but this is a really tough time for a lot of us,  and it's easy  lose initiative.  I reminded her of her strengths and then suggested writing lists and just going through them.  I'm a great list gal,  if it's on my list it will get done, Perhaps not on the first day,  but certainly by the end of the week! 

I also recommended a book that I had read a long time ago but still works for me - Julia Cameron's,  The Artist's Way. 

I found this book when it first came out - I just realized that was in 1992!  But it was huge then and is still helpful now.  So if you are feeling a bit stuck,  It's a book I'm happy to recommend. 

Should I let someone listen in on my reading?

When I do my readings IRL - in real life - people often bring someone - close friend, sibling, parent, lover, to hear the readings with them or to take turns and listen to each other's readings. 

A reading can be a lot of information, and having someone to mull it over with afterwards can be really helpful. And then they also get to see the magic of the cards for each other, as each one gets specific cards that make sense just for them! So if you are considering having a reading with a friend, it can be great to have another pair of ears.  

In the time of Covid,  it has happened less, but a recent reading she was at home in her studio apartment,  so her partner being present was unavoidable.  I told them both that they needed at least an hour a day apart,  and they should go for walks separately to give each other some psychic space.  They both agreed that that was a good idea.  

I also warn people, readings can be very intimate events so make sure they are someone you want to share your secrets with!  Her reading was all about work,  the relationship was good,  even after the intense togetherness! 

Love Kernels

I did a reading a while ago (but still in time of Covid) and a woman was telling me about her relationship with a man who she was not living with and due to the current circumstances could not see.  He would respond to her every third or fourth text,  never initiate but never say no either.  

And I said,  you are living on Love Kernels,  from Crazy Ex Girlfriend.  She didn't know it,  so I sent her this:



Later she wrote to me and said you are so right!  My god I thought I was the only one and here's a whole song about it.  

She's not the only one... 

Searching for Justice

For the past four years I've been doing the majority of my readings on line.  The way I read,  you have to shuffle the cards,  so people use their own decks.   In my recent readings,  with everyone using a separate deck,  so it's not a issue of shuffling,  the Justice card (or Justice Reversed,  even more pertinent) has show up disproportionately. 


The Justice card is often about a sense of fairness.  of things working out justly.  Pulling Justice into today's world  I interpreted as a sense of desiring fairness or justice,  or of things being not fair. Which is completely accurate.  Things are not fair.  Good work is not necessarily being rewarded,  chance encounters can lead to contagion,  life is strange.

In ordinary days when people are searching for fairness,  I warn them that life is not fair.  In fact,  living in the first world,  with running water and electricity,  we are so far ahead in the fairness stakes we are already on the wrong side of that ledger.  So instead of wanting fairness,  I tell people to seek balance.  If life isn't fair,  and you feel powerless,  then the next day you wake up and life is still unfair and what can you do?  But if your life is not balanced - then there you have some power.  You can redress the balances,  give more energy to one section,  take it away from another,  You have the power to allocate how to balance your time and energy and then the burning sense of requiring Justice can ease a little.

One client had three separate readings using three different decks over a three year period. .  As I was looking over his notes,  I realized that in each reading,  he had pulled the Justice card.  So then we had another conversation about what that card means to him personally,  as well as being part of the ether now.  Tarot is both general and deeply personal.  And if you do readings over time,  you can get to deeper insights too.

The Cards know best

Every so often people say to me,  it's not the cards,  it's just you - your judgement, your opinion,  your insight.  And I say no.  Because I'm reading all the time,  I can see it more clearly,  but the cards definitely know more than me about any given situation.  

I can think of hundreds of examples.  The woman who said what's going on in my relationship and the cards said,  he's a good person,  but he's just not there for you. And she said,  I knew it,  on paper he's the one but we're just not connecting and it's a relief to say that after everyone else tells me it should work.  Or the woman who drew the Devil card when discussing her relationship and we both looked at it and she sighed and said he really is the devil for me!  Or the guy who gave me three job options and the cards chose job B,  the secure job with benefits rather than Job A,  the start up (and I'm glad I didn't know which was which,  so he couldn't accuse me of being too conservative!) 

If you ask a question and me and the cards disagree,  I'll always give the cards opinion.  After all,  I'm just a person,  but the cards are reading you,  and if you look clearly,  you do always know best. 

Good days and Bad days

So I've been having good days and bad days.  Good days I genuinely count my blessings of which there are plenty.  But the bad days - they creep up. For five days I needed to buy groceries and couldn't make myself leave the house.   I actually opened the shelf long life milk I had bought early in the pandemic  to tide us over.  (It's weirdly creamy)  

And then,  yesterday,  I got out of bed,  did 3 loads of washing and went shopping for food. There is now milk and eggs in the fridge.  And to my huge relief,  the supermarkets in Sydney are edging back towards normal.  The price of fresh produce has gone up enormously - but that's because of the bush fires late last year impacting us. One thing this year has brought home to me is how connected we are to the land,  and how when we lose connection,  when we disregard the land,  that's when devastation can arise.

So if you are having a bad day,  be kind to yourself,  and if you are having a good day,  do your washing.  I am still writing lists, as I find myself more forgetful than usual,  when the fog as I call it, comes and sits on my head.  

But yesterday I played scrabble with a friend (appropriately socially distanced)  and life felt more ordinary and thus so much better (and she put down an 8 letter word! Hamsters!  84 points!!) 

Same storm, different boats

I didn't write this. I don't usually put up things I haven't written myself, but this really spoke to me and I thought I would share... I found it on the internet, God only knows where from!

We are not in the same boat.....

I heard that we are all in the same boat, but it's not like that. We are in the same storm, but not in the same boat. Your ship could be shipwrecked and mine might not be. Or vice versa.

For some, quarantine is optimal. A moment of reflection, of re-connection, a time to relax with a cocktail or coffee. For others, this is a desperate financial & family crisis.

For some that live alone, they're facing endless loneliness. While for others it is peace, rest & time with their immediate family.

With the $600 weekly increase in unemployment some are bringing in more money to their households than when they were working. Others are working more hours for less money, due to pay cuts or loss in sales.

Some families of 4 just received $3400 from the stimulus, while other families of 4 saw $0.

Some were concerned about their favorite restaurant closing, while others were concerned if there would be enough bread, milk and eggs for the weekend.

Some want to go back to work because they don't qualify for unemployment, and are running out of money. Others want to enforce the quarantine until a cure is found.

Some are home spending 2-3 hours/day helping their child with online schooling, while others are spending 10-12 hours working from home.

Some have experienced the near death of the virus, some have already lost someone from it, and some are not sure if their loved ones are going to make it. Others don't believe the response matches the threat.

So, friends, we are NOT in the same boat. We are going through a time when our perceptions and needs are completely different.

Each of us will emerge, in our own way, from this storm. It is very important to see beyond what is seen at first glance. Not just looking, actually seeing.

We are all on different ships experiencing this storm as a very different journey.

This feels so true to me! Wishing you all calm waters.