The BloG
Major concepts. minor musings.
Monthly Reflection: Seven of Cups & The Devil
January Reflection - Seven of Moons (Cups)
Hooray - we made it through January! We often feel like this is the slowest month of the year, but surprisingly, talking to clients and friends, it feels like the pace has been picked up as we’ve entered into 2026 - and I have certainly felt this myself too!
Chaotic and hectic, these are the two words I’ve heard others (and myself) say over and over again since the start of the year, which is why the Seven of Moons is no surprise.
In this card, we’re looking at what’s in front of us and we don’t really know what to do with it. Ultimately, this can cause apprehension, procrastination and overwhelm, and we can see this in the hesitation of the hand in the image.
Perhaps we have multiple options and we don’t know which way to go. This isn’t a case of having to make a clear cut decision, this isn’t big stuff. I’s the small things. It’s when we have a to-do list as long as our arm, and we don’t know which task to start with. It’s when we have 1000 creative ideas, so it’s impossible to discern which ones have potential and which don’t. It’s thinking about the next step in your business and not knowing which one is right for you. It’s trying to juggle more social commitments than you can plausibly fit into your diary…
Monthly Reflection: Justice & The Empress
It might be a new year, but it’s also a new month, and with that, comes a Monthly Reflection, just a little later than usual! This month, I used the Prisma Visions deck and pulled two major arcana cards, which feels rather fitting considering the shifting energy, between these two years (you can read about 2025 here and 2026 here).
Justice unsurprisingly concludes what has been a tough year for many, with The Empress being a welcome soft introduction to 2026. Let’s break this down, shall we…
2026: Year of The Wheel
As you may have seen in last month’s post about The Hermit, each year has a corresponding tarot card, calculated by adding the digits of the year together. In 2025, this card was number 9, The Hermit. This means that 2026’s Card of The Year is the Wheel of Fortune. Buckle up, because the Wheel of Fortune promises one hell of a ride.
This can be one of the most misunderstood archetypes of the tarot deck because of (surprise, surprise!) the way it’s portrayed in the media. The Wheel of Fortune is not a harbinger of bad luck, though watching rom-com Just My Luck in the 2000s (long before I came by my first tarot deck) certainly made me think so. This card isn’t an ominous omen that bad luck will befall you either, much like the Death card isn’t an omen of death! Like all tarot cards, the Wheel of Fortune is complex and nuanced, and focusing on the idea of ‘luck’ really misses the point.
So, what does The Wheel of Fortune actually represent? First and foremost it is, well, a wheel, and so it is representative of cycles, in their many forms. This can be patterns that need to be addressed or cycles that need to be honoured. Furthermore, wheels and cycles are also a symbol of perpetual motion, something that indicates change. We also cannot ignore the mystical nature of the Wheel of Fortune. While I am a big proponent of free-will (my practice largely centres around using tarot as a tool of empowerment), some things are indeed bigger than us and outside of our control, and this card serves as a reminder.
And so these are our key themes for 2026 - cycles, change and control…
2025: Year of The Hermit - Year in Review
Did you know that if you add the digits of the year together, the number we get corresponds to a tarot card that represents the undercurrent of the collective energy for the year? For this year, if we add 2+0+2+5 together, we get 9. This number corresponds to The Hermit, and at the start of this year, I wrote this post about it. But tarot is useful for more than just looking ahead. It’s also a useful tool for looking back. In particular, if you read tarot, looking at the cards in a reflective way like this can certainly be a great way to further develop your understanding of the cards.
So. Year of The Hermit. What did we expect? Well, The Hermit is a card of introspection, self-reflection, personal journeys and spending time alone. This meant that, at the beginning of the year, the expectation was a prioritisation of the self, a deeper understanding of the self and a withdrawal from ‘always available’ culture. On the less favourable side, we could expect to see loneliness and obsessive navel-gazing. You can read the full breakdown here.
And how exactly did this energy appear in our lives over the course of the year…
Monthly Reflection: Six & Seven of Cups
As we enter into the month of December, could I use any deck but the Yuletide Tarot for our Monthly Reflection? In this Christmastime-themed deck, the Cups suit is renamed to the suit of Good Cheer, and interestingly, we’ve pulled sequential cards - the Six and the Seven.
November Reflection - Six of Good Cheer
Traditionally, this card is about nostalgia and, in this deck, we have a parent watching what appears to be his children, walking off to the front door of a house. We could assume that this is dad, sending his children off to their other parent for Christmas. In that moment, we might expect he reflects on previous Christmases spent with his children. Perhaps he reflects on how little they once were (and how fast they’re growing). Perhaps he recalls Christmases pre-separation, where the whole family was together, and the children weren’t being passed between their parents. All of this can bring up mixed emotions. Memories of happy Christmases past can equally feel painful when we realise that things are different now. But that doesn’t mean that where we are is bad or broken. We can feel fully content with the life we are leading, and still be sad that some things don’t exist anymore…
Monthly Reflection: Justice & Seven of Wands (Rev)
October Reflection: Justice
When the card Justice appears in a reading, things are off-kilter in some way. Most obviously, it can be because an injustice has occurred, and for many, there may have been a very clear and obvious ‘wrongdoing’ in the month of October. However, as a collective reading, this may not have been the case for all. For some, the injustice is simply the imbalance of things, and Justice appears with her cool-headed clarity, revealing to us exactly what is wrong.
Justice is one of two cards in the tarot deck that speak to the concept of balance, but where Temperance refers us to an additive approach (what can we incorporate into our lives to bring balance?) Justice on the other hand asks us what we can remove.
Something has been brought to your attention, whether through a direct injustice, or simply through irrefutable clarity. A situation has shown you what it really is, and in October, we were invited to consider, what are we going to do about it? Because you can’t throw more at this problem and think that it’s going to change, or magically go away. Something’s gotta go…
Monthly Reflection: Queen of Wands & The Star (& Nine of Swords)
In last month’s reflection, we saw hope that things were looking brighter ahead with The Star. Interestingly, The Star has made another appearance this month, and so it appears that September may have been a little more challenging than we hoped it would be.
Challenges aside, these cards remind us not to give up hope, to keep focused on our dreams and that every challenge has a purpose, that will serve us long-term. And so, as we close out another month, with the end of the year rapidly approaching, it’s time to ask ourselves, what can we learn from our experiences in September?
Suits & Seasons: Autumn
With the Autumn Equinox, we have officially reached autumn! And as the seasons change, we continue our Suits & Seasons series. In Spring, we explored its connection to the Pentacles. In Summer, we delved into its link to the Wands. But what about Autumn?
At face value, it doesn’t seem like the most obvious pairing. However, delving a little deeper, it doesn’t feel like the Cups could belong to any other season. So, just as we’ve explored for previous seasons - what can they teach us about one another, and what wisdom do they share, that we can learn from, as we reach the peak of cosy season?
The Connection
Let’s start with the lighter stuff first, shall we? Autumn is warm and fuzzy season - sweater weather, hot cups of tea and coffee, and pumpkin spice everything. It’s a comforting season that wants to wrap you up in a warm blanket. The emotional Cups cards feel right at home here…
Reclaiming The Hierophant
With all of his associations with ordered religion, patriarchal systems and the pressure to conform, The Hierophant is a notoriously unpopular archetype in the tarot community. Believe me, I get it - especially in today’s sociopolitical climate.
But no card is all bad, the same as no card is all good. In fact, The Hierophant is far more neutral than you might think.
Yes, he represents all of those things, but he represents so much more.
When viewed more positively, we see him as a mentor or a teacher, a representation of community and tradition. But these are just buzzwords. And when you line them up alongside the others - religion, patriarchy, conformity, teacher, community, tradition - even the positive ones look a little less so. In today’s world, these words can lead us to see him as a symbol of someone who might abuse a position of power, or who forces us to live by rules that aren’t in alignment with who we are, or who gatekeeps wisdom, spiritual connection and truth.
I know - things aren’t looking good for our buddy, The Hierophant. But bear with me, because we’re just getting to the good stuff…