Rest, Recovery, and Subtle Breakthroughs

Weekly Forecast for 11/6

Hello lovely readers. How are you doing this week? I have a few notes and announcements to share before we dive into our forecast:

1. Thank you to the new subscribers joining this space! We’ve had a surprising influx over the past week, so welcome. And thank you to everyone sharing and spreading the word about this newsletter & podcast. Doing all this without social media is somewhat wild, so it means the world to me that you’re enjoying and sharing these posts and helping support this work. You’re all gems.

2. The last link to the class survey was wonky, so here’s a new one! Click to leave input for the online tarot class I’m building. It’s looking lovely, if I do say so myself, and I’d love to hear from you as it continues to take shape before it launches in January.

3. I’m going to be posting in Notes here on Substack as a regular part of the newsletter. This space is an interesting meld of Twitter (sorry, Elon, I will not call it X, you dingus!) and Instagram, and I’m going to be using it to add some mini prompts, reflections, and ways to work with the cards in the weekly reading. You can find it in the Substack feed or in a new fancy tab on the Incandescent Tarot newsletter homepage. Do let me know if there’s anything fun you’d like to see there too; this newsletter is for you - don’t be shy!

4. I’m about to record the latest episode of “Ask a Tarot Reader” and need a question for a mini reading. Submit yours here or email me at info@incandescenttarot.com.

Now, onto the forecast!

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I’ve shuffled the deck very thoroughly this morning and I’m staring at our reading as it lies facedown on my table. What cards will we have today? After a revisit from the Five of Pentacles in our monthly reading, I’m not taking any chances. (And did I mention this card showed up again, days later, as the key card in a reading I did for a friend? I thought spooky season was supposed to be over!)

I’m feeling a big shift as we enter into this month. The season has changed definitively here. More leaves are on the ground than on the trees and a quick frost has wilted the potted mint on my porch. And the tarot has been especially poignant lately; lots of themes of settling in, wrapping up, and turning inwards.

Let’s see what we have in store for the week ahead…

Ha! What a spread. My first impression is that this is a gentle reading. When I first turned over our beginning card, the Ace of Pentacles, I did get a little worried, wondering if my statements about this being an introspective season were off-base. But our following two cards are deeply, enduringly meditative, and oddly, I’m leery of bright and bold energy right now. Left alone or followed by more energetic cards, I’d find the Ace of Pentacles a little confrontational. This week, however, we’re being gifted with a long moment to integrate a new offering.

Apparently I can’t do a tarot reading these days without referencing the Five of Pentacles, so I’m just going to lean into it. This card is our theme card for the month of November. It’s all about suffering, lack, feeling isolated or ostracised, struggle, and a real or perceived sense of not having enough. We also had this card as our theme for August and September. So, clearly, we have a lot to work through in this area! Yet having the Ace of Pentacles lead us into this week makes me think we’re finally ready to accept newness around this tangled subject.

What do we do with this newness? We wait.

I love this sequence more than I can articulate. When something shiny, promising, and with the potential to lead us beyond a place of long-held suffering and stasis arrives it’s easy to feel eager and energized. Yet if our reading have been telling us anything, it’s that we’ve been engaged in a long period of hands-on healing. This is no small feat. A side-theme of our recent readings has also been leaning to discern wisdom and the right path for us from eacapism. What’s enduring and authentic vs. what’s shiny and alluring, bright enough to tempt us off of our path.

Take a moment to think back on what you’ve been learning and practicing here. How have you become better acquainted with your tempting fantasies: how you wish you were vs. how you really are? Building a life that springs from your true self is hard, rewarding, and real. Building a life for a self you wish you could be is frustrating, difficult, and ultimately feels empty. It’s also often rewarded with approval from people or groups you long to join, which is why I’m glad we’re being asked to take this moment slowly.

This week we’ve identified an ace that’s right for us. It’s coming on the heels of a long stretch of examining and ultimately turning down other opportunities: Aces for an idealized self that can never be. Aces that are right for other people. Aces that aren’t viable. When we look at the Ace of Pentacles we see a path winding from the beatutiful garden. If we’re going to take this journey and accept the gift of true knowing, we have to leave comfort and walk down that path, ultimately scaling the mountain in the distance. We have to commit. We have to make it real.

This is a time to congratulate yourself for all the things you’ve been saying no to, walking away from, or giving a long goodbye. Our monthly card is a five and all members of this group show the midpoint of a journey which, fascinatingly, is challening in all four suits of the deck. Conflict, disharmony, and discomfort, it seems, are critical parts of our growth. Once we’ve experienced and integrated challenge, however, we need to add something new - to tip the scale back towards the next step on the path ahead.

Our Ace of Pentacles is showing up this week. Pay attention to realizations, visions for your future, or ideas (especially around money, resources, career, and how you sustain your life and yourself) that make you feel deeply calm. Our othe two cards are both stable fours - the Four of Cups and the Four of Swords - that deal with self-possession and meditative presence. What is making you feel grounded, secure, more like yourself, and more deliberate about how you live your life?

As I look at these cards, I’m feeling called to make a pact with myself: to appreciate and commend my recent efforts to move beyond stale ideas of what I can and can’t do, to take the time to honor my need to process and go within, and to prioritize a way of being that centers rest and mindfulness. Fours are a state of balance and we’re being gifted with this in two areas, our feelings and thoughts. Sometimes experiencing this equanimity can feel, to be blunt, boring. But try to welcome slowness and boredom as a sign that you’re touching something lasting. There’s no rush. Let your calmness work its way into deeper layers of your experience. Resist situations, practices, or people who stoke your emotions and thoughts into a wild burn. The type of knowing we’re integrating is quiet, powerful, and profound. Rest into it and see how it changes you perception of the path you’ve been identifying as the one that’s right for you.

Next week, we’ll be ready to move through the gate in the Ace of Pentacles. For now, we can put down our cups and swords and take it all in.

This week, embrace:

• Appreciation for your recent bravery around facing issues related to our old friend the Five of Pentacles

• Practicing emotional and mental equanimity - what subtle thoughts and emotions emerge when you give yourself space to be with yourself?

• Trust in good things happening

• Letting go of pressre to do, build, move, expand

This week, avoid:

• Rushing

• Making up stories about this moment

• Planning excessively

• Sharing your vision with people unable to appreciate it