Tarot for the Summer Portal
Cards from the Pagan Otherworlds Tarot Deck
I often pull cards when I start something new. It has become a way for me to honor the beginning moment, the excitement and nerves of the unknown path ahead and the hopes and dreams for it, and it offers me a kind of buoy to hold onto, or a light to guide me, as I continue step by step on the unfolding path.
Today, I chose to pull a few cards to mark the beginning of this artist’s residency experiment. I can sense some part of myself wanting to honor this experiment with an an abundance of intention. Almost as if by conducting intentional rituals and creating guidelines, studio hours, an artist statement, and a summer reading list, she will create enough scaffolding and foundation to hold this experience as real and true and valid and not merely a silly joke, a child’s game of make believe, something that will get forgotten and abandoned just as quickly as it initially brought excitement and experimentation.
This part of me is afraid she won’t be taken seriously, that her dreams are just fairytale, make believe, silliness, or that she herself is silly and naive and childish to even want these things.
Oh how tender these parts can be. She holds the pain of so many generations of being silenced, scolded, and made to feel small and silly. And all she really wants is to be heard, acknowledged, and loved, and told:
Your dreams are not foolish. Your joy is not dangerous. Your life can be a kind of fairytale infused with magic. I take you seriously, I love you dearly, and you make so much sense to me.
A card to represent this Summer Portal:
Death (Reversed)
“There is no way to a creation season without our willingness to move through an uprooting phase of our lives.”
— Lindsay Mack, Tarot for the Wild Soul
You are entering a phase of deep soul-level shifts and transformation. Something is ready to be released, alchemised, and let go of.
Death is not an ending but a transition, an initiation into rebirth. In the space that is created something new is waiting to take shape in the transformation.
How can you meet yourself in this moment with an abundance of unconditional love and compassion? How can you hold space for all parts of yourself during this transformation? Could it be possible that this new way of holding yourself is the transformation it’s self?
What am I letting go of? What am I letting die in order to be reborn?
Two of Cups (Reversed)
“This card invites us to open our arms to all parts of ourselves, especially the parts that feel most challenging to love.”
— Lindsay Mack, Tarot for the Wild Soul
What would it be like to set down the second arrow of self judemement, self criticism, self-blame, even towards the parts of us that are doing the judging, criticising, and blaming?
How could you instead create space for all of you? Could you get curious with everything that lives inside of you? Could you stay with the discomfort of it long enough to find out what it is really trying to protect you from? What it’s really afraid of? What it’s deepest most secret hopes and dreams are?
What is possible when you stop avoiding what is present and embrace it instead? Without an agenda to fix or change, but with an abundance of love and compassion for all that got you here, and all that is yearning for the healing embrace of love, care, and acknowledgement?
This is an invitation to embrace all parts of yourself, especially the wounded, painful, angry, unpleasant, challenging aspects of self. This is an invitation to take the courageous path inward, to dare to look into the shadows and to bring what has been hiding into the light of awareness, acknowledgment, forgiveness, compassion, and love.
Can you become the compassionate observer of your whole self, even the challenging parts? Can you remind yourself that: You are safe. You are loved. You are enough. And you are inherently worthy of all of this. Nothing to prove, nothing to earn.
What am I moving toward? What is being reborn?
Strength (Reversed)
This is a moment to dig deep, to connect with your inner strength and courage, to face what has kept you repeating the same patterns of staying small, hidden, and separate.
To get to the other side, you must go through the portal, allowing it to change you at the deepest level.
What is the courageous choice? Which is the path that you can sense will lead you to expand your capacity in ways that might scare you, but that your heart and soul is calling you toward?
Before you continue, know that there will be parts of you that try to keep you on the familiar path, that want desperately to keep you safe. These parts have been doing an important job for a long time, they often live in the past and operate under strict black and white beliefs about what is and is not safe.
Turn toward these parts, speak directly to them, and give them a voice. Breathe into the spaces in your body that feel tight and tense, the places that have been holding it in and holding it together for a long, long time. Let your breath be a soft healing river of love and care and understanding. Let it wash over and ease the pain and hurt and loneliness.
The important reversal remember: You are not alone anymore and you don’t have to do any of this alone anymore. You deserve all the support you need and there is an abundance of it at your fingertips. Receiving support begins with turning your attention toward yourself, acknowledging the places and parts that are holding something in and holding it all together. It’s time to let go, but even the letting go gets to be gentile, safe, slow, and supported.
What do I need to remember on this journey through this season?
The Magician (Reversed)
Allow yourself to be imperfect. Sharing even, or especially, from your imperfect self, is a gift to yourself and the world.
When you show up, allowing yourself to make something even if it isn’t any good, you invite the possibility of creation. If you never show up to write the shitty first draft, than you will never allow the possibility of writing the poem that changes someone’s life.
When studio hours begin, dive in:
- Write out all your fears of failure for 20 mintues.
- Scribble all over a piece of paper.
- Make something messy and ugly.
- Dance like crazy and shake around to loud music.
Your job isn’t to make something good, you are not here to be the art critic. Your job is just to show up and move the energy within you.
The best way to get unstuck, is to create something/express something, anything. All you need to do is move the energy. The rest will take care of it’s self. Be an open channel for the energy to flow through.
And remember, you can always begin again tomorrow.
A note of recognition and gratitude — I pay homage and extend my eternal gratitude to Lindsay Mack for all that I have learned from their teachings of the tarot cards through the lens of Soul Tarot (Lindsay’s form of tarot interpretation and reading). Lindsay’s teachings have informed and expanded my understanding of the tarot and my life as a whole by osmosis. Much of what I share in regards to tarot card interpretations, comes from what I have learned directly from Lindsay, their teachings, and their book Tarot for the Wild Soul.
