APRIL | Monthly Tarot Magic | *Ancient Wisdom for a Turbulent World*

Embark on a journey of self-discovery and celestial wisdom as we reignite the enchanting flame of Monthly Tarot Magic. With tarot as our compass, this episode offers a sanctuary for souls seeking to deepen their understanding of life's ebbs and flows. I, your guide and medium, merge the esoteric with the practical, shedding light on self-care practices often lost in the shuffle of daily life. Whether you're here to find solace in meditation or seek direction from the stars, our mystical conclave welcomes you to explore the validation and direction offered by the universe in times of upheaval.

April's dance with Aries and the retrograde of Mercury sets the stage for our exploration of cosmic energies. As we sift through the season's assertiveness and reflective demands, I share tactics for harmonizing our inner drive with the subtle art of considering others' views. The celestial ballet features Venus in Aries, a new moon solar eclipse, and a full moon in Scorpio, each a beacon for setting intentions and welcoming personal metamorphosis. The tarot cards themselves whisper ancient wisdom, with the Four of Cups and the Knight of Cups urging us to listen to the symphony of opportunities and our own emotional tides, a theme we expand upon throughout our discourse.

This episode is not just a mere reflection but an invitation to experience emotional stability and the transformative power of listening. As we traverse the varied landscape of April, I encourage you to embrace journaling and rituals, allowing these practices to guide you through the bustling month. Together, we step forward with the steadiness of the Knight of Cups, channeling our collective energies to navigate the myriad paths that lie ahead.

Check out the Mercury Retrograde Survival Guide

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

Hey everybody, it's Jeremy from when Walls Can Talk, and I'm excited to finally welcome you back to our first bonus episode of season four. It has been a long time. It's been a long time since I've sat down and recorded Monthly Tarot Magic as a bonus episode for this podcast. I think it's been since like November of 2023, 2022. I don't remember.

Speaker 1: 0:37

But for those of you who have joined the show since then and may have never checked out one of these episodes before, I should probably offer a little bit of a disclaimer here For our listeners that are primarily interested in the paranormal and the dark history and our storytelling and production value and just kind of that immersive content. I just want to highlight that this is not that, and if this just doesn't feel like your cup of tea or something you particularly feel the need or desire to engage with in addition to the rest of the episodes, I want you to know that that's more than okay. This is probably not for everybody, and if it's not for you, I just want to kindly let you know that I will not be offended if you choose to move on and just join us on our next regular episode, but I do feel like there is a huge audience base within our podcast. That is very interested, almost as a window through which to also look at the larger conversations around personal growth and development, spirituality topics, around the metaphysical, the esoteric and just kind of our own connection in our place in the universe. And as a witch and medium, I think I have a very unique opportunity on a space like this to infuse my own takes, my own vision and insight into this podcast space in a way that I can't necessarily always do in some of the other episodes.

Speaker 1: 2:14

And I also kind of treat these monthly tarot magic episodes as a personal gift to myself, because it can be very hard sometimes to slow down and stop enough to reflect on the month ahead of us in any kind of useful or meaningful way, just with the hustle and bustle of life. That can be one of the first things to go by the wayside, like our meditation time or our divinatory practices. Or, if you're not a witch or connect to the metaphysical, this might also be your prayer time. Perhaps your journaling time metaphysical, this might also be your prayer time, perhaps your journaling time. We can deprioritize that self-care if you will, because from our perspective sometimes it doesn't feel like it reflects in our life outwardly, so it perhaps doesn't bring income, or doesn't feed the kids and get them to bed, or doesn't take care of the things we have to do at our busy job, or you know. So this is my opportunity, for both myself and for you. If this is the only half hour 45 minutes to an hour that you get to stop and just drop in and reflect and think on some big topics and ideas, particularly focused through the viewpoint of the month ahead, then I am very excited to provide that space for you.

Speaker 1: 3:35

So Monthly Tarot Magic began at the beginning of this podcast, back in I think it was June of 2021. And I think I've done maybe six, seven, maybe eight of them over the course of the show, and it fell by the wayside for all the reasons that I just described before. And for some reason, I just got this very, very strong sense from the universe that Monthly Tarot Magic belongs back in the show again, that I have something to share and to say that may be beneficial to some people and that it was time to bring it back. So I'm excited to be here. I have taken a lot of notes, I've done some of my own journaling, I've pulled cards around this topic, and my goal here is to try and gather some insights from the universe, from divinity, divine, my guides, whatever word you associate with, the power of the universe outside of ourselves, whether that be, god, that be, whatever that looks like for you. My goal here is just to try and find something in that void to reach out and grab and bring back down into myself through my channel out into the world, that may in some way just give you a little bit of insight and direction for the month ahead.

Speaker 1: 4:54

Sometimes, even when things are hard and difficult, all we need is just a little validation from something outside of us that says yes, the things you're experiencing right now are 100% right on whether they be good or bad. I remember some of the most spiny and difficult tarot pulls I've ever pulled for myself, and by spiny I mean pulling cards that have typically been associated with negative connotations, like the Tower, the Three of Swords, things like that. I found some of those pulls, rather than freaking out and being like, oh my god, something terrible is about to happen, I find myself more feeling like, oh, thank god, at least tarot in the universe is like, hey, yeah, I see it. Things are challenging, and here's why I find that to be a very validating experience. So I just hope to provide a little bit of that for you today.

Speaker 1: 5:47

As with anything in a metaphysical walk or anything divinatory or anything like that, I also want to permission you by saying some of the things that I'm going to say in this episode may not land and may not feel like wow, that's spot on for me, spot on for me, but other aspects might. So if you find yourself discouraged or frustrated at any point, like, oh, that just doesn't feel like right to me, just know that a that is okay. One of the things I always say to any of my clients is take what works and leaves what and leave what doesn't. But also it may be meant for somebody else. So I just hope that, by sprinkling in the breadcrumbs through what I've heard, that we can find something together that feels useful and beneficial in some way.

Speaker 1: 6:39

Approaching this today, I definitely feel a certain level of anxiety, because it's been a long time since I recorded an episode like this and, to be fully transparent, I'm also walking into this one today without a formalized idea of what the title or theme is yet, and I just felt this need to just start recording and that it would come to me. Over the course of it. I've definitely journaled a lot, pulled a lot of cards and reflect on it, but it hasn't distilled itself down to one central message yet, one mantra of sorts that we can repeat throughout the journey of April in order to feel connected and aligned to these energies. So I think it's time to jump in. I don't know that I have anything else to add yet, but let's pull some cards, let's just start with the basics and kind of an overview April 2024, where are we April 2024. Where are we?

Speaker 1: 7:46

So we are in Aries season, which began on March 21st of this year, and Aries season is a very, very powerful one, and the more I think about it today, it's actually very interesting that monthly tarot magic is returning on this month of the year or during this season of the year, because Aries is the first sign of the Zodiac wheel, if there is such a thing as a first, so to speak, with something that's as cyclical as the Zodiac Aries season, and I think anybody who knows an Aries or is an Aries can relate to this. I have an image that was given to me by my tarot teacher, lindsay Mack out of Portland Oregon that I've always returned to and just found like deeply, deeply true for me of what Aries season is. Aries season is the first gasp and the first scream of a newborn infant entering the world, that moment when air enters their lungs for the first time and they release that explosive cry. Very often and I get that not every newborn cries or screams at birth, but I think the energy is still the same. Aries carries this quality of I am here, I have a right to be here and I have something to say, which is why Ares can sometimes come across a little bit abrasive or perhaps a little bit confrontational at times.

Speaker 1: 9:22

In its highest quality, ares is neither of those things. Aries is neither of those things. Instead, it's asserting its right to exist and asserting its place in the world. So Aries is kind of summed up by this idea truly of new beginnings and a sort of pioneering spirit and also this very unbridled raw energy that comes with creation, gestation, birth. And I think what's so interesting about this is that in Aries season we have the opportunity to almost bridle this unbridled energy and use it for our own goals development, passions. It for our own goals, development, passions, progress because it has more drive than many of the other signs of the zodiac.

Speaker 1: 10:15

So what I want us to think about, journal about consider for Aries season, is what are you and what in your soul are you truly passionate about right now? What in your soul are you truly passionate about right now and how could you potentially use the available energy of Aries season to get maybe one step closer towards achieving whatever that passion or that goal is? And I want you to also try to separate this idea of passion and goals from this concept of like. Somehow you have to be a creator or a creative person, or there are other expressions of passion personal development, goals, um, passion towards self-acceptance, passion towards facing some trauma in your life that's coming forward is particularly important right now. Passion towards being more receptive and being more listening. There's so many different ways in which passion can express itself. It's not always going to be the creative fire, the creative output, but really think about that. What has been on your mind and on your soul lately? That's like, hey, I really want to figure this shit out. And how can we use Aries season to move in that direction? And also maybe think on areas in your life where you're desiring a little bit more independence and initiative and just a little bit more assertion of your right to exist. Are there places you could be louder about something, speak out on something, share your emotions in a more loud or prominent way?

Speaker 1: 11:55

There's a lot with Aries season that's worth considering, and I think another thing that's super important about April and oh boy is that from April 1st to April 25th of this year, we are in Mercury retrograde in Aries, which means it means a lot of things. Mercury retrograde is a little bit hard to pin down in a short, concise type of way. Mercury retrograde is really a time for reflection, review, reassessment, particularly around areas of communication, technology, travel, identity, all of these things which can and will make the month of April feel a little bit conflicting and confusing. Because you have one thing, Mercury retrograde, that's encouraging you to slow down, think before you speak, take your time, not identify yourself with immediate emotions, particularly in heated moments, and then Aries is also trying to do all of those things. So I want you to also be aware that there's going to be some times where this month is going to feel conflict, like conflictory Is that a word? I don't know, but you know what I mean or it's going to feel like from moment to moment, your perception and desires and emotions and feelings are changing, kind of like that, and don't Freak out, I guess is really. What I'm coming to is like really really do your best to to listen, to drop in, to check in, to second guess and quantify your emotions of like wow, big emotions will come up and be like wow, do I really, do I identify with this emotion? Is this a reaction to something? And consider also how you assert yourself. If you're stepping forward in communication or stepping forward and allowing yourself to be seen in Aries energy, make sure that you take the time to think about how and why. Are you being genuinely true to your beliefs but also being aware of considering other people's perspectives? There's a difference between stepping forward in a way that's like shoving your ideology and your vision of how things should be down people's throats with no space for their reception to those ideas, and then there's also engaging in dialogue, which I think is also really, really interesting, because there's a lot about listening in the cards that have stepped forward today. So I also will plug in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 14:31

I've written a blog from a little while back called survive Mercury Retrograde. That would be a great resource, but I will reference one thing that I share in the blog, and this is not an idea that I have personally. This was something that actually comes from a fellow drag entertainer that's a dear friend of mine and creates incredible malas. So if you ever need a mala, definitely check them out. Their name is Anastasia and they made this quote once in a live, I think, on social media a while back and they said I'm paraphrasing this here essentially, but they equated Mercury retrograde to a season where it can feel like the Wi Fi signal to our own guides and guardian angels is blocked, making it a little bit more challenging to receive intuitive guidance and support, naturally the way it might feel accessible to us the rest of the time, and so it can feel a little bit like we're navigating life on our own, without the usual divine assistance that we're accustomed to. I think that's a great way of explaining it. I think sometimes our angers, frustrations, short temper that can be very characteristic of Mercury retrograde have way more to do with the fact that suddenly we feel very alone and very unsupported by the external forces that can feel very available to us, especially those of us that are particularly empathetic or sensitive or just spend a lot of time connected to those energies, and so I think this blog might be a really great resource to just give a peruse, see what you think.

Speaker 1: 16:18

The next thing on our astrological forecast, if you will, is we have a new moon solar eclipse in Aries coming up on April 8th, and then we have the pink full moon in Scorpio, I believe, on the 25th of April. I'll triple check that, but I'm pretty sure that's right. New moons, especially, are definitely times for setting intentions around what we want the next cycle to be and really thinking that through for ourselves, and in Aries this will definitely equate, I think, to a sense of self-discovery and identifying where the courage lives within us to face our challenges head on, to face ourself and our relationship to ourself head on, and to set intentions and initiate personal changes that we would like to make in the next cycle. So over the course of the beginning of April, I would really encourage you to stop and think about what would you like to accomplish personally within this next lunar cycle and over the course of the next month, and then when we arrive at next months, it would be interesting to then reflect on kind of what were those things that I identified for myself? Did I accomplish them?

Speaker 1: 17:36

And also, success does not have to look any particular way. Success can just mean that I became more aware of something. It doesn't mean that we necessarily have to arrive at May feeling like, yep, done, check, what's next. That's unrealistic and that's a societal expectation that we've internalized. It's just not how it works y'all. It just really isn't.

Speaker 1: 18:34

And the last thing I'll touch on, because there's so, so, so much sexuality, sensuality, love, romance, romance. But it really is just like what brings pleasure and the sense of love into our lives, whether that be personal or with others. And given that it's going to be in Aries, there's probably going to be this desire for some spontaneity. And so I would just encourage you to, while this placement of Venus in Aries definitely favors bold and direct expressions of love and desire for pleasure and sensuality, make sure that these desires are also balanced with well-considered decisions, just to make sure you're aware that, like, that's what the instinct is going to be, but make sure you've thought through, like, is this actually something I should be doing? Whether it's like launching into a new relationship or spending a ton of money on a new project or just just really like take the hour, two hours week, to like consider, drop in, acknowledge and just make sure that you're making everything from a sound mind. So, yeah, I think I'll also include some like self-care and ritual suggestions in my blog that I'll put up around this.

Speaker 1: 19:52

But with this month being particularly intense, between Aries season, mercury retrograde and the solar eclipse, I think incorporating self-care practices that are focused on grounding and patience and self-reflection is extremely crucial. So some ideas for that might be to perhaps meditate in a place to like slow yourself down, cultivate some patience and clarity of thought, because it's going to feel a little like zingy, if that's a good way to describe it. Journaling might be a good way to do this, just forcing yourself into some deep breaths, moving at a slower pace. I'm not asking you to pull out of Aries energy. I'm asking you to just make sure that as we engage with it, we don't get caught up in the inertia of it all and caught up in the momentum that's created.

Speaker 1: 20:41

And then for the new moon solar eclipse, I think a good ritual might be writing down intentions for your own growth and specifically around, maybe journal around the idea of bravery and of courage and then either seal that list with wax, place it in a spell jar, burn the list, anything that makes you feel like you're releasing those intentions into the universe so that they can now meet with the energies that surround us. Sometimes people do the great first step. It's a little bit like vision boards. Vision boards in and of themselves are incredible things for us, but I find that if you want to actually release what that vision is into the universe and hand it over for it to do its thing with what we've set as our intentions and our desires and our visions Sometimes some sort of additional ritual to kind of represent that and kind of release our own bond to the thing that we've created or the ideas that we've just stated sometimes can get missed or forgotten. I think in the case of vision boards that's fine, because it's really ultimately meant to be for us and ourselves a communication and a communion within our own nature, because a lot of people will post them on their wall or at their work or something, just to continually remind them of what it is that we're working towards and what the goal is ultimately. But in this case we're asking for something bigger than that. We're asking for the universe to conspire and come to our aid, to acknowledge and to accept and to help us actually do whatever it is that we've set down as our intention.

Speaker 1: 22:12

So I'm rambling a little bit and we're 20 minutes in and I haven't even gone to cards. So let's talk cards. I pulled five for this month. The first one that I want to talk about is meant to kind of reflect whatever the current energy is that we are facing. And first one that I want to talk about is meant to kind of reflect whatever the current energy is that we are facing. And the card that I pulled is Seven of Swords.

Speaker 1: 22:33

Swords, obviously, or maybe not so obviously if you're not as familiar with the tarot. Swords generally represent our own association with the power of thought, the almost electrical quality that exists within the human body that we work in tandem with in order to achieve whatever it is that we're achieving in life. It is something that we are stuck with. We will always have a brain, in the sense that we'll always have to work with that tool, and sometimes that can feel directly in opposition to our spirit or to our heart or to our soul. And so the journey of the sword suit represents the journey to accepting and beginning to work with the mind and our brain chemistry as a colleague in creation, in living, in growing, in achieving, in anything. Ultimately it is a partner that we carry literally inside of our body that if we continue to be in battle with on a constant basis it can be very hard to move anywhere. So it's a very complicated thing.

Speaker 1: 23:43

But what I think is really interesting about the current energy that I see in Seven of Swords is that the human instinct in life is to see opportunity elsewhere all the time fence, and so we always want the thing that we don't have. But Seven of Swords is this idea that contradicts that human aspect of our mental psychology that always wants to say like hey, look over there. And distracts ourself from what's actually in the here and now, when the thing that probably actually desperately needs our attention in our life right now is right here already. Seven of Swords represents this concept of I don't have enough or I won't have enough of what I need, in not a selfish, demanding way. It's more of a like what if I don't have what I need to succeed, there's something else that I need, there's something else that I need to learn or find.

Speaker 1: 24:49

The image of the Seven of Swords is this individual carrying five swords in their hand and, depending on the tarot deck, it's very often for the figure in the imagery to be depicted with two swords on the ground behind them. Or, in the case of the tarot deck that I use, which is Terror of the Holy Spectrum by Chase Voorhees, the figure in silhouette is like barely managing to hold the two and they're falling to the ground. And so what happens to us in a Seven of Swords moment is that we become so focused on the two swords on the ground, or the two swords that are dropping that we perceive are dropping at least we don't even realize the incredible potential and possibilities of the fives that are still in our hands. We're so, so focused in the rear view mirror of like oh God, I'm losing these other two, where we forget that we actually already have five. We have five in our hands to work with, and it becomes a perceived myth of something external, outside of ourself, like I need to go get that thing, when really the seven of swords is asking us to realize that that pressure that we're putting on ourselves is actually something inside of us. Why are we so desperate on turning around to pick up these ones that maybe don't belong to us at all. Maybe they don't belong to us at all, maybe they don't belong in our hands, and I think a really good example of this is actually our phones.

Speaker 1: 26:13

Phones represent Seven of Swords beautifully, because so often of the time we're surrounded by the most beautiful friendships, the most powerful opportunities for connection, opportunities for creation, powerful conversations with the people around us. Or maybe we're in like the most beautiful locations, with like these beautiful views or a bird that just landed on the birdhouse in front of us, or all of these things like beautiful artwork on our walls or photos of our own achievements or our loved ones, and yet we're still so focused and locked into the stories that our phone gives us of like if only I had this, or I want what this person has on social media, that we forget like oh my God, we're kind of surrounded by like a lot of beautiful things. So this journey of the current moment is definitely a little bit of a wrestling a wrestling a wrestling with our own brain chemistry that wants to constantly divert us away from what's actually important. Yeah, so definitely like think on that one. Where are the areas in your life that you're desperately clinging to swords that are falling out of your hands rather than realizing you know what. Maybe those ones aren't meant for me right now and I have incredible opportunity with the five swords still in my hand. And the next card that I pulled was more of a challenge for us. It kind of represents the Mercury retrograde and Aries energy of all this, and it's just really really interesting because I think it's very close to what I was talking about both in my blog and in this episode around how to manage and navigate Mercury retrograde expectation to somehow fix things or come to a solution for things.

Speaker 1: 28:07

It can be very difficult to accept the truth of where both ourselves or where other people in our lives are truly at. I think that relationship with ourselves or with other people can become a bit of a traumatic experience in life. When we begin to misinterpret the reality of where we are at or where other people are at as having somehow to do with us, we immediately internalize where people are at in their lives as somehow a reflection of our own worthiness or unworthiness, or lovability or unlovability, rather than just accepting where people are, where we are at, for what it is, without any judgment or misconceptions around where that identity actually puts us. If we begin to make where parts of ourselves or other people in our lives are at somehow about us, that immediately means that we are no longer truly doing deep listening. There's this phrase from the Legend of the Holy Grail, or certain versions of the Legend of the Holy Grail, that I really popped to mind around this, and it's this concept of like asking somebody, quote what ails you, what do you need to be whole again? And this card isn't about the action that we perceive as being necessary to take after we get an answer to that. This card is actually about the desire and willingness to listen and just be with the response and not move forward. And I am so excited that this one got paired with the next card that I pulled, because it really builds on this idea even more.

Speaker 1: 29:49

The next card that I pulled was based around the ideas of like where are the hidden opportunities for us this month that we might not immediately acknowledge? And the card that I pulled was the Hierophant. This is a card that really represents prayer and sacred knowing. There's this phrase from a psychology book around the Hierophant, called Vertical Respiration, that I'm absolutely obsessed with, this idea of almost breathing upwards into the universe, both in and out, which is a powerful form of extraordinarily vulnerable give and take and a spiritual two-way conversation, unguarded, without expectation, without filter, and one that demands a certain level of ownership to the silent inner voice that will respond to the questions we ask and provide insight.

Speaker 1: 30:43

I think so often we approach an idea of prayer or divination or listening to a higher power waiting for this, like clash of thunder, hand of God writes on the wall and gives us the answer that we shush, the immediate answer that we get internally, and the hierophant challenges us to accept your own knowing without being like no, you're not the answer that I'm looking for, because the reality with the Hierophant is we are the wisdom that we seek for in the world, from others. We are our own guru, leader, mentor, visionary, and the power that it takes to vulnerably exhale into the universe and then inhale the responses and then take ownership over the silent, quiet response that we get. That's a very, very powerful thing. So the Hierophant really is this symbol of the spiritual life, of spiritual relationships with both ourselves and spiritual relationships with ourself and divinity is in and of itself a practice for every relationship that we have in this life. If we can learn to excel in this quiet internal communication that's based around this idea of like prayer, meditation, quiet acceptance of what we're receiving, if we can master that mastering and just becoming more attuned at moving through the relationships that we experience in our life with more gentleness and acceptance, it'll make everything so much easier.

Speaker 1: 32:27

It's really about how we highlight and underline our relationship to ourselves first, and it's almost impossible to navigate this particular type of communion with the spiritual, as seeing ourselves as all-powerful, like, if anything, truly embodying the Hierophant, might be even more vulnerable and humbling than any other relationship that we'll have At least I think it should be. It also provides us with the innate in the idea of what the Hierophant is. It provides us with this net to fall to when things don't work out quite the way we might hope or desire. Here's the tea no matter what we do, no matter how deeply we drop in, no matter how connected we are to spirit, no matter how much we check in on decisions, not everything is going to go the way that we want it to, whether that be that other people outside of us aren't checking in on what they're doing, which changes the trajectory of things, like we don't live in a world where every single one of us are emotionally, spiritually, checked in and in tune all the time. We just don't. So the idea of the hierophant also tells us like, hey, even if things don't go perfectly and you've done everything you can to possibly try and navigate that, like we discover that like those experiences do not immediately equate to our worth, our competence, our lovability, so like there's less to lose, I guess, or we hold less grudges against ourselves.

Speaker 1: 34:02

For however that fares, I want to talk about the next card, which is the card of what's the transformation for this month, and I really filtered this one through the new moon solar eclipse in Aries and I'm excited to talk about this because I pulled the four of cups and I think I've pulled this card a couple times in different, certainly in readings with clients, but I think it's come up in a couple of the monthly tarot magics in the past. This is a very strange card and here's why this card seems to have sometimes completely contradictory relationships and interpretations to many readers and many people who know the tarot deeply and have done their time, put in the work, journaled, faced their trauma. It's not because people don't know what they're doing. Just for some reason, this card wants to be seen and wants to be read in ways that don't necessarily always feel like different shades of the same color. Sometimes they can feel like completely different animals, and I have even myself been told by my guides, by the card itself, two completely different interpretations, and I am one reader and it's been like, hey, I want you to talk about me this way one time. It's I want you to talk about me this way another time. Okay, let's break this down a little bit.

Speaker 1: 35:22

Given the fact that fours in the tarot as a whole seem to symbolize stability and almost the foundation for the soul, I like to think of fours the way. One of the ways I remember it is that like four equals the four walls of, like, the base of a house. Okay, so we have this idea of like fours are stability and foundations and water as a whole. And this is, I think, our second yeah, our second of three cups cards in this reading, which is like heavily this sense of our emotional capacity, our emotional space, the wateriness of our intuitions, our, our softness, our, if we think about the fact that water represents our connection to our emotional capacity, which also melds and morphs to whatever vessel it is poured into. I actually think that this contradiction makes sense for this card.

Speaker 1: 36:18

Some people will say that this card represents something along the lines of stubbornness, passivity, procrastination or lack of receptivity to spirit, to whatever. I've also read it at times to reflect kind of the opposite of this, which is this idea of like, sacred inaction, a discerning pause or a reminder to like drop in and inquire if an action that we are perceiving as necessary is actually necessary. It's very much this idea of like, stopping and asking ourself is this truly for me, or am I being offered an opportunity from the outside that may not be for me at this moment that doesn't mean it's going to come back in the exact same way, but it will come back in some way, shape or form. It's like having the first job opportunity come in and just have this feeling of like oh, I know I don't have another offer right now, but there's just something that doesn't feel aligned about this one. And then all of a sudden, sudden, like, the dream job drops into your inbox and you're like oh, okay, cool, that's why got it. It's that concept that I read with this card more often than not, but I think in both versions of how this card can be identified.

Speaker 1: 37:45

There's one thing that's standing out for me this month in particular, and, and I think the important word associated with this card in both contexts is, again, to listen. And I want to make a little bit of a hot take that might be a little hard for some people to hear. We, as humans, have nearly forgotten what it means to listen, and here's why what it means to listen and here's why and I am guilty of this, I'm just as guilty of this as anybody else we immediately equate listening to like let's, let's talk, for example, about having a conversation with somebody. I know that this concept extends much further, beyond this, into listening to spirit, listening to self. When we equate listening, we immediately, when we identify the idea of listening, we immediately equate listening with deciding what interesting response or story do I want to add to this conversation? And then, for those of us that are like extreme empaths, we find ourselves thinking if it's not, what do I want to say back to this person? We also find ourselves equating okay, what do I need to do to solve the perceived problem that I'm seeing in the person who's talking? How do I fix things, how do I make it better? How do I make sure nobody gets angry at me?

Speaker 1: 39:04

In these situations where we might think that we're giving to somebody by wanting to add to the conversation, wanting to solve a perceived problem in somebody else's life, we might think that we're giving of ourselves in some way. But here's the painful truth about this form of listening we're actually taking for ourselves, we're adding into conversations in ways to make ourselves feel good or to be perceived as smart or virtuous or accomplished. And so I think the reason that this card is here has nothing really to do with the contradictory, in my eyes, ways of interpreting the card and still hiding, highlighting this idea of like. What would it take or how would it feel to just be completely receptive to whatever it is that's being shared with us. And just like in Queen of Cups that we talked about earlier, this card has nothing to do with the actions or responses that we take and all about the very present moment of listening, moment of listening Like. What would it take to be the figure on the artwork of this card and uncross our arms and just accept what is being said without taking. And then the final card that I pulled is Knight of Cups and I wanted this one to kind of be a general guidance for this month. Knight of Cups is this idea.

Speaker 1: 40:32

Well, let's start with this. I find all nights in the tarot there's four of them. All reflect an idea of methods of movement, rhythm, the way that we behave, and cups obviously we've been talking about this this whole time are all about our emotional capacity, our watery nature, our sensitivities. I think we're convinced by the world that our emotions and state of being are presented just as that, as a state of being, so like. Here's what I mean by that. Sorry, I get this concept might be a little conflicting and unconventional. To succeed in the world, we're convinced that we need to always feel good or be happy, like that's succeeding, that's doing well, that's being a successful human on this planet. The reality is is that life hurts sometimes it just does, and so, perceiving these hurts like loss, anger, frustration, disappointment we perceive those feelings immediately as somehow an innate failure as a human being. Failure as a human being and that perception of it as failure leaves us in a very unsteady spot, allowing the water in the cup that our night is carrying to feel like it can very easily splash and spill. I think a good example of this. I don't really like to always bring love into cards where they're not necessarily there, but I think it's a good example to kind of illustrate what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1: 42:17

Rom-coms or romantic movies of any kind, for example, have displayed the concept of love is a feeling, and it can often be like this consistent feeling that somebody in the movie feels almost all the time and it's presented to us in this way that says like, hey, this feeling that this character is experiencing that is what love is. And so when we don't feel that feeling in a situation of love or where we're starting a romantic relationship or something like that, it can cause us to freak out of like, oh my God, I'm not feeling that feeling that everybody says you're supposed to have. When we're angry at a loved one or a family member or a friend, does that mean immediately that we no longer care for them? Of course not. Of course it does not mean that we no longer love them.

Speaker 1: 43:11

Jessica Dore wrote a book called Tarot for Change, that is I just I can't praise it high enough. She wrote this reflection and complete recentering on the Knight of Cups that I want to read to you. She wrote. Instead of wondering what real love should feel like, perhaps we should ask ourselves like, perhaps we should ask ourselves when I love, what does it look like? Basically, when our emotions become viewed as a set of actions and choices rather than a singular feeling we must somehow adhere to and constantly fail at, we become a much safer container for carrying the more uncomfortable feelings.

Speaker 1: 43:52

So, in essence, the Knight of Cups which is going to be our guidance for the month which makes sense, because we've already talked about how so many elements of what this month is about to be is going to feel contradictory, it's going to feel confusing, it's going to feel at odds with each other. I know that when I experience those feelings, I'm a person with a Capricorn sun and Aries moon and a Libra rising, and those, by nature, fight with each other all the time, which can make me feel, quite honestly, a little bit crazy, and I'm not going to talk about that too much because I'm on my own mental health journey after a recent diagnosis and new medication. So I'm on my own journey, that I'm not ready to talk about all that yet, and I deeply apologize. If bringing it up was triggering to anybody. That was certainly not my intention, but my point being is, things are going to feel all over the place in April and I think they just are.

Speaker 1: 44:46

What do we need to do to hold the cup steady through that process of moving through this month? What would it feel like to run alongside the Knight of Cups and internalize a little bit of their steadiness into what it is we're doing? So I think steadiness is extremely important, and also this idea of deep listening. Without internalizing the need to respond, the need to fix it after it happens, can we just be and just allow ourselves to receive whatever is being shared, whether that be from others, from loved ones, from ourself, from the universe, from divinity? So there's a lot here and I really hope.

Speaker 1: 45:30

I definitely feel a little out of practice on presenting all this information, so I truly hope, truly, truly, truly hope that there were some things in this that felt useful, helpful, and I want to encourage you to now, if you have the time and space to do so, take all of this information now, journal about it, reflect on it, make rituals around it about it, reflect on it, make rituals around it, pull additional cards for yourselves to take this collective energy and fine tune it even more, because this is just a starting point. My goal here is to create a starting line for you from which you can cross the threshold into April, into the rest of Aries season, and feel like you have a strategy of sorts of how to manage planetary movements, astrological signs and a busy, busy moving world. So I'm going to leave it there for now. I can't thank you enough for checking this out.

Speaker 1: 46:30

If you've listened to the end, I actually would really really, really really appreciate feedback on these episodes, whether you shoot me a message on Instagram at when walls can talk with underscores for spaces, or, um, on my email, jeremy, at when walls can talk tarotcom. This is not a call to action just to like throw these in here. Like, I genuinely want to know who gained something from these little extra special sideline additions to the show, because they mean a lot to me. But I want to make sure that they mean a lot to you and if we feel like there's a better house for these elsewhere, we can definitely look into that. But for now, I hope you gain something from this little exploration into no-transcript.