As each new year dawns, so does extra motivation to make changes that help us to align with our preferred circumstances. We recognize most clearly at this time that it is our own conscious action that helps build the world we want, as does the release of habits and relationships that no longer serve us. The wisdom of the Tarot can help us as we navigate our path towards what sparks joy and away from that which weighs us down. The images and essences behind the cards help us to articulate and focus as we consciously set goals and take steps into our new lives.

Your Yearly Tarot reading is not a flat prognostication of the coming year, but rather an invitation to participation in your own empowerment. Select your zodiac sign (and your rising sign and/or moon sign if you know it) to meet your Tarot coach for 2020. May this be your strongest, most joyful year yet!

ARIES:
Card: The Devil
Theme: Aligning with healthy choices
Meditation for yourself: With awareness, I make better choices
When in doubt, try: Rehab, Keto, Yoga, A long walk
Practical action: Start a food and/or exercise log, go to a 12 step meeting, cut up your credit cards

Okay, don’t freak out – this is NOT a gloom and doom card. It is a call to healthy routines. It is a reminder that bad habits limit you – you know, like cigarettes, booze, junk food, shopping, or surfing the internet. Or you may be in the habit of giving too much power to another person or a belief system. It could be that a job or even a hobby that is sucking up all of time, energy and resources, leaving you one dimensional and keeping you from succeeding in other areas of your life. This card invites you to acknowledge the bad habit so that you can eliminate its power. Create a new routine or two to support your self-mastery. The Devil challenges you to take power back. And as you master a healthier schedule, you’ll be leaving more room (and time, and resources) for being more of who you really want to be. And hanging out with people who share similar healthy habits.

TAURUS:
Card: The Emperor
Theme: Building your vision
Meditation for yourself: I manifest my visions for the good of all.
When in doubt: Tell everyone you are building a thing…then build the thing
Practical action: Hire the best people, Print up some business cards, Introduce yourself as an expert

The Emperor is a master planner – one who can envision a better world for him(her)self, and one who has the moxie to build it. First, the vision, then the belief in the vision, then the building. You’ve got to have all three parts. And since this card has shown up for you, your Tarot Mission is to build it. Whether it’s an actual physical thing (like a cabin by a lake) or an entrepreneurial thing (like a freelance business), build it. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to the handle the power tools yourself…feel free to find tasks to delegate. You are the boss, you are the architect, you call the shots and outsource the menial labor. (Unless you really dig getting your hands dirty, then by all means, knock yourself out.) Sit comfortably in your authority, make it happen.

 

GEMINI:
Card: Temperance
Theme: Better together
Meditation for yourself: I find myself whole while submitting to new ensembles
When in doubt: Tag along with the tribe, Invent a new fusion genre, Improvise
Practical action: Join a group (or reinvest in your membership), Make ensemble art, upcycle something old into something beautifully useful

This is card is kind of about cocktails. Not so much about the joy of drinking, but the thrill of combining elements in just the right way to create something new and delicious. This card calls you to find right ratios – invent surprising new blends incorporating unlikely individual elements. That does require the spirit of experimentation …and the willingness to flop occasionally. This is like a jazz ensemble, and improv comedy, and perfecting a ribbon winning recipe. Your Tarot Mentor is suggesting your most alive moments in the next year will be discovered as you orchestrate some divine art by bringing together different objects – or philosophies, or art forms, or jobs, or flavors, or people – and making magic. You are at your most powerful as you upcycle, merge and meld, marry, mix, re-mix, and co-mingle. (Special note: Alcohol is not required.)

CANCER
Card: Judgment
Theme: All is revealed…and it is good.
Meditation for yourself: When I open to accept myself, I open to accept others
When in doubt: Forgive yourself
Practical action: Reveal a truth about yourself, submit your thesis, look in the mirror and find five things to adore, let go of (at least) one outdated expectation of yourself

In most tarot decks, the image on this card illustrates the medieval European concept of “Judgment Day”. Trumpets sound as men, women, and children step naked out of their coffins and into the light. This might sound spooky, but for us symbol-readers it is a call to step out of your past and trust in a fresh, new life. It is freedom from past mistakes, past regrets, unfulfilled dreams. It is a release from immature expectations and old knee-jerk responses and the embrace of mature consciousness. It is forgiveness and acceptance – for yourself as well as others. This Tarot Mentor says that your success lies in looking back at how far you’ve come and recognizing your beautiful evolution with every step of the journey.

 

 

LEO
Card: The Lovers
Theme: Negotiating win-win contracts
Meditation for yourself: I create mutually delightful contracts with ease
When in doubt: Ask for what you want
Practical action: Flirt, negotiate intimacy, communicate with words, barter

The Lovers seems like a sexy card, but it’s the kind of sexy that comes from knowing you have reached a mutually beneficial agreement with another party (or parties). The point is to negotiate contracts we value enough to uphold. We have personal responsibilities in our personal contracts, including what we choose to hang on to and what we choose to let go of for the good of the relationship. It reminds us to choose the relationships that support our best selves – and vice versa. For you, Leo, this Tarot Mentor suggests that your most powerful moments in the new year will be found as you negotiate your needs with those of another VIP. Be smart, be clear, and confirm “win-win” agreements. (And for what it’s worth – this card speaks to all important relationships: business, family, platonic and romantic.)

 

VIRGO
Card: The Star
Theme: Everything falls into place
Meditation for yourself: I am in the right place for good things.
When in doubt, try: Believing in a benevolent universe, Wishing on a star, Singing a lullaby
Practical action: Create a vision board and load it with positive images and quotes, pick a social media platform to be inspired and share your inspirations, look for the silver lining

 

The Star is inspiration, hope, guidance. This card is the sign that you are moving in the right direction. If you have been looking for a path, praying for a little help, this is it – you are on your way. Perhaps more importantly: you can inspire others of the rightness of their journey too. Your Tarot Mentor is calling you to trust your guiding stars AND to be a guiding star to others. Look for lovely little synchronicities to validate your forward momentum and then share those vibes. Go ahead get excited by signs and omens, consult an astrologer, have faith in a benevolent, magical universe. And then take all that light mojo and spark conversations – in person and social media. Be a beacon.

 

LIBRA
Card: Strength
Theme: Grace under fire
Meditation for yourself: I got this
When in doubt: Stay cool and trust your talent
Practical action: Do the thing, apply, try out, audition, make it so

This is not about physical strength or brute force. This card is about finding grace in your determination. It’s about directing your will towards getting what you want, without being a blowhard or a bully. It’s about feeling the impatience and/or the fear and/or the surprise and moving forward anyway. It’s like being a soldier only you aren’t fighting against external armies, the battle is really with the internal ninjas. (Sometimes we are our own worst enemy, you know?) This Tarot Mentor confirms that you have the juice to conquer this challenge as long you keep calm and carry on. This year, a multi-phase project needs you to want it. You are called to honor the ego that tells you what you can do, while engaging the confidence and decorum it takes to get it. What you want, wants you…so walk in faith and claim it.

SCORPIO
Card: Hierophant
Theme: Growth through practicality
Meditation for yourself: I gain by holy submission
When in doubt: Try the old fashioned way
Practical action: Submit to structure, find a real world mentor, start small, take an internship

Hear me out, Scorpio. Your Tarot Mentor this year is suggesting your power lies in submission. While that might sound like a contradiction, it’s really about balance. Everyone knows that one of your beautiful superpowers is your capacity for extremism, but honestly? Sometimes your exuberance causes you to overthink and overshoot your goals. You recognize that at times your intensity is just a step too far. So the remedy is a cosmic call to structure and conformity and old school pathways. I know, honey – but this is not a spanking. (Unless you are into that sort of thing?) It’s really just a return to basics, reconfirming principals, dotting i’s and crossing t’s, building a foundation first. Even though you can be so, so good at details, lately you’ve been so, so good at skipping over them. Your many talents won’t grant a free pass from structure. Now is the time to re-commit yourself to practicality before your finalize your plan for world domination.

SAGITTARIUS
Card: The Empress
Theme: Embodying grace, amplifying beauty, nurturing abundance
Meditation for yourself: I create safe spaces where beauty expands
When in doubt, try: A charm bomb, an expectation of satisfaction, believing compliments
Practical action: Make something beautiful with your own hands, start a gratitude journal, indulge in nature

The Empress is the archetype of the giving, responsive creative mother. For some readers, the appearance of this card could suggest actual pregnancy. For most others though, it’s a metaphor for ripeness and increase in creative ways. This card is all about planting or cooking, decorating or party planning, artistic endeavors and/or craft projects. Your Tarot Mentor calls you to find more ways of amplifying beautify and nurturing good times with joyful people. This card reverberates with being receptive – but Sagittarius, that’s not the same as passive. Although you may have a special genius for coming in like a wrecking ball, the Empress invites you to balance your natural fiery force of presence with conscious openness to others and subtle beauty. It’s about creating an environment and holding space where invitations, compliments, gifts, guests, and general loveliness can thrive.

CAPRICORN
Card: The World
Theme: A new life
Meditation for yourself: I honor my evolution as I step into my new life
When in doubt: Throw a party
Practical action: Share your success, give an acceptance speech, thank a parent and/or partner, take a picture of this moment

This is a liminal moment, that transition phase as you move from one role or phase of life to the next. When this card shows up, it validates the completion of a cycle and guarantees a new era. Right now, you are at the precipice, aware that change is ahead. Take account and acknowledge the lessons of the past cycle that have been incorporated into your being, consider how you can move into the next phase with all the knowledge you have gained. Often this card comes just before a birth or just after a wedding – when change is not instantaneous but to be discovered and implemented day by day in the time to come. Trust that you have all you need to grow into your new role. Feel free to own your confidence as you leap into the next great adventure. You have earned it.

 

AQUARIUS
Card: The Tower
Theme: Needed change
Meditation for yourself: I have the power to be the change I want to see
When in doubt: Be proactive
Practical action: Maintenance now will prevent drama later, speaking up about safety issues, preventative check-ups and doctors visits

A year ago I had a car accident. I was (mostly) okay but my car was totaled – it was 16 years old and not worth value of the needed body work. Truth is, I was way sick of that car anyway and needed an upgrade but I dreaded the process, I didn’t have the paperwork handy…yada yada, long story short, I was not being proactive about my transportation situation. So this accident forced me to deal with getting a new car. That’s The Tower. This Tarot Mentor shows up when change is needed and imminent. You can be proactive and spare yourself a lot of drama or you can let the Tower fall on its own time and deal with the aftermath. Either way, change is coming. It doesn’t have to be awful – like if you’ve been feeling stuck in a terrible job, this card supports your action to find a better fitting position. But this year, there’s something you know you need to fix so it’s best to get ahead of it.

PISCES
Card: The Moon
Theme: Messages from other senses
Meditation for yourself: I am the sum of many wise parts
When in doubt: Close your eyes and use the force, Give your heart the floor
Practical action: Make a list of pros and cons, take your time with big decisions, trust your Spidey-tingles, honor attractions (and repellents)

The Moon signals a period when your intellect does not have all the info you need, but your other senses fill in the blanks. This Tarot Mentor is advising that this is the year to release your preference for intellectual knowledge and balance it with other ways of knowing. Like, sometimes your heart has some really important information that the intellect is inclined to discount. Your loins, too – that area needs and deserves representation. And your gut – sometimes fear has an urgent message for you. Let go of any expectations about what part of you ought to be in charge, and start listening to all of the different states of you. This card supports your empowerment as you make new kinds of choices based on a more democratic panel of you.