Sunrise Letters

Day five: pulling a bad card

I bought one of my favorite plants as a housewarming gift to myself.

This morning, after finishing my morning pages, I decided to pull a tarot card.

I am not a professional tarot reader by any stretch, but tarot has been a part of my life for three decades, if not longer.

For me, pulling a card is not a psychic prediction, but rather a means of checking in with myself and finding presence. Whichever card I pull invites inquiry and contemplation.

A few years ago I was given The Lioness Oracle Tarot deck, and it’s been my primary deck since then. Not only is it beautiful, but it also follows the template of the Ryder-Waite deck, which was one of the original tarot decks. This makes it easier for me to read, because the RW deck is what I learned on.

In most tarot decks, there are several cards that could be labeled as bad. For instance, in many decks there are death, the devil, and the fool. None of these sound great, but as my tarot practice has deepened I’ve learned that each card has …