Tarot contributor Jessica tells me what the cards hold in the year ahead - and gets it right.

Last month, I wrote about the universal card of the year for 2020, The Emperor. In that column I also described a couple of very simple processes for finding a personal card of the year. For February, I thought it would be cool to explore some other ways connect with the Major Arcana’s archetypes and see how the cards we choose—and the cards that choose us—interact at the micro and macro levels. And Jordan, my hostess and patron, has offered to be my subject for this process. 

Calculating Your Birth Card 

Your birth card is, not surprisingly, connected to your birth date. Jordan's birth date is May 26, 1981, so to calculate her birth card, we add 5 + 26 + 1981. This equals 2012, so we keep adding. 2 + 0 + 1 + 2 = 5. Jordan’s birth card is The Hierophant. Exploring how this card interacts with The Emperor will give Jordan some food for thought as she considers the year ahead. 

Tarot contributor Jessica explains how to draw a card to guide you in the New Year - and unpacks the meaning of The Fool.

On New Year’s Eve, my friend Catherine, looking for a card to tell her what she might expect in 2020, drew The Fool. She was psyched. “This is a good card for beginnings—adventurous and optimistic,” she wrote in her journal. She also mentioned a phrase that Arthur Edward Waite—the Waite in Smith-Waite—used to describe The Fool: “A spirit in search of experience.”

Many of us set intentions for bettering ourselves when a fresh year begins, but we often make these plans from a place of shame and dissatisfaction. We start new diets and exercise regimens not because we want to feel better mentally and physically, but because our culture benefits from telling us that we’re too fat. We tell ourselves we’re sticking to a budget not because we’ve figured out that thoughtless consumption is not the key to happiness—or good for the environment—but because we’re terrified to even look at our credit card balances after the excesses of holidays. Even goals like finishing that novel or starting a garden are often grounded in a self-inflicted sense of guilt about accomplishments we feel we should have completed by now. 

Tarot contributor Jessica creates a spell for you and your best friends to celebrate each other and remind you that grand, lifelong love comes in all forms.

Three ladies, glasses raised, dancing together…You don’t need me to tell you that there’s a party going on here. The Three of Cups is a picture of celebration, of communion. This is a card about sharing joy with friends. 

Let’s go a little bit deeper. Cups are the suit of emotion, and in Tarot, groups of three represent a firm foundation. So the friends we see in this card aren’t just casual acquaintances; they’re your squad. They’re the friends who empower you to be your best self. And they’re the friends who are with you even when you’re maybe being…not totally your best self. 

The holiday season is full of celebrations - one might even say "overfull." There are work parties. There are family get-togethers. If you’re a parent, you may be looking at a calendar stuffed with classroom parties and choir concerts and dance recitals. These communal gatherings can be delightful, but they can also be draining. There’s a big difference between compulsory socializing and reconnecting with soul friends. The Three of Cups wants you to make time to spend with people who fill your cup rather than drain it. 

Tarot contributor Jessica explains why the holiday season is the perfect time to go deep - even to the places that you fear the most.

If your life is anything like mine, Halloween kicks off a couple of months of festive decorating and nonstop socializing. It makes sense that we want to gather with friends and family to beat back the long, cold nights with hot toddies and tinsel, but I'd like to encourage you to carve out some time and space for quiet solitude. Since I’m a bit of an introvert, this is just a necessary part of self-care for me.

There’s more to my suggestion than that, though. Winter is the perfect time to cultivate—or rekindle, or rehabilitate—a relationship with darkness and silence. 

Let The High Priestess be your guide. The third card in the Major Arcana, The High Priestess is unafraid to travel wherever her search for knowledge takes her. She trusts her own inner wisdom, and it’s through knowing herself that she gets to know the universe. 

Tarot Contributor Jessica Jernigan talks daily rituals...and why Death can be our friend.

Drawing a single card each day can be an enormously helpful morning ritual. This practice invites you to slow down for a few minutes and check in with yourself before you embark on the day ahead. 

That, all by itself, is powerful. 

You might discover that the card you pull in the morning provides a set of metaphors that give symbolic shape to your day. And if you’re interested in developing a deep relationship with Tarot, this is a wonderful way to get acquainted with the cards. 

While you’re getting to know a card a day, I’ll be introducing you to a card each month - but it's important to keep in mind that the interpretations I offer aren’t intended to be definitive. I’m sharing what I know about Tarot in the hope that you will want to get to know Tarot yourself. And, in any case, my own relationship with Tarot is ever-evolving; if I didn’t keep learning about the cards each time I draw them I would have gotten bored with Tarot by now. The analyses I’ll be offering are simply distillations of what I know about each card right now, along with some questions you might ask yourself when faced with that card yourself. 

Meet Jessica, RG's brand-new Tarot contributor. I've always been a huge fan of Tarot - you can check out my post about a reading Jessica did for me here - but don't know a ton about how it actually...works. So I thought it'd be fun to ask Jessica to help us figure it out together. She'll be doing a series on Tarot in the weeks to come, so if you have any questions for her, now's your chance :) - Jordan

Let's get straight to the point: It's entirely possible that you think Tarot is bullshit. And you know what? That’s all right with me. But I would love the chance to change your mind. 

Sure: The fact of the matter is that Tarot, like every other deck of cards you’ve ever held in your hands, is nothing more than a collection of pictures printed on paper. Although there are records of Tarot cards being used for divination as early as the 18th century, these cards were mostly used for games, not cartomancy. It was the publication of the Smith-Waite deck (the one that's likely the most familiar to you) that popularized the use of Tarot as an occult tool.