Sarah Potter: Everyone Is A Weirdo

Tarot reader Sarah Potter encountered her first deck at 12, and the rest was history. This week, we talk about formative occult shops, legendary Aquarians, and saying yes. Plus, Michelle shares a simple yet strong spell that bridges astrology with tarot to help you harness your natal powers.

[Music]

Michelle Tea: Welcome to Your Magic. I’m your host, Michelle Tea, and today I’m talking to tarot reader, tarot creator and witchy woman extraordinaire, Sarah Potter. We’re going to talk about her new Cosmo Tarot, which she made with Cosmopolitan Magazine, formative occult shops and some of our fave decks. Afterwards, I have a simple spell that brings astrology and tarot together to help you harness your natal powers. Stay with us.

[Music]

Michelle Tea: So, like I mentioned in the intro, today I’ll be talking to Sarah Potter about, among other things, the deck of tarot cards she made for Cosmopolitan Magazine. And it got me thinking about the woman who was the face of Cosmo for so long, Helen Gurley Brown, who reigned as editor-in-chief from 1965 until they booted her for being ‘out of touch’ in her 70s. But not only was HGB an Aquarius, I actually share a birthday with the woman, and I have to ask, was she really out of touch, or was it ageism? She went on to be editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan International until she died at age 90. If her name sounds familiar, she was also the author of the groiundbreaking-for-it’s-time book, Sex and the Single Girl, published in 1962.

I love thinking about the people I share a birthday with. Perhaps it’s a bit of a narcissistic endeavor, but it was recently my birthday, so humor me. Learning I shared an astrological origin story with the glamorous Helen Gurley Brown inspired me as a tween in Chelsea, Massachusetts, where glamour was in short supply but - o! How I craved it! Could there be something magic in our birthday that launched us into charming yet outlandish destinies? I sure hoped so!

In my teens I also learned I shared a birthday with both John Hughes and Molly Ringwald. What? I lived for Pretty in Pink, felt so seen by that movie with its misfits in thrift store finery. There were obvious problems of course - she should have been with Ducky, duh, and Iona should have stayed goth or at the very least not gone preppy for some coke-snorty American Psycho, along with a train of other deeply problematic shit that would not fly in 2022, but whatever. It was, at the time, a revelation. 

When I hit my 20s, lezzed out hard and began writing in earnest, I was legit shook to learn I had the same birthday as both Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde. What the actual hell? Two of the most powerful, revered, deep, daring, writers - writers whose work was intertwined with who they were in the world, whose prose was strong and enchanting and insightful enough to allow for the totally radical agenda their work held - these writers were my heroes. I prayed that whatever shining goblet of Aquarian genius that had rained down on them had left, like a driplette of water at the bottom I might wet my inspiration with.

Right now - and really, always - I am super grooving on sharing a birthday with Yoko Ono. Yoko Ono is one of my favorite creative spirits on the planet; I’m in awe of Grapefruit, reading it makes me feel an electric itch on my insides, like I must do something, the work makes me want to enact it.  Once, after stumbling upon a show of her work in gallery in Italy, I stood and watched a film of the very first performance of Cut Piece, her legendary performance where she invited the audience to take up scissors and cut a piece of her clothing off. She was so brave and vulnerable in the recording; in her calm repose she was like the High Priestess, even as the piece provoked a visible misogynistic rage in some of the men who participated. Watch it if you get the chance, it’s actually disturbing. Revelation, a song she made with Cat Power, is actually an incantation, a spell or a prayer, and a piece of art that is very precious to me.

Yoko has been through it. She  had mental health issues in her youth, and was admitted to an asylum by her parents. Abandoning her first child led to decades of estrangement. When she picked up on energy between John Lennon and his secretary, she took off for like a year, institing they get it out their system. Apparently, John was miserable the whole time. A codependent Libra, he sometimes wore on lofty, independent Aquarian Yoko’s nerves.

I’m thinking about Yoko a lot lately, and it’s not just because, as I recently turned 51 I am on alert for some aging insp and she is it, dashing around in leather microminis and extravagant sunglasses into her 70s. It is because, though she is in part so famous for having married John Lennon, the Beatle was actually her third husband. Third time’s the charm indeed! In a couple days, I will be tying the knot for the third time myself. I love knowing that it took Yoko three tries to find her true love. Maybe that’s the lucky number for weird feminist women with our birthday.

Maybe it’s a little goofy, this confluence of celebrity worship and self-obsession. Maybe we are just creatures that need the stories of others like a type of spiritual nutrient. We’re not all alone inside our strange proclivities and twisty life paths, our mysterious fates. Others have lived out their own confused karma, and I take comfort in the grace or clumsiness with which they handled it. And when they have my very own birthday - February 18th, if you’re curious - it’s hard not to look at them sort of like patron saints, even if they’re still alive. 

[Music]

Michelle Tea: Welcome, Sarah Potter, to Your Magic, I'm so happy that you're on the podcast today.

Sarah Potter: ]Thank you so much for having me. I'm so happy to be here, too.

Michelle Tea: I just recently received your Cosmo Tarot and I really want to talk to you about it. It's it's so fun. It's so fun to work with. And I'm wondering what what was your sort of guide as you created this deck?

Sarah Potter: You know, when this whole project started, it came about in the beginning of the lockdown and it was really lovely to have something to be inspired by and something to channel all of my energy into. And I started thinking about the first tarot deck I bought and finding tarot at 12, which I feel like is a time when we're searching for something. I mean, I will fully admit I picked up a deck of cards at that age to find out who had a crush on me and to explore my love life. But, you know, I was just thinking about I had a lot of questions. I was wondering about so many things, and what I could find was not always accessible or I felt like didn't it felt a little above my where I was at at 12 and I was thinking about that idea of questioning and wonder and how much that transcends age and seeking answers is something that we're always doing as humans. And I was I wanted to put all of that energy into what I was looking for in a deck at that age and thinking of a tarot deck as like, I don't know, another friend at the party who has that advice and wisdom and reflection. And there is like a little bit of this like young teen Sarah questioning. But just that sense of wonder and fun, because I think that magic should be fun and approachable and accessible and encourage those questions like it's it's OK to ask. It's OK not to know. And let's make exploring fun, too.

Michelle Tea: Well, you did such a great job with it. It does really have this very youthful, playful feel to it. And I like that. I like that the answers are sort of blunt and it's like, Here it is, you know, and it's very down to Earth and like playfully. And I won't say plainspoken because it's got a lot of energy and it's like very playfully spoken. And I love that. I know what you mean. It's like, you know, OK, sometimes you are truly in the midst of like a deep spiritual quandary. But a lot of the times we turn to the tarot for these more, I don't know, like daily daily wonders like, you know, does this person have a crush on me or am I going to get this thing that I'm hoping to get? And sometimes I have a lot of tarot decks, I'm sure you do, too. Sometimes you have those decks that are like, so mystically dense and you're just like, Oh my gosh, I'm really just asking if, like, if I should text this person like it, it's not that deep, right? And you get like, you know, super. And I've learned not to read what those decks for other folks, because even if I love them like some of them, I really love, but I'm like, They're so insanely mystical. It's like you have to be on mushrooms together to like, understand what you're saying.

Sarah Potter: Absolutely.

Michelle Tea: What was that first deck that you picked up when you were 12? Congratulations for finding tarot at 12. Also mean, that's so awesome.

Sarah Potter: It was the 90s, so it was a little bit more. It was at the mall. So that's where I found it. And it's so funny. I I remember there was like a pretty lovely selection all things considered.

Michelle Tea: Store at the mall that had the tarot decks?

Sarah Potter: It was called East Meets West, and it was like wizard candles and dragon statues and tie dye and tarot decks. And I love it. You know, very exciting to have a part when you're 12. Yeah, the

Michelle Tea: Yeah, the occult store at your mall. I mean, that's amazing.

Sarah Potter: Oh, totally. And I I I was really looking at that Rider-Waite deck. That magician was so intriguing. And so I remember I was deciding between that one or cat people. Do you know that deck?

Michelle Tea: Tarot of the cat people? Yes, I do. I love that deck.

Sarah Potter: I love that deck, too. And I remember like looking at the imagery, they had samples and there were these just like human cat mystical figures. And I was like, Ooh, like, this is really speaking to me. But then it just like the, you know, the intuitive voice tapped in and was like, Go with the classic. So I picked up that.

Michelle Tea: Oh my gosh, what are you got? I mean, there is truth to like. There's something to really kind of grounding yourself into the the classic and the original to then prep you for all the, you know, deviations from that, all the amazing deviations from the Rider-Waite.

Sarah Potter: Yes. You know, now that I'm talking to you, I just realized I never picked up the cat people deck, like I remember. Oh my God, they're a lot like they can only afford one. And I was like, OK, well, when I get more into it all, I'll do the cat people. But I actually did not get a second tarot deck until almost 20 years later.

Michelle Tea: Oh, really? And which one did you get to that point?

Sarah Potter: At that point I picked up, um, I think it was actually the wild unknown.

Michelle Tea: Oh, it's such a good one.

Sarah Potter: It's a really pretty one. And I feel like I just I realize and I so many tarot decks. I love collecting tarot decks, and I never picked up cat people.

Michelle Tea: Well, I have to tell you, I really love the cat people deck a lot. It was, you know, before it was one of the few decks that have been out there through the years that had. Like people of color in it before this more contemporary moment of like people of color actually creating decks and like people being like having a lot more awareness about representation in tarot. So it's it's by the artists of that deck is Karen Kuykendall and I might be saying her name incorrectly, but it's K-U-Y-K-E-N-D-A-L-L. So this is wild. I always forget her last name, so I just was giving it a quick Google. And the first thing that came up was East meets west. The store east meets West. If I want to buy it, they have it still. Oh my god, what was. That store is still there and they have a really strong online presence, I guess. But Karen Kuykendall is really incredible. She she was an artist beyond just creating this tarot deck and this this motif of these particular cats in the way she drew and painted cats carried through to all of her artwork, she did all these sculptures of these cats from this world that is in the deck, and she made all this jewelry, the sculptural jewelry that the characters in the deck are wearing. She made that like she is a wild artist.

Sarah Potter: Wow. Oh, I'm ordering it when we complete here because it's a must that it be part of this collection.

Michelle Tea: What has your most recent acquisition to your tarot collection been? What, what? What are you? What have you been reading with right right now or are most recently?

Sarah Potter: So, you know, I use the Miss Cleo deck constantly. I should know the artist names by heart now I don't, but it was inspired. It's Miss Cleo from the 90s. It's her deck from 2000 and it's all ancient Egyptian imagery. When it came out, it came with a VHS tape and it's Miss Cleo explaining all of the cards and her. She instructed the artists to do ancient Egyptian imagery because of her belief that tarot comes from ancient Egypt. And so it's all of the illustrations resonate with Pixies. But I don't know. It's really lovely and it's always within reach of me. It's right here.

Michelle Tea: Oh, that's so cool. OK, so now you're going to get the cat people deck and I'm going to get them as Cleo deck. All right.

Sarah Potter: And I want to be like, I've never encountered any other tarot decks that come with a VHS tape.

Michelle Tea: No. And you never will. You never can get that

Sarah Potter: very big moment in time.

Michelle Tea: Yeah, that's really cool, though. Oh my gosh. So how old were you? Okay, so you started reading tarot when you were 12. Like, when did you start understanding that this was an interest and a talent that you could actually build your life around? When did you start knowing that like this was your calling in a deeper way?

Sarah Potter: So I feel like from a very young age, I understood it was my calling. I just ran from it for a very long time. I was raised in a way that was very accepting of the spiritual world of family members who had passed loved ones who had passed. They were still very much honored and part of our lives. But there still is. I think we all just want to be accepted and like, I hate to say it, but like normal. And you know, I feel like being the kid who's talking to everyone's dead relatives and the ghosts and spirits is not exactly especially. I mean, where I grew up was not of the norm, and I was just like, Oh, I just want to be. I had this vision of what a normal teenager was like, and I was like, I just want to be this like normal, like happy teenager or just blissfully unaware of this. And I just spent a long time running and like tarot, was always part of my life. It was just really secretive. And then I just kept having these moments where it was like, You can run, but you can not hide. And I actually had a really impactful reading with a friend. This was about five years ago, and the main message was like, Why do you keep running from this? Like, What are you doing? And a lot of the issues that you're bringing up and you're talking about and the resistance it's going to melt away if you just accept this and and running and resisting is so much harder. And I was like, Yeah, yeah, OK, I'm think I'm just, I hear you, but I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. I think I'm going to keep resisting for another good six months. And, you know, and that was always like nagging at me in the back of my mind. And then an opportunity I just it was the weirdest thing. One time I was out at a coffee shop getting coffee, and a woman just came up to me and was like, Do you read cards? Because I've been looking for a tarot reader and I just feel very strongly like, I want to have a reading from you. Oh my god, I wish I was telling my dad about it and and he was like, what? Like what? What is that about? And I was like, He's like, What were you doing? Did you have your cards out? And I was like, No, what? Like, I wasn't like walking around with like my tarot emblazoned T-shirt like and like cards like spilling on my bag. It was just like, Oh, getting coffee. And it kept happening. Like, people would contact friends of mine on Instagram and just say, like, does Sarah do readings like, I want to book a reading with her. And then he would call me and say, like, are you doing readings like, Are you doing? Are you letting people know you do that? And I was like, No, what? I was like, Oh. And like, it just kept having like more frequently, more intensely. And again, I'm like, I never like, I'll just like, resist that some more. No, no, no. And finally, a friend asked me to read cards at her book party, and I couldn't say no to her. I just felt like like, Oh, I just knew I was. I would disappoint her if I said no. And that kind of feeling was crushing me. And so I agreed. And she was like, I asked because I knew you wouldn't say no.

Michelle Tea: Wow, you look at the universe working like through all these people in your life, like from like your good friends to strangers in coffee shops to kind of push you into your destiny. I love that.

Sarah Potter: And it sounds unbelievable because it felt unbelievable. And then after that, it was just something clicked and I had such a good time and I just stopped saying no and started saying yes to the things that felt aligned. And it really. It just all started to flow, and it feels like it sounds easy, but I will say. There are so many like at that point it was almost like it was 20 years of study and like doing the work on my own and privately, like with friends, just never talking about it, cause I just always had this thing like, I don't want to be the weirdo like. And now I'm just like, Everyone's a weirdo and

Michelle Tea: Everyone's a weirdo.

Sarah Potter: If you're not like, then you're extra weird. You're the biggest weirdo. Yeah, that's like the the weirdest of the weirdos. So I embrace it. And it was just everything, really. And I do believe that when you're on the right path, everything does fall in line. It's still it takes work. But you know, the doors continue to open.

Michelle Tea: I'm getting from from this story and from things that you said that you're you're also able to see spirits or at least feel spirits like communicate with spirits. How do you how did that first start happening for you? 

Sarah Potter: Oh, I don't remember a time when it wasn't happening. Yeah, it's been happening since I was like little little kid and it was pretty, I mean, pretty terrifying. But my mom was always like, It's OK, like, this is this is part of our family. This is part of our lives, like, what do you see? And we would just talk about it, and then it was funny. I didn't even really notice how used to the spirits in my house I was until I went to college and lived in the dorm, and I remember the first night I stayed in my dorm. I missed the spirits in my house, just like I didn't really miss my parents, but I miss those spirits, and I was like, Oh, it just felt so sterile in the dorm. And I would

Michelle Tea: Were there no spirits in the dorm.

Sarah Potter: I didn't feel them. Yeah, you would think like, I mean, a college dorm activity. Yeah, but it felt like like off-putting and odd. And I just didn't feel like they were just as much a part of my my family as well. So that was when I was like, Oh, I grew up in a way that's kind of different than. Then where I was like, oh, yeah, like those that was just I was just so used to it. And I certainly did not tell my roommates because I was like, I just want to be like as not weird as possible, which now if you like, it's like so like like I feel like it's so much more accepted and.

So it's always been there and I feel like, you know, I. I say I talk about it pretty openly, and I notice it a lot when I travel and I'm in hotels like the spirits that I see there and and I'll talk about it just and I feel like anyone is around me talking a lot like should be used to this by now, and most of them are. But sometimes it is funny that you are like, Oh my God. Like, Wait, what? Like, you saw a bunch of ghost children in your hotel room when I was like, Oh, it was fine. They were very cute, like they were just rambunctious and playing, and I was trying to sleep and I was just like, Please let me. I like to go to bed early, like, please let me sleep. But they were having fun and playing.

Michelle Tea: So in your experience are most, if not all, spirits like benevolent? Have you mostly encountered benevolent spirits or are they neutral or like, what is the energy that you're feeling off of them, [11.2s]

Sarah Potter: Mostly neutral and benevolent? But I've definitely experienced ones who are not, but I feel like I feel very much the spiritual realm is similar to what we're dealing with on this earthly plane, where there's all different personalities, all different people. We clash with some we don't vibe with others. And I've had experiences that I don't want to say they scare me, but they feel like off-putting. But I'm sure that. We've all had those experiences with humans, too.

Michelle Tea: Well, listen, I have so many tarot decks here, including yours, and I also have this Thoth deck. I don't know how you feel about it, but if you're open to it, I'd love to pick some cards for you.

Sarah Potter: Oh my gosh, I would be so thrilled.

Michelle Tea: Is there anything that's on your mind right now?

Sarah Potter [00:24:15]you know, I love love readings, and I feel like so many clients will say to me, like, Oh, they'll express almost like a little bit of hesitation about asking about love. And I'm like, No love is my favorite thing to talk about, like.

Michelle Tea: We all come to the tarot for love. What's your astrological makeup?

Sarah Potter: So I have a Virgo sun, cancer moon, sag rising and my Venus is in Libra.

Michelle Tea: OK. I'm like, I'm feeling that Libra. I'm feeling like some sort of love goddess the energy from you. So I'm sort of like Leo, Pisces, Libra kind of situation. What do you want to know about Love the love realm. [1.1s]

Sarah Potter: You know, I just feel like, what do I need to know about

Michelle Tea: What's going on in it right now?

Sarah Potter: Well, I would just like any insight I would love to know.

Michelle Tea: OK. So just shuffling asking What does that sphere look like for you right now? What would be helpful for you to know? And I'll pick three cards on that. All right. Sarah Potter, it's looking a little banged up.

A little banged up. I think you need to do some clearing, some sort of. It's very interesting. OK, so. And I say that in two out of the three cards are Scorpio cards. And you know, the Scorpio New Moon is upon us is coming up fast and we're in Scorpio season. So I think it's maybe I don't know whenever I'm such a like, I don't have a sag rising. I have sag moon, though, and I feel like that. Just like such, the can do sign and I have a side stallion whenever I do a reading for people and hard, challenging cards come up, I'm just like, OK, we got to get to work. How can we fix this? You know, I'm like, We're going to fix this. So your first card here is the five of cups, which is called disappointment in this. And it's Mars in Scorpio. And, you know, it's like there was a heartache like like, maybe you're being maybe you're a little plagued by a past heartache, whether that is something that was a relationship that went awry or maybe it was something that you were kind of hoping for that didn't kind of come to pass. But there's some sort of a sense of of a disappointment. And what's interesting is your next card is as really an echo. It's the seven of swords which in this deck is called futility, and it's that moon in Aquarius. And so this is an interesting card. It's a very it's sort of like the shadow side of being idealistic is sort of what this is and in some sense, possibly the shadow side of being a romantic. Because with that moon, with the Aquarius, there's this tendency to to aim really large intellectually to dream really big, which we love that about Aquarian energy like dreams, really big. But then you get the Moon. That's like, actually, I just want to cuddle. Like, I don't need all of that like that. Actually, no, like. So it's, you know, the reason why it's called futility. It's it's talking about some sort of like a plan or a fantasy. It's sort of a plan that reveals itself to be a fantasy is sort of what it is because there is just something about it that it aimed a little bit too high and didn't take into account human needs, the needs of the heart, the needs of the emotions. So. So there's this is an interesting story that's kind of coming out here of just sort of like like a romantic vision, a romantic ideal that aimed a little too high. And that's maybe left you feeling like, well, what is romance? I'm not sure. I know, you know, is romance. Am I so romantic that my heart's always going to get broken because nobody can join me and my like Alice in Wonderland fantasy of romance, you know? And then it's ending with this prince of cups in this deck, the prince of Cups. He's very Scorpio, you know, and he's like, He's really it's very interesting. Like, his drama is that he is on this big eagle bird here. And it's a magical creature, and it could fly very high into the sky, or it could go deep under the water. And it's doing neither. Because this this prince is just sitting there hemming and hawing. And so it's like it's it's some fear and a lot of control, and it's that idea of Scorpios being like a very controlling sign. And you know that I think that there's truth in that, you know, stereotype of them. But I think the thing is is that they feel emotions very intensely. And so the stakes are high for them. So if they're going to get them into a if they're going to get themselves in a situation that's going to provoke their emotional intensity like they they want to control it because they don't want to go on that roller coaster. And so I wonder if that's where you're you've been left a little bit as a result of these disappointments where you're like, Oh God, you know, I'm very sensitive to to romance, very sensitive to heartache. I don't know. I don't know if I want to throw my hat in the ring. If I'm going to end up disappointed, you know, by some scrub who, you know, doesn't share my vision. So it looks like that it looks like that is the story of your romantic spirit right now. Does that feel? Does that make sense?

Sarah Potter: Yeah. Well, you know, it's funny. It's first of all, I always say, I always date the page of cups and that's like, that's the equivalent. Yeah, I did a lot of emotional singers, and I feel like the page of cups is every guy, especially in a band.

Michelle Tea: Oh my god.

Sarah Potter: It's funny. The first two cards make me think about something that I came up in an astrology reading I had, and it came up in therapy like the same week about how, you know, both practitioners said to me that, you know, I'm really good at what I do at work because I can see the potential of the energy. I can see the forward potential of what's going to unfold. And then I do it in my romantic life. So I see the potential of someone rather than the person that's right in front of me.

Michelle Tea: Oh, OK.

Sarah Potter: And then, if you will, from the astrologer and the therapist and then the cards, it's like.

Michelle Tea: Well, I was like, Oh, I love though that like, this is something that's in play for you right now. That like you're thinking about and talking about with in all these different modalities like, that's so cool. I feel like that's such a classic femme issue also where like, oh, I'm an intuitive giving femme and I can see how wonderful you could be. Let me let me partner up with you and like guide you slowly towards your greatness, you know?

Sarah Potter: I know. Yeah, I love that page of cups. You know, I feel like that card gets a bad rap. I think that person can get a bad rap. But like, I actually am delighted to see who showed up in our reading.

Michelle Tea: Well, I like that you're just doubling down with it. It's like, we can't change what we're attracted to. I think it's just all about, like learning how to tread those paths, like more wisely, you know, and like learning from our experiences. You know, and until you find that perfect prince of cups, that is like the one that's meant to be for you, you know? I just kind of cut the deck in the middle. I was like, Well, where where is this going? You know, I'm like, Where is this going? Because you're getting all this messaging from, from all of your practices, it sounds like. And I picked up the ace of discs. So that's really cool, right? So like, oh yeah, all of this like self-knowledge and learning and processing, bringing you to a spot where you're able to kind of set off on a new a new path like on the earthly realm, which is where romance takes place right in our bodies with other people in their bodies. So that's really cool.

Sarah Potter: I love that. And like, yeah, I still love love. I've definitely like I've had some really wild experiences in that department, but I just there's a lid for every pot. 

[Music]

Michelle Tea: Hello, listeners, I'm Michelle Tea with a simple but strong spell to help you get in touch with your natal astrological powers, though it really is pretty easy peasy. It may require a tiny bit of research, but what you're studying up on is you.

Here's what you'll need to get this going. And remember, if you're short an ingredient, it's OK to skip it or to substitute or really just spin the whole thing in a direction that feels even better for you. That's what's so excellent about magic. This spell, this spell is a jumping off point. It's 100 percent customizable. Please gather a tarot deck. Find the major arcana card that corresponds with your sun sign. Here's a quick run through Aries as the Emperor Taurus is the harassment cancer, the chariot, Gemini the lovers. Leo is strength. Virgo is the hermit. Libra is justice. Scorpio is death. Sagittarius is Temperance. Capricorn the devil. Aquarius, the star. And Pisces is the Moon. Sorry, addition is being weird. Let this card be the centerpiece of your altar or whatever surface you're a ranger, things around candles, fire signs use red or orange candles. Earth use green or brown, air use yellow or purple water, blue or silver, white and black candles can be brought in, as well as anything that represents your star sign or your element. It just keeps sending me that like space. If Tony is listening, Tony knows I'm talking about that space pop up about running out of space keeps popping up. How have paper or journal handy? This is sort of a meditative spell.

Begin by lighting the candles and think about what it means to be the element that you represent. What does it mean to be a fire sign or an Earth sign, air sign or water sign? Take a moment after lighting them to make some notes, sit with your tarot card. What from the image jumps out at you or really resonates? Do you connect with this card? Why or why not? Is there anything about it that puts you offer intimidates you? Write about it. Nexus, where your research will come in handy. Spend some time writing out, spend some time writing about the characteristics of your sun sign that really mean something to you. Are there aspects that frighten you? How come? See if you can discern a sort of inverted power there? Are there aspects you wish you could access better? Write about it. You do have to be familiar with the traits your sign is known for. So make sure if that's not clear to you, that you do a little googling beforehand. And while you're at it, Google and see who shares your actual day of birth and the one you freaking love. Put a picture of them on your altar. Make them your patron saint, the God goddess or goddess of your sign. What do you love about them? Write it down. You're going to channel it. When you're done with all your writing, put down your paper, take a deep breath and turn inward. Imagine these traits that you love having that you want more of that you want to fearlessly explore. Imagine they are all energies. Give them way or color, scent or texture. Breathe them into your body. What does it feel like? What about the traits your birthday saint has? Call those and to call out to that icon in your mind or out loud and ask them to lend you some of their powers.

You can follow your own vibe here. Do whatever you feel like doing to call in those energies, talk or sing, dance or be still do some yoga. Chant whatever your practice contains or whatever you're inspired to do. When you feel done, stop and with an expression of gratitude toward the universe for making you the sign that you are for giving you those strengths and those lessons, let the candles burn down or snuffed them out. Keep journaling throughout the week and take note of how you feel if you're embodying your sun sign in a different or more vibrant manner. Obviously, this is a really great practice to do on your solo return, but you can do it any time. You can also play around with it and do similar rituals for other aspects of your astrological chart. A moon sign meditation or a mercury manifestation? Enjoy yourself.

[Music]

Michelle Tea: Well, listeners, another episode draws to its close. We hope you feel inspired to use the lenses of tarot and astrology to think about your world, increase your self-understanding, to play with and meditate upon. They are two ancient tools we are so lucky to have in the here and now, and a fascination with them is the gift that keeps on giving, because we never will know all there is to know. Here’s to always be solving those unsolvable mysteries of the universe!

[Music]

Michelle Tea: Thanks for tuning into Your Magic. Make sure you follow us on Twitter and Instagram @thisisyourmagic. You can subscribe to us right here on Spotify — do what you need to do to never miss an episode. You can email us at hello@thisisyourmagic.com, we would love to hear from you. And you can support us — plus get access to a whole bunch of bonus content — at patreon.com/thisisyourmagic.

This episode was produced and edited by Molly Elizalde, Tony Gannon, and Vera Blossom. We got production support from Angelica Crisostomo. Our executive producers are Ben Cooley, myself, and Molly Elizalde. Our original theme music is by John Kimbrough. 

Thanks for listening!