The Cards Point Home

I pull cards every morning.

This part of my morning practice is as essential to me as my coffee, as necessary as brushing my teeth.

But when I first started working with oracle and tarot cards years ago, I wanted something very different from them than what I seek now.

I wanted answers. Solid, certain, unambiguous answers. I desperately wanted the cards to tell me what to do. To tell me what was going to happen. To affirm my choices. I so wanted the cards to assure my safety in an uncertain world.

What the Cards Actually Do

Here's what I've learned through years of reading for myself and with clients: cards aren't for certainty. They're for reflection.

In my coaching work, I use cards to offer perspective—to help clients hear their own wisdom and see their life through a different lens. The cards create a witnessing presence, a way to step back and look at what's true from a new angle. They help us name what we've been feeling but couldn't quite articulate.

Working with cards calls us back to this moment. They invite us to pause and listen to the truth we already know deep down inside. The cards often reveal the wisdom that gets buried under the noise of our days, our fears of everyone else's opinions, or the truths that we are most afraid to acknowledge.

And thank goodness, right off the bat, I learned that cards aren't for stroking my ego or feeling good all the time.

Sure, they can be affirmative and joyful. They can point to your alignment, confirm you're on your path, celebrate your growth. But life has inevitable struggles, and sometimes the cards tell us to stay with ourselves in the hard and holy places. To let life break our heart open and teach us what we're here to learn.

Learning doesn't only happen in joy. It also happens in our sorrow, in our confusion, in the messy middle of becoming.

The Ripple of Recognition

The cards are a companion and council. But whether I'm reading for myself or having someone else read for me, what they really do is point to something I already know.

Sometimes, the card lands like a rock dropped in a still lake - rippling out into your whole body, and you feel that deeply felt yes. That's recognition. That's you meeting yourself.

The cards didn't tell you something new. They helped you land where you already are.

Coming Home to Yourself

I know it's tempting to give our power away to the cards, or to the reader, or to anyone who seems to have answers when we feel lost. But sister, the cards are always pointing the way home to you and your own deep wisdom.

The cards are a mirror, a doorway, a gentle hand on your shoulder saying: You know. Deep down, you already know.

The practice is learning to trust yourself completely.

Join me for Sacred Altars

I'm gathering a small group on October 30th for Sacred Altars—a workshop on creating and tending altars as sacred practice. If you're drawn to deepen this work of coming home to yourself, join us here.