a spread for the eight of pentacles
hello, friends. earlier this month, i shared an essay exploring the energy of the eight of pentacles — and today, i want to offer a new tarot spread that digs into this energy more deeply.
remember that if you love my tarot spreads, my second book all about how to read, write, and revise them came out last month! it's been selling like hotcakes (thank you!!!) but only a few reviews have made it to the big websites, so if you've read and loved this book already, remember that even a short review on amazon or goodreads makes a huge difference. (and if you haven't picked up a copy, get yours here!) thank you in advance!
and — my latest lecture stars & cards: a fresh take on tarot & astrology correspondences with jeanna kadlec drops today, and we're so excited to share it with you! this lecture ended up clocking in at a little over 3 hours and covers multiple suggested astrological correspondences for all 22 major arcana archetypes. i'm so proud of this lecture and i hope you find it inspiring, energizing, and supportive for your tarot practice!
when looking at standardized meanings and keywords, the eight of pentacles can feel a bit... blah, sometimes. hard work is so overly glamorized in american culture, this obsession with working as many hours as possible and grind culture and suffering in silence. and the ways that this card often gets talked about, truthfully, kind of bum me out — because these definitions are so often stripped away from the joy and devotion that drive us to keep showing up in the first place.
if we don't remember why we're working so hard, or what we're working towards, or how it might affect us moving forwards, literally what is the point?
when i think about devoting myself to a skill, it can look one of two ways: either like showing up consistently to something i love because i personally want to get good at it (like i did with, for example, tarot), or like being forced to do something that someone else wants me to do (like my parents encouraging me to play the flute for over a decade even though i would've rather learned drums). it's still work to show up for something when we ourselves are driving it, make no mistake! but it's so much simpler to show up for something when we know why we want to get good at it — especially when we're building a devotional practice, initiated by desire and fueled by dedication.
