a spread for the seven of wands

hello, friends! our tarot spread for this month is focused on that card of bravery, boldness, and deep exploration: the seven of wands. if you missed this month's essay examining this card more deeply, you can read it right here.

i've been thinking so much about courage — about what it takes to be brave, and about what it costs us to dream of bigger things. hope as a concept gets held up as something we all must have, must chase, but it's not always easy to keep believing that something is possible, or that we are the ones who can accomplish it.

hope requires courage.

i know that a lot of us are scared, and uncertain, and angry. i know that there are a lot of really intense messages out there right now from people demanding that you make certain choices or submit to certain ideas or believe in a certain institution. i know that it might feel like nothing that you do could possibly make a difference.

but i also know that hope is a practice, a choice, a thing that we must engage with regularly. it's a thing we must feed and have faith in, a thing we must consistently return to. this doesn't mean that we have to feel hopeful every single hour of every single day — trust that i certainly don't. we're still human beings, and our capacity for hope is not going to be the same at all times. some days are made for grief, or sorrow, or rage. some days, hope might be out of reach.

still — i believe that we all have different gifts when it comes to nourishing and sustaining hope, and when it comes to nourishing and sustaining dreams. and i believe that making intentional space to explore who we are, what we want, and how we tap into our magic can help carve out space for hope. and i believe that by showing up as our most authentic selves, we can spread hope like wildfire, and help others keep seeking that elusive idea: that we can have more, and that we deserve more, than the world we were given.

what do you believe about yourself and your own capacity? how do you see yourself? and how does your understanding of who you are and your own gifts impact the ways that you move through the world: the things that you say, the choices that you make, the ambitions that your pursue, the passions that you display?