Liz Worth ~ Tarot + Astrology

I am a recovering people pleaser. Growing up, my mom would obsess about what others thought. She assumed the neighbours were always watching, scrutinizing our every move (and every outfit).

They weren’t, but it was hard to change her mind.

Whenever I did something unexpected or out of turn, she would say, “What would people think if they knew you did that?”

She would also overlook her own needs to please everyone around her. Yes, she would secretly complain about it behind closed doors, but in the outside world she was happy to do whatever anyone needed of her.

It was hard not to let those thoughts become ingrained: It took me a long time to undo that kind of thinking.

But going into business for myself forced me to reflect on that kind of upbringing. You can’t do it all, and you quickly realize how many people want a piece of your time, attention, or intellect.

The world of tarot readings and intuitive services is a slippery place all on its own. While you will meet many amazing...

How are you? With so much going on in the world, it’s been hard for a lot of us to focus.

No matter what you’re trying to focus on, or what you’re moving through, I hope you are hanging in there <3

There is also a lot going on astrologically, with some planets moving back and forth between Aries and Pisces. Yesterday, at 8am Eastern time, Neptune moved into the sign of Aries for the first time since the 1800s.

Venus went retrograde in Aries on March 3, and slipped back into the sign of Pisces just a few days ago, on Thursday, March 27.

And Mercury also slid back into Pisces’ waters on Saturday, March 29, the same day at the solar eclipse and new moon in Aries.

There is a lot of symbolism to wade through with these motions. Once Venus and Mercury both go direct again in April, they will eventually find their ways back into Aries, picking up where they left off several weeks ago.

What can we make of this?

Aries is fire and Pisces is water.

Aries wants to act and Pisces wants to d...

We’re nearing the end of the calendar year which means a lot of us are turning to tarot to ask, “What’s coming up in the New Year?"

Even though there’s always a lot of back and forth in the tarot community about whether or not to use tarot as a predictive tool, the reality is that a large percentage of tarot querents ask predictive questions. 

I think where readers sometimes hesitate with predictions is when we feel like we’re under pressure to be all-seeing and all-knowing.

When I got my first tarot deck, I assumed readings were completely predictive, and expected the cards to send me visions of the future. (Yes, I was very disappointed when it didn’t work out that way.)

That assumption blocked me for a long time, especially because it made me feel inadequate as a reader. 

It took time, practice and reflection for me to understand how I wanted to approach predictive readings, and to develop a framework for myself to operate within whenever predictive questions landed on the table...

I always pay attention to the patterns that come up in my client readings. It never fails that clusters people tend to be going through the same things at the same time.

We are all part of a collective consciousness: Of course there will be common threads and themes that some of us, seemingly at random, are all experiencing simultaneously. 

But I also think that tarot shows us just how similar we often are to each other. Yes, humans have their differences, but we also have a lot in common.  

Most people want to be happy and fulfilled. Most people want to love and be loved. Most people want to feel accepted and connected.  

One of the common themes that’s come up among my readings so far this year is how drained people feel. There is a lot happening in the world right now, and the pressures of life are relentless.

So many of us are caught in a whirl of go, go, go, rushing from one task to the next. And so often, it seems like as soon as one thing is taken care of, there’s a new worry...

If you’ve had a tarot reading with me, or taken some of my classes, you’ll already know that my go-to tarot technique is the three-card open spread.  

This wasn’t always my go-to technique: I used to swear by positional tarot spreads. The bigger and more complex, the better. I would even make custom spreads for my client work to personalize each session.  

But the more my client base grew, the more I had to adapt my tarot practice. I don’t know what triggered the shift, but it seemed like all of a sudden I was getting more clients coming in with longer lists of questions.  

I often found myself having to think on my feet during each reading, shifting quickly from one question to another, sometimes without any relation between topics my clients wanted to cover.  

It was no longer working for me to create custom spreads in advance: My clients wanted a reader who was adaptable, fluid, and flexible. Going in with one or two big spreads – even if they covered a lot of information – wasn...

When I read tarot for my clients, I rarely use tarot spreads anymore.

Moving away from tarot spreads has been one of the biggest transformations in my tarot practice since I started reading full-time.

When I first started out as a professional reader, I used to put so much time and energy into my tarot spreads: I would create custom spreads for each client, based on questions and topics they sent me in advance.

I thought they were absolutely amazing.

But once those spreads were put to use, I soon realized they weren’t always as helpful as I thought they would be.

Why? Because tarot readings are conversations, and like any other dialogue, they flow in new and unexpected directions.

Which meant that once my readings started, sometimes my querents would say, “I think I have some different questions I need to explore instead.”

Inevitably, many of my big, beautiful, customized tarot spreads would go out the window in order to accommodate a more organic tarot experience.

Maybe this ...

It's back to school season here, too. Is it the same for you? I know that we’re all in different parts of the world and not everyone goes back to school in September, but in these parts, the end of the summer season leads into a new school year.

Even though I haven’t gone back to school since graduating college years ago, I always get that tingly, excited back-to-school feeling around this time of year.

Maybe you know what I mean: That nostalgic, warm sense of anticipation about what a new school year might bring.

Will I meet new friends?
Will I like my teachers?
Will I be inspired by what I’m learning?

Being in a new space and new city now is giving me a similar feeling. Even though I’ve spent a lot of time here over the years already, I keep wondering: Will I make friends? Who will I meet? Where will I hang out? What kinds of new adventures await?

In a way, I feel like I’m heading off to a new school: The city is my teacher, and I’m ready to learn all that it has to show me....

When I started learning tarot, my goal was to be able to read tarot for other people.

I’d been getting all kinds of readings – palm, tarot, psychic, Akashic records – for years.

I had long been fascinated and awed by the way each reader seemed to hit on things that were so true and personal for me.

I cherished each of these experiences and wanted to be able to help others in the same way.

As soon as I could, I started reading tarot for friends and family, and eventually strangers. Over time, I built up my skills enough to feel confident charging for my readings.

When I first started my tarot business, I had certain visions of how it would all go. But I soon realized that, like many things in life, there are always surprises – and learning opportunities to grow from.

One of the things that I had to grasp was that tarot clients don’t necessarily think like tarot readers.

One of the biggest ah-a moments I had around this came up around tarot spreads.

I used to love making my o...

Tarot is an interesting tool because whatever we take into ourselves – our influences, beliefs, experiences, and knowledge – can become a new lens through which to filter the cards.

No matter how many outside ideas you learn about tarot…

No matter how many different tarot meanings you try to take in…

No matter how many different approaches you take here…

Every reading you do will go through you own point of view.

And that is something that is built through all kinds of experiences and perspectives.

Our experiences give each of us a unique vantage point from which we stand. If you read tarot, or you’re learning how, it helps to reflect on your personal advantages and how they might influence your readings, or allow you to connect with querents. 

It can be influenced by different jobs you’ve had:

Work gives us all kinds of skills. Many jobs help with people skills, and if you want to read for others, then it helps to be open and conversational.

Another example might be in admi...

A couple of blogs ago, I shared why I’m no longer talking about astrology here as much I used to.

(You can read it here if you missed it.)

I didn’t come to that decision quickly, or easily.

When you put years into something, it can feel disorienting to realize you don’t feel the same way about it as you used to. Given that astrology is part of my spiritual practice, it was a decision that went beyond just a newsletter.

For a while, I questioned myself:

Do I not believe in astrology anymore?

Do I not think it’s important?

Do I not want other people to discover it and see it the way I do?

I do believe in astrology, and I do think it’s important. But I want to have a different relationship with it now.

And to do that, I need to take a bit of a step back from working with it so publicly.

This isn’t an easy thing to do these days, with our lives so out in the open online.

This is a reflection of what happens when spiritual practices evolve. Our relationships to our spirituality, ...