Liz Worth ~ Tarot + Astrology

When you look out in the divination community, it’s common to see a lot of multi-disciplinary practitioners.

Even some books (particularly books on witchcraft, it seems) will encourage you to develop your skills by learning a bunch of different divinatory systems, including tarot.

I grew up on books like that and used to think I would have to learn everything under the sun just to be read cards: Tarot, astrology, tea leaves, palmistry, herbalism…

You know what? You don’t have to learn a bunch of different things to read tarot.

Just because some readers have varied skills and practices doesn’t make it a rule that you should, too.

If a path calls to you, cool. But don’t force yourself to take on way more occult studies than are necessary, and don’t dilute yourself by learning a little of this and a little of that without getting deep into any one practice.

Everything takes time to learn and skills need time to develop.

Focus is cool. And while we can work to be well-rounded in lea...

💜 I have been reflecting a lot on my own actions lately. 💜

I have been having really amazing conversations with a very-wise high school friend I reconnected with this year.

He said something that stuck with me:

“No one should assume that their advice is SO AWESOME that everyone needs to hear it.”

I know this is true because I have been on the receiving end of unhelpful, unsolicited advice a lot in my life. Especially throughout challenging times, like the illnesses and deaths of my parents.

But when I think back about my side of certain interactions, I realize I am just as guilty of offering unwelcome or uninvited advice.

Instead of just listening to my friends, I used to find ways to make myself useful. I couldn’t just let them talk about their day jobs or creative ambitions, or whatever they were sharing with me.

I always had to assume the role of a coach, consultant or therapist, whether they were asking me to be that for them or not.

Ironically, learning to read tarot for ...

There are a lot of narratives in the spiritual, self-help, and motivational spaces that can lead you to believe that if something is meant for you, it will come easily.

It doesn’t help that it seems like everyone online these days is flouting six-figure businesses overnight successes: With the promise that if you buy into their secret formula or take their action steps, you can have that, too.

And we tell ourselves that if we start living our purpose, or find more fulfillment through our work, business or relationships, then everything will just fall into place.

No more struggle. No more pain. Just all easy, all the time.

And if we’re not experiencing ease, success, or alignment? Then something must be wrong.

The universe is conspiring against you ➡️ NOT ‼️

Life is not without effort. The universe is not bound by binary thinking that there is only one way, or one path, and if something isn’t coming easily then it’s not meant for you.

Most things are rarely easy all the time.

If...

I received a great question on Instagram a little while back: “What’s your feeling on clients recording their tarot readings?”

The first tarot reading I had was in the late `90s at a psychic fair. The reader recorded it on cassette tape (hellooooo nostalgia) and I went back and listened to it several times in later years.

Because that was my first experience with a professional reader, I always just assumed everyone recorded their readings, too.

But I soon learned recordings are not universal among readers.

In fact, a tarot reader who I have had numerous readings from never recordings their readings – and they’ve been in the business for decades.

I’ve also learned there are pros and cons to recording your readings. And logistically, it’s not always a feasible offering.

So here are some thoughts and learnings on the subject:

“Do readers have to offer recordings?”

NOPE! It’s always up to the reader to make this service available. It is an extra, and can come at a cost for rea...

Red flags are a hot topic these days.

And there a lot of good reasons for that. I bet we all have at least a handful of regretful or painful experiences that, in hindsight, could have been avoided if only we’d paid attention to the signs.

In service-based work like tarot reading, coaching, or other one-on-one offerings, there’s a lot of advice out there on how to attract your “ideal client.”

Because no one wants to sit down to read tarot for someone who turns out to be a less-than-stellar client, right?

Afterall, you don’t go into business for yourself just to feel like you’re being bossed around by a bunch of pain-in-the-butt customers.

Before I go further, I will say there’s a big difference between choosing “ideal clients” versus feeling like someone is a potential threat to your safety. Obviously, if you feel unsafe, that’s a red flag to watch for.

Outside of that, there are a lot of other recommendations out there about how spot client red flags from the start, such as:

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If you've been following my blogs for a while, you might have noticed some big changes around here since 2020... 

I used to write about astrology. A lot. Maybe you used to check in for new and full moon tarot spreads from me, or to learn about upcoming Mercury retrogrades... 

But not anymore. Why? 

I’ve been concerned about the impact of online content and social media on practices like astrology for some time now. As a result, I decided to re-evaluate my role and impact as an astrologer who also shares information online.

I discuss why I decided to step back from astrology over on Refinery29. You can read the essay here.

Until next time,

Liz xo

A few years ago, a question came to sit with me:

Do we focus too much on intuitive development in tarot?

I’ve shared before about some of the misconceptions I had about tarot early on. I felt so much pressure to intuit and download messages psychically that I didn’t take proper time to sit down and actually look at my tarot cards.

Which was a big misstep, but there is so much information the tarot lays right out in front of you. And yes, reading tarot can feel like a psychic experience, as it is eerily accurate. I’ve had clients ask me, “How did you know that?” when I hit on something so specific that I couldn’t have known otherwise.

But I just tell them as I see it: It’s all in the cards.

Still, I have spent time learning about other skills. I’ve studied mediumship and channeling. I’ve gone through a lot of workbooks and classes about intuition and psychic ability.

Has it helped me as a tarot reader? It probably doesn’t hurt – but I don’t think it’s been as much of an influence ...

From the outside, tarot might seem like it’s easy to learn: You get a deck of tarot cards, read along with the little white book, and away you go.

Or, you just feel your way through a reading, letting your intuition guide you.

Right?

Well, actually… there’s more to learning tarot than memorizing the card meanings you find in the little white book that comes with your tarot deck.

And while intuition can certainly influence a tarot reading, it’s not always so easy to figure out what our intuition is telling us, or how (or if) intuition even works. I’ve had many people come to my tarot workshops who admit they “don’t believe they are very intuitive” and are hoping tarot might help develop that part of themselves.

So don’t take it for granted that simply owning a tarot deck and flipping a few cards will somehow reveal an insight or answer that wasn’t available before.

If you want to read tarot…you have learn how to do that. It doesn’t usually just happen by magic.

But don’t be...

A couple of weeks ago, I got an email that sounded like it should have landed in my spam folder instead of my inbox.

I didn’t recognize the name, and the subject line was vague: “Checking in” is all it said.

Still, I opened it anyway.

The email was short and read: “How are you doing? Are you busy? I need a little favour from you.”

I was about to hit delete, but I wanted to make sure this wasn’t a past client or student who perhaps had a question about something they’d purchased from me.

So I searched their name in my inbox, and an old message came up. The name suddenly rang a bell: It was a neighbour who lives in my building, and who I chat with whenever we run into each other.

But her surname had escaped me, having only seen it once before when she had emailed me in 2018 about donating some old books to a rummage sale.

I went back to her email. “Are you busy? I need a little favour from you.” The thing was, I was busy. I had a couple of hours to finish some homework for a class...

Do you follow any tarot readers who do group readings, or forecasts for the collective?

Or maybe you do readings like this yourself.

From tarotscopes to daily draws, to card of the day readings that are broadcast across all kinds of social media channels, collective readings seem more popular than ever.

I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I seem to be seeing these types of posts more than ever online right now. Maybe lockdown inspired more readers to get online.

But what I’m also seeing, and hearing, is that the lines seem to be getting blurred when it comes to how people are interpreting these collective readings.

The way I see it, a collective tarot reading is similar to following your horoscope. You check it to see what’s up, and take a little bit of inspiration from it if it makes sense to do so. And if it doesn’t, you move on with your day and look forward to seeing what tomorrow’s message may be.

I used to write horoscope columns and offer collective messages and readings her...