Liz Worth ~ Tarot + Astrology

I was reading an interview with a celebrated occult writer last year and was surprised when he admitted that he almost only reads esoteric books.

When I’m scrolling through my social media feed, I often stop to look at posts about what people in the tarot community are reading. And usually those updates feature books about tarot, divination, spirituality, or magic.

When you’re passionate about something, you tend to gravitate towards it. And I spend my fair share of time reading about tarot, too.

Sometimes my tarot students have confessed that they feel pressured to read every single thing they can about tarot – even if it’s at the expense of making time to explore other interests or give their intellects a break by changing the topic.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with setting out to gain a substantial level of knowledge – in fact, I encourage it. Tarot, spirituality, and the occult are lifelong paths on which we are always learning....

People talk about tools like tarot and other esoteric practices as though they are shortcuts or hacks that will accelerate their paths to success.

Which is why I always feel so boring in that broken-record-kind-of-way when I say that learning tarot doesn’t come with any shortcuts.

To get good at tarot, it takes practice, commitment, and consistency.

Like anything else, if you keep showing up for it, put in the time, and push yourself to improve, things will change.

Which is what happened to one of my students last year, Nat. In early 2020, she sent me an email worried that her progress was slow: “I don’t think I’m very good at this.”

I told her to keep practicing, keep going.

I know that’s the key, because when I was in Nat’s position, I hit walls, too. And I have had to embrace the same learning curves in tarot as everyone else.

So I know how much can change with practice and consistent effort.

And now, a little over a year later, Nat is...

Work and relationship readings are a tarot reader's bread and butter.

If you want to read tarot for a living, you’re going to end up doing a lot of readings on these two topics.

These are the two most common topics that clients want to explore in their readings. It doesn’t matter whether you, the reader, like it or not. If you want to serve your clients and help them sort out their lives, you need to meet them where they’re at.

And often, that means walking through them through decisions about their careers and love lives.

As much as we might, as tarot readers, get excited about getting deep on spiritual explorations in our work, some clients aren’t quite ready for that - or may feel they have more pressing matters to work through first.

Reading on work and relationships for other people means:

Being aware of the responsibility that comes with these discussions;

Being clear and confident in how to handle tricky questions and when to reframe them to better...

Twin Flames are a divisive topic.

But first: What are twin flames, anyway?

The idea suggests that twin flames come from a single soul that split into two. In this Vanity Fair article, the researcher was only able to trace the term to 1886.

It sounds similar to soulmates, but the beliefs around twin flames seem to drive more conflict – or even encourage it within relationships as a pathway to spiritual growth. Turmoil, pain, and on-again-off-again affection are considered signatures to the twin flame journey.

There are plenty of twin flame gurus, cults, communities, and coaches out there to help guide people to their twin flames, and through the subsequent ups and downs of these relationships.

And it’s a lucrative corner of the spiritual industry.

I don’t want to get too far into the explanation of twin flames as that’s not the purpose of this piece, so I’ll stop there with the intention of expanding on these thoughts more in the future.

What I wanted to...

When I first started reading tarot for other people, I was actually surprised at how many wanted to know about love.

I thought I would be answering different types of questions about spiritual journeys and personal transformations.

But I quickly realized how important relationships are to people, and how much is at stake when we are talking about love, commitment, loyalty and companionship.

Some of the hardest questions I’ve had to answer as a tarot reader had to do with relationships.

They can be really complicated. Especially if the people involved are cycling through a range of emotions: One day they’re on, another they’re off.

Divining a clear answer about a relationship is not always easy to pin down when the people in question can’t be pinned down in the first place.

Another challenge can arise when clients are impatient about the answer: They feel like they’ve already been waiting “long enough” for love and they don’t want to...

The other day I got an email from one of my students:

“Liz, I’ve heard you say that you don’t need to be psychic to read tarot. And I don’t disagree, because I don’t consider myself psychic and I’ve definitely been improving in my readings lately because I’ve been following your instructions on how to actually read my cards. But at what point does tarot become an intuitive practice, too? I keep expecting my intuition to kick in, but I don’t know how or when that will happen.”

I love this question, because it highlights the mainstream context of tarot – that it is a psychic tool – and opposes it against the reality of cartomancy – that you need to learn to read the cards if you want to make them talk.

I also consider “psychic” to be a loaded word. Not because I have anything against it, but because the mainstream perceptions – the Hollywood stereotypes of psychic ability – has created...

When I ask people why they want to read tarot, the Number One reason I hear is, “I want to develop my intuition.”

So many of us want to experience trust and alignment within ourselves, and the universe. And tarot can be an amazing way to open up to that.

But there is a lot of confusion about intuition and psychic ability out there. These are concepts that we need to develop with discernment, responsibility, and groundedness if we really want to embrace them in our lives.

This goes for whether you read tarot or not – intuition is not reliant on divination.

There is no shortage of psychic advice out there in cyberspace these days. Take a scroll on Instagram and you’ll likely come across posts encouraging you to trust your psychic skills and cut off those “low-vibe” friends. Or memes that remind you that your intuition is never wrong.  

But – and this a big but – the problem with that is that it’s really easy to confuse other...

People are often attracted to esoteric practices like tarot because they want to know the fastest way to get from A to B.

And the occult seems to promise short cuts and hacks to fast-track your success.

While I don’t think it hurts to throw in a little bit of magic into your life now and again, it’s important to remember that spells, prayers, meditations and affirmations can only get you so far.

If you don’t have the right attitude, mindset, or structure in place in your life to hold onto what you want to create, then all the magic in the world won’t save you.

This is a big mistake I see tarot readers make when they are trying to build their skills.

Whether you’re brand new to tarot, or you’ve been studying for years, if you’re relying too much on the “woo” to do the work for you, then you might not be seeing the progress you want.

There are three things I think everyone needs to nail if they want to get good at reading tarot...

Happy New Year!

I hope you are doing well, all things considered.

Thank you so much for joining me here. I’m excited to start the New Year off with you!

What intentions, hopes, dreams, and changes are you bringing with you into 2021?

Personally, I’m bringing in a few new and old plans: I’m going to take clarinet lessons, for one.

Two, I’m bringing back my annual resolution to read all the un-read books I have at home before buying new ones. (It’s the third year in a row I’m setting this resolution – let’s see if I can keep it this time around.)

There are also a few spiritual trends and beliefs that I would be happy to see disappear in 2021:

1. The belief that tarot readers, energy healers and other intuitive workers shouldn’t charge for their “gifts.” This idea only serves people who don’t believe in paying someone for their labour.

Energetic and intuitive work are skills like any other, and many people who...

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...