Liz Worth ~ Tarot + Astrology

When you start reading tarot for other people, you quickly realize that a lot of questions people have revolve around the same few categories:

Work.

Relationships.

Money and security.

Focus and contentment.

And just as often, we can find ourselves asking variations of these same questions when we’re reading on our own.

It’s something that I’ve been asked about a lot over the last few years:

“How can I take my readings deeper? What else should I be asking about?”

And, “What can I do to get my querents thinking differently, too?”

I used to feel the same way.

But I’ve come to appreciate these “mundane” questions, and I encourage you to try to, too.

Because one thing I have come to realize is that these questions are what life is about: No matter what it is we are trying to achieve in our personal lives, many of us share common fears and desires at the end of the day.

Everyone wants to feel love, and be loved.

Everyone needs a sense of security and stability.

Everyone wants s...

Before I get into this week’s newsletter, let’s take a moment to check in:

How are you doing?

There is such a whirlwind of energy in the collective right now that it’s been feeling hard, for me at least, to pinpoint where a lot of us are at. It seems many of us are cycling through contradictory bursts of feelings and thoughts moment by moment: Optimistic one minute, worried the next.

Life feels brimming with possibility in so many ways. As people return back to more in-person events and community gatherings and travel plans, there is a sense of gaining momentum. And when there are things to look forward to, life feels OK. Even if the days in between aren’t always easy, anticipation of good things to come is a strong remedy.

But as the pace of life is picking up for many, there are so many stressors, too. I won’t list them all: We are all capable of naming our own worries and fears.

But I wanted to check in. To say hello. To let you know that I am a real human being writing this ne...

Tarot and intuition seem to go hand in hand: At least that’s what a lot of us are told when we start working with the cards.

But finding the synergy between an intuitive hit and following the cards as you’ve learned them can be a steep learning curve as a tarot reader.

Maybe you’ve found yourself wondering that very thing: “When should I go with the basic meaning, and when should I go with my first impression instead?”

Sometimes what sits behind this question is the fear of getting a reading wrong by going too off track with your interpretation.

I don’t think there’s a perfect answer or pat solution to this: Sometimes, you just have to be willing to go out on a limb with your interpretation to see if it resonates. Practice, experimentation, and patience go a long way to building your relationship with the cards.

Of course, what works for me may be different for someone else – intuition has its own ways of manifesting within each of us.

That’s why the piece about practice is espec...

I don’t know about you, but I have been caught up in a flurry of activity these last few months. When life feels like it’s just go, go, go, it’s easy to forget to check in with yourself. When there is a lot to do, we can end up in reactive mode sometimes, just going through the motions in order to check off our to-do lists.

But I get out of sorts in all kinds of ways if I don’t take – or make – a little bit of time to get back to my inner compass and see how I’m feeling about my present moment.

Taking that time allows me to reflect on whether I’m spending time on what I intended to. Outside of my tarot business, I’m a writer, and if you do anything creative you’ll know what I mean when I say that writing is (unfortunately) often one of the first things that falls off the radar when life gets hectic.

We owe it to ourselves to pause and ask: Am I forgetting something as I rush throughout the day?

I don’t mean forgetting to pick up something at the grocery store or neglecting to send ...

Declaring yourself a tarot reader and officially offering your services can be an exciting and nerve-wracking experience.

Some readers take a long time to come out of the “tarot closet,” as the saying goes, and there can be a number of reasons for that: Lack of support, fear of judgement, or living in a religious community top the list.

But putting your stake in the ground and making tarot a visible part of your life can still be a challenge even if you are supported through the process.

No matter what your beginnings in tarot look like, tarot is a path that will continue to challenge you to define, clarify and uphold your boundaries every step of the way.

It will also push you to realize that you can’t sustain a business off of your social network alone – even if you have friends and family who are eager and excited to support you.

In fact, those close, enthusiastic relationships can bring their own sets of challenges when you start building your profile as a tarot reader.

I’ve ...

I’ve recently been inspired by a tarot reader friend who has been doing big, deep-dive readings for himself each week to get a sense of what to prioritize in the days ahead.

I know it’s popular to pull a card a day, but sometimes that can feel like information overload with a lot to take in and not enough time to carry through on all of tarot’s messages.

I like the idea of a weekly tarot pull to set the tone for the week ahead. I find in general that I’m most effective and focused when I start off my week with a clear sense of my top priorities. A lot can happen in the span of a few days, but I can also waste a lot of time if I haven’t clearly identified what I need to be moving forward.

And these days, it feels like there is so much to do: I have new writing projects I want to make space for. I have my new Tarot Study Hall community to build upon. And I have been busy with the little vintage resale business my husband and I started last year.

There’s a lot to do, and everything ta...

One of my most unpopular tarot opinions is that intuition is not enough to be a tarot reader.

I know that goes against so much of the common advice out there when it comes to tarot reading:

“Just trust in the messages that come to you.”
“Go with your first impression.”  
“Listen to your instincts.”

And yes, self-trust is an important component of being a tarot reader: You need to be able to get to a point where you feel confident enough to rely on your abilities as a card reader.

But intuition alone isn’t the only thing tarot readers need to develop if they want to read for others. Whether you are working with paid querents or working up to that by doing practice readings on friends and acquaintances, there are a lot of other soft skills that can make or break the experience for you and your querents.

Here are three essential soft skills to develop as a tarot reader (alongside your intuition, of course):

Listening: Listening seems like an obvious one – we all want to think of o...

Do you feel like your tarot readings are “chunky,” moving from one card to another rather than synthesizing the full story? 

If you do, you’re not alone: It’s a common thing to get stuck on. There is a learning curve to tarot, and this is one of the bends that can take some time to move through.

The way a lot of us learn tarot is so focused on one card at a time. We learn that this card means this, that card means that. And when it comes time to put together a reading, we pull out a series of cards and try to add them together, only to realize our readings feel like they’re missing something. 

How do you start to summarize what’s in front of you?

How do you start to see the bigger picture of your tarot readings?

How do you stop sounding clunky in your delivery, and start articulating your readings in a way that sounds seamless and unique? 

Part of it starts with a willingness to try: To challenge yourself to push your readings to that next layer of information.

Another part of it ...

When people talk about learning tarot, the word “overwhelming” commonly comes up.

Maybe you have sat with one or more of these questions over time:

• “I can’t seem to memorize all of the card meanings.”
• “I don’t know if I’m supposed to go with the card meaning, or my intuition, or the imagery when I’m performing a reading.”
• “How do I know if a card meaning is getting in the way of my own intuitive impressions?”
• “Should I be going off the artwork, or the numerology, or the keywords?”
• “Does it matter if a card fell out when I was shuffling?”
• “I know there are a lot of layers to every card. How am I supposed to know which layer relates to my reading?”
• “Do I have to pay attention to the symbols and colours in the cards? If so, which ones are most important and why?”

One of the things I’ve realized is that there is a difference between what we think we need to be focusing on in tarot, versus what will actually move your tarot practice forward.

It’s so easy to get lost in the wee...

 Whew! If you are following the astrology of the moment, there is a lot going on.

First, we are in eclipse season: The Aries new moon and solar eclipse occurred on April 20th (or April 19th, depending on your location).

And Mercury is retrograde from Friday, April 21 until Sunday, May 14.

If you’ve followed my work for a while, you might have noticed that I try to bring some balance into the usual planet panic that takes place during notable astrological events.

Horoscopes used to play quite a big role in my life at one time. But the increasing popularity of astrology, coupled with the pressure for content creators to compete with a culture driven by clickbait and merciless algorithms, has led me to a different relationship with astrology.

It seems like every month there is a new astrology column telling people to “buckle up” or “watch out.”

And I know that that the kind of language gets people’s attention, which is what everyone...