February 2023: Tarot Cards for Creative Inspiration

I was so excited to do this reading! I mean, February, am-I-right-or-am-I-right? Paranormal romance, supernatural romance, historical romance, space opera, you name it! The romance-theme possibilities are endless!

Well, until the fates intervened by way of the cards, and no matter how much I glared at them, they weren’t giving up their creatively inspiring secrets. Instead, the message was all about inner reflection—essentially, “Creative, love thyself.”

Pooh. I mean, if we wanted to spend time with ourselves, would we really choose to engage in activities that kept us in our heads (or creative ether realms) most of the time? Realms where we hang out with the exciting array of the characters we’ve created? Especially when reality is probably even more discouragingly real right about now.

Again, sigh.

Still, this reading came out they way it did for a reason, so, take what resonates with you on this 2023 journey, and perhaps we’ll learn to nurture ourselves as carefully as we do our characters, our stories, our artistic creations.

Deck: The Wild Unknown Pocket Tarot by Kim Krans. https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-wild-unknown-pocket-tarot-with-book-s-kim-krans/16137237

First Message: Seven of Pentacles and Three of Pentacles. What purpose does our creativity serve? Is it spiritual fulfillment, monetary fulfillment, life-purpose fulfillment? Some medley of all of those? Does it really matter if it doesn’t seem have a clearly identified purpose? It can remain an unknown entity, and, yes, even magical. Perhaps we’ve all been working so hard that we’ve forgotten to tend to the inner playful energy that makes us creatives. Success, here, doesn’t have to be determined by practical concerns at this juncture—now’s the time to indulge in higher, or quixotic, elements to our creative processes. Some of you may be looking at more prosaic day jobs for income, and thereby ensuring that the pressure is taken off our imagination. Now that it doesn’t have to pay the bills, it’s free to run, to climb trees, to daydream, to come up with ridiculously improbable scenarios that just might actually work once they’re on paper. Relegate that tough critic to the daily grind of 9-5 work, and let your stories stomp around in mud puddles until they’re good and filthy.

Second Message: Five of Pentacles and Ten of Wands. Perhaps this will be the year we stop running headfirst into brick walls, where we expect to break through as easily as if they were sheets of paper. Though, for us writers/creatives, a sheet of blank paper or canvas can be more intimidating than a solid brick wall. There’s been stuff coming at us from all sides, and we may find ourselves surprised that the pressure hasn’t been alleviated with the arrival of the New Year. So, what could we do differently? How can we settle our spirits, move into a more balanced environment, and yet still work to change things in the external (“real”) world to make it better not just for ourselves, but for other people, nonhuman animals, plants, trees? Maybe we could simply give ourselves permission to explore ways to simplify our pathways through life, and walk a little more lightly on the planet, and work towards taking up less space so that other life forms have room to grow. By the time the end of 2023 rolls around, we may discover how much we’ve shifted for the better as well.

Third Message: Strength (Reversed) and Four of Swords. Personally, I find it harder to sit still and do nothing, over putting in the time, energy, and dedication towards reaching a set goal(s), no matter how endless the striving is, or how out of reach the accomplishment always seems to be. I just keep pushing and pushing, and I don’t dare take a break, because if I let up, I admit to some sort of defeat. Naturally, this may not be an issue for all/most/some of you reading this, but I think we still may be out there in varying capacities, trying to figure out the magic recipe that will transform our world to one that more closely represents the one in our innermostly* private imaginations, even though we know perfectly well that it’s simply an illusion. Or is it? Perhaps 2023 will be conducive to a process of stillness, of letting things come to us, of quietness, where all things, no matter how impossible or fanciful, could actually start manifesting themselves. Or at least reveal the direction that we need to take for our where-the-bleep-do-we-go-from-here journey.

 Fourth Message: Five of Cups and The Sun. For many of us, even with all the events of the past couple of years, it still may be hard to imagine that we could feel so bereft, so desolate, so lost and confused, as 2023 descends upon us. So it’s really strange that the Five of Cups that represents loss, deep depression, and more, is paired with the vibrant and hopeful Sun card. I feel, though, that this juxtaposition of these two cards is signaling our subconscious desire to move out of, not just one phase of existence, but out of the old world entirely. We may be rediscovering how enjoyable simple pleasures are over other longstanding pastimes. Going for a walk in the park instead of spending time online, perhaps, or even just sitting out in the back yard or a balcony doing absolutely nothing. This could also be a time where we may be receiving a lot of prompts about our lives as they are; things like, do we really need so much stuff? Or not just figuring out what would make us more content with ourselves and our lives, but also figuring out how to turn a whimisical daydream into a new reality. Expect to feel irritable, tired, burned out while this transition is happening, and try to be patient with yourself as you sense a new collectively harmonious existence arising off on the horizon.

*An intentional typo.