#short tarot reading

[brutalfantasytarot]

PAC Love Reading: What Your Soulmate Wants You to Know 💘

study the images. which one are you drawn to most?

[left to right]

get a personal, detailed love reading here! : etsy.com/shop/brutalfantasy 💓

PILE ONE: ten of wands

they will happily let you ruin them. they would rip their heart out of their chest and offer it to you. they love so deeply and intensely. you are their fate. the moments they spend with you, they are entirely devoted to you. no one else is on their mind. it's just you and them. hazel eyes and reddish hair. pretty freckles. leo rising. leo moon.

"for you, i am fragile. for you, i will strip

of my clothes and my armor. i would tear the flesh right off the bone

for you, i am naked

for you, i am open."

PILE TWO: two of wands

Sagittarius sun. blonde hair. stargazing together. you guide them like the night sky with your soul. they love your soft thighs and pretty eyes. there's something hazy about them. making love to you is like a ceremony for the universe. they dream of your hands on their skin. you take up all the space in their heart.

[just-a-ghost00]

13 reasons why you are a good person

Group 1 ❤️ - Hermit, 10 of cups, Moon

You mind your business

You are adorable.

You are patient.

You are a very calm, chill person.

You are a good listener.

You have a pure heart.

You have a knack for creative hobbies.

You’re a dreamer.

You make people feel safe.

You never take more than you can give.

You are mindful.

You are not afraid to express your emotions.

You genuinely care about others.

Group 2 🎀 - Queen of pentacles, 5 of swords, 10 of wands

You are reliable.

You are very generous.

You take everything seriously.

You are loyal.

You have a great sense of responsibility.

You have a competitive spirit.

You are witty.

You are resilient.

You are opinionated.

You have a strong mindset.

You are rational.

You remain calm in stressful situations.

You always think about the greater good.

Group 3 👓 - 4 of pentacles, 5 of wands, 4 of cups

You know how to keep a secret.

You are cautious.

You are mindful.

You don’t let yourself be overwhelmed by emotion.

You have a competitive spirit.

You know how to take initiative.

You are not naive.

You know your worth and won’t settle for less than you deserve.

You always have people’s back.

You never back down from a challenge.

You may be a person of few words but your actions speak for you.

You are protective of others.

You are independent.

[thementalshawty]

Short PAC What ‘Era’ Of Your Life You’re In Right Now 😘

Haylowwwww my babies, you seen not only did I post a YouTube video which I know I finally got to do it’ll be at the bottom of this so look at that two readings in one, 😂! This is a reading I felt pulled to do for you guys really quick I felt like mistress Isabelle brooks from drag race feeling myself entering a new era and I wanted to spread that with you guys so choose from these iconic ladies who had and created so many eras and figure out just where you are in your life right now.

Pile 1

Your Card: The Twins

I’m seeing that you’re in your yin yang individual era right now, your glow up era I’m hearing that for your pile 1 glow up, your aura is vibrating high and you wanna protect yourself, you’re learning all aspects of yourself and you’re doing it in a safe haven or you’re attempting to get into a safe zone so you can explore the dual sides and natures of you! You’re judging yourself and holding yourself up to a standard that may not be you, comparing yourselves with your siblings maybe? Also if you’re in a relationship that is tense right it could be because of some trauma that THE BOTH OF YOU, need to deal with in order for your relationship to be harmonious. You’re your compassionate era “I see you twin.” I heard that, that maybe for some of you, idk, but I see you giving the benefit of the doubt more, being more caring and thoughtful to the other person, ending old habits and cycles that have been stopping you from having a loving relationship. This era you’re in is all about healing, balance, compassion, and reconnection! Glow up Era fashooooo!

Pile 2

Your Card: The Patron.

Well to put it just like that, you’re in your patron era, your guiding hand era, mentorship era. You’re definitely the voice and mind someone needs right now in order to get through this thing called life, I’m feeling like it could be you being the mentor or you gaining one. I’m also seeing that you’re in your either endorsement deals era or sponsoring the world era, you’re either giving or receiving some kind of financial investment and I’m seeing that this is new project era vibes as well hunty! I’m hearing what ever you but to do you gon eat it up HENNYYYYYYYYYYYY! I’m living for this era that you are entering you’re in your empowerment era and not just for you but for this new person coming into your life, be open minded, they may not be romantic but this connection is important for the both of you whether you’re receiving or giving the guidance. Learning era baby!!!

Pile 3

Your Card: The Astronomer

So baddies lol, I see that you here are getting more into your taboo era. I’m seeing that you guys will be discovering a lot about yourselves spiritually, you may even connect closely with your higher self, through dreams for some of you. Connecting with the stars is really important for you at this point, you may even be learning more about your astrology charts and shit right now, stars are aligning for you baby and you’re gonna find out why! Whatever shit you’re dealing with too at this point you’re in you’re gaze in to the future era cos the solution is not in the past, it’s in the future and you need to look there because I’m seeing what you doing right now to solve it ain’t working, time for new ideas. Be open to new suggestions to follow them like is gospel trust YOURSELF! If you’re feeling what someone is saying is not right trust me it ain’t! You are in your high priestess/hierophant era babies do not allow anyone to make you feel like you can’t trust yourself! Your gut is leading you right my babies this era that you’re entering is a whole new you! A glow up but this involves only you, as the other likes involved other people. You got this babies!

That’s all that I’m getting for you guys, let me know if you like these eras reading in the comments and I will try to do them periodically.

[lavendergoddesstarot]

Manifesting Tips

Pick a pile/picture

Pile 1:

Knight of Swords:

Speak your desires aloud (Use affirmations or speak spells aloud)

Write your desires down (Use journaling)

Take action!

Have confidence in yourself

Pile 2:

8 of Wands:

Use your Imagination more

Have fun! (When visualizing feel what's it's like to have your desires)

Take action

Communicate

Focus on law of attraction (What you focus on, you attract)

[ange11icyuri]

❝ PICK A PILE❞

𓆩♱♡♱𓆪

•sabrina carpenter edition

(Short n sweet album)

╰┈➤ Chose which picture you connect

with more & that will be your pile.

PILE 1 𐙚

Your song: Dumb and Poetic —Sabrina carpenter.

For those who chose this pile this connection broke your heart. You thought that this relationship was what you needed but this person only knew how to swoon you with words and paragraphs, and with trying to be poetic and all along it was just words. (This person says something but it doesn’t align with their actions of this relationship. when it comes to loving you and giving you what you want in a relationship they’ve spoken it but haven’t exactly done a lot for you in terms of their actions. They may seem like a good person but they truly broke your heart. Told you everything they could give you (or told you how much they could love you but yet you’ve only been mislead by their words and got hurt instead. Things were maybe good in the start but in your life there had been a lot of changes when it comes to this connection. This person told you they could love you but you ended up being in disappointment because their actions did not match their words. It will definitely be a long journey trying to make up with this person, or trying to go on your way..but the problems are all worth solving & healing is worth it if you would like to become happier after a connection broke you. You need time to process and heal & solve the problems but it won’t be easy. You definitely will overcome it in the end though. Trust the process.

PILE 2 𐙚

Your song: Bed Chem — Sabrina carpenter.

For those who chose this pile you feel very passionate for the person that you’re interested in. You may just always get excited around them because they possibly give you butterflies or tingles in your stomach. You often fantasize what it would be like with this person. (Sexually) your extremely attracted to this person and even think about what it’s like being in bed with them. You’re confident that the both of you would have the best fun in bed. You definitely Desire them and there’s strong sexual tension between the both of you. You both are very attracted to one another and wouldn’t want to keep your hands off each other. Despite being confident about the two of you in bed you may have lack of confidence or might not feel very worthy with low self of esteem when it comes to this person because despite the both of you wanting each other you still have a lot of insecurity’s..maybe you want to have a good time with this person but you can feel like you won’t be good enough for this person..but you’re more than good enough you should know that! You don’t need validation from this person or anyone else! You might even feel unrecognized or not seen by this person which makes you feel hurt and gives you these insecurities in the first place. The both of you have a connection but sometimes their can be doubts, insecurities & even conflicts make sure to stand you’re grown and communicate with this person if you want things to work out other than being in bed (if it’s not just casual) the both of you need to work together to fix things. This person needs to try a little harder to recognize you and the things you’ve done for them because you’ve been there from the beginning always loving and caring about them in different situations not just the hook up scene so they should take care of you as well.

PILE 3 𐙚

Your song: Don’t Smile — Sabrina carpenter.

For those who chose this pile this person broke your heart and left you feeling stuck. you were extremely hurt because they seemed happy or moved on with their lives as soon as everything was over but you hoped that they would regret it, cry, or feel bad..even hoped they wouldn’t sleep at night..maybe you just wished things worked out with this person and when it didn’t you felt unhappy and you hated the fact that they were smiling/happy after everything they did to you while you were stuck in this phase of being dissatisfied and disappointed with how things turned out..you wonder to yourself how can someone just act like a connection never happened when you shared so many memories and just easily move on with their lives doing other things already forgetting you. Although the both of you went through a lot this connection may still have some unfinished business maybe the both of you will reconcile or try to talk again to have closure and end on good terms before you move on(take what resonates leave what doesn’t) don’t worry though I see that you will be letting go of worries when it comes to this connection. I see you overcoming any problems in the way and things could get better for you. In your reading the number 8 showed up twice so 8 could be significant to you. Also it means completion and success so maybe the two of you could be working things out in this time or will work things out because this connection means a lot to the both of you. You must keep in mind that you have to keep caution and communicate things clearly with your partner if you want to things to get better the both of you must focus on becoming mentally clear with one another. Especially this person because they did hurt you in the past before and if you’re trying again their needs to be boundaries + clarity on things. You need all the information in order to take the next step in this connection. The both of you have to decide whether this is worth working on or having to let go.

[kiisuuumii]

i just wanted to say that if you've been questioning at all whether you can have the life, career, family, love, etc. you want or envision for yourself, or whether you can even make it there, i want you to know that you deserve to have the fulfillment you want and that you have everything you need to get there within you. even if you might doubt yourself, you already have whatever it takes. it's the reason why we yearn, i think.

[pbstarot]

How to ask the tarot the right question.

Hi! So I'm breaking my break to let you all know about something very important: How to ask the tarot a question. Many of you who come to my DMs have no idea how to do this and I always ALWAYS have to walk people through it, so I might as well make a tutorial.

Now, I'm not claiming this is the end all be all knowledge of the universe, just based on my own experience with the cards and that of my clients. I figure that the tarot can be less tricky when you get to the bottom of what you want to know.

Also, I'm still on break. I just genuinely think this post might help some people who are new to at least find themselves a little bit. I'm not coming back yet, but yeah. I wanna help. This is also gonna be a short post because there isn't that much to talk about when it comes to this. So, let's go.

Now, can you ask the tarot the wrong question? Yes, you can. The thing about tarot is that the more specific you get the best your experience is. Let's say you have a situation. You ask me: "PB, I need a reading about my love life. I have a crush on X, and I've been thinking about talking to them, but idk if they like me. How do they see me?" Now, you may think this is a pretty straightforward situation, you wanna know how this person sees you, ok, but you don't. What you REALLY wanna know is if they like you back and if they won't reject you if you make a pass at them. You see, if you ask how do they see you, you can get a broader answer than what you are looking for. I might see in the cards that they think you're cool, that they think you're pretty, but none of this tells you if they're gonna want you back. They might be seeing someone right now, for example, or they might be taking a sabbatical from dating. They might even think all of these things of you in a platonic way. Besides, even if I see that they don't seem to be that into you, you don't know their reasoning. Could be that they're clueless about your intentions towards them or that you never really talked all that much, but nothing that let's me know they won't be into it if you invite them on a date anyway. They might be pleasantly surprised.

Another example would be one that I saw before in my first years of learning tarot, about selling a house. You put your house for sale because you need the money to move, for example. So, you go to a tarot reader and ask: "Will I sell my house?" Which, again, pretty straightforward, but this is once more not what you wanna know. You wanna know if you're gonna have the money to move. If I answered that you might not sell your house in a timely manner, you might get discouraged, but nothing says that you're not gonna get a promotion at work that gives you the necessary money to leave. Then, all you need to to is have someone take care of the house while you put everything in order. A question I get frequently is if you're gonna move abroad in X amount of time. That's a good question, although tarot is terrible for timing in general. So, it'd be best if you asked if you're gonna move in general.

Another question I get, and this is the last one, is "what should I do for my career?" I don't know. That is too broad of a question. I saw people answering it before, which is cool, but it comes with an entire personality reading just to find out whether you'd be better at baking or having a YouTube channel, and to me these are two wildly different things. One is a personality reading, one is a career reading, and again it is too broad. Instead, you should go up to the tarot reader with a specific career in mind, which most people do have, but they sometimes tip toe around it out of fear of knowing the truth. So, if you wanna be an actress, ask "Should I be an actress?" If you wanna be a stage coach, ask the same. Even better questions would be "Will I be successful if I choose X career?" or "Would I be happy if I chose X career?" because that really narrows it down the most on what you really wanna know. Everyone wants to be an artist, but the crux of the matter is whether that'll pay the bills or not, if you're gonna have to have a job on the side, etc.

So, yeah. As I said, short post, but I feel like it really narrows it down the best that I can. Hope you find this info useful today and bye bye!

[weebsinstash]

you know, it may not ever actually be explained or built upon but one thing I've been thinking about a lot recently is like. Hazbin Hotel lowkey has MHA Quirk mechanics and not enough people are having fun with that. we got one guy who can modify his body with technology and can augment and change himself at will and can go into TVs, use electro-based teleportation, hypnosis, his TV head is also a cellphone, then we got another guy who can summon shadowy minions, change people's clothes, create vestiges made of darkness that can absolutely wreck people's shit, his shadow is some kind of familiar and inner peek at his deeper emotions, and I'm also pretty fucking sure the whole "making a magical contract that cannot be disobeyed" is something anyone in Hell can do, the Overlords are just the best and most powerful options

like WHO can actually do WHAT and will it ever be properly explained?

As a fanfic writer I don't actually inherently care about all of the worldbuilding specifics; I just love having the option of giving Reader insert characters fun ass kickin powers and personally I think 90% of this cast would LOVE watching you beat someone up

[carinasibila]

PICK A CARD Love Reading (April 2024) ~ Singles How to Increase Your Chances in Love Watch on YouTube / Instagram / TikTok Disclaimer: Only take what resonates and leave the rest behind. I am only posting this reading on profiles I’ve listed on my Linktree (linktr.ee/carinasibila) – all other profiles that might post it are fake. Decks used in this reading: Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot Blue Bird Lenormand* Original Kipper Cards** PILE 1 Ace of Pentacles, Heart*, Gift** Back of the deck: The Devil The cards suggest for you to change your expectations regarding romance. You seem to have slid into the expectation that a romantic partner will be handed to you. However, you shouldn’t solely stick to making wishes – do your part and actively create situations that make it more likely for love to come into your life. PILE 2 Justice, Clouds*, Judication** Back of the deck: III of Swords In order for you to increase your chances in love, the cards urge you to stop expecting to be hurt in a relationship. Recent painful experiences have distorted the way you’ve been looking at potential partners, leading to you prematurely disqualifying them. Get to know potential partners without fear but still act with prudence – this will make your search for love much more fulfilling. PILE 3 II of Cups, Birds*, Lovers** Back of the deck: III of Pentacles If you want to meet a new potential partner, the best you can do right now is to do some “networking”. Get together with people you’ve been wanting to catch up with anyway (likely friends you haven’t seen in a while), especially if they have many acquaintances – there is a good chance one of those acquaintances will turn out to be the romantic partner you’ve been wishing for!

[lovepeaceandtarot]

Pick a card - What your future spouse want say to you? - Result

(Escolha uma carta - O que o seu futuro esposo quer falar para você? - Resultado

DM me for paid readings.

(Me mande mensagem para leituras pagas)

If that found you, it was for a reason. Take what resonates and leave what doesn’t resonate.

(Se isso encontrou você, é por uma razão. Pegue o que ressoar e deixe o que não ressoa.)

Card 1 - Don’t give up, i’m coming for you and don’t worry.

(Carta 1 - Não desista, eu já estou chegando e não se preocupe.)

Card 2 - While I don't arrive, allow yourself to do things that make you happy. When you least expect it, I'm already with you.)

(Carta 2: Enquanto eu não chego, permita-se fazer coisas que te faz feliz. Quando menos esperar, eu já estou com você.)

#tarot #tarotportugal #tarotreading #career #careerreading #generalreading #foryou #foryoupage #explore #explorar #consultas #tarô #tarotcards #tarotcomunity #consultasdetarot #freereadings #freetarot #freetarotreading #generalreading #dailytarotreading #dailytarot #pickapiletarot

[brutalfantasytarot]

Pick A Card Tarot Reading: Random Future Spouse Messages 💓🦋

study the images. which one are you drawn to most?

[left to right]

ko-fi.com/brutalfantasytarot - for personal readings 🔮

ko-fi.com/brutalfantasytarot - for personal readings 🔮

ko-fi.com/brutalfantasytarot - for personal readings 🔮

PILE ONE: queen of cups

channeled song: follow you - bring me the horizon

gemini. cancer. blue eyes, light brown hair. ocean dives. super creative and intuitive. a love that makes you feel like you're swimming in the depths of the ocean - never safer than you are now. gold chain. modest clothes. nurturing energy. scorpio moon. intense longing. smell of cigarettes. the lovers. meeting in summer or the very first days of spring. psychic knowing. saturn return. new beginnings as a union. to remain tender is a gift

PILE TWO: the magician

green eyes. nose ring. heart chakra activations. gemini moon. libra sun. Aquarius sun. ruled by mercury. black hair. dark brown hair. chokers. i love your weird brain. jack and sally. bleeding on people who didn't cut you. blooming like flowers on your own time

channeled song: dust - M|O|O|N

[just-a-ghost00]

What are you currently manifesting?

Group 1

The Moon, 10 of cups, 7 of swords, The Magician

Feelings that were trying to be hidden from you will be revealed to you in an undirect way. You will either learn through someone else or using your own intuition and skills about a person's true intentions. You are also manifesting the healing of past betrayals and deceitful situations. You may have been strategically planning to get a person to confess to you. You could also have dreamt of a person that is trying to avoid you and deny their feelings. I feel like your dreams and intuitions about this person are about to come true. This is a result of your constant efforts and manifestation techniques. Beware though of the challenging energies that may be surrounding this connection. This may be something you will have to hide away from prying eyes. Pisces and Gemini seem to be significant here.

Group 2

Death, Ace of swords, 3 of wands, 5 of swords

You are manifesting communication from a person or an institution you were in a conflict with. There may have been misunderstandings in this situation. You will gain clarity on what was going on and may be able to clearly plan for the future because of that. This could be someone you had a fallout with, a person that you were in a no contact situation with. For some of you, you could be receiving communication from passed on loved ones that will help you understand why you were facing obstacles regarding certain plans you had. Overall, you're manifesting understanding of a challenging cycle which will help you to move forward. Scorpio energy seems to be significant here.

Group 3

10 of wands, 7 of swords, Justice, The Emperor

You are manifesting retribution from an important institution or a person of authority. This could be an important masculine energy. This person was testing you and purposefully provoking you, they may have voluntarily burdened you with certain responsibilities but you were smart enough to see right through them. Your astute sense of observation and skills will bring you justice and you will prevail in this situation. You may thus gain a higher status or more freedom of will. This person may become an important ally instead of standing in your way. Aries and Scorpio seem to be significant here.

[hypnotherapy-blog-blog]

The Black Bag - Part 1.

The Black Bag.

Rob Hadley

Introduction.

When I wrote The Black Bag I had it in mind that many of the people likely to read it would already have a knowledge of Tarot. However, that’s proved to have been a miscalculation. I have been pleased to see many readers have a curiosity about Tarot, but not much familiarity with it.  As a result, I often suggest readers step into this journey with a Tarot deck at hand.  It will help you see the cards mentioned, and to participate in a manner that gives you a deeper connection to the story.  Each reader, does after all, have their own relationship to the cards. Indeed each card relates to each reader differently. As you make your way through these pages, perhaps you will have insights that will make the story unique for you.

My intent is for you to enjoy these pages, and maybe pick up a few ideas along the way. I don’t propose for an instant that any given card has set or established meanings. My own view is that context is everything. The cards tend to match up with your own particular situation and can have very different meanings at different times. I hope you’ll enjoy this journey. Feel free to reach out to me and let me know your own experiences.

My best wishes as you embark on this journey,

Rob Hadley

Vanbc1963@yahoo.com

The Black Bag

By Rob Hadley

C.2024

It is fair to say that the one person you least expect to see following your mother’s funeral is your mother. Yet, as Grahame Bickerton stepped out of the small chapel and into the daylight and looked across the well tended gardens he was shocked to find himself staring at a figure in the distance that bore an unmistakeable resemblance to the very person he had just witnessed being extended that last of human dignities.

The coffin had slid silently away behind the curtain in the funeral home, and he’d been shocked to find himself craning to see the final glimpse as it moved irresistibly into the cremation chamber. And yet here, across this beautifully laid out garden there seemed to be someone that could be his very own mother sitting in mournful contemplation by one of the gravestones, their back to him.

Grahame felt a hand on his sleeve and turned.  It was the only other person that had been at the service. An elderly woman with a cane, bent almost double, the result of some form of spinal deformity.  The woman spoke to him gently, her eyes moist with tears.

“I will miss you mother,” she said. “I feel your loss.”

“You’re very kind,” said Grahame trying not to be too dismissive but wanting to pull away and see the woman in the distance more clearly. She’d got up and was walking away.

“I used to work with her you know, at the college. Geography,” she said. “She spoke of you regularly.”

“Geography?” replied Grahame, completely lost.

“I teach Geography at the college. We used to have tea together often,” she continued.

Grahame didn’t wish to be rude and turned and tried to catch sight of the person in the garden, but she was hurrying away.

“If I can help,” she said, “you can find me at the college.”

Grahame pulled away and started walking across the gardens leaving the old woman staring after him as he strode away.

“Poor man,” she said to herself leaning on her cane. “He’s obviously terribly upset.”

Grahame hurried across the lawns in the direction of the woman he had seen. Soon he stopped. The crows were rising from some trees by the seat the woman had been sitting on but was gone from view now. It was almost as if she’d never been there. He walked on, but after a few moments realised it was no good. He couldn’t see which way she’d gone.

“Christ,” he muttered, then thinking more clearly calmed himself.

“I have to get a grip,” he said to himself. “This is ridiculous, I’m a bloody engineer, dammit.”

With that Grahame dismissed the notion that anything out of the norm had happened. He was obviously overreacting.

+++

It was mid morning several weeks later when Grahame received the call from the car dealership. The fall sunlight cast the city in a flat light that lacked the warmth of the summer so recently ended. He stood looking out of his meagre office at the glass towers of the downtown core and the cranes that perched beside every spare inch of buildable space.

How very different those offices were from his own. From the office beside his he could hear his boss shouting down the phone at one of the project planners. The congestion on the road today was holding things up for everybody. He was well aware that they were pouring concrete on several projects today, and with those cement trucks stranded in the unexpected traffic chaos caused by this morning’s power outage there was sure to be hell to pay. As luck would have it none of his teams were pumping today, so while the atmosphere in the office would be toxic, it didn’t directly affect any of his people.

He’d been lucky, pacing himself lately. The recent death of his mother had forced him to scale back some of his work commitments. As the executor of the will there were assets to be disposed of, taxes to pay, and all the administrative chaos that accompanies the end of life. And that brought him back to the phone call. It had been the dealership he’d taken his mother’s old Town Car to.  She’d loved that vehicle, but it had no business being on the road with gas prices the way they are today. Getting rid of it had been the only thing to do, and yet in spite of his having thoroughly cleaned the vehicle before leaving it at the second hand car lot, the manager had called and informed him that they’d found some old playing cards and some journals when the car was made ready for sale.

“We didn’t want to toss them out,” said the manager. “They may be something you want.”

The manager had sounded awkward. He was aware the car had been Grahame’s mother’s vehicle, being acquainted with old lady. He’d been servicing the car since he’d joined the dealership over a decade previously.

A phone slammed down in the cubicle beside his and Grahame winced. Did the workplace have to be so toxic, he wondered. Looking at his diary he could see he didn’t need to be here at present, and if he were to walk the dozen blocks to the car lot he could get away early and then slip home to work the rest of the day from there.

He placed a file into his brief case and made for the door. His boss was already on the phone to the next project manager, wringing his hands and looking intently at the screen of his laptop and chewing his lip, a nervous habit he’d nursed every day since Grahame had joined the company. He nodded as he made his way out of the building but went by unnoticed. As he walked out across the car park he felt the sun on his face and a sense of relief in his heart. It was good to be out of the cramped office space.

He loved the city, and being part of the construction trade he was enjoying the fruits of a building boom, but it wasn’t lost on him that he worked for a small consultancy firm, and the glass palaces of downtown were far from his reality. The firm he worked for may be part of the construction team, but he was under no illusions about the work. Twice in the last year his boss had been forced to ask his staff to wait a week for their wages, and if his suspicions were correct, it would happen again. In the hierarchy of the building trade, the company he was working for was not what anyone would describe as a highflyer.

He walked smartly across town, the sound of horns blaring a fitting backdrop to the stationary traffic. Another set of lights up ahead had blown out and a crew was struggling to get their vehicle to somewhere they could work on the switchgear.

Grahame tuned out the sound of the city. He thought of his mother, and that he’d only seen her three times in the year prior to her death. They’d had dinner back in April, and then he had driven out to the cottage in mid summer, and then Rose had told him she was going in for some tests. She seemed unworried about it at the time, and he hadn’t really thought much of it.

Deconstructing things later Grahame realised that Rose had suffered in silence for some time before having these tests run. Indeed by the time pancreatic cancer was diagnosed it was already far advanced. She had suffered briefly, and Grahame had visited, but soon after that last time she had succumbed, slid into a coma and within two weeks had died leaving a great chasm in Graham’s life. A chasm he promptly filled with his own guilt for not being a better son, and more available to his mother.

He was being too hard on himself, but that was nothing new.

+++

At the car dealership the manager had placed the collection of journals and other bits and pieces in a large envelope for Grahame to collect.  He walked into reception and the young lady on the desk reached beneath her desk and passed it to him, recognising him from previous visits. Grahame thanked her and took the package, then decided he’d walk home through the park.

There was little point returning to the office today. He didn’t feel up to working, and the traffic chaos of the morning would soon be merging with the afternoon rush hour, as people tried to leave work early to beat the rush.

Taking a moment to sit in the sunshine he stopped at a park bench and opened the package. It contained three journals, all closely handwritten in his mothers handwriting, and one small black bag. He drew this out and inspected it. Inside he found some cards, but not the playing cards you’d expect an old lady to have should she find herself compelled to get into a game of gin rummy. These were altogether more colorful, and well used.

He inspected them and realised that these were tarot cards. He had no idea his mother had an interest in tarot. While not something he had any knowledge of, Grahame recognised some of the symbols on the cards as he rifled through them. He found the cards strangely puzzling, feeling rather like he’d discovered something secret. He slid the blag bag back into the envelope continued his journey home. They were a mystery he would examine further at a later date.

As he walked he lamented the fact that he had few of his mothers belongings, even though he was her sole heir. The reality was that his small modern apartment was hardly a suitable venue for an ancient armoire, or dining table for eight people.

When he emerged out of the far side of the park he was only a couple of blocks from his apartment. Walking to work today had been a good choice, even here the traffic was log jammed.

+++

The loss of his sole surviving parent had forced something of a pause in Graham’s life.  It was a moment in which he was compelled to take stock and look at where he was.

He had recently ended a fruitless relationship of eighteen months. It had been a perfunctory affair, neither very passionate nor disastrous, but lacking in so many of the things he felt his life needed.

They’d found each other online, were both ‘self actualised professionals looking to share all life has to offer,’ according to their dating profiles, but were neither very self actualised (he still wasn’t sure what that meant) nor very willing to share very much. He’d decided he didn’t really trust the person he was dating, and realised she didn’t trust him either. They’d decided to ‘have a two week break’ two months ago and he hadn’t heard from her since.

Surprisingly he didn’t miss the woman either. It was as if the relationship had not really happened at all. And he felt no compulsion to reconnect.

If he were quite honest with himself it was much the same with his job.  He’d been working as a project manager for several years, and it paid reasonably well. While his job didn’t excite him, it provided security enough for him to live in the city, pay a disturbingly high proportion of his income in rent, and to own a car that he could drive at barely 20 miles an hour anywhere he chose. And then pay a fortune for parking. Like the relationship, his job didn’t fill him with passion either.

Grahame was gradually coming to the conclusion that there were patterns emerging in his life that didn’t fill him with joyful expectation. In his mid thirties he had expected something more of life. Was this really it?

These were Grahame’s thoughts as he walked alongside the stationary traffic and glanced at the frustrated drivers in their little tin boxes. Just a few blocks from home Grahame watched an episode play out before him.

A driver in a Jeep was blowing his horn at a car in front. The yellow haired woman sat in a little pale blue convertible, studiously ignoring the increasingly insistent honking. Judging by the body language the young lady had not had a good day, sitting arms crossed and lips pursed determined to ignore the blaring of the horn behind.

“Hey lady,” came the voice. A tee shirt clad young man, physically toned and cocksure, leaned from his car window and called to her.

Finally having had enough, the young woman, her hair tightly curled up in a bun, turned in her seat and shouted back at the man, “For god’s sake! I have a boyfriend!”

She then turned and sat, arms folded defiantly in the stationary traffic, red faced and flustered now with her eyes locked on the licence plate before her. At that instant a gap opened in the lane beside her and the jeep bucked forward and pulled alongside her for a moment as vehicles shifted in the Tetris game of traffic flow.

“Lady, I just wanted to tell you,” said the man, a little more gently now, “You have a flat tire.”

Taken aback, the young woman checked behind her to see that the traffic was not moving, and then stepped out of her car to take a closer look. She wore a smart pencil skirt and lemon blouse, the picture of propriety. She came back a moment later and sat behind the wheel looking perplexed.

She seemed nonplussed for a moment, and then composing herself turned and politely addressed the man in the jeep.

“Can you help me fix it?” she called across the traffic lane.

The young man lit up a cigarette in a slow languid style, and then said, “Like you said, lady. You’ve got a boyfriend.”

The traffic shifted and the Jeep advanced progressing up the line of cars.

Grahame, abreast of the little convertible looked at the woman, and saw the tears welling up in her eyes. He guessed she’d maybe not fixed a tire before. And with so many cars around she would be stuck blocking traffic before long as the tire deflated. He knew that on any other day he would have gone with his old habits and just not got involved, but today was just a little different.

“Would you like a hand?” he asked softly.

“That would be so kind,” said the woman, relief spreading across her face. Suddenly she didn’t seem quite so prickly.

“Just pull in to one of the spaces up here,” said Graham. “I live a block up the road, I’ll help you change the tire. Just let me go up to my apartment and change out of my office clothes. I won’t be more than five minutes.”

“That’s so kind of you,” said the young woman. “You’re like a real knight in shining armour.”

“Well, not really. But I can change a tire.  Give me five minutes and I’ll be back.”

With that he left her and hurried toward his apartment.

+++

Grahame hurried along the street, the sound of construction crowding in on him after the quiet of the park.  That poor woman, he thought. Some men really could be thoughtless.

He hurried into his apartment, tossed the envelope carelessly onto the coffee table, as if by reflex turned on the kettle to boil water for a cup of tea and went to his bedroom. A moment later he’d got out of his work suit and pulled on a pair of jeans and a sweater.

He turned and was about to hurry down to the street to help the woman change her tire, when he noticed the envelope had spilled its contents across the surface of the coffee table.

Not wanting to keep the woman downstairs waiting, he casually glanced at the table. Cards were slewed across the flat surface in an arc. It looked almost artistic. One card lay face up.

Grahame glanced at it, and then retrieved his keys and made for the door. As he stepped out of the elevator on the ground floor, the front door of the building opened and his neighbour, old Mrs. Willoughby entered the vestibule.

At that moment there was a terrible crashing sound from outside. Mrs. Willoughby turned and looked out at the street, a startled look of shock on her face.

Grahame rushed to the door and stared out to see what on earth had happened. Cars were stopped now, honking and people climbing from them and rushing back down the road. It took only a moment for Grahame to realise the sound had come from the building site on the next block, just by where he could see the woman’s car pulled over.

He hurried toward the car, and as he got closer realised this was the centre of the commotion. The woman was standing back, leaning against the siding at the edge of the construction site. He hurried to her side.

The little blue convertible was wrecked. It lay smashed beneath a series of scaffolding poles, looking as though it had been speared in some ghastly hunt.

White faced and shocked the woman stood back, shocked but unharmed, against the siding.

“Good god, what happened?” he said to her after he’d pushed his way through the crowd.

People were looking up, staring at a crane’s hook and some chain suspended seventy feet above the road. A man with a hard hat came barrelling out of the building site and rushed to the car. By-standers were already photographing the wrecked car, and posting them to social media on their phones.

“Was anyone hurt?” the workman was asking in panic, looking around wildly.

“Are you ok?” Grahame said, steadying the woman with a kindly hand.

“I’m ok,” she said rapidly. “I’m ok!”

She was white faced and shaking. Grahame turned to the assembled crowd and said, “Does anyone have some water?”

A bottle was developed and passed to the woman.

Grahame turned to the crowd and asked, “Who saw what happened?”

Several voices piped up. Grahame looked at the man in the hardhat and said, “Are you the foreman?”

He nodded nervously.

“Thank god no one was hurt,” he replied. “You’d better get these people’s statements. The police will be along soon. It’s going to make things a lot better if people are able to describe it.”

The foreman nodded and corralled the witnesses while Grahame turned back to the woman.

“You’re going to need a cup of tea, aren’t you,” he said gently. “Let’s get you out of here and calm things down.”

Grahame handed his card to the foreman, and one of the witnesses.

“When the cops show up can you let them know she’s at my place up the road,” said Grahame.

There was sympathetic nod and Grahame and the woman pressed their way through the crowd and made their way down the block to his apartment building.

+++

Grahame made the tea as his frightened guest sat in the open plan living room.

“You didn’t tell me your name,” said Graham, wanting to keep the woman talking.

“I’m Sunshine,” she said. “And that’s my mother’s car.”

“Oh, dear,” he said. “It’s a very nice little car. Well, it was. How did you come to be unharmed? I mean, it looks like a hell of a mess.”

Grahame poured the tea and placed a cup and saucer before Sunshine.

“I stepped out of the car to look at the tire, and that’s when it happened,” she said. “There was just this rush of air, and a terrible sound. Like bells ringing, and then those scaffolding poles all around me.”

“What a thing to happen,” Grahame said.

“I guess,” she replied beginning to calm down. “I could have been killed.”

She sipped the tea, her hand still trembling. That was when Sunshine started sobbing.

+++

The statement to the police, a visit from the foreman and an exchange of documents all took time and Sunshine seemed to go through the process in a daze. She was glad to be somewhere quiet and safe, and Grahame remained largely quiet in the background as the questions were asked and answered. It was a terribly unfortunate accident, but as the police officer pointed out, no one was hurt. The insurance companies would sort out the wrecked car which was now safely off the road. The construction company manager said the company would be up to their necks in investigations, but seemed co-operative, almost as upset by the whole situation as Sunshine was herself.

“That could have been my own daughter,” said the manager as Grahame had shown him out. It happened that he knew Grahame from the local planning department meetings that he’d sometimes have to attend for his company.

“Terrible thing,” he’d said. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Those clamps don’t just fail.”

“Thank heavens no one was hurt,” echoed Graham.

+++

At length the police officer left, and they found themselves alone in the quiet apartment. Noticing the journals and the tarot cards on the table, Sunshine asked, “What’s this?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.  Just some things of my mother’s,” replied Graham.

“Don’t you see it?” said Sunshine, looking at the upturned card.

“What do you mean,” said Graham.

“You don’t think it looks like all those scaffolding poles that fell on my car?” said Sunshine as she picked up the card.

Grahame stared at the card. The Eight of Wands.  He wondered what it meant.

“I suppose,” said Graham.  “It’s really not my thing,” he added and then as an afterthought said, “I’m an engineer.”

Sunshine looked at the card once more, and then at Grahame trying to find the link between not being able to see the visual connection and being an engineer. She failed.

“I wonder what made you turn over this particular card then,” she said. “Probably something subconscious.”

“I didn’t pick that card.  I mean, I just left some things on the table, they just fell like that, and then I came down to help you.”

“And that was before you heard the crash,” asked Sunshine with newly sparked curiosity.

“Yes,” replied Graham, noticing for the first time how the image in the card did look a little like the scaffolding poles.

“That’s quite the coincidence,” murmured Sunshine.

“Oh, I doubt it,” said Graham. “There’s probably no end of these cards look like falling scaffolding.”

His voice trailed off as he realised how he sounded. Sunshine picked up the cards and started shuffling them.

“So, your mother’s into tarot?” asked Sunshine.

“No. Well, yes,” stammered Graham.

“I see,” said Sunshine.

“I mean she died,” said Graham. “And these were among her things. I should sort them out.  I don’t really know anything about the cards.”

Sunshine looked at the journals, and then asked, “Were you close?”

“Not as close as I wish we had been,” replied Graham.

“So, you never knew she was interested in Tarot?”

“Never had a clue,” confessed Graham.

Sunshine turned the cards over in her hands and then said, “You’re lucky then.  This gives you a chance to get to know her through the cards.”

The words hung in the air. 

“What do you mean,” asked Graham.

“Look at these cards,” she said. “You can see they’ve been well used.  These are quite old. Well used. Your mother must have been adept at the cards. Can’t you see it? There’s a lot of her in these particular cards.”

An awkward silence fell between them as Grahame thought about this. It was true, the journals and these cards were like a voice reaching out across the abyss of death. They were a connection.

The silence was broken by the chirp of Sunshine’s cell phone.

She looked at the display and then said, “Mother. This might be a little awkward.”

___________________________________________

If you've enjoyed Part 1 of The Black Bag I ask that you follow my Tumblr and reblog it. To read Part 2 simply go to my Patreon HERE.

Many Thanks

RH

[lavendergoddesstarot]

8/8 𝙈𝙞𝙣𝙞 𝙈𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙮/𝘼𝙗𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝘼𝙙𝙫𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜

Pick a pile: 1-3

Pile 1:

The Empress R: Recognize the abundance and love you already have around you. Use your Feminine Energy to create more abundance by practicing gratitude and focusing on things that bring you joy. Stop focusing on lack and what you don't have.

Pile 2:

4 of Pentacles: Manage your money well. Your money will be rolling in but it's up to you to stack it up & manage it. Build a stable foundation first. Put money away for emergencies.

Pile 3:

Justice R: Balance your finances and spending. Don't spend too much to where you have little saved but also don't save too much to where you can't enjoy your life either.

[gcpoetry]

“The Lovers” card

One of the cards I pulled this morning and the amount of connection I immediately felt was soulful.

“The Lovers signifies perfect union, harmony, love and attraction. The Lovers can represent finding the balance within oneself. You are learning to understand yourself, your own personal moral code and what you value in life. This will bring harmony and balance to your life. In general when The Lovers Tarot card appears it is an indication that you have major choices to make or are faced with a dilemma. You may be feeling uncertain about situations, people in your life or what direction you should take. These are important decisions you are faced with. Don’t automatically go for the easy road, make sure you have all the information and make the right decision. Even if it seems like a difficult path, it will lead you on to greater things.”

[megjameswrites]

In the Cards

Daryl Dixon x pagan!Reader

Reader and Daryl have been friends for awhile, but reading tarot one night while snowed in on a run leads to them maybe, finally, being something more.

I shuffled the cards in my hands over and over, a nervous habit I’d picked up long before the world ended and the dead didn’t. Across the cabin, Daryl shifted the blanket over the window to peer out into the dark.

“Fuckin snowing,” he muttered.

“Of course it is,” Rick said, sounding exhausted. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

Michonne made a soft noise, faint smile on her lips, and rolled her eyes at me. “He’s a regular ray of sunshine. We have shelter. Light. Warmth. It’ll be fine.”

“We’ll get back tomorrow,” I agreed.

Michonne drug Rick off to one of the cabin’s bedrooms, leaving Daryl and I alone in the candlelight. It flickered over the cards in my hands, and I laid a spread absently.

Midwinter, by our reckoning. December, and late December at that. Turning of the year, Yule- time of new beginnings and the celebration of light returning after the darkest, longest night. I used to love this time of year. Now I dreaded it. It meant cold, lack of food, nights like this stuck in cabins on scavenging runs or hunts.

I glanced at the cards in front of me. The Ace of Swords, the World, Death.

“That looks bad.”

Surprised, I jumped at the sound of Daryl’s voice. In all the time we’d spent together, he’d never expressed much interest in my cards.

Then again, I didn’t usually read them in front of others. Mostly just Michonne, who hadn’t seemed off put by them, and actually knew a good deal about the pagan path.

I shrugged, scooping up the cards. “Not really,” I muttered. “About change, new beginnings. That’s all.”

“Yeah? Didn’t that card say ‘death’?”

Daryl sat down opposite me, and in the quiet candlelight I felt a strangely peaceful feeling creep over me. An ease I usually didn’t have, not with this, had me shuffling again and shaking my head.

“Death doesn’t mean death in the tarot. It means endings, but with new beginnings promised. The death of something to give life to something else. It’s a card of hope, actually. Do you- do you want me to do a reading? For you?”

I surprised myself, blushing furiously after the words left my mouth, and I glanced up at Daryl to see his reaction. He was studying my hands, shuffling again, and then he pierced me with that intense, penetrating look.

“Sure,” he said finally. “But not for me. Not just for me, anyway. Why don’t you do one for- for us.”

“Us?” I whispered, breath catching. “What about us?”

“See if they might think we could- start somethin’ new ourselves.” He was blushing now, his eyes sliding away from mine.

I closed my mouth, shuffling one last time before sliding the deck to him to cut. Then I flipped the cards, one by one, for a three spread.

“Whatda they mean?” He chewed on his thumbnail, a habit of his own when nervous, and that small gesture gave me the courage to tap the first card I’d dealt.

Mouth dry, I managed to whisper. “This represents… our past. Three card spread is often past, present, future.”

He picked up the card I’d tapped and squinted at it in the candlelight. “What is it? Looks like an ace, but not like the aces I know. Cain’t play poker with these, can ya?”

“I mean, you could with the minor arcana,” I said, giggling. “It’s the ace of cups. Like all the cards, the meaning of it changes in relation to the cards it’s with. Tarot tells a story. In this case, our story.” I didn’t stutter over the ‘our’ but it was a near thing. “In a- a relationship spread, it represents a new relationship and the sudden appearance of new emotions. An outpouring of them. Like water suddenly flowing into a cup.”

“Huh,” he grunted. He set the ace down and picked up the middle card. “An this one?”

“Two of wands,” I answered. “The present. A card of decision making, consideration, strategy, and exploring beyond current limits.”

“So that makes this the future.” He tapped the last card, squinting at it, and flashed me the tiny grin that always made my heart beat faster. “Seems pretty clear to me.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” I said dryly. “The Lovers isn’t always literal, like the Death card.”

He looked away, smile still playing on his lips. “Well,” he said softly. “I dunno. What story they telling you? Good night for ‘em, with snow coming down. Stories, I mean.”

“Yule always is good for them,” I agreed. “Abd for new beginnings, and celebrations. The return of the light.”

He was watching me, watching my face closely. We’d be friends long enough I thought I knew all his expressions, but this one- this one was different. This one was the one I caught from time to time, one I never felt like I was supposed to see.

He fiddled with the card, his hand brushing mine, and it felt like electricity. I touched the cards, fingers gliding over their surface in a gentle caress.

“We started out friends, instantly. An immediate outpouring of emotion, connection. Strong, but flowing, changing, capable of growing or disappearing. Now, in the present, we’re at a crossroads. A decision is needed, and it should be planned, considered, deliberate, because it can change things. It could affect more than just us,” I added softly, holding his eyes.

I wasn’t just telling a story. I was taking a chance, a chance I’d been waiting for, longing for, hoping for. A chance I’d long since given up on ever taking, and yet, on this snowed-in silent midwinter’s night, here it was. He’d offered it to me, and I was taking it.

“What kinda choice? They tell ya which one we make?”

I smiled softly. “They don’t work like that. They give guidance, make suggestions, show paths. If we make one choice, we end up….” I tapped the lovers card as I trailed off. “But where else do we end up? Who knows. And if we make another, we still end up here, but differently. We chose our future. The Lovers,” I said, voice shifting to businesslike. “Love, connection, the merging and embracing of opposites. Choice and decisions made from a place of harmony. So for our story, whatever decision we make in the present, we have to embrace it. We have to accept it and continue in harmony and balance, together, moving forward in agreement on whichever path we chose.”

Daryl stared at the card under my fingertips, then slid it toward him. He picked it up and studied it, and I didn’t feel the tightening of my lungs that usually came from someone messing with my cards. His eyes met mine over the card, and my breath caught for entirely different reasons. “What if I like the literal meanin better?”

“Oh?” I managed.

“Yeah.” He set the card down, leaned forward, and set his hand on my cheek. His fingertips were rough, but gentle, and I resisted the urge to lean into them. “What if I tell ya a story of my own? How’s about this- a couple years back, this girl fell into my life. Splashed in like a flood, if ya want. And she’s been filling up my mind since, an’ Im thinkin’ she and I should stop thinkin’ so much and start being something more’n just friends. Maybe try out bein lovers or some shit. Fuck that sounded weird.”

I cracked up at that, giving in and twining my fingers with his. “You think so?”

“Shit, baby. I think them cards done told us so.”