Tarot Touchstones

For October, I asked the cards: In what way are we needed now? *

The Seven of Swords in the Edgar Allan Poe Tarot is represented by Poe’s essay, “Maelzel’s Chess Player,” which described how Johann Maelzel fooled people for years with an automaton called The Turk that challenged the general public to games of chess and won almost every time.

Poe believed this to be a hoax and he was right about that, but he was wrong about how Maelzel did it. Poe thought there was a small man hiding within The Turk, but actually, he was hiding inside the Turk’s table and moving around using rollers. The master chess player was William Schlumberger and he was able to control the Turk’s arm using magnets.

Like Poe encountering Maelzel’s automaton, the Seven of Swords warns us that deceit, theft, and trickery are at play this month.

Are you betraying others? Are others betraying you? Are you betraying yourself?

Theft can come in many forms: physical, mental, emotional. Consider your life and how the people and activities in it provide you with energy, drain you of it, or some combination of the two.

If you find that you are being drained, make changes in respectful and healthy ways. Don’t sink to the level of the deceitful puppet master. Find honest ways to realign yourself and your life so that you’re able to conserve your energy and reach your goals.

October is the perfect time to slow your roll, go inward, and lift the veil that may have been clouding your vision.

A willingness to see the truth of the matter, and act upon it, is what is needed now.

Cards: Seven of Swords

Deck: Edgar Allan Poe Tarot by Rose Wright and Eugene Smith

Journaling prompts for the month:

• I feel fooled by…
• When I lift the veil…
• The truth is…

ps. If this touchstone has sparked your interest in tarot cards, join me and my friend Anja Schüler-Renner on October 24, 2021 for a ?  special Halloween-themed Tarot Writing Prompts! ?  It’s a fun, relaxing, and magical way to tap into your intuition and creativity, journal with a group of like-minded folks, and get to know yourself better. Come join us! ?  REGISTER HERE

* Thanks to Clare O’Sullivan, fellow teacher from the Radical Creativity Retreat, for the inspiration for this month’s question.

Peg Cheng is the author of Rebel Millionaire, a guide for how to retire as a millionaire even if you make a modest income, and The Contenders, a novel that asks, can enemies become friends? She is also the proud owner of Plaid Frog Press with her husband Marcus Donner. Born in Southern California to Taiwanese parents, Peg currently lives in Seattle, Washington.

This page contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using any of these links, I will earn a commission at no cost to you, and you’ll be helping me to keep writing and creating. Thank you!

For September, I asked: what is missing from our lives that we need to pay more attention to?

The kings and queens have stepped out to answer this question. I’ve never had this many of them show up in a reading! And look at how they appeared. Notice how the Empress, the Four of Wands, and the Queen of Pentacles make a yellow-themed V while the King of Wands, King of Cups, and the Queen of Swords make a blue-themed inverted V. If that’s not synchronicity in a tarot spread, I don’t know what is.

So let’s get into it.

Have you been plodding along, doing your job, and just trying to survive this dang pandemic?

Yeah, me too.

Life feels awful dull and lifeless when it’s all work and no play. We can’t survive and thrive if we’re just going through the motions, navigating on auto-pilot, and not giving ourselves a chance to try something new and different that derives from the heart, rather than from the head.

What’s missing from our lives is our connection to creativity (The Empress). September is back-to-school time for the kids, and it’s back-to-learning time for the rest of us. It’s time to use our hearts for making some important decisions (King of Cups) about what we need to do on a regular basis in order to live our best lives (Queen of Pentacles).

To live our best lives, we need to be the creative rulers (King of Wands) of our daily routine.

Want to write a book?

Want to learn how to paint?

Want to rebuild a vintage Thunderbird?

Or maybe you want to cook something different once a week?

Or you want to try journaling for 5 minutes a day?

Or you just want to pull that old guitar out of the closet and strum it for a few minutes every day after dinner?

You can reach whatever creative milestone (Four of Wands) your heart desires if you’re willing to take a hard look at what you’re doing with your time every day, cut through all the BS (Queen of Swords), and finally let go of those unsatisfying time-suck activities that give you a temporary dopamine hit but don’t lead to anything soul-satisfying and heart-fortifying in the long run. You can change your routine toward the things that give your heart life.

It’s time for a change.

Your creativity is calling.

Will you listen to what it has to say?

Cards: The Empress, King of Cups, Queen of Pentacles, King of Wands, Four of Wands, Queen of Swords

Deck: Radiant Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot

Journaling prompt for the month:

• My creativity is begging me to…

Recommended books for the month:

• Dark Horse: Achieving Success Through the Pursuit of Fulfillment by Todd Rose & Ogi Ogas (This is one of my favorite nonfiction books. It completely sucked me in with engaging stories of “dark horses”–people that blazed their own seemingly strange or incongruous career paths while other people doubted them, shook their heads, and thought they were nuts.)
• A Glorious Freedom: Older Women Leading Extraordinary Lives by Lisa Congdon (Do I really need to explain why I’m recommending this book with a title like that? Yeah, I thought not.)

ps. If this tarot touchstone has lit a fire under you to explore your creativity, join me, my friend Lauren Sapala, and 5 other teachers for the Radical Creativity Retreat from September 10-12. All six workshops taught at this online retreat will be live and recorded, including my workshop, Creative Cues. Take the plunge! REGISTER HERE.

pps. And, if this reading has sparked your interest in tarot cards, and you’ve been wanting to do some writing too, join me, my friend Anja Schüler-Renner, and a group of like-minded folks on September 19, 2021 for Tarot Writing Prompts. It’s a fun, relaxing, and magical way to tap into your intuition and creativity. Join us!  REGISTER HERE.

Peg Cheng is the author of Rebel Millionaire, a guide for how to retire as a millionaire even if you make a modest income, and The Contenders, a novel that asks, can enemies become friends? She is also the proud owner of Plaid Frog Press with her husband Marcus Donner. Born in Southern California to Taiwanese parents, Peg currently lives in Seattle, Washington.

This page contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using any of these links, I will earn a commission at no cost to you, and you’ll be helping me to keep writing and creating. Thank you!

What should we keep in mind this August?

It can be challenging to keep working patiently (Seven of Pentacles) when you know there’s still so much more work to do. How do you keep boredom or even apathy (Four of Cups) from moving in and setting up shop when you’re just so dang tired of the grind?

When you reach this point, it’s time to put down the hoe, lay down the hammer, step away from the laptop, and give yourself a break. This needs to happen not once, not twice, but over and over again. As the wise Nap Ministry says, “The pace of quarantine life was actually healthy. The regular pace of this culture is machine-level.”

We are not machines.

We are humans.

At any time, things can change, sometimes to such a degree that you wonder how you ever thought things were always going to be the same.

Sometimes things change incrementally, like a snail making its way out of a three-foot-high planter box. It takes its time. It’s hard to detect movement when things move that slow. But I generally find that humans have a hard time sensing when a shift is coming (Wheel of Fortune), while animals can sense it in the air and in their bones.

What is the way?

Keep taking slow and steady steps forward (Knight of Pentacles). Rest. Take another step.

Put time into nurturing the partnerships (The Lovers) in your life. This can be at work, at home, at school, anywhere you’re working with someone as a team.

Keep a close eye on your health because there is loss happening all around us (Five of Pentacles) and the pandemic is not over.

You are sacred.

We are sacred.

This is a sacred time.

Treat it as such and remember, it can all change in an instant.

Cards: Seven of Pentacles, Four of Cups, Wheel of Fortune, Knight of Pentacles, The Lovers, Five of Pentacles

Deck: Radiant Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot

Journaling prompt for the month:

• What I hold sacred… (list as many things/people/animals/flowers/songs/art/etc. that come to mind)

Recommended book for the month:

• Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder (Read the book before I saw the movie. Liked the book, did not like the movie. Just my two cents. Read and watch for yourself and let me know what you think!)

ps. If this month’s tarot touchstone has sparked your interest, you might enjoy Tarot Writing Prompts with me, my friend Anja Schüler-Renner, and a wonderful group of like-minded folks on September 19, 2021. Anja and I will draw tarot and oracle cards, discuss the imagery, and then give a writing prompt or question to answer. It’s a fun, no-stress, relaxing way to tap into your intuition and write what wants to be heard. REGISTER HERE.

Peg Cheng is the author of Rebel Millionaire, a guide for how to retire as a millionaire even if you make a modest income, and The Contenders, a novel that asks, can enemies become friends? She is also the proud owner of Plaid Frog Press with her husband Marcus Donner. Born in Southern California to Taiwanese parents, Peg currently lives in Seattle, Washington.

This page contains affiliate links to my shop on Bookshop.org, an online bookstore with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores. If you make a purchase using these links, I will earn a 10% commission and a matching 10% will be given to independent bookstores. Thanks for shopping indie!

Question for July 2021: What do we need to pay more attention to as we head into summer?

Summer is a season that steeps us in memories of bygone days: summer vacations, time off from school, lazy days at the lake or pool or ocean or corner store (or in my case, the wonderfully air-conditioned Huntington Beach Library).

This summer, nostalgia for the “good ol’ days” (Six of Cups) comes rushing into our psyche swiftly (Eight of Wands), and our longing for good times (Three of Cups) with family or friends will hit us hard in our hearts.

But do not let the spirit of summer lull you into thinking that everything is all fun and games. Use your intellect (Queen of Swords) to make smart choices (Seven of Cups) for yourself this season. We are still living through an unprecedented time with the COVID-19 pandemic.

For me, even though I’m fully vaccinated, I’m still wearing my mask when shopping indoors and practicing social distancing at outdoor gatherings. I’m not planning on attending any indoor gatherings until the vaccination rate in the U.S. reaches 70% of more.

The summer is still full of uncertainty (The Moon). While we all need time over these next few months to kick back and enjoy a slower pace of life, I hope you will do that and stay safe and healthy.

Side note: I’m not always this direct (and directive) with tarot touchstones but I can only tell you what the cards are telling me. After I shuffle and draw the cards from the deck, I combine what I see and sense (intuition) with what I know about the cards’ meanings (intellect). This intersection of intuition and intellect is what forms the message. I hope you find this helpful. Please know that I’m always open to questions. Post them in the comment box and I’ll write back. Sending you much love and metaphorical cool drinks from my neck of the woods in the Pacific Northwest. ?

Cards: Six of Cups, Eight of Wands, Three of Cups, Queen of Swords, Seven of Cups, The Moon

Deck: Radiant Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot

Journaling prompts for this month:

• Summer makes me think of…
• My favorite way to spend a summer day…

Recommended books for this month:

• Summer of the Big Bachi by Naomi Hirahara
• Just Kids by Patti Smith
• Tru & Nelle by G. Neri

ps. If this month’s touchstone has sparked your interest, you might enjoy watching a recording of the latest Tarot Writing Prompts workshop. ✍️  Journal along with me, my friend Anja Schüler-Renner, and a wonderful group of like-minded folks. Our session on June 27th was pretty remarkable. The cards blew us away with their thematic symbolism! Watch it to see what I mean. Anja and I are focusing on writing projects this summer, but we’ll teach Tarot Writing Prompts again on September 19, 2021. REGISTER HERE.

Peg Cheng is the author of Rebel Millionaire, a guide for how to retire as a millionaire even if you make a modest income, and The Contenders, a novel that asks, can enemies become friends? She is also the proud owner of Plaid Frog Press with her husband Marcus Donner. Born in Southern California to Taiwanese parents, Peg currently lives in Seattle, Washington.

This page contains affiliate links to my shop on Bookshop.org, an online bookstore with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores. If you make a purchase using these links, I will earn a 10% commission and a matching 10% will be given to independent bookstores. Thanks for shopping indie!