Hi There Tarot Friends,

If I were to choose a card to represent my life at the moment, I would choose this card, the 8 of wands.

This card has the energy of things speeding up and moving fast, but to where? It's a feeling of being on pins and needles.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, my mom had a pretty bad fall. She's recovering, but will there be long term lifestyle changes because of it?

If you live in the US, you know the presidential election is right around the corner -- talk about being on pins and needles!

And lastly, we've got 2 comets that are visible this month. Comets are notorious omens, but what these 2 lights in the sky herald Lord only knows!

Very often when I draw this card for people in a reading, they are alarmed by it.

However, the 8 of wands, especially from the Gaian deck, is one of my favorite cards.

I guess the message here is that the only constant is change. And I'd rather be in the midst of change than be stuck (but we all have our preferences).

I pulled another card asking how best to work with this winds of change energy.

I received the King of Swords.

The fire of wands and the air of swords.

The Elder depicted in the card is playing a flute.

He must control his breath, just as we do when we blow on an ember to grow the flame or blow out a candle.

Use the "breadth" of your experience to guide your actions right now. If you need to make a decision, take your time and make a wise one. Don't let the lights in the sky rattle you.

Decode Any Tarot Card On the Spot

When I created my own Tarot deck over 10 years ago, I relied heavily on what I am calling the grid method to generate images to use for the deck.

A surprising side effect was I became a lot more nimble on my feet during readings. It was easy to generate interpretations on the spot and pinpoint what the cards were saying in the moment.

Not only that, but the grid process for single card meanings also applies to

combining card meanings

when cards sit together in a spread.

A double whammy!

Are You Ready to Get Started with The Grid Method?

There are several different ways to approach the numbers used in the Tarot deck. For the scope of the grid method, we will only be dealing with the numbers 1 -10 or Ace - 10.

The 4 different lenses we can use to approach the numbers of the Tarot deck are:

steps in a process
personal associations
geometry/sacred geometry
sayings

Steps in a process

Numbers have an order - that is a natural progression - built right in.

That order is 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10.

To view the cards as steps in a process, we can view the Ace as the beginning as step 1, and the 10 as the ending or final step.

Journal Exercise

1 ---Take a moment and lay out the cards Ace through 10 of any suit in order.

Study the progression before you.

Ask yourself how step 1, or the Ace, becomes the 2, and the 2 proceeds the 3 and so on.

What's the story that builds before you?

2 ---Now try another suit.

Is the progression the same or different?

3 ---Try laying out the cards grouped by number this time.

That is, put all 4's together, all 7's etc.

Are there similarities among number?

Write your observations in your Tarot journal. Don't worry if you can't come up with definitive descriptions for every number. Just try to get a sense of what might be going on as the numbers progress from A - 10.