Three questions to close out the year

Who, and how, do you want to be in 2025?

The following post is part of a Seed Pod collaboration about time. Seed Pods are a SmallStack community project designed to help smaller publications lift each other up by publishing and cross-promoting around a common theme. We’re helping each other plant the seeds for growth!

Every December, I do a Tarot reading to honor the year that has passed, hold space for the moment I’m in now, and prepare for the new year to come.

It’s a very simple reading, and you can do it even if you don’t know much about Tarot (I’m certainly no expert). First I shuffle my gorgeous Gentle Tarot deck for a few minutes. Sometimes I’ll organize the cards first, especially if I haven’t consulted them in a while. Then I hold the cards close to my heart for a moment and ask the questions (below) in my mind. Last, I draw three cards, one each to symbolize:

1. What to shed from the past

2. What to tend in the present

3. What to bring forth for the future

Here’s what I drew last night:

Photo by author

I love how Tarot invites us to contemplate what we already know and see it from new angles. I am in a liminal space right now. One chapter of my life has ended, and the next hasn’t fully begun. I receive this reading as an invitation to shed external pressures of success that have haunted me in the past, tend to the joy and community that is in front of me now, and explore, without scarcity or urgency, the possibilities that this new chapter holds for me.

If you feel so inclined, I invite you to reflect on these questions, too (Tarot is optional):

What old ways of being do you wish to shed from the previous year?

What serves you well that you wish to keep tending?

What new possibilities do you wish to bring forth in the coming year?

I’d love to hear what comes up for you!

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