The Tarot Diagnosis

In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I’m back with our collective monthly tarot reading for November, and this month we're exploring grief, ancestral patterns, interdependence, and the emotional complexity of giving and receiving care. November has always been a particularly grief-stricken month for me. Last year, I wrote an essay on Substack called Everyone Dies in November, reflecting on the many people I've loved and lost during this time of year. And while November carries a lot of grief, it's also a month when I feel especially connected to nature, ritual, and the people who are no longer here. I tend to move a little slower, spend more time outdoors, and intentionally create space to tend to my own grief. Because I've been spending so much time thinking, reading, and learning about grief lately, including taking a philosophies of grief class with Jessica Dore, I decided to revisit my three-card Ancestral Baggage tarot spread for November's collective reading. Pulling Strength, Six of Pentacles, and Queen of Pentacles, I explore the inherited beliefs we've developed around self-sufficiency and independence. I also share why I strongly dislike the Strength card *eye roll* Strength opens the reading by inviting us to look at the ways we've been conditioned to believe that strength means managing our emotional, mental, and spiritual lives entirely on our own. Drawing from psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott's concept of the holding environment, I explore how our capacity for emotional regulation develops through our personal experiences of being held (literally and metaphorically), supported, and soothed by others. And how many of us have been taught to internalize the belief that needing others was somehow a sign of weakness. The Six of Pentacles comes in and shifts our attention toward reciprocity and receiving care. I explore the belief that accepting help should come with expectations, guilt, indebtedness, or the threat of losing our autonomy/independence and how those fears become especially pronounced when we're grieving because that’s when we usually find ourselves needing more support than we're accustomed to accepting. Finally, the Queen of Pentacles invites us to consider what life might look like when we begin to accept experiences of safety and support - especially through the interdependence of the Six of Pentacles. I explore the importance of returning to our bodies, homes, routines, nature, and tangible experiences that nourish us, while still remembering that interdependence doesn't mean we forfeit our autonomy. Ultimately, this November tarot reading is an exploration of inherited patterns, attachment, grief, emotional regulation, and the movement from self-sufficiency toward interdependence.If you're interested in exploring grief more deeply through tarot and psychology, I'll be hosting a Grief through Tarot workshop in The Symposium on Monday, November 23rd at 7:30 PM ET/4:30pm PT (I misspoke in the episode and said 5:30pm PT oops) . The workshop will also be recorded if you're unable to attend live. You can learn more about joining The Symposium here.Exciting Announcement!It’s here! My 2027 year-long tarot journal is now available (digital version forthcoming). We are stepping into an archetypal Justice year and to accompany Justice is the High Priestess and…The Fool. I had fun playing with numbers this year and decided to SUBTRACT instead of just ADD when it comes to numerology, which is how The Fool found itself amidst these pages. You’ll have to get the journal to see why I decided to subtract and what I think that might mean… Grab a physical copy of A Year with Justice here! OR if you'd prefer to download a digital e-book you can download it here!🌙 Stay Connected With Me💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I’m exploring the psychology of shame, childhood wounds, and how our earliest experiences shape the way we show up in adult relationships - all through the lens of tarot.This episode was inspired by Come Closer by psychoanalyst Dr. Galit Atlas, a book I recently devoured in two days and immediately started recommending to anyone who would listen. Atlas explores six childhood wounds and how they influence our experiences of love, intimacy, and relationships. And, naturally, as I was reading, I couldn't stop thinking about which tarot archetypes might represent these wounds.In this episode, I focus on one specific childhood wound - the ashamed childhood wound (if you want me to explore more of these, please let me know!), and the card that immediately came to mind was the Nine of Wands. I know, not what we might traditionally think about, but I have my reasons, and you’ll have to listen to find out why I chose this card.The Nine of Wands acts as an anchor as I explore how childhood experiences of criticism, rejection, humiliation, and conditional love can sometimes manifest as perfectionism, hypervigilance, self-criticism, emotional withdrawal, and defensiveness in adult relationships. I also look at the ways we sometimes reject ourselves before anyone else has the opportunity to as a form of self-protection. Think self-deprecating humor or when we point out our own flaws as a way to maintain control over how others perceive us.And then I get into the fascinating (and painful) contradiction of the ashamed child: desperately wanting connection while simultaneously constructing defenses that make connection difficult.I also bring in the Empress, but rather than exploring her through traditional maternal or nurturing symbolism, I consider her as an archetype of softness. What might it look like to offer ourselves a little less criticism and a little more tenderness, especially when we're carrying wounds that have made us feel fundamentally unworthy?Finally, I created a three card therapeutic tarot spread to explore our internalized critical voices, where they may have originated, and what practicing softness with ourselves might look like. Ultimately, this episode is an exploration of shame, attachment, self-worth, emotional defenses, and the possibility of developing a more compassionate relationship with ourselves. It’s also about discovering that sometimes the voice telling us we're not good enough isn't actually ours.Exciting Announcement!It’s here! My 2027 year-long tarot journal is now available (digital version forthcoming). We are stepping into an archetypal Justice year and to accompany Justice is the High Priestess and…The Fool. I had fun playing with numbers this year and decided to SUBTRACT instead of just ADD when it comes to numerology, which is how The Fool found itself amidst these pages. You’ll have to get the journal to see why I decided to subtract and what I think that might mean…Grab A Year with Justice here! (Please note this journal is also available in pretty much every other country. This link takes you to the US site, but on your home site, just search for the title of the book plus my name and it should pop right up.)Want more of this type of tarot experience?📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!🌙 Stay Connected With Me💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠👥 Join ⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I’m pulling cards for our collective monthly tarot reading for October and this month, we’re exploring the psychological space between who we’ve been and who we might be becoming.For this October tarot reading, I’m revisiting a spread I originally created for my Tarot as a Transitional Object workshop, inspired by psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott’s theories of transitional objects, transitional phenomena, and transitional space. Winnicott was interested in the psychological territory between our internal and external realities, which he viewed as the space where play, creativity, experimentation, and growth occur. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, I think tarot fits beautifully within that space.Tarot can become a bridge between what’s happening inside of us and what exists outside of us - where we bring our memories, projections, emotions, desires, fears, and relationships to the cards, while the cards still simultaneously exist separately from us. In Winnicott’s language, they are both “me” and “not me.”Pulling the Hierophant, Three of Cups, and Queen of Wands, I explore what we may be carrying out of September, what October is inviting us to examine, and what we can lean on as we move between the two months.Representing September, The Hierophant invites us to look at some of the systems, beliefs, expectations, traditions, or rules that we’ve inherited and perpetuated - even when they maybe have outstayed their welcome. Then the Three of Cups turns our attention toward relationships and personal identity. Rather than only viewing this card through its traditional lens of friendship and celebration, I explore it as a kind of relational mirror (ie. who are we around other people?). Finally, the Queen of Wands becomes our bridge between September and October, functioning as a reminder of our personal agency, creativity, confidence, self-trust, and our core Self.October itself feels like a fitting month for this kind of work: liminal, shadowy, and transitional. I hope the month is treating you well and that you’re giving and receiving all the witchy tarot nourishment!As always, let me know what cards you pull alongside me, or what came up for you in your own pull.Want more of this type of tarot experience?📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!🌙 Stay Connected With Me💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠👥 Join ⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis podcast, I’m exploring tarot clarifiers and a question I don’t think we ask often enough: Why are we pulling clarifying cards if we already understand the card in front of us?This episode came about unexpectedly after I pulled the Seven of Wands during my weekly tarot practice and immediately felt my body reaching for the deck again. But I already knew what the card meant and more importantly, I knew what it meant to me. I didn’t actually need more information. Eventually, I realized I was reaching for distance because the card made me uncomfortable and I wanted to get rid of that feeling ASAP.That moment got me thinking about how often this might be happening in your practice. So, I recorded an impromptu podcast about it.Throughout the episode, I explore how pulling tarot clarifiers can sometimes become a form of reassurance seeking or avoidance, especially when one clarifier becomes another and another until we finally find a card that gives us the interpretation we were hoping for. I also look at confirmation bias and how pulling more cards can give us more opportunities to find evidence for the narrative we already know/want to believe. Both things to be aware/ cautious of.But this isn’t an argument against clarifiers - I promise. Clarifying cards can add valuable context to a tarot reading - especially when we’re developing our ability to read cards in relationship with one another. So I’m more interested in what our impulse to pull another card is telling us - versus the act of pulling a clarifier.I also explore tolerating ambiguity and uncertainty when using tarot. Like what happens when, instead of immediately resolving the tension a card creates, we allow ourselves to sit with it for a moment? Using my reaction to the Seven of Wands, I walk through how I resisted pulling a clarifier and instead explored my initial defensiveness and discomfort. That shift allowed me to practice dialectical thinking by asking what else could simultaneously be true, without bypassing the initial feelings. This then brought up a fun fact about film composition and how we can apply that to tarot.Ultimately, this episode isn’t about whether you should or shouldn’t pull tarot clarifiers. It’s more about encouraging curiosity about why you’re reaching for a clarifying card in the first place.Want more of this type of tarot experience?📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!Grab my FREE Tarot Wheels here.🌙 Stay Connected With Me💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠👥 Join ⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

In this episode of The Tarot Diagnosis, I’m back with another collective monthly tarot reading, and for September, I’m exploring The Courage to Become, which is a four card tarot spread I originally created around identity, existentialism, and the often uncomfortable process of growth and change.Spoiler: Apparently, September is the month of Pentacles - I’ve been pulling them personally and three of them show up in the reading!Pulling the Knight of Pentacles, Six of Cups, Page of Pentacles, and Six of Pentacles, I explore who we may be becoming collectively, what frightens us about that transformation, what makes it exciting, and what remaining exactly as we are might ultimately deny us.The Knight of Pentacles kicks us off and I end up spending quite a bit of time with this knight, so if you struggle with this card, I hope this is a helpful episode for you. I also explore how in a culture that rewards urgency, immediacy, productivity, and reactivity, this Knight asks us to slow down and be intentional about where we focus our attention. I touch on the importance of responding vs reacting, and why being strategic and willing to tolerate uncertainty may be our own form of resistance.I also infuse the existential psychology of Rollo May and Erich Fromm, particularly their ideas around courage, freedom, responsibility, identity, and the anxiety that accompanies getting to choose who we want to become. Fromm says that freedom sounds wonderful until we realize it also means that we have to accept responsibility for our choices and I think the Knight of Pentacles is well aware of that.Next, the Six of Cups brings us directly into our relationship with nostalgia and the safety of familiarity - a cute nod to our 200th episode about nostalgia previously. This card asks us, if we’re becoming something new, how do we make sure we aren’t also just recreating a new version of the past? I explore why familiarity can feel safer than freedom, how nostalgia can pull us toward old identities and systems, and the distinction between being shaped by our history vs repeating it.The Page of Pentacles then offers us some hope by giving us permission to embrace beginners' energy. We don’t have to know exactly what comes next because how fortunate are we that we get to experiment, question, learn, and participate in the ongoing act of creating ourselves.Finally, the Six of Pentacles turns our attention toward reciprocity, community, and highlights our individualistic collective culture. This card asks us: what is our hyper-independence costing us? And what would life look like if we embraced individuality without abandoning our communities?This September tarot reading ultimately became an exploration of identity, existential psychology, community, nostalgia, uncertainty, and the courage to become something we’ve never been before. The cards suggest that it’s about being willing to move toward the future intentionally, remaining curious about what we’re creating, and resisting the noise to pull back from collective support.Want more of this type of tarot experience?📚 Order my book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow for more therapeutic tarot practices!🌙 Stay Connected With Me💌 Follow me on Instagram:⁠ @thetarotdiagnosis⁠🧠 Sign up for my newsletter at⁠ thetarotdiagnosis.com⁠👥 Join ⁠The Symposium⁠ — my tarot & psychology membership community If you love The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast, please consider leaving a review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is a super easy and FREE way to support my work. Plus, it helps more people discover the podcast. I appreciate you all so much!Audio Edited by Anthony DiGiacomo of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Deep Resonance Sound⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Music by Timmoor from Pixabay