Brigit Esselmont's Blog, page 24

How to Make Tarot a Part of Your Everyday Life

If you’ve ever been to yoga class, you sometimes hear the teacher say that the exercises you do on your yoga mat are just stretches… The real yoga happens off the mat. Tarot is like that, too. You can make Tarot a part of your everyday life without clutching your cards 24/7.

Sure, doing a Tarot reading on a specific question will get you some new insights and answers. But, it’s how you relate with Tarot – and your intuition – every day that matters most.  

We think Tarot is all about using spreads and doing readings. But really, Tarot is a tool that helps you listen to and trust your intuition, every single day.  

And when you discover how to fully trust your intuition, you discover how to create a life that is more intentional, inspiring and joyful. 

That’s why connecting with your Tarot cards daily creates a beautiful, sacred space to also connect with your intuition and your inner wisdom. 

How to Make Tarot a Part of Your Everyday Life

Whether you’re doing this with Tarot cards, crystals, journaling, meditation, or something entirely different doesn’t matter. The important thing is that you’re making the time to go within and listen. That’s where the answers are and that’s how you can begin to create a fulfilling, purposeful life. 

And the best part is that making Tarot a part of your everyday life doesn’t have to be a lengthy, drawn-out process. In fact, sometimes all you need is a couple of minutes out of your day to draw a Tarot card and reconnect with your inner wisdom to find peace again.  

Here are three quick ways you can connect with the Tarot – and your intuition – anytime, anywhere. 

1. A Tarot Card a Day

At the start of the day, shuffle your Tarot deck and ask, “What do I need to know today?” Draw a Tarot card, and then connect with what it means for you.  

Go about your day, keeping in mind the message of the card you drew. You may find it serves as helpful advice, a warning, or a reminder of who you really want to be. 

For example, the Page of Cups may advise you to stay curious throughout the day, and to explore new creative opportunities that allow you to express yourself more fully. 

At the end of the day, reflect on how the Tarot card’s message supported you and what you learned along the way. 

2. The “Calm Me Down” Card

Anytime you feel a little frazzled, unfocused, emotional, or confused, take a moment to ground yourself with a Tarot card. 

First, take in a couple of deep breaths and become aware of the seat beneath you. Feel the weight of your body on the chair and your feet on the ground connecting you to the earth. 

Then, draw a card from your Tarot deck and ask, “What am I experiencing right now?”  

The intention of this card is not to determine why you’re feeling this way or how you can fix the situation. It is simply to refocus you on the present moment and allow you to become more mindful of your current circumstance. 

3. The “Higher Self Hotline” 

The Higher Self Hotline is perfect when you’re faced with a difficult decision, dealing with a challenging person, or you just want to dial in your intuition on an important matter but don’t want to do a full Tarot reading. 

Take in a deep breath to clear your mind, and then draw one Tarot card from the deck, asking for guidance for your particular situation. Reflect on the card’s message and combine it with your intuitive feel for the situation for extra guidance. Then, choose one action you will take to bring about a resolution to your problem. 

It all Adds Up

The more you bring Tarot into your everyday life, the stronger your connection will be to your intuition and your Higher Self. And from there, beautiful things will grow. 

P.S. If you loved these ideas to connect with Tarot everyday, then you are going to LOVE my latest book, Everyday Tarot: Unlock Your Inner Wisdom and Manifest Your Future. It is filled with practical, everyday ways to connect with your Divine Self, using the Tarot cards as your guide. It’s available now – click here to order your copy. 

 

 

 

The post How to Make Tarot a Part of Your Everyday Life appeared first on Biddy Tarot.

BTP144: Behind the Scenes of the Everyday Tarot Book

Today’s the day! My book Everyday Tarot: Unlock Your Inner Wisdom and Manifest Your Future is officially out and I couldn’t be more excited.   

In this episode of the Biddy Tarot Podcast, I’m going to tell you my story of creating the book from start to finish.  You’ll also hear about the process of writing the book and where my inspiration came from.  Plus, how writing Everyday Tarot allowed me to tap into my intuition more than ever before. 

 I hope after hearing this episode, you’ll understand my elation.  

Additional Materials

Out now! Order your copy of the Everyday Tarot  book and deck at Everydaytarot.com 

 Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Biddy Tarot podcast. Oh my goodness, today is the day, the day that the book Everyday Tarot is in bookstores. My goodness, this has been a huge, huge project, and it is so exciting to see it really come into fruition. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be able to share this book with you finally, so today I want to give you a little bit of a behind the scenes account of the Everyday Tarot book, how it came into being, what my process was, what I discovered not only about how to write a book, but also a lot about how to really tune into my intuition and how to let this flow. It has been a very interesting process and I hope that you’ll enjoy today’s conversation. This is the side of things that you don’t usually get to see, only you get to see, “Here’s the book” and “isn’t it amazing,” and all of this stuff that sits in the front, but I’m going to let you come in behind the curtain and let you know how this book came about. Plus, of course, I’m to tell you more about the book and how you can take advantage of some of the coolest bonuses that we have to celebrate the launch of the book and the Tarot deck as well.  

 

Brigit: You’re listening to the Biddy Tarot. This is episode 144, behind the scenes of the Everyday Tarot book. 

Intro: Welcome to the Biddy Tarot podcast where you’ll learn how to connect more deeply with your intuition and lead an empowered and enlightened life with the Tarot cards as your guide. Listen as Brigit and her guests share their very best tips and strategies to help you read Tarot with confidence. Now, here’s your host, Brigit Esselmont. 

Brigit: Hello and welcome to the Biddy Tarot podcast. Oh my goodness, today is the day, the day that the book Everyday Tarot is in bookstores. My goodness, this has been a huge, huge project, and it is so exciting to see it really come into fruition. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be able to share this book with you finally, so today I want to give you a little bit of a behind the scenes account of the Everyday Tarot book, how it came into being, what my process was, what I discovered not only about how to write a book, but also a lot about how to really tune into my intuition and how to let this flow. It has been a very interesting process and I hope that you’ll enjoy today’s conversation. This is the side of things that you don’t usually get to see, only you get to see, “Here’s the book” and “isn’t it amazing,” and all of this stuff that sits in the front, but I’m going to let you come in behind the curtain and let you know how this book came about. Plus, of course, I’m to tell you more about the book and how you can take advantage of some of the coolest bonuses that we have to celebrate the launch of the book and the Tarot deck as well.  

So, I wanted to start with the very beginning, not the very very beginning, but this is probably going back two, maybe even three years. I had a book agent, she reached out to me and she said, “Brigit, have you ever thought about writing a book?” and I thought, well, I’ve written the Ultimate Guide to Tarot Card Meanings, and … I lost count, I think that was 160,000 words, so I thought that one was a bit tricky to get out, I’m not sure that I’m really up for writing another book, and she was like, “No, you really need to think about it,” so I did and then I thought about it and I decided no, now wasn’t the right time. Then, about six months later, she just nudged me again my inbox and said, “Brigit, are you thinking about it yet?” I’m like, “No, no, not at all.” Then, I had a publisher reach out and said, “We’d love to be able to publish your book, the Ultimate Guide to Tarot Card Meanings.” Now, for all sorts of reasons, no, I’m not publishing that book. It’s so successful as a self-published book. Plus, we use the content on our website as well.  

So, going down the traditional publisher route wouldn’t quite work with that book, however, I did listen and I could hear that there’s this demand for Tarot books and I said, “Okay, yeah, got it, but this isn’t quite the right opportunity.”  

I don’t know about you, but I have a little rule of three so if I hear something three times it’s usually the time at which I really need to pay attention and the universe is trying to get across a message to me. So, only just a few months after that I had another book agent reach out to me and she was like, “Have you ever thought of writing a book? I heard you on this podcast, you were great, and I think writing a book would be just perfect for you right now.” I said, “I thought about it, I haven’t been sure, but you know what, this is the third time, let’s do it.” There was this reluctance inside of me, but I truly felt that the universe was opening up this opportunity for me to do something special and to step into this new place. I didn’t really know what it would be like, haven’t really ever written a book where it’s traditionally published, but I thought you know what, I’ll just give it a go, I’m being asked to do this, let’s just do it. No more resistance.  

So, from that point I had decided to work with Loralee, who is from Present Perfect as the book agent, and Loralee and I got to work in terms of doing a bit of research about what’s currently out there in terms of Tarot books and where is it that the Tarot community …. What are they looking for? So, here’s what I found when I looked at some of the most popular Tarot books on Amazon … I mean, many of them were about how to read Tarot and what the Tarot cards meant, and I thought, okay, that’s great, and I’ve seen some awesome books that share Tarot card meanings and they do it in such a beautiful modern funky, funky way, but I knew in my heart that that wasn’t what I was here for. I’ve already covered those elements anyway in my other self-published books and pretty much every time I pick up a book it might have something really interesting at the start, it might be an interesting take on Tarot, but then most of it would be in the Tarot card meaning space, and I just knew I had to do something different.  

When I started to really tune in, not only to my intuition but to my community, I started to get the sensation or the feeling that we needed to have something that was more of an integrated approach to Tarot reading. So, not just where you sit down, you do a Tarot reading, you learn how to interpret the cards, you learn what to do in a spread and so on, I wanted to create an experience with Tarot that would elevate people’s everyday lives to a whole new level of consciousness because I have been able to do that in my life with Tarot.  

The way that I used Tarot in my life is not like I’ll lookup a spread and then I’ll do it, and then I’ll go “great, Tarot reading done,” but for me Tarot is so much more integrated into my life where maybe I’m connecting it with my intuition first, or I’m doing some journaling and then I pull a card and I see what that tells me, maybe I’m making some important decisions in my business, maybe I want a little bit more insight into my relationship, all these kind of things I’ll be integrating Tarot into it. I’ve seen it work for me in so many different ways, and particularly when I go a bit off the script and I don’t necessarily follow the Celtic cross reading or I don’t follow how to do a horseshoe spread and so on. When I got off script and I really trust my intuition, that’s when my Tarot readings … Well, it’s not really Tarot readings, that’s when my life starts to flourish. I was absolutely inspired to write a book that would show how to integrate Tarot into your everyday life, so how you might have Tarot and intuition to help you make better decisions in your life, to create more fulfilling relationships, to get yourself into a career that really lights you up, to use Tarot and intuition in your daily ritual, or even your sun and moon rituals and so on.  

So, this is where I landed. I landed at this place like, right, it’s Everyday Tarot, this is how you use Tarot in your everyday. And, to take it even further, this is about how do you unlock your inner wisdom, and your intuition, and your inner voice, and your inner power and all of that good stuff, and then how do you manifest your future, because here’s the other with Tarot, a lot of people have the misperception that Tarot just tells you your future and you’re kind of almost like a victim to your fate, but I believe something completely different. I believe that with Tarot and your intuition, you create your future. You don’t just tell your future. You set your intentions, you set your goals and by using the cards and by trusting your intuition, you find the most resistance free path to what it is that you want to create and manifest in your life. 

Once I had established this, once I got really clear in my mind this is the gap, this is the place where people want more of this but we just don’t have it yet in Tarot books, I knew that that was what I had to write. Then, Loralee and I got about writing our proposal, this is what you do when you get a traditional publishing deal, we put together the proposal, and I’m not kidding you it was like 5,000 words plus a 5,000 word sample chapter. This thing is hefty. If you want a good deal, you’ve got to put in the effort and the work, that’s for sure. So, we put together a proposal, we put it out to a number of different publishers and we got some really good interest, and you know what was actually really neat about that was we were looking at some of the big name publishers and they were interested in this. Probably, 10, 15 years ago, they might’ve just thought it was some silly froufrou, woo woo thing on the side, but now these larger publishers are really starting to pay attention to things like Tarot, or crystals, or astrology, or any other kind of energy healing because there is a much stronger movement now towards using these tools to access your intuition. That was very exciting to see publishers interested in this. 

Now, when it came down to it, there were three particular publishers who were interested in pitching or, bidding I suppose, for the book. Now, here’s where my Tarot cards came into it, so we had a round of meetings with these different publishers and after those meetings I drew a Tarot card, I wanted to see, okay, what are the chances here. I had one publisher who is a very popular publisher and I thought, my goodness, it would be so good to have a book with this particular publisher, if I got published with them, I’d made it. This is what was in my mind. We had the meeting with them and it was awesome, they were so pumped and excited, we were excited, it was all going very very well. But after that meeting I drew the three of swords, and I was like, “What? What is this? I’ve clearly done the wrong thing. I’ve clearly pulled the wrong card. This reading’s wrong. Whatever.” So, I actually ignored it.  

Now, when I had the publisher meetings with the other two publishers, I had much more favorable cards. Those meetings were a bit less like, woo, this is amazing, but purely because these were publishers I hadn’t necessarily heard of before, but of course my agent was like, “These two are great and they really get you”. And they did, like in our conversations they really understood the core essence of the book. When I drew cards for each of them, they were showing a lot more positive outlooks. I think one is even maybe the nine of pentacles and another one as well, and in contrast to this three of swords with the publisher that I so I wanted to go with, it was like, “Oh, this is so topsy-turvy. I don’t know what to do.” What I didn’t realize then that that was really the beginning of my intuition being such a huge part of this book creation process.  

Anyway, short story, long-story short, it turned out that that first publisher just put in a really poor deal, it did not reflect the kind of connection that we had at the beginning, but the other two publishers put in awesome deals and eventually, I went ahead with Running Press. Now, Running Press is part of the Hachette Book Group, which is a very large publishing house, and I’ll tell you what, I was over the moon to be working with Running Press. They fully understood what it is I wanted to convey with this book and they were completely on board, which is awesome.  

Then, to make things even more exciting, they had proposed putting with the book a mini Tarot deck. That’s right, designing my own Tarot deck along with an illustrator and having that as a complimentary product to the book. So, not only was I getting a book I was getting a Tarot deck as well, so kind of crazy out there dreams come true thing.  

All right, so I landed the publisher, the deal and then there’s all this waiting period that you have when you’re waiting for contracts to be signed and so on, and my agent had advised me not to start writing, just wait. I’m not very good at waiting. So, while I was waiting I thought, oh gosh, okay, I guess I’m going to be an author, but what do authors do? So, I went on this rampage of reading all sorts of book writing books, one of my favorites was Elizabeth Gilbert and Big Magic, that was a great book to get into, and … Oh gosh, I should’ve had the title, Bird or something about Writing Bird and Bird, I don’t know, anyway it was another really classic book that was actually quite helpful for getting me into the right mindset of being an author.  

I also hired a book coach because I thought, I haven’t done this before I’m going to go and get some help, and I also joined a few Facebook groups about people who were writing, but I realize those groups weren’t quite the right fit for me. These were more aspiring authors and I really had the deal, I just needed to get on and write the book. Of course, I Googled how do you write a book, all sorts of things came up with that one, but anyway, that’s another story.  

So, in this waiting period I thought, great, yeah, get into the mindset of being an author, and as I do I started planning out, okay, once we have everything agreed I’m going to have probably about, literally, three months to write the book, and this wasn’t just any three months, this was three months over our summertime here, so December, January, and school holidays which here are about seven weeks at that time, plus they had a tip to Melbourne planned and all sorts of things, so I started scheduling my time to write this book.  

Now, I knew even though I was being very proactive, my intuition was telling me something quite different. My intuition was like, okay, I think you’re really going to open up when you write this book, you’re going to discover new parts of yourself that you’ve never discovered before, and it’s not going to flow exactly the way that you think it is. I thought it would be linear, but actually it wasn’t in the end. I had this feeling in the background.  

Now, what I did from this point is I though, great, I can still run my business and also write a book. I’ve seen other people do it and all they had to do was schedule 90 minutes every day and just commit to getting like 1,000 words done in the day, so I though, great, that’s what I’ll do. So, I schedule my 90 minute, sometimes at the start of the day, sometimes in the middle or at the end, and the first week or so, great, I was excited, but then I started finding that I was just exhausted having to fit in writing around doing business stuff as well. What I thought would be this beautiful creative process where I’d downlights from the universe and I’d be drinking my herbal tea with the candles and the crystals, it just ended up feeling like this massive slog, like a hard slog, like “Just get it done. Get it done. Get it done.” It just wasn’t what I had really imagined.  

I think the turning point for me was when I was in Bali in November and I was at a Mastermind and I knew I had to write this book, and yet it’s Mastermind as you do, I was getting all these great ideas for the business and how we could really turn things up a notch and I felt so frustrated. I was like, “I really want to do this stuff in my business, but I’ve got to write this book.” I felt really conflicted, so I sent an email to my team, I said, “Look, team, I need to dedicate the next 2 1/2 months solely to my book. Can you please clear my schedule, take care of everything in the business, so I can just write? Pretend like I’m not even here,” and they were awesome, so a big thank you to my team. They were awesome. They were able to clear the decks, take care of everything and, in fact, they even did a full launch while I was writing a book to … I think we had 250 students join one of our courses during that launch, and the team ran the whole thing. They’re awesome. 

Anyway, I cleared the schedule, and this time what I did was I just had full days allocated to writing, and what it allowed me to do was just to get into this creative space and spend some time in nature and just get … I don’t know, connected into the universal energy, and then I would write what’s coming to mind. I would just free write, I wouldn’t edit, I would just go. Anytime I felt inspired to write a story or create a new Tarot experience, I would just write it.  

I think what transpired over those 2 1/2 months was something that was so much more in flow and it wasn’t linear, I didn’t start at the start of the chapter and then write until I got to the, I’d write a little bit here, a little bit there, and then I’d patch them all up, and then I’d scribble stuff out and then I’d put it back in, which is so unlike the way that I normally work. I normally work in a much more structured way. So, I learned a lot about how that writing process goes, it’s very nonlinear, and what I also did because I was on such a short timeframe is I hired an editor. This is in addition to my editor at Running Press, who’s Shannon Fabricant, I hired a different editor, and it’s Ann Maynard, from Command Z Editing, and she was like my writing buddy. She held space for me, she gave me awesome feedback as I was going along, “this stuff’s awesome. I can’t fill you in this part,” and she just held the space for me to write. Of course she also helped just clean up my writing, get it really nice and concise, find that beautiful story thread throughout the whole book. She was invaluable. So, if you ever want to write a book, hit me up because I’ve got an awesome reference for you with an editor. 

What happened with Ann, Ann’s a fascinating person because she has helped other authors, some who are in the online marketing space, others who wrote a very dark memoir about some really tough moments in their lives, she has helped authors in so many different places and yet she could tap into the space that I was in with intuition. She even bought her first Tarot deck as a result of helping me with the book and she was inspired to use a Tarot deck and really get into it, and then that’s infused in the way that she was supporting me. It was beautiful to see that this book was already, not just impacting me, but it was impacting others, and not only Ann, but also Shannon at Running Press. She had picked up her own cards and was really getting into the cards as she was doing the book, and also with Eleanor as she was helping create the deck. It’s just really lovely to see it take on a life of its own. 

Now, it’s interesting with this book I knew that it needed to be more than just instructions, more than just a Tarot spread, more than here are your five steps to do X, Y, Z, and so I knew that I had to bring me into this book. When I showed it to one of my friends, she said to me, “Brigit, this is like a memoir mixed with a practical activity guidebook,” I was like, “I guess it is,” because in each and every chapter what I do is I share some of my story and how I’ve used Tarot in all sorts of ways in my own life to manifest certain outcomes or to have certain experiences. I found myself writing this book and really getting into a very deep part of myself, a part that I rarely share with anyone else. It’s almost like writing your own journal, but then knowing that hopefully thousands and thousands of people are going to be reading your private journal. That’s what this book is a little bit. There was this beautiful unfolding of sharing my personal stories with the intention that it might inspire you as the reader to see your own journey in my journey and see where the Tarot and your intuition can help you in your journey.  

Now, it’s funny, I came up to … Chapter six is one on work, Tarot for work, and I knew it had to have me in it, however, my work trajectory is very different to most. I’m an entrepreneur, as you know, and I have the absolute freedom and flexibility to create the kind of career and work that I want. I know most people don’t have that, so I thought, first up, okay, I’ve got to fit this into a cookie-cutter mould, I thought, great, I’ll do some spreads on how to find your ideal job, how to deal with a boss, how to get promoted, how to get a pay rise and so on, so I went ahead and wrote all of that. And then, Ann and book coach, Azul were like, “Well, Brigit, this hasn’t quite hit the mark.” I was like, “Why? What?” They’re like, “It’s just so flat. We can’t find you in here.” I’m like, “Yeah, that’s because I’m not because this is not how I operate.” So, with this chapter I really had to find my true self in work and in a way that could be relatable for others.  

So, what I found myself getting more into was looking at work as a conscious choice, so whether you are employed or you are self-employed, running your own business, work can always be a conscious choice, and the more that we are in alignment with who we really, what our purpose is and what impact we’re here to have in the world, then the more that we can align our work and then the more fulfilling it becomes. I really wanted to tap into these core essence of work and find that place where I could support others to say, what are my career dreams, what is this vision I have about my career and my work, and how can I start to bring more of that into my daily work? This chapter took on a whole different energy and it’s almost like it runs parallel to doing a sole purpose journey, but it’s in the context of career. That was a really interesting process for me because I initially thought I’ll just do what’s expected of me and talk about work stuff even though that feels so far removed from me, but it just did not cut it. I knew that this book had to be fully aligned with who I was and I needed to have me on a plate along with Tarot and how I work with Tarot so then others could join into that kind of vortex of energy. So, that was really interesting. 

Even through that process I became so much clearer about my own journey and what that had led to and how each little story along the way had taken me to this place where I am now. For me it was very interesting, hopefully it is for you, who knows. 

I think from all of this, though, my intention has always been with this book to help others, to help others get to a place where they are using … Like you, you are using your intuition, you’re using your inner wisdom, your inner power and you’re using it as a superpower. It’s just one of those frivolous things that you use and you don’t really tell anyone, and if you do you giggle nervously and so on. No, intuition and Tarot is  the tool to connect with your intuition. It is a superpower. It is something that takes you next level. If you add it in with your everyday talents, then you have created a whole new level of operating in your life which is really, really exciting.  

We finally got to the end, that was exciting, and, of course, near the end you’ve got a  word count to meet and what had happened was I’d written so much content, I’d probably done almost 80 to 100,000 words, and I needed to get it down to 50,000. So, there’s a bunch of content, a bunch of Tarot spreads and processes and experiences that I could not include in the book, but luckily after having a good chat with Running Press I was able to bundle this all up inside of the Everyday Tarot toolkit. Now, that tool kit comes free with the book, so when you buy the book you also get access to the Everyday toolkit which includes those additional spreads. It’ll be worksheets, stories, and so on. That’s all inside of the toolkit and it’s available free when you’re buying the book. 

Now here we are on the day, the official day of the launch, September 18th, and on this day is when Everyday Tarot: Unlock your Inner Wisdom and Manifest your Future, is officially on the bookshelves, plus inside of Amazon and of course, it’s available via our website. If you want to find out more about this book, go to everydaytarot.com and you’ll get links to all of your favorite bookstores and you can go online and bank a purchase, or you can even pop into your local New Age book store, and if they’re not selling it, you ask them why and you make sure that they order it in for you.  

Let me tell you a little bit about this book. Everyday Tarot is designed to help you unlock your inner wisdom and manifest your future with Tarot as your guide. It’s a practical guide filled with actionable tips, soulful activities and loads of Tarot spreads to help you access your intuition and manifest your goals and dreams in your every day life. You’ll discover how to use the Tarot to manifest your wild dreams, create love-fuelled relationships, who doesn’t wasn’t that, set and achieve your goals, fulfil  your soul’s purpose in work and life, make important decisions, and bring the divine into your life through everyday rituals. 

Now, Everyday Tarot is perfect if you are a modern soul seeker who wants to leave in alignment with your inner wisdom and your truth. It’s a great book for you if you want to go beyond those stock standard spreads, the Celtic Cross, or your past-present-future spread and so on. This is this huge opportunity to dive into something much bigger than just a standard Tarot reading. This is about diving deep into your soul and exploring all of yourself and getting closer to who you really are and bringing that part of yourself into your everyday life. This is where the divine meets the practical. Everyday Tarot is great whether you are new to Tarot or you’re an inexperienced Tarot reader.  

Now, if you are new to Tarot, there is a quick crash course on Tarot inside of the book, plus the activities are designed in such a way that you will get huge insight whether you know everything about the cards or nothing about the cards. There are always ways that you can find out a little bit more about the cards and I give you some quick and easy techniques to interpret the cards quite intuitively.  

Now, of course, if you’re more of an experienced Tarot reader, you’re going to love this book because it’s refreshing. It allows you to go beyond the standard Tarot spreads and do something very different, and perhaps even more meaningful with the Tarot. I think you’ll really enjoy this breath of fresh air. I don’t know about you, but sometimes it can get a little bit dull and boring when you’re just doing spread after spread after spread. This will show you a whole new way of working with Tarot. 

Now, inside the book you’re going to learn why you don’t need to be a fifth-generation psychic to be intuitive, and I’ll let you in on a little secret, we are all intuitive, including you. You’re going to learn, when it comes to Tarot, why fortune-telling is out and intuition is in, especially if you want to create your best future and manifest your goals, you’ll learn the quickest and easiest way to read Tarot and access your intuition, you’ll discover how to connect with your soul’s purpose and make it a part of your everyday life, you’ll discover how to turn goals into reality by aligning with your highest self and also aligning with the guidance that your Tarot cards show you, you’ll and why the Tarot cards will never tell you what you should do, only you can decide how to do this, but they will give you alternatives and options for you to make a conscious choice from, you’ll learn how to use your inner wisdom and intuitive guidance from the Tarot cards to make informed decisions about your life, how to bring intention and purpose into your work and career, and I’ll tell you what, that is where the magic happens if you can get to that point. I’m going to show you a couple’s readings, so it’s a beautiful Tarot spread designed specifically for couples to manifest a long-term, loving relationship together.  

There are powerful rituals inside of this book that align with nature’s cycles, such as the sun and the moon and the seasons, to really accelerate your manifestation powers. Ultimately, this book is going to show you how to bring Tarot into your everyday life to create more peace, more purpose and more potential.  

As I said, it is available in bookstores from today onwards (yippee!) and you can go to everydaytarot.com, not only to learn more about the book, but also to get the links to where the book is sold online. I do hope that you will check it out. Now, if you’re listening to this as it’s getting published, I will also be in the US and having a number of different live events to celebrate the launch of the book and also to give you a taste of what Everyday Tarot really looks and feels like, so check it out, all those details over on everydaytarot.com. So, make sure you order the book and order the deck and also make the most of the extra bonuses that we are adding to celebrate this launch.  

I am so excited to be able share this book with you. It comes with that kind of crazy nervousness, “what will people think” feeling, but also a huge amount of pride with what has been created. The thing with this book is, yes, it’s mostly me in there, but it’s also a collaborative creation, and it’s a creation that has happened as a result of everyone I’ve interacted with over the course of my life and my Tarot career. It is a result of working with some awesome editors and support people to create this book. It’s also with thanks and acknowledgment to the Tarot Facebook group that I had as a group of a hundred people from our community who’ve been so gracious to try all of the different spreads and ideas from the book and give me feedback as I’m writing the book, so I appreciate our Tarot playgroups so very much. And, of course, our team has made this possible by taking care of business and also helping to grow to Biddy Tarot into what it is now in and, of course, my family and all those good things. It’s a bit like the Oscars, but I just wanted to honour those who’ve been contributors to this book. 

All right, so stay tuned because next week I am interviewing the owner of the New Age store, JuJu in Philadelphia. I hope I’ve got that right, I always get them mixed up, Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. I think Philadelphia is … Or, Pittsburgh. Anyway, you’ll need to listen next week when I finally got that figure out. Anyway, so we have Leslie McAllister, she is absolutely gorgeous and so fun to talk with, she’s going to be talking more about Tarot trends and how she uses Tarot in her everyday life. Stay tuned and remember everydaytarot.com, that’s where you can get the book. All right, have an awesome week and we’ll speak soon. Bye for now. 

Order Your Copy of ‘Everyday Tarot’ Today

My book Everyday Tarot is a practical guide, filled with actionable tips, soulful activities and loads of Tarot spreads to help you access your intuition and manifest your goals and dreams in your everyday life. I want to help you discover how to use the Tarot to manifest your wildest dreams, create love-fueled relationships, set and achieve your goals, fulfill your soul’s purpose in work and life, make important decisions, and bring the Divine into your life through everyday rituals.

Sounds pretty great, right?  The book is now available in both hardcover and ebook format.  Click here to get your copy!

 

 

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Introducing the ‘Everyday Tarot’ Book & Deck

The day is almost here! I’m about to launch my latest book, Everyday Tarot: Unlock Your Inner Wisdom and Manifest Your Future, and my new Tarot deck The Everyday Tarot Mini Kit.  

Years in the making, but only months in the writing (I work fast), I am beyond thrilled to be able to share this book and deck with you.  

>> Order Your Copy of the Book & Tarot Deck Here 

Here’s everything you need to know about Everyday Tarot. 

The Rule of 3s: How the Book Finally Came About

A couple of years ago, a literary agent reached out to me and said, “You should write a book!” But having already written The Ultimate Guide to Tarot Card Meanings (all 160,000 words and almost a decade to create!) I was not interested and politely declined.  

Six months later, a book publisher contacted me and said, “You should write a book!” Still, I said, “No thanks,” and carried on, business as usual.  

But when a second literary agent reached out and said once again, “You should write a book!” I stopped to take notice.  

Why? My personal rule of threes.  

I believe that if an opportunity comes up 3 times, it’s the Universe’s way of trying to tell me something. And so, this time I (reluctantly) paid attention.  

It took another few months of convincing but by July 2017, I had a 10,000 word book proposal for Everyday Tarot. And by September, I had a US publishing deal with Running Press (an imprint of the Hachette Group) – not just for a book but also for a Tarot deck!  

It was meant to be. 

My Writing Process 

Once I got into the flow of writing, Everyday Tarot came very fast. Writing about how to incorporate Tarot (and the Divine) into your everyday life came so easily because it’s exactly what I do in my own life.

And it’s because of this everyday connection with Tarot and my intuition that I’ve created my dream home, dream lifestyle, and dream business. 

I won’t say it was easy though. Showing up and writing every day was hard. And on a deeper level, showing up as ME and writing my TRUTH, was even harder. 

Geting Stuck

There was one chapter in particular, on work and career, that needed a full re-write. I realised that I was trying to accommodate the masses, and not what I fundamentally believed to be true. (But what emerged is beautiful – about the connection we can make between our work and our soul purpose. So much more inspiring than how to ask for a raise using Tarot!) 

But boy am I glad I’ve written the book. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to express my personal journey and share the same activities I used in my everyday for powerful results. And I just know this will have such a positive result for you too. 

Let’s take a peek inside, shall we? 

Inside the Book ‘Everyday Tarot’ 

Everyday Tarot takes a fresh approach to a timeless art, empowering modern soul-seekers with the confidence and skills to access inner wisdom and create an inspired life.  

The book is a practical guide, filled with actionable tips, soulful activities and loads of Tarot spreads.  They’re designed to help you access your intuition and manifest your goals in your everyday life.  

Inside Everyday Tarot, you’ll discover how to use the Tarot to manifest your wildest dreams, create love-fueled relationships, and set and achieve your goals.  You’ll also learn how to fulfill your soul’s purpose in work and life. Use Tarot to make important decisions and bring the Divine into your life through everyday rituals. 

Everyday Tarot has been designed for people who are ready to say YES to their intuition and who are inspired to create their future, using Tarot as their guide. 

If you’re new to Tarot, I’ve got you covered with a crash course. You’ll learn how to read the cards so you can quickly dive into the Everyday Tarot activities without being a master of Tarot. 

And if you’re a seasoned Tarot reader, you’ll love the opportunity to venture deep into your soul and explore the Tarot cards in a new way that aligns your purpose with your everyday life. 

Here’s what you’ll find inside… 


Why you don’t need to be a 5th generation psychic to be intuitive. (I’ll let you in on a little secret: We’re all intuitive, including YOU!) 
When it comes to Tarot, why fortune-telling is out, and intuition is in – especially if you want to create your best future and manifest your goals. 
The quickest and easiest way to read Tarot and access your intuition 
How to connect with your soul’s purpose and make it a part of your everyday life 
How to turn your goals into reality by aligning with your Higher Self and the guidance set forth by the Tarot cards  
Why the Tarot cards will never tell you what you should do – only you can decide this (and that’s a blessing!) 
How to use your inner wisdom and intuitive guidance from the Tarot cards to make informed decisions about your life 
How to bring intention and purpose into your work and career 
The Couple’s Reading – a beautiful Tarot spread designed specifically for couples to manifest a long-term, loving relationship together 
Powerful rituals that align with the nature’s cycles, to accelerate your manifestation powers 

Ultimately, this book will show you how to bring Tarot into your everyday life to create more peace, purpose and potential. 

A Peek at the Everyday Tarot Cards

The Everyday Tarot Kit brings a new perspective to the cards, giving modern soul-seekers the tools they need to access their inner wisdom and create an inspired life, every single day. 

The Tarot images are a modern take on the popular Rider Waite deck, each card with its own unique spin (like the Queen of Cups as a mermaid or the Knight of Swords as Athena). 

This kit includes:  

A mini Tarot deck, with 78 fully-illustrated cards (purple, white and metallic gold, with a matte finish).  


An 88-page mini guide, with modern Tarot card meanings and sample spreads.  

This is the perfect deck for your handbag (or backpack) so that you can have the intuitive wisdom of the Tarot by your side, every single day! 

 

I am so proud of Everyday Tarot, and I can’t wait for you to experience it yourself. Remember, when you do get your hands on either the book or the deck (or maybe both!) I love to read your thoughts and see all the amazing places you do your Tarot readings…plus all the creative shots you take of the book! Post a photo and caption on Instagram and be sure to include the hashtag #everydaytarot so I – and the rest of the Tarot loving world – can find it and celebrate with you.

Order the book and deck now at EverydayTarot.com.

The post Introducing the ‘Everyday Tarot’ Book & Deck appeared first on Biddy Tarot.

A Daily Self-Love Ritual Using Tarot Cards

If you want to give your self-love an extra boost, try out this daily self-love ritual. It’s perfect for reaffirming all the beautiful parts of yourself and why you are ever so deeply in love with yourself. 

It All Starts With Self-Love

Love, in any form, starts with love for yourself.  

When you love yourself unconditionally, you fully accept and appreciate who you are, and you deeply respect and honour the truest version of yourself. You welcome a life of happiness and fundamentally believe you deserve to feel good about yourself. And when you come from this place of self-love, self-acceptance, and self-respect, you will have more fulfilling, loving relationships with others. 

Here’s the thing: if you don’t love yourself, you’ll end up projecting your lack of love onto others, becoming clingy and attached, attracting the wrong kinds of relationships to you, or worse, ending up in harmful situations.  

An Absence of Self-Love

For one woman, her lack of self-love resulted in her attracting an alcoholic boyfriend and a series of bosses who treated her poorly within the workplace. For another, she has recently become aware that when she does not value herself, others take advantage of her and she feels used and hurt. And as for the third, she says, “Before I understood what self-love was, I was constantly giving to others and not myself. I said yes, even if I didn’t want to, and found myself feeling exhausted and burnt out.”  

Serving Your Highest Good

On the flip side, if you love yourself, you will attract and keep only the most fulfilling relationships that serve your Highest Good and be able to completely give and receive love without attachment or expectation. 

So before you seek out your Prince Charming or tie the knot with your lifetime love, make sure you’ve filled your cup with all that beautiful love juice for yourself first. To find fulfillment in your life and relationships, you have to find the love within you and give it to yourself. No other person, material possession, or accomplishment can do it. It’s entirely up to you.  

Daily Self-Love Ritual with Tarot

Every day, for at least seven days, ask the Tarot, “What do I most love about myself?” Draw a card, then spend ten minutes journaling about what you love and appreciate about yourself based on this card. Start each sentence with “I love that I . . .” 

And hey, if it feels like a total bragfest, don’t worry—it totally is! I give you my loving permission to brag about how awesome you are until the cows come home. 

As an example, let’s say you draw the Ace of Wands. Your journal entry might say something like this: 

I love that I am inspired by new ideas. I love that I am filled with passion and inspiration. I love that I can see the best in others and that I can match up their skills and passions to offer them a new possibility. I love that I can see the world through inspired eyes, that I see potential all around me. 

I dare you not to feel good after practicing this kind of affirmation! Remember this: you don’t attract what you want, you attract what you are—and that’s one of the infinite reasons why feeling uplifted, powerful, and “high-vibe” is essential! 

 

P.S. If you loved this Self-Love Ritual, then you are going to LOVE my latest book, Everyday Tarot: Unlock Your Inner Wisdom and Manifest Your Future. It is filled with practical, everyday ways to connect with your Divine Self, using the Tarot cards as your guide. It’s available now – click here to order your copy. 

The post A Daily Self-Love Ritual Using Tarot Cards appeared first on Biddy Tarot.

BTP142: How to Set Goals Using Tarot

Have you ever considered that you can set goals with Tarot? So many people believe that Tarot tells the future, but many of you know that I feel very differently.  I believe that Tarot helps you create your future by supercharging your vision of what is possible.  The cards allow you to align your goals with your purpose, bring your dreams into reality.  Powerful stuff, right? 

When you map out goals and connect them to your intuition, that’s when you take your manifestation abilities to superstar levels. Today, I’m going to tell you how to set goals that are connected to your inner being and intuitive side using Tarot.    

Additional Materials

Learn more about my new book, Everyday Tarot: Unlock Your Inner Wisdom and Manifest Your Future at Everydaytarot.com 

Transcript 

Brigit: You’re listening to the Biddy Tarot Podcast, and this is episode 142, How to Set Intuitively Inspired Goals with Tarot. 

Intro: Welcome to the Biddy Tarot Podcast, where you’ll learn how to connect more deeply with your intuition and live an empowered and enlightened life with the Tarot cards as your guide. Listen as Brigit and her guests share their very best tips and strategies to help you Read Tarot with Confidence. And now, here’s your host, Brigit Esselmont. 

Brigit: Hello, and welcome back to the Biddy Tarot Podcast. You know what? Many people believe that the Tarot helps them tell their future, but I believe something very, very different. I believe that the Tarot helps you create your future instead. By supercharging your vision of what is possible and aligning your goals with your soul purpose, you can bring your dreams into reality. It’s powerful stuff, isn’t it? And it all starts with getting really clear about what it is that you truly, truly want, not what you think you want, but what is in alignment with your highest self. So I’m not talking about like what your ego thinks it wants, you know, if you’re a bit worried about FOMO, fear of missing out. This is about connecting in with what your higher self truly wants in your life. 

Now, we often set goals without really checking in with what’s right for us. We think we’re setting the right goal, but as time passes and we go about achieving that goal, we realize that either maybe we’ve set the goal too high and it’s created problems in other areas of our lives, maybe we’ve set it too low and we’re not really fulfilling our like fullest potential, and yeah, we just think that we’ve got this right goal, but because we haven’t checked in on a higher level, we end up feeling a little bit disappointed, or burnt out, or just not really feeling like that goal is yours. Maybe you’re doing it because you want to impress someone. 

So, today I’m going to be talking about how to set goals that are in full alignment with you, and your inner being, and I want you to know, too, that even though we’re talking about more of the intuitive side of setting goals, I don’t necessarily … It’s not that I think that, you know, traditional goal-setting and planning strategies don’t have a place, because I really think that they do, but what I’ve discovered is that if you set goals without first having intuition, they often fall by the wayside. However, when you map out goals and connect them with your intuition, that’s when you take your manifestation abilities to superstar levels, and that’s when you get amazing results. 

Now, before we get into today’s episode, I want to let you know that today’s podcast episode is brought to you by my upcoming book, Everyday Tarot: Unlock Your Inner Wisdom and Manifest Your Future. So, this book is now available for pre-order over at everydaytarot.com, and it will soon be on bookshelves on September 18th, 2018. 

I am so excited to be able to bring you this book, because it is not only a really practical guide to using Tarot for everyday life situations, you know, making decisions, career, relationships, soul purpose stuff, daily rituals, and so on, but it’s also a way that has enabled me to share my journey with Tarot, and I have been able to put a lot of my heart and soul into this book, just outlining really where I’ve come from in my journey, and how Tarot has helped me. And of course, this is now my opportunity to help you really connect with Tarot and connect with your intuition, so that you can start to create and manifest awesome things in your life too. 

So definitely check it out. It’s at everydaytarot.com, and you can pre-order now or you can also go to your favourite bookshop, hopefully, and they’re stocking it on their shelves, and if they’re not, demand answers and make sure that they order them very, very soon. Okay, so today’s episode is also really inspired by Everyday Tarot, in fact. One of the chapters is all about manifesting your goals, and what I share with you today, you’ll find in more detail in the book as well. So, everydaytarot.com. 

All right, beautiful. So, back in 2012, my family and I, we manifested our dream holiday, and it was a six-month adventure in Spain, and it was a little bit scary, making it happen, but we felt so compelled to do it, and I’m so glad that we did. So part of this six-month trip, we traveled around, we lived in small, Spanish towns, learning the language and really experiencing the local culture, super, super lovely. And while we were doing this, I was working remotely on Biddy Tarot, while also exploring new places and spending quality time with my family, so totally a dream trip, in my opinion, like mixing up work, travel, and family. Just perfect. 

So, one day, I was sitting at a picnic table, near the beach, with my laptop, as I did. Like, literally, that was a lot of my days were spent that way. I was sitting there, and I was thinking about what is possible with my business at that point, and it was such a lovely setting. It was the perfect place to do a little bit of that soul dreaming. 

Now, I’d already started to make a few things happen in the business, and this was like literally just a month or two before I made that big decision to quit my corporate job and do this full time, so things were happening, but I also wanted to get more intentional about my next steps, and my goals in the business. 

So, the year before, in 2011, I’d created an income of around 100,000, through my Tarot business alone, which was pretty awesome, given that this was the amount I was earning, or just under, in my corporate career, and it was all being done at the same time as traveling, and having a family, and living the life, and all that good stuff. But, of course, I’m a bit of a high achiever, so I was thinking, “Okay, 100K is great, but how do I get bigger? How do I make this even more financially successful?” And I was really, really ready to go to that next level. 

So, I wanted to set my financial goal for the year ahead. Now, I could aim to make the same amount, another 100K. You know, that’s a great salary in most people’s books, so I was already ticking the box, or I could reach for 150,000, which was an increase that felt achievable given the results that I was achieving in the business. Or, I could even go and double the income, with 200,000, and that was a thought that sent a jolt of excitement through my body. 

Now, of course, it’s not all about the money, and there’s not really much point in manifesting a million dollars when it all comes at the expense of spending time with loved ones or working 90 hour weeks, and as I thought about my financial goal, I also wanted to make sure that I was taking into consideration my other personal priorities. You know, again, like especially when you’ve got a business of your own, you create the rules. Like, you create it. You get to decide how it’s going to be, how it’s going to feel. And, there’s no point just raking in the big bucks if you’re going to feel crap. You know, if you’re working late hours, if you don’t get to spend time with your family. 

So, I wanted to make sure that I could achieve great things financially, but also in a way that would allow me to sustain and even improve my lifestyle that I’d created, which for me meant more time with family and more travel, and just, you know, a comfortable lifestyle. So, I did what any normal modern day mystic would do. I pulled out my Tarot cards. 

Now, for each of my income goals that I had in mind, I drew a Tarot card, and I placed it next to the goal I’d written down, and as I pulled each card, I asked the question, “Is this goal in alignment with my higher self?” So, for the 100,000, the goal for 100,000 in 2013, I drew the four of cups. Now, as you know, the card shows a guy who’s sitting underneath a tree, and even though the cup’s being offered to him, and he’s got three more in front of him, he seems kind of bored, and disinterested, and not really motivated. So, when I saw that card, I thought, “Okay, yeah, like 100K, it’s certainly possible, but I just don’t think this is me stretching into my fullest potential.” 

So, I moved onto the next amount, which was 150,000, and for that amount, I drew the Page of swords. So it’s this young guy, holding his sword up towards the sky, and as a page, he’s learning to create something new, and as a sword card, he’s focused on communication and the intellect. So, when I saw this card, I thought, “Okay, if I strive towards 150K, it’s great, because I’m going to be learning new ways of expressing myself, communicating, and also, like, exercising my mind,” which was really important. So it was enough to keep me engaged intellectually, and also would offer new opportunities to communicate with my audience and just kind of get myself out there a bit more. 

But, the thing with the Pages, as you know, Pages are at that very early stage of development, and seeing a Page with that goal, I thought, “You know what? Yeah, I can do it, but I feel like there’s something more. There’s more than this. Like, there’s so much more to lean into.” So, I moved onto the next goal, which was 200,000 in my business for the following year. And, for this amount, I drew the eight of pentacles. Now, you know with the eight of pentacles, there’s a man. He’s working hard. He’s etching pentacles into a series of discs, or coins, and from this kind of card, it shows just really working hard, and like pushing it, and getting the job done. 

And seeing this card, I realised, “You know what? It’s going to take a lot of hard work and a lot of determination, but the effort would totally be worthwhile,” and so I started to feel really excited, knowing that 200,000 was totally within the realm of possibility. Now, as I said, I am a bit of a high achiever, so I thought, “Okay, well let’s try 250K. If we think that 200 is within reach, what does 250K look like for the next year?” 

So this time, I pulled the Queen of Pentacles. I was like, “Whoa, yes. This is it.” You know the Queen of Pentacles. She’s like the quintessential working mom, or your mompreneur. She has her stuff together when it comes to dealing with family and home, and she’s a very smart businesswoman, so I thought, “Wow, okay. 250K is actually feeling really good now,” and it would allow me to really nurture and nourish my family, not just energetically but also financially, that maybe I could be the breadwinner here, and in fact, at that point I think I was. Yeah. Yep, and have continued on that way since then. 

Now, yep, a little bit more high achieving going on, so I wrote down 300K, and I wanted to see, like, if we could really take it that far. Now, when I wrote down 300K, I pulled a card, and this time it was the 10 of cups, reversed. Now, you know that the 10 of cups is that gorgeous little family, dancing under the rainbow, got the house, and it all looks lovely, but the reversal of this card made me start to think, “You know what? Maybe this is taking it too far.” 

Like, sure, you know, the money might even pay for a really fancy house, but what’s the point if I can’t spend it with the people that I love, and the people I want to care for, and so on? So, that got me to the point of going, “Right, 300K is probably a little bit too far out there, and it’s probably going to come at the expense of my family,” which is not really what I wanted to do.  

So, you can see that these cards just helped me kind of calibrate my goals, not just with what I thought was possible, but with what was more in alignment with my higher self. And, you know, what’s really neat is when I went on to 2013, I ended up creating 250,000 in the business then, and I tell you what, if I hadn’t turned to the cards to guide me through this process, I probably would have stopped at maybe 150,000 or 200,000, because it felt safe. It felt within reach. 

But what I love about this process is our higher self knows our potential, and it wants us to fill our potential, and when we connect with our higher self, we see where that full potential is, and it’s often, like, so far out of what we think is possible, and I don’t know about you, but for me, like when I’m sort of reaching into new territories, all I need to know is that that is a possibility, and then I can go for it. Even if it’s like a really big, big goal, I can see that it is possible, and I can step into that possibility, and I can expand into it. I didn’t really need to know how to get there, that stuff. I’ll figure it out as I go. I just want to like feel into that possibility. So that’s the beauty of using Tarot and intuition when you are setting your goals. 

So, let me talk you through exactly how you can create your own intuitively inspired goals, and with your goals, you might be thinking about business. If you run your own business, awesome. You might do a very similar process to what I did. I even actually used this process for things like launches, and how many people we aimed to attract in our launches. I can do it around revenue, and profit goals, and so on. So, you might want to choose around that space, or, alternatively, you might have some more personal goals. Maybe it’s a health goal, physical health. Maybe it’s about making new friends, if you’ve moved to a new area. Maybe it’s about finding a house, or how much you can spend on a house. 

So, what you really want to do is first just close your eyes and allow yourself to dream big about your wildest dreams and goals. Like, what is it that you really, really want to create in your life? Now, it might be, again, in your relationships, in your career, in your business, wherever. And, when you’re in this dream space, really visualize what it is that you want to create. Imagine as if your dream is playing out like it was on a movie screen in your own mind, and really feel it. Pay attention to your emotions and your feelings, as you watch this dream come to life, and feel that excitement, the inspiration, the motivation, even the tingles of fear that might come through, and notice where these dreams arise within your body. Do you feel your heart swelling with happiness? Is your chest rising with pride? Are there butterflies of excitement filling your stomach? 

And, if you need to, you can always use your Tarot cards for a little bit of extra depth here. You might ask, you know, “What’s coming into my conscious awareness around my dreams?” And then you pull a card, and see what comes up for you. So, for example, like if you were drawing, say, the Hermit card, it might be a sign that you are about to walk a very spiritual path. Maybe if it’s like the 10 of Cups, then maybe your wildest dreams are about creating a really happy home, or a happy family. Maybe if you’re single, you’re looking at like, “Well, how can I create these long-term relationships, and even have a family later on?”  

So, really, in this first step, it’s about dreaming big and dreaming what’s possible, and just expanding and stepping into that space of possibility, and just allowing yourself in there, no sort of censorship, no fear coming in. Just allow it and dream big. 

Okay, so then the next step is to create your stretch goal. So, once you’re within your big dream, it’s time to create that stretch goal, and with this, it’s simply about writing down what is your one goal. Like, what is it? And, don’t really worry if that stretch goal feels a little bit out of reach, or it’s even a little bit scary. That’s the whole idea of this thing. See, if we hold ourselves back from our wildest dreams, then we’re not even allowing that possibility that they could happen. So, really let yourself dream big here. 

And, yeah, so just write it down. What is that big goal that you have in mind? Now, step number three is to create a smart goal. You might have heard the smart goal methodology before. So, it’s really about creating an intention that is specific, meaningful, something that you can agree to, attainable, realistic, and within a specific timeframe. So for example, if your goal, like your stretch goal, is to become the queen of macrame, and decorate your home with your artwork, like mine is quite recently, your smart goal might be something like, “Okay, by July, I’m going to learn how to create my first wall hanging, and by the end of the year, my home will be filled with at least five beautiful macrame artworks.” Job done here. I think I’ve almost run out of space on our walls at home. 

Okay, brilliant. So, as you’re creating a smart goal, realize that you’re probably using your rational mind here, so you’re thinking it through, and sometimes your ego can come in here and start to drop in a bit of fear, or maybe it might say, “Well, I’m not sure that that’s possible.” Like, if you get into any of that sort of obstacle space, just say, “All right, thank you ego. Thank you fear. I can hear you.” Now let’s just get on with this, because I really want you to expand into that possibility, and not really censor yourself. Just allow it to be. Now, also, your intuition might also chime in here, but I really want this to be the time for your rational mind to come into it, and really set some specifics around what your stretch goal is. 

All right, so step number four. Now you can let your intuition come into things. So this is about intuitively calibrating your goals. So, this is really where you get to go to the next level and align your goals with your highest good. So take your smart goal, and ask your higher self, “To what extent is this goal in alignment with my highest good?” So, you can draw a Tarot card to support you in this process.  

So, if it’s like that you want to have five macrame artworks in your home by the end of the year, draw a card and find out, like, “Is this in alignment,” and this is where you start to get that feedback around is it in alignment? Is this something that you truly, truly desire, that you want to have in your life, that is going to serve you on a really deep level? And it’s also an opportunity to find out if you’ve taken it a bit too far. So remember when I was setting that goal of 300K, or experimenting, or playing with that goal of 300K, the 10 of cups reversed was showing, “Nuh-uh, Brigit. This is too far. You need to slow down.” So, using the Tarot cards at this point can really help you sort of calibrate that goal. 

Now, the other thing is, like let’s say if you said, “All right, well five macrame artworks,” and the card said, “Yeah, yeah, you can do it pretty easy.” Well, then you go, “Okay, well what about 10? What about 15? What about 20?” And this is your opportunity to start to expand and stretch your goals even more, and use the cards to calibrate. So, just like I did with my business, 100K, what’s that look like? 150, 200, 250, 300, and so on. 

Now, step five is to finalize your intuitively inspired goal, so once you have that final goal that you’ve calibrated with your higher self, and you have that feedback around what’s going to be most in alignment, then tune into your intuition once again, and ask yourself, “Okay, to what extent is my goal in alignment with my highest good?” And really focus your attention within, and check in to see how you’re feeling about your goal. What’s your energy around it, you know? Do you sort of feel a bit of excitement around that goal? 

Then, I also encourage you to say that goal, that intention, out loud. You might need to do it a few times. So, this is what I’ve seen happen with others, when they’ve gone through this exercise. The first time they say the goal, it’s kind of like, “Oh, I’m going to make five macrames.” Or, you know, like kind of get a little bit shy, or embarrassed, or think that, “Oh, maybe I can’t do it.” You can hear it in the voice, too. That’s the other thing. You can really hear it in the voice. 

And so, when I’ve done this exercise with others, I’ve said, “Okay, no. Say it again,” and I’ll keep asking for them to say it again and again, until it is said with true conviction. So, when you speak your intention, or your goal, out loud, say it with true conviction. And then, what I love to do is write it on a piece of paper. I do this for launches, actually. I write it on a piece of paper. I’ve got these beautiful, like, big gold sequins, and I make up kind of like a mini-altar on my desk, and I put the gold sequins around it. I’ve got some like pyrite, which is a really lovely gold color, put some, like, amethyst, because the purpose, the citrine, and I just jazz up this little area with my goal. 

And then, I get to see that every single day, until it manifests, and I tell you what, it does. We’ve done this with many of our launches in the past, and I’m not kidding you, we are usually within like one or two enrolments of what our original goal was. So for example, we set a goal for our Master the Tarot Card meetings course. We were like, “Okay, we would love to welcome in 250 new students.” I always say 250+, because I like to give the universe some room to bring in a little bit extra if he or she wants. 

But yeah, so we set the goal of 250, and when we wrapped it up, 251. Like, it’s crazy. This happens so frequently, where we’ll set the goals and they manifest. And I’ll tell you what, it’s because I go through this process of intuitively aligning my goals, and then I have them in clear vision, so that those goals, they just become natural. Like, of course that’s what we’re going to do. Like, it’s already written. Like, there’s no other option. That’s what it’s going to be. 

So, I would love to invite you to try this out too, if you’ve got some big goal-setting coming up. Bring your Tarot cards into it, use them to calibrate your goals and align them with your higher self, and you’ll find that you start to manifest things in a really neat and beautiful, beautiful way. 

Now, just remember that the book, or my book, Everyday Tarot, is coming out very, very soon, so pre-order your copy now at everydaytarot.com, and if you enjoyed this podcast episode, you’re going to love the book, because it’s filled with things like this, as well as, you know, how do you make decisions with Tarot, like making choices, creating those inspiring career, fulfilling relationships, daily ritual, like all the good stuff. You’re going to love it. So, check it out, everydaytarot.com, plus it comes with a Tarot deck as well. 

Oh, and speaking of which, this part is really neat. So, next week, my very special guest is Eleanor Grosch, and Eleanor is the illustrator of the Everyday Tarot deck, so Eleanor and I are going to be shooting the breeze about how we created the Everyday Tarot deck. And Eleanor’s going to go into a lot more detail about her inspiration, and how we kind of like really combined our energies so that this deck could come into being. So, check that out, and until then, have an awesome week, and I’ll speak to you next time. Bye for now. 

Get Everyday Tarot as soon as it’s available. Pre-Order your copy of the book and deck now at everydaytarot.com.

The post BTP142: How to Set Goals Using Tarot appeared first on Biddy Tarot.

Dealing with Difficult Colleagues Tarot Card Spread

 

 

Are you Dealing with Difficult Colleagues at Work?

Is your colleague in Office Admin refusing to take your calls? Can’t get your new idea past the big boss? Or maybe you have a co-worker continually fighting you for every new project that comes your way.  Regardless of whether dealing with difficult colleagues is a new occurrence for you, or something that’s been frustrating you for a while, there one thing that’s certain – it often leads to a lot of tension, frustration and negative energy. 

And believe me, I’ve been there. The fact is, we spend so many of our waking hours at work (I’ve seen estimates that show it can be more than 90,000hrs in a lifetime!) and often times, it’s with a group of people that we didn’t choose. Although today I’m very happy to have surrounded myself with a great team at Biddy Tarot, I definitely remember some office qualms I had with past coworkers.  They’re never fun and always seemed to impact my life outside the office. 

If you know exactly what I’m talking about, you’re going to love these two Tarot card spreads (and tips!) specially designed to help deal with those difficult colleagues. Relieve your stress and turn inward to your Tarot cards, and you might be surprised with the results you can achieve.  

Dealing with Difficult Colleagues Three Card Spread

Your Needs / My Needs / The Resolution

Conflict resolution is all about finding a middle ground between what you need in the situation and what the other person needs, which is why this Dealing with Difficult Colleagues 3-Card Spread is so powerful. Through our Tarot cards, we consider not just our own needs, but also the needs of the other person we’re interacting with too before finally, finding the bridge between the two.  

How to use this spread:  

Card 1 – Your Needs

Draw one card for your colleague, to represent what he or she needs in this situation.  

Card 2 – My Needs

Draw another card for you and your needs.  

Card 3 – The Resolution

And draw a final card for how to create a bridge between your needs and establish a common ground. 

Understanding the Spread

Look at Card 1 and 2 – how are the figures interacting with each other? Are they facing each other, or turning away? What does this tell you about the relationship with your co-worker right now? And are there any common elements of the two cards, or are they completely opposed?  

This will give you some insight into where to find common ground (or not). 

When you add in Card 3, look at it individually, but also look at how it connects with Card 1 and 2. Is it going to be harder for you to reach the resolution or the other person? And how can you bridge that gap? 

Example

Let’s try an example. If Card 1 and 2 are both in the Suit of Wands, it could mean that you both have strong work ethics and are committed to the success of a project.  But before you celebrate and decide to bury the hatchet, consider what the different cards mean for each of you.  

Let’s say that your colleague comes up as the 8 of Wands.  He may feel the best way to achieve results is through fast action.  While you may view his quick decisions as brash, he could see them as an asset to reaching the finish line as quickly as possible.  

Then, you pull the 10 of Wands for yourself.  You feel that the best plan is to put in the hard work to get the project done.  Notice that the figure in the card walks away from us in an effort to prove that he can do everything on his own. You may be worried that you’ll be taking on the burden of the responsibility.  

For the third card, you get the Two of Pentacles.  What does this jovial figure juggling two massive coins have to tell us about workplace conflict resolution?  A lot, actually.  

This card in the Minor Arcana represents two very important things for great project management: adaptability and time management.  Try to see your coworker’s seemingly impulsive actions as a strength.  Perhaps he has the ability to not over analyze things.    

But at the same time, use your expert planning skills to hone his focus and create deadlines for both of you.  That way, you make it clear what his responsibilities are (taking some of the burden off of yourself) and he gets to work at his own pace. 

Conflict Resolution Spread

Is the issue between you and your co-worker more complex than a 3-card spread? Try this one.

Have you ever been stuck on a project with someone who has a drastically different working style than you?  That sort of friction leads to petty arguments, high emotions, and an incomplete or unsuccessful assignment.  In the end, you both feel unhappy, resentful, and a sense of failure.  But fortunately, there’s a way to can resolve this imbalance so you both feel that you’re contributing to the success of the project.

Let’s try it with the spread above…

Example
1. Me – Ace of Swords

You have the mental clarity and organization to complete the project.  Not only that, you have the raw power. More often than not, nothing stands in your way when it comes to getting work done. You have the ability to see the surest method to get something completed, which allows you to see past your ego. If a successful project means working with other people, you’re in. 

2. My Colleague – Ace of Pentacles

Your colleague always has their eye on the prize and often that prize is monetary.  Perhaps it’s your boss who wants to surpass the end of quarter goals, or maybe your coworker is aiming to get the highest annual commission in the office.  Either way, your colleague is a go-getter who has a mania for financial gain.

3. My Concerns – 9 of Pentacles Reversed

Your major concern is that your colleague’s unyielding drive will result in over-investment in work.  You’re also worried that their one-minded methods may be reckless and result in financial setbacks for the project and all of your planning will be for naught.

4. Their Concerns – 4 of Wands Reversed

While your office mate may seem confident and ready to take the financial world by storm, he or she is also worried about financial stability.  Maybe they lost their last job and were down on their luck for a while. The idea of losing one job and finding another scares them, which can lead to a grandiose work ethic in the workplace.

5. My Ideal Situation – 3 of Cups

While you have no problem completing your responsibilities on your own, you’re a team player.  You know that two heads are better than one. You’re open to compromising with your coworker – however frustrating they may be – if it means an end to conflict and the completion of a successful project.

6. Their Ideal Situation – The Fool

Your colleague, on the other hand, goes to the beat of their own drum.  They want to do things their own way, because they believe it’s the best way. He or she is more concerned with their personal growth than getting along with everyone. Your co-worker doesn’t want to be tied down to a team, because it might mean that they lose the spontaneous style that has gotten them this far.

7. The Common Ground – Queen of Swords

It’s time for both of you to take your emotions out of the situation.  Remember: it’s not personal, it’s business. As much as possible, let your colleague work independently.  If that’s the best way they work, it’s the fastest way to get the project completed. At the same time, embrace your natural organization skills.  Find a way to manage your coworker and keep the project on track, without interrupting their flow.

8. The Result – The World Reversed

You were hoping that this card would be upright, weren’t you?  Don’t worry, your project will  get completed, but it won’t happen overnight.  You and your colleague are still very different, and the new work relationship is going to take time before it’s a well oiled machine.  But, if you put in the work now, future projects will come much more easily.

9. The Deeper Spiritual Lesson – King of Pentacles

There is a lesson to be learned from all of this. Through your diligence to work with your colleague and your innate attention to detail, you’ve achieved great things. The King of Pentacles signifies that if you can complete your task and attain your goal with your coworker, you can do anything.

Ready for More Tarot Spreads for Day-to-Day Life?

Are you looking for more Tarot spreads that apply to your everyday life?  Check out my upcoming book Everyday Tarot.  It’s a practical guide with loads of Tarot spreads to help you access your intuition and manifest your goals and dreams in your everyday life.   You can pre-order your copy of the book now, as well as the Everyday Tarot deck.

The post Dealing with Difficult Colleagues Tarot Card Spread appeared first on Biddy Tarot.

BTP141: Witch Baby Soap with Founder and CEO Chelsea Selby

In this episode of the Biddy Tarot Podcast, I’m talking to Chelsea Selby, the founder and CEO of the wildly popular beauty brand Witch Baby Soap. Find out how Chelsea started her witchy line of skin care, bod care, and bath bombs in her kitchen.  Best of all, Chelsea tells us how she uses Tarot and vision boards to strategize for her business and to stay true to who she is. 

Additional Materials

To see all of Chelsea’s delicious beauty products, go to witchbabysoap.com
To learn more about Brigit’s brand new book and deck, and to pre-order, check out everydaytarot.com

Transcript

Brigit: You’re listening to the Biddy Tarot Podcast and this is episode 141 Witch Baby Soap with founder and CEO Chelsea Selby. 

Intro: Welcome to the Biddy Tarot Podcast, where you’ll learn how to connect more deeply with your intuition, and lead an empowered and enlightened life with the tarot cards as your guide. Listen as Brigit and her guests share their very best tips and strategies to help you read tarot with confidence. And now here’s your host, Brigit Esselmont.  

Brigit: Hello and welcome back to the Biddy Tarot Podcast. Today I’ve got a super awesome guest, and her name is Chelsea Selby, and she is the founder and CEO of Witch Baby Soap. Now if you haven’t come across Witch Baby Soap yet, oh my goodness, you’re totally missing out because this is probably one of the funnest brands of skin care, body care soaps, bath bombs, and so on.  

They offer such a unique range, and you’ll see in a moment what I mean. So let me just read you some of the really fun names of the products. So we’ve got things like Dragon’s Blood Body Oil, Full Moon Soap, Ghost Face Bath Bomb, there’s even soaps with Tarot cards on them. So you’ve got like the Death Tarot soap, you have the High Priestess Tarot soap. There are bath bombs in the shapes of coffins, dragons blood bath bomb, like it’s crazy good. And I think what Chelsea has done such a great job at is she’s found this space in the market where people who are a little bit more on the witchy side want to be able to use skin care that’s aligned with who they really are.  

So you’ll hear Chelsea talks about walking into a makeup shop and seeing like blossom, and thinking that’s not quite in alignment with who she was. So she’s set up Witch Baby Soap about four years ago, and since that time it has grown into a wonderful business, and they’ve got customers from all around the world, 30 different countries. And they’re continuing to do it in a way that is really sustainable, and really taking care with their products as well. So in this interview Chelsea and I talk about how she’s started the business and then started growing it in a really neat way. And really all the while, staying in integrity with who she really is.  

I think that’s kind of the key to her success here. And we also talk about how Chelsea uses things like Tarot cards, and vision boards to help her strategise in the business, and to stay real, and true to who she really is as she grows this business. So I think you’re gonna really love this episode particularly if you are in the early stages of your business, and you’re thinking oh is this still a hobby? What could I do with it? What is possible? As Chelsea will show you what is truly possible when you put your mind to it, and you just go.  

Now before we jump into the interview I want to let you know that this podcast episode is brought to you by my upcoming book Every Day Tarot: Unlock Your Inner Wisdom and Manifest Your Future. Now it’s available at everydaytarot.com, and the book really takes a fresh approach to tarot, giving modern soul seekers the tools that they need to access their inner wisdom, and create an inspired life using the tarot cards as their guide. Now this book is not your typical like learn tarot book with all the meanings, and how to do a spread and so on. It is way more practical than that. So you’ll find a ton of different exercises, activities, tarot spreads, to really help you bring your intuition, and your tarot cards into your every day life.  

And in the book we cover things like making decisions, creating an inspired career, growing fulfilling relationships, and bringing ritual into your daily routine. So remember it’s available for pre-order now, and it will be in bookstores from September 18th, you can find it at everydaytarot.com, and there’s also a gorgeous mini tarot deck that is available for purchase alongside the book. I think you’re going to love it. All right so without further ado, let me welcome Chelsea Selby. 

So welcome Chelsea, I’m super excited to have you here. How are you going today? 

Chelsea: I’m doing well, and I’m really happy to be here too. Yay! 

Brigit: So you’re like the founder and CEO of Witch Baby Soap, which is super cool by the way, tell me a little bit more about you, and how Witch Baby Soap came about for those who might not know your business? 

Chelsea: Okay. We are an occult bath and beauty company, we sell soap and body butter, and bath bombs, like crystals, we have Tarot card soap, we make coffin bath bombs, all kinds of spooky witchy stuff. I started it in my kitchen when I first had my daughter, and it’s since grown into a much larger business, and yeah that’s- 

Brigit: Like I’m really curious, I mean actually there’s a couple of things I’m really curious about. So one, I know that you were, like you had just wrapped up your degree in I think it was Alternative Medicine, is that right? 

Chelsea: Yes.  

Brigit: Then you fell pregnant.  

Chelsea: Yeah. 

Brigit: The next week.  

Chelsea: Like five days, within a week of graduating from college I went to this school for Alternative Medicine, it was one of the only schools at the time for that. So I’m not even sure, there might be more now, but was a super crunchy granola college. Like we did Kundalini Yoga, and learned Hypnosis, and Reiki, and all that kind of stuff, so I also learned like Naturopathy, and Homeopathy, even took courses in like Chiropractic, and my personal favorite was Feng Shui.  

Brigit: Oh neat. I love it. When you were taking that course, like what was your intention, what did you think would come next? 

Chelsea: I was planning on becoming an acupuncturist, and then the thought of going to school with a baby, it just seemed like a very large undertaking. Which is kind of ironic, because starting a business is so much harder than just going to school. But yeah, I don’t think a traditional path was really cut out for me ever. And having a baby, just kind of pushed me in the direction that I was supposed to be in.  

Brigit: Yeah. Interesting. And then when you started making all your like lotions, and potions at home, did you have an inkling that this might turn into something bigger, or an intention that it would turn into something bigger? Or it just evolved that way? 

Chelsea: Okay. Well my primary motivation when I first started, was just kind of to be able to buy my kid Christmas presents. So I started in October of 2013, and I was like, I’m going to buy all of the Christmas presents this year, and then it just kind of grew into something bigger. By March of the following year we had two employees, we couldn’t keep anything in stock, we would sell out within minutes of putting it on Etsy, that’s where we started. So yeah everything would sell out within minutes, and that’s when I kind of figured out that I was on to something. But strangely enough, it kind of felt like that was the path I was supposed to be on all the time, even like going back to my interests as a kid. That’s always what I’ve been into.  

Brigit: And so tell me a little bit about that switch then from the Etsy platform, into what you’ve got now, which is a whole different story. It’s a big business.  

Chelsea: Yes, yes. So we switched over in April 2014 to our own website. We used Shopify, which is … they’re great. Even if you have an issue, they’ll fix it. But we were just paying a lot of fees on Etsy, and the shipping options weren’t working for our sized business that we were moving into a bigger sized business, and the shipping options weren’t efficient for us. So we moved to our own website and we’ve been with Shopify ever since.  

Brigit: And were you like at some point, were you kind of having a garage filled with all of your like stock? And going to the post office? 

Chelsea: It wasn’t a garage because our landlord stored his jet ski there. Very important. But we … I had a small office that we started in, and we would start shipping, we would ship everything out of my office, and then it eventually became the office, and the playroom, and then the office, and the playroom, the living room had a bunch of shipping boxes in it. And like extra things, and eventually my partner and I, we were like, we can’t live like this anymore. We need to get this out of the house. So we started working, actually in this space, right here. The business was once in here, this is like a punk rock studio, it wasn’t really efficient for business meetings because I’d have to UPS, and other suppliers would come for meetings, and they’d be like, what is this weird graffiti place?  

They wouldn’t know … they’d come in their suits, and it’s like I have to be like… from all of the graffiti. Yeah.  

Brigit: I always find that funny like we need to have so called business meetings, and people turn up in a suit, you’re like yeah, no this isn’t that kind of workplace.  

Chelsea: Yeah especially, and then they show up and they see me, and I’m like covered in tattoos. Just wearing yoga pants. Yeah.  

Brigit: Yeah. Neat. So now I take it you probably have like fulfillment houses, and you’re shipping- 

Chelsea: No, we ship all in house still. Because the nature of the product, I don’t … it’s hard enough like putting it in a box, and then letting someone else transport it, because bath bombs can be very fragile at times. So I’m like … so we ship everything in house right now. Now we have a 5000 square foot facility. So we do shipping there, we manufacture there, all the steps, and now we’re opening a store there in September.  

Brigit: Yeah. Neat. Awesome. And then how many people do you have working for you at the moment? 

Chelsea: Right now we have seven. We’ll probably hire some holiday help when it gets closer to Halloween, but for now it’s just seven.  

Brigit: Yeah. 

Chelsea: We like to do … I like to grow it small, and sustainably instead of scaling it really big, and then … be like what do we do now? 

Brigit: Yeah. It’s interesting to watch kind of the different growth trajectories, because I’ve seen the similar businesses where they’ve just taken on a lot of retail clients, and the growth has been insane. And so is the pressure, and you gotta kind of catch your breath to get up, get caught up with it all. So it’s interesting that you’ve taken kind of more of a step by step approach. 

Chelsea: Yes. It’s very old school. It’s even … we’re in an old school ravioli factory. We’re in like a super Italian part of New Jersey. So we’re in an old school ravioli factory, so maybe their vibes are rubbing off on us a little bit. But yeah, we like to keep it small and sustainable, and also we don’t have any investors, so you know, our primary concerns are being able to pay good hourly wages and provide health insurance, those type of things. Because you know, our health insurance isn’t … we have to pay for it here. It’s very expensive. So being able to afford those things is more important than just scaling it really big for whatever reason. We just like the pace that we’re at. 

Brigit: And what do you think, where do you think the business is going over the next few years? 

Chelsea: I would like to open multiple stores, this one’s kind of like we’re going to see how this one goes, and then hopefully I’d like to open more. Maybe in like New Orleans, or L.A., and we also want to open a shipping and manufacturing facility in Canada because for some reason, it’s very expensive for us to ship from the United States to Canada. It’s not that far. So we’re trying to open a facility in Canada to bring down the shipping costs for all of our Canadian customers.  

Brigit: Yeah. Fabulous. And like if you were to think back say to four years ago, can you even fathom that this is where you would be? 

Chelsea: No. It’s really funny, I just spoke at the local high school yesterday, and I was like a terrible high school student. So even my family was like, what you spoke at a high school? So yeah. I don’t know I didn’t envision this, but you know I’m glad that it’s come to fruition.  

Brigit: I just think it’s such an inspiration because I know many of our listeners are probably either with the idea, or maybe even just starting out with say an Etsy store. It’s great to see how you’ve been able to like leverage this into a very sustainable business, and something that is rewarding. You’re creating a really solid workplace for your employees, and you’re keeping it real, like you’re not … you haven’t fallen into the trap of trying to go vanilla mainstream. You’re sticking to who you are.  

Chelsea: I feel like some people, they look at Instagram when they start a business, and they’re like oh I need this like glossy boardroom, or like I need these specially branded boxes with different compartments, and you know my own packing foam with my logo on it. It’s just like, hey just because they saw, I don’t know I guess a bigger company do it, or somebody who has investment money or whatever, so you feel like you need to reach these benchmarks, and you really don’t have to. I mean before the internet you can just run a business exactly how we were doing it before the internet was a thing. 

Brigit: Yep. It’s neat. And so like I absolutely love kind of the originality of your products, like the little coffin bath bombs, the Tarot soaps, so neat. And even the naming of your products, super clever and smart. 

Chelsea: Thank you. 

Brigit: So how does this all come about? Do you just sit around like a table and kind of brainstorm, or how does it? 

Chelsea: Right now, I’ve pretty much been the creative for a while. I try to like pull my employees in when I can. Usually we go through the scents together, and I have one girl on my staff that, if I make a scent, and I like it and she likes it, then I know it’s going to be a good one. So they kind of help me with that kind of stuff. When it comes to creating … I have different methods for different things, sometimes I get inspired by something random, and I’m like, oh I want to make a product out of this. Or sometimes the scent comes first, and I need to come up with a name for the scent. So it’s like whatever the scent reminds me of.  

For a full collection though, it’s like this whole elaborate process, where I make a mood board, and I have try to build this whole world of scent. So for example, we did a southern gothic collection, when we first started out. And it was based on spending time in the deep south, my dad lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. So I used to spend all my summers in Raleigh, and I’m like super New Jersey. So when I would go to North Carolina as a kid, I did not fit in that well, so it was just kind of based on like not being super religious, and being immerged in highly religious atmosphere, and how I felt. And so I did a bunch of play on words, of all these southern religious statements. Like, Bless Your Black Heart, and Praise the Dark Lord.  

I remember showing up, because it was in the ’90s and I had … like it was so cool to wear that dark green nail polish, remember that? So I wore that, and I’m showing up on my first day of camp, and I thought I was so cool. And the girls there, they all had like blond hair, with like ribbons tied in it. They looked at my nails, and they were like, that means you worship the Devil. I was like, my mom bought me this! Oh my god, no one’s ever said that to me in my life. So yeah it was just based on like the extremism that I felt as a child, just being from like a completely different place. I live 20 minutes outside of New York City, so New York City and Raleigh in the ’90s are worlds apart. 

So that was like one of the things that I based a collection on. I just like to make these really moody, atmospheric blends that when you smell it, it brings you somewhere.  

Brigit: Yeah. Neat. Neat. And I guess what I’m sort of feeling here is sometimes when it maybe … you know you’re creating like this sense of belonging with people who may not have felt like they’ve belonged before. If that makes sense? 

Chelsea: Yes.  

Brigit: And you’re making it like as something where you can just really own it, and have fun with it, and let it be your fullest experience, I think it’s so smart.  

Chelsea: Yeah. When I would go to the stores and try to find like some beauty products before I started the business, I would look at them and be like, well I’m not really a blooming blossom. So if they have anything graveyard scented that would be great.  

Brigit: And so are you the only folks doing this, or are things starting to change a little bit, are you seeing more and more businesses pop up like this? 

Chelsea: There were like a couple of us who were doing weirder, darker beauty products in the beginning, but I feel like in the recent years it is really like become a thing. And a lot more people are doing it now.  

Brigit: Yeah. And then in that, then what’s like your key differentiation? Like what makes you really different from everyone else who’s doing similar stuff now? 

Chelsea: I just have my own style, and my own vision for our products. Everybody … there’s so many different witch companies out there, or like dark candle companies, beauty companies, all kinds of things. But really what makes your brand different is the story that you tell. Nobody has those same life experiences that I’ve had, so I mean they probably have something similar, and that’s why it’s relatable. But I’m pulling from my own experiences when I create things. And that’s something you really can’t duplicate, and my own vision I like to make products that have more of like … I’m a Taurus, so I really like elegant things.  

So I try to give my products like more of an elegant edge, you know, they’re packaged in glass instead of plastic. I like to just tell this story about each product, and I put a lot of thought into what herbs I put into each product, or like what experience you’re going to get out of them. It’s not just like, I like this scent, I’m going to make it this thing. No it has to tell a whole story. Like our collection right now is, it’s based off of just feeling super rebellious as a teenager growing up in a suburban neighborhood, not fitting in. One of the products is based off of one of my close friends who passed away when I was around that age, and just all of the things that I was dealing with at that time. 

Brigit: Yeah. 

Chelsea: So I think when people find something that we make, that feels similar to their experience, that’s what really resonates with them.  

Brigit: Yeah. It’s beautiful. I love it very much.  

Chelsea: Thanks. 

Brigit: So obviously things are going swimmingly for you, like very, very well.  

Chelsea: Thank you. 

Brigit: What are some of the challenges that you might have run into over the last few years? 

Chelsea: Growing your business is always difficult, I don’t have a business degree, I have a degree in Alternative Medicine. I know how to do Kundalini Yoga, I was not prepared for like first of all just dealing with accountants, it’s like he speaks a foreign language when I have to talk to my accountant. And just business in general, as a creative person, I feel like that’s what I struggle with the most is figuring out business. Just how to get all the paperwork done. 

Brigit: Yeah. 

Chelsea: All these like structured things, even though I am a Taurus and you should feel like stable and structured, I am also like just, I’ve always been a very creative, rebellious person so just kind of falling in line, has been the most difficult.  

Brigit: Yeah. 

Chelsea: And also being like a mindful leader is something that I’ve tried to make a point, because I’ve had so many terrible bosses, that I don’t want to be like them. So just trying to lead in a way that I have wanted to be led as an employee, has been … I wouldn’t say it’s been challenging, but it’s definitely been something that I focus on a lot in my business. 

Brigit: Yeah I can resonate with that, I think we’re in a really unique position as like leaders of our business, and leaders of a team, to create the kind of business that feels in integrity, and authentic to you.  

Chelsea: Yes. 

Brigit: I mean I used to work in corporate for 15 years or so, and there were many things I liked, and many things I did not like.  

Chelsea: Yeah. See I’m like complete opposite end of the spectrum. I was at the Girl Boss Rally in L.A. this weekend, and I was there with my friend, and we were sitting on these lounge chairs, and we’re just talking, and I’m like looking at these corporate buildings, and I’m just thinking this is … I’ve never even set foot in one of these buildings, I don’t even know what that would be like. To work in the corporate world, so it’s interesting to think about. Like what would working in the corporate world be like? 

Brigit: Yeah, don’t. It’s all good. You’ve skipped that bit, it’s all good.  

Chelsea: It’s just such a strange thing for me, I’ve never done it.  

Brigit: Yeah. But I think you’re a wonderful testament for someone who can take something that might be considered a hobby, and you have turned it into a business. So even though you’re saying you don’t have business skills, you clearly do.  

Chelsea: Oh thank you. 

Brigit: And you’ve been able to develop them in a way that is perhaps again more in integrity with who you are, and the way that you want to operate versus the way that you think you might be expected to operate. If that makes sense? 

Chelsea: Yeah. And I think maybe that’s why I never stepped foot into the corporate world, is maybe it just didn’t resonate with me, so kind of starting my own business is my own act of rebellion, it’s my own like … I feel like my inner 13 year old girl would be very proud of me for kind of like bucking the status quo, and just doing my own thing. I feel like that’s the most punk rock thing I can do.  

Brigit: Yeah. I love it. That’s neat. And then so you … well I was going to say you do some unorthodox things to run your business, but in my view these are very normal, natural things. They’re things like, using Tarot, or using vision boards. So tell me a little bit about all the fun stuff that you do to run the business from that more intuitive space? 

Chelsea: So I like to pull a Tarot card every day before I got to work, or just in general even if I’m not going to work, just because it kind of gives me … I feel like it gives me some insight into what I could be dealing with that day, or like what I maybe something that I’ve been not addressing, that I need to address. So I’ll flip a card, and then if it’s like the Tower, get ready. I’ll be like how many rings can I put on with crystals to make me feel better about the fact that I pulled this card? 

So I kind of just like feel like all right, it’s a dragon’s blood kind of day. So just put some dragon’s blood oil on and feel like just ready to embrace whatever I might be dealing with, or if I pull something that’s like a super creative card, and I have plans to work on boring paperwork stuff, then I’ll be like you know what? I’m just going to do something creative today. So I’ll just use that energy, and focus it into the business, and kind of just go with the flow.  

But then I also use it, I take a lot of ritual style baths. So sometimes if I pull a card that really inspires me, then I might theme a bath around it. So I might, if I get like a cups card, I might use my water bath potion, and put a bunch of water herbs or flowers in my bath, and kind of just like try to connect with that energy if I feel like that’s something I need. 

Brigit: Yeah, I love it. And I think the more and more we use like Tarot in kind of the every day space, and like more … less reading per se, and more doing or being with the Tarot I just think that’s the magic place.  

Chelsea: Yeah. So sometimes if I’m going through a hard period too, like I had my Saturn return in November, that was rugged, so I just like taped the Chariot to the wall so I can just like remember that I just got to ride it out, and just persevere. So sometimes if I’m going through a period, and I feel like I need a specific energy, I’ll just put that up on my desk or on my mirrors so I can see it every day.  

Brigit: Yeah. And then I know that you love using our Biddy Tarot Planner. Do you integrate that with your business stuff, or more of your personal side? 

Chelsea: I feel like honestly it all kind of … it’s just all the same thing at this point. Like it just flows from one thing to another, so I use it kind of for both. You know the goals that I set in my personal life, regardless, are going to help me in my business life. And they’re usually for things like I don’t know. I feel like I’ve set a lot of get organized goals, and that helps both as a mom, and also as a business owner.  

Or like what’s another one that I’ve set? A lot of get organized. Like I said, I’m very creative. And not very structured. Also just if I need to be more focused, or be more present is one that I’ve set, that’s like a parenting one, be more present.  

Brigit: Yeah. 

Chelsea: Better boundaries, and more balance. So those things apply to both work, and home life.  

Brigit: Yeah. I think that’s the beautiful thing of running your own business, but also doing it in a way that’s in alignment with who you are. Because one, and the other it’s just … your business is the expression of you, and everything you’re learning in your own personal life, and vice versa.  

Chelsea: Yes. And I mean I basically started it so that I could parent the way that I wanted to parent, and not have to … I didn’t want to just pay money to put my daughter in a daycare too. So I was like, this is the only way, this is what I’m going to do. And now I get to spend as much time as I want with her, and I don’t have to miss anything, most importantly. My mom was a single mom, so she didn’t get to … we didn’t get to spend a lot of time together when I was a kid, so it’s really important for me to spend a lot of time with my daughter. And that’s also what drives me to be self-employed.  

Brigit: Yeah. Totally agree with that. I think that’s been one of the hugest benefits for running our business is the flexibility, and yeah the ability to spend time with your family, and then sometimes not, sometimes I like to work so I can escape.  

Chelsea: Yeah. 

Brigit: I’ve got to work.  

Chelsea: Yeah, it’s nice. Like I went to the … like I said I went to the Girl Boss Rally this weekend, I always look forward to it, because I get to like have two days where… my daughter still sleeps in my bed, where I’m not like getting kicked in the back all night long. Or I could go get a massage, you know, and then I get out and I don’t have a phone call, or anything to handle. So it’s nice. 

Brigit: Yeah. Awesome. And so, what advice would you have for someone who might be like, you know, you four years ago, at that very early stage of I’m going to make some stuff, might sell it on Etsy, what advice would you give them? 

Chelsea: Just to start. Just start doing it. A lot of people feel like they have to have these elaborate plans, you go to school, and they’re like you need a business plan, and you need this, and that in high school. It kind of makes it seem like starting a business is a lot of work before you even start it. So you just have to get started, and it will come together, at least for me. That’s what I did. I just did it. That’s the hardest part I think is just getting started.  

Don’t listen to anybody when they try to discourage you from doing what you want to do, because when I told everybody I was going to sell witch soaps, they were like, why don’t you just sell natural soaps instead? You know, do the thing with your degree.  

And I was like, nah, I’m going to do this. So everyone’s going to have an opinion about what you’re doing, don’t listen to them, don’t tell anybody you’re name before you name your business because everybody has an opinion about that. Just like a baby, you just got to name it.  

Brigit: Yeah. 

Chelsea: You know? 

Brigit: Yeah. I often see that where people will ask their friends for an opinion on what they’re doing in their business, and their friend is not their client. Their friend is not the ideal customer, so you’re not going to get the right feedback for it. 

Chelsea: Yeah, especially when you’re starting like a weird business.  

Brigit: You know what I think it’s just neat to be a disruptor. I really identify with the Tower card in terms of my purpose, and in the business side as well. And it’s almost like fuel to keep going when someone says, oh why are you doing that?  

Chelsea: Yeah no, I don’t really, I mean when I see the Tower card, I brace myself. But I don’t really run screaming because you know the Tower has like surfaced so many times in my life. I feel like at this point I’ve lived so many different lives, that you know that whole burning it down and then starting over again isn’t really that scary at this point.  

Brigit: Yeah. 

Chelsea: Knock on wood. I don’t want to invite that, but I’m very content with where I’m at right now. But it’s not the most frightening thing that could happen. 

Brigit: Yeah. Absolutely. Awesome so where can people find out more about you, and get their access to these awesome coffin bath bombs? 

Chelsea: So they can find me, all my of my social media is at Witch Baby Soap. So we’re on Facebook, we’re on Instagram, Twitter, we’re on Tumblr, I don’t even know if anybody has a Tumblr anymore, but we’re on Tumblr. And we’re also on Pinterest too.  

Brigit: Yep. Fabulous. And have you got an address for your store New Jersey? 

Chelsea: Oh yes. We’re … it’s not open yet. We’re going to be located 534 W. Westfield Ave. in Roselle Park, New Jersey.  

Brigit: Awesome so that opens in September, so if you’re listening after then, you know where to find them.  

Chelsea: Yeah. We’ve started discussing a Tarot card room too, so it’s all in the works.  

Brigit: Do it. Do it. Yes. That would be neat. And then you can expand into like workshops, and events.  

Chelsea: Yeah, we love to do that so. 

Brigit: So many things. 

Chelsea: Hopefully in the future.  

Brigit: Fabulous. Awesome. Well thank you so much Chelsea for being on the podcast, and I’ve so enjoyed like hearing about your journey, and what you did. 

Chelsea: Yes, thank you for having me. 

Brigit: Oh my pleasure. And I just hope that this continues to grow in its success, and its reach. I think what you’re doing is fabulous. And thank you for the cute little bath bombs and so on, so I can get a feel for it. I’m going to probably post a few of those on Instagram, I love like the Tarot soaps, and it’s gorgeous. 

Chelsea: Any time. Thanks for having me, this was a lot of fun.  

Brigit: Thanks.  

So there you have it. I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Chelsea as much as I did. Now remember you can pre-order your book Every Day Tarot at Everydaytarot.com. It will be available for sale from September 18th, and yes you can pre-order now, you can also get the mini cards which I think you absolutely are going to love. And if you’ve enjoyed this interview, or this whole podcast series, please leave a review it means the world to me, and it also means that we get tarot out in a bigger way. So jump onto iTunes, and leave a review and a star rating. That would be awesome.  

Thank you so much. And if you want to get the transcript and episode details to find out more about Chelsea and to find out more about Witch Baby Soap, you can go to Biddytarot.com/141.  

All right my friends, that is it for today, I hope you have an awesome day, and I look forward to chatting with you again very, very soon. Bye for now.

If you’re looking for ways to incorporate Tarot into your everyday life, check out my book Everyday Tarot. It’s a practical guide, filled with actionable tips, soulful activities and loads of Tarot spreads to help you access your intuition and manifest your goals and dreams in your everyday life. Discover how to use the Tarot to manifest your wildest dreams, create love-fueled relationships, set and achieve your goals though everyday rituals.

Pre-order your copy today at EverydayTarot.com!

The post BTP141: Witch Baby Soap with Founder and CEO Chelsea Selby appeared first on Biddy Tarot.

The Full Moon Tarot Spread and Ritual

If the moon has the power to create the ebb and flow of the ocean’s tides, it no doubt also has the power to influence human beings, especially as we are 60 percent water.  

My family and I recently moved out into the Australian bush where there is very little ambient light.  Since the move, I’ve become truly aware of the lunar cycles and how they influence me.  Now, more than ever, I use the lunar cycles as guidance. 

Paying attention to the moon cycles by setting intentions at the new moon and releasing and letting go at the full moon is such a powerful way to align with the Universe—and ourselves.  

The lunar cycles allow me to recharge and recalibrate my energy in alignment with the Universal energies that are flowing around me.  It’s pretty awesome. 

Today, I want to focus on the full moon. When the moon is at its biggest and brightest, it’s the perfect time for honouring your achievements and releasing what no longer serves you. 

To support you in the process, I’ve created a powerful Tarot ritual for you to perform. 

The key to performing this ritual is to be fully present with an open heart, an open mind, and a willingness to be open to all possibilities. 

I promise that you’ll be amazed by the results. 

 

The Full Moon Ritual 

Let’s start with preparation. 

The best time to do the Full Moon Ritual is, surprise, on the full moon or in the days leading up to the full moon. If you’re not sure when that is, check the lunar phases for your local area at www.timeanddate.com/moon/phases.  

For the ceremony, you’ll need to find a space where you will not be disturbed for at least thirty minutes. I know that this can be a challenge, especially if you’ve got roommates, kids, or noisy neighbours. Outside is ideal, but if that’s not possible, then inside is just fine.  If you can, open a window. Give your flatmates and family members a heads up that you need some quiet time. 

Now, with all of that in order, it’s time to get all of your materials together. 

Your small arsenal of tools will include your favourite Tarot cards, a pen, and notebook, as well as a separate sheet of paper.

Next, grab candles, an herbal bundle, matches, a fireproof bowl, and anything else you feel called to have with you for the ritual. If you want to include a piece of jewellery, special photograph, or even your favourite teddy bear, go for it. 

Create a Sacred Space  

Now, make a small altar with your favourite things or lay out a crystal grid. Whatever helps you to create a beautiful sacred space that makes you feel both connected and relaxed.  This will look different for everyone, so don’t feel you need to do it a certain way. 

Then, put your fireproof bowl on the altar with the matches close at hand.  

Light your candles and dim the lights.  

Next, light your sage/dried herbal bundle and gently wave the smoke over the front and back of your body, as you clear and cleanse your aura.  

The Full Moon Tarot Spread Ritual 

Take out your Tarot cards and do this simple, yet powerful spread.  Arrange the cards however it feels natural to you. 

What have I created and manifested since the new moon?
Where am I now?
What is coming into my conscious awareness?
What is no longer serving me?
How can I release and let go of these energies?
What additional resources are available to me as I release and let go?

Record the reading in your notebook and write down your key insights for each card.  Be sure to take your time.  

Honour Your Achievements  

Next, reflect on the intentions you set during the previous new moon: 

What did you create and manifest?  

And what new opportunities emerged?  

Write these down in your journal, honouring each achievement as you go. Give thanks for what you have created and learned along the way. You may surprise yourself with the important things you’ve accomplished.  Again, take as much time as you need. 

Release and Let Go 

Now, on a separate piece of paper write down what is no longer serving you and what energies you want to release. Give yourself a good amount of time to fully express yourself until it feels that there is nothing else left. This part is always very cathartic for me. 

When you’re finished, light this piece of paper with a match over the fireproof bowl. As it burns, say out loud:  

“I release and let go of any excess energy that no longer serves me. Through Divine Will and unconditional love, so be it.”  

Once the paper has finished burning, affirm out loud, “I release you. I am done.”  

Take a moment to fully experience this feeling of release.  Full disclosure: It can be very powerful. 

Close Out the Ritual  

At this stage, check in with yourself and your intuition to see if there is any other activity you need to do before closing out the ritual.  

For example, you may feel called to shake off any residual energy, to write a letter of forgiveness, or to meditate with your favorite crystal. Go with your instincts on this one and you can’t go wrong. 

When the ritual feels complete, close the circle by giving thanks to your guides and your intuition. Say out loud, “And so it is done!”  

Finally, blow out the candles and gently turn the lights back on, returning to your everyday life once again.  

There you have it.  I hope you enjoy the experience of my Full Moon Tarot Spread and Ritual.  I know that it has a very powerful and positive effect on me, whenever I perform it at home.  

 

To learn more Tarot spreads and rituals that you can incorporate into your everyday life, be sure to check out my new book, Everyday Tarot: Unlock Your Inner Wisdom and Manifest Your Future. 

 

The post The Full Moon Tarot Spread and Ritual appeared first on Biddy Tarot.

BTP140: Discover Your Soul Purpose with Tarot

In this episode of the Biddy Tarot Podcast, I’m tackling a big and beautiful topic: how to discover your soul’s purpose using your Tarot cards.  Spoiler: by the end of the episode, you’re probably not going to have a clear idea of precisely what your soul purpose is. 

This is an independent journey that involves you working closely with your highest self to discover what your soul purpose is and let it unfold in a beautiful and sometimes unexpected way. But, I’m going to give you some ways that you can use your Tarot cards to support you throughout this exciting process. 

Additional Materials

Learn more about my new book and Tarot deck –  Everyday Tarot: Unlock Your Inner Wisdom and Manifest Your Future at everydaytarot.com

Transcript

Brigit: You’re listening to the Biddy Tarot Podcast. This is episode 140. Discover Your Soul Purpose with Tarot. 

Intro: Welcome to the Biddy Tarot Podcast where you’ll learn how to connect more deeply with your intuition and leave an empowered and enlightened life with the Tarot cards as your guide. Listen as Brigit and her guests share their very best tips and strategies to help you read Tarot with confidence. Now here is your host Brigit Esselmont.  

Brigit: Hello and welcome back to the Biddy Tarot Podcast. As always, it’s such a joy to be talking with you all about Tarot. Now today we’re diving into a really big topic that is – how to discover your soul’s purpose.  

Now are you going to know exactly what your soul’s purpose is by the end of this episode? Well, no. You will have a way to work closely with your highest self to discover your soul purpose and let it unfold in beautiful and probably sometimes unexpected ways. Of course, I’m going to be showing you how you can use your Tarot cards to support your throughout this process.  

Now before we get into today’s episode I want to let you know that this episode is brought to you by my upcoming book Everyday Tarot: Unlock Your Inner Wisdom and Manifest Your Future. This book that I’ve been writing and loving on big time is available now for pre-order over at everydaytarot.com. It’s going to be on bookshelves in the US from September 18th, 2018. 

Now my book Everyday Tarot takes a really fresh approach to the timeless art of Tarot. It gives modern soul seekers the tools that they need to access their inner wisdom and create an inspired life using the Tarot cards as their guide. 

Now this book is filled with practical exercises to help you bring your intuition and Tarot into your everyday life. For making decisions, creating an inspired career, growing fulfilling relationships, and bringing a bit of ritual into your daily life. 

You know what I love most about this book is it’s not only a sort of practical how-to with some really neat exercises and activities and Tarot spreads, like so much juicy stuff, it’s also a way for me to share my journey with you and hopefully to inspire you in terms of the journey that I’ve taken, the path that I’ve taken, and where it has led me and how Tarot has supported me in that.  

This is now my opportunity to be able to share that with you as you travel on your journey with Tarot and intuition. I have a really good feeling you’re going to enjoy this book very much. At least I hope you do. You can pre-order now at everydaytarot.com and remember it’s going to be on bookshelves from September 18th, 2018. Woo. Super exciting.  

Okay, so something that a lot of people tell me is that I’m very soul-driven. I absolutely 100% agree. Purpose and being intentional and making conscious choices is so very important to me. It’s part of my being. It’s so important to me that I’m always operating in alignment with my soul, my mission, and what I believe I’m here to do in this lifetime. 

Now I don’t spend every single hour in absolute perfect alignment. We have lives. I have kids who take me out of that place quite often but for the most part I am living a life that is in alignment with my soul’s purpose. That’s what I really want to talk with you today about is how do you get into this place? How do you even become aware of what your soul purpose is in the first place? 

Now think about what some people seem to get a little bit confused about with soul purpose is that there’s this expectation that one day we’ll just wake up and we’ll know exactly what our soul purpose is or maybe we’re in the forest and a deer comes up to us and can somehow transmit exactly what you should be doing with the rest of your life.  

This stuff does happen every now and then. In most cases, understanding your soul purpose is something that happens over time and it happens through a process of trial and error. It also happens through a process of listening and allowing and being consciously aware of those things that really light you up and those things that might not light you up.  Of course, the things that do light you up you do more of and the things that don’t light you up you do less of.  

Now if I’m thinking about my own journey I’ve had a pretty good idea of who I am and why I’m here. Throughout my life I’ve always been very purposeful and intentional. It probably wasn’t really until, gosh, I can’t even remember what year it was. It might have been around 2014, 2015 maybe.  

Anyway, I was doing a one day workshop with Alana Fairchild, who is amazing. She’s created the Sacred Rebels Oracle deck. What else has she got? The Kuan Yin. So many good ones. Crystal Mandala Oracle and so on. She’s a very charismatic, spiritual woman who is so much in her own power. It’s an absolute delight to watch. 

Anyway, I’m in her workshop and it was based on Isis and the energy of Isis. We had done a lot of visualization and talking and so on. Then it came to a moving meditation, which is really code for dancing with your eyes closed. That freaked the hell out of me because I do not like dancing. I certainly don’t like interpretive dance.  

I was like, “You know what? This is flipping me out so I’m going to do it anyway. I’m going to commit to it and let it go at me.” I closed my eyes and I just started to move to the music. Alana talked us through a whole series of exploration as to what we were feeling and experiencing as we listened to this music. 

Then suddenly Rage Against The Machine and Killing In The Name Of came on. I could just feel so much energy rising up in me. I had this visualization that I was being persecuted for my belief in intuition and for trusting my own inner power. Yet here I was being held captive and almost like having stones thrown at me because I trusted my intuition.  

I remember sitting there feeling like my power had been taken away but then I was like, “Has it? Has it actually been taken away here?” I felt this amazing energy surge through me and I started to rise up. If you know Killing In The Name Of it’s like, “Eff you, I won’t do what you tell me.” It’s really strong words. So much energy behind it. 

I’m listening to this music and I’m like, “No, I’m never going to let anyone stand in the way of me accessing my inner power and my intuition ever again. No thank you.” I came out of that experience feeling so empowered and so inspired to be a light. Not just for myself and trusting my own intuition but to be a light for others and never let anyone else ever feel like they have to hide in the shadows, that they are a bad person because they trust their intuition or because they’ve learned how to access their inner wisdom and their inner power. 

I was really fired up around this. Afterwards I felt like, “Yeah. That was pretty cool. That’s nice.” It took me probably a good couple of weeks for it to really sink in and go, “Oh, this is it. This is really it.” From that moment on, that’s what I’ve been really inspired around. 

Yes, I love talking about Tarot but what I really also love is helping people get into that space of really trusting their intuition and seeing it as a super power. This isn’t something that we just brush to the side or giggle nervously when we tell someone that we’re intuitive. This is something where we go, “Wow. I’m pretty lucky. I’m pretty lucky that I’m connected to my intuition because I’ve got the power to do whatever I want here” and do whatever I want for the good of others. Of course, yes.  

That’s really what fires me up. That helped me really connect to my own soul purpose. From that so much has flowed. I’m really checking in with myself quite frequently around staying connected to that feeling and staying connected to that sense of purpose.  

You know what was interesting at that time it was a point at which with Biddy Tarot I was like, “Do I really want to keep doing this? Is this really for me?” Then I had that experience and I’m like, “Oh, wow. I can’t not do it.” You know what I mean? The universe was asking me to do this work. I needed to show up and I needed to be a light for others who wanted to access that inner power.  

Yes, a long way of going around it but that was a really important turning point for me. You know, I guess that’s the thing with soul purpose is once you become aware of your soul purpose it feels as though you’ve got to follow that calling because if you don’t you’re actually doing a disservice to the higher power and the people on this planet.  

There are really no other options but to follow your soul purpose. It’s like you can’t not do it because once it’s been shown to you, once you’re aware of it, how can you turn that away? It’s super, super powerful.  

Let’s just talk about soul purpose and what it is. Your soul purpose is the reason why you’re here on this earth and in this lifetime. It represents all of the lessons that you’re here to learn and also what you’re here to teach others. I think often what we learn in our own journey is what we are then about to share with others. That’s how we can heal others and help others. 

Your soul purpose gives you direction on a really deep and fundamental level. It’s like your calling or your guiding light. It’s what gets you up every day. Just fired up and really ready to go. It’s really what drives you forward with this divine determination and will. It’s like you can’t not do it.  

Now the thing is when you discover your soul’s purpose you become aligned with your highest power and your creativity. From that place that’s where you can manifest your deepest desires into your world. This purpose expands your heart and mind opening you to experience, that really amazing multidimensional being that you are inside. 

Soul purpose is powerful stuff. There’s no denying that but here’s the essential thing to keep in mind. Soul purpose can actually be quite dynamic. It can change, it can grow, and it can evolve. Just like you do. Here’s the truth. You already know your soul purpose even if you think that you don’t. Your soul purpose is really at the core of you and your inner being. It’s actually not something that you need to find because you’ve already found it. You just have to get clear about it. You have to listen to it. You have to be able to hear it and honor it. 

It reminds me of one of my friends who started to feel like desperate almost to discover her soul purpose. She’s like, “I don’t know what it is. What is it? How do I find it?” I’m like, “Just listen. Just calm. Just go within.” It sounds so simple but I think the more we stress about trying to find our soul purpose, the further away we go from finding that soul purpose. 

For my friend she started to realise that actually finding her soul purpose is just doing what actually fulfils her in that very moment, whether it’s being a mom, an artist, a construction worker, even a Tarot reader, whatever it might be.  

She said to me, “Just as the seasons change, life changes and our purpose changes too”, which I think is really neat because again it is a constant evolution. There may be this common thread with your soul purpose throughout your life and it will manifest itself in new and different ways depending where you are and in what situation you’re in at the very present moment.  

Yeah. When you have this really deep connection with your inner self that’s when you become a lot more consciously aware of your larger purpose in life. Of course, as you should know by now the more that you’re using Tarot as a tool, the more that you find yourself in connection with who you really are. These things will become a lot clearer. 

It’s really also at that moment where you let go and trust the universe and also the universe that you have within you, that that’s when life guides you forward and you open up fully to the present moment. In that present moment you discover your passion and your desire for life again, which brings your soul purpose and mission back to the forefront.  

It’s kind of like a beautiful loop. You’ve just got to jump into that loop so that it can all happen. If you’re jumping out of it and resisting it and going, “Come on, where is it? How do I know? I don’t know what it is. No idea what my purpose is” then there is no way that that beautiful cycling energy can happen. Let go of the resistance and just be in the flow. It’s so easy. 

The thing is here it’s not just enough to discover your soul purpose and be done with it. Even though you might know why you’re here it’s your responsibility and your obligation to the universe to follow through with your purpose and live it in your everyday life. That really means saying yes to the opportunities that are in alignment with your purpose and saying no to those that are not. 

Sometimes being clear on your soul purpose acts like a litmus test or a guiding light. You might be faced with a difficult decision or you’re not really sure which way to go. That’s when your soul’s mission is super powerful and it starts to light up the path ahead of you. When you’re in connection with that soul purpose you’ll see, “Okay, well, if I take path A it’s going to be out of alignment. If I take path B it’s going to be harder but it is in alignment.” It just works out in a really beautiful way and it allows you all that beautiful clarity as well once you’re in alignment with your purpose. 

I think being in touch with your intuition and doing a lot of meditation and journaling, those things are so important because they really create that sacred space for you to reconnect with your inner being and your soul’s purpose. They help you really stay in alignment with the reason you’re here. 

How do you know what your soul purpose is? Well, here’s the thing. Your soul is always calling to you. It’s calling to you in different synchronicities, events, people that you meet, so many ways. I think when you start to open your eyes to synchronicity in life you start to see that the universe is calling you all the time. It’s like it’s right there and it’s about being open to those and hearing that calling that is being made to you. 

It’s also something that you’ll feel through your emotional state. When you’re feeling frustrated, when you’re feeling bored, when you’re feeling restless as I have recently, that is your soul saying, “You’re on the wrong path here. You’ve got to find the stuff that’s inspiring.” That is where you find soul purpose in all of that feedback loop. 

For me, I have always just been of the mindset of just do it. Do it and if it feels good do more of it. Do it and if it feels bad don’t do it. So simple but so very effective.  

When you’re really following what’s lighting you up and what’s inspiring you that is when you are in full alignment with who you are and when you’re in flow with the universe. You’re living a life that you were born to live and, even better, the life that only you can live. That is really a powerful thing.  

With all of that in mind how do we actually start to bring about this soul purpose into our conscious awareness. Well, this is where something like Tarot can really help.  

Now as part of the Everyday Tarot book I created the soul purpose tarot reading. It’s a really powerful experience. It’s not just a Tarot spread but it’s a powerful experience designed to help you uncover the layers of your soul purpose so that you can live every day in alignment with your higher self. Sound good? I hope so. 

Now does this reading tell you exactly what your soul purpose is? No, as I said earlier. It’s definitely up to you to discover and explore what your soul purpose is but this is like little seeds planted, seeds of inspiration, or little doors that open up and are saying, “Hey, come over here. Check this out. What does this mean for you?” 

It’s kind of like those little bread crumbs too. I often have bread crumbs in my life where I just follow them. It’s how I’ve met a lot of people. I’ve just followed little bread crumbs. Some of them lead to just a quick catch up and that’s it. Others lead to yearlong friendships, like years long friendships and opportunities and so on. Those little bread crumbs can really help. 

I’m going to be sharing with you part of this soul purpose reading. Of course, if you want to find out more about the soul purpose reading you’re going to have to read Everyday Tarot. I wanted to give you just part of it because there’s aspects of this reading that can just start to plant those seeds and help give you more clarity around your soul purpose. Like I said, this is more of an experience than it is just, “Here’s some cards to lay out.”  

This experience starts with a little bit of soul dreaming. First, bring yourself into a space where you have that time and space to dream and, oh my goodness, dream time is so very important. I don’t mean just going to sleep. Go into a place in nature where your mind is free from all of the day to day and also where you can just connect with the expansiveness of the universe and what is absolutely possible for you. 

Then as part of this soul dreaming think about everything that is possible for you or what you want to be possible. If you could have anything in this world, anything in this lifetime, what would it be? What do you dream about? Who do you want to be? Who do you want to impact? 

Just allow yourself to really, really dream and think about what do you want to have, what do you want to do, what do you want to be, what do you want to experience, what do you want to create in your life. It’s really your opportunity to go for it and live out all of your wildest dreams. 

Grab a pen and paper and just start doing that process. You’re probably going to need at least a good half hour, hour. In fact, I’ll tell you what I do with my own practice. This isn’t a one-off thing. Often when I have time and space for journaling I’ll just sit there and think, “Okay, what do I want? What’s my vision? What’s my soul dreaming here?” I’ll just focus on one area and I’ll just write everything that I want in that area of life. 

Then the next day I might think of a different area. Maybe that first day it was about family or even my connection with my daughter, how I want that to be. That comes at a good time when I’m feeling a little bit frustrated about not being heard as a mom. I will start writing, “I want to be able to craft and I want to be able to talk” or, “I talk freely with my daughter and she shares openly with me” and so on.  

That’s all part of soul dreaming. It can be just everything or it could be part of your soul dreaming, part of your life. Just make sure it’s coming into that being and writing it down, journaling, and so on.  

Okay. All right. Once you’ve got that conscious awareness of what it is that you want to create that’s when you can start to bring out your Tarot cards. Yippee. This is the Soul Purpose Tarot spread. Remember, it’s part of the spread. It’s not all of the spread. Remember, you’ve got an in-depth Tarot spread for discovering your soul purpose inside of Everyday Tarot. 

To start this, take your Tarot cards and close your eyes. Just allow yourself first to centre, to ground yourself, and to also connect in with that universal energy. Creating this sacred space before you do a reading, especially something like a soul purpose reading, is so important.  

When we skip stuff like this we end up with just crappy, confusing readings that we don’t even really take to heart. We don’t do anything with it. I don’t want that for you. For something like this, I want you to be really paying attention because this is when your intuition and your soul is speaking to you. Ground yourself, create that sacred space, and you might even have some affirmations or intentions that you set at that time. 

Then open your eyes and these are the six positions to drill card each for. Number one, what aspect of yourself are you expressing in this present moment? What aspect of your soul wants to be expressed? That’s number two. Number three is how can you create alignment between you and your soul. Number four, what is your personal soul purpose? That is, what did you come here to accomplish on an individual level? 

Number five is what is your global community soul purpose? What have you come here to accomplish on a global level? I really like that contrast between what’s your personal soul purpose? What’s in it for you versus who are you here to serve? What’s your bigger impact? I believe we all have a really big impact. Finally, what steps can you take to bring your soul purpose into your everyday life? 

Now if you’re going, “Whoa, Brigit, slow down. I’m trying to write this all down” you can do your pause and stop and what have you or head on over to biddytarot.com and go to the podcast posting for this podcast and you will be able to get a download of this particular spread or at least we’ll have it written on there as well. 

All right. We’ve got what aspect of yourself are you expressing in this present moment? What aspect of your soul wants to be expressed? How can you create alignment between you and your soul? That alignment piece you’re looking at the card one and two. You’re looking at have I got alignment between how am I expressing myself now and how my soul wants to be expressed. Then how can I bring those two pieces of myself together even more. 

Then number four is what is my personal soul purpose? Number five is what is my global soul purpose? What’s my impact in this bigger world? Then what steps can I take in order to bring my soul purpose into my everyday life? Super neat, right?  

Now this is big stuff so make sure you take a photo of your reading, you allow yourself a lot of time to really dive into it, and here’s the thing. This is something that I say a lot throughout Everyday Tarot book. That is don’t just let this be a Tarot reading. Don’t just be going, “All right, Tarot cards. Tell me the answer.” 

That’s not the idea. That is not where you’ll get the depth in this kind of activity. The idea is that you’re using your intuition to really guide you and the Tarot cards are simply a way to allow you to go deeper. Ultimately, it’s your intuition, your inner wisdom that is talking to you here.  

Ask your intuition these questions. Like, “What aspect of myself am I expressing?” Ask that of your intuition. Let the cards simply be a little bit of nudge in the right direction or a nudge to help you go deeper but not just the only answer. The answer is already in you. Nowhere else. Just within you.  

Okay. That is the soul purpose. Combining that soul dreaming and then the soul purpose Tarot cards as well will just help to bring it into your conscious awareness of what your soul purpose might be. It’s not your full soul purpose but it is bread crumbs. It’s little signs to show you how you might be able to integrate this in your everyday life. 

Now I do want to share one more tip with you. I know we’re going quite long on this one but that’s cool. This is a big topic. I want to talk with you briefly about a soul alignment check-in because even when we’re clear about what our soul purpose might be it’s important that every day we’re living in a way that is in alignment with our soul purpose. When we’re making decisions about what we do and what we don’t do that we’re doing that from a place of alignment with our soul.  

I want to share just a brief story with you. When I was 12 I used to go yacht racing with my dad every Sunday. At first I thought sailing would be easy. You just set the sails, line up the rudder, and then away you go. What I realized is that to navigate the fastest and most efficient route we needed to check the wind direction and the speed, we needed to tweak the sails, adjust the steering, watch for the big waves, keep out of the way of other sea craft that might be coming our way, and so on. All the while making sure that the yacht was heading in the right direction towards the finish line. 

Living your soul purpose is similar. You can’t just set and forget once you know what your purpose is. Instead you’ve got to be able to check that you’re in alignment with your soul purpose on a day to day basis. 

Now given that my soul purpose is expressed mostly through my work I’m always making sure that what I’m doing in work is in alignment with my higher self. For example, if I’ve got a new business idea I usually just stop and check in to see if it resonates and if it’s worth pursuing. Usually I’ll check in intuitively first. Kind of envision the idea and look at what the energy is around it. It might be a color, it might be a feeling, sensation in the body. 

Then I’ll often just draw a Tarot card around that too. Just to check in around what my intuition or subconscious wants to share with me around that particular idea. That’s a way of allowing me a little bit more conscious awareness about how is this going to align with my soul purpose? 

Here’s how you can do it. For anything in your life, maybe you’re making a decision about a relationship, maybe about where you want to live, maybe about your career, and you wanted to check in how does this align with my soul? All you need to do is just call in that idea. Call it in and just visualize it and imagine the energy around it.  

What does it feel like? Does it feel really good? Does it feel like it’s in alignment? Or does it feel a bit off? Sometimes you can feel when it’s like, “Ugh, I think it’s actually my ego that wants this, not my higher self.” Then you can also draw a Tarot card to go along with it. 

In Everyday Tarot I include a five card Tarot spread that really helps you dive deep into whether there’s alignment or not. For now, I’m just drawing a Tarot card and asking to what extent is this idea in alignment with my soul purpose? Can be really helpful.  

Now don’t expect that the cards are going to give you a clear yes or no answer. You should know that by now. It will give you some guidance around where this is sitting, this idea, whether it’s something that’s worth pursuing or not. 

Now as you build up your trust and your inner wisdom and your strength and your intuitive connection and also live in alignment with your soul purpose, you’ll really start to step into your power to create the life that you want. I’ll tell you what, that place is magical and beautiful and abundant and crazy good. It’s fab. The more that you can allow yourself to lean into this process of soul purpose and your intuition guiding you to your soul purpose, the absolutely the better for you.  

Again, this is a taster also of what you’re going to find inside of Everyday Tarot. These are examples of everyday things … I know soul purpose is kind of a big thing. If it’s all about making these beautiful, sacred, spiritual moments part of our everyday life because when we do that that’s when we just allow the magic to happen.  

Even when it comes to things like career and work … How do you find a fulfilling career that is actually in alignment with your purpose? Not just something that pays the bills but something that honours you and your talents. That’s what gets covered inside of Everyday Tarot. Relationships as well. How do you find and create fulfilling relationships? All with Tarot and your intuition as a guide. 

Now next week I am speaking with the founder of Witch Baby Soap. Her name is Chelsea. We are going to be talking a lot about how she brings Tarot into her everyday life. She’s been digging our spiritual compass spread and a few other things from our Biddy Tarot planner. I wanted to invite her on to share a little bit about how she’s bringing that into her life and also to learn a little bit more about Witch Baby Soap. She’s done some cool, cool things in that space. I can’t wait to share Chelsea with you then. 

For now, have an awesome week and I’m sure we’ll, well, we will, connect again very soon. Bye for now.  

 

Remember, you can check out Everyday Tarot at everydaytarot.com. Available for pre-order and also on the bookshelves from September 18th, 2018 in the US and hopefully other countries to follow. Wait and see.  

Pre-order your copy today at EverydayTarot.com!

 

The post BTP140: Discover Your Soul Purpose with Tarot appeared first on Biddy Tarot.

What is Everyday Tarot?

Many people think that Tarot is about asking a question, shuffling the cards, and doing a reading – and that’s that. But guess what? When you start to bring Tarot into your everyday life, you create a gateway for something amazing to happen. As you begin to listen to your intuition, you connect with your inner power and manifest the future you most desire.

So… what does ‘Everyday Tarot’ really mean? Great news! That’s what I’m talking about in this post.

First, let me start with my story…

How Tarot Became a Part of my Everyday Life

When I started learning Tarot, I focused on mastering the Tarot card meanings and reading with confidence. My goal was to do a Tarot reading from start to finish, without going blank or worrying whether I had it right. I wanted to create an accurate and insightful Tarot reading using the cards and my intuition.

I then put my energy and attention into reading Tarot for others, as a professional reader. I read for over 10,000 clients worldwide and it quickly became a reliable source of income for me.

Moving in a New Direction

But, in the last two years, I have moved away from reading Tarot for others and am back to reading Tarot for myself – this time, in a whole new way.

Instead of worrying about choosing the right spread or finding the right meaning, I’m engaging with Tarot in a much more fluid, intuitive, everyday way. And instead of reading other people’s cards, I’m teaching those people how to read their own Tarot cards and connect with their intuition.

You see, I believe it is so much more powerful when you discover the answers rather than have them read to you by someone else (as typically happens in a Tarot reading with a professional reader).

Making Better Decisions with Everyday Tarot

Now, I use Tarot throughout my day to help me become more mindful and intentional, make better decisions, and manifest what I truly want. Tarot has become an integral part of my everyday.

Ok, back to ‘Everyday Tarot’ – what does it actually mean? Well, before we get into that, let’s consider what it doesn’t mean. (I know, I’m a tease!)

What Everyday Tarot is Not…

Imagine this… Your bestie invites you to the movies on Wednesday night. But just as you’re about to say yes, your sister begs you to look after her kids so she can get a well-deserved break.

Not wanting to choose between your bestie and your sister, you pull out your Tarot cards, hoping they will make the decision for you. Four of Cups for the movie with your best-friend, and Ten of Pentacles for your sister – decision made! Raincheck the movies, and go and help your sister.

But then your best-friend is upset with you. Outcome: the Tarot cards again, this time you ask, “What’s her problem and what should I do?” And so it goes on and on… consulting the cards every time life becomes ‘hard’ and hoping the Tarot will make the decision for you.

Don’t Overdo It

So… Everyday Tarot is not about becoming completely dependent on your cards to decide what to wear, where to go, what to do, or how to start your day. In fact, if you find yourself desperately grabbing your cards every time you have to make a decision, then it’s probably a good time to put your Tarot cards away for a while!

Everyday Tarot is not about handing over your power to the cards or to ‘fate’. Don’t believe that you can only ever get the answers you need by consulting this external source.

Your true power lies within, and so too do the answers that you’re seeking. Tarot is merely a mirror to your soul, a tool to reflect what’s going on inside of you, rather than an external source of information.

Tarot won’t solve your problems for you – that’s up to you. But it will help you see what your problems may be, including your blind spots. This new vision is what will help you create the life you most desire.

Now that we’ve got that cleared up, we can finally delve into it. What does ‘Everyday’ Tarot really mean?

What is Everyday Tarot?

Now, back to that dilemma with your bestie and your sister. When you’re doing ‘Everyday Tarot’ the right way, the situation might go a little something more like this…

Before your friend and your sister have even called you, you’ve started your day with a Tarot card – the Two of Swords. You know that today, you’re going to need to weigh up your options and look at things from a new perspective.

So when your friend invites you out and your sister starts pleading on the phone, you’re already prepared. You come back to the lesson of the Two of Swords and you know you need to tread carefully.

Taking a Different Perspective

Facing a tough decision, you might ask the cards for guidance on what’s happening in this present moment, and you draw the Ten of Cups. As you connect with the imagery of the card, you remember the bond you have with your sister and that blood is thicker than water, so you make a conscious choice to honour your sister’s request. You know ultimately that the decision is yours, but you appreciate the opportunity to check in with your true feelings about the situation.

Completely different, right?!

To me, Everyday Tarot is about bringing inner wisdom, higher levels of consciousness, and sacred intention into your every day. It is about using Tarot in a way that supports your ongoing alignment to who you really are.

Everyday Tarot is a partnership between you and your intuition. Instead of immediately grabbing your cards, you first consult your inner self for the clarity you are seeking. If there are still blind spots or unknowns, then your Tarot cards help you go deeper, bypassing your conscious mind and entering your subconscious mind so that you can unlock your innermost wisdom.

Tarot is what holds you accountable to your Divine Being, and ensures that every action you take is in alignment with who you really are and why you are here in this lifetime.

Tap into Your Intuition Through the Cards

Everyday Tarot is about consulting the cards – and your intuition – about everyday things, from setting your daily intentions, working through a conflict, making decisions, and mapping out your next steps. It’s about taking your Divine wisdom and applying it to your everyday life, making it ‘real’, practical and truly accessible.

When you practice everyday Tarot, you practice the art of listening to your intuition. You lead your life from a place of trusting yourself, owning your power, and being intentional. You process things rationally – but also intuitively. Intuition plays an important role in your life – it’s not just a froufrou thing on the side.

This, my friend, is Everyday Tarot.

How to Start Integrating Tarot Into Your Everyday

If you are ready to invite Tarot into your everyday life, start here:

Make every day an intuitive, connected, and aligned experience where you are making conscious choices about what you create.
Open your mind, your heart, and your intuition—even just a bit. Even when it feels like it’s getting too “woo-woo” or weird, just keep an open mind and give it a try.
Be ready to go deeper into who you are—the good, the bad and the ugly.
Trust that you have everything you need. All the answers lie within.
Honor yourself and make time for you. Even just five minutes a day can impact your well-being.
See Tarot as a part of your life, not just for “doing readings” but for integrating into your everyday being.
Forget about doing it right. There is no “right” with Tarot. It’s about trusting your intuition and doing it your way.
Be ready to ask, Who am I? And how can I live life to my fullest potential, in alignment with my Highest Good?
Read my latest book, Everyday Tarot: Unlock Your Inner Wisdom and Manifest Your Future

There is no end to how you can use Tarot—it’s up to you and how it will best serve your Highest Good. But what I do know is that there’s no better time than right now to strengthen your connection with your intuition.

Want to Learn More?

If you want to find out more ways to integrate Tarot into your everyday life, check out my book Everyday Tarot that comes out this September.

The post What is Everyday Tarot? appeared first on Biddy Tarot.