Dreaming Priestess

What's your Tarot card for the year? Order this special report and learn what your card is and how to best work with it. Journal prompts and ritual suggestions are also included!

2026 Card of the Year Report — Dreaming Priestess What's your Tarot card for the year? This report tells you a bit about your card and how to best work with it in the coming year. Journal prompts and ritual suggestions are also provided.

Tarot Tuesday
A Journey Through the Major Arcana: Strength

In the Rider-Waite Tarot, the 9th card in the Major Arcana is Strength. However, looking at different decks — including my beloved Goddess Tarot and the well-respected Thoth Tarot — you’ll see that the 9th spot (card VIII) is instead Justice. (In the Rider-Waite, Justice is card XI, whereas in other decks, Strength is card XI). How can this be, and which way is “right”?

There’s a good deal of writing on why Waite changed the order of the Arcana from the classic arrangement (Justice at VIII and Strength at XI). I’ve read a great deal on this, and I’ve worked with decks that use both numbering systems — I’ve never found it at all problematic to move back and forth between the systems.

Strength is an iconic card. The woman attempts to pry open the lion’s jaws, yet there is an air of gentle determination rather than a struggle of wills here. The Strength embodied here is not physical (or not *just* physical). There is a strength of character, of will, of spirit in the woman that allows her to tame the lion not by overpowering him, but by holding power with him.

The woman on this card wears the white robes of innocence, evoking the image of The Fool, and she is crowned with the infinity symbol of The Magician. She is adorned with greenery, reminiscent of The Empress. As she cradles the lion’s head and works to open his jaws, this woman represents the ways in which humans grapple with our animistic nature as we make The Fool’s Journey.

The lion represents our instinctual, animal nature, while the woman represents the spiritual and intellectual self. The lion is also sometimes seen as the forces of the unconscious, and the woman is using spiritual knowledge and the growth of The Fool’s Journey to open the unconscious to learn more about the mysteries that are so often locked away from us.

When Strength appears in a reading, She is reminding us that we have the strength, determination, and Will to accomplish our desires. Ruled by fiery Leo, Strength assures us that we know where we are headed (echoes of The Chariot!) and we have the stamina and persistence to get there.

And yet Strength also reminds us that we can take a compassionate approach — we can give others the space they need, and we need not overpower others to accomplish what we want. Instead, we can gently tame our challenges and find ways to surmount any obstacles.

Strength’s other message is that of self-mastery: as we explore our subconscious and tame our animal nature, we know ourselves better and have deeper confidence in our strengths, talents, and abilities. We learn to balance all the aspects of ourselves — animal and human, instinct and intellect, logical and emotional — and thus walk the world as whole beings.

I also read Strength as an exhortation to step into one’s own power, to recognize one’s inherent strength.

Tarot Tuesday

A Journey Through the Major Arcana: The Chariot

The next step on The Fool’s Journey is The Chariot — moving from the work of connecting with personal power, authority, and institutional power, and from connecting head and heart, to the potential to work our Will. The Chariot represents forward movement toward our goals, as long as we take the reins and use our Will and Power to direct The Chariot forward.

In the Rider-Waite Tarot, The Chariot is drawn by two regal Sphinxes: The Charioteer appears ready to move forward, to command the Sphinxes — those mysterious holders of secrets — to rise and draw the vehicle into the future. I always see this card as representing the pause before the rush forward — the brief moment to decide where we want our Will to take us.

Though it is associated with the astrological sign of Cancer, which we often think of as an emotional, watery, and sometimes passive energy, The Chariot is about pure Will and pure potential. The Chariot is full of determination — He has chosen a direction, has a destination in sight, and is ready to move towards it with all His energy and Will.

He holds The Magician’s wand rather than a conventional set of reins. The Chariot is drawn by two Sphinxes — black and white, representing the positive-negative polarity. Some people see The Chariot as about the pursuit of spiritual matters, including exploration of the occult or magickal realm. The laurel leaves represent high spiritual attainment.

I tend to see this more as a reflection of the fact that The Chariot represents an individual who has become very clear on what their Will is, on what their values are, and on what they truly desire in life.

When The Chariot shows up in a reading, He indicates that things are about to move forward. They may move forward with a quickness, or they may take some time to ramp up — all that depends on the surrounding cards — but they will be moving.

The Chariot is also a message to be sure that the querent is putting their energy towards a direction they really want — because The Chariot goes where the energy is directed by The Charioteer’s wand! The Chariot can especially indicate forward, positive movement in the realm of career, the culmination of long-term plans, and advancement toward long-term goals.

There may be obstacles, but the querent has the Will, the resources, and the savvy to overcome or surmount them. The Chariot can also be a message to focus on the task at hand and go full-tilt at the goal rather than being distracted by trivial matters or outside influences.

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Dreaming Priestess Ritual, Resistance, and Sacred Insight Step into a space where creativity, spirit, and purpose are woven together. Here, art is not just expression — it’s ritual, resistance, and revelation. This is a gathering place for those who honor the sacred in the everyday, who seek beauty not for its pol...

Tarot Tuesday
A Journey Through the Major Arcana: The Lovers

Along with The Magician, The Lovers is perhaps the most iconic card in the classic Tarot. Two figures look at each other longingly beneath a resplendent Sun. It’s such a beautiful, hopeful card, and its message seems so clear — new love is on the way, right?

This is a more complicated card than many people (including many Tarot readers) give it credit for. Ruled by Gemini, with its passionate yet trickstery yet cerebral energy, The Lovers can indeed bring a message of new love and romance. But it carries many more messages, and even a message of new love may not mean that all your romantic dreams will be answered.

The Lovers represent the step we take on the Fool’s Journey, after we have owned our personal Power (The Empress), interfaced with our own Authority (The Emperor), and interacted with social institutions (The Hierophant). Having interrogated the nature of Power and the ways in which it is wielded, we now turn to questions of connection with others and with the World.

In the most literal sense, this means romantic and/or sexual union with another person, perhaps even a Twin Flame or Soul Mate. But The Lovers is ruled by Gemini — and so this also carries a message of finding wholeness by connecting with all the parts of ourselves, what Jung called the anima and animus.

This card also represents the need to honor both head & heart in decisions, to balance the rational with the emotional.

When The Lovers shows up in a reading, querents may be excited (romance & finance are common reasons for readings). And this card can indicate new romantic and sexual adventures or formalizing a relationship through marriage or other commitment.

Coupled with the right cards (especially The Empress), it can even indicate fertility and pregnancy. But more often than not, The Lovers isn’t quite that literal. Instead, I see The Lovers as inviting the querent to make a head and heart decision — to consider both the rational and the emotional in whatever situation the question is about.

It may be time to reconcile what we Know Intellectually with what we Know Intuitively. It can also be time for the querent to give more attention and respect to the side of themself that they most often discount — for a very rational, logical person to listen to their heart, or for a very emotionally driven person to also weigh out the cold, hard facts.

The Lovers can also represent a desire for stability, and may indicate that that stability is with in reach. On a more macro level, The Lovers indicate that it may be time for the querent to become aware of the role of Love in their life, in all its forms — romantic, platonic, spiritual, even self-love.

I tend to think this card indicates that the person is surrounded by Love, and even that Love may be their superpower, so to speak. When The Lovers come calling, they want you to be aware of the nature of Love, of the pervasiveness of Love, of the persistence of Love, even when times seem dark or hopeless.

Excited to spend time with Persephone's Children at the Universalist Fellowship of Ames tomorrow! Come on down for a witchy good time.
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