Fire the gun!

Happy New Year! Welcome to the first tarot forecast for 2026. This year is going to be one for the books, and we’re off to a running start! As usual, this will be a three-card energy reading. Make sure to return halfway through the month to see how the themes have emerged and then again towards the end of the month. BOTD: Eight of Swords It’s not the best energy to find ourselves in — a head bustling with thought rot. While it’s inevitable to enter spaces of overwhelm, Eight of Swords is very concerned with having a sense of control. We achieve this control through projected disempowerment. All of our energy goes to combing through each possibility and consideration, creating a false sense of productivity. We think we’re being reflective, but there is a fine line between introspection and navel-gazing. Take off the blindfold and binding. Feel the water beneath your feet, guiding you away from your self-enclosure. You know the way through more than you realize. Card 1: Three of Cups Fireworks light the sky, celebration is in the air! A new year has arrived with a trove of promise, and that is a worthy cause to cheers to. Three of Cups appears when we collectively feel good. We embrace victory with our close circle and rejoice in the harvest of the last season, finally bearing fruit. This is a lovely energy to bring into a period of the year that often hyperfocuses on self-improvement. We have arrived at something new, and it took dedication to get there! Do not sweep your accomplishments of the last year under the rug. You have arrived in a new space as a result of that work. Recognize it in yourself and in those around you. Bask in the glory of a job well done and how it is helping you pave the path forward. Card 2: Eight of Wands Eight of Wands is arguably the most straightforward card in the tarot. Eight wands move at full speed toward their target, with an easy-going river in the background just beyond a home on a hill. This is pure movement, pure energy propelling us forward with a naturalness that may feel unnerving. Contrast it with the Eight of Swords’ stagnancy: this card is calling us into the reality of the energy available to us. Our heads may fear momentum, but our hearts and the passion inside of them are built for it. Card 3: Eight of Pentacles & The Hermit For the numerologically inclined, please note that we have received 3 8s. When two cards emerge, I read them as a collective message. Eight of Pentacles further affirms our Eight of Wands. If the wands suit operates in the marketplace of ideas, the pentacles suit catches these sparks in the air to pin them down into reality. This progression from one into the other means there will likely be a flood of ideas and deep creative drive during this month. We’re focused, determined, and very ready to work. The more we lean into this, the better of a foundation we’ll have prepared for the confronting portal energy of February. The Hermit’s presence reminds us to follow where our inner flow leads us. Not every idea is meant to materialize right away. Remember that you have the code inside you to build what you were sent here to. What you’re meant to focus on, you will feel deeply compelled to bring attention to. There is no better time than winter to embrace the Hermit’s call inward. Your inner north star shines brightest in the dark. Summary: This month is calling us out of our heads and back into our bodies. We rev into gear for the energy that this year will be bubbling with, starting on a high of excitement and accomplishment. We celebrate the wins that brought us to a place of taking action towards what lies in our hearts. With jubilee, we are sent off sailing toward this new beginning. Ideas for what we want to become will arrive with swiftness, and we will have the energy and ability to ground them into reality with focus and diligence. The fire in our belly to do so is charged by the guiding light within ourselves. We feel focused, purposeful, and self-assured. All we have to do is remember that we have that inner power. Do not give in to illusions of your incapability of achieving your dreams. We’re doing less thinking about the painting and more putting brush to canvas. Trust that your hands know where to go. Find joy in the work you put in to learn what tools and colors to use. Delight in where growth has brought you. Announcement! Starting January 1st, I will be doing daily tarot prompts. They will be posted on Substack notes, Instagram, and TikTok. I will also send them into the Alive and Fragile Subtack chat. These prompts will be simple 1 to 2-card pulls intended to help you get familiar with your deck. The longest reading will be the deck interview — which is a six-card reading — but feel free to simplify it for your leisure. These will range from silly to introspective prompts, all mixed to help you (re)learn your deck’s voice and card meanings. I’ll be sharing the prompt, my pull, and my interpretations. I encourage you to follow along, no matter your reading experience. This exercise is geared to newer readers and those needing a refresher. It’s one of the practices I did when I first started reading tarot, and it helped me learn my deck much more effortlessly than the two-hour nightly readings with complicated spreads I would attempt. To follow this 30-day journey, follow/subscribe to me on the Substack app, Instagram, or TikTok. Please use whatever medium you already frequent. I hold no allegiance to any of these platforms, and they will all receive my equal attention. Also, please share your pulls and insights! I want to know what you learn and create a community through this process. I’m modeling this challenge off a blend of Jessica Dore’s old Twitter readings and Yoga with Adrienne’s January challenges. The communal aspects of these offerings are what make them what they are. If you do engage, learn, participate, or even find a message for you in the pulls that I make, please share it with me! I’m excited to go on this adventure with you and bring more newsletter installments in the new year. See you then! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit catharaxia.substack.com/subscribe