BTP106: 3 Ways To Plan Your Year Ahead with Tarot

As the year draws to a close, you’re probably starting to dream about what you want to accomplish in the upcoming year. This time of the year is powerful for reflecting on the year past, as well as planning the year ahead. Anything is possible! And using the Tarot cards paired with your intuitive magic, you can plan what actions you need to take to make your dreams a reality. In Episode 106 of the Biddy Tarot Podcast, I share with you 3 ways to use the Tarot to plan your year ahead.

Additional Resources

Plan your year ahead with the Biddy Tarot Planner

Download the free Tarot Planner printable

The New Year Tarot Spread

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

WELCOME 

You’re listening to the Biddy Tarot Podcast, and this is Episode 104: 3 Ways to Plan Your Year Ahead with Tarot. 

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. Now, here is your host, Brigit Esselmont. 

INTRODUCTION 

Hello and welcome back to the Biddy Tarot Podcast. In fact, this is our last one for 2017, and oh, we’ve got a good topic for today! 

The end of the year is such a potent time for reflecting on the year that has just passed and also starting to plan for the year ahead. 

I don’t know about you, but for me, this is absolutely my favourite time of the year because it’s when I start to really dream about what’s possible over the coming year, and I start to think about “OK, if this is really what I want to create, then what actions do I need to take in order to make my dreams a reality?” It’s that really juicy, potent time when it feels like anything is

possible. The whole system that we’re in is completely open wide for something truly amazing to emerge. 

Now, of course, as intuitive people, we can start to weave our intuitive magic into this beautiful process, using our Tarot cards as a guide. Today, I’m going to be sharing my 3 ways to plan your year ahead with your Tarot cards. 

THANK YOU 

Before we get into that, I would love to say a huge thank-you to everyone who has been sending in their reviews via iTunes and sharing their feedback and comments about the podcast. 

Today, I just want to share two of those feedback comments really as a way to say thank-you to the folks who are leaving such beautiful reviews. I really do appreciate it. 

This one is from DRF555 from the U.S. This person says: 

“I’ve listened to over ten podcasts, and wow! As a true beginner, it’s so refreshing to learn such wonderful information in such a modern approach. The podcast feels like it’s produced an edited very professionally (big thanks to Nuno in Portugal who does that for us!), and the guests are fantastic, down to earth, offering extremely useful advice and insights. Brigit teaches you that you don’t have to be psychic or have any special powers to do this. Just learn to trust your intuition and ask the right questions. I know Brigit will be along with me on my journey to learning, and I highly recommend this podcast. Thank you.” 

Well, thank you! I appreciate you so very much. 

Now, this last one is from Dan Edgren from the U.S. as well. Dan writes: 

“Best podcast I’ve found for Tarot. As an extreme newbie, this podcast has helped a ton! Thanks for all you do.” 

So good, so good! Interestingly, both of the comments for today are from beginners, so I’m so glad to be with you at the very beginning of your journey with Tarot. 

Maybe you might be a beginner, or you’re maybe someone who is a little bit more seasoned. Just a big thanks for allowing me into your earbuds and talking Tarot together. 

3 WAYS TO PLAN YOUR YEAR AHEAD WITH TAROT 

Let’s talk about the year coming up because I just get so excited at this time of the year. 

WHY DO WE USE THE TAROT FOR PLANNING THE YEAR AHEAD? 

Now, before we get into these 3 ways that I’ve got for you, I want to just connect in with “Why do we use Tarot anyway for something like planning the year ahead?” Hopefully, this is a no-brainer, but hey! You never know. 

When we think about our year ahead, and we start planning for what’s coming up, we can often do this from more of a rational perspective. Typically, that’s the way that we work. 

We think, “OK, well, what’s my goal? What actions am I going to take? And when am I going to do it?” 

That’s our year planning on a very rational level. I want to say there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just that it’s one step. 

Now, as intuitive beings, we actually get to play and experiment with something a little bit more fun. We can take all of that great rational stuff, and we can layer it up with our intuitive abilities, our intuitive insights as well. Whereas on the rational level, we’re asking about goals and actions and “When will you do it?”, when we combine the rational and the intuitive, we start to ask questions like: 

• “Well, what’s my soul purpose, and how is this being expressed in the year to come?” 
• “What am I being called to do this year?” 
• “What is in full alignment for me?” 
• And perhaps, “What’s my energy around my goals?” 

I almost just see these words sparkling in front of me as I think about the next layer that it adds to your year planning. I’m really encouraging you to think about how you take that rational year planning approach and then add the intuitive layer on top of it, so you're getting a really deep soul connection with what you're creating for the year ahead. 

Now, of course, Tarot helps you in this process because Tarot is like our inner guidance system. It’s what helps us hook up our rational mind and our intuitive mind. I think the reason why Tarot is so popular is because it’s this little tangible tool that almost gives us this instant connection with our intuition. Instead of it being kind of woo-woo or out there or “I’ve got this intuitive feeling, but I don’t know why,” we’ve actually got something in front of us that helps us to make that connection with our intuition. And ultimately, it’s making it real and tangible. 

It’s such a perfect tool. Look, it’s a perfect tool for everything, but it’s such a perfect tool for when it comes to things like planning the year ahead. 

You might actually use your Tarot cards throughout the year—at the beginning of the year, throughout the year, at the end of the year—to really just check in intuitively around your goals and how you're creating the kind of life that you most want to create. 

Your Tarot cards could be used to plan and align your goals, to check in around the current energies for the current period, to think about how you're going to manifest your goals and turn them into real achievements as well. 

With that said, I want to share with you 3 specific ways to plan your year ahead with Tarot. Let’s get into the first one. This one is, for me, well, an oldie but a goodie, and it’s the New Year’s Tarot Spread. 

1. NEW YEAR’S TAROT SPREAD 

Many years ago, I created a New Year’s Tarot Spread—initially for myself because I wanted to use the Tarot cards at the start of the year to connect in with what I was accessing from the year that had just passed and what was coming up for me in the year ahead. Then I started using this New Year’s Tarot Spread with my clients, and it’s just a really powerful and juicy way of starting the year in the right headspace. 

Now, in Episode 56 of the podcast, this is when I went through the New Year’s Tarot Spread in a lot more detail. If this is piquing your interest, then I would suggest listening to the Episode 56, and in that episode, I walk you through this spread in a lot more detail. 

BUT HERE’S THE QUICK VERSION. 

The New Year’s Tarot Spread is a 12-card spread. 

• The first card is all about the previous year, in summary—“What major lessons did you learn from the previous year?” 
• In fact, the second question is “What have you learned from the previous year?” 

I like to incorporate these two cards to really reflect on the past and to allow yourself that time to honour what you have already experienced, and then what you're bringing into the year ahead. 

• The third card is “What do you aspire to in the next 12 months?” 
• “What empowers you in reaching your aspirations?” 
• And “What may stand in the way of you reaching your aspirations?” 

Again, that broad piece around what’s coming up for you in the year ahead. 

Then the next four cards focus on what I see as the key areas in our lives: 

• “What are your relationships and emotions going to be like through the coming year?” 
• Your career, work and finances 
• Your health and wellbeing 
• Your spiritual energy and inner fulfilment 

Once you get an idea of what you might experience in these four areas, then you can start to plan around that as well and open up for that possibility of what’s coming through. 

Then for the final three cards, we have: 

• What you most need to focus on for the year ahead 
• “What will be your most important lesson in the coming year?” 
• And, overall, “Where are you headed in the next 12 months?” 

A beautiful 12-card spread, which is so perfect for starting the year in a beautiful, intuitive headspace. You're connecting in with your intuition, and you're just getting a feel for what might be coming through in the year ahead. 

Now, of course, you might also marry this up with a beautiful New Year’s ritual. You might choose a crystal for the year ahead. You might choose a word that’s important to you for the year ahead. You might light candles. You might talk with your guides. Whatever it might be! I never really see Tarot just sort of sitting on its own; it’s often incorporated into some beautiful ritual. 

That’s the first way that you can use Tarot to plan the year ahead. Do something like the New Year’s Tarot Spread. Again, if you want to get into a little bit more detail about this spread, then go to BiddyTarot.com/btp56, and you’ll be able to listen to that podcast episode. You can also get it on iTunes as well, Episode 56. 

2. GOALS WITH SOUL 

Beautiful. Let’s now move into the second way that you can use the Tarot to plan for your year ahead. This is all about creating goals that are in full alignment with your soul and then manifesting those goals 

If we look at this from more of a rational perspective, what we typically do is go, “Right, I’m going to use my brain. I’m going to think what my goal is.” It might be “I want to weigh 70 kilos by the end of the year.” Or it might be “I want to make three new friends by the end of the year.” This is great! It’s fabulous because it’s a very tangible goal. It’s something that is reachable, achievable and so on. 

However, your soul might be asking for more—or possibly, even less or something completely different. I really believe in using the Tarot and our intuition to connect in with our goals and ask ourselves, “Is this goal in full alignment with my full soul purpose?” 

So, here’s how you can do it: 

Every quarter throughout the year, starting with January, you can think about, “OK, what are my key goals?” 

Let’s say one of them is about making new friends, and you think, “OK, I want to make three new friends by the end of the year.” What you can then do is go, “OK, how did that feel? That felt pretty achievable. What if it was ‘Make three new friends by the end of this quarter?’” and you go, “Woo! That’s a bit different.” Maybe you even then say, “What if it was five new friends by the end of this quarter?” You start to map out a few different variations of your original goal. 

Then what you can start to do is pull out your Tarot cards and draw a Tarot card for each version of this goal. Your Tarot cards will give you some intuitive insight around how much in alignment that might be. 

For example, if you say, “OK, for three friends by the end of the quarter,” maybe you get the Four of Cups, and that might be a sign to you that you're actually turning away people. You’re not showing interest. In fact, there might be more people coming to you who want to establish a friendship. 

Maybe five new friends by the end of the quarter, and you're getting the Queen of Wands. You’re like, “Yes, that’s me! That’s sociable. That’s who I want to be.” 

And you might have even set a stretch goal of seven new friends, and you get the Three of Cups. To me, that’s kind of the quintessential friendship card. You might go, “Right, that feels really scary, but I’m going to go for seven friends by the end of the quarter.” 

What this is doing is this is allowing your soul to speak to you and say, “You know what? When you thought that you had only attracted three friends in a year, you could actually attract seven in three months.” 

If we’re just using our rational mind, we can sometimes be limited by our belief systems and our mind, which often has a bit of fear wrapped up with it. And yet, when we’re connecting with our intuition, we’re allowing our soul to really speak to us and come through. 

I think that’s a really fabulous thing to do every quarter. Think about what your goals are, and then start to align your goals with your soul purpose and your intuition, using your Tarot cards as a guide. 

MANIFESTATION SPREAD 

Now, of course, we can amp this up this little bit extra and also do the Manifestation Tarot Spread that I created. In this Manifestation Spread, it’s a way of connecting into: 

• How you're in relationship with your goal 
• What is supporting in manifesting your goal 
• What actions you might be able to take in order for you to be able to manifest the goal 

Because, of course, it’s one thing to have a beautiful, fully aligned goal, but the next thing is “How do you actually manifest this?” How do you bring it into being? 

And, of course, your Tarot cards can help you with that process. You have a Manifestation Spread that you might do every quarter. 

Then, at the end of the quarter… It’s one thing to put the goals out there, but let’s get to the end of the quarter and say, “OK, how did I do? Did I manifest this goal? If I did, how do I feel about that, and how can I leverage some of this success? If I didn’t, is that OK, too? Maybe my goals and purpose have shifted in some way. 

You can actually use something like a Reflection Tarot Spread at the end of the quarter to reflect and then carry over any lessons that you’ve learned, any new skills, talents or strengths that you’ve created for yourself, and then bring that into the next quarter. 

That’s the second way, this “goals with soul” concept, where we are really aligning with our goals, and then we’re thinking about “How can we manifest them in a really powerful way?” 

3. WEEKLY CARD 

Now, the third way that you can use Tarot cards to plan your year ahead is by drawing a card for each week. I do this inside of the Biddy Tarot Community, and I also do Facebook Lives every week, where I share the card for the week. I do this on a collective level. This is a message that’s important for all of us. 

But what you can also do is draw a weekly Tarot card for yourself and what’s important for you. Literally, at the start of each week, or maybe at the start of each month, you draw a card for each week of that month. 

I want you to know that this is not about predicting the future—at least this is the way that I like to work. I don’t like to predict the future. 

For example, if you get the Seven of Swords, which is sometimes about deception and betrayal. It doesn’t mean that you’ve just predicted a terrible week ahead, and it’s going to be awful, and you may as well just stay inside. It’s not about that at all. 

It’s actually about connecting in with the lessons and the energy from the Tarot cards. I strongly believe that each of the Tarot cards has a really important lesson that can be learned, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that something bad is happening or that something good is happening. It’s just simply bringing our awareness into the card and the week. 

For example, if you do get the Seven of Swords, instead of having a freak-out and thinking that everyone is out to get you, you might look at it a little bit differently, and you might think… Well, for me, I see it as quite a strategic card. This guy is running away from camp with five of seven swords. He knows that in order for him to achieve his goals, he can’t take all of the swords with him. He must leave some behind. It’s often about being very strategic and figuring out your priorities. 

Again, it might just be something that comes into the forefront of your mind for that week ahead, and you think, “OK, what I need to be mindful of this week is “What do I carry with me versus what don’t I carry with me? Is there something that I need to cut back on and let go of so that I can really follow through with my dreams?” 

Using the Tarot cards on that weekly basis can be really powerful when you're connecting in with the lesson of the card and bringing that lesson into your conscious awareness, and then you can actually start to plan around those energies. 

Now, of course, it doesn’t mean that you have to ring up all your friends and say, “Hey, you're lying to me! You're tricking me! You’re deceiving me!” Not at all! In fact, if you had that goal of trying to find seven new friends, you probably wouldn’t be working that out too well. But it’s more about thinking, “What’s the lesson in here for me, and how can I incorporate that into my week?” 

When you do this, what you start to do is you’re creating space at the start of every week to connect in with your intuition, to connect in with these intuitive messages, and then bring them into your daily life—and I find that incredibly powerful. It’s not even the card itself. It’s not even the message itself. It’s actually the practice of you just taking a step back and tuning into your own energy and the energy around you, and that is what is truly powerful. 

WRAP-UP 

There you have it. Those are the 3 ways to plan your year ahead using Tarot. We talked about the New Year’s Tarot Spread and even having a bit of a ritual around that New Year’s Tarot Spread. We talked about creating goals with soul, or goals that are in full alignment with your soul purpose. And we talked about the weekly Tarot cards and drawing one card per week not to predict what’s going to happen but more to tap into a particular energy that may be important for you during that week. 

Now, of course, all of these beautiful things are actually inside of our Biddy Tarot Planner that has just been released. If you're wanting to create a beautiful, intuitively inspired year ahead, then I would highly recommend the Biddy Tarot Planner for you. 

Inside of the Biddy Tarot Planner, you're going to find the New Year Tarot Spread that we talked about, plus a really beautiful ritual that you can use at the start of the year to get your year started off in the right way—the intuitive way. 

Inside the planner, you also receive a Manifestation Spread and a Reflection Spread for every quarter of the year. As I talked about, this Manifestation Spread is fabulous for taking those goals and working out how you're actually going to bring them into being. 

And then the Reflection Spread is saying, “OK, how did I do, and how can I leverage what I created into my next quarter?” 

Of course, we also include the Weekly Tarot Cards, so there’s space for you to draw a weekly card and also include your insights for that Weekly Tarot Card throughout the year. 

Now, for each month, I’ve included a Tarot card and a beautiful Major Arcana card from the Everyday Tarot. I give you a little bit of information about that card but with that space for you to also fully explore the card and what it means for you for that month. Plus, I give you a ritual that you can use during the month to connect into the energy of that card. 

And for every month, there’s also an extra Tarot spread that you can use as part of your practice. 

Now, this Tarot Planner, we first launched it, actually, for the 2017 year, and I can tell you what—the 2018 planner is 2017 plus so much more. We’ve added so many new things, especially this Monthly Tarot Card and the ritual is a new aspect. The Weekly Tarot Card is new. Plus, we’ve got lots of other new, yummy stuff inside the Tarot Planner. 

Look, here’s the thing—you do not have to be a Tarot expert to get the most out of this planner. It has been designed for Tarot beginners all the way through to more seasoned professionals. It’s simply for people who want to have a more intuitively inspired year using the Tarot cards as a guide. 

If you want to learn more about this Tarot Planner, go to BiddyTarot.com/Tarot-Planner. The good news is it’s available either as a digital planner or as a paperback via Amazon. You can actually get it in hard copy and start writing in it. 

Now, if you're keen to check it out, you can also download our free printable, which is part of the Tarot Planner, but we are giving it to you for free. To get that, go to BiddyTarot.com/Tarot-Planner-Printable. 

Beautiful! I hope that you check that out. We’ve already received so much great feedback. People are posting their photos already on Instagram. If you’ve already got your copy, then make sure you do post on Instagram using the hashtag #TarotPlanner. We would love to see what you're creating, and of course, we love to share that with the community as well. 

All right, that wraps up today’s episode—and our last episode for 2017. Of course, I want to take this opportunity to say a big thank-you to you for being a part of this podcast, for listening whether this is your first podcast or one of many. I’m very, very grateful for your listenership, and I wish you such a great start to the year ahead, and I can’t wait for what 2018 has for us. It’s going to be awesome. 

Just remember, to get your show notes, you can go to BiddyTarot.com/btp106, and you’ll find the links to everything that I’ve mentioned during today’s call as well. Have a great week! Happy New Year, and I’ll see you on the flip side.

Bye for now. 

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