Concept image of the comfort zone, and the need to leave it.
You might have heard that I have a new favorite musical artist, Noah Kahan. I love his smart, thoughtful lyrics and folk-rock sound. His song, “Growing Sideways,” is about dealing with mental health issues. It points out that healing is messy, and we don’t always grow in a straight line. He talks about moving sideways to avoid his feelings. We all know avoidance isn’t a path to healing. Yet, we can sometimes find healing in bits and pieces, even when our coping mechanisms are part of the problem.
Some people are surprised that adults prioritize personal growth, learning, and healing. They figure growth and learning are something for kids, not adults. What I see in life is that the only way to go forward is to grow forward.
I believe the minute we stop learning, or decide that we don’t need to heal from past trauma, is the minute we become brittle and easy to break. We don’t always need to focus on a healing path, but I believe we’re at our best when we know that as long as we are breathing, we are growing, and that our personal growth is our best way forward.
No one is perfect, and we don’t need to be. But if we are pointing ourselves in the right direction, two important things happen. First, we’re more likely to get where we want to be. The other is that we will grow, learn, and heal along the way.
StaarCon 6 Postcard featuring Pixie Arcana by Pamela Steele.
The StaarCorner
At StaarCon 6, we will have three panel presentations, which is more than ever before! Frank Kwiatkowski will facilitate two of these.
Frank has been part of StaarCon since the beginning. Frank is a South Florida tarot professional and author. He offers tarot coaching, tarot mentoring, and life-changing group workshops. Over the years at StaarCon, Frank has shared exciting workshops, added his wisdom to panel sessions, and volunteered to do whatever was needed to keep things on track.
At StaarCon 6, we are excited that Frank will be facilitating two panels. On Saturday morning at 10:15, join Frank in the classroom for some tarot divination fun. You might remember that at StaarCon 2024 and StaarCon 5, Mary Ellen Collins created and facilitated Game of Fortune Panel Readings. The concept is simple. There are four tarot readers, and a wheel with their names on it. People in the audience are asked to submit questions for tarot. The facilitator spins the wheel. Whichever tarot reader the wheel lands on will read for that question.
This year, Frank is facilitating this panel, as the Game of Fortune session officially becomes a StaarCon tradition. His panel of readers will include Mary Ellen Collins in a fun turnaround, along with Jason Cosmos, Will Herrera, and Christine Leiser.
On Sunday afternoon at 3:15 pm, join Frank in the classroom for the Tarot Styles and Methods Panel Discussion. This conversation will highlight how tarot luminaries conduct their personal tarot practices. This entertaining session will inspire your own personal relationship with tarot. Look forward to hearing from Bex, Mitchell Osborn, Kooch Daniels, and Stella Boheme on this insightful panel.
We are very excited to welcome you to StaarCon in just a few weeks! Make your plan to join us!
Each tarot card offers insight into life and personal growth. When we study tarot, we learn these lessons.
Tarot divination can help us grow when we ask hard questions and listen to the answers. Tarot shadow work involves letting the cards show us where we are hurt, where we hold on to trauma, where our thinking is wrong, and how to heal and change.
A good tarot reader can lead us on a profound healing journey. Spending time with our tarot friends in class, at gatherings, and at conferences is good fun, but it can also lead to personal healing and growth.
Which tarot card focuses most on personal growth and healing? I have to say that the entire tarot deck is a tool of growth and healing.
The Major Arcana shows us the Fool’s Journey, which maps a path for growth, discovery, healing, and spiritual enlightenment. Each suit of the Minor Arcana shows us a journey through one of the Four Elements. The Court cards encourage our growth and refinement as we learn with the Pages, pursue with the Knights, nurture with the Queens, and lead with the Kings.
The entire tarot deck, though originally simply a card game, has evolved into seventy-eight tools of insight that work together to tell us all we need to know to grow.
The weekend of the big game is on the way! Many people are planning parties, menus, and getting ready to enjoy our unofficial national holiday. After the game, I know that some people will be angry.
People whose team didn’t win will be angry at their favorite players and favorite team. This aspect of fandom always surprises me. If you love a team or a player, why don’t you support them in bad times as well as good?
I marvel at how this energy is expressed across different fandoms. When a franchise launches a new show, it is always the biggest fans of the franchise that complain the most about whatever choices the showrunners have made. When a popular musician releases an album, we can expect countless think pieces from fans about why this wasn’t their best work.
Why do we express our love for those who entertain and inspire us with anger and disappointment? Certainly, our tastes can change, and some artistic offerings just aren’t as good as others. But I think there is something deeper here that translates into our personal relationships.
I think strong feelings are an investment, and we care about what we are invested in. Parents love their children. Sometimes that love drives parents to be overly critical, believing criticism will help their children do better.
In romantic relationships, another dynamic can be at play. The person we partner with will directly affect our lives. We may look at them with a more critical eye because their successes and failures will become our own.
It seems that when we love something or someone, we are highly motivated to see them succeed and can become quite irate when it doesn’t happen. Our love raises the bar on our expectations.
I don’t think that well-paid celebrities are particularly worried that we yell at our televisions and post think pieces about them online. I do think our families thrive better when love raises the bar for patience and compassion, as well as for expectations.
We have a date and a location for StaarCon 6! Join us October 2, 3, and 4 at the DoubleTree Hotel and Executive Meeting Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Located 15 minutes from Palm Beach International Airport, the DoubleTree offers a comfortable conference center, guest rooms with balconies overlooking the pool, breakfast in Oz Restaurant, and lunch, dinner, and drinks at the Fusion Lounge.
Across the street from the conference center are a Publix grocery store, Outback Steakhouse, Paddy Mac’s Irish Restaurant, and Sushi Yama Japanese Restaurant. Easily reachable by walking, driving, or taking the DoubleTree van are places like Christopher’s Kitchen, which specializes in organic vegan, and the famous Rocco’s Tacos.
StaarCon 6 will feature a 2,000+ square-foot Marketplace, open to the public from 10 am to 6 pm all three days. We will have three tracks of presentations on Saturday and Sunday. Our presentation rooms will include our Live room, where headliners will present, and where we will hold opening and closing ceremonies and the Bardic Circle. Everything that happens in the Live room will be streamed to StaarCast and recorded in real time.
Our Quiet and Calm Room was a welcome addition to StaarCon 5. For StaarCon 6, we are renaming it the Mindful Room. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, you will find seances, yoga, soundbaths, and other fun and meaningful activities. Those who present in this room will provide videos about their subject matter in advance of the conference for those who are attending virtually on StaarCast.
On Saturday and Sunday, our Classroom will hold panel discussions, classes, and presentations that are not recorded. As with the Mindful room, videos about these presentations will be available on StaarCast.
Our Hospitality room will host coffee breaks with our sponsors and will include a screen displaying our online presenters on StaarCast.
As you have come to expect, our presenters will include some of the world’s best-known artists, designers, authors, readers, and teachers, along with exciting new talent. Please save the dates and look for announcements. Tickets are available now!
Thursday evening dinner at Outback Steakhouse, StaarCon 2022.
Building the StaarCon 6 Virtual Conference
Visitors to the site will notice a new tile in the list of rooms, available to members of the StaarCast Community website: StaarCon6 Virtual.
The StaarCon 6 Virtual Tarot and Divination Conference will open this spring and will feature the main stage live-streamed from the StaarCon 6 Tarot and Divination Conference to be held October 2, 3 & 5, 2006, in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
The virtual conference replaces the AfterGlow, a feature of StaarCon 2021 through StaarCon 5. We have removed the distractions and improved accessibility to enhance your experience. The new room, in addition to the Lounge and Meeting Hall, will host live workshops, panels, and discussions before, during, and after the live conference.
StaarCon 6 Virtual Tarot and Divination Conference will be a year-long event, opening with some of the favorite workshops held during the AfterGlow. Check each month for new events and workshops presented by your StaarCon favorites!
The virtual conference rooms will be ready for use soon. Again, thanks for your patience.
When we are feeling disappointed by a loved one, divination can help us organize and understand our thoughts and feelings. We need to know whether our disappointment stems from our own faulty expectations or if we have a right to feel let down. We need to know whether we should approach the person and, if so, how.
Rather than a tarot spread, it is often best in this sort of situation to simply ask questions and pull cards.
Here are some sample questions that might inspire you.
What were my expectations for this?
Were my expectations appropriate?
Was this person aware of my expectations?
Did this person try to meet those expectations?
Would a conversation be helpful?
What do I need to know in order to have a productive conversation?
Global Tarot Circle Live on YouTube, Twitch, Facebook & Instagram – Wednesday, February 4th @ 7 pm.
The Week in Review
Join us tonight at Global Tarot Circle! This is our online monthly tarot meetup. You can join on YouTube, or find the stream on Twitch, Facebook, or Instagram. Bring your tarot cards and get ready to share readings and tarot study with your tarot friends around the world.
There are two great local in-person opportunities for tarot study in Martin County this month. Join us for our tarot meetup on Sunday, February 15, at 4 pm at Panera Bread in Palm City.
On Tuesday, February 17, join us at my Stuart office for Third Tuesday Tarot! Tickets are available now.
As we approach Valentine’s Day, of course we think of love and romance. We often associate Major Arcana 6 with romance because it is called The Lovers.
The Lovers is such an interesting card. Its archetype is the syzygy, the divine couple. Yet, this is often more of a concept than a reality.
Six is the number of victory, service, and glory. These keywords make sense when we consider a divinely fated relationship.
In the Waite-Smith illustration for this card, the man looks at the woman, and the woman looks at the angel. They are clearly not on the same page!
The Lovers is associated with Gemini, which is an Air sign. Air governs the powers of the mind, including decision-making and communication.
The Lovers teaches us something important about long-term love relationships. A relationship can feel fated and divine. Day to day, we need to focus more on our communication skills and the decisions we make than on the idea of fate or divinity.
When the Lovers appears in a reading, it may or may not reference a romance. It will often ask you to consider what you want in your life, and what you don’t.
