The Cardcast
The Cardcast is a quiet exploration of life, one oracle card at a time. In each episode, we pull a single card and reflect on how its message weaves through the everyday — the moments, questions, and patterns that shape our world. No predictions, no prescriptions — just space to notice, connect, and listen in. Whether you're card-curious or card-devoted, come sit with the symbols.
The Cardcast
Journey Through the Cards
Tarot readings provide a powerful framework for understanding our journeys through change, helping us recognize what's finished, what lingers, and how to move forward with awareness and intention.
• The Nine of Books shows us that some chapters are finished and don't need to be carried
• When we stop ruminating on past stories, we can step forward into new light
• The Eight of Beakers reminds us that endings leave residue that requires patience and compassion
• Feeling the effects of something long past doesn't mean you're weak—it means you're human
• The Two of Pentacles reveals that we already hold the key to unlock our next chapter
• Growth involves holding both fear and hope simultaneously, not waiting for perfect conditions
• The Madness card teaches us to expect turbulence as part of transformation
• When we anticipate shadows, we develop resilience to walk through them
• The Sins of Ancestors card shows how we inherit patterns that aren't ours to carry
• Breaking cycles means renovating the foundations for future generations
Deck: Necronomicon Tarot Deck
Find me on Instagram @the_cardcast for more reflections and a closer look at the cards themselves.
For a closer look at the cards, follow me on Instagram @the_cardcast. For more about mental wellness and psychology, sign up for my newsletter at www.natashasheyenne.com.
Thanks for listening!
Hi there and welcome to the Cardcast. I'm Natasha and I'm so glad you're here. Together we explore the art of noticing the symbols, stories and quiet patterns that surround us every day and how they connect to our mental health and well-being. Each card becomes a way to pause, reflect and anchor ourselves more deeply in the present moment. Reflect and anchor ourselves more deeply in the present moment. So take a deep breath, settle in and let's see what today's card has to offer. It's Friday, so we have a larger card spread. It's a five-card Stages of Change spread, adopted from the Complete Book of Tarot spreads.
Speaker 1:I picked this layout because journeys are often about change and we've talked a lot about change and transformation over the past two weeks and we are using our deck of the week, the Necronomicon Tarot Deck. So our first card is asking us to consider what is over and done with, and we got the nine of books. The nine of books. It rises before us like an archway, a rib cage made of stories, each book stacked above the next, forming a ceiling, a tunnel, a structure that both shelters and contains, and beneath them, a figure steps forward, illuminated by light, looks like they're walking out and walking on. The books here represent the past Chapters, written pages, turned stories that are complete. They hover above us like memory does. Present, yes, but no longer active. They cannot be unwritten, but they also no longer need to be carried. The figure at the bottom reminds us that we're not trapped by the past. We walk forward from it into new light. And when I reflect on this, I think of how easy it is to keep replaying old stories the mistakes we made, the times we were hurt, the choices we wish we could go back and change. These become heavy volumes stacked on our shoulders, pressing down on our present. But the nine of books reminds us the story is already written, that chapter is done. The only work left is to decide how we carry it or whether we need to carry it at all.
Speaker 1:For our own mental well-being, this is really crucial. Rumination, which is revisiting the same pain, the same regrets, the same what-ifs, keeps us locked beneath the weight of books that we can't rewrite. Healing begins when we allow ourselves to say that story is finished. It shaped me, it taught me, but it's no longer mine to relive. This doesn't mean ignoring the past. The books remain part of the structure. They hold wisdom, they remind us of where we've been. But the figure in this card shows us what matters most, and that's movement forward, the willingness to step into the light of what comes next. So the nine of books here is teaching us that what is over does not vanish, but it no longer binds us. We honor it, we close the cover and then we move on lighter, freer and ready for the light that waits ahead.
Speaker 1:Okay, our next card asks what is over, but the effects still linger on. And we have the Eight of Beakers. And the Eight of Beakers is a card of endings, but not clean ones. It shows us a chair draped in a cloak, abandoned. Across from it, a table is lined with tall glass beakers, each one cracked, dripping, corroded with green liquid that is still seeping down the edges. A harsh beam of light shines on the mess left behind. This is the perfect card for this question of what is over, but the effects still linger on.
Speaker 1:Okay, whatever happened here in this card is finished. The experiment is obviously over, the work has been abandoned, but its effects still linger. The liquid still drips, the stains remain, the air carries the residue. This is what it means when something is over but not yet gone. In life. I think we all know this feeling well. A relationship ends, but the echoes remain in our bodies. Memories that return when we hear a certain song, fears that flare up when we start something new. A job ends, but the stress response still lives in our nervous system. A trauma is long past, but the aftershocks ripple through our choices, our moods and our sleep.
Speaker 1:The Eight of Beakers does not shy away from this truth. Endings are rarely tidy. Even when we walk away, the effects come with us. The stains take time to fade. This card, I think, is really asking us to honor the residue. Too often we pressure ourselves to move on, to treat endings as if they should be clean breaks. But the psyche does not work that way. Healing is not about pretending the green liquid isn't dripping. It's about noticing it, cleaning it up slowly and tending to what remains.
Speaker 1:I think this card is also inviting compassion. If you're still feeling the effects of something long past, it doesn't mean that you're weak. It means you're human. The body and soul carry memory, sometimes long after the mind has declared something finished. To heal is to sit in the empty chair, to acknowledge what lingers and to choose again and again to tend to the mess without shame. The Eight of Beakers teaches us that endings leave traces. What is over may still ripple through us. Endings leave traces. What is over may still ripple through us, but with time, compassion and tending, even the residue becomes part of the story of healing".
Speaker 1:Our next card, our third card, whispers of balance, of choice, of the sacred tension between two paths, and more than that, it's really pointing to the direction. This is where I'm heading. So it's essentially asking that question where am I heading? And we got the two of pentacles, who is showing us a silhouette of a head and hand and within it a golden key, and the figure holds the key at its throat, as though ready to unlock the mind, the voice, or perhaps the soul itself. The voice or perhaps the soul itself. On one side of the card, dark, swirling waters twist and curl and on the other, spires rise beneath a blood-red sun, with a comet blazing across the night sky. I think the key here is vital because it's not given to us from outside, it's held within, because it's not given to us from outside, it's held within To move forward, to choose the next step, to decide where we're going. We must recognize that we already carry the key, the power to unlock the next chapter is not hidden in someone else's hands. It's waiting in our own, in our own.
Speaker 1:Heading forward does not mean the water stops swirling. Anxiety, uncertainty, the unpredictable tides of life these will always exist. The card is acknowledging this by showing the waves on one side, restless and tangled, but it also shows the promise on the other side Rising structures, a red sun, a comet streaking the sky. This is the horizon we're moving toward, not a life without difficulty, but a life where meaning and possibility coexist with the chaos. This is a reminder that moving forward is not about erasing the storm. It's about learning to hold both fear and hope, uncertainty and courage, and in holding both of those things, not losing ourselves. The balance of the two of pentacles is not juggling endlessly, but realizing that the key lies in how we align ourselves, in which side we choose to face, and in remembering that even in swirling waters, we can step towards light. So when we ask, where am I heading? The answer is this toward integration, toward a life where we no longer wait for the waves to stop before we move, where we honor our struggles, our anxieties and our griefs, but we don't let them decide the path for us. We're heading towards the horizon, where our voices unlock truth and our choices open doors, where the comet streaks remind us that wonder is always possible. So the Two of Pentacles is really teaching us that where we're heading is not away from the struggle, but into balance and into meaning and into the possibility of unlocking new worlds within ourselves.
Speaker 1:Our next card is Madness, and it asks us what do I expect when I step forward on this path? And the card before us right now is unsettling. It is a vast moon that's looming over dark waters, impossibly close. It's like casting everything in stark blue. On the surface of the water, faces emerge. On the surface of the water faces emerge, skulls or shadows, perhaps memories or fears that are bobbing, half-submerged, as though the sea itself has become a mirror for the mind's chaos.
Speaker 1:The truth is that when we expect clarity, certainty or a straight line, we often set ourselves up for despair. The journey inward, whether of healing, growth or transformation, rarely unfolds in clean steps. Instead, it's more like this image a moon so bright it blinds, illuminating not only what is beautiful but also what is distorted, what is hidden, what's terrifying. The water beneath us becomes restless, old fears rise, the mind can feel like it's working against us, conjuring images that we'd rather not see. And yet this is what we must expect, not because we're doomed to chaos, but because the path of becoming always stirs the depths. To expect otherwise is to deny reality. This card is a necessary reminder that growth will not be neat. Healing will not always feel like progress.
Speaker 1:Sometimes, when we look at the moon of our own awareness, we see the skulls in the water our anxieties, our obsessions, our darkest thoughts. The point is not to drown in them, but to recognize them as part of the process. So when I say this is what I expect, I mean I expect turbulence, I expect to be challenged by my own mind, I expect nights when the voices of fear are louder than the voices of hope. And by expecting this, I prepare myself not to be undone by it, because expectation shapes resilience. If I expect only ease, then hardship will break me, but if I expect that madness, confusion and shadow are part of the journey, then when they arrive, I can just say ah, yes, I knew you would come and I am ready. And this doesn't mean giving up hope. The moon is also a symbol of illumination, and it shows us what we could not see otherwise it reveals those hidden truths that daytime conceals. To expect madness, then, is not to give up. It's to accept that clarity often comes wrapped in chaos, that the light we long for sometimes blinds us.
Speaker 1:First, the Madness card is teaching us that what we expect matters. If we expect only ease, we falter. If we expect the shadows, too, we find the strength to walk through them, illuminated, to walk through them Illuminated, unsettled, yes, but always moving forward. Our last card in this layout is asking us what am I supposed to learn right now? And we got the Sins of the Ancestors card, which shows us a tall old house under storm clouds. Its windows glow with firelight, but a jagged bolt of lightning splits the sky above, striking near its roof. The ground around it is dark, tangled, almost swamp-like. This house is more than a building. It's an inheritance the patterns, the wounds and the shadows passed down through families and cultures and histories. It's the weight of what came before us, standing tall, demanding to be acknowledged. And so, in the context of this is what I'm supposed to learn right now.
Speaker 1:The card teaches this You're being asked to face not only your own story, but the echoes of the stories that shaped you so much of what we wrestle with in our own minds, our inner critic, our fears, our ways of coping did not begin with us. They're inherited scripts, patterns of silence, of striving, of shame, of survival. The lightning in this card is the moment of recognition, when we realize that what we carry may not all belong to us. Some of it is ancestral, some of it is systemic and some of its generational pain is asking to be seen. The lesson here is not blame, but awareness to see the house, to notice its cracks, to feel the storm and to recognize that healing requires acknowledging what we have inherited. We cannot change what came before, but we can decide how it moves forward. This is what I'm supposed to learn right now that I don't have to repeat the patterns that hurt me. That I can honor my ancestors without carrying their wounds as my own. That I can learn where the voices in my head began and choose to soften them or to silence them altogether.
Speaker 1:This card is a reminder that healing is both personal and collective. When you face your inherited patterns of perfectionism, self-doubt, overwork, fear, you're not just healing yourself. You are breaking cycles. You are renovating the house so that future generations do not inherit the same crumbling walls. The Sins of Ancestors card teaches us that the storms we face are not only ours, but we hold the power to transform their legacy. This is what you are meant to learn right now Awareness, choice and the courage to end cycles that no longer serve.
Speaker 1:So, as we close this layout, we see the arc of a journey laid out before us. So the nine of books reminded us that some chapters are finished, the story is already written, and we don't need to keep rereading the same pages, punishing ourselves with what cannot be changed. What's done is done, and the Eight of Beakers reminded us that even when something is over, its residue remains. Healing is not a clean break. It's a slow tending, a patient acknowledgement of the drips and stains left behind. And that is not weakness. That is the work of being human.
Speaker 1:The Two of Pentacles showed us that the key forward is already within us. The waves will not stop. Life will not wait for perfect balance, but we can still step ahead, unlocking that next part of our journey with the voice and choices that are uniquely our own. The madness card asked us to adjust our expectations, that growth is not neat and that healing will not always feel like progress. We must expect shadows and confusion along the way, and in expecting them, we are not undone when they come. Instead, we walk through them illuminated but unsettled, resilient in our knowing that chaos chaos too is part of the path. And finally, the sins of the ancestors reminds us that some of what we carry is not ours alone the patterns, the silence, the striving we inherited them. Our work is not only to heal ourselves, but to notice what has been passed down, to choose what we will carry forward and to set down what no longer belongs. And in doing so we break cycles, we renovate the house of our lives so that those who come after us inherit walls that are steadier, safer and kinder, safer and kinder.
Speaker 1:So here's the reflection I leave you with what chapter is closed? What residue lingers? What key within you is ready to turn? What turbulence are you prepared to expect so it doesn't undo you? And what inherited story are you ready to name, honor and release? This is the power of this layout to remind us that transformation is never just one moment. It's a process, it's an unfolding, it's a willingness to step forward again and again, carrying less of what binds us and more of what frees us. That's it for today's card For more reflections and a closer look at the cards themselves. You can find me on Instagram at the underscore card cast. I'll see you in the next episode.
