Before we go into the reading,
I'll invite you to take a deep breath.
I'll take one as well.
And This month is.
.
.
Disability Pride Month.
So shout out to all my fellow disabled people over here.
And so from this,
I decided that I wanted to do a spread this month which is based around moving through adversity.
And.
.
.
I didn't want it to be about,
You know,
Overcoming adversity or,
You know,
Getting past adversity because although that is a wonderful outcome to hope for for all of us.
Sometimes we just live with adversity and so what I wanted to do was resource us to have something have some ways to move through adversity to be able to thrive.
Even in adverse circumstances.
I know that if you are Although this reading is based around the theme of lived experience,
My lived experience of living with disability,
I know that it's also going to resonate for lots of different people in lots of different circumstances,
Some of which I won't even be aware of.
I invite you to.
.
.
Welcome in the energies that are going to support you through any adversity that you're going through at the moment and that can be something personal,
It can be something that's happening communally on a wider level as well.
So to represent the positions of our spread,
I'll talk you through the positions and then we'll go ahead and draw some cards.
I've got six positions here.
And these two at the top.
I chose the world to represent and they're possibly the most important positions in the spread.
I wanted them to be at the top.
But I think I will return to them at the end of the reading as well.
Because it's really important.
I chose the world to represent these two positions.
And there are about How we show up.
And our worth.
So I'm in the UK.
And at the moment there's.
.
.
A lot of discussion and some legislation going on.
About what the disabled people deserve.
Support.
Both for basic needs and to have a life beyond the basic as well.
And one of the things that have been spoken about and sometimes not spoken about but just implied is this idea that If you're not able to work,
Then you're somehow not contributing to society.
Which is an abhorrent idea.
And so these two positions here The position of you and all that you offer to society and I would like to offer to everybody here now whether you're able to work Whether you're not able to work whether you are are working or you're not.
Work is not your contribution to society and certainly not the only way that you can contribute to society.
You make society better.
By existing,
By being who you are,
By showing up in your unique way,
By engaging in the ways that you are able to engage,
In the ways that you want to engage,
And you have the intrinsic right to be here whether you're working,
Whether you're contributing financially.
Or whether you're not.
You have the right to be here anyway,
And I want that to be really,
Really clear to everybody here at this reading.
Um.
.
.
I'm going to call in these cards to help us to internalize that message because it's really important.
So position one is you.
How you are showing up in this moment,
In this month of July 2025.
And position 2 is what you bring to the world,
What do you offer to the world,
To society,
To this shared experience that we're having.
So as I say,
I believe these are the two most important positions in the spread,
In the reading.
And um.
.
.
Yeah,
I have no idea what cards will come up for them,
But I am sure the cards will give us some insight.
I've then got three cards.
For the kind of.
.
.
Experience of adversity that we might have.
In an in whatever ways for whichever of us.
So the first is the five of pentacles and this represents adversity itself.
The Five of Pentacles shows.
People who are.
Locked out or kept out of the warm light space and the comfort and the safety.
Secondly I have the nine of wands.
This is about how you can stand up for yourself.
And again,
Coming back to my lived experience with disability,
I find that I need to advocate for myself on a daily basis.
Um.
.
.
Which is very tiring,
But it's a fact of life.
Every single day,
Or most days,
I am having to stand up for myself because otherwise I will be excluded in some way.
And so.
.
.
I've put this position of self-advocacy in because it's really important that we stand up for ourselves and remembering that yes,
What we said up here,
We all have inherent value,
We all have the right to be here and sometimes we have to affirm that.
There is a certain amount of work to that.
And then the Knight of Swords,
And I wanted to have a knight in here.
Because knights are our champions and you know It's not just us that have to stand up for ourselves.
Sometimes other people have our backs as well.
So again,
Coming back.
For the metaphor,
For the story,
To this reforms that are going through in the UK at the moment.
There are people who are standing up and saying,
No,
That's not OK.
You can't take away disabled people's security and safety.
And so these are the Knights of Swords.
And so this position in our reading today is,
Who's got your back?
And I think that's a really,
Really important thing to remember that someone has your back.
Whether you're.
.
.
Asking them to or not.
Someone has your back and the cards will remind us.
This month,
Who has our back?
And then finally I wanted to bring in something.
Um.
.
.
Because this is a time reading,
This is for this month,
It's July 2025.
And also to kind of Remind us that whatever processes are going on,
There's always magic that can be done.
So I've chosen the magician here.
And the magician represents the window of opportunity that's available to us this month so you know where can we Direct our magic,
Find some magic,
Direct our will.
How can we.
.
.
Tap into that power that we all have,
That we are in fact magicians ourselves.
So that's our spread.
And we'll go ahead and pull some cards in a moment.
So I'm just going to invite you to take a deep breath.
And just ask to receive what you need.
And today I'm using the This Might Hurt Tarot.
It's by Isabella Rotman.
I originally pulled out the cards to represent the places in the spread and I was going to use a different deck for the actual reading.
Some of the cards here just spoke to me.
I thought,
No,
This deck wants to be used for this reading.
It wants to work with us today.
So this is the same deck that I've taken these cards out of.
Taking a deep breath.
Asking to receive what you need.
And the first card.
It's you,
Or all of us.
And look at that,
We have the night.
Of wands.
Now I'm really intrigued because this came up as my card of the day today as well.
And the night of wands all nights are questing.
So as I said,
When I put the Knight of Swords up here,
All knights are champions and the Knight of Wands can also be a champion.
But all nights are questing,
All nights are searching.
Fool.
Something or for the deepest resonance of something and the Night of Wands is about energy.
The suit of wands is about energy.
So.
.
.
Often if I pick a Wands card as a kind of prescriptive card,
I will say,
You know,
Do some Reiki,
Do some energy work.
Of some kind do some tarot,
Because of course tarot is energy work as well.
What I like about the Knight of Wands,
So the Knight of Swords is a great champion.
The reason I chose the Knight of Swords as the champion is because they are a very quick reactor and they do tend to go in and champion people and if they think something's wrong they will go in and they'll right it.
But the downside of that is that they can sometimes act a little impulsively.
The Knight of Wands is very similar.
You see,
This Knight of Wands is on a motorbike and there's something in the lines of the motorbike,
The way they hold their head,
The way they point their wand forwards.
Reminds me of determination.
So this Knight of Wands is also prepared to act moving forward.
On a mission of some kind,
As all the Knights are.
But with the Knights of Wands,
You get a more intentional mission,
So it can be more that they've considered.
What they want.
Before they take action.
Now with a court card coming up in the position to represent you or to represent each of us.
This is the archetype inside each of us which is going to be very easy to reach during this month of July.
So.
.
.
It's a great.
Time to get things done.
To move forwards to be intentional.
In what you do.
And it's a great.
It is a great time for doing energy work.
And the knight is as well,
You know,
In the court you have the page,
The knight,
The queen and the king typically.
They can be named different things in different decks.
And so the knights are this stage of sort of maturing and exploring.
Childlike state that we see in the page but they don't yet have the maturity of the monarch.
And so it's also a great time for learning as well.
And learning by doing with this particular night.
The archetype within us all this month.
And then the other position,
The next position is.
.
.
What do you offer to the world?
What do you bring to the world?
What is your unique gift?
That you've contribute to.
Of society,
The world.
Oh and look at this.
This is the Toe of Cots.
So the cups are about love,
The heart,
Emotions.
And the two of cups is really,
Really about love.
Sometimes you see in this card,
That this is perhaps a couple that are sort of holding on to each other.
Um.
.
.
And Above them is a winged head of a lion and you've got two snakes there as well which are associated with the caduceus Mercury who is about communication.
But the two of cups,
If in one word,
Represents love.
And I think that's such a beautiful card to come out.
Um I don't know if it even needs a lot more explanation.
Or description really,
Other than say that it's come out in this position of what do you bring to the world?
And it's love.
You show up in love.
And that makes the world a better place.
And that's all you have to do to make the world a better place by your presence.
So love.
Remember that this month anytime you're If you find yourself doubting yourself or internalizing anything that is not helpful,
Remember that you are love and you are an expression of love in the world.
You're a vessel of love in the world and you're showing up in love.
Okay,
So,
Those are our first two cards.
Next is this little row here.
Adversity i see all those hearts coming i think that's the love isn't it Um.
.
.
Adversity.
What adversity might we come up against?
This month.
Okay,
This is interesting.
It's the Page of Swords.
So this is the second court card out of three.
Randomly drawn cards two of them have been caught cards and as I said with the pages that can be represents sort of childlike energy or beginners,
Not quite mature energy.
And the sword's Isabel.
The mind,
Thoughts,
Narratives,
Beliefs,
All of this kind of thing.
So the page of sorts.
This page of swords looks a little bit unsure of themselves,
So perhaps.
.
.
Perhaps that is part of the adversity this month,
That we may not Be sure of ourselves or fully formed in.
Our belief.
And so maybe we don't know how to act,
How to move to this state of sort of championing if we're not sure quite what our beliefs are.
Always room to learn with the pages,
When the pages come up they're always an invitation to learning.
Um So there may be something there about sort of learning with this being in the position of adversity,
Learning things.
The hard way.
But also if we take this The core cards often represent,
As a set of archetypes which show up within all of us,
That they can be people as well.
So maybe we're dealing with situations in which there are people whose ability to Reason critically.
Um.
.
.
Or logically or act with justice.
Swords are also associated with justice.
Is not fully developed.
They're pages.
They're not knights,
Queens or kings.
They're right there at the very beginning of the sword's core.
So it may be that there are beliefs or narratives around us which are unhelpful.
But which nevertheless people are acting on.
Which are.
.
.
Not mature so this can be sort of black and white thinking this can be believing everything you hear without investigating it,
This can be sort of not thinking things through.
Um.
.
.
It can just be about uncertainty so watch out for that this month if you notice in yourself or in another and I think this will be around on a sort of more collective scale as well,
But it will show up in individuals.
A tendency to not be sure.
The mature way to.
Um.
.
.
You know,
We don't have to know everything all the time.
Nobody knows everything all the time.
So the mature way if you find yourself in a page of sorts.
Situation where you don't know.
You don't understand that swords can be about understanding.
The mature way to handle that is to.
.
.
Admit that you don't know.
It's okay.
It's okay not to know everything.
A knee.
I'm not quite going to say danger,
But any sort of danger.
Adversity this month might come from this fear of Um.
.
.
For some people,
This fear of not being able to admit to not knowing,
To not having all the information or to not knowing how to use the information properly.
Okay.
So,
Our next position then?
Is the nine of wands.
This is about self-advocacy.
How can you stand up for yourself this month?
How do we stand up for ourselves?
And this one,
This one's leapt out.
And it's a major Arcana,
It's the four.
Erm.
.
.
So this is our first major arcana in the reading.
And it's interesting for it coming up in this position of how we stand up for ourselves,
Our self-advocacy,
Because the fool is really kind of carefree.
You see them there,
They're stepping off this cliff.
We can't tell.
How deep the fall is.
We don't know if they can tell.
They're not looking.
They've got their eyes closed.
They're smelling this beautiful purple rose.
They've got a satchel,
They've got their little dog with them.
And the fall is this archetype of Um.
.
.
It's about faith,
It's about trust.
All the things associated with foolishness.
So sometimes it can be just about being a bit daft.
And sometimes it can be about not looking before you leap.
And sometimes it's about trusting that all will turn out okay.
It is the card in the major arcana that can appear in any position.
About 100 years ago onwards,
After the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot on which this deck is based,
First came out the four was placed at the beginning of the major arcana,
But until that it was more of a kind of Joker card So one that could turn up at any point and sometimes the journey through the major arcana and the major arcana are about Big lessons,
Big energies are with us.
Sometimes the journey through the major arcana is called the Fool's Journey.
So the Fool becomes the protagonist of the journey through the tarot and a stage of the journey through the tarot at the same time.
Now,
In this position of how do we advocate for ourselves,
How do we stand up for ourselves,
There's an element here of not knowing when the fall comes up.
In a reading.
I often,
Or not often,
But sometimes it seems to be saying I can't answer that question for you.
So for some of us,
It will be that.
You know,
We just have to do it and we don't know how it will turn out.
Um.
.
.
And there is this element of,
You know,
We don't know what's going to happen.
But we perhaps need a little bit of the faith,
The trust,
The confidence of the four.
Sometimes when I spend my many hours self-advocating,
I get very,
Very caught up in the sense of what's right and wrong,
Justices and injustices.
And And so,
You know,
Spend a lot of time.
Writing to people or explaining to people that they have been ableist.
And Some of that is foolish,
As in some of that is an investment of my energy which has not got very good.
Return.
Not all of it.
I definitely feel that it's important for us to self-advocate where we can,
And when I advocate for myself,
I'm always doing it in the consciousness that there are other people in my situation who are not able at this time to advocate for themselves and that it's never just me I'm advocating for.
But sometimes we do have to be careful about our energy as well.
Where are we placing our energy?
But the Fool's also a card of good luck.
And,
You know,
Because the fall goes out there into the world and,
You know,
La la la la la,
No idea what's going to happen,
I'll just take a step off this cliff and see where I land.
There might be something there as well about sort of.
.
.
Putting some energy out into the world just to see what happens.
So instead of putting energy out into the world in this practice of self-advocacy with the intention that,
You know,
I want this particular outcome.
And often we can get caught up in that with self-advocacy.
We could we could just put the energy out there and then leave it there and wait to see what happens.
So that actually is a way to make self-advocacy a bit easier.
Do the act of advocating for ourselves.
Without being attached to the outcome.
And then finally,
Who's got a bat?
This month.
So who is standing up for us?
Who is standing up for you?
Who's got your back?
I will look at this.
So another major arcana,
It's the chariot.
And so here we have a very powerful looking woman who is standing.
She's got one foot each on a a motorbike.
She's standing there and she has a tiara with a star on it and she's got a wand in her hand and she's in this kind of power stance.
And this is the card associated with the astrological sign of Cancer,
Which is around for most of this month.
So for a start,
It's a very,
Very simple.
Um The energies are on our side this month.
Even though there will be adversity.
There's an invitation to kind of let the energies move as they will and ride those energies.
So the chariot is often about sort of how we Direct energy.
There's lots of that.
It's another major arcana card,
So kind of big energies,
Big life lessons,
Energies with us.
And with the chariot.
.
.
It's all about balance,
Especially when your chariot is two motorbikes.
You need to make sure they're both pointed in the same direction if you're going to ride them.
And so there is an element of skill and an element actually in this car particularly of risk-taking.
In doing that,
However the chariot when pointed in the right direction.
Can move very,
Very fast and very,
Very intentionally.
Um.
.
.
And so.
.
.
I think when the major Arcana card has come out as well in this position of like who's got our backs I see this in a couple of ways and one is that there is definitely back up on the on the energetic side,
So whether you have Um.
.
.
A practice which includes ancestors or guides or energies of any kinds that you work with.
They might be around,
You know,
With you having your back this month.
But also because this is a reading which is both personal and individual and also for our community,
Our collective.
It may be that there are sort of bigger organizations who are backing us and so again sort of coming back to the the events that have that inspired the shape of the spread today.
I know there are MPs who are refusing to vote.
For the disenfranchising changes here today.
There are people on this plane as well.
Definitely there is something about spirits,
Energies,
Ancestors and guides,
But also on this plane.
And the reality,
The ordinary reality,
There are people and organizations who have the capability.
Of standing up for you,
Of standing up for us,
Of having your back in whatever the adversity is that you're facing or that you might come across this month.
You are not alone.
There are I'm getting it almost as if,
Um.
.
.
It's like microcosms and macrocosms.
So whatever experience you have this month,
Whether it's adversity,
Whether it's empowerment,
Whether it's,
You know,
Just letting go of the outcome and seeing what happens,
This is happening on a larger scale as well as the Um.
.
.
The sort of personal and individual scale.
So I'll just leave that there.
I like as well.
So the knight of swords I chose for our champion is on a motorbike.
And I like that the Chariot also has motorbikes,
So we have here this kind of aligned energy.
That you know the champions.
On the order and reality.
Are backed up in the,
In the other realities that exist as well.
The macro realities and the non-ordinary realities.
And then finally.
.
.
The window of opportunity.
So what opportunities are around us this month where we can really Grab the magic.
Point the magic,
Direct the magic.
And,
Uh.
.
.
Accept the opportunity.
That is presented to us.
So where can we.
.
.
Enjoy some opportunity.
This month.
One of my very,
Very favourites,
Queen of Pentacles.
So this queen,
She's sat there in her garden,
She's enjoying her pentacle,
She's holding it in her hands,
Her eyes are closed.
She's got a little crown kind of hovering above her head.
She's framed by.
.
.
Roses.
Hair and she's got a It's like a rabbit but with antlers next to her.
Perhaps one of her guides?
Um.
.
.
I've just noticed as well that what she's sitting on is a scooter,
Which I haven't noticed in this deck before.
Um.
.
.
She just looks so content.
I'm the Queen of Pentacles.
Um.
.
.
So she has the maturity.
The queens,
By the way,
Can represent anyone of any gender.
The Queen of Pentacles has the maturity.
Of thee.
Um the court cards,
The pentacles court cards,
And the pentacles are about the material so they can be about money.
Our material resources.
The roof over our head,
For example,
The food that we have available to us,
But also about our bodies and our relationships with our bodies.
I've been meditating with the Queen of Pentacles and with how we relate to our bodies.
I might put some work out.
On this in the next coming months.
So I think she might be about that this month,
You know,
How do we relate to our material reality,
Including the very real,
Very present and inescapable reality of living in a human body.
And bodies are funny,
Aren't they?
Because some things we have some control over,
And others we don't have any control over.
At all.
But the Queen of Pentacles.
She's in there.
Her body to start with.
Sometimes when we don't get along with our bodies we can kind of cut them off a bit we can or something happens we can kind of dissociate from them a little bit but the queen of pentacles feels safe in her body.
So this can be an invitation to In a way that is safe,
I know that everyone's experience and previous experience will be different.
But explore our bodies in a way that's safe.
Perhaps we can find ways to feel pleasure in our bodies.
And to find that pleasure in a way that is that continues to be nurturing for our bodies.
Sometimes we can do things that feel nice or taste nice,
Where we get momentary pleasure.
For our our experience of living in a body,
But in the longer term,
It's not great for our health.
So there's something there about the.
.
.
Um.
.
.
The balance,
We have the chariot here.
So needing to have those two motorbikes in alignment of pleasure but also comfort.
What is good for you?
So the Queen of Pentacles is here to invite us.
This month is a really good month for exploring your relationship with your body,
Your relationship with your finances,
Your relationship with your home.
Your relationship with the earth.
The planet Earth and whatever bit of the Earth.
That you are that you're inhabiting at this moment.
So this is our.
.
.
Our invitation,
Our opportunity.
This is where the magic is this month.
It's in.
.
.
The material and it's in having a mature relationship with the material but one that can be pleasurable and one that is nurturing as well.
So I said at the beginning that I'd come back to this card because I think it's one of the most important cards in the reading and it is the message that I'd like to leave you with.
Um.
.
.
And this position is,
You know.
.
.
What do you offer to the world?
And we got the two of cups.
So love the most important thing to remember.
This month.
Is that you are love.
And your existence increases the amount of love in the world.
That's the message I'd like to leave you with.
Thank you very much.
