tarot for the post-election hangover

Resources mentioned:
urgency in white supremacy culture
ten things to do if trump wins
pulling cards in an uncertain world
grieve first.
new ways to work with me
grief support resources

A few folks to follow: juliet diaz; lane smith; cyree jarelle; tehlor kay

Previous CARD TALK episodes you might find helpful:
ways to use the tarot (beyond readings)
reading tarot while stressed
tarot (books) for collective liberation
tarot for grief
tarot for hope

Tarot spreads:
identifying your role
resources & resilience
specific activism roles spreads
spreads for anger, release, and calm
daily commitments 

For more on Meg, check out 3amtarot.com, and order your copy of Finding the Fool through Bookshop.org or your favorite local bookstore.

Find episode transcripts and more over on the CARD TALK website. And as a special thank you for CARD TALK listeners, click here to download a completely free, exclusive workbook for building your best personal tarot practice.

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CARD TALK is written, edited, and produced by Meg Jones Wall of 3am.tarot. Theme music created by PaulYudin.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 0 (00:00):
Today's episode is not really an episode, or rather
, it's not the usual tarotlessons that I share here.
I have tried to record a longerepisode about a dozen times now
, but the truth is that I don'treally have it in me to record
my planned episode about theminor arcana right now.
Instead, I'd really like tojust offer you a couple of

(00:20):
gentle suggestions for thingsyou can do right now, some
things you can read, some thingsyou can listen to, some things
that might feel helpful for youright now, in the wake of the
presidential election here inthe United States.
Now, I know that all of youdon't necessarily live in the
United States, and I know that,especially if you don't live
here, you might be really,really tired of hearing about

(00:41):
Trump and his administrationfull of Nazis.
Trust that we're sick ofhearing about it too, but I live
in the United States and themajority of you do too, so it
just feels weird to notacknowledge it and talk about it
and give you some strategiesfor things that you can do right
now to manage whatever heavyemotions you are trying to sift
through.

(01:01):
This is not going to be a longepisode, but I did want to
provide a couple of things thatI hope can help you meet the
moment and start to make someplans for how you can show up
for yourself, your loved onesand your communities in the
months and years to come.
First, I just want toacknowledge that emotions are
heavy for so many of us rightnow.
If you are drowning in grief, Ireally encourage you to give

(01:24):
yourself the time and space toactually hold the grief, to
acknowledge the grief and to beclear.
Your grief might notnecessarily look like sadness or
mourning.
Your grief might look likeanger.
Your grief might look likehelplessness.
Your grief might look like adesperate need to do something,
to be productive, to get back towork, to focus on something

(01:46):
that you can control.
Grief takes a lot of differentforms and all of them are valid
and all of them can actually bereally healthy and useful.
But I really want to encourageyou to take a little bit of time
to ask your grief what it needs, to consider how your grief
shows up in your daily life, andto start to meet your grief, to
make a companion of your grief.

(02:08):
You don't have to solve or fixyour grief in order to take
action and really start to makemeaningful change in your
communities, but you do have toacknowledge the fact that your
grief is there.
I also want to remind you thatwhite supremacy culture has a
number of characteristics, oneof which is urgency this sense
that we have to do something,that, even if the thing is not

(02:31):
perfect, doing something isbetter than nothing, and in some
cases, that's a great way to be.
But when it comes to activism,when it comes to organizing,
when it comes to social justicemovements, urgency is rarely
helpful.
And if you are someone thatreally wants to start getting
more involved in your community,that wants to take a bigger
role in mutual aid organizationsor community care, I really

(02:55):
encourage you to move slowly andintentionally rather than
acting as quickly as possible,just so you can say that you're
doing something.
I recently read a reallyfantastic article that's been
making the rounds on socialmedia from organization Waging
Nonviolence, and the article iscalled 10 Ways to Be Prep,
prepared and grounded Now thatTrump has won.
It's by Daniel Hunter and itwas published on November 4th

(03:17):
2024.
And I am going to link to this,as well as a couple other
pieces in the show notes,because I think it is just an
incredibly powerful andpractical read for anyone who's
feeling some kind of way in thewake of the election results.
But I especially want tohighlight point number five in
this 10 point list, which isfind your path.
I have done a number ofdifferent tarot spreads around

(03:39):
the roles that you can fill inthe revolution or the ways that
you can show up for yourcommunity.
I will also link to those inthe show notes, but I've shared
them on Instagram in the past.
But I really like that thisarticle groups these different
ways of showing up or roles thatcan be taken in rethinking our
world and rethinking our systemsinto four real categories.

(03:59):
I think that when it comes tofinding our path and thinking
about how we can show up,considering the resources and
skills that we have at ourdisposal, tarot can be
incredibly useful as a tool forreflection and for
self-awareness.
But whether you are focused onprotecting people, on harm
reduction and protecting moremarginalized communities,
whether you're focused ondisruption and disobeying, like

(04:22):
strategizing acts to supportdisobedience and protest policy,
whether you want to focus ondefending civic institutions and
safeguarding democracy,protecting elections and voting,
et cetera, or whether you're inthe world of building
alternatives, right Parallelinstitutions, alternative party
platforms, healing culturalbuilding, et cetera.
The tarot can help support you,no matter what you're going to

(04:43):
do.
If you are in a space right nowwhere all you want to do is be
productive, take action, getplugged into local community and
start building or contributingsomething, I really want to
encourage you to use the cardsand ask them how you can help,
how you can show up and how youcan take care of yourself
through the process.
I will offer some additionalspreads that you can check out

(05:04):
in the show notes, but I alsohighly encourage you to just
think about how the cards cansupport you, journal through
that and come up with your ownquestions to ask the cards.
See what comes up when you havea conversation with the tarot
and see how the tarot wants toencourage you to show up for
your community.
No matter who you are, even ifyou're immunocompromised, even
if you're disabled, even ifyou're chronically ill, even if

(05:26):
you have an incredibly demandingjob or a really busy family
life, all of us have ways thatwe can show up and contribute
and I really want to encourageyou to use the tarot as part of
this reflection.
I wrote about this recently ina newsletter that I'll link, but
using tactile tools like thetarot to help yourself slow down
, control your breathing, checkin with your body and really

(05:48):
allow yourself to slow down andjust practice some introspection
and reflection literally has asoothing physical effect.
It can literally help yournerves.
It can literally help yourblood pressure.
It is literally actually goodfor you and calming you down,
and so if you are vacillatingmore on the frantic panic kind

(06:08):
of side of it, I highlyencourage you to find ways of
working with your cards of whichI'm going to share some
different podcast episodes whereI've already offered some
different strategies for thisbut ways that you can work with
your cards.
That's going to feel reallycalming and soothing, help you
slow down and focus on what youcan do, rather than panicking
about all that you can't do.

(06:28):
No one can change all of thisalone.
These are giant destructive,harmful systems and it's going
to take all of us to fix them,to change them, to tear them
down and to build up new ones,and so I really want to
encourage you to consider howyou can show up with humility
and energy, rather than feelinglike you have to start something
from scratch.

(06:49):
Reinvent the wheel or lead inan area where you're still
learning.
Show up to organizations thatalready exist and figure out how
you can plug yourself in andoffer whatever resources are at
your disposal.
Think about what you're reallygood at and what you already
have to offer, and find ways toput those things to use.
Yes, there are going to beopportunities for all of us to

(07:11):
learn new skills in the comingyears, but you don't have to
learn how to do everything.
That is what community is for.
That is how we lean on eachother and grow together.
Now, I am not a professionalactivist or a professional
organizer, so the last thingthat I'm going to throw into the
show notes are some folks whoare some people that you can
follow, people, particularly,who use spiritual tools in order

(07:33):
to help with their organizingand activism.
I also really want to call outspecifically the episode I did
on tarot books for collectiveliberation.
All five of the books that Italk about in that episode will
be incredibly helpful for anyonewho wants to use tarot to
support their activism, theircommunity building or their
social justice work.
Tarot can be a really powerfultool for you right now and, even

(07:57):
if you don't feel like pullingcards or asking questions, using
the cards to journal, findingan archetype to work with that's
going to feel really supportiveand nourishing or energizing or
inspiring right now can be agreat way to keep integrating
these kinds of small dailyrituals into your life as a tool
for grounding and nourishment.
Please don't abandon the thingsthat you know work for you

(08:18):
right now, especially if you'refeeling really stressed or
really grief stricken.
Now.
I will be back next week with amore standard episode.
We're going to talk about theminor arcana pips.
We're also going to talk aboutthe minor arcana court cards.
So these are all drafted andready to go.
I just didn't really want totalk about that right now.
I really wanted to talk aboutsome some general thoughts

(08:39):
around activism and collectivework and community care, and if
you are looking for ways to workwith the tarot, especially as a
tool for navigating grief, orif you are starting to think
about the end of 2024 and movinginto 2025, and you want to work
with community or journalingthrough the cards in order to
explore that more deeply.

(09:00):
I have a bunch of new resourcesand things available for you to
help you along the way, so I'malso going to include all of
those in the show notes.
These are going to be huge shownotes this time, but from a
December card container onreflection to a January
journaling series, as well as acouple of exciting new things
that I haven't even gotten toannounce yet, I would love to
work with you right now.

(09:20):
Thank you, as ever, forspending time with me today.
I know this was a bit of anunconventional episode, but
again, I hope it's beensupportive for you and I will be
back again soon with more cardtalk.