Cancer loves, Cancer holds, Cancer nurtures.

Cancer will also snap your arm right off if you threaten what they love.

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The Full Moon is arriving today in Cancer, and while I see many mentions of this water sign's homemaking and nurturing energies, I don't see much about Cancer's ability to protect and fight back.

Cancer loves, Cancer holds, Cancer nurtures.

Cancer will also snap your arm right off if you threaten what they love.

With my beloved city in flames for days on end, entire communities being displaced and losing their homes, I am welcoming Cancer's waves of protective enveloping. I am grateful for the hard outer shell that keeps danger at bay and the claw that pinches threats to pieces.

And that is the energy with which I pull this Weekly One, a question about Full Moon fruition: how do YOU protect what you are building with loving, intentional hands? How do you defend it, nurture it, encourage it to grow even in the face of hardship and threat?

When I look at this card, I see a wise ruler, clear-headed and calm. I see a cloak, not only of fabric, but of night sky. It’s the stillness and protection of rest and low-light. I see a sword, unsheathed and ready for use, but also held in a position that suggests it will not be employed unless the wielder is provoked.

I see a butterfly, which only comes into existence after being cocooned and protected and held through change after change. I see twin moons that mirror each other like book ends on the countless forever-cycles of life.

Nurturing doesn’t only happen in softness and cushioning. It happens in sharp corners and impossible angles. Defense isn’t always fighting and conflict. It can look like an embrace, it can feel like a blanket. Water doesn’t have to drown. It can nourish and support.

The way this Cancer Full Moon plays out in your life, the way it is right now, isn’t something I can prescribe. It’s available energy that you get to direct as you see fit. You know what exists in that tender interior at the heart of your motivations and intentions. You mold the shapes of your shell and your pincers. You decide where and when to retreat into the sand and when to raise your weapon and take a stand.

So I’ll ask you again: how do you protect what you’re building?

Hit reply and let me know what comes to mind.

Until next week,

Zoha

PS - The Arcana Shift is a labor-intensive, reader-supported publication.

Did you find this post helpful or valuable in some way? Consider becoming a paid subscriber or leaving a one-time tip to show your support:

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About The Author:

Zoha Abbas is a Writer, Editor, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach. She explores conversations around the importance of creativity, self-trust, critical thinking and context in forging your (not so straight) path to success within the grey-area of real life. Find out more at zohaabbas.com

For inquiries, please email: zoha@zohaabbas.com

Which, frankly, feels like the most dishonest and careless way to interact with, acknowledge, think about, accept, the part of this journey that makes the biggest fucking difference to the outcome. This is not say that I think we should be glorifying the struggle, but what if the middle could be messy without it being something to be ashamed of?

Welcome to The Weekly One! Each week, I pull a Tarot card to help you focus your intuitive energy in real life, and take action with intention inside your business.

I pull these cards with the collective energy of my community in mind, but if you want a custom spread of your very own, you can get it right here.

Know someone who might like this newsletter as much as you? Help me reach more people who would enjoy and find value in this weekly missive!

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In The Card: Sticking up for your spark.

Sevens reveal the in-between. They bring a moment of reassessment, the question “what now?” There’s a feeling of wayfinding, double-checking directions, reaffirming past decisions that have allowed us to progress from the beginning to this messy middle where everything’s in motion and needs to keep moving. It’s uncomfortable, sure - but growth is uncomfortable.

The VII of Wands arrives this week to ask us: what’s so worth this fight we’re fighting? We can’t fight for all the things all the time, but the really important things are worth the pushback. What is that thing for you right now?

The suit of Wands deals with our core motivations and deepest passions. It’s the creativity and drive that envelopes us as we hatch another awesome idea, the heat and magnetism of a gorgeous love affair, the entrepreneurial problem-solving that allows us to build something of value that no one has ever seen built quite like this.

This card in particular has a lot of action in it. There’s a need for defense and strategy. There’s also an energy of loneliness or on-your-own-ness here: if there’s something you need to defend, you need to find a way to trust yourself and defend it. You might be the only one who thinks it’s worth the fuss, (but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth the fuss.)

In Between: What’s actually worth it?

Today brings the third quarter Moon and the opportunity to fully release, accept or integrate whatever we need to.

Mercury is stationing direct this Wednesday, and perhaps the revisions and reassessments that have been brewing in your psyche for the last few weeks finally fall into a pattern that provides some clarity.

What’s the big idea, and what’s the fluff that fell away?

And what is all the messy action you’ve taken to get to this realization?

In Your Business: Stay true to what matters.

Sometimes we have to fight for the thing to be made. Sometimes we have to make the thing and fight for it at the same time. Sometimes it feels like we’re the only ones who actually care about the thing. It’s a lot. It’s tiring.

But sometimes, it’s worth it.

This week, accept your messy middle for what it is: the primordial soup from which a universe is being birthed. Defend your mess. Show it some respect.

Just because something isn’t instantly productive or monetizable doesn’t mean it’s not worth your time, energy and protection.

Until next week,

Zoha

PS - The Arcana Shift is a labor-intensive, reader-supported publication. Did you find this post helpful or valuable in some way? Consider becoming a paid subscriber, or leave a one-time tip to show your support:

Upgrade to paid for just $5/month

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About The Author:

Zoha Abbas is a Writer, Editor, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach. She aims to explore the entrepreneurial conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. Find out more at zohaabbas.com

For inquiries, please email: zoha@zohaabbas.com

Welcome to The Weekly One! Each week, I pull a Tarot card to help you focus your intuitive energy in real life, and take action with intention inside your business.

I pull these cards with the collective energy of my community in mind, but if you want a custom spread of your very own, you can get it right here.

Know someone who might like this newsletter as much as you? Help me reach more people who would enjoy and find value in this weekly missive!

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In The Card: The Resource Keeper Checks In.

The King of Pentacles comes to us this week reversed. While sometimes reversals can read as loss or blocked energy and outcomes, this weeks reversal reads like a planetary retrograde.

That means revisiting, revising and reworking the things that merit a second look. More on that in a moment, but first: what is the King of Pentacles’ domain?

Like any other card from this suit, we’re dealing with the concept of physical resources. It feels important for me to remind you that while cash is an important physical resource, it’s not the only one. Think about your physical health and wellbeing, your connectedness to the Earth and the state of your physical space as well.

While Kings have a transitional, checked-all-the-boxes-and-ready-to-move-on energy, this card coming up reversed is asking us to go back and look at some important aspect of our physical resources that we’ve either neglected entirely, or a change in them that we may have neglected to adapt to.

The wonderful thing about the King of Pentacles’ energy is that they are adaptable. They’re flexible and knowledgable, able to use that knowledge to guide them through the change of season which they themselves represent. That kind of adaptability requires a lot of strength and self-trust, but the rooted quality of this card brings that energy in buckets.

In Between: Being Ready For Change.

I don’t all the way know how to be ready for change. It feels like there’s been an insane amount of change this year already, both on a global scale and for me personally.

My business has changed enormously, which has affected my finances both positively and negatively. It’s been hard navigating that kind of change without letting go of my vision and integrity, if only because financial uncertainty brings out a very special kind of trauma in me.

My health has changed drastically, from being very active and getting stronger to having my physical ability be in a constantly changing state. I got diagnosed with two different, delightfully layered chronic illnesses (don’t worry, I’m ok!) and am now navigating being in a body that has a variable level of ability and capacity on a daily basis.

My physical space has changed. We’ve rearranged and reset our entire living space because it was, quite frankly, not functional before. That’s meant a lot of recycling, cleaning and furniture tetris, which goes more slowly because of my limited and varying physical capacity.

I am in a space where I’m tired of change while continuing to crave it. I need change in order for the kind of desired improvement in my circumstances to exist, but the fact is that I can’t always control what kind of change I will encounter and when.

So what helps me be ready for it when it comes? What can I root myself into so that I can feel grounded and stable even when everything seems outwardly to be in a state of shifting like tides in the open ocean?

It might look different to you, but for me, these are a few ways this takes shape:

Physical activity. Whatever is possible that day, even if it’s just moving my legs into a different position.

Skincare. Clothing. Makeup. I love the sensory experience of washing my face and putting on my skincare. I love colorful things, and wearing colorful or patterned clothes and makeup bring me joy. These things soothe me, and they’re things I can actively affect on a daily basis while also giving me physical, visible manifestations and reminders of my own self-expression.

Friendship. I have a few trusted friends that I can call/text/voice memo when I need to sob or vent or talk things through. They remind me of my strengths and how to show myself compassion when I feel I have absolutely nothing to give. These are also the first people I call to help me celebrate my wins when change happens in my favor.

The actual readiness for change looks nothing like arming myself and turning to face the maelstrom. It looks like connection. It looks like finding joy despite the suck. It looks like reminding myself who I am and what I need and giving that to myself over and over and over.

In Your Business: The Intersection of Your Needs and Those of Your Business.

There was a Full Moon in Aquarius this morning at 11:26am PT. Aquarius is future-focused, innovative and community-oriented. Full Moons are a time of complete illumination and letting go.

If there’s something that’s come to light about how your needs overlap with those of your business, don’t ignore it. Is it time to let something go? Is it time to give space for a thing to grow?

The reversed King of Pentacles is asking for a reworking of sorts, something that works better for what you need now than for what was required then. Find a way this week to meet the real, current needs of the Owner and Business that are moving forward into a new season and a future full of possibility.

Change is inevitable. Finding ways to give yourself what you need to weather that change is (at least partly) in your control.

Until next week,

Zoha

PS - The Arcana Shift is a labor-intensive, reader-supported publication. Did you find this post helpful or valuable in some way? Consider becoming a paid subscriber, or leave a one-time tip to show your support:

Upgrade to paid for just $5/month

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About The Author:

Zoha Abbas is a Writer, Editor, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach. She aims to explore the entrepreneurial conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. Find out more at zohaabbas.com

For inquiries, please email: zoha@zohaabbas.com

Welcome to The Weekly One! Each week, I pull a Tarot card to help you focus your intuitive energy in real life, and take action with intention inside your business.

I pull these cards with the collective energy of my community in mind, but if you want a custom spread of your very own, you can get it right here.

Know someone who might like this newsletter as much as you? Hit the button below to share—the more, the merrier!

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In The Card: Craving the soft life.

Another reversed card from the suit of Pentacles comes our way this week. The IX of Pentacles, when upright, is about the rewards of supreme contentment that come from putting in the time and energy to cultivate one’s garden. It’s a moment of pause and acknowledgement.

When this energy shows up reversed, that pause and acknowledgement still remains, but I find it shows up in moment where we’re wondering “how do I get over there from all the way over here?”

Another thing that remains is the approach of transition to a new cycle brought to us by the numerology of 9. While this card may not exactly be the signal that you’ve made it and everything’s going dandy-doodles, it’s still a bringer of some kind of closure or shift. The shift might just be that you’re good and tired of this bullshit and you’re ready to try something different, but it’s still a shift. Closure isn’t always fun, I continue to find…

If your garden seems a far way off from growing into the lush and luscious destination for the unhurried afternoon strolls of your dreams, I get it. It’s frustrating (to say the absolute least.) That feeling personally makes me weep a lot more than I’m comfortable with. But this card’s energy, especially in this specific moment, also brings a clear opportunity to look at the big picture, unpick tangled threads and reroute your path to success.

What you’re hoping for isn’t entirely out of reach, you’re just not there yet. Yet is the operative word here.

In Between: Change.

Lately, it seems like everywhere I look, no matter who I talk to, we all feel like we’re getting kicked while we’re down. It’s hard to stay upbeat with a positive outlook when we’re all overloaded, overwhelmed and just plain over it.

But my ADHD and compulsion to creative problem-solve don’t let me rest. So even when I’m the most down in the deepest of dumps, I know that after I let myself sit there for long enough to acknowledge that this actually sucks super hard, I will go back to the drawing board and look for a different route through these woods.

Even if you’re not feeling the sting of struggle right now, (many congrats,) this card is still a sign to check on your shit. Is this actually what you want things to look like right now? Is everything growing in the way you want (and need) it to be?

Mercury just went retrograde in the meticulous, detail-oriented Earth sign of Virgo. And with the energy of a retrograde, it’s a great time to do some work behind the scenes and rework the plan so that it fits your current reality.

Even though what we want can feel so far out of reach, especially in moments of collective anguish and burnout, I have to believe there’s still a way to get there. The smallest, most baby of steps can make the biggest difference down the road.

I also know from personal experience that attempting to use the same old solutions in moments like these never works. It’s time for a reset, forced or otherwise, and resisting change right now could just make things harder.

In Your Business: Behind the scenes.

Reroute, refocus, revise. You’ve got about three weeks and some change until Mercury stations direct to look at what’s working and what’s not and set things to rights.

This week feels like the hard part: Ripping off the band-aid to look at and accept what is, even if it’s worse than you thought, in order to make a realistic plan that gets you back on track.

If you can bring yourself to do nothing else, hunker down, shield up and remember that this, like all things, shall pass. If there’s any constant that humans can forever depend upon, it is change.

Until next week,

Zoha

PS - The Arcana Shift is a labor-intensive, reader-supported publication. Did you find this post helpful or valuable in some way? Consider becoming a paid subscriber, or leave a one-time tip to show your support:

Upgrade to paid for just $5/month

Leave a tip to show your support

About The Author:

Zoha Abbas is a Writer, Editor, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach. She aims to explore the entrepreneurial conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. Find out more at zohaabbas.com

For inquiries, please email: info@zohaabbas.com

Welcome to The Weekly One! Each week, I pull a Tarot card to help you focus your intuitive energy in real life, and take action with intention inside your business.

I pull these cards with the collective energy of my community in mind, but if you want a custom spread of your very own, you can get it right here.

Know someone who might like this newsletter as much as you? Hit the button below to share—the more, the merrier!

Share

In The Card: Someone lends a hand.

A helping hand arrives in the nick of time with the VI of Pentacles this week. If you’ve been feeling like your physical resources have been running dry, this might be exactly the energy you need at exactly the moment you need it.

Pentacles are often associated with money and finances - this suit is even referred to as the suit of Coins in many decks - but I find that physical resources often go far beyond the cash we’re taught to consider the most valuable resource possible.

I see it manifest in finances, yes, but also in physical vitality, connection to nature and physical space. Those, too, are physical resources that contribute to our overall success.

Numerologically, VI has a connected quality. In Tarot, the sixes always come with a feeling of community and strength in numbers. It brings the idea that if we work together to help each other, we all come out ahead. There’s a huge sense of relief that lives in this card, and I am honestly very glad to see it 😅

In Between: Giving and getting.

Learning to acknowledge and accept help can be a weird thing. We value self-reliance so highly in our culture that the simple idea of accepting someone’s help can seem like having your legs cut out from under you. I think there’s also a resultant phenomenon where we also don’t offer help as much as we can give it. There’s a hands-off approach to relationships—whether family, friends, coworkers, randomly associated strangers on the street—that communicates: “I’ll cheer for you from the sidelines, but do it yourself.”

How does this end up isolating us from each other? How does it end up hindering us all? How does it stifle collective liberation from the systems designed to keep most of us UNsuccessful and forever striving?

There’s a New Moon in Leo on Sunday, and it’s the perfect time to consider the concepts of loyalty and generosity. Leo loves and loves hard. This sign makes family out of friends and comes out roaring to back them up in times of need. It’s a sign that loves center-stage, but it also loves giving to others.

Here’s the deal: I’ve never met a truly successful person who didn’t understand the value of help, both in receiving and giving it.

We don’t always have everything we want (or need) in order to change our context with a single action. But sometimes there’s just enough for us to make a small difference that can ultimately lead to big change. Sometimes that “just enough” comes from somewhere outside yourself and you’re reminded that there’s no such thing as “self-made.” Sometimes you’re the one offering “just enough” to someone else and contributing to their big change.

But none of this can exist without the concept of community and the approach to relationships that says “we’re all connected. I’ll help you in your time of need and I trust you will be there to help me.”

This also makes me think about the difference between “human resources” and “community care”. The former is a phenomenon that allows for the “using up” of people, turning them into inanimate things to be tapped into whenever and however much we need them without care or consideration for what they need.

Community care, on the other hand, brings to mind a feeling of support, acknowledgement and gratitude, and reciprocity. While community is still a resource made of humans, it asks us for a different approach, one that gives as good as it gets.

In Your Business: Letting the generosity flow.

Associated with the fixed deccan of a fixed sign, smack in the middle of Taurus, this card brings a sense of stability with it. But, we’re still smack dab in the middle of a journey with the VI of Pentacles - we’re not through the woods quite yet, but something shifts in our favor.

Remember that sense of instability from last week? Maybe this is the “ray of sunshine through the clouds” moment that helps you see what you need and accept the help that’s being offered to get you back on track. Maybe this is the lightbulb that flickers to life and illuminates a way in which you can offer help to someone in your circle who needs it.

Remember: finding your way to success is all about your unique context and using the resources you have to get what you need. While the VI of Pentacles isn’t exactly a huge windfall of cash, an entirely clean bill of health, a brand new office space - it’s still a move in the right direction. This is a moment of learning to use your limited resources to the best of your ability, and understanding that sometimes your resources are the people around you who really give a fuck about seeing you succeed.

This is also a moment of remembering that physical resources exist in much, much more than just money. What other physical resources allow you to continue moving toward your big vision?

This week, ask yourself: where are you resisting asking for or accepting help? Where are you resisting giving it? And what do your answers to those questions indicate to you about your sense of community?

Until next week,

Zoha

PS - The Arcana Shift is a labor-intensive, reader-supported publication. Did you find this post helpful or valuable in some way? Consider becoming a paid subscriber, or leave a one-time tip to show your support:

Upgrade to paid for just $5/month

Leave a tip to show your support

About The Author:

Zoha Abbas is a Writer, Editor, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach. She aims to explore the entrepreneurial conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. Find out more at zohaabbas.com

For inquiries, please email: info@zohaabbas.com

Welcome to The Weekly One! Each week, I pull a Tarot card to help you focus your intuitive energy in real life, and take action with intention inside your business.

I pull these cards with the collective energy of my community in mind, but if you want a custom spread of your very own, you can get it right here.

Know someone who might like this newsletter as much as you? Hit the button below to share this with them!

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In The Card: Ostriching?

Pages are naturally curious and in readings they often bring messages of new information or fresh transitions. They’re looking for stability, but they’re still inexperienced. They have a young energy to them, ready to go forth into new adventures and learn all they can.

The Page of Cups is no different, and their specialty is the flow of emotions and intuition. When upright, this card can signal new emotional beginnings or an intuitive download you’re learning to follow. The smol fish in their cup seems to be delivering fresh news, and sometimes almost feels gossipy to me.

This card comes to us reversed this week, and it reads like a pointed effort to ignore the message right in front of our noses, bad intel, or even old news.

When the suit of Cups shows up reversed, it makes me think of the water inside those chalices simply being dumped. Instead of us getting to put all that nourishing nectar of life to good, intentional use, it’s just sloshed all over the ground wherever it happens to land and that’s that.

With this Page, it could be that the good news you were expecting never came. It could also indicate bad information or that the news that did come is news you’d rather ignore.

In Between: Fire + Water = Steam.

The cosmic energy this week has us focused on the ideas of power dynamics and legacy. There’s also a lot of heat being generated which could create an explosive and argumentative vibe one day, and a fire under your ass to get shit done another.

You might feel really fucking pissed and really fucking hopeless at the same time. Given the last few weeks in US politics and world events on top of whatever you may have to wrangle in your personal life and business, I wouldn’t blame you. I’m tired. You’re tired. We’re all tired.

But as I mentioned, there are two kinds of heat here: one that burns indiscriminately, and one that acts as fuel. With this reversed Page of Cups thrown into the mix, this is a week to stop and think before we act. We might not be able to see everything clearly, and if we are ignoring the message, we may not even want to see things clearly right now.

What did yesterday’s Full Moon illuminate for you? It’s the second one in Capricorn in a row, and Capricorn is about order, discipline, structure. It has high standards that can lead to excellence or militance depending on how it manifests.

You can see in the image of the Page of Cups that the water behind them is neither calm nor rough - just moving. All this brings to mind the idea that feelings and divine downloads do nothing on their own. They’re ingredients to be taken and added to your latest brew, actively mixed with what you’re creating through doing. Creating through doing takes a LOT of Capricornian discipline and structure, but too much can lead to the chokehold of perfectionism and control.

There’s a heavy fog that might have settled over your plans, dimming your light and making it all a bit soggy. I don’t know if you wear glasses or not, but this feels like leaning over the stove, unlidding a boiling pot and having my vision disappear into the steam suddenly settled on my lenses.

I can’t see what I’m cooking. Hell, I can’t see, period. I have to wait until the steam clears - OR until I clean my fucking glasses.

In Your Business: Wayfinding through fog.

Reminder to us all: YOU CAN’T CONTROL EVERYTHING.

What you can do is assess what is, accept what comes and use what you’ve got to do what you can.

I realize that sounds vague, but life is vague. There is no “ideal situation”. The world is on fire right now, AND there are still moments of creativity and joy to be found. You are still working on a business you care about AND democracy is coming down around our ears like a giant jenga set.

There is no “all this” or “all that.” There is only everything, and you just do what you can in the moment you’re in. What can we do with what we’ve got?

This week, be mindful of your information sources, double-check the numbers, hold your tongue unless it really matters.

Remember how Pages are looking for stability but still have a lot to learn? This is a week for us to notice what our stability actually requires of us. The feeling of INstability that you might experience this week (or really, ever,) can help you reverse engineer your state of stability.

Pay attention to what you may be hiding from - it might just be the guiding light you need.

Until next week,

Zoha

PS - The Arcana Shift is a labor-intensive, reader-supported publication. Did you find this post helpful or valuable in some way? Consider becoming a paid subscriber, or leave a one-time tip to show your support:

Upgrade to paid for just $5/month

Leave a tip to show your support

About The Author:

Zoha Abbas is a Writer, Editor, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach. She aims to explore the entrepreneurial conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. Find out more at zohaabbas.com

For inquiries, please email: info@zohaabbas.com

Welcome to The Weekly One! Each week, I pull a Tarot card to help you focus your intuitive energy in real life, and take action with intention inside your business.

I pull these cards with the collective energy of my community in mind, but if you want a custom spread of your very own, you can get it right here.

Know someone who might like this newsletter as much as you? Hit the button below to share—the more, the merrier!

Share

In The Card: The lesson continues.

When we talked about this card last week, we talked about resting within the safety of your self-care bubble. We talked about the idea of self-sovereignty and giving yourself the space to rest the way you need to with whatever time and resources you have.

This week, I want to touch on the aspect of structure that exists in the IV of Swords. Structure supports, provides boundaries - not just for those within the structure, but for those outside of it as well. There’s an integrative quality to the structure presented to us in this card.

How do we incorporate pauses, breaks, rest, respite, recovery into the continuity of our daily work and lives? What kinds of walls need to be put up, taken down or moved in order for us to have ongoing access to our modes of rest?

The IV of Swords can be more than just a call for a nap (like, let’s do that too, but also…) It can be a call for healing. And sometimes we don’t realize what actually needs to be healed until we pause long enough for our thoughts to settle and the dust to clear out of our brains.

In Between: Rest as part of the structure.

The IV of Swords connects back to two other IVs in the Major Arcana: The Emperor and Death.

In the energy of The Emperor, we have truly wise and benevolent leadership. This is structure and stability that serves the good of the empire. This is where action happens for a reason instead of just for the sake of the action.

In Death, we see transformation. A clearing out of the old in order for the new to have space to thrive. The bringer of that change might seem scary or completely unknowable to us, but the only way forward is to accept the change and work with it.

There is a trigger here in this IV of Swords that’s following us around this month. There’s a button being pressed asking us to take another look at the way we’re treating our brains and our bodies; at the way our mind is driving our actions. Does it look that way that’s best for the empire of your life? Or are there some structural changes that need to be made?

There seems to be a LOT of planetary activity this week. Some of it tense, some of it harmonious and supportive, but all of it feels very charged for lack of a better word. Sunday especially looks SUPERcharged with a Full Moon landing in structure-loving Capricorn in the early AM.

I won’t go into the details, because there’s a lot (although, if you’re interested, just reply here to let me know and I’ll WAY MORE HAPPILY THAN YOU ARE PROBABLY PREPARED FOR go into those details!) Just think of this week as a QA run on your existence, with an opportunity to ditch the bugs on Sunday😅

There’s no better time than a moderately squirrelly one to practice caring for yourself, fulfilling your needs for rest and respite, and learning where your boundaries must be in order for your continued health and self-sovereignty.

In Your Business: Acknowledge, let go or accept.

Full Moons are big, bright and shiny: they illuminate everything that’s been sitting in the mysterious dark, bringing all the baggage and bullshit to the light. I know. Fuck.

There’s a spread I like to do for Full Moons that goes:

• What’s being revealed

• What’s being released

• What’s being reaped

Whether you’re using a Tarot deck or not, this is a great week to ponder on these questions. What’s coming to the surface as you allow your mind the space to rest and wander where it wants (or needs) to?

What’s happening in your business that you need to acknowledge, let go of, or accept?

You wouldn’t be here if your success wasn’t something that mattered to you, so please remember: you can make this whatever you want it to be, but not without facts and context in place first.

Until next week,

Zoha

PS - The Arcana Shift is a labor-intensive, reader-supported publication. Did you find this post helpful or valuable in some way? Consider becoming a paid subscriber, or leave a one-time tip to show your support:

Upgrade to paid for just $5/month

Leave a tip to show your support

About The Author:

Zoha Abbas is a Writer, Editor, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach who aims to explore the small business conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. Find out more at zohaabbas.com

For inquiries, please email: info@zohaabbas.com

Welcome to The Weekly One! Each week, I pull a Tarot card to help you focus your intuitive energy in real life, and take action with intention inside your business.

I pull these cards with the collective energy of my community in mind, but if you want a custom spread of your very own, you can get it right here.

Know someone who might like this newsletter as much as you? Hit the button below to share—the more, the merrier!

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In The Card: Rest.

Aah, the IV of Swords - respite from the swirl of overthinking and too much to process. But only if you lay down your sword and take it, hello.

Nobody is looking out for you in quite the way you need to look out for you, and rest won’t take itself. But this card presents us with the request for us to take a fucking break already while creating the energy that may finally feel like the permission slip we were looking for (even though you don’t actually need one from anybody.)

The number IV is stable, structured energy, creating a feeling of safety while we put up our feet. The world is outside, and will still be there when we get back. For now, our job is to stay in our safe bubble of self-care and self-sovereignty and take a fucking break already.

While the imagery on this specific IV of Swords brings a smile to my face, I have to make a disclaimer for us all: self-care isn’t about getting facials and massages once in a while. True self-care is a continuous practice in meeting one’s own needs. If you’ve back-burnered your own needs and mental health in favor of other people’s instead, here’s the reminder you need to take a fucking break already (and take a fucking break again.)

In Between: Understanding your needs so you can fulfill them.

The suit of Swords is concerned with our cerebral experience of life: thoughts, communication, our worries and our words. A lot of times, what’s happening inside our brains is spurring us into specific action without our even knowing why.

Do I actually want to be doing this thing, in this way, at this time? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I’m just caught up in the unrelenting pace of modern life and a set of systems all designed to tell me I’m only as worthy as what I can produce. Maybe I’m just acting on a knee-jerk reaction to an intangible and not-all-the-way-real fear.

Maybe I’m acting on a knee-jerk reaction to a totally reasonable fear, but I’m still allowed to take a break, even then. Yeah, I know! Even then!

Knowing why we’re doing something allows us to have more of that self-sovereignty brought to us by the number IV. We may not be able to instantly buck the systems of oppression and harm that keep us working, working and working some more. But knowing why we’re acting the way we are allows us to act differently when the why isn’t good enough to keep draining ourselves.

Venus is doing a few different things this week, and being the planet of beauty, love, the things we value and how, there’s a bunch of energy being created in support of you and your desires.

The thing you need in your rest may be very different from the thing that I need in my rest.

Where does Venus live in your birth chart, and what does that say about your desires and the way you show love? Not just to others, but to yourself?

If you don’t know the answer to that, is there something that’s been pushing on you from inside, something that has been practically begging you not to forget that it exists somewhere in the most joyful part of your heart? Try turning towards it instead of telling it “Not now, I’m busy.”

And if you’re not even sure where to start finding rest that truly refills your cup, try simply finding some time to hang around and do absolutely nothing. Literally block off time to let your mind wander - away from your work, away from your obligations. Grab a snack that you love, have a seat, sit, eat, stare, tune out.

In Your Business: Take a fucking break already.

When was the last time you actually did? When’s the next time you will? How long is it going to take for you to remember that you’re a human being that needs and deserves rest on a regular basis instead of allowing late-stage capitalism and other people’s expectations to grind you into a fine powder to be scattered to the four winds?

If you can’t do it this week, put that break on the calendar.

Remember: it doesn’t have to be a two-week first-class vacation to the Maldives (it can be, BUT,) it just has to be something doable for you, and dedicated to you: A weekend, a day, an hour, 15 minutes.

Do what you can with what you’ve got, but do it. Like I said: rest doesn’t take itself, and humans are much more than cogs in a wheel.

Until next week,

Zoha

PS - The Arcana Shift is a labor-intensive, reader-supported publication. Did you find this post helpful or valuable in some way? Consider becoming a paid subscriber, or leave a one-time tip to show your support:

Upgrade to paid for just $5/month

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About The Author:

Zoha Abbas is a Writer, Editor, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach who aims to explore the small business conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. Find out more at zohaabbas.com

For inquiries, please email: info@zohaabbas.com

Welcome to The Weekly One! Each week, I pull a Tarot card to help you focus your intuitive energy in real life, and take action with intention inside your business.

I pull these cards with the collective energy of my community in mind, but if you want a custom spread of your very own, you can get it right here.

Know someone who might like this newsletter as much as you? Hit the button below to share—the more, the merrier!

Share

In The Card: Hip-hip-hooray!

We’re ridin’ high and feelin’ fine with the VI of Wands. Whatever creative or passion-based endeavor we’ve been putting our hearts into lately is going the right way. Fuckyeah!

The energy of the number VI is about connection and community, reciprocity and relationship. You’ve achieved a great thing, and it was likely made possible by the support of your community. Your friends, your family, your partner, your biz buds - whoever you’ve found yourself confiding in and getting pep-talked by - are all celebrating with you in a real way. 💖

This particular VI is one I personally love to see in readings, especially when it comes to business, given the suit of Wands’ natural association with entrepreneurial pursuits. We move so fast sometimes that we forget to actually acknowledge and celebrate our wins, no matter how big or small they are.

As a neurodivergent entrepreneur, I often have a hard time celebrating my achievements because all I can see is the huge list of things still in front of me that I haven’t even touched yet. I also have trouble processing the “hooray!” of the moment because of delayed processing issues where I won’t even register that I’ve done a thing until later. Or an ever-present feeling of “Sure, I did it, but so have others, and it’s way easier for them. This isn’t something to celebrate out loud.”

This card is special because it’s asking you to take the time to pause, acknowledge what you’ve done - EVEN if it seems small or commonplace - and actually celebrate the win. I appreciate that, (and I hope you do too!)

In Between: At the intersection of hard reality and big dreams.

The cosmos is cosmos-ing as usual. Saturn just went retrograde this past SaturNday (🫨) and Neptune is hitting its moonwalk tomorrow. If you remember any of our previous discussions of retrogrades, you’ll remember that it’s a great time to “re-”: revise, review, rework, redo, reclaim, etc.

Saturn is a planet that deals with big life lessons, structure, limits and stamina.

Neptune is dreamy, idealistic and intuitive.

They’re both stationing retrograde in the artistic, intuitive, emotional mutable water sign, Pisces.

Smash all that together and what kind of energy does it create for you right now? And how does it relate to the win you’re allowing yourself meaningful space to celebrate?

There’s a gentle reminder that comes with the VI of Wands as well: “don’t get too cocky, you’re not done yet.” VI is only halfway through the suit, and that means there’s still a ways to go before you reach your destination.

Context is always key here. The VI of Wands has just come from the V of Wands, where you were juggling details and fighting to come out on top. We’re about to transition to the VII of Wands where you may need to defend your ideas and brace for further movement. What does that bring forward for you when you’re assessing the continuation of your path?

In Your Business: Connecting the dots

Alchemy happens when the unforgiving truth collides with our grand visions.

Saturn will be retrograde until mid-November and Neptune stations direct roughly three weeks later in early December. These next five months feel like they hold that challenging-yet-rewarding energy of finding the sweet spot where your future success exists within the context of your current resources.

This week, take your reflections from last week and use them to start assessing where you’re going from here. What do you have to work with? How has your last win set you up to progress further toward your ultimate goal?

Remember that, as an entrepreneur, much of the path you’re traveling may not have been charted before. Use your internal compass to create just enough of the map to get you to that next little step.

Before you know it, you’ll be sharing a whole new world with the people who helped you get this far.

Until next week,

Zoha

PS - The Arcana Shift is a labor-intensive, reader-supported publication. Did you find this post helpful or valuable in some way? Consider becoming a paid subscriber or leave a one-time tip to show your support:

Upgrade to paid for just $5/month

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About The Author:

Zoha Abbas is a Writer, Editor, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach who aims to explore the small business conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. Find out more at zohaabbas.com

For inquiries, please email: info@zohaabbas.com

Welcome to The Weekly Three! Each week, I share a three-card Tarot spread to help you focus your intuitive energy in real life, and take action with intention inside your business.

I pull these cards with the collective energy of my community in mind, but if you want a custom spread of your very own, you can get it right here.

Know someone who might like this newsletter as much as you? Hit the button below to share—the more, the merrier!

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In The Card: A way out.

The VIII of Swords is one of those cards that makes you think. Quite literally, when you see it upright, you might be overthinking yourself into a corner. But the imagery has always been a little curious to me…

Here’s this woman, blindfolded, trapped inside a makeshift cage of swords - only there’s nobody else around. The weather seems clear, both literally and symbolically, and there’s an idyllic-looking castle nestled in the cliffs behind her.

Who the fuck put her here? Why is she trapped? Why does she have to be standing in the ONLY fucking puddle on this entire field? Why has she been bound so loosey-goosey?

This VIII of Swords comes our way reversed this week, and the energy blocked by the reversal seems like stuff we really could do without in the first place. In this position, the overthinking becomes clear thought, a path forward presenting itself as if it had been there all along if only you’d changed your perspective sooner.

But, better late than never, and a way out is a way out - hooray!

In Between: Opportunity - if you want and if it’s right.

Mercury is doing the absolute most right now, and it will trine Saturn, square Chiron and sextile Uranus all before the week is out.

That means the planet of intellect and communication is coming into some kind of important contact and interaction with our life lessons, our wounds and healing, and our unique sense of reform and revolution.

To me, that kind of energy says realizations galore.

If you’ve been feeling fuzzy on certain aspects of your business, this might be a week when things start becoming clear to you. But the fun part about clarity is that you only accept it when you’re ready to.

How many times have you looked back on a situation, good or bad, and thought to yourself “well, shit - the signs were all there. All I had to do was open my eyes.”

When I see the VIII of Swords in a reversed position, it makes me think of that blindfold coming loose and succumbing to gravity. It slips right off, and now you can see.

The only question is: do you have the context and awareness right now to make sense of what you see?

In Your Business: Keep your gut tuned to your own answers.

This is a week to keep a notebook nearby. Any morning pages, moments of clarity or reflections before bedtime will likely serve you well - if not now, then later.

If you’ve been mulling things over in your business, try taking another look at the cold, hard facts in the light of day. Are there pieces to this puzzle that need finding? How have you gone about that before, and how did that process serve you?

If it’s time to try something new, give something old a new try, or just stop trying so hard, the answers might make themselves apparent to you by the end of the week.

If you’re paying attention to your own awareness and context, that is.

Until next week,

Zoha

PS - The Arcana Shift is a labor-intensive, reader-supported publication. Did you find this post helpful or valuable in some way? Become a paid subscriber or leave a one-time tip to show your support:

Upgrade to Paid for just $5/mo

Leave a tip to support The Arcana Shift

About The Author:

Zoha Abbas is a Writer, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach who aims to explore the small business conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. Find out more at zohaabbas.com

For inquiries, please email: zoha@theownershipmethod.com

It could be a project from before that’s coming back around to bite you in the ass, or something that isn’t turning out quite right in the present. Either way, it’s a moment for us to learn how to identify what kind of gap we’re working with so we can bridge it properly and move forward.

Welcome to The Weekly Three! Each week, I share a three-card Tarot spread to help you focus your intuitive energy in real life, and take action with intention inside your business.

I pull these cards with the collective energy of my community in mind, but if you want a custom spread of your very own, you can get it right here.

Know someone who might like this newsletter as much as you? Hit the button below to share—the more, the merrier!

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In The Card: A job not-so-well done.

The VIII of Pentacles comes to us this week reversed, asking us to take another look at the work we’ve done here. Is it truly the best we can do with what we have?

We’re looking at the realm of physical resources with the suit of Pentacles. Money, sure, but also our physical bodies, physical space, connection with nature, etc. In the number eight, we find the ability to succeed despite the odds, to find the resources we need and the gift of tapping into the generative quality of creation. With this number, we can take our desires and find the strength to make them real.

But the reversal here speaks to a job poorly done. We’ve been too hasty, or we don’t know what we don’t know, or we stopped giving fucks when the job actually required fucks to be given.

In Between: Checking our work.

Impatience and impulsiveness are hardwired into my brain. I hate it. Sometimes I feel ashamed of the decisions I made before I knew those things to be part of the landscape of my mental processes. But now that I do know, I find ways to double-check my decision-making, especially when I’m exhausted, frustrated or pissed off.

Even when I’m extremely excited (which is often!)

If I’m having a big emotional response to something within the scope of my business, I have to actively find ways of letting the feeling run its course. Then, I’ll slow my roll and look at the situation again:

Am I insanely optimistic because this is actually a golden opportunity, or because I’m impatient to get to a positive outcome?

Am I deciding to do a half-assed job because it will truly be good enough, or because I’m too tired to go the full-and-entire ass?

Am I angry because I can’t do it, or am I angry because I just don’t know how yet and that feels frustrating?

Sometimes the impatience and impulsiveness win. Sometimes I forget to do a gut-check. Sometimes I do a shitty job and only realize afterward what the real problem was.

That’s ok. But at least if I know how to identify those things and how they show up for me, I can course-correct and do a better job moving forward.

In Your Business: Where was the gap?

This week, take a look at a project that didn’t go (or is maybe in the process of not going…) so well. Is there anywhere that you can identify a gap in patience, ability or knowledge?

If so, is there anything that indicates a common way in which that thing manifests for you? If you can identify it, you can work with it, through it or around it however you may need to in order to fix the current situation and in the future.

Until next week,

Zoha

PS - The Arcana Shift is a labor-intensive, reader-supported publication. Did you find this post helpful or valuable in some way? Consider becoming a paid subscriber or leave a one-time tip to show your support:

Upgrade To Paid: $5/mo

Leave A One-Time Tip

About The Author:

Zoha Abbas is a Writer, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach who aims to explore the small business conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. Find out more at zohaabbas.com

For inquiries, please email: zoha@theownershipmethod.com

Welcome to The Weekly Three! Each week, I share a three-card Tarot spread to help you focus your intuitive energy in real life, and take action with intention inside your business.

I pull these cards with the collective energy of my community in mind, but if you want a custom spread of your very own, you can get it right here.

Know someone who might like this newsletter as much as you? Hit the button below to share—the more, the merrier!

Share

In The Card: In with the old, out with the new.

This week, the Ace of Wands comes to us reversed. A new flame fizzles, a fresh idea falls flat and your motivation goes kaput.

When I see an Ace in a reversed position, sometimes I read it as “do not pass GO.” Other times I can see it as “not this” or “go back.” Today, it feels like “what was so wrong with the thing from before?”

Especially because the suit of Wands is so entrepreneurial, this reads especially like a request to reconsider the revisions. Might this process, this sales page, this offer, this post already be good enough as it is?

In Between: Fixing what isn’t broken.

In small business, and especially in a micro- or solo-business, there’s so much we do because we can. There’s freedom and agility in being a “small” operation (in quotes because “small” business doesn’t mean you’re not doing BIG things.)

We can redo, tweak, revise, change, shift until the cows come home and still keep moving forward. The only problem here is that the cows never actually do come home, do they? They’re forever out on that pasture, grazing away, while we’re back on the farm fixing and changing and do-overing.

But how much of that is actually helping us? And how much of it is just keeping us busy while we wait for cows that have long since moved on to greener pastures?

In Your Business: Where DON’T you need to “innovate”?

This week, take a look at where you might be trying to break something simply to have something to fix.

What’s already working in your business? (And why does that freak you out enough to want to change into something else?)

There’s a New Moon tomorrow morning at 5:38am PT in Gemini. This is a great time to set intentions around overthinking, approaching things with logic and bringing extremes to the middle through balance.

Until next week,

Zoha

PS - The Arcana Shift is a labor-intensive, reader-supported publication. Did you find this post helpful or valuable in some way? Consider becoming a paid subscriber or leave a one-time tip to show your support:

Upgrade To Paid: $5/mo

Leave A One-Time Tip

About The Author:

Zoha Abbas is a Writer, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach who aims to explore the small business conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. Find out more at zohaabbas.com

For inquiries, please email: zoha@theownershipmethod.com

There’s the potential for deepening your evolution, progressing on your path. There’s also the potential for staying wrapped in the familiar and scratchy blanket of old hurt.

Tending your wounds is on the menu this week, wherever you may be on your healing journey.

Welcome to The Weekly Three! Each Monday, I share a three-card Tarot spread to help you focus your intuitive energy in real life, and take action with intention inside your business.

I pull these cards with the collective energy of my community in mind, but if you want a custom spread of your very own, you can get it right here.

Know someone who might like this newsletter as much as you? Hit the button below to share—the more, the merrier!

Share

In The Card: Celebration and a commitment.

(If you’re a regular reader, you’ll notice the difference - I’m sharing a single card this week instead of three! Let’s dive in.)

The IV of Wands is such a beautiful card. There’s so much joy and celebration here. You’ve done a thing! It’s a big thing! It’s a thing that matters and we’re really stoked on that! Celebration is most definitely in order.

There’s also a lot of fire here: Wands are classically super-haht on things like romantic passion, creative passion, entrepreneurship, internal drive.

This is also a card with big stability vibes. Combine that sense of stability with the energy of the suit of Wands and you’ve got: a commitment to something that feels meaningful to you and a happy win that signals the start of the real work.

In Between: Active healing.

The IV of Wands is associated with the final ten degrees of Aries, where later this week (on Wednesday, to be exact,) we’ll see Mars (more fire!) coming conjunct with Chiron.

Chiron is also called the wounded healer. In your chart, it can show where you have a deep wound and also where you’ve maybe gained some superpowers because of that wound. You may be positioned to help other people with similar wounds who haven’t come as far as you have in your healing simply because you know their pain so acutely.

With this week’s Mars-Chiron conjunction, look at the house where Aries lives in your chart. What kind of healing do you need around the life areas associated with that house?

Mars creates a lot of action, (for lack of a better word.) This planet can provide a lot of motivation and stamina and energy. It can also be reckless and hotheaded. This conjunction could create the energy you need to finally start, or deepen, healing those wounds. Or, it could create a scenario where everything about this hurts.

Given the energy of the IV of Wands for this week, I think there’s more potential for the former than the latter, but either way—be gentle with yourself.

In Your Business: How would the healed version of you approach this scenario?

There are so many things I’ve done in my business that have been a direct result of hurt and trauma. They don’t always work out so great. In fact, they usually just end up reinforcing the pain.

But when I consider a different approach, something that I may never have considered before, I get a result that not only comes from a place of healing—the simple process of considering an action instead of a reaction often heals me more. Even when the result is less than ideal.

Maybe because there is a notion of having been freed from my own pain. Instead of continuously banging my head against the same wall over and over, I have the ability to do something different. At the absolute bare minimum, it means I can choose a different wall, any wall I want, instead of this played out old facade.

But in the grand scheme of things, it means I have options. I can try things on purpose until I find what actually works for me instead of trying things that I know, (consciously or otherwise,) just plain don’t.

How would the healed version of you—the one who acts on purpose and has options—approach your business right now? How would that person approach this new commitment, this fresh win, this idea that’s proven itself but hasn’t come to full fruition yet?

Think on that this week as the energy aligns in your support. Onward and upward (and inward.)

Until next week,

Zoha

PS - The Arcana Shift is a labor-intensive, reader-supported publication. Did you find this post helpful or valuable in some way? Consider becoming a paid subscriber or leave a one-time tip to show your support:

Upgrade To Paid: $5/mo

Leave A One-Time Tip

About The Author:

Zoha Abbas is a Writer, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach who aims to explore the small business conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. Find out more at zohaabbas.com

For inquiries, please email: zoha@theownershipmethod.com

Welcome to The Weekly Three! Each Week, I share a three-card Tarot spread to help you focus your intuitive energy in real life, and take action with intention inside your business.

I pull these cards with the collective energy of my community in mind, but if you want a custom spread of your very own, you can get it right here.

Know someone who might like this newsletter as much as you? Hit the button below to share—the more, the merrier!

Share

In The Cards: Tired brains make shaky decisions.

The IV of Swords reversed feels like stretching yourself awake after the most blissful of naps. If it doesn’t, did you remember the part where you have to nap first?? Hopefully you’ve already heeded your need for rest instead of ignoring it and pushing through, and now you’re on your feet in fighting shape.

The suit of Swords represents our thoughts and communication, and this card especially makes me think of mental health and the reality of things like overstimulation, decision fatigue, depression, anxiety, mental load, etc. My combined ADHD and Autism never let me forget the full-body consequences of neglecting my mental health. Regardless of your neurotype, we humans invariably suffer when we ignore our the care we need in order to maintain our mental health.

The Ace of Wands comes rushing in on a hot gust and sparks a new idea that feels like fireworks in your belly. A new passion seems to be unfolding in front of you and you’re ready to pursue it. By all means, go for it. But check in on where you stand on that IV of Swords energy first…

The suit of Wands is inherently entrepreneurial and creative. It’s associated with your internal motivations and the things that light you up. It can be the heat that lifts the balloon, or it can be a fire raging out of control. Much of that depends on how you approach it.

The II of Cups is here asking us to double-check our sense of emotional balance when it comes to acting on the impulse provided by that Ace of Wands. Is everything flowing as it should? Is this an intuitive download, or a reactionary response?

In Between: What’s the difference between the tug of intuition and the tug of impulse/reactivity?

For me, it’s in the knowledge of what I’ll do if this specific idea fails.

It’s when I can conceive of a reality where this exciting new thing that fills me with hope could completely and entirely tank and tank hard. Even when I’m operating from a place of imagining what it looks like when it works and works well. Even when I’m envisioning the most grand iteration of what the idea could become and when I’m assessing what I have in front of me to work with in getting the idea as close to my grand vision as I can.

This is completely counter to the views of manifestation coaches and the “act-like-it-has-already-happened-ers.” I get it. And I don’t care.

I think the idea of being all-in and only thinking about “but what if you fly” and there being no plan B is delusional bullshit.

Finding success, making change, leaning in to growth is all nothing if not a string of do-overs, plans B and C through Z (and beyond.)

Unless you are a blessedly privileged human where everything is coming up roses + You, not being able to let go of the outcome of your experiment and understanding what you’d do should things go sideways is pure folly.

It was for me. I believed in “all-in”. I was too trusting of the wrong kind of advice and when I left corporate to go full-time in my business, I didn’t have any idea what I would do if it failed. Or grew slowly instead of quickly. Or needed to change to accommodate my life. As a consequence, I tanked good and hard with no way out.

I often contrast that experience with one I had some months after graduating college. I was working at a restaurant in a fancy hotel, losing my marbles and really not making enough to pay rent and student loans. I decided it was time to stop fucking around and put my degree to use.

I ended up landing a paid internship at an ad agency in Downtown LA. I lived in hotels for the first few months where I could get cheaper rates thanks to my connections at the hotel I worked at before. I was determined to land a salaried job at that agency. I worked and learned and asked questions and learned some more, and I got that salaried position.

In-between, though, I applied to other agencies. I kept networking and asking around about other open positions. I was lucky as fuck that this particular agency was hiring at the time that I was interning.

I had still taken a huge leap by dropping everything and moving to LA for an internship, but in that instance, I kept assessing and reassessing my options. Should my aim of getting hired at this one agency have come to nothing, I knew my exit routes—before I needed them.

The word “intuition” gets misused, in my opinion. It gets used to describe an impulse that must be acted upon without explanation, a pull that won’t leave you alone until it’s all you can think about, a message that simply fell into your lap.

I’ve experienced all of this. That’s not my intuition at work: it’s my AuDHD. Or my trauma. Or my fear, or lack of understanding of a situation.

When my intuition shows up, it has a reason. It’s connected to the context of my life. And it always understands what kind of support I need in order to act upon it’s insights.

In Your Business: Like I said, tired brains make shaky decisions.

I’ll ask you again: did you remember to take that nap? That break? That vacation? That time to unplug and care for your brain? Because if you haven’t, you’ll do yourself more harm than good by running after those new creative beginnings.

How does your cup need to be refilled? If you haven’t already, find a way to take care of this FIRST.

Once you’ve done that, assess whether this fresh idea is something “with legs,” as my creative director at that first agency job used to say. Is this something that’s fully grounded within the context of your life? Does it connect to where you are now, or is it a distraction pulling you off-track?

Proceed intuitively, as you see fit, with the ground firmly beneath your feet and your supports in place.

Until next week,

Zoha

PS - The Arcana Shift is a labor-intensive, reader-supported publication. Did you find this post valuable? Consider becoming a paid subscriber or leave a one-time tip to show your support:

Upgrade To Paid: $5/mo

Leave A One-Time Tip

About The Author:

Zoha Abbas is a Writer, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach who aims to explore the small business conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. Find out more at zohaabbas.com

For inquiries, please email: zoha@theownershipmethod.com

Like most answer-seeking, the endpoint doesn’t come with the identification of the answer, but with what you’re going to do with that answer (or not do, as you’ll see further down…)

Welcome to The Weekly Three! Each Monday, I share a three-card Tarot spread to help you focus your intuitive energy in real life, and take action with intention inside your business.

I pull these cards with the collective energy of my community in mind, but if you want a custom spread of your very own, you can get it right here.

Know someone who might like this newsletter as much as you? Hit the button below to share—the more, the merrier!

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In The Cards: What’s holding you back?

The Queen of Wands reversed is restless. Instead of nurturing a creative spark into a steady heat, she pushes that tiny flame too hard, too soon. Maybe the flame goes out, leaving you in the cold. Maybe it catches on the drapes and burns the house down.

Judgement comes and, reversed, you’re not ready. The final transformation being asked of you in order to ascend to the heights of The World, Major Arcana card twenty-one, is rejected. Why are you avoiding what’s necessary?

The Wheel of Fortune is at the bottom of its cycle in this reversed position. Luck feels like it’s run out, like you have to push twice as hard to get the wheel to turn.

In Between: The humbling in the dig.

Last week I sat down with my business coach and was like: “I stalled out.” I had a very clear plan of action, task lists that had been painstakingly broken down into ittiest-bittiest bits for my ADHD and put in a functionally obvious order for my Autism.

And yet: I got stuck in the weeds of my own logistical confusion. The kind of logistical confusion I can so easily pull my own clients out of within minutes.

What was going on?

There is a natural thing that happens for my neurodivergent brain when it comes to certain tasks that can make me stop in my tracks. Am I doing this the way it was intended to be done? Did I misunderstand what was meant? How does one get over this minuscule gap between steps and do it in such a way that it will set the right foundation for the following steps?

Sometimes I really, actually don’t understand. I need very literal direction at times. In corporate, this looked like “can I repeat back to you what I understood so I can make sure it’s what you need me to do?” When I’m coaching my clients, I realize this translates to giving very literal direction in order to make sure a plan or strategy feels clear and doable. But when it comes to my own work, I don’t have a different brain to double-check things with.

Thankfully, my coach was able to quickly make the invisible in-between steps of the process that had confounded me make quick sense.

Even still, I had a lingering feeling of “but, how?”

After a few minutes of playing is-it-this-wait-no-there’s-a-logical-reason-for-that, I realized that what was really happening was that completing these new projects and changing the way my business works was pressing on me. And not just pressing on NOW-me, it was pressing on the me that I was clinging to out of familiar comfort. Patterns that I had put in place to protect myself for years were being called into question, asked to become something else.

It didn’t matter if the directions were literal. It mattered that the literal directions made me have to literally change my approach to life on earth. I had to think differently about myself and my ideas and my worth and my money. If I completed all of the projects in front of me, I would have to be differently.

Acknowledging how uncomfortable and scary that was felt humbling.

Going after your goals and bringing a future vision to life isn’t just about doing, and doing fiercely no less—aggressively, actively, immediately.

It’s about realizing where you feel small. Where you need a workaround until something starts feeling natural. Where you need more support than you think you “should.”

This is not about “feeling the fear and doing it anyway.” As a highly dysregulated and currently burnt out neurodivergent entrepreneur, that phrase does nothing but infuriate me. This is about knowing your own requirements and figuring out how to meet them with what you’ve got. Being able to do that takes stepping out of activity and self-delusion and stepping into the reality of what’s creating the fear in the first place.

Honestly, if you feel the fear, don’t fucking do it anyway. That’s a surefire way of doing something from a place of panic and dysregulation. Why is there fear? Is it warranted? Is it just discomfort and not actual fear? How can you support yourself so that you aren’t scared out of your mind, and instead able to take one supported baby step after another into completely unknown territory until it becomes known enough?

In Your Business: What kind of support do you need?

What did you find last week when you got out your toolbox and started working? Was it perhaps that you can’t “hard work” your way through decades of societal programming, personal beliefs and old patterns?

If that’s the case, what kind of support do you actually need in order to get past whatever is holding you back?

There’s a New Moon tomorrow in abundant, slow, supportive Taurus. Set your intentions with support in mind and see what kind of you comes through the other side.

Until next week,

Zoha

PS - The Arcana Shift is a labor-intensive, reader-supported publication. Did you find this post helpful or valuable in some way? Consider becoming a paid subscriber or leave a one-time tip to show your support:

Upgrade To Paid: $5/mo

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About The Author:

Zoha Abbas is a Writer, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach who aims to explore the small business conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. Find out more at zohaabbas.com

For inquiries, please email: zoha@theownershipmethod.com

This week we’re looking at what it takes to finish the race, and what it even takes to know where the finish line is supposed to be in the first place…

Welcome to The Weekly Three! Each Monday, I share a three-card Tarot spread to help you focus your intuitive energy in real life, and take action with intention inside your business.

I pull these cards with the collective energy of my community in mind, but if you want a custom spread of your very own, you can get it right here.

Know someone who might like this newsletter as much as you? Hit the button below to share—the more, the merrier!

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In The Cards: Following through before moving on.

Craftsmanship, apprenticeship, learning the skills to pay the bills: all things that come with the territory of the VIII of Pentacles. This is a card that knows hard work and focused effort pay off. Since the suit of Pentacles is associated with the element of earth, there’s a feeling of needing to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty in order to really reap the benefits of this card. There’s a very tangible, physical quality to the approach required in acquiring new skills, shaping a structure and putting in the time it takes to do a thing right.

Another card asking us to put in the work arrives with the X of Wands. With this card, we’re taking a creative endeavor past the finish line. It might feel like a weighty burden that we’re really sick of carrying, but if we can just take these last few steps, we’ll have reached a satisfying conclusion.

The II of Wands reversed feels like a light scolding: “Blinders on,” it says. “No distractions until you finish what’s in front of you.” While you may feel a tug toward newer, shinier opportunities, this card, especially within the context of the full spread, is asking you to keep your eyes on the current prize. There will be time for exploration and expansion AFTER you finish what you’ve already started. Those new horizons will have to wait.

In Between: What is “followthrough”?

Followthrough can look like a lot of different things, but as a society, we seem to have a penchant for making it look so… severe. There’s a very harsh quality about the idea of “followthrough” for me that doesn’t have anything to do with actually following through. There’s a feeling of needing to apply a painful amount of force in order to have followthrough. You must be quick, you must be sequential, you must give something of yourself up in order to have followthrough.

People with excellent followthrough are people who won’t stop until a thing is done.

But following through on something that needs doing doesn’t really, in real life, require all that, does it? Like, you can take a break in between… the thing just needs to be complete within the parameters that have been set within this project’s specific definition of “done”.

And right there is the core of my issue with the concept of followthrough: why do the parameters for all the projects on earth have to be so whackadoodle that following through has to be so fucking heavy all the time?

I’m autistic with ADHD, and my process for following through on my intentions, goals and daily tasks can look really, really squiggly (for lack of a better word.) To make the ultimate understatement of the century: I have a hard time doing things, even when I want to - even when I NEED to - and finding a back door to finishing things has always been necessary for me.

I don’t know if it’s necessary for you in the same way, but I know that having times where you can’t seem to follow through, for whatever the reason at that moment, is a universal experience.

Maybe other, seemingly more urgent tasks get in the way.

Maybe you forgot.

Maybe you lost faith in your ability to get the thing done.

Maybe you’re waiting on missing information.

Maybe you just didn’t want to do it anymore, but now you’re coming back to it.

I don’t know.

Regardless of why it seems difficult to follow through on a thing, sometimes coming back to the parameters and definition of “done” might give you a little boost.

Sometimes it helps you realize that you never set them in the first place and you don’t know how to “done” this because you have no signposts to follow. You might have DONE been done with this, for all you know. And yet, this thing has been lingering, whispering not at all sweetly in your ear about your complete and utter lack of followthrough. In this case, check it off the list, move right along and stop being mean to yourself.

Other times, those parameters and definitions remind you of exactly what you need to do next in order to move this boulder over that hill, and it all seems less daunting. In this case, cool - get to it and stop being mean to yourself anyway.

And at other, other times, you might realize that the parameters and definitions you set were based on the aforementioned whackadoodle standards of colonized capitalism and other not so great systemic buffoonery. We make following through so difficult to begin with, it’s no wonder we burn out trying to get it done.

OF COURSE we’re stuck. OF COURSE we’re too exhausted to keep going. OF COURSE we would rather give up than keep subjecting our brains, bodies and souls to this kind of self-inflicted torture.

The businesses we start out of our heads come along with a whole slew of other things that also happen to be in our heads. Like our subconscious societal programming, for example.

Do the tasks and projects you’re responsible for have parameters and definitions that take your humanity and unique set of requirements into account? Or are you letting the evil overlords win without them even having to lift a finger? Without them saying a word about how you structure your projects? Without them even needing to have a face, a body, a number you can call to file an official complaint?

In Your Business: Get out your toolbox and get to work.

We just got through a huge “life edit” with the recent astrological transits of the past several weeks. You might still be reeling from new realizations, or you might just feel a sense of relief as some of the cosmic tension releases.

This is the period where the loose ends and unstable foundations you unearthed can be tied up and/or rebuilt.

I was listening to a podcast, and one of the guests stated, “The past predicts the future,” in reference to people’s behavior and habits. If this is true, then we are all collectively fucked.

This week, take a look at where your rules for setting rules need a tune up, and which projects you need to apply those new rules to so that you can get them done. Then: kindly, compassionately, humanely-

Get to work.

Understanding what needs to go and what needs to stay is only helpful if you can actively let go or hold on. This is a week to spend in the workshop with your tools and cleaning supplies. Dust and tweak and tighten and toss. Scrub and shape and sharpen and scrap.

The new space that emerges may just be the one to hold the fresh inflow of abundant transformation.

Until next week,

Zoha

PS - The Arcana Shift is a reader-supported publication. Did you find this post helpful or valuable in some way? Consider becoming a paid subscriber or leave a one-time tip to show your support:

Upgrade To Paid: $5/mo

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About The Author:

Zoha Abbas is a Writer, Editor, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach who aims to explore the small business conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. Find out more at zohaabbas.com

For inquiries, please email: zoha@theownershipmethod.com

Whether or not you actively choose that option is up to you. But be ready for the consequences, whatever your choice—those are inescapable.

Welcome to The Weekly Three! Each Monday, I share a three-card Tarot spread to help you focus your intuitive energy in real life, and take action with intention inside your business.

I pull these cards with the collective energy of my community in mind, but if you want a custom spread of your very own, you can get it right here.

Know someone who might like this newsletter as much as you? Hit the button below to share—the more, the merrier!

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In The Cards: A big question that only you can answer.

Are you ready to accept the change that needs to happen in order for you to grow?

The Devil is a puppet master. Whether we’re the ones being controlled or doing the controlling, we’re chained. Is it a misguided need to control all outcomes? Is it overindulgence or addiction? Is it a situation that feels like a cage? Whatever it is, it feels like it’s harming us more than helping.

Our own ambition begins to block the harmonious flow and unfolding of the very success we’re so desperate to get our mitts on. And perhaps it’s that desperation operating at the core of this feeling of being leashed.

Unmasking a thief or seeing through a scheme is possible with the V of Swords reversed. Instead of the sinking feeling that something’s not quite right with a situation, you’re able to see exactly what that not-quite-right thing is. You can see who’s trying to manipulate things to go in their favor, or why a deal puts you and/or others at a disadvantage.

There’s clarity and solid information to work with, even if that information is less than savory.

The World, upside down, says “go back to the beginning.” You haven’t learned the requisite lesson, or else you’re not ready to undergo the transformation necessary for you to level up.

Unless you accept responsibility for what you need to do, expect cycles to remain incomplete and for you to feel like you’ve been here before—even though you’re completely sick of “here.”

In Between: What does it mean to “take responsibility”?

Here’s something:

• The Devil is associated with Capricorn, the cardinal Earth sign that just so happens to be really, really into responsibility.

• The V of Swords is associated with the first ten degrees of Aquarius - where the deeply transformative phoenix rising from the ashes, Pluto, is currently hanging out.

• The World is associated with Saturn, that sage and and experienced hardass professor of life who consistently refuses to allow extra credit or grade on a curve.

If you have access to your birth chart, maybe checkout what’s happening…

And whether you’re into astrology or not, this week’s spread is asking all of us to take responsibility. But what does that mean, exactly?

Instead of telling you, because who the fuck am I, I’m going to ask you a series of questions:

1. What do you need to take responsibility for?

2. If you don’t currently have it, who had the responsibility before and why did you let them have it in the first place?

3. What does “taking responsibility” feel like in this situation? Is it the way you gently and safely take a baby from someone else’s arms? Is it the aggressive way you have to grab a slice of pizza at the birthday party before all the other kids take it and there’s none left for you?

4. What does “taking responsibility” actually LOOK like in this situation? What actions do you need to take in order to be responsible for the thing?

In Your Business: How do the SOPs of your business need to change?

What used to be standard isn’t working anymore for one reason or another. So, what needs to change?

And believe me, something does need to change. Otherwise, expect to continue in circles.

Last week we talked about knowing who to trust and with what. This week is about learning to trust yourself, especially with the things you may have unfairly handed off to others or avoided examining too closely.

I have found that, when my desperation takes hold, I end up going into autopilot in my business. I do what I was already doing, but I do it more. I do it faster. But it wasn’t more or faster that I needed, it was something else. And usually, that “something else” is an action I’ve been afraid to take because it means I’ll have to acknowledge a harsh truth I haven’t been wanting to look at.

That harsh truth is generally what leads to my desperation in the first place. Because instead of accepting it and operating within my business with up-to-date knowledge and parameters, I have decided to pretend.

While pretending may delay some pain, it certainly never leads to creating the kind of success that will mean better life outcomes for me or my clients.

So, look to what needs to change, and then change it.

We have a huge shedding coming this week with a Full Moon in Scorpio on Tuesday and Mercury finally stationing direct on Thursday. The clarity’s coming, and it’s time to accept what’s got to go.

You’ve got this.

Until next week,

Zoha

PS - The Arcana Shift is a reader-supported publication. Did you find this post helpful or valuable in some way? Consider becoming a paid subscriber or leave a one-time tip to show your support:

Upgrade to Paid for just $5/mo

Leave A One-Time Tip

About The Author:

Zoha Abbas is a Writer, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach who aims to explore the small business conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. Find out more at zohaabbas.com

For inquiries, please email: zoha@theownershipmethod.com

You can’t build an inner circle without first trusting the people you invite in, so how can you make sure that trust is well-bestowed?

Welcome to The Weekly Three! Each Monday, I share a three-card Tarot spread to help you focus your intuitive energy in real life, and take action with intention inside your business.

I pull these cards with the collective energy of my community in mind, but if you want a custom spread of your very own, you can get it right here.

Know someone who might like this newsletter as much as you? Hit the button below to share—the more, the merrier!

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In The Cards: Inner circle, outer environment.

A knife in the back and an ache in the heart is top of mind with the III of Swords. Less than the actual emotion of betrayal or heartbreak, this card signals the knowledge of the thing. A sinking suspicion is proven true through clear evidence. An old pain won’t stop running through your mind.

With the number three, we have a solid, stable energy—even if the actual event has thrown you off kilter, trust what you see. It’s a harsh reality, but reality nonetheless. The question now is what you’re going to do with that knowledge…

Another three arrives with the III of Cups. Contrary to this number in the suit of Swords, the III of Cups represents the connection, flow and stability of friends you call family. The image brings to mind the concepts of camaraderie and trust. These are the people you celebrate with when things are up and cry with when they’re down.

It feels important to ask with the juxtaposition of the card before it: do you have a sound means of discerning who gets the privilege of being in that inner circle?

Finally, the King of Pentacles reversed feels like a big fat zero 🥴. Their upright generosity turns closed-fisted or greedy. Their long-term, big-picture thinking becomes stunted and myopic. Overly controlling and totally irresponsible in a single package.

Physical resources seem to have taken a hit here. Perhaps things are feeling quite literally upside down or like the garden has withered away to nothing. There’s also a strong sense of mismanagement here, yours or someone else’s, that’s gotten you in this situation.

In Between: Who do you trust? Choose wisely.

This week’s cards tell a story. Or more accurately: a part of a story. This is the part about heartbreak, trust and betrayal.

If that sounds overdramatic, it needn’t be. It could be that you’ve experienced something earth-shatteringly huge, (I wouldn’t be surprised with what’s been happening in the cosmos lately,) but these concepts exist in many different tiny ways through all the different areas of our lives. It might not have been that you were swindled by someone close to you, but that they simply left out an important detail that meant you came up short. It’s not necessarily that someone maliciously went out of their way to harm you, but that they simply did not have your best interests in mind when they acted.

Choosing who to trust can feel fraught. It may feel callous to have to put up boundaries against people you’ve just met without giving them a fair chance. It may feel difficult to put up boundaries against people you’ve known for a crazy-long time, but aren’t who you thought they were.

Trust is something that, like most relational foundations, requires upkeep and intentional action. It can ebb and flow, change into something worse or better. Trust is earned, and it can be lost. Until people’s actions match their words, trust can be denied.

How you write the rest of this story depends on how and where you decide to bestow that trust.

And when it comes to identifying our inner circles around our businesses, that decision can feel all the more weighty. Do you have a process or a set of guidelines that help you answer: Who can I trust? How much, and with what specifically?

In Your Business: Identifying your needs and your people.

Last week we talked all about taking the time to consider the situation before you act. This week, perhaps the information at hand gets a bit clearer.

So now that you know where you stand, what do you need? And who is going to help you get it? It might be people that you know personally, like family or friends. Or it might be people that you need to hire. It might simply be the people who work the front desk at the place you need to make that appointment.

This week is about accepting the facts of what you’ve learned, understanding your needs as a result of those facts, and identifying who can truly help you meet those needs (and who can’t.)

We can’t do this alone, so opening your heart to trust is a must. But that doesn’t mean you have to let just anyone in.

Until next week,

Zoha

PS - The Arcana Shift is a reader-supported publication. Did you find this post helpful or valuable in some way? Consider becoming a paid subscriber or leave a one-time tip to show your support:

Upgrade To Paid: $5/mo

Leave A One-Time Tip

About The Author:

Zoha Abbas is a Writer, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach who aims to explore the small business conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. Find out more at zohaabbas.com

For inquiries, please email: zoha@theownershipmethod.com

Mercury stations retrograde today until the 25th of April. That means a lot of circling back, circling the drain, or perhaps spinning out. But! Remember! Contrary to the popular belief that mercury retrograde = “everything’s just going to go wrong no matter what,” this transit is really a time of reassessing, revisiting, rethinking and restructuring.

Make sure to build in extra time to simply take your time, and you will get where you’re going with minor fuss. You’re still the one making choices here.

Welcome to The Weekly Three! Each Monday, I share a three-card Tarot spread to help you focus your intuitive energy in real life, and take action with intention inside your business.

I pull these cards with the collective energy of my community in mind, but if you want a custom spread of your very own, you can get it right here.

Know someone who might like this newsletter as much as you? Hit the button below to share—the more, the merrier!

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In The Cards: Taking things in stride as you ponder.

The potential for fighting words and the need to defend yourself arrives with the Page of Swords. And it could be that this thorny situation seems to fall into your lap out of nowhere. Remember that rapier-sharp wit can be used to herald hope for what’s coming or to lash out with the intent to hit where it hurts. Wield the sword of your communication wisely here—assess the situation before you strike.

The VII of Pentacles is a card with very “Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future” vibes. It’s a moment where you’re knee-deep in work that you’ve already begun doing, but hasn’t quite shown its yield yet. This card can bring with it a feeling of boredom or impatience—how much longer do we have to keep doing this?

Being a number 7 card, numerologically, it’s also a card of reassessment (incredibly appropriate for the moment…) You may be looking back on what you’ve done to get yourself to this point while also looking forward to see what needs to happen next in order for you to get where you’re going. “Look both ways before crossing,” is the message here. Hotheaded action and impatient speed may just have you playing in traffic.

The Page of Wands reversed is a bit of a fire being doused. Maybe unfavorable news arrives, or your enthusiasm for a certain project or endeavor begins to wane. Whatever it is that seems to be ending here, remember that it’s ok to let go of something if it’s not feeding your fire as much as you feed it. As much as it hurts to go through a process like this, a phoenix can only rise from the ashes once it’s burned to the ground.

In Between: You made it here, you can get through to the end, too (and maybe a new beginning.)

Maybe this is the cocoon where you disintegrate into fucking goop before reforming to become a glorious luna moth. Maybe you are Luke Skywalker and this is your cave on Dagobah.

Sometimes we beg for the pause, and when it comes, we curse it.

You don’t always get to choose when the pause comes, when the seams split, to schedule the meltdown when you have the time and space for it. Sometimes, it’s just here.

And you have to stop everything and look at what’s going on, because obviously there was somewhere that autopilot wasn’t serving you.

This isn’t a time for overt action, perhaps, but it is a time to look at the pieces, where they were connecting (or not,) and decide if they’re making the shape you want them to. However (wonky or mostly right) they look:

You made it all the way here, and it wasn’t all cupcakes and rainbows. You can make it the rest of the way. Be patient, be kind (to yourself and others) and be discerning: whatever you discover inside the cocoon deserves to be given the time it takes to process and develop it before you spread your wings and fly off into the wilderness.

In Your Business: A time for reassessment.

Some questions for you to think on, if you so desire:

What do you see when you look back on the actions and situations that led you here?

What was in your control and what wasn’t?

How have you grown in your work, your partnerships, your life as a result of what you’ve learned from these moments?

And when you look ahead: where might you need to course-correct in order to keep moving forward? Where might you need to dig into your stick-to-itiveness in order to keep watering a seed that you won’t see until it breaks through the soil? To keep nourishing a plant that won’t bear fruit until it’s big and strong enough?

Until next week,

Zoha

PS - The Arcana Shift is a reader-supported publication. Did you find this post helpful or valuable in some way? Consider becoming a paid subscriber or leave a one-time tip to show your support:

Upgrade To Paid: $5/mo

Leave A One-Time Tip

About The Author:

Zoha Abbas is a Writer, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach who aims to explore the small business conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. Find out more at zohaabbas.com

For inquiries, please email: zoha@theownershipmethod.com

Whether you’re excited to do this, completely dreading it, or just ready to get this the fuck overwith, it’s here and we’re going through it. This week, look for support—both in the ways you can receive it AND give it in return. We’re all making our way through this wacky world together, and real growth requires community.

Cry-it-out coffee date with friends? YES.

Blissful distraction day out with a partner in crime? YES.

Long, honest, meaningful talks over a bottle of whiskey with your heart-people? WHY NOT.

Find your crew, give the entire human race some space and grace, and buckle the fuck in. Here we go…

Welcome to The Weekly Three! Each Monday, I share a three-card Tarot spread to help you focus your intuitive energy in real life, and take action with intention inside your business.

I pull these cards with the collective energy of my community in mind, but if you want a custom spread of your very own, you can get it right here.

Know someone who might like this newsletter as much as you? Hit the button below to share—the more, the merrier!

Share

In The Cards:

Nothing but the number three this week! Rebecca Scolnick writes in The Witch’s Book of Numbers of the number three as The Communicator*:

“The number of language, creation, story, and magic is 3. It is the first cry of life, the primal scream, and the final exhale, whether that be a whimper or a bang. It’s the journey, the story and the birth of the physical.”

We can see the way this plays out in our Weekly Three today:

The III of Swords tells of ruminating on heartache. But that blow to the gut you keep thinking of also speaks to the line between the ignorance of Before and the healing of After. That time you got cheated, betrayed, stabbed in the back? It’s on your mind something fierce. But knowing the truth, even when it’s painful, is better than living a lie.

The Empress reversed says generative creativity dries up. This ground isn’t as fertile as you thought. OR you haven’t prepared it to be fertile enough to receive the seeds you want to plant here. Which is it? What needs to happen for this blocked energy to start flowing again?

The III of Cups asks us to find our support squad. At a time when you might be feeling blah, it’s important to know who you can lean on and what you can do to lift them up in return. That’s part of the magic of community isn’t it? There’s a reciprocated energy that cycles in on itself and builds us all up in return.

In Between: Unfolding the patterns.

Sometimes in Tarot readings, you can see a potential path opening up. It’s like and energetic ITTT: “if this, then that.” Other times, it’s like unfolding an old letter you found while you were cleaning out the attic.

A reminder of something long past swoops in and suddenly you can see a situation so much more clearly. Hindsight is 20/20 after all. You can see all the connections and all the breakdowns, how one thing so easily led to another, how it all got out of hand and what you could have done differently.

And sometimes those reminders help you see an even bigger connection. A pattern that seems to have been playing out over and over without you even realizing it was happening.

Today brings a Full Moon in Libra and a lunar eclipse that landed at 12am pacific on the dot. We’re entering the beginning of eclipse season on the Libra-Aries axis. It’s the tightrope we all walk between the “We” and the “Me”.

Relationships, personal identity and how they intersect might be heavyyy on your mind lately. And the next several weeks bring new layers of clarity you may not have been able to see before.

A friendly, loving reminder here that rash decisions, overhasty action and burn-it-all-down bonfires are ill-advised to say the absolute least. Because even though you might be getting cosmic download after download, seeing the whole picture might take a bit of time.

This lunar eclipse is about closure and shedding. We’re learning about what needs to change. But what that means in direct, specific terms about what we will replace it with instead deserves the time and patience required for you to make the best move for you.

Aside from The Empress, the other Major Arcana card associated with the number three is The Hanged Man: intentional pause, patience, waiting, processing and understanding before righting yourself and walking forward.

In Your Business: How do your relationships affect your work?

Because they do, whether you want them to or not.

Your family, friends, romantic partners, business partners, client relationships… What kind of a pattern or a connection is emerging for you right now? In what ways do you need people to show up for you differently than the way they are right now?

And in what ways do YOU need to show up differently for your people?

I think we’re going to see a lot of stuff on social media about cutting people off, identifying the toxic relationships in your life, setting boundaries to make sure you get what you want.

That’s all fine and dandy. Sometimes it’s exactly what we need.

Other times it’s a great excuse to perpetuate your own bad behavior.

How are you giving others the kind of support you want to receive? How are you showing up in community instead of as the only and most important person in the room?

Remember that the shakeups that come with eclipse season are about regaining balance where it has been lost. And for balance to exist in the first place requires *equal and opposite forces to be acting simultaneously—*not just for a thing to exist in a vacuum attempting to exert force in a single direction. That is simply a fantastic recipe for spinning out.

This week, notice the patterns that are making themselves apparent to you, or even suggesting themselves to you. I mentioned last week that journaling might be helpful. I think that practice will be beneficial for all of us for the next few weeks.

Record what’s coming up without attempting to make meaning and see for yourself what is revealed when you come back later and see the patterns clear as day.

Until next week,

Zoha

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About The Author:

Zoha Abbas is a writer, Intuitive Tarot Reader and Business Coach who aims to explore the small business conversations around self-trust, critical thinking, reality checks and forging your (not so straight) path to success in the grey-area of real life. She is the CEO and Creator of The Ownership Method, a coaching practice where she helps fellow entrepreneurs and small business owners do business better through data, divination and dismantling harmful systems.

For inquiries, please email: zoha@theownershipmethod.com