2025 was The Year of The Hermit (and still is for a couple more weeks).

While I didn't move to a mountaintop cave (and you probably didn't either), The Hermit still had lots to teach me this year (and probably you too!).

In this episode, I briefly review the imagery, meaning, and archetypal substance of The Hermit...

Then I share five ways I worked with The Hermit this year — often without even realizing it in the moment. Some of these involved internal shifts, big downloads, and changes in routine. Others came from external experiences and interactions with other beings — human and nonhuman.

My hope in sharing my examples is that you'll be begin to notice how The Hermit showed up for you this year!

But if you want more help with that, join my Reflecting on the Year of The Hermit workshop on December 29.

HEAD TO THE EVENTS PAGE for details on this workshop and others coming up this winter, including another on the Wheel of Fortune (and The Magician), our cards for 2026.

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe, leave a review, and pass along to your creative and magical friends! Then have a sweet little chat about it!

If you wanna share about your Hermit year or what landed for you in this episode, send me a DM on Instagram @typewritertarot.

* Grab a copy of the novel I mentioned in this episode: Love & Fury by Samantha Silva.

* To hear more about our decan walk in the Creative Magic Collective in 2026, join the waitlist!

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. Learn more & join us:

• Join the newsletter and receive the first 3 journaling prompts from Tarot for Creative Spirits (the workbook).
• Subscribe to Typewriter Tarot's Substack.
• Check out upcoming events & workshops.
• Work one-on-one with Cecily (book a free curiosity call).
• Book a Tarot reading.
• Shop our bookshop.

Dreading the holiday push as your creative well runs low?

In this episode, featuring recurring guest Arianna Smith, we explore the tricky balance of managing and riding our creative energy — and our obligations — while tending to our body's need for rest.

The episode starts with a little catching up — we chat about recent offerings and some of the new perspectives we're inhabiting around creativity and visibility. We also talk about devotion versus discipline, and how "internal consistency" can sustain our craft when external output wobbles.

Then we get into the coming holiday season and the tricky paradox of slowing down at time when we're called upon to travel, cook, spend money, clean, and decorate.

Which bring us to the Fours of the Tarot — Four of Pentacles, Four of Wands, Four of Swords, and Four of Cups — and how we understand these archetypes and the messages they offer around slowing down and restoring energy.

Arianna offers a quick Tarot pull to see which Four wants to speak to you, which you can follow with this three-card spread, if you want to go deeper:

+ What's blocking me from slowing down?

+ How can I connect with the Four that showed up for me?

+ What's a next good step to help me take it slow?

Finally, we explore cycle-aware planning that actually fits real life: seasonal shifts you can feel in the air, lunar timing for planting and illuminating, and hormonal rhythms that explain late-night bursts or sudden dips better than any productivity tip.

Come for the tarot, stay for the relief of a kinder rhythm, and leave with one small change you can make today. If this conversation helps you, subscribe, share this episode with a friend who’s running on fumes, and drop a review so we can keep making thoughtful episodes for you.

Check out Arianna's work and hop on her email list here!

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. Learn more & join us:

• Join the newsletter and receive the first 3 journaling prompts from Tarot for Creative Spirits (the workbook).
• Subscribe to Typewriter Tarot's Substack.
• Check out upcoming events & workshops.
• Work one-on-one with Cecily (book a free curiosity call).
• Book a Tarot reading.
• Shop our bookshop.

Cecily welcomes back to the show Ariana Smith — twin, Alaskan homestead kid, IFS-certified therapist, copywriter, and professional tarot reader — to explore how place, family, and parts work can shape a creative and magical life. We wander through Alaska’s quiet woods and loud storms, talk nervous systems and city overload, and laugh about moose logic while tracing how nature trained us to notice what others miss.

Then we flip the spread to group tarot. Reading for more than one person adds a witness, a third perspective who can validate, challenge, and playfully call in truth. We share real stories of family and group readings, and discuss the subtle ethics that make shared sessions feel safe. You’ll hear how certain card pairings — like Judgment and The Empress — speak like a creative bullhorn, and why good readings often expand complexity instead of forcing false clarity.

We also get into the act and necessity of play and explore the various “play personalities,” like director, storyteller, explorer, and collector. Discover simple ways to host a low-pressure tarot night and give your guests a little magic they'll remember forever. We close with a Tarot pull on how to invite more play into our lives today.

If this episode resonates, please: subscribe, share with a friend who loves Tarot or Alaska stories, and leave a review to help more creative spirits find us.

Some things we referenced in this episode: the book Feel Good Productivity by Ali Abdaal, The Liberation Tarot and Light Seer's Tarot, and check out Arianna's Sounding Board Sessions and her Pitch Party on November 6.

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. Learn more & join us:

• Join the newsletter and receive the first 3 journaling prompts from Tarot for Creative Spirits (the workbook).
• Subscribe to Typewriter Tarot's Substack.
• Check out upcoming events & workshops.
• Work one-on-one with Cecily (book a free curiosity call).
• Book a Tarot reading.
• Shop our bookshop.