The ‘year ahead spread’ and a writing ritual

My annual New Year’s Eve/ Day threshold ritual, this year augmented by this new deck, a Christmas present from my sister.

This is the ‘year ahead spread’. In case you’re not familiar with card spreads, the idea here is very simple. You draw a card for each month of the year to come and then add in a card at the centre to serve as an overall theme.

I particularly like the idea that this spread envisions the year as circular rather than linear.

My love affair with tarot and oracle cards spans three decades now. I have a small collection of treasured decks and I’d love to create one myself one day.

I think everyone who loves tarot has their own special relationship with the cards. For me, they are like portals or doorways into my subconscious. They work like small poems. They operate through metaphor and symbol - colour, shape, personal association - a little like dreams.

I often use them as a way into my writing. I pull a card and keep it on my desk for the day. I also love to use them as prompts in my writing groups and classes.

The way I use them in this annual threshold ritual is to take the card for the month - or the card for the overall theme - and free write around it.

Here is some free writing I did around an image of the moon, rather than a card. There’s something about writing in circles or spirals that I find very helpful. There is something very rhythmic about turning the page in a circle as I write. It seems to help me bypass over-thinking.

And here’s my year ahead spread from 2022. You can find #yearaheadspread over on Instagram.

If you liked this blog post, you might like my free letter.