Projects and Goals for 2026

I don’t always do a lot of personal goal-setting and planning on an annual basis, but as I’ve just relaunched this blog and the accompanying YouTube channel, I have a lot of ideas of different topics I want to explore and techniques I want to learn. As I mentioned in the video, Ina at Taproute Tarot has been a big influence here.

Books and Book Reviews

I have a few new books on my reading list, including Tom Benjamin’s Modern Fortune-Teller’s Field Guide and The Neuroscience of Tarot by Siddharth Ramakrishnan. I’ll also be reading Paul Huson’s Dame Fortune’s Wheel Tarot: A Pictorial Key as part of the DROPM78 tarot challenge, January – March. And I’d like to re-read and review some of the other guidebooks in my collection, something I used to do regularly on my former channel.

On the spiritual front, I’m also enrolled in an 18-month study of The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicaryavatara) by Shantideva, with accompanying commentary The Nectar of Manjushri’s Speech by Kunzang Pelden, along with Peaceful Heart and Diligence (on the patience and diligence chapters, respectively) by Venerable Dzigar Kogtrul Rinpoche. For the third and final unit, our study group will be meeting every 2-3 weeks in January through May, and we also listen to recorded teachings as supplemental to the texts mentioned above. It’s very enriching and time-consuming. I won’t be talking about these studies on the channel as they are intended for students in our lineage, but I wanted to mention them here as part of my overall curriculum for 2026.

Learning Challenges

I’ll confess to a love/hate relationship with challenges. On the one hand, I sometimes find too much structure un-fun and demotivating. But on the other hand, learning in a structured way with peers can be helpful to stay on track and actually complete an exercise. I did this in 2024-2025 with a friend where we worked through Astrology for Yourself, a beginner-level workbook I probably would have given up on half-way if I’d been doing it on my own. It took us 16 months to complete, but we did finish it! When trying to tackle something completely new or daunting, I find I’m more diligent if someone does it with me, and a framework is helpful so that everyone is on the same page.

January – March: #DROPM78 from Esther at Mindful Tarot. I’ll be working with the Dame Fortune’s Wheel Tarot and it appears both my mother and my friend JK will be helping me stay on track as accountability buddies. Mom is going to study the same deck, and J is newer to tarot and will be working with a modern RWS clone she likes. I’ll explain in more detail how we’re doing the challenge in a separate post and video.

November – December: I just recently learned about Kelly Bear’s Tarot Advent and I’m thinking of a variation that ends on Winter Solstice, December 21, 2026. Specifically this is an excuse to do more readings with The Nightmare Before Christmas Tarot, a themed deck I love but don’t get to use as much as I’d like. I’ll probably post YouTube shorts for my daily pulls.

This leaves the middle of the year to think about other projects or challenges I might want to do. If you have suggestions for exercises or workbooks please let me know!

Learning Lenormand: I’ve been wanting to tackle Lenormand and I finally bought myself a couple of decks, based once again on suggestions from Ina at Taproute Tarot in her Mass Market Must Haves. I have a couple of print resources, but some sample questions or a prompt-per-day challenge will compliment those.

Reading Playing Cards: I’m not sure if trying to learn more about playing card techniques in addition to Lenormand is going to be too overwhelming or not. I have a couple of books, including Jonathan Dee’s Fortune Telling with Playing Cards and Untold Tarot: The Lost Art of Reading Ancient Tarot by Caitlín Matthews, which has sections on reading both Lenormand and playing cards.

Minchiate Musings: Mascha has been Mesmerized by Minchiate this year, and I’d love to explore these decks in more depth myself. I want to understand how assigning the common correspondences (the elements and astrological signs) to their own cards changes the interpretation of the other suits, and just get more comfortable reading with this type of deck in general. I plan to watch all of Mascha’s videos on Michchiate history and styles and I also have an extensive guidebook that Amparo Aguirre was kind enough to share with me for her Tarot Minchiate project back in 2022.

Videos and Video Series

In addition to the above, I have ideas for other videos and series for the channel:

Delving into the Minors: I want to re-edit and post my 5-part series on tarot numerology, and continue exploring this topic. I also want to explore the elements and court cards. I’m hoping K at Amidst the Grey will finish her own court card series so I can refer to her excellent explanations and examples and I’m expecting that the DROPM78 challenge will give me even more to consider with all of the minors.

Arts and Crafts Time: I’ve done a number of arts and crafts projects in relation to my card collection that I’d like to share. My partner made custom shelving from repurposed milk crates. I’ve created templates for making custom deck boxes of various styles. I’m very, very close to finally finishing my hand-colored Vachetta Tarot. And I want to write some poetry inspired by tarot cards.

Reading Techniques: I’m looking forward to sharing more spreads, discussing how I use oracle in conjunction with tarot cards in a reading (or to frame a reading), and I want to look at the ways different imagery influences our readings. I’ve also been thinking about divination divisions and how reading with decks that were originally meant for game play is different to reading with purpose-built “fortune telling” systems like Lenormand and Sibilla. How can we cross-reference or apply techniques from each system to others? How do we frame our questions for clearer answers? These are all topics that will be ongoing points of inspiration.

What are your goals or interests that you hope to explore in 2026? I’d love to know!