The Tarot Diagnosis

This week on ⁠ The Tarot Diagnosis ⁠ , I'm taking you behind the scenes of writing my new book, Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow (available for pre-order now, out December 8, 2025!). In this deeply personal episode, I share what happened the day I received my author copies: yes, including the moment I froze and couldn’t open the box. But more than that, I offer a director’s cut of the book itself -...

This week on ⁠ The Tarot Diagnosis ⁠ , in honor of my upcoming book Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow , which releases on December 8, 2025, I’m reading a portion of chapter 2 (Roots of the Shadow) right here on the podcast. In Roots of the Shadow , I dive into the foundations of shadow work through a deeply therapeutic and psychologically grounded lens. I explore how Carl Jung’s original concept of the s...

What if the real root of evil isn’t money, but power? This week on ⁠ The Tarot Diagnosis ⁠ , I take a deep, psychologically grounded look at the Six of Wands , a card typically associated with success and recognition, and reframe it through the lens of shadow work, power and control, neuroscience, and social dynamics . Inspired by a spread I pulled during a recent shadow workshop and influenced by...

What does it mean when tarot archetypes are blindfolded or their vision is obscured? In this week’s episode of The Tarot Diagnosis , I explore the often over-looked symbolism of obscured vision in tarot - where sight is blocked, avoided, invited or even denied. Inspired by six cards (Two of Swords, Four of Swords, Eight of Swords, Nine of Swords, Ten of Wands, and Strength), I take a psychological...

This week on ⁠ The Tarot Diagnosis ⁠ , we’re exploring one of the most commonly misunderstood behaviors that exist in many of us: people-pleasing. Inspired by real conversations in the therapy room and the archetypal patterns of tarot, I explore people-pleasing through a trauma-informed, psychological, and tarot-based lens. While people-pleasing is often viewed as a virtue and praised as kindness...

This week on ⁠ The Tarot Diagnosis ⁠ , we’re getting delightfully nerdy. Inspired by a conversation with a dear friend, I explore tarot through the lens of developmental psychology , focusing specifically on Donald Winnicott’s concept of transitional objects , transitional space , and transitional phenomena . Traditionally, transitional objects are things like blankets, stuffed animals, or toys th...

After a rejuvenating break in nature, I'm back…and tarot wasted no time in offering a message that couldn’t be ignored. In this reflective episode of The Tarot Diagnosis , I share how three cards - T he Devil, The Three of Swords, and The Lovers - kept showing up across multiple decks, pointing to a powerful arc about relational stuck-ness, emotional pain, and the freedom of conscious choice....

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast , I pulled two seemingly contradictory cards (the Knight of Wands and the Seven of Pentacles) and found myself reflecting on the very human tension between urgency and patience . At first glance, these archetypes appear at odds: one races forward, fiery and eager; the other waits, steadies, and tends. But beneath the surface, they share a common root: passi...

When you think of the Wheel of Fortune, you might focus on the wheel itself - the chaos, the symbols, the turning of fate. But what about the soft, billowy clouds that frame the card? In this week’s episode of The Tarot Diagnosis , I take a journey into the symbolism of clouds in tarot, exploring how they quietly anchor some of the most profound archetypes in the deck. Far from being just backgrou...

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast , I’m unpacking why “just think positive” advice often backfires and offering a more sustainable approach rooted in both Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and tarot. Together, we’ll explore why lasting change doesn’t start with your thoughts, and why it actually starts with your actions. I’ll walk you through how trauma wires the brain to anticipate harm,...

[TW: Discussion of death, grief, suicide.] This week on The Tarot Diagnosis , I sit down with the Five of Cups and a whole host of other cards, but not in the way we usually expect. Instead of offering a clinical take or a tidy metaphor, this episode is more of a free-flowing love letter to the messiness of grief: the kind that arrives with dreams, dead batteries, wildflower fields, and the unshak...

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis , I had every intention of doing a neat little compare-and-contrast between the Five and Seven of Swords. But in true Swords fashion, what began as a tidy intellectual exploration turned into something much more raw, spiraling, and unexpectedly revealing. In this episode, I invite you into a descent through the second half of the Suit of Swords: from the Five throu...

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast , I’m unpacking the emotional aftermath of the Summer Solstice Summit and diving deep into one of the most powerful psychological and tarot-based concepts I explored there - the Golden Shadow, which I expand on as a type of abandoned archetype. I begin by reflecting on the special magick that unfolded during the Summer Solstice Summit and how a weekend mean...

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast , I’m diving into the nuanced and often-confused archetypes of Judgment and Justice (especially for newer readers). Plus, these are two major arcana cards that are especially relevant given the state of the world. Fun fact: this episode was inspired by a listener request, and I went full nerd-mode by pulling out lots of books I thought had unique perspectiv...

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast , I’m sitting down with the Two of Cups , but not in the romanticized way we often think about with this card. Sure, this card speaks to connection, mutual care, and being seen, but in this episode, I’m more interested in what is hiding underneath all that sweet relational imagery. Inspired by a lively (and opinionated!) book club discussion inside The Symp...

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast , I invite you to step away from your Eight of Pentacles bench of productivity and join me on the stone slab with the Four of Swords - a card I kept circling back to while creating a workshop on the architecture of stability. After pulling the Eight of Pentacles (yet again) I realized this card that’s been following me around for two months now was in despe...

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast , I have a timely and tender conversation with my friend and favorite financial educator Mimi Cirbusova to explore what it means to find stability when the world feels like it’s crumbling. Whether it’s rising rent, global uncertainty, or emotional exhaustion, we’re all navigating something right now. This episode is an invitation to pause, reflect, and reim...

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast , I’m stepping back into my music-journalist roots (yes, I share a tidbit of my personal lore in this episode haha) and I’m leaning hard on my therapist brain to do something I’ve been dying to do: a Jungian-tarot psychoanalysis of Sleep Token’s new single, “Damocles.” Beyond dissecting the song itself, this episode journeys into the artist’s mind and unpac...

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast , I’m continuing my monthly Tarot Therapy series by exploring a topic I’ve been wanting to discuss for ages: How tarot and witchcraft function as Psychodrama . Specifically, I explore how tarot and witchcraft can be understood and practiced through the lens of psychodrama, a powerful therapeutic method developed by Dr. Jacob Moreno. Psychodrama is essential...

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast I’m exploring a delicate identity that many people carry without ever naming: the wounded caretaker . Inspired by a social media trend that says, “I probably just needed a hug, so I became a therapist,” this episode takes a deep dive into the lifelong emotional patterns that develop when we’re asked to care for others before we’re ready…and before we've...

This week on ⁠ The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast ⁠ , I’m discussing a tender and often overlooked habit many of us carry: over-explaining. In this episode, I explore the psychological roots of this behavior through the lens of the Page of Swords , an archetype that is curious, alert, and sometimes altered  by experiences of gaslighting or a lack of conflict resolution. We’ll unpack how early experiences...

I’m doing something a little different this week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast ! I’m re-releasing an episode from a few years ago on Tarot and Parts Work, where I get nerdy about the therapeutic model of Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Jungian Depth Psychology through the lens of tarot. I have a few reasons for this: First, there’s been a surge of interest in this intersection, so I want to bri...

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast , I’m continuing the new Tarot Therapy series, where I explore tarot through the lens of therapeutic theories and modalities. In this episode, I’m nerding out about Motivational Interviewing (MI) and the Suit of Wands and uncovering how the fiery energy of Wands aligns perfectly with the psychology of change, motivation, and burnout. At its core, Motivation...

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast , I explore how the brain’s dopamine system drives us to feel intoxicated by toxic relationships. Inspired by conversations with clients, I discuss the science behind intermittent reinforcement and how tarot cards like The Devil and the Two of Swords reversed perfectly mirror these psychological patterns.  Join me as I walk you through the neurobiological a...

This week on The Tarot Diagnosis Podcast , I’m wading into the intersection of tarot and cognition with Dr. Thomas Brooks, a research psychologist, educator, and tarot enthusiast. Together, we explore how tarot fosters cognitive flexibility, promotes self-reflection, and helps us hold complex dualities. We discuss the power of projection, the role of archetypes like The Emperor, and how pattern re...