Are tarot cards a gateway to the divine?

I have a confession to make.

Tarot cards played a significant role on my personal journey into mindfulness and spirituality.

When I lived in San Francisco, we had a deck of Spirit Animals cards in our meditation room. I enjoyed pulling cards from the deck. It was purely entertainment at first. And then it became a practice of self reflection. What is this card trying to show me?

I’d start to notice coincidences. I’d pull the Deer card right before crossing a mother deer on my hike. I’d pull a Simplicity card after a group of people shared that my genius is making complex things simple.

I’m aware of biases, randomness and the human desire to connect the dots. But this went far beyond that for me.

The synchronicities and interconnectedness that I saw occurring with tarot cards started appearing in other areas of my life. The cards opened up a pathway of possibility that previously was closed. A true “what if” was now unfolding.

What if everything and everyone is connected somehow, someway, and we’ve been conditioned by society to feel separate? What if we’ve always been deeply intertwined with nature and the cosmos and each other, and we’ve created stories over the centuries to mute this?

This is where my current beliefs reside. I have many more questions than answers that are constantly evolving, but I believe that there is some greater interconnectedness at play. It is a connection that we have sacrificed for convenience. We have become so good at dismissing it that it requires a deep remembering and listening to even get a taste of it. It’s a belief that I’m excited to continue exploring over the course of this lifetime, and I’m grateful for those $20 tarot cards from Amazon for their part in this story.

Why are we all struggling in secret?

I am struggling.

I used to think I wasn’t. Or I would ignore it. Or pretend like I wasn’t.

But that wasn’t real. I wasn’t being honest. With myself. Definitely not with others.

For the record, I strongly dislike this post. It’s forcing me to admit in a public place that I am struggling.

Why is it so hard to say that? I’m almost completely certain that every single person I know is struggling with something right now. All of us. It’s the way it is.

And yet we don’t talk about it.

As a society, we agreed that struggling is a sign of weakness, and therefore it’s not safe to admit. Or that talking about our struggle is a burden to someone else. So we struggle in secret. Which makes it worse. It creates shame. It removes any opportunity of receiving help. We multiply and magnify the struggle in our mind.

I’m going to attempt to normalize the struggle. At least in my own little world. As an experiment. I’m going to ask people openly what they are struggling with and start by sharing what’s there for me. Maybe I won’t dislike this topic so much next time I write about it.

How can I master my dreams?

I read a story about a kid who could select her dream each night. A bunch of screens appeared in front of her with snippets of different dream options, and she would simply select the one that most suited her that evening. She thought that was normal for all humans.

How fucking cool is that!?

I’d consider myself a super novice when it comes to lucid dreams. On very rare occasions, I recognize that I’m dreaming and I’m able to do some entertaining things. Even more rarely, I come up with a solution to a challenging problem while dreaming.

I am not even in the same universe to select my dreams each night from a bunch of TVs. But I want it. I may never get there. And I’m gonna keep trying.

I also wonder if this is how a soul picks a human. I have no idea how a soul works, but wouldn’t it be fun if a soul had. a bunch of monitors in front of it and was like, I choose jbp3.

Clearly I’m tired as I’m writing this and preparing to doze off. Another night, another opportunity to try to master this wonderful thing called dreaming.

Why do I write?

I am now back in a rhythm of publishing something here (almost) daily.

I decided to start this current writing period with no agenda, no format, and no audience. I’d open up a blank page, discover what question or topic bubbles up, and then allow words to flow.

I find that I’m mostly writing about Leadership, Mindfulness, and Being Human. I love the intersection there so this comes as no surprise. I’ve written some bangers and some clunkers. Some very random and some very interconnected.

It’s been quite lovely. It’s a creative outlet. It’s a way to simplify complex ideas. It allows me to research curious topics. It frees up mental ram by getting ideas out. Overall I just really enjoy writing again.

I’m not growing an audience. I don’t share these anywhere. And if you’re reading this now, you’re probably my amazing girlfriend 😘 I’ve also heard from a few people that they’ve really been getting value out what what I’m writing, so I’m not quite sure what to do with that just yet.

What I do know is that right now this feels pure, and I won’t trade that for anything.

How does it connect to the bigger thing?

It is amazing to me how much this question repeatedly shows up in many areas of my life.

When I’m leading product discovery sessions with clients and trying to figure out what to build and when, I am constantly asking how it will tie back to the bigger picture business goals.

When I’m coaching founders about how to navigate a difficult decision, I invite them to consider how this decision impacts the bigger vision of what they want to accomplish.

When I’m planning the next 1 - 3 years from a personal perspective, I am evaluating how it aligns with my understanding of why I’m here on this planet.

When I look at my own life and get discouraged that things feels too disconnected, I remind myself to ponder how it is connected to something bigger than my interpretation of myself.

Zoom out. Like all the way out.

And if you can’t connect the threads to the bigger thing, it’s either not aligned or you are still missing some of the pieces of the puzzle to make the connections. The discernment between those requires practice and intuition and building that skill will provide you with the ultimate navigation system.

If something is truly not connected, we can ruthlessly and confidently move on to the next thing.