Building our Defenses (Messages of Divine Love)

June 2, 2025/Tinseltown Tarot

Each week, the Messages of Divine Love offer intuitive insight, weaving together wisdom from tarot and oracle readings. These messages are channeled from Mother Earth, who grounds and nourishes us; the Ancients, who walk beside us with their guidance; the Guides, who propel us toward growth; Mother Mary, who holds us in unconditional love; and our Future Selves, looking back on the signs we see today, urging us forward with clarity and courage.

Rooted in my lived experience as a bisexual, disabled Chicana and shaped by my work in trauma-informed care and public policy, these readings are offered to foster collective care, creative connection, and a vision of compassionate justice that honors us all. Subscribe below to receive your weekly message. 💛

INTRO NOTES TO THE DECK & READING

Last week was wild - from the TACO president to the presumed throuple that is Elon Musk, Steven Miller, and the wife between them. I’m not sure if you told me back in 2020 that this is what five years would bring us, I would have been all that surprised. We had a chance to turn the corner with our humanity, but it went poorly. I’m disappointed that we can’t seem to learn the simplest but most important of lessons - that our liberation is tied in with each other.

By now, you know that I gravitate toward optimism and seeing the best in other humans, but I feel like we’ve reached an impasse with a significant portion of our neighbors. Their hearts have become so hardened that they have built an impossible wall to protect themselves from the truth the mirror presents.

Nor is it just the groups that we think of. There’s pressure from all sides to harden, to promote violence, to burn it all to the ground - heedless of the consequences - like what happened in Boulder yesterday afternoon. It’s increasingly hard to hold up my little rainbow banner that says, “But there is another way.” And let me tell you, if it weren’t for the feedback I receive about how I show up in the world, I would have given up a long time ago.

That’s why you’re going to see some advice this week that encourages us to lean into the fantasy of nostalgia for a bit this season - to truly soak up whatever ounces of joy and bliss you can find, especially this Pride month. Joy is one of the most resilient and persistent forms of resistance. Applying our energy toward those traditions that announce the season - whether it’s a cook out with friends, taking a hike on a familiar trail, attending Pride with our chosen fam, eating on the patio while watching the sunset, using veggies fresh from the garden - when we engage in the things that give us joy, we remember who and what we’re really fighting for. That kind of replenishment shouldn’t be overlooked just because the world has hardened so much.

This week, be the source of sunlight in a bleak and dreary world. Sparkle, shine in your authenticity - it is our greatest defense to an offense that wants to silence and control us. Hanging on to every ounce of dignity we have earned, we become a light in the dark for others. And that might just be the infusion of energy we need right now.

Where We Are This Week

Knight of Swords

Root Chakra

I’m always tempted to put the knight of swords as a Throat Chakra card, but this week he’s giving off “muscle memory” vibes. When you know how things work, like government, it becomes easier to anticipate the problems of a dysfunctional one. As we look to what it will take to keep ourselves and our safe spaces secure, it will become easier if we start drilling in new practices into our system such as our privacy practices, changing up how we drive to and from home and other safety measures that just make good sense in the long run. All of us, especially me, have been complacent in our practices - now is a good time to start new habits that will benefit our long-term safety.

(As an aside, you can check out my leather brother’s initiative, Safety Blows, which is trying to help us build better defensive practices.)

From Our Guides

The Sun

Solar Plexus Chakra

The guides very pointedly ask us, “What are you fighting for if not the ability to live your life out loud?” No matter what our dream is, at the core, doesn’t it all come down to the idea that we want to be accepted, loved, and safe to live life on our own terms? At the core of all your work this week, ask yourself how does this help me be the truest version of me? Rate them from -5 to +5 for how much of your authentic self gets to shine in this situation. Score it -5 if you are fully masking yourself and +5 if you can fully unmask. See where your authentic self shines brightest and focus your attention on generating more of that sunshine in your life.

Messages from Lady Gaia/Mother Earth

Two of Wands

Third Eye Chakra

When this reading is all laid out, there is a straight line from Mother Earth at the bottom of the reading up to where we start this week and up to the guides. So, to align with this message of safety, Lady Gaia guides us to trust the intuitive voice that throws the umbrella in the bag “just in case”. It might feel like overkill, but often our physical bodies are picking up on shifts sooner than our conscious brains can process them. So, honor the niggle and pack that extra paid of underwear, double check those numbers or add an extra layer of security. The worst that happens is you’re over-prepared, right?

Messages from the Ancients

Six of Wands (R)

Sacral Chakra

There are a lot of messages that tell us we should be small when we experience a victory, when we overcome some major in our lives. The ancients invite us to interrogate the voices that would see us cut down in our triumph. The ones that say “not enough/too much”, the ones that tell us we should be humbled, masked, and alone. Even if the voice is coming from inside the house, like your family or yourself, your job is to ignore the haters and embrace the victories that have brought you here.

Messages from Our Future Selves

Queen of Cups (R)

Heart Chakra

We’ve had a lot of hardship collectively as a people. I don’t just mean the past five months; I mean between wars and unspeakable loss, terrorism, and pandemics, we have been through a LOT. As a Star Wars Xennial (born 1977), I have lived through the Challenger explosion, Waco, Princess Diana’s death, Columbine, 9/11, recessions, climate disasters, insurrection, and now genocide and AI disinformation flavored gaslighting from the White House. As I write this, there has been an attack on Boulder, just northwest of where I live. At what point are we ever going to grieve all of this trauma as a people? The insistence of the public to react to some things but not to others, to accept shallow “thoughts and prayers” for shootings but ignore civil rights for mere insults - at some point we’re going to have to realize that the most disregulated are those who insist on ignoring our shared humanity in favor of cruelty coated trophies of attention.

Messages from Mother Mary

Queen of Swords

Throat Chakra

This card has been appearing a lot more lately, no matter which deck I use. The last time it showed up in this position with Mother Mary, it was “A Last Chance for Change” in April. Even though the theme was more aligned with the third eye chakra then, the same advice holds true now: You will have to be far more discerning in how you spend your time and energy, and especially in who you trust….do not spend time with the people who aren’t in it to win it with you. Slay them with your silence if you have to, but don’t give an ounce of your energy to those who seek to divide, harm, tear down, or distract. Be vigilant of your boundaries and protective of your intellectual space. Put another way, do not allow the haters to influence how you see yourself. Do not let their generalities and jealousies cause you to doubt your path. But DO listen to feedback that is constructive, kind, and offered to support your cause.

Undercurrents

Six of Cups

Sacral Chakra

My best advice to you right now is to make the most of the summer while you can. Take that trip while you can. Invite friends over for a BBQ while you can. Indulge the childhood crush who asks you out to coffee while you can. There is nothing wrong with indulging in some summertime nostalgia (and as a xennial, it’s hard not to start reciting Fresh Prince & DJ Jazzy Jeff’s “Summertime” as I write this). But that’s very much the vibe I’m going for. A lot about the coming school year will not be normal - hell, much of this summer also won’t be normal - but creating the normalcy you can in the traditions of summer, the more you’ll keep your spirit fed when the times get hard.

Final Advice

Ten of Cups (R)

Crown Chakra

Last week, we had the nine of cups (reversed) here and the week before that, the Ten of Pentacles (reversed). Last week I said, "…the most important thing is to worry less about how other people intersect with our dreams, but rather to make our dreams inclusive of how other people inevitably will interact with us. Meaning, make your dreams ride the waves that other people are making. Don’t resist, allow the universe to know which channels you need to be in for those dreams to come true. Here we’re going to face some revelations about what “might have happened” if that dream came true. For some, it’s going to be a rude awakening - a devil in disguise. For others, it will be a hilarious close call that proves why a last-minute disappointment was the best for all involved. Have faith in the new path.

PARTING WORDS FROM A GEEK EMPRESS

This week, I posted the story of my calling on Instagram - something I’ll share in more detail as we get closer to the anniversary date (June 25). As I celebrate 35 years of this calling, this impossible thing I saw and the impossibly simple task I was given, I reflected on what has made a difference - and more than anything, it was my willingness to trust the divine when called to be open and authentic with someone. It would melt defenses, even between party lines, adding energy to what I could transmute and help others with in the overlapping spaces I reside.

Yes, my calling included sexuality because where do we give and receive love at the most powerful and intimate levels, but in the bedroom with our naked selves on display? For many, it is the time that we’re our most vulnerable - for me, it’s the time my senses and intuition are sharpest. For I can see the fullness of hopes, dreams, connections, beliefs bundled in an orgasm, released with cries of passion, sobbed out in the catharsis of recognition.

My husbands have likened it to Inara from Firefly except my activities are less formal and a little more political. Combiner her with Phedre from Kushiel’s Legacy (especially what she does for Kazan Atrabiades in Kushiel’s Chosen) and you’d have a rough idea of how that calling has manifested throughout my adult life. I want my gifts to unwind the knots of false belief that is intertwined with our relationships, both public and private. And someday, I want to stare patriarchy in the face as it melts into a puddle of its own exclusionary excuses and say: what? In all your superiority, you didn’t see me coming for you? How cute.

One of the hardest things for any of us, I think, is to be seen - to be truly valued for who we are and what we bring to the world. When our full colors are to be witnessed and understood by at least one other person, I have watched miracles bubble to the surface of the hardest hearts. I’ve watched it transform families in mediation rooms, remove barriers written into policy & law. It doesn’t matter where I serve, when I show up as my authentic self, the whole vibe changes - those who needed that permission start to loosen up, those who are jealousy guarding their own start squirming with excuses.

But that’s why these forces of oppression are so desperate to paint us as weird, deviant, disposable - our very existence is a threat to the structured paradigms of control and coercion that they rely on. Deviations from “the norm” are only a threat when those in “the norm” wake up to the ways they too can deviate when given the freedom to roam and explore their humanity. This grasping greed is a last ditch effort to stop a progressive tide of awakening, one that they can’t stop no matter how much gaslighting they pour into the ether.

You can’t stop the signal once it gets through to even one other person.

Notice how people react to Pride this year. Who feels safe in our presence, and who is staring daggers at our authenticity? After all, inclusion is at its very basic simply saying, “I can be myself here.” And don’t we all deserve that reassurance from at least one person in our lives? To reject that very basic safety for anyone else is to say, “This is the treatment I’d accept for myself.” And yet, the hardened heart, so cracked with neglect, thinks that everyone else must suffer like they do - and so the greatest form of resistance we can have is to surround them with so much authenticity that it pulls out some colors of truth from even the hardest hearts.

No sacrifice needed - our best defense is to build a glittering city of love so bright and beautiful with warmth that it pierces through the cracks of their self-imposed prisons. A spectral shield that cannot help but draw attention because it’s made of such a diverse array of our love that it becomes a mirror to draw out the divine. I can see it as clear as day, and all we need is for you to fill in the gaps with your truth.

May the message this week spark a passion to experience love in its highest and deepest ways, all with the reassurance that you are never alone.

Next Spark the Heart Network meeting

Weds, June 4th at 6pm

The next regular Spark the Heart Network meeting is going to be this Wednesday, June 4th at 6 pm (MDT) via Zoom. This is a space where heart-centered healers, leaders, and good troublemakers can come together in support of one another. As each of us navigates the intense changes that are happening, this network was created to offer a space of validation, strategy, and connectedness so none of us feels alone in these storms.

I have moved back to an every-other-week schedule to make it easier for me to offer other classes and a new coaching group I have planned.

Sign up at the link below - donations accepted, but not required to attend