Understanding Our WTF Moments with Tarot Guidance

[00:00:00] Jessica: There is a moment that happens right after something ends, but before the next thing begins that feels like we're in free fall. You may even see it coming, but it still catches you off guard. One chapter is definitely over, but the next is nowhere in sight. And it's that space, that messy, Uncertain, full of questions, no easy answer space that we are going to be talking about today.

[00:00:26] And we're going to dive into the stages of that in between space, why it's so disorienting, what tarot can and maybe can't do for us in those moments, and how to navigate the unknown without getting stuck in the search for certainty.

[00:00:41] Your journey to the divine is an intimate exploration of self where you are both the seeker and the source of enlightenment. I, Jessica Paschke, invite you to break free from the ordinary, to reforge your spiritual path with courage, curiosity, and audacity. Unleash the [00:01:00] power of your spiritual connection as stepping into a purpose driven life free of have tos and shoulds.

[00:01:05] Join me on this profound exploration of rediscovery, where you'll not only redefine your own spiritual practice, but also inspire a collective awakening. Welcome to Reclaiming Our Spirit. Welcome

[00:01:22] to the next episode of reclaiming our spirit. I am so glad you're here today. We have lots of delicious things we're going to dive into. But before we do that, I just want to let you know that I'm actually hosting a free three day activation. That's right, completely free. It's called Tarot for Uncertain Times, and it's designed to shift how you use tarot, not just as a tool for certainty, but as a guide for navigating the unknown with clarity and confidence.

[00:01:47] So through live teaching, real time coaching, practical exercises, you're going to learn how to work with the tarot in a way that actually supports you during these uncertain times. I would love to have you join. There's more [00:02:00] information in the link to join in the show notes. So moment of joy totally ties into what we're going to be talking about today.

[00:02:07] And I cannot wait. Very excited about it. We're going to be talking about the journey of the world to fool. Now you're like, Oh, we've been talking about that all season. We have been talking about this all season. But my moment of joy is definitely centers around my team. So I have a small team of people who help me out with everything that I'm doing.

[00:02:27] And the world to fool we've been talking about on the podcast, but it's part of a much bigger project. And so when they're organizing things, they use shorthand to label all the documents and all the content and the emails and all that good stuff that is tied into this concept of world to fool. And they always take like a shorthand so they don't have to keep writing out sometimes my very verbose titles.

[00:02:48] And the shorthand for World to Fool ended up being WTF. And so the other day I opened up my documents folder and I saw at the top WTF [00:03:00] and it was like email something or other and I was laughing so hard because honestly it's perfect because that's exactly what it feels like to be in the in between.

[00:03:10] WTF. And where you're just looking around and you're wondering, how did I get here? And so I ran with it. Even if it's not a sign, it should be, it's the most perfect sign to describe what it really feels like to be in that world of full moment where we're just thinking, what the and what is going on and why do we feel this way?

[00:03:28] And I can't even usually are kind of the, the words that escape my mouth, the phrases that escape my mouth. So my moment of joy was an accidental WTF. And it, it was, it was awesome. It was perfect. So let's dive in and talk about those WTF moments. Sometimes they're unexpected. We don't see them coming.

[00:03:48] We're left scrambling. We're trying to figure out what just happened. They can blindside us, make us feel like the ground completely disappears from under our feet. Sometimes the WTF moments we do see coming. [00:04:00] Those are the ones where, you know, like the inevitable is headed your way. You're just not sure when it's going to happen.

[00:04:04] So kind of think like this idea of like. Ooh, end of a relationship, we might see it start to fray, start to unravel, maybe even the end of a job where you're like, Oh, I know this is wrapping up because I just can't with this anymore. So that you know it's coming, but you're just not sure when it's going to happen, when it's going to drop, but you definitely know things are going to change.

[00:04:25] We don't see WTF moments sometimes, sometimes we see them coming, and then there are the WTF moments that are born from the things we've actually chosen. And I think we forget about these a lot of the time. We're so excited to be getting the next new thing, that we don't realize that we can kind of create a WTF moment for ourselves.

[00:04:44] Let's say we're leaving a job. Our choice, it's not like we'll let go or anything, but we're leaving a job to even step into something that like lights us up even more. We've chosen to leave, but it can still really rock us to the core and leave us wondering, what the heck were we thinking? Or even moving.[00:05:00]

[00:05:00] Like, we're so excited to move into the new apartment or the new house and like, then all of a sudden WTF hit. What have I done? Oh, was this, was this the right choice? Should we have moved? Is this the right place? Oh my gosh. All of those moments, those WTF moments, share that quality to them. And they are just moments.

[00:05:20] They aren't the journey. They aren't what's next. They aren't the leap that we're going to have to still make. They aren't even the ending. They're that space that happens after something ends, after we either have to let it go, we've chosen to let it go, or we suddenly feel ourselves moved into the in between space.

[00:05:39] We are no longer where we were. But we're not yet who we'll become. And the WTF moments are usually rooted in how we react rather than how we respond. And that's a pretty big difference that I've talked about before on the podcast. They can really set the tone for how we move through the bigger journey of [00:06:00] uncertainty if we let them.

[00:06:02] But awareness is everything. Awareness is always everything. It's the key. So let's dive in and really look at the three stages of a WTF moment. Stage one, one second, life makes sense. And the next we're holding on for dear life and we're hanging upside down. The WTF spiral of stage one reminds me of a less serene hanged man in tarot, where nothing looks the same and we aren't quite sure how we got to this point, maybe?

[00:06:30] And we're not quite sure how we're going to write ourselves. And there are some pretty typical things that happen in this stage for everyone across the board. So a lot of times when we're in stage one and we're doing that spiral, we end up asking everyone what we should do or what they think about what's happening to us.

[00:06:48] Now, personally, I think this is because we don't really trust ourselves 100 percent all the time to really see what's happening, and we need, like, this external validation. Like, this is crazy, right? Like, things are really, [00:07:00] I'm really upside down, right? And also, like, what do I do now that I'm here? And, I mean, it could be because we're in shock, WTF moment was.

[00:07:11] Maybe we're just disoriented. But we send out this flurry of texts, DMs, phone calls to everyone we know, hoping that someone else will help take control of this and tell us what to do. That's truly what's at the root of the spiral stage, that spinning out stage. This is definitely the stage where we tend to want to hold on really, really tight, too tight, hard control tight, where you're just gripping the steering wheel and just yanking it and trying to make that car go where you want it to go.

[00:07:37] And you are going to make things happen. And you are going to. You're going to make yourself turn right side up through all the plants, all the details, all the force. And, it usually doesn't work. Usually does not work. No matter how much we push, no matter how much we force. Usually we can't write ourselves up.

[00:07:56] Sometimes there is just a moment where we have to be upside down for a second [00:08:00] to get a different view on things, to see things in a different way. And we might even blame it, like, I've done this, on astrology. Oh, it must be mercury retrograde. Oh, is it eclipse season? It's gotta be eclipse season. But clearly the universe is up to something.

[00:08:12] That's the only reason I would end upside down in this situation. Something in the universe, something in the energy must be responsible for this. But I think what happens when we're in a stage one spiral, right, and why this spiral happens specifically is that we're really conditioned to seek certainty and to believe that if we can just figure it out, we're going to avoid any further mistakes and we won't have to be upside down for so long.

[00:08:40] And that doesn't necessarily work like that because if we're truly in a WTF moment, then there are no guarantees. Something has happened. That has taken away the guarantees, that has taken away our ability to see the way forward, and maybe that's because We're disoriented, but maybe it's because that way forward hasn't revealed itself yet.

[00:08:59] It hasn't even been [00:09:00] co created yet. And these WTF moments are just going to take as long as it takes. Is no figuring it out. And the longer it takes for us to come to that realization, the longer we're spinning out, the longer that spiral happens. So stage one, the spiraling, we're reaching out, reaching out, reaching out.

[00:09:20] Someone tell me what to do. Help. Looking for that life raft. Stage two. Shifts into this, like, desperate search for answers. Okay? So, stage two comes up when we've decided that if we have all the right information, we will know how to move forward. And y'all, I'm saying stages like it's linear, but it's not.

[00:09:42] We weave in, out, around, back again multiple times between these stages, okay? I'm just putting it in stages so we can kind of see the progression. So we've stopped spinning out for the moment, and now we're going to try and get answers. We're wondering, okay, why? Why did this happen? Why now? Why me? Why is [00:10:00] a big one for stage two?

[00:10:01] The why why stage? We're hoping the more answers we can figure out, the more clarity we'll have, and the easier it will be to move forward. In stage two, usually is when we go and we grab for our cards. That's usually when we're like, all right, we're going to get the answers. We are going to connect. We are going to connect to our higher self.

[00:10:21] We're going to connect to the deck. We're going to connect to spirit, right? And we are going to get answers. We are going to attempt to tap into the intuition and move this train forward. We're going to get what we need. And stage two is also where we draw way too many cards in the search for answers.

[00:10:40] Because what's happening, actually, when we go to grab these cards in a WTF moment, I'm not just talking about just a regular old moment, I'm talking those WTF moments, is we're shifting our previous attempt At something external. So stage one, remember, we're reaching out to all our friends. Tell me, tell me more, tell me more, tell me more, right?

[00:10:59] Can you believe [00:11:00] this? What do you think I should do? Something external. And we're looking now for the answer. Still externally, we're still looking for the way out with our cards. Dear Tarot, please show me the way forward. Please give me the answer. Here's all of my power. Please help. Please. And so we switch to the cards because, well, honestly, probably our friends didn't even know what to do with us and our spin out.

[00:11:30] But we switch to the cards. So we find ourselves shuffling and we tell ourselves, we're just going to pull one more card. Just one more card. And then like 10 minutes later, we have 12. There's 12 cards staring back at us. And this is when we reach that stage of like the cards making zero sense at all.

[00:11:47] They'll come across as jumbled, conflicting advice, or so obvious it's not even helpful. I cannot tell you how many times I've been in a stage 2 where I flip the first card and it's the tower. It's like, [00:12:00] yes, I know things are falling apart, it's why I grabbed my deck. I know. Or my favorite, the Ten of Swords.

[00:12:07] Like, yes, I know I'm at rock bottom. I'm quite aware of my stress and my anxiety. Thank you. Thank you. So you'll get really obvious cards like that, that aren't really giving you any advice. They're just identifying that you indeed are as awful as you feel. And then there are the cards that make no sense.

[00:12:24] Like you'll pull the sun and you're like, why the sun? Really? Like what am I, am I supposed to find joy? Am I supposed to bypass what I'm feeling right now? So the cards usually. make us more confused than they help when we're in a WTF moment, when we're spinning out or we're in that stage two where we're like, I'm going to get answers.

[00:12:44] All I need is answers. Everything will be fine. And once again, it comes from being triggered by the unknown, but really at the base of it, at the core of it, we just want to know everything's going to be okay. That's why we grab our deck. Just tell me that everything is going to be okay. Tell me that this.

[00:12:59] [00:13:00] Feeling this overwhelm, this anxiety, this spinning isn't going to last forever. Just tell me it's going to be okay. And that's why we grab our deck. In reality, we probably actually need a moment for our brain to catch up. Like, we need to take a nap. We need to just breathe. We need to give ourselves a little space.

[00:13:19] Before we reach out to the cards, we reach out to the astrology, we reach out to whatever we think is going to help because we need a moment to just process and take a breath. And when I say help, usually in stage two, when we're like, Oh, this is going to help me. This is going to help me. What we mean by help is this is going to help me get things under control.

[00:13:41] So as we're back to holding onto that steering wheel a little too tight, and then there's stage two. Three, the reckoning, or if you want it a little less foreboding, a little more friendly, the pause before the actual first step, the reckoning, the reckoning is where [00:14:00] we have this come to Jesus moment where we realize that we do not have control and we aren't going to get all the answers, information, whatever it is we need to feel 100%.

[00:14:13] Safe moving forward and it sucks because we're gonna have to take that first step and not know literally Step into the unknown. And this is huge. And that's why it feels like, that's why I call it the reckoning. It's like, Whoa, it's like it drops in and we're, and we realize we are in a WTF moment. We are here.

[00:14:33] This is real. This isn't going anywhere. This is happening. We've just had something huge, maybe a lifequake even. And all we want to know is what is the plan from here? Are we going to be okay? Give me all the steps laid out. 1, and I'll do it and I'll do it. And the reckoning is where we realize, Oh, that's not going to happen.

[00:14:55] Damn it. We just have to trust ourselves. We [00:15:00] just have to trust that we're going to be enough to know that we can do this. We have to trust that we can navigate whatever comes up. Yeah, we do. And we are probably still feeling super not okay, because let's be honest, it's really shitty during those WTF things, really shitty.

[00:15:19] And this is kind of where we stand. We can either take a breath. And take the first step anyway, or we can keep staying in the WTF and y'all, I don't know about you, but the WTF is uncomfortable enough that I am willing to take the risk to trust myself that I can navigate forward just so I don't have to be in it anymore, just so I don't have to be in it anymore.

[00:15:43] I remember there was a moment where I got some really intense news about my husband's health and I was. Just about to go into the hospital. We were waiting on the test results. Like they hadn't come in yet. And I was sitting in the car and I had my card app [00:16:00] pulled up in front of me. It was, I don't even know, some Oracle deck.

[00:16:04] And I was like, I just need a card. What do I need to know right now? Just give me a card. Tell me what I need to know right now. And I was looking for like somebody to tell me that it was going to be okay. That's really, I just wanted to know that it was all going to be okay. And I was going to step through those doors and whatever was going to come at me, it was all going to be okay.

[00:16:23] And by okay, once again, that there was going to be a plan, or this wasn't really happening, or like whatever in my mind at that moment, sitting in that car with that card app on my phone open, I just needed to know what, what was going to happen, what was going to happen, it's human, we want to know what's going to happen, and I remember the card being really vague.

[00:16:45] And super not helpful as cards are during these moments. And I just felt this impression of my father who had passed maybe three weeks before this moment come in. And I just, I heard it's all going to be okay. [00:17:00] It's all going to be okay. And it's interesting because also in that moment, I knew that all going to be okay.

[00:17:05] Didn't mean everything was going to be peachy and wonderful. It didn't mean that this huge thing that had blown up our lives was just going to magically disappear. It meant it was going to be okay because I was going to be able to do it. I was going to be able to navigate it. No matter what comes, I was strong enough to do this and I had done hard things before and I would be doing a hard thing right now and I had to trust myself that I'd be able to show up for myself and for what my family needed and that no matter the outcome, no matter, I didn't have control over that, zero control over that.

[00:17:45] No matter what happened, I was still going to be okay. And that put a pin in my WTF because it was a lot of WTF in for like a good week before we got to that point a lot. [00:18:00] And I went from spinning and spiraling to needing to know all the answers. Google is not your friends during those moments. Do not Google y'all to pulling cards to all the things, just trying to like make it disappear, to trying to not.

[00:18:14] Be so uncomfortable. But in reality, I just had to have a reckoning and it was in the car with my card app and my dad where that reckoning happened, where I took a breath and I was like, all right, I have no idea what's going to happen and I'm going to take that first step and I'm going to trust that the next step is going to show after that and the next step is going to show after that and WTFs.

[00:18:38] that reckoning. And so you may be listening right now wondering, okay, great. Three stages. Wonderful. How do I do that? How is always the question everyone asks. Wonderful. How? How do I take that first step? And how can tarot help me in any way, shape, or form? And it can, it can. But before I dive into the shift that needs to [00:19:00] happen to make your tarot or your oracle or your angel deck a tool that actually works during these moments, You need to understand just a little bit more beyond the WTF of why they actually don't work a lot of the times in those moments, in those uncertain times.

[00:19:16] And this could be tarot. This could be other spiritual tools or self development tools. They don't work like we expect them to. One of the reasons is, is we're looking to the tool to say, okay, give me a fixed outcome and we're in the moment in our life, in the world that between stage. Where that's not possible.

[00:19:37] A fixed outcome is not possible because everything is constantly shifting. And I know we've all been there. When I say WTF moment, there is a moment that pops up in your mind where you were like, Ooh, yes. And if you think back on it. You're going to remember how everything changed so fast or what it felt like so fast, that energy of change.

[00:19:58] It's just simply moving too [00:20:00] fast in these WTF moments for us to keep up, which is why we end up feel like we're spinning. It's like just when we wrap our mind around things, they've changed again, or we wake up to something else, or we find something else out when it drops in our inbox, like it is constantly moving.

[00:20:16] So the energy is moving too much for a fixed outcome. That means when we draw cards. It may be applicable in the moment, but 30 minutes later, an hour later, two choices later, it no longer applies. And then we're like, but the cards said, well, yeah, they did. And then something changed. So when we're looking for a fixed outcome, and we're using our cards for fixed outcomes, it doesn't work in the WTF.

[00:20:40] Also, when we use tarot to predict. To predict things, instead of learning how to navigate things, we sort of shoot ourselves in the foot. It comes back to this false idea that there's like actually only one way forward, or one set of directions, or one path for us. And it ties into this idea that we think, like, [00:21:00] the energy is set.

[00:21:00] Okay, this happened, and now we're doing this, and now we're moving forward, and it's set. But, like I said before, things are changing, energy changing very quickly, and nothing is set. And that's why, rather than using your tarot to predict something in a WTF moment, you need to use it to navigate. And here's what I mean by navigate.

[00:21:20] Imagine that you have a six lane highway in front of you. And there are cars moving in every direction. Now, if you're in the States, the right hand side will have three lanes, and that furthest right hand lane is the slow lane. And then we've got the medium lane, we've got the fast lane, the passing lane.

[00:21:37] And then the other lanes on the left are going the opposite direction. Same thing. Fast, medium, slow. Okay? We've got a lot of traffic. We've got on ramps. We've got exit ramps. Okay. When we go to pull into these WTF moments, we can use our cards to navigate which lane we need to be in. Life is just easier when we don't go against the traffic during these moments.

[00:21:58] However, [00:22:00] sometimes we don't pay attention and we find ourselves on the wrong side of the road. What we want to use tarot for then is like, how do we move from the, what feels like the wrong side of the road in the fast lane, going against traffic, dodging cars, how do we move into the lanes that are going the direction that we need to be going now?

[00:22:19] And how do we do it in a way that doesn't feel too fast or too slow? It's a little bit of Goldilocks. So when we use our cards to navigate, the cards are going to say, listen, you have all of these choices. You've got six lanes you can choose from. And here's sort of the energy surrounding each of these lanes.

[00:22:34] Which energy feels better to you right now in this moment? So moving from this idea of predicting to navigating is key when it comes to tarot. Kind of as a side note to this, It's not really a fully new idea, but it's attached to this, is this idea that we sometimes treat tarot as a magic 8 ball. Uh, instead of a thinking, a critical thinking tool, okay?

[00:22:58] Like that magic 8 [00:23:00] ball trap. Now listen, I am all for intuition, so I'm not saying that we're not using intuitive tarot. We 100 percent are using intuitive tarot, but sometimes in WTF moments, it's really hard to tap into our intuition in a way that's clear. And so we fall into the magic eight ball trap of asking questions that are like, yes or no, tell me what to do.

[00:23:19] And we end up giving our power away to the cards. But what we actually need to be using them for is a critical thinking tool. What do I need to see? What do I need to understand? What is hidden from me? What am I not seeing? We need to get a better perspective of what's going on rather than tell me what to do.

[00:23:37] Tell me what to do. Yes, no. Yes, no does not work in a WTF moment. And if you ask a yes, no question, you are just going to keep spinning out. And then we come back to this idea of pulling card after card, hoping for certainty that doesn't exist. Pull cards until we feel 100 percent confident that this is the next step and this is what we need to do, when in reality, we're never going to feel 100 percent [00:24:00] confidence.

[00:24:00] It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen, even with a million cards. Stop pulling cards. Put the deck down. Stop pulling cards. And we all do this. We all do this. And maybe we can get away with it when things are calm, when things are just flowing along. But in WTF moments, there is no space for that.

[00:24:25] There is no space for that. We have to shift from the way we've always used to tarot into the way that tarot is going to help us in the unknown. Right? It's like, Shifting to a friend that listens and gives you a cup of tea and then when you're ready says, Okay, what's next? What's the next step? And when we can shift our practice from reading the cards into working with them, a few things happen.

[00:24:52] Well, the world doesn't stop moving. Tarot then helps us move with it. Tarot starts to work [00:25:00] with our spiritual compass and it helps us see where we end and the world begins which moves us into this idea that I mentioned before of responding to things rather than reacting to the things that are happening around us.

[00:25:12] It breaks us out of those stages that we just talked about. Then Tarot can be a disruptor moment rather than feeding in to a WTF moment because it can remind us that. Just because the world feels really loud and unsettled doesn't mean our life has to be loud, too, while we navigate it. It can help us see that clarity isn't actually about certainty.

[00:25:36] Those are two very different things. Clarity comes when we have the right perspective, when we feel in alignment with who we know ourselves to be, and we have choices in front of us that we can make to stay in that alignment. And it also reminds us that we don't need to know the whole path. We just need to know the very first step.

[00:25:54] The very first step into the next part of whatever this is. [00:26:00] So during WTF, the real issue isn't your cards, it's how you're using them. And so in the next episode, I want to break down exactly how I rebuilt my tarot practice so it worked in those WTF moments because I have gone through my fair share of WTF moments.

[00:26:14] I have not had a very calm life. There's been a lot of change. A lot of transition, a lot of life quakes, and it's okay because it has brought me to this moment and I can share this with you. I can find meaning in everything that has happened and I can share how we can shift to make tarot work for you when you find yourself in the next WTF moment.

[00:26:34] Oh, and don't forget, Tarot for Uncertain Times, that free three day activation to help you shift your own card practice so you don't have to feel like you're what t effing all over the place all the time. That's happening. That's coming up in March. The link is in the show notes, click on it and join me live so we can start to unpack and start to really work with your cards in a new way.

[00:26:56] I will see you all in the next episode.[00:27:00]

[00:27:02] Thank you for listening to Reclaiming Our Spirit. To find out how I can help you reclaim your spirit, reach out to me at www. jessicapaschke.com. Leave me a message and I just may share how you reclaimed your spirit in the next episode.

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