‘Don’t shoot the messenger’.

Mercury, the planet of communication is the celestial messenger of the divine.

While Mercury stations retrograde in the sign of Cancer over the next few weeks, we are being urged to connect with our emotional side – to feel, rather than to think.

It is time for introspection and removing anything that has emotionally been blocking your path – and ready or not, here the awakening comes!

Your thoughts may tend towards past versions of yourself, or past events from your life.

It is OK to change how you feel about the past.

Let go of any self-blame, shame or other negative emotions. What’s done is done, you can’t change the past, but you have full control over your behaviour, thoughts and feelings today, and in the future.

This particular retrograde is also heavily influenced by the moons lunar energy, with the Full moon in Capricorn just one day into the retrograde on the 30^th June, and a new moon around the middle (or Cazimi) on the 14^th July.

The first half of the retrograde is going to illuminate exactly how much we have going on in our lives right now.

It may stir up feelings of frustrations, anger and disappointment – which is all designed to move you towards the unavoidable emotional release that has been building.

Around the middle of the retrograde you will find that your head and heart meet harmoniously and you will find the solutions you have been looking for which will allow you to feel confident moving forward, and leaving behind some of the heavy thoughts and feelings we all carry around in our hearts and minds.

With the new moon energy backing you – it is a great time to start something new, feel something new, and step boldly into the second half of the year feeling more aware of life’s possibilities, more clear about your own capabilities, and a lot more aligned with your path.

How to work with this energy;

1. Open your diary or calendar on your phone and book some non-negotiable ‘me’ time in your schedule over the next 3-4 weeks. Find a quiet place to be alone, quiet and still, where you can allow your mind to turn inwards - mirroring the retrospective element of this planetary retrograde. Open your heart and mind and allow yourself to hear the universal messages that are destined for you at this time. Pay attention to thoughts, images, memories, people, ideas that come to your mind at this time. They are important.

2. Feelings may be difficult to put into words or understand completely, so if you experience overwhelm, take a breath and then allow your emotions to simply exist without trying to change anything, you may understand more about them on the other side of the retrograde cycle.

3. Mercury is a healing planet, as is the element of water. If there is something that you know needs healing in your life, now is the time to follow your instincts and take action. Give yourself some TLC - nurture your body, mind and spirit by indulging in some quality time spent some with your favourite things, people, or places.

4. It is the perfect time to identify your ‘bigger picture’ views. Grab some paper and a pen and write down each area in your life where you feel overburdened, prioritise your actions over the next month - be sure to allow yourself some quality down time to rest and reflect.

~ working with universal energy means remembering that we are all one~

Connect your body, mind, and spirit with mother natures elemental gifts ~ gaze upon the stars with awe, breathe deeply in the fresh air, walk barefoot on the cold earth, splash in the shallow waters of the oceans, rivers and lakes, watch the dancing flames of fire.

~ believe in your connection with the divine ~ heal yourself and heal the world ~

~ Kristy, Pink Sugar Tarot & Astrology

When I have felt unsure, confused or have struggled with a decision, I have always turned towards my tarot, oracle and angel card decks.

Tarot cards bring your mind and soul into alignment, often our initial reaction to the card and its deeper meaning leads us to learn a valuable karmic lesson, and gives us the mental fortitude that is needed to guide us through challenging times

First, find a space to sit quietly. If you are able to light a candle do so at the start of your reading, it’s a great way to connect with your spirit guides and invokes the element of fire.

Holding your chosen deck, take a deep breath and allow you focus to turn inwards. Without forcing a specific question, simply let the thoughts and feelings flow through your mind -unjudged, unchallenged, unaltered. Simply be at peace and open to messages from your soul, and spirit.

Gently shuffle the deck for as long as you feel is right. I like to mix them around so that some cards will be in the upright position and others will present reversed. I will often cut the deck, turning half the deck around before recombining and shuffling. I do this a few times so that I know the message will be clear and any blocks will be identified.

If a card or cards flip over or ‘jump’ out , either keep them aside or take note of the card and shuffle it back in to the pack (in my readings, the ‘flippers’ will often come back in the reading anyway so I keep them out and view t hem as a sort of guiding card for the overall message of the reading).

Once you have finished shuffling the deck, either fan them out into a rainbow shape, or cut the deck into 3 piles.

In a rainbow formation, I allow my hand to move left to right and back again, selecting 3 cards at random when I am ‘guided’ to drop my hand to the cards.

When I split the deck into 3 piles, I will lift the cards on each pile, which effectively ‘cuts’ the deck again, I will place any cards that lifted up aside, and take the top card that is left on the pile which wasn’t lifted when I grabbed them. Repeat for each pile.

You are now left with 3 cards (and possibly the guide card / cards).

Turn each over and reflect on the symbolism, colors, meaning and detail. Notice how to they make you feel. What do you react to first? What draws your eye? If you know the cards you can simply write down your interpretation. (I also like to read from a Paul Fenton-Smith book as his interpretations offer me a lot of insight too, however I will not do this before I write my own understanding of the cards meaning down).

I also like to consider the numerology of each card.

To get clear on the message, I will look at all cards that have made up my reading and see if they are:

~ Mostly minor arcana.

~ Mostly major arcana.

~ Mostly upright.

~ Mostly reversed

I will also see how the cards relate to each other, are they all low numbers, do they all have animals, or are the characters all females - or all males, are there repeating symbols etc.

Being able to see the message that your cards have presented means accepting things that you may not have expected or don’t necessarily feel is the ‘right’ reading. The messages are not always straight forward, and may become clearer in the days or weeks to come.

Sit with the feelings, emotions and messages and take a minute or two to just listen to what you heart and mind are saying.

Once the reading has been completed, simply blow out the candle and let the smoke on the air carry away the connection to spirit.

Have a drink of water, and spend another minute or two reconnecting your mind with the present, then go about your life as usual.

~ Kristy

I have always felt connected to the divine energy of the universe. At different times throughout my life my path has led me to divination using Tarot cards, and in 2022 I began reading professionally.

“It’s not the work I do - it’s who I am”.

I have the psychic ability of clairsentience and I am an empath.

All this really means is that my energy is profoundly affected by the energy of others. I can sense, feel and understand a lot of things about people which I have no way of knowing.

It took me quite a while to understand (and accept) these traits as important parts of who I am.

Over the last 4 years as a Tarot Reader, I have provided many people with guidance to help them deal with the different challenging aspects of their lives. I hold my readings in a local crystal shop run by a lovely lightworker / witchy woman.

Before stepping into this life, led by my spiritual side, I was a career professional working in corporate offices in Sydney’s CBD for over 20 years. I was employed by multiple businesses throughout my career in administration, finance and HR positions.

My grounded earthy wisdom and knack for behind the scenes business operations was highly regarded - technically I was helping people in a spiritual way then too!

I have done a lot of tarot readings in lunchrooms for people in suits.

Life has again nudged me towards a life that uses my spiritual abilities, and so this June I decided it was time to expand my business offering to include Spiritual Mentoring (it’s mentoring - but with soul).

I mix positive psychology techniques with my own take on Spiritual Alchemy and include a little Tarot and Astrology.

My aim is to help people get in touch with their spiritual side, identify their souls ambitions (aka true purpose), and simply find a place where you feel happier in your life by accepting that all things happen in divine and perfect order.

~ Thank you for reading, have a great day.

Kristy