Mailing a birthday card, today:

I stuff the card in its envelope, slap on a Forever stamp I bought five years ago, put it in my mailbox and wait. In the afternoon, the delivery driver picks up the card. In a few days, the card arrives at my mom's house.

I had set aside the first card I drew yesterday. But I took a picture of it, and I saved that picture for today.

I'm cheating again. I drew a card, stared at it, took a picture of it, then set it aside to draw two new cards for today. You'll see why tomorrow.

But for today, let's just pretend that the first cards I drew were the Ten of Pentacles and the Empress.

I cheated. The first two cards I drew today were both cards that we've seen recently, so I drew again. I'm sure that's violating some fundamental rule of tarot divination, but if you wanted proper tarot, you wouldn't be here, would you?

Which means that today's redrawn cards are the Hanged Man and the Knight of Cups.

The Dow may be dropping, but it's raining gold here!

Today's cards are the Six and Ace of Pentacles.

Sorry that the reading is a little late today. The daily responsibilities of a tarot reader are no joke, believe me. So much to juggle.

And speaking of juggling, today's cards are the Two of Pentacles and the Hierophant.

A dismal start to the day up here. I had dared entertain thoughts of spring, but then I stepped out with the dogs into a blur of snowfall.

But things started looking up when I drew today's cards: Death and the Four of Wands.

Although I can easily identify several people who've built a mega-successful personal brand out of semi-coherent rambling, it hasn't done much for my readership. Am I too incoherent? Not incoherent enough? What are the metrics on this?

All I know for sure is that today's cards are Temperance and the Five of Swords.

It turns out that the answer to the question "Are the 1910 Rider-Waite tarot images in the public domain?" is "it's complicated" with a spoonful of business intimidation on top.

But we're not here to talk about copyright law. We're here to talk about The Hermit and the Ten of Cups.

Am I going to get in trouble for posting these card images? Am I breaking copyright? Is Big Tarot going to show up at my door with a cease-and-desist letter?

Well, until that happens, today's cards are the Six of Swords and the Nine of Cups.

I know you're only here because it's a slow news week and there's nothing else interesting to read on the web, but still, thanks for coming by!

Today's cards are the Ace of Pentacles and the Three of Swords.

We're starting to thaw out up here in the North, which means the snow is receding (yay!) but the dog's allergies are starting up again (boo!).

And today's cards are the Three and Seven of Pentacles.

I have to admit that this one had me stumped for a while. The path to wisdom is strewn with misleading turns. Also, I had to catch up on reading my webcomics.

But you'll see the trouble I had when I show you today's cards: the Queen of Cups and the Four of Swords.

It's primary election day where I live, but despite that, I was hoping to do a reading today without any political baggage. I really was hoping.

But today's cards are the Ten of Cups and the King of Wands.

I nearly screwed this one up. I drew two cards and I was ready to go, but then I remembered that I had to set my deck to daylight savings time. I've re-drawn and the new cards should be correct. Dodged a bullet there.

Today's time-corrected cards are the Knight of Swords and the Eight of Wands.

Facebook, Twitter, and Mastodon are all horrible this morning, so let's see if we can't inject a little positivity into social media this morning. Today's cards are...

Oh dear.

I have a busy day planned, and so do you, so let's get to it.

Today's cards are the Seven of Wands and the Six of Cups.

I feel like some of my recent readings have been veering dangerously close to relevant and heartfelt guidance, and we can't have that. Today, I want to focus on a different aspect of the tarot; specifically, how messed up some of these cards are.

We'll start with today's cards: the Queen of Swords and the High Priestess.

Sometimes the cards give me a universal message, but today I think the cards are trying to find a few specific people. Maybe it's not you, but maybe you know who it is, in which case you can tell them, "Hey, this creepy guy in the internet says his deck of cards is speaking to you."

Because today's cards are the World and the Three of Swords.

Welcome back from the weekend, everyone! I hope you're enjoying these readings, because as soon Disney buys me out, this content will all be locked behind a colossal mouse-shaped paywall.

But not today! Today's cards, free of charge, are the Hierophant and the Nine of Pentacles.

Should I settle for the usual methods of monetizing this blog, like t-shirts and mugs, or should I go straight for premium subscriber rewards like personalized card readings? I could just bash together one of those neural net things, feed it a few terabytes of "genuine psychic wisdom" I scraped off the web, plug it into Patreon and turn it on.

But until then, here are today's cards: the Ace of Swords and the Three of Wands.

I promise you that both cards in the photo are right-side up.

Today's cards are Justice and the Hanged Man.

If you thought yesterday's sarcophagus card was grim, then hoo boy, do I have a card for you today.

Today's cards are the Empress and the Eight of Swords.

I confess that I'm using these tarot readings as a distraction. If I wasn't doing this, I'd be spending all morning angrily fact-checking memes on the internet, and nobody wants that.

So today's cards are the Four of Swords and the World.

I took the weekend off to let my cartomancy muscles recharge. I'll probably stick to a Monday-Friday schedule for a while. To maximize my exposure, I expect I should be getting up at the crack of dawn to make these crucial predictions available to people at the start of the day, but honestly, that sounds like a drag. If you have to make a life-changing decision before I can get my blog updated, just flip a coin or something.

Today's cards--yes, cards--are the Knight of Wands and Knight of Swords.

Does anyone else feel lazy this morning? I skipped exercise and Mary Lynn walked the dogs. Don't worry, though. I know that these readings are a critical public service, and I'm on the job.

Today's card is the Nine of Pentacles, drawn upright.

If I ever monetize this feature, I pledge to blow some of the money on more tarot decks. I saw this steampunk deck once that would really step up my game. The problem with the Rider-Waite deck I'm using, as I'm sure you'll agree, is that there aren't enough gears and goggles.

Though I suppose there might be some steam, or some kind of clouds, on today's card: the Wheel of Fortune, drawn reversed.

I did about thirty seconds of Googling about this stuff (not more than that; I don't want this to become Expert Tarot Reading) and saw that some folks suggest there's wisdom and insight to be found in single-card tarot readings. Who knew? I thought I was just being lazy.

In any case, today's hand-selected card is the Ten of Pentacles.

That glow from behind the card is the nearby trees covered in about five or six inches of snow. I know, it's out of focus here, but trust me, it's very pretty.

And today's card is the Page of Wands.

Good morning, everyone! Are your dogs wondering why you're standing in the living room taking photos of playing cards? Mine are.

Today's card is the Five of Wands, drawn upright.

I keep drawing major arcana, so you're getting premium service here.

Today's card is The World, drawn reversed.