About this Playlist
Eight of Pentacles
Deck: This Might Hurt
Make It Happen – Mariah Carey
Ariana writes: This card is all about achieving goals and putting your all into something. Even if obstacles are in the way, if you keep pushing you can make it through. You can make it happen. That’s where Mariah Carey – Make It Happen kicks in. This song is all about pushing through obstacles to achieve what you want, and putting in the hard work to do so. What better song to represent the Eight of Pentacles.
Truths Unveiled – The Revelation of Isis
Deck: (Egyptian Goddess) Isis Oracle
Let ‘em Talk – Kesha
Sky writes: This card is about shining a light onto the unknown/darkness, especially when it comes to others’ perceptions and judgements. I took this message as a reminder to remember to shine bright, as darkness can only turn to light in a brightly lit room. Meaning, don’t let others’ judgment or opinions influence how you want to show up and be in this world. Choose to be who you are and shine as brightly as you want to and just “shake that ass” and “don’t care if they talk about it” lol. Act as ridiculous or tame as you want and trust that no one’s opinions or ill intentions towards you can have any effect.
The Magician
Deck: The Spirit of Herbs: A Guide to the Herbal Tarot
The Magician – Twain
Maria writes: This card represents the embodiment of creative transmutation. The herb associated with this card is Astragalus, the Herb of Creativity.
It is said to support us with the energy and awareness needed to allow life to unfold with less resistance. To become present and follow our truth with all that we already have within – whatever that may be. As Twain shares with us ~ beauty is wanting to be what you really are.
Prince of Wands
Deck: Crowley Thoth
My God Is the Sun – Queens of the Stone Age
Christopher writes: I wasn’t expecting to laugh while pulling a card for this playlist, but sometimes these things just sort themselves out. At the blazing red-orange-gold sight of Apollo in his lion-borne chariot, I immediately heard Josh Homme intoning “Heal them with fire from above!” This card encapsulates everything classically solar and masculine, and usually portends the dawning of a new adventure or rich experience.
Five of Pentacles – Reversed
Deck: Rider-Waite
You Can’t Rule Me – Memphis Minnie
Liv writes: Represents material trouble above all – and I picked it up reversed which means disorder, chaos, ruin, discord and troubles in love. I was so torn when picking this card if I should go down the love trouble route or economic troubles so it took me a while to decide! In the end I went for an excellent song that combines both but with a sense of defiance
Power
Deck: Healing With The Angels – Oracle
Handlebars – Flobots
Andrew writes: You now allow yourself to express your power. Being powerful is safe for you, knowing that you express your power with love.
I have a healthy distrust of power – I live in a time where the saying “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” seems to be manifest and the people “in” power just seem hopeless.
I have been both characters in Handlebars’ stunning video – and while I stepped off the corporate ladder, I dread to think what I would have done if I had achieved the power that was down that road.
Eight of Cups
Deck: This Might Hurt
Fink – Warm Shadow
Ariana writes: This card is all about leaving behind the past. I interpret it as leaving it whether you’re ready to or not. There are good and bad memories being left behind which are represented by the broken cups and the cups still standing. The vibe of this card is very moody. A man can be seen wandering into the night. Not knowing what’s ahead, but knowing he has to go into the unknown future. Maybe it’s all the Walking Dead I’ve been binging, but I felt this card goes well with the mood of the show and the characters not knowing what’s coming day to day. It reminded me of the central character Rick Grimes. The song Warm Shadow which is featured on the show encapsulates this feeling perfectly. Walking into the unknown and facing whatever comes next.
Set – Chaos
Deck: Gods and Titans Oracle by Stacey Demarco
Gimme More – Britney Spears
Sky writes:
“Trust that chaos is a part of the process of change. Things sometimes need to fall apart to re-form into your desires. Hold your intention.”
The Egyptian god of the desert, darkness, chaos, and storms is Set. He’s typically painted as a villain, but archaeologists believe it could be due to the rift between Set worshipers and worshipers of another Egyptian god, Horus. When Lower and Upper Egypt unified as one, they chose and/or were forced to unify under Horus and ostracized Set and his temples. So, I seeked out a song/artist that had been ostracized at one point and had some sort of rebirth process born out of chaos. I went with “Gimme More” by Britney Spears because it was a time when she was going through public metamorphosis. I feel her story related a lot with Set because they both were worshiped; one as god and another as a celebrity. And, when Britney was struggling the most is when so much of the media was attacking her and ostracized her for just being a human publicly. Then, she came back with this single/album that put her right back on the spotlight more aligned on her terms. She continues to evolve and grow in her music, but also in her personal life. Sending love to this beautiful human who experiencing struggles like the rest of us ❤️
XIII ~ Death
Deck: The Spirit of Herbs: A Guide to the Herbal Tarot
Harvest ~ Samana
Maria writes:
I felt called to begin with the oracle card of Growth associated with the ancient and adaptive nature of the Fern. This oracle creation connects to Tarot and associates the Growth card with the Death card.
This is truly one of my most cherished cards in the deck. I see Death as a source of surrender, as an opportunity to engage with life in a different way – perhaps in a way that seems unimaginable. As someone who seeks transformation in all forms and at all times – it leaves a reminder that we are made to grow and evolve, however slowly or swiftly. To embrace the shifts is a gift as much as it is burdensome as the unknown settles in different manners for each one of us. Harvest speaks to the sweet surrender of our ever shifting skins. To trust in our growing, to see these signs as divine, hopeful and mesmerizing.
“Take the time that you need
To relieve your mind
Trust the stars
Trust the stars
Trust in yourself
Interpret the dreams
That you travel beneath
Bridge the skies
Bridge the signs
Back to your strength
It would not be the first time
To leave the past behind
It would not be the first time
To leave the past behind”
8 of Wands / Swiftness
Deck: Crowley Thoth
502 – Megadeth
Christopher writes: The “swiftness” implied by this card concerns the speed of thought–but, per the law of analogy, Dave Mustaine’s ode to speeding seemed somehow apropos. With wands as Fire and 8 as the kabbalistic Hod, this card seethes with the ability to divide, distinguish, and drag things into the light with the mind. It discovers and interfaces with reality at face value, rather than reshaping reality in the miraculous fashion of Netzach and the number 7. The message I read here is to “get the hands dirty” rather than being paralyzed by ideals. When you don’t know where to start, just start somewhere. Like Mustaine racing cops down the freeway, this course of action may well not be the best one–but at least it is one
King Of Wands – Reversed
Deck: Rider-Waite
‘We’re Not Gonna Take it’ – Live at the Isle of Wight – The Who
Liv writes: Described as “Good, but severe, austere, yet tolerant. Also advice that should be followed”. After some thought I decided it should definitely be a Who song, which I think was prompted by the ‘good but severe’, since I feel in particular this album is particularly merciless Who rock. The track ‘We’re not Gonna take it’, comes at the end of their rock opera Tommy, in which the main character starts to give pretty strict advice so I guess it’s twice as appropriate!
Focus
Deck: Healing With The Angels – Oracle
Just – Radiohead
Andrew writes: Think about what you want, not what you don’t want. Guard your thoughts carefully because they create your experiences.
It’s the perfect card for me right now – the last three weeks have been a struggle and it very much feels like I’m holding all the cards yet dealing myself dreck. I know the behaviors I need to exhibit to stay afloat and yet – sometimes – these times – I just don’t have them. And I know – I know – I fucking know – and yet – I do it to myself – and that’s what really hurts!
Four of Swords
Deck: This Might Hurt
Mike Posner – Slow It Down
Ariana writes: The Four of Swords is a reminder that we need time to retreat and relax, away from everyday stressors and multiple tasks being thrown our way. It’s important to take time for ourselves, slow it down, and be in the moment. This song by Mike Posner fits well with this interpretation for the card. When we take the time to be in our own company, reflect on life and explore our surroundings, we can gain new perspectives that can help us emerge from rest more enlightened, and more well prepared to conquer what’s next on this adventure we call life.
Moth
Deck: The Wild Unknown Animal Spirit Guidebook
Pursuit of Happiness (Nightmare) – Kid Cudi
Sky writes: “Impulsive, Hasty, Wishful”
The card is a reminder to slow down and to not get lost in the pursuit of something “shiny and new”. I chose pursuit of happiness because of the line: “everything that shine ain’t always gonna be gold”. The connection being that there’s thousands of desires that each of us have, but if we’re constantly looking at the next shiny thing; we’ll miss out on what’s in front of us. Don’t get lost in the pursuit of more, rather get lost in the current moment to find what’s already shining around you.
Queen of Pentacles
Deck: The Spirit of Herbs: A Guide to the Herbal Tarot
Glow – Alice Phoebe Lou
Maria writes: This card represents the bliss of nurturance for Self and for others. Marshmallow is known to alleviate and transform experiences of grief and fear amongst other delicate feelings.
We have the opportunity to gather so much wisdom from the beings that grow alongside us. Their ability to nurture themselves and everything around them is a gift to be in reverence of. Alice Phoebe Lou is a nurturer of movement, a giver of golden soil melodies. A simple reminder of all that we hold, all that we choose to let go and all that we can be.
I am smiling, I am screaming
I am glowing from inside
Do I dare to feel this feeling
Prince of Wands
Deck: Crowley Thoth
Lateralus – Tool
Christopher writes:
This card is the penultimate Major Arcana of the deck, so we can expect a doozy symbolically. In typical Crowleyian fashion, it’s not strictly Graeco or Egyptian, but a patchwork. Consequently Crowley has extrapolated his own ‘trinity’ out of the sky goddess Nuit (dark blue arching overhead), Nuit’s lover Hadit/Ra (the upside down & winged egg underneath), and Harpocrates or child Horus (the translucent being in the center). And it wouldn’t be Crowley without the three also and actually being four–the child Harpocrates carries adult Horus inside of himself, and brings his finger to his lips as though keeping this a secret.
To cut to the chase, this is Crowley’s replacement of the Rider-Waite ‘Judgement’ card; rather than the dead being called to God’s throne at the end of time, in New Aged fashion Crowley envisions the universe as an egg with infinite onion layers. In other words, he supposes a neverending story rather than a narrative arc with a definite beginning and end. I find it interesting that this deck was being made at the same time that Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge was being written. Something about WW2 seems to have made a lot of Westerners wonder if the Eastern “ever turning wheel” was actually onto something.
Lateralus is the perfect compliment– “…to swing on the spiral of our divinity, and still be a human.” Its lyrics are perhaps the greatest wording of this paradox–this struggle to consider humanity within the eternal context without under- or over-doing its valuation–since Hamlet’s “What a piece of work is man!” This card is a call to realize one’s own potential and grandeur without slipping into megalomania…It doesn’t get more quintessentially Crowley than that.
Knight of Swords
Deck: Rider-Waite
Waiting on A War – Foo Fighters
Liv writes: A soldier, man of arms, heroic action predicted for soldier. Skill bravery, capacity, defense, address, wrath, war destruction.
This was another instance of a song instantly popping into my head. ‘Waiting On a War’ by the Foo Fighters I think really captures the duality of this card, this push to war/conflict and the desire to escape it.
XX – Judgement
Deck: Rider-Waite
Let It Go – Peter Broderick
Andrew writes: Change of position, renewal, outcome. Another account specifies total loss though lawsuit. The card symbolizes the completion of a profound transformation in response to a divine summons from within.
I’m a Kahlil Gibran fan:
“Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.“
Maria hipped me to this track last year and I’ve loved it ever since. I think it fits the card and the idea rather well.
7 of Pentacles
Deck: Welcome to Night Vale Tarot Deck
Eye of the Tiger – Survivor
Phoenix writes: The Welcome to Night Vale Deck is a little different from your usual decks. Each card is named after a character from the podcast. WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE is a twice-monthly podcast in the style of community updates for the small desert town of Night Vale, featuring local weather, news, announcements from the Sheriff’s Secret Police, mysterious lights in the night sky, dark hooded figures with unknowable powers, and cultural events. Turn on your radio and hide.” I was hooked, the podcast also has a weather report featuring music, no actual weather.
The meaning of 7 of Pentacles is Things coming to fruition, hard work paying off, harvest, rewards, profits, results, pay-outs, manifestation of ideas or goals, inheritance, cultivation, growing, gestation, nurturing, perseverance, patience, planning, reviewing, taking stock, questioning, crossroads, approaching retirement, finishing what you started
If you have a chance check out the link and get lost in the world of Night Vale, you can find it on Spotify or anyplace you listen to podcasts. That sounds like an ad lol.
Track Listing
- Make It Happen – Mariah Carey
- Let ‘Em Talk (feat. Eagles of Death Metal) – Kesha
- The Magician – Twain
- My God Is the Sun – Queens of the Stone Age
- You Can’t Rule Me – Memphis Minnie
- Handlebars – Flobots
- Warm Shadow – Fink
- Gimme More – Britney Spears
- Harvest – Samana
- 502 – Remastered – Megadeth
- We’re Not Gonna Take It – Live – The Who
- Just – Radiohead
- Slow It Down – Mike Posner
- Pursuit Of Happiness (Nightmare) – Kid Cudi
- Glow – Alice Phoebe Lou
- Lateralus – TOOL
- Waiting On A War – Foo Fighters
- Let It Go – Peter Broderick
- Eye of the Tiger – Survivor
Playlist Image: 10 of Cups – Rider Waite Deck
