That's a wrap on April, all! Where the heck did the month go? I swear it felt like it was only the beginning of the month a few days ago, and now, look! We're here in May!

And given that we're five months into the new year, you all should know what this means by now. It's time for a new deck and a new card for the week.

If the art on this one looks somewhat familiar, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. This is The Faeries' Oracle, the big sibling to The Heart of Faerie Oracle that I showed off back in March. Like The Heart of Faerie, this deck features art by Brian Froud. You might know his work if you're familiar with films like The Dark Crystal or Labyrinth as he was the conceptual designer on those Jim Henson Company projects.

Honestly, I thought we'd have a different deck entirely this month, but they insisted on coming out to play, so here we are.

Our card for this week is The Fee Lion! And you'll notice immediately there's something different about this card from any other reading I've done so far: it's reversed. Usually, I don't read cards in reverse. The way a lot of my other decks are designed, it's entirely possible for me to infer which meaning is required based on positioning and such. However, with this deck, it feels important that I have some of them reversed.

Anyway.

If any of you have ever been cat owners, you'll recognize the look on the Fee Lion's face almost immediately. It's very much that slight accusing, offended expression when we've done something that brings about catlike displeasure. However, this time, the look isn't directed at us. Reversed, it's directed at the rest of the world.

Like this, the Fee Lion is asking, "Whose idea was this? Who said it needs to be this way or that way and why are you so insistent that it is?"

See, whether we acknowledge it or not, we all carry around some "programming." Maybe it's something someone told us once that we need to do to be likable. Maybe it's a ridiculous demand we took on for someone else. Maybe we agreed to accomplish something for someone else, all while thinking to ourselves that it would be better if they did it themselves.

The fact that we've done this at all creates a sort of conflict within ourselves and that can be emotionally draining. Like this, we're unable to move past it until we've dealt with whatever that is. Hell, thoughts like this can even lead to depression, and some of us are well aware of how debilitating that can actually be.

This week, be on the lookout for things like this. And when we get into situations like this, remember that it's okay to put your own mental health first. You can still do the thing, so long as you remember you're allowed to be a priority in your own life.

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If you enjoyed this post and are perhaps interested in acquiring a reading of your very own, I do keep tarot commissions open over on my Ko-fi.

I also have a shop full of all of the commission readings you can find up there, plus a couple of extras I won't be sharing anywhere else. You can find it over here.