Welcome to Tarot and Flow!
Tarot and Flow is meant to be a "choose your own adventure" experience, and the content/assignments of the class can be approached in a number of ways. You can, of course, just watch whatever videos you are attracted to at any given point, and do the assignments/practices at your own pace, and not worry too much about doing the class in its eight-week structured format.
You could also choose to just focus on the tarot/altar practice portion of the class, while still doing the tarot assignments spread out over eight weeks.
While more demanding, I think the best experience of the class will be to include the astrology/skywatching assignments that are focused at three Venus Gates (Moon-Venus conjunctions)/ New Moons spread over eight weeks. If you choose this approach, I have divided the content of the class, like a video game, into main quest assignments, which include about 25 hours (3 hours per week) of video content, and side quest assignments, which include another 15 hours of video content that is more optional and could be explored either during the eight weeks of your journey, or afterward. There are also lots of other extras that you will be able to explore if you are pulled towards them.
The Eight Week Immersion Experience with both Tarot and Astrology/Skywatching Practice
You are about to embark on an eight week experiential journey and immersion experience with astrology, altar practice and tarot. I want to congratulate you on making this effort to strengthen your intuition, practice more self love, and develop more powerful contact with your higher self.
Please review the content in your welcome packet for most of the information necessary to prepare and plan for your class journey. The key question to focus on now is when to ritually start your eight weeks of practice.
When Do I Start My Class Journey?
The big question is when do you want to start your journey? You can start exploring the content and practices of Tarot and Flow immediately, of course, and I think you probably have already watched the two introductory videos that lead you to purchase the class, but I do think there is a power to intentionally and ritualistically entering the class portal. In fact, this is one of the key lessons in "portaling," that there is a power in choosing your wave, paddling towards it, and positioning yourself to ride it well.
In that spirit, I have structured the class assignments to be in alignment with two key astronomical (and astrological) cycles of time: the Moon-Sun cycle and the Moon-Venus cycles of time. These two cycles overlap each month at the new moon, and you will need to consult your Moon-Venus calendar to see when the next point of intersection of these cycles is happening. This is the 19 month "Venus Cycle and New Moon Calendar '25 & '26."
This is a crucial calendar for the suggested experiential skywatching portion of the class. You are invited to start your class journey at the point of a New Moon/Moon-Venus conjunction sequence. If you do this, you will get to have 3 major skywatching expeditions during the 8 weeks of the class, each over a 3-4 day period, when you will go out to be with the sky, either before sunrise or after sunset. This calendar will help you know when to ritualistically enter the Tarot and Flow class portal.
You will look for both the last crescent Moon on the pre-dawn eastern horizon the morning before the exact New Moon, and the first crescent Moon to appear on the post-sunset western horizon, on the evening after the exact New Moon. Depending on which part of Venus’ cycle you are in at the start of your journey, Venus will join the Moon either before dawn or after sunset.
The exact Moon-Venus conjunction happens from 1-3 days before or after the exact new moon. If it happens at the extreme point of the cycle, as much as 3 days before the exact new moon (in the predawn eastern sky), and you wait for one day after the exact new moon (when the first crescent appears above the sunset point on the western horizon), then your period for focusing on the sky will be 3 days with the morning sky, and 1 day with the evening sky.
If the Moon-Venus conjunction happens 3 days after the exact New Moon (in the post-sunset western sky), and you go out one day before the exact New Moon (when the last crescent Moon appears above the sunrise point on the eastern horizon), then your period for focusing on the sky will be 1 day with the morning sky, and 3 days with the evening sky. There is also one day at the exact new moon when the Moon is not visible, and you may choose to stay indoors that day, but this is still an important moment for your skywatching assignment each month, as it is part of the larger 4-5 day wave of energy you are trying to surf.
More frequently during Venus' cycle, however, you will be focusing your skywatching for 3-4 days. Again, this will be your assignment at 3 different points in your class journey, during weeks 1, 5 and 8. During the rest of class, any additional skywatching will be a side quest, and is not considered essential for the basic goals of the class.
If you can only get out to be with the sky 2-3 days each month, at the last crescent moon in the morning sky, the first crescent Moon in the evening sky, as well as the exact Moon-Venus conjunction (whether before sunrise or after sunset), then you are still getting incredibly strong benefit, but the longer 5 day period allows for weather patterns to change and better odds of witnessing these cosmic events.
Thus you will want to consider carefully when the best time to start your 8 week Tarot and Flow journey. It will need to be a time when you can set a strong intention to go out to be with the sunrises and sunsets of a 5 day period right at the start of your journey and also near the 2 New Moons in the middle and end of your journey.
You can of course choose your own adventure with this class, and if you want to mostly focus on tarot/altar practice, you will still have a major psychospiritual growth experience with these practices. But if you want to go all the way with building the foundation for a lifelong astrology and tarot practice, then I strongly encourage you to consider starting the journey at one of these New Moon/Moon-Venus moments on the calendar.
Your first skywatching assignment will involve connecting with both the new moon, and a Moon-Venus conjunction over the course of several days, and it depends on which part of Venus' cycle you are in to know what this will look like. This first assignment will involve a significant time investment, as you will be going out to be with the sky at least 2-3 times (for at least 45 minutes) over the course of several days, so you will want to begin your class immersion experience at a moment when you have that time available.
You will be going out on a several day skywatching expedition of sorts, where you are attempting to catch the "wave of the month," and there are several versions of this expedition. The main two versions are either when Venus is visible in the evening sky after sunset (her "evening star" phase) or when she is visible in the morning sky before sunrise (her "morning star" phase).
Morning Sky Moon-Venus Expedition
If she is in her morning sky phase, as she will be starting in April of 2025 for 8 months, then the Moon-Venus conjunction will happen before the new moon, and your first skywatching mission will happen in the morning before sunrise. When you look at the calendar you will see that it gives the date and time for when the Moon and Venus are exactly conjunct, and also information about how close they are to each other the day before and after this.
I think it is very worth going out the day before the exact Moon-Venus conjunction (especially at the beginning of your class journey), as a kind of scouting expedition, to find the spot where you want to view the exact conjunction, and to also have an initial experience of what amount of time is necessary to get ready and arrive at your spot with plenty of time for observation and communion. Also, if you happen to have bad weather for the day of the exact conjunction, then you will at least have experienced the conjunction when it was first coming into broader orb of influence.
When to avoid starting your class journey
There are only three months in the 19 month cycle of Venus that I would discourage starting your journey. This is any point in the two months before Venus has its exterior conjunction (Cazimi) with the Sun (when Venus is furthest from the Earth on the other side of the Sun), and one month after this conjunction. Consult your calendar to see when this exterior conjunction is happening. These are the months when Venus is not visible (or barely visible), and I prefer that you be able to regularly see Venus during class.
The last visible Venus Gate (Moon-Venus conjunction) in the morning sky will happen sometime during the two months before the exterior Cazimi (Venus-Sun conjunction), but this one happens so close to the eastern horizon that it can often be hard to see. You could start your journey at this Rose Gate, but for most of the rest of your 8 weeks you won't be able to see Venus, and ideally I would like you to have a chance to see Venus regularly during the class.
You could also start your journey at sunset the day after the exact Venus Cazimi, when you will be able to see the first crescent of the new moon. While perhaps not ideal (as you won't have a great chance of seeing Venus until the last two weeks of your immersion experience) this could also be a special version of the class with the focus being the anticipation and fun of seeing Venus for the first time when she returns to sunset skies.
Having said all this, we actually started the live version of the 2024 class during the last days of the cycle that Venus was visible in the morning sky, and I still think there were many opportunities for amazing skywatching experiences (we focused on Jupiter observation), and this is the most important goal for the astrology portion of your class: to have amazing skywatching experiences!
How to Start your Class Journey
I invite you to start your 8 week Tarot and Flow journey on a day when there is a Moon-Venus (Venus Gate/Rose Gate) conjunction (they happen once a month), and to enter this class portal intentionally, ritualistically, and in harmony with the cycles of the Moon-Venus relationship. This is the ultimate planetary cycle for practicing loving kindness towards oneself and others, and this is the essence of the practice of both astrology and tarot: learning to have a loving relationship with both the sky and the cards, that translates to a more loving relationship with yourself and others.
Consult your "Rose Gate" (another name for Moon-Venus conjunctions) calendar to see when the next one is happening, and then set the intention to get out to see it on that date.
On the day you decide to ritualistically start the class, set the intention to do either or a sunrise or sunset ritual, depending on whether the Rose Gate will be visible after sunset or before sunrise (Venus is sometimes an evening star and sometimes a morning star). On that day, go on a medicine walk (this could involve some biking or driving as well) to your best nearby power spot for observing sunrise or sunset skies. Consult your Star Walk 2 app to find the part of your local horizon where the sun rises and sets (this changes from season to season, and your animal body knows exactly what vantage point is best for current viewing/communion).
You will need to have a power spot where you can clearly see this part of the horizon. Ideally, if yours is a morning Venus Gate, plan to arrive at your place of power one hour before sunrise, and plan to stay until 10 minutes after sunrise (70 minute portal). This will allow you to have at least 5-10 minutes of total darkness, and you will then get to observe the changing quality of the light as it gets closer and closer to sunrise, enjoying the sunrise colors of the sky and hearing the birds as they awaken and start to fly around.
It is ideal that this be an outdoor location where you feel safe being in the dark. If you prefer to not be outdoors during total darkness then you could delay your ritual observation of the Moon-Venus conjunction until as late as 20-30 minutes before sunrise at which point it becomes much harder to see Venus (though it will often be possible to see the Moon right up until sunrise).
If you can't find an outdoor location that feels safe for sacred practice done under morning light conditions, then find the best vantage point from an indoor location (whether that be from your home or a safe public building where you will feel at ease to observe the horizon for up to 70 minutes).
I think it is worth traveling for up to an hour to find your spot for the Tarot and Flow portal entry point. Although it won't always be possible or preferred, the ideal entry portal will be in or near a beautiful outdoor setting with an unobstructed view of the horizon. Often this will be a hill or at the edge of a lake, ocean or meadow. These spots can often be found in and nearby to urban settings, but your medicine walk may become a "medicine ride" on public transportation.
Usually, even the worst urban light pollution won't interfere with seeing the Rose Gate, as Venus and the Moon are so bright. Clouds, bad weather and smog are another matter. This is part of the fun of this portaling practice. You won't necessarily be able to see every Venus Gate you set out to ritually engage with, and so when you do get to see them, it is a joyful event.
If the weather is not comfortable for you, then I recommend finding the most comfortable indoor location for you to honor this new cycle of loving-kindness, this new cycle of vulnerable intimacy with yourself and others. This could be the terrace of a friend's home, or your meditation cushion (use the Star Walk 2 app to know what wall or window to look towards).
Enjoy!