Dear Oracle, My wife and I are expecting our first kid. How should we be preparing the home?—Newborn Noob
Cards: Moon, Seven of Pentacles reversed, Ten of Wands, Page of Swords (King of Cups, Two of Cups, Page of Cups reversed)
Noob, congratulations! You and your wife must be thrilled. Also, I’m so glad I get to answer a question about a first-born because it makes me feel like a true fairy-tale witch.
First things first: Nothing came up to suggest a bad omen or evil incarnate or anything like that for the kid—smooth sailing on that front.
As you and your wife are about to be brand new parents, allow me to repeat what I’m sure your parents or friends with kids or nurses at the OB-GYN has already told you: you’re going to get thrown in the deep end, no matter how much you “prepare.” This isn’t to scare you! It’s just… going to be a surprising journey.
For the minor arcana, we have the Seven of Pentacles—a young witch practicing her skills—reversed. You don’t quite have the practical skills yet, just the theory. But you’ll get there! You’re the Page of Swords, eager to learn! It just might feel like a crushing weight for a bit—but Ten of Swords means you can handle it! You’ll carry on!
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So how to prepare the home? First, take stock of everything that can kill or maim (table corners, electric sockets, a magnetic knife strip) and plug it up or cover it with foam. Read the short story “Orange World” by Miami babe Karen Russell, buy a baby gate, and then turn your attention onto yourself—to prepare the home, you must prepare the two parents living in it.
The card ruling over all of this is the Moon. It is the subconscious, the dark dark, the unspoken, the shadow. It’s everything you’re afraid of bubbling up to the surface.
I strongly encourage you and your wife to journal or talk with a therapist, both individually and as a couple. What are you, as a parent, worried about? Is there a part of you you’re scared of seeing in your child? Is there a worry about what kind of parent you’ll be? Are you worried about the type of world your child will be born into? (After 2020, anything seems possible.) Really do some soul searching. And then talk with your wife. Talk about everything—all the fears but also all the hopes. Talk about the big picture things like family leave and feedings. Then talk about the boring details like, “What are we going to eat for three months when we’re dead on our feet from a newborn?” You’ll be building the strongest foundation to bring your baby into.
And here is some good news, Noob. I drew a second set of cards to tell me what else I needed to know about the situation. Out tumbled the King of Cups, then Two of Cups, then the Page: The Loving Father, The Loving Child, and the beginning of the relationship. You are about to embark on what will be one of the greatest love affairs of your life—the love between father and kid. The hardships are the cost of admission, but you’ll find the event well worth the price.
Congratulations, my dears. Mazel Tov to you and your wife, and I hope the light of your joy carries you through these darkening months.
Dear Yboracle, during the pandemic, I’ve been planning a year long cross-country road trip. It’s something I’ve wanted to do my whole life. And thankfully, my job allows me to work from basically anywhere in the country. Should I document my travels and work in a series of YouTube vlogs? Should I become the millennial cliché and become an influencer? —Itinerant in Tampa
Cards: Eight of Wands, King of Cups, The Star, Seven of Swords.
You know what, Itinerant? I’m not sure. Something is going on in this question below the surface, something darker than what’s in front of me.
If it weren’t for the last card of the spread, I’d say, “go for it!” We have at the beginning the Eight of Wands, which is “burn this town,” get out, start life anew. We have the Star, which is often the agent of positive growth, and the King of Cups, which we saw in the question above as a man of great love. New life, bright Star, a heart full of love? Seems great!
But then we have the Seven of Swords at the end; the card of self-destructive, compulsory, bad habits. It pops when you need to watch your drinking, drug use, and gambling—any practice with a 12-step process of coping attached to it.
So we have to go back to the dichotomous Star. It’s fire and water, alpha and omega, action and inertia. It is growth, but it might not be the positive kind.
You could leave the shackles and the destructive nature behind and set off across this beautiful country and make your vagabond videos, and it can be your calling, your true love! You could also set out and slip into some real bad habits and burn down the life that the King of Cups promised—both of these are possible outcomes.
I wish I knew exactly what you wanted to film. While the last line in your question may be tongue-in-cheek, I don’t think it is. Why do you want to become an influencer? What itch will that scratch? Is it a Kardashian thing where you want to be famous to be famous? Do you want to vlog because you have a unique perspective on something?
I do think if you’ve wanted to spend a year traveling across the country and you can swing it financially, you should go forth. But be wary, watch for trouble. In those long stretches of midnight highway, it’ll only be your thoughts blooming in the dark. Take heed, kid.
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This article appears in Dec 17-23, 2020.