Favorite Summer Decks Along with Summer Healing Themes + Summer Spread (Podcast Ep. 24 Blog)
The Way Home Tarot
In this blog, I will be sharing my favorite summer decks, and I will walk you through the healing work I focus on in the summertime. I will also share with you a custom summer spread that I created to help us navigate this summer season.
First let’s talk about the themes of summer. I associate light, energy, action, illumination, and vitality with summer. It always feels like I have a fire lit underneath me in the summer months. I feel more active physically and mentally. I tackle as many of my goals as possible this time of year, and I feel more energetic and lively.
The Sun - The Light Seers Tarot
The Sun card in the tarot conjures up emotions and energy-related to summer for me. This card is vibrant, colorful, energetic, joyful, and playful. It also has an inner child energy to it with the baby on the horse in the image of the traditional Rider Waite Smith version. It is such a joyful card, and it always makes me feel good when I pull this card. Coming out of the creative energy of spring where our ideas were sparked, summer calls on us to take inspired action on those ideas.
After brainstorming and generating ideas, we now know what we want and which direction to head. So, we are ready to jump into action now. And that’s perfect timing because summer is filled with excitement, enthusiasm, and vibrancy so you might notice that you have an extra ounce or two of energy compared to the rest of the year. You may feel full of life where everything is bright and luminous around you. In general, you may have a sunnier disposition compared to dreary winter days. The days are longer with more sunshine to brighten your day. Even though summer energy can be active and even chaotic, many people travel during summer months to relax and take a break from work. Summer is a prime time for travel due to summer vacation from school for families with school-aged kids.
The Magician - The Light Seers Tarot
I also think of The Magician card during summer months standing fully in his power of creation and manifestation as he directs the energy from above to below. He has extra energy to play with, and he knows exactly how to use it. He is the master of his own power and nothing is beyond his ability. Anything is possible in this energy, so give it your all. In general, we feel bolder in the summer, and we tend to take more risks. We may become more thrill seeking due to being more adventurous and courageous. We tend to conquer our fear more in summer, often when we are seeking more adrenaline – think bungy jumping, zip lining, shark diving, and sky diving. Most of these activities are engaged in more in the summer months, and it is not just due to the weather change. Summer can be a call to action to face those fears and bravely step out of our comfort zone. We are called to take action on projects, to follow through on our promises and goals, to branch out, and it is a good time to announce to the world the projects you have been keeping under wraps the rest of the year. This is because summer is all about conquering self-doubt and fear and stepping into the light.
I launched the Healing Thru Tarot podcast in summer of 2020! Just a few months before, it still felt scary to even think of launching, but by the time June hit I felt that energy shift and felt a sense of boldness increasing internally. By the time my launch date of late July came, I was completely ready to jump right in. At that time, I had more courage and excitement than fear. There is just something about summer energy that promotes inspired action, implementation of ideas, bringing your goals to fruition and expanding your expectations. Take advantage of this time to get a few things marked off your launch list!
And when I talk about summer energy it is not just a time of year. We all go through the 4 seasons of change in our lives. I entered my summer season around mid-2020. A few years before that I was in a spring season with tons of ideas percolating, but it wasn’t until I moved into my summer season that these projects started to shift and manifest into reality. Once they were formulated, it was time to act and I launched the podcast, a tarot blog, new tarot reading services, and started writing a fictional divination book series. It was go time for me! Summer seasons can last years and are often chaotic and filled with tons of work to birth and then promote those creative projects. It can feel like a whirl wind for years. There are never enough hours in the day to fit it all in. Things start to slow down again when you enter your autumn phase, and then you start the 4 season change all over again in a new life phase.
So, the summer phase is the most active and where the most progress will be noticeable. It can be a great time for soul expansion and transcending fears and outdated beliefs. Tune into your body to see where you feel pulled currently.
Where do you feel switched on at the moment?
Use that extra energy to propel you forward on your goals. Funnel all your energy and passion into what you are creating currently because now is a time for expansion. Think 3 of Wands energy – branch out on those ideas from the 2 of Wands. Now is the time to take that step and leap like in the Fool card. This is a time to ignite your mind, feed your soul, work on internal expansion, and combine that with external action for best results. Find your muse and focus on that energy while your confidence is high. This is a winning combination for progress and success.
I always work on self-esteem and self-worth in the summer, and this leads to more confidence, especially with work and creative projects. Anchor into your vision to steady yourself. Holding your vision gives you more energy to create with. Your creative energy should be higher in summer due to the vitality vibes. Tap into your bliss and use it to fuel your creative and personal expression. As long as you stay focused on your dreams and what brings you pleasure, you will be working in your flow and not against it.
10 of Wands from The Way Home Tarot (Burnout)
Watch out for burnout and build in times to rest because summer energy can be frantic and busy. Don’t overextend yourself. With each season, it takes time initially to find a new rhythm and routine within that energy. So, honor your body’s rhythms and stay present. Don’t focus too much on the past or on the future. Just enjoy where you are. Allow time for fun and play to rejuvenate you! Summer is also a great time to assess how far you’ve come since winter and celebrate your tremendous growth!
Work on your lower chakras and ground your energy for inspiration. This means working on your root chakra and your sacral chakra. Ask yourself these questions when working with your lower chakras:
How do I want to express myself?
What do I feel inspired to creatively express now?
What am I actively resisting?
Where am I procrastinating?
What am I ready for?
Where can I say yes?
Remember Summer is about action, abundance, opportunity, and expression. So seize this time. Do it even when it feels scary. It feels so good once you get over that initial fear. It is always the scariest before you leap. And stay hungry and excited to keep pushing forward.
I want to cover a few crystals to work with for healing in the summer.
Citrine is a great crystal to work with in the summer months. It is a sunny golden yellow form of quartz and is very positive and lucky. It attracts abundance and financial gain. It is connected with the Solar Plexus and with the Sun. Citrine can help eliminate negative energies and can shine light onto even the toughest situations.
Moon jasper, carnelian, and clear quartz work well for vitality and taking action, which fits the work we are focusing on during summer.
Watermelon tourmaline and aventurine are good choices for rejuvenation of energy and playfulness, which are very important for very busy summer months.
Keywords for summer would be light, energy, enthusiasm, action, ignition, radiance, shine, illumination, vitality, as well as relaxation. Meditate on these words during the summer months and journal about the thoughts that percolate up from your subconscious mind when you focus on these themes.
To review, the tarot cards I associate with summer months and summer seasons in your life are the Sun card, the Chariot, 3 of Wands, and the Magician. Looking at these cards you notice the abundance of yellows, oranges and reds to evoke the feeling of vibrant energy, action, and enthusiasm.
My Favorite Summer Tarot Decks
Dame Darcy Mermaid Tarot
Now I want to share with you some of my favorite tarot and oracle decks that I use in the summer months. The deck that I associate the most with summer is the Dame Darcy Mermaid Tarot (shown above) and that is because it is very water based with most of the cards depicting oceans, mermaids, beaches, sand, boats, and water. This is a very fun deck to work with. I tend to use this deck for most of my creativity spreads due to the colors and the playfulness of the images. It has a very carefree, fluid energy to it. It has a very Piscean energy, which helps with my creativity as well. Ideas pop into my mind so quickly when I work with this deck that I have to keep a notebook handy to capture them all.
The Way Home Tarot
The second deck that I associate with summer is Bakara Wintner’s The Way Home Tarot (shown above). Bakara wrote WTF is Tarot and How Do I Do It? which is my favorite tarot book, and the one that I recommend the most so you have heard me talk quite a bit about Bakara. There isn’t a guidebook that comes with the Way Home Tarot. Bakara intends for WTF to stand as the guidebook even though the book came out years before the deck. I LOVE this deck!! The reason I associate it with summer is that the color palette centers around bright yellows, oranges, and reds for several suits and the majors. There are a lot of outdoor scenes displaying beaches, hammocks, bon fires, deserts, streams, rivers, and fireworks. The Tower shows a lightning storm burning down a house in a blazing forest fire, which unfortunately reminds me of the California wildfires in the summer.
The Chariot is represented by a salmon jumping upstream in a river. The suit of pentacles is full of gardening scenes with planting seeds and tilling the soil. The silhouette of Daughter of Wands consists of a fireworks display most often associated with the 4th of July celebrations. The 8 of Wands is a lightening storm. The 9 of Wands is a lantern party with 9 glowing lanterns floating across the night sky – it is gorgeous. The 8 of Swords is a lightening bug turned on his back amidst the swords that seem to pin him in. I love that the Wheel of Fortune is a multicolored Ferris wheel in the forest, which reminds me of summer festivals and fairs.
The 7 of Wands is a wooden swing bridge lit up with torches to guide your way across in the night. The cups suit has a lot of cocktail scenes, which always reminds me of cocktail parties in the summer or book clubs outside in the warm months with friends. The 2 of Cups is a pair of jelly fish floating in the ocean.
The pentacles are very nature based depicting animals, vegetation, gardening, dried herbs, and dinner parties. The 8 of Pentacles is a bee, and the 4 of Pentacles is a frog on a lily pad, evoking feelings of summer for me. The 3 of Pentacles is an ant farm. The 5 of Pentacles shows rotten tomatoes on a vine, which I think that is a genius depiction of that card. The 9 of Pentacles is a bounty of produce to signify a full, abundant garden, and the Queen of Pentacles silhouette is filled with large, plump beautiful red apples.
One of the saddest cards in the deck is the 8 of Cups showing an octopus washed up on the beach amongst a pile of trash and plastic to show the impact humans have on the pollution of the oceans. And Judgment is depicted by a cicada shedding its old skin and ascending into the air to start a new phase in its metamorphosis.
So many summery, nature scenes in this deck. The card backs are bursting with a gorgeous bright yellow ray simulating the sun’s rays set on top of an orange and green landscape. These are some of my favorite card backs because they are so bright and energetic. I always feel so good when I shuffle these cards. The Way Home Tarot is one of my favorite decks. The use of wood, fire, water, vegetation, animals, insects, and warm colors gives me strong summer vibes. I could talk on and on about this deck, so I better move on now because there is so much that this deck got right. I’m surprised that I don’t see this deck more on social media.
I highly recommend it! I use this deck almost always with Postcards from the Liminal Space also by Bakara. That deck is retired now, but she has another liminal space deck coming out this fall (11-11-21). Watch The Everyday Magic Instagram account for updates if you are interested. It will sell out quickly.
My Favorite Summer Oracle Decks
I have several oracle decks I pull out for the summer months, and I will walk you through those here.
The Dragon Oracle
The Dragon Oracle is a 44 card deck that has a lot of fire energy. I love the idea of cleansing energies with flames. This deck helps with clearing lower energies, offering protection from unhealthy energies, and removing blockages to allow more flow around challenging situations. This deck works with elements so you can pull cards related fire, water, earth, and air. Different cards work with different vibrational frequencies, and some are associated with certain arch angels.
I associate this deck with summer due to the fire elements in this deck. Many of the cards have bright reds, oranges, and yellows. I don’t use this deck often, but when I do it is powerful. I like to pull cards from this deck to see what needs to be cleared off my path so I can proceed without obstacles or to see what needs to be cleansed or detoxed. Every time I pull a card from this deck and work with it, I feel lighter, and it really does feel like I am transmuting the negative energy around me.
The Spirit Animal Oracle
The Spirit Animal Deck by Collette Baron-Reid is so colorful and bright that I reach for it May through August. This 68 card oracle offers healing messages from our fellow animal spirits. Colette says each of the cards is represented by the higher self of an animal, insect, fish, or bird. The artwork represents the animal in spiritual form, so you will see a more mystical representation of it rather than a literal one. She says, for example, when you pull a card that shows the dog spirit this is a symbol not of a dog with which you have a personal relationship but the spiritual essence of dog, which implies an overarching theme of loyalty and unconditional love.
Each spirit animal represented is a metaphor or symbolic representation to remind you of a theme or organizing principle. Each spirit animal has a distinct message to help you leave behind the limitations of the logical mind and better understand the hidden influences on you and your life, to know where your path is heading, and to see the next action to take for your highest good. Each card has an oracle message which is for the upright message and a protection message for the reversed message.
Here are a few keywords from some of my favorite animal spirit cards: Vulture spirit says “Nothing is wasted.” Bee spirit says “Sweet results await.” Elephant says “Learn from the past.” Fox says “Think on your feet.” Giraffe says “See the big picture.” And Wasp says “Sometimes life stings.”
These are just the keywords and phrases on the cards. Each card has a detailed message for upright and reversed cards. I like to pull animal cards for current blocks and advice to move forward through those blocks or as a closing overall message from Spirit. I have found they are very helpful when used in that manner. I love the energy of this deck. And the messages are always on point.
Divine Feminine Oracle
My favorite female-oriented deck is the Divine Feminine Oracle. This deck calls out to me in the summer due to the bright gorgeous red colors in the images. The card backs are a vibrant red and yellow. There is such radiance and vitality in this deck. There is a good bit of diversity in this deck consisting of women from all types of nationalities, cultures, and religious belief systems. This deck contains 53 saints, mystics, priestesses, gender rebels, and trailblazers. The oracle creator is Meggan Watterson, and she says that she created this deck to represent an aspect of the divine feminine that "exists within us and that we've drawn at this time because it's time for us to integrate or embody that aspect more fully. And that love is the force that renders us all equal." She also gives us this message, “The power and importance of the universe exists right here within each of us just waiting to be remembered. You will meet each of these holy ladies eye to eye so they can remind you of your own light. I wanted this oracle to be a sacred mirror so you can't forget just how much divine love you have come from.”
Each card has a message from the historical figure, an invitation, an invocation, and a soul-voice meditation, which is a question you can pose to your own soul. Each card has an intention to strengthen your capacity to hear your soul. Some of the individuals included in this deck include Mary Magdalene, Mary of Nazareth, Joan of Arc, Pope Joan, Fatima, Lakshmi, Green Tara, Lilith, Isis, Diana, Freya, and Kali just to name a few. I find this to be a very empowering deck, and since I work on self-esteem and self-confidence in the summer months this is a very uplifting deck to use for that inner strength work.
The Enchanted Map Oracle
The Enchanted Map is a 54 card deck by Colette Baron-Reid and represents some of the places you’ll visit in person or metaphorically, the conditions you may encounter on your journey, and the allies and challengers you’ll meet along the way. The themes of this deck relate to your journey, your destiny, and the course of your life purpose. This deck helps you to explore your life's journey and gain wisdom and insight about where you've been, where you are now, and where you're headed. I love this deck for summer because of all the places and journeys depicted here. It's such an adventurous energy!
Collette says these cards were designed specifically to empower you to find answers to these questions regarding fate, destiny, sacred contracts, and life purpose. She says that these cards are metaphors for your internal life, not your external one. These places are archetypal and universal, not just personal. The intention of this oracle is to guide you through the enchanted map so that you'll never be lost again. It can help empower you to create your best life.
Some of the cards include “Rock Bottom, Wizard of Awareness, Golden Palace, Stuck in the Mud, Magic Stream, Magical Map Shifter, Into the Unknown, and Ghostlands.” I’ve found some of these cards to be pretty unique. I like to use this deck to see what the next steps on my journey are. It is also helpful when trying to identify future obstacles and how to navigate those on my path. Another perspective is to use this deck to identify how you got to this particular point in your life. Identifying those patterns can help direct your future choices.
The Wisdom of the Trees Oracle
The Wisdom of the Trees Oracle is a 40 card oracle deck by Jane Struthers, which focuses on the sacred wisdom of trees. These cards offer the messages on symbolism, healing powers, and ancient wisdom associated with the various types of trees across the planet. These cards help you tune into the energies of the trees. Some trees, like Oak trees, have a lively energy, while Beech trees feel calmer and steadier. You can tune into the flow of energy that runs from its roots up to the top of its canopy. The 40 cards are divided into 4 suits of 10. Each suit focuses on a particular aspect of trees to give you insight into a specific area of your life.
For example, the Roots suit is associated with trees that can help you become grounded and completely aware of what is happening to you right this minute. The Trunk suit focuses on trees that can help you to heal and grow, not only physically but also spiritually. The Leaf suit contains trees that can enhance your spiritual wisdom and awareness. The final suit, Flower, Fruit and Seed, explores trees that can help you to manifest your power in the world. Each card gives you upright and reversed meanings and offers you an overview of each tree’s botanical properties, its mythological and cultural associations, and any interesting information about that tree along with a message from the spirit of each tree.
The Universe Has Your Back
The Universe Has Your Back is such a bright, colorful deck. I would say this is more of an artistic and affirmational style deck rather than an oracle. There are 52 cards, and there is no guidebook so the phrase on the card is the message. The artwork is watercolor based and very uplifting and positive. I display these cards around my house and in my office to meditate on through the week. Gabrielle Bernstein has another deck that I bought recently for my niece called The Spirit Junkie. Again, it is another bright, positive deck that is based on lifting your mood and offering self-motivation and increasing your self-confidence. I love how positive and supportive these decks are. Pulling a card a day can go a long way to lifting your mood and keeping you filled with self-love, which can be hard for a lot of us.
The bright colors call to me in the summer months, so I tend to pull these cards out more around that time of year. Gabrielle’s decks are the ones I gift to family and friends who aren’t into tarot or oracle because these cards are so simple and easy to use and offer spiritual guidance in a gentle, subtle way. Most artists would probably enjoy this deck. These decks are great for people who struggle with depression, anxiety, fear, and low self-esteem because it focuses so much on positivity and strength. She also has a deck called Super Attractor based on manifestation of dreams. These decks are also great for lightworkers because these messages help us shine and stay aligned to our highest vibration! All of these decks are very positive and filled with light! Micaela Ezra is the Illustrator for all of the decks and each has 52 cards.
The Earth Magic Oracle
The Earth Magic Oracle deck is a great deck to work with during summer. There are a lot of cards rooted in naturalistic scenes associated with rivers, islands, oceans, waterfalls, and landscapes such as volcanoes, caves, deserts, and forests. If you are drawn to working with the elements this is a perfect deck with cards titled rain and wind along with natural disasters like the tsunami card and the lightning card.
Each card has a keyword on the front. For example, the fire card denotes passion, desert is a vision quest, rain is purification, the volcano is volatility, and lightning is power. These cards are very easy to read, and I love the outdoor scenes depicting nature in its many forms. These cards help to point to elements at play regarding the root of the problem you are reading on and gives clues on how to manage those elements smoothly. The guidebook offers very clear and concise meanings. This oracle is a great deck for those starting with divination or wanting to add oracle with tarot because the messages are easy to grasp.
The Oracle of E
The Oracle of E: An Oracle Card Deck to Manifest Your Dreams by Pam Grout and Colette Baron-Reid. This 52 card deck is all about vibrant, energetic, neon colors that promote the energy of positivity, manifestation, intention setting, and follow through. Pam Grout is the best-selling author of E-Squared and E-Cubed, which is about manifesting your dream life.
There are no pictorial images on these cards. Each card consists of a short saying in vibrant colors and energetic swirls. If you need detailed images on the cards, then these are not for you. I don’t even have a guidebook for these as a friend gave these to me, and she didn’t keep the book. I assigned the cards my own meanings since I don’t have the messages from the book, but I did hear that the meanings are sparse in the guidebook anyway. I mainly read the energy coming from the card - It feels like a very active and fluid deck. These are great for a closing message in a spread. It almost feels like a sassy affirmation deck rather than an oracle deck.
The Light Seers Tarot
And as always I work with the Light Seers Tarot because I work with it year round. It is a great deck for summer though because she uses such a bright warm color palette especially in the wands suit with vibrant oranges, yellows, and pinks. I have gushed over this deck in so many episodes, so I won’t give another review of this deck here. But I always have to mention it since I never stop using this deck, and at times I have to force myself to use other seasonal decks because the pull to the Light Seers is so strong for me.
Now you have quite a list of summer decks to choose from if you are looking to pick up a few new tarot and oracle decks to work with this summer.
SUMMER SPREAD
Here is the 6 card custom spread I created to help us navigate the summer season. I would love to see the photo of your summer spreads. Please tag me on Instagram @healingthrutarot and please use the hashtag #healingthrutarotsummerspread
The Seasonal Soul
This year I have been working with the book The Seasonal Soul: A Mystic’s Guide to Inner Transformation by Lauren Aletta, and some of the content I have been sharing with you in this episode was inspired by my work with her book over the past year. There is a link for this book in the show notes. I have enjoyed working with this book this entire year across all 4 seasons. This book has great exercises and content related to the changing seasons of our lives, not just the changes that occur every few months throughout the year. I have now completed an entire run through of the seasons with this book, so if you enjoy this content make sure to check out the episodes for Autumn, Winter, and Spring. Links for all the decks discussed are below
Books and Decks shown in this blog or recommended are below: click on title to go to the product. Some of these are amazon affiliate links and it helps me out if you use these links. Thanks for your support.
The Light Seers Tarot, The Way Home Tarot, The Dame Darcy Mermaid Tarot, Wisdom of the Trees, The Universe Has Your Back, The Oracle of E, Earth Magic, The Spirit Animal Oracle, The Enchanted Map Oracle, The Divine Feminine Oracle
The Seasonal Soul: A Mystic's Guide to Inner Transformation
Links to related podcasts on the seasons: click on title for the link
Ep. 9: Favorite Autumn Decks + How I Work with Decks Seasonally + Autumn Spread
Ep. 18: Favorite Winter Decks + Winter Healing Work + Winter Seasonal Spread
Ep. 21: Favorite Spring Decks Along with Spring Healing Work + Spring Spread
Healing Thru Tarot Spread Ebooks
A Spread For All Seasons is a spread ebook containing 15 custom tarot/oracle spreads designed to guide you through the seasons of any year. It covers holidays, full and new moons, mercury retrogrades, year end and year ahead spreads, and eclipses with weekly and monthly spreads that you can reuse again and again, year after year. I included a list of the 15 Custom Tarot Spreads in the ebook below. $10
To purchase this spread ebook click here
My New Spread Ebook
I’m also excited to share my brand new spread eBook which is my Healing Thru Tarot Healing and Mental Health Spreads Vol. 1. It contains 15 custom spreads centered around healing and mental health issues. And I’m already working on Vol. 2 of even more healing spreads.
Vol. 1 contains a spread for family healing, wound healing, as well as spreads for self-care, blind spots, empowerment, how to step into your full potential, a way back to self-spread, and much more. I’m really proud of this eBook, and I’ve worked months on this to create spreads to help take you through the healing work needed to heal old wounds and step into brand new energy of empowerment. You can find this eBook on my website healingthrutarot.com for $13, and here is a list of all 15 spreads so you can see what you are getting with this spread eBook. Click to purchase here
Happy Cardslinging!
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