A Tarot Reading For Navigating Your Love Life This Summer

Whether you’re partnered or poly, single and seeking, or focusing on yourself, summer is a heady season for love. With that spirit in mind, I created a tarot spread. In this tarot reading for Summer 2023, the message is to embrace change and fill your own cup before nurturing others. Take what resonates with you and leave the rest.

What Is Tarot?

Tarot cards originated in Italy as playing cards during the 15th century. The Romani people were the first to use these decks as a divinatory tool. Roma also brought other divination practices with them, like palmistry and tea leaf-reading, when they left India in the 10th and 11th centuries and arrived in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries.

How I Read Tarot Cards

I read tarot, palms, and tea leaves in my Romani family’s tradition, taught to me by my grandmother. I created a five-card spread for this column. The cards below represent embodiment (your energy right now); situation (what’s around you at the moment); obstacle (a struggle you’re facing); action (what to do about it); and a lesson (what you will learn from this month).

Disproportionately, Roma experience poverty, police brutality, as well as housing, education, and employment discrimination. Sharing Romani history and spiritual practices through my work is my small act of cultural resilience.

How Will Summer 2023 Be Your Summer Of Love? Tarot Says...

Embodiment: The Eight of Swords

The Eight of Swords represents feeling stagnant when you aren’t actually stuck. If you’re in a rut or at a dead end with yourself or a partner, this card is telling you that there are options you haven’t considered yet. You’re not trapped; you’re capable of growth and change. Practice being more open-minded, and believe in your own strength and resiliency. Solutions are around the corner.

Situation: The Tower

Change is inevitable, and while it’s natural to fear it, you don’t need to. If you’re having trouble seeing your path forward, you might be fixating on what you appear to be losing. The Tower is a reminder to trust the breakdown, even if it feels messy. This card destroys illusions, patterns that don’t serve us, and structures that oppress us. It’s not a free pass to act like an agent of chaos — rather, be authentic, honest, and dedicated to growth. Sometimes, two people (or two sides of yourself) find they’re moving together toward a common goal. Other times, growing apart can lead to a new type of relationship, one that will change your life for the better. Let it happen.

Obstacle: The Six of Cups

It’s likely there are some wounds from your past that cause your relationships to feel stagnant or keep you resistant to change. The Six of Cups asks us to nurture our inner child, prioritize play and fun in our relationships with ourselves and others, and make room for innocence and sweetness. Even the spiciest relationships require tenderness and vulnerability to thrive.

Action: The Queen of Pentacles

The Queen of Pentacles says it’s time to nurture yourself and others, but not without losing sight of the big picture. If your efforts with a love interest are met with greed or indifference, that calls for a Tower moment — a big conversation that sparks change. Likewise, check in with yourself: How often do you offer and receive love? Do you put up walls that harm yourself or others? Focus on caring for yourself first; only then can you pour your energy into others. Consider what you need to feel safe. Lay it all out there. You’re not asking for too much.

Lesson: The World

The World is a reminder that you have limitless opportunities. You’re ready for a new era, and things are only looking up from here. Break free from relationships that aren’t right for you. If there’s something in your relationship that you’d like to fix, open some honest discussions and see where that takes you. If you’re single and seeking, remember that you deserve to be with someone who’s caring, fun, and doesn’t fit into patterns you’ve outgrown. Keep your standards high — it’s a big world out there. And if you’re single and loving it, tend to your inner child and see how good it can feel to really honor yourself.

How To Use The Lessons Of This Love Reading

Break out your journal and noodle on your ideal visions of love. How do you want to feel in your relationships? What are your relationship values and how do you maintain them? What goals do you have for yourself and your partner? What would growth look like, particularly in terms of communication? How can you best honor your inner self or inner child while in relationships? Notice any places where you feel stuck or afraid of change, then meet those fears with compassion.

Allow yourself to be comforted, either by yourself, a friend, or a therapist. Accept wherever you are on your own journey, whether it’s an adventure on your own or down the road with your beloved. Remember, you are capable of making positive changes; you’re strong; you deserve happiness; the right person will want to evolve alongside you, take the steps necessary to make that happen, and stand by you with love. First, however, you need to do all those things for yourself.