The Visibility Audit is tarot challenge exploring the vulnerability of sharing creative work on the internet. Prompts are going out on Mon-Wed-Fri throughout the month of August. You can learn more about the challenge here.
Today’s Prompt:
What compels me to share online?
"What compels me to share online" is the first prompt I wrote down and maybe the only one that hasn't been further refined and edited since. It is the foundation of this challenge, the big “why” that every other prompt points back to in some way. It felt imperative to confront this question immediately, to try and name the spark that urges us into the public sphere of online discourse. As we continue through the rest of the prompts, we’ll add layers of nuance and complexity to our understanding of this initial question. It’s possible that what compels us may completely change as we begin intentionally confronting our needs, desires and fears.
Below are the cards I pulled for this prompt and a brief interpretation. I tend to keep public examples surface level and save the more intimate details for the privacy of my journal. Don’t be afraid to dig in deep and cross-examine long-held beliefs and narratives. As always, if you feel comfortable sharing or want to discuss the cards you pulled, please feel free to leave a comment!
What compels me to share online?
The Empress + Folly
One of my favorite tarot guide books, The Fifth Spirit Tarot Guide1 by Charlie Claire Burgess, has this to say about The Empress:
"They create not because they have willed it, but because it is in them, it is natural, they are ripe with it."
The Empress speaks to the part of me that is always itching to *make* something. Making, creating, whether it be mediocre paintings, clumsy writing or even building ugly furniture, is how I process the world. The physical act of transforming anything into something else helps me transmute my experiences into a narrative I can better understand. It has always been this way for me. "It is natural, [I am] ripe with it." Regardless of whether or not I share my creative efforts, this creativity is and always will be a part of me.
But The Empress is not just creativity that happens in a silo. The Empress also speaks to connection and community with others. I see Folly here, not as an admonishment, but as a nod to the quality of connection I'm seeking when I go to share my creative work online. The guide book for this deck uses keywords and phrases like, "having fun, not taking oneself too seriously, a break, allowing oneself to be silly and laugh, light-hearted silliness."
None of my attempts to blog have ever been started with serious ambitions of making it a full-time job. They have always been created alongside other work as passion projects that were intended to be fun to engage with, fun for myself and any other potential reader or participant. Ultimately, what compels me to share online is a desire to connect with other people in a light-hearted and nourishing way through my creative efforts.
Decks used:
Purgatorium Heks by Jens Friborg
Thank you so much for being here, especially if you’re pulling cards along with me. Please feel free to say hi in the comment section, share what you’re discovering through this challenge, or even ask for help interpreting your cards if you find yourself stumped.
While this full length guidebook is no longer available, an abbreviated version comes with their deck, Fifth Spirit Tarot, and I also love their newer tarot book, Radical Tarot.