Halfway There.

Greeting the Gemini New Moon with a tarot spread and an excellent shrimp pasta.

Tagliatelle with buttery shrimp and peas

Coming up…

A fast and fantastic shrimp pasta for hot summer days and the wines to drink with it. A lovely laid-back option for pool parties and casual backyard shenanigans.

But first…

These pictures from Christmas 1977(ish?) are the only ones I could find of my grandparents' groovy living room. The wallpaper is obvious, and if you look carefully you can see the detail of the black leather and chrome furniture. That's me on my Opa's lap. And yes, he was wearing a flamenco pink dress shirt.

Years ago my Oma gave me a fantastic arc floor lamp from the 1960’s. It once lived in her sitting room which had white shag carpeting, black leather and chrome furniture, and black-and-white checkered wallpaper – each square check had a circle inside it of the opposite colour. It was a very, very groovy room.

Sadly, by the mid 80’s, my Oma’s boldly stylish decor was replaced with the safe conservatism of the era, and the bebop black-white-and-chrome gave way to the security of beige-and-dusty-rose.

But she saved the chrome arc lamp for me until I moved out. The only problem: it had European wiring which needed to be converted to Canadian. She held the fat, round, two-pronged plug in the air and said, somewhat dubiously, “are you at all practical?”

I stared at her.

“Of course not.”

My Oma’s lamp today. Sadly, the living room is not nearly as groovy as hers.

I went to university for theatre studies hoping for an acting career. A nice secure profession that didn’t alarm anyone. Especially not my parents.

I came to my senses while waitressing the early bird rush at the local Red Lobster and switched to journalism. Literally, everyone let me know, “there’s no jobs in journalism!” Until finally a nice old lady enjoying the half-off fish and chips special said, “well, you only need one!” (In fairness, I did make a decade-long career out of it.)

Lastly, I became a sommelier, a profession so new in Canada that most people misunderstood and thought I said I was from Somalia. And because that wasn’t risky enough, after a few years of popping corks in restaurants, I started my own wine events business. I was stunned on opening day when there wasn’t a line of people waiting to throw millions at me.

Looking back on it, practicality isn’t my strong suit.

And maybe that’s why I put some faith in numerology, astrology, and tarot.

(Hey – everyone’s gotta find a guiding light, and dabbling in planetary energy happens to be mine.)

We’re halfway through 2026. This month’s new moon is in Gemini and particularly auspicious. New moons in general are very good times to set intentions and manifest future desires, but Gemini is particularly powerful because it’s ruled by Mercury, the planet of communication and the mind. With the new moon linking up in this sign, this is an ideal time to supercharge manifestations, as Mercury is a literal messenger bringing your thoughts into reality.

The pros say this new moon is really hot, because Uranus (no one laugh) is also travelling through Gemini, which brings a surge of energy to intentions. Uranus is a rebel planet, known for disruption and forward-thinking, and shakes us free from outdated beliefs and patterns. Now’s your chance to rewrite your thoughts about who you are and what is possible for your life.

And we’re not done, yet, kids.

This is also a numerology Year One, a year for planting seeds to reap for the next two years. The manifestations you cast and the projects you start can set you up for the next nine-year numerology cycle.

So you can see the time is right to pull yourself together.

Kait, in 2019, at one of my company’s events.

My friend Kait, a professional astrologer, offered an insightful tarot card exercise to mark this Gemini new moon. It’s a three-part process: reflecting on the past six months, bringing light to opportunities we can’t or won’t see, and guiding us through the last half of the year.

I did it on Sunday morning and my results were both surprising and thought-provoking. As Kait says, these cards offer guidance, not fortunes cast in stone, and the information they offered has left me doing some serious thinking.

And now, we walk behind that mystical curtain to the unknown.

If you would like to read about my results and get instructions on how to do the tarot exercise for yourself, you can pierce the veil for as little as $6 Cdn per month.

Of course, if this is not the right time to upgrade, please know I completely understand, and I’m grateful you are here no matter how you subscribe. I’ll be back on Friday with a post that’s free for all.