It’s the start of a new year again, which means that it’s time for another clean slate. 

The beginning year is a chance to start over with a clean slate. It’s an opportunity for you to reset the certain aspects of your life that you aren’t satisfied with — whether that’s through listing down your New Year’s resolutions, decluttering your space, or doing one big clean-up to simulate that feeling of starting over. 

But many people look for some form of guidance when they turn a new leaf, and one of the most common ways is through the practice of tarot. 

While tarot has yet to be widely accepted in the Philippines, there are a myriad of Filipino practitioners dedicated to keeping the art alive, and showing curious onlookers that it can be a guiding force for good. 

Among them are Pau of Paghilom and Rob Rubin of Mysterium Philippines, who both offer tarot readings for clients looking to face the new year head-on. 

But first — what is tarot exactly? 

Tarot is a form of cartomancy that typically uses a deck of 78 cards that each correspond to a specific archetype, though there are some instances where readers would interpret cards differently when they come out in reverse. 

For Pau, tarot reading comes intuitively to her, in contrast with the readers who often take a predictive approach to it. She makes it a point to get in tune with the energy of her clients, as this helps her accomplish a reading that gets down to what’s weighing on their minds. 

“I use [tarot] personally and for my clients as well. [I do an] intuitive reading of the energies of the client or myself together with the archetypes of the cards,” shared Pau, who started her tarot practice in 2018 while she was still working as a teacher. 

When reading tarot, Pau explained that the circumstances surrounding the client also matters — from the people around them to their experiences, what they’re feeling at the moment, and the emotions dominating their mood. 

“I trigger introspection with my clients so at the same time I’m reading the cards, they’re also reading into their [own] energies, emotions, and also their mindsets during times of confusion. Because it’s very important that my tarot reading is participative.” 

Meanwhile, Rob describes tarot as a tool for empowerment. He emphasizes that while tarot can give you a blueprint to explore what you can achieve as an individual, no reading is ever set in stone. 

“If you want clarity, you want to understand the unknowns, the options, the possibilities, the promises, the potentials, you can have a tarot reading because that’s going to give you clarity of the issues that are important to you — be it career, love life, spirituality, ambition. All of it is pretty much addressable in the tarot. This golden rule we say in tarot, though, is we do not predict dates of death,” explained Rob, who started his tarot journey around three decades ago at 14 years old. 

A tarot reading, no matter what aspect of your life it covers, can still change over time. The same goes for New Year readings. 

New year, new me

It’s normal to look for some sort of guidance when we welcome a new chapter in our lives. We have all these past experiences that have brought us years’ worth of life lessons and opportunities for character development, yet we sometimes don’t know what to do with them. 

This is where tarot comes in — and it’s more common than you think. 

According to Pau, in the five years that she’s offered her reading services online, the “year ahead” reading remains to be her most availed one. Her clients would often start booking sessions as early as October the year before, up to February of the succeeding year to gain insight into how they can face the new year head-on. 

Pau would always use two spreads for these kinds of readings. First is the thematic one, which covers an individual’s reflective energy based on their greatest lessons from the previous year, and how all these would connect to their aspirations for the coming year. 

“It’s very reflective in terms of how your habits can affect the different aspects of your life for the next year. So they discuss your love life, career, finances, spirituality, health, well-being, and the possibility of the energies based on your current energies. It’s reflective to the point that it tells you, ‘Okay, because these are your habits, these are your possibilities,’” Pau explained in a mix of English and Filipino. 

If you’re looking to see changes or movement in your life, this spread will tell you what can happen based on your current energies. But if you want something different, you will know that you have to make radical changes in your energies — because the spread has shown you your current capacities. 

The other spread is the monthly one, which covers how an individual would plan for the next 12 months of the new year based on the possibilities that can happen then. This spread will still rely on your current energies, but it will dig deeper into what exactly can happen to you this year as Pau will also discuss the internal and external forces that come into play. It will make you aware of the forces you can’t control, and the factors that you can still change. These things are laid out for each month. 

The kind of “year ahead” reading that works best for you will depend on your own priorities for the coming year. Do you want to have a guide for each month of your life? Consider getting the monthly spread. Do you crave reflection and making sense of your energies? Maybe the thematic spread is for you. 

Rob, meanwhile, offers to his VIP clients what he refers to as an “annual forecast,” where he forms a roadmap for the next 12 months of their lives. During the reading, Rob would also determine the energy a client would have for each month, and would then provide them with a guide to plan their year. 

“For example, you want to get married in June, but in that month, during the reading, we see there’s nothing but bad cards there. Then, we might tell you, ‘Hey, let’s not do that in June because we don’t want to be part of that kind of energy,’” Rob said. 

What you need to know before getting your reading

Every tarot practitioner is different. 

Pau deems it important for her clients to go into her readings already knowing what they want to gain insight into. It doesn’t have to be specific — just a gist of it all can work. Often, the querent can just tell Pau that they’re feeling confused in life and don’t know what to do, and she can take it from there. 

“For me, intention is very important. Kaya tawag ko sa mga questions ng mga querents would be intentions. What are your intentions in this reading? Kung wala kang specific question, ano na lang ‘yung ba’t ka nandito?” Pau shared. 

(For me, intention is very important. It’s why I refer to the questions of my querents as intentions. What are your intentions in this reading? If you don’t have a specific question, tell me instead why you are here.)

The same thing goes for Pau’s “year ahead” readings, where she would ask clients what happened in the last 12 months leading to the reading, along with what their goals or intentions are given these experiences. Some clients opt to be extra-specific, while others prefer to keep it a bit more general. But for Pau, anything goes. 

Rob, meanwhile, takes a different approach. For him, his clients don’t even have to say anything. 

“You just need to tell me you need to have the reading and then we’ll set it up. And I always highly suggest to my clients that we have it on Zoom so you can have a full recording because it’s a lot of information. It looks at the year per month. It doesn’t matter if you have an idea or not,” he told Rappler. 

When he starts roadmapping each month of the year, he would tell his clients what they should and should not be doing, and what their options are. 

But tarot readings — above all else — are supposed to empower you. They aren’t supposed to be fatalistic and shouldn’t dictate your life. It’s supposed to give the power back to you rather than the other way around. 

“If I told you tomorrow that no matter what you do, it’s set in stone, you’re going to Solaire and you’re going to gamble away all your money and become bankrupt. What are you going to tell me? You’re going to say, ‘Then guess who’s not going to Solaire tomorrow?’ A real reader will give the power back to you,” Rob said as an example.

And in 2026, as a general outlook, Rob attests that you can get what you want this year, but you need to work for it. The card for 2026 is The Chariot — which symbolizes victory. 

“With the card being the chariot for the year, you can get your heart’s desire this year. You just need to be willing to put in the work for it. If this is the year you say you want to lose weight, this can be the year you lose weight, but you must be willing to pay the price for it. You must be willing to put in the effort. Don’t just be idle about this,” he said. 

According to Rob, the energy that 2026 brings is drastically different from that of 2025. 

“The end of 2025 was very, very morbid. There were a lot of deaths because it’s the snake year. It’s like the snake shedding its skin before it’s over. After it sheds its skin, once 2026 starts, then everything’s going to start moving fast-paced. It’s the Year of the Horse as well. Horses and chariots [are related to each other], so it’s really in alignment,” Rob said. 

That said, keep a positive mindset that 2026 can be a great year for you. If there’s a big goal you want to achieve, perhaps tarot can help give you that foresight and peace of mind. – Rappler.com