A Tarot Spread for 2025 to Reflect and Prepare for a New Beginning
Note: To go straight to the 2025 Tarot Spread, scroll down.
Are you ready for a new beginning? A clean slate to build a new foundation both in your personal life and on a global scale?
Too bad — 2025 has other plans before we reach the new beginning.
Hear me out.
As I mentioned in the 2024 Tarot Spread, this year was about reaping what we sowed. In our personal lives, this might have been a beneficial year if we put in hard work during previous years.
On a global scale, however, we witnessed significant consequences of ignoring climate change (bigger hurricanes, for example). We saw the impact of allowing developers to destroy our ecosystems to build overpriced homes, leading to floods outside registered flood zones. We also experienced the consequences of tech billionaires rushing poorly designed machinery and tech to market, such as Cybertrucks that burn so intensely that firefighters struggle to extinguish them and, of course, rampant and faulty AI.
The most recent and viral example of reaping what you sowed on a societal scale was the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. UnitedHealthcare has been accused of using AI algorithms to deny Medicare Advantage claims. Overall, UnitedHealthcare denied 32% of claims in 2023.
This has been the uniting event of 2024, coincidentally happening as we wrap up a year of consequences. Police officers, vets, teachers, retail workers, farmers, college professors— everyone has been denied by an insurance company at least once. Whether you’re a healthy person who had a freak accident or someone who’s been chronically ill for their entire lives, you’ve listened to the soul-sucking muzak while waiting to speak to a customer service agent employed by an insurance company.
The punch-in-the-air and “sorry, my insurance doesn’t cover sympathies” comments have CEOs reeling, to the point that major hospitals have removed their executives and board of directors off their websites.
Consequences.
The Numerology of 2025 — Universal Year 9
As we step into 2025, we’re entering a Universal Year 9. In numerology, 9 is the number of completions — an ending of a cycle and a preparation for something new. This year will be a time of tying up loose ends, reflecting on the lessons of the past, and preparing for the next nine-year phase.
They say your life flashes before your eyes before you die. This is the same idea.
Globally, this means unresolved issues and long-term challenges will resurface, demanding our attention.
While we transition from 2024 to 2025, we’ll be reminded of the consequences of the last nine years — the victims of genocide, the hundreds of thousands of deaths from COVID due to the mismanagement of an emergency, the people who lost their lives because insurance wouldn’t cover life-saving medication or procedures, the thousands of homeless people who’ve been priced out of homes, and the thousands of people who can’t find a job because of ATS and AI taking over human resources.
All of these reminders will be depressing at first. It might feel like we’re moving backward for a couple of weeks or months. And I’m not going to lie — some people might lean into hopelessness.
But that’s not the purpose of this energy.
These flashbacks are meant to motivate us to find solutions so we can finally leave these problems in the past, and move forward into a new energy in 2026, a Universal Year 1 that heralds a new era.
This is how we heal on a global scale.
Pluto in Aquarius: Uknown Change
Adding to this sense of closure is Pluto’s recent move into Aquarius — a profound shift that whispers, “Everything is changing.”
The last time Pluto was in Aquarius was between 1777 and 1798, but Pluto wasn’t discovered until 1930. This means we’re experiencing Pluto in Aquarius for the first time with full awareness of its existence.
Astrology, a science older than 10,000 years, is built on observations made over millennia. Before the invention of the telescope, only Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were recognized as “bright visible stars.” Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were incorporated into astrology much later, following their discoveries through telescopic advancements.
Astrological interpretations for the inner planets have 10,000 years of data backing it up, but interpretations for celestial bodies like Pluto, specifically in Aquarius, only come from educated guesses.
On top of that, astrology doesn’t cause events; the celestial bodies reflect human activity.
How we react to this moment will set the foundation for interpretations of Pluto in Aquarius for astrologers 200 years from now.
Tarot Spread for 2025
The 2025 Tarot Spread is shaped like a flame, with the eight cards at the base mirroring each other. The mirror is here to help us reflect on the past year in our personal lives and on the past nine years in our society. But we don’t reflect for the sake of nostalgia. We look back to light a spark. To shine a light on problems and find ways to motivate — or pressure — decision-makers into finding permanent solutions.
As always, place the cards in numerical order.
Card 1: The Spark — Your Motivation in 2025
The first card is the flame. This is the spark that carries you through the year. This can be the promise of a new career, a possible proposal, or planning to move away from home for the first time.
While I want everyone to have hope, I can’t deny that anger is always a strong motivating factor.
Maybe you’re motivated to live another day because you want to outlive tech billionaires.
You could also be motivated by increasing rent prices to join or organize a tenant union.
This spark has to be strong enough to motivate you in your inner and outer lives for the majority of the year.
Card 2: Your Mental Health in 2025
They tell you to put on the oxygen mask before you help your child with their mask. Same idea. Your mental health matters. This card will give you a hint of mental health concerns, if any. Or it will show you how to maintain positive mental health as you move through the year.
As a reminder, mental health does not begin or end with a tarot reading. Please seek therapy if you need it.
While it’s hard to remove bias from our personal readings, try your best to be as honest with yourself as possible for this position. The King of Pentacles does not mean you need to go on a shopping spree to feel less depressed. It most likely means you rely to heavily on your credit to feel better (or that you rely on some other form of consumption).
Card 3: Changes to Your Identity in 2025
I’m sure you’re not the same person you were on December 31, 2023. At least, I hope not. Ideally, you’ve grown as a person, but healing is not linear. Sometimes we spiral. Other times, life forces us to create new paths altogether that are neither good nor bad, just different and unexpected. And our personalities adjust. This card will show you the change in 2025.
The Magician might show that you become craftier or more hands-on with how you deal with issues throughout the year.
The Empress could show that you learn how to relax more often and let things come to you.
Card 4: Physical Safety and Security Concerns
I want you to be safe and secure this year. The absence of safety and security isn’t always bloody. As a POC and an American, when I think of a dangerous situation, I immediately think of mass shootings and hate crimes. But these aren’t the only things that can threaten our physical selves.
Security is having a roof over your head, a fridge full of groceries, air conditioning in Florida, heat in Maine, access to clean drinking water, etc.
As we’ve seen this year, many things can affect our physical safety when we look at it through this lens. We’ve seen rampant food recalls due to contamination. Consuming E.coli is a risk to our physical self. Not being able to afford groceries is also not good for your health.
The Moon card, for example, and an example only, can mean secrets surfacing that affect your safety. But it can also be water contamination. The Moon card represents Pisces, so it can also represent flooding or your personhood being put at risk by Christian Nationalist legislation (Pisces -> Fish symbol-> Jesus).
So keep these things in mind when you pull cards for this position.
Card 5: Digital Safety and Security Concerns
It’s 2025 and we have to consider our digital safety as much as we consider our safety when crossing the street or putting on our seat belts.
If you are a public-facing person (influencer, business owner, community leader), you have even more reason to consider your digital hygiene.
The World card in this context can mean going viral. And while many people want the financial benefits of going viral, having your face in front of millions of people still comes at an immense personal risk. The more popular Taylor Swift became, the more bodyguards she needed. The more success she achieved, the more hatred she inspired. The same happens to anyone with a digital presence.
But let’s scale it back. Let’s say you pull the Three of Swords in this position. That might mean a betrayal from someone you love. Maybe an ex-boyfriend shares a personal and graphic video of you with their friend group. Maybe your mom goes through your text messages. You don’t have to be famous for either of those things to be devastating or humiliating.
Card 6: Your Relationships and Friendships
People need people. This position will reveal the overall theme for your inner circle in 2025.
If you see the Four of Cups, it’s a sign that you need to open up to others more. Even if you have a circle of friends already, you might have a wall up that others can sense.
The Tower card doesn’t necessarily mean the end of all your friendships or relationships. It can be that you begin to see these relationships in a whole new light. A new perspective isn’t always bad, but it does mean that the old perspective will be shattered in some way.
Card 7: How to Show Love and Affection to Others
You may have people who care about you, but do they know that you care about them, too? Reflect on how you show affection to others and ask yourself if it’s enough, if it’s too much, or if it’s effective at all.
The Devil card in this position could be a sign that you are too controlling with the people you love. If you’re a mom, your kids might feel that you’re holding on too hard.
Look beyond the most popular meanings for the cards of isolation. The Hanged Man is alone, but he is sacrificing himself for a greater cause. The Hanged Man in this position might mean that you give too much to others, even when they never asked for anything from you. The Queen of Pentacles is alone in her garden, but hers is a message of financial stability. You may try to buy people’s affection, and when it doesn’t work, you feel lonely and don’t know why.
Card 8: What Your Immediate Community Needs
I’m biased here, but I do not recommend a 2025 reading that does not bring up community. As I mentioned above, Pluto is in Aquarius for the next twenty or so years. Aquarius is community-focused.
Astrology aside, we can’t complain about the ills of the world and not consider where it all begins — in someone’s local community.
Regardless of what this card shows, survey your neighborhood for concrete details and then see how Card 8 applies.
If you pull the Ten of Pentacles and there is an issue with homelessness in your area, it may indicate that your community needs more knowledge on how to build generational wealth. It could also suggest a need for increased support for multi-generational families.
There is a chance that some might feel disconnected from their local area. Or they may have a stronger sense of community with people who share aspects of their identity instead of their location. For example, a trans person living in rural Alabama might feel a stronger connection with the online LGBTQIA+ community than their neighbors. That’s valid as well.
Card 9: Action(s) You Need to Take For Your Community
What will you do for others in 2025? Once you have figured out your motivation, mental health, your identity, your security, and your relationships in 2025, how you will show up for others? Card 9 works with Card 8 because you first need to know what’s wrong in order to take action to fix it.
Do not interpret any card in this position as “do nothing.” Even the Four of Swords can show someone whose strength is in brainstorming. If that’s the case, brainstorm with others. Offer to do research or track data. Do something.
This was your 2025 Tarot Spread! I hope you have an amazing year. If you use this tarot spread, please let me know. Even if you come across in August 2025, let me know anyway. I’m always curious to see how others interpret their annual readings and what they do with the information.
Have a great 2025!
Thank you for making it this far. If you use this tarot spread, share your spread on Instagram or TikTok and tag @gemblackthorn. I have a new download available: What every tarot card means in a money reading. Perfect for tarot readings regarding business, workplace, or personal finances (for entertainment purposes only, obviously).
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