Courtesy of Tarot | September reading inspiration
Hello, friends.⚘️
It has been September for... some days :D...
( Listen, I never said these posts would come on the first of every month, please temper your expectations, thank youu 🙂↕️😋😂 )
I have been going through it, folks. I had so many stressful things to take care of in August and that's going to extend to this month for me as well, and in some ways into the next. I feel like I have been behind on life-stuff all month and it really messed up what would normally be my downtime and my reading practice.
BUT!
We shall not crumble under the pressure of the world!
We shall get hard stuff done and also get better at taking care of our mental health! 🙂↕️
We have committed to bookish tarot check-ins every month, and so you better believe that's exactly what we will do. Grab a chair, let me be your most humble host, and let's look at some pretty cards and talk books. Come, come, come… ☕️ _
How this works
I pull some cards for us and write a little bit about what I’m seeing when it comes to reading inspiration for the month ahead. You are welcome to simply take what resonates from the reading and move on with your day, or, if you think of any specific books that align with what I’m describing, comment those titles down below for people to check out. These readings don’t aim to be particularly predictive, and they aren’t meant to be taken as gospel. This is simply a bit of fun, something to bring you some reading inspiration if you need it, and an opportunity for us to further connect as a community.
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I’m using the Lilifer tarot deck, created by Marion Costentin, published by Little Darkness. The spread is designed by me.
Here are the questions we will be looking at, and the cards we got. For a better experience, I recommend viewing the pictures below on the Pagebound website!
Okay, friends. General advice for our reading practice in September seems to be pretty grounded. We're talking about simple day-to-day things, the little steps that ultimately take us to where we want to go. No earth-shattering, mind-bending energies here. There is a bit of a limbo, a bit of potential for discomfort, but it seems temporary and manageable. Let’s talk!
Our general reading inspiration and potential is represented by the Seven of Pentacles. This is a slow-moving energy. It’s the seeds we planted slowly growing over time. They won’t grow any faster if we sit and stare at them, overthinking and second-guessing ourselves, but if we are patient and consistent, they yield the most delicious fruit. The energy of this card is what we need every time we’re working on something that matters to us and that we want to make a key part of our life at any particular time. It’s a steady energy, not a spur-of-the-moment, flighty one.
The card that represents our potential issues when it comes to reading is the Six of Swords. This card often represents a bit of an uncomfy transition, although one that we expected to happen for some time. What I’m seeing from this is a suggestion of some change in our reading practice in September, the kind of change in routine that we need a little bit of time to get used to. This might be due to a lot of us wrapping up our vacations and going back to work or to academic environments around this time. Regardless of reason, we need to be reminded that our reading habits should be flexible enough to change as the rest of our life fluctuates. If this is not the case (hi), we should look into that and make it our goal to adjust. We deserve to have access to reading no matter what other things are taking place in our life, and if what we are used to doing doesn’t work anymore, we can restart at any time: pause current reads and start something more fitting, change our monthly or yearly goals, and manage our TBR so it isn’t giving us stress.
There seems to be good potential for our reading practice to develop meaningfully this month, but it might be good for us to avoid rushing it, even if we might be tempted. Let’s try to stay away from the “all or nothing” mindset, and see how we can instead be more flexible with our reading goals and the ways we go about reaching them. . _
Now let's see what reading inspiration we can get from the rest of the spread. Nonfiction is where we will start.
We’re looking at the first row of cards as one group. We have the Knight of Pentacles, and the Page of Cups talking to each other. The Knight of Pentacles is our general topic. I’m thinking that here it signifies positive progress and chasing a particular goal in life. This Knight cares so much about this goal, and they are willing to commit themselves and make sacrifices in order to reach it.
If the Page of Cups were to sit with our lovely Knight, it would ask them whether the things that take up most of their time and energy still align with what their heart truly desires. Now, this Page loves life and is full of hope, but they aren’t detached from reality. They understand we can’t always choose to do the job we love, or just go off and follow our passions wherever they may take us. However, they also know that sometimes we lose sight of what we want because of what society tells us we should want. Or that sometimes we convince ourselves that we don’t have any time to devote to our passions at all, even if that may not always be true. This Page also understands that the capitalist society we live in often makes us forget that we have inherent worth regardless of how successful or “productive” we are, and that things can have value even when that value cannot be exactly measured. These topics might be good to look into for our non-fiction reading this month.
We can also look into books that bring us back to our passions, back to our “why”, so we can figure out whether what we spend our time on is still for us, or whether we might have lost sight of ourselves somewhere along the way. This is a difficult question to ponder, and that’s why I think the approach card here, The Six of Cups is really important this time around.
The Six of Cups is often connected to nostalgia and the inner child. This is a gentler approach to this topic. As much as it is sometimes necessary, we’re not destroying anything with fire in this case. Instead, we’re gently pivoting in the right direction. Throw some humor in there while you’re at it.
I think as adults we sometimes forget we also need to be taken care of, and that we deserve gentleness. So for this month’s non-fiction, maybe we’re looking at books which will give us just that: a companion, a hand to hold as we figure out a particular aspect of our life, or a safe space to play and try new things that we feel excited about. This card is also one of stories, and reminiscing on specific moments of the past with the benefit of hindsight, so it might lend itself well to a memoir, if that is your thing. . _
Onto fiction! This is quite an interesting line-up this month.
We open up with The Moon card. The mood and atmosphere here is HEAVY. What I’m immediately getting here are those books where if the atmosphere wasn’t as strong and specific, the stories would end up falling flat. We are looking at stories that feel a bit like fever dreams. Things are a bit more floaty, immaterial. Perhaps we’re in the head of the main character, going through their imaginary scenarios, dreams, and anxieties. Or perhaps the rules of the world that we live in don’t apply the same way in these books. Moonlight often obscures the view, only showing partial pictures of things, so there’s an air of mystery and confusion. It’s the kind of books where you have to get on board early and trust the author that the journey they are taking you on will ultimately pay off.
Now, the Queen of Swords represents the issues for our character(s) in the story. When we’re talking about the negative side of this queen, there’s definitely issues with overthinking and unprocessed emotions. This Moon energy might just be the result of escapism that this character engages in.
This doesn’t have to be literal, and it likely isn’t. The Moon is very comfortable with symbolism, and very at home with allegories. The whole story could be a metaphor for processing specific emotions or difficult life events, which really opens up the options for the books this month.
Our third card is The Magician. Note how this card visually stands out with its warm red and orange in a spread full of muted colors. Just from that, I think we’re looking at books where the author was not afraid to commit to their world and everything that makes it unique. The author didn’t intend this book to be for everybody and didn’t mind being different. That said, we’re not talking about uniqueness for the sake of uniqueness. The Magician acts with full understanding of who they are and what they want to bring into this world. This is a distinctly authentic style, and this is evident in the writing.
I’d say we should look into some weirder fiction this month, the books where the atmosphere drips with imaginative visuals, or descends into straight up mental spirals. The singularity of the figures in these three cards is also making me think of first-person POV, so you may want to consider that as well, if you think you’d enjoy having that perspective to the story.
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That’s our reading for September! And how I loved sitting with you!
Did you think of any books that fit the reading and that you’d recommend to the rest of the community?
Since I’ve been so over the place lately, I ended up starting many of my currently-reading books from the beginning and opting not to track progress for now. My September plan is otherwise empty, so I’ll just allow myself to see how I feel as the month goes on and only start new things if I either finish something I’m currently reading, or if I officially pause it and put it aside. Hopefully this will help me get back into the groove of things soon :)
Since September has already started, what are we reading?? Are you joining the readalong? Did you plan any buddy reads? 👀☕️ I’d love to hear a few updates from you, friends, I’ve not been too active on here recently.
In any case, thanks for stopping by! ⚘️ _
Previous readings:
August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026
