24/08/2025

ON SUNDAY August 24, 2025 theSunday Special IX

Planning Council, many young adults QRZ YDOXH SHUVRQDO IXO¿OPHQW DV PXFK DV ¿QDQFLDO VWDELOLW\ OHDGLQJ WKHP WR H[SORUH unconventional career paths. That’s not to say one should abandon rational planning. But in times of uncer tainty, we sometimes need a symbolic QXGJH D GL̆ HUHQW OHQV WR H[SORUH ROG TXHV tions. The power of ritual and community What struck me most wasn’t just the tarot, but the collective energy of the event. (YHU\RQH WKHUH KDG D GL̆ HUHQW SDWK 6RPH ZHUH LQ PDUNHWLQJ RWKHUV LQ ¿QDQFH WHFK or creative work. But we were all asking similar questions: Who am I becoming and what does success mean to me now? The manifestation ritual involved visu alisation and intention-setting. It wasn’t magic in the Hollywood sense. Instead, LW ZDV DERXW SDXVLQJ WR GH¿QH ZKDW ZH want, then backing it with clarity and small action. “Rituals help anchor us,” said Dr Ta mara Russell, a neuroscientist at The Dragon Academy in the UK who studies mindfulness. “They provide a sense of agency and emotional regulation, especially during transitions.” In our productivity-driven world, hav LQJ VSDFH WR UHÀHFW ZLWKRXW WKH SUHVVXUH WR SHUIRUP LV UDUH 7KLV EUXQFK R̆ HUHG WKDW A container to name our hopes without

Rituals provide a sense of agency and emotional regulation, especially during transitions.”

being judged and to be gently challenged when we are hiding from our power. Walking out of the cafe, a goodie bag in hand and my head buzzing, I felt both energised and exposed. The tarot reading didn’t give me direct answers. It gave me questions I had long avoided, truths I hadn’t wanted to name. But in that discomfort was also a kind of freedom. I realised that career clarity doesn’t always look like a LinkedIn plan RU D ¿YH \HDU JRDO 6RPHWLPHV LW VHHPV like a card on a table, a sentence that stings, a reminder to stop scattering and start building. I’m still on the journey. But now I have a clearer compass and a deeper understanding that the real magic isn’t in the cards. It’s in the courage to act on what they reveal.

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That stung. Because it was true. I’d been half-committing, writing for clients instead of launching my projects, building portfolios instead of building my platform. Judgement made me realise I was waiting for external validation when I should have been building from within. Finally, Temperance reversed a card that speaks to imbalance. Upright, Temperance is about harmony, modera tion and patience. Reversed, it warns of burnout, scattered energy or chasing too many things at once. In the context of my career, the message was clear. I had a tendency to jump from idea to idea. One week, I was planning a fashion zine, the next trying to sell digital products on Etsy and then selling my clothing line at a small boutique. Temperance reversed was urging me to stop multitasking my dreams and start choosing. “Too much energy going in too many GLUHFWLRQV ´ VDLG 6ROHLO ³

While tarot might seem unconven tional, the insights it sparked were surprisingly practical. I left the session with three main takeaways: Respect the VWUXFWXUH IDFH WKH WUXWK DQG ¿QG EDODQFH These are principles that apply far beyond the mystical. Career expert and author Herminia Ibarra, in her book Working Identity , argues that career changes are less about dramatic leaps and more about testing, learning and adapting. “You don’t think your way into a new career, you act your way into it,” she wrote. This echoes the spirit of the tarot ses sion. It wasn’t about predicting the future EXW R̆ HULQJ D PLUURU WR KHOS PH UHFRJQLVH what I had ignored or avoided. Psychologists have also recognised the value of narrative tools like tarot. Dr Jonathan Kaplan, a New York-based clinical psychologist, said that tarot could serve as “a way to access parts of ourselves we might not engage with through purely logical reasoning. It’s not about fortune WHOOLQJ LW¶V DERXW VHOI UHÀHFWLRQ ´ For Malaysian professionals facing a fast-changing job market, tools like tarot FDQ R̆ HU VRIW LQVLJKW ZKHUH FRPSOH[ GDWD fails. According to the Malaysia Financial

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