As a florist who’s spent the last couple years turning my Nashville apartment into a little greenhouse, I’ve started treating love readings less like fortune-telling and more like soil testing. I mostly do this for myself and my queer friends, framing the whole process as a creative ritual rather than anything dogmatic. When I pull cards for relationships now, I don’t just hunt for the Lovers or the Two of Cups. I look for the roots.

I’ll usually run a simple three-card layout: What am I projecting? What’s actually present? And what needs pruning? It’s super simple, but it stops me from romanticizing situations that are just mirroring my own attachment patterns. Carl Jung talked extensively about psychological projection, and I’ve seen it play out in my own readings so many times. We pull the Ten of Swords and think it’s about “toxic ex energy,” when really it’s just our nervous system flagging unresolved stuff we haven’t metabolized yet.

I also like to check the current astrological transits before I even wash my hands. If Venus is squaring Saturn, I’ll frame the whole spread around inner alchemy instead of outcome-tracking. Like, how can this friction be composted into something that actually nourishes the connection? Gardening taught me that you don’t force a bloom; you just create the right conditions and trust the timeline. The same goes for love. Sometimes the cards will show you a patch of dry soil, and that’s completely okay. It just means it’s time to water yourself first.

I’d love to hear how you all are approaching your spreads lately. Are you finding more clarity when you shift the focus from prediction to cultivation? Drop your thoughts below—I’m always here cheering you on.