30 Sep 2026 12 min read

Reciprocal joy & introducing Trans Tarot!

People send in their joy, and it becomes nourishment for someone else's hard day, suddenly a stranger feels less alone. Creativity is one of the easiest ways we practice that reciprocity. Also, Trans Tarot makes its debut this month!

Hey friends, Marco here!

One of the biggest surprises of guest editing this issue has been just how much joy there is. I came in expecting to curate what people sent in, but the act of reading through all the submissions, gathering resources, and pulling together events kept reminding me that we are not scarce. There is so much here. So many hands making things, so many stories being told. I kept seeing small acts of care showing up everywhere as art, as photos, as yummy food to share, as songs, as words.

I've been reading Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass lately, and one idea that has been circling in my head is that of reciprocity, or the way the natural world operates on gift economies rather than extraction. You receive, you give back, and the cycle continues. For me, I think that's exactly what ATJ does! People send in their joy, and it becomes nourishment for someone else's hard day. Someone shares a screenprint or a photo or a song, and suddenly a stranger feels less alone.

Creativity is one of the easiest ways we practice that reciprocity. It costs nothing but time and attention, and it multiplies every time it's shared. How may we all support each other in nurturing our individual and collective creativity? Please share your thoughts with us, we'd love to hear them!

Also, Trans Tarot makes its debut this month! If you haven't found your birth card yet, now's a good time.

Welcome, please stay a while!

With care and solidarity, Marco (they/them)

Marco stands outdoors smiling broadly, holding a clear umbrella with pink trim. They have short multicolored hair dyed in sections of blue, orange, and pink, and wear glasses, an olive-green jumpsuit, and a long, vibrant crocheted scarf. Behind them is a building with a white lattice wall. — Photo of Marco outdoors smiling, holding an umbrella.

Community Joy 💗

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Two people sit close together smiling in front of a large glowing heart-shaped marquee light decorated with pink bulbs. They are flanked by two oversized painted figures of crowned queens in ornate, brightly colored dresses, each holding a glittery red heart, set against a deep red curtain backdrop. Both wear black t-shirts; one has a cane resting beside them. — A contribution from community members who shared a lovely photo from when they were visiting the Parade Float museum!

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Trans joy to me is the right to smile, love the sound of my voice, and look forward to seeing myself in the mirror or growing old. I'm excited to live life again.

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Recently i was at work making small talk with the woman who runs the pickup counter at the supply house i go to about once a week, and she complained to me about being surrounded by emotionally immature men at work in a tone of voice that said "you're gay, you understand." made my day. no. my YEAR. that's exactly how i always dreamed i would be perceived by others when i was a teenager.

🩷

A fabric pencil pouch with a white canvas center showing a hand-painted sine wave that transitions through rainbow colors — red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. The border around the rectangle is splattered with dots of paint in various bright colors. A black zipper runs along the top edge. — A contribution from a community member who painted this pencil pouch!

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I recently started telling people about my partner and me beginning the process of trying to grow our family. No one has looked confused, no one has made it weird, no one has treated me like I was less valid because of what that journey looks like for us. Just nods, smiles, and supportive responses!! I've also been feeling more steady lately. Like I know who I am now in a way that doesn't wobble when someone pushes back. Setting boundaries has gotten easier, and I'm doing it from a place of caring for myself instead of resentment. The relationships that survive those boundaries are the ones I actually want. Genuine, loving, reciprocal, and safe connection.

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A large aluminum stockpot sits on a black stovetop, filled with steaming red chili. A wooden spoon rests across the top, coated in sauce. Steam rises from the surface, and bits of onion and beans are visible in the thick mixture. — A contribution from a community member who shared that her biggest creative outlet is cooking!

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Right now I am appreciating the joy of trans community and connection across generations... the ways, as an elder-ish trans person I learn so much from the many younger trans folks in my life. (And hope that I offer them the same.) It gives me life. And joy.

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Some of the deepest trans joy is being able to look at yourself in your best and favorite attire and in your natural state and think to yourself that you are beautiful (Swiftdrawer, they/them).

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I bring my marker to the coloring page, and a figure stares back at me, eager eyes and a cheekish grin. I pull back my marker and stare at the page, mesmerized by its moment in time, imagining what the figure must be thinking and what stories they would tell as they stare back at me. And what stories I would tell them if they could hear me, and perhaps they can. I hear them beg and lust for a new moment, to become all that they know they could be. My hand inches back towards the page, marker guided by their desire. I color outside the lines, giving new shape and form to the figure who says "Yes! Like that! Keep going!" And I color and color and color, morphing, shaping, becoming ... What? I do not know ... But their childish grin full of wonder and desire says "Don't stop! We're not done!" The page exploding with color, vibrant with life, the black and white coloring page no longer. I pause for a moment, looking down at the figure, who beams back at me, basking in all they became and continue to become.

...If you're feeling inspired, the contributor form is open for your own joy experiences and thoughts!

Trans Tarot✨

A new recurring section for the ATJ community, written by Marco (they/them) | @kindredrootstarot

Welcome to Trans Tarot, our new monthly corner all about tarot! Think of it as the spiritual successor to the previous Monthly Trans-its, but with a deck in hand instead of a star chart. Each month we'll pull a theme, walk through a simple practice you can do at home, and share a bit of what the cards bring out for us.

This is issue number one, so let's start somewhere foundational: your birth tarot card.

Finding Your Birth Card

Your birth card is a single Major Arcana card tied to your date of birth. The method is simple arithmetic:

Write out your full birth date – day, month, and year.
Add up every digit individually.
If the total is greater than 22 (the highest-numbered Major Arcana card), reduce it by adding its digits together again.
Keep reducing until you land on a number between 1 and 22. That number is your card.

An Example: My Own Card

I was born on December 23rd, 1997. Let's run the numbers:

Day: 2 + 3 = 5
Month: 1 + 2 = 3
Year: 1 + 9 + 9 + 7 = 26

Now add those three results together: 5 + 3 + 26 = 34. Thirty-four is higher than 22, so I reduce it once more: 3 + 4 = 7. Seven is within range, so my birth card is VII — The Chariot.

A colorful illustration titled "THE CHARIOT." A Black woman with short curly hair adorned with flowers and a crescent moon stands facing the viewer, wearing glasses, a pink sleeveless dress, a leopard-print collar, gray gloves, and turquoise heeled boots. She holds a yellow purse in one hand and green leashes in both hands, leading two small elephants — one pale blue on the left, one lavender on the right — across a debris-strewn ground. In the background, ruined futuristic buildings and tower-like structures with rings around them stand beneath an orange sunset sky. Along the bottom edge, the words "WATER CANCER," the number "7," and "MOON" appear. — The Chariot. Art by Cristy C. Road, from *Next World Tarot*.

What It Means

To describe my birth tarot card, I'm leaning on the depiction of The Chariot in Cristy C. Road's Next World Tarot (my first deck!), a post-apocalyptic reimagining of the classic deck that centers queer, trans, and BIPOC characters as the movers of forces and social change. In Road's version, The Chariot isn't an armored warrior driving into battle. She is a femme in a bright pink dress, calmly guiding two elephants through the rubble of a fallen city. Behind her rise broken towers and strange, ringed spires, glowing under a hot orange sky. Where the traditional card reads as conquest and domination, Road's reads as stewardship – strength expressed not as force over others, but as patient, intentional direction of powerful things.

Road's guidebook frames The Chariot as an affirmation of metamorphosis: a trailblazer and a vehicle for revolutionary thought who has survived, and who carries a fierce inner diva that only takes the wheel once the healing underneath is ready. The Chariot's resistance looks less like combat and more like endurance – long walks into the future, extended meditations, diplomatic conversations, or just taking a breath to check in with herself before reacting. When action is needed, it's strategic and bold: an educational sermon, an act of direct artistic action.

The Chariot invites me to name my goals and nurture them, reminding me that bravery is a sacred sense.

Having The Chariot as my birth card has felt true in ways I'm still unpacking, especially this idea that moving forward doesn't mean charging ahead without thought or intention. It means tending the heavy things in my life, keeping them on their leash, and choosing the pace myself. It is momentum earned, and it honors the fact that sometimes the bravest thing is to keep gently walking toward where I'm actually going.

So... what is your birth tarot card, and what does it mean to you?

Amplify This! 📣

Noteworthy creations & resources made by our talented community - all graphics/words shared with permission.

This month’s features are a vibrant mix of folk tradition, sonic liberation, and bold illustrative power. From a hand-painted Pennsylvania German hex sign to a liberating sound spell and striking screenprints exploring life outside the binary, these creators are embodying the full spectrum of trans experience – rage, pride, love, and freedom.

The artist Leo (they/he) says:

Wood round painted in the folk art tradition of Pennsylvania German barn hexes. Design is of a twelve point rosette made of overlapping circles the same size. The negative space is black, the petals alternate with primary colors, and where they overlap is colored the secondary color that is made from the petals that are overlapping. The outline is in gold, which almost gives a stained glass effect.

A circular wooden plaque painted in the folk art tradition of Pennsylvania German barn hexes. The design is a twelve-pointed rosette made of overlapping petals alternating between primary colors — red, yellow, and blue — against a black background. Where the petals overlap, they create secondary colors: orange where red meets yellow, green where yellow meets blue, and purple where blue meets red. Thin gold outlines trace each petal and the outer edge of the circle, giving the piece a stained-glass effect. The wood grain is faintly visible beneath the paint, and the plaque hangs against a neutral gray wall. — Leo's hex sign!

The artist heaven (they/he) says:

I made this “sound spell” the other day. The lyrics are “gender expansion is gorgeous, we are free” and it came to me after a difficult moment where I was feeling the transphobia of the world and this felt like a song of liberation to transmute that pain and frustration I was feeling, and a way to reclaim our beauty and freedom!

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Video of heaven playing and singing his sound spell. The lyrics repeat: "Gender expansion is gorgeous, we are free."

Check out heaven's Instagram and Linktree for more!

The artist Leon (he/him) says:

I'm a Fine Artist currently based in Delaware with a focus on illustrative and video work. My work embodies the strength in vulnerability and promotes self-autonomy in a world constricted by binaries. These screenprints I've shared all encompass aspects of what it means to exist outside the gender binary. Rage, pride, love, and fear all have a place in this existence and show themselves differently. Animals and anthropomorphism are present in these works to abstract and symbolically represent my own emotions and experiences I've learned to accept in being transgender. To understand and connect with others through these expressions of joy is what drives me to create.

Find more on Leon's Instagram!

1. "That Time of the Month": Screenprint of a werewolf howling and scratching his chest. There is blood on his mouth and between his legs. 2. "Bite Down, Bite Down": Screenprint of a tiger biting down on the neck of a US politician with blood dripping out of his lifeless mouth. The surround this image says, "Bite your neck off bitch." 3. "Status: Online": Screenprint of an anthropomorphic cat in a binder holding up peace signs. A speech bubble is above him saying, "online!". 4. "Population Control": Screenprint of a transgender man with a deer head giving himself a t-shot. There are tattoos on his chest where his top surgery scars have healed. Sight lines of guns surround him and there is a bullseye behind his head.

Joy Happenings 📌

Upcoming events & cool new things to check out!

Trans By Trans Book Club (Season 3)
- Kick off the fall with a virtual book club! The Free Library of Philadelphia is launching Season 3 of their book club specifically for trans and nonbinary adults. Join in from wherever you are to share thoughts and connect over great literature. Check out the Trans By Trans Book Club calendar!
Virtual Peer Support Spaces for LGBTQ+ Families
- If parenting or family-building feels isolating lately, these biweekly spaces from Family Equality are a lifeline. They’re peer-run and whether you’re a trans, nonbinary, or GNC parent looking for connection, or an LGBTQ+ person navigating fertility and conception, these supportive gatherings offer a welcoming place to share and be heard. Find your next Family Equality virtual meetup!
Queer Cinema Spotlight October Releases
- Get comfy cozy and queue up some incredible queer stories this month! Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, the Cannes-winning trans slasher, is streaming soon, and Disney+ drops Avatar: Seven Havens on Oct 14. Plus, keep an eye on the Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival running Oct 12–18 for more global queer storytelling. Enjoy a movie night that celebrates multidimensional trans and queer joy. Browse October’s must-see LGBTQIA+ releases!
Trans Sanctuary at Kirkridge (PA)
- Need a break from the noise? Mark your calendars for November 13–15! This dedicated space is for trans, nonbinary, and gender expansive folks to gather in the mountains. Led by Kerr Mesner and Orion Johnstone, the retreat focuses on sanctuary, grounding, and trans joy. It’s all about rest, connection, and honoring our diversity without pressure to participate, just show up as you are. Sliding scale pricing and scholarships available. https://kirkridge.org/programs-container/1221/trans-sanctuary-2/!
Trans Mentor Project (TMP)
- If you know someone aged 13–24 who could use a bit of support, TMP is incredible! It’s the only free, virtual, nationwide community for trans and nonbinary young people. Mentees get matched with trained mentors who’ve "been there," plus access to workshops, affinity groups, and a safe online space to hang out. It’s less about fixing things and more about building confidence and finding your people. You can even sign up to become a mentor yourself! Explore the Trans Mentor Project!
The Trans Joy Generator
- Feeling low? Come back to this beautiful, interactive resource from the Campaign for Southern Equality, filled with handwritten notes of love, support, and solidarity from trans elders and allies. Take a moment to read through these messages – a powerful reminder that you are seen, valued, and part of a long, resilient history. Visit the Trans Joy Generator!
Trans Joy
- This grassroots nonprofit is all about amplifying trans voices and creating free, intergenerational spaces for connection. Their work focuses on celebrating joy and visibility to rewrite the narrative around what it means to be trans. A wonderful org to check out for upcoming gatherings & community building. Check out their website!
Trans YA Book Club (October Edition)
- Grab your favorite cozy blanket and join this monthly gathering! The October session kicks off on Monday, Oct 26 at 7:00 PM EDT. It’s a fun, low-pressure space to discuss YA books featuring trans and nonbinary characters across genres. Perfect for fans of queer lit who want to geek out with others. Check out the Trans YA Book Club on Eventbrite!
Virtual Caregiver Support Space
- For those supporting trans or nonbinary youth, Translate Gender is hosting a dedicated support hour on Wednesday, Oct 21 at 7PM EDT. This is a facilitated space centered on the experiences of caregivers, offering a chance to share strategies and connect with others navigating similar journeys. See more Translate Gender happenings!
Emerging Trans Researchers Conference 2026
- If you’re interested in the academic side of trans health and culture, mark your calendars for Oct 13–14. Hosted by the Trans Health Research Group and Australian Research Consortium, this free two-day conference brings together researchers from around the world. It’s a great way to stay connected to the latest conversations in trans studies!
(Re)Introducing The Gender Doula & Gender Rituals
- Meet Eli Lawliet, Ph.D.! He left academia to become one of the first certified gender doulas. His debut book Gender Rituals offers grounded tools for bringing intentionality and magic into your transition from consent rituals to name ceremonies. If you missed it last month, it's a beautiful resource for anyone who wants to treat their transition with the same reverence and intention as any other major life milestone.

Call for Submissions & Support 🫶🏽

Are you enjoying ATJ? Please reply to this email with your thoughts, nice words, and love notes! With permission, your words might be featured in an upcoming issue!

⭐ If you're a cis ally/have a few bucks to contribute toward uplifting collective trans joy, consider becoming a trans joy gremlin at $5/month or buying us a coffee. You can also now gift a subscription!

⭐ Do YOU have trans joy, a rad project, or resources to share with us?? Check out the Contributor Guidelines!

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Thanks for supporting and reading!!!

I’ll leave you with this…

Hand-drawn illustration of a Jimothy the Raccoon standing upright on a black background, holding a small white daisy in his mouth. Above it, in loose cream-colored handwriting, are the words "Be Kind." Below, in the same style, reads "...Of...Feral". — Jimothy the Raccoon illustration.

May our community continue to be a garden where we all give and receive. Thank you for sharing your light with me this month, it truly nourished my own!

About Marco: Hey y'all, I'm a Venezuelan-American trans, non-binary, autistic tarot reader and community weaver based in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. I’m currently pursuing my master's in clinical mental health counseling and teaching classes on Indigenous cultures around the world. My work is rooted in connection, reciprocity, and collective liberation. When I’m not pulling cards, teaching, or organizing with community members, I’m probably making art or exploring how creativity can be a tool for healing and justice. Find me on IG at @KindredRootsTarot, and see you next month in the tarot column!