I talk a lot about beliefs versus truths here, and RuPaul always says this phrase on his podcast so I thought I’d use it as my topic for this week. When he says, “The call is coming from inside the house,” he’s referring to your negative self talk holding you back, based  on an old 70’s film titled When a Stranger Calls. The movie SPOILER centers around a baby sitter, played by Carol Kane, who keeps receiving strange and threatening phone calls. The stalker would consistently call and harass her, only to find out that when the call is traced, it’s coming from inside the house. The metaphor exists in this: it isn’t what is happening outside in reality, it is what you have held onto as your belief system that is the means for sabotage.

I recently performed a tarot spread for a reader who was frustrated with her creative blocks. She didn’t know why she couldn’t share her creations with the world. And although she reached out to me to consult my cards, the first phrase that popped into my head was “The call is coming from inside the house.” And, as I would have imagined, the cards echoed that loud and clear.

Fear is merely a byproduct of our overthinking. Yes, there are some real elements to fear, like physical danger, that our instincts will do our best to protect us from. But on a day to day basis, we mostly have constructed a belief system that masquerades as protecting us. It keeps us hidden in the house and isolated. It keeps us locked in one very accessible spot. Instead of letting us explore the options to make a systematic escape, we cower. All because of our own “truths.”

I’ve explained this before, but it bears repeating. Your belief system is constructed of things you’ve picked up throughout your life that have a significant emotion attached to it. For example, once I was wearing a dress with polka dots on it and a mean girl called me fat in an Urban Outfitters. Guess what belief manifested? Never wear polka dots.

Is that irrational? Totally. But if you don’t have the tools to separate emotion with sound reasoning (like when you’ve just hit puberty and you don’t know how to dress for your new boobs and slight pudge) that devastation will stay with you as a “truth.” So the next time you walk into Target and see some adorable polka dot romper, you’ll get a call that says “Don’t wear that, it’ll make you look fat.” And when you trace it, it won’t be coming from a mean girl. It’ll be coming from you. Because the more you repeat it, the more it becomes your own words.

There needs to be destruction, much like the Tower portends, in order to grow past these outdated beliefs. You need to trace that call back, aaallllll the way back, and have a real conversation with who’s on the other end. Why did you hold onto so tightly what the mean Urban Outfitters girl said? Why did it hurt you so much? Is it actually true? Or is it something you can let go of?

These kinds of questions and lines of reasoning can lead to the emotional security of the Queen of Cups. Holding onto fearful language and damaging beliefs only sits your house on a rocky foundation. In order to be truly rooted, your beliefs and values must exist in confidence and logic. Not on insults that you’re afraid of.

So next time you feel held back or restricted, take a long hard look at why these exist in your brain. Why have you decided to protect yourself by rehashing illogical statements? Is it still serving you? Don’t you WANT to wear polka dots???

Start tracing those calls, wear the polka dots proudly, and stay witchy ( *)