What is the message of your yesterday self? The answer can be found in the April tarot spread

A few days ago, a Disney+ special celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Hannah Montana was released. For someone like me, who was eight years old at the series' first episode (and is now twenty-eight with the beginnings of sciatica), it was a real dive into the past, considering that Miley Cyrus was thirteen at the time and is now thirty-three. For the occasion, Cyrus also performed her latest song as Hannah, Younger you, a letter from her past self to her present self asking not to be forgotten, even if she now surely has a job and a thousand worries. There’s a line in that song that resonates with me: "I know your story isn't done, but do you love who you've become?": would our past self be proud of who we are today? What would the little girl who loved Disney Channel and the Nintendo DS think of the woman of 2026?

April 2026: looking to the past to build the present through tarots

For me, April is this. Going back in time, to happier, more carefree moments, to hear what my little child self (as Giovanni Pascoli would say) still has to advise me. So, I asked the tarot for help. I thought the cards this month could do the same thing Miley did: not look forward, but backward, even just for a second, and listen to what our innocent, naive self would tell us, the one who didn’t yet know how things would turn out… and perhaps precisely because of that, it had something we have somewhat lost now. That version of ourselves we perhaps haven’t stopped searching for to gain reassurance, the one we remember with bittersweet tenderness (or that we’ve repressed because it was too painful to face). As always, I ask you not to consider this reading as absolute truth, or as a solution to all your problems. Take it as an excuse to dig out your old Jonas Brothers CDs (or your first iPod, the white one with earbuds still included), to rewatch High School Musical (also celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year) and dance to We're All in This Together, remembering the choreography step by step… or simply to feel like a child again for a few minutes.

The April 2026 tarot spread: choose a card

1) Six of Cups

The Six of Cups is that card that tastes of nostalgia. But it’s not a painful nostalgia; it’s that nostalgia when a memory comes back to you, one you don’t even know the origin of, but it leaves a warm feeling in your stomach. It is the card of return, of everything we went through before becoming who we are now. Your younger self has a clear message for you: they want you to remember who you were before becoming so focused on surviving every day. There was something you loved doing without reason or ulterior motive: a place, a person, a book, a song on repeat for weeks. And I’m sure somewhere inside you, that thing still exists. The Six of Cups invites you to find it, to understand what from that past you want to bring with you. Your past self would say: don’t forget me, not yet, because I can still do you good.

2) The Hermit (Reversed)

If the Hermit is the card of someone who knows how to be alone without feeling lost, who finds answers within, when reversed it tells a completely different story: it speaks of someone who has isolated themselves too much, who has built walls so high that they can no longer see beyond, and who now wants to step out and breathe. Your younger self is sending a clear message: you are hiding, not from others, but from yourself. For years, we were told that if you can be alone, you can face anything. But sometimes, it’s just rational fear disguised as caution. Once you would have conquered the world; now you try to protect yourself behind a barrier you built alone: it wasn’t recklessness, it was carefreeness, trust in the world and others, and you haven’t felt it in a long time. Your past self would ask: when did you decide it was safer to disappear?

3) Three of Wands

The Three of Wands is the card of someone who has already started. Not of someone who has also reached the destination, but of someone who took the hard step - starting - and now finds themselves midway up the climb, resting, aware that at the end of the journey there will be their goal. There is anticipation in this card, but it is the anticipation of someone who knows that something is truly happening, even if they cannot yet see it, even if it is all beyond the mountain’s peak. Your younger self had very specific, huge but genuine dreams, like becoming a pop star, chef, or astronaut… not something rational or “safe,” dreams not yet shaped by others’ expectations or by time teaching us to desire more achievable things. The Three of Wands asks you to not abandon that way of dreaming: I’m not telling you to follow everything in your old diary to the letter, but at least the heart of it, that thing you wanted to do before anyone convinced you it was too risky, too impractical. Your past self (and Hannah Montana) would say: life is a climb, but the view is magnificent.