About — Tides of Knowing

Tides of Knowing is a long-form tarot and intuition journal by Leigh Spencer — writer, intuitive guide, and fourth-generation Matakite.

Matakite is a Māori term for those who carry the gift of sight: the capacity to perceive beyond the visible world. It is not a credential and not something acquired through study. It is inherited, recognised, and carried as responsibility. That lineage informs this work, alongside a second discipline that shapes it equally.

Leigh brings together 40+ years of tarot practice and 30 years as a professional journalist. The journalist disciplines the intuitive. The intuitive reads what the facts alone cannot reveal. Neither is privileged. Both are in service of the same outcome:

clarity that is precise and actionable.

What This Work Addresses

Tides of Knowing exists for a specific experience many people encounter as they deepen their relationship with tarot:

You learn the meanings.
You study the systems.
You read more, hoping clarity will follow.

And yet, when you sit with the cards — for yourself or for someone else — something still doesn't fully hold.

The message feels close, but not quite clear.
The reading feels partial, or slightly out of tune.

This is not a lack of effort, and it is not solved by accumulating more meanings.

It is the point where understanding stops extending capability.

That is the space this work is designed to meet.

The Focus of This Publication

Tides of Knowing approaches tarot as a practice of perception and decision-making, rather than an exercise in interpretation alone.

The writing explores:

• How intuitive signal is recognised and followed
• Why more knowledge does not always lead to better readings
• How to move from description into insight
• The role of pattern recognition across a spread
• How to stay with what is true, even when it is subtle
• The difference between a reading that explains and a reading that lands

These are the underlying mechanics of a reading — whether it is for yourself or for others.

The Nature of This Work

This is not a trend-based site.
It does not offer quick answers to complex questions.
It does not prioritise volume over clarity.

Tides of Knowing is built as a long-term body of work — writing that returns you to the same place with greater depth each time you engage with it.

It is for people who sense that something in their practice is trying to refine — not through more information, but through a different way of seeing.

If it's real, it can be explained.
And if it can be explained, it can be followed.

The Deck Compass

Tides of Knowing is the editorial foundation for The Deck Compass.

Where this publication develops understanding, The Deck Compass develops capability.

It is a structured environment designed for people who want to strengthen how they work with the cards — whether that is for personal reflection or reading for others — through:

• Guided practice
• Real-time refinement
• Applied learning rather than passive consumption
• A clear methodology for developing intuitive accuracy

If the writing here names something you recognise but cannot yet consistently act on, The Deck Compass is where that capacity is built.

The COMPASS Method

At the centre of this work is the COMPASS Method — a seven-pillar framework developed through decades of reading, observation, and teaching.

COMPASS defines the conditions that support clear, grounded intuitive work: how you arrive, how the question is held, what is actually present, how meaning settles, and how the reading is completed with integrity.

These are not abstract ideals. They are practical disciplines of attention.

Read the full framework: The COMPASS Method

Most people try to deepen their readings by accumulating more card meanings.
The COMPASS Method begins where that approach starts to fall short.

It is designed for the stage at which meaning is no longer the main issue — when the real work becomes how to hold a question properly, how to recognise what matters, how to follow relationship and signal, and how to bring a reading through to clear, accurate closure.

This is the why.

The how is what we teach inside the system.

Who This Is For

This work is for people who:

• Have spent time learning tarot and want something deeper than more definitions
• Use the cards for personal reflection and want clearer, more grounded insight
• Sense that their readings could be more accurate, more connected, or more complete
• Prefer depth, precision, and clarity over volume or performance

You do not need to read for others for this to matter.
But you do need to be willing to look more closely at how you read.

How to Use This Work

You may arrive here through a single idea — something that puts language to an experience you have already had.

If that happens, pay attention.

Because that moment of recognition is the same thing this work develops:
the ability to notice what is true, and follow it.

The writing helps you see it.
The practice helps you hold it.

What This Ultimately Is

Tides of Knowing is for those who want to connect more deeply with what is present in a reading but not yet fully formed.

What sits beyond literal meaning.
What emerges through the relationship between reader, cards, and seeker.

And how to stay with that long enough for it to become clear — and speakable.

© 2026 Tides of Knowing · Leigh Spencer. All rights reserved. Original content.