I Got Catfished

And its not what you think

Photo by Laura España on Unsplash

Dear Lovely Reader

So… I got catfished.

And yes, I can hear you laughing already, because it wasn’t by a person… it was by a tarot deck.

Stay with me.

I was in Nice, in the south of France, wandering through one of those bookshops, you know the kind. The ones you could lose hours in. The smell of paper and possibility, shelves that feel like little worlds, even the stationery somehow more beautiful than it needs to be. I was completely in it.

I found myself, as always, drifting toward the mind, body, spirit section. Oracle decks, tarot cards… my happy place. And then I saw it, a mini tarot deck. I got so excited. I thought, how perfect for travel. A little French deck, something different, something special.

Now, I knew I wouldn’t understand the language. My French is, not that. But I told myself it didn’t matter. I know how to read energy, how to read imagery. I’ll figure it out. Google Translate exists. It’ll be fine.

( These were the images I expected on the cards)

So I chose this little deck, partly because I couldn’t decide (there were so many), partly because it felt cute and practical. On the front of the box were these beautiful images. Tiny cards, I assumed, with these same visuals. I built the whole thing in my mind, how I’d use it, how it would feel, what it would add.

I was sold.

That evening, I got back and said to my friend, “I’ll pull you a card.”

I opened the box…

And very quickly realised, I had, in fact, been catfished.

No images.

Not one.

(This was what I got, all the cards were like this)

Just tiny, thin cards with writing in French. A little design on the back, and that’s it. No visual cues. No intuitive reading. Just, words I couldn’t understand.

I sat there thinking, what is this.

And then I laughed. Because honestly, what else can you do?

“You’ve been catfished by a tarot deck,” my friend messaged back. And she wasn’t wrong.

But as the initial annoyance passed (and yes, the moment of “well, I’m not getting that money back”), something else came in. That familiar nudge. The deeper layer.

Because this wasn’t really about the deck.

It was about the story I created.

How quickly I filled in the gaps. How I saw an image on a box and decided that was the full picture. How I convinced myself I knew what I was getting, without actually knowing.

And don’t we do this all the time?

We build narratives. We project meaning. We see what we want to see.

Sometimes it works in our favour. Sometimes we take a chance and it’s even better than we imagined. But other times, it’s not. And we’re left holding something that doesn’t quite match the picture we created in our minds.

It made me think about how often this shows up in life.

In dating, where people quite literally get catfished.
On social media, where we’re all, to some degree, curating and filtering.
Even in the small things, like ordering something online that looks incredible, and then it arrives and it’s, not that.

And underneath all of that, there’s something deeper.

A reminder to come back to ourselves.

Because when we’re constantly looking outward, for answers, for validation, for inspiration, it’s so easy to get swept up in the image, the idea, the presentation of something. We forget to check in with what we actually feel. What we actually know.

Our intuition often whispers before our mind builds the story.

But we’re so used to trusting what we see, what we’re shown, what we’re sold, that we override it.

This little tarot deck, as ridiculous as it sounds, brought me back to that.

To my own centre. My own discernment. My own way of feeling into something before deciding what it is.

And also, to a bit of humility, if I’m honest.

Because maybe if I’d looked a little closer, asked a question, paused for a moment, I might have realised. Or maybe not. Sometimes we only see clearly once something is opened.

And that feels important too.

Not everything is meant to be known upfront.

Some lessons arrive once the box is already open.

The beautiful thing is, this was a small lesson. A harmless one. I can laugh about it. I can even still use the deck (thank you, Google Translate), and now it carries a different kind of meaning.

A reminder.

That not everything that looks good is good.
But also, that doesn’t have to be negative.

It just is.

Neutral. Informative. A moment of clarity.

And maybe next time I find myself building a story around something, whether it’s a person, an opportunity, or even a dress I’ve seen online, I’ll remember this.

My “tarot catfish” moment.

And I’ll come back to myself first.

Because that’s where the real knowing is.

Not in the image. Not in the idea. But in the quiet, grounded place within us that doesn’t need to be convinced.

It just knows.

I’d love to hear from you have you been catfished, maybe not just in dating, but in a life experience, an item or some clothes. Share with me here or on Instagram @thehannahwallace.

Just over a year ago I did my TEDx talk, resharing this blog post of reflections.

Feel so grateful for the experience of it and I’m so proud of it and myself for doing it.

Take a read below here.

Have you watched my TEDx talk I’d love to hear what you thought about it.

This week’s card is from Claire Stones “The divine feminine oracle”deck.

This week’s card feels really aligned with the energy we’re moving through right now.

There’s a sense that something is shifting, but not in a big, dramatic, life-altering way. It feels softer than that. Closer. More subtle. Like things are beginning to come into place soon.

And I think that’s important.

Because after the slower, heavier energy of winter, where things can feel sluggish, where we’ve maybe been pushing, trying, making things happen and not seeing much movement, this is a gentle reminder…

Things are moving.

Spring has that feeling of coming back to life, doesn’t it? Of re-emerging. And with that, there’s this quiet sense of anticipation. Not urgency. Not force. Just a knowing that something is on its way.

But here’s the piece that really landed for me with this card…

It’s not just about what’s coming.

It’s about whether we’re actually ready to receive it.

Because there’s a big difference between wanting something… and having it.

We can spend so much time in the energy of desire, “I want this, I want that, I’m calling this into my life”, but we don’t always stop to ask… what happens if it actually arrives?

How does that feel in your body?

In your nervous system?

Because having something is very different from longing for it. It asks something of us. It asks us to hold it, to be with it, to integrate it into our lives.

And sometimes, if we’re really honest, we don’t quite know what to do with it when it gets here.

So this week feels like an invitation to sit with that.

Not just the vision of what you want, but the reality of it.

If the thing you’ve been calling in was here, right now… what would your life actually look like? How would it feel? How would it fit into your day-to-day? Would it support you… or stretch you in ways you’re not quite ready for?

And even deeper than that, is it truly what you want? Or is it something you’ve picked up along the way, something you feel you should want?

Because sometimes the reason things haven’t quite landed yet… isn’t because they’re not coming.

It’s because we’re not ready to hold them.

Or they’re not actually aligned in the way we thought.

There’s a trust piece here too.

A remembering that things arrive in their own timing, often the right timing, even when it doesn’t feel like it. And this week carries that quiet reassurance that what’s meant for you is closer than you think.

But it’s not about waiting for the big, life-changing moment.

It’s about noticing the small shifts. The little openings. The things that begin to move your life forward in gentle, steady ways.

Because it’s those small things that create the rhythm of our lives.

That’s where the real living is.

So let this week be about softening into that. Preparing, not pushing. Receiving, not chasing.

And gently getting yourself ready, not just to want the thing…

But to actually have it.

I hope everyone has a good week ahead, do share this with anyone who may enjoy this. It really is greatly appreciated.

All my love

Hannah X