Maybe it’s just me, but Thanksgiving felt a bit devoid of actual joy this year. While I loved having time with family, eating marvelous food, and kicking off the holiday season, in a lot of ways it just felt like a performance. That I was going through the motions of a happy Thanksgiving. Perhaps because I have become even more aware of how unjust the holiday is to indigenous tribes, I feel more called to honor this as a day of mourning rather than a celebration. Perhaps too, it’s the grief. Or the general ennui about yet another holiday under COVID.
It seemed everywhere I looked last week there was confirmation of the advice shared last week about setting boundaries and only wading into the battles that were worth having. Too many people were in positions where they had to hide who they really are. Some were in homes that have always been abusive to them, others were with families who endorse violent despots and feeble liars and are enabling the same in their children. And while most of us found pockets of pleasant reverie – the taste of grandma’s bread, the rituals of the feast – it wasn’t the most emotionally satisfying of weekends for some.
This week we are ready to take action, thoughtful, thorough action. We’re ready to walk the walk instead of just talking the talk about our dreams. This eclipse season has set off a firestorm of transformation within. And even though the energies have felt heavy of late, that doesn’t mean extraordinary change isn’t taking place. In fact, the more pressure we feel, the more we finally choose the authentic way out, which is to go through the pain, the questioning, the uncertainty, to be stripped of the parts of us that no longer serve and to finally emerge, on the other side a new person.
My own cards this week have been echoing a grand new adventure of self that I will be taking. Gone is the shadow of victimhood that hung over me all the time. While I had reminders of it this weekend, I feel like I can let go of some of the wounds – they don’t define me anymore. This is the adventure that we’re invited to take, to surrender to the change the universe has in store. This week’s reading from the Dreams of Gaia Tarot by Ravynne Phelan shows us that the time is right to take the plunge into new knowledge and a new relationship with duality.
See more below…
Where we are this week
8 of Fire
Last week was a bit of a drag. With news about the Omicron variant shutting down travel in some parts of the world and the US holiday performance of Thanksgiving. Even Sagittarians, the happy-go-lucky partiers of the zodiac were subdued last week. But this week we find a renewed energy and vigor for transformation. We’re tired of just talking about what we’re going to do to improve our lives, we’re ready to go do the thing that can change our lives. Maybe it’s finally coming up with a meal plan to incorporate more veggies, maybe it’s a new job in a field that gives you a sense of purpose. Whatever it is, the fuel and the fire are there to not just dream it but to be it. And with the new moon in Sagittarius coming up at the end of the week, it’s even more important for us to capture this fiery breath of inspiration while the time is right.
Transformative Action
Messages from our Guides
7 of Water (R)
We have a choice with our nature. We could go with the flow of where the universe is taking us or we could choose to resist – to be like a stone wall trying to hold back the force of the sea. But eventually, nature will win. Eventually, nature will force change upon us. Normally, we would see these themes with the Tower card, but here, it is with this danger who flows harmoniously with water life around her. Reversed, our guides are telling us, “That which does not bend, will eventually break.” Does it take hurricane-force rains for us to finally surrender to the call of our higher nature?
Resistance is Futile
Messages from Lady Gaia
3 of Air
This week Lady Gaia challenges us to open our minds a little. Engage in the very Sagittarian energy of absorbing and processing new knowledge. Sagittarians have a lust for knowledge and this card invites the same earnest relationship with learning. Let go of the attachments we have to old stories about education. There are no tests or homework, just the joy of exploring new intellectual horizons. What lights up the imagination when we think of improving lives here on Earth? What are we most drawn to when we think of how we want to create a better world? For me, I’ve been drawn to improving food systems and I crave learning more so I can help the organizations I work with. Others might be drawn to astronomy or unlocking past mysteries about the origins of life. The sciences and metaphysical arts are both indicated here. What sort of possibilities could we unlock by just taking the time to learn more?
Expand your mind.
Messages from our Ancestors
2 of Air
Our ancestors come today with advice about the difference between duality and polarity. Duality assumes that everything has an opposite, competing force. The duality of good vs. evil for example. In fact, this seems to be how the world works, correct? Opposing forces, each vying for dominance. However, that is the limited choice that patriarchy forces upon, a binary yes/no code to categorize and thus control whatever is other. But polarity is about two forces that are working as simply different expressions of the whole. This is, for example, how I see gender – as a sphere where each of the poles acts as complementary and yet extreme expressions of the whole. They are opposite, but not truly opposed. They are complements of each other – one is just as necessary as the other. The world lives because of the synergetic tension held in these two expressions and all the gloriously vibrant life in between. So too our ancestors remind us to stop viewing the other from a dualistic, competitive point of view – instead, seek to harmonize, magnetize, resonate with the other in a deeper symphonic connection.
Duality vs. Polarity
Messages from our Future Selves
11 of Fire (R)
And in the dualistic/polarity tone from above, we have this card, which is neither positive nor negative. It just….is. Look, let me be candid, for me this is almost entirely about rethinking, reconsidering our insistence on enforcing and expecting a gender binary. The advice applies both to society and to us individually. We need to thoroughly re-examine our relationship to gender. How does it influence us? How does it influence our willingness to help others? Our treatment of survivors? our feelings when a friend or family member comes out as trans and has new pronouns to learn? Why are we so deeply attached to assumptions about gender? After all, those same assumptions have been used to subjugate and demean in this dualistic, paternalistic desire for dominance. Our future selves are asking us to draw our attention to the he/she/they/ze divides in our lives – are they really necessary and why?
Explore the space between Masculine & Feminine
Message from Mother Mary
4 of Air
Mother Mary this week tells us that the way we get from a place of duality to one of synergy is to be like the scientist and watch for patterns in the grid of how our lives play out. In particular, inquiring about our routines and our expectations will be very helpful this week. For example, gently questioning why I feel the need to put on lipstick and make-up each day. Who I am I doing that for? Me or them? How do those assumptions invade our everyday lives? There’s no need to judge, just observe, watch, notice how these patterns show up for us and how we perpetuate them for others
Watch the patterns emerge.
Extra Card
Queen of Earth
We have another beautiful hitchhiker on board this week. The Queen of Earth is a reminder to be the embodiment of home and hearth this holiday season. We’ve already recognized what it is to feel unwelcome or unsafe, so how can we transform that experience into something warm and understanding instead? What can we do or share to help others feel safe, loved, comforted this holiday season. We are in desperate need of holiday warmth during this existentially dismal year.
Embodiment of safe haven.
Final advice:
6 of Wands
Stay focused when navigating internal conflict
Ace of Air (r)
Don’t hang on to outdated ideas.
This is more of a time of action than contemplation. This isn’t about perfecting the ideas we have; rather, we are urged to take action, to do something that will honor our truest selves. We still have boundaries we need to consider, but our gut tells us that now is the perfect moment. We need to strike while the iron is still hot. Forces of competition and conflict may try to interfere, but pay them no mind, because if our eye is on transformation instead of domination, our actions are blessed and worthy no matter the outcome. However, if we are determined to hold on to old paradigms of dualistic dominance, our efforts will fluster and frustrate. We can no longer put our energy to holding up the old.
Blessing:
May the energy of this full solar eclipse in Sagittarius ignite a passion for knowledge that leads us to expansive horizons. May we find a way to work with the extremes we are offered and transform them into synergetic connections of wholeness. May we hesitate no longer – for the promises of emotional fulfillment are available to all of us. And may the spirit of the holidays open our hearts and create safe havens of community and connection.
I am with you always in love π
So may it be.
Specializing in readings for LGBTQ+, non-monogamous and “it’s complicated” situations
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I offer A VARIETY OF READINGS & REIKI SESSIONS that can:
- Reboot relationship(s)
- Check-in with the body’s chakras
- Uncover hidden talent & treasure
- Clear emotional blockages
- Channel messages of Divine Love
- Step up as a leader
- Harmonize past lives
La Madonna Rosa 
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