Where we are this week

The High Priestess

The High Priestess is a deliberate nod from the forces of Divine Love to honor the call we feel to our ancestors, to the rituals of Samhain and other shadow and portal work that comes with late harvest/early winter. Reclaim the wisdom of the rituals that come from your families of origin all the way through to your ancient bloodlines. This is not a time of restriction, but of great introspection, healing, and divine rest. Follow the rituals that most align with the highest truths of the cosmos and the deepest respect for Mother Earth. When we tap into our deep wells of intuitive faith and wisdom we can do literally anything!

Messages from our Guides

The Devil

Our guides are reminding us to recognize our true desires and calling from our addictions and temptations. Much is blamed on the concept of the Devil, but as I wrote shortly after the Insurrection, often the devil is our own willingness to scapegoat others for our lack of impulse control or why we gave into the temptation of our old patterns. Remember that the Devil is usually just the self that we deny in the mirror. The more we accept a life of separation and dis-ease with our own conscience, the more we all “the Devil” into our lives. But when we are connected to our true selves, when we share oneness with the Divine within each other, there is no devil strong enough to tempt us away. Reconciling our relationship with temptation and scapegoating will help us stand in the truth of our desires, accepting responsibility for both the consequences and the rewards of their pursuit.

Messages from Lady Gaia

The Hermit

This is the time of year that many other mammals prepare for hibernation, a natural process of slowing down, resting, and conserving energy for the awakening of spring. As I can attest to, having struggled with Seasonal Affect Depression since I was a teen, honoring the body’s natural desires for light, rest, movement, comfort food, and warm snuggles is exactly what Mother Earth wants us to do right now. Care less about the social significance of events this week and instead prioritize how to replenish your spirit. Process your sorrows, step away from the self-medicating distractions of the outside world and curl up within to know yourself. Just like the earth around us surrenders to its natural processes, so must we – for there we find wisdom.

Messages from our Ancestors

The Sun

Last week our invited ancestors asked us to show some more compassion than what they had ever known. It wasn’t safe for them back then. But now. through us, they are celebrating. For we are stepping into our best selves. Each and every time we shine our light in the world, putting our hearts on the line to follow our dreams, we are praising them. And especially as the veil thins between our ancestors and ourselves, the spirit world and our physical world, a natural process between life and death, death and rebirth, we can hear them cheering us on. We are the deliverance of the promises made to them by the divine. Let our lives this week be a celebration of all who came before us – our gratitude for them and feeling the blessing of their gratitude for us. This fourth major card in a row tells us that our successes, no matter how small, are felt generations back.

Messages from our Future Selves

Knight of Swords (R)

There is perhaps no one who is more familiar with the mental self-defeat-as-noble-sacrifice level of accountability than me. Whenever I’m in crisis, I often look for what I did wrong, blaming myself for the whole problem, even if it was only 1% my fault. We have reached a point in society where we understand that accountability is a good thing, but we misassign responsibility. Either we are demanding that people fall on their swords to satisfy or it is being asked of us. Either way, it is counterproductive to the world we need – for love doesn’t demand we expire to prove ourselves, but rather that we persevere and sincerely integrate the lessons. Look at where we are demanding punishment instead of accountability. Is the ultimate sacrifice really what’s needed or can we just….DO better?

Mother Mary

Two of Wands

If we are to take all the other cards together, we see the obvious outcome of this Mother Mary card – eventually, we’re headed to a showdown between our beliefs and our desires. And at the end of the day, there will have to be a winner of the duel. Either our old beliefs will overpower our desires or our desires will claim victory over our old beliefs. But this card clearly shows that while we have the beginnings of a great plan, we’re trying to inhabit too many dreams at once – part of how we keep ourselves safe. But bold change requires a bold decision – and we’re not getting out of this by straddling two realities at the same time. We must make a choice.

Page of Wands

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with the pages. They’ve been an uncomfortable mirror for my 18-year-old self – so full of life and ambition, undisturbed by the trauma memories, braver than anyone else I have ever known. Well, here she is again, Janet (you) in that idealistic 16-22-year-old self. The one blossoming with possibility and awakening, ready to make their mark on the world. This card shows up this week asking us to spend some time with that version of ourselves, to regain the optimism and “can-do” passion for following our dreams. Not with the shame or nostalgia of “what might have been”, but with the electric threads of spirit coursing through our lives. As we emerged from adolescence, what good qualities from that time still shine through? This is the heart of our courage and passion this week. It is time to recover our lost optimism.

The Chariot (R)

For this week only, we are going to honor all that comes in our path to slow us down. This is not the week for a break-neck pace or barreling down every roadblock we encounter. This week we’re told that those roadblocks and obstacles are there for a reason. Given the astrology of this week, with volatile Mars in retrograde, the more we try to force an issue, the more it’s going to backfire on us, delaying us even further. No, this week is a lesson in patience and honoring the signals we’re getting from the earth. If a door is closing, there is not a crowbar strong enough to pry it open. Take the no and adjust your course.