Where we are this week

The Tower

If you’ve been here for any length of time, you know that I ain’t afraid of no tower card. In fact, it’s central to most of what I do. Even for someone as invested in public policy systems as I am, even I recognize and embrace the need to let go of those systems, to vacate a tower before it falls. That is what is happening for us this week. In fact, we’ve had a lot of the Tower card in these readings this year – a welcome surprise for me, but a testament to how difficult the year had been for everyone else. This card serves as a warning that we now need to vacate the systems we once blindly relied on. They were built for a different time and place than where we are now and what we need as a society. If you feel that pin-prickling hair-standing-on-the-back-of-your-neck sensation to “get out” – this is our sign to listen to that instinct. Now. The tower is coming down with or without our permission or preparation.

Messages from our Guides

King of Swords (R)

As if to answer the next natural question, “which systems are in danger”, the guides deliver us the King of Swords reversed. The cold, calculating dagger of cruelty as control is dying and no longer holds the sway it once did. We no longer have to fit into terse molds of masculinity and femininity. We no longer have to hide our differences or be removed from society for our divergence. Gone is the era of the intellectually wounded, coercively insidious tactics of patriarchy. They are being revealed for what they are and the fireworks will be spectacularly to behold. Just remember that as these power structures die away, we must replace them with more nurturing, transparent, and accountable forms of leadership. Are we up to the task?

Messages from Lady Gaia

Four of Swords

Lady Gaia is doing all she can to remind us to rest during this season. No matter how brilliant our ideas, or how clear our leadership channel is, we are still human beings living a human existence. We still need rest, replenishment, and integration to slay our foes of patriarchy. And all of this work is hard. This is a more forceful warning than the usual “you should think about resting”. This is “rest now before I have to force you with illness or injury”. So, if we’re serious about our partnership with Mother Earth, we need to surrender to our physical natures.

Messages from our Ancestors

Seven of Swords

Where last week our ancestors spoke to us of playfulness and healing the inner child, this week we are confronted squarely with the injustice of betrayals within our lineage. That doesn’t just mean those who were oppressed and prevented from exercising the important freedoms we have today. It’s also about rooting out those systemic loyalties that cause us to steal others’ cultures and ideas, practices, and customs as our own. How are we perpetuating the same colonizer ideas and how are we resisting doing our own work to overcome those ancient, loyalties of injustice.

Messages from our Future Selves

Knight of Pentacles

Knights are the action-oriented, self-proclaimed saviors of the deck. They are ride-or-die for their dreams, acting in alignment with their element/suit. Here, the Knight of Pentacles knows precisely what needs to be done. The knight has been through battle before and has learned a thing or two. They apply their lived experience to every task, applying not just their book knowledge (Air) and their passion (fire), but pouring the painful lessons (cups) into applied action. They have a plan, and they’re ready to engage in every obstacle that comes their way. Our future selves assure us that we are resourcing precisely what we need to make our dreams a reality. Use this time wisely so we are at our best when we’re called into action. It will be sooner rather than later.

Mother Mary

Two of Wands

We are finally reaching a space of synergy. Not only do we have the spark of a good idea, but we’ve somehow managed to convince the people around us to believe in it too. For me, this card this week shows that when we show up with authenticity, we are bound to start calling in others who are similar, who see the same things, and who want the same things as us. We are building not just strong relationships and business partnerships, but we are forging new communities and identities that demonstrate who we are beyond the two-dimensional application of labels. We each have a vision and magnetize others to follow our lead. Mary praises us as one of our most faithful believers.

Four of cups (R)

This is the “boredom and discontent” card. Or the “you always love what you want ’til you’ve got it” type of disappointment. The past regrets and broken promises of others don’t have to sour our entire vision for the future. In the undercurrent this week we are advised that old memories, disappointed hopes, and fractured promises don’t have to carry bitterness unless we choose it to. It doesn’t negate how those things hurt us, how those people let us down. But we don’t have to add bitterness to the poisons of the past. We can instead recognize that those hurts taught us that we ARE worth more than how we were treated. They taught us the value of our own self-love. And above all, they never have to have power over us again. Let go of grudges and regrets before they poison the rewards on the horizon.

The Magician

Last week we were advised to focus on our own magic instead of emulating the magic of others. It isn’t that the magic others possess isn’t informative or helpful, but none of us can or should carry the talents of another. We have our own path to walk, journey to interpret, and skills to wield. It is only when we are standing fully in our own power that we will genuinely find liberation and ascension into those higher realms of understanding and relationship with each other. An ongoing theme in my readings is the emotional integrity of rising in our own authenticity. So, instead of listening to what every Instagram guru tells us to do, instead of borrowing from someone else’s good idea, let’s instead focus on supporting each other as we rise in our own power, to do our own thing. Because when we are one with the universe we realize how much each person’s magic matters.