TAROTSCOPES | MAY 21 - MAY 27
XI | STRENGTH
This week offers us some sensuous helpful aspects, plentiful moments to choose (it is Gemini season after all!) and a couple of harsh separations. Tuesday’s sextile between Mercury and Neptune pulls a poetic effervescence into this week that picks up the pace of our planting when the Sun trines Mars Wednesday. Later this week, our seeds grow deeper roots as Mercury trines Pluto, adding power to whatever starting point we’re drawing up in our lives. On Friday, we’re gifted a flood of inspirational H2O to help it grow as Jupiter in Scorpio makes his second of three trines to Neptune (think back to the first pass December 2nd 2017), offering insight that encourages our intentions. Finally, Venus in Cancer opposes Saturn in Capricorn, tides that pull our love away or ground it in some much needed realism. We might need to kill our current darlings to get us where we want to go. While a pruning can hurt, trust that the process prepares this tree to thrive in the heaviest of weather. With such a set of transits we’re in prime position to layout our own secret gardens.
Planning takes work, perhaps the hardest of which is finding the time to do it. Like a homing device, the Strength card is the warmth that spreads throughout our skin when we know it’s time and we actually heed the ticking of the clock. Occasionally this warmth feels like the burn from having stayed out too long. I don’t mean “out” in a physical sense, though it might manifest that way. I mean too busy to be in ourselves. I mean when we’ve slept at ego’s place and neglected the bed of the soul. I mean out of mind and out of body. I mean away from our own fire that needs tenderness and tending, the creative self that burns streaks of color across our inner landscapes, broadening the horizon for our simplest self. Out as in the place we’ve gone to that stops us from paying attention to our internal clocks. The one that tells us when to close our eyes or to open them. To breathe in great big gulps of fresh air or to hold the wind in our lungs.
Homing is the souls work. “Going home does not necessarily cost money. It costs time. It costs a strong act of will to say 'I am going' and mean it."* This is the will that Strength ushers in for us. For some, homing is climbing a hill for the challenge. Or the view. Or the sensation of freedom sung by the space we savor at the summit. For others, homing is cooking a quiche. Reading in the wee hours. Picking rosemary in the garden. Spending time with loves who nourish and away from those that need things from us. Homing is pouring a glass of water or gazing out the window at nothing in particular. Homing is coming home and slumping on the first chair you usually pass by when you walk through the door. It is collapsing, still in your coat and shoes. Homing is taking off your socks and stretching your toes. It is writing, drawing, dressing up in drag or taking it off. It is listening to the hum of the highway and the drip of the leaky faucet. Homing is putting away your laundry, folded clean cut like diamonds tucked into your dresser. Homing is not folding it; leaving it strewn across your room like a sea of nasturtiums in the spring, reckless, directionless, euphoric in their tangled mess of touching everything they can because what a joy it is to touch! However you find it, homing is paying attention to the world and the way you stir yourself into it. Perhaps slow, muscles burning against the resistance it takes to make that perfect spiral in the batter. Or quick beautiful beats that bring bubbles to the surface.
This week, garner the strength to love yourself despite all odds. The strength to put down the stress and serve yourself the softness of home. Summon the stamina to ground into holding your ground. To lean down and reach for the dirt beneath your feet and feel how fertile you are. The strength to move more slowly. The strength to see yourself from inside out and be held in your opening. Pay attention to the choices you’re given and tend the fire of your wholehearted decisions. Be open to change as outcomes throw unlikely ingredients into your batter. Don’t worry about being a bust - you couldn’t possibly make it taste any better as long as it’s got a good dose of love poured into your own life-force.
*Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women who Run with the Wolves
WHAT EVEN IS A TAROTSCOPE? We often think of horoscopes as predictions that are specific to each astrological sign. In Ancient Greek, the term horoscope simply means "I watch the hour." To astrologers today, a horoscope is a chart that maps the planetary bodies in the sky. From this chart, we derive meaning that can influence how we work with energy. Regardless of our unique individual charts, we are ALL working with the same energy from above. Each week, I examine this energy, pull a tarot card and write a guided meditation with the collective in mind. My tarotscopes are meant to be read as inspiration. Please note that because we are all operating with our individual energy, some elements will resonate more than others. Take what you like and leave the rest. Tarotscopes are offered freely in an effort to cultivate collective healing. I am always grateful for your support in sharing this work with anyone you think it might help. If you are inspired or find support here, please consider making a donation to help sustain these weekly offerings.