TAROTSCOPES | AUGUST 4 - AUGUST 11
VIII OF WANDS
The Eight of Wands is like waking up before dawn, tearing through a door to an open field and making a bee-line for the eastern horizon. It is the first ray of the Sun that kisses the Earth at daybreak. It is the rupture in self-consciousness that projects you into the various fractals of your ravenously wild and passionate soul.
In the Evolutionary School of Astrology, in the tradition of Jeffrey Wolf Green, Pluto represents the soul.* Pluto symbolizes the source of all desire and more specifically, the soul’s desire to evolve. Pluto’s magnetic quality as expressed in our individual and collective charts will compel us into a simultaneous attraction/repulsion dynamic with certain types of situations, people and ideas. As Green explains, the Plutonian journey requires us to engage the source of soul desire by feeding it medicine from its polarity (i.e. if you have Pluto in Scorpio - a compulsive desire to eliminate barriers that prevent personal transcendence, leading to a progressive psychological death and rebirth pattern, then you must learn Taurean lessons - seeing and rooting into the inherent value of simple matter, thereby securing the boundaries of each progressive internal and external rebirth and forming a stable relationship to each new self). Only through confronting the soul desire and integrating its medicine, can the Soul return to “the source”.
While Green delineates Pluto through the various signs as collective, generational essences, he also describes the “four evolutionary conditions” an individual can be born into within its particular Plutonian generation. These conditions can not be determined by looking at a chart, but are rather discovered by experiencing and observing an individual in the flesh, in conversation and interaction with others. I would describe these four conditions (devolved, herd, individuated, and spiritual) as different levels of consciousness. Most of us exist in one of the first three states. The last state, which Green calls “the spiritual state” is for those who exist in this lifetime as enlightened beings or as those in the process of achieving enlightenment (Jesus, Buddha, Lao-Tzu, Mohammed, Moses, etc.). It is possible, of course, to spend a lifetime moving between or hovering over the boundary between two or more of these conditions. If it supports you reflecting this very complicated theory, you might also think of these conditions as ‘dimensions of consciousness.’
In a conversation tonight with dear friend and fellow astrologer, Cameron Allen, we discussed the idea of “the beyond,” or the place we go when we move beyond the boundaries of where we understand consciousness to end. It is the place beyond defeat and surrender. Beyond success. Beyond failure. Beyond any idea we’ve conceived enough to constrain with our minds. In Green’s school of thought, (if I understand it correctly because holy wow is he an intricate thinker) we become one with our soul desire when allow it to absorb us enough for us to see and move beyond it. It is the moment your goal shatters into oblivion and bestows you with infinite possibility. This, is the Eight of Wands.
If we attempt to defeat the system (insert problematic system here; i.e. capitalism, white supremacy, racism, colonialism, etc.) at its own game, we will lose. We need to play without playing the game. We have to feel simultaneously around the bounds and beyond its context. We have to try things we haven’t even thought of. We have to learn how to think within and without the box instead of trying to think outside of it. This doesn’t mean stop living your life. I don’t in any way meant to imply that we spiritually bi-pass the need to leverage our privilege or stop fighting systems of oppression - quite the opposite actually. I mean that we keep engaging our karma (fighting the good fight) while harnessing a crazy curiosity around it. We keep pushing at the weird until we puncture a portal into a new way of navigating. When we are limited in time and space, we have to ask our minds and souls to create multidimensionality around these resources. Does this make sense? If not, then I think you understand. You are touching the edges of the beyond. Stay there long enough, and the Eight of Wands will enlighten you.
*Green, Jeffrey, 1986, Pluto: The Evolutionary Journey of the Soul, Vol. 1, St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications
In full disclosure, I am getting very little sleep and reading/listening to Bayo Akomolafe, Bonnitta Roy and other contemporary pre/post-apocalyptic philosopher scientists and I’m 99% sure I’ve gone mad in the best possible way when all one can think about is the impossibility of ending ecocide and systemic dis-ease.
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.