The arrival of the new moon stamps the moonth with an initiating energy that shifts and develops through a cycle of growth, fullness, and descent. Each moonth I look to the Tarot’s astrological correspondences of the new moon to find 3 cards: a Major indicating our Path through the moonth; a numbered Minor showing what we are passing through and practice to meet it; and a court/people card to serve as a role model for us to follow. These cards offer guidance for soul tending, prompts for personal/spiritual practice, and creating a moonthly reading. The reading can be done any time, but ideally between the new and full moons. Revisit the cards you pull periodically up until the next lunation to gain new insight as the light changes.

PATH

This moonth we are invited to walk the path and receive the wisdom of what is most commonly named as The Hierophant, the Major Arcana’s 5th card associated with Sunday’s new moon arriving in the astrological sign of Taurus (exact at 3:30 pm ET, time zone converter).

Hierophants are teachers of, and conduits for, the Greater Than.

In the earliest Tarots and the iconic Rider Waiter Smith, the Hierophant’s central figure is a Pope of the Catholic Church who, since St. Peter in the first century CE, has led the institution upholding its doctrines and teachings.

The Shining Tribe Tarot, however, invites us into a more ancient understanding of this archetype. The 5th Major Arcana card is renamed Tradition and gives us an image without human figures but rather a circle of rocks.

Rachel Pollack, the deck creator, names the rocks as embodied Spirits who meet to uphold the world. She based the image on real rocks she saw at the edge of the Dead Sea but thought her seeing of Spirits within them as a fantasy.

In my contemplation of the card, I am called to think back millions of years ago to the time before institutions and writing existed, to the time when our furthest back ancestors had only the Earth as their teacher of the Greater Than.

The seasons, the plants, the animals, and, yes, the rocks all must have been their Hierophants. Without written ways to pass on knowledge between people and generations I imagine them discovering anew the power of the Earth and the Greater Than. Over and over again they approached life with new eyes and fresh awe.

They perceived differently than we moderns. Perhaps with their awe attuned eyes they always saw the Spirit in the Earth, knew Earth as full of Spirit. Then Rachel’s vision of Tradition’s council of rocks gathered to protect the Earth is true, not a fantasy.

With Tradition as our Hierophant, the Earth is the ultimate teacher and conduit for the Greater Than.

Adhering to this understanding may take us outside of established religious traditions—or not. We might stay within a tradition and bring the Earth perspective into it. In this way we would be returning a tradition to its origins as so many—all if you go back far enough, I would guess—grew from the earthly. And the mystical strains of traditions can offer us back earth-honoring practices preserved through the ages. When we tend these connections, we invoke the circle at the center of the Tradition card.

If we just can’t stay within our traditions—I myself have tried and failed—then the Earth is a wonderful Hierophant. The Earth is a loving guide giving us the abundance of life, but Earth is also a teacher of limits. Right now, we are being offered intense lessons about limits to our modern lifestyles through the chaos of a changing climate, which we experience with our own eyes and in the places where we live. Flood and fire, tornado and drought are prophets to which we are called to answer.

How can we answer these prophets? How can we respond to the Earth?

We don’t do it alone.

PASSAGE AND PRACTICE

This moon comes in the place of the astrological Wheel of the Year associated with the Five of Pentacles. In the iconic Rider Waite Smith image, two figures in tattered clothes, one using crutches trudge through the snow outside an opulent church. Societal institutions have failed them, offer no relief. At a first glance, this appears to be one of the bleakest cards in the Tarot pack.

But the antidote to the bleakness is right there in the image. Working with clients who confront this card, they often note that the people are not alone. They have each other. Mainstream institutions have failed them, but they are together. They are in solidarity with each other.

And the Shining Tribe Tarot extends the solidarity to deeper/higher levels. The Tribe’s Five of Stones invites us into awareness of our connection to the Greater Than.

The image shows five spirits in a cave that can be called upon for healing, for guidance, for protection. The triangle at heart level of the central figure is a symbol of Venus, letting us know these spirits come to offer loving support. We are not alone in our difficulty. Helpers from the other realms—the ancestors, the Divine, nature spirits, or another name depending on your beliefs—gather around us especially when we are in distress. We are invited to open our hearts to receive their love and let it flow through our hands into the world.

To support that heart-opening and hand-flowing at this time of year (spring here in the Northern Hemisphere), you need only go outside and observe the unfolding of green and the pushing of flowers’ color through the dark soil. Let yourself be with the miracle of this creation of Something out of Nothing. Then you might find your way to a rock—large or small, it doesn’t matter—and touch its steady presence. Let your imagination and trust in the Greater Than open your mind to the spirit within the stone and allow its healing energy to enter you.

POSTURE: OUR ROLE MODEL OF THE MONTH

In our first two guide cards, we’ve had to find an antidote to problems presented in the Rider Waite Smith, but Pixie Smith’s King of Pentacles offers me just delight. When I look at the figure’s cloak and arms I can’t tell where they end and the greenery of the world begins. This King is part of the natural world not set aside or over this Whole in which we exist.

This King shows gives us an image of how to be Kin. (Writing these musings for you was the first time I recognized Kin is right there in the word King!)

No simple definition can convey the depths of the meaning of kinship. We who have been raised in systems and institutions of separation and domination need to live our way into meeting kinship and coming to know its meaning over time.

I do have a slim volume called Planet, first in series of exploring Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations edited by Gavin van Horn, Robin Wall Kimmer, and John Hausdoffer where they begin by naming what is in relationship in kinship—you, me, the bird, the bridge, the mountain—but move then to recognize that this gathering of what we name with nouns is a gathering of relations who are relating to each other. Naming of the parts, even showing their connection, is not the fullness of kinship so they conclude:

Earth—and everything within it, including all that creates what we call earth—is a verb. All is in motion. All is relating.

This King of Pentacles—who we might rename as the Kin of Earth—is relating and in relation to other beings and all the processes that connect us. I use the word Whole often and these musings have me understanding more of what the Whole means.

To be a Kin of Earth means not being in dominion over the planet and our fellow creatures, not even saving them, but being in connection with and aligning our actions with what is happening, with letting ourselves fall into the earth and its wisdom to flow through us.

Invited to be Kin of Earth, we practice this way of being. Almost certainly we will fail more than once, but to keep at this practice is to keep in relationship and that is a flow that tends life.

To end I offer what I have called a poem but that might be a prayer and was inspired by a discussion of saying the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of City Council meetings here in Easthampton where I Iive.

Pledge of Allegiance

I pledge allegiance to the planet

and to the people who call it home

alongside fellow creatures, plants, and stone.

We kin, an indivisible Whole,

seek life and love—

just love—

for all.

Reflection Questions / Reading of the Moonth

These questions are offered for reflection and to spark practice throughout the moonth. Pulling Tarot and oracle cards in connection to these questions is appropriate, but not absolutely necessary. You might carry a question with you on a walk for example and observe what is happening in the natural world as a way to find insight into the answer to the question. You might carry cards pulled, too, and see what they want to interact with in the world.

TRADITION: What ancient wisdom does the earth want to speak through me this moonth? (This is a version of a question asked by cultural historian, Catholic priest, and gaialogian Thomas Berry,)

CONDUIT: How can I respond to bring this message of ancient earth wisdom into the world?

KINSHIP: How will my answering the call to respond bring me into greater understanding of what it means to be kin within the Whole?

I do offer this as an e-reading in my collaborative initiative format for $32. Sign up with Pay Pal or contact me about sending a check. When I receive notification, I’ll be in touch to let you know about when to expect to receive your reading by email. I generally have openings to do these readings on Mondays and Saturdays.