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 for the new moon to find 3 Tarot cards (a Major showing us the path, a numbered Minor showing us our passage and practice, and a court/people card showing us the posture to take on the path) to guide musings on soul tending, selection of prompts for personal/spiritual practice, and creation of 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.

I once had a housemate with an otherworldly coffee maker. Well, it made otherworldly sounds. I’d hear the extraordinary coming from the most ordinary appliance. The gurgles of water passing through the filter gave way to long notes like a moan but with a twist of sound that turned toward elation. A whole range of feelings flowed from those few sounds.

Whale song filled my kitchen.

This is a season and time for whale song to guide us to our depths and invite us then to surface.

In March we are not in winter but not yet arrived in spring. There can be storms but also sudden days of sun and where I live that means mud, that messy mix of earth and water. Our hearts may rise one day like the whale surfacing to play, but the next slip back into the watery deep called by a song that holds longings and emotions too complex to be easily described. We are between seasons, diving and rising like whales to move with the shifting currents.

In Algonquin tradition, the divine being Glooscap breaks the hold of Winter by riding a whale to reach the Summer and bring her back to warm the lands of His people. We might think of March as that time when He journeyed to Summer and was not yet returned.

Whale is a good guide to this strange season where winter and spring do a messy push and pull.

And a whale appears on Tarot Roots of Asia’s 10 of Cups, the card for this decan’s passage.

In the Tarot tradition, the 10 of Cups indicates simple pleasures and emotional connection, inviting us to connect to the family that nurtures us (biological and/or chosen). The meaning is not complicated and it’s hard to find a challenging aspect. But the whale in the Tarot Roots of Asia 10 of Cups brings an added layer of, yes, depth where, along with enjoying the 10 of Cups’ gifts, we also acknowledge what is below the happiness or obscured by the simplicity of a pleasant image.

Our reality is not simple.

We are a world at war on the surface, hot and hateful and spreading. We in the United States, along with Israel, are the instigators. The bombs are not falling on us–though we are most often their makers–but they are falling in fury over the Middle East. If we seek to evade this reality, any happiness we experience will be a thin skin over spoiled fruit. The feelings we push down too deep will fester and grow. They could be building into a sudden storm that will rise to sink us into depths too dark and deep to swim or find our way back to the surface.

This acknowledgement of true feelings and reality is vital to walking this moonth’s path of The Moon where light shifts constantly, our intuition is the best guide, and all flows with endless waters of emotions. This is not just an esoteric correspondence but a physical reality.

Our bodies are composed of 55% to 78% water with the same salinity as the ocean. The moon awakens within us our inner seas and rivers, activates our puddle parts slicked with rainbows of oil. And these depth waters are a necessary part of filling that womb in which the new is gestating below the chaos at the surface.

The NOs! we are keening in grief and shouting in rage at protests against the cruelty of our times make the womb waters of what we seek to say YES! to. The full vision of our collective YES! may not be truly clear right now. It has yet to rise fully to the surface but like the mess and mud of spring this may just be part of the process.

This moon of the Moon is a good time to keep dreaming the YES! Let yourself catch glimpses of it in your longings for peace, in the consolation of sun after rain, in your admiration for how people are standing up for each other and in the new still small and rickety but real systems of care we are creating to take the place of the institutions that fail.

These are the YESs we desire to bring to the surface from out of the depths of so much water.

How can we do this lifting? Our model for path walking this moonth is the Queen of Wands who calls in fire, new energy, and focused vision.

Queens of Wands channel their energy and vision into bringing forth positive relations, projects, and/or works of art that uplift the people. These Queens are not swamped by the waters but stand on top of them to create the new.

On the astrological Wheel of Year of Tarot correspondences, the Queen of Wands is a bridge between one year and the next. They guide us through these last few days of the whole astrological year, and usher us into the new one beginning with the Spring Equinox on March 20th. The Queen of Wands then rules with the Emperor through the first weeks of the new astrological year and the tipping toward greater light as the days lengthen.

In the Dark Goddess Tarot, Cerridwen, the Welsh Goddess of Transformation, takes the place of the Queen of Wands. Deck creator Ellen Lorenzi-Prince gives Cerridwen’s advice to us as: Craft anew with the bones of the old.

These times we live in are stripping our old lives down to the bone, attuning us to strange new songs. The soul work of now is not to walk away from this challenging truth, but instead to transform what remains into new ways of being and structures that are equitable, just, sustainable, and, yes, joyful.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS / READING FOR 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.

DEPTHS: What is being called from my depths?

SURFACE: How can I bring it to the surface?

EMERGENCE: What can come forth if I shine a light on what’s surfacing?

I do offer this as an e-reading in my collaborative intuitive format for $32. Sign up with Pay Pal or email 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.