The height of this moonth’s cycle comes with the full moon arriving on Wednesday, November 5th (exact at 8:20 am ET, time zone converter), and offers a revelation about how the lunar energies initiated on the October 21st new moon are developing. The new moon, guided by its association with the Shadow Woman of Justice, invited us to listen in the dark for Justice’s lessons. Out of a full moon revelation about this developing energy, we are issued an invitation to return a gift to the world in the final weeks of the lunar cycle.

The exact moment of the moon’s fullness comes in the sign of Taurus associated with the Tarot’s Hierophant, who are teachers of, and conduits for, the Greater Than. In a less common astro-Tarot alignment the Major Arcana cards associated with the Justice new and Hierophant full moons are both ruled by the planet Venus, a representation of the Great Mother that we see in the Empress card.

From both the light and the dark the Great Mother is calling our attention so we can commune with her shifting aspects. She is the Compassionate One who answers the prayers of her people. As culture-spanning figures like the Europe’s Black Madonna, Mexico’s Guadalupe-Tonantzin, and Ireland’s Brigid who is Goddess and Saint, She has tricked her way into patriarchal institutions to remain with her people in their times of greatest need. She is constant in her flow of love.

She is also Kali, the Hindu destroyer of time and slayer of demons who wears a necklace of skulls. Even death is powerless before her; she is the great transformer of all. And She is the Furies, the Greek goddesses of retribution and vengeance who avenge crimes against the natural order and especially violations against the sanctity of the family. She is wild with the fullness of her power to create Life and bring Death and to defend that which is sacred to Her.

She exists in all cultures and traditions. Sometimes very visible and honored. Sometimes more hidden and needing to be sought out.

Which aspect of the Great Mother calls to you in these full moon nights? Use the full moon light to find Her and then you are invited to create time and space to be with Her wisdom, to hear Her charge, to know Her love. Then go forth from the full light bringing Her forward from out of your own life.

To encourage a full moon revelation as we journey through this moonthly cycle, you are invited to one, some, or all of these practices:

• Moon bathe by sitting or lying under a window or outside on the ground during these nights of shining. Let go of your thoughts and soak in the light.
• Take out any reading or your reflections from the new moon and look at them in a new light. How does your understanding of the cards shift now that time has passed and light has shifted? (If you haven’t done a reading yet, no problem, just do it now under the light of the full moon. You can try the one from the new moon).
• Bring out your Justice and Hierophant cards from your Tarot deck and connect them to your new moon reading / reflections. You could place/imagine these cards on either side of your reading or above and below, and then look at how they add meaning into the story your original cards offered you. To gather wisdom from this moonth’s special Great Mother alignment, take out your Empress card and place it over the reading. Are the cards and your actions in line with the guidance and wisdom of the Great Mother?

When you are done, remember to offer gratitude for what you have received. Consider what gift you now want to return to the world. Pulling a card for guidance on the gift is always a fine thing to do. In the coming weeks and before the moon returns to dark around November 15th offer your gift to the world.

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.

The Soul Tending Path of Justice

Justice seems so far away, obscured by terror, purposely ignored, yet as the solar year turns, we have arrived at the lunar gateway associated with the Tarot’s Justice card (exact new moon moment is Tuesday, the 21st at 8:25 am ET, time zone converter). Justice calls to be invoked, renewed, established.

Crying out for Justice

Justice we call you into the center of our hearts, our minds, our spirits.

May the fire of your being inspire us to believe your beauty can shine forth in our world.

May the flow of your being purify and release us from wounds that come from the places where You are violated.

May the breath of your being pass through us and form on the lips of all your words of wisdom.

May the endurance of your being aid us to persist in serving You.

May we hear your truth. May we know your balance. May we gather your wisdom.

Justice, guide our thoughts, words, and actions.

In 2017 I explored facets of Justice in the Faces and Spaces of Justice series. Right relationship between all beings; the role we can play in the renewal of Justice; the importance of Love; and the necessity of Justice’s presence in both the halls of power and community settings were vital themes.

Out of that series and due to the happenings of our times, I have returned over and over again to the Shadow Woman of Justice from Rachel Pollack’s Shining Tribe Tarot.

In 2017, I wrote: When Justice is not honored in the public sphere, she finds sanctuary in the cave.

Before humans built sites of worship, they entered caves as places to connect with and honor the sacred. Our ancestors experienced caves as the origin place of the Gods and Goddesses or the world itself, a passageway into otherworldly spaces, a place to practice divination and ritual, or a burial site. Suggested by its rounded darkness and these associations with life, death, and mystery, the cave is an earthly womb offering regeneration for those who dare to give themselves to its darkness.

In the darkness, Shadow Woman – and all of those who dare to follow her teachings – meets her losses, sees the limits to her power, comes to understand what has thrown her out of balance. In the darkness of the cave she gains this gift of greater self-knowledge. In the darkness of the cave she begins the process of regeneration.

I see the Shadow Woman of Justice, who having given herself completely to the cave’s sacred energy, is beginning her return to the world. She stands at the threshold and has placed her two pans just beyond the cave’s entrance. She’s been casting stones – a kind of divination – to find the right time for her emergence. Now that there are a matching number of stones in each pan, the time is near.

In these last few years of war and authoritarianism on the rise, I am not sure where Shadow Woman is. I can imagine she has receded further back into the cave. Not to desert us but to protect Herself because we are not yet able to. In the US, for example, we are collectively grappling with a spell that wants to keep us from exercising our powers of protection.

If we are to partner with Her, we must follow Her into the darkness. It’s no easy thing to do. In our darkness now, there is terror that is not over but keeps coming. In the darkness there is wild, uncontrollable grief that is absolutely dangerous.

But in the dark, we connect with different powers: the dark powers we most need in these times of breakdown. And at this time of year, I think especially of our beloved dead and ancestors. They may have messages for us about how to defend Justice if we would but listen. They know what they know from their victories defending Justice and from lessons learned from their failures. They know Shadow Woman of Justice because She is there with them in the dark.

Our passage card of the moonth points us into the dark to listen to these wise ones.

Passage and Practice: The Four of Swords

This moon passes through the last third of Justice’s place on the Wheel of the Year, which could be said to be its most developed aspect and associated with the Tarot’s Four of Swords.

In the iconic Rider Waite Smith image, this passage, at first glance, seems to indicate a time of inaction. But there is something mysterious about the central figure in the image. Is the Knight shown, a person sleeping or are we seeing a sarcophagus representing the dead buried within?

Whether living or dead, the hands are actively held up in prayer position rather than resting on the figure’s chest. Reexamining this image, we find dynamic rather than passive action.

As a living being, the Four of Swords Knight is engaged in meditation or prayer to clear and concentrate the mind and invites us to do the same. The Knight has stepped out of the everyday world for these meditations, seeking out a sacred place to support a connection to their highest/deepest values such as Justice. After centering themselves, Knights will be better able to resist the spell that the noisy, political world would cast as it attempts to disrupt their focus on serving Justice. As one dedicated to a quest and cause, this meditative pause represents a temporary time of renewal to gather energy for the work ahead.

Meditation practices scheduled into your day (even 5 minutes helps) or week (can you find a block of time to step out of the busyness of life?) are especially beneficial for moving through this moonth’s passage. This could be as simple as closing your eyes, focusing on your breath, and reminding yourself of the values you seek to uphold. When you open your eyes, you will be more centered in what is most important.

It is also possible that this Knight is an effigy of an ancient ancestor. Perhaps the ancestor prays for us, the living. This moon cycle that goes up to November 20th brings us through the cross cultural days of ancestor connection. First there is Samhain, the Celtic New Year on October 31st when the veil between the worlds is said to be thinnest. Then November’s first days bring Mexican Day of the Dead traditions, Catholic masses for All Saints and Soul Days, and secular commemorations on Veterans Day. I mark 12 Days of the Dead at this time.

In this time of lengthening nights, we can reach out to our beloved dead and ancestors with love. We may put a lot of effort into our reaching rituals, in our sending of love. But the Four of Swords as a passage of Justice reminds us to balance our reaching with receiving. Our ancestors can be active in their support of us. They may be sending just what we need to know to move in a positive direction out of these testing times. Perhaps they are praying for us and we need to open our hearts to receive this loving support.

Posture for Path Walking: King of Cups (known as the Mystic of Vials in the Numinous Tarot)

The King of Cups shows us how to move through this passage on the path of Justice. These masters of the element of water have come into a strong relationship with their emotions. Not suppressing them but letting them flow and riding the emotions that arise, both storm and quiet. This emotional balance supports the King’s ability to imagine and believe in possibilities beyond rational proof, what has not yet come into existence, or what lies waiting in the past to be reclaimed. This King holds on to and shares out this vision of a just and generative world. Even when the world’s realities seem to tip far away from the vision, this King persists in working for the good of the Whole in creative and loving ways.

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.

JUSTICE: What contribution can I make to the renewal of Justice during this moonth?

SPELL BREAKING: What spell do I need to break to make my contribution?

POSSIBILITY: What possibility—perhaps only imagined before—can I make real as I break the spell on the path of Justice?

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

Before the moon is made new on Tuesday, October 21 at 8:25 am pm ET (time zone converter), it returns to the place on the astrological Wheel where it began its moonthly journey. The energy gathered through the moonth now flows away into moonless nights. What will you send with this energy to be transformed in the dark?

The moonth we are concluding began and now ends in Virgo which corresponds to the Tarot’s Hermit card. In the Dark Goddess Tarot, The Hermit is Baba Yaga, the Russian Witch of the Woods. Ellen Lorenzi-Prince, creator of the Dark Goddess Tarot, description of her includes:

She is reclusive with no wish to be disturbed, content as she is with the company of spirits and her faithful, mysterious servants: the bodiless hands she calls soul friends, and her beloved horsemen, the white, the red, and the black, whom she calls Bright Dawn, Red Sun, and Dark Midnight. Her powers are earthly and old and as encompassing time.

Despite little desire for human company, Baba Yaga will aid those with pure intentions who make the uncertain journey to find her deep in the woods. She gives them a near impossible task to complete. The reward for success is life and a possible—but not guaranteed—gift of magic. Those whose intentions are corrupt are baked in Baba Yaga’s oven and eaten. 

To seek out Baba Yaga with her impossible tasks and a face with fierce iron teeth is a challenge that shapes us. Success in meeting the challenge is not the end of the work, but the beginning.  Baba Yaga’s words of wisdom told to us by Ellen are: Keep going, knowing the journey does not end.  

What magic do you want to bring into the continued journey of your life? What are you willing to have transformed in the dark to make that possible?  

From 2:06 pm ET on Thursday, October 16 through 12:02 am ET on Sunday, October 19 (time zone converter), the dark moon returns to Virgo / The Hermit and is especially potent for supporting your integration and transformation (but any time before the new moon’s arrival when you can fit it in is good). You are invited to engage in reflection and ritual to celebrate achievements of the moonth passing and release what you do not want to carry into the next lunation.

Reflection

Look back on the happenings of the moonth. If you journal, you’ll have a handy record for your personal memories, but even just looking back at your appointment calendar or photos taken can jog your mind about what’s been going on in the past few weeks and the feelings, thoughts, and ideas that arose connected to the happenings of the moonth. 

As you reflect, tune into the thoughts and feelings that seem most important or arose most regularly. Identify the most important thoughts and feelings. 

Sort your findings into categories inspired by Baba Yaga:

• Thoughts and feelings that come out of pure intentions, those that are reflections of your Soul Self. Some will be beautiful and inspired, but the odd and strange are welcome here as long as they are true to your soul. These thoughts and feelings are to be celebrated. Pledge to them a gift of your energy for their continued development. 
• Thoughts and feelings that are corrupt. These are the voices you hear in your head that do not belong to you at all, but are from a corrupted part of the larger world in which we live. They might be thoughts that limit you, that belittle you, that spring from oppressions you’ve internalized because of an identity you hold. These are to be released into the dark to be destroyed and their energy reorganized into something better. 
• There is a possibility that you will also have thoughts and ideas that don’t feel like they are from within you nor are they a corrupt outside influence. These thoughts and ideas are loving. Perhaps they seem kinder to you than you usually are to yourself. These thoughts and ideas cheer you on when you are operating from your Soul Self even when it is strange. These may be the voices of your soul friends. Like Baba Yaga’s hands and horsemen, these are invisible presences who support you as the journey goes on an on. Perhaps you think of them as your spirit guides or they may be your ancestors or beloved dead (we are entering the season of tending to the dead so the season is supportive of more of these messages). These thoughts and ideas are to be treasured as gifts from the Beyond.  

Dark Moon Release Ritual

You are invited to bring a piece of actual and delicious chewy food into this ritual. Alternately, you can also imagine eating this food during the ritual. 

Create sacred space by lighting a candle, imagining that you are ringed with a circle of protection, and/or your usual actions.

You can invite Baba Yaga and/or the face of Greater Than that you have been serving this moonth to with you and aid you in this dark moon release. Spend as much time as you need connecting with Them.

Place your real or imagined food before you. Breathe over this food. As you exhale, imagine that you are exhaling what you want to release out of your body and into the food. Imagine it leaving your body and going into the food. 

When you feel you have released all you need to release into the food, pick it up and take a bite. Chew the bite and imagine the corrupt thoughts and ideas being torn apart by your teeth until they are no longer recognizable, until they no longer have power over you. Swallow and know that the transformed food will give you energy to live your Soul Self in the moonth to come. 

Eat until the food is gone. Eat until your releasing is done.

After you have completed your releasing, tune into your body, feeling it lighter. Re-center yourself by connecting with earth below you and the sky above you. Feel their energy mix in your heart. Be open to a blessing coming to you from Baba Yaga and/or your face of the Greater Than.

When the new moon arrives, you may want to make wishes for your love will be beautiful in the moonth to come. Be sure to write them down to revisit at the end of the moonth.

Want info on the moon flow that inspired the work of Soul Path Sanctuary? Check out Lunar Living in a Solar World. 

The September 21st new moon’s (exact at 3:54 pm ET, time zone converter) astro-Tarot correspondences point us toward the theme of completion as we are, for the second moonth in a row, invited to walk the path of the Hermit, Major Arcana number 9, the last single digit.

As you remember from last moonth, Hermits turn from the demands of the everyday world and embrace solitude to seek the wisdom within. Paradoxically, this looking inward also tunes them into the wisdom that flows from natural cycles, the Greater Than, and all that is beyond themselves. They integrate their personal insights with the larger patterns to find an understanding of the Whole.

Being numbered 9 is apt for this card because to embody the archetype of the Hermit is an achievement that marks a cycle of growth’s completion. We may not be as old in years as the figures shown on Hermit cards, but at any age this card’s appearance invites us to meet our wisdom selves by embracing time spend in our own company.

This time of inner abundance mirrors the abundance of the outer world. The Hermit path beckons us each year when summer turns to fall as the growing season comes to its peak (at least in the valley where I live and in the northern most hemisphere). The tomatoes and clustered grapes—that look a little like the human heart—falling from the vines must be plucked. The potatoes and carrots, beets and celeriac must be dug from the dark of the earth. The outer harvest presents us with prompts for undertaking our inner harvests. How has the heart grown this year? What wisdom has come from the dark and fertile places of our soul? There are gifts to be found certainly.

Having experienced a spiral of abundance and growth, the Hermit who would make their way through this moonth’s 10 of Pentacles passage must now give it away and shift into new form.

Some of my favorite Tarot decks show us this shape shifting literally and figuratively.

In the Shining Tribe Tarot, we enter the path of the earth decorated with sacred objects as humans but emerge as birds.

In the Numinous Tarot, inner wisdom flows into books housed in a library where a community of creators is gathered across space and time. Authors of books can be young or old, alive or dead, from your town or across the world. They sit side by side upon the shelf together.

In the Gaian Tarot, the dead tree fallen on the forest floor becomes the nursery for fern and flower, the new life emerging.

In the Dark Goddess Tarot, Ala, the Igbo Goddess of the Ground, is eternal in Her form as She receives the dead shifting into Her and becoming sacred ground.

In these cards we are given vivid images of our 10 of Pentacles shifting. Where we must go is clear, but how shall we get there? Do these cards offer us prompts for practice that will lead us through? Let’s explore.

Could we really become birds? No, but we could take the Bird as a Teacher. We could think literally about the behavior of birds and how they fly high above the land, taking in a wide view. With bird eyes, we envision our Hermit achievements, see them within the landscape of our lives, and imagine the next possibilities that flows from them. Or we think metaphorically and remember that in many traditions birds are messengers between the earthly and the divine. We use our favorite medium to listen for the call of the Greater Than Ourselves: Tarot, signs in nature, a sacred text perhaps opened at random for a message, or …. pick your favorite. Once we receive a message, we follow its guidance even when it might require a challenging change.

Should we all write books? If writing is your creative medium, you should certainly consider bringing your work into form for sharing. But the book here is also a symbol standing in for all creative work: visual art, gardening, beautifying your home, or that great creative act of having a baby. I’ve heard that really shifts your life!

And what about letting ourselves die—in the symbolic rather than literal sense? Death appears throughout the Tarot as an invitation to the transformations that uphold Life. The shifting into new form is surrender in the service of rebirth. Death and Life are linked; there is no space between them. That this surrender is life giving doesn’t always mean easy. We are allowed our fear or sadness, uncertainty or resentment over letting go. We honor the loss as part of our process. But the promise of the new life that comes next out of the transformation carry us through.

But what about when Death is not metaphor? What about when the death of beloveds is a sharp ending and we feel the connection broken? Because while Death in the Tarot cards is most often a metaphor, death in our lives is most certainly real.

Our posture guide of the moonth, the Queen of Swords, comes to remind us of this truth.

a 1909 card scanned by Holly Voley and retrieved from Sacred Texts. Deck available from US Games

Queens of Swords have relationships with Death. In Tarot for Magical Times, Rachel Pollack identifies the cord around the wrist of the Rider Waite Smith Queen as a Victorian “widow’s cord,” a nod perhaps to the older fortune telling tradition.

This corded hand is extended out to the world. She doesn’t hide that she has experienced loss. In her other hand she holds a sword steady and upright. Her sword echoes the sword in the Ace of Swords, a card of new consciousness, as well as Justice, the archetype of truth, balance, fairness, and the legal system.

Last new moon when we were walking the Hermit path through the passage of the 8 of Pentacles as the Knight of Pentacles we met Batool Abu Akleen, the young Gazan poet keeping steadily at her work despite starvation and bombardment by Israel enabled by the US. At only 20 years old her chronological age aligned her with the Knight of Pentacles.

But the themes of her writing—being in the constant presence of Death, living in fear, and constantly grieving for all she has lost in the genocide—make her a Queen of Swords. She doesn’t hide her devastating loss and she reaches out her hand to us, offering to share her Truth and inviting us to hold the sword of Justice with her.

I am reading a lot of the poet/prophet Muriel Rukeyser lately. She started writing in the 1930s and continued until her death in 1980 so she wrote through the rise of fascism and the wars of the middle 20th century. Her book The Life of Poetry describes why people fear and resist poetry and in so doing names poetry’s power. Those who reject poetry reject its emotional impact and imaginative impulse. They fear the total response that it calls forth.

And, yes, this total response is dangerous because it transforms us: our consciousness shifts when we receive a poem fully, especially poetry like that of Batool Abu Akleen.

But when we are walking the path of the Hermit as the Queen of Swords we are called to take on the challenge of the total response. Our response will be a way into knowing ourselves more deeply and fully, a way to experiencing our connection to Source. In the Source is Everything including our grief. And as our grief cuts into us it cuts us open, so our boundaries come down and know grief as a connective force that brings us together.

Here is Batool Abu Akleen’s 44Kg. How I cook my grief

I pick fresh hearts from the street

the most defeated ones

with nimble fingers I steal the tears

I fill rusted sardine tins with the smell of sorrow.

Mothers’ glances cling tight to their eyes

but I snatch them easily, because I resemble their children.

 

In a copper pot

I boil what I’ve stolen,

add the blood that hadn’t been absorbed

& sawdust from a coffin meant as the door to a new home.

I pour the mixture into my heart

until it blackens.

This is how I cook my grief.

This poem was shared on the fundraising page for Batool. She is on the list to be evacuated to France but has to enter the country with a certain amount of money. As of this writing, I believe she is alive. It is strange to know someone so young and wonder each day if they are still alive. It breaks my heart a little more each day I can say with my Queen of Swords’ voice.

So much breaks my heart these days. And when it does, I remember the writer Gretel Ehrlich’s words: A broken heart is an open heart. With these broken open hearts acknowledged and held we propelled into the transformations of our time.

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.

COMPLETION: What in my life has come to completion and needs to be celebrated?

SHIFT: What can this achievement shift into to keep me moving forward?

TRANSFORMATION: How can I embrace the shift and bring forth the transformation?

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