The height of this moonth’s cycle comes with the full moon arriving on Saturday, August 9th (exact at 3:54 am ET, time zone converter), and offers a revelation about how the lunar energies initiated on the July 24 new moon are developing. The new moon, guided by its association with Strength, Five of Wands, and King of Wands invited us to be leaders who bring together groups across difference. Out of the 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 Aquarius. Although the symbol for this sign looks like ocean waves, it is actually associated with the element of air. The working of wind upon water points to the sign’s power. Mental clarity, shift in consciousness, and/or communication across different groups inspired by the Aquarian archetype can work positively upon people to create change, even in difficult circumstances. Aquarian energy feels like the sun emerging from storm clouds while the wind still blows and brings a wave of light that flows over dark depths of pond or lake or ocean. The shimmer emerges from nowhere to delight the eye.

The Star is the Tarot card that corresponds to Aquarius, and this celestial light, too, can seem to emerge from nowhere with an offer of comfort in times of tension, turmoil, and trouble.

The Star’s message is hope and renewal. But the Star itself does not fix us, does not take away our wounds. Instead we and all our broken places are bathed in a gentle light. This light opens our eyes to perceive what exists in new ways.

What our eyes look upon these days is disturbing. Masked agents of the state abduct people from the streets of the US. Wildfires rage across the forests of the Northern Hemisphere turning the sun lunar silver and the moon sunset salmon. Drones drop bombs on apartments in Kiev killing families. Children are starved in Gaza while the food they need is but miles away. Is it too dramatic to say that we are in apocalyptic times? Not for those beings facing death.

Apocalypse in the ancient Greek literally means “uncovering.” The disturbing times in which we live call for an uncovering of what has brought us to this point. The great spotlights of larger institutions would rather not shine on and expose what is at their foundation. So, to shine that light is left to all the little stars scattered through the dark.

We are the ones scattered in the dark. Our eyes become the stars when we dare to look at what waits to be uncovered. Individually, we don’t have enough light to raise the truth, but gathered in groups our light expands. The more that participate, the greater the light.

Gatherings of stars are called constellations and these star patterns were the first guidance systems of our ancestors. They used the stars to navigate in fair weather and foul. When thrown off course in their journeys, the stars assisted them to chart their course anew.

This moon cycle began stamped with the energy of Strength and encourages us to move forward together despite our differences. To harness the collective power of us, even as sparks of energetic tension that seem to show us in opposition fly. Now The Star Full Moon invites us to reconnect with what we know when we look at the night sky: We can only offer the map of the way forward together.

We need a whole constellation of stars to find our way through the uncoverings of our times.

Can we do it?

I’ll say yes because there is a hidden message in the meeting of Strength, Major Arcana 8, and Star, Major Arcana 17. These cards combined show us to The Chariot (8+17=25/7), the vehicle for forward movement … when we harness what seem to be opposing forces. There is an echoing of message here. The hidden Chariot offers us a future we can believe in: one where we pull together toward what serves the Whole.

These themes bring to mind a poem by the prophetic poet Lucille Clifton that I offer as a close to these musings.

blessing the boats

may the tide

that is entering even now

the lip of our understanding

carry you out

beyond the face of fear

may you kiss

the wind then turn from it

certain that it will

love your back may you

open your eyes to water

water waving forever

and may you in your innocence

sail through this to that

[Source: Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988-2000 (BOA Editions Ltd., 2000)]

To encourage a revelation on these themes 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. 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 change 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 Strength and Star 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.

~ Reflect on questions such as: What can I work to uncover, to bring to light? Who shall I constellate with to gather the light? What is my highest/deepest dream for our future? Who to work with to make it real? You could, of course, pull cards as responses to any of these questions. You may want to engage in Visio Divina to find the layers of wisdom within the cards.

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 August 20th. offer your gift to the world.

Before the moon is made new on Thursday, July 24th, it returns to the place on the astrological Wheel where it began its moonthly journey. The energy gathered through the lunation 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 Cancer  which corresponds to the Tarot’s Chariot card. In the Dark Goddess Tarot The Chariot is Ishtar, the Babylonian Goddess of Love and War. Ellen Lorenzi-Prince, creator of the Dark Goddess Tarot, tells us that she is worshiped as both a female and male deity. Ellen’s description of Her includes:

Her symbol of the eight-pointed star, two four-pointed stars crossing over one another, … is a symbol of the union between matter and spirit, as well as the balance between male and female. Ishtar has evolved over millennia into a goddess of contradictory aspects. She is fire and rain, both burning and quenching the land. She is nurturing and she is bloodthirsty. With Ishtar, one experiences the dynamic power that is generated through the ability to harness opposing forces. 

We began the moonth by daring to put our hands in the intense Fires of Now. This outreach offered an expansion of our hearts, an invitation to love as we journey. 

Now Ishtar comes to lead us in an examination of how we have tended this love. In this, she is nurturing and fierce. She demands the truth in all its complexities. And from this truthful examination can emerge an understanding of what we don’t need to carry into the next lunation. We can ask Ishtar to take it into the dark, to burn it with her fiery star. 

From 8:26 am ET on Tuesday, July 22 through 11:28 am ET on Thursday, the 24th (time zone converter), the dark moon returns to Cancer / The Chariot 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

Think back on the moonth by looking over your calendar,  journal, or even photos taken to jog your memory about the past 28ish days. Then journal or draw from one to three cards in response to questions like these: 

What/who did you love this moonth? What joy did this love unleash? Where did you fall short in your love for others and/or yourself? 

What did you make war on this moonth? How did your war making protect joy for yourself and/or others?  How did you make war on your joy (i.e. attacking and diminishing it)? 

Sort the ideas that emerge into those to celebrate and those to release. You may be surprised to find the loving and waring responses mixed into both categories. 

Offer gratitude for those ideas and actions of yours to celebrate. You might include the image of the eight-pointed star in how you offer your gratitude by: drawing it over a written list, creating one by overlaying 2 squares and writing your list on to it, or doing a meditation and imagining it glowing above you as recite your list of ideas and actions to celebrate. 

Dark Moon Release Ritual

Use any of all of these ideas to create a ritual that works for you. 

You may want to bring a special/beautiful bowl or cup filled with some clear water into 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 Ishtar and/or the face of Greater Than that you have been serving this moonth to be with you and aid you in this dark moon release. Spend as much time as you need connecting with Them.

Then use your imaginal mind to sense above you Ishtar’s eight-pointed star. Become aware of streams of energy flowing down from each point to you and over you. You can imagine the star light infusing the water in your bowl. Take some time to bask in the star light on this dark night.

Now bring to mind the first of your releases. You might associate it with a certain color. Imagine it falling into the bowl. Watch with your imaginal eyes as it is dissolves in the star-infused water until the color is totally dissipated and only clear water remains. 

Do this with each of your releases. 

When you are done with your releasing, open your eyes and gaze into the clear water in the bowl. Let yourself sense and feel gratitude for the transformation made possible by the water. You may want to drink some of the water.

Tune into your body, feeling it lighter and energized. 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 Ishtar and/or your face of the Greater Than. Be sure to offer Them gratitude for their support.

When the new moon arrives, you may want to make wishes for your renewed energy can create in the next lunation. Be sure to write them down to revisit at the end of the moonth. 

The Wheel of the Solar Year keeps turning and the Moon finds its way to another re-birth. The alignment of sun and moon brings us to the wisdom images and figures of the new moon moment (exact on Wednesday June 25 at 6:31 am ET, time zone converter) known as The Chariot, 2 of Rivers, and Gift of Rivers when using the Shining Tribe Tarot created by Rachel Pollack.

Contemplating these cards, I hear imperatives for the times we live in:

From the Chariot – Dare to put your hands into the fires of the now.

From the 2 of Rivers – Recognize the light within the dark, the dark within the light.

From the Gift of Rivers – Imagination and transformation are required to meet the moment.

From the Wheels in all the cards – We live in circles not in lines. We must grasp and guide the Wheel if we would make our visions real.

Path of the Moonth: The Chariot

The Tarot’s Charioteers often do not have an obvious way of directing the creatures that guide their vehicles. They hold objects sometimes, but not often reins. Commentators on the Tarot name the will of the Charioteer as what guides forward motion.

In the Shining Tribe Tarot, the figure holds nothing at all and reaches into the flow of red above their head. Deck creator Rachel Pollack may give a particular meaning to this red flow, but looking at this image for us in our turbulent times of today, I see the figure daring to reach into the fiery flow of the now and feel the truth of its burning.

There is a wheel over the flow of red inspiring an association with the Wheel of Fortune, the Tarot’s great changemaker. The wheel here is decorated with eyes; four in the dark band and four in the lighter. The eight eyes here invite us to have the strength to truly look at what is happening in the now—and from a range of perspectives. Only out of that recognition of truth can we seek the potential of renewal.

This 10^th card of the Major Arcana has me remembering our exploration last moonth of Imaginable by Jane McGonigal where she guides readers in imagining dramatic societal change made in 10 year increments.

McGonigal encourages a practice of mental time travel where we create vivid scenarios for how life might be different in 10 years. To strengthen our imaginations and to equip ourselves better for whatever the future brings, she suggests scenario planning for what I’ll call best case, worst case, and most ridiculous case. Best case scenarios give us an inspiring place to move toward while the worst-case ones help us prepare to confront obstacles to our desired vision and plan strategies for overcoming bad outcomes. Ridiculous scenarios build our creative muscle and just might be a seed of a surprising future element hard to imagine right now.

The past few years—the last few days! —have shown us that the unimaginable and horrifying can become reality practically overnight. If we are going to guide our Chariots forward, we must prepare for changing realities.

Passage of the Moonth: Two of Rivers

Whatever reality we find ourselves standing in, the seed of its opposite is close to us, too. The 2 of Rivers shows us this through the light fish with the dark eye and the dark fish with a light eye bending toward each other. This counsels us to take neither the disturbing nor the reassuring as a given. That they exist in a circle echoing the wheel reminds us that change will come; change is the constant.

Posture of the Moonth: Gift of Rivers

The Gift of Rivers offers us three role models for making our way through the Two of Rivers passage on the Chariot path: the woman of imagination, the snake of transformation, and the bloom of fulfillment.

The woman with the fish head is an enigmatic figure. When this card comes up in Tarot sessions, the client and I have to pause and puzzle over her. She isn’t expected; a fish for a head is strange! This strangeness is a great gift of the image. We don’t immediately understand this figure, so we engage in a different way. We drop down deeper into our imagination. Wonder what it is like to have the consciousness of a fish. We imagine in new ways, intuitive ways, strange ways. She can help us with daring to imagine our best, worst, and ridiculous futures.

The strangeness of the fish woman makes the snake more approachable. We understand this snake even if we are scared of it. (Snakes are my phobia creature that I am learning to befriend.) We can take in its appearance and remember the snake’s significance as a teacher of transformation. They shed their very skin to grow, peel it off, and show that we can do the same. When we follow the snake, we flow with change.

From imagination through transformation, we arrive at the flower in bloom. The seed planted has blossomed. The odds might have been against its existence and growth—some might have called it a pest, a weed—but we have brought this flower to bloom with our effort.

Three Wheels

Central to each of these images is a Wheel. The Wheel of the fiery flow of now. The Wheel of the Light and Dark reaching for each other. The Wheel that is the bowl at the center of the Gift of Rivers.

These visually echoing Wheels offer us inspiration for riding this new moon moment to another level of meaning. Writing about the 2 of Rivers, Rachel Pollack connects the image of Wheel to the idea of the Center:

The space between the fish is egg-shaped, like the number zero. While we may think of the world as sharply divided between opposites, all experience emerges from the center, which is neither one thing nor another. When we can see through the chaos and busyness of our lives to the quiet center, the nothingness, we free ourselves from the currents that sweep us from one event to another. Paradoxically, people who find this stillness handle events and crises more fluidly.

Is there really nothingness at the Center? I disagree with Rachel on this. I believe the Center is filled with the essential forces. I don’t think anyone one person has the say on what these forces are, but I’ll name the three I sense there: Life, Death, and Love. Yes, Love is there in the Center, not nothingness. To refute Rachel, I will cite Rachel—te, he—because the Wheel at the center of the Gift of Rivers she names as the Holy Grail:

The bowl is the Holy Grail, God’s gift of love and abundance. The Grail is not something we earn by moral correctness, or by fighting for, or by conquering. Its waters of love come to us purely as a gift.

When we have a Love that is free from control or condition at the center of our lives, we can look at the realities of the day and no matter what they may be, step forward to live that Love, spread that Love, be that Love.

Practice of the Moonth for Guiding the Wheel

(for the first time or revisiting last moonth’s work)

To gain some perspective, develop strategies, and find the place where hope can be expanded into reality, you might take one of the many crushingly traumatic events of the last few weeks and do some scenario creation. You may have done some work last new moon that you want to revisit or start fresh if you didn’t have time last moonth. You may want to have the Shining Tribe images here in the enews or your own favorite version of the Chariot, 2 of Cups, and Queen of Cups out for inspiration. Having a journal handy is good, too.

I suggest you start with the best-case scenario for 10 years in the future. Let yourself really imagine positive change that aligns with your values and what you want at the center of your life. Remind yourself of the significant 10-year changes named above. Believe it can happen—even if you are faking it until you make it :). Know you can claw rights revoked. Imagine safety where there is little. Trust that collective urgent action to address the climate crisis is possible and we can cool things down. Imagine an actual day 10 years from now and vividly describe it. What are you doing? Who are you with? What does the world look like? Let yourself bask in the beauty of this vision.

But also do a worst-case scenario. Take the most dangerous trends and challenges to your vision and imagine them taking hold. Do a little reading; the news is filled with stories of how bad it could get. As much as you can stand it, imagine a day in detail in that worst-case scenario world 10 years from now. What would you be doing to make things not as bad as they might be?

Finally, think of something ridiculous, something unimaginable. If it makes you laugh that’s good, humor loosens us up. Aliens abduct the Supreme Court maybe? Or the US Congress is suddenly able to work together after learning Tarot on a weekend retreat? Armies and the police are tired of their weapons so melt them down? Bombs are cracked open and instead of explosives they are filled with roses? Once you’ve had your laugh, think about what deep desire or value this scenario surfaces. Imagine that desire as a driving force 10 years in the future.

Having done all your scenario planning, you might stand like the Charioteer with your hand raised into the fiery flow. Let yourself be with what is and all your feelings about it.

Then remember the present comes from the past where our ancestors have confronted challenges, too. You might call on them for help and to remind you that change is possible. Life is not linear. Our movement toward justice, beauty, and love has been one of spiraling development. Sometimes going up and sometimes going down.

Remember, too, that the present is connected to the future. Call into your memory all your scenario planning ideas. Imagine them mingling together in the Center that is without boundaries, that is filled with Love. Let a knowing come from some place within you—your head or heart or your gut—about what you are willing to work to make real over the next 10 years. When you’ve got that felt sense give a nod of gratitude to the past, present, and future, to the ancestors, to your Tarot guides for bringing you this vision.

Return to your journal. Create a record of the 10 years in the future that you are willing to work to make possible. You might represent it with words or doodles or artwork. Think about next steps for the weeks and months to come that will move you toward that vision. Brainstorm who you can join with to make the vision real and include in your planning how to connect with them. To turn the Wheel of Change many hands are needed.

Reading of the Moonth

These questions are offered for reflection and to spark practice throughout the moonth. You may want to integrate them into the scenario practice above. 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.

IMAGINATION: How can I expand my ability to imagine a future in which I want to live?

TRANSFORMATION: What can I grow/change/shift in my life to move toward the change needed for this imagined future?

BLOSSOM: What of my gifts and abilities does the world need most now to move toward this imagined future?

I do offer this as an e-reading in my collaborative intuitive 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.

Before the moon is made new on Wednesday, June 25th at 6:31 am 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 Gemini which corresponds to the Tarot’s Lovers card. In the Dark Goddess Tarot The Lovers is Freya, the Norse Goddess of Love and Beauty. Ellen Lorenzi-Prince, creator of the Dark Goddess Tarot, description of Her includes:

She is a magician and a shapeshifter, and she teaches the power of charms and spells to the younger gods. She becomes chief of the Valkyries, the divine warrior maidens who choose heroes from among the fallen, and bring them to drink thereafter at the table of the father god Odin or at her own table, which is equal in majesty.

Freya and her Valkyries hold the balance of life and death and their judgements of the dead determine their place in eternity. The Valkyries’ immense power shapes the worlds of the living and the dead.  

And Freya does her work with style. She wears the necklace Brisingamen, the most beautiful piece of jewelry in the world crafted by dwarves in their underground cave. The dwarves know how to bring the depths of the earth into beautiful form and Freya encircles herself with this beauty. 

To convey the essence of Freya, Ellen tells us: Love is power made beautiful. 

Linking love and power is as beautiful as Brisingamen. It dazzles and shows the immensity of love, rescues it from being confined to only the sentimental and individualistic.  This is the kind of warrior love that acts to serve the Whole. This is the fierce active love. This is a love for the challenging times we live in. We want to celebrate any time in the past moonth when we have flowed with such love.

And we want to release where we have fallen short in the call to this kind of love. Elie Wiesel said: “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” To be indifferent requires no power at all. To be indifferent in times and places where love is absent, under attack, or resisted is to leave love to perish. Even if we are not personally touched by the effects, our soul’s shrink if we do not defend love. Everything becomes ugly. 

From 10:27 pm ET on Sunday, June 22 through 11:43 pm ET on Tuesday, the 24th (time zone converter), the dark moon returns to Gemini / The Lovers / 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

At the top of a sheet of paper, you could write a continuum with Power in the center flanked by Love and Indifference. Next to Love write Beauty and Next to Indifference Ugly. Like this

Beauty ← Love ←         Power        → Indifference → Ugly

Now look back on the happenings of the moonth that began on May 22nd Feel free to use personal, community, national, global happenings. If you journal, you’ll have a handy record for your personal memories, but even just looking back at your appointment calendar can jog your mind about what’s been going on in the past few weeks. Cluster under the headings above phrases that express the happenings of moonth and where they fit. 

If you need help coming up with ideas, you can always turn over Tarot and oracle cards to show you images to inspire ideas.

Be gentle with yourself as you do this. Times are crazy. Indifference is a defense for the overload of the news of the world. But as you reflect, you are invited to think about what you’d like to replace indifference with. Perhaps a feeling flow which allows you to see, acknowledge, feel, and release. 

When your clustering and mapping are complete, let yourself be for a while with the beautiful love you nurtured this moonth. You might reflect on what made this possible – and think about how to keep building that into your life. You might offer gratitude to others, the Divine, and/or yourself for this love and its impacts. You might finish with creating a small art work or saying a closing prayer.

Take your side of indifference and the ugly into the dark moon release ritual.

Dark Moon Release 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 Freya 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.

Then use your imagination to see before you the part of your paper that mapped your indifference. You might imagine it growing larger, being like a wall. But as you contemplate this wall of indifference, you recognize that you can break through it. In your imaginal, meditative state, do this in whatever way comes to you (poking through what is paper thin, taking a hammer to knock out heavy bricks, seeing it explode with fireworks …). When the wall is broken, let yourself feel the flood of love that comes toward you. Imagine it entering your body. 

When you come out of your meditative state you may want to rip up your Indifference side of the paper into very small bits and release them into water. 

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 Freya 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.