Weekend #Tarot#astrology 3 Wands and 8 Wands. Snapshot in time. Whatever deck you’re using, it’s a study exercise. Draw cards in the morning, review in the evening, personal level and in the news.
Author’s own cards: Thoth Tarot
3 Wands or 8 Wands stand alone as positive cards, but combinations count. Here we are looking at a double dose of FIRE energy in airy Gemini season= solar flares, electric storms or combustion, literally or metaphorically. The cards are showing Aries action + Sagittarius long reach and long range. At home, you may have been a busy bee-or a bit stressed. News/comms travelling fast. But these cards say you get unstuck. Forward momentum.
-In Pozzuoli: Super volcano Campi Flegrei is awake and growling. A 4.4 earthquake last Monday night drove people out of their houses in terror. (Solar flares again?) I associate the Knight Wands with eruptions (like the 8 Wands, this card is also Sagittarius.)
Last time Campi Flegrei erupted (1538) the ash cloud reached Russia- which yesterday bombed a DIY store in Kharkiv. Bravo Putin. A 12 year old girl and her mother were among the dead. Four fragments of bodies to be identified. Oh well done, Mr Putin. The heroes of Stalingrad would be so proud.
Sweden and the UK are allowing Ukraine to use weaponry against Russia, that has been supplied to Ukraine by UK and Sweden, if it is used in compliance with international law. The US is *said* to be reconsidering its position.
-Hamas has fired missiles into Tel Aviv and alleges it has captured Israeli soldiers, which Israel denies. The Israeli army has responded, bombing a displacement camp in NW Rafah, 30 Palestinians reported killed.
UK election pending, and I will be looking again but the signs in the cards are it will indeed be a Labour win, and it is going to be a rough ride, while we hope for the best. What is Keir Starmer going to do about his proposed deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner? Here comes the election campaign. She is quiet.
US Election, the cards are mighty peculiar. Biden looks weak at home and overseas. Eight Swords. Hamstrung. Democrat voters deeply divided re US policy in Gaza. Republicans unhappy re US support of Ukraine, however conservatively it is being managed. Trump is also weak, Five of Pentacles (disappointment) Mr Trump is not to be written off, however, says the surging, go- ahead Knight of Wands (a card which also says July/Aug and November/December in timing issues) However, This Knight -which CAN mean a new government- is not in the critical position in the spread, and could signify another episode of civil unrest in the event of an electoral defeat for Trump, and this would be happening Nov/Dec . But a win for Mr Biden, or at least a Democrat win, is still more clearly indicated, picking up more campaign points after mid-summer. The appearance of The Empress suggests the added significance of the women’s vote this coming election, due at least in part, likely, to the overturning of Roe v Wade
We are in a year of the Dragon. OK, it is the Wood Dragon. It is somewhat more open to reason than other Dragons in the Chinese zodiac. But still, it is a dragon. Dragons gonna do what dragons do.
Context is key for getting at specifics, aside from when reading the cards purely for meditation purposes. Here, the reader is simply “looking in the glass dimly”, not working to any particular brief, just drawing cards at random, taking the temperature, so to speak, and noting any significant real-time, real world synchronicities.
This year the sun is in the sign of Gemini from May 20- June 19, 2024. The dates for the sun signs can vary by a day or two from year to year for astronomical reasons. This year the sun leaves Gemini and enters Cancer on the day of the summer solstice, June 20. Gemini is the third sign of the Western Tropical Zodiac, and represents the end of spring and beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere.
Associations
The Roman numeral for 2 is joined top and bottom in representation of the unity of duality
Hebrew letter: Zain, meaning, sword, weapon.
Ruling planet: Mercury
Affirmation: ‘I think, I inquire.’
Body: shoulders, arms and hands, lungs, autonomous central nervous system. The cell salt for Gemini is Kali Mur- potassium chloride, which builds fibrin in the blood, organs, and tissues of the body. Gemini is vulnerable to upper respiratory infections, bronchitis, and asthma (pollen season).
Birth Stone: If born in May, Emerald. If born in June, Pearl (although it is not a stone, it is thought to be ruled by Mercury)
Lucky stone: Tiger’s Eye. Made of silicon dioxide with bands of iron. Grounds ‘flighty’ Gemini energy. Brings focus.
Colour: Yellow
Tree: all kinds of nut trees
Flower: Lily of the Valley, Lavender
Tarot cards: The Lovers. The Magician, Knight of Swords, 8, 9 and 10 Swords.
Gemini is visible to the naked eye, the northernmost constellation in the zodiac and the thirtieth largest in size appearing high in the winter sky in the northern hemisphere. looking north east of Orion between Taurus and Cancer. The Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the second century recorded Gemini as “The Star of Apollo” (Castor) and “The Star of Heracles” (Pollux). February is the best time to view Gemini. By April and May, we get the best views looking west soon after sunset.
The two brightest stars in the constellation are the “twins” themselves – Castor and Pollux, representing the heads of the twins while fainter stars outline their bodies. Pollux, the westerly twin, is a red giant star 33 light-years from Earth, and Castor is about 51 light-years away- the distance that light travels in a year = about 6 trillion miles/9.6 trillion km. Pollux is the brighter of the two with a massive planet orbiting it; Genorium Beta, while Castor is actually not a single star, but a star system made of up six stars not visible to the naked eye.
The concept of twins in mythology goes back at least as far as the so-called Age of Gemini, during the Palaeolithic, 6, 500 BCE, arising from our understanding of the duality fundamental to the nature of reality. There are male and female twins in world myth, standing for night and day, light and dark, heat and cold, male and female, war and peace, good and bad, life and death. The creation myths of ancient cultures and many surviving objects reflect this eternal battle of seeming opposites.
In Arabic astronomy the twins were seen as peacocks. In Egyptian astrology they were twin goats, or else the two gods, Horus the Elder and Horus the Younger, while classical Greek mythology identified them as the twin brothers, Castor and Pollux, aka The Gemini, from the Latin word for twins.
The name Castor comes from the Greek Καστωρ (Kastor) and means “to excel, to shine.” The name Pollux comes from the Roman form of the Greek Πολυδευκης (Polydeukes) meaning “very sweet.” The circumstances of their birth were unusual to say the least. Queen Leda of Sparta was seduced by Zeus, though seduced is putting it too politely. She was bathing in the river when he glided up, disguised as a swan, preening his feathers, and then pounced.
That night, notwithstanding the undoubted trauma of this shocking event, Leda slept with her husband, King Tyndareus, and in due course delivered four children all in one go; Castor, Pollux and their sisters Helen (later Helen of Troy) and Clytemnestra (later married to Agamemnon as queen of Mycenae.) Pollux and Helen were immortal, fathered by Zeus. Castor and Clytemnestra were mortal, fathered by Tyndareus.
Public Domain, the young Castor and Pollux (Meissen)
Castor was renowned as a horseman and a master at fencing, while Pollux was known for his great strength and skill at boxing. They went everywhere together. But then Castor was killed in a quarrel and Pollux told Zeus he didn’t want his immortality, not if it meant eternal separation from his brother. Zeus scratched his head, wondering how to fix this, and decided to place them in the stars, to be together forever as the constellation Gemini.
The Zodiac Archetype
Mercury by Hendrick Goltzius, 1611, Public Domain
All the zodiac signs represent archetypes; meaning something that is considered to be a perfect or typical example of a particular kind of person or thing. The natal zodiac sun sign in western astrology paints a poetic portrait of a person born at a particular time of year, in a particular season as experienced in the northern hemisphere, in a tradition originating at the thirty sixth latitude (Sumeria, modern day Iraq).
The planetary ruler of Gemini is Mercury, the planet nearest the Sun, representing the winged god Mercury or Hermes; patron deity of all forms of communication, media, trade, global commerce and travel, medicine, research and analytics. Mercury has a lesser known role as a psychopomp; one who can go between the realms of the living and the dead, a go-between and safe escort to the dead.
Gemini is a mutable sign, ruling the borderline between late spring and early summer. The other mutable signs are Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces, considered the most changeable and agile of the signs; inquiring, agile, adaptable, talented, cerebral, analytical, logical and restless. At the same time, Gemini can also be surprisingly dogmatic, attaching themselves to causes, whether religious or secular, social or political manifestos, or to do with lifestyle, for example, exercise or diet choices. They can be born-again converts- or crusading missionaries.
Every suit in the Tarot deck has its own court with a king, a queen, a knight and a page. The principle court card associated with Gemini is the super- fast moving Knight of Swords.
Smith Waite
Card Meanings: news, sudden developments, strongly worded email, legal action, surgical procedure, dental procedure, shock, blow, attack, air strike, assertiveness, intelligence, calculation, a confident, forceful young person, injury, snow, hailstorm, windy weather, cold wind, east wind, motorbike
The Decans of Gemini
The word ‘Decan’ comes from the Latin meaning ‘ten.’ Each zodiac sign lasts about 30 days and is further divided into three blocks of roughly 10 days each. These are the decans or as they’re sometimes called, the ‘thirty-six faces of astrology,’ bringing added depth and nuance to the psychological profile associated with your natal sun sign. The minor arcana cards associated with Gemini; the Eight, Nine and Ten of Swords, correlate with the decans. All the decans are equally Gemini, whatever the decan and this holds true for all the zodiac signs. But an early-born Gemini and a later-born Gemini are born under slightly different planetary influences.
First Decan (0-10 degrees)
21-31 May
Eight of Swords
Smith Waite
Card Meanings: Entrapment, uncertainty, helplessness, waiting for rescue. There is a way out if only you will open your eyes, look around and take a step forward. I have also come to associate this card with the prediction or identification of practical plumbing/drainage issues.
This decan gets a double dose of inquisitive, rational, Mercury. This is an alert, perceptive, intellectual and forceful personality. The acumen is sharp. The negative side of this coin is a Gemini native who is just as inquisitive but careless, flighty, forgetful, restless and unreliable. First decan Gemini is a multi-talented juggler, light on their feet, graceful and agile. But at the same time they tend to develop a strong point of view on a wide range of subjects, and they have a clearly defined belief system. For all their apparent flightiness they are tough and resilient-even stubborn, a quality more usually associated with Taurus, its next door neighbour and predecessor in the zodiac. Gemini make devoted partners, contrary to whatever people might assume. They may have considerable charisma but they also know when they’ve got a good thing, so long as there’s plenty of social interaction and sufficiently frequent short distance travel to keep them occupied.
Second Decan (10-20 degrees)
June 1-10
Nine of Swords
Smith Waite
Card Meanings: The so-called Nightmare card, also nicknamed “cruelty.” Worry, ‘the black dog,’ anxiety, stress, grief, insomnia, depression, the things that keep us awake at night.
Here is Putin and Zelenskyy experiencing another peak of aggression and strain this Gemini season 2024. Or instigating it, in the case of Putin, while Zelenskyy tears his hair out, the west bickers and vacillates, and others rub their hands. The sub-ruler of this decan is Libra, ruled by Venus, planet of love, beauty- and money, while Libra is the natural ruler of the seventh house of marriage, partnerships, close associates, associations, and legal matters. This Gemini is more of a “me-too” person, rather than an “I-am” person compared with, say, a first decan Gemini. This Gemini native needs to be especially discriminating in their selection of companions/associates and to avoid making early decisions about a choice of partner. People respond well to the Second Decan Gemini warm and effusive nature. Gemini-Libra is generous with their time and friendship and also with possessions. Just don’t be too surprised or upset if they disappear as suddenly as they appear, or if they go quiet on you without warning. It’s not personal. It’s just the way they are.
Third Decan (20-30 degrees)
11-20 June
Ten of Swords
Smith Waite
Card meanings: Destruction, despair, betrayal, stabbed in the back, ruin, dark night of the soul, and the darkness before dawn, the only way is up, illness, comatose, a fall, spinal injury, head injury.
The personal planets of the third decan Gemini are Saturn and Uranus, painting a portrait of contradictions. Sometimes this person is ultra-careful, dutiful, responsible, serious, at other times carefree or even careless. Uranus combined with the planet Mercury suggests a thinker who is ahead of their times. Or maybe they are just zany. Aquarius – natural ruler of the eleventh house of friends, hopes, and wishes-makes this Gemini a social type, a friend-oriented individual interested in social causes. This Gemini is an optimist, always interested in trying out what is new, and never happier than when they are on the move. This is the most independent- natured Gemini decan.
The Cusps of Gemini
Birthday May 21 through May 23
This is Gemini with Taurus tendencies. The ruling planets are Mercury and Venus. This is a strong and magnetic personality, often with talents in music, art and literature. They are lively and sociable, good conversationalists hospitable and fond of travel. They desire to excel but may worry overmuch about the opinion of others at the expense of their intellectual independence and the exercise of their personal agency.
Birthday June 18 through June 21
This is Gemini with Cancer tendencies, ruled by Mercury and the Moon. This native possesses foresight and analytical ability combined with idealism. They will do well so long as they stay practical and do not go in for speculation and risk taking. This birthday does not bring that particular kind of luck. Graceful in movement, tidy in appearance, affectionate in nature, this native is a good friend and if they say they will do something, they keep their word, but they may at times be too sensitive for their own good.
Famous Gemini natives
John F Kennedy, Donald Trump, Frank Lloyd Wright, Boris Johnson. Johnny Depp, Queen Victoria, Charles 11, George 111,George V, Muammar Gaddafi, Angelina Jolie, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, Carl Linnaeus, Peter the Great, Adam Smith, Richard Wagner, Arthur Conan Doyle, John Maynard Keynes.
I’m not seeing a Presidential inauguration for Gemini native Donald Trump January 2025. He draws The World card and the Death card, signifying the end of a cycle or a chapter. But he did draw the Ace of Wands. New venture. New government. There may still be surprises
The third decan of Capricorn correlates with the dates 11-20 January, and with the tarot card The Four of Pentacles.
Images from The Rider Waite Tarot and The Gilded Tarot
The Four of Pentacles is nicknamed The Miser card, unfairly, really, because he is holding on tight to what he’s got. Unfairly, because you can’t give or share what you haven’t got. We cannot make a place for ourselves without the will and the means to do so. You can’t create a shelter, a warm spot, a safe place, a sanctuary, for yourself or for others without the effort and the discipline it takes to put even just a little by, and not blow it, especially when there is little to spare.
The decans, as mentioned in previous posts, deal in seasonal archetypes. The third decan Capricorn native is clever, shrewd, proud, industrious and conscientious in the workplace. Possibly opinionated. They can be secretive, mistrustful of others, and when under pressure, calculating or possibly deceitful. They may be also constitutionally prone to melancholy, pessimism. But they have a keen, if mordant, wry, dry sense of humour, and they are kindly, indeed passionate in devotion; deeply attuned to the power of landscape, and the wild creatures that make it their own.
The Four of Pentacles represents a guarded, watchful pause, a time of taking stock, before we move forward into the volatility of the fixed Air potency of the Aquarian Five of Swords, commencing 20 January…which this year will be a planetary humdinger, coinciding with the momentous entry of Pluto into Aquarius for the first time this year.
The Five of Swords- conflict- Rider Waite Tarot
–Pluto represents the underworld, all that is underground, mining, power, secrets, deep state, momentous change, death in any sense of the word)
–Aquarius represents the element of Air, clouds, Humanity itself, Cloud Tech, Space Tech, Medical Tech, new ideas OR wholesale imposition of ideology, revolution.
Aquarius, the sign of the Water Bearer is also the Cloud Bearer, known to the Babylonians as Sabatu- The Curse of Rain, because it brought floods in February, and not infrequently these were devastating.
Sadly we are seeing this in action big time in the UK even before we have entered Aquarius in 2024.
Pluto in Aquarius is where the story is heading. The last time we were there, 1778-1798. what sort of things happened?
-The French Revolution
-The American Revolution
-The Haitian Revolution
-The Enlightenment
-The invention of cast iron and the cotton gin, beginning the Industrial Revolution
-Discovery of Uranus
-The Smallpox Vaccine
During the previous Pluto in Aquarius, 1523-1553, Europe underwent the upheaval of The Reformation, when King Henry v111 of England split with the Pope, and his subjects were now Catholic no more, on pain of being liable of being put to death for
a) heresy
b) treason
I live in Lancashire where this history leaves its ghostly marks to this day. Alice Nutter, who was hanged for being one of the Pendle witches, was part of a notable Lancashire Catholic family, and was likely targeted as such. Such is the darker fundamentalist potential of Pluto in Aquarius.
Roughlee, Nelson, Lancashire. Poignant statue in memory of Alice Nutter. Sculptor David Palmer
This will be a fascinating next twenty years in world history. But it’s not as if a new era is entered into overnight or indeed, is not already making itself felt. The Post Office Scandal in the UK, which convicted more than 700 innocent sub postmasters, some of whom actually to prison, including a pregnant lady, on the say-so of a computer glitch which no-one in charge at Fujitsu would admit to, though they knew about it, could hardly be more a dystopian display of the worst potential of Pluto in Aquarius if it tried, but has been going on since 1999. Read about it HERE
The New Super Moon in Capricorn 2024
Pluto in Aquarius is well nigh here, but we are not quite there yet. Meanwhile, today’s New Moon was in Capricorn very early in the morning, around 6:57 AM Eastern time. This New Moon is also a Super Moon. We can’t see it, but the Moon came closer today than in a normal New Moon, and today was only the first of five Super New Moons in 2024, a year of turbo charged lunar energy for digging and planting, instigating change. Typically, there are 3-4 Super moons in a year, and they can make a difference of 2 inches in the height of the world’s tides.
All New Moons are nature’s planning windows. Tonight, tomorrow and over the next few days, fortune works with us when we plant seeds and start to water them. Seeds of ideas for new projects or changes for example in the way we do our finances, or in our work direction or in the way we present ourselves to the wider world. This sturdy, hardworking, grounded yet experimental New Moon at 20 degrees of Capricorn will be trine Uranus, uber planet of change. Astrologically speaking this is a particularly optimistic, energetic, upbeat and potentially ambitious New Moon, not of making do, but of making and doing. Mars is also in Capricorn until 12 February, and this gives us an energy boost in tackling practical- and creative tasks.
There is a world of difference between taking a chance on doing something new or differently, and between being reckless, feckless or downright daft. They do say a change is as good as a rest. Capricorn thinks long term, and when it moves forward, it is not much given to wallowing or looking back.
This is a time for ditching what is long overdue for dumping, while surprises, chance encounters and new work opportunities all go with this territory.
All hail to Hecate, the Greeks and Romans would say in honour of the impending New Moon. Hecate was the goddess of the waning moon, where Persephone was the manifestation of the Waxing Moon, and Artemis was the face of the Full Moon.
Hecate, the keeper of the crossroads, is better known today as the goddess of witchcraft, but she was worshipped in Rome as a protecting household deity. None could enter without permission a household that was under the protection of Hecate. More HERE in a previous post:
Image via Pinterest
Tonight in magical practice would be the night to honour or petition Hecate’s help with prayers or gifts of incense, raisins or apparently she is partial to virtual offerings of currant cake.
Eat it on her behalf so Hecate can enjoy it vicariously. Give an ancient goddess a break. It’s tough I know, but think of Hecate. Someone’s got to do it.
Let’s look at today’s general Tarot card, drawn for the collective. Is this just my own stuff? Could be. Context is key for getting at a specific prediction, and that context is driven by a question. But it is frequently the case, that when one is reading for a client, there can be an eerie synchronicity between what is pressing or timely for the client, and what is going on around the reader. Perhaps we are more connected, more like birds or bees than we may care to recognize.
What the reader is trying to do in such a broad reading as this is, simply to hold up a mirror and breathe on it, trying to get a sense of a prevailing wind or “zeitgeist.”
The card for today is the Six of Swords.The wind today could be described as a psychic easterly. Bracing or invigorating, take your pick. This is one of the several cards in the tarot deck that that fits Aquarius timing in a reading where one is trying to guess at when something may happen. (The others are The Star, The King, Queen, Knight or Page of Swords or the Five or Seven of Swords)
Of course we are not in Aquarius territory yet. Soon. Not yet. We are still in the second decan of Capricorn, associated with the industrious, artistic and dedicated Three of Coins, as illustrated here in the Legacy of The Divine Tarot. Mars in Capricorn gives us an energy boost between now and around 13 February. Things get done.
Be that as it may. The Six Swords correlates with the fixed air sign of Aquarius and it denotes a solemn journey. This journey may occur in the aftermath of disaster and bereavement. For instance,it may describe a funeral procession. More generally, we may be decided to turn our back on an unhappy situation, cutting our losses, setting our faces to the future, taking the helm of our own “ship.”
At close personal quarters, this card can also be saying, “tell the truth and shame the devil.” Lies do damage and create waste. They are a waste of precious time and they are disrespectful. The Six Swords seeks to limit past damage, asserting our common drive for dignity, independence and personal sovereignty.
The Six Swords may be perfectly neutral. For instance, it may simply denote long distance/remote study or a cruise or other journey of exploration. Or it can be flagging up issues or activities to do with buying/sorting out/upgrading our I.T.
But in both metaphysical and in literal physical terms, with the Six of Swords we see a voyage. There is forward movement, where with a card such as the Eight of Swords or the Four of Cups there is no movement.
In current affairs, we need no tarot cards to show us that these are tense times with looming standoffs, confrontations or military conflicts impending in the world’s major shipping lanes, most acutely, between now and mid February. But here, we are using the cards to check out the phenomenon of synchronicity in mirroring what we know to be the case.
Prediction follows on from this initial mirroring.
The Six of Swords can specifically indicate
a) a military threat, health threat or the aftermath of such
and
b) shipping or cruising.
The Red Sea is perhaps foremost in our awareness at this time, but tensions in other maritime zones have not gone away in the Black Sea, the Strait of Hormuz, South China Sea or the Strait of Taiwan.
Likewise, depending on the deck we are using, the Six of Swords shows refugees in search of safety. It shows migration and displacement, and we may see more or particular big news of this kind around the time of Pluto’s first entry into Aquarius this year, 20 January – 1 September 2024.
Economic migration is a political hot potato, only set to grow hotter during this time frame. The suit of Swords deals with legalities and documentation, which suggests the introducing of new processes in the UK and perhaps many other countries this year, affecting travel, outside and beyond the contentious issues of migration and emigration.
This all sounds potentially gloomy if not dire. BUT the Six of Swords is one of the most constructive cards in the challenging suit of Swords. Its keywords include recovery, healing, learning, study, travel, momentum and above all, progress. If you or a loved one have been sick, there can be few better cards indicative of improvements, bar the Ace, Knight, or Page of Cups.
What’s the push and pull in the collective energy today? I draw two crux Cards from the Touchstone Tarot deck by Kat Black and I draw Death and the Page of Coins (Pentacles)
Saturday 6 January 2024
It is a waning moon, not a time for sowing and planting. We are haunted, maybe grieving. Dreams are vivid. Today’s waning moon is in the fixed water sign of Scorpio, denoting a strong outgoing tide of deep feeling with a sting of loss attached but we may also experience a sense of irritation, not quite knowing where to put our physical, intellectual and emotional energy.
The Death card, curiously, is the card corresponding with the zodiac sun sign of Scorpio. The appearance of this card signifies endings. Many readers these days will state that the Death card never, but never represents an actual death or bereavement. My twenty odd years of reading for other people tells me that in general, the Death card is talking metaphorically. A job may come to an end, or a relationship for instance. But it can raise the question or the spectre of an actual human death. Oh yes it can, it will and it does. And so it should. Death is part of Life. It colours our experience of Life through the awareness of our own mortality and that of all those we love most. Death – and Birth are THE greatest life events, our own. The Death card needs handling with care. I do not make predictions of Death. I could be wrong. Nor will I avoid the conversation.
The appearance of the Death card reflects the dreadful events we are seeing on the news, if we are not living through them ourselves. And the Death card shows that we are feeling acutely aware of the passage of time, and of our own mortality. Time and tide wait for no man. Oh, do they not? I have known when loved ones were about to go. I do not mean that I was sensing anything imminently. But it was there all the same. Their tide was on the turn for the last time. There was a presentiment. An ebbing tide, pulling at my own inner water.
And yet the appearance of the Page of the element of Earth is timely. Mercury has now gone direct again, while energetic Mars has entered pragmatic Capricorn on 4 January and stays there till 13 February. The echoes of recent troubles may be powerful, yet this new wind may still prove favourable. Hold fast to the greatest tasks in hand…we have been stuck, but now necessary things can and should and will get done.
We are now in the second decan of Capricorn, associated with the creative and productive Three of Coins or Pentacles. This card, again from The Touchstone Tarot shows a master craftsman at work. See the sketch and quill behind him. An eager patron looks on, agog to see what beauty shall be created, proudly sponsored by him. Oh yes, he gets to claim much kudos. This is the card of making a house a home, but above all it is a card of excellence.
This is a good time to surge ahead with creative projects and businesses. A Tamil friend has a silk weaving business for instance, making sarees/saris. The Three of Coins is an apposite card for ant kind of business like this.
A medicine for grief -or anxiety is to do something constructive, creative or useful. Sort your admin (yawn -but it feels so good once you’ve done it.)
Or read and study. Learn something new.
“The best thing for being sad,” said Merlin, “is to learn something. It is the only thing that never fails”
(T.H. White The Once and Future King)
DO something. This is a medicine, a reliable Ju-ju for blasting the cobwebs or soothing sorrow. Action in the material world. Anything really, so long as it ain’t stupid. The young man representing the Page of Coins is a scholar (from an original painting by Hans Holbein. He could equally be a crafts-person or a cook or a pet owner.
When we are treading water, or right up in our heads, we can earth ourselves by going for a walk, feeding the birds, or by giving our mind and our hands something to work on front of house.
This day of a legalistic waning Libra moon we learn that the next UK election will not be in the spring as has been lately rumoured, but will be in the second half of the year.
The UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is a Taurus sun sign native, and the leader of the Opposition Keir Starmer is a Virgo sun sign native. Is Rishi waiting until after late May when Jupiter will move into Gemini, or will he wait until the 2 October eclipse in judicial, contractual Libra to call the election?
There is plenty good about Jupiter in Gemini for communications, publishing, teaching, aviation…but Jupiter is in detriment in Gemini, meaning that when it is in Gemini, Jupiter is sitting opposite Sagittarius, the sign it naturally rules. What this can mean is that we have super intelligent decision making during Jupiter in Gemini, or a load of flopping about, quibbling and hot air and nothing of great moment actually gets decided.
Globally, we are witnessing such dreadful devastation. Mars in Capricorn seeks to acquire- territory, resources, status. But it also seeks, like the Page of Coins or Pentacles, to rebuild.
Resolutions and rebuilding in Gaza and Ukraine can’t- and won’t come fast enough to satisfy any ideals of justice, kindness or basic decency. It never does until that last moment has long, long since passed. Those tides have gone right out, and are coming in again as tsunamis- “waves in the harbour”. I write this, realizing that I am speaking metaphorically in the very same week that Japan has experienced earthquakes and tsunamis on the very first day of 2024.
Source: Wikipedia
“As above so below.” The planet Earth, Gaia is unsettled, and so are we. The hive is rattled. The bees swarm, buzzing. We are experiencing Solar Cycle 25 and all that. This was expected to be a weak cycle in terms of solar flare activity. And maybe it will still be weaker than the average solar cycle. But it is early days in this cycle, and it is already proving stronger than was predicted back in 2019, with the next solar maximum expected any time between now and October 2024.
The stone associated with Capricorn is the garnet, symbolic of loyalty and devotion, The garnet is considered a lucky talisman of protection, and for the health of the heart.
Let’s take a quick look at the Numerology of 2024. The key numbers of this year are 2, 0, 4 and 8. Why 8? This is the number we get when we add up the digits. You’ll notice we have a dominance of even numbers: 2, 4 and 8; all of them divisible by 2.
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This is all about creating or protecting our stability during a time of great shifts, but the 0 stand for the wild cards at work in our lives. Births and rebirths, literally or metaphorically. Zero is the most numinous number, or non-number. Originally invented as a placeholder, The Fool card in the Tarot stands for Wyrd or Destiny, and is the greatest mystery of all the cards in the deck.
The Major Arcana card representing the Number 8 is Strength. This card correlates with Leo, which like Aries, is also ruled by Mars. This card stands for health, strength and courage. This is both physical and moral strength, resilience and fortitude, the kind that says we don’t give up. The one who wins is the last one standing. “Tomorrow is another day.”
There are no easy answers. We will all be tested this coming year, guaranteed, and this will be collectively and personally. This is not a quiet cycle we are in, the whole world is feeling it, and we may not come out of this cosmic wash-cycle that began in 2019/2020 until February 2026 when Saturn quits Pisces for the final time in this current cycle of transits.
When I look at Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy, time and again I draw The Hanged Man reversed, signifying either significant Pisces timing and/or an unwanted compromise that is ultimately reached. This card of Pisces points out that Saturn moved into Pisces in March 2023 and does not finally move out of Pisces until February 2026. This does not mean the war can’t end sooner. The Hanged Man could indicate Pisces season 2025, possibly triggered by events around the time of the eclipse in Libra season 2024. As ever, only time will tell. The reader is always “looking in the glass darkly.”
I have been struck by the physical resemblance to Zelenskyy of this card from The Tarot Illuminati deck. This card below, I drew in a reading for Zelenskyy back in March 2022. I was looking to see if Russia would succeed in assassinating him, as we understood Russia was trying to do at that time, and the feeling was no. The cards showed he will come through all this, but emerge a very different man. Not defeated, not diminished but disappointed. Reading between the lines, Russia’s President Putin will get away with far more than justice says he rightfully should, although much less than he wants.
We are all desperate to see an end to the darkness of the wholesale horror we are witnessing in Ukraine and in Gaza. There could be crucial turning points in these and other conflicts (and also in personal matters) around 14 February, around the solar eclipse of 8 April, during Leo/Virgo season- July and August, and again, around the solar eclipse in Libra, 2 October (ruled by Venus, cards 2/3 Swords- diplomacy/severance) and again towards the end of the year in Sagittarius around Christmas Eve, 24 December 2024, though this last date could likewise prove very tricky.
My cards have not so far seen a second term of office for Donald Trump. I first looked at this in 2021, looking to see signs of a second term after the Capitol Riot.
But nor are they showing me a second term for Joe Biden. I will be looking more closely at this later, as will twenty gillion other readers and astrologers. Some Vedic astrologers do say it will be Trump.
May-June could prove the most productive and easygoing months this coming year when Jupiter moves from productive Taurus into agile arch-communicator Gemini.
The April solar eclipse in Aries suggests a window of opportunity, bold decisions finding ways forward, and at a personal level for any of us, but especially for the Aries native or those with Aries rising, brave new initiatives in prospect.
The tarot card of this eclipse at 19 degrees of Aries is the expansive, outgoing and far seeing Three of Wands.
The possible negative interpretation of this card is the clear and present danger and obvious potential in 2024 for an escalation of maritime aggression in any of these areas: the Black Sea, the Red Sea, the Straits of Hormuz, in the South China Sea or the Straits of Taiwan.
This is a twitchy year and the very end of the year may prove the trickiest time.
Image from The Legacy of The Divine Tarot.
First comes the vision, but planning, co-operation and timing is everything. We are equal to these challenges, and we can achieve more by approaching our most personal problems with an attitude of kindness and respect. The lady in the Strength card does not subdue the lion by killing it. This card references an old story, Una and the Lion from Edmund Spenser’s 16th-century poem The Faerie Queen. Una is the daughter of a king and queen who have been imprisoned by a dragon. Most unfortunate.
Una undertakes a quest to free her parents, but on her journey she encounters a lion. Rather than eating her, the lion is so captivated by Una’s innocence that he follows her instead, accompanying her as a protector, and in the painting by William Bell Scott, Una gently rests her fingers in the lion’s mane, as they make their way together through the autumnal wood.
But the lion is not going her to kill her, either. She calms its threat by holding her nerve, moving decisively but quietly, and using a carefully measured restraint with the lightest touch.
Image from The Gilded Tarot.
This is a year of gravitas. We are changing, and we are feeling that change. There is a sense of a greater self discipline, but also striking out in a new direction, expanding our lines of vision, enlarging our horizons as per the Three of Wands. We are starting new things or revisiting old things and re-imagining them anew.
These are just seeds or buds in 2024. We won’t see the results this year, but we are changing direction. The particular nature of this, and the life departments it will affect will depend on our own natal charts.
Jupiter is on our side in 2024, and he can be a big old bully. But Jupiter is also “the bringer of jollity.” People need to eat, but they also need beauty. They need laughter and they need other people. Jupiter keeps it large, and Jupiter in Gemini can be a big fat beautiful butterfly, the symbol of Psyche, the soul.
Airy, breezy, airy pollinator of renewal of the richness of the earth of Taurus, Jupiter enters Gemini 25 May 2024 and stays there until 9 June 2025. This can be all manner of good news, with April, May and June are the most promising months for communications, networking, teaching, publishing, business, study, travel and progress in the most general terms.
Jupiter in Gemini is endlessly curious and enquiring. Jupiter is however, in detriment in Gemini, meaning that Jupiter is opposite the sign of Sagittarius where it is exalted (most naturally at home.)
There could, in politics and geo-political conflicts, be a lot of dithering, delaying and fair- weathering.
But even so, Jupiter in Gemini may bring better things to the world, while the Aries Eclipse in April is an even bigger hitter this year. Big and brave. What brave new stories shall you be creating this coming year?
IMG Abstract: Sagittarius. Own image in watercolour and pen
We’re in the second decan for just a few more days, till the New Moon in Sag 12 December, represented in Tarot by the Nine of Wands.
The keywords here are vigilance and stamina. This figure, stalwart but injured, is resting, battle weary. The second decan Sagittarius native is quick of mind, good with their hands, adventurous, technically proficient, Sagittarius-Aries fire. More generally, this card says we would rather not go it alone. But we’ll do it if we have to. Oh yes. And we’re not done. Oh no. We’re still standing, and we are standing by. Sentinels. Watchmen. Ready. You won’t catch us with our guard down.
Neptune has gone direct in Pisces as of 6 December, having been retrograde since 30 June. We might have been having some mighty odd and vivid dreams just lately. In my own case, there has been a rather entertaining spate of dreams involving raccoons popping up in odd places, possibly reflecting symbolically tricky dealings to do with certain matters. The raccoon can warn against dealing with tricky people and those who aren’t dealing straight with us, wearing its little bandit mask. The raccoon has positive associations too, of course. The raccoon is agile, and endlessly resourceful.
But it’s curious where these things come from. And I wouldn’t mind but we don’t even have raccoons where I am (in the UK, North West W England) I can’t just put it down to watching nature programmes on the box either.
Things have been heavy going in recent months for almost anyone. Something has been weighing heavy on our minds for some time. Problems for which there can be no solutions as such. We’ve just had to do the best we can, maintaining a holding position, and trying meanwhile not to make matters worse.
The New Moon in Sagittarius 12 December suggests new possibilities, and a clearer way ahead. And don’t we all wish that for the whole wide world. Looking into my cards for 2024 there are no clear signs of a lasting resolution in the dreadful conflicts and events in Ukraine and in Gaza. Though there are windows of opportunity, and perhaps I will write more about that later.
But right here, right now, says this card is our individual power of action in our own, personal battles.
The New Moon on the 12 December is in 20 degrees of Sagittarius. We might get the strong urge to go somewhere new, learn something new, change our horizons, however vicariously. Even reading a book is a form of travel. Reading rolls up telepathy, mind reading, space travel and time travel all in one page. Each page a magic carpet.
There are so many sad events, and we might well ask ourselves, what use is philosophy? What use is poetry? (Or Tarot)
We are made that way. Words can lift us up. Why else do we conjure special words for births and weddings and funerals? Words are invocations. Words are comforters. They can help us readjust and regain our equilibrium when everything is dark. Words contain the magical power of Wyrd. We get the word weird from Wyrd, meaning mystery and destiny.
Word. Weird, Wyrd. They are all the same thing.
“I will lift mine eyes up to the hills from whence cometh my help.”
-Psalm 121
The higher we can go, the more bearable or at least, immediately manageable things are when the going is really tough. We don’t have to be religious to feel the truth of this.
“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow (on his pipe. “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails.”
A Mars cazimi is happening Friday 17 November, when Mars conjuncts the Sun in the night sky to within around 1 degree, seen close to Capella, aka the Goat Star in the constellation of Auriga, The Charioteer. Mars is the traditional ruler of (cardinal fire sign) Aries and (fixed water sign) Scorpio in Western/Tropical astrology while the Goat star, Capella, was regarded by the ancients as an omen of high renown.
Via Wiki: Capella is the brightest star in the constellation of Auriga (upper left).
Cazimi comes from the Arabic word word “kaṣmīmī ” which in turn is thought to have evolved from the Greek “kardia” meaning “in the heart” – or in this context translating as, “in the heart of the sun.”
Mars rises at the core. What are our core objectives right now? What are our core values?
This Mars Cazimi marks the start of a new 2 year Mars cycle for each of us, upping the ante wherever it happens to be sitting in your own birth chart. In which astrological House might that be for you?
Mars initiates. It is ardent, proud, fierce and above all pro-active. Living it large. In Tarot, Mars may be expressed through drawing The Tower card, The Emperor or the Death card (modern ruler Pluto) and the potential for destruction could not be plainer, as we are witnessing right now in tragic real time world events.
The Tower card represents shocks and storms, both literally and metaphorically. It may describe or detect collapse. Forthcoming explosions. It tears things down whether for good or ill.
The Tower from the Golden Tarot, Emperor from the Legacy of The Divine Tarot and Death card from the Rider Waite
The Emperor of Aries season is law and order on the one hand. Wise governance. Or conquest, excess, tyranny and cruelty or maladministration on the other. Note the Aries Ram’s horns adorning his throne.
Aries is headstrong. In medical astrology it rules the health of the head and brain. When ill aspected it may warn against an excerbated risk of accidents and injuries caused by a) speed b) fire.
The homeopathic tissue salt of Aries is Kali Phos, Potassium phosphate, used as a “coolant” or calming agent on the nervous system.
From The Rider Waite Tarot deck
The Death card of Scorpio, ruled by Mars and Pluto, may, and sometimes does refer, not only to the idea of human mortality, but to the death of someone in the literal physical sense, but more generally stands for any and all kinds of endings. The end of a situation or a job, or relationship, and in this context,the Death card may be a welcome sign of much needed change.
The homeopathic cell salt of Scorpio is Calc Sulph, Calcium Sulphate, used as a cleanser of “overheated” blood for removal of pus, fever and other manifestations of infection, or strain upon the liver and gallbladder .
From the Rider-Waite Tarot deck
The world stage is non stop fieriness between now and the spring/vernal equinox 2024 – bookmarked by entry into ARIES. Even though the spring equinox in 2024 technically occurs during the last day of Pisces season, 20 March, still, the spring equinox is associated with Aries, while there is also the solar eclipse in Aries on April 8 2024 to be factored in here, signifying monumental Mars type events, though I do not personally detect any sign of an impending WW3.
Mars Cazimi is warrior energy. But it is more innocently, newborn optimism. The ebullient primal energy of the first ram lamb of spring. New things. Young energy. Birth itself is a fierce act, whatever kind of birth it may be; a person, an animal, a nation state, a business, or some great creative work; a building, a bridge, a machine, or a work of art, music or literature.
Life, as Professor Malcolm so famously put it in Jurassic Park, “finds a way.” And Mars in Aries MAKES a way, charging headlong, while Mars right now in Scorpio is steaming and blasting or plotting its way through opposition.
The Aries lamb can kill you once it grows to be a ram. It’s not personal. You got in its way and you were on its own territory. If it knocks you down, then stay down, and chances are it will wander off. Unlike the Scorpion which may bide it’s time and catch you later unawares. Both are the faces of Mars.
Where the passion is, and the will-power of Mars, then, like it or not, whether by playing fair or foul, the thing gets done.
The zodiac sign of the Scorpion is also a symbol of rebirth. Another face of Scorpio is the Phoenix. Maps get redrawn. Life is for living and while we live, we can still arise and act to launch or build anew.
That’s the wind now blowing through. We can stand foursquare in our power, raise the roof, blast free and shake off the dust during this Mars Cazimi. If we have been stuck, it looks as though we are going to get ourselves unstuck during the next two years.
Once more unto the breach.
“Happiness we can only find in ourselves, it is a waste of time to seek for it from others, few have any to spare. Sorrow we have to bear alone as best we can, it is not fair to try to shift it on others, be they men or women. We have to fight our own battles and strike as hard as we can, born fighters as we are.”
–Axel Munthe, The Story of San Michele
Bon courage! Let us discover what new things we shall do and build and make over the next two years, driven by that adrenaline of this incoming Mars Cazimi in Scorpio season 2023, and thank you for reading.
The old Norse rune associated with this Mars Cazimi is Tiwaz, associated with Tyr, the god who gave his name to Tuesdays, signifying war, justice, nobility and physical and moral courage.
The rune Tiwaz is reputed to bring good luck in health and legal matters
Tyr put his hand in the mouth of the giant wolf, Fenrir, as surety, and then Fenrir permitted himself to be chained. But when Fenrir discovered he had been tricked and would not be released, he bit off the hand of Tyr,who had known this would happen. But the wolf had to be tricked and bound, or he would have devoured the Sun itself. Perhaps this myth was inspired by the fear of a total solar eclipse.
Tyr matches courage with duty and integrity.
Artist John Bauer, 1911
May Tyr be with us, and may Fenrir never break his chains.
True Tarot Tales 