psychic writer – True Tarot Tales

Libra Season 2026: Weighing the Balance In The Stars

Our stories in the Stars: The Stories behind the Zodiac Signs

Sep 22, 2026

Libra season, here we are again. The equinox occurs either today, 22 September, or 23 September BST depending where we are in the world. Now we are in the zodiac sun sign territory of the autumn/fall equinox in the northern hemisphere, in a year astrologically dominated by the unusual alignment of all the outermost planets, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

So what? One might reasonably wonder. This line-up out of outermost planets in our solar system speaks of affairs between now and 2044 (Pluto in Aquarius) driven by events way beyond the control of any individual. A cycle that changes the world as we used to know it earlier in our own lifetimes.

Generational change is nothing new. It is the common experience of old age, the increasing sense of alienation from the world we used to know. But we are all observing and experiencing close at hand, a level and scope of change that goes beyond that, like the people living at the beginning of the first Industrial Revolution in all its astounding progress…and in its tragedy and brutality, aka “collateral damage” as the countryside became/was made unsustainable, and people moved away from the villages to the strangeness of the poorest dwellings in the mushrooming cities.

A modern equivalent would be the noisy, water hungry megalithic data centres being built on federal land in the US (Pluto-power in tech-Aquarius, the new feudalism presented as progress for the people.)

Libra season this year starts with Mars still in Cancer but not for much longer, until 27 September, having done its thing since 11 August. The storyboard says tensions, strife or war at home/in the home/land, or issues to do with parents or the health of older relatives.

This time last year Mars was right at home in its home sign of Scorpio. In theory this can bring good news. A push of energy just when and where we need it. But this was not just another transit—it was described as a cosmic ignition point, as Sweden and Germany scrambled Gripens and Eurofighter jets in response to Russia’s illegal incursion over Estonian airspace and over the Baltic Sea…the illegality of which Russia denied. And now, a year later, as of a few hours ago at the time of writing, Russia is still testing, prodding and provoking NATO. Germany has scrambled fighter jets to Latvia and emergency alerts have been sounding out over Poland.

Donald Trump seemed poised to significantly escalate US military action against Iran only a few days ago. Now he has reconsidered, and meanwhile, clearly not coincidentally, he has…for the second time…delayed the delivery of over $400m in US military aid to Taiwan, delaying drones and munitions, prioritising a trade deal with China, marking a significant shift in Washington’s Taiwan policy. This, at the behest of President Xi whose relationship with Iran at this critical time is the likely factor in this potentially fateful decision.

“A soft answer turneth away wrath: But grievous words stir up anger.”‭‭ –Proverbs‬ ‭15‬:‭1‬ ‭KJV

Libra is the zodiac sign of the iron fist in the velvet glove. ‬‬

Traditional Associations

Quality: Cardinal…instigation

Element: Air

Affirmation: I (seek to) Balance

Ruling planet: Venus, as with Taurus

Seventh House: partnerships, personal, professional and legal

Body: Lower back, loins, buttocks, kidneys

Colour: Indigo Blue

Flower: Rose, Hydrangea

Birthstones: Sapphire- September birthdays. Opal- October birthdays

Lucky Number: 6 and 7 (community, service, childhood, partnerships)

Tarot cards: Justice, showing the dual goddess, Astraea and Dike. Also the Queen of Swords, Ace of Swords, and the 2, 3 and 4 Swords

Justice from The Legacy of The Divine Tarot, Ciro Marchetti

Astronomy

Libra (technically, it is correctly pronounced Ly-bra as in Library) is a small but distinct constellation, 29th in size of the 88 constellations, next door to the constellation of Virgo

The zodiac sign that represents the zenith of human civilization, law and order, fair and equitable dealings, and the principle at least, of human justice, is also the only zodiac sun sign that is represented by a man-made object; the scales, and not represented by a human being or indeed any living creature.

And yet the constellation of Libra shares its stars with Scorpio, borrowing the claws of the celestial scorpion next door. Venusian Libra shares its starry meeting ground with Mars in Scorpio.

The constellation has been described as looking like a lop-sided diamond, and is visible from April to July in the northern hemisphere. Libra, like Cancer, is faint in comparison with other constellations, and contains no spectacular first magnitude stars, but it does contain its own galaxy cluster, possibly around 10 billion years old, the same age as our own galaxy, The Milky Way.

There also is a red dwarf star Gliese 581 with three orbiting planets, two of which may possibly be suitable for life, about 20 light years from Earth.

The brightest star in Libra is a binary star about 77 light years from Earth. α Librae. or Zubenelgenubi, meaning in Arabic “the Southern Claw.” The second-brightest star in the constellation of Libra is β Librae, or Zubeneschamali, from the Arabic for “The Northern Claw.”

Keepers of The Equinox

Aries and Libra are the two cardinal signs marking the equinoxes. Aries stands for the seasonal rising of the sun in the northern hemisphere, Libra for the setting of the sun in the northern hemisphere.

The Sun used to pass through the constellation of Libra at the time of the equinox (c. 23 September) when the length of hours of night and daylight were almost the same- hence the Libran concept of natural balance.

In fact, the zodiac sign of Libra ceased to coincide in real time with the actual placement of the constellation of Libra way back in AD 730 because of the wobble of the Earth, and the resulting effect known as precession – the movement of the equinoxes relative to Earth. Since 2002, the Sun has actually appeared, astronomically speaking, in the constellation of Libra from October 31 to November 22.

This is different to the dates used for this sign in your media horoscope, which is based on modern western or tropical astrology, and says Libra begins around 23rd of September, coinciding with the autumn equinox (in the northern hemisphere).

However. Western astrology works differently, functioning as a seasonal symbol system, marking the journey of the sun in relation to the Earth and the changing hours of daylight across the 360 degrees of the ecliptic, named for 12 of the constellations that touch or straddle the ecliptic at any time. But astrology references only 12 of these constellations for ease and elegance of arithmetic (sorry, Ophiuchus, you didn’t make that cut.)

This does not invalidate the working principle of Western/Tropical astrology in any way. The real time facts of astronomy which says the sun is now entering Virgo do not invalidate your horoscope; a fact of cultural astronomy that many modern astronomers still utterly fail to grasp. The symbolic, historic and astrological concepts of western astrology still stand in all their original meaning, based on this seasonal, arithmetic model of the western or Tropical zodiac as codified by the mathematician Ptolemy in the 2nd Century.

Mythology and History

Libra was known in Babylonian astronomy as MUL Zibanu (the “scales” or “balance”) but it was also known at the same time as the Claws of the Scorpion, while in ancient Greece Libra was also seen as the Scorpion’s Claws.

The Scales were sacred to the Babylonian sun god Shamash, the patron of truth and justice, and that is why, since very early times, Libra has been associated with law, fairness and civility. Because 3000 years ago, the Sun entering Libra marked the equinox, when days and nights were of equal length, i.e. balanced, Roman astrologers likewise considered that the constellation of Libra represented the principle of natural balance, equality, equilibrium and hence, justice.

In ancient Rome Libra was associated with the scales of justice held by the pre-Greek goddess Astraea, or her Roman counterpart Dike, although in Greek mythology she had always been associated with Virgo.

What is she talking about? Claws. Scales. Libra is part Virgo, part Scorpio? Eh? Que? What is all this gobbledygook?

I know, I know. Don’t shoot the messenger. The actual constellations and the zodiac signs after which they were named are inextricably linked in meaning, but they are not one and the same thing. And Libra is extra complicated.

According to the Roman writer and poet Marcus Manilius the greatest Roman judges were noted to have been born under the sign of Libra, while The Moon, which in astrology governs The People, was said to be in Libra when Rome was founded, in a historical passage, which states “qua condita Roma.”

The early born Libra native may therefore resonate more strongly with the expression of Virgo and Astraea, while the later born Libra may have quite a lot of Scorpio going on. This same principle applies to all the zodiac signs, depending whether you were born early or late in your own sun sign. But it’s particularly acute in the case of Libra, on account of its shared/borrowed stars.

The Libra Archetype

Libra is Cardinal Air- it is intellectual. Cool. It instigates, negotiates and codifies into treaties and law, where Aquarius (cloud) is Fixed Air and stabilizes ideas into creeds and systems, including IT and literally…The Cloud…and Gemini (breeze) stands for the evolution and agility of Mutable Air, news, and chat and trade.

Libra may be the only zodiac sign that is not represented by a human or animal, but the scales signify the collective and enduring hardwired human need and indeed, hunger for justice. Why does justice matter so much to us? We talk about natural justice, but how do we see justice played out in Nature? The law of Nature says the weakest go down first, Nature “red in tooth and claw” (Tennyson)

So why do we cry out for justice like we do? And we do. Even babies have been shown to have a razor keen awareness of what is fair and what isn’t. Few things more corrosive than living with the knowledge of justice denied. Law and Justice are presented as one and the same. Judges are called Lord or Lady Justice, whatever. But there is the letter of the law and the spirit of justice. These things are not necessarily always one and the same.

More earthily, ancient astrology viewed Libra as an especially lucky sign because it signifies a peak of riches, just after harvest time, when hard work and good weather yields rewards…and we take stock and more clearly see, literally in the agricultural sense, the fruits of our labour.

Because Venus, the goddess planet of love, money, comfort and pleasure, rules Libra, as it also rules Taurus, the Libra subject is more than usually sensitive to beauty in anything, whether it is a person, nature, art, or music. Likewise, by the same token, airy Libra is super sensitive, not only to criticism, not that anyone enjoys that, but it intensely dislikes sudden, loud or sharp noises. Nasty vibrations in the air. Libra may start a fight with a well-placed word bomb with an added Scorpionic sting, but when a battle results they will want to keep the noise down. OK. Let’s fight, but let’s do it quietly. Libra at war is a stealth bomber.

In general, Libra will go to great efforts to co-operate and compromise with everyone around them. Libra can be more changeable even than Gemini. Those swinging scales are, after all, seeking balance, which is not necessarily at all the same as attaining it, or maintaining it. This can sometimes become a little tiring for their loved ones as they constantly re-assess their thinking, adjusting their position, while remaining emotionally unavailable for the duration. This may be infuriating at times, or even seem to call personal loyalties into question. Libra is trying to find a stable footing, while seeking to see the thing from all angles at once. They will stick to their position once they have arrived at their decision.

Botticelli: The Birth of Venus, ruler of Libra and Taurus

Libra is smiling, urbane, approachable, has a keen sense of humour and a sense of the ridiculous, adores flirtation, but does not receive or handle criticism as dispassionately as they dispense it. Libra has warrior energy, oh yes. It wields a sword cutting through any thorny problem where its own emotions are not invested, but Libra is more emotionally volatile than may at first be apparent. Swinging to and fro, searching for equipoise, and the centre of balance.

Every zodiac sign has its more challenging aspects, and every zodiac sun sign has its resident super-villains. But the more usual real-life Libra, the ones we love, and Libra itself; clever as anything, charming, that lollipop smile. Sunny side up, what not to like?

See here for Famous Libra natives in history

This Libra Season we have…

Full Harvest Moon in Aries 3 degrees 26 September. The harvest moon is the first full moon after the autumn equinox. It will be rising close to sunset for several evenings, and this is how it got its name. Traditionally this moon casts an abundance of light helping farmers bring in the harvest by virtue of this early rising. The tarot card for this degree of Aries is the 2 Wands, generally understood as a welcome card in forging partnerships but sometimes nicknamed the Melancholy of Alexander, as in, we are scanning the horizon, asking ourselves what else is out there? Or the world is not enough. A card of ambition, agreements, shipping, export and conquest.

New Moon in Libra 17 degrees 10 October: Tarot card 3 Swords, generally understood as signifying a separation, a severance, the end of a relationship, sorrow, heartache, a broken heart, or literally even heart health and cardiac health issues.

Mars in Cancer squares Chiron in Aries on September 27 before entering Leo. Defensiveness, old injuries, and the need to protect what feels vulnerable can complicate the conversation. Then Mars enters 1st Decan of Leo ruled by Saturn on 27/28th September, a potentially sticky transit. The associated minor arcana card is the competitive, potentially combative 5 Wands.

Venus retrograde in Scorpio between October 3 and November 14. The retrograde begins at 8 degrees Scorpio, intensifying issues in relationships tied to shared resources, family obligations and intimacy. This could bring conflict, resurrecting old sorrows. Tarot card, the 5 Cups, disappointment, and coming to terms with heartache and losses.

Back again soon with the decans of Libra.

Thank you for reading.

Till next time 🙂

Stories of Virgo Season 2026

Harvest Goddess Virgo – Queen of the Earth and of The Heavens

Katie-Ellen Hazeldine

Aug 22, 2026

green grassland during night time — Photo by Luca on Unsplash

“The Virgin with her sheaf belongs to Ceres,” The Astronomica, Manilius, 1st century AD.

Now it is harvest time in the northern hemisphere, – ‘the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ (From An Ode to Autumn by English poet John Keats.)

The planetary ruler of Virgo is Mercury, planet of siblings and neighbours, communications, media, inquiry, science, commerce, trade and travel. Also the ruler of Gemini. Curious, restless and quicksilver.

Traditional Associations

Dates: August 22/23-September 22/23

Symbol: The Virgin/The Maiden

Element: Earth

Quality: Mutable (Sagittarius and Pisces are also Mutable, suggesting these subjects are capable and versatile; self-willed, absolutely, yet temperamentally inclined to adjust and go with the flow for the greater good.)

Ruling planet: Mercury

House: Sixth, ruling health, habits and routines

Hebrew letter: Yod. The Hand of God. The divine seed, genesis of life, both the egg and the sperm.

Colours: green, white and yellow

Body: The nervous system, digestive system, intestines. Food sensitivities. The Virgo metabolism does better with warm cooked foods than cold raw foods.

Tissue cell salt: Kali Sulph, i.e; potassium sulfate/sulphate. Essential for muscle contraction, helps transport oxygen to cells, and regulates oil in the body.

Lucky Birthstones: Peridot (joy, prosperity), Sapphire (reputed to provide protection against evil, “the wisdom stone”) Lapis Lazuli (Third Eye, intuition)

Flowers: small bright flowers such as the buttercup. Florists suggest Morning Glory, Chrysanthemum, Asters.

Tarot cards: The Hermit and The Empress. The Knight of Pentacles, 8, 9 and 10 of Coins/Pentacles.

Astronomy

*Public Domain, Wiki: Credit Till Credner*

The zodiac sign of Virgo gets its name from the constellation of Virgo, the largest constellation in the zodiac, and the second largest in the visible sky after the constellation of Hydra. The Virgo constellation is visible from all around the world most visible in the evening sky from mid-March – to late June in the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, look for it in the autumn and winter.

Our Sun is just one star in the Milky Way, and the Milky Way is part of a collection of galaxies known as the Local Group. This contains three large spiral galaxies: the Milky Way, Andromeda, and the Triangulum Galaxy and a few dozen dwarf galaxies.

But the Local Group is only one member of the Virgo Cluster; a collection of 1200-2000 galaxies stretching across 15 million light-years of space.

And the Virgo Cluster is part of the Virgo Supercluster.

The mere thought of it is enough to induce existential angst. One may need to lie down awhile in a dark room with a hanky soaked in eau-de-cologne.

It’s a bit of a stretch, seeing the person in the stars of the Virgo constellation. Look at my drawing, joining up the stars, and now we see her. Virgo, The Virgin, the Maiden, semi-recumbent, dangling something in one hand, a sheaf of wheat. This is the star Spica, a blue-white giant. Its name comes from the Latin, meaning an ‘ear of grain’- or a sheaf of wheat.

The star Vindemiatrix, when it reappeared in the early morning sky after a long absence, was once upon a time the signal to start gathering the grapes towards the end of August. More about Vindemiatrix here

green leaves on mountain during sunset — Photo by Luca J on Unsplash

Virgo marks the start of harvest time in the northern hemisphere where Western/ Tropical astrology began. When the earth mother Empress card turns up in a tarot reading, we are looking at Sixth house issues, situations or timings. The Sixth House rules service, duty, health, fertility, fruition, nutrition and hygiene. Food, health, care and compassion go together in the service of the common good.

Shala was an ancient Sumerian (Iraq) goddess of grain -and also compassion. Why link these two things? Food is survival. Famine is suffering. A good harvest was a blessing of the gods. But this is never guaranteed from one year to the next.

An ancient story, yes. But now that we are in the space age, still, there is a mountain on the totally inhospitable planet Venus, Shala Mons, named after this same goddess Shala.

Mary, the mother of Christ, Mater miserichordia, mother of mercy, can be seen as a later reimbodiment of the more ancient story of Shala, the celestial Virgin.

To the ancient Greeks she was Ceres (as in the word ‘cereal’) or Demeter, the Greco-Roman goddess of the harvest, the mother of Persephone. When lonely Hades, the brother of Zeus, the king of the underworld, abducted Persephone to live with him in the underworld, Demeter went searching, and was enraged to discover from Hekate that Zeus, king of the gods and the brother of Hades, had known all along where Persephone was. Demeter demanded that Zeus bring Persephone home, and when he didn’t, she went on strike. Zeus sent Iris, the rainbow messenger goddess, to invite Demeter to come to Olympus for peace talks. Demeter refused. The harvests failed and the people starved until Zeus finally ordered Hades to send Persephone home.

Hades agreed on one condition. Persephone must not eat anything until she arrived home again to her mother. Hades then gave Persephone a handful of pomegranate seeds for the journey home, saying a few seeds didn’t count as food.

red pomegranate — Photo by Margarita Zueva on Unsplash

And Persephone believed him- or perhaps she knew perfectly well what he was up to, but she had come to love Hades. She ate some on the way home. A deal is a deal, and because she ate the pomegranate seeds, whether knowingly or not, she returns to Hades and her life in the Underworld for four months of the year. Then Demeter mourns. The growing season stops. Winter returns and the land lies fallow.

The Virgo Archetype – Zodiac Personality

All the zodiac signs are examples of archetypes, meaning something that is considered to be a perfect or typical example of a particular kind of person or thing.

Virgo is The Craftsman, taking pride in doing the job, whatever it is, to the highest standard possible. The Knight of Pentacles, the court card of Virgo says slow and steady wins the race. The major arcana card in the Tarot representing Virgo is The Hermit, denoting our deepest connection to Nature.

The Knight of Pentacles in The Gilded Tarot

Here is an enlarged curiosity and a combination of analytical ability, but also a certain contemplative, humanitarian or even mystical quality. Here is wisdom in maturity, and the value of solitude and self-sufficiency. The Hermit represents the principle of service – he walks alone and yet he has a desire to help all Humanity, shining a light on the path ahead.

Virgo is something of a sage. Rooted in the earth, and yet looking inwards and upwards, moving to its own dance, steering by a quiet inner star.

Virgo, like Gemini, is ruled by agile Mercury, the fastest moving planet of communication. Virgo’s brain is in overdrive most of the time, but while Virgo is practical, analytical and critical…some might say hyper-critical…even forensic, it is also artistically gifted, highly perceptive and intuitive. Much less gets said about this aspect of Virgo, the craftsman, a maker of things exquisite.

They make honest friends although, being discerning, and analytical, they will also have a tendency to analyse you, pointing out not only out your strengths but your mistakes. This can undoubtedly be annoying, though it’s usually free of malice. Well meant. They may also give great advice because of those very same analytical abilities.

These folk are generally neat and well groomed. The word “slob” is not in their vocabulary and they can be incredibly concerned about the impression they give. But at the same time, they are very ready to help others, and maybe sometimes they are even too generous. Others may try to take advantage of Virgo in a way they might not attempt with, say, Aries, Leo or Scorpio.

Of course there is no such thing in reality as THE Virgo personality. Your zodiac sign (sun sign) is your major touchstone but doesn’t claim to represent anything like the full picture in real life– or in your natal chart in astrology.

But the decans can tell us a little more, or may help readers with assessing timing.

The decans, from “deka”, the Greek word for ten are nicknamed the ‘thirty six faces of astrology,’ and were a feature of Egyptian astronomy later adopted by the Greeks and incorporated into Western astrology.

The first ten days of the zodiac sign are the first decan. The second ten days or so are the second decan, and the last ten days are the third decan, though this is not exact, because not every month is the same length.

There is more than one decan system. The older Chaldean system uses the seven planets known to the ancients, those closer planets that are observable to the naked eye, whereas the modern system of triplicities includes the outer planets. Some will disagree if I say there is no right or wrong about this. We can make our own minds up which planetary ruler we find most relatable for each of the decans.

First Decan Virgo

Dates: 23 August-1 September

Planetary decan rulers: Ancient: Sun Modern: Mercury

Tarot card: The Eight of Pentacles: ‘Lord of Prudence,’ art, craft, industry, skill, concentration, application, studiousness, apprenticeship, crafts, heritage, construction

This person is deeply absorbed in his work. Yes, one could say but he is working on a production line, but it has meaning and purpose for him.

This decan combines quiet warmth and humour, and a cool mind with a talent for acute observation and incisive analysis; however this is expressed, whether artistically, commercially or scientifically or in administrative tasks. They see more than they say, but the Virgo native has a talent for the spoken and written word; making them great teachers.

‘We reap what we sow,’ goes the saying. This is not always true, nor fair. Every minute of every day, misfortune strikes people who have done absolutely nothing to ‘deserve’ it. Plenty of wrong-doers escape justice. But still, it is broadly true that we can’t reap what was never sown. The first decan Virgo feels this deeply, and they make faithful friends and partners, devoted in their quiet way.

Second Decan Virgo

Dates: 2-11 September

Planetary ruler: Ancient: Venus Modern: Saturn

Tarot card- Nine Pentacles: ‘Lord of Material Gain’ beauty, luxury, self-discipline, hard work that pays off, management, hotels, horticulture, agriculture, viticulture, gardens, vineyards

This decan is associated with Venus, planet of love, beauty –and money. A perfectionist; conscientious, devoted, and above all focused, these Virgo natives can turn anything into an art form. Notice the hooded falcon on her wrist. She is not without passion, but she has ‘tamed’ her own wildness – or chaos. Learned to control her own impulses. She has known what it is like to do without, and she has not forgotten. But s/he will not trade away her tomorrows for today’s gratification. This decan is a born manager. But though they have learned how to do without (and at times they have probably had no choice) still, they do crave and appreciate all things beautiful, and they love to pamper their loved ones. S/he has built something of solid worth and none of it came quick or easy.

Third Decan Virgo

Dates: 12-22 September

Planetary ruler: Ancient: Mercury Modern: Venus

Tarot card- Ten of Pentacles: keywords: ‘Lord of Wealth,’ commerce, messages, deliveries, Hermes, home, homeland, ancestry, genetics, inter-generational relationships, inheritance, gifts, legacy, bequests, town planning, art, museums, banks.

These people are thinkers, and they are proud. Not vain. It is about dignity and self- respect, and it’s not even about the money, or at least, not for its own sake. These people are careful, even cautious, but they have a winning way with people and can do very well in the public eye, such is their talent for communication; personal, professional, artistic, written and spoken. See the old man surrounded by his family, neighbours and those dogs too. Eco-warrior is not their style. But they do care a great deal about animals, heritage and the environment. Virgo sees themselves as part of a bigger picture, a link in a chain of legacy, and this is for them a treasure beyond price.

In Virgo Season 2026

This year’s super powerful El Nino is unsettling Gaia, the oceans, the Gulf Stream and her harvests, and war is making matters worse, with food security already a great cause for concern in some parts of the world, and with grain shortages and prices projected to rise significantly over this coming winter.

Virgo season 2026 is serious, but anything but neat, orderly or low key.

23 August: The Sun enters Virgo on Sunday…erm, today…as the Moon enters Capricorn with a potentially uncomfortable lunar T- Square including Neptune, Mars and Saturn. On a personal level, this entry into Virgo could be painting a picture of mess, muddle, annoyance. Perhaps someone is not being straight with us.

25 August: Mercury moves into Virgo and this marks the shift in the season and in the mindset. The summer is drawing to a close. We are preparing for planning to return to work, or to school

August 28: The weeks main astrological event is the lunar eclipse at four degrees and 54 minutes of Pisces. Jupiter, the ruler of Pisces, is making a trine to Saturn in Aries, and is in a sign-based sextile with Venus in Libra, which is trying to help out with all the nonsense and challenges.

This Pisces eclipse is also squaring Uranus, and it can only help to be ready for sudden changes, difficulties or surprises next week. The Tarot card corresponding with the timing of this early degree of Pisces is the slightly sad if philosophical Eight of Cups. There is a turning away. It is not a case of looking back in anger. Someone decides it is time to let go, or to leave. Sometimes it can be a cutting of losses. Sometimes a loss due to natural causes.

Smith Waite, Tarot Illuminati, Legacy of The Divine Tarot

31 August: A rather rare trine between Jupiter and Saturn could give us quite a boost. There has not been a trine like this since May 2014.

Happy Birthday, Virgo 2026!

You have likely been navigating problematic territory for quite some time, but events in March, early July and August could require you to draw a line now. Don’t be afraid to say no, Virgo, and to upset an applecart if necessary, because if you do, then be assured, you are not acting in haste. This has been a long time coming. You are the salt of the earth, Virgo, and you have every reason to insist on respectful dealings, or else to walk away. There seems a likely easing of some long term stress, with easier times, positive career or money developments and artistically absorbing pastimes in the later months of 2026.

Thank you for reading.

Until next time 🙂

Solstice, The Sun Card and a Strange True Tarot Tale

I love this old name for the dawn…the Daylight Gate. The earliest recorded use of this name was in 1613, as written by Thomas Potts, court clerk, who officiated as clerk at a number of notorious witch trials.

In just a few days, Sunday 21 June, we will be entering the western Tropical zodiac territory of Cancer the Crab; waking up on the day of the solstice to the longest hours of daylight in the northern hemisphere, and the shortest hours of daylight in the southern hemisphere.

The word ‘sol –stice’ is from the Latin ‘solstitium,’ meaning the ‘sun stands still.’

We have two official calendars: the astronomical calendar and the meteorological calendar.

The astronomical calendar is based on many thousands of years of observations of natural phenomena used to establish and mark time. This calendar follows the Earth’s rotation around the sun, defining the four seasons by two solstices and two equinoxes. The Earth’s tilt and the sun’s alignment over the equator determine these events, so the two solstices mark the times when the sun passes over the equator, on June 21 and around December 22,and the two equinoxes are on or around March 21 and September 22.

At the summer solstice, the Northern Hemisphere receives sunlight at the most direct angle of the year with the North Pole tilting towards the Sun at its maximum (about 23.5 degrees) resulting in the longest period of sunlight hours. In the Southern Hemisphere, it’s the opposite and the Sun is at its lowest point in the sky.

Astronomical timing is variable, depending upon when the Sun reaches its northernmost point from the celestial equator, and this date varies between June 20, 21, and 22.

The meteorological calendar is a more recent invention based on seasonal temperatures, separating the year into four groups of three months, based on the observation that summer is the warmest time of year and winter is the coldest, with transitional seasons in- between. These seasons are always 90 to 92 days long, and always start on the first of the month except for leap year. This definition makes it easier to calculate seasonal statistics for the purposes of weather forecasting.

Midsummer’s Day marks the midpoint of the growing season, halfway between planting and harvest. It is traditionally known as one of four “quarter days” in some cultures. Folks celebrated by feasting, dancing, singing, and lighting bonfires to usher in the hot summer days ahead in places like Stonehenge, where the mighty wild cattle, the aurochs once roamed, and the sabre tooth tiger crouched low, watching and waiting its chances.

Every summer solstice in the UK, as many as 10,000 people arrive at Stonehenge for a pagan style summer solstice festival on British shores, complete with druids. The main event is sunrise, when the first rays of the sun strike the gigantic Heel Stone and illuminate the centre of the stone circle, and people are allowed to touch the stones- a rare opportunity, and the only day of the year they are permitted to do so.

The Sun card

The Sun card is the ultimate summer card in the Tarot deck; number 19 in the Major Arcana. This positive card signifies all kinds of good news, starting with sunny weather in the literal sense, and overseas travel, usually to a hot country. It is our moments in the sun. It is the state of childhood. It is good health or recovery from sickness. The Sun card is vitality, just as the sun is life itself. The Sun card can therefore be predicting new life- a birth.

The Sun card, when it is drawn reversed is like the setting sun. It can mean the memories of childhood, nostalgia, beautiful, bittersweet twilight. It may mean sadness or delays or getting less than you hoped for.

The Sun gods can be cruel; Ra, Arinna, Surya, Mithras, Helios, Apollo, Sol – by whatever name we have called the Sun. Every card has its downside, just like every situation in life. The fire of the sun can also be cruel, even savage when ‘reversed.’ We might have drought. We might have wildfires.

The Sun card can signify death as well as life. It may also, in my experience as a reader, refer to a cremation.

Astrologically, The Sun card represents the zodiac sun sign of Leo, where The Chariot represents the time of the summer solstice, entering the western Tropical zodiac season sign of Cancer. Here, I am using the Sun card in its broadest meaning.

Reincarnation and The Sun card

As the sign of the Sun’s highest point in the skies as seen from Earth, the constellation of Cancer the Crab was considered nearest to the highest point of heaven. Greco-Roman philosophers (The Neo-Platonists) called it ‘the Gate of Men.’

*Decapoda, the Head of The Crab, Acubens, The Claw, Al Tarf, the Foot.*

The stars of Cancer, specifically The Beehive Cluster, were the gateway, the portal in the heavens through which souls descended to Earth to be born.

Thee Beehive Cluster also known as Prasaepe, THE MANGER

The opposite constellation, Capricorn, marked the midwinter solstice, and was the ‘Gate of the Gods,’ where the souls of the departed rose back to heaven, crossing the bridge of The Milky Way under escort from…the stories vary…Hermes/Mercury, Sagittarius, the Celestial Archer, or escorted by the archangels.

But did they later descend again to be reborn, in a cycle of reincarnation?

A true Tarot tale

I have been asked, do I believe in reincarnation? Everything gets recycled. I don’t disbelieve in it. I don’t know. But so many people do believe in reincarnation. The Hindu and Buddhist philosophies believe in reincarnation, while Easter is the great Christian celebration of Resurrection, signifying the hope of the soul’s eternal life.

Nature is cyclical. The seasons run in cycles and life runs in cycles. The span of our lives seems linear because it represents such a short piece of a curve. And because mostly, we have no memory of having been alive before- and if we have such a memory- how do we judge it, to know it is a memory of a previous existence and not a memory of this one, altered in a dream vision.

Perhaps it is only logical and natural that some will see human life as cyclical too, not only in terms of successive generations, but in terms of the individual persona, spirit or soul as something that is continuously recycled. As Emily Dickinson famously wrote, ‘the mind has many corridors.’

Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh on Pexels.com

Many years ago I did a distance Tarot reading by email for a young lady who wanted to know, was her brother OK? This struck me as a strange question. I asked her, what did she want me to investigate that she could not ask him herself?

The lady answered that her brother was dead. He had committed suicide. She did not tell me more, nor did I ask about the circumstances, but these were her questions:

-Where was her brother now?

AND

–Was he OK?

I do not advertise as a psychic medium. Nor did I accept payment for this particular reading. I have, all the same, over the past twenty odd years, done a number of readings which have explored client’s questions about deceased loved ones, when the Tarot has facilitated me in offering feedback which only the client could verify. There been some deeply curious and strange, and equally, deeply moving responses.

Now, looking at this lady’s poor dead brother, wondering what on Earth the Tarot would make of this. I drew the Sun card, the card of sunshine, happiness, innocence, childhood. Birth.

The Sun is life itself. If our planet were closer to the Sun, or further away, there would be no life on Earth. People like to post images of Earth to make the point that we are tiny and insignificant. I think those images from space, the photographs taken by Cassini from Saturn, showing Earth as a teeny white dot make the exact opposite point; illustrating the enormity of the miracle of this ball of rock inhabiting the sweet spot at exactly the ‘right’ distance from the Sun for Life.

Where was he? How was he? Some might say, perfectly reasonably, that the question was nonsensical. That he was gone. That he was nowhere, or that he was in the grave.

But I am not in the business of pooh-poohing people’s questions, and she wasn’t asking anyone else. It was my Tarot she was asking.

It is hard to describe, but as you look deeper into a card, a door opens in the mind, or in the imagination if you wish to classify it as that. The brain wave activity has switched from conscious, intellectual, beta state wavelength to a more meditative alpha state wavelength, or maybe gone even deeper, into delta-wave.

a blue and purple wave on a black background — Photo by A Chosen Soul on Unsplash

I gazed into the Sun card, and it struck me that ‘wherever’ her brother was, or ‘whatever’ he now was, he was like a child again, sometimes awake, sometimes asleep. I received a strong impression- there is no other word for it- that he did not remember the moment of his death. Not at all. Nor did he remember whatever it was that drove him to it.

He was a little boy again. I was struck with a sudden but vivid impression. A small boy, kicking about, splashing in a puddle. Wherever he was, he wasn’t on Earth. He had his back turned to the Earth, but he wasn’t far out in space. Had not crossed the bridge of The Milky Way. The Earth was big and bright behind him. He was neither bored, nor sad nor lonely, simply quietly, happily preoccupied.

If her brother had any memories or consciousness surviving death- if that could be possible, then so far as I could detect, this was his afterlife, all trauma forgotten.

It may simply have been telepathy, and I was picking up on the lady’s own memories of her brother. I had never met her

But then, and this too was prompted by The Sun card, I told the lady to expect news coming soon, very close to home. A new baby was on the way. This was probably a birth within the immediate family, and whether it was a boy or girl, the Tarot was suggesting the possibility, however bizarre, that it was the soul of her brother being reborn. And if not, that he could choose to be reborn. He could. When he was ready.

The Sun card said that her brother would be returning, whether or not this new coming baby was her brother returning again (down through the Gates of Men)

I sent off this lady’s email reading, and three weeks later received an email in reply, telling me that her sister had just found out she was expecting a baby. Wouldn’t it be something, she joked, if she was going to be her brother’s auntie this time around?

That baby would be his or her own person. Unique. Not to be burdened or haunted by this previous tragedy. But if nothing else, the Tarot was proven absolutely correct in forecasting the imminent news of a coming birth in the family.

I would like to think the Tarot’s vision offered this lady and her family some kind of comfort, however odd, however peculiar, for a truly terrible grief. Some sorrows are more natural to be borne than others. Not all losses and sorrows are equally terrible.

I lost a new-born son, the day of the summer solstice 1993. But at least it was not violent. My mother tried to comfort me, that he would get another chance at life, would come again. And maybe so. But in the rawness of that moment, I could only say, he won’t be my child, he won’t be returning to me.

Some souls, it is said, wait many centuries before they are ready to get in the queue again. Others wait decades. Others only months. Time means nothing to them. It is when they feel ready. Just that.

The Star Child, Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick

I once had an experience that made me wonder. I was in the kitchen, stirring a pan when suddenly the kitchen changed around me. I was now standing in a very different kitchen with white walls, a stone floor, a high ceiling. It was simple, a few notches above basic, an urban kind of rustic, not rural. There was an open door to my left, with an evening light sunshine streaming in at a low angle, and I knew that the door led down steep stone steps to a small, rather dark cobbled courtyard. I was not anxious, but I was starting to wonder where Pietro was, and when he would be arriving home.

I had the idea that I was in northern Italy. I have never known any such person as ‘Pietro.’

A vision. A day dream? An hallucination? Of course. It could have been anything or nothing. It has only ever happened that one time. But it had a particularity and a familiarity, just in that fraction of an instant. A time slip? Some ancestral memory? I have no Italian heritage that I am aware of.

“There are more things in heaven and earth Horatio, than are dreamed of in your philosophy”-Hamlet, Shakespeare.

Indeed, Mr Shakespeare. There are many documented stories of people claiming that they have lived another life before this one; some so detailed, it almost beggars belief.

You can read some of these Stories here

Thank you for reading.

Till next time 🙂

The Decans of Pisces 2026

Last time we looked at the ancient story of Pisces, the season of the winter thaw and the spawning of fresh water fishes in the northern hemisphere where this mythos began with the stars as seen from this part of the planet. And we looked at the Pisces Sun sign Archetype. Now let’s take a quick look at the Decans of Pisces, and the astrological weather, so to speak, in Pisces Season 2026.

Western Tropical astrology as we know it today is believed to have originated in what is now modern Iraq, back in 2700-3000 BC/BCE. While the Mesopotamians (Babylon and Sumeria) were developing the signs of the zodiac and the concept of natal astrology, the astrologers in Egypt were developing the system of the decans.

Each of the 12 signs of the zodiac (Wheel of Life) represents 30 degrees of the 360-degree wheel of the zodiac, tracking the course of the Sun over a year. Each sign is subdivided into three parts of ten degrees each. These are the decans from the Greek word “deka” meaning ten. Each zodiac sign contains three decans, aka three blocks of ten days or so, and each decan has a different planetary co-ruler.

The Egyptians used Decans not only to tell time, but also to read the early celestial signs of seasonal changes, not least for guiding the governance of critical agricultural activities. Then the Greek astrologers adopted the decans around the 2nd century BCE, associating each decan with a planetary ruler, pairing them with stories and meanings related to the gods and mythologies in Hellenistic culture. This was codified by Claudius Ptolemy, an Egyptian astrologer of Greek descent, who referenced the decans and their planetary rulers in his work, the Tetrabiblos, in the 2nd century AD/CE, thereby enshrining their place in Western astrology.

The decans are not considered particularly significant by astrologers in general. Or not at the collective level, except for timing purposes. But in terms of a natal chart they do supply further clues, nuance and texture, supplying extra insights in respect of situation, stakes, character and potential destiny.

“If you’ve ever wondered why people born in the same sign seem different, the decans can help answer this puzzle,” – astrologer Rachel Lang.

I have found that using decans in Tarot cards readings may assist in attempting timings in forecasting. If I draw The Moon card or The Hanged Man, we may be looking at developments detected as likely to be occurring in Pisces season. But if I draw the Eight of Cups, we may be able to narrow it down to the first ten days of Pisces Season, i.e; 18/19 – 28/29 February. And so on.

Indian (Vedic) astrology, uses similar but distinct systems… like the nakshatras (lunar mansions), which divide the ecliptic differently.

First Decan Pisces

Pisces- Pisces

Dates: 19 Feb-29 Feb

Planetary rulers: Jupiter/Saturn

Tarot card: Eight of Cups

*Smith Waite Centennial deck © U.S. Games Systems, Inc.*

Card meanings: Walking away, moving on, cutting ones losses, leaving something behind, but not in anger. Reversed: disillusionment, regret

The first decan of any sign is considered the most archetypal or typical. Pisces makes for versatility and adaptability, while Neptune presents a yielding manner or appearance. This Pisces decan is rarely directly confrontational. This doesn’t mean they do not find ways to get their own way. But there is a sense of a push and pull going on here, just as the two fish of Pisces are pictured, joined by a starry cord, while swimming away from one another. On the one hand Jupiter, the original ruler of Pisces, means Pisces thinks big and steps forward. On the other hand, Neptune means Pisces is secretive, swims in circles, or hides in the weeds. Fish may be hunters too, of course, and lie in wait in ambush.

This Pisces native connects with other people on an unconscious level, almost hearing what they are thinking. Maybe they haven’t noticed this about themselves yet, or they take their telepathy for granted, but if this is you, watch out for the signs. Pisces, the sun sign ruler of the Twelfth House, is associated with endings, and all that is mysterious and unknowable. Including ghosts.

While Pisces may seem self-contained…and they are…this Pisces especially, has deep passions and their love life can be tempestuous. Their ideal partner will be lively and communicative with a can-do approach, but the first decan Pisces tends to go on a lot of detours before arriving or settling in their happy place or rightful destination.

They often look younger than their age, but they need to be especially aware of their dietary and other habits in order to protect their health; mood, and the chest, lungs and the feet in particular. Pisces is extra-sensitive to infection, food poisoning (dirty water) and the effects of overindulgence of alcohol or mood- altering drugs.

Second Decan Pisces

Pisces-Cancer

Dates: 1-10 March (approx.)

Planetary ruler: Jupiter/Moon

Tarot card: Nine of Cups

Card Meanings: the wish card, dreams come true, food and drink, the hospitality industry. Reversed: overindulgence, complacency, self-satisfaction

The sub-influence for this decan is Cancer, ruled by The Moon. Cancer is the natural ruler of the fourth house of home, family and security. These Pisces subjects are devoted family members, possibly more inclined than any other sign, excepting Cancer, to stay physically closer to birth family members. They may struggle to loosen parental ties, becoming fully independent, but must do so if they want to progress and develop and become the adult in the room (Saturn in Pisces.)

The zone of the sky from March 1 –10 houses the stars of the water of Aquarius, Eridanus The River, and the westernmost fish of Pisces. These are the faintest, most elusive stars. Now you see them, now you don’t.

These Pisceans blend in anywhere. Sensitive and psychic, like moss, this decan absorbs and retains what is happening around them. The undercurrents too. For the same reason these highly empathic people need to choose their company with special care.

Third Decan Pisces

Pisces-Scorpio

Dates: 11 March-20 March

Planetary rulers: Mars/Pluto

Tarot card– Ten of Cups

Card Meanings: contentment, completion, arrival, family life, stability, safety and security, team effort, a happy home Reversed: losses, family conflicts, break-ups, unhappiness

The sub-influences for this decan are Scorpio and its rulers, traditional Mars or modern Pluto. Energetic Mars and Scorpio – natural ruler of the eighth house of desire, willpower, drive and determination – bestows extra charisma, and the drive and determination to push forward. This Pisces native has the artistic creativity of Pisces/Neptune with extra sticking power to turn dreams into realities.

Pluto brings depth. Mars brings speed and energy of attack. This Pisces native needs to keep busy, with plenty of energy outlets. Pisces marks the completion of the zodiac wheel. This final decan marks the point at which we move into Aries, the cycle starts over again and Aries too, is ruled by energetic Mars. What these Pisces natives start, they finish.

These Pisces natives, like the other decans, are enormously attuned to their environment, but there is a tendency to stay somewhat more aloof and watchful, while less likely to blend in. They are highly observant, natural detectives, disciplined, well-suited to police work, and like its opposite number Virgo, this Piscean is not only super intuitive…while potentially pretty stubborn…but highly analytical, numerate, with a talent for investigative work. Pisces-Scorpio listens between the lines, homing in on what is not being said.

The Cusps of Pisces

Pisces is Pisces. But still, one may be more of an Aquarian Pisces, or more of an Arian Pisces.

Aquarius-Pisces: February 15-21

Aquarius-Pisces: This is a Pisces native with Aquarius tendencies; a person of high principles, quiet, refined, and with strong likes and dislikes. This Pisces native is likely to do a lot of travelling. They have executive capabilities and can earn or make a lot of money, but tend to become bored quite easily. This native as a young adult needs to be careful not to get trapped, committing too soon in a relationship that really doesn’t work well for them, simply out of a fear of being left on their own.

Pisces-Aries: March 17-23

Born on the Pisces-Aries cusp, this native is especially instinctive and brave. This mix of energy combines physical and moral courage with compassion for others which can make this Pisces individual a successful leader. This person is loyal to friends and colleagues and they are also generous, and eager to see others do well.

Famous Pisces subjects

Michelangelo, Copernicus, George 111, Albert Einstein, Neville Chamberlain, Sidney Poitier, Elizabeth Taylor, Yuri Gagarin, Michael Gorbachev, Osama Bin Laden, Steve Irwin, Steve Jobs, President Erdogan of Turkey

Pisces Season 2026

Pluto in Aquarius, and Saturn and Neptune, both now in Aries since February 20, are now the evolving biggest picture for the collective, the universal background, the supra-personal continuum, while the year of the Fire Horse only adds to the speed and impetus on the global stage this year in particular.

The Emperor in the Legacy of The Divine Tarot

The Fire Horse denotes action, force and momentum, courage and above all, stamina. Much emphasis is placed on the Fire Horse this year, given the extra powerful Aries conjunction of Neptune and Saturn in Aries signifying a reset to Zero, Spring, fresh new starts. The Individual. The Emperor. The rise of new Empires.

The Fire Horse, if viewed as Aries, symbolizes the power of governance and Heads of States. But…but…the horse may be a lead mare, or a lead stallion, but still, the horse is a herd animal. A herd of horses moves as one. Or a people moves as one.

group of horses — Photo by Mario Steinheil on Unsplash

A few dates to watch for this Pisces Season 2026…

February 27: Look up this evening for a stunning sight if the skies are clear. Jupiter will be right beside the waxing Moon, which will be above Gemini, with its “Twin” stars, Castor and Pollux.

February 27/28: Sun conjunction north node in Pisces, good for clear and productive exchanges.

February 28: Mercury (retrograde in Pisces since 26 February) is conjunct Venus in the second Mercury conjunction this year. The first conjunction was in cerebral Aquarius on January 29. With Mercury retrograde in Venus, we need to think again, to revisit what we first thought – and the emphasis is on thought, given that the first conjunction was in airy Aquarius. Now, other feelings surface that prompts a question to the heart.

March 1: Mercury sextile Juno in Capricorn.

March 2: Mars into Pisces until April 9. May work best for the third decan Pisces native. Read about it here at Cafe Astrology

March 3: Full Moon/Blood Moon/lunar eclipse in Virgo. The Moon will slip into Earth’s shadow in the early hours, turning a reddish colour as viewed across much of the United States. The Sun, Earth, and Moon are lined up perfectly, with Earth in the middle, and rather than going completely dark, the Moon glows red as the sunlight bends through our atmosphere, softly lighting the surface of the Moon just as the same effect gives us red sunrises and sunsets on Earth. No telescope needed.

A blood moon appears in the dark sky. — Photo by Erika Löwe on Unsplash

March 11/12: Jupiter goes direct in Cancer at 15°05′ signalling the end of a four-month retrograde period which began on November 11, 2025, at 25° Cancer. Jupiter will be staying in Cancer until June 30, 2026 and it is exalted in Cancer, the Fourth House of Home and Hearth, kith and kin, homeland and shared heritage. Tarot card is the Three of Cups. Happy times. Get togethers. Old friends. Good for home relationships and a renewed momentum with delayed opportunities in learning, teaching and travel.

March 18-19: New Moon in Pisces at 28 degrees. Beginning anew, powerful memories, dreams, ghosts. Something wistful, perhaps even a little sad. Inspirations, visions, perhaps a time to revisit and look again with a fresh eye at something we used to do, used to love; a cherished project. Memories of kith and kin. Nostalgia or regret. This is not only occurring at a degree in the last decan of Pisces, this New Moon, but in the last decan of the Zodiac.

Tarot card: The Ten of Cups. Mars in Pisces. The meaning and power of legacy.

March 20-April 19: Sun in Aries.

Many Happy Returns, Pisces. Saturn’s new two-year visit in your sector of income, and Mars surging through your sign in early spring, says your energy, passion, time and talent counts or translates in terms of new or added sources of income and reputation. There is what you can afford to share generously and freely, and what you may choose to keep in reserve, costed and protected in ways that honour your time, talent and artistic gifts. From July and August there may be a change in tempo, and likely some happy times around young people, or new pets or other animals During August, the North Node enters your twelfth House of Aquarius, and you find yourself balancing your obligations with a need for quiet time.

Take care, and thank you for reading.

Back soon 🙂

Stories of Scorpio: Part 2

The Death card and a psychic dream premonition

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is pexels-photo-5005210.jpeg — Photo by Jo Kassis on Pexels.comcaption…

Last time I was talking about on the origins of the Scorpio story: the history, natural history and the scorpion itself, the symbolism, and the astronomy and astrology. Now for a further look at the archetype.

The Scorpio Archetype

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 zodiac signs paint a ‘poetic’ portrait of a person born at a particular time of year.

Scorpio is The Sorcerer, The Witch, The Investigator, The Hypnotist, The Alchemist and the Necromancer. Scorpio is also the World Serpent, and the Eagle, and the mythological Phoenix, the fire-bird of resurrection, as new life rises from the ashes –The Phoenix.

a blurry photo of a yellow flower — Photo by Egor Litvinov on Unsplash

Scorpio is the season of fast dwindling daylight and with this comes the new season of chills and influenza. The medical salt associated with Scorpio, the tissue cell salt Calcium Sulphate, performs a cleansing and cooling function in the body. Injury or infection may produce pus which may form a boil, and then the boil bursts, expelling infection and with it, expelling the dangerous heat of inflammation. But better out than in. Though like a volcanic eruption, the immediate aftermath may be destructive. This can be viewed as an allegory of world events.

What has been festering, must either turn inward, bringing sepsis, rot and death, or must find a way to break out. Scorpio breaks out with heat and violence and/or conceals by means of stealth, wealth, secrecy and intrigue.

New readers will often discuss the water cards in terms of how healing they are, and and sensitive, ‘spiritual’ and emotional. True. But great emotions will just as readily wreak great turmoil. There are terrifying floods. There are storms at sea. Heaven help Jamaica at the time of writing. There are tsunamis. The fixed water sign that is the Scorpion of the zodiac is ruled by Mars and the red star Antares. It doesn’t freeze. It may steam. It may simmer. But it may scald. It may boil.

a pot sitting on top of a fire next to a log — Photo by Adams Arslan on Unsplash

The cards representing the fixed water zodiac sign of Scorpio are The Death card, The King of Cups, and the Five, Six and Seven of Cups.

The Death card sits in between two mutable cards: The Hanged Man card of Pisces, denoting twelfth house matters, hidden matters, and a time of inaction, and Temperance of Sagittarius, representing ninth house matters, and the power of right timing and targeted action, just as the arrow of the Archer flies to its mark.

Temperance is also the card of healing where Scorpio is Life or Death.

The Tarot is saying that Death too may be a way of healing. Or rather perhaps, that Death itself is healed. That the Dead go forward into the unknowable with the safe escort of the angel of Temperance, thought to be Michael, the angel of Fire, returning home again. They are going home to the source whence they came, reascending though the Gate of the Gods in Capricorn, rising through the Milky Way, straddled by the constellation of The Archer.

As mentioned last time, and the tarot readers here know all this, the major arcana card in the Tarot representing Scorpio is the Death card, one of the most feared cards in the Tarot deck. Note the Biblical ‘pale horse’ of Death and the white rose. The rose signifies beauty and immortality. The rose is meant to suggest all that has ever once been, is recorded somewhere, somehow, forever.

The Death card is rather played down these days. Many readers rush to assure us that the appearance of the Death card does not predict a death, or not in the physical sense. Rather, it is the end of a chapter. And this is often true. But not always. I have learned in my own experience as a reader, the Death card can mean exactly that, and there can be no bottling out. The Death card demands we face the truth of our existence.

A long time ago I saw in a dream the death of a long-ago neighbour, a friend of my parent’s. She was still only quite a young woman, the mother of five children. I woke haunted, the dream was still so vivid, and it sat with me all day. I had not seen this family friend, let’s call her L. for some years. What was she doing in my dreams? So often, when we wake, if we remember them, we clearly see that our dreams have only been processing recent events and conversations.

But what do you do with a dream like that? What can you do? Nothing. You forget it, blame it on cheese at bedtime, or you might log it and put it on one side. A fortnight later I was visiting my parents, and while I was helping my mother in the kitchen, I said, “by the way, Mam, how is L. W.…have you heard from her at all lately?”

My mother turned sharply. Her face set hard like stone.

“Why do you ask?”

“I had such a strange dream about her.”

“Tell me.”

I described the dream. How I had seen people and cars arriving at L’s house one street away from where we had used to live when I was growing up. Some, though not all of these visitors, wearing black. But it was my mother who opened the front door to greet them, and not L or her husband. L did not appear in this dream, herself.

The absence of L, at her own front door, with visitors arriving dressed in black, said this was a dream of death.

And now my mother told me, she had just heard from L’s husband who was a close colleague of my mother’s, that L., only fifty at the time, the mother of five children, a fun, brave and vivacious person, a real fighter always, a local politician, an educator, and something of a social justice warrior, had just a few days previously been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour.

In terms of the date, I will never know how closely the news of this dreadful diagnosis coincided with the dream of the funeral or wake. But how much closer did it need to be, my God.

L. had been in a minor road traffic accident. She had hit another car, no great damage done. But she hadn’t seen the other car. So she went to the opticians who saw something he did not like the look of, who referred her to a specialist and then they found the tumour.

How long did dear L have, my -always very hard-headed- mother now asked. How long did I think?

I am a Taurus sun sign sun native. People may not tend to think of the earthy mid spring sign of Taurus in terms of all things psychic, supernatural or occult. But The High priestess which is widely associated with Pisces, represents Hathor and the Bull Cult of Apis, and Walpurgis Night is in Taurus, April 30, May Eve, the spring time equivalent of Halloween and all things the other side of The Veil. The crescent moon of her headdress does double duty as the cow horns of Hathor, her throne festooned with the pomegranates of Persephone, queen of the Underworld.

Scorpio is the opposite sun sign of Taurus and vice versa. The shadow sun self, one might say, while my own personal Taurus natal sun is in the eighth house, ruled by Scorpio.

We are not defined by our birth charts. Or by our sun sign. We are zodiac kaleidoscopes. But still, we are the children of the place and season into which we were born. The rocks, the light, the animals, the flowers, the birds, the skies at night at the time of our birth. The hours of daylight and the vitamin D of our mothers. The melatonin. Our zodiac sun sign is our touchstone and our totem.

Back to my mother’s grief stricken question. How long did our friend L. have? Those children at home, and the youngest still only little? Of course I do not know the answer to such questions. Nor do I want to. But I told my mother what I felt, that she had maybe two years, and sadly, it was not even quite that. L died at home one night aged 52, sitting up suddenly, fighting for air, in the bed she still shared with her husband, and with her mother who had come to stay to help with the children, there in the next room and beside her when she died.

God bless and keep L. and her mother, now also long gone, detaching gently from the tree like a faded leaf.

But unpopular Pluto, Hades, lord of the Underworld has a compassion all his own. It is not Death itself that is our enemy, or the enemy of Life itself, but despair. Like the song says, after all, the ‘Seasons Don’t Fear The Reaper’.

Scorpio confronts us with Death. But this is not about any kind of a death wish. It is the cry of Life’s own longing for itself.

Many years later, when I started to work with the cards, I was trying to understand more about this dream, and other such experiences. Where did such dreams come from. And what was the point of them? What good did they do anyone?

I did not like it. But it is what it is. And later, when I started to learn to read the cards, I sometimes saw death in the cards, although I will never predict it. But still, a reader should be prepared to “go there” and at least discuss it if someone asks in all seriousness. To walk the road alongside. No ducking the tough discussions. There is much that can be discussed. Not least, family matters. Usually, a legal professional is already being consulted, as is wholly appropriate. But people have still wanted this other kind of conversation and there is a careful, critical line between respect, ethical responsibilities, and officiousness or nannying.

It is important to note that there are other cards in the Tarot deck that may indicate a death. The Three of Swords or the Six, Nine or Ten of Swords, for instance. The Death card, in my experience so far, has tended to denote a peaceful natural death.

The entirety of human experience is encapsulated past, present and the future unknown in a deck of only 78 cards. It is of no use for a reader to seek to work with the tarot or any oracle, shirking the most difficult questions, though we must still adhere to strictest ethics, and like Hippocrates, first we must do no harm.

It’s a tricky line at times. Readers are on the one hand, fallible, and need to remember this at all times, while on the other hand, to be of service, we have to trust ourselves sufficiently to speak clearly, and to the heart of the matter in service to this oracle of the human spirit.

full moon covered with clouds — Photo by Hulki Okan Tabak on Unsplash

“The man, who has seen the rising moon break out of the clouds at midnight, has been present like an archangel at the creation of light and of the world.”~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Old age is not our natural birth-right. Few animals reach old age living in the wild. The scorpion itself lives 2-3 years in the wild…although in captivity, incredibly it may live 25 years. The price of freedom, hey? But it is this sharp focus of such an awareness that gives Scorpio its drive, intensity, its passion, or its preoccupation with the “darker” side of life, and with the occult and the mysterious, but also its power of regeneration, and the drive to procreate new life.

Thank you for reading.

Back soon…the decans of Scorpio, and Halloween

Till next time 🙂

Today’s Tarot: 28 January, The Moon card and the waning moon in Virgo

Today’s card is The Moon, and this is likely to be a theme for many of us one way and another over the next few days. The illustration is from the Astrology Reading Cards deck.

Astrology Reading Cards: Your Personal Guidance From the Stars: 96pp book & 36 full colour cards

The Moon card means many things in physical concrete terms, not only in terms of what is emotional or abstract, immensely powerful or consequential as these invisible workings are. But The Moon also speaks in literal terms of observable, material phenomena and events, including floods, diseases, pandemics, infections, poisoning, or the menstrual cycle, conception or pregnancy.

And the Moon card is not wrong of course, deciding to show up today. We are after all in Aquarius, THE season for floods, colds & contagion, in the northern hemisphere at least. Such are the seasonal workings of nature. The Moon card is Nature itself, the ebb and flow of the tides, and the governance of all cycles, and fertility.

The Moon can mean all these things, plus powerful dreams, psychic insights or even ghosts…or it can mean confusion, delusion, paranoia, lies, infidelity, our deepest fears. The Moon is our wild side, walking on the wild side. The dog and the wolf. Our home side and our OTHER hidden side, or our hidden potential. The foragers, the naturalists and the animals, the hunters and the hunted. Let’s all go bark at the Moon or howl….while the crayfish signifies secrets emerging from the hidden depths of the water.

Is there something here for someone to do with salts, sea salt, the kidneys or diuretics? This is not a prediction, only an observation.

First Decan of Aquarius

We are still in the first decan (ten days of Aquarius) which in tarot is represented by the extremely challenging Five of Swords (defeat, chagrin, or a pyrrhic victory that comes back to bite someone.) We’ve already discussed this card in recent posts, and the reputation of Aquarius as the Babylonian “Curse of Rain.”

Five of Swords from the Tarot Illuminati

Once upon a time I did a reading for a lady who asked me to draw a card about her father. She was worried about him. I drew The Moon and asked about flooding, and she explained that he lived in Bangladesh. His house had been badly flooded the previous month, leaving a lot of damage, and he was in frail health.

two people in a small boat on a river — Photo by Nishaan ahmed on Unsplash

The Moon can, on occasion, be speaking literally in respect of timing issues, indicating something that may happen in a month’s time or a Monday. Surrounding cards may suggest to the reader which of the two seems more likely.

The Moon in Virgo

Today’s waning Moon is in Virgo and the moon will stay in Virgo until Tuesday when it moves into Libra. Virgo is the sixth house of the zodiac, to do health, food, arts, crafts, household management, duty and service to others. Virgo is also the sign of lab analysis, medical tests and so on. Those born under Virgo, or with Virgo rising or a Moon in Virgo are known for a talent for art. But the Virgo artist is still somewhat scientifically inclined. Big on technique. Virgo dots the “i.” There is a certain analytical flair, making them suited to investigative work of all kinds.

Many of us, it stands to reason, especially this time of year, are preoccupied with health matters or test results at this time. However this is a waning Virgo moon which in symbolic terms, says an seasonal illness or infection is – slowly- on the way OUT.

The old Norse rune LAGUZ (lake) carries this meaning in divination, and may be used magically for protective purposes to do with travel or health. We draw it on a piece of paper, say its name, call on it, asking for its agency. It looks like this…

The Moon card can be referring to far travel and events at sea, when it may be warning us about the risks of travel, and reading the fine print if we are thinking of booking such travel at this time. What is the cancellation policy? Make sure you insure it to the hilt.

The Moon may be referring to a risk of food poisoning. Beware buffets, says The Moon card, except for small domestic or social ones. or ones you have prepared yourself. The Moon can be poison where a Virgo Moon rules the digestion.

The homeopathic cell salt associated with Virgo is Kali Mur- potassium chloride.

“It is most beneficial dissolved in warm water for cramps in the stomach, or crushed and rubbed onto the gums of infants for colic. Kali Sulph No 7: Virgo rules the alimentary canal. Its salt is a cell oxygenator, supporting the action of Ferrum Phos (iron phosphate)”

All in all, The Moon is a tricky card, and mighty powerful. Its gifts are immeasurable; its mysteries, its governance of the cycles of the tides and fertility.

The immediate takeaway here, apart from the things we’ve already touched upon, is to do with watching our words at this time, choosing them with utmost care and double checking everything. It’s not a case of being over-vigilant. We are always right to trust our instinct, but if we get stuck up in our heads, now we are grinding the wheels, engaging in wishful thinking or worry, and that’s not the same thing. Instinct is felt in all of the body. Moonlight shadows can play strange tricks.

It’s about working with daylight, dealing in workable facts, and when we are in doubt, sticking with those workable facts. Does this stand up to scrutiny under the microscope? Sometimes our worries can get the better of us, and we may misconstrue comments or situations in the light of that worry. Virgo is big on investigation.

green and white typewriter on blue textile — Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

The Moonstone

Moonstone Gem Guide and Properties Chart

The Romans and the Greeks associated the Moonstone with Artemis/Diana/Cynthia/Selene…the many names of the goddess of the Moon. In India, the moonstone was seen as an amplifier of divine wisdom or clairvoyance.

Moonstone, also written as moon stone, is a unique form of feldspar; a sodium potassium aluminum silicate. The feldspars are the most common group of rock type on the surface of the Earth, but vary widely in their makeup.

“The name moonstone derives from the stone’s characteristic visual effect, called adularescence (or schiller), which produces a milky, bluish interior light. This effect is caused by light diffraction through alternating layers of orthoclase and albite within the stone. The diffracted light varies from white to blue, depending on the thinness of the albite layers…” via Wiki

Magical uses: calming, stress relief, clarity, clairvoyance, right brain stimulation, lucid dreaming, hormonal support, strengthening the “yin”-feminine power and protection.

Something needs sorting, putting in better order. The waning Moon in Virgo says tidiness is the order of the day. Stuff, paperwork, health, home. The Moon card is always to be treated with an element of precautionary care and discipline when it appears, but this is a largely benevolent moon.

“For broken dreams, the cure is, dream again and deeper.” C.S. Lewis

person seated on grass — Photo by Илья Мельниченко on Unsplash

Thank you for reading, and my best wishes to you.

Back soon.

The sure-footed Four of Pentacles, Hecate and the January New Moon in Capricorn

We have now entered the cosmic territory of the third and final decan of the sun sign territory of Capricorn the wise, celestial Mer-Goat.

(We have looked at the origin myth of the Sea-Goat in a previous post: https://katieellenhazeldine.substack.com/p/songs-of-solstice-salutations-capricorn)

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.

person holding green plant stem — Photo by Jonathan Kemper on Unsplash

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.

Hecate, goddess of the New Moon

total lunar eclipse — Photo by Mark Tegethoff on Unsplash

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.

Bon courage. Thank you for reading.

You can also find my posts on Substack: https://katieellenhazeldine.substack.com/

When Mars goes into Capricorn….

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.

More info HERE

But Gaia will settle again, and so will we.

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.