Fed up with the beauty industry’s impossible standards, Giselle La Pompe-Moore set out to heal her relationship with her skin at soul level. She explains why skincare is a spiritual practice …
Giselle La Pompe-Moore
Have you ever thought about your skin beyond aesthetics?
We can spend hours in front of the mirror analyzing every pore and perceived flaw, but we rarely see beyond this. But on a deeper level, our skin is a barrier between our internal and external worlds. Something both public and deeply personal at once.
This skin allows us to experience the universe around us, to touch and be touched in return. This is why skincare is a spiritual practice.
The color of my skin was different from most of the people I grew up with, and from the women I saw in the media. I loved my skin, but as a black woman I always felt like an “other.” Was always comparing my skin to that of somebody else. The black women I DID see on TV and in magazines seemed hyper-real, with flawless, perfect skin. In an attempt to replicate this for myself, I pursued a career as a beauty editor, drowning myself in products.
Over the years, I began to notice that while creams and treatments can heal the skin externally, they do nothing to address feelings of not being good enough, of shame, and of endless comparison.
And so I took a step back to shift my focus from how skin looks on the outside to what it reflects about our inner life. To investigate the impact of spiritual tools, such as reiki, meditation and tarot, on our relationships with the skin we are in.
Now working as a healer specializing in skincare, I’ve seen how acne, psoriasis, dermatitis, and eczema have impacted the way my clients move through the world. I’ve listened to stories about what they’ll do once their skin is “healed, better, or different,” while denying themselves of the life they could be living right now. I’ve also learned that our skin is the physical embodiment of our innate self-worth.
Whether you’re working through a skin condition, are struggling to accept your physical appearance, or want to add some spirit to your skincare, here are the tools that I’ve used on myself and my clients to help shift our skincare mindset …
///
1// Give yourself a crystal facial massage Crystals can work wonders helping to set intentions around your skin—and one way is with a crystal facial massage. Here’s how to do it:
Choose a crystal that symbolizes your skin intention. Pink Transparent Calcite (for non-judgment and comparison), Apatite (willpower for shifting your skin mindset) and Malachite (forgiveness, committing to this journey) are some of the crystals I’ve prescribed to clients.
Get comfortable, cleanse your space, and connect to the crystal. Hold it in your hand and feel its energy. As you hold it, visualize your intention. If it’s to help you to forgive yourself for the unkind words you’ve said about your skin in the past, imagine this forgiving energy passing through your body. Then ask the crystal to offer you support and guidance in achieving this.
With the crystal in front of you, start to massage all around your face in upward and outward strokes using a face oil. With each movement, feel your intention sinking into your skin at the same time.
///
2// Journal to go beneath the surface A lot of our limiting beliefs about our appearance reside deep below the surface. Use journaling to investigate your relationship with your skin and unearth subconscious beliefs.
Here are a few questions to start with:
-How would you describe your skin? Think about the language you use, is it positive or negative? -What does the word ‘comparison’ bring up for you, in relation to your skin? -What memories do you have where someone made a comment about your skin or appearance and how has this had an impact on you? -What has your inner critic said to you today? Do you believe what it told you? How do you usually talk to yourself when you’re in front of the mirror?
Through journaling, I realized that I used only negative words to describe my skin and would skip past the features I liked. So I decided to start accentuating the parts of my face that I did love, like my lips. See what comes up for you and what tools you can use to release and heal these limiting beliefs. I’ve used tapping (Emotional Freedom Technique), binaural beats and visualization in response to what I uncovered in my journal, and written letters to my skin.
Giselle guides a client
///
3// Synch your skincare with the Moon The phases of the Moon phases can provide a mirror to examine our self-image triggers, and a framework for charting our inner work and emotional landscape over a period of time. Here’s how to incorporate each phase into your skincare routine …
New Moon. Use this time of new beginnings to set an intention for your skin. It could be to reconnect with your skin. Start with self-massage, simply feeling the skin beneath your fingertips. This is also the time to add any new products in to your beauty routine.
Waxing Moon. Check in with the intentions you set at the New Moon, examining how you’re feeling about your appearance now, and thinking about how you can move closer to growing your intentions and reconnecting with your skin. Your skin is also the most absorbent and receptive to nutrients now, so add in a serum with hydrating properties or a nourishing face mask.
Full Moon. Take a moment to celebrate yourself, thanking yourself for all of the work you’ve been doing to shift your skin mindset. There can be heightened emotions and energy at this time, so make sure you’re filling your cup back up with restorative baths or an Ayurvedic abhyanga massage.
Waning Moon. Use this phase for journaling and exploring the limiting beliefs that might have come up for you over this cycle, reflecting on what you need to release in order to grow. To support this internal cleansing and shedding, use an exfoliating body scrub, try body brushing, or add in a detoxifying charcoal soap to draw out impurities and toxins.
Dark Moon. Give yourself a break! It’s easy to end up with spiritual overload, I’ve been there many times – digging into shadow work, past life astrology, and the deepest crevices of my psyche all before lunch ain’t easy! Allow yourself this time to restore, heal, imagine, and to press pause.
///
4// Use the tarot to talk to your skin The tarot is a powerful tool for working on your mindset and self-worth, and I use it daily for both myself and in my rediscovery: skin sessions. You can start with a single card pull, asking the deck to show you how you can work on your self-image. Use the cards to start a conversation with your skin and listen to what it needs.
Example: In the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, the Two of Swords depicts a blindfolded woman with two swords crossed over her. The moon is above her and a body of water lies behind her. This card is all about taking the time and space to be still and look inwards. To embody this card, think about how you can create a boundary that allows you to dive into your own self-care. Allow this stillness to offer you intuitive guidance as to where you’re in need of healing and any areas of low self-worth. Use this as an invitation to see through your third eye rather than your physical eyes.
///
5// Meditate for both mind and skin Meditation is a powerful tool for shifting our skin mindset, and for relieving the stress that can trigger or aggravate neuro-inflammatory conditions such as acne.
In sessions, I guide my clients through a skin-focused meditation, which fosters gratitude, forgiveness, acceptance, and kindness, and includes a simultaneous facial self-message that creates physical connection with the skin.
*You can download a version of this meditation HERE. You’ll need cleansed skin, a comfortable space, and a facial oil in easy reach, then plug in and tune out.
///
Giselle La Pompe-Moore offers one-to-one rediscovery: skin sessions that guide you to shift your skin mindset to a path of acceptance and gratitude. Her rediscovery: soul sessions incorporate reiki, tarot, and meditation. Both are held either virtually or in-person in London. She also hosts monthly Mirrorscope skin healing circles.
Dive into this month’s medicine for your sign with our Numinous Tarotscopes February 2019, cast by Melinda Lee Holm. Artwork: Prince Láuder
Art: Prince Láuder
AQUARIUS // AQUARIUS RISING The Lovers
Happy Solar return, Aquarius! Your birthday gift from the cards is a chance to cozy up to the concept of true partnership. While you are an exceptional friend, always ready, eager, and willing to help out, things can get a little sticky when it comes to the C word. The idea of commitment can sometimes get tarnished and dulled by conventional notions of settling down, falling into stale routines, and succumbing to boredom for the sake of stability. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can keep your beloved freedom and partner up – professionally or personally – benefitting from the support and talents of another, forming a whole stronger than the sum of its parts. The trick is in being very clear right up front about what you want and how you aim to get it.
As you begin another trip around the Sun, you’d be well-advised to test the waters of engagement early and often. Call up a friend to help you out on a project you’d normally forge ahead with alone. Finally say yes to that co-worker who’s always asking if you need any help. Go on a date. The magic of true, healthy partnership is that it allows both parties to thrive as individuals within and outside of the context of the relationship. While no relationship of any kind can exist without some sort of conflict, a great partner should keep you mostly feeling more powerful, productive, and inspired than you would be alone. Get out there and find out what it takes to have and to be the best partner you can!
Aquarius stone for February: Rhodonite opens and soothes the heart to allow a free outpouring of love and compassion. It promotes unconditional care for and appreciation of others.
///
PISCES // PISCES RISING 10 of Wands
It’s the shortest month of the year Pisces, but it just might end up being one of your most productive. The great creative forces of Fire are waiting at the ready to burn through your to-do list in lightning speed and leave you time for more fun creative pursuits. Fire is the element of action, intuition, creativity and magic. The items on your list may or may not take place in the material world. Maybe you have a list of concepts you’ve been wanting to get around to mulling over, some ideas or political positions you’ve wanted to explore a bit more before forming an opinion. Now’s the time! Your processing speed is unrivaled throughout February, so focus in on what you want to accomplish and start checking those boxes.
The thing about the tens is that they anticipate a return to the Ace. You don’t usually build up from the ten, you circle around and begin again. So make sure that you’ve got your eye on the prize voted most likely to make you feel like a total champion once you wrap it up and tie it with a bow. This is a month for Big Chores. Passion projects are fueled by another beast, they are buoyed by emotion and existential need. Save them for a rainy day. This is your opportunity to tackle the things that you avoid eye contact with, the things you stay feeling guilty about because they seem too big to get into. Open your eyes and mind and step bravely into your new accomplished future.
Pisces stone for February: Gold Sheen Obsidian ignites the solar plexus, illuminating previously unrealized talents and the confidence to use them while clearing away any energetic blockages to success.
///
ARIES // ARIES RISING 8 of Pentacles
You are getting down to the nitty gritty this month, Aries, digging around in the dirt to find exactly what sort of environment will suit you best in the long term. When I say environment, I mean it in the broadest possible sense. This being the suit of Pentacles, the most obvious interpretation is a physical environment, the material world that serves as your home. If this is where your mind instinctually focuses, go there. Rearrange your furniture, get into that tidying show everyone is freaking out about, throw some paint on the walls, whatever it takes to get your home environment to a place where it feels like it’s supporting you and not stressing you out. And if the place itself stresses you out and you have the means, get a new place.
However, there is more subtle interpretation of environment that also relates to the realm of Earth. The sort of color and buzz of the air around us, the charge of a space, the space in between that holds us all together. February is your time to make sure that THAT environment is set up in a way to support you long term as well. So if your apartment is editorial perfection, sit in it with your eyes closed and feel where it needs another kind of tune-up. Refresh your altar, ask your crystals whether they’d like a new view, experiment with a different cleansing modality than you usually use. The Pentacles don’t have to be all work, but they do have to work for you and this month you can make that happen.
Aries stone for February: Hematite grounds the energetic and physical bodies and brings focus to the mind, allowing a steady pace of productivity to unfold and progress.
///
TAURUS // TAURUS RISING Wheel of Fortune
While the Wheel of Fortune can bring frustration to some, I am betting hard on this being a VERY cozy place for you to live this month, dear Taurus. The glory of the Wheel is that it brings everything in accordance with Divine timing. The cruelty of the Wheel is that it brings everything in accordance with Divine timing. You get what I’m saying? Surrendering to the timing of the Universe can be a huge relief or an extreme challenge. Commit to choosing the former now. Meet all goals, personal and professional, with an open mind and heart and an attitude of “this or something better in accordance with the good of all beings.” Sometimes we focus so intently on pushing on a particular goal that we cannot see a new opportunity flying right in front our face.
To be clear, I don’t mean to suggest you take your foot off the gas completely. We all need to do our part to keep this ball rolling. Letting go of the fantasy of control does not release you from responsibility. Rather, it focuses you on your specific tasks, opens your eyes to what you can control, and directs your energy to places it can be of greatest use. My goal here is simply to invite you to take in the scenery as you go, pay attention to signs, and if you hit crazy traffic, pull over and have a cup of coffee instead of sitting in your car fuming. You never know who might be waiting to meet you in that cafe!
Taurus stone for February: Blue Calcite eases worry and anxiety by opening communication with inner and Divine truths. It allows all levels of being to rest and be rejuvenated.
///
GEMINI // GEMINI RISING Page of Wands
Ooo, Gemini, I like this movement for you. Hot on the heels of the master of manifesting abundance, you’ve got the open, experimental nature of the Page here to bring you new ways to play with Fire. Experimentation is kind of like having a really great conversation with yourself, something you are very adept at in the best ways. This month, that ease of developing and exchanging ideas is going to take root in a more intuitive place, bypassing the potential pitfalls of the analytic mind and instead taking hold in a more ancient animal instinct zone. You’re going to find all sorts of ways to express your creative impulses – personally, professionally, spiritually, magickally. This is a rare oppotunity to really expand your experience of your own power.
Say yes as often as you can to situations that allow you to explore new avenues of inspiration. Collaborate with new friends and with old friends in new ways, take art and dance classes, give yourself time to wander in whatever way and whichever direction you feel drawn to. This month truly is for you to play and there is no more playful element than the Fire that the Wands hold. It was some of our earliest real magic as humans to make it with our own hands and it still holds that promise and wonder energetically in our lives. What is the Fire you want to create in your life? Where will it take you? What will it transform and what can it destroy?
Gemini stone for February: Ammonite Fossils remind us of our ancient roots in the evolutionary chain, and focus our vision on how we can continue to evolve on this plane spiritually and energetically.
///
CANCER // CANCER RISING The Hierophant
As a cardinal water sign, you are a natural teacher, dear Cancer. Your open heart and deeply held desire to do good in the world tend to lead you to places and situations where you can be of service comforting and quietly leading. This month, that instinct is getting a huge boost and alignment with your highest spiritual aspirations, maybe even those you are not yet aware of. While we have much to learn from all cards in the deck, The Hierophant stands alone as representing an embodied teacher here on Earth. This teacher can come in many forms and can represent us encountering or becoming a spiritual guide. Ideally, it foretells both. The very best teachers operate with the understanding that there is always more to learn, that we can never know everything, that even the most learned and experienced can benefit from a good teacher.
This month, make time to listen to the wise around you. Engage in deep conversations with the people you find most inspiring, read their books, listen to their lectures, follow their guidance. If you’re drawing a blank, ask friends you trust who they follow and try their teachings on for size. At the same time, be open and willing to lend a sympathetic ear and a gentle guiding hand to those around you in need of some direction. This can be a casual conversation over coffee, a more formal mentorship relationship with a co-worker, or even volunteering to read to kids at the public library. The spiritual can flow through the act, not necessarily the content. The Divine is often quiet, like a little crab in its shell.
Cancer stone for February: Magnetite works to draw in to your personal sphere all that will be useful to you in the pursuit of any goals aligned with your highest purpose.
///
LEO // LEO RISING King of Wands
The King of Fire for my fiery king of the jungle. What a win, Leo! This energy is going to feel like a breath of fresh air, especially after the challenging introspection of last month. You are ready to burst out of your cage and into the world with newfound insight into what you want to experience and create. You’ll have a magic touch, able to turn drab to fab in the blink of an eye, whether in your personal space or any situation you happen to find yourself in. And I suggest finding yourself in as many situations as possible! Say yes to parties and social engagements, then focus on exactly how you want them to play out. I think you’ll find you have more sway than you may imagine on outcomes that seem from the outside to be completely out of your control.
Do be careful what you wish for. I am guessing you have a bit of cabin fever and may be tempted to focus on conjuring fun and adventure. I support that. All I ask is that you do it in a way that includes some measure of useful productivity. Itching to get out of town? Take a road trip with a friend you’ve been wanting to collaborate on a project with and make it a creative retreat. Want to go nuts on the dance floor all night long? Great! Stay hydrated and go easy on the booze so you get the physical benefits of moving that beautiful body without losing a day to a hangover. You get the picture. Have fun, keep it productive.
Leo stone for February: Aegirine is a great ally in facing challenges of any kind. It helps to clear negative thinking, allowing creative solutions and paths to emerge where defeatist thinking once was.
///
VIRGO // VIRGO RISING Queen of Swords
Well, Virgo, it looks like all that wandering last month really helped you to clarify some things. That big heart of yours has something to say and the absolute NEED to say it. The beautiful thing is, with the Water energy the Queen brings to the Swords, you can bet that you’ll have a gift for saying it with love. You have a reputation for being … particular. And sometimes that can come with assumptions of rigidity or being harsh or judgmental, but I see right through all that. Your attention to detail allows you see the heart of a matter. Your finely tuned vision sees the minutae others gloss over and you can be affected by what you see quite deeply. This is a gift.
This month, all these impressions you’ve been logging along your journey are coming into focus in a very personal, emotional way. My guess is you’ve felt a shift churning for some time that really came to the surface last month. Now you are ready to talk about it. Begin at home, in conversation with yourself. Sit and ruminate, journal, make paintings about it. Once you have your messaging on point, you can begin to bring it out in layers, first to your inner circle and chosen family, then out to wider and wider circles depending on the nature of your message. With your high ideals and aspirations and the Queen’s insistence on being felt and heard, you could be giving a speech or publishing an essay on a topic near and dear to your heart.
Virgo stone for February: Celestite brings a feeling of deep inner peace, allowing loving and well-received communication of personal truth to flow freely both within and to others.
///
LIBRA // LIBRA RISING 10 of Swords
You’re set up for high achievement in your native element, dear Libra, and I have full confidence you’ll put this energy to good use detangling some of the hairier mental predicaments you may have backed yourself into over the past few months. We all talk ourselves into a corner from time to time, either internally or right out in the open in front of everyone. That is a normal part of being human. The problem comes when the threads of our argument become so tangled that we can’t follow any of them through anymore. This is where the 10 of Swords excels, cutting through these knots to clear the path back to the pure truth of the Ace. So where are your knots, Libra?
I can feel you recoiling at the mere suggestion that some of your statements or positions may have caused chaos or confusion in any form. You have a deep desire for peace, and acknowledging having a part in disturbing it can be difficult. That’s ok. We’re not here to dwell on what happened, we’re here to forge ahead with grace and love! This month, focus on loosening your grip on the positions you take on issues great and small, on allowing some air in, letting the situation breathe a bit, relax out of an argument and into a rumination. When you do, you may find that some of your more challenging entaglements fall into discreet, sorted pieces all on their own, restoring the balance you hold so dear.
Libra stone for February: Aventurine encourages appreciation for and growth of loving abundance in all forms. It gently eases anxiety and turns the attention of the heart and mind to expansion.
///
SCORPIO // SCORPIO RISING 4 of Cups
Your brooding heart is craving some emotional balance this month, Scorpio, and the cards are here to provide. The fours are a real mixed bag for me. I get a little uneasy at the potential of a false sense of security that they can sometimes hint at. But I am into this one, especially for you, my fellow Water sign. I admire your ability to face the deepest and darkest emotions head on, to dredge them up from the sea floor to see the light of day. It’s hard work that few are willing to do and I know can get exhausting. This month, it’s your turn to rest. Let the depths lie. Now it’s time for you to float gently on the waves, integrating what you know and forming an internal foundation for heart-centered peace.
Whether you’re partnered or single, see how many ways you can find to be your own dream date. I hesitate to even bring it up, but my preference would be for you to ignore Valentine’s Day. Unless you have a tried and true way of celebrating with a partner, the pressure is just too much. Spread the celebration throughout the whole month and find small ways daily to celebrate love, alone or in relationship. True emotional peace cannot be given to you by another, it must come solely from within. You have such an incredible capacity for love and devotion, Scorpio. Focus that attention on yourself and see how blissful the calm waters can be.
Scorpio stone for February: Ruby in Zoisite shows us all we have to appreciate and celebrate in our lives. It brings a happiness that can only come from a deep true love for and acceptance of oneself.
///
SAGITTARIUS // SAGITTARIUS RISING Ace of Swords
Oh wow, Sagittarius! Straight from the King to the Ace. Look at you, fully integrating that Air mastery and getting right back in line for a fresh helping of Divine truth. While you’re staying in the highest vibrations of Elemental Air, the position you take within it will be quite different this month. In January you were in full delivery mode, shouting your message from the mountaintops. This month, you are the receiver, keeping your antennae tuned to the impulses of Divine communications emmanating from all corners of the world, all beings great and small. While this can sound overwhelming, you will have a knack for picking up exactly what you need to know exactly when you need to know it. Stay alert, stay open, and practice discernment.
The discernment piece can be tough. How do we stay open to messages potentially coming from literally anywhere and also discern which are truly Divine and which are a mere distraction? By maintaining high mental clarity. Drink plenty of water, meditate, get enough sleep, meditate, get some exercise, meditate. MEDITATE. Only with mental clarity can you trust your internal barometer to tell you when something just doesn’t smell right. We live in a world that blasts us with messages all day every day, and they all claim to be The Truth. It’s up to us to do the work to prepare for the onslaught, control our intake, and align with what supports our greatest good. Fortunately for you, Sagittarius, that should be easy to see.
Sagittarius stone for February: Covellite encourages diving deep to overturn stones hiding even the most uncomfortable truths, and assists in processing and integrating them for maximum growth.
///
CAPRICORN // CAPRICORN RISING 5 of Pentacles
Well, Capricorn, you are getting a lot of heavy lifting done right at the top of the year. This month, you’re clearing up some fear of lack that was likely left kicking around in the void left by all that energetic excavation last month. Know that this is normal, natural, and healthy. All of the Fives revolve around distorted perception creating chaos. In the suit of Pentacles, this twists our pereption of our material world, bringing up fears around poverty and material inadequecy. We all know that there is no amount of money that can magically make every person feel they have “enough.” That is made perfectly clear in witnessing the phenomenon of greed in the world. Material adequacy is a mindset that can be cultivated and maintained to alleviate unnecessary stress in our lives.
If your total bills are more than your total bank account balance right now, you either hate me or think I’m an idiot or both. That’s ok. If I can open you up to the idea that fear of lack is not a useful strategy to alleviating financial distress, I will consider this a great success. Whatever your circumstances, moving through change and through release work will bring perceptions of lack in one or more of the Elemental spheres. We tend to ascribe “reality” to that perception of lack when it manifests in the realm of Earth. I’m here to invite you to release that too, and to work towards an acceptance that leaves you with more energy to put toward shifting any situation that is truly not serving you.
Capricorn stone for February: Aragonite Star Clusters lend support in facing the root of our fears. They can open up channels of insight that bring the clarity and strength needed to move forward.
Dive into this month’s medicine for your sign with our Numinous Tarotscopes January 2019, cast by Melinda Lee Holm. Artwork: Prince Láuder
Art: Prince Láuder
CAPRICORN // CAPRICORN RISING Judgment
Happy Solar Return, Capricorn! You’re starting your year with a major clearing. How major? The depth and breadth and even the volume (spatially and aurally) are all up to you. The beautiful thing about the Judgment card is that it is self-directed. You are the one called to do the digging, to clear the clutter, organize, and finally make some informed and clear decisions about what stays and what goes. This means that if there are some areas that are too sensitive or too fresh to go digging around in right now, you simply focus on another area. One where the soil is loose and easy to move, free of heavy boulders and buried wires. You can choose some light weeding over a major excavation.
However, I do want to challenge you to look for the places that are juuuuuuuust barely ready, that you can push along a little further to get there. This is a major opportunity to make some space for things you want to actively invite into your life this year, while letting go of some long overdue extra baggage. We all have our security blankets – physically, emotionally, and spiritually – and they all have a life cycle. Look around for the tattered remnants of fabric that have started to drag you down more than they lift you up. Launch an expedition to the back of your closet and the bottom of the pit of your stomach to dredge up any rusted treasure you’ve held onto for too long. Then release it back into the wild and step lightly into your future.
Capricorn stone for January: Fuchsite creates a nurturing atmosphere for the heart to open and release any baggage or past woundings. It helps us to accept the past and move forward with compassion.
///
AQUARIUS // AQUARIUS RISING Temperance
My dear Aquarius, you are being called to bring a gentle start to the new year. Temperance is one of those cards that makes me instantly release stress. My Cancer Sun and Taurus Moon are attracted to the message of moderation, to not push too hard, to enjoy some quiet even in the midst of pressing deadlines and social calendars. I welcome the reminder to take a step back, pull my foot off the gas, and get a little better view of the horizon before deciding which way to steer the wheel. Are you with me? I am betting on it that you are. Your desire to stoke the flames of freedom in yourself and others makes you well primed to enjoy a chance to gain new perspective that can help feed that fire.
Throughout this month, keep an eye out for ways you can pull back to center. In work, home, love, and all the spaces in between, even out the energy through schedule modifications, dietary shifts, and a full accounting of habits, conscious and unconscious. I can feel you becoming skeptical of what could look like a month of restriction, but remember – this is all in the service of making sure that you have the best possible view on your current standing and situation so you can make informed decisions about how to move forward toward greater independence. Freedom from the constraints of tradition can only truly come when we take the time to examine where we are unthinkingly following a path out of habit, whether that habit comes from our culture, our family, or ourselves. Examine, reflect, and balance it out.
Aquarius stone for January: Amber bathes all that comes into its orbit with warm solar energy. It grounds us in the collective history of life on Earth so we may share in its strength and balance.
///
PISCES // PISCES RISING The Star
Oh, Pisces, you luscious, compassionate dreamer. Your year begins with the promise of eternal hope, the ancient Divine feminine splendor of The Star. The 8-pointed star is an ancient symbol of the Great Mother, passed down through the ages to represent such notable goddesses as Lakshmi, Ishtar, and Venus. In the Tarot we receive the wisdom of all iterations of this yin energy through their shared glyph. What greater gift than the hope of creation, restoration, nourishment, reconciliation? It’s a gorgeous outlook to have, particularly at this moment in time, and for your particular personality type. Your great big heart wants to see and to share the best in everyone and everything. You are being invited to indulge in that optimism and hope.
How can you put this into action? For starters, allow yourself to see the good all around you with a pure heart and without fear of being disappointed. Am I guaranteeing you wont be disappointed? Absolutely not. I’m a Tarot reader, not a psychic. I can’t tell you what will or will not happen. What I can tell you is that hope and outcome detachment are not mutually exclusive. Re-read that sentence for me. Now go forth and hope for the very best in and for yourself, your loved ones, and the world! And when you do, every time you do, tack on this little sentiment to the end: “… I will do all I can to help this come to pass while accepting any outcome with a gracious heart.” Practice makes perfect!
Pisces stone for January: Purpurite elevates consciousness into the ethereal realms, bringing heightened spiritual connection, and the freedom that comes with it, into daily life.
///
ARIES // ARIES RISING Two of Swords
You’re kicking off the year with a dose of intellectual wisdom, dear Aries. The classic Smith illustration is of a blindfolded woman, conveying what some see as a binding or restriction of her senses. I see her as more of a Jr. High Priestess, able to make a temple anywhere she goes using only the power of her own boundaries and mind. I have a trick I use for coping with traffic. When I see someone driving like a maniac, I say out loud “oh, I hope everythng is ok!”, framing their behavior as a response to an emergency, in which case it would be appropriate. I know the chances of them having an actual emergency are slim to none. I also know that I will never know for sure and that this framework keeps me calm and I prefer to feel calm. Instant mobile temple.
How can you reinforce the boundaries of your mind this month, Aries? Do you need to revise any policies about what goes in and what comes out and when? Your drive to express yourself is an enviable asset. This month gives you a moment to pause and consider whether your current mode of expression is accurately transmitting your message or if there are ways you could be refining the medium and method of delivery. This shouldn’t be a heavy thing. If it feels that way, then take a step back and ask for any areas of improvement to be gently revealed to you. We want this to feel more like a fun puzzle than a final exam.
Aries stone for January: Azurite brings a clarity of mind so sharp and profound that it can crack open insights into the Self and the world that blur the line between observation and psychic knowing.
///
TAURUS // TAURUS RISING Two of Cups
First, Taurus, let me say congratulations. This year it seems we are moving on from the lessons of Earth that fed you all through last year. And no sweeter way to make this transition than with the gift of pure true love. You know very well that true love exists in all areas of life, not just the romantic realm. True love can exist with and between between friends, family members, animals, and, particularly for you, the perfect meal and throw blanket. Love is the ultimate extension of comfort, the feeling that you are completely in the right place at the right time in the right company and that somehow you have been all along. It makes us feel that we are not alone in the world.
This month, spend as much time as you can with people you either know you love or suspect you could. Accept invitations to dinner parties and small gatherings, places where you can actually have a conversation with someone. Be the first to say hello. The more you offer the more you can receive. Think about how big a wave you can make with the force of your Watery push and see how it returns to you after bouncing off the shore of another heart. You could make real, deep connections now that benefit your life in untold ways. I’d even suggest taking the romance question out of it altogether and simply looking for that true heart connection in terms of general human relationship. After all, that’s where anything worth pursuing romantically is going to come from anyway.
Taurus stone for January: Blue Tourmaline opens connection with the Divine realm in the service of bringing peace and heightened emotional awareness, and can help resolve emotional trauma.
///
GEMINI // GEMINI RISING King of Pentacles
Plant those seeds and watch them grow, Gemini! You’ve got a serious green thumb this month. Exactly what type of seeds is completely up to you, though I highly suggest you keep it in the realm of Earth. This means thinking in terms of practicality, projects, and goals grounded in the material world that you can see and touch. Work is a great area to focus on, but so is anything related to your home. You have access to a certain kind of manifesting magick. The King of Pentacles won’t bestow special powers upon you. It’s more like it allows you to recognize the special powers inherent in other people and things, so you can organize your goals around the bounty of skills and supplies in your immediate sphere.
The really great news about this energy is that once you’ve channelled it to sort out your seeds and plant them, it kind of carries the progress forward for you from there. If you take advantage of it this month, you could be feasting on the fruits of your labor for the rest of the year. So, while you’re dreaming and scheming big and long-term, keep your January to-do list focused on the preparation and launch of your pursuits rather than getting into the actual execution. Exercise trust and patience and emphasize quality over quickness. Sometimes it feels like we’ve been waiting forever to mold our dreams into reality (and sometimes that is accurate!) Instead of letting that wait get you down, try to focus that energy into a devotion to nurturing your goals like you never have before.
Gemini stone for January: Amazonite connects the heart and the throat, allowing communication of deeply held desires within and with the world, paving the way to true abundance.
///
CANCER // CANCER RISING Seven of Pentacles
Time to throw those shoulders back and hold that head high, Cancer! You are spending January overcoming doubt in your own creative abilites. A great way to begin is by applying the old advice to “fake it til you make it” to your physical body, taking on the posture of confidence on the outside and allowing the receptors in your brain to pick up the cue and carry that feeling to the inside. The fear of failure or even worse, harsh criticism, can keep you safe in your shell, mitigating risk and stifling opportunity. This month is your chance to set a new normal for the year, to break through the glass ceiling you’ve built for yourself and climb on up to the next level.
First things first – eliminate the words “can’t” and “should” from your internal dialogue this month. You don’t need them. They color throughts with unnecessary limitations. Get creative and more specific with your self-communication. Something seem impossible? Get into exactly why (finances, times, etc) instead of blanket statements that send messages about inherent ability and worthiness. Get in the habit of talking about your goals in the present tense (“I am writing a book” instead of “I want to write a book”) and see how quickly you start forming habits that make these statements true. You are an emotionally fueled being. If you follow your heart, Cancer, the productivity will follow and your self-doubt will melt away. This life is yours. Go out and build it!
Cancer stone for January: Cavansite illuminates inner truth, allowing greater understanding of oneself and one’s abilities and true potential, and can help with gaining access to ancient wisdom.
///
LEO // LEO RISING Five of Cups
Be kind to yourself this month, Leo, and allow plenty of time to sink into some watery realms that may be unpleasant or uncomfortable. You are now ready to mourn some old emotional wounds you’ve likely been avoiding for quite some time. Sometimes when we’ve been hurt deeply, it is necessary to pack away the emotions in order to get through our daily lives. It is simply a fact of life that we are not always in a position to process our emotions in real time. But at some point, in order to stay healthy and continue to grow as people, we need to go back and recover what we felt and do the work to integrate the lessons and wisdom offered by the experience. That point in time is now.
You can do this work at your own pace, take small bites and chew them thoroughly before digesting, but make sure you begin right at the top of the month so you have as much time and space as possible to do this work. If you don’t know where to start, pay special attention to what comes up over new year’s. There’s something about the one-two punch of the holidays followed by the pressure of glitz and resolutions that tends to illuminate some areas ripe for emotional growth and renewal. How you process is up to you – therapy, journaling, magick, nature, spa therapy, talks with friends, etc. – you just have to do it! Put that Fiery nature to work to motivate and look forward to a fresh emotional start.
Leo stone for January: Jetpurifies energetic environments, lightening a heavy emotional load and clearing the way for the development of and will to harness personal magickal talents.
///
VIRGO // VIRGO RISING The Fool
Ooooo, I like this start to 2019 for you a LOT, Virgo! As a native Virgo Ascendant, I speak here from personal experience and love. Stepping off a cliff with perfect trust is not your strong point. You prefer planning. You’re good at it. You can spot a potential wrench in the works from a mile away and almost instantly conjure a solution to avoid or soften it. This month, I want to invite you to set that skill aside and embrace the art of wandering. Opt for curiosity over cunning and allow the world to take you on an adventure. Avoid making advance plans where possible, and instead see what comes up last minute. Trust that the Universe will place you where and with the company you need to expand into the new year.
Keep this as light-hearted as you can. Make it easy. Instead of bringing your lunch to work, wander down the street and see what you find. Take the train instead of driving. Got to the movie theater and buy a ticket for whatever film plays next. Order the special. While these may seem like silly or inconsequential ways to embrace The Fool, they work to set new patterns in your thinking and physiology that will let this energy seep into more serious area of your life, leaving you more open to exploration in matters of career, home, and love. This is where the magic is. Sometimes all of us need a little nudge from the Universe. Too rigid a stance can prevent us from feeling it.
Virgo stone for January: Serpentine loosens attachment to markers of identity and patterns of behavior, allowing movement into a new realm of action and existence free from past boundaries.
///
LIBRA // LIBRA RISING Seven of Cups
Libra, my beauty, to assist you in integrating your lesson for January, I’d like to impart on you some wisdom from one of my very favorite humans, RuPaul. At the end of each episode of his show, we are asked the rhetorical question “If you can’t love yourself, how the hell you gonna love somebody else?” It’s catchy, it’s wise, and it’s poignant, reminding us of all the times we thought we had loved and lost when really we were the ones we were searching for all along. I want you to keep this in mind as you head into a month of conquering doubts in your own heart. I find that of all the Sevens, the Cups can be the most challenging, mainly because emotion is so personal and intangible. It’s impossible to measure, difficult to assess progress.
All through this month, be looking for ways to love yourself more completely, more truly. Find out what makes you feel adored, cherished, appreciated. Be a great lover to yourself. As you do, keep track of what makes you tick, what words make up the vocabulary of your heart. Then, armed with this information, you can begin to hold others to these standards, to notice immediately when someone isn’t speaking your same language, and not spend too much time getting lost in translations. Know that any doubts you have around what your heart desires or is capable of can be easily overcome when you simply devote your pure, unconditional love to your own heart first.
Libra stone for January: Pistachio Opal promotes regeneration of mind, body, and spirit, particularly around the heart and emotions. It eases feelings of guilt and fear, bringing deep calm and inner peace.
///
SCORPIO // SCORPIO RISING The Empress
You catch more flies with honey, Scorpio! January has you opening up that gorgeous heart and letting it shine down on everything you want to grow in the coming year. The Empress teaches us that true abundance comes when we feed the object of our desire – a creative project, new business, home improvements, wider circle of friends, anything – with love. It can be frightening and even stressful to open your heart this radically, especially for someone whose heart runs as deep and dark as yours, but with some practice and patience with yourself, this can be an extremely fruitful exercise. The main thing is figuring out exactly what is represented by those proverbial flies so you can beam that love with laser focus and not get burned or burned out.
Spend the first few days of the month figuring out what you want to grow this year. The custom of new year’s resolutions usually has us thinking of things we can cut out (resolving not to eat sweets, drink alcohol, waste time, etc), but your focus will be only on what you want more of. Did that grab your attention? I am inviting you to be an absolute glutton for what makes you feel content, accomplished, loved. The trick is, you have to show and tell your appreciation for these things and people out loud, in the open, for all the world to hear. The Empress asks us to be as bold as we are discerning in our declarations of love.
Scorpio stone for January: Black Moonstone carries the energy and wisdom of the New Moon, asking us to open our hearts and our intuition to find what it is we are ready, willing, and able to manifest.
///
SAGITTARIUS // SAGITARRIUS RISING King of Swords
You’ve got the gift of gab this month, Sagittarius, and the clarity of mind to back it up. Air of Air, the King of Swords is blowing into your sphere to sort out any tangled thoughts, clouds of confusion, or mixed messages that have been floating around. I spend a lot of time trying to get clients to stop trying to “figure things out,” to bring that figuring down out of their head and into their heart and their gut. We humans like to solve puzzles with our big brains and it can be difficult to break the habit. Fortunately for you, you are being invited to lean HARD into that innate human desire and scheme and ruminate and solve as much as you can stand it – and to share your findings with anyone within ear shot.
The communication piece of the element of Air is key. All of those internal musings are really just communications with yourself, transmitting ideas back and forth between different intellectual frameworks and points of view. Communicating internally and externally with clarity and purpose is extremely satisfying both for the person sending and receiving the message. This month is an excellent opportunity for you to polish up and send out any messages that you’ve been wanting to get across. Be sure to take time to dig up any past misfires to get them cleared up and to make sure your words are not only clear and concise, but crafted to communicate with love. The last thing you want is to have an errant word cut into someone, causing them to hear only the pain and not the truth of your message.
Sagittarius stone for January: Muscovite stimulates mental activities and connects them to intuition and the spiritual realm, ensuring all problem solving and new ideas are grounded in Divine wisdom.
Dive into this month’s medicine for your sign with our Numinous Tarotscopes December 2018, cast by Melinda Lee Holm. Artwork: Prince Láuder
SAGITTARIUS // SAGITTARIUS RISING Six of Cups
Happy solar return, Sagittarius! You’re closing out the year and another journey around the Sun with a little congratulatory pat on the back – centered right over your heart center. Something tells me that ring of Fire you jumped through last month really boosted your intuitive powers, fueling the empathy needed to earn this achievement in the realm of Water. Sixes generally indicate a reversal of fortune after the chaos of the five, a hard-earned win after a long struggle. And because of that I always read in them a deep appreciation for the accomplishment they assume and a deep empathy for those who have not yet made it there. It’s like coming in out of the cold and looking back out onto the street, hoping those still walking are mere steps from their own warm solace.
Maybe what you’re looking out at is another part of yourself that hasn’t made it in, some piece of your heart that can’t quite catch its breath yet, still steeling against the wind. This month, find forgiveness and empathy for all those parts of yourself so you can lift them up and integrate this new emotional lift and use it to help others do the same. If you’re the type that doesn’t care much for birthday celebrations, make an exception this year. Have dinner with a few close friends. Allow them to celebrate the very fact of your existence on the anniversary of your entry into this world and as you do, really feel in turn how grateful you are that they’re here with you.
Sagittarius stone for December: Green Apophyllite. Green Apophyllite helps to cleanse and heal the heart through the power of the natural world, while its attunement to the energy of the Earth grounds our perspective.
///
CAPRICORN // CAPRICORN RISING Five of Wands
Lay down that magic wand you’ve been wielding, Capricorn! The time for action has hit a distinct pause. All that glorious conjuring that served you so well last month will not likely get you where you think it will this month. It is time to step back to reflect and observe. And look, I know the Fives have a bad reputation. We (me included!) tend to think of them as unwelcome bumps in the road, barriers to our progress. Let’s turn that around this month. I’ve got a Five this month too (Sun in Cancer), so I’m giving myself the same pep talk I’m giving you. Let’s spend the last month of the year changing our relationship to these challange points, welcoming them with open arms.
All December, I invite you to REVEL in disconnecting from taking action, from creating, from reading all the messages between the lines. You’ve accomplished enough for now. Sit back and enjoy the view. Even better – barely notice the view. Let the whole world roll past you and over and through you as you become very quiet and still. So still that you hear sounds within you never knew were there, the music of your body serenading you, blood pumping through veins and breath steadily moving in and out, cooling and warming as it goes. You can choose to be frustrated by this moment or you can take advantage of it as an opportunity to fine tune your inner frequency without any guilt around slowed productivity, with the knowledge that when you do make moves again, you’ll be wiser and better equipped.
Capricorn stone for December: Grape Agate.Grape Agate provides a safe haven to get settled, centered, and refocused. It calms the mind and body, allowing superficial stressors to take a backseat to more urgent needs.
///
AQUARIUS // AQUARIUS RISING Ten of Wands
It’s full steam ahead for you this month, Aquarius, so strap on your coziest work boots and get ready to feel utterly brimming with creative potential. These moments don’t come along often and when they do, there can be outside factors that make them a little sticky. With Mercury stationing direct on the 6th, and following up on all that great interior work you did last month, I feel you’re going to have a really nice period of productivity that will have you wondering how you got it all done. We usually need to slow down on our own projects when the holidays come around, but you are well positioned to elegantly navigate family and social obligations while bringing your own creative visions to life.
Exciting times! My guess is that something blew into your orbit in November that rekindled a previously forgotten desire of your heart, some long lost goal or creative dream. Now is the time for you to bring that dream into reality, into a form that you can see and taste and feel. If you’re unsure what this dream project is, call on the intutive aspect of Wands to guide you. Sit quietly with your eyes closed and ask for clues to be sent into your view that will point toward the most fertile areas of growth. Even if you spend all month doing this once a day without taking action, it would be a month very well spent. We can only make our world as big and lush as we can dream it. Dream big, Aquarius. You have the power to make it reality.
Aquarius stone for December: Shiva Lingam. Shiva Lingam stimulates the physical and energetic bodies, infusing both with the vibrancy and stamina needed to bring crazy dreams into reality through hard work.
///
PISCES // PISCES RISING Ace of Swords
Oh, Pisces, this is quite a Solstice gift for you! Your highly tuned empathic sense is the envy of the zodiac, but it can also lead to a murky sense of truth. After all, our perspective and experience determine what we see as real and if you’re able to tap into the perspective and experience of others with such ease, that reality can shift around quite a bit. But this month, you have the great gift of clarity both received and expressed. All of that careful assessment you got into last month is going to be rendered in super sharp focus, high definition realness. Be ready to accept what you see and trust yourself to speak to it. This Divine gift of reason and communication is precious, especially this time of year, coming off a string of retrogrades!
Your gorgeous sensitive heart may be made uncomfortable by what you can see now or by the directness of the words that come to carry your expressions. That’s ok. Instead of trying to avoid or suppress any discomfort, embrace it and turn this x-ray vision you’ve been gifted to the task of seeing where it’s coming from, what it’s rooted in, and what that tells you about yourself. Be kind and patient with yourself, offer yourself shelter, and hold always in your heart the joy of growing and evolving as a spiritual being and a human. And make sure you’re surrounded by your nearest and dearest on New Years. Something tells me you’ll improvise a speech that will leave no dry eye in the house.
Pisces stone for December: Opal. Opal inspires independent thought and action through a connection with one’s innate and deeply held personal truth. It offers the freedom to express oneself openly and honestly.
///
ARIES // ARIES RISING Page of Swords
You’re turning over a new leaf to close out the year, Aries! There must have been some beautiful and profound revelations that came out of the heart explosion you went through last month, and now you can get a better grasp on their meaning. You are stepping into a completely new style of communication with yourself and with others, forgetting all the rules you adhered to before. It’s a wonderful way to really feel the integration of all the lessons of not just last month, but the past year. The freshness of the Page energy can sometimes be seen as naive, but here it feels like an achievement, a sign of wisdom, an indication that you’ve gotten all you could out of the previous path and yearn to walk a new one, to learn more.
Allow December to be a clean slate. If there are stories that you’ve been telling yourself about who you are or can be or are capable of, let them go. In your relationships with others, step out of automatic repsonse styles and really consider what you want to communicate befoe your words come out. Open yourself to the wide open expanse of options in your thoughts, your intellectual frameworks, and your verbal and non-verbal expressions. Think of the whole world as your cosmic thesaurus, showing you variations on themes you never knew existed. And whatever you do, resist like hell any urge to fall into old patterns in your interactions with family over the holidays. That is your richest area for growth opportunity this month.
Aries stone for December: Optical Calcite. Optical Calcite offers the opportunity to see things, people, and situations through a different lens, challenging our own perspectives and opening understanding.
///
TAURUS // TAURUS RISING The Sun
Well, Taurus, here we are. You made it through all of 2018 digging around in Earth and Major Arcana and I have to say, I am deeply impressed. It’s a beautiful thing to see a year tied together like this and I truly hope you are feeling the culmination of lessons around creating the world around you in collaboration with the Divine Universe. And if you’re not yet, you will this month! December holds a beautiful illumination for you, a chance to see and believe as you haven’t been able to before. Your world is about to take on new form and color, new meaning, as you take in this landscape that has developed over the past year. Take time to drink it in and enjoy it.
December can often bring a tendency to overcommit, overschedule, and overindulge. Resolve early to not bite off more than you can chew – literally or metaphorically. You want to maintain a nice, calm center from which to survey your world – especially with the revelations of these retrogrades still waiting to be understood and integrated. It’s been quite a journey for you this year. What you see this month will bring it all into focus, revealing how far you’ve come and giving you hints about how to begin planning for the next year. Don’t forget – the other aspect of The Sun is that it provides the energy needed to grow fruit from the Earth. Takes notes on what seeds find their way onto your path this month.
Taurus stone for December: Garnet. Garnet grounds passion in reality, ensuring that we take an optimistic, yet realistic, view of our personal potential in a given set of circumstances.
///
GEMINI // GEMINI RISING Seven of Pentacles
December is bringing you a lesson in patience and your own power, Gemini. Be ready to encounter many opportunities to confront limiting beliefs about yourself and your productivity. While these may seem harsh or painful at first, know that they are here in the service of showing you how much you truly are capable of and to bolster your trust in your own ability to create. Sevens are about overcoming doubt, and you cannot overcome doubts you cannot name. Before they are named, we just think they are part of the fabric of our reality, a truth that tells us the boundary of our capabilities. So strap in and start digging early in the month. The more you can uncover, the greater the bounty of this work will be – and just in time for a fresh new year!
You know how everyone gets all excited when Mercury stations direct because things can start moving again? Well … don’t get too excited. Not about that anyway. What I want you to try to focus your excitement on instead is the action and process of work itself, the experience of it, feeling how capable your hands and mind are to create and build. The output isnt important right now, your trust in your own ability and your faith in the eventual outcome of that ability is. If you have difficulty with this, give yourself small reminders – set realistic daily goals, put one foot in front of the other, and see them completed by the end of the day. Trusting yourself is a practice. Keep working at it and let it unfold.
Gemini stone for December: Vanadinite.Vanadinite clears blocks to creativity and productivity, particularly those coming from within ourselves. It can unlock hidden potential and artistic avenues of exploration.
///
CANCER // CANCER RISING Five of Cups
Ok, Cancer, don’t freak out. I feel your deep sighs reverberating through the cosmos. Trust me, they were mine too when I pulled this card for us. What a way to close out the year, right? But then I challenged myself to push past those feelings and consider more deeply the implications of this mournful, chaotic energy, and now I am honestly stoked about it! That Page energy last month really stirred the emotional pot. Feelings were coming fast and furious, creating surprising reactions and the potential for huge transformation. We’re not who we were before. No one can be after making themselves so radically vulnerable and open, and we wouldn’t want to be. And now we have the chance to mourn the loss of our old selves before we step into the new year.
So often we are told we’re being dramatic or negative if we express a sense of loss when our situation changes or we evolve as people. We’re not supposed to admit attachment to lifestyles or mindsets that we’ve outgrown. But if we don’t acknowledge the attachment, we can never be released from it. So, let’s do this, Cancer! Ruminate on who you no longer are, make a shrine to your old self, write yourself letters, and be ready to gather it up and let it all go. I’ll give you extra credit for ritual disposal of an item that is symbolic of who you used to be – and EXTRA extra credit if you do it on the Solstice.
Cancer stone for December: White Calcite. White Calcite helps to gently cleanse and revitalize the energetic body, removing debris from past woundings and traumas from this life, previous lives, and inherited trauma.
///
LEO // LEO RISING Five of Swords
All this big cosmic power has got you a little mixed up, Leo, but it’s no reason to panic. While this month may feel unrelentingly confusing, you can greatly soften the experience by eliminating one little phrase form your repertoire: “figure it out.” Our human brains are obsessive little things. They like order, categorization. They are made uneasy by ambiguity. In other words, they like to get things figured out. However, there are very few things in life that we actually NEED to figure out in order to get through our day to day. Where the keys are so you can leave the house? Yes. What exactly your sister meant by that comment on social media? Not so much. You following me?
Stick to the basics this month. Don’t figure anything out. Practice the art of purposeful naivety. That guy who cut you off on the freeway? Maybe he has a family emergency! You’ll never know for sure anyway, so why not believe it and spare yourself the churning anger of road rage. If you feel called to it, read up on the Buddhist concept on nonduality. Try on the idea that good and bad do not exist, that everything in the world is neither and also both. If you need to make decisions this month, rely on your gut instinct and your heart. Air is in chaos, but Fire and Water should serve you well. Play your cards right in this energy and you’ll be the most content person at every holiday gathering of the season.
Leo stone for December: Rainbow Hematite. Rainbow Hematite encourages mental clarity and focus while removing stagnant energy and helping to raise consciousness and psychic abilities.
///
VIRGO // VIRGO RISING The Chariot
You are riding off into the sunset of this year with style, my dear Virgo. You’re packing up only what you need and allowing the fruits of your labor to sweep you off your feet and into your future. And with the serious amount of internal balancing and excavation you’ve been up to over the past couple months, it should be a very easy task deciding what it is you want to carry forward into this next chapter. Allow the last few days of Mercury’s retrograde trip to shake off before you make final decisions, but don’t stall too long. You’ll want to be moving before the holidays hit. Make the Solstice on the 21st your deadline for any decisions on what you want the landscape of 2019 to look like.
The Chariot is about the vehicle, not the driver. The message here is to pay attention to what it is that you are allowing to carry you. My guess is, you’re in good shape, but do take time the first half of the month to check the metaphorical oil and the tire pressure on the container you’re driving through life. Sometimes we get on automatic pilot, we forget to check our navigation closely, to get that squeaky hinge oiled up. Look around your life and make sure that everything that you trust to keep you moving forward is in good working order – for YOU. And then sit back and enjoy the ride. It should be a beautiful journey into the new year.
Virgo stone for December: Pink Tourmaline. Pink Tourmaline is a particularly soothing heart stone, creating a safe environment for the heart to open and be nurtured and healed by oneself, loved ones, and the Divine.
///
LIBRA // LIBRA RISING Two of Swords
Ah, Libra, do you hear that? It’s the sound of your mind quieting down after all that cosmic balancing out last month. As we shift out of the retrogrades and into the last lap of 2018, you’re hitting that runner’s high clarity where everything sort of pops into focus and the pieces that have become irrelevant fall away like dead leaves from a hibernating tree. Allow the gentle breeze of your native element to sweep through every fiber of your being, coaxing out any dust that may have become lodged in the corners, leaving you renewed. This is a time for a fresh start, for getting back to basics. The seed of wisdom in the element of Air is settling itself into your consciousness. Your task is to make sure it has a healthy place to grow.
Take care to free your mind of clutter this month. I am big proponent of regular meditation for everyone all the time, but for you, this month, it is crucial. Twenty minutes twice a day is my preference, but if you can get even five in I’ll take it. Don’t get bogged down in which style of meditation is “correct” – that’s just your brain cleverly distracting you. Pick one and go. Change it up if you need to. Just be disciplined and do it daily. Trust me, you’ll thank me when the Soltice rolls in and you find you have a crystal clear vision of how you need to proceed with your work and life in the new year.
Libra stone for December: Bismuth. Bismuth transforms through providing a hard reset on connection with others, the environment, and our true selves, inspiring a push for positive change and growth.
///
SCORPIO // SCORPIO RISING King of Wands.
You’ll be the belle of the ball this month, Scorpio, and not (just) because of your good looks and charm! You’re going to have an almost psychic ability to plan and execute on your obligations, freeing you to truly enjoy the social time you schedule and earn. Kings represent the Air of their suit, and when that mental clarity and vision is combined with the magick and intuition of Fire it creates quite an enviable atmosphere of laser-focus and deft execution. You’ll have a supernatural ability to know exactly where and with whom your energy is best spent. If you have a tendency to feel dragged down by draining holiday events, rejoice and look forward to a month spent surrounded by inspiration.
In order to get the full benefit of this energy, you have to have great boundaries in place. Boundaries – not retaliatory meaures. Keep the stinger under wraps and your focus on making sure you don’t feel the need to use it in the first place. If this sounds overwhelming, spend the last few days of Mercury’s retrograde run asking for guidance on how you can let go of anything standing in the way of your embracing the power of a loving “no.” Sometimes even just acknowledging you have an issue will be enough for you to clear it. You cannot deny what you choose to see. Light a candle, throw rocks in the sea, let it go. And then shine up your dancing shoes. You have a a lot of reveling to do.
Scorpio stone for December: Nuummite. Nuummite activates powerful internal magick and self-mastery. It reveals areas of weakness so they can be molded into strengths and shows us how to reach our full potential as creative beings.
Dive into this month’s medicine for your sign with our Numinous Tarotscopes November 2018, cast by Melinda Lee Holm. Artwork: Mystic Mondays Tarot by Grace Duong
Mystic Mondays Tarot, by Grace Duong
SCORPIO // SCORPIO RISING Ten of Pentacles
Happy Solar Return, my dear Scorpio! I don’t think I could have pulled a better gift for you if I tried. Whatever collaboration you got into last month is really paying off one way or another and you are set to have a gilded month metaphorically, and perhaps even literally speaking. The highest potential of the element of Earth, that physical manifestation of all we create and consume and live on and around and through is visiting you, and when it comes knocking, you have to be ready to answer the door. When you do, don’t be surprised if you find a who’s who of your biggest cheerleaders and most cherished mentors crowded at your front door like carolers. There is a strong sense of community that accompanies this gift. You’ve heard misery loves company? So does abundance, baby!
Now about that collaboration from last month – if you got into something that doesn’t feel right or isnt working out, don’t force it. Sometimes collaborations or relationships of any kind work out best by dissolving. If this is the case for you, resist the urge to indulge in resentment, or worse, revenge. You have bigger fish to fry and besides, once Mercury stations retrograde on the 16th, you may get an unexpected return from someone in your past who wasn’t quite right for a project at the time, but is now ready, willing, and more than able to help you transmute any lead weighing you down into pure gold. Keep your eye on the prize, Scorpio, and you could be sitting pretty by month’s end.
Scorpio stone for November: Peridot. Peridot is the master stone for prosperity. The vibrations it exudes excite the energetic body, creating an atmosphere rich in material and emotional abundance.
///
SAGITTARIUS // SAGITTARIUS RISING Nine of Wands
You’re levelling up your mastery of Elemental Fire this month, Sagittarius, and I have a sneaking feeling you’ll know exactly what to do with it. Heating up in your native element can just as easily mean a deep inward journey of intuitive spiritual expansion as it can a direct charge forward in physical space, but following the big outward burst of last month, my money is on the former. With back to back retrogrades, there will be plenty of information dredged up to fuel the flames of introspection and dedication to ascension. It may not be easy, but it will be well worth the trouble. Expect to experience this month as preparation for an unknown event. Follow the clues and don’t jump ahead to conclusions. Let it unfold.
Your innate sense of wonder will be heightened this month and you may feel called to explore the world around you in service of opening greater exploration within. Taking a few day or weekend trips would be a great idea. Just remember to give yourself plenty of extra time and to plan for all contingencies if you go after Mercury stations retrograde on the 16th. We don’t want you having a surprise journey through frustration as you wait on the side of the road for AAA. You don’t have to go far and you don’t have to get exotic about your travels. Sometimes taking a walk down an unfamiliar street in your own neighborhood can open up an entire world of sacrosanct adventure.
Sagittarius stone for November: Red Calcite. Red Calcite promotes an increase in life force energy, revitalizing the physical and energetic bodies. It heightens appreciation for the beauty of life on Earth.
9 of Wands, Mystic Mondays Tarot
///
CAPRICORN // CAPRICORN RISING The Magician
What an absolutely perfect follow up to last month, Capricorn! Following exactly the development of the Major Arcana energy as mapped to the Tree of Life, you’re stepping out of your open-souled wandering and into a month-long intensive on the art of self-mastery. It’s safe to say your November will be interesting at the very least, life changing at best. With these back to back retrogrades adding static to the signal between individuals, this is a wonderful time to be focused more on you, who you can be, what you can create, and what you seek to accomplish. Remember, Magician energy is not about controlling others or your surroundings – that’s called tyranny – so be careful where you point that magic wand.
My greatest wish for you this month is that you can use this momentum to get your inner workings and powers identified and organized so you have a clear path to refinement and eventually mastery. That way, you’ll be prepared to shift into a more practical mode moving into December and the new year. To do this, you’ll have to have at least a vague idea of what your long(ish) term goals are. Spend some time at the beginning of the month identifying what you want to accomplish and what you need to create and manifest to get there. Then spend the rest of month building and refining your magical chops to conjure it all up. You are being told that you DO have the power to create your ideal world, so dare to think big.
Capricorn stone for November: Cinnabar. Cinnabar acts as a catalyst of transformation into our most exalted form. It opens powerful abilities of manifestation and draws creativity and prosperity.
///
AQUARIUS // AQUARIUS RISING Three of Swords
You’ve got more lessons blowing in from your native element this month, Aquarius! October’s fresh perspective will come in very handy as you work in the potentially treacherous realm of collaboration in thoughts and communication. The classic image of this card from the RWS deck and the Sola Busca before it show a big red heart with three swords stabbed through, a decidedly brutal take on this energy. While it can sometimes feel that way to navigate multiple points of view – within ourselves or among others – if we stay centered and remain open, these can be great times of growth and expansion. Not just hearing, but listening to, processing, and integrating points of view different from our own is essestial to our development as humans.
This could get veeeerrrrrryyyy sticky after Mercury stations retrograde on the 16th if you let it. To avoid confusion and heartache, make sure to take extra measures to reduce daily stress as much as possible so you are operating from a place of calm security. Get plenty of sleep, take long baths, eat foods that make you feel good emotionally AND physically, and for the love of all that is good and holy, DO NOT procrastinate. You want to be ready to process these messages in real time, especially if someone or something from your past sneaks back in to stir the pot. If you feel a storm brewing, head right for the still eye of it and watch it churn and toss all around you. Be an observer. When the clouds clear, step back into participant mode.
Aquarius stone for November: Green Calcite. Green Calcite soothes the body, mind, heart, and spirit. Its gentle, calming energy loosens anxiety and aids in releasing stress, allowing room for the heart to speak.
///
PISCES // PISCES RISING Five of Pentacles
My dear Pisces, are you doubting the wisdom of your choices from last month already? Did the call to action brought on by that gorgeous flaming queen (of Wands) leave you second-guessing the ease with which you were able to choose, to discern, to refuse? Fear not, dear one. Though making hard choices is somewhat contrary to your all-inclusive nature, it is necessary to allow you to really pour your gooey cosmic self into projects, situations, and relationships that truly set your soul aflame. Anything you have walked away from to get closer to your ideals will surely have someone else running toward it with open arms. The world is a big place, Pisces, and we can’t devote ourselves to everything in it.
This month, take time to notice where you feel a fear of lack. I’m talking about wondering whether taking that dream vacation is pulling you away from other opportunities you’ll regret missing later, saying yes to gigs you know you don’t want, not wanting to burn the last candle in case you can’t get more. All of these things can be considered prudent, but with this chaotic Earth energy swirling around, they can easily spiral into unnecessary worry and heaviness. Take extra care to assess whether something is a reality or a projection (fear, worry, etc) before deciding how to approach, and keep your eye tuned to what you have rather than what you don’t.
Pisces stone for November: Ocean Jasper. Ocean Jasper eases the mind of stress and worry to allow for full enjoyment of life. Its positive energy encourages fearless self-expression and release of negativity.
5 of Pentacles, Mystic Mondays Tarot
///
ARIES // ARIES RISING Ten of Cups
Your famously fiery nature is going to get a little softer this month, Aries. The gentle waves of high mastery in the emotional realm are here to smooth over the rough spots and help tune your heart in to the frequency of unconditional love. This can be a wonderful opportunity to deepen existing relationships, strengthen your sense of community and your place within yours, and even rekindle some relationships that may have gone a bit cold. After all, you never know what the winds of Mercury retrograde will bring your way when they blow in on the 16th. Whether messages or actual people from your past, try to approach them with an open heart, open mind, and open eyes. Sometimes looks can be deceiving. Unconditional love doesn’t mean unconditional acceptance. Get familiar with the difference early on in the month.
The key to making this month really sing for you is getting your intuition sharpened up right at the top. You don’t get a lot of ink spilled on your intuitive nature, but I see it clearly. Instinct is just another word for intuition and you’ve got that in spades. You are known for acting quickly on instinct and that can earn you a reputation for being rash or impulsive. Let this Water energy douse the outward action part of that flame and you’re left with a pure intuitive sight that can keep you seeking out and letting in only the people and situations that truly resonate with your highest vibes. And THAT, dear Aries, is golden.
Aries stone for November: Blue Topaz. Blue Topaz attunes the mind to the true guidance of the Higher Self. It clears our vision so we can see what we truly desire and see the path forward to getting there.
///
TAURUS // TAURUS RISING Six of Pentacles
You’ve got something to prove and the means to do it this month, Taurus, and based on how your year has gone so far, I think you just may be the one who ends up being most impressed. I don’t say this because I feel you’re likely underestimating yourself or doubting your abilities, but because I feel like this year’s absolute master course in the element of Earth has likely elevated your game much more than you could ever have imagined. It can be difficult to see the the heights you’ve got to when the climb has been a steady shallow incline. Take a moment at the beginning of the month to look back over this year and see how far you’ve come in your ability to manifest, to mold your surroundings, to create a home for yourself and those you hold dear.
You’ve got to know where you’re at to accurately assess what a real accomplishment looks like. Sometimes we can misinterpret our own progress and accidentally hold ourselves back by shooting for stars that turn out to just be flickering street lamps in the near distance. You can be as humble as you are stubborn, Taurus, and neither is going to get you to where you truly long to be. Resist the inner voice that tells you that striving for accomplishment is a vain grab for glory. Working to achieve the life of comfort you long for on your own terms is a noble and Divine pursuit. Reach for the stars, just check them out with a telescope first to make sure they’re true.
Taurus stone for November: Chrysanthemum Stone. Chrysanthemum Stone awakens the mind, heart, and spirit to what is possible. It reveals our greatest dreams and provides the grounding and luck needed to achieve them.
///
GEMINI // GEMINI RISING Two of Cups
You may just be the envy of the zodiac this month, Gemini. The sweetness of the Two of Cups is unrivaled in the Tarot in my book. The spark of emotional connection with a window into the enormity of what can come from it, the air of discovery and exploration, the excitement of building without knowing for sure what the end result will be. It can be incredibly intoxicating. And I am not just talking about romance. These sparks of connection can come with new friends, co-workers, even family members. They can come with people who have been in our lives forever but suddenly take on a new role or switch spheres from personal to professional or vice versa. One of the greatest gifts of being human is to connect on a profound level with other incarnated souls on Earth and this month it’s all yours.
How do you know if you’re experiencing a Two of Cups moment? If the connection is real or just a smoke screen? If you’re being lead on or taken advantage of or if your rush of anticipation is reciprocated? Well, you can’t. And that’s ok. With your wit and charm, you will likely attract many into your sphere if you choose to leave the gate open. When you do, take the time to really look and listen as much as you’re feeling your way into a new relationship. Radical openness requires intensely good boundaries and the ability to dance your way around them so they don’t feel like harsh walls to others. It’s a delicate proposition, but I think you’re up for it.
Gemini stone for November: Kunzite. Kunzite opens the heart to give and receive all forms of love. It is especially great at tuning the heart in to the frequency of Divine Love and true joy.
///
CANCER // CANCER RISING Page of Cups
You’re right in your element this month with a Cups card, Cancer, even while being pushed out of your comfort zone by the adventurous Page. You sometimes find yourself in a bit of a dilemma, yearning for deep emotional connection but being reluctant to come out of your shell to get it. This month it is time to face facts: it’s too small in there for anyone but you. You have to make a choice. You can either stay solitary and protected or you can venture out of your cozy fortress and risk being hurt in the service of opening your heart to the world. Any attached Crabs out there thinking ‘well, I have a partner, so this doesn’t apply to me’, sorry! It applies to you tenfold. We Cancerians have a tendency to secretly fortify our defenses even more in relationship. As the risk of injury increases, so does our desire for protection.
Time for a month of radical vulnerability. Stay with me. I know Venus is retrograde. I know Mercury is gearing up to follow suit and possibly interfere with communication and that is scary. But what’s more scary is playing it safe with your heart when the depth of emotional connection you truly desire is only available to those who take risks to get it. People open up to people who are open. Take the lead. As a Cardinal Water sign, you are the natural leader of emotion. Step up onto the podium and preach the gospel of leading with your heart like no one’s ever hurt it before.
Cancer stone for November: Angelite. Angelite opens a channel for communicating with our guides and angels. It helps tune us in to receiving communications and gives us greater access to their Divine love.
Page (aka Princess) of Cups, Mystic Mondays Tarot
///
LEO // LEO RISING Strength
This is shaping up to be quite a nice little stroll through some of the greatest hits of the Major Arcana, Leo! The Magician, The Hermit, and now Strength. It conjures up a narrative of someone who discovers their power, goes into seclusion to study and master it, and comes back to the village ready to serve the community and themself by embodying the level of strength that can only come through a recognition that we are all extensions of the body of the Earth and the Universe. That someone is you, Leo! What will you do with this newfound level of Strength? What are you ready to accomplish that you were not just last summer? How does this awareness of your own power and your being as but one small part of the much larger body of the cosmos shape your thinking on that?
It can be overwhelming to sit with this kind of information. We tend to want our actions and goals to reflect the grandeur of how we see our place in the world. Accepting ourselves as parts of an eternal Divine body does not help in making decisions. So start small, so small that your activities and accomplishments will be invisible to everyone but you. Start within your own body. How can you take care of your body with this new strength? Do you feel able to make different choices about what you put into or on your body? Give yourself time to grow into this story. It’s going to continue to develop for a very long time.
Leo stone for November: Tiger Eye. Tiger Eye clarifies the workings of the mind through balancing the energies of the physical body. It restores balance to all levels of being, inspiring strength and fairness.
///
VIRGO // VIRGO RISING Judgment
Ooooo, Virgo! Moving from Justice into Judgment is a wonderful lesson in the workings of the Tarot. They seem similar but represent very different ways of redistributing energy. Last month I talked about seeing Justice as a seesaw, moving only up and down in a single, two-dimensional plane. Judgment is bigger and messier. It calls on us to dig around to find what we have buried in this life and other lifetimes past, present, and future. It can extract stories from alternate timelines and alternate stories that are bothering us somehow subconsciously, spiritually. Where Justice is about balance, Judgment is about exhumation. There are some things that are just too sticky to be easily released. Some things require some digging.
So get our your shovel, Virgo, and get ready to get your hands dirty. With back to back retrogrades helping to loosen the soil, there is going to be plenty for you uncover and examine. Some you will re-plant back down in the Earth, some you will set free, some you will thoroughly dispose of. It’s a big job, but you have to try not to be too precious about it. Get all Marie Kondo on the psychic debris you find. Be brutal in your assesments, but kind in the execution. Yanking something away before you’ve fully detatched will just give you something else to dig out later. Practice your self care and drink lots of water. Seriously – it helps to clear your energy as much as it does your cells.
Virgo stone for November: Lepidolite. Lepidolite is a powerful ally in emotional healing. It can help uncover and repair old wounds, and smoothe over frayed nerves, clearing the way to true acceptance.
///
LIBRA // LIBRA RISING Temperance
You are being called to reassess where your center lies as you leave your birthday month and head toward the holidays, dear Libra. Temperance as a virtue calls for moderation, which is exactly what is needed to get into the more delicate alchemy of resetting our psychic equilibrium. Moderation in consumption, in the expenditure of physical energy, in the amount of work and of play we allow ourselves, in our sleep. Reigning in our habits gives us a closer look at what’s really going on underneath them. Are you really that busy at work or are you feeling inadequate and trying to prove yourself wrong? Did you really need that afternoon nap or would your body be better served with a brisk walk? Did you need to spend all day editing that presentation or did you really just need to trust yourself a bit more?
These are real questions. You might be that busy, need a nap, and benefit from a heavy handed edit. Take this month to find out. Temperance is of course also associated with abstaining from alcohol. If this rings bells in your head, go with it and give yourself a little break. Take this time to really get to know what makes you not just tick, but purr. It’s easy to fall into patterns without even knowing it and to keep on racing ahead without considering how these patterns effect our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health. Meditate on it it, journal about it, talk about it with your friends and loved ones. This is your time to take control of what has become automatic.
Libra stone for November: Scolecite. Scolecite carries a highly developed energy of inner peace and deep tranquility. It is an excellent stone for meditation and for feeling at one with the spirit world.
Dive into this month’s medicine for your sign with our Numinous Tarotscopes September 2018, cast by Melinda Lee Holm. Artwork: Devany Amber Wolfe.
The Hermit Card, She Wolfe Tarot. Ruled by Virgo, the Hermit gifts us the power of taking a precious pause and finding deep retreat during this current astrological season, regardless of our sign.
VIRGO // VIRGO RISING Knight of Swords
Happy Solar Return, Virgo! You’ve got a lot to say this month, both internally and to the world! The Fire of conviction is burning within, bubbling your emotions to a fever pitch and compelling you to let it all out. The Knights are passionate, at times to the point of being impulsive. And with your ruling planet of Mercury, planet of communication, entering your sign on the 19th, you should be positively effervescent in your expression. Allow your thoughts and words to flow freely and openly, just make sure you maintain your connection to the heavier elements of Earth and Water to mitigate any sharp edges that may come as an unintended outcome of such fast-paced intellectual outpouring. The last thing you want is a lesson in the potential of wounding inherent in the suit of Swords.
And while we’re talking about the power of Air, I’d be horribly negligent if I didn’t take this opportunity to remind you that all words are magic words, so choose them wisely even as you race to keep up with the speed of your thoughts. This is an excellent time for you to focus on making some adjustments to patterns of speech and mental frameworks to make them support your goals more strongly. Talk a lot about how much you hate your boss? Replace that with a statement about how much you look forward to the day when you have a boss you admire or when you are your own boss. Lather, rinse, repeat. Make your birthday gift to yourself a whole new set of spells that call in the experience of life you desire.
Virgo stone for September: Blue Lace Agate gently opens perception to allow access to both see and communicate truth, both inwardly and outwardly, deepening compassion for self and others.
///
LIBRA // LIBRA RISING Eight of Cups
After all the building and planning and making and growing of your life these past few months, you’ve got a little time to settle into how all of this impacts your emotional life, Libra. Change, even the most exciting and hoped for change, is stressful to our bodies – spiritual, emotional, and physical. Once we settle into the new structure of routines and habits, we need to take time to focus on how to best structure our emotional lives to ensure we can maintain a good relationship with our new circumstances. Water is one of the heavy elements. It can take some time to catch up once Fire and Air settle down and things start to feel routine again. Listen to your heart and give it time to express what it needs to stay full and bright.
I’m sure you have a LOT to do this month, Libra. There’s no way you came out of an Emperor month feeling like you’ve got loads of spare time on your hands. You can still carve out a little bit every week – bonus points for every day – to experiement with adding little things to your routine to help maintain a lasting emotional stability. Maybe daily affirmations are your thing, maybe a cup of chamomile tea before bed calms you like nothing else, maybe you need to schedule in time to read or paint or write or sing – whatever it is, take the time now to figure it out and start building the habits. Your long-term happiness depends on it.
Libra stone for September: Emerald cleanses and energizes the heart physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It is an excellent stone for all aspects of heart health and emotional development.
Well, Scorpio, I hope you spent last month digging DEEP into that Seven of Cups energy! If you did, and you got very clear about what your heart truly desires, you have an incredible opportunity to throw yourself into getting it this month with everything you’ve got. Knight of Wands is the Fire of Fire of the Tarot family, gifting us with an almost superhuman level of energy, drive, and animal instinct that is essential for going after something big, something we maybe didn’t even think we were allowed to wish for. What is it that is gnawing at your gut instinct as you read these words, urging you to pull the thread? What deeply held desire has gone neglected for too long?
I cannot overstate the importance of seizing this moment, Scorpio. Fire of Fire burns powerfully bright, but it cannot sustain itself for long. These moments are gifts and it is our choice to be gracious receivers or to deny the gift out of fear, humility, or even laziness. Resist the urge to linger too long in the depths, questioning your emotional response. This is the time to embrace that Scorpionic connection to the wisdom of Death and release any lingering doubts that are holding you back. Your soul’s passion is begging to be let loose to lead you to a time of renewed conviction that you alone have the power to make your dreams come true. Heed the call and stoke the flames. This month is a sprint. Make it count.
Scorpio stone for September: Ruby is the stone of passion. It infuses the energetic body with the courage and strength needed to follow your true path and pursue your highest aspirations with optimism.
///
SAGITTARIUS // SAGITTARIUS RISING The High Priestess
This month will be spent getting your temple in order in preparation for the coming harvest season, Sagittarius, and I have a hunch you’ll be looking at quite a bounty. The High Priestess does not show up for the small stuff. When she comes knocking – or, better put, when you receive her invitation to knock on her temple door – it is an indication that something big is underway. You’re now being gifted the ability to carve out a little world of your own, a temple, to make it sacred, apart from space and time, and to travel effortlessly between your personal sanctum and the outside world. It’s perfect work for this time of year, a sort of spiritual nesting as we approach the Autumnal Equinox.
This month, I want you to point that gorgeous idealistic gaze directly at your home enviroment. What household cleanups, repairs, or projects have gone undone for too long? Is there any way you can make your physical surroundings more comfortable, more suited to you? It is difficult to sink into the deeper spiritual work when nagging material world concerns populate your temple space. If you can’t get everything done, designate a specific area and get it cleared out and leveled up. Populate it with trinkets, and magickal items to elevate your devotional practice. Allow your temple to be the mirror that see your true image reflected in. When you do, the distorted image you see relected in our imperfect society will fall to the background, allowing you to fully embody your innate Divine form.
Sagittarius stone for September: Moonstone heightens intuition, introspection, and protection of individuality. It helps us to maintain control of our personal temples of home, body, and spirit.
///
CAPRICORN // CAPRICORN RISING Five of Swords
Dear Capricorn, I would like to invite you to enjoy a quiet month filled with nourishing food, plenty of rest, and loving, supportive friends. Generally speaking, you are transitioning from achievement to chaos in the realm of Air. This is not a time for big ideas or attempts to talk or think through really anything of great importance. When this anarchic breeze blows in, it’s best to keep your head down, put one foot in front of the other, and stay on the path you know best – and enjoy it! It’s rare that we are called on to do less, to take a break in any area of life and just rest and be. Let this month act as cosmic pause button on all the things you believe you have to “figure out” in order to move forward.
So, what can you do when you can’t use that seductive power of Air to run your life? You get down with the other elements, especially Earth and Water. This should be music to your ears, my cardinal Earth sign darling. Dig your heels in, don’t do anything you don’t feel like doing (within reason, of course), and feel absolutely no pressure to explain yourself. The message probably wouldn’t come across as intended anyway. Channel your inner luxurious recluse. Spend a day alone at the spa, see a matinee, take a long hike in the woods. Whatever makes you feel like your heart is taking the lead and reinforces your connection to the Earth under your feet.
Capricorn stone for September: Smoky Quartz carries the gravity of our planet in energetic form. It connects us to ourselves and the Earth, helping us to feel grounded as it gently pulls psychic static from our field.
I suspect you may be feeling a little impatient about seeing actual results from the work you did last month, Aquarius, and I’m here to talk you down with my dear friend the Seven of Crystals. Sevens ask us to find where we are doubting ourselves, the Universe, or both in their elemental realm, and here we are looking to weed those pesky doubts out of the Earth. Anxieties about whether our work is paying off in tangible ways is common and understandable. Earth is the slowest moving element. We spend most of our time in the lighter elements, dreaming up ideas, taking action to bring them to life, and then we have to wait for their manifestation in the material plane to take form.
Rest assured, Aquarius, your work has not been for nothing. The seeds you planted are quietly and resolutely outgrowing their outer husks and making their way to the surface where they will begin their journey toward the Sun. I know this is a jarring and potentially frustrating change of pace. When you find yourself antsy for something to do, some action to take, water the seeds. Love them, care for them, pour your heart out and offer it up to their growth and development. And when you come up against that nagging anxiety in the back of your mind, the voice that tells you that you are wasting your time, that you can’t make it work, that it was a dumb idea anyway – love that voice too. Soothe it and put it to bed.
Aquarius stone for September: Howlite relieves stress and opens connection to the eternal Divine. It brings an atmosphere of acceptance and contentment with one’s circumstances and surroundings.
///
PISCES // PISCES RISING Four of Swords
Now that your heart has been thoroughly rinsed and renewed, Pisces, it’s time for a little check in on how your views and thoughts meld with how you live and communicate day to day. Periodic assesments of whether our head is in alignment with our heart are essential for finding stability in the realm of Air, that lightest and most difficult to contain of elements. Lightness is a great place to focus – this can be a gentle and enjoyable experience. No need to get into judgment or mourning of things, ideas, or patterns that no longer serve your highest goals. This is simply an opportunity to gently sift through the contents of your mind and to let anything heavy fall away.
I strongly suggest you not make any big life changes this month. There can be a strong urge to make bold moves when we first realize that something is not in alignment with the life we seek to live. It is intoxicating to step into your own power of clear sight. However, this energy is with you all month long. Things can shift around quite a bit in that time. Plus, this whole operation is more about your internal intellectual framework and how you present that framework to the world than it is about the container of your life. If you already had a change in job, living situation, or relationship in the works, that is another story. But resist taking action on an internal shift that comes up this month. Stay the course and let it all unfold.
Pisces stone for September: Fluorite is a stone of insight through clarity. It helps to clear the mind, allowing for greater focus and decision making, and opening the door to the wisdom of the higher self.
///
ARIES // ARIES RISING Page of Wands
Ok, Aries, what did you learn last month about the power of your own instinctual knowing and ability to create? What conclusions did you come to about how to best use this power, its potential, or your relationship to it? Any hard and fast rules you came across? Any nuggets of eternal wisdom to frame your personal gift with Fire? Throw them out. All of them. Or rather set them aside, locked away for safe keeping. You won’t be needing them for now. The Page is here to disrupt anything you thought you knew about Elemental Fire and to open new doors of exploration and experimentation in this realm of action, magic, and creation. Cleanse that magic wand, clear yourself of all expectations, and get ready to play.
Welcome this energy with open arms and this can be a wonderful month of expansion. Dig in your heels and you’re likely to have a frustrating four weeks ahead of you! Think of it this way – you don’t have to be married to any of these new ways of handling your native element that come up. You’re not signing any contracts or setting anything in stone. This is simply a time to be open, to say yes. Pages represent the Earth of the Tarot court, they bring us back down to basics, slow us down, give us time and space to explore in an energetically safe environment. It is a beautiful gift to step into the shoes of the novice. Accept it graciously and use it wisely.
Aries stone for September: Honey Calcite inspires action and dedication while maintaining a light-hearted atmosphere. It provides the perseverance needed to make a creative spark become a full blazing fire
///
TAURUS // TAURUS RISING Eight of Crystals
My dearest Earth child, here we are again. This time focusing on building a beautiful, lasting stability in your material world. After the refining moment of the Ace last month, you’re in a great position to work with this energy. Thinking about everything that came up regarding your home life, your physical surroundings, your feeling grounded (or ungrounded), your method of interacting with our society’s version of the currency of Earth – money, find what feels like home to you. Dig deep into the ground beneath your feet and find exactly what it is that keeps you stable. We live in a time when many of us have more options than we ever have before. It can be overwhelming. Now is the time to whittle your life down to the essentials that will serve you best in the long term.
Finding this type of stability requires us to seek and confront our true nature, our deepest core of Self, that eternal piece that holds us steady while our bodies and circumstances shift around us. This is soul work, Taurus, pure and simple. Your inherent desire for security and predictability in your surroundings is essential to your nature. You are being called to step into alignment with this aspect of your Self, to ensure that you are nuturing this need for many years to come. This doesn’t have to be difficult. It could be as simple as finally acknowledging that you like to always have fresh flowers in the house and committing to make that happen. Find your Earthly bliss!
Taurus stone for September: Danburite connects the heart to spirit realm, bringing the calming and loving energy of the Divine down into our daily lives, calming and reassuring us in our Earthly pursuits.
///
GEMINI // GEMINI RISING Queen of Cups
Get ready for a month of nurturing and emotional excavation, Gemini, all courtesy of your inner mother. The Queen of Cups is here to lead you by the hand to a safe place where you can step outside of yourself to be the loving caretaker you have been waiting for. I have a strong suspicion that taking inventory of your internal communications last month dredged up more than a few emotional rough spots. As we pass from Summer into Fall, you have the opportunity to mend your bruised heart in ways you have never been able to before – or more likely, ways you didn’t even know you needed. This is excellent timing. When the seasons tip and we begin to head toward the nesting of winter, you will be in great shape to move from damage repair into some more forward moving modes of development.
Spend time alone this month, but try to keep it purposeful, rejuvenating even. No wallowing. The Queen of Cups encourages deep and long dives into our innermost depths, but she does not tolerate indulgent self-pity. Imagine her as a kindly grandmother, always there to clean up a skinned knee with tender care, but just as quick to send you back out finish your chores once you’re taped up. Coming back up for air is the most important part of any dive into our emotional waters. Take a long bath, get serious about journaling, pour your heart out to yourself as you never have before. And then take a deep breath, lift your head up, and get back to it.
Your stone for September: Rhodochrosite teaches us the art of self-love. It opens a channel within that allows us to love ourselves as we desire to be loved, to be our own best friends and caretakers.
It’s time for a change of scenery, Cancer, and I don’t just mean sitting in a different spot in your living room. The scenery I am talking about is more energetic, spiritual even, the stuff we can’t see but that alters our perception of our surroundings immensely. This month you are being asked to see things in a new way and the more you can push up against the edges of that, the better. You had a month of digging in the Earth in August and now you can spend a little time up in the clouds, surveying the new lay of the land, getting a broader picture of what is possible and within that, what is desirable. And since we are in the Major Arcana, we are looking at all realms of life – emotional, spiritual, creative, intellectual, and material.
How many different ways can you find to force a shift in your perspective? What would it look like to try on a new emotional perspective? A new instinctual perspective? Can you borrow another person’s experience for a time? Use your enviable powers of empathy to walk in another’s shoes without ever moving a muscle? This may sound like an invitation to get into astral travelling (which I wholeheartedly encourage if you can accomplish it), but it can be as deceivingly mundane as watching a movie about a person completely unlike yourself or reading a book by someone you normally wouldn’t. The important thing is to keep your heart, mind, and eyes open to new experiences.
Cancer stone for September: Blue Apatite is a stone of profound psychic opening. It can act as a key to opening levels of knowledge and wisdom and as a catalyst for exploring past lives and energetic influences.
///
LEO // LEO RISING The Magician
Is it your birthday AGAIN, Leo?? A swell of personal power to manifest your dreams and desires is headed your way to carry you into the Fall. You have the magic of the elements tingling at your fingertips, waiting to help you connect the kernel of intention in your heart to the blueprint of the Universe. The Magician ignites personal power – power that originates from within and that is used to control, alter, or expand the personal sphere. True magic(k) is a tool of self-mastery. It has no place or interest in manipulating the free will of others. If this is sounding a bit heavy, it’s because it is! There is a great deal of responsibility that comes with the gift of The Magician.
The trick with this energy is that if you’re not very specific with your words, thoughts, and actions, you could send an unintentional signal to the Universe, one that manifests something you don’t want or need. So be extra mindful this month with the messages you are transmitting. Take a few minutes each day to set your intentions – for the day, week, month, year, and even longer. Write them down, say them out loud, carry stones in your pocket that emanate an energetic quality that supports them, light candles and give offereings for them, and for the love of the Divine, mark the New Moon on the 9th and the Full Moon on the 24th with a manifesting and releasing ritual, respectively. Harness this energy in alignment with your true path and you could be feeling the benefits for a long time to come.
Leo stone for September: Labradorite is the Magician’s stone, activating powers of personal magic, self-mastery, and manifestation. It elevates one’s personal vibration to ensure purity in conjuring.
When Love By Luna reached out to see if The Numinous would be interested in co-creating a signature crystal-infused polish for their Mystic Mani line, it was a “hell yes”! The result is a cosmic purple polish designed to help you create a manicure to max out your meditation practice and get “sober curious.”
Inspired by Pantone’s 2018 Color of the Year, Ultra Violet, the deep, mystical purple correlates with the crown chakra, making this a highly meditative shade. Thought to help activate higher consciousness, dissolve blockages and create balance, you still have to do the actual work of befriending your thoughts and practicing equanimity in the face of adversity, but in today’s hyper-triggering world, we’ll take all the help we can get …
The color also reflects the blend of micronized amethyst and obsidian infusing the polish. Known as the “sobriety stone,” amethyst promotes clarity and tranquility, while obsidian is a protective stone that encourages honest introspection.
PSA: this polish will NOT stop you from downing 3 glasses of rosé when you’d planned to have a night “off” (only you and your desire to experience a more … clarity and tranquility can do that). But allow having it flash on your nails as you reach for the glass to invite a moment to pause and reflect.
Best of all, The Numinous x Mystic Mani crystal polish is perfect for when you want the benefits of crystal healing but have nowhere to stash your stones—as now you can “wear” your crystals everywhere you go, including into the gym or yoga studio!
This limited-edition crystal polish is the first Mystic Mani collaboration from Love by Luna and will only be available for purchase 8/28 through 12/31 2018 at www.lovebyluna.co.
///
Priced at $18/bottle USD 10% of all sales will be donated to LIFE Camp, Inc., a Queens, NY, anti-violence and youth mentorship initiative.
Happy Solar Return, Leo! Now, I realize that if you’re familiar with the most popular image of this card (three swords piercing a red heart against a background of gray rainclouds) you are side eyeing me really hard right now. Stay with me. Three is the number of collaboration. Swords are the suit of Air, intellect and communication. Collboration in thinking and communicating is not an inherently bad thing. In fact, it’s generally quite positive. Bringing together different and even differing points of view can lead to some amazing breakthroughs for us as individuals and for our communities. The main things to remember are try not to take things personally and to check your ego – deeply related pursuits! With Mercury retrograde for the first part of the month, it could be easy to fall into patterns of feeling slighted or misunderstood.
This month, I want to invite you to invite some new conversation partners into your sphere. Big bonus points for folks with inherently different points of view – people who come from different backgrounds, have different levels of work experience and education, prioritize their lives differently than you do. As you branch out, you’ll find that your internal thoughts and communications start to shift around a bit as well. The collaboration that began externally makes its way inward and you have new patterns of thought to play with and to hold your beliefs up against. Your greatest birthday gift just might end up being a brand new view of your place in the world.
Leo stone for August: Selenite.Selenite purifies the energy of all that surrounds it by flooding it with bright Divine light and Universal wisdom. It never requires cleansing and clears other stones.
///
VIRGO // VIRGO RISING Seven of Wands
My dear Virgo, August is beckoning you to put that gorgeous Strength you integrated last month to work! And following the eclipse at the end of last month, you should have a much clearer idea of what projects and pursuits are worth the energy and which aren’t. If there was any emotional fallout from the revelations of that eclipse, spend the first part of the month running damage repair. Use the Fire energy of the Wands to intuit the most productive route back to your healthy self, then set your sights on creating. Communication with co-creators will need extra care until Mercury stations direct on the 18th. Allow more time that you think you need for all aspects of life outside of staying home and eating takeout in pajamas.
By the end of the month, you should really feel the Fire to fight for your place in the world. What is it that you’ve been longing to stake a claim on? Where do you feel you’ve not yet been recognized like you should be? What part of your life are you ready to push to the next level? Get ready to leave behind any doubt you’ve felt in the past about what you deserve, how your work is received, or the level of your abilities – especially your ability to lead. You had a great lesson last month in embodying Strength. Now you have the opportunity to prove to yourself how powerful you are when you choose to show it.
Virgo stone for August: Bloodstone.Bloodstone is a powerful ally for purification and health of the physical body and infusing all levels of being with grounded vitality and strength.
///
LIBRA // LIBRA RISING The Emperor
Well, Libra, your reign of awesome continues this month! Your string of powerful manifesting energies is so enviable that I keep re-checking my chart for more planets in your sign (still rocking only Pluto and the North Node). You are moving through the greatest hits of power brokers of the Tarot and this one is the all time master of executing a precise vision. I hope the last couple months got you VERY in touch with your inherent connection to the Earth and the Heavens and to the awesome power of Love to move mountains. You’re going to need that altruism to balance the laser focus and drive The Emperor brings to your door in August. The insensity of this energy burns so hot that I’m not even worried about any potential retrograde hazards. You’ll see them coming a mile away and adjust accordingly.
So, what’s it gonna be, Libra? Which hot topic gets your attention this month? Choose wisely. The Emperor brings a ferocious appetite for construction, but his focus is narrow. Pick one big thing and let the rest sit on the back burner for a minute. If you have trouble knowing what this is or which one you should choose, think back over the past few months and try to remember what you were dreaming about the most, what themes came in, which areas of your life they dealt with. The Emperor is great for work, but the energy is just as useful for other areas of your life.
Libra stone for August: Orange Calcite. Orange Calcite opens our inner fountain of playful creativity, allowing joyful productivity and problem solving to burst forth without judgment.
///
SCORPIO // SCORPIO RISING Seven of Cups
Oh, Scorpio, I’m so excited to see what you bring to this energy this month. The Seven of Cups asks us to clear away our doubts about what our heart truly wants, and with your incredible capacity for inward reflection, this could be a chance to open up to desires you never dreamed were hiding out inside you. Pay special attention to any messages that come through at the Solar Eclipse on the 11th. You may have gotten clues during the eclipses last month. Mercury in retrograde until the 18th is actually a huge boon to you – the planet of communication will be combing over the past 3 months for anything or anyone that requires your attention. Make sure you know whether it’s for reconnection or for closure.
Try to spend more time than usual this month in solitary self-reflection. Take inventory of situations, places, and people that bring you joy and contentment. Consider what they have in common and how they differ. This should feel good. If you start getting into a zone of judging yourself or falling into obsessing over what DOESN’T make you happy, gently pull your attention back to the project at hand and float gently on those sweet waves of love remembrance, peeling back the what and when and who to discover the why and the how. Keep an eye out for something shiny sparking way down deep beneath the surface. You’ll know when to take the dive and what to bring back up for keeps.
Scorpio stone for August: Peacock Ore.Peacock Ore balances all of the chakras, pulling them into alignment to provide a stable place for pure happiness and joy for life to grow and thrive.
///
SAGITTARIUS //SAGITTARIUS RISING Page of Cups
Your work in July really paid off, Sagittarius! You shook off the shackles of doubt and are now ready to step forward into a month-long exercise in opening to new emotional experiences – both within and with others. The Pages invite us to forget everything we think we know about their element and to assess our surroundings and experiences with fresh perception. In the realm of Water, this often means letting go of the walls we’ve built up in reaction to past woundings so we can take people and situations for what they are, not for what we fear they might be. This doesn’t mean that we leave ourselves open to injury. Open hearts demand open eyes, unclouded by the past or the pressures of the present and future.
Find the power in vulnerability this month. Practice the art of radical self-acceptance and see how it changes your perspective of others and the power they hold. With Mercury retrograde until the 18th, I bet you’ll have plenty of opportunities to test out your new superpower with familiar faces from your past, back to hold up a newly polished energetic mirror to you. Let it be a game. Not in the sense of manipulation – I’d never suggest you “play games” with people in the colloquial sense – but in the sense of keeping it lighthearted. This work is about re-dedicating your heart to the service of bringing you joy and love. Self-judgment, dwelling in the past, and cold calculation have no place here.
Sagittarius stone for August: Rose Quartz. Rose Quartz opens and cleanses the heart to ease fear and blockages around both giving and receiving love from ourselves, others, and the Divine.
///
CAPRICORN // CAPRICORN RISING Six of Swords
August has you feeling good enough about your patterns of thought and communication to settle in to some fine tuning, Capricorn, and it’s looking to be a great time for it. Between all the revelations that came to you last month with The Sun as your card, two eclipses bringing messages from the ether, and now Mercury dusting off your personal files from the past few months for review, there is a LOT to work with. Has it all been comfortable? Likely not. You don’t traditionally take well to change; eclipse season has been a bit nerve-wracking for most of us already and we’re not even finished. Start the month off with low-hanging fruit, tweaking patterns that are in obvious need of a slight adjustment, then move into more nuanced territory starting after the eclipse of the 11th and full on after Mercury stations direct on the 18th.
I’m using delicate language purposefully, Capricorn. The Sixes mark a moment of achievement, and with this achievement comes the opportunity to reflect and adjust. This is not the time for major overhauls. What you have been doing is serving you well. The project is to make it serve you a little better. Are there any statements you make to yourself or others on a regular basis that could be polished up to be just a little more open and supportive? Any mental frameworks that are just slightly obscuring your view of your full potential? Now is your time to polish them up and make them shine.
Capricorn stone for August: Moss Agate.Moss Agate is the stone of new beginnings. It inspires the strength needed to move forward with a clean slate, firmly grounded in the present, untethered from the past.
///
AQUARIUS // AQUARIUS RISING Ten of Wands
No retrograde or eclipse is gonna hold you back this month, Aquarius! The flame of Elemental Fire is here to ignite your passion and push you to the limits of what you thought it was possible to accomplish. If you’ve been avoiding doing some heavy lifting, this is the time. With your newly found stability in this realm, you’ve got a ground to stand on to move forward with things you’ve put off for some time. In this sense, the astrology this month is absolutely perfect for you. See if you can put this blast of productivity behind something that’s been neglected that comes back up at the start of the month, rather than putting it toward a brand new endeavor. Make a list of tasks and get to work.
These need not be conventional “work” tasks. Remember, Fire brings us the Divine gift of intuition as well as action. It is deeply related to magic, conjuring, and purifying. Mastery of this element at this level is more flexible in its use than it may seem at first. Take care to tune in to where you need it most. If the Lunar Eclipse at the end of last month didn’t make it perfectly clear, the solar one at the top of this month should. The Universe urges us to go where we can best be of service, where our actions can be most beneficial to ourselves and the collective. Don’t be afraid to let your idealism shine. Keep your eyes and your heart open and heed the call.
Aquarius stone for August: Citrine. Citrine lights up the Sun Center for a burst of confidence, feelings of well-being, and creative impulses, illuminating the way forward on the path of manifestation.
///
PISCES // PISCES RISING Ace of Cups
You are being rewarded greatly this month, Pisces! You’ve had about a six month cycle of lessons around independence, loss, trust, and partnership here in the Tarotscopes, and your report card comes in the form of a big juicy A for Ace of Cups, the Divine gift of universal love. Take a deep breath, exhale the past, and step forward into a new relationship with your individual and the collective emotional body. This month, I want you to try to check in every day with how you are feeling. See if you can get underneath the judgment and analysis that so often permeate our experience of our emotions, and simply revel in the glorious human experience of the heart. It may not always be pleasant, but it is always sacred.
The Aces all have an element of luck built in. It’s considered “good fortune” to get them in a reading. What will you do with this emotional luck? How will you use it? What risks will you take that you’d normally shy away from? This is an excellent opportunity not only to freely express your love and devotion to yourself and others, but to open your heart up to some darker places within that you’ve stayed away from out of fear. You’re safe, Pisces. Go ahead and dive in. This celestial flood of elemental Water will keep any murky pools from clouding your vision for long. Know you are buoyant and take plenty of breaks to come up for air.
Pisces stone for August: Amethyst.
///
ARIES // ARIES RISING King of Wands
Oh, Aries, I am truly so thrilled for you. To come out of the chaos of the Five and into the mastery of the King? Pure bliss. And in your native element of Fire! No matter where you live, August is cooking up to be a hot one and you’d do well to get all your ingredients prepped and your techniques sharpened early on so you’re ready to impress. With your natural leadership, having a team in place and knowing exactly how they can best support your visions is not a bad idea either. This is big time manifesting energy. And my guess is that there is something you were DYING to accomplish last month that was blocked by misfires at every attempt to move forward.
If all this has you a bit stressed about where exactly to put all this energy, take a deep breath and remember that Fire is the element of intuition as well as action. Clear your mind, listen to your gut instincts, and let the knowledge come to you. Intuiting your next moves may be your greatest achievement this month. If that’s the case, be sure to take some concrete steps toward making your goals reality, no matter how small. If you’re executing on a detailed project, pad your timelines and budgets to allow for any retrograde shenanigans. The cosmos has delivered an incredibly useful energy that is exceptionally well-suited to your natural inclinations right to your doorstep. Accept this gift graciously and show your gratitude by embodying it to your fullest potential.
Aries stone for August: Malachite. Malachite brings luck and good fortune, creating a general vibe of positivity and an awareness of and gratitude for the abundance existing in our lives.
///
TAURUS // TAURUS RISING Ace of Crystals
It’s a new era, Taurus! Like I said last month, your entire year has been spent in the Major Arcana and your native element of Earth, and now we’ve come to the root of it all. Whenever I see so much work done in one area followed by an Ace, I get this wonderful expansive feeling like I’m looking out over a wide open landscape and can see for a thousand miles. This is your new base level. This is where you build from now. All of the work you’ve done has gotten you to a new level of understanding of your material world. The Aces come to us as gifts from the Universe. It’s our job to accept them with grace and use them to build a new path forward.
Where will your path take you, Taurus? What clues have come to you throughout the year so far? How have your teachers, family, and friends guided you? What have you already started building towards that you can now fully dedicate yourself to nurturing? Think big and think long-term. The stones you lay this month can lead to beauty you never dreamed possible if you ensure that the path you are building has the power to continue to light you up well into the future. The more care you put into it along the way, the more it will return to you by keeping the ground steady beneath your feet. Your future is stretched out before you and it all connects to now.
Taurus stone for August: Quartz Crystal.Quartz Crystal is the master crystal, working to amplify spiritual connection and the energies of all other stones. It is at once grounding and uplifting.
///
GEMINI // GEMINI RISING Nine of Swords
This month has a treasure of hard-won wisdom waiting for you, Gemini, and it’s all in your cozy zone of elemental Air! I am a big fan of the number nine. As the product of 3 x 3, it has major Divne lineage. I see the nines of the Tarot pips as symbolizing the highest level of wisdom of the suit (tens get to carry the mastery), one that only comes through lived experience. In the realm of Air, we get an earned wisdom around how we think and communicate, how we frame the world and conjure or banish possibilities from our lives with our thoughts and words. It’s powerful stuff! And with the planet of communication taking a little backwards stroll for the first part of the month, you’ll have the opportunity to do a nice deep review of how you’ve been operating.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (and again and again) – ALL WORDS ARE MAGIC WORDS. What do you tell yourself that is limiting your experience of your life? How could you switch it up to use your words to expand your world? Who are you taking advice from and what are the intentions and motivations behind it and behind your willingness to accept it? When is enough enough? This is “zero f#cks” territory, Gemini. All August, you are taking your power back through shifts that will be nearly imperceptible from the outside, but make a profound difference in the quality of your life. Start early and keep it steady.
Gemini stone for August: Black Obsidian. Black Obsidian assists in clearing energetic sludge and heaviness, particularly emotional heaviness and opens pathways of communication with the spirit realm.
///
CANCER // CANCER RISING Page of Crystals
Time to rebuild, dear Cancer! What, you didn’t know there was anything missing? Not surprising. You have a tendency to hyper-focus on your immediate surroundings, preferring the security of shoring up your personal boundaries to that of building out a fortress, but the time has come. Fortunately, you’re going to get to do it a little differently than everyone else. Forget everything you’ve been told about how to build grounded stability, a home. Forget common wisdom and colloquialisms and folk sayings. There are no rules. This is purely about you exploring ALL of the options to find what is exactly right for you right here and right now. And you can’t explore every option if you’re cutting out everything that someone older or wiser or richer or more successful has told you won’t work.
Sometimes it takes an outsider to move the needle forward in a significant way, in fact it usually does. Major shifts hardly ever come from an established expert. This month, you are that outsider. You have the gift of clear, wide open vision to see how you can stabalize your material world in a way that will serve you now and into the future. This can be through creating new streams of revenue, refurbishing or even completely changing your living situation, revamping your budget, or simply determining what makes you feel at home and making sure you get enough of it to feel secure. Feet on the ground and eyes to the sky, Cancer! This can be a very fruitful month if you put in the work.
Cancer stone for August: Chlorite Phantom Quartz. Chlorite Phantom Quartz provides a profound connection with the heart of the Earth, awakening our innate animal insticts and connection to our home planet.
///
The Moonchild Tarot by Danielle Noel will be published September 2018. Pre-order your copy HERE.
Dive into this month’s medicine for your sign with our Numinous Tarotscopes July 2018, cast by Melinda Lee Holm using the Starchild Tarot …
CANCER // CANCER RISING The Star
Happy Solar Return, dear Cancer! And what a divine birthday gift, especially after last month’s major soul purging. The Star is traditionally considered an omen of hope and that is a great place to start with this energy. Daring to open our hearts to hope is one of the very bravest things we humans can do. It is a radical act of leadership and of love. This month, you (we!) are being invited to be hopeful again, to place oursleves in a line of descended Divinity brought down from the beginning of time and lift our faces to the sky. If that sounds a bit grandiose, it’s because it is! The Star carries down the symbolism of Divinity from the very earliest humans who chose to use a symbol to represent the Mother Goddess. And now she is here for us!
All through July, find the little (and big) places left empty and dark for too long by heaviness and despair. Dig around in your psyche and find the rooms shut tight by time and disappointment and force them open to be flooded with the light of hope. Our planet is another carrier of Divine Feminine power, The Moon – call on her for a boost if you have trouble drawing down this energy. We have our New Moon on the 12th. If you’ve been wanting to up your witch game, this would be a GREAT time to light a white candle to usher in a new glorious era free of the doubts and binds of the past.
Your stone for July: Lemurian Seed Quartz Crystal
>>>
LEO // LEO RISING Temperance
Alright, Leo! You got your emotional workout regime fine tuned last month and now you are ready to expand and morph into the new you. While June was all about you leading the way in your personal realignment, July asks you to open and allow for the multi-dimensional shifts that Temperance brings. This should prove fairly painless, as this energy generally skews toward gentle/subtle/loving, but be on the lookout for any ego flare-ups. With any major shifts coming to us and not from us, there is always a risk they will bump up against parts of ourselves we are not ready to confront or let go of. If this happens, simply notice it and move on. Direct confrontation with ego is a losing game.
The universal balance sought by Temperance is quiet, but STRONG, and it seeks to make us stronger as well. All throughout July, the more you can allow the alchemy of the Universe to seep into every corner of your being, the more you will benefit from the breaking down and building up of minute fibers of your being. In practical terms, this will likely be barely perceptible except perhaps as a nagging feeling that the world isnt the same as it was yesterday even though it looks identical. Give yourself plenty of time to slow down and take in your surroudings so you can take in the new world forming inside you. Refrain from overindulging or extremes of any sort. Temperance works most effectively in a stable environment.
Your stone for July: Green Calcite
>>>
VIRGO // VIRGO RISING Strength
Virgo, the story of your journey from June to July has me absolutely swooning. The acceptance of and participation in loving collaboration with others into the fully integrated embrace of co-creation as the ultimate show of strength – it’s just beautiful. And your Elemental Earth nature will revel in the opportunity to engage fully with the world around you. Your best friends have always been the trees, the birds in the sky, the flowers and the bees, all the little specks of stardust working together to make this planet habitable, and now you can step forward to truly become one with them. What will you use this newly found strength to create, to nourish, to shield yourself and others from, to fight for and defend?
Take time this month to play with this power. Having difficulty getting through a project? Try working on it while sitting at the base of a tree. Can’t leave your office? Bring yourself some flowers – better yet, bring your dog to work! Team up with other humans, groups and individuals, and remind yourself constantly that you do not have to do this alone. Yes, you are extremely capable, Virgo, to the point that people make a joke of your exceptional skill in organizing. But now it’s time to find power in numbers. This is a chance for you see how far you can go when you open that sacred temple of yours to the skills and talents of others, professionally and personally, emotionally and spiritually.
Your stone for July: Vanadinite
>>>
LIBRA // LIBRA RISING The Empress
After your manifestation station last month, it’s time to shift gears and settle into a little season of nurturing and luxuriating. While none of the Major Arcana cards have a particular affiliation with any one Element, The Empress’ strong association with Venus gives her a decidedly heart-centered approach to life and the world and makes her a very natural and comfortable fit for you. Your appreciation for beauty will be heightened this month as will your ability to draw it into your sphere. Be careful what you wish for this month – you may very find yourself on the receiving end of a beautiful disaster if you do not take care to ensure that what you set your sights on is in alignment with your full heart.
It can be difficult to switch gears from manifesting to receiving. The impulses are near perfect opposites, making the receiving feel like an excruciatingly slow or empty experience. There can be a rising panic that you cannot receive what you don’t yourself create. If these feelings come up for you, be patient with yourself, love yourself – Empress yourself! And remember that you still have plenty to do. You are going to need to spend a lot of energy on shooting out your love in the specific direction of what you want to grow and draw in. This means first fine tuning your heart’s compass and allowing it to guide you, then beaming out the most beautiful, unconditional love you can, giving to receive.
Your stone for July: Rose Opal
>>>
SCORPIO // SCORPIO RISING Six of Crystals
Well, something worked with that Earth mastery energy last month, Scorpio, because here we are back in Earth, in the level of achievement. There is a sense of balancing or role reversal that comes through in the sixes in some decks, and I find that accurate for my take on the numerology. What better badge of achievement in the realm of Earth is there than the ability to give back, to balance out the scales, to lift up another as you have been lifted – or to accept a helping hand and be pulled up? Achievement in Earth is that first glimpse of wisdom that there is enough for everyone if we actively look to see where we can provide and accept balance, and after last month, my eye is on a little of both for you.
Now that you’ve done some work around refining goals, this month your task is to assess where you need help and, I am sorry to tell you, who would be best to ask for it. I know asking for help is not something that comes easily to you, but if you frame it as providing opportunity for others to participate in your vision, that should ease the burden considerably. Plus, it’s true! When we offer up creative and material partnership, we create community, foster relationships, and promote an environment of collaboration and participation. In our society, we tend to praise giving while shaming receiving as “taking.” Tap into your inherent rebellious nature and change the narrative from within.
Your stone for July: Tiger Eye
>>>
SAGITTARIUS // SAGITTARIUS RISING Seven of Swords
You are tasked with a further mastering of the lessons of last month, Sagittarius, and I am absolutely THRILLED about it. It lights my heart on fire when I get to present a perfect follow up to a lesson. The Knight of Swords last month brought up a lot of challenges around urgency in communication. This month, you get to resolve any doubts around how you chose to manage those challenges, fine tune your tactics, and solidify your methods moving forward. Think of it like a master class – you already have the information, now it is time to refine it and personalize it, to reflect on how it applies directly to your own life and work. And in order to do this, you need to be willing to doubt yourself a little.
Our usual experience of doubt involves a heavy dose of anxiety, but that’s not what I am encouraging here. There is a version of doubt that is more akin to an intellectual curiosty, a willingness to question and examine, to take nothing for granted. Your fiery drive to move forward may be frustrated by this seeming break in the action, but your ruling planet of Jupiter will be cheering like crazy for the expanded view of yourself and your relationship with the world around you that you achieve. Give yourself room to reflect and to accept any feedback or constructive criticism on your communicaton style – and be ready to dole some out to yourself! You have the greatest seat to judge whether your methods are at peak effectiveness. Score them carefully.
Your stone for July: White Onyx
>>>
CAPRICORN // CAPRICORN RISING The Sun
Happy half-birthday, Capricorn! Usually I don’t celebrate, but being blessed by The Sun hot on the heels of the Summer Solstice pratically begs for it. And if I know you, you’ll celebrate by using the burst of insight to get some sort of work done in these long summer days. I support it. While The Sun lends clarity to situations and issues previously shrouded in mystery, it also provides the energy and nourishment needed for serious growth. You’re cooking up something this month, Capricorn, something big. You’ve been preparing for it for a few months now, digging around in the dirt, forming your vision. Now is the time to bring your creation out into the open, parade it in the streets, shout it from the rooftops!
Because you now have a view into places you haven’t before, you’re likely going to see some flaws, some issues that give you pause. Make adjustments and move on. Do not get caught up in unnecessary details. This is big picture time. Besides, as anything grows, slight modifications need to be made, we always need to stay flexible. Just keep your eye on the prize even when you need to get back down in the dirt. You are the captain of this Earthly ship, you are the one with The Sun shining down on your head. Soak it in. This is a special time. Think back to anything significant that came up for you last month around the Solstice. The Universe often sends us clues we can’t interpret until a later date.
Your stone for July: Sunstone
>>>
AQUARIUS // AQUARIUS RISING Four of Wands
Get ready to manifest some solid ground under your feet this month, Aquarius, as the stabalizing influence of Elemental Fire makes its way to your door. It’s always an interesting mental game, thinking about exactly how this incessantly dancing, beautiful and dangerous element can possibly bring the calm promised by the Fours, but you’re always up for a fun mental game anyway. I’ll start by positing that Fours tend to promise more stability than they actually offer anyway, that the desire to hold onto life everlasting pushes us humans to place undue important on permanance, that what comes between three and five is more like coming around a corner to find an incredible view of a possible future than it is a landing place for a homestead.
So, try to find comfort in discomfort this month. Seek out the calm within chaos. Look for the places within yourself that the world judges most as inherently unstable and spend some time in the eye of the storm. Trust your intuition and let it lead you to places and people and situations that feel like home. Accept that nothing is permanent and in that moment of acceptance feel the rush of love and appreciation for all you have right in this moment, in this place in space and time. That stillness, that love, that harmony and peace with yourself and the world, that is the true stability of Fire. And it is yours for the taking this month. Don’t pass it up.
Your stone for July: Rutilated Quartz
>>>
PISCES // PISCES RISING The Lovers
Here we are again, Pisces! The Lovers visited you in March, highlighting ways to make relationships healthier. You then entered a three-month journey of acceptance, release, and reining in chaotic thinking. And now we are back. This month is your chance to re-do something around your relationship to relationships using all of the wonderful wisdom you have gathered through these lessons of the spring months. Think back to March. What came up for you at that time? Were there any conflicts or triumphs in your relationships? Any revelations of patterns within yourself or with others? Did any people in your life play an unusually significant role that month? Now is the time to go back and reset what was put into play.
The Lovers asks us to look deeply within to find where we are placing our identity in the hands of others, where we are valuing ourselves based on how others perceive our accomplishments, not our accomplishments themselves. It demands that we stand apart from our partners and become strong alone so we can best be of service in our partnerships. It can be a tough pill to swallow, but after all the work you’ve done, I really think this month is going to more of a celebration than a chore. You’re graduating, Pisces! This time when you look within, find how far you’ve come. Make slight adjustments if necessary and commit to staying the course moving forward, but the heavy lifting is done. Reflect and rejoice.
Your stone for July: Rainbow Moonstone
>>>
ARIES // ARIES RISING Five of Wands
You’re set to experience some chaos in your native element of Fire this month, Aries, but don’t despair! Now that you know it’s coming, you can avoid the considerable frustration of feeling the urgency to act only to run into wall after wall after wall. A bit harder to avoid is the frustration of jumbled messages coming through intuitive pathways. The Fire of Wands rules both action and intuition after all, and the chaos the Fives bring neutralizes the ability to use either effectively. Sometimes I think this is simply an invitation to give that part of ourselves a rest, but following your deep inward journey last month, I am getting the vibe that this is more like a fine tuning of whatever you discovered about your nature in June.
So, what exactly did you get up to last month, anyway? Are you certain that what was on the surface was the true narrative? Could it be possible, even probable, that the messages you received were encoded and that this chaos is the key to cracking open the truth? I’m leaning yes. And since any attempts to intuit more information or take more steps to correct course will almost certainly end in disappointment and confusion, best to take this time as a little extension of that “you time” I promised you last month. But this time it’s going to be focused. Feel all the feelings, think all the thoughts, and build away in the material world. All other elements are your friends and here to help you untangle this confusion of Fire.
Your stone for July: Turquoise
>>>
TAURUS // TAURUS RISING The Hierophant
Oh, Taurus, this is lovely. The Hierophant is your card and you’ve done so much metaphysical housekeeping this year that you are well-prepped to settle into the role. You don’t get a reputation for being particularly mystical, but your dedication to comfort and beauty betray the soul of someone absolutely committed to making their surroudings their temple. And with ONLY Earth (Crystals) and Major Arcana cards ALL YEAR LONG, surely your temple is positively gleaming by now! If not, step it up at the top of the month and get it done. Tidying is tedious, but it’s not difficult. You have bigger work to do. The Hierophant is the great spiritual teacher of the Tarot and you are being asked to accept the call. Make sure you are well-prepared to do so.
Be ready to assume the roll of student, teacher, or both. The Hierophant is interested in pulling us into our highest spiritual calling. What is it that you have been preparing for your whole life, what do people come to you for advice on? What have you been building the foundation for (perhaps literally)? What answer do you need in order to clarify your soul’s purpose? Be open to the Big Stuff this month, Taurus, and to give and receive wisdom in the unlikeliest of places with the unlikeliest of people. We may have dressed up The Hierophant in fancy robes and renamed him The Pope, but long before the Vatican holy people existed to pass Divine wisdom down through the generations. It’s your turn to make sure it continues.
Your stone for July: Clear Apophyllite
>>>
GEMINI // GEMINI RISING Five of Crystals
Well, Gemini, it couldn’t be your birthday forever. But the Five of Crystals doesnt have to be as bad as we often see it! Look, you JUST had this great lesson in staying active while being grounded. Now you’ve got a little dip into the chaos of the material world. Your method for managing the energies remains the same – keep on dancing. Stay with me here. Chaos in Earth most often manifests as fear of lack in the material world. Plainly put, fear of being broke, losing a job, having unstable housing, that sort of thing. And what do we do when these pieces of Earth feel like they may crumble beneath our feet? We keep moving, we jump around, we avoid putting too much stress on any one point – we add a little Fire, jump from foot to foot, and dance it out.
But we dont feel like we’re dancing. That’s where my guidance comes in. I am inviting you to manage this energy in the exact way you would expect someone to responsibly manage a fear of lack, just change up the way you manage the other elemental energies in your life to balance out the impact. Keep your thoughts, feelings, and actions in check. Do what you need to do to feel loved and safe, give your mind plenty to do, and keep your action uplifting and your intuition grounded in reality. If you can master this this month, it will serve you the rest of your life. The Fives come around again and again. How we deal with them makes or breaks our experience.
Dive into this month’s medicine for your sign with our Numinous Tarotscopes June 2018, cast by Melinda Lee Holm using the Starchild Tarot …
GEMINI // GEMINI RISING Knight of Crystals
Happy Solar Return, Gemini! Your birthday present from my Tarot deck this month is the great gift of active grounding. Knights represent the Fire of their suit, and in the case of Crystals, we get the absolutely mythological-sounding Fire of Earth. Are you swooning? If not, get into it. The Knight of Crystals someties gets a bad rap in his incarnation in other decks as the Knight of Pentacles, but I don’t buy it. Any figure that urges us to find a way to be grounded while remaining active and dynamic is cool in my book. You know that feeling when you’re in a good groove on the dance floor and you feel the weight of your body holding you to the Earth even as you remain in constant, elegant motion? That’s Knight of Crystals stuff right there.
So how (besides dancing) can you take advantage of this energy in your daily life? Look for ways that you feel comfortable and “at home” without feeling tied down. As the mutable Air sign of the zodiac, this is no small task. Your inherent flexibilty and ability to see (be?) all sides of any situation bring you many perks, but feeling naturally grounded is not one of them. Start small. Go to your favorite restaurant alone so you can stay as long as you want, spend time in nature, eat root vegetables. Follow your instincts – the fiery nature of Knights makes them act from the gut – just make sure that your compass is tuned Earthward.
Your stone for June: Moss Agate
>>>
CANCER // CANCER RISING Oppression (The Devil)
We’re in this together, Cancer (my natal Sun also falls under the spell of the Crab). I know this is one of the “scary” cards of the Tarot, but I have a confession. When I pulled this card for us this month, I was stoked and I want you to be too. We feel things deeply, sometimes painfully deeply, and sometimes we don’t even know why. A heaviness can set in like a dark cloud and we simply sit and wait for the mysterious storm to clear. Not this month. This month we are being given the opportunity to uncover what is holding us back and to find that we alone have the power to lift those energetic chains. And this card does not deal in the small things. I am talking about huge life-shifting changes in perspective that allow us to step into our power like we never knew we could.
Will it be pleasant? Absolutely not. Whenever we discover we have been our own oppressors (or agents in our oppression) all along, there is going to be some sorrow, probably some guilt and shame. And for you and I, Cancer, this can be a terrible trap. Do whatever you can to lift yourself as you uncover these truths this month. It’s a balancing act – go see the Shaman, meditate, journal, light black candles – and then let a friend cook you dinner. Make sure you spend at least as much time making yourself feel loved as you do sawing through those chains. And remember – manifesting up is just as easy as manifesting down.
Your stone for June: Howlite
>>>
LEO // LEO RISING Eight of Cups
My dear leonine friends, your version of getting in shape for summer this year revolves around your emotional body. It’s time to get very clear about your long term emotional needs and make the changes needed to ensure these needs are met. This doesn’t mean confrontations or fireworks – really. I know your planet is the Sun and you like to be seen, but this month is a covert operation. Take this time to take stock of what is truly serving your emotional life in a lasting and sustainable way. Make lists and check them twice, spend time with people and see how you feel afterwards, and consider that any feelings of discomfort may have more to do with you than with your company. This is the low-hanging fruit. The true gift of long-term emotional stability can only come from within.
This will be more enjoyable and easier by carrying the metaphor of getting the emotional body in shape. How do we get and keep our physical bodies in shape? We make small, managable changes to our routine and we remain consistent. What is your current emotional health regimen? What do you do daily, weekly, monthly, and annually to ensure the continued health of your energetic heart? What healthy habits can you put in place that you can commit to keeping up with regularly? That’s the key here. Just like a couple days of spin class will not make you a world class athlete, a couple days of journaling will not transform your emotional life. It’s a marathon, not a sprint!
Your stone for June: Green Tourmaline
>>>
VIRGO // VIRGO RISING Three of Cups
Time to put all those emotional connections you embraced last month to work, Virgo! June is bringing you a gorgeous pool of heart-centered collaboration to dive into. Gather your most prolific besties and see what magic you can make together. Whatever you get into, it is sure to be fulfilling. Will it be lucrative? Popular? The start of something grand? Eh, maybe. That’s really not the point. The goal here is to train yourself to believe that it is ok to make practical decisions based purely on your feelings. I am not suggesting you quit your day job to run away and join the circus because you feel close to your friends in trapeze class. But, I’m not NOT saying that either.
Emotional collaboration should not only pull you out of your comfort zone a bit, it should also pull you out of your reality. The wonderful thing about working closely with others is that they provide us with a window on a whole different world – the one they see through their eyes and experience. These windows allow us to see out into other worlds and also to see our own reflection in the glass – we learn about ourselves by learning about those who are different from us. Are you seeing how important it is to really follow your heart in this project? Your very identity can be transformed by your work with these collaborators. So if you do decide to run off, make sure it’s a really good circus.
Your stone for June: Rhodonite
>>>
LIBRA // LIBRA RISING The Magician
Halleluljah, Libra! Now that you’ve completed the task of staring sorrow in the face, you have earned the opportunity to advance your manifesting game and not just a little. The Magician is major (pun intended). You are on a quest this month to gather the power of the Four Earthly Elements of the tarot suits (Air, Earth, Fire, and Water) and to align with the 5th Element of Spirit to create your world anew. We often think of manifesting in terms of specific things – getting a job or a home, increasing income, calling in a lover. These are small potatoes to The Magician. What you are called to manifest now is a whole paradigm of existence that allows these things to grow naturally.
What do you want to feel like? Free, satisfied, rich, happy, loved? What is the unique mix that is you? How do you want to think about yourself and your role in the world? What do you know in your gut is the most important thing to your overall feeling of accomplishment? How can all of this materialize in the three dimensional world? Got it all? Great. Now make sure that everything you have conjured up served not only you, but the whole Universe. As above, so below. Aligning with Spirit ensures that your personal mode of manifestation will be a beautiful reflection of the Divine. Be brutally honest with yourself on this. Staying on the up and up with Spirit and your Earthly neighbors ensures you will maintain support for your vision.
Your stone for June: Nuumite
>>>
SCORPIO // SCORPIO RISING King of Crystals
I have a confession, Scorpio. I have a huge crush on the King of Crystals. His Air of Earth vibes have his intellect so finely tuned to what is truly best for growing Earthly bounty that he never ever worries about being provided for. This dude has never known lack, but he has seen it and stepped up and filled the needs of others. Get into this energy by taking a step back and finding where you may be trying to force something to grow in a way that is not natural or is in conflict with its inherent strengths. This requires a very healthy dose of trust. It is so easy to fall into patterns of worry and anxiety when waiting for material abundance to grow, particulary for someone who feels as deeply as you do. Resist this urge and force yourself to be annoyingly optimistic.
What do you do when you identify where you are pushing in unfruitful places or in unproductive ways? Judging yourself for it will get you nowhere. The task is simply to identify, redirect, and repeat. A great method for this work would be to list out your Earth-bound goals (anything having to do with the material world and finances) and assess your daily patterns by whether and how effectively they are moving you closer to achieving these goals. Are you taking advantage of your body’s natural rhythms? Are your inherent strengths and gifts being cultivated and put to work to support the life you desire? To build the kingdom, first be the King.
Your stone for June: Peridot
>>>
SAGITTARIUS // SAGITTARIUS RISING Knight of Swords
Are you feeling good, Sagittarius? Feeling loved, feeling open? If not, dig in and get close because you have something to say this month and a need to get it out, and we want those words coming from a place of love and confidence, not fear and resentment. The Fire of Knights tends to give their energy an urgency that can be difficult to contain. This is why the Knights are so often described as havng a teenage quality to them – they remind us of the overwhelming urgency to act we felt as adolescents. This can be exhilerating or terrifying depending on where you are. Since your cards for the past few months have fallen heavily in the uplifting/opening realm, I am hoping this falls on the exhilerating side.
The need to speak your mind will be most noticable when you feel compelled to express your thoughts to others, so keep your ear tuned to messages you need to hear yourself. So often the flaws we perceive most clearly in others are smply there as mirrors to show us where we have internal work to do – either an adjustmant or acceptance of these same flaws. This is where your real work comes in this month. I want you to focus on directing all of these urgent communicatons you feel at yourself first. It’s going to seem silly and even crazy sometimes, but go with it. Take a breath, open your heart and mind, and hear what you have to say yourself before saying it out loud to others.
Your stone for June: Larmiar
>>>
CAPRICORN // CAPRICORN RISING Nine of Crystals
You’re on an Earthy roll, Capricorn! And after the big push of grounded planning last month, you should know just where to put the high-achieving practicality of this month’s energy. I have to admit, the Nines are my sweet spot. Reaching beyond the long-term stability of the Eights, not satisfied to be simply sustained, wanting to grow and develop further from a place of relative comfort, reaching a high level of wisdom, but still knowing there is so much left to learn. It’s a goregous energy in any suit in my book (though you wouldn’t know it from the illustrations in some decks!), but in your native element of Earth, it’s particularly lovely. You have an opportunity here to reach for the stars with your feet on the ground to create what could become a legacy.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves quite yet. The pip cards ask us to step into the daily work of the real world. So, rather than focusing on legacy, focus on what you have the power to grow right here and now. Where in your life have you reached a good level of achievement and stability? What tasks or skills are you pretty good at already? How can you make those things bigger and better? If you’re a skilled artist, try a new technique or medium, refine a process you’ve wanted to branch out into. Take a class in your field, learn something new about what you already know and do and love and succeed in. You’re ready to reach beyond what you previously thought possible.
Your stone for June: Optical Calcite
>>>
AQUARIUS // AQUARIUS RISING Eight of Swords
I am pleased to inform you, dear Aquarius, that this month brings you one of your very favorite passtimes: thinking about thinking. The Eight of Swords asks us to find a place of lasting stability in the realm of Air and there’s no better way to do it but to think, think about those thoughts, talk about them, and then think some more. And seeing that the one thing you can count on for the distant future is that you will be there with yourself, the best person to work this out with is you. Take as much time as you can to sit and ruminate this month, focusing on examining how patterns of thought and communication can or cannot sustain your long-term health and wellbeing.
I know it can be stressful to look this closely at your own interior dialog. Keep it light, refrain from judgment, and take breaks to go into full-on daydream mode when needed. The goal here is not to stress you out, but to get to a place where you have an internal system in place that automatically gets you back on track when you hit bumps in the mental road. This energy is about setting up your patterns in a way that serves you now and well into the future. I recently figured out I could set my online scheduling system to see my calendar and I suddenly had SO MUCH MORE SPACE in my head. That’s what I’m talking about. Bonus points if you close loops that keep you from taking risks to grow.
Your stone for June: Magnesite
>>>
PISCES //PISCES RISING Five of Swords
Ok, Pisces, I’m just going to get right into it. You’ve got a bit of work to do this month. Not in the active way that lets you see your accomplishments and feel good about being of service in the world. This is interior work. It is time to stop wondering what people think about you, or worse – assuming you know what they think and what their intentions are. Chaos in the realm of Air is familiar to all of us, but to you it can become a place of dark comfort. Break those chains that bind you, Pisces! It’s not even that you can’t know for sure what other people are thinking about you (no matter how much you wonder or even ask), it’s that it doesn’t matter.
I can feel you tensing up. Hear me out. How people treat you is the metric you want to go by. Think about it – if you have a friend who thinks you’re AMAZING, but cannot keep a date with you, you have to manage the relationship based on their behavior. You can’t keep making dinner reservations hoping that their opinion of you overrides their deficiencies in punctuality. Besides, you’ll drive yourself crazy trying to be a mind reader. All month, I want you to notice when you get caught in traps of swirling thoughts and just stop to make note of what actual evidence you have. Be Olivia Benson and Alex Cabot rolled into one – follow your gut, but make sure the evidence is there to back it up.
Your stone for June: Hematite
>>>
ARIES // ARIES RISING Serenity (The Hermit)
Dear Aries, you are kicking off the summer months in enviable fashion. You are being called to pump the breaks and take a well earned break from your drive for achievement. While this isn’t exactly your comfort zone, I think you’ll have little trouble talking yourself into it. This month, stand ready to do just that – stand ready. No need to move forward, get new clients, accomplish goals or complete tasks. With the year you’ve had, I’m guessing you have things at least adequately lined up to support your daily life, so sit back, take a deep breath, and turn inward. It’s time to do some solo exploation on your own energetic backyard.
If you’re able to actually take a little sabbatical or a vacation, that’s wonderful. But even if your work routine can’t change, you can priorotize solitary time. Be your own dream date. Take yourself to movies you want to see, explore parks you’ve never been to, go to a museum, listen to that record you used to play on repeat, reconnect with parts of yourself you haven’t hung out with in a while. The grind of modern life can run us ragged and conflicting priorities can force us to neglect aspects of ourselves and the world that were once important to us. This is a wonderful oppotunity to focus on gathering up those pieces and trying them on again to see what we want to bring forward and share with the other people in our lives. But not quite yet. This month is just for you.
Your stone for June: Peach Moonstone
>>>
TAURUS // TAURUS RISING Four of Crystals
I love this narrative, Taurus. Trust the timing of the Universe, trust yourself, find stability. And for you, dear Fixed Earth friend, stability in your native element is deeply comfortable and comforting. Spring may have kept you on your toes, but you’re starting summer in the energetic equivalent of lounging in a hammock in a gentle breeze. If you’ve felt uneasy or unsure about your standing in a situation, June should clear that up and have you putting stakes in the ground for the future. Trust your inner compass (well-honed by now) to tell you when and where it is safe to lay your claim. I only ask, nudge, urge you to be sure that you are thinking big and thinking scalable.
I always get the tiniest bit nervous when this card comes up. Stability in Earth is just a little too easy to lean a little too hard into. It can get sticky, stagnant even. That’s why we have the Fives to come along and shake things up. To avoid unintentionally drawing any chaos into your life, enjoy the comfort without getting too attached to the container. You are the true source of the cozy security you long for. The more secure you are in yourself, the more comfortable in your own body, the more support you will naturally draw. My greatest hope for you is that this month you turn this energy inward and get so grounded in your own physical, emotional, and spiritual bodies that you alone are the living embodiment of the Four of Crystals. Make me proud, Taurus!
The Tarot is a powerful tool for intention setting and conscious growth. With The Hierophant Sessions, Melinda Lee Holm shares how to discover which card is your Tarot teacher right now …
We generally consult the Tarot when we have specific questions and seek clear answers.
Yet in the same way that we look to figures like Joan of Arc, Yogananda, Angela Davis, and Harvey Milk as role models, we can also look to the Tarot’s archetypes not just as divination tools to give us information about our lives, but as actual guides for our behavior.
In my own work, I use the cards as practical guides, and encourage my clients to actively work with the deck by meditating on its images, setting altars to archetypes, and consciously cultivating relationships to these symbols through everyday strategies.
I’ve selected my top Tarot “teachers” and techniques for you below. See if you recognize yourself in any of these types and when in doubt, separate the 6 teachers, shuffle, and pull one to discover whose guidance is calling to you right now.
*Want to learn more about the Tarot as a practical guidance tool? Listen to my Hierophant Sessions podcast every Wednesday (preview episode up now!) and book a session with me HERE.
>>>
1// Teacher: The Empress. You may need The Empress if you are experiencing: impatience, narrow focus, scarcity mentality, a closed heart.
Stone: Aventurine Food: Basil Scent: Rose Action: Open
The Empress teaches us that sometimes the best way to get the great love and prosperity we desire in life is to wrench open that bear trap around our little modern hearts, lean back, and let the love flow! There is an element of profound trust inherent in this card, a fundamental knowing that we are loved by the Earth and the Universe and that by simply opening up and loving unconditionally, we can tap into that great well of abundance they promise.
**Activate The Empress by embracing the idea that to give is to receive. Volunteer your time cooking at a shelter, reading to children, caring for animals or the environment, sorting food at the food bank—anything that gets you immersed in that consciousness of the Universal flow. Showing your love for others and backing it up with your time and money is a great way to get into Empress mode!
>>>
2// Teacher: The Hermit. You may need The Hermit if you are experiencing: stress, feeling overwhelmed, lack of direction.
When it all feels like it’s just too much and you want to run away, it may be time to do just that—with the focused guidance of The Hermit. While in common usage we use the word “hermit” as a synonym for “recluse,” in the Tarot the figure is a wizened sage who seeks solitude in order to gather more wisdom. The seclusion he seeks is not motivated by desire to hide, but rather to cut out the noise to better focus on gathering the knowledge he needs to best serve not only his own personal development, but the needs of the broader community.
**Activate The Hermit by thriving in the cycle of intake and reflection. Try reading a great book on a topic near and dear to your Self and take time to journal for at least 30 minutes after reading each chapter. Solo trips into nature are a great Hermit activity as well—if you can’t make a trek into the mountains, sit alone under a tree in a park for a few hours. It’s a great time to read that book!
>>>
3// Teacher: Strength. You may need Strength if you are experiencing: isolation, fatigue, weariness, feelings of resentment.
This card teaches us that true strength comes through co-creation and collaboration with the world around us, and through knowing our strengths and our weaknesses and embracing both. So much in our society pulls us apart and encourages us to see our fellow humans as competitors or even adversaries. Strength counters this messaging and reminds us that we are all children of the Earth and the Cosmos, and that when we embrace each other and our home we can achieve the greatest results. Only through vulnerability can we fortify ourselves to accomplish our greatest goals.
**Activate Strength by seeing the results of co-creation appear before your very eyes. Complete a project with someone close to you—this could be a household project with your partner or a creative project with a friend, anything where you are working in tandem with someone else and there is a clear concrete goal you can see completed. Repeat as needed!
>>>
4// Teacher: The High Priestess. You may need The High Priestess if you are experiencing: disconnection from self, lack of confidence, feelings of being unworthy, imposter syndrome.
The High Priestess calls us to fully explore the depths and dark corners of our souls. Just as the Moon shows itself by reflecting the light of the Sun, the High Priestess teaches us to look for clues about our true natures by looking at our reflections all around us. All of this inner exploration is made possible by her dedication to maintaining strong boundaries around her temple (nuns may be our closest living embodiment of High Priestess energy). From her, we can learn how important it is to enforce and maintain strong boundaries around a space we designate as sacred in our lives.
**Activate The High Priestess by designating and consecrating your temple. Your studio, office, bedroom, even a little corner of your living room that is just yours. Choose a space, clear it (physically and energetically), and then very selectively populate it with items that reflect you as you aspire to be and be seen.
>>>
5// Teacher: Death. You may need Death if you are experiencing: scattered thinking, lack of productivity, obsessive thoughts about the past, inability to form new relationships.
Stone: Black Tourmaline Food: Sesame Scent: Lavender Action: Release
When we try to hold onto ideas, patterns, and even relationships that have passed their usefulness to our well-being, it can manifest in a confusing series of seemingly unexplainable setbacks and energetic blockages. As the confusion sets it, we tend to clamp down ever harder, afraid to lose the ground we’ve worked so hard to gain, and further exacerbating the problem. The magic and wisdom of the Death card shows us that loosening the grip and allowing release is the surest way to make more room for new growth to emerge.
**Activate Death by leaning into the wisdom of letting go. Start with donating clothes you no longer need. The act of purging material posessions has a profound effect on the emotional and energetic bodies that can lead to greater ease in releasing emotional patterns and psychic loops.
>>>
6// Teacher: The Hierophant. You may need The Hierophant if you are experiencing: lack of meaning, directionlessness, strained connection to the Divine, difficulty finding your path.
While all of the cards offer wisdom and guidance of their own, The Hierophant stands apart as the one figure completely dedicated to downloading Divine teachings and disseminating that information for the benefit of others. If you’re feeling lost, calling on The Hierophant can be a powerful force to help you find the direction you need. Working with this card in manifestation practice can even bring in the teacher or mentor you need to get going on your path and achieve your goals – as long as those goals are aligned with your spiritual purpose!
**Activate The Hierophant by quite literally finding your gurus. Read spiritual texts, go to group meditations, go on a retreat if you can swing it—just get around as many people and ideas as you possibly can that are inspirational and aspirational to YOU. And be ready for the surprise twist where you actually end up being the guru someone else was looking for! We all have wisdom to offer the world.
*Want to learn more about the Tarot as a practical guidance tool? Listen to Melinda’s Hierophant Sessions podcast every Wednesday (preview episode up now!) and book a session with her HERE.
Dive into this month’s medicine for your sign with our Numinous Tarotscopes May 2018, cast by Melinda Lee Holm using the Starchild Tarot …
TAURUS // TAURUS RISING Seven of Crystals Happy Solar Return, dear Taurus! There is a deepening of the lessons of April in store for you this month. The Sevens bring us opportunities to overcome doubts, and in the realm of Earth that generally equates to confronting ways in which we doubt the ability of our work to bring our desired results. While last month was more around trusting timing, this month is about finding ways you can more deeply trust in yourself and your abilities. The element of Earth is your safe place, so digging deeply into finding your true power within it is essential to living a truly fulfilled life. This means trusting not only in your ability to form the world you live in, but also that you have a place in it and are a worthy and necessary part of it.
How are you holding yourself back by doubting your own Earthly abilities? Are there things you are hesitant to even try to achieve because you have failed to see the results you desired in the past? Are you pushing yourself to keep refining your skill and methodology during the time spent waiting for work completed to ripen and blossom? This month, work on being your own biggest fan. Dare to believe in yourself like you never have before. Keep moving forward with the knowledge that the work you have completed was perfect and that it is ok to move forward and keep building upon it. Every day brings a new chance to create and grow.
Your stone for May: Red Jasper
>>>
GEMINI // GEMINI RISING Seven of Wands How you holding up, Gemini? I’m guessing if you were to use the vernacular of my home state of MN your answer would simply be “uff da.” Last month was A LOT. Needed, transformative, world-shifting, but probably a tad exhausting. This month is going to bring a gentler breeze to your airy shores as you dive into the task of overcoming ways in which you doubt your intuition. Elemental Fire has a strong duality in action and intuition, but based on the energy you’ve been presented with these past couple months, my hunch is that the intuitive aspect is going to be more strongly spotlighted in May. Here’s the thing – when you’ve had the rug pulled out from under you, even if it served to bring you to a better place, it can be very hard to trust what you feel in your gut is true.
This month, all month, every chance you get, allow yourself to trust your intuition in small ways. Reach out to that friend that keeps popping into your head, take the route that avoids an intersection you are inexplicably leery of, throw those leftovers out that may or may not have sat out a little too long. Build your relationship with your inner voice back up in small ways and work your way up to higher stakes stuff. Just as with relationships with others, there is no shortcut to earning trust. Sink in and do the work. You have enough trouble with decisions as it is, dear Twin Stars. You cannot afford to have your direct line to your Higher Self down for repairs for long.
Your stone for May: Lapis Lazuli
>>>
CANCER // CANCER RISING Nine of Wands There is so much work to be done this month, Cancer! And you are well positioned and supported to complete it all. You were gifted this same energy in March and then went into a major shift and expansion in April. Now the Nine of Wands is back to show you how far you’ve come and present you with an opportunity to prove to yourself how much more you can accomplish. Think back to projects or ideas that surfaced in March. Now is the time to again push forward to see where you can take them. Whatever your work, whatever your goals, this month is your chance to double your productivity and clear out all the lingering chores taking up precious space in your brain and energetic field.
A major part of you getting all you can out of this energy is going to rest on your ability to not take things personally. As the cardinal water sign, you feel things more strongly than most and have a tendency to let your emotions lead the way when it comes to decision making. Not this month. When you feel that familiar rush of Water heightening your emotional reactions, let the Fire of the Nine of Wands turn it to steam and watch it float away – or even better, harness that Air energy to make practical assesments of the situation! Our reactions are not our reality, they are simply a way for us to cope and navigate through life. Take the reins and lead with your gut.
Your stone for May: Citrine
>>>
LEO // LEO RISING Two of Crystals Dearest Leo, you are getting back to basics this month in the realm of Earth. The Twos bring us the wisdom of their suit, the promise of the possibilites held in their Element. You are being offered an invitation to reconsider what you see as possible in the material world around you, to perhaps see a new landscape unfold with the proverbial sound of two nickels rubbing together. It is time to dig down to the root and foundation of your financial plan, your physical Earth-bound framework for your life, and see whether there are places that are in need of an update or a change in direction.
I keep getting an image of a plant that is not doing as well as it seems it should be, hands digging in the dirt to uncover the roots and finding a manufactured object blocking the natural growth of the root and consequently stunting the growth of the whole plant. What unnatural barrier is interfering with the natural growth of your material abundance? Is it a physical thing, the choice of a type of bank account or corporate structure, a poorly planned work space, a simple accounting oversight? Or is it more emotional, ethereal, energetic? Is it an issue of perceived worthiness, leftover debts from past lives, or misplaced anxiety? Whatever it is, this month it is your duty to dig in to the dirt and find it. Take nothing for granted. Be ready to examine all aspects of your Earthly life to see how they support the expanive possibilites of the Two of Crystals.
Your stone for May: Quartz Crystal
>>>
VIRGO // VIRGO RISING Nine of Cups Ooo la la, Virgo! It’s been a fairly work-focused year so far in pretty much every aspect of your life and now it is time for you sit back and drink in all of the lovely emotional support you’ve built up by being a wondeful friend, collaborator, co-worker, and individual (working on yourself always benefits everyone around you, after all). This month I want you to spend as much time as possible with those people that make you feel loved, secure, and seen. They are your mirrors. When you look at them and marvel at how wonderful they are, how smart and funny and talented, what incredible capacity for emotional understanding and supprt they offer, know that that is a direct releflection of you as well. Water finds its own level and this is especially true in the spiritual/energetic realm!
Your driven nature may make this actually feel like a frustrating task, to focus on emotional connection and reflection as opposed to “real” work in the areas of Earth or Air or even Fire. If that resistence comes up for you, remind yourself that this IS real work and that the element of Water is integral to the successful presentation of all of the other elements. Our emotional bodies need this attention and care to support us through the tough times and buoy our productivity. Doesn’t it always make it easier to push yourself in any type of work when you know people you respect and love care about the outcome and about your personal accomplishments?
Your stone for May: Pink Tourmaline
>>>
LIBRA // LIBRA RISING Five of Cups I am going to ask you to be very kind to yourself this month, Libra. Allow plenty of time to rest, to be alone, be sure to feed yourself healthy, nousirhsing food, drink plenty of water, and get some exercise. May is bringing you a lesson in mourning. Mourning is often seen as a synonym for being sad following a loss, but that doesn’t really cover it. To mourn is to activley participate in the emotional processing of events that may cause sadness, it is an active verb, not a passive feeling. It’s time to face your feelings and to bravely step forward into the place where you can examine them, understand their origins and utility, and gather the lessons they hold to move forward.
Lean into the wisdom of the King of Cups that visited you last month. Integrating that ability to ride out rough seas of emotion will serve you well now. You don’t have to suffer. There are no extra points for unnecessary trauma or drama. This is simply a lesson in engaging with emotional rough spots in real time to fully experience life and grow and evolve with the passing of time instead of hiding from the hard parts in an effort to appear strong to yourself and others. I speak often of the profound strength inherent in vulnerability and I reiterate that for you now. Opening up to the unpleasant, the difficult, the challenging of the emotional spectrum is just as important as opening up to the positive. You’ve got this, Libra. Be kind.
Your stone for May: Chrysoprase
>>>
SCORPIO // SCORPIO RISING Six of Wands May is bringing you a taste of victory, Scorpio! The sixes all indicate an achievement of some sort in their Element and this achievement in the realm of Fire should prove to feel very satisfying. Given your deeply intuitive emotional nature, it is likely that this will come in the form of a confirmation that your intuition about a person or situation was spot on. But why limit yourself to just one victory? Be on the lookout all month long for confirmations and celebrations great and small of your acute intuitive abilities and the fruits of your decisive actions. Let this victory inspire you to push even further and show you areas that are particularly rich for you to pursue greatness.
Seeing as this energy is coming to you hot on the heels of that Divine gift of the Ace last month, there is a great chance that some of your celebration will be around affirmation that you have used that gift wisely. Pay special attention to any messages around what you started forming last month. The places where you do not receive affirmation are just as important to note as those where you do. To NOTE. Take it as information, not judgment. Not every idea lands. Be careful not to get bogged down by despair or disappointment over a lack of energy around ideas or projects you considered your favorites. Keep the energy flowing to where it is most useful and keep your eyes on the prizes that manifest with the most grace and ease.
Your stone for May: Pyrite
>>>
SAGITTARIUS // SAGITTARIUS RISING Ten of Cups Oh you are on quite an enviable roll, Sagittarius! You’ve had some major blessings in energetic/spiritual expansion the past couple months and now you are able to ground all of that personal growth and Divine connection into your daily emotional life. By now you should be pretty open to trusting in the Universe and now you can trust in your fellow humans. Look to those closest to you to show you how grand true love can be. I am not just talking about romantic love, though that is a good possibility. I am talking about a depth of mutual admiration and adoration that lifts everyone up together, people inspiring each other to be greater together than they could be alone. Love of family, community, in the full expansive definition of both of those words.
The Ten is the inhale to the Ace’s exhale. When we are graced with the broad support of the Ten, it becomes our duty to look ahead and begin to prepare to do our part to pay it forward by pushing that energy back out as a gift to others in collaboration with the Divine. So as you drink in this beautiful emotional fulfillment, be on the lookout for ways that you can inspire others to recognize and accept the pure gift of Water the Universe provides. Practice random acts of kindness. Be a leader in love and radical acceptance. This would be an excellent time to volunteer your time to help someone in need, whether caring for a family member, mentoring a child, or cooking at a shelter.
Your stone for May: Emerald
>>>
CAPRICORN // CAPRICORN RISING Queen of Crystals Ok, Capricorn, the riches of big archetypal feminine energy that has been flowing your way all year honestly has me a bit envious. Between The Moon, The High Priestess, and now your second Queen in two months, I daresay you may be on your way to becoming a bonefide master of the vast power of receptivity. And now this month brings that energy to you in your home element of Earth. Queens represent the Water of their suit, they have a gravity and a determination to them, and in the realm of Earth they have a profound ability to inspire dedication to creative projects. What is the Water of Earth, after all, but the clay we were all formed from according to folklore from cultures and religions all over the world?
What will you form this month, Capricorn? What will you give shape to with your bare hands and build lovingly from the ground up? I bet you could find some clues in all that communicating you did last month. These energies follow one another for a reason. What we build almost always takes form first in our thoughts and then our words as we turn them over and hold them in our mouths to see how they feel. You now have beutiful support to bring those thoughts and words down into the physical world. Of course, this doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily be building a physical object. Bulding a business or reforming how your home is organized would be in line with this energy as well. Find what is in alignment with you and set aside the time needed to do it right.
Your stone for May: Garnet
>>>
AQUARIUS // AQUARIUS RISING Queen of Wands This month will show you just how much you learned from watching all that chaos unfold last month, Aquarius. And in case there was any confusion in the matter, it was A LOT as evidenced by your jump from the five to the Queen in the suit of Wands. Your intuition is sharp now as is your ability to act when action is called for and opportunities to use both will be in abundance all month long. You are naturally a dreamer, happy thinking through fantasy scenarios over and over until you fall into a decision, but now you will effortlessly intuit the answers and choices that will best serve your Highest Good and find yourself ready to execute on them immediately.
Since this is somewhat foreign territory for you, be sure to give yourself the best possible base to work from. Get enough sleep, make a schedule and stick to it, keep your home and workspace clear of clutter – everything you can do to remove distractions that could keep you from tapping into the inner voice yearning to guide you. Take time to reflect on chaotic events and situations April presented to you and how they looked and felt before, during and after they occurred. You can use that information to tune your intuition in to the signals you need to pick up.
Your stone for May: Sodalite
>>>
PISCES // PISCES RISING Transformation (Death) Ooo, Pisces, you’re not done with April’s lesson of release quite yet! Last month was just a warmup for the main event. A much-needed warmup. Now that you’ve had some experience in purposeful, directed, mindful release of things that no longer work for you, it’s time to dig deeper. Way deeper. Ever thought about having a past life regression? This would be a great time for that. That’s how deep I’m talking – across time and space deep. This isn’t how I usually frame the energy of the Death card, but this isn’t a usual situation! When cards come in a certain order there is often a very clear shift or amplification in the energy. And then on top of it, you are the sign I can most count on to be VERY cozy way out in esoteric waters.
What are some other ways you can dig in to this expansive clearing? If you are unable (or unwilling, which is totally fair) to go in for past life regression or head out to a ten day silent vipassana retreat, you can still get the full benefit of this energy by staying alert to it and calling it in. Light a black clearing candle on the Full Moon, cook with sesame oil, spend more time than you normally would alone in reflection, and always always ALWAYS be taking note of what is enhancing your life and what is not. Be brutally honest with yourself. The likelihood that the things you need to release are originating from within is high.
Your stone for May: Charoite
>>>
ARIES // ARIES RISING King of Swords Your Cardinal Fire directness will get a boost this month, Aries, with powerful Air energy lighting up your ability to think and communicate quickly and easily. Kings represent the Air of their suit, so we get a double dose of it here in the suit of Swords. If there’s a problem you’ve been trying to solve or an issue you’ve been struggling to communicate, you can clear it up this month. Your ability to sharpen your thoughts and articulate them outwardly will be enviable, just be careful that sharpness doesn’t extend to your tongue. Sometimes this energy can manifest in a directness that can be off-putting for some and get in the way of your true message. Consider the situation, modify language and delivery to the needs of the recipent, and reasses frequently. You’ll be able to do this at lightning speed, so don’t worry you’ll slow yourself down in the process.
I highly encourage you to do a LOT of journaling this month. When you have this level of Air energy on your side, you want to take full advantage. There may be things you need to communicate to yourself that you won’t have time to reflect on until later, so get everything out and down on paper that you possibly can. With your Solar Return still looming large in the rearview mirror and a fresh take on what’s most important on your hands, this is a wonderful opportunity to download information from your Highest Self that can help you set the agenda for the entire year to come.
Your Numinous Tarotscopes April 2018 are here, cast by Melinda Lee Holm using the Starchild Tarot …
ARIES//ARIES RISING Four of Swords Happy Solar Return, dear Aries! You, and the wheel of the zodiac itself, have completed another circle around the Sun and you are ready for a healthy dose of realignment. Four of Swords is a classic solar return card, encouraging us to take a close look at our patterns in the realm of Air and see if there is anything hanging out in there that is impeding stability in the realm of thought and communication. Don’t be afraid to look reeeeeaaaaal close—this can be a ‘Princess and the Pea’ situation. But while that fable implies a state of pathological sensitivity, your sensitivity to tiny bits of sand in the mental cogs is more akin to superhero perception. When something rubs you the wrong way this month, perk up, tune in, and dig it out!
With half of the month spent under the spell of Mercury’s retrograde motion, this interior examination will take on a positively epic tone. Messages can come from the least likely sources, so be extra vigilant and keep a laser focus on determining whether every little thing is an agent for harmony or discord in your elemental sphere of Air. Remember—the more pebbles your clear out, the more room you’re making to invite new patterns of thought, communication, and intellectual framing that can truly elevate your experience of your life. If this is a milestone birthday year, all of this applies tenfold. The passing of time tends to knock us out of complacency and into greater alignment with our Higher Selves. Take that baton and run like hell.
Your stone for April: Tiger Eye
>>>
TAURUS//TAURUS RISING Wheel of Fortune Patience, my dear Taurus, is a virtue with which you are well acquainted. When you have your eye on a prize, you have an enviable talent for biding your time as you put all the parts in place to achieve your goal. You have a strong streak of perfectionism in your life and work and are willing to put in the time to get things done right, rather than rushing forward to plant your flag. This month is going to test you in this realm. While you are more than willing to take time, you are much less willing to give up control. The Wheel of Fortune is here to remind you that no matter how hard you work, how far ahead you plan, or how great of a team you assemble, the Universe sometimes has other plans.
Breathe, Taurus! You can bet that the plans of the Universe are in better alignment with your personal expansion and growth than the ones you’ve laid out yourself. With Mercury retro the first half of this month, I have a hunch that you’re going to get some small doses of this energy in the form of shake ups in practical plans as well as a much bigger, deeper, scarier, and more profoundly liberating twist later in the month. Be especially mindful of falling into victim mode. No one is out to get you, least of all the turn of the Wheel and the pull of the Universe. Let go of outcome attachments, take your hand off the e-brake, and enjoy your ride in the passenger seat.
Your stone for April: Rhodonite
>>>
GEMINI//GEMINI RISING The Tower My goodness, Gemini, you are on the receiving end of an enviable one-two punch from the Universe these past couple months. Last month you were gifted downloads of sacred Divine wisdom from The Hierophant and this month you are being gifted with the revolutionary shift of The Tower! Wait, did I just say “gifted”? With THE TOWER? Yes, ma’am (or sir), I did. This is one of those card that you talk about first when it comes up in a reading, no matter where it’s laying in the spread. It looks scary. People fixate. But the only thing to fear when The Tower comes into your life is your own resistance to change and attachment to the past. Get ready to watch situations, relationships, patterns of thought, and structures of your life that you thought were eternal and unchanging crumble to the ground – in a good way!
Ok, I can’t lie, Gemini, I used the punch metaphor up there for a reason. This stuff is not generally pleasant. Even when the towers being knocked down are seriously impeding our development as spiritual beings (ideas like – women make terrible leaders, creative work isn’t real work, the world is an inert and unmagical place), it is still incredibly jarring to have our truth rearranged right before our very eyes. This month, be very kind with yourself. Prioritize your self care – whether for you that means 2 hours of daily yoga and a juice cleanse or eating gluten free pizza on the couch in front of a Law & Order SVU marathon. DO YOU. The Tower is going to feel like you’re knocked off of center, so connecting deeply with parts of yourself and your life that feel like home is going to be key.
Your stone for April: Ocean Jasper
>>>
CANCER//CANCER RISING Perspective (Hanged Man) The insights will come in hot and heavy this month, Cancer, if you do the work to put yourself in a position to receive them. The Perspective card (the Hanged Man in most decks) is all about expansion in our view of the world, ourselves, and our place in the world, but to get the full dose of the medicine, we must put ourselves in positions and situations that offer us a different view of the energetic landscape than we are used to seeing. Fortunately, Mercury is going to keep bringing us messages about the past for the first two weeks of the month, which will be a wonderful catalyst for these shifts in perspective. I see your April energy being neatly divided into two sections – first a shift, then expansion.
For the first two weeks of April, focus on pushing yourself to see things – everything – differently. Take a new route to work, eat a food you’ve never tried, comsume media created by people with points of view different from your own. Once Mercury stations direct on the 15th, you can begin to really integrate all of this new perspective into real expansion, becoming wiser and stronger as you grow beyond your current spiritual, energetic, and emotional containers. By the end of the month, you’ll be a naked hermit crab, rummaging around for a new shell – right back in your comfort zone, but on a higher, more attuned level!
Your stone for April: Cinnabar
>>>
LEO//LEO RISING Strength Leo, I was so happy when I pulled this card for you! You did so much hard work on yourself last month and now the Universe is reaching out a hand. The Strength card is all about the power of co-creation, the magical possibilities that open up when we recognize and embrace that we are all one and all drawing on and feeding into the same energy source. You’ve unburdened yourself from self-imposed chains. If that work of the past month left you feeling drained, rejoice and take the next four weeks to drink in and embody the Strength available to you now. I feel this is a rare time when the energy of this card is more quiet and restorative than motivating and active.
Watch for messaging that provokes a deeper loosening of mindsets or relationships that tend to make you feel small. It may be that you now have the Strength to gently release these things or you may finally be strong enough to make a shift in your own thinking and feeling that changes the dynamic. Either way, work to maintain a constant awareness that you are not in this alone. This would be a great month to spend time in nature, strengthening your connection with the Earth, or gazing up at the stars, contemplating the fact that we are all children of the same great Source. When at work or socializng, notice which people and situations make you feel powerful and supported and seek to grow their presence in your life.
Your stone for April: Petrified Wood
>>>
VIRGO//VIRGO RISING Ten of Crystals (Pentacles) Build. It. UP, Virgo! Following last month’s reign of Fire, you’ve got a big, healthy dose of Earth energy to get those plans and intuitive hits grounded in reality. The Ten of Pentacles is a beautiful gift of a card that indicates the arrival of a period of accelerated growth in material circumstances. Does that mean you’re going to get a big fat raise? Maybe! More likely, it means that moves you make to secure your material world will work out in your favor more than you expect, especially when they are rooted in an effort to strengthen the material stability of your community as a whole. The Tens are big. Think major magic in the growth of your business, a rise in the value of your home due to successful sales by your neighbors, and an overall ability to polish up your own personal “Midas touch.”
Hey wait, but we’re not supposed to start anything while Mercury is retrograde, right? No, silly! While we would be well-advised to wait on signing new contracts and generally giving extra care and clarity to communication in general, anything ongoing is fair game in my book, extra points for ventures wrapped up in people or situations from deep in your past. There is an aspect of this energy that is a culmination, a maturation, and anticipation of a new beginning – the Tens all look ahead toward circling back to the Ace. If you have Scorpio rising (or are a Scorpio with Virgo rising) this month will prove especilly fruitful for maturing business plans that open doors to new oppurtunities. Look to your community for support.
Your stone for April: Mookaite
>>>
LIBRA//LIBRA RISING King of Cups Ok, Libra! You’ve had a fairly practical year so far, Tarotscopically speaking, and now you can kick back and ride the waves of emotion. Feel all of the feelings, staring straight into the face of your raw emotional being. Given your sometimes extreme dedication to peace keeping, this may seem like a dangerous prospect – what if you see something in there that makes you sad or angry? How will you handle potential sources of confrontation? – this month, you have all of the support you need to safely wade into the emotional depths. The King of Cups is the master of navigating rough emotional waters, and with this guidance, you too can master the art of feeling deeply without reacting.
My guess is, you’re going to get a lot of practice the first couple weeks of the month, with people popping up from the past to come see how they can fit into your new matrix. Don’t get thrown off your game. Ride those emotional waves until the seas calm before making any decisions about how or even whether to respond. Everything that comes up is here to serve your emotional development. Like all cards that come at the end of a series, the Kings anticipate a return to their origin as Pages. Keep an eye out for how these lessons of the King may ignite a spark of ingenuity in how you hold your heart. This month is not the time to put these new Watery plans into action, but simply to catch a glimpse of them bobbing around on the horizon.
Your stone for April: Prehnite
>>>
SCORPIO//SCORPIO RISING Ace of Crystals (Pentacles) Get ready to climb up out of the watery depths and onto an island of your own making this month, dear Scorpio! The Ace of Crystals is here to bring you the power to create your own personal slice of grounded bliss. Your fluctuating moods can make it difficult to circulate socially at times, unless you are in the company of other like-hearted divers. Use this energy to build a clubhouse for you and your nearest and dearest, even if the membership list stops after your name. Sometimes solitude is the greatest company. Whatever you do, make absolutely certain that everyone and everything involved in your plan feels utterly and completely like home.
In practical terms, this could mean building an actual home, but I doubt it given the current retro cycle. I am seeing this Ace of Crystals moment as more metaphorical, existing in the space in between, one foot in the real world, creating a feeling of material space, the other in the ether, existing completely outside the “real” world. So, basically, RIGHT in your comfort zone, Scorpio. I can see you nodding your head in agreement, already fantasizing about the design and implementation of your personal island, making the guest list and checking it twice, knowing full well that only those who are on the list will be able to see it anyway. But those who are not will sense the boundary and sashay away and THAT is maybe the shiniest gift the Ace has for you.
Your stone for April: Clorite Phantom Quartz
>>>
SAGITTARIUS//SAGITTAIRUS RISING The Star Out of the Starseed and into the Star! All of that open-souled wandering has led you right into the heart of the eternal Divine feminine, Sagittarius, and I am THRILLED for you to roll around in this energy all month. The Star represents the very earliest inklings that humans had about Divinity, a larger consciousness, an ancient Universal benevolent presence. Star symbology follows us throughout history, through every culture. We are all bound together by The Star. Traditional interpretations of this card tell us that it indicates hope—and I agree!— but it’s where that hope comes from that really lights my heart on fire. Hope based on faith is wonderful. Hope rooted in an ancestral knowledge of our origin in and continued dedication to an eternal Divine Feminine is GOLDEN.
I want you focus all month on basking in this power. Get together with those people in your life who seem to effortlessly possess the power of The Star, the ones that make you feel calm and cared for, who are tapped into ancient wisdom and allow it to flow freely and relatably out into the world, the ones who revel in deep conversations in pajamas and sheet masks. Have you noted that I have not used gendered language around their identities? All genders can carry the torch of The Star. We can all aspire to exude Divine Feminine consciousness, regardless of gender or sexuality. So gather your people, get powered up, and let that Star light shine out and inspire others to join you.
Your stone for April: Chrysocolla
>>>
CAPRICORN//CAPRICORN RISING Queen of Swords If you’ve got something to say, Capricorn, now’s the time to get it out. And with your aversion to conflict, I am guessing there’s a statement or two getting eager to see the light of day. With Mercury retrograde for the first half of the month, there is a strong likelihood that you’ll have something to clear up with someone or something from your past. Depending on where things are aligning for you personally, astrologically, energetically, it could be distannt past or just in the past few months. What seems certain is that some situation that has been bothering you for some time will reach a breaking point and need to be talked about in the open. This does not, I repeat DOES NOT mean that you will find yourself in a yelling match or even a heated discussion in the next month. It simply means that you will find the words to express what you have not yet been able to express. This is very good news!
The Queen of Swords, being the Water of Air, brings an emotional intelligence to this communication project that should soothe both you and the receiver. Your prudent nature is a great asset to you here, as you have the time to identify your message, choose your words, and refine their tone before delivering. I advise that you spend the first half of the month identifying what message or messages you need to communicate, then deliver in the second half of the month after Mercury stations direct to avoid any crossed wires.
Your stone for April: Blue Lace Agate
>>>
AQUARIUS//AQUARIUS RISING Five of Wands Well, Aquarius, I hope you like a good show! While all of the fives get a well-earned reputation as bringers of chaos and probable frustration in their element, the five of Wands stands alone among the bunch as the most promising of entertainment. Why is this? Because chaos of action is funny when you let go of expectations! It’s literally what physical comedy is based in – people trying to accomplish specific tasks and failing. And chaos of intuition, the other main apsect of Fire, is comedy gold as well. Ok, ok, it does not feel like it AT ALL when it is happening in real time in your own life, but that’s what I am here for – to give you a heads up so when you encounter it you can see it more clearly, recognize it, and point and laugh.
If you have older siblings, you are well prepared for this month. The Universe is basically your older sibling or cousin, waiting around every corner to scare you and make you drop your stuff, changing the rules of every game to make sure you lose, dipping your hand in warm water while you sleep. And just like when you were a kid, the frustration all these things cause can be instantly alleviated by simply refusing to take them seriously. All month long, when the Universe gives you lemons, draw silly faces on them and glue them together into crass sculptures, metaphorically speaking of course. You can go from being the butt of the joke to sitting front row center at the best show in town through a simple shift in perception.
Your stone for April: Purple Jade
>>>
PISCES//PISCES RISING Ten of Swords If you have kids, I am going to apologize in advance for this reference, Pisces, but I can’t help it. Your April has my heart twirling on an icey mountain top belting out LET IT GOOOOOOO! You’ve made it! All of these swirling thoughts and messages that have lifted you up, kept you down, and mixed you up have reached their climax and it’s time to set them all aside and see what you’ve become. The power of Air has carried you to places you thought you’d never reach – high and low – and now this month you can take a moment to asses what’s serving you, what’s not, and what you want to take with you when you make the inevitable journey back to the Ace.
So how do you know what to let go of? Let your mind do the talking. I spend a lot of time advising people to stop thinking so much and listen to their heart or their gut instinct. Not this time. Think away! Your powers of analysis and interpretation are heightened this month, Pisces, so take advantage and tap into the energy to sort through all you’ve gathered. Mercury’s retrograde motion during the first half of the month is going to give you even more to sort through than you had before, so be patient and perseverant in your task. Take notes, talk things through with a trusted friend, make lists, meditate on it, put everything in spreadsheets if it helps. The rewards will be well worth the work.
(Confidential to Pisces: I still can’t sing that song at karaoke because I can’t get through it at home without crying. Not ashamed.)
Your Numinous Tarotscopes March 2018 are here, cast by Melinda Lee Holm using the Starchild Tarot …
PISCES // PISCES RISING The Lovers Happy solar return, dear Pisces! You know I have your symbol tattooed on my finger, right? I have an absolute riches of Pisces in my life. We seem to be cosmically drawn together. This is surely due in part to your enviable ability to deeply empathize and identify with others. Sometimes, however, this gift can lead you to engage in some patterns of behavior that don’t serve your highest good or that of others. Therapists call these patterns co-dependency, but any pattern that has you consistently putting the needs of others before your own, leaving you feeling drained and unappreciated is one that could use a tune up. How are you staying small or silent to avoid conflict? Where are you leaking out personal power in the service of maintaining an uneasy peace?
This month, The Lovers is here to help you practice the art of being a great partner through being great on your own. The astrological correspondence of this card is Gemini, mutable Air sign ruled by Mercury, planet of communication. So The Lovers is not really about romance. Its teachings concern the art of being close to another, “twinned” even, while maintaining autonomy and individuality. When we diminish ourselves to make others comfortable, we are not serving anyone’s best interests. Our partners need us strong, healthy, and in posession of a unique perspective that can only be offered by a fully autonomous individual. They key here is communication. How can you open up to your partner to express your needs in a way that allows you both to maintain your sovereignty while affirming your dedication to your relationship?
Your stone for March: Sunstone
>>>
ARIES // ARIES RISING Two of Swords If you liked the week of February 1st, I have great news for you, Aries! You get a whole month of it in March. The Two of Swords is back for you, giving you a great opportunity to deepen your understanding and mastery of this fundamental Air energy. And if the idea of reliving that week for an entire month makes you want to pull your hair out, fear not! You integrated the lessons you needed to learn from this card during that week (for a reminder, go back and re-watch the Tarotscope video for Feb.1). This month, the guidance is tailored to your firey nature and you have a whole month to soak it all in. Your tendency to speak and act quickly, sometimes impulsively, will be challenged by the contemplative demands of the Two of Swords.
March is your chance to take a step back. Get a good lay of the land. Your intellectual, rational, and communication abilities are heightened this month and you have a great opportunity to develop and master new techniques for decision making and conflict resolution that you can carry forward in your life. Indulge in intellectual exercises, practice bouncing ideas off of each other while you feel your physical and emotional body remain calm and collected. Branch it out and engage in some friendly debates. You’ll be pleased to find how much easier it is to reach agreement with others when you allow your Fire to be fed by the Air of thought and communication and not emotional conflict.
Your stone for March: Aquamarine
>>>
TAURUS // TAURUS RISING Six of Crystals My dear Taurus, you have been digging in the dirt all year! March brings you yet another dose of Earth energy and this time you’ve come over the bell curve and back down the other side. Following February’s expansive push, we arrive now at the Six, the Tipharath of Beauty on the Tree of Life, the moment when we can see the fruits of our labor and begin to give back, to spread the spoils and see how our personal efforts can benefit the collective. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to expand your vision of what it means to live a comfortable life – and let’s face it, Taurus, being truly comfortable in all aspects of your life is all you’ve ever really wanted.
All month, I want to invite you to be a completely unapologetic optomist in terms of the material world that surrounds you. Tap into the beauty of the flow of resources and see how you can redirect them to where they can best be of service. Cook dinner for the homeless, drop off supplies at an animal shelter, treat a friend who has fallen on hard times. So often we get trapped in a loop of seeing the material need in the world as hopeless and dire. But when you choose to see the beauty in the material world instead of only the ugliness, you can begin to activate the profound power of the element of Earth to provide for you and those around you.
Your stone for March: Peridot
>>>
GEMINI // GEMINI RISING The Hierophant Goodness, Gemini! We’ve had a couple of doses of Hierophant wisdom already this year, and now you are set for a whole month of it. Get ready to be filled with the gift of ancient wisdom, but also to be humbled. The Hierophant is the great teacher of the Tarot and often when we encounter great teachers, they challenge us to confront our beliefs in ways that can be uncomfortable. When you feel yourself resisting, that’s where you push further. This is a time when your ability to see and even embody both sides of a situation will be very useful. Get up close and personal with those places that get you thinking, questioning, pushing back, learning. Lean into discomfort.
Be sure to take time to digest and integrate what you are learning. Remember, The Hieropant is the spiritual teacher. These lessons will require meditation, reflection, and prayer to fully unfold and ripen. This would be a wonderful time to dedicate or deepen your spiritual practice to unlock levels of knowing and understanding not available to you before now. We start March with a Full Moon in Virgo on the 1st, so you have an excellent chance to dust off your witchery and put those crystals and candles to good work in a crown opening spell to kick off your month. Get out and get connected with nature, finish Autobiography of a Yogi, and most of all – listen. You cannot hear the lessons that are gifted to you if you are filling the space with your own voice.
Your stone for March: Lemurian Seed Crystal
>>>
CANCER // CANCER RISING Nine of Wands We’ve got two planets headed into retrograde motion this month, Cancer, but that won’t stop you from striding forward in pursuit of your goals. With the power of Fire fueling you, your month will be supercharged with action, intuition, and magic. Get your to-do lists ready and your wish lists and vision boards polished up! Your ability to effortlessly tap into the cosmic stream of insight is amped. goals that have seemed overwhelming will suddenly become totally doable as the shortest distance between any two points magically appears before you. How will you know? Oh, you’ll KNOW, Cancer. The high practical wisdom of elemental Fire does not deal in subtlety. Intuitive hits will hit hard and lead you to places where you can accomplish a ton – if you’re willing to put in the work.
Let’s talk about it, Cancer. I have my Sun placed here too. We crabs can have a tendency to hide away in our shells where it is dark and cozy and safe. Even as we outgrow our shells we can resist coming out. (It just feels like a tighter hug, right? Right?… ) Now is the time to embrace the risk of vulnerability, to come out and face the tasks we’ve been avoiding, to really take advantage of this push. Yes, there is a chance of being hurt or disappointed, but the potential payoff is more than worth it. The numbered cards so often revolve around practical matters, and the Nine of Wands especially so. It’s time to take risks in the service of making major progress in our every day lives.
Your stone for March: Carnelian
>>>
LEO // LEO RISING Oppression I’ve got a game for you, Leo. Treat this month like an Easter egg hunt or a spy novel or an epic video game. Always be looking for clues. Assume there is hidden meaning behind everything. Use your inherent connection to the Sun to shine a bright light into every metaphorical dark corner and find what’s been lurking there. March is your opportunity to discover and dig out ways you are holding yourself back, manifesting heaviness instead of expansion. We often think of oppresion as something that is put upon us from the outside world – and, yes, that is far too often the case in the world. But we also oppress ourselves in large and small ways every day. No more! Take this month to identify, correct, and reset.
The most common way we engage in self-oppression is through the story we tell about ourselves. What is in your story that keeps you small? Do you repeatedly say that you are bad at business, not good at finance, just not creative, not a very happy person, or inherently unlucky in love? Stop it. Right now. All words are magic words, Leo. The story you tell about yourself is a spell you weave that manifests the life that is possible for you. Get it right. And while you’re at it, get your house in order. Make sure that the physical container of your life is not sending subtle messages to you and the Universe that you are derserving of less materially, emotionally, intellectually, or spiritually.
Your stone for March: Herkimer Diamond Quartz
>>>
VIRGO // VIRGO RISING Queen of Wands You did it, Virgo! You came through February, you did some tough work, and now you are rewarded with a blast of feminie Fire energy in March to expand into all that space you cleared out. Queens are the Water of their element, so in Wands we have the Water of Fire. You know how water has the ability to seep into every little crack and crevice, to soak in and become a part of what it touches? Think about what would happen if elemental Fire could do that. Envision that eternal flame of finely tuned intuition and instinctual action soaking its way into every tiny corner of your life, and then look up and see it happening all throughout your existence all month long.
How will you harness this molten magic, my dear Virgo? If I know you, you’ve got pen and paper at the ready to start making lists and checking them twice to find the exact right way. Take a step back, put down the pen, and take a moment to meditate on the intuitive aspect of Fire. Fire is magic, pure and simple. Just as our ancestors stared in astonishment at the first human-made flames, we too remain amazed at how Fire works to bring us intuitive hits, sparks of deep inner knowing, affirmations that seem to spring from thin air and let us know that our instincts were right all along. Keep your eye on that prize this month. Be guided by your gut and see what treasures lay in wait for you.
Your stone for March: Blue Kyanite
>>>
LIBRA // LIBRA RISING Four of Wands Your project for March, Libra, is to actively create the stability you crave in life. After spending last month getting in tune with what you truly want to manifest, now you have the energetic support to actively create a base of stability to build on moving forward. This is a first level, so try not to be too precious about it. As with most things in life, this is a work in progress. Think solid outlines, business plans, and a budget and living situation that supports your vision. Grand schemes for building your legacy will come later. For now, take a good critical look at your life and see where there are patterns that are not in support of – or even in direct contradiction to – your vision of your Best Life and take action accordingly.
I wouldn’t be your friend if I didn’t come out and say this directly, Libra – your love of beauty is a GREAT place to start with this project. Yes, being surrounded by beauty makes you happy, and I support that. Draw it in! Just be sure that you are not undermining your own goals by living in the service of aesthetics. Could you maintain the same or better quality of life in a way that better serves your goals by reframing your ideas around beauty? To achieve the stability you want, everything in your life must be judged by whether it supports your broader vision. Your surroundings are a mirror of yourself. Be sure the reflection is accurate.
Your stone for March: Ametrine
>>>
SCORPIO // SCORPIO RISING Page of Cups Oh, Scorpio, this makes me very happy. You are being coaxed out of the deepest emotional depths you feel so at home in to get a little emotional freshness and sweetness this month. The Pages ask us to forget what we think we know, what we’ve been taught, and – in the case of the Page of Cups – how we’ve been hurt. They beckon us to come explore their element with new eyes and open heart, to start over and build a new understanding. Does that mean that we lose all of the hard earned wisdom we’ve gathered? Not at all! It is simply time to set it aside and go back to square one to see if there’s anything we dropped along the way that we’d be best served by picking back up.
March is set to be a great emotional reset for you. Relax your tail, disarm your stinger, and allow your emotional programming to be washed and refreshed by elemental Water. Venture out of your safe zone, open up your heart and try like hell to trust in the power of vulnerability. In matters of the heart, make no assumptions, take things as the come, and accept all persons and situations as the unique entities they are. If something doesn’t go well, simply walk away. This is a time of exploration and experimentation. Think of the world as a vast open classrom or art studio, not a battle ground. Open your heart to your fellow students and collaborators.
Your stone for March: Kunzite
>>>
SAGITTARIUS // SAGITTARIUS RISING Starseed Well it appears you really took my advice about digging in and getting serious about your life’s work, Sagittarius! You are now stepping into a completely new world, energetically speaking. Trust in yourself, trust in all the hard work you’ve done, in the wisdom you’ve gathered, and in the Universe itself to bring you what you need exactly when you need it. This month is offering you an invitation to begin a new level of existence and a great push forward in your personal evolution. The trick for you is going to be that this big, profound, high spiritual energy requires a good measure of wandering. You are not traditionally comfortable with being directionless, but if you want to make the most of this month, start cozying up to the idea.
If you frame it right, this can be a VERY welcome departure from last month’s seriousness. Trust in the work you did and allow yourself to play in this new space you’ve created. Babies grow and learn and develop through play. It can get a bad rap in the adult world as being a frivilous waste of time, but it’s how every single one of us formed our relationship to ourselves and the world around us. Take this month to play, Sagittarius. Really play. Head out into nature, read a decadent novel, take a class in something you’re a complete novice at, try new foods. Explore! We so rarely get a chance to reconnect with that spark of discovery we came into the world with. Drink it in.
Your stone for March: Moldavite
>>>
CAPRICORN // CAPRICORN RISING Three of Wands After a year filled with deep inner searching and swimming around in the intuitive depths of the psyche, you are ready to step into the practical world this month, Capricorn. You are ready to make some moves, and with the power of elemental Fire at your side, what these moves are will come to you intuitively. Aren’t you glad you spent the past two months getting so deeply in touch your inner voice? You will have options presented to you this month, likely through collaborative efforts. This should be a welcome relief to your steady and perseverent nature. It can be frustrating for you to stay in the mystical realm too long, feeling like you are not making progress toward your goals, but it was necessary to prepare you for this moment.
March is all about action and opportunity, often created or stimulated by you. Do not be afraid to speak up and ask for what you want. Like the TSA tells us – if you see something, say something. If you see an opportunity in a situation, a place where you could be helpful while also benefitting, shout it out! Let people know when they are your ideal collaborators or when you have skills or perspectives that could serve their cause and your own. It can be scary to put yourself out there like this, I know. But you have done so much work on sharpening your intuitive powers AND you have Fire on your side. Trust your gut and go for broke.
Your stone for March: Malachite
>>>
AQUARIUS // AQUARIUS RISING Four of Cups This month is going to be an interesting one for you, Aquarius. With your constant desire to live outside the box, the idea of stability – especially emotional stability – can be deeply unattractive if seen in the wrong light. I want to present to you a view of stability in the realm of Water that may be different from what you have been presented with in the past. Most of us were taught that emotional stability means making ourselves palatable enough to another person to stay in a long term relationshiop, ideally for life. Essentially, that we needed to learn to compromise. Now, compromise is not inherently bad, it’s actually very useful and necessary to living a full life. However, it is not the only requirement for emotional stability.
What is required is patience, kindness, tolerance, and understanding. And we cannot offer those wonderful gifts out to anyone else until we have offered and accepted them to ourselves. This month, I want you to work on getting your relationship with yourself into the best shape it’s ever been. Reach for new heights of intimacy and acceptance. Revisit old stories about your origin, your path, and your future and retell them in a way that is more supportive, more loving. Go get your annual check up, feed your body with care, take a look at your mental health. When you love yourself completely, you don’t even have to try to show that love and kindness to others, it just oozes out of you. Thus is your path to true emotional stability.
I met Neetz at a book reading event I did at CAP Beauty in NYC’s West Village. She’d read my book, bought it for all her friends (thank you Neetz!), and was excited that I was doing a reading just a couple of streets away from her apartment. When we chatted, we worked out that I’d actually lived opposite her building when I first moved to the city back in 2012. Yo, serendipity!
We met up again as she wanted to tell me about a sideline she’d begun working on creating custom one-of-a-kind malas, in part inspired by Material Girl, Mystical World. The chapter on dharma, in particular, had struck a chord. Pondering her own life purpose, she’d decided to listen to her intuition for once, which had been steering her towards a store selling crystal beads that she passed on her way to work.
Before long, she was creating malas for herself, her husband, her family and friends. Then people at her local yoga studio. There had been beautiful stories of hope and healing. And now she was offering to make one for me.
I’ve never had a mala before. As I’m not a Hindu or a particularly dedicated yogi, I hadn’t thought they were necessarily “for me.” But Neetz described her creations as more like personal talismans, since each and every stone was selected with intention based on a personal, 1-2-1 consultation.
For my mala, she wound up using garnets (for creativity), phrenite (spiritual growth), and smoky quartz (grounding), with a large smoky quartz to anchor it. She even added a beautiful natural ruby! My namesake stone, said to bring passion and prosperity. I’ve worn it ever since, finding it brings me confidence and a feeling of home—especially comforting any time I’m out of my comfort zone.
And while my mala and its story are lovely, and I would definitely suggest you check out Neetz and her work, it’s part of a bigger narrative that’s been unfolding for me.
>>>
When I wrote my book, I had a couple of goals. I saw it as a way to continue my mission of breaking the stigma around all things “woowoo,” and at the same time introduce a wider audience to the tools and practices that had been transforming my life—inside and out—since I launched The Numinous back in 2013.
Writing from the perspective of my personal experiences was the only way I knew how to do this. I also figured this would be a way to demonstrate how tools like astrology and tarot, for example, could not only merge seamlessly with “modern” life—but were perhaps also the VITAL MISSING PART OF THE PUZZLE for so many people who felt disillusioned with a patriarchal, capitalist system, that valued progress over people, and the accumulation of things over the pursuit of true fulfilment.
What I didn’t expect, but which I guess was my subconscious / real reason for writing it, was that so many people would read it and be inspired to embark on similar transformational journeys of their own. But already this year, I have been inundated with people sharing exactly this. Since the book came out in May 2017, I guess it’s taken 9 months or so (funny, that) for my early readers to heed the call, feel the fear, and get on with doing their dharma anyway!
The woman who’s started a spiritual platform for teenage girls. Another who quit her job as a lawyer and is going back to design school in her mid-fifties. The NYC PR maven moving out of fashion and into building the careers of mystics and healers. The readers who’ve been inspired to make similar changes, and who’ve joined Moon Club to feel supported in their missions.
Neetz with her malas
Neetz is one of a long list of Mystical Girls beginning to make moves on the Material World as we know it. Up the matriarchy! Somebody even called it the “Ruby ripple” effect—and if it means my book is in any way helping create a shift to a more emotional, intuitive, and healing-centered economy, then I’ll take it!
By the way, this post is NOT all like, “now you gotta go buy my book.” I’m just saying that if you, too, are feeling the call to pursue your (spiritually aligned) passion project, you’re so not alone. In fact, you are part of what is beginning to feel like a movement. Take comfort in this. We’re all in it together.
>>>
There are also a few key pieces of advice I’ve been dishing out to wannabe matri-preneurs (?!), those busy transitioning passion-led side-hustles into game-changing main-hustles. Based again on my own findings and experience, here are my top 3:
1 // Treat your business like your baby. Meaning, DO NOT make it have to pay your rent right off the bat. Think about it: would you expect your child to start paying their way before you’d nurtured them, educated them, and were confident they were gonna be able to fend for themselves?! A project that’s born of your passion and intuition is a part of you. Allow it to grow and develop in its own time—and think about ways the skills and experience from your old life can support you as you build your new one.
2 // Find your community. This may be a women’s circle, conscious entrepreneurs club, an official coach or mentor, or even just a few close friends who “get it.” But when you’re in the business of breaking old paradigms (personal and societal) you WILL find yourself suffering regular bouts of imposter syndrome / self-doubt, and you WILL need loving cheerleaders and shoulders to cry on. This is one of the reasons Alexandra Roxo and I created Moon Club—which is also a community that give US the support we need.
3 // Keep working on you. The more you align with your purpose, the more conditioning and “other people’s stories” about you and what you “should” be doing with your life, you will likely be confronted with daily. The tools in my book are essentially ALL in service of a) becoming aware this conditioning even exists (its influence can be so subtle!), and b) discovering your personal truths. Truths that are ROCKET FUEL for your passion projects. It might feel like a “luxury” to invest in readings, energy work, and other healing modalities (like getting a custom mala!), especially while you’re in a career transition. But you can always ask friends to do an exchange (see tip #2), and the clearer your channel, the faster you’ll manifest your mission!
>>>
Discover more about Neetz and her malas HERE, get your copy of Material Girl, Mystical World HERE, and learn more about our Moon Club community HERE. Because I love you!
