#13, Death or Transformation - “The End of the Beginning”

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

 I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference."

                                         Robert Frost

One of the scariest cards to appear in a reading for a novice

Death, Transformation - scary images?
Perhaps, but this can be a rewarding card
Ciro Marchetti's "Legacy of the Divine Tarot"©

querant is #13, Death.  They are sure it holds impending doom and it becomes the reader’s job to educate their client that this card simply marks a well-earned fork in the road.  #13 also means transformation and how can you make an omelet if you’re not even willing to go near the hen house?  

The Death card, or Transformation card if that makes you feel more comfortable, makes its appearance when you are at a pivotal moment in time and space. You are making something happen.  You are having an effect on your world and it is changing you forever.  More often than not, that’s something to celebrate.  Imagine your life in complete stagnation, somewhat easier, perhaps, but also more predictable.  Many people choose to live their lives that way – never pushing boundaries, never asking the million dollar questions.  Those are the people who settle and play it safe.  They are also not the people reading blogs like this one. 

People who pull #13 know there’s more to life’s equation and they want to solve it.  Does this make them superior to everyone else?  Of course not.  It simply means they’ve chosen to live differently.  Their path gets a little bumpier from time to time.  Perhaps they get more easily distracted, losing sight of the end result by getting momentarily lost in the experience.  Each one of them, however, comes to know the complexity and the glory of the moment.  When the path diverges as in Robert Frost’s yellow wood, they are chomping at the bit to go down the road less traveled either by circumstance or by design.

Temperance - a question of balance
as seen by Ciro Marchetti in
"Legacy of the divine Tarot"©

The Transformation card is the card of dreamers and achievers who realize that chapters end, but there’s always a new book to pull off the shelf and open to page one. They understand that the past can be put behind you and that when the winds of change sweep clean, you still have bare ground to be rebuild on.  Transitions are not easy.  They can be unsettling for weeks, maybe even years at a time, but once the transformation is complete you arrive at #14, Temperance.  

It’s in Temperance where you recover your equilibrium and have the opportunity to combine the lessons of your journey, heal if need be and hold on to that oft-times hard-won sense of contentment.  Next time #13 pops up in your reading note the placement.  Ask yourself who and what you wish to become and which fork in the road would serve you best.  

LADY ORACLE

                                                                                                                                                

Sun in Scorpio, October 23rd to November 22nd - “The House That Passion Built”

Everyone who likes astrology has favorite and least favorite

#16, The Tower - ruling card for Mars,
one of Scorpio's ruling planets by
Ciro Marchetti - "Legacy of the Divine  Tarot"©

signs.  Scorpio is top of my list of favorites.  Good thing too.  It’s my birth sign.  Being our own fan may very well be a Scorpion trait.  We do nothing in half measures.  We’ve been called a complex, broody sign that turns lethal in an instant. Frankly, it takes longer than an instant.  We are fiercely loyal, highly motivated, but we can hold a grudge like none other.  

Scorpio rules the eighth house of the Zodiac which stores the energy of birth, death, transformation and sex. Busy place.  It’s also the home of shared resources.  Rather a volatile home for the resources of a planet, mind you.  Scorpio is a water sign in the fixed modality.  That means that our emotions run deep, as does our intuition and our spirituality. As a fixed sign, our traits are constant and reliable. We carry yin, or feminine energy as seen by our intuitive and transformative skills.

'Seasons don't fear the reaper' - neither does Scorpio
#13 Death (Transformation) is their ruling card.
By Ciro Marchetti
from "Legacy of the Divine Tarot"©

The world is black and white to a Scorpion. There is no gray area – fifty shades, or otherwise.  We learned our moral lessons as children and took their simple truths to heart. What often seems like a simple matter of bending a rule, or manipulating a situation to some, poses a huge, moral dilemma for Scorpio.  We talk a glib game, but 

right is right and we prefer a more mystical, or intuitive approach to persuade others.  Think of it as wearing feathery, bedroom mules as opposed to combat boots.

We are intense, highly motivated creatures – determined folk, 

Pluto's ruling card, #20, Judgement
by Barbara Moore and Aly Fell from
"Steampunk Tarot" ©

who are not quitters.  Our love of secrets and the mysterious comes from the primal forces ruled by the eighth house. Scorpio is blessed with two, count ‘em, two, ruling planets:  Mars, the warrior planet, who carries physical energy and courage, and Pluto, who carries the ability to deconstruct, regenerate and transform. (That’s right. One of my ruling planets has the same powers as Dr. Who.)  We are resourceful and independent, loyal and passionate.  Still, with all these marvelous attributes, why are we so often considered the bad kids of the Zodiac?  Perhaps it’s because we can also be jealous, obsessive, unyielding and vindictive.  Okay, so who doesn’t have their faults?

An injured Scorpion is a curious thing.  We will come back from adversity transformed and stronger than ever (Mars, the warrior and Pluto the regenerator).  We are not motivated to seek reprisals by vanity, or by consequence, as other signs can be.  We seek reprisals for moral reasons – even if those morals are personal to us and slightly askew at that.  Scorpio never forgets a kindness, nor do we forget an injustice.  Should you inadvertently hurt our feelings, of course we will overlook it a first, or even a second time, but God help you on the third.  

If you are a child of the Scorpion remember that you carry serious chops and you can’t take them lightly.  We have the uncanny ability to adapt at will, to bloom in the desert as well as in the rain forest.  We can choose to focus our energies on positive life changes and when we do the sky is the limit.

LADY ORACLE

Sorrow, Letting Go and Tarot's 5 of Cups

                                                                                                  5 of Cups - Loss, sorrow, grief 

5 of Cups as depicted in "Wizard's Tarot"©
by Corrine Kenner and John J. Blumen

During winter, the Pacific Northwest, reflects a grieving world.  The sky is a solid mass of grey - varying hues, but grey nonetheless.  Rain comes down in cold sheets that penetrate everything that isn't Gortex.  Fashion is all but forgotten in the quest for dryness and rubber boots that are big enough to allow for heavy socks are your closest friends.

Death, or Transition comes at any time, but in winter it feels particularly deep.  Symbolically, The Green Man is no more and though he will come again when oak leaves burst open to life, right now it feels as if Spring has been imprisoned on the other side of eternity.  This is the world of tarot's 5 of Cups.

In the RWCS tarot deck, a cloaked figure stands huddled against the wounds of the world.  Before him, three cups have spilled their contents on the bank of the river.  Their liquid creates a small rivulet that seeks to rejoin the river as it moves purposefully towards eternity.  Our cloaked friend stands mute, deep in the sorrow of what has been lost and can never be reclaimed.  There is a time to grieve and that time must be honored.  We are of this world and can have only limited understanding of the next one.  We want things to remain the same - to stay in a form and content that our concept of reality can understand.  Unfortunately, that's not the way the universe works.  The universe sees the big picture and we only see a shadowbox.

Grieving is an individual process.  There are no timetables, no list

5 of Cups, RWCS
US Games© Edition

of standardized events that truly signal its end.  Grieving takes as long as it takes because what you are doing is trying to catch your breath by once more synchronizing with the universal flow.  That's hard to do when the person or people that helped you set your pace are no longer there to guide you.  You are alienated from the rest of life and you've momentarily forgotten your way home.

The figure in the 5 of Cups doesn't see that there are still two cups standing with their contents intact.  His back is turned to them, as if their life-affirming presence is to painful to handle.  Eventually, he will begin to breathe in a pattern close to the old, familiar one.  There will be enough moments between the new normal and the profound agony of loss that he will be able to get his bearings.  He'll turn and see what has been left to him.  In that pivotal moment, our friend must decide whether he remains fixed at the riverbank, continuing to long for what has passed away, or whether he releases his grief and moves on.  Most of us turn around in our own good time and see the remaining cups.  We pick them up, working our fingertips over their battered, but familiar surfaces and holding them close to our hearts, we follow the path that leads us to the bridge that takes us home.

December brings us the Solstice and Yule - celebrations of light and hope.  We mark the return of light to the world and even though we may not be in a space to reflect on its brilliance, we appreciate the fact that the light is there.  So it is with the world in the 5 of Cups. It's a long journey from the riverbank to the bridge and a lot of soul searching is done along the way. There's an old proverb that says, "It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness."  Our friend in the 5 of Cups comes to understand that very thing as he stands on the bridge looking up at the lighted windows of his home.  Inside is the warmth of hearth, friends and family and it is ultimately their glow that drives away the darkness.


LADY ORACLE

October 29, 2012 - The Hunter's Moon In Taurus

There are clues and foreshadowings in nature as well as in the pages of a good book.  In stories, a writer uses these devices to heighten the suspense and keep the reader turning the pages until the very end.  As the plot and characters take shape in our mind, we ask ourselves, “Am I I right?  Did I figure out who did it?”  There are plenty of clues this month regarding the strength of October’s Full Moon and they will keep us on the edge of our seats until the 29th.  This month’s Full Moon is at six degrees, forty-eight seconds of Taurus and from all the evidence, we will see a miraculous moon for manifesting our desires.  

On October 29th the Full Hunter’s Moon will preside over our night sky.  The name, Hunter’s Moon, was the name given to October’s Full Moon by Native Americans who, as we still do today, culled out game from the wild herds each autumn.  Fall hunting served two purposes: First, the hunters could put aside extra stores of food and skins for the coming winter and second, the herd would be thinned out and there would be fewer animals lost to starvation when the natural food supply grew meager during the winter months.

The Full Hunter’s Moon is always powerful.  Diana, Goddess of the Moon is also Goddess of the Hunt.  This Hunter’s Moon happens to fall in Taurus and most of the astrologers on the net agree that not only is this an extremely powerful moon, but that it is probably the best moon of the year to practice abundance work through affirmations, meditations and good, old fashioned financial reviews.  Look at your stock portfolio.  Are you considering a change in investment strategy?  The 29th is a great time to implement that change.  Some astrologers have even dubbed October 29th as “money maker day.”  Let’s take a look at why.  

We can turn to tarot’s Major Arcana (meaning “big secret or mystery”) for confirmation of the sort energy that will be flying around us on the night of the Hunter’s Moon.  Taurus is an intensely spiritual sign and its corresponding tarot card is #5, the Hierophant.  What a surprise. The Hierophant is the corner stone of faith and spirituality in the Major Arcana.  His influence means that Taurus is no fair weather friend.  A Taurus is always “in it to win it.”  Like the Hierophant, they appreciate structure.  Safety and security are the linch pin of a Full Moon in Taurus and people born under the sign of the bull like their comfort.  Make that luxury.  Taurus can sense an opportunity a mile away and they have the discipline to see a venture through to a successful conclusion.

Venus rules Taurus and the Major Arcana card for Venus is none other than #3, The Empress.  The Empress is the very essence of abundance and luxury.  She is depicted as perpetually pregnant, wanting for nothing and giving life to our ideas and ventures. Her energy nourishes and supports us.  Taurus is an earth sign, aligned with tarot’s suit of pentacles.  While both Taurus and The Hierophant like their luxury, they also have a down to earth practicality that helps them focus in the real world.  Pentacles are about the material - money, goods, career and health.  What happens when we combine the abundance of The Empress, the faith and structure of The Hierophant with the sign of Taurus?  We have the perfect seeds for manifesting. Disease and rot resistant.  

It’s important to remember that the moon loves to be in Taurus and she is very high-functioning within that sign.  No wonder.  The Full Moon is guided by #2 in the Major Arcana, The High Priestess.  The High Priestess represents instinct, intuition and unconscious thought.  In the RWCS deck, she’s depicted wearing none other than the crown of Isis (or Hathor, the Woman-Cow Goddess. See where this is leading?)  The crown’s shape is a single steer horn set on either side of a disk; which also happens to be the shape of the glyph representing the sign of Taurus.  Funny how these thing work out.  In ancient Egypt, the disk in the center of the crown originally represented the sun.  As different cultures assimilated the myths of Isis and Hathor into their own traditions, the disk changed from representing the sun, to representing the moon.  In Pagan tradition, the crown of Isis is seen as the Triple Goddesses, Maiden, Mother and Crone; or, as the waxing crescent, the full and the waning crescent moons.  Are you dizzy yet?  But wait!  There’s more!  

In my last blog I told you that Saturn entered Scorpio at the beginning of this month and will remain there until 2015.  Although Saturn is somewhat of a task master, we all receive energy boosts while that planet remains in the transformative power of Scorpio.  These boosts enable us to strive harder and attain more of our goals.  And here’s the kicker.  While Scorpio’s ruling card is #13, Death, or Transformation, Saturn’s ruling card is #22 - The World.  The World represents the culmination of the soul’s journey, or the ability to have it all.  Wow.  The ability to access transformative energy to change your world.  That sounds like manifesting to me.  

Mars remains in Sagittarius during the Full Moon.  This gives us some wonderful, fiery wand energy to help us harness the power of both Taurus and Saturn in Scorpio.  Get your wish lists ready and don’t miss out on this prime opportunity to bring your dreams into this reality.  Happy manifesting!

LADY ORACLE