Tarot Cast • August 21st, 2017
Today’s the day. The North American solar eclipse is HAPPENING, people! Rachel over at Aeolian Heart wrote a post about what you should expect astrologically from this rare & romanticized event. Here’s a taster:
“Expect to contend with theatrical emotions, where the performance of one’s public persona (character, role, image and face) metamorphoses into newly hyperbolic grimaces of tragedy and comedy.”
Read more here. In the article, Rachel also asks a germane question, prompted by the Leonine vibe of the eclipse:
“What expression do I choose to wear in the face of fear & uncertainty?”
This week’s Tarot Cast goads you into answering this Q. In the first position, the Serenity card: the major key for retreat & introspection. Coincidentally (or fatefully), the Serenity card also corresponds with Virgo & Mercury, which are hella retrograde as of late. Mercury Retrograde is always an opportunity for a little retreat & soul-digging. (Read more about Mercury Retrograde over here.)
In the description for this week’s Tarot Cast activity, I actually describe the line between “spiritual bypassing” the issues of the day & stepping back in order to get a longview of what’s happening… & your role in it all.
We’ve also got the 9 of Cups & The Starseed: 2 Major Arcana keys & my favorite card of the Cups suit. It’s going to be a beautiful, illuminating week, people.
💠 SERENITY.
MESSAGE: STEP BACK FOR A WIDER POINT-OF-VIEW.
The Serenity card in The Starchild Tarot is identical to The Hermit card of the Rider-Waite deck. It’s the key of spiritual retreat, introspection, & self-purification. The inner-resources you develop from taking yourself out of the heated debates du jour better equip you for dealing with the true-world experiences those discussions are supposedly about. Serenity is the opposite of self-righteousness.
💠 Nine of Cups.
MESSAGE: THE CIRCLE OF LOVE BEGINS & ENDS WITH YOU.
Numerologically, 9 is a hair’s breadth away from the end of the cycle, where the elements the suit refers to recycle back through the journey. Love, inspiration, & soulfulness flood & ebb dreamily from the Ace of Cups all the way to 10, its zenith of adoration, joy, & family harmony. We are prismatic thresholds for the Divine to shine on the world & the 9 of Cups symbolizes a self-aware contentment on matters of the heart. The expression of this card: beatific contentment. The 9 of Cups reflects the choice of letting the world notice your joy… of infusing your beliefs, feelings, & actions with love. Someone wearing the face of soul-satisfaction makes others suddenly realize how thirsty for joy they actually are.
Hint: no one can give you love & joy. Your only option is to shine.
💠 The Starseed.
MESSAGE: REMEMBER. REMEMBER. YOU ARE NOT YOUR EGO.
Numerologically, The Starseed card corresponds to 0. The Starseed symbolizes the germ of your soul as it journeys through the cosmos, incarnating numerous times in several different dimensions, stockpiling conscious experience.
The Starseed corresponds with The Fool in the Rider-Waite deck: the Innocent, the Beginner. Starseeds are new to this reality, but they’re genetically wiser: in previous lives in different cosmic realms, starseeds survived apocalypses. In some cases, they watched their home planets perish into voids. They’ve already been tasked to find the Truth about themselves in the face of horror & peril.
In some ways, the Starseed also represents the End of the journey to Awakening, because even after you’ve amassed the experience & delicately crafted your persona (the tool you use to rudder your passage through this chaotic realm), you realize how much the persona handicaps your authentic, lightworking, joy-radiating starry-eyed Self.
If you at all identify (ironically) as a Starseed or a Lightworker (they’re one in the same), you might be feeling scattered. You might be feeling jabbed at & may be feeling a little jabby as well. Stepping back might seem irresponsible, like spiritually bypassing these huge concerns. The cause is righteous, after all!
If you’re feeling low energy--too low to even guess what sort of inspired action you can take on the issues--then read on for this week’s activity!
(Curious about this "Starseed" stuff? Bookmark this post to read later: 13 Signs You May Be A Starseed.)
🌙
this week’s tarot cast action:
replace every minute spent in debate with one trivial, but enlightened action.
Debate is masturbatory. I studied philosophy at university for 7 years--most of my adult life. Most of my closest friends were debate team members who grew up to become razor-toothed attorneys. Some of them defend people who did (& continue to do) bad things. Some of my friends prosecute people who got caught doing the right thing… though it went against the rules.
Unfortunately… yes, unfortunately… debate is the lifeblood of modern philosophy. Philosophy, which translates to For The Love Of Wisdom.
Debate is the art & science of proving I Am Right. And the longer the debate, the less wise action taken. The only action debate inspires is action taken out of angst, rage, resentment, & desperation.
These week’s cards fatefully align with what many of us are struggle against: the urge to feel right.
Because we are right. Right?
How can you tell the difference, if you’re stuck in the same roiling mass as the people standing on the opposite side of the issues?
To grow a little wiser, which is the spine of serenity, here’s the inspired action I suggest you take. For every single urge you feel to launch a Twitter war or argue with your friend’s racist uncle through a Facebook comment train, pop over to the ACLU & make a donation. Make a teensy donation right now, just to get the feel of it.
But why?! Why NOT debate? Why throw money at an organization that stays out of the debates happening on the sidelines, an organization which instead takes clear, well-formulated action to get in front of the people who need to hear the real score on what’s happening? An organization that gets supplies & resources to the people who need them, who in turn are now empowered to get supplies & resources to others who need them, thus bringing the invisible majority onto our radar?
If you don’t vibe with the ACLU in particular, donate to the organization that’s doing the actions you can’t be doing, given the constraints on your time, energy & focus. If you’ve got time to pick Twitter fights, perhaps you have time to volunteer on behalf of that organization that has the strength & momentum to make a bigger impact than merely enraging bystanders on the Internet.
Because no one is very impressed with the clicking you do to share a meme over Facebook or Twitter.
Serenity comes from having the strength to pull yourself out of the melee, no matter how attached to the outcomes of the conversation you are. Wisdom will not suddenly arise out of name-calling & attacking each other’s points of view… there is no other frame of reference.
In the Lightworker’s Guide, the reference book of The Starchild Tarot, the Serenity card’s message:
“You are waking up to a renewed sense of spirituality that is illuminating your life in new & vibrant ways. You may feel less inclined to share your thoughts & views with others, as you realize each person is on their own cosmic path to enlightenment.”
It is not spiritually bypassing the issues if you choose to turn off Twitter notifications. It is not spiritually bypassing the issues to respond to cruel remarks with a solemn retort: “That’s inappropriate.” “Unnecessary.”
Take all that annoyance, anger, & other shadow-drama welling up inside you & channel it into where the biggest bubble of conscious intention as already amassed. Donate. Write a letter to your state senator. Ask a survivor of hate-crime or racist backlash, What do you need? I’ll bring it. Where can I help?
And if this post (or just the general vibe of the social climate) is getting to you, you can email me! I’ll do what I can to help spin the sitch for you.
And let me sign-off bringing it full-circle with my household’s #songoftheday:
MEWITHOUTYOU, “THE SUN & THE MOON”
Mine's been a vivid story, dimly remembered
And by the hundredth time it's told, halfway true
Of bad behavior well engendered
What good is each good thing we think we do?
Daniel broke the king's decree
Peter stepped from the ship to the sea
There was hope for Job like a cut down tree
I hope that there's such hope for me
Find a friend and stay close and with a melting heart
Tell them whatever you're most ashamed of
Our parents have made so many mistakes
But may we forgive them and forgive ourselves
All Tarot images via The Starchild Tarot by Danielle Noel.
