Category Archives: The Moon

The Tarot of the Northern Winter Solstice

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The celebration of the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere has ancient roots…

The Moon: Hidden Depths

Going back thousands of years, possibly tens of thousands of years, maybe even hundreds of thousands of years, into prehistory.

And it’s not hard to see why!

December 21st marks this…

Wheel of Fortune: A turning point

It’s when the Earth pauses in its tilt away from the Sun, before heading back towards the light.

This is a truly significant moment in the year and would have had deep meaning for our ancestors.

The Earth turns towards the light just before the northern hemisphere is plunged into the bleakness of the most challenging winter months, when the weather is freezing and food scarce…

Five of Pentacles: Hard times

The winter solstice commemoration was created to remind us during the darkest of times that the world is turning back towards the light.

It is a celebration of this…

The Star: Hope

And is the true origins of the Christmas festival we now celebrate at this time of the year.

Jesus is another symbol of hope for us.

Of a way we can move forward towards the light.

Just as Tarot is too!

The Tarot of the Wuhan Lab Leak Theory

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World leaders at the G7 summit in England this week added fuel to the flames of the most pressing conspiracy theory of our times: Did Covid-19 escape from a Chinese lab?

Let’s explore the Tarot of this a little, shall we?

The origins of the current world-wide coronavirus epidemic are currently unknown…

The Moon: Hidden depths

But from the start, various media commentators have speculated that the virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology…

Page of Swords: Developing A Theory

The most compelling evidence for this is probably…

Death: The fact that Wuhan was the epicentre for the first large-scale outbreak

Meanwhile, scientists around the world have continued to insist this virus spread from animals…

Eight of Pentacles Reversed: It’s not man-made

Although that doesn’t rule out the lab completely, as the Wuhan Institute stores samples of the closest-known relative to Covid-19…

Seven of Swords Reversed: Acting suspicious

These samples were collected in 2012 when some miners fell sick with a mysterious illness…

Temperance Reversed: Feeling unwell

The Chinese virologist whose work is at the centre of these allegations insisted in a recent interview that the claims are baseless…

Knight of Swords Reversed: Feeling slandered

However, China’s ongoing refusal to allow an independent investigation into the lab makes this hard to believe…

The Moon Reversed: Muddying the waters

The High Priestess Reversed: Feeling unsure

If certain leaders didn’t seem hell-bent on blaming the Chinese for this epidemic, they might be more willing to co-operate.

Judgement Reversed: Wanting to blame

The Devil Reversed: Making someone the bad guy

What are your thoughts about this?

The Tarot of Easter

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Happy Easter 2021!

On Easter Sunday we remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ. According to Christian lore, his emergence from the tomb 2000 years ago proved he was the son of God. For Christians, this event signifies the new life we can experience when we embrace the Word of God.

Judgement: Being called to serve

But before Easter was a Christian celebration, it was a pagan one.

Three of Pentacles: Building on strong foundations

According to St. Bede The Venerable, the word ‘Easter’ was derived from ‘Eostre’, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and fertility. This is also where we get the word ‘oestrogen’ from (Makes sense that a female hormone would be named after a female being). Many of the traditions and symbols that play a key role in Easter observations have their roots in Her celebrations.

The Empress: Fertility & growth
In Tarot, first comes The Empress, THEN The Emperor

The very date of Easter betrays its pagan origins. It is always celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. Nothing related to the date of Jesus’s death at all. However, full moons and equinoxes were highly significant for our European ancestors.

The Moon: Hidden depths

The period of fasting that precedes Easter is a reminder of the dire food reserves our ancestors were left with at the end of winter. Rations needed to be used sparingly. Much of the good stuff was gone. We suffer as they did.

Five of Pentacles: Feeling poor

The eggs that birds produce as daylight starts to increase would have been one of the first fresh foods our ancestors could lay their hands on. Same same for rabbits. Their breeding season begins mid-February. These were the first signs of new life. Thus their significance to the ancient Vernal Equinox celebrations: A festival of gratitude that the darkness was receding and the natural world was springing back to life.

Seven of Pentacles: Reflecting on the new shoots sprouting

Egg rolling and egg decorating customs were created to acknowledge the life-saving role of eggs at this critical time of year.

Ten of Pentacles: Family traditions

At its core, the Easter story has always been a reminder that no matter how bleak the world may seem, things can get better.

The Wheel of Fortune: The ups and downs of life

Whichever version of the story you prefer, Easter is a time of hope.

Enjoy your celebrations today!

The Tarot of Bridgerton

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Like many others, I spent the Christmas-New Year period glued to Bridgerton on Netflix. An 8 part series produced by the wonderful Shonda Rhimes. Based on a series of Regency romances written by Julia Quinn in the noughties.

Let’s investigate the Tarot of Bridgerton, shall we?

Obviously, it falls under this category…

The Lovers: Romance

As is typical of this literary genre, the female protagonist Daphne is…

The Fool: A naive ingenue

And the male protagonist, the Duke of Hastings, is…

Knight of Wands + The Devil: Dashing and damaged

They both come from…

Ten of Wands: Wealthy families

The plot is centred around Daphne’s attempt to…

Four of Cups: Get married to another member of the ton – a word used to reflect a member of English high society during this period of history

In order to improve her chances of appearing desirable, and, so he can avoid appearing available, she and the Duke make a pact to…

The Lovers Reversed: Pretend to fall in love

And we all know what happens when characters pretend to be in love…

The Magician: They create that reality!

But before there is any chance of a happily ever after…

Seven of Wands: They must battle many obstacles…

Not least of which is…

The Moon: Their own personal faults

One of the things I love about this series is the rich array of supporting characters, whose own stories are explored in some depth.

There’s the eldest Bridgerton son, Anthony, head of Daphne’s family…

The Emperor Reversed: A dysfunctional autocrat

Daphne’s mother, who sometimes provides…

The High Priestess Reversed: Terrible counsel

My personal favourite is Eloise, Daphne’s slightly younger sister…

Seven of Wands + The Empress: A raging feminist

Also notable is Eloise’s best friend, Penelope Featherington…

Three of Cups Reversed: The wallflower at every ball

There’s also the mysterious Lady Whistledown, who provides biting commentary on the London season, without ever revealing her true identity…

Knight of Swords Reversed + Seven of Swords: A sneaky barbed wit

Bridgerton has been brilliantly created by Shonda’s protege, Chris Van Duesen, who is an absolute…

King of Wands: Master of his craft

The tone is…

Six of Cups: Hyper-reality

The books and the era have been…

Wheel of Fortune: Given a modern spin.

This allows the series to have interesting conversations about…

The Empress + The World: The role of women in society

There is even more to Bridgerton that that.

Watch it for yourself and see!!!

Opening Old Wounds

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My eyes are red and swollen.

I couldn’t stop bawling yesterday.

A beloved character in a TV show died.

Clearly, an over-reaction.

So what happened exactly?

Despite terrible reviews, I’m a big fan of the apocalyptic Netflix show, ‘The Rain’. In the penultimate episode of the entire series, my favourite character, Martin, bit the dust.

He reminded me a lot of my last boyfriend.

Six of Cups: Remembering happy times

Only better!

Knight of Cups: The ideal man

However, my mini-breakdown wasn’t about the character on tv, or even the old boyfriend.

It was about this..

The Fool + Two of Cups: The possibility of relationship

I was distressed that his partner lost the chance to grow old with him.

Which was a reflection of my distress at not having a life partner like him myself.

This is a classic example of this card…

Three of Swords: Opening old wounds

For no good reason, I felt consumed by grief.

Five of Cups: Crying over what you’ve lost, despite the good things in your life

The Three of Swords comes up when you’re reminded of a loss.

Even though you’ve done this…

Eight of Cups: Well and truly moved on

In fact, you feel like this…

Nine of Pentacles: Very content with your life

We all carry wounds in our hearts.

The longer we’ve lived, the more knives to the chest we’ve experienced.

People we’ve loved and lost.

Times when we were hurt deeply.

The important thing is not to be over-whelmed by these injuries.

Not to do this…

King of Cups Reversed: Drown your sorrows

Or this…

Six of Cups Reversed: Lose yourself in nostalgia or fantasy

Or even this…

The Moon Reversed: Succumb to a drug fuelled haze.

We have to keep moving forwards.

Carrying our secret griefs.

Using them to remind us to do this..

Judgement: Show compassion to one another

Always!

Commencement 2020

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Thanks to the coronavirus, commencement speeches have been forced online this year.

Whilst it obviously isn’t the same as having a real-life graduation, it’s been wonderful to see so many prominent members of our community take time to remember the Class of 2020.

But what lessons would Tarot wish to convey to graduates?

I believe we find the answer in the last line of the Major Arcana. Or as I like to call it, the Life Lessons section of the Tarot deck. Let’s take a look, shall we?

Pages: 1 2

The Tarot of 2020

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This year continues to be the gift that keeps on giving. In the worst possible way. Every time we feel like we’re moving forward again, another one of our worst nightmares pops out of a box.

Let’s explore the tarot of this, shall we…

Pages: 1 2

Throwback Thursday: The Holy Book Part 3

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I’ve written before about how Tarot contains a holy book that charts the journey of a human soul through all the stages and experiences of life. I call these cards Life Lessons Tarot. But they’re better known as the Major Arcana.

These lessons are divided into three parts. We’ve already looked at the first two parts this year: Childhood & Adulthood. The third volume represents maturity.

This is the scary part. These cards will shake, rattle and roll your world. The last seven cards of Tarot’s Holy Book are the most intense to live through. But if you can manage these energies in a positive way you get to hit the jackpot. You get The World!

They can be described as follows…
Continue reading →

The Tarot of Mental Illness

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I’ve talked about mental illness before. But in my opinion, as someone who’s had extensive experience in this area, you can never talk about it enough. There are lots of peeps suffering out there with one form or another of this insidious disease.

Let’s dive deep into the Tarot of Mental Illness shall we… Continue reading →

The Tattooist of Auschwitz

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Easter is a time of hope. It therefore seems the perfect moment to explore the riveting survival tale of the Jewish man who tattoed prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War 2. His story has not come to light until now because of the incredible guilt he carried about what he was forced to do to his fellow prisoners.

Let’s explore his story shall we? No spoilers, I promise. Continue reading →