Moving into Capricorn...

...and the depths of winter - well, at least that's the idea, here in the Northern Hemisphere! Not that wintry in the UK but even so...

I created a Midwinter Meditation tarot spread for the TABI blog - please do check it out here.

See you in the New Year!

Full Moon in Taurus

Today’s offering comes from the Wildwood Tarot, created by Mark Ryan and John Matthews, beautifully illustrated by Will Worthington. 

18 The Moon on the Water (trimmed):

© Wildwood Tarot

The Moon on the Water seems like the perfect card to work with on the day of the Taurus Full Moon.  Full moon overhead, casting light over a marshy landscape – that’s appropriate too, as we’re in the watery sign of Scorpio.  And against the backdrop of that moon we see the silhouette of an aurochs, the ancestor of our bull – the symbol of Taurus. 

Taurus is associated with fertility, among other things.  In the old Druidic traditions, a bull or ox might be sacrificed at midwinter, as a symbol of new life emerging from the ‘dead’ of winter.  In the accompanying book to the Wildwood Tarot, the creators write of the auroch’s horns representing not only the waxing and waning of the moon, but also fertility: they see the womb and fallopian tubes in the bull’s horns. 

New growth emerging from death is also a theme of Scorpio, of course, with the transformation from what’s decaying or no longer of use into something from which new life can emerge. Just think of your compost heap!  The Moon represents this too – the cycles of life: birth and death, new and old, waxing and waning.

So what might The Moon on the Water be saying to us today? It’s difficult to see a way through the marsh, although the Moon does cast a path of light (reflected from the Sun) over the water. The 'passage through the unknown', perhaps? The heron, a water bird, represents psychic ability as well as reflection - and there's plenty of reflection in the imagery. The heron also stands at the gateway between life and death, acting as mediator on the soul's journey to the underworld. Or between conscious and unconscious? Under the surface (how Scorpionic!) lies the “primal egg” (to quote Ryan and Matthews), waiting to be fertilized. So, at this time of the Taurus New Moon, perhaps it’s time to stand still for a moment, and see the potential that lies before us. Pay attention to your dreams and your imagination – what are you being called to create?

Wildwood Tarot created by Mark Ryan and John Matthews, illustrated by Will Worthington, published by Connections

To ruffle or not to ruffle? Margarete Petersen’s Two of Feathers

Two of Feathers (trimmed):

© Margarete Petersen Tarot

Moving on today to the Two of Feathers, which lie horizontally across the face of a large disc.  The feathers point in opposite directions, so again, opposition. One feather looks ruffled compared to the other one - the need to balance opposites? The circle in the background implies wholeness or union. 

It also reminds me of the Moon, which is part of the astrological association for this card – Moon in Libra.  Libra is the cardinal Air sign, so we’re looking at creative energy around activity involving thought, ideas, logic, reason, while the Moon is associated with the element of Water through its rulership of Cancer, so we have a link to the watery realm of feelings and emotion.  Objective feelings – is that even possible?!?

Margarete Petersen writes about meditation, about observing our thoughts and letting them come to a standstill. How apposite to be looking at this today, coming so soon after the Equinox – when we’re poised at that delicate balance between equal day and night!  She asks us to “Feel the power of the space that lies between a dying and a newly forming thought”. (p 73 of her LWB)

Two feathers at rest

Rough, smooth - opposed yet balanced 
Still mind holds power.
 
Margarete Petersen Tarot, AGM-URANIA, 2004

Stirring the Air - Margarete Petersen’s Ace of Feathers

Well, we’ve finished our journey through the Flames suit.  And with the Autumn Equinox and our ingress to Libra just past, I thought I’d turn my attention to the suit of Swords – or Feathers, in the Margarete Petersen deck.

Ace of Feathers (trimmed): ©Margarete Petersen

What do we associate with this suit? We’re in the element of Air, so thoughts, ideas, … anything that involves the mind. Our ability to analyse, to reason, to apply logic. If we think of air-waves, we have communication as well.  The Swords/Feathers are also considered to be the most challenging suit, and are associated with feelings of grief and jealousy, and the isolation that such emotions can bring. 

Here’s the Ace of Feathers.  Like the Ace of Flames, I see a creative spark in this peacock-eye feather – the colours Petersen has used are reminiscent of a flame.  I like the idea of inspiration for the Ace of this suit – the inhaling or in-spiring of the creative process – a new idea?  An alternative way of communicating?

Feather's eye, mind's eye
Watching, fanning, inspiring 
Stimulating thought.

Margarete Petersen Tarot, AGM-URANIA, 2004