2nd: Festival of Heru as the Winged Disc

3rd-4th: Mundus Patet - ancient Roman

9th-11th - Haustblót - Norse/Heathen

10th -New Moon in Libra25th-26th- Full Hunter’s Moon

31st-Nov 1st - Samhain

31st - Nov 2nd - Día de los Muertos

Angel Intentions is now Angel Alignment! More than a forecast or a predictive service, I see tarot as a symbolic language that shows us how to come into alignment with ourselves (or how to stay in it). The reading below asks how we can more deeply embody our desire, but also how we can feel safe enjoying its benefits and express satisfaction and gratitude for the harvest ahead.

In October, the Wheel of Fortune shifts us into a period of integration, harvest, and regulation. How did it feel to reach the peak of ecstasy in September, to receive physical manifestations of the desire we’ve been working so hard to cultivate all year? How can we seek more of that? How can we titrate from the experience, so that we can teach our bodies that embodying our desire is safe for our nervous system? Can we let ourselves be in the pleasure of receiving, without feeling the need to do anything to earn or deserve it?

Per Friends of the Forest, the month begins with Tigillum Sororium, a purification practice in ancient Rome. It’s an opportunity to let go of the old and make room for the new. On the second day, the Egyptian solar god Horus is celebrated for triumphing over chaos. From the third to the fourth, in ancient Rome, Mundus Patet signaled an openness to the underworld. Mid-month brings about Haustblót, or a shifting of the seasons. Gratitude is expressed as the way is cleared for the winter. On the tenth, we enter the New Moon in Libra. We are encouraged to find balance by tuning in with the present state of our nervous system, be it play, anger and boundary expression, or nurturance. The key is not to be static but responsive to where we are and what we need in a given moment. Depending on the time zone, the Full Hunter’s Moon occurs on the twenty-fifth or the twenty-sixth. Here, we can step more fully into our true desires, pursuing what we truly want to pursue. Finally at the end of the month, the veil thins. Per traditions around the world, this is a time to honor and commune with our ancestors.

This month, we use an original spread called “Wings of Harvest.” It explores our mental and emotional comfort zone, expansion work in those areas, and the peaks that are available to us in each.

Mental Comfort Zone (What Feels Safe): Magician ~Slo Fuzz by Sol Seppy~

In the tenth month of the year–after we’ve thawed, owned and pursued our desire, built our capacity for it and experienced pleasure in it–we’ve come to a place where we know ourselves very well. It’s easy for us to imagine personal possibilities, the will we want to apply in relation to it, what foundations we are working with, everything that exists in relation to the self. We feel comfortable with beginning things, trying them out and looking ahead without worrying about revising or performing for the gaze of another. Our own vision suffices, which allows our work to exist in a state of good-enoughness. We feel best when we are in full creative control and can work independently, never at a lack of ideas for what to do, or how we want to grow and develop. Our mind is clever and excellent at devising a world unto itself. This is our ideal setup, however chaos begins when we bring in another, and we feel increasingly overwhelmed the more people enter the picture.

Emotional Comfort Zone (What Feels Safe): Four of Swords ~Enjoy the Silence by Depeche Mode~

We bloom best in safety, with the fences we have built around ourselves. Emotionally, we want to have all the right boundaries in place and to be in a stable environment that’s within our control. Safe from the public eye, or any interference, we arrange things just so, with our optimal conditions and comfort zone in mind. It’s as though we live in a temperature-controlled greenhouse, where everything is watered and tended on a regular schedule. We fear what may happen if we leave the careful conditions of rest and low activation, or subject ourselves to the swords of the outside world that wounded us in the first place. It’s important to understand that we sheltered ourselves because we don’t want to get hurt again. We’lll want to establish a sense of safety before venturing out again.

Mental Expansion (How We Can Challenge Ourselves): Reverse Queen of Swords ~I’m Not There by Chelsea Wolfe~

We can expand our capacity to co-create and share with others if we are willing to face uncomfortable truths, and approach internal traumas and aspects of the self that we’ve been avoiding. It’s important to validate our experience and tend to the wounded self, but we must also take accountability for the role we’ve played in unpleasant dynamics or painful realities. In doing so, we reclaim our personal power and sovereignty. This will allow us to grow and create new conditions slowly over time. There’s also a nascent vision or desire of cocreation that we’ve been suppressing, because we’ve been bracing for the pain that might come with it based on experiences of the past. We haven’t tested yet if we’ve increased our capacity to hold ourselves and express our boundaries. Mentally, we’re living in a reactive state because in the past we haven’t defended ourselves. Building a trusting relationship with the self as the Queen of Swords embodied will help us expand in the direction we want to grow.

Emotional Expansion (How We Can Challenge Ourselves): Ace of Cups ~My Heart Dreams by Black Belt Eagle Scout~

Emotional expansion is found when we are willing to coronate ourselves with sacred purpose and commit ourselves fully to bringing about its fruition. We are in charge of its reign, maintenance and completion. This is the desire we’ve been fostering this entire year. But rather than a climax or a destination, it’s a joyful experience that we work to sustain throughout our lifetime. This month, we can work with it from a relationship of renewal, stability, and nourishment. This is something that we want to live as our truth. Our desire is a cup we want to hold before us in speech or ceremony, so that all may join us in a toast, in celebration of the sacred marriage we have with the fully embodied self.

Mental Height (The Peak We Can Reach): Page of Cups ~Good Days by Sza~

Our fullest mental potential can be reached this month if we make the conscious choice to take off the action-oriented hat of maximum productivity, extraction and efficiency. We exchange it for a flower of crowns–signifying a connection with the self and nature in its organic expression. With this crown we promote playfulness, curiosity, and self-love. We learn to walk in beauty and to cherish what really matters: our Ace of Cups above. The Holy Grail, our sacred desire that fills us with a sense of joy and purpose. That which fuels us, gives us life and health and alignment, a golden path of fertile possibility from which all blooms no matter if it makes us look like foolish romantic beginners to others. It is a life of alignment that sings to the soul and alights all who hear it.

Emotional Height (The Peak We Can Reach): Reverse Lovers ~Erina McLaren and Kurt Lindsay~

Our emotional peak is reached when we unite the mental with the emotional rather than treating them as oppositional forces, where one force is sabotaging the other. That aspect of the self is a safety mechanism put in place to keep us safe. When that protector aspect is engaged in a more empowered role, that energy is released and can be used to manifest our heart’s desire and to accept our harvest thus far. They can be joined through love and mediation. When we act as a couples’ counselor between the two, helping them see eye to eye and remembering how they feel for one another, the two can begin to converse and think about how to support one another. When we walk both worlds, the two can work as allies on shared goals. It can be tempting to only look at the desirable aspects of the self that seem prettier and more easier to work with. But our true power is found when we dive in and embrace the wounded self, with compassion and care, loving it and showing that it too can enjoy the fruits of pleasure without fear. It’s only when this part of us feels safe to allow us to embody our heart’s desire that we can fully do so.

Zoe Hatton