1st-2nd: Imbolc
12th: Full Snow Moon in Leo
14th: Valentine’s Day
15th: Lupercalia
28th: New Moon in Pisces
Note: The spread below was found through the Tarot Guru, referred to as the “Month Ahead Spread.” We will be using the Marseilles tarot deck.
In February, we are offered a new beginning that aligns with the seasons. From the outset, we experience Imbolc, a High Winter pagan Celtiic festival honoring the triple goddess Brigid. Brigid brings the power of wisdom, poetry, and protection to fashion ourselves into higher forms. We are purified, and promised a gradual return of light. After a long sleep, our limbs begin to shift into a state of wakefulness. On the 12th, we experience a Full Snow Moon in Leo, calling to mind the energy of the snow leopard. The snow leopard is solitary and operates on a crepuscular rhythm (dawn and dusk), making these the ideal times for us to focus on making the most of our Hermit year. The snow leopard emphasizes resilience and purity in our creative and unique expression of our passions. Our courage comes from detaching ourselves from concern about the herd or the attention of others, which allows us to overcome fear of judgment and doubts. This is the base from which we move into Valentine’s Day, which connects our internal love with the interpersonal. By placing ourselves at the center, relationships are improved and enhanced. On the 15th, the Roman festival Lupercalia magnifies our original purification ritual and adds on the element of fertility, which will further boost our creativity. Finally, on the 28th, we experience a New Moon in Pisces, taking us from the solitary and interpersonal to the collective. Under this influence, we are asked to consider how our dreams, passions and aspirations act in service of the collective.
What to Let Go: Reverse High Priestess
Before we are able to make the most of the snow leopard energy offered on the Full Moon in Leo, we must first release our wounded inner High Priestess narrative. In our current narrative, we mistake our trauma for our identity, believing ourselves to be disempowered in regards to personal and systemic circumstances that we find ourselves in this month. We get stuck in self doubt, when what is needed is to transmute the experience into a service for the collective. When we do this, we embrace our role as wounded healer or creator. The insecurity we feel results from a tendency to seek knowledge external to the self, rather than staying grounded in intuitive wisdom. There is an overwhelm from the oversaturation of information received, to the extent that our head feels detached from the body and disconnected from somatic experience. The information received is of a limited scope, and yet we are unable to see beyond it because we believe that is all there is. The solution is to embrace the solitary Hermit nature of the snow leopard, such that we can receive pure insight through silence and stillness. However, the key is not to fall for the illusion of safety in passive non-participation. Nor do we absolve ourselves when we forego personal responsibility and avoid the contributions that our own shadows have made to the current predicament. Clarity brings a mirror to painful truths, which may create resistance to our healing, but if we can face it, we can reclaim our personal power.
What to Bring Forward: Ace of Pentacles
We can make the most of the month of February when we lean into the energy of new starts, purity and fertility, of which the Ace of Pentacles is a symbol. Starting small can have a profound effect of lasting change, if we can consistently build upon the initiatory seed to create new life. This is a good time to focus on fostering security, physical wellbeing, safety, following passion, pleasure, and desire. When we pursue the pleasurable, creative and energizing, we are motivated to keep going in that direction. Per Tarot of the Holy Light, we have the full ability to create our personal Paradise. Our personal power sprouts, propagates, reaches and flowers. When we take care of ourselves, we inspire others to do the same, thus pollinating the health and wealth of humankind. The manifest occurs in our repeated commitments and actions, so we should choose our routine wisely this month, as it will set the tone for the rest of the year. Take confidence that our light is something to revel in and share with the world at large.
Main Focus of the Month: Reverse Six of Cups
The return of light is the main focus in February, which can be accomplished in addressing the reverse six of cups. As we enter the month, we find ourselves engaging in old patterns of behavior that aren’t filling our cup, that are draining us and leaving us spiritually dehydrated. According to Between the Worlds, the remedy is daily doses of play, pleasure and joy to resolve the past and heal old hurts that reside in the wounded High Priestess. It is time for forgiveness and recovery. We are encouraged to engage in simple pleasures and hobbies, and be around those who care about us. This restorative water will help our Ace of Pentacles grow. According to the Tarot of the Holy Light, play and experimentation rejuvenates our optimism and ability to trust as well. When we feel safe, we more readily explore, learn, and innovate. Enthusiasm and open mindedness allow us to access infinite possibilities. We must release old stories and conditioning, and reflexive resistance. This can be most easily accessed through the inner child, and recreating or creating a happy childhood.
Action to Take: Two of Cups
As Valentine’s Day approaches, we may feel a mounting pressure to express a year’s worth of love into a single day. The Two of Cups is a reminder to act with love in small ways each day. This can either be directed to the self, or channeled in a relationship. Rather than grand gestures, we might consider how we can express love in the appropriate languages: surprising a partner with foraged wild flowers, washing the dishes, offering a night massage, going for a walk together, or slipping a love note into their lunch bag. Or this could look like self care: preparing a hot bubble bath, journaling, tidying up your space and more. What ways can you elevate and see the best in yourself or another? What life giving waters can you offer one another? What unique talents do each bring to the table? Partnership offers the opportunity to see the best in one another, encourage each other, and enjoy the other’s presence. Boundaries can be practiced in a safe setting of mutual trust, and mutual exchange can be practiced. A grounding experience is founded in equality, aligned vision, and upliftment. Learning about the other, integrating, communicating, healing and creating are all a part of the long term commitment (even with oneself). The 14th can be seen as a chance not to take all this for granted or slide into complacency – courting other or self, expressing appreciation, nourishing and lavishing, enjoying presence and love are key ingredients for maintaining a relationship.
Areas of Growth: Reverse Sun
As Imbolc works to bring about more light, our key area of growth is to work on letting light in, and allowing our internal light to shine bright. This looks like aligning with our passions, our sense of purpose, caring for the self and values, tending the inner child, and connecting with sensual joy. In regards to our partner, we may be groping blindly in their direction in the hopes that they can do the work for us, without even telling them that this is what we are trying to do. While we can reach to them for steadiness and groundedness, it is better if we foster our inner radiance, a balance of discipline and flow from within. From this space we inspire and manifest double fold, when we are able to share our luminosity and enjoyment, rather than attempt to borrow from or use another’s light. The wall behind the solar pair in the Marseilles version of the card symbolizes security, but also limitation and separation that keep us from our personal Eden. Any shame we may feel blocks this flow and keeps us walled away from opportunities. Per the Tarot of the Holy Light, our ego fears our soul’s brilliance and hence responsibility. We must release systemic programmatic thinking, and free ourselves of any notion of undeserving, for this is the only way that we and the world can benefit from our sacred light.
Any Issues: Eight of Cups
In February, we have three main opportunities for purification: Imbolc, the Full Moon, and Lupercalia. Any issues we may have in this spread stem from the eight of cups, in this case a resistance to said purification. The resistance comes from an attachment to the “wall” in the reverse Sun card, which resembles security and our comfort zone. This is not an old snake skin that can passively shed–we must make the choice to release it. Fear or desire for safety keeps us holding on, but we have outgrown it, and it keeps us from stepping fully into the light of the Sun. Perhaps this something feels oppressive and bigger than the actions taken via the Two of Cups, due to systemic values, or the small seed promised with the Ace of Pentacles. But what we have to build is so much bigger, more glorious than what is already existing. The seed of love and commitment can sprout into a massive tree that far outgrows the wall that we currently think towers over it and keeps us in the shadows. Growth is a matter of trust, a collaborative process which requires sunlight, water, care and nourishment. This may feel vulnerable to depend on, but it will make us so much stronger than we were before. If we choose ourselves, we are advised to accept the healing power of rest and recovery. We will need to be in a rested state for what lies ahead in the Spring.
Shine a light,
Angel Intentions