1st - Beltane/May Day
11th - Mother’s Day
12th - Full Flower Moon in Scorpio
27th - New Moon in Gemini
28th - The Feast of Bendidia
The last of winter’s icy grip feels like a far away memory now, fully submerged in the light of the sun. Fiery flowers burst across the fields, setting everything in their wake alight. We are enlivened, awake and ready to greet what the day brings. We are ready to be seen and bear witness, to contain and be held. On May Day, the maiden-like May Queen ripe with possibility is coupled by the Green Man’s activating life force (viriditas). From the deepest well we are misted anew by youth. What has begun in April takes root, a flowering thing ready to reach into the earth. This represents the birth of something new–still in its infancy, walking with trembling steps and the need for its mother’s support. Maia, the goddess who May is named for, lends her motherly archetypal force to help us step into this role to protect our fledgling aspiration. Like a baby bird, it needs to stay in its nest while we seek out its sustenance. Our focus now should be on the nurturing, stabilizing and building up of its strength. It is a dream that can barely pry open its eyes. It’s incredibly important at this time to surround it with the right influences for its healthy formation. We must take care not to expose it to forces that would crush it before it takes flight.
On the 12th, we experience a Full Flower Moon in Scorpio, triggering our most ardent passions. We are encouraged to push past the limits of our comfort zones, allowing the fire to burn what no longer serves us and transform us in its light. On the 27th, the New Moon in Gemini invites us to reflect on our personal belongings and home space, such that our external refuge reflects who we are and what we want out of life. Finally on the 28th we experience “The Feast of Bendidia” held in honor of Bendis, Thracian goddess of the moon, underworld and nature–the cycles we must all go through. We are invited to embrace our current cycle as described in the paragraph above, for change is the only constant.
Below we use a 6-card cross by tarotteachings.com.
You: Reverse 10 of Cups
At present, you don’t feel that you and your gift are worth celebrating. Your gift is the calling you feel pulled toward–the one you’ve most wanted to express from your truest heart. Maybe you feel you haven’t cultivated it enough for others’ enjoyment, that what you have to offer isn’t good enough. This is a big disservice to yourself and your community, for there is much revelry and rejuvenation that could be had. The gift is at risk of pouring out of your cup entirely, while nine other communal cups are completely poured out and depleted. The right people, including yourself, in truth will greatly enjoy the much needed remedy that your gift can bring to the world. This can only be righted if we tap into our personal joy, and devote time and energy to the creation of the medicinal floral tonic that only we can make, from the beauty of our own being. We can find this beauty within the maiden archetype, bring it back to life with the Green Man, and restore and protect it with the mother archetype this month.
Issue: 6 of Wands
The current issue we are encountering is that we have assigned our success to a distant future contingent on communal encouragement and support to help fill our cup and provide us with the fuel we need to pursue our gift. We are passively waiting for an external condition that may not happen on its own, or at the very least that we have no control over. In so doing, we fail to notice all the ancestors that are behind us and supporting our cause. This is the support we must lean on, in order to work towards the Ten of Cups in the here and now. Further, we should not try to alter our gift into something more palatable simply because we think it will get us the validation we desire. We must be courageous and become willing to break new ground to better progress the collective. What we should seek are not accolades in and of themselves, but the new collective pathways that our heroic efforts provoke. If we are upsetting the status quo, we know we are pushing in the right direction.
Conscious: Reverse 7 of Swords
The “conscious” begs the question of how we are consciously contributing to situations presented in the cards above. Why are we putting the expression of the gift at the mercy of external validation, at the risk of it never coming to light? It may be that we have learned our own motivation seems unreliable, inconsistent and trustworthy. Perhaps we hold those around us in higher esteem. We must learn to cut ourselves free of this tendency, as well as older modes of thinking that no longer serve us, if we want to stop getting repeatedly stuck. The reverse seven of swords could also reflect a struggle with people pleasing and personal expression, both externally and internally. In order to carve out space for ourselves, it will be helpful to sort personal ideologies and values from systemic ideas, indoctrination and intergenerational trauma. Another reason we may be giving our power away is because we don’t want to take responsibility for our own fate, as that would mean that we are the only ones to blame. It is hard to acknowledge areas of personal neglect, poor choices, and not setting ourselves up for success. We would also have to analyze the influences that got us to develop this survival system–the places we may have been neglected, poorly directed, etc. We don’t want to feel like we’ve been exposing ourselves to the same treatment and thus the same cycle. It’s hard to overcome these painful truths, and there may be a part of ourselves that wants to spare us the struggle and the possibility for failure. But we can only get better by looking at these realities squarely in the face, taking risks, trying, failing, and learning lessons as a result. We have to cut loose from our old ways of thinking and operating if we want to see different results.
Subconscious: Ace of Pentacles
From a subconscious perspective, we don’t need to look outside ourselves to access our gift. The seed of untapped possibility lies within us, ready to be grown into a big strong tree that outlives us, though it’s not something anyone can see yet. We have everything we need to do this, to water this flower and watch it bloom. What we’re after is sturdy and sustainable, deeper than instant gratification culture, something that has potential to become a legacy. Rather than getting overwhelmed by what we’re hoping to create, we are reminded that we should focus on taking a single step. Then, we can work on repeating those single steps, making repeated decisions that we’d be proud to make each day, again and again. Now is all we’ll ever have - so what feels within reach right now? It’s okay to reach for what feels like the lowest hanging fruit. Whatever feels accessible to us now. It’s important to be compassionate and set ourselves up for success, rather than setting up goals that feel unattainable. If we want to push ourselves, it should be through incremental steps rather than huge leaps.
Limitation: Reverse King of Wands
Our limitation is our tendency to take on too much–piling everything on to our to-do lists and trying to do it all. We feel we can come at anything from an archetypal forceful masculine approach, using our willpower to get it all done. While this may pan out in the short run, this is not the sustainable approach that will help us to make the most of the Ace of Pentacles energy that we have available to us now. Instead, we should find out where we can free up some of our time and energy to dedicate to the development of our gift, to take small steps towards each day. We’ll want to think about small adjustments that we can commit to over a long period of time, as opposed to taking on a lot in one short burst. The good news is that this card signals that we feel the determination and motivation necessary to stoke the fire. If we can shift our mindset to making transformation over the course of a year, then we’ll be able to use the necessary pacing that our gift requires.
Outcome: Reverse World
If we wait on external validation and encouragement to follow through on our gift, we are going to find ourselves very disappointed. We will never act on it, or we’ll feel we acted too late, because we gave our power away. If we continue to insist on this approach, we will end up with the same discouraging results and sense of dissatisfaction as we always have. Nor will our gift flourish if we approach it from a militaristic standpoint of willing and forcing our way to a sense of success and accomplishment. Our life’s purpose and what the world needs at large can only be fulfilled when we find deep satisfaction in the work itself and release our attachment to the results. The work can be a reward in itself. We can only be satisfied if we know that we have truly committed and given this purpose our all. Key to our success is providing ourselves with the necessary structure and grounding, allowing ourselves to celebrate the little wins, and restoring ourselves with rest. The cyclical nature of the World allows us to try again, as we will always be encouraged to find our purpose.
Happy May,
Angel Intentions