1st - Crone Day
4th - Independence Day
5th - New Moon in Cancer
21st - Full Moon/Buck Moon
A Note: In June, I began my nomadic year of experience and reflection in search of a dream place to set my roots. The journey began in San Diego, California. I’d like to weave my experience of each place into my tarot writing, so I may share it with you, the reader. This month highlights the Osho Zen tarot deck, which is fitting, as it reminds me of the contemplation and tranquility I’ve experienced in the Japanese Friendship Garden and Museum near Balboa Park. In transit, I passed through the same kind of garden in San Jose, CA, and look forward to the next experience in the Portland Japanese Garden. I never knew how many could be found throughout the states, or even the world –how we are all universally in awe of the peace and beauty to be found there.
July is an introspective summer month, in which we have the opportunity to redefine how we relate to our internal sun, as it relates to the ego. In June, we experienced the heat of the summer day – the excitement in the first week of summer break. We had endless opportunities for activity–a vacation, a day on the beach with hot sand between the toes, rushing into the waves with friends, going on roller coasters, ice cream dripping off the cone and onto the hand. July in contrast is a cool summer night–the wind making itself known, a pulled up hoodie, a dark night with water feeling so cold to the feet–a sea lion, abandoned by its playmates, resting alone on the buoy. We must return home, and learn to slow our pace. July is the lull in summer break, when we must learn to occupy ourselves – with a hobby or a book, gardening or a creative pursuit. Our friends have all gone on a cross country trip, or a foreign country, or enrolled in a summer program. We must content ourselves with our own company or the spare visit to Grandmother’s house, as she knits,or tells old stories of wisdom. This is a time to seek and listen to inner wisdom as well. This month is also good for exploring independence - how to seek more of it, discovering what we can accomplish on our own, and how to celebrate it. With the upcoming New Moon in Cancer, we are encouraged to lean into the sensual, emotional, familial, and intuitive. Intense emotions are best channeled into showing care and understanding. Finally, with the Buck Moon, we will be entering a regenerative cycle, in regards to power, security, sexuality, and personal status.
Spread for this month: The Flying Bird
Like a bird taking flight, using the divine feminine and masculine as our wings, we can use the clarity gained from the reading below to lift us higher and higher, gaining greater vision of our internal and external state for the month ahead.
Here and Now - the “lift-off” card: Nine of Water - Laziness
~Summer Nights by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John~
This month, there is a distinction to be made between immersing ourselves in joyful abundance, and a complacent desire to stay in this space for the sake of comfort. We are encouraged to be fully present in this moment, and appreciate it all the more for its temporal nature. We are asked to get quiet and connect with the divine. Much hard work has been done on our part to get to where we are –we have finally arrived at the future we’d been longing for and manifesting. Recognize that this is it - we are living in a state of fulfillment. This fulfillment does not always necessarily come from having all the things we’d been vying for. Rather, we made space for it with a compassionate release of pressure on ourselves and became more present. This is when we can listen to the whispers of our internal knowledge: we can meet our authentic desires. We earned the fruit of our emotional labor and now we sink into the sensual.
However, blissfulness is not the final destination. We must be willing to move through it, lest we become like the Lotus Eaters in the Odyssey. Perhaps we built ourselves a cozy nest with all the finest things and want to stay in our comfort zone. We must shatter the illusion that keeps us dormant in peaceful apathy, that keeps us from caring for our practical concerns. This is but a stopping point on our journey. We were born to take flight, for there is more adventure that awaits us.
The Resistance Card - “fear of flying”: Four of Fire - Participation
~With a Little Help from my Friends, by the Beatles~
In the last card, we see a solitary figure and bird. Here, we see four figures sitting in a circle of giving and receiving. As the solitary figure, we are not accustomed to being a part of the flock after living in the nest so long. We may feel self conscious about our imperfect form, having not taken to the air in some time. Comparing ourselves to others more experienced than us makes us feel intimidated or shut down, and to prevent that we may be resistant to branching out from our safe and comfortable solitude. Participation could have burnt us in the past –an all give and no take environment, getting rejected or feeling not welcomed which solidified our concerns. Aside from rejection, we may also be afraid to celebrate ourselves where we’re at and put forward imperfect shares, not realizing that the whole flock benefits from joyous experience when we do. Participation could be seen as slowing down too much, but we need rest and integration after working hard on something.
There may be other causes at play – perhaps we want our triumph to remain our own, or to remain unchallenged so that we don’t have to leave our comfort zone. If we joined such a group, we would no longer be able to remain a spectator– we would have to become a participant in life. We would have to make the necessary changes that the group may otherwise hold us accountable for. Joining a flock would mean we really have to put forward the time, patience, and effort into a dedicated practice, instead of just dreaming about it.
Response-ability to the fear: King of Rainbows - Abundance
~She’s a Rainbow - The Rolling Stones~
It is our response-ability to balance the energies of resting in our comfort zone and challenging ourselves via external participation. Both these practices have something to contribute to the whole, though apart they make only half the picture, half a recipe. We have the ability to navigate both realities, as a worldly person rooted deep in spirituality. We can dress ourselves in silks and root ourselves to the ground through our bare feet. We can engage fully and sensually with our surroundings and appreciate the beauty, while maintaining a connection to the emotional, intuitive, and the divine. The lotus in our hands signifies our ability to rise from the mud unblemished and bloom. Even in a city it is important we step out into the natural world, and engage with all the colors of life. This balance makes us rich in body and in spirit, for a whole and holy experience.
Here is also where the Buck Moon can lend us a regenerative spirit. The elder king tells us to love deeply, hold onto our values, create while we can, and not let our fears keep us from taking flight. To fly means to take the necessary risks to live our lives well. We need to honor what is holy to us. The King of Rainbows teaches us that true security comes not from forever staying in the luxurious nest, nor on the Island of Lotus Eaters. We will face a different discomfort if we do –an unpleasant itch to do something, that grows into a deeper disappointment for not answering the call. Security and holiness come through participation, committing to life, to creativity. To let these sacred noble values give us the strength and courage needed to take that first step towards true abundance. Finally, the King’s Father Time energy teaches us How - we can slow down our flight, make careful considerations, protect our precious energy,and make any needed adjustments. We must learn to gain wisdom along the way, and stay disciplined in showing up consistently.
Inner Support (intuition) of responsibility: Page of Water - Understanding
~I Want to Break Free by Queen~
There is a bird within us –all this time we thought it was trapped in a cage. It has only just occurred to us, on an intuitive level, that the bars of this cage are illusory. It may have presented itself once as safety, but now it only keeps us from our calling. We see other birds flying free, beckoning us to do the same. Oh, how our bird longs to join them. When we start, we can approach our new and awkward flight with compassion and understanding. It takes time to get used to our wings, and progress may not always be linear. We may need to coax ourselves out at first, and break courage down into small manageable steps. Still, taking the first step is a necessary and fundamental shift to acquainting ourselves with the freedom we have all along. We may feel uncertain and self conscious at first, but soon we will taste thrill and adventure which will fuel our desire for more. Our hearts become light, and we can go to places that inspire us and bring us joy. We have to be open to finding not what we expect but what we need. The beauty of flight is not in the destination, but the journey itself–whether that be creating art or in your becoming. The wings of faith will help us navigate the intuitive and unknown. In doing so, our ideas of what is possible in our lives expands. The sky is endless. Our dreams are the compass.
External Support (intelligent action responding to intuition): Eight of Water - Letting Go
~Let Go by Frou Frou~
To facilitate flight, in addition to understanding we were never in a cage, we can let go of the things that cage us into our former identity. We have mastered what we could within our former circumstance, and there is nowhere to grow from here. Our inner bird wants to be continually surprised and challenged, to discover and learn. To do this, we must release ourselves into the unknown, towards which we are already falling. Let go and the infinite will catch us. We will soar into the world and expose ourselves to a multitude of perspectives and wisdoms, to which we find we contribute to as well. There is no greater or lesser being – we simply find we are part of the whole. There is a message here acknowledging the hard work we’ve done leading up to the Nine of Water lift-off card, from which we’ve begun. In our hyperproductive culture, Spirit reminds us that rest and recuperation are critical after a big effort, which includes the Letting Go. While doing so, we can stop to appreciate the fruits our labor has brought us and remind ourselves what it was all for. Integration and reward is a valid and important part of the journey, as we continue to make the necessary releases.
Relaxation and Acceptance: Six of Water - The Dream
~Dreams by Fleetwood Mac~
The Six of Water teaches us to relax and accept that we are the ultimate deciders of the direction and timing in which we take flight. We are our own pilot, and are more adept in manifesting our own dreams than we realize. This results in a journey that is perfectly tailored to our needs, adaptive to where we are and where we can meet them. No one else will know us as well as we do – only we know what makes our hearts sing, how to coax ourselves forward, when to take a step back or when to take a rest. This may initially dispel a fantasy we have around someone else coming into the picture to catalyze us, to fill in the missing pieces or remove our loneliness. In this card, the figure has their hands clasped, perhaps in a loose prayer to this illusion, but we empower ourselves when we turn that faith inwards. As the masterful granter of our own wishes, we can provide ourselves with the necessary change, solutions, self love or fulfillment.. The companionship we attract will flock to support us because of what we are actively manifesting, not the other way around. Dependence is not the key to real love–this comes from developing a rich inner self. This is powerful, because no one can take that away from us. The healing needed to address the points denoted in this reading can all be addressed from within: being told that our daydreaming and creativity was laziness, that our pursuit is unworthy of supportive participation and so we must go it alone, that we must exist in a binary structure that deprives us from take the necessary risks to live a whole and holy life, that we cannot break free, that we must retain a singular identity for life which keeps us holding onto the past. To supersede these messages, we must accept the inner child and give it what it needs. We may write letters to our past selves, leave healing offerings, sing, draw, or play –whatever it is that the inner child needs.
Arrival at New Level of Awareness: Five of Water - Clinging to the Past
~Pictures of You by the Cure~
The new level of awareness that will allow flight to occur is the realization that the only thing holding us back is the past we hold onto. The past plagues and riddles, entrapping us in old experiences. Old attachments and ways of thinking, including the cage we once thought trapped us, will not allow us to see and experience the abundance of the present. Staying in the past keeps us in a scarcity mindset, feeling like our memories are all we have left and that the best is behind is. Richness awaits at our fingertips, if only we can let go and turn around to see what beautiful gifts we can access. This epiphany is something we will feel in our hearts and in our bones, such that it becomes a knowledge that lives within us. There is so much magic that lies at our fingertips should we find the courage to let it all go. Our authentic desire will strengthen us to do so.
Letting go is a difficult but necessary process we can achieve by giving ourselves the permission, grace and understanding to fully grieve the things we've lost. Once we allow this, can hold a wake I which we can honor, thank, and celebrate. We can build a routine of care and comfort for ourselves, through a meditative, creative or physical practice. It is something we get better at the more consistently we practice. To grieve is to recognize we came with nothing, and will leave with nothing. It is a fundamental part of what it means to be alive. This truth can transform if we allow it. Even grief itself can be grieved and released. This is when we can seek the cup of renewal. When we release the past, we finally feel light enough to soar into the sky. We may find that beyond the fog is a beautiful rainbow.
-Angel Intentions
