New Moon: 6th (Gemini)
Father’s Day: 16th
Summer Solstice: 20th
Full Moon: 21st (Strawberry Moon in Capricorn)
Midsummer: 24th
A note: the reading below will include messages channeled with the help of my Patron Tarot Guide Isadora, who I started working with in February. In Espiritismo, each individual is believed to have a set of spirit helpers, with one main guide. Also, in this deck, all color correspondences are in relation to the Seneca.
June - a taste as sweet as strawberries and honey. A crescendo of light, where the day grows increasingly long until the summer solstice, when the night grows longer. We start primarily with an active, outward growth and experience, and slowly pull deeper into the passive internal. In many ways, the energy of June offers an extension and culmination of the energies brought forth in April and May – spring cleaning, rebirth, fertility, and love. June, named after Juno, the protectress of marriage, fertility, rejuvenation, and women’s genius reinforces this.
This month favors late bloomers –a time when bluebells, roses, peonies, and lilacs burst open. There is still opportunity to experience all of these beautiful April and May energies, to decorate with flowers, to go barefoot in the dew of the Midsummer night and be blessed with good health. A Midsummer Night’s Dream presents itself as a time of magic and mystery, when true alignments and healing through joy and merriment can occur. The New Moon this month teaches us the art of communication via listening and waiting our turn to speak. June’s full moon, once named the Honey Moon, offers lovers a honeymoon like bliss. The strawberry in Greek and Roman culture symbolizes flirtatiousness, love, lust and romance and is associated with Aphrodite. However, since it was renamed per Native American harvesting of the fruit, it is more apt to look to the Cherokee story of the first strawberry, which was created to foster love, resolution and the recognition of how much one means to another.
Below, we’ll be using Jamie Sams’ Sacred Path oracle card, which she describes as “the discovery of the self through native teachings,” to explore the coming month. This choice is a bit of a love letter to Sedona, AZ, a place with native influence that has become dear to me, though I will have moved on to a nomadic lifestyle by the time this newsletter is published. The spread we will be using is called the Peace Tree spread, for those who may feel at odds with their environment or aspects of the Self.
Buried Talent: Council Fire ~The gift or ability you are not acknowledging, because you have not set your roots deep enough into Earth Mother~
Key Word: Decisions
Numerology: 24, choices
In the Sacred Path deck, all of the scenes are depicted on animal hide of various shades. Here we have a white hide, a color symbolizing clarity and magnetism. A council of natives wrapped in blankets sit on the earth around a bonfire. The council may represent our inner council of our various parts (internal family systems), or an external council around us. The fire exudes warmth and envelops us, while the earth keeps us grounded. Spirit wants us to know that we are supported in our decision making. The validity of our voice and experience has earned us a place at the council –ours is a sacred point of view as is our decision. When we consider all the possibilities and how our decisions affect others, then we have made an honorable decision. When we make a mistake, we can admit wrongdoing and make amends, for there is honor in willingness to change. It is an act of courage and keeps us in line with the right path. When making the decision we are advised to leave our troubles outside the circle, and bring in any talent for finding solutions. We have the ability and courage to make a decision and sit with it. When we are finished, we can end our sessions with prayer or gratitude.
Whether we are an elder giving guidance or a youth offering new ideas and creativity, we belong here. When in doubt, we must remember that we have run our ideas by others in our circle many times, taking into account their offered wisdom and perspectives. These people in our circle are good listeners, wise, diplomatic and communally supportive. We are a culmination of ancestral perspective and our circle–their wisdom resides within us.
My Patron Tarot Guide, Isadora, says: “Yours is a story that deserves to be told at the fire–make it a good one. Make it something you’re eager to share, that others can take stock in. You are a storyteller. Your words have power. They influence your reality. Your choices show what is possible, to self and others. It can heal, entertain, teach.”
Root: Medicine Bowl ~Strength to be gained, root of your new understanding~
Key word: Healing
Numerology: 31 - stability
On a pale yellow hide, a color symbolizing love, the Medicine Bowl card depicts a round bowl with a link pattern wrapping around its belly, with beads and feathers dangling from a string tied below its mouth. Poised beside it is a long bowl, which is used to fill with water to pour into the medicine bowl. A female Seer will gaze into the water, and use the reflection of firelight to create an image of the Void where the future lives, to help her and her tribe. Like the Seer, we are encouraged to tap into our clarity and focus, so we may seek the wisdom of the Void and interpret it through silent vigil. We can access it through smoke, dreams, scrying and more. In seeking answers, we must be open to what the future brings. Healing awaits. We can pay attention to the events in our lives and express gratitude for the healings that manifest themselves in our lives. These can be big, but most often they occur in small releases. We can become conscious observers of our shifts in attitude, new sense of well-being, and understand healing as it presents itself. We assist our future, beyond the Void, to heal our present selves.
The medicine bowl encourages us to get in touch with our internal healing, which is always available to us. It is communal, holistic, and most powerfully accessed via the Divine feminine. It is this side that can best access the cyclical, liminal spaces needed to do this work.
From my Patron Tarot Guide Isadora: “Go into your darkness without fear. Navigate these cycles–everything is happening in just the right time, your time. Everything is being prepared for you just as you need it, customized in every possible way, to facilitate your particular healing and goals. You will find what you have been looking for. What you need to stimulate, prompt, clear, navigate and co create with body and spirit.”
Trunk: Cradleboard ~The lesson to be applied to physical body and sense of Self, to walk tall~
Key phrase: Ability to respond
Numerology: 27 - internal voyage
In this card, we see a smiling baby content inside a beautifully decorated and wellmade cradleboard, depicted on a white backdrop of fresh potential. In native culture, it is natural to move with the seasons. This reflects the value of adaptability, and the belief that “our purpose in life is growth, understanding, and living in harmony.” We can respond to the past, present and future –to ancestral wisdom, to the beauty in each moment, the survival and wellbeing of future generations respectively. We are meant to use our gifts for collective good, and understand that our current thoughts and actions will affect the future. Hence we must take responsibility for them, and respond now. Our warrior side will provide us with the needed courage. We can use our creativity and speak the truth to respond. We have a duty to find our answers and act upon them with our personal medicine in such a way that promotes growth.
A message from Isadora: “Your cradleboard looks like a moccasin. It fits like a glove. Inside, you feel warm, comfortable, safe, protected, and tended to. Imagine it around you. Care was put into your comfort, wellbeing, everything just right for you and your future. You are just right. There is a place for you, that belongs to just you. Your ability to respond and the way you respond are just right for you. This is exactly the response that is needed from you. To pave the way for others like you, though of course they have their own cradleboard to take care of. The collective future wellbeing belongs to you as well. You benefit from it and pass it on.”
Branch: Power Place ~Ways you might be limiting your joy, or adjustments needed to reach further and touch the place you seek~
Key words: Earth-Connection/Empowerment
Numerology: 16, work/will
In the Power Place card, we see a gold hide background, which serves as the color of the sky. In this place, we find love and enlightenment. The blue-tinged clouds look like gentle ocean waves with soft white foam floating in the sky. A pair of birds grace the sky, a symbol of freedom. Below is a vista of a southwestern landscape with tall red rock formations symbolic of faith, reaching to their highest heights. The ground is a field of red soil, where patches of desert flowers grow. Jamie Sams describes a power place as “a place of solace to seek at one-ment with themselves or the Great Mystery.” It is a place of concentrated energy where a strong connection can be felt. We can also seek the places we are drawn to, and make them places of power by praying there. In vision quest, this energy can be summoned through singing, drumming or active ceremony. We can reconnect through joy and celebration, and acknowledge our gifts with gratitude.
Per Sams, “Earth-connection gives the energy needed to use our natural gifts, abilities and talents; without it many plans and dreams will vanish, for they have no manner in which to manifest.” When we seek this Earth-connection, we need to let go of our limiting ideas in order to feel her nurturing, which will allow for self discovery. We can become catalyzers using our creativity and create our desired outcome by allowing Earth mother to feed it voltage. This way, our needs will be met, through personal empowerment.
Isadora says: “Reach for the highest heights and ask yourself what makes you soar? What makes you bloom and collect harvest? Where do you thrive, find healing, peace and connection? What do you connect with? Where could you lose yourself and seek solitary connection with nature, to learn and communicate with her? What land feels supportive of your goals? Earth meets your needs, you respect and meet hers. In giving and receiving, you become a conduit.
Father Sky: Talking Stick ~the personal freedom you can gain~
Key words: Viewpoints/Options
Numerology: 15, choices
It feels as though the reading has brought us full circle from the beginning - from the Council of Fire congregation, to the Talking Stick used to speak there. On a yellow hide, an outstretched hand grips a white-barked talking stick, decorated with a bit of colored paint, strips of leather, feathers, and beads. The way the top fingers are positioned may even seem like they are playing a flute. The talking stick reminds us that we take turns to share our sacred points of view, and teaches us to value each. Thus, everyone must listen carefully. When making a talking stick, the individual must decide which tree, colors, and feathers will assist one’s needs and add the needed medicine to facilitate communication. In Council, listening to the wisdom and teachings of others will allow us to relate in a new way with them. We learn how to listen and apply what we hear, and not to interrupt those who are sharing their wisdom. We are shown that life has countless options and answers to any dilemma, which allows us to see where we may have stagnated within our own echochamber. The talking stick allows us to open up and hear what opportunities are coming our way, the alternative routes we could grow through. We are encouraged now to use this gift.
A channeled message: You have the power to lift your talking stick into the sky – “I speak!” The wood is a conduit of power and healing. There is pleasure to be found in giving voice empowerment. Like a flute, its use can guide, or it can form one part of a greater musical ensemble. There can be pleasure in learning to play and having an effect, as well as learning to listen, wait, and play a role in a greater piece. It is part of a discussion, conversation, and communion. Learning to be part of a formative group. This process involves learning strength and empowerment, and staying informed. One can speak because one has integrated and listened. You are, aside from the Self, a sum of many voices, a choir, a collective that lives within you and you are speaking on their behalf. In a Council of Fire you are in the presence of many collectives. One hand reaches up, as does its voice. Gratitude can be found for holding space for others because it is reciprocal. Coming back to the community and speaking as a voice can be a uniting force. I have traveled, I have come back, I have something to say. Let’s all learn together. We can share our findings, revelations, and shine.
