Time to Emerge: A Collective Tarot Read for the New Moon, February 2021
Hello sweet friends! How are you doing? I meant to check in here since the last New Moon reading, to share some mid-cycle medicine, but alas I’ve been moving very slowly lately. I’ve been really deep in the winter lockdown vibes: less creative, more reflective, allowing things to unfold as they are ready. To be honest, I’m writing this on the morning of the New Moon, still unsure if I’m ready to emerge from my little bubble. And judging by the cards that came up, I may not be alone in these feels. But it is time to emerge, bbs. We’re past Imbolc, Lunar New Year is upon us, nature is telling us that the seeds of spring are bubbling under the surface, whether we can sense them yet or not.
There is some discomfort that is natural in this liminal time of late winter, and that certainly showed up in this month’s cards. While last month was all about rooting down into the present, it seems all this time to think has brought us up into our heads.
A Card for the New Moon: Eight of Swords
A Card for Alignment: Six of Swords
A Card for Release: Three of Swords
(Six of Swords pulled from the Sasuraibito Tarot)
Holy Air Energy, Batbabes! Not to mention, this New Moon falls in the air sign of Aquarius. Boy are we in it! So the work ahead of us is to process all this stuff swirling around our heads and move it through the body. While you might be feeling a lot right now - overwhelmed, stuck, a deep heart hurt, maybe all the above - this is a soft reminder that shifting perspective and taking the time to sit with difficult feelings can heal many many wounds.
First off, we have the Eight of Swords, a true intention-setting stalwart! I see this card show up in intention-setting readings All. The. Time. And of course it does! It’s all about the stories we tell ourselves that keep us stuck and living from a sense of fear. I always like to give a big disclaimer with this card, that the message isn’t “it’s all in your head”, because there are certainly very real constraints that shape our lives, from the personal to the structural. But there is always space to examine our relationship to these things, and ask ourselves if we’re giving them more power in our mind than they deserve. So the invitation here is to think about what it is you want in your life, and examine the internal dialogues that come up around that.
Put another way, what limiting beliefs are you carry around? A common example is the desire to start a meditation practice. You say “I want to meditate, but I’m too busy!” Well as the saying goes: you should meditate for twenty minutes a day, unless you’re busy, then you should meditate for one hour. I can promise you, no matter how busy you are, there are five, ten, or twenty minutes in your day that you can give to meditation. Next time you feel the pull to scroll through social media, instead take that time to meditate. While you brew your morning coffee, meditate. First thing when you wake up or last thing before you go to bed, meditate. There is time, you just have to do it. You just have to stop telling yourself there isn’t.
What is your intention for this moon cycle? What do you think is holding you back from achieving it? Is it something that can be fixed with a shift in perspective or not? You’ll be surprised how many things fall under the former. That doesn’t mean it’s easy - rewriting long-held internal narratives is hard and uncomfortable work - but it does mean that it is doable.
Which brings us to our card of alignment this month. The Six of Swords letting us know that this journey will be uncomfortable, but also totally worth it. Look at her, keeping her head above the water as best she can. But there is also surrender to the process, acceptance of the liminality in this moment of growth, the trust that she will emerge on the other side. Step one is recognizing the limiting, fear-based headspace we’ve been occupying. Then we venture out on the path of releasing the old stories, and steadily travelling towards our chosen destination. When you find yourself back up in your head, return to the body. Move, self-massage, breathe deeply, whatever brings you back to the physical self. From this place, examine what you’re thinking and feeling. What information can you gain about your process from this place?
We can cause ourselves so much pain. Sometimes it’s heartbreak, sometimes it’s betrayal. Sometimes it’s old wounds that we’re carrying around, stuffing down, ignoring and avoiding. Sometimes it’s the fear of pain itself that is causing us so much hurt. It keeps us from being present and truthful, from asking for what we want, from following our hearts. But we can’t begin to release our fear-based narrative without bumping up against some of our pain points. These things are intimately entwined. It’s time to start releasing these deep heart hurts we carry around: name them. look at them, process them, and set them free. That is the call: put down the pain that is weighing you down, release the fear of future pain. It is time to emerge.
