225. MONTHLY MEDICINE: May is Reclaiming
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Happy Beltane/Samhain, and welcome to a new month, loves!
Air date:
May 1, 2023
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About the Episode
Happy Beltane/Samhain, and welcome to a new month, loves! The theme for May 2023 is Reclaiming. We are being invited to call all of ourselves back, to release and let go of everything that we have outgrown -- especially in the realm of our service, our energy, and our creation. With the help of King of Cups, our Anchor Card for the Month of May, we will work to gently discover where we might recalibrate our energy, reflect on what is ready to be composted, and plant seeds for a new, more balanced future.
Plus, we answer a listener's question about how to work with "positive" cards that come up around what we're ready to release in a reading.
Lindsay’s Links:
Download the FREE Ultimate Soul Tarot Card Guide here!
Got Q's for the podcast? Ask them here!
Help Turkey and Syria:
https://www.akut.org.tr/en/donation
Defend the Atlanta Forest and Stop Cop City!
https://defendtheatlantaforest.org
Support Iran:
Thank you to Ariana (@azadi.times.three) for sharing these with us!
1. Center for Human Rights in Iran (based in NY, provides news and in-depth reports on human rights abuses in Iran)
2. How to Talk About Iran (a living document from the Iranian Diaspora Collective on Instagram)
3. Persians With Purpose (Educational content, news translated to English, and other Iran resources on Instagram)
Land Acknowledgement
Honoring and acknowledging that this podcast episode was recorded on the unceded land of The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, currently called Portland, OR, with the deepest respect to the Kalapuya Tribe, Cowlitz Tribe, and Atfalati Tribe.
Please Note
CW Tags: illness, health issues and diagnosis, systemic oppression, privilege, economic despair, challenges around parenthood, environmental degradation/climate crisis, relationship to body, and unpaid labor
The content in this episode contains references to mentions of illness, health issues and diagnosis, systemic oppression, privilege, economic despair, challenges around parenthood, environmental degradation/climate crisis, relationship to body, and unpaid labor. We have done our best to identify difficult subject matter, but the labels may not be comprehensive for your personal needs. Please honor your knowing and proceed with necessary self-awareness and care.
Transcript
[Introduction]
[0:00:00]
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Hello listeners of Tarot for the Wild Soul podcast! This message, this intro goes out to you. Based on your feedback, based on some pretty popular demand, I have decided—and I'm very excited to announce—that I will be offering my first ever podcast-centered live via Zoom community meetup/Q&A (Lindsay laughs) with me, called Soul Tarot Together. So if you are interested in kind of virtually connecting with your fellow listeners or with folks who are also on kind of a Soul Tarot learning path, I would absolutely love to connect with you, to be gathering with you, and if it goes well, we'll do it every month, maybe even more than once a month.
So okay, here are the details: the first Soul Tarot Together gathering is going to be happening Friday, May 12th, from 11:30 to 1:30pm Pacific Standard Time, and it's just 25 bucks. And for that, you get two hours with me. I'll start it off with a little bit of a lesson or an Anchor point or an Anchor Card. I will likely work/coach, answer someone's question in a very similar fashion than I do on the podcast and you'll get to watch that live. And then we'll do breakout rooms to chat, we'll do guided card pulls, I'll answer a couple more questions and that'll be it.
And then maybe at some point, we'll do kind of a different version of it, where it's like pulling and practicing and working through our pulls and making sense of them. Either way, I'm just so fucking excited honestly, to connect with this community, at hopefully a very inclusive price point. We also have sponsorship opportunities, if the $25 feels out of access for you. So to find out more about that and to join us—which I really really hope you do for our first one—you can go to the link in the show notes. Love y'all. Thanks for being here
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[0:02:21]
Welcome to Tarot for the Wild Soul, a podcast that explores the Tarot through an inclusive, soul centered, trauma informed perspective for growth, healing, and evolution. I'm your host, Lindsay Mack.
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Hello loves and welcome to a brand new episode of Tarot for the Wild Soul podcast, wishing all of you a very beautiful start to your month. Happy Beltane, for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. Happy Samhain, for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere. May is like November 1st/October 31st-ish. This Beltane/Samhain portal is just one of the most, in my opinion, delicious times on the Wheel of the Year. And so I could not be more delighted, more honored, more excited to be gathered with all of you in this virtual space.
So in brief, you know, because (Lindsay laughs) we have a lot to get to today. But in brief, Beltane and Samhain are two of our cross-quarters of the year—we have four in the flow of the year. And for those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere today is Beltane and again, on the Southern Hemisphere, thats Samhain—and I think it's really powerful. I talk about this a lot, and it's just one of my biggest points of ethos and passion that I mean, it's part of the way I teach Tarot—like we can't ever talk about birth, right? Rebirth without speaking about and honoring death. So these cross-quarters, acknowledging that the world can like simultaneously hold Beltane and Samhain in one breath, in one day, and one moment, I think is a really beautiful analogy, and example for all of us about what it is to kind of hold the medicine of duality.
So while those of us in the Northern Hemisphere are sort of honoring and considering Beltane, maybe some of you listening are like, “I don't care about Beltane,” or “I don't know anything about Beltane,” I think that’s fine, I'm going to spend all of two seconds on it. I just think it's lovely to think about that. And also for those of us who kind of are aware of Beltane, we're also kind of going through Samhain too—even though that's not our main focus—because you cannot have one without the other. And the same goes for the Southern Hemisphere folks in the kind of opposite end.
[0:05:06]
So Beltane represents the midway point, the peak point of Spring—not that you know it here in the Pacific Northwest, it's the grayest season, grayest time without sun that we've had in like, I think it's been either 40 years or 60 years. It's been pretty brutal, although I am grateful not to be… grateful for rain, obviously grateful for water here, on this land. But it doesn't feel much like Spring (Lindsay laughs), where I am in the Northern Hemisphere, but I know that's like a personal thing.
But it's the highest peak point of Spring. Beltane marks that. It marks the midway point between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice. So in many ways the cross-quarters, which are Imbolc, Beltane, Samhain, Lughnasadh—it's a little bit out of order, Lughnasadh comes before Samhain here in the northern hemisphere, but you get the point. All represent that high point, that peak point, the midway point, between one Equinox and one Solstice or one Solstice and one Equinox.
So the cross-quarters were actually even more so—historical records show, even more than the Solstices, more than the Equinoxes—these dates on the Wheel of the Year, these cross-quarters, were celebrated by folks in the Celtic region of the world and they were fire festivals. They were festivals where protection was put over homes and livestock and lands and fields, folks’ children. There are obviously fire festivals that focus on, you know more of the cleansing piece and like clearing out the house and some have to do with slaughtering livestock or you know harvesting what is growing in the field. Beltane specifically is the biggest one that has to do with fire. This is the fire festival, historically, and was highly associated with fertility. Highly associated, like this was the time when things were lush, when flowers were blooming, when everything was kind of riotously, you know, there's color, there's beautiful scent in the air.
So Beltane is a really rich and beautiful time to just think about, in general, pleasure. To think about planting seeds, to think about what feels fertile—if anything does at all. And maybe even to go past the expectation of the feeling, like of juiciness or fertility. And to really move into a space of openness to that idea. Like may be we're feeling kind of kind of gloomy or glum about things, and we're not feeling super fertile. Maybe, or maybe that word “fertile” is feeling a little sensitive right now, you know? What is delicious in our life? We don't have to feel good about it. We don't have to feel excited. But like what, you know, is there anything—maybe even beyond what we're thinking or our perception of it? Like, what is the seed that we're planting in our life right now?
I mentioned at the last podcast episode, I received some pretty heavy-duty health news, and that I'm totally okay. But the health news was serious enough to kind of warrant a top-down number of lifestyle changes, kind of overnight. Which has been a bit whirlwind-y and a bit intense. So that's what comes up for me when I think about this time of planting seeds and a fertile soil in my life—like this is very much like a new, tender open time, where I don't necessarily feel like excited or like great about it all, but I'm like, “Okay, you know, this is what my body needs, and how privileged am I to be able to, in some ways, like, move very quickly toward a lifestyle change. And in other ways plot my next move toward a lifestyle change; like be in the process of.”
[0:09:42]
So I just wanted to provide that as an example of something in my life that is very much in like the seed planting phase, but doesn't feel like very sexy (Lindsay laughs) if that makes sense. Or like exciting, even though I recognize the blessings and privileges with getting a diagnosis and actually being able to do something about it. So many people do not have that.
So yeah, Beltane only comes when we’re in Taurus season, of course, only comes when we're in Taurus season. So there is a natural correspondence to The Hierophant to The Empress. Hierophant, very interesting. I once had a very dear friend of mine reflect that in some of the kind of ceremonies or festivals that they had attended in their life, as a queer person, that had kind of a, you know, that happened around Beltane there was a lot of beautiful dress and different costuming and like there is something very interesting reflecting on the idea of the Hierophant in the Smith-Rider-Waite wearing like very elaborate robes. So there's a piece to that that really felt impactful to them about the connection of Hierophant to Beltane. As just kind of a big marker point on the Wheel of the Year.
I do connect this cross-quarter personally with Empress. It's Empress all the way. Beltane is like, “Taste the beautiful fruit of early, you know, of the peak of Spring. Smell the flowers, like have an orgasm if you want to, or if you can, like touch your skin, like feel the sun on yourself.” Like whatever of that or outside of that feels like just pure, delicious pleasure because some of those things that I mentioned might not feel like a gateway to pleasure for you. Empress is about like “We deserve it. Period.” You don't have to prove it. There's no sin to clear out, there's nothing to clean up. Like you're worthy, you're deserving, your body is sacred and delicious, and is an animal that deserves to be adored, loved, and just feeling as good as possible.
So I think Beltane is such a nice reminder of that and it's always so nice to go into a month, on a cross-quarter. I personally just really love that about any month that starts on the cross-quarter. So very much a time of new life, new birth, beauty and in the Southern Hemisphere, everything is kind of wrapping up with Samhain. And yet, there cannot be a riotous, beautiful, colorful birth without some kind of death. And there can't be a death without rebirth on the other end of the spiral. So we're both really moving through different thresholds. But coming to the same end, if that makes sense.
[0:13:13]
So, we are gathered here together (Lindsay laughs) to dive into the medicine for the month of May. So May, very, very interesting. So we are tinkering in May, we're doing, we're getting underneath the car, the cosmic car, and we're getting in there with our tools. And we're kind of cleaning things up, fixing things that have needed some fixing, some realignings, some straightening out, some loving care—for quite some time. I'm seeing this and feeling this as being extremely broad. This might be around your body, your health, your wellness, this might be around like, your literal house—if there's been like repairs needed, if you've needed to, like, clear out something in the garage—you know, whatever, if you need to get your taxes done. May really hold that bigness, that spaciousness, that it's all the conditions are right energetically to kind of fire on all cylinders, in the direction of that.
The other piece around here that I think is very important, is that on May 16th—which is you know, two weeks away, so it's not here, but I do think before transits happen, we do tend to feel them building up, you know—we're both edging out of eclipse season at the start of May. So in about five days, we'll have our Full Moon Lunar Eclipse, and that will kind of start edging us out of Eclipse energy. And then on May 16th, Jupiter moves into Taurus. So it's one of the, I think, one of the most significant transits of the year, it maybe more of a midline significant transit (Lindsay laughs, as compared to like, Pluto moving into Aquarius. But I actually think in some ways Jupiter moving into Taurus might even be more impactful than that Pluto transit because Pluto moved into Aquarius a while ago but we feel Jupiter, right? Like Jupiter has to do with the way we work, we create, we are—our link to flow and to abundance and to creation—it's like the way we are connected to one might say like our “fortune” or you know, whatever the fuck.
I say, that Jupiter as connected to Wheel of Fortune, is really how we are in connection with Spirit, and in that kind of exchange of being in really healthy alignment with knowing where we're being called to take kind of freewill action steps and where we're being called to surrender. I think we really learned that in Wheel of Fortune and then we kind of double down on it in Temperance, if we're talking about Tarot—which makes sense because Temperance is ruled by Sagittarius, which is connected to Jupiter as well. So, the two of them are really kind of building on one another in much the same way, by the way, that a card like The High Priestess, which is ruled by the moon, is connected to The Moon card itself, which is ruled by Pisces. Or in the same way that The Tethered One, which is ruled by Neptune, is really closely bonded with The Moon card, which is ruled by Pisces, because Neptune and Pisces are connected.
Tethered One and The Moon are not the same, but they are in the same kind of family of harmonics and that's the exact same idea with Wheel of Fortune and Temperance. So we can think about Wheel of Fortune and Temperance kind of moving into Taurus. So this idea of like, again, planting some really great seeds that are gonna really serve us for a while. If you've been finding yourself thinking about like, longevity, taking care of your future, building more stable ground around you, maybe around your finances, or your or your whatever, right? Like all of that is Jupiter in Taurus. And while we're not in it, I believe we're feeling it and we're moving into the month of May right on the tail end of our Eclipse Season preparing to move into our Full Moon, Lunar Eclipse, which kind of starts the denouement of that particular transit.
So the energetics of May are very interesting because that idea of like, tinkering and dealing with the stuff that needs to be dealt with is both very uniquely, Eclipse energy—like because Eclipse energy is very much about surrendering to what we're handed. Like, the eclipses show us what needs to be excavated, processed, cleared, and I actually think so does Jupiter by way of Wheel of Fortune. Like, in my experience, when I pull Wheel of Fortune, I usually have some really big questions and concerns about outcome in my life. And that card is typically, and for my clients, too, is typically a heads up like, “Hey, you're not going to know the outcome. Outcome isn't even fixed yet. What do you have to work with and deal with right in front of you? What needs your attention right this very moment? What dishes need to be washed? Where can you put your attention, your time, your focus, your energy, in the minutiae, in the moment to moment, while we work on kind of the larger picture? The only thing you have to do is what's right in front of you.”
[0:19:12]
That energy is sort of a part of May as a whole: like keeping your eyes on your own paper, paying attention to your own shit, doing your own thing. And the theme of the month of May is reclaiming. And what we're doing inside of that reclamation process is we are taking an inventory of all the places where we’ve really scattered our energy out, given things away, maybe price things too low, price things—I don't know if it's there's a too high, but like, maybe not had total, like alignment with our pricing, so there's been like weirdness there. I would say, for the most part, that's pricing our services too low because we're really giving our energy away and not really receiving much in return.
There's a kind of a, not from an energy of like grasping or entitlement but there's an energy of like dignity in this idea of reclaiming. And I would say that could lend itself also to redistributing, especially for those of us who benefit from systemic privileges. This also, when we reclaim the fullness of our energy, and are not leaking it or not giving it away in ways that are not really in alignment for us—there's a lot more solidity and a lot more clarity about where we can distribute. Maybe inside of increasing our prices, we actually have a sponsorship rate so folks who benefit from privilege can pay a higher rate that allows other folks who are maybe struggling or do not benefit from system privilege, to be able to get a more easeful you know, enrollment rate, or a completely free enrollment rate. That example (Lindsay laughs) corresponds to like such a small population of us but I think it's a good example to show that when we reclaim and when we're really, really rooted in the fullness of our own energy, when we've kind of identified like, “There are a lot of areas where I might be getting scattered, I might be scattering myself,” there can be a very big kind of “leveling up” for lack of a better word, where we can think more clearly, there's a lot more that is, you know, of value to us. It really does shift things. When we sort of reclaim and recalibrate.
The only way to really reclaim that energy, that time, that, you know, however, that shows up for you—the only way to really do that kind of reclaiming and re-centering process, because this really is a month of very big top-down changes and changes that are starting internally and then flowing out to the external—the only way to really do that is to be under that cosmic car, looking at everything under the hood and everything under the car. Like, that's really the only way, is to really see like, “Oh, wow, you know, okay, by doing this, it's really been creating this kind of pattern. And I did that to begin with because I was scared or because I thought I had to, or because I didn't have anything better, there was no other way for me at the time.”
So all of those kind of review processes are coming up for us this May. Where we actually get to show up as kind of our inner parent and say, “Absolutely, that's true, like, we did have to make these changes, these decisions because of this, but maybe it's different now. Maybe we don't have to do that.” So that's, there's a lot of like, taking care of our business, you know, in May. Like taking care of us, of our health and well being, of our money, of our homes, of our cars, of our children, of like—there's a lot of like, good, deep, yeah, deep, deep tending. And a lot of that, we'll be able to come forward more, when there is this calling back of things that we're just not meant to do anymore. You know, when we're very clear about like, well, “This thing is complete, this sort of dance, this waste of my time or energy,” or “This thing, that was not a waste, but now is like completely outlived its purpose. I can refuel, I can refill my well.”
[0:24:04]
So we're going to be challenged a little bit, I think to be way more expansive and flexible and daring to be considerate of our own needs inside of how we serve others. And, you know, part of that is, again, that reclamation. We’re reclaiming time and energy and effort and a lot that has been sent out without enough to kind of compensate it. Obviously, this isn't universal. There's so many people who have suffered so significantly, giving a tremendous amount of energy and time and nothing comes back from it. In fact, they're really robbed of it. And there's no way to kind of heal that. But there can be an energetic calling back and energetic acknowledging.
So in one way, in one small way, and some, you know, maybe several big ways this is where the focus is kind of going to be this month. And it's matching this kind of huge, collective, universal rebalancing of energies as we continue to live on a planet that is incapable of sustaining us as a species because we are destroying it. So we're doing the internal work that is matching the efforts of the planet to rebalance and attempt to regulate in the midst of a lot of chaos. So it's not about perfection. It's not about everything being “right”. It's a symbolic calling back and a symbolic acknowledging like, “This didn't get appreciated, this didn't get acknowledged. This part of me was really taxed, really drained. Maybe I didn't know it, maybe I did. Maybe I was waiting for another person to acknowledge it,” whatever the situation is. That kind of personal ritual or ceremony of saying, “Wow, this happened and it was really hard. And to the best of my ability, I'd like to go about reframing it, changing it, shifting it in some way.” That's, that's kind of the high theme of the month.
Our card for the month of May is King of Cups. This is exactly akin, exactly aligned to this idea of reclaiming. The Kings of the Tarot, in Soul Tarot, are aligned leaders, they represent aligned leadership. All of us are leaders. If you have children, if you're a teacher, if you're a moderator, if you're like (Lindsay laughs), all of us have the capacity to work with our own personal power and to direct that sacred power in the direction of good and of highest and best for all. And we cannot be aligned leaders if there is not some kind of reflection point about what we need.
Now, some of us are doing this, especially, parents without help, without support, without spouse, without childcare; I see you, I do. 100%. I'm not telling you to do more. We get, because again, this is everybody who has their own business, who's the boss, who—like, I mentioned, that parenthood piece along with the other ones because collective leadership is universal and I believe something that we all have access to and because the idea of leadership is touted as somebody who's in charge or in control, or someone with kind of all the power, there's always a hierarchy there. I really like to think of The Kings as being about our personal relationship with aligned leadership, because we all have that capacity to be of highest service to whoever is around us, right?
[0:28:11]
King of Cups, more than any of the Kings, is about how are you serving yourself as a leader? How are you taking care of your body, your spirit, your heart? How do you serve yourself? How do you get served, through your service, or in spite of your service? Like what needs to happen in order for your cup to be fuller? So again, many of us are working with a very empty cup, or a slightly less than empty cup and there are really strong systemic reasons for that. And that's not anything that any one of our personal efforts can ultimately combat, right, all on our own.
This though, is a quieter, gentler questioning of what just helps make you feel good. It doesn't need you know, it's not going to take away the fact maybe that you're exhausted, maybe won't take the fact away that you're enraged. What helps you to feel better? Like a human, like a person? What helps you to feel fuller? You know, like, your cup is fuller—not just so you can serve others, but so you can be nourished, along with the people you serve? It's a tender question. Because I know, in my experience, sometimes I've gotten this card, and I've been like, I don't even have the fucking time to think about this, much less do anything about it, like, in certain seasons of my life.
We can be gentle and really small and very subtle with this question. And remember, this is less about a personal calling out—there's no call out here (Lindsay laughs), you know, or call in or however you want to frame it—and more about a universal collective invitation to think about, for all of us to think about collectively. What is our relationship? What is the give and take? What you know, how, what are our boundaries look like? What does our work-life balance look like? It sounds very cheesy and overdone but it is—whenever King of Cups comes up, it's a reminder, like, for every cup you give from your own cup, you have to be able to drink a cup in turn, at least attempt to.
So it might not feel great, it might not feel sexy, it might not feel wonderous, or particularly relaxing. But if you know it fuels your tank, how could you be or feel more supported in doing that, in reaching for that? How might we make those things even more accessible for you? So that's one of the big questions with this month, this energy.
[0:30:56]
What this card, and what King of Cups and what this idea of reclaiming energy, making these changes—what it's helping us to work on is Seven of Pentacles reversed and Six of Cups reversed. So many of us feel a sense of impatience, across the board, with systems changing, with justice being served, with—we're impatient. We've waited, many of us have just been waiting, waiting waiting for answers, for clarity. There's something inside of the month of May that is starting to shift something. There's been little bits of this along the way, little shifts leading toward a better world, leading toward some kind of clarity, some kind of sense of—because we're living in profoundly confusing times right now. I mean, the murkiest of the foggiest of times. It's a very strange time in the world right now because a lot is unclear and a lot is not fixed and things are changing from moment to moment, quite literally.
So we are also feeling that personally where, like, I mean, I have not been able, and essentially, because I have a kid, it's kind of everyone I know, I have not been able to nail down a solid plan for a single offering, travel date, whatever—and it’s not because things aren't coming through, it's that they'll come through, be very clear, and then totally change, which is new. You know, it's very new. So there's something in that that's getting maybe a little bit eased up this month, or at least clarified as to why. So there's, there's that piece that King of Cups is really going to help us with, is that sense of like, “Why the fuck is this. So unclear. It’s taking so long,” or whatever it is.
And Six of Cups reversed, I think this isn't normally what the card means but there's something in here that has to do with making amends to ourselves. It's a little bit of a different tone than Seven of Pentacles reversed, but there's something in Six of Cups reversed, that has to do with opening our hearts back up to ourselves in some way that we've maybe closed them. So if we've been harsh with ourselves, hard with ourselves, forcing something, making ourselves do things that—I mean, all of us do have to do stuff we don't like to do, we don't enjoy. But if there's something that's actively been like, forcing, like, “You have to do this.” And our soul, it's just not a match (Lindsay laughs) like for our soul. Six of Cups has to do with a reparenting, with a repair to that inner child, with an opening of the heart and expansion of the heart.
And that also leads me back to what I was saying about redistribution as an end result of re-reclamation. Because when the heart is open, when we're honest with ourselves, and when there is a potential of a shifting or a pivoting, based on something that we've realized we've been giving away, and it's really draining us out. From there, there is an expansion of the heart. When we come to that space of honesty and clarity with ourselves. We can say like, “Wow, this totally changes what I've been working toward or wanting how I've been wanting it.” And we make amends with ourselves, we actually say, “Look, I'm so sorry, you've been definitely telling me you did not want this and I have been actively pushing that away. And I see that and I'm so sorry. And I want to repair that with you.”
[0:35:08]
The more we do that with us, the more willing and able we are to do that with others. And the more able we are to be aware of that sense of, of redistribution and reputational care outside of us, you know? So it has very far-reaching, this personal work is very Star card-like. Like, it's like we do the personal work so everyone in the world can be served. So it's helping us to work on this King of Cups work around freeing up these blocks and impatiences that we've been feeling and kind of bringing us closer to ourselves.
What we're being invited to offer our attention to around this work is King of Swords reversed. So what are we nervous or afraid to not say? What words what communications have we been holding on to? What have we been nervous to admit? Speak on it. Obviously, if it's going to ruin someone's life, or if it's horrible, or if it's, you know, harmful—don't (Lindsay laughs), you know? But if it's like, I'm not in love with this person, you know? At least consider the idea of maybe mentioning it to a therapist. Maybe I mean, that's bizarrely, like that example, I don't know is super helpful (Lindsay laughs). But like, the idea of the thing that we might be so afraid to say, in the right situation, might be exactly what we need. The minute we say it, we might realize, like, “Oh my gosh, no, it's that I'm not getting time for myself,” or, you know, “I love somebody else,” or like what, you know, whatever it is.
Those are heavy-duty things but for some of us, it might be like, you know, for so many people like the economy has been incredibly, incredibly challenging. So like, dropping a facade and just being like, “This is really hard.” Like, we're all being invited to kind of be a lot more, just kind of honest, upfront, transparent. I think that all has to do with King of Swords reversed because the moment we're honest, the moment we speak that hard thing, there's usually a lot of broken curses and a lot of freedom that come with it.
What we're letting go of is Nine of Swords reversed, so old fears, old worries, old what ifs—there's kind of an energy here of like, just try a new thing and like, see what comes of it. Because the more we stay stuck in this realm of like, analysis-paralysis, or unknowns, or kind of like, “I could do this but I could also do that.” It's not to say that there aren't some things that really warrant that really important time and space to really, really figure out what the right thing is. This is not that. (Lindsay laughs) This is like, the thing that we absolutely know—like, in fact, what I'm kind of getting for this month, to a certain extent, obviously, this won't be true for everybody. For some folks, it is actually really important to kind of not do you know, the thing that we're waffling about, or to touch in with someone before we potentially do something destructive or really risky.
[0:38:39]
But if we're like, the thing in general that we're most resistant to and kind of like, “Well I don’t wanna,” you know, whatever—is really the thing to kind of get curious about. And the thing to potentially, depending on the person in the situation, take a brave willing leap into because you're never going to know unless you try it. So Nine of Swords kind of is another sort of curse breaker in that way where it takes the fears that keep us really locked in an action and kind of goes, “You have nothing to worry about here. Like you can try it, if it doesn't work, you can just not do it, you know?” Or, depending on what it is, again, because there's some things that are not that simple. Taking a different perspective with the stuff we're afraid of, and not letting fear stand in the way of a big leap is what we're letting go of this month.
What we're welcoming in is Four of Swords, the more we reclaim, the more we tend to ourselves, the more we're honest about what we need; the more there can actually be some space for rest, for true rest. Maybe not even sleep but the ability to quiet some part of the mind that is just a little bit too loud, is taking up just a little bit too much space. So if there's any part of us, that's any area of life where the brain is just so loud, and so bossy and so like, “I told you, this is true, you shouldn't do this,” you know, whatever. We are welcoming in this month, the medicine, of Four of Swords: being able to, through taking different action, through inventory, through reclamation, through review, through really that kind of cosmic car work, car repair, to be able to say “Actually, no, I am going to try this, this, and this.” And by trying something different, it can actually prove something completely different to the mind in and of itself. So that is what we're welcoming in. And that is the core of the work that we're being invited to do this month. So I'm excited to see how it shows up and how it you know, kind of lends itself to you know what may happen this month. But I'll be right there alongside ya, and it'll be fun to figure it out together.
And we're going to complete this episode with a listener question as we always do. And this one is from Minnie. Minnie asks,
Hello Lindsay, first I want to thank you so much for creating the podcast and all the beautiful courses that I find really helpful while learning Tarot on my healing journey.
Thank you, Minnie.
I know that in Soul Tarot, in the way that you teach it, there is no so-called positive cards or negative cards, which I couldn't agree more with. I think the wisdom of each archetypes are much deeper than the division of what's good and what's bad. However, with that understanding in mind, I find it challenging to read a really powerful card at a position representing “What am I leaving behind?” Or “What am I shedding?” For example, I pulled The Sun card the other day that was in one of those positions. I was so confused. Please give me some advice on that. Thank you very much. Love.
Minnie, this is such a beautiful and completely understandable question like, yes, how the fuck are you supposed to work with The Sun when it comes up in a position of either “What am I leaving behind?” Or, you know, “What am I shedding?” Like, how on earth are we supposed to clarify that? Right?
[0:42:29]
So I've talked about this on the podcast before, but because we always have new listeners, I just find it so, so, it's one of the most common questions I get and I just find it so helpful to repeat because I do think it is just T to B, top to bottom, really confusing and hard to square, that you could be shedding a card like Emperess and opening to a card like The Tower and that's supposed to be like great or something (Lindsay laughs). So I, you're exactly right, Minnie, but I just want to I want to start kind of at the beginning, and hopefully build a baseline for you about how to how to work with so-called sweet or positive, like so-called positive cards, inside of that shedding example.
So, to kind of corroborate or to back up what Minnie is saying, they’re right. I don't see any card in the Tarot as being positive or negative, good or bad. And that is one of the core tenets of Soul Tarot. In that it has to do with appreciation—just like in nature, we have very, you know, intense predatory, stinging animals and plants and, and they're not “bad”, right? And we have like really sweet, cuddly, gentle animals and they're not “good”, right? Like all animals just are. Plants just are.
The Tarot is exactly the same way and if you are willing to start considering the Tarot like that, I promise you, it will literally transform your Tarot practice and your readings from the bottom up. There's nothing, no memorization, no class, no course; nothing more important, nothing more transformative than considering each card as just being. Acknowledging there are some cards, like there are some plants, like there's some flavor profiles and food—there are some super bitter cards, some really spiky cards, some really sweet cards and really gentle cards, some really harsh cards. However, what you consider harsh, the next person might consider gentle. What you consider gentle, the next person might consider harsh.
That's one of the most I think challenging things about there being a preconceived notion of some cards being happy or good because we pull them and we're like, “My life sucks.” Or “I keep pulling Empress in like the worst times of my life. I am so fucking uncomfortable with it but everybody says it's great.” That is the “the meat and potatoes” of the work that I do and what I'm most passionate about is basically saying like, “You are not wrong.” And I will not gaslight you about this, like Empress is hard. It's not an easy card. And the reason for it is because it has to do for example, with expanding our capacity to receive love and pleasure and help. Those are very intense things to do.
[0:46:09]
Most of us don't feel worthy of that. Most of us are quiet, we’re very uncomfortable with asking for help, very uncomfortable. And because The Empress has been—to be just really frank—just so completely and woefully under-represented in terms of its standardized interpretations for the majority of Tarot literature. No wonder there's there's hardly anything, you know, that acknowledges The Empress as being a very intense energy. It asks a lot of us. That's a lot to ask, of anyone, like to expand our threshold of receiving.
So that's just some ABC-123 invitations to say like, for example, I have a very, very difficult time personally, in Moon card energy. I've been very transparent about that through the years (Lindsay laughs). There are a lot of people who feel the same way as me, there are a lot of people who have no idea what I'm talking about; they love The Moon card. They're into it. They're not afraid of it. It's not a problem for them. There are a lot of people who love Devil energy; I do not have an easy time in Devil energy and it will be such that now Devil has such as such a specific density and energy in my life that I kind of know I'm in it before I even pull a card. And most of the time when I feel it, I do pull it, you know, or when I pull it, it's like, “(Lindsay whispers) Ooooh, my God,” it's not because it's bad. It's just because for me, like it feels spikier you know? And there's some like, traditionally sweet cards that feel spiky to me and others too.
So that's one really great thing to start with, is that your own personal relationship will become clearer and clearer the more you practice, like of what and how you feel about all of these cards, and from there, you'll be more equipped to look more holographically, more holistically at all of them. Like you can pull, which has happened to me many times, pull The Tower in a reading for someone and be like, “Oh, this is wonderful,” and not try to be positive about it. But like literally mean it (Lindsay laughst), like be like, “This is great.” Because sometimes Tower comes in, it doesn't, it doesn't create any dust in the air. It comes in and it just really beautifully takes something that we're so ready, we’re like, “Get this the fuck out of here.” You know? Or it helps to bring meaning to a really hard time. Sometimes knowing like, there's no Tower experience without some sort of transformation, for the better, in the long term. That can be really helpful.
So all that, all that said, you cannot pull a card in—I'm not talking to like you Minnie, I'm just saying in general—we cannot pull a card for what we're shedding or releasing without understanding the full spectrum view of what it is that we're welcoming in. So I want to know what you got, in the other position, Minnie, of like, I hear that you got The Sun, you're releasing The Sun. I want to know what you're welcoming in, you know? Did anything come up for you when you did a reading? I'd love to know that, you're welcome to email me at info@tarotforthewildsoul.com and let us know. Because that says a lot. That says a lot about what the full picture is, right?
[0:49:45]
How you can square a card like The Sun, in an energy or in a position in a reading, like what we're releasing: The Sun has to do with gaining clarity and insight around something after a very long time of essentially just being in the dark, being confused, not being very clear on something, going through a process or through a period where there are not answers. Moon card is particularly murky. It's very Piscean there's like a lot of echoes and illusions. And we don't know quite whether we're here or there like there's a lot going on. It's kind of like being in the ocean that night. We don't know quite where the tides taking us. It's like just, you know, there's a lot underneath us in the water and we don't like know, “Is it seaweed? Is it a fish?” Like there's a lot of those energies.
When the sun dawns, The Sun card, it just illuminates. It clarifies like, “Oh, this is what's been going on. Okay.” Judgment, which is the card that comes after it, intensifies and expands upon that realization and actually gives us skills for deeper understanding and the ability to change it. The Sun is the end of a time where we're fumbling around. It's just a time of clarity and insight. Sometimes that clarity and insight is really painful. Sometimes because The Sun tends to come after a very long journey of—I mean, it comes after Devil, Tower, Star, and Moon. This is no joke. We're a little bit weatherbeaten (Lindsay laughs) when The Sun comes around. So honestly, one of the biggest hurdles in The Sun is that we don't trust that it's okay. We’re like, “When's the other shoe gonna drop?” That is very, very Sun card.
So one way of thinking about releasing The Sun is releasing the fear that the other shoe is gonna drop, releasing resistance around welcoming that clarity, that insight, that warmth, that light of the sun. It could be that there's been like too much sun. There's been kind of too much digging and knowing and clarity and we just kind of need to tuck into like a Four card energy, or an energy that's way more chill. It might be that it's time to kind of like, take a small break from consuming information, from consuming and just like, tuck into a like juicy book or turn off our phone or cook something or be with our children. Those are all ways that we might be called to release Sun that are perfectly standard, like they're not special. I see many reasons even beyond that to welcome a clearing away of The Sun and a welcoming of something different, but it's not because bad times are—good times are leaving and bad times are coming. There's a lot of things in The Sun that can prove to be really challenging. So that's just one kind of small example, one way to reframe our view of it. But obviously, the most helpful piece in it would be what we're welcoming in, which will provide so much insight and clarity to that, you know, even further. So I hope that helped, Minnie. Thank you so much for asking that question. It was an honor to answer it. I hope it helps you.
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[Conclusion]
[0:53:28]
And I love all of you. Happy Beltane, Happy Samhain, happy start to your month of May. And until we meet again please take exquisite care of yourselves.