Cameron, so often these days I feel burned out from astrological content. Then I come here and I remember to go deeper, not wider. Thank you for keeping me 'sane' (AKA, thank you for teaching me how to pay attention to the divine).
For Cap rising, can I get your advice on how I can be less dismissive and doubtful of the divine?
I drew the Thoth Eight of Wands as your guide for the next lunar period. This card shows eight electrified red arrows dispersed from a rainbow atop a light, airy background. As Mercury in decanic dignity in Sagittarius, this Lord of Swiftness reminds you that for there to be faith, there must always be doubt to travel through. This points to your Twelfth House of messages from the spirit realm. Perhaps your dismissiveness comes from the fact that you, like many in our culture, worry that to trust the impressions and communications that come through the Deep means you’ll be letting go of something necessary to make it through life with your sanity intact. Perhaps you’re confusing a relationship with the divine with something that necessarily quickly bears fruit in the manifest world. Perhaps you’re worried that so much emphasis on the realm of dream, spirit, and God will negatively affect your ability to make money or to achieve your personal goals for this incarnation. Either way, the Eight of Wands offers you real contact with capital-T Truth if you can allow those doubts to be the groundwater, the soil, for trusting in your own spiritual growth. There’s nothing you can do to offend God. As Glory in Emanation, the Eight of Wands offers you the clear light of the Mind in the archetypal world of the gods, the world that is closest or “near-enough” to the crown of the ineffable godhead on the Kabbalistic tree of life. I love this card. It offers you a change to cherish your 12th house moments and communications over the next little while. Sending love!
Super interesting information here. From Jung to the Underworld, it has me curious.
If you can, I’d love a pull for Scorpio rising. What can I learn from the myths of the Queen of the Dead, from Persephone and the Underworld that relates to my current place in this life?
I pulled the Thoth Nine of Cups in answer to your question. The card shows beautiful gold and purple cups spilling over with light and joy. This is the Lord of Happiness, and it asks you how you can deepen your understanding of happiness through and encounter with the underworld myths. Where does Happiness reside in the story of the Goddess? Is there room for it in her roles as Kore, Persephone, Queen of the Dead? A book you might find useful as you consider this tarot guide is Duncan Barford’s The Going Down, an esoteric novel about two magicians using their depression and anxiety as portals into the underworld, where they come in contact with their beloved dead and with the Goddess herself. Astrologically speaking, this card points to your fifth house of creativity, creation, romance, and children. There’s an important element about attending to your own creative and romantic spirit over the next while, rejoicing in Beauty, and considering how there can be so perfect a Joy in the world that it is near to and inclusive of sorrow too. Sending love with this beautiful card!
Hi Cameron, thank you, as always, for your explorations of the deep.
I'd love a card for Pisces rising: what insights might the tarot offer regarding joint replacement surgery I'm having on the 20th; specifically, what's something I could look forward to on the other side of it?
I hope this reaches you as you are well on your way into recovery; I apologize for the delay with this reading!
I drew the Thoth Four of Wands as your guide to recovery. This is one of my very favorite cards. The image shows the Lord of Completion as four wands creating a red and gold circle, topped by the heads of rams and doves at each wand's end. This is the card of Venus' decanic rulership in Aries and it is a card I always associate with the reprieve of Rivendell in the Lord of the Rings (following T. Susan Chang's mention of the association of rest, magick, and reprieve with this card and Rivendell in the LOTR trilogy). This is a card of good food and and languid days of rest on a comfy but supportive bed or couch. It's a card of binge-watching your favorite shows (maybe LOTR?) and enjoying whatever it is helps you through a time of stillness and pain, whether that's the company of good friends, family, or companions, whether that's a painkiller or two to offer some interesting states as you manage the days after major surgery. This card points you to your Twelfth House of solitude, hospitals, and life on the margins, Venus' rulership of it offers the care and love of women and others who truly know what it's like to be down for the count for a little while. There's a sweetness and a dreamlike quality to the time after surgery, I've found. I used to feel guilty about how much I enjoyed that sweetness, how much I look forward to the opportunity to use recovery as chance and space to dream. No more! This is hard work; you deserve to enjoy the boons of this time, too! Finally, as Chesed in Atziluth, or Mercy in the archetypal world of Emanation, there's an element of divine mercy, love, and encounter that this card points to. Record your visions, your stray lines of poetry; there's inspiration from the gods hidden in the heart of this experience for you!
In the meantime, I'll light a candle for you on my altar! My next-door neighbor had her hip replaced the same week I had my own surgery back in May, and I'll envision a magickal tarot buddy for you as you travel through this joint replacement. Sending love <3
Cameron- this reading is helping me cope with recovery more than I can even say, even through the pt and so.many.procedures, I've read it three times so far. Feeling much love for you, and that just not the pain meds talking— it's from from my heart and soul. Sarah
The short answer is that the Underworld wants you to accept its wisdom and put that wisdom into action. That's a bit cryptic, though. I wonder if we can go deeper.
I drew the Thoth Knight of Disks for you. The card depicts a figure in armor astride a lovely horse that is paused in a field to munch on some grass. The sun sets in the distance. The figure's helmet is pulled back from their face and is crowned with staghorns. There's a sense of surveying the land, a pause, a rest, a contemplation of what to do next while the horse eats its lovely fill. But it will be dark soon. The pair will have to get going. One reading of this card is that the Underworld wants you to allow your animal soul or nature to take over for a while. Perhaps its time for a shamanic journey into the unconscious. Perhaps its time for a bit of active imagination of your own for a while. Anything to allow your conscious intellectual soul/mind to get out of the way so that the Underworld can greet the part of you that already intimately knows it. You might even read this figure as male, as the image of your animus, who, in Jung's conception, is the first figure we encounter when we go into the Underworld. The first image of the guardian of the Underworld is usually our shadow, that projected figure that seems so unlike us. For women, then, the figure is usually male, usually a man we don't like, maybe one we envy. This guy on his horse, he's pretty pleased with himself. He has everything he needs. He probably just won a war. What if he's the image of your soul that the Underworld needs you to encounter to gain deeper access?
The other thought is that is the Knight of Disks, as Wisdom in Action, is motivated by his need to prove his valour to take action in your Second House, which, in Underworld speak, is the Gates of Hell. But at the Gates of Hell, he has to learn how to be Prudent so that he can Gain entry into hell. (The Knight of Disks rules the Seven of Wands as the Lord of Valour, the Eight of Disks as the Lord of Prudence and the Nine of Disks as the Lord of Gain.) How does one be prudent to gain entry at the threshold of the Underworld? There are many stories about this but my favorite is currently Peter Kingsley's translation of Parminedes' poem about doing this very thing: becoming brave enough to be carried by the Daughters of the Sun to Gates of Hell, where he must pass Lady Justice's judgment of whether he is worthy enough to gain entry or not. Maybe you should read this poem for a clue to what the Underworld needs from you!
As for Wisdom in Action, well, in the tarot, the only place Wisdom can come from is the Goddess, the feminine face of the divine. And she rules in the depths of Hell just waiting for people to come to her. So in some ways the card is a nod and a wink, like, just get going already! Mercy abounds for those who answer her call.
The card I pulled as your lunar guide and in answer to your question is the Thoth Empress. The image on the card shows a mermaid goddess in greens and pinks. She looks right, holds a blue lotus flower in her hand, and is attended by symbols of swan and eagle, moon and dove. But be wary of focusing too intensely on any one part of this card, Crowley, warns, for that is the way of trouble. Instead, allow yourself to be swept up by the wholeness of her. Meditate on Beauty capital B, allow this Empress figure to lead you into a new world through shades of green on the back of your eyelids during quiet moments. She is associated with Hebrew letter Daleth, which means "door" or "doorway." Transiting Venus currently treks through your Virgoan Tenth House of Public Life, Vocation, and Overall Life Direction. Also your relationship with your mother, what you got from her. Your relationship to Mother Mary, or the archetypal Mother, too. The Empress releases pain not through minute attention to somatic strategy, not through an accounting of pedantic details, but instead through a turning toward the God-image of the Mother that moves you, that inspires you, that offers you a new path in public roles. Your vocation or career may also be at play here; is there a way service to others can offer a lightening of your own load? Or is that work headaches are part of the problem, and its time to go inward and tend to private life for a while? In my own working definition of the Empress card, I like to think of her as an opportunity to make contact with the relationship between Beauty and Necessity:
What does Aphrodite’s girdle represent? Is her belt an aesthetic garment of beauty and restraint, allowing her to take her pick of life while bestowing on her the grace and virtue of picking only what she truly needs and desires? Or is it a prison of sorts? A belt of necessity that curbs the goddess’ power and reveals her fate: namely, that all of the beautiful things in the world, all of the great desires and experiences to be had, can never surmount the reality that she is in the world and so perishes with it? Put another way: what drew you down into this life: necessity or beauty? Fate or destiny? In what realms of experience are these one and the same?
You may also look to where your own natal Venus resides in your chart as a clue for how to offer a balm and a salve to your day-to-day experience over the next two weeks. Focus in on the whole instead of the part, warm baths, meditative quiet, and Venus in Virgo (where she currently is now) is always one for putting on some music and allowing the rhythm of the unseen to guide your body into new, relieving, and beautiful postures, going much beyond necessity and fate in the process. Sending love your way.
Cameron, so often these days I feel burned out from astrological content. Then I come here and I remember to go deeper, not wider. Thank you for keeping me 'sane' (AKA, thank you for teaching me how to pay attention to the divine).
For Cap rising, can I get your advice on how I can be less dismissive and doubtful of the divine?
Hi Nikkitha,
I drew the Thoth Eight of Wands as your guide for the next lunar period. This card shows eight electrified red arrows dispersed from a rainbow atop a light, airy background. As Mercury in decanic dignity in Sagittarius, this Lord of Swiftness reminds you that for there to be faith, there must always be doubt to travel through. This points to your Twelfth House of messages from the spirit realm. Perhaps your dismissiveness comes from the fact that you, like many in our culture, worry that to trust the impressions and communications that come through the Deep means you’ll be letting go of something necessary to make it through life with your sanity intact. Perhaps you’re confusing a relationship with the divine with something that necessarily quickly bears fruit in the manifest world. Perhaps you’re worried that so much emphasis on the realm of dream, spirit, and God will negatively affect your ability to make money or to achieve your personal goals for this incarnation. Either way, the Eight of Wands offers you real contact with capital-T Truth if you can allow those doubts to be the groundwater, the soil, for trusting in your own spiritual growth. There’s nothing you can do to offend God. As Glory in Emanation, the Eight of Wands offers you the clear light of the Mind in the archetypal world of the gods, the world that is closest or “near-enough” to the crown of the ineffable godhead on the Kabbalistic tree of life. I love this card. It offers you a change to cherish your 12th house moments and communications over the next little while. Sending love!
Thank you so much <3
Thanks, Nikkitha! Yes, rarely will there be anything of value online, sadly. I’ll be back with your reading tomorrow!
Super interesting information here. From Jung to the Underworld, it has me curious.
If you can, I’d love a pull for Scorpio rising. What can I learn from the myths of the Queen of the Dead, from Persephone and the Underworld that relates to my current place in this life?
Xx
Thanks, Courtney. Will be back tomorrow with your reading.
Hi Courtney,
I pulled the Thoth Nine of Cups in answer to your question. The card shows beautiful gold and purple cups spilling over with light and joy. This is the Lord of Happiness, and it asks you how you can deepen your understanding of happiness through and encounter with the underworld myths. Where does Happiness reside in the story of the Goddess? Is there room for it in her roles as Kore, Persephone, Queen of the Dead? A book you might find useful as you consider this tarot guide is Duncan Barford’s The Going Down, an esoteric novel about two magicians using their depression and anxiety as portals into the underworld, where they come in contact with their beloved dead and with the Goddess herself. Astrologically speaking, this card points to your fifth house of creativity, creation, romance, and children. There’s an important element about attending to your own creative and romantic spirit over the next while, rejoicing in Beauty, and considering how there can be so perfect a Joy in the world that it is near to and inclusive of sorrow too. Sending love with this beautiful card!
Hi Cameron, thank you, as always, for your explorations of the deep.
I'd love a card for Pisces rising: what insights might the tarot offer regarding joint replacement surgery I'm having on the 20th; specifically, what's something I could look forward to on the other side of it?
Hi Sarah,
I hope this reaches you as you are well on your way into recovery; I apologize for the delay with this reading!
I drew the Thoth Four of Wands as your guide to recovery. This is one of my very favorite cards. The image shows the Lord of Completion as four wands creating a red and gold circle, topped by the heads of rams and doves at each wand's end. This is the card of Venus' decanic rulership in Aries and it is a card I always associate with the reprieve of Rivendell in the Lord of the Rings (following T. Susan Chang's mention of the association of rest, magick, and reprieve with this card and Rivendell in the LOTR trilogy). This is a card of good food and and languid days of rest on a comfy but supportive bed or couch. It's a card of binge-watching your favorite shows (maybe LOTR?) and enjoying whatever it is helps you through a time of stillness and pain, whether that's the company of good friends, family, or companions, whether that's a painkiller or two to offer some interesting states as you manage the days after major surgery. This card points you to your Twelfth House of solitude, hospitals, and life on the margins, Venus' rulership of it offers the care and love of women and others who truly know what it's like to be down for the count for a little while. There's a sweetness and a dreamlike quality to the time after surgery, I've found. I used to feel guilty about how much I enjoyed that sweetness, how much I look forward to the opportunity to use recovery as chance and space to dream. No more! This is hard work; you deserve to enjoy the boons of this time, too! Finally, as Chesed in Atziluth, or Mercy in the archetypal world of Emanation, there's an element of divine mercy, love, and encounter that this card points to. Record your visions, your stray lines of poetry; there's inspiration from the gods hidden in the heart of this experience for you!
In the meantime, I'll light a candle for you on my altar! My next-door neighbor had her hip replaced the same week I had my own surgery back in May, and I'll envision a magickal tarot buddy for you as you travel through this joint replacement. Sending love <3
Cameron- this reading is helping me cope with recovery more than I can even say, even through the pt and so.many.procedures, I've read it three times so far. Feeling much love for you, and that just not the pain meds talking— it's from from my heart and soul. Sarah
Hi Sarah, I'll be back tomorrow with your reading!
Thank you!
Leo rising. This is sort of weird, but I’m drafting a novel with an underworld in it. What does the underworld want from me?
The short answer is that the Underworld wants you to accept its wisdom and put that wisdom into action. That's a bit cryptic, though. I wonder if we can go deeper.
I drew the Thoth Knight of Disks for you. The card depicts a figure in armor astride a lovely horse that is paused in a field to munch on some grass. The sun sets in the distance. The figure's helmet is pulled back from their face and is crowned with staghorns. There's a sense of surveying the land, a pause, a rest, a contemplation of what to do next while the horse eats its lovely fill. But it will be dark soon. The pair will have to get going. One reading of this card is that the Underworld wants you to allow your animal soul or nature to take over for a while. Perhaps its time for a shamanic journey into the unconscious. Perhaps its time for a bit of active imagination of your own for a while. Anything to allow your conscious intellectual soul/mind to get out of the way so that the Underworld can greet the part of you that already intimately knows it. You might even read this figure as male, as the image of your animus, who, in Jung's conception, is the first figure we encounter when we go into the Underworld. The first image of the guardian of the Underworld is usually our shadow, that projected figure that seems so unlike us. For women, then, the figure is usually male, usually a man we don't like, maybe one we envy. This guy on his horse, he's pretty pleased with himself. He has everything he needs. He probably just won a war. What if he's the image of your soul that the Underworld needs you to encounter to gain deeper access?
The other thought is that is the Knight of Disks, as Wisdom in Action, is motivated by his need to prove his valour to take action in your Second House, which, in Underworld speak, is the Gates of Hell. But at the Gates of Hell, he has to learn how to be Prudent so that he can Gain entry into hell. (The Knight of Disks rules the Seven of Wands as the Lord of Valour, the Eight of Disks as the Lord of Prudence and the Nine of Disks as the Lord of Gain.) How does one be prudent to gain entry at the threshold of the Underworld? There are many stories about this but my favorite is currently Peter Kingsley's translation of Parminedes' poem about doing this very thing: becoming brave enough to be carried by the Daughters of the Sun to Gates of Hell, where he must pass Lady Justice's judgment of whether he is worthy enough to gain entry or not. Maybe you should read this poem for a clue to what the Underworld needs from you!
As for Wisdom in Action, well, in the tarot, the only place Wisdom can come from is the Goddess, the feminine face of the divine. And she rules in the depths of Hell just waiting for people to come to her. So in some ways the card is a nod and a wink, like, just get going already! Mercy abounds for those who answer her call.
Can't wait to read your book!
This helps a lot. Thank you!
So excited to hear about the novel-in-progress, especially given its theme! I’ll be back tomorrow with your reading!
Sagittarius rising. How can I release pain/tension from my body?
Hi Lawrence,
I'm sorry you're in pain, first of all!
The card I pulled as your lunar guide and in answer to your question is the Thoth Empress. The image on the card shows a mermaid goddess in greens and pinks. She looks right, holds a blue lotus flower in her hand, and is attended by symbols of swan and eagle, moon and dove. But be wary of focusing too intensely on any one part of this card, Crowley, warns, for that is the way of trouble. Instead, allow yourself to be swept up by the wholeness of her. Meditate on Beauty capital B, allow this Empress figure to lead you into a new world through shades of green on the back of your eyelids during quiet moments. She is associated with Hebrew letter Daleth, which means "door" or "doorway." Transiting Venus currently treks through your Virgoan Tenth House of Public Life, Vocation, and Overall Life Direction. Also your relationship with your mother, what you got from her. Your relationship to Mother Mary, or the archetypal Mother, too. The Empress releases pain not through minute attention to somatic strategy, not through an accounting of pedantic details, but instead through a turning toward the God-image of the Mother that moves you, that inspires you, that offers you a new path in public roles. Your vocation or career may also be at play here; is there a way service to others can offer a lightening of your own load? Or is that work headaches are part of the problem, and its time to go inward and tend to private life for a while? In my own working definition of the Empress card, I like to think of her as an opportunity to make contact with the relationship between Beauty and Necessity:
What does Aphrodite’s girdle represent? Is her belt an aesthetic garment of beauty and restraint, allowing her to take her pick of life while bestowing on her the grace and virtue of picking only what she truly needs and desires? Or is it a prison of sorts? A belt of necessity that curbs the goddess’ power and reveals her fate: namely, that all of the beautiful things in the world, all of the great desires and experiences to be had, can never surmount the reality that she is in the world and so perishes with it? Put another way: what drew you down into this life: necessity or beauty? Fate or destiny? In what realms of experience are these one and the same?
You may also look to where your own natal Venus resides in your chart as a clue for how to offer a balm and a salve to your day-to-day experience over the next two weeks. Focus in on the whole instead of the part, warm baths, meditative quiet, and Venus in Virgo (where she currently is now) is always one for putting on some music and allowing the rhythm of the unseen to guide your body into new, relieving, and beautiful postures, going much beyond necessity and fate in the process. Sending love your way.
Thank you 🙏🏻💕
I’ll be back tomorrow with your reading! Wishing you well until then!