135. The Threshold: Equinox Medicine
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Equinox blessings and happy Libra season to you, Wild Souls! Today’s episode of Tarot for the Wild Soul is all about the Autumnal/Spring Equinox!
Together, we will dive deeply into the medicine of this threshold, as well as the third spiral of the year, and what it is here to teach us, Justice, Queen of Swords, and the Swords suit as anchors for the next few months, the Wild Soul reading for the cycle ahead, and more!
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About the Episode
Equinox blessings and happy Libra season to you, Wild Souls! Today’s episode of Tarot for the Wild Soul is all about the Autumnal/Spring Equinox!
Together, we will dive deeply into the medicine of this threshold, as well as the third spiral of the year, and what it is here to teach us, Justice, Queen of Swords, and the Swords suit as anchors for the next few months, the Wild Soul reading for the cycle ahead, and more!
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: death, loss, grief, environmental degradation, trauma, racism, economic and systemic marginalization, colonization, chronic illness and pain
The content in this episode contains references to death, loss, grief, environmental degradation, trauma, racism, economic and systemic marginalization, colonization, and chronic illness and pain. 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]
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This episode of Tarot for the Wild Soul is brought to you by my brand new, upcoming course, Heart of Service, a five-week, online, intuitive Tarot immersion for Spirit-guided service. Enrollment for this course is only open for one more week and closes on Tuesday, September 29, at 12am Eastern, 9pm Pacific. So if you feel called to be a part of this transformative journey, I invite you to take the leap.
Heart of Service runs from October 1st to the 29th. The material is centered on Spirit-guided service, intuitive business design, and spiralic rhythms of work, presented through gorgeous video, audio lessons, soul worksheets, potent Tarot spreads, ritual prompts, and is enriched by three live, 90-minute Zoom coaching calls with me and two Q&A roundups. Each week the material centers on and focuses on particular Tarot cards that will serve as anchors for participants on their course journey. And once you sign up, the material will be yours to keep forever.
So to learn more or to sign up, please visit tarotforthewildsoul.com/heart-of-service
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Hello Loves, and welcome back to Tarot for the Wild Soul podcast. I'm your host, Lindsay Mack. Thank you so much, as always, for being here.
Today is a really special episode of the podcast, where we explore the medicine of this Equinox, as well as the third spiral of the year, either fall for the Northern Hemisphere or spring for the Southern Hemisphere, and the Tarot cards, elements, and archetypes that are kind of walking with us as anchors and allies in the midst of this time. We'll explore different ways to befriend these archetypes, you know, open ourselves to this time. It's going to be a really nice, juicy, rooted exploration of how important the Justice card is for this time, both on the planet and in this particular spiral of the year. And we're going to also explore a channeled reading about what, from now until the Solstice in late December, what we're really being invited to pay attention to what is kind of asking for attention.
So hopefully, regardless of who you are, what you honor, how much attention you give to the Equinox, it may be absolutely no attention, that your your heart and your devotions are with totally different high holy days or holidays, hopefully this — or if it's like the biggest deal in the world to you (Lindsay Laughs) — hopefully this episode can can offer something that meets the needs of folks wherever they happen to find themselves on that spectrum. And as always, if you don't, if this doesn't interest you, or it isn't something that you feel like you can take something from, don't worry about it, you know. Monthly medicine’s coming up in a week, and hopefully that will serve you.
[0:03:36]
Because I'm recording this, I was told to record this one, really, really close, like, literally, up until, essentially, the moment of like transitioning over into Libra season (not really but kind of), this episode is coming out without a transcript. I apologize. I did mention in the September Monthly Medicine that that would occasionally happen, and that we would have to kind of see with all episodes are channeled.
But when something's about a particular spiral of time, I'm typically told to wait, you know, until a) I can get as close to that time as possible to really kind of be in it, feel it, and 2) Typically, when I do something like this, the energy of what I'm supposed to talk about moves through me so that I have… I can talk about it on behalf of the collective.
You don't need the explanation, but I think it's worthy of mentioning that it wasn't just because I decided to do it super last minute. So thank you for your patience on that. There will be a transcript, I'd say, about two to three days after this. So you can just go back to the show notes for this episode.
If you're somebody who really wanted to work with some of these things, at the Equinox, please don't worry about it because there's nothing in this episode that is particularly geared to do this tonight. Because, again, I respect the fact that not everybody listening to this necessarily acknowledges Equinox work or Solstice work or cross-quarter work as a part of their practice. So we're kind of laying our attention on to the Tarot side of things, and hopefully opening that up a bit more.
But this episode is really for the entire spiral of the fall season. So it's for everything from today all the way into December. So you're not, I promise you, you're not missing anything (Lindsay Laughs). If you hear it a couple of days from now, it'll still be just as potent. But thank you for your patience around that.
[0:05:52]
So the autumnal Equinox here in the Northern Hemisphere, Spring Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere, is a threshold that initiates us as a collective into the third spiral of the Wheel of the Year.
And there are four spirals of the year, each beginning with a cardinal sign initiated by either Solstice or an Equinox.
So, for Aries season, you know, we get kicked off into the first spiral of the year, because Aries is our first cardinal sign. It's connected to our Spring Equinox here in the Northern Hemisphere. And that's the first spiral of the year, ruled by fire. We're just leaving now the second spiral of the year kicked off by Cancer, ruled by water, connected to The Chariot, and so on, and so on.
So in terms of the Tarot, each of these four spirals of the year offer us such a beautiful opportunity to really honor and do field study on particular archetypes, suits, and elements, which we'll talk about through this episode.
So this episode is not so much about what the Equinox is, what, how we can harness this particular time. There's a little bit of it, but what my big, my biggest, passion essentially is that I really believe that we form the deepest, intimate, personal bonds with Tarot cards in our deck when we're living our practice. And one of the best ways to do this is to connect to: what's the card I'm moving through this year? What's the card I'm moving through?
You know, and again, we all have different, many of us have completely… some of us honor and acknowledge 2020 as being the year where ([0:07:45] - inaudible) are totally different in numeration related to the year that it is. So that's what I mean.
So some folks may feel really called to honor a particular Tarot card, some folks may be honored to look at a different one. But if we're using what's here, the seasons we're in, the energy we're in, the particular zodiac sign we're moving through, the year it is — dependent on how we view the year — there's always Tarot medicine to go along with that. And if we're plugging it in, I personally believe it actually creates the best opportunity for learning.
[0:08:28]
I know I've shared this before. It's a bit of a, you know, I'm almost finished with this tiny little tangent, but, I mean, I am a professional. I teach for a living, and I learned so much more about the Majors from actually moving through the years that are ruled by that particular Major. So I learned so much more about the Hanged One in 2019 than I ever thought was possible, and I felt really clear about that card. I'm learning so much about Emperor this year. I'm learning a ton about the card I'm personally moving through this year. Like, there's always something to know.
And for anybody who's ever felt kind of confused or not quite clear about the energies related to the cards ruled by Libra, by Scorpio, by Sagittarius, these are the signs that we get to move through in this third spiral. We can learn so much about those cards. So I think that can be a really wonderful way to know more about this practice and this tool.
So this third spiral of the year is initiated by Libra. So we look to Justice as our anchor and guide for the next few months, of course. As we travel through this third spiral, we also look to the Sword cards, because this third spiral is ruled by air. They're showing up as helping allies during this time and as is Queen of Swords, which in Soul Tarot, just the kind of Tarot I teach, it's ruled by Libra.
[0:10:08]
So how could the Swords ever be friendly, be a helping ally?
So the Swords are ultimately here to help us to recognize and acknowledge the dissonance that often goes on between what the mind is telling us, the thinking mind, our thoughts, and what's actually here. This doesn't mean that we are delusional, that our thoughts are completely different than what our experience is, but very often there is a dissonance. There's an invitation into great fear when actually at this moment, we're okay. There's an invitation into a particular thought, you know, “You fucked up. You suck.”
You know, the mind can get very, very noisy when we feel big emotions, like grief, because it wants to protect us. The mind is always attempting to protect, actually. It's part of our job to be wise investigators and to really notice, “Okay, you know, here's the invitation, here are the thoughts,” and we really bow to them, acknowledge them, honor them, and then also acknowledge that they're just thoughts. They're not necessarily true/ I don't have to believe them.
And the Swords are actually here to help us to befriend of that process, because every one of the Sword cards starts with an invitation from the mind, and invites us to move through the full spiral of experience, bowing to what's here, moving into the heart of the matter, and coming out on the other side in deeper intimacy, both with ourselves and with our minds, actually. It's not pushing the mind away; it's actually coming closer to it. And beginning to say, rather than, “Oh, God, I can't believe like, I'm being invited into this fucking thought again,” which is, by the way, completely valid to feel, you know, saying, “Oh wow, this is here. There must be fear. I must be ready to expand. There must be something that I'm moving toward that's really big.”
I felt a lot of dissonance and a lot of contraction, a lot of story, ego story, leading up to recording this podcast, and it was really informational. You know, I kept coming back to compassion and love. I kept staying in truth about it, but it didn't mean that I pushed it away or ignored it, you know. It was just like, huh, that’s interesting.
[0:12:46]
So the Swords are here to help us honor the invitation of the thinking mind and the ego while staying in the center of our truth. That's not about ignoring; it's actually about deep inclusion.
Queen of Swords is ruled by water and air and, very similarly, helps us to find that center within us that's always present, that lives within the swirl of our emotion, and the din of our thinking. So it invites us to essentially take that sword and slice through the confusion, and invites us to practice non-identification with thoughts and emotions. And that is a really big part of the teaching of the third spiral in general, and of this time on the Wheel of the Year. It is a major time of reflection and review, which is really what the Equinox is all about.
So, I think I'm being clear, but to really make sure, these cards are not about bypassing anything, nor have I ever invited anyone to bypass any part of their thinking at any given time. It's really about getting closer without necessarily getting caught. So it allows us to be viewers, stewards of these experiences.
And Queen of Swords is a very powerful one, because I believe the Queen of Swords is really about checking in before we take action, checking in with “Whoa, this feels really true. Like this person did X or Y. This feels really true.” Can I check in about it, if I'm not sure? you know. And sometimes that can feel hard if we're not 100% sure, if we've got a lot of material — and I do, too — about trusting ourselves and all that stuff. It's just something to begin to think about.
This is the point of this time. This is literally the point of this time,, to begin to come into a deeper center of ourselves, while things move around us, watching the movement around us, rather than attaching and going with the flow of the air, going with the flow of the movement. We're not supposed to stay rigid in that moment, but a tree can move all around, all around its root center, because of how strongly it is rooted.
So when we're asked to work with air energy, it's a really wonderful way to begin to look at ourselves. We're interacting with the air while being rooted, tethered, to that sense of centeredness. And this aligns quite beautifully with the medicine of the Equinox period.
[0:15:56]
So this Equinox is the halfway point between the Summer Solstice and the Winter Solstice, our longest and shortest days of the year, respectively, in the Northern Hemisphere. And it's also a time when we experienced roughly equal amounts of daytime and nighttime.
So the themes of this time are so deeply rooted in balance, so deeply rooted in a sense of review and reflection because we get to, anytime we move through an Equinox, anytime we, especially the third spiral of the year, we get to really see what's working and what's not working, what we would like to keep and what we would like to discard. It's a pretty big harvest time, too. This time is about balance, and it is about acknowledgment. And it's about doing a kind of a both/and dance, honoring what's here.
We have to be here to really acknowledge what's working and what's not working (Lindsay Laughs). If we're not here in our lives and motive, we're off in “This should be happening, this shouldn't be happening. This should be different, I should be different.” We're not really going to be the best possible narrator's I suppose, the best possible judge, of our own experience, you know.
Only you know your own experience, you know, as well as you do. But if we're off in that sense of should, it makes it a lot harder to actually know, and feel into the truth of, “Is it true that this shouldn't be happening? It is happening. It's what's here. So is there something for me to pay attention to?”
That's a big, big part of this time, and we get to — in this both/and — honor what's here by coming back home to what is, while holding a space for transformative radical change, which is really what Libra season and the Justice card are all about.
[0:18:26]
So Justice ultimately teaches us that the only path to true justice, to true balance, true equilibrium, to true healing, and true reparation of harm, is to be with the reality of what is, not how it should be or what we wish it would be, but with what is here now. Only by acknowledging and honoring the reality, the truth of this moment, whether we like it or not, will we actually be free to change it. Only by bowing to what it is do we free ourselves to have the grief that lives within us about what is. Only by actually being with ourselves can we truly listen, hold space for the suffering of this planet and its inhabitants, only then will we actually be true agents of change, growth, and evolution within ourselves and outside of it.
So it's a very small and yet crucial shift, that we often are very motivated by “shoulds” and you know, that's valid. There are a lot of things happening right now societally, across the board, that are, you know, it should be different (Lindsay Laughs), and yet, it isn't.
And looking at that, so starting from, “I can hold space for this vision for the future and the “should”. And I know that in order to exact and enact change, coming back to what's actually here, not what I wish would be, not what shouldn't be/should be, what's here.”
And we're moving through Justice energy every day right now as individuals, and also as a planet and as a collective, you know. The realities of the climate crisis, of racism and systemic marginalization, of the total collapse of, like, capitalist structures, and even healthcare systems, especially in the United States that I know, there's so much happening across the board in the world right now. The lack of access and care that so many folks have to PPE, to resources related to the pandemic and COVID, and way beyond that, the total lack of support that so many teachers and parents and students are receiving now that schools are opening back up and beyond, there's, it's too multitudinous to even name so many of the issues that we're being confronted by, this is a Justice time across the board.
Some people have been awake to this for a very long time, and some of us are very late to the party. Some of us have been awake to other things. Some of us needed to move through some of the work. Some of us have been at the work. So wherever we happen to find ourselves in this spectrum, our eyes are open.
And now, as we venture into this spiral of the year, in such a powerful year, that is ruled by Justice, the fact that in the United States of America we have our presidential election, the fact that one of our supreme court justices just died, and there is a massive question: is this going to happen in a just way? Or is it not? It's, um, you know, and who knows? But there's all of these questions are now coming up in such a huge year, not because they're new, but because when we move through this particular spiral of time, we naturally get closer to the places within us that were unwilling or unable to be with those realities.
And that's where we call upon the Swords suit. That's where we start to look at the language, the limitations, the story of the mind. Where does the mind invite us into story to protect us, to tell us, “No, that's not really happening,” denial. Where does it invite us into denial? You know, where does it invite us into victim blaming? Where does it invite us into blaming ourselves? “You ought to have done better. You should have done better.”
You know, again, I'm not necessarily saying “Oh let yourself off the hook for that entirely.” I think self-exploration and self-inquiry is incredibly important. And sometimes it can totally shame us and help the process around really being awake for the things that are calling out to us.
So it's, you know, I want to acknowledge I'm speaking about a lot of United States-centered issues, Turtle Island-centered issues, as related to stuff that colonists have brought to this land, and that's where I'm living. So that feels important to share and name that, and also to recognize that this is happening everywhere. You know, waking up to these much larger pieces around imbalance in Justice.
[0:24:16]
You know, Justice moves very slowly. It's not a linear path to Justice often, but those things never go away. If there is a ripple effect of something happening that is so deeply out of alignment with true Justice, if it doesn't come up in the moment, it will, just sometimes generations later, or, potentially, lifetimes later, you know. We're living in a time right now where we're really answering for that. And when you have a kind of event, an event, I mean, this really isn't special work. This is work that we've been talking about on this podcast, even, for years (Lindsay Laughs), much less, like, out in the world people really doing the work. Like I want to really acknowledge that this isn't just like “Equinox work”, but it is really powerful to look to this third spiral of the year and really say, wow, you know, this energy of Justice, this is initiating this whole spiral of time, you know, this whole spiral of time.
How can I be with that? How can I get closer to Justice, so I can bring it into every day of my life? Notice where I drift into story and come back into my center. Notice where my experience is a part of Justice to, you know. My feeling is that it should be better. Okay, can I come back into what is? What is is that this is happening, and I'm having this feeling. Can I hold an honor all of it? All of it. Can we do that?
The more we're able to, the more we're able to speak from that place of deep, radical truth and change, or to just simply be, you know, in the relationship of change and evolution that is so important in that relationship with Justice, we can't have it unless we're willing to be with what's actually happening here.
[0:26:22]
So many folks have been saying what's been happening for so long related to these larger, systemic issues. Are those of us who have privilege, those of us who are being called upon as allies and accomplices, are we listening?
That's the question: are we listening? Are we really available? And if not, what's stopping us? Are we really paying attention, really awake to the truth of what's happening in the world, as it relates to the climate and the planet? Are we aware of the places within us where we're not doing the kind of cleanup that we really need to? Are we putting extra stress on… You know, the planet can't really hold a whole lot of excuses anymore. So are we really doing our work? It's a question to ask ourselves every single day, but it really comes into sharper focus in this third spiral of the year.
So Justice and the Swords and Queen of Swords I think are all very powerful archetypes and anchors for radical, social, personal change. Radical. I do believe that because there's a lot of thought energy based in that in wonderful ways and in tough ways. In wonderful ways, when we strategize, we come up with plans, when we come up with solutions, when we think critically, these are all beautiful things. When we acknowledge the places where our mind wants to take us out of the moment wants to pull us into victim mode, wants to pull us into excuses or into defense, when we're aware of that it's great, not because it's great to act from those places, but it's great to know better within ourselves, right?
When we have an awareness of how these things can support and help us to evolve, to change, both on personal levels and big collective levels, it can really shift our understanding of our mind and our ego and ourselves. So this card is really about divorcing ourselves from story and coming home to what's here, staying really open and curious. And the same can be said for applying these themes to ourselves as individuals, wherever we happen to be.
When we drift into places “This shouldn't be, I should be here, this shouldn't be happening, I should be better. What's wrong with me?” around any area of our lives, we miss the opportunity, the opportunity to come home to ourselves and say, “Okay, this is what's here. It could change in an instant. It could literally change in one second. Life is not linear or finite. I’m willing to consider that. But can I open my arms to my whole experience around this, all the feelings and all the emotions, all the fear? Can I open my arms to what's at the root of this story? That I'm afraid I won't be okay. I'm afraid I missed something. I made a mistake. That I'm not where I should be.”
When the truth is that even if we're being invited to pivot a second after we do this kind of inquiry work beginning with “There's no other place for you to be other than here” is the true foundation of change, truly.
[0:30:20]
And the third spiral is really about change more than any other spiral of the Wheel of the Year both again, personally and collectively. So can I be present with the reality of what's here in my life, even if I don't like it? And now that I've acknowledged it, what can I do to change that? That's the work.
So in this third spiral, we move and journey through Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius. So we are journeying through this the flow of Justice, Death, and Temperance and a little Judgement there on the side, because we have Scorpio ruling, or Scorpio ruled by Pluto. And in a way we could say we're moving through a little bit of Empress because Libra is ruled by Venus. We’re moving through a little bit of Wheel of Fortune, because Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter.
So the theme of this time, the theme of the third spiral of the year is “Acknowledge, transform surrender.” With every single card, every single zodiac sign, that we move through through this third spiral, we're going through a process of acknowledgement, transformation, transformation and surrender, sometimes in different orders, right? Usually acknowledgement, surrender, transform. We're doing this in Justice. This is the time, the Equinox, when there is an even amount of daytime and nighttime. It is a symbolic opportunity to look very closely.
When things are even across a flat surface what do you see? What are the life-work balances that you're striving to have? What are the things that you actually want versus what you were told to want? You know, how are you changing? How are you evolving? How has this year changed you?
I don't know anyone who hasn't been radically changed, for better or worse by this year. You know, how, what's happening for you? What's happening for you, it doesn't all have to be peachy. We're just looking. So then we're starting with acknowledgement, and we're surrendering to it. In death, we do the same thing, we surrender to the… you know, there's so in Justice, we're acknowledging what is. We're surrendering to the places where we really feel things should be different and what's actually here, and position ourselves in the intersection so that — between the two — so that we can hold both.
And when we do that there is a natural organic space that's created for transformation. The exact same thing happens in Death card. We acknowledge in the Death card what is ready to die, what is ready to be sloughed off, to be shed, to be cleared, to be released. It's a co-creation in Depth, because we're laying something down on the fire that is ready to go. We're actively making room and being in relationship with that natural life-death dance.
From there, there is a huge surrender. If something is ready to die — again, the Death card doesn't have anything to do, we're not talking about the death of loved ones. We're talking about symbolic, thematic Death, talking about, you know, spiralic death and energetic death. So when something is ready to go, if we have a project, a job, an idea, a wish that just doesn't fit anymore, doesn't, just doesn't, or the way that we've been trying to get at it doesn't work anymore, and we're laying that down on the fire that's huge surrender.
The transformation then says, “Are you available to let this come back to you in a different way?” If you've been longing, wishing, wanting, finally lay something down on the fire and basically say, “I've tried every fucking way to get this to work, and it just hasn't. I'm willing to let it go,” then we actually free ourselves up to have it come back to us, in potentially a totally new and evolved form. And because we're more relaxed and open, we're not necessarily gripping on trying to make that thing occur.
[0:35:21]
Same thing in Temperance, we acknowledge, “Here's what I can do. Here's what's within my control. Here's what I can't do. And here's what I surrender up to Spirit.” Now, this is a part of my evolution into co-creation with Spirit. And from there, massive transformation. Life can actually wildly change when we do Temperance work.
So there is a powerful theme here of acknowledgment, surrender, and transformation, across the board with this third spiral. This is the time of this spiral.
So we start by acknowledging in Justice. We move into maybe, potentially, transformation in Death. We move into surrender, you know. It's really dependent on what you think, and into Death or into transformation and surrender with Temperance. It's really… all of it occurs with each one, and yet each one really brings a very solid potent mix of the three. So that's really what we're doing. And it starts, again, with this sense of really looking, very clearly, at the balance in our lives.
And, again, I want to just be so intentional here, we're not looking for balance from an egoic standpoint. This is, I mean, an unprecedented time on the planet of grief, of loss, of change. We, I mean, there have been many articles written about the impact of such suspended states of stress on the nervous system and on the body.
And I was, in fact, just reading something the other day about how one of the things that's really important about this time is to be very gentle with ourselves and not necessarily expect our full capacity in certain areas. And that doesn't mean that we're not showing up with 110% in the areas that we really feel called to, or, like, we have an obligation, a duty to do. But it just means in others, we may not be meeting our full capacity.
And for many people, I hope that feels like a given, but I want to just be very, very, again, intentional with my languaging here when we talk about balance, because I think it perhaps might make people think that I'm saying we have to go to a place of, like, perfect balance, that we can't be in our “shoulds”, and, you know, we can't, you know, feel our feelings. And that is so not the truth. In fact, this is actually helping us, this work, to be in the center of ourselves when things are not balanced.
[0:38:55]
Justice comes when things… when we're being asked to find our center in the midst of injustice when we're being asked to center into ourselves so that we actually show up as effective agents of change. It doesn't mean like, oh, be cool with everything, or don't feel your feelings about it. It also doesn't mean you got to go out, and you got to be super balanced.
I think I was clear, but I also feel like it's pretty important, given everything that's happening on the planet right now, everything that's occurring and beyond what I even spoke about or shared. It's, again, a huge time. It is a huge time, and we would do well, even in the midst of showing up radically, to be very gentle. So it's just an opportunity to begin to get curious about different ways of showing up.
So acknowledgement, transformation, and surrender in all of these energies. So now we can really come to this place of bowing to this threshold, bowing to this Equinox threshold.
Anytime we come upon a really important moment, either to us or collectively or whatever it is, something like this, it's a door that opens, a door that, again, allows us to see and really bow to what has the last cycle taught me? How have I grown? How have I changed? Where am I going in this next cycle? Can I bow to that? And can I step over that threshold, cross that bridge, you know, allow the particular energy of this time to take me, to show me what's ready to be acknowledged and seen?
[0:41:05]
And I think it's, again, nothing happens without an equal and opposite reaction, right. So for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, we're about to transition into our autumn, our autumnal cycle, but the Southern Hemisphere is preparing for spring. So that's very powerful.
All of these themes are happening during the death time on the Wheel of the Year in the Northern Hemisphere, and they're happening on the Southern Hemisphere in the birth time. So this is a death-birth time, we can say this, really, of any time.
But I would say the solstices have more to do with expansion from where we are, versus the equinoxes that really provide that sense of balance that allows us to jump off and make and create something very powerful. It's not an accident that the equinoxes are ruled by the Emperor and Justice (Lindsay Laughs). It's, like, huge.
And, really, when we work with our April Equinox, or, whoa, so sorry, our March Equinox — meant to say Aries, but for some reason, April — when we're working with the March Equinox, Spring Equinox, here in the Northern Hemisphere, we're looking at where we as individuals are growing, changing, and evolving. And this is a lot more to do with the collective experience.
So everybody is listening to this from totally different places, you know. How, in this time, when a lot is, you know, a lot is happening in the next few months in the world, in the country that I live in, how can we really be in our truth during those times, the truth, rather than in the story? How can we show up even when it's hard? How can we stay present even when we don't want to see what's going on? How can we not go away either from ourselves or from what's happening right now?
[0:43:35]
So those are just a couple things to think about as we venture into this new spiral of time. And I invite you to create ritual with this however you want. You may want to kind of do a little self-study module for yourself on the Swords. If you've always been curious about them, I have classes on my website. I also have free podcasts here. There's also, like, a bazillion resources for you, or you could just go with your own process of study without necessarily leaning into anyone else's teachings.
You could do your own field study on Justice during this time, which I highly recommend you do, just noticing how it's impacting you, noticing where you get caught in story or “shoulds”. And how do you come back, you know, to this moment while honoring those places?
How can you call upon Queen of Swords to help you cut the cords of confusion and come home to yourself in moments when things feel very confusing? You know, how do we actually work with these energies in the moment? In the moment: if you're at a protest how can you call upon Queen of Swords to be with you as an anchor and an ally of protection, of boundaries, of truth speaking? You know, if we are showing up on the front lines, you know, how can we call upon a particular Sword card to help us move through what we might be going through, you know?
How can we work with when we're in massive grief about the wildfires in the West Coast, about the devastation of the United States, of the devastation happening along the Gulf Coast of Turtle Island, you know, how can we call upon 3 of Swords to help us be with the grief?
And, you know, especially with the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I noticed with myself huge Three of Swords response where there was massive anger and story and judgement — and that's still present with some things — but then immediately, when I was willing to be with it shifted into huge grief, really big grief. That stayed for a few minutes, and then really transmuted into a much larger sense of willingness to face what was needed of the time, rather than being caught in emotion and story.
And it actually made me a lot more constructive in terms of how I looked at, okay, you know, if this is the reality, what can I do, you know, where my donations really help, where might it help me to, you know, whatever it is. And we could go on and on and on. But these cards are really showing up as these wonderful anchors for us. And if we can give ourselves over to them, we can develop these wonderful relationships with them beyond what we might have ever thought possible.
So I feel like I could say so much more, but there's just, yeah, I want to keep it under an hour today, or at least to an hour.
[0:47:08]
Let's pivot into the Equinox Medicine Tarot spreads. So this spread is for… it tracks us from where we are now, today, September 21st, 22nd, 23rd — depending on where you're hearing this and when you're hearing it — to the Winter Solstice around December 21st or 22nd. So our card for this Equinox portal from the fall to the winter, or from the spring to the summer, depending on where we are in the world, is Five of Pentacles.
So this does not mean that the next three months are going to be hard times, that you're not going to have what you need, not at all. Fives stir up those fears. They don't actually initiate the truth of them. So in other words, if you're in Five of Pentacles, that does not necessarily reflect the reality of your life. Five of Pentacles can often, traditionally, be thought of as being like, “We have nothing, we're losing everything, we don't have what we need materially or in reality to survive.” And, of course, I want to acknowledge the enormous truth that many folks live day-to-day with that reality. That's just not what Five of Pentacles actually is, and it certainly, necessarily, is on any given moment.
So again, Fives are here to kind of activate and stir up our stuff around survival, our stuff around not getting what we need. So if you may, if you grew up in that kind of environment where you didn't have what you needed in one way, shape, or form — the love, the care, the nurturance, literal food and shelter — you know that sometimes even if you are in situations as an adult where you have those things or you’re able to give yourself those things, that the fear comes up. It doesn't mean that you're in it, but it doesn't mean that the fear of it potentially happening again, or the trauma of it can occur and arise.
So what we're being invited to do in the next few months, as we navigate a real host of big, evolutionary changes, we're going into a big time in this third spiral, how do we come home to ourselves in the midst of moments when we're not sure if we're going to have what we need?
And need is a relative term. So some people are really experiencing this on a literal, financial, survival level. Some of us may be experiencing this on “What if I don't get… “ Gosh, I could go on and on, right? Need is relative. So we all have different needs and wants, you know.
How can we come back home? How do we navigate those times when we feel that sense of tightness and contraction? When that fear arises, what if this happens? What if? What if I don't get what I need or what I want? What if this occurs? What if, you know, whatever it is? What if, you know, what if this happens, what if that happens?
[0:50:36]
So one of the ways to stay tethered to our center here is by just showing up to what needs our attention most in this moment.
So a lot of the time Five of Pentacles can be this very big sense of like, “What if I don't get what I need out here? What if I don't get what I need tomorrow?” And again, that's real. But what needs your attention today? Not as a distraction, but, like, literally rather, so you don't get swept up into this story. And also, can we investigate that story?
You know, Fives are contractions. They're not necessarily, certainly, telling us what will be and what will not be, you know. So are we open to the fact that this story, this idea that we're not going to have what we need, what if we don't get what we need, can change at any moment, that we can be free to receive and allow things to come in at any moment? Can we anchor into the present? What needs our attention right now?
Five of Pentacles is very interesting because very often, when we experience this card, we can get so in desperation to not have stuff happen that it actually winds up inadvertently kind of contracting our channel and our view a bit, and we miss the abundance or the support that’s right in front of us. Sometimes that can happen, sometimes not, right?
Sometimes things are just really hard, and we literally don't have what we need and those are incredibly traumatic, challenging times. How do we navigate those times? By being with what helps us to feel supported? What helps you to feel supported? You know, how can you reach out for that? And to that?
So our card for this Equinox portal isn't “Oooh, you're not going to get what you need for three months.” It basically says to us, how do you show up for yourself when you feel that? How does it work for you, when you try to get things done from a place of desperation? Does it work? And I'm not saying it does or it doesn't. We're just asking: does it actually work? You know, or when you widen past the stories what does that do for you? What does it do for your energy? Does it help you to actually have a little bit more to give, a little bit more, in terms of your ability, to receive? How do you offer yourself that attention when you feel scared?
We're all going through that. We all go through those feelings. It's refining the quality of attention so that we can show up for ourselves in a much more effective way, essentially.
[0:53:55]
So the card that is showing up as our ally through the third spiral of the year from now until the Winter Solstice, the being that's actually helping us go through Five of Pentacles, is Two of Pentacles.
So in order to move through the Five of Pentacles time, we call upon Two of Pentacles. That basically says, “Chuck anything that is superfluous in your life.” And I mean anything. There is a big energetic wave happening right now around, you know, what and how we devote our attention to especially now because our attention and our reserves are very precious, especially those of us who are, again, showing up on the front lines, parents who are managing work and homeschooling, those showing up for Black Lives with their bodies on the streets. Like, literally, the reserves have been small and are smaller.
So Two of Pentacles basically says you have two hands, metaphorically. We're, you know, some folks actually have two hands, some folks have less, or one or whatever. You have two kind of metaphorical hands here, right? You can only hold so much in one or the other. And what you're holding is a balancing act. So part of acknowledgment, transformation, and surrender, part of working with such a strong death time, part of working with such a strong rebirth time in Temperance is actually being willing to put things on the fire that are not serving you anymore; putting things on the compost pile that don't serve you anymore. Eyes on your own paper. It doesn't matter if the person next to you is doing X or doing Y, or doing this or doing that. It doesn't matter. It doesn't.
I can tell you for sure that right now, especially, I've had many of my own feelings, own experiences, that I’ve honored, that of other folks that I've talked to so many people this year, some folks have just really not have not felt in any way inspired, creative. Their biggest triumph is that they're here. They're doing the bare minimum. They're doing what they have to do. They're doing what they feel drawn to do. But are they like, creating from this, like, fountain of this wealth of inspiration? They're not. And some folks have a huge wealth of inspiration and are creating so much.
[0:56:41]
And it is really important not to compare ourselves. We are where we are. This time is different for everybody. To be Two of Pentacles basically says, “It doesn't matter what the other person's doing. It matters what you're being called to do. You.”
And that guides us into Five of Pentacles, too. What's the story about not necessarily feeling super creative right now, and maybe feeling exhausted? You know, if we leave it up to Five of Pentacles, we can think “Well, if I don't push or force myself, I'm going to, like, not have money.” And Two of Pentacles says, “I honor that and what might be more useful is, instead of pushing and forcing yourself, to actually tap the brakes, or slowly put the brakes on, and review.. And say to yourself like, what might I actually be devoting my energy to right now that I could reclaim? Is there something that takes up energetic space in my life that doesn't actually serve me?” you know.
So notice where you get pulled or dragged away from your soul work, from your business. I don't mean your work business. I mean your business, being in your business. It's not your business what people are doing or what they're not doing. Your business is to pay attention to yourself, and whomever else you serve or care or have the obligation to take care of, you know. Coming back home, focusing, anything superfluous has to go, we cannot hold it. It's not our job to hold it. It's not your job.
So how do we deal with Five of Pentacles? How do we work with that? Two. We call upon the Two of Pentacles. It will keep us from moving into that story so much about how we don't have what we need by acknowledging how much we are already holding in our hands.
What has to go? Sometimes the Two of Pentacles it's like friendships, it's relationships, it's particular tasks or duties or whatever. And sometimes, we can't take those away so certain belief systems have to go, certain stories have to go, certain thoughts have to go, certain habits have to go.
And, again, this isn't about getting it perfect. This isn't like some capitalist, supremacist view of perfection and balance. This is about soul balance. It's… we're always in balance. We’re always striving for balance and not not meeting it and meeting it, you know. But eyes on our own paper. If your eyes aren’t on it, whose are? Right?
[0:59:25]
So what are we shedding and clearing in this cycle? What are we working on in this cycle? Two cards came up with this: Three of Swords and Knight of Wands.
So we're not shedding Three of Swords. We're shedding the barriers that we have, the resistance that we have, to connecting in deep intimacy with our heart during times of grief and pain. Three of Swords is such a beautiful energy and is really not at all what most folks think it is. I've done a podcast episode or two on this card, and it really is a homecoming to the heart space and acknowledging where we get caught or pulled into story or into action, like, “I have to speak on this. I have to do this right now.” And sometimes that's like, wholly true and super important, but what it can do, inadvertently, is take us away from the tending that so wants to be offered to ourselves, right? So we're clearing and shedding the actual process of distraction that we employ to get away from that rawness, to get away from those raw feelings.
In terms of Knight of Wands we’re shedding and clearing anything that blocks us from moving through the world in the way that is right for us. Knights are about aligned, empowered, autonomous movement. Knight of Wands basically says, “I am a being that can assist you in moving through the world at a pace, at a rate, that is exactly right for you, without judging, without looking, again, at other people, how they do things, how you think you should do things, and honoring what and how Spirit longs to move and dance through you; the way that your soul moves” you know.
I will share on a personal note that I am somebody because I really, really channel everything I do. It's not strategized. My offerings aren't strategized. It's never a question of like, “Whoo, I think my audience would love this.” I so admire people who can do that. I'm really told, like, “This wants to come through you.” And it's a great honor to be a vessel for those things, but I am a human being, and it is hard. And sometimes my work doesn't come through until, like, the second before it's due to students, basically. Sometimes it happens with this podcast. And I have carried so much story and judgement and shame and guilt and grief about that. I’ve fought it. I’ve tantrumed over it because I have a story that it makes me irresponsible or flaky or whatever.
And it's only been very recently that, you know, through the, also, the reflection of my teacher, Michelle, that I've really been able to see like, actually, that's not true. That my feelings are totally welcome and okay about it, but that the truth is that things don't come through me until the last minute because they're working through me. And the minute I record or film something, the working through me is over. Like, it's birthed. It's out. There's no room to change anything.
And it's been a very powerful Knight of Wands homecoming for me, where I've been able to acknowledge the wounding I have about being seen as somebody like that because of being a kid who had a brain injury. And post-traumatic stress disorder, it will make you unreliable (Lindsay Laughs) and inconsistent, as a child, teenager, and young adult. Also, when you're just a spiralic person, you have chronic illness, chronic pain, you're living more spiralically. You're just living more tethered to the truth of just, like, where you are today. And some folks can hang with that, and some can't.
And even here in my mid 30s, this past year or so has been the strongest time of my life of being able to say, “I refuse to apologize for that anymore. And I refuse to judge myself for that,” because that's my Knight of Wands work. I mean, if someone's in my life, and they can't roll with me being on spiral time as related to my pain, they're not… they no longer have a place as a friend in my life.
So all that to say, that that may resonate with you, too. Like where do you have story about the way you move, your timing, how you flow, how your work flows through you, how you, you know, whatever it is? We all have our own unique rhythm and pace, and that rhythm and pace typically changes from moment to moment. So how can we really be not throwing or shedding Knight of Wands, but how can we clear away the stories that we have about how we're moving and how it's potentially not good enough?
[1:05:10]
it also connects back to Five of Pentacles. So in my journey, what would happen sometimes is if my work didn't come last minute, there was a huge amount of projection onto like, “Oh my god, I'm like fucking my team over and fucking this,” and it took years of kind of checking in with my team and saying, “Are you really okay with it?” Recognizing that I needed a team who could, who liked working that way, that I couldn't work with somebody who needed the work, like, six months before. And so there's nothing wrong with that. It's just that I'm trying to make a square peg fit into a round hole, or vice versa. That's the problem.
So the bowing over to our natural pace and rhythm is a part, you know, all of us have worked in medicine to bring to the planet, period. And if we are trying to, again, squeeze ourselves, fit ourselves into this box that doesn't fit, we are organically going to kind of feel like, “Well, I can't keep up. I have nothing to offer. I don't really know what to do.” Rather than saying to ourselves, “This is my rhythm. This is what I have to offer within that rhythm,” and that is enough. It is enough for today. It's enough for this moment. It might change tomorrow. That's been a powerful piece right now, and in this episode is like, things change, you know.
Things change in a second, they change overnight. We don't need to be so like, “Oh my god, this is forever.” Nothing's forever. So we're clearing out the blocks, the resistance, the stories that keep us from being in oneness with those energies.
[1:06:55]
Where are we growing and evolving? Death.
So we're actually being called during the spiral to embrace death, to embrace the shedding, the collapse, the release of the structures that are dying, both inside of us, outside of us. We are changing personally and collectively. How can we open our arms to that and not be afraid, not be afraid?
I've been working very intimately with the Death card, like, very strongly, almost every day, doing actual ritual with Death card energy, really inviting it into my life and my house. And I've never known a card to be so sweet, actually.
A lot of my own kind of buried, super buried, stuff about Death has been very interesting, because what it's allowed me to see is that when I give something over to the fire, so to speak, or to death, or when I acknowledge, like, me trying to do something in this way, I can't do it. It's already dead. So can I offer it up to the fire?
I have found, extraordinarily, that there's been so much more freshness and clarity in my life because I'm not trying to make these themes or these situations that are immobilized, are dead. I'm not trying to prop them up and kind of, like, make them be alive. That by laying them down, I've found a lot of things that I laid on the fire back in June or July, have come back to me in a different form, or haven't. And that's been really wonderful. And other things have come in.
So we are in this as a collective right now. Period. Everything is undergoing a death process right now. You are, your partner is, your children are, everything, our schools, our concept of living in alignment with Mother Nature, or with the, you know, with nature itself, with the systems that we've created, both as humans and outside of it, they're all totally collapsing. That's not new. But how can we embrace it and see it as like, “Yes, please, let's not drag this heavy stuff around with us anymore. Let's please clear it. Let's drop all of these places that feel so heavy, that are making us feel so tired.”
Can we drop them? Our excuses, our stories, our fears, like these things that we've been trying to get going forever, but can we just let them go? Can we be courageous enough to let them burn and say, “I'm open if you want to come back, and if not, I understand?” It's a very powerful work, and that's what we're being embedded to embrace.
[1:10:06]
We're being invited to devote our attention as a collective in this third spiral to Five of Pentacles, to our grief, to the places in us that really want to be held, nurtured, supported you know, to really honor the three spilled cups while also holding a space for the two filled ones. So it's a real process right now of both/and.
And as we travel through the energy of the third spiral of air, of fall, of death, of clearing, we can really look to… we're bowing to all of these different things that this year has taught us. We're bowing to so much that's come up for us around lessons and where we've been rocked and where we've been changed and where we can’t even recognize ourselves and also where we hope to keep going. So yeah, it's a powerful place to begin to kind of root into and look at during this time. Very powerful.
Oh, I — so much for going for an hour (Lindsay Laughs). Whoops, I'm way over an hour. Yeah, and in light of that, I'm gonna stop here. But I want to really wish everybody a really blessed, really potent, really powerful, Equinox and/or wherever and however you happen to be honoring this time, if you're honoring, if you're not honoring it, but a really blessed time in this third spiral and know that these cards are here for you as anchors for you during this time. You can come back to them anytime. Anytime in the next few months. If you're like “What the fuck is happening?” If you come back to this reading, it will help support you and root you. So thank you for being here, Wild Souls. I love you. Keep an eye out for this podcast transcript if you're listening to this, even three days out, it should already be up in the show notes.
Until we meet again, please take care.
[Conclusion]
(Instrumental exit music)
[1:12:30]
Thank you so much for listening to Tarot for the Wild Soul.
This podcast was edited by Chase Voorhees. The podcast art is by Chelsea Iris Granger and it is hosted by me, Lindsay Mack. For more about the podcast, visit wildsoulpodcast.com or follow us on Instagram, @wildsoulhealing. For more about me and my work, please visit lindsaymack.com.
To support Tarot for the Wild Soul, please consider subscribing to the podcast on iTunes and leaving us a five star review. It helps people find us and it is greatly greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much for being here.