146. Monthly Medicine: January is Creation
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January is a time of big creation, rooted in opportunities to move, channel, and bring things that we’ve been gestating and refining for years into earthly form.
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About the Episode
Welcome to a new year, Wild Souls! January is a time of big creation, rooted in opportunities to move, channel, and bring things that we’ve been gestating and refining for years into earthly form.
We are at choice with this kind of big creation energy. We can direct it into nurturing the things we want to grow, or we can leak it into the things that don’t really support us any longer. We have the opportunity to make some very big shifts this month with how we prioritize our time, energy, and attention, opening us to newfound possibilities with our work, our relationships, and the way we tend to ourselves.
Wild Soul Collective Reading for January:
Cards for the month ahead: Eight of Wands and Six of Swords
What we are being invited to offer our attention to: The Magician
The lesson of the month ahead: Ten of Wands
What we are being invited to discard: Seven of Cups
The seeds that we are being invited to plant this month: Nine of Cups
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: abuse, trauma, illness, grief
The content in this lesson/episode contains references to abuse, trauma, illness and grief. 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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(Instrumental intro music)
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Hello Loves and welcome back to Tarot for the Wild Soul podcast. I'm your host, Lindsay Mack, and it is such a joy and an honor to be gathered with you in this virtual space not just to call in, celebrate, acknowledge the energy and the invitations of a new month in our Monthly Medicine episode, but a brand new month, to a brand new year, 2021. So we're going to be diving into all of that and more, what the Tarot cards, specifically, that are really showing up for us, really holding the container of what's possible this month, so that we can lean into them and dive into our soul work.
What a shift this is going to be, the movement into 2021. It's very interesting, right? Because we're not finished with what's happening in 2021 (Lindsay Laughs). It's not like our fingers snap, and all of a sudden, everything that's been coming up this year goes away. It's really far from it, and yet, we've been working in the energy of Emperor, Tower, and Judgement this whole year in 2020.
2020 is a Four year, The Emperor is ruled by Four, the Emperor is ruled by Aries. This is, I mean I love the Emperor, and if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you know my feelings on the Emperor, you know that I do not think it all has anything to do with the kind of patriarchal, colonialist kind of root system that that often comes along with this card. I also don't really find the Emperor to be kind of a father figure protector. I don't think it has anything to do with gender or parental roles at all.
Although, of course, I acknowledge those of you who have really strong bonds to the Emperor in that way, nobody's wrong. I just think it's important, as a teacher, to invite everybody into the most holistic view of these cards, so we really know all of this spectrum. Our fathers are not just fathers, they're also humans, right, but their own systems. They're not just defined by those by those titles, right? So we want to offer that same courtesy to the Tarot.
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Aries is the sign of the sunrise, the newborn, the dawning and arrival of new life on this planet. And the Emperor — I've been saying for many years, so again, forgive me for repeating it — but the Emperor really can be summed up in the cry, the scream of a brand new, newborn baby. This is the one of the deepest affirmations of life, “I'm here. I'm crying. I'm making noise. I'm allowed to take up space. I can be here.” Right?
And Emperor is so beautiful, because when you're really leaning into it, it can help us to take up the fullness of our embodiment without crowding anybody out, without kind of hungrily reaching for more and more and more outside of us because the inside is empty.
Emperor says, “Let's go to the inside to really look at what's there. Where have you lost touch with that birthright?” And all of us have, right? Because of society, over culture, trauma from our past, trauma from the over culture, telling us you’re, you know, othering us, telling us we're different, we're separate, we're apart. There's very, very real feelings of separation, “I'm less than,” that many of us have in a few different spectrums. Right?
Emperor invites us, while acknowledging those societal realities, to come back to the soul truth, that we have things to share, our life matters, what we say matters, what we do matters, who we are is inherently, we are inherently worthy of taking up space, just like any baby, just like the dawning of the sun, just like the bigness, the vastness, again, of forests, of mountains, of sky.
We've had to go down to this nitty gritty in 2020 — it's the energy of the rebirth of the self. Now, we can often think of the rebirth of the self, like getting our groove back, so to speak, like, “Oh, we're feeling so good.” No, no, like this is intense.
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Aries is ruled by Mars and Pluto, those are two of its ruling planets, and that's there's a connection there to the Tower and Judgement. You can't really come with your full Emperor self, truly who you were meant to be, truly what you were meant to bring to the world, without having some Towers come down. And there were, I mean, probably completely unprecedented levels of Towering, of completely things literally being on fire, burning everything down to the foundation, so that the foundation itself could be torn up, dug up, so we could see even catching a glimpse, of the, really, just the wound, the infection, the damage that has been lying under the foundation.
And let's be really just real here — some of us are just coming to those understandings. Other folks, especially BIPOC, marginalized folks, folks who've been doing this work for hundreds of years, for decades, have been saying this, have known this, and yet there was a much larger, collective shaking awake at a grappling, a necessity for all of us to come back to the wounds that we haven't processed yet, which because we haven't processed, potentially, we may be acting out of them. They may be causing harm where we don't mean to because of these unacknowledged wounds. We may be continuing to reach for things that aren't really in our highest and best.
This was a brutal year across the board, no romance about it, and yet, I guarantee you if you look back, who you were at this time in 2019, is completely different. And while you may feel battle weary, you know, and kind of wide eyed and exhausted — I think we all do to varying degrees, of course — there is this, again, this shaking awake, and it is collective.
It doesn't mean that everybody is acknowledging it. It doesn't mean that everybody is saying yes to it, but everybody feels it. Whether or not they're actually heeding that, whether they're stopping at denial or anger or blaming or othering, that remains to be seen. It is an evolve or be dragged time. So some people are dragging, some people are evolving, right?
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We also saw a huge Judgement energy. Tower’s ruled by Mars. Judgement is ruled by Pluto. The Tower is when we personally — and this can happen collectively as well — but we're all of a sudden, something, a structure, a concept that we've been building on, when the foundation of it is not super sturdy and strong, The Tower comes in for us basically says, “I'll take all this down for you. Like, I'll take this away, I'll clear all this out.”
Sometimes we just take the top off the Tower, sometimes the whole thing has to come down, and then, like, the basement has to come out. We have to literally carve it out. That's how untrue it is. But the Tower always comes with blessings. It's not possible to have a Tower experience. It can be traumatic and horrible, uncomfortable. It always comes, always, so that we can rebuild, so that we can actually heal what is ready to be healed.
There's a reason that the Tower is the 16th card in 22 Major Arcana cards, it takes a lot of yeses to finally get to the point where we are co-creating with Spirit enough, where energies beyond us can come in and be like, “I'll take care of that for you.” And all of a sudden Our eyes are open to something that we didn't know before.
The function of Tower is to direct, a la Mars, direct that energy to clear what has never been true, so that we can get to the truth underneath, so that we can heal the wounds that are keeping us from being in truth. Judgement, which is Pluto, is when we take that idea, that concept, that seed, that's contained in Tower, and we blow it out to include the entire planet.
This might be one of the first, I mean, obviously, we were dealing with things on an unprecedented, global level with COVID and beyond this year but, you know, the United States, specifically, as so called, currently, obviously, Turtle Island, is currently gearing up for its Pluto return in terms of the United States of America. And there's, we're already in that, you know, (Lindsay Laughs) like waking up to what this “country” was built upon, right? The total warping, the total, like, all the systems that have to come down, I could go on and on, right?
But that's all Judgement. It's collectively waking up to “Oh, my gosh, what I was taught in school, what kind of my pride was built upon, there's actually a completely different set of narratives and truth, historically, that I was never shown, that I was never taught, that threaten my sense of equilibrium in the world,” especially for those of us who have privilege, right.
The blindfold comes off in Judgement. We go down the, you know, the Tower kind of clears the foundation, so that we can get in there, the Tower or Judgement takes us down into the foundation, way down, like miles under the ground to really explore, like, where is white supremacy, capitalist structure? Where are these systems of oppression present, everywhere, where we, how we work, how we engage with each other, with our bodies, with our friends, with our community? And that's just to name a few. Like where does our privilege intersect with the way we show up in the world?
There were so many things that so many of us relate to this, to this conversation, but we can't go forward, right, without truly beginning to commit to the lifelong work of unpacking and committing to repair, committing to doing better, as much as we can.
So there was so much Pluto work, Mars work, Aries work, intense fire, brashness, and that’s shifting. The work, what came up in that work, the foundational clearing and scraping away, that's not over, but we're going to continue that work in a different kind of an energy in 2021.
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We're in Five energy instead of Four. Fives teach us how to be more resilient. It teaches us how to move through discomfort with grace. We need that. And it's not to say, “Oh, 2021 is going to be so uncomfortable,” but why shouldn't it be?
Discomfort is a wonderful thing. And we don't want to be uncomfortable just for discomfort’s sake. Discomfort is the stuff of aliveness. When we are contracted, when we are growing, we are uncomfortable. It's how we evolve. It's not to romanticize pain. We're not talking about pain. But that sense of discomfort, of evolutionary growth, we're being asked to really embrace that.
It's a gift. It doesn't mean we have to believe it, that we have to have it feel so hard or so challenging, but it is something that we're being called to navigate with grace to just acknowledge it, instead of acting out of it or reacting from it.
We're working through Hierophant this year, taking the bones and the root systems of Emperor, “I have a right to be here,” and expanding it into, “Now that I know that I do, what can I do with,” you know, to quote Mary Oliver, “ ‘my one wild, precious life,’ what am I doing? Who am I influencing? You know, who looks to me? Who do I look to? You know, where have I given my power away? Where have I been afraid to step into my full power? Where can I have the systems of my life feel more solid, feel more beautiful, feel more supportive? How can I not go back to giving it all away?” These are big questions.
So even though, you know, we look at the Fives, and we just think, “Blech,” Fives are wonderful. That doesn't mean that 2021 is going to be a Five year. Will we have to confront, navigate important crucial questions and awakenings and opportunities to evolve? Hell yeah! We're never going back from that. There, this isn't, that's not new to quite a few of us (Lindsay Laughs). It's just starting to be something that a lot of folks are waking up to.
This definitely isn't “going back to brunch” time on this planet. And even if you were to go back to brunch, it's not going to feel the same. So 2021, you know, so to speak. So 2021 is about making peace with that. We're moving forward.
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And the month of January is a kicking off point to this huge shift from Four to Five from Emperor to Hierophant, from, you know, 2020 to 2021, and the theme for the month of January is Creation. This is a big month of creation and movement, if you want it to be.
We're at choice right now. There's a lot of opportunity, a lot of things we can do, a lot of ways that we can take it, in terms of how we're making our choices, utilizing that “one wild and precious life”, and the energy that is so precious to us. If we were available to it, 2020 really was very supportive in helping to get rid of what was superfluous.
For some of us, that was heartbreaking. For some of us, that included losing things that we cherished, that confronted, invited us to confront, potentially, were we exhausted? Were things feeling untenable to begin with? Did it pull a plug that we might not have pulled ourselves? Are we still grieving? Are we still?
Like, all answers to that are valid, and this certainly is not to say like, “Oh my gosh, everything was so aligned in 2020.” It was the fucking mess. It was just what were we called to look at? What did we clear out, pare down around what left? What beliefs, stories, systems internally got cleared this year, whether we were planning on it or not, whether we wanted to or not, like what were we asked to do work on?
Wherever that is, is the platform, the foundation upon which you will be asked to kind of sing out your inner Hierophant. Hierophants are here to serve. They are here to help. They're here to support. They are here to walk a fine line between trusting themselves, knowing their worth, their goodness, bringing what they were here to bring, and always learning, staying humble, staying soft, staying open, staying aware, not dipping on to the one side of that pendulum that basically says, “Hey, I am a channeler. I'm a knower. I know all.” That bullshit is out the fucking door. It's been for a long time.
And not swinging to the other end that says, “Oh my gosh, I can't trust myself. I don't know. What if I'm wrong?” but really hanging out in the middle: “This is what I know today, and I'm nobody's guru, I’m nobody's leader, I’m nobody's star.” You're your star. You're your leader, you're your teacher, you're your own gateway to Spirit. How we show up is just in help, just in assistance and support.
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This is really the Age of Aquarius. We're shifting away from this kind of individualism to a kind of an understanding that what we do as humans, what we say yes to in our own lives, our own honouring, of our needs, of our rest, of our boundaries, of what we... no longer betraying ourselves, no longer apologizing, leaving ourselves behind, being loyal to ourselves. By doing that, we're actually showing up in much greater service to the collective. What we do for ourselves radiates out. It does, and vice versa, you know.
So it is a big time of creation, and creation energy is very powerful. It's going to be running through all of us this year. Hierophants are channelers. They're here to bring shit down into earthly form. It's really big. They're also here to unpack huge, you know, webs of oppression, of various different things within what they're doing, within what the collective is doing. This is really about reclaiming true Hierophant-ness, which is embodying our own wisdom and bringing it to the world.
And creation energy can absolutely be warped. It can, absolutely. We can sit on it. We can sit on creation energy, and it can kind of implode inside of us. We can use it for destruction. We can use it to tear other people down. We can use it to kind of get stuck, and, you know, we can drop into victim mode, drop into complaining, or we can say yes, and honor ourselves and tend ourselves and really put our soul work to use for the collective and the planet.
So we're always a choice, you can do anything you want with creation energy. Ideally, you want to use it to create and to move.
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Our cards. One card that came forward, that I think is just such a lovely bridge between kind of the collective reading for the month ahead and sort of this nice binder, that brings kind of what's possible in this month into oneness with Hierophant, with 2021 in general, a card that came up here is a little anchor for that bridge is King of Pentacles.
And in a way, after I did The Threshold, which is my offering about the Hierophant, about 2021 channel download, for the year ahead, it occurred to me after it was all sealed up and ready to go that it probably would have been useful — Spirit told me no, so it's fine (Lindsay Laughs) — but in my head, I thought, wow, would have been great to have talked about the Kings, because the Kings are such beautiful anchors about what it is to embody leadership.
And I would say, King of Pentacles, which is the card that came up as this sort of nice bridge for the month ahead, in how we can kind of step into this year and use our energy in really different ways than we ever have before is… This is about, this card is like embodying your values, how you show up behind closed doors should be how you show up in everyday life.
We've spent so much fucking time worrying about, “Is this the right thing? Should I do it? What about now?” 2021 essentially says, “Do it, figure it out.” Obviously, this goes without saying, but I'm gonna say it anyway. Ethically, we want to be in alignment. We don't want to do anything out of ethics, out of integrity that we're not certified to do. It's not about just throwing it to the wind and being like, “Hey, I'm a doctor today.” Obviously, that's not what we're talking about.
But if you've had it in your mind, “I want to write a zine about X,” and there's just been like, “Uhh, I don't know,” 2021, and even January is the time to say, let's do it. Let's see, you know. Whether it happens or not doesn't really matter. It's about saying, “Here I am. Let me do it. Let me see. Let me bring it forward. Let me bring it down. Let me bring it through for the world, for myself.”
It's a time of great and big kind of birthing, blossoming, potential, utilizing our energy. That means that we might not have as much energy to offer to the things that don't matter. And we have been asked to be really clear about that this year. What doesn't matter? Where does everything get drained away?
If we haven't been willing to fully face and acknowledge that, 2021 is going to really kick our butts into it because, again, if you're in a river that's moving very quickly, which I would characterize January of 2021, as being like. Ideally, in this river, like we can swim, we feel safe, you know (Lindsay Laughs). We don't want to be trying to walk against that current.
And that's what I mean by how are we using that creation energy? Are we pushing? Are we forcing? Are we trying to block the flow because we aren't sure, we're not ready? Or are we just willing to go “Whoa, this is a lot, but okay. Alright.” We can walk into that. We can step into that. We can do it, and the King of Pentacles can help. This is just like there's no separation in King of Pentacles between what we value, what we believe, what we're doing, and how we're living that. This is about stepping forward in full shine, in full service, really.
[0:26:04]
Our cards for the month of January are, two came forward: Eight of Wands and Six of Swords.
Okay, Eight of Wands is exactly that river analogy. It's a fast moving river. The key with a lot of folks, including myself, by the way, I've had to, I’ve really had this illuminated to me in my own practice as well. I used to teach Eight of Wands as just being like, “This is a time of movement of like, things are in motion.”
That is true. It is about movement and being in motion, but what has become clear to me this year is like, what, what do you do with that? Like, how do you rest/ride those currents? How do you do what you're meant to be doing within the currents, instead of trying to make them go faster, slow them up? It's a fine art. It's a dance. It really is.
So there's very literally anything is possible in 2021, and that's not to, you know, bypass, again, the kind of challenges, difficulties, lack of access, of course. On a collective scale, so much is going to be coming into earthly form, coming into being, and we are the stewards of that.
This is literally like, again, the Age of Aquarius, we moved into this with Saturn conjunct Jupiter in Aquarius. We are in a new time. And in this kind of different, even though things are the same, right? Very energetically sensitive, there has been a difference energetically since the conjunction, not, again, magically not like “woo magic wand”, but things are coming up. They're coming forward. There are opportunities, invitations, internal and external. They're inviting us into this river.
Are we gonna think about what is this? Can I do it? Or are we just gonna let it take us and see what arises for us in that river? What support systems come forward? Where might we be pressed? Which sometimes is a good thing to be like, “Whoa, I need somebody to help caretake me on this. Like I need a guide, you know, on this journey.”
[0:29:05]
So we're going to be moving. We're going to be creating. We're going to be bringing things down and through. It's a big time of creation, of change, of possibility. A lot of generous, yeah, like bustling potential.
How do we take care of ourselves in those times? How do we work with our mental attitude? How do we work with our contractions, our stories, our limiting beliefs, how do we work with? Because this is a fresh time, what we might have tried or tried to do a year ago, two years ago, three years ago, if we try now is different. It may be different. So going into it with that fresh mindset.
Hierophant also really calls us into major work on our beliefs, especially the beliefs that are not true. And beliefs are intense, because they feel very, very true. So we have an opportunity in this big kind of Eight of Wands rushing river, to install some new beliefs through just trying different things. So you're going to be moving. How can you support yourself, call in support, clear certain things, maintain your boundaries, to ensure that you have everything you need to navigate it?
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And that Six of Wands energy is really quite special — or Six of Swords. Because even though Eight of Wands doesn't depict a rushing river, Six of Swords is typically about somebody navigating rowing a boat on water. So this kind of doubles down that question:
Where is the part of you that — and it changes all the time I find for myself — where's the part of you that steers the boat, that inner caretaker, the truth of you, like the part that can see larger pictures when things get really intense and crazy? And what's the part of you that really needs to be nurtured, cared for, that needs to be the kind of receptive, passive passenger on that boat? And who can you call in who surrounds you? Who supports you to allow for that to be an easy navigation?
Six of Swords, I don't find, is really, actually all that often about travel or movement. I actually find that it's a lot about inner transitions. Times have changed where we're internally shifting. And in those times of big shifts, especially in Swords suits, the mind tends to just be really active, scared. It tends to kind of move into like, what ifs, shoulds, fears, worst case scenarios, “what if this happens?”, like what ifs. And Six of Swords can help us while the rivers rushing, while we're kind of moving from one place in the river to the other way, miles down down that river. We're sort of navigating our own boat as we're going.
So what are the parts of us, just identifying, that tend to get really scared, really freaked out? What helps you not get overwhelmed? What helps you, rather than collapsing in on yourself, to be empowered, to be proactive to say, “Okay, here's where I tend to get stuck. How can I call someone in to move through that, to help assist and support me?” What parts of yourself can you call upon to support your own process in that way? How can you be both your inner caretaker and the one that you care for?
[0:33:03]
So this is not just about navigating and working with movement. This is about doing so, again, we talked about this with the Fives with grace. This is about considering greater ease, considering more restoration, considering that you're going to be likely very tired. When you are in the midst of huge, huge creation time channeling, you are tired. The vessel needs, your body needs, more rest. It needs, sometimes, different nourishment, and different levels of hydration.
How can we give that to ourselves as best as we can, even if it does sometimes trigger? I get triggered with that all the time, you know, because of my own stuff. And how can we honor that and try, as best as we can, to say yes to what our bodies are really asking for — to say yes to rest, to make space for that, to not have it be so punishing?
Eight of Wands, I think, really speaks to this time in general, especially because it is an Eight. Eights are transformation cards. We walk into them one way. We leave them changed. We leave them different, altered, transformed in some way.
So there's huge movement and calling in support to kind of guide us down that river, that big rushing river, so that we don't feel like we're doing it by ourselves or without any kind of systems of caretaking.
[0:34:41]
What we're going to be invited to really offer our attention to, really devote our energy to this month, is Magician.
This basically means that any superfluous bullshit, any stories, any distractions, you can just chuck them. You don't have to fuck with that. You just don't. You can, if you really want to, like you can get wrapped up in social media, in a friend's drama. You can get wrapped up in like, your mom's expectations of you, or you could just like not pick up the phone. Like you could literally just not pick up the phone. You could unplug the phone, if you really wanted to. You could turn off the phone, you could just say, “No, thank you.” And we don't have to judge it. It’s cool. Like what stimulates one person may drain and distract us. It's fine.
Magician has one main directive. It tasks us, invites us, to embody the magic, the creation energy, that happens when we allow ourselves, our full selves, to be a vessel for something that is in the ether to come through us into earthly form. And because Magician is ruled by Mercury, this is about like, we're singing it, we're speaking it, we're writing it, we're drawing it, we're physically bringing it into being. We're using the body.
It's really where the Fool... it's Ace energy. It's really like this fusion of what happens when we say yes in The Fool. We click over to The Magician, and we say, “Okay, may I be of use here.” It's really, it's One energy, it's initiation. And because we're being invited to devote our energy to that, again, you're at choice. I'm at choice. We're all. At every moment, things are coming up as invitations, and this isn't about being puritanical.
This isn't about like not watching TV, not enjoying or scrolling on Instagram or Twitter. This is not about turning away from your community or isolating yourself from a friend who needs your help. But it is about acknowledging that not everybody is going to be saying yes to these energies. And if they're not, they may be trying to invite you out of what you're doing and into their noise. And again, bless their noise. That's fine.
I've been there — you've been there, likely — where you haven't been able to get out of your own way. And people are kind of like doing their own thing. And sometimes we don't even realize it. But if something feels like it's dampening, it's slowing down that that river, those rapids, of whatever it is that you're doing and bringing down into earthly form, you can just say, “Hi, like, I love you. I'm just not available for this right now. I'm just, I'm very full at this time, but I love you. And I'm here and I'm holding space. And I can give you this amount of time.” Right?
[0:37:53]
And for some folks that kind of caretaking may be where your Magician is living. It's basically saying, “Say yes to the work that really wants to come through you, that's connected to your soul, to your guides to Spirit.” What wants to come through you? And what's the other shit (Lindsay Laughs) that like takes up time, you know?
Where can you allow that attention to be in full devotion to what you're being invited to pay attention to.
[0:38:34]
The lesson for January in the month ahead is Ten of Wands.
If it doesn't work for you, if it doesn't flow, if it's not a part of what is in your highest and best to be doing, your zone of genius, what aligns with your energy, put it the fuck down and walk away. Give it to somebody else. This is the year: Do not take it on if you don't have to.
There are things that folks listening to this that maybe we have to take it on, and we don't necessarily want to, right? There are other things that we take on that we so do not have to. And Hierophant work, characterized by, you know, it being the card of 2021, involves a great deal of reflective, critical thinking, sometimes bringing in someone else to process and reflect back to us.
“I feel like I have to do it” is often a belief that's not true. I know for myself the “feel like I have to do it” is a belief I have that's rooted in my abusive childhood in being gaslit, in being told that I have to do things that I don't want to do because it benefited my abusers.
So there are some things that are hard to do, that we absolutely can feel fear, trepidation, we don't quite know, but it's a soul yes, and we got to do it because it's the right thing to do. There are other things that can feel just like that, but they drain us, they crack us, they break us, they take something, it doesn't fill the bank account — and when I say bank account, what I'm talking about is like, energetic reserves. It doesn't fill our heart, it empties it. It doesn't nourish our soul, it withers it.
There is a difference between that, between giving of ourselves in a way that might be hard, but we know it's a yes, versus hard and it's a no. It's a taking rather than a beneficial giving and receiving, right. There's so much that is tied to that sense of obligation, “oh we should”, not really wanting to rock the boat, not really wanting to say no.
[0:41:06]
Ten of Wands is a reckoning, and it's a review, and it's really important. I find Ten of Wands to be quite exciting. I go through Ten of Wands work a lot. I think if you're living it, and you're really spending a lot of respectful time with this card, it's not quite, like the overwhelming, like horrible, like energy, that a lot of folks, I think tend to think it really is.
Like, any time I've gotten Ten of Wands my business has gotten so full, that like I have to call in different people to help hold other parts of my business, or certain parts of how I've been doing my business have to go in order to kind of fly freer. It's never not been a completely beautiful transformative experience to move through Ten of Wands work, because you're either just calling in.
You may keep all ten wands, you may keep everything that you're doing. It's just you call in seven people, and you're holding three, and each of them are holding one. So everybody feels more nourished, you know. There's so much more room for flow. Sometimes you're holding ten wands, you walk away with eight, you walk away with two. But we have to reflect. We have to review. This is the teacher. We're going to constantly be.
The energy is actually quite singular this month. It's a time for creation. It's a time for movement for flow, for putting things together, whatever doesn't really match that — and I know that there are some folks listening to this, they're fucking tired, they're uninspired, they don't feel it. Wait. You may not feel differently, but there may be little things that come up for you in January. There might be gentle, non-exhaustive opportunities to reflect what's exciting you, where do you want to put your energy, and what's something you want to take back that you've been sort of giving yourself to around? How can you kind of reclaim that?
The big energy in Hierophant is like reclaiming, like reclaiming the power we give away, reclaiming our authority, reclaiming our autonomy, reclaiming. It's very, very big. And I think that reclaiming is a big part of the Ten of Wands.
It's our teacher, you know? It says like, “Do not continue to give your energy away to shit that is not worth it. That is not for you. Just because you're not available to tend someone or something, or you're not available to do a particular task or part of, if you want to kind of share the load on something, it doesn't mean it's not important to you. It means that you have the wisdom enough to know you might not be the best person to do it. It's beautiful.
So really just continue to be very reflective, tune in: Where are those shoulds for you? Where do you feel like you have to? Where do you feel like you might not have a choice? That's where we want to just reflect. That might be true, but you owe it to yourself to reflect on it, right?
[0:44:20]
What we're discarding this month is Seven of Cups.
So this is really interesting because what we're discarding is Seven of Cups and what are the seeds that we're planting are Nine of Cups. And both have to do with dreaming, but both are about dreaming in a different way.
Seven of Cups is about dreaming about the outcome of things that none of them actually really are a true outcome, and there's grief in that. That's why we move into the Eight after it, because Seven of Cups can sometimes be the beginning point of, “Wow, I actually don't want to live in this city anymore. I actually do want to have kids. I actually do want to, you know, adopt a dog (Lindsay Laughs). You know, like I'm wondering all these different ways to do the thing that I thought I wanted, but I'm realizing maybe I don't even want the thing.” And then we walk away from it in the Eight, and then what blooms forward is the dream of what is actually possible, what is actually going to nurture us in the night.
So what we are bowing to, clearing, is utilizing our energy, our thinking, our strategy, our manipulation in some moments, around shit that just is not for us. It's not that we can't have it. It's not that… It’s like the truth is, I don't even think we really want it, you know. We all have those things where we think like, “Oh, this would be so great,” or we look at other folks doing it. And all of a sudden we realize like, “Just because they're doing it doesn't mean it's for me, do I actually want to?” And then that can call in so many things. “What if I don't? Will people expect it? Will they be upset? Will I, you know, like, disappoint this person or my family or whatever?”
But Seven of Cups is, is like, “Can you open to dream about the possibilities outside of what you're seeing?” And it can be an uncomfortable card, because we can tend to want to really move in it, but instead, because it's a Seven, it invites us to do some really important inner work before we take that next natural step. And we are clearing that, that stasis, that review, that kind of pausing, when we really want to be going and opening to Nine of Cups, which says, “You planted the seed of what is going to be possible for your life. Now it's growing. Now you can start preparing for the things that you are ready to bring through that are maybe bigger, more expansive, beyond what you ever thought you would be doing.”
This is about coming into destiny right now. This is about saying yes. This is about dreaming bigger, about, you know…
[0:47:49]
I think the work that is so intense and challenging for me, personally, in Nine of Cups that I try to talk about with students as much as I can, because it can tend to really like undercut them or blindside them, is that we have a lot of fear. Even those of us who've been, who benefit from privilege in ways, and we have tremendous fear to get our hopes up. We don't want to get our hopes up because the pain of having it dashed is so great. We just can't bear it, very many of us. And that's completely understandable.
Nine of Cups says, “Can you be courageous enough to get your hopes up? Can you live in the wild intersection of what it is to get your hopes up and also not really have a lot of attachment to outcome? To be open to what you're dreaming of or maybe a little better, maybe something kind of different? But what would it be like to stop hiding? What would it be like to kind of stop trying to figure out how to get at the thing that really isn't even what is actually wanted, or that is a slight low balling, because you don't think you can do any bigger or any or any more expanded than? You know, yeah, but we're just being asked to explore that.
So we're planting seeds for Nine of Cups which is wishing, dreaming in what is possible for this new paradigm, this new world we are building together, imagining what could be possible with your business this year, with your partnerships, with your friendships, with your community outreach, with your children, with your work, with your activism, with whatever you do.
However you serve, no matter what you show up, where are those big dream seeds? Because whether you know it or not, they're already sprouting. Whether it takes ten years, another lifetime, you know, two months, it's already happening. So how can you click your attention, your energy, your focus into that, and bow to, thank the dreams that were informed of a different time, were maybe informed of different beliefs, were maybe informed of like, you know?
[0:50:46]
Sometimes when we have beliefs that are inherited and really limiting, really painful, and scary and untrue, we can actually, like, have goals that are informed of those beliefs that are slightly less. They're on a different level than what's actually in alignment for us. Once we clear those beliefs, of lack of worthiness, of we're not ready, it's not for us, we need someone else to tell us what to do, whatever may be coming up for us — and we've had the opportunity to do a lot of that this year as well — 2021 is like, then go, like, go do it.
Like what might be possible, if you actually believed you were a good person, that you are worthy, that what you are imagining, maybe could start to happen, it doesn't mean it has to be the thing, but maybe it's part of the road to get you where you're meant to go? Who knows, right? But dreaming bigger, being courageous enough to get our hopes up about what might be possible that's all that this month is about.
Again, channeling, creative, creativity, creation, movement — creation comes in a million different forms. Creation can look like anything. Creation doesn't have to mean like we're sitting down like drawing something, although for some folks, that's exactly what it looks like. Generating ideas, generating concepts and systems, it's a beautiful time for all of that, but it's not the time to get distracted. It's no longer the type of planet. You and your destiny are so important that the planet is not going to support just fucking around, you know. It just isn't.
[0:52:42]
So a lot of us listening to this are going through, you know, a lot of folks listening to this are going through hard fucking times, you know. They're barely getting by, they're dealing with illness, or a family member who's sick, or they're working their asses off at their jobs. That doesn't mean you have to do anything different. It's just about opening up a little bit more to see what might be possible, what might be ready to go in the midst of the experience that you're in, but just nurturing, calling in that support if you can, right? Just even speaking it, writing it.
Magician says sometimes Magician energy wants us — and this is really what we're being invited to pay attention to — sometimes Magician energy is like, “Write it, sing it, get it out, scream it.” It's not even necessarily for everyone to know. It's just not for us to be carrying inside of us anymore. We're meant to bring it out. So that's great.
It doesn't need to be some performative show of like, “Oh my god, I'm doing all of these things. I'm saying yes to all of these things.” It could just be about like saying yes to yourself, and being like, “I’m moving through a hard fucking time and not dealing with this anymore.” Click. “I'm not going to spend my precious energy on this anymore.” Click, and it's just like, we're hanging up the phone. It's not even like we're doing it with attitude. It's just like, it's been done for a while. We're just complete with it. That's it. That's it, you know.
[0:54:10]
And there's some of us who we've been ready for a long time, where we've been waiting, and some folks are ready to go and they're just gonna keep going. Like wherever we are, it's an opportunity to see where the intersection of creation lives in us and around us. Like, where does that live? What are we available for? What are the available resources energetically? And how can we say yes to what wants to come through us and bow to the stuff that got us here?
Oh my god, I've had so many of those dreams, so many of those wants and desires that like I always knew in the back of my head, “I don't know if this is gonna work,” (Lindsay Laughs) and like it took a while to acknowledge, like, “Oh, that part of me really wanted this because of this belief, or because of this unmet need, or because of this old wound. I really wanted this thing to speak to, to smooth over, to heal that wound.”
And we're not doing that anymore because, again, the planet can't support it. Your destiny is so important that it's time to bring it, in whatever way that you're meant to bring it. And the beginning, the initiation of that yes, it's just saying yes to ourselves.
So what's working? What's not working? What got you as far as now, that just is ready to either be handed off, given away, discarded, buried, and placed back on the earth? What are you ready to walk away without? For some of us, that will be 100% of an internal thing, or it's a belief system, a thought form. Some of us, it'll be relationships and careers or jobs or organizations that we’re a part of, we're not going to be, not meant to be any more. And for some of us, it's much more external, it's much more personal. And for some of us, it'll be both.
[0:56:20]
It's a very, very powerful month. The river, that river analogy, is something my teachers have been saying for a while and about this kind of like a flow of creation of movement being this big river, and it just so made sense to me, as I was talking about this to kind of weave it in. It is totally that energy of deep movement, of deep currents, bringing us to the next destination of our lives. And certain things are going to leave as we travel really quickly through those rapids and through those currents, and that is as it should be. How can we honor that, bow to it, and open to what wants to finally come into our lives?
So it's a big time very, very big. All we have to do is say yes to it, and then live in the moment. And whatever arises, we can just bow to it and be with what is. This is very much a time — and this is also something my teacher, Michelle, says that I think is so beautiful to share. Creation energy really can only exist in this moment. It can't exist in the past. It cannot exist in the future. It can only come through us by being present with what's right here now.
So whatever is trying to get your attention, whatever has been so clear to you, “Oh my god, this is like I’ve totally outgrown this, I’m totally ready for something different,” pay attention to it. Let these come back to these cards through the month. Let them guide you, let them anchor you. Do your own deep dives with them and see what happens.
[0:58:18]
I'm excited for this month ahead. It's definitely a fresh time, not like everything is just going to be dandy, but finally, movement. It's a time of movement after so much stagnation. So I can't wait to see how it all unfolds and to walk through with you because I will be in that river right along with you.
Thank you for listening, Wild Souls. Just a quickie update that enrollment for my offering The Threshold is closing on Friday, January 8, at 9pm Pacific time in order, I'm also rebranding, changing things, there's like so many new things, new courses, brand new website, that big rebranding that's going to be coming up in the next I think month, month or two. Who knows? Time is so spiralic right now, and I feel like things could happen in two weeks. It could also happen in two months.
So I wrote a whole blog post about all the changes that are upcoming as I know of them to be right now. You can read about on the show notes. There's a link to the blog posts on the show notes. But normally, this year I would keep Threshold up but because we're, like, moving websites around and everything, I just, that particular offering has to get closed for a little bit as we navigate those changes. So enrollment is closing for that. So if you want to sign up for Threshold, if you want to have access to that offering, you can click the link, again, in the show notes for this episode.
I really just, whether I know some folks who do not acknowledge January 1 as their New Year, and I want to be totally respectful of that, and also wish everybody who does acknowledge it a very happy New Year and a very happy 2021. And for those of you who don't acknowledge this, whether it be today, whether it be on a completely different date, I'm just wishing you and yours, from this day forward and before it and beyond it, as much support, as many blessings to you and yours as you can possibly hold and then some. I’m just wishing and hoping that everyone listening to this has an absolutely beautiful new cycle and a new year, and wherever it lands with you and wherever you are. And until we meet again at this podcast at our next episode next week, please take care of yourselves.
[Conclusion]
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[1:01:17]
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.
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Thank you so much for being here.