I am not an astrologer, but I enlist the astrological signs associated with the Tarot in my monthly insight spreads. August is tied to Leo, whose card is Strength, and September is tied to Virgo, whose card is The Hermit.
The characteristics of the Strength card are passion, fire, courage and heat. The Strength card asks us to take action by containing and protecting our energies, allowing the lady to tame the lion.
The qualities of the Hermit are wisdom, patience, and an ethereal quiet. The action that the Hermit card asks of us is to move away from what is familiar, alone and inward trusting that solitude can illuminate truth.
In my reading for this September month I got the message that this month is ‘the lighthouse’. Like the Hermit, we are asked to step away from our village and go alone into the night with only enough light to see what is just before us. We have all been surrounded with so much strength and noise and information. The pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement, climate change consequences and the economic crisis have all become a cacophony of simultaneous symphonies of information. And, these important noises are only getting louder. This is why we are called this month to climb alone upward into ‘the lighthouse’. We require a cloister for our inner work, so that we can get - not to the bottom of things - but to the top.
The card for this month is the Four of Swords. Simply put, though we may have three swords looking down above us, we can take the space required for our inner work, with the security and the knowledge that inner calm is what is in highest and best.
Even when the outside is noisy, we can put down the phone and the tablet, turn off the radio, close our eyes and be still for the length of a cup of tea. That is the medicine we have been prescribed.
In the journey away from the village and to the top of the lighthouse, we leave behind the The World reversed, and we are asked to pay attention to the Three of Cups reversed. We do this with the support of The Hierophant.
What this means is, we haven't finished the inside job required to shut the door on a current cycle. There is still inner work needed to be done before we are celebrated and before celebrating others. Our true victories this month take place when we attune to our inner expert. When we trust our intuition and seek spiritual wisdom, we become our own cheer squad.
If we continue to imagine this inner-examination as a journey away from group-think and an ascent to the top of the lighthouse, we arrive at the top with The Moon reversed.
Once we have stepped away from the desire to impress others and decipher their thoughts, we have the peace and quiet to examine our own impulses with a scholar's curiosity. We begin this month with a Full Moon and we transition through the Autumn Equinox on the 22nd. What may keep us up and alert on the 1st will reverse at the top of this lighthouse when we have nourished our inner savant. We can spotlight the balance in the chaos. The peace becomes a beacon to let go of any fears we had of getting lost in the dark.
Having nourished and trusted our inner wisdom from there, we are free to make changes and clear the decks with the Two of Pentacles. We can truthfully acknowledge what is and what has been, to grieve and/or celebrate what is ready to let go of, and evolve into a greater co-creation with spirit.
