It’s been quite a September, with Eclipse Season flowing through our lives! Integration may still take some time, but let’s celebrate that we’ve made it here, and have accomplished and been through so much. Take a moment to pat yourself on the back and give yourself some words of appreciation!
I feel that so much of the fall season is about integration. There is release and shedding of old skins which can bring grief. Some things are meant to leave us now, and some things have come to fruition and are ready to be harvested. We must allow ourselves to slow down and reflect during this season on what we wish to keep with us for the colder months ahead, and what to let go of. We must discern what we cherish most, what nourishes our body, mind and soul as well as what no longer serves our well-being.
Autumn Equinox is also a beautiful balance of dark and light, as we are on the cusp of the more Yin, darker months that serve inner work, reflection, gentleness and quiet. This is a more counter-cultural energy that harmonises with the earth and our bodies and psyches on a deep level, but we have been so conditioned to push ourselves to perform in ways that run against this natural grain.
Be kind to yourself and find ways to balance what is necessary for you to do in the structures of society while also taking care of YOU. Let go of the unnecessary and make space for practices that nourish and support your needs for comfort, rest, dreaming, receptivity and reflection as the darkness increases.
This is a great time to just notice where we may feel out of balance in our lives and take steps change that.
As this is the harvest season, we may find that seeds we planted many moons ago have bloomed and results are forthcoming. What have you been working on this year? Where has your energy gone? What fruitful changes are showing up? What awareness, skill, or accomplishments are beginning to make themselves known? Celebrate your beautiful self, all the challenges that brought you here, stronger, wiser, deeper, more resilient! Allow yourself to receive abundance, be open to the universe pouring its love into your cup. Just hold it out, ready to receive and trust that what you need will come to you.
One thing capitalistic culture does is constantly makes us believe we aren’t worthy of abundance. That our right to it must be earned through struggle, strife and denial of our own needs. However, the universe works on a different principle. Abundance is ever-flowing and often we simply need to notice this and open to receiving it. Recognise how abundance is already flowing through our lives with gratitude for all the little things.
This can take time to really embody, as trauma and social conditioning take their toll on our belief systems. But ultimately, we can receive all that we need, we just need to believe we are worthy of it, one step at a time.
Sometimes our harvest comes in a different form than we thought it would, or it comes in a different timing than we think it should have. Nature is full of surprises. If things haven’t gone how you hoped they would, notice what you have harvested and how this could serve you in the future. Perhaps your harvest was even more than you thought? Take your time to integrate and decide how you want to use what you’ve harvested and what to let go of.
Tis the season of gratitude! Really, every season is one of gratitude but this time of year we can really soak up the beauty of the earth mother and take stock of all we’ve been through, all the help we received, all we’ve learned and just take some time to savor it all! This is a wonderful time to simply savor and enjoy being alive, reflecting on all the beauty and nourishment that surrounds us.
It’s Libra Season!
Libra is the sign of balance, beauty, and relationships. It’s a wonderful time for creative projects, cultivating relationships and just noticing and expressing beauty in the world.
This is also a wonderful season for shadow work and reflecting on our relationship needs.
Is there someone you haven’t seen in a while you’d like to reconnect with? How can you show some love and appreciation to the people in your life?
If we are experiencing relationship challenges, we can ask- ‘What is this person reflecting back to me about myself?’ Each person that comes into our life has something to teach us or help us integrate a part of ourselves we may not be very comfortable with. What is looking for some attention and integration within yourself right now? Likewise, what we are attracted to in another is often untapped potential within ourselves.
Fall Equinox Reflection Questions:
What is nourishing for you now?
What is serving your health and wellbeing? What isn’t?
Where do you feel out of balance? What changes do you feel will bring you a sense of balance?
What are you harvesting? Take your time to list what you’ve learned and accomplished this year. This includes internal work and shifts that others may not see or notice!
What are you grateful for?
What are your relationships teaching you?
How can you notice or cultivate more beauty in your life?
Ways to celebrate the Equinox:
Ritual for Integrating your light and dark: Light a white candle and a black candle. Take a long piece of yarn or string and weave it in a figure 8 pattern between the candles and say ‘Like the balance of light and dark at the Equinox, I now balance and integrate the light and dark within me. I am whole.’ Take some time to journal and reflect on what you associate with your ‘light’ and your ‘dark’. Reflect on your relationships and how they may reflect this. Invite acceptance and love to the part(s) of you that have been in darkness. Know that all of you is acceptable and beautiful. Light and dark dance together through our lives. Each hold the seed of the other within it.
Hold a potluck gathering of loved ones and/or friends to celebrate in gratitude the abundance of the Earth Mother. Express all that you are grateful for as your share food, stories and laughter!
Press fallen leaves: Go for a walk in the woods and admire the beauty of the changing leaves. Take a few of them home and press them between the pages of some thick heavy books. After a week or two, they may be dry enough to take out and place in your fall décor or altar! You may also do this with flowers you find in your garden or in a park!
Start a daily practice of gratitude journaling. Note even the tiniest things. Notice how much abundance you actually have in your life!
Have a ‘feel good’ day– Give yourself a day of self care, slowness, turning off your phone and just doing what comforts you. Perhaps make a nourishing, comforting meal for yourself or order in some comforting take-out, take note of your accomplishments, name what you feel is beautiful in yourself and your life. Watch a comforting movie, take a bath, wrap up in a cozy blanket, whatever your well-being is asking for!
Try a new recipe & Earth offering: Is there a recipe you’ve been wanting to try? Perhaps something with pumpkin, apples, other seasonal fruits/veggies or warm spices? Or something with herbs you’ve dried over the season? Make something and then give some to the Earth Mother as an offering of thanks for her gifts of abundance during the growing season.
Now let’s see what the Gentle Tarot has in store for us this season. The Gentle Tarot is the deck I use for all my Tarot Readings with clients. It was created by Indigenous artist Mariza Ryce Aparicio-Tovar.
Fall Equinox Tarot Reading:
Take a moment and breathe 3 slow, deep breaths, deep into your belly. Let go of any tension or stress you are holding in this moment. Then connect with your heart and ask ‘what do I need to know right now?’ and then choose a card.
Remember that number! Scroll down for its meaning. Words in italics are by the deck’s author.
- Wheel of Fortune:
The fates are at work now. You don’t need to push the river, nor should you resist the waves. Go with the flow and trust you are exactly where you need to be, when you need to be. This is an important turning point in your journey! You have been through so much and now have reached a moment of clarity, change, renewal and redirection. There is a beautiful momentum and freedom here, as you surrender to the divine’s plan and timing. Trust your heart and soul as you move towards a new dream, a new path, a new way of being. What lies before you is meant for you, your destiny awaits. Can you feel a tingling of excitement? Or perhaps some trepidation? Know that you have all that it takes to walk this path, you are ready. Simply step forward and know the universe is unfolding its gifts for you. Open to receive its gifts!
Events that seem like accidents are actually part of a larger story. Seen from a wider perspective, you can acknowledge the trail of seeds that life is leaving for you. This is a potent time. You are inside the wheel, it is turning, and the possibilities are monumental.
2. The Tower
Sometimes the universe shakes us to wake us. Have your foundations been rumbling? Has the stability and rhythm of your life or expectations taken an unsettling turn or change? Change can be really hard. Be kind to yourself as things shift. Chaos is a natural part of life, even if unpleasant. You are undergoing a wake up call, to become more present in your life. Notice things maybe you didn’t notice before, to see things in a new way. There is a call here to release outworn habits- ways of thinking and being that are no longer serving you. Something has run its course, and while the fallout can be upsetting, its purpose is to uncover your own hidden strength, light, talent and authenticity. What is crumbling was not supporting you anymore. You are ready to operate on a stronger, more supportive foundation, one that sings to your soul, one that nourishes you from the inside out. Seek the help you need to navigate this change. Trust that the universe has your best interest at heart and soon the dust will settle and you will be on terra firma again. Find the still, peaceful centre within you that holds steady while things shifts around you. Become the calm eye at the centre of the storm.
Amidst the chaos, there is a deep knowing, humility and trust in their facial expression. The figure here is androgenous, all labels and boundaries aside. Burn old ideas and allow the True to emerge. Start fresh. Allow restrictive ideas, unhealthy relationships and toxicity (personally and professionally) to be stripped away. Embrace change and trust the opportunity it brings!
3. Two of Stones
Does it feel like there’s a lot to balance right now in your life? Perhaps its the balance of work and family demands, or personal needs and relationship, or any other two things that make you feel like you can’t seem to get either aspect right or to your satisfaction. Don’t worry, you’re doing great! Just take a pause to evaluate how you could lighten your load a bit. Maybe becoming a bit more flexible and adaptable to the situation? Or delegating something? What would help you feel like the woman in the card here, light on her feet with a smile on her face as she holds these two stones? You might need to come up with a creative way to balance these aspects of life, but you definitely have what it takes!
When life becomes too rigid, bend! When we adapt, we cultivate more freedom to move through obstacles and can visualize possibilities rather than setbacks. When we surrender control, we gain opportunity.
4. Judgement
The Judgement card doesn’t ask that we judge ourselves, but that we accept ourselves fully- our past, our blind spots, the illusions we carried, the behaviors and habits that didn’t/don’t serve us- we are imperfectly perfect, human and whole. We don’t need to be fixed. But we do need to be honest with ourselves at this time. See all of who we have been, who we are now and accept it. Only then can we move on and evolve into who we’re meant to be and make our dreams come true. Like a snake shedding its skin, it may be time to let something old go. An old identity, way of being or doing things. Something has outlived it’s purpose and while it can be uncomfortable to make changes, to let go of an old self, it has come time to do so. Trust that the new skin underneath is ready to touch the earth and relish in new freedom!
It is time to dig deep into those hidden, dusty corners and coax the frightened little one out into the light. Love them. Embrace without judgement whatever shame or guilt has been stored away. The good, healthy experiences, along with the rough, hurtful ones- each experience makes us who we are.
Can you see and feel that strength? How strong the limbs that have carried you through, scars and all! You are beautiful!
5. Three of Wands
This is a wonderful time to gain some perspective and envision your future. What creative seeds have been stirring within? Perhaps you have already sown them and are planning where to go from here. The sun shines and fertile soil is there to support you, as you go about making something manifest in the world. What creative ventures are calling? Or perhaps travel to a new place? The world is your oyster, where do you wish to go from here? Take your time and trust you are in a good place to make your next move. Connect with the Earth Mother, envision your wish and ask the Earth what your next step might be.
This card can also remind us that consciously removing ourselves from a situation to gain a better vantage point can be key in resolving pressing issues. Rise up and see far. When you step back, you can see the bigger picture. Assess your route and don’t shy away from taking care fo yourself first. We can’t help others before helping ourselves.
6. Eight of Cups
You’ve invested in something for quite some time- a relationship, a creative project, a career or work situation or a passion. You’ve given it your heart and soul, and yet, it hasn’t yielded the fulfillment you hoped, or it has become something too harmful for you to stay in, or it has simply lots its luster. Maybe you’re burned out. Sometimes we grow out of things. Sometimes we realize we are worthy of more. It’s ok to let go, no matter how much we’ve put in. Self-preservation is necessary, and change is life. We grow when we let go, and new horizons present themselves once we take that step out. The path behind her is already burned to ask, it is done. There is no more here to nourish her soul. She is taking the very last drop, and moving on to new ventures. Maybe it’s time for you to do the same? Is there something you’re reluctant to leave behind because you’ve invested so much time and energy? Is there simply a change you need to make to revive your energy? Know that it wasn’t a waste. It has helped you get to where you are now. Wiser, stronger, and ready for more. Is there something more, deeper, more fulfilling, nourishing or inspiring call you towards it? Step out and see…
Follow your spirit as it leads you to higher places of self-worth and power! We will never be stripped of our resilience, even if we feel weak and incapable, drink that sip of sacred water and walk.
7. Ten of Wands
You’re overburdened, and it’s time to let go. You don’t need to carry all that, most of it isn’t even yours! Yes, you may be capable, responsible, energetic and strong like superwoman or superman, and perhaps yes, others may seem to need you, but I guarantee they’ll be ok if you drop some of this. You aren’t meant to take on what isn’t yours. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. In fact, let go of ‘should’ altogether. Soften into the remembering that you are enough, and don’t need to prove yourself to anyone or anything. You don’t need to hold the world up on your own, or sacrifice your wellbeing for others or for some ideal you hold. Let others share the load, delegate and drop what isn’t necessary. Your health and well-being are priority. You cannot help others until you have replenished your energy.
You have carried your load with love and now it is time to love yourself. Release that heavy flame, no fear, the same fire has always been inside of you- sparking your footsteps towards inner harmony and freedom!
8. The Star
Everything’s gonna be alright. You are magic. You are made of land, sea and sky, connected to the ancestors, the spirits and the flow of the universe. This card comes as a beacon of hope, renewal and inspiration for you- you are not alone and all is well. Trust that beautiful things are on the horizon for you. Hold faith in your heart and open your hand to the blessings the universe wants to give you now. Your harvest is coming, if it isn’t already here. Trust that the magic you feel is real. Your intuition is strong. You have one foot in this world, and one in the otherworld, in balance and serenity. Open to the inspiration that is trying to find you now- open that book, try that class, meet that person. Or just pause to notice the beauty of the changing leaves, the stars at night, the hum of the land, the waves of water on the shore. You are one with the universe. Feel your belonging. Trust in your bones that you are meant to be here, in this time and place, exactly as you are. Open your hands to the sky and let the unseen realms shower you with its wisdom and love.
Surrounded by starlight, enveloped in love, you are home. Through hard experiences, you deepened your hope and faith, and now you gently work towards healing the broken parts and you find an abundance of love and nourishment. The Star card brings us back to a safe place within ourselves. It lets you know that you are taken care of, you are supported and held. Your desires are blessed by Star energy!
Did your card resonate? I hope it did!
Wishing you a beautifully abundant and nourishing Fall Equinox and harvest season!
If you’d like a more personalised Tarot Reading, book one with me here!
xo
Serena
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