WELCOME TRAVELERS!
It's Black History Month and a new week, a week we've never seen before and will never see again. Everything is rare, I'm feeling it. St. Valentine's Day is on the way and while this day often inspires a variety of emotions, both pleasant and unpleasant it is also just a day, as unique as any other day, on or off the calendar. I like to take the holidays suggested and create my own ritual around the suggestion. St. Valentine's Day is supposed to be about love so I'll take it and I have. It is my day of self-indulgence. I make myself a love music mix and my favorite dinner (it changes every year), watch a few episodes of the Mary Tyler Moore Show (a reminder that love is all around) and get a decent night's sleep. I've done this every year for almost 10 years now. I mention this because the astrological weather around the 14th is a bit stormy.
Earlier this week Venus joined with Chiron and may have brought up some wounds we have around love, creativity and/or money. Later this week Ceres will be aspecting both Uranus in Pluto creating tensions I describe in more detail under the card for the week the KNIGHT OF PENTACLES. I would like to add, however, that Ceres is one of the newer planetary discoveries. Astronomy and Astrology is just as far behind politically, in many ways, as the rest of society. Planets and asteroids have historically been named after male gods, to compensate for this imbalance many recent celestial discoveries have been named after goddesses. The importance of these new discoveries has also been debated astrologers, Ceres is one of those. Ceres is actually larger in size than Pluto and was upgraded to a dwarf planet. Pay attention this week as Ceres aspects several planets and see for yourself if her influence is significant in your own life.
NEWS
Come find me on top of the Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles on St. Valentine's Day for RUMOURS! I will be reading cards for couples and those who have coupled with themselves or with plants or with animals or with beloved objects or are in group marriages or...
Also Amy Von Harrington and I will be offering a new class on the art of tarot deck making on Thursday February 19th at Machine Project in Los Angeles! Reserve your spot!
ANNOUNCING the release of a NEW PRODUCT!! I'm so excited to bring you UMBRELLAS! May they shelter you from the sun and rain as they simultaneously remind you: YOU ALREADY ARE. See the "Readings + Spells + Magic" section to order yours today! (Note: Last week due to technical difficulties on this end you may have had trouble ordering an umbrella, please try again as the problem should now be resolved. Thank you for your patience! Mercury Retrograde here we go!)
Gift Certificates for readings and/ or Tarotscopes Subscriptions available! Click on the "Readings + Spells + Magic" tab or email me for more information.
Reading prices have changed in the New Year. Please see the Readings + Spells + Magic section for details and feel free to email me if you have any questions. Thank you!
THANKS TO ALL ALWAYS AND ALL WAYS FOR READING AND SPREADING TAROTSCOPES!!
read black history, its no mystery, not enough words rhyme with history, valentines day, oh hey, love without delay, find a new way, lots to say, hip hip hooray, sometime in may, pluto and ceres, feeling curious, a little serious, furious?, chiron talks to venus, the moon is near to us, mercury retrograde is done, sit in the sun, with the universe we are one, walk skip or run, have some fun, stars above, all kinds of love,
MW
Without further ado! The general card from Amy von Harrington’s deck for all, for all the week (individual cards for the zodiac signs are pulled from the MOTHERPEACE deck):
KNIGHT OF PENTACLES
On Friday the 13th (!!!) Ceres (currently classified as a dwarf planet) meets with Pluto in Capricorn. The two will be in conversation for the next few months, but this is their first meeting, setting off a new 5 year cycle. Ceres is the Roman name for the Greek goddess, Demeter, goddess of the harvest. This planet represents nurturing, motherhood, food etc. Astrologer, Anne Ortelee described Ceres as more of a grandmother in archetype. She is not a new mother, she’s raised her children to adulthood and so she understands what it means to nurture at every stage of a child’s development. Pluto (Hades) and Ceres (Demeter) have a long standing relationship. Persephone was Demeter’s daughter and it was Hades who stole her away to the underworld. Before Ceres meets with Pluto, she will first square Uranus on the 12th indicating a need to let something go, perhaps a creative project or a relationship that is no longer nurturing or fruitful. When Pluto and Demeter connect the following day we are reminded of the temporal nature of people and things. On a global scale we may be reminded of our dwindling natural resources. Certain plants or animals that have been living on the brink of extinction may now disappear. We make our home somewhere but everything we are given is not for keeps. As an older astrologer told me a few weeks ago, “we own nothing, we are given stewardship of things” which implies a sense of responsibility. That which we call home on a big or small scale cannot be taken for granted.
This week I got an eye exam for the first time in seven years. I was first asked to look through a thick metal eye mask. “Focus on the little red house in the distance,” the assistant instructed. At first all I saw was a red stain against a white background, but after a few seconds something more solid emerged from the blur. I saw a small red house with a chimney seated on a patch of green grass. This felt very symbolic of the Ceres/ Pluto conjunction. What is brought into focus is a clearer picture of how we nurture and what we are in turn nurtured by, of that which we call home. I remember talking to a friend who was a home owner about repairs and adjustments they were making. They expressed that the work was never ending, that it was unclear when they would be “finished” working on the house. “But that must also be part of the love,” I said. They agreed that the work they did on the house created a stronger sense of attachment.
I once worked for a gardner who told me that she had worked on a garden that was full of fruit trees, but the owner of the garden refused to eat the fruit from the trees because she thought they were dirty or full of worms. In so many ways we have become disconnected from our home, planet Earth. The Ceres/ Pluto conjunction may also serve as a reminder of power imbalances between humans and the natural world. We may be forced to see more directly the ways in which we abuse our privilege as stewards of the earth’s resources and also the ways in which we are quite vulnerable to the earth’s natural processes (aka natural disasters).
Okay, all that and I’ve not yet mentioned the card for the week, the Knight of Pentacles. The Knight of Pentacles is an earth card. It is about setting goals and working diligently towards those goals. It’s about bringing into focus a picture of home, of what we are trying to achieve, create, make, do, nurture and be nurtured by. During my eye exam every test asked me to focus on something, a dot, or a letter or the doctor’s finger. As Mercury is now moving forward it may be more easy to communicate what we are seeing, what our vision or goals are for the future. As we articulate these things it may also become clear what is not a part of the picture or what is not nurturing or supportive of that process. Relax your eyes, don’t strain. Allow your vision to become clear by making slight adjustments, by moving closer or farther away. Become a student of nature, notice the ways mother earth handles difficulties or generates abundance.
(Why we wear our hair like this- Kathleen Cleaver of the Black Panther Party)
THEME
The theme this week is home or homes, actually. Vesta is the astroid which represents home and hearth, but it popped into my mind with the Ceres/ Pluto conjunction because Ceres is about nurturing and feeling cared for and I found my mind wandering through all of the various places where I’ve hung my hat and felt nourished (or in some cases a lack there of) over the years.