The Earthed Moon

Tarot of Plants

Yesterday I spent some time getting acquainted with a recent acquisition, The Tarot of Plants by Heather Enders. It's a minimalist black and white deck using plants as archetypes. Nary an animal or human appears. The suit assignments are similar to those used in the Victorian Fairy Tarot...Spring for Wands, Summer for Cups, Autumn for Pentacles and Winter for Swords.

With all this earthy energy being exuded in such a refined way it felt perfect to use for this Capricorn New Moon. The house was quiet and everyone was asleep. It was late but the cards were calling so I responded to their call to prayer. Beneath the darkness of this earthy New Moon I was initiated into the wisdom and mystery of both of these decks.

I used a spread designed by Ethony with my own variation thrown in, substituting an Oracle deck for that first card. I wanted this to be the hub around which the reading to evolved.

Celtic Tree Oracle ~ Ioho ~ Yew

I began with the Celtic Tree Oracle by Liz and Colin Murray. What a lovely tree to draw, the Yew, Tree of rebirth and regeneration. It occupied the central focus of the reading answering the question, what energies are abundant for me with this New Moon? From the guidebook...

'The easiest place to find the Yew tree is within the ancient cemeteries...The capacity for age is given the Yew by its peculiar form of growth...in which its branches grow down into the ground to form new stems, which grow to become trunks of separate but linked growth.'

Its Gaelic name, Ioho, is associated with the island of Iona and apparently a mistake in a fifth-century manuscript resulted in its current name, Ioho. And there on the north of the island one can watch the clouds that pass by Iona to fall upon the mainland as rain and be reminded of the strength of the soul and its ability to be reborn, continually.

Pulling the Yew tree places one in direct contact with one's past. There is a renewal of spiritual strength, life is reinvigorated and wisdom midwifes understanding into the body in new and flourishing ways. For me this rings true in a way that I attribute to our recent retreat. The qualities ascribed to the Yew feel vibrantly alive in me right now and I'm doing my best to continue to open to their gifts. Interestingly the trees at the retreat spoke deeply to me and I took many pictures of them, entranced by their beauty and hearing their call to be witnessed. As I write I feel their blessings and gratitude in the drawing of this card. I feel them lingering in my heart.

Tarot of Plants ~ Celtic Tree Oracle

I pulled all Majors for this reading. And this after sorting, shuffling, shuffling, shuffling, cutting and shuffling again. But looking at it feels spot on coming on the heels of the retreat.

Card Two ~ What can I do to aid this energy? 

Wheel of Fortune represented by Tumbleweed.  My mental image of tumbleweed is one of constant movement, rolling over and over the dusty earth, stopping only for a moment here and there until the next wind carries it forwards. As such I sense that movement itself will be key in supporting the gifts of rebirth and regeneration offered by Ioho. That it disperses its seeds as it rolls along is a lovely metaphor for the seeding of my own intentions and aspirations...with movement, with the spiraling dance of responding to the moment I am also planting something deeper.

 Card Three ~ What goals might I set for this New Moon? 

The Lovers represented by the Trillium is such a gentle and encouraging message. It is a flower used frequently in homeopathic remedies and Bach Flower remedies addressing the root chakra, the places where one can get stuck either through excess or deficiency in that area. From the Flower Essence Magazine...

Imbalances in this process of becoming a fully embodied spiritual being are of two main types. If the focus is on the upper chakras, leaving out the lower ones, there's a sense of not being connected with the body and the material world, as though you feel out of place or not at home in the physical world.

Raising hand...this is an ongoing theme in my life though much less so as I've walked a little in the world, partnering and raising a child. But yes, it is a realm I continue to grow into with both ambivalence and delight. The three-petaled nature of the Trillium inspires connections to body, mind, spirit and how the synthesis of these is in many ways the perfection of Love. For this New Moon cycle I'm planning to take this as a flower essence as a way to realize in my body this 'goal' of The Lovers.

Card Four ~ What might I release from this last New Moon phase?

Judgement represented by the Tulip is a bold and direct statement. In fact this was one aspect of the retreat that contributed to the fullness of my experience there and I shall continue to nourish the release of this unhelpful perspective. Curious as to the choosing of Tulip for Judgement I did a little googling and came up with the recurrent theme of perfection. There are other meanings but this one came up most often and it fits with the Judgement card for it's that ideal of perfection from which judgement waterfalls and causes us to contract, to shrink from the richness of our whole-spectrumed selves. Breathing out I release perfection, breathing in I embrace Perfection.

Card Five ~ What advice do my spirit guides have for me?

The Fool represented by the Dandelion evoked a smile of delight. Leap! I'm being invited to step into the unknown with a sense of curiosity and wildness. The Dandelion with its lovely warm yellow head evokes such sweet childhood memories. Holding it up to each others' chins to see if we liked butter or not, making dandelion chains to wear, breaking a stem to watch the white milk spill out, coming across a perfectly round one gone to seed, plucking it and making a wish before offering it our breath, our benediction, our hopes. All these are part of childhood, part of the innocence that the Fool embodies. That I'm being advised to embrace this aspect of myself is such a lovely way to seal the reading.

What Goddess, this!

It was a magical night in my study as the cards unfolded their story for me. I received both practical advice and the nourishing ephemera of dreams to work with for this New Moon cycle. Wishing you all good things as it unfolds.