Surrender To The Star-Fire: February Tarot Cast 2018
This month's Tarot Cast is all about cleansing our perception. Especially since February kicks off on the waning moon, when cleaning house is always a good idea, I want to go into this month without resistance. I want my mind to feel as free & clear as the North Pole.
And I want to get swept up. I want to wonder. And just... feel.
Later this month, the sun moves into Pisces, the house of Poet-Mystics! When the sun moves into Pisces, I get swoony. Faint-hearted, glittery-eyed. I feel trapped between fairy wings.
Pisces season gets me thinking about meta-Love. Divine Love. Love that transcends & Love that softens your core. Divine Love.
And also, rapture. Like, where does spiritual rapture rank within Divine Love?
I want rapture. Because I trust rapture will mainline me into some extraterrestrial Love. Rapture obliterates Self-ness. Rapture is my aspiration.
So every February, I think, read about, & stream all content swoon-y. I read William Blake, check my horoscope, & online shop for new lingerie. I make a point to take walks when it's breezy outside.
If all this sounds rather sublime to you as well, keep reading to find out what's in this month's Cast, how to use it to in-form your Pisces New Moon Ritual, plus my tips for keeping a dream journal!
believe in better illusions.
That's the end game of shadow work.
The Moon corresponds with Pisces & Neptune, in the Great Beyond, which deals with illusions, dreams, extrasensory perception, & also shadow work. Life does get a bit surreal when you’re doing shadow work--especially if you ritualize it. You have your idea of what you want, but as the future overlaps the present, what you get was a mutant version, forged from the shoddy material in your psychic universe. You have to snake closed off canals of your mind. The dream flickers. But now you have a sense of reality.
No matter what bullshit fantasy you want to live in, make sure you know where it stands in wider reality.
“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”
To read more about the ideas, programs, & tools part-in-parcel to my shadow work, look here.
What’s your True North?
Hope. Guiding light. A beatific omen. All is well.
Astrologically, The Star corresponds with Aquarius, where our sun still is. The Star is remote, but bright & attractive, much like Aquarians. The Star also corresponds with Uranus, an outer planet.
Detach. Take the long view of your life. Have you worked out the big picture of what you’re doing? For whom? Why?
Innovate new ways to shift your perspective. Make it into a practice. How would a Zen Buddhist look at this? What would Gaga do?
move into new space.
Astrologically, the Perspective card corresponds with Neptune, one the outer planets. Neptune is the lucid dreamer of our cosmos, full of fairies, Divine messages, dreams, mirages, & star-spangly moments of ecstasy.
What are my options right now? Am I working towards Love or am I working to avoid something? What am I not seeing that’s right in front of my face?
“Sometimes looking at things from another angle or perspective can shift the energy of a challenging situation.”
Lighten your load. Look clearly at the furniture in your life. Vulnerability is core here, where sacrifices & putting yourself out on a limb will help you see more than holding fast to the spot you’ve already staked out. Move into new space, so you can re-evaluate.
New space like: Meditation. Lucid dreaming. Prayer.
In that new space, answer Qs like, What are my options right now? Am I working towards Love or am I working to avoid something? What am I not seeing that’s right in front of my face?
How to take action with this Tarot Cast: A Pisces new moon ritual!
February 16th is the Lunar New Year! What better way to ring it in than with a new moon ritual? You could set a magical intention for the whole lunar year, or just for this cycle!
Use this month’s Cast to in-form your magical intention, build your sigil(s), or code your dreams with recognizable images!
I’ve talked before about the Goddess Hera as a Patron for Pisces new moon. You can read about it & also get my tips / swag rec’s in that post. If want my New Moon Ritual Roadmap + guidelines, visit this post.
Start keeping a dream journal in February
“You told me all the myths, on after the other,
Night after night
My beautiful, brutal bedtime tales
As you spoke I closed my eyes & saw them come to life
The miniature figures acting out their parts
When we fall asleep
My dreams were more vivid than they had ever been
As if I were watching your dreams in my head—”
-- Francesca Lia Block, Psyche In A Dress
Witches already know: dreams be rich with data. Questions, answers, warnings, & eureka-moments abound in dreams. If you want fast, enlightening perspective on what’s going on, start looking at your life through your dreams!
I try to scribble down at least 3 keywords about my dreams within moments of waking up. I manage to do it about 50% of the time. I have to do it on pen & paper--I’ve noticed that logging dreams into my Notes app actually scrambles the image that’s already fading in my mind’s eye. I’ve resigned to using scratch paper, then logging the keywords (plus sun / moon zodiac info--I like this astrology app) into a grimoire.
Also, I notice I’m only able to do this on mornings I wake up to an alarm. Some people find they can’t record their dreams on mornings after late nights or that they need to say their dreams aloud into a voice recorder, or else they’ll skip it.
To kickstart your dream journal practice: start brewing mugwort tea in the evening before bed, which you can find in most metaphysical shops or online. Makeover your bedroom into a delicious, hedonistic space with candles, oils, pillows, twinkle lights, & melty-soft bed linens. Shut off the computer or TV at least an hour before bedtime & see how many nights you can go without bringing your cell phone to bed with you.
Put your cute new diary & heavy, business-like writing pen on the nightstand beside you. (Which you’ve tidied up.) Tell yourself, out loud even, “I am going to remember my dreams! I am going to sleep now to have my dreams! To sleep perchance to dream!” Whatever feels right.
Wake up & scribble out 3 keywords. Or a doodle. Don’t even worry about logging astro info until later that day or that week.
Voila! You are now widening your perspective!
Want some other loverly things to do in February? Here’s what sounds good to me:
Go stargazing in the mountains--if undoable, set your phone / computer backgrounds with landscape photos, I love this one ✨ write Rumi quotes on index cards that you tape around your house ✨ find out your Love Language, then find out the Love Language of your husband, wife, BFF, & the team at work (learn more about using Love Languages in the workplace from this MarieTV episode) ✨ donate blood (find out when a blood drive will be happening near you) ✨ play recordings of ocean waves during the day (I love this playlist) ✨ diffuse lavender & frankincense oils in the early morning ✨ look for eagles, angles, & UFOS ✨ study astrology, so your dreams are full of the stars! (Here’s an eBook to start you off on your natal chart!) ✨ pray out loud ✨ re-read your favorite books about fairies (I Was A Teenage Fairy or The Blue Girl for me), but don't forget to also feel like a faerie
May your February be rapturous! May it sparkle with star-dust & shimmer with bokeh overlays!
All Tarot images via The Starchild Tarot by Danielle Noel.