August Tarotscopes with Brandon Alter
By Brandon Alter:
The good news is that Eclipse Season is officially over.
This second Cancer New Moon that occurs on the morning of July 20th serves as an official period to mark the end of a particularly turbulent emotional sentence. The bad news is that the Astrology of 2020 is a marathon, not a sprint. If you’ve been trying to race to the finish line, you’re going to burn out before you get there. And while the Astrology of 2021 is gentler and sweeter by far, we can’t just close our eyes and white knuckle it through the rest of the year, because the future is written in the present.
We must engage with where we are right now if we wish to be present for a better tomorrow.
By now, I think it’s fair to claim that we are in survival mode and that our health and safety should be the primary focus. Survival mode is bare bones, lean, moment to moment. It requires all of ourselves. Whether or not you have admitted it to yourself, a global pandemic (especially of these proportions) plunges all of us in the deep end of the survival mode pool. So if you’re pretending that it’s still business as usual, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Because survival mode is a full-time job, it begs of us direct and immediate access to our instincts and our intuition; and reconnection to our intuition is exactly what Cancer Season has been trying to do for us. Through our sensitivity to our emotions, we can begin to touch the subtler messages of our own inner knowing.
In a time when there’s so much misinformation and contrary behavior, your deepest inner wisdom is always your best bet.
I don’t care what the CDC or your governor says, if the thought of going out into the world puts a pit in your stomach, listen to that. If it doesn't feel safe in your bones, it doesn't matter what other people are saying. Your body is the most psychic instrument you have, and ignoring its wisdom goes against the evolutionary genius that brought us humans to where we are today.
Learn to listen to your gut, and then trust it above all else.
It’s rare that we get two new moons in Cancer in a row. And it's significant because Cancer is the sign that answers to the moon most directly. This amplifies the energy around a need for an emotional reset. Especially after such an intense Eclipse Season, I think we could all use an emotional hot stone massage. Note that the specific nature of this new moon could feel slightly oppressive to your internal state as it opposes Saturn, the planet of restriction. But ultimately, it wants you to take full responsibility for how you take care of yourself. Basically, it wants you to focus on just the next step you can take. Throw aside your grand plans, your goals for five years from now—what can you do today to feel better? And tackle tomorrow when it arrives. This is a practical, nuts-and-bolts new moon. It's about honoring your needs on a moment-to-moment basis and not sacrificing your immediate desires for a lofty future goal. All we have is now, so we best work with the now we've got.
The key is to make sure that external forces aren’t pressuring you to make choices you’re not in full agreement with. This is exactly why we must be listening to our deepest selves for guidance. This is not only tied in to the greater personal transformation we’ve all been moving through this year, but also on the collective level. This New Moon, like most of the Astrology of 2020 so far, will continue to illuminate the patriarchal structures that have been standing in the way of important change. And it is change that can come in the form of loving, emotionally charged ideals. This new moon is the time, more than ever, for us all to allow the Divine Feminine to take the reins! It’s a good one for meditation and spell work too. Above all, it's a moon that wants to restore our capacity to love.
Love is the ultimate healer and weapon. Love is not useless or weak, it is in fact the most potent force in the world.
The other cosmic bright spot is that Mercury completed its latest retrograde last week. The headline of this retrograde is that you must know the past to fully understand the present. So, with this shift forward, it’s time to get your mind back on track. It’s best to consider the lessons that Mercury wanted for you during its time in Cancer. Remember that Cancer is all about nurturing; it’s about connecting to your emotional body. So, when Mercury goes through there, it’s a meeting of the heart and the mind. Your thoughts can be easily clouded by your emotions. Hopefully the rest of this month will offer you a little more clarity, where the heart and the mind can work together instead of being at odds with each other.
Leo Season charges in on July 22nd. This is the time for creativity and play to take hold. But with that can come a roar for attention. Be careful of who or what you decide to give your attention to. Try to gear your mind and heart toward the lighter side of life, as best you can. Your strength will also come into greater demand during this season. But you will feel more capable of calling it forth, as needed. Again, just remember to find more moments of levity at this time.
The number one thing to avoid during this season is ego, and not just the negative side of your own.
Everyone will be feeling really important, so let them. Just don’t let it get in the way of doing what you need to do to be your most joyful, hopeful self. You should let yourself get excited for what is possible.
We are also offering our very first Astrology course called CHART + SOUL: The Magic of Astrology,beginning
August 5th and running for eleven weeks. This class is designed to give you a practical understanding of how to read your birth chart and feel empowered to use it. Over the course of eleven weeks, we will cover all twelve signs of the Zodiac, the planets themselves, how they aspect one another, and the twelve houses that set the stage for all this energy to play out. You'll leave feeling confident to begin to interpret your own chart, and maybe even your friends' charts, too! Registration is now open, and it's going to be a great deal of fun. This course is designed to satisfy both beginners (who literally know nothing about Astrology) and still be challenging to intermediate astrologers who are ready to take their practice to the next level. In addition to the live classes, you'll also receive extensive original notes and access to our Astrology Webinars and Breathwork Circles. We are thinking of this course as a virtual sanctuary to empower and support all the seekers who are feeling the weight of these times—so please don't hesitate to join the beautiful group that's assembling.
Considering the auspicious nature of two New Moons in Cancer in a row, once again I felt compelled to pull cards that align with your MOON SIGN, not your sun or rising.
If you don’t know your MOON SIGN, it’s a quick Google search away. If we consider the SUN SIGN our outer compass, the MOON SIGN is the inner compass. The sign in which the moon sat during your birth informs the method through which your needs get met, how your self-care can be most effective, and (most interestingly) the way your personal magic wants to express.
PS: I’m still here giving readings and supporting healings, so if you are feeling in need of a little extra support, don’t hesitate to reach out! And ya’ll know we have a podcast, riiiight? In fact, our little podcast just turned two years old! But don't worry, we are not losing steam; in fact, we are working harder than ever to make The Spiritual Gayz podcast not just entertaining but uplifting, empowering, and hopefully nourishing to your spirit. You’ll find it wherever you get your podcast fix: iTunes, Spotify, the works!
CANCER MOON
Knight of Cups (Reversed)
Just because you're the deepest feeler in the Zodiac doesn't mean you have to be at the whim of your emotions all the time. You'll notice the Knight of Cups stands on the banks of the river, symbolizing the ability to observe the river of the heart without getting swept away by it. Our emotions are a language that our inner being uses to communicate to us the deeper truth of our existence—but not every sentence is literary gold. Some emotions are just old wounds being triggered. Some emotions are just reactions to the assholes on the street who don't wear masks. Not every emotion needs to be enacted; some (most) just need to be observed.
The invitation this moonth is to be able to hold space for your bottomless emotional capacity without losing yourself in the depths of your depths. Talk about your feelings to yourself, out loud, like you are the narrator of the movie of your life. It may be difficult to remain objective when there are so many triggers, but that's the nature of this obstacle course. You can't practice not getting swept up in your feels if there aren't any feels to begin with. Remember, emotions are transitory, they pass. Be calm, cool, and considerate and let the storm pass.
LEO MOON
Queen of Cups
The Queen of Cups is a figure of mystery and transformation. I always imagine her sitting on the ocean floor, hanging out with all those deep-sea creatures who almost feel mythical in nature. She represents our ability to dive deeply into our own inner strangeness and allow it to reconfigure into a new sense of ourselves. She is deeply psychic and almost otherworldly. In fact, it is this very card, the Queen of Cups, that is the only Tarot card I have ever lost in my decades as a reader; and only two years later did she reemerge inside another deck I rarely use. She walks between worlds, is more there than here. This can be thrilling but also challenging because the Queen of Cups is all experience, what she lacks are words.
The invitation this moonth is to allow yourself to marinate in the slow inner changes that have been happening for some time. Let yourself be a stranger to yourself. Don't try to understand what is going on with you, trust that it is a necessary part of your evolution and lean all the way into the mystery of it. When you're on the other side of it you can write a book about it, or a least a blog post. But for now, live the ever-growing mystery that is you. You are transforming on a deep soul level, enjoy it—this sort of adventure doesn't happen every day.
VIRGO MOON
Three of Wands
Virgo Moons have the heart of a healer; they can analyze, assess, and ultimately realign the world around them. But sometimes they can get easily mired in the nitty gritty of being alive. There's an impulse of perfectionism around their inner world that can create an environment of anxiety and self-criticism. The Three of Wands invites a true visionary quality to emerge in the Virgo Moon. It's a card that acts as a portal to our psychic gifts and ability to see the big picture around who we are and why we are here. If you're here to heal the world, does it really matter that your hair is a mess? No gurl, it doesn't. Let yourself be reminded of your bigger vision for your life this moonth; it will serve as medicine when you start to be unnecessarily hard on yourself.