February Tarotscopes with Brandon Alter
By Brandon Alter:
Aquarius Season is a time to get weird. This is the sign where the Sun feels like a stranger to itself. It can’t behave in the way it’s most accustomed to—rather, it must embrace the electric strangeness of this cosmic air sign. Consider Aquarius the sign of the voyeur, the rebel, the alien. As an Aquarius Sun myself, I have always felt like an oddball; the things most people take for granted I cannot help but question. And as a result, I have that ferocious streak of Aquarian contrariness. I am always looking to swim against the current, not because I am difficult but because I am obsessed with finding another way, a way that is uniquely my own.
After the punishing rigidity of Capricorn season, Aquarius responds with rebellion. You, too, no matter your sign, must find a new way that is uniquely your own. You must rebel against who you’ve been. You must rebel against what you’ve been taught was acceptable and permissible. Instead, embrace your oddities and your peculiarities because they are all part of the larger celestial puzzle. And if you deny your individual pieces, the puzzle will never be completed. This New Moon at 4 degrees Aquarius is an escape hatch from normalcy and an invitation into your larger cosmic self.
This New Moon also officially brings an end to Eclipse Season. Remember that Eclipse Season shows up to bring us back into alignment, to eliminate the distractions and the illusions. It’s rarely subtle, and it's not often pleasant, but Eclipses show us, with striking clarity, where we have been deceived by others or ourselves. They make it impossible to stick our heads in the sand any longer. Eclipses come in to change you on a soul level—so you’ve been changed whether you like it not. This New Moon in Aquarius comes in on its heels and asks, "Ok, you’re changed, cool, now what?"
I am here to tell you that you are not crazy or making it up, things have been intense AF lately. Everything is evolving quickly and everyone is feeling it. Capricorn energy is heavy and has a tendency to make us overly serious and take everything a little too seriously—Aquarius wants none of that. Can you begin to be more playful with your whole life? That’s the key to understanding the invitation of this New Moon. Yes, there are big changes you need to make. This New Moon (happening on Friday at 1:41 p.m., PST) will square Uranus in Taurus, the planet of creativity, chaos and shaking it up, meaning your physical life needs to reflect this new you. But can you rearrange your life playfully? Can you cast off your old masks, your old goals, or even your old fears and step fully into the real you?
Here’s an Aquarian question: Who is the real you? Is it the voice (or voices) in your head? Is it your resume? Is it your past and the story you tell yourself about it? Or maybe it’s something way bigger; you see, Aquarius Season is all about the big picture. What if you pushed Google Earth on your whole life? Zoom out, further, further still. Can you get a sense of the larger patterns you’ve been acting out? And what if you, as you know yourself, were actually just a fraction of a wiser, ancient, more cosmic being? What if you could begin to live your life from your expansive and strange soul? These are the sorts of questions that this season offers us. Life isn’t something to be manipulated; it’s to be lived like you were riding a wave. Trust in the bigger YOU that you might just be coming to know.
When we deny our strangeness, we deny the world a new point of view. We can’t assume we know where this is all heading. But we can double down on our individuality, not so we can be the star of the show but for the greater good. As the sign that rules over humanitarian work, large groups, dreams, and hopes and wishes, Aquarius teaches that making ourselves small and normal makes the world small and normal. It’s not just time to break out of the box, it’s time to break the box.
At its essence, Aquarius speaks to our universal interconnectedness. We are a human family, we can’t deny that. And we can’t afford to give up on humanity; it’s all we have. But first, you can’t afford to give up on yourself. Use this New Moon and this Aquarius season to expand out into your curious edges. You’ll find that when you are brave enough to own the full landscape of yourself, it empowers all those with whom you come into contact. You can never know the full impact that being your whole self can have. It radiates in invisible currents, it empowers in silent waves. And once you get used to it, it feels a million times better than playing safe ever did.
Aquarius loves to learn. Some even consider Aquarius the ruler of Astrology itself. Perhaps you too have been feeling a call to expand your mind in 2020. Curious about practices like Tarot or Astrology? Well, guess what babies, I’ve got you covered. Starting in March, I’ll be leading an eleven-week online Tarot immersion with my husband, Angel. We're calling it "Tarot + Cosmos." During these eleven weeks, you’ll learn more than just how to read the Tarot; you’ll develop your own psychic gifts, build your own symbolic language, and empower yourself to answer your own questions. Learn how to use divination in your everyday life and make use of your intuition. Each class will begin with a guided meditation and end with a Q&A. You’ll get a copy of my extensive and original Tarot notes plus additional materials to inspire and expand your relationship with the Tarot. And as a bonus, you’ll receive free access to the Spiritual Gayz Moonthly Astrology Webinars while class is in session!
This is way more than a class, it’s your virtual weekly sanctuary where you can feel held in sacred space and gain perspective on your life. Give yourself the gift of self-care that will actually nourish your spirit and teach you skills to make your life better! Here’s a week by week break down of what you can look forward to learning!
For more specific Cosmic Updates and Tarot Wisdom, I highly encourage you to tune into The Spiritual Gayz. This twice monthly podcast that my husband, Angel, and I offer up is dedicated to exploring the wide reaches of spirituality without pretending that it all makes sense. We released an episode earlier this month all about the Astrology of 2020 that I’m sure you’ll get a lot out of. We have tons of episodes on Astrology but also Tarot and Shamanism and healing and magic. Not to mention fascinating interviews with groovy cosmic queers such as Steven Canals, writer/co-creator of the hit TV show POSE, actress/icon Lena Waithe, and beauty/make-up expert Lihja Stewart. If you’ve been looking to expand your spiritual horizons in a fun, accessible way, look no further!
You may have noticed I’m no longer pulling a collective card for these moonthly Tarotscopes. That’s because I’m pulling a card for the collective every week and doing a video reading. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll find these videos on my stories every Thursday and in my Highlights. But you can also find them on The Spiritual Gayz Youtube page, here!
Below you’ll find your individual Tarotscopes for the complete lunar cycle. Read for your SUN and your MOON . . . and if you don’t know your moon, look it up, gurl, that’s part of your personal power waiting to be claimed!
You’ll notice there are a fair amount of reversals this season, which doesn’t surprise me since our first Mercury Retrograde of 2020 happens at the tail end of Aquarius Season. But remember, reversed cards are not inherently bad. Reversed cards and Retrograde planets operate similarly, they want us to slow down with them and stop taking their meaning or influence for granted. If you find your card is upside down, please read this note on reversals for deeper clarity on what an inverted card might mean for you.
*A NOTE ON REVERSALS*
When a card comes in upside down, we say it is reversed. Every reader works with reversals in their own way; some readers don’t even work with reversals at all and that’s gorgeous, too. For me, a reversal represents a level of complexity that a direct card lacks. It does not mean the opposite, it does not mean weaker energy or just downright bad. A reversal can be likened to a retrograde planet, its energy is not different just slower. As one of my favorite astrologers, Anne Ortolee, says, "A retrograde planet is like a quiet kid in the back of the car, you have to turn around to see it." Maybe a reversed card works this way, too.
Perhaps reversed cards are just trying to get our attention. They might come in like an exclamation point, saying, “Look at me! You really need me right now!” Sometimes I think reversed cards are indicating a lack of neutrality, a push or a pull—whereas direct cards signify energy coming in clean but also maybe a tad boring, conventional. However you decide to see the upside-down quality of the card, please do not be dismayed by it. It could signify your own resistance to the message, but it could just as easily signify your own surprise.
It’s not that a reversal changes the energy of the card, it’s that your position has changed. Where you were once firmly with your feet on the ground, now you’ve completely flipped—you’re seeing things from another point of view. Simply put, a reversal opens us up to the unexpected. Just when you think you know a card, a reversal literally turns that interpretation on its head, expanding our capacity to understand the messages from the spirit world and ourselves.
AQUARIUS
Ace of Wands (Reversed)
The Ace of Wands is pure fire. It’s a big bang of energy and excitement. Consider what fire can do: it transforms everything
it touches, burns away the dry and dead. Fire can help us
release what is no longer needed. But fire can also initiate. Consider the expression "trial by fire," it starts us on a new
path. Think of your car engine, your hot-water heater, even starting your computer requires fire to spark. How you use the Ace of Wands is up to you—to release or to ignite, to let go or begin again—but no matter how you view the invitation this
card offers, a new beginning is at hand in the fire of your being.
Wands, as the suit of fire, rule over the things in our life that spark (i.e., our sexuality, our creativity, our spirituality). They teach us how to take action in our lives in alignment with the divine. Sometimes this card even signifies a new spiritual awakening, a soul being caught on fire. Think about lightning, which is ruled by Aquarius. Traditional people considered being struck by it an initiation as a shaman or healer. Perhaps this moonth is an initiation for you, a new way of connecting to spirit, to the divine—the very source of your life.
Even upside down this card signifies an explosive beginning somewhere in your life. It is a profound reconnection to universal love. When was the last time you felt connected to something larger than yourself? Was it during a theatrical performance, a long hike in nature, some truly passionate sex? The most important thing in life is to stay connected to the source of our being, even if that source surprises us or changes as we evolve. Find the electrical socket your spirit longs for and plug that baby back in.
PISCES
The Moon (Reversed)
The Moon is a reminder that not everything needs to make sense. Sometimes our power can lie dormant in the mysterious underbelly of our psyche. How do we wake it up? We lean into the strangeness of ourselves. Consider the moon herself, how her light distorts the truth; it illuminates vistas and landscapes
in a way the Sun cannot. I think about taking Full Moon hikes in the desert; the moonlight makes the sand look like snow. Where in your own self have you been avoiding your own lunacy?