JMs Equinox readings: Good ol' RWS

[Joan Marie]

Looking forward to day 1!

Sacred Days of Autumnal Equinox 2020

Day 1: 18.9. Ludi Romani Games - Roman games in honour of the god Jupiter, celebrated with circus performances. This card reflects the spirit of celebration in your life, and how you can bring more joy and playfulness to yourself and others.

Day 2: 19.9. Day of Our Lady of La Salette - an apparition of the Christian Mother of God/Holy Virgin. She brings message of hope to humanity. Where is your personal source of hope and spirituality?

Day 3: 20.9. Sedna, Inuit Goddess of the Sea - This card asks you to address your fears and shadows before the winter comes, like the Inuit did in their Sedna festival.

Day 4: 21.9. Chinese Moon Festival - Today we make an offering to the moon to connect with the spirits of friends and loved ones who we are not able to be with in person. The full moon symbolises wholeness. This card asks you to consider how to span the distance we feel from others and bring them closer.

Day 5: 22.9. Autumn Equinox - Libra - Mabon - the day of perfect equilibrium. A day for two cards. What is growing in your life, what is decreasing? This two-card reading reflects the balance of your energies and, if there is imbalance, what you need to address.

Day 6: 23.9. Sukkot - This Jewish holiday celebrates the gathering of the harvest and commemorates the miraculous protection provided for the children of Israel when they left Egypt. It also honours the 6 directions. Consider the meaning of shelter and the space you are privileged to occupy.

Day 7: 24.9. Greek holiday Pyanopsia - Thanksgiving for the fruits of the sun. Wind white or purple wool around a laurel or olive branch, and hang or arrange fruit around it. These don't have to be actual fruit - you can write on a paper things that you are grateful for. What is the fruit of your past action, ripening now?

Day 8: 25.9. Holiday of Neptune - This is a card about anger and anger management. Contemplate about how you deal with negative feelings. Is there a way to tranform negative energies into positive ones, making your anger pull your carriage and drive you on?

Day 9: 26.9. Vendémiaire - month of the grape harvest in the French revolutionary calendar month. Raise your glass to your big and small achievements in the last year, either with wine or grape juice, and enjoy your success.

Day 10: 27.9. Maha Navami - a Hindu holiday celebrating goddess Durga's victory over a demon. Part of the celebrations is chanting. Reflect on a victory you want to win over the next three months, and devise a chant for it. Write it down where you can see it and envision the joy you will feel when you reach this goal.

Day 11: 28.9. Eleusinia - an ancient Greek holiday, commemorating Demeter and Persephone. She has to leave the world of of growth and abundance and descend to the realm of death. This card reflects grief, sadness and the traces of tears in your life. Acknowledge and honour them.

Day 12: 29.9. Meditrinalia - an ancient Greek holiday honoring the goddess of healing. Think about your healing process and how you can continue it. Where do you draw strength from? How can you heal and nurture yourself in the future? Pamper yourself today and close these twelve days of introspection with healing thoughts.

[Joan Marie]

I've made a surprising choice for this.

I have a feeling of needing to return to my tarot roots. That means my very first deck, the Rider-Waite-Smith.
Like many people I kind of fell out of love with it along the way. But I recently started to re-appreciate it, started to see things in it I hadn't before.

I'm using the actual first deck I ever got. It was my exclusive deck for a very long time. The cards feel almost like cloth it's so used. The backs are yellowed like an old newspaper and the whole deck is slightly swayed in the middle like the old work-horse that it is.

This feels like a perfect time for it.

[Joan Marie]

off we go!

Day 1: 18.9. Ludi Magni Games - Roman games in honour of the god Jupiter, celebrated with circus performances. This card reflects the spirit of celebration in your life, and how you can bring more joy and playfulness to yourself and others.

Oh what a brilliant card to draw for this!

This card on the surface looks like it's about refusal or ignore-ance.
But another take is that it is a card of restlessness, searching.

This card asks "So what's next???"

This card is goading me out of a rut. I've been climbing out for a while now and making headway but this is the final boost- the push up and over.
Now is a perfect time to make some decisions about the kind of life I want to have. It's so easy to just let life happen and then wonder how you got here or where the time went.

This card encourages me to fully embrace my will. And to act.

[Joan Marie]

Day 2: 19.9. Day of Our Lady of La Salette - an apparition of the Christian Mother of God/Holy Virgin. She brings message of hope to humanity. Where is your personal source of hope and spirituality?

I'd say this is pretty accurate and in part because of it's rarity in my life. By that I mean the sense of community, of support and like-mindedness, or rather like-spiritedness.

I find this on occasion and it really does lift me up when I do. But it is rare. That's what makes it special when it happens.
Sometimes it's long-lasting, other times it happens in short but meaningful encounters. Sometimes in person, but not always.

But I have to say, though it surprises me to say it, that there is nothing I enjoy more, that enriches me in every way, more than an exchange of ideas, humour, or just a lively conversation with a person whose energy I can match and who can match mine.

So rare, and all to often, so fleeting. *



* but even fleeting is better than nothing

[Joan Marie]

Day 3: 20.9. Sedna, Inuit Goddess of the Sea - This card asks you to address your fears and shadows before the winter comes, like the Inuit did in their Sedna festival.

This is really interesting. This card has always spoken to me about dealing with criticism and working with groups.

The advantage of working alone is you don't have to listen to or take anyone's suggestions. But then again, everything we do eventually goes up for public (even when it's just a small one of friends or family) critique.

The disadvantage of working alone is it can be very lonely. It can also be very limiting in the absence of outside inspiration and ideas.

I recently had a weird experience where I showed someone I trusted something I'd just made ( a sewing project) that I was very proud of. This person's reaction cut me in two. By complimenting (although not understanding) my work, this person managed to insult pretty much everything I've been devoting myself to for the past several years. They said something to the effect that I've been wasting my time with "X" as it is clear my talents lie elsewhere. This was followed by some clearly patronising "compliments" I could have done without.

These remarks said more about this person's limitations than it said anything about me and yet I've been bothered by it because it causes me to hesitate to share my work with others and reminds me how difficult it is to find any community to share creative endeavours with, to exchange energy and ideas with. I was surprised and disappointed in my friend who I can see is selling herself short - I know she's capable of better, or more.

So fears and shadows? Being misunderstood is awful for me, but I think it is for everyone and I think all of us feel it from time to time. Or often. We all exist in each other's minds as constructs. The view of a person is always limited by the person viewing. People limit me and I do it to them as well. This is how we hold each other back. Limit each other. This is the reason communication is so difficult and so important. To make myself understood rather than expecting everyone to figure me out.

And where does that start? With understanding myself enough to know how to communicate, how to express myself. This gets to the shadow part because that's where things like defensiveness get in the way. Anyone who has this problem knows what I am talking about. For example, how comfortable are you answering questions about what you do or about some interest of yours?

Often, people only ask this to make conversation or to help them build a picture in their mind of you that they can deal with. How you answer, (and not just the words you use) can feed their pre-conceptions, their limited view of you, OR it could open their eyes, even lift them up to their own potential. Understanding them and their question is just as important as the way you answer.

They say you can find your shadow by noticing when certain unpleasant feelings pop up. Rather than retreating from the remarks that make me feel misunderstood, I need to become more at ease with my own self as well as make the effort to understand others.

It's easy to take offense and/or become defensive. It's much more interesting to skilfully work through it with someone.

This card, the way it is depicted in the RWS is a perfect illustration to me of this topic.

[Joan Marie]

Day 4: 21.9. Chinese Moon Festival - Today we make an offering to the moon to connect with the spirits of friends and loved ones who we are not able to be with in person. The full moon symbolises wholeness. This card asks you to consider how to span the distance we feel from others and bring them closer.

Again, what an interesting card to pull for this.
It's one of the few cards in the RWS (not sure if there are others really) that has no person in it.
Also, the wands don't touch, are not in a bundle or engaged in any activity.
Even the little sprouts that come off of the wands don't touch.

Yet all point the same direction.

We all want the same things. It's really not that hard to figure it out, but we make it difficult, complicate things.
We forget how simple it is.

[Joan Marie]

Day 5: 22.9. Autumn Equinox - Libra - Mabon - the day of perfect equilibrium. A day for two cards. What is growing in your life, what is decreasing? This two-card reading reflects the balance of your energies and, if there is imbalance, what you need to address.

These cards are so opposite.
The nine of Cups shows a satisfied (slightly corpulent) rather closed off person (the folded arms) and the Page of Pents still filled with the promise and ambition of youth.

There is a balance here, I can feel it. To fall somewhere in the middle would be just right. To be comfortable in one's life can be freeing and make pursuits of new things and curiosities more enjoyable, more successful even, since the focus isn't on success.

I love how this 9 of Cups guy is kinda chubby, as if getting too comfortable leads to a disconnection with the self, becoming sedentary, and bit by bit closing one's self off. I don't know if that makes sense but it does to me. I love the Page's energy. Freeing it from the tyranny of, I don't know, results maybe, competition, allows it to come to a fuller expression of itself.

This is the balance I would like to find and live.

[Joan Marie]

Day 6: 23.9. Sukkot - This Jewish holiday celebrates the gathering of the harvest and commemorates the miraculous protection provided for the children of Israel when they left Egypt. It also honours the 6 directions. Consider the meaning of shelter and the space you are privileged to occupy.

My son works with the homeless in his city. He told me something really interesting about being homeless, or about having a home, depending on how you look at it.

You know how at the end of a day, or even periodically during it, you'll sit on your sofa and have a snack or scroll through your phone or flip through tv channels, pet your cat? All those kinds of things we do at the end of a day to relax help us to re-set ourselves. We may not realise it, but that's what we are doing, shaking off the stress of the day for a little while.
Some days have a clear stress but most days are composed of a million little stresses we may not even register as such, like crossing busy streets, waiting in lines, checking bank balances, forgetting things, losing things...it all adds up and our homes are where we go go later to pull ourselves together. Our sofas, our beds, our gardens, these are more than spaces, these are our therapy in a very real way. These spaces get us through life.

Homeless people don't have this and the daily stresses they face just build and build and build. They have no release, no comfy sofa or bed to lie in with a cup of tea. It's very painful. And that ever increasing pain and stress makes the situation more dire each day and nearly impossible to escape.

I know having a home is a lot of work and responsibility, but never forget what it is for you and for your family. It is your shelter from the storms of life. It's where, and how, we heal.

It's worth all the work. Never take it for granted, ever.

[Joan Marie]

Day 7: 24.9. Greek holiday Pyanopsia - Thanksgiving for the fruits of the sun. Wind white or purple wool around a laurel or olive branch, and hang or arrange fruit around it. These don't have to be actual fruit - you can write on a paper things that you are grateful for. What is the fruit of your past action, ripening now?

Someone gifted me a little olive tree recently.
I may just perform this little ritual today.

Reading a little more about it, in addition to fruit, offerings of honey, oils, and cereals were also made and the goddess Athena represents the Olive tree.

Here we have the Empress in her garden surrounded by wheat.

The deep greens of summer are beginning to fade and turn out my window.

Now to the question: what fruit of my past labor is ripening now?

Well, who doesn't wish to identify themselves with the Empress? She's beautiful, calm, sought after, and has everything she needs.

I hope to be "ripening" into this kind of actualised woman. A woman who doesn't require or seek attention or recognition, who fits well and comfortably into the life she's built.

[Joan Marie]

Day 8: 25.9. Holiday of Neptune - This is a card about anger and anger management. Contemplate about how you deal with negative feelings. Is there a way to tranform negative energies into positive ones, making your anger pull your carriage and drive you on?


The Ace of Pentacles always reminds me of planting seeds.

These can be literal seeds like in a garden, or the seeds of an idea, or a plan. The beginnings of things.
Starting with anger, planting angry seeds, is going to yield a squalid harvest.

It's worth the effort to consciously direct negative energy productively, toward solutions.
Thinking about it, maybe it isn't fair to always call anger "negative". Sometimes it is what you need to push yourself forward.
This is not a bad way to think about it. Too often we let anger sort of defeat us instead of using it as motivation.
That's how to transform is from a destructive force to a constructive one. (I prefer that to "positive/negative")

[Joan Marie]

Day 9: 26.9. Vendémiaire - month of the grape harvest in the French revolutionary calendar month. Raise your glass to your big and small achievements in the last year, either with wine or grape juice, and enjoy your success.

I just had a quick look at the wiki page for Vendémiaire. It's kind of interesting. It's a 30-day festival (my favourite kind) and it's divided into three 10-day weeks, called décades (decades). It begins at the Autumnal Equinox and ends around October 22-24

It pretty much lines up with the 3 decans of Libra in astrology. My guess is that is a coincidence, but maybe not. Maybe whoever started that was tuned in to astrology.
Each day of each décade is "consecrated to some useful object."

Here is the chart:

I kind of like this concept. Maybe every day should be consecrated to a useful object.

So to the matter at hand:

Again, a perfect draw. How better to contemplate the passing of the year than with the Wheel of Fortune.

Anything I may have accomplished this last year, big and/or small, is something that just rolled my way. The opportunity presented itself, the idea popped into my head, a request was made or a need presented itself, the tool or object I didn't even know I needed fell out of the sky and landed right in front of me.

Oh, I have stories.

So, okay, I will take this challenge and toast the year with a little fruit of the vine.

Happy Vendémiaire season everyone!

[Joan Marie]

Day 10: 27.9. Maha Navami - a Hindu holiday celebrating goddess Durga's victory over a demon. Part of the celebrations is chanting. Reflect on a victory you want to win over the next three months, and devise a chant for it. Write it down where you can see it and envision the joy you will feel when you reach this goal.

I'm looking for some freedom.

I have a lot of it already. I'm lucky. But out of some weird kind of self-sabotaging habit I have created little prisons for myself and I would like to escape them now. I don't necessarily mean to run away from things, but to re-form them to fit the freer more expressive atmosphere I seek.

This is the demon I would like to slay, the one who causes me to limit myself and keeps me tied to old, stale ideas.

Gotta say, I am not much on chanting. I've tried it. I get it. But it just isn't me.
But I may just tack up this card somewhere or make it part of my screen saver or something to use as a reminder and help me snap out of old thinking ruts.

[Joan Marie]

Day 11: 28.9. Eleusinia - an ancient Greek holiday, commemorating Demeter and Persephone. She has to leave the world of of growth and abundance and descend to the realm of death. This card reflects grief, sadness and the traces of tears in your life. Acknowledge and honour them.

Strange treasures.

Every person is a strange treasure.
It's important to take the time to understand and appreciate this about the people in our lives.

It often doesn't happen until they are gone and we feel the void of their strangeness, their specialness, the style they had about everything they did.

Don't wait until it is too late.

The weird thing is, in life sometimes those traits are things that bugged us, or we dismissed as quirks. But in the end those were what endeared us, fascinated us, obsessed us about the person.

[Joan Marie]

Day 12: 29.9. Meditrinalia - an ancient Greek holiday honoring the goddess of healing. Think about your healing process and how you can continue it. Where do you draw strength from? How can you heal and nurture yourself in the future? Pamper yourself today and close these twelve days of introspection with healing thoughts.

Oh my.

This card says so much to me.

To be really honest, I don't think I want to explain it all here.

But to sum it up, I don't think a person can heal alone. You need someone else to care, to show they care. We have to show each other we care. I mean for real. The people in our real lives.

I see people all the time on social media fishing for sympathy. I know that sounds kinda mean. I personally don't get it but so many do it that I can't criticise it. It must bring something for them. But there is no replacement for actual real life caring action. Someone who actually shows up with tangible support. Someone who can steer the boat for while.

There's a lot of "sending hugs" out there and I know everyone means well and often that is all we can offer. But when you get the chance to be of real help to someone, it is a gift to you. And other the other side, don't be afraid to ask for help. Give someone else the chance to know the gift of being useful, or generous.

I've been on both sides of this in the past year, and especially lately. I've been a go-between which means I've had the opportunity to be of help to someone dear and to have had to ask someone else for help in doing that. In the process, we were all lifted up. We were all healed just a bit.

Kindness and attention can heal cruelty and neglect.

It's senseless to wait around for apologies that will never come. Look for healing elsewhere, from the ones who have something real to offer in your life.