Love is the Root and the Way: Slow Tarot for Eclipse Season 🌑

Slow Tarot spread to carry us through this month’s eclipse season, Aquarius ~ Pisces: Two of Wands crossed by the Hermit, the Lovers, Seven of Swords, King of Swords, Queen of Pentacles.

The weeks encompassing eclipse season are profoundly disruptive. This month’s eclipses coincide with the highly anticipated Saturn-Neptune exact conjunction, as well as a Mercury retrograde. While the turbulence and confusion of the present moment may persist, revelations are also bound to penetrate the fog.

We may not have clarity about what’s happening around us, but we can root into our interdependence; love is the lantern that lights the way. 

The spread for this season is centered on the Two of Wands crossed by the Hermit. Both of these cards illustrate vast horizons, with the 2W figure looking out over the globe he clutches, and the Hermit mid-trek on the mountaintop, led by his glowing lantern. The question these cards contain, for me, is

where are we finding our purpose, as the world swirls and convulses around us? 

The Seven of Swords and King of Swords, the horizontal line of the spread, ground us further into this question. These cards seem to be demonstrating two important orientations to this moment. The Seven of Swords is subversive, a thief stealing away with an enemy’s weapons. Resistance to deadly occupying forces and the flourishing of technofascism is of critical need. Equally as critical is rooting into our collective sense of purpose, and the vision of the alternative world we are growing. The King of Swords is this visioner, grounding us in the stillness of knowing our place and purpose amidst the storm. 

So what is this emerging vision, what is nourishing and supportive enough for us to root into?

This is the Lovers, a card of right relationship, reciprocity, and authentic being-ness. In this world, each and every one of us has a purposeful role to play, to keep the gift of life in motion.

This is the glory of the world held in the hands of the Two of Wands. Gift and possibility, gift and responsibility.

Every present moment an opportunity to show up and honor this world in all its being-ness. The rising card of this spread, the earth mother herself, Queen of Pentacles, shows us nourishing the seed of the world we are planting in each moment. Rooting into the Lovers, a love ethic, an ethic of right relationship that must be nurtured through the actions of us all for life to flourish, for an alternative to the extractive death cult of white supremacist patriarchal capitalist imperialism. 

The Saturn-Neptune conjunction that peaks on February 20th is an archetypal and symbolic world birthing, occurring at 0º Aries, the birthplace of spring.

This time we are currently living through is potent and revolutionary; with real possibility of dissolving faulty and corrupt structures, and finding our way home to a more loving world.

This takes a clarity of values and  a willingness to unlearn all of the ways these systems have conditioned within us (King of Swords). It also takes the determination and devotion of the Hermit, the will to traverse the unknown and unfamiliar, with soulful purpose as our guide.  

This otherworld, one rooted in love and care for each other, is a precious dream we can hold in our hands in this moment.

We each have a role to play in its nourishment, from seed to shoot to thriving ecology. Grounding into this vision helps us to act with integrity when our Seven of Swords moment comes, and helps us to sustain the daily actions of care that keep this world healthy and growing (Queen of Discs).

I will be working with this spread all month, follow along on Patreon for free, or sign up for email updates straight to your inbox when new reflections emerge. Wishing you ease and loving connection to orient toward amidst the storm.