betwixt and between ~ slow tarot 🌑 28º Scorpio
This spread shows Temperance crossed by the Ace of Swords, between the 4 of Wands to the left and the World to the right. Beneath sits the King of Wands on his fiery throne, and above sits the Page of Swords.
A spread to carry us from dark moon to dark moon, beginning with the new moon at 28 Scorpio, conjunct Mercury, on November 20, 2025. This spread is meant for us to sit with throughout this season, coming back to us as this accelerated time in the world shifts, and us with it.
My dear friend and collaborator Beth Bradfish created the music for this episode as she listened to the dark moon reading, what a gift!
This spread shows Temperance crossed by the Ace of Swords, between the 4 of Wands to the left and the World to the right. Beneath sits the King of Wands on his fiery throne, and above sits the Page of Swords.
The feeling I get from this spread, during this Scorpio dark moon, is this betwixt and between feeling. We are in a liminal space, between a world structure that no longer works for us and another struggling to be born. Like the Temperance angel we may have one foot in earth and one foot in water, what Ace of Swords moment might this Mercury cazimi bring?
Embracing this in-between state is more important than figuring it all out right now.
If you listen to the reading above, I’d love to know how it lands for you, and what you’re seeing in the cards and feeling in the world right now. I’ll return to this spread as the moon moves around the sky, and add to the resources below as things happen that feel resonant. Come back by when you feel like slowing down into the present.
🌓 first quarter square: pisces 🌓
11-27-2025
As I sit with this slow tarot spread, I am drawn to how it mirrors the collective astrology of 2025 and 2026.
2025 is a year of transition. The slow-moving outer planets Neptune ♆ and Uranus ♅ began their journeys from earth and water to air and fire signs. All of the outer planets move retrograde for part of the year from our earthly vantage point, so while we experienced Uranus and Neptune entering into Gemini (air) and Aries (fire) earlier this summer, now they have both moved back into Taurus (earth) and Pisces (water), respectively. In 2026, they will re-enter Aries and Gemini, where they will remain for several years. Next summer, Jupiter leaves Cancer (water) to enter the fire sign of Leo, at which time, all five outer, transpersonal planets will be in air and fire signs (Pluto in Aquarius, Saturn and Neptune in Aries, Uranus in Gemini, and Jupiter in Leo). This is an unprecedented, massive shift of energy, nothing like it has occurred in recent history, or will again. We’ve been feeling its onset for a couple of years, and we will soon be living it.
Amidst this great change, Saturn, the planet of material reality and consequence, is meeting Neptune, the planet of formlessness, dissolution, spirituality, idealism, and interconnectedness. These planets conjoin every 36 years, aligning with moments that bend our collective perception of reality: the fall of the Berlin wall, the Red Scares, and moment after moment of uprising and revolution. In February of 2026, Saturn and Neptune will meet at 0º Aries, the point of the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere. If the zodiac has a birth point, this is it. Astrologically speaking, we may be in for an awakening, the dawn of a new day.
Then, in late July of 2026, Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, and Jupiter will all arrive at the 4th degree of their new zodiacal home. At this time, they will form harmonious angles (sextiles and trines) to one another, forming a shape known as “Barbault’s Basket,” named after the famed French astrologer Andre Barbault.
Barbault devoted his career to the practice of collective (mundane) astrology, which emphasizes the study of the outer planets. In 2011, he predicted the world would experience a pandemic in 2020. Barbault saw this rare and evocative configuration of 2026 as a possible moment of evolution. Combined with the Saturn-Neptune conjunction, Barbault believed these arrangements could herald a more enlightened world, emphasizing themes of progress and advancement for the earth and its inhabitants.
Andre Barbault died in 2019. He didn’t see the pandemic he predicted emerge or the polycrisis that heightened alongside it. 2025 feels like a world that is at its breaking point. From where I sit, fascism and state violence are more entrenched than ever, corruption is rampant, and systems are captured by incompetent and malicious actors. Even if 2026 brings a paradigm shift, it is hard to envision how we might clean up the mess these past years have wrought, not to mention redistribute resources and power from wealth-hoarding, destructive actors to the people.
But, what if this were a seeding moment?
To me, Temperance’s angel, with one foot on earth and one in water, depicts this transition, as Uranus and Neptune finish up their passage through Taurus and Pisces. The liminal space we are in is one of chaos, destruction, violence, and moral rot. It feels like at every turn, we are seeing in grotesque and horrifying detail how those with power and influence have abandoned all principles but profit and conquest.
Is this so surprising, in a society that insists on endless growth, even in the face of its own annihilation? The world of modernity is a world fueled and fed by consumption – a world of uncontained fire. This is the world our King of Wands built – growth for growth’s sake, an ever-hungry ouroboros. Nothing is safe, and nothing is valued if it does not serve the gods of profit. Some of us have always known this world was a false structure (4 of Wands) built on faulty foundations, others among us have only begun to see.
What’s obvious is that we can’t stay here. The forces of change are already upon us.
In a world of extremes, chaos, confusion, a world pushed to its brink, we look up to see a sword, offered out of thin air. This is the paradigm shift. We can keep traveling down this fiery, godforsaken road, or we can emerge out of this morass, more aligned with the World around us.
Earth and water are elements that help us to ground and center ourselves. As we enter this age of fire and air, elements that help us to act, what sustains, nurtures, and centers us? How can we best use this time to prepare for the changes that are coming? When I look at the longterm astrology I see reasons for hope, but these flowing energies of air and fire are very intense. Looking around at what is present, it is obvious that a collective paradigm shift is going to be hard-won. It might entail a swifter collapse of our systems. The energy between all these planets might mean the eruption of even more violence and chaos on earth. The descent could be long and arduous, the descent could also be the portal.
I am seeing this Ace of Swords as our opportunity to liberate ourselves from the destructive path our world is on. This is not divine deliverance, however. A drawback of the liminal state of Temperance (XIV) is that in the flux and uncertainty that follows Death (XIII), we grasp for extremes (The Devil, XV). We pray that salvation will come in the form of a cosmic dance, but that only opens the door. The configuration only offers the Sword, we have to take it.
And that’s how we land at the Page of Swords at the top of this spread, a child without much power, or knowledge of how to wield that weapon. But they have determination, they have grit, and most importantly, they picked up the sword. That’s the path to a more integrated and whole World for us all. That each of us find our own way to values-aligned action. The sword may be accepting the truth of the moment, even when it’s hard and scary; it may be vocalizing what is true, even if it’s unpopular; it may even be fighting to overcome forces of violence and oppression, with whatever tools we have at our disposal.
Fire and air are elements of action. This next year will be a very active one. Acting in alignment with our core values is a way to prevent burnout, to prevent moral decay, and to prevent being swayed by the powerful, seductive forces of uncontained fire that surround us. I believe this spread is encouraging us to take care of ourselves, to habituate the practices that keep us grounded and centered so that we may meet the changes coming our way with as much moral clarity as we possibly can. As Neptune and Uranus conclude their journeys through Pisces and Taurus for the final time in our lives, what changes and wisdom are they leaving you with?
We are not meant to know what is happening right now, and we might not know what is truly happening for a long time coming. The old world is melting away, and the new one is struggling to be born. What anchors you and clarifies the struggle, for you? If a world reborn were possible, what values do you want it to orient around?
What kind of world is worth fighting for?
🌕 full moon update: gemini 🌕
12 - 4 - 2025
This full moon musing returns to the Slow Tarot spread of this moon cycle, from the new moon of Scorpio to the new moon of Sagittarius. This Gemini full moon squares the lunar nodes, representing a turning point for the collective,
do you feel it?
In this episode, I reference the TESCREAL ideology that is underlying the technofascist imaginary, and connect it to our King of Wands and Four of Wands. AI is a flashy new vehicle for a very old fire ethos. This spread asks us to interrogate our relationship to this moment, to these technologies and our systems, and asks what parts of our own imagination are we able to reclaim? This reclaiming, deconditioning process is awkward, and turns us into our sweet Page of Swords. This Page may be unclear about what's happening, but they have their sword,
