Since May I’ve been trying to use my 13 Moons Lunar Calendar.* I fell off my bullet journal for various reasons, prime among them being systems tend to work for me for a while, then I need to shake them up to keep them fresh and… it got stale and so routine that I was just moving my to do list sticky note from week to week to week to week…. Not helpful. But with The Pandemic, I was getting to the point where all the days of the week were pretty interchangeable, just another day ending in y… I wasn’t able to pinpoint if I’d done anything in a day and so, true to form, not being able to follow a pattern/recipe, I now have at least two journals. The aforementioned, which functions as the day planner part of the bujo, and my Womankind World Domination Action Planner. which I’ve been using for habit/mood/etc tracking stuff. I’m looking forward to seeing how these all evolve.
Part of this has been that I do a daily card draw from one of my tarot/oracle decks. Daily draws are a gentle framework of things to consider for the upcoming day. By gentle framework, I don’t mean ‘telling the future’ or looking for ‘what to expect’, just a loose theme of meditation around themes in the card as it applies to the day. I usually use my Crow Tarot for these, unless I accidentally grab a different deck as occasionally happens.
Likewise for solar/lunar cycle passages, I draw a card to contemplate over a longer period of time, creating a layering effect. Again, not to tell the future, but to provide themes for meditation/reflection. For this, I have presently been using the Weaver’s Oracle. It is these layers of reflection that I thought I might share here.
Before I get to the two cards that I’m currently reflecting on, I want to note that I’m currently rolling through the year without a defined ‘wheel’ - the Celtic agricultural calendar doesn’t feel right to me, though it’s a convenient enough shorthand. I used a modified ‘hero/ine’s journey’ for a number of years, and… it sort of? resonates? And the standard Farmer’s Almanac moon names are… ok? But again, sort of don’t entirely resonate. Eventually I might find something that settles with me. I might use time periods or shorthands along the way, because I think the reflections are layered with the seasonal and lunar evolutions as well, I just don’t have a named framework for them beyond my unarticulated experience of them right now. So starting with just the cards and if/when I articulate the solar/lunar cycles, I’ll probably layer these in as well… Expect this to evolve, and I’ll probably have more to say sometimes about some cards than others.
May 1st through June 20th - (Weaver’s Oracle, as noted above) Rock - the Bone Hill Hag - she reclaims unity from fragments.
The pieces of our lives that have exploded, broken, fallen to pieces. How do we find wholeness in our lives that have been up-ended?
May 22nd New Moon to June 5th Full Moon - (Weaver’s Oracle) Solitude - The Dissolving Woman - She honors the burden of wounds.
From the accompanying book,
Inside solitude we may lie down the burden of our wounds… When we are wrapped in quiet isolation, we may walk more closely to our sorrows and come to understand the nature of the journey we share. We know that in the end our wounds have the power to change us and we will find relief in this haven of wept tears.
Reflection for the next two weeks: how does honoring the burden of wounds that have/are changing me allow me to recreate unity from the pieces of a pandemic upended life?
I have realized that I basically self-isolate by default and I have really been trying since being unemployed to create/maintain connections with people who are important to me that I enjoy. Quarantine is both making me realize that my world is fairly small, which is fine, but also that I have been doing enough that I miss being able to say, “hey, we should go get lunch/walk/whatever”. And that there is a component of friendship that physical proximity… reinforces? It isn’t necessary to have physical proximity all the time, but looking at someone on a conference call is different from looking directly into their eyes, as they gaze directly back at you, even if it’s fleeting in conversation. Being able to hug at greeting/partings. There’s probably pheromones, even among friends. Mysteries that swirl around us all, unspoken, when we connect in person that are difficult/impossible to replicate in person.
Baba Yaga is coming to reclaim that open space of isolation right now. The wild, untamed, untended parts of my heart. I am reconnecting and finding grounding in the care of my surroundings - all the things I talk to when I’m “alone” - the loom, my wheel, the knitting, the plants & animals, the ground under my feet, the blankets that rest on me, the chairs and couches that hold me…
I need my community, but also I need this slowing down. The creation of space is an opportunity to see where I’m holding too tightly, allowing things to drift, where my expectations may be misaligned with the relationship/s I have developed. I also need this slowing down to feel the weight of what I carry with me and to reflect on what can be released now. Space to allow the changes and evolution of self space to settle into my bones.
*I do not receive anything, nor am I an affiliate of any sort for the products I link to, it’s just what I’m using right now. If that changes on this site, I’ll call it out.