The Star: A Shift Towards Hope

Summer is usually expected to be a pretty good time—sunshine and flowers, as it were. Certainly, it’s a brighter energy, and many of us look forward to the warmer weather and being outdoors, especially if we get time off. But this summer was mixed vibes for me—some fun times, for sure, but also some heavier energies that stuck around for a while. 

But now it’s September, and we are getting closer to the Autumn Equinox (on September 22nd). I always think of September as the energetic New Year—and it is indeed the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, on the new moon of September 25th. 

The Autumn Equinox is a moment of balance in the seasons as we shift from the bright half of the year to the dark half. Autumn is a time of releasing and letting go as the winds shift, helping the leaves fall from the trees and preparing us for the Winter season. While Spring and Summer are all about our physical selves and the physical world—the flowers, the fruits, the sun on our skin—the Fall and Winter bring us into our intellectual and spiritual selves. We slow down a little bit, go inside, and begin to shift our focus. 

In our Moon Ritual and Tarot practice on the full moon this last Saturday, I pulled a three-card spread for the energy of the moment and for the group. The story the cards told was about an intellectual effort that was made (the Knight of Swords) possibly at the expense of the body, heart, or spiritual self. This effort failed in some way, leaving us exhausted, pinned down by our own internal stories and the painful emotions that came up in the stillness (the Four of Swords). 

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However, the last card is the Star, which is an energy of hope, especially after a difficult period. It’s the energy of early spring, which is when the first flowers start to break through the melting snow and frozen earth. In this image, this woman is surrounded by chaos but calm, at one with it. One of the students in the class pointed out the bird holding a flower resting on her hand, which calls to mind the myth of Noah’s Ark. After God flooded the earth, everything was gone but Noah’s family and his menagerie of animals, floating in an ark on an ocean of nothing for over a year. Noah sent out a raven who didn’t come back, then a dove, then another, until one finally came back with an olive branch, indicating that their long wandering was finally coming to an end. 

So I’ll take the good news, myself, and can certainly feel the energy beginning to shift for me in my own life. I’m feeling the beginnings of a new chapter, different from the ones before. I’m feeling hope.

This reading was intended for the group attending class, but I am sure it is meant for some of you who are reading this now too. If it’s been tough for the last little while, you may start to see the first glimmers of land after your long journey at sea. And if you’ve been enjoying the bountiful harvest of summer without any heaviness, this is still a good time to slow down, do some letting go, and gracefully shift into whatever is coming next in your life.  

~

We only have one more Moon Ritual on a Saturday coming on October 22nd (close to a new moon). Register here: https://momence.com/Julie-Peters/Moon-Ritual%2C-Tarot%2C-and-Yoga-Practice-/1061043

Join me for a ritual celebrating the shift to what I think of as Moon Season by practicing the Moon Goddess Meditations course starting on the new moon of September 25th. Learn more here: https://www.juliepeters.ca/moongoddesses