Carolyn Cushing offers New Moon Readings throughout the year. In this season, her readings address what you need to leave behind now, how to find your balance, and what can emerge for you.
Carolyn’s readings are always insightful. I am preparing for a journey and have been so busy that I haven’t had time for personal reflection. So her invitation to spend time with her and the cards seemed propitious.
A recent personal revelation and Carolyn’s reading suggest that there is something I must reclaim before I continue with my current plans.
LEAVE BEHIND: What would be beneficial to leave behind in winter’s dark mystery?
Elder of Water
What is the story unfolding in this card?
What is he leaving behind? What is he heading toward?
How does he know which way to head?
How is this a picture of you?
This card makes me want to ask you…
What emotions are you ready to leave behind?
“Who” helps you to do this?
The story is about movement over water, through feelings and memories, to a new place and time. The man in the card is leaving terra firma and stagnation, carried safely in his “ark.”
(Is that mountain in Oregon? My rabbi is in Lake Oswega and another rabbi I might like working with is nearby-- should I take soul retreat in Portland before making aliyah?)
The man in the card cannot see where he is going; he trusts the hints from his intuition and just rows his boat. Although he sits in an awkward position, he holds the oars with practiced ease. This is a picture of me, moving toward a future that I can’t see or guess. I am listening for guidance… and trusting it.
The otter watches the Elder with playfulness and spontaneity, gratitude, and caring. These are attitudes that might aid me.
BALANCE: How to find my right balance at the threshold?
The Tree
What surprises you about this image? What troubles you? What delights you?
Describe the places of balance in this card. How are they maintained? What example do they offer to you for your own balance?
How does the season balance in the whole of yearly cycle? What lessons does it offer to you about balance at this time in your life?
This card makes me want to ask you…
Are you taking time to pause, to contemplate, to meditate as you make this transition?
I can’t answer any of Carolyn’s questions about The Tree, but I wonder if the card represents a need for stillness. As one finds balance in yoga by focusing inward and responding to imbalances, I should seek balance in everyday life, without fear or comparisons, but by responding to each moment and internal movement. (And maybe I should start doing more yoga, too.)
EMERGE INTO: What can emerge for me as I step into the spring’s new light?
Elder of Earth
What is happening here? What came before to make it possible?
What symbolic element most captures your attention? What meaning does it hold for you? What does it invite you to emerge into?
How is this a picture of you?
This card makes me want to ask you…
What would it mean to think of yourself as a master of change?
A woman, who may be both older and wiser, is spinning a tale, weaving together the threads of her past. This is helping her, but ideally, the story she tells will also help other people.
What happened before: dissolution, losing herself and her path.
The land in the image makes me feel secure, but the presence of the deer prevents it from being static or stagnant. The deer speaks to me of grace, gentleness, trusting one’s instincts, caution, and freedom.
The card invites me to regain my confidence and to release fears for my security. I can emerge into creativity. I can transform myself.
Carolyn’s thoughts on the cards are similar to my own.
LEAVE BEHIND: This card offers an interesting visual on “leaving behind.” The Elder is leaving behind the great wide ocean to head toward the shore, his home. He can’t actually see the shore and moves from skill and trust toward this destination. Moving from these ideas to your life, you might think of it as you are leaving behind a vast and seemingly endless sea of emotions to trust your movements toward a new shore, a new life. You are invited to leave behind the emotions that are linked to the place where you have been, perhaps a few happy ones to mark and celebrate and most certainly the deeper murkier ones.
BALANCE: One of my favorite meanings for this card comes from Rachel Pollack where she talks about the Hanged One as surrendering to the spiritual, to one’s highest purpose. To make such a surrender requires sacrifice, but also a grounding in what is most important. That which is most important or compelling, our highest spiritual calling perhaps, is the Tree that supports us as we do this odd looking working. So even as your life is topsy-turvy from making a big change, keep going back to grounding yourself in this calling. The card suggests that taking mindful moments of meditation (specifically yoga if that is already your practice, but if not that, then the form of meditation that grounds you the most) as you go through the transition.
EMERGE INTO: Wow, I love this image here. The Wheel of Change is being used as a tool for creating a life that is abundant nurturing, and beautiful. You’ve met the Wheel of Change and learned its ways. Now you will emerge into the rewards that it offers.
OVERALL: As a story these cards show you shifting from an Elder focused on emotions to an Elder spinning her own Wheel of Change. The point of power through you must pass to make the transition includes: surrendering to your highest calling, meditation, and daring to turn your life upside down.
Blessings on you for the journey!
