Divination Tarot

Bears Guarding Caves: A Reading For Now

lovely purple lilac blossoms

My disco ball is sparkling and the lilacs are blooming!

It’s the moooost sweet-smelling tiiiiime of the yeeear

I’ve been walking around my neighborhood sniffing all the lilac bushes I can get close to. It’s a small joy that brightens my day no matter how heavy the clouds can get — and hoo baby hippos, can those clouds get heavy and grey.

There is a terrible lot going on in the world right now. I’m going to cut right to the chase: a reading for these times, because hot summer sidewalk burns! is it a time to be alive!

To the Tarot!

(Psst – My calendar for June is now open! If you’re interested in a personalized and in-depth email or video reading at my current prices, please peruse. My list of services will soon be changing and expanding. Stay tuned, spicy shrimps!)

I’m using the Wildwood Tarot and just layin’ it out on my lap with a cup of tea. And uh, every single one of these cards is a Major Arcana card. We’re really in it now, my spicy shrimps!

Clockwise from top to bottom we have:

  • Underlying Influence: 5 The Ancestor
  • Energy of the Moment: 7 The Archer
  • Advice for Moving Forward: 15 The Guardian RX
  • Clarifier for 15 because as my friend Amelia Quint taught me, it’s sometimes helpful to pull a clarifier card when one pulls trump 13, 15, or 16 (aka Death, Devil, Tower) : 20 The Great Bear
  • Message from our Holy Helpers: 19 The Sun of Life RX

Well fuck!

We are influenced by the existing systems and structures.

The status quo. The shit-pies in the fields are creeping up on us like foul-smelling tribbles. A reckoning is due for how our world handles food, money, and, you know, the most basic securities and pleasures of being embodied. All that Taurus represents, and which Uranus is stirring up.

Let’s name it: the existing system and its structures are white supremacist settler-colonialism and its conjoined twin, capitalism.

We are also influenced by the loving generating power of our ancestors and the land from which our bodies, those ancestral vessels, are made.

And the land is hurting.

If you live in the United States, like I do, the land is aching from all the violence done to it. The land aches from overdevelopment, pollution, harmful industrial agriculture, frakking, tree-felling, and oil pipelines. And it’s essential to remember: the underlying cause is settler-colonialism that works hard to separate the land from indigenous sovereignty as much as it can.

So what do we do?

The present moment finds us seeking a way forward. We do our best to protect and ground ourselves. We may be closing ourselves off or opening ourselves up in an attempt to help us achieve what we want, for better or worse. Setting boundaries. Asking for and receiving support from our holy helpers. Finding that we must both protect and tap into the power of the body’s three major power centers: head, heart, and root.

We can step into sovereignty and self-mastery.

We can recognize the power we have and how to wield it in a way that serves life. We can connect with our innermost self and the relief of truth therein.

I am frankly shocked by the dual card-draw of Major Arcana numbers 15 and 20, which in the Wildwood Tarot are both imagined as a bear guarding a cave. In the first, a bear’s upright skeleton blocks the seeker’s path and in the second, a living polar bear is perched atop the entrance to the cave beneath the constellation of Ursa Major, the Big Bear.

I mean, shit!

What does the image of a bear guarding a cave say to you?

I encourage you to sit with that. Share in the comments — I’d dearly love to hear your thoughts and insights!

For me, it speaks of the power of dreaming, among other things. Awake or asleep, dreams show us the seemingly impossible. Dreams reveal our inner truths. They dredge up things we might rather not face. They force us to confront those inner truths. They connect us to other people, places, and things, both living and dead.

Last night I dreamed of a cave. It was small and shallow but wide. The stone was sandy-colored and kinda soft. There were books being stored in the cave. I was sorting books of my own and choosing whether or not to keep a trilogy with sweet vintage cover illustrations.

In with the old, out with the new?

Should I stay or should I go? (DANCE BREAK)

We have the power to dream of a healed world.

Our holy helpers remind us that within ourselves, we have access to the courage and guidance we need. That inner fire is stoked and strengthened by fuel. Fuel like asking for help and guidance when we need it. Fuel like dialogue with our bodies, the land, our beloveds, and ourselves. Fuel like groundedness in our sovereignty and the clarity that brings.

LIKE BUTTAH TO GHEE

So we have this inner fire, and we strengthen it through dialogue with our bodies, lands, beloveds, and selves, and armed with this light into the underbelly/underworld we go.

I mean this both literally, as in there is hell happening on earth right now for oppressed people in settler colonial states like the U.S. and Israel*, and figuratively, as in when one person hurts all people are hurting, and we have deep inner healing and reclamation of power to do.

And we have the power to be successful. We are made of stars and earth and sea for crying out loud!

Right now, I want to ask you something. The sun is rising. You have been dreaming. What is your dream? What are the images, figures, landscapes, and words bouncing around your consciousness right now that ring true, even if you don’t understand them right now? What echoes? What calls?

What is your dream?

A sunny windowsill with four objects on it. From left to right: a chunky geode rock, a shamrock-pattern teacup holding a spray of cherry blossoms, a glass-blown bluebird of happiness, and a small bell with a stained glass handle in the shape of three cherries. The sky in the background is blue with big puffy white clouds.

*You may have heard about what’s happening in Palestine and Colombia right now. Here are some links to resources and voices:

I love you,

xo Paige

Paige
Psst — My calendar for June is now open! If you’re interested in a personalized and in-depth email or video reading at my current prices, please peruse. My list of services will soon be changing and expanding. Stay tuned, spicy shrimps!

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