New Moon Gateway: Guardians at the Turning of Time
Our fourth lunar encounter with the Devil during 2024 moves us into 2025
Greetings, my fellow seekers!
It’s still the dark of the moon. The new moon doesn’t arrive until Monday night. I wanted you to know about this “last call” to release what you don’t want to carry from this year into the next.
You might take Brigid from the Dark Goddess Tarot as your guide. She might inspire you to keen in grief or light a fire of passion or rage. She is dual-natured so can hold all that we send her way to transform. Can show us how to be transformers of the times we live in.
Having been tempered and strengthened by this Irish Goddess of Craft, Art, and Healing, we’ll be prepared to have our fourth meet up of the year with The Devil. We’ve been in a long dance with this complex, trickster, uncomfortable teacher. You’ll find a review of the themes of our encounters and a new post for the moonth that starts on Monday night below.
Two reminders, one immediate, one longer term:
Tending the Returning Light is the second half of our Solstice-hinged ritual and it starts up on Monday. We engage in candle ritual, Tarot play, and explore themes such as: What Can Be Born From our Broken Parts, Root and Reach, Emergence, and Follow the Heart’s Light through daily emails and weekly sharing circles. You don’t need to have done the first half to join in. This is a come-when-you-can offering J. More details and registration on the Soul Path Sanctuary site.
Registration is open for this year’s Wisdom of the Tarot at Omega from July 20 - 25. Mary Greer and I facilitate the Tarot adventures that develop out of the group’s interests and questions. It’s part workshop, part retreat, part reunion of a Tarot community that is always open to welcoming new members.
New moon blessings,
Carolyn
New Moon Gateway: Guardians at the Turning of Time
This moonth—arriving on Monday, the 30th (exact moment at 5:27 pm ET, time zone converter)—we are once again invited to walk the path of the Tarot’s Devil.
As you may remember, we started the year with a January 11th Devil moon which offered the message of: Protect what is most important. Then during two full moon appearances this summer the Lovers and Chariot had Devil encounters inviting revelations about how we renew love as well as exercise personal and collective power. As you reflect on the year past, you may want to look for these themes in the happenings and ah ha moments of your life in 2024. What wisdom did your Devil encounters offer? How will you integrate these insights? And now how will use this Devil energy that flowed through this year to push off into the next?
Path of the Moonth
Yes, The Devil is a guardian at the gateway of this transition time.
In Western culture, we like to make our Devils simple, to have them be the singular repository of evil.
But the image of the Devil - in the Tarot and elsewhere - is complex and made of many parts: curved horns, bats wings, chicken feet. When we unravel the Devil’s parts and take a few moments with each’s origins and inspirations, we find positive power and potential layered into this image.
a 1909 card scanned by Holly Voley and retrieved from Sacred Texts. Deck available from US Games
Horns are markers of vital deities across cultures. Hathor, the great Mother Goddess of ancient Egypt, is shown with cow horns that hold a symbol of the sun she is said to give birth to each day. The Greek God Pan sports horns as he makes music through field and groove. Cernunnos, the Celtic God of fertility, rules over the natural, animal, instinctual, and sexual forces of life. So, peel back our first fearful reaction to the Devil, and we find horns calling us to notice the feminine, playful, and natural powers - and to reclaim these powers from how they have been demeaned and demonized in our culture.
Bats are classified as unclean and detested in the Bible, perhaps leading to an association with the Devil. I had a bat encounter where I admit I was afraid as one flew right for my face before swerving. But in many cultures what scares or is strange is not categorized as evil. North American Native Peoples honored the interconnection of all and observed bat behavior to find the teaching offered. They realized that bats can travel easily in the dark through a connection made by sound to its surroundings; bat then becomes a guide to dreams, intuitions, and vision. Bat is also associated with the Greek Goddess Persephone who descends to the dark of the Underworld for part of each year so that the new can be gestated in the womb of the earth. Aware of these associations, the Devil’s bat wings guide us away from our fear of the dark and the Divine Feminine to find our way toward their gifts. (Hmm, yes, this is the second instance of the Divine Feminine hiding within what is deemed to be bad and waiting for us to connect with her true power.)
The chicken feet remind me of The Raziel Tarot’s Devil. Drawn from Jewish lore, mystical teachings, and traditional stories, the Raziel offers a Devil who is a trickster but has limited power. Deck creator Rachel Pollack enlightens us about the difference between the Jewish and Christian conceptions of the Devil: “Quite simply, the idea of an all-powerful Devil … does not exist in Judaism …. No great Devil holds the souls of all humanity in its grip.” Pollack relates the tale of the Devil displacing and then masquerading as the wise ruler King Solomon. But Solomon sneaks back to court disguised as a beggar, reveals the Devil’s chicken feet, and regains his throne. The Devil can be defeated by the humble human; time to stop giving the Devils in our lives so much of our own power.
On the surface, the Devil is a mess, but below that strange puzzle of parts great powers waiting to emerge. And isn’t that frequently a reflection of each of us? We are an assortment of quirks and wounds, conflicting desires and internal voices, and addictions both small and large.
We may try to present a perfect face, but each of us is a part of the larger world, which, let’s admit it, is a mess. But if we dig into rather than fear these strange parts, we can move more fully into who we are. We can acknowledge the challenge of a part but instead of fighting it channel our energy toward developing the gift it contains. And as we do, the untapped power waiting within can emerge to support personal and even planetary healing. (FYI, we contemplate these themes in the first week of Tending the Returning Light, the second half of the Solstice-hinged retreat-in-everyday life that starts on Monday, the 30th. Now, is a fine time to join us.)
So what is the part of you that seems ugliest, that you hide the most? During the moonth and the whole first half of the year, spend some time finding the gift in this part and encountering it as a tool for transformation.
Passage We May Encounter and Practice to Move Through
This moonth’s path takes us through the action of the Two of Pentacles. In the iconic Rider Waite Smith image, a figure stands - dances? hops? - on one foot while juggling two pentacles, the symbols of the suit of earth. This card offers up a mirror of us doing the busy juggle of our lives, often just barely balancing conflicting priorities but sometimes excited to find ourselves in the flow of task achievement.
a 1909 card scanned by Holly Voley and retrieved from Sacred Texts. Deck available from US Games
The Pentacles are connected by the lemniscate, a symbol of eternity also featured on the Rider Waite Smith Major Arcana cards of the Magician and Strength. The repetition of the symbol invites us to recognize a greater potential in the Two of Pentacles message. Perhaps our daily struggles that seem small are really part of something larger and more meaningful. Perhaps we just need the strength to recognize how we can make magic in the world with our daily actions. Then we can choose what actions to take and which priorities to focus on in alignment with the impact we would like to make on the world around us.
To cultivate that strength to make magic with your daily actions, you might begin your yearly planning or resolution-setting by focusing on what you most seek to serve - the Divine Feminine, Justice, increased civil discourse, greater creativity; these are just a few service examples - and then identify the action steps that support your focus. Pare away what does not serve your focus to avoid juggling too many things at once.
There is one final connection to make. In mathematics, the lemniscate can be called The Devil’s Curve. When we add the Devil into the mix, we can say that the Strength to make Magic comes from meeting and integrating all the strange parts of ourselves. This is no doubt a lifelong process. There is no ultimate state to reach because when we arrive at such a feeling the Devil will appear to show us something ugly that can help us grow.
Take your time with your focusing, integrating, and planning as we begin the year. In the Twos we practice discernment and patience. Remembering we are on the Devil's path, we resist the critical/chaotic voices that want to keep us from grounding our actions in our inner wisdom and deep commitments. “Move at the pace of guidance” is a helpful adage I know from Joanna Powell Colbert.
Posture to Take on the Path
The Queen of Pentacles shows us that the place to manifest our strong magic is on the earth. This Queen sits amidst a lush garden; partnership with natural forces has brought forth abundance and beauty.
a 1909 card scanned by Holly Voley and retrieved from Sacred Texts. Deck available from US Games
Wearing red, the same color as the Magician’s cloak, the Queen of Pentacles' loving gaze is directed toward the pentacle in a way similar to the gaze of Strength’s figure towards the lion. And the Queen’s crown is topped with … well, they rather look like horns!
When this Queen and us, too, when we follow this wisdom figure’s lead, unite these disparate energies within ourselves, the world blooms.
The Queen of Pentacles magic is elemental and manifest for the good of the Whole. We are invited into the same way of being.
Reading of the Moonth
These questions are offered for reflection and to spark practice throughout the moonth. Pulling Tarot and oracle cards in connection to these questions is appropriate, but not absolutely necessary. You might carry a question with you on a walk for example and observe what is happening in the natural world as a way to find insight into the answer to the question.
MAGIC: What magic is yours to make at this time?
STRENGTH: How can you cultivate the strength to bring forth this magic?
MANIFESTATION: What will you be able to make real?
I do offer this as an e-reading in my collaborative initiative format for $32. Sign up with Pay Pal or contact me about sending a check. When I receive notification, I’ll be in touch to let you know about when to expect to receive your reading by email. I generally have openings to do these readings on Mondays and Saturdays. I will be doing readings after January 1 as I take a few days off at the end of the year.
Events
Two Save-the-Dates:
Omega’s Wisdom of the Tarot with me and Mary Greer July 21 to 25 in Rhinebeck, NY
Kingston Tarot Lenormand Conference November 6 to 8, 2026 in Ontario, Canada
Soul Path Sanctuary Library
These essays offer inspiration and practice prompts to support the loving flow between the living and the dead. They are available at no cost in the Soul Path Sanctuary library. Feel free to share with anyone who could use support on their grief journey.
Broken Open Heart in the Imaginal Realm
Speak Soul-to-Soul
49 Days and the Green Door of Death
Eternity Box: Anniversary of a Death
Soul Path Sanctuary Offerings
Question-Focused Tarot Sessions
I am offering these 60-90 minute interactive sessions to explore a focus question by phone or Zoom. Cost: $100. If interested, contact me about timing and to receive your focus question prep sheet.
Soul Path Mentoring
Offered through on-going hour-long sessions usually at monthly or seasonal intervals. My studies and life experience make me a mentoring match for:
Developing a spiritual practice
Integrating Tarot into your spiritual practice
Grief accompaniment
Embracing your creative process, especially for writers
Moving through a life transition
Sessions are conversations guided by questions and can include Tarot (or not).
I’m happy to have a conversation with you about if you are interested in exploring this kind of soul support practice.
A devilishly good post 😈. I appreciate the nudge to use this last bit of the darkest dark to reflect and release and I love this idea of digging into our strangest parts to mobilize healing power not just for self, but the world at large. Yes! Looking forward to more of this when we return to the light. I must say, I winced on your behalf (and may even have ducked) in reading about the bat in the face episode. Oooph.