Shattering Illusions 🫠
Themes of 2023 as a 7 Year
I have been feeling into the planetary energies of the moment, and working deeply on the 2023 Year Ahead Spreads, which is always a really fun way to see how the year is going to play out. And while, of course, everyone has a very unique story and different path, I do see lots of similarities in the patterns my clients are moving through during the different seasons of the year.
The one thing I saw over and over again is the card of the year being a seven card - 2023 is a 7 year, which is The Chariot card, as well as the 7’s in all of the suits. The one theme I see with the sevens is illusion. It shows how we cope with reality and offers a shift in perspective, the way we see one thing can be entirely different than someone else - what is “truth” to you is a lie to another.
To me, this year is a big opportunity to examine our current reality, and see if the stories we tell ourselves, the things we accept as truth - still in fact, align with our values and our highest good.
In the 7 of swords, we meet imposter syndrome, comparison, and straight up lies - is the grass really greener on the other side? Does that person on Instagram really have an amazing life? Are you really a piece of sh*t or are you just gaslighting yourself? There is surely a side of the story you can not see. Perhaps it’s time to stop focusing on what other people have, do and achieve and see what happens when you turn that attention inward and reframe those limiting beliefs.
In the 7 of cups, we meet many choices, many offerings, but we can’t make a decision - there is an emotional illusion, a disconnect between what we feel and what is actually true, we are lost in fantasy, ungrounded and potentially numbing out with dissociation or addiction. Put down the drink, the phone, the late night online shopping binge, and the dreams you never actually implement. It’s time to get grounded and find healthy ways to process emotions and take real life action.
In the 7 of wands, we are ready to FIGHT. Exhausted, hyper vigilant and defensive, this energy is often the result of burnout and paranoia. Yes, we have been attacked in the past, when we didn’t have or understand healthy boundaries, but that doesn’t mean we have to brace for the next fight indefinitely. It’s time to put down the wand, get a drink of water, and do some somatic therapy and restorative yoga to restore balance to our nervous system and increase our capacity for rest and ease.
In the 7 of pentacles, the illusion is time - we think we are too late, that somebody else already did it, that we missed the bus, took a wrong turn, we should be somewhere already by now! This card asks for patience and understanding. I’ve learned things in my 40’s that I feel most people learned in their 20’s and I stopped dancing and now I’m afraid it’s just too late. F*ck all those stories about timelines - yes, linear time is real but it’s also made up! So make your own timeline, we all love to hear the stories about the person who took up yoga in their 70’s and didn’t start their writing career until the age of 52 - you are as old as you feel, so whatever you love, just go for it!
I think The Chariot is here to help us move through these illusions and create a life that feels more aligned with our truth. And your truth doesn't need to look like another person’s truth or your parent’s truth or society’s truth. I think this is also going to be a year where we get more grounded and skeptical of the stories we see tossed around online. I think we might start to pull away from social media and into real life. I think we might start to question our own narratives and those of others. I think it’s time to be more accountable and responsible for what we say and our impact on others.
Even in the spiritual and “healing” space, I see teachers spouting metaphors as solutions to real life problems. Nothing annoys me more than to hear some “manifestation expert” comparing the fact that we don’t question whether we will have enough oxygen to take our next breath, to how we might question if we can have enough money - comparing a completely automatic function no one actually thinks about with a real life problem affected by race, culture, inflation, education and a million other factors - is over simplified, lazy and ungrounded teaching that doesn’t actually help anyone.
This is not a dream, but it’s time to wake up. We have been asleep for a couple of years dealing with collective (and personal) trauma of the times. This is not an excuse to check out, but an invitation to live with more intention and find the gratitude in the simple things we took for granted until they were ripped out of our hands. I hope this year helps bring us back to ourselves and back to the connections that truly help us to advance to the next level, because The Chariot is an energy of just that, self advancement and intuitive guidance.
What illusions are you ready to give up? What new reality are you creating right now?
Knight of Wands + Magic
We haven’t pulled fire card since Libra season in early October, and Mars has been retrograde since Oct 30th, but this week, on Thursday, Mars stations direct, giving us a boost in vitality, passion and how we project ourselves out into the world.
The Knight of Wands is a boost of ambition, we embody this energy to get shit done, to manifest ideas into reality, to move swiftly and passionately towards our dreams. Knights are generally shown in motion - they represent action and movement.
After over 2 months of slow down (especially in the area of your chart that holds Gemini), this is an invitation to go ahead and get moving again. You may feel a burst of energy or simply that challenges and obstacles seem to dissipate or it’s easy to blow through them. The Knight of Wands is charismatic, adaptable, and fun - so get out there and shake things up! Magic gives us the green light to bring ideas into physical form, and if you are witchy you might want to work up some spells, but you don’t need a guidebook to do this work, your imagination will work just fine.
Vibes:
physical movement, exercise or sweating, prioritize fun, be spontaneous, work up a spell, do your favorite ritual, carve a spell candle or grab a 7 day candle and charge it up with intention(plus glitter, herbs, oils, what have you), take action on those plans you been sitting on, 🌋, the colors red, orange and yellow, confidence and charisma