The Astrological Moon ~ Potential Dynamics Mothers/ Daughters Mother/Child

Basic Planet Transit Guide

Sun (1 month to change sign): Self-expression, general seasonal energy, confidence, growth

Moon (2-3 days to change sign): Emotions, desires, habits, introspection, people or feelings from the past, intuition

Mercury (a few weeks to a month to change sign): Communication, mental clarity, mental fog, confusion, information, short trips, technology, mental shifts, trade, businesses

Venus (3-5 weeks to change sign): Connections, love, relationships, social life, brief attraction, infatuation, beauty rituals, shopping sprees or new spending habits

Mars (4-8 weeks to change sign): Drive, temper, lust, physical energy, outbursts, accidents, vigor, violence, ambition, motivation

Jupiter (around a year to change sign: Growth, expansion, excess, opportunity or loss, travel, law, risks and risk-taking, luck, optimism, exaggeration, truth, overconfidence or overestimation

Saturn (2.5 - 3 years to change sign): Structure and restructuring, authority, discipline, laws, rules, boundaries, restriction, trails, challenges, work, responsibilities, consolidation, blockages, delays, loss, misfortune, falls, fails, blows to ego or progress, sadness or melancholy, seriousness

Uranus (7 years to change sign): Community, rebellion, revolution, freedom, innovation, new ideas, technology, science, sudden changes, chaos, cataclysmic events, change

Neptune (13 - 15 years to change sign): Fantasy, hopes or wishes, illusions, dreams, creativity, intuition, spirituality, disillusionment, delusions, madness, a generation's "dream", illumination, deception, confusion, breakdowns, disintegration, flooding, drowning, sensitivity, sacrifice, martyrs

Pluto (12 - 20 years to change sign): Power, power struggles, transformation, taboos, sex, inevitable change, destruction, psychological pressure, regeneration, control, obsession, compulsion, death, endings, a generations challenges and transformations, deception, manipulation, intense emotions, trauma

The Fields of Asphodel: The Afterlife from a Pagan Perspective

Originally posted on nightshadeandroses.wordpress.com.

Death is often a topic avoided by polite company. It is one of the most mundane taboos in American culture, something that is avoided and shunned at all cost. This is made apparent by the ways in which we treat the dead and dying, often opting to shunt the elderly and the terminally ill into medical facilities rather than allowing a home death. Oftentimes, we do not even discuss death unless someone is actively dying and we can no longer avoid it.

Much of why we avoid death is fear. And that fear is certainly valid since, despite how deeply we may believe in an afterlife, we can never know for certain if our view is correct. Or if there is an afterlife at all.

As a child, I was terrified of death. At night, I would spend hours staring up at the ceiling, scared that I would one day die unexpectedly in my sleep and that staying awake would somehow prevent Death from coming for me. That fear of death stayed with me throughout my childhood and into my young adulthood (though I stopped fearing that I would specifically die in my sleep, thankfully.)

Most of my fears stemmed from the various unknowns around death. Growing up in a not-totally-religious home but with a Christian father, most of my ideas about the afterlife were from a Protestant Christian perspective. I was taught that when I died, I would either go to Heaven or Hell, and that I needed to obey God and accept Jesus Christ as my savior in order to get into the “good” afterlife.

“But what if I’m not good enough?” I would often ask my Dad. Or “but what happens if someone is mostly good but isn’t Christian?” His answers, while meant to be comforting, often scared me more. They often boiled down to “don’t worry about it; just pray.” For someone like me who always struggled to connect to the Christian God, I found the silence during my prayers as confirmation that maybe I wouldn’t have access to the “good” afterlife.

Even after I officially converted to Hellenismos/Hellenic polytheism, my view of the afterlife and of death remained mostly unchanged: I was still afraid of dying and of what would happen after. But, as a devotee of Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, death isn’t exactly something that I can wholly avoid. So, I was forced to confront my fears head-on, diving into the Hellenic myths surrounding death and the afterlife.

What I discovered of the Underworld was entirely unlike my conception of the Christian afterlife. In the Underworld, all souls except for those who are exceptionally great and influential are seen as equals and granted the same afterlife. The dead are able to wander throughout the Fields of Asphodel, great misty meadows filled with sweetly-scented flowers. Those who were exceptional in their lifetime are able to celebrate in the Elysian Fields, which is blissful and heavenly.

While the Underworld is a lot more somber than the idea of Heaven, I find solace in the fact that I won’t be condemned to burn for eternity regardless of what religious beliefs that I hold (as Tartarus, the closest equivalent to Hell, is reserved only for monsters and the truly wicked and irredeemable.) I also enjoy the concept of all people being equal in death. Not only that, but the afterlife is not necessarily eternal; the concept of reincarnation was present in various ancient Greek mystery cults like Orphism and the Eleusinian Mysteries. So while the afterlife may not be as exciting as Heaven, I won’t be trapped there forever. I will be able to be reborn and live a new, different life. So while I’ll no longer be “myself,” I will be able to forge a new life filled with experiences, opportunities, and growth to nourish the essential part of me that lives on between incarnations. Life is not seen as a preparation for Death in Hellenismos; life is meant to be lived fully, completely, piously, and beautifully. Life is meant to be lived for its own sake.

I won’t deny that all of my fears of death are gone. There is still that fear that there may be nothing after this life. It could be a void, like the emptiness of a dreamless sleep. Even though this may be the case, I am less afraid of that possibility. Because followers of Hellenismos are encouraged to live to their fullest potential rather than treating life as a dress rehearsal for what comes after, I am more content with the time that I have. With that, I know that when I am old and dying someday, I will be able to look back without regret or disappointment of what I may leave behind. But if there is an afterlife, I look forward to wandering the Fields of Asphodel, the domain of my Queen.

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A little tarot spread you can do with a deity you want to start working with! :D Did this when I approached Hades and it helped me get a better understanding of what he’s like and what he wants me to achieve and do ~

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Let the obsessive research begin!

My Altar is ready for Imbolc!

Z.M. Wilmot’s Personality Tarot Spread

1. Central Characteristic: This card represents the most important part of someone’s personality; it is the card that best describes and sums up the the personality of the entire person. It is both the primary factor and the summary of the rest of the spread.

2. Influencing Characterstic: This card is the second most important aspect of someone’s personality, and influences, mitigates, or complements the Central Characteristic; in many ways it also the secondary characteristic of a person, and provides a second dimension to one’s personality, adding depth to it.

3. Influence of Past: This card sums up the influences that past events have had on one’s personality; memory is an important part of our personality, our desires, and our own identity. This card represents and shows the influence that this memory has had on a personality.

4. Goals of the Future: This card represents what one are striving to accomplish; another aspect of one’s personality is their drive, and what makes them motivated: that motivation and drive is represented by this card, which shows the thing that the person is striving to achieve, and their most important desire for the future.

5. Unconscious Thoughts and Motives: This card represents the unconscious thoughts and concerns of a person, and also represents this person’s motives. It answers the questions of “why do they do this?” as well as those of “what are they really thinking?”  This is their unconscious drive (rather than the conscious drive of Card 4), and represents the deepest aspects of their personality, hidden from themselves. This card also serves as the synthesis of cards 8 and 10.

6. Conscious Thoughts and Concerns: This card represents the person’s conscious thought. It helps one examine what the most important things are to this person, and represents their most pressing concerns, and what is most important to them at this time. This card also serves as the synthesis of cards 7 and 9.

7. Public Face: This card is the public aspect of one’s identity; this is how others perceive this person, and how their environment (including other people) affects them and notices them. This card is similar to Card 8 (second from the bottom of the Staff) on the Celtic Cross. This card represents how they want others to see them as well.

8. Private Face: This card represents the concept of self-identity and self-image, and shows how a person really thinks of themselves. This might line up with one’s public face, but often is at least slightly different. This card is similar to Card 7 (bottom of the Staff) of the Celtic Cross spread. This card shows how this person really feels about himself, and what they think their own identity is.

9. Public Desire: This card represents what one says they want; it is the stated hopes and fears of a person. This is what the person wants others to think they want and what they want others to think they are afraid of; this card represents those desires made public.

10. Private Desire: This card represents one’s true hopes and fears; their heart’s desire or their deepest, secret fear. These are the desires that people keep repressed and hidden – sometimes even from themselves – for various reasons. These are the inner passions and repressed terrors that often motivate people’s actions unconsciously.

Cartomancy

The firstmost rule is easily had: Red cards are good and black cards are bad. The secondmost rule shall bring greater fruits: It deals with the meanings of each of the suits. The Hearts count as love, family, and friends. Diamonds are money, wealth, means, and ends. Clubs shall mean work, callings, and plans, And Spades are the troubles that plague every man. The thirdmost rule toward number inclines; Just note the card’s pip and read here their signs: An Ace brings beginnings, And Two gives exchange, Three shows things growing, But Four does not change. Five is the body, Its health and its stead, Six shows a path that the Seeker shall tread. Seven brings troubles that Fate has assigned, While Eight shows ideas and thoughts in the mind. Nine heralds changes, And Ten is the end, While Kings are the symbols of power and men. Queens are the emblems of women and truth, A Knave is a message, a girl, or a youth.

Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20070825141732/http://www.hedgewytchery.com/indexb.html 

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