#9: Round and Round, Here We Go Again
The Hero's Journey and You
This Week’s Tarot Reading
MIND: 10 of Swords
BODY: 5 of Wands
SPIRIT: 2 of Swords
You can take a sigh of relief that something on your mind is done, dead, and over with this week. Whether you’re happy or sad about the ending matters less than it being high time to metabolize it. A couple weeks ago (March 27th to be exact) you had the 5 of Wands in the “Mind” position, so it’s likely that the struggle you were only contemplating then is now resonating physically.
What would happen if you stopped fighting and sat with it instead? When one door closes, another will open…but you don’t have to break the lock! Someone might be getting ready to hold open the door for you, no struggle necessary. Until then, weigh your options patiently.
If you’d like to book a personalized Tarot reading, you can find my offerings here. 11% of every reading purchased is donated.
This Week’s Astrology
Monday, April 11th: Mercury enters Taurus
Tuesday, April 12th: Jupiter conjunct Neptune 23° Pisces
Friday, April 15th: Mars enters Pisces
Saturday, April 16th: Full Moon 26° Libra
There’s a LOT of movement in the heaven’s this week and it all feels pretty beautiful and sweet. It’s a lot less “go go go” and more “let me sit in this field and look for four-leaf clovers leisurely…then make a crown of them for my dog.” If you do that, please send pics. The Full Moon in Libra corresponds to the New Moon that happened on October 6th, 2021. Look back to that date to see if seeds you planted then, specifically relating to relationships and/or money, are now coming to fruition.
If you’d like to book a personalized Astrology reading, you can find my offerings here. 11% of every reading purchased is donated.
Tarot came into my life when nothing around me felt stable.
Looking back, nothing was ever really stable in my life until my Saturn Return began...but that’s a story for another time.
It was a summer day in 2019. I was working, as I always was then, at a juice bar that had become my entire world. I had begun a (secret) romantic relationship with the owner a couple months after being hired, and as you can imagine, things had gotten progressively more complicated.
My work, my love life, my friends…everything was tied to this little dot on the map.
It makes sense to me now, how it all unfolded, because I was deeply hurting when I began that job. I left my ex of eight years the year before, and that’s why I was in this new city with this new job in the first place. I had run away from everything I had known and was desperate to fill the void. It worked for a while.
I’ll save you the traumatic details, but almost a year later, it was no longer working.
I intuitively knew that my time there was coming to a close. I didn’t want it to be true, because this place had fed me, literally and figuratively, when I had needed it most. Despite all the drama…it was a security blanket and I really didn’t want to let go.
Nevertheless, I finally jumped. I bought my first Tarot deck, plus a crystal for a friend, that day for $66.66. I made a face instinctively when the cashier said the total and they assured me not to worry. It was one of those moments when you think you’re doing something major, and the Universe winks at you as if to say, yes, this is major…keep going.
A month later I left the juice bar, and my Hero’s Journey had officially begun (again).
The Hero’s Journey isn’t just something we see reflected in movies, or Tarot cards…it’s our own lives. We’re all on the Hero’s Journey together, just at different parts. It goes something like this:
The main character (you) decides to take a leap of faith. You don’t know where you’re going, but go, you must.
It’s scary. It’s exhilarating. Some people are excited for you…but just as many are confused and trying to prevent you from jumping. As much as you value their advice, something tells you it’s stemming from fear rather than love. You decide to go anyway.
Things are going ok. You’re meeting new people and learning new things. It’s not all easy, but you’re doing your best and believe you made the right choice to break away.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere…BAM! You’re unapologetically thrown off course.
Tarot readers often call this a “Tower Moment” and rightfully so. Nothing seems to make sense anymore and you experience a fall from grace. Suddenly, you’re ensconced in a dark night of the soul and questioning everything.
Fictional examples of this part of the winding road are endless. To stay with Frozen 2, which is a very a magical example of the Hero’s Journey lead by FEMALE (!!!) PROTAGONISTS (!!!), Anna thought her sister, Elsa, had died. “The Next Right Thing” feels a lot like navigating the bottom floor of depression and brings me to tears every time.
I also have a huge crush on Margaret Qualley and the couch scene from her hit show MAID is an accurate depiction of this part of the Hero’s Journey. If you’ve been there, you know.
Blessedly, rock bottom can only last so long. As they say, there’s nowhere to go but up. Painfully…eventually….somehow…the light at the end of the tunnel seems to (re)appear.
You catch a break and life slowly starts to regain meaning. Something or someone inspires you and you remember what it feels like to have hope.
At this point, you’re exhausted, and wondering if this is it. Have you “made it” now that the worst seems to be behind you? You realize you’re sort of back to where you started, but not back in a “backwards” way. Back in a…cyclical way. You’ve come full circle and have learned so much.
Just when you start getting comfortable and settling into this wise, new version of yourself, you hear another whisper, and feel like you need to follow it…
Sound familiar? The journey just begins over and over and over again! We’re all on the wheel.
Rather than that defeatist “hamster wheel” feeling I have to fight off sometimes, though, when viewing our cyclical nature (ahem, the letters in ‘nature’ can be used to spell: A RETURN) through the Hero’s Journey lens…it starts to feel expansive.
So. If you’ve been contemplating purchasing a Tarot deck, THIS IS A SIGN. Please, I beg you, buy yourself one. You deserve it. And yes, you’re qualified to do it yourself, rather than going to a reader. I give readings to clients, but not because I know anything they don’t. All I have is my own perspective.
Tarot is an ancient and mystical way to see the promise of your journey laid out in front of you. It’s not the answer to your problems, but it’s an intuitive and supportive tool, and if you’re lucky…it will become a trusted friend.
When looking back at dates for this newsletter, I realized I gave my first paid, professional Tarot reading one year, to the day, from the moment I bought my first deck that fated summer. And the next year on the same date? A new deck arrived in the mail. Cycles work just like magic.
Whether the Jupiter + Neptune conjunction (ps, how did I just learn that Ashley Tisdale named her baby Jupiter?!) this week proves to be the high water mark of art, imagination, and spirituality or not…it’s a big, delicious moment to acknowledge that YOU are the hero of your story.
You’ve already come so far and in case no one else has told you lately…I’m proud of you! What will you dream up next? The World (and the wheel) is your oyster.
Until next week’s magic,
Erin River Sunday