01 Jan 2023 5 min read monthly musings

January 2023: Entering a Chariot Year

The Chariot + Tower arcana from The Spacious Tarot

a creek running through a bare winter landscape, icicles cling to tree roots — *the Stony Clove Creek on a 9-degree Christmas morning*

The role of the artist is make the revolution irresistible.

— Toni Cade Bambara

Listen to this month’s offering as a podcast

The Catskills have been thawing + freezing, + beauty abounds: the creek goes from roaring chocolate to foamy turquoise in the span of a day. A 5-point antler at the road’s edge found me on a 9-degree Christmas morning walk. There is magic in this land...

My early 2023 schedule of tarot workshops is up, beginning with Tarot 101 in February. The Liturgical Book Club continues!—jump in + join us.

I’m excited to begin a new cohort of the Study Tarot Series in March…if you’ve thought about it, this is a great time to begin because we’re beginning at the beginning with the Magician + Aces: Operationalizing Desire. This Series is my very favorite thing that I do, + I made a short video to tell you more about it.

My books are open for readings in January.

Thank you to all of you who continue to support my work in so many amazing + generous ways.

There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.

— Ursula K. Le Guin

What’s Inspiring Me Now

Monica Furlong’s young adult fantasy trilogy: Juniper, Wise Child + Colman. How would my life be different had I read these as a pre-teen? Enjoying them immensely now! She also wrote a book on medieval women mystics that I plan to read next…
Small Things Brought Together is back with Season 4! Artist Robyn Love conducts long-form interviews with other artists about process + practice—my very favorite things!
Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage by Rachel E. Gross. Science knows more about the bottom of the ocean than the vagina. This riveting—and in some instances, infuriating!—book is worth it just for the spectacular story of Miriam Menkin that makes up Chapter 5.
Codependent No More by Melody Beattie. I first read this a few years ago + it pierced my heart + saved my life. Revisiting it now, I’m appreciating its wisdom freshly. A revised + updated edition speaks to situations beyond substance abuse disorders + speaks to salient issues #inthesetimes.
SURJ National Director Erin Heany on How We Beat an Anti-Abortion Amendment in Deep-Red Kentucky
Nimasprout, aka Nicole Gustafsson’s, Adventures series of artworks

Thanks to those of you who continue to send me your inspirations!

2 tarot cards against a dark wood background, one showing a river running through a canyon, the other showing a bolt of lightning striking a cairn — *The Chariot + Tower arcana from* *The Spacious Tarot*

Entering 2023, a Chariot Year

As we enter 2023, we move into a Chariot year. The Chariot is Major Arcana 7, and 2 + 0 + 2 + 3 = 7. The Chariot invites us to engage with the forces that move us to act. Coming at the end of the first line of 7 Major Arcana, the Chariot is associated with the astrological sign Cancer—the watery womb of our longings. It’s easy to think that our mind is what moves us. But often, actually, it’s the stirring of our deep waters—our soul + its yearnings—that is actually the power behind our actions.

As part of the relational organizing SURJ does in its canvassing + phone banks, we ask the people we call what’s important to them. We ask them to tell us more, to tell us why they feel the way they do. This is because the emotional core of our why’s + wherefores is the true fuel of our Chariot. It’s what motivates us to take action on an issue. Our watery depths make us do what we do.

The Chariot calls us to answer through action the questions posed by the previous arcana: the Lover’s forces of attraction + desire. What will we do about what we want? On the one hand, the Chariot is about coming into our powers of self-efficacy, being able to shape change in the direction of our intentions + desires. And while this is crucial, the other hand is about the choices that have already been made for us by virtue of our zip code, bank balance, skin color, gender, ability + so on. (Temperance, 7 arcana away, will teach us about holding tensions like this.)

When what we’re doing isn’t aligned with our true desire, the Chariot’s “teacher” card—Major Arcana 16, the Tower—will sometimes precipitate a change for us, usually in a way we wouldn’t have chosen. But when the stirring of our waters + the movements of our mind align at the axis of our heart, a powerful ignition takes place. When this happens, life seems to combust us.

* What does being effective mean to you? How does it feel?

What is your relationship to intention?
Do you have a particular pattern of self-sabotage—a habit, tendency, thought pattern or story that seems to undermine what you say you want? What is its character, shape, texture, speed, voice?
How do you know when you are “on the right track”?
What is your relationship to time + momentum? What speed—of body, thought, feeling/emotion, energy—is most suitable or helpful to the way you like to operate?

* “teacher cards” are a framework that comes from Angeles Arrien via Mary K. Greer

Find out more about my tarot work

There are certain emotions in your body that not even your best friend can sympathize with, but you will find the right film or the right book, and it will understand you.

— Björk