What does the Hermit and the Moon, our cards for the year, have to share with us about making art and navigating the collective energies of 2025.
In this episode we talk about the collective cards of the year, the Hermit and the Moon. Tuning into the wisdom and guidance that these cards offer in tumultuous times. We'll also get into the specific invitations of this lunar cycle from Jan 28th the new moon in Aquarius until Feb 26th.
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About the Host
Zaneta (they/them) is a queer, multi-Filipinx sound ritualist, listening educator, nature recordist, tarot reader for artists, and podcast host based in Hudson Valley. At the core of their work is a deep desire to remember how to live in interconnectedness. Whether that is through meditation and connecting with the self, or in community rituals to connect to the land, Zaneta weaves sound and ritual to create experiences that transform the way participants hear and connect to the world.
In the spirit of an interconnected world, Zaneta focuses on supporting folx to make their art and express themselves fully, knowing that interconnection and interdependence are rooted in our individual wholeness and that our authentic creative expression is at the heart of that wholeness. It’s towards this collective vision that Zaneta offers channeled tarot readings for creative liberation, and offers readings to support artists in navigating their careers and projects.
To learn more about Zaneta’s work visit
Instagram @soundartmagic
About the Podcast
Art Witch is where creativity, magic, and healing align for personal and collective liberation. Hosted by Brooklyn-based sound ritualist, arts educator, and tarot reader Zaneta, Art Witch aims to provide resources for the creative journey. In this podcast you’ll hear from a variety of artists, witches, healers, and experts sharing their wisdom and stories, all with the intention of helping folx make art and share their unique magic with the world.
Art Witch has a Patreon community where members meet regularly for group meditations, full moon rituals, and community conversations on art and magic. In addition, we have a full library of meditations and videos for the creative mystical journey.
To support this podcast and become a member, visit www.patreon.com/soundartmagic
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Finding Our Way in the Dark_2025 Year Ahead Reading_theHermit and the Moon_Art Witch_Ep52
[00:00:00] Zaneta: Hello and welcome to Artwitch the podcast, where creativity, magic, and healing align for personal and collective liberation. I'm your host Zaneta and welcome. Artwitch aims to provide resources for creative empowerment, helping folks make and share their art and also find their authentic expression. In this podcast, you'll hear from. from a variety of artists, witches, and healers, as well as experts in various art industries and related fields, all with the intention of helping folks share their art and their unique magic with the world. [00:01:00]
Hello everyone and welcome back to the Art Witch Podcast. I am your host
Zaneta and thank you so so much for listening. Today's episode is kind of a full year collective energetic share and channeling about This being a hermit year and a moon year in 2025. So if you want to hear about all the energies and things that you can connect with in your art practice and in your creative career this year, then stick around for this episode.
Before we get started I would like to say that it is a really, really big moment for many of us, and there's been a lot of energy and a lot of tumultuous stuff. So if you're feeling very shaken up, and if you're [00:02:00] feeling like the ground is just hard to feel at this time, You know, take a moment, rest, relax, come back to this episode whenever you want, we'll be waiting for you. There's no rush. Just take care of yourself and take it easy, okay?
The first announcement is that the Art Witch Circle is resuming our sessions. So we are meeting on February 8th, that's next Saturday, at 11am to 1pm Eastern Standard Time on Zoom. Art Witch is this it's beautiful, beautiful monthly gathering for Patreon members where we explore art, tarot, witchcraft and how that all kind of gets woven into our practice, our careers. So it's a beautiful, beautiful [00:03:00] community of like-hearted witches.
Everyone in there is super brilliant and very powerfully magic in their own right. And it's joyful to get to read for all of you, to get to have deep conversations about these topics and to kind of guide you through different channeling and art meditations.
That is basically what we get into. I give mini readings during these sessions for the artists who are in attendance. We get into a different topic each session and at the end I do a guided art meditation and channeling session for folks who are in attendance. This is available to members who are subscribed at the Art Witch level of $10/ a month and above. So really, really manageable. And for those who are [00:04:00] just regular paid subscribers at the $4 level, you can have access to the replays. So it's kind of a way to just still be a part of it, even if you can't, you know, be part of the live session.
This year we're going to cover a lot of cool topics. We're getting into how to weave tarot into your art process and your practice. This is something I've done a lot of work with in improvisation how I've kind of combined pulling cards with composing and sketching and like, Actually collaborating with the land and with spirits and things like that. So Tarot is a big part of my personal art practice.
We're also going to get into how art is a spell and can be a spell. So different kinds of creations and when they are ritualistic, when they are magic that is happening. You [00:05:00] know, a lot of people will say all art is a spell and I would say yes, but also no. Some art is really actually intentionally a magical spell. And we're going to get really, really into that this year.
Another topic that we're getting into is actually is art spells and magical correspondances. So when we're actually doing, you know, an art project, that's meant to be a sort of spell. So in essence, You know, you make something, you craft something and going through that entire process has layers of magical correspondence woven into it from the elements that you use and the herbs that you use and, you know, the different ways that you psychically connect through that practice.
So we're going to be getting into some really cool topics this [00:06:00] year. I'm going to be teaching some spells for career, finances and, you know, calling in different opportunities, protecting your work and protecting yourself from fraud. We're going to get into some psychic channeling and creativity, like channeling art and we're also going to get into celebrating the wheel of the year for Art Witches and collaborating with spirits. So tons and tons of Art Witchery and tarot for your art. I hope you can join us. That meets February 8th and all the dates for the entire 2025 year are up on the Patreon right now.
So we're meeting every single month for the entire year and I hope you can all join us for that. It's going to be really awesome. I'm also taking [00:07:00] suggestions on that post on Patreon. So if there's some topics that you wish that I would cover in one of those sessions please go ahead and put it in the comments on that post because I am really, really looking for ideas and things that people are really interested in learning about art, magic, tarot, witchcraft, et cetera.
So that's February 8th. I'll leave a link in the description below so that you can check that out for yourself and if nothing else become a free member of the patreon so that you can stay up to date on some of the posts. I'm gonna try to post on there more often and just share some things that are more, you know weekly and seasonally relevant. So, check that out.
The other announcement I have is that year ahead tarot readings for art and career are open! And [00:08:00] this month of February is such a great time to get a year ahead reading. I personally feel like this is when the new year really hits. It's in bulk for me, really, February 1st. That's the beginning of fresh energy and being able to feel what's starting to stir and what wants to get created.
So it's a really great time to get a reading. I'm also opening up general creativity tarot readings. And these are just free form readings where we get into creative blocks, decision making, any kind of planning or strategizing, getting inspiration, working with new modalities and new materials, trying to suss out what's your best path.
All of that stuff I'm offering in just general creativity tarot readings and those are also open. So you'll see in the [00:09:00] link to book down below that there are two kinds of readings. The year ahead is a psychic comprehensive overview of the 12 months of the year, what energies are coming up for you, and how to navigate them throughout the year.
A general creativity reading is more like we're checking in with your career or creativity and we are getting into what wants to come up in that reading. A lot of times guides and spirit will really share specific things that we need to address get into certain projects, get into certain questions around your art.
You know, people come in with questions, but a lot of times these readings kind of bring the stuff that needs to come up to the surface. So if you're really looking for some clarity and some really tangible ways to navigate the new year and navigate this year. [00:10:00] Then check out those tarot readings down below.
That's it for announcements, friends. Let's get into this very, very substantive energetic share, this year overview. So, I mentioned earlier that this year is a hermit year, it's a moon year, and what do I mean by that? Well, when we add up the numbers 2 plus 0 plus 2 plus 5, we come to the number 9.
And the number nine corresponds with the Hermit card in the Major Arcana. The Hermit card is one of my personal favorite cards and it is a card that I've been journeying with for the last six or seven months, So, I have a lot to share about my [00:11:00] experiences with the hermit, but also some really particular things for this lunar cycle and to kind of cue us in to what we're, what we're supposed to kind of, you know, touch base with, with the hermit.
The moon card is also associated with the hermit. Because the moon card is number 18 in the tarot, and if you added 1 plus 8 together, that equals 9. So, we have these two cards here that are our collective cards for the year. Two cards that are really about darkness. Like, if I were to just give a word to describe Both of these cards, it's darkness.
There is an unseen, a hidden quality [00:12:00] to these cards that is different from a lot of the cards that we see in the tarot, right? The sun card, the magician, you know, even death, there's a certain kind of like visibility, a certain kind of obviousness, there's a certain kind of very, very, you know, like strong projected energy.
And yet we have cards like the moon and the hermit. The hermit card is where we're going to start today. The hermit is a figure of deep knowing, deep observation, and deep listening. This is a figure that is Trusting [00:13:00] the light of their knowledge, their observed wisdom, and their inner knowing, their intuition, their psychic knowing, their dreams they're observing on all levels.
And when you're doing that, you're starting to gather so much information. You're processing so much information. It's very rich. It's a very rich process and rich time and the hermit is a journeyer. They're not someone who is trying to rush through everything. They're not someone who's trying to get quick answers and get simple answers necessarily.
They're really there for the truth and the truth in all its many [00:14:00] pieces. The truth is several observations, several perspectives. It takes many, many viewpoints to come to the truth. And the hermit is there for that extensive process. They're not interested In quick fixes necessarily, and this is going to be a very, very big theme this year. Quick fixes their passé. They're an old trend. They're outdated.
Essentially when you have a card like the hermit, who's devoted to practice and devoted to process, they are. deepening and ripening in their knowledge and in their wisdom and the moon card in its cyclical nature you know the moon in its many phases the [00:15:00] 13 moons understanding that cyclical nature of the moon, it takes time It takes a lot of time for things to develop and to grow, and it often takes a lot of time in darkness.
It takes a lot of time in the unseen, in the seemingly invisible for something to come around and something to come to pass. So time is an important, important. Theme when it comes to both the hermit and the moon, and for many of us, I think we're feeling this desire for slowing down, this desire to take care of ourselves, to get into the truth of things, to turn away from misinformation [00:16:00] and a lot of hot takes and just a lot of Babble.
There's a lot of talk in the world and a lot of noise and chatter and darkness to me also equals stillness. It equals quiet. What can we learn in quiet? What can we learn in stillness? Darkness in darkness that can't be learned anywhere else. You cannot get this information anywhere else.
In previous episodes, we've talked about the power of darkness, but this year especially retreating and coming back to a place of stillness. Really trusting the process, the slow, intentional process of what you're doing, even if it looks like everyone around you is [00:17:00] running laps around you, trusting your process is huge this year. The hermit is a figure with their light courageously moves into the darkness. They are not They are not on a well trodden path. They are not on the trail. They are going off the trail. They are trusting in that inner knowing, that light of inner knowing to guide them into uncharted territories. And a lot of what the moon card is, is uncharted territories. It is the hazy, foggy, murky. It is that You know, water that you cannot see the bottom of.
And many of us have already a relationship with the unknown. Many of us [00:18:00] have a relationship with chaos and with the void and with darkness. But this year especially, that is very, very prominent. It's very prominent. There is so much murkiness, so much tumult and volatility, and it will be on us to really center practices of inner knowing, psychicness, intuition, Rationality.
You know, how do you come to a truth? How do you come to a fact? You have to be methodical to some extent, regardless of whether or not it's psychic knowing or it's scientific knowing. If it's experiential knowing, all knowing requires gathering data, taking time to sit and understand that data. Oftentimes, [00:19:00] Taking a look at that data with other people that you trust in confidence and then also testing it and seeing if it's actually true.
So we're not jumping to quick conclusions here this year. We're actually getting really intentional and patient about our process. We're getting really intentional and patient about what it means to come to the truth of things.
Truth is a big thing right now, right? Like, we're dealing with a lot of nonsense in the world. A lot of fakety fakeness, basically. And The Hermit isn't about that. The Hermit turns away from nonsense and centers their gaze on what is important, what is really, really important. [00:20:00] I think that centering our attention is a really hard practice in this society. Recently I had suffered kind of a mild concussion and I had to basically totally Not look at screens, not look at books, not listen to podcasts, not listen to anything, not watch tv. I couldn't do anything that was related to ingesting any media. What happened to me was I slept a lot and I slowly started to bring things back into my life. But what that meant was I got to experience like true. Quiet, true mental quiet for a while, not just from meditating for an hour in the morning or an hour in the evening, not from just saying, Oh, I'm going to do less.
I had to do [00:21:00] none of it. And I tell you, my dreams were different. my sense of self and how much I could listen to my body. It was just such a different experience. I felt that my connections to my body and to the world were so much stronger because I wasn't putting any energy or attention towards things you know, online or, reading anything or seeing anything.
Now that's not to say that we can all just turn away all the time. Honestly, I have a podcast, you know, on an online platform. I can't do that necessarily, but I think that. What it gets down to is taking that sense of discipline with us into this year, taking that sense of discipline that says, 'no, I'm [00:22:00] not going to put energy and attention in that direction'. I'm going to put it here. I'm not going to get distracted. By the circus of what's going on, I'm going to stay the course, the course that I know to be true. And let's get into that sense of knowing because that was a really big thing that I personally noticed this year in my hermit moon year was a reclamation of many kinds of knowing.
I had some really profound mediumship experiences, which led me to starting to take mediumship classes. And that has become something that I reclaimed or something that I have started to [00:23:00] rely on as another form of knowing, as another form of connection and Data and coming in. Another stream of data, you know, you get your psychic data. You get your experience data. You get your data from books and studying things and Experimenting with things and yeah, You've got all sorts of data and mediumship is another form of data that I was kind of tapping into and It's been really, really fun and really exciting and something very unexpected that happened to me.
So I feel like different kinds of knowing are going to be Very, very important to our hermit year and to the moon the moon really is kind of other forms of knowing, right? It's not necessarily the light of intelligence only [00:24:00] that gets solar represented in our society, but we have the moon.
What kinds of intelligence does the moon impart upon us? A lot of people will say, you know, feminine Wisdom and all of that. And to be fair, I don't dismiss any of that, but I think it gets deeper than just simply saying feminine wisdom. I think there is the wisdom of the body, the wisdom of creativity, the wisdom of Being connected to this amazing, amazing world, to feeling spirits, to feeling energy and to being a conduit, to being a vessel.
I think the moon gets into vessel energy and how we experience being a vessel, being water beings that are programmable and hold the [00:25:00] charge of Memories and energies and that also being a part of this year's journey. So water, water being a really profound elemental connection that we can make this year for those of you who thrive in the lunar, for those of you who feel that the moon basically birthed you and that you've been gazing up at it ever since wondering when you'll return. I feel that the moon is really, really singing this year. You're going to find yourself not surprised, but let's just say the subtle, the unseen, the mysterious, and the magical will all be. Present very, very clearly this year, those obvious ways that things happen.
Like, [00:26:00] okay, I applied for this thing at this time, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. Now it's going to happen like this. A, B, C, D, you know, in a linear fashion. I think that kind of stuff is a little less happening this year and the unexpected magical ways that things can just happen. Some people will call them coincidences.
I would say they're more like things syncing up or aligning. That kind of stuff is going to be really, really Happening this year. So there is a certain kind of navigation that we do in lunarness, it's intuitive, it's felt, it's caring, it's of the heart, it's emotional and relational in nature.
It's not about manifesting and getting things done and [00:27:00] enacting our will. And doing it at all costs. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. A lot of what the moon gets into is that things will unfold in the time that they're going to need to unfold. And a lot of times, you will be pleasantly surprised at what kinds of Magical happenings take place. That thing that happened that's so unexpected, but exactly what you wanted. You know that opportunity, that collaboration, that gig, that whatever it is, that windfall of money. Like there are things that happen that you can't explain that you had really unexpected hands in, seeds that were planted. You know, that you didn't even know you planted that will come to fruition in the most [00:28:00] unexpected moments, that is the moon to me. It is not about trying so hard, but trying exactly when you know you're supposed to try and when you feel called in exactly the way you feel called to.
This is about specificity. This is about knowing when to act and when and what to do, like the real specific things not just trying to do everything, but if you really tune into yourself and you tune in to what you can sense, you know, I'm not even saying psychic, I'm not even saying intuitive, I'm not even saying any of those words.
I'm just saying sense. When you tune into what you can sense. And you're present, it becomes very clear when to take action and when not to take action. It [00:29:00] becomes very clear how you can best take action. So, care is a big theme. A lot of times we feel like we need to do a lot. We need to compensate. We need to Kind of almost like work, work, work in order to prove that we're worthy of any opportunity or any goodness that comes in our lives. But really, taking care of yourself, nourishing yourself, it keeps you in a good place so that when the right time and the right opportunity or the right moment where you feel called, That's the time to act and you're ready for it because you're sourced, you're feeling good, you're feeling cared for you're in the right head space, in the right heart space. You're good We can't really show up for those [00:30:00] Specific opportunities and invitations when we've just been trying to do everything. I feel like trying to be everything to everyone is gone this year. Trying to be everything to everyone this year is gone.
The Hermit. That isn't everything to everyone. In fact, they're seemingly kind of selfish, right, or self centered. They're going off and they're doing their own thing. I want you to re examine that for a second. Like going off and doing your own thing is the right thing for you to do at that moment. What you're being called into, that idea that you have, Oh, that nap that you need to take. That's the right thing at the right time. Trust in care this year. [00:31:00] Trust in care. Trust that when your body tells you to rest, it is part of the process. Trust that when you want to start putting that pen to paper for whatever reason, do it. Follow those instincts. We didn't go through a strength year to reclaim all that wildness, to reclaim all that power and that, courage, just so that we could go and try to conform, so that we could show up and to do things in this very uniform way.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We have all that wildness, So that we have a real sense of instinct intact, a real sense of intuition about what's mine to pay attention to and what's not. When am I supposed to act and when am I not? It's instinct. The moon feels [00:32:00] very instinctive. To me. And I think that, especially going on that kind of like media and kind of information, just mental detox, I got really familiar with instinct over that time period, like.
Your body, if you need to go to sleep, it knows, it knows that you need it. You should do it. You'll be surprised what happens when you do. A really funny example is that recently. You know, while I wasn't able to respond to anyone by email, while I wasn't able to get back to anyone, I actually had someone get back to me with an opportunity, an opportunity that was perfect for me.
And I didn't write them. I didn't reach out to them. I didn't have any hand directly in soliciting this opportunity, yet it came to me anyway while I was resting. That is a [00:33:00] really great example of like, letting the forces that we are in relationship with, the larger forces that we are in relationship with, work their magic.
Work Their side of things, you know, we show up with our side of things, you know, we make things, we try to have habits that keep us connected and keep us. Showing up when we're supposed to show up, but we're not overworking ourselves. We're not trying to push unnecessarily hard towards any goals.
I think instead we're intuitively moving and flowing with these larger forces at work. when these larger forces are at work and we're actually, In the flow, we don't have to work as hard. We shouldn't have to [00:34:00] work as hard. A lot of that working hard thing, we should all kind of take a look at that, right?
We should take a look at where that comes from. I know it comes from our society. I know it comes from a lot of conditioning. But think back to your life and think, is there some definitive moments it's along my history where I was taught that I needed to be more or that I wasn't enough?
Enoughness is a really, really important part about being able to trust yourself and to trust your actions and to trust your instincts. if you know you're enough, you're not going to be going and just trying to do everything for everyone all the time. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you will act when you need to act when it's the right time. This is a matured energy The moon is a [00:35:00] very matured energy. There is a time for the full moon There is a time for the new moon. There is a time for the last quarter. There is a time for every single phase Accordingly, there is a time for you to rest. There is a time for you to take action. There is a time for you to dream. There's a time for you to be inspired.
If this is a totally new concept to you, I highly recommend that you start to explore working with the moon and its phases in your creative phases. Career process, start learning about the different phases of the moon, the new moon, crescent, the first quarter, the full, you know, start to learn about the different phases of the moon [00:36:00] and the different energies of those phases. You know, the new moon is often a space of dreaming or new seeds or new ideas.
The full moon is usually The embodiment or the full realization of something or something that's fully created or, completed and the waning half of the cycle being a time where we start to move towards rest. And start to detach ourselves, these times of the lunar cycle that really fit every part of the creative process.
I think in the very first episode that I recorded for this podcast. A few years ago, it was called art by the moon and it got into at least my personal practice of planning and creating with the different lunar [00:37:00] phases. Check that out for inspiration. Check out, you know, different witches and different ideas about how the moon has a certain quality and energy at different phases. That can be really, really helpful in giving space to all aspects of your care. All aspects of your process.
Let's get a little bit more into how a hermit might create and how a hermit might make art and might navigate career. The hermit might be a bit of an oddball, might be a bit of a mad scientist. Or a deep researcher, or someone who's really turning [00:38:00] away from maybe the tried and true traditions or at least has integrated them and has decided, I'm ready to go and get deeper with something. They might be a figure who, is really experimenting, is really getting deep with their mediums. they're trying to see different combinations of pigments and materials and seeing how they interact and seeing what the different results are and kind of cataloging all that stuff.
And maybe they're documenting those experiments really, really thoroughly. For me, I think the hermit is a very documenting figure. They, spend a lot of time archiving their process because it's in that, archiving, in that organizing and processing of [00:39:00] data, that truth starts to surface.
I love that Leonard Cohen quote. I know I'm going to botch it up, but he says, you know, you can't really know a song until you've went through the process of, Cutting it and polishing it and really trying to see if it's something like, how do you know if this is a work of art until you've went through the process to try to create it?
So there's something there in realizing things through tried and true experimentation and data gathering and documenting that and archiving that. And the hermit Getting to that, place of documentation, maybe you don't feel like you want to go and belabor all of this kind of, you know, okay, I've got this notebook and I got this thing and I've got this thing, but maybe you're [00:40:00] doing it in your own way.
I think the hermit is a very much like I'm doing it in my own way kind of figure. They're not necessarily doing it the way that every teacher taught them. They're not doing it necessarily the way that tradition might dictate. I would say that often the hermit is a wisdom figure, is a teacher figure, in the tarot, like a lot of people will think that it's simply the hierophant, but I think it's like the hierophant, but liberated the hierophant with all their traditions and all their knowledge and their wisdom, but like, if they could just follow spirit and follow the truth of their knowing and see where that leads them.
And these figures often come up with some of the most incredible, innovative practices and art. They come up with [00:41:00] things that are so unexpected and brilliant and inspiring. These are figures that cut a path through the forest that's never been charted before so that other people follow. Believe it or not, when we go off of that path, we illuminate a path for others by trusting ourselves and our wacky ideas.
A lot of people might think the hermit is quite a wacky figure. But it's those people who often discover the deep mysteries of our universe. There's often the people who push the boundaries of what's possible. I think a lot about my friend Latá Kennedy, who runs flower power in Piermont and also in the Village.
She's a great herbalist and astrologer and just a wonderful person, but she's been talking to me about [00:42:00] the parade, the alignment of all the planets. And we were talking about the confluence of the three rivers in India and all the people who are going and Bathing in the waters and kind of doing this at this planetary alignment.
And she was talking about how, you know, the aescetics and, the, essentially the hermits, those, yogis and those folks who are like devout to their spiritual practice and live in caves and like have all sorts of really extreme spiritual practices and styles of living that those are the people who are going first into these waters and connecting with these energies.
And you think about it, these people have devoted their lives to this practice. I think that is the most living example I can think of, of the hermit is these figures who live in these ways that are [00:43:00] so against the grain of conformist consensus society and reality.
Yet they are tapping into things that. are benefiting so many. So you kind of think about like, the hermit may seem like this selfish figure going out and doing their own thing and kind of centering the thing that they're obsessed and passionate about, but they're doing so lights the way for others.
It really, really does. So if you're grappling with any kind of feelings of guilt about desire, any kind of feelings about, you know, centering your practice or, focusing on something and turning away from other things, you know, I feel like I give a lot of readings where people have this creative stirring inside them.
And then [00:44:00] for external reasons for relational reasons, they're usually tied up and can't devote themselves to this thing. I don't mean like being a parent and you know, Oh, I have a kid. So I can't, you know, do my art. I don't mean like that. Like, Oh, well, you know, I'm doing this and I'm doing that. And taking care of my sister's dog and yada yada and like everything but your art gets attention and energy. Everything but your passion gets attention and energy. And a lot of times we see this even as like a people pleasing to like, you know, Oh, I got to be there for others. I got to be caring, I got to be giving, I got to be a part of my community, And totally being social is really important. It's very deep, but this hermit figure, wow. They're [00:45:00] really in their practice, in their process. They're giving their attention and energy to what they really, really. Desire and I wonder what that looks like for so many of us. I wonder who Benefits when we are actually centering what we're interested in. We're not just giving because we think we have to but we're giving Our energy and attention in the places that matter to us, we get a lot of energy back. There's a lot of energy that we get back from that process.
So that's something to think about with the hermit, this, this idea of centering what you're. interested in, and how beneficial that that can actually be for others.
Let's talk a little bit about our psychic ness. Let's talk about the moon. Let's talk about healing. Let's talk about psychic ness. [00:46:00] So you know, in my reading practice, I do relate cards that share the same kind of numerological core number. So, you know, Hermit being number 9, the Moon card being 18, which breaks down into 1 plus 8, which equals 9 also.
And I Feel nine is a really, really significant number. It is a completion and a mastery number. It is a number that we are in alignment is a number where we are finished, where we complete things. It is not the full awareness and the full feeling and arrival of it all and how, you know, in the world or in the wheel or, you know, some of those cards where it's like, you can see the totality of what has happened.
I feel like that's, [00:47:00] more with the world card, but with. This kind of cyclical energy you can almost get a sense of that with the moon a little bit But with the moon we're getting into sense of Our intuition our dark side. We're getting into You know the sides of ourselves that don't necessarily get the light.
We're getting into parts of ourselves that maybe are hidden or obscured. We're getting into things that are mysterious, that are naturally kind of murky in our sense of knowing. I feel like coming from the star and the strength card last year in 2024 strength is number eight and the star is number 17, so those are the cards that come before the moon and the hermit in the [00:48:00] tarot. You know, coming from strength and star, we have this wildness and this energy reclaimed. And the star was like replugging back in to our sense of power, our true source of power and energy in the light of the connections that we have to our guides, to our ancestors, to our ecology.
It is like being plugged back into the web and that is what's so damn healing about the star card is that you're replugged back into the collective and being this interconnected online being. And when we get to the moon, we really get to test some of that because with all this really amazing magical stuff, there's also some of this really hard stuff that comes this year.
There's also some of this stuff that it's like, this is the [00:49:00] lowest low. I think this year we're going to feel some incredible highs and some very, very Deep lows. Think about like, you know, that crest and that trench. there's a really, really deep drop in there. And we just have to understand that we are coming back up and we are going back down and we are coming back up and we are going back down.
And the parts of us that get activated are often those very murky, shadowy parts of ourselves, the things that haven't healed yet, the things that hurt the wounds. There's a lot of shit that gets activated from the past. Getting back to that water body, to the energy and element of water, to the fact that it holds memory, to the fact that emotions and somatic experience, they're all there [00:50:00] in the body.
And we're going to go through a lot of things that take us back to some of those really hard places. But, some of what you have to remember is that You are not the same person you were when you went through those hard times. You're not the same person you are today. So can you navigate things in your version 2. 0? think of it like your updated version. The past you would have handled things a certain way. This version of you handles things a certain way. How do they handle it? Maybe you're more mature. Maybe you are smarter. Maybe you're wiser. Maybe you have a lot more self care tools in your bag. Maybe you've got more of a support system and you are able to be vulnerable and honest when you need help and support.
Maybe you're Able to [00:51:00] say I need to step back right now. I can't be everything to everyone. I can only be Caring for myself in my immediate circle right now. This is the level of maturity that comes with the moon card. Knowing yourself So well being, so connected and taking that kind of healing and that interconnectivity that came from the star and all the, the guides and the connections that you have, all that's firing in your support system.
All those synapses firing in your support system, you're essentially taking all that with you and you're saying, okay. I'm going through some tough stuff right now, but I know I am not alone. I am going through some tough stuff right now, but I've got a lot of people with me who are here with me through [00:52:00] this and it's our job to become keen observers of care this year. This is another part of the hermit card. Become the best observer of the smallest and most subtlest acts of love, of light, of care. Notice kindness, even in the most Tiniest, tiniest specific moments, no matter how small the act of kindness is, become attuned to it.
Tune in to the subtlest light, just like when your eyes are in darkness. And when they are in darkness for long enough, suddenly the barest hint of starlight or of moonlight is so illuminating. You can see so much in the dark. Be able to sense and to see [00:53:00] all the little bits of light that surround you.
Every day we can tune in to where we are noticing care, where we are noticing love, why this is so important this year is because we cannot waste energy and we need to notice when energy is being shared with us. So notice when people are caring for you. Notice how you feel, take the time to be gracious, to have gratitude and to honor those moments where care is happening.
And when you start to get really tuned into that, you can also be present in your life and notice when you are being called to care for others, to give to others. It's not that we're selfish jerks [00:54:00] this year in the hermit cart, far from it. We're actually placing our time and our energy exactly where it's needed in alignment with a greater sense of, Interconnected intelligence. This is a web of care that we belong to. Our ecology is energy that is transferred from being to being all over the place.
We hold a piece of the world within each one of us, a piece of the world by which each one of us can notice, tend to, and care for. There are moments where you will be called to care very specifically in the unique ways that only you can another being.
You will have the right skills, the right resources, the right words to say, you know, the right presence or energy in that moment. [00:55:00] Each one of us can be that, but we need to know when that is. So we have to be very observant and very present in our lives. This is not about perfectionism. Please don't misinterpret this. It's not about perfectionism. A lot of this is about just being present. And, you know, when I talked about the mental detox of being on that concussion, suddenly I was like, Oh, okay. Like this is the instincts of my body. This is, you know, what I'm being called to do. and you feel when people care for you, like, you know, when someone sent me flowers or something, the gravity of that really landed within me.
Without all the noise, without all the social media, without reading a bunch of books and yadda yadda, I felt like I was able to absorb, like, 'oh my gosh, someone took time out of their day to send me [00:56:00] flowers, to let me know in a special message how much I mean to them. That's an example, but you can get what I'm saying here, that it's not about everyone doing everything to staunch the flow of hurt in the world.
It's about each person doing the thing that they specifically can do at the specific moment they're called and how that collectively creates care. We can't forget about the collective. We're in the age of Aquarius now, baby. Like we're re imagining the collective, not from the perspective of just always thinking about the collective, but about really understanding who we are as as unique and fundamental beings to the collective.
What you [00:57:00] do, how you do it, and then the ways that you do it are special and are needed. And they're not needed all the time, they're needed in specific moments, with specific people, and you'll know when that is if you're paying attention. If you're distracted, you might miss it.
It's true. So you really need to, okay, this is where we get into the actual reading for this lunar cycle. All of that was a preamble of this year basically. It was to get you into the space of the collective energies and the kinds of things we're going to be navigating with the hermit and the moon.
But really this lunar cycle, I pulled cards and I was like, okay, what do we need to know about the hermit? What aspect about the hermit do we need to work with now in this lunar cycle? What is our challenge? And what can we embrace? What's the thing that we need to focus on? [00:58:00] So we have the queen of swords as Basically our invitation. This is what we are being called to do this cycle. Please, please guard your energy and guard your mind. Be a guardian this cycle of your mental space. If you have nothing else, set some boundaries for yourself. Say, you know what? That doesn't feel so great. I'm going to detox from that, or I'm going to step aside from that, or I'm going to cancel that subscription, or I'm going to, you know, say that's too many hours on that.
Set some boundaries up for yourself. Say I'm going to take a walk, I'm going to step away from my devices for a certain amount each day. I know it's basic, but you know, putting your phone and turning your phone off, having a practice of turning your phone off every once in a while. It's great, great practice.
[00:59:00] Try it. The Queen of Swords has protections in place for their mind. They understand that there is no attention and energy without focus. and discipline. Without clear boundaries setup for that energy to be focused.
So, as much energy as you would like to be able to put into things is as much energy as you're willing to Safeguard. I don't want you to feel alarmed or anything, but I'm sure many of you have already felt the sense of like, gee, what is social media right now? Gee, what is all this stuff that I'm witnessing in the news?
It's a whole lot of distraction often and we have to be really, really smart about when we decide to engage with stuff. You have to be really smart about is this the moment that I read that thing? Is [01:00:00] this the moment where I open that app? Is this the best use of my time and my energy right now? Is this where I'm being called towards my highest good right now?
Be really honest. The Queen of Swords is honest. And so be very honest with yourself. You can't really go out and follow your knowing if you're not really honoring your knowing. With the Hermit, right? You gotta like be clear with yourself and say, Okay, that's too much or I can't engage with that. I can engage with it later, but I'm gonna have to do it in an intentional and Measured way, not in a free for all necessarily.
Okay. The other side of that might be communicating very clearly with others, being very clear that you just don't have the time or the [01:01:00] energy. You just can't show up in the ways that you've been showing up. If you have a tendency to be available to a lot of people, if you have a tendency to, let's say, take on, Different projects or, say yes a lot.
This might be a year of saying some no's. Might be a year of saying some no's. And you might have to find it within you to understand what you're working towards. A future that you're working towards, maybe you're working towards having a career that you want. Maybe you're working towards making a special project or your art, you're going to have to get really comfortable on some level with the idea that it's for the benefit of many, not just yourself, but others to say no, and the queen of swords is pretty darn good at that. They're clear with their words. They're clear with their intentions their intentions are aligned [01:02:00] with their practice. So it's not like they're just doing whatever, whenever they're kind of like, I know why I'm doing this. I know why I'm putting my time here or there. So a little saturnal, you know, in the sense that like there are boundaries, there's ideas about time and, the idea that we only have so much time, we only have so much energy and we only have so much attention. So be very mindful, be very mindful about where you're placing your gaze and your attention this cycle, but also this year.
The challenge card to this is the seven of swords in reverse. Okay, so a lot of things are happening. It is a tangled web of nonsense out there in the world. Not web in the good way. It's tangly, squirrely, and messy. There's a [01:03:00] lot. of stuff going on and it's vying for your attention.
There's also the feeling of not really having permission to or credentials, or maybe let's say just authority to go and do things the way you want to do them. So like, for example, with the hermit, right? It takes a lot of inner strength and courage to go off the beaten path and to try your own thing.
It can be really scary for a lot of folks, maybe you feel like you're an imposter. Maybe you feel like you don't have permission. I find that the Seven of Swords comes up a lot when people are feeling like kind of an imposter. But the other thing that kind of comes around this is like when we have a tendency to rush through things too, to go and try to move through things too quickly.
So I just want to say, slow down. Right? With this [01:04:00] challenge card, slow down, trust yourself, trust that you are being guided towards the most necessary things that you need to focus on. And it may be really weird to turn away from stuff. It may be really weird to go off the beaten path, but that's okay.
Trust yourself. And then the last card that comes through for this hermit reading is The ace of wands. So this is what we're supposed to focus on. There is a project, there is an idea, there is a seed, there is a spark in the dark that is calling to you. It probably has been calling to you. I encourage you to follow it.
I encourage you to let that be a torch, to turn away from all the screens, all the noise, all the chitter chatter, [01:05:00] and to treat that torch As your only source of light, let's say a lunar cycle, try focusing on just this thing that you're really interested in, that you've been wanting to explore, try doing it for a whole lunar cycle and see what happens.
Try giving yourself until February 26th. Right. That's just before the next new moon. Give yourself this lunar cycle to focus on that little thing that you want to try and get into and see where it takes you just for a cycle. Don't worry about the future. Don't worry about the next thing. Don't worry about what becomes of it. Don't worry if you're Allowed to, don't worry if you're imposter, don't worry if you have, you know, the authority or the expertise or the ability, let all that [01:06:00] go and just focus on this one spark in the darkness.
Okay, friends. So we have the hermit card and the moon card for this year. Our invitation. around these two cards. So I feel like this is kind of just for this lunar cycle, but also a little overarching for the year. So, take it as a little bit of both, right? We have the queen of swords is our invitation. This is the way that we can be this lunar cycle. The way that we can really be in the hermit or to start to activate in the hermit, protect Your mind, guard your mind, guard your energy and your attention, your gaze, where your gaze falls, guard where you are noticing things so that you can be very, very present in your life.
Seven of swords. in reverse as the challenge. Don't try to rush things. Don't worry about whether or not you're an [01:07:00] expert. Don't worry about whether or not you're allowed to do things or if you're, getting away with something or being, different or, you're getting deeper, don't get overbogged in the mind. Don't get distracted. We're really trying to level up here. We're trying to get deeper. We're trying to get a clearer mind. So try to do practices that actually clear your mind. You know, maybe it's meditate. Maybe it's set boundaries with your phone. Maybe it's not reading the news or listening to the news late at night. Maybe it is Deciding that you're going to start reading things that actually support mental clarity. Maybe you're going to even take some herbs or some different tinctures or things for mental clarity. Work with it.
We're in, Imbolc season, we're in the energy of the East. We're in just the very stirrings of spring. This is the element of air. Air is of the mind. Air is that [01:08:00] clarity and that truth. Try to really, really get clear and do as much to protect your mind as possible. And then center your gaze, center your attention on that spark, that thing that's really interested you. That Project that that thing you want to try that place you want to go to, that idea, that person you want to reach out to. I really see this as a seed of inspiration almost, or the beginning stirrings of some kind of creative something. Try to focus on that for the duration of this lunar cycle. See what it's like to stick with something for a while. See what it's like to train your gaze. See how it entrances you.
If you were to literally stare at a candle and to just focus on it for a while, notice what [01:09:00] changes. Notice how you're transformed. Notice what happens. There's so much that happens when we're in trance and when we go into these meditative or altered states, it's a profoundly rich and incredible portal that can occur in that trance process. Like train one thing and notice what changes
Okay, friends, that is it for this year energetic, channeled, reading, hermit, moon card. Jam. As a reminder, be very, very caring. Care for yourself. All year long it is so, so important. Can't stress that enough. Please take care of yourself. There's so much stuff happening in the world right now and we need to [01:10:00] be as cared for and as well as we possibly can as intact as we can.
So that's something that you can contribute to this collective is by just simply caring for yourself. And As a reminder also, Art Witch meets on February 8th, 11 a. m. to 1 p. m. Eastern Standard Time on Zoom. You can check out the link below for more information about that. We will be getting deep with the Hermit card in that session.
And I'll be leading a kind of channeled art session for The Hermit. So it's going to be really taking this episode and going really deep with The Hermit and The Hermit's wisdom in our creative practice this year. And also tarot readings are now open for February. [01:11:00] Check out those down below if you want a one on one tarot reading for your art and career.
I hope this has been helpful. I'm sending you all so, so much love and wishing you a blessed year, beautiful Imbolc, and a beautiful lunar cycle. Take care.
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