Underworld journeying, side questing, and all that awaits us in the glittering darkness . Learn about the energies of Samhain and Scorpio season, and this upcoming lunar cycle Nov 1-30 and the possibilities for our art.
Underworld journeying, side questing, and all that awaits us in the glittering darkness . Learn about the energies of Samhain and Scorpio season, and this upcoming lunar cycle Nov 1-30 and the possibilities for our art.
Mentioned in this episode:
Art Witch Circle - Nov 16th on Zoom 🌈💞✨
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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
Instagram @artwitchpodcast
The Glittering Darkness✨🌑✨Creativity Tarot Reading Nov 1- Nov 30
[00:00:00] Zaneta: Hello and welcome to Art Witch, the podcast where creativity, magic, and healing align for personal and collective liberation. I'm your host Zaneta and welcome. Art Witch 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 [00:01:00] art.
Hello everyone. And welcome back to the art witch podcast. I'm your host Zaneta. And thank you so much for tuning in. Today's episode is a creativity tarot reading for the new moon in Scorpio on November 1st through November 30th. So basically the lunar cycle. If you're new to this podcast, we do these creativity tarot readings, ideally, every new moon. Sometimes I skip a few sometimes, you know, things happen, life happens, but this particular lunar cycle has so, so much going on.
It's kind of jam packed and. Today's episode is really going to get into what are the energies of this cycle. What do they have to offer around our creativity or careers? Um, you know, what can we kind of work with? [00:02:00] And I always like to think of these readings as kind of a collaboration of what we're working with. So if that resonates for you, listen on because we're going to get into not only these energies of November 1st through November 30th and. How we can navigate them, but also we're going to get into Samhain and I'm actually recording this on Samhain it will be released today. But Samhain Is essentially a season.
So many of the things that we're going to talk about in this episode can be done well into November, can be part of preparing for winter in general and like moving towards. Really, really those deep, solstice, winter solstice. Like moments, you know, the, darkness of the year. So. Just listen in and know that [00:03:00] you're not late. You're not behind, but we're working with seasonal energies in a way. And many of these things are meant to be journeyed with overtime.
Before I get into Samhain, the season's energies and the cards for this lunar cycle. I want to make a couple of announcements first. I want to say that the Art Witch Circle is meeting up on November 16th, that's Saturday, November 16th at 11:00 AM eastern standard time, on zoom.
This is an online artist, monthly support group that we host for podcast community members on Patreon. Essentially, I give mini readings for the artists that are in attendance, so you can bring any questions in. It's meant to be a monthly tarot reading support space.
You're going to get your [00:04:00] reading. And then I lecture and teach the tarot through the creative witchcraft lens. The tarot has been a really, really fundamental part of my artist's journey. I use it for everything from composing to project planning, to marketing, to how to apply for a grant. What to do, in certain situations and making decisions, basically pathwork and also thinking about timing in my projects and how to even just make the art, the sketches, the collaborations, the inspiration, where to begin. So I'm going to be sharing all of that this year in the Art Witch circle sessions. So far, we have covered how to choose a tarot deck exclusively for your art. Channeling your life tarot card and so far, [00:05:00] these sessions have been kind of mini readings lecture, and then a channel to exercise or meditation that we make art during. This upcoming session on November 16th is kind of a two part series because we're starting to get into how to make decisions with the tarot for our career.
How do we path work with the tarot? A lot of the readings that I give for clients. Are often around what to do on their journey. Like, should I go to that MFA program? What kind of career would best suit me? Should I make an Etsy shop? Should I try to approach this gallery?
Like, there's a lot of questions that come up in the artist's journey. And the tarot is incredible for that kind of stuff.
I will say though, that there's a certain kind of process that I've cultivated with the tarot. There are certain [00:06:00] associations based off of data and experiences that I've personally had and the experiences that I've tracked with my clients. So I'm going to be teaching timing, phases, seasons, and cycles of the creative journey and creative process. I'm going to be teaching card meanings. Essentially the tarot through the artist's journey. And the minor Arcana as different creative situations and, moments in creative process. So it's a lot it's really juicy, but what we're working towards is giving yourself a year ahead, reading.
Now I like to give your head readings for clients, but to be really honest, I give myself readings and I find them to be extremely beneficial for many years now. I really, really enjoy it. I think that it has helped me a lot just kind of navigating the energies of the year and, [00:07:00] and how to best plan with those energies.
I also think it gives me a lot of compassion. Self-compassion because we're not meant to create all the time and we're not meant to just keep going. And so it shows me the rhythms and the cycles and the moments that are invitations to maybe put myself out there more and times where I'm being invited to quiet down, to listen, to be a little more still. Or to just take care of myself.
So, if you're interested in learning the tarot from witchcraft creativity, Lens a very liberatory lens. Then come on through to the Art Witch Circle on November 16th, it is going to be on zoom. So obviously this is intended to be a space where many people can gather from different places. We have amazing, community members who are making all sorts of stuff that [00:08:00] I think actually tends to be very relevant to one another. So like, Someone's getting a message. And then that relates to a project that someone else is working on or someone channels a specific piece of art during our guided sessions and then that really relates to a message that's coming through. There's a lot of, interconnectivity and a community building that, just kind of naturally occurs through the energies and through our shared space here on Patreon. So if you're interested in learning the tarot, if you're interested in having regular check-ins with your creativity and your art. Getting mini readings with me. If you're interested in having different exercises and, channeled meditations and experiments to try and weave in that psychic component with your creativity and your art practice, I recommend coming to the Art Witch Circle.
it's available [00:09:00] for Patreon subscribers who are at the $10 a month level and above. So the Art Witch Circle level and above. Though the replays of all these sessions are available for anyone who's a paid subscriber of the Art Witch Patreon. So you do not have to attend these live sessions. The beauty of the live sessions is that you get mini monthly tarot readings for your art. So anyone who's in attendance, I give them a mini reading. You can bring any question in regarding your art, your career, stuff like that, whatever you're kind of focusing on at this time, or that's coming up. And then we do these lectures and guided meditations. So it's really a beautiful space. It's evolving. It's growing. They are throughout the year.
Then next session is November 16th and then the following session is on the winter [00:10:00] solstice on December 21st. And I'll be announcing the upcoming dates in January, February, March, April, may. And so on. So I hope you can join us for that.
If you can't join in person, maybe you want to support the podcast at $4 a month. That's like our, base level. Our earth level of subscription. And you get replays, you get access to any of the, videos and things. I'm going to be uploading a video on spell casting so it's really kind of an evolving space and I'm really looking forward to sharing more art witchery on the Patreon. So check that out in the description below. If you're interested.
The last thing I'll say is thank you so much everyone, to, those of you who wished us a happy third birthday here on Art Witch, that was last month. And it's been very, very energizing and exciting to hear all [00:11:00] the stories of people who found this podcast at very important times in their creative journeys. People who were navigating, you know, giving birth to kids. Transitioning out of jobs, dealing with significant creative loss or grief. folks who were just starting to get into the idea of art witchery, like, what does it mean to weave in magic in the artistic process, not just in the kind of general sense that art is magic, but like in a very literal and more intentional way as to like work with energy, channel, use your mediumship or psychic skills to create. It's been fascinating to hear your stories. And I just really appreciate everyone who shared them.
If you feel like you want to really support this podcast because it's reached you at a time when you needed it, it's helped you through [00:12:00] something. Would you be so kind as to leave a review? In whatever platform that you listen through. I think you can leave comments and reviews in Spotify. You can leave reviews definitely an apple podcasts. But there's a plethora of platforms.
If you want to shout out an episode on Instagram or on threads. Or on Facebook. , please, we welcome that kind of amplification.
And, um, I just feel really glad and really grateful for all of you listening and for this continued journey with Art Witch. So that said let's get into today's reading and, attuning to Samhain.
So Samhain occurs sunset generally, October 31st through sunset on [00:13:00] November 1st. All around the world there are ideas of. The moment that you would celebrate. Death, whether you would honor death honor the dead. And take intentional time and care to show this aspect of living to highlight it, to celebrate it to. Sink and immerse into it.
There is a certain way of living, a certain quality to life that occurs when we fully embrace death. There is a certain quality of life and living when we embrace death. I don't think you can really know aliveness, unless you are walking side by side with death.
I say that as someone who has lost very close people to [00:14:00] me in very hard and intense moments of my life. I'm saying this as someone who has a south node in Scorpio. And travels deeply with Scorpio.
I say this as someone who, lives in a former funeral home and my partner plays for bereavement and grief and has done a lot of channeling music for hospice. I say this as someone who really. Feels like death has shaped my lived experience. And. That is Samhain in many ways. That is what Samhain brings. For us, that's the gift of Samhain. Is. The fullness, the wholeness of life. Realized through these halves, right. If you think about the lunar cycle, you really can't have a [00:15:00] waxing. You know, you can't have the full moon. You can't have the waxing Crescent. The first quarter.
You can't have a new moon without the last quarter without, you know, the waning Crescent. You can't have. These experiences of expansiveness without some kind of withdrawing with some kind of contraction with some kind of inward ness. So I want you to hold that in your being right now.
Maybe many of you understand this already, and I am preaching hard to people who already have went there, have lived this. Maybe you are a doula, death doula. Maybe you are a midwife, maybe you have practices where you have, really worked with grief with loss, with death. Maybe you have a mortality practice. Mortality meditation's that you've accessed. [00:16:00] Yeah, many of us in this community. Know the magic of mortality. But, Life gets busy. Life gets really, hyper externalized under capitalism. It's this pull to constantly be outward facing to constantly realize our experiences through what can be seen by others. What can be consumed by others.
As artists, we know that. Really. To make anything means to journey inward, to be, training your gaze inwardly. To pay attention to yourself and what's happening within you so much that you can actually make out the shape of a creation that wants to come through you, that you can give it the proper time and [00:17:00] attention that it takes to understand it and to understand what wants to be created.
We talked a little bit about this in the full moon transmission, called stepping into center, in the previous episode here on the podcast. So I'm not going to go too far down that if you want to listen more about holding center and really centering self and experience. Then I highly highly recommend listening to that episode.
But. This particular. Moment in the wheel of the year, Samhain is this significant shift of our gaze. It's a significant shift of our attention and our energy. It's recognizing the power of Tuning in the other direction, moving in the other direction, maybe even flipping in the other direction. Right. We talk [00:18:00] about the dead. We talk about the underworld. We talk about the mystery. Darkness. We talk about, what happens when we are below ground. What is occurring below ground? So. That's a lot of the energies of this time, this moment for those of us who are celebrating Samhain in particular.
I also want to acknowledge that a Northern hemisphere existence is not the same as necessarily a Southern hemisphere existence.
While I know that there are celebrations of Samhain that transcend the seasonal qualities, I also want to say With that. Spectrum of Scorpio and Taurus. It is real to have land-based understandings of things to have [00:19:00] really, tangible earthly experiences, to say, like, here's, what's happening with the plants here's what's happening with the waters, here's what's happening in the weather. Here's what's happening in the land, you know, here's, what's happening with the wildlife and all the creatures that are living.
When we have autumn here in the Northern hemisphere, especially places where there's a lot of deciduous trees, trees that change, color, change foliage. We are watching. Such a dynamic shift. That centers, the understanding. Of Samhain the concept of death as an important. Thresh hold as an important change. But in the Southern hemisphere, you know, this isn't necessarily the same experience for everyone, not everyone's going through the same kind of season. Those of us who live [00:20:00] more closer to the equator. This might be a totally different thing. I would really encourage you to tune into where you are located and living. And what seasonally those energies have to share with you and what you can notice and observe in a very, almost naturalist way, right?
Just noticing what's happening with the plants. Noticing what's happening with the weather, with the temperatures. Notice how those energies occur and not dismissing them in service of just trying to say, oh, it's Samhain now it's, it's only this. What is the nuance around that? What's the complexity around that.
When I think of Samhain. I often think of. The dead. I think of ancestors. I think of those who came before us, I think of iterations of [00:21:00] ourselves. Past lives. I think of intergenerational connections and relations. I think about. the lineage of our art. Who came before us that shaped us? Who do we call upon when we are creating? Consciously or unconsciously.
Over the summer, my favorite artist of all time passed away, Toumani Diabate. He was a famous Malian Kora player. And. His work. Was. I it's like hard to describe how much his work influenced me, but every time that I listen to. Or, channel or sound anything in my art practice. Anything that I put out into the world.
It is. [00:22:00] So deeply rooted in his work.
Naming and claiming these connections from beyond. Is a certain kind of rooting. Is a certain kind of remembrance. It centers, things in a way that gives them the proper gravity. Scorpio is often associated with death, sex, money, shared money, taxes, that kind of stuff. When we are placing value and understanding value of our living work that we're creating. The album, the painting. The installation. The offering, whatever it is that you're making, whatever it is that you're composing. When we are assigning value to things.
If we do not have a certain rootedness in who came before us and what was shared with us, If we don't have a [00:23:00] certain remembrance of our creative roots. It is so easy to undervalue and to be imbalanced about what we are putting out in the world and what the exchange is around what we're putting out in the world.
To forget where we came from and who, paved the way before us. Is to forget our own impact. Into the future and for other people and what we are giving. So I want you to really take that Into an understanding. Of your work of your abundance, of the value of your work of when you're going to go and say collaborate or be in partnership with an organization. And institution, a gallery. If you're going to get a grant, if you're going to go and work with someone else and [00:24:00] put something out like name and claim those who are your creative ancestors, those who are a part of the heritage, the lineage of your art practice. Who you have been massively influenced by. Consider deeply their impact on you. And then proceed forward.
I find a lot of vitality comes from this practice. A lot of vitality comes. From claiming. Those, creative ancestors, those artistic ancestors. And saying, this is how I have been impacted. And knowing that my work will impact others accordingly. Maybe not quite to the literal extent that those who have influenced me have had on me personally. But. Think of the potential, the [00:25:00] possibility. Think about, that we often are taught to very much undervalue our time, our energy. Our bodies. Our efforts, our skills, our expertise. We're taught so often to undervalue ourselves. That we become a little lost on the path to putting things out there. We become a little lost. And reclaiming those roots. Is essential. To staying centered, staying, very real about what it takes to sustainably grow.
thinking back to that Taurian Scorpio connection. Like the roots are really essential to the growth, right? Like if we don't really know where we came from, if we don't really know what's going on in our past, we're really, really a little lost in our growth into [00:26:00] the future. So that's some of what Samhain brings up for me.
Now what can we do as art witches is to connect with Samhain, what can we do to Let's say honor and, To really kind of let Samhain sing through us. Personally. I always think about the spirits. I always think about ancestors. I always think about those who are beyond. And I think about communing with them.
If you have a particular ancestor that you would like to connect to, or maybe you've never connected with them, but you're kind of ancestor curious. This might be a really great time to get still. Get quiet. And go ahead, say, Hey, are there any loving ancestors of sound, mind, body, and spirit. Who. Have anything to share with me that might be [00:27:00] helpful. And you can just see what comes through. You know, You don't have to hang your hat on it. Maybe it's easiest in words, in automatic writing in. Channeled speaking and voicing. Sounding, maybe it's easiest in movement. Maybe it's easiest in meditation. Maybe it's easiest to translate or transmit. their , energies and messages through art making.
Maybe it's best over a meal that you make that, you know, your loved one really enjoyed giving them some on an ancestral altar. And then maybe eating that meal and seeing the feelings and the energies that come through. And just really processing things through the cooking, the eating, whatever. Maybe the sharing of the food in community.
Obviously our [00:28:00] creativity is so magical and limitless. And it provides endless possibilities for connection and, deeper wisdom. So wherever you feel kind of called to connect with those from beyond, with the spirits, with those other realms, That's a really awesome place to begin. I think it's also really kind of Scorpio to collaborate with the ancestors with past selves.
There have been times and I wonder if they even happened during Scorpio season, but there've been times where I have. Guided myself through connecting to my past selves. Often I did this with like my inner child. But this has felt like, a big part of kind of reclaiming or bringing in [00:29:00] those connections, having all hands on deck, having all the parts of self present. And I think that this watery time and the memory of this watery time really helps to access the full spectrum of all selves.
Other ways that you could kind of connect with Samhain is, I mentioned like an alter of sorts. This altar could be for a variety of things. And if you're tuning into yourself and seeing where you're at and what you need, this altar might be more focused on you. It might be focused on, Feeling grief. Surrender. It might be on. getting really, really in touch with your deep, deep truth and desires. Desire is obviously essential to art, making essential to [00:30:00] creativity and. You know, we are often having to circumnavigate our truths to reroute, to go on detours or to just set aside our desires. It happens so much. It's not anyone's fault. We're not going there. But we're getting into the things that we really, really want and really, really desire. And. It might be really nice to have a place. where you can connect and reflect and be, and honor devotionally these parts of self that really get pushed to the side.
Some people call this like shadow work. Some people call this like, soul retrieval, like there's so many words. And phrases that have popped up where it's like, oh, okay. Uh, yeah. We have parts of self. We have many parts of self parts that aren't [00:31:00] welcome. Parts that we don't think are lovable. Parts that we feel shame around. Desire shame, all of that, the sex, the death, this is, uh, a ripe time to kind of go there with yourself. So you can have an altar to the shameful. You can have an altar to forbidden pleasure.
You can have an altar to, The shit that you think you have to push aside or hide? And to have an altar of compassion and, honor and acceptance and gratitude.
dare I say, oh, that's extra spicy. Um, but you could, you can really go a lot of different directions with this.
For me personally, I'm going to be doing a lot of refreshing of my ancestral altar because. I do kind of focus seasonally a lot in my magic and, my art [00:32:00] practice. So I really want to like honor this as a different moment. This is, different decorations, different offerings, different kinds of quality of time and connection that I want to infuse in this space. I want my ancestors to feel really loved, to feel really appreciated. To feel really cared for. it's a time where I feel like I want to acknowledge like all the spells we cast together, all the work that we did together.
In that death and taxes shit, there's a certain amount of like judgment in there, or, the end of one's life kind of judgment where you look at all the things that you've done in your life and kind of see the whole picture. I want to see the whole picture of everything that we did from last samhain. I want to take a look and be like, damn. That's insane. Every time that I called upon them to help me travel safely every time that I Channeled a [00:33:00] reading or every time that I made something or the things that we did together as a collaborative team on the living side and on the death side. Like, what did we make together? I want to take it into account. I want to take stock.
This is kind of a powerful moment to take stock. You can kind of think of it as almost like the seven of Pentacles or something like, what's happened so far and it's still like that rootedness energy, right? Like you can't really know where you want to go into the future when you really haven't accounted for the past or the present.
Think that a lot too, like here in America, we're talking about, native American history month heritage month.
And. There are people who came before us who still exists. There are cultures that still exist. There are. Very very specific people who stewarded these lands. And made it possible for all of us to be here, to create here, [00:34:00] to exist here. And that needs to be acknowledged and those things need to be taken into account and need to be honored. That's a thing that obviously we should be doing all the time, but it is this really specific moment of like gathering all the pieces of understanding, especially before Sagittarius season.
so I don't think of the Zodiac as an inherently isolated. I do feel there's kind of a flow, so to speak. Scorpio goes into Sagittarius right? Oftentimes Sagittarius is associated with long range travel, long range goals, deeper journeying and planning for like a longer arc. deeper meanings and philosophies and understandings of your cosmology. It can also really be about the Archer and the focus and the long term clarity of [00:35:00] what you wish to become what you wish to leave in this world in the time that you've been here.
Well, this seven of Pentacles moment, almost this Scorpio season. This Samhain moment is essential to really understanding the long range, the long range goals. And we really need to remember things in this time period and reclaim them, so as to help us have a healthy and centered compass moving forward when we focus on and decide on goals into Sagittarius season and especially into Capricorn season, because that is where we really, really understand building and step-by-step growth. So I really like to think of these like seasonal. Moments on the wheel of the year, such as Samhain.
[00:35:57] Zaneta: Mabon Lamas, [00:36:00] Ostara Imbolc. I like to think of these wheel of the year holidays. Not just as a moment in time, that's frozen and singular and just by itself. But it's a process. as a process journeying through a season. As process. What does Samhain prepare us for at the winter solstice? At Imbolc, what is it preparing us for Everything flows into everything when it's spiral journeying when it's not about linear experience of time, but really rather circular or spiralic movement.
Some questions for remembering during Samhain, some themes you can connect to during Samhain. What needs to be released? What's ready to be composted? Where do you feel [00:37:00] you need liberation? What unconscious shackling or, agreements do you feel like you've been living that you no longer need to live ? thinking of the devil card in particular. What needs to be reclaimed? What needs to be integrated? What roots need to be named and honored and acknowledged? What parts of self want to be reclaimed and honored and acknowledged? What aspects of your creative process lend themselves to celebrating Samhain and the themes that you feel drawn to? What desires have had to be sidelined, have had to be put to the side that you were ready to Look at and be with and accept and compassionately hold? What parts of self do you feel shame around in your creative process or in your career? Do you feel like you have to suppress your [00:38:00] voice or to hide?
[00:38:02] Zaneta: Voice is a big theme in Taurus. And I think also it's a very big theme of power. Scorpio gets into power exchange and power dynamics. Are you feeling like you've had to really hold yourself back, hold your power back? If so, is that a spell that needs to be done? Is there an art project that's going to liberate you to speak truth to power?
And then the most obvious things are like, what is your relationship with death? What is your relationship with your own stillness, your own sense of pause, your own sense of stopping and not doing. How do you feel about that? What is integrated in those still moments in those Not doing moments? What happens in not doing?
So those are some Samhain ideas. Those are some Samhain concepts that you can work with, that you can play around [00:39:00] with. Death can be silly, can be playful. It can be serious. It can be painful. It can be so many things just as living can. Living can be painful. Living can be tense. Living can be stressful. Living can be joyful. What flavor do you want to access? What flavors do you want to access around exploring mortality, death, past, underworld, et cetera.
Speaking to the very, witchy and energetic aspects. The ritualistic or spell focused things we could connect with, there are alters. There are rituals for this season. There are spells that we can cast. There are meditations. There are, herbs. There are crystals. There are colors. There are sounds. There are all sorts of correspondences, magically and creatively by which we can [00:40:00] attune to, imbue, charge, sink into, play with that might lend themselves to this moment of Samhain. See what comes up for you. See what your imagination pulls you towards. Have some quiet time, have some still time. Let yourself play. In the dark.
Okay, let's get into the actual reading now. So our lunar cycle starts today, November 1st, which is the new moon in Scorpio. It takes us through the full moon in Taurus on November 15th. And it ends the cycle ends just before the new moon in Sagittarius on December 1st. So we have November 1st through November 30th is our lunar cycle. During this time we have south wind season. Major [00:41:00] transitional corridor, transitional space. That we're in. Here in the United States, we're dealing with significant elections. There's just a freaking lot of crap flying around. Right now. There's so much flying around.
Even like just recording this episode. I tried to record this episode, did everything I normally do to record an episode and had total like technological interference. And have just been like in this deep space of distraction. It is energetically staticky and noisy right now and so I asked, what do we focus on during this lunar cycle? What's the card? That's giving us a space to focus on, a spot to gaze at During this lunar cycle. And do you know what we got? We got the two of [00:42:00] swords. This card does have a noisy feel to it. It does have kind of like distortion energy. It is. Pixelated and grainy and fuzzy and the shape of truth and the shape of the way forward is a little blurry right now. It's a little blurry.
When things are blurry when things are staticky, noisy, distorted. It's really important to not try to just push through. Right. It's not intended to detour you. It's not intended to distract you or to derail you. But oftentimes a detour. of stillness, a detour of pausing, a [00:43:00] detour of meditating, or just getting back to center has some profound benefits.
So, you know, if we are feeling the energies are really fuzzy, this lunar cycle, and we're like, oh my gosh, could it be any noisier? Could there be any more chatter? And like distortions. It's a good time not to try to, pretend that, you know, the truth, not to try to, fake that you are all together and that you've got it all under control. It's a good time to take yourself out of the game for a moment and pause. It's a good time to meditate, to get still, to get quiet, to let the pendulum recenter and get still again.
Sometimes the pendulum swinging so much in the wind [00:44:00] and you're just like, come on. Like, is that a yes. Is that a no, it's kind of doing a lot of swirly bits. What if we let that pendulum just get really still.
What if we got quiet enough to hear ourselves?
There's a lot of stuff that's happening right now in the field. There's a lot of stuff happening. Energetically, it's a tough time to push through. It's a tough time to try to, Really be clear about things. If the winds are blowing and there's all sorts of stuff, if there's fog, , if there was, a lot of haze in the air, Things are going to look fuzzier. They're not going to be as clear.
Why would we pretend that they're clear when they're not. Why would we pretend that they're clear when they're not. This is about working with the energies as they are and [00:45:00] understanding what's going on. So much of astrology, so much of tarot, so much of psychic practice so much of what we do when we are witches is we're not trying to just, impose our ideals on things. We are. soothsayers. We are truth wielders. We work with what is. We acknowledged, what is.
Scorpio is a sign of deep, deep truth. Yet. Truth right now is kind of evading us. Especially with what's happening in our environments, what's happening in the field. What's the cosmic weather, the energetic weather. Tell me otherwise. Tell me otherwise. It's it's a lot. And we shouldn't try to fake [00:46:00] it and pretend that we know what the truth is that we can really hear ourselves until we're really ready to do that. And so I feel like this is a moment where we're being really influenced by a lot of the stuff that's happening around us and it is creating a lot of static and lack of clarity within us.
The tarot says, Hey, focus on this. It says, pay attention. Spirit's like, Hey. You can be aware of this now, now you can work with it constructively. And so I asked, okay, well, like what should we be working with? What should we be doing? How should we be navigating this? And of course, The card that comes through is the hanged one.
There's this sense of flipping our gaze. It's a sense of reclamation [00:47:00] through inversion. It's what are we getting when we are tuning inward? What are we getting when we are journeying to our roots? When we are putting our heart over our head? What are we getting when we are putting our roots above our heads? There's a prioritization on rooting this cycle.
There are so many layers of this that we could go into. I kind of almost could use a whole nother podcast episode to talk about this, but. If you have any inclination or experience with grounding. That is an obvious direction usually. Right? Grounding. Anything that helps you inhabit your body and be in your body's [00:48:00] experience. That would serve you so well, this cycle, like, oh my gosh, you will thank yourself. Months from now.
If you have been tuning in to a lot of things. If you've been ingesting a lot of, Words sounds, media, technology, tV. Little bits and bobs of like threads and memes and yada yada. Those are cool and I'm not gonna like give them crap. But I am going to say that this might not be the best moment to be surfing on whatever, streaming everything. Tuning into every little do, do, do, do, do, do, do.. It might be better to take your gaze somewhere else.
And this is where we're going to kind of get into the hanged one as like a journey. Think of the hanged one is almost [00:49:00] like underworld journeying or inner world journey. It's for some of us, it may make more sense to do the underworld stuff for others. It might make more sense to do the inner world stuff or a combination thereof. I often feel that the inner world leads to the underworld. So, can naturally just flow like that.
Water seeks the lowest place often and Scorpio is the deepest waters that we can get into. when we start to tune in to our emotions. When we start to tune in to how we feel. It naturally leads into our roots. Into deeper truths. Into deeper waters. Into our ancestors. Into our past selves. Into our memories. Into our dreams. Into the [00:50:00] mystery. Naturally the water trickles down and moves us into deeper spaces, darker spaces.
And what is reclaimed in the darkness? What is found. What are those specific jewels hidden in the under realms, in the caves? Where we often don't get a chance to dwell. What particular things grow in that space of deep darkness? That get nurtured by the quiet and the stillness.
Odin. B Norse. God. Odin was known for bringing back the runes. Basically through the world tree.
[00:51:00] And. He had two. Kind of sacrifice his Sight and had to journey underworld. And to retrieve this wisdom of the runes. I find that so interesting. The two of swords is often depicted in the taro. Specifically the Rider Waite Smith edition. As a figure who is blindfolded and two swords are in an ex crossed in front of them.
What. Can be gained through giving up our Sight? And I don't want to undermine or say anything about literal blindness or sight impairment. But I want to talk about how often in our society, we are trained to focus on what we can see. We are a visually centric society. It's about what you're wearing and what you're [00:52:00] presenting and how it all looks and, you know, just the aesthetics of things. And when we give that up, when we decide to put our attention somewhere else, what is gained?
I'm a sound artist. I focus a lot on listening education and helping people to attune to things and get really deep with sound. Much of what we have to do is actually literally close our eyes in order to even begin to hear what we constantly tune out. Consider what you will be able to experience what you will be able to hear when you give up sight. When you give up gazing outwardly.
So much of the meat of that card is really in this clarity through closing your [00:53:00] eyes through being still. Through listening.
Much of our connections to spirits, to guides, to others who are trying to help us out is through listening is through the moments when we stop speaking and we stop interpreting and ingesting a bunch of information through our eyes sockets. And we actually just quiet down and listen.
This card of the hanged one says there's something significant waiting for us in the darkness. There's something significant waiting for us in quietude, in stillness.
It's waiting for us to reclaim it. This is like a little bit of an underworld quest. Your underworld quest may be a quest in your [00:54:00] dreams. It may be a quest that occurs in your practice. I often feel like a lot of what happens in my waking life, like the things that I create, healing that I noticed in my waking life happened long before in my dream life.
Let's meditate on that. for a moment. That there are certain things that can only get worked out, that can only be reclaimed, that can only be known in the dream world. In your dream. Adventures.
What might seem like a side quest to your daily life and like, oh, that's a distraction. I should be working on this. I have this deadline. oh my gosh. I need to do, did you do. Yeah, I get it. You've got it to do list. And, as a Virgo moon, I freaking love a to-do list. [00:55:00] But. Side quests are not. For nothing. They're not for nothing. Oftentimes those side quests lead to essential pieces of the puzzle. They lead to essential pieces of the puzzle.
I kind of wonder, like, In detaching from some of the noise in your environment, from some of the collective energies, from all the stuff that tends to take your gaze outward. Be it the TV. Be it podcasts, be it social media. Be it. You know what your friends are doing? Be it the news. What might be reclaimed in tuning inward or tuning down. Tuning down into the underworld tuning in to the mystery, tuning in to your dreams. Tuning in to ancestors. What do These side [00:56:00] quests, these underworld journeys.
Offer us what might be reclaimed in the darkness.
It will be on you. To explore this for yourself, because I really do feel like this could go omni-directional. I have about a thousand things that I think would be like really fun. I might give you a few of them. I think that if you wanted to, you could start to really, explore, you know, conversations with ancestors, to do a spell to develop your psychic skills or connect with your mediumship practice. I think that you could really explore automatic writing. You could hold, Past artifacts or objects from, ancestors or, you know, different friends or stuff like that who have passed on and start to channel, start to work, start to integrate that [00:57:00] into your art practice. I think scrying is a really cool way to get into this and one of the things that a friend of mine taught me, liliana Perez, who's a great medium and artist. She told me to place my hand in water. And to start to channel. Start to create.
And I think that that practice has been really, really interesting. to play with, to explore. Maybe you do that with writing, just having your hand, either above water, in water. I tend to like to put my hand in the water. It's up to you. I think bodies of water being in water that is rich. That's always rich. That is basically how this whole episode is even coming about. Is I had a really profound session with being in water and was like, okay. Here we go. So like, See where that takes [00:58:00] you. Right. See where water as a creative force, as an elemental medium like material for your art practice, whether it be like literal water colors. Or, water-based works. Water sounds, water phone. Hydrophones like for recording. You know, just like so many thoughts on water, movement of water, meditating with water. Trance work with water. Watching a river going, into a trance, channeling. What can that be? Yeah, many of you are already doing a lot of this stuff, but it might be time to come back to it.
Underworld journeying and side questing, you reclaim so many things. You reclaim memories, you reclaim skills, you reclaim forgotten parts of self, you reclaim ancestors. Many of us end up activating in psychic [00:59:00] ways, through these kinds of things. A lot of healing, profound healing occurs in the underworld.
I want to think mycelial or like fungi, you know, fruiting bodies of mushrooms or what we see above the surface. But what happens underneath is where all the nutrients and all the connections and all the work is really being done is underground. So we're really doing work underground. We're doing work that might not be seen by the collective, might not be seen by our audiences or our communities but this work is essential. It's profound. It's deep. With a major Arcana card, like the hanged one, I'm interpreting this as being like, Hey, this is actually more meaningful than just a temporary situation. This is meaningful for the long haul, whatever that means for you. If it's a soul kind of journey, if it's the end of your [01:00:00] life and like your larger legacy of your work or your larger art practice and identities as an artist. There's a lot there.
I think you also lose a lot when you do inner and underworld journeying. you know, The sacrifice of Odin and the sacrifice of sight. He sacrificed something that maybe we thought is essential, but isn't. Maybe it's distracting. Maybe it's a crutch. Maybe it's something that like, You know, isn't really helping you.
Like, if you're so focused on something else and someone else and all these things. The optics, especially. that's distracting you from something more profound. And I think that gets into the next card. So I, I asked about distractions and what what's kind of distracting us and how we can. Understand that this lunar cycle and the card that came up was the five of cups. I think [01:01:00] where this is getting at is, we're distracted in this two of swords moment from our feelings and feelings as a gateway to journeying and deeper knowing and truth. deeper healing. Like there's much in the field that is distracting us , from really being in ourselves in our experience.
If you're probably crying a lot. If you're probably feeling a lot of grief. If you're experiencing. a sense of, loss. Of sadness, frustration. Some of the denser and oftentimes crunchier emotions. I think you're on the right track. I think you're on the right track. It's like a litmus to say, Hey, you know, if it doesn't feel so [01:02:00] good you're changing something. You're changing something. Because just feeling good and just feeling like you're fancy and free and able to just journey and do whatever all the time. It's not realistic. And a lot of what we get into on Art Witch is the totality of the creative cycle and journey.
It's not always about creating. It's not always about feeling confident, constantly. Sometimes it's about feeling shame, feeling scared, feeling fear, feeling grief. Sometimes it's about the loss after you've created something, the postpartum experience of creating. Sometimes it's the getting lost to be found experience in creating. Sometimes it's being so windy that you don't even [01:03:00] know what's happening and then suddenly you've created something. There are about 1,000,001 ways of squirlyness to be able to make art and to thrive in your art making. It's definitely not all just climbing a ladder and being linear. But. having these more dense emotions come up. It's a time reserved for that, Samhain is a time reserved for that. It's important to feel at this time, it's important to feel, to be spacious and hold the space for feelings.
Those of us who are in therapy or those of us who have went to different kind of Spaces or circles or things like that. Someone's usually holding space or, or we're all kind of collectively holding it together. And the idea is that what happens in that space can be held. We're holding space for [01:04:00] things that might not always get the space held for them. The grief. The sadness. The anger. The disappointment. Those things that may seem like they derail us, but they often lead us to a truer sense of our path in our creation.
With his five of cups, know that this is a temporary. Experience I interpret and have experienced minor arcana cards as not be end. Not the final say. It's not permanent. It's not for the long haul. This is a temporary moment. Temporary situation. where big emotions. Deserve to be held acknowledged. And, processed.
And it will serve us so well. [01:05:00] Moving forward. It will enable our momentum forward. Who knows you might even create something that feels really meaningful and really, Essential. Through this holding space for your feelings and holding space to feel, and to create and to be in, to see what comes up.
Oftentimes what this looks like for me. Is when the feelings become too much, it's time for me to go to the piano and play and sing. And so much of what I've made in the past has come from those like grief, singing, crying. Uh, trance sessions. They're echoes. They're echoes. And sometimes we tune into those echoes of feelings, echoes of the collective [01:06:00] feelings. And they become. Creations. They become a vibration frequency. That's meant to be transmitted outwardly in our art. When I'm feeling something really deep and powerful, Oftentimes, it's not just my feelings. But it's the feelings of the Field. The feelings that I'm tuning into. And I'm channeling those feelings into a transformational act of art making and that art making alchemizes the pain. Alchemizes the suffering into the sweetness and the healing.
So. There's a lot of transformation that's possible in this cycle. And it is not [01:07:00] the typical direct path. It's not the typical, here's my goal. I got to get to my goal. So now I've got to check these things off my to-do list. The energy this cycle is very fuzzy, very unclear, hazy. Use that energy. Do trance work, do dreamwork, do psychic exploration and journeying do underworld questing. Invert yourself. Invert perspective. Close your eyes, listen, tune into a sense that you don't normally tune into. I work with a different palette. Explore reversals. Explore reversals.
So many of us fear reversals. I read with reversals, many of my friends don't and I respect that and totally get it. But for me reversals give a lot of information. Sometimes they give a lot more information than the upright [01:08:00] version.. So there's a lot more to us than just the surface. There's a lot more to us than what's above ground. Our roots run deep. They run very deep.
Okay friends. That's the messages for this lunar cycle. Those are the opportunities and the portals of possibility that lie within Samhain and the season and process of Samhain.
Samhain is a gateway towards winter, preparatory corridor that we can start. To connect with, start to move into intentionally. you may already be moved into it. You may already find yourself needing extra care, needing extra stillness, needing to unplug.
You may find yourself closing your eyes. You may find yourself gazing into the flame. You may find [01:09:00] yourself getting lost more and more. And that is okay.
I hope you have a beautiful lunar cycle. As a reminder, if you want to study the tarot through the art, witchcraft lens. If you want to get your mini creativity readings for your art. If you want to experience guided art, experimentation, and channeling and meditations with me, Art Witch Circle is meeting on November 16th, Saturday 11:00 AM eastern standard time. This is for anyone who is subscribed at the Art Witch Circle and above. So $10 a month and above. And if you cannot make those sessions, but want to be a part of the Art Witch Circle asynchronously, then consider subscribing to the Patreon at the [01:10:00] earth level, $4 a month. Which is really, really sweet and caring and supportive of this work and future work. And you can get those replays of all the Art Witch Circle sessions. Oh, I hope to see all of you there.
We are going to be learning how to read for ourselves and our art, this session and the next session. So this is getting into really why we even read for ourselves, the reality of why we read for ourselves. And there's many realities around that as being artists under capitalism. So the tarot really supports us and helps us figure things out. And we need all the damn help we can get.
Right.
So I hope you have. Uh, beautiful, beautiful Samhain, connecting with your guides, connecting with spirits, connecting to what your roots are, [01:11:00] what's meaningful. Connecting to the mystery, the darkness. Have a great lunar cycle and take care.
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