Over the past few months, I’ve been digesting an interesting reframe with regard to the symbolism of the Tarot suites—instead of wands corresponding to fire and swords to air, it’s actually vice versa; wands correspond to air and swords to fire. I understand there’s some historical precedence for this correlation, although I haven’t been able to track it down exactly. More importantly, though, I had an unprompted inner vision that corroborated this.
There’s an active imagination exercise from a book called Helios Unbound in which one is to imaginatively construct and enter a temple dedicated to Aion, a deity with a lion head, angelic wings, and a serpent winding around their human body. A statue of Aion, illuminated overhead by many different colors of stained glass, stands at the center of the temple, which is surrounded by statues dedicated to the six other traditional planets. Four shrines, dedicated to each element and their associated deity, stand in each of the four directions, making something like a cross-shaped temple. A black statue of Juno stands in the shrine dedicated to the Earth, Kore/Persephone in the shrine dedicated to Water, Pluto in the shrine dedicated to Fire, and Zeus in the shrine dedicated to Air. One day, while practicing this exercise, Pluto, surrounded by flames, presented me with a sword. It was a jarring moment, without obvious meaning.
The connection between fire and swords became clearer to me while participating in a blacksmithing workshop at Ruskin Mill in the UK this summer, where we banged out a set of tongs from crude iron on a reconstructed iron-age forge. We blew on the bellows ourselves, heating up charcoal enough to melt the iron, before smacking the iron on an anvil with a hammer. It was time-consuming, violent, and dangerous work, which required a great deal of focus. Several of us spent hours in smokey, loud conditions, just to make a couple sets of tongs.
(My friend Berenika ‘bangin’ the bags)
It gave me a whole new appreciation for what the element of fire might have meant to our ancestors. What intensity and mastery would it have taken to create a sword? Is not that sword more closely related to the infernal fires and ores than “staves” or “wands”? By comparison, those feel more like kindling. What are we missing when we consider wands—which are sometimes supposed to be an image of “magical will”—as an image of Fire? That feels more like an energy of wishing than force. Do we misrepresent the element of Air when we correlate them with swords, reducing the mind to a sharp, dangerous object? What is able to be reclaimed when connecting air to the flying enthusiasm of staves (javelins, Eurythmy rods) or deft precision of wands?
Musing over this connection between swords and fire has been helpful in the past few weeks, as Mars is at the end of their synodic cycle with the Sun—a rebirth of the sharp, fiery part of ourselves—in the sign of Scorpio, an underworldly terrain. This is a 25/26 month cycle—this one is the ending of a cycle that goes to October 2021, way back when the Nodes were still in Sagittarius and Gemini. The conjunction between Mars and the Sun (the “Cazimi”) will start a cycle that will take us all the way till January 2026, when Jupiter will be all the way in Cancer. Zooming out on this two-year rhythm, what comes into view for you? What ambitions, drives, or experiences of maximum physical liveliness developed (or regressed) in the last couple of years? What do you hope to be accomplished by the start of 2026?
This Mars reset is also occurring amidst a Mars-Uranus opposition, which was exact during yesterday’s New Moon and will be present but waning this week. This opposition is one of the most jarring and unpredictable combos in Astrology—the fiery, sharp, assertive nature of Mars gets triggered by the electric, revolutionary spirit of Uranus. At best, this can lead to breakthroughs—a meeting of insight and bravery. In other circumstances, it looks like the Tower card in the Tarot, with some structure getting suddenly toppled. The card is traditionally associated with Mars, and lightning is often associated with Uranus. But just as Zeus was associated with the element of Air in the active imagination of the temple, perhaps the right ideas can give clarity, freedom, and excitement to Mars during this important transition. More on the exact unfolding of this below.
Before we get into the forecast for subscribers, a quick reminder that I’m always around for readings if you need support during this time. As we head into holiday and gift-giving season, I’d also mention that I have options for gift certificates as well.