We are now in the month of August (by one calendar) and 11 days (degrees) into Leo (via another).
This month feels vastly different to me than those before it. I am feeling optimism, excitement, anticipation, and appreciation so much more. And I am also feeling inspired.
Yesterday, I happened upon this quote by Nelson Mandela:
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
This quote is precisely how I see the Strength card in the Tarot. Check out my short blog post from 2011 called Courage. And in a blog post from August of 2013 called Weighing Love and Power, I wrote this:
“Strength, card #8, shows a woman petting a lion. This is an outward display of inner strength. However, she is not wrestling the lion. She is not defeating the lion. She is showing us that she has the strength and courage to be soft despite the risks. She is vulnerable to the lion for sure, but that is what courage is all about, right?”
Strength is card number VIII. August is month number 8. Most of August occupies the sign of Leo and many refer to August 8th (8/8) as The Lion’s Gate.
After reading and resonating with Mandela’s quote, a thought popped into my head. After all of the years of thinking and writing about numerology and the Tarot, this is the first time I was inspired to write the date in the Tarot. Using a common American date format, yesterday was 8/1/20 and thus, in the Major Arcana, it would look like this:
When I do a three-card reading, I see it as past, present, and future.
If the past is Strength and Strength means courage, then preceding it further back in time was fear, a fear that we have now transcended.
The Magician utilizes the vibrations above and the vibrations below to create what he intends. The vibrations above could be energy, light, inspiration, love, joy, etc. The vibrations below are the elements: earth, air, fire, and water. What we think of as “negative” emotions are in there somewhere too.
Judgement represents release. This card illustrates the idea of Judgement Day, when you rise from the dead. In some decks, it is called Resurrection. It can also mean, in a more mundane sense, the releasing of resistance or the letting go of something that no longer serves you including fear, anger, pain, guilt, grief, or disappointment.
At Strength, we triumph over our fears. At Judgement, we then let them go.
I found this simple little reading quite encouraging!
The most exhilarating (or terrifying) drama you’ll see in 2020 is 2020 itself. Something tells me that there is plenty more to come, but my intuition is also telling me that we haven’t yet gotten to the good part. Like a Hollywood movie, the White Knights can yet ride in and carry with them all of the solutions (or the beginnings of them) that we have been asking for. [The White Knights are us, by the way!]
A Fool's Inclination 