Weekly Forecast: December 18-24
There's something wild in all of us that can be easy to forget at times. Daily life requires that we step away from our snarling wolf sides. After all, it's not practical if we're rampaging through our homes, tearing at our sofas with our sharp fangs. (Though sometimes it's tempting).
Usually these uncharted and untamed parts of our personalities pop up in destructive ways. Like an animal cornered we lash out or crouch defensively with our ears back and teeth bared.
There's another way, however, that involves quite a bit of bravery and willingness to look past our sense of familiarity and safety. It's deep inner-work that can only be approached in the long-term. Impatience doesn't work when the path is windy and overgrown. Yet if we choose to walk through it we're rewarded with a kind of deep, irreplaceable self-knowledge, because in our personal woods we get to meet our untamed selves and, most powerfully, we get to know them.
That's how we arrive on the scene this week. Our rough and winding journey has reconnected us with our animal strength. The risk of moving forward when what we have on the surface is "enough" was high. It's easy to label someone as foolhardy or overly-ambitious when they strike out in this way, heeding a call only they can hear. We can see the Eight of Cups as a brave decision to move away from the expected, domestic, and safe "enough" of our lives and to seek something deeper, following a deep-seated instinct within us.
I love Ricardo Cavolo's illustration of this card. Instead of the solitary figure journeying into moonlit mountains with his row of eight upturned cups behind him we have a lush explosion of green. The upturned cups have sprouted strong vines that are bursting forth to tear down a pillar and expose a bright and burning flame.
I see this as the result of the journey we've undertaken in the Eight of Cups. We've heeded the call to follow our wild natures and doing so has unleashed a great and sustaining creative energy. And a big change - we've had to tear down a pillar supporting our lives, trusting our wild selves when they tell us that doing so will free us.
All the wonderful things that have sustained us in our life - our eight upturned cups - have become the home from which we can cultivate our true nature. The result? Given time, they bud and grow, reaching out to tear down what no longer works in our lives, exposing a powerful source of energy and inspiration.
With all this deep working going on (and exposed flames!) now is an excellent time to acknowledge and appreciate all the stages of our journeys so far. What has sustained us and supported us, allowing for our complicated, wild selves to flourish? These are the relationships and connections that don't hold us back or box us in, and as such they are immensely valuable and precious.
Now we're being propelled into the joyful clarity of The Sun and it's glorious to behold. All the doubut and risk-taking of the Eight of Cups has revealed something precious and fiery within us. Now that single flame has transformed into The Sun and it's shining down to illuminate our next phase. We're bravely creating a world that can hold our entires selves, wildness and all, and it's warm, energetic, and full of possibility.
Enjoy this period of emerging and basking in your personal glow. It hasn't been easy getting to this place and it may have felt too risky or too challenging at times, so take some time to look around and enjoy the clarity. Our creative channels are clear and open now; cavort, jump, experiment, and celebrate your newfound personal freedom.
This freedom has us ready to jump into creating something tangible for ourselves. Most importantly, we'll be asking our wild selves to come along for the ride as our trusted advisors. All that strength and complexity is too precious to send back to the woods, and as we work at manifesting our visions we'll be calling on its wisdom to help guide us. The Six of Pentacles points us to the future, reminding us to follow the weird, deep, and unmistakable call of our untamed selves. As we decide what to sustain and focus on, this sense of intuition and self-knowledge will help guide us. If it doesn't ignite a mysterious sense of interst and instinct, it's not our path to take.