Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1DR6WeQ49YQgQl5WmtcvRK?si=46f4207fb8df4fd4
Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cut-clear-away-preparing-for-eclipse-season-sept-9-2024/id1762561792?i=1000668935255
Hello and welcome to the Knave Arcade podcast, a little show where we explore tarot astrology, human design, and all sorts of esoterica and wellness modalities.
I am your host, Maria, and in today’s episode, I’d like to talk about the concepts of protection and perseverance and self-assuredness.
And I specifically mean self-assured and not confidence, because the word confidence, if we break it down etymologically, it means “with faith and trust”. So when we have confidence in ourselves, it’s about having faith and trust in ourselves. Whereas to be self-assured means to be certain and secure with ourselves.
And of course, these are connected, right? And they are perfectly fine as synonyms, but there is a difference and there is some nuance, and that is the beauty of language, right? That it holds a breadth of connections, and there is a depth of context and a variety of connotations. Those all link back to ourselves in different ways, and they all link back to how we see ourselves in different ways, because we are currently in Virgo season.
And I think I said this last episode, but that involves returning back to ourselves and being dedicated to who we are and what our purposes are and what we want. We have the Pisces full moon coming up, and it’s an eclipse. So it’s a good time between now and then to check in with how we’ve been spending our time, especially in the whole year, because it’s already September.
And these topics aren’t simply on my mind because it’s Virgo season, but because I did pull a card. Well, I pulled two cards for this episode, and the first card I pulled was from the Dirt Gems Oracle deck, and it was Lobelia. And I’ll have the card posted in the show notes.
But on the card itself, it’s all black and white with the Lobelia plant at the top and a lion sitting proudly at the bottom of the card. And to be honest, he kind of has a stoic expression. But still, you know, it’s a lion, We still read that as a bit of pride. And there are also a stream of stars and sparkles that are, like, either trailing from or going towards his big lion’s mane.
So it’s a good reminder to reflect a bit on Leo season, which just passed, but also the year overall, because we are in a strength year. And if you’re unfamiliar with the tarot cards of the year, basically you add all of the single digits of the year together, and then that sum will correspond to a particular major Arcana. So you have two plus two plus four, which equals eight. And since I predominantly use the rider waitesmith system, that means it’s a strength year.
So to see Lobelia with this lion, it very much tells me to check back in with where I started, what were my values and what were my intentions, and what were my hopes. And admittedly, I am not where I was hoping I’d be. I am not doing the things or I’ve not accomplished the things that I hoped that I would accomplish. But I have learned a lot, and I still have done a lot, and I think I’ve grown a lot in the past eight months. And I, You know, I’m not being complacent. I know there’s still more to do.
There’s still more to grow, there’s still more to go, which is what the Lobelia card has to show us. in the guidebook for the dirt Gems oracle. This herb, this plant ally, it has the subtitle of “the middle finger of protection.” As a plant in herbalism, it is emetic and purgative, and it’s also stimulating and relaxing, and it’s also used for respiratory issues. So as a personality, as a plant ally, that contradiction feels like it’s here to help balance out whatever is out of whack, to clear that out and to allow us to breathe easier.
And that also makes me think of in yoga, how breath is everything. And it is more important than any complex asana you can do. Any weird shape that you can make. If your breath is labored, you need to fix that first. If your breathing is labored or shallow or fast, something’s wrong. And so if Lobelia is linked to the breath and if it can help us purge what we don’t need to, that takes the shape of protection, in a way, to help get rid of what’s no longer working.
Because it’s important to remember that protection doesn’t mean it’s completely out of sight and completely out of mind. It is rarely a subtle process. It is rarely a quiet dissolution of what is harmful. Protection can be proactive, but sometimes protection is active, and that is fully embodied with that big, powerful energy of a giant cat. So if there are difficult things that you need to do, this herb, this plant ally, it can give you the bravery you need to get through those tough situations because it acknowledges that things are challenging.
Lions are big, powerful creatures that still have risks that can harm them and harm their pride. And, I mean, that is like, you know, the group of lions, not necessarily their pride. You know, when this card comes up it just acknowledges that protection can be proactive.
And that is something that’s also echoed in the second card I pulled right before I recorded. And it’s Jasmine from the Seed and Sickle oracle. And on this card, we have a wall of jasmine framing a very beautiful, ornate dagger. And so right away, we know that this delicate and beautiful, lightly flavored, lightly perfumed plant has an edge to it. This is not just for decoration. And this dagger is sort of nestled in the vines. And you can’t be complacent or assume that it’s not dangerous just because it’s pretty. It’s still a dagger. It’s still a weapon. But protection and armor, those can look like a lot of things.
And the specific dagger that’s in this card is significant to me because I know that it is a filipino style dagger, and I believe they’re called barong-bolo daggers. And I know that this is Filipino dagger, not just because of the way it’s shaped or because jasmine isn’t the national flower of the Philippines or it’s called sampaguita.
But in the actual seed and sickle guidebook, it does mention this filipino myth. Or I guess it’s more of, like, a cautionary tale, an old wives tale. And in that tale, it’s a young man who is leaving his new wife to go to work in the city. But she expresses worry that he’s gonna fall in love with someone else over there. And he tries to assuage her fears by giving her his dagger and says, you know, “if I fall for someone else, you can kill me with this”. And you might be surprised (you’re not gonna be surprised.)
But he comes back with a new lady. And however, the actual surprise, it is a sad surprise, is that instead of using it on him, the wife uses it on herself. So we have this cutting away and purgative energy to it still. But the dagger is a tool, and how we choose to use it is in our hands. We have to be intentional about how we use it, and we can.
And it’s also interesting that the dagger is on this card because jasmine propagates through cuttings, I think can propagate through grafting, too, but it doesn’t, you know, it doesn’t pollinate like other plants. So we can cut things in a deliberate and specific kind of way that works for us. And slicing things away is also a very Martian activity.
And Mars just went into Cancer. So, like Mars in cancer doesn’t have the greatest time, because cancer is not how Mars likes to operate, but that’s what we have to deal with. And this cutting away and propagating something new so that we can cut things out of these difficult places and situations that no longer serve us. And we can take it and we can use them in new applications or we can revitalize them.
So in the week ahead, in the days leading up to the full moon, which is on the 17th, it’s not necessarily a time to manifest or bring forth something because the sun and moon kind of go through it. But this time period does give us the chance to clear away what’s not working and what we are still working towards. And it gives us an opportunity to not lose sight of what we want. It gives us an opportunity to cut through the noise around us and within us, so that we can get to the root of what we want, so that we can get to the root of what we’re really here to create and celebrate.
And those things are going to be unique to each and every one of us. And the combination of lobelia and jasmine shows us that the journey may not be easy or smooth, but. But it will be worth it. And it can still be beautiful. It just requires some force and power, because forces that lion and lions are graceful, too, because jasmine, as, a scent and, as a flavor, it can be very strong, even if it’s not heavy. And power can be like that. Efficacy can be like that. Force can be like that.
You can make an impact without knocking everything down, because a blade, a dagger, has precision to it that a hammer doesn’t. And if we think of it practically, like the theme of cutting through and cutting what we want, it’s not unlike curating your experiences and your perception of things.
Can you find the beauty in what’s around you? Can you find what’s enjoyable with what you currently have? And it’s not the same as creating those situations and those feelings, because it is encouraging you to work with limited resources.
And it’s Virgo season, and Virgo is a mutable sign, and it works and improves upon what’s been going on. It takes that fixed sign of Leo that just wants to keep going, and it just says, what can we do to improve? So maybe by clearing things out, you’ll be able to uncover something new. And even though this isn’t in the cards, I just. I’m getting this visual of, like, a sculptor working with different media and how that medium dictates the kinds of techniques that are required.
So, like, how you carve through wood will be different than how you carve through marble. So what tools do you have at your disposal right now? What are the skills that you were working with? What do you want to improve upon? What are you hoping to create, and how do all of those things intersect? How can you make do with what you have?
So that is the quick message. I don’t know if it’s quick, but that is the quick message that I have for you for this week ahead, and I hope that might have pinged something in you. If you enjoyed this episode, please send it to a friend who you feel might benefit from the message. And if you’d like a personalized reading, my books are open and the link will be in the show notes. If you’ve been enjoying the show overall, please consider reading and reviewing. It helps out a ton. Thank you for listening. Until next time.
Leave a Reply