Welcome And Post-Tour Reset

Speaker 0:07

Hello, friends, and welcome to episode 16 of Darkness and Light. I'm your host, Wendy Rule, and this is a podcast about myth, Magic, and nature. I have been home about a week since my big Aussie tour, which was amazing. There were so many adventures and a lot of work. But I caught up with so many amazing people and loved ones and did lots of shows and lots of workshops and covered the country really, well, a lot of it. Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Tasmania, Far North Queensland. So yeah, from one end of the country to the other. So it was big, and I'm still in recovery mode and doing the jet lag dance, which is usually pretty brutal after a journey like that. But here I am,

Enter Scorpio Season

Speaker 1:05

turning up for our podcast. For this episode, we are going to be focusing on the energy of Scorpio because the Sun moves into the sign of Scorpio this coming Friday, October 23rd. And then just a couple of days after, on October 25th or 26th, depending on where you are in the world, we have our glorious Taurus Full Moon. So I'm going to dive into that Taurus / Scorpio Polarity, explore the connection and also the differences between those two signs, opposite points on the Wheel. We've just spent a month in Libra season with the Sun travelling through Libra, and Libra is a very harmonious sign, and the seasons reflect that, the onset of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere and of spring in the Southern Hemisphere, moving away from the points of extreme of the solstice of winter and summer, and to this energy of harmony, of balance. But now we're about to dive into Scorpio season, which is about intensity. Scorpio is a sign of transformation. It is Fixed Water, water that wants to stay put and go deep. We know that water holds so much power, it can carve out canyons, and when it's still, when it's Fixed, it holds a very peculiar power, this sense of presence that creates change through simply being. Let's imagine a cave filled with stalactites, and that's from water dripping through, pulled by gravity, going deeper and deeper and deeper. That's what water naturally wants to do. It's going to keep falling toward the center of Earth, that fluidity that responds to gravity in such a clear and obvious way. We can see that pull of gravity and how it affects water so much more obviously than we can with solid matter. Because water will just keep moving through. It will keep seeking the low ground. It will travel from the mountains to the sea, finding that lowest point and just keep going and going and going. And so it will drive stone. It will find its way to go deeper and deeper and deeper. And that's what Fixed Water is to me. This willingness to stay put and go deep, deep, deep. And that applies to our emotions, to our relationships. This Scorpio Fixed Water is tenacious. It doesn't give up. And it's transformative. Scorpio season, the sign of Scorpio, is all about honoring the energies of death, of sex, and of the mysteries of life. And there is a really strong connection between death and sex. Scorpio holds that seeming opposite energy of life and death together. And Scorpio is ruled by the planet Pluto. Yes, I'm still saying a planet. I'm not giving up yet. I know technically these days Pluto isn't regarded as a planet, but I love that symbolism and mythology that connects Scorpio with Pluto, who is Hades to the Greeks, with the underworld. And prior to the discovery of Pluto in the 1930s, Scorpio was ruled by the planet Mars, which is definitely a planet. There's no questioning that. So maybe you might consider Mars once again the chief ruler of the sign of Scorpio, or maybe it's Pluto, or maybe it's a bit of a mixture of both. Pluto got downgraded as a planet because a whole heap of other objects in our solar system have been discovered since that are just as large as Pluto. So yeah, it kind of removes the validity of naming Pluto as a planet. But even so, I still feel that very strong Plutonian energy associated with Scorpio, this energy of underworld, of transformation. And both sex and death bring transformation. As I mentioned, the opposite sign from Scorpio, halfway around the circle of the zodiac,

Taurus Full Moon And Life Force

Speaker 6:40

is Taurus, which is fixed Earth. So we have fixed water opposite fixed earth. And when the moon is Full in the next couple of days, that's going to really highlight that polarity. The Full moon is always opposite the sun. So both Taurus and Scorpio are going to be heightened at the time of the Taurus Full moon. And if we want to take a very simple approach, we could say that Taurus is to do with life and Scorpio is to do with death. Life and death and life and death. Taurus energy, which this Full moon will carry and activate in our lives, is concerned with the sensual experience of being alive. It's a sign of fertility and sensuality, of pleasure and embodiment. It's ruled by the planet Venus, who is Aphrodite to the Greeks, and Taurus encourages us to embrace the pleasure of the physical body, of our physical beings, and of the beauty of the physical world around us, the beauty of nature, the beauty of delicious food, of our senses. To me, I always think of Taurus as wine and flowers and chocolate. And that Venusian energy is about love and sex and connection. But sex as a celebration of life. While with Scorpio, this fixed water, this going deep, this Scorpionic energy is concerned with the mystery of merging and transformation and forces beyond the individual self. And so sexuality in the Scorpionic sense is about surrender and dissolving of boundaries of the individual self. It's entering into the mystery of communion with another being. And this Scorpio energy can hold both the energies of sex and death as sacred, as interconnected, both as mysteries of transformation and renewal. In mythology, as I've pointed out in previous episodes, Venus and Mars are lovers. So that's Taurus and Scorpio. That's that connection, that gorgeous sensual energy of Venus, and that passionate, driven, fiery energy of Mars. And they are drawn to each other as lovers. So that's Scorpio and Taurus. These two different approaches to the transformative energy of sexuality. Because Scorpio has such a deep and rich understanding and appreciation of the energy of death. Sexuality is connected to that, this recognition that we wouldn't be here. If our ancestors hadn't had sex, sexuality is connected to the ancestral line, the chain stretching back countless generations. So Taurus is celebrating the flowering of life, while Scorpio explores the deeper mysteries of its continuation.

Samhain And Beltane Share A Wheel

Speaker 10:58

These are the celebrations of life and of death. They are opposite spokes on the Wheel of the Year. So these eight spokes of the Wheel of the Year, the solstices and equinoxes, make four of those spokes, and the cross-quarter days, halfway between solstice and equinox, create the other four spokes. So two of those cross-quarter days are Samahin and Beltane. Because Western astrology arose in the northern hemisphere, these seasonal festivals are associated with the zodiac signs of that particular season. So Scorpio in the Northern Hemisphere is autumn and holds the festival of Samhain. And Beltane in the Northern Hemisphere is during Taurus season in May in springtime. But I really do feel that we can still embrace the wisdom of this northern hemisphere-based astrology in the southern hemisphere. We just need to be a little flexible. So when I'm celebrating these Sabbats, these cross-quarter days in the southern hemisphere, I really love to work with the Full moon. So on October 31st, it will be the festival of Samhain in the Northern Hemisphere and Beltane in the Southern Hemisphere. And it can be hard to get our heads around, oh, but Beltane is all flowery and Taurian and lovely, but we're in Scorpio season. Well, when we celebrate on the Full moon, then that Taurus energy is activated. Scorpio sun will shine on the beautiful Taurus Full moon. Both energies are activated, but that Beltane energy is held within the gorgeous silver light of the Taurus Full moon. So yeah, for some of you in the Southern Hemisphere, you might be celebrating Beltane this weekend. Or it might be the traditional calendar date. Either's fine. So whatever the case, whether you're Northern Hemisphere or Southern Hemisphere, it is really important to remember that Samhain and Beltane are occurring simultaneously. The flowers that are blooming at Beltane become the fruit of Samhain, and the seed within the fruit that ripens at Samhain becomes the flower at Beltane. They're always connected. Samhain can't exist without Beltane. Beltane can't exist without Samhain. So having just returned from Australia, I came out of that gorgeous springtime. The blossoms were blooming, and I could feel the excitement of that energy of, oh wow, a beautiful sunny day after a long winter, this excitement of emergence, of celebration, gearing up for a joyous summer. And then I came home and everything is starting to show its autumnal colours. Leaves are turning. I left in summer. Everything was still very hot, felt kind of brutal in a way. Now I've come home and everything's mellow. And I really do feel that the important thing about honoring any of these festivals, why we honor them at all, is to connect more deeply with the nature of our immediate environment. So this episode I will be focusing more on the energy of Samhain because I am here in Autumn Land. But please know that I am holding those Beltane lands in my heart. And six months ago on this podcast, I'm pretty sure it was episode three, I did a deep dive into Beltane. So if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, you might want to have a listen to that or a re-listen, or you might like to just dive into this Samhain energy, even if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, knowing that six months' time Samhain will come to the Southern Hemisphere once again.

Turning 60 And Ode To Autumn

Speaker 15:24

The other exciting thing about Samhain for me is October 31st is my birthday. And this Year I am turning 60. So that is really exciting for me. So yeah, this is my last episode in my 50s. Wow. The next episode will be just after Samhain. So before we leap into that deep exploration of Samhain and the energies of death of ancestor, I'm gonna read this poem to you. And it is by the English poet John Keats, who happens to share my birthday, or will I share his. He was born in 1795. So let's just celebrate this energy of autumn with this poem called Ode to Autumn Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness Close bosom friend of the maturing sun, conspiring with him how to load and bless with fruit the vines that round the thatch eaves run, to bend with apples the moss to cottage trees, and fill all fruit with ripeness to the core, to swell the gourd and plump the hazel shells with a sweet kernel, to set budding more and still more later flowers for the bees, until they think warm days will never cease, for summer has overbrimmed their clammy cells. Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy stores? Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find thee sitting careless on a granary floor, thy hair soft lifted by the winnowing wind, or on a half reaped furrow sound asleep, drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook spares the next wave and all its twined flowers And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep steady thy laden head across a brook or by a cider press with patient look thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours Where are the songs of spring? Aye, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, while barred clouds bloom the soft dying day and touch the stubble plains with rosy hue. Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn among the river sallows borne aloft, or sinking as the light wind lives or dies. Full grown lambs loud bleat from hilly born, hedge crickets sing, and now with treble soft, deep the red breast whistles from a garden croft, and gathering swallows twitter in the skies. The

What Samhain Is And When

Speaker 19:12

name Samhain is an ancient Gaelic word, so it's pronounced Samhain or Sawen, but it's spelt Samhain, S A M H A I N, but pronounced Samhain, an ancient Gaelic word for this festival that is rooted in the Celtic traditions of Ireland and Scotland, and it is traditionally celebrated on October 31st or November 1st. Sauen is midway between the autumn equinox and midwinter. It marks the transition from the harvest season into the dark half of the Year. So in Gaelic Celtic tradition, the Year is divided into the light half and the dark half, and sawan is the beginning of the dark half of the Year, and Beltane is the beginning of the light half. In Modern Paganism, Samhain is one of the eight sacred Sabbats on the Wheel of the Year, and it marks the third sacred harvest. So the first is Lughnasadh or Lammas, August 2nd in the Northern Hemisphere, February 2nd in the Southern, and then Autumn Equinox, September in the Northern Hemisphere, March in the Southern, and then Samhain, end of October, beginning of November in the Northern Hemisphere, end of April, beginning of May in the Southern. So the third harvest in the Wheel of the Year, the final harvest before winter. And this makes a lot of sense living here in the climate that I live in, which is, you know, pretty extreme because we get such cold winters being at high elevation. We had our first freeze last week, just a few days after I got home, and I had left my vegetable garden still ripening. Tim, my husband, was picking veggies, tomatoes, and squash while I was away. And then I got home, saw the weather report, and knew that there was going to be a very hard freeze overnight, and that I had to gather the last of the harvest in. And I went and collected all the still ripening tomatoes, all the squash that was there. I picked all the remaining basil. I even picked the rose that was blooming. And yeah, I went out the next day. All the tomatoes, all the squash, all the basil, that was all dead. It was frozen, and that was the end of that. The last harvest before winter, gathering in and Preparing for the winter season ahead, and that is the energy of Samhain in Celtic tradition. Samhain

Thin Veil And The Otherworld

Speaker 22:10

marks the time when the boundaries between this world and the other world, the other world of unseen beings, magical beings, spirits, divine powers, the fe, and sometimes the land of the dead, too, when the boundary between these worlds, the world of the living and the other world, are blurred. In modern paganism, we say the veils are thin, and that Scorpio energy that I mentioned earlier about connection, about merging, dissolving of self, connecting with the deep mystery. This is the time when those mysterious realms are more available. So this other world, the Celtic other world, has a number of different names depending on the region. In Ireland, it's called Tyr Nanog. You're gonna have to forgive my lack of Gaelic pronunciation. I'm doing my best. And the She are the fairy folk that live in that realm. And the Tuatha de Danan are the divine or supernatural people of Irish mythology, closely associated with the other world. In the Welsh tradition, the other world is known as Arnoon and is associated with supernatural beings and enchantment and sometimes with the dead as well. October 31st in the Welsh tradition is a night of the spirits, when ghosts and spirits might walk among the living. So the evening of Samhain, the boundaries between these realms become more permeable, and there's more likelihood of encounters between supernatural beings and sometimes the dead. Sometimes these encounters are dangerous. There's many a folk tale of a mortal person being captured by the Fey, thinking they've spent a day in that other realm, and then emerging and finding a hundred years has passed. The normal rules of the everyday world do not apply. And so Salin is a time where our intuition, our psychic abilities might be more heightened, we might be able to sense the unseen realm more readily, and we can cultivate that increased psychic and intuitive connection through ritual, through meditation, through creativity. It's a time when we can open up, we can open up to the unseen realm, move beyond the physical world of our senses, and trust that there are mysteries that we cannot rationalize. In these ancient traditions, I'm talking about the Celtic traditions here, but all over the world there are traditions of unseen realms. Sometimes it's the land of the dead, of ghosts entering into the mortal world, or sometimes it's magical creatures, fairies, magical spirits, deities. This other world energy, something beyond the realm of our senses, occurs in human cultures all over the world. In my modern pagan practice, Samhain is a sacred time, a time of opening myself to the possibility of connecting with unseen energy, opening to the wisdom of the other world.

Harvest Endings And Winter Survival

Speaker 26:20

The season of autumn and particularly the festival of Samhain is associated with death in a very practical way. I just told the story of the final harvest in my frozen garden, and that's it for my veggie garden for the Year. So there's that sense of, yeah, final harvest. But Samhain was also associated with the slaughter of animals, not necessarily in any ceremonial way, but in a very practical way, a preparation for the winter to come. So at Samhain, around Samhain time, cattle and other livestock would be brought down from the summer grazing grounds, and then farmers would need to assess which animals, how many of those animals could be kept alive through winter, because maintaining livestock required sufficient stored fodder, which was often scarce. It depended how plentiful the harvest had been. That would determine how many of those animals could be kept alive over the long winter. So animals that could not be sustained throughout winter would be slaughtered in autumn. And I know this is really ghastly, especially for those of us that don't eat meat, but this is a reality that food is a necessity for life. Life eats life. Life and death are necessarily intertwined. And for those of us who are living in prosperous enough circumstances to be able to make choices about what we eat, to choose that we may not eat meat and can sustain ourselves with other food, that's a luxury. A lot of the world didn't and doesn't have that choice. Food is precious. And if that means the eating of meat in order to stay alive, I'm not condoning the eating of meat, but I'm understanding it. So yeah, animals that couldn't be sustained through winter would be slaughtered in autumn and then they would be preserved, salted or dried or whatever, and it would keep people alive during winter. So there is this association of Samhain and death because of a practical necessity of having enough food to actually stay alive over the colder months over the winter. So death was visibly and materially part of the community preparation for survival. And Samhain becomes then a time of year naturally associated with death, with endings and with the continuation of life. And

Burial, Ancestors, And Earth As Womb

Speaker 29:37

honoring the dead goes back to the very beginnings of human culture. Around a hundred thousand years ago in Paleolithic times, there's evidence of deliberate and possibly ceremonial burial, not just a casual dealing with a dead body, but a sense of ceremony around that, of honoring a hundred thousand years ago. And more recently in Neolithic times, around ten thousand years ago, there's discoveries and evidence of burials in fetal position. So in ancient Anatolia and the ancient Levant, like the Eastern Mediterranean, these burials where people are preserved in the earth, are returned to the earth, in fetal position, this sense of earth as both womb and tomb, of Mother Earth, of returning back to the source, of not being separate from Earth, but part of it, death being part of the story of earth, of life. In ancient Greek and earlier Mediterranean traditions, there are examples of burial in large ceramic jars, which are known as pithoi, and these, you know, huge clay jars, these were the same types of jars that were also used to store oil and grain underground. So there's this very beautiful connection between the harvest of the seed of the oil of the grain that would be stored underground in these giant jars, and also the beloved dead stored in these jars, becoming the seed for new life. And you can then see that sow and beltane polarity, life and death. So burying beloved dead in fetal position in the curled-up position of a child in the womb symbolically says this is the beginning of a new phase of continuation, of returning back to the source, of becoming the seed from which the next generation will grow. And it's not only through burial traditions that ancestors or beloved dead are honored. All across the world and throughout human history, many cultures have developed traditions of honouring the dead. So in the prehistoric Levant, Neolithic communities preserved skulls of their dead, and they'd sometimes decorate these and reconstruct faces using plaster or clay. They'd put shells, cowrie shells for eyes. This sense of keeping the ancestor close within the living community, rather than being fearful or shunning the dead, the dead were honored as part of the living community. In some Amazonian cultures, there's evidence of some indigenous communities who would cremate their dead and then grind the bones into a powder which would be ritually consumed. So, like literally eating your ancestors, the ancestor becomes part of you, which of course we know that ancestors are part of us through our DNA. The DNA of our ancient ancestors is living within us right now. Our blood lines. We are connected physically to our ancient, ancient ancestors.

Mitochondrial Line And Ancestral Memory

Speaker 33:27

So there's two different kinds of DNA. There's nuclear DNA held within the nucleus of our cells, and that has around 20,000 genes or so in nuclear DNA, and we get half of those genes from our mother and half from our father. So every generation there's this mixing and reshuffling of this genetic material. So from this nuclear DNA within every one of our cells, we can reach back through many, many branches of our family tree, this contribution of our broad ancestral family. But there's another kind of DNA which is really interesting, and that is called mitochondrial DNA. The mitochondria are the energy-producing structures within our cells. And mitochondrial DNA, there's only 37 genes that are passed down, and they are only passed down through the mother. So we've got around 20,000 genes coming from half from the mother, half from the father, but there's these 37 mitochondrial genes, this mitochondrial DNA that only comes down through the mother. So both sons and daughters inherit this DNA from their mother, but only daughters pass it on to the next generation. And this means that we have, each of us as individuals, carries an unbroken maternal ancestral chain within us, going back. Mother, grandmother, great grandmother, great-great-grandmother, etc. etc. Going back in this maternal line. And this DNA isn't shuffled and mixed in the same way that our nuclear DNA is. It's passed on, pretty much exactly the same unless there's, you know, a mutation. So we can go back to essentially uh what's referred to as a mitochondrial eve, the most recent common maternal line ancestor of all living humans. How incredible is that? And so then we're connected through this mitochondrial DNA. I'm connected to you through this DNA. So countless generations have inherited this same DNA. Really reminds us. We talk about our ancestors as being these energies of the of the past. But we are part of that ancestral line. We're a link in the chain. We're just one part of a great continuum. And that's that Scorpio link of sex and death. It's through sex that we receive that DNA message from our ancestors. So our individual lives might end, but the great river of life continues. Maybe, but maybe what might be conceived as past life might be more like an ancestral memory. Might be that DNA coming from an ancient relative passed down to us, imprinted in some way. It is a mystery. I'm not saying it's impossible. I really don't know.

Exeter Cathedral Dream And Past Lives

Speaker 37:33

I have an interesting story that comes from a dream, and I know it can be extremely tedious to hear other people's dreams. Anyway, I'm gonna tell you this anyway. Had this dream and it was very visceral. This was years ago, maybe 20 years ago or something like that. Anyway, I had this dream, and in this dream, I was looking at the world through the eyes of a woman that looked like the 1700s or so. And in the dream, it was very clear that I was in Exeter Cathedral. I didn't at that point know that there even was an Exeter Cathedral, and there is. And I was dressed in old-timey clothes and I felt pursued. I felt fearful and kind of chased or pursued in some way, a menacing energy behind me, maybe a group of people kind of chasing me. And I ran from high up on a hill, and I remember being there, this giant church, and I ran down through old-timey streets, down, down, down until I got to uh kind of like a river port, and that's it. That was the dream, but it was very visceral and very real. So I asked my friend Rachel, who's English, and asked her, had this weird dream, and it was about Exeter Cathedral. Is there an Exeter Cathedral in England? She's like, Yeah, there's a giant cathedral in Exeter near where I grew up. I'm like, oh, okay. So when I, you know, it was a couple of years later, I went and visited Exeter Cathedral. And sure enough, it looked like my memory of that dream. And there's a river port and the cathedrals on a hill and la-da. Anyway, this kind of led me to a sense of acceptance of possibility of some kind of past life. I don't necessarily think that was me, but I do think I got an insight into that moment in time through the eyes of someone else. And that someone else might have been someone with the same DNA as me, you know, with the same ancestral line. Maybe there's a way that we can kind of I don't know, I'm getting pretty, pretty witchy and esoteric here, aren't I? But I'm open to possibilities. And yeah, that dream just felt so incredibly real. And then going to this place and seeing this looks very similar to the vibe of that dream. This land looks very much like that. This giant cathedral looks just like it, truly. Anyway, I'm not willing to cast my vote one way or another in terms of past lives. Who knows? The great mysteries, hey? Who knows how all this works? But yeah, interesting to have an experience of possibility of that. I often

Altars, Names, And The Silent Supper

Speaker 40:55

hold a retreat here at Meadowlark, a New Mexico Samhain retreat. Most years. This Year I'm not because I'm having my party. But last Year I did and had my birthday during the retreat, and it was fabulous. And next Year I'll hold a Samhain retreat again. And in our opening ritual, down at our beautiful circle, we have a big cauldron and light a fire in the cauldron. And part of that ritual is simply to name our beloved dead, and especially focusing on anyone we might have lost since the previous Samhain. But also just going back through layers of anyone that we've lost in the past, and we'll call out their name and let them know that they are remembered. And I love that saying, I don't know where it comes from, but I hear it all the time in my circles. What is remembered lives. What is remembered lives. During this uh recent Australian tour, I spent a lot of time with my uh my sister Kathy, and we were traveling around all over the place together down to Tasmania and and we share childhood stories, and it's really joyful and remembering funny stories. You know, our mum was hilarious and a lovely, gentle dad, and sharing these stories to me that keeps them alive. This honoring through remembering, I feel is really sacred. It's beautiful. I always set up an altar at Samhain, and I encourage those who are attending my retreats, and I will encourage it for this for my birthday party too. We set up a dedicated altar for our beloved debt, and we'll bring photographs, or maybe just write their name, or maybe a sacred object that belonged to one of our beloved dead. And I have a beautiful ceramic skull. It's uh looks like a human skull, you know, the same size, and it's really beautiful. And we place the skull on the altar and light some candles around it, and we spend some time sharing stories, sometimes tears, celebrating those who we loved who are gone. It's a very beautiful tradition, and it maintains an ongoing relationship with our beloved dead. And one of the other traditions that I love to do at Samhain is to hold a silent supper. We always include this in my Samhain retreats, and we have a fantastic feast because it is the third harvest, so lots of food, and we set a place for the ancestors, the beloved dead, and I place that skull on the table, and then we offer a plate of food to our ancestor, to our beloved dead. I I use that word ancestor not just for bloodline, but I feel that all those who have come before are in some way our ancestors. Like we might have a beloved artist or teacher. Or someone from history that has taught us or brought wisdom to us, even if it's long, long ago, from previous generations, even if we never met them in person. In some ways I feel like they're our ancestors, that they've passed on their wisdom. And I think it's very appropriate to honor all those, everyone who's contributed to the human story, who has affected us in a way they become our ancestors, yeah? So yeah, we have our silent supper, and sometimes the silence is only for like twenty minutes or so. There's been some beautiful, beautiful silent suppers here at our gatherings, and often they're really sad just sitting that moment of silence of remembering who we've lost, and often we're quietly crying and eating the gift of being alive, being able to eat, you know, and being aware that our beloved dead aren't eating. We're eating. It's our turn to be alive. And then at a certain point in time, it feels like enough silence, and then it's laughter and music and feasting and life.

Beltane Joy With Venus Underworld

Speaker 45:25

So let's come back to thinking about that Taurus Full Moon and how all over the world we can honor this energy, whether we're in Samhain or Beltane lands, that Full Moon, she's going to be shining on all of us, holding that energy of Taurus. In the last episode, I told the story of Inanna's descent into the underworld, and Inanna is the Sumerian goddess associated with the planet that we call Venus. This reminder that Venus, the ruler of Taurus, does have an underworld aspect. So Inanna goes down to visit her sister Ereshkigal, so there's like a life and death aspect between Inanna and Ereshkigal. For Persephone, she's both the flower maiden of the Baltane times and she's also queen of the underworld, of the Samhain and of the autumn and winter. She's both. So this Venusian aspect is both life and death. So if you are in the Baltane springtime lands, this Taurus Full moon is a wonderful reminder to celebrate the joyous physicality of being. It's a time of sensuality and joy and dancing and play. It's a celebration. My other big party each Year is Beltane, and we have a gathering up here, and we spend one night hanging out and partying, and we all make beautiful flower crowns and costumes, and the next day we dance the maypole, and I don't expect everybody to have their own maypole, but it is a really lovely celebration. But I think things like that, like crafting and flowers and feasting and friends, that's a really Beltane energy and lovemaking and roses. So whether you are in Beltane or Samhain lands, this is a time of heightened energy, of celebration, midway between a solstice and an equinox, a gateway towards winter for the Samhain lands and towards summer for the Beltane lands. And

Patreon, Newsletter, And Reviews

Speaker 48:25

before I shuffle this deck, I want to send out a quick reminder that the reason that this podcast is ad-free is because it's funded this time and takes a lot of time by my very generous and wonderful Patreon community. So I would really be so grateful if you checked out my Patreon page at patreon.com forward slash Wendy Rule, and you might consider signing up for about the cost of a cup of coffee each month, and then you'll get access to my weekly Magic Monday videos. And I'd also really appreciate it if you joined my newsletter. You can just head to my website, wendyrule.com, and there's a sign-up link to my newsletter there because I'm really finding, especially during this last Aussie tour, that getting the word out for anything, events or anything at all using social media is just getting harder and harder these days. While a good old email newsletter, it's much more likely that you'll get to see what it is that I'm really keen for you to know about. I noticed on this tour that I had some, you know, some people posting, oh, I went to Wendy Rule gig last night and it was lovely. And I saw a comment like, oh, I'm so disappointed I missed this. I didn't know about it. And that's because we can't guarantee what we see on socials at all. So yeah, my newsletter, I would really, really appreciate it if you signed up. I only send a message about once or twice a month. And if you're feeling very generous of heart, it would make a big difference if you gave this podcast a review on whatever is your favorite podcast app or Spotify or whatever it is. It makes a big difference, helps spread the word. So there's my little call to action.

Wheel Of Fortune And Finding Center

Speaker 50:24

Now let us shuffle these cards. Okay. Oh, we got the Wheel of Fortune. That feels very fitting. The Wheel of fortune is kind of midway along the major arcana deck. And it oops, just dropped that card. And it is it's a card of change, of transformation, of moving from one state to the next, of acknowledging that that Wheel is always turning. And I do believe that it is a card of fortune, too. I think it brings good fortune. So it has a picture of a Wheel in the middle. I'm using the Smith Rider Waite deck, as usual. It has a picture of a Wheel in the middle with eight spokes. So like our Wheel of the Year. And then in each of the corners, it has a depiction of an animal or a person that represents the four fixed signs of the zodiac. The other card that has that is The World, which we've pulled before as well. The fixed signs are Leo, Taurus, Aquarius, Scorpio. So our polarity this time is the Scorpio Taurus one. And there's a sense then that this Wheel contains everything. But while the world, the world card, the dancer is contained in the center of the circle, you know, it's like a wreck, the Wheel, all the action is happening on the outer edge of the Wheel. So the world card maintains a sense of poise, even though there's constant change. So if you are in the center of a spinning Wheel, the motion is minimalized. But if you are at the edge of a spinning Wheel, then it's much more dramatic. You're traveling further, you're spun around. It's hard to maintain a sense of poise or balance when you're being spun around the edge of the Wheel. So when I pull this card, it reminds me how can I find a sense of center so I'm not so vulnerable to the highs and lows of life, to the ups and downs. How can I find a sense of poise and of center within the ever-turning Wheel? And it can also be a reminder of this too shall pass, that what is at the top now will be at the bottom at another point in time, that the Wheel is always turning, and that the top and the bottom are connected just as Samhain and Beltane are connected. It's part of the one story. What is darkness now will become light, and what is light now will become darkness. I will talk more about this card in my next episode of Magic Monday on my Patreon page, patreon.com forward slash Wendy Rule. I would love for you to check that out. Come and visit me there and help keep this podcast afloat. Happy Beltane, happy Samhain, and I'll see you back here in a couple of weeks when I will be 60. And I'll tell you all about my soin. Okay, blessed be. Thanks for spending time with me. Bye.