Queen of Swords reversed/Two of Cups reversed. The Queen of Swords (cusp of Virgo, “I serve,” practical, sensible, work and service oriented, and Libra, “We are,” partnerships, balance, cooperation, grace) in an upright position represents a disciplinarian, and a thinker. She provides her rulings based on her own experiences, and provides justice with honesty and ethics. The Two of Cups (Venus, beauty, allure, relationships, in Cancer, “I feel,” sensitive, family and home oriented, tenacious, moody) is usually about relationships which exist and are strengthened because of commonalities. These relationships could be with others, or with myself. Because the Two of Cups is paired with the Queen of Swords, and because both are reversed, I am being warned that today is not the day to make judgments concerning my friends, acquaintances, family and loved ones. I just need to be quiet, and save those judgments for a more auspicious day.

My Thoth card is the Queen of Disks. I love this Thoth card!! The Queen of Disks (cusp of Sagittarius, “I seek,” philosophic, fun-loving, blundering, and Capricorn, “I build,” ambition, caution, competence) to Crowley is a practical woman possessing all of the finer and quieter qualities of life and living. She possesses kindness, offers affection and support, and is quite connected to her own senses. She is very good at creating an environment of support and safety. But today, I need to be careful that her love of feeding her senses does not distract me. However, she is also good at looking into the past, at the path that has brought me to where I am right now; that might be the correct focus for her energy today.

My Legacy card is The Moon reversed, flavored by the Ten of Cups. The Moon corresponds with Water (cold/binds and wet/adapts, emotional and sensitive energy that strives to stay the same), Pisces (“I believe,” feeling, suffering, soul growth, duality), Qof (the back of the head), and the Path between Malkuth (the physical world of action and physical, outer reality) and Netzach (the stimulating factors of emotion and inspiration), and talks about the imagination, perception, and fear of the unknown. Often the fear attached to this card is connected to perception; since the card is reversed, I need to second- and third-guess what I believe is reality. The Ten of Cups (Mars, action, spontaneity, aggression, drive, in Pisces, “I believe,” feeling, duality, spirituality, suffering and growth) offers a good lesson: achieving happiness takes work, which is to be expected, but maintaining that happiness also takes work, hard work. The cool thing about the happiness that is associated with this card is that it is completely emotional in nature; no physical possessions are necessary in order to create this kind of happiness, and actually, physical possessions can actually be a distraction from this happiness.

My 6-digit date number is 11 (Archangel Uriel), which reduces to 2, the number of balance and polarity.

My horoscopes: “Your hard work is finally paying off, Sagittarius. A phone call bring good news to you. You should be filled with a new sense of optimism, enthusiasm, and hope. Work will be more of a pleasure than a drag, because you have something to look forward to. Changes are definitely in the wind for you, so be prepared for just about anything!”

And: “There's a lot going on in your life right now that your friends and family don't know about -- and they should! Make an effort today to widen your intimacy circle and bring more people into it. This can be easily done with a mass email. Your people may have inspiring words for you -- and you may inspire them to open their lives up a bit more. You hold the missing piece in a puzzle someone you love is working on. Today reconnect with your loved ones and share yourself.”

And: “A strange person who may be promoting herself as a psychic might come onto the scene today. This person, however, is more mixed up than psychic. Therefore, if she makes any predictions for you, take them all with a grain of salt, if not the whole shaker. Chances are none of them have any basis in reality. However, do trust your own intuition. Your insights should be far more dependable than those of the so-called psychic.”

My Sun reading: “The morning Moon trines Pluto and you shine as you speak with certainty and dominate events. People are direct, which is a rather refreshing change. Tonight's Taurus Moon sextiles Venus and your judgment is sound when it comes to relationships. Significant others, especially, enjoy the ‘I cherish,’ lunar energy.”

The 24^th Path is the last of the three Dark Night Paths. Whew. The 24^th Path is about the death of the personality; while this may sound horrible, actually the end result will give me a different world view. I will learn to not only think of myself, but also to think of others. I will no longer sympathize, I will also empathize. And there is a big difference between those two words! Sympathy happens as an “inside yourself looking out” kind of thing, where you imagine what it might be like for you to experience the pain of others. Empathy, on the other hand, involves actually experiencing the pain of others, actually being that other person.

The scarab is one symbol of this path, and actually it fits well with the concept of putrefaction also. After all, the scarab creates life literally out of feces, the refuse of the body. Talk about putrefaction! The entire digestive process certainly sounds like a mini version of putrefaction, and in a way, the entire Great Work. Hmmm . . . I never thought of this in this way before.

The Hebrew letter that corresponds with this Path and this Tarot Major is Nun, fish; the fish (the yoni) has been seen as a symbol of the womb in many cultures throughout history. The Death card is seen as an ending, but it is also seen as a new beginning. That ending reduces us down to our most basic building block: our life force. That life force is then put through a final recuperation, and then it is reborn. How fitting that the 24^th Path is the third and last of the three Dark Night Paths!

This time, it appears that my Dark Night is connected to stagnation. Stagnation has always been the most difficult barrier for me to overcome, and I certainly seem to be waking up many mornings lately filled with a sluggish lethargy. Each morning, this past weekend, I was able to struggle through this lethargy and become alert, awake, aware and active. But the following morning, I needed to start all over again.

I am reminded of the Descent to the Underworld that is a part of many cultures and spiritual traditions. Usually, the woman who makes the descent does so because of some quest, either to help herself or another. During that journey, she ends up divesting herself of everything of value, her jewels, her clothes, and eventually, even her own fortitude. But this supreme effort, which costs her everything she owns, everything that she considers “self,” ends up bringing rebirth and new strength. Dealing with this stagnation will take every ounce of Will that I have at my disposal.

I see that the time has come for me to overcome this one blockage. This is not a huge, chaotic, in-your-face kind of Dark Night, but it is equally as damaging. Stagnation sneaks up on you, gradually building in the corners until suddenly, it is everywhere. And it is heavy, and very, very difficult to get rid of, at least for me. This time, I will need to make an all-or-nothing commitment to get rid of this stagnation, because unless I sterilize everything, the stagnation will recreate itself in the corners. Am I ready for this??

I don’t know.

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