Welcome, Aries Season!

As the new zodiac year begins, most of us are ready to do the work. In ourselves, our lives, & with our people, we’ve gotten clear on what we want to grow and where it’s time to go. Around us, things may seem to slow down, but only because so many of the collective are closely watching the time or another person’s paper. Chiiiiill! Your manifestation requires work, not witnesses.

The collective goal and obstacle for Aries’ Season is channeling our cardinal fire into practical pursuits and tangible results. For our creations to last, consistency is required. Unfortunately, it looks like we may be distracted from our work efforts. Priorities aren’t lacking, but those around us may be holding up progress with obstinate behavior or close mindedness. Let’s all be careful, too, that our own stubbornness doesn’t restrains us.

Collective Outlook

Walking into a new year, we relieve ourselves of the combative 5 of Wands energy. Enough trying to get others on board with your intent! We’re done trying to show people how to do it our way or why it’s correct. Many right now are seeking to legitimize ourselves through skill building, reliability, and honest exchange. Pisces Season closed out the previous zodiac year. It showed us what integration of the spiritual and material looks like. Hence, those engaged in conscious evolution become their own leaders.

Now, we recognize the risk in relying too heavily on rules without reasons and perspectives outside our own. At a superficial level, the Hierophant represents the intermediary between mainstream culture and the spiritual realm. This card can also represent the expectations of society. He sets the boundaries of acceptability at a superficial level. Looking deeper though, we find the ideal card is really a call to discover a source of guidance within. Our own connection to the divine needs tending.

What’s going & Gone

Let’s take a look at what created this issue. In the recent past, petty competition or conflict within a group led to separation. The conflict was likely about how to accomplish a mutual goal. Strong egos may have contributed to painful communication and some pretty aggressive manipulation. What caused the tension was minor, but those involved may have created a bigger problem with their reactions. A desire for external approval or advice may have kept us focused on these situations and people to the detriment of our minds and hearts. Pisces Season seems to have been a harsh reminder to stay in balance and maintain healthy self-interest. Consequently, many of the collective are dealing with some leftover emotions about past events. The cards suggest a serious need for processing. If we’re letting our hurt speak for us, so much more of who we are remains unheard. 

The way we define our role in past situations and who we’ve chosen to become as a result need review. Just because something didn’t go the way we wanted, doesn’t mean we were without agency or responsibility in the matter. Nor does it mean what we’ve chosen to pursue is not for us. How did our experience move us closer to manifestation? What have we learned about our capability that can be used today? How have we grown and how might we adjust? The answers may not come easy.

Looking around us, we see others just as lost. However, there’s no time to give in to apathy.  Many of us this season may struggle through the type of ambivalence that I associate with trauma. Our minds, overwhelmed with the emotional impact of disagreements or events, opt for numbness. The 2 of Swords reflects this willful blindness. The card represents a person torn between two opposing urges. One is to speak out indiscriminately every epiphany that arises, and the other to maintain an advantage, control, or safety using silence. Avoiding conflict breeds complacency. I’ve been there and it’s an impossible feat, anyway.

Nonetheless, it seems a limited perspective is contributing to stagnancy in movement. Refusal to see what’s in front of us or to speak our thoughts and feelings makes going forward harder. The compulsion to shut down when confronted with the inflexibility of others is understandable. However, it’s causing serious conflict or hindering progress toward a goal. It looks like the best option is to allow any releases. Letting go frees you to make necessary changes. The transformations we began in the last astrological year are due to be completed. We’re finally onto some new shit. Asé.

What emerges

Finally, as Aries Season really gets going, we find our retribution, vindication, that last morsel of truth that was conveniently left out of the argument. The Justice card is about karma (the sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences). We get what we put out into the universe.  What we do and what we say this season will bring consequences fitting our words and behaviors. So, do be careful that the way you think of yourself and others doesn’t trip you up. Intentions bring results too. We all know someone who does the ‘nice’ things with harmful motives.  Aries season is giving everyone exactly what they deserve regardless of appearances. And I aint even mad.

If we follow the spread’s guidance, letting go leads us into a new cycle of change and transformation. The Wheel of Fortune can turn either way, so our integrity, both in thought & deed will prove vital. Willingness to walk our own path and release attachment to the obstacles brings reward. Whatever emerges from our pursuits now will not only reflect the amount of effort we put into it, but our honesty, our awareness, and our deeper intentions. The few of the collective who manifest through harmful means will get their just do. However, if you’re doing your best to keep up with the work and not other people’s personals, you’ll likely find Aries’ Season ends on a mighty abundant note.

Other Aspects to Consider…

• The 3 of Swords facing Justice and the Wheel of Fortune to me speaks of a painful cycle of processing the past. When Justice shows up with the double-edged sword of truth, the collective is free to release the emotions. The truth vindicates us and, in the space where harm has hindered progress, we find an open road leading us into the future. Allow the truth to set you free.
• What’s the hold up? The hanged man is usually static because his point of view clouds the correct path forward. 8 of Pentacles suggest a desire or responsibility to put our practical effort into a plan with consistency, but how can we if ego battles, pettiness fueled by envy, and collaborators at cross purposes are distracting us from the tasks at hand? Ask this of yourself? Are the people around me preventing progress or is my desire to involve misaligned energies the problem?
• 3 of Swords as a mirror to the hanged man is a clear indication that our focus on emotional pain has a paralyzing effect. How can we channel that hurt into productivity? By working to alleviate the sources of it through our approach. (Death)