Hello loves! Welcome to a new month, and a new Monthly Medicine missive!
At the writing of this post, I’ll have been on Substack for one month! Thank you all so much for your presence and continued support. I’m so grateful for this community!
These Monthly Medicine missives will always be free to subscribers of No Bad Cards. I also have an audio version of this Monthly Medicine on my podcast, Tarot for the Wild Soul, that you are welcome to listen to as well, if you feel called to it! The audio podcast and this written missive are not identical, but share the same themes :)
The theme for the month of July is The Center of the Spiral.
We have a really interesting mix of cards in our reading for July, which is likely a reflection of the depth and complexity of the theme of the month. To be in the center of a spiral usually indicates that there’s the potential for some chaos – or at the very least, some whirling, churning, whippy energies. We may experience some of this in July, but the truth is that we do live alongside whirling, churning, and whippy situations. Experiencing this kind of contractive, spiky energy is not new or special. We live in a spiral world in a spiral body. What centers and grounds us in the face of that? What offers us resourcing and nourishment?
July is here to remind us of the fact that we are spiral beings AND that we deserve upgraded support around the understanding and integration of that idea. We are not linear; life is not linear. Birth is a spiral. Healing is a spiral. Death is a spiral. Love is a spiral. We grow, give up, start again, contract, expand, contract, and expand again and again and again, over and over. Forever transforming and rebirthing in this deeply complex world that we live in.
Very often we are slowly changing and not even aware of it, not giving ourselves credit for how much we’ve cycled through, survived, and opened to.
There is a song by Laraaji called “All of a Sudden” that really captures this idea so evocatively:
“Who can recall
The flowers smell differently and
Who can remember
The embraces weren't this warm before”
July is not only going to be helping us to recall, reflect, and consider how we’ve changed, but to embrace the spiral that surrounds us and helps us to perpetually grow. Our consideration and understanding of that will naturally extend itself to a deepening of our spiritual/support practices – how we show up for ourselves or ask for help in spiky moments as well as joyous ones. We don’t need to be in a disaster or catastrophe to feel into the rings of support1 around us – July is here to help us to expand those rings of nurturance, witness, and holding.
In July, we flow from Cancer to Leo seasons – from The Chariot card to the Strength card. The Chariot card is deeply tender, deeply reflective, and wildly transformative. We call upon this card when we are engaging in a process of acceptance around change. More than likely, we have grown too big or expanded for a particular container in our lives – whether it’s a relationship, a job, an old identity that no longer suits us, or simply a mechanism within one of those paradigms, The Chariot is here to help us to make peace with what we’re letting go and opening to what awaits us on the other side.
At its core, July is a powerful, complex, deeply feeling cycle, one where we will be invited to drop deeper into our supportive practices, open to more receptivity, and consider our sources of nourishment and community from a fresh perspective.
Wild Soul Tarot Reading for JULY
Card for the month of July: PAGE OF PENTACLES Rx
Page of Pentacles is a soft, humble, prayerful energy. They are soulful, receptive, spiritually guided, and open. The main inquiry of Page of Pentacles is: “What would you have me know? What would you have me do?” They want to pause, touch into their heart, open to their guidance system, and wholly receive the wisdom that lives within them before they make any moves or commit to anything. When we pull this card in a reading, we are being invited to embody the qualities of Page of Pentacles: to listen and reflect before diving in, and to take pressure off of ourselves to know all of the next right moves to make.
When reversed, Page of Pentacles can often indicate that this call to drop into spirit-guided, soul-led receptivity isn’t new. It’s likely been tugging at our sleeve, but for one reason or another, we’ve been ignoring, denying, or neglecting that impulse. What benefit might it bring to our lives to pause and drop in with ourselves and our Spirit helpers? What would it mean for us to listen to our hearts, to connect to the wisdom of our bodies, and know that we don’t need to move through this life alone?
What will this month feel like to us? FOUR OF SWORDS Rx and FIVE OF WANDS Rx
We know that Page of Pentacles Rx is our card for the month, but that doesn’t necessarily give us a full picture of what the experience of the month will be like. What is the energetic temperature, the weather of the month? A sense of that can be found in Four of Swords Rx and Five of Wands Rx.
Four of Swords is an invitation to quiet and soothe an anxious, overwhelmed mind. When we receive this card, our mental noise level is usually turned up very high, and we are encouraged to engage in things that bring about greater calm, ease, and spaciousness for our nervous systems. When reversed, however, this card actually reflects to us that we might have more mental capacity and space available to us than initially believed. Four of Swords Rx is often a signal that the volume is starting to turn down a bit, and we may have a little more room between thoughts than we did before.
Five of Wands is like a room full of lit firecrackers. We might feel blocked, hot, angry, short-tempered, and like we want to fling something against a wall. We have visions, goals, and a clear path that we’d like to take, but no earthly clue how to bring our vision into reality, and it can be a recipe for a lot of frustration. When reversed, however, this card represents a softening and cooling around the heat we might have been feeling, as well as some movement in an area that’s likely felt very stuck and stagnant.
Both of these cards show us that, as intense and internal as July might be, it is bringing about an opening and an easing up of places that have previously felt tricky.
What we’re being invited to pay attention to most: NINE OF SWORDS
Our fears need attention. Our scared selves need warmth, love, and a generous response from us. What do we need to be reminded of in our most challenging moments?
Nine of Swords doesn’t bring, predict, or forebode fear, anxiety, and challenges. It simply acknowledges that those things are already likely here. We all live with trauma, worries, and big “what if” whispers floating through our mind. This month, we’re being invited to pay close and gentle attention to those places within us that might be feeling distressed. What might those places need from us (or from the beloveds around us) to feel honored, witnessed, and accompanied in these moments?
The Deepest lesson of the month ahead?: QUEEN OF WANDS Rx
Queen of Wands is a tether to our magical selves, our innate intuition. They remind us that those things are part of our birthright. No one has to confer with them, certify us, or be a conduit for us to take part in what has been traveling with us – as a part of us – since we came into this world.
Our deepest lesson of the month ahead is to acknowledge that many of us have painful doubts around Queen of Wands themes. We don’t believe ourselves to be “real” intuitives. We aren’t really magical. Those whispers of separation affect and take root in all of us from time to time, but it’s not the truth. In July, our work will be to confront those untrue stories, say no thank you to them, and reclaim what’s always been ours – a deep connection and root to our wise knowing.
(FWIW, when I get invited into those stories (because of course I do, I’m human), I take them directly to my Guides and to my altar – something my former teacher, Michelle, really modeled to me. Our brains tend to prefer that we stay isolated about tricky, challenging, and painful things. Taking the painful stories to my Spirit Helpers is an incredible way to dissolve them and receive support from my Spirit team in real time.)
An Aligned Action to take, if any: KNIGHT OF CUPS Rx
Who or what supports us in hard times? How do we handle tricky moments and rough situations? Knight of Cups is the patron Tarot card of graceful navigation through challenging waters. It helps us to stay in our center when things are choppy.
Our aligned action to consider this month is to do a gentle inventory on our rings of support in contractive times. Who has got us in these moments, and who is typically nowhere to be seen? What are the tools, anchors, and resources that really help us? Is it time for an upgrade around these areas?
What are we opening ourselves to this month: THE HIGH PRIESTESS
We find ourselves back at the heart of the matter with The High Priestess as the representative for what we’re opening ourselves to this month, as this card is really about tuning into our deeper, more intuitively led whispers. How can we make more space to be in this place of quiet, still, open receiving, trusting in ourselves to be available to this inner guidance?
What are we releasing this month: ACE OF WANDS
We are being invited to release the need to initiate, start things up, or have new irons in the fire this month. It’s not that we can’t do these things, but we’re in a cycle where some of the major anchors are Page of Pentacles, The High Priestess, and Queen of Wands. We are being called to come back to our center, to a place of listening and receptivity rather than blind action. Pause and tune in, then take the leap.
A Steady Center: A Tarot Spread for JULY
My medicine for the month ahead:
What card can help me to be in my center this month?
What support systems and resources can I call upon to be with me as I navigate the themes of the month ahead?
A message from my intuition:
How can I come into closer kinship and connection with this part of myself?
A little bit about Ring Theory: https://speakinggrief.org/get-better-at-grief/supporting-grief/ring-theory