Sage Leaves, September 24, 2024

Welcome to Sage Leaves, a compendium of wisdom for those seeking to heal ancestral wounds using Tarot! In this issue, we will explore the archetype of Strength and relate it to the Heroine’s Journey, as well as explore how it is read when it appears in a reading conducted for transgenerational healing. This week’s issue is a little longer than usual, because we have a brief essay on cats and how they interweave their meaning in this newsletter. Please enjoy!

Table of Contents

• Why a Cat?

• Spotlight on a Jungian Archetype: Strength

• Strength & The Heroine’s Journey

• Strength in a Reading for Transgenerational Healin …

• Energetic Influences This Week

Why a Cat?

We were asked, “why the cat every week?” Let’s explore.

Cats, sage leaves, Tarot, and femininity are all deeply symbolic and interconnected, representing intuition, healing, and divine feminine energy. Cats, often seen as mystical creatures, have long been associated with femininity, independence, and mystery. In ancient cultures, particularly in Egypt, cats were revered as protectors and companions of goddesses, symbolizing intuition and a connection to the spiritual realm.

Sage leaves, used in rituals for cleansing and protection, also carry strong feminine energy. Sage represents wisdom, healing, and purification, aligning with the nurturing and intuitive aspects of the divine feminine. In Tarot, cards like the High Priestess and Empress embody these qualities of intuition, emotional depth, and nurturing, making them key representations of feminine power.

Together, cats, sage, and Tarot symbolize the sacred feminine’s connection to intuition, spiritual wisdom, and the unseen realms. They represent the balance between independence and nurturing, with Tarot serving as a tool to connect with deeper, intuitive knowledge. This connection is a reflection of the divine feminine's ability to navigate both the material and spiritual worlds with grace, insight, and empowerment. And that, dear reader, is why a cat to start us off!

Spotlight on a Jungian Archetype: Strength

In Jungian psychology, Strength represents the integration of primal instincts with conscious awareness, symbolizing the balance between our animalistic nature and higher self. It reflects the process of individuation, a central concept in Jung’s work, where the goal is to unite the conscious mind with the unconscious to achieve wholeness.

The Strength card typically depicts a woman gently taming a lion, embodying the idea of control over inner forces without the use of force or repression. In Jungian terms, the lion represents the shadow, the part of our unconscious mind that contains repressed desires, fears, and instincts. Rather than suppressing these aspects, the woman’s gentle touch indicates the need to acknowledge and integrate the shadow into consciousness. This harmonization of instincts with reason leads to personal growth and self-mastery.

Jung emphasized that the path to psychological wholeness involves embracing both our strengths and weaknesses. Strength in the Tarot illustrates this process by showing that true power comes not from dominating the shadow but from understanding and working with it. The card suggests that through compassion, patience, and inner calm, we can overcome internal and external challenges, achieving self-mastery.

In addition, Strength connects with Jung’s concept of the anima (the feminine aspect of a man’s psyche) or the animus (the masculine aspect of a woman’s psyche). The feminine figure’s influence over the lion highlights the importance of balancing masculine and feminine energies within ourselves, regardless of gender, to foster inner harmony.

Overall, in Jungian terms, Strength is about integrating our deeper instincts and emotions into the conscious mind, fostering resilience and emotional balance, and using inner power to navigate life’s challenges with grace and understanding.

Strength & The Heroine’s Journey

In the Heroine’s Journey, the Strength Tarot card plays a key role in symbolizing the heroine’s internal empowerment and the integration of her primal instincts with her higher self. Unlike the Hero’s Journey, which often focuses on external battles and physical challenges, the Heroine’s Journey is more about navigating the emotional and spiritual realms. Strength represents the heroine’s ability to face her inner fears, shadow aspects, and vulnerabilities with compassion, patience, and resilience.

1. Emotional Mastery and Inner Strength:

In the Heroine’s Journey, the heroine often confronts overwhelming emotions, fears, and unresolved traumas. Strength signifies the point in her journey when she realizes that true power lies not in brute force but in the quiet mastery of her emotional world. The card reflects her ability to face her inner turmoil and overcome it with grace. This emotional strength is a pivotal part of her personal transformation.

2. Taming the Shadow:

The lion in the Strength card represents the heroine’s shadow—her untamed instincts, desires, and repressed emotions. During her journey, the heroine must confront these aspects of herself. Strength shows her not overpowering or repressing these instincts, but rather learning to understand and harmonize them. This balance is essential for her growth, symbolizing the union of her wild, untamed nature with her conscious mind.

3. Compassion and Gentleness:

Unlike the more aggressive, action-oriented aspects of the Hero’s Journey, the Heroine’s path often involves compassion and gentleness, especially toward herself. Strength reflects this aspect by showing that gentleness can be more powerful than brute strength. The heroine learns to treat herself with kindness, accepting her flaws and vulnerabilities as part of her strength.

4. Inner Feminine Power:

Strength in the Heroine’s Journey also embodies the archetype of feminine power. The heroine taps into her inner strength through emotional intelligence, intuition, and a nurturing approach to both herself and others. This energy is central to the Heroine’s Journey, where she discovers her unique form of power, distinct from the traditional masculine ideals of strength and dominance.

5. Integration of Masculine and Feminine Energies:

In the Heroine’s Journey, the heroine must reconcile the masculine and feminine energies within herself. Strength highlights this process by suggesting that she can integrate these energies—channeling the assertiveness and focus of the masculine with the nurturing, receptive qualities of the feminine. This balanced integration allows her to navigate the next stages of her journey with both confidence and compassion.

Conclusion:

Strength in the Heroine’s Journey represents a key moment of inner power, emotional resilience, and the integration of the shadow. It encourages the heroine to approach challenges with patience and self-compassion, recognizing that true strength comes from emotional balance and self-acceptance. It marks her evolution into someone who understands her inner world and harnesses it for deeper healing and empowerment.

Strength in a Reading for Transgenerational Healing

In a Tarot reading focused on transgenerational healing, the Strength card plays a vital role, symbolizing the deep inner power needed to confront and heal inherited emotional and psychological patterns passed down through generations. It represents the ability to navigate challenging emotions, overcome fear, and face the shadow aspects of one’s lineage with compassion and resilience. The Strength card invites the querent to engage in a healing process that doesn’t rely on force, but rather on inner calm, patience, and understanding of both their own and their ancestors' struggles.

1. Courage to Face Ancestral Shadows:

The Strength card embodies the courage to look deeply into family history and the emotional traumas that may have been passed down. In transgenerational healing, this often means recognizing how ancestral wounds—such as unresolved grief, anger, fear, or repression—affect current behaviors and emotional patterns. Strength suggests that the querent has the inner fortitude necessary to confront these buried traumas and begin the healing process, no matter how difficult it may be.

This card encourages an approach that involves acknowledging these shadows without judgment. It reflects the idea that facing these inherited issues requires tenderness, not avoidance, and the power to transform inherited pain into a source of wisdom and growth.

2. Compassionate Healing:

Strength also speaks to the need for compassion, particularly self-compassion, as the querent navigates difficult family legacies. It suggests that healing transgenerational trauma requires not only emotional resilience but also the gentle, patient taming of deep-seated wounds. In this context, the lion in the Strength card represents powerful, often overwhelming feelings or instincts that have been suppressed or ignored over generations. The card's message is that these emotions must be understood and embraced, not repressed or fought against, to initiate true healing.

Compassion for one’s ancestors, who may have endured tremendous hardship or emotional repression, is essential. Strength asks the querent to approach their lineage with empathy, recognizing that inherited patterns are not a personal failing but part of a larger, often unspoken, family narrative.

3. Breaking Cycles through Inner Mastery:

In transgenerational healing, Strength indicates the ability to break negative family cycles through self-mastery. By acknowledging and integrating both the strengths and the shadows of their lineage, the querent can transcend destructive patterns and create healthier ones for themselves and future generations. The card suggests that this process is not about external force or control but about mastering the internal landscape—learning to work with emotions like fear, anger, or shame rather than being controlled by them.

Strength signifies that the querent has the inner resources to not only heal themselves but also act as a healing force within their family, transforming past traumas into lessons that promote growth and wholeness.

4. Patience in the Healing Process:

Finally, Strength reminds the querent that healing transgenerational wounds is a long-term process. The card advocates for patience, as this deep emotional work often takes time. It encourages perseverance and calm, even when the journey feels overwhelming. The gentle taming of the lion in Strength reflects the slow, steady progress of integrating past pain with the present self, fostering gradual but lasting healing.

Conclusion:

In a reading focused on transgenerational healing, the Strength card profoundly impacts the querent’s journey, offering a message of courage, compassion, and inner resilience. It suggests that healing ancestral trauma requires the gentle mastery of deep emotions and the capacity to approach these wounds with understanding rather than force. By cultivating this inner strength, the querent can break free from harmful inherited patterns and transform their lineage’s legacy into one of healing, wisdom, and emotional empowerment.

Energetic Influences This Week

This is a reading for the energetic influences at play for the week of September 24-30, 2024. This week a rare planetary parade appears, with the Autumnal equinox featuring an alignment of the planets Mercury, Mars, Uranus, Neptune, Jupiter, and Saturn in the night sky. In astrology, a planetary alignment of planets Mercury, Mars, Uranus, Neptune, Jupiter, and Saturn appearing close together in the sky around the autumnal equinox is often interpreted as a time of significant change, heightened energy, and potential for major life transitions, signifying a period of introspection, reassessment, and new beginnings, especially related to the themes associated with the individual planets involved. 

The querent begins a transformative week, influenced by both celestial and earthly energies. Throughout the week, the rare planetary alignment magnifies the themes of clarity, celebration, emotional fulfillment, action, stability, and creative inspiration, guiding the querent toward personal and spiritual growth.

For our Tarot reading this week, I drew the 7 of Cups, Ace of Swords, 4 of Wands, 10 of Cups, Ace of Wands, Knight of Pentacles and the Page of Cups. Now we will explore each of the cards laid for each day of the week for a guide to energetic influences for the week of September 24-30, 2024.

On Tuesday, the 7 of Cups appears, reflecting the planetary energy of Neptune and Uranus. We may be confused or overwhelmed by choices, dreams, and illusions, as Neptune’s influence heightens imagination while Uranus sparks unexpected possibilities. We may be faced with many emotional or creative possibilities, but struggle to see clearly which path to take.The planets urge the querent to explore all options but warn against getting lost in indecision.

By Wednesday, the Ace of Swords cuts through the fog of Tuesday’s 7 of Cups. With Mercury’s influence, the querent experiences mental clarity and a sharp breakthrough, making a decisive choice that aligns with their truth. This card signals a moment of intellectual power, mirroring Mercury’s role in communication and clarity. We may experience a mental breakthrough, helping us cut through indecision and gain sharp insight into their situation. The fog of uncertainty clears, allowing us to take a deep breath and regain our focus.

On Thursday, the 4 of Wands brings celebration and stability. Jupiter’s expansive energy fosters growth and fulfillment, suggesting that our recent decisions are leading to a joyous milestone, a celebration or the achievement of a personal goal. This card signifies harmony in the home or social circle, celebrating the our achievements. Thursday will be a day of joy, marking stability in the querent’s home or social life. There is a sense of harmony and shared happiness.

Friday continues this emotional high with the 10 of Cups, a card of deep family and relationship fulfillment. Mars’ influence encourages us to actively nurture these bonds, enhancing long-term happiness and emotional harmony. We have the opportunity to experience deep contentment and connection with our loved ones, symbolizing the realization of long-term emotional goals.

On Saturday, the Ace of Wands bursts with creative energy. Saturn’s discipline combines with Mars’ drive, giving us the spark and focus to embark on a new creative or passionate venture. The Ace of Wands sparks new inspiration. A creative opportunity or passion emerges, motivating us to take bold action. This is a day of inspiration and action.

By Sunday, the Knight of Pentacles reminds us to proceed with diligence and practicality. Saturn’s influence brings stability, urging us to stay grounded and methodical as we work diligently and patiently toward our goals. Saturn’s focus combined with the patience and endurance of the Knight of Pentacles help ensure long-term success with our current projects. It’s a day of practical focus and persistence.

Finally, Monday ends the week with the Page of Cups, opening the querent to new emotional experiences or creative ideas. This card reflects Neptune’s dreamy influence, suggesting the potential for spiritual or romantic connections, sparking hope and intuition for the future. The Page of Cups signals emotional openness and creativity. Our week ends on a hopeful, intuitive note.