Hello, you.
I have a confession. I’ve been keeping something from you. Not because I didn’t want to tell you, but because I didn’t really think it was relevant.
In my first piece of writing on Substack this year, “Prologue” I shared my oracle card spread for the year. I pulled an anchor card for the entire year and then 12 more cards, one for each month. I don’t use these cards as divination tools, or some way to predict what the future will bring. Instead, I use them as grounding tools and guides, as a way to connect with whatever is going on with my soul within each month and each season as it comes and goes.
My anchor card for the year is “Buds” - a card that speaks to me of new growth and expansion. Which, amazingly, lines up with some ideas and dreams that my wife and I have for twenty twenty-five. No matter what happens, this year will be one of magic and expansion. I am certain of it. My card for the month of January is “Roots”. And that, too, felt absolutely perfectly aligned with the energy I associate with January, which is deep, silent, quiet, hidden growth that moves downward during the winter. It is the energy of hibernation and rest and preparation before the reawakening and rebirth of spring.
I am in love with the The Green Witch’s Oracle Deck right now. It’s my go-to deck this year.
What I didn’t share was that, at the beginning of this moon cycle, on the last new moon, I decided to pull a card for each week in January as well. Something I intend to do at each new moon throughout the year. So, back on December 30, I pulled four cards that would guide and inspire me one week at a time until the next new moon on January 29. I didn’t really think about the four cards at the time, I just noted them in my journal, knowing that I would ponder each card whenever its week came around.
The first two cards were the mortar and pestle card - and the winter card. The mortar and pestle card inspired my letter and podcast all about crossing through the portals and passageways of this month, as a way to integrate and blend the energy of December and January, letting myself move slowly from the holidays and deep into winter. The winter card was last week’s card - and it was the perfect companion for January’s full cold, wolf moon.
Now, I realize that this is no great big secret that I have kept. It likely makes no difference to you at all. But, I have gone back and forth, wondering if I would share the card that I’ve pulled for the week when I share my thoughts and reflections that week.
Are you interested in having an anchor card each week? Or does it not matter to you? Perhaps you want to start your own oracle card practice, and this would be a way for you to see my way (which is only one way, of course) of using my cards. Or perhaps, you would like to interpret the card for yourself. I could even share the card in Substack notes and on Instagram a couple of days before I write about it. Or I could share the card in Substack notes and on Instagram in the middle of the week, as a reminder of the energy of this week.
I’m going to throw in a little poll here just to see what some of you think. I’d love for you to click on whatever sounds best to you. Or, write to me in the comments if you have another thought.
Now, that’s we’ve gone through all of that, it will come as no surprise to you that, today, I want to share with you the card for the week ahead, as it has deeply inspired and spoken to me.
At first, I was utterly confused by this week’s card. In fact, that confusion continued up until just before I started writing this to you. I spent a few minutes looking at the card, looking back at my initial notes from back on the new moon when I turned this card over, and wondering what the hell the “Spring” card had to say to me right now. In the middle of January! Still in the depths of winter! It was too early for this card! Why would it have shown up now? And, what message could I possibly receive from it?
I put the card away back on the new moon and took my mind off of it until today. This morning, candles lit and hot coffee in hand, I was still so confused as to what this card was saying to me, and even more confused about what I would say about this card to you. Begrudgingly, I opened up the guidebook (I try to rely on my own intuition as much as possible) and, suddenly, it all made sense.
I read the words “rebuilding, reawakening, rebirth” and all at once it was crystal clear to me. And it could not be more simple and more appropriate.
The Spring card was here as a reminder to rest.
Of course, the energy of spring is not here. It is not at all time for that energy yet. It is not time for rebuilding, reawakening, and rebirth. It is not even time for the quiet movements of pre-spring. The festival and celebrations of Imbolc are still two weeks away. The stirring of energy after a long winter’s rest has not yet begun.
So, what can the Spring card teach me in the middle of winter? It was obvious to me that it was not calling me to begin to feel the small shifts of very early spring. It’s true that it won’t be very long until the energy does shift in a powerful way. But, for now, the last few weeks of the depths of winter’s energy remain. Spring feels way to far away to even think about right now. Plus, I don’t really want to . So, what could this card offer me?
And, then, I finally got it - the Spring card in January is about the everyday magic of winter. It is a reminder to soak in all of winter’s magic whenever I can. All of that cozy, soft, restful energy. Now is the week for me to be stubbornly slow and present. To be determinedly quiet and gentle.
This is the time to strengthen my roots (January’s card) and to sink way deep down into the warm, cozy nights of winter for just a little while longer. To give myself the gift of deep, silent, soul-filling rest.
The spring card tells me to enjoy it now. To soak it all in now. To revel in winter’s energy now. So that I am truly refreshed and filled with a new level of energy, inspiration, and wisdom from my long deep winter’s rest.
But, what is deep rest?
And, how can I rest when I have so much other stuff going on in the middle of my everyday life? How do I create the balance? What counts as rest?
For the past two weeks, as I returned to my regular daily, work routines I fell into a bad pattern. I was so exhausted by getting back to work and the seemingly never-ending darkness, that, in the evenings, I simply crashed. I made dinner and then just couldn’t muster the energy to do anything else. It has felt so horrible, to be honest. I have wanted to do something besides nothing, but I just couldn’t. I just didn’t. And I’ve felt out of balance and uninspired during the weekdays.
After really thinking about all of that this weekend, and feeling a kick in the ass to soak in the rest of winter, I realize that, even though I have been focusing on keeping it slow, I have focused mostly on finding my slow groove at work again. Happily, I seem to have found my footing and my grounded-ness at work now. But, at home, I’ve just been empty and lost in these dark winter evenings.
I suppose you could say that I have been resting, but even though I have been literally resting and doing nothing, it hasn’t felt restful.
And, then it occurred to me just this weekend, that I need to think about what resting means to me.
And here’s what I came up with:
Resting is not the opposite of being busy. It’s not about doing nothing. It’s about inspired and rooted and anchored living. Rest means engaging in practices that ground me and engage me. Of course, rest includes napping and sleeping and doing nothing sometimes. But, more than that, it includes all of the things that connect me to my soul, that guide me back to me, that give me space to reflect and breathe and be filled up.
So, this week, as the Spring card reminds me to revel in the beauty and magic of January’s wintry energy, I intend to fill my mornings and evenings with slow, restful practices that inspire and anchor me. I intend to let my roots soak in all of the grounded energy that they can.
I’ll ask myself to remember those moments when I have felt most inspired and rooted and anchored. And, then I’ll create space for them in my mornings and my evenings. Space for reading and journaling. Space for talking and laughing. Space for napping and lighting candles. Space for romanticizing and listening. Space for creating and breathing.
The week ahead does move us one week closer towards spring. And, that is a reminder that the cycle of life is in constant motion. That nothing remains - and everything evolves.
Once in a yoga class, the teacher shared with us a quote in her opening meditation:
Allting upphör men ingenting tar slut.(Swedish) Everything ceases but nothing ends.
There is always a shift in energy and an opening into something else. Always. And the cycle begins again. In nature and in us. Everything ceases but nothing ends.
As we are aware that, even though it may not feel like it, spring is just around the corner. The seasons are, even now, slowly giving way and making space for one another. And what that teaches me, right now, is to double down on what is happening right here, right now. To embrace and be and feel this present moment. To let this week be whatever it will be (chaos and stress and joy and all), and to truly be mindful and aware and awake in order to not miss one magical moment of the beauty of everyday life as January begins to wane.
Wishing you a deeply rooted and anchored week this week, my friend. May you simply be present in this season of your life. And may you create space for soft, gentle rest that inspires and grounds you each day.
Until next week, blessings of winter magic to you and your loved ones.
xoxo. liz.
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