Happy Full Moon in Aries witches! My Aries placements are loving this lunar energy. I couldn't sleep last night (kind of unusual for me, honestly. I'm not typically affected by the Full Moon), but I was able to get up and get going. When the Moon is in a Fire sign it can be especially energizing, but that also means that it can be especially exhausting if that energy is misdirected or mishandled. Drink some water, take a deep breath, and remember to sit down and take a break. Maybe don't stay up until well after midnight like I did.
Today's card is the Six of Swords reversed, coming in hot to tell us to make a stand. The phrase "Stand for something or you'll fall for everything" came in as clear as a bell. To be clear, this isn't a direction to go out and start shit and start fights that you can't finish (as tempting as that might be with this intense Aries / Libra energy lighting it up in the aether). This is more a direction to consider what's important to you, and if you actually stand up for what you believe in. A lot of us will talk the talk, but we won't practice what we preach. It's easy to fall into dichotymous patterns where we ignore nuances, but do we actually believe that things are that black and white? If not, then why do we continue to act like they are?
The thing about Aries energy is it tends to carry a lot of energy of decision making, and this can tip the scales really aggressively, causing us to make haughty exclamations that we don't actually believe. I'm an Aries sun with some other strong Aries and fire placements. Believe me, I'm THE monarch of making rash statements around things that don't even require an opinion (one time I made a really intense argument against bread boxes. I have since conceded that bread boxes are, in fact, a reasonable invention). The thing is, these wild opinions aren't actually us standing for anything, and it's betting on a race that we don't have a horse in. It's one of the dangerous aspects of fire energy.
We live in a time where we're more focused on being heard or having ANY opinion, rather than actually taking the time to understand, or that you don't know enough to have an opinion. Tools like social media pressure us into thinking that we should have an opinion, because we're encouraged to think that silence is indifference. Silence can be a virtue. If we use silence properly, we can take time to observe and to understand, rather than just adding more noise to the cacophany of the world. We can take a step back, and digest information. We can do our own research, and do our best to develop a deeper understanding before adding to the conversation.
This reversed Six of Swords is telling us to take a stand, but it's also warning against doing things for the "likes". The stand we take doesn't have to be public 24/7. It's not taking a stand if we're doing it to be performative. We're not helping anyone when we do something because we "should" look a certain way or support something. A great example; a corporation decorating their logo with a pride flag during June, but then supporting anti-LGBTQ+ bills and issues in the "off season".
The stand we take should come from a deep sense of self, so that we can truly speak up and be involved when our voice is needed. Upright, the Six of Swords is all about a journey, finding our way, being sent out on a mission. If you were asked to take up the helm and do a mission (think video game style side quest) based on something you're quick to support (or not support), would you believe in it? For most of the things that we're asked to make an opinion of (often being pushed to make a snap decision without room for debate or conversation), they're not really worth fighting for. Or, if they are, we often don't understand them enough to fight for properly.
I've had a lot on my mind lately in terms of cancel culture and binary thinking. A lot of this was cued by "discussion" (read: canceling) around Dave Chappelle's "The Closer", and how he was transphobic. Yes, there were problematic things said (I'm trans non-binary. I'm not flippant about transphobia or anti-trans dialogues), but the incendiary reactions to "canceling" him completely ignore important dialogue around race and racism, specifically within the realm of LGBTQ+ communities. The quote "Gay people are minorities, until they need to be White again" really hit. But yet again, the conversation of racism and anti-Blackness is getting curbed because the issue of transphobia. Obviously we can discuss both, and that's the thing; we can stand for both. But there's an expectation to completely curb one issue in lieu of another. Suddenly queerness is more important than Blackness, which I'm sure is something most of us don't want to subscribe to. Dichotomysing everything to a "this versus that" is harmful, and can make us ignore issues that we do in fact believe in.
The issue with being expected to stand for so much is that we are often left depleted. No one on this planet has the energy to cope with caring all the time. Lately I can't stop thinking, "I don't care. I just don't care." That doesn't mean that I don't want to stand for anything, but no wonder we're all so exhausted. We jump through hoops to seem "woke" , or to seem like we're not everything we hate. We deplete ourselves in order to be involved in fights that don't involve us, that we're not equipped for, or that distract us from the fights that we're dealing with individually on a daily basis.
I digress. Again- I have had a LOT on my mind. I have a lot of things to write about once I'm doing this round of readings.
When you stand for something, do you actually believe in it? Or are you adding fuel to a fire that is burning important things? Is the fire you're contributing to burning proverbial books? Are you burning yourself by spreading yourself too thin?
Remember, you're on a journey. It sucks to be reminded, because we want to care, but sometimes you do need to put your wellness first. If you're feeling exhausted because everything feels like a losing battle, step away. In every war that has ever been fought (and I say this as a pacifist), there have been medics tending to the injured. Often times, though, a lot of the wounds had nothing to do with weapons. So many wounds were a product of the environment. Are you being wounded by trying to fight, but you're not taking care of yourself? No one wins when we subject ourselves to psychic trench foot.