Hope?

I have a mood disorder.

I’ve always had it more or less, which means on any given day I’m more prone than other people to default to a deep sense of hopelessness I drag around like a sack of bricks.

I land on bright spots like everyone else, but an insidious why bother? sits beneath a lot of my days, snuffing out good feelings as soon as they start to surge. I get all the necessary stuff done, but it doesn’t feel great.

I was an introspective kid and when my parents divorced I didn’t deal with it very well. In my defence, my parents might have made their split less messy for their children. But I had no idea it was the beginning of lifelong cycles of depression and the constant vigilant management of my thoughts.

If you also feel like you work four times harder than everyone else to carry your mind and body through your day, I see you :)

As much as my beloved brain struggles, I root for it with exercise and give it lots of fibre and abstain from anything that may upset its delicate chemistry—and my old companion hopelessness still wants to hang out.

So, why am I telling you this?

Because my rusty hope-o-meter has been waning even more so in recent months (maybe it’s the state of democracy or menopause, both of which are discouraging) and this post will address a bit of this.

As we move toward the first weeks of moody October … alas, this reading gives us a convincing argument for looking up.

Where We Are

I’m not shocked to see The Weasel and Pine, from Jessica Roux’s Woodland Wardens.

If the last reading had any truth to it, we’re coming off what felt like a trip to the underworld.

The High Priestess neglected to mention that there may be some murky and/or extreme terrain ahead. But it’s been rocky only because we’re honing in on what we really desire these days, and becoming a better listener to the self behind our self.

No easy task—and this kind of personal revolution can only hatch from introspection.

The Weasel represents solitary self-sufficiency—it’s ok to spend some time alone and think about things—and Pine reminds us not to neglect the protections we may need (ie: boundaries).

The next card, from painter Deborah Koff-Chapin’s Soul Cards (a deck with no words), feels meditative and contemplative too, and its figure foreshadows the Star energy which comes later in our spread.

I grab this deck when I need to get out of my head, when the confusion can’t be answered with language and logic and things are far from black and white.

As can be the case with introspection—it does feel, in the heaviness of a punishing news cycle and concerning world events, that the kinds of questions we’re asking now can’t be settled with reason and data and fact, and it’s time to explore that.

We also have the fresh air of this next card though :)

The 6 of Branches, traditionally called the 6 of Wands, means there is some sort of victory.

Unquellable fear about the state of the world aside, in 2025 I’ve come through more than a few obstacles with flying colours. My work, relationships, and future plans feel pretty good.

Perhaps you feel this way too.

The 6 of Wands is a 6—not a 10—so there’s more work to do, but in your personal realm maybe you’ve achieved recognition and a sort of critical mass on some front. A friend in an email this morning summed it up well: “still a-flail in some areas of life, but feeling good in others.”

The depiction of this 6 of Wands, from the Mindscapes Tarot by John A. Rice, is not so much a parade on horseback with laurel wreaths and chutzpah but a pretty trail leading into denser woodland—and it’s hard to make out what lies ahead (although note the blue sky beyond the trees).

Hopefully, fear of the future isn’t robbing you of a happy milestone. Rather, your confidence is growing, and no matter where you’re at these days these first cards say keep doing what you’re doing.

What’s Coming In

Aces in tarot are beginnings, and the Ace of Stones (or the Ace of Pentacles) is the most literal ace of all.

Soon-ish something tangible is due to arrive in your world—an opportunity—and this can take any form: an offer, a gift, or your own need to focus on practical matters.

Psychologist and tarot scholar Jessica Dore says the suit of pentacles represents “the things we hold precious expressed through what we physically do.” Pentacles are often described in terms of work and money, but it’s more accurate to see them as helpful reflections on our behaviour—how our behaviour is lining up (or not lining up) with what we want.

Dore says, “With practice we can cultivate a degree of behavioural sovereignty and an ability to move in alignment with our values, no matter what our mind is doing.”

Whatever this seed of opportunity is for you, note that you may be required to figure out your optimal conditions and a watering schedule. That is, you may have to initiate an unfamiliar habit that nurtures this early growth but, by doing so, this seed can take root and ground you for a very long time.

Or, the opportunity itself may help bring about a past behaviour (something you used to do all the time and you loved it) that feels new again, coming back to you like a lost friend.

The Advice

The traditional Star card features a woman bearing water and represents many lovely things: creativity, tenderness, inspiration. The Star replenishes our dream state.

Here’s the traditional version of this card:

Author James Hastings tells us that early religions often included a ritual of pouring water on the ground to produce rain. With rain, comes the possibility of new life, and the woman on The Star is pouring water from two urns as part of a sacred ritual of spiritual renewal.

We’ve endured plenty (this card appears right after The Tower in the major arcana), but in the days ahead we’re given the space to exhale, to usher in a more tranquil state.

To hope for things.

Even those of us who find this idea preposterous.

Paraphrased from Tarot for Change, by Jessica Dore:

“Not all of us have the conditioning and temperament to imagine the future as one that’s likely to be favourable. Hopelessness is a core feeling for those who were not afforded the luxury of feeling safe in early life.

Why take the risk of believing in something that has no evidence of being realistic? If you have a track record of not having your needs met, you’ll have a hard time believing that, one day, they will be.

Hopelessness may have protected you—if you were not willing to put yourself through one more disappointment. But it is no way to live and thrive.”

Whether you believe hope is something we learn (or don’t learn) early on, when I occasionally reread this passage I feel less shitty about the chronic pessimism which has shut me out of a lot of potential joy in my life (and that isn’t necessarily my fault).

This is exactly The Star’s gentle magic.

It says, yup, it’s been shitty—and then advises us to let our light shine BRIGHT and applaud what makes us truly special.

The advice, then?

The stars are aligning in your favour, starshine. It’s time to trust them.

Last Thoughts and Oracles

From The Spirit Oracle, I’ll leave you with these colourful characters, who also have good advice and nice things to add to this discussion.

From the guidebook, for Giraffe Spirit:

“In all aspects of your life, it’s time to stretch your neck out and broaden your view, open your eyes to what others need or are experiencing, and see the big picture you fit into. Look beyond what catches your eye at eye level and know that not everything is as obvious as you might like it to be.”

And Moth, with its message of surrender …

“Release your need for certainty and control so that you can relax into a more balanced sense of yourself.”

Kim Krans’ Wild Unknown Archetypes deck puts this idea another way—and I keep this on my phone in my reminders: “You may think you have to find the thread and pull it. Imagine, though, that it is already tied around you, waiting for you to follow it home.”

And this heavy-lifter.

Eagle.

How cool to have it turn up with The Star’s culminating advice for the days ahead to 100% trust ourselves (and the universe). Because it can be safe to hope, or so people say :)

Now is not the time to make yourself small for the sake of others. Eagle gives us the grace to extend our enormous, ambitious wings and soar.

Resources

Baron-Reid, Collette. The Spirit Oracle. Hay House, Inc., 2018.

Dore, Jessica. Tarot for Change. Using the Cards for Self-Care, Acceptance, and Growth. Penguin Random House, 2021.

Krans, Kim. The Wild Unknown Archetypes. Harper Collins Canada, 2019.

Koff-Chapin, Deborah. Soul Cards. The Centre for Touch Drawing, 1995.

Rice, John A. Mindscapes Tarot. Hay House LLC, 2025.

Roux, Jessica. Woodland Wardens. Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2022.