The Acorn Theory
I am exhausted. Is it Neptune in Aries? Is it a relentless workload? Is it the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and Iran, Gaza, and Venezuela? Yes. Yes. Yes.
Hello. I’m here. I’ve been a minute, but I’m still here.
It’s just that life has felt like this:
Running naked through a snowstorm along the edge of a cliff :(
Where We Seem To Be as February Begins
So—the adventurous decision and getting yourself out there.
That’s been happening.
Apparently Neptune entered Aries on January 26, initiating a 13-year transformative transit which merges Neptune's dreamy, spiritual influence with Aries' fiery, pioneering energy—a new era focused on individuality, action, and the restructuring of belief systems.
And the 2 of Wands, from the Tarot de Marseille, given to me by my daugher this Christmas (a deck discontinued due to WW II but restored in recent years), tells us we’re definitely testing our limits.
We may have wanted to learn something, do something, or be something, so we said “I’m going to the limits of what I know and now I’m going to go beyond them.”
This is the card of the pioneer. You are trying to make something happen and you’ve made the declaration and left the comfort of familiarity to direct your efforts toward it. Hurrah!
But even if you have support and the first hints of success on your own terms (and by that I mean by being your own weird, unique self) you may be itching to abandon the mission too.
The traditional 2 of Wands depicts someone in fancy clothes in a tower yearning to be somewhere else. It isn’t that they don’t like their life; it’s just that what this person deeply needs is missing. It’s there, underneath, and profoundly important to who they are.
And despite the discomfort, we’ve been launching ourselves out there in a new way to find it.
What’s Coming In
The Queen of Cups is a little like the High Priestess.
Half in the regular world and half in the world of intuition, rather than basing her insights on logic, she engages with the mysterious (she is unafraid in the face of the unknown) and an attention to emotions only strengthens her abilities.
I’ve been thinking of ditching the tarot blog lately. Too busy with more “important” work things—a load that is making me, for the moment anyway, feel fraught, fried, and moody. It’s a lot of left-brain focus; I feel chained to a desk and computer screen, and I’m out of balance (have I mentioned?).
But abandoning this space where I share tarot insight—where so much magic resides—seems really dumb.
When I do rest, I see that I need my tarot practice more than ever—and note that I got up at 3:00 am to write this before work but I’m having a rather good time of it :)
Queen of Cups says this same thing: have reverence, awe for the sacred or something superior to oneself, as she leads with heart, not mind. If we were living in another time there would be a clear role for her: seer.
Do you have a spiritual practice? It’s a good time to lean into it. To stop and listen, even if you think you don’t have time for that. What’s coming in will demand it. Or just talk to your pets and cuddle them. That works too.
P.S. The Queen of Cups is very well boundaried :)
The 7 of Pentacles is our clarifier here and it also affirms that we shift a bit and take a moment of pause, but for assessment. Now, a little ways down the road, it’s time to evaluate, review and, if need be, course-correct. Maybe we’ve been waiting to be rescued, and we’re not going to be rescued, so now what?
The Advice
The more we achieve, the greater the load, pressure, repetition—mental and emotional weight.
In the traditional 10 of Wands, a figure clutches a cumbersome bunch of wands in the most awkward way possible, limping painfully into their future. The wands weigh more than their body weight and the message is this: it’s time to look hard at the way you handle responsibility.
Whatever may be draining you at the moment, it is not sustainable. But the 10 of Wands is the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new one (because it’s a 10) and it’s further reinforced here by the Page of Wands, the very next card sequentially in the deck.
The meaning of this Page is so drastically different than what the 10 of Wands tells us—and so drastically needed.
From the White Sage Tarot by Theresa Hutch, decked out in a stylish cap and pussy willow walking stick, this guy has an utterly different vibe. Think “apprentice” and a remedy to remember your childlike enthusiasm. This Page is creativity, curiosity, and gifts you permission to follow your own spark and, for eff’s sake, let yourself breathe.
In Jessica Dore’s Tarot For Change, in reference to the Page of Wands, Dore writes about late psychologist James Hillman’s “acorn theory”:
“Hillman believed every person has a purpose that reveals itself in childhood. Due to environment and family conditioning the purpose often goes underground, resurfacing in mental health sympotoms meant to alert the person they’ve strayed from the path they were meant for. The “acorn theory” is that there is something unique about us, attached to our “daemon,” something that you are, that you have, that is not the same as the personality you think you are. Hillman spurs us to “grow down,” back into alignment with some original mysterious energy that reminds us who we are. The Page of Wands is this spark of life before it is obscured.”
In Kim Krans’ Wild Unknown Tarot, this card is called the Daughter of Wands—a passionate visionary and free spirit—which so nicely fits with the oracle card I pulled from the Mystical Shaman Oracle.
“When the Wild Woman dances into your reading, she reminds you of the essence of authenticity and freedom. Divested of all social constraints and cultural conformity, she holds up a mirror to your essential self—the true essence of who you are and who you’re meant to become. She is a reminder of the bright light within each of us that gets dimmed by the restrictions imposed upon us by the expectations of society. Your true self is called to engage with the world. Be yourself and let the Great Spirit decide what happens.”
Or put another way which I can’t resist, in the wise words of the monumentally great David Bowie: “Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been.”
Last Thoughts
I’ve not forgotten about the enormous pink bird in the top right quadrant of our reading.
For a moment please look at the frenetic running figure on the Deborah Koff-Chapin Soul Card with which we began this discussion and then gaze on the oracle card called Under My Umbrella.
Each of these cards show a human figure who appears uncomfortable, but the contrast in feel is notable.
Some oracle decks are very straightforward. Others have messages so obscure you wonder if there is any advice there at all. Catrin Welz-Stein’s Oracle of Mystical Moments is the latter, likely because her artworks were made into an oracle deck after-the-fact, the messages were later assigned to each image when they were never meant to be turned into an oracle deck in the first place.
But this is also what makes these cards open to wide interpretation :)
And, this is mine …
You are that gorgeous, bigger-than-life, pink parrot—that’s the real you—and this earthly human you inhabit (exhausted by the news cycle, or grieving a sudden loss, or riddled with seasonal affective disorder at the moment) is merely in charge of protecting your true self.
Shielding you in bad weather.
A friend.
Just try to keep that in mind.
Works Cited
Dore, Jessica. Tarot for Change. Penguin Random House, 2021.
Grimaus, B.P. 1930 Tarot de Marseille. Vieux Monde Express.
Hutch, Theresa. White Sage Tarot. U.S. Games Systems, Inc. 2018.
Koff-Chapin, Deborah. Soul Cards. The Center for Touch Drawing, 1995.
Villoldo, Alberto. Collette Baron-Reid, Marcela Lobos. Illustrated by Jena DellaGrottaglia. Mystical Shaman Oracle. Hay House, Inc. 2028.
Welz-Stein, Catrin. Oracle of Mystical Moments, 2017.
