What Can Tarot Tell Us About This Month’s New Moon?

If you are learning about astrology, one simple place to start is to begin keeping track of the phases of the moon (and to make it easier, there are many phone apps that will tell you what phase the moon is in, if you don’t have a calendar that shows this). Today, as I write this, the moon is new, or dark — a good time to set intentions for the rest of the month that you’d like to see become full and manifest themselves.

What does tarot want to tell us about this new moon? I pulled two cards from the Universal Wisdom deck by Toni Carmine Salerno, and the first one to pop out was — and how appropriate! — Luna! With her came Lilac Mist. Both these cards stress trust, love, and letting go of fear. This is a time when many people are experiencing stressful changes — but these changes, though they do not seem to be for the best or to serve any useful purpose, will prove to do so in the end. It’s easy for me to say that — but if you are experiencing a loss, or if you are facing a very frightening situation such as an impending death, these are hard words to hear and it won’t feel as though they are true now or perhaps not for a long time, if ever. In the case of deep, hard, terribly traumatic losses, sometimes I think it takes a lifetime or two before things go right again. Yes, post-traumatic stress can extend even into the next life or two. But eventually, even if a kalpa of time must pass first, it WILL get better. (And thinking in terms of being reunited with a lost loved one in another lifetime — or contemplating what that lost loved one would want us to be doing with our lives right now — can sometimes ease some of the pain of loss.) In the meantime, we’re asked to approach the situation with as much love and trust — and as little fear — as  we can. If we want to know what we can do to set the situation right more quickly, the answer is here: by focusing on love, not on fear. And one thing that can help us to focus on love is to remember that we are never, ever truly alone. Nor are we the first people ever to have been asked to respond to difficult situations with love rather than negativity.

In these cards I also see another, related message, and it’s this: voice plus spirit (the blue throat chakra color of Luna plus the purple crown chakra color of Lilac Mist). Where does voice plus spirit plus letting go of fear plus focusing love lead you? To me it says, fearlessly speak up and make things right in your world. Don’t speak up with a voice full of negativity, but speak up with a voice full of love and courage. If it resonates with you, set this intention for this month’s new moon.