Under the high heat of the solstice sun, I wished nothing more than to feel light, and airy, and full of hope; yet, I couldn’t quite shake the rumbling uneasiness and discomfort that was settling into the pit of my stomach. It was a time of the year for fun and frivolity; and yet, the skies turned grey, and the rains poured down, and my mood washed away with the weather. I didn’t want to be in the thick of this—didn’t want to be present with these feelings; I wanted to run, and hide, and drink my sorrows away.
But instead, I listened to my guides, listened to the messages that came to me. The night before, I had a dream. I dreamt of a brilliantly colored, ember snake. A snake with a hooded neck, and eyes like hardened black beetles. I was scared, but I wasn’t, and I watched closely as the snake slithered across rocky ground toward a series of goblets. I watched as he tipped over the five ornate cups, and as each cup spilled over, I was overcome by different feelings and emotions. There was sadness, grief, despair, anger and regret; they all washed over me in succession. I felt them each at a time and wanted them all to end. But the snake caught me in his stare and held me tight to what each cup had to show me. He sat with me as each cup, each emotion, illuminated something new to my being. Without a word, he held me as I held myself through it all. And then, it was over—the snake, the dream, it faded from me.
So, I sit here, wishing I could will away the feelings in my core that seem counterintuitive to what the summer should provide, but instead, I tune in and turn up what the emotions have to tell me. I allow them to illuminate the truths (my truths). I allow them to advise me of what I need, and what I certainly do not. And I allow them to show me the lessons I need to follow my true soul journey home. It was difficult to sit with the discomfort, to really dig my heels into it; yet, all the while, I felt the dream snake around me. I felt his burning ember glow protect me and support me, and I dared to let myself be taken where I never had before.
Pulled under the healing and cleansing energy of a Solstice Thunderstorm, our medicine for the month of July asks us to look deeply at what our emotions have to tell us. We aren’t very good at sitting with our emotions these days. At the first sign of discomfort or ugliness, we wish to send it away. We scroll aimlessly through our social media feeds, mindlessly indulge our senses and make every desperate attempt to avoid or numb our feelings. But friends, if we allow them to be, our emotions can be our greatest teachers, our dearest guides and our fondest mentors. Rather than numbing them, avoiding them or ignoring them, what would it look like if we tuned in and listened to them? How would it feel if we sat with them, heard all that they had to tell us and took away the important message they were trying to deliver?
Under this potent portal of the recent changes in seasons, we are being invited into a new season of our lives. Combined, the Five of Cups and Cobra Spirit are asking us to pay attention to the guidance and wisdom that our emotional self has to share. Don’t turn away from it, as the tendency is oft to do; rather, lean into the discomfort that your emotions may bring up and learn from the lessons they impart.
We tend to view emotions as being either positive (happiness, joy, peace) or negative (anger, sadness, grief), but in doing so, this clouds our judgement and we see emotions as being either good and desirable or bad and undesirable. But, what if emotions simply existed and were neither good nor bad, positive nor negative, desirable nor undesirable? What if we experienced emotions solely to help guide us along our journeys? To illustrate what makes us comfortable or uncomfortable? To highlight the boundaries that we require? Or, to motivate and inspire us? Emotions, then, would not be dichotomously viewed as good or bad, but rather seen as tools to support ourselves and our overall development. This month, we are being challenged to do away with the labels and judgement of your emotions and trust that they serve a greater good. There is no good, bad or ugly, there are merely feelings and they are yours to experience.
This month, as you journey through all the feels, notice what your emotional self is asking you. Notice what your emotional self has to share. Notice the guidance and knowledge that your emotional self wishes to impart upon you. Try to do away with the labeling of emotions as if they were heroes and villains, and rather, see them for the teaching they provide and the wisdom they offer. Remember (said in the chanting voice of the sharks from “Finding Nemo”): emotions are friends, not foes.
Like this post? View similar content here: June Tarot + Animal Medicine
