The Betwixt Season: Tarot for Magick & Possibility
Where I live, in the land of easy summer, autumn has to work hard to find footing, but she eventually finds her color and her gothic coolness.
There is some part of me that settles into a form of contentment I only experience in autumn - a feeling like everything around me from the weather to the colors fits just right. Where I live, autumns are short and fleeting, a shooting star arching between summer and winter that illuminates the night sky with its precious and unusual light and then is gone. Between Harvest Home and Samhain, we are in the thick of harvest season, where the energy of summer's abundance is dissipating into the fog of autumn's life-nourishing decay.
It's no surprise that this time of year of rapidly changing landscapes and growing shadows (at least in the more northern and southern parts of our planet), that it’s a season associated with witch folk, the unfamiliar, and the liminal. Autumn greets us with the reminder that all is finite - from the green leaf to the barley field - and yet, there is life still to be lived. The pull between the worlds grows stronger as the veil between all places begins to thin - part of the training of witch folk is to know how to stay rooted on one side while connecting with the other.
While I love this time of growing dark and in-betweenness, I can also find myself harried and hurried, trying to do all the things that the season inspires. While facing the finite can be a relief, it can also bring with it the fear of what might be ending, the grief of what is no longer with us, and the hopelessness that can come from feeling that some aspects of life on this planet (such as the horrors of hungry war and profit machines) feel relentlessly infinite.
One of the reasons that witch folk practice magick - beyond the consciousness-changing effects that occur in ritual which evoke a sense of empowerment in one's life - is that magick helps us to access our current of the infinite. Magick does not guarantee an outcome but it helps to expand our notion of what is possible. For me, autumn is one of the most magickal times of year, with its dance between the infinite and finite, with light and shadow, and full of sabbats calling us to gather and share abundance. It is where we can gather betwixt and between the challenges of life, the expectations of overcultures, and unrealistic pressures of modern living, to connect with the visions of worlds and futures abundant with kindness and possibility.
While my betwixt season appears between the Autumn Equinox and Samhain, your betwixt season might appear at another time of the year. I encourage you to find your own season of liminality and I hope the following tarot spread helps you to notice the sudden shimmer of magick and possibility throughout all parts of your year.
Tarot for Magick and Possibility
The following tarot spread is to help you connect with your current of magickal energy and find areas of possibility in your life - all with a little help from our beloved ancestors. If you're stuck on a problem or an area of your life feels particularly stagnant, this spread can help you notice where a shift of perspective can lead to a shift of energy. It is a great spread for times when you're feeling the bigness of life and the universe, but haven't quite figured out how to stay rooted and centered in your explorations. Alternatively, if you're feeling inspired to work magick, but don't know where to focus your efforts, this can be a helpful spread to cast (for both individual practitioners and magickal groups).
✨ Card 1. Something Afoot
This card highlights the current of magick swirling around you at the moment. Often this card is inspiring and can be a big energetic "yes, that's what has been calling me!" Challenging cards in this position can highlight things that you might feel afraid of or uncertain about but want to explore or a part of your life that is calling for transformation.
✨ Card 2. The Crossroads
The place you find yourself in your practice and why things are feeling muddled or uncertain. This card often highlights the choice you feel like you're trying to make or the ways that it feels that the possibilities are limited.
✨ Card 3. The Veil Parts: This Side
As the veil thins, meetings are made. This card highlights the inherent gifts you carry within you, often showing a possibility for the path ahead that you may have missed or not given enough weight to.
✨ Card 4. The Veil Parts: That Side
As the veil thins, the ancestors arrive to meet us. This card highlights a gift that your ancestors are bringing you to support your ability to connect with the magickal energy of the season. Like the previous card, this one often reveals a possibility for the path ahead that you may not have noticed yet or forgotten.
✨ Card 5. A Tool to Use
This card highlights a tool (such as a magickal or healing technique or practice) to call on for the path ahead. The element of this card (for example, the fiery energy of a wands card) can point you towards a particular element-inspired practice (such as the fiery energy of a candle magick ritual). The Major Arcana can inspire all sorts of magickal acts or might be pointing you towards certain aspects of personal or community care.
✨ Card 6. A Step to Take
This card suggests the next step to take to tap into your current of magickal possibility.
🍁
So are you a child of autumn’s glow or are you eager to get onwards into winter?
While you can peruse through my complete archive of tarot spreads, you can also find the rest of my in-between tarot series below:
🪽 The Soft Season: Tarot for Clarity & Inspiration
🌸 The Blossoming Season: Tarot for Big Feelings
☀️ The Bright Season: Tarot for Connection & Purpose
May you find the shimmer of magick wherever your life takes you, highlighting pathways of possibility that are hidden to the heart until they are finally named.
This post was made possible through patron support.
❤︎ Thanks, friends. ❤︎
