Cycle 5 - 2020 Daily Medicine Cards - October 19 - November 1
Updated: Jan 17, 2021
Day 56 - October 19
Moon Day Greetings, And what an appropriate card to receive when the moon has just gone into the mutable fire sign of Sagittarius - today the Princess of Wands graces us from the Thoth deck. I don’t remember where I read this and can’t find it in either of my Thoth books - but this card was banned from prisons (lol) when the deck first came out because the imagery was considered pornogaphic!!!!
As we now quote solidly understand, the suit of Wands represents the element of Fire and that each element also houses all the other elements in some form, we are primed to learn that our Princess of Wands represents “Earth of Fire.” Thus she is the fire and the fuel.
Personal - The Princess of Wands is considered extremely individualistic and independent. She is brilliant, daring, full of essential vigour and energy. She also embodies that aspect of the human condition in which we are simply untrustworthy due to the volatility of being emotional creatures. At her worst, especially in anger or love, she is sudden, violent, unforgiving and vengeful. In what ways do you find yourself embodying the fire and its fuel? What are some positives and negatives that arise from this self-perpetuating combination?
Collective - Crowley states in The Book of Thoth that the combined imagery of our Princess’s “Plumes of Justice” headdress and her nakedness are representative of chemical science. Specifically Crowley notes that a chemical reaction cannot take place until an element is perfectly free to combine with its partner. Can you apply this chemistry metaphor to things you’ve experienced in your life? What creates a “free to combine” state for you? In your most earthy-fire state, what traits do you need/seek in a partner?
In magic and medicine, yours truly
Gina Mauro
Day 57 - October 20
Good Morning to All my Harriets and Sherlocks out there, Today’s archetype card is The Detective, and I’m pretty sure it’s one that we can all relate to in some way! If you’re following along with these posts using Caroline Myss’s book Archetypes: Who Are You? she suggests in the deck’s companion guidebook to read the Warrior/Crime Fighter section of Archetypes.
The spy, the double agent, the sleuth, the snoop….they’re all seeking out information for the purpose of solving crimes.
Personal - Myss suggests that we examine our passion for using our powers of observation to get at the truth. Is it born of feeling empty? Lost? Lied to? Out of control? What are some of the factors that can tip you over into the Detective’s shadow attributes?
Collective - I love this quote from the guidebook, it feels so applicable to what literally everyone has been trying to do on the internet all year: “the Spy is associated with surreptitious acquisition of secret information regarding politics, business, or national security.” With so many tenuous factors all around us, it feels like our 3D world could very well be made of lies. What has the core impetus of your bigger-picture truth-seeking been? What gut instinct makes you want to uncover something that has been hidden from the public? How do you imagine this helping, hurting or simply changing the collective?
In magic and medicine, yours truly Gina Mauro
Day 58 - October 21
My Dear Fellow Mush-humans, Another round with the Mushroom Playing Cards and revealed to us is the 3 of Diamonds - Panaeolus castaneifolius. The Chestnut Panaeolus brings us many messages including those based on its appearance as well as its family as a whole.
Right off the bat, we know that we are going to overlay anything we learn about today’s mushroom on top of the foundation which is the 3 of Diamonds. Recall that diamonds are analogous to the Tarot’s pentacles - wealth/riches (physical and non), stability, connection to the earth. The threes always represent magic, and especially the amplification of magic through strength and teamwork. The standard Tarot imagery shows 3 people working on a structurally beautiful carved stone archway over a window. This is one of only 2 cards where the pentacles are not represented by a metal coin (the other being the 5 of Pentacles which is glass). The Panaeolus family is particularly interesting as some have psychedelic properties, many do not, but ALL however do contain serotonin and its primary metabolizing entity. The Chestnut Panaeolus is found very commonly and prolifically in hay fields and general grassy places.
Personal - Let’s talk about magic that doesn’t look like magic - the pentacles made of stone and the mushrooms that have the serotonin but the psychoactive component. What are the main things that challenge your normal perceptions of wealth and money? If I’ve ever read Tarot for you and you’ve received either the 3 or the 5 of Pentacles, you know I will say “wealth is what we have when all our money is gone.” How does this idea strike you? I feel like the intersection of our card and our mushroom is asking us to tune in to who we are when glamor, sparkles and soaring highs are off the table but when a baseline of health and wealth is available.
Let’s talk about the teamwork bit and the 3s. Who is your crew? Who do you work for? What are you building? If you expand your awareness to your deeper connection with your team as well as the larger entity for whom you are working, what is revealed to you through the intelligence of your heart? Remember that when we work with the cards and especially when we bring the mushrooms in, that we often have to look beyond the obvious and tune into the subtle undercurrents of our lives to discover some of the most powerful driving forces.
In magic and medicine, yours truly
Gina Mauro
Day 59 - October 22
Greetings From the Stars, Astrology day is upon us again, and it’s a “big” day as well. While the Sun goes into Scorpio this evening, our cards direct us to focus on our Moon aspect today.
The Moon’s placement today pulls in a number of aspects of our lives to create a message that is quite comprehensive regarding our inner selves, our outer lives and our relationships. As we know, the Moon carries our most inner aspects, our truest softest darkest selves, our psyche, our emotions, our soul. The 6th house is all about our jobs (not our careers) and used to be called “the house of servants.” We are called to examine the lives and mindsets that we hide when it comes to the relationships embodied in working for someone else or having someone else working for us. Capricorn comes in as an excellent bridge between the Moon and the 6th house by being the crystallizing entity that draws forth the tangible results of hard work.
Personal - Our ancestors knew they could get through the deprivations of winter only by being disciplined and conservative in the truest sense of the words. Our Spiritual prompts approach this idea in a couple different ways. “The nurturing of dedication to achieve your ideas.” We are called to remember that a huge part of achieving discipline is to pour forth from the nurturing cup which you have filled with a dedicated sense of care and belief in your endeavors.
Collective - The other Spiritual prompt gives forceful direction to “Defend your goals by making the right connections.” We are regularly practically shouted at by our cards to focus immense care on our relationships, to feel empowered to choose our inner circles, and to be unapologetic in their careful curation. Since today’s reading is specifically about work/jobs, relationships and our psyche, perhaps our assignment can be to sit in meditation to softly draw in to our awareness the energetic profile of our own true realities in this realm.
In magic and medicine, yours truly
Gina Mauro
Day 60 - October 23
Thursday Greetings All, A synchronous card on an auspicious day. Not only the first full day of Scorpio and a half-moon, but my dear dear friend who initiated me to card reading with playing cards 14 years ago and who gifted me this particular tarot deck about 8 years ago has welcomed her first baby into the world today! The Moon card is associated with the Greek goddess Artemis (Diana in Roman myth) ruler of the hunt but also goddess of childbirth - dedicated to shepherding new life into the world. As the tale goes, immediately after her own birth, she helped deliver her twin brother Apollo.
The Moon herself and our Moon card represent the changing nature of existence and the cycles of our lives. We see these things manifest most often as fertility and creativity. However, pulling the Moon card also demands we illuminate, examine and integrate our shadow aspects.
Personal - In correspondence with today’s astrological placement, this First Quarter phase moon is here to help you determine the healthiest avenue for your project’s growth and development. Approaching the idea of illumination, this half-open-aperture (aka today’s half moon) allows just enough light in to see the shadows but not so much (as a full moon would) to blow out all the important details with too much light, or so little (as a new moon would) to leave all the important details obscured in darkness.
Collective - Who is the Apollo to yoru Artemis? If you are one of the dogs in the card, who is your fellow howler and what is your call? What noise we can make together that we cannot make alone! And perhaps we can more easily stare down the darkness and endure the brightness when we have a companion.
In magic and medicine, yours truly
Gina Mauro
Day 61 - October 24
Happy Saturday Scry! As I’m sure many of you know and many of you don’t, each year corresponds numerologically to one or two Major Arcana cards. 2020 = 2 +2 = 4 = The Emperor. And today is the first day that we’ve pulled an emperor card at all for our Medicine Card project together! So we are going to scry for 4 minutes (quick and easy but really a great amount of time to be with the card).
The Emperor is generally meant to represent all things masculine, which makes me love cards/decks like the Many Queens and this deck the Circle of Life with their andrgynous figures challenging the old Tarot standard sex and gender assumptions. Corresponding to the sign of Aries, the first in the zodiac and Cardinal Fire, the Emperor is unequivocally considered the leader of the pack. Fearless, confident, courageous, adventurous, forceful, blunt, direct, in control, a visionary ruler creating order out of chaos. While ready to protect and defend his realm, he also always has a focus of conquest and how to transform those into an empire.
Personal - I find myself focusing on our Emperor’s robes and those draped as a curtain behind him. Though the red is slightly faded and not all the tones or patterns match, I understand that wealth, protection, warmth and power here is represented by the amount of cloth draping around the Emperor.
Collective - I find myself noting the broken, dirty and obscured mirror that one of our Emperor’s wee devilish minions is holding and has turned towards him - I understand that truth will always be obscured in the face of power.
In magic and medicine, yours truly
Gina Mauro
Day 62 - October 25
Morning Blessings Earth Angels, I am really beginning to love and look forward to some of the routine aspects of this Medicine Card project! Saturday Scry is of course a favorite, and Sunday Mudras are also really becoming a sparkling gem amongst days of “normal” meditation. Yes! I know I could pull a mudra card every day ;) Anyway, today’s mudra really is a gem, enjoy!
As holistic health practitioners, we try to stay aligned with the truth that nothing is a panacea. However, there are master plants like reishi, mugwort and schisandra that are extremely potent general tonics. As I read the description of Varuna Mudra, it resonates as the same, and thus an ingredient along our paths that could be quite beneficial to integrate regularly. As I was engaging this mudra in my morning meditation, I was struck with a new understanding of the vibrational work that the mudras do - these are antennae, you guys!!
Personal - I very much see the physical benefits of this mudra as applicable to our personal lives in terms of basic health as well as from a Chinese Medicine perspective. For example, even just achieving health/balance or improvement in connective tissues - tendons, ligaments and muscles can vastly and very notably change our individual experiences of day to day living. Also, carrying the attribute of vibrationally strengthening the kidney is huge! The TCM students and practitioners in this group know how essential (winky face) the kidney is to the formation of one’s self/beingness as well as the imbuing and maintaining one’s conscious and unconscious fuel and momentum to keep living.
Collective - I see a lot of the non-physical attributes of Varuna mudra as more applicable to collective consciousness and engagement. Improving memory, healing sexual trauma, awakening inner joy and vitality. These are components of life that can either hugely strengthen or weaken our ability to achieve strong bonds with others.
In magic and medicine, yours truly
Gina Mauro
Day 63 - October 26
Greetings and Blessings to All, Today is a Spirit of the Points acupressure day and our card could not be more perfect for themes of this week and this general era in history. Triple Heater 7, Assembly of Ancestors.
This point is so cool - it connects our destiny to our energy, harmonizing the internal and external which includes our connection to ancestry. It also moves stagnation and revitalizes the entire system by clearing away excess build-up of mundane consciousness, this helps us realign with the wisdom and virtue of our genetic and karmic lineage.
Personal - “Our individual destiny is always an expression of the lineage supporting it both in terms of our own previous incarnations as well as our familial and ethnic heritage. In keeping with the three heater’s function of governing social relationship, “assembly of ancestors” can be effective in treating issues regarding identification with one's genetic or ethnic lineage.”
Collective - We see in the quote above that within this paradigm the personal and collective are impossible to separate. Working with this point can help us grow beyond the limits of the unattached self and understand who we are in a much more expansive and expanded way.
In magic and medicine, yours truly
Gina Mauro
Day 64 - October 27
Dears, What a card from the Many Queens today. I can think of fewer more appropriate cards at this time when it is so easy to feel like we don’t know which battles to choose. There are so many, and the concept of choice doesn’t necessarily feel fair or accessible in many of our present scenarios.
The 5 of Swords reminds us that we literally cannot fight all the battles. We cannot wield all the swords. We must not battle those who have already walked away. We must grieve our lost battles and choose from there. We also remember that swords represent many things, but especially the apex of the intellect and the spirit’s union.
Personal - Perhaps you won the conflict, but at what cost? Are you feeling the despair left after a conflict? What are your concepts of winning and losing? Do you sometimes feel you’ve “lost” when technically you have “won?”
Collective - What really pushes others away? Walk away or go back and take a rest, let the feelings tell you where to go.
In magic and medicine, yours truly
Gina Mauro
Day 65 - October 28
Dear Humans, Our Animal Medicine messenger today is Spider! Her invocation reads: “Spider...weaving webs of delight, weave me a peaceful world. Carrying creation in your web, Wanting to be unfurled!”
Spider represents many medicines. She wove the first alphabet so that the continually evolving complexities of Earth’s children could understand the messages of history and also make our own records. Spider’s body shaped like a figure 8 symbolizes the infinite possibilities of creation. Her upper 4 legs represent the four winds of change and her lower 4 legs the four directions on the medicine wheel.
Personal - Another message to create! “Look for new alternatives to your present impasse...Spider could be asking you to use a journal to write out and review your progress. If you do this, you will not forget how you are creating a new or different phase in your life.”
Collective - Spider’s web is also called “the web of fate” and represents the wheel of life. Akin to the Wheel of Fortune card in the Tarot, these messengers remind us that it is very typical of humans to get caught in the polarity of good or bad. We often don’t realize or haven’t been taught that we can change it at any time by separating what we can control from what we cannot and moving forward from there. It’s just too easy to get stuck in the pop-culture rapid-media rut of commiseration and collective righteous indignation instead of taking the harder path of changing that which we can control. Spider assures us that we have this power.
In magic and medicine, yours truly
Gina Mauro
Day 66 - October 29
Beloved Sibling Seekers, From a tiny messenger yesterday to the largest land mammal today, Elephant graces us with messages of emotion, wisdom, community, ritual and more.
Highly sensitive and socially connected, Elephant medicine heals with community, cooperation, altruism, intelligence and gentle power. Chinese revere Elephant as a harbinger of happiness, longevity and good luck. Hindu Ganesh clears obstacles, brings good fortune, protection and blessing to new projects.
Personal - The time is now to trust your higher purpose and find powerful ways to live with an open heart in the world. As you learn to recognize, embrace and accept yourself, you will awaken a sense of freedom that helps transcend the imaginary barriers between your many parts of self (archetypes within us).
Collective - Amidst the rapid pace and pressures of life, we become disconnected from the deeper emotional needs of ourselves and others. We lose contact with the higher with that higher sense of being that inspires our most meaningful actions. Elephant medicine reminds us that we can be great forces of good, here to serve the higher path of humanity by embodying the values of Elephant.
In magic and medicine, yours truly
Gina Mauro
Day 67 - October 30
Friends, The beautiful Ace of Cups (Chalices in Gina M Pace’s Pagan Tarot) graces us today with some sweet sweet guidance and tips for tuning into joy at this time.
As each Ace represents the purest and most powerful elemental nature of its suit, let us zero-in on our bejeweled chalice and imagine/feel that this totem holds within it all of the sacred water element energy there is in the Universe. Creativity, emotion, flow, joy, fear, life source to name a very few….what else does water mean to you?
Personal - Let’s each tune in to a favorite relationship in our lives be it a friend, family member or romantic partner. Bring their beingness and your dynamic into your consciousness. Here the Ace of Cups resides in our lives and allows the animated embodiment of water to be always accessible to us. Feel into the richness, beauty, joy, and affection of this connection. Let it help you remember who you are.
Collective - Water connects us all. While it may seem that our skin contains and separates us, it truly does not. We live in a sea of particles; we swim with the best and worst of life and everything in between. Water conducts messages through electricity and vibration. Can we use this awareness to invite the gifts of our chosen relationship from the above exercise to infuse every cell within and around us? Here is a link to the Unity Consciousness meditation .
In magic and medicine, yours truly
Gina Mauro
Day 68 - October 31
Happy Halloween, Blessed Samhain and Full Moon! If ever there were an archetype we would fare well to befriend, it is The Devil. I also cannot imagine a more perfectly jarring and evocative card as we enter our Halloween - All Saints/Souls Day - Day of the Dead - Election Day portal - I would say, even more so than Death! Let’s see how the Ostara Tarot’s Major Arcana representation of this card can steer us towards some deeper layers of unconscious-conscious unification.
