Tarot and Art Forecast for Week of Feb 23, 2020

Faith Ringgold Tar beach
Faith Ringgold Tar Beach

We all at some point in our lives have flying dreams.  Dream experts believe that flying dreams represent control, new perspectives, freedom and/or escape.  One of my favorite children’s book is Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold.  It is about an eight-year-old girl, Cassie, in Harlem.  Not only does this loosely autobiographical book give the reader a glimpse into Harlem circa 1939 but it inspires us to transcend and soar.   As Ringgold writes it’s very easy, anyone can fly. All you need is somewhere to go that you can’t get to any other way.

Ringgold is an accomplished artist and activist.  She started in tradition oil paintings but by 1970 she began experimenting with painting acrylic on unstretched canvas with fabric borders, much like the Tibetan Thangkas (silk paintings with embroidery).  She expanded this technique to her painted narrative quilts which she is now most famous for.  Her pieces are usually heavy in symbolism and full of historical references of African American culture.

P.S. Remember signs with an * it a big week for you.  Pisces this is a perfect time to get an Astrological Tarot Reading for your coming year.  And Virgo it is your halfway mark for your birth year, so if you need a Planetary Reading for a check in now is the time.

Aries
Faith Ringgold Seven Passages to Flight

Five of Cups – Last week’s energy came to help you destroy the edifices that bind you, and strengthen your resolve to create new structures (time, space and how use your energy) that will sustain the work that needs to be done.  You are going to need those structures to ground you this week from the chaotic emotional energies whirling internally and externally.  The goal to traversing these waters is within each wave of churning emotion is a pearl of wisdom and truth.

Taurus
Faith Ringgold The In Crowd

Ten of Swords – Well Mercury is in retrograde and you might be feeling the barbs.  This week’s energy can bring on confrontation if you are not mindful of your intuition warning you to duck.  If the hairs on the back of your neck raise up or you get a tingling feeling not to broach a subject or walk down that street, follow that warning.  People and your environment can be sharp this week. Your challenge is to be aware of your triggers and avoid the clashes.

Gemini

Four of Swords – The energy this week is all about rest and healing.  This energy warns you that your immune system, soul and mind needs rest.  Take time to pull away from the maddening crowd (this includes social media) and relax.

Cancer
Faith Ringgold subway mosaic in Harlem

Two of Swords – Making choices or at least feeling as if you must are in the air this week; however we are in the midst of a Mercury in retrograde. The key to this week is not focusing on the decisions you feel you need to make, but about faith in yourself.  Whatever you decide or not decide you will end up where you should be. This week go with the flow.

Leo
Faith Ringgold

*Hanged Man – With Mercury in retrograde you might find it difficult to go forward.  But this week that will work in your favor.  This is great energy to catch up on anything already in progress or contemplate your next steps.  A break in the action when used correctly can feel like a breakthrough.

Virgo
Faith Ringgold Maya Quilt of Life

King of Swords – The energy this week is best used by planning for the long term.  Though it doesn’t actively move you into the future it does want you to gain perspective and/or a clear focus on the future and how to get there.  This is a great week for planning out the rest of the year or five.

Libra
Faith Ringgold Hide Little Children

Six of Cups – This energy is best used in play.  Get down on the floor with a child and challenge your perspective of time, work and space.  This isn’t about being naïve but about being open to seeing the world with a more inquisitive viewpoint.

Scorpio
Faith Ringgold Tar Beach II

Page of Wands – Your passion needs reigniting.  When this energy shows up it is telling you that your soul’s spark, the reason you get up in the morning- i.e. your purpose(s), is waning.  Take this week to do things that set your soul on fire. Nature and the arts are great venues to help you re-discover why you are here.

Sagittarius
Faith Ringgold

Page of Swords – The last two weeks the energies have been around freedom, newness and metamorphosis.  Now with Mercury fully in retrograde you are giving this time to decipher what has been going on in your outer life and inner mind.  This energy foretells there is information to help you solve a problem or two. But it will take subtle and persistent inquiry to find it, for the truth is hidden by half-truths and denial.  The key is being kind with your queries both to yourself and to others.

Capricorn
Faith Ringgold, Coming to Jones Road Part II: Our Secret Wedding in the Woods, photography by Benjamin Westoby

Four of Wands – Last week the energy was about expanding your horizons by integrating your inner and outer worlds.  Diving into the energy and concept of interconnectedness.  You are building on the old world and creating a new paradigm.   So, to move to this new music you must let the composition enter you, let your body and soul find the new rhythm, and then dance.  That energy is still reverberating through this week.  But this energy focuses you on creating a foundation that is more fluid and more accepting of stress. Think of being more like bamboo then like an oak.

Aquarius
Faith Ringgold Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles

Eight of Wands – Now that you know that 2020 is about igniting new passions, new ways of being on the physical plane, and bringing the divine down into reality.  That definition of divine is of, from or like God, excellent or delightful.  So, 2020 will be a year where new not only grows, prospers but lifts others with delight.  This week is about starting to send out those messages and inquires to the world.  However, since this week Mercury is in retrograde, its not about starting these new projects but more like sending out feelers to see what might bite.  The more arrows you let fly the more likely you will hit upon illuminations.

Pisces
Faith Ringgold

Five of Swords – Mercury in retrograde is creating chaos and you with a few other signs are being affected by it.  Chaos has a way of being attracted to you this week, so the challenge is not reacting to other people’s yuckness.  Your hackles can easily be triggered. The solution is putting on soothing music, light some incense/sage and escape when necessary.

May light be on you, around you, and within you,

Nina