Musings of the Village Witch: Libra, Justice & The Sacred Balance
Published 6 months ago • 6 min read
“The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it. If we regard a mountain as a deity rather than a pile of ore, a forest as a sacred grove rather than lumber and pulp, other species as our biological kin rather than resources, the planet as our mother and life-giver and not an opportunity, then our actions will reflect far greater humility, respect and responsibility.”
The Sacred Balance by David Suzuki
Musing for this New Moon in Libra
We are meant to change and shift, life is set up this way. From the first to the last breath in our human form, we experience changes every day. We are not static, even in death, we are transforming. I first learned the term homeodynamic in contrast from homeostatic from the transmissions of my teacher Sajah Popham, the founder of the School of Evolutionary Herbalism. I find this term to be the clearest expression of how we need to practice as not only health care providers, but also as humans in the world. We get stuck in wanting things to stay as they are when they are good and pray for change when they are bad. We are so contradictory depending on our situation. The great Law of Nature or what we could call the Sacred Balance teaches us that the all organisms, great and small, and even collections of organisms are constantly in flux. Adjusting, rearranging, responding to the landscape, ecosystem, society, to their physical strengths and limitations, mental awareness and emotional presentations.
It is interesting to think of things like Natural Law and what that even means. I see the rising and setting of the sun, the ocean tides and the lunar pulse. I see children born and old folks die. Trees fall and give rise to the succession of the forest, bringing light to dormant seeds and habitat to creatures found on the outskirts. It’s all pretty romantic from that vantage point. But then it’s time to get real, we get into the Tarot correspondence of Libra and the card Justice XI. This is where things get sticky and uncomfortable. …
As a teacher, tarot reader, herbalist, ecologist and witch. A mixed ethnicity, working class, angsty, defiant, art kid of the 90s who grew up with visions of deserts becoming oceans and forests becoming deserts, I have always seen and felt suffering. I sat with Ayahuasca only once because it was the most traumatic experience of my life. I lived through TWO times being tortured on the rack as a witch, I experienced all the suffering of women throughout time. I was eaten by worms and in the weeks following wanted to kill myself. Justice for those women is me now having a voice unafraid to speak. The humans who come to me with health conditions are suffering from physical, mental and emotional discomfort, my tarot querants are suffering emotional turmoil in love, work and feelings of not having purpose. My students feel excited by the plants and scared to not make a living. I have an active and perhaps obsessive reading of the news and creatively crafted scientific literature, my favorite topics being geopolitics, climate change, social issues, evolution, health and generational gripes, all filled with extinction, injustice and greed. I think my sense of thrivers guilt and my desire to continuously feel drives this urge to see. …
Justice, Libra is a call to action. A New Moon in Libra is a slap in the face and a fire under our asses to wake up and take a serious look as the agreements we have made. Justice XI is about agreements, contracts, bonds and brokering. It is the lease we take out on life, and the debt we owe to that great gift. New Moons encourage inner seeking. As the face of Justice is veiled, so the New Moon blinds us. It tells us to start deep within what we know to be true, and to step tenderly along a path we may not be familiar with. It calls upon our intuition and instinct. Our instinct for survival, our intuitive response to that which is wrong or hurtful. Libra is asking us to turn and face all our relations. Especially those that are out of line with the law of reciprocity. All our relations. Let me say that again and a bit louder. ALL OUR RELATIONS. Yup, thats your parents and siblings, your ancestors long gone, your political motivations and your spiritual beliefs. It is all your consumptive practices, and your own inner dialog. All your relations.
We have many contracts to consider. To help me weed through my human jumble I usually like to get elemental. That way of looking at things helps me to sort through the energetics of my life. This is how I read Tarot and how I formulate herbal remedies.
Earth, the sacred solid. Earth is everything we can touch and physically interact with. It is the material realm.
What is your relationship with stuff? The things you buy, the brands you support or like, the foods you eat, the way you treat your home and car and your physical body.
Air, the sacred gasses. Air flows through and around. It is formless, invisible, it is everything we think, read and listen to. Its the words we speak internally and out. Its philosophy and poetry, rhetoric and identity.
What is your relationship with story? The stories we tell ourselves, and those we tell others. What news are you consuming, who lives in your echo chamber. What is the story of your people, or the ones you project onto others.
Fire, the sacred spark. Fire the motivation and passion that comes from deep within. It is the warmth of our sun, the nourishment of a warm meal and the evolution that came from our industrial society.
What moves you and why? Are your motivations for wealth, power, and recognition? Or are you the opposite and lost in apathy and stagnation?
Water, the cosmic soup. Water flows and forms to each vessel it fills. Water is the dreamscape, emotional body and intuition. It is the collective consciousness and the great mystery.
How do your emotions affect you and others around you? Where do you go in your dream world? Are there any repeating patterns that need to be looked at deeper? Messages coming through from the other side?
Spirit, that which runs through it all. Spirit is the animating force of life, the essence of all that is.
What is your relationship with your spiritual practice and how do you relate that to others? Do your beliefs see others as less than and you more superior? Are you lacking a spiritual belief and practice and would like to cultivate one?
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“The abuse of power that seems to exist everywhere, often thrives because we are willing to look the other way.”- Azar Nafisiauthor of Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books Musing for theFull Moon in Aries The Emperor IV as associated with Aries is seen as an authoritative figure in the Tarot. Through the degenerative lens he is a tyrant, autocrat and bully who will do anything for power, even if it means he stands lonely in his castle. It is through the degenerative form of Justice XI...
