Monthly Reflection: The World & Justice

The monthly reflection comes a little late this month - moving home has been a little chaotic! But we’re back with quite a bang - two major arcana cards make quite the powerhouse combo here!

The Wayhome Tarot’s version of The World, called The Universe, is perhaps my favourite. Its beautiful imagery captures the complexity of a card that is mostly reduced down to being about accomplishment, achievement and completion.

Don’t get me wrong, it is about those things - but what does that really mean? Let’s break it down.

Deck: Wayhome Tarot

June Reflection: The Universe (a.k.a The World)

This was a big month for us, my friends! We reached milestones, closed chapters, it was the ending of an era. This could be rather literal. For me, it certainly was. Not only did I fulfil a long-held dream of moving to the coast (which felt like a massive achievement), this naturally closed a chapter, in terms of the home I lived in previously, a home that I was very grateful for.

This could just as easily have manifested in a less tangible way - internal shifts or personal growth and development. Perhaps you have spent months or years working on breaking an unhealthy habit, releasing a limiting belief or getting a better sense of your personal identity. In this way, June marks the moment where we start to see that hard work paying off. This is the first time you say ‘no’ when someone at work asks you to take this “really urgent” piece of work home with you over the weekend. It’s also the first morning you stand in front of the bedroom mirror and don’t immediately see all your flaws, or when you finally start showing up to promote your business and have your best month yet.

The accomplishments don’t have to come with a physical representation, they don’t have to be validated by other people. It’s about how it feels to you, it’s about the time you have invested, the effort you have put in, the swell of your heart, the sting in your eyes, the tingling in your toes, when you finally realise that you did it.

You. Yes, you.

I invite you to soak this moment in, drink it up. We may be in a new month, but it is the things of this scale that demand celebration. If we reach the destination, a culmination of all of our hard work, our blood, sweat and tears, and immediately move on to the next goal, when will we ever feel the contentment, satisfaction, gratitude and joy of being exactly where we’ve always wanted to be? This isn’t to say that there isn’t another chapter ahead of you, of course there is, and it will be its own adventure, but for right now, you are here, you have done it, and life is good. So enjoy that. Bask in it. Because this moment is all yours.

Likewise, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that completion and achievement is still an ending, and endings can be hard, no matter the circumstance. We often reduce Death to a sad ending and The World to a happy completion, and while there is some truth to this, it can take away some of the nuance of The World. Completion is still an ending, and even if we are pleased to have reached that conclusion, it can still be sad.

This is the tears we shed on graduation - we may be full of joy for years of hard work paying off, but it also means an ending of an era, no longer seeing your peers every day or living the same routine. It’s also the tears we shed for the person we used to be, full of pain and insecurity, when we realise we’ve outgrown many of the unhealthy patterns that used to define our identity.

You may be fully ready to embark on the next chapter, you may feel blessed to be where you are, but you can also be grateful for all the happy memories that are now behind you, and even the not-so-happy ones, because they all got you here, didn’t they?

So, enjoy this moment my friends, and then on we move…

July Outlook - Justice

The thing is, when we have been working towards a goal for a long time, we can sometimes get into the trap of believing that, once we achieve it, everything in our lives will magically fall into place, or be magically solved. We believe that simply reaching that destination means that we will be a whole new person, impervious to all our previous vulnerabilities and weaknesses. “New chapter, new me.” We could say.

But that just simply isn’t the case.

While big milestones and achievements can certainly create change, as well as influence and impact other areas of our lives, it cannot fix issues you have never addressed.

For example, earning more money might ease financial pressure, but it can’t fix your debt problem if you struggle with managing your finances and regularly blow your budget. Moving in with your partner won’t make them view you as an equal, if they never treated you as an equal before. Losing weight won’t fix your self-confidence issues. That promotion won’t make you better at setting boundaries on your time.

And oftentimes, as is the case with all of these examples, the achievement may highlight the issue even more. You spend more money because you’re earning more money. You do 90% of the chores around the house while your partner lets you clean up after them. You decide your weight loss goal wasn’t low enough and lower the bar. You take on an even higher workload because ‘the promotion comes with more responsibility’.

When we realise that the milestone didn’t magically fix everything, we can feel disappointed. “I worked so hard to get here and nothing’s changed!” But this way of thinking is just as distorted as the belief that the goal was a magical fixer. It is the changes and shifts that have occurred that are shining a spotlight on the issues that remain, so that you can take the action you need to make things better.

Each milestone brings you closer to the life you want to lead, and as you find a new equilibrium, in alignment with this new chapter, anything that doesn’t fit into place is bring brought to your attention, so that you can clear out the things that aren’t serving you, and truly embrace this next step that lies ahead of you.

This month, observe what is being brought to your attention. If it doesn’t feel like it’s in alignment with the life you want to lead, how do we set about removing it?

Be thorough, be clear, be ruthless. If it’s got to go, it’s got to go.

With the shifts that are taking place in your life right now, it’s the perfect opportunity to separate the wheat from the chaff. You’ve already come so far, it’s about refinement.

Don’t be disappointed. Revel in the beauty of where you are, and where you’re headed.

Blessed be,

N x

P.S. Did this resonate? Let me know in the comments below!