#thewordwitchtarot

Harvest Moon in Aries: Make Space for the Light

Claire Burgess

Sep 24, 2018
3 min

Harvest Moon in Aries: Make Space for the Light

On the heels of the autumn equinox, tonight’s full moon in the pioneering sign of Aries helps us step into the dark months equipped with a torch. This Harvest Moon is intrinsically linked to the change of seasons, to the last push of gathering crops before the winter (read more about that in my last post), to gratitude and to preparation. Something my friend Kate (@blackwelltarot on Instagram) wrote in her autumn equinox reading two days ago keeps ringing in my ears. She aske

Full Moon in Pisces: Surrender to the Dream

Claire Burgess

Aug 25, 2018
4 min

Full Moon in Pisces: Surrender to the Dream

This summer has been a struggle. For me, for most of my friends, for many of you. We’ve risen to challenges and surmounted obstacles. We’ve fought battle after battle at work and at home, online and IRL, with others and with ourselves. We’ve held ourselves open and accountable through 7 retrogrades (8 if you count Chiron) and 3 eclipses, trying our damnedest to listen and learn and figure out how to grow into an existence that feels right and true to us. And right now, many o

New Moon Solar Eclipse in Cancer: Cracking the Shell

Claire Burgess

Jul 12, 2018
4 min

New Moon Solar Eclipse in Cancer: Cracking the Shell

This Cancer new moon teaches us about security and vulnerability. It teaches us about holding and withholding, sharing and protecting. Here, we learn about the cosmic crab that carries its house on its back. We learn about the shell that keeps us safe, impenetrable, hidden. We learn about the soft, emotional insides beneath that shell and all the truths, needs, and wounds that we guard so fiercely there. This partial solar eclipse is going to crack that shell, friends. It’s g

New Moon in Taurus: Making the Bull Move

Claire Burgess

May 14, 2018
3 min

New Moon in Taurus: Making the Bull Move

N E W M O O N in T A U R U S U R A N U S ingress into T A U R U S There’s some major astrology happening right now, friends. Hours after the new moon in Taurus, Uranus, the planet of innovation, revolution, & surprises, moves into Taurus for the first time since the 1930’s. The rebel Uranus will shake things up in the fixed earth sign of stability, tradition, & loyalty for most of the next 8 years. The thing is, the grounded, sometimes stubborn Taurus doesn’t like

Full Moon in Scorpio: Healing through Transformation

Claire Burgess

Apr 28, 2018
3 min

Full Moon in Scorpio: Healing through Transformation

Scorpio is transformation. It’s the snake shedding its skin. It’s shadow work and breaking negative cycles. It’s healing, such profound healing, and not in the soft, slow, nurturing way. Other water signs give you hot soup and cough syrup when you’re sick. Scorpio gives you ipecac. This healing is the PURGE, friends. These are the sobs so deep they leave muscle aches. This is gagging on your tears. This is the toxin being forced from the body. This is retching until you feel

Dealing with the Devil: an Interpretation & Spread

Claire Burgess

Apr 25, 2018
4 min

Dealing with the Devil: an Interpretation & Spread

The body is wise. It often knows things before our conscious minds do. It picks up on nonverbal signals, on body language, on scents and pheromones. It alerts us when something’s not right or when danger is near. The body houses our instinct and also our intuition. And sometimes, when we have deep shit bubbling up in us, rising from the unconscious on its way to the conscious, our mood is effected, our sleep interrupted, our appetite off, our wellness suffers. The body lets u

Tarot Spread for New Moon in Aries + Mercury Direct in Aries

Claire Burgess

Apr 14, 2018
2 min

Tarot Spread for New Moon in Aries + Mercury Direct in Aries

Tomorrow, April 15th, is big. We have the new moon in Aries, which, with Aries as the first sign of the zodiac and new moons being the start of a new lunar cycle, marks the beginning of the astrological new year for those who track by the moon. Tomorrow, Mercury also stations direct in Aries after being retrograde since March 22nd. Mercury going direct is nothing remarkable in and of itself (it happens 3-4 times a year, after all), but Mercury stationing direct in Aries so cl

Tarot spread for Ostara (Spring Equinox)

Claire Burgess

Mar 20, 2018
2 min

Tarot spread for Ostara (Spring Equinox)

Happy equinox, friends! Today, the light and the dark stand in equal balance, in cosmic harmony. The sun rises directly due East and sets due West. The sun appears to travel across the sky in a straight line rather than a curve. The Earth’s poles point neither towards nor away from the sun. Today is the tipping point when the hours of day begin to rule over the hours of night. From now until the Summer Solstice, the light will grow ever longer and the dark will recede, all pa

Claire Burgess

Mar 17, 2018
2 min

Tarot Spread for the New Moon in Pisces

Pisces is the final sign of the zodiac and one of the most deeply rooted in intuition. Pisces is the element water and the tarot card The Moon. It’s the unconscious, the emotional depths, the psychic channel to source, the imaginative and visionary world of dreams. It’s also fucking intense. This Pisces season, many of us have felt like we’ve been plunged straight into a choppy ocean, like we’re treading water and just barely keeping our head above the surface. Emotional trig

Tarot Spread for the New Moon Partial Solar Eclipse in Aquarius

Claire Burgess

Feb 15, 2018
3 min

Tarot Spread for the New Moon Partial Solar Eclipse in Aquarius

Awaken Your Authentic Self. The new moon in Aquarius today is a heavy one, dense with change, upheaval, resetting. It’s demanding we rise to its call, break out of our former selves, and crack ourselves wide to the uncomfortable and unknown and absolutely thrilling transformation that’s been calling to us throughout this tumultuous eclipse season. Can you feel it? It’s electric, ecstatic, erratic. It’s probably painful. Don’t even try to dig your heels in. This new moon parti

The Divine Queer: The Empress, Strength, and Non-Binary Femininity in Tarot

Claire Burgess

Jan 6, 2018
10 min

The Divine Queer: The Empress, Strength, and Non-Binary Femininity in Tarot

The Empress. In traditional Smith-Waite decks, she lounges on a plush throne in a lush landscape, crowned with stars from the heavens and clothed with pomegranates, the age-old symbol of fertility. She’s the card of the Divine Feminine, the Mother, the Creatrix. She represents fertility, sensuality, and pure emotion. She’s the element Earth, the pleasure and bounty of the physical world, and the planet Venus, the ruler of love, sex, art, and beauty. She is all things soft, pl

Claire Burgess

Dec 30, 2017
4 min

Year Ahead Tarot Spread

It’s almost New Year’s Eve, and you know what that means! Time to stay up late, drink something fizzy, and dive deep into an intuitive exploration of the energies and soul work coming at ya in 2018. As January 1st approaches, some readers like to pull a theme card for the year ahead and a card (or cards) for each month. That doesn’t really jive with me, though. As tempting as it is to pull a blueprint for the twelve months ahead, that model is too restrictive for my tastes. (

Claire Burgess

Dec 23, 2017
8 min

Winter Solstice Spread

Happy Winter Solstice, friends and witches! On this darkest day of the year, when the night rules the northern hemisphere, we light fires in hearths and wrap cold hands around warm mugs and take comfort in the closeness of loved ones. But tonight we are asked to not fear the night and instead to welcome it, to thrill in its secrets, to swim in the depths of intuition, to listen to what stirs in our dark places and perhaps asks to be brought into the light. This is also the tu