december 2024: on reflections & strengths

hello, friends, and welcome to december. before we dig into this month's essay, remember that it's the last day to sign up for remember your strength, which is beginning today over in the 3am.tarot sanctuary discord server.

i've also decided to keep all of the discounts from five days of offerings open until midnight (eastern time) tonight, so if you've been thinking about picking up one of these resources at a lower rate, you've got the day to do so. check out the essays and offers on hope, ritual, community, complexity, and cycles, and treat yourself to something supportive.

take a few deep slow breaths, stretch any aching muscles or stiffness in your joints, shake out your wrists and ankles, and have a sip of water. let's get into it.

as an eight year, 2024 has really shown us just how complicated and nuanced this number can be. back in january, i wrote about the ace of wands as a spark to change the world, how fire can propel us forward, and how eight is a number of discipline and devotion. i focused on eight as a number of power, of focus, of knowing what we want and doing what it takes to make that desire manifest.

even with the benefit of hindsight on all that 2024 has been, i do still stand behind that assessment. eight can be incredibly productive, strong, and well-resourced, with eyes on the prize and a goal that it refuses to relinquish — this is an energy of being single-minded in our focus, of pushing hard towards whatever we've chosen. but that also means that eight can also be stubborn, inflexible, can cling to harmful ideas or paths that don't actually work. eight doesn't always have the capacity to shift course or adapt, even if it turns out that the goal that they'd set their mind to isn't worth pursuing, or is no longer available.

this year, we saw both of these aspects of the number eight play out across the collective. governments refusing to divest from genocide, political parties refusing to adapt to the demands of voters, companies refusing to prioritize anything but the comfort of their top executives. it's been a tough year for making change. so many have doubled down on their values and ethics and desires, on what they're willing to fight for, for better and for worse.

when it comes to the tarot, and the ways that tarot can help us understand these numerological energies more tangibly, we look to the archetypes of strength and the star. strength as patience, divine timing, a thoughtful balance of wildness and civility — and the star as faith, hope, a capacity for dreaming about things we can't yet see. these cards in their best possible light can feel beautiful, important, supportive, and encouraging.

yet in its shadow aspect, strength can represent a personal control that perhaps goes too far, a choice to hold back our authenticity or wildness in favor of accomplishment or admiration from others. and similarly, the star can warn of hope for the future that doesn't have any real action behind it — a hope that someone else will take care of the problems while we cower in the aftermath of the tower, praying the dust settles and it'll all be okay. faith without works is dead, and all that.

just like every card in the deck, these archetypes offer both medicine and poison, depending on how we use them and how much we're willing to hear. it's incredibly important to allow all 78 tarot cards to be complicated, messy, representative of both joyful triumphs and painful misses. strength and the star, for all that these cards are beloved, are not exempt from these challenging interpretations.

and if you find yourself bristling a little, preferring to mostly focus on the positive sides of these archetypes, then there may be more here to discover.

december is so often a month of reflection, an opportunity to consider what this year has seen us through. especially this year, as we remember 2024 and brace for all that's ahead, take some time to remember all that you accomplished, all that you learned, all that you attempted, as well as the challenges you struggled with, the failures you moved through, the things you perhaps avoided. just like strength and the star, there is so much here to uncover. give yourself a chance explore the light and shadow sides of yourself, particularly in these last twelve months.

what did you discover about yourself in 2024, and how did this adjustment in self-awareness impact you throughout the year? which resources did you tap into, and which felt harder to access or even completely out of reach? what new things did you make, and which old things did you finish or release? who were you back in january, and how have you changed (and stayed the same) since then?

what did you work for, fight for, invest in? what did you direct your discipline, your devotion, towards? how did your strength in the present, your hope for the future, take shape? how did you connect with other people, build community and navigate complexity? which rituals for spirituality or creativity or connection did you create for yourself, and how did they change or solidify during the year? which personal cycles did you move through, and what are you building towards for 2025?

what were your dreams for this year? which ones came true? and how did you work for them, sweat for them, devote yourself to them?

as we prepare for 2025 and the incoming hermit year, reflecting on 2024 might feel like the last possible thing you want to spend energy on. especially if this year has felt particularly hard or heavy, filled with personal grief and frustration and anger on top of all of the violence and pain this world has seen collectively, then you may want to simply keep your eyes fixed on the future and never look back.

and listen, i get it. this year has been so difficult for so many of us, in so many ways. and i know right now in particular it might feel like we're spinning our wheels, trying to get somewhere new and instead finding ourselves returning somewhere old, stubborn, brittle.

but as the hot queer angel insists in baldur's gate (a video game i've watched my fiancée play through at least a dozen times and have yet to actually finish myself), "your past is not yet lost. your future is not yet fixed." in spite of untold centuries of suffering, the moment this character tastes freedom she grabs her sword, spreads her wings, and readies herself for the fight of her life. and you can do the same thing. you don't have to let the brutal challenges from this year prevent you from beautiful triumphs in the next one.

while it may seem easier to only look forward, those who don't know the past are famously doomed to repeat it. in other words, refusing to reflect doesn't mean you can easily leave the past behind, locking it away and pretending it never happened. it simply means that you might eventually have to revisit those lessons. and wouldn't you rather add your hard-earned 2024 knowledge to your personal treasure trove of resources, instead of committing to a stale, painful pattern?

tarot is so damn good at helping us remember the past, anchor into the present, and dream big about the future. if you're reluctant to wade through memories from 2024, if looking backwards feels overwhelming or painful or frightening, let tarot help you. and if holding space for your own patterns feels intimidating or nerve-wracking, let the cards light the way. you don't have to do this alone.

with a hermit year on the horizon, i think that there will be a lot of opportunities for personal introspection and collective reckonings in 2025. i'll have more writings for you on this archetype in january, but suffice to say, the hermit is incredibly brave — this is a figure who isn't afraid to peer deep into their own darkness, to dig into the hidden corners and secret compartments, to pull out all the dusty relics and hidden treasures. the hermit is ready for change, sharing their hard-earned wisdom and lighting a path for themselves, and others, to follow into the next cycle.

like the hermit, i want you to be as well-equipped for 2025 as possible — and that includes, even necessitates, honoring the steps you've taken in 2024: the choices you've made, the things you reached for and caught (or missed), the dreams that were activated, and the desires you had to shelve for later. the times you felt brave, the times you felt cowardly, the times you couldn't decide what to do, and the times that you could. the good stuff, the bad stuff, the joyful stuff, the scary stuff, and everything in-between.

as we move into this final month of the year, consider: how are you strong? how have you gotten stronger? where do you feel weak, and could use support or fortification? what have you been trying to do on your own, that might be best done in community? what have you been trying to make a group project, that is actually something you need to reflect on in solitude?

and as you consider what this year of strength has taught you, what are you most proud of?

wishing you a magical, reflective, and purposeful december, friends.

if you're looking for support in your reflections: i have a few year-ahead tarot readings still available, and the daily card container remember your strength begins today too. all of the deals from this past week are also still open until midnight EST, so if you're looking for discounted tarot journaling resources, spread collections, lectures, and more, browse the five days of offerings series now:

lastly! keep an eye on your inbox because i'll be sending out another email in a few hours with a very big, very exciting announcement. i can't wait to finally share what jeanna and i have been creating together, and i hope you can join us.