honor your personal cycles — yes, all of them.

hello, friends. today is our final day of five days of offerings, and i've so enjoyed putting this series together for you. i hope you've found it encouraging and inspiring, that it's offered both challenges and support this week. (revisit the essays, and offers, for hope, ritual, community, and complexity.)

today is also the final special discounted offer i've got for you, so if you're in a hurry: starting now, when you sign up for priestess' prompts, my popular 21-day tarot prompt email series, you can get my new & full moon tarot spreads collection for 50% off. this duo provides insightful questions for you to ask your cards, daily tips for building a deeper relationship with the tarot and getting more out of your single-card readings, plus spreads for engaging with moon cycles all year long.

today's gifs are brought to you by she-ra and the princess of power.

working with the moon (and the moon's phases) is a classic recommendation for folks who are interested in astrology, witchcraft, or getting more in touch with their physical and emotional selves. and for many, the high priestess of the major arcana is considered one of the most intuitive, introspective, wise figures of the fool's journey: someone who is deeply in tune with their own cycles and patterns and needs, who is unafraid to look within.

the moon, and the high priestess, can remind us that even as we are all always changing, some things stay the same.

part of the reason that these two archetypes are so iconic and foundational is that they're stitched into the very fabric of who we are, in one way or another. we all have cycles that we move through, over and over again: ones that help us grow, ones that allow us to find comfort, ones that push us to try new things or leave things behind. and we all have things that we would prefer to keep hidden, things that we may not even fully understand or recognize within ourselves.

just as the major and minor arcanas follow cycles of growth and decay and rebirth, just as the moon moves through phases of light and dark every 28 days, we too have our own personal and collective cycles: of emotions, of relationships, of health, of creativity, of reflection, of momentum, of grief, of healing. all slowly moving, simultaneously, at different speeds and in different ways, intersecting with one another and combining to create unique energies, intentions, motivations, and desires.

sometimes this cyclical behavior may feel comforting, or empowering, or even brand new — but other times, we may find ourselves slipping back into old, familiar patterns that are frustrating in their predictability, and in their limits.

especially when it feels like you've already learned that lesson, or when you've been working hard to shake an old habit or build a newer, healthier one, it can be incredibly annoying to have to revisit something, to go deeper, to backtrack.

like a recurring tarot card that just keeps showing up in your readings, these kinds of cycles can persist until we address them. they push us to recognize something, or to make a necessary change. and if we don't acknowledge that cycle, if we keep kicking the can down the road, often those patterns will just keep circling back.

yet our personal cycles can teach us so much about who we are, what we care about, and what we need in order to grow, change, release, and adapt. learning how to track those cycles, to be aware of them, can help us feel more conscious of what we're craving, working towards, and moving away from. and both the moon itself and the tarot can offer us ways of understanding those cycles, and structured methods for supporting ourselves.

some folks literally work with the moon itself — and tarot can be a fantastic companion for this work. there are tarot cards connected to each moon phase, spreads like mine created for each lunation, and of course you can always choose your own archetypes that represent how each phase impacts you personally. if the new moon doesn't feel like initiation energy, figure out what it does feel like, and go with it.

but for others, tracking moon cycles might feel out of reach. not every ritual and routine is for every person. and i'll tell you a secret — for whatever reason, whether it's the insomnia or the chaos of being mercury's child, i am terrible at elaborate, consistent moon rituals. i talk to her with my coffee on monday mornings, i thank her when i'm feeling supported and connected and resourced, i beg her for mercy when my body is in pain or struggling to make it through the day. but for me, that's about all i can do on a regular basis.

what has been helpful, though, is building relationships with my own cycles and habits, and paying attention to how those patterns shift over time. i'm still me, so it's not always a perfectly consistent practice — yet i find a lot of comfort in knowing that moon work is something i can always return to when i need it, and that tarot can help me understand myself more clearly across a wide variety of cycles.

so for our final exercise of this week, let's spend some time embracing our personal cycles. grab your tarot deck, go through all 78 cards, and choose the ones that feel most representative of the various patterns and routines of your life. which cards feel connected to the different aspects of who you are? how do different cards reflect or represent different peaks and valleys in your own cycles? do any of these parts of you not feel like cycles at all, but instead like fixed energies that remain constant?

you may find that some cards feel appropriate for multiple cycles, and that is completely fine. i think everyone has certain cards that feel more comfortable, more connected, more personal, than others. but i'd encourage you to think outside the box too, to not limit yourself to just major arcana archetypes or your most familiar companions, and to consider how different combinations of cards could represent more complex cycles.

which tarot cards feel connected to your personal...

...cycles of giving AND receiving: what does your generosity look like, and how does it different from your sense of reciprocity? is giving easier for you than receiving? is receiving simpler for you than giving? what does it feel like to ask for help, to allow someone to show up for you, to admit that you could use support? do you harbor shame, or judgement, or even anger, when you see others giving or receiving in ways that are different than your own?

...cycles of creation AND destruction: what inspires your creativity, and how do you support your creativity? when are you willing to destroy or abandon something, and what does that look like? what do you love to create, to build, to assemble, to express? what is satisfying for you to pull apart, demolish, or leave behind? how might one energy support the other?

cycles of joy AND sorrow: what does your happiness or contentment look like, and what does your grief or sadness look like? what activates your delight, your sense of wonder, and what leaves you feel bereft, sorrowful, empty? how do your emotions fluctuate, feed into one another, keep each other in balance? does joy feel like something you can access regularly? is sorrow something you allow yourself to feel?

cycles of expansion AND contraction: when do you let yourself take up space, and what does that look like? when do you feel the need to retreat or retract, and how does that feel? what can you observe about the patterns of when you feel empowered to grow and when you crave smallness or invisibility? when do you want to share, to confide, to connect, and when do you crave solitude, rest, privacy? what are the benefits of each of these states?

cycles of healing AND harm: how do you show up for yourself, take care of yourself, offer compassion to yourself? when do you fall into self-destructive patterns or feel drawn to things that you know aren't good for you personally? how do you balance your needs with your desires? what does healing look like for you, and what do you consider personally harmful?

cycles of strength AND weakness: when do you feel strong, and what does that look like? when do you feel resourced, supported, empowered, and how does that manifest in your life? what does weakness mean to you, and how does it impact you? have you ever felt strong and weak simultaneously?

cycles of frustration AND acceptance: are there things that you consistently struggle with, fight against, experience friction around? what is easy for you to accept or believe, and what do you find challenging to recognize? when does acceptance feel like peace, and when might it feel like giving up or giving in? what is your relationship with frustration or agitation, and how does you express that feeling?

resist the temptation to frame these cycles as binaries — because they literally aren't. points in cycles, and cycles themselves, aren't as simple as positive or negative. and often multiple things can be true at the same time, even when those things feel like contradictions. if you do find yourself feeling judgmental or irritable when digging into certain questions, patterns, cycles, or preferences, give yourself permission to explore that, to see what is simmering beneath the surface.

and if you have an emotional hangover from this past week and could use a sweet spread for a palate cleanser, here's a beloved three-card layout that i wrote a few years ago:

card one: something beautiful within you. what do you carry that is lovely, sweet, generous? what wonderful thing or quality is innately part of you? what can you celebrate, be proud of, enjoy?

card two: something inspiring around you. what is something in your life right now that is empowering, enlivening, enriching? what could offer motivation, inspiration, creative drive? what can you embrace, that is already within reach?

card three: something magical connected to you. what's something bigger, something more powerful, that you're a part of? what are you contributing to, involved in, that you might not even realize? how is your magic showing up right now?

how might your greatest strengths be born from what you perceive to be weakness? when might your creativity be activated and enriched by destruction? what can you learn about yourself from studying your cycles of emotions and frustrations?

and how might the moon, and tarot, serve as lifelong companions for this kind of cyclical, internal work?

don't forget that when you sign up for priestess' prompts, my popular 21-day tarot prompt email series, you can get my new & full moon tarot spreads collection for just $11 more. build your own monthly moon rituals with these accessible, flexible tools:

thank you for reading five days of offerings! i'll be back with a new essay for december, along with a huge announcement, for you on sunday — and in the meantime, you can still join my upcoming card container remember your strength until the end of the day on december 1st 🖤