We find ourselves in the month of May. Personally, for me, I feel as if May is a time for quiet and gentle healing. It’s a time for acceptance, and for letting go of the notion that asking for help and allowing others to help me is a weakness. May for me, is about leaning into the supports around me and allowing myself to receive. It’s going to be a month of ramping up the self-care and making sure that I am doing the basics – sleeping well, feeding my body nourishing, healthy meals and honouring my need for space and for kindness.

I’ve had a lot going on in and around my life. Which, for some reason, always seems to be the case. This week alone for example, it was the first week back to school for Term Two and us teachers always spend the first week chasing our tails and trying to find sense and stability in the midst of semi-organised chaos. I had my moving in inspection with the real estate, my first appointment with a counsellor, I waged a battle against Telstra and did not emerge a winner, and my psoriasis is waging a slow, uncomfortable, itchy and sometimes painful battle against me. I’ve also had to figure out ways to manage and support both myself and my dog through some pretty intense moments of anxiety as we adjust to life living on our own again. On Friday night, when utter exhaustion crept in, I knew that I needed to listen. Across Friday night, Saturday and Saturday night I slept for the equivalent of a whole day. Listening to what I need and honouring it, is going to be extremely important for me over the coming weeks.

As we switch over into the first week of May, I felt the tug, the gentle pull, to do a reading for the collective. It’s a bit of a mixed bag today, but let’s take a look at what May has in store for us.

6 of Cups

The 6 of Cups came up in last months reading, so it’s interesting that we see it again today. The message in the 6 of Cups is one of forgiveness. We can forgive ourselves by releasing any guilt that we carry from past relationships, the traumas we’ve experienced and from our previous actions and decisions. We can look back at who we were, in order to see just how far we’ve come in life. I acknowledge the difficulty in this – it is certainly something that I struggle with. I’m not a fan of looking back at the experiences in my life, I would prefer to just move forward one slow and steady step at a time. However, I can see the value in looking back to shine a light on how far you’ve come. As mentioned in my reading for April, I also associate the 6 of Cups with a message of unbreakable loyalty, love and kindness. Man’s Best Friend sets an example for us all – our pets treat us with such love and compassion, such joy and kindness, so maybe it’s time to harness a little bit of that energy for yourself?

Justice

Justice asks us to take our good, our bad and our plain horrible past experiences and learn from them. Accept them, take them all and use them to grow. Justice highlights the need for truth, honesty and fairness over the need for perfectionism. The Justice card appears to pass on a message about the importance of balance. We all have positive and negative experiences, and we all have a “shadow” side. Justice makes it clear that can learn and grow from everything that makes up who we are – both the positive and the negative. We need to find a balance in life. So often, we focus on the “shadow” work and forget to incorporate the positives. Or maybe we focus on the positives and ignore our shadows. Neither is helpful. Neither is healthy. We must balance out one with the other in order to grow.

10 of Pentacles

the 10 of Pentacles just feels…good. It brings in the energy and the spirit of community, of family, of love, joy and abundance. A lot of us feel as if we don’t quite fit within the community around us, a lot of us are searching for our people, for our community, and this card gives us hope that what we seek is on its way. Sometimes all it takes is a change in perception – you might not be looking at things from a wider perspective or seeing the bigger picture. You might not be seeing the community that already exists around you and all you have to do is make a small shift in perception and perspective. For me, that shift is in letting go of the community I thought I would have around me and embracing the community and the people that are here walking along side me in the present.

The Sacred Fool

I don’t normally align with Oracle cards, but I do have a deck that I draw from occasionally because I align with the message of the deck itself. The Divine Circus Oracle Cards represent the spirit of rebellion, of divergence, and authenticity. The card that I drew for today’s reading (The Sacred Fool) invites you to live your life unafraid, to take risks and step aside from the conventions of life. Live your dreams, work towards your dreams and tune out the voices that call you a fool, that doubt, that call you niave, deluded and silly. The fool inside of you is the true voice, it’s the one that guides you towards the life that you dream of. Don’t reason it away, or say that it’s too difficult, or too dangerous, instead remember that the life you dream of can only be achieved if you are willing to take risks, to become uncomfortable, to learn, to grow and to step into your authentic self.

The Runes

I was gifted with a beautiful set of amethyst runes and decided to play. The rune at the bottom represents what influences you in the present. Today that rune is a Raido – a symbol of journey. It represents both physical journeys and the journey of life. It embodies the concept of movement and transformation. The rune in the centre represents upcoming challenges and what you must do to overcome them. This rune in May’s reading is Othala – a symbol of ancestry. It brings forth the message of home, community, identity and the physical and spiritual legacy of our past and present loved ones. The run at the top focuses on what is likely to happen as a result of the challenges. Today, the rune is Wumjo, or Joy. It embodies emotional balance, happiness and positive outcomes.

Bringing it all together, the message from the runes is one of hope. We are on a journey of transformation, or perhaps it’s a physical journey. In order to overcome the challenges that present themselves to us in May, we must turn to community, family and to our past and present loved ones. They have the wisdom, the support and the guidance that we seek. On the other side of those challenges is joy, contentment and happiness.