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The 7 Phases of the Heroine’s Journey with the 7 Verticals of Tarot

by Lauren Wallett

Rebella and the Tarot

As shape shifting Witches, we are more than society’s boxed binary narratives.

Unlimited to a singular category, description or type. Like the tarot itself, we contain all the major arcana inside ourselves.

Within each phase we complete a unique life-death-life cycle of expansion and contraction.

While these phases are written in linear progression and linked to the vertical lines of the tarot – they are lived spirally.

1. She

Magician – Strength – The Devil

‘She’ is the part of us that is separated from our true selves. We start the heroine’s journey upon noticing this split.

Our Magicians are powerful producers. They have the ability to draw from all elements to manifest whatever they want.

They contain the spark of magic that sets us off, out onto our journey of self-discovery.

We draw Strength from our wild natures. Beyond the shouting “should’s” of society, we listen to the hiss of our sacred yes and roaring no.

Sometimes our conviction frightens those who don’t understand that witches cannot be tamed.

Here we face our fears and attune to our essential selves.

Our scape Goat Devils no longer serve us, when we can no longer stick ourselves back together with shame.

We realise that the con artist in the tug of war between convincing ourselves it will be different, this time, and our conviction that it’s time to liberate ourselves, is whomever we choose him to be.

There is no Devil within and we’re free to break our self-imposed chains any time we choose.

When we’re ready to trade trauma for trusting the divine unfolding, we’re on to phase two.

2. Becoming

High Priestess – The Hermit – The Tower

The journey has begun. We’re in our undoing, becoming who we are by shedding all that no longer serves us.

Our High Priestess urges us to pause in between what was and what will be. We’re supported on all sides and it’s safe to dissolve within.

This is a time of sacred silence. We’re nesting and settling ourselves before rebirth.

Our Hermits remind us that slow and steady sets the pace. There is no race! They whisper that “more will be revealed” as we follow the next indicated action.

Our baby steps are illuminated by the glow of our building intuition.

The darkness is nothing to fear – it’s to prepare us for…

Our Towers. Lightning strikes more than twice! Crack and snap, tumble and fall.

There is no place for temporary patch jobs and quick fixes. It’s foundational bone medicine here.

We are the snake shedding its skin, writhing in exquisite ecstasy and agony of our deepest stretch toward grace.

3. Eve

The Empress –  The Wheel of Fortune – The Star

Sweet Eve is the part of us who wants to serve humanity – but is learning that there is no greater service to the world, than the service to herself.

Our Empresses are comfortable in sizes that fit!

Expanded with effortless ease into our Garden of Eden, we’re barefoot beauties here. It’s gentle pleasures that linger, longer.

We’re receiving – but is it what we truly want?

Is this the tastiest, juiciest, most vibrant and delicious version of reality? Or is there something more?

“Yes Eve, there is…” our sisters whisper.

The winds of change blow our Wheels of Fortune and we centre ourselves in the calm of the storm.

Change is inevitable and it calls once again. We tend to our own needs and remind ourselves that we are the ones we’ve been looking for.

It’s an ideal time to set up our altars and collect elements for spell work.

Our Stars shine in celebration of the transformational mending and tending work we’ve done.

We’ve healed ourselves and our outer reality is reflected in the healing. We’ve refreshed and replenished and we’re ready for the unexpected.

Starlight reflects a glimmer in our eyes, that speaks of fire deep inside.

4. Lilith

The Emperor  – Justice – The Moon

When we enter Lilith, a choice has been made and there is no going back. The divide is clear. A line has been crossed to walk through the fire into freedom.

Our Emperors empower us to take up space, be seen and heard for all that we are.

No more meek and mild child, we’re as weird and wild, wonderful and wicked as we are, unapologetically.

Justice is discovered in re-writing the history books. In sharing the untold stories, buried by the Patriarch.

Our twin sister Lilith called our Eve and we choose to exit Eden to support her. We’re ruled by freedom.

We’ll burn down structures and past paradigms to co-create a new world that includes everyone.

Many Moons, like our many cycles rise and fall, and ebb and flow, pulling at our emotional tides.

What comes up from our murky depths are gifts, primed for transmutation. Anger at injustice catalyses compassionate change!

5. Witch

The Hierophant – The Hanged Man – The Sun

With each lie we untell ourselves about who we pretended to be, we lighten our load until we’re broomstick weightless and ready to fly!

From stuck, small, shrouded and sore – we’re literally ready to soar!

Our Hierophants ask us: who are the teachers and preachers who govern us? It’s time to redefine and reclaim titles.

Our greatest teacher is within and we aren’t bound to obey anyone else. We rule our destiny. Her-story rewrites histories.

We’re flipping the switch and shifting perspective out of linear thinking of good vs bad into something decidedly delightful.

We’ve become comfortable in the uncomfortable and our Hanged Men welcome us to invert our thinking. It simply doesn’t have to be all so serious.

The cracking our of towers is a distant memory now  – reflected in the cackle of our howling laugh at the moon.

Nothing happened to us, it was all for us. An invitation to explore and expand into our totality. Which we do in…

Our Sun!

Our sun invites us out of the shadows in the dark recesses of the woods and out into the light of day to play.

No more hiding, no more lies – it’s time for Witch, Bitch!

We take up space, spellcast ourselves alive and claim our sovereign right to exist: and so it is!

For those blinded by the light, we do not dim our shine. Our star power is our birthright. Here we claim it.

6. Goddess

The Lovers – Death – Judgement

From the glory of the sun, in our Goddess we embrace our own magnificent natures.

Beginning in our Empresses, we now fully embody not just our divine feminine selves but Ying energy, and combine our divine masculine, embodied with ultimate Yang energy from the Emperor.

This energy meets in The Lovers. The divine is mirrored back to us in our Ying and Yang.

Our Sun and Moon: light and dark. The beauty from inside ourselves is reflected in every living thing. We are not separate but one, in union with all that was and all that will be.

All that no longer serves us is repurposed into fertile compost as Death energy dissolves and disintegrates in the natural process of life.

We shift forms from one state to another. Phoenix rising in our resurrection.

Our personal Judgement day is where we announce to the world the truth of our traumas. Transmuted to treasures, we gift others with our stories.

Our voices ring loud and clear and skeletons are shaken free from their closets.

The little howling dog of intuition no longer sleeps or lies – She-wolf howls and Truth speaks.

7. Me

Chariot – Temperance – The World

When we speak our truth, we arrive home. From She who was lost in the then and there to Me who is found in the present moment of here and now.

Our Chariot represents the skin we’re in and we look good in it.

Shining brightly, sharing freely, our outsides reflects our insides. There is nothing to prove here.

We don’t need a shell of protection because we cannot be destroyed as we are. We’ve been through the ring of fire and only the real remains.

We’re blended, part spirit, part human and our Temperance is our dance in this sacred duality.

We dip into the third and fifth dimension as it serves to delight and excite us. We have everything we need within.

The World is our oyster. We’ve been shucked, slurped and sucked in raw and now we relish in our vibrant, layered, rich and delicious lives.

Here we celebrate that every single, precious moment is a gift. Our present is presence. The world is ours for the making.

***

And just as with Tarot’s Fool card that progresses through the twenty-one parts of the major arcana, our heroine’s journey starts again where it ends. With the inversion.

Our heroine’s symbol is the upside down letter, A.

Containing the mysteries of the entry point: from whenst we came and whenst we return. The portal. The Yoni. The key to unlocking our entire journey is accessible from whichever place we start.

Spirally unlocking deeper with every cycle.

Note: I’m currently in training with Lindsay Mack’s Wild Soul Tarot Spring 2019. Concepts and ideas have been blended, developed and evolved from her teachings. They do not reflect her beliefs but may overlap.

 

IN CONCLUSION

If this essay resonates with you, please join our WITCH email list by using the forms on this website so we can stay in touch.

 

About the Author:

Lauren is a witch native to So​u​th Africa, now living in Los Angeles. She’s an intuitive lifestyle business coach, soul-style tarot reader and the creatress of Witches Rehab: the 12 steps to magickal reclamation. Connect with her personally on Instagram.

 

all imagery from Pixabay

 

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