Today I give thanks for the body who offers the tender first small setting-out gently. Yesterday, the body offered the tender first small listening — the small tender first-hearing softly received at the sacred sixth morning of the new cycle under the sacred Moon-day blessing. And now the body arrives, today, at the sacred seventh morning of the new cycle when Mars softly rests at his own ancient home in Scorpio on his own sacred ruling day. The body who has, faithfully, offered the tender first small listening softly yesterday now stands at the sacred seventh morning of the waxing crescent — the tender first Mars-day of the new cycle — not in dramatic Mars-day direction-performance, not in urgent destination-declaration, but in soft feminine setting-out as the small tender first-direction is softly chosen within the sacred well of her own actual lived form as Mars softly welcomes her tender first sacred courage under the sacred doubled Mars beauty-blessing. The body who can offer the soft tender setting-out of one small tender first-direction gently chosen is one of the rarest and most enduring spiritual capacities any modern human being ever allows. The chronic cultural pattern is to demand dramatic outward destination-performance at any setting-out-moment — the body should immediately produce elaborate achievement-display for public witness, translate every small setting-out into further overflow-frameworks, or dismiss the tender first small setting-out as insufficient evidence of "real" direction without external validation. The deep contemplative truth is the opposite: the body's true setting-out is the tender first small setting-out — the small tender first-direction softly chosen within the sacred well of the actual lived form at her own faithful pace. Today I give thanks for the body's soft tender setting-out. For the tender first small listening that has, faithfully, been offered yesterday under the Moon-day blessing. For Scorpio's tender sacred water that receives the small setting-out as the tender feminine sovereign chooses softly her tender first direction. For the Sun on his twenty-eighth full day in Leo's bright fire in his own domicile. For Mercury softly still remaining in Leo dispersing gently from the eclipse degree. For Jupiter softly still gathered in Leo from the eclipse stellium. For Venus softly still resting at her own home in her own domicile of Libra. For Mars (the sacred ruler of Tuesday and the ancient courage-planet of sacred directed will) softly resting at his own ancient home in Scorpio welcoming the sacred seventh morning of the new cycle with his tender warrior-blessing. For the sacred doubled Mars alignment (Mars-day + Mars-in-Scorpio-ancient-home) at Tuesday's own sacred hour. For the soft permission, on this sacred seventh morning of the new cycle, to offer the tender first small setting-out at the body's own faithful pace as Mars softly welcomes her tender first sacred courage.
I give thanks for the rare embodied capacity of tender feminine setting-out. The dominant cultural narrative around any Mars-day setting-out-moment treats it as requiring dramatic outward destination-performance — the body should immediately produce grand direction-declaration at any setting-out-moment, translate every small setting-out into ambitious outward achievement-display, or dismiss the tender first small setting-out as insufficient evidence of "real" direction without external validation. The body who can, finally, resist this chronic cultural pressure — who can softly choose one small tender first-direction within the sacred well of her own actual lived form, who can gently honor the small setting-out with a small palm to the heart or a small deeper breath drawn softly into the sacred well without needing to translate it into outward achievement-display — has acquired one of the rarest and most enduring spiritual capacities any modern human being ever possesses. The Chariot's deepest teaching is the tender first small setting-out offered softly through the tender feminine sovereign standing softly in the small tender chariot with the small tender canopy of stars above her tender head and the small tender crown resting softly on her tender head and the small tender armor draped softly around her tender form and the two small tender sphinxes resting softly at the front of the tender chariot and the small tender laurel wreath at the tender chariot's front and the small tender wand held softly in her tender hand — not the dramatic outward destination-performance the achievement culture demands, but the sacred first-direction held gently as the small tender first-courage rises softly at her own faithful pace under the sacred doubled Mars beauty-blessing of the day. A tender feminine sovereign stands softly in the small tender chariot. A small tender canopy of stars glows softly above her tender head. A small tender crown rests softly on her tender head. Small tender armor drapes softly around her tender form. Two small tender sphinxes rest softly at the front of the tender chariot. A small tender laurel wreath adorns softly the tender chariot's front. A small tender wand is held softly in her tender hand. And the body who can offer the soft tender setting-out becomes the body for whom the deepest sacred forward-motion naturally settles within the sacred well of the actual lived form. Today I give thanks for the body's soft tender setting-out. For the tender first small setting-out that has, faithfully, opened the sacred seventh door of the new cycle at the sacred Mars-ruled Tuesday under the sacred doubled Mars beauty-blessing. For the deep trust that the body who has, today, softly chosen one small tender first-direction will, faithfully, deepen into the fuller tender feminine cycle-journey as the cycle turns softly forward through Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, and beyond in the arc ahead.
The Sun and She Who Carries Starlight
On The Chariot and the tender first small setting-outand why the seventh major arcana of the sacred first-directed-motion of tender setting-out key — the sacred first-sovereign of chosen direction, the tender feminine will-holder, the small tender first sacred journey — is the precise patron of the sacred seventh morning of the new cycle at the tender first Mars-day when the body who has, faithfully, offered the tender first small listening yesterday now offers the tender first small setting-out — a tender feminine sovereign standing softly in a small tender chariot with a small tender canopy of stars above her tender head and a small tender crown resting softly on her tender head and small tender armor draped softly around her tender form and two small tender sphinxes (one small tender black and one small tender white) resting softly at the front of the tender chariot and a small tender laurel wreath at the tender chariot’s front and a small tender wand held softly in her tender hand
The Sun is one of the most quietly profound cards in the entire major arcana — the nineteenth card, the great patroness of the body's bright inner radiance, the figure who teaches that the body who has, faithfully, performed the full elemental arc through the soft Moon-recognition and the embodied trust now becomes, herself, the carrier of the new cycle's bright inner light. The traditional image shows a bright sun shining softly in the sky, often with a gentle face — a radiant yellow disc with soft features, the great patroness of the body's natural radiance peering kindly down. The sun's beams radiate outward, alternating straight rays and wavy rays, the soft architecture of natural light. Below the sun, a naked child rides a white horse — the body's inner child, the soul's natural form before any cultural costume, riding the bright steed of soul's natural vitality. The child holds a large red banner that streams gently in the bright air — the body's natural celebration, the soft outward expression of the inner light made visible. Behind the child and horse, a stone wall rises, and above the wall, tall sunflowers bloom — the bright florals of the embodied solar life, the body's natural radiance made manifest in the actual lived garden of her current life. The deeper teaching of the card is that the body's true radiance is not, faithfully, the dramatic performance the achievement culture demands. The Sun does not, today, ask the body for bold outward radiance-declaration or formal solstice-ceremony. She offers the body, instead, the rare gift of the soft inner light fully emerged — the bright inner radiance the body has, faithfully, been gathering through the elemental arc, now naturally available as the body's own carried starlight. The naked child rides the white horse without armor or costume — the body's natural radiance offered without performance. The red banner streams gently in the bright air — the body's natural celebration without dramatic outward declaration. The sunflowers bloom behind the stone wall — the natural radiance made manifest in the actual lived garden of the body's current life rather than in some distant performance arena. The Sun is numbered nineteen of the major arcana because she comes, faithfully, late in the soul's journey — after the long elemental arcs, after the receptive and active emergences, after the body has performed the early developmental work, after the soft Moon-recognition of the body's returning. She is the figure who has, faithfully, learned that the body's deepest radiance is the natural bright inner light that emerges when the long elemental arc has, faithfully, been performed, the rare embodied skill of carrying the bright inner light forward as the body's own actual lived starlight.
The Virgo First Quarter at 50% illumination on the summer solstice, with the moon continuing in Virgo's earth-temple and the Sun ingressing into Cancer today, makes the Sun tarot's teaching extraordinarily accessible. The body who heard the first quiet word in the airy sanctuary of Gemini on Day 1, felt the first quiet feeling in the watery sanctuary of Cancer on Day 2, offered her first quiet yes through the soft directed will on Day 3, allowed the small heart-fire to softly kindle on Day 4, softly recognized the shape of her returning through the Moon's quiet night sanctuary on Day 5, and softly trusted what the Moon already knows on Day 6 now stands at Day 7 — the rare developmental moment when the body, herself, becomes the carrier of the bright inner light. The Sun arrives as the precise patron of this tender bright carrying — the body who has, faithfully, performed the seven-day elemental arc and now becomes, naturally, she who carries the new cycle's bright starlight forward into the deepening lunar arc and the deepening solar year. She Who Carries Starlight is the oracle's name for what the Sun, today, reveals. The tender bright carrying is, today, the practice. The body's gentle stewardship of the bright inner light that has, faithfully, emerged through the first seven days of the new cycle is the entire work. The body who can, finally, allow herself to become she who carries starlight — without the chronic urgent demand to immediately perform the bright inner light in dramatic outward radiance-declaration, without the cultural pressure to translate the soft carrying into formal solstice-ceremony — becomes the body for whom every subsequent radiance naturally deepens with the soft peace of one who has, faithfully, learned that the deepest light is the body's own actual carried starlight. The Sun does not, today, ask you to perform the bright inner light or declare the full shape of what the body is, faithfully, carrying forward. She offers, instead, the rarer seventh-day practice: receive the bright light. Carry the starlight softly. Trust the body's own actual radiance to emerge in her own faithful time. The first quarter rises in Virgo. The Sun ingresses into Cancer. And the body who can, today, allow herself to become she who carries starlight becomes the body for whom the new cycle's full radiance quietly unfolds across the coming days as the natural welcomed bright carrying of one who has, faithfully, performed the long elemental arc.