Choose to be your whole self & let the light shine onto your community
The overwhelming sensation that 2025 is not off to a great start is not unusual. In a few short weeks, several life-and-land-altering events have transpired, including the terrorist attack in New Orleans and the devastating fires in Los Angeles. These events and the general feeling of dread post-election have created an unmistakable collective unease.
All this followed shortly after Hurricane Helene, which leveled beach communities in Florida, transfigured mountainsides, and moved rivers in Appalachia. These are ongoing, fluid recovery efforts, and people bravely assemble the pieces—a slow and arduous task.
My heart hurts for these communities and families. The devastation is widespread and overwhelming for our neighbors. Like many of you, I feel helpless, waiting for community leaders to provide insight and direction for their needs. Unfortunately, waiting to understand is all many of us can do, as locals are still working to fight active devastation.
To offer immediate financial support, you can donate to Emergency Network Los Angeles, Inc. and the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. Please remember that this is active, like many recent disasters, and needs are regularly updated and changed. Always follow local leaders' instructions. Learn more about community support for several other causes here.
Feeling like a spectator to such catastrophes is difficult, which can blanket us in dread. However, now is not the time to panic. It’s time to prepare and respond as a collective by empowering our communities by trusting ourselves.
Cosmic Context
Now is as good of a time as any to remember that we are co-conspirators with our universe, and opening ourselves to a cosmic education can act as a navigational beacon during these events outside our control.
This year is the first time in a few centuries that Pluto is in the astrological sign of Aquarius, and we are but a heartbeat away from Aquarius season. Several planets are also transiting from one sign to another in 2025. Change is here. Regardless of where your beliefs fall, it doesn’t negate the energy we will feel on our floating rock.
Let’s consider both Pluto and Aquarius.
Pluto is the planet of death and rebirth and unavoidable change. It doesn’t give you a choice. The structures you know and understand, built in while Capricorn, will be dismantled and rebuilt in Aquarius.
Aquarius, an air sign known as the water bearers, are often considered unpredictable, aloof, and dreamers. But that’s not the whole truth, is it? Examined more closely, water takes the shape of its container. The water bearer is in emotional control, carrying the emotional weight of the world and sharing their perspective with the community they profoundly feel for. They often move to the beat of their drum, begging others to dance with them and reject conformity. The farsighted Aquarian thrives in change and opportunities to communicate their malleable perspective.
Forget not, dear reader; Aquarians are air signs. So, while water is a representative force, it’s essential to consider how air, or logic, plays into this mysterious sign and the timeliness of our planets.
Now, let’s add those together. The way we process emotions and logic will transform through unavoidable change. This will be a singular and global experience. How we communicate, how we process our feelings, and what we hold value in will inevitably change.
Pluto in Aquarius in The Tarot
The universe is complicated; there are so many interesting and beautiful layers. My chosen language of this universe’s mysteries is expressed in the 78 cards of the Tarot. They’re a bridge to connect the mystical and the earthly, each card a key to opening personal and collective insight.
The Judgement card represents Pluto and the inevitable change. The Star card represents Aquarius, offering hope and intuitive guidance: two Major Arcana cards and major players in our story. With Aquarius season moments away and Mercury moving into Aquarius on February 18, let’s pull the Six of Swords, representative of Mercury in Aquarius, and of course, change.
Judgment: When the Judgment card appears, it begs discernment. How are you judging this situation? This Major Arcana card is often pulled when life-altering circumstances occur in the querent’s life. Representative of Pluto, this means inevitable change. When this happens, the universe begs the querent to consider their circumstances and assess them with objectivity. What can you leave behind? What can you take with you? What judgment calls can you make to improve your outcome?
The Star: Representing Aquarius, The Star instructs us to hold hope, even in the darkest moments. In the Major Arcana, The Star immediately follows The Tower, indicating hope after a massive, sometimes disruptive upheaval. It’s a note from the universe nudging the querent to find hope and believe circumstances will improve, that the universe will provide, even when there is no hope, and the sun will again rise. The Star also represents the connection to the divine and our cosmos.
The Six of Swords: The Swords represent air, which also represents logic or how we make decisions and problem-solve. Mercury, mercurial energy, is a fast-moving, changing force entering our lives. The image on the card depicts two people with six swords on a boat traveling to a new horizon. It represents the ability to heal from turmoil or chaotic situations behind them in favor of calmer shores, focus, and, ultimately, clarity. Change is coming or is currently in motion, but peace awaits.
We're being offered the opportunity to shed what doesn't belong in the future and remain hopeful, even when the world feels dark. Who will you be as the world shifts? What clarity will you gain? It won't be without conflict and strife, but the next phase clearer shores.
But what does it mean?!
I consort with Source, and I'm not even certain what it all means. We’re spiritual beings having an earthly experience; it comes with the territory.
God, Source, Spirit—whatever you call the divine— knows everything about us. Our past lives, our current selves, who we came from, and who will be borne from us long after we’ve dematerialized from this plane. They see how we are struggling and connect with the pain. But we are asked to persist despite our many, even tragic, challenges.
These first few weeks of Pluto in Aquarius, and this year in general, have given us some tangible evidence of change. You can feel the energy. We have about 20 more years of this and are far from settled in the Plutonian upheaval.
Earth has done nothing but transform since the dawn of time, with Pluto transiting all the signs over several millennia. Hell, North America, as we know, isn’t even the first iteration of land we’re familiar with. Humans weren’t the first conscious beings here. Those early humans, and even the humans of 100 years ago, lived through historical times filled with varying degrees of upheaval, from violent to extraordinary. America is only a couple hundred years old. We’re relatively new here, all things considered.
The limit of our uniqueness is also our strength. Our ancestors gifted us with historical records that give context and prove that we adapt when conflict or tragedy strikes. We have proof of survival, innovation, and evidence of people being messy, creative, or silly in challenging circumstances. We have proof because we exist right now.
We don’t deserve the tragic circumstances and the devastating outcomes. But we don’t have to do it alone. We don’t have to expect our neighbors to overcome alone. We have the choice to show up. In moments of great change, we are challenged to disrupt what we know in favor of better. We can rebuild and heal differently, with kinder hearts and a hopeful, equitable future. We don’t have to resign to believe this is our future.
Our communities will make a difference. When someone’s hurting and something sucks, it’s really okay to respond with “oh my god that fucking sucks I’m so sorry.” That’s a compassionate response, believe it or not, because it’s real. Authenticity includes the dark stuff, sit with the uncomfy. You don’t need to tell them it’ll be okay, they get to determine if it will be or not. It’s our responsibility to be uncomfortable with them in good faith.
The Opportunity of Pluto
Change can be a terrifying prospect when you don’t trust yourself. Believe me, I know. I spent too much time unwilling to align my thoughts and actions with who I truly am. The inability to trust myself led to depression, anxiety, and OCD, tricking me into believing I needed to control my environment. Victim mentality seeps into everything, making you think you are absolved of responsibility when you’re not.
While the circumstances that led to those feelings were not my fault, and I didn’t deserve the mistreatment or outcomes, it (was) my responsibility to confront and acknowledge the root cause of my misalignment. The reasons I failed to believe in my strength.
In reality, we are passenger princesses in control of our emotions and responsible for ourselves. We are responsible for how we treat ourselves and others.
This is the opportunity of Pluto. These changes will occur. It’s not a question. How will you respond?
Open the Communities
I don’t know about you, but I’m personally sick of the overly-individualized group we’ve all become. While there is a laundry list of macro situations and bureaucratic structures maintaining the status quo far out of our reach and control, the throne in our micro kingdoms isn’t without rulership.
We, in this case, rule our kingdoms. We choose how we spend our time, which affects everyone around us. The Judgement card we pulled earlier is your cue to answer the introspective urges you are likely experiencing.
Will you choose to honor your intuition?
To those wondering how you can help or why someone like you is worthy of helping another person, it’s because you understand your pain. The depths of that loneliness don’t need to be thrust upon those suffering. You know better because you’ve lived it, whether it was a fire, hurricane, mass tragedy, personal grief, or the kind of loneliness that yields resentment; you know better than leaving people without community because you know better. Refocusing through a different lens means we can and will do better because we have to. Because we owe it to ourselves to have more pride in ourselves.
We deserve to be cared for and appreciated, and we don’t need permission from people in charge or tastemakers to choose our neighbors. We can do it because it’s our calling.
Don’t be obtuse, either. This isn’t about being “nice” because you need to perform being nice for people to believe it. This is about acknowledging and understanding your pain so you can respond in kind. It demands your awareness to reach beyond your perceived imperfections and recognize what needs attention while having the capacity to celebrate yourself and your wins and the wins of the people you love, opening space in your heart to love others with genuine compassion.
You don’t need to experience struggle or strife to earn joy. Joy is meant to be shared. It gets dark every day, and the sun returns every morning. Why are you any different? They both exist within you and around you. We are complex beings, guys. Let it be true among many truths. Allow those many truths embolden you in ways you haven't yet dreamed.
How can you authentically live your life? How can that authenticity benefit your community? The people hurting right now need the comfort of authenticity. These events will remind us of who we are when faced with our mortality: humans. We are not our jobs, our net worth, or our possessions.
When the dust settles, and we evaluate the devastation years later, will you be proud of how you shared your strengths with the community? We are only as good as we believe we’re limited. Remove the pressure to perform and be perceived as "good" or "bad," and permit yourself the vulnerability our most vulnerable deserve. Show up how you expect to be shown up for. You are not exempt from the unpredictable, and you, too, will need the care of your neighbors.
The point of this life is joy. Punishing yourself with made-up, self-inflicted rules or fear of judgment moves you further from your alignment. Be fearless in your introspection. Fearlessly love yourself and those around you. Don't forget, you're not doing this alone; we're all in this together, or however that High School Musical song goes.
You are all of you; you are your dark and light parts. Goodness and sinfulness should not be the parameters in which you grade the value of your life. The way you intuitively show up (and out) for yourself is your guidepost, regardless of spiritual affiliation.
Below are some questions to help you build a solid foundation during introspective and shadow work.
Do I align with how I feel about myself?
Am I spending time with people who make me feel good?
Are my choices helping me obtain the life I want for myself?
Do I trust myself? Why or why not?
What can I do to learn more about myself and not what others think or expect me to be?
How can I authentically show up for my community?
What choices have I made recently that I’m proud of?
Do you feel you’re exempt from how you treat people because others have hurt you?
Where can you begin to heal?
What can you celebrate about yourself today?
I won’t sugarcoat it; this will be work, and many of you will not be up to it. You need to trust yourself to be present and show up for others. When shit gets tough, be tougher. Hit back when the world hits you, but not at the expense of others.
Leaning on our communities will be the key to navigating the future; we only have this life on this timeline. We only get this experience with these people on this timeline once. Be emboldened by the uncertainty and trust you will always land where you should.
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