Earth cards

Now that the sun is in Taurus, we’re in a sweet and powerful phase of the year, one that can give us a feeling of our strength in the world. Taurus is ruled by the planet Venus, which brings us all kinds of earthly delights in this sign.

When it’s earth energy you’re working with, think about what nourishes you on a physical level: what you’re eating, how comfortable your clothes are, where you like to sit.

You may already know that earth signs are associated with the suit of Pentacles in tarot. I often draw on tarot card associations when I’m writing astrological chart descriptions for people.

Many of the cards feel a little overly specific and sometimes depressing — do I really think the bummer 5 of pentacles, which is about feeling shortchanged and even snubbed, is how the average Taurus’s day feels? Not really, but I do recognize that there’s a particular shared earthy energy between them.

In tarot, these cards are associated with the fixed earth energy of Taurus.

• 5 of pentacles
• 6 of pentacles
• 7 of pentacles
• King of pentacles
• the Hierophant
• the Empress (because of Venus rulership)

As I thought about this, I started to wonder what all the cards in the same suit would feel like if laid out in the same place.

These cards are associated with the mutable earth energy of Virgo.

• 8 of pentacles
• 9 of pentacles
• 10 of pentacles
• Knight of pentacles
• the Hermit
• the Magician (because of Mercury rulership)

Rounding out the earth signs, these cards are associated with the cardinal earth energy of Capricorn.

• 2 of pentacles
• 3 of pentacles
• 4 of pentacles
• Queen of pentacles
• the Devil
• the World (because of Saturn rulership)

The major arcana cards of this set stand together in an interesting way. All are related to worldly experiences. The Hermit, Devil, and Hierophant connect to the earthy zodiac signs themselves, while the Magician, World, and Empress symbolically represent Mercury, Saturn, and Venus — the signs’ respective rulers.

If tarot interests you, I’ll just mention that I have a Medium series on the subject where I’m going one by one through the cards.

Insomnia moons

Once in a while I’ll have trouble falling asleep at night, usually because for whatever reason my mind won’t stop coming up with new things to think about. More often than not, this happens when the moon is in Gemini, Virgo, or Aquarius. I’ve begun to refer to these as the insomnia moons, and have developed different strategies to deal with (and even enjoy) each.

It’s possible everyone has different insomnia moons, but two of my three are air signs and I feel that could be related. Air moons are the most cerebral of the bunch, inclined to seek out information and work with it in some way.

Virgo is an earth sign, but like Gemini it’s ruled by chatty Mercury. Virgo loves having a lot of data to work with and analyze, and is loath to leave work undone. Virgo responds well to making to-do lists. I love using Virgo moon time to look through cookbooks and pick out recipes I’d like to make. By the time I’m making the grocery list and scheduling out errands for the next 48 hours, I’m usually beginning to feel sleepy again.

Aquarius is thoughtful and persistent; it tends to get fixed on an idea (it’s a fixed air sign) and sometimes the best response is to honor that obsession by writing things down. It’s a great time to generate research leads. Personally I tend to do a lot of writing when the moon is in Aquarius.

As for Gemini — I resign myself to not getting much sleep once a Gemini moon has my mind fired up. Sometimes a boring book will help to tone it back down, but more often I end up staying awake and reading Twitter. I suspect calm music might help, maybe even a white noise machine.

All that said, I’ve slept soundly through plenty of Gemini moons, and my last restless night was with the moon in chill Taurus — so it isn’t always about the moon. Anyway, I figure it never hurts to gather data.