New Flower Moon
Deep peace of the dark moon to you
APRIL 27, 2025
Holding Pain and Beauty Together.
This month’s moon is called the Flower Moon. Life is now bursting forth around us. And yet in our social, economic, and political world, life is not all roses and butterflies. There is a lot of heartache, fear, anger, and disbelief all around us, even as the earth is in full bloom.
For the new moon, when the night is dark with the absence of the moon, I thought it would be appropriate to work with this dichotomy. Our guiding light of the moon is absent from the sky tonight. Darkness is often demonized, but instead of being evil, scary, or something to run away from, what if we acknowledged darkness as just a state of being? It’s a natural part of life and sooner or later, the sun is guaranteed to set. Just as sure as the full moon will return, it will go away again just as reliably.
Let’s dream together about how darkness could be a gift. The absence of physical light means that it is harder to see. Perhaps this is an invitation to use our other senses to understand what we’re experiencing. Maybe this is an opportunity to notice how we’re feeling - afraid? Worried? At peace? Hopeful? And explore those feelings with new curiosity.
So with all of that, on this Dark Flower Moon, I invite you to work with your fears and worries, but also acknowledge the beauty. No matter who is president, the moon still rises and sets. Regardless of how heavy financial stress is, people still hug their children, walk their dogs, and feed themselves and the people they love. Acknowledging beauty doesn’t mean we ignore the very real fears and pains in life, but it does require that we practice holding both realities together.
And it is a practice - something we get better at as we try it over and over again. And tarot is one tool that can support this trying.
Tarot Practice for the Dark Flower Moon
Use any tarot or oracle deck that you like. If you don’t have a deck, you can use the free version of the Labyrinthos app to pull cards virtually.
Shuffle your cards as you ask, what is something I’m worried about or afraid of? And what is a source of beauty or goodness in my life?
Cut the deck and draw two cards off the top. The first one represents a worry or fear. The second one represents a source of beauty or goodness.
Reflect on both cards. Notice how you respond to the imagery. Do they resonate with you? Are you surprised at all by what the cards are bringing up? Do the two cards have anything to say to each other? Use your intuition, guidebooks, and online resources to tease out what the cards may be saying to you. See below for some links to my favorite resources!
Share
Fear and worry can be isolating, so I encourage you to find at least one person you can take a risk with and share what came up for you in this reading. Ask them about their worries and fears and what is bringing beauty and goodness in their life. How can you support each other in navigating this challenging dichotomy?
Or take a risk and invite someone to do this practice with you! I recommend each person draws two cards for themselves. And after discussing, you may want to draw cards for each other. For example, if I were doing this with my friend Michele, we would do the practice as outlined above, and discuss and share. And then I would pull a card for her and interpret that card into a word of encouragement for her, based on what she had shared. Then she would do the same for me. Or if you’re in a group of more than two, you could go around in a circle: I would pull a card for Michele, she would pull one for Courtney, who would pull one for me. You get it.
Links
Here are some of my favorite tarot resources:
The Contemporary Tarot YouTube channel has really helpful (but brief!) breakdowns of every card to help you interpret your readings.
The Labyrinthos app allows you to draw cards virtually if you don’t have access to a physical deck.
Little Red Tarot has courses and products, but they also have a robust blog featuring different decks and a library of resources available for free on their website.
Join me
Want to go deeper in your tarot or other spiritual practices?
Join the Wild Maven community in person on the Dark Flower Moon, Sunday, April 27, 2025, in Baltimore to practice using tarot to support your spiritual well-being in community with others.
Or work with me one-on-one. I offer virtual spiritual counseling sessions where you can process your spiritual or religious experiences, explore your beliefs, and/or discover new practices - which could include tarot or anything else you’re curious about!
Photo by Embla Munk Rynkebjerg on Unsplash.