Here is a look at 2013 in tarot, to figure things out I add up the digits of the year 2+0+1+3=6
and use the corresponding major arcana card to set the tone. This is the year of the lovers.
The lovers is a fascinating and complicated card. At first look we see the obvious, two people the lovers intertwining their fates in some way. The figures represented can also be opposite parts of ourselves (male, female, spirit or dark, light, universe, etc) that we might need to develop or integrate. At it’s core the lovers seek balance in relationship with others and in ourselves.
On a deeper and more complex note the lovers provide us the impetus to make a choice. To take a risk, to go out and grow future in a direction of our choosing. To leave the safety of the garden and explore the wide world beyond. This triggers zeal, courage, curiosity, hope, and adventure but on the shadow side there is insecurity and doubt arising at all turns making us question why we left the safety of the garden or why on earth did we follow this bozo.
It’s a year of growth magnified by a deep yearning for more. To follow our desire, to live a life full of passion, to have, to find and to deeply connect with companions along our path.
To get the month cards I add the year number 6 to the month number.
January: the Chariot 
If life was a game (which I secretly think it is) this would be a level up card. If you are willing to step into the chariot it will take you past whatever goop you got yourself in and deposit you at the next safe haven so you can embark on the next phase of your journey.
Here in the northern hemisphere having a action card in the middle of winter creates an interesting push and pull. January is already full of people telling you to get better, make resolutions and take action when all our animal bodies want to do is sleep in and dream for another month. Take good notes and leave the frustration and anxiety behind – just enjoy the ride and don’t worry about having to run screaming into battle the moment you arrive. Instead enjoy the bed, the food and wine, study your maps and make plans. Before long the adventure will continue.
February: Strength
This card is oft referred to by me, as one of my most favorite cards-the love conquers all card.
But it’s not sappy or cheesy, there is huge strength and power about this card, but also a touch of whimsy and epicness. This card has nothing to do with power, excepting, that the person in the card knows they have power-and therefore do not need to wield it or force it upon others.
This month and this card are about finding within self the strength to be patient, to be vulnerable and to be willing to understand ones enemy (often a hated aspect of one’s self in another). By understanding the enemy you truly defeat the enemy without a need for slaying or conquering-those actions just lead to more conflict and need for further resolution down the line. To understands one’s enemy you must become vulnerable enough to see inside the enemy, to empathise with it’s plight in life and to understand it’s motives. The you can derail it with compassion and compromise and the enemy becomes an ally.
If my enemy/fear/doubt is an extension of me, how can I find within myself the ability to love it, conquering before conflict is ever initiated.
March: the Hermit 
One of the two master teachers in the tarot deck the Hermit teaches us how to retreat and renew. Ego-less and wise this master is never lonely for when students aren’t seeking out his light he draws within to learn something new or battle his own demons, always seeking a way to leave ego behind.
The hermit also declares that you sometimes must retreat away from the world and ‘reality’ in order to see your place in it and the pitfalls reality can easily lead you into.
Head into the wilds of your soul and strike up a conversation with the beasties you find there. It will lead you closer to your truth and your ability to tap into your intuition whenever you need, connecting you to your light at a deeper and more profound level.
April: the Wheel of Fortune supported by the Magician 
What goes up must come down, a truer truth was ne’er spoke and those who hold on and refuse to follow the cycle end up creating a really nice high and a super horrible low. Allow the ebb and flow, it makes a more gentle ride with less drama.
Declare your boundaries and dance within your circle of destiny learning form the lows and celebrating in the ups.
The wheel is aided by the magician because 10 can be further reduced to 1. Having the magician spin your wheel can be crazy. As the master manifestor the magician often refuses to partake in the hard parts of life until they gain up on him and drag him screaming into the ditches and leave him there to wallow.
Fate has no patience for a a person who cannot accept that change is the only constant we can rely on, and she will design a fabulous moment of torment just for them.
Don’t be this person! Ride your ups and scream on your downs and learn, fate rewards those who learn from her tests.
May: Justice combined with the High Priestess
Justice is not here to judge, she is here to sort out facts and make decisions based on evidence-judgement does not come into it at all.
This is a grand time for information gathering, for the High Priestess is also a collector of information.
It is also time to start making decisions in Justices case from a place of logic and fact, and in the High Priestesses case from intuition. Logic and Fact tempered with Intuition-the perfect decision making trio. This is confusing because we often think logic and intuition, are two separate things. Until we look at people like Albert Einstein who said numerous amazing things about the importance of both knowledge and imagination and intuition. One of the most brilliant minds made the leaps he did because he trusted his intuition to lead him to the right knowledge.
Be like Einstein-align logic and intuition.
June: the Hanged Man helped by the Empress 
The hanged man is one of the bravest characters in the tarot (or the dumbest). He is so willing to go out on a limb for a cause that he puts himself in some very awkward positions. The key to the hanged man is to make sure it’s your cause, that you believe in this, because living up in a tree for a year to protest clear cutting is not for someone who only half heartily likes trees.
Sometimes this is the guy that has an argument or a counterpoint to everything and just likes to hear himself talk about basically his own importance. Walk away. If you find these people following you around a lot this month, just hide.
Find and hang out with the quiet types that know themselves so well that silence is not an event of awkwardness, it is just a resetting, or shifting of topic.
The empress comes in to offer nurturing and softness to a decision that can seem harsh and uncomfortable. She offers the wisdom of her knowing and her intuition and her kindness to help you work through any snags set in your path as you use the zealously and passion of the hanged man to take a further step onto your path.
Take a risk. It might feel like shit for a few-that’s your ego getting int he way, lean into the empress for she rewards those who risk all for a path of heart inspiration.
July: Death magnified by the Emperor
The end must come so that we can be reborn. The ego must die so that we can step forward and not destroy ourselves or the world. Think of death as the burning of a phoenix to be resurrected in the ashes.
Death offers us a way and a time to release a ton of old stuff in one fell swoop. What have you been putting off purging?
If the emperor did not die and loose ego he would be a tyrant or a dictator. The emperor who has passed through death and knows death is a ruler of compassion, wisdom, truth and integrity.
We need more rulers to check their egos at the door. Be one.
August: Temperance and the Hierophant
The artist and alchemist combined with the teacher. This is a month to be seen. To talk about your process, to take risk.
After walking through the fire of death the alchemist in you wants to play, to combine, to create, to experiment, to dance, to dream.
The artist in you wants to throw things together and see what happens.
The teachers wants to talk about it, write about it and share it.
There is no failure, there is only experimentation.
Play!
There is so much to do, and so much to see and so many possibilities now that you are free from all that extra weight. Don’t forget to have fun in the process of all this new doing.
September: Devil and the Lovers
The devil wants to tell you all the ways you suck.
He also wants to keep you numb and at a disadvantage, so he’s going to throw some vices in your direction and watch if you squirm. The devil wants control not of your soul but of your ego. He wants you to think you don’t matter and that you should have never left the garden.
The devil wants you to sleepwalk through your life.
The lovers are going to have a hard time fighting the temptation to just stay in bed all day. I mean why not?
At it’s core though the devil wants you to fight back: to scream out I will not sleep trough my life, I will not be controlled by you, I will think for myself. Then he will teach you about real power and you will become allies with the enemy and he will never seek to control you again. well probably not 
October: Tower takes flight in a Chariot 
The tower comes along to shake things loose. Any old beliefs, any stuck bits it brings them all up to be tossed out with the rubbish. But we have a hard time throwing stuff away, even if it is completely useless to us.
Luckily we also have the energy of the chariot this month to take us from the explosive shake down straight over to a plot of our own where we can begin the rebuilding process without having to shift through piles and piles of rubble.
Now this month is really asking us to leave the past behind, and step firmer onto the path of our own creation and design.
This can be painful. But even more painful-flash forward a few years and this time around the tower-not going to come back and not be so nice-there will be demolition. Remember what we said about holding on to the wheel of fate to prevent it’s turning? The tower will come back around again, it always does and ti will rain destruction all over your head. SO take this nice gentle hiccup and create something.
November: Star magnified by Strength 
Permission to take a full month of self care! whew! You have earned it!
Reach out to your community near and far, shine your beautiful light into the world and love!love!love yourself all up.
This is a resting point where you start to see your role in your own life and in the greater universe. You start to see your importance and you start to really take care of yourself so you can step into your brilliance and light up this place.
as Katy Perry would sing “baby you’re a firework” unleash your inner diva, just a little bit.
December: Moon plus the Hermit 
The star teaches us about shining, the moon about reflecting. There are two ways to be a light one is to be the star (sun) the other is to be a mirror (the moon).
The moonlight gives us an opportunity to see everything we think we know in the daylight in a different way. Nothing is the same in the moonlight, and yet it is all the same. Same house, same garden but so very, very different. Some things become magical, some menacing.
What areas of your life could use some different lighting? Is there an area you are looking at under the harsh glare, or are things too dim to see anything? Don’t be afraid to change the lampshades, switch a bulb color, look at everything in under the soft glow of white christmas lights or put on your stopping boots and grab a mag-light to clean that shit out.
Go within to shine out. You do not have to stand in the brilliance of stage to be seen or heard, you can be the moon, a friendly face in the the night sky consistency shinning it’s light and changing shape.
Reflect, journey into dream time, journal, take stock and take note. Next year is coming and there have been big changes this year.
Let a wee bit of wild side out and dance naked in the moonlight, skinny dip, or howl at the moon occasionally, just for kicks.
