Listen to this month’s tarot + earth medicine reading on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts, or right here on my website!
Blessed Vernal Equinox
Blessed Vernal Equinox, friends! This episode of Centered is a reading, history and insights around Vernal Equinox or what modern pagans and Wiccans call Ostara.
Disclaimer for this episode is that I nerd out on some religious and cultural history of this time of the year. I include talk about Christianity, Judaism and the bible. I tend to give you biblical verses for context not preachiness. One thing to know is that I have a degree in Religion. We tend to say that Theologians, of which I am not, focus on what God thinks about humans, and Religion scholars focus on what humans think about God, so I am coming from the latter of these. And in this quest to put things into context, I often will go to the source within that religion. I do my best. I was raised Catholic and am now a pagan. I’m an earth-worshipping, tree hugging, faithful and faith filled believer in the Goddess and God, and often will just say God to mean it all. I want you to know that, because I don’t want to mislead anyone. I tend to see our alikeness in religious beliefs rather than our otherness. I could literally talk Religion all day. And maybe I will some episode.
So, there is no one traditional religion or culture where you would find all eight pagan/Wiccan sabbats as a holiday system. Wicca, also known as Witchcraft or the Craft, seeks to reestablish the link to the earth and the cycle of seasons by following what Wiccans call the "Wheel of the Year." Celebrations, known as Sabbats, serve as the spokes of the Wheel, reminding practitioners of humanity's intimate connection to nature. The Lesser Sabbats, tied to the solstices and equinoxes, and the Greater Sabbats, purportedly tied to harvest and livestock cycles, occur approximately every six weeks. Through observance of the Sabbats and Esbats, rituals taking place every new and full moon, witches keep in touch with the progression of the year and nature's rhythms.That came about in the 1950s with the creation of Wicca by Gerald Gardner.
Ostara celebrates the vernal equinox. Ostara is one of the holy days that Gardner solidified for pagans. Ostara, named after the Eostre, the Germanic Goddess of the Spring (others say she is Celtic) is celebrated on the Vernal or Spring Equinox. Like many other spring celebrations in other cultures, Ostara symbolizes fertility, rebirth, and renewal. This time of year marked the beginning of the agricultural cycle, and farmers would start planting seeds…listen to continue.
Centered Episode 49: Tarot Q+A
In this episode, I am talking about Tarot + the spiritual work of the healer. I have questions that I keep finding that I forgot to answer earlier, or just held onto for a bit, so apologies if that was you. I like to create Q&As that are related. I also have some events and things coming up that you might be interested in, so I have that after my questions, if you hang out that long. Enjoy this episode of Centered.
The questions:
Can you talk about how to create your own tarot layouts? How did you start doing that? And how do you recommend doing it?
What is a significator and why don’t you talk about them?
Beka Caudill asked Is there a certain day you suggest doing your tarot pull for the year? Any specific questions to ask?
Julie Milletti asked Are there times when you don’t do anything spiritual — tarot, meditation, earth medicine practices, etc.?✨
Tarot + Earth Medicine Reading for March
Blessed March, friends! They say March roars in like a lion but leaves as a lamb. But this March is roaring in with so much astrological shifting, we may want to roar, cry, mew, dance the Macarena, and hide under a blanket with a computer to take over the world.
This is the month we have all been waiting for, or at least, that is what we were told in the beginning of the year by astrologers. All these retrogrades, they said, just wait until March when everything shifts. I was in my live membership group circle and someone mentioned the crazy astrology in March, and I had totally forgotten. I was so caught up in what I thought would be a mild February. It was anything but for me. I was definitely getting ready for March.
So, if you have felt like me and are saying to yourself, “What gives? I thought this would be the calm time of the year.” You have laid the foundation, friend, to shift, change, adapt and let yourself get taken by the inevitable transformations of March’s astrology and energy.
Of course, I discuss this all in the Tarot + Earth Medicine Reading for March in my latest podcast. Click to listen here or at my Anchor site. Or you know Spotify, ApplePodcasts, etc…whereever you get pods, you can get mine.
+ + + + +
If you like these readings for the month and want to dive deeper with me, I have my Moon + Stone Healing Memberships. I do readings for the group on the Full Moon and the New Moon and provide a monthly shamanic journey to all members. We circle up for Coffee on Fridays and talk, pull cards, explore topics. There are a few price points for everyone and for one tier, I do a personal reading.
I just wanted to share that, since so many of you ask for how to work with me, or learn from me, I also have a place where you can schedule distant sessions with me.
And one more thing, I am starting a monthly Live Q&A, which will be very similar to my office hours at Hibiscus Moon Crystal Academy. You can sign up here. The last Wednesday of the Month. More about that coming!
scheduling
New Moon in Pisces
anti valentine's day
Imbolc Reading
Enjoy this Collective Imbolc Reading for February 1. And you can try it yourself with this layout from my book the Complete Tarot Layouts:
Episode 44: Tarot+ Earth Medicine Reading for February 2023
Enjoy the tarot + earth medicine reading for February 2023
Episode 43: Angie rambling and Q&As
Another rambly episode of the podcast for you, squirrel friends. (RuPaul, I adore you.) I promise more regular postings and musings as I wind down my other life and fire up a new way of being.
Date in Peace Podcast with Lauren Smith: Building Peaceful Relationships with Crystals & Tarot
I was so honored to talk to Lauren Smith on her podcast Date in Peace, which is all about dating. Lauren Smith is an author of the book the Mindful Dating Journal and creator of an app called the MettaDate Journal App. The Mindful Dating Journal is your guide to using mindfulness to find a deep connection. Explore your past and track your present to set the foundation for a fulfilling relationship and the app, MettaDate Journal App is a simple mindfulness tool for modern daters. Lauren and I met many many years ago when she was the youngest member of a meditation circle I belonged to where I learned to channel and talk to Angels. I remember Lauren’s vibrance and connect to the Elemental realm as such a beautiful addition to our circle of older women exploring the metaphysical together. I really loved talking about Tarot and Crystals and Dating. You can follow Lauren here on IG: https://www.instagram.com/mettadate/ and at her website: Lauren Smith Studio
Centered Q&A Episodes 37 & 38
Ugh, I forgot to post my November Earth Medicine + Tarot reading. For the month of November, we are working with the Eight of Swords, Salmon medicine, Thyme and the Crystals: Labradorite, Larimar + Sunstone. We deal with Mars Retrograde and a Lunar Eclipse…holy crap!
Episode 38 answers some questions from our listeners Tarot, Stage Cards, Moon phase work + Retrogrades. Here they are:
Suzanne asked, “Is there a card/s that is always a little difficult to interpret when it comes up in a reading? Conversely is there one or multiple that are easier? 🔮😻”
Tan Hm asked, “Stage cards confuse me! And it would be amazing if you could talk about how to integrate after shadow work.”
Danielle asked, “Phases- from the moon phases and the spiritual meanings, to the spiritual phases (waves) most of us experience in life…. Planet retrogrades and the different impacts depending on the sign if occurs in.”
Suzanne asked, “I know this info is probably somewhere but can you talk a little bit about what "retrograde" means. You can always send a question to angie@themoonandstone.com for me to cover in an upcoming episode or record one on my anchor page at https://anchor.fm/angie-yingst/message
Samhain Reading
Here is the reading I pulled, but you can see the template below.
Angie talks Samhain, letting go, emotional support corpses and pulls some tarot cards for the dark season of Samhain to Yule.
This is a picture of my Layouts book with my margin notes. I really encourage you all to change up things in your books, because connecting with the layout is the MOST important part. You have control!
I talk about this piece by Marybeth Bonfiglio called 41 Ways to Make Love to Yourself: https://www.elephantjournal.com/2013/12/41-ways-to-make-love-to-yourself-marybeth-bonfiglio/
Tarot + Earth Medicine Allies for October
October is here!! Working with some kick ass medicine this month as we pull in the masculine and feminine through the Sun and some decidedly feminine energy of Moonstone, Peach Selenite and Garnet. Enjoy this medicine reading.
autumn equinox reading + podcast episode
Blessed Autumn Equinox!!! In my earth-based pagan spiritual practice, we honor gratitude and the abundance of the Earth at this time of the year. Autumn Equinox or Mabon, the second harvest festival in the Wheel of the Year, arrives somewhere between September 20 and 22nd. Though harvest festivals have always been celebrated, the Wiccans, in the mid-20th century, brought us Mabon, named after the Celtic God of the same name. The Wiccan creators wanted to keep the Celtic-focus for the names of the eight festivals in the Wheel of the Year; hence the story of Mabon being featured for Autumnal Equinox. Mabon, a Celtic god, as a child was stolen from his mother and imprisoned deep in the womb of the Earth. At Yule, he will be reborn with the light again.
Like Ostara, the Autumn Equinox honors balance of light and darkness. Unlike Ostara, Mabon examines the move into the darkness. The Greek Eleusinian Mysteries and Rites of Demeter were honored for over two thousand years to honor the move from light to dark. Central to these mysterious rites, which were so secretive that they were never written down, was the story of Demeter and her daughter Persephone, sometimes called Kore. You can read the Homeric Hymn to Demeter translated by Gregory Nagy (my favorite translation). Listen to the podcast episode for more…
Tarot + Earth Medicine Allies for September 2022
The Nine of Cups in the Ninth month!?!?! COME ONE!
It is a card of abundance and manifestation or is it a curse? We discuss this and more this month’s reading. It’s feeling a bit lighter in September even though retrogrades abound, wishes work their trickster magic and Mercury pulls its shit again. We talk wishes and the medicine of the hummingbird, the sunflower, hematite, turquoise and tiger eye. It is a wonderful time to think about how we talk and how we connect.
Listen and enjoy!
Tarot+ Earth Medicine Allies for July 2022
There is so much I could say about this reading. I had something written that was very straight forward…there is a transit here, and a retrograde there, and a major arcana and I something or other, but then I scrapped it all and just started rambling about religious studies and connection and love and boundaries and unconditional love…it might be a shitshow or something profound for someone, but whatever it is, may it do no harm.
Enjoy!
midsummer lore + collective tarot reading
Honored as the longest day of the year, Midsummer, or Summer Solstice, marks a time when the sun is at its height of power. Summer Solstice, called Litha in pagan and Wiccan circles, honors this longest day of the year. The word “solstice” is from the Latin word solstitium, which literally translates to “sun stands still.” Most of the festivals from around the world, despite religion and culture, honor the Sun’s strength and gifts, particularly agrarian cultures where this time when the crops were sown, tended for a good harvest. Nearly every agricultural society has marked the high point of summer in some way, shape or form. Listen for more…
June's Tarot + Earth Medicine Allies
Tarot + Earth Medicine Allies for June are Three of Wands, Raccoon, Yarrow, Hematite, Zincite and Lapis Lazuli.
It’s Angelica Yingst with you June 2022 Tarot + Earth Medicine reading. Maybe I am early this month with our reading because I am ready to get out of the shitshow that was May—shitshow might be too strong, but the eclipses of May brought to light some darkness, revealing true motives, bringing up old wounds. I have some good news about June…it is not May!
We move into June in Gemini, which is not only my rising sign, but the sign that embraces curiosity, extroversion, and change. And I for one am here for it. Gemini craves communication, stimulation, and adventure, while we are still in Mercury Retrograde, you might find some of this difficult, but you might also find yourself wanting to express yourself through writing to better communicate a highly important message. Gemini is social, while the new moon is not. You can scratch both itches by sending a lovely text, email, DM, to someone you like and don’t want to tell off—start from grace and kindness….
Listen to the episode for more…
Beltane Reading, History + Layout
As the Wheel turns and the grass turns greener, flowers blossom, their pollen heaving, enticing, the pollinators, come and spread seed. Greater Sabbats on the pagan Wheel of the Year are the cross-quarter holidays—what they call the Earth Festivals (as compared to the Solar Festivals that mark the equinoxes and the solstices.) Beltane marks the beginning of the transition from Spring to Summer. It occurs on May 1st. Blossoming flowers, the trees and grass really take off, the bees beginning to buzz…it is a time of lightness and fun, fertility and growth.
Beltane uniquely focuses on sexuality and sensuality with a bevy of yonic and phallic symbols. The Horned God, birthed at Yule, begins to hit his lusty stage, ready to mate with the maiden Earth goddess. Both are honored at this time—Cernunnos (as well as Green Man, Pan, the Oak King) and the Maiden Goddess. Beltane honors our own unions. The Roman festival of Floralia seems to have influenced the way Beltane was celebrated. Beltaine, the Celtic Christian festival meaning “Bright Fire”, honored the release of the cattle into the fields. Standing directly across Samhain on the great Wheel of the Year, Beltane calls in light and lightness in the same way Samhain honors the dark of life. There is a focus during Beltane on life in all its sensuous and corporeal glory.
The celebrations of Beltane are joyous, raucous events with massive bonfires, dancing, singing and more. Beltane fires are said to have healing properties that were used to grant healing prayers and protection. The smoke from the bonfires were used for purification and for vitality. The ashes then were placed in the fields for fertility. Celebrations at Beltane, sometimes called May Day, involved the Maypole—a tall wood pole, a phallic symbol, placed in the center of the festivities. A flower wreath placed on top of the pole served as a yonic symbol of the feminine. Brightly colored ribbon hang from the top of the pole to the ground. Maidens and boys were placed around the pole, grabbing every other cloth or ribbon (men facing one way while the women faces another, so they could look at each other.) They danced, weaving in and out of each other, symbolizing the sexual union of masculine and feminine.
When we look at the world through the agrarian calendar, or the Wheel of the Year, we often find some antiquated ways—particularly around the masculine and feminine. Around Beltane, the idea of the masculine and feminine coming together really meant bringing fertility to the fields for a good harvest. A good harvest meant the difference between life and death. It also meant expanding the family and bringing children into the world. Childbirth brings both the feminine and masculine together forming new life, and in this way, Beltane honors the way sexuality brings together the light-dark, masculine-feminine for new life. We can certainly expand our idea of sexuality now, but the symbolism of Beltane remains in the phallic and the yonic.
During Beltane festivals, couples stayed out in the fields all night, engaging in sexual union, particularly in the fields, to encourage fertility in the crops and soil or in the woods, where they would bring back greenery and flowers to decorate for the celebrations. Babies conceived during these couplings at Beltane were called merry-begots and thought to be blessed by the gods. These couplings were not the only celebrations of unions—marriages and hand fastings often were celebrated during this time.
Magick is thought to be easy to access around Beltane. All manner of people engaged in divination and magickal behavior from the grandmother to the cook who threw his soup bones in the fire to read in the morning. In fact, the two Greater Sabbats of the year, Samhain and Beltane, lying across from each other on the Wheel of the Year, honor the thinness of the veil between the worlds by encouraging us to dive into our Tarot and oracle decks, our runes, and scry into bowls of water, another yonic symbol.
I have been reading Tarot for many moon cycles. As a pagan and an earth medicine practitioner, I have created tarot spreads for each of the points on the Wheel of the Year to help us easily tap into the energetic and magickal work important around these different points on the Wheel of the Year and in our life. Beltane’s sexy energy encourages us to connect with the light, lusty, fertile energy of Beltane and May.
I wanted to share my Tarot Layout from my book the Complete Tarot Layouts. Because the energy of sex and creativity is so intimately tied together, you can use this layout for either. If you are more interested in a creative project, you can also think of that birthing out of the same energy of Beltane. Remember you can do this reading at any time you want to check in with a relationship or project of any kind, not just Beltane. Remember you can use this and any tarot layout with runes, oracles decks or any Tarot deck.
