October 10, 2026
- The Reading
- Thinking About the Reading
I can’t help but wonder if this weekend’s New Moon was asking for a little more attention, because how on earth do we whip up a late season hurricane, after the tropics were quiet all summer? Well! Harrumph!
New Moons should always invite attention, because they set the board for us to make new discoveries, push forward with conceiving new plans and expansions to old ones, and finding insight through the willingness to look with a different lens.
Even the Full Moon with its bright aspect does not clearly illuminate the world we see; the New Moon not at all, when it is just born anew into its cycle. So we have to look twice as hard, squint, and depend on our other senses. If we’re mindful of it, that creates a shift in our customary thinking, and that is exciting. Our cards for this New Moon, about what it brings and how we might work with it:
- The Hermit, reversed
- The Chariot, reversed
- Page of Swords, reversed
- 5 of Swords
- 10 of Wands
Oh. Well, okay. Not a delightful reading, but a clear one. If you had “Break self-imposed exile to triumphantly present news of great import” on your calendar, you can go ahead and scratch that off.
Retreat, retreat, retreat. 5 of Swords says we are in no condition to be telling anybody anything, because if we’re being honest – we’ve truly not settled on the message. This New Moon’s energy is encouraging us to look at all the ways (10 of Wands) we could go about our forward advancement and the question is – do we set it up as a genuine act of liberation, or do we keep talking the same old garbage and in so doing, saddling ourselves with the same old responsibilities?
You might think that having a couple of heavyweight Major Arcana cards in this reading, even if they are reversed, would put the focus on them and downplay so humble a card as the 5 of Swords. But the 5 of Swords is the crux of the matter, in the same way that a tiny crack in an axle can cause an entire chariot to crash, and create great damage and a possible big pileup.
The crack in the axle, the small root sticking up just so on the shadowed path, the tiny thorn in the lion’s paw. Little things that, if overlooked, contribute to enormous consequences.
We are actually lucky that we have a cooling off period of a couple weeks to sort ourselves out, and attend to areas of vulnerability that need mending.
Questions for Journaling or Reflection
Where in my life right now am I being invited (or forced) into a continued period of retreat rather than “triumphantly presenting news of great import”? What announcement am I sitting on and why do I have to resist telling people about it?
The 5 of Swords points to not yet having settled on the message, possibly due to a lack of authenticity. What incomplete thoughts, half-formed plans, or unresolved conflicts am I still carrying that make me unready to speak or act? What would it take to get clearer?
Looking at the many possible ways forward (10 of Wands), which paths feel like genuine acts of liberation, and which ones simply reload the same old responsibilities and patterns? Which burdens am I ready to set down?
The reading highlights small cracks—tiny overlooked vulnerabilities—that can later cause big damage. What subtle weaknesses, neglected details, or “thorns in the paw” need my attention during this cooling-off period so they don’t escalate?
