August is a special month because it holds two Full Moons, alongside the New. When months are cosmically bracketed in this way, they tend to feel ripe, potent, loaded, and a bit more… everything all at once than usual. Mercury and Uranus retrograde this month, joining Venus. There will be opportunities around do-overs now. There will be debts to pay, or something you’ve been avoiding that you have to deal with. Rekindle: go back over older projects that once intrigued you but never quite picked up momentum, reach out to old friends, get into therapy over a wound that still needs repair. There will be loops closing around a lingering question or two. Pay attention to pieces of information flowing in that could solve a problem, offer up a different perspective, or be the missing puzzle piece in some way.

Time, healing, and progress aren’t linear, though we are sold that they are, and we often wish they would be. But cause and effect doesn’t work as literally as taught; there are ripples, there are spirals, and there are all the intertwining relationships we have with one another that influence the peaks and valleys of our life. An idea in the Kabbalah is that time is a forward-moving line with a spiral around it: if you look at it from the side, it might appear as though you are moving backward, even though there is still forward motion. Progress doesn’t always look the way we’ve been brainwashed into believing it does. Be patient with yourself as you continue to define your life on its own terms.

The theme for August is Space Out. If your brain needs a rest, space out. Get guidance from beyond, and experiment with non-linear thinking. When was the last time you spent more than a minute with the night sky? Look at the spaces in between the stars and flirt with black space. Pretend you never learned the names of the planets and make up different myths and characters for them. Write science fiction. Become weirder than you ever thought possible, so weird you become more yourself than you’ve ever been.

— Excerpt is from the 2023 Many Moons Lunar Planner. To read more and get Sarah Faith Gottesdiener's exclusive Time Magic Tarot Spread, order your digital copy of Many Moons here! Order your copy of the second, benefit-edition of Many Moons from LULU.com.  

This month's Tarotscopes were channeled and written by meditating on each archetype and pulling a Tarot card for them. Read for whatever sign you feel called to: your Sun, rising, Moon, or a placement that is particularly loud right now.*

Aries
6 of Swords

August is a month to zoom out, air out, and change some thought patterns. This month, don’t think of time as minutes or years. Experience time as cycles, seasons, and chapters. Don’t think of your age through the pressures of arbitrary cultural markers like marriage, degrees, home ownership, or credit scores. Think of yourself and special gifts through the lens of archetypes and evolution.

Stress around focus, attention, and clarity have highlighted narrowness, when openness is required. Part of the conflict you’ve experienced this year stems from trying to do things that aren’t suited to the specific phase you are in, or the natural energy available to you that wants to be expressed. Attune to what is being asked of you by paying attention to the clues around you. Coincidences, signs, reoccurring thoughts or dreams are lighthouses now.

Kairos time refers to moments and seasons with a specific opportunity or condition. Kairos is universal time, it’s heavenly time. Chronos time is linear and measured, it's material time. When kairos meets chronos, flow is found. Stop watching the clock and start living by your rhythms. Create settings for your true self to flourish alone, and see how much easier it becomes to flourish within the greater world.

Suggested spell ingredients: Clear Channels, salt water, labradorite, sea glass, breath work, active rest, and an altar to celebrate new definitions of time.

Taurus
5 of Pentacles

When scarcity becomes internalized, procrastination is a daily occurrence. There’s never a way to measure up. When you make decisions from an energy of lack, you’ll never be satisfied. Someone else’s version of success will always hold you captive.

This is the month to acknowledge the role that scarcity has been playing in certain decisions or ruts. You’ve been putting off certain projects, not fully taking the time to reinvent yourself, not admitting what you must learn—or invest in—in order to live a life that feels more genuine. There could be some real concerns around finances, childcare, healthcare or health concerns, housing or other investments, causing anxiety. Ignoring them won’t make them go away. Address them as calmly, and with as much support as possible, and see what shifts.

Taurus, for the rest of the year, there is one way to see major progress across all areas of your life. Face your fears head-on. Comfort is contraction if your safe spaces are stopping growth. Get clear on what some of the deepest fears are: write them all out and note where they hold you back regularly. Name at least 3 ways to dissolve that fear. Start small and continue to take aligned actions toward a life that might not be as predictable as your current one, but one that will be much more meaningful.

Suggested spell ingredients: Sunflower seeds, carnelian, outfits that make you feel your most special and show-stopping, an open heart, a consistent practice of telling yourself and others exactly what you want and who you are, and your very own audience.

Gemini
2 of Pentacles

The practice of presence and being completely at one with the present moment are noble and worthwhile pursuits. However, for you, August is a month about exploring multiple realities and timeline jumping. You can’t physically be in two separate places, but mentally and energetically, you can. In order to prime your energetic field for different pathways, treat the present differently. Let your internal state dictate your behavior, not external circumstances. Over and over, respond from a future you who knows how to solve the problem, what they want, and isn’t afraid to take the steps to get there.

Sometimes, multi-tasking is the most effective magic.

The more you can view your life as a hologram, video game, or chance to learn the art of life design, the better. It isn’t where you’ve been, gentle Gem. It’s where you are going. How you will get there relies on how you are treating yourself and everyone in your orbit. Your movement relies on how well you navigate the challenges and opportunities that pop up every day during this hot, sticky, eye-opening month. You are still here now, just in a different way.

Suggested spell ingredients: Body doubling, parallel play, calendula essence, citrus scents, Clear Channels, and actually taking your own advice.

Cancer
5 of Swords

There is a big ask to change, grow, and move toward a different iteration of yourself right now. It should be fun, exciting, and inspiring, but it feels oddly painful. An air of frustration surrounds your process that you need to investigate. All of the shadows that appear now aren’t here to punish you, or keep you stuck in the hamster wheel of self-flagellation. The limits that keep knocking you off course aren’t personal, Moonchild, but there is an element of personal responsibility you’ve got to take for your patterns. Remember that this is a hard time for all, especially those who face systemic oppression, and for those who are security-driven.

You won’t feel this stuck forever. 


I miss the comfort of being sad, Kurt Cobain sang two decades ago. It’s a relatable sentiment for you, but it belongs in the past. This month, you’re going to have to trade in the familiar halls of sorrow for a brighter swath of sunshine. There are ways you’ve been at war with yourself—and with life itself—that has seeped into your thoughts, and thus, your feelings. Conflict is unavoidable, and this isn’t the month to sign shaky contracts, or to start fights you can’t finish. It’s time to stop turning those spikes on yourself and what you’ve been dreaming about for years. Desire is a memory you haven’t yet metabolized. This is the month to stop being your worst enemy through better thoughts, choices, and actions. Your brain will believe it once your body does.

Suggested spell ingredients: Nettle tea, conscious releases, word games, selenite, experimental poetry, new mediums, and a movement practice.

Leo
Page of Pentacles

Can you forget everything you’ve internalized that disconnects you from your body? This is the month to become abundantly unruly. To truly start fresh during this Venus Retrograde, affix a beginner’s mindset to your purpose, and associate spaciousness and softness with your physicality. Doing so will allow you to build a life that supports the needs of your body in deep and profound ways.

This month’s focus extends to the work of your life: yes, career, yes, legacy and lineage, but mostly, embodying deep self-worth. See yourself as a body in a larger system of bodies, all trying to make the planet better. Regard yourself as a body in larger root systems of support where you are allowed to ask for help and experience bone-deep security.


August marks a new beginning of radical implementations in the physical reality around you, and it starts within your cells and bones. Nietzsche wrote, “There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.” Let this reminder guide you into beautiful, radical, ways of being. 


Suggested spell ingredients: Clear Channels, a new plant friend that looks like a work of art, Arnold Palmers in the afternoon, stretches every morning, and physical exercises at night to clear out trauma and open your hips and shoulders.

Virgo
9 of Swords

You’ve been haunted by some longstanding dream that appears so far away that you’ve subconsciously associated it with disappointment. Take the fact that it keeps coming up in your consciousness as evidence it is time to begin birthing it. It might feel confronting energetically to integrate new types of energy. It might feel like too much emotionally to welcome in vibrant aspects of Self. It might feel like a betrayal to prance, dance, and find interests while the world burns, and those you love struggle.

Rest, recovery, and resurrection processes will always be a useful investment.
This is a time to rewrite stories about self-abandonment and self-betrayals. Remember, the past versions of yourself didn’t know any better. But now that you know better, you can do better. Use discernment so that there is no confusion between what is a ghost from the past, and what is a clear message about the present.

When you call back your energy this month, be sure to also cut cords with the beliefs that made those selves depart in the first place. Be sure to not confuse the past with the present. Remain aware of how much vitality you still have, and how much of your life is still your own.

Suggested spell ingredients: Protection Magic, black tourmaline, black out curtains, chamomile, earthing, and pentacles.

Libra
4 of Wands

Not every month is about intense spiritual growth, thank Goddess. Some months are about enjoying as much as you can and not attaching too hard to what you can’t control.

Things are good right now: you don't have to force as much as you have in the past. Take your hands off the wheel and coast this month, as much as possible. Recover. No, things aren’t perfect. Yes, you will still have problems to solve — many obligations and annoying exchanges you’ll have to remain neutral inside of while your patience is tested. Yes, the heat will feel unbearable until you slip into a cold bath, or let ice cubes slide into your mouth. But: you’re more resourced than you’ve been in a while. The internal and external scaffolds that have been created are holding up.

This is a month to focus on easy relationships and simple pleasures. This is a month to invest in friends who’ve always checked in on you, to create invitations that will foster community, or at the least, a cute kiki or catch up. Store up reserves around sustainability, creativity, and those you want in your corner. Say yes to all of the fun and easy invitations. Meander in neighborhood nurseries and eat cherries for breakfast. Ignore all the lies that whisper that you don't deserve this, or that it won’t last.

Suggested spell ingredients: Fresh eucalyptus in the shower, bonfires with friends, trances, candlelit dinners, Clear Channels, and silk.

Scorpio
Knight of Cups

As Oprah says, we teach others how to treat us. It can be hard to look at how you enable or push away others, but it is worthwhile time spent. It can be painful to realize you’ve spent a lot of time pouring water into a cup that can never be filled, but that’s the first step in order to find the vessels that are strong enough to support your expansiveness.

Only you know what you need to feel safe and supported. Love isn’t a transaction, based on withholding and settling and tallies. The love you need is all around you, because all the love you need is inside of you.

Only you can bring your expressions of love out. Love might be quite unique to you, it might include kink, lots of space, staunch loyalty, multiple partners, or acting out very particular fantasies. Or, love might be simpler than you’ve been taught: it might mean making dinner and needing someone else to do the dishes. Get real about how you must be loved and how you’d like to give love. Be freer, more casual, and more specific about how often you experience love, so you can experience even more.

Suggested spell ingredients: Star rose quartz, love bites, a red candle, love songs, Hawthorn berry tincture, love letters, and YouTube videos of an exotic animal’s mating ritual.

Sagittarius
6 of Cups

Sweet Sag, August is a month all about L-O-V-E. Relationships. Relating. Open hearts and open minds. The foundation of this is emotional rebalancing. If you have noticed one sensation or emotion overtaking all the others, and leaving you bereft, stop the waves. Not by resurrecting numbness or self-blame, but by being who you needed when you were a child. Become who you need to be now.

The past is the past. It can no longer hurt you unless you insist on recreating it. Start from today, start with what is, start with changing how you feel about all of it. Practice—like working out, or learning to tie a shoe—how to be there for yourself in good health and with big love. Let all that marinate and integrate itself through your entire month, and the rest of the year.

Prioritize playfulness and creativity — especially as you protest, parent, volunteer, fight, and do other Very Hard Things. If you have offspring, look to them to be your teacher. If your offspring is your creative projects, your inner child, your cat, or your spiritual practice: place engaged attention there. Society teaches us that love comes from an external source, when really, it comes from within. Let love help rebalance frayed nerves and fizzles of uncomfortable feelings.

All month long, ask yourself: what would love do? 


Suggested spell ingredients: Burdock root tonic, myofascial release, a new accountability journal, Clear Channels, patience, and a talisman of love.

Capricorn
9 of Wands

You're in your hermit era. You're in your energy conservation era. You’re on a new wavelength that no one else can quite put their finger on. That’s because you’re creating it, it’s born from your unique mind that no one else has access to — so don’t share too much too soon. Even down the line, there will be those who might not understand it, understand you. That's ok! It’s not a reflection of your worth; most cutting-edge innovations defy labels. No one will be able to steal it or attack it if it exists completely in its own perfect universe. As you build, find ways to protect your creation, your findings, and your psyche.

This process might appear chaotic, externally there could be fissures or breakdowns. Remember that resilience is found through stress tests, endurance, and transmutation. If something feels off, not reciprocal, trust that gut feeling and move on. This is a time of removing certain people, or the greater public, from accessing you. You don’t have to feel guilty or like you are a failure: in fact, this decision is a sign of success.

There’s a specific set of tools that must be used for this work. Tap into the big why’s of your life for motivation, and keep them in mind as you create, speak, pray, and love.

Suggested spell ingredients: Outdoor altars, solo hikes, beach days, digital avatars, candles dressed with orange and jasmine oil, tenacity, and Clear Channels.

Aquarius
5 of Cups

Our emotions are a vital part of our operating system. Paying close attention to our emotions helps discern whether or not our emotions are our intuition speaking to us, or if we are merely replaying memories that belong in the past. August is for developing more emotional intelligence: your abilities to glean the depths for jewels are getting refined. Refinement is a process of awareness and commitment, of toggling between flow, intuition, letting go, and precision.

The 5 of Cups connotes that you are confronting hard emotional issues right now: themes like grief, addiction, disappointment, maladaptive coping mechanisms, shadows, and core wounds. This creates tension in relationships — both with yourself and others. Conflict is inevitable, and how we handle conflict can create or destroy intimacy.

This month, you need more space and grace. Those you interact with also need more space and grace as well. Use your internal tools, get curious and compassionate, and adopt a different perspective. Discern what is ego and defensiveness, and why it seeps out into certain reactions. Focus on what makes up the core of what you need to feel respected and intimate, and let your actions ripple out from that source.

Suggested spell ingredients: Flower agate by your pillow, videos of the bottom of the sea and the outer ranges of the universe, rosewater baths, centering meditations, Clear Channels, and social media breaks.

Pisces
8 of Wands

Dear Pisces, before I sit down to write your Tarotscope, I nurture myself. I soften my body. I gather the right tinctures and tonics around me. I allow in God, Goddess, humor, precision, flow, and the intention to give you the kindest, clearest information that you need to hear. I do this because an offering to me is an offering to you. I take great care of myself as an act of collective service. Because I am a part of the collective. So are you.

I’m sharing this because this month, you must reflect on the energy behind your actions. It’s an opportune time to set yourself up for success by putting your needs first — especially before acts of caretaking, service, and creativity. In doing so, you are asserting that you are someone worthy of care and consideration: not just when you are the creator of beauty, the solacer of tears, the useful martyr, the noticer of subtle cues, and the uncoverer of secrets. But always, in all ways. When you are the crier, the stony faced stoic, the unsure nag, or the messy housemate. You deserve care then, too.

Life has many obligations, but you are no longer required to act from a solely obligatory space. You are someone worthy of being seen. Center yourself in your care, focus more on enjoyment as a goal, and embrace how wonderful that feels.

Suggested spell ingredients: A solo day trip, frankincense, seed magic, peaches and berries, cedar wands, Clear Channels, and permission.

*Please note: If you don’t know if you are allergic to a specific herb or plant, use caution or consult with your herbalist or doctor before ingesting.
Never leave a lit candle or flame of any kind unattended.

These Tarotscopes are not intended as an alternative to medical or psychiatric health services and should not be interpreted or used as such.

As always, if you love these, share them with someone else who might.

We really appreciate you!