Working at the eleventh house often means having deep conversations with many people in the community, as they come in looking to process the movements taking place within the self, and in response to the larger dance of cosmos around us. This year’s strong eclipse season, combined with the changes in our world, as we take baby steps into a new era, has many people facing uncomfortable emotions, parts of the self that had formerly been suppressed, and false personality constructs that developed in their place. Fear, sadness, shame, confusion, and anger, among other strong emotions, reveal to us where we are out of alignment with ourselves, but can often be so all consuming that we don’t see past them to the lesson that they are attempting to teach with their discomfort.
We live in a culture that seeks to push feelings like these down, finding something to soothe or distract from them, so that we can keep moving forward and being functional,
but when we do this the heavy emotions and uncomfortable self concepts are not addressed, and become more powerful in the dark of the Unconscious. These emotions are emerging for a reason. It feels as though in the unfolding of this new era we are being asked to become more of who we truly are. This means reclaiming our gifts and soul purpose while cleansing ourselves of the survival instincts, generational trauma, and shadow personality traits that have helped to bury them, in times when they were not welcome, and perhaps not safe to express.
Our old wounds have the ability to hold us back, particularly when we become clouded by the limiting self concepts that they generate, but this is not all that they present to us. Within our experiences, particularly those that have cracked us open, grows the seed of a kind of fortitude that cannot be cultivated within the mind alone. Unprocessed trauma can stifle us, but when integrated it can deepen us, making us aware of a strength we didn’t know we had. Often this work cannot be done right away, and so we may find ourselves sifting through the feelings, attitudes, and maladaptive personality traits that traumatic experience left in its wake, in order to cultivate deeper inner fortitude, freedom, and awareness. This work is the territory of the Strength card in the system of Tarot, particularly when we look at it as a psychological and soul growth progression.
The Strength card depicts a woman leaning down to pet a red lion that is licking her hand. She has a sensuous, earthy appearance, and wears a flower crown on her head, above which floats the symbol of infinity. Flowers, in a mirroring infinity shape, also create a belt that connects the two. They are often called Beauty and the Beast, both living within us, or Anima and Animus. Behind them stand blue mountains, a coming together of heaven and earth, if we can look back and notice. This card invites us into a kind of awakening of wisdom, and an initiation, where if we are willing to make the unconscious conscious, we will embody the growth and knowledge that has taken place within us.
This initiation begins in the soul and the instinctual levels of consciousness and emerges into the conscious awareness. This movement activates a flowering within us if we acknowledge and integrate this process, yet it is not always an easy one. To become this familiar with the wild thoughts, emotions, and patterns of behavior hidden in the Unconscious can be painful. It can bring us face to face with what we would not want to accept about ourselves, both past and present, and require us to reconcile the split that can take place between the conscious and unconscious aspects of self, meaning between who we think we are and who we are in the most hidden territories of the mind. The Strength card marks the sharp turn inwards on the journey of self development.
What is the work to be done here? If we want to claim the depth of strength that has been hard won through experience, we need to face the Unconscious and its shadows. We will need to fully express what is frozen there, the held emotions of the past. We move from conscious to unconscious with the Strength card, in order to fully see and cleanse what is there. This takes courage, self compassion, and the resilience to continue when it is uncomfortable. The reward of this work is that, in the end, it helps us to tame the lion of the Unconscious by directing it with will, clarity, and love. This is a deep inner soul movement to recognize and reconcile what is within, including how that which has challenged us has also made us richer and stronger. This brings maturity, and creates more energy and confidence for that which still needs to be met. Ultimately, this is also the way that we marry the outer and inner life, how we create a bridge between the the divine and the everyday, enlivening the sacred with the sensual and instinctual.
Merging the Unconscious with the waking mind, the soul and the world, is the purpose of many of our world’s spiritual practices and traditions. It is what is essentially being asked of us as we become the people of the Sixth Sun or of the Age of Aquarius. It is the deep work that needs doing before we can call home our lost gifts and awaken into a new level of consciousness. This takes courage to see and to act upon, but the Strength card reminds us that we have more inner fortitude than we may have considered before, and it has been hard won through the experiences we most wanted to disown. Now it is time to integrate it, to cleanse what doesn’t belong with us as we move forward, and grow into our fullness. With Strength, the wild and instinctual within becomes an ally and we become more capable of being who we intend to be.
What does this mean within you? What thoughts, fears, nagging criticisms, and emotions have been emerging from under the surface as you consider this journey to Strength? It is an art to listen with love and to not turn away. Spend a moment in the quiet and let your untamed thoughts be heard. If this is difficult, spontaneous writing and art making can be a helpful inroad, especially when you don’t edit yourself. The Obsidian Mirror is also a powerful tool for seeing just what is hiding within the Unconscious and adjusting it intentionally. And when feeling stuck, Citrine can be a potent ally for recovering the power of self expression and spiritual clarity, among its many gifts.
Where will you begin? It only matters that you do.
May you rescue what is truly wild and authentic within, and tame the wounded, fearful aspects with love.
In compassion and resilience,
the eleventh house
-This blog was written by Melusina Gomez. You can learn more about her work and healing practice at www.metzmecatl.com