The Ten of Stones and the Father of Stones are our messengers for the month of October. Both of these cards speak to material wealth, whether it shows up as financial gain, feeling resourced in creative opportunities, career or job-based successes, etc. Together, however, these archetypes also showcase a dynamic union of ancestral wealth and inheritance. We are recognizing the ways in which we are bound to those before us, and instead of these cords feeling constrictive, they’re an invitation to more reception and abundance. Our “way back ancestors,” as I tend to call them, are particularly present. It makes sense that as we pass through the descent of the fall equinox, our good spirits are coming through so loudly.
This past year, we have all been moving through thresholds of grief and transformation, as humankind is required to do. In the past, we may have perceived poison within ourselves or another and turned away with fear or confusion. This year, we’ve been learning how to sit with the poison as medicine. We’ve learned to witness and feel our many selves with less judgment, and through this transmutative process, we’ve cultivated spaces where the well water begins to run clear and our roots remember it’s safe to drink. Our hearts open. Pathways open. More becomes possible. Abundance, in any of her many forms, becomes visible.
With the Ten of Stones, a powerful cycle is coming to a close. This cycle contains all aspects of our growth journey, whether painful or jovial, and yet somehow — perhaps against the odds we’re taught – it is culminating in the best way possible.
In conjunction with this casually ceremonial culmination is some form of a return. We are letting something go, not through active divestment, but instead through present investment. A return to the warmth and abundance found in our relationships and the way we’ve learned to provide and receive love and care. A return to the sensual, straightforward, interactive experience of being human, like when the smells become colder and earthier. New bird songs emerge. We bring out the candles. We make soup and bake bread, to share. These are experiences that have been happening for thousands and thousands of years. Our ancestral spirits twirl with us when we dance and taste with us when we eat. They are in our hands as we cook, and hug each other. The DNA we share glows, and somatic memory draws us closer to the changing seasons and to one another.
Throughout the Ask a Witch column, I’ve frequently written about simplification. I know in my bones that there are softer ways to engage with a world that feels urgent and brutal. The truth that I continue returning to is not one of logic or even of language, but it is an ongoing experience; that when we allow ourselves to surrender to the wisdom of our own joy or our own poison, worlds rearrange and more becomes available. A synchronicity can be a doorway just as much as a doorway is a doorway. All of our relationships can be catalysts for changes of heart and perspective. Some will even offer long-awaited relief from the confines of a poison we had accepted as immutable.
This October, consider what it means to be a vessel for the human spirit. What happens when we allow ourselves the simplicity of celebrating our growth, the changing season, our inimitable relationships?
Beth Metal is a practicing witch, spirit channel, and card reader who lives in Providence with her calico cat, Arrow. Find her on instagram (@nearbeth_experience) or check out her website (nearbethexperience.com) to learn how to work with her or get in touch. You can also write to Beth at askawitchmag@gmail.com with your quirky questions, curious concerns, or sticky situations for a chance to receive complimentary spiritual guidance in our next edition of Ask a Witch.