07/10/2026
There's something about this season that fills me with anticipation.
The “dark half of the year”, beginning around the autumn equinox, has always felt sacred to me.
Across the traditions I grew up around, the months when the days grow shorter seem to carry a particular presence of the Goddess, from Varalakshmi and Durga during Navratri to Lakshmi during Diwali.
The Goddess is deeply important to me. In many ways, She is the ideal I aspire towards and the lens through which I see the strength of women around me.
I see Her in the gentle, compassionate woman who moves through life with grace and empathy. I see Her in the woman carrying unimaginable burdens, who continues despite every obstacle, embodying perseverance and resilience. I see Her in the bold, ambitious woman whose determination and courage command respect. Different faces, different stories, different cultures, but the same timeless archetype: Maiden, Mother, and Crone. Creator, nurturer, warrior, and wise woman.
Even my journey with tarot feels intertwined with that early experience.
In the early 2000s, I had been quietly experimenting with a tarot deck. Then one day, my mentor sent me a message:
“This year, you shall receive the gift of Psyche from the Goddess.”
I didn't fully understand what he meant. Yet within a day or two, something shifted. I began reading the cards spontaneously.
Friends asked for readings, then friends of friends, then complete strangers.
It's how i accidentally got into the tarot.
These festivals all help me remember that the dark half of the year belongs to the Goddess. It's what keeps me excited and enthusiastic despite the bleak, grey UK skies.
It may be cold, dark and quiet, but it hints to a deep slumber, a rest before everything returns to life in spring once again. And in the meantime we celebrate Her while we bide our time until spring.
