Celebrating International Women’s Day in Brighton & The High Priestess

The High Priestess, the representation of female authority in the tarot deck, exists as her autonomous self, navigating her own journey and in many deck depictions sits between two pillars, guarding the entrance to hidden knowledge.

But what I find most alluring is the swirling water imagery. In some versions, her feet touch the water, the edge of her deep blue robe in the Rider Waite card seems almost to flow into it, as though the fabric itself were part of the tide. She is quietly, completely connected to this element

Standing in the sea at Kemptown Beach evokes a similar feeling. The mind is still soft from sleep, the body alert in the cold water, and for a moment the world feels stripped back to something elemental. It is a very High Priestess state of being.

In the Magical Hours tarot deck, that I use in my readings, The High Priestess represents that threshold moment where creativity and intuition meet. She embodies the early morning hours, a time of heightened intuition and subtle insight, a space where ideas gestate before they manifest in the world.

Which is a similar feeling I experience during my morning ritual swim; a suspension of conscious rationality, moving into the expanse of the ocean - something in me surrenders to a divine feminine principle, to the watery Anima depths of wisdom and receptivity.

Honouring the High Priestess on International Women’s Day

Here in Brighton, sea swimming has become a way many women gather to mark International Women’s Day. Now in its fourth year, this remarkable event brings together around 1,000 women for the UK’s largest sea swim, raising funds for the environmental charity Surfers Against Sewage. It feels like a fitting tribute to both women and the waters themselves a collective moment of courage, community, and care for the sea, I plan to join the swimmers next Saturday to celebrate this year’s Big Swim. I have washed my beach towel in anticipation, a small but encouraging step.

Whilst we are still moving through Pisces season, with the ruling card for this month being The Moon, tomorrow on March 8, 2026, the Moon is in the Waning Gibbous phase, the ebbing tide following the intensity of the Full Moon. This phase invites us to pause, process lessons, and release what no longer serves us. It aligns beautifully with the High Priestess archetype: cultivating detachment, reflection, and examination of the shadow realms. There is a certain grace in self-containment.

As I write this, I am tucked into my book nook, what once was my making cupboard is now my writing cave, asking myself how I intend to honour the High Priestess this month?

How will I embody the High Priestess this month?

Enter a state of suspension, where one is open to receiving wisdom from the depths.

The High Priestess waits in the quiet spaces of our own depths.

Reflections for the journal:

• This is a card of subtlety — notice what is unspoken.

• Are you inhabiting the two worlds of dream and reality?

• Attend to the quiet signals in dreams and subconscious thoughts.

• Cultivate creative inner work — intuition leads.

Tarot’s High Priestess inspired later divinatory arts like Lenormand, translating mystical insight into applied intuition. Whether quietly cultivating your inner seeds or navigating public rituals, this is a time for observation, reflection, and mindful action.

Watching the Channel 4 documentary Dirty Business reminded me how crucial it is to protect our oceans. Lies and deception persist when profits are placed above the Earth’s basic rights. There is much work to be done to safeguard water for future generations, quiet activism, mindful living, and personal rituals all count.

Final Reflection, Quiet Power

As the High Priestess stands with her robe flowing into water, we are invited to step into our own quiet power. Whether alone in the early morning sea or alongside thousands of women in celebration, we honor intuition, reflection, and care for the world around us.

If you’re near the water this week, pause, notice, and consider how you can support the oceans, or take a quiet moment to observe the subtle impressions of your own intuition.

Fi x

Why Your Juno Matters More Than Venus in Love

I’ve always been fascinated by love that sticks… and the love that traps us. This evening, after watching Wuthering Heights again, it hit differently. Not because of sizzling romance, but because of pattern.

It was great to be back in the Duke of Yorks, Brighton, for my first cinematic viewing of the year, having been mesmerised by Emerald Fennel’s Saltburn. Waiting patiently for her Wuthering Heights adaptation was a lesson itself in commitment. Dashing from work and with anticipation I’m glad we chose the earlier screening.

Why Juno

Many of us obsess over Venus and how the partner's Mars activates our natal goddess of love  — do you know your relationship synastry (you can go to astro.com to find out). We wonder about the chemistry, comfort and desire factors inherent in our relationships. But Juno? Juno reveals what we bind ourselves to, the patterns we unconsciously honour.

Music can elicit powerful love feelings. When I met my partner, I remember feeling, and hearing, the size of his heart because of his chosen playlist on the drive home after our first dates. I felt myself falling in the space of these words as he sang along to“Give a Little Bit”

‘‘Now's the time that we need to share
So find yourself, we're on our way back home’’…

Yes, Supertramp fans… my Venus in Cancer and Juno in Libra had found the tune to my heart.

What I felt was there’s solid maturity about this man, and a deep buoyant warmth in his energy, he’s a true Leo with a Cancerian moon, the tarot court card, the King of Cups, surmises his emotional energy well, looking back during that first drive, It was subtle, but my Juno lit up in recognition of the consistency and loyalty message I was attuning to.

Who is Juno and Why She Matters

Juno, daughter of Saturn and queen of the gods, is loyal, discerning, and unyielding in matters of commitment. In mythology, she kept score of Jupiter’s legendary infidelities and protected the sanctity of marriage.

Astrologically, Juno functions like the daughter of Saturn in our birth charts, reflecting enduring patterns and the relational blueprint we unconsciously honour. While Venus shows desire, attraction, and comfort, Juno shows staying power, boundaries, and the patterns we might repeat over and over in love.

My Personal Reflection

When I met my current partner, it was calm. Grounded. Almost suspiciously easy.

• My Juno in Libra is held beautifully by his Mars in Scorpio (wide orb, ~4°). This consistent, powerful energy is subtle, stabilising, and keeps me feeling secure without chaos.

Previous partners had other dynamics, for example, his Juno in Gemini conjunct my Mercury in the fifth house created a deeply intellectual, sapiosexual connection.

Wuthering Heights Through a Juno Lens

Heathcliff isn’t about romantic fantasy — he’s a Juno wound beyond the grave.

• Cathy marries for comfort, security, and status (Venus energy), though she didn’t marry Edgar purely for love. She married into status, safety, refinement, this is Venus in its social, material expression and because it was the 18th Century and Cathy was partly forced into it.

• Heathcliff isn’t Juno simply because he’s intense. He represents a distorted bond, a relational imprint that outlives logic, morality, even death.

• Heathcliff embodies obsession, possession, and intensity (the Juno wound).

Recognising your Juno pattern helps you see the kind of bond you instinctively take seriously —
and whether you’re entering it consciously.

Venus is attraction.
Juno is covenant.

Venus is chemistry. Juno is covenant.

Venus says, this feels good. Juno asks, can you build here?

And when you learn to read both in your chart, you stop calling repetition fate, and start calling it choice.

This weekend, watch the love stories you admire, then check in with your own chart.

• Who do you desire?

• Who do you stay with?

• Most importantly… what patterns are you choosing to repeat?

Share this with your cinema date… or your Galentine, because love isn’t just what we choose. It’s what we’re built to live with.

Fi x

The Fire Horse Threshold: Judgement, Temperance & the Turn of the Wheel.

The Fire Horse year of 2026 is a potent time for reflection and transformation. Using tarot guidance, we explore how Judgement, Temperance, and the Wheel of Fortune illuminate this energetic threshold.

When I was two, plonked atop a horse at the races, I wriggled uncomfortably, wondering if I might fall off this immense creature. I wanted nothing more than to get down, clamouring for my dad to take me. My toddler self was just as surprised as terrified. That image isn’t just nostalgia, it’s a wordless bodily sensation. The animal beneath me breathed with a rhythm older than language. I wanted to get down. And yet — I was already in motion.

This year is a reckoning with raw and primal energy. That sensation — being carried forward before you understand your courage — is the energy of a Fire Horse year.

Understanding the Fire Horse Year in Chinese Astrology

In the Chinese zodiac, 2026 marks the Year of the Fire Horse (Bing Wu) — part of the 60-year elemental cycle that combines the twelve animals with the five elements.

Fire Horse years have historically been associated with volatility, intensity, and cultural shift. In Japan, during the last Fire Horse year in 1966, it was so widely believed to produce strong-willed and “dangerous” daughters that the national birth rate dropped by approximately 25% compared to surrounding years (Statistics Bureau of Japan, 1966). That demographic dip remains one of the most significant culturally-driven fertility declines in modern Japanese history (Retherford & Ogawa, 1986).

The archetype carries heat. Movement. Consequence. Find ways to regulate and find a steady canter, preferably one that listens, adjusts, and so endures. Accepting this new race at a gentler pace, and trusting the horse’s courage — is how the fire stays lit through 2026.

The Fire Horse New Lunar Year formerly arrives on February 17, although it’s already been with us since early Feb, coinciding with the conjunction of Saturn and Neptune in 0’ Aries (February 20). This potent celestial shift is a rare alignment marking structural redefinition (Saturn) fused with dissolving idealism (Neptune). Saturn enters Aries for the first time since 1996; Neptune for the first time since 1861 (NASA Planetary Data Archives).

This period ushers in energetically refined ground — fertile for visioning, initiation, and the sense of stepping onto a new journey. Horses, across cultures and mythologies, are deeply bound to initiation rituals, representing the threshold between known and unknown. This new Lunar New Year will have me reaching for Tarot decks and symbols that resonate strongly with the magnificence of the year ahead.

Desire: The Tarot Triad as Psychological Weather

Considering the tarot as psychological weather patterns of the soul, these three tarot cards offer powerful focal points for meditation and reflection. Research on behavioural change shows that intentional reflection increases follow-through by 42% compared to unstructured intention (Dominican University Study, 2015).

Judgement — The Call to Consciousness

Judgement, the ultimate fire card in the deck; "fire that breaks you to make you," — the summons that calls us into awareness and a shift into our higher power, a rite of passage, with the unconscious finally demanding acknowledgment. Carl Jung described individuation as the integration of unconscious material into conscious awareness (Collected Works, Vol. 9). This year mirrors that process — what has been dormant demands recognition.

Temperance — Alchemical Integration

The Temperance Tarot card is significant for the Fire Horse Year 2026

Temperance - a disciplined tempering of scattered fire into direction.

Temperance, linked with Sagittarius and the alchemical blending of forces, mixing fire and water— inviting integration and flow. (If you feel into the archetype expansively, it may also echo *Chiron, the wounded healer engaging opposites in service of wholeness.) Temperance echoes what psychologists call emotional regulation — the ability to integrate instinct and intention (Gross, 1998, Stanford University). Fire without containment burns out; blended with awareness, it becomes direction.

The Wheel of Fortune — Cyclical Momentum

The Wheel of Fortune, the card resonant with 2026 itself — the turn of cycles and the momentum we cannot unsee once it begins. A card also connected to expansion and the fiery planet Jupiter, highlighting moral imagination, and risk. During the Fire Horse New Moon, Jupiter moves through Cancer, emphasizing emotional intelligence and protective growth. Expansion tempered by care.

This matters. The Wheel does not spin blindly; it responds to how consciously we meet its turning. Our Jupiter nature, and the house it occupies in our birth chart, shows us where we are invited to grow, and to participate as co-creators rather than spectators. This year asks us not to wait for life to happen to us, but to cross thresholds with intention, designing a life that reflects what we truly value and are willing to tend.

Together, this triad speaks not simply of change, but of activated transformation: the ignition of inner truth (Judgement), the disciplined tempering of fire into direction (Temperance), and the unfolding momentum of fate’s turn (Wheel of Fortune).

*Chiron complicates this Fire Horse year in an important way. Half mortal, half divine, he lived with the ache of embodiment while remaining tethered to a deeper, untamed intelligence. His psyche was equine — instinctual, roaming, uncontainable — yet his wound kept him conscious of limits, pain, and consequence.

This year does not ask for transcendence. It asks for integration.

Not spirit over body.
Not freedom over responsibility.
But instinct brought into awareness.

When that integration occurs, fire becomes sustainable.

Meeting the Turning — How to Act on This Energy

So what does this mean for you?

This year is not about prediction.
It is about participation.

Ask yourself:

• Where is my instinct outrunning my integration?

• What threshold am I resisting?

• If the Wheel is already turning, how consciously am I meeting it?

Pull a card. Journal a decision. Name one action aligned with growth rather than impulse.

The Fire Horse does not wait.
But it does listen.

There’s a kind of knowing that happens before logic — like being lifted onto a horse too young to name your courage. That instinctive forward motion is the energy of this Fire Horse year: you are held in motion before you can explain it.

Fi x

Want to explore the Fire Horse energy for yourself? Book a Spark & Shift Tarot Reading in Brighton or online and discover your personal path forward.