Seven of Swords is the trickster's card, a thief slipping out into the night. Do you have the power to deceive? How do you wield that skill? And is it worth it?

It's always important to ask, in the process of making magic, if there is an easier and more straightforward way to accomplish the task at hand. Would time spent working a spell to fire up the revolution be better spent making anarchist literature more available to people in your community? When is a shortcut worth the risk? When do we ignore the old man at the abandoned gas station telling us that "no one goes down that road" and walk face forward into darkness?

This is a perfect card to draw for this lunation, as we enter the first moon of 2025 on the Virgo/Pisces eclipse axis. Virgo in this dichotomy represents order and structure, while Pisces is a symbol of creative chaos and generative anarchy.

What if everything you've ever been taught was good, clean, and orderly is actually chaos? What if the anarchy you have been told means utter chaos actually has the strength of natural order and organization?

While conjuring the image of a peacock, most would think of their luxurious iridescent feathers and their fanciful display. It is, however, actually their fancy footwork that is known to impress a peahen mate.

This card is about charm, about being in the sensual, animal body and knowing how to make other people feel good in theirs.

If your intention is ever to lie, to steal (from the rich, to the poor, right?) and to get away with, or even just to make a convincing truthful argument, you need to think about how you intend to charm your listener. The etymology of the word charm, rooting into its history as a word for a magic spell or incantation, goes back to the Proto-Indo-European word to sing.

Peacocks don't do much singing, but their mating call can be heard from five miles away! Proponents of a better world need good propagandists, and good propaganda meets people where they are. Do you have a favorite protest song or other kind of agitprop?

Peacock is also often perceived as a flightless bird, though this is not true. They fly very rarely, and only for short distances of a few hundred meters or so, typically to escape danger. What a surprise it must be for the animal that stalks them, following them as they walk and run and dance, only to rise into the air to escape at the last second! Like a magic smoke bomb at just the right moment, the charming smile and the twist of the knife.

What are the trees in your neighborhood that provide protection and safety for birds and other species? From where do migratory birds catch the last rays of sunlight, the first specks of starlight, to map the magnetic charm of the earth and find their way home? What do you know about them? Have you ever spoken to them? Do you know their names?

What does trusting the process feel like in your body? When everything just... goes as planned, do you ever feel like you've gotten away with something, or worry about when the other shoe is going to drop? How do you know when you can follow, when you are safe to let the current take you where it goes (or when it's too dangerous not to)?

The thing about currents is that it rarely pays off to fight them.

If you are being swept out to sea by a riptide, you will exhaust yourself and quickly succumb if you fight it by aiming directly back to shore. The best maneuver is a lateral one — not with or against the current, but away from it. If we are lucky, we can escape it. If we are very lucky, we can catch its reciprocal arm, pushing its way in toward the safety of dry land rather than out to our utter doom.

How can we trust our own intuition without losing sight of accountability to the people and the other-than-human world around us? How can we find the currents that make sense to move with, while keeping the shoreline in our sights? What are your shorelines? How do you know when "the flow" is carrying you toward it and how do you know when it's pulling you away?

The cards this month have big "be careful what you wish for" energy. It's vital to know when we are taking risks because the potential results are important and worthwhile, and when we are doing it for the thrill, when the possibility of getting caught is half the fun. It isn't necessarily bad to take pleasure from risk --- peacock is a card of pleasure --- but we protect ourselves and our community a lot more effectively when we engage in risk-seeking with intention and awareness.

People have been popping corn for thousands of years. Just as today, it was used both as a celebratory food and as decoration. (Popcorn and cranberry garlands, anyone?) The oldest method of cooking popcorn is, much like other foods, impaling it on a stick and holding it over an open flame. How wondrous to imagine that thousands of years ago, when people sat around a fire and watched the flames and told stories to entertain, to teach, and to bond, they were chowing down on ears of freshly popped corn between their laughter and their tears?

Popcorn is so delicious that I had to stop in the middle of writing this and go make myself a bowl to munch on. I grew this corn in my garden, one of a small batch, each kernel, silk, cob, husk cherished.

Who do you share you charms with? Who gets to hear your stories of love and betrayal, of hope and grief, of despair and triumph? Whose fingers brush yours in the popcorn bowl? Whose sideways smile when you touch makes you blush? Pay attention to the relationships you find comfort or excitement in this month, as they will play an important role this spring in how we decide to show up in the world.

I like to talk to birds and birds seem to like to talk back. So few people must be listening these days. I think sometimes it’s easy to think of other-than-human creatures as static evolutionarily, to imagine that birds today are the same birds that were birds when my ancestors were still animists hundreds or thousands of years ago. But birds are learning, growing, interacting with new technologies and environments too, facing the dangers and disasters of climate change too.

This eclipse is part of a cycle that began in September 2024 and will end in February 2027. It is generally not advised to do ritual on eclipses, so we’ll explore the potential for a small glamour ritual on the New Moon instead, and then spend the month focusing on ceremony in celebration of that work.

And that ceremony is going to be one of gratitude.

I know it's cliche and maybe even a bit tired, but acknowledgement of our positionality, our pleasures, and our purpose can go a long way to enchanting the charms we wish to cultivate in ourselves. During the New Moon ritual for the month, we will be creating a carrier (water, oil, cream, etc.) that you can use to engage in a daily observation. During that time of observation, we will focus on expressing gratitude, and this energy can be carried into the eclipse itself.

During the days of the Full Moon, I don’t recommend engaging in ritual, rather taking time to rest, to fast if that's available to you, to meditate or spend some time in silence with your own thoughts.

Every day, at the same time if possible, or during the astrological hours of the moon, anoint your body with the water, oil, or cream from the new moon ritual (check the quick-start ritual guide at the end of this post for more on creating your own ritual). Take a moment to conjure the sensations of a very specific gratitude. It’s easy to say you are grateful for your home or your family or your pets or the food on your table, but I want you to really feel it.

Remember how it feels, in your body, to sit in your favorite spot at home, to hear and feel the soft purr of your cat on your chest, to watch the light catch a shiny new leaf on your favorite plant, to feel the touch of your lover’s fingers entwined with yours or hear the laughter of a small child. Remember a specific moment from your day, one that evokes real emotion, and be grateful.

Pisces is the empathetic, adaptable artist, ruled by Neptune, the planet of dreams, illusions, and the subconscious. We are going to use the New Moon this cycle as a way to gather our charms for the eclipse season to come (March and September this year). If there is a project you want to undertake during this time, gains or advances you wish to make, a ruse to pull over or a strategy you want to implement, this New Moon you can put on the magical equivalent of "dress for success" energy. We are going to conjure up some charm and slather that stuff right on.

Download the PDF which includes this reading, the 2025 year ahead reading, instructions on ritual design, the ritual design template, and a bit more info on herbs to consider for your magic charm!