This 6-card tarot spread for Aquarius transits was originally created in the lead up to Aquarius Season and an Aquarius New Moon in January 2023.
Astrologically, Aquarius is the penultimate sign in the zodiac. Aquarius is the Fixed Air Sign. Picture a fan. It is stationary, but generates wind by pulling in air from the area around it. As a fixed sign, Aquarius is the middle sign of the winter season in the northern hemisphere. As such, it neither initiates nor concludes the season. It sustains it. As an air sign, Aquarius deals in ideas, visions, blueprints, communications, and thoughts. When we combine those two things together we get sustained visions, fixed ideas, central thoughts. Aquarius is the wise professor of the zodiac. They are a giver of knowledge. And that knowledge gets channeled through them and returned back to the collective. The Aquarian Water Bearer is but a vessel for knowledge meant to be freely given.
The Constellation itself has many stories tied to it, but multiple cultures all see the same figure when they look to the sky: a person holding a water jug and pouring that water back to earth. According to constellation-guide.com, "In Babylonian mythology, Aquarius is identified as GU.LA (the great one), the god Ea himself and, in Egyptian tales, the constellation was said to represent the god of the Nile.” Every year, the god of the Nile would flood the river with his waters, spreading the fertile silt of the Nile river delta far and wide.
Your Aquarius-Inspired Tarot Spread
To help you understand what is being channel through you to be returned in service of the collective, I created this 6-card tarot spread. The shape comes from a simplified version of the constellation itself, which you can see here.
The right portion represent the body of the constellation, the legs rooted to the ground to hold the pose and be the conduit for the knowledge and energy passing through you. The left portion is the vessel from which the water pours, and the water itself. This is that which you are returning to the earth and what the outcome of this might be.
This spread is great for understanding that which we have to offer up to the collective to make the world around us more fertile, vibrant, and sustainable. Use this spread to understand what strengths and inherent gifts are being channeled through you to create a better future for yourself and others. If you’re feeling lost and disconnected from your purpose, start here.
Free Tarot Reading: What The World Can Do With Your Gifts
Here is an example of this spread filled out, from me to you! May you put your gifts to use in a way that serves the collective.
Your Strength: Page of Swords, Reversed
Strength is a skill honed over time, through practice and effort. It may or may not be something you're a natural at, but regardless, it is a muscle you can work. A strength you’ve been honing is your ability to mentally roll with the punches. Sure, you’d like for plans to work out and people to communicate with you effectively. But you know that doesn’t always happen. You can handle change. You’re adaptable, flexible, and able to approach changes with a mindset of curiosity. This is a strength that helps you survive or even thrive in chaos.
Your Divine Gift: Strength, Reversed
A gift is something that was given to you. There is no shame in that. But it is something you can claim as your own but through no strenuous work on your part (unless you choose to foster this gift into something greater). Your innate gift, coincidentally, is Strength. In the context of the tarot, the Strength card refers more to emotional strength. And since this card is reversed, I’m translating this innate gift as self-compassion. When things go south, when you mess up, when situations change and problems arise, you are able to be kind to yourself. It might even be your first instinct to soothe yourself instead of blaming yourself.
How You Use Your Strengths and Gifts: King of Cups
Strengths and gifts are passive traits until put into action. Flexibility and self-compassion are key traits that combine to make up resilience. You use your resilience in a leadership capacity. The King of Cups is a compassionate, intuitive ruler. They help to balance out the churning of the emotional soup that is daily life by acting as a confidante, mentor, or steady rock in the storm. As somebody who comfortably exists in the ocean of emotion, they understand just how changeable emotions are, and thus are not easily thrown by their own or others. Keep in mind that this may be you in a certain part of your life (like work) but not in other parts of your life (with friends or family). Where do you show up as the King of Cups?
That which we pour: Nine of Swords, Reversed
This is what is being channeled through you as a result of your strengths, gifts, and how you’ve chosen to use them. It is the knowledge and wisdom you are returning to the collective to help sustain us for the future. The Nine of Swords is referred to as the nightmare card. The wisdom you have to share as an empathetic leader in the world is closely tied to your own experience of adversity. You have stumbled. You have hit rock bottom. You have failed. But you got back up. You learned. You grew. And now you are able to share your story and your wisdom with others on a similar journey as yourself. You can show others what is possible. And that knowledge can be the impetus for somebody else to leave their own nightmare behind.
That which we seek to fertilize: Perspective, Reversed
Like the god of the Nile fertilizes Egypt with his annual flood, you are fertilizing a specific person, place, or project with your wisdom. Upright, Perspective is a big picture card that represents a moment of reflection and an ability to look at a situation or problem through many different lenses and at many different angles. Reversed, however, the scope feels much smaller. The wisdom you are channeling may not be meant for the world at large, but for a few people who need it most. If you don’t feel called to spread the word on social media, there is nothing wrong with that. The person or people who need your wisdom may in fact find you before you notice them. Or they may be learning from you without you even knowing it. Let go of the need to know who you are helping and when.
The outcome of our pour: Serenity, Reversed
Through channeling this wisdom and releasing it back to the universe, you are helping to manifest something into existence. The wisdom you are channeling to your mysterious followers will have subtle but profound effects on all of you. By helping others make peace with their failures or struggles by gaining knowledge that it is indeed possible, you help soothe the churning waves around you. In turn, their peace gives you peace. And your peace helps heal others. It is a never-ending, slow cycle of channeling and serenity. But it may happen without comment, the change unfurling slowly, below the threshold of consciousness. Read this and know you are making a difference. Your presence is a light in the darkness.