Your Heart Magic

From Fear to Empowerment: Moon Wisdom Unveiled

• Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright • Episode 88

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What if you could turn your hidden fears into sources of strength and empowerment? Join Dr. BethAnne as we take an introspective journey through the mystical Moon tarot card to uncover its profound influence on our lives. Through the lens of the enigmatic Moon archetype, we explore how it reveals incomplete information and the necessity of embracing the unknown using intuition and good judgment. 

Other key talking points include: 

  • Using the metaphor of a partially completed puzzle to understand the gradual process of uncovering life's bigger picture. 
  • Ideas for self-reflection, journaling, and inner work to confront our fears in a grounded manner, leading us to recognize our inner strength and empowerment.
  • Healing of self-trust and the significance of overcoming self-doubt. 
  • The importance of looking beyond illusions and embracing our true worth and inner wisdom, healing collective wounds related to self-trust along the way. 
  • The archetypal power of the Moon and insights on how to harness its energy for personal growth and spiritual enlightenment. 


Don't miss next week's episode, where we'll continue our Mental Health Toolbox series, designed to support and empower your well-being and light. New episodes come out every Thursday at 6 pm HST. 

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Your Heart Magic is a space where heart wisdom, spirituality, and psychology meet. Enjoy episodes centered on mental health, spirituality, personal growth, healing, and well-being. Featured as one of the best Heart Energy and Akashic Records Podcasts in 2024 by PlayerFM and Globally Ranked in the top 5% in Listen Notes.

Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright is a Licensed Psychologist, Spiritual Educator, and Akashic Records Reader. She is the author of the Award-Winning Lamentations of the Sea, its sequels, and several books of poetry. A psychologist with a mystic mind, she weaves perspectives from both worlds to offer holistic wisdom.

If you’d like to explore what your Akashic Records have to share with you to guide you on your path at this time, you can find more about Akashic Magic Sessions HERE. Alternatively, sign up for the monthly newsletter Akashic Magic. Each month offers a unique perspective on the current energies along with intuitive writing prompts! Members enjoy a free gift— a complimentary copy of  Dr. BethAnne's book, Cranberry Dusk— upon signing up. 


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Opening & Closing Music:

Aloha and welcome to your Heart Magic, an illuminating space where psychology, spirituality and heart wisdom meet. Here's your host, Dr Bethann Kapansky-Wright, the clinical psychologist with a mystic mind.

Dr. BethAnne:

Aloha everybody, welcome to your Heart Magic. This is Dr Bethann Kapansky-Wright, and today we have an archetype of the tarot series and we are talking about the moon and the mysteries of the moon, the magical moon card and the tarot deck. What I love about this episode is that it's coming out just a couple days after we've had a full moon, partial lunar eclipse that's going to be going on, so on a week where the moon is very much on our minds, it's really fun to be looking at this archetype and talking about what does this card mean in the tarot deck? And as we've been going through the deck, it's been so interesting to be able to not only explore the cards and look at what are some of the historic collective meanings behind them, but to put my own, your Heart Magic, twist on them and look at how do these apply to our lives? And for some of the cards that sometimes can feel a little bit scary or have a historic interpretation where people would see the card like the devil comes to mind or the tower, and those images usually instill fear in people. It's been really fun to flip that around and to look at each card as an invitation to tap into something inside of ourselves and use whatever inspirations and energies and themes that card is bringing up to move ourselves on our journey towards more healing and more wholeness.

Dr. BethAnne:

And what's fun about the moon is that one of the traditional interpretations of it is that it is illuminating fears that it can be about hidden information, illusion, fears that we can't see or might not know that we're operating from. The moon can also mean we have incomplete information on something. It can be something that asks us to have more patience. It is an encouragement to embrace the unknown and navigating whatever presents itself to us by using our intuition and using our senses and using our good judgment. So the moon often represents something that we can't fully see. It's a very different energy than the sun and the tarot deck, which we'll be talking about next time we come back to our tarot series. The moon is more about what isn't completely revealed in the light of day and how can we work with that information.

Dr. BethAnne:

And a good way to think of the moon is perhaps if we are maybe putting a puzzle together and we only have a few of the pieces in place, or we have a little bit of the framework but we're kind of missing some of the core pieces. And maybe in our metaphorical puzzle we don't have the box, so we're putting it together without full knowledge of what exactly it's going to look like. Or maybe we've just been told this is a puzzle and it's something having to do with landscape or nature. So at least we have a starting point, but there's a bit of a mystery of what will the final product look like. And so, as we keep going and putting the pieces in place, there's this delightful discovery and it's like oh look, this is a tree. All these green pieces, they were putting together a tree. And as we keep going, oh, that tree is part of a greater forest. And we began to see the fuller picture over time. And that is the essence of the moon. We don't see it all at once under the light of the moon. Sometimes we can't see much at all if it's a new moon and we can't see the moon's face. But over time, if we're paying attention and we are putting pieces in place and looking at how does this connect to this and what might this mean for the bigger picture, we begin to see the bigger vision. So with that, let's talk about a few ways to work with this magical archetype.

Dr. BethAnne:

One of the first things that the moon encourages us to do is to face our fears, and even writing that down as a talking point for today's podcast, I actually had a little bit of a reaction to that. I think when people here face their fears, that can sound a little bit scary, like, if you're going to face your fears, it sounds like you're going to do that in this really tangible way where you have to, like, stare your fears. Sounds like you're going to do that in this really tangible way where you have to, like, stare your fears down. Or you're going to be thrust into a situation where, whatever it is you're afraid of, you have to overcome it. And certainly on our individual journeys we will be given opportunities to do that. We could look at that as our soul draws those opportunities in, because from a spiritual level our soul already knows we're bigger than our fears, that the fear is the illusion, and so it will draw in opportunities to grow to us, and that is just there so that we can realize how empowered we actually are.

Dr. BethAnne:

But I don't think the day-to-day work of facing our fears always has to be quite so concrete and it doesn't always have to mean that, whatever it is we're the most afraid of, that we have to be afraid that we're going to end up in that and be asked to overcome it. I think a more grounded way to look at facing our fears is before we are in the actuality of a situation. When we're doing that, it's really helpful to explore where's the fear coming from. What are the hidden emotions and beliefs and values that might be behind the fear? Is it about whatever the thing is itself and something external? Is it about something inside of us and we feel like I'm not enough to do this or I'm not brave enough or good enough, or something like that? Is it coming from an internal place? And One of the best ways to work with fears is to start with our journal. It's to start with our inner work and to start with our time within ourselves.

Dr. BethAnne:

I love doing oracle card prompts and using my tarot and oracle and affirmation card practices in my journal to explore my fears and to ask questions like show me what I'm afraid of, help me understand what's blocking me. Questions like show me what I'm afraid of, help me understand what's blocking me. What hidden fears or emotions or stuck old beliefs might I have about something that's keeping me from moving forward. There's so much rich territory to be found in asking those questions and exploring whatever guidance comes through. For me personally, I like a prompt. That's one of the reasons that I love using cards and over the years I've developed all sorts of practices with them.

Dr. BethAnne:

Some people might just enjoy that as a writing prompt and they don't work with cards and you just want to free write about that in your journal. And if you don't have access to any of those things but you want a fun, intuitive exercise, then find a book, find a poetry book, find some sort of book that you might have If you have a self-help book or a wisdom book and put the intention into the book that you're just going to flip through with your eyes closed and stop at a page that illuminates whatever the question is and just ask spirit, draw my attention to a word or passage that helps reveal this information to me. You could also, if all you have access to is technology, you could also put that into like Instagram and say help bring up in my newsfeed a message about this. Like, help me tune into this today. Help me hear a song on the radio. Help me see a quote. Help bring that information through.

Dr. BethAnne:

So we're never limited in how we can use our intuition and how we can gather information to help illuminate what might be hidden from us. And if we take the time to pay attention, what might be hidden from us and if we take the time to pay attention, that is the other part of the moon. It's not just illuminating the information. We have to be paying attention and asking the question and looking for it. If we're paying attention, that information becomes to come through and we begin to see wow, I had no idea I had so much self-doubt or I had no idea that I had such an issue with whatever it is in this relationship and I need to work through my feelings around this person and if I can start clearing those out, I think that's going to help me get unstuck.

Dr. BethAnne:

Then we are facing our fears. We are facing the things that are the illusion, that are hidden from us, the emotional information we can't see. We're facing old beliefs and values that we might not be fully aware are there and we begin to find ways to work with them constructively. So the moon is an invitation to inner work and when we begin to face fears, that just begins inside of us, and it begins with finding the courage to turn a light on within ourselves and within the things that might feel in the shadows to us, and to find become bigger than them so that we can work with them constructively. Become bigger than them so that we can work with them constructively.

Dr. BethAnne:

The second thing that the moon allows us to do is it presents us with the opportunity to practice discernment, to practice patience and to work with the unknown. This is hard for a lot of people. I think that over time that's a skill that some people grow with just learning to have patience for the process and trust the process. But I think that for the most part, many of us are hardwired in a way that we just like certainty, and I've often said it's so ironic, right? We live on a planet where we know the only constant is change. We're asked to be adaptable in the creative evolution of this planet and we are great at posting quotes about embracing change. And it sounds good in theory, but when it comes down to it, most of the time we want to know and it feels psychologically uncomfortable to be in a place of emotional ambiguity and uncertainty, and so our mind seeks to analyze and look for what do I know?

Dr. BethAnne:

What's the knowable in this? What's predictable, what's the pattern, something that we can grab onto? And the moon asks us to let go of that, to let go of our need to control, to let go of our need to know the outcome and instead to embrace a more curious and mindful way of being. Now the moon doesn't say, hey, don't worry about it, it will all be revealed in time, so you don't even have to think about this. The moon is really more of an indicator that it would be helpful to bring your attention to a situation and to look at it mindfully and to practice your discernment. So the moon invites us to actively work with the unknown.

Dr. BethAnne:

And so, even if we're actively working with the unknown by saying, well, I think I've done all that I can do for now and I am just going to let it go and try and have patience, there's still an intention that brought you to that place. You are not pushing it aside mindlessly and refusing to look at it or refusing to explore it. You're not in denial. Instead, you're examining what you can see, acknowledging the unknowables, figuring out. Is there anything that I need to shift or work on or explore within me. Have I done all that I can do, really practicing? Have I brought to the table as much as I can? As I'm putting this puzzle together and when we are asked to take a pause and take a step back, being able to say, yeah, I think I've done all I can do for now. So I am going to mindfully allow the process to unfold and just let life illuminate things over time. That brings me to the biggest piece that I want to focus on with the moon today, and I think it's that the moon is really an invitation to deeper self-trust. There's something about receiving a card in the tarot deck that says and I think it's that the moon is really an invitation to deeper self-trust there's something about receiving a card in the tarot deck that says there's unknowables here.

Dr. BethAnne:

Look beyond the illusion, face your fears, careful. There might be hidden information that you're not looking at and you're encouraged to look at it, and I think for many people, at least for me what this has sometimes brought up is this kind of cautionary uh-oh. What am I not seeing? What have I missed? Is something going on where I'm being tricked or I can't see things fully, and that often makes us doubt ourselves. It often makes us feel like somehow we missed something.

Dr. BethAnne:

One of the common wounds that I often see within people and if I'm seeing it in many people, I often think of this as more of a collective wound that we're all healing in our own ways is this idea that we don't want to be tricked. We want to feel like we're on top of life. There's a fear around having the wool pulled over our eyes, being naive, feeling like somehow somebody or something got something over on us, and certainly we want to be prudent and use good judgment and work with our lives as best as we can. But I think a lot of that comes to this reflection on self-trust and there's this fear that I can't trust myself. I can't trust myself to make a good decision or I can't trust myself to work with things. I don't trust my future self to work with things as they come up. So if I can know right now and I can know what's going to happen, I can plan for it and I can try and prevent anything catastrophic or anything fearful from happening, I can be in control and I can be in charge, and that feels very reassuring for us.

Dr. BethAnne:

And what if all that's taken away? What if we just don't know? And what if it brings up fears of? Well, I don't know that I'm doing the best thing in this. I keep getting the moon, and so I'm being told to have patience and to let more information come to life. I'm being told that there might be more things to see here, and I don't know exactly what that means. Am I missing something? Is there somebody involved in this and I'm missing their agenda? Is it just that not enough time has gone by and so I can't see it? What does that mean, and do I have to scramble to see what I'm missing, and do I have to be worried about that? That's all the stuff that sometimes the moon can tap into for some people, and so I think, ultimately, the moon is this beautiful invitation to come back to ourselves and to heal our wound with self-trust, and I want to share an excerpt from a passage that I wrote.

Dr. BethAnne:

It's in my book Revelations of the Sky, and it's passage 111. It's called the Illusion, and I wrote this back in the summer of 2019. And that was a time in my life where I kept getting the card the moon. I was also getting in other Oracle decks cards that had really similar messages to the moon. I was also getting in other oracle decks cards that had really similar messages to the moon, and so there was this big focus in my life on like moon archetype and moon energy and not knowing and everything having to do with that, and it was bringing up a lot for me. And here's what I had to say about that.

Dr. BethAnne:

There's a card in one of my oracle decks called discernment. I started pulling it regularly back in the summer and the meaning is about seeing something through the eyes of truth, seeing with wisdom and clarity, seeing something for what it really is instead of what we think it is. Another card I keep pulling is from the tarot. It's called the moon. It echoes the sentiment encouraging us to delve below the surface of things and realize all is not as it appears to be. The moon asks us to consider the questions what is not being illuminated in our lives and where is the illusion?

Dr. BethAnne:

When I was younger, even just a few years back, these kinds of cards made me nervous. Oh no, what am I not seeing? Is somebody tricking me? I interpreted them as if they indicated somebody in my life was lying to me or not. Being honest, I might feel like I was doing something wrong, wondering what I was missing in a situation or if I was foolishly allowing the wool to be pulled over my eyes. It's a fear-based interpretation rooted in the idea that I can't trust myself to see with clarity or trust that whatever truths I need to know will unveil and reveal themselves in time. I've grown since then. Kauai has forced me to face my fears and root so firmly in the light and knowledge of myself. I now know how to interpret these cards without fear. I understand the message spirit is trying to bring through.

Dr. BethAnne:

The illusion and deception aren't what's going on outside of you. It's what's going on inside of you. I have been lying to myself. I lie to myself every time I tell myself I'm not good enough. I lie to myself every time I believe my voice doesn't matter. I lie to myself every time I look at my current circumstances and mistake them for my soul's truth. The deception lays inside of myself when I don't recognize my true worth. The deception lays inside all of us when we don't recognize our true worth.

Dr. BethAnne:

Ultimately, when the moon asks us to and ultimately, when the moon asks us to come back to something, to know that we don't have full information, that there's something incomplete there, that we're being asked to go below the surface or to look a little bit more deeply. We need within us to face what's not known, to consciously and constructively explore it and work with it. We can trust that we have what we need to face a fear, to face an illusion, to allow things to unfold over time. We can trust our true worth. We can trust our heart magic, our heart's intelligence, our wisdom, our ability to create and adapt and work with shifting circumstances.

Dr. BethAnne:

We can trust our mistakes. We can trust that if we didn't see something because we were looking at it under the partial light of the moon and so we started to go in a direction that's not taking us where we want to go, that we can say that's not the direction I want to go. I made a mistake. Now that I'm seeing things more fully and complete information has come to light, here's what I'm choosing to do and anything I learn through my unknowing process, anything that feels like a mistake or feels like oh, I wish I would have known that I would have done this differently. Any material that comes to light in the light of day, we can say I trust myself to use that to grow in wisdom, to do differently next time. I trust myself to use that to increase my discernment, to increase my good judgment, to become a person who is a badass keeper of self-knowledge and life experience. We can trust ourselves. We can trust our worth.

Dr. BethAnne:

The moon asks us to be like the moon. The moon itself is such a beautiful teacher. Whatever face she is showing, whatever light she is showing, whether she's in the shadows, fully illuminated, somewhere in between, the moon is still whole. The moon is complete. The moon always knows her worth and knows that every phase and every shade holds value, and the same is true for us. And so we can trust.

Dr. BethAnne:

And ultimately, that is what the moon is encouraging us to do to come deeper into a relationship with trusting ourselves, healing ourselves, coming into wholeness and completion and knowing that whatever happens under the light of the moon is just more material. To grow our heart magic, to grow our heart wisdom to grow in trusting our soul and trusting our soul's process to unfold. Thank you so much for joining me in today's archetype of the tarot series and talking about the mysteries of the moon. We will be back next week with a new your Heart Magic. It is a mental health toolbox episode. In the meantime, have a beautiful week and, as always, be well, be love, be you and be magic.

Opening & Closing Music:

You've been listening to your Heart Magic with Dr Bethann Kopansky-Wright. Tune in next week for a new episode to support and empower your light.