Stop apologizing for your existence | One-card tarot

Happy New Moon, friends!

The New Moon phase is special to me, I mean, it's in my brand name, right?

This particular New Moon in Cancer is especially potent for inner work – Cancer energy invites us to nurture ourselves and examine our emotional patterns, making it perfect timing for this Devil card's message about self-advocacy.

Initially I wanted to stream on TikTok Live today and offer guidance on what to expect for this new lunar cycle under Cancer season.

But life had other plans – I felt called to ground into myself first and explore what I want to prepare for. Like the Cancer crab, sometimes we need to retreat into our shell to protect and secure ourselves first.

Lately, I've been exploring this Devil archetype, especially in tarot. So the fact that we pulled this card for today's New Moon while contemplating self-empowerment made me smirk.

Many times when we encounter the Devil or Satan we think of evil, demonic, imprisonment, overindulgence, or addiction.

But like all cards (and all situations), we can benefit from exploring the varying perspectives to expand our one-track mind.

Our brains are wired to compartmentalize. And however we might feel about labels and clichés, they exist for a reason – they save time in snap judgment scenarios.

So, whatever our initial thoughts may be about The Devil and its tarot card, today's one-card pull asks this:

• How can you be more selfish?
• How can you claim your selfishness without apologizing?
• Instead of shrinking, suppressing, or avoiding your wants and needs, what happens if you declare them aloud and refuse to settle for less?

Can you confidently state what it is you want?

How about to your partner, your friends, your roommates, your coworkers, your boss, your family, your parents and siblings?

Are you willing to be seen as "the devil" to achieve those desires?

Now, of course, I propose these questions to our kind-hearted, often over-giving, people-pleasers out there. You know who you are when you say sorry at least 10 times a day and you've said sorry for saying sorry.

When we begin healing our self-esteem, we can often feel wrong, egotistical, prideful, and other 'negative' emotions that relate to "the devil".

I definitely questioned if I was a bad person when I simply set boundaries and said "no".

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of apologizing for my existence, apologizing for not considering how to best accommodate everyone else around me, and somehow conveniently forget about myself.

With this Devil card, I'm called to apologize and forgive myself for the poor treatment I inflicted upon myself.

I didn't know better because that's how I grew up – I expected to always be a giver and I felt guilty in receiving.

In hindsight, I see how I pushed away or rejected opportunities to heal and grow because I didn't believe I was worthy of them. I was under a false impression that I didn't suffer enough to deserve life-changing circumstances.

Today's tarot under this New Moon says it's time for a new beginning – a clean slate. We can release those feelings of unworthiness and embrace our identity free of shame, guilt, conditional love and transactional relationships.

(I know this is easier said than done – believe me, I'm still learning this myself. But with each conscious attempt at cleaning our slate, each boundary we set, each time we refuse to shrink... eventually it becomes our new normal!)

Because once we claim what we want without flinching, without stuttering, without over-explaining, we become repellent to that over-sacrificial behavior many manipulators and predators take advantage of.

Then, we can attract what we really want for ourselves – mutual effort in relationships, safe places and people, abundance and opportunities that are aligned with our values and goals.

I want that for you.

I want that for me, too.

Thank you for being here.

Sincerely,

Nadine of the New Moon ♥