The Huntress and The Hunter

full moon in Sagittarius

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Image credit Guillaume Seignac - Seignac, Diane Chassant, CC BY 2.0, AI-enhanced

The Huntress/Hunter, the archetype of the Sasgittarius Moon

In Sagittarius, sign of the huntress, the Moon brings a wandering, seeking energy. ~ The Moon School

We know her as Artemis (Greek) or Diana (Roman). She is a Moon Goddess, protector of animals, and archetypal Virgin.

Diana and her hounds hunt ethically, aiming to keep animal life in harmony and balance with the land. She is a fierce protector of both and will unleash her wrath on human hunters who are unethical, cruel, or take more than is necessary. This aspect she shares with the Cailleach (Hag) and with the eastern European Baba Yaga-type goddesses.

Ethics, Balance, and Boundaries

The huntress has a lot to teach us about ethics, balance, and boundaries.

Crossing ethical lines often means transgressing boundaries, and while the archetype of The Huntress has a pattern of enforcing ethics and healthy boundaries when out of balance, she can become one who becomes overly protective, claiming everything for her own and withholding what should be freely given. Boundaries become impenetrable walls, ethics become dogmatic absolutes, and compassion and mercy become eclipsed by enforcement and judgment.

At her very best, though, The Huntress presides over healthy, balanced systems, relationships, and boundaries. There is give and take, but not to the point of exploitation. There is a natural ebb and flow in relationships for mutual benefit and with mutual respect. There is power and no guilt in creating and maintaining healthy boundaries. Boundaries are set with wisdom that keeps them from becoming selfish, self-isolating, or self-aggrandizing.

The Huntress is an aspect of Nature, the active and governing energy that maintains balance, which by necessity encompasses both life and death and uses both to create equilibrium and healthy ecosystems.

It is hard to imagine that collectively we haven't aroused The Huntress' wrath, in our exploitation of the earth and her children.

Given the earth's crisis at this moment, The Huntress may arrive in your life as an environmental activist. You may find yourself inspired or called to speak hard truths to powerful systems about the unethical transgression of boundaries that threaten the harmony necessary for the earth to thrive.

Or you may encounter her in a more personal way. The Huntress may help you see your life as a more integrated whole, like nature, where all things are connected. She may help you understand where there are "hunters" in your life that take more than they should (time, emotional energy, etc.) or deal with you in ways that are deceptive and do not respect your boundaries.

She may ask you to allow the "death" of certain things (beliefs, relationships, patterns of behavior, self-talk) that need to be cleared out to help you return to a healthy balance.

In her fierceness, she will also point out to you that what you think are boundaries, may actually be unhealthy coping strategies or defenses locking you in and cutting you off from healthier relationships and patterns of living.

The Huntress is one variation or sub-type of The Maiden Archetype.

This season is associated with the stage of womanhood from 28-35. Young but no longer the childlike Maiden, Kore-Persephone, picking flowers in a meadow, innocent, unaware, inexperienced, and vulnerable to abduction.

There is maturity, strength, experience, independence, and if not wisdom, then understanding.

We find the Earth herself mirroring this stage of life. We are beyond the crocus snowdrops, daffodils, and tulips and entering the time of roses, iris and peonies, voluptuous flowers with many petalled fragrant blossoms.

There is also the archetype of the Young Hunter, the outdoorsman, who finds solace and connection in the woods and champions the conservation of wild places with deep respect and understanding. The hunter feeds himself and his family through careful observation, monitoring, and managing the herds of game and seeks to create a life-giving balance among all creatures. While death is part of the hunt, it is also a component of healthy sustainability.

Whether male or female, the hunter/huntress is an archetype of youth developing into maturity and wisdom. The initiation of wandering alone in the wilderness, becoming familiar and comfortable in the wild places, and learning to seek and find what is necessary for life are the first steps in the process of individuation. Both huntress and hunter must come to terms with their place in the family of all living things. They must gain the insight that they are part of a whole in which all things are connected. They must grapple with life and death and the need for both.

We too, feel the call to seek and hunt for that which our Soul longs.

After the bitter cold of winter, the deluge of winter rain, and the short days of winter, we are drawn back out of our inner worlds and into the fields, woods, marshes, and mountains. We hunt for the new life all around us to remind us that winter is only a season the sun returns heralding the new life held within the Earth and within our own Soul.

There is a sense of new birth, fresh ideas, unlimited possibilities, and seeing new ways of being and doing things differently. This is the rising energy of youth that returns to each of us in spring regardless of our chronological age.

Late spring renews us in our inner being just as the earth is renewed.

You may feel...

• confident

• courageous

• self-assured

• enthusiastic

• idealistic

• optimistic

• self-sufficient

• extravorted (even if you're an introvert!)

• independent

• self-directed

• passionate

• powerful

These are the energies of The Huntress or Hunter at work in the earth and in you.

Earth Work

If you work with the mineral kingdom in the form of crystals this season is the time to use...

• Ruby

• Bloodstone

• Garnet

All of these crystals represent the surging of the life force and vitality returning to the Earth—the return of what 12th-century mystic Hildegard of Bingen called viriditas or the greening.

Green crystals like…

• Aventurine

• Serpentine

• Moss agate

are also powerful when used during meditation outdoors during this season.

Jan Blencowe©2020

The Hunter/Huntresses' Symbols Tarot Reading

I don’t often do readings for the collective, but this full moon seemed to require this kind of wisdom-seeking.

These are the symbols we will concentrate on as we consult the Tarot for wisdom in this season of the Huntress/Hunter.

• arrows (action, focus)

• moon (illumination, insight, wisdom)

• dogs/hunting hounds (finding, discerning)

• bow (potential for change)

Questions for the Tarot based on the Huntress/Hunter Symbols…

Action + Focus

• Where do you need to be focusing your attention? What is calling you to action as rising spring energy fuels you?

Insight + Wisdom

• As the earth once again comes fully back to life what insights and wisdom are rising in your awareness? What feels new yet ancient, what is repeating, what is replacing the old?

Finding + Discerning

• Where do you need to exercise discernment? What are you seeking, and what are you fervently hoping to find?

Potential for Change

• What excites you right now? What holds amazing potential for you in this season? What is ready to undergo significant change?

The Answers…

Action + Focus - Justice.

This card strongly emphasizes fairness, balanced thinking and actions, and the harmonious resolution of conflicts using both reason and mercy. Equilibrium and equanimity set the stage for being calm, even-tempered, and composed. Keep your focus and your actions on calmly discerning what is fair and just in your relationships. Your focus should be to make certain your words and actions whether directed towards others or towards yourself are fair and just. An impartial, even tempered disposition is needed right now.

Insight + Wisdom - The Wheel of Fortune

The Wheel of Fortune proivides the insight and wisdom to know that what goes around comes around; what you sow, you will reap, and there’s nothing new under the sun. This can be a powerful, allowing you to accept change with the realization that nothing lasts forever and that you‘ve been here before. You’ve survived this once and you’ll survive it again. Paired with Justice this set of cards speaks to a turn of events that corrects an imbalance or unjust situation. It may be time for you to set things right, in your own mind or with others, creating a new opportunity to change your fortunes.

Finding + Discerning - The Tower

The Tower was once called The House of God, and indicates a swift, all encompassing disruptive change which may include destruction of current structures (literal, or psychological, like coping strategies or patterns of behavior) creating a period of intense upheaval necessary for growth and change. Sometimes The Tower signifies uncontrolled energies that bring destruction. In this reading we recognize a call to discenrment, challenging you to decide whether the sudden lightening bolt is a curse or a blessing, the result of destructive uncontrolled energies or the intentional and necessary pruning and clearing out.

Potential for Change - The Eight of Wands

This card from the minor arcana underscores the instantaneous change of The Tower, but very specifically in the area of communication, intuition and sudden flashes of insight or knowing. Your willingness to offer justice or fairness with calm composure seems to clear the way for the Wheel of Fortune to turn as things are communicated that resolve fairly a situation that has been lingering. Once that happens powerful outside forces (perhaps divine) intervene in a big way, so big it may be frightening at first, but discernment helps you discover the true purpose and meaning of the event.

This full moon in Sagittarius feels robust and filled with the potential to both focus energies and scatter crumbling ways of being.

Did the Tarot reading resonate? Is there something about the Hunter/Huntress archetype that feels powerful to you right now? Are you a Sagittarius and is this full moon wreaking havoc or bringing clarity?

Want a personal Tarot Reading click HERE to find out about my approach to Jungian Tarot.

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PS

One of the things that is beginning to take shape here at Hedge Mystic is a School of the Seasons. With each turn on the Wheel of the Year, I offer you a self-guided creative retreat so you can experience the earth and her seasons in personal, creative, and ritual ways. The School of the Seasons brings earth wisdom to you in many ways and teaches through creativity and inner experiences.

In each seasonal Exploration and Experience, you will find things like myth, history, poetry, journaling questions and prompts, creative invitations, and guided inner journeys.

If you enjoy the Wheel of the Year Guides I offer, you will absolutely love this deeper dive.

The brand new Beltane Exploration & Experience can be found HERE. Once you get there, bookmark the link because the page is private and hidden from everyone who is not a Hedge Mystic subscriber. To be clear, everyone, both free and paid subscribers, has access to these.

Beltane is a beautiful, magical, blessed time of harmony, growth, and blossoming when the earth comes alive with fragrance, flowers, and fecundity.

I hope you are feeling the earth's opening and enlivening energy as the trees leaf out and the flowers bloom.