There’s something very Virgo about this particular moment: the season is asking us: What’s working? What isn’t? What are we carrying because it’s useful, and what are we carrying because we’ve simply gotten used to it?
Virgo is an earth sign, associated with sensuality, discernment, conservation, and care. It’s also traditionally linked with the Virgin: the unwed woman who belongs to herself.
Self-sovereignty feels like a good place to begin.
And because Virgo is traditionally associated with IX, The Hermit, we’ve been thinking about that card inside the Coven this week.
The Hermit is the one who steps away from the noise long enough to hear something quieter: intuition, wisdom, the body, the voice underneath all the other voices. In some feminist and queer tarot traditions, the Hermit becomes the Crone — not someone discarded by culture, but someone who has stopped giving quite so many fucks about performing for it.
One of the cards our Coven members shared is from the Queer Tarot by Ash and Chess: a femme, BIPOC Hermit standing on a mountain beneath a sky full of multicoloured stars, holding a glowing lantern aloft. They aren’t hunched over in contemplation. Their head is lifted. They’re looking outward, leading the way.
Another is the Crone from the Slutist Tarot: an aging femme with enormous white hair, winged eyeliner, a leather jacket, purple lace, and the kind of expression that says she has absolutely no interest in your bullshit.
Both ask a useful question:
What happens when solitude isn’t isolation, but a way of coming back to yourself?
The Sun is in Virgo until September 22 (The Autumnal/Fall Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, Vernal/Spring Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere). Because of this current double-Virgo energy, as Jessica Lanyadoo explains “We have this kind of perfectionistic, detail-oriented push to identify what’s good, what’s better, what’s best, what’s bad, what’s terrible, what’s the fucking worst. And what you want to do is pull back from perfectionism or collapse, and instead practice healthy discernment.”
Harvest. Compost. Seeds.
As we move through Virgo season, we’ve been thinking about the tension between doing and dreaming, between busyness and passivity, and about the difference between perfectionism and discernment.
There’s a lot of cultural pressure to figure out what’s good, what’s better, what’s best, what’s wrong, what’s terrible, what needs fixing.
But the work isn’t to become perfect.
It’s to become discerning.
To notice.
To pay attention.
To decide what gets our precious energy.
So, as the seasons turn, here are a few questions you might carry with you:
🍁 What are you harvesting?
🍂 What are you clearing out of the field to go to compost?
🌱 What seeds will you save for next year?
🤲 Where can you use your attention as an act of devotion?
🧙♀️ Have you met your inner Crone, Hermit, or some adjacent figure? What might they teach you?
🗻 What does The Hermit look like in the tarot decks you love?
🌑 What is this New Moon asking you to notice?
You don't need to have an answer. Sometimes the noticing is the practice.
Meanwhile, inside the Coven...
This is the sort of conversation that happens inside the Missing Witches Coven all the time: members bringing their own decks, ideas, questions, scholarship, weirdness, experiences, and half-formed thoughts into the room and seeing what happens when other witches pick them up.
The RX gives you a little taste.
The Coven is where we get to actually do the thing together.
And there's a particularly fun gathering coming up:
🧙♀️ Witchcraft 101: Pop Culture Witches
Sunday, September 13 · 7–8 PM EDT
Since Practical Magic 2 is about to hit theatres, Amy T. is bringing Witchcraft 101 back with a playful exploration of Pop Culture Witches.
Which witches from movies, television, books, music, and other corners of popular culture shaped your own relationship with the Craft?
What happens to the Witch when she moves from folklore into popular culture? How have those representations changed as our culture's ideas about witches, women, power, sexuality, spirituality, and rebellion have changed?
And what do the witches of stage and screen tell us about ourselves?
You don't need to be an expert. In fact, these co-learning sessions are designed to bring together people who have studied the subject with people who are just curious.
The session will be recorded and shared inside the Coven, too.
A little more magic, together
One of the things we're most interested in at Missing Witches is what happens when witchcraft stops being something we consume alone and becomes something we think about, question, practice, and make together.
The Coven is our living space for that.
There are conversations about magic and history, tarot and astrology, ritual and culture. There are co-learning sessions, seasonal gatherings, small groups, member-led conversations, and plenty of opportunities to wander down an unexpected rabbit hole with people who are delighted you brought it.
You don't have to know what you're doing before you arrive, you don't have to call yourself a witch. You just have to be curious enough to come through the door.
And we'll be there cheering, Welcome Home!
Blessed fucking be.
— Risa & Amy & the Crones of the Missing Witches Coven!
