The Story Behind The Card...

It feels like the world Is burning down - but there's always a method to the madness of the purge.

"Sometimes the entirety of what you've created has to be set on fire around you - so you can find out what is FIREPROOF within you.

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Does it feel like the purge is relentless?  I feel you - there are times in our lives where it seems like EVERYTHING that we thought we knew, everything we thought we were, everything we thought we wanted to become, gets stress tested.  It catches fire.  And sometimes it all gets radically removed. "

Why Is Everything On Fire?

This card Is part of the story of the suit of Flowers, so to understand it in context, we can check out the energy of the surrounding cards.

The 6 asks us to seek new soils - we need to travel along a new path to find a fertile environment that allows our greatest expression to grow. And the path, into the night and uncharted territory, might look a little scary. Daunting, even. But deliberately seeking an environment (whether that's emotionally, within, or an outer circumstance) that is best for us, is the beginning of choosing ourselves!

The 8 is what happens once we've arrived at that fertile soil, the perfect place within or in outer circumstance - we are prepared with a beautiful crystalline seed to plant, which represents our authenticity and our core truth. When we start something new that comes from the core of ourselves, what we end up growing is a beautiful expression of our authenticity!

And the 7 is the big challenge that sits in the middle - In the 6, we take what we've created so far, we take the ways we've grown so far, and set out - but sometimes what we've held onto or brought with us Into a new season just isn't going to serve us anymore - it's gotta burn. So this card may show up in times of a necessary purge, representing what needs to be stripped away in order for you to find your truth - and it may show up when everything feels like It's breaking, whether you like It or not -

The message is TWO-FOLD - first, to let go of what is no longer serving you - and then, to to find what your truth is after the flames have stopped. Fire purifies, refines, and teaches. Be open to what you will find in the cleared field...

The Collective Purge - And Yours

We are witnessing a purge in the rapidly changing world at large - political turmoil, war, AI everything, the destruction of the planet, surveillance, the awareness that corrupt billionaires are pulling the strings behind everything... And when we witness it in our own personal lives - everything being suddenly ripped away from us, people exposing their true colors, relationships ending, or perspectives we once held no longer serving us - It can feel pretty fucked. We're just forced to be along for this ride - everything we thought we knew is burning up, and we can't look away.

But these purges always happen for a reason - spirit or a higher power wants us to see everything that doesn't work, so we can re-build something that DOES work. These fires come before a massive evolution! As painful and scary as It can feel, fire purifies - it clears the way - it shows us that there's a new path in front of us that we couldn't see before.

If there's a forced purge happening In your personal life, you may feel like you're going crazy (you aren't♥️). When things you thought made you "you" are gone - relationships that kept you feeling safe, or a career that you thought defined you - just, GONE? It hurts. It can trigger an identity crisis, where you don't really know who or what you are without the things that have been removed from your life. And collectively, we are in a position where we have to re-assess what we really are - who we are - and who we all want to become. With corruption being exposed at every bat of an eyelash, the systems we once resonated with are no longer trustworthy. It's destabilizing to say the least, but this Is a moment to come together and find out what we truly value, and want to bring forward in the world.

As this card reminds us, we're left with what is fireproof! So what is that thing, and how can we Identify it?

What Is Your Fireproof Core?

If we examine WHAT is being burned away, out of our lives, that can often give us a clue about what Is trying to come through, what wants to be purified and magnified in the futures that spirit sees for us.

What Is being burned away? A toxic job, living environment, way of thinking, self concept, or relationship? Or maybe you're just being asked to not think of yourself or your gifts In such a limited way? What has been holding you back that you can see Is falling away? What would you like to burn so you can focus on what really matters to you?

What do you see now, that you couldn't see before?

Are there any dynamics that were keeping you small?

Are there circumstances that demanded too much of you, not letting you choose your own growth?

My Purge - What Makes Me "ME?"

A few years ago, I went through a massive purge like this. EVERYTHING was going up in smoke. On one hand, a string of deaths of people I knew had me feeling like the world was falling apart, and on the other, I became wise to the truth of a few people I had kept close to me, and there was no choice but to let those connections burn away.

In one case, I was confronted with a terrifying realization - a family member who was my age was hit by a train while she was traveling abroad, and after being In a coma for weeks, never regained her ability to speak, walk, sing, play guitar, run around In forests, or be anything but bed-ridden. It was terribly heartbreaking to see her In this state, to wonder if she felt pain, to consider how frustrating and heartbreaking It must have been for her to be locked inside a body and brain that didn't work. And It caused me to consider - what am I without everything that I think is "me?" Because, you see, she was still THERE - there was something behind her eyes, her soul was present, and her presence was felt - just, unable to reach us all in the same human sense.

Who am I without what makes me who I think I am? I got to thinking about it... As an artist, I tend to cling to that as part of my identity. I'm the person driven to create. Or, I love hiking and being outdoors - what If I lost the ability to do those things? I began stripping down my identity and examining what would be left If It all burned away. Probably neurotically, exhaustively, I admit - but the question disturbed me and consumed me. And I landed on the fact that I would still have my soul. Like she still had hers. In a way I was comforted by that, because of course, our souls are the only thing we've been with all along...

At the same time, friendships I had held onto were dissolving. And all of this together? It felt as if I was supposed to be stripped of everything I thought I knew or needed, and I couldn't see why. I was scared, honestly. It seemed like everything was slipping away.

But when god was burning this garden around me, It left me with bare ground - a sparse psychic space where I could reassess. Understand what I really valued. Re-align myself with my priorities and learn where I was abandoning those things when my world was too crowded. It helped me discover what I truly valued, and what I had real gratitude for - from the things that had been taken away that were good, and the things in bad situations that were never good.

My fireproof thing turned out to be the soul. The heart. The joy. And once this flavor of the dark night of the soul ended, I was able to fly. That's when I began to make this tarot deck. If I'd held onto those things that didn't serve me, I wouldn't have been able to create what I've created - and strangely, If I hadn't lost those beautiful people In my life, I may not have been Inspired to key into gratitude and create through my heart, something that they would have been so proud of.

Whatever your soul has left after a purge, ends up being the purest part - yes, there is pain, and yes there is sorrow - but beneath that is your immortal soul! What does It want? What version of you are you now able to become? What would It look like to trust the purge?

Trust In your eternal becoming - and remember, there's something invincible that the flames will reveal.

-Gillian

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