The answers you seek are within you.
The 13 Moon Oracle deck doesn’t intend to “answer” your questions; rather it is a tool to connect you to your inner knowing. Working with these archetypal themes helps to catalyze expansion, create personal transformation, establish a deeper harmony in your life and assist you in developing a clear, intuitive, inner voice and direct connection the Divine.
Before you begin…
Take three deep breaths into your heart and belly to access a state of Empty Presence. When you feel open and receptive, shuffle the cards, and select one card.
There is a still, silent place within the Mystery of the Divine Feminine from which all truth emanates.
You may wish to wait for a soul question to rise from the quiet center of your being and then explore the answer through the lens of the card you have chosen. You may not even need to ask a question. Be open to what your Essence wishes for you to be aware of right now.
Draw an Oracle Card
The Wise Woman
“She Who Sees, Heals and Shows the Way.” The way of the Wise Woman-Healer is the way of acceptance and allowance. This archetype of the Goddess is often seen as an elder or crone, the Wise Woman-Healer, a woman who “knows” through her bringing together the instinctual, the rational and the intuitive. She holds a child-like wisdom in an ancient heart. The Wise Woman’s transcendent function in the Mystery is to offer us a vision of the indestructibility of the Self.
In the shadow aspect this archetype, if young in development, there may be a tendency to fix, rescue or save others, not recognizing and accepting that at one level of awareness, everything is evolving and choosing paths for growth that are perfect for them in every moment and that because each being is determining its relationship to the whole, there is nothing in the Universe that needs to be altered.
Her gatewayis found through resonance.
“I simplify. I resonate.”
Color: Black and White
Goddess Archetypes: Sophia, Athena, Hecate, White Buffalo Calf Woman, Sedna
Attune – Sacred Tool of the Staff
Feel the energy of the staff. It is certain, self-confident, and clear. How would it feel to step more fully into your role as a staff bearer? Put a stethoscope to your heart to attune to the prevailing frequency. What energy and feeling are being transmitted?
Heart Knowing – Frequency of Black & White
You may be caught, however subtly, in the black and white screen of appearances in the movie of your life. Drawing this card is a call to lighten up! If you get stuck in the drama of the moment, find a way to laugh and not take yourself so seriously!
The Weaver Dreamer
“She Who Dreams and Weaves Reality with the Great Mystery.”The way of the Weaver is the way of relationship and connectedness. The Weaver Dreamer’s transcendent function in the Mystery is the nurturance of the soul, weaving the pattern that connects everything to the One.
In the shadow aspect, it is easy to be a “dreamer” and get lost in possibilities rather than focusing in a “down to Earth” way to realize one of those potential realities. There is also a tendency in this shadow aspect to disconnect, separate, withdraw to a dream world and not see oneself as part of the pattern of the whole.
Her gateway is found through dreams.
“I dream. I connect.”
Colors: Magenta and Black
Goddess archetypes: Kokyongwukti, Ariadne, Ixchel
Connect – Sacred Tool of the Loom
The loom is a symbol of the structural matrix, the weaving of time and space that we call reality. On this loom, everything is connected. Receiving this card indicates that you would be served in looking at the larger view/loom of your life.
Synchronicity – Frequency of Magenta
Be watchful for powerful, tingling, “déjà vu” feelings that are indicators of companions of destiny showing up! This frequency points to the timeliness of creatively connecting unusual combinations of people, ideas, events or whatever wants to be woven into a more expansive vision of what is possible in your life!
The Muse
“She Who Inspires and Energizes Manifestation.” The way of the Muse is the way of epiphany. (epiphany is the sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something, apprehending its soul, an appearance or revelatory experience of the Divine, the showing through and recognition of essence). The Muse acknowledges and empowers through creative insight. The Muse is a means of access to hearing and sensing the soul’s voice. The Muse’s transcendent function in the Mystery is she represents metamorphosis of the soul, hence her association with the symbol of the butterfly.
In this aspect’s shadow, sensitivity has often been shut down in the name of survival, in order not to feel. Often in the human reflection of this shadow, there is scattered and unfocused creativity, indecisiveness, boredom, avoidance, procrastination, lack of discipline and incompletion of that which has inspired one to create in the first place.
The Muse’s gateway is accessed by spontaneity.
“I play. I inspire.”
Color: Turquoise/Aquamarine
Goddess Archetypes: Calliope, Urania, Fana, Thalia, Clio, Iris, Brigid, Sarasvati
Align –The Sacred Tool of the Wand
This tool is a symbol of the elements of air and fire and invokes their qualities of flexibility, adaptability, and mutability. What situation in your life is currently calling for these qualities? Be willing to risk opening to the magic of the wand by dancing with spontaneous choices!
Spontaneity – Frequency of Aquamarine
Receiving this aqua/turquoise frequency in your reading is an invitation to more playfulness and spontaneity in your expression. Run your query through a “joy-filter.” Are your current choices moving you closer or further away from your authentic, joyful expression?
The Queen of Death
“She Who Leads the Depth Descent Within.” This aspect of the Goddess acknowledges and empowers through consciously composting the masks of the small ego, and in doing so she asks us to courageously walk into the unknown and the murky subconscious realms to retrieve the gifts held there. Trust is a state of surrender to the divine self, knowing that one is supported on one’s journey toward wholeness, no matter how it looks in the surface appearance of one’s life. Trust implies the acceptance that the lessons one is given are serving one’s highest evolution and potential toward growth and wholeness.
The shadow of this aspect of the Goddess as it plays out in its human expression, may look like fear of death and unwillingness to look at the darker, more painful aspects of our experience and journey. The shadow can also look like emotional subjectivity, depression, sadness, and denial, choosing to become obsessively focused on pain or fear or the drama of the darker aspects of spiritual growth.
The Queen of Death’s gateway is found through trust.
“I release. I trust.”
Color: Black
Goddess Archetypes: Inanna, Persephone, Uma
Release – Sacred Tool of the Death Shroud
There is someone, something, or some limiting part of self that you would be served in releasing at this time. The sacred tool of the shroud symbolizes the process of conscious completion and release. What in your present experience is asking for conscious completion?
Unknown – Frequency of Black
What are you actually afraid of in becoming empty and withdrawing inwardly? At some point in your journey, spiritual initiation demands that you move into the Unknown with no guarantees. This frequency supports you in trusting and leaping empty into the Void.
The Primal Goddess
“She Who is Natural, Instinctual, Untamed and Free.” With the motto, “Everything to excess”, she pushes past the interpretations and boundaries the mind has developed out of habit patterns and limiting beliefs, into experiencing new freedom. Primal Goddess follows her instincts and passions without rationalization and mental approval of the inner adult critic or for acceptance. The Primal Goddess’s transcendent function in the Mystery emerges through the use of creativity and passion, and through that, co-creation of reality.
In the shadow aspect, shame, guilt, anger, powerless, doubt, and stagnant creative energy are common themes as we may try to get what we want, without simply standing in our power and truth and asking directly for what we desire, or use the powerful energy of kundalini to sexually seduce and manipulate.
The gateway to this aspect is found through ecstatic attunement, and can be accessed through deep meditation, dancing, writing, painting, lovemaking, prayer making, singing, imagination or any activity which accesses an intense and altered state of consciousness.
“I fuel. I consume.”
Colors: Red, Orange, Yellow, Gold and Copper
Goddess Archetypes: Shakti, Pele, Lillith
Catalyze – Sacred Tool of Lightning
Transformation is either in progress or imminent. This energy shakes the world you have carefully constructed for your ego’s comfort and security. This card represents a powerful catalyst for change and awakening. What in your life would be served by the primal, transformative energy of lightning?
Passion – Frequency of Orange
This energy strongly encourages you to take risks with what is being presented in your life that inspires and ignites you. The frequency accesses the vitalizing power of the Shakti force that energizes new choices. What do you feel passionate about?
The Priestess
“She Who Is Keeper of the Keys and Guardian of the Mysteries.” The priestess is the feminine archetype of stillness, silence and centered presence. From this female receptive place, she becomes the keeper of the keys, the guardian of the female mysteries; only from the place of inner stillness can divine knowing actually flow. The Priestess’ transcendent function in the Mystery is she represents the universal flow of the divine feminine and balance within that flow; through intuition and feeling she is a guide into the unseen realms.
The shadow aspect of the priestess can be seen in the human psyche, as over subjectivity, becoming so lunar and intuitive as to be ungrounded or unattached to the Earth plane.
The Priestess’s gateway is meditation, divination with oracles, presencing beauty, reflection, knowledge of symbols and color, poetry.
“I amplify in stillness”
Colors: Royal or Sapphire Blue
Goddess Archetypes: Lady of the Lake Adelaine, Vesta, Hestia, Morgaine, Eleusian Priestess, Sibyl, Islandia
Transmit – Sacred Tool of the Chalice
The chalice represents vertical relationship rather than horizontal aspects of daily life. This card may be a gentle reminder to empty out and focus on your alignment with Spirit to receive what is being transmitted for your growth at this time. Water is a powerful transmitter, so how can you be more like water now?
Equanimity – Frequency of Sapphire Blue
This blue energy is calling you to your mysterious watery depths to retrieve remembrance of what you came to joyfully create and experience in this life. Surrounded by the cool waters of Her deep well, give yourself time away from the distractions of the outer world, so that you may gaze into the clear waters of you inner world.
The Goddess of Love
“She Whose Beauty Embraces in Love.” The way of the Lover is the way of presence in the present moment. The Lover embraces, inspires passion, and offers eternally fulfilling unconditional love and sensual ecstasy. The Lover sees the Beloved in every face. Through beauty, life around her sphere is brought into natural harmony. Harmony is a natural state of being in this aspect. In this state of harmony, body, mind, feelings and spirit are not in conflict, but in unity and linked to ones essence and the larger pattern of perfection. Harmony is merely a reflection of a higher order of reality. The Goddess of Love’s transcendent function in the Mystery is that this aspect of the Goddess represents this higher order of natural harmony of which beauty is an example.
The shadow of this aspect of the Divine Feminine, as it plays out in human nature, may look like self-absorption, vanity, excessive focus on outer form rather than inner beauty, insensitivity to the needs and feelings of others, the use of flattery or other untruthful communication aimed at manipulating to get what one wants or to successfully compete for that which one desires. Jealousy, comparison and insecurity are shadow aspects of this archetype in human nature. In this archetype is found distortions in body image.
The gateway to the Goddess of Love is found through beauty in all its aspects.
“I feel. I respond. I beautify.”
Color: Pink
Goddess Archetypes: Aphrodite, Freya, Laxshmi, Ishtar, Sarasvati, Oshun, Radha, Ishtar, Xochiquetzal, Astarte
Expand-The Sacred Tool of the Senses
This card is a call for your sensitive presence. Who or what is longing for your full presence and loving response? One of the greatest gift of the senses is that they can bring us into full presence in the moment. How might you stop to enjoy your sensory experience of life more?
Fulfillment – Frequency of Pink
You are being invited to embody unconditional love, not as a concept but as a living reality! Whether you feel fulfilled or separate or alone, stop and consciously breathe into your being the unconditional, pink fire that burns in your own heart. Feel its power to open.
The Initiator
“She Who Empowers and Offers Second Birth.” The way of the Initiator is the way of Truth. The Initiator acknowledges and empowers through challenge. She prunes, encourages growth, catalyzes change, expands perceptions, cultivates and ripens potential, motivates alignment with essence and truth, tunes the harmony of each being. If recurring patterns threaten to confine us in a stereotype of our authentic selves, the Initiator will confront us again and again until we grow. She cannot be distracted from her purpose. She leads us through pain to joyful insight. If we try to resist her, she will hound our footsteps to the end. In this, her compassion is unparalleled in its determination. The Initiator’s transcendent function in the Mystery is that she is coherence, the force by which molecules are held together.
The shadow aspect of this archetype plays out in the human psyche in issues of power, control and recognition. The initiator aspect may seem impersonal, cold, uncaring or unfeeling to the human ego.
The Initiator’s gateway is found through coherent resonance.
“I align. I challenge. I clarify.”
Color: Purple
Goddess Archetypes: Isis, Cerridwen, Maat
Clarify – The Sacred Tool of the Sword
The sword cuts away illusion to reveal truth. What is calling for clarity of the sword of truth in your life? Allow the presence of the sword of truth within you and in others to speak!
Challenge – Frequency of Purple
Purple has long been used by mystics because of its refined and expansive vibration. This is a strong call to “SHOW UP, to move out of the background and remember “the reason for which you crossed the Vast Sea” to incarnation. Iosis.
The Great Mother
“She Who Nurtures and Sustains.” The way of the Great Mother is the way of receptivity. The Great Mother aspect acknowledges and empowers through nurturing, preserving, taking care by providing safety and security. Great Mother’s transcendent function in the Mystery is the fruit of union. She provides a grounded nest out of which creativity may be more freely expressed. The shadow aspect of this archetype can look like fear of abandonment that causes an imbalanced focus on safety and security that supports fixity and predictability at the expense of freedom and novelty. This can look like the Cosmic Mama: over responsible, over-controlling, over-nurturing, unconsciously supporting co-dependency. Hidden in this shadow of over-nurturing are deeper collective issues of lack of self-worth and self-love. The balance can be found in nurturance through learning the lessons of giving and receiving and finally in simply allowing the Universal nurturance that simply is, to flow through us.
The Great Mother’s gateway is found through conscious surrender and adoration.
“I surrender. I receive.”
Color: Burgundy
Goddess Archetypes: Shakti, Demeter, Gaia, Shechinah, Hathor, Mary Magdelene
Empty – Sacred Tool of the Cauldron
The nature of the cauldron is spaciousness, emptiness. This card counsels you to slow down, breathe, to open and make more space in your life for the new to emerge. This is not a time for definitive action, rather surrender to the darkness, the womb, the “not knowing.” You must be empty in order to contain…
Embrace – Frequency of Burgundy
The Great Mother’s rich burgundy frequency beckons earthy, womb-like creative feminine power. Turning inward to the warm, fertile depths of your being, what is calling to be birthed through you at this time? Feel the word “Embrace” and the color Burgundy create an alchemical spiral in your body, and let it take you deep into the nurturing arms of The Great Mother.
The Creator Destroyer
“She Who Gives and She Who Takes Away.” The way of the Creator/Destroyer is the way of non-attachment. This aspect of the Goddess acknowledges and empowers through intensity in all its forms, intended to polarize your responses until you instead choose to use the same intensity to experience Oneness. The Creator / Destroyer’s transcendent function in the Mystery is this archetype represents bringing one into unity consciousness through resolution of all duality pairs into Oneness.
The shadow aspect of this archetype can be seen in the human tendency to turn this raw or often unexpressed creative energy into chaotic destructiveness, developing affection for the drama of conflict, wanton fits of passion, anger, jealousy, competitiveness or wrathful revenge. In the human play out of this shadow there is a lack of the quality of forgiveness. In this shadow, one gets to experience how unresolved rage erodes vitality, creativity and well-being. In the shadow of this archetype there is a tendency to hold a grudge and withhold love or separate and cut-off entirely from a relationship rather than try to heal or change it.
Her gateway is accessed through deep feelings and passion.
“I focus. I create.”
Color: Red, White, Black, (Creator, Preserver, Destroyer)
Goddess Archetypes: Kali Ma, Pele, Tibetan Dakinis, Cerridwen, Sekhmet, Durga
Focus – Sacred tool of the Crystal Skull
Is your life force scattered or over-extended? The crystal skull can assist you in pulling your energy back in to your center so that you may then redirect your focus and attention from a place of Essence rather than ego. Your mind is a powerful creator of your reality; pay close attention to what you focus on!
Liberation – Frequency of Red, White & Black
The frequency of red, white, and black represent the play between the forces of creation, preservation and dissolution. These energies invite you into non-resistance of what seems to be unraveling or dissolving in your life. Embrace what is breaking down. Consider it’s not either/or, but both/and.
The Goddess of Compassion
“She Who Enfolds in Mercy, Forgiveness and Compassion.” The way of the Goddess of Compassion is the way of unconditional love and mercy. This archetypal aspect of the Goddess is the essence of divine perfect love. As with Kwan Yin, She acknowledges and empowers herself and others through fluidity and being in the flow. The Goddess of Compassion’s transcendent function in the Mystery is the transmutation of the very perception of suffering.
The shadow of this aspect of the Goddess as it plays out in us, can be seen in personal self-denial, that is having more compassion for everyone else than oneself. In this shadow “no” tends not to be in the vocabulary and no boundaries are set for self-care. This tendency to be a rescue/savior in the name of compassion, actually feeds co-dependency and emotional addiction rather than self-responsibility and growth.
The Goddess of Compassion’s gateway is accessed through humility and forgiveness.
“I recognize. I seed.”
Color: Violet
Goddess Archetypes: Kwan Yin, Green Tara, Mary
Structure – Sacred Tool of Mantra, Yantra & Mudra
What organizing principles and beliefs create the structure for your perception of the world? How might they be calling for a more expansive view? Through sound, geometry, and movement, begin to penetrate the surface appearance of your life and explore the symbolic meaning of patterns that emerge…
Transcend – Frequency of Violet
Inwardly, consciously enter the violet flame in your heart. Here, compassion abounds. There is no right. There is no wrong…only divine unconditional love. Violet is a high vibration frequency that can assist you in refining your perception, especially in the way you relate to others. Compassion sees every face as its own.
The Lady of Communion
“She Who is a Guardian of All Life.” The way of the Lady of Communion is the way of the spiritual warrior. In this aspect of the Divine Feminine is the ability to hold an intention and the skill to manifest the intention. In working with this archetype one is assisted in looking impeccably at what is motivating any action or intention. This archetype assists us in holding a focus, an intent, and the strength, commitment and impeccability, to fulfill our aims. Impeccability requires truth, responsibility and competence but most of all it requires discipline. This aspect of the Goddess is a sovereign androgyny, representing the equal balance of the female and male aspects within. The Lady of Communion’s transcendent function in the Mystery is she represents limitlessness.
In the shadow, this can look like becoming absorbed in what one is doing in such a way, that it can exclude everything that seems to be extraneous to the work or long-term goal.
The Lady of Communion’s gateway is accessed through empathy and communion with all life, as a sacred reflection. She is a self-empowered and self-actualized co-creator with the Divine.
“I intend. I empower”
Color: Emerald Green and Gold
Goddess Archetypes: Artemis, Diana, Flora, Rhiannon, Bast, Lady of the Beasts, Epona, Kore, Priestess of Eleusis
Harmonize – Sacred tool of the Lightshield
Whatever is presently dissonant is being invited into the harmonizing effects of inward reflection and focus. Where in your life are harmonious relationships being called for? Consider your relationship with the Earth, the source of all life. From the center of your lightshield, what awareness will harmonize and bring into full integrity your thoughts, words, and actions?
Sovereignty – Frequency of Emerald Green
Like a seed, your intentions have within them the means for their complete blossoming. This card asks you to comprehend the actual nature of power. You are being called into this archetype to perceive that there is no one who can empower you with anything you have not already recognized in yourself!
The Alchemical Goddess
“She who is a Shape-shifter, Changing Woman.” This is the integrated, balanced and whole image of the Goddess. She is that which resolves duality in her primary being-ness. She encompasses all duality pairs in a sweepingly expansive unified field of consciousness which is all things and no thing, and to die to unneeded parts and masks of self, to give up the life of sleeping consciousness for the painful process of being born in wakeful awareness. Alchemy is the raising of vibration. All that we do in the process of spiritual evolution has to do with raising the vibration; this is the work of the Alchemical Goddess. The Alchemical Goddess’s transcendent function in the Mystery is the marriage of male and female polarities within; a complete awakening in unity is the goal of this archetype.
If we were look at a human play out of a shadow for this aspect it would look like struggle, resistance, fixity, moving against the flow.
The gateway to the Alchemical Goddess is through ecstasy. That does not mean that you do not experience, what appears to be suffering in your life. It means you have a choice about how you interpret what happens to you, and accepting, without exception, the perfection of every unfolding moment as part of the ever changing.
“I am freedom. I am grace. I am union.”
Color: Rainbow
Goddess archetypes: Iris, Black Madonna, Changing Woman
Transmute – Sacred Tool of the Peacock Feather
Peacocks hold great mystery. In addition to their display of outrageous beauty, they do not die from ingested toxins. They actually transmute poisons! What “poison” are you choosing to transmute at this time?
Illumination – Frequency of the Rainbow
Receiving this rainbow frequency heralds a time of completion. It is time to stop and see the work as already done, to celebrate your innate wholeness! It is easy to get caught up in the game of ???becoming. This is a call to congratulate yourself by celebrating what has already been accomplished!
13 Moon Mystery School Archetypal Quiz
to Determine Your Primary Divine Feminine Archetype
Have you sensed that there is more than just your everyday personality and ego life? Do you want to live your life from the much larger lens of your BIGGER MYTHIC STORY? Archetypes provide a powerful and exciting entryway into that expanded story of your life! Archetypes are the larger than life blueprints which guide the mythic unfoldment of your soul life and purpose for incarnating in any lifetime. If you have sensed intuitively that there is a guide for that process, celebrate, you have found it! This short quiz is based on the 13 Divine Feminine archetypes from The 13 Moon Oracle by Ariel Spilsbury. By taking this simple quiz, you can become aware of which archetype is providing the primary guiding principle and archetypal lensing for this lifetime. How exciting! And that is only a tiny entry point to the Divine Feminine Mysteries that hold unimaginable treasures for your spiritual journey! Ready to dive in? See you on the other side!
