The Reclamation Of Feminine Power
Tarot Of The Abyss - Ana Tourian
“It’s possible I am pushing through solid rock
in flintlike layers, as the ore lies, alone;
I am such a long way in I see no way through,
and no space: everything is close to my face,
and everything close to my face is stone.I don’t have much knowledge yet in grief
so this massive darkness makes me small.
You be the master: make yourself fierce, break in:
then your great transforming will happen to me,
and my great grief cry will happen to you.”Rainer Maria Rilke
(Translated by Robert Bly)Leo Full Moon
The Full Moon is standing in Leo — the Solar Temple of the Sun. And this is perfect, because the feminine is receiving a powerful light from the Sun, a clarifying illumination that reveals what is true and what is costume.
This light makes us shine but it also illumes the clothes and masks we are wearing. The Moon requires we see the truth of whether we stand naked in our own skins, or whether we stand in a garment that has been stitched for us, threaded from expectation, survival and the old bargains we made to belong.
Leo is often spoken about as confidence, radiance and visibility. But this Full Moon isn’t asking for performance, it is asking for authenticity. Authenticity can be uncomfortable at first, because it reveals where we’ve been living in borrowed skin.
A woman’s reclamation begins here, not by becoming “more,” but by taking off what was never hers.
The descent - the underworld as the womb of Gaia
Before we can speak about victory, we have to speak about descent.
There is a particular kind of initiation that arrives when life strips us down, when the identity we wore stops working and we cannot keep the mask in place. This often happens when the world we built around our coping begins to crack and it can feel like breakdown. Yet, in myth, this is often the sacred beginning.
Persephone descends into the underworld and becomes Queen of two realms. Inanna passes through seven gates and surrenders her regalia piece by piece. They are stories of power regained through stripping away what is false.
In this Full Moon story, The High Priestess holds the doorway.
She is the Moon’s archetype: the keeper of mysteries, the guardian of thresholds, the one who teaches us to listen beneath the noise. And she leads us into a darkness that is not empty — it is fertile. The underworld here is the womb of Gaia. The deep earth where seeds crack open. The place where the old self composts into truth.
There is a line from Rainer Maria Rilke that captures this feeling with stark tenderness:
“It’s possible I am pushing through solid rock in flintlike layers… I am such a long way in I see no way through… everything close to my face is stone.”
This is the claustrophobia of transformation, it is the sensation of being deep in the passage, where you cannot see the exit and you cannot go back. It is in this place that the High Priestess whispers stay and it is not because you deserve suffering, but because something real is happening in the dark.
This is the moment a woman realises that the skin she has been wearing is not her own. It is a garment stitched from what she was told to be, a mask that once protected her and a role that once earned love, safety, approval and gave her a sense of belonging.
But it is not her essence.
Strength - feminine power that doesn’t abandon the body
When we emerge from the underworld, we don’t emerge with performative confidence we emerge as a presence and this is where Strength enters. Leo’s Major Arcana and the heartbeat of this lunation. Strength is not about dominance nor is it force or loudness. Strength is the reclamation of heart-power after the stripping.
In the classic image, Strength meets the lion. Not to destroy it nor to suppress it, but to hold it with calm authority. This lion can be your instinct, desire, your rage, grief or your erotic life force and your creative fire. It is all the parts of you that were once deemed “too much,” and therefore buried under the garment. Strength is the energy which allows us to say unapologetically, “I will not fear my own life force anymore.”
This is feminine power rooted in Gaia in the Earth of the soul and it is embodied, slow when it needs to be and fierce when it must be. It does not negotiate with self-betrayal nor does it require a mask.
The Wheel - the blessing of meaning, the turn of the story
After deep descent, something often shifts but it is not always instantly or dramatically. But the pattern begins to reveal itself. Here the Wheel turns and the Moon moving through Jupiter’s decan in the Tarot map — and Jupiter’s gift is not only “luck.” It’s meaning. Perspective. The sense that what you walked through wasn’t random. That the underworld taught you something you now need.
The Wheel can look like a door opening.
A conversation landing.
A synchronicity that confirms your path.
A sudden clarity that reorganises your inner world.It can also look like a simple truth: I am no longer available for the life I used to live.
This is where the story stops being only grief and becomes wisdom.
And Rilke’s prayerful plea echoes again:
“You be the master: make yourself fierce, break in…”
Because there is a moment in transformation where you feel you cannot do it alone. You don’t need more strategy. You need a force greater than fear. A fierceness that is sacred. A breaking-in of grace.
The Wheel turns. The soul receives help.
Six of Wands: victory as the return with the elixir
Now we arrive at the 6 of Wands — the image you named so clearly: victory, the hero returning to the world with the elixir he has earned.
But in the frame we’re holding here, this is not a hero’s ego. This is a woman’s rightful recognition.
There is a difference between applause and true visibility.
Applause is: “See me so I can feel real.”
True visibility is: “I am real, and I am ready to be seen.”The 6 of Wands is the moment the inner work becomes legible in the outer world. When the woman who descended returns with medicine — not only for herself, but for her life.
The elixir can be many things:
A boundary that finally holds.
A voice that no longer apologises.
A choice made without self-abandonment.
A creative work finally shared.
A relationship pattern broken.
A sacred “no” spoken without guilt.
A sacred “yes” spoken without fear.This is victory, not as perfection, but as embodiment.
It is the moment you stop wearing the stitched garment — and step forward in your own skin.
The World: Saturn’s terms, integration, and true skin
And then comes Saturn, through The World.
The World is completion, but it’s also containment. It asks for the real-world vessel that can hold your transformation so it doesn’t evaporate. It’s the difference between a breakthrough and a new life.
The World asks:
What structure will protect this truth?
What commitment makes this sustainable?
What boundaries prove this isn’t a passing moment, but a maturation?If the borrowed garment was stitched for you by expectations, The World offers something else: true skin. A life that fits your soul. A way of being that doesn’t require constant effort to maintain an illusion.
This is Persephone’s mastery: not just surviving the underworld, but becoming Queen of it — able to move between realms, to hold complexity, to embody power without losing tenderness.
A Full Moon ritual for reclamation
If you want to work with this lunation simply, here is a short practice you can do with a candle and a notebook.
Light a candle (the Sun’s illumination reflected in the Moon). Place one hand on your heart, one hand on your belly.
Then write:
The High Priestess: What truth is rising from the dark? What have I been incubating in silence?
Strength: What does courage look like now — in my body, my voice, my choices?
The Wheel: Where has grace been turning in my favour? What meaning is forming from what I thought was only loss?
6 of Wands: What am I ready to claim? What victory am I ready to let be seen?
The World: What is the next structure? What boundary, commitment, or container makes this real?
Choose one action — one — that makes your reclamation tangible.
A message sent.
A boundary held.
A decision made.
A truth spoken.
A piece of work shared.
Saturn loves a single real step.
Closing: radiance without costume
This Full Moon in Leo asks for a particular kind of nakedness — not exposure for its own sake, but honesty.
Not a performance of power, but the quiet authority of being true.
May the High Priestess teach you to trust the dark.
May Strength return you to the authority of your heart.
May the Wheel restore meaning and right timing.
May the 6 of Wands crown what you’ve earned through truth.
And may The World give you a life that fits your soul.
Because the deepest victory is not being admired.
It is being free.
