By JILLIAN KRISTINA

There are forces that exist, within and without, that can drive us to unimaginable lengths. There is longing and pain and despair so powerful, so debilitating, that we’d cross unfathomable lines – lines we can’t come back from – to find even a scintilla of relief. These lines cloak that which would break us with the slightest glimpse. They separate us from what lies beyond the most decrepit of veils.

“You do know what we’re taking on?”

“Yes.”

“You know the dangers?”

“I do.”

“This is a serious undertaking. It’s not fucking astral projection or runes. This is real stuff we’re playing with. Real angels. Real demons.”

Nebulous secrecy. An unflinching request. A tense, mutual understanding. Rigorous preparation. And once it begins, there will be no way out but through.

In Liam Gavin’s 2016 directorial debut, A DARK SONG, the realms of grief and desperation are explored through the brutal discipline required to perform rituals of such depth, such intensity – such dedication – that even surviving the ordeal is never guaranteed. Sophia Howard (Catherine Walker) has been doing her research. She’s rented a house in rural Wales, miles away from anything or anyone. She’s followed the diet, abstained from alcohol and will begin the required fasting. All she needs now is the help of Joseph Solomon (Steve Oram), a local practitioner who has performed the ritual before. 

“This is your last chance to back out. Once I complete this circle, no one can leave before the invocation’s done. Not for food, not for emergency, not for anything.”

“Seal it.”

When we’re drowning in such sorrow that we can’t see our way out, we seek avenues that were previously hidden in the shadows of our wavering view of reality. We go to extremes, diving into darkened waters so black that we lose all sense of direction. We lose the surface. We succumb to the stillness – to the dark. We empty ourselves there. 

“This is about a shift in consciousness. Becoming one with the ceremony. Pure.”

The Full Moon in Pisces on August 30th is dredging up the depths – some murky, some murkier. Like the humidity that’s hung so oppressively in this summer’s air, we’ve been pushing through the weight of it. We’ve been pushed to the edge, witnessing unprecedented temperate shifts and feeling helpless in the face of such severe climatic change. Some say that the weather reflects the emotional state of the population, like a sort of physical manifestation of the collective spirit.

“The world isn’t just science, is it?”

“Science describes the least of things – the least of what something is. Religion, magick, bows to the endless in everything. The mystery.”

Sophia, too, must bow to the endless in everything by touching the endless within herself. Drenched, shaking, collapsing. Unraveling. She’s committed to this ritual, to this process. She’s committed to starving and avoiding sleep and having freezing water poured over her because this is where she resurrects her steel – her resolve. But there’s one thing she hasn’t summoned the strength for yet… something that asks everything.

“I don’t do forgiveness.”

Another step in the ritual – forgiveness. The only way to work around this juncture is by drinking Mr. Solomon’s blood. She would rather drink blood than forgive. She would rather risk disease than let go.

“It’s a blood sacrifice. This is your choice.”

She drinks, she gags, she drinks again. This is the price of her vengeance. This is the cost of her rage. This is not unlike what so many of us are being asked to do right now. The tarot card for 2023 is the seventh card in the major arcana (2+0+2+3 = 7), The Chariot. During this particular trip around the sun, life is asking us what we absolutely cannot carry forward with us into this next phase of our lives. What is so heavy, so damaging, so horrendous that our Chariot can absolutely no longer bear the weight? That is the main theme of this year, and so far, it’s delivered in spades.

So we keep going, keep moving, keep playing out our daily rituals, routines that have gone unchecked and overlooked in the name of pushing forward, of completing and achieving something that we lost the script for years ago. Now, the motivations are coming up for questioning, for reckoning, and during this Pisces Full Moon, we’re being given the opportunity to surrender the burden – once and for all.

After a tragic accident that leaves Sophia alone, without direction for how to complete the rite, she’s pushed to the brink of true madness. She tries to leave the house, crossing the circle of salt. The line that Mr. Solomon absolutely forbade her from crossing until the process was complete. Otherwise, they’d be stuck there. Forever. But she does, only to find her car won’t start. She walks the road leading out of the rural estate, only to find she has walked back to the house. She’s in a loop, and the only way out of the loop is to finish what she started. When she does, she faces a hell more terrifying and excruciating than she ever imagined. She faces beings and torture the mind can’t begin to comprehend. Yet, through this trek through the underworld, she comes to realize her true motivations for this grueling ritual, and within that truth, she finds the glaring, glistening light of the surface. She finds that this sacrifice – this initiation – was needed for her salvation.

Here are some tarot prompts for next week’s Full Moon in Pisces – tag #adarksongtarot to share yours!

• What are we being asked to release into the purifying waters of this lunation?

• Why do we fear letting go?

• What old ghost or orphaned dream could surface to take the place of our decaying burdens?

• A grounding card to support us as we traverse, excavate, and rise from these dark depths