Monday, October 31, 2016

New Moon in Scorpio and Halloween


The season of Halloween, or Samhain, opened with the New Moon in Scorpio. New Moons bring with them a new wave of energy, the turning of the dark time as it heads toward fullness. As New Moons are literal dark times filled with potential, it is perfect for this one to be in Scorpio, the sign of secrets and shadows. This is a time of deep dreaming and intuition, a time for looking inside. A Scorpio New Moon is receptive and quiet ~~ hidden.

Scorpio is considered by many as the most powerful sign with those who are born under this sign being very powerful souls. Scorpio is all about dying and being reborn again, going into the deep slumber within the greater Self, the ultimate Consciousness.

Scorpio is ruled by Pluto and Mars: Pluto exposing the dead and decaying to throw in the transforming cauldron; Mars lasering in on the will, desire and achievement. Together they create the energy for dancing closely with our personal Shadows, to interact with the mysteries hidden within us.

This is the time to let go and shed the old skin as well as plant the seed of power to transform death into new growth. The strong Scorpio archetypes for doing this are The Healer, The Shaman, The Alchemist. This is a time to reclaim lost or hidden power and when the Divine Feminine and Warrior will be empowered to integrate more fully into world.

As the Scorpio New Moon leads into Halloween, it is evident that only those who believe in magic will find it. Halloween ~ All Hallows Eve ~ and the two days following ~ All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day ~ are days when the veils between the concrete, physical world and the ethereal, spiritual world are at their thinnest. Also, the veils between the living and the dead. Many people burn candles or dance for ancestors no longer with us. It is the time we not only acknowledge the passage into darkness and death, we ritualize and celebrate it.

How do you celebrate this time of year? What connection does it suggest to you about your ancestors? Do you light a candle to remember them during this time? How do you experience the thinning of the veils? What do you wish to reclaim during this New Moon? What will be reborn in you?

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Love Law


I never cease to be amazed at the combinations that show up when I play Teabag Tarot. I often combine two teas in one extra-large travel tumbler.... and I have no idea what their messages will be. When these two arrived in the same brewing, I was bopped over the head with their message of the law of love.

Much discussion with friends and others focuses on the need we each and all have for love. Questions that surface:

  • How do we search for it? 
  • Who do we feel disappointed us? 
  • When did we have a time when we had enough? 
  • What does enough love even mean?
  • How does that search for love drive us at work? at play? in our families?

When I saw these messages, it was more like a strum on the heartstrings than on the head. Why search for love when that is what we are? I recognized that it's been awhile since I was drawn into actively searching for love.... since I felt as though what I was, what I AM, wasn't complete or enough.

Even so, was I practicing that last statement ~ the one that says Love is the ultimate law of life? Maybe not completely, but more at this time of my life than I have in the past. There's a wildly caustic election battle going on around me. Even though I am appalled by many of the revelations surrounding one candidate, my emotions have been more curious, more fascinated, more intrigued than hateful or spiteful. Even when people accuse or shame others about their candidate ~ no matter which it is, I find my head tipping to one side, my thoughts wisping to Huh, my heart reaching out to theirs. Is that practicing that Love Law? I think so. I believe that any time we release the option to hate we are allowing love to flow. As long as we ~ as I ~ continue to do that, hope remains alive in the world.

How do you practice the Love Law? What triggers your search for love? How do you know when/if you believe you are the love? When do you know you're complete? How does that Love Law show up in your life?

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Chaos and Conflict


Wisdom of the Oracle by Colette Barron-Reid

From the guide book:
The value of chaos before order.

The Oracle's message: Opposing forces come together to create a turbulent atmosphere. But consider the value of chaos that serves you well, as you become unmoored by it. Scattered to the winds, you leave behind the parts of yourself you no longer need and disperse seeds to reinvent yourself anew. Although the conflict appears to exist externally, its essence is also internal, projected outward and causing disarray. You may find yourself at cross-purposes with someone else, facing a storm you feel you can't control. Yet every storm passes, and chaos leads to a reordering of things. Conflict provides a way to see more than one side of a situation. Look upon this as just a moment in time when you may need to take shelter and step away from the fray. Don't be too eager to fight. This is a time to understand rather than to be understood.



Change seasons. In the Northern Hemisphere, deepening into the Darkness of Fall and Winter. In the Southern Hemisphere, birthing into the Light of Spring and Summer. Both places of chaos and conflict. Fall and Spring bring strong, visible changes ~ mostly in the colors bursting forth. Times to face elemental chaos and conflict.

These elemental changes show up internally for each of us as well. The recent Full Moon blossoms with change ~ opportunities we can choose to either hunker down or battle. Either way, change, chaos and conflict will arrive. We feel the movement, the gusts and gales within us.

If change is to come, chaos necessarily precedes it. Consider the struggle of birthing. Or the controlled burn preparation of the ground for planting. Or the messiness of a kitchen when preparing a meal. Observing each of these, we see chaos ~ within which lies a plan we may or may not understand at the time. Yet out of those chaotic moments comes something wonderful.

This card, arriving as it has for me personally, is perfect. I am in a change place in my life. Time often feels chaotic as though I should be doing something which is not in my momentum to do. My life appears in slow motion disarray like waving a lantern in a storm, in and out of focus. I chuckle deep within ~ quietly recognizing the storm for what it is: the bringer of newness. I am grateful.

What is changing in your life? Is the change only external? How do you face the internal chaos when it shows up? What do you do with conflict? How does the storminess of life affect you?

Monday, October 17, 2016

More Musings on Most Feared Woman


After publishing my blog post on a political woman not requiring validation, I thought it would be useful to reflect on a spiritual woman not requiring validation.

Who might that woman be? Any one of the women around you. Every one of the women. Are you aware of the spiritual life of the women in your life?

When we express with and from our soul, we are connected to our depths. We often hide what resides there ~ as though it were a part of us that needed protection instead of being the part that armors by disarming.

Men are not expected to require validation. In my experience, many probably could use it. Men want validation from other men and from the women in their lives as much as women want it. It's just that they request or demand it in different ways.

A woman who does not require validation is a woman of strength. In the spiritual sense, she is someone who does not fear what comes her way. She recognizes herself in every attacker as completely as she knows that she has nothing in common with that person. She finds laughter in the midst of difficulties and focuses on the needs and accomplishments of others as much as or more than her own. She does not need another person to tell her any of these things.... she knows in her depths who she is and what she is capable of.

We often name those women saints. Whether through a formal process or not, we recognize the individual women as holy and their lives as profound. Yet, if we look deeply enough at ourselves and our women companions, we catch glimpses of those holy moments in ourselves and those companions. We find grace in not needing validation, in knowing that who we are and what we do belongs. Those moments save us.

How do you find validation? Do you expect it from others? want it from them? How do you find it in yourself? Do you consciously validate others? If so, what does that look like? If not, why not? Do you fear the women who do not require your validation to proceed with their lives?

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Becoming? or Unbecoming?



There are times and days when the place where I want to be in my journey seems a long ways off.... at the very least, in a neighboring solar system if not even in another universe. It feels out of reach ~ unattainable.

When this quote popped up, I realized the disconnected, dissonant feeling surrounding disparate pieces of who and what I already am. Those segments of me seem almost stuck in a position ~ like a standard transmission without a clutch ~ grinding and hiccuping as I attempt a shift.

How do I determine what is truly ME? Some pieces are tied to words and definitions that keep me stuck: friend, sister, mother, teacher, writer, celebrant..... the definitions in particular alter uneasily and slowly.

Even the term stuck doesn't quite fit ~~~ like being stranded midstream with words whose definitions feel tight or sloppy or cumbersome. Like chili made with a smidge too much or too little spice: tasty yet slightly off.

What I love is the thought of being in the process of unbecoming..... shifting how I think about myself and my world.... allowing the flow of creativity to carry me onward. My only cringe is when I consider that who I've been is not who I was meant to be. I don't believe that. I've been what I was meant to be all along.... it's currently time for a change.

Are you still becoming? or perhaps even unbecoming? unwinding the threads of you that have come loose? How do you see yourself? What words describe you? Which words are you redefining? Which are you discovering anew? Which are you stepping into?

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Aries Full Moon


This weekend's full moon has many aspects to it. It's called a Hunter's Moon ~ having the potential to be colored orange-red. It is also a perigee moon, a supermoon, at its closest point to Earth.

In astrological terms, it rises in the sign of Aries, making it about taking action and declaring what you stand for as well as what you choose to leave behind.

This full moon conjuncts Uranus ~ the rebel, awakener and liberator bringing often unsettling change ~ and Eris ~ the feminine warrior kicking serious wake-it-up butt in the social justice arena. This moon is about taking courageous stands, not blasting anger or even blame. Move through the fiery energy fully awake, taking responsibility and being creative as you go.

The asteroid Ceres is at 29 degrees Aries, the karmic completion degree. The Great Mother brings up family, environment, safety and security. These are deeply emotional places to visit. Feel the deepest emotions, those generally repressed like anger, grief, pain. Allowing them to be exposed and felt helps them to heal.

Although sometimes difficult to consider, people and events in your life teaches you more about yourself and the journey of your life. This Aries Full Moon may bring all that and more, perhaps unexpectedly, to the surface in order to teach and heal you.

 Besides personal life events, do you notice anything in the news lately reflecting these motifs? This energy is bubbling up through our entire culture.

Friday, October 14, 2016

Seize the Day


I recall hearing the phrase carpe diem from early childhood. My father and uncles had been in the armed forces. It was phrase they lived by while in combat. They knew it was possible they would not survive to see another day.

Through most of my adult life, it was a phrase I avoided. Not the sentiment of living each day to the fullest, but the simple Latin statement. I had grown to attach it to the violence of war.

Recently, I heard carpe diem slipping into my mind more and more often. Like a rock found on the side of a familiar path, I grabbed them up, turned them over and inspected them. I thought I knew them, knew what they were made of, knew how they were formed ~ but I discovered I only knew them in part. This most recent handling of them brought out a new question: What did carpe diem mean to me now?

What surfaced was a deeper understanding of the meaning to my parents' generation. The tenderness and vulnerability of life. The possibility, even likelihood, of change ~ including death. Grasping for the vitality existing in the moment, in today, because tomorrow was promised to no one.

When I see the word plastered on cards, t-shirts, journals, buttons and stickers, I resist it. My own tender and vulnerable view of time, of the world around me, of the often shaky balance of the world leaves me wondering if my energy reflects that of others viewing the same item. Or are they seeing it as a reflection of their own desire to have, to grab, to claim everything they want? I pause with a whisper of gratitude to those men, now gone from this life, who introduced me to carpe diem.

What do you think of when you see or hear carpe diem? How does it meld with your world view? or does it? To what in your life could you apply this principle?

Monday, October 10, 2016

Most Feared Woman


No matter where you are in today's culture, it's obvious that there remain narrowly defined roles and rules for women. In some regions and countries, it may appear women have freedom, but that's deceptive.

As I write this, a strong, dedicated, qualified woman (Hillary Clinton) is running for U.S. President. Challenges arise which no man running for that office ever received. Ever. No matter the political party affiliation.

Upon reading this quote, truth dawned on me. She's not looking for validation from anyone. She's moving forward in the world with confidence and power. That scares many men, and a number of women.

There have been two Presidential debates. Her opponent (Donald Trump) used many varied and extensive intimidation tactics: looming presence behind her, talking over her, accusing her of having 'hate in her heart' (as though he would know!). One of the best memes I've seen underscores the above quote: Once again, we have a strong, highly qualified woman who has to compete for a position with a man who is nowhere near her in competency. I look forward to the day when this no longer happens.

How do you respond to a woman who does not require validation? Why would she be feared? How can you help reduce the imbalance in competition? How might this be important for our daughters and granddaughters? for our sons and grandsons? for all future generations?

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Lessons from a Phone Theft


A couple of weeks ago, my phone was stolen. I was out at a bar, a music venue, to be entertained by some friends. I put my phone down on a table and put my purse on top of it. A woman celebrating her 40th birthday invited me to partake of the taco bar in the next room. Picking up my purse, I went into the room and quickly loaded my plate and returned. I was gone less than 5 minutes.

After eating, I started looking for my phone. I thought it had to be in my purse. It wasn't. I went back out to the car to see if I had left it in there. Nope. Returned to the previous place where friends were playing music. Not there either. I recalled that when leaving the first place, I considered putting the phone on the roof of the car. By this time I was frantic. I must have done something. The phone must be somewhere close.

Of course, since it was my responsibility, no matter what happened to it, I was blaming myself. I felt horrible ~ the phone was only a couple of months old.

Once home, I reported the stolen phone to the phone provider. I found out the next day that since it was on a family data plan, it could be tracked. I also decided to let go of the self-blame. This was certainly a first-world problem. More than that, no matter what happened to it or why, it wasn't worth my health and stress.

With the help of my significant other, we began tracking it. It showed up miles away from home, miles away from either music venue. It stayed in that place for nearly a full day. As we were driving to put up reward posters in the neighborhood, I checked again for the phone's location. It was miles away from where it had been. We chose to play amateur sleuths and followed the tracking. It led to a restaurant. When we asked the people in the restaurant if they'd be willing to keep one of our posters and let us know if they saw it, they agreed. After telling all their staff about it, someone asked how we knew it was there. The manager replied that we had tracked it there. Shortly afterward the signal went dead.

The next day, I reconnected my old phone to our service. That night, prior to closing, a tech from our phone carrier called me to let me know that a phone connected to my cell number had been turned in by someone who had been asked by the thief to hack it. I could come in the next day to pick it up.... which I gladly did!

I learned several things through all this ~ besides making sure my phone is with me at all times and that there are ways to track missing phones. I learned that blaming myself didn't change anything. As a matter of fact, if I hadn't been winding my stress level up, I may have realized sooner that it had been stolen ~ and checked around more closely. I'm fortunate enough to afford a cell phone. Counting my blessings was far more helpful to my stress level! Follow the fun ~ that's what playing amateur sleuths with my significant other became ~ fun. Finally, once I relaxed, the Universe could flow through me in a more fluid fashion. I was fortunate to get my phone back with only the SIM card gone. By the time it did, three and a half days after being stolen, the thing that was my phone went back to being just a thing.

Have you ever had something stolen or lost? How did you respond? Did you blame yourself? or someone else? How long did it take to replace or return? What do you feel now, thinking back on that situation?