AstroCoaster Week

For anyone who hasn't noticed, this week is overflowing with powerful heavenly events! Sunday and Monday favored us with the New Moon in Scorpio. This New Moon is taking us deeper into ourselves ~ particularly our darker or shadow side. Though there's nothing wrong with that, it's not an easy trip. It will be well worth it if we remain aware and plant the seeds of our intentions deep.

This New Moon is setting us on a new course, revealing new information to us. Scorpio's influence is strong: what has been hidden in the dark is showing up in the light. First, in the light of the Dark Moon. Then, in the light of our lives.

We need to keep in mind that there is a broader perspective to all that is currently happening. If we do that, we can see the pattern unfolding ~ and within that pattern, the beauty. Scorpio draws our secrets and our shadow self into the light.

Dancing through its archetypes of Scorpion, Eagle and Phoenix, Scorpio is the sign of transformation, the embodiment of the cycles or life, death and rebirth. The veils between the cycles are thinnest at this time of year. We are in the holy season of death which is honored in various cultures as Samhain, Dia de los Muertos, All Souls Day, to name a few. This is also the time we reach beyond the seen world in order to connect with unseen ones. We experience all of the fragility and all of the empowerment of life.

As we progress through that transformation, we recognize ~ and accept ~ that the path to greater wisdom takes us through some scary places. We don't have to remain afraid there. Death can also refer to releasing the power of whatever is toxic in our lives: fears, addictions, etc. As we step away from the negative, we can face whatever comes and continue on into the light and to freedom. A new power is forming within us that will carry us into 2020. A sense of humor will help us concentrate on the Divine in the Universe.

The Sabian Symbol for the 5th degree of Scorpio is "a massive, rocky shore like a wild ocean crashing into a rock cliff shoreline, but it is actually more an intense awareness of one of the facts of existing." This degree is one of holding the stillness at the core of our being. In brief: holding stable in the midst of everything.

October 31st will bring with it not only Halloween, but also Mercury retrograde. Remember that Mercury rules over communication and proceed with caution since Scorpio will still be in influence as well. This might be a time to tone down any plan for craziness or pranks.

How are you feeling as you pass through these astral currents? What does the broader perspective for your life look like? How do you embody your power? Name your fears in order to better face them. Call in what you want to replace them. What in your life is being called to transformation?

New Moon in Gemini and Grand Cross

New Moons are always about letting go, change and transformation. This one in particular, intimately connected with the mutable Grand Cross, is about changing direction, changing perception, changing affection.... releasing anything, any little thing, inhibiting our deeper, truer Selves from showing up.

This New Moon, as it squares Jupiter, Neptune and the Nodes and opposes Saturn, lights our way to discerning the truth in our life and making decisions to release the past so the new can show up for us. We must relish our own self-love in order to express our love for others in the best possible way. We have to learn and experience and practice how to do things differently, to create new pathways in our very being leading toward that creation and creativity. We benefit from remembering our power is in embracing Mystery and Unknowing in order to shift our reality and create change by unlocking the alchemy of surrender. This New Moon also celebrates the facets of the Divine Feminine: instincts of the Moon, physicality of Venus, resistance of Lilith.

Because this New Moon is also activating many planetary energies, there is potent and potential energy in this New Moon, preparing us to consider the seeds we want to plant for the future. This is something we should take seriously ~ or find ourselves stuck in the patterns of the past. All the recent retrograde energy we've been rolling through (see my post on the Full Moon in Sagittarius and Other Wonders) has aided us in stirring up the past in order to release it. Gemini is all about communication and the throat chakra to express our truth and feelings and call forth what we truly want.

As we look for what has been cleared and released from our lives during all the retrograde cycles, the golden opportunity of this New Moon is to notice the cracks and seek clarity on how to proceed. Our actions and energies, current to the next eclipse season starting in September. will shape what is to come. As we clarify and set our intentions, in writing preferably, it would be wise for us to remember that when one door closes, another opens.

What are your intentions for the future? What are you willing to release? What do you wish to call forth? What do you wish to manifest? How will you speak your wishes? How will your intentions affect those around you? To whom will you speak your intentions?

Achieving a Smile

My latest Teabag Tarot.... and I'm giggling about it. Really? A smile is an achievement? Well, sometimes it is.

Sometimes happenings take me by surprise: a friend's hospitalization, a new pet at a relative's house, a pink slip in my pay envelope. Most surprises bring with them a sense of "oh, no!" which can translate into anything from fear to grief to shock. Even when the news is good ~ an engagement, an upcoming graduation, a raise ~ my first reaction is rarely a smile. To smile, to show happiness, at those moments is an accomplishment all in and of itself.

It's also difficult at times to get those corners of my mouth to turn up. When I am focused on work, I can feel my lips purse with intention. When I am doing housework or riding my bike or writing this blog, often my thoughts are flying faster than my fingers and I am not necessarily smiling either. Smiling at those moments, although happier times, also happens with reminders.

My giggling at this particular Teabag Tarot shows the strange paradox of the seriousness as well as the lightheartedness of its message. I look forward to practicing and rewarding myself with a smile as often as I can.

Do you ever feel the difficulty of smiling? How do you remind yourself to smile more often? When was the last time you caught yourself smiling and wondered why? What was the most difficult time for you to smile?

Gift of a New Year 2015

Happy New Year 2015!

Approaching the New Year, I spent much time with family. The holidays overflow with busyness, preparations and plans for gifting and gathering. It's rarely clear what is the true focus of this madhouse time.

Now that 2015 has arrived, things are slowing down. The roar of arriving planes has lessened. The pre-holiday sales have given way to post-holiday sales to get rid of holiday items. Homes are settling back into routines free of visitors and parties.

This is the time to take a breath and consider what gift you want from 2015. What is possible? What is needed? What is wanted? What can expand, contract, allow in your life? What corners need clearing? What dark spots need lighting? What calls to be released? to be accepted? to be healed?

2015 holds much in store. Set the intention to look for the gift. Breathe. Open to the beauty, health, love that is being carried in on the New Year. Search your heart for what is most important and ask for the gift. The New Year waits to hear your request. Open to the Gift.

What do you want from the coming year? Do you have a wish list? What is your intention? How can 2015 provide you with support? Can you open and accept the gifting?

Regret Effect

"When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."

~ Alexander Graham Bell

Life brings many opportunities to choose to focus on either the closed door or the open one. Along with that come many chances to feel regret.

Regret leaves an effect behind when it seems to pass us. It's not always an effect we notice or we name, but it is there just the same. There's a palpable sadness, an internal turning back, a yearning for what was. As we turn back, we miss what is present in our lives at this very moment. We fail to recognize the good, the holy in the now.

When we are given the opportunity to ‘return’ to that past moment ~ a reconnection with a previous partner, a replay of a business meeting, a once-favorite fishing hole ~ it doesn’t really matter. We are different now. Time and life have both gone forward and what we ‘remember’ is no longer what it once had been. There really is no going back.

Occasionally we have to force our eyes and our minds forward, toward the open door. We have to accept that the other door has closed, no matter how much we want it to be different. When we move on with purpose and intention, we find there is grace and beauty in that forward motion. The new doorway that has opened brings its own set of joys and challenges. It is the direction of life.

Are there things in your life that you regret? What do you think would/could be different? How has your life progressed past that time? Have you gone through the open door?