DAILY Sunday, the last day of March, is Spring’s New Moon, beginning the festival cycle Navaratri, which is a ten day opportunity to re-condition body and mind. This transitional time aligns with the Aires New Moon, the doorway into seasonal new life. Bodies often feel internally spacey or tired, especially in the dark of New Moons, but when we have multiple cycle shifts happening, and strong planetary line ups, like now~it is doubly so. This week is a time to stop and care for the body, take time to assess how and who and what is important. This is a moment for ‘Beginner’s Mind~Zen Mind.’ Stand wide on the mat, hang upside down, bring heart over head, and breathe into that heart, listen to it. Feel the back of the neck grow long, breath into the occipital spine. This is the area that feeds vision. Think about it. When the neck tightens down, the head cant turn to see wider spectrums. While upside down, bend the knees and flop around, responding to a relationship with gravity, the give and take of earth. Slowly roll back up the spine, see if heart has fed a wider vision. If nothing else, the brain has been bathed in fresh blood, preparing it for un-known territory. We need rich red blood for the month of April. We need to grow as luminously soulful as possible. We have profound un-known territory this month. We have transformative shifts moving the world into greater confusion, un-expected commitments, and very different trajectories. As always, some with be in the audience applauding, others will be on stage trying to remember their lines. The issue will be that the script has changed and no one told the actors. Time to improvise and trust. And as the Aires New Moon dictates,… Read more »
Read moreInspirations: Change & Re-Invention
Further Wizard Notes With Astrology Back up
In several classes this past week, I referred to the following words by Marianne Williamson. Many of you requested the full quote from the real deal, which Marianne is. So here you go! Continue growing your Wizard muscles, hold her idea in high regard this year, because it is a time of liberating ourselves, and manifesting…. two difficult and demanding requirements, but oh so necessary. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Part of the demand that we manifest is a Cardinal T square that is action-oriented, connecting us to the world. If we are to play well together, some of our ideas and philosophies might have to change, (Jupiter/Pluto thrust.) But the commitment and effort, required by Mars, could pay off in very nice dividends, if we are willing to listen as often as we command. Venus went retrograde at the Winter Solstice and remains backward in Capricorn through January. This is a Venus that may feel inadequate, out of place, or shy,… Read more »
Read moreBecoming Wizards
What do I want in this coming year? Who shall I become? How shall I pass through the eye of this needle? How do I face the storms of my fear? What magic elixir is at hand to help? The Year of 2014 opens with a New Moon in Capricorn. It is not the only Capricorn energy in the sky, Venus retrograde, and Pluto also visit this Saturn ruled sign. Capricorn is about mastery and value. A wizard is one who has mastery over Self, and values the many gifts of that self. A wizard also claims mastery of time and space. Wizard’s understands the alchemy of turning dross to gold. Their real genius lies in understanding the alchemical components in fear, hatred, jealousy, shame, and ignorance and accepting them. There is no turning a blind eye, or judging the darkness, rather-in the embrace and acceptance of what is, they transmute dross to gold. Their gold is that of freedom, love, fulfillment, kindness, and joy. If we are to learn about becoming a wizard, it’s good to begin with the best. The most famous is Merlin, of Camelot. His home was a crystal cave. His top student, Arthur- became king. Their pivotal journey of transformation was called a quest, and the end of the quest was the discovery of the Holy Grail. For their story to have meaning, view it symbolically. Merlin embodies inner wisdom, true for women as well as men. The crystal cave is the chrysalis home, the heart, which holds the mysteries of enlightenment. The young Arthur is the un-tutored self, the daring fool willing to risk, hoping to find the gold of the Holy Grail. The quest is a life journey, and the Holy Grail is the spiritual, imaginative, Soul-Self. If the planets are offering support… Read more »
Read moreShamanic Dialogues
The mind-like the wind- is a hard mistress. She turns every which way; turbulent, twisty, erratic. Finding shelter from the storm becomes imperative, especially in seasons of change when the world is neither hot nor cold, and we are neither fish nor fowl. Part of the underpinnings for fall and spring is the Ayurvedic- Vata Dosha, a spacey, creative, un-grounded imbalance that occurs when we are working to shift gears, have intimate dialogues, and anchor new ground. Vata also increases as we age, adding a steeper incline to its slippery slope of mobility and instability. As we shape-shift only faster, with old anchors giving way, it becomes a creative time to grow more resilient shelters, to encounter touchstones of reality we didn’t envision before, to spend time with our transformative Shamanic-Self. Tranquility and sweetness are no longer assumed to follow us all our days, which adds to the anxiety and emotional upheaval, and Fall has the added intensity of being under the direction of death. It is the last hurrah for the year, a time of accountability. Astrologically, it is the Scorpio field of deep, dark realities, those of sex, death, and taxes. Though blithely put, Scorpio tells us how we manipulate pay-backs, who owes, who doesn’t, who has the power, and who will survive because of controlling those issues. At this time, the ancestors knew whether they would survive the winter. The old harvest was a visible fruit of labor. The new harvest is an invisible fruit. Both bring urgency to see results, to count the year well done. How are we to assess this if we no longer understand our world, if old structures and lines of power have vanished, if our spirit has not grown to hold the larger need? Taking care everything above the radar cannot… Read more »
Read moreAll Hallowed Heavens
As this is a very magical day, make opportunity to take to the mat to revamp and renew. Ask, “What is the Practice that serves me in bringing 2013 to strong closure?” What Pranayama will help break stagnant habits? Where within favorite poses can I challenge my body? How does this Shakti Yoga Dance move me deeper into emotional connection? Which mudra supports my prayer in this moment? Which chant will help bridge reality and desire, moving me across chasms? How do I accept surrendering in Savasana, letting love hold me more sweetly? Today, the heavens are All-Hallowed-worthy. There is a rare, even bizarre line up of planets in the same 9th degree. Pluto, Uranus (the famous square) along with Mars, Chiron, Mercury, and the Moon. And include the Sun who is just a minute off. “What does it mean?” You ask. “I have no idea.” Says I. Certainly if you have any planets in the 9th degree, or close by, your world is going to shake rattle and roll….. Perhaps in magical, wonderful ways. If it were me, I’d make a wish, spend time visualizing it coming true, and believe in bizarre dreams being real. When given a choice, go for the magical, not the fearful. This All Souls Celebration might have a chance of uplifting the world and moving us all, willy-nilly, toward redemption and Grace. Have you noticed any symbolic parallels between events in the wide world and those closer to home? Any similarity of pattern? Don’t look at the form, but the energy. Is it break through, or break down? It’s often easier to see cultural and social shock waves rocking the high seas, usually more difficult to see our small life boat’s in jeopardy. The Uranus-Pluto square hits dead-on this week, accompanied by a Solar… Read more »
Read moreThe Book of Earth
The Book of Earth decrees-no death, only translation, and transmutation of dark and light; observer and observed trading visions; body and mind growing soul. The Book of Earth begs renewal at every turn. How can death be different? The gravitas of Earth balances dreams and imagination lifting life onward. Death is ‘the triple’ we accomplish soaring to reach the next trapeze. It is the “Wow” factor. The death we really fear is the death of dreams, when color is wrung from the day, and hope lies dry and desiccated. It is that heavy death arriving when the tongue has no sweet words, and the Moon soars into the night sky- unseen. The Book of Earth asks time and time again for redemption in renewal. Renewal is risky, and renewing old dreams costs twice as much. Fear flails and flounders with ghosts of what might have been. It moves through bone and muscle with the stink of regret, like old, white fat left to mold. In each breath, at every sunrise, in the start to a week, with every cycle of the Moon, soar toward your triple, stretch for the next trapeze. Let “Wow” be the mantra of sweetness on your tongue. It’s a Practice, no?
Read moreCrossroads
The Autumn Equinox is one of the four potent crossroads in the year’s cycle. Many cultures through time have marked these four quadrant turnings with prayer, ceremony, and celebration. They symbolize gateways in the relationship of light and dark, spirit and matter, outer and inner life. These moments when the world stops to shift, offer animal and vegetable-life doorways of change. Death or life? Renewal -or Same-O-Same-O? Ritual and ceremony create not only greater power and recognition of an event, but deeper connection to layers which remain hidden. Most of the modern world has lost its tribal roots as well as its dependence on ritual. We may be more connected with more people, but we depend less upon each other, and we rarely celebrate sacred moments. We cannot change the world, but we can we create a balancing between these polarities of loss and gain, sacred and profane, which in its own small way will contribute to transformation. This is a true and good undertaking at the four quadrants. Each of the portals offers a moment to focus intention, and step into a new demand. They are “energetic gateways” (Stephanie Austin) that support and re-set desire. The Fall Equinox, particularly, asks us to come out of extremes and re-align center. The question for this moment might be, “Which polarities do I want to continue dancing?” It’s important to honor and use what is best of ancestral heritage, as well as leaving its tribal excesses behind. Mining and moving with the earth’s energies gives our efforts greater ease and support. We don’t fight the current so much. As the Sun moves into Libra on the Autumn Equinox, dance with the polarity of your own unique being and that of ‘the other.’ Place your choices on Libra’s ‘scale of justice,’ to tune… Read more »
Read moreWheat From Chaff
Each of the four seasons offers a particular impetus that feels natural to the body, fitting the logos of that season. In the shift to fall, we reach for a fresh start, and may pull back in dismay, feeling overwhelmed. Spring’s bright beginning has an entirely different energy to its new life. The fall ‘new year’ carries weight. Perhaps it is childhood years of beginning a new grade, and adjusting to an unknown teacher? With falling leaves, the psyche is assigned to grow and own itself in new ways, expressing itself in better forms. Ancient memory-bones that gathered in the harvest, preparing for winter, celebrated bounty, or knew death approached. It is a serious time. There is less possibility in this beginning than spring’s exuberant birth. In the Northern Hemisphere, the first stray turning of green to gold announces summer’s somnolence over. Even tropical locations contain signs of a new dance, replacing August’s easier waltz. Astrologically, moving from Leo’s creative enjoyment to Virgo’s perceptions of refinement, and integration, ask we separate wheat from chaff, that we take inventory for the time ahead, and bring talents into alignment. Virgo asks the soul, “What is your sacred work, and what do you need to heal to grow whole?” Along with the Sun’s entry into Virgo, Rosh Hashanah, literally ‘head of the year,’ symbolically gives fall an extra new year oomph. In the Jewish oral traditions, Rosh Hashanah marked the completion of the world’s creation, and perhaps some world-memory feels we now have to go out and do something about it. In Virgo fashion, we’d best do it impeccably, and preferably looking as chic as possible. Whether we love fall, or loathe it, follow the Jewish faith, or none at all, facing these shadow elements gives pause, and can bring anxiousness. The anxiety… Read more »
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