Mabon Magic

September 22, 2014 marks the Autumnal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. Equinox means "equal night" and this is a time when the Light and Dark are in balance. We hold within us both the beautiful darkness and the light, the asuras and the devas. When we honor both without suppression or condemnation, a great healing can occur, and our Truest Nature begins to stir and climb out of dormancy. When we welcome ourselves, our wholeness, we invite an intimacy with evolution and reclamation of what has been lost. The Sun leaves orderly and analytical Virgo for balance-seeking Libra at 9:29pm CST/ 7:29pm PST. This day is Pagan Thanksgiving, a holy day in the Wheel of the Year that some of us have honored with deep reverence for a long time, a time to give thanks, offer gratitude for our blessings, for the fruits of our labor, for the abundance of the harvest both literally and figuratively. Libra is represented by the scales, and longs to find balance and justice in all areas of life.  Libra is also concerned with relationships of all kinds and finding ways to be in alignment with love, relating, connecting, and our own desires. This is a good time to reflect on where you've gotten of f track, out of alignment with your deepses desires. You can readjust and realign in all areas, especially your relationships. Reflect deeply on lessons learned, acknowledging loss and betrayal as well as triumphs and victories. Contemplate the beginnings and endings and re-beginnings of all things in life. Articulate a ritual that will invoke and manifest the dreams hidden inside your heart, seeking balance and equanimity while honoring the radical upheavals inherent in a householder sadhana lifestyle. Remember and hold on to the midline...

Pluto, Lord of the Underworld, stations direct this evening. This exaggerates the energies of this big entity, so themes of death, rebirth, and transformation will be highlighted. The Moon is currently waning, allowing for us a confrontation with the Dark, and on Tuesday evening or early Wednesday morning we have a New Moon in Libra. This invites new beginnings and starting a new endeavor or ideas with increased clarity. Invoke and activate balance in your own being and life. Surrender if necessary to the pull into the Underworld, for in the Darkness, ultimately, we are healed, cooked, and nourished.

Blessed be ~*~

Beltane Blessings

* Repost from previous post: The Wheel of the Year turns once again, moving us forward into the light. The hearth/home fires are extinguished and re-lit for Beltane (“bright fire”). If we don’t have a bonfire or campfire to dance around, we can light a fire in our home cauldron, or a beeswax candle, and hop over it with a heart full of  inspiration and deep wishes, for protection and good luck. Traditionally, cattle were driven through two great balefires for purification, fertility and prosperity. People danced in the smoke from the flames for the same reason, and there was dancing around the maypole. Lovers frolicked and made love in the fields and gardens to bless the land. We can honor this day in the same way. This fire festival is a celebration of fertility and passion, revelry in sexuality and sensuality. The fire that purifies and clears also ignites and inspires. Beltane invokes sparks of creativity and new abundance, fertility and frolicking, celebration and creation, praises and pleasure.  May we feel the irresistible desire to make beauty and live artfully.  May we enjoy embodiment as a sacred pleasure treasure. - 

Entering the Eclipse Portal

The Eclipse Portal for 2014 is opening and energies are building. On April 15 we have a lunar eclipse with the Full Moon in Libra (25°) at 2:47am CST/ 12:47am PDT. The sister eclipse happens at the New Moon in Taurus, a solar eclipse on April 28 (1:04am CST/ 11:04pm PDT). This is just days before Beltane. Eclipses are activators and initiators. They shake us up and zap us out of default patterns. Things are often set in motion or dissolved. Like a power surge or jolt of electricity, eclipses can shift us around inside, shatter parts of us or our lives, and this is not usually comfortable. The energies are intense. In the eclipse portal, our thoughts and deepest desires will be magnified, whether they are conscious or not. This is why I have always (playfully) implemented a "no whining zone" with my students during these portals. Think of this time as entering a portal in which what your heart aches for, your bones long for, your thinking invokes… is all magnified and then magnetized to you powerfully. So it is a time to be conscious of our thoughts and patterns, our internal matrika, and what we're holding as a vision and a feeling in our heads and hearts. You will conjure.

As I have written before, to work with these potent, charged energies, clarify for yourself what you intend to have activated, what area of your life you might need revelation and understanding. Set an intention. Be prepared to have a big shift, but know that it takes up to six months for the eclipse to cycle out, so the aspect of life that was shifted may not be revealed until then. Eclipses cycle in 18-19 year patterns. We had a similar portal (with a lunar Libra eclipse at 25°  and then a Taurus eclipse) 19 years ago, and so the work you'll do during this cycle is likely connected somehow to that time period. You can look at your natal chart to find where you have 25° Libra to see where it hits you.

The Full Moon in Libra will bring out lunacy around issues of being indecisive and changeable, loving with your head rather than your heart, and trying to please and be everything to everyone. Venus rules both Libra and Taurus, where we'll have our Solar eclipse in a few weeks. Venus is love and beauty and money, and rules pleasure and love affairs and adornment. How deep is your self-love, where do you abandon yourself, where do you become a martyr or tyrant in love… and how can you bring forward the clearest expression of yourself in love.

Tuesday's eclipse will follow Pluto, Lord of the Underworld, station retrograde on Monday. Pluto is death and transformation and rebirth. Pluto's station calls us into the darkness, as this is the planet of annihilation and transformation, endings and beginnings. In the darkness we are devoured by the Great Mother, always to return with more radical wisdom. Pluto's gift is to help us to churn, to bring to the surface all the shards of brokenness and pain that live inside us, and in the churning there is transmutation. Alchemy happens.

The end of April, between the two eclipses, also brings us an encounter with the Grand Cardinal Cross. This alignment consists of Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn meeting up with Mars in Libra and Jupiter in Cancer (these are all Cardinal signs). These interactions are also volcanic in nature, initiating big changes and inviting confrontation with long repressed issues.

When experiencing an eclipse, we must learn to look honestly at the shadow parts of ourselves and where the participating planets are placing our focus, on those shadow aspects. Eclipses literally eclipse the light and create shadows… illumination is obscured. We must know that even immersed in the darkness, our luminous consciousness pulses within. As Tantrikas, we are never afraid of the dark. The darkness is our teacher. We adjust our eyes and can see far more than previously experienced.

There is always healing and transformation during these times of potency and intensity. The eclipse portal can be a gateway into your own truth and power.  Magnetize those forces  that bring blessings. Be clear and unwavering in your invocations and intentions. Conjure and call to you a deep prayer from your heart. Receive an eclipse initiation ~ a diksha from the Cosmos.

Jai Maa Kali ~*~

Blessed Be ~*~

Scorpio Full Moon Eclipse

On Thursday we have a full moon in Scorpio and a partial lunar eclipse. Scorpio is ruled by Pluto, known as the Lord of the Underworld, ruling over death and deathlike transformations. And rebirth. There are powerful forces and energies swirling  around us right now. Full moons are already powerful, and Scorpio full moons are generally more intense (and uncomfortable) than most. Add to that an eclipse; eclipses are activators, they set things in motion, or dissolve things, or initiate things. An eclipse is like a zap of electricity or a power surge- they can create chaos and instigate change and generally shake people up. With the Scorpio influence, its likely that we could be pushed to the limits, we could feel a resurfacing of the very depths that we keep hidden inside, we could have more of ourselves revealed to us, more truth exposed, more of what has been kept away, more purging of the psyche.

Eclipses amplify and magnify and activate. To work with these potent, charged energies, clarify for yourself what you intend to have activated, what area of your life you might need revelation and understanding. Set an intention. Be prepared to have a big shift, but know that it takes up to six months for the eclipse to cycle out, so the aspect of life that was shifted may not be revealed until then.

There can always be healing that takes place in these times of epic change and turmoil. Death always gives way to rebirth. The process can rip us apart, but we can gather the pieces and create a mosaic with the shards of our brokenness. We can turn pain into beauty, churn difficulties into nectar. But first we must feel them, totally, entirely, intensely. This is Pluto's gift.

Let this eclipse portal be a gateway into your own intensity, to have the truth revealed to you, so that you can be uncompromising in the way you live life, so that you can magnetize those forces  that bring blessings, so you can rest in the wholeness of your brokenness and know that you will  rise. Kali is devouring us with love.

Jai Sri Maa Kali ~*~

Blessed be.

13 + Water Snake = Goddess Year Magic

In January we welcomed 2013. In February we shifted out of Water Dragon into Water Snake year according to Chinese Astrology. This is a powerful combination considering both the number 13 and the Snake totem are associated with the Goddess. I have been excited to have a "13" year for as long as I can remember; it is my favorite number, and like some of my other favorite things, has been demonized and labeled as bad luck. The same for the Serpent. These labels are fear-based because of the power carried by both. There is so very much to say about this! but I will keep it brief and we will just allow this year to unfold perfectly as it will. The number 13 is the number of freedom and correlates to the 13 moons (months) of the old calendar. The 12 month calendar is a little disconnected from the natural cycles and is a symptom of the split that many earthlings experienced as matter and spirit were seen as separate, and societies lost touch with their own natural rhythms aligned with Nature's cycles. In the old calendar there are 13 cycles of 28 days. There are 29.5 days from new moon to new moon. Thirteen moons of 28 days gives us 364 days plus the "day out of time"... which equals 365. Correspondingly, 28 (.5) days is the average length of women's moon cycles. Metaformic Theory (by theorist Dr. Judy Grahn), which states that modern culture is born from menstruation and ancient menstrual rites, is an essential theme and source for this year.

The Snake is an emblem and archetype of freedom and transformation. Serpent is linked with kundalini shakti, female sexuality, the Divine Feminine, women's menstrual cycles... Snake sheds her skin, just as women shed uterine lining at moon time. When a snake sheds, her eyes glaze over, which looks as if she is entranced or enraptured; she is having a death/rebirth. Moontime for women is a potent time of deep sensing, entering into an alternated state, it is a death and rebirthing.

2013 Water Snake year is a Goddess year; the Great Mother is here and She is letting us know. Snake year will be about rebirth, transformation, refinement and re-creation. After 2011 Metal Rabbit and 2012 Water Dragon years of destruction and dismantling, crumbling and death, we will begin to rebuild, recalibrate, redefine, and refine. We are transforming. The portal of "2012" with the Venus transit and the extremely powerful eclipse cycles reminded us that our frequencies are being recalibrated. Snake represents healing, wisdom, spirituality, mystery, magic, enchantment. We will need this time of introspection, time to plan and look inside for answers, for deep healing, and for creativity to be invoked.

My theme for the year, and from which I'll be teaching is: Conjure and create magic, invoke and activate radical rebirth and transformation. 

May we release those burdens we are still carrying, of shame and self-doubt, of insecurity and heartache, and allow the archetype of the Snake to move through is and in us, letting go so fully into the chaos and change that we recreate a more authentic version of our soul's purpose here on this planet, refining and redefining ourselves with our new frequencies. So mote it be.

Jai Jai Kali Ma! Great Mother of Destruction and Rebirth! Blessed be ~*~ 

Imbolc Initiations

As I have written often, Imbolc Eve is a potent night of magic and divination, dedications and initiations. February 2 is Imbolc (Candlemas), a sacred cross-quarter day on the Wheel of the Year  between Yule and Spring Equinox. We begin to sense and see signs that Spring will soon emerge from the quiet ground (the "belly") of Winter. During the dark days of Winter the Dark Goddess Cailleach, the "veiled one," rules. Then Earth stirs and awakens, and rebirth and possibilities are activated. This is Brighid's time of year (Brigit, Bride), the Celtic Goddess of hearth and home. Her name means "Bright One" and she is the powerful Goddess of fire and fertility, healing, prophecy and divination, smithcraft, sacred wells, and keeper of the flames. Originally it was Brighid’s snake that emerged for weather divination (not a groundhog). Allow new potential to stir within, new awareness to awaken, and great inspiration to quicken in this new year, 2013, Water Snake year. May Brighid's Mantle bless you and ignite your deep fire  and passion for creating the life of your dreams.

Blessed Be ~

Underworld Surfaces

Pluto, Lord of the Underworld, stations direct tonight. Retrograde since April (stirrings of Pluto energies felt more internally), Pluto will now exert his power more directly. Pluto has been in Capricorn for a few years now, the sign of purpose, power, and leadership. The balance of power will continue to shift, especially with the influence of the Pluto/Uranus square (conflict) that we will continue to experience. Uranus is radical change and originality, and is in Aries, the sign of the warrior. This churns up the intense desire for freedom at any cost. The day after Pluto stations we will get another direct "hit" of the Pluto/Uranus square; we will feel the intensity of this power struggle and shift to assist our own personal alchemical awakenings and activated evolution. Stay aware and allow for some surrender with these two forces of Nature ~ they can split us open and help to scoop out the outdated paradigm fragments and bits of programming and conditioning which is completely necessary for our current shapeshifting. May sensitive earthlings allow these powerful energies to be positive influences and and assist deep growth and transformation.

Blessed be ~

Eclipse Activation Portal + Venus Transit

::AstroAlignment:: We are currently in an ECLIPSE portal. Monday, June 4 brings a partial lunar eclipse at 4:04am, and the Full Moon in Sagittarius at 4:12am. Gemini Sun and Sag Moon are in opposition- what is not in alignment, not serving, where there is conflict, make space and let go. As I've written many times before, eclipses are activators and amplifiers. Hold positive and powerful thoughts and intentions during this very potent time. Your thoughts are spells that conjure your reality. At 2:04pm, Neptune (in Pisces) goes retrograde. The dreamy planet has been comfy at home in Pisces, and this retrograde period can assist us in really refining our deepest dreams for life, and recalibrate our frequencies to magnetize to us those circumstances that are truly in alignment with our hearts. Tuesday, June 5 we will experience a phenomenal event, the TRANSIT of VENUS. We experienced the last one 8 years ago, and will not see this event again in our lifetime (next one in 2117). Venus is entangled in the eclipse. Relationships and what we value and what is meaningful to us will be emphasized and require attention. We also have a Pluto-Uranus square that continues to provide interesting energies... Increase your sensitivity and stay connected to your heart during these highly charged times. You are blessed.

February Fire

February 2 is Imbolc (Candlemas), a cross-quarter holy day that initiates the very first stirrings of Springtime. There are subtle signs in nature that remind us that winter is waning and the sun's light continues to grow. The word oimelc translates as "ewe's milk" and refers to ewes ready to give birth to little lambs just as the earth swells with new life. This is a fire festival, presided over by Brighid (Brigit) the Great Celtic Goddess of sacred wells and keeper of the flames. She also governs occult wisdom and divination, healing, smithcraft, hearth and home.  Magic and divination are prominent this time of year. For years on Imbolc Eve I have hung a special cloth, called Brighid's Mantle, from my window overnight so that as Brighid passes through the night it will be blessed. Also in February we celebrate Lupercalia, which honors Faunus (Pan) and a festival to honor Juno; these celebrations involved fertility and purification and rebirth. This is a an auspicious time for a renewal in your soul and to tune into your own psychic senses and non-rational ways of knowing.

Light and tend the fires of your heart. Feel the red embers burning in the cauldron purify and clear confusion and stagnation and ignite new passions. Feel your golden dreams stirring in the darkness, burgeoning and ready to burst into being.

May Brighid's mantle cover, protect, and bless you this year. Blessed be. 

Dragon Magic

On January 22 at 11:39pm, the new moon in Aquarius initiated Chinese New Year. We said goodbye to the year of the metal rabbit and have entered the year of the Water Dragon. Dragons are auspicious creatures. They are majestic and magical, powerful and strong, and they bring good luck and blessings. Dragons are also shape-shifters; they will teach us how to be whatever we want to be, and to be flexible, and to go with the flow. They invite us to dream big. The Water Dragon will have a more fluid, intuitive, sea creature feel, as opposed to a fiery feel. There will be a Neptunian, underwater, dreamy, mysterious undertone to this year. There is a grand mystery and majesty inherent in a Dragon year, and particularly since it is 2012, a year with a buzz of mystery surrounding it, we are ensured an experience of unearthing the unknown. This year Uranus, the radical planet, will be making a square (challenging alignment) with Pluto, the planet of death and rebirth. Its all about evolution. Get ready for an evolution activation, and the more you resist change, the more you will struggle. Be friends with chaos, expect the unexpected.

My theme for this year, inspired by the Water Dragon, is to Merge with the Mystery and Magnetize the Magic! You can become a mixologist of magic. This is the year that you wake up once and for all. There is no time to waste, no more playing small, indulging in the disease of self-loathing. The dreamers, thinkers, dancers, artists, creatives must step forward and hold the space this year. Paradigms are shifting, structures are crumbling, the past is dying. We don't have the privilege of waiting for someone else to step up and dream a beautiful dream and do the work. We are the creators of our own reality, the dreamers of our own dreams, the activators of our own awakening. We set the tone for this new reality, this new age. Waiting is not an option. Awakening and Activation. Be awake and activate!

We must be in tune with the bigger energies of the Universe, allowing our hearts and minds to dream bigger of an astounding and unreasonably expansive new reality. Magical, mysterious, magnificent Dragon assists us in a shift in consciousness. The Dragon's fiery breath will purify us deeply, and its magic will entice us into the depths of our souls, where transmutation and alchemical transformation can help us get rooted more steadily into our own heart's desires. Dragon asks us to dream big, to know why we have chosen to be here on this planet at this time, to remember our power, to be comfortable with change, to believe in magic, to live with a heart ignited by the inexplicable longing of the soul.

Dragon Magic ~ merging with the mystery. Blessed be.

Samhain Scorpio Self-inquiry

Tonight is the holiest night of the year for me, Samhain, or Hallowmas. The veil between the worlds grows thin, and the Ancestors draw near. Our Guides and Guardians, protective spirits, the elementals and fae are close and it is easier to connect with, listen to, and interact with them. We are in the dark, dreamtime of the year... saturated with darkness, inside of which we are cooked and seasoned, nourished and healed. Without the sacred dark there can be no experience of light. The descent myths are felt, embodied, enacted... Demeter and Persephone, Inanna... Many cultures honor death and darkness at this time of the year, and celebrate rebirth, a return of the light. Some of the celebrations center around darkness or light, or death and life: Diwali, Dia de los Muertos, Samhain...

The Sun in Scorpio right now, the sign associated with death, intensity, and transformation, encourages us to leave the surface level interactions behind and delve into our own depths and become aware of the deepest parts of ourselves. We also have Mercury, the planet that influences how we think and communicate, and Venus, the planet of love, relationships and value, in Scorpio. This adds to the saturation of transformational energies into our lives. The  hidden places of our psyches and souls, the secrets in our hearts, are struck and resurrected, and cannot be ignored. They swim to the surface for our review and understanding, needing to be seen and felt and tended to. There is nothing unworthy lurking inside, nothing that must be stuffed down. Scorpio demands that the shadow side get some attention. Associated with the sign of Scorpio is the scorpion, representing the "sting" of the intensity and revolution, but also the firebird, which symbolizes the transformative qualities of this sign. The fires of radical change engulf each of us at some point in life, uncomfortable and painful and not pretty to look at, but the promise in the pain is that the fires polish us, burn away the excess, the unnecessary, the burdens and holding on... and we emerge from the flames, rising out of the ashes like the phoenix, with clarity and greater insight. An alchemical transformation in the highest sense takes place. Bright firebirds of transformation rise up and are reborn.

Let this night, this time of year, take you into the cauldron of your deepest self, let your prayers and invocations rise to the Ancestors and the Divine with the incense smoke. Adorn your altars with marigolds and pomegranates and photos of the beloveds that have passed from this plane. Align profoundly with the energies that pulse with magic and metamorphosis in this time of year, your heart open as the portals of consciousness expand momentarily. Listen deeply.

May we be blessed. May we remember. May we live fully. So mote it be...

Sun Day

Last night was Midsummer Eve, for me an evening of flickering candles and divination, mugwort and deep dreams. Today is Litha (for those that follow the Old calendar) or Summer Solstice*- the pinnacle and purna (fullness) of the Light, the triumphant day of the Sun, the longest day and shortest night of the year. Astrologically, Solstice is initiated when the sun moves into 0 degrees Cancer, which occurred today at 10:16am PDT. This is a day of radiance, luminosity, and boundless tejas.

The great and shining Sun reaches its perfection and fullness, and in a moment's time we head into the dark half of the year. It will still be summer for quite some time, but we will know that the light wanes and the darkness builds. This is the wheel of the year, turning again...

We are in familiar territory; life is constantly shifting and changing, bringing beauty and challenges, and there's always more. That is the promise of life, the promise of sri, that there will always be more. When people ask me what is happening astrologically, I say, "Everything. All the time." And its true. This is happening in your life as well,  the unfolding and releasing, invoking and establishing. There is a constant pulsing of life flowing, waxing and waning, expanding and contracting. We have an intimate knowledge of this experience while practicing Anusara yoga, living life as householders on a path, holding the midline of our sadhana (true spiritual practice).

We will be in an eclipse portal for the entirety of June, which is why I've deemed June "Eclipse June." There was a partial solar eclipse in Gemini on  June 1 and a total lunar eclipse in Sagittarius on June 15. The final one of this cycle will be in the very early morning hours (1:38am) on July 1, with another partial solar eclipse in Cancer. This is a time of immense activation, acceleration, and amplification (my theme for this cycle). This is happening in some form or another in your life. Some of you may feel Kali Ma throwing lightning bolts into your life, startling you with unexpected and sudden change, or that your shell is being cracked, or that your paradigm is being shifted. Remember to hold the midline and trust the change; Shakti, the creative potency of the Universe is reorganizing you, and your life. This can feel uncomfortable, even unbearable, but in our practice we are becoming skilled at allowing every circumstance of life take us into the molten radiance of our hearts. That is the yoga.

It is important to be extremely mindful of the matrika of your self-talk, the pictures you are holding in your mind's eye, the visions you are channeling during the eclipse window. The eclipses are fortified with activation power. The Universe is listening to you, closely. So watch what you wish for. Amplification is happening.

On this Solstice, make a date with the Sun, bask in the warmth and relish the sunshine. The fullness of the light breaks into the beginning of the dark in its ancient way. At sunset say goodbye to the Sun as he disappears into the sea, to be reborn in the sky on Winter Solstice. Late tonight light a candle and renew your commitments and offer your blessings. Bow to the golden tejas that burns brightly inside your own shining heart.

Bright Blessings ~*

*in the Northern hemisphere

Beautiful Bountiful Beltane Blessings

The Wheel of the Year turns once again, moving us forward into the light. The hearth/home fires are extinguished and re-lit for Beltane ("bright fire"). If we don't have a bonfire or campfire to dance around, we can light a fire in our home cauldron, or a beeswax candle, and hop over it with a heart full of  inspiration and deep wishes, for protection and good luck. Traditionally, cattle were driven through two great balefires for purification, fertility and prosperity. People danced in the smoke from the flames for the same reason, and there was dancing around the maypole. Lovers frolicked and made love in the fields and gardens to bless the land. We can honor this day in the same way. This fire festival is a celebration of fertility and passion, revelry in sexuality and sensuality. The fire that purifies and clears also ignites and inspires. Beltane invokes sparks of creativity and new abundance, fertility and frolicking, celebration and creation, praises and pleasure.  With the Sun in Venus-ruled Taurus, may we feel the irresistible desire to make beauty and live artfully.  May we enjoy embodiment as a sacred pleasure treasure.

♥ Blessed be.

Ostara Egg

March 20 at 4:21 pm PST, the sun moves into fiery Aries initiating an astrological new year and Vernal Equinox (in the Northern hemisphere). Equinox ("equal night") is a time of year when day and night are equal and light and dark are balanced; the sun rises and sets due east and west and crosses the Celestial Equator. This is the perfect time to honor and invoke balance as a practice in life. We can reflect on the ways we spend our time and energy and whether they are in alignment with what we truly value. We can then renew our commitment to make changes when needed, to seek the midline of life when we feel uncertain or uninspired. Balancing effort and ease is a valuable practice to remember.

Spring cleaning, inside and out, is a great way to express the energy of renewal and new beginnings. Clear out the clutter and stagnation, regrets and resentments, to make space for new growth and abundance. When cleaning your home, it is customary to scrub clockwise to infuse the space with good energy for growth, and add positive thoughts or mantras. Set up a spring altar, with rabbits and colored eggs, daffodils and wildflowers, chocolate bunnies, candles, a cauldron and seeds...

Today is Ostara, named for the Goddess Ostara, or Eostre, the Goddess of the Red Dawn, the Spring Goddess, whose sacred attendant is the magical hare. It is a time to bless spring seeds and place them in your heart and into the ground. Signs of spring announce that the Light will now begin to reign. The sky pours rain to soak the earth, to resurrect nature from the frozen sleep of winter. The Cosmic Egg of Nature hatches and life emerges enthusiastically from within.

The hare, long associated with the moon, is the embodiment of fertility and an ancient symbol of magic, sacred to Ostara as well as the Faerie Queen. The egg is the primordial symbol of birth and beginnings. The Aries sun calls us to feel a renewed energy, new inner fire and spark, an awakening of dormant creativity or slumbering passion.  May we break out of our shells with ignited inspiration and exclaim with lives lived artfully that we align with a radical and wild Nature.

Blessed be ~*~

P.S. My theme for this year of the Metal Rabbit: May we hop into the Honey of our Hearts and mix an Elixir of Bliss!™

Sacred Fires and Metal Rabbits

Tonight is Imbolc Eve, a night of magic and divination. Tomorrow, on February 2, multiple events coalesce into a magical day of celebration and new beginnings. Imbolc (or Candlemas) is a sacred cross-quarter day in the Wheel of the Year, an important and powerful time between Yule and Spring Equinox. We are held in the belly of winter, but signs of Spring begin to emerge. At this time of year I honor Brighid (Brigit, Bride), the Celtic goddess of hearth and home, of healing, occult knowledge and divination, smithcraft, sacred wells, the keeper of the flames. Originally it was Brighid's snake that emerged for weather divination (not a groundhog). On this eve, I will hang a special cloth, called Brighid's mantle, from my window so that Brighid will bless it as she travels through the night. February 2 is also the new moon in Aquarius (at 6:31 pm PST). All new moons signify new beginnings, rebirth and renewal, and in the sign of Aquarius this new moon will emphasis Aquarius qualities (like originality, eccentricity, unconventionality, progressive thinking,  strong opinions, humanitarianism). I love when the sun is in Aquarius, my own sun sign, which is ruled by Uranus, the planet of radical change, rebellion, unconventionality; energies of originality and free-thinking which are natural for Aquarius now infuse and influence life more fully for all. This is a time to think outside of the box to create radical and dramatic shifts in the global consciousness, and in our own lives.

Lastly, tomorrow marks the end of the Tiger year and the beginning of the Year of the Hare. This will be a metal Rabbit year, meaning that the Rabbit year is infused with the element of metal. It will be a calmer year that the intensity of the Tiger, a year of quality over quantity, refinement, sensitivity and attentiveness. Rabbit is stylish and artistic, calm and expressive. (Come to class to hear my my theme for the year, and to hear my special metal Rabbit mix!) May you rock this metal Rabbit year.

May Brighid's mantle cover, protect, and bless you this year.

Blessed be ~

The Darkness Births the Light

Monday (December 20) is the darkest day of the year, Solstice Eve, when we prepare for the Darkness to birth the Light. Even as the moon waxes, the darkness deepens.  On the eve of the Winter Solstice we light candles that will burn through the darkest, longest night. We contemplate the journey we have taken this year, feel gratitude for where we are now, while creating a heartfelt wish for moving forward into a new cycle. A few minutes after midnight (PST) we welcome the full moon in Gemini and a powerful total lunar eclipse, and then we experience the birth of the Solstice sun in the sky. On Tuesday afternoon we celebrate Solstice (sun standing still) as the sun shifts from Sagittarius into Capricorn. This is the first time in a long time, over 400 years, that the Solstice has coincided with a full moon lunar eclipse; the potency of both these events will be intensified dramatically.

With Mercury retrograde and the deep darkness enveloping us, we have slowed down, turned inward, increased sensitivity, and deepened communion and quiet listening to our deepest self. With the turn of the Wheel of the Year again, we appreciate that periods of activity and dynamism must be balanced with periods of rest and repose. This is Nature's way.

The lunar eclipse creates a quickening, intensifying and amplifying what we are holding in our consciousness. Eclipses are extraordinary activators and magnifiers, like super shakti lightning bolts; they can activate and initiate profound shifts in your life even if these shifts feel disorienting or uncomfortable. They also magnetize your thoughts and prayers, so continue to spend time in quiet contemplation to clarify your most genuine auspicious vision and what you will have exploded into manifestation at this time. Just like during this summer's eclipse window, now is a time that will activate and magnetize your dreams. This cycle will build on the last one, and we will feel the effects for months.

Dream your life's vision into being. Honor the auspicious communion between the Gemini full moon lunar eclipse and the Solstice. We are held and nurtured and cooked and healed in the darkness, the womb of the Great Mother, and from this Darkness the Light is born. Celebrate with the stars and sky that the Sun is born.

Blessed be ~*

Dreamtime

For those of us that honor the "old calendar" we have just entered the gateway of the most auspicious time of the year, Samhain, or Hallowmas, the Celtic new year. This is a time when the gods draw near, and the veil of consciousness between the worlds, separating the land of the living from the Otherworld, becomes thin. We honor the Ancient Ones, the ancestors, and all those that have passed from the land of the living. We celebrate those that have embodied into the relative world and emerged as newborns to have an embodied adventure. It is a time for invocations and incantations, divination, increased sensitivity, and deep listening.

This time of the year, when we are saturated in darkness, the Dark Goddess reigns; she is the Guardian of the Crossroads, able to see into the past, present, and future at once. The dark time of the year can be experienced as the Dreamtime; we submerse ourselves into the sacred Darkness where we are held, nourished, recharged. We can look back and reflect on where we have been and what we have learned, acknowledge where we are and clarify what it is we value, and gather our power in preparation for moving forward with insight and purpose into our future. The Darkness is the womb of the Goddess, where we grow our vision and dream our lives into being. It is the cauldron, where we are cooked, seasoned, steeped in the wisdom of the Wise Ones.

Now that the wheel of the year has turned into the fullness of the Dreamtime, let yourself turn inside, allow the introspection and reflection of this seasonal shift to emerge naturally. Tune in to the whispers of the Ancient Ones, and to your own wise heart. Nest and settle in to the darkness, savor it, until the light returns. Weave your dreams.

~Blessed be. ★

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