Jessica Shepherd's Blog, page 4

STAY COOL

It’s HOT! This weekend features a potentially stressful Mars-Saturn square, which can stimulate feelings of frustration, impatience, stagnation and anger. Add high August temperatures, which affects our moods and energies, and it’s a perfect moment to place our awareness on ways to help ourselves to cool down.

–collagen/hydro-jelly face masks cools a hot head, where many of us generate too much heat with our thoughts.

–ice face masks also bring down surface temperature of skin (also helps with heat based breakouts). Just make sure you only leave it on for a few minutes or you will generate red splotches.

-iced latte with collagen and adaptogens, to bring down excess stress/heat. Make it cool butterfly pea blue!

-yin movement flows, like yoga and xi gong. Both decrease Yang (heat) and increase Yin (coolness).

-cold washcloth on the back of neck and bottoms of feet. Also fun bonding time with your partner 🙂

-play in the yard with the garden hose and sprinklers – like you did when you were a kid.

-un-cooking – eating more raw, cool and juicy vegetables, berries, fruits, salads

-stay hydrated, and in air conditioning* as much as possible.

-do more Yin or COOLING activities: gardening, sleeping, napping, bathing, resting, reading books, doing quiet creative activities, slowing down and de-stressing, generally

This is also a great list for peri-menopausal and menopausal women. According to Chinese medicine, during this time of life we are deficient in YIN, or feminine/cool, and have an excess of YANG, or masculine/heat energies. Becoming conscious about and intentionally incorporating more YIN activities into your life balances out the excess YANG in your body right now, thus reducing uncomfortable symptoms of peri-meno, like hot flashes, sweats, mood swings etc.

In addition to doing things on the list above, I recently had our air conditioners cleaned (who knew I needed to do that?!) and it made a huge difference in the output of cool air and its more energy efficient. With such high heat AC’s are a necessary luxury. The reality of climate change makes this fact a double edged sword; we need the AC more than ever now but it’s also a contributor to the problem. I remain humbly grateful for the ability to stay cool.

Stay cool, friends!

 

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YOUR SUPERPOWER

you do have something to contributeit may not look like what anyone else’s doesit may not resemble a collective value, what the world says it wants, and so rewardsor one we recognize yet- because your value is visionary it may…not fit into your daily lifebe disruptivedisallow you from participating in many things others door the way in which things are donebecause that is its natureto show you what you have come to teach perhaps you cannot…drink the watertolerate the foodbend your body into that shapemake yourself operate on a regular clock, or schedule fit in those clothesadapt to a work environmentor belong in that community – even if it’s where you live while “this seems to be working for everyone else”it doesn’t… no, no, not for you and, in fact, this IS your superpower here it is, hiding in plain sight! underneath something else:an idea others have led you to believe is wrong about yourselfa thing you have told yourself you must doa way you’ve insisted that you must live when it is really like this: YOU don’t WANT to do it like that– not in that way this is your superpowerlike any superpower, it will magically free you into your best self but, like any superpower, it requires your ongoing dedicationand unflinching honestyto honor ityou must break away from consensual realityreconnect to your deepest True Selfask, and to listen to, what it is YOU really WANTover and over againowning your uniqueness as a strengthtrusting that when you finally do all of this, ALL WILL BE WELL you want to feel purposeful? make a contribution? if this is you, your contribution isn’t necessarily measured by lives touchedor ideas about serving or helping othersawards, accomplishments, money or numbers of books written it is the act of freeing yourself, over and over again ~feeling your own joy, liberation, and peace~and when you don’t, figuring out how to feel that way again THIS is what sends ripples into Divine ConsciousnessTHIS is what truly serves One and All THIS is your superpower in action …and the way you will arrive at this feeling is as unique as you are.photo: https://unsplash.com/@davidhofmann

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CHIRON NOTES: CHIRON IN ARIES RETROGRADES

What hurts? What stings, is making you sad, frustrated or grumpy? It’s in the air…

Today, Chiron in Aries moves retrograde.

This offers many of us the chance to reflect on Groundhog Day type wounds. These painful patterns repeat because we are only halfway to understanding how to soothe the ache, or stop the pattern from creating suffering in our life.

What to do? INTEGRATE.

Integration is the process we undertake; we actively engage in self awareness, identify where we are in conflict, where we are engaging in blame, and become courageously willing to more truly see where we are separating from ourselves, where we are splitting off from deep wounds that want to be named, valued and felt (where we feel: abandoned, rejected, violated, denied, neglected, unloved).

Through deeper acknowledgement, by courageously feeling the pain and telling the truth about it, we embrace those self parts and include them in our identity. This is how we become whole. This is how we stop re-enacting a repetitive and painful cycle of suffering.

Chiron and the Healing Journey is the BEST book about Chiron. Chiron is stationing on my natal Moon-Chiron conjunction, so you can bet I’m feeling this right now. I’ve been curling up with this wonderful book, and journaling my reflections in my JUST LOVE journal.

Here’s more of what I’ve been personally re-exploring:

-Chiron holds repetitive patterns that feel we can never quite get healing resolution around.

-This repetition cycle enacts a wounding cycle where we are aware of a hurt or pain but feel unable to stop it from re-occurring.

-These wounds feel compulsive, and very difficult to sort through for a variety of reasons.

-Once we learn we cannot get these needs, desires, wants met, we may stop asking for this from our Self (Aries), or we simply don’t know how to do this for our Self because we weren’t shown how- which creates inner conflict and suffering.

-In this area, described by Chiron’s placement, we may feel unappreciated, rejected, neglected, abandoned and/or different.

-We tend to easily get stuck in cycles of blame in this area, mistaking the symptom for the actual CAUSE, we blame the person/thing/issue/conflict/difference instead of seeing the REAL problem — which is actually an internal psychological complex we are carrying with us from childhood. More deeply, we are trying to heal/address/fix a childhood wound. This is why we keep re-experiencing suffering. This requires both courageous truth-telling, and courage to feel the pain.

-If this wound involves a lot of defenses to the feeling/naming of it, we may have to more gently “take down our walls” over time.

-You may need to engage a number of healing tools and techniques in order to understand and heal this.

-The entire process at work is to allow the pain, and your limited understanding of it, to goad/irritate you to a place of greater understanding, self-awareness… and therefore freedom of choice. You can get to the place where the issue no longer compulsively controls your life and causes you to suffer, even if it keeps reoccurring. Commit to: feeling the pain (remember: it’s only pain, it won’t kill you), and then investigating it with more honesty and compassion, and you will get there.

-A hard truth that can free you is: This painful thing may not entirely go away, if ever (a chronic illness, terminal disease, difference, disability, for instance)… but your suffering around it can. Your WILLINGNESS, to figure out how to do that for yourself, is key.

-Those of us who have a strong Chiron signature in our natal chart often become healers and teachers. For us, the pain/difference is not just temporary, it is a lifelong PATH — and constantly working on this is a way for the Soul to self-actualize and feel fullness.

-Eventually, this process blooms into wisdom, self-love and the satisfaction of leading a self-aware, authentic, WHOLE SELF life.

Love yourselves, friends. ALL parts of you!

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A South Node Moment

If you find yourself wanting to hit “ignore” when the world calls, DO IT.  Today (actually, tonight, while many of us are sleeping) the Scorpio Moon passes over the south node – the point aligned with letting go, retreat and focus on the innermost, spiritual, Self. Are you letting go of something you no longer need? Are certain formerly yummy things losing their taste? Do you just want to curl up and shut out the world?

I’ve been having a moment… of pulling back, going inward and being inside myself. It’s a south node moment.

Are you having a south node moment, too?

This past Cancer New Moon fell exactly on my natal Cancer South Node and I recognized the feeling. When it started to feel like I would have to force myself -to write, work or keep up with the algorithms – I didn’t. Actually, doing anything felt like trying to walk through fog and quicksand at once. So kind of no point, eh?

This feeling is familiar. I was born with south node conjunct my Cancer Sun. Regarding “what that means” my astrological best guess is: I’ve been in worldly or leadership positions before, over various lifetimes. With my Cancer energies this leadership probably had mostly to do with caring for and nurturing others’ well-being – since it’s a theme that has repeated.

I’ve been “hungry” for the stuff of the world, for achievement, and I feel I’ve more than tasted but I’ve satisfied those drives; with my third house Capricorn North Node, I’ve written books and become famous in my small way. But because of my sun-node configuration, I’m also very oriented toward the south node experiential-knowing of having “been here, done that” before. Perhaps, many times before.

For me, as appropriate for the south node of the Moon, this comes up as a feeling, of weariness. Fatigue. A feeling of sitting at the noisy kitchen table of the world, watching the drama happen all around me, and witnessing. And feeling truly okay with letting any and all of it go.

The south node is currently transiting Scorpio, and my guess is you may feel more than a bit world-weary and worn out, too.  Collectively… the drama, the dance of desire, aggression, power, trauma…You don’t have to be a Scorpio to feel emotional “battle fatigue”

Yet, even stating this, I can sense into the polarizing energetics of this simple sentence – which is the opposite of my point. A true south node perspective doesn’t have “a horse in this race,” as they say… or in any race at all.

This orientation has given me a different perspective. Like… and I feel this is the south node speaking: In the end, it’s all the same.

Whether you devote your life to watching sunset, or creating a lifetime of achievements and awards, ultimately, all desires converge. We all desire contentment and peace, want to both be loved -and to give love to something or someone worthy of that love, and we want to feel our life matters. This last bit can happen in a variety of ways, because what makes one’s life valuable is one-hundred ten-million percent subjective. It’s only our inner valuation that counts.

Another south node truism? All things become empty if you do them long enough. Spiritual guru Osho once said, ‘if you can’t stop thinking of sex- have sex until you don’t want it anymore.’ You can substitute ice cream. Or fame, relevance, recognition. He was, in a way, describing the process of moving from the north node to the south node. The north node holds our hunger, insatiable motivating drives we attempt to satisfy in various ways. Eventually, the south node sits at the buffet of life, not eating, just watching. It’s an odd kind of empty, learning to enjoy a different kind of fullness. It’s not about hunger for the world. Not anymore.

There’s a time and a place for both south and north node activities. We can’t have one without the other. I am grateful for the hunger to publish my work, for instance, because without that desire I don’t think I’d bother sharing my writing or thoughts with you.

Yet in a world that celebrates worldly recognition, fame, popularity, “power”, achievement as the ultimate values, I am happy to celebrate the other point of view. I work when I feel like it. I rest when I feel like it. I listen to and dialogue with my inner being, and my energy body, quite a lot. I live intuitively; I do my best to not allow external expectations or cultural conditioning to dictate my decisions, or schedule. I frequently ask myself, “Is this what I really want, and want to be doing? Am I enjoying myself?” and then I actually listen to the answer. I savor sunsets over social media likes, monk fruit ice cream over production. I give myself permission to explore creative curiosities without expectation for reward of any kind. And I recognize I am fortunate to be able to do any of this.

In my fantasy-turned-reality world, I sit on my own little floating star, fertile imagination, notebooks, paints in hand, pondering questions, looking for answers, and feel utterly content and self-sufficient. And, because I have one of those weird nodal situations where I am returning to where I’ve already been (sun conjunct south node -AND- north node ruler- ha! say that three times fast!) this is a pretty accurate description of my reality at this point in time. I occasionally peek out share my explorations with you.

Suffice it to say, I’m having a south node moment; a perfect time for fulfilling that kind of fantasy. I’m also more deeply letting go of still-lingering south node Cancerian caretaking impulses. I’m recognizing this habit tastes as fulfilling as sawdust.

So, if you find yourself wanting to hit “ignore” when the world calls, DO IT. If you are having a south node transit that lasts longer than a moment, you may find yourself: retiring, or letting go of the roles and expectations of the world in favor of your own internal explorations and experiences. It is a classically “spiritual” time, in that your inner life –the life of your Spirit– is favored, and worldly things tend to fall away. For instance, if you are a Scorpio born, the south node is transiting your sign (Jan 2022- Jul 2023) and this may feel very relevant right now.  But honestly, every month the (Scorpio) Moon transits the node, so each and all of us get to have a south node moment. If you need a cheerleader for this, I’m here. I will always advocate for your innermost private Self!

Remember, whether at day’s end, or the end of your life, all that matters is the meaning you bring to it. Whether you have a body of work to show for it, a body of knowledge, or a body that’s experienced many different, strange things… It’s all the same. This Awareness is not only True with a capital “T,” it can make letting go –of any or all of it– a whole lot easier, kinder, gentler.

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Summer Solstice Spirit Message

The air, here in Hawaii right now, has a supple and luxurious quality. Maybe it’s the natural abundance here, but just being alive feels downright decadent.

Summer is my favorite season. I was born in June, so have it inside me. The explosion of nostalgia, imagination, beauty and free time… summer seduces us into taking time to appreciate things and people we love – including our self.

I remember… Summer vacations of past. All the times I looked forward to something, as a child…a salty beach vacation, relaxation with my favorite books, visiting my grandmothers, the taste of my favorite homemade foods, fireflies aglow on thickly humid nights, the smell and feel of fresh cut grass under my feet.

It was interesting that I pulled the Contentment card, for all of us, at this solstice. In this, and the following Spirit message, memory, and the sweetness of the season can help us to remember the Peace we are, and to receive ourselves anew.

…Is something keeping you from experiencing Contentment right now?

When I asked Spirit how to better align with the Peace and Ease, I heard:

There is no reason for you to attempt to change or control the circumstances you have no say around. This is really key for you: remembering when you were able, as a child, to hold the space for everything and anything, knowing you were good no matter what. (When you remember yourself) That memory is a reminder of your capacity to simply be at peace while not knowing what’s next. The genuine contentment with WHAT IS is a natural state of grace you were born into. It’s your identity.

So, we send you images (memories) to remember this. We give you a visceral experience of reliving a moment in time, truly, a snapshot of a way of being, so you can reconnect with who you are. 

We don’t tell you to stop worrying. This transcends “don’t worry” because, remember, you’ve always known the ways certain things change, or could change; you were once completely comfortable with uncertainty. Before you attached stories to outcomes. 

Recognize this is what you are doing that actively blocks you from receiving your own contentment -which, like a waterfall or a sweet spring, it naturally flows -is a matter of fact. Before you learned to attach stories to outcomes, you called it ALL good. Whether you went on vacation, or it was cancelled, you had the joy of summer running through your veins, your energy body, and truly there is so much to enjoy. It was and is all right here, and you have always been aware of this.

…Okay. Well, that was interesting! I knew I was blocking myself so it was great to have it spelled out like this.

What’s keeping you from your sweet Contentment, friend? I hope solstice energy can help you to touch in on some memories of YOU – before you had all these adult stories to fixate on and distract you from your own peacefulness. May we feel our natural ease!

 

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COME BACK INTO YOUR OWN ENERGY

Whether caught up in a flurry of energy and mental activity triggered by another, or your own emotions, some days it is easy to go energetically sideways. :-/ If you suddenly find yourself here… you are definitely out of your own energy field.

A lot has been said/written about “psychic protection,” ie protecting your self from something or someone negative, or unwanted. However, coming at it as though it is something outside of you will be problematic. Mainly because of this law: Energy always follows YOUR attention and intention.

You feed the energy with your awareness of it.

Here’s the conundrum: YOU, being the very sensitive + aware Soul that you are, not only notice this distraction…now you can’t un-notice it! What to do? The minute you recognize that you are caught up in something external, instead of focusing your awareness on where you DON’T want to be (the external issue, which feels bad), focus on where you DO (back on YOU, feeling good).

Honestly, the best way to protect your energy/FEEL GOOD will always be to inhabit your own energy more fully. To come back into yourself.

There are many ways to do this. Here is one:

-stop thinking 🙂 When your mind “goes there…” so does your entire energy field. Recognize this keeps unwanted energy going. -drop into your body. Feel what’s going on inside, even if it feels uncomfortable. Your body is your sensitive friend; it only feels this way because you are sensitive and want to feel good again. -imagine your energy as a color- what color is it? Now, circulate that color from your crown chakra into the ground, or ground to crown, whatever you prefer. Invite your color deeeeep into your muscles and viscera. Imagine massaging this color into your energy field with your awareness. You may also enjoy visualizing your color as liquid light, pouring from crown to ground.  Keep repeating until your color gets nice and saturated and strong, and the other colors (energies that are not yours) dissolve. -claim your energetic space aloud, say: This is my energy. -take up space: I am allowed to take up space. I am allowed to be in my own energy. -give yourself permission to do the above: This is self-care. Take your time. Be compassionate toward yourself.

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Why My Relationship to Astrology Had to Change

Recently, I dressed in my fancy dress and fancy slippahs (local-speak for what you likely think of as flip-flops) to attend a fancy gala, the Komen Pink Ball, a benefit for Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer research.

As I listened to one of the honorary survivors tell her story, I felt my heart expand. I understand what it feels like to undergo a traumatic, life-changing, terrifying experience.

I thought then, at that moment of reflection, about astrology.

Why astrology?, I asked myself.

A part of me wanted to offer something to this woman; something hopeful, helpful. For a long time, astrology was this for me. I offered it to others in this capacity, as a way to make meaningful sense of life; a tried and true method for getting a person through the difficult life passages and cycles, it explained things when nothing else could.

More deeply, astrology was my personal rock – it held me when nothing else did. When life didn’t make sense, at least the astrology did. Oh, it’s eclipse season, I recalled, or I was having a Pluto, or Saturn, transit. Yes, that explains things! Until it didn’t.

I remember an astrology friend once saying “everything can be astrological…” This is not an unusual sentiment; on the whole we can be an evangelical, or obsessed, bunch.  I knew what she meant; I could, and still can, perceive the astrology behind everything. Everything!

When I hear other people love on astrology that hard, who regard astrology as the only way of making sense of life and self, I still get it. As a cosmology, perhaps you can’t get closer to Spirit than this. “Astrology is the alphabet of God,” Steven Forrest has said.

What happened with me + astrology is probably what happens to anyone who is in a lifelong relationship where one of us is changing very rapidly. At a certain point, it began showing its limitations.

Things changed for me, and in ways I hadn’t ever anticipated or thought possible. Suddenly, I was thrust into a world of energy; I was feeling things I didn’t understand how to process or hold. Where did this come into play, in my natal chart? In my transits?, I asked the chart. I got nothing. Nothing made sense. When I looked at my chart for answers, everything blurred together in a God’s alphabet soup

After decades of practice, during this time of life when I looked at the chart I could no longer see anything personally or practically helpful. Of course I could see at least one signature of “what” was happening: I was revisiting ALL the traumas, wounds and injuries, since the beginning of time, I’d ever had to my sensitivity. Transiting Pluto was opposing Venus, my chart ruler. My lifelong relationship to my gentle, kind, and sensitive feeling-nature (Venus in Cancer) was being triggered by that Hell realm planet.

Did astrological knowledge help me get through a day without feeling like I was on the speedway of the Indy 500? Did it help me to intimately navigate my changing relationship to every person in my life, specifically, and on a case by case basis? Did the astrology help me come back into my own energy body when I was in someone else’s emotions, energies, versus my own? Did it point out where I was stuck in old conditioning, and tell me how to release that so I could be free again? Could the astrology help me identify when an external or conditioned energy hi-jacked my perception, causing me suffering? Did the astrology give me the practical tools I needed to find my power again? Could it answer where, exactly, all of this new learning was headed? No, no, no and no…

Often, when the chart doesn’t explain life correctly, astrologers say: It’s not astrology’s fault, it’s the interpretation, or the interpreter.

…But sometimes astrology is simply not the right tool for the job. As an astrologer, I, too, had a tendency to think of this particular tool as an amazing multi-purpose and miraculous one – one that could do, or be, anything.

Right now, astrology and I are old, good, friends. It would be really sad to be without it- as I learned when, during this past Mercury retrograde, I thought my charts from twenty+ years had disappeared. That felt like a death (I’ve since recovered them)! This past winter I went through a really difficult set of months, and knowing Saturn (limitation) was transiting my Jupiter (expansion), and that it would pass, helped so much. I also enjoy exploring the mythology, and using astrology psychologically- my favorite.

Divine timing, inner work, creatively, for psychological awareness… I imagine I will never not use astrology in some form or another.

Listening to this woman attempt to articulate her own personal hell with cancer, I felt all of my compassion, and my desire to help. If she came to me seeking an astrological consultation, I wondered, what could I offer? Would astrology be equipped to ably and helpfully answer the daily and often minute by minute practical and emotional rigors of a traumatic and life-altering event?

Probably not.

Yet, sometimes even a “this X event is happening through you, and for this period of time” is helpful information.

I still enjoy offering astrology to those who find it helpful; indeed, I notice my most “popular” writings are astrological ones.

Yet as any relationship with an old friend, I understand where it excels, and where it doesn’t. It has strengths, and weaknesses.

We’ve been through a few things, together, me + astrology, and our relationship had to change.

Astrology is now ONE of my tools; I no longer look to astrology to be my everything.  In so doing, I’ve given myself more permission: To not have all the answers. To be in the unknown, with another. To be in my feelings, my compassionate heart… and to discover and be in my other gifts. When the astrology doesn’t “work”: when the astrology comes off as too pat and dry, heady, or overly-simplified; when the quest is too personal, and the experience defies understanding, logic or even words… these things always will.

 

 

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Intuitive Energy Read for May 22-28, 2022

 

I did a card draw for this week’s energy: What does Spirit want @moonkissd followers to know about this week’s energy? I’m reading this draw, consecutively: from start (card 1) to mid (card 2) to end of the week (card 3). I found the parallels to the timing of astrology fascinating, so I included those in italics, below. Let me know what you think in the comments!

INTUITIVE ENERGY CARD & ASTROLOGY MASH-UP FOR THE WEEK of 5/22-5/28:

ALIGNMENT: “Clarify what feels Right and True for you.” In a nutshell, this week starts off with a need to get CLEAR on what feels right for us to pursue, versus what does NOT – especially related to what we are taking on or beginning this week.

With Mars changing signs 5/24 eventually to join Jupiter in Aries (5/29), moving forward is indeed all about knowing WHAT WE TRULY WANT and the way to know this directly is to ask: “What feels good and in alignment with me? And what does not?”

DEEPENING: “Greater satisfaction is available to you.” By mid-week, we discover how well we are feeling is inextricably tied to how deeply we are connecting to our experience; don’t superficially glide over things that are tugging at your heart and feeling-awareness at the expense of your DEEPER SATISFACTION.

Gemini season always runs the risk of dissipating energies; too many things compete for attention which can cause us to overlook, or not track deeper aspects of our experience, thereby missing deeper joy available. Pause in the spaces in-between.

LIGHTEN UP (reversed): “Let go of the pressure to feel or be better.” Finally, at week’s end there will be a tendency to make things heavier than they need to be. To protect your own well-being and energy (which is what a reversed indicates) LIGHTEN UP. Feel your feet on the ground, or take a mental health day, and just let it go.

At week’s end, Venus squares Pluto 5/26, which feels heavier than what we’ve been experiencing (and may cause us to re-think, re-hash old issues since Mercury in Venus-ruled Taurus is still retrograde). Protect your energy by letting go and lightening up.

To integrate into this more deeply, here’s a little bit more of the excerpted text — from my deck.

ALIGNMENT. This week’s energy begins with evaluating where you are in integrity with yourself and where you are not.

“The appearance of this card suggests you are being called to more deeply evaluate your sense of alignment. Alignment is inextricably tied to living in your Authentic Self and Truth. Alignment is your supple and natural sense of rightness with who you are, who you are with (your relationships and connections), where you live (geographical and your living environment), work, and what you are doing in any given moment. When all these elements are in alignment, you will know it by the way you feel integrated and generally content.

As you read the above elements of alignment listed, one word or phrase may light up for you. Make sure you are grounded, rooted, and centered. Then ask, “What is not in alignment?” Allow your inner knowing to gently surface. Notice what about this, specifically, is off for you. Remember, the fact that you are picking up on something “off” means you already know exactly what requires adjusting…”

DEEPENING. The mid-week “how-to” or key is to pause and deepen for your well-being.

“What have you been gliding over a little too easily, too quickly? Where have you been a little too dismissive of something that deserves your loving attentiveness? Would it feel delicious to generally deepen? Deepening is the way our Soul delivers deeper levels of satisfaction when we have become too busy to notice what is available to us. Often, the deepening our Soul wants is for us to notice a positive shift or experience we’ve had, or to become aware of a yummy opportunity for greater fulfillment. When so much competes for our attention in the world, when the pace of life is fast, it is easy to overlook opportunities for more intimacy with: pleasure, joy, connection, acknowledgment…

This is how to move through what is bothering you right now: take it in a little more deeply. Dive down, deep. Reconnect with your feelings, your body, this moment. What are you feeling? Wait for your Truth to arise. Your answer may be as simple as, “I need to take a walk,” or, “I’m tired.” Feel the emotional truths land softly in your belly…”

LIGHTEN UP. Finally, this card suggests that, this week, we risk losing energy by taking things that will arise (especially towards the latter part of the week, since it’s the last card) way too seriously, or making life heavier than it is.

“It’s easy to get bogged down by external energies and thoughts, habits of conditioning, to get caught up in the energy of conflict and worry. It is easy to forget that our True Divine Nature is not these temporary energetic experiences. Our True Nature is Light, feeling good, bright, clear. All else is just passing phenomenon. The appearance of this card suggests you have temporarily forgotten your Divine Identity and birthright. Things have become too heavy, onerous. You are working way too hard at trying to feel okay instead of embodying the ease you already are. Lighten up. Let go of the conditions, pressures, and expectations you have created for yourself. A tree doesn’t judge itself for not growing fast enough. No one tells a sunrise to work harder, or a flower to create a more beautiful, more perfect bloom. Are you doing this to yourself? Applying pressure and perfectionism where you could be offering yourself compassion?

Light is the Truth of who you are. While you are undeniably, eternally Light, Love, Bliss, in order to remember, to reconnect again, and so feel lighter than you do now, you must step into it energetically. It doesn’t matter what heavy thing you have going on in your life or in your mind. It is time. Decide, now, to lighten up. About everything…”

I hope you’ve enjoyed my Intuitive Energy Divination Deck! You can purchase your own copy right here:https://www.moonkissd.com/new-oracle-deck-intuitive-energy-divination-deck/

 

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Scorpio Full Moon Eclipse: Meet Catrina

This is a Catrina doll.

In Mexico, Catrina is associated with the Day of the Dead. I believe she is mine, and everyone’s, wounded inner child.

See:
…those huge wide eyes? Eyes that saw what you weren’t permitted to see.

…her stitched up mouth? All you weren’t allowed to say.

…that upside down nose? That nose knows …how to smell a rat.

When I first brought this Catarina doll into our home, my husband said it scared him. He wanted me to put it away. He didn’t want it to sit there in the corner like that, staring at him, those big eyes, seeing everything but saying nothing. All-seeing, and all-knowing.

I moved her to a better vantage point, so he could see more of her, not less.

We all have a Catarina inside. Catarina exists because there are parts of our self experience that once did not feel safe enough to feel, say, see, admit. She has been hurt, through omission, neglect. She has been told her experience does not matter. She has been taught that what she feels, sees, knows to be True…isn’t. Catarina holds all that has been denied us. She has been wronged.

She may look like a small doll, soooo small, but she is a BIG archetype.

She holds incredible power, even big fear, for “just a doll.”

(Perhaps, all the dolls suggest to me, the more we minimize something vital to us, make it smaller, the larger it looms in the shadows.)

Of all the scary dolls I’ve known – remembering many from my own grandmothers basement- Catarina is the first I’ve given proper due. I’ve offered her/myself a central seat in our home. I know better than to hide her away, so as not to scare others. I see her as a symbol of what I have endured; what was once denied in myself, I now embrace with LOVE.

This weekend’s Scorpio/Taurus Lunar Eclipse may bring a few skeletons out of your closet. Security issues are highlighted, and this includes abandonment, rejection, betrayal wounds. This is all UP for healing integration.

Remember, the Ego just wants to feel, safe, good and loved.

To know it is, you are, OKAY. All Good. Right Here.

So, if you get triggered this week, hold your little Catarina closer. Give her a more central place in your home, relationship, life. Ask her what she needs.

…maybe she needs you to tell her a story, a retelling of a time when you were hurt, so you can connect the dots and pull apart what was then, from what is now.

…maybe she needs your acknowledgement, of a Truth.

… likely, she needs more compassion and understanding from you, yourself, towards yourself.

Bring what was once rejected, abandoned or denied, closer in. Invite all that is unsaid, unseen, unacknowledged, too terrifying, scary…to the table, or chair, as it were.

That’s how the scary fear loses its power, and is brought down to right size.

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Message from Spirit: On the Planet Right Now

This written conversation arose directly out of a session with my Intuitive Energy Divination Deck. I hadn’t been feeling well for a couple of days and I pulled some cards, asking Spirit to bring me the awareness I need to acknowledge and clear the energy.

I thought this would be a good example to share with you, about how I use the deck, and why it works so well for sensitives, energy sensitives, healers, empaths. Many of my cards address the unique challenges of perceiving subtle energies. I have never encountered this type of support in another card deck, which is likely why I channeled this into the deck– I needed the support!

Here’s a picture of the card spread; these illuminated the fact that I was dealing with disresonant energies (Disresonance) that weren’t mine, the right approach is to Surrender instead of trying to change how I was feeling, and, finally, to be open to drawing more “lines in the sand” to protect my energy (last card, upside down- which in my system means it’s a protection card).

I was left still with the persistent feeling that I needed to acknowledge what, precisely, the sticky, heavy, feeling I was experiencing was. Acknowledgement – bringing a thing to conscious Awareness- always clears energy. I connected the heavy, oily, description Spirit mentions, below, with the New Mexico wildfires happening right now, and the loved ones and friends who live there.

After this conversation, I felt lighter. I am sharing an excerpt of this with you in case you find it helpful!

Me: I feel badly. I am unclear as to why. Divine Spirit can you guide my Awareness in the right direction?

Spirit: The planet – it’s people- the consciousness of what’s occurring, is impacting you right now. It is not a direct association, though, it is, yes, happening through and to loved ones you are connected with.

Feel into what you are precisely feeling, as you have begun. You feel tired, then underneath that? Sad. Then underneath that? Some grief, some despair, some specific to the Earth itself, which you know as Light, so you can feel that difference can’t you? A darkening of perception over what you know as Light? Yes, it does feel harder to reach right now.

Me: What can I do about it? Do I need to… (do more practices, etc.)

Spirit: When oil meets water the two never mix; however, the oil sticks in clumps and the way to dissolve the oil is to add more water, and more, until that sticky, heavy, bubble disperses into small bubbles which become indistinguishable from water molecules.

The practices you do, routines, are the water. Adding Light.

Helpful, healthful, and yet the reason you feel they sometimes are not enough is because the oil has been issued in such large amounts. Your sleep (quality) is connected to your daytime, of course it is, and to everyone you’ve connected with as well.

Do all you do to stay Light with your routines- the energy practices, and lately especially being in Nature itself, for you – increases your capacity.

Try not to focus on the energy depletion you feel as a thing to fix. This will make you feel worse. Instead, what feels good? What feels good? Over and over, as much as you need, place no limit on your quest to enjoy yourself, to be in GOOD, while knowing that sometimes the oil is big, greater than you’re used to, which is why it feels so disruptive right now.

 

 

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