The Good News Is...

Wow. So much is happening in the cosmic geometries, manifesting as life here in the 3D. Things have likely felt a bit nuts - for me personally I can testify that yes, A FULL BOWL OF NUTS. For many of us that has shown up as sudden break-ups of partnerships (romantic and otherwise) and an underlying sense of deep and somewhat terrifying energetics that are hard to put into words. It's simply an extra-crazy time here on planet Earth. The good news is we are offered a bit of relief, starting right now. Today is the New Moon in Libra (exact at 5:11pm PST), the so-called 'Black Moon' as it is the second New Moon in a calendar month. And today that feels exactly right, a Black Moon indeed. The upside is the New Moon always signals the end of one or more cycles and beginning of the new.

The cycle that has just ended is largely about completed soul contracts, which naturally lends itself to 'break-ups'. When we move through these experiences consciously, by allowing ourselves to fully feel the depth of emotions while honoring the value and purpose of the partnership, we can come out the other side 'clean' and increased by the engagement. Emotions in the 3D tend to get very sticky and they can literally gunk-up our emotional field; we know this is happening when we get stuck on a single thought form, when we just can't seem to let something go. We are creatures that are meant to flow, which means we are built to allow emotions to move through us, like water, to completely immerse us and then flow on by. When we allow this, we can receive the jewel of the experience (there is always a jewel) and not amplify or prolong our suffering. When we resist the pain by distracting ourselves, ignoring it, getting angry, trying to change outcomes, etc., we are simply prolonging the inevitable, or worse yet, we are burying it deep within us where it will fester and eventually make us sick.

Another way we create suffering is to make the break-up mean something about us, rather than just staying present to the emotions. There can be a lot of wisdom and information in our emotions. If our beloved or partner has left us because they felt 'smothered', we have the opportunity to look at that with an open mind and heart: What am I doing that can be perceived as over-bearing or smothering? Am I allowing an open exchange of ideas, opinions, outcomes, etc.? Am I dominating the conversation/relationship? Do I take others' feelings and needs into account? In this way we can get real with ourselves, learn something about ourselves and grow from the experience. Or we can make it mean that we are Domineering, Uncaring, Selfish. And we can move forward through life believing this about ourselves - a sure-fire recipe for relentless suffering.     

When moving through these emotionally charged experiences, self-care and self-love are crucial. We must stay present to our pain, bending our ear towards it, allowing it to express itself fully. This hurts and yet it is the fire we must walk through to reach the other side. So yes, sometimes we will be wailing and mourning, and we can support ourselves through this process in myriad ways. We can  reach out to other beloveds who are really good at holding us (not talking us out of our pain, or bashing our ex, etc.). We can journal, take baths, do yoga, do breathwork, study, have fun, whatever our go-to's are for feeling AUTHENTICALLY better. (This means getting drunk to forget about it is not doing us any favors.) And most importantly, we hold ourselves in the process, knowing it is a spiral journey; one day we will feel good, like we're moving past it and the next day we will feel wrecked again. That's how the spiral works, it's not a linear process.

So we honor the relationship/partnership, we honor the ending of the relationship/partnership, we honor ourselves and our (now ex) partners, we honor the totality of our human journey. We remember to lean into the deep unseen Perfection that is always at hand, always revealing itself as our lives. Most of us do not have the perspective to pull back far enough to see the genius patterns of our existence; if we could, we would see that every single aspect of our lives is perfect, on purpose, carefully and specifically created by us, for us, so that our souls may grow and we may know ourselves more fully as Love and Wholeness. We can keep this knowing close, even as we feel the fullness of pain our human experience sometimes affords.

(For the record, my beloved and I did not split. There have been several deeply impactful breakups around me, one so close it may as well have been mine. And it brought up the unfinished business of every break-up I've experienced, a gift for which I am eternally grateful.)

So today is a very good day to set Intentions for the coming year. The New Moon is in Libra with a Venus influence. Libra rules the mirrored consciousness - our charge to create the world we desire inside of us first and the outer world will (must) reflect it back to us. And Venus is about Love; we have spent much of this year being schooled on how to give, receive and BE Love. So we are called to set Intentions around creating a world that reflects back to us all the Love we can possibly receive. (Thank you for this Dr. Michael Lennox.) We are called to create balanced relationships, where we are giving and receiving equally, where there is an open flow of alert attentiveness and appreciation without need. (As an aside - Receiving is a practice that is very worthy of our attention. A lot of us are really bad at it and don't even know it. Maybe investigate that for yourself.)

This weekend also marks the beginning of the Jewish High Holidays, the beginning of the Jewish New Year. It is the time of year we take stock of the previous cycle, allowing ourselves to see what worked and what didn't, how we fell short, how we hurt ourselves and others. We admit our failings and shortcomings, we ask for forgiveness, we make amends. And then we dream the coming year - a sweeter year - into being.

Here's to all the Sweetness and Love you can hold <3

Still Falling

Bright Blessings Beloveds!! Well, we’re still in it. As of this writing we are just past the eclipse portal/wormhole that began at the beginning of September with the new moon solar eclipse and (mostly) culminated last Friday with the full moon lunar eclipse. The energy will be with us on some level until the new moon on October 1^st. The eclipse energies have been gigantic, for me at least. I have been in the washing machine of perspective, turning this way and that, sometimes upright, sometimes sideways, sometimes upside down, literally. I have had many AHA moments, when I am in an instant gifted with a pristinely clear view of something I have been trying to see for – in some cases – years. It’s been very freeing, for quite often the seeing brings release. I have said goodbye to a lot these past weeks.

Two themes have come forward repeatedly; Purification and Release. Purification has played out in raja yoga, lots of time in water, gong (playing and receiving), meditation, breath work, and exercise. And Release has come largely in the dream time. My mind and nervous system have been calm enough to simply stay present to what is happening, without making it mean anything, without needing to understand, although Clarity is abundantly present. In times like these, I stay as quiet as I can, eat as well as I can and sleep as much as I can. It’s really important to support ourselves as deeply as possible during these amplified energetic stretches. On last Friday’s full moon, I wrote down all that was/is releasing and included a few things I would consciously like to let go of and then burnt the pages in ceremony. And at the next full moon I will release those ashes into the wind during a full moon hike. (As an aside I HIGHLY RECOMMEND FULL MOON HIKES. Many of you have asked me how to ‘build’ magic in your everyday lives - full moon hikes are guaranteed magic. Grab a sister or two, head out to someplace familiar in Nature and simply take it in. If you can be close to moving water, even better. And the great news is you have an opportunity every single month to experience this!!).

As I wrote in my last newsletter, the energies of this eclipse season have allowed us to see hidden aspects of our past so that we can release it. When we release anything, it is important that we come from a place of gratitude, for our lives are our teachers, in every way. Every person we interact with whether in big or small ways, is our teacher. So we release with gratitude for the experience, grateful for the lesson regardless of how painful or difficult it may have been. We are honed by pain; our most difficult relationships are like sand, creating us as the pearl. When we hold this in consciousness, we are able to see and experience all of our relationships from an elevated perspective. Everyone, every single person in your life is with you for a reason – your soul has called them in on purpose. Find out what that purpose is and work with it; this will allow you to receive the fullness of the divine design you are creating and playing out as your life.

The current energies feature Mercury in retrograde, in Virgo, and the Fall Equinox today. Mercury represents our mind and when in retrograde, our minds are turned within, viewing our inner landscape. When the retrograde happens in an Earth sign (this year all of Mercury’s retrogrades are in Earth signs), our inner view is specifically oriented toward form and manifestation. How do we manifest our inspired ideas and heart’s desires? How do we live our dharma? Virgo represents the place in us that knows how all the moving parts work together harmoniously, so we are in deep instruction mode. Are you listening? Are you holding your fears with love and patience, gently acknowledging them as fear (as opposed to the truth) and then moving forward anyway? Quite often it is the child in us who is fearful; hold her close and let her know she is ok, that you’ve got her. And then do the thing that scares you. (I recently saw a great teaching around the word FEAR: Forget Everything And Run OR Face Everything And Rise. It’s your choice.) Realize that it’s not your job to know the whole picture, right now, today. It’s your job to know your dreams and desires and to listen to what the very next step is to serve them. You don’t need to know all the details of the divine plan that is your life; you need only remember that there is a divine plan (created by you, for you), that you can tune in with it regularly, and allow it to instruct you as to what to do next. After you do that one thing, tune in again to find out what’s after that. Let the infinite creativity of the Universe take care of the big picture. You just do you, authentically serving the highest out-picturing of your life right now. In this way, in small steps, you will find yourself on your dharmic path, delivering the good you came to embody.   

The Fall Equinox occurs today. This is when the sun (our consciousness) crosses the plane of the equator, creating a day with equal light and darkness. We in the northern hemisphere will  complete the cycle where there was more daylight than darkness, where we were more focused on the outer consciousness, the world, and doing/manifesting. This important balance point is a rest to our entire system, a moment to pause in stillness. Tomorrow we will head into the time when darkness increasingly rules the day, when we begin to turn within to receive the gifts of winter. But first we must reap the benefits of what we have sown this year – we harvest what has grown. More on that next month. For now see if you can create a little time today to simply pause and be. Sometimes when I do this, I lay down on the floor or ground, someplace with an interesting overhead view and I just allow my eyes to be with the shapes I see and use my breath to soften and relax my body. And I just lay there and rest. It’s quite wonderful.

Holding you all in the perfect light of Balance and Harmony.