Astrology | Ascension Lifestyle

11 Dec 2015
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Make Room For Miracles: New Moon in Sagittarius

This month’s new moon occurs during the last few days of Chanukah on Friday, December 11th at 2:29AM PST. A celebration of light amidst the darkest nights, Chanukah’s central theme is to remember and publicize the miracle, reminding one another that miracles are a part of our life, happening all the time. Placing our menorah in the window ensures that everyone who passes by our home will at least have the possibility of receiving some light during these long dark nights.

Chanukah isn’t the only holiday this season that centers itself around the themes of gratitude, miracles and the returning of the light. All of our ancestors had specific yet similar associations with the sun’s cycles and this season.

As the days grow darker and darker until the Winter Solstice on December 21st we need reminders that the light will return, so we light candles, we wrap trees in tiny lights, we tell stories of miracles that occurred long ago and if we are wise we look for the miracles that occur in our lives everyday.

Miracles are a part of life.

They happen constantly and as humans we often miss them. Our gaze might be cast down when they fly by our eye line. Our hearts may have hardened against receiving them. We may have forgotten that we can actively manifest them. We might not know that there is a way to prepare ourselves to be the vessel for such miracles to flow through.

Preparing our selves for the miraculous takes deep introspection. It takes a willingness to see when our thoughts are rooted in greed or hate. It takes a great strength to notice the places inside of us that are bound in fear and trauma, rightfully so perhaps, but nonetheless withholding from us the experience of witnessing how grace is always wanting to move through us, always ready and at our service, and always willing to show up.

The fact that we have been traumatized, violated, beaten down and abused is not our fault. It is not a fault that we have within us. It is not something that is wrong with us.

It is, however, something that we have to carry.

The fact that we have perhaps participated in the trauma, violation and abuse of others is something that is hard to recognize, it’s hard to see in ourselves, it’s hard to acknowledge and it’s also hard to carry.

But we are not our worst decisions.

We are human and if we choose to see both sides of ourselves, the victim and the perpetrator, miracles can occur.

When we open ourselves up to more than just our own experience, we become more competent, loving, intelligent and connected beings. And that makes our lives fertile ground for miracles, healing and hope.

We are, as a world, in dark times. We are in jeopardy of believing that our hatred of others will protect us from the pain of life. We are in jeopardy of forgetting that our own hatred harms us more than anyone else’s could. We are in jeopardy of letting our minds and our hearts be poisoned against one another by the distortions of the deranged. Right now, we need all the miracles we can get.

Fortunately, miracles aren’t granted only to the holy, the pious or the righteous. Miracles aren’t saved for the popular kids that are so #blessed. That’s privilege and it’s a human construct that has nothing to do with actual blessings. Miracles are something much more interesting. Miracles are taking place all the time. In big ways. In teeny-tiny ways. Inside every life. Miracles simply exist. Without our force. Without our coercion. Without our manipulation.

Every time you love out loud you are opening a space for a miracle to enter. Every time you seek to create a safe and just world for all you are helping miracles to occur. Every time you remember that your liberation is bound up in the liberation of every other being on the planet, you have been granted a miracle. Every time we remember and act on the fact that we are all here to serve one another, we have been part of a miracle.

Hold that miracle up.

We need to see it. We need to remember it. We need to be reminded of the fact that there is nothing greater to give than our light, our awareness and our energy in service of all life on the planet.

Sagittarius is a sign that has boundless faith. Sagittarius knows no bounds. Sagittarius is down for possibility and excited by the open road. Sagittarius focuses on what works. It is a sign that acts on faith and has the enthusiasm of a thousand excited puppies unleashed on the world.

Sagittarius knows life is miraculous.

On Friday, December 11th at 2:29 AM PST, the moon will be new in Sagittarius. This is a new moon that can remind us that we have to have great amounts of faith in order to live life out on the open road.

This is the first new moon in Sagittarius that we’ve had with Saturn co present in about 28 years or so. Saturn, having recently moved into Sagittarius where it will stay for the next two years, is encouraging us to embark upon our journey with a great commitment to its process.

Saturn isn’t the easiest planet, nor the kindest, but it is the most serious. In Sagittarius, Saturn asks us what journey we might be serious about taking, what we are serious about learning and what spiritual pursuit we are serious enough about to take on in earnest. More importantly to note is what part of your chart this is all taking place in (read your new moon horoscope to find out). Since Saturn will be here for the next two years it might be helpful to use this new moon to consider what projects you are willing to commit to, which journeys you are prepared to take and which pursuits feel like they need your full-on yes in order to really get going.

Saturn in Sagittarius might also be asking us to harness our faith, show up for what we believe in and offer our lives as sites for the miraculous to occur.

The new moon is also getting a hopeful and invigorating trine from Uranus and a helpful heeeyyy there sextile from Mars. Uranus wants freedom, change and innovation. Uranus wants new, bold beginnings. Mars has courage. Mars has get up and go. Mars has what it takes to take it to the next level.

It takes courage to travel this path because what we face we do so mostly on our own.

The ruler of this new moon is Jupiter. The new moon is squaring Jupiter who is currently in Virgo. Jupiter adds an exaggerated tone to the new moon. It might magnify Sagittarius’s tendencies, like over indulgence and overestimation.

Steady your feet. This isn’t a race. We need conscious co-creators to take their journey one step at a time. Look at the horizon. Look to where you are going. Look to what is possible as you commit yourself to the path that you have chosen.

Declaring our commitment immediately calls in the possibility of doubt. That’s what choice does, it reveals what we allow ourselves to become constantly distracted by. Our doubts. Our fears. Our facades. But it’s too easy to make excuses. It’s too easy to be swayed by unfounded fears. It’s too easy to be unsure and to therefore stay in the same cycle.

This new moon is daring you to do that all differently. If you want a relationship, commit yourself to a practice of self-love, healing and preparing for them. If you want to open your own business, commit time every day towards learning about it and doing something towards manifesting it. If you want to feel good, commit to a self-care ritual and to loving yourself through each up and down. If you want justice you have to commit to making room for it in all aspects of life.

If we want anything, like anything at all, we have to show up for it in sickness, in health, in hopeful days and in ones where we despair. That’s what Saturn can teach us. If we want a miracle, we can at the very least prepare ourselves for one.

About the Author:
Chani has a degree in Feminist Counseling from George Brown College and a BA in Integral Studies from California Institute of Integral Studies. She has studied psychological astrology for over 20 years and is currently studying Hellenistic astrology with Demetra George. Chani devotes her spare time to studying, practicing and supporting restorative justice practices. You can find her at http://chaninicholas.com

15 Nov 2015
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Reflections on a World of Grief: New Moon in Scorpio and the Saturn Neptune Square

I don’t mourn for a city. I mourn for people and the land they live on. I mourn for all the beings that have died traumatic deaths, all the lives disrupted, all the trauma created and all the people that are grieving the loss of their loved ones. In Paris, yes, and beyond. I don’t mourn for nation states, borders and boundaries. I mourn for the lies that are covered by their flags. I mourn for our collective consciousness that values some lives more than others.

I mourn for the normalization of black, brown, indigenous, queer, femme, female slaughter. I mourn for the way western, colonial thought dominates news networks blaming, shaming and setting up those from Islamic nations to bear the burden of our collective war crimes. I mourn for the fact that we are so far from clear about the western world’s involvement and financial backing of ISIS and other organizations of terror that we think we have been attacked by some foreign “other”.

I mourn for those that are terrorized by the American government, military and police force on this land and beyond. I mourn for our lack of consciousness about how we terrorize others. I mourn for our lack of empathy when we learn that we do. I mourn for our cognitive dissonance. I mourn for the fact that while we conceptually know that we are “all one”, the reality of valuing each life as equal is still far from the norm. I mourn for how racism, xenophobia, nationalism and colonialism have molded our way of thinking and shaped the pathways of our hearts.

I mourn for the part of us that blames the victim, time and time again. I mourn for the part of us that is too weak to stand up to the perpetrator. I mourn for the part of our souls that is so twisted, misshaped and malfunctioning that is chooses to align itself with the ones who wage these wars.

I mourn for all of this. I am a part of all of this. I am not separate from any of this. I mourn for this aspect of humanity, this aspect of myself that keeps reliving this nightmare.

I thought a lot this weekend. I thought and felt a lot about how I use astrology. How my community uses astrology. I thought about the Scorpio new moon. I thought about Saturn in Sagittarius squaring Neptune in Pisces. I thought about what was going on and what it meant for our world, our hearts and this profession.

There were obvious Scorpio themes in the past week. Themes of using power over others and using our inner power to inspire others to locate and use their own. There were also obvious emerging themes of Saturn in Sagittarius as the combination relates to issues of faith, extremism, education and xenophobia.

The successful demonstrations and strikes at Mizzou and the nationwide support for the students there was a beautiful example of how to use our personal power to inspire collective power in the face of racism and hatred (also a type of terrorism). The racist backlash and threats (again, terrorism) were an obvious example of how to use Scorpio energy in its most base, violent way.

Saturn in Sagittarius is also part of this story because the world of higher education is governed by Sagittarius and because Saturn makes real the issues we have with higher education. As Saturn in Sagittarius unfolds (it is far from over), more of these events are likely to come to light.

The terrorist attacks that took place in Beirut, Baghdad and Paris could be seen as another manifestation of the new moon in Scorpio and using that energy again in the most base, destructive way possible.

This moment has teased out the question of how we use our power and what we lend our power to. What happened this weekend in Paris is a tragedy, through and through. And it is a tragedy that happens in many countries the world over all the time. It happened in Beirut and Baghdad days before Paris and no president said anything about it. No astrological publication or astrologer that I know of pulled up the chart for Beirut or Baghdad and made a declaration about Saturn in Sagittarius either.

But we did for Paris.

There seems to be a conversation brewing in astrological circles about religious fundamentalism in connection to Saturn’s (the planet that makes things solid and defined) recent arrival into Sagittarius (a sign that deals with religion), but why now? Is it due to the fact that terrorist attacks have happened in France twice since Saturn moved into Sagittarius? But terrorist attacks happen in non-westerners countries, to non-white people all the time. Why don’t they get astrological scrutiny? Why draw up charts of and investigate only certain nations being attacked, certain types of people, and certain types of cultures? When does the terror that black and brown folks face get to be as worthy of the white solidarity and of the astrological communities expertise? When is the terrorism that happens in a non-western country worthy of airtime and analysis?

Certainly Saturn in Sagittarius brings into form, and therefore into our consciousness, the problems with patriarchal (Saturn) religious ideologies (Sagittarius). Squaring Neptune (compassion, confusion and delusion) in Pisces (dreamy, impressionistic and ideal states of oneness), the Saturn in Sagittarius complex gets outed possibly for the delusion that it is and that it feeds us.

Colonial thinking has power because it dehumanizes those that come from somewhere we know little to nothing about. We don’t have to see “them” as “us” or “their” suffering as “real”. When we dehumanize others, their suffering just isn’t as bad as ours. It’s simply not “our” problem and maybe not even “our” astrology.

Perhaps then, Saturn’s entrance into Sagittarius will make real this kind of disparage in our global philosophy. Perhaps Saturn’s transit through Sagittarius, especially as it makes three squares to Neptune in Pisces over the next year, can informs us, can remind us and can teach us that those that grieve their loved ones in the Middle East, in Africa, in Asia, and in the Americas do so in the same way. The same pain runs through every heart on this earth.

Let us not be manipulated by fear to turn against each other, creating ever more suffering. Let us grieve together, in solidarity for a world gone mad and in hopes for a world returned to sanity, which is to say, love.

By: Chani Nicholas

Chani has a degree in Feminist Counseling from George Brown College and a BA in Integral Studies from California Institute of Integral Studies. She has studied psychological astrology for over 20 years and is currently studying Hellenistic astrology with Demetra George. Chani devotes her spare time to studying, practicing and supporting restorative justice practices. You can find her at http://chaninicholas.com

10 Nov 2015
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Scared to Sacred: Falling in Love with 13

In high school English I learned a 64-carat word for a common ailment: triskaidekaphobia, or “fear of the number thirteen.” The elevator in my grandparents’ apartment building omitted the thirteenth floor. Apparently the assumption was, nobody would have wanted to live on it. It was a fashionable New York City address; fear and loathing cross all perceived boundaries. I also recall a series of horror movies with “Friday the 13th” in the title.

A society steeped in superstition and a materialistic value system will find it easy to assign anxiety to anything that threatens the status quo. Thirteen is the number of movement, of change — a wild card — and that can be very scary. But it’s our lost connection with the Divine in everyday life that gives rise to such distress. Divorced from our origins, terrified of our own power, we profane the sacred: thirteen becomes unlucky, evil, a curse; symbolic scapegoat of all we’re afraid to embrace.

When we can take the thirteenth step, however, we’re on the first step of the Stairway to Heaven. With the courage to look, we find thirteen stitched into the very fabric of American culture. Thirteen colonies gave birth to a nation. The first American flag bore thirteen stars and stripes. We were on the right track back then, grounded into the roots of our heritage.

Think about it: thirteen has traditionally been cause for celebration. The thirteenth year signifies a coming-of-age, also across all perceived boundaries. In the Jewish religion, boys make their Bar Mitzvah at thirteen. This ceremony, which involves reading from the holy Torah, marks a boy’s entrance into manhood.

Girls generally begin to menstruate at thirteen. Cross-culturally, it’s common to commemorate the first blood with an initiation rite; here in the West, this significant threshold is at last beginning to be recognized as a powerful, sacred passage. (My e-course, Loving Our Lunacy, is an embodied initiation for women.)

In fact, there are even thirteen sun signs in the Real Solar Zodiac — which is not the one used in conventional astrology. Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer, has been omitted from the oversimplified Tropical Zodiac used in the West. Yet the serpent denotes transformation — and on the Winter Solstice of 2012, long prophesied by indigenous cultures worldwide as the Shift of the Ages, Earth directly aligned with both Ophiuchus and the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Thirteen, then, is a fundamental Earth rhythm, biorhythm, manifested in our physical bodies as well as the heavenly ones. To reject thirteen is, perhaps, to reject or deny some core aspect of ourselves as human beings.

How can we reawaken to our true purpose and potential, beyond the fear and perception of separateness? By reclaiming our native knowing.

One way that resonates for me is following a 13 Moon Calendar. The 13 Moon Calendar shows us a path to walk to restore right relationship in our lives, to re-member (make membership again) our journey as one Earth family. Based on an annual solar cycle of 13 moons (months) of 28 days each (the female menstrual cycle), plus one “day out of time” in which to reflect and regenerate, the 13 Moon Calendar is synchronized with Earth rhythms and human biology. It’s expansive, intuitive, juicy, flowing: life, in all its harmonious chaos.

The beauty of this apparent paradox lies in learning to honor them both/and: life is orderly and messy, pragmatic and unpredictable, spiritual and material. Living in tune with these innate contradictions, we breathe in our own magnificence, and feel nourished and held in the body of the Great Mother.

Our Gregorian calendar, by contrast, models scarcity, so we always subtly feel like we’re starving: if you get what you need, there might not be enough for me. Living a compressed, alienating, sterile existence, our spiritual lungs squeezed for air, we evince these invisible shackles in the way we treat each other and Gaia. Time-is-money, me-first, bigger-better-best, I want it yesterday, are the credos of mechanistic time. Pursued by the clock, separated from our humanity, we’ve forgotten that time is creativity, that women carry time in their bodies, and have come to accept the clock as king.

Another Earth-based analogy may also help: I’ve observed a fairly rampant homeowner disgust with the “lowly dandelion”, scourge of suburbia’s well-manicured lawns — when in fact, dandelion is one of the most healing herbs available to humanity, offering itself in abundance wherever we dwell. It’s a supreme liver tonic, known to help detoxify the body’s “processing plant.” If you want to release that pent-up rage in a healthy way, the remedy is probably available, free and easy, right in your own backyard.

Dandelion is so plentiful that I find it also acts as de facto compost within me: surrounding and helping to decompose back into rich loam that which no longer serves. Yet we curse the weed and uproot it, spray poison to keep the green carpet unsullied. When we can stop “livin’ for the lawn,” focusing predominantly on the external, and make the subtle shift from ego mind to Universal Mind, we see with such great clarity the incredible gifts all around us.

In the 13 Moon Calendar, the number thirteen, like dandelion, grows everywhere; it’s the key thread on which the harmony of the calendar is woven. And on a 13 Moon Calendar, there’s always a Friday the 13th — in a 28-day month, every second Friday is Friday the thirteenth!

As our evolutionary readiness dissolves old superstition around the number thirteen — and all it represents — our collective mindfield makes a quantum leap from mindless fear to aware acceptance of thirteen as the sacred number of the spiral, the energy of kundalini awakening, the step to transformation and growth. Unified in time, living on purpose, a metamorphosis occurs as we attune to a higher frequency.

Metamorphosis means not only change, but going above, beyond what existed before. The Sufi mystic Rumi said, “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing there’s a field; I’ll meet you there.” In this quantum field, we midwife moth into butterfly. Scared into sacred. Each of us into our true purpose and potential.

What is this time of profound transmutation helping you bring to birth? Whatever it is, may it be in beauty, for the greatest good of all.

About the Author:

Amara Rose is a “midwife” for our global rebirth. Her services include transformational guidance, talks, e-courses, a digital download CD, and an inspirational monthly newsletter. She is widely published in health, business and new thought magazines, both digital and print. Learn more: http://www.liveyourlight.com

15 Oct 2015
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Deep “E”-cology: Coming Home to Ourselves

There’s a war going on, and it’s not with Iraq. (Or Afghanistan. Or Syria.)

This war is on a scale so vast it’s difficult to see, so ancient we’ve taken it for granted.

It’s a war that has been gathering momentum since humanity first became conscious. It cuts to the very core of existence. It’s what drives the corporations and the deep ecologists, the religious right and the lovers. It’s woven so tightly into the fabric of our lives that we’ve accepted it blandly, without knowing there was ever a choice. It’s caused untold human misery for millennia, and still it burns on, more vividly in the digital age than ever before, as our collective awakening arches toward Armageddon — or quantum evolution.

It is the struggle between truth and heresy. Between subservience and sovereignty. Between opening our minds to wisdom, and clinging to what we’d prefer to believe. Between following a well-worn path, and cutting a swath through the wilderness of our souls.

This war marshals all of our natural resources. Passion and commitment. Love and communion. Faith and ecstasy. If we use them well, our stores will increase. If we use them foolishly, a barren landscape is certain. Because this war is taking place inside each one of us.

World Wide Web

$fractal-ying-yang-jaroslaw-grudzinski$

It is a clarion call to yinify: to wed our masculine and feminine energies for internal and external balance, harmony and peace at every level of co-creation.

Becoming whole — embracing our assertive/dynamic/solar/yang side and our receptive/magnetic/lunar/yin side, both within ourselves and as a planetary organism — is the creative quest of our time. It’s a homecoming, a re-membering (making membership again). As we are able to celebrate this marriage first in our own hearts, the joy and the love we then have available to share with our sisters and brothers increases exponentially.

Evolution through relationship defines the true “world wide web”: weaving our oneness through the meeting of minds and the holding of hands.

No lasting outer peace is possible without this inner reunion. The absolution of duality is the key to living Heaven on Earth, because it means the end of judgment. As the cosmic comic Swami Beyondananda says, “Nonjudgment Day is coming.”

With nothing to choose between, we are integrated, living in integrity, whole. In the seventh century, Zen master Sengstau expressed this potential eloquently in Verses On The Faith Mind:

The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences.

When love and hate are both absent
everything becomes clear and undisguised.

Make the smallest distinction however
and Heaven and Earth are set infinitely apart.

Understandably, this is not an easy task for most of us to master — or to choose to master.

Many have run, continue to run, for apparent refuge, either into religious doctrine, which tells us how to think and what to believe, or into other well-organized movements masquerading as paths to freedom. Some groups purport to focus solely on spiritual love, ignoring the truth that matter is Spirit in form. Others emphasize sexual union as the ideal path to oneness, omitting the sacred element, and once again it is a lie.

It can be comforting to be a foot soldier in someone else’s army. You don’t have to do any real thinking. You don’t have to take responsibility for the outcome you help create. You can externalize your role: it’s terrorists, it’s the government, it’s anybody who looks or acts or sounds different from me. This is the old, patriarchal view that’s held sway for five thousand years. This Weltanschauung has run its course and is completing its earthly cycle, now.

If you choose not to acknowledge the war at all, you can still go on raising a family behind a white picket façade, with Sunday suppers and comfortable routines that mark a life. But the time for hiding out in this delusion is deliquescing, like Dali’s famous clocks. The light of universal fire is bleaching falsehood from our souls, enlightening and enlivening us, one by one, cell by cell, bringing more joy to the journey.

What we can learn from the limbic brain

The truth is, we’re all equal backstage, when the make-up and the costumes and the constructs come off. We are all rays of the One Being, sharing the same life support system, Mother Earth. Our similarity is the great leveler, because it humbles our unique, snowflake selves into awareness of a greater whole.

This was brought home to me recently when I was having dinner in a Chinese restaurant where I’ve eaten many times. I like a certain dish on the menu, substituting a sweet and sour sauce for the standard garlic sauce. One waiter, who is Chinese, knows my order so well he even “recognizes” me over the phone when I place a to-go order.

The other evening, dining at the restaurant, I ordered that same dish. The place was bustling. When I went up to pay, the waiter, who happened to be standing by the cash register, did not know me as the woman who always orders the dish with the different sauce.

I had a flash of insight and asked him kindly, “Please don’t be offended, but Caucasians — do we all look alike?” With a relieved grin he said, “Yes.” The Caucasian cashier was amazed by my question, but I understood. I told her, “It’s like this for every race, every culture. Isn’t it more difficult to differentiate between Asian or African-American people whom you don’t know, than other Whites?” She admitted it might be.

We’re coded with an innate affinity for our own small portion of the whole. This is the ancient, limbic brain in action, defending our “territory” against invaders; limbic means, “forming a border.” To bridge this chasm is the beginning of world healing. Recognizing the Other through conscious understanding takes both patience and practice.

To see the big picture we have to widen our scope, extend our artificial boundaries. There are no actual map lines on Earth, delineating this country, this language, this religion, this culture from the next. We’ve created it all. It’s our collective game. As we become technologically proficient, the playing field shrinks to a more agreeable size, and the game starts to seem superfluous.

A meta-field is beckoning. We’ve called it outer space. Again, we put the cart before the horse, our eagerness ahead of our readiness. Inner space is the foreign territory we must master first. Yinification begins at home.

Deep “E”-cology

This is the potential of the Internet: to help us come home to ourselves, as a species, as a people, as one culture united through whatever we choose to call the animating energy that informs our existence. The ‘Net is a universal connector, a universal translator, the key to deep ecology in the most profound sense. “Eco”, from the Greek oikos, means home. “Logy” is a branch of learning or study. Ecology is, literally, learning about home!

Coming home to ourselves means owning the truth that there is no separation, except what we allow to exist, through fear. Fear contracts our hearts and minds; love expands them. Many of us learn to open our hearts through sacrifice, which means, “to make sacred.” Releasing our deepest attachments is a crucial part of the initiation on our journey to self-awareness. Our gift is as great as our grief. The poet David Whyte says, “The rest of creation is waiting, breathless, for you to take your place.”

We can start by detaching from what numbs us (like television), and focusing on what feeds us — like “tell-a-vision,” a subtle shift that transmutes suppression into inspiration. The price of freedom is your voice. Begin to share your vision of the world you want to co-create! As you do, you become a “rainbow warrior,” awakening and balancing your energy throughout your being in order to realize the full spectrum of your purpose and potential.

Heaven on Earth exists in being fully alive in the infinite Now. This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, as The Fifth Dimension sang ‘way back in 1969. They were early messengers, carrying our Divine blueprint via the medium of music.

Let’s revisit the lyrics: “When the Moon is in the seventh house”. In Western astrology, the Moon is symbolic of feminine, receptive energy, what we draw in; the seventh house is about intimate interaction with other people. I’ve dubbed this new way of relating a call to yinify: to unify in the Divine Feminine essence. “And Jupiter aligns with Mars”. Jupiter is the planet of expansion, of expressing our truth through storytelling; Mars is the planet of pure desire and, when dishonored, of war. To have them align means telling ourselves a new, expansive story: transmuting war in the alchemical fire into spiritual warriorhood.

Then, as the group sang, “Peace will guide the planets/And love will steer the stars.”

How clear the message becomes, once we are able to truly hear. The battle cries dim; the masks fall off. A layer of separation evaporates as we become transparent to the truth of who we are. People start to seem somehow familiar, even though we’ve never met them before. It’s the resonant déjà vu of realizing there are no strangers. “Service with a smile” suddenly takes on a whole new meaning.

Getting there calls for a subtle shift in perception and behavior: from acquire to inquire, from escalate to elevate, from scared to sacred. As we cease consuming planetary resources and each other at the speed of greed, let go of buying more in favor of being more, we reclaim our true heritage as Earth stewards. And then barrenness transmutes into bounty. Separation into synergy. Fear into faith. Longing into Love.

We use the expression, “Live and learn.” Implicit is the understanding that what we learn, we will also teach. We become self-renewing by gathering knowledge from our experience, forging it into wisdom in the alchemical fire, and serving as vessels to share the gift that is uniquely ours, but not meant to remain arcane.

Conscious evolution favors the curious and kind mind. Truth nourishes us in ways we might never have imagined. Synchronicity takes us by the hand and we laugh in child-like wonder as we witness Spirit-in-action, again and again and again. This is the Garden, and it is good.

Welcome Home.

By Ascension Lifestyle Contributor Amara Rose:

Amara Rose is a catalyst for quantum evolution. Her services include transformational coaching, talks, e-courses, and an inspirational monthly newsletter. She is widely published in health, business and new thought magazines, both digital and print. Learn more:

http://www.liveyourlight.com
http://twitter.com/Amara_Rose
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amararose

27 Sep 2015
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Full Blood Moon Eclipsed in Aries

I would rather be a superb meteor,

every atom of me in magnificent glow,

than a sleepy and permanent planet.

I will not waste my days trying to prolong them.

I will use my time.

~ Jack London (Aries to Libra nodes)

Do you have the courage to bring forth

the treasures that are hidden within you?

~ Elizabeth Gilbert

Aries Full & Eclipsed Moon @ 4 degrees

8:50 PM MDT

Sunday September 27th

This is a wild moon . . . a moon loaded with shenanigans and gifts.

Falling last in September’s seemingly endless series of energetic surprises and curve balls, tonight’s eclipsed moon feels like the crescendo of a long, dramatic Russian opera.

Probably it’s most piercing question to us is this one: Where have you not acted on behalf of something inside of you which is craving the light of day? This ‘something’ further defines you, expands and nourishes the Self you have been creating throughout this lifetime. An eclipsed moon, after all, isn’t eclipsing you as much as it’s helping you to understand what you may have allowed to be eclipsed.

The Aries to Libra energy of this moon seeks to integrate the need to be independent with the need to be in relationship. You are simultaneously learning to know yourself—your deepest expression of Self—in the context of your interactions with others. If there is something within you which feels shut out, which wonders when and where it’s safe to introduce (or re-introduce) itself, your sense of imbalance will be triggered.

You might find yourself tempted to breathe a little fire. Or to point your finger at someone else, someone who has, truly, offended or hurt you. But . . . the thing is this: nothing worthwhile has ever been accomplished by blaming someone else . . . even if that someone else is perfectly awful. The way through is always to gather yourself together, refuse to feel as if you are The Victim, and go ahead and step into the next page of your story. No one else can do this for you. No one else can know how this next step needs to feel to you.

Tonight’s moon is helping you to move out of any shadow you may feel has cast a spell on you and just step back into the light of your Self with renewed energy. This takes no small amount of personal courage. But it’s sitting right there in your core, just waiting for you to call it into action.

Sometimes as I write these columns, I worry that you, my readers and my friends, might think I’m taking all that is unfolding in Time too lightly. I promise you, I am not. I am keenly aware that we have had to navigate a continuous series of energy shifts which have, now and again, seemed merciless in their demands upon our hearts and minds. All of us have either summoned the courage to dive more deeply into our shadows—or refused this rich soul work and, instead, chosen denial (which never works out very well in the end)—and as we feel the energy of tonight’s extreme Moon, most everyone is feeling alternately lighter and weary.

To keep things more than interesting, tonight’s emotionally-charged moon occurs right in the middle of a mind-bendingly tricky Mercury retro cycle already fully engaged in pointing out the wrinkles in your relationships as well as offering up countless frustrating detail-snaffoos. So this Aries moon, cruising closer to the earth than any other this year, and full to overflowing with emotional tides, is a bit like tossing a thimble of gasoline onto an already charged fire.

Please be careful. Watch for anger, in others as well as in yourself, and use it as an indicator that something is off balance. Then tap into the part of yourself capable of acting rather than re-acting. You can use this energy to set a new course. Nothing has to remain the same. Nor will it.

A few weeks ago, Steven Colbert interviewed Joe Biden who quoted his mother as saying: “What’s the use of being Irish if you don’t realize life’s going to break your heart?” I wonder if we couldn’t update that sentiment a bit to this: “What’s the use of being human if you don’t realize life’s going to break your heart open?”

To life.

Drop a note if you’d like to better understand how all of these recent shifts are affecting your own life or your relationships, or if you’d like to study your astro-cartography maps.

By: Ascension Lifestyle Guest Contributor

Deborah O’conner

406-531-5129

deb@lovedogdesign.com

www.lovedogdesign.com

Be humble, for you are made of earth. Be noble, for you are made of stars.

21 Jul 2015
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Destiny & Free Will

I was contemplating the other day about destiny and free will and I processed both of them in ways that make sense to me in a non conflicting way….. at least from my perspective. My view on this may be different from yours but the way I see it, Destiny is something you are meant to do. It is something that brings you closer to your highest self. It is not a hard set path that you must take but rather a journey to a destination that will bring out the best in you. What you’re destined to do opens your eyes to the most profound epiphanies about yourself, your surroundings, and your purpose. The road to your destiny may be rough but the lessons you learn from your experiences on this path will be life changing and contribute significantly to your personal development.

Like a car getting a green light at every approaching intersection, sometimes the Universe can open the doors and clear the way for you if you chose to follow your destiny. Following your destiny could be as easy as flowing with the Tao, not resisting, but surrendering to the stream of water that will bring you to an ocean of possibilities. In nature, water is a natural element that always flows to the ocean. Through erosion it cuts through rocks and carves valleys through mountains. Not to get all organized religion on you but let me quote Jesus when he said “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done.” Water is the only element that moves mountains and takes their rocks and minerals out into the sea. Perhaps an intentional metaphor or just a coincidence but I like to compare it to the Eastern view of flowing with the Tao. The Tao is the force that is most aligned with life, nature, and fulfillment. Water is one of the 5 elements of the Tao and is the most powerful. Water is used as a metaphoric symbol when pursuing your dreams because when you align yourself with that element, you can move mountains. It also instills patience in the student who understands the element because water does not cut through rocks and mountains in one day, it does so over time. Like anything you pursue, as much as we want to get to the next check point as quickly as possible, truly successful people have patience.

On the contrary, pursuing your destiny may be challenging at first, you may not be getting a ton of green lights but rather a bunch of obstacles and hurdles. But within the struggle to live your ideal life and become your greatest version of yourself, the journey itself can be an enlightening process. You will learn things about yourself that you never knew before. People who are strong enough to pick themselves up after failure always become stronger and wiser individuals. Successful internet entrepreneurs that I have listened to have often said “I have a lot of expensive experience”. They have taken big blows to their finances and self esteem before they were able to get to a point where they had unimaginable wealth and freedom. Just because you are pursuing your destiny, does not mean you won’t encounter failure.

Whether the road is rough or easy, the Stars are aligned for you to pursue what you are destined to do. You just got to be up for the challenge…. to become the greatest version of yourself. It’s not about how easy or difficult your destined path may be, it’s about what you will get out of it, and who you will transform into through the process of walking that path.

How do you know what your destiny is? What are you naturally good at that you enjoy doing? What do you feel a strong need to pursue, create, or make a difference in? What type of activity or place do you feel most at home and at peace with yourself? These are questions you have to ask yourself. In this modern world we have to balance happiness with making a living. Understandably many people don’t pursue what they feel destined to do because of this. Others, going against the odds take a leap of faith because they cannot live in a reality where they aren’t living according to their full potential.

Destiny is not set in stone because we do have free choice. We can pursue another path and be successful at it. But what is success? Is it money? That is what most people have been conditioned to feel success is. What if you wanted to be a painter but thought it was too difficult to make money as a painter. So instead you became a stock broker. You become wealthy but you work long hours, have little time for yourself, your job is stressful, you may have bought a lot of toys yet have minimal amount of time to actually enjoy the fruits of your labor. Is that success? Money and resources are needed to exist in our reality, it’s needed to exist comfortably in our economy, but we must look at success beyond money, the circle is much bigger than that. If you prioritize the lifestyle you want before the money, you will soon realize that there are many other variables of success that fit into this circle. Imagine your ideal lifestyle, then figure out a way to afford it. Most people think of how to make money first, and then find a way to make their ideal lifestyle fit in to it. It should be the other way around.

You can chose a path that is not your destiny and become “successful” at it but will it truly be fulfilling? Will it be something you can’t wait to do everyday? These are the things we must think about. I can’t give you the answer, only you can decide what is best for you, what your definition of success and happiness and fulfillment is subjective to your own perspective. I’m just giving you something to think about. Deviating from your destiny could be a path of disappointment and failure, or it could be disappointment and failures that lead up to financial success. Either way the journey will either be successful or unsuccessful but the main question is, will the path lead you to the highest version of yourself? Will you feel fulfilled? Will you feel like you make a difference? Will your soul feel relevant or will your life feel mundane?
The highest version of yourself… What the hell is that exactly? How does one define the greatest version of themselves?

This is my subjective interpretation of it. Your highest self is a state of mind where you feel fulfilled mentally, spiritually, emotionally, financially (depending on what your relationship to money is), and emotionally. Your highest self enables you to resiliently stand on your own regardless of what situation you may encounter. So if your highest self is a state of mind, what comes first? Your destiny or the state of mind? The real truth is, it’s the state of mind that will bring you to your highest self, which will then bring you to your destiny. Some people follow their destiny, and on the journey they grow and cultivate the state of mind necessary to pursue what they’re destined to do. But for those who dream the impossible and don’t allow the external world to conflict with the inner selves, they are the ones who have the state of mind that guides them on their destiny. Steve jobs has an endearing perspective of getting what you want out of life. The 3 minute video below will serve you well to watch it.

As I mentioned earlier, you have free choice. You have a choice of how to think and conduct yourself in this lifetime. What you chose to perceive as limitations, rewards, sacrifices, long term vs short term fulfillment, these are all variables that create a state of mind geared toward personal development, self sabotage, or mediocrity. Free will and destiny are almost linked together, a blurred line that connects them both. Funny how something you are meant to do can only be done if you Chose to do it.
Always remember, You Have The Free Will To Pursue Your Destiny.

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About the Author:

Ascension Lifestyle Staff Writer John Baran

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16 Jul 2015
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Cancer New Moon

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A Cancer moon can too easily be stereotyped as energy which is simply tender and nurturing. Sure. Cancer is always concerned with how care-taking works and yearns for the comfort of home and family.

But this is a New Cancer moon tonight which suggests we might challenge our traditional concepts of it means to belong . . . what it means to find safe refuge in these increasingly spooky times.

Tonight’s new moon is working with Pluto and Mars. These are not the family members who sit at Sunday dinner and politely ask you to pass the tofu burger. These are energy bodies which demand that you wake up and notice anything false or hollow or dangerous you’ve offered your heart in an effort (or as an excuse) to feel safe or loved.

The question embedded in this moon is what might you be settling for in an attempt to create a safe landing? Have you given up any part of your deliciously unique identity in order to feel emotionally safe? Because you know that you can never be truly ‘safe’ if you’ve traded off some essential part of yourself.

This moon is almost begging you to re-examine your sense of what it means ‘to belong,’ of what you truly need to feel your heart at rest. Lean into some way of engaging which scares the dickens out of you. Amazing emotional shifts require a brave leap into the unknown.

The sweet note here is that you cannot lose. You are Love. This is simply a shout-out for the courage to remember that you are always choosing–it’s become a rather tired statement but still so important to remember–it’s either fear or it’s love. Your choice.

By: Ascension Lifestyle Guest Contributor

Deborah O’conner

406-531-5129
deb@lovedogdesign.com
www.lovedogdesign.com

Be humble, for you are made of earth.
Be noble, for you are made of stars.

01 Jul 2015
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Capricorn Full Moon: A Doozy

The same energy fields that have Jupiter and Venus engaged in a gorgeous celestial marriage these last few nights is rocking all the universe in nothing short of remarkable, albeit unpredictable, waves. Changes we’ve awaited maybe all of our lives seem finally to be manifesting. Simultaneously, events so dark we find it hard to breathe through them continue as if unstoppable.

If energy closely related to what is redefining landscapes far and wide is sweeping through your days, you are not alone.

Tonight’s full moon cannot address all the questions being posed by the Universe right now but it will shed some light on the deeper layers of this summer’s tremendous energetic challenges.

Capricorn excels at understanding the need for boundaries and will draw you up short if you find yourself in Golden Retriever Mode once again, extending your heart toward someone or something which you know from experience is going to bite.

Maybe even more essential, this moon is laced with a sense of commitment to the long haul. It reminds you to stick with this ride with your heart lifted and your vision focused.

Conversely, this moon hopes you’ll notice anywhere you have sunk your teeth into something for so long that you haven’t noticed it’s nearly worn you into the ground. Capricorn reminds you to stop and engage in something playful, something capable of bringing laughter right up through your core. All the heavy-lifting you take on will eventually have you sinking right through the floor if you forget to ask for help or allow in the awareness that enough is enough.

While Capricorn asks you to commit to that which is worthy of you, but also to see where you may have given yourself to something or someone no longer worth the crusade, the Cancer Sunlight illumining tonight’s moon has you drawn right into the epicenter of issues that have been circling your family for years. And your desire to know how to find safe refuge–Home–is being ignited all month long with the Sun in Cancer. (More on that in the next moon column focused solely on Cancer.)

Have I mentioned that this full moon is merged with Pluto and opposing Mars? You may find yourself in close proximity to fireworks anywhere someone (including you) has grown blue-knuckled with an exaggerated desire to remain in control. It’s not a bad idea to give flexibility some play right now.

As you navigate these next few combustible days, please try to remember to keep to the simple, and to take three deep breaths before leaping into the fray.

Truly, all the Invisible World is at your back. So steady she goes.

By: Ascension Lifestyle Guest Contributor

Deborah O’conner

406-531-5129
deb@lovedogdesign.com
www.lovedogdesign.com

Be humble, for you are made of earth.
Be noble, for you are made of stars.

16 Jun 2015
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Gemini New Moon With Scorpio On Its Arm

Change the story and you change perception; change perception and you change the world. ~ Jean Houston

Jean Houston’s words (above) have become so well-worn by that we run the risk of dismissing them, finding it hard to imagine a personal storyline which isn’t overshadowed by worry. Tomorrow’s new moon would have you remember that options continue to abound.

The thing about options is that the really interesting ones come with no historical context, no guarantees. They are pure in origin. They offer us something we’ve not yet experienced. Tuesday’s new moon delivers energy which reminds that within your mind reside hidden gems.

Caution: When Gemini gets carried away with mind play, we can spin into mental dizziness.

The trick is to learn how to field so many thoughts without becoming attached so that when one of the multitude is actually a keeper, is an idea that could take root and ground you, you’ll feel the difference between it and all the static that has been running through.

This ability to sift thoughts with discernment will come in ever-so handy these next three months as our old friend, Saturn, backed into the deep water of Scorpio last night and will have you refining the emotional excavations you began in the autumn of 2012. Saturn expects us to take responsibility for our lives and our part in creating their architecture.

Just when we thought we might be headed out of the woods with Mercury finally going direct last week, we are asked by Saturn to plow ever more deeply into our fears . . . or our shame.

We can moan and groan at the Universe as it seems to refuse us a soft landing. Or we can use this precious few months to turn our attention to emotions which continue to drag at our hearts, to face down old patterns of behavior which we sense are driven by voices we’d like to silence for good.

Until it leaves Scorpio (not to return for 30 years), Saturn will draw back the curtain on situations still awaiting exposure in order to free us from our own and other’s secrets, to liberate us from those lingering sensations which reside in the gut and which can be dissolved only if we’re willing to see ourselves and anything or anyone in our lives exactly as they are. This kind of honesty is phenomenally liberating. We feel the mantle of anxiety drop away when we tell ourselves the truth.

It’s as if Tuesday’s Gemini new moon offers a way through despair and longing and anxiety. It turns on its little sparkly brain lights and says: Here. Here is another way for you to look at this. See yourself with absolute honesty and you will see a noble soul navigating a wild time with a mind opening ever more and more and more to a lighter way forward.

Can we release what we’ve been holding onto for longer than we remember? Let go of them. Let go.

As we find ourselves merging Gemini explorations with Scorpio’s deep tides, you might seek out a new and, for you, unusual little ceremony even if all that means is changing the color of your candles or the direction your feet take through the duff on the path. Try walking the other direction or write your thoughts from the back of the journal toward the front. Lift away from the overly-well-trodden. Read Natalie Goldman’s Wild Mind. Realize you, and only you, can change out the lenses in your metaphorical glasses.

Please drop a note if you’d like to explore these energy tides more personally or if you’d like a relationship reading, a locational reading or want to start from the beginning with your first-ever birth chart reading.

By: Ascension Lifestyle Guest Contributor

Deborah O’conner

406-531-5129
deb@lovedogdesign.com
www.lovedogdesign.com

Be humble, for you are made of earth.
Be noble, for you are made of stars.

02 Jun 2015
Comments: 0

Sagittarius Full Moon with Mercury Retrograde

Tonight’s full moon falls in Sagittarius and reflects light from a Gemini Sun, so be prepared for more little stories, each with its own riddle, even as you long for a clear-cut resolution. Depending upon your inner energy code, you may feel compelled to solve these riddles . . . but I sense that absolute closure is something of an illusion at present.