The sacred dance of giving and receiving

"Let the beauty of what you love be what you do. There are many way to kneel and kiss the ground." — Rumi

The Six of Pentacles is an encouraging message of prosperity and good fortune, with the understanding that we are part of a sacred balance. With prosperity, we can give prosperously. With good fortune, we can give fortune to others.

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• Opening up to receive

• Practices to soften the nervous system

• Working with the goddess Lakshmi

• Abundance-themed practices to connect with Lakshmi

• Full moon astrology insight

• Free full moon events

In Gemini season, we are preparing for the magic of midsummer. After the Beltane gates open in mid-Taurus, we enter the realm of the Faery — a time of growth, celebration, and light.

The image for this theme is inspired by a vision I had of bluebells in the Brocéliande Forest of Brittany, France. Legend has it that bluebells would summon the faeries, as only their sensitive ears can hear them. The way I see it, the symbol of the bluebell can refer to our channeling abilities — our ability to receive information from other realms through the throat chakra via the sound current.

The Sanskrit word for the throat chakra is Vishuddha, which means pure or purification. The color is blue, and the BLUEbell, when worn around the neck, would hold its wearer to the absolute truth. (The Faery will do this as well.) But don’t be too enchanted by their beauty, as not everything coded in Flower and Faery is love and light. Bluebells are highly poisonous when ingested and many faery beings are tricksters. This is one of the vital lessons of Gemini: everything has duality, and Gemini season teaches us how to dance with it all, so we can feel fully integrated before the summer season.

My Awakening the Cosmos event on June 3 (9:30 a.m. ET) will explore the Season of Flowers and Faery to purify the throat chakra, connect to our channeling abilities, prepare for midsummer, and practice yoga postures and kriyas for astrological embodiment. The day of this event lands on the full moon in Sagittarius, so anything is possible.

We will also work with the magic of mudra (as Gemini rules the hands) and mantra to hear the vibration of our voice and activate our power through the sound current. Perhaps we will also explore the Trickster archetype as we journey through Mercury’s realm.

The workshop includes a classroom portal with the Gemini season forecast, poetry and musings, reading recommendations, crystal and herbal correspondences, a Spotify playlist, and more. This will be ready sometime during the week of May 22. The recording will be available in the classroom after the event (within 48 hours), and yoga teachers are eligible for CECs through the Yoga Alliance.

Cost: $22
$17 for Patreon members with your coupon code
FREE for Patreon Tiers 2 and 3 with your coupon code

Choose who you are becoming.

Once again, we have a familiar ally, The Fool. Once again, we are drawn to the beginning. The repeated appearance of The Fool is a powerful message; it implies that we are in a moment where anything is possible. The thoughts we choose, the actions we take, the visions we dream, and the love we feel has magnified creative potential. As I am writing this, thunder is booming in the sky.

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• Lessons and wisdom from The Fool

• Astrology update and full moon insight

• Affirmations for reclaiming

• Lessons from Mercury retrograde

• Free admission to my full moon event

• Suggested practices to work with the energy

Season of Ancient Magic

Taurus season comes to us in the very heart of spring — a season of growth, life, joy, transformation, and magic — swirling with the energy of all the elements. Taurus is fixed earth as the airy east brings winds of change. Beltane ignites the sacred fires, and the spring rains cleanse and nourish the soil. Everything dances together in this season of richness; it is a time to connect with our desire energy and let the truth within expand and flourish.

Everything is growing and everything has the potential to grow. This is the season of the most pure and ancient magic. Do you want to create prosperity? Abundance? Love? Pleasure? Cast your wishes into the heart of this season and watch them grow like anahata (heart chakra) green transforming the earth. Christopher Renstrom writes that Taurus is the living embodiment of the law of attraction. “You don't have to go after what you want in life, because it often comes to you.”

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Includes:

• Taurus musings, poetry, and practices

• An invocation to summon material wealth and flow

• Free access to my seasonal workshops

• Seasonal crystal and essential oil correspondences

• Reading recommendations

• Spotify playlists

I wanted to write this post to demystify some of the attention given to what’s known as the “rising sign” or the ascendant in the birth chart. Typically, when you cast a chart for someone based on their birth date, time, and location, there are what’s known as the “big three”: the sun sign (your main zodiac sign), the moon sign, and your rising sign. In simple terms, the sun sign represents your soul self and the energy you are meant to embody and shine out into the world. The moon sign represents the emotional realm, your subconscious, your comfort zone — basically the person you are when no one is watching. The rising sign represents your outward appearance and the perception of your personality.

I say the perception of the personality, because the rising sign is not who you are. In fact, I think the zodiac placement of the rising sign is probably the least interesting thing about a person’s chart from a personality perspective. What the rising sign DOES indicate is where the planets are located in your natal chart, which is what astrology is all about — the planets.

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What I cover:

• How astrology determines personality

• How the rising sign is calculated

• Why (in my opinion) the rising sign is sometimes given too much emphasis and isn't the key factor in true authentic expression

• Spoiler alert: it all comes back to the sun and planets

• Example chart to learn more

• My recommendations for casting a chart

• 20% coupon code for a natal chart reading

We begin in the east. With the life-fuel of breath. With the voice of our sacred song. Inspiration. The untamable spirit. The air.

We begin with not knowing, with surrendering to the unseen and unpredictable. We begin with our ability to imagine possibility from nothing. We begin with the warrior, the eastern sun, the initiation of the Aries flame.

We begin with inspired action, independence, and the confidence of having an idea born from divinity. We begin when we incarnate into a blueprint of sacred fire. When we listen to the inner voice and trust in the process of personal awakening and evolution.

We begin when the music of Spirit is too beautiful to ignore, when the wonder of nature offers her infinite prosperity, when we trust in the embodiment of fire into self. Of life-force into activation.

We begin when the burning of bliss becomes an invitation to fly. When we realize we have wings. When we are not afraid to jump. We begin the moment we realize that we can never fail at being ourselves, but we have to face the fear of being known.

We begin when we become leaders of our own story, our own ideas, our own process, our own outcome. We begin where we are. We begin with love. We begin.

There’s a shift in the air.

This is probably the most mentally restless time of the year. The end of winter stirs up everything we kept hidden in hibernation. It awakens new possibilities. Rekindles old feelings. Asks new questions. We may find ourselves unable to settle for the day, to choose something, to find a direction. Old ways of thinking create agitation, tell us that we’re being careless, distracted, irresponsible. (How easy it is to forget that we can let the old ways go.) Are we really meant to hang on to the same way of doing things for all eternity? How does that work in a reality guided by time, seasons, and cycles? It doesn’t.

We are cyclical beings. We grow, we change, we evolve, we shed old skins and step into new seasons. Time gives us the magic of possibility. We arise anew every day.

Agitation is just an energy that can’t find a direction. Restlessness is just an energy that seeks to create. Distraction wants to try something new. Can we channel the wisdom of this season into an ever-flowing and shifting stream? Can we harness our own cyclical nature and remember that everything has its season? This upcoming season of Pisces is a reminder that water never holds its form. It’s mutable. It may be a still lake or a raging waterfall. It’s melting ice and dense fog. It pours like heavy rain or floats like weightless snow. The river is never really still. It’s always seeking the larger ocean.

A human being, a creator, doesn’t have one mode, one system of doing things. Everyday your body changes and your mind adapts. Let the energy of the season flow through you and guide you to something new and inspired. Not every idea will work out. Not every interest will last forever. But maybe it’s all part of the spiralic, cyclical path that is leading you to where you want to be. For now. Because everything is always changing.

And so we begin the shortest day in the North, in the realm of scented pine and weathered ash. We arise as the sun rises in the northeast, a dim day with a new beginning. And while the candle flames dance for the longest night and the hearth warms our cold winter bones, we tell tales of Fate and Destiny…

We celebrate and embrace in winter’s womb for the sun god’s rebirth and a new year of possibility.

We rekindle words left unsaid and the laughter that we sheltered under smooth lines and the guise of responsibility.

Perhaps we pray to Desire herself to align with Destiny’s path — allowing her to paint vibrant colors on our many disciplines and devotions.

Perhaps we let Fate whisper secrets into the dreamtime.

Perhaps our memories and magic inspire Time to soften his hard edges, so that every resolution and karmic unfolding become a story written from the heart.

But, perhaps, just for now, we stand beneath the sun god’s low winter light and simply affirm, in this season and the next, I will love you.

We have entered the depths of Scorpio season in the northern hemisphere, where the transformation between summer and winter quickly unfolds. The cool winds from the West now have a sharper edge that gets into the bones. Shifting temperatures bring thick fogs and gray clouds. Our bodies adjust accordingly with the shorter days, and, for many, the decreasing energy and productivity can create the fear that we're not doing enough. But when I listen to the indigo twilight evening, I am reminded that nature is always enough. There is a deeper wisdom in the spacious night and in the quiet contemplations of our soul's journey. And sometimes our dharma is to rest. Sometimes the pause is a call for healing. Sometimes we just need to give ourselves space for the transformational process to unfold.

The truth is, we all change. We all grieve. We all have insecurities and fears. We all have moments of shame and guilt. We all make mistakes. We have all experienced illness or dis-ease. We all have karmas. We all have "shadows" that we keep hidden, because we think we are alone. But we are never alone. We live on a planet of 8 billion people -- all navigating the human journey.

When I contemplate the human experience, I realize that none of us will ever truly achieve perfection. And it's too stressful to try. What we CAN aim for is beautiful imperfection. We can celebrate every awkward conversation, every mistake, and every unmet expectation as a hug from the divine creator expressing through us. And we can do our best to wish happiness and peace for every being -- human, animal, plant, dust -- also expressing through their beautiful imperfection. For me personally, when I can do that, it's very difficult to feel alone. It feels like we are all one.

And here we stand at the threshold between worlds, in the liminal space between day and night. Here we watch as the sun rises into a new season, as the cold Libra winds from the east bring shifting temperatures amidst darker days. And to the east, we say thank you.

It is here, in this moment at the doorway that we fortify our lasting strength. Here we receive the life force of the south, in crackling fires and the warm fruits of our abundant summer harvest. And to the south, we say thank you.

It is here in the realm of autumn, in the mist-filled golden hours of both dream and dreamer where creations unfold. Here we experience the beauty of transitions in the vibrant colors of the west, her radiant sunsets on every fallen leaf and moss-covered stream. And to the west, we say thank you.

It is here on our changing earth, in the hibernating forests, in the magnificent ecology of the Gaia-force where we land and receive. Here we enter the nighttime realm of our ancestors of the north, where the veil becomes more permeable and the trees whisper secrets of the old ones who never left. And to the north, we say thank you.

Thank you.
And so it is.

Time is our most valuable possession. It can’t be earned, achieved, or claimed. It just is. We choose in every moment how to use this finite resource. And how we spend our time is a strong indicator of what we prioritize and value.

Astrology is and can be a measurement of time, the cycle of the Cosmos, and the blueprint of this finite experience. It’s a beautiful map that I love to study and translate — like a language or a piece of music. But it’s not meant to be absolute. It’s not meant to take you out of the present moment, or to micromanage time, predictions, and outcomes. I have witnessed this tendency in myself to want to control time through astrology, to “crack the code” of the future and the events of my life and the collective. While astrological predictions can be very accurate, they don’t change anything except to take us out of the present moment. Astrology is meant to empower you; it’s not meant to have power over you.

So I asked myself some time ago: am I experiencing my life? Or am I trying to control it?

Every day can be an important day, a portal of opportunity, a chance for growth and transformation. Most people have no idea what the planets are doing and are perfectly fine. But if we give all of our energy to something, like a “Pluto return” (which you won’t personally experience unless you live to be over 250 years) or astrology apps that are designed to hook you, then we can create a reality, an energy, or a “portal” that may not have existed before.

Again: These tools are meant to empower, not to create fear, stress, or addiction.

I love astrology. I love connecting people with their charts. I love to watch the movement of stars and planets. I had so much fun last year watching Jupiter and Saturn come together, and then geeking out on the night sky on 8/8 when the earth had an actual portal directly in between these two planets. I love to witness and feel the cycles and placements of the moon, because it’s a part of the earth and we feel it on a very physical level. But I don’t feel the need to know what my chart is doing every day, or if some abstract moment in time is experiencing a major transit. And I don’t see any value in stressing about the transformational aspects everyone experiences as they approach a certain age. (Honestly I barely even care about or remember my own age.) My only concern — in this moment in time — is the reality and energy of THIS moment.

When Saturn (the ruler of time and astrology) speaks to me now, he tells me that we can spend our entire lives trying to control time, only to realize that we wasted it. To master any energy, we cease to let it have power over us.

We can micromanage life, or we can simply enjoy it.