I am the daughter of sun and fire. Born on the longest day of the year in the North where the sun never set. It’s difficult for me to rise before the sun. It’s nearly impossible to be productive after it fades to dark. Even my golden hair becomes murky auburn in the darker months and my eyes fade to a seafoam gray. There’s a mute coldness in my belly and inspiration comes in quiet waves. Winter is hard.

And yet, the roots of my pagan ancestors stir me to enchantment even in the coldest months. From the ancient Norse year to the Celtic sabbats to the shores of Avalon and the great wheel of the Cosmos. The medicine found in nature can still take my breath away — in crusty melting snow, dried branches, and colorless skies. Because I know there’s a time for fire and a time for dreams. A time for action and a time for rest. Winter’s last breath is the stirring within the cocoon that makes me shiver with anticipation. I can only imagine the beauty of the emergence when it comes.

And now, in Pisces season, the last month of winter, we see the melting ice flow to streams and waterfalls, rainbows in the freezing dew, pockets of rain and snow in all moods and temperatures. Hope, despair, grief, and joy ebb and flow like the changing waters and impatient clouds. I become sleepy, because Dreamtime beckons and my body aches to prepare. The fire grows brighter — from a flickering candle flame to a steady warmth. Flowing water, cool air, and softening earth give me permission to heal. To watch and wait.

Here, now — slowly awakening in the cocoon to breathe the last of winter’s breaths.

Cancer. Cardinal Water.

Water is not soft like we assume. It takes enormous power and strength to break through barriers, flow around and through obstacles, surge from the earth by the strength of its own flow.

Water knows itself. Water protects itself. Water protects you. The great mother will wrap you with love in her nourishing goddess-force. She will hold you to her heart as long as you need her.

She will refuse to let you go unless she believes you’re ready.

Tread lightly when you encounter the one who births worlds into being. Don’t underestimate her strength, her ability to love, her ability to destroy that which prevents life. She may keep you comfortable for a time, but that is not the ultimate intention.

The goddess is not the shell you see and accept, it’s the life force within the shell. It won’t reveal itself unless you fully disarm the stories you’ve told yourself since childhood. She will not (forever) accept your false beliefs. She will not (forever) accept your games. She will hold you to your promises.

She sees and knows more than you can perceive or understand.

You may think you know the divine feminine, but you won’t truly know until she emerges from the safety of long-held belief systems and cries out for your awakening like a mother calls for her child.

The comfort of the womb draws you in, but by entering, you agree to be birthed into form.

Gemini. Mutable air.

The wind goes where spirit leads — across meadows, over mountains, through the trees, surrounding the ocean, shaping clouds.

It creates ripples in the water, shifting sands, and blazing fires. Agitating, questioning, seeking, learning, sharing, inspiring, exploring. Its form appears as if in a dream, casting a spell, until your rote ways become restless wanderings.

You can try to contain the air, capture the magic, but it will always escape your grasp. The wind leads and you follow, arriving to destinations only imagined in the realm of faeries and song. Those brief moments of cool breezes, sly smiles, and butterfly wings burn into your memory like ancient whispers of lifetimes past — never to return.

Yet in the meantime, something awakened and stirred within you. Perhaps of glimpse of possibility, another dimension, an alternative journey, the spark of your soul. You will wait forever if you sit still, because this shapeshifting force doesn’t look back. Or you can follow the faint hymn to the ethereal doors that once awakened the flame... leaving everything behind for the mysterious magic of truth.

Taurus. Fixed earth.

Steady drumbeats, getting louder.

Earth awakening, blooming, cascades of green, brightening skies. Life emerges and births into form.

The sun, the light, the fire, the passion. This is the season of Beltane, of divine union.

Steady drumbeats, getting louder.

The thinning veil, the fae folk gathering, earth spirits whispering in your ear. Open your eyes.

There’s magic is the steadiness, in the stability, in the cycles. Everything moves in a circle of life, death, rebirth, life.

Steady drumbeats, getting louder.

The Torus is continually cycling in a consistent flow of change. A deep knowing that what is real is also an illusion. And what is illusion is real.

Feel the earth underneath your feet.

Steady drumbeats, getting louder.

Sun and earth unite. Fall into the arms of divine love and complete trust. Fall into the knowing of where you are and why you’re here. Fall into the wisdom of Gaia.

Breathe into the gift of life. It’s yours.

Aries. Cardinal fire.

And then there was light. The first spark. The beginning of the astrological wheel. The flame of awakening begins in the direction of East in the realm of air — because fire cannot exist without air. This is the first blaze of manifestation when an idea becomes purpose, when planning becomes action, when birth becomes dharma.

It is because of this divine spark that we are all here. The torch-bearers have arrived to lead and guide us in the direction of our power and gifts. This is the warrior flame we seek when the questions and possibilities become muddied and unclear. The fearless flame acts first, questions later. Without this guiding light, we would all be simmering in a cold soup of unrealized potential.

Look to the East where the sun rises at the Equinox point, the place where the light enters, the first breath, the guiding flame. The Aries spark won’t wait for you to decide, so it’s up to you whether you will follow. New opportunities and possibilities are upon us.

Pisces. Mutable water.

The air fills with moisture until you can feel it in the breath, in your bones — little droplets of water collecting in the atmosphere, getting heavier, denser.

Will the rain fall? Or will it watch with its knowing sense that all beings on the earth are waiting and wondering?

The Imbolc sun creates vibrations in the soil. A little rain may help everything come alive.

Will water keep the inner fires burning? Or will it extinguish all passions with one surge of rain, overflowing tears saturated into thirsty earth?

Can the sun melt the ice or will it remain cold and frigid?

Melting ice softens the landscape, forms into waterfalls, dew crystallizes into rainbows. All is beautiful. All is well.

The breeze arrives to create a ripple of emotions and memories. The water flows towards the emotion and then back again.

Before long, thoughts and emotions are intertwined into a steady stream, then a flowing river, then surging waves.

And what becomes of the single leaf, following the call of spirit, on the surface of the stream?

Only the water can tell. Only the river knows where the cycle ends, weaving through crevices of earth and flowing with a gentle breeze of inspiration into journeys unknown.

I keep being shown a grid-like web of how we’re all connected in this Aquarian age. The network is so vast, the information so available, and the inner flames within all of us continue to grow and expand. Your unique energetic signature and gifts contain a key to unlocking and expanding this grid of awakening.

No longer are the wisdom teachings available to just a few. The trailblazing teachers who launched the Aquarian age made them all available to us. So many keys have been discovered. So many doors have been unlocked for everyone to access higher knowing.

We’re also being called to help redefine the definitions of success. The old formula worked for a while, but now we can see that it’s possible to do what you love, to dive into what you’re passionate about, and be successful. Exactly two years ago I mustered up enough self-worth to leave a comfortable, high-paying job and focus on my passions. And I say “self-worth,” because that’s what it was. It was having enough confidence in myself to believe that I had something to offer, and that I wouldn’t be punished by ditching the “formula.” I felt worthy enough not to sacrifice my happiness for a paycheck. (Spoiler alert: it all worked out.) And it really doesn’t matter what your passions are. If you study them enough and devote your life force to them, your passions will lead to your purpose.

This moon cycle might require some alone time in self-reflection to ground your energy and develop some daily rituals for success and well-being. Perhaps you want to devote extra time to your interests and passion projects. I highly recommend less screen time, turning off the news, and eliminating distractions as much as possible. Where does your energy want to go when it’s not being influenced by the external noise? Let your mind deprogram and free itself from the old fear-based structures that want to keep you trapped in the formula.

Because the world needs everything you have to offer.

Aquarius. Fixed air.

A hurricane can’t be controlled, and rarely will it allow itself to be predictable. Without being seen, it surges through, sweeping away the steady and familiar.

This all-encompassing air sees surface projections as merely accessories — a glamour covering up the truth. The masks you wear, the boarded windows and blockades may give you a sense of security, but they are no match for the air’s power. It can touch and affect everything around you, but you can’t see or touch it. You can’t move or change it. Air is everything and nothing at the same time. It is your thoughts, your words, the subtlety of your energy and vibration. And, like an unstoppable force of wind, these can also cause destruction if not harnessed carefully.

Have you seen what the air has seen? Have you felt what it feels? Beliefs and doctrine are simple and incomplete compared to the mysteries that exist beyond day-to-day life and beyond the planet. Fall into this knowing for just a moment and you’ll discover a world of possibility, a rabbit hole of truth, a deep dive into curriculum only known by a few.

But be prepared, because the air is not afraid to uproot anything that gets in the way of truth.

True expertise is self-mastery.

Self-mastery is devotion and self-inquiry that evolves into deep understanding and embodiment.

An embodied teacher isn’t seeking devotees and copies. A teacher arrives to guide you on this path of self-mastery. To open the doorway to your inner teacher so that you can share your gifts and unique ways of perceiving with the world.

This doesn’t involve a set of rules or regurgitated disciplines. Sometimes you have to put down the books, the naysayers, the deities, the tools, and the structures in order to remember that YOU ALREADY KNOW. Yes, you already know. Anyone that tells you otherwise is afraid of losing their power and control.

Awakening is a self-guided journey of discovery, and the door is wide open.

Welcome to Aquarius season. 😉

Today (12/2/19) the expansive planet Jupiter moves into the sign of Capricorn. Jupiter transits last for about a year, and I personally love the idea of Jupiter hanging out in Cap for a while. This happens to be my natal Jupiter placement (the only significant earth I have in my chart), and if you were born in 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, or 2007, then you most likely have this placement also.

Pluto and Saturn have been hanging out in Capricorn for quite a while, highlighting areas of responsibility and power struggles — so Jupiter making his fiery and combustible entrance feels like much-needed energy in these heavy times. The reason I love Jupiter in Capricorn is because it helps us do the work, stay focused, and devote to a higher purpose. It can provide sustained success and achievement in just about anything, as long as it’s aligned with your true essence. Jupiter in Capricorn natives generally have a strong sense of self and aren’t easily swayed off course.

I wouldn’t normally associate the fiery King of Wands with Capricorn, but he is Jupiter’s entrance — the potent combination of fire and earth — driven, purposeful, successful, and a master of creative expression. I’m happy he jumped out of my deck this morning so that we can reflect on and embody his energy.

What are you hoping to master in 2020?

As I write this, Mars is in the last degree of Libra, getting ready to ingress into Scorpio where it will be until early January. Now, I love Libra, but Mars has been in its detriment here. Libra is all about the other, and the warrior planet doesn’t always know how to play nice in Libra without sacrificing self-care. The energy becomes unfocused and quickly burns out.

Scorpio, however, has no problem focusing on the self. And Mars is at home here: determined, passionate, intense, and not willing to unnecessarily compromise. This transit will help you see all of the obstacles that have been standing in the way of your personal power and self-worth.

Some things simply aren’t worth your time and energy. And sometimes the greatest act of self-love is knowing when something isn’t serving you and letting it go. Mars in Scorpio gives you the energy to walk away. And by doing so, you can transform unaligned circumstances into aligned embodiment.

Look deep into the energetic eyes of any karmic entanglement keeping you in the dark, and release your responsibility to keep this weight in your life.