Or, as is the case this week, sometimes life asks us to let flow.

When we hold on, we hold back. And when we hold back, we hold ourselves back.

The challenge, of course, is that while we know what we are holding onto, we don’t know what we are holding ourselves back from until we let go.

Perhaps we see the blurry outlines…

Read more

I am so ready for this month.

The fires of Leo have been burning brightly (and very literally here in the Northern Hemisphere), and this time tunnel between eclipses can leave us feeling anything but stable. So the Sun’s arrival into measured, grounded and practical-minded sign of Virgo feels like an earthly balm to my flaming nervous system. If – like me – your energy has been leaping all over the map these past few weeks, it has likely been a full-time endeavor just to keep your feet facing forwards as you move through your daily life. The Sun in Virgo can now help us to choose our next step from a place of personal improvement and world service, to appreciate where and how we can take action to make everything better for ourselves and everyone around us.

Before I get into the details of the astrology, I invite you to pause for a moment and tune into what this month looks like for you. My own practice is to close my eyes, take a deep breath, and ask my subconscious for an image that will help me understand, appreciate and embrace what is on its way. Trust that whatever you are seeing, hearing or otherwise sensing is just right for you, and observe it with quiet reverence as you would a masterpiece hanging in the world’s finest art museum.

Here is a rendering of my own masterpiece:

In my mind, this came through as a moving picture. I saw a conveyor belt trailing through an exceptionally spic and span factory, conspicuously and lovingly monitored by a woman in hygienic clothing with a selection pack of tweezers in her hand. As the conveyor belt advanced, it brought what looked like light-filled diamonds towards her. The belt moved slowly and peacefully, and the gleaming gems were generously spaced to offer her all the time she needed to examine them with her studious gaze. As they approached one by one, she drew out the right-sized pair of tweezers to pick up the morsels of crystalized light and bring them gently to eye level. And then, as she offered them her full attention, they simply evaporated.

I want to be clear that I have never seen anything like this before, and that the images I’ve offered you in previous months have not been nearly as animated as this one. It was like being immersed in a lucid dream, and I viscerally felt the meaning of it as it unfolded. The conveyor belt was the flow of time, and the brilliant, kind-hearted woman I saw was helping to clean out the past. The glittering diamonds were moments of unabsorbed wisdom, treasures calcified by our own resistance to seeing the perfection in every single moment that has brought us to where we are. And as she calmly offered them appreciation for the truth of what they were, they released into the atmosphere of clarity around her.

I am, as always, amazed at how much this image fits the Virgo Ingress chart, a snapshot of the moment the Sun leaves Leo on August 23 that captures the whole of the feel of its impending 30-day journey through Virgo. I will walk you through it in words, but if you’d like to see it for yourself, here is what it looks like:

And here’s my verbal breakdown of the top three solar themes:

1. Silver Lining Express
   (Sun / Mercury conjunct South Node)

   
   What strikes me the most is the Sun’s near exact conjunction with the South Node of the Moon, a cosmic release point that invites us to let go of the regrets that keep us locked in repeating patterns. Regret is a form of reality rejection, a registered complaint that something in our lives did not turn out correctly. It sounds a dissonant note, like some part of us has been left behind to resist what happened as unfair, foolish or just plain wrong. With Virgo’s ruling planet Mercury in Leo also sitting right next to the South Node, you might uncover ideas laced with the flavor of “I deserve better than this BS”, “I am smart enough to have found a way through this earlier”, or “I don’t want to waste my precious time on this.”
   
   None of these perspectives are particularly helpful if our goal is to let go, and it is in fact true that resistance keeps us doomed to recreate the same scenario until we finally see it for what it is: a meaningful experience. So from this vantage point, the best thing to do is to reframe our regrets as unclaimed prizes. What if you could allow yourself to look for the precious value in what upset you, if you could see it as a chance to be more present in the joy of what your life is ready to become? The Virgo Sun is primed to help us uncover the blessings in every apparent snag if only we can allow ourselves to look. Know that you are safe to do this; after all, the woman in my image was picking up diamonds and not turds.
   

2. Move Ahead Mindfully
   (Sun trine Moon; Moon opposite Mars; Moon square Neptune)
   
   The Sun enjoys a supportive trine with the First Quarter Moon in Capricorn, and this harmonious flow of energy between the two biggest lights in our sky offers us the opportunity to more smoothly take aligned action in the here and now. The First Quarter Moon always holds our attention on what we are growing, and – especially at this point between eclipses – it might feel like there is a whole next chapter of your life just screaming to emerge.

   
   Especially with the Moon’s opposition to Mars in Cancer, we might feel butterflies in our stomach and be tempted to jump headfirst into the safety of a brighter future. But we would be wise to look before we leap, both because the Moon’s square with Neptune suggests we don’t yet have the full picture and because the Capricorn Moon grants us stability when we develop a succinct strategy for how we want to move forwards, when we take responsibility for our emotions, and when we place our trust in the solidity of the spiritual world that surrounds us on all sides.
   

3. Sweep Your Headspace
   (Sun square Uranus)

   
   Our monthly chart also shows the Sun approaching a square with Uranus in Gemini, which is an excellent recipe for breaking down the thoughts that prevent us from being our brilliant selves. To best position yourself with the promises of Virgo, you might consider asking yourself questions like: Does this thought help me do what comes next? Does this thought empower me to do good things for the world? Does this thought support me in seeing the perfection of this moment? Uranus and Gemini both like to move quickly and can see deep dives as detours, so you might try pausing for just long enough to notice, sort and send unhelpful thoughts to the light.

I find that focusing on the Sun helps me stay most deeply connected with the eternal hope that is present in every slice of time, and I hope that this run-down has offered you the same chance to feel positive about all that awaits. I have written it with care because I appreciate more and more that words are catalysts, that what I put down on this page has the potential to awaken something beautiful for both of us. With this same spirit I have put together this week’s Golden Opportunities forecast for paying subscribers below, and you are most welcome to take a peek.

Our next Monthly Class will be on Sunday, September 6 at 12:00 pm Pacific / 3:00 pm Eastern / 8:00 pm UK / 9:00 pm Europe and we’ll be lightening our load with an Eclipse Energy Clearing. I’ll offer a group experience and give individual attention to all those who can make it; it never ceases to amaze me how much can shift in a moment. Grab a paying subscription here to join live or watch later.

Love,

Patrick

PS: For more tips on how to move gracefully through eclipse season – and how to ask for assistance when you need it – check out the latest episode of Angel Afterhours.

Golden Opportunities this Week☀️

Read more

I feel this way when I look into someone’s eyes, when I dare to hold my gaze for long enough to see the depths of the Universe that sit within all of us.

How do we understand this kind of infinity? Our Universe - as much as we can think and think and think about it - is the ultimate mystery. Because the more I learn about it, the less I know; it’s like each inquiry I make opens up a thousand more. Every step forward is a step into a greater unknown.

This can feel intimidating. I remember a few years ago I stepped out of the shower and suddenly became so aware of the vastness of the Universe that I had to put myself in front of the mirror and remind myself that I had a body. These moments still show up once in a while, like exclamation marks in eternity that punctuate my day-to-day physical existence here on Planet Earth. I choose to take them as signs of just how much more of me - how much more of us - there is to know and love. And when I feel the truth of this - that there is always room for more love - my heart overflows with wonder and amazement that I have a place to call home here in Our Universe.

I imagine you have had moments like this, too, times when it felt like the heavens opened and you saw this world in a precious new way. And sometimes, when we are really lucky, we get to share those kinds of moments with people we know. Sometimes we even get to share these moments with would-be strangers, people we have never seen before and will never see again, people we remain forever connected with through that singular shared experience.1

This week I had one of those moments. More specifically, this moment occurred in León, Spain at precisely 8:29 pm on Wednesday evening. I had come over to join a very special old friend and her family for the total solar eclipse, a group who just happened to have seen last year’s total solar eclipse back home in America. She told me about their adventure into totality over Christmas, that it had left such an awesome mark on her awareness that she would be booking a much bigger trip to see this summer’s total eclipse in Europe. That alone convinced me it was worth it, and I’m now sure there were no words she could have used to convey the totality of totality.

So now it’s my turn to share, and I promise to do my best to bring you there with me. I’ll do it through my very human story of how it came together, never mind the astrological significance and remarkable synchronicity that brought me to see a solar eclipse in the sign of Leo in a town whose name means « Lion. »

We spent Tuesday night enjoying the electricity in the air in a hot desert town that usually goes to sleep in August. The plazas were filled with spectators who had traveled far and wide, crunching their croquetas and clinking their cervezas. Wednesday morning we slept in and scouted viewing locations, eventually eschewing the European Space Agency’s impressive official platform by the train station for a buena vista up on the bluff above the city.

After a siesta snack and a quick pass around the centuries-old Gothic cathedral in the heart of the lion’s lair, we drove up to set up shop. We threw our blanket down on the exposed peak of the slope and cooled off in the surrounding pine forest, feeling the excitement rise both inside and all around us.2 (FN) Some people had been there all day, and a great many more poured in as the main event approached. They bore telescopes, folding chairs, picnic baskets, and all manner of anticipatory smiles.

We were all firmly in place by 7:30, ready to see the Moon take its first bite out of the Sun. And for a long time, even as we watched the shadow wash away all but a slim crescent of our local starlight, we couldn’t perceive even the slightest difference in the decidedly daytime atmosphere. It was, like the partial eclipses I have seen, an experience only observable through pinhole viewers or exceptionally dark glasses.

But by 8:20 it had started getting weird. A cool breeze blew up the hill, and the light took on a tone I have never before seen. It was like some kind of an alien dusk - eerie, ethereal and (mercifully) exceptionally flattering. This dusk only got more and more surreal by as each second passed, like a slow-playing scene from a sparsely-spoken throwback sci-fi film. Time seemed less and less relevant; all of nature - including us - felt tuned to the same station.

And then it happened. The Sun blinked out, the birds stopped singing, Mars emerged from behind the blue sky curtain, and the crowd went wild.

For those two minutes, we all sat and stared together marveling at a ring of yellow-white fire. There was no room for thinking about anything else; there was no space for questioning what was happening; we were just people on the Earth looking into the heart of our Solar System. And it was magic.

I wonder if this is how astronauts feel when they first look down on our planet from space, the tenderness and affection and LOVE they hold in their hearts for the Earth. The closest I can get to describing this feeling is to say that it would be like looking into the eyes of 8.3 billion people all at once. I cry without fail every time I bring it to mind, including right now. I am forever changed.

And as the light slowly came back to deliver an equally ethereal dawn, I found myself recommitting to make this planet a better place for everyone on it. Maybe I fell in love with astrology in the first place because I saw it as a way to connect us more deeply with our shared humanity. Almost certainly I fell in love with human rights because it does exactly this. So I’m not going to specific about how I bring my commitment to life, I’m going to offer it up and see where Our Universe takes me.

Now as I let go into what comes next - as we all let go into what comes next - I’m ready to do whatever I can for our collective home. I hope you are, too.

Happy Eclipse!

Love,

Patrick

PS: I’m away for the next two weeks, so we’ll come together for our next gathering in September. Thank you for your patience; I’ll share the deets with you next week.💕

PPS: This post goes out to the ever brilliant Bonnie Tyler, may she be dancing up there in the stars forever more.✨

Subscribe now

Golden Opportunities this Week☀️

Thursday, August 20:

☀️Sun in Leo square Moon in Scorpio:

Nurture and ground your sense of self in the fertile ground of your emotions. Make a deep commitment to consciously choose how you want to feel, and anchor those feeling states in the choices you make in every moment. If you want to feel radiant, what can you do to radiate? If you want to feel powerful, what can you do to express your agency? If you want to feel loving, what can you do to give more love to yourself and others?

It’s getting harder and harder to have an identity these days.

I say this as someone who has been steeped in so many expansive understandings of who we really are as human beings, someone who marvels on a daily basis how we exist at all. It blows my mind that we are very literally made of stardust1, that our bodies come to life through the light of the Sun2, that the physical matter of our bodies is in fact 99.9999999% empty space on the atomic level.

And just consider the sheer improbability of your parents getting together, much less the extreme unlikelihood of a very particular egg and very particular sperm uniting at just the right time in just the right way to create you. Of course the same thing is true for your grandparents, for your great-grand parents, and for every single one of your ancestors who somehow came into being from this limitless sea of possibility all around us just to make you possible.

When I get up to this level of thinking, the whole idea of having a personality - much less something more banal like a job title - feels completely absurd. I know it probably wouldn’t land me an interview to describe myself as a “spark of light swimming in a soup of consciousness”, but it also somehow doesn’t cut it to limit my description of myself to something more solid and static like “Coach” or “Writer” or “Children’s Rights Policy & Advocacy Specialist.”

So maybe it’s time - just for now, while we grow and change - to drop the labels. Maybe it’s time to let ourselves forget who we think we are, because who we think we are is inevitably far more limited than who we really are.

Who we think we are is laced with ideas about who we think we should be in order to be successful, who we think we need to be in order for people to like us, who we think we want to be in order to feel happy. Who we think we are is shaped by every piece of feedback we have ever received from every environment we’ve ever been in, every person we’ve ever met, every experience we’ve ever had. We are open to influence in even the smallest of moments - if I were to stop you as a total stranger on the street and tell you that you looked good in red, you would very likely smile and start thinking of yourself as someone who looks good in red.

But as smashing as you look in red, what you wear and how you look ultimately have nothing to do with who you are. Nor does the music you like, the food you eat, the place you live, the people you date, or the work you do define you. All of these things have almost certainly changed over the course of your lifetime, and any of them could change again with a simple choice to live differently.

So you are more than the information you have absorbed about yourself from the reflecting pool, and you are more than the sum total of decisions you have made to bring you to this place. You are born from a highly unusual choice to exist at all, and this gives you extraordinary power. It is, in fact, how you can reconnect with the true essence of who you are: you are who you choose to be right now.

And in the shadow of next week’s Solar Eclipse in Leo - which marks a thrilling new chapter of how we un-understand3 ourselves - I encourage you to loosen the reins on your identity. Silence the echoes of who you thought you were and give yourself permission to be something lighter. Be open to where it takes you. Wear blue, order off-menu, stay in a hotel, use an alias.4

If you’re looking for where to let go, just notice whenever you utter the magic words “I am” and detach from whatever comes next. You can, of course, still be those things, but you don’t need to hold them so tightly that they become constraints. So instead of taking thoughts about your possible identity as true, play with letting yourself be feelings and see where that takes you. Be joyful, be kind, be abundant, be open.

For my part, I have released weight I did not even realize I was carrying. These past few years I have invested so much of myself in my spiritual development; it has been my guiding compass, my source of meaning, my identity. It has brought me challenges I never could have foreseen, and it has offered me gifts I never could have imagined. It has been wild and wonderful, and I have every faith that it was exactly what I needed to get me where I am. But it seems this quest is now - much like me - totally and completely exhausted.

It’s strange to describe how this feels, how it’s like I am waking up back into being myself in a remarkable new way. I’m remembering what I loved learning in college, what drove me to law school, what pulled me into the UN. And it feels good to reconnect with these parts of myself, to see how I am so much more than the person I have been imagining myself to be. I do not need to be an astrologer, an intuitive, an energy healer or a life coach to be me, and continuing to believe that would only take me away from being myself.

So I can only assume that what I have learned on this spiritual path is true, that it is only ever us getting in the way of being ourselves. Let’s get out of the way.

Love,

Patrick

Golden Opportunities this Week☀️

Read more

It’s in the raging forest fires; it’s in the domineering data centers; it’s in the ethical quagmire of how we relate to our social, political and economic institutions. And it’s not just out there in the world, it’s also right here at home. It’s in our job prospects; it’s in our relationships; it’s even in the ultra-processed snacks in the pantry. It seems wherever we look, there is room for Fear.

There are so many wonderful ways of appreciating what Fear is and what it has to offer us, and right now I am beyond bored of going over the same spiritual tenets with a sullen, serious face. Especially after this week’s full-on Full Moon in Aquarius with Pluto - the resident President of Terror-led Transformation - what my heart and soul want more than anything else is to be playful and light.

So I’m turning my eyes to look across the Zodiac to the Sun and Jupiter in Leo. There I find the abundantly hopeful approach I need to bring me back into balance, and with it comes the idea to let Fear step gaily onto the stage of life in a suitably sad-sack costume. I’m picturing it as the sardonically self-aware Debbie Downer of my subconscious, and I’m now inviting it into the spotlight of my awareness.

I’m doing this because I know that giving something a voice allows for it rise up and out, and because - at the end of the day - it often turns out that whatever was lurking is logically ludicrous. I’m also grateful to Fear for being brave enough to take the mic with its absurdist sideshow parade of horrors. That parade has no doubt been clomping around in circles in the nether regions of our thoughts for years, drawing some part of us down below to watch it in action. And so as the parade marches on, it brings us in touch with more of the truth of who we are. In other words: it’s worth listening to Fear, because being more afraid leads to being more aware.

With that in mind, here are 3 surprisingly simple and empowering messages about Fear - and life - that this week’s Full Moon has brought to light for me:

Read more

I got an energetic heads up to offer you an activation rather than an interactive class, so tune in with a relaxed frame of mind when you’ve got some time to go within and shift your energy to a bright, playful state of mind.

Before you jump in, take a moment to bring to mind somet…

Read more

Our mutual friend Penney Peirce had introduced us with a gentle suggestion that I might join Sandie as a guest on her No BS Spiritual Bookclub. I will confess that I had not heard of Sandie or her sassy show before then, but I am a sucker for anyone who is courageous and carefree enough to put a curse word in a title.

It turns out Sandie is so much more than a seasoned host, she is a storytelling shaman. Her questions weaved the very narrative that gave birth to this project in our conversation about finding gratitude in U.S. politics, and she is now offering this same creative awakening service to the public with her brilliant storytelling course.

I was so delighted to chat with Sandie about how she works with gratitude in the world of media and publishing, and it was especially fun to ask her the same sorts of spicy No BS questions she asked me. Sandie brings cunning and curiosity to every conversation, and she loves to explore themes from unusual angles... so get ready to turn gratitude on its head.

Sandie and I also invite you to join us for a LIVE Q&A on Thursday, July 23 @ 9:30 am Pacific / 12:30 pm Eastern / 5:30 pm UK / 6:30 pm Europe here on Substack. It’s a chance for you to ask your questions, too, and for us all to share time together in a healing state of gratitude. Click here to join us when the moment arrives.

Subscribe now

PS: Check out my interview on surprising changes with Uranus in Gemini with Sandie Sedgbeer and quantum physicist Cynthia Sue Larson. It was one of the most unexpected conversations I’ve ever had!

You’ve talked with so, so, so many spiritual teachers over the past decades. What are the most inspiring words you have ever heard about gratitude?

After all those conversations, I can’t recall any particular quote that stood out.

What stuck is the plain truth that gratitude is really just paying attention. It’s so easy to miss our own lives when we’re busy, rushing from one thing to next, worrying, fixing, thinking ahead to the next task… Gratitude has a way of bringing us back to the present, to what’s right in front of us: a friend who calls just when you need it; a dog wagging its tail, delighted to see you when you come home; a small unexpected kindness; a helpful conversation that shifts something for you… an opportunity that you’ve been longing for. The best teachers never made gratitude feel like a chore. They simply reminded me that it’s about noticing things. Noticing is bigger than it might seem. I’m grateful for those moments when someone or something reminds me to stop… notice… savor… and I think - wow! I almost missed that, and I’m so glad I didn’t.

You have no doubt also read spiritual books that fell totally flat, and gratitude can so easily fall into the platitudes we see on greeting cards. What are you sick of hearing about when it comes to gratitude?

I’ll admit that I’m tired of hearing that we must be grateful for every last thing, especially when life is throwing something painful, scary, or downright unfair our way. Telling someone to ‘look for the blessing’ is bad advice and even a shaming thing to say to someone - it minimizes our feelings, makes us feel guilty for not rising above the situation and being grateful. All it does is encourage us to sidestep our pain. The fact is, sometimes life is just plain awful. People can behave terribly. And there isn’t always a tidy spiritual lesson waiting for us at the end, all wrapped up with a bow. That’s the kind of marshmallow spirituality that I have no time for.

I’m also weary of gratitude being pitched as some sort of deal with the universe: jot down five things every morning, boost your mood, and apparently abundance will show up before lunch. Gratitude is worthwhile all on its own. It doesn’t have to deliver a new car, a soulmate, a book contract, or a fatter bank account. Real gratitude can keep company with anger, grief, disappointment, and confusion. It doesn’t ask us to pretend that everything is sunshine and roses.

Some of the things that I have been most grateful for in my life are the plain and simple - yet utter and profound - shifts in my perception, my outlook, my attitude towards something. For example, like all parents and grandparents, I used to worry a lot about my kids and grandchildren. I’d focus on all the awful ‘what if’s’ around any challenging situations in their life and imagine the worst outcomes. Then my friend Suzy Miller said something that stopped me in my in my tracks and completely changed that habit. All she said was: “So long as you’re worrying about them, you’re not loving them.” That was so profound, so true, that it completely cured me of the worrying habit. Those are the kinds of things I am very, very grateful for.

So, my advice to people is: Sure, be grateful for what you’ve got, but don’t forget to be grateful for what you don’t have, too!

You’ve always been passionate about media, and right now it’s hard to tune into the news without seeing sensationalized stories of suffering. What can we be grateful for about the mainstream news, and how would mass media look different if it were to embrace a perspective of gratitude?

I started out as a journalist in the 1970s, landing my first job at a well-known international magazine. Over time, I’ve seen journalism change—sometimes for the better, sometimes not. The media isn’t as impartial as it used to be, and it doesn’t always focus on telling the truth. Even so, I’m grateful that real journalism still exists. The best journalists show up, ask tough questions, bring attention to hidden issues, and make it harder for suffering to go unnoticed.

The problem is, much of today’s news business seems controlled by people who care more about power than good sense. At some point, the focus moved from telling the truth to creating outrage and fear. People become headlines, statistics, or characters in a story, and then the attention quickly shifts elsewhere.

If the media focused more on gratitude, it would still report on suffering and injustice, but it would also highlight courage, clever ideas, recovery, and the people quietly fixing things behind the scenes. Rather than just delivering one emotional shock after another, it would give us context and let people keep their dignity. Maybe then we’d remember that there are good people doing positive things every day, even if they never make the evening news.

You’ve grown by leaps and bounds, jumping between companies and careers and countries. These big transitions can bring big turmoil, and how did gratitude help you personally move through them?

What I’ve found is that gratitude doesn’t always show up on time, that gratitude doesn’t always come after we arrive safely at the other end.

During some of those transitions, I was too busy coping, adapting or wondering what on earth I had done to feel especially grateful. Leaving the UK and moving to America looked almost impossible at the time. But oddly, although there were so many hurdles to cross, the pathway itself was somehow made remarkably easy. Every time a problem cropped up, a solution appeared. The right person turned up. A door opened. The next step became clear. And I had no grand plan. I was following my intuition, which kept saying, Go to America. Sometimes gratitude is what helps us recognise the next step while we are still standing in the middle of the unknown.

Looking back, I can see that every move gave me something: new people, different perspectives, unexpected opportunities and a larger understanding of myself. Even the decisions that appeared disastrous at the time pushed me towards work, places and relationships I might never otherwise have found. Gratitude helped me stop treating each change as evidence that I had failed to settle down properly. I began to recognise that curiosity, reinvention and a willingness to begin again are not just part of my nature; they’re a driving force in my life.

And I know that, if I reach my deathbed still fully cognizant, I will look back on my life with gratitude. Even the first part, which was far from normal or comfortable, gave me the ambition, resilience and persistence I needed for everything that came afterwards. Gratitude did not always help me understand what was happening while I was in the middle of it. It helped me recognise, sometimes much later, that even the most difficult transitions had carried me somewhere I needed to go.

As you look back over your career, there must be so many things you seriously considered and didn’t end up pursuing. What are you grateful you didn’t do?

I’m glad I didn’t stay put simply because it seemed safe or sensible. There were plenty of paths that looked good on paper - a steady job, more money, a predictable career, and a simple answer when someone asked what I did. But if I had chosen that kind of life, I would have missed the odd, surprising and sometimes downright unlikely adventures that came instead.

I am especially grateful that I didn’t allow other people’s ideas about what was realistic, appropriate or possible to make all my decisions for me. Some of my best choices probably looked highly questionable on paper. And I’m grateful for the voice that kept urging me forward, even though I didn’t know whose voice it was or where it came from. Had I waited for everything to be handed to me on a plate, or for a clear highway to appear in front of me, I would still be waiting.

You have always felt close to America, so much so that you became a U.S. citizen. The country has shifted radically in recent years; what changes are you grateful for?

I truly love both countries, which means I am constantly torn between them. My family, my history, and so much of who I am are rooted in the UK. It is in my blood. But America has always pulled at me. I remember hearing the word America when I was about five years old, and it was as though it suddenly appeared in neon lights. I had no idea why, but something in me recognized it. Someone once summed up my dilemma by saying, “Your heart is in England, but your soul is in America,” and I think there is a great deal of truth in that.

I now have dual citizenship, which, as a Gemini, feels entirely appropriate. We have to have two of everything. So I have two countries, two families, two tribes and, in many ways, two distinctly different lives. Both countries are complicated. I love them, and I am deeply troubled by aspects of what each has become. Becoming an American citizen did not require me to surrender my critical faculties. I am grateful that more people are questioning stories that were once accepted without examination. We are having much more open conversations about power, race, gender, trauma, inequality, mental health and who has traditionally been allowed a voice. Those conversations can be uncomfortable, clumsy and fiercely contested, but silence serves nobody.

I am grateful for the people who continue to organise, speak up, vote, investigate, teach, create, protest and care for their communities. I am particularly encouraged by younger generations who are far less willing to accept “that’s just the way things are” as a satisfactory answer. America has always contained enormous contradictions: generosity and greed, vision and violence, reinvention and resistance. What I remain grateful for is its capacity to question itself, challenge itself and keep reaching towards something it has not yet fully managed to become.

And I am grateful for being a Gemini—for the personality, flexibility and attitudes that come with that sign. I can juggle two countries, two cultures and two lives. I can be happy in both places and, perhaps most importantly, completely present wherever I happen to be.

Huge thank you to Sandie Sedgbeer for joining me, and for changing the way I see gratitude. It’s been a powerful reminder of gratitude works (and doesn’t work) across space and time, both how it might not always feel accessible or even appropriate in the moment and how it nonetheless manages to weave our lives together like a golden thread. You can follow Sandie’s work here on Substack, on YouTube, and on her website.

If you’d like to bring even more gratitude to your life, I invite you to subscribe for weekly personal essays, monthly gatherings, and golden opportunity forecasts that bring joy, love and hope to your daily life on Planet Earth ✨🌎✨

Subscribe now

Who am I and How to Work with Me

🧙 I am an intuitive life coach, energy healer and astrologer. I’m also a creative writer, and I used to be a human rights lawyer.

🪄 I help people open their hearts and recreate their lives from a more joyful place. Together we’ll clear away the blocks that prevent you from making more conscious choices, and we’ll connect you with the support you need to bring greater success. You’ll learn to tune into opportunities with intuition and discernment, and you’ll make choices that bring lasting fulfillment. We’ll also have a good time, because getting in flow with Our Universe always delivers moments of wonder and delight.

🫶 I work with individuals, couples, groups, teams and organizations through my company Truth Takes Time. I work best with people who have some spiritual experience and are ready to step into bigger shoes. If this sounds like you, I invite you to check out my website and book a session. Or if you want to speed date, grab a 20-minute flash session for a bolt of insight that could change it all.

⚡️Book a Flash Session⚡️

Love,

Patrick

As a loving child of those lands, I have long wondered what I could give back to the country that raised me. And now, as the USA celebrates 250 years and I prepare to fill my backyard in London with hot dogs, beer cans and star-spangled banners, it’s clear: Gratitude. Because if you have watched or read the news at all in the past decade, you know the divisive narratives that would purport to rip the country in two. You might also know there is something much bigger than these narratives, something that lives in your heart.

Gratitude can help us navigate even the most upsetting circumstances with kindness, compassion and grace, and it has the power to bring us back together with hope for the brighter future we all deserve. This project is my offering to the USA - and to the world - in this time of tremendous transformation. I’ll be interviewing friends, colleagues and compatriots to share their understandings about gratitude, and I’ll share their blessings for greater unity. I’ll be welcoming your perspective, too, and sharing my own as we move through this time together.

Welcome to Radical Gratitude.❤️

Subscribe now

Sometimes life hands you a project.

Perhaps more often than not, we first feel the existential urge for a new endeavor bubble up from the inside. It might arrive with a flavor of angst, a growing and uncomfortable awareness that what we’re doing now just isn’t quite right. This feeling itches and gnaws and persists until it is impossible to ignore, at which point we finally create the space to listen. And then, in this quiet place of possibility and potential, we tune into the vision and watch in amazement as it slowly unfolds before our eyes.

This is not what happened with this project.

This project knew it was coming for me, and it took no prisoners. It landed fully-formed at my doorstep back in the fall of 2024, when my wonderful friend Sandie Sedgbeer invited me to be on her radio show. Sandie is English and lived in the USA for decades; she has always felt a deep affinity with the country and its people, and she was watching the political landscape shift in ways that many could describe as alarming. Sandie wanted to talk to me just as Americans around the world were preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving, and - more specifically - she wanted to talk to me about gratitude.

We got together for a pre-chat one week after the federal election, and I knew already that U.S. politics would be the bedrock of our conversation. I knew it because my accent is enough to mark me as a representative of the country, and my bright while smile and positive attitude seal the deal. The thing about being American abroad is that it somehow becomes part of your identity in a different way, and your Americanness is reflected back to you even in the simple and obvious way people verbally distinguish you as American. “American Patrick”, strangely enough, does not exist in America where that descriptor would be largely useless; he only comes into his own as he roams the world.

Being a fish on the other side of the pond has given me a chance to appreciate both America and my Americanness in a remarkably different light, and it also means that I am by this point very well accustomed to receiving all manner of questions and comments when there are big things happening on the home front. So I knew that Sandie wanted to ask me about the new (and former) President because people had been asking me about it for days (and days and days). And I also knew what I had to say about it with my decidedly un-British bright white smile and positive attitude.

What I had to say had absolutely nothing to do with political analysis or my personal opinion about the election.¹ I don’t tend to voluntarily consume political media, and the only news I read about the election was the result. I do this because I have put myself through election trauma enough times to know that it doesn’t help for me to tie my sense of well-being to a particular result. I have also learned that the biggest impact I can make is in my immediate environment, and - not being in America - that means my focus was largely on the friends, neighbors and colleagues I see in my daily life.

This distance from the storm, both literal and emotional, was a blessing because it gave me a chance to hold my center of calm. So instead of activating my nervous system with the news, I tuned into how those around me were feeling as the collective temperature rose. I wondered how I could offer them a meaningful and supportive perspective no matter who got the most votes, how I could find something of value to bring us back to the feeling of togetherness that nurtures our hearts.

And I found it: Gratitude.

Gratitude helps us drop our judgment and resistance about what we see before us. Gratitude gives us a chance to step back and see the bigger picture, and it invites us to appreciate how what’s happening now can raise our awareness in a loving way. Gratitude opens our hearts to listen to others with understanding and compassion, and it opens our minds to remember the hopes and values we share. Gratitude helps us to welcome the ever-present possibility of positive change, and it keeps us focused on constructive solutions that uplift everyone. And, perhaps most importantly, gratitude helps us trust the process of our own evolution into something better.

So as Sandie Sedgbeer and I talked about U.S. politics with gratitude, she took notes. And, unbeknownst to me until our on-camera conversation, she went a step further and full-on outlined a book for me about gratitude.

So this is what I mean when I say that this project did not tread lightly.

I knew from the outset it was going to happen. For one thing, I respect that when a prolific and highly successful book development editor hands you a brief to write a book, the wisest thing to do is write it. I also know that writing this book will give my message a chance to reach far beyond my immediate circle of life, that my gratitude can have a far bigger impact on the world if I let it speak. And so, I have wondered: if all of this true and this book is mine to write, then why am I not writing it?

This question has sat with me for months and months, until I realized what was missing: togetherness. This whole project is about how gratitude can bring us together, and this book wants that to happen now. So I’ve been talking to my friends, colleagues and compatriots about gratitude, and they have generously agreed to share their perspectives, practices and promises for benefit of all. And I want to know how it resonates with you, too, because gratitude is far more powerful if we share it.

So in other words: we will write this book together, and consider this your personal invitation to join in the creative process. Subscribe to Giving Thanks and (for free) you’ll get Q&As from the most interesting people I know, invitations to join us for live conversations about gratitude, and recordings of what we talk about. You’ll also get insight and personal wisdom from me as the process unfolds, and you’ll get the chance to connect with one another in gratitude in the comments below.

Love,

Patrick

PS: Sandie Sedgbeer will, of course be the first guest to join me for a Q &A! I’ll share our written conversation here on Giving Thanks, and you are welcome to join us for a live conversation here on Substack at 5:30 pm UK time on Thursday, July 23 (link to follow).

Subscribe now

Who am I and How to Work with Me

I’m an intuitive life coach, energy healer and astrologer. I’m also a creative writer, and I used to be a human rights lawyer.

I help people open their hearts and tune into the magic that is always around us. Together we clear away the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual blocks that prevent us from making more conscious choices, and we create personal experiences of wonder and delight. My goal is always to have a good time, and getting in flow with Our Universe never fails to deliver.

I work with individuals, groups, teams and organizations through my company Truth Takes Time. I work best with people who have some spiritual experience and are ready to step into bigger shoes. If this sounds like you, I invite you to check out my website and book a session. Or if you want to speed date, grab a 20-minute flash session for a bolt of insight that could change it all.

⚡️Book a Flash Session⚡️

It’s been a month.

And I don’t just mean that it’s been three and a half weeks since monkey-minded Mercury began its backwards journey through tender-hearted Cancer, I mean that it’s been a time of deep internal change. This kind of change has required dredging out our emotional trenches, and it’s taken all the courage we can muster to reveal and feel the slippery sludge that has been secretly seeping into the crevices of our cells.

Or, at least, that’s been my experience. There are as many ways that astrology can show up in our lives as there are people who live these lives, so please don’t take my word as gospel and instead give yourself full permission to notice what is true for you. So I invite you to look back on where you were in your heart and mind in late June and reflect on how things are different now. Feel it, know it, and let Our Universe show it to you. If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll even look up from your perch at the window of your local coffee shop and see it emblazoned on a bus passing by.

And right there - if you can read between the lines - is the remarkably simple essence of what this month has taught me about life.

It’s Manifesting 101, I know, and also please bear with me because there’s a reason there are endless articles, posts, videos and courses about manifestation on the internets.1 Presumably if we were all waking up in fully-empowered creative consciousness and seamlessly walking into exactly the kind of day we envisioned, there would be no need to go deeper into studying manifestation. So clearly we are still learning how to manifest.

Personally, I am grateful for the chance to go back to the basics about how I create my experience of life - how I choose the reality I live in. This happens often in my life: I think I get something fully, and then I discover there is deeper wisdom hidden under the surface of my understanding. Perhaps my bigger self knew exactly this last month, which is why it pulled me into the fathoms below. It needed me to witness my dense resistance to the truth that I am the ultimate architect of my life, to remember that it’s all coming from me.

Those feelings stuffed way down in our subconscious? They are reverberating in our bodies; they are speaking with the field of existence all around us; and they are laying out the pitfalls that drop us right out of those perfect days we can see so clearly in our minds. Even if we can’t point to them, we know they are right there manifesting our lives with us because we feel it when we fall.

Maybe this is why we keep coming back to manifesting, because we realize we have been unconsciously doing it all along. Our stagnant emotional energy can silently sabotage our relationships, our careers, our health, our happiness, and there is evidence of this all around if only we stop to listen. This is why it so worth creating a supportive dialog between your head and your heart, and it’s also why we’re so lucky to have Mercury in Cancer by our side. We can learn to follow the thorny trails of our thoughts into the tinny echoes of feelings that we are somehow unworthy of joy, love, or success, and we can let the contractions in our hearts guide the way back to feeling whole.

And then, with more of us present, we can come back and try our hand again at consciously manifesting a better life. We can make a choice about what we wish to step into - we can feel it, we can know it, and we can let Our Universe show it to us. And we can appreciate how things are different this time, because we have more experience to work with.

For me, this month’s mini-course in heart-based listening has completely changed the way that I know. It happened in the funniest of ways, as I sat unexpectedly watching YouTube clickbait on Living a Millionaire’s Life Before the Millions Arrive. The message itself was nothing new: if you want to be wealthy, start acting like a wealthy person. But as I listened (and laughed a little at myself for tuning into a get-rich-quick life hack), it landed in a new way.

I have for many years worked with the systems of feelings and beliefs that shape my life, and I can readily light up my body with enthusiastic energy for a possible outcome just as I can quickly clear away any mental snags that would hold me back.2 But do I know how to know? Heart-felt knowledge has been sorely and at times painfully lacking, and it turns out it’s exactly what Mercury in Cancer so brilliantly gave me: a passport from accepting something as valid in my brain to knowing it as true in my heart.

And now I’m glad to share the key to this knowing with you: it comes from within. It involves zero verification from external circumstances, and - while looking at the world around you as safe and supportive of your wishes can help you to relax - the work of knowing must happen in your heart. This does not mean ignoring, discounting or responding to what shows up in your life; it simply means recognizing at all times that you know something more.

Take, for example, knowing that you are prosperous. If you know this, you do not need to look for evidence of your prosperity - you do not need to see it reflected in your bank statements, your paycheck or your possessions. Yes, you can certainly look at these things with the attention they ask for, and you can notice how your body feels scared or soothed as you witness the currently available evidence about your finances. You can also be aware of prosperity as you move through the world, and you can pick up on other people’s perceptions of where you stand. You can observe where and how you spend money, and where and how you save it.

But you cannot let any of this touch your deeper knowledge that you are prosperous. Because as soon as you start looking for signs of prosperity outside yourself, you fall out of your center where the truth of that knowledge exists. You make your knowledge contingent on something in your environment that will inevitably change, and you get sent right back to Manifesting 101 when it does. In other words: your cup will start to look empty when you try to fill it from somewhere else, and this is a fast track to forgetting that it’s your energy in the driver’s seat of your life.

The same is true for prosperity as it with beauty, brilliance, success, satisfaction or any of the other feelings we might wish to know. The reward for anchoring them within is that we get to feel these things all of the time, and we can also marvel with surprise and delight as Our Universe mirrors those feelings back to us in physical reality. I say this with recently reinforced certainty as Our Universe just gave me a slogan for my new manifesting strategy on a t-shirt in the Tube: “Be you. The world will adjust.”

It’s no surprise to feel such a shift in my awareness with the basket beaming down on us from the skies above, and I’m sending this message out early to help you work that energy to bring your wishes closer. We’ll also focus specifically on manifesting in this week’s Class on Sovereign Self-Love, which you’re welcome to join for free if it’s your first time (I trust you). It starts TOMORROW, July 23 (Thursday) at 8:00 am Pacific / 11:00 am Eastern / 4:00 pm UK / 5:00 pm Europe, and just click this link here at the class start time to join.

Thank you for sharing in my revelation, and I hope this mini-course has brought you more in touch with the kind of knowledge that lives in your heart. Mercury will wrap up its retrograde on Thursday, and in the spirit of revision I’m including a new feature this week: a written run-down of this week’s Golden Opportunities as the Sun makes its way through Leo. The Sun (very literally) brings everything to life, and these messages are specifically designed to bring you in touch with your natural radiance, vitality, and sense of purpose.

Enjoy!

Love,

Patrick

Golden Opportunities this Week☀️

Monday, July 27:

☀️Sun opposite Pluto in Aquarius:

Get below the fear that shining more brightly will leave you out in the cold. Remember that your power lies in your brilliance, that your gifts and talents are unique to you, and that you can break through feelings of isolation by inspiring other people to be more themselves.

☀️Sun trine Neptune in Aries:

Anchor your sense of self in your ability to create. Know that you can be any version of yourself you want to be, and ground that ability by choosing to feeling something fully right now. Choose to feel bright, to feel expansive, to feel magnanimous, to feel brave.

☀️Sun sextile Uranus in Gemini:

Free yourself from restrictive thoughts about who you are or who you need to be. Notice where you have been attached to a part of your identity - a label, a characteristic, a personality trait - and give yourself permission to play with another way of being. Show yourself that you are more than what you think.

Wednesday, July 29:

☀️Sun conjunct Jupiter in Leo:

Take pride in how much you have grown and expanded this year, and appreciate all the times and ways you said “yes!” to exploring a new possibility. Remember that true abundance comes from the heart, and that your heart beats to the tune of self-love. Commit to appreciate yourself this year. Know that the more you do, the more the world around you will appreciate you, too.

☀️Sun opposite Moon in Aquarius (Full Moon 🌕):

Reflect on the ways you create community, how you do (and don’t) fit in with the world you see around you, and the ways your beliefs about life shape what you walk into every day. Open up to the ways you have felt excluded from the collective conversation, and know that you are always being heard on a higher level. Fill yourself with faith, hope and joy, and bring these into the world with the charm of calm.

Want to keep the insight flowing? Upgrade to a paying subscription for regular weekly messages like this one.☀️

Subscribe now

If nothing else, I know that so many planets talking to each other is a sure sign of new connections being made. And when we make new connections - both between each other and within ourselves - we change the way we move through the world. I also know that worldly change can be boisterous. It can be epic, insane and totally earth-shattering. We already see it happening all around us, and yet this is not the narrative I want to focus on. Because out there in all this collective cacophony are a sea of individuals like you and me, and we are much more quietly experiencing change on the inside.

Change on the inside is more subtle than sensational, and it can take time to ground itself in the physicality of our bodies and waking lives. It rarely makes headlines when you realize that you have been secretly holding onto some sadness from your childhood, that you have been unnecessarily worrying about your relationship status, or that you have been subconsciously sabotaging your own success. But it is these shifts that make such a profound difference both to us and - because it is made of us - to the world.

In particular, these internal shifts matter because they bring us closer to loving ourselves. I’m raising this now because the Sun’s entrance into Leo marks high season for self-love, a chance for us all to more fully bask in our brilliance. And when we are ready to leave behind our ego’s need to show how brightly it can (out)shine, Leo can help us to confidently relax into the inherent excellence of our individual existence.

All this is to say: perhaps it’s time to start loving yourself. And as the Sun comes in to activate this cosmic basket, here’s how you can do it:

This sentence came to (through?) me loud and clear as I tuned into the forecast for the month ahead, and it gave me shivers. For one thing, it captures the astrology perfectly - finding abundance with Jupiter, meeting our fear with Pluto, breaking up our thoughts with Uranus, and reimagining ourselves with Neptune. And for another, this evolutionary cascade is not set off by a courageous quest into the darkness but rather by the silent choice to love ourselves just a little bit more.

To me, embracing self-love as the highest form of abundance means both acknowledging self-love as valuable and accepting that there is always more of it available. This feels true to me because loving ourselves more might just be our single biggest mission and because - much like Our Universe - love is infinite. It also feels true because I know from my own life that opportunities open up to me most when I am being kind and gentle with myself, when I accept that I am doing my best, when I know that I have something valuable to offer.

Self-love softens fear with faith, for fear has little power to hold us in our tracks when we know that we are moving forwards towards our destiny. Self-love quiets thoughts with truth, for wounding words have nothing to attach themselves to when we know that we are whole. And self-love frees us from whatever we might believe constrains us, for the fullness of our potential knows no bounds.

The power of self-love has never felt more present, so much so that invited me to talk about Self-Love as Abundance on the Somatic Wisdom Podcast.

Self-Love and Sovereignty are also the central themes of the month’s Leo Season Forecast, and I can feel just how determined the Sun is for us to embrace them.

Part 2 (for paying subscribers) presents the Golden Opportunities we have to embrace self-love and sovereignty in our daily lives as the month progresses, and we’ll do just this in our next Class on Sovereign Self-Love on Thursday, July 23 at 8:00 am Pacific / 11:00 am Eastern / 4:00 pm UK / 5:00 pm Europe. Grab a free 30-day pass to join us HERE and you’ll also get to join in our Mini-Course on Heart-based Listening with Mercury retrograde in Cancer.

It’s been a busy month in here / out there, and there are an abundance of ways to help you open up to the flow of opportunity. Keep reading for an insightful interview on how gratitude doesn’t always show up on time with , a surprising conversation about the ways that Uranus in Gemini is rocking our world, and a new episode of Angel After Hours to help you connect with the sources of support that are all around you.

Love,

Patrick

When Gratitude is Late to the Party

Dive into gratitude with this Q&A that explores how gratitude does not always arrive on schedule, how being thankful becomes possible when we notice what we have, and how to be more grateful for what we don’t have. Sandie also brings her years of experience and expertise in journalism to the table in her brilliant answer to this question:

Check out her answer HERE and join us for a live conversation on Thursday, July 23 @ 9:30 am Pacific / 12:30 pm Eastern / 5:30 pm UK / 6:30 pm Europe. Click here to join when the moment arrives.

Uranus in Gemini: Quantum Mischief

In this raw, funny, unedited conversation, Patrick, , and explore quantum logic, parallel realities, subjectivity, self-talk, lucid dreaming, neurodiversity, AI, plant communication, empathy, intuition, and the future of human connection.
There are glitches.
There is laughter.
Patrick briefly disappears from his own hosting role.
And somehow... it all fits the theme perfectly.

This episode is unplugged, unedited, and gloriously human — a reminder that before AI polished every rough edge, conversations were allowed to be spontaneous, imperfect, and wonderfully alive.
If you're feeling the shake-up that so many people sense right now, this conversation offers fresh perspectives on navigating change with curiosity, awareness, and heart.

And if you want to explore how Uranus in Gemini is shaking up your own life, book a Special 1:1 Consultation with me HERE.

Angel After Hours:

Angels are all around us, and there is an angel for everything. They are on call to help humanity anytime... we need only ask!

The Angel After Hours pod is informed by the work of Jean Slatter in her book “Hiring the Heavens”, which we discuss + share today.

We also cover two community questions today from Ghida regarding her life’s purpose, and Alina who asked about combining two pursuits into a business venture. Tune in to hear what the angels had to say, and send us your own questions for the angels at angelafterhourspod@gmail.com!

Listen on the platform of your choice HERE.

Below you’ll find Part 1 and Part 2 (just for you) of the Leo Season Forecast. With the blessings of Mercury retrograde, I got to record Part 2 multiple times. This helped me get clear on the intention I have for you in these videos: to fully connect with all of the posi…

Read more

You rarely hear someone say they want to be vulnerable.

People aspire to be all kinds of things. They go to the gym to be strong; they go to the office to be successful; they go to the bar to be social. And - especially if you are a man - our society is very happy to support you in your desire to be powerful, rich, and well-connected.

On the many occasions I have been encouraged to articulate my own aspirations, some version of this trio has always emerged in my thinking. It makes sense, too, both because they are so deeply engrained in the Western value system and also because they speak to something more fundamental about being human. We want to feel safe. And in a place that does not practically guarantee you the resources and loving support that you (always) need to grow and develop, safety sure can look like power, wealth and an extensive network.

So it makes sense that we want these things, and I can readily acknowledge that - despite my many years of spiritual training - part of me still wants them, too. I am not here to talk you out of coveting these conventional passports to security, and both Mercury in Cancer and I want nothing more than for you to feel safe. So let’s pause to appreciate the lust for privilege for what it really is: a request for permission to open up.

I know that might sound like a big leap, so please join me on the logic train my lawyer-brain loves to follow. We want privilege because it promises us the feeling of safety we crave. And when we allow ourselves to feel safe, we stop fighting so hard to survive. We let our bodies soften and relax, and we give our breath a chance to slow down our whirring thoughts.

As we do this, we begin to become aware that there is more to life than privilege. We start to see the bigger picture, to remember that our lives are really about the love we share and not the empires we build. We laugh at ourselves because this is what people invariably say at the end of their lives, because we all know it’s true. We tune in to hear the honesty of our own hearts, and we come to live from a place where we get to openly give and receive love.

Read more

As a loving child of the USA, I have long wondered what I could give back to the country that raised me. And now, as it celebrates 250 years and I prepare to fill my backyard in London with hot dogs, beer cans and star-spangled banners, it’s clear: Gratitude. Because if you have watched or read the news at all in the past decade, you know the divisive narratives that would purport to rip the country in two. You might also know there is something much bigger than these narratives, something that lives in your heart.

Gratitude can help us navigate even the most upsetting circumstances with kindness, compassion and grace, and it has the power to bring us back together with hope for the brighter future we all deserve. This project is my offering to the USA - and to the world - in this time of tremendous transformation. I’ll be interviewing friends, colleagues and compatriots to share their understandings about gratitude, and I’ll share their blessings for greater unity. I’ll be welcoming your perspective, too, and sharing my own as we move through this time together.

Welcome to Giving Thanks.❤️

Subscribe to Giving Thanks

Sometimes life hands you a project.

Perhaps more often than not, we first feel the existential urge for a new endeavor bubble up from the inside. It might arrive with a flavor of angst, a growing and uncomfortable awareness that what we’re doing now just isn’t quite right. This feeling itches and gnaws and persists until it is impossible to ignore, at which point we finally create the space to listen. And then, in this quiet place of possibility and potential, we tune into the vision and watch in amazement as it slowly unfolds before our eyes.

This is not what happened with this project.

This project knew it was coming for me, and it took no prisoners. It landed fully-formed at my doorstep back in the fall of 2024, when my wonderful friend invited me to be on her radio show. Sandie is English and lived in the USA for decades; she has always felt a deep affinity with the country and its people, and she was watching the political landscape shift in ways that many could describe as alarming. Sandie wanted to talk to me just as Americans around the world were preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving, and - more specifically - she wanted to talk to me about gratitude.

We got together for a pre-chat one week after the federal election, and I knew already that U.S. politics would be the bedrock of our conversation. I knew it because my accent is enough to mark me as a representative of the country, and my bright while smile and positive attitude seal the deal. The thing about being American abroad is that it somehow becomes part of your identity in a different way, and your Americanness is reflected back to you even in the simple and obvious way people verbally distinguish you as American. “American Patrick”, strangely enough, does not exist in America where that descriptor would be largely useless; he only comes into his own as he roams the world.

Being a fish on the other side of the pond has given me a chance to appreciate both America and my Americanness in a remarkably different light, and it also means that I am by this point very well accustomed to receiving all manner of questions and comments when there are big things happening on the home front. So I knew that Sandie wanted to ask me about the new (and former) President because people had been asking me about it for days (and days and days). And I also knew what I had to say about it with my decidedly un-British bright white smile and positive attitude.

What I had to say had absolutely nothing to do with political analysis or my personal opinion about the election. I don’t tend to voluntarily consume political media, and the only news I read about the election was the result. I do this because I have put myself through election trauma enough times to know that it doesn’t help for me to tie my sense of well-being to a particular result. I have also learned that the biggest impact I can make is in my immediate environment, and - not being in America - that means my focus was largely on the friends, neighbors and colleagues I see in my daily life.

This distance from the storm, both literal and emotional, was a blessing because it gave me a chance to hold my center of calm. So instead of activating my nervous system with the news, I tuned into how those around me were feeling as the collective temperature rose. I wondered how I could offer them a meaningful and supportive perspective no matter who got the most votes, how I could find something of value to bring us back to the feeling of togetherness that nurtures our hearts.

And I found it: Gratitude.

Gratitude helps us drop our judgment and resistance about what we see before us. Gratitude gives us a chance to step back and see the bigger picture, and it invites us to appreciate how what’s happening now can raise our awareness in a loving way. Gratitude opens our hearts to listen to others with understanding and compassion, and it opens our minds to remember the hopes and values we share. Gratitude helps us to welcome the ever-present possibility of positive change, and it keeps us focused on constructive solutions that uplift everyone. And, perhaps most importantly, gratitude helps us trust the process of our own evolution into something better.

So as and I talked about U.S. politics with gratitude, she took notes. And, unbeknownst to me until our on-camera conversation, she went a step further and full-on outlined a book for me about gratitude.

So this is what I mean when I say that this project did not tread lightly.

I knew from the outset it was going to happen. For one thing, I respect that when a prolific and highly successful book development editor hands you a brief to write a book, the wisest thing to do is write it. I also know that writing this book will give my message a chance to reach far beyond my immediate circle of life, that my gratitude can have a far bigger impact on the world if I let it speak. And so, I have wondered: if all of this true and this book is mine to write, then why am I not writing it?

This question has sat with me for months and months, until I realized what was missing: togetherness. This whole project is about how gratitude can bring us together, and this book wants that to happen now. So I’ve been talking to my friends, colleagues and compatriots about gratitude, and they have generously agreed to share their perspectives, practices and promises for benefit of all. And I want to know how it resonates with you, too, because gratitude is far more powerful if we share it.

So in other words: we will write this book together, and consider this your personal invitation to join in the creative process. Subscribe to Giving Thanks and (for free) you’ll get Q&As from the most interesting people I know, invitations to join us for live conversations about gratitude, and recordings of what we talk about. You’ll also get insight and personal wisdom from me as the process unfolds, and you’ll get the chance to connect with one another in gratitude in the comments below.

Subscribe to Giving Thanks

And if you can see how gratitude would help us move through the turmoil we see splashed all over the headlines - and how it might help you move through the turmoil in your own life, too - please please please share this message far and wide. I say this because I have learned that we move faster and further when we move together, and there is nothing I want more than for this world to be a better place for everyone in it.

Love,

Patrick

PS: will, of course be the first guest to join me for a Q &A! I’ll share our written conversation on Giving Thanks, and you are welcome to join us for a live conversation here on Substack at 5:30 pm UK time on Thursday, July 23 (link to follow).

PS: If you’re curious about astrology, next week I’ll share a post here on Truth Takes Time about the remarkably divine timing behind all of this. It still blows my mind! 🤯

Subscribe to Truth Takes Time

Who am I and How to Work with Me

I’m an intuitive life coach, energy healer and astrologer. I’m also a creative writer, and I used to be a human rights lawyer.

I help people open their hearts and tune into the magic that is always around us. Together we clear away the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual blocks that prevent us from making more conscious choices, and we create personal experiences of wonder and delight. My goal is always to have a good time, and getting in flow with Our Universe never fails to deliver.

I work with individuals, groups, teams and organizations through my company Truth Takes Time. I work best with people who have some spiritual experience and are ready to step into bigger shoes. If this sounds like you, I invite you to check out my website and book a session. Or if you want to speed date, grab a 20-minute flash session for a bolt of insight that could change it all.

⚡️Book a Flash Session⚡️

It’s been a wobbly week.

I know it’s a wobbly week when my mind has to talk my body into getting out of bed in the morn…

Read more

For me, it was a chance to more fully inhabit my heart space and to be with other wonderful human beings doing the same. We are so lucky to have each other!

In the class, we went through a few experiential exercises together to open our hearts and invite…

Read more

So consider this month a mini-course in heart-felt listening.❤️ If you want to join but finances feel like a stretch, I’d rather you get the chance to learn than not so here’s a Free Pass for 30 Days.

Before I sit down to write these missives, I almost always hear the first sentence in my head. I recognize it as my call to action, and I can feel the heavens reaching down to gently orient me towards my computer.

But today was - unsurprisingly, given how Mercury retrograde likes to operate - remarkably different. Because I did very clearly hear that first sentence, but it’s not what I wrote! Instead, I dropped the fourth wall and let you in on the behind-the-scenes machinations of my writing process.

Maybe I did this because it’s interesting and valuable to know how the sauce is made, because - as with life - the process is the product. Or maybe I did this because it’s what Mercury would want, because these paragraphs invite us into a deeper level of thought than the usual flow of letters onto screen. Or maybe I did this because the sentence I heard was so complete that there was nothing more to say on the matter.

The sentence was:

Read more

Thank you again for your support!

Here’s a gentle reminder that this month’s Magic Class will take place this Friday, June 26 @ 8 am Pacific / 11 am Eastern / 4 pm UK / 5 pm Europe. The theme will be Heart as Compass, and we’ll be working to clear our heart energy so that we can invite in more of the goodness that Our Universe has…

Read more

It takes a lot of courage to wear your heart on your sleeve.

I do this very literally thanks to my favorite wristwatch - a bright white Swatch with a juicy red heart splashed across its face - and more and more I do it in the figurative fullness of the expression.

It takes courage because while our hearts can fill up with the joy of everlasting love that flows all around us, they can also hurt. And so, it would logically follow that when we open our hearts up to experience more love, we also open our hearts up to experience more hurt. Perhaps you have had an experience that personally validates this; perhaps you once dared to show your beautiful heart to someone you wanted to love you, and perhaps at some point they turned to the look the other way.

In those moments it is so easy to build walls. Wearing your heart on your sleeve most certainly leaves it wide open to being poked and prodded, and what kind of fool would want their tender heart to face such unpleasant sensations. So we choose instead to lovingly wrap our hearts in protective layers, relieving ourselves from the pain of pokes and prods. We insulate ourselves from the harsh feelings we worry will be delivered to our doorstep, and we step out of the game of wearing our hearts on our sleeves.

These walls around our hearts can work so well, filtering the emotional noise around us into stone cold silence. In fact, they work so well that they not only keep people from hurting us, they also keep people from loving us. Because while you cannot hear someone telling you to get lost when you put your fingers in your ears, you also cannot hear them telling you to come closer.

So eventually we start to feel lonely in that silence; we start to remember that we did not come here to be alone. And we wonder why we find ourselves surrounded by the unforgiving hardness of these walls; we remember that there is a whole wide world out there waiting for us to show up. We put our hands on our hearts and we feel the warmth that wants to hold us; we remember that we can let our defenses melt into flowing rivers of emotion.

It takes courage to remember that our hearts are meant to be open, and even more courage to put them back on our sleeves. It is no etymological accident that “courage” grows from the Latin root word for heart, just as it is no accident that embracing courage is what helps us get back to the soft seat of our own tender hearts. And I do not mean the blazing courage that drives us outwards to champion what is right, I mean the gentle courage that invites us inwards to trust what we feel. This is the courage that helps us to connect with ourselves and each other, and it is available in every single moment if we choose it.

I know these words I write are not novel, and even as I sit writing them I feel hopelessly cheesy. There are one billion trillion gazillion books, songs and movies about people opening their hearts. On some level, maybe every story ultimately ends with someone opening their heart to more of life because that’s what we’re all doing here. So I won’t hold back my words today, because this is also what’s happening for me.

I know this because of the unexplained heaviness I’ve felt in my heart this past week, and I also know it because a few days ago the buckle on my watchband suddenly broke and sent my heart plummeting to the floor. I am now using all of my courage not to resist this heaviness, to accept it as a wall that is ready to release. I’m seeing this wall covered in a beautiful mosaic, and I’m appreciating how every single letter I type is a tile. And I am committing to stay with the warmth I know is always there, even as I see my fingers moving at half their usual flighty speed.

I’m also being honest, because writing from the heart means writing about what you’re actually feeling and not what you wish you felt. It’s amazing how quickly our minds can step in to offer a considered analysis of our feelings, and it’s equally amazing how quickly all of that can fall away when you pause for long enough to be with your heart. And, for me, this is now the only way forward because my mind is – for once – drawing a complete and total blank as to why I might feel this way.

But what I do know is: it feels good to be with my feelings, and it feels good to write about them. It helps me trust them, it helps me trust my heart, it helps me trust myself. This trust is in and of itself a reward, and it means I get to keep wearing my heart on my sleeve.1 I also get to share my trust with you, dear reader, and I get to reassure your tender heart that it is safe to feel.

So as the Sun moves into Cancer this weekend, this is my wish for you: to feel what you feel for the sake of feeling because feeling is what brings us to life. Below is my take on what you can find in the ether this month,2 and paying subscribers can keep scrolling down for a more detailed day-by-day run through what the Sun’s dance with the crab promises. I encourage (another heart-rooted word) you to spend time with your heart, and to join this community for weekly messages that will inspire you to do just that.

You’re also invited to join my next Monthly Magic Class next Friday, June 26 @ 8 am Pacific / 11 am Eastern / 4 pm UK / 5 pm Europe. We’ll be – unsurprisingly – working with feelings, and you’ll get to know your heart as a compass that is here to guide you through life. You’re invited to join live for free if it’s your first time (I trust you) by clicking right here on this link when the time arrives, and paying subscribers will receive a recording to tune into later.

And lastly, as I open my heart, I want to pay it forward and offer to help you open yours - because I’ve learned that what I’m doing right now is what I’m best at. So while the Sun is in Cancer, join me for a Heart-Opening Session at a heart-friendly price you get to choose.

❤️ Open My Heart ❤️

Love,

Patrick

PS: I have a new podcast! My friend Melissa and I just dropped the very first episode of Angel After Hours, it’s a chance for you to learn and practice how to receive (and give!) angelic assistance. This month we’re welcoming in requests, so just reply to this message if you could use some help from the angels!

PPS: If you’re in London, please join me and my brilliant colleague Mary to celebrate the Full Moon in Capricorn in an evening ritual with Yin Yoga and Astrological Wisdom on Monday, June 29 in Hampstead. Book here 🌝

PPPS: Here is Part 2 of the Cancer Season Forecast with a list of solar transits! Jump over the paywall to check it out.

Read more

It’s funny how literal astrology can be.

I don’t always follow the daily movements of the planets - especially when I am fully immersed in an experience as I was this past week - but sometimes I get a celestial wink to cast a chart just at the moment when something big is happening. That’s exactly what happened on Tuesday afternoon at the gift shop of the lush, sprawling Hillwood Estate in Washington, DC, an immaculate family home I have visited with my own family more times than I can remember much less count.

Read more

This week I’m consciously co-writing with Mercury in Cancer, who currently stewards the Sun in Gemini. The Gemini Sun knows that communication is how we connect ourselves and one another with the essence of who we are, how we light up the world we share with love. Mercury in Cancer brings that awareness to the soft, tender place in our hearts, helping us to create the safe spaces we need to share the love that we have. Together they remind us not only that caring approaches beget communication, but that communicating in and of itself can be an act of care.✨

Read more