One of my core beliefs and the foundation of my astrological practice holds that the evolution of the soul is, if not the purpose of life (assuming there is such a thing), then certainly the result.

Some of us take to that concept more easily than others — there are plenty of people who don’t believe in the existence of a soul at all. But whenever I see the sign of Pisces or its ruling planets emphasized in the transits, I have hope that a few more folks will come to realize that the foundation of our consciousness, a.k.a. the soul, is not limited to our physical bodies and will continue on its journey after our body returns to the Earth. To my mind, it’s a realization that must underlie any healthy human civilization, and astrology is one of our best guides to living within this Great Mystery in awareness, integrity, strength, and compassion.

The chart of this Pisces lunar eclipse is one of spiritual awakenings, sudden changes, social revolutions along with attempts at their repression, and ongoing climate upheaval. The chart will be in play for the next 6 months or so. I’ll get into more detail about that below, but first I’m going to review the astrology for those who speak the language. I’ll put that section in italics so you can skip through it easily, but bold anything of more general interest.

(Astrologers: I’ve cast the chart for August 28th 12:19 a.m. EDT, Washington, D.C. That gives an ascendant of 15°1’ Gemini and makes the chart predictive for the USA. Students should keep time zones in mind if you cast for another location as the angles and houses will be different. The planetary sign placements and aspects are the same everywhere.

The Full Moon is at 4°54’ of Pisces/Virgo, within just 5 degrees of but out of sign with the nodes, and tightly oppose/conjunct Mercury. All three planets form a tight, mutable T-square with Uranus.

Let’s take a closer look at this pattern. We’re dealing with mutable signs — the Full Moon in Pisces and Virgo, Uranus in Gemini. The nodes are only 5 degrees from the eclipse, empowering it. Mercury is just a few minutes past cazimi, in domicile and exalted. Mercury rules and squares Uranus in Gemini. Winged Mercury — Trickster/Great Communicator/God of Trade — is a mighty presence in this chart.

All the areas that Mercury rules are going to be subject to upheavals, surprises, and breakdowns that can lead to breakthroughs. Especially the three Ts — trade, technology, and travel — including air travel with Uranus involved. Information of all kinds is under Mercury’s purview, and it looks like information processing could get pretty well scrambled if Uranus has anything to say about it. And it does.

The nervous system of the collective consciousness will be shaken up from all the changes. Which is not necessarily bad, but won’t be restful. Make stress relief a priority.

In Virgo, Mercury will be focused on harvests, food production, and health [particularly public health] while busily cutting through various administrative tangles, possibly with a sword.

Now check out Moon, comfortable and highly emotional in a Water sign, but also eclipsed. Note that it disposits Mars which in turn disposits Saturn and Neptune in Aries. Moon holds a lot of responsibility in this chart, but is struggling for agency due to being eclipsed.

Tsunamis of emotion are likely, and I would not rule out an actual tsunami and/or yet more severe flooding. Conflicts over women’s rights, workers’ rights, and religious freedom definitely fit the picture.

I’m also concerned about public health, particularly epidemics/pandemics, toxins, and hospital and sanitation infrastructure.

And we can’t forget Venus, who is in her domicile of Libra. She only makes minor aspects — sesquiquadrates and semisquares to the Full Moon, Mercury, and Uranus — but don’t discount her influence, particularly in financial matters, diplomacy, and women’s issues.

There are two other aspects of note in this chart, and both involve Saturn, which is at 14 degrees of Aries. It squares Mars at 11 degrees Cancer, and trines Jupiter at 13 degrees Leo. The Mars-Saturn square is particularly problematic due to both the innate nature of the two planets, the tension of a square, and the fact that they are both in the sign of their fall, where they struggle to express their natural energy. Since it’s a Cardinal square involving both Mars and Aries, we can expect not only action, but confrontational, even violent action.

Jupiter and Saturn are the two social planets. They represent the underlying ideas as well as the physical structures that support society. The signs involved in this trine are both signs of leadership. While the trine is a generally benefic aspect, in mundane astrology, you always need to consider who or what benefits from this easy flow of planetary energy.)

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OK, let’s look at what this astrology suggests we’re likely to be dealing with over the next 6 months or so.

I expect considerable social unrest, with issues of leadership front and center. Leaders are not necessarily dictators or kings. Leaders can be seed crystals around which social movements coalesce and thrive.

Good leaders bring vision and values to the table, inspire others to contribute their experience and wisdom to a shared purpose, and illuminate the path ahead. We’ll be seeing more of them emerging onto the public stage in response to the accumulating disastrous results of dictatorial and incompetent leadership.

Some of those results are likely to bring resource and supply chain disruptions that will demand local responses. On a community level, leaders with integrity, strength, good communication skills, a collective vision, and a desire to serve will be needed, but we all need to think about what part we choose to play in creating sustainable and just communities. How we help each other, how we effectively and compassionately respond to crises and injustices on a local level will not only determine local outcomes, but will inspire and set examples for other communities.

Environmentally, an intensification of what we’ve already been seeing — fires, floods, strong storms, and geophysical upheavals, resulting in power outages as well as communication and travel snarls.

On a personal level, first we must recognize that rapid and often surprising changes are in the air. If we know what changes we want to happen in our selves, in our families, in our communities, then we can more easily recognize and work with transformative and evolutionary shifts that are happening around us.

But we also need to be ready for unexpected — and sometimes unwelcome — changes. This means developing both psychological flexibility as well as material planning and preparation.

It also means dealing with all those difficult thoughts and emotions that can crop up when sudden events that feel like threats are happening around us. Here are some actual physical things you can do that can help manage anxiety and fear.

• Breathwork is the first go-to technique when you’re feeling anxious. Learn the routines through daily repetition so they become automatic when you need them. It can be something simple like this 4-7-8 practice, or you can try this relaxing beginner’s pranayama practice.

• Cleansing salt baths/showers will help remove much of the negative energies we pick up from others and our environment. Clearing the energy in your home is important too — particularly the bedroom, since sleep is both an important and a vulnerable time. You’ll find instructions for a purification bath as well as other energetic cleansing techniques in this post, and more about house clearing here.

• Stay spiritually connected. Whatever your beliefs are, they should strengthen, encourage, and help guide you through your daily decisions and choices. If they aren’t, it may be time to rethink your beliefs. This eclipse chart points strongly to transformations in spiritual belief systems, both personal and institutional.

• Spend time in nature. Even if your only option is a local park. Particularly if your beliefs encompass animism. Open your awareness to the life around you, and to the Earth that supports us.

This eclipse challenges our abilities to stay emotionally and spiritually connected while not losing sight of practical matters and discerning what is real from what is illusion or deception. A revolution of the heart requires both.

Blessings of the season to you,

“The word theatre comes from the Greeks. It means the seeing place. It is the place people come to see the truth about life and the social situation.”
~Stella Adler

Good theater, whether in pixels or in person, affects us emotionally, expands our minds, connects us with others, and inspires us to dream. It leads us through a story, making a point or two or three along the way, and delivers us back to our lives changed, and with enough food for thought to keep us going for a while.

Good theater requires discipline, attention, creativity, and thoughtfulness. It needs a group with specific skills working together to bring their creative vision to their community. These same requirements — discipline, attention, creativity, thoughtfulness, and cooperation — translate well to real life. This Leo New Moon helps us find ways to deal creatively with whatever life scripts get thrown at us <ahem> come our way.

We all have a bit of the actor in us. We all have different roles we play in our lives. Playing a certain role does not mean we are being inauthentic. Many roles are perfectly appropriate to the situations and people we are interacting with and reflect some part of the whole of our identity. Sometimes we’ll try on a role that doesn’t quite fit yet, but we know we can grow into it. Becoming first-time parents, for instance. That’s not inauthentic, either. Call it authentically aspirational.

But problems arise when we create a role for ourselves behind which we stash our shame and insecurities. We create psychological barriers between our inner self and the outer world that we hope make us socially acceptable.

Most of us do this to one degree or another because almost all of us have shame and insecurities. But this kind of role-playing has a negative effect on our lives and relationships. We can work with the Leo archetype to heal inner wounds to our sense of self-worth, let the barriers dissolve, and take on a role that expresses our soul’s hopes and dreams for this lifetime without fear or shame.

Leo’s focus is on the creative individual, hence its association with theater and drama. The chart of this solar eclipse brings us opportunities to expand and refine our own self-expression while becoming a more generous and insightful audience to others as they act out their parts in our collective play.

The chart of any eclipse resonates for months or even years into the future, and this is a powerful one. There will be a lot of drama playing out both on the world stage and in our personal lives. I’ll get into what to expect and how we can work with it below, but first let’s explore the astrology. If you don’t speak the language, you can skip through the section in italics. I’ll bold anything of general interest.

(Astrologers: Cast the chart for August 12, 1:36 P.M. EDT. I’ve cast the chart for Washington, DC, which gives a chart with houses that are predictive for the USA.

The New Moon falls on 20°1’ of Leo, semi-square/sesqui-square a Venus-Neptune opposition. It is joined in Leo by a Mercury-Jupiter conjunction in the early degrees of the sign, and the South Node at the anaretic degree.

If you work with the asteroids, note that Asteroid Hygeia is closely conjunct Jupiter. On a personal level, this suggests to me that we all might want to pay attention to our health, particularly preventative measures such as cleanliness, diet, and vaccinations. If you are an energy worker of any kind, then purification rituals such as salt baths should be helpful. This placement and other astro-indicators have increased my ongoing concerns about public health, particularly in the US.

The eclipsed Sun by dispositorship rules every major planet in the chart but one. Venus is at 5°53’ in her home sign of Libra. The dispositor chain is complex and worth tracing.

Planets moving through Leo and Libra will be forming new aspect patterns with the Minor Grand Trine of the outer planets for as long as that aspect is within orb — which is through the end of the decade. (I look more closely at this “Barbault’s Basket” formation in this post.) Planets moving through Leo will form a cradle/basket as they oppose Pluto, and planets in Libra will form an Air Grand Trine with Uranus and Pluto as they oppose Neptune, creating a Kite formation.

Venus is creating that Grand Trine/Kite formation in this chart. An Air GT brings an easy flow of energy focusing on information and its technology, science, culture, travel, and the intelligentsia. The opposition of Venus to Neptune in Aries suggests culture wars and, I suspect, a lot of conflict over AI inaccuracies and tendency to run amok, data centers, flock cameras. Spiritual upheavals and personal breakthroughs in understanding are also likely.

Venus also rules Chiron in Taurus and, in the Washington, DC chart, she rules the Descendant, which gives me a slight bit of hope for the success of diplomacy in some areas (as unlikely as that may seem given the current socio-political climate). On the other hand, we could just see billionaires raking in more money before the tottering foundations of our economy collapse.

Sorry. I know you could use some cheerful news right now, but there’s no way over, under, or around what’s coming down the pike environmentally and economically. There’s only one way, and that’s through. Where and what we end up with depends on our clarity of vision, strength of will, and willingness to change. The astrology also suggests that we’ll have multiple options, stunning innovations, and good people working to carve a path through to a better world. We must face reality, but we cannot give into despair.

Back to the astrology. Note that Mercury has taken Jupiter’s place opposing Pluto in the Basket formation as Jupiter moves out of orb. Yes, it will move on quickly, but keep in mind that this is an eclipse chart, and so will remain in play for months..

Mars is at 0° Cancer, the World Point, and joined by dwarf planet Ceres. Mars, ruling all those planets and asteroids in Aries, is moving into a square with both Venus and Neptune — which puts it at the apex of a T-square — and by the end of this month, it will square Saturn as it conjuncts the USA’s Sun. Conflict, both internal and external, seems unavoidable particularly considering that the USA is also approaching a Uranus return. This is also an epidemic/pandemic signature, and speaks to environmental upheavals as well.

Jupiter is approaching a trine to Saturn, which will become exact three times by mid-2027. The synodic cycle of these two planets is reflected in global socio-political shifts, and a trine signifies an easy flow of energy that is often, though not always, beneficial. “Who benefits?” is always an important question when looking at trines in a mundane chart. (With transits to a natal chart, you can usually assume the native will be the beneficiary.)

Jupiter and Saturn working easily together usually bodes well for social justice and stability. But with this sky, we may see the beginnings of progress in that direction, but it can also ease the way for corruption. In the USA, it looks like the courts will be the focal point of change.)

OK, let’s look at what this exceptionally complex chart offers us in the way of guidance for these times. (And if you’d like to know more about how the current sky is showing up for you personally, contact me, and we’ll set up a consultation.)

The sign of Leo is often described negatively, as self-focused, performative, and prone to melodrama. This is an unhealthy twisting of the sign’s energy. In its healthy expression, Leo is creative, expressive, generous, loving, and sufficiently self-aware to willingly and ethically take on the responsibility of leadership.

Unfortunately we live in a world that is often unhealthy and twisted, and we’ll be seeing a lot of over-the-top drama, delusional role-playing, and self-serving behavior out in the world over the 6 months that this chart is in play. Which means that, on a personal level, we need to be observant and discerning to avoid getting caught up in other peoples’ toxic dramas while hanging on to our compassion and willingness to be of service when we can.

It helps to remember that a lot of interpersonal drama can be traced back to social repression of the need we all have to be recognized by others and find a way to express our own “unique genius”. Sometimes a bit of recognition and connection from others can trigger healing, tone down the drama, and help re-write the script. Be freely generous with compliments and encouragement. They can make a huge difference in someone’s life.

This Leo solar eclipse reminds us that the health and strength of any community, society, or civilization is inseparable from the minds and hearts of the individuals that make it up. This is why creating a society that actively cares for the basic health and well-being of all of its members is so important — every individual has something to contribute. Including, and perhaps especially, the ones who choose to live on the outskirts and explore the unknown.

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This is a South Node eclipse, which means there will be an emphasis on letting go. We may find ourselves releasing old habits and patterns of thought, relationships and other attachments that no longer fit in our lives, and/or some physical possessions.

Some of what we relinquish will be voluntary, some not. But there is work we can do to improve our resilience and clear a path to a better future that right now we can only dream of.

Life will bring us the events and experiences that highlight what we need to relinquish. It’s up to us whether we give it up grudgingly or shift our perception of the situation in a way that brings understanding, peace, and greater access to our inner power and spiritual guidance.

Some things to consider releasing

1. Fears: Fear is a useful, even necessary, response to certain outer influences. But most of us carry around at least some fears from our pasts that are no longer valid, but have lodged in our subconscious and drive our actions and reactions.

2. Resentments: You were wronged — or at least you believe you were — and it still hurts. Releasing resentment is a process that happens in tandem with coming to an unshakable recognition of our own worth.

3. Guilts: Like anger and fear, guilt is an emotion that has its uses. It leads to realization and acknowledgement of harm done, the opportunity for apology and/or redress, and an empathetic connection with another. If you will walk through that process, then you can release it.

All of this takes a great deal of ongoing and often difficult inner work. It can help to talk with friends and/or therapists you trust who are aligned with you philosophically and spiritually. It can help to work with deities and other helping spirits. But the consequences of not doing that work in this turbulent time will likely be severe, so reach out for the help you need, and be available to give what help you can.

Witches and magicians know that once you have energetically cleared a space, you follow it up with a blessing and drawing in of positive energies. Releasing negative energy from our lives follows the same principle. As you let go of what needs to be released, remember to call in blessings. And if your altar isn’t looking busy these days, you might want to amp up your workings. There’s a lot to be done.

The challenge of this chart is to become the person we truly are and make more room in our lives and in our hearts for joy, love, and the creative endeavors that define our soul’s journey.

I’ll leave you with some food for thought from the brilliant Black American writer and civil rights activist, James Baldwin. It’s from his book Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son and was written in 1961 (back when men were men and women were men too, according to the grammatical conventions of the day).

Blessings of the harvest,

Between the flu and life in general, I didn’t get the chapter on Lammas from “Touch the Earth, Kiss the Sky” up in time for the traditional date, but the astronomical date – the true midpoint between solstice and equinox -- isn’t until the 7th this year, so hopefully you’ll still find this of interest.

Lammas—The Summer /Autumn Midpoint

This midpoint between Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox happens in the midst of the proverbial “dog days” of summer. Traditionally, the holiday of Lammas falls on August 1; astronomically, it happens right around August 7, in the middle of the sign of Leo. The days are clearly growing shorter, but day length is not changing as quickly as it will in the weeks to come, since the rate of change to fewer daylight hours increases as we move closer to the equinox. It is the first of three harvest festivals and celebrates the “first fruits” of the harvest. It’s not as though there’s no food being harvested before August, but the food that stores well, the food that gets us through the winter, like grain, is the focus now. After months of growth, we can begin to harvest and store.

Summer’s heat still reigns, and the days are longer than the nights, but there is more ripening than growing happening, as Nature begins to prepare for the coming winter. Traditionally, this holiday celebrates wheat and other grains, and you’ll want to consider which grains are ripening or ripe at this time in your area. Through much of the Northern Hemisphere, wheat that is planted the previous fall is harvested in June or July. By the time August rolls around in a non-mechanized agricultural system, there would have been time to dry, thresh, and grind the wheat into flour, making early August a fine time to celebrate the new crop with lots of bread. In the more northern areas, a spring-planted wheat is generally grown, which ripens in August, making early August a fine time to use up what remains of last year’s flour by baking lots of bread.

This focus on bread is reflected in one of the traditional names for this holiday, Lammas, a word derived from the Old English hlaf-mas, translated as “loaf mass” (“mass” referring to the religious ceremony). Other names are Lughnasadh and Lunasa, both referring to the Irish god Lugh, a warrior god who honors skill, craft, and the arts. Lughnasadh was, of old, a celebration that incorporated games of skill and the display of crafts in honor of Lugh’s foster mother, Tailtiu. Lúnasa is another spelling for the holiday, and also Modern Irish for the month of August.

The overall theme for this holiday is one of celebration—of the harvest, and of our human skills and crafts, particularly the agricultural and practical ones, such as pottery and blacksmithing. There are always state, county, and other agricultural fairs and festivals going on around this time, and they do a fine job of showcasing local talent and celebrating the first fruits of the harvest.

——| TOUCH THE EARTH |——

Caring for the Land

As always, one of the first things to do at any of our way stations on the Wheel of the Year is note where Sun rises and sets and spend some time out in Nature, observing. Now that you have your place in Nature where you can go to meditate and connect with Earth and the Web of Life, you have one spot from which you can carefully observe seasonal changes.

Before you go there to celebrate this turning of the Wheel of the Year, think about what service you might do for the land and its creatures. Is there trash that needs to be picked up? Is there a type of plant native to your area that is struggling in the face of invasives and habitat destruction but would grow well and fit right in to the ecology of your little spot?

Perhaps you could purchase some seeds or seedlings and find a good place for them to grow. (You should only use plants you are certain are not just native to the local ecosystem but also going to the right spot within that ecosystem. If you have any doubts at all, don’t do this.) Or it could be that you need to get involved politically to restrain local development and further habitat destruction.

If you aren’t sure what to do, tune in to the spirits of the place when you go there and ask for guidance. As always, it may not come to you right away, but pay attention over the next couple of weeks for synchronicities that lead you to an understanding of how you can help heal and/or protect that area of land you’ve chosen to connect with.

From now on, you’ll want to bring an offering to your special place on all eight of the holidays, but especially this one. Cornmeal will do quite well, but so would offerings of “first fruits” from actual fruit to honey or whole grains. Just keep in mind that fruit contains and grains are seeds, and you don’t want to sow anything that is not native to the ecosystem. Things you’ve prepared yourself from the harvest, like cornbread, fruit jam, herb vinegar, applesauce, pickles, or homemade cherry brandy are an ideal offering and will not have fertile seeds. Just make sure to leave small amounts that will be eaten or decompose quickly. More is not better. Just like a tiny USB drive can carry terabytes of data, so can a teaspoon of cornmeal and an ounce of water carry a full charge of gratitude and intention.

Create from the Harvest

Make some kind of herbal extract, incense, or special food, like those mentioned above, from a local harvest. A trip to the farmers’ market or your own garden will tell you what’s in season. See what draws you, buy some, and do something with it. There are plenty of recipes online, but the one thing you don’t want to forget is to add some magic to your recipe. There are lots of ways to do this.

You can simply hold each of the ingredients between your two hands, giving thanks and speaking a blessing over each of the ingredients as you put something together in your kitchen. Or you can sit at your altar, light some candles and incense, and meditate deeply on whatever intention you want to imbue your creation with while holding either the ingredients or the finished product between your hands and directing the energy of your intention into it.

Cooking Magically

Find at least one way to bring more magic into your kitchen and food preparation. For instance, get a special glass-enclosed candle (I use red, the color of life). Hold it, go into a meditative state, and imbue it with your intentions for the food you prepare—health, joy, love, and pleasure. Then light it when you cook. There are other suggestions in some of the books below, but whatever you do, when you cook, stay aware of the magic that is happening.

Cook something special. Bread is good, but anything that uses recently harvested local ingredients is fine. If you are gluten-free, there are still lots of options for special treats. (Gluten-free blueberry clafoutis! Yum!) Whatever you make, it should be cooked, not just a bowl of fruit or salad. Cooking is a magical act of transformation in itself—an interaction of the elements, driven by Fire—which makes it easier for the cook to imbue the food with their magical intentions and blessings.

Share it with family or friends—maybe in a ritual setting or just over dinner or dessert. You might consider discussing what you are each grateful for in your lives or the skills you would like to improve over the next year.

Off to the Fair

Go to an agricultural fair! Visit a state fair or county fair and get to know what food is grown and raised in your area. Thank a farmer while you’re there—providing food is a lot of work.

——| KISS THE SKY |——

Our mental focus during this season will be on connecting with some of the larger consciousnesses of Nature, starting with a tree, then journaling about the experiences and how they have affected our beliefs.

Certainly, many of us who work on developing what I’ll call “extended senses”—the ability to see/hear/sense energy that bridges the physical and nonphysical—are well aware that it is not only humans who radiate subtle energy fields. Animals, plants, trees, and the planet itself all have subtle energy templates, and it is through these fields that most of us begin to communicate with non-human forms of life and consciousness. As we work on expanding our awareness of Earth and its inhabitants, we’ll use this form of communication a lot. Here’s an exercise to start you off that will help you develop your extended senses, and also help you ground and balance your own energy.

Connecting with a Tree

Find a tree where you can sit or stand with your back against it. For some of you, this might be difficult—city dwellers will probably need to go to a park. Your best bet is a fairly isolated area where you won’t be disturbed, but safety may be an issue. You’ll be working with your eyes closed and your attention elsewhere, so you may want to bring a friend as a lookout for you.

And, of course, there are certain ecosystems that are treeless. If you live in one of them, then choose a plant that is long-lived and influential on the ecosystem. Saguaro cactus, for instance, would be appropriate if you live in a desert ecosystem where the saguaro grows.

Put your hands on the tree. (If it’s a cactus, just get as close as you can. Putting your hands on the ground close to the base should be sufficient.) Close your eyes and ask the tree if it would be willing to work with you, to share its awareness.

Most of you will probably think, “But how will I know what the answer is?” You won’t. Not in the sure-and-certain way that you want, like talking to an Ent in The Lord of the Rings movies. Go with your gut instinct, but first, check in with your ego. Be self-aware enough to become aware of any ego-based desires (“This is such a big, beautiful old oak; I want to say it’s my tree and tell people that I can talk to it!”). See those desires for what they are and look beyond them. Tune in to your body—it may tell you more about what the tree is communicating to you than your mind.

Once you’ve done that, though, just make your best decision and don’t second- guess yourself. Leaning your back against the tree or sitting close to your cactus with your back toward it and your spine straight, close your eyes and focus on your breathing. Breathe into your belly first, then bring it up like a wave into your chest. Reverse as you exhale. Once you’ve taken a few deep breaths, let your breath normalize but check to make sure you are breathing into your belly.

Let yourself become aware of what you can hear, smell, and feel around you. Be in the present moment. Feel the solidity of the tree against your back. Is there a breeze? Can you sense the wind through the branches? Feel the solid earth under you.

Now extend your mind and senses into the tree and see if you can feel the motion of energy within the tree itself. Here’s how it works in the physical realm: During the day, in a season when the tree has leaves, those leaves take in carbon dioxide from the air and light from the Sun and use them to form sugars through the process of photosynthesis. This process also requires water and certain minerals, and the roots take those things in and send them up to the leaves through special tubes, called the xylem, that permeate the tree. In return, the leaves send dissolved sugars back to the roots through other tubes called phloem, and the roots use those sugars as food so they can grow further. Meanwhile, the leaves are excreting oxygen, which is a byproduct of photosynthesis, and other gases.

In the winter, of course, the flow will be extremely slow or nonexistent, though the sap is still in the tree (it does not sink into the roots, as folklore would have it), which is why it’s best to do this exercise when there are green leaves on the tree, at least at first. Choose a warmish, sunny day. See if you can sense this reciprocal flow of water and minerals up to the leaves and sugars down to the roots as the tree inhales carbon dioxide and exhales oxygen. Go ahead and just imagine at first. Then pay attention and, at some point, you’ll feel a shift in your awareness when that connection is made between the imaginal realm and reality, and you become aware of the tree on another level. As astrologer Caroline Casey often notes, “Imagination lays the tracks for the reality train to follow.”

The level you’re connecting on is the level of your subtle body and the tree’s. Sense how your own energy body has merged with the tree’s. Imagine a flow of Earth (as dissolved minerals) and Water coming up into your body through your spine, and a flow of Air and Fire (sunlight) diffusing into your body through your skin, or just imagine that you have roots drawing up earth and water, and leaves that are absorbing sunlight and exchanging carbon dioxide and oxygen into the surrounding air.

Let the energy of these elements flow through you, allowing them to come to balance within your body for your perfect health. Earth strengthens your bones and provides the minerals your cells need to build their various structures.

Water cleanses your cells of waste and creates the blood and fluids that keep your body functioning. Air brings the exchange of gases through lungs and skin, fueling the Fire that is our metabolism—the spark of life within us.

Once you feel balanced, spend some time communing with the tree, letting it show you a different way of being than your human one. Try to determine what the tree might need that you could offer it. Let yourself feel gratitude for the tree’s presence in your life and its place in the local ecosystem.

When you feel that your conversation is complete for the day, thank the tree and detach your awareness from the tree slowly as you bring your focus back to your body and breath. Open your eyes when you’re ready. Step away from the tree, do some grounding and centering, sense yourself as fully separate from the tree, then leave water and cornmeal or some other appropriate offering for the tree.

If you keep practicing like this, you’ll find that as your ability to tune in to the tree improves, its awareness will help you tune in to your own body and direct these subtle energies, and your health will improve as well. Working with a tree is a great way to begin to sense the energies that connect us to the Web of Life and to the planet itself.

Connect with a Genius Loci

This exercise should be done only after you have made a connection with your tree (or cactus, or whatever). There are several reasons for this, but essentially, the tree can introduce you to the genius loci, or overlighting protective spirit of the area. As in everyday life, introductions are helpful so you know to whom you are speaking.

To do this, repeat the exercise above until you feel connected with the tree. Then ask the tree if it is willing to help facilitate your connection with the genius loci of this place. If you get a no, ask if you should try at a different time or if you need to find another tree. When you get a yes, then mentally send out a request to meet the genius loci of this place. Let the tree amplify your request and send it out on the right frequency. Then just quiet your mind and note what you sense/hear/intuit.

You may or may not make a connection this first time. If you do, then introduce yourself! Tell this spirit that you are working to strengthen your connection with the natural world. Ask what you can do to help to balance and strengthen the local ecosystem. Eventually, this connection will lead you to a deep sense of connection and a well of magical power you can draw on, but start off right—offer a gift and establish a relationship before asking for a favor.

As always, be aware that you can refuse any spirit’s request and ask them to explain themselves or their actions, and they cannot make you do anything you don’t want to do. Again, keeping a journal of your experiences will help you learn, as will reading some of the books in this resources section.

Resources

Lammas

Melanie Marquis, Lughnasadh: Rituals, Recipes & Lore for Lammas (St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 2015).

Cooking and Herbalism

Mary Mason Campbell, The New England Butt’ry Shelf Cookbook: Receipts for Very Special Occasions (Brattleboro: Stephen Greene Press, 1982).

Scott Cunningham, The Complete Book of Incense, Oils and Brews (St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 2009).

Rosalee de la Forêt, Alchemy of Herbs: Transform Everyday Ingredients into Foods and Remedies That Heal (Carlsbad: Hay House, 2017).

Spencre L.R. McGowan, Blotto Botany: A Lesson in Healing Cordials and Plant Magic (New York: Morrow Gift, 2018).

Maia Toll, The Illustrated Herbiary: Guidance and Rituals from 36 Bewitching Botanicals (North Adams: Storey Publishing, 2018).

Rosemary Gladstar, Rosemary Gladstar’s Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health: 175 Teas, Tonics, Oils, Salves, Tinctures, and Other Natural Remedies for the Entire Family (Carlsbad: Storey Publishing, 2015).

Gail Faith Edwards, Opening Our Wild Hearts to the Healing Herbs (Woodstock: Ash Tree Publishing, 2000).

Connecting with Nature Spirits

Sandra Ingerman and Llyn Roberts, Speaking with Nature: Awakening to the Deep Wisdom of the Earth (Rochester: Bear & Company, 2015).

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2013).

Pam Montgomery, Plant Spirit Healing: A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness (Rochester: Bear & Company, 2010).

Marko Pogacnik, Nature Spirits & Elemental Beings: Working with the Intelligence in Nature (Forres: Findhorn Press, 2012).

Lupa, Nature Spirituality From the Ground Up: Connect with Totems in Your Ecosystem (St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 2016).

Change is coming in fast and furious this year. Some people are feeling exhilarated by it, others are dealing with emotions ranging from bewilderment all the way through to paralyzing fear. Many of us are just exhausted.

Events will not be slowing down, which means we’ll want to anchor ourselves to what’s most important in our lives. One of the best ways to do that is to give ourselves the gift of home — a place where we can rest, rebalance, reconnect with spiritual realities and our soul’s desires, find our North Star, and plan the path ahead.

Making a home for ourselves is a necessity, not a luxury. It does not demand a permanent space, but it does require time and attention. We are in a pivotal era of human evolution, and our actions now will reverberate through many generations. We need a solid home base from which to plan and then take those actions.

I’ll dig a little deeper into what the chart offers us in the way of creating the home we need, but first let’s look at what the month ahead brings into sharp focus — a planetary pattern that’s been tagged with the moniker “Barbault’s Basket”. It’s named after French astrologer Andre Barbault, who suggested that the foundational aspect of this pattern, a Minor Grand Trine, would herald a “…splendid relaunch of civilization”.

Many people respond that prediction with extreme skepticism. “Have you looked around lately?!” Yeah, I have. And I think Barbault may be right, but not in the unicorns and rainbows way that some interpret the statement.

The New Moon chart sets the stage and is predictive for the month ahead. It contains the Basket. That aspect is complex and I’ll need to use at least some of the language of astrology to do it justice, but I’ll put the more technical stuff in italics you can skip over it if you’re not fluent in astrology.

Astrologers: Cast the chart for July 14, 5:44 AM, EDT. I’ve placed it in Washington, DC, which gives an ascendant of 18°49’ Cancer. Here’s what I’m looking at in that chart:

• The New Moon (NM) at 21°59’ Cancer is closely conjunct a retrograde Mercury and semi-square Venus and Uranus.

• Despite the retrograde, Mercury’s rulership of Mars, Uranus, and Ceres in Gemini and Venus in Virgo gives it a lot of influence in this chart. It’s also semi-square both Venus and Uranus.

• Venus is in an approaching square to Mars, separating from a square to Uranus, and still well within orb of its separating conjunction to the South Node. It is also the focal planet of a Yod aspect with Neptune and Pluto.

Now, about that Basket.

Astrologer S.J. Anderson coined the name “Barbault’s Basket” a few years ago. There’s been some pushback (there always is among astrologers), but I think it’s an appropriate name because it brings attention to the work of Andre Barbault, a highly-respected French mundane astrologer who died in 2019, just before the onset of the pandemic he had predicted a decade earlier. Barbault believed that the astrology of 2026, starting with the Saturn-Neptune conjunction on February 20^th along with the Minor Grand Trine (a.k.a Talent Triangle or trine/double sextile) of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto that perfects between July 19-21 was:

“..the most benefic configuration of the century, and its interplanetary partnership will work for the best in a splendid relaunch of civilization. It contains a harmonious relationship between primordial polar opposites; the coming together of the external and the internal, rational and spiritual, mind and soul…human beings surpassing themselves, experiencing life on a higher level.“ ⁽¹⁾

He immediately goes on to reference upcoming difficult aspects in 2061, so we cannot interpret this as him saying that everything is going to be fine, the mess we are in now will magically disappear, peace will guide the planets, love will steer the stars, etc. etc.. (I’m exaggerating how this has been interpreted by some astrologers, but only slightly).

My interpretation of Barbault’s words is that this is a pivotal, evolutionary point for human civilization — in fact, the entire Earth. But evolution, like birth, is a painful, messy business, the results of which take considerable time to come to full fruition.

What we build using the energy of this time depends on individual choices that we make. The planetary patterns over the next few years are supportive of our efforts to come to a greater understanding of the larger truths that underlie physical existence and create a civilization that is worthy of the human soul and spirit. But we have work to do - dreams to bring to life, healing of the Earth and ourselves, expansion into a more conscious awareness of who we are and what we can be.

There will be those working in opposition to this evolution. People grasping for power, using the chaos that results from the inevitable cracks in the workings of industrial civilization to take power from others in exchange for the pinky promise of a solution some time in the future.

More and more people will come to understand that the promises of a purely materialist philosophy cannot be fulfilled as they watch those empty assurances of a better world bursting like soap bubbles all around them.

Many will actively awaken to and recognize the spiritual imperative of creative cooperation within a living Universe. They’ll find the others and step into the role they are called to in creating a just and sustainable civilization.

Others will react to all the changes with fear, panic, greed, hatred, and other destructive impulses and emotions. But instead of working through them, they will actively incite conflict and violence. Stopping the destruction will need people coming together with courage, integrity, wisdom, inner strength, and compassion.

Those qualities are inherent in the human heart and psyche, though they are often buried under layers of pain and trauma that have been accumulating in the collective consciousness for centuries. Healing the World Soul, the Anima Mundi, will require a leap in human consciousness that awakens us to Consciousness, to a larger reality that is both source and substance of the physical reality we live in.

I believe that slow but unstoppable awakening is already in progress. The current astrology heralds and supports it, but does not guarantee outcomes. That’s up to us. To individuals doing their own inner work, then joining with others who are doing theirs in order to take on the hard outer work of building a sustainable civilization.

To the best of my knowledge, Barbault himself never mentioned the opposition of Jupiter to Pluto that turns the Minor Grand Trine into a Basket (a.k.a Cradle) formation, possibly because Jupiter moves on quickly and is out of orb by early August. But keep in mind that all the faster-moving planets will activate the Minor Grand Trine as they move through Leo and then through Libra (which forms a kite) this year.

Now let’s look at what this New Moon chart has to say about the work we can do in the month ahead, which is finding our way home.

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There are two things that all humans have in common. We all inhabit a human body, and we all live on the planet Earth. It’s arguable, but widely accepted, that we also all have this thing called a soul, which connects us to a larger reality of Consciousness, or Spirit.

We can — and do — argue and even go to war over what that Consciousness is, how we are connected to it, and whether our individual consciousness survives death in one form or another. Some approach the greater Consciousness through religion, others through philosophy. Many base their beliefs on personal experience and ideas they pick up here and there. Even pure materialists may believe in a collective Consciousness that connects all humans, or even all life on Earth.

But we cannot deny the inescapable fact that Earth is our home.

The concept of home appears to be an inherent part of the human psyche, as well as a physical necessity. Our bodies require daily attention — food, cleaning, sleep. If we don’t have a safe, reliable place to take care of those things, both body and mind suffer.

Sure, you can pack it up and take it with you. Permanence is not required. But the ability to create a home for ourselves is. Even Jack Reacher, that icon of voluntary homelessness, carries a toothbrush, cash, and ID, can depend on a reasonably reliable network of roads, restaurants, and motels, and makes himself at home wherever he chooses.

Quite a few of us have the physical part handled. (The fact that so many don’t is a stain on our civilization.) But there is also an emotional and spiritual component to home that that is ours to create. This month is a good time to investigate what makes a place home for you. Our physical, mental, and emotional health is shaped by our living environment. Creating a healing and harmonious environment that reflects who we are and who and what we love is a process that strengthens and heals and can anchor joy in our lives.

Often, the physical environment of the place we call home is less than ideal. But we can make it a working goal to improve the situation.

A good way to start is to assess your current home and decide what you want to change short term to long term. Write it down. Then acknowledge what you have now that helps make your space a home and let yourself feel gratitude for it.

(I know a lot of people have a very negative reaction to the concept of gratitude, because they misinterpret it as being a type of debt owed to another. I’m not going to argue that here except to say that, in my experience, gratitude is a heart-opening and life-changing emotion that has nothing to do with debt but everything to do with connection. You’ll never know if you don’t make the choice to explore it.)

Then consider the kind of place you want to live. The person or people you want to share your home with. The objects you need or want to have around you. The energetic vibe of your environment. Write all this down too. Now you have the beginnings of a plan which you can work on regularly and refine until you can identify what the essence of home is for you and gather it to you. The rest is just nice-to-have.

Making it all happen begins where you are, with what you have. Do something every day to make your living space feel more like a home. Every week, take some time to review your plan and consider what your next step is to creating the home you want.

Those of you who practice magic will probably already have an altar where you can work on turning your plan into reality. But having an altar as a focus for steering life transformations and creating the energy of a home can be helpful to everyone. Here’s a post I wrote about creating a personal altar.

A well-tended home will strengthen you. It can help you connect with your soul, discover your true Self and live your life from that place of personal creative authority. As you grow stronger, you strengthen your community. Strong communities are made up of strong and creative individuals who are not only capable of but enjoy caring for and cooperating with others.

This is how we change the world. It starts at home. Do everything you can to make your home a place that is worthy of you and yours, and then find the others.

I expect the months ahead will bring yet more ecological catastrophes that will be heralded as unprecedented; those “thousand-year” storms/droughts/floods/heat waves/geological upheavals/epidemics, etc. You know, like the ones we’ve been seeing repeatedly over the past decade or so. Some will actually be unprecedented. A number of people directly caught up in them will be dealing with serious material repercussions, affecting home, food, and health. But the events will be psychologically destabilizing for almost everyone. Ditto for the economic/sociological/geo-political changes that we find ourselves caught up in.

I’ll leave you with this inspiring quote from Dutch author Susan Smit that may help you make your way through the pandemonium of a changing world.

“On a tangible level, there will first be even greater chaos. It will become a circus, but you don’t have to buy a ticket. Look deeper, look further, stay calm, and focus on what is taking shape: ancient, feminine values seeking to return to restore balance. You are being called to rise, deeply rooted and attuned, to shine more brightly than you have ever dared. Take the hands of your sisters and brothers, and place yourself in the circle. Accept the tasks you set for yourself. Take your place.” ~Susan Smit

If you’d like to know about how the current planetary patterns will be interacting with you personally, contact me, and we’ll set up a consultation.

(1) André Barbault, Planetary Cycles, trans. Kate Johnston, (The Astrological Association, London, 2016), 103.

Here’s the chapter on the Summer Solstice from Touch the Earth, Kiss the Sky, in which I offer some thoughts on the meaning of this moment in our journey around the Sun, discuss finding plant allies, making herbal tinctures, and learning how to access trance states. This year (2026) the solstice falls on June 21, 4:24 AM, Eastern Daylight Time.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Yes, I know the Andy Williams song is about Yule, but though I enjoy both solstices, I admit summer is my favorite, if only because I love plants so much and summer is their big show-off season.

(And for those of you in the southern half of our tilted planet, Merry Yule/ Winter Solstice! You might want to read this post.)

Litha, the Summer Solstice (a.k.a. Midsummer, Alban Hefin) falls right around June 21. It marks the maximum axial tilt of the North Pole toward the Sun and the longest day length in the northern hemisphere. Which means, of course, that from this day on until Yule, Sun will be in its waning phase, and we are moving into the dark half of the year. Right now, the balance of our awareness is fully “of Earth” but will begin to shift more into the world of spirit and away from the manifest world in the coming months.

But right this very moment, Sun is shining brightly, and plants are growing like crazy. Those two things are, of course, very much linked. That big, blazing nuclear reactor in the sky not only gives us warmth and light, but it is at the foundation of the Web of Life. Photosynthesis—the reaction that converts light, carbon dioxide, and water into the chemical energy of carbohydrates—drives the food chain on which we depend. The reaction also releases oxygen as a waste product, a rather useful byproduct for those of us who need to breathe the stuff.

Chlorophyll is the molecule at the heart of photosynthesis and is responsible for the coloration of green plants. Interestingly, the structure of the chlorophyll molecule is almost identical to the structure of the hemoglobin molecule. The primary difference is that chlorophyll is built around an atom of magnesium, and hemoglobin—the substance in our blood that colors it red and carries oxygen—is built around an atom of iron. Red, of course, is the color that we use as a primary symbol of the Winter Solstice, while the Summer Solstice is a celebration of green. I don’t discuss the magic of colors in this book, but color is an important part of magic, and you may find this bit of information about two of the most important biochemical processes on Earth useful when you’re planning some magic.

Summer Solstice is a great time to get to know some of the spirits of the land and the spirits of the plants. How? Let’s start with a walking meditation.

——| TOUCH THE EARTH |——

Finding Your Place

Do some exploring to find a place in Nature that intuitively calls to you as a place where you can do spiritual work. I’m not talking full-fledged ritual (though that would be great), just someplace where you can sit and meditate while surrounded by Nature. Make sure it’s a place where you feel safe and will be relatively undisturbed. It should not be too far from your home. Even in the city there are parks nearby, but if you want to go to a more remote location, that’s OK as long as you sense that you are in the same general land-area as your home. I can’t tell you exactly how many miles that might be. You’ll have to use and trust your intuition.

Finding this spot is a meditation in and of itself. You may know of several nearby areas that are candidates, or you could use Google Earth to find likely spots nearby. (It may also be that you already know the exact perfect spot but do this exercise anyway.) Identify at least three likely places, and over the course of a weekend or three, go to all those places and spend some time walking around. Bring a small container of cornmeal (or other environmentally appropriate offering), a water bottle, a small journal, and a pen with you. (Yes, you can use an app on your phone as a journal, but put your phone in airplane mode before starting this adventure.)

When you get there, begin by evaluating practical things like accessibility and safety. If those are adequate, then start walking around, getting a sense of how you feel here and how your feelings change as you move from one area to the next. For instance, if you are in a park with a large lake, being near the lake may make you feel expansive and inspired, or dreamy and emotional. Walking through a nearby stand of trees, you may feel watched—maybe in a loving way, maybe not.

Find a place where you can sit comfortably (preferably on a rock or on the earth itself but a park bench will do). There should be no obvious distractions in the form of other people too close by, machinery noises, loud music, etc. Begin your meditation on and communion with Nature by simply observing. Notice what’s within your line of sight, what you hear, and what you smell. Touch the earth beneath you with your hands. As your mind quiets and you become more aware of your surroundings, notice what naturally draws your attention. It may be a tree, a rock, or a body of water. It could be a turtle, or a squirrel, or a hawk flying overhead. It may be a small plant or a natural arrangement of plants. With your mind quiet, with no judgment or concern about “doing it right,” ask the object of your attention if they are willing to communicate with you.

If you sense agreement (don’t sweat over whether what you sense is “real”—just trust your intuition) simply introduce yourself (you can do this entirely in your mind or out loud), and explain that you are learning to communicate with spirits of Nature. Respectfully ask if there is anything they would like you to know about them, and then listen.

Listening is the hardest part of this. Don’t judge your perceptions. Just accept what comes to you. You may feel as though you are making it all up. It’s possible that you are, to one degree or another. It takes practice to learn to distinguish the signal from the noise, but it’s almost certain you will get at least some of the signal. Journal about your perceptions immediately afterward. Also note down your observations of what is going on in nature—the weather, animals you saw, etc.

Repeat this practice at the other two places you’ve chosen and decide if you would like to do this kind of work regularly at all three places or get to know one of them in depth. (If you have any time constraints, I suggest choosing just one.) Come to one of your places whenever you want to do some of the exercises suggested in the books below, when you feel the need for an energetic reset, or for any kind of Earth-based meditation. But do make it a regular part of your spiritual practice. Get it on the calendar or go when your fancy takes you. Try to go once a month at the least. If you don’t think you can do that, then find a place closer to home. Regular interaction with Nature and the planet is a prerequisite for full mental and spiritual health.

Finding a Plant Ally

Find a plant ally. The first step in this quest is to ask. When you’re meditating in that special place you’ve chosen, ask the spirits of the place to help you find a plant that is willing to work with you as an ally, an intermediary with the green realm. “Plant” in this context means a particular species, not an individual plant.

It should be one that grows in your eco-region. Yes, it could be a tree, but for this exercise I’m going to suggest requesting an herb, vegetable, wild-flower, or small bush, like rose or blueberry. Something may come to mind immediately—maybe rosemary, or honeysuckle, or prickly pear. If it’s not obvious to you right away, that’s OK. Just pay attention over the next few days and see what plants are brought to your attention.

You may see the actual plant growing somewhere. You might see an article about it in the gardening section of your local paper. You may go to a restaurant and remember how much you love an herb that’s been used in the dish you ordered. When I was first doing a similar exercise many years ago, I needed shampoo, found a nice rosemary shampoo at the store, and remembered how much I love rosemary.

This isn’t a major decision like choosing a spouse or a home. You’ll have more than one plant ally. Maybe lots more. Some will be with you for a specific period of time, others will be with you for the rest of your life. So don’t get all caught up in whether or not you are choosing the “right” one. Watch the synchronicities, and if more than one comes to your attention, just pick one. You can work with the others later.

Now that you have your plant, it’s time to get to know it. I usually get all the intellectual stuff out of the way first, so my rational “science mind” will have some information to chew on. Otherwise, when I sit down to meditate, it’s going to be haranguing me with questions like, “But what’s its planting zone? What other plants are in the genus? Does it need full sun? Will it grow in the sandy loam soil of my backyard? Is it native to my bio region? If so, what’s its niche? If not, is it invasive? How did it get here? Where else in the world does it grow? What do its flowers and seeds look like? What eats it? What pH does it prefer? Is it used as food or medicine, and if so, how?”

You may prefer to do the intuitive, meditative work with it first, then see if your intuitive perceptions matched up with what is known about it, researching answers to questions like the ones above. The internet should have most of the information you need—you’re not writing a thesis or dissertation, just getting to know your new friend.

You’ll also want to get to know the overlighting spirit of the plant. You’ll find that each type of plant has its own overlighting spirit with which you can communicate. There are several ways of accomplishing this.

To begin, this would involve simply finding the plant in nature or acquiring some part of it—dried leaves, flowers, or root—and sitting with it in meditation—preferably at your spot out in Nature, but your altar will do. Let your mind focus on the plant, gently. Let your thoughts roam a bit as long as their primary focus is the plant. Tell the plant you would like to get to know it better, if it is willing, then see where your mind goes, what thoughts pop up that seem pertinent. This is not about hearing voices in your head. You’re turning the dial, finding the best reception. There will be some static—the plant isn’t trying to remind you to get cat food on your way home (that’s your cat!), so when your thoughts travel that far afield, bring them back to the plant.

Notice what thoughts arise as you contemplate the plant. You’re not looking for actual communication this first time, just mutual awareness. And some of you might want to leave it at that. But if you keep going with this type of meditation over the weeks and months, eventually you’ll both tune in and you will pick up thoughts that seem to come from the plant. If that bothers you, you can just keep your meditations on a level of mutual awareness. The plant’s not going to invade your head. But if you’d like to take the communication much further, you’ll need to learn about various types of trancework. Trancework is one way we’ll kiss the sky this month, but before we go there, there’s one more thing you might want to do to touch the earth.

Working with Plants

Make an herbal tincture, a loose incense (the kind you burn on charcoal), or some kind of herbal personal care product. I’m not going to go into the how-to of that here, but I’ve listed several good books on herbalism and making incense in the resources section of this chapter. If you are drawn to working more with plants, they will give you the guidance you need. I probably don’t need to tell you that it might be a good idea to use your plant ally in these endeavors.

——| KISS THE SKY |——

Learn about Trance

Study trance states. Trance is basic to any spiritual work that goes beyond rote physical observances, such as going to church, or simple intellectual theorizing, or basic meditation. It takes different forms in different religious and spiritual traditions, but if you want to expand your awareness into the realm of spirit, then you’ll need to expand your mind.

Some people call what they do shamanic journey or pathworking, meditation, or trance, and all of these things can have different methodologies and underlying philosophies, but they all lead you to a wider awareness of the ground of being, to the underlying love and creativity of Consciousness. A trance state allows our minds to tune themselves to different realities, to different forms of Consciousness, by taking our immediate attention off of our physical surroundings and directing in inward.

You’ll want to start your studies now because by the time we get to Samhain, or autumn midpoint, it would be helpful if you were able to achieve a trance state for some of the work we’ll do then.

Learn about Plants

Read some books on herbalism and/or local plant ecology, and/or botany. Back when I was in grad school, I had a t-shirt that read “Chlorophyll Power!” illustrated by a raised fist coming out of the ground clutching a bean seedling. (Activists were all about raised fists back then.) I admit I’ve always been something of an activist for plants, but you should be too! After all, they are not only at the base of our food supply but the entire ecology of our planet. We should all know something about them.

Expand Your Imagination

Read at least one fantasy or science fiction book. Preferably two or three from the list below. Good fiction exercises and expands your imagination which will help with your magical practice. This spiritual journey you are taking demands a strong, creative imagination.

——| RESOURCES |——

Deborah Blake, Midsummer: Rituals, Recipes & Lore for Litha (St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 2015).

Plant Allies

Stephen Harrod Buhner, The Secret Teachings of Plants: The Intelligence of the Heart in the Direct Perception of Nature (Rochester: Bear and Company, 2004).

Christopher Penczak, The Plant Spirit Familiar (Salem: Copper Cauldron Publishing, 2011).

Machaelle Small Wright, Perelandra Garden Workbook: A Complete Guide to Gardening with Nature Intelligences (Warrenton: Perelandra Ltd, 1993).

The Findhorn Community, The Findhorn Garden Story: Inspired Color Photos Reveal the Magic (Forres: Findhorn Press, 2012).

Pam Montgomery, Plant Spirit Healing: A Guide to Working with Plant Con-sciousness (Rochester: Bear & Company, 2008).

Botany and Ecology

Brian Capon, Botany for Gardeners (Portland: Timber Press, 2010).

Joseph Smillie and Grace Gershun, The Soul of Soil (Chelsea: Chelsea Green, 1999).

Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World (New York: Random House, 2001).

David George Haskell, The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature (New York: Penguin Books, 2012).

Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (New York: Harper Perennial, 2013).

Herbs and Incense

Rosemary Gladstar, Rosemary Gladstar’s Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health (North Adams: Storey Publishing, 2015).

Scott Cunningham, The Complete Book of Incense, Oils and Brews (St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 2009).

Arin Murphy-Hiscock, The Green Witch: Your Complete Guide to the Natural Magic of Herbs, Flowers, Essential Oils, and More (Mills River: Adams Media, 2017).

Carl F. Neal, Incense: Crafting & Use of Magickal Scents (St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 2003).

Trance and Shamanism

Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone, Lifting the Veil: A Witches’ Guide to Trance-Prophesy, Drawing Down the Moon, and Ecstatic Ritual (Portland: Acorn Guild Press, 2016).

Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman, Awakening to the Spirit World: The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation (Boulder: Sounds True, 2010).

Diana Paxson, Tranceportation: Learning to Navigate the Inner World (Newburyport: Weiser Books, 2008).

Sandra Ingerman, Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner’s Guide (Boulder: Sounds True, 2008).

Fantasy/SciFi

Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows (Bristol: Pook Press, 2016).

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (New York: Harper Collins, 2017).

Emma Bull, War for the Oaks (New York: Ace Books, 1987).

Janet Morris, Dream Dancer (Kerrion Empire Book 1) (New York: Harper Collins, 1980).

And pretty much anything by Charles de Lint, Ursula LeGuin, Terry Pratchett, Robin Hobb, Robert Silverberg, Katherine Kerr, Elizabeth Moon, Patricia Briggs, Neil Gaiman, Liz Williams, Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, Patricia McKillip, Guy Gavriel Kay, and a whole host of other fine authors you’ll discover as you go along. These are just some of my favorites.

Blessings of the season to you!

In my last post, I wrote about breaking the spells of control—mental, emotional, and physical—that are being woven around us. Advertisers, politicians, media ranging from the mainstream to the schools of bloggers and podcasters swimming through various streams of social media, are all vying for our attention at the least, but also our time, money, and support for a particular agenda. And some of them might even deserve those things.

But conscious buy-in is not the same as deliberate manipulation, and people are waking up to the ways they are being manipulated by sophisticated technology and psychological techniques of control.

This month sets off another snooze alarm in the ongoing wake up call humanity is currently experiencing.

Waking up to the reality of widespread manipulation and attempts at control is not easy. It requires a lot of mental energy to identify and release beliefs you’ve been carrying around for a while. Hard to admit that some of your beliefs, while they may have been comforting, were delusional. And it takes time and effort to identify the reality-based beliefs that you can re-build your life around.

A lot of people simply won’t do it. But since you’re reading an astrology blog, I assume that you are willing to question cultural assumptions, and are in an ongoing process of releasing some beliefs and strengthening others based on your own questioning.

Breaking up with beliefs can be hard to do. It’s an emotional strain and requires hard thinking and some internal re-structuring. It will highlight parts of your psyche that need healing. The healing is what makes it all worth it.

I’ll look more closely at what the chart has to say about the healing process below. But first, some info for the astrologers and students among you. If that’s not you, you can skip over the italics, but you might want to check the bold italics.

(Astrologers: I’ve cast the chart for June 14, 10:54 PM, EDT, Washington, DC. I use Equal Houses. The New Moon (NM) is at 24°3’ Gemini, and it makes no major aspects.

Gemini ruler Mercury is in Cancer, in a close approaching sextile to Mars in Taurus, separating but still close to a semi-square to Uranus, and further separating but still within orb of its square to Saturn. This suggests a lot of plain and assertive speaking, driven more by emotion and instinct than logic. Be honest but careful with your words, and notice how the words of others are affecting you emotionally. Take a moment to assess them logically before you react.

Venus, just a couple of days into Leo, is separating from its conjunction to Jupiter, and lining up with the Minor Grand Trine formed by the outer planets. It’s in a sextile to Uranus, a trine to Neptune, and opposing Pluto.

Some will use this brief and passing configuration as an opportunity to begin restructuring their way of relating to other people. Some will use it to restructure and strengthen their relationship to their own creative abilities which will trigger a shift in their lives. Others will find themselves mired in power struggles of various kinds or obsessing over some person or situation.

Though this is not a long-lasting aspect (it becomes exact on the 17^th, and is in orb for a few days on either side) I believe it will illuminate issues that will be brought to the forefront in July as Jupiter transits the same degrees. So be aware of and discerning about the choices you make during this time, because the results of those choices will be magnified as they ripple out into the future.

Keep in mind that Venus also rules money and resources, and Leo rules gambling — including the stock market. On June 19^th, Chiron will move into Venus-ruled Taurus, where it will have lessons to teach us about healing our relationship with planetary resources. Jupiter will move into Leo at the end of June, just after the Capricorn Full Moon. This is all building up to major shifts in July, some of which will be financial. Wondering if fallout from the recent IPO of the insanely overvalued SpaceX, and the upcoming IPOs of Anthropic and OpenAI, will be causing waves in the markets. )

Here’s where I remind you—yet again—that we are living in an extraordinary, evolutionary time. Life no longer resembles what was normal just a few years ago. Our collective environment — political, social, and natural — is in constant flux and often seems hostile to the important stuff like peace, joy, love, trust, communion with the natural world, and making deep connections with other people.

So how do we evolve?

We start by gathering courage and nurturing our desire for a better world. We need courage and a deep desire for change in order to seek out and face reality. We can’t change what we won’t face; we can only hide in a fantasy and hope reality doesn’t catch up with us anytime soon. But if we choose to evolve, we can replace fantasies with our visions for a better world, and overcome fear with an unshakeable determination to do the work we are called to.

And speaking of the work we are called to, don’t expect it to be writ large for you like the big green signs on the interstate. It’s something we discover by living our lives in line with our values, our heartfelt desires, and by being open to the signs, omens, and synchronicities that are the language of spiritual guidance.

Skillful evolution also requires sharpening our discernment so we can see behind false fronts and expand our own consciousness into wider awareness and deeper understanding of the subtle dimensions that underlie our physical reality. Discernment will also help us see how power in the world is accumulated and distributed.

There is a major shift in power dynamics coming globally with several major players. What the astrology suggests is that Gaia’s power—the planet and its web of life—to transform civilizations will severely, but perhaps not completely, disrupt the best laid plans of billionaire techbros and their authoritarian pet politicians over the next few years. Conflict is a given. So is climate change.

But the current astrology speaks to the power of the collective.

An interesting thing about collectives is that they are strongest when they are woven in a web of cooperation and aligned intentions. Cooperation requires insight, understanding, and open minds to flourish. There is rarely one right way to accomplish any goal. The ability to recognize, offer, and/or accept alternatives is essential to effective planning—of one’s life or collective social goals.

It’s useful to occasionally look for the ideas you cling to so fiercely that they seem to have become a part of your identity. Then at least consider what alternatives are available and maybe try them on for size. It’s a good exercise in keeping an open mind.

Forming strong collectives also requires that we recognize the ability of people to change as they heal from being raised in a “sick society”. Few of us have escaped wounding, but we all carry within us the ability to change.

It’s a well-known psychological reality that people who are trying to make major changes in their lives, such as quitting an addiction, can have their efforts undermined or even sabotaged by those who are closest to them. It’s rarely deliberate or even conscious on the saboteur’s part, and usually springs from a subconscious fear of change sourced in their own wounds.

Strong collectives will have a scaffolding of basic ethics that illuminate paths to healing and support those who are attempting to grow and evolve into their full potential for this lifetime. Hopefully, that same scaffolding will offer enough support to those inadvertent saboteurs for them to release their fears and learn to love without conditions.

Cooperative support for healing and change is brought into the collective when we recognize two things:

1) The importance of the developing individual within the collective.

2) The importance of empathy and compassion for others.

Strong, caring individuals are what create a strong, caring community. Strong communities can connect with other aligned communities to form a resilient and inclusive social fabric that offers life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to all.

If you want to be part of a strong, supportive collective, then the first place to look is within yourself. What do you bring to the collective? Are you committed to personal growth and change? Do you have a vision of the future that you can share? What are your core values? What are your treasured dreams? What are you willing to risk to achieve those dreams? Who and what do you love? Are you willing to change for love?

Answering these questions (and other important ones that will no doubt occur to you) takes a goodly amount of inner work. But the work itself will shift the energy that you send out into the world, and you will be drawn to the others and they to you.

I will leave you with food for thought from that persecuted but irrepressible prophet of the Sixties, Timothy Leary.

“Admit it. You aren’t like them. You’re not even close. You may occasionally dress yourself up as one of them, watch the same mindless television shows as they do, maybe even eat the same fast food sometimes. But it seems that the more you try to fit in, the more you feel like an outsider, watching the “normal people” as they go about their automatic existences.

For every time you say club passwords like “Have a nice day” and “Weather’s awful today, eh?”, you yearn inside to say forbidden things like “Tell me something that makes you cry” or “What do you think deja vu is for?”. Face it, you even want to talk to that girl in the elevator.

But what if that girl in the elevator (and the balding man who walks past your cubicle at work) are thinking the same thing? Who knows what you might learn from taking a chance on conversation with a stranger? Everyone carries a piece of the puzzle. Nobody comes into your life by mere coincidence. Trust your instincts. Do the unexpected. Find the others…” ~Timothy Leary

Over the four decades I’ve been actively practicing magic I’ve cast a lot of spells.

Generally, I’m not a fan of the kind of magic that attempts to actively control other people’s thoughts or actions. I prefer to work with the flow of natural energies in the world and my helping spirits to weave the result I want. People who are aligned with that result will be naturally drawn into the weaving, and others will simply pass it by.

There are situations where I might be more direct in my magical efforts, but for the most part, I find that trying to control others takes a large amount of energy and leaves one open to blowback of various kinds. Besides, I like people — mostly — and I would prefer to get to know them than control them.

Unless, of course, they are trying to control me. Unfortunately, many, if not most, of the world’s religions, governments, and cultural institutions rely on either strongly influencing or outright controlling the minds and emotions of their followers.

While I don’t doubt that actual magic is involved in many cases, the magic of technology, the ever-increasing modern knowledge of how the brain functions, and scientifically researched methods of acquiring and maintaining psychological control over large numbers of people (ever heard of Edward Bernays?) means that gaining control isn’t hard to do. Bell, book, and candle are not required.

The human mind, evolved to heighten the cooperation that humans required for simple survival, is malleable. But we also evolved the ability to discern accurately and think independently. And if we, as individuals, hand over our independence in exchange for perceived safety and relief from the responsibility of decision-making, then we may find ourselves controlled by others in ways that neither benefit us nor align with our soul.

It’s not the cooperative urge that is the problem. Cooperation is necessary. It’s the lack of discernment and a materialist philosophy that disconnects us from the world of Spirit, and even our own souls. It’s a lack of awareness, vision, and intention on a large scale as too many of us are pulled into spells of technology and psychological trickery woven by those who are seeking to control us.

There are ways to recognize and break those spells. And it’s not necessary to abandon technology to do so. But we do need to use it wisely.

This Full Moon heralds the final entry of Uranus into the sign of Gemini, where it will stay for the next 7 years, changing technology, travel, trade, and our minds. Uranus demands freedom, and this is just one of the many reasons I do not think attempts at authoritarian takeovers will succeed beyond a very short term.

Give me a few paragraphs to dig into the chart for the astrologers among you, and then we’ll take a look at how to at least begin to recognize and dismantle the spells of control being woven around us. As always, you can skip over the italics to get to the interpretation, but you might want to check out the bold italics for some useful info.

(Astrologers: Cast the chart for May 31, 4:45 a.m., EDT, Washington, DC [or your preferred location/time zone].

The Full Moon (FM) is still within orb of a separating opposition/conjunction to Uranus, and supported by a trine/sextile to Saturn. It’s just separating from a semi-square/sesqui-quadrate to Jupiter, and is square the nodal axis.

Gemini’s ruler Mercury is in an approaching but still out-of-sign square to Neptune. Ceres has just entered Gemini, bringing it under Mercury’s aegis as well.

Venus is separating from a square to Saturn and heading towards a conjunction with Jupiter in Cancer, which is in mutual reception with the Moon.

The three outer planets are moving into their Minor Grand Trine. That aspect will be in orb for several years to come, but will reach its closest alignment of all three planets in July, when Jupiter will trigger it as it opposes Pluto, sextiles Uranus, and trines Neptune.

A couple of points of interest about this chart:

1) Though Mercury is in its own sign, the chart has no final dispositor. That’s because of the mutual reception. Between the two of them, Moon and Jupiter disposit every planet in the chart that’s not in Gemini. This suggests that while there will be a lot of Geminian energy zooming around, there’s a focus on two cardinal signs as well. It be an active and highly emotional couple of weeks. Truth will be diligently sought after, and certain spells of deception that were cast to conceal the truth may begin to break apart.

2) All four of the Royal Stars are tied into the chart: Sun conjunct Aldebaran, Moon conjunct Antares, North Node conjunct Fomalhault, and South Node conjunct Regulus. These stars represent sovereignty, leadership, brilliance, and power, and offer tests of will, intent, courage, and integrity to those who would claim their gifts. When these stars are active in a chart, expect to see both stunning successes and utter failures, depending on who passes their tests.

The major patterns of this year’s extraordinary astrology — the outer planet sign changes, the Saturn-Neptune conjunction, the Minor Grand Trine of the outer planets that in July will become the “Barbault Basket” as Jupiter enters the chat — are empowered by this Full Moon.

Jupiter also has considerable influence in this chart — it’s exalted, in mutual reception with Moon, rules the North Node and is within orb of an approaching conjunction with Venus. Venus is strengthened by dispositing Mars, and therefore all the Aries planets.

I’m seeing two separate themes running in this chart. One is the cluster of planets in Gemini — Ceres, Uranus, Sun, and ruler Mercury, the first three in square to the nodal axis, sextile Neptune, and trine Pluto. Major upsets, surprises and breakthroughs in science, communication, trade, transportation, information technology, fossil fuels, and education are likely. Environmental issues involving climate change, pollution, and strong storms will demand attention.

The other theme is highly emotional, protective, provocative, jingoistic, and aggressively determined to make tangible progress towards desired goals that are based in deeply held beliefs.

I expect that battles over a woman’s right to sovereignty over her own body will be front and center in the news. [But who knows. The fact that women have been dying for lack of access to medically necessary abortion care for several years now and that fact has not moved the needle of public outrage much at all likely means that attempts to make abortion a crime punishable by the death penalty won’t move it much either. Nonetheless, the astrology suggests otherwise, and I am hopeful this will change.]

The two themes come together in the aspects between the three outer planets. We’ll see intense discussions of belief and faith fueled by wild ideas and acted on with alacrity. Groups of people will be drawn to each other to work together and transform ideas into action.

Keep in mind that this is all long-term, but the Full Moon is likely to trigger some fairly dramatic events as the chart plays out over the next two weeks on the global stage. How it plays in our personal lives depends, as always, on the individual natal chart, but be ready for change.)

The work of magic involves training the magician’s own mind and emotions. This is handled differently in different traditions of magic. For example, there are groups that require some time be spent in formal psychotherapy as part of their training, others that require certain styles of meditation or trance work. In many indigenous traditions, the training is begun in childhood. Magical work is often done in cahoots with various deities and other non-physical beings who are directly involved — some more than others — in the journey of Consciousness that is our physical life here on Earth.

We can look to some magical techniques for insights into how we can break negative cultural and technological influences on our bodies, minds, and emotions. Spells, if you will.

Spell-breaking

To begin, we need to increase our awareness of the influences that are acting on us, and then discern which ones are beneficial and which are malefic. Increasing our awareness of external influences — energetic, psychological, and physical — takes work and time. Yoga, Tai Chi and other martial arts, formal magical training, and various other disciplines that work with the energy body are just a few of the techniques available to us that will kickstart this process of increasing awareness.

Even without increased awareness, performing regular energetic cleansing routines will also help. First, it gets rid of the psychic debris we all accumulate in our daily lives. After that debris is gone, we’ll be able to perceive the difference, thus sharpening our perception of our own energetic fields.

Salt baths or showers are one widely used cleansing technique. You can find instructions here. If a specific technique doesn’t appeal to you, there are dozens of others. Search on “cleansing salt baths” and use your increasing intuitive discernment to decide which one works for you, and how often you need to take one.

The next step is psychic/energetic protection. The best protection is a clear and coherent aura that radiates from your own inner fire, from your heart and mind. But that can be difficult to do in our modern world, where we are all too easily worn down by an increasingly hostile and extractive culture.

Time spent in Nature is a great way to rebuild our inner fire and strengthen our aura. Nature is designed to clear and reset our brains in ways that allow our soul to better connect and communicate with us. Meanwhile, we would all probably benefit from a regular protection ritual/meditation for when we are not feeling our shiny best. You may find the exercises in cleansing and protection in this post to be helpful.

Finally, our personal connection with a larger reality, what I’ll call Spirit, is the well we return to again and again to restore our connection with the joy, love, beauty, and creativity that is at the heart of creation.

Whether you believe in magic or not, you are still caught up in the web of spells that are woven by culture, our social structures, and technology. Most of us are both affected by and contributing to these spells. We are, after all, part of the culture, part of society. Our thoughts, feelings, and actions are constantly feeding and being fed by the zeitgeist. Technology is ever-present, and becoming more and more intrusive in our lives.

It’s easy to ignore how much we are influenced by others, and too easy to overlook how we the people are being deliberately manipulated in ways that are restrictive, exploitative, and destructive. It’s the spell of modern life — a mish-mash of conflicting ideas and desires brought into being by a few arguably insane people who have an extraordinary and unprecedented access to resources along with a distinct lack of wisdom and empathy.

There are those who happily allow others to dictate what they think, what they focus on, what their opinions are. There are those who lack the courage of their convictions and welcome external control. There are those who believe rigid adherence to certain ideas will keep them safe. They are the people spellbound by technologies of control and the people who drive them.

We can break this spell. We can expose how and where we are being manipulated and take back our thoughts and attention. And that can change not only our individual lives, but if enough of us do it, the entire world.

I’ll be back in June with a post on the Gemini New Moon and then one on the Summer Solstice chart. I’ll also probably post another chapter of Touch the Earth, Kiss the Sky.

“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.” ~ Mary Oliver, Wild Geese

A pet peeve of mine is the increasingly common use of the term “meat sack” to refer to the human body. It’s disrespectful to what is accurately described as the temple of our soul. The temple may be crumbling. It may have some design flaws, and require a lot of expensive maintenance. But it’s what allows us to engage with this amazing world in ways that are simply not possible without a body. With a body, we can create, grow, be in relationship, explore and expand our understanding of a larger, creative Consciousness that can best be described as the Great Mystery. Without it, we can’t participate in the material world.

This month’s astrology helps us remember the ways in which our body welcomes and houses our soul and spirit for this journey through life.

Staying fully connected to the body can be a challenge, especially in this time of rapid, evolutionary changes in both human consciousness and the planet that supports all those temples. It can be easy to dissociate in response to pain and trauma and do only what is absolutely necessary to get through one day after another.

When that happens, the temple fires go out, dust gathers, the roof leaks. This month, you might want to work on reconnecting the body with soul and spirit by giving it your devoted attention and awareness, and providing the resources it needs (food, sleep, movement) to sustain health and well-being. Light the fires, sweep the floor, fix the leaks as best you can.

This will help counteract the devolutionary forces that are working against the basic nature of the planetary Web of Life, against the natural cycle of life and death, of creation and destruction. They appear to delight in finding ways to be needlessly painful and catastrophically destructive.

It takes sustained effort to neutralize those forces and advance evolutionary ideas and actions. Fortunately, many are called to that work, particularly now. If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re one of them. To make the work clear and effective, it helps to remember the beauty and joy that we know is possible in life. If we spend time in nature and let it reboot our senses, we’ll remember in our very bones how inextricably we are connected to the earth, to the sky, and to each other.

The evolutionary path is not hard to find. Still, not everyone will take it. But in the long run, both astrology and my intuition tell me that love and connection will prove to be stronger and more resilient than the pain and chaotic destruction that is currently running wild in the world.

I’ll take a few paragraphs to cover the astrology, then look at what we can expect in the world and how to work with these planetary patterns in our personal lives. If the technical stuff doesn’t interest you, skip over the italics.

(Astrologers: I’ve cast the chart for May 16, 4:01 pm EDT, Washington, DC. [And here’s my occasional reminder for students that planetary placements and aspects are global, angles and house cusps are local. And in a New Moon chart, if Sun and Moon are not exactly conjunct, something’s wrong, so go back and check your data.]

The New Moon(NM) is at 25°57’ Taurus. It’s tightly conjunct dwarf planet Ceres, which I’m paying closer attention to these days, particularly regarding environmental and agricultural issues. It’s also conjunct Mercury and in an approaching but still out-of-sign conjunction with Uranus. Mercury is right at the midpoint between the NM and Uranus, which it now rules, and will for the next 7 years.

[An aside for students: Particularly in mundane astrology, it’s always worth keeping a weather eye on the rulers of the signs the outer planets are currently transiting because that planet’s travels and travails will moderate the functioning of the outer planet. For instance, watch the May 17^th entrance of Mercury into Gemini and its subsequent conjunction with Uranus. This will illuminate some of the changes that will be triggered as Uranus travels through Gemini.]

Venus is also in Gemini, and in mutual reception with Mercury. Venus has been exploring how communication builds relationship, and gathering information that will inspire art and help diplomacy as the year progresses. Mercury has been exploring the information that is hidden in the spaces of Nature, and how sometimes you have to slow down to gather it.

Venus is in an approaching sextile to Mars, which is closely conjunct Chiron. The wounds of war and the wounds of identity are showing up for healing. Venus will ensure that the communication and information needed for healing is available.

Chiron represents the process where a wound is presented for healing, and the healing journey leads to a better understanding of the wound’s cause, an awakening of compassion, and eventually — hopefully — an expansion into wisdom as well as health. It will be interesting to watch how this process plays out over the next month.

Mars will be moving into Taurus on May 18^th, which will take some of the heat off of all those planets in Aries. It might be enough to lead to the slowing down or even cessation of whatever hostilities are currently in play. (These days, I’m having a hard time keeping up with them all.)

Saturn in Aries, handled poorly, breeds reactionary defensiveness and a fear of losing control. Handled well, it helps us strategize in the midst of volatile situations and brings cooling wisdom to negotiated outcomes. Given its semi-square to the NM and Ceres, Mars’ presence in the sign, and other factors in the chart, there will be plenty of volatile situations arising in the upcoming month. Frankly, I doubt that the political ones will be handled well, but things can be different on a personal and community level.

Jupiter is unaspected and happily expanding the archetypes of Cancer, which can range from care and nurturing of the vulnerable to helicopter parenting, from the creative establishment of a home(land) to paranoid and jingoistic delusions.

The three outer planets are tightening their Minor Grand Trine aspect, emphasizing the evolutionary time frame we are in. [And yes, Pluto is always a planet to me. 🎵 ]

OK, on to the interpretation…)

“Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.” ~ Mary Oliver, Wild Geese

These are not easy times and many are falling into despair. That’s a problem we need to confront. When we are visited by despair, we can converse with it, question it, talk about it, figure out where it came from, but then we need to invite it to leave. Because getting caught up in despair is one of the biggest tripwires we will encounter. Despair is a stew of emotion that we can acknowledge and investigate, but holding on to it is nurturing a viper at your heart. Let it go before it bites you and go on a journey to find hope.

Counteracting despair will entail envisioning and working towards a future where caring, connection, and justice are at the foundation of society, not cruelty and greed and an insatiable hunger for power that will never be enough. That kind of power—power over others—may be destructive, but it isn’t real power — which is why it will never be enough.

Real power lives in the land. Real power lives in our hearts. Real power lives in the sun and the rain and the wind and in each one of us. The more we evolve into and claim the power that is ours to own, the more we will come to understand and work with the true power of connection.

What’s real is the Earth, and it is in communion with the planet and each other that we can create our dreams and grow in spirit. Gaia holds the power of life and death — a fact that is coming rather urgently to our attention right now. If we do not step up and take responsibility for our place in the Web of Life, it will collapse, and take many, if not most, of us with it.

We carry the burden of hundreds of years of poor choices in our relationships with each other and with the planet. That burden has fallen on us to remediate. We have ideas, resources, and the ability to take action. We have the means to do what needs to be done. The question is, do we have the will?

Feeding the Zeitgeist

The month ahead offers many opportunities for healing and growth. But we live in volatile times, and the people to whom we have given power are still making poor choices. Those of us who are not driven by greed and a lust for power can help shift us all into a better reality by feeding the zeitgeist with visions of what is possible and our determination to pursue those visions.

We don’t need to do anything to reach out to the zeitgeist — we’re already connected to it. Simply hold your visions and your determination close to your heart, share them with the people who are closest to you and together come up with some plans. Just a few small plans, for you and yours, that map out a path of action to reach a preferred future.

Because what happens when you align yourself with others of like mind and heart is that the visions then spread like circles on the water and draw others who share the same visions into the planning.

I use the plural because we don’t need a business plan, we don’t need a singular dream that we are all diligently working for, like good little worker bees. We need multiple creative, individual visions that share basic values but are flexible enough to weave into the visions of others so we can turn our combined resources—physical, mental, emotional, spiritual—towards creating a world that we all want to live in.

And this is where I remind you that there are more of us than there are of them. But if we are divided against each other, the hollow-hearted oligarchs can and will grab and run with the raw power we bleed away through our infighting.

This is why the foundation of our work is personal and spiritual growth. Not because we are looking out for #1, but because the whole of who we are as a unique human being is what we bring to the table where the collective vision is being assembled. And if we want things to get better, we need to bring our best.

Here are a few things we can work on over the next month that will help feed the zeitgeist and are supported by the current planetary patterns.

1) At the root of our dreams is compassion and caring. The power of love is invincible, but it must be brought into the human world through human hearts and minds and hands. Regularly check in with your current emotional reality and actively seek compassion and connection with others. Whether you are taking a moment to encourage a co-worker, soothing a crying child, or just sitting on a park bench watching people walk by, actively generate love and compassion for others to whatever extent you can. Human thoughts and feelings are not confined to our body. They do have an influence.

2) Check your boundaries, but remember people can and do change. Trauma and pain can cause difficult behaviors. Healing is hard, but it is possible, and when it happens it changes how an individual interacts with the world on a fundamental level. If you can find it in your heart and stay within wise boundaries, give encouragement and a helping hand to those you encounter who may have been problematic, but are making the effort to change. Creating the world of our dreams must involve incorporating many different viewpoints.

3) Figure out what you can share with those communities you are a part of who are aligned with your dreams and visions. Ask what is needed. Give what you can. Humans work best when we work together, and building a better world is going to take a great deal of cooperation. Fortunately, the current astrology supports it.

But don’t work too hard. Spend some time this month finding beauty, enjoying what nature has to offer, letting your body relax while your mind and senses run free. Much of the world is in turmoil, but you can’t change that. What you can do is find and share a vision that will contribute love, joy, and compassion to the zeitgeist. Let yourself love what you love, and share that love out in the world.

“Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”~ Mary Oliver, Wild Geese

Blessings of the season and the stars to you,

You may have been under the impression that things could be calming down a bit after the recent 7-planets-in-Aries New Moon. Sorry, but no. There’s a lot going on in this Full Moon chart, and, aside from a Taurus Sun, none of it is particularly calming. (The reason Mars is in charge is a bit technical, which I’ll explain in the astrology section below. Or you can just take my word for it. 😊)

I did warn you that this year was going to be a wild ride, so hopefully you are prepared for upheavals and surprises—some good, some not-so-good. But whatever is happening around you and in your personal life, remember that how you react and how you choose to act are key to where you end up. The planets can help us with that, but before I translate their advice, here’s the astrology. If you’re not interested in the technical stuff, skip over the italics.

(Astrologers: Cast the chart for May 1, 1:23 pm EDT, Washington, DC [or use your preferred location/time zone].

The Full Moon falls at 11°20’ across the Taurus/Scorpio axis. So we already have a good dose of fixed sign energy, and Pluto adds to that, in addition to being in square to the lunation. [Yes, it’s a bit wide and separating, but I tend to give lunations and Pluto both a wide orb, so I’m paying attention to this aspect.]

Next we can look at the rulers of the lunation, Venus, Mars, and Pluto. Venus is in Gemini, which tends to be a sociable combination. She’s also in an approaching sextile to Saturn, and the two of them form a Yod with the Moon. So I’m going to pay close attention to that aspect, too, particularly since Saturn in Aries needs all the help it can get, and Moon in Scorpio tends to get all moody and emo.

Mars and Saturn can both be difficult to deal with, and they have very different approaches to life. Saturn is in its fall in Aries, a sign of impulsiveness, conflict, and rushing in where angels fear to tread. Aries loves adventure, and discovering new things. Saturn likes order and control, and building things that last. Saturn, when it finds itself immersed in Aries’ hectic pace, tries to slow things down, organize, and strategize.. But it’s going to have a hard time doing that over the next 2-3 weeks, because Mars itself is in Aries, in full Warrior mode, square Jupiter in Cancer, co-ruling the Moon with Pluto and all the rest of the planets by dispositorship. Yep, we have Mars as the winner in the final dispositor contest for this chart.

Note that the Warrior archetype will always fight for what it believes in, but does not inevitably turn to violence as a solution. There are other ways to fight. For a true warrior, violence is a last resort because it almost inevitably leads to Pyrrhic victories. I go into a bit more depth about the Warrior archetype and how to manage it in this article.

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So now let’s look at how we can deal with the struggles for power and control that will be going on over the next couple of weeks, both on the world stage and in our individual lives and communities.

Some people are fighting, lashing out, destroying, all in the attempt to gain power over others. Some are actively creating, dreaming, collaborating, and connecting. Those people understand that true power comes not from power over, power taken, but from within each human soul. And as more and more of us connect with our personal power, we are drawn to come together and act to change the world.

For most of us, it feels like there’s little we can do to affect national and global affairs. But we need to remember that the source and core nature of physical reality is non-physical, and we are all part of that creative Consciousness that forms our world.

Our bodies have a unique energetic imprint which is in constant interaction with our environment. That imprint affects and is affected by the energetic imprints of others. It also changes and shifts in response to our internal environment. Alterations in our personal energy field alter the effect we have on others, regardless of any actions we may or may not take, or words we may or may not speak.

Each one of us is affecting the world just by existing in it. And while we are not able to pick and choose all our experiences, we have a tremendous amount of power to shift reality on many levels. Unfortunately, we are often unaware of or feel unable to access both the power and the levels of consciousness available to us.

This is something of a simplification, but essentially both our thoughts and feelings are constantly shaping our personal energetic imprint. And while we are all affected by our communal reality, we do have some choice over which thoughts and feelings we allow ourselves to entertain. Given that those thoughts and feelings directly affect our lives in multiple ways, it makes sense to do the work that is needed to manage and direct them. That work changes our ability to affect our communities, which means we each, in our own small way, affect the world.

This is a good time to start or deepen studies and practices that will help you become more familiar with and in control of your own mind and emotions. Different styles of meditation, therapy, and magick will help with this. If you don’t know where to start, I would recommend three things:

1. Metta meditation. Love and compassion are what will eventually heal the world, and we all have the capacity to create more of them. Metta is one tested and effective way of doing that.

2. Send a request out to whatever spirit helpers/guardians/gods you are connected to, or just to the Universe in general, asking that you be shown a path which will lead you to an expanded mind and a more open, powerful heart.

3. Pay attention to the world around you on a physical, sensual, intuitive, and feeling level, not just mental. Do your best to find whatever beauty and joy and pleasure exists in your world and revel in it. If your mind resists, do your best to put that resistance aside and address the why of it later. (More suggestions on how to do that in this post.)

Creating a better world, a better life, means expanding our awareness of what this amazing planet offers us. It means keeping our minds and hearts open to reality instead of cowering in fear of it. If we hide away from what we are afraid of, we can’t change anything, much less reach out to find and hold what we desire.

Fear is a natural and healthy reaction to an immediate threat. But too many of us live as though we are constantly under threat from various scenarios our imagination dreams up. We end up spooked by shadows, afraid to love, afraid to die, afraid to live. The fear can be constant and lurk in our subconscious even as we try to repress it.

Granted, our imagination is just trying to keep us safe. “If I can figure out all the bad things that might happen, maybe I can prevent them from happening.” And to some degree, that’s true.

But fear is a burden that is not meant to be carried around in your daily life as though it’s some kind of protection from harm. Because it doesn’t protect you, it just weighs you down. The inner work we do to uncover and release unjustified fears is a worthy, lifelong endeavor, but it’s also important to spend time strengthening our minds and gathering our courage. Sometimes life sends us surprises, and we need to be willing and able to set fear aside and move ahead not knowing what the future holds, but knowing that life is worth living and even worth fighting for.

This is way easier to do when we have a strong connection to Spirit, to our personal guides and/or other helping spirits, including deities. Neptune’s 14-year presence in Aries suggests that many of us will be making and strengthening those connections and the reality of larger, non-physical realms of consciousness will become more acknowledged and accepted.

Feeling deeply takes courage in a time where so many seem so intent on causing harm. There’s an instinct to protect ourselves by not caring too much. But caring is a big part of healing, and squashing our emotions, deliberately trying not to care, often results in war, murder, rape, and other twisted behaviors because there is something in the human soul that demands we feel, that we experience emotion. That soul-level need cannot be fully repressed, and when we try it oozes out and creates extreme behaviors in order to feel at all.

Learning to manage our thoughts and emotions means first being willing to face what is in our own minds and hearts. This isn’t always easy. In fact, it’s rarely easy. Help is available — from Spirit, friends, therapists, counselors, even books. But the will to ask, the willingness to change must come from within each individual.

The evolutionary blossoming of consciousness that astrologers see reflected in the planets, that seers and scientists both have predicted, is happening now. There are no guarantees that it will not be devolutionary. A hard freeze can kill the blossoms. We need people of good will to shed the fears that are holding them back and take whatever steps are necessary to support their personal and communal evolutionary journeys towards an expanded understanding of reality and our power within it. And when strong, aware, open-hearted, spiritually connected individuals come together to create change, miracles can happen.

This Scorpio Full Moon brings depth and complexity to the normally fun-loving and laid-back vibe of Beltane. (Happy Beltane! My article on this holiday is here.) We’ll be encountering waves of collective emotional energy that may feel destabilizing and events that may feel like endings. Some of them will be. Others will be new beginnings disguised as endings. Life may be feeling a bit intense right now. I encourage you to take time for rest and recovery as needed, and spend some of that time in or close to nature.

If you’d like some personal insights into how the current astrology is interacting with your chart, contact me, and we’ll set up a consultation.

I’ll leave you with a quote to contemplate:

Blessings of this Beltane season to you,

Here’s the next installment in the chapters on the Sabbats from Touch the Earth, Kiss the Sky. (You can find the others here, along with the Introduction, if you aren’t familiar with the book)

Like all the four cross-quarter Sabbats, Beltane has a traditional date and an astronomical/astrological date that falls a few days after the traditional one, varying slightly from year to year. The traditional date is May 1st. The date of the exact midpoint between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice falls on May 5th this year (2026). In astrological terms, the Sun has reached 15° Taurus in its journey along the ecliptic.

The book excerpt is below, but first I’ll share with you one of my favorite songs for Beltane.

Blessings of the season to you!

Beltane—The Spring/Summer Midpoint

It is an urge that can take us to the heart of the sublime or to the depths of depravity. Without it, life as we know it would not exist. While parts of it are purely physical, it resonates like a chorus of church bells through all the subtle levels of our reality. And Beltane, the spring/summer midpoint, is one of the best times to celebrate it. Sex is, of course, what keeps life going above the level of the more primitive lifeforms. As the Sun strengthens here in the Northern Hemisphere, sex is happening everywhere (much to the distress of those of us who suffer from pollen allergies).

But, as important as the continuation of life is, sex serves more purposes than reproduction for humans. Sex is inextricably tied into our emotional lives, especially that emotion we call love, though we use it to express anger, fear, and various forms of emotional neediness as well. But under the right circumstances, sex—shared or solo—can be a deeply spiritual experience, connecting us to another, larger reality that is essentially indescribable because it exists outside of the physical plane. It’s the reality from whence we came. This connection to a larger reality is why sex is considered a powerful tool of manifestation in most magical systems. Good sex, focused on a goal, sends fireworks out into the subtle realms, drawing in aligned energies and helping them crystallize into the world of five senses, the world in which we live.

Since it is such a powerful force, sex can also amplify abuse and trauma, and that resonates on the subtle planes as well, putting its negative stamp most egregiously on the victims but also on the underlying consciousness of our whole culture. No act of abuse goes unnoticed in this creative universe of ours, and we carry energetic imprints of anger, abuse, and trauma from lifetime to lifetime until we are finally able to heal it.

Fortunately, sex can also be a powerful method of healing, but it’s one many if not most of us have learned to block, to one degree or another, because of cultural and religious taboos. These taboos are the cause of much emotional repression and physical armoring. (See Boadella’s book in the resources section at the end of this chapter referencing Wilhelm Reich and “orgone” for more info on armoring.)

Taboos about sexuality and our bodies can also cause energetic blockages, with cascading effects throughout the entire body. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that because you have identified and understood the taboos and blockages intellectually you have freed yourself of them. There is a lot of cultural imprinting that occurs while we are quite young, and the only way to release that imprinting is to feel your way through it. It’s important to re-experience it—just briefly, seconds can be enough—and release it from the level at which it was imprinted, keeping in mind that the original level is way more experiential than mental when we are young.

Some of it can be, and often is, released in the dream state. We can consciously clear a lot of imprinting simply by letting ourselves allow and experience pleasure. Sex may not be the best method for this because there are so many taboos around it, particularly shame-based taboos. From what I’ve read, heard, and experienced, few people actually let down all their psychological barriers to pleasure during sex. Sure, they may enjoy it, even reach orgasm, but energetically, they don’t fully open up to the possibilities of ecstatic connection to another person and/or to an expanded reality of joy and love.

The combination of cultural and personal taboos around sex are so deep and strong that many people have a difficult time getting past the energetic imprints in their body, even when they intellectually recognize the problems. Many taboos were impressed on us in childhood, but shaming, physical and emotional trauma, and repressive cultural attitudes affect adults as well, reinforcing the patterns established when we were young. There’s a strong Puritanical strain in Western culture that is only emphasized by the overt sexualization of almost everything in advertising, more often than not reflecting a cultural obsession—a reaction to repression rather than a healthy interest.

This isn’t true of everyone, of course, but it’s an attitude endemic in our culture. It’s important to learn to identify and release our blocks around experiencing pleasure. After all, if we are learning to create consciously, most of us would prefer to create a reality in which we experience pleasure—however we may define that—rather than hatred, anger, pain, trauma, etc. Learning to take pleasure in our bodies, whether through sex, food, or any of our five senses, shifts our experience of life and helps heal the wounds that keep us from exploring the many creative possibilities our soul can envision. I think one of the best ways to explore pleasure and heal old pain and trauma is through connecting with the beauty and wonder of Nature.

I have loved the Earth and Nature since I was a very small child. Loved madly, passionately, completely. I have loved when I was in ecstatic communion with trees or the ocean, and loved still through bouts of poison ivy, bee stings, and hurricanes. I loved studying Nature’s inner workings in the laboratory and loved it when I was trancing out dancing around a bonfire by a lake on a starry night. I loved swimming in Gardiner’s Bay on Long Island as a child, and, as a young woman, after I finally got away from the forest of concrete that is my hometown (Manhattan), I loved exploring the neighborhood woods in Maryland on my old mare Leo and learning to tend a garden, both from people who had been tending gardens all their lives and from the classes I was taking on soil science, botany, and entomology. I love Nature still as an elder, firmly ensconced and gardening madly for many years on my mostly forested land halfway up a mountain in Western North Carolina.

I think many, if not most, of us experience this longing to connect with Nature in an intimate and intense manner. A big part of my spiritual practice is trying to reach “beginner’s mind” with Nature, inviting back the perceptions and awareness of my preverbal self before I learned the labels for things. I think this is the easiest way for many of us to get out of our heads and reach that experiential level we knew in childhood again but this time with an adult’s brain and perceptive abilities. Also, the natural world carries its own energy that can help free us from embedded patterns of pain and trauma.

There are other things we can do to help with breaking through old, deeply ingrained taboos and other patterns of energy. Those energies have a physical manifestation, and any protocol that works on a physical level to shift energetic patterns—acupuncture, Yoga, Tai Chi, Qigong, certain types of massage, certain types of dance, good sex—will help shift and change those patterns on a physical level.

The spring/summer midpoint, a.k.a. Beltane (Beltane is celebrated April 30/May 1; the exact midpoint is around May 5), is an excellent time to focus on our bodies, both for health and pleasure. Learning to fully experience pleasure is an important aspect of spiritual growth, and sexual pleasure is an obvious place to start for most of us. It’s unfortunate that the sexual urge has been subject to varying degrees of social repression for centuries, using techniques that range from wildly funny, like some of the Victorian-era contraptions meant to prevent men from masturbating, to truly horrific practices such as female genital mutilation.

Why do we do this? Why do we repress this natural desire? The answer to that question is layered and complex, but I suspect that the repression has a lot to do with our human need to control anything we perceive as powerful. To reclaim that power for ourselves, we must sort through our beliefs about pleasure and sexuality and discard any unhealthy, culturally imposed ones that do not align with who and what we are or want to be. Our bodies are a gift and a treasure. Even when they bring us ill-health and pain, we must give them our attention and respect for they are the vehicle that embodies our soul and allows us to experience the world in this lifetime.

——| KISS THE SKY |——

What’s Your Pleasure?

Write out a list of things you find pleasurable, especially from a physical perspective. You’ll work with this list in the Touch the Earth section. And it will be a work in progress. You can add to it and subtract from it as you become more aware of and discriminating about what brings you pleasure. (Personally, I’m still trying to convince myself that double-chocolate chip ice cream isn’t the nectar of the gods.)

Discover Your Beliefs

Journal about your conscious and unconscious beliefs about pleasure. The conscious ones shouldn’t be too hard to find. Just think of what your answer would be if someone asked you, “Is it OK to relax into pleasurable experiences or is it self-indulgent, dangerous, or just plain bad and wrong? If so, why? If not, why not?”

Those last two questions—why and why not—will give you some insight into your unconscious beliefs if you keep asking them until you’ve come to a core belief. For instance, let’s say you feel that relaxing into pleasure can be dangerous. But you aren’t sure why. So you start to think about it.

Maybe the answer doesn’t come to you right away (this is a good time to ask your ancestors/helping spirits/Greater Self for insights), but eventually you remember that your grandmother always told you, “The devil finds work for idle hands,” and you have strong placements in Taurus in your chart. That means idleness is one of your core competencies. It’s not that you don’t work hard or have a strong work ethic—you definitely do—but you treasure your idle time when you can just relax and enjoy life. Always have, always will. Grandma probably harangued you about the devil for that very reason.

“But I don’t even believe in the devil!” you think. “That can’t be why I think pleasure is dangerous.” And this is where you really start excavating your beliefs and the emotional shifts they cause. You’re going to find conflicting ones. For instance, you don’t believe in the devil but you still are vaguely haunted by subconscious fears of an inchoate evil that could pounce on you at any time. Though it’s not a belief you are fully conscious of, when you quietly and thoroughly examine your emotional state, you discover that underlying fear and anxiety and recognize its source. You may remember feeling it more acutely as a child, fear that you might be turned to the devil’s purpose.

Now you could go deeper here and examine your beliefs about evil (“What is it? What causes it? Is it inherent in life, in us, or can we escape it?”). Or you might go right to, “No. I know better. I know the universe is based on a love that is stronger than any evil,” either because you’ve thought this through before or you’ve had a peak experience, a direct download from a greater Mind that convinced you. Sit with this knowledge for a while. Let yourself feel the emotions it brings up. Explore the logical ramifications of your beliefs about idleness and pleasure and evil. As you do this, allow the unreasonable fears and their associated beliefs to dissipate under the illumination of the solid core beliefs you hold about the ultimate creative and loving nature of the universe.

You’ll probably need to do this more than once before Grandma’s judgments release their hold on you. But this kind of belief work is critical if you are going to grow into an independent human being aware of your connection to “life, the universe, and everything” while making decisions from a conscious, creative place within yourself instead of being driven by unconscious fears. It’s not that your unconscious disappears or no longer influences you. To the contrary—it is like the ocean, always mysterious, deep, ever-changing, full of monsters and miracles. But when you know the ways of the ocean and understand the winds, when you have the good ship of your mind and the stars of spirit to steer by, you can go places you’ve never been before.

So think, journal, learn all you can about your unconscious and your mind. Then take your ship out of the harbor and explore, putting your thoughts and ideas into practice.

Honoring Your Body

Consider your beliefs about bodies in general. Do you believe a body is the vehicle of a soul in this lifetime? If we have any choice about the bodies we are born into, why do some of us choose to be born disabled in some way? Why is illness such a problem in this world?

As you think about these things, keep in mind the creative nature of the universe. Think about the fact that the bigger picture is never going to be entirely visible to us. Then, if you believe the body is the vehicle of the soul, if you believe in a creative universe, think about how you can honor your soul by honoring your body and by fully accepting it as your soul’s creation, no matter its state of health. Acceptance doesn’t mean you are OK with ill health or any problems you have with your body. Acceptance means an emotional state of awareness and understanding that this is where you are right now. Acceptance helps you release rage, grief, and anger so you can plan for the future and be energetically open to whatever healing is possible. Rage, grief, and anger are highly motivating but also highly restrictive emotions that are meant to be acknowledged and released within a relatively short time frame, not hung on to for years. Releasing them shifts the energy of your subtle bodies so they are more open to receiving healing.

Since you can’t see the whole picture from your Greater Self ’s point of view, you can’t fully understand what your soul is trying to create. You can’t be sure of how your health fits into the bigger picture of your soul’s growth and creative endeavors here on Earth. But you do have choices to make every moment of every day about how you treat your body. Treating your body well must start with acceptance of where your body is now. One way to reach a state of acceptance is to notice how often you think critically of your body and change those thought patterns. Check your criticisms against your beliefs about the body, the soul, and the creative nature of the universe. Notice the conflicting beliefs that are in play. Spend some time tracing your criticisms and insecurities back to their origins in your childhood. Choose which beliefs you want to claim. Then come up with a sentence that reflects your preferred beliefs and repeat it whenever you catch yourself beating yourself up about your body.

My personal preferred affirmation is simply “Walk in Beauty” because it reminds me of both the poem by Lord Byron, and the Navajo prayer:

In beauty I walk
With beauty before me I walk
With beauty behind me I walk
With beauty above me I walk
With beauty around me I walk
It has become beauty again

Find a phrase that is meaningful to you. If nothing comes to you, ask your guides and ancestors for help, then watch for the synchronicities or inspirations that appear in your life.

——| TOUCH THE EARTH |——

Take a Walk

I probably don’t even need to tell you to get outside when spring is turning to summer! As usual, be observant. Note what is growing, what is flowering, where Sun is rising, and how it rises a little earlier and a little further north every day.

Enjoy and Observe

Do something you enjoy doing and allow yourself to savor it. Give it your full focus and attention. Then watch for any conflicting beliefs that come up about whether or not it’s OK to experience this pleasure. We often hold ourselves back from pleasure for all sorts of reasons. Actually doing those things you enjoy and paying attention to your thoughts and emotions when you’re doing them will help you identify those underlying, usually unconscious reasons and determine whether or not they are valid. You’ll also become far more aware of the fine line between true enjoyment and overindulgence. (I usually discover that at the halfway line on a pint of ice cream.)

Change Your Focus

Make a point of finding at least some enjoyment in whatever it is you are doing. You may not be able to affect the traffic on your commute, but you can change your attention, awareness, and attitude. Instead of putting all your focus on how awful the traffic is, listen to music, do some breathing exercises, pick an issue that is currently impacting your life and see if you can brainstorm three completely new ways to deal with that issue. You can also simply choose to be fully present in the traffic, putting your complete attention on your current sensory input. That is, in fact, the start of a little spell I use to influence my path through traffic. As you get better at doing that, you may find the magic in it.

Ritual of Realignment

Here’s a little ritual you can do to cleanse your subtle bodies of any stagnant energy and realign your energy with the changing seasons. Give yourself at least an hour and a half for this, plus any travel time—it’s not something that can be rushed.

Take a salt bath. Put 1–2 cups of minimally processed salt—coarse sea salt is ideal—in a tub of water. There are herbs and stones that can be used effectively to amp up cleansing baths—you can learn more about them in books on cleansing in chapter 6. I like to add a few drops of lavender essential oil to my bath, but salt alone will do the trick very well for now, especially if you make a little ritual of it. Light a candle before you get in the bath. Call on any spirit allies or deities you work with. (If you aren’t acquainted with any yet, just call on your Greater Self.)

Soak for at least fifteen minutes but no more than thirty. Submerge your head at least three times. Stay in a meditative state—no washing or grooming. Just focus on your breathing and feel your personal energy shift. Imagine your subtle bodies strengthening, shining brightly, and breaking through any negativity you may have picked up. The salt helps in this process, breaking up stagnant, problematic energies in need of recycling. (If you don’t have a bathtub, use a large bucket of salt water in the shower, pouring it over yourself with a pitcher, head to toe.)

When you feel “done,” pull the plug and sit there as the water drains away. Now, you can shower to rinse off the salt and dry with a clean towel. Dress in loose, comfortable clothing suitable for sitting on the ground, or at your altar if you can’t get outdoors.

Go to a favorite spot out in nature where you will be undisturbed or sit down at your altar. If you’re at your altar, you’ll need to identify a spot in nature for yourself so you can imagine it in a meditation. You might want to light candles and incense and put out a bowl of fresh water. If you can get a little bit of earth or a rock from the spot you’ll be imagining, that would be ideal. If you are outdoors, you have sunshine (even if it’s behind clouds) and fresh air, plants, and the earth beneath your feet. Breath and acknowledge these things.

Make an offering to the spirits of this place. (We’ll discuss the whys and wherefores of offerings in the next chapter.) On my own land, I’ll leave some kind of food. Often milk and honey, eggs, fruits, or grains. The raccoons and possums and snakes and foxes and other wildlife will clean it up, usually overnight. I have a little stone altar near the stream in my backyard where I leave offerings. Dishes of liquid or honey can drown insects, so I pour them out on to the ground or onto the altar stone. In a park or public land, I would make an offering of plain water and a bit of cornmeal because you don’t want to attract or feed the wildlife on public lands, and cornmeal is an excellent non-burning, non-toxic fertilizer for whatever plants are there. Do not offer anything that is not biodegradable, and keep the offerings small.

If you are indoors, envision yourself there, but prepare the actual offerings and have them on your altar along with an empty bowl to receive them.

Stand quietly, offerings in hand. Come into the present moment. Be aware of how this place affects all your senses. Say (out loud) something like the following:

“I call to the spirits of this place, to the spirits of this land, and give thanks for your presence and blessings in my life. I offer this [name the offering here; e.g. “water and cornmeal”] in gratitude for the beauty and wonder of this place. I give offering and thanks to you in all your forms.”

Then leave the offerings. If you are at your altar, put the offerings in a bowl. Ideally, you will later take them to the actual place and leave them there, but if you can’t do that, dispose of them in a compost pile, under a tree somewhere, in a river, or even in a potted plant (in which case I’d definitely suggest limiting it to cornmeal and water).

Also, I should probably note that more is not necessarily better. Don’t leave so much of whatever you are offering that it causes disruption to the local ecosystem—or the potted plant.

Now choose a spot to sit (or stand) and meditate. (If you are at your altar, do this in vision.) Sit facing one of the four primary directions—whichever one feels right to you (if you really aren’t sure, pick north). You can use the compass on your phone, or simply judge which direction you are facing by the position of Sun. Settle in to a comfortable posture. Bring your attention fully into the present moment and focus on your breath. Let your breath descend into your belly. Let it adjust naturally until you are breathing in a full but relaxed manner. Close your eyes. (If you are doing this work in vision, your eyes are already closed. You should now close your eyes in the vision as well.)

Now sense a ray of red energy extending from the base of your spine, down through the Earth, all the way to the molten core of the planet. Let the energy flow freely. This is your connection to the planet, and you can release energy into the central fire at the core while drawing up what you need, reinvigorating your subtle bodies with the raw power of the planet itself. This cord, this connection, should always be there, whether or not you are actively working with it. It is your anchor to the planet, and you can visualize it and consciously pull more strength and energy into you when you are in need of it.

Once you have established your awareness of the Earth cord, turn your attention to the sky above you and to the top of your skull, the fontanel, that “soft spot” on a baby’s skull, the seventh chakra. About a foot above that spot, see a diamond-clear nexus of energy that draws in energy from the stars and funnels it into your seventh chakra, then down through your spine until it meets with the rising red energy and intertwines with it. Envision yourself connected to both earth and sky, the energy from both flowing freely.

If you’ve worked with your chakras before and know something about them, you may want to work with them consciously now. As you pull energy up from the planet and down from the stars, see it changing colors as it descends/ascends through your chakras. Sometimes old fears, even past life ones, and externally imposed beliefs that chafe your soul will weaken, restrict, or distort a particular chakra. You’ll need to work with this carefully to shift the energy and restore the free flow of energy through your body. Remember as you work with your chakras that you are seeking balance, not drilling for oil. It’s very rare that you need to bust through an energetic blockage. Usually, dissolving or unraveling it little by little, using the energy of earth and sky, will do the best job of bringing that chakra back to health and balance.

Instead of restriction, you may find that a particular area feels as though it is weak and wobbly. It may have been blown open by too strong a flow of energy in the past. The same energy, directed by your mind, can be used to help that chakra find its proper pattern, and help it regain strength and stability.

Whether you are working with your chakras or just with the flow of energy, notice where the blockages and other problems are without trying to force any change. Sense the strong vortex of life and growth around and flowing through you and let it work its healing magic. When you feel comfortable and connected, open your eyes. (If you are doing this in front of your altar in visionary journey, you will keep your physical eyes closed throughout. Open your eyes to the space in nature in your vision.)

Look at what is in your field of vision. Look with your full attention. Look, listen, smell, feel, and let your sixth sense explore as well. Just be there and aware. At some point, ask to be shown what you can do to deepen your relationship with the natural world, and with this place in particular. The answer may not come to you right away, but it should become clear over the next two or three days.

When the ritual feels complete, walk around a bit to ground yourself back in ordinary reality. Before you leave, thank the spirits of the place and check to make sure you have not left anything behind, then head on home or bring your consciousness back to your altar space.

Connecting with nature in that manner brings us back into harmony with the world around us. You can do this ritual at any time of year, but the energies of Beltane are highly active and easily felt, so this is a good time to begin.

Resources

Melanie Marquis, Beltane: Rituals, Recipes & Lore for May Day (St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 2015).

Stella Resnick, The Pleasure Zone: Why We Resist Good Feelings & How to Let Go and Be Happy (Newburyport: Conari Press, 1997).

Alexander Lowen, Pleasure: A Creative Approach to Life (Hinesburg: Lowen Foundation, 2013).

Barbara Holland, Endangered Pleasures: In Defense of Naps, Bacon, Martinis, Profanity, and Other Indulgences (New York: William Morrow, 2000).

Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha, Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships (New York: Harper Perennial, 2011).

Sheri Winston, CNM, RN, BSN, LMT, Women’s Anatomy of Arousal: Secret Maps to Buried Pleasure (Miami: Mango Garden Press, 2010).

Jason Miller, Sex, Sorcery, and Spirit (Newburyport: Weiser Books, 2014).

Margo Anand, The Art of Sexual Ecstasy: The Path of Sacred Sexuality for Western Lovers (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1989).

Wendy Maltz, The Sexual Healing Journey: A Guide for Survivors of Sexual Abuse (New York: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2012).

Naomi Ardea, The Art of Healing from Sexual Trauma: Tending Body and Soul through Creativity, Nature, and Intuition (Minneapolis: Wise Ink Creative Publishing, 2016).

David Boadella, Wilhelm Reich: The Evolution of His Work (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 1974

I was going to say “buckle up” for the month ahead, but you know those tools they sell for your car that will cut through a seatbelt and break glass if you need to get out of the car in a hurry? I keep telling myself I’m going to get one, and maybe I’ll actually do that this month, because given the current astrology, that’s just the kind of thing that might come in handy to get out of a situation fast. And things will be moving fast.

The astrology is intense. New circumstances and new ways of thinking are being born every minute, actions are unpredictable, and we’ll want to be able to move quickly and stay flexible. Physically, yes, things will be changing and many of us may find ourselves doing new things and moving around more than usual. But what’s really important is our mental flexibility and our willingness to take whatever actions are necessary to steer the changes towards the world we want to live in.

I’ll take a few paragraphs to dive into the astrology, and then we’ll consider ways to keep our balance on uncertain ground. Skip over the italics if the astrology doesn’t interest you.

(Astrologers: Cast the chart for April 17, 7:52 AM, EDT. I’ve placed it at Washington, DC.

The Aries New Moon is always a beginning wrapped in a beginning — a New Moon in the first sign of the Zodiac. This year, it falls near the end of the sign (27°) trailed by Chiron, Eris, Saturn, Mars, Mercury, and Neptune, all in Aries. Mars, of course, is the One Ring that rules them all. It also rules Jupiter and Pluto by dispositorship, and those two co-rulers of Scorpio are tightly sextile, which gives an evolutionary vibe to the whole Aries cluster.

But Mars is not the final dispositor of the chart. Venus is in her home sign of Taurus, so we have no final dispositor. Venus rules Uranus at the anaretic degree of Taurus which gives her rulership of Pluto through dispositorship, since Uranus is the evolutionary ruler of Aquarius. I find it interesting that Mars (ruling Saturn) and Venus both disposit Pluto. That’s a grouping of influential energy, especially given Mars’ sextile to Pluto.

There’s a conjunction of planets in early Aries that immediately jump out of the chart at first glance — Neptune at 2°, Mercury at 3°, Mars at 5°, and Saturn at 7°. This is a complex pattern that will manifest in many different but obvious and assertive ways.

Mars in Aries is a true powerhouse, but left to its own devices can be impatient, impulsive, and forceful. It may be somewhat restrained here by Neptune’s connection to the world of Spirit, Mercury’s clarity of thought, and Saturn’s wise and strong support. That’s the best case scenario, which we can work towards in our own lives. The not-so-great case scenario involves, delusion, chaos, violence, fear, and limitations.

If you read that last paragraph and immediately let fear take over your thoughts, you are feeding the energy behind the very things you fear. Gather your courage. Mars will help you do that. Mercury will help you find clever solutions to whatever problems are plaguing you. Saturn offers the necessary structure and discipline, while Neptune will keep you connected with the larger world of Spirit, which supports our efforts to evolve. But we need to deliberately connect with these planetary energies and use them consciously to improve life for ourselves, our loved ones, and our community.

OK, now that you’ve gathered your courage, we’ll track the planetary movements over the next few weeks. They are remarkably disruptive. Possibly in a good way. Here are a few that stand out to me:

Mercury, Mars, and Saturn conjunct on the 19^th. Mars and Saturn together perfectly describe the concept of military discipline. Given the current leadership of the USA’s military, I’m waiting with bated breath to see how this one plays out. My money’s on the folks who are actually disciplined.

Mercury can easily slip into Trickster mode in Aries, so screw-ups in communications — some of them highly consequential — are likely, particularly as it squares Jupiter then conjuncts Eris and Chiron.

Meanwhile, Venus and Uranus will conjunct at the anaretic degree of Taurus on the 24^th. Venus moves quickly into Gemini within hours, Sun squares Pluto on the 25^th, and Uranus makes its grand final entrance into Gemini on the 26^th. On the same day, Mercury squares and Venus semi-squares Jupiter and sextiles Neptune. On the 28^th, Venus squares the nodal axis.)

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I have been studying and practicing astrology for well over half a century, but I have never seen a planetary lineup like the one we are experiencing now.

The planetary patterns over the next few weeks will play out in many different ways. I would definitely look for financial upheavals, extreme political confusion, and breaking scandals. We’ll also see progress towards justice in the scandals we already know about. You might want to prepare for shortages of everything from fuel to food.

I don’t know when the Middle East war will finally grind to a halt, but the socio-political landscape will be very different when it does. I considered diving into the charts to see if I can discern more about how and when it will end, but decided that’s not particularly helpful, either to my readers or to my state of mind. Instead, let’s look at what the planets can tell us about how we might mitigate damage and prepare to rebuild when that time comes.

The chart speaks clearly of war, but also of determination and courage. It promotes action on many levels, and we’ll be seeing the best and worst of humankind illuminated on a global stage.

Most astrologers are agreed that we are in an unprecedented time of global upheaval and evolution for humanity. Industrial civilization is in the process of collapsing because of human stupidity, greed, and inability to get along with each other. This will become increasingly obvious over the coming decade. I believe this year, and even just the next few weeks, will feature extraordinary events, the effects of which will ring like a bell for many years to come.

A rapid and extraordinary evolution of human consciousness is writ large in the current sky. We are seeing some of the worst of humanity right now, and it’s important to remember — indeed, to model — that humanity can also be brilliant, compassionate, insightful, generous, creative, and loving. In fact, I would argue that this is our natural state.

Not many of us are in a position to take an active part in tearing down the web of corruption and horror — the “devil’s bargain” — that infects our world. But every single one of us can make at least some difference and we must do what we can. Because it is going to take a shift in the Anima Mundi, the Spiritus Mundi, the world soul, mind, and spirit to turn things around. We all contribute to that collective consciousness, and it is that which must change before we can create a just, sustainable society.

If we live in fear of the future, then we offer fear to the world. And of course there are many things to be afraid of. It’s hard not to contemplate the possibilities. But we don’t live in the future. We live in the now. The future hasn’t arrived yet, and we all have a hand in shaping it.

We can discipline our minds to envision the future we want instead of fearing a future that others are creating. Then we can return from that vision to live and create in the now. The Anima Mundi is formed anew in every moment, and we are all instrumental in creating it.

Here’s the thing — there are more of us than there are of them. By “us” I mean people who are capable of love, of caring and sharing. But if we give our power away to fear of what “they” are creating, then we strengthen their vision instead of our own dreams of a better world.

This chart is all about power and how we use it — or abandon it for others to pick up and use. It’s about gathering courage and finding new paths ahead. It’s about seeking out and affirming the best in the human soul while seeing clearly and hopefully thwarting the plans of those who take and take and have no concern about how their actions are destroying the lives of others.

The chart also speaks to the remarkable abilities of the human mind to shift and change reality on a strictly mental level.

I’m a big believer in prayer. Assuming there are beings — deities, angels, helping spirits — who have a broader perspective on this world and our best interests at heart, it makes sense to ask for their assistance. But importuning a puppetmaster deity to move the puppets around in line with your desires — which is too often what prayer amounts to — is neither helpful nor at all realistic.

Being in conscious contact with beings of spirit who support you in this lifetime — and we all have them — is life changing. Because the support they are able to offer you increases exponentially once you ask for their assistance.

Which is why I am also a big believer in magic. Magic can and often does interact with beings outside our realm of time and space to shift and change the flow of reality at the interface between Consciousness and matter. Becoming proficient in magic demands visioning, deep self-inquiry, and training our minds to create on the levels of energy that shape our material world.

This chart emphasizes the need for courage to engage with the changes that are happening in the world. It will be different for each individual, but few of us will come through the upcoming years without some disturbance and disruption to our lives. We’ll also be seeing the destruction of many social structures, both physical and mental.

Grief, sadness, fear, and pain are infusing the zeitgeist, and will continue to do so. It’s normal and healthy to let yourself feel emotions that are appropriate for what you are seeing and experiencing. But don’t let them overwhelm you. I know — very well — how difficult it can be to manage those emotions, but if you let that fog envelop you, life will become much more difficult to manage.

This is where conscious communication with your helping spirits is so important. But don’t ask them to clear away the fog for you.

Ask for help in remembering joy, in awakening love, in gathering courage, and let joy and love and courage light a fire in your soul that will burn away the emotional fog, clear away blockages in your energetic body, and allow you to envision and work towards a better world.

If you refuse to engage and prefer to hide away, the tides of the times will still find you. The current astrology offers a level of freedom and empowerment that I have not seen in over 50 years of studying charts. Don’t hide. Now is the time to commit to your own spiritual growth and step into your full human potential. We need all souls on deck.

It won’t always be easy. It will take work, courage, clear thinking and plenty of compassion, but you will have support, both in spirit and in the world around you. Find community, work with others whose visions align with yours, and help create a future worth living in.

Yes, things are moving fast this month. But as events are swirling around you, do remember to take some time to connect with Nature, and Spirit, and come into your own still center.

I’ll be posting more from “Touch the Earth, Kiss the Sky” over the next week or so, and then, at the next Full Moon, it’s Beltane!

Blessings of the season to you,

Here’s part of another chapter from “Touch the Earth, Kiss the Sky”. If you want to know why I’m posting excerpts online, or just want to know what the book is about, you can read the Introduction here. Other excerpts, including the chapters on the Sabbats, are here.

I started to write a little introduction to explain why I’m posting it now (or half of it, this is just an excerpt). But the little intro turned into a whole post of its own, which you can read here. Once you’ve read that, here’s Part 1 of Chapter 5.

Self and Cosmos

Fairly early on in my practice of meditation, I was offered a classic question in many spiritual traditions as a topic for meditation: “Who am I?” I struggled with this one for years. I struggled with it while sitting on my Yoga mat, sitting at my altar, riding on the subway, walking through the park. I figured out what I was not—my body, my thoughts, my emotions, my beliefs. And having peeled away all those externals, I was still left with an unshakeable awareness of self. I still question who I am, but I can say, without question, that “I am.”

Some of the religions/spiritual traditions I studied told me that my sense of self was an illusion. Others spoke of the difference between ego and our essential self. Philosophers argued the definition endlessly, and those arguments all come around at some point to conscious awareness, to what scientists refer to as the “hard problem of consciousness.” That thing neither they nor anyone else seem to be able to define adequately.

Since I am neither enlightened enough nor smart enough to sort all this out, I decided on an approach that works for me in my life, which boils down to the fact that we are here, interacting as individuals (I don’t mean just human individuals), and there is probably a reason for that. So I rejected the idea that I should give up any thoughts of having a self that was anything more than an illusion. Then, having established to my own satisfaction that “I am,” the question became how to develop as an individual in harmony with my core values—love, joy, beauty, wonder, creativity—and how to grow in awareness of the larger reality I sensed. A reality in which every individual, from an atom to a human to a star, was Consciousness, and all of Consciousness was connected as one.

Back in chapter 2, we looked at the concept of a single Consciousness that is the ground of reality, the source of being. This idea is as new as modern physics, and as ancient as some of the oldest mystical writings and oral traditions on the planet.

The Hindu sacred text known as the Devi Gita explains it thusly in the voice of the Goddess:

In an essay titled “The Oneness of Mind,” physicist Erwin Schrödinger (yes, the same guy who came up with the famous “Schrödinger’s Cat” experiment) quoted thirteenth century Islamic-Persian mystic Aziz Nasafi:

In the same essay, Schrödinger himself said that “multiplicity is only apparent; in truth there is only one mind.” In the Tao Te Ching, one of the foundational texts of Taoism, we learn in chapter 1 that:

In chapter 42 of the text we learn that:

In Vedic mythology, we have the cosmic egg, which cracked in two to form heaven and earth. Greek mythology also offers us a cosmic egg from which all things were born in the form of the god Phanes/Protogonus, as does the mythology of the Dogon tribe of West Africa. These are all mythological takes on a concept of the creation of the universe that says the origin of the physical realm can be traced back to the original split of the One Mind, of Consciousness, into Self and Other.

So let’s discuss the concept of developing our individuality, of expressing self within the world, and how we relate with others. As the light increases, we focus on our relationship with the outer world, and strong relationships require strong individuals.

Most of the world’s great religions and philosophies have some concept of the Absolute, the idea that there is an ultimate reality or Consciousness that encompasses the concept of All That Is. Even materialist scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson said, “We are all connected; To each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe atomically.”³.

If we assume the Absolute, the singular Consciousness that formed the reality we know, that makes up the stuff of our world while existing beyond it, then the creation of this reality would require, to begin, that this singular Consciousness separate into Self and Other. At some point, Consciousness became the multiple individual consciousnesses of our reality, and I view that initial split of Consciousness into Self and Other as the first step in manifestation within time and space.

Though I work with individual goddesses and gods, I see the concept of Goddess and God as the primary two emanations of Consciousness whose interaction sparks the creation of material reality. This is Wiccan symbolism and mythology, which puts a human form on an event beyond our rational minds to give us some symbolism for understanding it.

But you don’t need Goddess and God or even human forms. You could see it as Yin and Yang, Self and Other, or the concept of the Cosmic Egg. While we can never fully understand the creation of material reality, of time and space, if we accept that it originated in a singular Consciousness, then it required that the One Mind, Consciousness, first create the Other, the original illusion of separation. And if you view our reality as a creative endeavor instead of a place of suffering and sin, then this split is a sacred event, one we should honor by living a life that reveres the entire universe, the creation, and our individual selves, for we all sprang from that primary event.

Creation of a new human—not to mention most other species—is accomplished by the combining of DNA from two different parents. This is how evolution happens. Each child is unique—though we share so much, we are all different because that particular combination of DNA and external factors will not be repeated. Even in the case of identical twins, epigenetic factors (external factors that affect genetic expression), not to mention individual souls, create two unique people.

Have you ever thought about the ramifications of that uniqueness? If you believe that some kind of consciousness created this universe, then it would be useful to ask, “What does this creator/consciousness really value? Judging by what we can see of the creation, what is of particular importance to the Creator, to Consciousness?”

One of the answers you’d almost certainly come up with is “variety.” Another is “individuality.” A third would be “change.” Just look around you. The variety of life and nature on this planet alone is astounding. The number of individual beings is uncountable, each one unique in its way and ever-changing. We are immersed in change.

If these qualities are valued by a creator, by Consciousness, then perhaps the recognition of “non-duality” as the ultimate in spiritual awareness— a concept woven into religions from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism through various branches of Western esotericism and mysticism—stops short not only of what is possible but of what is desirable. Maybe Consciousness, aware of itself in its totality, in its oneness, in its non-duality, became dual, became both Self and Other, to create, to expand into the ever-changing possibility of individuality.

That would be quite a challenge—to explore individual creation in the breadth and depth of all possibility. What happens when we lose sight of the oneness in our pursuit of individualism? What happens when creative impulses conflict or come up against the limits of time and space? We’re finding that out now, aren’t we? Maybe even All That Is doesn’t know what can be created as All That Is becomes more of itself.

If there is an ultimate unity of Consciousness, consider that perhaps in creating the realm of time and space, Consciousness intended that we (as an integral part of that Consciousness) learn to create from within this reality of limits, not reject it as flawed or see it as a place of suffering and punishment to be left behind as soon as we can. Maybe we aren’t here to eventually learn how to escape this physical world, to “rejoin with the Source,” or live forever strumming harps in heaven, but to create within this realm an infinitely inventive, imaginative, expressive world of joy, love, and wonder, aware of a larger reality, but intrigued and enchanted by the possibilities of this one.

Perhaps the suffering and pain we experience here is the result of choices made from a limited point of view, a consequence of having free will and the ability to create but limited awareness of our own abilities and powers. What if we can change that point of view, change those choices, instead of seeking to escape the consequences? Perhaps we are here to create while expanding our sense of self, not spend our lives longing to return to some painless state of relinquishing individuality in order to rejoin the Source.

(Let me make clear here that I am not saying the suffering in this world is in any way the “fault” of those suffering. What I am saying is that we are involved in a creative endeavor in which we affect and are affected by each other, the environment, and circumstance, and we have far more power than we currently realize to change the world.)

So when we connect with Consciousness, with All That Is, when we slip free of our individual awareness and experience an expanded reality of oneness with the Absolute in what is often known as a “peak experience,” then we may only be halfway on our journey. If Consciousness is ultimately creative, then perhaps we have the choice to experience individuality within time and space while consciously connected to a larger reality. Perhaps we were meant to forget and then remember, and that forgetting—with all the problems that entails—may be a necessary first step to this particular creative endeavor of Consciousness. Given the state of our world, though, perhaps we have forgotten too much.

We are individuals; we exist within this physical realm. This much we know. To see our lives as some sort of Divine punishment or test or a “wheel of karma” from which we want to “break free” seems to me to be a poor response to this extraordinary gift of life. How might this world change if we were to honor each life on Earth as a gift and a creative challenge?

1. Veda Vyasa and Swami Vijnanananda (trans.), The Devî Gita: Song of the Goddess (n.p.,2011), 17.

2. Erwin Schrodinger, What is Life? With Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 128.

3. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries (New York: W.W.Norton, 2007).

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
~J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

In my last post, I looked at part of the big astrological picture — the dance of the three outer planets, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, which will last until the end of the decade. In this post I’ll consider those same planets, but dive a bit deeper into how an evolutionary path forward is being revealed that can guide us into a vastly different relationship with each other and with the Earth. The path is becoming clearer and more brightly lit every day. The question is, will we choose to walk it into the future?

The recent Full Moon across the Aries/Libra axis illuminates a fundamental component of our current evolutionary challenges — how to deal with the age-old questions of Self and Other in a way that does not involve wars, violent deaths, and destruction of planetary ecosystems.

Currently, there are ongoing power grabs by those who will use every psychological trick in the book to affect our thoughts and all the latest technology to make us believe what they want us to believe, all to their own benefit. We need strong, independent thinkers who can strategize, inspire, and make things happen in order to thwart attempts at authoritarian takeovers. We need lots of them, and we need them to step up now.

We also need these strong, independent folks to cooperate with each other. To share decision-making. To help organize networks of people working toward a common good. Inquiring minds and compassionate hearts are required to create healthy, resilient networks that support all members of a community or a country.

I had been planning to excerpt part of a chapter of my book Touch the Earth, Kiss the Sky as a post here on Substack. The chapter is titled “Self and Cosmos” and in re-reading it, I decided it would be helpful to preface it with this post, which looks at how the current astrology reflects the important issues of self-development, community, and the importance of clear communication.

Let’s start with Pluto in the sign of Aquarius, where it’s been for almost a year and a half now. Aquarius presides over the groups we form and the way tribes, societies, and civilizations are structured. It’s ruled by Saturn, the planet of structures and boundaries. But its evolutionary ruler is Uranus.

The argument has been made (most effectively by Richard Tarnas) that Uranus should have been named Prometheus, after the Titan who stole fire from Zeus and brought it to mortals. Tarnas, in his book Prometheus the Awakener, describes Prometheus as “…the Titan who rebelled against the gods, helped overthrow the tyrannical Kronos, tricked Zeus, and stole fire from Mount Olympus to liberate humanity from the gods’ power. Prometheus was considered the wisest of his race and taught humankind all the arts and sciences.”

That’s a good description of the humanitarian focus of Aquarius. Adding Pluto to the picture suggests that we’ll see antiquated social structures breaking down and disintegrating over Pluto’s almost 20 year passage through the sign. But Pluto also brings the resources with which to replace what it has destroyed. Then the question becomes how we use those resources.

Aquarius reminds us that humans work best when we work together, and that each one of us brings a unique contribution to our joint endeavors. Which is why it is important to build a society where people are free to develop as individuals who can contribute to the whole without succumbing to cults and groupthink — which is simply seeking an escape from fear through an unquestioning alliance with a group.

Aquarius covers the spectrum of social structures from extreme fear-based repression to pure anarchy. The ideal is somewhere in-between — exactly where is an open question. But Pluto is an “evolve or die” kind of planet, and Uranus is the evolutionary ruler of Aquarius, so we’ll all need to figure out soon exactly where we stand on that fear-to-freedom scale. Let’s look at what Uranus is bringing to the table to fuel our evolutionary journey into a better world, because it’s a planet of extremes and understands the whole of that continuum.

At the end of this month (April, 2026), Uranus will make its final passage from Taurus into Gemini. Gemini is inquisitive and communicative. It highlights the human need for information, connection, and community. Mercury, its ruler, is the Winged Messenger, the Trickster, the Magician, the Traveler. Mercury delights in commerce and trade, communication, and networks of all kinds.

As Uranus enters Gemini’s realm, we can expect wide-ranging disruptions in trade and communications as well as shifting political boundaries at all levels, including local governments. We’ll see amazing technological advances as well as exposure of technology’s limitations.

The use of technology to further authoritarian power and control is one of the challenges we will be facing. Pluto is all about power, and will highlight how it is wielded in our governments and social structures. Uranus, in a very Promethean manner, reminds us that we can rebel against the powers-that-be, overthrow tyrants, and claim collective resources. Uranus, particularly in Gemini, challenges any restrictions on individual freedoms.

Pluto and Uranus are in a flowing aspect to each other which, along with other planetary patterns, suggests that it will be difficult for authoritarians to gain the control they seek, at least in the USA. That doesn’t mean they won’t keep trying. But the current evolutionary impulse is towards freedom and healing, which cannot be addressed separate from the Web of Life on the planet. A web is a working of power, and the Web of Life is where true power lies. We ignore and damage the planetary webs at our peril.

(And note that the planetary webs are not on the internet. Time spent outdoors in a meditative state can key you in to the those webs. If you let yourself expand your awareness into nature, into the living land, you can receive healing as well as learn how to help heal the strands of the web that are broken. There are many, many different ways to do that.)

Uranus in Gemini brings sudden changes to the global zeitgeist — the world mind. And it brings a new understanding of the abilities of the human mind. Psychic abilities. Healing. Magick. If you haven’t already, you might want to start exploring the idea that Consciousness is the ground of reality, that we are co-creative with that larger Consciousness, and we can train our minds and emotions to be more actively involved in the energetic as well as the physical creation of our world.

Now let’s look at Neptune in Aries — the first sign of the Zodiac, the sign of inception.

The boundless nature of existence is the realm of Neptune. It is the evolutionary ruler of Pisces, the sign of an all-inclusive spiritual awareness of the Divine, of the realms of Consciousness that exist outside of time and space.

Neptune’s primary methods of expression in our world are through the creativity of artists and the visions of mystics. When the connection to the world of Spirit is lost, people turn to drink, drugs, and delusion in a futile attempt to soothe the sense of loss.

Neptune reminds us that we are part of a larger reality, a larger Consciousness. We may find the idea exhilarating, or scary, or seek to experience that reality through meditation, trance journeys, or drugs. But when it comes right down to it, we are all singular beings trying to make a life for ourselves in this realm of time and space. We are all part of the One, we can work together in groups, but the actions we take, even in concert with others, are still our personal decisions, our personal actions.

It’s only as individuals that we can create, love, experience life in all its joy and beauty, its heartache and pain, and decide how we will react to the world as life presents it to us. It’s only as individuals that we can investigate our world, learn how it works, learn how to change it. It’s only as individuals that we can form relationships with other individuals.

Aries represents the individual, an expression of Consciousness birthed into the physical realm. Aries claims a place in the world for a unique and sovereign being.

Every sign in the Zodiac is balanced and enriched by its opposite sign. Aries’ opposite sign is Libra, the sign of relationships, where individuals come together to form a community.

The more secure we are in our unique, individual existence, the more we are able to look outside ourselves, to truly look at others not just as providers of something we need or want, but as sovereign individuals with whom we can explore intellectual and emotional relationships.

The mental, emotional, and spiritual health of a relationship cannot be separated from the health of the individuals in it. So if we want to form healthy communities, societies, and civilizations we can, as individuals, do three important things:

1. Work on our personal growth so we become the kind of person who can be part of and contribute to a healthy community.

2. Work on our relationships and find our communities. Practice compassion. Offer kindness. Be worthy of someone’s trust. Listen and learn.

3. Expand our understanding of the world by expanding our understanding of its non-physical Source. You may call it God/dess, or Tao, or Spirit, or the Great Mystery, or Consciousness, but understand that we are part of it and our world is being created anew from it in every moment. The world is not external to its Source, and we are an integral part of the beating, creative heart of reality.

Think about this and what it means. Every single one of us contributes our personal energy to the underlying energetic framework of physical reality, even if it is only a weak pulse in a much larger field. We can’t NOT affect the reality around us, and we can’t NOT be affected by it.

So the question is not if but how we want to affect the world. How we create change. How we leave a mark on the world that is worthy of us. The change we work for, the things we do and say and dream affect the energy we each send out into the world around us.

I hope this post has given you some food for thought on how the current astrology is manifesting. Yes, life’s a bit scary right now. Yes, the world is in a bit of a mess. But there’s something larger at work here and we are part of it. A better world is possible and each shining, unique person has something to contribute.

Don’t give your power away to the grasping and greedy. Find your people, and with them, take a stand for what your heart and soul tell you is true. Our future involves a fight for the freedom to create a life lived in harmony with each other and the planet. Are you in?

A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit
To satisfy, insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not forget
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to
~ Bob Dylan, “It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding”

I have great belief in the fact that whenever there is chaos, it creates wonderful thinking. I consider chaos a gift. ~Septima Poinsette Clark

The March Equinox heralds a shift of the seasons and the Sun’s return to the first degree of the Zodiac. The chart of this moment gives us a picture of upcoming events and situations — political, social, financial, cultural, environmental — both globally and for specific locations. I’m looking primarily at the USA. This chart will echo through the fall.

(Yes, the plan was to get this post out on the Equinox, but the best laid plans of mice and astrologers gang aft agley However, I’m looking at some major aspects that are in effect for much of the rest of the year, so it’s still useful.)

I’ve put an info dump of the technical stuff in italics in the next section so you can skip it if you want.

(Astrologers: There’s disagreement among astrologers about how long these ingress charts are in effect, but I’m not going to get into that here. I’ve cast the chart for Washington, DC with Equal Houses. This means the houses and angles are specific to the USA, but the planetary aspects apply globally. I use the Sibly chart (July 4, 1776, 5:10 PM LMT, Philadelphia, PA) as the birth chart of the USA.

Sun is in the 10th house approaching its conjunction with Neptune, then Saturn. Venus and Moon are also conjunct later in Aries, Moon separating from Venus, approaching Eris and Chiron, which are conjunct. So we have 5 planets, one dwarf planet, and one centaur (that’s an astronomical term now) in Aries. (War, anyone?)

Now let’s look at the two planets that rule the whole chart. Mercury is technically the chart ruler, as it rules the Gemini ascendant (remember, angles and houses in this chart are specifically for the USA). But it is stationary, and in its detriment which affects (often but not always negatively) its influence in the chart. It is approaching a conjunction with Mars, and separating but still well within orb from a conjunction to the North Node.

[Mercury’s partile conjunction with the North Node happened back on February 12th when Trump met with Netanyahu at the White House. As the bombing began on February 28th, Sun was conjunct the North Node.]

All this pretty much guarantees Mercury’s influence will not be low-key. It will be far-reaching, and in the public eye. We’ll see major shifts in global trade, transportation, and communications which will be disruptive, though some will prove to be necessary, and some even beneficial.

Mars disposits the Sun, Moon, Venus, and Saturn, as well as Eris and Chiron in Aries. If you use Neptune as the ruler of Pisces, Mars and Neptune are in mutual reception. If you use Jupiter as the ruler of Pisces, Jupiter rules Mars, Mercury, and the North Node, but it is disposited by the Moon which is disposited by Mars.

The chain of dispositorships noted above suggests the energies of all these planets are woven into a single fabric, and there’s a lot of unchecked power sloshing around in the world right now. Stay aware. Communicate clearly. Check your moral compass frequently. Reach out to help others, and accept help when you need it. This year is a wild ride.)

The Big Picture

It’s becoming increasingly clear that the human race is likely to eradicate itself from the planet (along with a large number of other lifeforms) if we don’t get our love of conflict and destructive tendencies under control.

The astrology reflects this need, as all three of the outer planets come into a close, long-lasting aspect that points to revolutionary change. Fortunately, the aspect itself is evolutionary as well as revolutionary, and the energy flowing between the three planets speaks to cooperation more than conflict.

(Astrologers can’t seem to agree on a name for this aspect. I’m going with “minor grand trine”. Whatever you call it, it’s a trine with another planet at the midpoint, which, if you recall your aspect geometry, means it is sextile both of the trine planets.)

So we have three powerful planets sweeping us towards evolution into more cooperative social structures. But it looks like getting there is not going to be pretty, since it requires a massive shift in human consciousness which will be triggered by a series of mass events. We’ll see these events happen as other planets bump up against the outers in their journey through the Zodiac.

To my mind, it’s a race between war and climate change for what brings us to our senses. “But, what about AI…” you say? A high-altitude detonation of a nuclear bomb would cause widespread destruction of the electrical grid — not to mention frying data centers and computers — that could take months to years to repair. (Read all about nuclear EMPs here.) Warfare focused on targeting electronics and computerized technologies is going to become more common.

There is also a not-insignificant chance of another Carrington Event — an extremely strong geomagnetic storm caused by a solar flare. The Carrington Event caused fires in telegraph stations in 1859. A repeat of it today would be devastating.

And let’s consider food. In the midst of massive supply chain disruptions, increasing heat, stronger storms, resource depletion, pollution of fisheries, and economic upsets, food production and distribution will be severely restricted.

Are all those things likely to happen? They already are happening. It’s just a question of how much worse it’s going to get before we deal with the insanity and turn things around.

Turning things around will require mental flexibility, ingenuity, and clear communication to build supportive, responsive social structures. Uranus requires that we be willing to shake things up, question authority, welcome new ideas and new ways of being. But the world will change only as individuals change. So we need to look towards the future with curiosity, open our minds to new ideas, listen carefully, and take pains to communicate our ideas clearly.

Turning things around will take courage to do what Neptune requires — cooperate, and work towards peace. It will be easy to succumb to feelings of victimhood and fear as the effects of large-scale events reverberate around the world. But the world will change only as individuals change. So ground yourself in your soul’s purpose and path and face the changes that are coming with courage and compassion.

Turning things around will demand that we understand and face death. And it’s not only bodies that die — ideas, feelings, structures, organizations and ecosystems die around us all the time. Pluto reminds us that death is not the end — it is birth into a different dimension of consciousness, a different form of being and awareness, just like birth into a body. If we want to change the world, we need to accept that change, death, and transformation are inevitable. Learning to face them without fear is to claim our personal power and begin to live fully. This is also how we birth new civilizations.

So with the big picture in mind, let’s narrow the focus onto an overview of the next 3-6 months. The chart of the Spring Equinox — what astrologers call the Aries Ingress chart — gives us a lot of information.

They Won’t Win

This is a rather chaotic chart with several of the planets working under less-than-ideal conditions. While I’m looking at the chart from the perspective of the USA, the chaos is likely to be global and much of it caused by the USA.

I’m particularly concerned about the executive branch of the government. If I were asked to define “The fog of war” astrologically, the combination of Mars and Mercury, both in Pisces, on the cusp of the 10^th house with the North Node, would describe a perfect storm of challenges for the military, law enforcement and diplomacy due to unclear and inept leadership and insufficient or incorrect information.

Both the citizens and the legislative branch are feeling confrontational. (Moon in Aries Mars conjunct the debilitated Ascendant/Fourth house ruler and square the Ascendant, Aries on the cusp of the 11^th) Whether Congress will choose to rein in the excesses of the mad king or simply continue to fight among themselves remains to be seen.

We the people, on the other hand, are far more likely to be protesting loudly against a government that is leading us into multiple wars, overseeing the destruction of civil and voting rights, and choking the economy. The volume and effectiveness of these protests will increase at least into mid-April.

There’s a Mars-Jupiter trine that can be helpful — sort of. It tends to kick Martian issues into overdrive. This would include the military (Mars) and homeland security (Cancer). Jupiter brings legal, philosophical, and religious issues into the picture and, in its usual way, tends to make whatever it touches expand.

People are going to be more than willing to fight for what they desire and believe in. Safety is one strongly felt desire. The acquisition of power is another.

But Martian issues also include feats of courage and athletic skill as well as the launching of new projects. I expect to see all of these things in the news as well.

Women and the issues that affect them, such as the SAVE Act, are highlighted in this chart. With both Moon and Venus conjunct in Aries, the likelihood of conflict over women’s rights is high.

(When considering both the citizenry and women’s rights, keep in mind the recent solar eclipse in Aquarius, which had the eclipse conjunct and Uranus square the Sibly Moon, and Saturn and Neptune square Sibly Venus.)

And I will repeat, once again, that the fascists and oligarchs will not win the fight for America, and, while there will be violence and destruction, that fight will not be won on a battlefield. It will be won in the court of public opinion and the coordinated actions of citizens demanding change while creating social structures and governments that ensure everyone has at least the bare minimum of food, clothing, shelter, and the freedom to grow and create.

In other words, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Because we cannot have a dynamic, creative, peaceful society if any citizens are starving or ill or being denied basic human rights. We can’t bomb peace into existence.

There’s more than enough to go around if we use our brains and hearts. (And AI doesn’t have a heart. Keep that in mind.) No one has to starve. We just need to get organized and some of us need to stop being so greedy, grasping, and selfish.

If we can get some substantial percentage of us to agree on a few basic ethics — they’re not hard to find, our foundational documents have some good ideas — then we have a chance to rebuild our country into a place of peace and freedom.

Yes, yes, I know some of you are thinking that what I just wrote is remarkably naive and Pollyanna-ish. That it would require an almost unthinkably profound shift in human consciousness. And I tell you that shift is already in progress. The only real question we need to ask ourselves is whether to ride the wave of change or get tumbled by it.

They Can Run, But They Can’t Hide

The change will start with Truth. Corruption and depravity will be exposed and the shock will get a lot of people thinking about their spiritual beliefs and the health of their souls instead of their bank accounts.

There will be a spiritual awakening. Not the religious kind — this awakening can be packaged in many different religions or no religion at all. It’s an awakening to a wider reality of Consciousness in which we live and create.

There are lots of powerful aspects coming up over the spring and summer and I can’t go into all of them here. But I publish a post on the New Moon every month, and often on the Full Moon as well, so if you are subscribed, you’ll get all the details.

I’ve been able to keep my posts here free, but if you’re inclined to support my work with a paid subscription, I deeply appreciate it.

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Blessings of the season to you,

We’re approaching the Spring Equinox, so, as promised, here is the next installment in my year-long series of posts on the 8 Sabbats. These posts are chapters excerpted from my book Touch the Earth, Kiss the Sky. You can read the introduction to the book here, and find other excerpts from the book (which is now out of print) here.

This is, of course, the Autumn Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere. But the Sun is still in Aries no matter where you are on Earth, and the Aries energy of inception and rebirth still holds, even when Nature is folding itself into the mystery of death. It has been said — and I agree — that death is a rebirth into another dimension. The remarkable experiences of mystics and near-death experiencers support this idea. So if you are celebrating Autumn right now, find ways of incorporating Aries energy into your seasonal celebrations.

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, the Aries energy is erupting from the land and its inhabitants. Plants and trees and animals are growing, flowering and reproducing with enthusiasm. But even as life returns, the cold of Winter is still with us — as the frost-blighted blossoms on my cherry tree attest.

No matter which hemisphere you are in this is a time of fleeting balance tipping into change. The equinoxes do not have the meditative stillness of the solstices. They are the energy of change manifest. Flow into that energy, and carry your vision of the future with you to be enlivened and born.

Blessings of the season to you,

Ostara—The Spring Equinox

As the Sun waxes and the weather warms moving into spring, we’ll look at how we can connect our spiritual path to our everyday life. The Spring Equinox—a.k.a. Ostara, Lady Day, Alban Eilir—is a time when day and night are of equal length, buds are swelling on trees, and seeds are stirring in the ground. It’s a time to plant—magically as well as physically. Nature has its own magic, and you can draw on it to enhance your personal magical intentions and rituals. How do you do this? Let’s first consider what Nature is—the planet and the life that it engendered.

Earth—the planet itself—is not inert. It has an inner core of mostly iron that is the same temperature as the Sun’s surface, and a fiery, liquid outer core of nickel and iron. Above that is the rocky mantle, and finally, the crust, the surface of the planet.

Our planet also is graced with rivers and oceans and an atmosphere with its accompanying winds and storms. You can find most of these things—or traces of them—on other planets in our solar system. But somehow, what we call life sprang into being on this planet and no other. We have some idea of how this may have happened—primordial soup, single cells to multi-cellular beings, crawling out of the ocean up on the land. Structures developing—fin, leaf, bone, root, fur, and feather, etc. The slow, inevitable, creative process of evolution. If Consciousness is the ground of all reality, then life must be one of its most complex creative endeavors.

Now, keep in mind that this is not an argument for so-called “intelligent design,” which postulates an external creator (“God”) that directs natural processes in line with its (usually referred to as “His”) desired outcome. Consciousness is not external to what it creates. It is inherent in every atom and cell, in the natural processes of evolution. It connects us all in a web of life, death, and rebirth.

We sense this connection when we stand in awe of a sunrise, hug a child, walk in the woods, help a friend, or fall in love. We feel it also when we face a friend’s death, see a child cry, view the trashed remains of trees on a clear-cut hillside, or realize we have inadvertently hurt someone we love. But whether we sense it or not, that connection is always there. Learning how we can make the most of our lives on this amazing planet, how we can develop our own powers of creation to shift and change the world around us, is the work of science and also of magic.

Becoming more sensitive to the subtle energies I discussed in the last chapter is an important step in spiritual and magical development because it not only enhances awareness of that connection but allows us to draw on the energies of the natural world to strengthen and propel our magic into manifestation.

Recall that energy is defined as “the ability to do work.” The original work of this world is the work that transforms Consciousness into physical reality. This happens in a liminal space that we are only beginning to understand scientifically but we are still connected to through every atom of our being. Learning to use that connection with insight and skill allows us to influence what we experience in our lives. We call that influence magic. It may seem utterly impossible that anointing a candle of a specific color with an oil made from certain herbs and burning it can have any effect on whether or not you get a job or a lover or sell your house. But recall the discussion of subtle energies and resonance. What these spells are doing is increasing the resonance of the desired outcome in your mind, in your aura, and so in the world around you. The herbs, the candle, the flame, and your mind all come into the resonant frequency of that subtle energy of Consciousness that becomes our reality.

Whether or not you hit the exact right frequency that shifts and changes other frequencies that work for or against your outcome, depends, to a great extent, on your skill as a magician. So let’s look at the next steps you can take in developing that skill during this time when the burgeoning energy of life is so close to the surface, so easy to sense and access.

——| TOUCH THE EARTH |——

Setting Up an Altar

Set up an altar. Ideally, you’ve read one or two of the books mentioned in the last chapter, but you don’t need to get fancy here. Just find a place that can be a physical focus for your spiritual work and put some things on it that are meaningful to you. I like to change the items on my altar with each Sabbat— the color of the cloth and candles, the bowl, candle holders and other accoutrements, and some seasonal plant—flowers, leaves, fruits, and in winter, bare branches painted white scattered with a bit of biodegradable (not plastic!) silver glitter. (If you’re harvesting from a living plant, do so with care and consideration for the plant and the local ecology.) Set your altar up in any way that works for you with your own personal symbolism.

Sensing Subtle Energy

Practice sensing subtle energy. Many of the books in the resources section of the last chapter have training exercises (and there are more in the next chapter about human energy fields specifically), but here’s a simple one to get you started:

• Sit comfortably, take a few deep breaths, and settle your mind into the present moment.

• Rub your hands together briskly for fifteen to thirty seconds.

• Hold your hands in front of you, elbows bent, palms facing each other.

• Bring your hands as close together as you can without touching, paying close attention to any sensations in your hands. Don’t worry about whether or not you are “imagining” it. Just allow yourself to feel.

• Going very slowly, separate your hands about a foot apart. Pay attention to the sensations in your palms.

• Repeat several times.

If you don’t feel anything at first, keep trying. Do a little bit every day. Eventually, you’ll sense the energy, probably as heat, or tingling, or pressure in your palms. Eventually you’ll form a ball of energy that you can clearly sense. When you’re finished with your practice, move the ball of energy in front of your heart and fill it with as much love and/or other positive emotion as you can muster. Then fling both hands outward and release it to the universe.

You can also practice by trying to sense the energy of a space. Any space has its own energy which is affected by a number of factors —geography, construction materials, history and hauntings, and the people in or very near it, to name just a few. I expect that most of you understand what I’m conveying here because you’ve experienced it. A helpful exercise is to take the time to explore and invite those experiences. Here are some ideas (practice them both at home and away from home):

• Pause before a closed door. Come into the present moment. Sense any thoughts or emotions that come up as you face the door. Imagine your awareness extending past the door. What do you sense about the energy of the people and the space on the other side of the door?

• Do this again once you have walked through the door and are actually in the space.

• Go out into Nature (even if it’s just a small city park) and sit quietly, allowing your awareness to be fully in the present moment. Can you sense the energy of individual trees, plants, animals? How is the energy of this space different from your home, from your office, from a store in a shopping mall?

• Do some things to change the energy of a space you have some control over. If you have roommates, office mates, or family that will play along with you, even better. Physically cleaning, lighting candles, doing meditation in the space, singing or chanting, burning incense—try some or all of these techniques, and note the changes you sense. I especially recommend the books on space clearing in chapter 6.

The key here is not to get discouraged. In the same way that you have to develop an ear for different instruments and arrangements in music, an eye for composition and brushstroke in painting, a palate that can distinguish the subtle flavors of wine or whiskey, so your psychic senses will develop slowly and with experience.

Experiencing Ritual

Attend some rituals. They can be church services, Pagan circles, or even political rallies or sports events. Not all rituals are spiritually oriented, but they all shift energy.

If possible, get there a little early so you can get a sense of the space before a lot of people get there. Try to tune in, to sense the resonance of the space as the participants arrive and take their places. Note how the energy changes as the ritual progresses, how it is affected by the people who are participating, and how it affects them—including yourself, of course. (Don’t think you can be a detached observer. Just by being there, you affect the energy of the ritual.)

Sense how the energy of the ritual winds down, and note if it is actively shut down, as it generally will be in a Pagan circle. Usually, it simply dissipates as people leave. If possible, talk to some of the participants afterward and ask them how they felt their own mood or energy change during the ritual.

When you get home, write in your journal about your experiences. In this kind of work it’s important to trust your instincts. Don’t worry about whether or not you got it “right.” Just write down what you sensed or think you sensed. It can be helpful to have a friend or a group of friends who share your interest in this work go to these rituals with you so you can compare notes.

Spellwork

Now it’s time to try an actual spell! Find a way to grow a plant from seed over the summer. A pot on a sunny balcony or window is fine. If you have no way of putting a pot in sunlight, a plant light is OK too. Marigolds or basil are both good choices—especially basil if you can only grow indoors in a window or under a light. Do a bit of research on how to properly plant the seeds and grow whatever plant you choose and go shopping for whatever supplies you need—seeds, pot, soil, etc.

Decide on something you want to grow and expand in your life, something you are ready to put some energy into, something that you plan to take action to create. Prepare the pot with soil and a saucer. Wet the soil in the pot in advance of the ritual and give it an hour or so to drain. You’ll be adding a bit more water during the spell.

Prepare your altar with a candle, some incense, and a small pitcher of water (you won’t need much since you already dampened the soil). Dump the seeds out of the packet into a small bowl or saucer. You’ll also need a small piece of paper (around 3 inches x 3 inches), a pen, and a small stick, like a popsicle stick or skewer. The pot with the dampened soil should also be on the altar with the saucer underneath it.

Light a candle and perhaps some incense to help you ground and center. Settle in. Bring yourself fully into the present moment and let your worries and cares drop away.

Think about the thing you want to grow and how it will change your life. Flesh out this dream in your mind. How does your daily life change in this dream? How will it feel when you wake up in the morning and the dream has come true? Don’t think about the “how.” Yes, you’ll need to plan and take specific actions, but planning is for another time. Now you just want to focus on the results you want and how you will feel when you’ve achieved them. Write or draw what you want on the piece of paper—just a sentence or two, or a symbol, not a detailed report. Fold the paper toward you, then turn it 90 degrees and fold it again. Do that one more time if possible. Bury it in the pot, using the stick to poke it down into the soil, then level out the soil over it.

Next, take the bowl of seeds and hold it between your hands for a minute as you open yourself to sensing the life energy contained within the seeds. (Don’t get all in your head about this. Just see what thoughts and feelings arise as you focus on the seeds.) Then, carefully and with your full attention, pick one seed. Just one.

Put the seed in the palm of one hand and cover it with the other. Spend a few minutes imbuing the seed with the energy of your dream, of your goal. Focus on your dream and let the energy flow from your gut, your heart, and your head through your hands into the seed. When it feels like you’ve done that long enough (trust your instincts!), plant the seed carefully at the appropriate depth (check the seed packet) and press the soil down.

Then take the pitcher of water, hold it between your hands, and bless it with the energy of your dream. Water the seed in with some of the blessed water (not too much!) and put it where it can grow. Once it germinates and begins to grow, you’ll need to either pot it up into larger pots or plant it outdoors. Make sure all the soil goes with it! This little spell serves to magically energize your goal, but also gives you a way of assessing what’s going on.

Does the seed fail to germinate? Ask yourself what’s needed to energize your goal or if you have enough knowledge about how to achieve your dream. Also consider if this is something you really want. Sometimes we think we want something that is really what others in our lives want for us.

Is your desire coming from your own soul or are you trying to fulfill your parents’ or spouse’s expectations of you? I said to pick only one seed for this reason. Whether or not that single seed germinates gives you clear guidance as to whether you’re on to something or need to do more foundational work and research.

Does the seed germinate but the little plant dies soon after? Ask yourself what resources your goal needs that you may not have planned for. Does the plant grow well but not flower? Perhaps the timing is right for working on your goal but not right for your plans to come to fruition. Or you may need more input of some kind for your plans to bear fruit. You can look for more insight into the issues involved through meditation and divination. If you aren’t experienced with divination (or even if you are but feel too emotionally attached to the issue to be objective), then get a reading from a reputable professional. Ask friends or check with your local metaphysical store for recommendations. These days, a lot of good diviners work online. If the plant survives and flowers, chances are good that your plans are moving ahead. Each time you care for the plant as it grows, you are adding magical energy to your goal. Once the plant flowers, let the flowers go to seed. Collect the seed and use them in magical talismans (more on those later in the book) and/or save some to plant next year.

Daily Work

Finally, start some kind of daily spiritual practice over these next six weeks. Let’s consider what that might look like in the Kiss the Sky section.

——| KISS THE SKY |——

Spiritual Practice

Spring is a good time to review your daily habits and think about how you want to change them. If you can do this while you are outside in Nature, so much the better! Then when you get back home, pull out your journal and put your ideas and resolutions on paper. You’ll be much more likely to follow up if you do that.

What should your daily practice be? I’d suggest reading one or two of the books I recommend at the end of this chapter, but at the least, I’d suggest a few minutes of meditation, grounding and centering, and some time spent tuning in to and improving the health of your physical body.

Don’t beat yourself up over missing a day, a few days, or even an extended period of time. Self-shaming and blaming are self-destructive and entirely counter-productive to the intent of a daily spiritual practice. I used to do that a lot, so I speak from experience. I have an agile and restless mind that demands variety. I dislike doing the same thing at the same time of day every day. And yet even I recognize the value of repetition, of scheduling, and of some kind of daily spiritual work or play.

I noticed I did always manage to have my morning cup of coffee, usually first thing, but not always. So I started to explore my resistance to daily practice by watching what I enjoyed doing. Coffee-making was invariably accompanied by some of the usual little household rituals—emptying the dishwasher, opening blinds, etc. Hmmm … this is repetitive, but I don’t resist it, I thought. So I began to tie my daily writing practice to drinking my coffee. I’d take the sacred beverage back to bed with my laptop and write pretty much every morning. That’s why you’re reading this book. Yes, sometimes I read instead. That’s OK.

Meditation and Yoga follow coffee—most of the time. Some days, if I get up earlier, I meditate, work a bit of magic at my altar, and/or do Yoga first.

If I don’t get things done in the morning, I try to fit them in later. But I do manage to meditate, exercise, and write at least four or five days a week, and I consider that enough, if not ideal. I used to admonish myself for skipped days. No longer. Skipped days are just part of my process and the cycles of my life. Now I tend to simply fit things in when and where I can, not berating myself or worrying if I don’t do everything exactly right, particularly if things are going along reasonably well in my life and I don’t see any clouds on the horizon astrologically.

Yes, self-discipline is necessary, but we should not become rigid. We need to learn to listen to our souls. Often, on those days when I don’t do what I “should” do, I end up doing something else that I only realize later was what I really needed—perhaps an extra hour of sleep, or reading another chapter in a book that gave me the inspiration I needed to make the day go right. I suggest approaching a daily practice as a work in progress.

Find what works for you, and then keep adjusting it as needed. Pay attention to your desires and urges to do or not do something. Where do they originate? Eventually, it will become easier to differentiate between messages from your soul and habitual self-indulgent or self-punishing behaviors that are sourced in negative beliefs and ideas.

Finding the Four Directions

At Spring Equinox, Sun rises directly in the east. What marks that spot where you live? Stand facing east and stretch your arms directly out to your sides. Your right hand is pointing south. Your left hand is pointing north. West is directly behind you. The equal-armed cross is an ancient symbol of manifestation. Consider, as you stand at the center of the cross of the four cardinal directions, that you stand in a magical place, a place of creation, a place of magical power. We’ll be working with the four cardinal directions—and a few others—later in the book. For now, spend some time orienting yourself as you go through your day. Where is Sun in the sky? What direction are you moving in? Practicing magic in concert with Nature requires both knowledge and experience of your immediate environment. This practice will help get you oriented and prepare you for working with the elements through the four directions.

Learning Your Local Ecology

Spend some time thinking and learning about the complex interactions that create and sustain life on this planet. This may involve trips to the library to check out some books on subjects like geology, ecology, weather, marine life, or botany. As you study, keep in mind the phrase “think globally, act locally.” You’ll want to have a broad understanding of global ecology and how changes in one area of the planet affects other areas. That knowledge can strengthen your magic. But the strongest magic of Nature that is available to you is local, so be sure to spend some time learning about your local geology and ecology.

As you explore Nature, it’s important to remember that Nature is not just outside of you. You are part of Nature too, and your body is a powerful magical tool. Let’s look at that in the next chapter.

Resources

Kerri Connor, Ostara: Rituals, Recipes & Lore for the Spring Equinox (St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 2015).

Ellen Dugan, Garden Witchery: Magick from the Ground Up (St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 2013).

Rupert Sheldrake, Science and Spiritual Practices: Transformative Experiences and Their Effects on Our Bodies, Brains, and Health (Berkeley: Counterpoint Press, 2018).

Caroline Myss, Ph.D., Spiritual Power, Spiritual Practice: Energy Evaluation Meditations for Morning and Evening Audiobook (Boulder: Sounds True, 1999).

Gabrielle Roth, Sweat Your Prayers: The Five Rhythms of the Soul—Movement as Spiritual Practice (New York: Tarcher, 2002).

Tom Cowan, Shamanism as a Spiritual Practice for Daily Life (Berkeley: Crossing Press, 2014).

Ernest Callenbach, Ecology: A Pocket Guide (Oakland: University of California Press, 2008).

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Spiritual Ecology: 10 Practices to Reawaken the Sacred in Everyday Life (Point Reyes Station: Golden Sufi Center, 2017).

Ellen Moyer, Our Earth, Our Species, Our Selves: How to Thrive While Creating a Sustainable World (Montgomery: Greenvironment Press, 2016).

Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture (Berkeley: Counterpoint Press, 2015).

The Cooperative Extension Service, a subset of the US Department of Agriculture, is a tremendous resource for education about agriculture and natural resources. Go to https://nifa.usda.gov/extension to find your local extension service.

“When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.”
From The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry

The Pisces New Moon on March 18^th/19^th (depending which side of the Atlantic you’re on) happens just a day and a half before the Aries Ingress (Spring Equinox) on the 20^th.

New Moon charts are in play for a month, but the charts of the Solstices and Equinoxes (Cardinal Ingress charts) are in play for much longer — at least three months. Traditionally, the Aries Ingress chart has something to say about the entire year.

So this post will be quickly followed by (the gods willing and the creek don’t rise) one on the Spring Equinox chart. Here I’ll focus on what guidance the New Moon has to offer us as individuals, and save the geopolitics and culture for the Equinox chart.

This month will feature deep, intense feelings, and it will be a challenge to protect our mental health without shutting down emotionally, to nurture our ability to feel empathy, and to connect, help, and work with others in whatever way we can.

Perhaps easier said than done. The pressures of survival in a chaotic world can make empathy and compassion seem elusive unless we actively work to strengthen and protect our emotional health.

But we may be a little short on opportunities to sit and meditate on emotional realities this month. There will be a lot going on we’ll need to deal with, including big lessons in learning to manage and respond to anger, and also a tendency to give up and fall into despair.

The chart has a lot to tell us about how we can best manage that energy. But first, a few paragraphs for the astrologers. If you don’t speak the language of astrology, skip over the italics.

(Astrologers: Cast the chart for March 18, 9:23 pm, EDT, in Washington, D.C. You can cast it for your country’s capital or other location, but be careful with the time zones. Remember, Sun and Moon must be exactly conjunct. If they aren’t, your time is off.

The NM is at 28°27’ Pisces, conjunct its evolutionary ruler (I prefer that term to “modern” ruler), Neptune, which is just over the sign line in Aries. Pisces’ traditional ruler, Jupiter, is just picking up speed from its station in Cancer, and still tightly square Venus in Aries. That aspect perfected only hours before.

Saturn is also in Aries, still well within orb of its conjunction to Neptune. Dwarf planet Eris and centaur Chiron are within hours of perfecting their conjunction at 25° Aries. Now, with all of this action in Aries, we need to take a look at Mars.

Mars is in a separating but still close conjunction with Mercury and the North Node, and in an approaching trine to Jupiter. Mars in Pisces often indicates sacrifice of one kind or another, and the very close Mercury-North Node conjunction in this chart suggests that there will be a lot of reevaluating of the way forward going on. Note that Mercury is almost at its direct station.)

I used to get annoyed, but these days I’m more amused when a traditional (Hellenistic/medieval) astrologer refers disparagingly to “psychological” astrology — a.k.a. modern astrology. Human actions are created directly from human psychology, and the more we understand about human minds, thought processes, and emotions, the better we are equipped to understand, predict, and create changes in ourselves and in our world.

This month, make a point of becoming more aware of your emotional states and how your thought patterns affect them. Yes, emotions often bubble up unbidden from our subconscious, but that doesn’t mean we can’t shift them by consciously shifting our thoughts and recalling emotional memories. It’s possible that you may find yourself falling easily into anger and/or despair — two emotions that are very present in the zeitgeist at the moment.

Anger is a great red flag. It’s also one hell of a motivator and can be, in a way, an antidote to despair. When it erupts within us we know something needs to be done, something needs to change. It’s a valid, useful emotion that also can be overwhelming and destructive.

Doing the inner work that will help us consistently respond to anger in a healthy way is important, but since we may not have time for the kind of in-depth inner work that requires right now, here are a few things to keep in mind when you find yourself grappling with anger in the moment.

• Stop. Breathe. Don’t respond by lashing out. It’s rarely necessary to express anger immediately, if at all. Try to de-escalate the situation you’re in and process your feelings later.

• Focus on defining your desired outcome to the situation. Forcing yourself to look at it logically will help keep you from becoming overwhelmed by your feelings and saying or doing things you’ll regret.

• Figure out what constructive actions you can take to reach that outcome. If there are none, then try taking a walk or doing some kind of exercise to help release the physical effects of anger. That will make it easier to process and release the emotion.

If you find yourself the focus of someone else’s anger:

• Breathe. The energy of anger is strong, and will impinge on your personal aura. A few deep breaths will help you ground the incoming energy so you can respond calmly instead of reacting with your own anger. If you develop a daily practice of psychic cleansing and shielding, a protective response will become automatic.

• Decide if the anger directed at you is justified. If it is, decide whether to step up, apologize, and do what you can to make amends now, or wait until the other person has calmed down. If it’s not justified, or simply mis-directed, remember that anger often covers up for deep grief, fear, and/or trauma, and try to temper your response with compassion.

• It’s OK to just walk away. If you know the other person and want to keep the relationship, state that you are willing to discuss it later, when they’ve calmed down. Anger is often expressed in ways that are emotionally and energetically punishing. Simply removing yourself from the situation may be the best response.

***NOTE: If you are in an abusive relationship, you need help and support. Call Safe Horizon at 1-800-621-4673 (HOPE) or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE).

With Neptune and Saturn traveling through Aries for some time to come, we’ll be learning a lot about anger — its uses, its consequences, and ways of healing it. If controlling anger is an issue for you, you also need help and support. You can find that through counseling, support groups, and/or by reading. There are resources here. A couple of books I can recommend are Anger by Thich Nhat Hahn and The Dance of Anger by Harriet Lerner.

(Astrologers: Mars in Pisces and Neptune in Aries suggest that subconscious, repressed anger is likely to surface. Mars’ trine to Jupiter in Cancer, the spiritual bent of Pisces, and the renewal suggested by a New Moon sextile Uranus can help with healing, but we’re dealing with a lot of volatile emotions and Jupiter has a tendency to blow things out of proportion even with a trine. Its square with Venus does not bode particularly well for diplomatic solutions or social harmony. The chart is also noticeably lacking in Air, with Pluto the only planet in that element. Mercury is retrograde and in Pisces. Logic and clear communication will be needed, but hard to find.)

When anger is catalyzed by despair it forms a toxic brew that often manifests in destructive acting out and a painful sense of victimhood that strips us of personal power. It’s fairly easy to fall into despair when the world is on the precipice of a global riot (what’s going on is not organized enough to be called a World War), and more than a few people are struggling with it these days.

If you are feeling despair, reach out for help. Counseling is one option, and you can find resources here. If you are in crisis or suicidal, dial 988.

But in my experience, the best option for long-term healing of despair is at the least an openness to the possibility of spiritual realities. A belief in strict materialism — the physical body is the entirety of the self, and there is no survival of consciousness after death — does not offer a great deal of hope for the future if one follows that belief to its logical conclusions.

Though from what I’ve seen, most people have had at least one experience that cannot be accounted for by anything other than a reality that exists beyond our time-and-space bound world. They may ignore it, repress it, forget it, explain it away somehow, but an experience like that imprints itself on the soul and does not go away.

The best antidote to despair is spiritual vision. That vision is reliably accessed through spiritual practice. If you already have a spiritual practice, great. Are you practicing regularly? Does it need to be changed up or modified in any way? Has the work you’ve done given you an expanded vision of reality that helps you know and feel and deeply understand that evolution into a better world is possible?

Beliefs, knowledge, and practice are important and will keep you going through hard times. But the result of that practice should be evolution into a wider awareness of reality that encompasses non-physical consciousnesses — including our own Greater Self.

Ask your Greater Self, and/or Deities, Ancestors, and other helping Spirits for guidance in accessing spiritual awareness and walking your own spiritual path. Even if you are a strict materialist, just pretend for a moment that there is some larger Consciousness out there, and ask for insights into the true nature of the universe.

But you have to ask. Beneficent spirits will only rarely intercede in our lives without being invited. That’s because we are here to learn to be creators ourselves. We are not the puppets of a celestial puppetmaster. Our future is not predestined. We are beings who have creative agency in our world and our evolution depends on how we consciously use that agency to create our collective future.

Your spiritual practice is important, and not just for you. Every one of us participates in the creative Consciousness that manifests as our physical reality. How we show up in the world affects others, affects the zeitgeist, and if we invite spiritual powers to work with us, our individual effects can be multiplied exponentially.

Taking action in response to a vision can lift despair and transform anger into useable energy. This New Moon offers spiritual inspiration and insights into what is possible. Go ahead and take it up on the offer.

Also, take Wendell Berry’s advice, and spend some time in nature. Nature can heal us on levels that are simply not accessible to other forms of healing.

OK, that’s it for this post. The Spring Equinox chart is next, and it has a lot to say about the admittedly challenging global future. But esteemed astrologer André Barbault believed a powerful aspect that is perfecting this summer will bring “a splendid relaunch of civilization”, and we can see those possibilities unfolding as well. Stay tuned.

We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims ~ R. Buckminster Fuller

This lunar eclipse in Virgo spotlights the need to balance visions and dreams with practical actions taken to bring those visions into reality.

I’ll get into whether World War III is imminent and other big picture questions below, but first let’s consider how this sky might play out in our personal lives. Keep in mind that an eclipse chart is in play for months, not weeks.

When Pisces is prominent in a chart, as it is in this one, we need to learn how to go with the flow without getting swept away in waves of confusion, uncertainty, and overwhelm, which is particularly easy to do now given the current state of the world.

Imagination, art, spirituality, and compassion are some of Pisces’ finest manifestations. Confusion, deception, addiction, and victimhood are all part of its shadow side.

Virgo, the sign opposite Pisces, offers all the tools you need to keep your life on track and steer through the flow of worldly events. Virgo is a crafter of solutions who understands how all the puzzle pieces of worldly life can fit together and serve others. Its shadow side includes perfectionism, criticism, and an inability to see the forest for the trees.

Where these signs fall in your birth chart (which pair of houses, the planets within them and the condition of the house rulers) will determine which areas of your life will be most affected by this eclipse. A consultation with an astrologer can help you figure out what’s going on and how best to handle it, but if you simply pay attention to the patterns of your life, you’ll quickly recognize where the tides of both events and emotions are flowing most strongly for you.

The best way to keep from getting swept away by overwhelming events is to have a solid spiritual belief system and practice. There is no single religion or spiritual path that has all the answers (we really are like the 5 blind men and the elephant when it comes to understanding the nature of reality), but if you open your mind, follow your heart, and listen to the whispers from your soul, you will find one that works for you. Then you’ll have access to more expanded states of consciousness in the form of deities, helping spirits, ancestors, angels, and other beings whose existence and perspectives extend far beyond our physical reality, bounded as it is by time and space.

As you steer through the months ahead, stay open to spiritual guidance in all the different ways it can appear — in meditation, prayer, synchronicities, spontaneous understanding, inspirational conversations, and/or significant dreams. Then apply that guidance in very practical ways to your everyday life. You may get lots of guidance, but the decisions whether and how to act on it (or not) are yours to make.

Allow your creative imagination free rein, and nurture a vision of what changes you want to see in the world around you. Then make a plan, gather with others, and do what is needed to build a future that makes that vision real.

A few words for the astrologers, then a look at what’s going on in this crazy world. If you aren’t interested in the technical details, skip over the italics.

(Astrologers: Cast the chart for March 3, 6:38 AM EST, Washington, DC (or adjust the time for your preferred location). This is a full lunar south node eclipse at 12°53’ Virgo/Pisces.

We have quite the lineup in Pisces. Mars at 0° is already within orb of a conjunction to the North Node at 8° which is conjunct the Sun at 12°, which is conjunct Mercury at 20° then Venus at 26°. Jump over the sign line, and we have Neptune and Saturn in Aries.

If you use Neptune as the ruler of Pisces, note the mutual reception between Mars and Neptune. If you use Jupiter as the ruler, it is retrograde but in the sign of its exaltation, and trine the Sun and Mercury. That’s the good news, but don’t break out the champagne yet.

Now look at Mercury, ruler of the eclipse, retrograde, in the sign of its detriment/fall and combust. It is also semi-square Pluto. The trine to Jupiter helps…a little. But The Trickster is not happy.

Venus, exalted in Pisces, is sextile Uranus, approaching the Aries Point and its conjunction with Saturn and Neptune.

Mars is still within orb of its square to Uranus, and it’s not very comfortable in Pisces. It’s hard to fight the ocean. It’s hard to fight the fog. But it rules Saturn and Neptune (still well within orb of their conjunction) as well as Chiron and dwarf planets Eris and Ceres, all conjunct in the later degrees of Aries).

On the National Stage

“Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living”. ~ General Omar N. Bradley

Of course everyone wants to know if Trump and Netanyahu’s “major combat operations” in Iran mean we are headed into World War III. It’s certainly possible — the current astrology has an eerie resemblance to the astrology of the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and the USA’s involvement in World War II.

But what the future looks like to me is more of a global riot with soldiers and bombs than any kind of coordinated effort with defined coalitions as there were in World War I and II.

Already we have the war in Ukraine, the war between Pakistan and Afghanistan, China’s threats to invade Taiwan, Trump’s decision to use our military to bomb supposed “drug boats” and create regime change in Venezuela (and that ain’t over, folks). Let’s not forget Cuba. And, of course, the Israel-Iran conflict, now in partnership with the USA, spreading throughout the Middle East.

To add to the confusion, we have the war between the Mexican government and the cartels, the fact that Canada is surveilling the US/Canada border using the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and drones, Trump’s threats to annex Greenland “the hard way”, and the fact that the NATO alliance has fractured, with the USA on one side and the rest of the coalition on the other.

Unfortunately, I think something resembling a civil war is likely here in the USA, though it hopefully will be more restrained and over sooner than the first one. And I stand by my oft-repeated insistence that the citizens of the United States of America will never fully bow to an authoritarian government. Whether or not the states stay united remains to be seen.

A less obvious but equally dangerous threat to our democratic government is the dissolution of the barriers between government and corporate interests, with AI technology linking government with the profit-seekers. The plan seems to be to ultimately make government a “service” provided by billionaire tech bros and their AI businesses in exchange for a goodly share of our tax dollars and the elimination of our privacy. If you’ve never read Orwell’s “1984”, you might want to check it out.

Our economic situation is not healthy and is likely to worsen soon due not only to wars and governmental incompetence, but also because of what I see as the elephant in the room. The thing that is blindingly obvious but not acknowledged. Nature. The climate. The health of our planet. I think this will be our biggest challenge in the decades to come. I suspect we’ll see a truly spectacular demonstration of the problems we are facing sometime this year. I’ve been writing a post on this, which I hope to publish by Earth Day, if not sooner.

No question we have a fight ahead of us to build a better world, but I’m certain that we will. Change is coming, and it’s coming with a major shift in human consciousness. That shift will allow us to create a civilization that is equitable and allows all its citizens to live in freedom with basic life needs met while in pursuit of happiness.

Stay strong. The next few years may be difficult and chaotic, but they are also filled with opportunities. That light at the end of the tunnel is not a train.

Bright blessings,

“Peace is not a trophy we find at the end of 2,300 miles; it is the path we cultivate under our feet with every breath and every step.”
~Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara

In many ways the monk’s Walk for Peace was exactly what many of us needed right now. It was a reminder of the need for spiritual vision during difficult times, the importance of courage and mental discipline on the spiritual journey, and the deep human capacity to care for others.

It was a brilliant reflection, too, of the Saturn-Neptune conjunction at 0° of Aries that astrologers have been discussing at length for the past year. That conjunction becomes exact on February 20^th, only three days after this somewhat earthshaking eclipse.

Taking the lessons the monks have demonstrated to heart will help us find our own path through the challenging times ahead and offer our unique gifts to the new civilization that is being born.

I’ll look at what these planetary patterns herald, but first let’s get the technical stuff out of the way. If that doesn’t interest you, skip over the italics.

(Astrologers: Cast the chart of the solar eclipse for February 17, 7:01 a.m. EST. Adjust for your location.

The chart has only a few aspects, but they are major ones. The eclipse itself is at 28°49’ Aquarius, ruled by Saturn, in a close but separating square to co-ruler Uranus, and a close approaching sesqui-quadrate to Jupiter. It is a North Node eclipse, with Venus in a close approaching conjunction to the North Node.

Mars is also in Aquarius, in a wide but approaching square to Uranus. It is in mutual reception with Saturn, and rules the Saturn-Neptune conjunction. That conjunction will perfect on the 20^th. Mars also rules dwarf planets Ceres and Eris, and centaur Chiron, all three conjunct in the last decan of Aries.

Jupiter is in a close separating trine to Mercury, and a wide approaching trine to Venus.

The Saturn-Neptune conjunction is the start of a new ~36-year cycle happening at the beginning of the Zodiac, and eclipses are known for triggering endings and beginnings. I expect considerable upheaval and change leading to new beginnings in the months ahead.

Watch the end of the month. On the 27^th, that Mars-Uranus square reaches partile, the Sun is partile conjunct the North Node, and Mercury Rx and Venus reach conjunction at 22° Pisces, widely trine an exalted Jupiter Rx in Cancer. Jupiter rules Pisces. Venus is exalted in Pisces. So there may be a great deal of confusion and disruption, but there will be silver linings as well.

Keep in mind as you interpret this chart that eclipse charts are active for months, not weeks. Exactly how long is a point of contention, but you can safely assume at least until the next solar eclipse.)

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” ~Albert Camus

Your spiritual foundations, mental strength, and emotional control will be tested in the months ahead. Hopefully you’ve been working on all three of those things, particularly over the past year. But if not, now’s the time to do whatever is necessary to strengthen your inner world in order to effectively direct and manage changes that will be happening in the outer world.

What does freedom mean to you? You might want to give some thought to that because the concept is going to be front and center in our lives. How it will show up in our personal lives will differ in both form and intensity depending on individual birth charts, but on the larger stages of communities, governments, and business we’ll be seeing battles fought around authority and independence in meeting rooms, boardrooms, the halls of government, and in the streets.

While there are multiple obstacles to freedom in the outer world, some of the most serious obstacles to personal freedom lie within our own minds and hearts. Most of those obstacles are constructed out of fear. Some of those fears are warranted, many are sourced in illusions and self-doubt.

Sorting out what we are afraid of and why is a necessary first step in finding our own freedom. This is a life-long process that demands self-awareness, courage, and a willingness to change. But being free from fear is so life-changing that it is worth the effort. (I wrote more about dealing with fear in this post.)

“One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words, it is expressed in the choices one makes…and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt

True freedom involves discerning which responsibilities are ours and willingly taking those on - but no others. It also involves understanding that structures — physical or mental — can either impede or support individual freedoms. (This is why Saturn is the ruler of Aquarius.)

It’s a good time to take a close look at the responsibilities you carry and determine which ones you accept as yours, and which you need to offload onto the appropriate person (which is frequently the person or people who assigned it to you in the first place). Once you’ve consciously decided to accept a responsibility, it may still feel like work, but it no longer feels like a burden.

We do not build our civilizational structures alone. If we want to build a world — or even just one government — that grants both freedom and support to its citizens, we all need to contribute what we can. Which means accepting responsibility and learning to work together.

The weeks ahead are likely to bring lessons around group dynamics, lots of reality checks, and a pervasive sense of restlessness.

The astrology suggests that the best path through these times involves staying aware of what’s going on in the world around you, deciding how you want to respond to it, and doing the work, inner and outer, to bring your vision of the future into reality. Like the monks, choose a goal, move towards it with quiet determination, and do your best to help others along the path.

On the National Stage

“It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.” ~Benjamin Franklin

It is indeed, and the time is now.

The current astrology reflects increasing chaos and disruption in the USA’s government, but don’t lose hope. The chaos and disruption will only emphasize the underlying incompetence of this administration and hasten its fall. Authoritarianism requires order and control: they don’t seem able to implement the former, and are losing what they have of the latter.

The astrology is clear that we are going to have to rebuild our country’s government from the ground up. Unquestionably, the fall of The Tower will be painful, but we need to keep our eyes on The Star — the vision of what our country can be if/when we form a government that fully reflects the values written into our foundational Declaration.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men humans are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

250 years later, we have not yet created a government that accomplishes the difficult feat of guaranteeing those rights, but it’s a goal worth fighting for, and fights are definitely in the stars.

Here’s a big-picture overview of what’s going on astrologically for the USA.

As you know if you follow pretty much any astrologer these days, there’s a major pattern forming among the outer planets — Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto — that will be in play for the rest of the decade.

The outer planets are joined by Saturn and Jupiter this year, and the aspects being formed are powerful and evolutionary. Some of them are also rare: for instance, the Saturn-Neptune conjunction at 0° of Aries, which has been in orb for the past year and will be exact three days after this eclipse, has not happened in over 6,000 years.

The changes will be global, and many will be environmental. There will be unprecedented changes in human consciousness. The United States is unlikely to survive in its current configuration. How it re-forms will depend on the actions — or lack thereof — taken by its citizens.

(Astrologers: I’m looking at the eclipse chart alone and in a bi-wheel with the USA Sibly chart (July 4, 1776, 5:10 p.m. LMT, Philadelphia, PA). I’m also keeping in mind some of the longer-term aspects that will be forming later this year and into the next.

We are still seeing the ramifications of the recent Pluto return, exact in 2022. In my experience, Pluto transits can be very quiet at the beginning as it silently undermines what it is affecting. Then the collapse happens — sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly — after the aspect has passed.

Pluto was the first of the outer planets to change signs — it’s been in Aquarius since November of 2024. Neptune made its final entrance into Aries at the end of January this year, and Saturn joined it there on February 13^th. Uranus will make its final shift into Gemini in late April, and all four of the outermost planets — five starting in July — will be in Air or Fire signs.

The sign changes alone would portend major change, but the aspects between the planets uplevel simple reorganization into rapid and profound evolution. There are other indicators as well — Pluto’s declination, the signs involved, and Jupiter’s upcoming interactions, first with Pluto this year, then Uranus in 2027, and finally Neptune in 2028.

Note that Saturn and Neptune are approaching the IC of the Sibly chart, crossing over it for the last time. This suggests a dissolution and rebuilding of the country’s foundational structures.

The eclipse itself is on the Moon of the Sibly chart, and Uranus squares it, and semi-squares Sibly Sun. Mars will conjunct Sibly Moon at the end of the month, squaring transiting Uranus.)

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

The people of the country are in a demanding mood, and I expect expanding protests, conflict, and even violence, either by or directed against an increasingly despised government, particularly towards the end of February. I also expect to hear more from the Epstein survivors around that time, and fallout from the files to continue apace.

The presence of both Saturn and Neptune in martial Aries will bring a laser focus on and questioning of how weapons, the military, and law enforcement are used by government.

Failures of weaponry and equipment as well as accidents, particularly on the water, are likely. Reality checks (It’s a drone, it’s a plane, it’s a super-sized party balloon!) will reverberate up and down the chain of command and hasten the ongoing dissolution of the foundations of all branches of government.

The soufflé of global finance will be meeting the chill of material reality over the next two years, and environmental problems — resource depletion, pollution, climate change affecting seasonal weather and agriculture — will worsen its collapse.

Technical troubles, particularly regarding satellites, and the destruction of communication networks as a method of war will have both business and government scrambling. Not to mention the screen addicts.

It’s not a pretty picture, but coming events do bring a necessary clearing away of corruption, incompetence, and power grabs. Leaving us with all the questions of how to rebuild.

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” ~ Nelson Mandela

There are things that must be done, choices that must be made if we are to build a new civilization based on justice, integrity, and freedom. Yes, it can be done.

The astrology points unmistakably towards a recognition of communal needs and the will to build structures that support them. Think deeply about what you can contribute to this project, and connect with your local communities. Then get to work. It’s all hands on deck time.

“One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these – to be fierce and to show mercy toward others, both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.” ~Clarissa Pinkola-Estes

Shine on, my friends. Gather your courage and bring your unique light to the world.

Here’s the chapter on Imbolc from “Touch the Earth, Kiss the Sky” (previous posts from the book are here). Also, a pretty video from The Pagan Federation in the U.K. to remind you that spring is just around the next snowstorm. Hopefully.

I’m cleaning up after the recent ice storm and preparing for an upcoming snowstorm. High on my to-do list is switching my altar over to the white, red, crystal, and silver color scheme I use for the season of Imbolc. It will remind me to honor the clarity that winter brings while following the unbroken thread of life into a new season of growth.

As you’ll read below, the astronomical/astrological midpoint between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox is generally a day or two later than the traditional dates of Imbolc. This year (2026) Sun reaches 15° of Aquarius on February 3^rd.

Bright blessings of the season to you!

Imbolc—The Winter/Spring Midpoint

The days lengthen as we move from Winter Solstice toward Imbolc—the midpoint between winter and spring. We, too, begin to emerge from the darkness and the inward focus of winter to renew our contract with life. Even when we live in a big city surrounded by buildings and technology, there’s an atavistic part of us that keeps track of things like light and temperature. It draws us inward when it’s dark and cold, then gets us moving out into the world again as the light and warmth increase. Thanks to electricity, we no longer have to read by candlelight or huddle in front of a fire to stay warm, but our ancestral brain never loses its connection with the planet and still pays close attention to the changing seasons. As the light increases, we are naturally moved to engage more with the world, spend more time outdoors and with others, and prepare for the increased activity of the upcoming warm months.

The traditional date for Imbolc is February 2; the astronomical midpoint is right around February 4 (it differs slightly from year to year). The word “Imbolc” is rooted in the language of Old Irish and means “in the belly.” As with all the cross-quarter festivals, the symbolism is closely tied to agricultural realities. In this case, it’s the time of lambing, when the ewes bring forth new life from their bellies.

Let me detour here for a moment into agricultural realities. One of the criticisms people often direct toward Wicca is that it’s based in an older, agricultural way of life, and we don’t live like that anymore. But the reality is that if you are eating anything at all, your life is based in agricultural realities. You may not have to feed the chickens, weed the vegetables, pick the fruit, or milk the cows, but that is all the more reason to acknowledge the people who do and the land that supports us. OK, back to the holiday.

Another name for this holiday is Candlemas, which is my favorite, since it echoes the returning light and speaks to a small flame held through the winter and the transformative magic of fire. In a number of Pagan traditions, late winter is a time that is used for self-assessment, purification, transformation, and dedication or rededication to a spiritual path. As we prepare to engage more with the world, it’s useful to ask ourselves, “Who do I want to be in the world? Who do I want to become? What is holding me back? What commitment is required from me to become that person? What old thoughts, beliefs, and habits do I need to shed to become who I want to be?” Once we’ve answered these questions—at least for the moment—we purify ourselves of any stagnant energy that is holding us back. Then, like a snake shedding its old skin, we can face this new cycle of life renewed and transformed.

One of the ways this holiday is celebrated is by blessing the candles that will be used for ritual throughout the year. Other celebrations include revering Bridget, goddess of healing, poetry, and the sacred fires of hearth and forge, who is associated with this holiday in Irish lore. Celebrations of the returning spring are also part of this time, for the light is growing and though we may not see the signs yet, under the snow life is stirring. Sap is running in the trees, and the ewes are giving birth to lambs.

This holiday falls in the sign of Aquarius, the sign of individuality, friends, groups, and social justice. Essentially, it covers the work that must be done to build a civilization, which encompasses but is more than simply a government and infrastructure. Aquarius knows a healthy civilization is driven and sustained by agreed upon ideas and ideals that enshrine individual rights and freedom for all while enabling individuals to work together in groups for the good of all. (You may have noticed that this goal is rather difficult to enact, but Aquarius will keep trying!)

Traditionally, in Ireland, Imbolc involved trips to holy wells and the associated magic, such as clootie magic—tying a piece of cloth with your wish written on it to a tree by the well. There were also rituals of purification and blessing as well as offerings to spirits of nature and gods. In many Wiccan traditions, this is the time when rituals are done to dedicate to or initiate into a tradition or working group. It’s a good time to reaffirm your dedication to your own spiritual path and reassess your connection to any groups you’re involved with. What ways can you think of that you might celebrate this time of year? Here are some ideas.

——| KISS THE SKY |——

I’m putting the Kiss the Sky section first this time because there are some things you’ll want to ponder before you do the Touch the Earth work.

Thought-Tracking Exercise

One of the best ways to get to know both yourself and your Greater Self better is to pay more attention to your thoughts. Where do your thoughts come from? Some of them appear to be in reaction to current events, both external and internal. Some just bubble up—or erupt—into your mind. Many of those will be from your subconscious, or your unconscious. Some will be from your soul or your Greater Self. And it’s good to pay attention to all these thoughts as they arise. But it’s also possible to harness your mind and learn to direct your thoughts. This is the work of the magician, and the place to begin your training is discovering where you are right now by paying attention to your habitual thought patterns.

Start by setting an alarm for three or four different times during the day—times when you’re pretty sure you can take just a minute or two to shift your attention to this work. When the alarm rings, immediately note what you were just thinking, then trace your thoughts back as far as you can. Keep asking, “What was I thinking before that?”

As an example, let’s say you’re stuck in traffic driving from work to pick your child up at school when the alarm rings, and you’re thinking, “The traffic around here just keeps getting worse.” Before that? “Stopping at the cleaners is going to be a nightmare with all this traffic and I need to get Sally to soccer practice by 5:30.” Before that? “I wish Jim would stop talking my ear off every time I walk past his desk—he’s made me late again!”

Once you’ve identified your thoughts, take a moment to become aware of what kind of thoughts they are: Worried thoughts? Planning thoughts? Thoughts of appreciation? Are you in the moment, in the past, or in the future? Are you berating, blaming, or judging yourself or another? Then refocus your mind on the kind of thoughts you want to be having. Have a few short affirmations or prayers memorized that you can immediately call up. Think about what you are grateful for in your life, or simply bring your attention fully into the present moment (especially if you’re driving!).

Take a few aware, conscious breaths. See how long you can stay focused in the present as you bring your attention fully into the world around you. You may not be able to get more than two or three thoughts back at first, but you’ll find your recall improves with practice. You may choose to write them down immediately, later, or not at all. I suggest keeping a notebook with you, though, so you have a place to jot down anything you want to remember to write about more fully in your journal. You can also keep your affirmations and prayers written in the front or back so you can find them easily if you forget them. Try to get at least the gist of a few of your thoughts down in your journal—shoot for daily, but every few days will do. Note what you were thinking and how it aligned—or didn’t—with the kind of thoughts you want to be thinking.

After you’ve been doing this for a while, you’ll begin to see patterns and become more aware of how you use your mental energy. If you find yourself thinking a lot of blaming, judgmental, vengeful, or worried thoughts, you can be sure that you are carrying the energy of those thoughts around with you. You might want to dig a bit and see where they come from and if they are in line with the person you want to be. Ditto for thoughts of appreciation, hope, and love. You may find there are things you think about obsessively, and obsession is rarely helpful. We all learn problematic and negative patterns of thinking as we are growing up from our parents, teachers, friends, and other authority figures.

Whether your thoughts are currently helpful or problematic, don’t blame yourself or pat yourself on the back—just be aware. You should particularly become aware of self-shaming and judgment. Shame is a feeling that is useful only in that it informs you that you have erred against your own values and need to bring the situation back into some kind of energetic balance. Energetic balance is not achieved by continually castigating yourself—you have more creative and positive ways of using your thought-energy.

Do your best to journal regularly, making notes of any insights you have into the patterns of thought you’ve noticed. You also might want to keep an ongoing list of your core values and beliefs then make a point of challenging them regularly. Core values and beliefs are those ideas by which you choose to live your life. They are solid, integrated into your being, and not subject to whims, but they are changeable. Consider that some probably need to be changed because we often hold conflicting values in our unconscious. These conflicting values and beliefs can cause all kinds of trouble for us until we make them conscious and release or integrate them. Paying attention to your thoughts and thought patterns will help you discover what is truly important to you, so you can calibrate your moral compass.

Why bother doing this exercise? Here are some of the benefits:

• To train and strengthen your mind, which is the source of all magic

• To consciously reset and realign your personal energy

• To identify and release negative patterns of thought

• To see more clearly how your thoughts are reflected in your daily life

• To clarify your core beliefs and values

Cleansing and Purification

Our culture carries a lot of baggage around those two words, so it’s important to define our terms here. Just as we need to cleanse our physical bodies regularly, we also need to cleanse our minds and our auric/etheric bodies. But we must think carefully about what we are cleansing ourselves of, what we consider to be “pure.” I’ve seen a lot of nonsense promulgated around those two words, from “clean” diets that deny the body its needed nourishment to “purity” being associated with virginity. So let’s give some thought to what those words really mean. There’s a point of view that believes everything is holy, the universe is unfolding in its perfection just as it should, and we should “surrender” or “have faith.”

Personally, I don’t buy it. I believe the universe is ultimately creative, and creativity is a messy business. I have to wonder if the people who say everything is holy have ever experienced or even read about the experiences of those who have been tortured or gang raped or have watched their child’s brains dashed out against a rock by a soldier bent on genocide, death, and destruction. These things happen. They are not holy. They are not perfection. They are not OK, and I, for one, will never “surrender” to a world that contains them.

Yes, there is a place from which we can see these things as an expression of our free will to create whatever we can imagine, a part of the process of exploring this world of time and space. We can gain knowledge of and take comfort in our soul’s eternal existence as we explore the greater love and connection that is possible when we choose to move away from fear. We can experience our oneness with the universe and understand that those painful events, those terrible choices, are all held within that oneness.

But that doesn’t mean we should accept them. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to create something better, to envision and manifest a world that is free of cruelty and savage brutality. (Whether or not it should or even can be free of suffering is another question you might want to consider at some point. The unavoidability of suffering is a core tenet of Buddhism and some other religions.) I suggest that we need to cleanse and purify ourselves as a way of making and stating our choices, of saying, “I want this in my world, but not this other thing.”

Here’s an example. I spent a number of years working as a volunteer rape crisis advocate, which involved getting a call, usually in the middle of the night, and driving to the hospital to sit with, advocate for, and hopefully offer some comfort to someone who had just been raped. The thought-energies that are freely floating around a hospital are not very conducive to healing or peace of mind (understandably), and because the medical establishment doesn’t have space for such a thing in its world view, this negativity and its effect on healing is not even acknowledged. Sure, I could put up adamantine psychic shields, but then I wouldn’t be able to connect energetically with the person I’m there to help. So I walk in there knowing that my personal energy is going to be impacted by a lot of painful, negative energy, particularly from my client. And I’m OK with that because I know I can help shift the energy around someone who needs help clearing the energy of violence and victimization from their own auric field and also needs an infusion of loving and caring energy.

I’ve trained to protect myself from these kinds of difficult energies in the moment, but I’m more focused on helping and protecting another, and when I leave, some of it always seems to stick. But I can go home, take a salt bath, meditate, and ask my helping spirits for assistance in clearing my own auric field of any energy I was unable to release or transform at the time. That I do both the work and the cleansing speaks to my choice to do what I can to help create a world healed from violence and trauma. Violence and trauma are not holy. But we can use them to create a better world by acknowledging their part in the creative explorations of Consciousness, while at the same time releasing them to be transformed.

Once cleansed of what we have chosen to release from our personal reality, then we affirm the world we do want by keeping our own personal energy in resonance with our dreams and visions. So think carefully about what you are cleansing yourself of and why. It’s important not to start channeling Lady Macbeth (cleanliness as an outlet for repressed guilt) or Howard Hughes. (Hughes was terrified of germs. Paranoia is not a good place to be.) Don’t get obsessive about your state of psychic cleanliness, just attend to it regularly and occasionally ritually (more on that later) as you would brush your teeth and go for the occasional professional cleaning.

There are books at the end of this chapter about cleansing and protection, and there’s information on a cleansing bath you can do in the Touch the Earth section. Read what calls to you and integrate a regular psychic/energetic cleansing routine into your daily life.

Affirmation of Dedication

This is a short, memorable phrase or prayer that you create as a meditative touchstone, a way of returning your consciousness to the remembrance of your spiritual aspirations and core values and reaffirming your commitment to them. (It’s a good one to add to your stash of affirmations in your thought-tracking journal.)

You’ll want to set aside a quiet evening or morning to do this work. Start by writing in your journal. Write on the ideas you’ve been contemplating about your personal relationship to the larger cosmos, your core values and beliefs, and the direction you want to take with your life. Remember any peak spiritual experiences you may have had. Think about what brings you joy.

Spend some time with this process. Establish clearly what it is you desire so much that you are willing to dedicate yourself to attaining it in the year ahead. Have a clear picture in your mind of the outcome. Perhaps the outcome is you being in a place of greater clarity about how the world works and what part consciousness and/or spirituality plays in it. Knowledge is a form of power in the world, and it can help us develop wisdom. You might dedicate to gaining knowledge. You can see it as an ideal that guides you and the human race to greater attainments. You might also dedicate to both wisdom and knowledge or wisdom through knowledge —whatever is significant and relevant to you personally.

Perhaps the outcome is you being in a place where you have found a meaningful, inspirational way of living in the world. A way of looking at life that brings expansion of awareness, greater emotional depth, and a deeper appreciation of life’s extraordinary beauty. Then you can dedicate yourself to finding and following that path. Perhaps you have co-religionists, others who believe as you do, and you wish to make a dedication to a group and the spiritual path/religion that you share. The point is that you have a vision of where you want to go and at least a rough map of the journey that will get you there. Then you make a formal commitment (certainly to yourself, perhaps to others as well) to that vision and that journey. Once you are clear on what you want to commit to, set aside a bit of time to do the exercise below.

——| TOUCH THE EARTH |——

The Dedication Meditation

Some of you already have a sense of affiliation with a spiritual path, some of you are seeking a path, and some are just trying to decide if you want anything to do with this spiritual stuff or not. So, I can’t tell you exactly what to dedicate to. That’s up to you. It can simply be to an open-minded exploration of spirituality, to studying a particular path or religion (which will likely have its own dedication ceremonies) or even just dedicating to finding the spiritual path that is right for you.

Once you have a clear idea of what you are dedicating to, you’ll want to take some time to experience it, to make it real for you, not just an idea in your head. Sit down in a comfortable place where you won’t be disturbed and light a candle and maybe some incense. (Doing this first will directly affect your experience of this exercise. Candlelight and incense are neuroactive, not just symbolic.) Take a few deep breaths. Let yourself look at the candle flame, bringing your awareness fully into the present moment. Focus on your breathing for a little while, simply releasing any thoughts that come up and returning to the present moment.

Once you’ve settled in, think about what it would feel like to encounter the outcome that you desire, this goal you have for your life journey. What emotions would you experience? What would it be like to wake up every morning and face the day with enthusiasm and expectation? With joy and compassion? Without fear? Bring the outcome you want down from your head to imbue your heart as well. Imagine the emotions—joy, love, contentment, inspiration, connection with others—that this outcome will bring you.

Let yourself sit with these feelings for a while. Imagine them. Explore them. Release any thoughts of “this can’t happen,” or “something’s bound to go wrong—it always does,” or “I’ll never be able to do this.” While these thoughts need to be sourced and the underlying beliefs investigated and changed, now is not the time for that. Let them go (if writing them down helps you release them, grab your journal and then come back to this exercise). Focus on the feelings you want. Remember times in your life when you have felt joy and love and connection. Concentrate on what you are dedicating to.

Now take the ideas and the feelings from your head and heart and let them sink into your gut. This is where you manifest them, bring them into this physical world. You should feel the focus of this energy in a spot around two inches below your belly button. (This is the dan tien of Chinese medicine and martial arts, the area of the second chakra of the Yogic arts of healing.) You don’t need to understand the “how” of this—just hold the intention of bringing this new reality into existence. Sense the energy of your dedication manifesting in the world. Sit with this energy for a while. Sense the reservoir of energy at your core. Breathe fully.

Now sense the energy of what you are dedicating to resonating in your head, your heart, and your belly. Ask for a phrase of affirmation, a phrase, a prayer, or even a single word that will help you remember these thoughts, feelings, and sensations that you have just generated. A phrase that will encapsulate all of this and bring it back when you are in the middle of your crazy life and need to be reminded of what you are living for, what you are dedicated to. Ask your unconscious, or your Greater Self, or your helping spirits, or your ancestors, or your gods. Or just ask the universe. The phrase may come to you as you are doing the exercise, or it may come to you at some point over the next few days. It may be something original to you, or it may be from a poem, song, or prayer that is meaningful to you. Don’t worry if you don’t get it right away. You’ve done the work, and the results will come. Don’t over think this, and don’t fall into perfectionism. You can always change the phrase if your first effort turns out to be not quite right. Just let one come to you or make one up over the next few days. Before you end this exercise, you might want to journal a bit about it. Then thank any of the nonphysical beings you have asked to help you, and blow out the candle. Repeat your affirmation regularly. It will help you stay on the path you have chosen.

The Purification Bath

After you’ve thought about what purification means to you, you can do a ritual of purification for yourself. Here’s a simple one:

1. Clean your bathroom with focus and awareness that this is preparation for the sacred work you will be doing in it.

2. Prepare about 2 cups of strong tea made from a small handful each of any three of the following herbs:

• Lemon Verbena

• Hyssop

• Rosemary

• Sage

• Eucalyptus

• Parsley

• Chamomile

Strain the tea, then add it to a salt bath (1–2 cups of salt in the tub) or put the tea in a large bucket of salt water (1 cup salt in a 5-gallon bucket) and bring it into the shower with a pitcher.

3. Bring a blue, white, or natural beeswax candle and some sage, cedar, or other purifying incense into the bathroom. The candle can be a votive or a seven-day candle in glass. You’ll want to burn it several times during the next six weeks while meditating and eventually let it burn all the way down, so choose the size with that in mind. If your time is at a premium, and/or you aren’t at home a lot (you don’t want to leave your burning candle unattended), go for the smaller votive. If you have time for longer meditations and spend plenty of time at home, go with the bigger one.

4. Holding the candle, speak to your Greater Self and/or your ancestors, any gods, or other spirit beings that you feel connected to. Tell them what you think you need to be purified of and ask for their help. Light the candle and incense.

5. Get in the bath/shower. If you are in a bath, soak at least ten minutes, ducking your head under the water at least three times. If that’s not possible, use a pitcher to pour water over your head. If you are in the shower, let the water run over you, then turn the shower off and use the pitcher to pour the water from the bucket over you. Do this three times.

6. During the bath/shower, repeat the phrase “I release all negative and inharmonious energies from my life” (or something similar) several times. If you are taking a bath, drain the water. Whether bath or shower, finish up with a rinse in the shower, visualizing all that unwanted energy flowing down the drain, and also visualizing yourself being nourished and restored by the water.

7. Once you have dried off, pick the candle up and spend a few moments watching the flame. Let it take you to an aware and centered space. Now that the energetic barnacles and accretions are gone from your energetic field, let in the energy of fire, and allow it to enliven every cell. (Remember from chapter 4 that living cells produce photons—the elementary particle of light.)

8. As you watch the flame, sense your connection to your Greater Self, to the larger world of spirit, and see yourself invigorated and blessed by the living light while repeating your affirmation of dedication. Let the candle burn for a bit while you dress, then blow it out and put it on your altar, or someplace safe. In the upcoming weeks, when you want to clear your energy, light the candle, use the Tai Chi cleansing breath (below), then envision the candle flame enlivening your cells as you repeat your cleansing affirmation.

Tai Chi Cleansing Breath

There is a quick way of clearing your personal energy that is helpful to practice. I learned it first in a Tai Chi class. Once you’ve practiced it enough, you can just think your way through it if you’re in a public place and need a quick clearing. It’s a movement used in some schools of Tai Chi to release negative energy from the body and bring in new energy. If you can do this outdoors, so much the better.

• Stand with your feet about shoulder distance apart, arms at your side. Take a few deep breaths and settle into your body. Be aware of the earth below you, the sky above you.

• Turn your palms outward as you raise your arms over your head, inhaling. Imagine yourself inhaling fresh chi, or energy, and gathering it in with your arms.

• As your arms are directly overhead, palms facing each other, bend your elbows so your palms face the ground and fingertips face each other.

• Then bring your hands down in front of your body as far as you can (palms pointing down, fingertips pointing toward each other). Envision any old, stale, inharmonious energy being pushed out through your feet into the Earth. (No, you aren’t harming the Earth, the Earth will transform the energy.)

Repeat two more times.

Cleansing Fire

A quick way to clear the energy of a room is to burn an epsom salt/alcohol fire in the room. This is a clean-burning fire (no smoke) that you can use indoors. Here’s what you’ll need:

• A fireproof container. And I do mean fireproof. This fire is smoke-free, but it generates real heat. I use a 6-inch cast-iron cauldron that stands on three short legs. I put this container on a heavy ceramic tile and make sure it is far away from anything flammable.

• A fireproof lid you can use to cover the fire if it gets out of hand. You shouldn’t need it, but have it anyway. I’ve never had a problem with this kind of fire, but you might want to have a fire extinguisher nearby as well.

• 1/4 to 1 cup of Epsom salts, depending on the size of the container

• An equal amount (by volume) of 90 percent isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol (make sure you get the 90 percent, not the 70 percent)

• Fireplace matches or a long lighter

• Optional: one to three essential oils good for clearing, such as eucalyptus, rosemary, or sage

Here’s how to do it:

1. Set up the container on a heat-proof surface near the center of the room. Take all precautions to make sure nothing flammable is nearby. The fire won’t escape the container, but it will flare upward. Make sure the lid is in easy reach.

2. Put a small amount of Epsom salts in the bottom of the container. I use 1/2 cup in a 6-inch diameter and 4-inch deep cast iron cauldron. Add the alcohol and a few drops of essential oils if you are using them.

3. Open at least one window or door in the room, at least a crack, even if it is the dead of winter. All that stuff you’re clearing needs a way to get out.

4. Standing well back and using a long match or lighter, touch the alcohol with the fire. It should light up immediately.

5. Stay in the room as the fire burns out. Meditate on the fire transforming stagnant energy and the fresh energy filling the room. It will take a while to burn down, depending on how much alcohol you used to start with. When the container has cooled (and not before!), rinse it out, sending the remaining Epsom salts down the drain. You may need to soak it for a while—the Epsom salts will be hardened and crusty.

Grounding and Centering

Grounding and centering is a key practice for magic, meditation, and prayer, but it’s also good just for stress relief and getting through daily life. There are lots of different techniques. Here’s one that is fairly simple. At first, what you are doing will seem entirely imaginary. But you are actually moving energy, building and sensing real energetic constructs. As you learn more about energy (starting in the next chapter) and continue this practice you’ll find your sense of what’s happening on more subtle levels will grow.

Ideally, you’ll do this exercise outside, but realistically, you won’t always be able to, so just know that you are still connected to the ground through the building you are in.

To ground yourself, stand in a comfortable, balanced stance, feet shoulder distance apart. Be aware of Earth beneath your feet, the stars above you. Take three cleansing breaths, sweeping your arms overhead, palm up (gathering fresh energy), then down in front of you, palms down (pushing out old, stale energy). Inhale as you move your arms up, exhale as you push them down. Then resume your balanced stance.

Bring your awareness fully into the present. Sense what you are seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting. Notice your breath, and let it move into your belly. Spend a few moments just paying attention to your breath, allowing it to reach a natural rhythm.

Imagine a cord of energy connecting you to the core of the planet itself through the base of your spine. The energy flows both ways—into you from the Earth, through your spine, infusing you with strong, warm, vital energy, into the Earth from you, taking away any stale or negative energy.

Now imagine a beam of light coming down from the stars that enters through the top of your head (the fontanel, or soft spot on a baby’s head) and runs down your spine, where it joins with the energy that is rising from the Earth. Let the energy flow through you as you stand balanced between earth and sky.

(If you saw the movie Avatar, you’ll remember how the Na’vi would join with other beings through the tentacles on the end of their queue. That’s how I visualize the energy from Earth and stars coming together within my spine. Then the combined energy infuses the whole body. If you didn’t see the film, search “Na’vi queue connection” for some YouTube videos of the process. If it works for you, use it, but if not, just discover your own way of visualizing the two strands of energy.)

Sweep your arms up over your head again then bring your palms together in front of your heart center and draw your feet together. Sense the small movements of your body as you find your balance point. You will probably notice that your balance is dependent on small motions of your body as you constantly re-center yourself. But there is a center still point.

Now repeat an affirmation or prayer. “I stand centered between Earth and stars” is fine, or you can come up with something more elaborate and/or personalized. Then take a deep breath and you’re done.

Do this at least daily. Eventually, you’ll be able to do it just in your mind, which can be very useful in the middle of a workday when you’re feeling stressed out, and you may find just doing a quick mental version several times a day is helpful. But do the actual physical motions as often as you can. Just because you can do it in your mind doesn’t mean you should ignore the physical exercise. We are in our bodies for a reason.

Check in with others

Organize a group or set up a ritual of connection for a group you are already in, or sign up to do some volunteer work for a non-profit group.

Resources

Carl F. Neal, Imbolc: Rituals, Recipes & Lore for Brigid’s Day (St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 2015).

Amber K and Azrael Arynn K, Candlemas: Feast of Flames (St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 2001).

Khi Armand, Clearing Spaces: Inspirational Techniques to Heal Your Home (New York: Sterling Ethos, 2017).

David Salisbury, A Mystic Guide to Cleansing & Clearing (London: Moon Books, 2016).

Denise Linn, Sacred Space: Clearing and Enhancing the Energy of Your Home (New York: Wellspring/Ballantine, 2007).

What we humans call “growing up” involves not just a changing body, but learning to support ourselves as independent adults. We do that mostly by learning and adhering to social norms. An aware and creative adult human being (which is most of us in our natural state) eventually begins the necessary process of questioning those norms.

We question them in order to align our life with our beliefs, ethics, and the dreams of our soul/higher self/spirit. (Pick whichever word works for you. I have different definitions for all three, but the point is that we all have a connection to a larger reality that is not confined to physical matter.) That process turns a grownup into a mature adult.

This is a good month to get your life as organized as possible so you are not constantly distracted by an ever-growing to-do list. Then you will have more time and mental freedom for the work of maturing, a life-long creative process which, while it needs some time devoted to it, mostly requires your conscious awareness and attention.

I’ll dive a little deeper into this month’s New Moon chart below, but first, here’s a look at the astrology for those who speak the language. If you don’t want to read the technical stuff, just skip over the italics.

(Cast the chart for January 18, 2:52 p.m. EST. I’ve put it in Washington, DC, using Equal Houses. The New Moon is at 28°43’ Capricorn. Mercury and Mars are right behind it, just past conjunction with each other at 26°. Venus has led the way into Aquarius, and all 5 planets are lined up to go through the Pluto carwash, which suggests an interesting month ahead.

Uranus is still retrograde at 27° Taurus, slowly approaching its direct station on February 3. All four of the Capricorn planets are trine Uranus and sextile Saturn and Neptune, still in Pisces as they move towards their conjunction at 0° Aries next month. Note the predominance of Earth and Water. These elements will become less prominent over the next several months and for years to come as Saturn and Neptune move into Aries and Uranus moves into Gemini, where it trines Pluto in Aquarius.

Also note that Mars is semi-square/sesquiquadrate the nodal axis within 13 arc minutes of partile and Mercury is within a degree as well. The Dragon is breathing words of fire. I’m not thrilled by this partnership of the Trickster and the Warrior magnified by the New Moon and aspecting almost every other planet in the chart.

Yes, there are trines and sextiles with the outer planets. While these aspects are generally considered benefic, particularly when you’re looking at a mundane chart, the classic “cui bono?” is the first question that needs to be asked. Who benefits in this situation?

The answer’s not always clear (though it often follows the money). Both aspects signify an easy flow of energy, which could be benefic to the business attracting more clients, or to government employees funneling embezzled money into their retirement accounts.

There are plenty of beneficial outcomes possible from these aspects for individuals, or at least outcomes that lead to greater freedom and evolutionary growth. But on the larger, global stage, there are strong indicators of excessive violence, scandal, trade disruptions (possibly due to war), environmental crises, and financial upsets of one kind or another. There are also indicators of important scientific breakthroughs and discoveries of previously unknow areas of the planet.)

Not all slang from the upcoming generations survives — fortunately — but I suspect “adulting” will be around for a while. It’s a descriptive, single-word shorthand for a process that is most pressing in our teen and young adult years, but also meaningful to older adults as we sit down to pay the bills, renew the driver’s license, refinance the mortgage, or shoulder other necessary tasks of civilization while longing for the perceived freedom of childhood.

But true freedom does not involve reliving our childhood. It involves setting ourselves free of the chains that are holding us back from authentic maturity and spiritual awareness. Change is coming, and the need to surrender dreams “without bitterness or self-pity” is a necessary first step in our journey towards higher dreams.

Those chains often feel like they are necessary. Some of them keep our fears and insecurities at bay while still feeding them, like caged lions. Others bind together strands of thought, memories, and emotions that we deem presentable in order to create an individual self that interacts with the world around us.

But as long as our fears and insecurities are caged and not addressed and healed, as long as our thoughts and emotions are bound by what we want others to see, we may be comfortable but we are not free.

The month ahead features work on identifying our chains and how they serve to restrain…what? What’s within us that we feel must be chained? And how can those chains be replaced by the focus of our will and awareness?

Freeing ourselves from self-imposed chains does not mean we abandon our responsibilities. Quite the opposite — now we assume them voluntarily. Unchained, our choices to accept certain responsibilities are made as part of our evolutionary journey, and not a restriction imposed on us by others.

As this month progresses most of us will be feeling either more entrenched in our beliefs or be opening our eyes to new possibilities of freedom — both within ourselves and in our world.

(Note that Sun, Moon, Mercury, and Mars will move out of Capricorn and join Venus and Pluto in Aquarius, and they will all be checked in to the sign by a conjunction to Pluto. This gives a distinctly Plutonian flavor to the month and ties each of them in to the larger Minor Grand Trine pattern. Also keep in mind that Saturn rules both signs and Aquarius leans towards extremes of belief. Finally, watch the last week of January for surprising and transformative events as Neptune moves into Aries on the 26^th, then Mars conjuncts Pluto and Moon conjuncts Uranus on the 27^th.)

Over the next week, spend some time identifying the physical and mental structures in your life that no longer support you. Also assess your responsibilities — which of them are yours to take on, and which rightly belong to others and need to be released? Then look at how you might restructure your life in light of those realizations and free yourself from whatever chains are tying you down. Gaining freedom is not going to be comfortable. But it’s the only way forward.

In the weeks and months ahead, some structures will need to be destroyed, others will need to be built. It’s a time of decisions and important choices. Make your choices with spiritual truths and the importance of community in mind.

Now let’s look more closely at a planetary pattern that is key to managing the changes coming in the year ahead — the Minor Grand Trine aspect that ties together Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. It will be at least loosely in play for the rest of the decade.

It is a pattern that has not been seen in this specific configuration for thousands of years, and speaks of new beginnings. Here are some things to keep in mind about this overarching influence:

1. The planets involved are transpersonal and evolutionary. The consciousness of all beings will be challenged to expand — and that can be both exhilarating and painful. The way through involves not just being willing to change, but willing to evolve, willing to step into your creative self and reach for your full potential. Which is easy to say, but not so easy to do.

2. All three planets have a destructive side. Uranus tends to blow things up. Neptune dissolves. Pluto undermines and crushes. Necessary change is always preceded by necessary destruction. Emotional resilience is a quality we will need to develop in the days, months, and years ahead. A long-term perspective will help deal with the grief destruction can bring. Accept that destruction, like death, is an integral part of life. Use what remains as compost to feed a new way of life.

3. All three planets are also powerfully creative. Unleash your own creativity in the face of change in the world around you. What dreams do you have that want to be born? How can you midwife that birth? These planetary alignments make raw power for change available to us, but it’s up to us to use and direct it.

The years ahead will challenge us to midwife a new world into existence. Don’t shrink from this job. We all have a contribution to make. Figure out what your contribution can be. Gather your power to you. Connect with your spiritual community. Commit to the work, and the path will become clear.

This is where I usually put the section on the current astrology for the USA, but this post is long enough already, and there’s so much to say about the state of the Union that it needs a post of its own. I have it on the to-do list.

Meanwhile, if an informed, non-astrological opinion on the U.S. economy is of interest to you, check out this video — “Controlled Demolition of the U.S. Economy”

And yes, the astrology also points to some serious problems with the economy that will continue to unfold in unmistakable ways this year. Corruption and the exposure of corruption will, I believe, have a lot to do with those problems. But as the video points out, there are underlying issues of debt and gambling (and the stock market is just one of our economic gambling games) that have no easy and painless solutions.

But what the video does not point out is the biggest debt we owe. We have taken far more from this planet than we have given, and the serious consequences of our neglect are now inescapable. These fruits of our labors will affect all life on Earth over the upcoming decades. Google “Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation” (AMOC) and read a few of the articles to get an idea of the unavoidable and unexpected consequences of our ignorance and carelessness. (Astrologers: While you are reading up on it, keep in mind that Neptune rules the oceans, and Saturn rules salt (salinity) and cold temperatures.)

While the consequences are unavoidable, we still need to cope with them, and that will require a big shift in our awareness and care for the natural world. But more about that in yet another post.

Meanwhile, Imbolc is coming up, so I’ll be posting the chapter on Imbolc from my book “Touch the Earth, Kiss the Sky” this week. If you haven’t read the Introduction, you can find it here. All my posts from the book live here.