Solar Eclipse in Aries

Solar Eclipse - Thursday, 20 April 2023 - 2:14pm, local time (Bilpin, Australia)

This New Moon finds us entering Eclipse Season from the anaretic degree of Aries - the last degree of the sign. Its often thought of as a kind of 'final exam' of an energy before it leaves and ingresses into a new sign. So what does an Aries final look like? And more importantly, how do you pass it? That is kinda hard to tell during an eclipse - for they are like wild cards, often heralding major beginnings and endings of chapters in obscured, often tricksey ways that we can't possibly grasp fully. (But lets try anyway!)Aries is cardinal fire, so it is initiatory and transformative. It wants most to awaken - and it does this by moving into action, being decisive, taking a stand, making a point, charging ahead, claiming its space. One of my favorite descriptions i have heard about Aries energy is that it learns about boundaries by running into them. One of the less helpful things i have heard about Aries energy is that it wants to make things personal. Eh...kinda... Sure - i mean that is what taking a stand and claiming space require of us - to put your own personal skin in the game, but when Aries energy bumps into you during the charge, its not personal. It really has nothing to do with you whatso ever. We can understand the difference most easily when we remember to consider its polarity (patterns of two). The Aries-Libra axis is about learning how "i" need to take up space vs. how "you" need to take up space. Aries moves forward to activate its own energy imperatives whereas Libra, cardinal air energy, its imperative is to move over -making room to include more and more others. Look and see where Aries falls in your chart - the house will give you clues as to where in your life you are going to be feeling this energy most. The Sun is our conscious self and the Moon is our intuitive, feeling self...its like they are sitting down to tea planning their next big move. New Moons are initiatic energies that mark the beginning of a new cycle. And this new cycle has the potential for a lot of healing, for the Sun and Moon are in a loose stellium with both Jupiter - the planet of expansion - and Chiron - the planet also known as the Wounded Healer. But healing isn't a guarantee. Remember, we live in a reality modeled on a binary system energetic system of understanding - every up has a down. So these two planets can also just as happily throw themselves a giant pity party and wallow in their trauma story, regurgitating a model of reality that serves no one (for some interesting sidebar on all of our trauma stories,  i highly recommend The Emerald | The Revolution Will Not Be Psychologized, Part 2 (Interview w/ Báyò Akómoláfé) https://www.podbean.com/ea/dir-khg4w-1783154a). What this Aries combo 4-pak in the anaretic degree suggests, is that we are at a point of self determination. ....But wait?! Did i mention its eclipse season? Yes, a solar eclipse. So the Moon getting inbetween us and the light of the Sun - or if you will, our feeling self is somehow disrupting the flow or getting in the way of our conscious self. Download disrupted. Vision occulted. Comprehension obscured. Sometimes life is like that, and sometimes the Way is Dark and you need to put some skin in the game anyway. This is one of those times. Let's be completely transparent. None of us really knows what is going on - the world as we know it is CHANGING and very, very quickly. Everything is untethering and show no signs of slowing down in this process. We can insist on trying to be on top of things things and put up barriers and act with willfull aggression, panic or stubbornness, all stemming from a me first attitude in such circumstances. These options are easily available to Aries energy. Or we can sink deeply into ourselves - into our own intiatic spark - find our bottom line and just stand there, alert, ready, willing and courageous come what may. This New Moon is really not about doing anything. Its about being. What are you gonna be in the world? Whats your bottom line?

Think of Eclipses as a moment where there is a break in the coding. Something outside of our perception has the opportunity to enter and change the game. Lofty visions are grand, but every true warrior knows that it is hard to hold onto lofty ideals when you are in the thick of the moment, just trying to move the ball forward. Its important to just keep it simple. Try to embody a sensation, a feeling or perhaps a single word. Interestingly Vesta and the North Node also conjunct this New Moon, but out of sign from Taurus. So we have those energies lending their influences. Vesta, Keeper of The Flame and the North Node, the Dragons Mouth - what we need to move towards to release karma and evolve out of our own soul cage. Oh! And did i mention that its squaring Pluto in Aquarius?!!! (gulp) Ha! A momentus and heady time for sure! Vesta in Taurus - fixed earth - reminds us to go into the body, and breathe deeply and tend the Flame from there. Fixed earth is quietly determined and patient. It knows what it knows. But be attentive - this is not a knowing of the mind, it is a knowing of the body... a knowing the body carries - bottom lines are like that, they are instinctual, not of located in the rational mind. Pluto squaring from Aquarius - fixed air - is going to be rattling the mind, peeling back and shredding the knowing it finds there to expose any rot. This can be a very deeply unsettling square. Its point is to shake something loose from our collective place of blind individualism. The way to navigate this passage well is not to become more stubborn, Taurus can do that even better than Aries. The mind can close its eyes and ears and just hold on tight... but gosh, that sounds painful and a waste of this really quite amazing signature.
This New Moon is not a time to check out, but rather check in. Check into the humble resting place of your own bottom line, the seed spark from your own soul and just stay there, tending the Flame. Be focused there, let the quiet simple rythms of your own body guide you. Stay with your breath. Stay with your spark. Activate your own healing power - for yourself and the world - by simply deciding to become bigger than your fear, bigger than your grief, bigger than your anger, bigger than your pain. Expand beyond whatever too small story your mind has been telling you. Instead, claim your space. Claim your own story. Be courageous. You've got this. We all do. Chiron and Jupiter tell us that we just have to decide and then act accordingly.
We make reality through our participation in every moment. What is your story in this moment and this moment, and this one? If you don't like your story stop carrying it around with you. If its not worth repeating - then don't. When we do this (and we all do this) all  we are doing is scattering the seeds of the same thing before us. What this moment asks of us is simply an act of willful embodiment. So just stand on your bottom line and let the rest come or go, stay or leave however it needs. This is not a moment to get distracted with baggage that is not ours to carry. We may think that our pain or our story belongs to us... but that too is just an idea that's been given to us that we keep repeating into exisitence over and over.

To get through the eye of a needle, its best to practice Camel Medicine and remember that we don't have to carry anything but our own hump. We were made for exactly now. Go Team!

Announcing a New Class Series!

Yes! I am still giving readings

.....and (drumroll please)

I am really quite stoked to announce that in April 2023 i will be offering monthly in-person astrology classes catered to YOUR OWN BIRTH CHART. These will be small, intimate personal classes, in the lovely studio of YogaFromTheInside located in Berambing, NSW.

In each two hour class we will be using the charts of the class participants as the study material, so you get to learn about astrology and learn about YOU all in one go! (Can't beat that!) There will be optional private mentoring add-ons available.

You can opt for a single class of $60/class or a bulk purchase of 3 for $150.00.

If you are interested sinking your teeth deeper into the stars than the internet search engines allow, and if you actually want to understand the nuanced layers of your own chart and how it all fits together, than please email me using the 'request a reading page link' or you can register using the YogaFromTheInside link below. (If you are interested in purchasing the bulk rate class bundle, then from that page, click the blue "View Products/Packages" at the top of the page.

YogaFromTheInside

I'd love to meet you there!

I'm not great at blogging, but i LOVE to give Readings!

Yes! I am still giving readings...

New Moon in Leo

Note: Anyone needing the New Moon Ritual pattern explained, please see the start of the Capricorn New Moon entry. Also note that i aim to put up a new post on or just before the Full Moon - so mark your calendar or send me an email and i can put you on the notification list.

Leo New Moon, 8 August 2021 (Australia Eastern Standard Time)

The New Moon in Leo will be a potent one given the aspects it makes to other heavenly bodies (Uranus, Chiron, Mercury, Saturn and Jupiter to be specific) and I will say a bit about that at the end, but first, let’s unpack the Leo archetype.

Leo is fixed Fire. We have already discussed fixity in previous posts – so remember that this means a kind of stability, just as it sounds. It is that resting modality that comes between initiation and change. The fixed modality is often what gives the fixed signs (Taurus, Aquarius, Scorpio & Leo) their tendency towards stubbornness or immovability. These energies do not change their minds easily. Fire, we have already spoken of as well. This is the element associated with our spiritual self. And just as fire transforms what it contacts, it is the part of ourselves that seeks transformation. Here already we begin to get a bit of a different picture into Leo energy than what is found in mainstream astrology, where Leo is often painted in really base colors of a drama queen or an egoic, over proud and over bearing energy – and sure those shadow expressions are available. Every energy has high and low expressions. So what is Leo’s high expression? It helps to consider the Sun, its ruling ‘planet’. The Sun, the center of our galaxy, effusive in light and heat and energy, is the giver of life on this planet. Here we can feel into some of that shadow, for who amongst us have not wilted and hidden from an overbearingly hot summer Sun? But what about the feeling we get watching the Sun rise, or the feeling that opens inside of us when the Sun finally comes out after a week of rain? This too is the feeling inspired when Leo is in right relationship. We also can consider the purview of the 5th house, which Leo naturally rules. This house governs creativity, children, pets, love affairs/romance, joy & play, among other things – but you get the gist. Don’t these things have a similar ‘feeling’ to that Sun coming out after a long rain? It is in the 5th house arena that we soften, we open, we rejoice and allow ourselves to be pulled into the immediate moment. Leo when in right relationship, it is an energy that anchors us in our hearts (which it also rules). That small child screaming “Look at me! Look at me!” as they discover something for the first time something that they can do, like ride a bike or climb a tall tree. You have to be quite a grump to not get caught up in their enthusiasm, to withhold attention and applause. And herein we come to a fundamental root in understanding Leo energy – it REQUIRES attention and approval to fully manifest and be transformative. Leo energy for this reason is often highly tuned towards its audience; it can sense both the connection and the disconnect - the interest and the boredom - as any really good performer would. Leo energy stumbles easily into something of a tyrant (just like that child can) when it makes approval and applause its goal however. This is when the drama queen rears its head, over loud and overbearing and relentless. If we go back to the Sun or 5th house descriptions, what we know is that creativity while it can be done for its own sake becomes hugely transformative when it is received. The Sun feels pretty generous. And there is a quality in both of those ideas of kinda getting out of the way and just ‘being’. You often hear about the creative Muse or being in the Zone. Artists and performers talk about it as though they were not really there, but rather are channeling something. And here we see the second fundamental root in understanding Leo energy – forcing is not the path. Leo energy in its highest expression is mostly about learning to trust its own integral inspiration and ride that fire out into the world unashamedly. If it is not received, it is not a judgment on its internal beingness, but rather more one of timing and audience. The key for Leo energy is always to trust its own heart and find its right audience. Then the applause comes, then its light can be received, then its fire can transform. Leo energy requires a boldness of spirit and that only comes authentically when it trusts own heart.

From the Kabbalist perspective, the Sun corresponds to the 6^th sephirah in the Tree of Life, also called Tiphareth. Tiphareth is linked to the archangel Raphael - the angel of divine healing. Tiphareth is seen as the place where polarized energy comes into balance, most particularly that of Chesed (Jupiter – mercy, service to others & loving kindness) and Gevurah (Mars – might, justice & severity). Tiphareth walks the path between and balances energies to bring about beauty and healing.

So this New Moon, think about what you want to transform in your life and how you might lean in and trust yourself more, allowing your own inner vision to guide you and not pay so much heed to what others will think and say. How can you embody your own heart-space? Where in your life have you been dancing for all you are worth and still not gaining approval/success? This is a really good time to re-examine what it is you are doing and why. Who is it that you are trying to win approval from? Is what you are putting your energy to, in full alignment with the integrity of your spirit – does it come from your heart? If not, this New Moon is a really powerful time to reconnect with your authentic self and make some new commitments that center on being true to yourself. Some courage will be required – courage, from the Latin root “cor”, meaning heart, used to mean “to tell your heart”, to act from a place of personal authority (and personal integrity), to feel empowered because actions and words were rooted in your own heart.

Things to do: try sticking your neck out a bit more. Share something of your heart. Get up on ‘stage’ and let people actually see YOU. Dare to expose your true nature. Get creative, contact your Muse. Be generous. Shine. If what you are sharing is authentic and not being received, practice just finding a new audience – don’t squander your time or give away your power by getting down on yourself OR THEM. Be magnanimous and in our own authority. Speak from your heart. If you want something more practical, practice yoga Sun Salutations, spend time with children, study them and see what you can learn about being in the moment. Play more. Make love more.

Intentions to set: try to move from the perspective of being in love… try to generate that sensation in your body, allow it to inform you. Alternatively try to cultivate that sensation of being in wonder with the world and yourself that we had as children. Check in regularly with your own heart – your own sense of self. Where are you actually at? Practice not with being polite or nice or whatever, but rather practice being exactly where you are at and share from that place. Also practice being in the moment and detaching from outcome. Learn to listen to your own intuition and allow it to guide you this month. Notice what messages you are receiving back and see what happens when rather than stepping away and abandoning yourself in anyway when the messages are ones of judgment/disinterest, you simply drop that ‘venue’ and try to see who or what might benefit from what you actually have to offer from your authentic heart-space. If its true, don’t change the message, practice on changing the audience. Think outside the box here, get creative – perhaps its a child or a non-human person. It could be a dog or a tree. It could be a spirit guide or it could be ‘god’. It could just be you. Are you your own best cheerleader? If not, work on that these next 2 weeks. Use this time to have the intention of finding your right audience and sharing yourself authentically – from your heart.

Rituals to do: I really like Gratitude Practice when it comes to Leo energy. There is something about activating that principal which brings us directly into the moment, directly into our hearts. It opens and enlivens us, awakening us to the interconnectedness of all things, which in turn helps us to become even more expansive and generous. Here is one form of Gratitude Practice that is both simple and incredibly potent. Take some time each morning over the next 2 weeks (starting on the New Moon) to go outside – facing the east or the rising Sun, place your hands on your heart and open up your senses – both to the outside of you and also to the inside of you. Start saying “Good Morning” one by one to each thing that rises into your awareness. Take time to smile and breathe between greetings. Really greet that thing and wish it well. “Good Morning Sun. Good Morning cold. Good Morning sky. Good Morning birds. Good Morning car. Good Morning sleepy. Good Morning trees. Good Morning wind. Good Morning motor. Good Morning anxious. Good Morning doubt. Good morning coffee. Good Morning dog. Good Morning neighbor....” on and on. Do this until you notice a stillness arising in you. Breathe in that place. Open your heart to it. Allow whatever emotions or thoughts to rise and just breath. Bow and continue on your day.

Now before I quit, I wanted just to say that this New Moon, given all its aspectual conditions with the different astrological bodies I mentioned earlier is really a time of contact with our own wounded natures and how that translates and manifests on the collective level. We can be in contact with our wounds in all kinds of ways – both consciously and unconsciously; as both victim or healer. The choice is always ours to make. New Moons are powerful times of beginning energy and cycles, they are times of becoming. Leo energy is really about embodiment and expression. This square with Uranus and Saturn that is active for us all year is about learning how to individuate while retaining our connection (and duty) to the collective. For all of us and for our societies as a whole its about breaking down old structures of power that no longer serve us and not only daring to step into a new paradigm of possibility that makes room for authenticity, but of doing the hard work of changing our habits, changing our systems and owning our internal authority to do so. Chiron is in the mix with this New Moon and sure it always has the option of giving its power away and becoming its pain – we can throw a big pity party and be the queens of our own drama, but what a waste. Haven’t we all had enough of where that brings us? Look around… do you see the suffering? Do you see the environmental catastrophes unfolding all around? Do you see the injustices, the pain, the violence? Its only getting worse. Everyone knows this. We’ve all been taught to give our power away –to our social media platforms, to our governments, to our jobs, to our institutions, to religion, to astrology, to gurus and guides and teachers, lovers, friends – that invisible They, who should do something about X. Its time for every one of us to do what IS ours to do and it starts by owning our own individual power. Own our individual authority; take responsibility for healing this mess by being in our hearts and moving from that place. There is no time but now. Its not going to get any better until each of us steps up by stepping into ourselves. If you like the world you experience and feel fed in your heart, then by all means keep on keeping on, but if the likes on social media simply aren’t cutting it, if there isn’t enough distraction from the pain and fear, if you are bored with the same old story - then maybe its time to find your courage, to live from your authentic heart and seek out your right audience. When we do this, we heal. Everything has a better chance to heal. You don't have to fix everything, or even one thing. Its not about fixing, its about shifting the current pattern one teensy bit. The easiest way to do that is to fall into your true nature by anchoring in your own heart. So step into your power - not by denying your pain or making it bigger than it is. Be honest and leave off falling into divisiveness by choosing one side or the other of a polarity. Reality is just way more complicated than that. This time is not about right or wrong - that is a very old story of a binary reality of separation. So channel that Leo energy. Be the Sun, be the light - be like Tiphareth, that which walks between polarities to foster wholeness and healing. Be in your power and transform the moment through your own authenticity and courage.

New Moon in Cancer

Note: All timings are based on my Australian time-zone. Anyone needing the New Moon Ritual pattern explained, please see the start of the Capricorn New Moon entry. Also note that i aim to put up a new post on or just before the Full Moon - so mark your calendar or send me an email and i can put you on the notification list.

Cancer New Moon, 10 July 2021

Belated-Solstice Blessings! We had a beautiful opportunity to catch Jupiter’s attention while he stationed on the Solstice near the fixed star Formalhaut. Hopefully you all took advantage! (to learn more about this and other fixed stars, here's one option: https://darkstarastrology.com/fomalhaut/).

But we are here to talk about the upcoming New Moon in Cancer!... at 18 degrees (so if you know your chart and have anything on the 18 degree mark regardless of sign, you can begin to feel into how this New Moon Cancer energy plays with that area of your chart/life). Cancer, the crab – also called the Great Mother Nurturer, is cardinal water. Water element – governing the emotions and feeling sense. The kind of knowing that arises from empathy. Water element, where flow and change dominate. Cardinal is beginning energy - that initiator that is the seed or spark, the place where the changing ways of the mutable energy sends out a little root and seeks to take hold. Cancer rules the 4th house of home and roots and closets. The 4th house speaks to our bloodlines, our ancestors. It is said that when folks don’t know us, they experience our 10th house – our reputations; when they meet us, they experience our 1st house – our personaes; when they form partnerships (of all kinds) with us, they experience our 7th house...but the 4th house, these are our kindred - those who see us as we are in our most private selves. The lunar energies like being in Cancer, because the Moon rules this sign. So it feels quite at home here. Energies maximize their potential when in rulership. Remember that strong does not always mean helpful. We can have a weak response and that does not change the strength of the energy – its just as happy to fill our sails if we head in an unhelpful direction as when we aim our intentions to our best possibilities. So Cancer as the ruler of the deepest most ‘bottom’ part of the chart often has an insular feeling. It is the homebody in us, the nester. Cancer is very capable of defending its privacy and its sanctity. When overwhelmed Cancer retreats; when it wants something it grabs hold with incredible tenacity; when it wants to go somewhere, it often gets there by going sideways. As Great Mother, this is the part of us that intuitively knows how to tend and heal. She is where we go for comfort, solace, nourishment. This is her high expression. Low vibration Cancer is the caregiver who uses the tasks of giving to avoid tending to self and delving into its own dark murky closets, blocking the flow of its own bloodlines with yet another person or situation that ‘needs their help’. The garbage can that results from this is often victim mentality running rampant (for both the nurturer and the nurtured), as does drama. Cancer has a very unique ability to keep calm and address what is needed in drama. I heard Tyson Yunkaporta say in an interview that ‘trauma is pain for which we have failed to find meaning’. It struck me as deeply true. To step that further, it seems to me that drama might be what most often use to distract ourselves from our trauma. If we never allow ourselves to explore our trauma, without the loud, distracting drama, how can we ever find that meaning? Cancer when in right relationship is really amazing at giving us insights and intuition at our darkest murkiest depths. It can lend us great tenacity to stay with the feeling, however tidal or stormy and it can nudge us lovingly into a sideways step of tremendous healing, by offering perspectives that do not negate our reality but sees instead the long line of potential built up through many changing and moving cycles. At it’s best Cancer empowers us to stand strong and tall in our root and feel supported, guided and even carried by our kindred. It gives us a belonging place, where we can be as we are. In Cancer energy, we can let go and become fully naked and vulnerable because we know our kindred hold us and not only protect us, but keep us from straying from our own path.

Cancer teaches us about boundaries by giving us a container to pour ourselves into. It shows us how to have a firm shell so that we can be tender and mushy inside. So this is a time to let go a bit of all those external responsibilities (both real and imagined) and turn our attentions inward and down into ourselves. Cancer is at its fullest empowerment in the outside world when its own root is well nourished. Retreat is often key, but if you have had plenty of self-care and feel a full cup, then this is a potent time for us to be generous with our excess. What we offer as overflow at this time has great healing potential. It does pay to err on the side of caution (as any self-possessed crab would do) and be very honest when deciding which side of that fence you land. Consider yourselves warned, as Venus and Mars are forming a conjunction in Leo at the time of the New Moon and so there will be plenty of opportunity for melodrama should you feel inspired to feed shadow Cancer and continue to avoid finding meaning for your own pain. If however, empowering and healing yourself and others seems a far more interesting path, then this Mars-Venus conjunction (exact on the 13th) helps us to merge passion and creativity in ways that work in symbiosis with the people around us, really spreading rippling of waves of Cancer’s nourturement and healing potential deep into our communities. Remember that the New Moons are seeding times. What is sown during them gets harvested later when the Moon returns to that same sign in its Full form. Lets all endeavor to be kind to our future selves (to say nothing of our greater human family), by maximizing this Cancer New Moon!

Useful activities at this time – PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR OWN SELF CARE HABITS (!!!) and do what is in your power to course correct. Remember that rest and hydration can easily account for half of most healing. Good nutrition is the third leg of that tripod. Helpful Cancer is about taking responsibility for your own healing before taking care of others. So remember to put on your own oxygen mask FIRST. That does not mean that you can’t invite your love to lay down for a nap with you! Or how about making an extra large nutritious meal and pop half of it in one of those plastic containers threatening to take over your kitchen and give it to your neighbor (then go home and have a nice quiet delicious meal by yourself). Cancer energy is about the healing that comes from candle lit baths. It knows to add salts and rose petals (rose is a plant that teaches how to open wide the heart and remain full able to protect itself – like Cancer, it teaches about necessary and healthy boundaries). Not everyone finds their feelings in baths or pillows (my Moon is in Taurus, so those work for me), but each of us has a way that acts as a door to our feeling place, where we can peel off some of our skin and touch our own vulnerability. Do what works for you. Do it with intention. Do it as an offering and celebration to your own beingness. Tend to yourself as you wished others would’ve tended to you. This is a great time to journal to your inner child or better yet have your inner child write you a letter of its needs. An easy and eye opening practice: using your non-dominant hand, write a letter to yourself – don’t think to hard about what to say, just write what comes up. Allow feeling to express itself using the limitation of dexterity to force concise expression. Its also a beautiful time to do any ancestral work you have been interested in exploring.

This is not a time to waste energy on surface interactions. Cancer is a deep diver. Make better choices at this time as to where you put the energy of your intentions. It is a good time to open up your proverbial closet and reacquaint yourself with all you’ve shoved in there to deal with later. Maybe just pick one thing – just reach an arm in through the crack of the door and grab whatever fistful you can. Haul it out into the light and carry it around with you in your awareness. How can YOU bring more nourturement to this one thing? What is a way you can retell that old story from a perspective with more healing potential? You don’t have to commit to anything or even change your mind, all you have to do is feel around to see where you can and are able to soften. Or spend more time watching your mind. If you catch it chattering away, key in. There is potential here. Pause, take a deep centering grounding breath and move your intention lower, beneath the mind, into your heart space, into your feeling place. Try to sit with the feelings, let them be vague or strong or swirling. Let the words bounce around on the choppy surface and move past them deeper down into the emotional currents causing all the surface tension. There is often a knee-jerk that comes when telling someone to feel their feelings. “But what if it overwhelms me?” What if it doesn’t? What if you come to understand the container that is you more deeply, by realizing the depth of your own capacity, the strength of your own tenacity, the wondrous ability you have to heal. Like the crab, we are made to contain our tenderest self. That part of us is designed to live in tidal areas and thrive in the ebb and flow of powerful currents, relentless waves, murky visibility. If you find yourself in a cloudy or tumultuous situation, bring your intention there. Bring your pause, bring your centering love. You don’t need to fix anything; you don’t need to do anything. Just breathe right there in that feeling place and let all the waters bath you with their crashing and their fury.

Rituals at this time… well baths of course! I’ve already gone there, but to take it up a notch you can create your own version of indigenous healing practices from the America’s (where I have come across them at any rate, though I am sure all medicine peoples used some version of this practice): The Plant Bath or ‘Plant Cleansing’. Go take a walk and listen to the land, feel for the plants that call to you, pick yourself a lovely bouquet of greenery and flowers (avoiding any spiky and nettle-like things). It doesn’t have to be a giant bundle, just a small fistful will do. Remember to give thanks to the plant when you pick them. You can leave an offering of a few strands of hair, or a song. If this is unavailable to you, go and buy a small bouquet of flowers. In either case, let the plant know you wish to use it for a healing ritual. You can hold your ritual in the bath (or better yet outside). Just fill a bucket with water (warm it if you like) and dip in your bouquet stirring it clockwise and seeding it with your prayer or intention for self-healing. It is best to try not limit yourself by using words. The emotions here are key. Just feel into your feelings. Push your feelings into the water. Allow any and all feelings to rise up. Whatever they are, let them come. See if you can nudge yourself down into those more complicated feelings, those that confuse you and leave you sore and tired. Push those feelings into the water and just keep stirring clockwise. Do this long enough that you are actually feeling your feelings, not just thinking about your feelings. If you fear that your feelings are too big for you to contain then draw a bold symbol of Cancer on the side of your bucket beforehand or any personal symbol that you resonate with. Stir those feelings into the water. Own your own vulnerability and reach into the patterns of creation and simply ask for help. Ask to be held. Ask to be fed. Ask to be healed. Then take that bouquet that you have been stirring the waters clockwise with, and give yourself a cleansing with them, starting at the tippy-top of your head and working down. Keep dipping and cleansing, patting and brushing every part of your body. Be sure to get those closed more private, tender places where all your lymphs reside. Brush and pat all the way down your legs and over the tops of your feet. Finish with the soles. Repeat from the top of your head to your soles, however many times you wish. When you feel ready, if possible let yourself dry off naturally. When you go to empty your bucket, imagine your grief, your sorrow, your hunger, your pain – whatever ails you - being drawn from you and carried away with the water. Thank the water. Then go and eat something with intention (think fruit or nut rather than Twinky). Just a small bite of something, taken and experienced with deep attention. Always as you create emptiness, you put in a seed to fill it. Thank the plants in your bouquet for their healing medicine.

So go on then, off you go...make some plans! Schedule in "me-time" on the 10th and practice for the following two weeks taking responsibility for your own self-care.