Wishcraft by Shauna Cummins introduces a powerful practice for creating intentional change …
In her new book, Wishcraft, hypnotherapist Shauna Cummins explains that wishes should be said like prayers, affirmations, and blessings, all in one. Before you plant your wishes in your subconscious mind, read the below script out loud – either in a group, or to yourself – before entering into a wishing trance. Alternatively, you can record it and listen to it before you go to sleep or before you enter into the wishing trance or journey.
<< PAST PRESENT FUTURE NOW: WISHING SCRIPT >>
“Imagining myself in a peaceful place, I breathe in deep relaxation into my mind and into my body. Counting down from ten to one, breathing slowly and deeply. Ten, nine, eight, breathing, seven, six, five, deeper and deeper, four, three, two, one; allowing each and every breath to take me deeper into this intuitive inner space for relaxation and release, receiving even more of what I desire now. Breathing in relaxation and breathing out release. Breathing in deeper and deeper, into the intuitive inner space of the mind and body.Safe, secure and protected, just breathing. Remembering that, in my mind, I can give myself whatever resources I need: the ability to go deeper, to rise above and to give myself what I need, is my natural ability.
Now, in my mind, I find myself somewhere that brings me peace, a place in nature. I am experiencing this place with all of my senses. The colour of the sky, the sounds around me, the temperature of the air on my skin. Breathing in peacefulness and support. Drawing up courage and strength from the earth and into my body, into my mind, light and clarity from the sun and the sky moving into my mind, into my body. I experience those energies circulating throughout my body, empowering me to move forwards positively.
I now imagine myself from the perspective of my future self. I can feel or see my future self doing well, living, their wishes coming true. I step into my future self, moving around in their energy, feeling it now. I believe in myself; I trust in myself; I feel my whole mind and my whole body working with me now.
Through the eyes of my future self, I can see my present self and I notice what I admire about my present self now. I feel my present self, receiving that appreciation. I can feel those energies, from the future and the present, collaborating, working together and rising up and intuitively travelling over my life. I can look down as if I’m looking down from above, and I call out a few things I feel very proud of, things I accomplished or overcame throughout my life.
When I have those in mind, I drop down and travel to the past, to a time when I could have used more support. And I feel my future and present selves there with my past self as if I’m my own loved one or my own best friend. I give my past self whatever resources I needed, and I imagine my past self receiving those resources: protection, healing, safety. I look into the eyes of my past self and I remind them of, or share with them, what I admire about them. I share with them what they will go on to accomplish or overcome. I feel pathways of healing, releasing and receiving, flowing from the future into the present, into the past, and I can feel my past self now rising up out of that past, feeling an updated sense of love and support for who they are and who they are becoming; traveling through time and space with an updated sense of love and support for who they are and who they are becoming.
“I can feel myself in the present moment, moving forwards positively, and I can feel my future self here with me now, supporting me. Moving forwards, in my own way and in my own time, remembering how strong, resourceful and supported I really am, just being me. Enjoying myself and the process, in my own way and in my own time. I know that things take time and energy to accomplish, but I now feel an intuitive balance of focus and forgiveness, trusting in myself and the process. Each step forwards works with me, surrendering to the supportive forces within me and around me. Thank you for my positive present future now. My future dreams are a reality now.”
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Now you’re ready to plant your wishes. Shauna has included wishes for healing, for giving, for receiving, and for different stages and phases in her book, as well as wishes for revolution. Use the below to wish for a better future for ourselves and for others.
<< WISHES FOR REVOLUTION >>
To be said like confessions, admitting to the wrongdoings of ourselves and others, in atonement or with the intention of coming into alignment with right action.
WISH FOR THE EARTH
May I awaken to recognize the Earth as a living organism. May I treat her like a divine mother and giver of life: the ocean’s waters, the trees’ air, the soil’s growth. May I begin to live my life by right actions to sustain a living future.
WISH FOR CHANGE
May I stand with love and respect for all life. May I listen, learn and act with compassion. May I embody the humility to admit when I am wrong and make reparations for deep, lasting, systemic change towards equality on all levels. May I learn to see others and myself as one, with generosity and grace.
CLOSING WISH
In all my wishing, may I have the patience to let go of what no longer serves my highest good, moving like a river flows, surrendering to the supportive slipstreams, moving forwards positively, just being me. Trusting in myself and the process of learning and growing and becoming stronger, and more open and receptive to making my future dreams a reality now.
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Wishcraft by Shauna Cummins is published by Hardy Grant on Jan 26 2021. Pre-order your copy HERE.
A former social media “comment crusader,” diversity and inclusion specialist Aaron Rose is committed to moving beyond the “us vs. them” callout culture. PLUS Aaron shares 7 ways to upgrade your spiritual activism by choosing connection and compassion over fear …
Photo: Alberto Vasari
With 15 years working as a facilitator, educator, and consultant in the field of “Diversity & Inclusion,” my overarching mission is to heal our world’s generational patterns of separation so that we can all thrive as our authentic selves. Though always important, this work has of course taken on even more urgency in the escalating polarization following the 2016 election.
But in the last few years I have had to rethink some of how I was originally trained to approach this work. Namely, that relying on a callout culture of shame and dehumanization—however subtle or justified—as motivating tools of change, will never resolve the isolation and exclusion we ultimately seek to address.
Historically, my work focused on explaining the history of institutionalized oppression and practicing “dos and don’ts” for interacting with different groups. The premise—albeit often unspoken—was that we were there to help the privileged people understand how to treat the marginalized people better. Many people did indeed leave feeling more informed and better prepared to work with people different from themselves. However, when others would express feeling upset, confused, or silenced, I knew something was missing.
Many of my colleagues wrote this off as collateral damage—some people would just never get it, they said. And if a white man left feeling upset, maybe that was a good thing, because lots of people have been upset for a long time. I understood the logic, but this theory of social change felt incomplete to me.It’s a dynamic that has become all too familiar in social media interactions in which people are called out for offensive or exclusionary behavior and summarily “canceled” or rejected without any space for recourse or repair.
Back then, my life mirrored my work. I genuinely saw light and potential in everyone—and wanted to help us all understand each other better. But, truthfully, I usually meant, you (a person with historically more access and power than most) needed to understand me (a trans and queer person with experiences of violence and marginalization).
My approach was that of a pretty typical East Coast liberal. I would passionately launch into Facebook comment monologues, determined to get people to understand how they were hurting others, while distancing myself from people based on their presumably more privileged identities. My tone was condescending at best, and vitriolic at worst. I wanted people to understand the harm they were doing, and I wanted it to stop. Now.
Deep down, I, like so many others, felt scared and misunderstood. In most of the jobs I’d had as a young adult, I’d experienced harassment and discrimination—from prying questions about my transgender identity, to constant misgendering, to sexual harassment and violence—and the pain of my own marginalization kept me in a defensive stance.
I was quick to judge people’s politics, and even quicker to let them know about it—when separated by a screen and a keyboard. In most cases, there was little hope for redemption once someone had acted in a way I deemed oppressive, racist, heterosexist, transphobic, or more. But for all my accusations of division and dehumanization, I too was compartmentalizing people, saying things like “I could never be real friends with a straight guy … he just wouldn’t get me.” It hadn’t occurred to me yet that maybe I didn’t really get him either. I had never thought to ask.
While doing the work of humanizing historically excluded minorities, I had been unwittingly dehumanizing others. It seemed natural to view my work as an us vs. them quest to change some people’s minds on behalf of others. But I’ve come to understand that this approach will only continue to amplify the feeling of uneasy disconnection that characterizes so much of modern life, particularly online: the fear of being judged, the fear of being harmed, the fear that saying the wrong thing will result in excommunication.
The work that many pioneering LGBTQ people, people of color, women, and other historically marginalized people have done to legitimize the acknowledgement of our individual pain and institutionalized discrimination is important and invaluable. That kind of self-expression and community accountability is indispensable. But if simply being able to recite our personal and collective histories of oppression back and forth to one another with flawless terminology was going to create true progress, we would not be in our current accelerating state of political polarization and identity-based isolation. If we truly want a more just and connected world, we all have to go a step further.
Today, I no longer take to social media with fear and contempt to catalogue the ways in which others are letting me down. I’ve shifted my focus from what we’re tearing down to an approach that does not calcify divisions but instead catalyzes connection. This does not mean releasing people from accountability or never speaking up against injustice. It simply means setting the intention to treat no human being as if they are disposable, even if they are failing to honor our humanity. It means creating the conditions in which we can, as adrienne maree brown writes, “default to trust on a community level.”
Below, I share 7 ways we can be stewards of this paradigm shift:
Photo: Gwendolyn Rodriguez
1// Heal yourself to heal the world. Your work starts with you – owning your story, and releasing the blocks that stand between you and truly recognizing yourself in another. Regardless of your identities, our conditioned social autopilot reinforces the idea that connecting with people from different backgrounds puts us at risk in some way. For those of us (read: all of us!) who have felt minimized or unsafe because of who we are, leaning into even more discomfort can feel scary. But the more we connect with our own sense of humanity, the more we can extend that to others.
**Action Step: Take some time to meditate on welcoming feelings of safety. The more you cultivate a feeling of security within yourself, the more you will be able to welcome others into your world. You are safe, you are resilient, you are here to thrive and make space for others do the same. This meditation is one of my favorites. You can also check out my meditation series here.
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2// Redefine how you love. We are all called to love each other now as if our lives depended on it. Because they do. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke often about agape love as the driving force behind all his work. He said, “And this is what Jesus means … when he says, ‘Love your enemy.’ And it’s significant that he does not say, ‘Like your enemy’ … There are a lot of people that I find it difficult to like. I don’t like what they do to me. I don’t like what they say about me and other people … But Jesus says love them. And love is greater than like. Love is understanding, redemptive goodwill for all men, so that you love everybody, because God loves them.”
**Action Step: Practice silently blessing every person you encounter and wishing them peace and happiness. Your world will begin to transform before your eyes, from the inside out.
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3// Meditate for real. Meditation creates space between external stimuli and our responses, allowing us to act as we choose, versus on autopilot. In the same way that we cannot change our world unless we face the truth of it, we cannot embody a new energy of love unless we retrain our nervous systems. Meditation is the path to this change.
**Action Step: Practice the Buddhist metta, or loving kindness, meditation. A common mantra is: May you be happy, May you be healthy, May you be safe, May you live a life of peace. Extend this blessing first to yourself, then to those you love, then to the world around you, and finally to the people who you find it hardest to love. This practice is a gift you can give yourself anywhere, anytime.
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4// Know our history, know yourself. We make it a lot easier for others to trust us and give us room to grow when we show up fully. In the context of identity and social change, this means understanding our world’s historical patterns of exclusion and violence. Acknowledge your part and make amends, for yourself as well as your ancestors. Understand both your access and power, as well as your history of pain and struggle. Recognize that we all have inherent biases, and be prepared to acknowledge them as they surface. Learn bystander intervention protocol and be ready for action.
**Action Step: What are your identities? Where do you fall toward the margins and where do you have more access? Explore Kimberle Crenshaw’s work on intersectionality to develop a deeper understanding of how our combination of identities shape our experience of the world.
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5// Release perfection, embrace integrity. We will all make mistakes along the way. Doing this work is about integrity: staying in alignment with your values and maintaining your sense of wholeness in the process. No one comes from the same perspective, and many of us do not have an academic foundation in theories of oppression and liberation. Despite our commitment to love, none of us will have the perfect word every time.
**Action Step: How will you respond when you or someone else messes up? What are your go-to phrases for communicating when a boundary has been crossed? How will you apologize and repair? Practicing ahead of time allows our brains to find the right words when our bodies are in fight or flight.
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6// Reframe callouts as opportunities for connection. When someone tells you your words were offensive, it’s easy to get defensive and push back. And to build a culture where everyone can thrive, we need to reframe how we perceive negative feedback. Humans don’t often take the time to let somebody know they feel hurt unless some part of us cares about being understood by the person who hurt us. Framed this way, each callout is a gift in service of our collective healing and evolution. Show the same investment in the connection by showing up to learn and repair together.
**Action Step: Practice responding to call-outs with grace and integrity. Pick your go-to phrases. Some options: “Thank you for letting me know how my words impacted you. I’m committed to building a community where everyone feels welcome.” “I hear what you’re saying and I will shift my words in the future. I’m sorry I used that hurtful language.” P.S. You really have to mean it, so align your energy with your words before pressing “share.”
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7// Redefine the personal vs. political binary. Who actually benefits from the idea that there is a difference between the personal and political? Certainly not you and me. Taking responsibility for caring for all life on Earth is the most profound investment we can make in our own self-care.
Action Step: How can you realign what is best for you as being what is best for all sentient beings? For example, is your meditation or intention-setting practice exclusively about your individual life? Set intentions not only for personal wealth and happiness, but for white people’s capacity to release our dependency on white supremacy, for example. For the renewing of our healthy relationship with planet Earth. For men’s commitment to repairing the wounds of the patriarchy. And for ongoing guidance about your role within the larger process. The support is there. You need only to tap in and ask.
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Aaron Rose is a writer, speaker, and diversity & inclusion coach. In his spare time you can find him waxing poetic about quantum physics, boy bands, and healing intergenerational trauma. Follow Aaron online at @aaronxrose and learn more about his work, including his upcoming healthy masculinity intensive for conscious men, at www.theaaronrose.com.
With this month’s Equinox paving the way for cosmic change, it’s the perfect moment to harness the electricity and innovation of the Goddess Urania, says Rebecca Farrar …
Photo by Max Felner
Long before astronomy and astrology became separated, the myth of Goddess Urania inspired philosophical questions about our connection to the starry heavens above. You can find her energy today in planetariums, and she is activated any time we consider our cosmic context or become enchanted with our celestial existence.
We have her to thank for instilling us with wonder, awe, and curiosity, and for cultivating the spirit of discovery and innovation.
Urania comes from the Greek word “Ouranos” meaning “all of the heavens.” In Greek mythology, she was the daughter of Zeus and the mother-muse Mnemosyne, as well as great granddaughter to Uranus himself. She dressed in a cloak with stars and her mighty accessories were a globe and stylus, said to represent the world’s mysteries. It was said by ancient poets that she was able to predict the future by looking at the stars.
Astronomically, Urania was the 30th asteroid discovered in 1854, and is currently hanging out one-degree away from Neptune in Pisces where it will remain for the next few years, guiding our intuition and sky wisdom. In this placement, astrology and astronomy serve as perfect spiritual practices for contemplating the vastness of our solar system and how to integrate it into our own lives.
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While Uranus leans towards the collective and generational experience, Urania gives us a taste of our unique relationship to the heavens. Explore your own cosmic connection and curiosity by finding Urania in your own chart.
**To find Urania in your chart, go to astro.com, enter your birth information, choose “Extended Chart Selection,” scroll down to “Additional Asteroids,” and type in 30.
Use the suggestions below to discover how you can ground heavenly energies into your life and be inspired to innovate …
1st house// What aspect of your soul’s purpose inspires you to innovate the most? Learning about your life purpose as it relates to your astrology chart can be a tool, so can Human Design, Myer’s Briggs, or other purpose-driven systems that can align your heart with the heavens. Alternatively, organize a planetarium visit solo or with a group, as long as you lead.
2nd house// How can you ground more cosmic wisdom into your relationships, and what aspect of relating are you often most curious about? Urania connects universal love with our personal experience, and helps us notice that the ways we love are both unique to us and also a part of the collective. Take time to look at patterns in your relating that may connect you more deeply to love itself.
3rd house// What are things you have always wanted to learn about, related to science, mathematics, astronomy or other topics? The more we learn about the complexity of our universe, the more we might just find new ways of thinking about things on Earth. Perhaps take an astronomy class or read books or studies by astrophysicists (I currently have a crush on Mike Brown, the guy who discovered Eris).
4th house// How do you feel about the vastness of your connection to everything and everyone? Does it overwhelm you or make you feel more safe? More than any other Urania placement, it’s important for you to feel at home and safe in our solar system. Try decorating your home with celestial themes or symbols to remind you of your innate cosmic connection. I suggest wall prints with your Sun and Moon sign constellations.
5th house// What aspects of human life enchant or evoke awe for you? Great art can inspire you to innovate and create in your own life. Consider the solar system through the lens of creativity or self-expression- look up artists who were inspired by the cosmos such as Vasily Kandinsky or Van Gogh.
6th house// How has your day-to-day routine lacked curiosity or excitement? While things may seem to be orderly in the universe, it is both predictable and has enough strangeness to confuse even the best of scientists. Find a way to shake things up, using the starry heavens for inspiration. You might try tracking constellations or going outside at night and noticing planetary movements.
7th house// What is your relationship to aesthetics and how do you find more of your own personal style? More than any other placement, you may experience Urania as a sacred “other” or muse. Our solar system has its own harmony and perfect balance. Try relating to this through aesthetics in jewelry and clothing, such as hoop earrings symbolizing the symmetry of orbits or other patterns.
8th house// How do you honor the power of the unknown in your life? Connect with the sensation of dark matter or black holes- places where light can’t exist and yet are the most powerful forces in the cosmos. Take a trip down the Google rabbit hole on the topic. You may walk away with an ever greater appreciation for the power of the darkness.
9th house// Ask yourself the same questions posed by early philosophers. Why am I here? What is the human relationship to the stars? Plan a trip or get curious about travel locations related to sacred star spots. You might start with the book “Heaven’s Mirror” by Graham Hancock, which discusses the possible relationships between constellation Sirius and the Pyramids of Egypt.
10th house// How do you relate to time and legacy? The cosmos is timeless in that it has existed for 13.7 billion years and yet the existence of humans has been but a blip. It takes seven minutes for the light of the Sun to reach Earth, and 150,000 years for other stars in our galaxy. Spend time thinking about what legacy you want to leave that would last years or centuries.
11th house// Who and what are your orbit? The solar system is a group of planetary bodies held together by gravity and mutual attraction. Often people with strong Uranian energies feel like aliens or black sheep in communities. What are ways you can feel more included? Join a community connected to a topic that inspires you and find your fellow seekers.
12th house// How does music inspire you? The sounds of the universe and musical frequencies are deeply intertwined, and music and muse actually have the same root word. Listen to classical or ambient music (try Holsts’ Planets Symphony for starters), and pay attention to the complexity and mathematical connections. If you feel so inclined, write some of your own!
Photo by Jill Heyer
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And no matter where the asteroid is in your chart, here are ways to amuse your Uranian muse …
// Style // Black connects us to dark matter and the night sky. Wear it with intention for the vastness and expansion. Obviously clothing with constellations or planetary bodies are a hell yes.
// Food //My naturopath once told me that eating dark-colored food connected me to the cosmos. Gobble up blackberries, black sesame seeds, black mission figs, black rice, and beyond …
// Workout // Stroll under the stars or just sit under them like an old school philosopher or astronomer would.
// Watch // Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Interstellar, ET, X-Files, or Hidden Figures
// Read //Anything by Carl Sagan or my former graduate school professor, cosmologist Brian Swimme
// Home // If you don’t already have them, add glow-in-the-dark stars to your ceiling or to other places where you’ll be able to see them at night. Add other fun pieces such as constellation art work or planetary mobiles.
// Healing // Meditate in the dark outside or channel cosmic energies with a Reiki session or a sound healing.
Aquarius season 2018 means it’s time to charge up your space-suit and pave the way for radical change, says Bess Matassa …
Shake it up. Wake it up. Get your freak on and break on through to the other side, astro babes. Aquarius Season 2018 shatters the fabric of the known and paints it stranger, wilder, and more wondrously weird than you could ever imagine.
‘Tis the season to tear down these brown paper walls, ignite your neon light-bright consciousness, and streak the sky with 50 shades of panoramic vision and then some.
You’re flesh and blood, babes. But you’re utopian megawatts and scintillating stardust, too. And out beyond the edge of the known, it’s time to electric slide …
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The keyword: Voltage.
The song lyrics: You gotta know it/It’s electric/Now you can’t hold it/It’s electric/Come let me take you on a party ride/And I’ll teach you the electric slide
Check out Bess’ Aquarius Season Playlist, complete with renegade rhythms, extraterrestrial beats, and voyages in sound.
The color palette: futuristically metallic and newborn neon. Lightning bolt lemon, aluminum sparkle, plastic white, and greenlit chartreuse.
The style: astral voyager meets 60s utopianism. Mile high platforms, coke bottle glasses, aerodynamic mohawks, puffer jackets, and political pins and patches.
The scents and flavors: innovatively invigorating wake-up calls and outer space treats. Pure matcha, wasabi peas, starfruit, peppermint, astronaut ice cream, and aldehyde-based perfumes.
The healing: collectively cool and renegade radical. Love-ins, ecstatic dance, breathwork, plant medicine, and intrepid voyages without the map.
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Sensuous Invitation of the Month: A Change For Your Uranus Placement
Aquarius’ ruler is a mercilessly maverick change-maker who urges us to smoke out the soft wood and renovate our structures with both foresight and freshness. Since the planet moves erratically through the signs, you can look to your Uranus house rather than sign to discover your secret code for banging on the system …
New to astrology? Discover your Uranus placement HERE.
Uranus in the 1st house Aquarius Season invites you to strip away old identities and skinny dip into a brand new you. // Your Change: Makeover. Radicalize the face you put forward in the world.
Uranus in the 2nd house Aquarius Season invites you to release the parking break on your self-worth and seize your true value with all your senses. // Your Change: Cutting-edge cuisine. Shock your palette and treat yourself to everything from an Impossible Burger to a Cheetos Macaron.
Uranus in the 3rd house Aquarius season invites you to sing your strangest song to the whole wide world. // Your Change: Foreign language. Lose the subtitles and get comfy with being lost and found in translation.
Uranus in the 4th house Aquarius season invites you to build your own house on your back and reinvent what roots mean to you. // Your Change: Home renovation. Tear down some physical walls to celebrate emotional expansion.
Uranus in the 5th house Aquarius Season invites you to express yourself don’t repress yourself with creative visions fit for a crazy queen. // Your Change: Costuming. Don anything from wigs to wings and tap into the “you” that transcends it all.
Uranus in the 6th house Aquarius Season invites you to refresh your body from the inside out and vigorously reinvent your routine. // Your Change: Cleanse. Clear out your internal system with a good juicing.
Uranus in the 7th house Aquarius season invites you to widen your partnership horizons and break free from your humdrum modes of relating. // Your Change: Blind date. Sidle up to someone completely unknown and be ready to receive whomever arises.
Uranus in the 8th house Aquarius season invites you to take a leap towards intimacy with complete faith and wild abandon. // Your Change: Sexploration. Mix up your usual bedroom antics with new partners, toys, or simply an untapped inner fantasy.
Uranus in the 9th house Aquarius season invites you to rediscover the magic in every single possible road and then set off with a wide open heart. // Your Change: Route home. Get lost in your own city and discover innovative pathways and belief systems in the streetscape.
Uranus in the 10th house Aquarius season invites you to stand up for your right to be your own authority, right the hell now. // Your Change: Side hustle. Either quit your day job or add a radical passion project to your night shift.
Uranus in the 11th house Aquarius season invites you to become a lightning rod for social change and trust in your own futurity. // Your Change: Public speaking. Tap into a much larger sense of sea shifts by awakening the collective consciousness either politically or personally.
Uranus in the 12th house Aquarius season invites you to melt the walls and surrender your static sense of selfhood to be birthed anew. // Your Change: A nickname. Experiment with blurring the edges of your container by switching up your moniker.
Bess is available for private readings and astro-themed events. Connect with her at bessmatassa.com
A manifesto for change; a new Moon Club cycle; self-care for the soul; Club SÖDA NYC; and what will you donate to Standing Rock?
With Biet Simkin, Fern Olivia and Valerie Oula at our OFF THE RÖCKS event.
:: MONDAY :: Finished reading an advance copy of maverick philosopher Daniel Pinchbeck’s new book, How Soon is Now: From Personal Initiation to Global Transformation. Part memoir, part manifesto, Pinchbeck basically lays it on the line—either we actively choose to participate in facilitating a radical global consciousness shift, or we’re headed for social, political, and environmental armageddon. Which, as he tells it, is not nearly as scary / daunting as it sounds!
I defy anybody not to feel super inspired by Pinchbeck’s vision for a new Earth, and one which truly is within our reach. IF we all get on board—and fast. Reading this against a backdrop of the 2016 Presidential election / Standing Rock, two inter-related situations which, for me, represent the two sides of the current doomsday we find ourselves facing, there’s only one answer to the question he poses in the title: the time for action is NOW. Which is why I call it the Now Age!
The book is out Feb 21—please pre-order your copy NOW, since I just decided we’ll be reading it together for the very first Numinous book club. Click here to get yours.
:: TUESDAY :: Sagittarius New Moon…which means the first official Moon Club cycle begins! All our members received their Moon Mission PDF for this moon cycle (11/29—Dec 29) today, with an overview of the cosmic climate, what this actually means for us as human beings, weekly coaching exercises for each moon phase, and a reading for each moon sign. But it’s actually totally fine to sign up at any time during the month—as all new members receive a link to the current Moon Mission, and there’s some kind of scheduled activity every week.
For example, for next Tuesday’s first quarter moon in Pisces, Moon Club members will be invited to a LIVE interactive webinar with Thinx founder Miki Agrawal. One of our favorite entrepreneur activists, Miki is all about starting the kind of conversations that are an essential part of Daniel Pinchbeck’s utopian vision for the future. You can learn more about Moon Club and check out a sample Moon Mission PDF here.
:: WEDNESDAY :: Favorite, favorite new pampering / self-care treat: the Crystal Ritual Cleanse from colorist-stylist duo Lauren & Vanessa. Which is essentially a wash + blow-dry…with added reiki, crystals and essential oils! Designed to balance and activate the upper chakras (heart, throat, third eye, and crown), the treatment begins with me laying back at a hair washing station and Lauren asking me to select the essential oil I want her to work with. She then places crystals in each of my hands, and proceeds with a reiki treatment and head massage—working the oil into my crown chakra…with more crystals!
The treatment ends with a blowout from Vanessa, and I leave feeling deeply revitalized. And something has obviously worked on a “material girl” level too—literally every person I encounter during the rest of the evening tells me how great I’m looking.
Which, if I’m honest, feels kind of frivolous to even mention against the backdrop of the election / Standing Rock. I’m getting a crystal head massage, while people are (literally) freezing on the front lines? But I think meditation artist Biet Simkin made a great point in a FB post today also: “I almost feel like there is a shame now to post anything that isn’t completely depressing. But if you kill our spirit, how will we stand against these dangers!? For what will we stand!? We must remember light! We must remember the spirit inside us!”
As well as time with loved-ones, nurturing our bodies with delicious food, and feeding our minds with inspiring words, it’s self-care and pleasure rituals like the above that help keep us connected to our sense of spirit. To what we are fighting for. Yes, the time for stepping into our roles as global change-makers is now. And can’t we also feel really great while we do it? Click here to read more and book a treatment with Lauren & Vanessa.
:: THURSDAY ::
Club SÖDA NYC. Another amazing turn-out and crowd for mine and Biet’s “sober curious” event—which also made Well+Good’s list of top wellness trends for 2017! Top tip from our panel on sober party pre-gaming? Write a gratitude list. I also had the realization during Biet’s meditation, that what we’re really craving in alcohol is a shift, an “escape,” into the right side of the brain—the intuitive, feeling, feminine side, versus the logical, linear left brain. We live in such a left-brain world (deadline-driven, progress-focussed), we’ve been left with a collective yearning for transcendence that can often manifest in substance mis-use.
And yes, this shift to a more balanced brain state—where left and right, masculine and feminine, thinking and feeling—work in tandem, is also part of Pinchbeck’s Now Age vision. The challenge: investigate ways to get there that are also physically restorative, mentally enlivening, emotionally supportive, and spiritually fulfilling.
:: FRIDAY :: Making plans to head to The Deep End Club community gathering tomorrow, and donate a bunch of Numinous sweatshirts to Standing Rock. They’re super cozy, after all. What have you got to give?
What if you applied the life changing magic of Marie Kondo’s tidying methods to choosing the right friendships, asks Victoria Cox? Artwork: Found on Pinterest
Friendship is a constantly evolving thing. We have our inner circle of friends, our coven of trusted confidants. Then there is a secondary circle, comprising people we are friendly with but who are less likely to know our strange quirks and deepest desires; work colleagues, gym buddies or school friends.
Over time, lesser known friends move into the inner circle, whist others move out of the constellation entirely. The point being that our friendship circle is ever changing, as we mature and grow. It is not designed to be stagnant and fixed.
Some friendships gain strength year after year, reaching surprising levels of intimacy. Some fade away entirely either through neglect, distance or simply growing apart. Then there are others that come to an abrupt end, the flame of friendship extinguishing itself in a dramatic fashion.
I understand all of this. So why do I still find myself trying to maintain friendships that no longer serve me? The answer to this question can often be surmised in one word: obligation. After all, if we’ve spent years building up a friendship, investing our time and our hearts, it seems counter-intuitive to throw it all away.
But what if we could learn to accept that if things aren’t what they once were? Acknowledge that it’s time to move on, with no hard feelings?
After all, I’ve learned to do this is every other area of my life. I’ve walked away from dysfunctional relationships; shitty bosses and unfulfilling jobs without even looking back. Why not apply the same thought process to my friends?
And then I finally read Marie Kondo’s book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and a light-bulb went on in my head.
Kondo, a Japanese organizing expert, touts the virtues of tidying by asking of everything you own: “Does this spark joy?” and if not, thanking it for its service and getting rid of it. But instead of pondering whether inanimate objects in my apartment sparked joy, what if I applied this method to choosing the right friendships?
Admittedly my first thought was to question whether or not I would qualify as a sociopath in comparing my friendships to my heavily stained shower curtain.
But really, what if we were to scroll through every friend listed in our phone contacts and ask ourselves: “Does this person spark joy in my life?” I would hazard a guess there’s probably a good thirty percent of people about whom we would either answer with a long “hmmm…”—or else blurt out a “Hell No!”
And when you really think about it, why would we choose to spend our valuable time with friends that no longer spark joy in our life? It simply doesn’t make any sense. Until you factor in that godawful G word. Guilt.
So powerful is the G-word (evil twin of the that O-word again—obligation) that I recently found myself spending hours with a friend who I didn’t want to hang out with, doing things I had no interest in doing and wishing I was somewhere else. Talk about soul-destroying.
And so turned back to Kondo’s book, seeking more pearls of wisdom to apply to my friendship circle.
She also wisely counsels that nostalgia is not your friend when it comes to your closet—and it turns out it’s not much help when it comes to friends, either.
How many times had I continued to hang out with a friend based solely on memories of what fun we used to have together? As it turns out, way too many. Our conversations always took a detour back down memory lane, peppered with “Remember when’s?” rather than “I’m so excited for…”
Sadly, the past is the past and if the only connection is over what was instead of what will be, then it might be time to reassess what purpose that particular friendship is serving. Is this person invested in your future dreams? Do they relate to the person you are today, or only the person you used to be?
Friendships are unique. Unlike relationships with our family, we choose to enter into them. And unlike a marriage, there’s no piece of paper reminding us we’re obliged to try and make it work. We choose each other because the relationship means something to us, it brings us joy, makes us laugh, brings over pizza when we’re feeling down and out.
Whilst it may be incredibly sad to bid adieu to a friendship that just isn’t working for us in the same way—because we’ve changed, they’ve changed or it simply doesn’t jive the way it used to—it’s also freeing to remember that since we chose to get into it, we can also choose to get out.
“Is the entrepreneur life for me?” Resident Yogi and philosopher Eddie Stern responds… Artwork:Francesco Clemente
“After years of working for other people and putting all my creative energy into their dreams, I finally decided to do my own thing a couple of years back. I have worked on various projects since, some more successful than others—and while I try to always learn from the lessons of my ‘failures’ it can be hard not to focus on things that have gone wrong, and blame myself. Lately this has made me fearful about continuing on the entrepreneurial path and I’ve been fantasizing about the ‘easy life’—i.e. working for somebody else again—even though I know in my heart this would make me depressed and leave me craving my freedom again. How can I get past my mistakes and remain confident about pursuing my own dreams?”
Dear Dreamer,
Almost everyone sometimes feels trapped between two worlds; one world we know, the other we don’t really know…but we have some ideas. One world is exhilarating and free, and the other is safe, but is a prison. The world of safety, as you pointed out, can often be boring, unfulfilling, and limiting, while the world of the unknown—where our hidden, unlimited potential lies—is scary. Until we jump in, that is.
These two realities are spoken of in Hindu philosophy. There is the reality that can be measured, is logical, has size, shape and weight—and the reality that cannot: thoughts, emotions, inspiration, potential and creativity. We can measure our bodies, possessions, money, buildings, cars, cities, even the Universe, but we cannot measure that things that inhabit these spaces: knowledge, love, compassion, empathy, dreams, ambitions, hopes, desires, potential and friendship.
The reality that can be measured is called sakala, “with form,” and the reality that cannot is called nishkala, “without form.” However, they are both real—they both exist! The realm of man is the sakala realm, and the realm of the Gods—as well as our hopes, dreams, potential and feelings—is nishkala.
We get stuck in the world of quantification, of measurement, because that is what our world demands of us. How many followers do we have on IG? How much money do I have in the bank? Do I have six packs in my abs, or only one and a half? We measure, we compare, and we are miserable in doing so, because we always come up short. And we measure because we don’t know who we are.
In Yoga, this knowing who we are is the solution to all misery. It is the plug that let’s all the dirty, stinky water down the drain. For when we truly know who we are, we are immeasurable, pure consciousness. When we don’t know who we are, we are limited by the things we measure ourselves against.
When we don’t know who we are, we imitate those who project the kind of confidence and knowledge, or beauty or wit, that we wished we had. We give up the struggle of discovering who we are, by playing it safe, and taking on someone else’s self-expression. But in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says to Arjuna, “It’s better to do your own dharma poorly, then to do the dharma of another well”, meaning, it’s better to do your own thing and fail, rather than do someone else’s thing and succeed.
Why? Because you’ll never be happy and never find fulfillment with someone else’s purpose, only with your own. And it’s only you who can discover what that is. When you do, is when freedom begins. It’s how you access the realm of nishkala, and bring it forward, actively, into your life.
In the Tarot, a card which seems to accurately represent the dilemma that you are in right now, is the Two of Wands. The image on the card is of a person standing between two upright wands; he is holding onto one of the wands with his left hand, and in his right, he is holding a globe, or, the world, as he gazes off towards the distance.
The meanings of the card can relate to decision making; you have reached a fork in the road, so to speak, and there are two directions you can go. One direction will lead you towards freedom and abundance, and the other towards safety, which is binding, and will be fraught with self-doubt. The card symbolizes independence and boldness on the one hand, and fear of failure, and dependence on others, on the other.
Being bold is an expression of personal power, which is simply another terms for your unique potential and creativity. Now may be the time for you to own that originality within you, and be bold enough to express it in the world. You may have had some failures, and you will definitely have fears to face head on, but in the end, regardless of success or failure, you will have the inner satisfaction of knowing that you were brave enough to listen.
The important thing is to keep at your work. Your creativity will continue to grow as you feed it. It will continue to grow as you use if for work that aligns with your own vision.
There are three key words I’ve seen associated with the Two of Wands: personal power (which I read as infinite potential channeled through us each as unique individuals); boldness; and originality. Your potential will become clearer the more you exercise it; your boldness will increase when you face your fears directly and don’t let them rule you; and last, connecting with your own work, and your own originality, will lead you towards personal fulfillment, which is true success.
But the Two of Wands reminds us of one other thing: we do not own our creativity, or our potential, or power. These are channeled through us, and if we are lucky, we can tap into them and express them through our actions and attitudes. We should remain humble knowing that we are not the authors of our creativity or power, that we are conduits, and that when creativity flows through us, all goes well. But when we try to control it, or think that we are special because of it, things will eventually go south. Be bold, but be humble. Be fearless, but also, be grateful.
A yogic practice you can try to balance out the two realities that we all live in is alternate nostril breathing. It’s fairly simple, is calming, and balances both hemispheres of the brain.
Begin by sitting comfortably in a chair, or cross-legged on the floor.
With your right hand, you make the Vishnu Mudra, which looks like this.
Place your right thumb against your right nostril, inhale and exhale 3-5 times through your left nostril. Your breathing should be smooth and even, not too long, and not too short. Usually a 3-4 second inhale and exhale is a good place to start.
After 3-5 breaths, close your left nostril with your right ring finger, and breath the same amount of times through the right nostril. Your breathing should be smooth and even, with the same length of breath that you used on the left side (3-4 seconds inhale, 3-4 seconds exhale).
After 4 breaths through the right side, place your right hand back into your lap or on to your knee, and take 3-5 slow deep breaths.
You can do this once or twice a day—morning and evening, and before having food, are optimal times to try it. There are many variations of alternate nostril breathing, that overall have some of the same effects. This one in particular is single nostril, or unilateral, breathing, and has been show to have positive effects on both spatial awareness (knowing where you are in space, and where things are in relation to you), and improving cognitive abilities. I think the two wands in the Two of Wands card are reminiscent of the nostrils, and the subtle energy channels that are attached to them! Try it, and see if it helps.
Recent world events have stirred up many emotions. Louise Androlia shares her wisdom on how to use our feelings as a catalyst for empowered action…. Images: Katya Volpato
Recent world events have left many of us feeling traumatized, whether or not we’ve been directly affected by acts of mass violence. These are turbulent times, and having been working on my own path to trauma recovery recently, I feel called to share some thoughts on how to work on being present in reality—but at the same time not becoming immobilized by fear.
At the root of it all, whether facing our own crisis or confronted with mass crisis, the difficult art to master is that it is safe to feel our feelings and continue to connect, especially when we feel as though it would be wiser to shut down.
The strong emotions being stirred up among switched on communities now are actually a valuable call to action. Here are some ways we can use them—while avoiding losing our connection to our highest selves, or getting swept up in the hype.
THE EMOTION: Overwhelmed THE GUIDANCE: You can’t save the whole world at once THE EMPOWERED ACTION:Focus your attention
Pick something you currently feel very passionate or perhaps frightened about, and then learn and feel your way through it. Endless browsing through social media feeds may make you feel more frustrated because you also end up reading the comments, which can lead to yet more overwhelm. Instead, choose to focus on your chosen subject and learn all you can. Yes this will be hard if you are used to endless scrolling—because as well as learning, you are re-training your mind to be present.
THE EMOTION: Fear THE GUIDANCE: Catastrophizing only fuels the fears THE EMPOWERED ACTION:Get involved in local politics and community
Looking on Facebook lately, all I’ve seen is people screaming into the Internet abyss about the apocalypse and giving fuel to their own fear and sadness in the process. This helps no one, including you. So look at how you can actually get involved within your community, and if you don’t see anything obvious, start something. It is so easy to just say ‘Fuck the world’. But this is not the time to give up. It’s time to shout louder, IRL, and to remember your voice and your vote DOES count.
THE EMOTION: Anger THE GUIDANCE: Do not fight fire with fire THE EMPOWERED ACTION:Feel your anger; then channel it into positive action
The elements can always teach us something—for example, anger is a fire element emotion, while compassion and feelings are water element emotions. And you don’t put out a forest fire by setting another part of the forest on fire! Action, and so activism, is a positive channel for anger, and if what’s needed now is more of the water element, become an activist for love, compassion, equality, empathy, and connection.
THE EMOTION: Grief THE GUIDANCE: It is safe to feel your feelings THE EMPOWERED ACTION:Explore and nurture your shadow side
Man of us are experiencing a huge collective sense of grief, coming in all forms, and for anybody not used to this emotion, this level of pain can seem very frightening to the mind, body and spirit. This is not a time to numb the pain, but instead an opportunity to dive deeper in your own self-inquiry practice. Checking out of reality serves no one, including you. Allow yourself to acknowledge and feel all the fears that have arisen recently and know that it is okay to do so. It can sometimes feel like our own personal crises are not ‘bad’ enough to warrant being the focus of our compassion—but ignoring your own pain will leave you unable to serve. By learning to compassionately address what is currently coming up for you, then you are actually helping to heal the collective and creating connection between yourself, your peers and those strangers you are really feeling for.
THE EMOTION: Helplessness THE GUIDANCE: Re-connect to yourself THE EMPOWERED ACTION:Take a media break
First of all, avoid watching or reading the mainstream news on a loop. Studies show that when we keep recycling the news over and over we are re-traumatizing constantly. And the more scared we feel, the more helpless we can feel. To be able to start being of service it is essential that we learn to reconnect to our selves, as once back in the present moment we feel more stable to help others. I’ve also lost count of how many people I hear saying they wish they could use social media less, as this can have a similar way of hooking us into judgment and fear, and distancing us from our own truths. The great news is…you can!
Some easy ways to start:
Leave your phone at home and go for a walk in your neighborhood.
Put your phone on airplane mode at night.
Create a ‘no social media after ***pm’ rule.
Log out of all your social media channels on your computer and phone. This means that when you go to use them you become aware that you have to login. This allows using them to become intentional.
Move your social icons on your phone to a folder and put it on the last page of scrolling. Again this means you CHOOSE when to look rather than it just being there.
Do not read the comments. I repeat DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS.
These small actions may feel massively uncomfortable, and if so, good. If you feel anxious without your phone, good. The present moment will continue to feel painful until you learn to be IN it. And look how much time you now have! What would you like to do with it? I suggest reconnecting to PLAY. Connecting with your inner child is another way to ease anxiety and help you reconnect to your natural energy of love and connection. When you refresh your true north, you are more likely to be able to shift your helplessness into self-love.
THE EMOTION: Frustration THE GUIDANCE: Express yourself in the way that works for you THE EMPOWERED ACTION: Show don’t tell
It can be really hard to express yourself in a way that you feel helps, especially when you’re angry and upset. It’s good to remember that we rarely get our point across when we try and force it upon someone and so preaching doesn’t usually feel good. You will always feel better when you can express yourself articulately and if you find it difficult to feel confidence with expressing yourself with words, remember also that you can always just BE the change. We always positively affect those around us with our behavior. So think: what small steps can you take in your day-to-day life that will provide example of the kind of world you’d like to live in?
***
A Final Word on Black Lives Matter. Vs All Lives Matter.
This is an argument that’s been raging, and below are a few of my favorite simple ways to explain the situation to someone who is having trouble understanding. It is part of human nature to make everything about ourselves (regardless of the topic) since in times of trauma our survival instinct kicks in. But it’s important to learn to recognize that not EVERYTHING is about us. The more that we can see ourselves connected to everyone else, the more empathy we can ignite.
“When we say ‘Save the Rainforests’, it doesn’t mean that all other forests suck.”
“Choosing to go to a rally for Breast Cancer does not mean that Liver Cancer is less important.”
“Saving an animal that’s about to go extinct does not mean that other animals aren’t important, it just means that right now, this one needs our help.”
“Yes, of course all lives are important, but currently it doesn’t feel like black lives are as important as other lives—and until the world is equal, meaning ALL people receive the same level of kindness and judicial treatment, then we need to speak up.”
“Choosing to support black lives does not mean your life is any less significant.”
The energy of Sagittarius Full Moon is here to encourage you to go out and have fun. So step outside of your comfort zone, and see what the Universe has in store for you, says Hannah Ariel…
With the Sagittarius Full Moon, we’re turned on and tuned in to our inner visionary; the archer that shoots beyond the Moon, the courageous voice that resides within, reminding us that we are always on a journey—and we that have what it takes even when we think we aren’t “getting it” or we are “missing the point.” When we feel challenged from all ends of the spectrum.
Sagittarius tells us to keep it up, keep going—because there’s something here for you. With the Sagittarius Full Moon, there is a heightened awareness of how we are experiencing (or lacking) the faith that is totally necessary for us to keep going, keep reaching. And it certainly hasn’t been an easy ride lately.
The energy of the May 6 Taurus New Moon dealt with the grounded, earthly facets of our lives. It inspired a manifestation process that has asked us to take it easy, one step at a time, and amid a myriad of retrograde energies that have thrown us emotional curveballs left and right. The sagittarius Full Moon is here to lift our spirits in the face of hard work, emotional work, and spiritual work.
It there’s one thing to know about the Sagittarius Full Moon, it’s that your your willingness to keep your head high and your eyes forward is required; that your confidence, your inspiration, and your vision is truly essential. This moon needs you to work yourself up to a state of full-fledged faith in whatever project you are currently involving your energy with.
Because chances are, with four planets still in retrograde, you may still be riddled with some doubts—doubts that are keeping you from fully giving yourself over to the manifestation process and getting what the Taurus New Moon in Taurus signified you truly want and need from this cycle of energy.
So here we are, May 21, just a day after the Sun enters Gemini, with the moon reaching its peak fullness on the very first degree of Sagittarius—making an EXACT conjunction with MARS also in Sag. This signals an awakening, since there is a “fighting spirit” to this degree. According to Dane Rudhyar, the first degree of Sagittarius reaffirms our capacity to remember previous achievements in the face of adversity, even achievements experienced by past generations. There is something seriously spiritually uplifting about this degree!
Just imagine, for a moment, that at this point in your journey you are being supported by the visions of your ancestors—all the people that came before you to help bring you to this point in time to do what you came here to do. This first degree of Sag, where the full moon and Mars retrograde will meet, “implies a special kind of fire that burns the now to build a greater tomorrow. It is future oriented—refers to the very power implied in the process of civilization—the perpetuation of the spirit of struggle,” writes Rudhyar.
If you feel like you’ve been struggling, know that you’re so not alone; and that you are about to be SO empowered by this Sagittarius Full Moon!
At this time, also keep in mind the power of being connected to other people. With the Sun in Gemini, we may be reminded how some of the most incredible opportunities arrive when we just get out there and mingle with the whims of the Universe, when we aren’t afraid to let go our way of doing things, when we step outside ourselves, and communicate our process and ideas with friends and neighbors.
The energy of this Sagittarius Full Moon feels like the friend who encourages you to go out to ‘the party’ with them, even when you’re not ‘in the mood’—only to go on ahead, and find exactly what you’ve been looking for to help you in your process. The invitation now is to experience opportunities seemingly MEANT for you that you’d never have stumbled across if you hadn’t listened to the voice that said: “c’mon, it’ll be fun!”
Also, as a reminder, lucky Jupiter went direct at the beginning of this cycle, another reason to get that bright-eyed optimism back online. Sure, Jupiter is also squaring Saturn retrograde in Sagittarius, confronting us with our capacity to remain optimistic even in the face of limitations. But you’ve got nothing to lose by staying positive. Jupiter goes forward as Saturn moves backward, so instead of looking to where things went wrong in the past, have faith and look to where things are going right.
If you’ve been honoring your Taurus New Moon intentions and have been carefully plodding away at a task, this could be your big breakthrough—or a reminder of how much others are there for you, whatever your manifestation mission may be. What began with a material outlook may very well reveal a whole new spiritual understanding of what you are capable of as a human being among other human beings.
Look for events around this Sagittarius Full Moon to show you where you need to give yourself an extra push forward, or find a friend to remind you: “c’mon it’ll be fun.” It’s Sagittarius, after all!
To book a personal reading with Hannah Ariel email: [email protected]
Mars retrograde stirring up any suppressed…rage (um, Lemonaid)? You can use your anger as a powerful tool for transformation, says Erin Telford…
Anger is my favorite shadow emotion. It’s powerful, it gets things done and it is excellent at creating boundaries and change.
But anger is also one of the most misunderstood and underutilized emotions. As women, we are socialized in both overt and covert ways to be nice, not make a fuss and not rock the boat. When we are taught by our loved-ones and by our culture to bite our tongue in service of keeping the peace, we can get very disconnected from trusting our feelings and from feeling safe to work with this emotion when it flares up.
The thing is, most of us have never seen a healthy expression of anger. We associate it with road rage, throwing things at people, screaming, crying, cursing, fear, abuse, physical threats, danger, and out of control people. These are all examples of unhealthy anger. It’s not an emotion we appreciate so we try our very best to suppress it out of existence.
But it’s actually unexpressed or suppressed anger can get ugly. And beyond the stigma, all anger is, is a catalyst for change and an opportunity for some honest communication. Anger can actually work for you if you work with it.
Anger in its purest form simply says: “I don’t like this. Something needs to be different about this situation.” It’s a call to action! You don’t like it? Okay, change it!
One of the best examples of healthy anger is peaceful protest. This is anger put to work—a group of people turning their collective anger into action to create change. We are seeing this right now in politics, the environment, and human rights. It is impossible for anyone with a beating heart to turn a blind eye to what is going on in our world. We are riled up, expressing our opinions and getting involved!
We can all do this in our personal lives as well. Anger is a very powerful force and if wielded with grace and finesse, it can move mountains. Where we get into trouble with anger is when we push it down, causing it to build.
Anger is connected with the season of spring. This is because it speaks to the catalytic energy surge required to turn a seed into a plant, to push it’s little head above the soil and reach for the sun! Spring, our liver, and by association the energy of anger, are connected with upward and outward growth.
So what happens if your growth is inhibited? What happens when someone tells you “no”? A ridiculous new policy is created at work? What if you are simply just trying to walk down the street and everyone is in your way? You didn’t get the apartment or the job or the acceptance letter, a flight is delayed, a class isn’t offered, you didn’t get the promotion?
These are ways that an obstacle interrupts the smooth flow of our life. We don’t like obstacles. We don’t like no. We don’t like interruptions to our plans.
And so our natural reaction can be anger. Which is totally fine. We are upset.
But to deny this is to block our access our personal power. When we feel guilty about what we feel or label ourselves as being “negative” when we feel angry, we miss out on an opportunity to out-create our circumstances.
Rather, if we can sit with our anger, can look at where it’s coming from and why we feel it, we can polish it into a nugget of transformational gold. If we have been hurt or upset by another person, rather than lashing out, we can advocate for ourselves and clearly state our needs to that person. If someone continually disrespects or hurts us, you may need to use that anger to create a change in the terms of that relationship!
You may have heard that anger turned inward results in depression—an oversimplified expression, since depression has many roots and takes many forms—but there is some weight to it.
When we repress our anger toward a partner, friend, loved one or co-worker by not sharing our truth, we are betraying ourselves. We are inadvertently communicating to ourselves that our feelings don’t matter and we are not worth standing up for. Self-betrayal is the most painful betrayal of all and can decrease self-esteem and confidence—leading to depression.
So we stay snippy and unexpressed and we self-medicate even more or our tense up even more, or our digestion suffers. It doesn’t have to be this way. Use your anger as a call to action to change your circumstances.
Breathe it out. Dance it out. Run it out. Write it out. Scream it out (not at someone else!) Sing it out. Create it out. Talk it out. Paint it out. Boot camp it out. Express it out.
You have to feel it to heal it. You have to let it out to transform it. Just don’t be afraid of anger.
The more you know your triggers and can feel when it’s rising in you, the more gently and safely you can manage this emotion. Anger is so powerful and properly harnessed it can do so much for you. Think of anger as your inner Mama Bear, your inner Kali, and your inner badass.
And let it be fuel to create powerful change and transform your life.
Freedom through self-discipline is the energy behind 5/5, says Felicia Bender…
The numerology of 5/5 offers a dynamic gateway turbo-charging the energy around any and all change we want to make in our lives.
“OUT with the old, IN with the new!”—is the siren song for this auspicious date.
In numerology, the number 5 is the freedom seeker. Its energy is all about progressive thought and action, fearlessness, and adventure.
On the flipside, the challenges this vibe brings can be fear, restriction, and self-sabotaging excess.
So when we have this portal of dynamic energy at our fingertips on 5/5, what do we want to do with it?
It’s a day to think about the constructive use of freedom—freedom through self-discipline. Anyone can run around doing anything they want whenever they want to, yet this isn’t true freedom—it’s myopic self-absorption.
In April we lost iconic and unorthodox artist Prince. In an interview he said that when he got into the music industry he was driven by the need for absolute freedom—freedom to say what he wanted, play all the instruments on his albums, and to have no constraints.
Yet he also said that he soon realized that undisciplined freedom led to decay—and that he knew that he needed a “spiritual mentor.” He suggested that everyone needs a spiritual mentor. He seemed to seek (after much “been there, done that”) the ultimate freedom only found by living and looking at life on this planet through a spiritual filter.
So what does freedom mean to you at this juncture in your life? What felt like freedom to you five years ago most likely doesn’t hold the same resonance now.
Do you want more money? More time? To get out of a non-productive relationship? To take your relationship to the next level of commitment? To take the plunge and change career or geography?
5/5 is a great day to energetically and actively commit to the change you want to become your new reality. And to then create a game plan. Visualize. See it—and more important than that, FEEL IT. If you don’t believe you can exist in your new reality, it can never materialize.
5/5 can be like an energetic elevator—yet you have to find the elevator, push the button, step inside the elevator, decide what floor you want to go to, push the button, and be ready to get off when you reach your floor. Oh, and the 5 is nothing if not fun, so make sure you find a way to enjoy the ride!
Yes, P as in pussy! In her latest Holy F*ck column, Alexandra Roxo explores ways to get things moving and grooving down there…
“Why you wear such tight clothes? Chi no flow down there!” The words of my five feet tall Chinese acupuncturist, Alice Yan, from Mott Street still haunt me every time I suck myself into a skinny jean or put on a pencil skirt.
I’ve been trying to keep that lower chi flowing for years and it’s recently come to my attention that I’m not the only one with some blocked P-Chi. By P, I mean Pussy, yes. Call it Shakti, sekhem, prana… Whatever it is. It’s the vibes seated deep in your pelvis waiting to be tapped into and, culturally, even globally, we all know p-chi is repressed/suppressed/depressed…All of it.
Instead of going to the bigger stuff – patriarchy, women being squashed out of all religions, femicide etc…- I say let’s start the healing on a micro-level, in our own lives, and mostly in our own panties.
A few years ago I found myself in a relationship, deeply in love, but with zero sex drive. Basically, my lower chakras were asleep. I looked for help. And it came via Paz de la Huerta, a goddess with free flowing P-Chi. So, I felt good about turning to Grace Kim, an amazing coach, for help.
It was a case of: “Hi. I can’t feel my lower chakras and – worse – I”VE BECOME OKAY WITH IT.” Her response? “Well this is blocking the flow for work, money, sex, and creativity for you. Manifestation occurs when the lower and higher chakras meet. At the heart.”
She showed me a chakra map for manifestation, sent me to a 5Rhythms class, recommended I wear more red, shake a rattle, and put my feet on the earth. DONE. But, slowly my energy crept back into my head, my mind, my iPhone…That, plus no connection to nature living in Brooklyn, and my lower chakras went on vacay, again.
So, when my acupuncturist straight up yelled at me and told me it was my fault I had bad cramps and irregular periods I got it. And since then I’ve been working on it, determined to stop living from the waist or neck up.
I recently did a snake dancing ceremony with a woman named Londin Angel Winters who has the chi FLOWIN. (You can just see when a woman has that Pussy Shine Light on. It’s a beacon of light in a dark world!) She uses the snakes to help you connect to your Kundalini and subtle energy body, using the metaphor of your pelvis as a cauldron – and, when you drop into that cauldron, you activate, the heat rises, and the heart melts. BOOM.
I danced with this snake named Bojack. And although he was around my neck, I felt it deep in my WOMB. Well, basically all my lady parts…It was like my Kundalini’s inner heater got cranked up to high. I cried and drove home feeling high as a kite! It was a powerful way to get that energy flowing. The next dance led to a deeper activation deep in my pelvis. A sense of ease. Grace. Calm.
In fact, as soon as I set my intention to unlock my P-Chi in a LIFE way – opposed to just a SEX way – is when it started to unfold. A filmmaker I barely know called me the other night and we chatted for two hours, with her asking: “Do you practice masturbation manifestation?”
I was like “Hot damn! I been practicing “sex with lotsa people” for so many years, but now since I’m on month four of celibacy I’m even re-defining my orgasm!” #Latetotheparty? But yes, I AM practicing masturbation for manifestation no, and it’s working. It’s another way to say hi to your P-Chi and get to know it/work with it/party down with it, and most of all HEAL it.
The other night while engaging in this “practice” I had some amazing business ideas. I called my friend Elyssa the next day to share, and as I told her I looked around and saw three white cars drive past. All with 11 on the license plates. I started screaming. P-CHI ON.
If this all sounds intense, don’t worry. You don’t have to wrap yourself in a reptile or do sex magic to switch on your P-Chi. My new friend Jayne Goldheart, another super activated woman, took me to a Qoya class, which is another way there. It’s a type of dance that def heals some deep feminine energy. I loved it.
And while I found myself twirling my pelvis in the dark it dawned on me: there are WAVES of women up on this cultural pussy healing and reactivation, and as I’ve been sucking my gut in so I can zip my leather pencil skirt, they have been fighting the good fight to keep women in their pleasure power pelvic center! Thank. Goddess.
The journey of healing and harnessing your P-Chi can be lifelong. It can be scary at times. Unlocking Shakti and Kundalini can also bring major waves of change in your life, but it’s so worth it. An awakened woman also scares some people off, but the ones who are meant to stick around and dance with you will.
The path of the open pelvis is a long and winding road, and as you consider whether to embark on the journey yourself, remember this: it’s also the direct route to unlocking your Goddess Energy, abundance, and intuition. And to the thousands of women helping remind us to get back to this power: I salute you all.
5 Easy to Get Your P-Chi Flowing
Start wearing more dresses and stop wearing underwear. I’m not saying wear a short tight dress panty free on the 6 train in NY in rush hour. Yuck. I’m thinking Saturday to brunch, a long Mara Hoffman look, a gentle breeze…Also, cross your legs less. That stops the flow!
Call in sick the first day of your cycle and start to make your own ritual around your period. And if your period is in a state of dysfunction (which mine was for years) spend some time on it, cause that’s a P-Chi block you’re dealin’ with. Read Alissa Vitti. Christiane Northrup. Ween yourself off Advil and listen to your cycle.
Move! NOT Soul Cycle – that crunches your P-Chi. I’m talking something that loosens and opens things up. Jamaican dancehall class has been my medicine! What’s yours? I also love Qoya, 5Rhythms, and will be getting into ecstatic as soon as I get some bell bottom yoga pants.
Let your belly hang out. I know this sounds wiiiiiiild right? Lol. It is pretty radical – what if we all took photos on Instagram with our bellies free? #Revolution. But honestly the breath is the biggest tool to warming up your nether regions and once you start releasing your breath into your pelvis you will feel a difference.
Write out your P-Chi story. Do a ritual around your relationship to your lower chakras, the energy there, when it’s been blocked, when it’s been wounded, what you want from it. Go as far or close as you want with it.
Alexandra Roxo is an LA based filmmaker and actress who has recently began doing coaching, healing and teaching work. Read more on alexandraroxo.com. Follow her on Insta here and read her past Numinous articles on Now Age love and sex here.
Let it all hang out…and allow “it” to spark your transformation, says Danielle Paige. PLUS a channelled angelic message for the Scorpio Full Moon by Jackie O’Shea
The need to feel. The need to destroy. The need to begin again, new, pure, hungry for something the makes your soul feel alive again. The need to hold on tight…and yet, to let go.
Welcome to this week’s Scorpio Full Moon. She will be exact on April 22 at 1:24am EST at 2 degrees of Scorpio.
A Full Moon shines a light on all things hidden. There is nowhere to hide now; it all comes out and usually in a dramatic way. Combine this with Scorpio energy, and we’ve entered a zone where we’re being asked to crack open and reveal the parts that might not be so pretty. Which, of course, is always subjective.
It may be pretty to cry – because it means you’re releasing old pain. It may be pretty to be a hot mess – because you’re feeling raw, untamed, and unapologetic, which in itself can be freeing and sexy!
A Full Moon is a powerful portal that help us tune into the Universal energy as we become moved by her gravitational pull. She dances over our soul. She plays with our heart. She lights us up. She brings our emotions to a head. She can keep us up at night, revealing questions that have been trapped in our subconscious for some time.
She taunts us….and when she’s in Scorpio, she does so in a transformative and healing way by going way, way below what’s happening up on the surface to get to the heart of the matter.
This Scorpio Full Moon may feel intense. But hold on to the awareness that she is here to show us the magic that’s hiding deep within. Scorpio energy doesn’t care what something looks like on the surface because it knows that underneath….inside….deep in the shadows….there is is a spark so bright it has the potential to transform into something more powerful than anything we’ve seen before.
This is where we are reborn, from this spark, from this light. But, first, something must be destroyed. That’s just how Scorpio works. Seductive and mysterious, Scorpio understands, as with everything in life, that we must let go of what has been order to breathe anew, to feel alive, and to move. Because when we move, when we transform and evolve, is when we truly live.
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Here are a few tips to help you tap into the transformative powers of this Scorpio Full Moon:
1) Allow yourself to access places within yourself that you haven’t felt in a while. It’s okay, you’re safe. The holding onto the past is what’s keeping you stuck. 2) Release anything that no longer serves you. Energetically imagine sending it down into a vortex and clearing it out of your energy field. Cut cords, take a salt bath, anything that will help you let go of the old. 3) Magick! Break out the tarot cards, runes, candles, crystals etc. This is a perfect time to use your tools to help you activate your intuition and turn on your witchy vibe. 4) Observe. See the light in others and it will help you identify the light in yourself. 5) Cleanse your chakras to balance your energy field so that you can feel lighter and more open. 6) And last but not least…sex it up! Scorpio is all about passion and intimacy so bust out the black leather and/or lace lingerie and channel your inner Lilith!
Still want to go deeper and do some healing work? Danielle is hosting a virtual circle for the Scorpio Full Moon Friday April 22. Find more here.
:: CHANNELLED ANGELIC MESSAGE FOR THE SCORPIO FULL MOON ::
There are many opportunities for you to work with the lunar energies. With so many planets currently in retrograde, this means allowing yourself to backtrack, embracing this time of review and reflection, and not get so caught up in the forward progress that you may desire. These are times of reflection, times of change, and times of embodiment.
Allow things to be as they are, for the tides to ebb and flow. Any roadblocks are here to help your highest vibrational destiny come into being. If barriers, false starts, and trials and tribulations appear, allow yourself the time to slow down and reflect on what no longer serves you that can now be transcended and released – even if this simply points to an emotional response pattern that is being triggered. Allow yourself to work with what IS, embracing that everything is happening for your highest destiny and evolution, even if it doesn’t appear so.
Begin to embody compassionate resonance during times of struggle and hardship as well as times of joy and transformation. You can help others more deeply by going into the depths of your own struggle and pain. And there is no need to worry about taking too much time to process the darkness, for time is infinite from the perspective of the soul.
Your lessons and evolution are far more significant that you may currently imagine, since you are embodying a place of learning where you can express into form all of the different facets of your multi-dimensional self, and be a full expression of infinity. The only limit you face now is in prohibiting yourself from embodying your truth, whatever that truth may be – a turbulent emotional state, a joyous state, or somewhere in between.
The current lunar energies are here to help you begin to embody your truth, whatever that looks like for you, and to express it into form without holding back. It is safe to fully feel every emotion, every sorrow, every hardship, and trial, allowing the density of your emotions to pass through your physical and energetic body. Allow the density to transcend and be transformed into higher light vibrations, creating the potential for newness.
You have the opportunity to begin to embody your highest path now and live the life that you desire to live. There is nothing holding you back in the time-space continuum but your own internal perceptions and barriers of consciousness. These have neurological ties to behavioral patterning encoded into your body hologram, but all of this CAN be loosened and transformed. All of this can change. You are being redefined in every moment, constantly creating new cells and patterns of behavior and embodiment.
We are proud of you for allowing all things and creation to be as they are. Now is a time to transcend time and space so that you can be everything that you are, recognizing yourself in all of the physical manifestations of the world. Enjoy the embodiment of this divinity, enjoy even the struggle and the heartbreak, so that you feel safe transcending the cycles of time that your mind has become entrapped by.
Allow yourself to grow with grace and transcend the old energetic limitations and boundaries that have held you back in the past from embodying your full divine higher self. You are an infinite creative immortal being and there is no reason to think of yourself as less than the divine embodiment that you are. We are proud of you every time you chose grace over struggle. We are proud of you every time you transcend an old karmic situation. We are proud of you every time you breath deep and take a moment to pause the breath. In higher consciousness you are infinite, all things are obtainable, and you are the infinity that you seek and desire.
Join Jackie O’Shea for an Embodying the Divine Feminine Full Moon Circle on Thursday, April 21st at 7pm PST available via live stream, recording, or in person in Los Angeles
Taurus season coaxes us off the battlefield and into the boudoir as we relax into wanting what feels good to want – while already having everything that we need. This Venus-ruled bovine beauty reminds us that Venusian pleasure seeking is never frivolous, and that fully inhabiting our desire is the gateway to an unshakeable belief in our own value.
It’s a month for languishing in the simple “this-ness” of things as you sink your teeth deeply into what you love. Your diamonds don’t need to be appraised. Your love needs no justification. And baby, you’re always, absolutely, worth it.
The keyword: Succulence.
The song lyrics: “They say our love won’t pay the rent/Before it’s earned, our money’s all been spent/I guess that’s so, we don’t have a plot/But at least I’m sure of all the things we got” – I Got You Babe, Sonny & Cher.
Check out our playlist, complete with country crooners, slow jams, and classic rock.
The color palette: Think beautifully basic yet voluptuous hues that mix Dallas rodeo with a feast in the Scottish highlands: camelback and denim blue paired with crushed grape, burnt copper, and emeralds.
Rodarte 2016
The style: Comfortable luxury that molds to the body like a second skin: jeans and a silk blouse, linen dresses, leather jackets, faux fur in pale pink and tan.
Klydie Thomas
The scents and flavors: Ripe, rich, and classically decadent. Freshly grated truffles, high-quality olive oil and creamy burrata or St. André cheese, full-bodied floral essences, mulled spices, slow roasts, and tobacco.
Sabatino (olive oil shot)
The healing: Taurus Season is about straightforward, sensuous engagement with the abundant world. Lay your body directly on the dirt in a park or botanical garden and trust in the hard ground and juicy sunshine’s capacity to deliver exactly what you need. Select fabrics that beg for tactile engagement and literally dive into them. Take a scent making class, celebrate with an elaborate tasting menu, or enjoy a night of poker or blackjack as you place bets while knowing you’ve got nothing to lose because there IS no limit on your value.
Sensuous Invitation of the Month: COSMIC MANICURES BY SIGN
By the end of April we’ll have five planets retrograde in earth and fire signs, and there’s no better moment for digging into our interior dirt and engaging in some emotional landscaping. This month asks nothing less from us than our radical faith in the earth’s endless cycles of sensuous generation and mercilessly loving deaths, and reveals to us that we always instinctively know when it’s right to root down and when it’s time to tear away with our gorgeously manicured hands to create anew.
:: TAURUS :: Savor a brand of solidity that’s also buoyant and responsive. Try scented polishes that move you towards a dynamic sensual engagement that’s anything but dull, or experiment with how much nail art each digit can handle until they’re bursting with life.
:: GEMINI :: Take a break from your endless information gathering as you settle into sweet sensations without having to ask why. Play with iridescent, prismatic shades that are also textured.
:: CANCER :: Birth your inner fantasy life into the physical world. Ground your little mermaid visions with incandescent shell toned nails or midnight colored blues and violets, or meditate on a desirous inner vision of your nails and team up with a talented artist to bring it into being.
:: LEO :: Marry your urge for illuminated recognition with an abiding trust that you’re always already enough exactly as you are. Affix luxe diamond and ruby nail gemstones, or sport a “fuzzy” coat that appears so fluffy that you could sink comfortably into your own nail bed.
:: VIRGO :: Soothe your mutable Earth sign’s impulses towards ordering and discerning with a fixity of feeling that takes the world at face value. Try classic, metallic glittery shades or solid gold.
:: LIBRA :: Pair your brand of high-minded, idealistic love with a more carnal flavor that doesn’t need to strive to capture the goods. Play with acrylics and release into the “realness” of the fakeness as you celebrate the infinite value of artifice and ornament, or try “opposite” colors on different nails.
:: SCORPIO :: Relax your urge to penetrate to the depths and instead relish the simple goodness of the luscious, flowering surface of things. Celebrate the steady unfurling of spring blooms with fresh green and pale rose shades, and choose a signature shade on your ring finger as you wed yourself to your own worth.
:: SAGITTARIUS :: Sample an earthen rootedness that seeks depth over breadth. Fuse your Amazonian streak with bonfire colors and animal print decals, and practice blending into your animal pack with browns and russets that are equal parts expansive and fixed.
:: CAPRICORN :: Engage in a different brand of “building” that allows the world to do its work upon you. Revel in the slow unfolding of a paraffin wax treatment, or activate your refined, sophisticated flavor of sensuality with a “velvet” manicure.
:: AQUARIUS :: Drop back into your body as you swap out endless futurism in favor of the delectable present moment. Pair your eccentric, cerebral edge with Taurus primitivism by trying tropical neon nail art, or keep your nails clean and bare to get ready for dirt digging.
:: PISCES :: Practice “landing” as you learn to value the material as much as the mystical. Commit to a monochromatic mani in a bright kelly green or chartreuse that marries your deep sea diving to the color of land vegetation.
:: ARIES :: Fuse your action-oriented potency with a yin vibe that knows when to hold ‘em. Choose an in-your-face shade and then dial the color back just a notch; turn saturated magentas into peachy pinks or glossy corals that are equal parts emboldened and receptive.
