Thinking about inking up that bare summer skin? Before getting a tattoo, consider the long term implications for your sign, says Ruby Warrington. Main Image: Mohammad Faruque.
Summer in my local ‘hood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is officially tats out season. As the mercury rises and jeans and long sleeves make way for tanks and micro shorts, my streets become a walking, talking gallery of ink.
In fact, if it used to be considered rebellious to get a tattoo, in 2017 the fact that I’ve personally yet to go under the needle (that kind of needle anyway—me and Botox is a whole other story, and one you can read about in my book) feels like the anti-establishment choice!
I considered it for a while there, back when I was 18 or so. White tattoos, that would only show up on my Caucasian skin when I had a tan, were a “thing,” and I liked the idea of a design that would only be visible half the time.
After a few weeks of research, I decided on an ornate crayfish design to wrap around my ankle—and thank Goddess I talked myself out of that one! Having a small mollusk inked on my body for life may have been befitting of my Cancer Moon sign, but it isn’t exactly a look that fits my current MO.
When it comes to making big decisions and implementing change in our lives (yes, getting a tat totally counts), the signs of the zodiac are grouped into three different categories: Cardinal, Fixed, and Mutable. Worth considering before you land on the tattoo for you …
*As always, in any matters considering personal appearance read for your rising sign too!
Qualities:Trend-setting; bring about change by starting something new; project into the world (feelings, thoughts, ideas); use their will to make things happen.
Tattoo tactics: The urge to get inked may be linked to a big life change, as a way of marking the transition from what was to what could be. If this is the case, then consider what you truly want to bring with you into your new incarnation—and what you’re ready to leave behind. Is there also a way to incorporate an intention for the future into the design?
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:: FIXED SIGNS :: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius
Qualities: Make change in order to maintain the status quo (imagine tidying a messy house to bring it back to its original state); security-seeking; needs stability.
Tattoo tactics: For you, a new tattoo could be a way to imprint a cherished memory or state of being onto your body forever. Tats can be a source of comfort for you, a reminder that some things in life are indeed permanent, even when the outside world appears to be in a constant state of flux. Choose a design that triggers this sense of stability and reminds you that your body is your “home.”
Qualities: Accept and adapt easily to external changes; move quickly from one thing to the next; willing to change themselves to fit in with their environment.
Tattoo tactics: Two words—“impulse control.” Your signs are the most likely to be talked into getting a tat because all your friends are doing it, or seeing a celebrity style you like … and then finding yourself paying a fortune to have it removed a few years down the line. Give yourself at least two weeks to think things over before you commit, and take extra time to find a design that truly speaks to YOU.
This article originally appeared as part of my Style Goddess column over at Horoscope.com!
Got bikinis on the brain, beach babes? Ruby Warrington has the perfect swimwear style for your sign … Main image: Sam Burriss
Here comes summer! Whether I have actual beach time in my diary or not, something about the month of July always gets me fantasizing about days spent drinking watermelon juice reading a good novel with my toes in the ocean. Which mainly manifests as me trawling the Internet for a new bikini.
This year I will be heading to the beach, but not until next month. From August 19—24, The Numinous will be hosting a cosmic take-over of summer-long island musical and wellness festival Obonjan in Croatia. Come join!
If you’re in the market for a new beachwear situation this summer too, read on to discover the perfect swimwear style for your sign …
*when it comes to fashion, it’s always worth reading for your rising sign too—since this rules how we present ourselves to the world!
Minimalist “no-fills” looks suit your slightly masculine style, and you’ll dig the sporty-yet-glam looks from Melissa Odabash. “Baywatch red” is ALWAYS a good color for Aries babes too.
Your sensual sign loves to flaunt what your mama gave you. Hello lady lumps! Think Marilyn Monroe in full 1950s bombshell mode and check out the vintage styles at Modcloth.
You’re all about having some fun in the sun, and the current slogan swimsuit trend was MADE for you Gemini! Say “Yes way, rosé”, and head on over to check out the selection at Crowned Queen.
Summer days wafting about in caftans are perfect for comfort-loving Cancer. Is there an easier way to get dressed and still feel like a total Goddess? NYC brand Calypso St. Barth has got you covered (literally).
Every day requires WARDROBE, right Leo? And that includes beach days. The, new collection from Lisa Marie Fernandez puts the swimming into costume, and will appeal to your inner diva.
Form and function are of equal importance to you Virgo, and the less fuss and frou-frous the better! The chic simplicity of preppy label Solid & Striped will appeal to your less-is-more mindset.
Your life is your art Libra, and your beach retreat is no exception! As the curator of the zodiac, you’ll adore the collectable prints and chic shapes of Mara Hoffman’s summer 2017 swim collection.
Sexy and sophisticated … check and check! You want your beach look to be as elegant and mysterious as you, Scorpio, and hot new label Midsommar Swim ticks all the right boxes.
A woman of the world, your beach look is boho-gypsy-meets-Amazonian-adventurer. You’ll dig the colorful, hand-crafted styles from Turkish-born “world citizen” Ipek Irgit and her label Kiini.
Cap has a rep for being the most “sensible” sign of the zodiac—but this doesn’t have to mean stuffy. Structural styles can form the foundations of a super sexy beach look, as found as Lonely.
“Just individual enough” sums up your approach to beach style—you love to stand out, but also to feel like one of the gang. The simply style and pretty quirks at Cami And Jax got you.
Hello mermaid! Beach life is your absolute FAVE, and of course you wanna dress the part. Get swept away with the modern romance of Irish print designer Carla Johnson’s line, Mona Swims.
This article originally appeared as part of my Style Goddess column over at Horoscope.com!
Ruby Warrington talks to stylist Anna Trevelyan about alien abduction, Trump as a catalyst for change, and being vegan in the fashion industry …
I first encountered stylist of the moment Anna Trevelyan at our mutual friend Sah D’Simone’s Happiness Equation workshop. She was the girl with the green hair and the quick, curious mind (a Gemini, of course), dressed in a kind of Manga-meets-Atlantis mash-up that would be more at home in the streets of Tokyo than Brooklyn’s Maha Rose Center for The Healing Arts.
But then as she puts it in her IG profile, Anna is: “A bit fashion. A bit cosmic.”
Having come up through the fashion ranks assisting Gaga’s former creative director Nicola Formichetti, Anna followed her childhood love of fantasy into the industry. In her own words, “I’m just not into reality stuff. I have a crazy and borderline confusing imagination!” Growing up in the heart in England, this meant: “I always died my hair and made my own clothes. But I had no concept that something like fashion even existed.”
Fast-forward to 2017, and fashion totally knows Anna exists, and her work is all over the top mags and ad campaigns. Like this one for Cara Delevingne’s Do You collection for Puma.
But what I love most about Anna (as well as the mermaid hair), is that she’s one of few voices in the mainstream fashion arena to be super vocal about being vegan, and the environmental impact of animal agriculture. She’s also majorly pro-diversity, casting models of every color, shape, size and gender in her long-standing catwalk collaborations with Brit designer Ashish.
Then there’s her lifelong fascination with alien abduction, and the crystals she keeps like pets in her Brooklyn apartment. Curiouser, and curiouser …
Ruby Warrington: So Anna, how long have you been into the more spiritual, numinous side of life? Anna Trevelyan: Since birth, I guess. When I was little, I was into aliens, UFO sightings, crop circles. I was such a nerd. I had all these UFO sighting maps on my wall and stuff. I was kind of obsessed with alien abduction, the history of the Earth and evolution. Like, what else is out there and where do we come from?
RW: All the deep questions! But then you pursued a career in fashion, which can be very superficial. What are your practices to bridge the gap or how do you find meaning within the fashion industry? AT: Well firstly, a lot of people in fashion genuinely have a love for art and creativity and inclusion. It’s not all about consumerism. Personally, I don’t want to do anything that doesn’t have meaning to me—especially this last year, with so much crazy stuff going on. So I always try to spread a message of positivity and what I believe in. For example, I work with this designer called Ashish and this season we did all these slogans like, Love Sees No Colour, and Be More Tender.
But then there is the consumerist part of the industry and the environmental part, that I personally have a really difficult time with. And the issues about racial inclusion on catwalks an in ad campaigns. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done.
RW: You’re also very vocal on your social media about veganism. Why is that so important to you? AT: I’ve been vegetarian for 20 years, and vegan on and off—unfortunately I love cheese! But this is super important to me, as the beef industry is one of the most damaging things to the environment at the moment. It also really hurts me to see people eating meat. You’re essentially killing, and then eating that trauma. I just don’t understand why you would do that. And before, I never really expressed my feelings about it, but now I’m just like, “You know what? Fuck it … “ I don’t want animals to be traumatized just so they can be slaughtered. And I don’t want people to be consuming trauma.
RW: The fashion industry also loves fur. Do you feel as passionately about that? AT: I never wear fur, and I never shoot fur anymore. I have done it in the past and I felt horrible about it. But I love shoes, I collect shoes like crazy, and so I do still wear leather. That’s something I need to look into, you know? I think of fur as this evil thing, so why do I think leather is okay? So I need to check myself and do a bit more research on that for sure. I would love to make a vegan shoe line, something super sexy!
Ashish FW17
RW: I think it’s amazing that you’re actually putting yourself out there and saying these things, because so many people are like, “These are my beliefs … until the next big money job comes in.” But having that integrity, I think, is part of leading a spiritual life. Like if your actions are aligning with your beliefs, you’re living your spiritual truth. AT: Exactly. One massive publication asked me to do a fur shoot for them. It would have been great for my career, but I couldn’t do it. I was like, “let me do a faux fur story instead?” They didn’t reply. But then faux fur is actually the 8th worst fabric for the environment. So I need to start thinking about all these things.
RW: Don’t you think that eventually, if public opinions start to change significantly, then brands are going to have to follow suit? In the same way it’s happening with with organic food … AT: Yes. It has to start somewhere. It’s the same with mass produced clothing—like yeah, it’s great that you can get a bunch of stuff for cheap, but what conditions are people working in? I don’t even really know how to begin with that.
RW: How about taking more direct action? AT: Well after Trump’s immigration ban, I did this meditation, and I was imagining all of the souls of the world together, happy and warm, and just free to move wherever they want to move and experience what they want to experience. It was such an intense meditation and afterwards I saw light coming out my hands. Crazy! So I got all my influential girlfriends together and hosted a Girl’s Fight Club to raise money for the UNHCR, which is the UN refugee support.
It was also a statement about how I hate females being convinced we have to compete, when we are so much stronger together. That amazing goddess energy! That raised, not loads, but like 500, 600 dollars. I have a sort of theory that Trump is this kind of higher power, doing all this crazy shit to bring us all together. Either that or he’s reptilian.
RW: I swing between the two myself! So you meditate, how about any other spiritual practices? Your work means you have this crazy travel schedule and you’re very out there. How do you take care of your inner world? AT: Last year I started doing yoga, which I never did before because I’m not like a super athletic person or anything. And you know those people that do yoga, and all they talk about is doing yoga? Now all I talk about is yoga! That has really helped me to settle down and focus and be strong and feel good. I love Bikram yoga, Kundalini yoga, Vinyasa. They’re all great.
My house is also full of crystals and plants, and the energy I get from them is amazing. I feel more grounded just looking at them, and I even kiss them and speak to them. I take my crystals around with me too. Like I choose a few and just take them when I travel and stuff. I also use them in my yoga and meditation.
RW: Spoken like a true Material Girl, balancing it out in the Mystical World. Finally, what’s the most otherworldly experience you’ve encountered in your life? AT: The first time I did past life regression, when I was like 15 or 16. In it, I walked down a tunnel and there was a doorway, which was the door to the past life. I was shaking, physically shaking, and I as walked through the door it shut behind me. I immediately felt so calm. And then in my past life I experienced my own death, and it was amazing. I died, and my soul felt so light, as if being human, having this body, was the heaviest burden. From then on, I’ve had no fear of death. I’m actually excited for it, now that I know how it feels.
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:: MATERIAL GIRL ::
My label: My favorite brands at the moment are Ashish (always a glitter protest), Hyein Seo (‘Final Boss’ collection for bad girls), and Gucci (of course).
Ashish S17
My shoes: Pretty much always sky high stilettos and platforms—Marc Jacobs is killing me at the moment—and then Nike’s for when it’s sadly necessary to be practical.
My pampering: My hair, nails and eyelashes are super regular and necessary upkeep takes a lot of time tbh.
My food: Vegan deliciousness—I wish they had Cafe Gratitude everywhere!
My home: Lots of windows and sunshine, plants, and I collect robots.
Robot inspo
:: MYSTICAL WORLD ::
My awakening: Say thank you each day to the Universe and be grateful.
My sign: Gemini through and through. But I have Cancer rising and my Moon in Taurus. I think the Cancer brings me back and the Taurus grounds me and helps me feel more balanced.
My mantra: I don’t have a mantra.
My healer: I have practiced with several energy healers, and I have one psychic in London and one in California. And they’re both good at different things. But the greatest healer is your self, and self realization.
My mission: Bring light, be genuine, be kind, speak from the heart, be unafraid, show love, make people aware of the importance of vegetarianism for themselves and for the world, work for humanity and Mother Earth, take no shit.
No more skinny jeans and tight waistbands. These days I prefer to let it all hang out, with some healing circle chic … Main image: Francis Catania
In my favorite drop-crotch pants
Skinny jeans, RIP. It’s official, the long-time reign of spray-on skinnies is officially ovah. Having been gradually edged out over the past few seasons, recent strolls around my hood in Williamsburg show the pendulum has finally swung. Long live the mom jean! And my belly, for one, is breathing a HUGE sigh of relief.
I actually stepped away from skinny jeans in a major way after I launched The Numinous, and began a deeper investigation of the modern spirituality scene. As a fashion writer in London, I’d amassed quite a collection—spray-on drainpipes by All Saints, hip-hugging micro flares by MiH, at least five pairs by J Brand. And peeling them off at the end of the day sometimes felt like being released from a Victorian corset. I actually think my skinny jeans habit might also have been a contributing factor to ongoing digestive issues during that period. For real!
But as days in high-pressure editorial meetings and nights spent trawling the celebrity party circuit gave way to Full Moon circles and sound bath sessions, more and more often the skinnies were relegated to the back of my wardrobe. Drainpipe denim and gong healing workshops do not make for happy bedfellows. As anybody who’s tried sitting cross-legged for extended periods in a pair of size 27 Cheap Mondays will know!
Rocking some Healing Circle Chic at at Full Moon ritual for Free People
Instead, I found myself seeking out clothing for my bottom half that allowed ample room for movement. For deep belly pranayama breathing. And which would not mean spending an entire Zen Buddhist meditation workshop trying to detach from thoughts about the pain of stiff denim cutting into my abdomen, hips, or the creases behind my knees. What I have come to term: healing circle chic.
My go-to look these days is a variation on yoga pants + sharp-shouldered blazer x chunky leather shoe situation (my friend Gabby Bernstein once coined my look “rock n roll yogi”!). But truth be told, even the yoga pants can get to feel kind of restrictive. As for the thong panties they require, let’s not even go there. My actual fave is a pair of drop-crotch Indian pants, with a loosely elasticated waistband positioned somewhere low down on my hips. Ahhhhhhh.
All the better for “letting it all hang out”—in a physical and an emotional sense. Because what I’ve also come to realize is, the more energy spent angsting over a waistband that feels too tight, the less headspace for deep and meaningful conversations with your higher self. The kind of conversations that are pretty much a non-negotiable for living your most cosmically aligned, high vibe life. Those loose-flowing robes favored by all the religious gurus? I totally get it now!
Celine SS17
Other faves for summer ’17 will be bias-cut slip dresses (for curves without the corset effect), kaftans (of course), and billowing outsize shirts, a lá Celine (above). Anything without a waistband, basically! (Which is ironic, btw, since also switching to a plant-based diet as part of my “spiritual awakening” means my stomach has never been flatter). And yes, of course I still do denim. In fact, I recently found a pair of vintage Levis mom jeans reckon I could sit for a 10-day silent Vipassana in.
This article has been adapted from an article that ran as part of Ruby’s Style Goddess column on Horoscope.com
The higher the hair the closer to Goddess! Alexandra Roxo chats with hair shaman Andi Scarbrough about gem combs, crown chakras, and beauty work as ministry.
“Your hair becomes an offering to spirit to catalyze the internal change”- Andi Scarbrough
Hair identity is a HUGE part of our self-expression, especially for women. Our hair reflects our cultural and ethnic background, the subcultures we are a part of, and even our spiritual and political beliefs. Hair has both been part of sacred and ancient rituals, and has been used to repress and humiliate women. Through all of it, our locks have held incredible power.
But like most things sacred , hair rituals have been commodified. We see a Super Cuts on every corner and the mass homogenization of hairstyles that’s been dictated by celebrity and popular culture more than anything.
So what about reclaiming HAIR as another sacred as hell space for ritual, transformation, ceremony, tribe, and lineage? Stylist and hair magic maker Andi Scarborough is doing just that!
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I’ll admit, I was nervous (aka panicked) about letting someone cut my hair. But when I arrived at Andi’s salon, she scooped me into her chair with a quieting presence. As she began to run a rose quartz comb through my frizzed out mop, I felt myself loosen. I realized just how tight the control I had around my hair was.
As she gently asked me a few questions, I found myself revealing my whole “hair story” to her. I shared all the times I was ridiculed and the shame I still carried. All the times I had tried to tame this hair and the point when I started making my hair red.
As she counseled and intuited my hair story and my hair needs, the tears began to flow. As she snipped, she reminded me of all the old Loves, the stories, the pain, everything that was releasing with the hair falling to the ground.
I cried for the rest of the day. I was shedding. I let myself shed the old layers. I let myself release.
Post cut, I sat down with Andi to hear more about her work …
Andi:Women’s Health just quoted me saying “I believe this work is a sort of ministry.” Part of me still thinks this is hysterical! I had an experience when I was a little girl where a woman faith healer came to the church and told me that I would go into ministry. Then, I promptly left the church.
It’s funny to me how your purpose finds a way through you, no matter what you try to do instead. Your ministry is the vehicle that you use to deliver your message and in that sense, mine is a beauty ministry.
My work is about clearing out the shrapnel from the crown chakra. That clearing allows you access to the divine wisdom you already have. You don’t need a guru. You don’t need any of that. It’s about remembering the god source within.
Alexandra: That’s beautiful. I love that.
Andi: This is the part where I do feel like it becomes more of a ministry, rather than energy work.
Alexandra: After your work clears the crown chakra, how does it help align people with their soul curriculum?
Andi: I was talking with a client recently about her curly hair. She was telling me how she straightens her hair because she wants it to be more manageable. So, I asked her “What part of you feels like you’re hard to manage?”
It’s interesting because the way you do one thing is the way you do everything. The way you choose your hair color or your hair texture are all echoes of the stories that are already in place. We’re only choosing what we think is available to us.
Alexandra: I can talk about my hair without it being emotional, but the actual physicalizing of the experience brought things up that were very emotional. When you were doing my hair, I felt safe enough to share my hair stories and history- it felt like a ritual and like a therapy session.
Andi:Like ceremony. We do our hair so that we can be seen the way we think we need to be seen, and it’s the piece that we correct externally. It’s like makeup over a blemish. Rather than clearing out whatever the clog is, we wanna just sort of gloss it over and cover it up and make it look sort of nice from far away.
But our hair is actually a time capsule. You’re literally carrying around a diary of every experience, every hormone flux, everything you’ve eaten, everything you’ve not eaten, every time you were sick. It’s all physically there with you.
Alexandra: Wow, yeah. I never thought about it quite like that.
Andi: That’s why you get haircuts when you have big life stuff happening, or you want big life stuff to happen.
Cross culturally, the hair symbolizes so much. Whether it’s the Native Americans wearing their hair long and braided to ground them back into Mother Earth, or not cutting your hair in Kundalini so that you have a longer antennae to spirit, or in the way it’s cut in some Tibetan rituals and Hindu rituals. It’s a sacrifice. One of my favorite examples of this ritualistic aspect is when girls go to college. Often, they’ll sacrifice that high school long hair as they step into womanhood.
Your hair becomes an offering to spirit to catalyze the internal change, or to let spirit know how serious you are about the internal change.
Hair Shaman Andi Scarbrough
For appointments with Andi in LA, please call 310-751-4484 or email [email protected]. Due to the sensitive nature of this service, online booking is not available. More information and service pricing is available at www.andiscarbrough.com. And be sure to follow @crown_works for hair rituals, treatments, and processes!
Meet fashion creatrice Diana Wassef, one of the Moon Club members elevating the game with her poetically evolved approach to sustainable fashion as healing …
With her eco-conscious “Kao-Kabi” collection for Emily Cremona, creatrice and Moon Club member Diana Wassef is challenging the fashion community to dress our planet in sustainable threads.
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“From fabric selection to garment creation, these are healing garments disguised as ‘fashion.'”
The Passion Project I wanted to create a sensory experience: one where you feel elevated and transformed … that feeling when putting on a robe after a Moroccan or Turkish bath. This is the feeling I imagined while creating the Kao-Kabi collection.
Kao-Kabi is Arabic for “my planet,” and with this collection I hope to meet the delicate needs of today’s modern wearer through garments that are kind to the skin and to our environment. I work exclusively with natural fibers, including bamboo, hemp, linen, and pineapple.
All the garments from Kao-Kabi have been bathed with Reiki light and love; from fabric selection to garment creation, these are healing garments disguised as “fashion.”
Dressing to Honor the Spirit When I was younger my style was very eccentric, layering my skin with lots of accessories and clothing that embodied a lot of mythology and symbology. This style reflected my fascination with the history of costume, and how each period influenced the image of how the self was portrayed.
After moving to Brooklyn in 2013, my transformative healing journey began: the cleansing and purifying process … shedding skin and tuning in to the core and essence of the delicious self. Now, I dress to honor my spirit by radiating the light within me outwards. In doing so, I find myself surrounded by similar radiant entities.
I really do enjoy wearing white, and a lot of that is influenced by my Kundalini practice. Yogi Bhajan’s idea about the color white resonates with me. Not only is white an auric color therapy, but wearing white is an exercise in awareness, as it takes more consciousness and care to keep white clothes clean!
The Futuristic Fashionista Vision Kao-Kabi offers a glimpse into the eco-conscious world I envision for fashion. Moving forward, I intend to create my own sustainable, innovative textiles from which my future collections will be designed—a sustainable material that honors our planet by being gentle to its resources.
The Moon Club Inspiration It has been a huge inspiration to be part of this community—Moon Club is a sacred space for all the Luna lovers out there. As the astrology fan that I am, I get an insightful dose of what’s happening astrologically, the Moon cycles, and their impact on us. Moon Club guides me with my creative process by reminding me to pause, clear my mind, and MEDITATE in order to dive deeper.
We’ve had such incredible coaching sessions with innovators and healers, like Sah D’Simone sharing the “Happiness Equation,” and powerful female entrepreneurs like THINX co-founder Miki Agrawal—I’m all about the divine yoni power!!!!
I’d also like to share here the Forgiveness Mediation from Moon Club founding member Eddie Stern, which has been particularly inspiring for me in my creative process:
“For anyone I caused harm, knowingly or unknowingly, I ask for your forgiveness/For anyone whom has caused me harm, knowingly or unknowingly, I offer you my forgiveness/For any harm I have caused myself, knowingly or unknowingly, I forgive me.”
Diana Wassef in Her Element
Feeling ready to up your manifestation game? Read more about Moon Club here and start working your own lunar magic!
In their sensory exploration of Aries season 2017, Cara George & Bess Matassa of Mojave Rising pick the sounds, the color palette, the styles, and the flavors for the month to come…Homepage image: Maciej Bernas
Mario Testino for Vogue
Strike a match, stoke the flames, and break into bold blossom like the hothouse flower you were born to be. As the astrological New Year begins, it’s a deliciously innocent moment for rediscovering the strength in exactly where we stand, and then leaping open-handed into the fierce future.
The zodiac’s lusty little lamb schools us in the true wisdom of inspired action that springs seamlessly from our creative cores. So sidle up to the starting line dressed in nothing but your unapologetic desire and the unbridled urge to just say “yes.”
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The keyword: Innocence.
The song lyrics: “We’re heading for something/Somewhere I’ve never been/Sometimes I am frightened/But I’m ready to learn/Of the power of love”—Celine Dion, “The Power of Love”
Check out our Aries Season Playlist, complete with heartfelt rockers, lyrical honesty, and disco infernos.
The color palette: vernal, just-born hues, and stripped-down southwestern shades: sparkling eggshell whites, ripe and ready bright greens, and the sun-bleached reds and oranges of exposed desert living.
Celine SS17
The style: masculine minimalist meets Victorian garden. Botanical print tees paired with high-waisted blue jeans, functional lace adornments, loose locks, slim-fitting motorcycle jackets, and low heeled boots.
The scents and flavors: deliciously simple, and farm-fed fresh. Think goat’s milk ice cream, violet candies, and barnyard scents of grass, hay, and dirt.
The healing: fiercely fun and invigoratingly frictional. Think capoeira, salsa class, blind dates, and finger painting.
Want more juicy cosmic insights and sensory explorations? Arrange an astrology reading or private event with Mojave Rising here or follow them on Instagram.
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Sensuous Invitation of the Month:Bond Girls for Your Mars Sign
Ruled by Mars, Aries season urges us to harness our potency, sexual desire, and action-oriented instincts. Your Mars sign is your birth chart’s muscle car—it describes your personal style of power play, and how you drive towards what you want.
Below, your sign-by-sign guide to starting your engines. Shake it, stir it, and serve it up!
**New to your birthchart? Discover your Mars sign here!
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Mars in Aries: Aries season invites you to fight cleanly, and to sink your teeth into frictional encounters in a way that feels innocently invigorating. Bond Girl:Goldfinger’s Pussy Galore– the ferocious leader of an all-female flying circus, Pussy was rough, tumble, and absolutely ready for Bond.
Mars in Taurus: Aries season invites you to honor your steady, sensual brand of power, and to root deeply into your ability to use your material resources to create change. Bond Girl:A View To a Kill’s May Day– the bombshell of a bodyguard who uses superhuman strength to lift men over her head with ease.
Mars in Gemini: Aries season invites you to revel in your capacity for curious action, seek inspiration through communication, and tackle life from multiple perspectives. Bond Girl:Diamonds Are Forever’s Bambi & Thumper– the nimble pair of acrobatic vixen who come at James from all angles.
Mars in Cancer: Aries season invites you to emotionally assert yourself and celebrate empathetic action that honors both your own feelings and your ability to fight for others. Bond Girl:Thunderball’s Domino– the snorkeling seductress with deep family ties.
Mars in Leo: Aries season invites you to playfully seize power with a sparkling, generous heart that delights in shared strength and creative collision. Bond Girl:Diamonds Are Forever’s Tiffany Case– the jewel-smuggling Vegas showgirl with hair as high as her bets.
Mars in Virgo: Aries season invites you to capitalize on your measured responses, and to align your actions with the subtler rhythms of your environment. Bond Girl:Miss Moneypenny– Bond’s stalwart sexpot secretary who acts with integrity and outlasts them all.
Mars in Libra: Aries season invites you to tap into your ability to go after high-minded ideals, to collaborate, and to contemplate movement before making the leap. Bond Girl:Casino Royale’s Vesper Lynd– Bond’s absolute equal and one true love.
Mars in Scorpio: Aries season invites you to relish in your darker, carnal desires, and to harness your primal power through their full release. Bond Girl:Goldeneye’s Xenia Onatopp– the ruthless assassin who crushes Bond between her powerful thighs.
Mars in Sagittarius: Aries season invites you to expand your actions wider and wider as you embrace wild visions big enough to criss-cross the entire globe. Bond Girl:The World Is Not Enough’s Dr. Christmas Jones– the border hopping nuclear physicist who gives Bond a run for his money.
Mars in Capricorn: Aries season invites you to savor your self-sufficiency, and rise up from an inner authority that answers to absolutely no one. Bond Girl:Octopussy’s Octopussy– the luxe, eponymous lady who reigns supreme over a self-sufficient island of femme fatales.
Mars in Aquarius: Aries season invites you to shoot your potent love beams straight into the unknown future as you break past limitations with tenacious trust in your innovative approach. Bond Girl:Moonraker’s Holly Goodhead– the feminist astronaut who sends Bond into outer space.
Mars in Pisces: Aries season invites you to fully delight in the concept of allowing as you celebrate empowerment that comes from letting it all be exactly as it is. Bond Girl:Dr. No’s Honey Ryder– sporting nothing but a saltwater-soaked bikini and a hunting knife, this shell-collecting sweetheart is both innocent and independent
Want more juicy cosmic insights and sensory explorations? Arrange an astrology reading or private event with Mojave Rising here or follow them on Instagram.
Pisces season 2017 invites in the energies of Universal love. Time for a group hug with the cosmos, say Cara George & Bess Matassa of Mojave Rising… Main Image: Sue Lyn Ting
Pisces season beckons to us from far beyond the edge of the infinite ocean. The zodiac’s ombréd siren expands the definition of “romance” by dissolving our heart’s boundaries completely, and initiating us into a radical form of love through total allowing.
As we surrender to our sparkling status as deliciously tiny specks amidst a vast carpet of stars, we cannot help but believe in the mysterious majesty that exists just beneath the seemingly mundane.
What would it mean to trust into the subtlest sensations of the unseen world? How can you render yourself fully permeable, and tenderized, and oh-so-soft without fearing the loss of your own story or ego? Melt. Dissolve. Drift away. Come undone completely. Because you already exist absolutely everywhere.
The keyword: Romance.
The song lyrics:“We’ll put out to sea and we’ll perfect our chemistry/And by and by we’ll defy a little bit of gravity/We’ll get there fast and then we’ll take it slow/Way down in Kokomo”—The Beach Boys, “Kokomo”
Check out our Pisces Season Playlist, complete with yacht rock, tropicalia, and expansive 80s dreaming.
Christopher Kane SS17
The color palette: Iridescent, soft-focused, and translucently transcendent. Blush, violet, and turquoise ombré, white sparkles, and watercolor conch shell creams.
The style: The Little Mermaid in Malibu. Nude bodysuits, halter tops, raffia bags, balayage, dewy skin, beachcomber jeans, and waterproof plastic jellies.
The scents and flavors: Ephemeral, fusionary, and deeply mystical. Cucumber-infused water, foamy desserts, wet mossy “chypre” perfumes, patchouli, and the evanescence of incense.
The healing: Boundaryless and dazzlingly macrocosmic. Sound baths, sensory deprivation tanks, and wanders through crowded cities or at the foot of mountains where you can feel deliriously small.
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Work the Pisces season vibes in your life, with our Sensuous Invitation of the Month: Expansive Excursions
Aries Pisces season invites you to let “allowing” become a new form of inspired action as you realign your willpower with the world as it is. Excursion: Intrepidly explore the icy wilds without having to steer the boat on an Alaskan cruise ship.
Taurus Pisces season invites you to move beyond the material into the subtle sensations of the invisible realm. Excursion: Explore spiritual habitats with an epic buddhist temple pilgrimage on Japan’s Island of Shikoku.
Gemini Pisces season invites you to delight in emotional possibilities as you tenderly expose your heart in one-million ways. Excursion: Celebrate the full-range of feeling on Rio De Janeiro’s smoking hot beaches and scintillating streets.
Cancer Pisces season invites you to feel it ALL without taking anything too personally. Excursion: Channel the intense memories and history of the Southwest’s Four Corners Monument while letting the desert vistas give you a panned-out perspective.
Leo Pisces season invites you to trust in your fullest glow, even when it’s not reflected by the world. Excursion: Lose yourself to Tokyo’s mega-city crowds, and discover the shining expansion found in accepting your status as a speck.
Virgo Pisces season invites you to let it loose and revel in the madness without imposing a method. Excursion: Come undone amidst the creative chaos, crumbling vitality, and raucous revelry of Naples.
Libra Pisces season invites you to soften judgement and assessment, and simply let it all be. Excursion: Relax with salty waves and SoCal strangeness in Venice Beach.
Scorpio Pisces season invites you to discover a lighter form of emotional fusion, where intimacy doesn’t always have to equal full-throttle intensity. Excursion: Delight in Paris’ classic romance, impressionist art, and pastel macaroons.
Sagittarius Pisces season invites you to have complete faith in whatever feels right, right now, without having to seek and sift through alternative philosophies. Excursion: Trust into the solid religious and political foundations of Turkey, which still sits at the gateway between geographies and cultures.
Capricorn Pisces season invites you to dissolve structures completely and toss out the notion that your worth must be laboriously built. Excursion: Sail away into Tahiti’s turquoise lagoons and shifting, black sand beaches.
Aquarius Pisces season invites you to infuse your penchant for out-there thinking with a strong dose of “irrational” feeling. Excursion: Immerse yourself in New Orleans’ wickedly weird mashup of darkness, light, voodoo magic, haunting humidity, and overgrown swamps.
Pisces Pisces season invites you to “check in” rather than check out, as you explore how to swap evasive escapism for emotional presence. Excursion: Ground down and sink your teeth in with flamenco stomping, meaty red wine, and dramatic acts of endurance in the autonomous region of Andalusia, Spain.
Want more juicy cosmic insights and sensory explorations? Arrange an astrology reading or private event with Mojave Rising here or follow them on Instagram.
As the founder of Style Rituals, a biz that celebrates our closets as gateways to the cosmos, I was well attuned to the connections between the mystical and material world. And a recent move from Brooklyn to Venice Beach and back, means I am also very familiar with the process of packing and unpacking.
For my latest move back to NYC, I had gotten a personal ping from the Universe that I needed to ‘go light’ this time. Accordingly, I picked up a copy of Marie Kondo’s now infamous The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and got to work. Overnight, this went from a cross-country move to a total life enema! But I figured if anyone could lead me through the jungle of my beloved belongings to minimalistic bliss, it was Kondo.
I had barely made it to page four when I realized that this wasn’t just a guidebook for spatial cleanliness, but was also an under-the-radar handbook in energy healing. Marie’s discussions about holding items close and thanking them for their existence was directly connected to the Shamanistic belief that every object carries an energy or vibration. Perhaps, I thought, Ms. Kondo is a secret Shaman.
Inspired by this discovery, I combined Kondo’s teachings with my energy healing know-how to bring you thisguide to navigating the spiritual wilds of your own material treasures …
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NUMBER 1 // There Is a Universal Method to the Madness, aka Memento Meltdown
The Closet Cleanse: According to Ms. Kondo, one must sort possessions in the following order—clothes, books, papers, komono (miscellany) and, lastly, mementos.
The Secret Shamanism: Shamans believe that working with fire allows release. When I do closet cleanses with clients, sometimes, we literally build a bonfire of emotionally-charged items and let it burn. While Kondo-ing my own closet, I discovered that Marie’s method was perfectly constructed to inspire a similar emotional release. With a background in fashion, I assumed clothing would be the most challenging step for me and wondered why she’d put it first. But I soon understood why mementos went last. I started reading old love letters from boyfriends, thumbing through my high school yearbook, and doodling with coloring pencils from my college fashion illustration class. I eventually found myself on the floor cry-laughing in ‘someone’s’ sweatshirt that I had un-accidentally kept after a weekend rendezvous. I couldn’t believe how many memories had been holding space in my abode that just weren’t part of my life anymore. Time to go!
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NUMBER 2 // Sartorial Reiki, aka Thank Your Lucky Clothes
The Closet Cleanse: Kondo suggests that you hold each item in your hands and thank it for how it has served you in life.
The Secret Shamanism: Is Kondo also a secret Reiki Practitioner and Psychometrist? Psychometry, aka Token-Object Reading, is a form of extrasensory perception that allows us to “read” the energetic blueprint of objects, even if we know nothing about their origins. Similarly, Reiki infuses universal energy into people and items. Kondo’s approach fully acknowledges the spirit present in objects, and the necessity of honoring this energy. As I blended her recommendations with my intuitive skills, it became quite emotional. I remembered sights, sounds, and smells associated with each piece and channeled this energy to facilitate release.
‘Shaman Kondo’ giving reiki to a sweater?
NUMBER 3 // The Art of War with Yourself, aka Plunge into the Pile
The Closet Cleanse: When purging your closet, Kondo commands you to throw everything in a giant heap in the middle of the room.
The Secret Shamanism: Sun Tzu’s teachings in the The Art of War state that “in the midst of chaos, there is also an opportunity.” For this neat and tidy (perhaps OCD spectrum) Virgo, creating a messy clothing monument was a Xanax-worthy endeavor (Céline and Chloe definitely didn’t want to be wrinkled, snagged, dirty, or stepped on). Yet my chaotic heap allowed me to push my personal limits. As I split my clothing commune into two smaller tribes of “keep” and “discard,” I excommunicated parts of my past life that no longer fit my current lifestyle. And, surprisingly, throwing things about and jumping into the pile of clothes made me feel like a kid again.
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NUMBER 4 // Everything Changes (Even Joy), aka Swapping Fashion School for Fortune Telling
The Closet Cleanse: Kondo suggests that you ask yourself if an item truly brings you joy BEFORE deciding to keep or discard it. Do not try it on or even think about how often you use it. Just hold it in your hands and ask this simple question.
The Secret Shamanism: Guess what I realized? Joy evolves. And the things I wanted to keep were energetic fortunetellers of the life I wanted to lead right now. My transition from the fashion world to the healing world was anything but seamless and I was still in the throes of figuring it all out (going from styling, designing, and brand consulting to seeing ghosts and hearing voices was never gonna be comfortable). While sorting, I realized I was casting aside old items from the fashion world in favor of mystical mementos that fit my current and future vision of myself even better.
NUMBER 5 // Come Back to the Present Moment, aka Boyfriend Jeans are Real!
The Closet Cleanse: Kondo states that people are unable to let go of certain items because they are either attached to the past, fearful of the future, or unwilling to live in the present.
The Secret Shamanism: This is for all the girls out there who are still holding onto college sweatshirts, worn-in t-shirts, or anything else that belonged to “the X.” Wonder why a former lover still lingers in your head? Because you’re still sleeping, lounging, and working out while wearing those memories on your sleeve, literally. During my Kondo-ing, I was going through a major breakup and the practice of purging catapulted me from the past to the present. I realized that it wasn’t about “him,” it was about me. I needed to be proactive about doing everything I could to move forward, and holding onto his belongings was definitely not helping.
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NUMBER 6 // Say Yes to Your Life Right Now, aka Magic Rocks Are Heavy but Old Memories Are Heavier
The Closet Cleanse: When you look at an object and say “I might use this one day,” remember Kondo’s warning that “someday” means “never.” You don’t have room in the house-of-me for “perhaps one day.”
The Secret Shamanism: I carry around lots of heavy crystals in my bag of tricks, but the energy of old memories that no longer served me was WAY heavier. Why was I keeping mementos of people and things that weren’t aligned with my happy-place? As I bid adieu to objects associated with energy vampires from my former life, I severed the cord so that both parties could move forward.
Shaman McCann at work
NUMBER 7 // Repurpose with Your Love Language, aka Mermaids for my Roomie
The Closet Cleanse: While Kondo warns against unloading your purged belongings onto unwilling participants, finding new homes for past treasures can be an act of love.
The Secret Shamanism: In Shamanism, when we receive a physical or emotional gift we refer to it as “receiving medicine.” You are getting the “medicine” that you need at exactly that moment, no matter what form it comes in or where it comes from. Mid-purge, I started leafing through Gary Chapman’s The Five Love Languages, and remembered that my love language was gifting. The result? A friend got all my old-life high-heels. One of my favorite adventure buddies is now enhancing her metaphysical talents using the giant crystal I moved from my alter to hers. And my former roommate discovered her passion for sea spirits through my houseplant decorated with a collection of plastic mermaids. Show love and pay it forward.
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NUMBER 8 // Spiritual Smoke, aka Burn, Baby, Burn!
The Closet Cleanse: Kondo suggests removing discarded possessions from your apartment as soon as humanly possible.
The Secret Shamanism: After following Kondo’s practices on how to sort, I decided to insert some of my own Shamanic practices to release any dense energy that can quickly adhere to people, places, and things. Sage what you decide to keep—with the windows open or in an open area outside. As I burn my bundle of herbs, I like to say out loud: “Any energy that is not mine or of my highest and greatest good, get the f*** out … with love, but seriously, it’s time to go.” Even though the purge scared the hell out of me, as I moved the energy I felt like the shackles had been taken off my ankles—I was light and free!
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NUMBER 9 // That Elusive Equilibrium, aka Stilettos & Sage
The Closet Cleanse: Après cleanse, I was NYC bound with two suitcases of clothing, and one small suitcase filled with the contents of my Shamanic practice (crystals, feathers, tarot cards, sweet notes from clients, sage, sound bowl, etc.).
The Secret Shamanism: Marie Kondo always asks what brings us joy. I’d recently experienced a full moment of joy when I was hired by a former fashion client to speak about the power of rituals and manifestation. As I waved a sage stick around a room full of execs while wearing fake eyelashes and stilettos, I was so joyful I could have cried. Fittingly, while purging, I realized I had to make a conscious choice to let my worlds collide. I wasn’t willing to give up all my high heels or my signature pink nail polish, but I did need to make space to bring back a bit of California in the form of a stack of yoga pants and a massive collection of crystals. To be in my “joy,” I needed to marry the sparkle, fun, and creativity of the fashion world to my personal promise to recharge in nature often, keep a devout meditation practice, and embrace a newfound love for juice.
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NUMBER 1O // The Transformation Cycle, aka Meeting Kali in the Closet
Did I mention that this was also one of the most traumatic weeks of my life? Within five days, I had ended a relationship with someone I truly love, my beloved aunt died and, oh yeah, the cross-country move was in full swing. In Shamanism we speak about embodying the energy of an archetype. Post-purge, I felt like the Goddess Kali had hung me by my ankles and shook all of the change loose from my skinny-jean pockets.
In other words, f***ing great and completely naked at the same time. With three suitcases to my name, I was a full-on gypsy. I was light, free, mobile, and personified. And while I know that I’ll need to shape shift again and again, as of today I’m bouncily nimbly between New York and L.A. with only my most joyful possessions. All I’d needed to do was step through that closet door.
Colleen McCann is a fashion stylist turned Shamanic Practitioner with practices in NYC & LA. She realigns the energetic with the visual through Intuitive Crystal Readings, Shamanic Hands-On-Healing, and Feng Shui Space Balancing. Make sure to follow her on Instagram, and pick up one of her new Energy Healing Kits and Medicine Bags on Goop to jumpstart your cleanse!
The future looks bright, with Mojave Rising‘s sensory exploration of Aquarius season…
Aquarius season shoots us straight into the starlite stratosphere as we radically reimagine the tiny landscape far below. The zodiac’s eccentric astronaut invites us to helicopter above our assumptions and to birth entirely new worlds from a bird’s eye perspective. What would it mean to travel so lightly that you develop a deep faith in your own futurism, no matter the shifting weather patterns back down on earth?
Can you open the windows wide on this cosmic mission and let the fresh air buff your sparkling skin until you feel brand new? Can you show yourself in all your idiosyncrasy, and harness this beautiful bizarreness to find other like-minded loonies? Strap on your moon booties and and trust that your survival depends on your capacity to get a little bit crazy. Cuz baby, you were born this way.
The keyword: Electricity.
The song lyrics: “Somehow the wires uncrossed, the tables were turned/Never knew I had such a lesson to learn/I tidied up my point of view/I got a new attitude”—Patti LaBelle, “New Attitude”
Check out our Aquarius season playlist, complete with aural quirks, radical rallying cries, and interstellar explorations.
The color palette: 60s futurism and chic chemistry labs—neon citruses, white vinyl, clear plastic, and platinum.
The style: Ziggy Stardust meets Willy Wonka at Burning Man—stripped down space suits or over-the-top dandy leisure wear, rainbow brite booties, androgynous cuts, and bombastic bohemianism.
Gareth Pugh 2010
The scents and flavors: invigoratingly bright and ingeniously innovative—soapy cilantro, wasabi, starfruit, pop rocks, lickable wallpaper, and edible flowers.
The healing: it’s all about maverick maneuvers and cosmic communities—flashmobs, sober raves, ayahuasca ceremonies, ecstatic breath, and experimental art.
Want more juicy cosmic insights and sensory explorations? Arrange an astrology reading or private event with Mojave Rising here or follow them on Instagram.
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Sensuous Invitation of the Month: Retro Futurism. With the out-there Aquarius sun colliding with Venus and Mars in smoking-hot Aries, it’s a month for empowered eccentricity and fantastical futurism. Aquarius season 2017 calls each sign to explore the unknown possibilities that exist at the periphery of our habitual perspectives. Slough off the old, shake up your stars, and prepare to go where you’ve never gone before.
ARIES Aquarius season invites you to harness your capacity for groundbreaking perspectives to serve more than just yourself. Futuristic Flick: Alien—red-hot leadership, feminine prowess, and courageous muscularity.
TAURUS Aquarius season invites you to discover a new sense of comfort and stability through mental focus, even as your material world shifts. Futuristic Flick: Barbarella—excessive pleasure, earth girls, and Venusian exploits.
GEMINI Aquarius season invites you to channel your curious information gathering into a larger life vision. Futuristic Flick: Vegas in Space—strange sights, outer space androgyny, and gender-bending slumber parties.
CANCER Aquarius season invites you to crank your clam shell open wide and to find belonging in the broader world. Futuristic Flick: Back to the Future—reimagined roots, familial explorations, and the power of love.
LEO Aquarius season invites you to let your glamorous glow lead others towards their own forms of specialness. Futuristic Flick: The Apple—shameless sparkles, interstellar disco balls, and juicy fruits.
VIRGO Aquarius season invites you to experiment with the vast range of potentials without having to refine or commit. Futuristic Flick: The Incredible Shrinking Woman—divine detail, fantastical feminism, and behind-the-scenes action.
LIBRA Aquarius season invites you to express innovative opinions, even when they’re unpopular. Futuristic Flick: Weird Science—idealized aesthetics, radical romanticism, and out-of-this- world heroics.
SCORPIO Aquarius season invites you to cultivate a loving detachment in relationships that takes your intimate encounters even higher. Futuristic Flick: Ghostbusters—paranormal removal, spook central, and dealing with darkness.
SAGITTARIUS Aquarius season invites you to race straight into the future as you celebrate all that is unknown. Futuristic Flick: Zardoz—passionate outlands, unbelievable beliefs, and expansive animalism.
CAPRICORN Aquarius season invites you to challenge tradition and sample structures that can shelter your most radical self. Futuristic Flick: Labyrinth—dangers untold, hardships unnumbered, and the fight for the kingdom.
AQUARIUS Aquarius season invites you to revel in the full flair of your eccentricity without having to tone down your wackiness one bit. Futuristic Flick: Fire Walk With Me—Lynchian lunacy, unsolvable mystery, and places both wonderful and strange.
PISCES Aquarius season invites you to open yourself to the entire world of energy without having to feel emotionally drained. Futuristic Flick: The NeverEnding Story—eternal enchantment, the impossible made possible, and the unshakeable belief in a dream.
Want more juicy cosmic insights and sensory explorations? Arrange an astrology reading or private event with Mojave Rising here or follow them on Instagram.
In the face of heart-wrenching challenges that left many of us feeling very troubled (read: angry, confused, and afraid) we remained committed to the deeply magical acts of connecting and co-creating. From transforming difficult emotions into empowered action, to the pure pleasure of crystal dildos, we give you the Best of The Numinous 2016. Cause we gotta have faith, cosmic crusaders…
6. Cosmic Calling—Astrology for Entrepreneurs:When it comes to astrology for entrepreneurs, it’s about knowing your cosmic career signature, and following a few hard and fast rules, says Rebecca Gordon.
7. Empowered Action in the Face of Trauma:Recent world events have stirred up many intense emotions. Louise Androlia shares her wisdom on how to use our feelings as a catalyst for empowered action.
8. Fashion as Self-Love: The Story Behind KE7H3R: “Everything, even fashion, is a transference of energy.” Janelle Corpuz Hethcot talks sartorial style as self-love with Ruby Warrington.
9. Hello Chakrubs: Yes, That’s a Crystal Dildo: Forget the battery-operated vibrator and pick up a high-vibe, soul-opening crystal sex toy. Chakrubs founder Vanessa Cuccia shares her story with Gabriela Herstik.
10. Casting My Spell—Confessions of a White Witch:“I see writing as a spell, decorating my home as a spell, singing as a spell. Whenever I express myself I am casting MY spell.” Shaheen Miro shares what it means to grow up and embrace being a white witch.
Want more Numinosity in 2017? Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Instagram and Facebook so you never miss a post.
Sagittarius season is an invitation to explore our innate wildness, and expand our personal Universe, say Cara George & Bess Matassa of Mojave Rising…
Sagittarius season hoists us up from the underworld and sends us racing out onto the open plains of our own exuberant BECOMING. The zodiac’s expansive equestrian spills her blossoming vines over walls and across the borders of previous limitations, as she urges us to extend our adventuring to off-road spaces we couldn’t have imagined even in our wildest moments.
So pack your carry-ons, saddle your ponies, and let the wind throw back your hair. Your wildness cannot be broken or tamed or lost or found, but is constantly being born through the very air that you breathe. Fall in love with the blood coursing through your own veins and then let this love run faster and faster out across rich golden fields under carpets of pink stars.
Because baby you were born to run. And where we’re going, there are no roads.
The keyword: Locomotion.
The song lyrics: “Oh girl, dancing down those dirty and dusty trails/Take it hip to hip, rocket through the wilderness/Around the world the trip begins with a kiss”—The B-52s, “Roam”
Check out our Sagittarius season playlist, complete with wide-open anthems, road-trip rockers, and exploratory psychedelia.
The color palette: Nomadic hues fit for a full-on bacchanalian feast. Saffron, mustard, glitter-dusted taupe, and gypsy jewel-toned amethysts and rubies.
The style: Traveling circus performer meets Rio carnival queen on Route 66. Feathers, sequined unitards, untameable patterns, rich tapestried fabrics, and body-con mobility complete with cowboy boots and Canadian tuxedos.
The scents and flavors: Spiced, smoked, and hedonistically heated—warm curries, smoked trail mix, campfire, beef jerky, ancho, cinnamon, and cedarwood.
The healing: Exuberantly excessive and exploratorily expansive. All-night dance parties, adventure traveling, lost weekends, multi-course meals, and urban scavenger hunts.
Sensuous Invitation of the Month: Dance party! (by sign, below).
With Chiron stationing direct, and Venus joining Mars in Aquarius, Sagittarius season 2016 is infused with a call to face our pain head on and shake it out onto the dancefloor to be transformed under strobe lights. This month marks a radical opportunity for moving energy through our bodies, re-envisioning “the way things are,” and rediscovering deep meaning in places of seeming hopelessness.
Each sign can sample its own brand of kinetic expression as we let our bodies collide and celebrate the sheer exhilaration of movement and ever-unfolding change. Let’s werk!
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ARIES Sagittarius season invites you to relinquish some of your single-pointed focus as you journey towards the joyous buoyancy of infinite possibilities. Dance Party: Parkour. Solitary, assertive explorations that also rely on feedback from the built environment.
TAURUS Sagittarius season invites you to infuse your deeply sensual pragmatism with some grand futuristic schemes and dreams, however eccentric. Dance Party: Belly-dancing. Getting low and getting down with a fully-embodied practice that’s both rooted and nomadic.
GEMINI Sagittarius season invites you to go even further in your curious search for information, as you sample far-flung philosophies and belief systems, and begin to take a stand. Dance Party: Break-dancing. Responding to street culture and pledging yourself to the pavement.
CANCER Sagittarius season invites you to take your looniness out of its shell as you experiment with sharing your creative process with the wider world. Dance Party: Pole-dancing. Sensual self-pleasure that’s unabashedly unafraid.
LEO Sagittarius season invites you to share your generous, pulsing heart with people outside of your usual circle and to let yourself be changed through these collisions. Dance Party: Roller-disco. Hot-blooded, glittery glamour on wheels complete with rainbow lights and necessary negotiations between sequined skaters.
VIRGO Sagittarius season invites you to let it all come undone as you leap headfirst into the experience without painstaking preparation. Dance Party: Irish step dancing. Intricacy and rapidity that springs into action from the ground up.
LIBRA Sagittarius season invites you to rock the boat as you push towards complete honesty, even when it’s far from diplomatic. Dance Party: Synchronized swimming. Idealized aesthetics meet rugged physicality and strong-willed teamwork.
SCORPIO Sagittarius season invites you to mix your darkness with light as you trust into both the gravity and levity of this luscious adventure. Dance Party: Flamenco. Raw intensity that harnesses the glorious sensation of passionate living.
SAGITTARIUS Sagittarius season invites you to both revel in your wildness and seek committed conduits for your restlessness. Dance Party: Wedding dances. From the electric slide to the macarena, sampling the full-range of party moves while celebrating romantic loyalty.
CAPRICORN Sagittarius season invites you to experiment with some healthy excess as you relax some of your ascetic measures and feast on the world around you. Dance Party: Ballroom dancing. Structure, tradition, and classical cool take to the floor with opulently majestic gowns and footwear.
AQUARIUS Sagittarius season invites you to release from what’s “right” or what “should” be, and dive into the experience of unfolding meaning without creating calcified rules. Dance party: Modern dance. Interpretive, fluid maneuvers that push the edge of what’s possible in an embodied form.
PISCES Sagittarius season invites you to fully release into the sensation of boundarylessness as you break down the walls between yourself and the world. Dance Party: Crowd surfing. Giving your body over to the intangible faith that you will always be supported.
Discover more about Mojave Rising and their work at Mojaverising.com
Scorpio season invites us to embrace the power of personal transformation, say Cara George & Bess Matassa of Mojave Rising…
Hillary (Sun in Scorpio), Vintage Photo
Scorpio season tempts us to descend into our own trenches with curious headlamps as we mine the rough and ready diamonds of our most intensely intimate desires. It’s a month for reckoning with past patterning, for cleaning out our basements, and, through this fearless process, discovering the immutable essence that can never be stripped from us.
The zodiac’s ferocious femme fatale challenges us to celebrate every damn part of ourselves and to learn to withstand the endless cycles of desiring, having, and losing, in all their messy, primal glory. So take a deep breath, step into your sharpest stilettos, and get ready to get raw. You are light and darkness and mind and spirit and guts. You are smoke and ash and ripe tropical flowers and everything that dies and everything that comes back. Can you handle the seasons of your life? Hell yes, says the Phoenix.
The keyword: Reckoning.
The song lyrics: “This is the part of me/That you’re never gonna ever take away from me, no!/Throw your sticks and stones, throw your bombs and your blows/But you’re not gonna break my soul”—Katy Perry, “Part of Me”
Check out our Scorpio season playlist, complete with stripped-down songstresses, exposed anthems, and hardcore feels.
Harper’s Bazaar2014
The color palette: Macabre boudoir shades fit for a Cleopatra queen. Think oxblood and burgundy, oxidized metallics, burnt gold, black glitter, and classic kohl.
Grace Jones inA View to a Kill
The style: Bulletproof Bond girl meets Alexander McQueen in the 1970s underworld. Think bodysuits, plunging zippers, louche loungewear, see-through lace, daring cutouts, and garter belts mixed with vinyl and leather.
The scents and flavors: Heady, nocturnal, and powerfully primitive. Think tuberose, oud, un-pitted olives, black cherries, raw meats, and after-dinner liquors.
The healing: Full-throttle archeological excursions and no-holds-barred carnality. Everything from closet-cleaning and oceanfront metal detecting, to sex-positive parties, pole-dancing classes, mixed martial arts, and mud wrestling.
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Sensuous Invitation of the Month: Time Travel (by sign below).
With Scorpio and Capricorn planets coming into conversation with Sagittarius and Aquarius energies, and Neptune stationing direct, Scorpio season 2016 has a back-to-the-future vibe that urges us to time travel into our own past lives. As we sift through our emotional archives, we can re-envision habitual grooves with tough tenderness, look passionately at all that it has taken to bring us here, and launch ourselves forward with both seasoned maturity and daring wildness.
ARIES Scorpio season invites you to go deep or go home, as you sink your hands and teeth into your life with both your characteristic vigor and a recommitment to endurance. Cosmic Era: The Middle Ages—chainmail, ferocious fencing, and burning the candle at both ends.
TAURUS Scorpio season invites you to notice where you hold back from transformation in the name of security, and to experiment with overturning and renewing. Cosmic Era: The Industrial Revolution—rapid expansion, innovative optimism, and earthy pragmatism.
GEMINI Scorpio season invites you to temporarily fold your butterfly wings and practice digging in the dirt as you go far beyond the surface to investigate the inner workings. Cosmic Era: Ancient Egypt—sarcophagi, the River Styx, and intricate pyramid building.
CANCER Scorpio season invites you to collide with another person’s feeling landscape as you practice stepping outside your own emotional core and honoring the inner world of another being. Cosmic Era: The Renaissance—humanism, artistic perspective, and emotional rebirth.
LEO Scorpio season invites you to fuse your passion for pleasurable exposure with a more risky self-revealing that brings absolutely all of you into the light, even the not so glittery pieces. Cosmic Era: 50s Vegas—dice rolling, nuclear testing, and the casino-floor courage to bare it all.
VIRGO Scorpio season invites you to play with power dynamics as you mix your capacity for cautious humility with a long-overdue seizure of the throne. Cosmic Era: The Tudor dynasty—crown jewels, divine rule, and the occasional beheading.
LIBRA Scorpio season invites you to plunge headfirst into the messier aspects of partnership as you take your penchant for relating into more radical territory. Cosmic Era: The Roaring 20s—voting women, speakeasies, and romantic revolution.
SCORPIO Scorpio season invites you to recognize where your capacity to understand the more primal parts of the human experience leads you to clam up, shut down, or withhold, and to practice not holding back one bit of your intensity and reveling in the full range of your feelings. Cosmic Era: 70s New York—the birth of disco and hip-hop, explosive street life, and graffitied expressions.
SAGITTARIUS Scorpio season invites you to repurpose past pain and use your high-spirited, free-wheeling levity to adventure into your own darkness. Cosmic Era: The Enlightenment—individual liberty, scientific discovery, and open debate.
CAPRICORN Scorpio season invites you to loosen your grip on your usual emotional control centers and discover the strength in what you may consider weakness. Cosmic Era: Southern Cali in the 60s—surf, sea breeze, and rose-colored love-ins.
AQUARIUS Scorpio season invites you to turn up the heat on your cool, analytical approach as you experiment with the beauty in blood, sweat, and tears. Cosmic Era: Ancient Rome—sumptuous feasts, gladiator clashes, and exploratory sexuality.
PISCES Scorpio season invites you to notice when your need for retreat becomes unnecessarily reclusive, and to practice becoming intimate with everything that surrounds you as you fall deeply in love with the world again. Cosmic Era: 90s Seattle—world beats, emo crooning, and slacker idealism.
Libra season invites us to soften and play with polarities, say Cara George & Bess Matassa of Mojave Rising…Homepage main image: Awave Awake
Libra season asks us to strap on our lightsabers, corral our unicorns, and celebrate both the ever-elusive quest and the already-realized ideal. It’s a month for playing with polarity, equilibrating between extremes, and recognizing that we contain even that which we claim to disavow.
The zodiac’s high-minded empress reveals both the perils and pleasures of building castles in the sky, as she switches between rose-colored glasses and magnifying specs. Her ultimate gift lies in the gap between sleeping beauty visions and early morning reality, where the full range of our humanness lives.
So let’s make a wish, grab each other’s hands, and take a leap across the cavernous divide with all our glorious, dynamic contradictions in tow. The good, the true, and the beautiful may truly be in the eye of the beholder. But we’ve got the compassionate courage to stand face-to-face.
The keyword: synergy.
The song lyrics: “Hey now, hey now/Don’t dream it’s over/They come, they come/To build a wall between us/We know they won’t win”—Crowded House, “Don’t Dream It’s Over.” Check out our Libra season playlist, complete with aspirational anthems, synth stylings, and polarity points.
The color palette: sophisticated, clear-headed shades and ballerina pastels. Think gray, navy, black & white, icy mints, pale violets, and slipper pinks.
The style: French New Wave meets Royal bridal shower—clean lines, classic cool, and simple trench coats collide with white satin, velvet brocade, ruffles, and empire waists.
The scents and flavors are eye-opening citruses, culinary pairs, and candied confections—lemon Pellegrino, sweet-salty snacks, and tea-time petit fours.
The healing: anything that’s energetically and aesthetically equilibrating—yin/yang yoga, art museum and topiary garden wandering, photography classes, and hot/cold saunas.
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Sensuous Invitation of the Month: Weather Patterns (by sign below) With Mercury and Pluto stationing direct in earth signs, Mars entering Capricorn, and Venus entering Scorpio, Libra’s high-minded idealism gets an infusion of crystalline clarity, and the willingness to work with the “real” world exactly as it is. It’s a month for invigorating our sense of responsiveness as we use current climatological conditions to build our castles in the sky.
ARIES Libra season invites you to soften your gaze as you incorporate compromise that still feels courageous. Weather pattern: Morning mist—let yourself get a little bit lost in the haze as you experiment with slow navigation without forcing forward.
TAURUS Libra season invites you to get full-on Venusian as you revel in the sweet sensations of ideological and sensual love in all its forms. Weather pattern: Blue skies—celebrate the majestic aesthetics of an absolutely perfect day.
GEMINI Libra season invites you to settle some of your endlessly curious chatter and exercise judgment in a way that feels liberating rather than stifling. Weather pattern: Sunbeams—stand directly in the path of the sun’s rays and watch how these solar streaks illuminate a single patch of ground.
CANCER Libra season invites you to adopt perspective on closely-held emotional narratives and to step outside your story without losing any of your penchant for poetics. Weather pattern: Crisp & breezy—let the subtle dance of wind inspire you to become gently unstuck.
LEO Libra season invites you to loosen fierce personal identifications as you recognize the self in the non-self. Weather pattern: Partly cloudy—trust that the sun still lurks beneath the ever shifting white fluff, even when it’s unseen.
VIRGO Libra season invites you to experiment with the sweet sense of collaboration without always having to work it out alone. Weather pattern: Humidity—notice how its closeness to your skin can feel safely supportive rather than oppressive.
LIBRA Libra season invites you to acknowledge the polarities that exist within you as you sample both ends of the spectrum with ease. Weather pattern: Daybreak—bear witness to the darkness that comes just before the dawn.
SCORPIO Libra season invites you to balance your desire to penetrate beyond the veil with a little faith in wide-eyed magic. Weather pattern: Chasing rainbows after the storm—celebrate the gorgeous luminosity that can come after turbulence.
SAGITTARIUS Libra season invites you to fuse your penchant for emotional honesty with a truth-telling that considers the consequences for others. Weather pattern: Lightning storm—harness your electrical energy while understanding how these bolts work with the storm and lessen as it passes.
CAPRICORN Libra season invites you to marry your keen sense of the difficult with a full-hearted celebration of goodness and ease. Weather pattern: Downpour—recognize the beauty in the overcast as sheets of rain soften and wash things away.
AQUARIUS Libra season invites you to equilibrate your radical eccentricity with an occasional blending that’s in service of the whole. Weather pattern: Nightfall—let yourself feel deliciously small as you witness the vast, star-studded sky.
PISCES Libra season invites you to celebrate the mystical beauty of your most ethereal dreams while moving towards coalescing them into solid form. Weather pattern: Hail—Investigate how these mysterious waters congeal into solid shapes.
“Everything, even fashion, is a transference of energy.” Janelle Corpuz Hethcoat, the designer behind KE7H3R, talks fashion as self-love with Ruby Warrington…
It’s not often I come across a fashion brand that aligns as perfectly with our philosophy at The Numinous as KE7H3R by L.A. based Janelle Corpuz Hethcoat, which is chic, modern, and has a sustainable as well as a spiritual and social mission. So when Janelle approached us about helping support her launch for Fall ’16 it was a no-brainer. When I actually got to hear the full story behind the brand, it made me feel even more proud about helping Janelle realize her vision. Read on to get the full scoop on a label to love for ALL the right reasons…
RUBY WARRINGTON: What’s your background and what brought you to fashion? JANELLE CORPUZ HETHCOAT: I’m a Filipino American, female born and raised in Los Angeles. As for fashion, I went through about 12 years of catholic school where we had to wear uniforms and I think that really fed my need to be visually creative when it came to the way I dress as an adult. In my college years I was a biology major (my very strict Filipino parents wanted me to be a doctor), but I had a lot of older friends who worked as designers. After seeing what they did I was just dead set on being creative for a living. So after many semesters of deliberation I finally said, “Fuck it, I don’t care what my parents think!”—and I changed my major to fashion.
RW: Was there a defining moment for you deciding to launch your own line? JCH: Last year was crazy. I went through so many hard and character-defining things; a hellish breakup, I got sober, my dad passing away from cancer, losing my job, and finally, finding and marrying my soul mate. One defining moment of many, was going out into my backyard, after maybe weeks of not getting out of bed from depression. I sat there and the sun hit my face and I kind of said to myself, “Well… what now Janelle? After all this what are you gonna do?”
And I guess the voice of my higher self, or maybe my father, told me to just make something with my hands. To stay in the sun and make something. So I started making patterns, cutting fabric, and then sewing up styles in my backyard. I would put the clothes on and post them up on Instagram. People would respond in the comments or text me like “I want one of those! Can you make me one?” and that’s how KE7H3R was born.
RW: The name KE7H3R comes from your study of hermetic qabbalah – can you explain what it means? JCH: I’ll definitely try! In quabbalah, the Tree of Life is a symbolic description of how the universe came into existence. At the top of the Tree is something called the Kether, which is described as the source of all divine creation. An easier way to visualize this, is to place it on top of your own body—envision Kether as a ball of white light that sits right above our heads, like it’s that divine power that gives us our best ideas, leads us to do our highest good, and guides us to our purpose.
Kether is also associated with the Fool card in the tarot, which I associate with any project where you really have to follow your heart and take risks. I actually pulled the fool card in a reading with myself in my backyard. So when I named this line KE7H3R, I was just honoring the message. I replaced the 7 for T and 3 for E because 7 and 3 are my magic numbers.
RW: And how about the brand’s motto: “- IS +”? JCH: It means “Less is More”—a motto that means a lot to me. As a brand we stand for both minimalist design and the idea of a capsule wardrobe. We feel that it’s more important to have a few finely made pieces that you can wear forever, than a million poorly made pieces that you’ll throw away at the end of a season.
This is important for a lot of reasons. The first one is the damage that fast fashion is doing to our environment. The second is the harmful and inhumane work environments that this type of large scale fashion subjects people in overseas factories to. And finally, the harm that fast fashion or consumerist fashion is doing to our self esteems…especially for women.
Keeping up with “trends” is exhausting and unhealthy, and suggests that your external purchases are what lead to happiness. A minimalist approach meanwhile, means less time thinking about what you can or should buy, and more time thinking and being grateful for what you already have—including the people around you and the experiences you can be enjoying.
RW: How do you shop for fashion personally? JCH: For the last two years I have literally only bought my clothes second hand. Or I make them! I will buy the occasional something new, when it comes to stuff you really can’t buy second hand like swim suits, yoga wear, underwear etc. In this case, I will buy locally made stuff when I travel, or special hand crafted things on etsy.
RW: How can your fashion choices become a self-love practice? JCH: I think fashion is like food. You don’t want the mystery, pumped full of hormones, genetically modified thing inside your body, right? Think about the energy that is put behind creating what you are placing on your body, as your expression and reflection of yourself.
Everything, even fashion, is a transference of energy. When you choose products that are made ethically, you are showing loving concern for the world, which in turn is an act of self-love—because in saying that the rest of the humans on this planet deserve better you are also saying you deserve better.
There’s also what I call “status buying”—when you buy that thing that’s totally impractical and uberly expensive, just to “look” a certain way to everyone around you. I would do this a lot when I was younger, because I thought buying super expensive stuff made me look more successful, more professional, or more advanced in life. I shelled out $800 for 6-inch high YSL pumps that I couldn’t even walk in. And after I would feel like shit.
And so I think your fashion choices can become a self-love practice when you are able to honestly answer: Am I comfortable in this? Does wearing it make me feel like I can be myself?
Discover more and shop the collection at Ke7h3r.com
