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A SENSORY EXPLORATION OF CANCER SEASON

Posted on June 21, 2016November 4, 2018 by Bess Matassa

A luscious monthly exploration of the cosmic energies for Cancer Season by Cara George & Bess Matassa of Mojave Rising…

Cancer season coaxes us into the nocturnal realm of hothouse flowers, deep sea skinny dipping, and the glow-in-the-dark feeling that we belong to ourselves completely. It’s a season for standing so profoundly inside our own hearts that what we feel becomes identical to what we believe we ARE—and this belief becomes the unstoppable tidal force that parts the seas of self-doubt.

So break your own heart wide open this month, and take the full plunge without even testing the waters. Mine the juicy, radical tenderness that arises from this emotionally risky business to construct a pathway all the way back to the house of your dreams. Slip out of those old clothes and back into your own skin. It’s time to get soaking wet.

The keyword: Submersion.

The lyrics: “I love it in your room at night/You’re the only one who gets through to me/In the warm glow of the candlelight/Oh, I wonder what you’re gonna do to me” – The Bangles, In Your Room

Check out our playlist, complete with classic crooners, languid ladies, and aural journeys to the interior.

The color palette: a cocktail of crepuscular shades that conjures everything from impressionist water lilies and opalescent conch shells to strangely striped scarabs sporting wicked sapphire and violet backs.

The style: South of France artist’s atelier meets beach blanket bonfire. Undone wavy locks or messy upswept braids paired with glam 50s pinup one pieces, sexy lace-edged smocks and low slung trousers with stacked raffia wedges or slip-on mules, and explorations in inner/outerwear with lingerie inspired pieces and ruffled accents fit for romancing your own heart.

The scents and flavors: deliciously briny, fermented infusions and memory palettes—think everything from kimchi, pickles, olives, and sardines, to grandma’s holiday fruit cake and perfumer Christopher Brosius’ “Archetype” series, which pairs scents with emotional narratives.

The healing: explore creative boundaries through exercises in sweetly risky exposure—sharing your private writing with trusted girlfriends, signing up for a full-on open mic night, hosting a dinner party without tidying up one bit, or even constructing a terrarium that symbolizes the slow unveiling of your loony inner lifeworld. (NB: perfect timing for our Re-Write Your Love Story women’s retreat!)

SENSUOUS INVITATION FOR CANCER SEASON :: FRAGRANCES (by sign)

With all the recent mutable astro energy now getting a heavy hit from Cancer’s cardinal action, and Mars stationing direct in fixed Scorpio, it’s a month for recommitting yourself to your most private visions—and beginning to wear these fantasies on your sleeve. Become intoxicated by your own secret scents and leave a beautiful trail wherever you go!

:: ARIES ::
Cancer season invites you to explore the exhilarating internal action that’s possible when you courageously commit to a feeling. Swap out the potent colognes you spray directly onto your skin and experiment instead with stepping into the mists of a room spray that conjures landscapes built for dreaming and scheming. Think star-studded mountain campfire scents, fresh linens, or meadow flowers. TRY: Somerset Meadow by Crabtree & Evelyn.

:: TAURUS ::
Cancer season invites you to scuba dive down towards a different kind of emotional security that doesn’t have to manifest in the material world. Probe the waters with classic beach scents redolent of salt, suntan oil, and oceanic breezes that remind you of the strength of your flippers, no matter the turn of the tides. TRY: REPLICA Beach Walk by Maison Martin Margiela.

:: GEMINI ::
Cancer season invites you to temporarily fold your wings as you probe the poetics of your inner life without having to constantly externalize or testify. Get back to the basic contours of your own heart with simple, herbaceous blends and lively florals like basil, lavender, lilac, and lemongrass. TRY: Lime, Basil & Mandarin by Jo Malone.

:: CANCER ::
Cancer season invites you to voyage into the loonier side of the crustacean’s energy with experiments in witchery, weirdness, and self-possessed wilding. Sport a highly proprietary blend of essential oils that mixes dirty, earthy organics with spicy spirituals—think patchouli, sandalwood, burning leaves, incense, and oud. TRY: Patchouli 24 by Le Labo.

:: LEO ::
Cancer season invites you to delight in the curious sensation of actually climbing back into the safety of your clamshell as you learn when to retreat and engage in some solo play. Sample the scents of home with classically comfortable vanillas, candied, playground edibles, or blossoms and botanicals reminiscent of your childhood backyard. TRY: Candy by Prada.

:: VIRGO ::
Cancer season invites you to recommit to your creative force as you revel in building and birthing wondrously imperfect artistic endeavors with your own hands. Celebrate craftswomanship and construction with woodsy cedar, pine, and birch tar accords, and resins, leather, and medicinal notes that conjure the earthily generative spaces of tree houses, libraries, and apothecaries. TRY: Opone by Diptyque.

:: LIBRA ::
Cancer season invites you to experiment with irrational and visionary vibrations as you trade mental acuity and constant assessment for the full-throttle sensation of no longer fighting your gut feelings. Infuse your usually crisp, clean florals with intoxicating blooms and indolic, over-the-top scents, or sample spicy blends of cinnamon and pepper. TRY: Opium by YSL.

:: SCORPIO ::
Cancer season invites you to unclench your fists and unlock your secret diary as you start sharing your inner world with trusted confidantes. Dose yourself in emboldened, exuberant scents that conjure the sun-baked celebration of secrets revealed—think tropical fruits and flowers, gourmand scents, the clarity of citrus accords, and even in-your-face drugstore indulgences. TRY: Sensuous by Estee Lauder.

:: SAGITTARIUS
Cancer season invites you to bring it all back home as you practice recommitting to inner visions as much as outer adventures. Engage in some armchair olfactory voyaging by discovering your dream travel destination’s local scent landscape, and decking out your bedroom in candles and oils that conjure this topography—think anything from Big Sur juniper to Turkish coffee. TRY: Gypsy Water by Byredo.

:: CAPRICORN ::
Cancer season invites you to let your hard-built structures benefit from some saltwater softening as you honor what it would mean to come a little undone (without falling apart). Dose yourself in easy, breezy romantic scents or sample “chypre” fragrances that infuse your woodsy self-sufficiency with a little wet moss. TRY: Citron Citron by Miller Harris.

:: AQUARIUS ::
Cancer season invites you to pair your far-flung, forward thinking visions with curious explorations into your roots as you probe past legacies and lineages. Discover vintage scents like Jicky, Shalimar, Anaïs Anaïs, and decant them into glamorous mid-century perfume vials. TRY: Chanel No.19.

:: PISCES ::
Cancer season invites you to infuse your usually transcendent, boundaryless emotional climate with some highly personalized desire as you practice fighting for your own feelings and learning when to say no. Dab badass, musky, animalic scents into hidden places between your breasts and behind your knees as you recommit to your fierce, untamable feeling nature. TRY: Sahara Noir by Tom Ford.

A SENSORY EXPLORATION OF GEMINI SEASON

Posted on May 24, 2016November 4, 2018 by Bess Matassa

Enter Gemini season—with a tribute to the one and only Prince, in this month’s exploration of the current cosmic energies by Cara George & Bess Matassa of Mojave Rising

Gemini season beckons us to strap on our butterfly wings and sample the infinite possible pathways through the kaleidoscope of our lives. The zodiac’s iridescent muse reminds us that we can choose “both, and,” rather than “either, or,” and that it’s all just happening without us always having to understand.

It’s a month for simply letting the Universe happen through us, without judgment and sometimes without any filtration at all. So click your ruby-slippered heels together three times, and turn your story inside out. Bend it. Stretch it. Paint it twenty-five shades of rainbow-kissed wilderness. And remember that certainty is brittle. Indeed, that certainty begs to be broken.

The keyword: “Threshold.”

The song lyrics: “I’m not a woman/I’m not a man/I am something that you’ll never understand” – Prince, I Would Die 4 U

Check out our playlist, complete with street sounds, exploratory electronica, and rogue tunes from across the pond. And while our musical Gemini patron saint isn’t on Spotify, we’ve included special Prince picks in our sign-by-sign selection (further below).

The colors: Somewhere over the rainbow and way beyond Kansas with iridescence, shimmer, and glitter, cracking us open to prismatic perspectives.

The look: Ethereal glitter rock, expansive androgyny, and high/low cultural collisions. Feathers, gossamer, fabrics that move, and star-studded stilettos paired with men’s leisure wear.

The scents and flavors: Dazzlingly disorienting mixtures of synthetic and organic that both excite and confuse our olfactory sensibilities. Think Thierry Mugler’s ecstatically strange “Angel,” street meats, and unexpected snacks like lavender ice cream or nasturtium salad.

The healing: Mind-altering descents into the urban fray: think wandering flea markets and bazaars as we revel in cacophonous sensory mosaics; signing up for an off-the-beaten path walking tour or scavenger hunt; or maybe just brunching in a new neighborhood or sampling a fresh food truck.

GEMINI SEASON BY SIGN :: COLOR PALETTES AND PRINCE JAMS!

With all four mutable signs playing a key role in the cosmic landscape of Gemini season, it’s a moment to don our mood rings and delight in chameleon color palettes as we let the full spectrum of visual and emotional luminescence into our apartments, makeup bags, and beyond. In the wise words of the Purple One: “I wish there was no black or white/I wish there were no rules.”

:: ARIES ::
Gemini season invites you to experiment with energetic androgyny as you mix your masculine action principle with some radio tower receiving, and revel in the curious sensation of not having to commit to a particular end goal. Think color collisions fit for a tough yet bedazzled Jem from the Holograms.

Prince Anthem: “Cream”

:: TAURUS ::
Gemini season invites you to quicken your pace and get out into the melee as you let your tightly-held values collide with alternate belief systems. Infuse your usual chocolate truffle palette with the levity of some candied Jordan almond pastels.

Prince Anthem: “Pink Cashmere”

:: GEMINI ::
Gemini season invites you to celebrate the full expression of your circulatory, winged sociability while also finding some ballast to soothe your nervous system. Activate your inner Rainbow Brite with Skittles shades and playground primaries.

Prince Anthem: “Controversy”

:: CANCER ::
Gemini season invites you to break up calcified habitual patterns and practice voicing your emotional needs directly. Radicalize and renovate your clam shell with electric neons fit for an 80s prom queen Ariel.

Prince Anthem: “When Doves Cry”

:: LEO ::
Gemini season invites you to practice glowing brightly without having to stand at the center of the action, as you trust in an individualism that doesn’t need to be spotlighted. Let your full-on solar power kick back under a Capri sun with summer sorbet shades and limoncello yellow.

Prince Anthem: “Raspberry Beret”

:: VIRGO ::
Gemini season invites you to celebrate the dazzling dance of information gathering without having to worry about developing expertise. Honor the ever-unfolding spectacle with ballet slipper pinks and mint julep shades fit for a midsummer night’s dream.

Prince Anthem: “Nothing Compares 2 U”

:: LIBRA ::
Gemini season invites you to say yes to both ends of the spectrum and to infuse your high-minded idealism with some “beginner’s mind” buoyancy that’s deliciously judgement free. Conjure newness with clean slate greys and an unexpected splash of sparkling limeade.

Prince Anthem: “Diamonds & Pearls”

:: SCORPIO ::
Gemini energy invites you to explore fusing your “go deep or go home” mentality with a fresh curiosity that can contain both gravitas and levity. Old Hollywood femme fatale enters the technicolor age with a palette that trades vampy purple for ombréd lilacs as you play with varying levels of potency.

Prince Anthem: “Private Joy”

:: SAGITTARIUS ::
Gemini season invites you to celebrate the “unknown” with in the known as you infuse your sense of far-flung adventurism with a little local exploration. With a rare succession of two Full Moons in your sign this season, it’s a moment for colors that conjure nocturnal howling, lunar metals, and the air that fans your bonfire.

Prince Anthem: “Little Red Corvette”

:: CAPRICORN ::
Gemini season invites you to mix your proclivity for wise maturity and getting the job done with some juicy, youthful playtime. Deck your life out with a boss lady leisure palette perfect for yacht parties and transcontinental jet setting.

Prince Anthem: “Sign O’ The Times”

:: AQUARIUS ::
Gemini season invites you to sample the infinite array of possible perspectives without having to commit to a credo. Summon your prismatic potentials with colors fit for splashing in a forest pool or climbing to the top of some magically elven tree where you can just sit back and let it all be.

Prince Anthem: “1999″

:: PISCES ::
Gemini season invites you to balance your penchant for continuous emotional intake with a little intellectual detachment and some soft-focus solitary retreat. Relish shades of wine, roses, and terracotta as you let this rich, grounded palette soothe some of this season’s mutable madness.

Prince Anthem: “Purple Rain”

A SENSORY EXPLORATION OF ARIES SEASON

Posted on March 26, 2016November 4, 2018 by Bess Matassa

Hello Aries Season! Explore the current cosmic energies with Cara George & Bess Matassa of Mojave Rising… Artwork: Paulius Zakarauskas

Aries season conjures the scent of gasoline, the sound of tires screeching, and the full-throttle feeling of all-or-nothing, pedal to the metal, ferocious selfhood. Yet under the hood of this badass muscle car momma is a curious kind of fuel: innocence. It’s the wide-eyed, open-hearted belief that we have the right to be exactly as we are and that every damn moment is a moment to begin again. We simply cannot stop our own becoming.

Keyword: Collision.

Lyrics: “Being is believing/Take your passion/And make it happen/I can have it all/Now I’m dancing through my life.”

Check out our full Aries Season playlist here, complete with unapologetic cock rock, pure guileless pop, and relentless disco beats.

Color palette: Emboldened, saturated hues that mix Mexico City with Nascar primaries. Explode into a technicolor spring bloom, as you find yourself at the starting line once again.

Style: A rugged, kinetic beauty that pairs motorcycle boots with chrome and solid gold accessories, and fashion that walks the line between in-your-face antics and stripped down minimalism: disco-fied jumpsuits, coral unitards, bare nails, and sun-streaked hair.

Scents: Clean, direct, and spicy sweet. Scorching summer sidewalk pavement after a thunderstorm, cedarwood meets pungent jasmine, classic men’s “fougère” barber shop scents, fresh cut grass, dirt, and matches.

Healing: Sweat-drenched body movement. Try a high-intensity hip-hop or pole class. Dance until you sweat and then dance some more. Or strap on your most comfortably sexy kicks and hit the city streets for some serious strutting set to your own soundtrack. Walk and walk and walk until you can feel every muscle in your body alive and electric. Buy yourself a coco helado along the way.

ARIES SEASON BY SIGN :: FLAVOR PAIRINGS

During this Aries season, the heavy hitting survival trio of Pluto, Saturn, and Mars are all stationing retrograde and with this comes a sweet, float-like-a-butterfly feeling of absolutely nothing more to prove. It’s a soul survival moment where we each stand so fiercely and earnestly in our disco dancefloor essence, that we begin to collide gently with one-another.

This makes it a month for fusion cuisine that celebrates singularly wild flavors as they collide and cross-pollinate on cutting boards, in ovens, and along sumptuous Vegas buffet tables. So leap into the frying pan and light a match.

Aries :: Aries Rising
Sink your teeth into flavors that feel good as they burn. Think chili pepper dark chocolate, salted caramel, sweet and smoky mesquite, and red hot candies. Or, visit your local ice cream truck, and celebrate your birthday month with open-hearted sprinkle combinations and badass bomb pops.

Taurus :: Taurus Rising
Turn up the heat with slow-roasted vegetables or pair bitter dandelion greens with sweet balsamic glaze as you infuse your earthbound sensibilities with a little tangy sharpness. Take your picnic on the road as you explore the concept of being nourished as you travel through life.

Gemini :: Taurus Rising
Visit your local farmer’s market or spice shop and experiment with choosing one special ingredient or spice variation to build a meal around. Or blend your own spice combo as you honor each distinctive element of a home-made curry paste or za’atar.

Cancer :: Cancer Rising
Think fresh bread with rosemary infused olive oil and sea salt. Or plan a progressive dinner party with friends where you sample a new dish at each house as you explore the notion of mobile shelters and the internal emotional landscape of each other’s homes.

Leo :: Leo Rising
Celebrate the sun-drenched, succulent flavors of ripe, roasted tomatoes and peppers, contrasted with the sensation of biting into the slightly tough skin. Think guacamole, sun-dried tomatoes, and nopales street tacos.

Virgo :: Virgo Rising
Dive into wild collisions of ingredients as you abandon your measuring cups and prepare a stew without even tasting it along the way. Or go back to basics with three ingredient meals. Trust in flour, water, salt, and your own immeasurable worth.

Libra :: Libra Rising
Practice dining alone and savoring the sensation of solitary feasting. Move into messiness as you leave the dishes for tomorrow or dig into difficult food like sloppy joes and chili cheese fries.

Scorpio :: Scorpio Rising
Sample creamy, fluffy flavors as you relax into a brand of power that feels exuberant and delicious. Think fresh, warm milk infused with punchy cardamom and rosewater, and the scrumptious sensations of cotton candy, flavored foam, and bubble gum.

Sagittarius :: Sagittarius Rising
Contrast your wildfire in a backyard barbecue, and fuse exploratory urges with committed pragmatism as you chop, drink, and eat the entire contents of a coconut. Search out “on-the-go” snacks that are also protein-rich and grounding; think primal strips or Vietnamese bahn mi.

Capricorn :: Capricorn Rising
Experiment with a long, slow, proper mirepoix as the foundation for a nourishing meal. Infuse potent flavors of the natural world like garlic, onions, and ginger, that blend these cardinal signs’ self-sufficiency with Aries’ vigorous joy. Push against limitation and celebrate a little healthy excess with a chocolate box or sumptuous buffet.

Aquarius :: Aquarius Rising
Sink your teeth into stick to flavors that pair unexpected Aquarian tastes with hearty Aries foodstuffs. Think a falafel sandwich with tahini sauce and pickled turnips, or a grilling party with your tribe complete with exotic veggies.

Pisces :: Pisces Rising
This month’s energy speaks to fresh translucence and herbaceous flavors that blend Piscean fusion with Aries particularity. Think cucumber water, flavored honeys, or rose kombucha. Or enjoy a lime and chili paleta as you celebrate mutable melting and the self-contained strength to savor it all on the way down.

A SENSORY EXPLORATION OF PISCES SEASON

Posted on February 23, 2016November 4, 2018 by Bess Matassa

Welcome to The 12th Sense – a luscious monthly exploration of the current cosmic energies for your sign, by Cara George & Bess Matassa of Mojave Rising. THIS MONTH: create an altar for Pisces season…

We often speak of the Pisces/Virgo axis with a world-weary sense of psychic overwhelm; these highly sensitized signs are associated with the hollowed out, solitary feeling that we’re all just miniature specks. Yet one of the most sparkling, sunken-ship treasures of this axis is the capacity for these signs to elevate and transform our everyday experience.

Pisces season asks us to find pageantry in the minutiae and the slow unfolding of our lives. And with the North Node and Jupiter now in Virgo, Saturn in Sagittarius squaring the Pisces New Moon on March 8, and Mars primed to enter Sag territory on March 5, we’re being asked to activate a proprietary blend of pragmatic mysticism in order to find a different way to pray: one that allows for a sensuous seamlessness between our higher selves and our everyday environment.

And so this month, we invite you to set up an altar using seemingly frivolous objects, and to mix them with the most obviously sacred and self-consciously important. From boudoir vanities to austere, sacrificial shrines, we can dialogue with the divine using lipstick tubes, found objects, and sacred tomes alike.

Watch in wonder as your steak knives, lingerie, old love letters, and spice cabinet being to whisper that they’re worth believing in and that you’re worth believing in, too. And in the midnight hour, you’ll start to feel your own power in all its glamorous, gentle, ferocious divinity.

Keyword: “Veneration”

Song Lyrics of the Month: “Life is a mystery/Everyone must stand alone/I hear you call my name/And it feels like home”

Now click here for a Piscean Playlist and read on for our tips for creating an everyday altar for Pisces season by sign.

:: Aries ::
Pisces season invites you to experiment with trusting in your potent, singular identity without having to prove it, and to calm your passion for friction as you revel in a strength borne through soft-focus edges. Select a precious object that you consider to be fiercely, distinctively “you” and experiment with placing it under a piece of fabric or inside a box as you move towards a faith in its inevitable survival – without visible proof. Throw down a symbol of strength or toughness and infuse this item with gloss and glitter. Think hot pink boxing gloves or a tool belt filled with feathers.

:: Taurus ::
Pisces season invites you to loosen up and play with the concept of security as you widen your field of value. Place an object that you treasure deeply next to one you consider meaningless and challenge yourself to see the worth of each. Celebrate your love of sensuous feasting with some Piscean synesthesia; mix a scent, taste, and color in a textured vessel to create a potion that feeds all facets of olfactory and visual delight. Think lavender ice cream or a rose margarita served up in a vintage Old Hollywood gold-leafed goblet.

:: Gemini ::
Pisces season invites you to celebrate the world’s dazzling array of information sources as you revel in the possibility of not having to understand it all. Place books in languages you don’t speak, maps of places you’ve never been, and menus of cuisines you’ve yet to sample on your altar as you honor global wares in all their jet-setting mystery. Take a walk and discover a found object of unknown provenance to add to your spread. Think Basque rock lyrics, maps of Pompeii, or an eccentric plant you pass every day without knowing its genus.

:: Cancer ::
Pisces season invites you to loosen your highly personalized grip, and to practice honoring feeling nature of everything that surrounds you. Choose a souvenir from childhood or a deeply charged object from a former emotional situation and experiment with blurring its boundaries; place it alongside brand new objects, melt it down or burn it, and venerate its remains. Or leave a treasured object exposed to light, wind, rain, and snow on a balcony or near an open window and watch its gentle erosion and changes through time. Think everything from exes’ love letters set aflame to Malibu Barbie through the seasons.

:: Leo ::
Pisces season invites you to challenge attachment to your tastes, and to rediscover a sumptuous internal fantasy life that needs no hook in the external world. Place jewels or makeup on your altar that aren’t quite your style, or look for an otherwise “ugly” object you can recognize each day for its unexpected, evolving shades of glamour. Pen letters to yourself or to an imaginary lover as you move towards your passionately internal world. Think those earmuffs from Aunt Linda you thought you hated, or a sweet message to your 5th grade self decked out in sparkly decals.

:: Virgo ::
Pisces season invites you to expand your love of divine detail and order as you practice embracing the gorgeous messiness of mixing, matching, blending, and fusing. Place a collection of essential oils on your altar and experiment with instinctually mixing them into a fragrant concoction. Or spend the afternoon decanting newly discovered wines in preparation for a tasting party that celebrates both individual flavor profiles and taste collisions. Think frankincense meets orange blossom, and full-bodied Spanish leathery red meets crushed-seashell Loire white.

:: Libra ::
Pisces season invites you to sample in-betweenness rather than having to choose, and to wander through shifting perspectives as you soften your search for the ideal with tender non-judgment. Play with the visual as you move your altar to different heights and lights and watch for changes in the shadows throughout the day. Adorn your altar with candles in recognition of the hybrid interplay between states of solidity and liquid. Think melted wax at midnight and firm, luminous clarity by daybreak.

:: Scorpio ::
Pisces season invites you to mix the intensity of penetrating and purging with the sumptuously tender act of allowing. Place an object on your altar that you’ve been hoarding but which causes you pain to look at. Repurpose this pain as you lay your object atop a luxe satin pillow, or wrap it in your favorite fluffy sweater or decadent piece of lingerie. Watch the boundaries between pain and pleasure dissolve. Think that caustic performance review shredded atop a heap of blue-violet hydrangeas, or purifying that garter belt gifted by the one that got away in preparation for a girl’s night out.

:: Sagittarius ::
Pisces season invites you to stoke your adventurous wildfire without having to externally seek in the physically nomadic world. Let the sounds of the ambient environment form the backdrop for an altar peppered with woodsy incense as you watch scent and smoke travel through space without having to leave your room. Think tripping out to the sounds of traffic on a regular weeknight as you burn Palo Santo and tobacco.

:: Capricorn ::
Pisces season invites you to relax into the sensation that not everything has to be accomplished or take effort. Place the remnants of a project that’s partially complete on your altar and honor where you are in the process. Bookend it with a jar of sand as you realize that you don’t have to build a castle to enjoy the shifting, soft sensations of all these tiny grains. Think rainbowed sand art placed in the bathroom you’re mid-renovation.

:: Aquarius ::
Pisces season invites you to break down rational systems of thought and to move towards the realm of irrational sensation as you blend your radical streak with Piscean mystical dreaming. Take an object apart and value its constituent pieces in a place of prominence. Or construct an altar to items that make no “sense” together but which carry an intuitively emotional charge. Think Ikea furniture instructions surrounded by talismans gifted from friends, and wondrously weird snapshots of your past and potentially future selves.

:: Pisces ::
Invite yourself to explore the Virgo sitting opposite as you ask your slippery fishies to venerate the process of discernment, boundary construction, and divining what is singularly precious from the sea of possibility. Strip your altar down and practice choosing just one valued object from your bottom-drawer jumble of treasures and trash. Or add every precious item possible and then ritualistically remove them over the course of a week until only one beloved piece remains. Think fistfuls of plastic jewels from that lost weekend in New Orleans slowly untangling themselves, or a fishbowl containing a solo geode exposed to the light.

To find out more about Cara George and Bess Matassa and their work, visit: MojaveRising.com

MY MYSTICAL LIFE: XMAS GIFT IDEAS, AND BINGEING ON TRANSPARENT

Posted on December 18, 2015November 4, 2018 by Ruby Warrington

Read on for at least three high-vibe Xmas gift ideas, an astro walking tour of NYC, and all the reasons I love Transparent…

:: MONDAY ::
Whipped up a batch of my favorite new thing – hemp milk. I’ve been making my own nut milks for most of this year, mainly as, oh let’s see, it’s way cheaper and tastier and healthier than buying the store-bought stuff. I’ve been through almond (too much pulp) and cashew (digestive no-no for me), and had settled on Brazil nut as my fave. But then I got my hands on a copy of Rich Roll and Julie Piatt’s plant-based lifestyle bible The Plantpower Way (an excellent Xmas gift btw), and was convinced to give hemp a try. OMG, it’s lighter than air, mixes like regular dairy milk into hot drinks, AND YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE TO STRAIN IT. Here’s my recipe:

1/2 cup hulled hemp seeds
4 cups of water
Pinch sea salt
1/2 tspn raw honey

Blitz.

:: TUESDAY ::
When Bess Matassa, a.k.a. Street Sign Astrology, invited me on an “astrological walking tour of NYC” obviously I wasn’t going to say no. Even better, Bess’s tours are based on your actual birth chart – taking in sights, stores, and hidden secrets of the City that act as experiential representations of different aspects in your chart. Wow! Mine began beneath the giant whale at the Museum of Natural History, since so many of my planets are in the watery (read: totally emo) 4th and 8th houses of my chart. We then moved on to check out some fierce mammals, since the “learning edge” that Bess saw in my chart can be summed up as: “getting cozy with savagery.” Grrr…(p.s. a tour with Bess would also be a great Xmas gift)

:: WEDNESDAY ::
Hello, exchange economy. Since I was in need of some energetic clearing, and my friend Aly wanted some advice on her website…we agreed to do a swap. A healing session for me, a coaching session for her. We met for the exchange over a 2-hour session today, with amazingly high-vibe results! It got me thinking: what skills could you exchange with one of your friends for an alternative kind of hang-date? It’s a win-win – you both get something out if it that you might otherwise pay a couple of hundred dollars for, and it’s so so much more bonding than getting your gossip on over a bottle of wine. Promise.

:: THURSDAY ::
Totally binge-watched the entire second series of Amazon Video’s Transparent, which is definitely one of my favorite shows to have emerged in the past year. If you haven’t seen it a) it’s the story of a (fictional) boho Jewish family in LA coming to terms with the shift in tribal dynamics after the father comes out as trans (“trans-parent,” geddit?), and b) basically clear your diary and get stuck in. Reading this back, it strikes me that it’s essentially a clever, hilarious, emotionally resonant version of the Kardashians – with some really great music, plenty of sex, and copious amounts of medicinal marijuana thrown into the mix.

:: FRIDAY ::
Not quite sure how this happened already, but this is the last weekend you (London crew) can visit the mystical Astrolounge Xmas boutique we curated with the team at Selfridges Oxford St. It’s really been such a special project, and what an amazing opportunity to bring all things Numinous to life…in one of Britain’s most iconic department stores, no less. You can also get your custom birth chart tee printed to order while you wait – oh hello, excellent Xmas gift idea no. 3.

@NUMINOUS_BOOKS