10 SIGNS YOU MIGHT BE FUTURE TRIPPING

Hitting the crystal ball so hard you can’t make a move without psychic intervention? Sounds like you’re future tripping, says Victoria Cox…

the numinous ruby warrington victoria cox future tripping

I still recall my first psychic reading with incredible clarity. At first, I was skeptical. I held my cards close to my chest and answered any leading questions as briefly as possible.

But within minutes, goosebumps covered my entire body as she informed me that my beloved grandmother had come in from the ether to say hello and was looking after our cherished family dog. The psychic even nailed the name and breed!

I was hooked. And so over the years, I found myself going back for more. And more … 

My psychic gave me the courage to follow my soul mission as a writer and to make some pretty drastic changes in my life, all with the confidence that I had the support of the Universe behind me. This was all good stuff. The problem was, eventually, there was a gaping chasm between my dreams and my reality. To get from one to the other required action, yet I was paralyzed and fretting over a life I had yet to create. I was focusing on the future at the expense of the present. In short, I was future-tripping.

Have you found yourself getting swept up by the romanticism or sheer excitement of discovering what lies ahead? Use the 10 signs below to diagnose whether you’re seeing a psychic for the right reasons, or are simply future tripping on your own destiny …

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1/REGULARITY: How often do you get a reading? Generally speaking, as long as you aren’t becoming dependent on intuitive advice, one or two readings a year should suffice. Any more than that and it’s time to start asking whether you are using psychic guidance as a crutch, and thus disempowering your own free will.

2/REPETITION: Are you asking endless questions about the same topic? We all have times of uncertainty in our lives and it is incredibly easy to fall into the trap of scheduling multiple readings until you get what you deem a satisfactory answer. Instead, remember that a good psychic reading takes time to unfold and let yourself sit with the answers from one reading for a while.

3/REASSURANCE: Seeking out psychic guidance in the hopes of reassurance is never a good idea. Especially when the search for reassurance comes in the form of asking when Lady Luck will start smiling on you again. Ultimately, this takes you out of your own personal power and leaves you sitting around waiting for life to get better instead of making things better for yourself.

4/REASONS: The reasons you’re getting psychic advice are often more important than how often you are getting it. What are you really seeking from a reading? Is this just a thinly disguised attempt to control everything by knowing everything?

5/RIGIDITY: If your sole intention in a psychic session is to receive that defining answer to a specific question, disappointment will surely follow. If a psychic is legit, the information communicated doesn’t come from them, it comes through them, and they have virtually no control over what they’re being spiritually guided to convey. You’ll receive what you need, not what you want. Two very different things.

victoria cox ruby warrington the numinous future tripping
Image: Harper’s Bazaar

6/REVEALING: Much like a first date, revealing too much too soon can be a recipe for disaster. Remember that you’re paying a professional for their time. Allow them space to do their job and lead the discussion where it needs to go so that it may serve your highest good. If in doubt, ask the psychic if you may elaborate to underscore a certain point.

7/EMPOWERMENT: Remember that the true purpose of a psychic is to help guide you through a life issue, and to empower you to make your own choices as a result of this guidance. It is most definitely NOT a comfort blanket to protect against future fears. Ask yourself whether you are seeking constructive advice on an important life question, or simply seeking a salve for your anxiety.

8/PSYCHIC-SHOPPING: Much like seeking out a therapist, when you find an intuitive that you connect with try to stick with them for a while. Developing a working relationship with one psychic helps you to build on what you’ve already discussed, digging a little deeper each time. If you find yourself hopping from one to the other in search of new material, you’ll likely end up running in circles and driving yourself insane!

9/MAKING IT FIT: Predictions can feel wondrous (if they come true), but they can also be a minefield of epic mind-fuckery. No one can really know what will happen, even those who tap into their intuition as their professional calling. The danger lies in trying to make your life work around a prediction. Trying to force a certain situation to play out any differently than it is meant to runs contrary to the natural laws of the universe and should be avoided at all costs.

10/EASY ANSWERS: The best intuitive should provide the caveat that they can’t see everything. If you find yourself being told what you should do, run for the hills. True professionals will help you find your own inner truth and offer deeper perspective on it. It’s not their job to hand you easy answers. The point is to learn to rely on your own intuition and inner wisdom.

As we try and quell our anxiety about what happens next, the most important thing to remember is that we are masters of our own destiny. Life is really about every single one of us evolving our souls through the experiences that we uncover along the way. Whether or not we choose to seek psychic guidance about these experiences is entirely up to us!

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Victoria Cox currently resides in NYC. She has written for Amanda de Cadenet’s “The Conversation,” Tiny Buddha, Elephant Journal, LifeHack, The Lady Project, Dumb Little Man, Sivana Spirit, and The Numinous. You can connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, or via her website.

HOLY F*CK: HOW HEARTBREAK CAN BE THE MOST POWERFUL MEDICINE

When Love is our teacher heartbreak can be the most powerful medicine, says Alexandra Roxo in her latest Holy F*ck column…

alexandra roxo holy fuck heart break open the numinous ruby warrington

So maybe just maybe some mega shit has been hitting the fan during this Venus Retrograde? Or perhaps it’s minor pieces of shit for you. Little annoying pieces of shit you thought were gone…but are still stinking up the place? Perhaps it’s around romantic love, rejection, partnership. Or perhaps self love, worth, value.

Chances are you’ve been stung. But guess what??! This means your heart is open—that it’s accessible, soft, tender, growing, reshaping, adapting, expanding. THIS IS A GOOD THING. Heartbreak can be the most powerful medicine.

Committing to living with an open heart it is not an easy road. It can mean letting your heart break and break and break, but each time it breaks it swells and becomes bigger and messier and wider and has the capacity to hold more.

This is the way of Love. (Cue Rumi.)

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CRUCIFIED BY LOVE  

Love has always been my personal teacher of choice. When I was 20 and all my friends had gurus, I was secretly writing the words “AHEM PREMA” (I am divine love) on my hand and telling folks, “Love is my guru!” I’ve been obsessed with Love for as long as I can remember. I’ve been in Love MANY times and rejected MANY times more, and still I keep on going for it.

How do I define Love?
Love is that which we were made from and that which we will return to. The primordial ooze in us. The ever present God-Goddess sparkle living in each cell. Which we feel when we”fall” in Love. Really what I believe happens is that this “falling” is us OPENING to the Love that already exists within us. What if you could feel that without an other person? This is what I’m talking about!!

And because I also never quit being curious and doing things that scare me, I signed up for a two-day intensive last week called “The Yoga of Intimacy” with Londin Angel Winters and Justin Patrick Pierce (who also may be the hottest couple on the planet. Major #RelationshipGoals.)

Arriving at a beautiful inn in Topanga I prepared myself to be “crucified by Love.” (My ideal Saturday!) Standing across from a man whose name I didn’t know, who wasn’t “my type,” I let Love show me where I was guarded. And I let it make me feel safe enough to pull down the walls and completely open to said stranger.

I looked into his eyes and cried. I shared my depths. And it felt as powerful as an Ayauasca ceremony. If not more powerful! With eyes open and locked onto someone else’s, instead of eyes closed solo-style like in plant journeys, I couldn’t escape my demons or pain or shut down or dissociate. Justin said it perfectly … “If you think ayahuasca is crazy, try love.”

I could literally NOT form a sentence afterwards. As a writer and wordsmith I was kinda freaked out by the temporary mush in my brain. But I was assured that this meant I had surrendered to the pure-as-hell-delicious Shakti/Divine Feminine energy that resides outside the mind.

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99 HEARTBREAKS & I DON’T WANT TO SOLVE THEM

At the workshop, I also had to go on a practice dinner date with an older doctor from Beverly Hills who talked like I imagine Freud would have sounded. I did NOT wanna get vulnerable with him but I did, and I broke into tears across the dinner table as I revealed to him my deepest desires. He was beyond grateful that I showed him my Heart.

As I cried and told him of all the times I had broken my heart, he said “At the end of your life would you rather have loved and had your heart broken 99 times and on the 100th found someone special, than hidden your heart and not loved at all?” It was true. And all 99 times of heartbreak are heart opening and “special” in my book.

Two days at this intensive rocked me to my core. It was SO terrifying to let go and let Love do its thing. Yet I felt more delicious than I had in ages.

alexandra roxo holy fuck heart break open ruby warrington the numinous

SO HOW CAN YOU WORK WITH LOVE’S MEDICINE? 

When Love becomes a skill and a medicine, you can hang out with a close friend and feel deeply nourished and fed when you leave them, like you just got 10 hugs and a bowl of soup from your Grandma.

Or you and your Lover can be in a constant state of divine communion, and one glance feels like 1,000 gourmet raw chocolates for your soul.

A solo Love practice means at a stop light in the car you can feel the depths of Love swimming through your body and yoni, and you have the power to release a warm honey glow throughout your body that feels like you are cumming. Try walking into a meeting from that place!

Here’s how to start … 

– Love and be loved. Identify the 5 ways you feel most Love(d). I do this with all my clients. Perhaps it’s petting your cat. Or watching your fave film. Meditating. Chanting to Goddess. Get to know the direct path to your Heart, if you don’t already, and start feeling the Love vibes often by using those tools.

– Connect to humans/animals. The internet doesn’t count unless you are one-on-one on Skype with someone. IRL is the best way to go. Make this a priority. It is the remedy against overeating, loneliness, indulging in bad habits, overworking … I’m talking real connection! Even one solid hug and “Good Morning” from a roomie is something.

– Let your heart get naked. This is where you get vulnerable. If you can practice this daily, you’ll either deepen your already existing partnerships or tenderize the nest of your heart to get it ready to let love in. Call a new friend and share something intimate. Write a poem and share it online. Ask someone for help. Practice vulnerability and practice receiving some Love. (Like let the guy at Trader Joe’s help you to your car already!)

– Feel, feel, feel. Sounds obvious, right? But how often do you feel your feelings in the moment? Practice vocalizing your pain. Frustration. Sadness. As you’re experiencing it. Let yourself feel the depths of your yearning/your rage/your sadness/your joy DAILY.

– Daydream. Do a little bit of daydreaming each day. Imagine your lover caressing your neck. Imagine your lover giving you that “I wanna fuck you” look across the room at a crowded party. If this sounds cheesy to you then work on the vulnerability of your heart.

Whether you are in partnership or flying solo, you can play with Love every day. You can become more and more conscious of living in your full beauty and radiance and sexiness the more and more you release the fear of getting hurt. You can just open. The pain becomes part of your practice too and, trust me, you even start to love that! WHAAA?!!! Can it be?!!! Yeeeep.

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Londin & Justin’s next intensive is September 16-17th, and I’ll def be there crying and loving and embodying all the Shakti I can, Goddess willing. You can discover more about them and their work Londinangelwinters.com

WHY THESE ARE THE PERFECT TAROT CARDS FOR APRIL 2017

Want to map out a magical month? Swap your iCal for a tarot deck. Melinda Lee Holm helps us navigate the wild ride ahead with the key tarot cards for April 2017…

melinda lee holm key tarot cards for april the numinous ruby warrington

This April, it’s all about letting go of control and riding the emotional waves to abundant new shores. With Mercury going retro just before Venus stations direct, April has some wildly shifting energies in store for us. Fortunately, the Tarot is here to help us navigate the vibes!

Meet this month’s guides for cultivating presence, serenity, self-love, and nurturing …

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:: 04/01  April Fool’s Day – The Fool :: 
As adults, we’re expected to be experts in our work and pragmatic in our personal lives. The lack of control that comes with April Fool’s day tricks is not something we’re always comfortable experiencing. Yet embracing this carefree energy can be exactly what we need to reinvigorate our beings.

The Fool is the zero point of the Major Arcana. Having no experience, he moves freely through life with a pure and open heart until he builds enough wisdom to know that wandering through life with a pure and open heart is the soul’s highest aspiration! With all of the turmoil in the world, we can allow him to guide us to moments of grace and love that are suspended in the present moment—and to learn to laugh at ourselves!

Calling in The Fool: 

  • Take a class where you’re a complete beginner.
  • Practice conscious breathing to stay in the present moment.
  • Drink Earl Grey tea—the bergamot in it promotes joy and soothes stress.
  • Wear that wild dress you got for a special occasion that hasn’t yet come.

the fool rider waite key tarot cards for april melinda lee holm ruby warrington the numinous

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:: 04/09  Mercury Retrograde – The King of Cups :: 
Mercury retrograde periods have a bad reputation for causing trouble with communication and travel. But there is another level to thi energy that can allow us to sink deeply into emotional and intellectual reflection, and the King of Cups is a great ally in both cases.

In the Smith-Waite deck, the King of Cups is seen seated on a throne made of stone, floating on the waves of the sea. The King is undisturbed by the waves of emotion passing beneath him. He remains calm and alert, gazing out over the open sea. During Mercury Retrograde, call on the King of Cups to help you to stay calm, flexible, and aware.

Calling in the King of Cups: 

  • Practice loving communication in all interactions.
  • Maintain a sharp awareness of the external world, even when internal reflection gets deep.
  • Wear lavender oil—the smell can calm and soothe you and those around you.
  • Carry a relic of the sea with you—a small shell, a pebble—to remind you of your ability to ride the waves with grace.

king of cups rider waite melinda lee holm key tarot cards for april ruby warrington the numinous

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:: 04/15  Venus Direct in Pisces – 8 of Cups :: 
The past 6 weeks of Venus retrograde have been ripe for insights into our old romantic patterns. Now with Venus resuming direct motion in her exalted sign, we’re pushed to realign with our hearts and dream big for the future. The 8 of Cups is the perfect guide for us as we review info gathered during the retro period, get clear about our passions, and adjust our emotional patterns.

The card shows a figure dressed in red walking into the wilderness away from a set of carefully stacked cups. This movement away from an established, known emotional pattern into the wild unknown—by a figure clad in the color of passion—is a wonderful inspiration for our realignment. Let go of attachments based on habit and forge a new path forward.

Calling in the 8 of Cups: 

  • Wear comfortable clothing made of soft fabrics like silk or bamboo—in red whenever possible!
  • Take a walk alone in the wilderness to reflect on your true passion.
  • Carry Rhodochrosite for self-love and Black Obsidian for letting go.
  • Eat foods made with basil—the heart shaped leaves will emit gentle love energy from within.

eight of cups rider waite key tarot cards for april melinda lee holm ruby warrington the numinous

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:: 04/22  Earth Day – The Empress :: 
With the EPA and our environment under great threat from the current administration, celebrating this day is more important than ever. The Empress is the perfect patron saint to keep you sane and tapped into the earth’s power.

The Empress corresponds to the Goddess Demeter, the Great Mother of the Greek pantheon. She is loving and nurturing, creating abundance all around her through the force of her glorious heart. And like most mothers, she is also fiercely protective. Even if you can’t attend a march or other Earth Day event, you can call on The Empress to empower you to care for our planet with love, and to protect her with a ferocious heart.

Calling in The Empress: 

  • Plant a tree.
  • Bring a trash bag on a walk through nature, cleaning up what others have left behind.
  • Carry Rose Quartz or Aventurine, stones of love and abundance.
  • Wear bright floral print or jewel tones to celebrate the glory of the natural world.

the empress rider waite key tarot cards for april melinda lee holm ruby warrington the numinous

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Want more tarot magic? Book a session with Melinda here, and make sure to follow her on Instagram and Facebook. 

MOONERS & SHAKERS: THE MOON CLUB MEMBERS MAKING WAVES

Get inspired by this month’s Mooners & Shakers, the Moon Club members making waves and fueling their passion projects!

HEBA TALLAH, LUMINOUS FEMME
“The medicine is in the remembrance. Cutting through the BS and the noise – going straight to the truth, and calling on it.”

luminous femme heba tallah ruby warrington the numinous moon club members making waves mooners and shakers

The Project 
A Luminous Femme is a woman who has remembered that her greatest power, beauty, and strength, have been within her all along.

She knows that her trials and tribulations are opportunities for more self-awareness, growth, and compassion. And she jumps into this journey of deeper and deeper self-love and self-awareness with gusto and no apology. She cultivates a deep love and respect for her Femmebody, for the way she waxes and wanes, and for her inherent superpowers along the way.

The Medicine
I have been called here to anchor the Light and the Divine Feminine (in the Middle East, no less) and across all borders on Mama Earth. I feel the deepest honor and gratitude for carrying this calling. And such reverence for this life!

Being a woman (or a human, for that matter) in today’s world can feel so draining, confusing, and sometimes downright infuriating. Claiming who we inherently, truly are—and our connection to Source that is right here, in our heart space, in our every cell, at any given moment—is the fast track to inner peace. The medicine is in the remembrance. Cutting through the BS and the noise—going straight to the truth, and calling on it.

The medicine is also in knowing that the divine feminine that is within us all is awakening en masse—and she is not to be tamed, or quieted, any longer. I created Luminous Femme as a container to facilitate a woman’s return to her inner core, which is already perfect and whole, and to remember how to live from that space on the daily. Because there’s nothing juicier or more healing for the world than a woman in her divine feminine element!

luminous femme heba tallah the numinous ruby warrington mooners and shakers moon club members making waves

The Birthing Process
It has been at least five years (more like my lifetime really) since I’ve had this luminous gift and voice pulsing inside, wanting to be expressed. This has meant healing myself and my blocks, my stories, and working through them all. It’s been knowing I had a message to share but having life keep throwing me curveballs to fill in all the blanks and help me get over whatever held me back in the past.

Discovering yoga at age 18, becoming a teacher 12 years later, and the journey it takes me on a daily basis is humbling and so fulfilling. My mat is my healer, my sanctuary.

The Moon Club Inspiration
It really feels like the coolest place to hang out on the web. I’ve been a Numinous reader for years and a lover of all things Moon related, which is a big part of Luminous Femme philosophy—cyclical living and connecting to the Moon phases.

When I see how this conversation is so normalized in the club, and the presence of all the women in the group who are so strong and healing and brave, it fills me up with so much juice and passion for this way of life. We’re all so connected and willing to do the work—to show up, to accept, and to self-realize. It’s not only deeply informative, it’s also so much fun, like a cosmic pajama party! It’s such an honor to walk this way with you all.

Discover more about Heba and Luminous Femme here. 

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Feeling the inspo? Read more about Moon Club here and become a member to start working your own Moon magic! 

THE 2017 ARIES NEW MOON WANTS YOU TO GET EXCITED ABOUT LIFE

The message of the 2017 Aries New Moon is to streamline, get excited and leap into action, says Sandra Sitron…

moon club The Numinous
Get a brand new workbook for the coming Moon phase when you join Moon Club! Sign up here.

New Moon :: March 27 2017 :: 10:57 pm EST :: 7 degrees Aries

Do you remember what excitement feels like? Do you remember what anticipation feels like? This is the energy of the 2017 Aries New Moon. She whispers, “Ready?” But not into your ear. She whispers into your heart. And the question builds there like a drumbeat, until it pounds along in tempo with the rhythm of your spirit. And suddenly, you know you are. Ready.

March 27 brings us a New Moon in Aries. The New Moon is the time when the Sun and the Moon join together. The Moon does not reflect the Sun’s light from this angle, so the Moon is dark. In the darkness, we ready ourselves for the next stage of growth by planting seeds of intention.

As the first sign of the zodiac, fiery Aries symbolizes the new seed. Aries is the grand initiator of the Zodiac. It all begins with Aries energy. In the beginning of our lives, when we are babies, our only responsibility is to be ALIVE. This is the Aries life stage. I like to describe Aries as the baby’s first cry. That sound is the assertion of Self into the world. “I am here!” Aries’ work is to live, lead and act.

This energy is coming in strong at this New Moon with five planets grouped together in Aries. This brings exciting creative possibilities. We can harness this energy to know ourselves better. We can become leaders and producers in a completely new way. And yet, there can be a proliferation of aggression or rashness as well. To maintain your balance stay actively engaged and present. Watch your thoughts. If things are making you angry, find out why. Can you choose a different thought?

The 2017 Aries New Moon makes only one major aspect, a conjunction to Venus in Aries. To me, this signifies simplicity and focus. The overall feeling of the 2017 Aries New Moon is that it’s time to bathe in your own fire of purification. It’s possible that you’ve been processing, working, holding, and storing. As this new energy comes in, see what you can burn away. Notice what you no longer need. Clearing and purifying yourself in this way will make you ready for action. Imagine yourself ready to take on the world totally unencumbered.

How to do this? You may try meditating to clear out and simplify your thought patterns. Breathwork, shamanic practice, crystal bed healing, reiki, or acupuncture to energetically clear. Exercise to clear yourself physically. Feel your feelings to clear yourself emotionally. Use all of this as momentum to help you spring into action.

Let yourself become energetically, mentally, physically, and spiritually refreshed. This will allow you to surprise yourself with higher energy levels. Meditate on how you are ready to lead. Make yourself more free. Assert your individuality. Define yourself. Make strong choices and take action.

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New Moon Conjunct Venus in Aries
Fire at sea.
Normally, Moon conjunct Venus is liquid love. It’s love in all of it’s facets, love for self, friendship, love for family, and passionate love. And this love expands and crests on the sea of lunar emotion like a tidal wave. And yet, in this scenario, Venus is slightly uncomfortable in Aries. She hasn’t quite got her groove on, and it can make her a little bit angry. There’s a fire on the water. Keep tabs on Venus in Aries to make sure she doesn’t become passive-aggressive. Give her gentle nudges to remind her that being defensive isn’t going to get her anywhere.

But do allow your passion to rise with the 2017 Aries New Moon. Get yourself in a fiery, loving mood. Take yourself out of your comfort zone to love even harder. Declare it. This is a great time to affirm to yourself that you are worthy. You deserve.

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Use the questions below to dive deeper into the lessons of the 2017 Aries New Moon. For a more accurate reading, calculate your chart for free here and see what house holds 7 degrees Aries…

Aries or New Moon in the 1st house
What project do you need to begin this year? What are action steps you can take now to get the wheels in motion?

Taurus or New Moon in the 12th house
How can you more actively connect with your intuition? This post could help you find new ways.

Gemini or New Moon in the 11th house
What can you do to build your network? Challenge yourself to take some action steps.

Cancer or New Moon in the 10th house
What are five risks you can take in your career? What kind of expansion might taking these risks bring you?

Leo or New Moon in the 9th house
Write “I should” on a piece of paper, then write all the things you “should” do. Now change “I should” to “If I wanted to, I could.” Does this change give you more freedom?

Virgo or New Moon in the 8th house
What are you willing to release? Write it down. Burn the paper.

Libra or New Moon in the 7th house
How can you love more passionately? How would you express your love for another if there was no risk of rejection?

Scorpio or New Moon in the 6th house
What new healthy habits are you ready for? What area of your life feels toxic and how can you purge this?

Sagittarius or New Moon in the 5th house
What new creative practices will you put into action now? When do you feel most in your “flow”?

Capricorn or New Moon in the 4th house
Do you feel safe enough to be yourself? Why not? What do you need to experience more safety, comfort and nurturing?

Aquarius or New Moon in the 3rd house
What do you need to be thinking about in a new way? Arrange to meet up with a friend who always gives you new ideas.

Pisces or New Moon in the 2nd house
What risk would you take if you were completely confident it would all work out perfectly?

Want more wisdom? Book a reading with Sandra here.

HOW CAT MARNELL COULD EASILY HAVE BEEN ME

Magazine career, eating disorder, bad boyfriends, addiction. In another life, could Cat Marnell have been me, asks Ruby Warrington?

Cat Marnell

What I like best about Cat Marnell’s car crash autobiography How to Murder Your Life: A Memoir is that she makes absolutely zero apologies for who she is. Yeah there’s a line in there about “white girl privilege” (“warning! If you’re grossed out by it (who isn’t?), you might want to bail now”), but otherwise Cat tells her story with an utter lack of self-judgement and the kind of honesty that is a direct channel from the heart. Fuck yeah!

For the uninitiated, Cat Marnell rose to notoriety earlier this decade as the openly drug-addicted beauty editor for titles Lucky, Vice and xojane.com. Her drug of choice was Adderall (with pretty much everything else layered on top), her stories (GONNA WASH THAT ANGEL DUST RIGHT OUTTA MY HAIR: “Miracle” (Uh-Huh) Treatments To Help You Pass Those Follicle Drug Tests, Naughty Nancys!) written on no sleep “in an amphetamine spell.”

How To Murder Your Life reads like a Bret Easton Ellis novel (except it’s real life) and is the story of the ghouls behind the gloss. In Cat’s own words: “AUUUUGHHH!” But what struck me while I was reading it, was that served a different set of life circumstances, Cat Marnell could easily have been me.

Let’s examine the evidence…

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She was a teenage magazine addict. Like Cat, when I first discovered magazines at around age 12, it was like being given an instruction manual on how to be a woman (read: look good so I’d fit in and boys would like me). Like Cat, I gravitated towards a career in magazines—when she moved to New York, she became hell bent on scoring a role at Conde Nast.

Unlike Cat, when I moved to New York I began work on the Numinous, and immersed myself in exploring all the other very, very important things it means to be a human. Not to mention began to see the glossy magazine message for what it often is—a way to keep readers locked in the cycles of craving (for trends, for stuff to make us happy, for a “better” body) that fuel the capitalist machine.

She’s a perfectionist. Cat’s birthday is September 10, making her a Virgo. And if Adderall had a sign…it would so be Virgo! Total “no-sleep-until-every-last-detail-has-been-quadruple-checked” vibes. Plus Cat started taking amphetamines because “I felt like such a failure getting those terrible grades.”

My perfectionist streak comes from Mercury (Virgo’s ruler) conjunct my Sun in Aries (“must-maintain-image-I-have-it-all-together-at-all-times”). Cue teenage eating disorder (me too, Cat), and reaching for drugs (in my case booze) as a way to just chillax for a sec. These days, meditation and a whole lot of healing of my inner child is what keeps the perfectionist in its place.

Her parents are mental health professionals. Cat’s dad, a psychiatrist, was the first person to prescribe her Ritalin (and then Adderall) at the age of 16. In America, most psychiatric consultations seem to end with a prescription.

Back in the UK, my mum trained to be a psychotherapist in her late 50s, having faced her own demons with years of talk therapy. Years of therapy that have made her the kind of parent who wholly accepts me for who I am, since she accepts herself for who she is. Part of the reason I used drugs and starved myself was because I didn’t believe this. But as my own healing journey has shown me, all the years I thought my mum / society was judging me, I was judging myself.

She idolizes Marilyn Monroe and Edie Sedgwick. The damaged (and self-medicated) heroines of late 20th Century folklore! I collected Marilyn books from around age 10, and even made a magazine about her for my first big school project. And I fell in love with Sedgwick’s story when I read Edie: American Girl (the SO GOOD) biography of Andy Warhol’s muse.

As archetypes, these two women represent some of the ways our inner wild woman acts out when we get duped / spooked into playing by the rules (be beautiful, thin, submissive, SMILE!). And I no longer idolize them. I see them as a mirror for the parts of me that still don’t believe I’ll be accepted / loved unless I am beautiful, thin, submissive, and happy.

She loves fake tan. It makes you look thin and like you got enough sleep. In other words, like taking drugs, faking a tan is another way to fake feeling good about yourself. Another addiction I developed in magazine land (my friend Henry used to call me Umpa Lumpa) and one my Numinous path has not yet helped me kick.

She’s lets men use her like a sex doll because she thinks it’s normal. Some of the hardest stuff to read in Cat’s book, and one of the themes in mine. I tear up every time I re-read my chapter on the Divine Feminine, and I would love for Cat to read it sometime too. For a lot of women to, actually.

She had a lot of fun on drugs. Some might say Cat glamorizes drug use, but one dictionary definition for “glamour” is: “magic or enchantment; spell; witchery.” And if drugs do anything, it’s cast a spell, creating an illusion of happiness, connection, enlightenment, etc, making narcotics by their nature “glamorous.” I too fell under this spell coming of age in the UK’s rave culture, and I have also had some pretty “magical” experiences getting high.

Which is not to make light of addiction, which is both a killer and a tragedy. My heart wept for Cat every time she reached for the Adderall again in her book. But it’s also way too simplistic to label all drugs “bad.” And unlike Cat, as I write about in a chapter of my book called Healing is The New Nightlife, I have discovered SO many better ways to get high on my own supply.

Writing her book was a healing experience. Not least because having an 80,000-word deadline was the thing that finally made her take rehab seriously. We leave Cat listening to Louise Hay affirmations, getting eight hours sleep a night, and even praying. “Spirituality is so dope,” she writes. But best of all; “I’m supertight with my family now. Can you believe it?”

And yep, writing my book had a similar effect on me—my own 80,000-word deadline being what helped me kick booze once and for all. But living my subject matter, day-in-day-out, has also taken my relationship with my mum to a completely new level of intimacy and mutual respect. Not least because, the way I see it, as women our relationship with our mother is often a reflection of our relationship with our self.

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I loved Cat’s book so much. Yes, because I can relate (anyone?) But also because it’s a straight-up, honest-to-Goddess account of living with addiction, AND the society that feeds it. Meaning a society that medicates the fuck out of any personality type that doesn’t fit the cookie-cutter mold for “success”; that places utmost value on productivity (fuel for the capitalist model); and that celebrates thinness and the ability to dress like you swallowed a copy of Vogue as the epitome of attractiveness / worthiness in women.

And also because the lessons of my Numinous journey mean I have written something kind of like the antidote. Perhaps I should have called it How Not To Murder Your Life.

Material Girl, Mystical World is out in May 2017 on Harper Elixir. Read more and pre-order your copy here.

THE TRUTH ABOUT SOULMATES

Think love should be like a screening of “The Notebook”? The truth about soulmates is dutch ovens, stretch marks, and past life pacts, says comedian and energy healer Jessica Brodkin. Main Image: Mariano Peccinetti.

jessica brodkin the truth about soulmates ruby warrington the numinous mariano peccinetti 

Want to learn the truth about soulmates? Then listen to a psychic healer who’s had two divorces and a broken engagement. Trust me—I’ve met a lot of soulmates. But after massive heartbreak, and seeing my own clients through theirs, the same patterns and solutions have begun to emerge.

And I’ve discovered that real soulmates aren’t like the people you see in The Notebook. They’re more like my Mom and Dad, who believe they are soulmates…and who make fun of each other. “I must have been a real jerk to your father in a past life to have to put up with him now,” my Mom frequently quips.

With Venus retrograde until April 15th, we have an opportunity to re-examine our relationship with love, and to determine what is and isn’t working for us. Here are the five things I wish I’d known about soulmates ten years ago… 

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1. Your Soulmates are Not Just Your Lovers 
I think of incarnating (being born into your current life and body) as traveling with a plane full of your friends to Cancun, with only a few vague plans. “Marissa—see you on Tuesday in Tulum. Mark—save the last night for me, we’re going dancing and I wanna make out in the sand. ”

As someone who has always believed in past lives, I was one of those creepy kids who remembered how I died. I have a strong conviction that we travel throughout our lives with some of the same people in order for our souls to grow. Your mother, your siblings, your nephews, your boss, and even your roommate can all potentially be your soulmates.

Reading List: Carolyn Myss’ Sacred Contracts, and Michael Newton’s Journey of Souls. 

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2. The Person You Think is Your Soulmate is Probably Healing Your Parental Issues
If you feel that your partner is tormenting you, he or she is probably helping to heal your parental issues. According to a lot of psychological theories, we choose partners based on the hurts we either experienced or witnessed as children.

In the summer of 2015, my then husband and I were planning on having a child. Two healers had something to say about this—the first that things weren’t going to work out as planned, but I wasn’t ready to hear that my marriage was going to end soon. However, the second healer convinced me to do a detox in order to have a healthy baby and halfway through, I realized I could not have a baby with this man. His issues, and our issues, were unresolved stuff from my childhood. He was definitely one of my soulmates, if not necessarily “the one”…

Reading List: Harville Hendrix’s Getting the Love You Want. 

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3. Love the One You’re With
We all like to think we’re royalty, but we’re more like Princess Fiona—expecting some charming prince or princess, but falling in love with Shrek instead. While Fiona became a green ogre in order to love him, when I got married and ruined my credit rating. Which is to say, your soulmate may not come in the package you expect, and he or she may be more into dutch ovens than you’d like.

What if the imperfect partner you have right now is your soulmate, and what if soulmates didn’t have to be forever? All of our partners are teachers—and some are here to show us our shadow side. If we abandon our current partner without doing the inner work they ask, we’ll find ourselves repeating our relationship patterns over and over again.

Reading List: Deepak Chopra’s A Path to Love. 

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4. Love Yourself, Too

There’s nothing more important than loving yourself. Trust me—I’m trying to get a crystal sex toy company to sponsor my radio show. This isn’t about arrogance, or attention-seeking behavior. It’s about accepting yourself where you are, and seeing the perfection in your imperfection. So love yourself so a partner can meet you where you are in life—the partner in your life is always a vibrational match for how you feel about yourself right now.

Write a gratitude list of all the awesome things about you. Talk to your stretch marks and scars, and tell them that you love them. Think of all the fun you had creating them! Practice self care. What makes you feel like a queen? What brings you bliss? Follow that joy.

Reading List: Gala Darling’s Radical Self-Love and Louise Hay’s How to Love Yourself. 

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5. And Finally … Trust Your Intuition
I once went to a psychic who told me I had a ghost baby living inside of me…and that I needed to pay her $700 to have a ghost abortion. I told her that for $700, I was going to keep the ghost baby. When I was in the middle of my divorce, another psychic told me that a new suitor was my twin flame (a.k.a. super soulmate). After being stood up multiple times, I started to think differently.

If I could give only one message to people who feel any sort of fear or insecurity about their love lives, I would say “Don’t go to psychics!” Even though I’m also a psychic and medium, I work primarily as a healer because I want my clients to develop their own intuition instead of relying on something outside of themselves.

People usually go to psychics to calm their fears. But one of the most difficult (and beautiful) parts of being human is to embrace your life despite those fears. To live your life, and love with reckless abandon. If your heart gets broken you will survive, eventually heal, and then learn to love again!

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Jessica Brodkin is a Reiki energy healer and stand up comedian based in New York City. She is an MIT and Johns Hopkins graduate who worked for the Central Intelligence Agency for 11 years, and has been featured on the cover of the New York Post, and on TruTV, AMC, and SiriusXM radio. She also has a weekly radio show on Journey Into the Light. Follow her on Instagram and discover more about her energy healing here.

THE MAGIC INGREDIENT: DREAMY VIBES WITH VELVET BEANS

In the first installment of her new column, Ysanne Spevack shares a creamy faux Cappuccino recipe for you to sample some dreamy velvet beans vibes…

VELVET beans The Conscious Cook Ysanne Spevack The Magic Ingredient The Numinous

Like Jack’s magic beans in the fairytale, velvet beans (Mucuna pruriens in Latin) truly deliver. They’re one of the strongest herbal ingredients I use, and a favorite for total vibe-change. Pods that grow on trees in India, and used as an Ayurvedic medicine, they’ve been tried and tested over millennia, and are now available as an extract in the US, sold as a brown powder that’s water-soluble.

The main active compounds in velvet bean extract fall into two groups: antioxidants, and amino acids, of which the main one is L-dopa, and another is called trypatmine, for obvious reasons. Together, these phytochemicals work synergistically for neural health, and specifically relieve stress and melt our sense of boundaries. Perfect for Pisces season—the archetypal symbol of ego loss and dreams. There’s some research that links velvet beans to sexual health too, but that’s likely to be a result of their relaxing effect.

L-dopa is a precursor to dopamine, norepinephrine and adrenaline, which means it has a profound psychoactive effect. You can feel it working, stimulating a sense of dreamy deliciousness and allowing you a peak behind the veil of consciousness. If you’ve ever wanted to feel the grandeur of the Universe while you melt into your pillow, velvet bean extract is the high vibe ingredient for you. I recommend using it sparingly—a little goes a long way. Also if you’re feeling unstable, or if you’re pregnant, it’s best if you pass on this for now, as with anything psychoactive.

Here’s my recipe for a delicious hot ‘faux cappuccino’ that won’t buzz you like caffeine, and will guide you to feel a subtle oneness with the cosmos. It’s not a bedtime drink— the velvet bean stimulates adrenaline production. But it’s a fantastic way to space out with some music on a lazy Sunday afternoon, and swim in cosmic waters of the Milky Way…

The drink is comfortingly sweet, while the bitterness of the velvet bean and umami of the reishi are similar to coffee, hence the name. Nettles soothe the nerves, and keeps the velvet bean from being jarring while it takes you up a notch.

Imbibe to enjoy about a one hour of day-dreams, in a suitably Piscean way…

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Pisces Velvet Bean Cappuccino Recipe
by The Conscious Cook

Makes one serving

Ingredients:

1 coffee mug filled with boiling water
1 nettle tea bag
*1/8 tsp velvet bean extract
*1 tsp powdered reishi mushroom
*1 tsp tocotrienols
1 tsp raw unfiltered honey
1 tbs raw coconut oil

* Denotes ingredients that are available online at Highvibe.com

Method:

Infuse the nettle tea bag in the boiling hot water in a large mug by pouring the hot water onto the tea bag as soon as it’s boiled.

Cover the mug with a saucer or plate, and set aside to infuse for 5 minutes.

Measure the other ingredients into a high-speed blender.

Remove the cover and tea bag, and add the nettle tea to the blender.

Blend on low, bringing the speed up to high, and then switching the blender to the maximum setting.

Blend on high for about 30 seconds, to create froth.

Pour into a large mug, spooning the creamy froth out with a spatula.

Hold the cup with both hands as you take sips, and finish it with a teaspoon to enjoy all of the frothy, creamy goodness.

Finally, relax and allow your dreams to unfold as you swim into the universal cosmos.

Discover more about Ysanne Spevack HERE.

VOICE OF EARTH: A MESSAGE FOR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

Spoken word artist and Moon Club founding member Lisa Luxx, has a powerful message for International Women’s Day. Voice of Earth is a poem about sisterhood, mother nature and the history of womankind. Written at a Sisters of the Wild gathering.

A GUIDE TO VENUS RETROGRADE FOR YOUR SIGN

Does the sound of another retrograde have you reeling? Chill! Venus Retrograde 2017 is a time for rediscovering where our true love lives, says Danielle Paige … Main Image: Carlos Bongiovanni 

venus retrograde 2017 venus retrograde the numinous ruby warrington danielle paige carlos bongiovanni

Saturday, March 4th :: Venus Stations Retrograde :: 14 degrees of Aries

Sunday, April 2nd :: Venus Re-enters Pisces  

Saturday, April 15th :: Venus Goes Direct :: 26 degrees of Pisces 

Lovers. Love. Sex. Money. The Feminine. Self-worth. Intimacy. Values. Relating. Giving. Receiving. Ahhhhh yes … all of the above is up for RE-discovery, right now.

While our first reaction to the word “retrograde” might be to let out a sigh of frustration, these cycles are actually moments of deep review. Think of this as an opportunity to work with your shadow side, heal those parts that need to be integrated or purged, and upgrade your patterns.

But of course, it’s not all sweetness and light—doing shadow work prompts us to address things that have been pushed under the rug. There will be breakups and there may be confusion in your current relationships. Whether you’re pretending you have a perfect relationship when you know it’s not truly nourishing your soul, or are stuck in the same relationship patterns over and over, it’s an optimal time to get real about what’s no longer working. And with this realness, eventually comes clarity. 

Ex-lovers? Venus Retrograde energy always tends to dig up the past in order to end old cycles, so don’t be surprised if old flames pop back up. New relationships? This can definitely be a time where people enter your life for karmic work. Be aware that “karmic” doesn’t always mean roses and sunshine! These will be relationships that force you to confront parts of yourself that you’re suppressing.

However, the energy of Venus is two-fold. While she symbolizes how we connect with others, each relationship has everything to do with what we VALUE, since we often project our core desires onto others. Remember to keep this broader message of Venus Retrograde in mind. Ask, how are you working with your feminine energy? Does it need more balancing? What’s your relationship to money like? Are you having a hard time discovering your core desires and values? Now is the time to dig deep into your heart and explore all of these themes—without judgement!

And please, don’t force it. Simply remain mindful that after Venus goes direct, you may start to see things differently. Whatever happens during this time, trust that your heart always knows the way home!

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Wondering where to start? Discover your Venus sign by looking at your birth chart and following the guide below. 

mariano peccinetti ruby warrington the numinous danielle paige venus retrograde 2017
Collage: Mariano Peccinetti

:: Venus in Aries :: Venus Retrograde is encouraging you to reconnect with your courage and independence in a balanced way, instead of just diving in head first. You are good at pushing others to find their independence but sometimes that means you forget about yours—reconnect with your courage and your truth!

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:: Venus in Taurus :: Venus Retrograde is encouraging you to connect back with your own sensuality and your core values. You are good at sustaining others in love but have you forgotten to sustain yourself as well? Take your time in love—you’re meant to go at your own pace.

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:: Venus in Gemini ::Venus Retrograde is encouraging you to communicate your needs clearly, but to do so in a way that moves beyond the surface and gets real. It’s easy for you to skim the surface but what happens if you get a little deeper? You move beyond the shadow energy of Venus in Gemini and you may actually find something that doesn’t bore you!

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:: Venus in Cancer ::Venus Retrograde is encouraging you to nurture yourself as you would a child. You spend so much time taking care of others, and with this Venus energy redirected, it can help you better care for your own feelings. You are the mamma bear of love but don’t forget that mamma bears need love too.

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:: Venus in Leo ::Venus Retrograde is encouraging you to shine your love and light on the world in a way that motivates others, instead of only making it all about yourself. You have such an ability to show others the way—use it to serve, inspire, love, and cheer people on and raise them up! In doing so, you raise your vibration as well.

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:: Venus is in Virgo ::Venus Retrograde is encouraging you to clean up your diet, health, and routine so that you can be of service to yourself in a way that you haven’t before. You are dedicated with your love, so make sure you are dedicated to yourself as well.

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:: Venus in Libra ::Venus Retrograde is encouraging you to find the right relationship for your soul, not just any relationship. Libra enjoys partnership and can often lose themselves in one. Instead, this is a time to really get connected with what you need and desire in a divine partnership that lifts you up rather than simply fills a void.

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:: Venus in Scorpio ::Venus Retrograde is encouraging you to connect deeply with those around you. Surface relationships are not your thing so if it’s not activating your heart then it’s time to go deeper or move onto something else. Out of all the Venus placements, you know when to purge a relationship or when it’s a call for deeper intimacy—trust that you know what to do!

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:: Venus in Sagittarius :: Venus Retrograde is encouraging you to spread your wings! Go on adventures either with your lover or by yourself, because you never know who you might meet. This is the Venus sign that says “yes” to expansion. Have you been stuck in a rut? It’s time to explore and let your passport lead the way…

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:: Venus in Capricorn :: Venus Retrograde is encouraging you to find your own inner authority. You are always very good at helping others rise to the top so now take the time to plan out your next steps for inner and outer success. In your uphill climb, remember that slow and steady wins the race for you.

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:: Venus in Aquarius :: Venus Retrograde is encouraging you to play up your intelligence and your uniqueness. Often times, you may subconsciously hide these qualities because it challenges societal expectations, but thisVenus Retrograde is the time to tap into all that makes you, you! This is your path towards the free-spirited love you so desire.

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:: Venus in Pisces :: Venus Retrograde is encouraging you to make sure you’re seeing love clearly. Pisces energy can sometimes focus solely on the good parts and ignore the red flags in relationships. Instead of focusing so much on others, this is also good time to be sure you are seeing yourself clearly as well. Are you ignoring your own inner flags? Refocusing on your own process will help you find more clarity in love as well.

Speaking of feminine energy—is a vacation in Greece calling you? Discover more about Danielle’s upcoming Greek Goddess Island retreat (only 2 spaces left) and all her astrological services HERE. 

READING FOR THE GEMINI WAXING QUARTER MOON

The Gemini waxing quarter Moon is an invitation to integrate our emotional life with our communication in the world, says Jennifer Racioppi…Collage: Seana Gavin

Gemini waxing quarter moon Jennifer Racioppi Seana Gavin collage The Numinous fashion dragonflies satellite

Gemini Waxing Quarter Moon :: March 5, 2017 :: 6:32 am ET

As the moon waxes, incrementally gaining light each night, she travels through the sign of Gemini while squaring the sun in Pisces. This combination of water (Pisces) and air (Gemini) asks us to honor our emotions, discern our intuition and apply it to our thinking. In the days, weeks, and even months following the recent eclipses, potent harbingers of change, it’s up us to discern the direction we want to take based on the information they revealed to us.

Further, with Venus having just stationed retrograde, commencing her journey to the underworld, our connection to our values (and sense of self) may feel even more obscured. (Venus rules our feminine principles and will be retrograde from March 4-April 15 in the signs of Aries and Pisces.)

So, now that we are at the waxing quarter moon let’s begin the digestion and integration process of Eclipse season, while simultaneously leaning into our emerging Venus retrograde experience. The dance between water (our emotions) and air (our intellect), elicits poignant directives, should we allow! Doing so will help us capitalize on the waxing gains of the Moon, as we move toward the manifestation of our heart’s deepest desires.

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:: THE SUN ::
As the Sun moves through water sign Pisces at 15 degrees, he travels extremely close to Neptune and Mercury. This stellium (three or more planets in the same sign) produces an extremely sensitive and psychic influence. Meaning more than usual our supernatural talents may feel alive and extremely active. Awesome. At the same time, things may become VERY emotional. If so, give yourself permission to experience your feelings without becoming them. Let them pass through you with acknowledgment, passion, and grace without letting them take you over.

:: THE MOON ::
Excited to communicate, socialize and cross-pollinate the Gemini waxing quarter Moon asks us to stay focused on our deepest most heartfelt desires and verbalize our wisdom. Nimble and ready for the next big thing, the influence of the Moon in Gemini enables our versatility and capacity to move quickly. The Moon at 15 degrees of Gemini, may feel a bit impatient with the watery influence of Pisces. At the time of this square, the Moon also finds herself in a luscious applying trine to Jupiter, the planet of good luck, happiness and abundance, calling forth our evolving consciousness to manifest in new and exciting ways. The need to communicate and articulate feels paramount right now, so please express you!

:: THE SQUARE ::
The Sun in emotional, spiritual and empathetic Pisces making a square to the Moon in the social sign of Gemini asks our emotional body to give in to to our intellectual capacities for a couple of days, so we can makes sense of the changes that are upon us. The boundary-less depths of the Sun in Pisces may feel massive and confusing, especially given the emotional influence of Venus retrograde coupled with the recent eclipses. With the lighter vibe of the Gemini waxing quarter Moon making an auspicious connection to Jupiter, we are asked to articulate how we feel, and forge integrations in our inner world on behalf of our burgeoning manifestations.

:: THE MESSAGE ::
Let the Gemini influence support you to articulate your feelings, draw conclusions from your experience, and verbally express yourself. Connect with your friends and tell them what’s going on in your world. If needed, seek counsel from your therapist. Bust out your journal and write it all out. Embrace the therapeutic powers of music, film, poetry, journaling, collaging and/or any other form of artistic expression. Pay attention to your dreams and if possible spend some time by the sea! Trust your sixth sense. Doing so honors the impact of Pisces while engaging the powers of Gemini.

For more Moon wisdom or to book a coaching session with from Jennifer visit Jenniferracioppi.com. To learn more about how to work with each Moon phase, join our community of likeminded spiritual activists at Moon Club!

HOW TO TAKE A CEREMONIAL SHOWER

Jemini Wild invites us to strip down, break out the loofah, and engage all five senses with a ceremonial shower…

ceremonial shower The Numinous
Alla Kostromichova by Sølve Sundsbø for Vogue Nippon, May 2010

 

Think about the last time you showered. Removing your clothes, adjusting the water to the perfect temperature, the sound of it rushing from the faucet … this might be the only solitary time you get all day. Why shouldn’t you make this precious time underneath the showerhead into a personal ceremony?

Ritual baths are all the rage—but can take hours to prep, requiring all kinds of special “ingredients.” Not to mention the time actually soaking it in!

Doubting whether a loofah and a bottle of conditioner can help you create a similarly mystical experience? Consider how water carries energy (check out the work of Dr. Masaru Emoto). Water molecules actually respond to words and music—creating beautiful crystalline shapes, like snowflakes, when words like “love” and “gratitude” are used. Imagine … a waterfall of love in your bathroom!

Water is the source of life itself. Cultures all over the world revere it for its healing properties. From the ancient Romans’ giant community bathhouses, to baptisms and Native American rituals, the act of bathing has had a long history of ritual and magic. And as the attention brought to the Dakota Access Pipeline has reminded us all, it is our duty to truly honor the waters of the Earth.

Ceremonial Showering is an opportunity to reconnect with this magical element in our modern lives and take a cleansing power-pause. Even better, when we show up for ourselves in these small ways, it allows us to show up more powerfully in the world. Read on for a simple ceremonial showering ritual…

This month we are also honoring Pisces season by inviting all our Moon Club members to join us in a 30-day Water Healing Ritual. Discover more here!

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1. Set an intention before your foot even hits the tub. Hold the intention in your mind or say it out loud, and let the water carry your words into the Universe. Take long, deep inhale and exhales as you undress and turn on the water.

Some “Shower Intentions” to get you started: “May I feel stimulated & enlivened.” “May I feel warmth, rest, and rejuvenation.” “May I feel invigorated & refreshed.” Or how about: “May this water wash away all negativity from my day.”

2. Set the mood with some meditative drums or the Acoustic Concentration station on Spotify. Put drops of eucalyptus oil in a small dish in your bathroom—the steam will disperse it and a natural opening happens in the warm water. Yes, your skin actually relaxes! Or try one of my favorite mists, Jurlique Rosewater, or Zum Frankincense & Myrrh, to set the mood.

3. Shift the Routine. If you always start the water and then take off your clothes, try removing your clothes first. Routine lulls the brain to sleep and these small shifts will signal to your subconscious that something special is happening. If you always use a loofah, switch to a wash cloth or sponge. Buy a new shower curtain for a change of scenery.

4. Tune In to the sound of the water. Notice how the droplets sparkle. Where it hits your body first. Is it the curve of your calf, the pebbles of your toes, or the dip of your collar bone?

5. Stimulate Your Senses with texture and smell. Really feel that loofah, the squishiness of it. What color is the soap? Mine’s green—the same shade as pistachios and praying mantises. What things from the natural does your soap remind you of?

6. Receive. Above all, let the water flowing over you help you become conscious of your enhanced ability to receive. Many people have aha-moment in the shower. Open up. Let it in. You may be surprised by your revelations! 

 

Jemini Wild is a Visionist, Pray-er, and Magic-Maker. She believes the most important relationship is the one we have with ourselves, and that digging in the mess that makes us human is the most fun way to spend a day. Follow her on Instagram and Facebook for even more beautiful humanness. 

NUMINOUS TAROTSCOPES: MARCH 2017

Cast by Lindsay Mack using The Starchild Tarot

PISCES :: PISCES RISING
Ten of Crystals

Happy birthday, sweet Pisces! What a gorgeous energy to be moving through during your astrological cycle. Ten of Crystals (or Pentacles) heralds a ripening of all that we’ve been tending to, a blossoming that is yielded from a period of deep effortful growth. It is such a deep and clear confirmation of all that you have released and nurtured in the last year. This card is bringing some pretty amazing gifts your way this month, in both tangible and etheric forms. You have worked so hard; this is finally a time where you will get to see some beautiful payoffs. These payoffs might reveal themselves as a financial abundance of some kind, or a career related expansion. If this is the case, you are encouraged to trust and embrace these gifts.

The fruits of this card might also show themselves to you as a new addition to your family, a big move, a creative project—any kind of physical, tangible confirmation of harvest for your efforts can be expected this month. Another way that you may experience the gentle ripple effects of Ten of Crystals in your life this month, Pisces, is in the invisible, energetic realm. It might manifest itself as a foundational feeling of a cycle completing, and a new one being birthed from your personal growth. Confidence, excitement, and new gifts can bloom out of such feelings. This is exactly the kind of frequency that you will want to set intentions for your upcoming year in, loves. Focus on your blessings and more will take root in your life. This month’s overflow of abundance is not fleeting; it’s the kind of foundational flowering that sticks. Harness this energy and even more will come from it.

This month will also be a time to bow deeply to yourself, honoring all that you’ve moved through and mastered in this past year. It will be a time to reflect on how much you’ve changed, grown, and expanded. Heap gratitude on yourself. Some of you moved through massive rebirths in 2016 and even in the first months of 2017, transforming your life through the very fire of your willingness to evolve. No matter how this turn around the sun has felt, it’s brought major lessons, and you said yes to them all with so much grace. It has been a profoundly powerful year for you, Pisces; now you get to celebrate.

Cast by Lindsay Mack using the Starchild Tarot. Want more wisdom? Book a reading with Lindsay here and follow her on Instagram.

ARIES :: ARIES RISING
The Empress, Rx

The month of March will be full of gentle invitations for you, Aries. The Empress reversed is moving through this cycle of your life, slowly and kindly reminding you of what’s really important, what really needs your attention, and how you may be inadvertently blocked to allowing more ease and grace into your days. The emphasis of this card will be on deep restoration: of your heart, mind, spirit, and body. You will be encouraged to invite more ease into your life, and to emphasize a willingness to be receptive to anything and everything that Source wants to drop into you. Indeed, The Empress reversed is bringing some potent medicine your way this month, offering you the opportunity to upgrade your life profoundly in all ways.

The result, should you choose to drop into the invitation of the card, will be a heart opening cycle, rich in transformation, clarity, self care, self inquiry, and nourishment. You will get to melt into trust and receiving, allowing burnout, fear, overwhelm and strategy to be gently upgraded and released. The Empress is divine feminine, divine mother, the divine sensual. She is relaxed, open, constantly in the flow of receptivity to life. The Empress gives all, and is a master at receiving in kind. This card is lovely, but can present some intense mirrors to us if we are uncomfortable with this level of sensuality, ease and openness. When she shows up reversed, as she is for you this month, Aries, the discomfort is definite.

This doesn’t really mean that anything is wrong; it’s just information, a little clue that your output has been greater than your imput, and there’s probably a reason for that. What I am channeling for you this month is to be your own archaeologist of the soul. Inquire, deeply, around the root systems of your discomfort with receiving and ease. Perhaps there’s a fear of losing control, or that you’ll miss something if you let your guard down? Is your nervous system a bit too on alert to allow that kind of receptivity? What kind of inherited beliefs do you have about ease and abundance? Whatever it is, you are surely strong enough to see your resistance and blocks clearly — seeing clearly is the first step to change. Dig deep, clarify whatever blocks might be present, and gently allow The Empress’ sacred energy to flow into your life.

Cast by Lindsay Mack using the Starchild Tarot. Want more wisdom? Book a reading with Lindsay here and follow her on Instagram.

TAURUS :: TAURUS RISING
King of Cups

March is a potent month for you, Taurus, bringing with it a powerful invitation to step into a newfound level of service. To be of service means that we become filled up by pouring our love into other containers. This could play out in a plethora of areas in your life, ranging from service to yourself, your family, your clients, the planet, or all of the above. An important wisdom that King of Cups is offering you this month, Taurus, is to remember that service doesn’t always look like service. We are not often taught that service to self is, indeed, the radical act of love that it it. We can be programmed to believe that self care is selfish, or that we should somehow be able to transcend the need for that kind of restoration. Indeed, service to self is being of service to the whole planet, and you get to blaze the trail on this new understanding, Taurus.

By taking the invitation of King of Cups and moving through the medicine of the card, you will begin to embody this higher understanding of evolved service. You will be able to gently prove, just by walking, talking, and being on the Earth, that sacred service can encompass anything from holding the face of a sick person to taking yourself to the movies; it’s just different colors of one rainbow. King of Cups has mastered holding space for others. He wears a kind of sacred mask in his life, equipping him to effortlessly and simultaneously hold his own inner experience and the emotional experience of others. If you are a parent, a partner, a helping/healing professional, or a friend, this will be a transformational month for you.

Allow everyone in your life to be a teacher, a living opportunity to choose sacred service and healing in your life. It might also mean that you shed any dualities in your life. We can call on King of Cups when we lead a “double life” that no longer feels good to us — think someone who who has a very draining day job, and moonlights as a Shamanic Reiki practitioner. This could be the month when you turn your moonlit dharma path to the light, releasing all the masks that don’t serve. If you are willing to say yes to the teachers that arise this month, Taurus, King of Cups can take you all the way to your truth.

Cast by Lindsay Mack using the Starchild Tarot. Want more wisdom? Book a reading with Lindsay here and follow her on Instagram.

GEMINI :: GEMINI RISING
Three of Cups

You are in your element with Three of Cups this month, Gemini — such a shift from your double header with The Empress for the last two cycles. March will present a plethora of lovely opportunities to not only socialize with awesome, like-minded people, but to deeply reflect on your relationship to soul friends and collaborators. Is your life filled with people that you truly love, or are most of your days spent with people who you are either ambivalent about, or with whom you don’t fully click? This isn’t a bad thing if the answer is yes, and it’s also still relevant to you if you’re lucky enough to be surrounded by amazing people all the time. You’re being invited to upgrade your vibration, Gemini, and it couldn’t come at a better time. So much goodness is about to flow your way.

You’ve been doing so much releasing and receiving work as of late (whether you’ve been aware of it or not), and part of that work involves our relationships upgrading in various ways to match our growth. Relationships shifting and changing is an excellent sign that we are growing, or that we are being called to adapt or evolve in some way. Sometimes when we expand, we outgrow certain people. If that’s the case for you, Gemini, I advise you to let go and trust in the process, no matter how painful. If we are in the right relationships, if we are truly being filled up, nourished, restored and renewed by the people in our lives, we will grow, evolve and change together; parallel journeys, all the way.

Be willing to be really honest with yourself about who you are sharing your time with. If the people around you are not bringing you joy — or if you are not allowing yourself to be joyful with them — commit to shifting to a place of willingness — willingness to grow, and/or willingness to invite other people into your life. As you raise your frequency, and continue to commit to your personal growth, you will, in turn, shift the energy of the people around you. It’s a beautiful loop, growing, giving and receiving in equal measure, which is what Three of Cups is all about. It invites us into celebration, collaboration, and communion with kindred spirits. Think about where you desire more of this in your life, Gemini, then open your heart to the joyful exchange of receiving it.

Cast by Lindsay Mack using the Starchild Tarot. Want more wisdom? Book a reading with Lindsay here and follow her on Instagram.

CANCER :: CANCER RISING
Akashic Records

This month will present a multitude of quiet opportunities for radical transformation — your invitation will be to embrace these opportunities with a whole heart. This is a huge cycle for you, Cancer. This is a time to nurture your dreams, and to intentionally release the patterning, old behavior and karma that holds you back from living fully in your truth. I’m talking about the big stuff: your path in this lifetime, how you want your life to feel, your purpose here on Earth. These are the kinds of energies that you will have the freedom to explore and manifest this month.

It is a potent time to plant those seeds, say yes to things, take great risks, be open to change and let your soul truth take root even more deeply in all areas of your life. You are in a major energetic vortex this month, Cancer—use it. Indeed, the Akashic Records card is a profoundly powerful and exciting energy, one that will have a big impact on the unfolding of your year — you just have to understand what you’re working with. Akashic Records are a kind of cosmic file folder, said to contain all the knowledge in the universe, everything that’s ever been. When we access the Akashic Records, we are able to tap into this folder and gain wisdom on whatever is in highest and best for us to know. What this essentially means for you, Cancer, is that you have access to some of the most powerful frequencies on the planet this month.

You have the ability to co-create a soul centered life with the Universe. The only thing this requires from you is courage. Courage to leap forward, perhaps before you’re ready. Courage to trust that everything you may be afraid of, dreading or unsure of will, indeed, work itself out beautifully. Perhaps it is time for you to say a radical no in your life to someone or something—perhaps it’s time to say a radical yes. You know what your truth is, and you know what’s right for you, even if your brain might trick you into believing your doubts from time to time. Root down, bow deeply to yourself and begin to gently unfurl, letting all the old patterning drop away, allowing the new path before you to take root. The more you commit, the more aligned, abundant and transformed your life will be.

Cast by Lindsay Mack using the Starchild Tarot. Want more wisdom? Book a reading with Lindsay here and follow her on Instagram.

LEO :: LEO RISING
Three of Wands

This is such a rich, exciting month for your creative expansion, Leo! Three of Wands is moving through your March, infusing it with light, magic, new beginnings and grateful endings. I feel very deeply that your whole sign been building to this aligned frequency. It is such a wonderful testament to your hard work and willingness to grow and evolve through some pretty major contractions over the last year. Now, you’re going to start seeing little glimmers of clarity: why you had to go through the growth process that you did, where it’s taking you, and what new adventures lie in store. It’s a very exciting time! I wholeheartedly encourage you to take every new opportunity you can this month—if you’ve been thinking about taking a pottery class, now is the time.

If you’ve been dreaming of traveling to a certain place, of teaching a workshop, learning a language, birthing a new project, now is truly the time. There is quite a bit of miracle energy surrounding you in March, Leo; a lot of magical potential. If you can harness it and trust in the waves you’re about to surf, it will be an exhilarating month for you. No matter what, you can expect some glorious upgrades to your life in the form of a big energetic turnover: everything that wasn’t serving you is becoming compost to feed the new. Indeed, you’ve received this message before, but it bears repeating: the old ways have taken you as far as they can. It is time to trust and invite in a new way of being, living, sharing and receiving in the world. It starts with this courage, and a willingness to invite in the new, no matter how scary it might be. Indeed, change can be scary, but that doesn’t mean you have to let it stop you.

Three of Wands is a sparkly, crackling, exciting energy. It functions as a kind of heads up that we are at a crossroads of life, and it is time to choose a new path to walk. When we move through this card, it means that we have truly explored and experienced everything we possibly can in the frequency we are in—it is then time to upgrade and move to a new level. You are already at the crossroads, Leo. Take the first step toward your most cherished calling; trust that the rest will follow and manifest from there.

Cast by Lindsay Mack using the Starchild Tarot. Want more wisdom? Book a reading with Lindsay here and follow her on Instagram.

VIRGO :: VIRGO RISING
The Sun

You are in the glorious energy of The Sun card this month, Virgo: bask in its warmth and light, allowing it to infuse you with clarity, wisdom and enlightenment in all areas of your life. The Sun is leading you down a quiet, lovely journey this month, back to the center of your being, rebirthing you in the light of your truth. A great deal will be revealed to you this month, Virgo—the knowledge you gain will be deeply affirming, supporting you in making shifts, changes and transformations to your life that are needed. The key to embracing the frequencies of the month will be to trust yourself and your intuition. The whole month of March will be full of situations, moments and little realizations that will melt away long held doubts, confirming your choices and hunches to you.

Your intuition knows that something is deeply at work right now, transforming your life in a multitude of subtle ways. You might be having certain feelings about a person, an organization, a job, or a path you’ve been walking or sharing energy with. If you’ve been unsure around any of the above areas in your life, expect to get some major clarity in March. A radically deep trust will be possible, answers will be available to you, and a rebirth into your truest self will be the only option going forward. The Sun card is a potent Major Arcana card, because it is the dawn that comes after a particularly dark night. It is a burst of awareness, of answers, of illumination after a time of confusion and contraction. The Sun card is like a joyful, celebratory Tower card, in many ways.

When we move into the light, we can see with all eyes, with all parts of ourselves. Once we see, we cannot go back to living with our eyes closed. The difference between this card and The Tower is that The Tower is a flash of understanding that shatters some aspect of our ego — The Sun is so much gentler. It’s a subtle, almost sweet understanding that becomes available to us. Answers ring true and clear, we drop old fears, and walk confidently in the path of our truth. Trust in your deep inner knowing, Virgo. You’re about to move through a cycle that will bring a lot into the light. Once you’re there, there can be a liberation and a rebirth of the spirit.

Cast by Lindsay Mack using the Starchild Tarot. Want more wisdom? Book a reading with Lindsay here and follow her on Instagram.

LIBRA :: LIBRA RISING
Page of Crystals

This month is all about deep introspection for you, Libra. March is like a breath of fresh air that will help you to ground and center, preparing you for your next steps in life. Although there may be some wildly potent external leaps presented to you this month, it is wiser to choose a quieter, more internal flow as an everyday pace. The monthly energy will be much more centered around rewiring and upgrading in subtler ways. It is the perfect medicine for such a powerful month. This card is actually preparing you for the next great external expansion in your life by recentering you from within. It is truly only when we shift internally that our external life can shift around us—it never lasts the other way around.

That is why this card is here for you in March. It is creating a strong root system for you to flourish in your life, and is really going to be transforming the way in which you go about your days and months. If you can accept the invitation of this deep journeyer, there will be much to show for it on the other side. Page of Crystals, or Pentacles, is not only helping you to build a strong foundation for your next steps, but it is helping you to ground and trust in your own intuition. This card asks deep questions and goes to deep places — it is a double earth sign card, after all. It will be providing some much needed grounding to your air sign souls. It desires to know the deepest truths, to be an excavator of its own soul.

This card ponders, wonders, reflects and travels to the deepest part of themselves. They are interested in getting to the root and the heart of everything, all at a steady, easy pace. The benefits of this card are multitudinous in nature, and are providing some beautiful blessings to you this month, Libra. This card will help to slow you down, to reacquaint you with the blessings all around you, to reconnect with your heart. Isn’t that a lovely way to expand in the world? Page of Crystals sees with the heart of a child, the way a baby gazes at a blade of grass, a tree, or a puppy: full of wonderment, curiosity, and presence. This is the frequency you will be invited into this month, dear Libra. Embrace it fully.

Cast by Lindsay Mack using the Starchild Tarot. Want more wisdom? Book a reading with Lindsay here and follow her on Instagram.

SCORPIO :: SCORPIO RISING
Queen of Wands

Once again, you are getting your groove back, Scorpio. What a profoundly potent, gorgeous energy to be moving through this month! Queen of Wands is the alchemist, and the witch of the deck, holding a space of sexuality, power, sensitivity and intuition, all just by being — by walking in a room and taking up space. Queen of Wands is ruled by fire and water, blending two incongruent elements together with her depth, both of passion and emotion in equal measure. She is a walking column of watery, fiery, sexual, sensual magic. This month is bringing a sweet and beautiful opportunity to reconnect with this archetype within yourself, to see yourself in these descriptions. Whether it’s caretaking your children, cooking a meal, renewing your license or leading sacred ceremony, you have the potential to bring Queen of Wands energy to anything you do this month.

You also have the potential to bring a healing essence with you wherever you go—and to actually be consciously aware that you’re doing so. Most of the time, I believe you do offer that to the people around you, Scorpio, but it might be a more unconscious frequency. In March, you have the chance to own this part of yourself, to strengthen it, accept it and use it for the greater good in your life and the world around you. You can infuse it into your sexuality, into your creative process, and around your interactions with people. It is going to be a really juicy month for you, all across the board.

Release all attachment to the ideas you might have about this energy. Queen of Wands doesn’t mean that you have to be a sex goddess, it doesn’t mean you have to be a healer, and it doesn’t mean you have to feel yourself 100 percent of the time. It’s about remembering that this magical essence is within you all the time, even on the days when you feel the grossest, and the most disconnected. Whatever connects you with your inner witch, prioritize for the month ahead. Also: I gently encourage you to release your comparisons around the word “witch.” For one person, it may very well be cooking. For another it might be creating a proposal for their job. For another, it might be performing sex magick at the Full Moon — for some, its all of the above. Be gently drawn to your inner witch this month; see where she leads you!

Cast by Lindsay Mack using the Starchild Tarot. Want more wisdom? Book a reading with Lindsay here and follow her on Instagram.

SAGITTARIUS :: SAGITTARIUS RISING
Seven of Swords

Seven of Swords is a deep medicine, one that can come up strongly around our biggest, most tender places of strategy, insecurity, or doubt. It offers us a master class in trust and release of control, and it is a welcome medicine for you this month, sweet Sagittarius. Any seven in the Tarot has to do with inner work around something that looks external. If we are telling ourselves that “everything would be ok if I just had a partner,” or “everything would have been perfect but ____,” we are in a Seven. Everything IS perfect, because it is. This is the toughest and also the clearest thing about this life: reality rules,100 percent of the time. When we forget (and PS, everyone forgets. There’s no shame.), that’s when we suffer and become confused. It’s the origin of believing that something outside of ourselves can give us what we need.

The more we believe this, the further away we drift from what we desire and truly yearn for. When we forget this and drift off into future, into story, into shoulds and “what ifs?,” we will get a gentle tap on the shoulder with a Seven. And conversely, if everything looks super fabulous from the outside, but the inside is unsustainable, flailing, or untethered, we will receive a Seven to help get us clear. The deal with the Seven of Swords in particular, Sagittarius, is the invitation to explore the areas in which you might still be feeling like you need something externally to complete you internally. That can manifest in all kinds of different ways—might be totally subconscious, or it might be showing up in an alternative way.

It might center around money, love, travel, certain external mile markers—whatever it is, you are being invited to become present, and to drop into the fullness of trusting that you have everything you need already. What good is a soulmate, a beautiful trip around the world or a write up in a magazine if you are not here for it? Be here, trust that it will come at just the right time — then, it will. It’s the easiest, hardest thing to do, but I know you can do it, Sagittarius. You wouldn’t have gotten the card if you weren’t able to move through it. You don’t need anything other than what’s already in your heart, your hands, your home, your life. Once your nervous system understands that fully, everything outside of you will have room to flow in.

Cast by Lindsay Mack using the Starchild Tarot. Want more wisdom? Book a reading with Lindsay here and follow her on Instagram.

CAPRICORN :: CAPRICORN RISING
Nine of Cups, Rx

Trust in your dreams, Capricorn. Whenever Nine of Cups reversed arises, we can move through some doubts around our most cherished manifestations and dreams. The doubt isn’t indicative of truth; everything is moving along for you quite beautifully, in fact. It just might not feel that way. This intense doubt might not be the exact situation for you this month, but regardless, it will be an important time to center deeply on what you are hatching and birthing in your life. It might also be a time to invite in a little more support to help you facilitate it. I’m really getting for you to assemble a sacred team of life doulas, so to speak.

If you’re looking to move, hire some professional space clearers to help you release stuff, invite someone in to clean your house and prepare it for moving, reach out to friends for encouragement and support — maybe even do a spell for manifesting your perfect space and the money to move into it. If you want to grow your business, release your pride and ask for help. Then be willing to take the advice given to you. If you are courageous enough to be humble and transparent around your insecurities, so much help, support and reflections of truth will flow your way. However, no one can help unless you ask for it. Turn to the right people and lay your heart bear, even if it’s for supportive feedback.

Nine of Cups is the wishing card. It fulfills hopes and dreams, and represents the promise of a harvest. At the time that we pull this card, the shoots and seedlings are extremely young and very fragile and tender. We must take care to protect them with all we’ve got. It’s easy to forget how fragile these dreams are, and when we forget, we can expose them to some tougher criticisms. Sometimes people share too much of their process too soon. We can also choose to share with people who are not able to support our seeds, trampling on them with a look, or comment. It can be so easy to fall into doubt and fear, worrying if we should give up. The reversal can represent this space of concern, confusion and doubt. The antidote is to go back to tenderness, to hope and faith. It can also be inviting in the right team. No matter what, your dreams are coming true, Capricorn. Do whatever you need to do to help yourself remember that truth.

Cast by Lindsay Mack using the Starchild Tarot. Want more wisdom? Book a reading with Lindsay here and follow her on Instagram.

AQUARIUS :: AQUARIUS
Four of Cups

March is truly a month to go slowly and gently through your days, Aquarius. Four of Cups is going to be helping you to make room in your life and heart for new experiences and new cycles. It will help you to integrate painful events of the past, and to emotionally digest and clear what no longer serves. It will be important to go slowly and gently through your month because the invitation of this card might be so subtle, you could miss it. The more space you can clear for introspection, the better it will be. That includes, perhaps, releasing attachment to dating, socializing, or certain opportunities that are out of alignment for you—especially if any of these areas are a means for an emotional escape.

You are being very deeply called into an internal landscape this month; there is wisdom and treasure to be found when you allow yourself the opportunity to rest in it, rather than floating to various things. This card isn’t going to force you; you have to choose. If you are willing to make an empowered shift in the name of your self care, there can and will be a profound transformation in your life, Aquarius. Own your power, root down and integrate for this month of March. Your whole heart and soul will thank you. Four of Cups is often thought of as an energy or self sabotage, or of missing an opportunity, but it has always been channeled to me in a very different way. It is really a sacred digestion period, one in which we are not only being called to make room for the new in our lives, but to upgrade what we do allow in.

Embrace this cycle as a potent clearing away of everything you’ve been moving through that’s not in alignment for you any longer, particularly around patterning associated with escaping yourself. If you can make the choice to say no to the old ways of engaging, socializing, or taking on energy, there will be a massive shift. You actually have the potential to change your karma around self love, relationships, intuition and emotional intelligence this month, Aquarius. If you do refuse a cup, so to speak, not to worry—it will come back to you at the perfect time, when you have room to integrate it. Trust yourself, and your choices. They are leading you into transformative waters this month and beyond.

Cast by Lindsay Mack using the Starchild Tarot. Want more wisdom? Book a reading with Lindsay here and follow her on Instagram.

MOONERS & SHAKERS: MEET OUR MOON CLUB MEMBERS

Meet this month’s Mooners & Shakers, the Moon Club members using their spiritual practice to fuel their passion projects!

ABA GYEPI-GARBRAH 
“This was a lesson in openness, patience and curiosity. It was also lesson in being present.”

ABA Gyepi-Garbrah Aba Love Apothecary The Numinous Moon Club

The Project
Aba Love Apothecary is a handcrafted, small batch collection of plant-based skincare products and healing aromatics tailored for those who wish to experience the magic of plants in real life.

The Work as Spiritual Activism
I love this question. Thinking back to about my first experiences with aromatics, I made a choice to listen with all my senses and to let each essence unfold in their own time. This is how I began to create when formulating. I would approach each ingredient blindly and experience them without judgment. This was a lesson in openness, patience and curiosity. It was also lesson in being present.

It made me realize, wow—this is something we hardly give to others, sometimes not even ourselves. If we could practice the same openness, patience and curiosity with ourselves and others, we would be more connected to our uniqueness, our dynamism, all of our parts, sweet and not so sweet, and still value ourselves completely. This gave me a refreshed perspective, which I would gladly call my spiritual activism!

ABA Gyepi-Garbrah Aba Love Apothecary The Numinous Moon Club

The Vision
I see Aba Love Apothecary becoming a beloved brand known for its artistry in plant-based skincare & healing aromatics. To continue to support and collaborate with other like-minded women owned businesses. It’s also my wish to engage small farmers, growers and distillers of organic, wild crafted and sustainably farmed ingredients in US and abroad.

The Moon Club Inspiration
The most beautiful thing about Moon Club is that it inspires me to show up for myself wherever I am at, plan by the cosmic clock, and go with the flow!

Shop the Aba Love Apothecary here, and follow Aba on Instagram.

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AMBER ADAMS
“Birth work is my calling. I have this ache in my heart that drives me forward.”

Amber Adams Doula Moon Club Members The Numinous

The Calling
I never planned to be a mother, so when I had a positive pregnancy test I felt my whole life crashing down. I had been preparing to move to New Zealand for a study abroad program in the fall, and having a human baby was definitely never something that crossed my mind. Despite my initial trepidation, I loved being pregnant and when it came time to give birth, I was relaxed and excited. I had never felt so powerful and divinely WOMAN as I did in those first precious moments after birth. Not only that, but because of my doula, I had felt for the first time in my life deep sisterhood and the magic of women helping women to give birth.

When my son was about a year old, my best friend and his girlfriend were in a similar situation, and I became their unofficial doula. She would come to me with questions and I had answers. I empowered her to follow her gut when choosing where to give birth and encouraged her to be an active participant in her process. I missed their birth, but three months later I attended my first birth as an official doula. After my second doula birth, I knew I wanted to be a midwife.

Birth work is my calling. I have this ache in my heart that drives me forward, pushes me through school, and keeps my feet on this path. I don’t think I could walk away from this work, even if I tried.

Amber Adams Doula Moon Club Members The Numinous

The Leap
I have been working at the customer service desk of a grocery store for the past 8 months. The pay is good and initially they offered enough flexibility that I could go to a birth here and there. Very practical…and ultimately very soul sapping. On February 18, I was lying in my bed with the simple intention of being very open, a sort of modification on a Moon ritual. There was a sensation of my heart opening and with it the thought: “Quit your job.” Along with the realization that if I truly want my life to become, then I must jump into the unknown.

The Future
I will be working toward the goal of owning my own birth center. My desire is to have a place where mothers of all stages can go for support, especially during pregnancy and postpartum. In the immediate future, I am expanding my birth doula practicing by adding childbirth education and placenta encapsulation to my services offered.

The Moon Club Inspiration
Moon Club has helped me by strengthening my connection to my spiritual self, as well as helping me to cultivate self care in my daily life. I love our community and how uplifting the entire Moon Club experience has been. My favorite part of Moon Club are the coaching events and live calls. I am always working on homework so having the calls helps me to get out of my own brain and connect in real time.

Discover more about Amber and her work at www.birthmindbody.com

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ALMA GROOME
“As I have started to awaken spiritually, I’ve felt drawn to look outside of the conventions I had limited myself to in the past.”

Alma Groome The Numinous Moon Club
Alma Groome, with her oldest son Zachary

The Project
The Moon phase stained glass panels were the result of a friend encouraging me to make pieces that spoke to me. Six months ago I took a a class at a local glass crafters shop. I began with small sun catchers and little pieces but after a few months I began to lose the spark. On mentioning that, a friend asked me what type of projects I really wanted to work on, and I stated without a waver that I really wanted to do a big piece with all of the phases of the Moon. “Why don’t you then?” she asked. My only excuse was not having a window at home wide enough. She shrugged and replied “I have a window.” At that moment, a charge ran through me and it was all I could focus on until I had something on paper.

The Intention
The intention is simply to provide myself with a creative outlet, a way to express a side of myself I had long felt non-existent. I work in bookkeeping and Quickbooks consulting and consider myself a fairly linear thinker. But as I have started to awaken spiritually and explore the metaphysical realm, I’ve felt drawn to look outside of the conventions I had limited myself to in the past, to be open to new things and experiences, and to push my boundaries even, in those moments anxiety knots so hard in my stomach I can barely breathe.

Stained glass work, and this Moon phase piece in particular, has provided an outlet for me to let go and refuse to be bound by self-placed limits. It’s exhilarating, allowing myself to leap into things I never remotely considered as possible.

Alma Groome Moon Phase stained glass window Moon Club Members The Numinous

The Magic
Tonight, I delivered the phases of the Moon stained glass panel to its new home, hanging it in my best friend’s window and admiring the flow from left to right as the moon transitions from new to full and back to new again. The beveled edges caught the light brilliantly and projected rainbows of color. It’s an incredibly surreal to experience seeing something I created in another person’s home, to hear the excitement they have for it, and to know that it resonates with them on a deeper level than “that’s pretty.”

The Moon Club Inspiration
I knew in my heart the pieces I was being almost called to make were of the Moon phases, the triple Moon goddess, representations of the Divine Feminine, and sacred geometry. Being part of Moon Club, I have connected with a group of women who embrace these things as part of their path and inspiration. That connection has given me the courage to take hold of these ideas and go with them. In the past, perhaps I would have shied away from the challenge of being out of my comfort zone, but being a part of this community left me invigorated and inspired to go for it. I could not be happier with both the tangible and intangible results.

The Moon Connection
Recognizing a connection to the Moon has been a fairly new thing for me, and I’m very much still learning about what that can mean on a personal level. I’ve always felt drawn to the Moon often searching the sky for its position, phase, color, or the way the clouds might be playing against its reflection. Now though, instead of merely appreciating the beauty of the Full Moon, I’ve started to tune in to my feelings and emotions around each Moon phase, journaling to begin connecting the dots around each cycle. I look forward to continuing to expand my knowledge and deepen that connection.

Check out more of Alma’s stained glass work at her Etsy shop, and follow her on Instagram.

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Woah, heart swells! Discover more about Moon Club here, and get inspired to bring your spiritual practice out into the world!

READING FOR THE 2017 PISCES NEW MOON SOLAR ECLIPSE

The Pisces New Moon Solar Eclipse is asking us to JUST BE, and allow for a cosmic re-set, says Sandra Sitron…

Moon Club Pisces New Moon Solar Eclipse
Learn how to work with each Moon phase when you sign up for Moon Club! Click here to learn more

New Moon Solar Eclipse :: February 26 2017 :: 10:00 am EST :: 8 degrees Pisces

It is time to clean up and restore before the next astrological year begins. Gather yourself in your center. Honor your emotions. Sit with yourself in a quiet cave and heal. To look inside of yourself for the truth. This is your moment to draw back the curtain and see into your own soul.

As we, the Sun and the Moon, come into alignment, let go of your assumptions. Let yourself see the truth. This is not time for practical thinking. The information coming through now is more like poetry. If you hold a great appreciation for logic, take this moment to feel the spaces between words. Drift a little instead of trying to rigidly hold onto a concept.

This New Moon Solar Eclipse is in Pisces. A new moon happens every month when the Sun and the Moon are at the same degree. When this occurs, the moon looks dark, making it a time for quiet contemplation and healing. It’s a time to set new seeds of intention. When the Moon and Sun are both near a lunar node (orbital plane), a solar eclipse can occur. This happens about twice a year. Part or all of the Sun’s light is obstructed from the Earth’s view (whether or not you can see it depends on where you are located on earth.)

In astrological terms, this configuration creates a massive “reset.” It is time to bring in new energy and a new perspective. With this New Moon Solar Eclipse in the sign of Pisces, we are planting fresh seeds of compassion. We are learning how to heal ourselves and others. Pisces is the last sign of the zodiac. It holds the experience of all the other signs. The old saying “put yourself in someone else’s shoes,” fits in here. Pisces has walked all the walks. And as such, Pisces energy holds compassion for the entire human experience.

You may find yourself extra sensitive during this time. This can feel overwhelming, so you may decide to slide away from all the feels like a slippery fish. Take notice if you see yourself trying to drown out emotion with any kind of compulsive behavior. Instead, can you just sit with the feelings? This is a time to “go through something” rather than “get over something.” Follow your intuition closely. Keep checking in with yourself. Let yourself be however you are. This is the essential first step of healing.

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New Moon Conjunct Neptune
A sea anemone waves in the depths of salt water.
Find yourself floating with sensitive awareness. Sink into senses you don’t normally use. Trust what you know. Sensitivity is heightened here. As is magic, enchantment, illusion and confusion. Find your path through the fog by trusting your inner light. Your power is in what you feel.

New Moon Conjunct Mercury
Sparkle emoji.
*ding* That special sparkle! That glimmer of light! As the planet that rules thinking and communicating is lining up with the Sun, Moon ,and Neptune, a new awareness can shine through. Maybe even with a hint of glitter. The clarity you are looking for is just within reach, but you may have to follow your intuition to find it. As wounded healer Chiron is hovering on the outskirts of this stellium configuration, your conceptual clues may trigger old wounds. Leading from pain to revelation to healing. Choose to see clearly so that you can allow this process to unfold.

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New Moon Semi-Square Mars and Uranus
Looking through a telescope at a bomb hitting the surface of the ocean.
Boom. There is some explosive energy here. As you let your emotions flow freely, steer toward compassion for yourself and others. Focus on this. Do it so that if turmoil hits your emotional waters, you’re ready to objectively focus on love.
The energy of Mars conjunct Uranus in Aries is creative, fast and electrical. Your instinct may be to make quick decisions. As the symbol represents “keeping an eye on things,” lean in the direction of patient observation when you can.

New Moon Sesqui-Quadrate Jupiter
A balloon seller at the fair.
Get on the optimism track whenever you can this weekend. Jupiter is bringing in expansion and healing. As the ancient ruler of Pisces, this energy can help you see the best in everyone. Stay positive. With just the right amount of helium balloons, yuo may even achieve lift-off. You never know.

Summary
Take quiet space to feel your feelings. Focus on compassion. Honor your sensitivity. Following your intuition leads to clarity. Practice love and optimism to help you remain peaceful in times of turmoil.

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Use the below questions to get deeper in your journaling practice for the Pisces New Moon Solar Eclipse. For a more accurate reading, calculate your chart for free here and see what house holds 8 degrees Pisces…

Aries or Moon in 12th house
How can I drift a little bit more? Where in my life can I choose to receive instead of taking action?

Taurus or Moon in 11th house
What is one way I can funnel my compassion into an action that serves the greater good? How would this serve me too?

Gemini or Moon in 10th house
Can more compassion for myself positively impact my career? How would I envision this happening?

Cancer or Moon in 9th house
How can I expand my worldview by bringing in more love? Can I focus on channelling compassion to someone who lives far away from me?

Leo or Moon in 8th house
What feeling is demanding more attention? What would it be like to sit with this feeling? What am I not seeing right now?

Virgo or Moon in 7th house
How can I serve another person through my words or attention? How can also I bring more attention to my need to be compassionate with myself?

Libra or 6th house
How can I make self-care simple? What are a few things I can do every week that are easy and show how much I love myself?

Scorpio or 5th house
What is a gift that you can share with the world today?

Sagittarius or 4th house
When am I most encouraging of myself? How can I be more like a “good mother” to myself?

Capricorn or 3rd house
What practice helps me get out of the way and allows my words and thoughts to flow intuitively?

Aquarius or 2nd house
How can I show myself how much you value myself? What feels like luxury to me?

Pisces or 1st house
Where in my life do I need to illuminate a sense of hope?

Feeling like you need really do need a cosmic re-set? Sign-up for Sandra’s FREE mind-body astrology e-course at this link!