Is Astrology helping tell the story of human responses to climate change? With Saturn in Sagittarius and a scary new deadline to cut fossil fuel emissions, it’s time to pick each pilgrimage wisely, says Ruby Warrington. Images: Mariano Peccinetti
So this was going to be a post about how to use astrocartography to plan your vacations and retreats in 2015. Astrocartography is the practise of placing your birth chart over a map of the world, to see where the different planets hold the most influence for you – which is obviously completely fascinating, and I urge you to download your map here STAT!
But then I started reading Naomi Klein’s climate change manifesto This Changes Everything – and it’s become a story about how air miles feel like my most guilty pleasure.
Scanning my mind for my very favorite, most life defining memories, so many of them were made following the burning of a shit-tonne of fossil fuels – like the time I travelled to Greece as a moody adolescent, and got to experience another culture first hand for the first time. Or to Ibiza as a happy-go-lucky rave babe in my twenties, and to Miami to marry my husband, just the two of us, nervous and giggling like teenagers in the garden at the Delano hotel.
These are the memoires that exist in 3D Technicolor for me, aromas, emotions and all, and I had been fully intending to create many, many more in 2015. I’ve already booked a trip down to the Bahamas to swim with dolphins in February, which, considering I have a life-long phobia of snorkelling (I am a human, last time I checked I am not equipped for breathing underwater) I’m anticipating will be a game-changer for me.
Then there’s Lauren and Joe’s wedding in London in March (my biggest matchmaking success story), and the big ol’ Santa-Fe-to-Big-Sur road-trip I’ve been loosely fantasizing about.
But since This Changes Everything, I’m beginning to relate to the part of my mind that continues to think it’s totally okay to jump on a plane somewhere every other month like that creepy, morally corrupt dude Mr. Burns from The Simpsons. There is shame, and there is a degree of disgust.
In her book, Klein says it’s our collective “climate change denial” (i.e. continuing to jump on planes places every other month) that means we’re currently facing a situation where, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA): “If we do not get our emissions under control by 2017 our fossil fuel economy will ‘lock in’ extremely dangerous warming.”
By “lock in,” they mean seal the deal on irreversible changes to our global climate, which could trigger completely devastating environmental disasters on an as yet unimaginable scale – the trailer for which disaster movie has already begun playing on a loop.
Klein’s manifesto makes for scary but what feels like essential reading. Relating to the 28% of fossil fuel consumption attributed to the transportation industry, it’s also got me thinking about Saturn, planet of harsh life lessons, restriction and karma, recently having stationed in globe-trotting, happy-go-lucky Sagittarius. Where it will remain until – you guessed it – December 19 2017, a.k.a. pretty much D-day on potential environmental Armageddon. Which suggests that the next three years are about a stern approach to re-thinking our attitudes to why, when and how we travel.
Wow, it sucks being stuck in this materialistic human suit sometimes. At the center of my being, my soul intelligence can be finally waking up to the fact that it’s time for some RADICAL FREAKING CHANGES, but still my physical body will argue; “not quite yet though, yeah? Swimming with those dolphins is seriously gonna rock your world…”
The hard-core environmentalists will argue that there is no room, or time, for compromise. But the Titanic won’t turn on a dime. Which is an interesting metaphor in itself, considering it’s also been predicted that a rise in sea levels resulting from the disintegration of the West antarctic ice sheet (due to global warming) could wipe out coastal metropolis’ like New York, LA and London by 2100.
And I know, I KNOW. But how about, for now (really though, NOW), we commit to only travel for true pilgrimage. It’s an idea that’s also in keeping with Saturn in Sag, the notion that our journeys must have real purpose, and if it meant we all took just one trip a year instead of five, wouldn’t that be going some way towards meeting the IEA’s 2017 targets? As for all those business trips, the jaunts across continents for meetings that really need to take place face-to-face…um, isn’t that why we invented Skype?
As always, writing and thinking about environmental issues makes me feel like a total hypocrite and also extremely naive (you too, I know, which is why it feels so much nicer to just keep looking the other way), because of course I’ll be going to that wedding. Obviously a trip to Berlin to meet my new nephew this summer counts as a pilgrimage too, right? And actually, isn’t this all just too little, too late?
But as a mere human, a microscopic particle in the organism of our collective Earthly consciousness, I have no real choice but to believe that even the one, or two, or three trips I choose not to take this year will make a difference. A theory that only really works if I’m not the only one making those choices.
So then how to choose the journeys that are really worth waiting for? A while ago I had my astrocartography chart read by a British astrologer called Zoe Hind. It’s all way too complicated for me to explain in detail here, but below is a map of my chart to give you an idea.
The different colored lines represent the planets, and the labels at the top and bottom – “MC, IC, AS, DS” – show their highest and lowest points, as well as where they are ascending and descending. The idea being that a planet ascending over a certain country means it’s influence will be strengthened there. The reverse if it’s descending. So where there are lots of lines, shows where in the world there is the most cosmic potential for you.
Thinking in terms of my personal and spiritual growth (i.e. “pilgrimage”), this looks a lot like Hawaii, South America, Africa, Scandinavia, and Russia / Tibet. None of which have factored in my travels to date. But with cosmic healer Chiron strong over the Pacific, Hawaii could be the ideal location for a solo retreat, says Zoe – opposed to a group trip, as Uranus, planet of group activity, is also at it lowest there.
South America, the Amazon in particular, is where my Sun, Venus, Mercury and Chiron, all in my fourth house of family roots, are “going to sleep.” The interpretation? “If you were going to have an; ‘I want to get away from myself, change my mind and challenge my core beliefs in a group scenario’ sort of trip, then obviously South America is looking very strong. Because the planets in your 11th house of groups (Uranus, North Node) are also lit up.” Which sounds about right for the ayahuasca experience in Peru I’ve got scheduled for somewhere around age 50.
As for putting my money where my mouth is for now though, and simply staying put? When I moved to New York from London in 2012, I had a visceral sense of destiny itself kicking me out of my comfort zone and into a new life across the Atlantic.
And wouldn’t you know, my Sun, the essence of my being, and Moon, representing my instincts and subconscious mind, meet high up in the sky, directly above this dirty, dramatic, endangered city. It’s my three-year anniversary next month, and the internal pilgrimage I’ve been on here has created some of my most momentous life milestones of all. So this year I commit to making lots more of those, RIGHT HERE.
Discover more about Zoe Hind’s astrology at AstroZo.com
We are bombarded with messages urging us to “be the light” – but what if true healing means embracing the darkest aspects of ourselves, asks Emily Tepper. Images: Andrew Robinson via Behance.net
Be the dark. Walk boldly through the unknown reaches of the soul.
This year, I am embracing my inner “dark worker,” because I’ve come to realize that actually our dark side is the most creative place to be. It is in the fertile void, in the dark, underground, where the seed germinates.
There are aspects of our creativity, our courage, and our power which, like a seed, can only incubate in total darkness. This is why my darkness has become my favorite place to be.
I have spent so much of my life trying to improve my dark moods, to lighten the dark humor that might provoke or offend the polite, and soften the sharp opinions that are often hard to hear and accept – even when getting right with them can be the most crucial step to getting out of denial. It’s meant denying the darkness in me that also translates as a low tolerance for bullshit, a quick temper, sudden rage, and profound grief.
It’s ironic though, that since I decided to accept my darkness, my moods have improved considerably. Like it was the constant pressure to “be the light,” the constant cultural shaming of the dark, that was half the issue. The dark is immensely powerful, and yet we are afraid of it.
But think about where the dark exists in our language: pure creativity “rises up,” from “the underground.” The answers to our most profound existential crises often lie buried in our “sub” conscious.
But the dark is where shame is lifted and new truths are actualized – as seen and witnessed only by those who are also willing to stray far enough from the safety of the will lit path to witness.
Every fairy tale Princess walks a dark night in the forest on her way to healing and reclaiming her majesty. To grow, she is made to face the utter fear of the wild and unknown. In the dark, and usually alone, it is through this journey that we find ourselves.
We’ve all heard stories of the Dark Night of The Soul, and how powerful it is to pass through it to the other side. We go on to heal others in our ascension to the light, but we become who we are in the dark.
So now consider this: maybe “black magic” isn’t evil at all, but actually where the alchemy happens. Perhaps there is a tremendous, almost disgusting, amount of power available to those who are willing to go there. Maybe that’s what makes the practitioners of the “dark arts” so frightening to the rest of us.
And before you villainize the villain, consider that in some countries it is dark for most of the day, most of the year even. What if your natural state of being is more Norway than Florida? My moods are like the weather of Siberia – cold and dark, with occasional bursts of incredible, irrepressible light. And I’ve decided I’m good with this version of myself. She doesn’t need improvement.
Our emotions are like a weather system. They are shifting constantly, and the seasons of the soul they represent are the very essence of change and manifestation.
If the spiritual “industry” is full of Light Workers – this year I am declaring myself a Dark Worker. And I urge you again to Be The Dark.
How will you honor your dark side in 2015? Connect with us and share your story on Twitter or Facebook.
How to navigate internal and external shifts in your Universe? Laurie DiBiagio shares her ten commandments for change.
At 29, I would like to graciously grant myself the title “Change Connoisseur.” I also don’t think claiming myself an aficionado of change at such a young age is in any way audacious. I have been blessed with three dominant, mutable signs: Sagittarius Sun, Pisces Ascendant, and a Gemini Moon. I was designed by the stars to mutate.
With this astrological recipe, life is ever-changing for me: exciting, exhausting, emotional, and inspiring. I love it, but I often feel like there is never a moment to fully catch my breath. Somehow I never fall short. With all my experience in the fields of eternal transmutation, I believe I’ve earned myself an Olympic gold medal in reading the signs of transition and metamorphosis.
At the end of each year in my 20’s, I always ended up in a drastically different place from where I started. Ending one relationship to enter a new. Living in NYC to relocate to Hawaii (and back again). Quitting one job and starting the next. Thinking I was going to end up with him to finding the only person I needed to fall in love with was myself. Navigating my way through my parents’ chaotic and melodramatic divorce. Giving up the corporate world to becoming an entrepreneur. Living alone in a cottage studio 20 steps from the ocean on the North Shore, to sleeping on my mom’s couch. Going from adventurer and lover, to homemaker to vagabond, daughter, sister, student, teacher, and back again: multiple times. And this barely scratches the surface.
Within all this, one well-learned and highly prevalent lesson is that change doesn’t always appear victorious, or come in a neatly wrapped box with a shiny little bow. It is often very well disguised. It most likely won’t appear as anything spectacular and grandiose, BUT it will be perfectly placed, and it will be the exact tool that you need to continue on this great journey: good, bad, and ugly.
Ahh, the delightful path of the unknown. While at times it may appear devastating, it is always miraculous: never a punishment, always a gift. Everything manifests in our lives exactly at the point it is meant to. When we have learned all our lessons, of course, to allow that particular event to be released. Without change, how would we let go? To defy the force of change is to defy the Universe. Yet people do this every day, and some for their entire lives.
In defying the Universe, life becomes stagnant and difficult because you are no longer conscious or open to the abundance you are meant to receive. With that being said, and with no further adieu, here is my guide to conjuring and summoning forth the signs for dynamic change to occur in your life in a really intentional and “prepared” way. You must remember though, there really is no treading lightly into change. Change is meant to facilitate growth and enlightenment. Without trips, slips, falls, and some bruises we wouldn’t reach the next level. Change comes with light and dark energy, both with great purpose. You must accept this notion.
:: MY TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR CHANGE ::
1. Ban words like “restriction”, “limitation”, and “realistic” from your vocabulary. Do not allow the projections of fear and jealousy within yourself and others to poison your mind.
2. Don’t let the facts fool you. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. Believe. Pray. Give gratitude. Find the blessings in your current situation. Be open and you shall receive.
3. Never hesitate to ask for help. Call upon Green Tara or your most present Ascended Masters and Goddess to show you the way, to reveal in time your next move. Our teachers, angels, and spirits are always here to guide us with their divine intuition and wisdom.
4. Always stay in your heart. No matter what, you can always come back to this space. I often find myself holding my pointer and middle finger down on my heart chakra or placing a rose quartz there in my savasana to remind myself to tap in. All change exists in the heart, not in the head. Stay here. Be still. Listen.
5. Embrace alone time. You time. Spirit time. Listen to music. Get out in nature. Meditate. Read your cards. Hold your crystals. Clear and shield your energy. This will keep you vibrating on a frequency that allows these magnificent little thought bubbles to enter your stream of consciousness. Make life a ritual.
6. Write. Write. Write. Write what is in your heart, your soul. Write your goals, hopes, dreams, and wishes. Write anything you desire. Nothing is too ambitious, for it would not exist within you if you weren’t meant to have it. Keep your words with you, or burn the pages and release the ashes to the universe.
7. Follow the Moon. Set intentions on the new moon, and release when it’s full. Bring your writing, oils, crystals, incense, deities, or anything else that serves you. Make it an art form.
8. When in doubt, pray it out. Just pray. TRUST. One small action every day toward your desires paired with good old fashioned genuine belief will leave you with a tried and true recipe for success.
9. Believe in miracles, they happen everyday. The Universe always provides. Do not forget this. Make it your Mantra.
10. Know that you are exactly where you need to be at this very moment. Now, let it go. Watch magic happen. You will know it when it hits you. Be aware. In the advice you speak to others, in the advice given to you, in moments that feel full of impending doom but are really full of grace, you will feel it hit you. Take the ride. Do not resist. There will be no denying it because you will feel it in every fiber of your being.
Laurie DiBiagio is a designer, maker, artist, entrepreneur and adventurer. You can follow her adventures through the wild unknown at Sirenaandthesea.com and follow her @sirena_and_the_sea
How are you feeling about 2015? I notice that around this time my Facebook feeds starts filling up with people saying how awful their year has been and that next year BETTER be good. I never really resonated with the idea of threatening the year ahead? It doesn’t seem like the most proactive or positive way to introduce yourself to something. Imagine if when we met a new person we shook their hand and shouted at them: YOU BETTER BE A GOOD FRIEND OR ELSE!
Everything is of value, so how about we offer some compassion to ourselves instead? Maybe a bit of a pat on the back to say YOU DID IT, 2014 was tough but you kept walking. The learning from most challenging times does not usually present itself to us in an instant, we have to trust it will appear at some point. For now, just urge to be kind to yourself, rest, and when you are ready, be curious about what positive developments might just be ahead.
Now, onto your scopes! This month’s Tarotscopes are a sneak peek from your 2015 Tarotscopes that are now available for instant download in my shop. Each scope is over 4500 words and reads like a coaching session that you get to keep on hand throughout 2015! I’ve also created an Astro Goddess illustration for each sign, to act as your spirit guide for the year ahead.
As a treasured reader of my writing for The Numinous I’d like to offer you 10% off your 2015 Tarotscope using the code NUMILOVE2015.
Happy New Year. I love you and I am so grateful for each and every one of you.
Capricorn / Capricorn Rising
I feel this is a very important year to grow up and get real! Over 2014 you saw perhaps some of your most intense and challenging moments and the same themes kept coming up over and over again. You questioned your abilities, your confidence and your identity. You fought against yourself many times, because it felt like the only thing you knew how to do. However, near the end of the year, maybe even in the last few weeks, something has shifted, an awakening of sorts. You are in place to receive the truth from your highest self and guess what, it doesn’t want you to keep working against yourself!
So over the course of the year I feel you will be constantly releasing this pressure and practicing it hard, knowing that you can change the course of your whole experience. You also get to discover that Monday mornings don’t have to be a dread when you love what you do. You are invited to pursue and explore what an enjoyable and lucrative career would be for you. You are allowed to give yourself permission to move away from what sucks your energy dry and what just doesn’t seem to cut it for you anymore.
You will also (as usual) be called upon by others for advice and guidance this year. Know that since people act as mirrors for each other, as you dish out the sage advice, you must take it for yourself too. Some people will stand in front of you with anxieties that match yours word for word. This is to remind you that you are never alone.
Every time you take some pressure off yourself you will receive a wink from the Universe, as every time you are willing to do this you will open a new space to receive something that feels good to you. Experiment with valuing all of your feelings and know that it is safe to honour them. I’m excited to say that I feel your confidence and self worth is set to get a great boost if you choose to participate with a fresh perspective towards your journey. Your best self is waiting patiently for you to show up fully, honestly and with vulnerability. You are loved.
This is an extract from your 2015 Tarotscope. Read more here. Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Aquarius / Aquarius Rising
I feel so energized, excited and so proud of you for just ‘shaking it all off’ recently. I feel like the year ahead is like fresh soil, waiting for you to plant, so don’t be afraid of shifting up anything and everything. Your motto for 2015? Surrender forever! Your ruling element this year is the fire energy and so it’s a huge year for embracing your own independence, freeing your spirit and exploring your passions. This is completely available to you if you also complement it by being kind to yourself!
I’d like you to start this year with a commitment to your own wellbeing. I want you to know that you can still be loving and supportive of others while caring for yourself. You don’t have to exchange your health to boost someone else’s! I also want you to not feel guilty about your life being well and good when others around you struggle. You are so loved and everyone is dying for you to really pursue what makes you happy.
You’ve learned a lot of lessons over the past year and now it’s time to embody them and really allow yourself to receive the good stuff. It’s time to release self-sabotaging habits and forgive the past. The surrender practice is pivotal to this year, because the more that you believe your life has a perfect and natural flow to it, the more you will be surprised by it’s unusual and exciting offerings.
Imagine what it would feel like if the dark forest were truly behind you? Imagine if that rollercoaster really had come to a stop? What if if you really have evolved into a fresh space? Embrace life and the world around you as if it still has something to offer. You are at the start of a new cycle in your life, trust that the unknown holds more gifts for you; don’t you want to see what they are? Magic is real don’t you know. Be the calm within the storm.
This is an extract from your 2015 Tarotscope. Read more here. Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Pisces / Pisces Rising
I feel that in comparison to last year there is a distinct shift in your journey now, as it becomes much more active and appealing to you. You did a lot of ‘going through the motions’ last year, processing experiences, recovering from heartbreak and just doing a lot of life admin. Now that we move into a fresh space you are invited to believe in your life again. You are also going to have to take a chance on trusting it too.
This is a super divine year for your sense of confidence and ability to get your best self and/or message out to the world. You are naturally a creative thinker and doer and it feels to me like this year has been designed for you to be able to really learn to sit comfortably within your passions.
You also have a wonderful opportunity this year to really embrace and admire the human experience, rather than blame it for its pitfalls. You are able to shift away any thoughts you have about your story not being valuable and are free to dive back into exploring what the world has to offer you. You will find that your old worn out negative self-beliefs start to become tiring to you as you prepare to commit to positive change for your mind, body and spirit.
What is going to be really eye opening for you this year is accepting a new mentor or teacher into your life. This guidance is something that you feel really ready for, although that currently might be a subconscious knowing as your conscious self fights against it! In regards to your anxieties, there is still a part of you that perceives yourself as broken and therefore unfixable. Some of the most negative stories you tell yourself are so familiar that you either totally believe in them or think that this is ‘just how it is’. It’s time to now accept that as a human you are a master of change and can shift your thoughts when and as you choose.
This is an extract from your 2015 Tarotscope. Read more here. Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Aries / Aries Rising
My wonderful warriors; 2015 is a year for embracing the self and not being afraid to explore your own truths. You have an important mission and it’s to release your own self-sabotaging stories. You can be hard on yourself and it’s time to instead start to see what those around you see. You are embraced and adored by your journey itself, and life is waiting for you to dive in. There will be many opportunities this year to test your trust in your intuition and to believe that you are a success story.
You are really needed this year, not only by yourself but also by others. You are often seen as a mentor to many, did you know that? Your fire energy is appreciated, people see you as far more capable than you sometimes see yourself, and I want you to see this energy within yourself too and be able to bathe in it. You aren’t lacking in empowerment at all, but you aren’t always quite as attached to it as you could be. Sometimes you shed your skin and forget to put a new one on and it leaves you feeling a little lifeless or uninspired. Failure is only an illusion. Your highest power lies in every moment you feel a spark of interest, a buzz of hope and a flicker of the great and wild unknown.
As I speak on behalf of your highest self, I feel uplifted about the open space you have to explore. You are definitely going to feel that sense of having to get out of your own this way, as demands for your talents and time arise, you will really have to claim your true confidence!
Coming out of 2014, I feel you are more apt at managing your feelings and this will give you a bonus super power of being able to connect to your intuition at the drop of a hat. You only need to trust that, when faced with internal drama or chaos, there is always a simpler solution if you are open to receiving it.
This is an extract from your 2015 Tarotscope. Read more here. Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Taurus / Taurus Rising
Fear of failure is the same as fear of success – they are both an unknown space. This year I’d like you to get comfortable with the idea that maybe things will turn out in a perfect way that works for you, but you must be willing to throw yourself off into the unknown to receive the benefits. It won’t come as a surprise to you that I’m going to bring up my favorite practice of SURRENDER as a gift for you to work with throughout the year, as it is truly going to be your super power and a chance to take on a whole new more relaxed way of thinking.
I feel that the coming months are going to bring through the changes you have been building up to over the past year, and as the year moves ahead it will be essential to keep checking in on how within your flow you are. Do you even know what the natural flow of life feels like? It’s when you notice synchronicities all around you, and you don’t feel like you are fighting against yourself!
This is a year for absolutely and completely tearing down the foundations of how you approach your own will and successes. Lets call it a classic case of breakdown to breakthrough. Don’t panic though, I’m not anticipating that you’re about to hit the floor and dissolve! But I do want your attitude to be shaken up and changed so that you can think about your material world with a whole new attitude this year.
Don’t be afraid to rise up and try again. Pick yourself up this year from whatever you feel has got your knees a knocking. Make your will bigger than your won’t. You will certainly not be short of ideas, the only thing you need is a clear channel to bring them through. Work on getting familiar and comfortable with your anxieties and fears; then you can give your deserved energy where it belongs – to your passions. It’s time to get up, stand up, open up and ultimately accept yourself as the golden soul you are.
This is an extract from your 2015 Tarotscope. Read more here. Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Gemini / Gemini Rising
I feel that this year you are embodying and mastering all the lessons that the past year brought to you. You felt the push and pull so strongly in 2014 and now you get to truly take back your power and put it into play. You can be a perfect combination of organized and scattered, lost and found. This year you are being urged to realize that there aren’t all these different versions of you, but that you are just one person who is constantly evolving. You no longer need to try to fit yourself into a mold; you are the mold.
Your being is as stretchy and expansive as the Universe itself. Your only job is to learn how to be fully embodied within your self without being controlling and restrictive. As you will be working on upping your inner and outer confidence all through the year, self-care is the absolute key to your personal and financial successes. You may have to work hard to release some old negative stories that you have written for yourself, but you totally have the strong super powers within you to do so!
Get excited about the shifts you are making for yourself and the potential of feeling truly good. Don’t be afraid to drop that to do list and let life flow in a natural way; know that you have got this. It’s also an amazing year to allow yourself to receive help, as well as new friendships and relationships, and it’s certainly your turn to embrace love and guidance as an alternative to being the constant facilitator. You will be mastering a new way of communication so that you can feel more connected to those around you.
You are never short on thoughts and ideas – they are there, very frequently whizzing in all directions, but managing them into a place of authentic expression can sometimes be challenging for you. You often have a fear of being misunderstood so sometimes try and put across what you think needs to be heard, rather than what you actually want and need to say. You can really trust your self, now, just believe that you can.
This is an extract from your 2015 Tarotscope. Read more here. Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Cancer / Cancer Rising
You will no doubt be aware that you are standing in a significantly different place to this time last year. Even those of you who feel that nothing has shifted are likely to have had an arc of experiences in 2014 that at the very least has awarded you with a beneficial shift in perspective. I feel really excited and vibrant tuning in to your year ahead, and have the urgency to sit tall in my seat. Your confidence has heightened and you no longer have any desire or need to play small. The energy that surrounds you is in grand support of you really ‘going for it’ within your adventure.
This year is all about firing yourself back up and showing up for your life. The fire energy is so powerful for you, although it’s not your natural state being a sign powered by water. So although your go-to is usually to work with your feelings and intuition, as you move through the year you’ll realize that your sense of personal power explodes when you stand firmly and walk tall. Your ability to start really asking for what you want, without guilt, will put you in a very special and enchanting place.
What is essential for you over the coming months is to really be open to releasing self-judgment, guilt and shame. To loosen up all those expectations that you have piled on yourself and to seriously stop obsessing about what others might think of you. Get obsessed with Y O U. I call it a positive selfishness. You’ll discover that the more you pursue what you have the urge to bring forth into your life, the more confident and capable you’ll feel.
Finally, you have to allow the magic to happen in perfect alignment. You have to accept that perhaps divine timing is better than your timing. It’s a tough one to crack but boy does it help you when you just stop, surrender and get on with the minute in hand.
This is an extract from your 2015 Tarotscope. Read more here. Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Leo / Leo Rising
I see you starting this year with some serious plans and ideas in place, and in fact much more of a practical approach to last year. Over the past 12 months there was a lot of coasting along, not laziness, but less of a structure. There were times when you felt like you were just saying yes, yes, yes to everything, which sometimes went in your favour and sometimes, not so much.
What you have learned in recent months is to really connect to your own inner workings and desires in your day-to-day life – and you are building up your confidence to complement this. It’s time to restructure your views on manifesting so you aren’t just going through the motions while wishing some things would change. Instead you are in full on magical action mode!
This will also be a year of stripping back the layers and strengthening your support systems underneath. You are so easily sociable but often see yourself as a loner within the world or having to always put on a brave face. It’s even easy sometimes to feel aggressive towards the outside world and accusatory of those around you. Keep going within. Then ask for help from the people you get super excited and inspired by.
There is also a real need for self-love and nurture throughout your whole year, as it will be what brings that sense of personal harmony to you. You want to be the mother to yourself and continuously ask yourself ‘what do I need right now?’ – which is actually a very valuable and effective morning meditation to get right to the core of what your soul needs. There is always information available to you from your highest self; you must only make space to listen.
This is an extract from your 2015 Tarotscope. Read more here. Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Virgo / Virgo Rising
To begin 2015 in the most productive and positive manner I want you to cast a respectful eye across the year gone by. Can you believe how things have changed? Did you know things were going to shift so much? Aren’t you kind of impressed with how you navigated those highs and lows and are still standing? Yes. The past does not need to be re-written or re-organized and time is never wasted.
Trust, faith and education are your revolving doors for 2015 – kicking off with a need to really claim your confidence and KNOW that you really do have things within your power. Recognition that fighting against yourself is no longer an enjoyable act, and that accepting yourself as an ever-evolving person really does make sense!
Your voice is yours to claim and get to know. You are going to be called countlessly to have to speak your truth and learn what your truth is. Many of you will have to cut the ties from past anxieties to not feel afraid of standing powerfully in your own mind, body and spirit. Surrender is your most valuable tool here, and learning to take pressure off yourself will also be a repeating cycle.
Learn to recognize the instant that you start piling on restrictions to your ambitions and potential. Every time you become aware of this is a chance to step back and realize that you don’t want to be hard on yourself. I’m excited for you to realize how far you’ve come. Getting yourself into confident phoenix mode will be forever helpful – so recognize that you are supposed to be continuously rising from your own ashes. There is no such thing as being broken or weak, you have this in hand. Choose to get connected and feel empowered.
This is an extract from your 2015 Tarotscope. Read more here. Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Libra / Libra Rising
Last year felt like a struggle for many of you, as all your anxieties surrounding friendships and romantic partnerships seemed to be charging at you with sharp teeth. What is happening as you emerge into 2015 is a clearing of this tension and a push to realize that maybe the hard slog is now over.
You have reached a major tipping point of change. You are shedding your skin as the year begins and allowed to take a breather and really acknowledge how far you’ve come. You’re are possibly or probably going to experience a lot of the new this year and although that can feel quite terrifying it is also an indication of a lot of fresh starts in your internal and external world. The sense of catapulting yourself into the unknown and knowing that you will be okay is a strong message for you.
I want you to practice a lot of self-gratitude, as I feel you’ve been down on yourself recently and it’s time to recognize that maybe you are as wonderful as those around you believe. We constantly get urged to believe in ourselves, and it’s only because it kind of, well, works! You don’t have to show off about how awesome you are, but you can congratulate yourself for showing up and trying. You have certainly been doing that.
Now it’s time to stop the fight and start allowing things to open back up. Times are changing for you from a personal perspective, and it’s important that you show up ready and willing to acknowledge and connect to your own divine sprit. You are way out of the woods and that magical space you always hoped to see is right in front of you. You’ll see it when you believe it. You can trust that it is safe for you to step into the natural flow of your journey again.
This is an extract from your 2015 Tarotscope. Read more here. Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Scorpio / Scorpio
2015 feels SO positive and exciting for you Scorpio and I feel so light when tuning into your year! This year marks the beginning of a wild adventurous new time for you, and you will come to see the efforts of the last few years bloom. The past two and a half years have held a lot of hardcore lesson learning for you, with Saturn sitting in your sign and acting as the intense taskmaster! This is not to say you haven’t been up to it, many of you have felt strongly called to get completely connected with what your purpose in this world is today and beyond. Now that Saturn has moved on you are poised to be able to loosen the stress grip just a little!
I feel that overall you are going to be feeling much more balanced this year and aware of the elements within you and how they twist and turn. You have the ability to create harmony between the material and spiritual as you recognize they were made to be a team. Think of your intuition as a light that you can pull down and spread onto the world around you. You have gained a lot of wisdom recently and there will be moments where you notice yourself processing knowledge and feeling the empowerment that you can receive from truly owning and respecting your experience.
I feel I could write all day about the great potential the year has in store for you, the energy feels so abundant and exciting, but I really feel you already know that…In fact some of you are shaking a little, because you really feel that you do have the power of co-creation with your life. As a Scorpio you are designed to constantly reinvent yourself and embrace change. Recognize that the Phoenix (rising from the ashes) is your natural state and you may never need fear ‘what might happen’ again.
This is an extract from your 2015 Tarotscope. Read more here. Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Sagittarius / Sagittarius Rising
This year is wide open for you to fully embrace and explore its offerings. There will be many opportunities for you to up your game and get into full on Phoenix mode and I encourage you to try it. Change is still very present for you, and tied strongly into magic making! The more open you are to perceiving the world around you with new eyes – the more of the weird and the wonderful you will see.
You are the only one who can hold yourself back this year. Some self-doubt has been rattling at your door here and there in the past year. Unlike some others, you really do know that you are capable and talented, and love setting your sights high. Why then, do the confidence anxieties still walk in? Or those worries about what others might think? Well, I have to say it – these feelings are NORMAL.
You may find that trust issues come up around work situations, but be aware that no one is ‘out to get you’, instead you can combat those fears by really reminding yourself how tuned in you are. It’s time to trust that it’s impossible to make bad decisions if you listen to what feels right. The more you get apt in saying NO to things that aren’t working for you the quicker your confidence will elevate – and in order to experience the big wows of 2015 you are required to practice upping your trust quota regards your inner voice.
Finally, the glow of joy is hovering over this whole year and you are encouraged to really discover what your sources of happiness are. This is something it’s easy to lose touch with as we get older, but remember that smiles are not exclusive to a destination named Happiness – they are accessible in every moment you choose. Put yourself into receiving mode to make up for any energy lost over the past year, and allow others the chance of getting to know you on a deeper level.
This is an extract from your 2015 Tarotscope. Read more here. Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Facing down 2015, it’s time to move out from the transformational vibe of the past 12 months and put the new you into action. Ash Baker shares a simple yoga sequence for Capricorn that’s designed to create a solid foundation for all that lies ahead. Images: Karolina Daria Flora
Here comes the New Year! Glitter, gold and cheers!
This is always an exciting time because things feel raw, open, attainable, and fresh. The Queen/King of the mountain, the Cappy goat, looks down at all the terrain to be explored in the coming year with complete determination and resilience. Never fear though, this seabeast comes with the guarantee of seeking out solid ground so you can rest assured that harnessing this energy will be planted in reality. This sign doesn’t do whimsical, fleeting or cloud consciousness.
Use the cosmic energy now to get a head start on your biggest dreams, desires, goals and, of course, for facing your challenges. Take any downtime over the remaining holiday period to write a practical yet powerful action plan, and prepare your mind for gorgeous possibilities to open your heart in 2015! Capricorn rules the bones, the skeleton, the architecture that holds up our worldly suit. The below poses are designed to help cultivate a connection to your structure, as feeling strong is the key to conquering the year ahead!
:: Tree Pose // Vriksasana ::
Bend your right knee and draw it up towards your chest. Hold it in place for a moment. Take your foot and place it on either your inner ankle, calf or inner thigh. NEVER on the knee itself! Press your foot into your leg and your leg back into your foot to create stability. Externally rotate your right hip out and your right sit bone under. Keep a bend in the left knee. Bring your hands together at your heart or raise them up like branches above your head. Repeat on the other side. Hold for three-five rounds of breath.
:: Chair Pose // Utkatasana ::
From a standing position bend the knees and come down like you are going to sit in an imaginary chair. Keep the knees pressing together. The more you stick your butt out the easier it will be. Let the weight be in your heels. Bring your arms slightly behind you with only a slight bend at the elbow. Extend the shoulders down and back opening up the chest. Feel your collarbone expanding and your core heating up. Three rounds of breath. Repeat three times, with your goals in sight.
:: Downward Facing Dog ::
Come to hands and knees. Tuck your toes and root down through all ten fingers especially the thumbs. Bend your knees deeply bringing your belly to your knees. Feel the length and extension being created in your spine. Press your hips/sitting bones up towards the sky and ground your feet into the floor, at least energetically if the heels don’t reach. Your head will extend out between your arms and allow your shoulders to drop and widen down your back. Come back down and take Child’s Pose. Three rounds of breath.
:: 2015 New Year’s Meditation :: Letting go to let it in ::
Come into your deep, rhythmic breath while either sitting cross-legged or laying on your back. Imagine as you inhale and exhale a layer of yourself that is worn out and tired, peels away like the skin of an onion. Removing any previous frustrations, heartbreaks and disappointments from the past year. Allow yourself to shed the old skin to become new again, ready for what’s next on your path. Stay here for five-10 minutes visualizing this symbolic dry brushing of things you no longer need on this new journey ahead.
:: Monthly Mantra :: I am my own source of strength for not only myself but others around me. That way we are all lifted up.
“Doing the work”. It’s a phrase that gets thrown around a lot in holistic / alternative wellness circles – but what does it actually mean? Is it like the time I went for acupuncture and was given “homework” to do – little sticky packs of Mugwort, called “Moxa”, to affix to my liver meridian and set light to like incense each night? Fair enough, I had been drinking quite a lot to avoid dealing with a stressful work situation, but wasn’t the state of my liver my practitioner’s to deal with?
Apparently not. If I’ve come to understand anything about how real healing, both physical and metaphysical, works in the past year, it’s this: ultimate wellbeing – just like ultimate abundance, ultimate freedom, and, ultimately I guess, ultimate bliss – is a collaborative effort between myself, whichever practise I happen to be working with at the time, and the all-loving, all-knowing Universe itself.
Looking back over the past twelve months, I can honestly say I’ve had one of the best years of my life. And not because everything just “worked out”, or opportunities fell from the sky like globules of golden bird poop. But in terms of my personal evolution, I feel like I’ve busted through blocks (to borrow just a little self-help speak) I wasn’t even aware were holding me back. Well maybe I was aware…but there’s NO WAY I was going to admit it and deal – not in this lifetime at least.
But deciding to face my demons, be my own knight in shining armour and slay the freakin’ dragon once and for all, looking ahead to 2015 I feel simultaneously like I’ve aged a decade and like I’m ten years younger. And it has not been easy. There have been tears, and there has been anguish. There has been much meditating, much journaling, and much reading of books with “Conversations” and “God” in the title.
But above all, there has been a very conscious decision on my part to actually “do the work”.
When I used to hear that phrase, I’d think it was referring to some kind of mystical alchemy that went on inside the body if you did enough yoga, took enough gong baths, or had enough therapy. As if the divine oneness was watching on, and would do some divine laying on of hands to absolve all your issues once you’d reached a certain quota of zen / worthiness.
2014, which shall forever more be referred to as “the year that changed EVERYTHING”, showed me that it’s actually way more prosaic than that. You want to change something? Move forward in your personal development? Bring about the internal “shift” that’s gonna raise your vibration to attract all the abundance you just know is out there waiting for you into you life? Then babe, the buzzword here is action.
For example, it’s one thing to accept that perhaps your cash flow issues are more to do with your attitude to money than the fact accounts clerks get off on withholding checks owed to you – and a whole other deal to weep buckets in a Family Constellations Therapy session as you see how it’s actually intrinsically linked to your Grandmother dying young, and your own mother not really knowing how to give you love as a result.
But the real work? That happens when you then do the Landmark Forum, and realize you actually have to call your mom and tell her it’s never really been okay that she loved your brother more than you, because she’d basically learned how by the time he came along. And then you actually do call her, and there are buckets more tears, but you end the conversation by telling each other how you feel like mother and daughter for the first time you can remember.
Phew! That’s what I call work. And it’s also where the “mystical alchemy” part comes in, because you know what? I’m facing down 2015 in a better financial position than ever. “Money” equates to “mother” in Jungian therapy after all.
And if dealing with my lack mentality was what I decided I wanted to work on in 2014, once the floodgates had opened it turns out it was time to tackle all the other niggling issues I began to realize were all a part of the jigsaw puzzle. Those feelings of lack…well weren’t they also contributing to my inability to share (the load, my visions, my real feelings)? This was another Landmark revelation – the full story / trauma of which I’ll share (now I’m getting better at it) in a later post.
One of my favorite things of all has been learning to work with my intuition this year – you know, actually act on my gut feelings about things, even if this often means taking the scarier, hairier route. If I started to meditate because I thought it would help me get more clarity and focus, little did I know the work my practise was prepping me for was the ability to first notice my truth, and then go stand in it, no matter how many people it might piss off.
And by meditation, I don’t just mean the ten minutes I manage on a good morning. By bringing the practise of being able to step back from my thoughts to everything I do – a hard core workout, a complicated writing assignment, my super intense / difficult / transformational experience at Burning Man, and, yes, my relationship with my mother, has been some of the most important work of all.
I actually predict that “work” and “money” are going to be big themes for us all in the coming months. In numerology, 2015 is a universal “8” year (you add 2+1+5), which is the number of challenges, personal power, and hard-earned reward for your efforts. In other words, do the work this year and the compensation could be bigger than ever. So here’s how…
First up, you need to define what you want to work on. And I say, go big. No shying away from that “thing”, it’s time to drag the monkey off your back, look it right in the eye and declare: GAME ON. (Oh but clue – the real monkey might not be what you think. Like my money issues turned out to be mother issues, the fact you have a hard time holding onto a relationship is, undoubtedly, all about your DAD).
Now just start looking around for the “way in”. Besides the Family Constellations work and the Landmark (which is pretty hard core, FYI), last year I also tried acupuncture, breathwork meditation, had regular visits with a shaman, hit the mat at The Class with Taryn Toomey, and worshiped at the church of IntenSati. Not to mention that transformational trip to Burning Man. Each and every one of which provided an insight, a tool, or a doorway for me to see into.
WALK. THROUGH. THE. DOOR. Don’t just stand there looking at the portal of opportunity any one of your practises has opened for you. Where the rubber meets the road, is where you choose to take action. It’s one thing to get an intense download about your relationship with your father after a particularly crazy Kundalini kriya, and a whole other ball game when you then send him an email laying out all the deets (yes, this also happened to me last year).
Don’t be shy. As in, don’t shy away from taking the necessary action. And if you’re having trouble working out what that is, it’s probably the thing you least want to do. But you know you have to. In fact, if it makes you cry just thinking about it, that’s probably it. Tears – of emotion, of compassion, of release – are often how you know the work is working.
Finally, you’d better embrace feeling a little bit weird, while all this is going on. Our brilliant Tarotscopestress Louise Androlia (aka Louniverse) is also a holistic life coach, and one of her favorite things is to remind her clients it’s actually normal to feel abnormal when your life is transforming, inside and out. So expect to doubt yourself, expect to feel vulnerable, expect to question your sanity sometimes – just don’t expect it to be a breeze, is what I think she means. After all, if it was meant to be easy, it wouldn’t get called The Work in the first place. But it’s worth it.
2014 has been a year of SELF-EXAMINATION, TRANSFORMATION and ADVENTURE! Here are 11 posts that made us laugh, gasp, cry…and take a good long look at our lives from the inside (listed in no particular order of awesomeness).
When Alexandra Roxo decided to embark on a hardcore nine-day Ayurvedic cleanse, she had no idea her girlfriend would decide to come along for the ride. Cue tears, tantrums and an ocean of emotion.
Ellie Burrows is pretty sure she’s discovered the secret to online dating. And it’s Tantra. Not super-connected, total body orgasm, tantric sex – rather the energetic concept that makes that kind of sex possible: a balance of the masculine and feminine energies.
Feel so much more powerful knowing he’s on my side…
Dealing with a situation that had left her feeling vulnerable and alone, when Ruby Warrington met her spirit power animal last year…it got emotional. Here’s how to connect with your own beast of the wild unknown.
Yay, you’re going on a yoga retreat! You want to get the most out of your experience, right? Who better than Heather Lilleston and Kumi Sawyers fromYoga For Bad People to lay down some summer retreat etiquette. We’re talking less freaking out, more more F.U.N.
Guru Jagat shot in Venice Beach by Lisandra Valazquez
Guru Jagat is the outspoken face behind the Ra Ma Institute, the only all kundalini yoga studio in California’s Venice Beach. She talks to Madeline Giles about her vision for the Age of Aquarius, life on the 33rd parallel and outsmarting the Global Elite. Conspiracy theories or conscious debate?
Right after a powerful New Moon in multi-faceted Gemini, gifting us an opportunity to embrace the quicksilver side of ourselves, Nadia Noirgives an insight into a life spent searching for “the other me.”
Connfession: My Burning Man Experience was too full-on to be called fun, says Ruby Warrington. But when it comes to life lessons, a week on the Playa delivered pure gold.
Lessons in Kabbalah with Madonna and a “little spiritual trip to Hawaii.” Brooke Candy tells Ruby Warrington how following a more “soulful” path has been a lesson in self-love…
When can drinking a cup of tea make you feel like you’re “melting into kaleidoscopic clouds”? When it’s part of a Living Tea ceremony, says Madeline Giles. Images: Lisandra Vazquez Photography
Setting the scene…
This time last year I enjoyed my tea bagged, bought from Whole Foods. I took jasmine green for breakfast, cacao yerba mate in the afternoon, and chamomile after dinner. If you asked me what I thought about tea then, I probably would’ve said: “It’s a cozy alternative to coffee. It tastes good. I like it. Yum!” And that would’ve been the end of that. Like most Westerners, I related to tea as just a beverage. A constant companion I told my life’s story to, but never considered listening to for a response. I didn’t know any better. I didn’t know there was more!
Then I moved to California, and by the grace of the tea gods, shortly thereafter I experienced my first taste of Living Tea during a love potion consultation. In one simple sip, the Tea pulled me out of my overly contemplative mind and into my body, where I felt transported into that magically meditative place where everything and nothing is known at once. It was heaven and earth alchemized in one simple swallow, and, as dramatic as this might sound, I felt I would never be the same.
“Really good Teas – that I call Living Teas – are from Old Growth forests in the high mountains and valleys of Yunnan, China and Taiwan, where the trees are hundreds and sometimes thousands of years old,” explains Living Tea founder Colin Hudon. We’re seated in his quaint Santa Monica cottage enjoying bowls of Purple Tea, which smells like wildflowers and makes me feel like I’m melting into kaleidoscopic clouds.
The author enjoys a bowl of Purple Tea at a Living Tea ceremony
“If you think about a tree that’s 100 or 500 or 1,000 years old, it’s been gathering and concentrating a profound accumulation of chi – or energy –from the sun, the moon, the stars, the birdsong, the plants, and all the animals it’s encountered over that time. The roots of a Living Tea tree can grow up to 100 meters deep, so they’re pulling up trace minerals and phytonutrients that we don’t get in our regular diet – that most plants we consume don’t have. Then we process it in a certain way and bring it back to life with fire and water. It’s alchemy.”
Hudon began relating to Tea as a Tao when he synchronistically connected with a Taiwan-based Tea teacher during his travels through Asia in 2010. “I stayed for a whole month at [my teacher’s] home, which is also a center called The Tea Sage Hut. I was profoundly moved by my experience there – it really kicked off my whole deep immersion into Tea. Prior to that it was just a curiosity of mine, a hobby.” When Hudon returned to California, he began selling Tea, serving Tea ceremonies, and ultimately inspired a local tea community that’s been growing ever since. Here, he shares the wisdom of Living Tea…
WHAT MAKES LIVING TEA DIFFERENT FROM CONVENTIONAL TEA? The vast majority of Teas I carry are Old Growth, so they’re from hundreds to thousand-year-old trees in wild forests. Unfortunately, 99 percent of tea in the world today is industrialized plantation tea. These tea farmers deprive the soil of certain nutrients so the trees are forced to grow more leaves for sustenance. Then, they pick those trees eight to 12 times a year, sometimes more.
Really good Teas – what I call Living Teas – are only pruned once or twice a year, and sometimes even left for a couple years, to grow as wild trees in the forest. Also, drinking Living Teas and relating to them as medicinal botanical herbs is very different than sipping a cup of plantation tea from Starbucks, or even a bagged tea from Whole Foods.
With Living Tea founder Colin Hudon
CAN YOU SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT USING LIVING TEA AS A TOOL FOR MEDITATION? Oftentimes meditation is about shunning the sixth sense – the mind. In an attempt to turn inwards [various Eastern] traditions often refer to the five senses as distractions to that path. Yet ultimately, we exist in the world – and you still have to get up and pay bills and call your dad and you’ve got to walk the dog and do the dishes, you know? So the question is: How can we bring that degree of mindfulness, of presence, of awareness, of connection, of open-heartedness to the more humdrum, prosaic aspects of our lives?
Tea is one bridge from the inside to the outside, because if I can brew Tea and talk to you and have a daily practice of coming back to this awareness of my body, my being, and of my life through Tea, then I’m building up this energy of mindfulness. And the more you build it up, the more of it you have. Tea is just one of many tools, but it’s a very profound and powerful tool for this – especially if you come back to it every day. It’s also very accessible, whereas for many people, sitting in meditation and observing their breath – doing some form of meditation or yoga or whatever they do – can be very challenging.
WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE INTERESTED IN DEVELOPING A RELATIONSHIP WITH LIVING TEA? I tell people you can relate to Tea like a person. Every person we meet, we have an impression of them. Some are aggressive, some are loud, some are abrasive, some are gentle and soft and quiet and introspective and creative, and on and on and on. We meet people from so many backgrounds, and you can’t meet a person without also meeting their education, their enculturation, their upbringing, their family – and the place they came from, which is true of Tea, too.
A lot of times when we do these Tea meditations or Tea ceremonies, it’s about the senses initially, but as you drink tea, if you really pay attention, oftentimes images will start to arise and people can see the place from which the Tea came. We say when She or It or the Tea starts to communicate with you, then She or It becomes the teacher. Soon, how long you steep a Tea, how many leaves you use, what type of Tea ware is the most appropriate – all of that is something that the Tea communicates to you, It’s not something you can read in a book.
“Start with just a bowl and a couple leaves…”
HOW CAN PEOPLE WHO DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO A TEA COMMUNITY GET INVOLVED WITH TEA CEREMONY? When a person starts to open the door to Tea beyond it just being an everyday beverage, it can be overwhelming. People will go, “Do I need to buy all this Tea stuff and do I need to learn all these traditions?” But the essence of Tea as a Tao, as a way, is simplicity. When my teacher, Wu De, introduces people to Tea, he says start with just a bowl and a couple leaves. Four to eight leaves of a large leaf Tea – because if it’s too small, the pieces get stuck in your mouth.
All you need then is just a way to heat your water, a big leaf bowl, and the leaves. Step two is more about the methodology and aesthetics of Tea, whereas step one – bowl, leaves – is about letting all of that go. You can do that alone or invite friends over and explore. It’s not about conversation, it’s about experience.
WHEN I FIRST MET YOU AND TOLD YOU ABOUT MY INITIAL EXPERIENCES WITH THE TEA, YOU SAID, “YOU MUST HAVE GOOD TEA KARMA.” WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO YOU? There’s a saying in our tradition that as the man seeks the man, so the leaf seeks the man. If a person has a profound respect and reverence for Tea as a path, if they create space in their life for it, then certain types of Tea will find their way into their lives. If a person relates to Tea the same way they relate to any beverage, then a different type of Tea will find their way into their lives – but that’s true of anything. In a sense, we get what we give.
To learn more about Tea as a Tao and tea ceremony, check out LivingTea.Net and Global Tea Hut. Numinous readers can also get a 10% discount on any purchases from Living Tea – just add the code “NUMINOUS TEA” at check out.
Madeline Giles with Living Tea founder Colin Hudon
Amber Locke, a.k.a. @rawveganblonde has gained a cut following for her beautiful and unique farmers’ market art. We meet the woman behind the phenomenon, and ask her…what vegetable would you be?
The artist at work…
How long have you been a Raw Vegan Blonde, and what drew you to the lifestyle? I’ve always been blonde, but only discovered the concept of raw food about 18 months ago! I first read about it on the blog of Ralph Lauren model Valentina Zelyaeva and decided to try it out as an experiment, but I was so blown away with how amazing it made me feel after just a few days, I carried on.
Eating raw gives me incredible energy, improved mental clarity and a general feeling of calmness, harmony and well-being. I’ve become far more in tune with my body and very aware of how what I eat can dramatically affect how I feel both emotionally and physically.
What makes you so passionate about vegetables? For me it’s the fact that fruit and veg not only taste amazing, they’re visually fascinating and have the power to nourish and heal our bodies too. They really are super foods.
And why do you think they’re so beautiful to you? I love the beauty of natural elements, and I’m constantly amazed and delighted by their different shapes, colours, textures, and character. So my designs aim to showcase their unique qualities and reflect the changing seasons of the year, as well as being a celebration of living a healthy lifestyle.
If you were a fruit or a vegetable, which would you be and why? I think I’d probably be a candy beetroot. They look pretty much like a normal beetroot on the outside, but when you slice them, they reveal their amazing pink and white striped flesh and it never ceases to make me smile.
What’s the most out there plant-based experience you’ve had to date? I’m not sure I’ve had an ‘out there’ experience…but I always get a sense of something greater at work when I’m composing my designs. I sometimes stand back and wonder how I did it.
:: M A T E R I A L G I R L ::
My label I love Hermes and although I only own a few pieces (mainly leather goods and scarves) they all have special memories and are so exquisitely made they will last a lifetime.
My shoes I’m addicted to Belstaff boots as they’re so comfy, look great and fit my narrow shins well! I have several pairs and wear them almost all year round.
My fragrance I’ve worn ‘Un Jardin Sur Le Nil’ by Hermes for years. I think the top notes are green mango but I love it as the smell reminds me of tomato leaves which are one on my favourite fragrances along with orange blossom. I’m still pursuing my quest to find the perfect orange blossom perfume and the closest I’ve come across so far is by Jo Malone and I wear this sometimes in the Summer.
My jewels I don’t wear much jewellery apart from my boyfriend’s old Breitling watch which I love as it’s so big and chunky on my wrist, and an antique silver fob chain given to me by my Mother which I wear as a charm bracelet.
My pampering A trip to the hairdressers! I recently took the plunge and had 10” chopped off by the brilliant team at Richard Ward Salon in London, their colourist David Viner is a legend too!
My home I live in a quirky house in a small countryside village. Its part Tudor, part Georgian, part Victorian and part Medieval so it’s a real mix of architectural styles.
My food I love to eat a mainly raw diet so my kitchen is always full of fresh fruit and vegetables and I eat this way at least 90% of the week. I love green smoothies, as well as my beloved high-speed ‘Blendtec’ blender makes them super smooth, rich and creamy.
My awakening I have a very simple morning ritual; I drink a large glass of water (warm water and lemon if I have time) then take a walk with my dog before making a big green juice for my boyfriend and I. We’re really into stronger flavoured spicy juices now the weather has turned colder so I use a lot of ginger, lemongrass, whole lemons and sometimes a bit of green chilli for an extra kick.
My sign I’m a Capricorn
My mantra I don’t really have a mantra as such but I love the line in the Baz Luhrmann song ‘Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)’ which goes: ‘Enjoy your body… it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own’. I think so many people live unhappily with their body but if you can learn to love it and feed, nourish and exercise it properly the rewards of such team work can be incredible.
My healer I think a balanced diet of fresh, natural food can be a great healer – physically, medicinally and emotionally.
My reading I’m fascinated by food so for me it’s any book related to the subject (I have hundreds!) and I really love searching out vintage cookbooks and out of print titles.
My transformation Trying out a raw food diet was a big transformation for me as I had no idea eating this way had the ability to make you feel so good. I think it should be renamed the ‘Happiness Diet’ as it’s almost like nature’s happy pill.
My mission I love to share my passion for fruit and vegetables (through my designs and recipes) and if that encourages or inspires others to eat more of them then that makes me very happy!
Empowering women’s movement, or de facto sex cult? Dani Katz gets intimate with the practise known as Orgasmic Meditation…
“I hate LA, and I hate my life,” I sputter in a flurry of tears, snot and spaz-out, as I drop my purse on the floor of Jamie’s kitchen, and freak way out.
“And my favorite pants are ruined,” I whine, gesturing to the stains dotting the hem, remnants from this morning’s explosion of glass and green at Moon Juice, where my Kundalini teacher dropped an eleven-dollar bottle of algae on my Birkenstock while lamenting the torment of her beloved’s non-monogamous tendencies. “…and everything would be easier if I were dead.”
“And how late is your period?” Jamie smiles, perpetually unfazed by my dark, melodramatic tendencies.
Why I can’t seem to remember that my every twenty-eight day despondency/bad hair day combo is related to the onset of my moon remains one of the more confounding mysteries of being woman. Well, that and our tendency to totally abandon ourselves for the crumbs of affection half-heartedly proffered by the man-children who don’t deserve us.
I reach for my iPhone, and pull up my Period Tracker app.
Period is 1 Day Late.
“I had a feeling,” Jamie nods. “Let’s get you stoned; let’s get you fed; and, let’s get your pussy rubbed.”
While this last zinger might seem wildly inappropriate coming from anyone else, Jamie is a One Taste devotee, an adept in the cult of orgasm, and – as such – her answer to pretty much everything is: Get your clit rubbed.
For those not yet hip to the casual stroking craze that equates orgasm with meditation, and mindfulness with turn-on, Orgasmic Meditation (OM) is a practice focused on female orgasm. It involves two humans, at least one vagina, a timer, a dash of lube, a tightly held container comprised of a very specific configuration of pillows and limbs, and a very (very) precise stroke – a gentle, vertical petting atop the surface of the upper left quadrant of the clitoris with the tip of the left pointer finger, for fifteen minutes.
“Okay,” I sniff, wiping an errant strand of hair from my face. “Can we make that happen?”
“Pfft,” Jamie snorts. “Duh.”
I should probably mention that all three of Jamie’s roommates also OM. Like, religiously, and even then, fanatically, as in several times a day. It’s but a symptom of the One Taste organization’s culty-er aspects – outcroppings of community houses packed tight with pussies keen to be rubbed, and fingers eager to rub ‘em.
“Hey, Dani,” says Jamie’s roommate, Josh, walking into the kitchen all of two seconds later.
“Hey, Josh.”
While Josh and I exchange greetings, Jamie – not one for subtleties – mimes a diddling motion with one pointer finger, while directing the other one my way. She’s a Capricorn; she makes shit happen.
“Wanna OM?” Josh blurts.
For those not living in houses populated exclusively by Orgasmic Meditators, most folks go about finding vaginas to rub, and fingers to rub ‘em on the OM Hub, a private online network available to those who qualify (i.e. throw down the cash for the online course, pass a quiz, and then throw down more for network access; oh, and who aren’t registered sex offenders).
“Anyone near Mar Vista wanna come stroke my pussy today between 3 and 5:30?” reads a sample posting.
The community operates on an any finger/any pussy/anytime philosophy, and the extent to which the randomness of the OM hook-up icks me out has proven prohibitive in my developing any regularity around the practice. To this end, I barely even qualify as a practitioner. Dabbler is probably even pushing it.
“Oh, hi honey,” Jamie said, meeting me at the top of the stairs back when she was first inculcated into the Grand Order of Holy Diddlers. “I’m just gonna squeeze in a quick OM, and then we’ll go.”
I took a seat on the futon in the loft, and texted our friends to let them know we were going to be late for dinner. It wasn’t long before the telltale sounds of turn-on started seeping forth from the backside of Jamie’s bedroom door.
Ew, I thought, scrambling to untangle the earbuds I couldn’t get out of my purse and into my ears fast enough.
It’s not that I’m prude, or shy, or at all delicate when it comes to erotic expression. Still, I just don’t really want to know what my friend sounds like when she’s getting off, much the same way I’m not interested in smelling her used tampons. TMI – way (way) TMI.
Minutes later, a man wearing glasses and a Pokemon t-shirt came strutting out of Jamie’s bedroom. “You next?” he asked, waggling a finger my way – a finger I could only guess was coated in vagina slime.
“Ew,” I snorted, thoroughly put off by the creamy digit aimed in my direction, but moreso the assumption that my holy vag was this random guy’s for the stroking.
When it comes to touching my vagina, the list of those who qualify for the privilege is short, and contained – lovers, gynecologists, the occasional nurse practitioner, and the Russian lady who waxes my bikini line. Hired tenders aside, it’s a highly restricted area, reserved for those I deem special/worthy enough to handle both the sacred wonderfulness that is my labia, as well as my heart, because – like so many people in our culture and maybe on the planet in general, I am programmed to believe that the regions are inextricably bound. As such, unless I’m in a relationship, my pussy doesn’t get much play.
Thus is the beauty of the OM – once she who is grossed out by the culture figures out how to meander her way around its ickier aspects. Hanging out at Jamie’s, as I’m now realizing, is a fantastic method to this end.
“Yes, please,” I say.
“When?” asks Josh.
“Now.”
And so it is that I’m dropping chlorella-stained trou in Josh’s room, while he places a washcloth in the center of “The Nest” – which is really just a yoga mat surrounded by half-moon meditation cushions strategically placed for my head, my thighs and his ass, but which will be honored as holy, and thus entered with the implicit understanding that while so cradled, there will be no canoodling, and no reciprocity. Just pussy-stroking. For fifteen minutes, no more, no less.
“Are you comfortable?” Josh asks, pulling my leg over his thigh, and arranging his foot so that it’s flat against mine.
I catch myself before asking How are we defining our terms? Because, while sure, I’m enjoying a semblance of ergonomic ease, I am also naked from the waist down, lying with my legs splayed to reveal my six days un-groomed pussy as a relative stranger dangles his arm over my thigh. Which – while fine – has me feeling more than a little vulnerable. Plus, there is the matter of warm-blooded man hands touching my inner thigh, of palm against flesh, and – um – the novelty of the connection and the alchemy on this unique, raw and dense plane of purely physical exchange. Which is all to say, comfortable isn’t the first descriptive that comes to mind.
“Uh-huh,” I chirp, because now is not the time for heady unravelings of my mental state, and because Jamie got me stoned while Josh arranged the pillows, and I’m just blitzed enough not to give a shit what he thinks of my spread eagled lady bits.
“Okay, I’m going to ground you, now,” Josh says, mashing his palms along the surface of my thighs.
It’s standard, The Grounding, as is the practice of announcing whatever touch is about to happen. It lends a sterile, business-like vibe to the exchange, which I happen to appreciate. As impersonal as we can keep our interaction, the better, I say. Josh is not my lover. Josh isn’t even a friend. Josh is the guy attached to the hands that are right now mashing my thighs, and my pelvis, and is getting ready to—
Oh fuck, I think, just now remembering the sequence of events, because it’s been a while.
The Noticing.
Please don’t do The Noticing, I think, suddenly observing mild sensations of panic. Please don’t do The Noticing.
It’s my least favorite part of the practice, The Noticing, wherein the stroker ogles the vag in front of him and then shares his visual observation. Out loud.
“I’m noticing that you have one pubic hair that’s really straight, and poking straight up towards the ceiling,” a stroker once told me, as I wished a hole would open up in the ground beneath me, and swallow me at once.
“The outside of your lips are, like, a really dark pink, almost like cranberry juice,” noticed another, as my cheeks turned a similar shade, and I stared at the ceiling and wondered why any and all references to my vaginal “lips” creep me out so hard.
Please don’t do The Noticing, I psychically beg/command.
That Josh actually skips The Noticing is as much a testament to the anti-Noticing trend Jamie will later tell me is sweeping the community at large as it is to my psychic authority. No matter. Noticing isn’t happening. I’m golden, I think, grateful to have escaped the humiliation of Josh’s take on the whitehead lodged inside my inner thigh crease, as he starts the timer on his smartphone, snaps on a pair of latex gloves, and goes about sliding a hand underneath my ass.
“I’m going to touch your introitus now.”
Safeporting, they call it, the resting of the stroker’s thumb against the vaginal opening. I guess it’s supposed to help the strokee to feel held, to quell any lurking fears of floating up and toward the ceiling, of slipping through the cracks of an air vent and being forever lodged in the crawlspace with no pants on. Jamie has developed this annoying habit of rolling the term into her everyday lingo to reference any sort of safeguarding.
Like the time we were invited to our friends’ house for dinner, after a particularly awkward series of texts and naked hot tub gropings, and she said: “I know Michael and Katrina keep trying to fuck you, but don’t worry. I’ll be right there, safeporting you the whole time.”
I appreciated the sentiment, but, the languaging? Um…ew.
“I’m going to touch your pussy, now,” Josh announces as his lube-globby finger makes contact with my clit.
They’re big on the P-word, these Orgasmic Meditators. On the one hand, it’s refreshing, especially given how many Tantra intensives I’ve attended wherein the words yoni and punani are tossed around like so much New Age-appropriated Far Easterly exotica.
Still, if one more soft-eyed dude wearing three-day beard scruff and a rudrakshra mala wrapped around his sacred geometry tattooed wrist greets me by mashing his hands together at his curiously hairless heart chakra, bending at the waist, and purring Namaste, I might have a stroke. To this end, I’m all for the P-word. And yet, I find something slightly confrontational about its ubiquity, as if those who OM are wielding the word in the hopes of inspiring discomfort, verily daring those within earshot to take issue with their languaging, and their lifestyle.
“Okay,” I sigh, narrowing my focus of attention to the point of contact between Josh’s finger and my clit, while expanding my awareness around all the sensation said contact is generating.
“Why can’t you just do it yourself?” my mother prods when I meet her at Pilates a week later, wanting to not be disturbed by this, yet another comfort zone-challenging ritual in which her daughter is dabbling, and yet still not getting it.
It’s not that I can’t; it’s that I don’t. I tend to forget that a) I have a bundle of nerves in my vagina that tingle when stimulated; and b) I can stimulate them whenever I want to. I’m a heady gal – “an upper chakra creator” as Trish, my go-to psychic, likes to say. More often than not, I forget I even have a body, let alone that caressing it is an option. But, even if I chose to remember, OMing and masturbating are not the same thing.
“Ooohh…” Josh groans, clearly navigating a surge of arousal as the tip of his finger waggles up and down and up and down and up and down along the top of my clit.
OMing is an exchange – of trust and vulnerability, and of grunts and desire, but mostly of the electro-chemical polarities that attract masculine and feminine.
“I felt this electrical jolt – like a lightning bolt – shooting out of your clit and into my finger, where it traveled up my arm, across my chest, into my heart, down into my cock, and out my other arm, like a circuit, and then it just kept circulating for the rest of the OM,” said Lance, a guy who once stroked me while I was crashing at Jamie’s, and we were Sharing Frames after the stroking part, which isn’t quite as cringey as The Noticing, but is sort of in the ballpark.
The point is that something larger, magnetic and infinitely more mysterious happens when fingertip strokes clit in this specific way and inside of this container – something that doesn’t happen when I’m jerking myself off.
It’s the electro-chemical exchange that inspired me to try Orgasmic Meditation in the first place, back when I was cozy in a monogamous love thang, and my partner and I read Slow Sex together at a Colorado hot spring, and thus grooved on Nicole Daedone’s whole down with stimulation, up with sensitivity/awareness philosophy, and took to a daily OM practice.
“Achoo!” sneezed then boyfriend.
“Wow!” I said, shivering, because I felt his sneeze in my own body as palpably as if it were my own.
I liken it to Vipassana meditation, wherein the prolonged practice of scanning the body for sensation strips away the walls and shadows that obscure our hearts and our light and our genius. The practice of OMing strips away the walls and the density that obscure not only our connection to our own feeling nature, but to the shared feeling nature that conscious sexual exchange inspires when we know how to work with it.
“Ooh,” boyfriend said, when he hit a particularly sweet spot with his tongue during a post-OM canoodle. “I felt that one in my toes.”
“Do…more…that…” I instructed, palming his skull, trying to catch my breath, “…hnnnh!…”
But, it’s not just instances of Freaky Friday-like feeling-sharing that differentiates OMing from diddling myself. Orgasmic Meditation isn’t goal-oriented – there is no race toward climax. In fact, it’s not even a destination. Sure, it happens; I hear. I’ve yet to climax during an OM, and I have all of zero interest in doing so, and not just because I think it would be thoroughly embarrassing.
The magic is at the edge, which is where all magic lies, and – for me – OMing is the perfect set-up to play with that edge, to redirect the energy that threatens to undo me in a fit of trembles, spasms, shrieks and sensation, and to instead redirect it up my spine and into my head, where it dances between my third eye and my crown, and animates my entire body with a thousand and one lightning bolts exploding behind my eyelids and across my every meridian in fractalized bursts of psychedelia.
“UNNHHH!!” Josh sucks in his breath at the very same moment a jolt of electricity explodes in my upper cervical spine, and then mutters a thoroughly floored: “Whoah.”
“And, what’s in it for the guy?” Mom presses.
I can’t really say, not being a guy or having ever stroked, but that doesn’t stop me from rolling my eyes, and snorting, and saying “Mom, I already explained this,” because even though I’m a grown woman, there’s something about sharing time/space with my mother that inspires adolescent histrionics. “It strips away the layers of calcified density, and renders them more sensitive and available to experience their own sensation through less and less stimulation.”
Also, a lot of the guys in the community are spazzy dweebs who, if it weren’t for One Taste, wouldn’t likely see much pussy, let alone get to touch any, unless they were paying for it.
“Two minutes,” Josh says, alerting me to the impending close of our session with a pronounced shift in his touch – Downstroking, they call it, which is totally applicable when spread eagle and doused in coconut lube in The Nest, but kind of annoying when chatting with my friend over kale smoothies.
“You probably want to downstroke her before telling her you don’t want to work with her anymore,” Jamie advises.
I roll my eyes and vomit just the tiniest bit in the back of my throat, not because it’s not good advice, but because I’m still having a hard time getting used to my friend’s tendency to talk like a cult initiate.
“Time,” Josh says with a massive exhale, removing his hand from very, very tingly pussy, despite my clit’s silent pulsing pleas for him to come back, to stay awhile, to keep doing that thing he was doing with his finger for – like, I dunno…ever?
I exhale as Josh grounds me back into my body, and into the room, again mashing his hands atop my only slightly trembling thighs. He helps me up to a sitting position where I drape the now damp washcloth over my lady bits, and avail myself to the grand finale – the Sharing of Frames.
“There was this moment, when I saw, like, a drop of – um…well, your juices on the edge of your pussy, and – uh, well – when I did, I felt a lot of sensation in my cock.”
I think the point is to get us in the practice of communicating our turn on, and our feeling experience. It’s gotten easier, the Frame-Sharing, minus the moments when I realize, mid-OM, that I’m going to have to do it, and then I retreat to my head, scanning the practice for something noteworthy to speak to. That, and the fact that I don’t love talking to strangers about my turn-on, but – whatever – I’m a grown-up; I can deal.
“There was a moment when you pulled back on the pressure, and I found myself wanting to chase it, but instead chose to inhale into my clit, and found the connection I was craving through my own breath.”
“Awesome.”
“Rad.”
“Thanks.”
And with that, we are complete.
It’s actually my favorite part of the whole experience, the leaving, the absence of lingering eye locks, of nervous heart flutters, of carefully couched farewells that may or may not allude to a deepening intimacy, and to future dalliances that so often never come to pass. I love the none of that. It’s honest. It’s clean. We have accomplished the business at hand – the touching of my pussy – and now that we are finished, I will be on my (way merrier) way.
Back in Jamie’s kitchen, dinner is ready – kale salad with pumpkin seeds and tons of nutritional yeast.
“How was that?” Jamie asks, knowing smile hijacking her perpetually radiant face.
“Best. Friend. Ever.” I gush, proffering the world’s most grateful hug, feeling infinitely less suicidal and – dare I say – pretty darned good.
Dani Katz is the creator of the I Am Calendar 2015, a total astro/affirmation/badass birthday fest of all ’round awesomeness. You can find out more about her work here.
In this month’s column on sex and spirituality, I’m showing my lover the same reverence as my altar says Ellie Burrows.
I have altared the way I see my partner.
A couple of weeks ago, Business Insider published an article titled Science Says Lasting Relationships Come Down to Two Basic Traits. Numerous people posted it on their Facebook pages and at least ten people, men and women, forwarded the article to me. In it, the journalist showed how from The Gottman’s 1986 and 1990 studies of relationship “Masters” and “Disasters” to Shelly Gable’s 2006 study on the importance of the “active constructive response,” kindness and generosity emerge as the two most important components in a successful relationship.
If you’re a living, breathing human being, then this finding should make complete sense to you. But you also know that living, breathing human beings screw those two up all the time.
Every day I see couples treat each other poorly. They desecrate and decimate, creating a cloud of dysfunction. They drop the f-bomb when the other one fails to flag an available cab, hate on each other’s families, roll their eyes when their lover orders the wrong dish, or stomp their feet when they forget a simple task. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to lean over to the table next to me and tell the arguing couple to cut their losses, walk away, and start over again.
In relationships, I’ve also been guilty of some of the above (especially the f-bomb part). I can be cruel just like anyone else. There have been moments where I’ve brought out the worst in my partner and vice versa. But I don’t grow in a hostile environment and neither do my partners, so over the last couple of years, I’ve made a conscious effort to weed out my bad behavior. And when I read that article, I found myself nodding and agreeing as if I had done the research and written it myself.
Science and spirituality have a complicated relationship (some say no relationship at all). But to me, loving someone is a spiritual practice – and now it seems the science just proves my point. In practice I’ve made it simple: I approach my beloved as if they are an altar.
These days, I choose to see my partner as a symbol, an emblem of love, opposed to love itself. My partner is a physical representation of love in the same way a statue of Shakyamuni Buddha is a physical representation of enlightenment. Love itself is infinite and eternal and cannot be contained by a physical body. But the way I treat that symbol or body, that somebody, is indicative of my level of reverence for the love between us. And like any devoted believer, I try to always approach my man altar, that constant reminder of the love consciousness, with humility, generosity and respect.
Altars are traditionally a place for sacrifice, and offerings used to be kind of messy – a slaughtered goat, perhaps. With this in mind, I’ve always found it particularly funny that we say we’re “leading someone to the altar” when talking about marriage. But dead animals and divorce rates aside, contemporary offerings come in the form of candles, money, incense, or prayer.
Ellie’s altar: “An act of devotion to the consciousness I’m seeking”
I have a beautiful altar in my house where Kwan Yin, Goddess of Compassion, resides among treasures from my different spiritual journeys: a stick I picked up from the Tor in Glastonbury, mala beads from Bhutan, an ancient fertility Goddess necklace from my Auntie, a hamsa from Israel, and minerals ranging from clear quartz to emerald. When I’m having trouble writing or sorting through something, I often sit in front of it. I light some incense, quiet my thoughts, and deepen my breath. I concentrate on these meaningful symbols and connect to them as an act of devotion to the consciousness I’m seeking.
And echoing this practice, concentrating on your partner, regularly connecting to the way you treat them is act of devotion to the kind of love you are seeking. I cannot imagine anything more generous in a partnership than offering up your best self. An act of generosity, that also shows your appreciation. The writer of the Business Insider piece states that successful couples: “are scanning the social environment for things they can appreciate and say thank you for. They are building this culture of respect and appreciation very purposefully.”
Respect. Purpose. I like those words. They are words of reverence. Of course, sometimes shit gets hard and we say and do things we don’t mean. And just last night (the night before this article was due), I slipped. I found myself in a heated conversation in which I said something I shouldn’t have. It wasn’t respectful, and I didn’t do it on purpose. I was totally offering up my worst self. But the misstep was perfectly timed, as was the dream I just woke up from. I was kneeling at the feet of a beloved, heart full of love, repeating an important three-word mantra that we all know well.
And this morning, knowing I need to be generous, I also know exactly what I’m going to offer up to my altar:
The Cosmic energy this month invites an adventure to the ends of your imagination. This simple yoga sequence for Sagittarius is designed to create space in your mind and body for bold new visions to form, says Ash Baker. Images: Mara Hoffman fall 2012
:: SAGITTARIUS :: November 22 to December 21 ::
Ruler: Jupiter Element: Fire Modality: Mutable Anatomy: Hips, thighs, muscles.
9th sign of the Zodiac
Expansion, possibility and the strength to go after all that you desire. Cue the visionary energy that is Sagittarius! We are now entering the last month of the calendar year, and a fresh new start is just around the corner. This is an opportune time to start meditating, processing, and dreaming about what you want 2015 to look like. Jupiter, the giver of gifts and luck is the king of Sag, so use this auspicious energy to create what you want.
We are also preparing to bid farewell to the Chinese year of the Horse, another symbol for Sag, so take some time now to honor and on reflect all the adventures of 2014 that have brought you to the turning point you now find yourself arrived at.
As Sag is the sign of higher education, whether that be university or self-study, use the longer nights now as an excuse to curl up with a book that expands your mind, or watch a documentary that informs your choices. Knowledge is power for these archers. The practice below is designed to create space in your body for self-inquiry, dream catching and some rejuvenating end of year rest.
:: Pigeon Pose :: Come into Downward Dog. Inhale and lift the right leg up in the air behind you. Exhale, sweep your knee in towards your chest and place the right knee behind your right wrist. Bring the hips to the floor and lengthen your left leg out behind you. Make sure your left knee and the top of the foot are facing the floor. Sit upright for a moment and center your hips. If you find yourself leaning to one direction take a block or blanket under the drooping side. Once you find your center take your hands and place them down in front of you. You can use your breath to go deeper. As you inhale, lengthen the spine. As you exhale, sink further forward, walking the hands away from you. If you have the flexibility, completely fold forward and rest your forehead on the floor. Stay here for 30 seconds up to a few minutes depending on your level of practice. Press up to Downward Dog pose, walk the feet in place for a few seconds and then repeat on the left side.
:: Supported Bound Angle:: Sitting on a blanket, draw the soles of your feet together to touch. Take a block under each knee. Take your hands behind you and slowly lay on your back. You can take your blanket from under your seat and place it under your head if you find that more supportive. Let your arms relax at your sides with the palms up. Relax your whole body and rest for five whole minutes.
*Counterpose- bring your feet as wide as your mat, plant your soles on the floor and let your knees fall in. BREATHE.
:: Supine twist :: Come to your back and draw your knees into your chest. Take a deep inhale and on the exhale drop both knees over to the right. Take your arms out to the sides like wings. Take your gaze to the left. With each inhale allow your spine to lengthen and your belly to fully expand. On the exhale allow your body to twist deeper. Stay here for a few minutes and then inhale the knees back to center. Exhale and repeat on the opposite side. Enjoy this detoxifying twist. Use your breath to emotionally release anything holding you back from moving forward with your goals.
:: Legs up the wall Meditation :: This pose and meditation will create space in your mind, relaxation in your body and openness of the heart by resetting your central nervous system. Come over to a wall space and sit down next to it with one hip against the wall, or as close as you can get your hip to the wall. As you start to lay down flat on your back simultaneously begin to walk your feet sideways up the wall, until your feet are pointing straight towards the ceiling. The knees can have a slight bend and if you want extra support take a block or blanket under your hips. Your hips and seat should be touching the wall, so inch your way as close as you can get. Just rest your arms out to the sides or lay them on your belly/heart. Close your eyes and focus on the sensation of relaxing. Keep your attention on your breath moving in and out. The aim is to create a clear space in your mind in which to invent your future. Stay here up to 15 minutes.
Monthly Mantra: “I ask for, act on and receive blessings in divine timing.”
Wow – the end of the year already! How did this happen we ask ourselves, as if we aren’t constantly reminded of the cycles of time. Personally, I’ve been so excited about December as I finally get to bid farewell to my old pal Saturn, the taskmaster of the skies (my Saturn return in Libra followed by Saturn in my sign, Scorpio, ooof!) – and I’m totally planning a ritual to welcome the shift.
In this month’s ‘scopes, I’ll be touching on the things all of us might need to face up to and release in this last month of 2014, which, of course, is about clearing a nice clear for all that’s new and unexpected to show up. I’m also getting started on your 2015 Tarotscopes and artwork, which will be available to purchase from my site around Christmas time!
As always I love to chat with you about your ‘scopes, so find me as always via Twitter and Facebook.
Sagittarius / Sagittarius Rising – Temperance
Consider this month a much needed clean up after the past four. You (and no you’re not alone, this feeling has been spreading like wildfire) have probably not only been more aware of the twists and turns in your life, but also of this creepy feeling spreading through your entire mind, body and spirit. A spot at the core of your being is demanding your attention, and for some of you this may be emerging as sparks of frustration, a lackluster vibe, or plain and simple boredom. You feel ready for something to expand, and now is exactly the right time as the start of your solar year is the perfect time to make heads and tails out of what’s going on inside.
If you’re feeling very sensitive right now, don’t panic. This is a given for the next few weeks – there may be tears and there may be tantrums. You aren’t always the first to reveal your emotions to others, often preferring to simply display them and hope/assume that everyone else will know exactly what you need. Of course, when they don’t decipher your secret Sag lingo straight away, it can be a massive disappointment. So one of the first things you can do right now, if you need it, is ASK FOR HELP!
Gasp, I know, really do you have to? Look, the art of being vulnerable is umm exactly that – an art. It takes practice and willingness. So surrender up any of your worries about being perceived as weak or stupid – they exist only in your own mind, and even the most unsuspecting of people might actually have some good advice to offer you. This is actually all about honesty, something you’re actually very good at. If attached, it’s also essential to let your partner in on your aches and pains, knowing that it’s safe to do so. Avoid playing the blame game though; this isn’t about finding something or someone to attack, simply about stretching out your safety net.
So as you allow your anxieties to flood out this month, know that you are making space to rebuild a more solid structure to live within. Even the most stubborn part of yourself that wants to hang on to an old betrayal or worn out way of thinking is ready to give in right now. Allow your moods to wash through you and over you and get ready for the bright sparks of clarity that will form as a result.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse . And shop my new Zodiac Talisman Jewelry Collection here!
Capricorn / Capricorn Rising – The Daughter of Cups
Since September you’ve been tiptoeing into a much more vulnerable and softer place, have you noticed that? The second half of the year has been testing for you as you’ve gone head-to-head with all of your fears – and then some! Think of this time as having been a recalibration of sorts, a chance for you to embody all that’s been unearthed. The end game being that you gift yourself a second chance and a rebirth of sorts. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
This month will be a playful one, and I hope you could sense that building up over the last week in November as you felt the tugs of adventure nipping at your heels. Can you really, for real, let go of that internal pressure build up once and for all? Of course the answer is “yes”, and it’s actually essential you do so right NOW. If it causes a bit of panic within you to imagine life being completely out of your control, then I’m going to remind you of what that really means. When you are clutching onto everything around you, you are actually suffocating your potential and strangling opportunity. Everything, you included, needs space to breathe. Ahhh…just saying that makes me feel better. You see, it’s okay to feel like a newborn, to have no idea what’s ahead – it’s enlightening and it’s childlike and that is hella good.
Take yourself to a space this month where you can view your life with fresh eyes. What would you like to bring into the world over the coming months? The best kind of manifesting is to get excited about the exploration of potential. I can see you stepping into unchartered space and it feels so good – yes, wobbly and a little unnerving, but so SO good. Remember that nervousness is not a sign of weakness. Showing up with all your worries and STILL going for it – now that is superhero behavior. Finally, a little note on miracles. You know, just a side order of synchronicity. It’s rampant this month for you – so allow yourself to be completely guided by those weird feelings and strange guideposts as you see them clicking into place. Magic exists outside the constraints of control, and I know you want to experience it, even the most cynical of you. Clear out the trash and loosen your grip in order to make space to receive the unexpected. It’s there, ready and waiting.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse. And shop my new Zodiac Talisman Jewelry Collection here!
Aquarius / Aquarius Rising – The Eight of Swords
Recovery time ahead for you my friend. The last few months have been a to-and-fro from order and change to panic and excitement. Now its time for you to lay down – metaphorically and maybe even physically – and let the hard work sink in. You are due an awakening of sorts and you only get that when you stop to allow the process. As much as we would like to, we don’t get to just sit up and have everything suddenly be “fine” – it’s always a work in progress.
You may still feel trapped within the cages of anxiety and fear, the product of the recent events perhaps, but I feel that you are further out of the devil’s grip than you may feel. How can you calm your mind and body over the coming weeks? It’s time to put your hand to your heart and ask; “What do I need right now?” And then simply listen. More so than ever you have the gift of hindsight and are starting to see the web you’ve been weaving over the entire year. For some of you it will come with many “aha” moments, as you just about glimpse the purpose of the chaos.
For others, it may be that you’ve had to come face to face with some familiar and tired old habits. You can see the circles spinning and may not like it. However, this is the point in which you get to start a new story for yourself and stop leafing through the pages of the past. When I was designing artwork for you Aquarians I chose the symbol of a Thunderstorm because it’s what resonates with me most about your way of living and your abilities. You can be easily sucked into the dark clouds, and yet times of change throw you back out quicker than you ever imagine.
Your ideas and inspiration are like flashes of lightning, as are the unexpected surprises that await you. You have the ability to step up to look down at your life from a different angle now, and you can see the space around you from any vantage point you choose. Remember your choices this month, and empower them to remind you that you are co-creating with the changes in air pressure around you. The whole purpose of death and rebirth is to embrace a whole new you. Prepare for transformation.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse. And shop my new Zodiac Talisman Jewelry Collection here!
Pisces / Pisces Rising – Mother of Pentacles
Cast your eye back to February and March, as similar themes are likely to be served up over the next few weeks. I feel one of the things that’s going to be coming up for you is all about home and family life, and a desire to feel more stable and safe. You sometimes have to fight the urge to run from stability, which is funny as it’s the thing you seek the most. Remember that it’s all in your power to create the space you wish for, you don’t have to be trapped by or detached from people in order to be free. However, you will always feel that way if it’s the same story you replay over and over.
Now let’s change the channel for you. It’s time you allowed yourself to surrender and practice what things would be like if you just let them flow naturally – guided by your best intentions – with no self-imposed blocks. So what are your intentions? Is it that you feel finally ready to commit to a certain someone (you may not even know them yet but the idea still flies the same), or take a stab in the dark at committing to a permanent working contract of sorts?
For many of you your intention is going to need to be around something regarding your own well-being. How many of you are locked in some sort of self-deprecating or punishment routine? What old tricks are you playing on yourself or what dark corner do you keep creeping back into for safety? I want to challenge you to spin the tables and throw yourself into the light. Your highest and best self deserves a shot right now and self-forgiveness will play a part in that. Remember that forgiveness is a radical act of self-compassion; it frees you up to let life flow again.
It’s time to cut the ties to whatever situations are stopping you from feeling safe right now. You deserve to feel secure. Also, remember to care for yourself as much as you do for others, and see what a difference it makes to how you feel within.Finally, the reason I’m calling you back into the material world is that it’s a great month for career and friendship balance – if you keep your head up and eyes wide. Opportunities will continue to dance around you as long as you keep making space to receive them.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse . And shop my new Zodiac Talisman Jewelry Collection here!
Aries / Aries Rising – Father of Swords
Now that you’ve had a chance to surrender and settle, it’s a fantastic month for you to fully reclaim all that personal power of yours my friend – and with a few added ingredients. I use the term “reclaim” to remind you that empowerment is constantly available to you – like a book on your shelf that you can go to any time. It is about owning your story and standing fully present within it; so, are you interested?
In which case, it’s time to wise up and get really truthful with where you want to stand right now. It’s terribly hard to feel that power if we are wavering or fighting against ourselves. Yes, I must warn you about self-sabotage this month, because it’s kind of like the lame friend that hangs in the shadows of your highest self. Every time you feel fully ready to really dive in and make that change, open that conversation, or send that email, here comes a distraction that appears like a puff of smoke from seemingly nowhere. Get to KNOW that smoke – it’s just a fear spray that’s dampening your spirit. I promise that you will feel 100% times better if you’re honest with yourself and just bring forth what feels important and intuitive to you. Yeah sure it IS scary to exist in your brightest self, but it’s also sooooo much fun. That super power feeling you’ve seen sparking around you recently? That could be a permanent fixture.
I’d also like you to bring through some poise and grace this month, a sense of solidarity within your own challenges. You are the wise owl, not the wilted wanderer. Do not perceive yourself to have weaknesses, quit that “Oh I’m not good enough at blah blah blah” story and try on a new perspective. How about remembering that everything that you’ve felt and experienced this year has lined itself up perfectly to create the moment you’re experiencing right now.
Every step on path is of equal value, and will give you the strength to stand up and do what you need to do. Your plans for the months ahead can be paved by the decisions you make in the next few weeks. Clarity will arrive via a combination of intuition and self-awareness that I feel that this will be very much heightened this month. Be aware that spiritual insight doesn’t always come in the form of the out there and unusual – it may be sitting right under your nose, in the most human of forms.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse . And shop my new Zodiac Talisman Jewelry Collection here!
Taurus / Taurus Rising – The Four of Wands
Taurus! This is a month for celebration and pats on the back. The energy from last month continues to lighten. It’s not that you aren’t still super busy or even that you’re free of challenges, but you just have the ability now to connect to a simpler flow. Perhaps you recently just decided that you simply couldn’t be bothered to run your life by the threads of your adrenals anymore? Or perhaps some things shifted to give you a bigger sense of what’s truly important to you. Either way, the next few weeks are paved with opportunity for you to really embrace everything you’ve achieved this year.
I can hear some of you saying. “oh, but I haven’t done anything!” or “but I feel like I failed.” Achievement isn’t about someone else giving you validation, or you climbing up some sort of ladder. It’s found via a sense of compassion and admiration for the self. I want you really give yourself a shot at being the light over the coming weeks. I feel that opportunities are going to come dressed in a social format, so dress up and get out there. Okay, so you don’t have to leave the house but try to put yourself in a social and networking mindset.
I feel like there are tons of people out there right now that not only need your insight and ideas but also want to enjoy your time. It’s a good energy for romance – both new opportunities, and reconnections with a current partner. As long as you look outside of the box – this is no time for playing it safe or being boring. Think spontaneous engagements and sneaking into swimming pools at midnight. Remember to simply play and check in with what makes you feel alive.
With this bright energy around you, I hope that many of you will see results from projects and plans that you’ve been working on. It may be an obvious turn of events or even just a spark that reminds you that you’re on the right track. No need to always be looking for the “big” things, when your sense of safety may arrive in a one-word format. Your intuition is heightened when you stop trying so hard – you see, you don’t have to try and be intuitive, you just need to feel it. Practice being guided in the direction of those flickers of insight that pop up for you, follow that gentle tug and know that everything is okay.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse . And shop my new Zodiac Talisman Jewelry Collection here!
Gemini / Gemini Rising – The World
As the year draws to a close you are perfectly poised to appreciate the journey you’ve taken this year. Last month I spoke to you about managing stress and anxiety, so keep living that way of thinking in order to rebalance your system as things keep shifting. No need to panic now, as this month you’ll notice how many answers are finally reveling themselves to you, particularly to do with projects and ideas you birthed around August time.
You are fully immersed and swirling in a point of personal change, to it’s essential to remember that feeling ungrounded and a little off course is only “normal” right now. With this knowledge in hand, you can release the pressure you’ve put on yourself to have it all “figured out”, and consider what the cycle ahead may hold for you. In fact, what do you want it to hold?
Be grateful, yes for the things you have, but most of all for the work you’ve done this year. You’ve been busy, really busy, with many ups and downs. It might be easy for you to look back at the year and go “eeeeek!” – so instead look try to see your path with wide eyes and go, “wow, isn’t it strange how that lead to that, and that loss created that space – and BOOM, suddenly I’m standing here.” Who knows what could happen next? When you finally jump off the spinning hamster wheel – and I say “jump” because to fully arrive into a new space we have to be willing – there is a sense of light at the end of the tunnel.
You will be aware of the final ties that need to be cut and the processes that you need to perform. You might be changing staff members, moving home, or committing to a more nurturing wellness regime. Prepare to step into a new alignment – one that works more for you than against you. It might be hard at first for some of you to shift yourself out of familiar self-punishing habits, even to really believe that things can be different. Trust that you can receive the changes you desire if you value your time and your self. Create spaces for new opportunities by clearing out old anger and resentments. A forgiveness practice is your best friend this month – know that it will free you.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse . And shop my new Zodiac Talisman Jewelry Collection here!
Cancer / Cancer Rising – The Tower
An equally intense energy for this month as recent times you’ve been experiencing recently – you’ve had three months in a row where change, and maybe for some of you even chaos, has been the order of the day. You have questioned EVERYTHING in this latter half of the year. You’ve re-thought you career, relationships, and most of all your wellbeing. It’s now time to take final action to propel yourself forward and cut the ties that are tripping you at your ankles.
The nest few weeks are about shaking your foundations so that the Universe doesn’t step in and do it for you – we all know what that feels like! How can you be your own bolt of lightning? What needs a sharp edge cutting through, around, or up? There is rarely a time when we don’t have some aspect of self or life that we want to work with, so it’s a given that something’s on your mind. I feel that you have the opportunity to really break an old habit right now, something that you’ve replayed over and over – whether in the mental or the physical space. Is it really worth it anymore? Are the effects of this habit nurturing or positive? How can you release the pressure right NOW?
With intention, of course. Your mind is a powerful thing, and even if you’ve managed to convince yourself that it’s working against you, it’s still you in the control room, with the ability to completely rewrite the rulebook. Meanwhile, I want you to be wide eyed and open, expansive, and full of space, because I feel that it’s also a month to welcome unexpected surprises. Now, it’s easy to be scared of the what “could” happen, but please consider that this bolt from the blue can just as easily mean a new love affair, a job offer or a financial windfall.
The unexpected has the power to shift us into a new cycle in the flick of the switch – let that become a potentially exciting thought. Be the person who strikes the match to light up your own year ahead. Make your “will” bigger than your “won’t,” and let your excitement for all that’s new overshadow the fears that arrive alongside them. Never forget your own strength and personal power. Open your arms every morning and say “I’m ready, bring it on!” If you live in the expectation of change, it will no longer have the power to scare you.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse. And shop my new Zodiac Talisman Jewelry Collection here!
Leo / Leo Rising – Judgment
This is what the past two months have been building up to…a total rebirth. No big deal right…are you ready?! I feel that you are sensitive right now, maybe even a little touchy, and occasionally hovering over the “why me” switch. This is all okay; we have to breakdown to breakthrough, right? Yes I am right, and no you are not crazy –but you are also not a failure and you are not broken. You are a human having a genuine experience, feelings and all. I know this can be a bit of a disappointment when you were all sure that you were the bravest kid on the block and didn’t need help from anyone.
BUT, and yes of course there is a but, what if there were an army of people waiting to help you sail through all this? Waiting to give you the tools and hold your hand as you trialed and tested new pathways? After all, this is often what you do for other people, right? Well this month, it’s all about you. How can you rise from the ashes and feel lighter and brighter than you’ve felt all year? I wish I had the ability to flick the switch and bring forth all your hopes in an instant, but it doesn’t work like that. Magic requires patience and surrender.
I know you can see the new you approaching, hence the frustration. But “surrender” doesn’t mean you have to stop – you can still dive in! A prominent theme for you over the coming months will be to question your thought patterns and familiar fairytales. Is there a familiar negative phrase that you seem to have on repeat? In fact we all do, and it’s time to become conscious of yours. It might be regarding your self worth, or health. If might be about confidence or your abilities. Often it’s simply that we’ve been busy convincing ourselves “it’s just how I am”, or repeating that we are alone.
These patterns, if embodied, become the belief structures that hold us back. So I want you to unearth the black spots and rise up to an open and unknown space. Surrender to change itself, and forgive the past so that you can stand fully in your most awesome self. It’s safe to let go, it’s safe to be scared, and it’s safe to be vulnerable. Breathe like you’ve never breathed before.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse . And shop my new Zodiac Talisman Jewelry Collection here!
Virgo / Virgo Rising – The Ten of Cups
You have book-ended the year with really similar themes, as this month you receive a wink from early February and the lifestyle you were leading then. You may see the rewards coming in from seeds you planted early in the year, and for many of you some much-needed closure may occur. Over the coming weeks, emotions run high and you may feel quite overwhelmed with many of them. This may really annoy you, as you’d much rather have a spreadsheet of feelings timed and dated so you knew what to expect! But life has other ideas, and now it’s pushing you to embrace love, gratitude, surprise, and the unexpected.
Even the most cynical of you should know that it’s never too late to try a sample from the positive attitude buffet. You’ve been weaving a web and there is a sense of bouncing back and forth happening right now. Like your moods, the energy around you is sparking and buzzing. In many cases, it’s extremely exciting to experience a sense that things are finally maneuvering into a space you can work with, especially those of you who have been playing the waiting game recently. For many of you though it might feel a bit like catching flies. You can see the potential, you can see the opportunities, but oh jeez can they just be grounded and solidified already?
Know that a pattern IS going to emerge, and all this dizzy energy has an end game. Things will settle. Meanwhile, this is a beautifully social month for you, and one filled with love. If all else seems to be hitting the proverbial fan, just zone in on that one favorite person and simply enjoy their company. If you are feeling like the life and soul of the party then this is also a free pass to run around and light up the room. There will be plenty of people around you who could use some of your party spirit right now. Even if you don’t feel full of joy, practice imitating the mood you want to experience.
But finally, do give yourself time to just be. It is the simple things that will earth you and so make sure to allow that rather than keep scrabbling around for more, or trying to force situations. Work with what you’ve got and you might just discover that it’s enough.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse . And shop my new Zodiac Talisman Jewelry Collection here!
Libra / Libra Rising – Ace of Wands
Hurrah! Action arrives, finally. The month of surrender you’ve just experienced has ushered in the energy of a brand new year one whole month early, and that’s exactly the right attitude to bring forth now. Creativity is key for you over the coming weeks, and a childlike eye will serve you well. There’s a sense of emerging from the gloom, a pull away from the dusty part of your soul. You’re ready to come back into the light and throw yourself fully into your experience.
This energy is all new, fresh, speedy and bright, and I want you to see how you can spark up your life this month. There’s an opportunity to play the part of the wizard, and brainstorm what you want to conjure up. I feel that you may find sudden moments of clarity, linking to days as far back as early 2013 – a chapter is well and truly closing and another opening up all at once. Spontaneity and fun are really important for you right now, especially if you’ve been having a hard time, so allow yourself to get into the holiday spirit. It doesn’t have to mean that you throw yourself into every party on the block (though if that sounds good then please do!) It may simply be that you allow yourself to wrap up in your own energy cocoon and listen to music, exercise or make art – anything that makes you feel alive.
What are your thoughts about the coming months and how can you make your attitude about them as positive as possible? Are there any areas of your life where you feel like you need a kick in the butt? If so, then see this as a prod from the Universe. Kick-start yourself into action by knowing and trusting that all change will evolve you to somewhere and that moving forward is essential.
Even if you foresee instability ahead, how can you care for yourself to ease the process? For those of you who are wavering when it comes to throwing yourself into the unknown, perhaps really putting yourself out that like never before, then this is your green light. It will never serve you badly to pursue a passion or twinkling idea. The only thing to do is remove your belief in the word “failure”; once that pressure is off, all that remains is the potential to truly bloom.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse. And shop my new Zodiac Talisman Jewelry Collection here!
Scorpio / Scorpio Rising – The Two of Wands
I feel like for many of you who have been in an up-and-down, in-and-out holding pattern recently, you’re finally going to be able to see a clear path ahead this month; much less guessing and lots more good, solid information. Even as you read this a few of you might feel a sigh of relief as you slot back into the present moment and your body. You have been pretty ungrounded recently, and as much as you love being up there playing with the spirits, you know full well that you need to be on the earth to work with it.
Getting back into your own fully-embodied experience requires you to really know that you are safe in your mind, body and your spirit. That it’s okay for you to trust the process and make decisions, even if you do still feel in “waiting” mode. Meanwhile this is also a month for major manifesting, whether you have a clear idea of where you’re going or not, you still have your free will, right? The will of a Scorpio is not to be taken lightly believe me – so where are you going to place yours? I feel like you are poking at the fire trying to light up an idea – keep working on it, it seems to me that you probably just need to shift some of the original formula to create that sudden “aha” moment!
Think of your ideas like jigsaw puzzles, and keep moving the pieces around until they fit. Don’t worry – you have everything you need, just trust that original soul recipe of yours. Reaching for the highest heights feels good to me, but don’t get drawn into that idea of “being successful”. Instead, reframe it as simply living in your most optimal self. Allow yourself to believe that your potential is limitless and remind yourself, as always, that comparison for others can be a redundant act. If you feel overwhelmed by what everyone else is doing, take a social media break and immerse yourself with your own creativity alone in order to reconnect to those burning desires.
Finally, a pre-Christmas break sounds nice. If you’ve got the opportunity to go and take a night in the middle of nowhere, do it! Create your own end of year Scorpio ritual – light candles, burn old stories, and look up at the sky to remind yourself of the infinite space that guides and compels you.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse . And shop my new Zodiac Talisman Jewelry Collection here!
Harper Cowan and Jessica Eve Wakins are Anima Rising, and together they’re committed to making content to raise consciousness – starting with their documentary, Ways of Living. In this rad interview, they share an uplifting call to action and an inspiring vision for humanity.
YOU MET WORKING AS INTERNS AT NYLON. DO YOU STILL READ MAINSTREAM FASHION MAGAZINES OR DO THINK THE CONVERSATION HAS MOVED ON WITHOUT THEM? Harper: I don’t read mainstream fashion magazines any more, they don’t feel relevant to me and the world that I am trying to create. It feels like two different paradigms, I think there’s the potential for them to be a great thing if they’re inspiring and empowering people, but for the most part the messages they seem to be trying to send are not ones I am interested in receiving anymore.
Jess: I haven’t bought a fashion magazine in a couple of years. When I read them I end up wishing I was more sexy and less human than I am in reality. I love style and contemporary culture, I adore clothes and getting dressed, but I don’t appreciate the message that fashion and make-up are the be-all-end-all of Goddesshood. It makes me uneasy and angry, because I bought into it myself for a decade. It’s a tiny percentage of the bigger picture of what it means to be a woman, and unfortunately it’s the portion that gets 95% of the shelf space. If there isn’t enough heart involved it makes me bored.
HOW DO YOU THINK MAGAZINES AND THE MEDIA IN GENERAL COULD BE DOING MORE TO RAISE CONSCIOUSNESS? Harper: Jess happened to watch some TV at a friend’s house the other day, and when she came back we were talking about how very strange it is to see TV now. Media and magazines could be helping to wake people up, to empower them, enlighten them, connect them to each other, teach them better ways to live and communicate, and giving us more powerful tools to interpret our lives. A lot of mainstream media feels to me like it’s trying to keep us either scared or placated, and it’s just not the way I see the world.
Harper and Jesse are Anima Rising Productions
Jess: TV today completely depletes me of creativity and connection energy. It’s dangerous – it’s sucking the raw life force out of us all, and should be mostly avoided in my eyes! I remember reading this Eckhart Tolle quote about the powerhouse that television is, and how it’s such a shame we don’t put it to better use, because we could be blasting every household with messages of pure love, every evening. But the media seems so dumbed down, so patronizing to the complexity of the human spirit. It’s 2014: we can handle a bit more soul than a close up of sizzling meat, a fast car, and a sexed up woman, can’t we?!
I don’t want to buy in to an industry that promotes perfectionism. For me this year has been about trying to tear my own perfectionism down, and embrace the human. I think humaneness inspires us because it’s real, and it’s time to start promoting our vulnerabilities, our flaws, and weaknesses in the media. Promoting our inter-connectedness with one another and the universe. Reassuring each other that we are powerful creators, we have so much potential and mightiness in our bodies and bones and blood. I wish the whole industry would try a hell of a lot harder, right now it’s irresponsible.
HOW DID YOU BOTH GET SO INTERESTED IN ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF LIVING, AND WHAT’S YOUR CURRENT LIVING SITUATION? Harper: Right now we’re doing an artist residency at an amazing communal farm in North Carolina. We live in a beautiful, small, cold barn on 60 acres with lots of amazing artists and kind people and animals. I feel so grateful to be here, surrounded by such beautiful nature and open hearts. I think part of my interest in alternative ways of living came from realizing I wasn’t going to just grow up and pick a job and do it.
Harper: “There is more potential for magic than we are being led to believe”
I haven’t taken a linear path to where I am, my parents haven’t taken a linear path, nor have my role models… I’ve always had a sense that there was more potential for magic out there than we were being led to believe. I know there are other ways of living, and it’s been incredible to get to unfold a few of them.
Also, when I became vegetarian in 2008, I realized I had been doing a lot of things unconsciously for a lot of my life, and I suddenly wanted to wake up and investigate them, to make sure I was making intentional choices – my love of animals extended to the environment, and to people, the way I hope to treat others and myself, and all living things.
Jess: My parents are artists, and always taught me to think outside the box. There was no pressure to be conventional. I grew up scrutinizing books about bohemian culture – The Razor’s Edge, Trout Fishing in America, On the Road, The Diaries of Anais Nin, The Teachings of Don Juan, Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. Such rocket fuel to a dreamy teenager’s mind!
What we’re doing feels contemporary and responsible (there’s that unsexy word again) to me, more than alternative. I hope one day it’ll be the mainstream, to be submersed in nature, playing tunes by a wood-burner, meditating on hills, sharing meals, opening hearts to strangers, creating art, singing, crying with the plants, heeding the moon cycle. It gets difficult when I start to realize I’m not rooting anywhere, and suddenly friends are buying houses or earning a bunch of money. I get jealous sometimes.
Jess: “I grew up scrutinizing books about bohemian culture”
IF 2014 HAS BEEN A LOT ABOUT “SURRENDER” FOR THE PEOPLE I KNOW, “VULNERABILITY” FEELS LIKE A FITTING THEME FOR 2015. IN WHAT WAYS ARE THE PEOPLE IN YOUR DOCUMENTARY MAKING THEMSELVES VULNERABLE? Jess: It’s vulnerable to follow your heart. It’s vulnerable to say ‘no’ to leading the life you’re ‘supposed’ to. It’s vulnerable to stand in front of the world and tell them you believe in something different than they do. It’s vulnerable to tell someone you love them to their face, or that they are hurting you. It’s vulnerable to let yourself wake up spiritually. It’s vulnerable to trust in goodness – everyone we film does all these things, just by believing this world is worth fighting for.
They speak loudly by living from their hearts. When I stop feeling vulnerable I stop believing in my art, and stop making it, too. It’s like a disconnect, where I’ll suddenly feel all what’s the point? We have to stay present with ourselves to let the fragility in, because it’s the essence of humanity, and it’s what connects us all to a higher source.
WHAT CHANGES HAVE YOU MADE IN YOUR LIVES THAT HAVE BEEN HELPING YOU “WAKE UP”? Harper : We’re so thoughtful, it’s almost silly. Mindfulness is a big, big part of waking up. It’s just about paying attention, trying to be and stay present. I think everything is a choice, we are always making choices – from how we let someone make us feel, to what food we choose to eat, where we spend our money, etc. I think being honest and communicating honestly is a radical change. Recognizing the power of manifesting, and the power that we have over what happens to us – if you expect something to go badly, or go swimmingly, you’re making it much more likely that it will.
It kind of means taking a step back from being so easily swayed by emotion or first instinct, and when you do step back, like you do when you’re meditating and watching your thoughts float through your head, you can be more objective and realize, okay, this is energy that’s coming up in my body right now, and it will come and go and it only has as much control over me as I let it. Trying to love yourself more, and give and make and offer and expect more love – that can’t hurt!
Jess: The first step that I significantly noticed happened when I read ‘A New Earth‘, after a very unconscious period in my life. I had fallen out irreconcilably with a best friend, and I was like a lost scrap of fabric blowing around without purpose. That book opened a gateway somewhere in me. The second lesson came when I completed Reiki level 1, and some parts of my life that weren’t healthy started to drop away.
Then the steps started coming thicker and faster, because I recognized what they looked like. I’m starting to see I have the power to wake myself up now, and Anima Rising has been rooted in that thought. Meditation is key, that’s for certain. Time alone. Woman power! Speaking your truth, even when your voice is shaking. There is nothing more important than your own spiritual path, even though it fucking hurts sometimes.
YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELVES AS SOUL MATES – WHAT DID YOU FIRST CONNECT OVER? Harper : A cucaracha! The first time we ever spoke it was because Jess had seen a cockroach for the first time in her life! I’m SO grateful to that cockroach!!
Jess: I freaked out at the size of it, and ran right into Harper in the Nylon offices. After bonding for a few weeks over The Kings of Leon and photo-booths, I flew back to the UK. She followed soon after, and stayed with me and my then-boyfriend, Jake. She lived on our sofa. She helped us put on an experimental play written by my brother. She made us mix CDs. I made her cheese on toast when we were ‘drungry’. We went out every night and had so much silly fun. There was a weird unspoken knowing that we had found a kindred spirit, a soul mate.
Harper: I knew very quickly that I wanted Jess in my life, I was immediately inspired by her in many ways, and she has only continued to impress me in the eight years since. Now she’s a spirit-sister that I just wouldn’t want to imagine my life without! The first things we connected over were music – Bob Dylan – an interest in travel, in creativity and joy. It was definitely written in our stars to meet each other, and because it changed our lives so much I owe so much of my growth and gratitude to our friendship.
“Let’s all just be really sweet and kind and listen to our hearts and to nature and do good things!”
WHAT’S THE ONE MESSAGE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SPREAD AMONG YOUR PEERS ABOUT CREATING A HAPPIER, HEALTHIER, MORE CONSCIOUS FUTURE FOR HUMAN BEINGS AND THE PLANET WE INHABIT? Harper: Choose role models that inspire you to be good. I’m excited to be good! So let’s all be good together – good to each other, good to ourselves. Enough with hatred, insecurity, shyness, let’s all just be really sweet and kind and listen to our hearts and to nature and do good things!
My high school boyfriend’s mom told him before he left the house every day – ‘Make good choices!’ So let’s also make good choices, let’s help each other make good choices and work together to take care of us and our world. We’re in a really exciting place right now. I feel the world’s at a tipping point and we have the opportunity to influence which way it goes, there’s all this potential, and I trust that humans are good and we can and will do good things, the best things, together!
Jess: Love is always the appropriate reaction. Loving fully extends to yourself, your friends, family, lovers. It extends to ambivalent relationships and difficult relationships. Love the environment and spaces around you. Love animals. Love trees and the moon and the Cosmos. Love it all, because you’re a part of it and it’s unspeakably magical. When you’re damaging any part of it you’re hurting yourself because we’re all connected. And then don’t beat yourself up when you’re not perfectly loving. That’s okay too, we’re all learning!
Do you know how to work with your spirit guides? Ruby Warrington gets a lesson in life’s celestial helpers from spirit-guide-whisperer Rebecca Campbell…
Inviting them into your dreams is one way to work with your spirit guides…
It happens fairly often among my Numinous circles that somebody will casually drop into the conversation that they’ve been working with their “spirit guides.” At which point I’ll nod and be like, “that’s rad, dude” – because, conceptually, I’m totally down with the idea that there are benevolent Universal forces working on our behalf all the time, and that we get to choose how and when we interact with them. That’s called “creating your own reality,” right?
But then I meet Rebecca Campbell, an Aussie author, mystic, coach, and co-founder of The Spirited Project, who insists that our guides are actually more like real entities – angels, I guess – who are just kind of hanging out, polishing their wings, until we call them into action. Learn to work with them, and they can offer assistance in every area of life – in fact; “no request is too big or too small, too specific or too broad,” she says.
It’s a pretty out there idea, even for me. And I (obviously) embrace a LOT of out there ideas. But I LOVE the concept (I’m already picturing my guides like a kind of spiritual Spice Girls, with the dance routines and everything), and so I asked Rebecca for the full low down. Here’s what she had to say…
Your guides – kind of like a spiritual Spice Girls?
So does every individual on the planet have their own spirit guides? Yep, everyone has their very own team of spirit guides who are completely devoted to their growth. I like to think of them as a group of amazing cosmic beings who have our back no matter what. But because of free will, in order to receive their support, first we need to ask. Asking is super simple (like, you can do it right now).
For general guidance: “Hey spirit guides…I am open to receiving your loving guidance in all areas of my life. Thank you, and so it is.”
For more specific guidance: “Hey spirit guides…I am open to receiving your guidance surrounding (insert specific request here). Thank you for guiding and supporting me.”
The thing about spirit guides is that they’re always there – we just don’t notice them. When you’re devastated by a terrible break up, they’re there. When you’re looking for a spot to park your car, they’re there. If you’re trying to make a difficult decision, they’re there. They’re by your side right now. What do you want their help with right now? Go on, ask them right now!
Okay, but first I need to know how they actually do their work? Our spirit guides work with us through signs, people, nature, synchronistic events and our intuitive senses (inner seeing, inner knowing, inner hearing and inner feeling).
So the best way to start working with your spirit guides is to ask them for a sign. When I first started working with my guides I asked them to send me a light peach feather to prove to me that they were really there. Within half an hour I had received two peach feathers, which was pretty amazing – and what I needed to open my mind and heart up to noticing the support they could offer me. (nb: I tried this last night by asking for a blue crystal – nothing yet. I’ll keep you posted. Update: two hours later I was working out and found a mini crustal on the studio floor – but it was mauve. Close!)
The more you work with your spirit guides, the stronger the connection gets. It’s just like working out – you can’t expect to have a six-pack like J-Lo if you only do one sit up.
Okay, so is there one team of spirit guides working for us all, or are they individual for each person? Everyone has their own team of spirit guides, which are assigned just to them. We are born with spirit guides and also recruit them as we go about our life.
I find that most people have around six spirit guides in their “inner circle.” These are the guides who are completely unique to us. Some spirit guides have had lifetimes here on earth (often appearing as “people” e.g. an American Indian teacher, a Tibetan monk, an inspirational business leader etc.) – while others may just appear as beings of light.
I believe that our purpose on Earth is twofold: 1. Evolve as a soul (learning, growing and raising our vibration) 2. Be the light (light up the world by following what lights us up)
Our spirit guides are assigned to us to help us do both these things. The more we allow and receive their guidance and support, the easier our path becomes.
Accept their support, and move forward more smoothly on your journey
I like the idea of us being “assigned” out guides at birth – how does this happen? Your soul recruits your spirit guides based on your unique soul calling and the path you are here to walk. Your guides are perfectly suited to your highest calling, and waiting to guide you as much or as little as you wish. No matter what you’re facing, their presence means you always have the support around you to make it through.
I believe that we are born with one main guide (also known as a Guardian Angel) who stays with us throughout our lives – and by the age of 18-25 most people have recruited their spirit guide “posse.”
We can recruit more guides as needed though. For example, while writing my book Light Is The New Black I recruited two light beings and a new teacher guide to help me – in exactly the same way as I used to call on famous ad men to help me present my creative ideas in a way that would most resonate with the client when I worked in advertising.
What if I’m still having a hard time getting my head around the concept… What holds most people back from developing a relationship with their spirit guides is their need for hard core visual “proof” that they exist. For a long time, I was waiting for my spirit guides to ring my doorbell and chat to me over a bottle of vino (clearly that never happened).
I wanted to know their hair color, their favorite movies and where they grew up. But the moment I Iet go of any need for them to appear in a certain way and just opened myself up to the possibility and trusted, the more my relationship with my guides grew and the more evidence of their presence I received in other ways.
Everyone’s experience with their spirit guides is personal, and because they work in the subtle realms, it takes practice to sense them. We are all six sensory beings, but we need to work our intuitive muscles each day to strengthen our intuitive connection with them.
Most people experience their guides through their predominate intuitive sense: Clairvoyant (clear seeing), Clairaudient (clear hearing), Clairsentient (clear feeling) and Claircognizant (clear knowing).
Can you give us some tips to start working with them on a regular basis then?
1. Start asking them for guidance…right now 2. Thank them for guiding you – they love a bit of positive reinforcement! 3. Ask them to send you a sign (e.g. a feather, a butterfly, elephants…whatever you fancy) 4. Keep a little notebook by your bed, and jot down any experience you might have had with them and any signs you spotted throughout the day. The more your book fills up, the more you will notice their support 5. Before you go to sleep ask your spirit guides to come to you in your dreams. The moment you wake up, note down any experiences you may have had with them
“She’s behind you…” Your spirit guides have always got your back
I’m almost convinced – can you share any amazing experiences you’ve had working with your guides? These days I speak to my spirit guides every day – but my favorite story of working with my guides happened earlier this year, when I’d handed in my book proposal to Hay House (twice) but hadn’t heard anything.
One of my spirit guides is a woman (spirit) named Charlotte. Charlotte appears as a terribly English high society lady from the 1920’s who wears big dresses, hats and gloves. A gifted gossip, with her fingers in all the most influential pies, Charlotte is here to help me get my message out there and name spoken about in the right circles. Knowing that getting some publicity might increase my chances of being published, I called on Charlotte her for help and then surrendered it.
That same day I was connected with a journalist – and one week later she was commissioned to write a story, “Like a Prayer”, for the UK’s Sunday Times Style Mag (which also happened to feature the who’s who of Hay House authors, as well as The Numinous).Two weeks later, I got the phone call from Hay House offering me a deal!
When I went into Hay House to meet the team for the first time, the Publicity Officer mentioned that she’d seen the Sunday Times article and asked who my publicist was. Without thinking I responded “my spirit guide Charlotte!” Now, I’ve sat around a lot of boardroom tables in my life, but that was the first one that I was able to casually drop the name of one of my spirit guides and credit them for their work. I love it!
