Born on the beach, raised in New York City and recently adopted by Los Angeles, Amber Ibarreche is an artist, designer and poet. A woman of few words – boy does she make them count. Images: Amber’s Instagram account.
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Cast by Louise Androlia using the The Rider Tarot Deck
And just like that Mercury is on the move again – so for any of you who’ve been waving your fists in the air, expect normal service to resume. I hope you don’t have too much cleaning up to do! In contrast, I feel that July will bring action, movement, force and vigor. The waiting and surrendering seems to be dissolving, the picture sharpening, as life gets just a little clearer. And so we prepare to gallop on ahead. I’m all in, are you?
I love to chat with you about your scopes and how your month is going so find me on Twitter and Instagram @louniverse
Cancer / Cancer Rising – King of Wands
Happy Birthday month, sweet Cancerian friends. July is waiting for you to take it by the hand and go off and adventure. You’ve been clearing space and there is now an almost overwhelming pull from within you to tap back into your own creative self. In recent months there may have been more material world ins and outs and ups and downs than your intuitive spirit could handle. Of course you could handle it, but you may have been feeling exhausted and off balance. It’s now time to reclaim your heartiest of hearts. Are you ready?
So, you’ve been letting go, surrendering and giving up what no longer works for you. Keep at it – we must remember that we are constantly in a cycle, preparing for the new and the better. In order to move forward you must have faith in your own ability to regenerate and step into you’re a-game. You know the place? The one where you have the wildest of ideas and the will to follow them through? That is where you’re moving your bags to, that room of wonder and weird and joy. It’s time to place some intentions and interest in doing what makes you feel good, what makes you feel inspired and alive. In fact, focus on that this month – FEELING ALIVE. What turns you on? Who lights you up? How do you tune into your own inner light? These aren’t always the easiest questions to answer but it’s fun trying.
Your ability to ‘have it all’ is boosted right now. So what does that mean to you? I like to think this means bathing in what we have while striving for what we feel is for our highest good. It’s not about piling everything back into this space you’ve created and then mirroring stress from times past – no, no, no. How about stepping into a newer and more confident you? Confidence is gained from feeling empowered. Empowerment is gained from being embodied. To get embodied you need to pay the upmost respect to your journey and your soul’s desire. Go in the direction of your biggest ideas, know that you can fulfill them, but don’t forget to balance the working hard with the feeling good. Self care can’t be put in the back seat any more, it must be prioritised in this day and age.
For inspiration, look to the dreamers and the entrepreneurs around you. Who do you know who is always stubborn about blazing their own path? These people are your guides this month and ultimately your mirrors too. When you see the stories that you want, know that they are also yours to claim. Finally, you will find love via lighting your own spark.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Leo / Leo Rising – The Five of Swords
As you approach your birthday, which is of course your own unique New Years day, it’s a good time to pull yourself together. I mean that in the kindest of ways – that it’s the right few weeks to revamp, re-camp and reset. I feel that you may have been a little energetically and emotionally scattered recently, perhaps from the push and pull of others’ opinions – words from all directions. It’s easy to kind of collapse into a less whole version of ourselves sometimes. However, your goal is to feel grounded and present within yourself, so it’s time to clean up!
When and where do you feel like a victim? Are you holding on to a circumstance and blaming someone or the Universe for ‘doing’ something to you? We all have these low points, where we feel so out of control that we kind of fall into the lap of our inner demons and let them start ruling the show. Your experience is yours to love and to embrace, to claim. This month, try to not be self-destructive just because it feels like an easy option. While a positive approach to a challenging situation can seem like impossibility, know that it’s a starting point for a miraculous change in perception.
If you’ve been suffering with low self esteem, again don’t be the victim or the bad guy in your own story – let this be your moment to foster a kinder approach to yourself. Speak to yourself with only your highest voice. You know that bashing yourself never leads to a great feeling of enlightenment so how about a gentle ‘It’s okay’, ‘you’re fine’ once in a while – fake it until you make it, as they say.
Remember that life isn’t a game of winning or losing; you don’t have to prove yourself to anyone or to yourself. Playing the game is about you feeling good, standing in your own shoes and embracing your own oddities and unique traits. Over the next few weeks sideline comparing yourself to others, or fighting to ‘be the best’ and focus on celebrating what makes you YOU. With this practice in place it will be easier to notice a sense of grounding and confidence coming back in, served with a smile, of course.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Virgo / Virgo Rising – The Five of Pentacles
Sometimes the Wheel of Fortune brings in shifts and changes, which is why I spoke with you last month about honoring the cycles of life and participating in your experience. Did you notice any shakeups? Often during a period of change it can be easy to get really locked into material world stressors in our day to day and veer away from nurturing our own downtime – which of course is exactly when we need it! Balance is no laughing matter. We need to place positive energy in all avenues of our adventure so that we feel the most empowered – and so that we can also laugh, because we are having so much fun!
With a fair amount of attention being placed on your career recently you may have dredged up a need for some serious spiritual downtime. There’s a fine line which often reveals itself during hectic busy times, when it’s easy to sometimes neglect your inner soul system because you’re feeling an external need to be ‘on top of everything’. Know that the finest practical moves come from having pure and clear clarity of thought – which is only achieved from being fully aligned with your highest self.
So this month honor your inner pilot light! It’s flickering and needing your attention – reconnect to your own divine self. How do you do that? This is a question only you can answer but I can tell you that it requires you to allow yourself some time to be still, reflect and just be. Even in the most hectic of days you can give yourself some moments. For a meditative journaling exercise, ask yourself; ‘In what areas do I feel like the alien or feel isolated? Are there are any parts of my highest good that I feel like I have abandoned?’
It may even be that you felt too emotional about a situation, and so cut yourself off from it. In these cases again, it’s about addressing the balance with some Earth energy, and celebrating your material world experience so that you can reconnect to your self-soothing spirit. As you respond to these inner calls you may notice that they reflect back some clarity into some of the challenges you see in the world around you. Repair within, thrive without.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Libra / Libra Rising – Judgement
I feel that you’ll notice the strongest shifts this month than you have for quite a while, and you’re ready. The energy that arrives for you is all about standing in your strongest self and highest source of light. I want to face the rest of the year in complete embodied empowerment. Wouldn’t you like to feel that too?
So where you do you see yourself? What are you walking towards? Where are you going? What are you feeling? Are you standing in your own shadow and playing small, or are you wide-eyed and open and ready? If parts of yourself feel uninspired or you notice in some situations that you aren’t quite ‘in it’, use these questions to help feel your way through anything else you need to let go of. When we move on from things that aren’t workable we just create new space for manifesting something better – and we all like the sound of that! I want to give you a nudge, because you may be wavering on the sidelines of a big decision or veering away from making a huge change because it seems scary. This is the time to stand up and be counted, and why not? You are good enough and you deserve to follow through with your biggest goals and dreams.
Instead of judging yourself with a negative perspective, try it from a positive viewpoint. This can be done by simply shifting your dialogue – for instance, if you hate your job, instead of getting down on your own abilities and losing self confidence the message may just be that it’s time to up your game and move to something that works for you. There is always a way to make an empowered move.
If your spirit feels like it’s flagging, then love it and love it and love it some more. Light yourself up in all the silliest ways that you know how. Write a letter to your life and ask for what you want, remembering that you are the co-creator of this amazing existence! Everything is aligning and you are always exactly where you are supposed to be. Choose to wear a pair of new lenses this month. Be willing to see everything in a new way and see what you can unearth.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Scorpio / Scorpio – The Nine of Cups
How do you feel about the term; ‘Be careful what you wish for?’ I don’t believe in bringing warnings into our daily practices but I do believe that we have strong energies within the words that we choose to use! And I use the word ‘choose’ here because being mindful of your voice is one of the fastest and most effective things you can use to change the experience that you’re having. This is a month for nurturing your words and your thoughts to not only to call in your dreams and desires, but also to honor and respect the decisions that you’ve been making. In a year of highs and lows and multiple surrenders, your highest self is now ready to celebrate YOU.
It’s also time to relax into this regenerated version of yourself in order for things to settle. To keep your energy clear, notice where you may be closing yourself in with your words, it’s easy to restrict our own flow sometimes purely by crowding ourselves out with a ‘can’t, won’t and what if’ mentality. Clean up your language inside and out to allow in limitless expansion.
Emotions and feelings are on the forefront over the next few weeks. You may be hovering between feeling overwhelmed and elated, so try to recognize that they are one and the same – a new rush of energy for you to direct as you like. Channel that downpour into your creative activities, whether they be exercise, art or a crazy wild passionate love affair. It feels to me like you’ve been restless and relentless waiting for something to move forwards, and it may just be that you’re pushing yourself out of habit. Know that a turn is coming and try not be mad that things aren’t always happening on your time frame – everything is actually exactly as it should be.
The word ‘glory’ is coming through for you right now, and so sit for a moment and have a ponder what that word means to you. I’d like you to be rejoicing in your own talents and achievements in equal measure, as well as being grateful for the opportunities you’ve been given and are about to receive. And so back to the phrase we began with. You are in a powerful month to see your biggest hopes play out in reality, so why not…make a wish?
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Sagittarius / Sagittarius Rising – The Magician
Following on from last month where I encouraged you to set your adventurous sights high, you now are moving to a place where you must stand strong and claim this story that you’re writing. Consider the word ‘fate’ and what it means to you – personally, I feel we must empower the word by acknowledging and acting as though we have a hand in everything we see. I wrote in your 2014 Tarotscope a mantra for you; ‘Destiny is my partner in crime’. Take this on board as your ruling truth this month as you step into a new sense of inner power.
Now, at this point I want you to keep your ego in check! Remember that by succeeding in your career or making breakthroughs from your challenges you have made a personal victory. By all means be grateful and remember that these experiences are given to you to share and help you on your journey, not to place yourself on a pedestal. You may indeed find that others are looking to you for advice this month on how you got where you are – so here’s a little reminder to be the teacher not the preacher.
If you are looking for ways to expand your skillset, then consider how you might be able to share a little further and wider – Is there a book waiting to be written or a workshop you want to create? Explore your potential, with respect and kindness. If you’ve been feeling scattered, then here come a few weeks to call back in your core passions, a time to remind yourself who you really are. Let loose any comparisons or jealousies towards others and embrace what makes you tick. Your life force is powerful beyond what you may realize, and it’s waiting for you to come out and dance. It’s not the time to play in your shadows.
Last month I wanted you to manifest and plan, and now it’s action time. It’s the time to “just do it’ – and you know exactly what ‘it’ is! As one of the Five Sutras for the Aquarian Age, Yogi Bajan taught us; “When the time is on you, start, and the pressure will be off.” This is your calling for July – it’s time to take that first step, knowing that you have all the resources that you need within you. Allow it and the path will form.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Capricorn / Capricorn Rising – The Four of Swords
I wasn’t surprised to see this card turn for you, as it sums up the past few months and cements all the lessons your journey has bestowed upon you. Last month we talked about balance and priorities, and over the next few weeks I feel that you’ll be settling into some new ways of thinking and I’m excited about this. The emphasis is still upon rest and regroup though – it’s like you’re in a masterclass for the art of getting comfortable with space and stillness!
So more of it, but this is also the card that always shouts out to me ‘the calm before the storm’. In other words, by no means freak out if things aren’t going to your time frame (aka full speed ahead!) and enjoy the mellow road because swift moves are soon to be upon you. You are essentially perfectly placed to be gathering your strength for new projects, swift communications and heart bursting adventures.
Are you taking a vacation this summer? Even if you feel that you have ‘no time’ to, then remember that even one night away from home or out of your hectic comfort zone could be just the down time that you need. A lone retreat with your social media and computer switched firmly off can calm down the buzz and allow you to get some real sleep. Speaking of which, how is your sleep right now? That is the area I want you to nurture, so experiment with your pre-slumber routine and find out what suits you. I say this because I feel that any anxieties you have may be popping up at bedtime, or even in your dreams. Keep a notebook by your bed to jot down lingering thoughts and midnight epiphanies – those can be dealt with in the morning.
Now that we’re at the mid-year point you can also think of this month as time to look at your foundations. The ground you stand on, live on and walk on is your place for growth, comfort and grounding. How do you feel about where you stand? Always remind yourself of your journey and don’t waste your energy on anything less than the essentials. In areas where you just feel like giving up, consider, is ‘giving up’ actually just the surrender you need?
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Aquarius / Aquarius Rising – The Hermit
This is a fitting card for you to take on as a mentor, my Aquarian friends. How often do you choose to bash your self-confidence rather than acknowledge your own inner power? A few times recently, it feels. You’re a person of so much wisdom, and yet can hide from it or go easily against your own grain. Over the next few weeks it’s likely that you’ll be called upon to honor your highest self – a great lesson to learn and embody.
Independent confidence is benefitted from moments or periods of isolation, although it’s not about hiding away. Your right now is about appreciating the re-charge moments, and learning to love your own downtime because it can reconnect you to your inner guide and source energy. When you feel tired, you feel like you’ve been drained of life right? Your life source needs a recharge right now – but remember, the art of meditating, for instance, isn’t learning to block your thoughts it’s just opening up a space to stop and listen.
How can you alchemize the challenges that you are experiencing into wisdom to move forwards with? Try to not perceive everything as a block in front of you, even when, oh yes, it looks and feels like one. Is it simply a redirection towards a healing or a better experience? Often it is, but we have to have faith in that. So realign your belief in your journey, and how you want your story to play out. Then start with your inner dialogue – how are you speaking to and about yourself? Pep it up to the more empowered version – even if you feel like it’s a cheese fest write down some of the qualities that you love about yourself or what employers of partners may find attractive, then accept them as the truth. You are worth every moment of the experience you want to have.
Socially it might be that the next few weeks can teach you the power of the one-on-one and small group activities – you don’t always need to please and entertain everyone. A lesson in independence is to enjoy and thrive by yourself and with just that one person – for it is here that you can get comfortable with basking in your own light.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Pisces / Pisces Rising – The Devil
Oh boy, times of change just bring all the bubbles to the surface don’t they? The last four months have been a string of big events, full on wow experiences, ah ha moments and for some of you a feeling of crushing defeat. It’s like all the big guns have come to your party and this month it’s time to say hello to those that you didn’t invite!
The art of managing anxiety and fear is learning to get comfortable with your uncomfortable. I always say that fear should be treated like an acquaintance you see in the street – you must always say hello but not stop to chat. However it’s that saying hello part that’s the hardest, for it’s so much easier to run from the devil on your shoulder than allow him to sit beside you. Over the next few weeks start to practice welcoming your negative thoughts into your space and choose to learn to not be afraid of them. Think of fear as something that’s completely dissolvable and has no tangible roots. This is why, when you’re in a time of change (new job, new relationship, break up, house move, health issue and so on), fear rears up – because change also has no roots, you’re in the limbo zone. But hey guess what? It’s okay to not feel okay.
This is a time for action though – less of the hanging around and more of the full power ahead and I CAN DO IT attitude. If you feel stuck, then this is only highlighting where you feel restricted. These ties are like distractions, trying to lure you away from following your highest self and brightest path – so don’t fall for your own tricks. You know what they are.
You’ll feel so liberated the moment that you say ‘no more’, whether it’s to your limited mindset, a tendency to indulge in too much of what you don’t need, a decrepit old fear or an experience that isn’t serving you. It’s time to free yourself to do and be everything you’re afraid you can’t do or be. What if you can have everything you wish, and it’s just a matter of claiming and allowing it? Instead of overindulging in the old negative habits, use the positive aspect of your ego and stand in your own strength. Light up.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Aries / Aries Rising – The Wheel of Fortune
The perfect card for the mid-year point and the perfect card for you, the Astro leader. July throws you into a whole new cycle, are you ready? Um yeah of course you are, but I mean are you really on it? I say this with the nudge to honor the word new here – so how about this time you do things differently? Are you with me?
So, as you launch yourself into the next six months’ activitym then you at least want to start by feeling confident – so absolutely no playing the victim in your own adventure, okay? I feel you could find that you are very much becoming present with areas in your life where you like to play the saboteur – and let’s face it, we all do it. What are you not starting because you have placed a few too many ‘what ifs’ in the way? What limiting stories have you told yourself recently? Where do the ‘I cant’s’ lie for you? Do you feel like a part of you has been diluted somewhere and needs revving up? All of these questions are yours to sit with and choose to fuel your inner Fire. It’s you element after all.
I call on you to ask these questions because I feel that right now is the best time for you to be changing patterns; there is a sharp energy about you that brings with it the intent to shift! It’s sometimes easy you see to spin in our own circles and feel like that’s ‘just the way things are’, but who’s idea was that? Hell, who says you can’t just go out there and bring a new method to your very own personal brand of madness!
I love the idea that it’s your own life force and drive and desire that can spin your wheel to the next stage, bring in the change that you are ready for and help you shape the days ahead. I can never help but be cryptic with this card because I always see it kind of hovering above, just throwing questions at you and trying to force you to play your own game – a total tease in fact. So answer the questions you receive honestly, and just be ready, and above all, interested in the possibility of great fortunes ahead of you.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Taurus / Taurus Rising – The Queen of Cups
How was last month? Did you dive in and reclaim your life force? I hope so as July softens and brings forth more intuitive and emotional energy, and it’s time for you to get comfortable with that. The questions I want you to pose yourself for the next few weeks are; What needs to be nurtured? And where do I always put the most pressure on myself?
One of the quickest ways to check in with how you are speaking to and treating yourself is by checking whether you’d look after your nearest and dearest in the same way. I want you to nurture yourself the way that you would your most loved friend, your child or your partner. This is a self-soothing therapeutic practice for your soul – so go all in.
With all the connecting to your superpowers that’s been going on recently your intuition will be heightened, so take advantage of this by testing out your ‘going with your gut’ response – this is the quickest way to affirm that your actions are indeed on the money. I do have a feeling that you may be called up as a bit of a life coach for friends and family over the next few weeks, and perhaps this is why you want to be really in tune with your mind, body and spirit. If you’re not feeling up to scratch personally, then it will be easy to want to avoid others’ demands or get irritable when people ask for your time. You want to be able to be the sage advice giver and have equal time to yourself. If you feel at any point like you want everyone to just ‘go away’, it’s a swift kick in the backside from the Universe, to remind you to take some quiet time and support yourself first.
Career wise know that it’s okay to soften too, and let people know how you are feeling. Just because you know you’re good at what you do it doesn’t mean you have to manage it all by yourself. Being in touch with your emotions means getting comfortable with being vulnerable once in a while – and with that, there is wisdom to be gained. Show the real you, anxieties and all and you may suddenly receive exactly what you need.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Gemini / Gemini Rising – Page of Cups
Synchronicities and miracles, are you seeing them? This month I’d like you to continue on your journey of higher path exploration by merging your spiritual self with your material surroundings. It’s easy to believe they’re completely separate, but actually they’re one and the same. You are on a gentle adventure right about now, so try to avoid putting pressure on yourself to be anything but you and be anywhere but here. It’s a lovely few weeks to embrace all this is you and really practice following your own inner wisdom.
It can be quite a fun exercise to just see how easy it is to shape your own experience, especially when shifting your inner dialogue. Try and locate the areas where you are feeling stressed or anxious and decide now in this moment that you are going to be willing to perceive things in a new way. If you are truly ready to bring another option, idea or direction you will instantly open up to being able to really see it. I like to think of it as the spectacles that you choose to wear – so practice choosing to see through lenses crafted to reflect back your highest good. Do you see how with your own embodied choices in place, you can manage to feel full of personal power even when faced by a challenge?
Meanwhile, the energy around you is light and childlike. Remind yourself of what you loved to do when you were younger and carried less fear, and bring that into the now. You may want to retreat and spend time alone, working on sparking your own light, and that is great – any work that’s about nurturing your spirit and your wildest passions is time well spent.
And when you notice any weird moments or strange coincidences, then choose see them as a sign of you connecting to your highest self – then celebrate, and say thank you to your journey. Now choose to believe that it shouldn’t be unusual to connect to this place, in fact it should be the norm. Trusting your gut must be your first choice from now on. Allow your own feelings to be valid and important. Go within and listen, then take compassion-filled action – swoon on.
Questions? Come and chat with me about how your month is going @louniverse
Last week’s New Moon in Cancer felt like a tipping point for some major personal transitions. And all because I womaned-up, learned to love my Moon and embraced my emotional body. By Ruby Warrington.
When I first met Marma Katie a few months back (as in Ayurvedic “marma” massage – she’s the go-to girl among my NYC Numis), she started telling me all about her Moon Puja. We were at the launch of Nadya Andreeva’s Happy Belly book, which felt like a fitting place for a discussion about an ancient spiritual fasting practice designed to support your mental and emotional balance, while also easing any issues with the digestive system (unsurprising that the emo Moon rules the gut).
The Puja, which is performed every Monday (yup, Moon-day), involves taking only clear or white liquids from sun up to sun down, at which point you chant your Moon mantra, light a candle and break the fast with a small white cookie, sweet or piece of cheese.
“It’s for anybody who’s Moon, or mother energy, is in a compromised position in their chart,” Katie explained. As the Moon also rules the feminine principal, “treating mainly women on a Monday, particularly mothers and grandmothers, has become part of my practise too,” she went on.
We didn’t go into the details of her Moon placement there and then, but obviously our conversation got me thinking about my Moon, which I’ve been feeling very tender towards lately – to the point that Moon signs have become my latest astro obsession.
Representing the mother, as well as our emotional body, my Cancer Moon sits directly square (challenges, tests, inhibits) my Sun, in my intense eighth house (death and rebirth, sex and money). Even more “compromising,” it’s in a tight aspect conjunct Saturn (self-sacrifice, patience, austerity). Poor little Moon! Um, perhaps the Monday Puja was for me too?
Turns out that in Vedic astrology (relevant because the Puja is an Ayurvedic practise) my Moon is in my ninth house, and is actually “very, very blessed” – this info via text from Marma Katie’s astrologer out in LA. “Your mom is kind of like your guru, though she’s very tough. She’s a truth teller. Not always fun, but at least you know where you stand,” he told me.
Uh…word. She’s also a Jungian psychotherapist, and so let’s just say that conversations can get pretty deep, pretty fast. There’s not a lot of space for small talk in our relationship (but hey, at least we know each other’s deepest, darkest insecurities).
So anyway, no Puja for me. I have to say I was a little bit disappointed, as I quite liked the idea of a diet of coconut water and cauliflower soup one day a week – plus I’d already been eyeing up this pearl ring, as you’re supposed to wear a piece of jewelry to rep the Moon energy too. But all my research has actually felt like part of an on-going process of getting to know my Moon, which has been a healing journey in itself.
I first began to understand my Cancer Moon on the Astro Twins’ Become Your Own Astrologer retreat last year. Cancer is ruled by the Moon, which I interpreted as a double whammy of sensitive, watery, intuitive energy – and sitting right below disciplinarian Saturn, in that medieval eighth house, first I wanted to make it my scapegoat. “Moon, it’s your fault I get so insecure about money. Moon, it was you who let my first boyfriend use sex as a weapon of control. Moon, you’re the reason I have such an emotional digestive tract!”
But I quickly got over all that self-pitying bullshit, and realized I should actually welcome my emotionally empowered Moon as a soulful counterpoint to all the fire in my chart (Sag rising, Aries Sun and a Chinese Fire Dragon to boot). “Do you sing?” asked one of the other women on the retreat. Apparently all the divas – Mariah Carey, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin – are Aries with Cancer moon. In other words, walking egos with serious soul 😉
And actually, my first conscious effort to bring forth my Moon energy was an East Village karaoke session with the Twins soon after the retreat. Usually enough to bring on a mild anxiety attack at the mere thought, but surprisingly empowering in the moment.
Of course, with Saturn RIGHT THERE my hardest lessons happen to be where my Moon is (all the money stuff, the sex stuff, the personal power schtick). But I’ve also come to understand that she, along with my girl gang of incredible female friends, is there to nurture me through them. And that confronting my most emotionally painful, most basic truths (safe in the knowledge that my courageous Aries Sun is also right there by my side) is the fast track to some seriously high vibe eighth house transformations – not least when it comes to my relationship with my mother. It also makes sense that the energy surrounding last week’s New Moon in Cancer felt like a tipping point for many of these transitions.
So where’s the Moon in your chart? If living a richly textured life is about connecting mind (as I see it, your Sun), body (rising sign) and soul (the Moon), then embracing your Moon and all it has to teach about your emotional life is an essential part in bringing your whole self to the table – in life, in love, 24-7.
Once you’ve downloaded your personal birth chart, click here for a full interpretation of the Moon in each house.
Looking for an alternative New Moon manifestation ritual? Artist Monica Ruiz makes prayer flags for herself and her friends as a way of reppin’ her love for the life she gets to live. Main image: Larry Louie
When I think of prayer flags, fabric panels ranging in sizes and colors with spiritual images, hanging and swaying in a breeze in a secret garden or a cute storefront, I always see and feel peace, wishes fulfilled, Universal love and freedom.
I had given to friends and also received the mini-squares from Tibet that represent light and all the elements, thus bringing health and harmony to all. After the panels naturally fade away due to the elements, it is believed that the mindful loving intentions within the flag fade into the Universe, contributing to an ongoing cycle of the flag’s blessings.
I wanted to re-create my own using images I had already saved from magazines, old books and stamps, and even just cool paper that felt special to my heart. After I made a quick one just to see if my vision was as easy as it seemed (it is!) I kinda went prayer-flag crazy. I made them for everyone around me, including many for myself.
The two that hang in my studio today represent the surfing elements for my Pisces ocean-loving soul-surfer boyfriend, along with some “Marie Antoinette/ French masquerade” vibes pour moi!
And then I have one hanging up in my vanity room / lounge reppin’ my love of books, writing, and my job at the library that supports my life and allows me to live out my daydreams. While I’m putting on my mascara in the a.m. I can glance up and give thanks with a smile.
My flags are small pieces of art that I feel serve as sacred reminders of the simple things that make us smile and lift our spirit. While I like to hang ours on our year-round blue fairy lights in our bedroom, doorways and windows are fun too. I have also hung them up on bulletin boards on my desk at work and on a huge collage at home. There was even one point they were nicknamed “Purr Flags,” by a friend who felt all warm and fuzzy on receiving hers.
Having got such a great reaction gifting them to people I know, I decided to make a special one as a birthday gift for my spiritual teacher Gabrielle Bernstein a couple of years ago. I’ve written about my gratitude for her before, as she’s kinda been the vessel for many hardcore lessons I’ve needed to start receiving, and for learning more about forgiveness, love and how to listen to my heart and angels.
I felt compelled to make a prayer flag a la Gabby, with images that included her love of street art, the cosmos, her recent engagement in Paris, sacred Buddha statues, mystical silhouettes, powerful words, vibrant energy and of course just lots of LOVE.
Only Love is Real is Gabby’s motto, and I felt like I wanted this flag to have my love and appreciation for Gabby literally bursting through because of the gifts she has shared with me. It took all day, but it was so enjoyable and groovy to create. I was also happy and excited to put many of the images I’d save for future flags of my own on my guru’s flag, because I actually felt the transfer of love: it felt good to give away something beautiful that I loved. It was a true gift of appreciation from the heart.
Because of Hurricane Sandy that year, Gabby didn’t actually receive my flag until May 2013, while her birthday was November 1st! Regardless, my birthday/gratitude gift cosmically made it to her six months later. The morning I woke up and saw it unexpectedly on her Instagram feed, I felt like I was lucid-dreaming. She had it hanging up already and was allowing the magic and love from my home into hers. She loved my gift and I loved making it for her, and the prayer flag looks so cool in Gabby’s “zen den”.
Are you inspired to make one now? Let’s do this…
Here’s how to make a prayer flag for a sweet soul in five simple steps.
Supplies needed:
Voila! Your flags are ready to be shared and invoke feelings of peace, spirit, strength and magic.
Sacred and simple, have fun bringing the tradition of prayer flags into your home. Tie some little loops at the end and use a couple of twisted paperclips if needed and they can be draped wherever you like. Enjoy the process of making each panel personal but keep the process simple.
Whether you make a prayer flag for yourself or for someone special, just remember to use images that make you feel good, because whatever is made with your heart is your art. And don’t forget they are reversible! Switch ’em up depending on your mood or needed inspiration. Sometimes I will do an opposite theme on each side, like maybe sweet dreams contrasted with powerful sun energy. Use your intuition and just pick art and pictures you like! Be whimsical.
When I commented on the prayer flag I made for Gabby the last time I saw it on IG, she sweetly replied; “I look at them every day and I love them!” Wishes-fulfilled and blessings received, Amen.
Island dweller Monica Ruiz is a collage artist, hardcore daydreamer, HayHouse book reviewer, bloggess, burrito lover, cat enthusiast, librarian assistant and wanderluster who is obsessed with good hip-hop beats, Lana Del Rey and Paris, France. She owns way too many black clothes, swoons over Sofia Coppola films and loves the concept of protecting your magic with an open heart.
In this month’s column, Ellie Burrows investigates how the ancient Shamanic art of shapeshifting has infiltrated her relationships – and what she’s learned about herself in the process. Portrait: Katie Fischer.
Ask any of my friends – when it comes to my lovers, I’m known to be a shapeshifter. As in, I change form depending on my bedfellow. I admit it.
In 1998 I met my high school sweetheart. We wore Air Max 96’s, Jordans, Nike snap pants, and listened rap music in his black two-door Ford Explorer Sport. I had cornrows and rhinestone sunglasses. He was captain of the basketball team and regularly had one pant leg scrunched up to the knee. Young love at its finest, we were a match made in 1990s high school heaven. We were each other’s dawgs.
In the summer of 2006, I met an Israeli businessman twenty years my senior. It was always DJ Tiesto and the mispar echat (number one) everything: the number one restaurant, the number one hotel, the number one vodka, the number one yacht. Lots of excess, free love and bacchanalian behavior. Everything was a teachable moment and I learned all sorts of sexual lessons. He was a bird of prey and I was his helpless kill.
In my twenties, it was my seriously cool East Village architect. All raw denim all the time. No shampoo. He taught me how to dial down the fancy, wear my curly hair like a mane and eat meat off a bone. I was a lioness and he was my lion, the king and queen of a concrete jungle. We had a lot of pride. And frankly, that’s what killed us.
Shapeshifting litters the landscape of divine folklore and shamanic traditions. Magically speaking, it’s all about changing form in order to take on and assume the nature and qualities of a specific creature. A shapeshifter morphs in order to alter or enhance particular thoughts and perceptions or acquire new abilities. One changes shape to see and access the world from a different perspective.
As the dawg, the kill and the lion, I fully embraced and emulated the quality of each manimal I was with. I immersed myself in our love and thoroughly explored their natural habitats. I invoked their energy within myself, adopted their characteristics and saw the world from their vantage points.
This was a practice of sorts, the method by which I connected to the symbol of my desire. And it was most definitely a symptom of my immaturity. When I loved what they loved, enjoyed what they enjoyed and preferred what they preferred, I felt a deeper sense of closeness and communion. I think it goes, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, not love. And in fact I royally fucked up because I lost myself completely in each beast.
As of late, my ability to shapeshift is non-existent. Turns out, I prefer not being anything but myself. Venturing into someone else’s habitat and taking on their views, behaviors and tastes to enhance our connection no longer serves me – especially when that person drinks like a fish, doesn’t work out, lacks a connection to the divine or fucks without reverence for the act of fucking itself. I tried to get down with that species and it just didn’t work.
Changing form to align myself with my partner stifles my own needs in relationship. I became unrecognizable in the mirror and then there was no perspective at all. And if I can’t see my self in the mirror, then it defeats the whole point of partnership in the first place.
The mirror is one of my favorite metaphors for a lover, spouse, significant other, partner, friend or soul mate. It can feel vulnerable to step in front of a mirror and take a good look. You will see all your beauty, your ugly, your gains, your losses, your shortcomings and strengths. It can be exhilarating, humbling, ecstatic and painful. The human mirror is an extraordinary thing because we have the capacity to really understand our very existence in the presence of another being.
What ultimately serves me in my relationships now is to be in my true form, my authentic self, and see how I occur in the context of another human being. I’ve learned that it’s my responsibility to grow as a result of that reflection. And if I’m really honoring myself, then I can honor the other too, and hopefully be the ultimate mirror for them.
From a regular yoga or meditation practise to the way you like your morning latte, we all have our daily rituals. But what happens when design one that’s just for you? You become a vacuum to receive, that’s what. Ruby Warrington shares her experience of creating the custom ritual that helped call in The Numinous. Video: Shine Creative.
Last month, the Numinous hosted a guided meditation to meet your Spirit Animal, with the Modern Shamanic Practitioner Marika Messager. The event took place on a balmy early summer evening in London, at spiritual concept store Celestine Eleven, and attracted an elegant crowd – including jeweller Gina Melosi, illustrator Erin Petson, a talent booker, some girls from Elle magazine, and the fashion designer Henry Holland. The atmosphere was one hundred percent high vibe, and after the meditation, when people shared about their experience meeting their animals, they were like five-year-olds on a sugar high. In short, they were amped to have participated in this ancient Shamanic ritual.
And how funny, it took place almost six months to the day after I enacted a custom ritual, designed, in part, to ensure that when people experienced the Numinous they’d feel; “a sense of discovery, more joy and happiness and a way to connect to their true life purpose.” These were my exact words to “receptivity expert” Emily Tepper, the woman who helped me design my ritual, which eventually took place as a day-long series of events. The manifestation of which I could expect to see, yes, six months down the line.
Let me back track a little. I met Emily at one of Gabrielle Bernstein’s lectures in New York City, towards the tail end of last summer. The Numinous had only recently launched, and when she told me she designed custom rituals for people, to assist in calling in their deepest desires, I was obviously intrigued. The Numinous was a new born at the time, with so much potential ahead of it, and like a proud mamma I wondered if a ritualistic or ceremonial baptism would help set my project on the right path from the get-go. But actually, working with Emily turned out to be so much more than that.
We met on a grey day a month or so later at the Ruben Museum in Chelsea, where sombre gong music in the deserted cafeteria created a fitting backdrop for the initial ritual design session. With a background in dance, Emily, an empathetic and mystical yet earthy Piscean, described “a yearning for other people to experience their body as an agent for change, like I had from a very early age” as one of things that led her to this line of work. Studying for a degree in Experiential Design then helped her create a modality in which “everything we touch becomes the props we use to facilitate relationships, exchanges, transitions and personal growth.” And so her company, Receive Everything, was born.
Because we’re pretty well versed in the concept of manifesting these days (like attracts like, act “as if,” yada yada) – but what happens if the conditions in our body, and our life, aren’t set up to receive? What if there are “energetic cysts”, as Emily put it, stored in our tissues that need to be removed before it’s safe for our manifestations to land? This is where ritual, physical acts designed to empower our intentions, weed out doubt and link us directly to our creative, or feminine, energy comes in. It could be described as literally “going through the motions” to hardwire your body to receive. If, “your nervous system is like a riverbed, and the water is used to flowing one way,” Emily’s ritual – “a piece of performance art for your life” – would be about “taking the flow slightly outside the well-worn groove. It’s a quantum physics service!” she joked. Kind of.
Emily’s ritual process is divided into three parts – Design, Do and Download – with the design part acting like an opportunity to really get clear on what you’re calling in, as well as any impediments (negative beliefs and crazy talk) in its way. In this sense, it also rapidly becomes a bit of a therapy session. “Why is it so important to you that people feel a sense of self-ownership and freedom to choose their own life when they connect with the Numinous?” asked Emily when these emerged as key words and phrases around crystalizing the essence of my project.
Of course, it came back to a time in my life, between ages 16 and 22, when I’d been a very controlling relationship with an older guy, who imposed his tyrannical worldview to the extent that I lost all my self-confidence and developed an eating disorder. It was like I’d been brainwashed by a cult made for two. If I’d had access to the kind of tools I’ve discovered through the Numinous then – tools designed to empower us to trust our intuition and truly know ourselves and our life purpose – who knows how differently things might have gone.
From there, it was a question of coming up with visual symbols to represent the different elements of my manifestation – which would then be transformed into the elements of my actual ritual. “When you think of the Numinous, what do you see, feel and taste?” asked Emily. If the Numinous was about “enlightenment and beauty, a playful experimentation with ideas – fashionable, stylish, the zeitgeist,” what were the visual metaphors for this? In my mind’s eye, these words immediately conjured an image of white sails billowing in the breeze against a clear blue sky at high noon. Emily jotted that down.
Thinking about my former relationship, my nostrils filled with the cloying scent of skunkweed. My ex was a dedicated smoker, and I believe being stoned myself for the majority of our relationship was one of the key reasons I felt so powerless to leave him. And when Emily asked; “what would it look like if the Numinous could really change the world?” I saw a tribe of Numis taking to the streets for a party/ protest to celebrate our connection to the Universe and the freedom to chose our own belief systems. And on and on her questions went, until we had the bones of what would become my custom ritual.
In the end, we devised a day of interconnected events, beginning with me using some of my Numinous tools (smudging my space with sage, meditating with my chakra totem), before taking in a trip to the center of the Brooklyn bridge to fly a white flag at noon (see above). Then we’d travel to Emily’s studio in Bushwick, where I would bestow Numinous gifts on my friends, and stage the ceremonial burning of a time capsule representing my ex (would anybody notice the burning joint inside, I wondered?) Finally, we’d all take to the streets in celebration of our collective freedom and empowerment. My friends at Shine Creative would capture the whole thing on film, as Emily highly recommends creating a visual record of the ritual. And I now had two weeks to produce it.
The day itself, November 22, was cold and bright and went by in a happy, emotional blur. I felt like the star of my own reality show, or a bride on her big day. I was happy I’d involved my friends, as so much of creating the Numinous was about wanting to collaborate creatively with my soul tribe, and being followed by a film crew made the whole thing feel somehow more real.
And if that was “Do,” then the final part of the ritual process was to “Download,” which meant a bodywork session with Emily, who is also a certified Pilates instructor and craniosacral therapist, to ground the teachings and intention of the ritual into my tissues two weeks later. When I arrived at her studio, she asked me to write down some key phrases that summed up how I’d been feeling since. I came up with; “No more apologies,” “Trusting myself,” “Stepping up to the next level,” “Who cares what people think?” A process she described as “crystalizing my new energetic signature.”
And a little over six months later, I can feel myself stepping into all of this as I prepare to host two Numinous Live talks for Lululemon at this weekend’s Wanderlust yoga festival. The first? I’ve invited Emily to join me in introducing The Art of Ritual, what she calls a “lost social technology.” And something that, for me, has been a powerful tool in showing the Universe that I’m ready to receive the gifts I know it’s sending my way.
Numinous Live will present two talks at the Wanderlust yoga festival in Vermont. Both talks are fully booked, but clink the links below to be added to the wait lists.
June 21: The Art of Ritual with Emily Tepper
June 22: Your Yoga, Your Intuition with Betsy Cohen
King Neptune, planet of intuition, imagination and illusions, has begun its annual backward spin of the Zodiac. Ruby Warrington gets to grips with this elusive but powerful entity, and asks what this retro period will ask each sign to confront.
Neptune is the planet I find it hardest to get my head around – but then, that’s to be expected. Ruler of Pisces, Neptune is the dreamer and the empath of the cosmos, the planet ruling our imagination, our intuition and our ideals. One of the slower-moving celestial bodies (or “collective,” as their influence extends over generations), in the natal chart of anybody born between November 1970 to January 1984, and again briefly between June and November 1984, Neptune will be in Sagittarius, a sign where this deep-sea diver feels quite at home.
Sagittarius appreciates high ethics, prophetic thinking and spiritual seeking too, and has been working hand-in-hand with King Neptune to wire today’s thirty-something generation to idealize a broadening of our collective worldview. Welcome to the global village, baby, where the lure of escape into foreign cultures and spiritual codes is felt like the pull of the poles, altruism is aspirational and even the yoga or meditation practice we idolize is often seen as a gateway to a higher state of consciousness.
For Neptune the escapist and the mystic, mind-altering substances are another portal to the other dimensions that are always there in our peripheral vision. And with expansive, optimistic Sag on hand to pour or roll us another one, “go on, why not, it’ll be fun!”, it’s not surprising we found a stairway to heaven through ecstasy culture and invented binge drinking in the 1990’s. Or that addiction is the symptom of so many Neptune-in-Sagittarius casualties. Lucky we’ve learned to embrace the Neptunian notions of self-help and self-love too.
With Sagittarius rising, I have also have Neptune in my first house. Enter the body dysmorphia that led to an eating disorder in my teenage years, compounded by my controlling Scorpio North Node return – but also, Sag, for granting me the compassion to love myself out of it, allowing me to learn from it and refusing to let me take it too seriously. Neptune in the first house can also mean an effortless slide into the deeper reaches of the imagination, an alluring shape-shifter and a storefront displaying the mysteries of the Universe. So go figure, Numis…
Why all the Neptune research this week? On June 9, he began his annual retrograde cycle. Of all the outer planets, Neptune spends the most time treading water in retrograde motion – 158 days every 12.07 months – a fitting pattern for the planet that also governs subconscious memories of distant childhood and even past lives. In a Neptune retrograde cycle, the mysteries he usually conceals are brought to the surface for us to examine in real time. Our intuition is given more currency. Dreams demand to be interpreted. Illusions, and delusions, are exposed, and creative ideas that have been gestating come forth and begin to take shape in the material world.
Currently in Pisces, Neptune’s cosmic castle, I was curious to explore what this might mean for me in the coming months (he resumes direct motion November 16) and what subtly sensed waves his backward strokes will send across the Zodiac at large.
* For a truly accurate reading, get your birth chart for free here. As an Aries with Sag rising, I will feel ripples of Neptune retro in Pisces in both the twelfth and fourth houses. But as Pisces actually rules the third house in my natal chart, I’ll look here for the most meaningful and relevant insights.
Aries / Aries rising (twelfth house)
Here is your chance to dive deep and rise to the surface of your subconscious with that most highly valued prize: the truth. Pay close attention to the neuroses that occupy your thinking now, and be bold in seizing the opportunity for healing that comes with smoking them out. Avoid indulging in mind-altering substances. Be honest with yourself and embrace clarity as a tool for lasting personal development.
Taurus / Taurus rising (eleventh house)
Choose not to ignore your paranoia about issues affecting any area of your life where group dynamics rule. Demand to know the details of the political dealings you rightly sense are going on behind the scenes. Then, think not what your friends can do for you, but what you can do for your friends. Fall into compassion and fire up your humanitarian efforts. Meditate on the germ of a revolutionary idea, and watch it flourish.
Gemini / Gemini rising (tenth house)
Duties or responsibilities you’ve been avoiding can no longer be ignored. It’s time to take the reins and begin to steer your ship into deeper waters, however intimidating this might feel. Don’t be afraid to tap into your inner ball-breaker. Act “as if” you’re the boss. When the limelight beckons, don’t hide away in the shadows. Get real about the sacrifices you need to make if you want your career to take off the way you envision.
Cancer / Cancer rising (ninth house)
Come out of your cave and give in to your wanderlust. A spiritual awakening could be in store for you when you open your mind and put paid to fears you can now see are completely unfounded. Dive into your studies in the University of Life, and embark on a vision quest or spiritual pilgrimage. To achieve enlightenment, deal only in what you know in your soul to be the truth, and demand the same of others.
Leo / Leo rising (eighth house)
Like a butterfly, you are on a journey of transformation and rebirth. But now you’re being asked to come clean about wherever wallowing in your comfort zone is stunting your personal growth. Escape into obsession and control will only compound your sense of being stuck. Ignore your intuition at your peril, and pick up creative projects with Leonine gusto. A mystery about an inheritance or money owed could also be resolved.
Virgo / Virgo rising (seventh house)
Expect a breakthrough in your couple’s therapy sessions, as deep-seated fractures in your closest relationships come up for air and healing. Embrace situations that show your creative and business collaborators’ true colors, and resolve to accept what you see. Give in to the notion of compromise. See past your ego for ways for justice to be served. Accept that the skeletons in your closet could actually be good PR.
Libra / Libra rising (sixth house)
Any flaws in your logic will be exposed now, so arm yourself with a backup plan. Details you’d prefer to gloss over will demand your attention. Tackling mundane-seeming tasks could actually lead to the breakthroughs you’ve been looking for. Knuckle down. And no more excuses about your emotional over or under-eating. Your health and wellbeing is at risk if you continue to delude yourself about your diet. Be ready to redraft a creative project to perfection.
Scorpio / Scorpio rising (fifth house)
A clandestine affair or flirtation could come to light, or maybe you’ll be asked to play your hand in matters of the heart. Your secret vice won’t stay a secret for long. A creative project you’re personally invested in could come to fruition now, and this fertile creative phase could also see your parental urges kick in. Be wary of situations that allow you to escape into over-indulgence. A hidden talent for the performing arts could also be revealed.
Sagittarius / Sagittarius rising (fourth house)
Expect the unexpected from a family situation, as whatever’s been going on behind the scenes is unveiled. Family constellations therapy could prove especially insightful. In all other areas, embark on a Dream Quest to get to the heart of the matter, and let your subconscious be your guide. Now examine your daily habits. What nourishes you and what is holding you back will be clearer to you now.
Capricorn / Capricorn rising (third house)
Be ruthless in speaking the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Allow yourself to hear the same in what others are saying. A hidden affinity with writing or speaking may come to light, embrace opportunities to explore this. Allow your logical mind to be infiltrated by your intuition. Journal about your dream life. False advertising won’t be tolerated. A sibling’s or neighbor’s secret may be revealed.
Aquarius / Aquarius rising (second house)
Get real about your finances and banish your credit cards to the back drawer. No more hiding your head in the sand and spending beyond your means, especially if shopping is a means of escape for you. Ask yourself; who am I without my luxuries and creature comforts? A creative way to add to your income may be unlocked. Look out for it, leave no stone unturned. Then act.
Pisces / Pisces rising (first house)
You’ll see past what’s in the mirror and view body image issues for what they really are: nothing but a figment of your insecurities. Now is the time for honest self-observation. Get real as you analyze your actions. In what ways do you allow your emotions to sabotage your personal vitality? Clean up your act. Insist on clarity of self-expression, no lying to yourself or your inner child.
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 from Yoga For Bad People to lay down some summer retreat etiquette. We’re talking less freaking out, more more F.U.N.
Respect your roomie. Adults sharing accommodation is basically a very tricky situation, so when you’re sharing, let them have their space. We’re not here to make best friends, and if that does happen it should be a natural thing. You don’t need to hit the beach together every time.
Now give everybody else their space. The first day is always hardest and weirdest because everybody is landing. Maybe you’re dealing with some travel issues – your luggage gets lost, you can’t poop. Whatever it is, just know that you need to give yourself and everyone else the time and space to deal.
Be present with your packing. On a retreat in India for example, of course bring your yoga clothes but be prepared to honor local dress codes and maybe wait until you get there to buy something to wear. But Brazil is all about spandex and booty shorts. Also bring enough yoga clothes so you won’t need to wash them. Nobody likes a stinky yogi.
Don’t list your shit in the sharing circle. Sure it’s one way to get to know each other, but telling a 20-minute story listing the injuries you’re here to heal is too much. Choose your moments, and your listeners. Often people are blind to being the talkers, so practise a little self-awareness. Be responsible for your own situation.
Respect the property. It the place has a homey vibe, it can be a fine line but it’s not an open kitchen. You’re getting two meals a day and possibly some snacks, and no, it’s not okay to just go and open up the fridge.
Bring your own props. Check with the teachers about what’s available, and pack a block and a strap if you need them so you’re not shorted in your practise.
Remember this is not a private. If the classes are either too advanced for you or not fast enough, complaining to the teacher is not the way to go. But do ask, “how can you help me modify?” – it’s why we’re here. Don’t just slam your yoga into an hour like you do back home. When your teacher is there at breakfast with you, don’t waste the opportunity to use us. We chose to do this work because we love it.
Let the teachers be the leaders. If you speak the local language, by all means step in when it’s useful, but part of the whole lesson is; “this is your time to retreat, not to run the show.” Especially you, men. You may see two female yoga teachers and feel like you need to be the man – but you know what, we have this. Chill out.
Don’t be too schmoozy. When people come out of savasana, especially after a few days of yoga, they’re in a calmer space than usual and might not want to talk. If you’re in the mood to chitchat, feel out where everybody else it, and give people a little transition time.
Be tech appropriate. We have no problem with people using their cell phones or computers, we’re equally addictive about technology, but on other retreats that might be really annoying. Also, ask before you Instagram.
Show up, whatever the weather. Rain can ruin an entire retreat – but only if you let it. Don’t let it. If the forecast is bad, how about you just don’t look at it. Now is the time to remember your meditation teachings. We don’t angst about the things we can’t control, we just let them be.
Hook up with your fellow yogis. Why not? You’re on vacation and it’s cute. But if you end up in a couple or you’re travelling with your partner to begin with, maybe keep the PDAs to a minimum (#smug)
Enforced skinny-dipping? No.
Yoga For Bad People’s next retreat will take place in Turkey, August 18-25th. For more details and booking information click here.
Forget what life stage you’re at. Every age carries its own unique energy for you to master, says Practical Numerologist Felicia Bender.
In every culture, the day we were born has special significance. We celebrate it every year. It defines us in ways we can’t even comprehend. Darn near all of us know who we are – on a most basic level – Astrologically. You can meet someone and ask: “What’s your sign?” and most people can answer that question without missing a beat.
And Numerology offers yet another window into our life potential. Think about how powerful it is to have both tools at your fingertips! Anyone who says that we don’t come with an instruction manual needs to look into these two powerful arts and sciences to really get their Lesson Plan for Life.
Since I love looking at the practical way Numerology can guide us in this material world, here’s a little “Happy Birthday” message for each and every one of us.
Numerologically speaking, what does our AGE reveal about us?
In Numerology, each number – one through nine – holds a particular frequency that carries with it meaning and influence, even if we don’t know it’s there. It’s like gravity or cell phone reception; we don’t have to believe it’s there in order for it to be operating and exerting an influence on us. Know it or not, like it or not.
So let’s take some “turning point” ages as we experience them in our Western culture, and what the numbers might bring into our lives as we experience these benchmark birthdays.
The way to look at it is this: Each number will carry with it a “theme” for what you’ll be asked to learn and master during the year. And you’ll be given all kinds of different opportunities from a variety of angles to experience and master your particular theme.
So check these out:
Five Years Old: Entering Kindergarten! In Numerology, the “Five” is the number of freedom. It’s supportive of pursing adventure, change and fun. It’s a frenetic number and is full of life. Do you remember your own Kindergarten year? Or the Kindergarten year of your children? It can be a year of fearless adventure, or a year of fear. Or both; back and forth and back and forth. Which was it for you?
Sixteen Years Old (1 + 6 = 7; also this is a Karmic Number 16/7): Driver’s License! In Numerology, this is a “Seven” year and it’s the number of spiritual seeking, of digging for the Truth, of testing your sense of trust and openness, of using your gifts of analysis to expand upon your sense of your authentic self and how it connects to the world as a whole. What better energy to surround you as you get your “wheels” and gain a sense of personal responsibility and a grander sense of yourself as you connect with the world at large?
Interestingly, the 16/7 is also a Karmic number in Numerology. I’ll address Karmic Numbers more directly in another posting since it’s a lot to cover. Yet the bare-bones of what that brings to the party when you’re sixteen years old is this: With this number, you’ll be taunted by issues surrounding self-awareness, pride, secrets, lies, and lack of accountability. DUH! Yet the energy of that Karmic number demands that you conquer these issues, master the demons, and prove to yourself and the world that you can operate on a higher plane.
Twenty-One Years Old (2 + 1 = 3): Cocktails! In Numerology, this is a “Three” year and it’s the number of joyful self-expression and emotional sensitivity. This energy is all about fun, socializing, getting out there, and enjoying life. It’s a year that supports really digging deep into your emotions and healthy expression of them. It’s also a number that supports communication of all kinds, including performance. Of course, you must learn to temper the extremes. Dancing on a table with a lampshade on, anyone?
Forty Years Old (4 + 0 = 4): OMG. In Numerology, this is a “Four” year (with double intensity, given it’s followed by the “0” which intensifies whatever it accompanies). This is a “Holy-Cow-Who-Am-I-Really and Where-Am-I-Going” year. The energy of this year is more serious and is about hard-work and setting up foundations. It’s about facing old emotional/family stuff that may be holding you back. It’s a demanding year that will set the stage for what you’ll manifest in your forties.
Fifty Years Old (5 + 0 = 5): The Big Five-OH. This is traditionally the age of the “Midlife Crisis!” Notice, though, how this is the same “Five” (FREEDOM) energy that you experienced in Kindergarten! Except this five is accompanied by that zero, making it a double-whammy. So Numerologically speaking, this is a year that requires that you again redefine your sense of yourself in terms of freedom and self-discipline. And the added “0” makes that energy super-intense. So no wonder many people do “crazy” things in their 50th year – like getting a divorce, finally telling your mother that you aren’t going to call her three times a day anymore, moving to Tuscany, or getting a tattoo.
I could go on, yet you get the general idea.
What I focus on over and over again about knowing your numbers is this: When you can have some clarity about certain key words or themes that are at play in your life, your chances of aligning more successfully with the positive aspects of those themes raises substantially.
And it makes things a lot more fun.
It won’t make whatever you’re going through any easier, really. Yet it certainly does provide a difference lens from which to view, experience and process things along the way.
So Happy Birthday! Now blow out your candles and make a wish.
Read more from Felicia Bender at Feliciabender.com
We’ve just experienced a powerful New Moon in multi-faceted Gemini, gifting us an opportunity to embrace the quicksilver side of ourselves. Nadia Noir gives an insight into a life spent searching for “the other me.” Images: Bela Borsodi for Document Journal.
When I was 10-years-old, my mother took me to a bulk retail store full of tiny sausages, discounted toilet paper, seven kinds of hummus before that was a thing, and kitschy forms of entertainment. It was coming up on my birthday so she told me I could buy two things. Anything I wanted. I went for a box set of every Disney song ever recorded and a giant astrology book with hundreds of pages of words, pictures of animals, gemstones, and a diagram for drawing out your natal chart.
I remember turning to the pages that talked about Gemini and seeing birds and monkeys inked across the pages, “yellow” being a prominent theme color, and descriptive words like “superficial,” “mercurial,” “intellectual” and “social butterfly” describing the tiny little Gemini creature that was me. I took the book home and with compass in hand, painstakingly drew out my chart. Eventually, months later, I thought I had solved the puzzle that was me. I was done. Everything about me was illuminated. Or, so I thought.
From that point forward, I told people that I was not a Gemini. There were other parts of my chart that described me and I was not, I was never a Gemini. I was something else entirely. An astrological amalgamation of all the other things in my chart. I was the diplomatic, regal drama of my Leo Rising. I was the lurid, panty-scorching nymphomania of my Scorpio moon. I was the warm campfire-scented sensuality of my Venus in Taurus which was also my Midheaven which was also in my tenth house and one time an astrologer I met at 3am in a coffee shop said I am basically ruled by Venus, which means I was definitely not a Gemini.
Geminis were bubbly. They talked a lot. They didn’t feel. That was the main reason I decided I wasn’t a Gemini. I had feelings. Massive ones that swung me up into the air like a father tossing his child into a sun-drenched sky only to forget to catch the child. I was a broken fairy, wings crushed against the pavement.
And for years I walked in this haze of what I perceived as Scorpionic darkness, sometimes washed over with emotions so cruel and body-crushing that the manic-pixie-dream-girl that was my Gemini side couldn’t survive. She would either choke on saltwater tears, sleeping in bathtubs and reading Victorian erotica, or she would rebel by taking my Moon out dancing in full-on drunken nymphette revelry, a sheen of lascivious Gemini glee captured mischievously through the stoic mask of my Leo features.
I called her the “Party Slut.” She would die the next day in a wave of pity or guilt or hungover misunderstanding. Her glitter, scattered across the floor in impossible rainbows, would be swept up into a tiny bottle with a stopper that was to be cracked open for “emergencies only.”
The emergency came half-way through my Saturn Return. I was red wine drunk at my friend’s clothing store. We were listening to Mariah Carey and in our perpetual, drunken Thelma and Louise-ish state, I was finally understanding what love might mean and I knew one day I wanted to find real love and instead of just flailing and weeping naked in a series of hot and cold baths that lasted for hours like I would usually do, my supposedly Scorpionic shell cracked. What I uncovered was a changeling, a creature so fierce and fluid that only the power of the wind (which I’ve always adored) could whip the edges into place after a few nights of unashamed shape-shifting. What I uncovered (or stopped negating, rather) was my Gemini.
That pendulum swing of moods? That was pure Gemini. Dancing around the Maypole. Dry humping the Maypole. Turning the Maypole into a stripper pole. And then, when the Maypole stopped being amusing, smashing and burning the Maypole into a sacred effigy of youth lost. The lack of the supposedly quintessential Gemini charm? That was my Gemini side analyzing, surveying, prospecting, dissecting, and poking at people. Pinching their souls until they were bruised and raw. I was writing an eternal, internal book on everyone’s every movement until I could find the two sides to them. I wanted everyone to have two sides. I wanted to see in them what I could not find in myself. It was then they became whole.
All that time that I was denying my Gemininess, I was being a classic Gemini. Trying to find another piece to make me feel complete, to solve the riddle, to cease the shifting, from light to dark and back again. Every time I switched my style from ’60s girl group to ’50s beatnik to sequin-crazy glam rock goddess to paisley goth to raw vegan yoga girl, that was me trying to find my other half. Every time I took a shot of Patron or a shot of wheatgrass or burned sage or burned bridges, that was me trying to understand the other me.
My Gemini search engine was constantly spiritually downloading all the information ever over the yin-yang network of life. And, I am not alone in this. Gemini Stevie Nicks may be the White Witch, but she twirls around in black fringe and scowls at the world through her mystical lyrics. Everyone adores her. Gemini Prince is the Purple One; he also scowls at the world through his sex-laden, dualistic androgyny. At one point, he even denied his own existence and renamed himself (something I also always do.) And yet, everyone adores him. Morrissey is a Gemini and he’s like the King of Scowling. For some reason, everyone loves Moz. Angelina Jolie, the world’s favorite altruistic sexpot who once wore her ex-husband’s blood in a vial around her neck? Much beloved Gemini.
Danny Elfman, who is known for his childlike yet dark and twisted music? Everyone’s favorite creepy Gemini. All these Gemini celebrities and musicians walk on the shadow side of life, communicating their dazzling talents through the erotic or the wanton or the esoteric and they do it in a way that perpetuates that primal, intoxicating buzz of teen lust. And that’s why a Gemini is so adored.
Just like me, they dance deliriously to the sound of the pan pipes leading them into a forest full of flower-strewn orgies and sequin-studded shoes, consummate teenagers in a state of angst or ecstasy. Dark fairies or genies ready to grant your every wish or impishly antagonize you until they get bored and give up.
But that’s the thing I learned about Geminis, that I should have learned that day when I was ten years old, drawing out my birth chart and plotting to succeed at it no matter how much it confused me. A Gemini never gives up. They pick up the broken skeletal remains of their wings, glue them back together with blood and stardust, and wink at the next person who passes by to hitch a ride, get a job, make-out, or maybe if they’re lucky, all three.
Nadia Noir is a writer that likes black tea, blackberry scones, black cats, the smell of black leather, and the sartorial combo of black and gold. She likes to twerk naked until she’s drenched in sweat and make love to the sounds of psychedelic sitar. She still cries a lot and goes into fits of possessive Scorpionic rage, but her Forever 16 Gemini just pushed her off the bed and told her to shut up and get over herself. She just now got over herself and totally forgot what we were talking about.
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.
Somewhere in the garden of my subconscious, a powerful black stallion is biding his time, waiting for me to call on him. The horse exudes the kind of strength that needs no armor. He’s as high as a house, and his sheer presence makes my body quake. But he’s also calm and loving, and will always, forever and a day, be loyal to me. How do I know? Because the stallion is my spirit power animal, and when I met him it was one of the most moving encounters of my life.
The story begins at a dinner in New York City, thrown by the publicist Kelly Cutrone for her client, fashion designer Raif Adelberg. Kelly’s been a long time supporter of The Numinous, so I knew something mystical was up when she told me I had to meet him. And sure enough, before long we were discussing the fact that Raif’s power animal is the orca, or killer whale.
Of course I was instantly intrigued. How did he know? Did we all have a power animal? How did the whale show up in his life? In response; he was given his animal reading by a friend, a Native American chief, after discussing with his wife (also Native) her butterfly power animal. Yes, we all have access to backup from the animal world. And in his case, Raif feels connected to his animal in many ways.
In a literal sense, “I live on an island (off the coast of Vancouver), where orca actually play in my backyard,” he told me. But the killer whale is also known in the animal kingdom for its steadfast family values. They mate for life and travel in packs, and in Raif’s case; “I feel most secure with the comfort of my family around me.” How cool that he even got a tattoo of a butterfly years before he met his wife.
My subsequent mission to meet my own power animal led me to modern shamanic practitioner Marika Messager, and a deep guided meditation – over Skype – that transported me from a still, Tuesday afternoon in my apartment in NYC to the dank depths of the forest that exists somewhere in the middle of my being where my stallion lives.
I met other animals – a hedgehog, butterflies, even a Unicorn – en route, but only when I found my horse did my skin prickle all over with goose bumps and the tears wet my face. They were tears of relief. I had recently experienced something that had left me feeling quite vulnerable and alone in the world, and the transference of strength, sheer power, from the horse to me, felt like being rebuilt from the inside out.
Before you embark on a journey to meet your own power animal, here’s what you Need To Know:
• To meet your power animal you need be relaxed enough to access your subconscious. This means shifting your brainwaves into a theta state (similar to a meditative state). Shamans use drumming to do this, but hypnosis can invoke this same sense of deep of relaxation.
• In shamanic tradition, it is thought that we have three power animals, from the air, land and sea. Although you may meet many more, depending what’s going on in your life at the time and the kind of healing they can offer you.
• Our animals are there to lend us their wisdom. To fully appreciate the message your power animal has for you, research how the animal lives, mates, socializes, hunts. What lesson is there for you in the animal’s habits? For example, an eagle might appear to remind you to view a difficult situation “from above.”
• Mythical animals – dragons, unicorns – may appear to you too. But all animals are equal; no animal is “better” than any other.
• The first time you meet your animal, first thank him for his presence. After that, you can ask him questions, to which he may reply with a vision, a sensation or a voice in your head. Be aware that his support may appear in any of the ways you usually connect with your intuition.
• Once you have met your animal, or animals, call on them in times of need. For example, the horse symbolizes freedom, so call on him whenever you are feeling restricted by beliefs about your supposed limitations.
• Finally, your animal may continue to appear to you in “waking” life – in iconography, conversations or popular culture – to remind you of his continued presence in your life. Acknowledge him with a wink when he does.
Marika Messager assists, advises and counsels people in all areas of their lives, through a blend of executive, life, career and transition coaching, mentoring and healing. She has developed an interest in indigenous healing practices and particularly the influence of consciousness and the mind on the healing process. In her work, she bridges and blends these techniques to encourage and empower her clients to find the answers they seek within.
In the second instalment of her brilliant column on sex and spirituality, Ellie Burrows takes a Tantric approach to online dating…
I’m pretty sure I discovered the secret to online dating.
And it’s Tantra.
I’m not talking about super-connected, total body orgasm, tantric sex. I’m talking about the energetic concept that makes that kind of sex possible: balance of the masculine and feminine energies. Let me explain.
After getting out of a very intense five-year relationship, I actually took a year off from dating altogether. At the end of the year, I met a lovely lawyer in LA who subsequently flew to New York City to woo me. The weekend was wonderful. He really had his shit together, but one night lying naked in bed he called me a “stallion” – and I knew as soon as he uttered that word that we weren’t a match.
The part of me that was also a mare shuddered. But to his credit, the dating experience was so positive it got me back in the saddle and over my fear of opening up my sacred sexual energy to a new partner. I wanted to repeat it many times over with all different kinds of men. And that the fastest way for me to accomplish this was to bite the bullet and get online.
Almost immediately my inbox was flooded with hundreds of messages from dudes who:
1. Hadn’t actually read my profile: “hey sexy ;-)”
2. Were clever but weren’t particularly attractive: “Multiple photos of you in leggings before 11am. Thank you.”
3. Were so totally wrong for me (and also crazy, with really poor grammar): “So I was reading your profile and then I was like goddammit…this always happens every time, I’m reading some nice girl like your selfs profile and then I remember I didn’t check your diet…Bam! I know I’m fucked before I even look, she’s going to be a god damned vegan, CRAP! Then by some magical stroke of luck or maybe the stars have aligned in my favor I see, I see: “Strictly Anything”…fucking finally a girl who isn’t a new age picky bitch, thank god! Hi I’m Johnny, its nice to meet you.”
Where was the quality? Where were the guys that I would actually want to meet and touch in person? The discerning, thoughtful men weren’t sending messages to every chick on the site. Then I remembered three very important things.
1. I’m a class act. And if I’m online, then my equal is probably online, too.
2. Insecurity is not gender specific, and rejection is scary.
3. We all have egos that need to be stroked once in a while.
As I browsed through the online shopping mall of men, I realized my approach needed to evolve. Big time. What if the right men weren’t reaching out to me because they thought they might get rejected? What if they needed me to reach out to them? After all, my profile status was set to “Replies Very Selectively”. This was going to require a serious shift in consciousness. So like everywhere else in my life, I decided to approach it from a spiritual perspective.
When it comes to love and sex, Tantra is my subtext. And Tantra embraces opposites, playing with concepts of light and dark, attraction and repulsion, hot and cold, and obviously, male and female.
As Osho writes in The Book of Secrets; “Tantra says that when the ultimate bliss and ecstasy comes inside you, it means your own positive and negative pole have come to a meeting – because every man is both man and woman, and every woman is both is both man and woman. You are born not only from woman or from man, you are born out of a meeting of the opposites.”
Now do me a favor and look between your legs. Seriously, look. Imagine what’s underneath those jeans…Now, completely forget what you just imagined. We’re all over the spectrum, people. There are masculine and feminine energies in all of us despite what our genitals tell us. Male energy is about focus, purpose, and drive. Female energy is about creativity, nurture, and radiance. ALL of those qualities are in EVERYONE. However, sometimes we get our energetic wires crossed when it comes to the dating dance and we can short circuit.
In 1995 the authors of The Rules, claimed that the male must be the sole initiator when it comes to dating. Yet according to ancient tantric rituals, the female is deeply revered and considered an initiator of sorts. She’s the creator. So you see, either the male or female energy can initiate. The feminine is always on the receiving side of the masculine penetration, but in Tantra “penetration” and “initiation” are two different things, and that’s where we get confused.
Having wrapped my head around this, I was now ready to send out some serious digital fuck me eyes.
My first online date was EPIC. A dreamy Vintner from Northern California (match 97%) was visiting the city and geo-locating attractive ladies using a feature called Quickmatch. Basically, the equivalent of telling me I was hot but not being bold enough to send a message.
I showed his photo to my friend Sarah who was staying with me for the week. Call it kismet, fate, even divine intervention, she responded; “Oh my God, I know him. That dude is amazing. I did some day-drinking with him a couple months ago in L.A. You need to message him.”
I dreaded sending my first message, but I knew it was all in the name of Tantra: “Small world moment of my day. Sarah was overlooking my shoulder when your face popped up on my quickmatch. She says you’re good stock.”
I gave no name. No mention of his profile. Didn’t ask him out. I wanted to rouse him out of his man cave, give him a little confidence, and let him know I was willing to play. Now it was up to him to show me his peacock feathers.
And boy, did he show me. He was only in town for two more days so he asked me out immediately. I was supposed to leave town but it was a blizzard outside and when I got snowed in, I agreed to meet him that night – which turned into a 36-hour first date. It included closing down two bars (Smith and Mills and a deserted Greenwich Hotel), dim sum (with his friend), sushi (just the two of us), two sleepovers (one at his, one at mine), and one flight change (his).
I can’t believe a computer told me I would like this person so much. So okay, online dating is kind of awesome.
Next, I tried my newfound strategy on a very handsome Corporate Lawyer with perfect abs and a brilliant mind whose profile I had been circling for a couple weeks (match 89%). We had also matched on Tinder, very equal opportunity in the cave-door knocking department. On OkCupid, we both had the same answer to the question “The most private thing you’re willing to admit?” which was that we both loved reading Missed Connections. I sent him the following:
“High percentages.
Tinder Match.
Missed Connections.
Nice Abs.
Your move.”
Again, no name. No overly thorough message. Just a little Tantric taunt.
Well, Corporate Lawyer asked me out immediately and told me that was the most effective message he had received to date. We went on a date and shared some steamy make outs and engaged in a pretty intense cerebral texting relationship. He also serenaded me with The Magnetic Fields’ “Come Back From San Francisco” begging me to return from visiting the aforementioned vintner. Timing wasn’t on our side; he got a new job, moved to Colorado, and although my body was back in New York the truth was that I had left my heart in San Francisco.
A key part of online dating is discernment. Over the course of four months I went on six dates, with five truly viable options. Only one was terrible. It was my first Tinder date and I didn’t vet him enough over text. Amateur hour.
But my point is, I didn’t go on hundreds of dates. I didn’t shoot twenty arrows and hope one hit a bull’s eye. I shot six and missed once. The men I met were of the highest quality and I had played my part in the courtship. It’s too bad I can’t have five boyfriends at once.
I’m sure it’s no surprise that in preparation for the this article I picked up The New Rules: The Dating Dos and Don’t for the Digital Generation to see how the game had changed with the advent of social media.Inside, I came across lines like “Don’t talk too much in the first weeks” and “Don’t write to guys first,” and “ignore winks.”
Yikes. I had to throw it across the room. It was entirely missing the opportunity for an open dialogue about the nature of our hearts and gave total disregard to spontaneity, two pretty important tenants of love. More importantly, it diminished the equal power of the male and the female to ignite something.
At its core Tantra is about expressing everything that “comes up,” including all that you feel. It’s about allowing ourselves to feel and express everything between two polarities. It would never have you suppress anything for the sake of strategy or gain. It wants you to dance openly with everything and everyone you encounter. It’s all checks and balances, and I am glad I went with the ancient wisdom on this one.
Which makes me a rule-breaker I guess. But I expressed myself fully and created something magical.
NB: I had roughly 1000 words to make my case for Tantra as an online dating strategy, so I’ve seriously cherry picked my way through the infinite Tantric garden here. For a more in depth lesson, see the following reading list:
With her new collection, //minD//, award-winning jewelry designer Gina Melosi has found a way to connect with her family history on both the physical and the metaphysical plane. Photographer: Maya Art. Art direction/model: Gina Melosi. Styling: Tony Hortal. Makeup/hair: Myo Mint. Color: Jason King at Lily Maila. Photographer’s assistant: Alessia Palombo.
After a recent trip to explore the Montana mines, visiting small mining town Butte ‐ home to her recently deceased Grandmother ‐ //mineD// embraces raw metal materials, intensified by the setting of uncut Sapphires, Herkimer diamonds and other locally sourced minerals such as Pyrite and Covellite. Returning to a recurrant theme in her work, the beauty which arises out of destruction ‐ the broken, abandoned and overlooked ‐ this time she was inspired by her family history and a wish to feel a closeness to lost loved ones…
Director / videographer: Joseph Eardly
Why did you specifically want to create a collection inspired by your Grandmother?
A few things came together at once. I was thinking about doing something more related to my personal heritage, when my dad asked me to work on a project with him for a new book (he’s an environmental historian). Around this period I had a chance to visit my Grandmother in Montana (she lived in the mining town of Butte her whole life) for her 97th birthday. I hadn’t seen her for eight years, and I knew it’d be the last time. I was reminded that some of my fondest memories had been of dressing up in the costume jewelry that she handed down to me when I was a kid.
Is that why you went back to Butte to research materials for this collection?
And having grown up visiting mining ghosts towns and taking photographs, panning for gold, collecting rough garnets and sapphires, admiring the copper-hued treats on offer in souvenir shops…I was also fascinating to revisit it now that I had my own jewelry business and know so much about minerals and precious metals.
So what did you discover there?
The town of Butte is sprinkled with discarded mine shafts from before the world wars. There’s a huge open pit mine called Berkeley Pit, which, although it’s been decommissioned for ages, is open to the public for viewing. It’s a massive toxic lake and one of the largest Superfund sites. Interestingly, some species have evolved to ingest the heavy metal waters, and compounds have been isolated which have cancer-fighting properties. The themes of destruction, abandon, and neglect began to surface for me here. So I began filming and discussing further with my father, and the narrative for //mineD// started to flow…
How do you feel like you connected with your Grandmother creating this collection?
There has been a physical and emotional reworking of materials which were entrusted to me that’s felt like a powerful means of communication with her spirit. I was also able to look into the heritage of my whole family through connecting with their surroundings, and make a link to what I’m doing now with some of these very same objects. In this way, the project also helped me feel like I could connect more to myself.
And in what ways do you think your ancestors are alive in you?
I think my Grandparents are of the reasons I became a jewelry artist. When my Grandfather on my dad’s side retired from banking, he became an obsessive crafter. I learned the art of cross-stitch and developed a penchant for sequins from him. My mom’s mom collected all the glamorous costume jewelry that was popular in her day, much of which has been passed down to me. These stories and memories from my youth helped shape my interests and creative endeavors today, and in this way I believe they live on through me, bypassing words and filtering through the elements.
How do you define “family”, and why is this such an important theme in your work?
Our families’ influence defines who we are and shapes our personal approach to the world. It’s through our blood ties that we first learn about love. I don’t think we can figure out where we’re going if we don’t understand where we’ve come from, both physically and metaphysically.
The ancient holiday of Beltane (May 1st in the Northern Hemisphere), is celebrated as the first day of summer and carries a unique opportunity to authentically connect with faeries, romance, and magic! On its eve, white witch Lucy Cavendish shares with Madeline Giles what being a professional witch entails – and how true witchcraft is about inspiring others to remember their own innate magical powers.
“There’s an artistic aspect to being a witch,” muses a bright and bubbly Lucy Cavendish, calling from her native Sydney, Australia. “Even though a lot of spell work seems to be about attracting, it’s also about creating and contributing – there’s an eclectic, free-spirited vibe to it.” Cavendish, who is a self-declared bohemian witch, has been teaching, writing, speaking and practicing witchcraft for over 20 years. Through her bestselling oracle card decks and books (including Witchy Magic, Spellbound, and several others), Cavendish disparages the hoary viewpoint that real-life witches are fantasy.
Witches hold a rather notorious reputation in society. What’s your personal opinion on that?
I understand why people have a negative perception, because that’s been in our popular culture for some time – and I would say that just like there are bad postmen and bad teachers, of course there are people who work witchcraft in ways I would consider irresponsible and unethical. But the point people overlook is that there’s corruption and selfishness in all paths – whether you’re a policeman, a politician, or a witch – it all comes down to the individual and his or her intent.
How does one go about becoming a professional witch, out of interest?
It depends on what particular path you choose to travel, as there are various forms of witchcraft. Personally, I’ve chosen to follow a more eclectic, non-hierarchical path. I’ve done my Year And A Day, which is where you sit in a circle for 366 days with mentors discussing and practicing spells and conducting rituals. It’s a collective approach so you’ve always got people to support you and to question you if they think what you’re doing is unethical.
And how do you pass the teachings on?
It feels like; “I’ve developed this connection, if you would like to, you can develop this too. Maybe we could work together.” My aim is to inspire people to have a beautiful experience of the divine whether it occurs sitting in a grove of trees or through a celestial vision.
What was your life like before you became a witch?
Even though I was always really drawn to this work and I did readings for people all the time, I spent a lot of time trying to fit in. I wanted to live a life that didn’t look quite so weird from the outside. So I went to university and worked in really ordinary jobs, but I never lasted long. I’d be the production editor at a magazine, but have my cards out on my desk – which is probably why I didn’t last! At the time I assumed that other people wouldn’t accept me, but really I wasn’t accepting of myself. I honestly thought if I did what I loved – which is what I’m doing now – I’d starve and my cat would die. I thought I’d be a little street witch, a magical homeless person doing readings on street corners (laughs). That’s what I was afraid of.
So how did you make the transition?
I ended up leaving Australia to travel for a few years, and that really opened me up by helping me get through the fear of making ends meet while doing what I love. I never thought I could be doing what I do now – I assumed I would have to be unhappy in a “real” job, and that this would be a passion to be kept secret from some people. Thank goodness I took the risk! I chucked myself out of the nest and learned that it is possible to live a precarious, artistic and magical life – that somehow, if you commit to it, it will work out.
Now let’s get into the detail. Can you cast spells on other people?
There are very strong ethics and laws around what we do, one of which is never cast a spell against the free will of another person. So if someone comes to me and says; “I’d like you to cast a spell for me,” I can do that – but it needs to be for them. Not for that man or woman they’re interested in, for their mother’s inheritance, their ex-husband or wife, etc. That’s not what we do, and I don’t consider people who do do this kind of thing witches as they’re ignorant of the law, and it’s not healthy. Witches uphold the Law of Threefold Return, which means whatever you send out will return to you to the power of three. It’s important to be aware of that. It’s not the same as karma, but it’s similar to it – and if you’re going to sit in that consciousness and stir up that energy, there’s no way you can avoid it impacting you.
What types of spells do you cast most often?
A lot of spell work is about empowering people by raising their confidence and self-esteem – because that’s really the root of manifesting the things we want in our lives. Sometimes people are afraid to go after what they want because they feel they’re not good enough to deserve it, and spellcrafting is designed to shift a person’s energy and help them get to a place where they feel strong, confident and grounded – and then their contribution can begin.
What’s the first thing you’d recommend to someone interested in strengthening their divine connection?
The first thing I’d ask is how often they’re outside. How much time do they spend in nature? Are they aware of their local environment and what grows near where they live? What phase the moon is in? How often does it rain? It may sound like I’m asking everyone to become climate specialists, but it’s more that I’m asking people to get back in touch with how things work at a natural level in their environment. When you begin observing where you live and how energy works there, you begin to restore the natural power source that flows not only around us, but within us. That way, we begin to feel more powerful – and thus increase our opportunities to be a fully contributing, creative soul, which is empowering for anyone whether you want to be a witch or not.
In the below extract from her book Witchy Magic, Lucy elaborates on how to celebrate Beltane. Back in the day, our ancestors used to welcome the sweetness of summer on this enchanted holiday by dancing around ceremonious Beltane fires and making love underneath the stars. Today, witches continue to celebrate this festive day with large celebrations and generously sweet offerings to mother earth.
“Beltane is representative of vitality, fertility and the energy of the sun, so its foods include luscious fruits like cherries and strawberries, green leaf, herb and flower petal salads, oat or barley cakes, and honey. Beltane is a festival of love and romance, and roses and other flowers can be added to your food, used as a garnish or table decoration, woven into a garland for your hair or used in spells for love, which can be as simple as lighting a pink candle and making a wish or soaking in a bath filled with pink rose petals. You can also leave a little plate of nuts, berries and flowers out for the faeries, as this is a cross-quarter day when the veils are thin, and their energy can be drawn upon. Dress in long, swirling clothes with flowers in your hair and dance barefoot on the grass, soaking up the vibration of the earth and of this powerful, potent time.”
LUCY’S BELTANE ROSE PETAL TEA
Rose tea has a light flavor, a sweet scent and a calming effect.
*Using one cup of fresh rose petals, cut off the biter white bases from the petals and rinse well. Place in a teapot and pour two cups of boiling water over them. Allow to steep for five minutes – the petals will darken and become discolored, which is normal. Strain the rose petal liquid into teacups and add a little honey of you like.
Read more from Madeline Giles at Mermadeline.com, and follow her on Twitter.
Certified health coach Robyn Youkilis is the creator free video training series The Rockstar Roadmap, which she designed to prove it’s possible to love food and still lose weight and get the body you want. If, that is, you follow The Rules (and say a prayer or two).
1. If you’re dining alone you must eat with ZERO distractions. Turn away from your computer, close the magazine. You may look out the window and listen to music, but do whatever you have to do to enjoy your breakfast, lunch, dinner or even just a snack in peace. I know, it’s boring. You want to cry. It just feels so lonely! But it also feels great to learn when you’re full and to be able to end your meal at exactly that time, which will never happen if you’re not 100% in your body while it’s eating. How about you get a Buddha and eat with him? I have a large black stone Buddha that sits on the corner of my desk with a few other trinkets, and every day I dine with him. Of all the food rules, this is one is the hardest (that’s why I got it out of the way first!), but it’s also EVERYTHING. But please don’t stress if you’re not able to do this for all your meals.
2. Tea is your new best friend. “But I thought YOU were my new best friend Robyn!” Well I am, but so is tea. Herbal tea, that is. Ginger will help with digestion, nettle is good for digestion, mate gives you energy and run will clear your mind.But mainly, as you try to become your healthiest you it can takes a while to calm the cravings, which are usually based in the need for a calming moment. That’s why I call a tea a hug in a mug.
3. Breathe, God dammit. Half the time this is the answer to stopping cravings and getting back in the moment. There, you’re cured! Just kidding. But seriously breathe DEEPLY. None of us do it enough.
Breathing will help:
4. Eat greens until they’re coming out of your ears and mix them up (okay, that’s two rules). I can already hear you…but I have a salad for lunch and a green with dinner most days (and if you do, that’s already awesome)! Well, I want you to have more. Find a way to get them in your breakfast, lunch and dinner. And I’m not just talking kale smoothies. I mean mustard greens, dandelion, sprouts, purslane, bok choi EVERYTHING GREEN. Don’t know what to do with them? Shred them and have them raw with a simple dressing massaged in or steam or sauté them with olive oil, garlic and lemon.
5. Healthy fats are your friend. Avocados, nuts and seeds (small amounts, like way smaller than you think), coconuts, oily cold water fish should be welcomed onto your plate on a daily basis. As the former Snackwells queen, I’m still getting over my fear of fat too. Personally, I was never heavier than when I was eating fat free. When I began eating all the yummy, healthy and satisfying fats listed above (in moderation), I lost not just the 20 lbs I put on, but another 10. Oh, and your new glowing skin will thank you too. Remember, fat is not a four-letter word (it’s not, it’s three).
6. Chew your food until it’s liquid. I know this sounds like pure insanity but trust me, contrary to popular belief, your stomach does not have teeth. Half the time pesky digestive issues (bloating, less than frequent pooping, etc) can be solved by chewing more. And you don’t have to sit there counting. Until liquid is good/great enough.
7. Start your day with a prayer or blessing and end your day with a prayer or blessing. Not into the spiritual thing? Tough. It’s been proven that individuals with a spiritual practice of any kind (concentrating on your breathing is already a spiritual practice by the way) are happier, healthier and most likely to be living in the body they desire. It can be something as simple as; “Thank you for today.”
8. Smaller plates, smaller forks, smaller everything. I know, I know. The idea of eating my lunch or dinner off of a salad plate used to feel pretty lame too. Eventually I got used to it, and you will too (promise). I found a smaller plate that I loved (these can vary a lot so shop around, look for 6-8 inches with a border – we tend to want to stay within the lines). Now, a regular dinner plate (and the amount of food that typically accompanies it) looks enormous to me. This switch can sometimes be the easiest rule to follow because all you need to do for this one is swap out a physical item.
9. This is your life and it’s not meant to be painful, restrictive, unpleasant or unfun (I made that word up), but it’s also important to remember that as human beings, we do better with accountability, support, love and goals. So keep it real, girl. I am here for you, yes, but most importantly, you are here for you.
10. With that being said, here’s a song to dance to! If you’re somewhere you can’t actually dance, then just close your eyes and dance in your mind. If you’re in bed reading this, use the song to sit up and meditate too and if you happen to be working out right after this GO FOR IT. Dancing is FREE. It relieves stress, lifts the pressure and gets us moving and back in our groove.
The Rockstar Roadmap with Robyn Youkilis is a free video series about getting healthy and losing a few pounds while NOT giving up your life to make that happen. It all kicks off on May 14, and you can sign up here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiQW2O9s2iM
