November brings complex energetics to the table

Hello my friends. Can you believe it is already November 2017?? To me it seems the year has flown by. Energies are high right now, as influenced by the Full Moon and the intensity of the changing season. Let's start by looking at what this Full Moon brings:

In November we have an Otter Full Moon (or Beaver, depending on your source), which is a somewhat complex energetic because it taps both an awakening of consciousness and a sense of being grounded. Generally speaking, these may be two opposing impulses, but at this time, they come in harmony to create a powerful energetic that supports us in releasing what no longer serves to make space for what does. 

You may feel especially emotional during this Moon cycle (I know I do!) as new levels of clarity come to you. You may also notice a broadening of your perceptual field and a stirring of your spirit that actually leaves you feeling more, rather than less, connected and grounded. 

Combine that with the ending of the Harvest season. This month our energy begins to turn inward as Winter approaches. If you have not yet taken stock of your personal "harvest" this year - what you grew in your life and what is ready for releasing - now is the time to do so. Your personal harvest begins in the Spring with what you plant into your life; then moves into Summer in which you tend to those dreams; then becomes your harvest in Autumn. 

Sometimes what we find excites and pleases us; sometimes it does not. No matter what you find in your personal harvest, give thanks for it. Growth comes through both gains and losses. And as the Otter Moon suggests, we have to release what does not serve us to make room for what does, just as a tree releases its spent leaves during Autumn, making way for fresh growth in the Spring.

Consider allowing this Thanksgiving to hold something different for you: an opportunity to celebrate the whole of your harvest - that which is to be released and that which is growing - in your life. By keeping your connections to the things in your life current and clear, you free up the space and energy needed to keep you feeling vibrant and inspired, ready to move forward. 

Til next time, Namaste'

Reality Check

In case you haven't stopped to notice it, we are already midway through August, 2017, two-thirds of the way through the year. This is stunning for me to consider, as it feels just last week was the new year's beginning.

If you read my last blog, "2017 - The Year of the Ten Fire Rooster," you may be feeling the truth of what was predicted based on ancient numerology and Chinese Calendar lore. Though perhaps a tad less tense than last year, 2017 comes packed with its own set of opportunities (or dramas, depending on how you choose to look at it). 

At this point in the game, it is important for you to find your inner balance. With strong beliefs and opinions streaming out from every arena, you'll need that inner balance to stabilize you through the rising and falling of emotional waves that pass through your personal space - those belonging to you and those belonging to others. It is human nature to have reactions to things, but it's not your inner emotional reactions that are the problem; it is what you do with them.

   

If you use your reactions to justify blame, shame, judgement, or separation, you are missing the truth and a powerful opportunity. Whenever you slip into this type of justification, you are actually passing off your responsibility for yourself onto others, where it does not belong. Your emotional reactions belong to you and you alone. 

Let me say this another way: Others are not responsible for your feelings - not now, not ever. 

It does not matter what they did or didn't do; you are the sole proprietor of your feelings today, in this moment. They happen inside of you, not outside of you. They are created inside of you. They exist and are managed inside of you. They dissolve away inside of you. They do not belong to anyone else; they belong to you, even when what you attribute them to happens outside of you.

This means that you are also 100% responsible for your reactions to the experiences of your life - how you deal with your feelings. Nobody makes you do anything, unless someone threatens your safety or your life if you do not comply with their demands. And even then you have choices; limited ones, but still choices, either in that moment or sometime later. Other than that extreme situation, you make your life choices from a place of freedom. You are nobody's slave, nobody's prisoner.

If you insist on blaming others for your state of being, you try to make them responsible for your choices, your feelings, and the quality of your life, when in reality you are. You hand them all your power by sacrificing to them how you feel and what you do in your life. And then you blame them when it doesn't turn out like you want. That's messed up. That is part of what Marianne Williamson refers to as error thinking.

As a free adult living in this country, you have the luxury - and it is a luxury - to choose for yourself who you want to befriend, who you join in partnership with, where you work and live, what you eat and drink, where you go, what you do, how long you stay, what you believe in, what you reject, how you feel, etc. No one else makes those choices for you. You make them for yourself, each one adding to the creation of the story of your life.

That means when things "go wrong" in your life, so to speak, or don't go as you hoped, you have the choice to change something to bring it back into alignment with what you want. Whatever happened in your past is past; whatever wounds you carry forward from that past can be healed. You have the choice to stop blaming others and take responsibility for your life now, starting today. There is no one to blame for your current situation, or for the feelings you hold in relation to it.

Instead of blaming others when you make a choice or a string of choices that do not bring you the outcome you want, or when you disagree with what is, or when you let your emotions get the better of you and react destructively, step off the road you are on and find a new path to walk. It really is that simple. 

You are the captain of your ship; the star, director and producer of your movie; the King or Queen of your life. You have the power within yourself to change the course of your ship, to manage the contents of your movie, and to make rulings about the direction of your life. But first you must stop blaming others and take full responsibility for yourself. You must reclaim your freedom to choose, for you alone can truly change your life.

And the sooner, the better. 

2017 - The Year of the Ten Fire Rooster

 2017: The Year of the Fire Rooster

 

About now, you may be brushing the dust from your clothes, grateful to have made it through the crazy Fire Monkey antics of 2016 relatively unscathed. For many personally, and for all of us nationally, we went through one of the wildest roller coaster rides of our lives this past year. Standing firmly in the new year, we can release a big sigh. But it ain't over yet, folks...

2017 may not bring much relief, though it is sure to harbor more change. In numerology, 2017 amounts to a number 10 or a 1 (the energy of 1 magnified by 0). This number is associated with new changes and also with the potential for peace, harmony, unity, and vitality. The number 10 also relates to manifestation and the potential to create a wise balance among seemingly opposing principles such as masculine/feminine, creation/destruction, good/evil, etc. resulting in a powerful wholeness...all feel-good possibilities.

With so much going for us, how can we go wrong? Because even though the foundational energies of this year offer an opportunity to evolve to a higher vibration, we must claim it. The number 10 also comes with a dark side that is ruthless, competitive, unemotional, domineering, stubborn, independent, and eccentric. If we play out these qualities instead, we are sure to suffer.

Now let's add in another piece of the 2017 puzzle: January 28th marked the start of the Chinese New Year - the year of the Fire Rooster. The energy of Fire Roosters is generally cocky, dominant, overly self-assured, resourceful, hard-working, bullying, boastful, vain, courageous, outspoken, blunt, egotistical...sound familiar? 

Interestingly, our country's new leadership personifies this energetic like never before. Barely a month in and there have already been authoritarian rumblings from Washington that smack of an "I don't give a damn about protocol" approach to governance. We would be wise to pay close attention to where things go from here, as our nation moves ever so tentatively through this historic period.

Such a 10 Fire Rooster-esque profile is ripe for big, huge things to happen, but we cannot say of what nature. Perhaps this energetic is exactly what we need to catapult us forward into evolutionary greatness as some believe. Or perhaps this energy will tear us down in brutal ways as others believe. The potential is ripe for either to occur. And most people stand with firm conviction on one side of that belief or the other. 

 But I will say this: If you give a rat's ass about things like compassion, integrity, unity, stewardship, diversity, or equality, you best pay attention. The dark side of 10 Fire Rooster energy is not interested in such things. Nope; they are interested in only one thing: getting their way. They like their way, and they tend to disregard the rights and opinions of others to get it. That's the tricky deal with the dark side of 10 Fire Rooster energy; its nature is divisive rather than unifying.

Two verbs to ditch not only this month but this entire year are apathy and complacency. Just pitch them right out of your world because a 10 Fire Rooster energy demands the opposite - a centered, clear, assured, solid stance with deliberate and right action. Right action? Who can say what that is? 

In a nation more strongly divided into two distinct camps than we've seen for generations, with each group determined to stand up for what they believe is right...all wallowing in the cocky energy of the 10 Fire Rooster...there is potential for things to get rather ugly this year.  

Standing up for what you believe in is fine; necessary even. Just be careful not to stoop to the immature bully-antics that the cocky 10 Fire Rooster may bring to the ring. If you do, you just may find yourself on the receiving end of a mighty ass-whipping. Knee-jerk reactions do not serve the individual or our current evolution as Human Beings. Neither does being overly optimistic, overly pessimistic, or plain old apathetic. Clear, conscientious conviction with decisive, aligned action is what is called for.

Aligned action can be as simple as holding an undying faith in the inherent goodness of Humankind. Goodness is in each one of us somewhere; even those we may view as our enemies. Goodness is everywhere, actually. Just take a quick look around. People everywhere are standing up for goodness in all kinds of ways, big and small, publicly and privately, because they believe. They believe in the importance and power of things like compassion, integrity, unity, stewardship, diversity, and equality. And they believe in the importance and power of basic Human goodness.

But you won't feel a connection to that goodness if you don't do anything to cultivate it in yourself. One simple way to do so: meditate. Even 3 minutes a day of meditation can achieve this. Meditation is also a powerful way to stay out of knee-jerk reactions so you don't add to the messiness of the Fire Rooster energies at play in the world, or find yourself on the receiving end of an ass-whipping. Plus, as a bonus, every time you meditate, you shift one vibrational thread in the energetic matrix of our world toward the light and love and goodness of the Universe...and every little bit helps.

Try something basic like the universal Sanskrit syllable of Om (believed to be the basic sound of the world, containing all other sounds), or Ra Ma Da Sa Sa Se So Hung (another Sanskrit Mantra that invites unity of heart).

Or you can simply meditate on your breath, knowing it is connected to all other breaths. Or on the goodness beating in your own Human heart, knowing it is connected to the goodness in all other hearts.

So it appears, my friends, that 2017 will be a year of big change and action. Let's make it right action based on unity rather than segregation, equality rather than inequity, and compassion rather than ego...all of which start within each and every one of us Human Beings, and all of which are nurtured through meditation. Such a simple action makes a powerful difference. This month's energy tip: start meditating regularly.

Til next time... Namaste'