Neptune is Transiting My Sun. And, I Need Rest.

Today I was introduced to a concept called the Forer Effect, which in a nutshell says that people have a tendency to believe statements about themselves to be highly accurate, even if said statements could be applied to anyone. The Forer Effect is used to denigrate subjects like astrology, numerology, the Enneagram, etc. as pseudo-science.

As my boyfriend will tell  you, one of my favorite words is “anecdotally.” The Forer Effect doesn’t really explain about anecdotal evidence. This was on my mind as I checked the ephemeris for 2015 and found that transiting Neptune is back on my solar degree. This is the second time in about 8 months this has happened, and I can feel when Neptune is on my sun. I am tired. My brain isn’t so good for organization, clear thoughts, tasks, deadlines. I’m forgetful. Have trouble formulating a coherent or elegant sentence. And my mild dyslexia flares up so I read things like “tonight” and see “Tuesday.” This makes for snafus a-plenty.

Also lately, I have been working seven days a week. It happened sort of by accident during a time when I was worried about money and scheduled more things than I should have, and when I wasn’t being careful, and yah, when Neptune was transiting my sun and I couldn’t keep Tuesday and Thursday straight and ended up with too many commitments, several of which I couldn’t break because they were contractual. So after about a month of this schedule, and Neptune doing its thing, I had to make some room.

So I gave up my beloved Yin Yoga class at Reflections Yoga, a class I have taught for about 3 years. It was the first time Yin was offered at Reflections, and what started as my love for the practice has grown into a very popular class and a beautifully community of practitioners. I just found out today that Reflections found a new teacher for Fridays. Her name is Tatum and she looks lovely and I am certain that everyone will love her class.

The lesson I got from this experience is that sometimes we have to let even beloved and dear things go, because holding on to them is taking more from us than we can give out. And if we try to give from an empty place, it’s no good for anyone. That’s what Ana Forrest calls the “sacrificial whore” and it’s an ugly phrase to express an ugly condition that we sometimes find ourselves in.

Needing rest is REAL. Especially when Neptune is transiting your sun. Working seven days a week, even if one of those days was just teaching one yoga class, has worn me down. And, I’m also going thru something. It’s hard to say what. This is part of the Neptune transit. It’s a time marked by fogginess, confusion, delays. Neptune in mythology rules the seas. Water represents our deepest emotions, and the hidden and mysterious parts of ourselves. It’s also where we are most fluid, most playful, and most adaptable, literally in the flow. To align with the way I’m feeling now, I need more time for quiet, for rest, for being ok with being in an in-between state. When the transit is over, what’s most important will be clear. I really get that, even though I’m not close to knowing what will be revealed, but I really get that this is a process, and letting go, feeling exhausted by the “regular world,” by work and obligations is part of that.

I am proud of the work that I do. I consider myself a hard worker, and very responsible. So to feel this way, that I don’t have the energy for much directed activity, is weird. I’m not used to it. I feel strange saying it, admitting it, which is why it’s safer to do so on my blog, although I have shared this feeling with a few friends who will understand. But I don’t want to be analyzed and questioned and given advice. I want to find my way through on my own.

 

 

Psychic Attraction or Twin Flame? How addictive personalities can justify all sorts of things…

Astrologer Lynn Koiner, in writing about Neptune’s retrograde period in Pisces from June 9, 2014-November 16, 2014, urges us to watch out for “psychic attractions” during this period. What’s a psychic attraction?

Psychic Attraction is an emotional reaction to another person whereby you get swept up with feelings…that this is destiny, karmic…but this is usually a “mood” that allows you to escape reality. I always say, “Thinking about it is better than doing it,” where some of these relationships are concerned. People who have severe boundary problems or who are going through a strong Neptune transit (affecting one’s sense of boundaries) are susceptible to this type of negative attraction.

Since completing my Forrest Yoga Foundations Teacher Training in May 2014, I have been very interested in the topics of addiction, habitual behaviors, conditioned reactions…a rubric you could sort of lump under “things we do to prevent ourselves from feeling.” Upon reading Lynn’s description of psychic attractions above, I was hit by the part about this attraction masquerading as destiny and karma, but being more accurately a “mood that allows [you] to escape reality.” Yes.

A strong attraction to someone may be used as a means to escape reality. If thoughts about that person are preventing you from working, sleeping, and meeting your obligations to yourself and society, perhaps the attraction is functioning as a behavior that you are addicted to and using to numb out feelings. People with addictive personalities can be extraordinarily clever. If alcohol or drugs or gambling is not your thing, you can still check out by “totally crushing out” on someone, going into an obsessive state. Having had periods like this before, the amount of time spent thinking about the person, looking at whatever I could find about them online, etc. took up countless hours, that if I could get them back now, I would be able to do a whole lot of great stuff! But at the time, I was very caught up in the romantic idea of “destiny” or “fate” because of the magnetism.

Since many people visit my blog for the article about Stages of a Twin Flame Relationship, I thought it would be pertinent to add to the conversation by bringing up this idea of psychic attractions. Have you ever mistaken a psychic attraction for a twin flame? Twin flame relationships are characterized by spiritual growth and a sense of expansion, but a psychic attraction could mimic the early stages of the twin flame relationship. ANY new love affair could mimic the early stages of a twin flame dynamic if we are still working through a lot of karma because the Beloved always reflects back to us what we cannot yet own in ourselves (shadow and light!).

If your strong attraction to someone is not expanding you spiritually and is causing your focus to narrow, you may be using the attraction to stay in denial about other things and feelings percolating in your life. I’d love to hear back from readers on this topic.

 

Lunar Nodes in Astrology

The nodes of the moon are physical points of the moon’s orbit as related to the Earth. There is the North Node and South Node. Traditionally, the North Node represents your soul’s karmic mission, what you NEED to continue ascending the evolutionary spiral. The house and sign your North Node is in represent challenges and things that require effort. These are not areas of your life or character you can gloss over; the North Node will exert itself one way or another. The South Node represents that which you carry in from past incarnations, behaviors and tendencies so basic to your character that they are often subconsciously motivating your actions and feelings. The sign and house of your chart where your South Node falls represents stuff you “get away with,” stuff that you may not even realize you are doing.

I like to look at the nodes in charts because I feel there is always an intuitive jolt of recognition when someone takes a look at the sign and house where these points are located.

I have compiled some very good pages about this topic and present them to you here for your perusal at leisure 🙂

• Nodes of the Moon – Spiritual Life Lessons, via CafeAstrology.com
• South Node: The Point of Karmic Blowback, via North Bay Astrology
• North Node Is In…, a compilation of all the nodes in all the signs, via Depth Astrology
• The Moon’s Nodes in a Birth Chart, by Dane Rudhyar
• Moon’s Nodes in the Houses, by Marianne O’Hagan
• The Nodes of the Moon as Karmic Indicators, via MysticMarguerite.com
• The Nodal Axis, via EsotericOnline.net
• North Node Astrology: Rediscovering Your Life Direction and Soul Purpose, by Elizabeth Spring, who also maintains the great blog NorthNodeAstrology.com, which is all about such things

There’s a TON of resources online and in print about nodal astrology. The nodes also figure prominently in Vedic astrology.

I find the nodal axis fascinating and full of juicy info to unpack when looking at a chart. The nodes seem to indicate what an individual’s soul dilemma will be in an incarnation, and can indicate where a native is unconscious about his or her motivations (south node) and where the challenges which lead to soul evolution lie (north node).

Vesta in the Signs

Asteroid Vesta is called the “Keeper of the Flame” and is associated with the sign Virgo and the 6th house. The “flame” here is the spiritual flame. Vesta is the guardian of the sacred fire: devotion to the spiritual; High Priestess energy. In pre-Hellenic times, Vesta was associated with unmarried temple priestesses, and anyone who’s read Kenneth Ray Stubbs’ book Women of the Light (or any others with similar ideas) knows that temple priestesses used sexual energy to instruct, initiate, or heal their disciples (most temple priestesses of the time were also skilled herbalists and considered the first doctors and medical counsultants). Sexual energy here is not “just” (or only)  sex, but the creative energy implicit to all human beings. It is pro-creative, life-affirming energy that may be used to make babies, but is also used to make art, great food, beautiful music, stirring oratory, stunning performances, captivating fashion, etc.

Anyway, back to Vesta…By Roman times, the sacred fire of the temple priestesses had been toned down to vestal Virgin energy, where sexuality is foresaken for spiritual commitment. The celebrated and honored full sexuality of the temple priestesses was toned down, made safer, and men became the purveyors of health, medicine, and healing. As such, asteroid Vesta represents the split between spirituality and sexuality, and offers us the sign posts to heal this split if we harness the power of Vesta in the signs and houses.

Vesta represents our capacity to bring wholeness to ourselves, to integrate and focus our sexual energy. Vesta’s placement by sign and by house shows us the energy we came into this lifetime with, and how we can better understand ourselves as temple priestess/vestal virgin*. Vesta can help us heal the split that many experience between sexuality and spirituality.

Vesta

Vesta represents our sacred flame, how we express our devotion to and longing towards the spirit. Connected to fire, she is also connected to passion, joy, to what animates us, to what renews us. She is the spirit of fire and the fire within spirit. She teaches us how to renew ourselves, how healing the split within can transform us, so she also has connections to the sign Scorpio and transformative potential. Thus, connecting to Vesta in your own chart corresponds with therapists, counselors, and healers, those who help to make sense of disparate elements and heal them. Alternative healing is Vesta’s domain, just as it was once the domain of the temple priestesses.

Vesta asks us to reconnect to passion, and to deepen the connection to spirit. Vesta shows where and how we can renew and revive this sacred flame. Vesta represents the search for deeper meaning, and thus corresponds to psychics, healers, the occult, and mind technologies like positive thinking, NLP, and visualization. Vesta corresponds to Wicca and Earth Magic, because Vesta feels the power inherent in all living creatures and relates to and responds to this energy.

The symbol of Vesta is the eternal flame, and even the glyph for Vesta shows this. Vesta lights the way as we commit to inner work, integration, and discovering the power within. Astrologically, Vesta relates to work, devotion, spiritual practices, solitude (Hermit card), sacrifice, and  sexual problems based on fear of intimacy.  She shows you how to bring light to dark places and integrate your shadow. Unskillfully, Vesta can manifest as repression, sexual alienation, inhibition, and overwork when the natural outlets for Vesta are not expressed. Fervent devotion and workaholism: two sides of the same coin?

Successfully expression of Vesta creates a magical energy where we focus our sexual power into creativity, joy, and live a committed life to whatever is sacred for us. Vesta does not require the sexual act, rather the power and focus of this energy towards committing ourselves and focusing on healing both mentally and physically.

Vesta in Aires
Bravery, courage, and impetuosity are characteristics of this Vesta. Vesta in Aires shows others the wisdom of self-care and is a powerful energy for self-healing. Requires independence, and may have difficulty with long-term relationships. Indicates a degree of self-involvement. The Warrior Priestess.

Vesta in Taurus
This Vesta seeks the comfort of home and hearth. A security-loving Vesta, she may not be quick to move, but once settled, she is very stable and dependable. Creates tangible beauty, often in the charts of those who work with their hands. The Earth Mother.

Vesta in Gemini
Knowledge brings power, and only through knowledge of self can Vesta understand and integrate her sexuality. Motivates and manifests by communication, networking, and coordination. Sometimes Vesta in Gemini needs to slow down to reconnect. Intellect can trump feeling with this placement. The Teacher Priestess/Athena.

Vesta in Cancer
Nurtures and cares for those who need it. A natural caregiver who needs to be loved and cared for, or who may withdraw if not acknowledged. Vesta in Cancer has a strong maternal instinct, but needs to learn how to care for self. The Universal Mother.

Vesta in Leo
Vesta in Leo is proud, regal, full of creativity and joy. At best when fully expressed and original, your need for self-expression is higher than other placements. Capable of flowing with great love and enthusiasm. Can become demanding or egotistical if unappreciated. Can be prideful and needs to learn that there is a power greater than herself. The Courtesan/Geisha.

Vesta in Virgo
A strong connection to all living things. Learns from her woundedness and the woundedness of others. A strong healer. Exacting standards may make her rigid, but devotion to service is strong. Can become sexually repressed if unable to meet exactingly high standards. The Nurse/Nun.

Vesta in Libra
The energy of Vesta in Libra seeks to find balance between self and others. Interaction and cooperation bring out her best. A lover of equality, and naturally diplomatic, but may need to be more truthful with self. Needs to learn to do as much for self as she does for others. Desire to please may cause her to be inauthentic and wear herself out. The Stateswoman/The Queen.

Vesta in Scorpio
Passion for transformation and transmutation. Driven to reach the heart of the matter and let go of anything inauthentic. Teaches how to completely merge with others, but balance and moderation may be needed. Seeks depth and intensity in relationships. Learning how to trust and give up control may be key lessons. Persephone.

Vesta in Sagittarius
Constantly seeks truth. Will be driven by the feeling that there is always more to know and experience. Truth-loving, adventurous, and driven by a need for expansion. Beware being so devoted to your higher vision that you become fanatical and alienate others. The Goddess of the Hunt/Artemis.

Vesta in Capricorn
Adheres to the laws of the Universe. Serious, hard-working, aligned with what is real and solid, material. May be a harsh judge, but will not skimp on exacting truths. Rules must be obeyed to create order. Works best in structured and disciplined environments. Justice.

Vesta in Aquarius
Goddess of Change/Chaos. Everything is always changing, so we must adapt. Nothing is permanent. Devoted to a better existence for all on a humanitarian level. Freedom loving and not possessive, may be aloof and find emotional intimacy cloying or overbearing. Oya.

Vesta in Pisces
At one with all living things. Especially suited to healing and helping those in states of confusion or confinement. Sexuality may be devoted to service rather than to any given individual. Magical healing ability, to the point she may not even know HOW she does what she does. Integration of mind, body, and spirit is the challenge of this Vesta. The High Priestess/Intuitive Healer.

*Priestess/Virgin energy here is archetypal energy and has nothing to do with gender.

Learn more about astrology at my new site. I do chart casting and interpretations.

New Moon Sagittarius Nov. 2011

The New Moon of Nov. 25, 2011 is in Sagittarius, the sign of adventure, truth, learning, expanded perspectives, good fortune, and freedom. A ritual you may like to observe for the New Moon days is to align with the energy of the new moon (a fresh start, as well as the cosmic signature that will preside over the moon for the next 2 weeks of its cycle) and speak or write some intentions for how you could invite or use this energy in your life. Referred to as “New Moon wishes” by many of us in the astrology community, starting out the next two week period consciously aligning yourself to the archetypal energies of this moment can sharpen your perspective and bring clarity to your intentions.

New Moon wishes for Sagittarius should be formulated in the areas of

• Adventure
• Freedom
• Travel
• Truth
• Risk-taking spirit
• Helpfulness
• Optimism

Sample wishes for this New Moon are:

• “I want to easily find myself making choices that lead to my feeling a greater sense of personal freedom in every area of my life”
• “I want to easily find myself discovering the truth I am seeking in the area of _____________”

Write down a maximum of ten wishes, then come back to these intentions throughout the next two weeks from time to time. See how they are growing, along with the moon. See if your thoughts towards freedom and truth are growing with light and energy, as the moon is in the night sky.

Wishes are most potent Saturday Nov. 26 from 12:01am-7:05 pm, and 10:04 pm – midnight and on Sunday Nov. 27 all day and night.

Jan Spiller’s New Moon Power Days are the source of much of this information, but you can intuit your own New Moon wishes or areas of intention by meditating on what the sign of the new moon represents. By connecting with the energy of the sign the new moon is in, you can align with archetypal energy over the next two week cycle. You may do this either by action or insight/introspection.

Symbolic and archetypal information is everywhere.

The North and South Node – Aquarius/Leo

The Nodes of the Moon are two very important points in the interpretation of an astrology chart. There are probably millions of web pages, not to mention hundreds of books on the subject. But I just wanted to add my 2 cents here, specifically around my own nodal experiences using my own chart.

This astrologer writes a simple blog post on using the nodes in interpretation. The standard idea is South Node = karma, what you came into this life with, what you are “used to,” and what you can “get away with” or let others “get away with” and North Node = the soul’s purpose in this incarnation, the experiences the soul wants to have in this lifetime.

In addition to these ideas, I also find that the South Node represents behaviors and tendencies so deep in the subconscious that the native is unlikely to even be aware of them. These are the things you just do, without thinking: ways of being, doing, thinking, relating, problem-solving, etc. You can think of the South Node as what you came into this lifetime with: experiences, tendencies, and even perhaps deeply held memories.

The North Node, in addition to containing hints to what the soul wants in this lifetime is also a bit like a sign pointing to the areas where you will find the most spiritual growth. This is especially colored by the house placement.

Using my own chart as an example, my Aquarius North Node in the 6th house of service reinforces what I believe is my purpose in this lifetime: through service (yoga and healing) I can help bring about changes that affect humanity as a whole (an Aquarian theme). Look to where your North Node is, the sign and house placement. What are the themes of that sign? The house the North Node is in should give you a hint as to how to play out those themes. My North Node would be expressed differently if it were, say, in my 5th house of creativity or in my 2nd house of material possessions and values.

To borrow from Elizabeth Spring’s blog post I linked to above, the South Node contains the “gold of the shadow.” What are the positive elements of the sign in the South Node? Mine in Leo would point to warmth and gregariousness; its negative sides are over-indulgence in comforting things (food, shopping, sex) or a tendency to feel neglected if not the center of attention. Look for the “gold of the shadow” in your South Node to bring things from your past lives into this one. These may be tendencies so deep a part of you that you are unaware of them unless you look for them.

We can look at our Nodes are signs pointing the way. If we get stuck in our South Node comfort zones, we may never find our soul’s potential in this incarnation. Usually the North Node will be in a sign and placement that you instinctively say “yuck” to, but if you take the time to examine it, it should make sense. Nodal placements are gut-level, intuitive things, so don’t let that North Node scare you…move towards it and give your soul what it is asking for, for its own development.

Tibetan Yogis have been able to remember past lives and seek to achieve certain meditation techniques in present lifetimes so they can make an indelible mark on their mindstreams! If it is possible to know your past lives and think about your future ones in this lifetime, the Nodes become ever clearer guideposts!