people let you be who you show them that you are


photography print by carolyn cochrane
I used to hate winter. I disliked the cold weather, driving in the snow,

(this probably had most to do with the condition of my tires ... our cars are always like the shoemaker's kid's feet - hubs, after looking at other people's vehicles all day long, doesn't look at mine unless my check engine light is on and it is up for inspection and we are going on a road trip)

the short days - almost everything about winter depressed me.

I am not a winter sports kind of girl either. I can't ice skate. I have skied exactly once - I still think my skis were either sabotaged (I blame some kind of jealous mean-girl stuff to embarrass the Jersey girl as if my leather jacket wasn't embarrassing enough) or defective because everyone else in my beginner's class learned the "stopping part" (opening the back of the skies or moving both skies sideways) right away .. except me

my "stopping" always involved a crowd of people that I would bounce off like a human bumper car or face-planting myself in the snow while people circled me whispering "is that girl still alive?".

It was when I started a maker business that involved a labor-intensive retail holiday season (and returned to my astrology-lovin' roots) that I began to truly appreciate this time of year.

Winter is the first season - the time when the stuff that is happening is still hidden. The sap is in the roots and everything is still.

Personally I am never in sync with the January/February wholesale show schedules. I get that this is the perfect time of year for buyers to be thinking about and purchasing new inventory and planning for the new year for their shops but for makers this is the time when new work is more naturally cocooned. Stuff is happening; it just hasn't taken form yet.

There is a wonderful Capricorn New Moon on Friday - usually a Capricorn New Moon because Capricorn is ruled by Saturn is kind of heavy and not exactly uplifting stuff, but this one is really setting the stage for a dynamic year for all of us.

(and again since we are living in a time of great transition, the ability to let go and embrace change is going to allow the year to be very positive)

This is the best new moon for setting intentions for the year (not necessarily goals), evolving away from bad habits and leaning into new, better ones especially those having to do with 10th house stuff which Capricorn rules.  Most people think of the 10th house as career and it's also known as the house of the 'shaping' parent, but it's really the kind of creative endeavors that gives us our social status. The connection between your shaping parent and your professional status was once easy to understand - today it is often more of a family legacy that must be faced.

This used to be mostly the ego's domain, the house of "will I succeed, will I make money" - the stuff we focus so much attention on for 60, or 70, or 80 years and then realize we should have been paying more attention to the 4th house.

But the new paradigm is creating a shift with this social status house. If you know what planet was in the 10th house when you were born that will really help you work with this energy. The planet in a house is a cosmic computer. It draws down that energy from the cosmos, and through us it sends it out again. Like a tossed stone falling slowly through the water, a planet in a house drops through all the years of our experience there.

I am going to add a business astrology column this year working with this house. I may need some guinea pigs volunteers. I don't want the column to be all mumbo-jumbo like the last 3 paragraphs - ack! but real, understandable and useful information to help build our businesses.

For example a friend recently told me that her family does not take her business seriously. She has a maker shop on Etsy. She calls it a business. Her family calls it her hobby. Now, I know that if she really thought her maker shop was a business everyone else would, too. The problem isn't her family's, the problem is hers and the answer may lie in her 10th house.

Anyhoo, I am going to explore some stuff like this over the winter if I can get a few makers to give up their birth dates (we are all family here after all and 2013 is the year of community) plus I have a few cool giveaways (yes, they're back!) and tutorials to post and a series called "It's Not How We Can Get More, It's How We Can Be More" that is starting to percolate.

xo everyone - stay warm (I still kind of hate the cold).


14 comments

akaCINDERS said...

Oh, if you can advise me wise one, on how I can boost my business since I've left Etsy, I will share my birth date. I do know that the coming year is to be a great improvement, but taking the right step is important. I'm moving my shop right not to a new venue. I'm hoping that is the right thing, but who knows. March, 27th and do you really want the year too?

Unni Strand said...

Is this a call for volunteer business women?
In that case, you have one here too!

Catherine Ivins said...

OK ladies I will be in touch shortly! xo

lynn bowes said...

Oh I have 'issues' to be dealt with in the coming year and for sure, keeping everything corralled is going to be something to reckon with. My intention is to learn to juggle or at least learn to breathe underwater, if you know what I mean.

September 17 . . . . . . . 1951

Catherine Ivins said...

I got ya' Lynn - you are in - I am thinking that if we find ourselves underwater this year - we definitely will be growing our mermaid gills (as opposed to drowning) - it's going to be a good year! xo

Anonymous said...

What a post! Lately I have been drawn to horoscopes and astrology, just totally out of the blue, and I feel a pull to learn more and work with it. Perhaps it's all the attention I've been giving the moon cycle - the rest of the planets are yelling "ME TOO!" :)

My life has been a wild ride for the past few years, living without a dime in my pocket and getting by perfectly well! Now I'm here running my business, making money, and working hard to achieve a different dream. It's a total mind shift and I could definitely use some help! My intention is BELIEVE. To allow.

akaCINDERS said...

I've been the same place regrowroots. No income for the past...5 years. Living in a tiny crowded cottage, food assistance. Ready for a change. Love you for this Cat.

Anonymous said...

Cinders: I was hitch hiking, traveling to farms and communes, working for my food and growing food to share. It was an incredible, unforgettable growing experience! But now it's time to let go of that and reach for a different intention, not even sure what it is yet.. but I'm really feeling that my business is the way to do it. To make a living expressing myself through creation! Sounds perfect.
I would love a cottage in the woods somewhere! :)

Unni Strand said...

Sounds great!
Personally, I see numbers and letters in colour. Which actually helps me with some of my decisions. To me, 2013 is a green year. And that's definitively a good sign.

Cait Throop said...

Fascinating...after 12 years of financial woes, sickness, and now paying back hospital bills, the only sane thing in my life is my weaving. But sales have tanked on Etsy for the last three years and I'm trying to rethink selling. Thinking setting up a studio and training other weavers or giving up selling and turning to teaching...winning the lottery and going to Italy for an extended visit...trying to learn tarot cards to help clarify...How bout May 9, 1949!!??

Catherine Ivins said...

Green is the color of your heart chakra Unni- perfect for you - health, abundance, creativity! I will contact everyone when I need more info- if anyone knows their time of birth have that handy, too! xo

DancingMooney said...

This is going to be a fun set to read, I am in tune with this!

KJ said...

I would gladly be a guinea pig, but I just gave away most of my display materials because I am not marketing at all over the next year at least, and likely the next two years. Still, if you want a bump on a log as a control I volunteer.

I am in the process of big changes.

Catherine Ivins said...

bumps on logs are what gives the log its character Kathy- we couldn't do this without you xo