New Moon in Capricorn on January 1st - the party's over on Wednesday folks, time to get down to business (of course if you are reading this in December you can still party like it's your job)

capricorn locket by polarity

The Universe is all set to put the "new" in 2014 with a new moon in Capricorn on January 1st.

Capricorn is as earthy as an earth sign gets, is ruled by daddy Saturn and presides over the darkest time of the year so you know he is one serious dude.

I'd call him "sir" if I were you. I'm sure he shops at Barneys and carries a platinum card (that he has earned).

He is most decidedly not a trust fund baby and does not believe in the 4 hour work week.

This new moon is all about hard work, ambition, common sense, perseverance, efficiency, organization and responsibility. The goat is all business, folks and the goat gets results.

(these are not overnight results and he doesn't expect them to be either)

The stars don't often line up this well with the calendar so it's probably a good time to start paying attention.

For most people there will be no doubt about what they have to do (the steps may not be totally clear, new moons are dark and the season is dark, but we will definitely know what is not working) - we just have to set the intentions for change that set the wheels in motion.

I don't want to be a bubble buster and say the party's over, but .... the party's over. 

And if you are like me and screaming, "STOP! I haven't partied yet!", well, it's too late - the party went on without us. We missed it.

We have a cardinal grand cross now that really culminates in April - so I think something about the way we handle things now will be how they are played out in April. We've got a stellium of planets in Capricorn so this won't just be big picture stuff - it will be played out in homes and businesses everywhere. This will be relationship stuff or work/career/status stuff for most people.

And of course this new moon will finish up with the full moon in 6 months.

Capricorn is a restrained guy - he doesn't lose his cool, so let's try to keep ours, too, when things get challenging now.  New moon stuff is happening in the dark so we have to trust that stuff is happening we can't see - we just have to line up our energy with this field by doing the work - use common sense, get organized, do things in an efficient way, make responsible decisions, keep your word, produce quality work, get up early, do the thing that is right in front of you, finish what you start or don't start it at all.

Don't clutter up your life with loose ends now. Take care of your physical body. This isn't work til we drop stuff - nothing in the universe supports us hurting ourselves ever. This is about - don't spend two hours looking at Grumpy Cat on the internet (and yes, I mean the FAMOUS Grumpy Cat and not me, the original grumpy Cat) - spend two hours recharging with a hike - you can totally keep up with Grumpy Cat, but get your work done first, take care of yourself, your relationships and your business first.

This is first chakra security stuff. Capricorn rules bones, skin and joints.

So if you are not getting what you need from relationships or activities that you spend considerable amounts of time on, your body and mind (depression is here, too) will tell you now. 

Actually they have been telling you for a while - this is the new moon time for a new plan of action - you will have excellent universal support with any steps you take. 

First center physical problems like fatigue, skin problems and joint pain that are ignored (ie we don't look at what we are getting back from what we are giving our energy and time to) lead to worse stuff like arthritis, allergies and autoimmune problems. This is an excellent time to create new routines for physical stuff.

If you know what house almost 11 degrees Capricorn was hanging out when you were born (email me and I could look it up for you or google your chart - there are freebies online, you need a time of birth within 15 minutes for this to be totally accurate) you will see what area of your life you can best work with this stuff to get results.

If you know an area of your life that can use a Capricorn overhaul - that's certainly where this energy is for you.

MONTHLY AFFIRMATION TIPS:

Some Capricorn new moon affirmation areas to think about: security, time, self-discipline, your brand and image, ambition, opportunity, goals, delegation, releasing control, father figures, reputation, your bones, knees, skin and joints

Some I will be working with include:

1. I easily recognize, welcome and enjoy the work that leads to success.
2. I receive and enjoy positive recognition for my work.
3. I easily set personal and work boundaries that create time for me to do the things I love to do
- I shoot for 10 (see Jan Spiller's site for some ideas with these - she calls them monthly wishes, if wishes feels right to you and better than the word affirmation use that)

Get grounded - we're in an earth sign now, so this should be easier - always make affirmations from a  positive place (positive meaning certain) - write your affirmations down by hand in cursive, we want the letters all connecting and flowing together, speak them out loud. I used to write my affirmations on strips of paper and put them into a bowl of rice so I can mix them around every now and then with my fingers if things got stagnant - then release your attention from them knowing that your intention is known.

Lately I have been burning mine and releasing the ashes into moving water. I feel a little more connected with the finality of the results when I do this.  
 
Know these things are already yours.

 My Capricorn locket ---->
is 25% off until January 19th with coupon code PARTYSOVER

Check out my post on Create and Thrive about 3 Things to Do With The Space Between 2013 and 2014

more lessons from 2013 ....

So ... even though I like to think I am the kind of person who believes life offers up experiences and not lessons

(the thinking part of me knows this is true but the emotional part of me still channels grade school report cards along with the nervous belly and yearning for little gold stars)

if I said "experiences from 2013" this would be a whole other post ... and actually now that I write that, I probably need to write that post, too. It might be a lot more fun.

This not so fun series started here and here.

sullymac - boy wonder

3. The Etsy and doing it all lesson:

My "one woman show" business is not sustainable.

Before Etsy the idea of a 'one woman show' as a lasting business model was not on my radar. I did not think this was some kind of nobler thing or more important way of doing business. I did not think this was the way to a happier life or more money or doing more impactful work - I didn't think about it at all really.

After a decade in banking watching businesses survive, thrive, explode, implode and just drift away from passionate founders and another decade with my own business (much of that time with employees) I knew that businesses need systems and processes and checkpoints. I knew that businesses are investments and need to be cared for as such.

Somehow when Etsy came along I forgot all about this stuff I already knew.

I was like the young girl who scoffs at the friends who pine for their princes, but secretly practices her curtsies and tiara hair - I created exactly the business I would never advise another person to create.  

Maybe the business I had secretly always wanted - the one with me in complete control.

Every single thing I have sold in the last 7 years (over 25,000 or so things) have been designed, fabricated, finished, checked, packaged and shipped by me - every single show I've done was booked, planned, displays created, shipped, assembled, show floor worked, orders filled, customers followed up with by me, websites created, blogs created, social media and business relationships haphazardly maintained, over 1000 blog posts, a gazillion other things - only God knows how many customers corresponded with, how many balls made it into baskets, how many balls were dropped ...

Then Etsy announces that manufacturing is OK now and start promoting it in subtle and not so subtle ways and I feel kind of like ... well, an idiot. Because I knew this was not a sustainable model and I have worked myself into the ground with it anyway. There is no fault here. It is just an experience I will be creating in a new way in 2014. Just a leg of my journey - the next leg will be different.

(we all get lots of legs don't worry, it only looks like we just get two, there is a record breaking millipede with 750 - we are really more like her)

2. The "when you've got your health" lesson:

I will have to get back to this one because I am not feeling as healthy today as I would like, no doubt because I have put my health practices on the back burner for the last few busy weeks. I think I should write about this from a place of strength. Autoimmune stuff is tricky ...

(luckily for me, cats have nine lives and we always land on our feet ... and I've got all those legs remember)

1. The mothering is a gift lesson:

I come from a family with a long lineage of motherhood karma. Infertility, miscarriages, babies raised by aunts and grandmothers, babies born to unwed mothers - we have only one baby (she is almost 5 now) born to a mother and father who were married (to each other and before she was conceived) in 4 generations.

I am going to write a long post about this mothering/creation/karma stuff next week. With Jupiter in Cancer it is kind of divine timing to talk about this stuff, maybe someone can be helped by something with it.

I wanted to wrap this post up this week, so I can start a new leg of our journey next week. No telling where this new leg will carry us - another family inheritance is feet that tend to go in unintended directions and are also about two sizes too big so we always to keep our eyes open ....

xo all - Merry Christmas Week!

merry christmas!

 

full moon in Gemini today + Uranus goes direct = lights, camera, action

gemini locket by polarity

Today's full moon in Gemini is in a part of the sky that has a Grand Central Station feel of action

Lots of multi-tasking and movement with this one - just in time for everyone to be rushing about with last minute Christmas stuff, so try to stay centered.

If everyone puts a little energy into being the calm in the storm, the storm is definitely downgraded.

(maybe this is what happens when meteorologists are predicting blizzards and we only end up with a light dusting - of course on the other side of this is all those kids praying for snow days)

We also have Uranus finally moving direct again in Aries (if you have any major planets - Sun, Moon or Ascendent in Aquarius you will probably see something move forward now, maybe a big old something) and Venus is about to go retro (heads up, even for Aquarius, this could effect those moving ahead plans, see my last post).

Uranus will be in Aries until 2018 so we've got more revolutions and revelations coming, folks. In the negative this is kind of an erratic energy - the rebel without a cause stuff and the kind of brilliant inventiveness that leads to the breakthroughs that ask 'can we do this' but forgets to think about 'should we do this' ... Uranus is really always pushing us to give up the idea of success or failure and realize the real power is in the attempt at something new. Uranus loves the new and unique and always pushes us to try something else.

In the positive Uranus in Aries is some fierce stuff that can truly create real change. Uranus will not be led. Uranus likes a community of equals - Uranus asks us 'who is your tribe" - he loves cooperative ventures and collaboration (I posted a PDF on the right side of my blog on creative collaborations from a course I taught last year with Lisa Jacobs and Tim Adams - collaboration is something you might want to be thinking about).

This is not a 'safety in numbers' kind of energy. Any connections built on the fear of being alone or the fear of standing up for what you truly believe in and being yourself will surely be shown the door  during this cycle.

Uranus is very big on integrity; not just the honesty part but the definition that speaks of wholeness - what you see is what you get, walking our walk and talking our talk.

Uranus loves truth-tellers - so anything not in integrity will come up to be looked at and resolved or dissolved over the next few years. Uranus is the planet that opposes everyone's natal position when we are around the age of 42 - can anyone say mid-life crisis - in Aries I think the entire planet is going to have a mid-life crisis.

(this will not involve flashy cars and older husbands running off with younger girls or maybe it will for some people - but Uranus is much, much deeper than this)

We will just expect the unexpected - we have been doing this for the last few years anyway - and prepare for a thrilling and maybe a little bumpy ride - yes, our seat belts are gone now - seat belts are funny things, they may protect us from injury but they also prevent us from sticking our heads out the window - it's time to stick our heads out of the window, folks - we can comb our hair later.

(when I get to that Goddess series and those Goddess charts - I promise this will be soon - we will see how the Goddess Oya embodies the Uranus energy, but you can Google her if you are interested)

This full moon in Gemini is all about communication so things will probably come up now that has us thinking about the way we get our points across, the way we present our ourselves, the way we show up.

Get outside tonight and walk in that full moon- the energy is especially strong in the winter and this is our last full moon of 2013 - an excellent time for makers to wind up their seasons.

In my own life this 'way we communicate' has come home for me in a very big way. I am wrapping up my shipping tomorrow and then will be blogging again later in the week on all the mayhem here.
xo everyone

Venus Retrograde in Capricorn Approaching - heads up creatives

taurus locket by polarity - artwork by oksana grivina

Like Mercury, Venus is one of the inner planets.

She doesn't go retrograde as often, once every 20 months vs Mercury's three times a year, but we will notice it when she leaves the room for her 40 day sabbatical.

(it's like the wittiest, most attractive - the kind of beauty that attracts - girl goes home from the party and takes the party's liveliness and passion with her)

Venus always reminds us to honor our personal affections - she asks us - "what are you drawn to?"

(warning, shameless plug ahead -

it could be one of my polarity lockets)

Venus doesn't have 'likes' - she has passions.

Since the things we are drawn to and feel passionate about are our clues as to how we fit into this game called Life on Planet Earth (how we can make our unique contribution - the space that goes empty if we don't participate) - knowing where Venus is hanging out in your birth chart (the energy at play when you drew your first breath, the energy you are quite literally created from - yes, I'm going to dangle a lot of participles in this post, sometimes life is uncertain and things must dangle) is important. 

Venus energy brings things into relationship with other things - she is the energy that draws us to the right thing at the right time (maybe you to this blog post); the writer to the keyboard, the paint to the canvas, the thyme to the potato. She is also the energy that observes this attraction.

We honor Venus when we make things beautiful. She loves artists and we work with her energy all the time.

(remember the opposite of aesthetic is anesthetic .. the numbing of the senses - either we are living the creative life we were born for or we are still asleep)

Her festival is May Day, her day of the week is Friday - named for the Norse Venus, Freya - her color is emerald green, her metal copper - wearing copper or emerald during her retrograde feels like a good way to honor her absence.

She rules both Taurus and Libra (yes, the Goddess energy is like most women, capable of managing multiple energy streams at the same time) - with Taurus energy she rules the earthly realm - plants, flowers, nature's food - that which nourishes us body and soul - with Libra she presides over social interaction, relationship, art - everything that makes the world more beautiful.

She blends Taurus and Libra and reflects how we relate to the natural world - she is the reason we crave land and nature - a little place to call our own, gardens to work in, animals to love.

She balances Mars (although women are not really from Venus and men are not really from Mars, it is rather energetically accurate for the feminine and the masculine - it is not a man/woman thing though we all have both energies within us) which is why Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point

(I have been catching up with all his books on Audible this month in my studio while I work and have been falling asleep with his voice in my head)

observations that painting over graffiti and repairing broken windows in NYC were the real reasons for the declining crime rate makes perfect sense.

We dishonor Venus with vanity or idleness - this doesn't mean she wants us to be busy though. Busyness is often an excuse for dishonoring the very things we need to do to take care of ourselves (busyness dishonors our businesses, too).

Venus takes care of herself!

We dishonor Venus when we gossip or mistreat relationships - when we don't take care of our physical selves and surroundings, when we just live with the mess, when we pollute our bodies with crappy food, when we allow our values to become corrupted, when we ignore our passions - we are the caregivers of what we are passionate about in the physical world. 

Venus asks us to think about what part of the physical world; what part of nature attracts us and to embrace that - because that is literally the energy that brought us here.

She retrogrades in the sign of Capricorn on December 21st.

Common advice during a Venus retrograde is to not buy any luxury items (they will not bring us what we are wanting them to), like the Mercury retrograde advises us not to purchase communication/technology devices, not to make any drastic physical changes - so no dramatic haircuts, don't start home renovations - not the best time to start a new love relationship and since this retrograde is in Capricorn (the businessy energy) - not the best time to start business relationships either.

It is a good time for things from the past related to Venus to reappear (yes all retrogrades are "re" periods) in our lives - something that comes back to you now will most likely be more karmic clean up than opportunity though.

The day I wrote this post I had a customer call me I hadn't heard from in 4 years. She was closing her business and looking for something I had designed in my previous business that a customer of hers was wanting. We caught up for a few minutes (I couldn't help her with that old file) and she got another phone call in the middle of my sentence and exited my life as quickly as she popped back in (and as quickly as she exited the first time) - total Venus retrograde energy at play here.

I will pop up another post about this as it hits - I am happy the timing coincides with the end of our maker holiday season - after we have sent our beautiful offerings out into the world! If your age is divisible by 8 (she makes a complete journey every 8 years) this retrograde will affect you more.

xo all

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5 Things I Learned in 2013 ... #4

Yes, this is one of those count backward things like Letterman.

I have a friend who is a very judgey ... she is brilliant and a perfectionist and very organized and this judgmental thing she has going on has always driven me crazy.

A couple months ago this friend stopped cursing. She just woke up one day and decided cursing sounds terrible and ... well, she just stopped.

I was talking to her and a curse word slipped from my lips. I saw her blink - a long, hard blink. I slipped another curse word into my next sentence and there it was - that long, hard judgmental blink again.

(maybe some kind of involuntary reaction like the ex-smoker coughing around the cigarette)

I wondered if she was silently praying for me every time a four letter word escaped my lips.

I got annoyed.

I started sliding curse word after curse word into the conversation until I sounded like Carmella Soprano and had her blinking like a turn signal that needed a new bulb.

Soon she was rubbing her forehead and asking for an aspirin.

When I told hubby this story that night he said it was the meanest thing I'd ever done.

( I actually thought it was kind of sweet of him to think I had never done anything meaner than give a non-curser a headache - does he even know who he's married to?)

It did wake me up to the fact that as she was judging me I was judging her right back.

Which isn't really a surprise. I know the more we judge ourselves the more people we attract into our life who seem to criticize us. I know that judgments block energy, set up internal defenses and resistance and tend to hold negative patterns in place.

This lesson - which sounds simple and obvious and sort of stupid maybe - hit me over the head. Although I think of myself as a non-judgmental person, well except for people who litter or don't like animals, I mean we are totally allowed to judge them, of course, but I can be really quite judgy (and yes, I can spell this word with or without the 'e' since spell check assures me I am making this word up either way).

Discerning is ok. Discerning is a good thing. Judgey not so much.

Maybe this isn't really a lesson, but it did show me how I measure the world and mostly myself. I have seen her a couple times since our curse/blink off and she doesn't seem judgey at all to me now ... in fact I can clearly see the love there and feel compassion for her, which I know is mirroring the compassion I am feeling for myself .....

5 lessons I'm taking from 2013 ...

Top 5 lessons I learned in 2013

or the last 5 lessons I learned in 2013

(my short term memory is as holey as swiss cheese these days I blame GMOs which is not as crazy as it sounds read this)

or maybe I should say relearned since life is a spiral and we sometimes run into the same stuff again and again in different spaces and forms.

I know I have run into this one before.

I realize this is all a little heavy for December  reading, and this first lesson is a little dense ... maybe if you are reading this you could play some holiday music in the background to stay festive, so I don't kill your Santa buzz.

Anyhoo, a little vague (sorry) background info - a situation was brought to my attention about something someone was doing.

I had to decide whether to ignore the situation or push against it (ie take some kind of real world action).

I decided (after much back and forth with myself - my usual crazy person routine) that ignoring the situation was the higher action. Inaction was stating to myself that this was a situation I did not have to worry about - I trusted life to take care of me and what this person was doing could not threaten me. I was safe. I decided the decision to not take action would bring me more peace.

I ignored the situation. I did a little spell to release it. I withdrew my attention (mostly).

A few months later the situation winded its way back at me in a bigger way.

(This sometimes happens with things we ignore - this is not because ignoring - ie withdrawing our attention from something is intrinsically a bad thing - it is always best to focus on what we do want and not what we don't want. I think maybe it happens when there is something else the situation is showing us like maybe the inaction we thought was from higher ground was actually based in fear)

This time I thought - "well, I got no peace within myself by ignoring this situation so I will stand up for myself and push back".

So I pushed.

I told myself I didn't care about what results came from the push that I just needed to take action to stand up for myself.

(I had a memory from 7th grade. I was sitting in front of a new group of girls about a month after I moved to a new town, again - we moved every year, and this group was giggling and making fun of me and I turned around and said something back to one of the girls, which made me feel better for about 5 seconds, and they then proceeded to amp up the torture and make my life totally miserable for the rest of the year. This memory made me think that this time I needed to stand up for myself and see that my world wouldn't fall apart)

But, as soon as I pushed (and this was the kind of push without a delete key) I knew I had made a mistake.

I was pushing from a place of weakness - my push was stating to myself that I had something to fear from what this person I was pushing against was doing. I wasn't trusting life to take care of me even though I know that what is real can not be threatened and anything that can be threatened isn't real.

(the central and first Course of Miracles lesson)

I know that any belief I have will create the outcome of any action I take and I was acting against myself even though the push made logical sense.

(and I realize I am not telling you exactly what I am talking about here, but  you will have to trust me that most people, especially creative makers probably would have pushed).

I knew immediately that whatever the result of the push was (this part was outside my control anyway) - I wouldn't get peace from pushing.

The lessons (yes, there are lessons inside of lessons with this stuff - life is messy and I am not a paper towel kind of girl) I take from this experience of being faced with deciding between two actions and having neither action be the right action is:

#5. The action taken from a decision isn't what the decision is really about. 

Life doesn't present us with a good choice and a bad choice - that would make this entire game called life on planet Earth pretty boring since we would have the whole thing figured out by age 7. Life presents us with choices that prepare the field and allow us to move into different spaces. Neither space is perfect because then the game would be over.

So either choice could have brought me what I wanted, which for me these days is mostly peace, or neither choice could have brought me peace because it is me and not the choice that is bringing the peace.

Einstein said, "No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it." 

I was trying to solve a problem by looking at the problem. It's like the problem and the solution are two sides of the same coin. We can't have a problem unless a solution exists otherwise there would be no pattern the problem could be formulated from (no matter how many trains run over a coin it still has two sides) but we can't see the (solution) head of a coin by looking at the tail (the problem). 

(unless we are doing one of those squinty eye things looking at the side of the coin, but who wants to go through life with her faced all squished up like that)

The problem was never what this other person was doing, the problem was always how I was feeling. Maybe the problem hadn't resurfaced because I had chosen incorrectly the first time (when I had chosen to let it go) but simply to allow me to choose again and work out, within me, what making the opposite choice would feel like.

Anyhoo - I will try for some lighter lessons in the days ahead, this is December after all. But I did call 2013 my Year of Deciding (or was that 2012?) so this one is a biggie for me again. 

chphotographics

next lesson next week - have an amazing weekend everyone! xo

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New Moon in Sagittarius - expanding horizons (also if you read my blog and are a Sagittarius, you must post a comment because I am convinced I don't know any)

sagittarius polarity locket - aiming for the stars

We have a new moon tonight in Sagittarius!

Sagittarius is a fun-loving sign that rules travel, freedom, adventure, legal stuff, higher education, good luck, faith, religion, prayer, optimism, problem solving, truth seekers - it also rules things like carelessness, taking shortcuts, making assumptions, throwing pink paint on problems and hoping they will go away and physically our hips, liver, sciatica and upper legs/thighs.

It's a perfect time to be working with the energy of the positive stuff that Sagittarius rules and working to release the negative stuff.

So, for example, this is a great time to plan our vacation or set affirmations to travel on a regular basis next year.

Affirmations set now (especially stuff that will conclude by the Sagittarius full moon in June) for any of Sagittarius's "stuff" will have universal support. We are literally creating the affirmation within the energy that is needed to manifest it.

Coincidentally, I would like to say I planned it, but it just worked out this way - we'll just call it divine planning, my patent application for my new aromatherapy line was filed today (legal stuff is within Sagittarius's realm).

Some affirmations I am writing tonight are:

1. I easily take action on what my intuitive knowing tells me is the right path for me
2. I have more positive adventures in my life. I easily view life as a positive adventure (oops my pencil tip just broke on that one)
3. My patent application filed today is approved
4. I find the solution to ____ in a clear and straightforward way. I take right action on this.
5. I take action that leads to successfully detoxing my liver and maintaining excellent liver health

As always, write yours down - I used to use strips on paper and bowls of rice, so I could jiggle them around now and then - but this month I am feeling the urge to burn them and just know they are done. You don't have to make stuff happen with this, you just have to see what comes up and then take the action that feels right on that.

Trust the process. We have cast our spell.

People always say that affirmations "only work if you take action". And this is true, but not in the way most people think.

The affirmation is action.

It sets the energy in motion. Words are not just words. If done properly, in the right frame of mind, it lines us up energetically with the thing we are seeking. The new moon is a time of darkness but there is lots of hidden action in the dark.

(yes, even that kind, all creation starts in the dark after all)

Look at what kind of experiences have been coming your way lately. How have you called them into your life?

There is often a wave of resistance that arrives when we begin stepping into our power. This resistance can manifest as physical health problems, relationships that mirror our shadows, self-sabotaging "mistakes" or when it seems like “fate” intervenes and creates road blocks or sends us  back to “feeling and playing small” - back to square one.

This "upper limit" thing, set by familial programming and energy patterns (although I believe we came on to this planet vibrating at exactly the frequency that drew us to our family) that is so common when we are in the process of shifting our self-definitions and expanding our influence and responsibility. Something gets in the way, often something that appears to be outside our control - this is all illusion of course, but how do we work through this? How do we move outside our energy patterns?

A thing we can do right now and it sounds like a small thing but there are no small things - is to set a few affirmations within the energy of this new moon - it will just take you a few minutes. Do it tonight or tomorrow ... the more specific you can get the more specific results will show up. xo all