New Moon in Aquarius January 30th - another super new moon

my aquarius locket 20% off thru 2/18 with coupon code LINCOLN

We have a New Moon on Thursday (plus the Chinese Year of the Horse begins which creates even more universal energy for a new beginning now and it's a new super moon and a black moon - the 2nd dark moon in the same calendar month) - lots of new in this one folks.

We have Venus about to move forward (YAY) so projects that have been in the planning stages or that have been stagnant over the last few weeks (especially related to creative projects, relationships and money since Venus rules both Libra and Taurus) can get some legs under them now and will start to move forward. More money comes in. See my retrograde post.

Also the last few days of this lunar cycle coupled with these last few days of the Year of the Snake (snakes die when they don't shed their skin) make it a powerful time for release.

I'm going to use this energy for something larger than that pile of newspapers in my bedroom, although the pile is outta here, you should, too. 

Maybe some belief we are holding onto about what we need to happen so we can feel secure, what we need to have in place before we can do something else, where we need to get before we can stop or who we need to be before we can relax. Let's let go of that.

Write it in script, burn it, release it - we have to mean what we say with this stuff, because it works.

We won't be able to fit back into that shedded skin even if we tried, the Year of the Snake is over - release always equals expansion - we will have expanded ....

(not in a "need a new dress size" kind of way, of course, but that old skin is all wrinkly and crinkly and well .. dead, it's gotta go)

If we have fallen off the wagon with any intentions set on January 1st, everyone gets a do-over. But the skies have changed so the way we work with those intentions changes, too. 

The difference between the New Moon on January 1st and this moon on January 30th is the sun has moved into Aquarius now so we take the energy of Capricorn - the builder, worker, organizer energy and evolve it with the big picture thinking of Aquarius. 

We take that thing we have built out of its box now. We look at it in a new way. We might even get a little Aquarian wild-child with it.

Maybe our clean studio gets a bit messy.

(if it ever actually got cleaned up - with the Venus retrograde we might have been in a standstill and standing still is a perfectly good place to be ... until it isn't anymore and you will know when that time comes because you will begin to get uncomfortable with that place of stillness then you just have to do something to move out of it, what you do doesn't matter, you only have to move the energy)

It's an opportunity to take a long look at how the life we are building fits in with the other lives we share the planet with and move in a more powerful direction of building a space that supports all of us.

It’s a great time to set intentions that involve increasing our confidence, being true to ourselves and taking on new challenges.

Since we moved into an air sign over a week ago ideas have started to move, our thoughts may be a bit more scattered, colds are easier to catch now since we are more easily ungrounded.

If you are an Aquarius sun sign (like me) this is your most powerful new moon of the year.

This New Moon is an excellent time to set intentions for Aquarius stuff. I haven't decided on my intentions yet, but will post some mid-week to give you an idea of the kind of work that is supported during an Aquarius sun period. You can set any intentions at all at a new moon but if you work with the energy at play in the universe right now, you will have a strong wind at your back.

make something NEW ... or maybe not

This is my monthly post on the EcoEtsy blog:

3 Things to Think About Before Making Something Else

See the post HERE 

including my hot Etsy seller tip of the month - remake what you already sell with some clever packaging and widen your exposure by tagging into specific niches - and sell your thingamajig to the people who want to buy it.

changing something ELSE

With one retrograde after another this year, we can't totally wait for the stars to line up for us to get stuff started or make things happen.

(although definitely work with the retrograde period as much as possible by doing all the "re" work - re-evaluate, renovate, re-invent, research, etc and launch new projects with an open mind to the fact that stuff will change with things we start now and have to be re-done - this is all ok - maybe the secret to this is doing things we enjoy doing - so if we have to do them all over again it will be something we want to do - actually the "doing things we want to do" is the secret to almost everything anyway)

One of the ways to create change in some area of our life (or to stop some repeating pattern) is by creating change somewhere else in our life and one way to figure out a way to do this is to listen to our own language about the situation.

Step 1. Describe the situation to someone else. Or think about how you usually verbalize the situation.

(this is one of Olive's primary jobs here at Olive Bites Studio - she is an amazing listener - if you don't have an Olive, just chat with yourself, that will work, too - don't over-think this, just talk and listen to what you have to say)

I will give a recent story about hubs as an example. George really wants a larger work space. Every other day he said to me, "I need more space".

But he doesn't usually use those words - what he actually says when he is thinking 'I need more space' is "I don't even have room to breathe here."

Step 2. We think about other areas of life where he doesn't have room to breathe. 

Since what he is saying is an actual physical thing there are many ways we had to work with this.

He now takes 10 minutes a day and does some deep belly breathing.

We use a laundry service for his shop uniforms and he really needs to go up a size on the pants waistband department (especially in the winter when he wears a lot of layers) but because they charge to set up a new size, he never does this. So, a couple weeks ago I ordered him new uniforms with the size increase - easy enough for me to tailor them later.

He started walking around the backyard every night after work (he doesn't go out back much in the winter and I notice this "need more space" feeling hits him hardest in the winter).

We moved our bed so his side isn't near any furniture or walls. I got a small fan for his desk.

Right away he started to notice he didn't feel as stressed about being cramped at work. I noticed he got rid of some scrap metal he was saving "until the price goes up" and freed up some room in the shop (he had refused to do this earlier).

Now he didn't actually get more space, but by moving the energy in other areas of his life, this energy has to shift, too. It wouldn't surprise me if some actual change to the physical space shows up soon.

Now, if he had found himself saying "I'm cramped here" or "I can't think straight here" or "I'm buried here", etc - then the way we would have changed things and the things we would have changed would be different.

Since everything is connected it makes perfect sense that this works. If we are having trouble starting something new, start something else - something easy, but maybe not too easy. If we are having trouble finishing something then finish something else. If you have trouble with procrastination at work, find something that needs to be done right now in your kitchen and do that and I mean right now, just go and do it. Little changes create big changes. Maybe there are no big changes, just little stuff done over and over again.

So, if something isn't working, maybe try changing something else. See what happens! xo all

so last month I lost half a million dollars (twice!) and found out I was related to my husband ... part 2

While I was going holiday crazy, my brother joined ancestry.com.

He was quickly obsessed and arrived to Thanksgiving dinner with pages of names and a roll of scotch tape.

(the papers print out like a chart or like branches on a tree, but it is easy to get lost reading them and easier if you tape them all together all over your floor like a real tree - or at least this is what we did)

Anyhoo, it was quickly apparent that George and I are related (yikes, poor Olive), which may be true of almost everyone if we go far enough back, but we didn't have to go very far. Also the names we are related through are last names the town we currently live in is filled with, even though neither of our families are from this town. And neither of us ever realized we were related to any of these people.

And the plot thickens ...

There has always been a family story of an ancestor named David Matthews (my grandmother's grandfather I believe, if I have enough grands in there) who fought in the Civil War, lost a leg, shook hands with Lincoln, owned half of the next county and to his detriment never learned to read and write. He was swindled of his property by an unscrupulous lawyer and shady judge when he signed his X on the wrong dotted line.

We learned from my brother's ancestry.com work that David Matthews had a daughter who married a lawyer - this daughter later died under mysterious and unknown circumstances and this lawyer, who was then a wealthy widower sold a lot of property and moved ... I don't know, somewhere warm I would imagine. David Matthews was still alive at this time.

This lawyer who we will just call THE LYING SACK OF NO GOOD FILTH

(hubs is having a stroke that I might write this name, since our town is still filled with this name, so I will just call him what my family has been calling him for generations)

was related back to my husband in exactly the same way David Matthews is related to me (grandmother's grandfather)!!

So it would appear hubs' great-great great grandfather (if I have the correct number of greats in here) swindled my great-great great grandfather, possible murdered my great-great great aunt in order to own half the next county - which his new wife and heirs must have proceeded to sell off with great expediency since none of it is left.

Now, I can't actually prove much of this. But I do know I have a family story about a swindle by a lawyer and now know the person who was swindled had a daughter who married a lawyer who came into a great deal of money at precisely the time my ancestor lost it.

(I don't need Miss Marple to puzzle through the chance of this happening)

Also, I almost forgot the most interesting part ... this all took place in the town I now live in - which is a very small town that hubs and I only stumbled into because we drove through it back and forth to work for a year to avoid the main roads.

And the farm my great great great grandfather lived in was on the road we currently live on (long gone now) and possibly the very property we live on was part of that property.

Yes, I know this sounds like a Lifetime movie.

I can't decide if this is a million to one happening or if this kind of stuff is bound to happen when people's families have lived in the same general area for generations. I can't help thinking there is some kind of ancestral karma here that I should look at. Maybe I shouldn't. Maybe it is something hubs and I have ironed out just by being together, I don't know.

I do know that I have been making it clear to hubs that he owes me at least half a million dollars because of the actions of his direct ancestor THE LYING SACK OF NO GOOD FILTH.

I should be a rich woman now.

(rich in ways larger than cork and magnets, people)

Also the house we looked at that we didn't buy is next door to the oldest house in town which was moved to that location from the location right next door to our current house and also may play a part in the story ....

I have probably given you a headache and you are thinking, what the hell is she talking about ... it is rather hard to follow. I need to make myself a little chart and post the picture for the screenplay I am writing for Lifetime.

First I need some kind of ending for this story - like maybe I win the lottery, hubs murders me for my winnings and the ancestral drama plays out all over again ...

this would all wrap my story up rather nicely. Well, not so nicely for me, but nicely for Lifetime maybe.

Full Moon in Cancer - the emotional stuff that comes up as we push forward with real world goals

We have the first full moon of 2014 tonight!

This is the culmination of the Cancer Moon from six months ago - it is also the peak energy period for the Capricorn New Moon from two weeks ago and a great time to release stuff that has shown up since the New Year -

self-sabotaging tendencies that surface now around the real world goals we set in Capricorn a couple weeks ago can be released easier as the moon wanes over the next two weeks.

We have the moon (where we've been, what we know, feminine energy, being) and the sun (where we are trying to go/be, masculine energy, doing) as far apart in the sky as they can be from our earthly perspective during a full moon - now we have the sun in Capricorn and the moon in Cancer.

This is the polarity of male/female roles, work and the world vs home and family, how we push ourselves toward meeting new goals vs how we care for ourselves and meet our needs for safety and security, also money vs love stuff - lots of family patterns and soul group stuff coming to the surface now to be released if we are paying attention. This release is our gift to the world.

The moon is at home in Cancer and represents 2nd chakra stuff - our emotional center.

Second chakra health issues (bladder, reproductive organs, lower back, hips) are about imbalances with the Cancer/Capricorn polarity so this is about those who would rather focus on love than money, those who would rather focus on money than love, people who have an unbridled (think of that wild horse, there may be a bit of recklessness in this) drive to move forward in either love or money or people who cannot responsibly handle either love or money.

The negative thought patterns that surface for this polarity create emotions of anxiety, anger or sadness around gender and sexuality and relationships (love and family) and finances.

So if we have physical problems around this what is standing in the way of us making the changes in our finances and relationships to improve our health? Ask. See what comes up for you over the next two weeks.

Cancer energy does not want to be vulnerable, it wants to play it safe - there are mother connections to this stuff and how we were mothered and how we mother and nurture ourselves and others. There are some big energies to work/play with here. This is the time of the rebalancing of masculine/feminine energies on the planet. The spaces in our life where we lead (Capricorn) are asking us to be more open-hearted (Cancer) now.

This polarity is a universal theme every January and July - and right now with the full moon in Cancer is a powerful time for many people to change 2nd chakra thought patterns that aren't working.

(and you will know they aren't working by what is happening in your life and how your body is feeling - our bodies are not the first markers for this stuff, so by the time this stuff hits our physical self it has been active awhile in us - although it could look like something hits us out of the blue)

This is my north/south node polarity (I feel it as work vs family and as work vs self care) and my moon is in Cancer.  Every time it comes up I get the choice of acting, reacting and releasing in a higher way.

Since attachments are ruled by Cancer this is an excellent time to be releasing our negative hooks.

Attachment is conditional love. 

I will love you, if ... I will be happy, if ....

If we need someone to behave in a certain way in order to love them, it's not love. It's attachment. When we put our hopes and expectations on other people or people do this to us it triggers patterns in us and those patterns trigger responses that we need to release.

This isn't happening to us, it is happening for us - if anyone or anything is triggering us now - understand that they are a soul supporting our growth to greater truth and power. They (or the situation) is showing us that we are ready to be stronger in our energy. Whatever is showing up is a gift.

If we accept people (and especially ourselves) as they are - they can reveal themselves in ways we can recognize as true (this allows us to live from a place of truth, too) - that is love.

If we need something to happen in a certain way for us to be happy, this is the kind of attachment to a goal that gives our power away. Life is not supporting us giving our power away anymore.

This change is cyclical - we are on our own hero's quest and we are all on this journey together, too. It is also something we are creating across the planet by asking for freedom from power structures - part of the deal of those power structures crumbling is the safety nets that go along with them crumble, too - we can't take daddy's money and not play by his rules.

If we are awake now, the bad news (which isn't totally bad news) is that we are in an AP class, the good news (which isn't totally good news) is we are grading ourselves now ....

so last month I lost half a million dollars (twice!) and found out I was related to my husband ... part 1 of a 2 part cliffhanger

A couple things happened during the holiday rush while I wasn't blogging that I need to report - yes, this is the mayhem I have been referring to every chance I get so often in a half-baked attempt to create a little viral buzz.

(and I know you might be thinking, after reading my headline, "Cat, how can you lose half a million dollars? Do you even have half a million dollars to lose Cat? well, keep reading ....)

A little background to this: we are planning to move. I have been affirming the right property finds us and the right buyers for our current house find us at exactly the right time and we all live happily ever after (not together of course, but you get the idea).

We have no idea where we at moving to (yes, I will be dangling participles here, if this kind of poor grammar is going to drive you crazy, I apologize in advance). We only know that it is time to go (I will make up for my poor grammar by channeling Dr. Seuss).

OK, here is my story:

A few weeks ago, hubs comes home and announces there is a house he wants me to see and we have an appointment the next day at noon. I tell him I have a doctor's appointment at two, so we have to be quick.

The home's owner has died and the house is about to go on the market for about $200,000 less than the market value

(although market value is pretty much anybody's guess these days) - it was a good deal.

George tells me the house has 20 acres (!) and is "a beautiful and well maintained 70's ranch."

A customer of hubs (everyone within 20 miles of us is a customer of hubs or a customer of a customer of hubs), who happens to have a real estate license (and is an accountant and owns 1/3 of a golf course) can show it to us and get us this amazing deal, but we have to act fast.

There are two little drawbacks - this house is around the corner from where we live now and is a lot of money (much more than we were planning to spend).

So, if we bought this house we would be broke and packing up and moving around the corner. No new town to explore, no better weather, no NEW LIFE IN A NEW PLACE ... you get the idea.

So anyhoo, hubs comes home at noon and we drive around the corner. The house has very good bones, a very solid grounded footprint, a beautiful view from a large kitchen window, a nice fireplace, a gorgeous sunroom and the kind of open ranch feel we want. It is much larger (or at least feels much larger, maybe because everything is on the same floor) than our house.

The house also has horrific wallpaper everywhere, bathrooms and a kitchen in desperate need of an update, no clear space for me to work, a Sears catalog from 1986 with Cheryl Tiegs on the cover lying on the kitchen counter next to the phone as if someone had just placed an order for a Betamax.

Hubs walked the property line with the real estate agent/accountant/golf course owner. I wandered around the back yard with Chris trying to avoid the dozens of piles of deer poop littered across that beautiful view I had seen from the kitchen window and thought about Lymes disease and bullseye rashes.

We had to make an offer by Monday because there was another offer on the table (this was a Friday), so we knew exactly what we had to offer to get the house.

I was just not feeling it (it was a lot of money and I once gave myself a serious carpal tunnel injury removing wallpaper plus did I say it was AROUND THE CORNER). Hubs was salivating (the way some men lust after Cheryl Tiegs or did in 1986, hubs lusts after land).

I ask the universe that if we are supposed to buy this house I get a sign I cannot miss (and yes, I realize there is no 'supposed to' - there is really only what we do, but I get lost sometimes and think like this anyway). I head for my doctor's appointment.

The girl in the office shows me to the exam room and asks me, "so what did you do today?". I tell her we looked at a house, but the problem is the house is right around the corner from our current house. She tells me that she once moved right around the corner and that she did it to get off a busy street. I tell her that this move would get us off a busy street. She says the only regret she has is that she misses her ranch. I told her this new house is a ranch and we are currently in a two story and we would like a ranch. She says to me "well, I say go for it."

Long story short - we don't go for it. The house is just too much money for us with the remodeling it would need and even with a farm assessment on the land, the taxes on the house are double our current property taxes. And we are kind of looking for a bigger change than moving around the corner. It is a very cool house for someone though.

Flash ahead two weeks -

(something else happens within those two weeks, but I will report on that in part II because I need to go to bed now - since I am putting myself to sleep blogging, there is not much chance I can hope to keep you awake much longer, dear reader)

hubs comes home and tells me the real estate agent/accountant/golf course owner stopped by and told him the original offer (the one we had to beat with our offer) got the house.

He also told George that our town, fearing the only large land plot left would be developed into McMansions and needing a park, got some green acre money from the state and is buying 15 of the 20 acres from the new owner for $500,000 ... so the buyer got the "beautiful and well-maintained 70's ranch" with 5 acres for $125,000.00!

(with real estate prices in New Jersey this is kind of exactly like winning the lottery - for days I felt like I had thrown away a winning ticket)

In my defense I should say this was during the hectic holiday season, few people would buy a house so quickly that was so far out of their price range and I had some distracting health stuff going on.

I try to tell myself that this would not have worked out the same way for us because getting hubs to part with 15 acres, even with an offer of $500,000 and a wife threatening divorce and possible decapitation if he wouldn't sign on the dotted line, would have been very difficult. Also the town knows us and maybe would not be fearing McMansions from us (but something more in line with fields of dandelions, which they might hate more actually).

They might not have decided they needed a park ....

but of course, I did ask for a sign and I did get a sign (beginning with the woman asking me "what did you do today?" which is a very peculiar question to ask someone in the middle of the afternoon and ending with the synchronicity of her story and "go for it") and now life has to line something else up for us .... something that may or may not include a $500,000 bonus (I'm affirming that it does).

Next post I will tell you about the second $500,000 (and how all this connects together) - and hubs and my "semi-illegal" marriage .....

if at first we don't succeed .... (maybe we are measuring the wrong thing)

In 3rd grade I had to write my motto in the class yearbook (why did we have yearbooks in 3rd grade - I guess we didn't. It was some kind of written something like a yearbook though) and I remember writing "Try. Try again."

(Childhood memories that are truly our own, not the stories we have heard our parents tell again and again, show us so much about what we are made of now and what we are holding on to. Some people misinterpret this as a way to blame someone from our past, but if that is what we do with our memory we are missing the point entirely. The real question isn't what did the other person say or do to me but "what does it mean that I remember this thing? how am I made of this?")

I have no idea why I wrote this in my "yearbook" because even then I knew I was not a Try. Try again, kind of girl. I was more of a "do the stuff I am really good at only" kind of girl.

I was lucky (or maybe not) that the kind of stuff I was good at was the kind of stuff that mattered to teachers. I remember my teacher nodding her head approvingly at my 'motto'.

(that head nod is actually the part of my memory that is important; the approval for saying the safe thing)

Flash ahead a few years and no one would be thinking "Try. Try again." was a good motto. Not that we had become a world full of quitters, but it wasn't try-ers that were running things now - it was the do-ers that made things happen.

The world had moved on to "Do or Do not. There is No Try." YAY for Yoda! Then Nike eliminated that notorious 'try' word altogether with "Just Do It."

hope locket by cuddly rigor mortis and polarity

I still like the word "Try" though. And Hope, I like the word "Hope". I used to make a locket with the word Hope and people asked me all the time to change the word. They didn't like it.

I see the potential pitfalls with these words, but I still love them. Surrounded by people filled with hope that are trying to make things better is not such a bad space to be.

My favorite quote is T.S. Eliot "for us there is only the trying - the rest is not our business."

We can only do what we can do. The process is what we do. The rest is not our business.

I cannot disconnect Nike's "Just Do It" from the idea of winning and the winning part is sometimes (and often) outside our control and I am over the things outside my control (I have been totally over them since Janelle recommended James Altucher's book a couple months ago.)

being any kind of barometer for how I am doing - not because I am a control freak, really! but because I am committed to being about the stuff that matters and not just about the stuff that can be measured.

What do you all think?

(yes, I am channeling Dolly Parton now, I blame my increased bust size due to the 47 layers of clothing I am wearing right now)

xo I still have a winter mayhem update post to write this week, I haven't forgotten! Stay warm!

this is the year we do it ... better

 .... not better than someone else does it and not even better than we did it last year, because we were in a difference space last year and we don't fit in that space anymore. Doing what we could have (maybe) done then may not be the best thing for us to do now.

(and looking backward only gets us a sore neck and 

embarrassing photos on Facebook

when we walk into things)

We don't do it better by looking at what didn't work. We look at the stuff that went right. We focus on how we want to feel. 

Hubs and I went out to dinner a couple weeks ago. I had been spending a lot of time alone in my studio working and not doing a lot of talking and I shocked myself with the extent of the unconscious negative chitchat we immediately had going on -

about the guy who turned without signaling, the temperature, the shortened day, the pending storm, the traffic, the parking lot, health stuff, customer problems, my daughter's problems, my niece's problems, political stuff, Fukushima (hubs is obsessed with Fukushima) - all important topics, but I realized we were framing all our conversations about what was going wrong.

On the drive home I deliberately refocused us. I pointed out the beautiful holiday Christmas lights and Sully's latest adorableness on Facebook, a wonderful customer email I had received that day, the delicious leftovers we were going to have for lunch the next day ...

Every time hubs brought up a problem, I re-framed it. Every time I was about to say something that wasn't something I wanted or connected to how I wanted to feel, I stopped.

When we got to the house I asked George if he noticed what I was doing and he said "yes, but what good does it do to pretend everything is perfect - how does that fix anything?"

This isn't about pretending everything is perfect. It's not about fixing anything or getting so fixated on who we want to be that we lose sight of who we are. But once we know we get what we focus on, scratch that - once we know we are what we focus on - once we really know this, this mindless negative chatter matters.

It matters alot.

 
We currently have a Venus Retrograde that takes us right into a Mercury Retrograde which takes us right into a Mars Retrograde (some people may feel like they aren't really getting started until May!)  - this can create a whole lot of space for us to reinvent ourselves this year.

So how do we want this all to play out? What are we going to do with this space we have been given now to make the stuff that we know isn't working for us better? Hoping everyone is having a wonderful New Year! We are expecting snow to start any minute here!

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 ---->
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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

SALE - Black Friday thru Cyber Monday!

 POLARITY LOCKET SALE HERE

CORK JEWELRY SALE HERE

We don't have many sales here at Olive Bites (usually just this weekend and Earth Day) so if there is something in our Etsy shops you have your eye on for the holidays jump on this one -
ends Monday at midnight!

10% OFF ALL ORDERS

WITH COUPON CODE GREENFRIDAY

 
15% OFF ORDERS OF $50 OR MORE

WITH COUPON CODE GREEN50

 
20% OFF ORDERS OVER $100

WITH COUPON CODE GREEN100

 ~Have a Happy Hanukkah and Happy Thanksgiving Weekend everyone - SHOP HANDMADE!~

greening turkey day plus we've got a green comet, folks

I read last summer that Americans throw away 20% of their weekly groceries.

That's a lot of food (and resources) being wasted.

We could change the world just by fixing this one thing.

Thanksgiving is our big 'stuff our faces' holiday and the 'stuff our faces' season is upon us so planning for those leftovers and planning our meals for ways that cut down on food wastage (is this a word - spellcheck is ok with it, but it just looks wrong) is a priority.

Some tips would be:

1. If we are cooking this year - give people food to take home. It's nice to have all those leftovers, but we know we will be totally sick of eating this same meal by Saturday, so maybe just let it go. I know it will be hard to wrap up those pie slices and mashed potatoes, but unless we know for sure it will be eaten by our family, be generous with this.

2. Puree leftover veggies and freeze in ice cube trays for juicing/blending later. I bought an expensive juicer last Christmas, but cannot bear to toss out all the leftover ground veggies - how can this be healthy when I am losing most of the vegetable/fruit in my juicer blades? I have gone back to my old blender which worked just fine in the first place when slushed down with ice cubes and now we are drinking everything again. 

3. Google recipes for whatever you have left when preparing the meal - we can bake chips with the brussel sprout outer leaves by baking with olive oil and sea salt and save the lemons and limes to grate later, etc.

4. There are some good holiday tips on Jules Clancy's blog here

5. Well, that's all I've got - remember waste less doesn't mean eat more - we just need to plan ahead and think about everything we are tossing out, "is there another way I can use this?".

OK- now on to the green lady comet.

It is kismet to me that on Thanksgiving we have a comet named Ison (discovered in September 2012) having a close encounter with the sun - check out the NASA info here. We have the Moon conjunct Ceres which is the Empress (earth mother) archetype and this wonderful comet Ison (Isis?) dropping magic dust (some astrologers believe comets emit brand new energy into our world when they pass by) to spread like fertilizer and wake us up to what we are eating maybe? It feels like everything is all about food and nurturing issues now - being mindful of what we are consuming (appropriate for the holiday shopping season, too).

As we create a more mindful world with less consumption and less waste, our bodies cannot survive in this new paradigm with our old habits and are literally demanding we become more mindful eaters - that we consume higher energy food (and probably less food than we used to), clean water, etc - truly I think everyone who isn't currently dealing with this stuff soon will be.

Every meal is an opportunity to nurture ourselves or self medicate. It's our choice.

This Thanksgiving we can stuff our bodies and emotions (yes, family stuff can be stressful, but only if that is what we focus on) or we can choose to eat mindfully and respectfully with grace and gratitude.

I am cooking for a very small group (my family is teeny tiny) and we have the beautiful baby Sully now, so much to be thankful for, but whatever your personal circumstances find the space to be thankful for what you do have - the energy of millions of people expressing gratitude is a very powerful thing to connect with. xo all

another favorite note from the universe ...

You see, Cat , even prayers that lack conviction, confidence and end in question marks like, "can I? may I? will I?" are answered with a happy face and a, "Sure! You bet! No question!"

However if you want action instead of answers .... prayers of declaration and exclamation especially those that end in "So be it! Hallelujah! And so it is!" conjure up the magic ....

It's just the way the system was set-up.

(hope everyone is having a nice week and is conjuring up some full moon magic, finishing up the last of my wholesale orders here and getting ready for a trunk show this weekend at a friend's shop in Phillie, but should be back on here soon with my year end countdown xo all)

Full Moon in Taurus on Sunday - a time to be all in

raceytay full moon polarity locket

Sunday's full moon in Taurus brings us full circle from the new moon in Taurus we had the end of last April.

Taurus is about comfort - material goods, finances, physical pleasures, beauty.

Taurus is a fixed Earth sign that does the work - step by step with patience and persistence (their reputation for stubbornness grows from this) - yes, at the end of the day they want to pamper themselves with the good stuff,

but they are willing to work for it and they are great practical manifesters (when they control their tempers - don't get a Taurus mad - they are the bulls with the horns after all).

Taurus also rules the throat so anyone with any muscular neck issues might be wise to wear a scarf now to keep the chill from causing tightness - I usually wear a light scarf even when working in my studio. I love the scarves Noelle makes here.

Sooo, we have this moon that launched last April reaching its fullness in a sign that relates to our values and security. We also have 3 planets that were retrograde until last week now moving direct. And we are currently in Taurus's mirror polarity energy of Scorpio (death- what we have to release to create the space for something new).

How does this all fit together? Well, different astrologers interpret this in different ways and we each have individual charts (a picture of the universe at the moment we were born and the very moment in time we are literally created from) that are triggered in different places. For example this full moon is 25 degrees Taurus so if our birth chart has any hard aspects to that, this moon will be more challenging.

For most this full moon will be about finances, values, commitments, time, contracts - what we are willing to be/do/spend/risk - how fully are we aligned with our core values? what are we committed to? what are we passionate about? how much beauty are we living with, how much do we need? how fully are we participating in this game called Life on Planet Earth? are we all in?

When I was a banker and closed on a business loan I would sometimes say to the business owner -''we are going to spend a lot of money and we are going to make a lot of money.”

This is a time to not hold back.