full moon in Pisces this week .....

If you have been watching the night sky you have noticed the moon appearing larger and fuller over the last few days leading us to the September 19th full moon.

(make sure you get outside at night now and go for some walks - barefoot is even better)

The full moon occurs when the moon is on the opposite side of the earth as the sun. So, when the sun is in Virgo (as it is now) the moon (during the full moon) will be in the opposite sign of Pisces.

Since the Pisces new moon happened in March, the Pisces full moon this week will bring culminations to stuff started at that time. It also brings us the energy for peak activity in the current month's cycle.

Pisces and Virgo are opposite signs, but really the opposite sides of the same coin. The balance of these two signs is where we bring God (or whatever word you feel most comfortable using here) to earth through our actions of service.

Virgo/Pisces service is about the highest levels of service and compassion - it doesn't take on the burdens of others - compassion holds a higher vibration. It's not about removing the pain or suffering of another person which we literally can't do because the karma (ie energy attraction, cause and effect, our perfectly pre-planned, but not predestined life experiences) - that created it in the first place will just recreate it in another form. Pisces is the last and final sign - the place where the buck stops - Pisces energy knows this.

Pisces compassion shows patience, lends an ear or a shoulder without the need for recognition - without the need for thanks - knowing the service is its own reward; the work is often invisible. It holds open doors and the spaces for others to be strong and courageous and confident.

We have some challenging astrological aspects (cardinal cross, transiting Saturn conjunct Venus transiting the north node, Star of David) right now, that I'm not going to get into here, and also a grand water trine that has many of us thinking about our roots and the past and making it a very good time to be mindful of what we have worked for and created and be grateful for the process (Virgo). It's a time to recognize our ability to make a difference (Pisces) - to be a difference in the well-being and evolution of us all.

We are on this rock to rock this thing and most likely your world is rocking right now.

working in our business and not on our business - just doing the work (part ll - the invisible stuff)

please don't take me for "granite" locket by polarity

Our businesses are work.

You don't quit your day job (or dream about this), so you don't have to work. If you do, you better have a rich uncle who really, really likes you ... alot.

(and not in any kind of creepy way, I hope)

Lots of people give us advice about working on our business - telling us "you need to be working on your business and not in your business - you don't want to build yourself a job".

Some advisers will say this as if it is absolute truth, which it absolutely isn't (not much is).

It's not that this isn't a valid conversation to have. It is. It just isn't the whole conversation.

First of all, there is nothing wrong with creating yourself a job - no one else is creating them, so we pretty much have to now.

2nd, the more we work in our business, the invisible stuff, the stuff that no one will ever see us do, the stuff of late nights and callouses - the more we build our skill set, the more we refine our story, the more time we spend making the stuff that matters - the less working on our business we have to do at all.

It may look like the visible work is what has garnered us our rewards but we know it is the work we have done in our business that has allowed it to happen at all.

Working on our business will never get us those rabid customers who tell two friends and then they tell two friends and so on and so on ....

(what is that from, it's driving me nuts?)

it's the invisible work we do that earns us that, not the Facebook posts and Pinterest pins.

There are really no shortcuts. And if it looks like someone has found a shortcut -

(I believe that we are not born with unlimited choices, we can't be anything we want to be, we were all born for different things and someone who has found their thing may look like they have found a shortcut)

it is only because they have not cluttered up their own path with crap and it is easier for them to see where they need to go and to get about the business of getting there. The shortcut almost always leads people to wanting to take the longer road, with its twists and turns, next time though.

There is a certain amount of resistance that comes with really caring about something. Sometimes it is the part of our work that we are most resistant to that serves as an indicator of our real work. The counterfeit creator is wildly self confident - the real one is scared to death that things will not work out and she does the work anyway.

Hubs business has been busy for 12 years.

He has a service business so his work cannot be outsourced (thank goodness), but he isn't doing anything someone else isn't doing, too (there are 5 other shops in our very small town doing the same thing) - he is just doing it better and maybe 'better' is the wrong word here, but he is truly passionate about what he is doing. This doesn't mean he doesn't have resistance to the work at times - he just gets up and does the work anyway.

He almost never works on his business and he almost always thinks he should be. He shouldn't. The work he does in his business makes working on his business almost unnecessary. The people who need him, find him. He doesn't think about all the things he needs to be before he can get to work. He just gets to work.

We just do it or we don't do it.

If we were meant to write a book or make a family or cure cancer and we don't do it - we don't only hurt ourselves -we hurt our ancestors, we hurt our children, we hurt our planet. We shame the Goddess energy whose sole purpose is to nudge us and support us and push us along our path. We can't cheat the world of our contribution. We have to give the world what we've got.

part III what do we got?

(yes, I realize this is grammatically incorrect - it's Friday, weekends laugh at grammar, grammar's for Mondays)

sacred and profane print

happy weekend all! xo

knock, knock ....

nobody, Cat, is who they are based on one decision, one day, one path, one chance, one relationship or one anything else.

every day is brand new and opportunity never stops knocking.

who's there?
The Universe

(back later with that new series distracted by an 8 lb angel - happy thursday all)

kella and chris with new baby sully - doors flying open everywhere right now

doing the work ... why working IN our business and not on our business is what really matters - intro

pillaging and plundering is so 10th century - cork bracelet

The world used to operate within some sort of pecking order - top dog / underdog space - where we ran in packs, sat in cliques and without even thinking about it instinctively knew our place.

That is the world that is falling apart.

The numbers have just gotten too big and the whole thing is collapsing.

A pecking order can only hold so many chickens.

The hens who didn't get the memo are still thrashing around trying to get someone to pay attention to them while the rest of the brood are busy forming smaller tribes based on their common passions and some are even ignoring what everyone else is doing altogether.

The sun in Virgo is the perfect time to talk about what this means to us - this new world that is too large for pecking orders - the space for chickens who have outgrown their coops.

This new world that is about the work; the kind of work that doesn't wait for someone to notice it. It doesn't wait for permission or attention or things to be just right or perfect. It doesn't wait for inspiration. It isn't done for applause. It's never seen on Facebook.

(and of course there is really nothing new about it)

Let's talk about that. (part 1 next - the invisible)

pencils by thebigharumph