blog break ...

... back soon - xo all

New Moon in Libra - time to think about what we are committing our energy to plus can Etsy really call an apple an orange and make us see an orange

with brave wings she flies

Back to this new moon because the ritual of having a new moon intentions process is very powerful.

Moving into Libra from Virgo takes us from an earth sign into an air sign so those of us already living in our heads tend to get more ungrounded (and also catch head and chest colds), have less energy and be less able to finish things.

Some tips on grounding here.

Of course, new moons tend to be low-energy times anyway, so just go with it right now.

Think of the new moon a little like a blank page - this one in balancing Libra is focused on finding peace and equilibrium and an excellent time to set intentions for what we need to have more balance and harmony in our lives.

Setting intentions and making affirmations are one of the first steps to making something happen

(after releasing resistance to it and creating the space for it) - 

people sometimes think of the intention as separate from the action, but intention, particularly when part of a ritual, is an action itself. 

It welcomes the thing we are focused on into our energy. 

Now is a great time to focus our intentions on Libra stuff : relationships, marriage, negotiation, harmony, teamwork, social activity, beauty, Libra health stuff : adrenals, sugar imbalance, kidneys

Some examples of stuff I am working with:

1. I easily see and follow the path to create a happy marriage
2. I feel internally balanced and peaceful
3. I easily cooperate with others in healthy, happy and tactful ways
4. I make decisions easily
5. I easily attract, absorb and implement the information that leads to a total healing of my low blood sugar

then I add my 5 most important intentions, more specific stuff, worded with a Libra focus (astrologer Jan Spiller always suggests 10 intentions - she calls then wishes - and 10 is a nice number to work with so I try to go with that).

AFFIRMATION TIPS: get into a happy frame of mind - always make affirmations from a  positive place (positive meaning both happy and certain) - write your affirmations down by hand, speak them out loud - I always 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 get stagnant - then release your attention from them knowing that your intention is known. Know these things are already yours.

A couple words about Etsy's announcement this week since it will affect different sellers in different ways and celestially speaking couldn't be better timed. Etsy's solution to the factory stuff that litters it's pages now, is to find a way to make that stuff fit even if it means redefining handmade to include factory made.

 

They can decide what is allowed on their platform - but they can't just call an apple an orange and have it become an orange. 

 

(unless, of course they have some kind of Monsanto genetically modified fruit seed patent we don't know about in the works to do exactly this ...)

 

If your Etsy business feels like it has been built on shifting sand it is only because everything is shifting now - you would be feeling this stuff no matter where you had planted yourself.

 

This new moon in Libra, the part of our hero's journey that is all about balance and other people, is the perfect time to step into our authentic power - which is always sourced by spirit - to co-create better relationships and more harmony in our lives. It's also a great time to sacrifice whatever it is that causes us to sit on that fence!

(which reminds me that I recently sat on a white fence without realizing it was vinyl and bent it - my neighbor's brand new fence now has a forever impression of my left buttock which must be heavier than my right buttock now that I think about it unless I slouch leftie and I can't say the word buttock without hearing Forrest talking about his battle injury ... xo and have a nice weekend all!)

 

 

New Moon in Libra - a grand cross call to action this month

Sullivan is rocking his Libra mommy's world right now

I have been AWOL planning and throwing a baby shower (yes, I threw the shower and not the actual baby) and hosting family in from Oregon!

Anyone who reads astrologer Susan Miller knows she has been predicting a bumpy October for most people.

This is not your typical New Moon because it is going to not only activate the Uranus/Pluto square but form what is called a Grand Cross.

This Grand Cross is where the action amps up big time and it plays out with the New Moon and Sun together in Libra on one corner of the Cross - Uranus opposite in the sign of Aries on another point of the Cross - Pluto squaring up in Capricorn on the third point of the Cross - and Jupiter in Cancer sitting the fourth point of the Cross.

Grand Cross configurations want something to change, move forward, rev up, and with New Moon energy behind the cross we are in for a real call to action

(we can see this all being played out in Washington right now with healthcare and Etsy with Chad's announcement this week and in our own lives).

If it feels like some kind of stability is ending for you, remember that stability is not the experience we are here for (we still want to be grounded though). The ego seeks to keep us safe (that's the ego's main job after all) which doesn't sound like a bad thing until you think of the toddler who would never take her first step if the ego had its way. On the one side of the coin, there is no inherent safety now for any of us (there never has been, the danger was just hidden from our view before) - on the other hand, nothing real can be threatened, so anything that looks like it is being threatened isn't real anyway.

Pluto (Capricorn, the authority) seeks power, Uranus (Aries, the warrior) seeks freedom - both are stubborn, tenacious cardinal signs that stand their ground and make things happen. When Pluto moved into Capricorn in 2008, our financial system crashed - when Uranus entered Aries in 2010, and then moved to within a few degrees of its square to Pluto revolutionary movements began to spread throughout the world.

Personally right now we may be reacting to something new happening or steering our ship into new waters ourselves (always better to grab the wheel - not to try and turn the boat around but to best avoid the rocky shore).

The New Moon gives us a full 2 weeks to make something happen or deal with what happens and it really culminates 6 months from now with the Libra full moon.

We also have mercury about to go retrograde so it's a good time to follow this new moon to its completion this month and wrap stuff up before the 21st. For most people, even though this is a new moon, it might be better to hold off and start new things in November when the new moon isn't followed by a retrograde (especially if you are a fixed sign person - I'm talking to you: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius).

I'll get back to all of this tomorrow (our new moon affirmation stuff as we makers journey through Libra and some stuff on Etsy's announcement), but just wanted to post this now.

Happy Thursday all - baby shower pics are coming! xo

working in our business and not on our business - just doing the work (part lV - the mystical part)

fabric, mirrored locket by polarity

I wanted to wrap us this series before the sun moved into Libra so we will just pretend you are reading this yesterday.

(never under-estimate the power of our imagination, the nonexistence of time as a constant - ask Einstein - and for me personally, my ability to be continually one day late with most things)

This Virgo energy that is about work and service and dedication; about doing the stuff that we have to do without our Leo (prior sign) need for attention, without getting credit, without any applause now cedes our path to balance seeking Libra (the next sign) bringing other people into the mix - asking us what we have really created if no one else ever gets to see it or be affected by it - asking us to step out with what we've got - asking us to share.

As Virgo moves into Libra we get autumn; the time of harvest. 

To tie this all back in (rather hastily, I'm sorry) with what happens with maker businesses is we will only grow so much before we need to take a quantum leap. That step by step way we have been growing will eventually hit something, usually a standstill; something that requires a greater expenditure of energy or a decision to let go.  

We have to put more of ourselves into it.

We need the momentum that comes from some kind of full out sweaty run.

If we don't because maybe we don't have the energy - maybe we want the harvest but we don't want to do the planting and the tilling or maybe we don't want to do the planting and tilling ... again. 

This is exactly the time we need to really get to work (the times that separate the women from the girls - call on Athena energy for this) or sometimes exactly the time we need to let go and move on. 

There is no right or wrong answer here.

Everything isn't meant to be some great huge thing. Sometimes it's just the thing we had to grow through and now have to let go of so we have both hands free when that other thing comes along.

But, always remember, everything that is a great huge thing always made this leap.

The next steps will be easier to figure out if we are grounded (we are also moving from an earth sign into an air sign right now so grounding is doubly important). Grounding brings our energy into the current moment which is always the place we line up with ourselves; the place we line up with our answer. And I didn't say 'correct answer' because maybe there is no correct answer. Maybe every answer will lead us where we have intended to go as long as we keep moving. 

Removing the excess electrical charge from an object is called grounding - removing the excess emotional charge, that is the result of over thinking and looking backwards, is also called grounding. 

Pulling our focus back to our physical self and the current moment is especially beneficial for anyone who doesn't feel safe (raises both hands) and we will know this is us if we continually make decisions based on safety.

(these decisions are always ego based because our safety is the ego's job, which is a good thing until it isn't anymore - it's the crutch that helped us to walk while our foot healed but then becomes the reason we can't walk when we hold on to it too long). 

When we find ourselves valuing our safety over our happiness, grounding can help us make better decisions or I should probably say grounding will help make our decision making easier.

And this stuff is a practice so we have to practice it. It's like exercise, it can't not work for us, but we have to actually do it. Some ways to ground:

1. Walk outdoors in bare feet (this works so well, that even just walking across my front yard on a Sunday morning to get the newspaper in my bare feet totally changes my entire mood for the day)

2. Lie on the ground (palms on the ground or forehead on the ground works best)

3. Gardening

4. Bring our attention to the present moment - sit comfortably and scan your body from your toes to your head feeling each part - is it hot, is it heavy - observe how your body feels. Walk around the room and see how it feels to touch things. Run cold water over your hands. List your current moment - so I would say - keyboard keys clicking, the sound of crickets, cold air from the open door - attention to the present moment is very grounding.

5. Eat root vegetables (some people think eating meat is grounding, but I had a teacher 20 years ago who said this wasn't true - that eating meat actually lowers our frequency so that's why it might feel momentarily grounding - I think she was right about this)

6. Stones are grounding. The stuff in our environment always lines up with us energetically. Rocks and minerals hold such old and solid vibrations that it is much more likely for us to have to raise our vibration to match their vibration than for the reverse to happen. Hematite is great for this.

6. Scents have vibrations and can be grounding. Scents force us to either incorporate their energy or move out of their space. Yes, scents are bad-ass.

7. Sounds are grounding. The teacher who taught me grounding had an exercise where you make a sound with your throat and then lower and lower the sound until it is the lowest sound your body can make - that is your root chakra sound and you can make that sound when you need to ground yourself - great for stressful driving situations. 

8. Red, brown and black are very grounding - probably why so many teens are drawn to wearing the color black while their vibration seeks balance.

9. Grounding meditations - visualizing yourself with roots reaching down into the earth, etc.

10. Exercise (preferably outdoors)

So, a daily grounding practice, getting to work (the stuff we do because we have the need to bring forth the work not because of what the outcome can do for us) - we are at the harvest now of our 9 month yearly birthing cycle and like the new mother we know that even our most original work (and really only our most original work) isn't really our work anyway - we don't create the new life - we are just the vehicle birthing it.

It came through us (and on the one hand it could have come through anyone and on the other hand it could only have come through us) because we were the ones who settled down and did the work.