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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UNCORKED

 

POLARITY

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 .....