Part IV - Profit like a Prophet - Reclaiming our Authority with Saturn Energy

 

The shadow of working with this energy is the temptation to become too authoritarian.

(we are the authors of our own story but we are not here to write anyone else's - Saturn abhors ghost-writers)

Rigidity (in our thinking and bodies), insecurity, tyranny, taking ourselves too seriously are probably signs that we have moved into the shadow and need a reboot

(and some serious cutting-loose time).

Iron deficiencies (Saturn rules iron) often equal irony deficiencies. I would recommend spinach and Steve Carrell.

(I want to see his new movie this weekend - no cutting-loose in this one though)

James Hillman, who studied with Carl Jung, pointed out that silver (the Moon, creativity) and lead (Saturn, depression) are always found together in nature. He implied that depression is crucial to creativity. I'm not sure this is true, but depression can be a challenge for creatives. Loss of focus and inaction contribute.

Positive thinking is a great tool for working with Saturn's challenges.

The positive thinking that actually works though is the "positive" that means certain -

not the word "positive" that means "good". 

Being certain things are getting better and being certain our world is falling apart are both the kind of thinking that creates just that. 

It's the certainty that is powerful, not the goodness or badness of something we are thinking about. Life just demands expansion - it's up to us how that expansion happens.

We need to be thinking about what we are thinking about. We need to be paying attention to our emotions. We need to be taking action that feels good.

Saturn is about our responsibilities - all the things we signed up to do here - the relationships, the challenges, the work, the projects.

He makes a complete orbit of the zodiac every 28-30 years (called our Saturn return, he returns to his place in the skies at the time we were born and basically proceeds to take our inventory - hard work, self-questioning, nowhere to hide - think of it as Saturn hitting all your houses at once). 

Now that Saturn is direct again - take a look at the house this affects in your chart - you can probably look this up online or email me and I'll tell you. This is the house where you will not be allowed to procrastinate or be indecisive right now (and thru 2014) - this is the space that you will have much universal support when you step into your authority!

Next week, Mercury finally moves direct again and since Mercury is all about our voice in the world, communication and magic - we will take a look at how we can make her work with our businesses and lives, too.

Have a great weekend all! The heat is making all of us in Jersey mad-hatter hysterical.

And typing the word hysterical reminds me that the word hysteria comes from the word uterus - because hysteria was thought to originate in the uterus - I know. 

I think men could not imagine that being a woman living in a world defined by men could make someone appear mad - that going bat-shirt crazy at midlife was actually a totally healthy reaction to an unhealthy situation.

Now that we are all living in an undefined world and men are crashing about mad as hatters, too - maybe it's time for a new word.

Of course who knows how much hysterical was actually in the hysteria anyway.

Once, many years back I called hubs at work because I found a drowned squirrel in the pool. Now, I had already fished her out and done a proper burial with my daughter and her little friends in the backyard, but I think I just wanted to talk to a grown up about it.

Anyhoo, we were talking on the phone and someone at his job needed his attention and he said to this person, "Hold on a minute. My wife's on the phone and she's hysterical". And I said, "Huh, I'm not hysterical." and he said "Well, you sound pretty upset."

To this day he insists I called him sounding hysterical. Of course, I just called all the people of NJ hysterical (not just the ones in possession of a uterus) ... I think we might be though - it is pretty freakin' hot .... xo all

Part III - Profit like a Prophet - Reclaiming our Authority thru Systems

refuse to sink - nan lawson locket

Saturn energy supports us when we deliberately choose our focus.

Regardless of what we say is important to us, the truth of what we care about is what we spend our time on.

How are we spending our minutes, hours, days?

There is no right or wrong with this and if we are happy we should keep on keeping on, but if things are not going as well, this is one of the first things I always look at. 

When we don't consciously choose our focus our time gets stolen by Saturn's shadow called distraction - this is especially true when we have an online business.

When we set up systems for our business we work with this energy best and step into our authority.

Systems to value our time (Saturn was known to the ancient Greeks as Chronos or Time), secure our foundation, establish structure, take responsibility for the work we put out into the world, use self-discipline and create boundaries are the kind of systems Saturn can help us with. Saturn says everyone needs a job!

Setting aside specific chunks of time for specific tasks can be a great organizer for maker business owners.

We never had a job where we could do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted to and we haven't created one either.

We need structure to our days. We don't need the inflexible kind of structure that breaks because it can't bend, but we don't want to be bending so often that we break anyway.

Figure out what we need to do and schedule our week. My slowest days are at the end of the week, so I schedule non-essential business stuff for Thursdays and Fridays. I balance my books every month. I inventory my supplies every month.

I have a calendar with chunks of hours and I work with it as much as possible. Two hours for such and such - if it's not complete and I am out of time. I stop anyway. I schedule in another hour somewhere - that way I'm not thinking about such and such; that thing I have to do.

I'm not stressing because it is hanging over me and unfinished.

It's over for me until that time period on my calendar when I take it back out. When I started valuing my own time in this way, stuff hitting me out of the blue becomes much more rare. Saturn still throws me a curve ball- that's his job, but I am at least twice as likely to catch it now.

I am not perfect with this; I don't try to be. I get off-balance all the time and have to drag myself back to center.

When Saturn isn't honored he shows up as inertia, fear, depression - if we are off rhythm and out of balance, Saturn tells us to get back in touch with our rhythms - we can do deep breathing as a way to find our center.

Saturn also represents the father and the truth is that many of us were not honored and approved of by our fathers. Saturn invites us to let go of the yearning for this. Just let it go. We don't have to go through life passing this paternal torch to others in some misguided attempt to get an authority figure to validate us.

It's very powerful to ask ourselves "To whom did I give away my power to feel good about myself?" and then affirm "I take my power back." Breathe that power back in ... deeply.

Remember when doing exercises like this that you have the energy of generations of magic makers behind your intention. This is not something to take lightly. Once you take that power back - you own it. Blaming someone else for something that isn't working in your life will no longer work for you.

The Chinese art of Chi Gong shows us the coordinates of Saturn. Imagine a vertical line from the base of our spine to the crown of our head then imagine a horizontal line from the small of our back straight to just below our belly button.

This is the place of our true center, Saturn's energy rests here - it is a place where fear does not exist.

Many years ago I had uterine surgery in this area that left me with scar tissue and numbness and a couple years later I had another surgery that removed the scar tissue. Looking back on it I could see that during this time I had lost my center emotionally and spiritually and so my physical body lost its center, too.

Women who have pregnancies, miscarriages, abortions, hysterectomies, etc - usually need to work to get back to center.

Next Post Part IV -Profit like a Prophet - Reclaiming our Authority

Part III - Profit like a Prophet - Reclaiming our Authority thru Ritual

the elephant never forgets ring

I am not particularly interested in who says something as much as I am in,

"does this message mirror my feelings".

My mother was very trusting of authority - if a doctor said to her, "do this" - she did it and it very often worked for her, but it was always her belief as much as the doctor's wisdom that created the healing.

She trusted politicians to run the world, the church to teach us about God, the schools to teach us everything else and the police to protect us.

What she saw as safety, I eyed with distrust and one hand on the doorknob.

We were both looking at what was true to us, but because none of this stuff was actual truth, we could only see what we were looking for.

When we read advice for our business we have to be thinking about this.

For example many business coaches advise makers to 'get their work out there - don't wait until everything is 100% ready' - a just do it philosophy right out of the old Nike ads. Now, this is really great advice for perfectionists and procrastinators. And many makers are perfectionists and need to hear this. But other makers need to put many, many hours into their skill set and get clear with their intention and focus before launching anything. There is no one shoe fits everyone with any of this stuff.

(I do a lot of study with north nodes in astrology charts and for every chart that shows someone needing to release that Virgo perfectionism there is someone else who really needs to embrace just that)

None of this stuff is actually truth - it is only what is true for us.

My friend had a job she really, really wanted to quit. She tried an Etsy shop for a year, but it wasn't taking off and it began to feel as heavy to her as her oppressive job. She decided to close the shop. She was just too scattered.

(many makers have these half-assed, empty for months and even years, Etsy shops cluttering up their life - spaces they have moved on from - if this is you, unless you have some really good reason for keeping it open and "maybe I will get back to this some day" probably doesn't count with this, you might want to close it - save the pics first - no one is going to clean up these loose ends for us, we have to do it ourselves - and if you are the kind of person who leaves cabinet doors open after you have grabbed a glass, left checking accounts open with $2.00 in them - which then proceeded to rack up service charges - you especially need to close that empty shop)

When she closed it, she did a release ritual I told her about and she said for the first time ever - she felt like she left something cleanly.

She celebrated the stuff it had brought into her life and released any need to look back at her shop with any unfinished emotions. It didn't become something in her past she had failed at (which it never was, but the subconscious is a tricky thing) or something she is going to get back to when she has more time (she may one day open another shop - who knows - but if she does, it will be opened with the enthusiastic energy of new creation it deserves).

She set her intention for her life to improve in very specific ways. She didn't worry about how any of this is going to happen - the "how's" are life's job, not ours - she just sets her intention, meditates to clear her mind, eats cleaner to clear her body, looks at emotions that come up to see where she is over-reacting, acts on things that make her feel good and ... well, I will report back - this is a process after all.

Our beliefs really do create our reality (what is true for us) but even most people who believe this think in terms of the big things, but the little things create the big things. We leave these little doors ajar here and there as we go through life ... just in case we need them, little escape hatches whose very presence (picture little open doors into the space you are now occupying) tells ourselves that we need an escape hatch - they suck the oxygen from the current moment and take up space.

There are centuries worth of unbinding and cord cutting rituals and the very simple paper release I talked about it in the last post that I always recommend (which she did on a full moon - she said she felt totally crazy and had to resist the urge to start howling - a very good sign I told her. I only wish she had actually howled).

Now cord cutting and unbinding (some tribes will imbue a cord with the symbolism of some restraint you wish to release, tie it loosely around your waist - I did this once with one of hub's neckties - raise your arms and let the cord drop to the ground) are not like "don't burn your bridges" - this isn't about releasing anything good; the good stuff is the stuff we get to keep.

Next Up Part IV- Profit like a Prophet - Reclaiming our Authority thru Ritual

Part II - Reclaiming our Authority; Rituals for Abundance - Profit like a Prophet

galactic abundance - polarity locket

I think my plants have started talking back to me.

(not in a bratty, teenager kind of way  - they are much too polite for that)

But, lately after I tell them how beautiful and strong and amazing they are for hanging with me during this hot and humid July - I am hearing little whispers of gratitude.

George Washington Carver talked to plants - he would ask them "what are you for little guy?" and they would whisper back - probably something like "I am a peanut and I taste great with jelly".

I've been telling my hanging baskets all about George in the morning while I eat my poached egg on gluten-free toast on the front porch.

(gluten free bread btw if you haven't tried it, tastes pretty much like any dense bread, except it costs twice as much and needs to be refrigerated)

This morning I slipped up and started talking to them about Luther Burbank (another famous botanist - there is a reason for all this plant reading I've been doing lately which I will report on in a couple weeks). Luther talked to plants, too. He grew plants that were edible without their spines simply by saying to them "you are perfectly safe here, you do not need your spine" - then he would grow these incredible spineless fruits - how amazing is that!

(of course, he would then proceed to eat them which is maybe the reason so many plants have stopped listening to us)

We all have rituals and our rituals are very powerful. Even the most simple tasks, actually most especially and maybe only the most simple tasks, when done mindfully, invoke the power of ritual.

We can sweep our floor or we can sweep out the past along with our dust bunnies.

Rituals are the way God/the Gods/the Universe, our Higher Self (choose your comfort zone) know we are asking for help. Life is a collaboration.

I don't know what Webster or Wikipedia would offer up, but for our purposes we will define ritual as any act imbued with invisible intention. 

In Astrology, Saturn is the part of us that sets our intention - he gives us the power to focus and define our boundaries, our terms and our purpose. With intention and ritual we begin to grow the form in which that intention will be realized from inside out, rather than having it externally imposed.

Either we step into our responsibility and become the author of our own lives or we give our authority away - there is no in between place. Fear is a symptom of loss of authority - we can find the places in our life where we have not honored Saturn by the things we are afraid of.

And when we give our authority away, we should be afraid.

Saturn moved into Scorpio last fall for a two and a half year visit, then went retrograde a couple months later and just turned direct again last week. So, this is a great time to work with this energy (there is never really a bad time, but some times are better than others). Next Monday we have a full moon, which is an excellent time to set release intentions and to practice release rituals.

A really simple release ritual which utilizes the four elements (earth, water, air, fire) is to speak your intention of release, write it down by hand on a piece of paper, burn the paper and release the ashes into moving water (stream, river - once I used a flushing toilet in a bar bathroom; it worked).

The power of our results will directly mirror the power of our intention.

Challenging circumstances always drive us inward - where we get to use our Saturn to author a new chapter. Saturn asks us "how do you want your story to proceed?" - if we don't go inward willingly Saturn reaches up and yanks us down forcefully (which is why he has gotten such a bad rap) - this yanking is often experienced as depression, but it is really a reminder to step into our responsibility for our life; to not live life by default.

We really are on a quest here and ritual connects us to the bigger picture.

Last winter I was very focused on connecting with other people thinking these connections had to come in a certain way - forgetting that we set the intention and let life work out the 'how's'. Life showed me very quickly that crowds and people are no cure for loneliness; that maybe we need to be alone to find out what supports us. Solitude is the cure for loneliness; like cures like. Life was offering me a space for reflection because without reflection we can become as vulnerably off balanced as if we are sleep deprived. Insight must be earned, I guess. It's crazy how often I can know something and then act like I don't know it ...

Next up - Reclaiming our Authority; Rituals for Abundance - Profit like a Prophet Part III (some specific rituals for our business)