BIZ Astrology for Tuesday August 12th - Venus joins the parade in Leo / Princess POWER

michelle baron studio print

If the Sun were the king and the Moon were the queen, the princess of the sky would certainly be Venus. After the sun and moon she shines brighter than everything else (and is the closest planet to Earth).

When we are moved by something (poetry, music, art) - we are touching this part of ourselves. A natal chart with a prominent Venus (she rules Libra and Taurus and our 7th house of partnership) may not make us a great artist or musical genius (although it might), but it will surely give us appreciation for these things.

An artistic eye, a musical ear or a poetic heart (the ability to show appreciation) is just as valuable to a vibrant world and evolving planet as the ability to create these things.

If we deny Venus in ourselves or our business or deny ourselves or our business of Venusian qualities we miss out on much more than the ability to don a paper crown and prance around the room like a magical princess - although I would not underestimate the power of prancing either! LET'S PRANCE!

Venus joins the Sun, Jupiter and Mercury in fiery, active, generous Leo today.

TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO BE THINKING ABOUT - How can I bring out my inner gift so it can be appreciated? What beauty am I appreciating? What moves me? How can I be seen? 

This is an action day, so let's take some action to make our work more visible. Venus will provide a kind of irresistible allure for us now.

BIZ Astrology for Monday August 11th - hell yeah, it's shark week

jessica mingo shark print

After last night's full moon (and I hope you got outdoors and took a moonbath ie maybe a walk around your neighborhood - you don't have to take these monthly baths walks in your birthday suit but showing a little skin never hurts - this is true for most things in life) we are all starting the week with our emotions a little over the moon.

Action oriented back to work Monday mornings - and it's SHARK WEEK after all, hold little appeal to our moon. The moon's job is to feel, not take action or make decisions. Left to its own devices the Moon would have us dream our life away.

Our moon seeks to live in imagination where all our possibilities are kept alive simply because we never choose to live them out. We need to spend time in this place, too - we can pitch a tent here now and then, but of course, we'll build our house on more solid footings.

After the Aquarian distance from ourselves this weekend - are we holding onto the stuff that hurts or the stuff that heals? - the Moon heads into dreamy Pisces where it meets up with dreamy Neptune.

This can be a wonderful time of high creativity for creatives - passion can also lead to things being a bloody mess for a while. You want to fight any tendency to want to be the victim in anything that pops up now. Remember we have the Sun in Leo partnered up with Jupiter. There is royal power for all of us in this.

(anyone "breaking up" with someone or something right now - a partner, customer, job, etc - could see things get messy or too emotional - remember we can affect the situation in big ways with our language - use words like dissolve and dismantle rather than "break" now - not to the other party since this will most likely just piss them off, but in our own minds - intend for things to drift apart in gentle ways, know that you will always find a safe harbor)

TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO BE THINKING ABOUT - How are we different? What do we do best? How can we focus our energies and attention on that 1% of ourselves that we have literally been created from the stars to manifest and not waste our focus on the 99% of ourselves that is just like everybody else?

This is a great day to go from the frying pan into the fire or maybe I should say from the sinking ship into the shark infested waters if we don't get this focus thing right - but if we do set off in the direction of our heart we will find great loyalty and generosity there.

Full Moon in Aquarius 2014 - banding together as individuals

my aquarius aromatherapy locket

On Sunday, August 10th, we have a full moon (2nd of 3 super moons of the summer) in the freedom loving sign of Aquarius (my sun sign).

This is a culmination of January's Aquarius new moon.

If you remember back to April's Cardinal Grand Cross that shifted our center into the new paradigm of the Aries/Libra polarity (balancing self and other, male and female, work and home) we can see how this moon fits into our ongoing process.

Aquarius is a rational, detached and objective sign. The sign of equality and community. Aquarius does not like compromise, but Aquarius loves collaboration - Aquarius wants everybody to win.

Aquarius is the sign of genius - the sign of the revolutionary, the scientist (yes, often of the madder variety - I count myself among these) and the exile.

As one of my favorite astrology teachers, Steven Forrest says (I am paraphrasing from memory from one of his teachings here).

"Eve (no doubt an Aquarian) was tempted by the serpent

<--- (the glyph for Aquarius - this pair of wavy lines often mistaken for ocean waves - are actually two serpents and represent knowledge)

to eat from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. She did and got her and her hubs tossed from the Garden of Eden. In that single act of Aquarius rebellion, our current history's first modern woman gave birth to something far more valuable than safety - she gave birth to freedom."

If you are an Aquarius sun sign (how we process life), Aquarius moon (how we feel your way through life) or Aquarius ascendant (how we appear to other people) and especially if it is 13-23 degrees Aquarius (or the other air signs Gemini or Libra are within 13-23 degrees in your natal chart) you will feel the effects of this full moon the most. Most likely within the Aries/Libra polarity of balancing self and other, relationships and work.

With Aquarius we cannot compromise to fit in. We cannot pretend to be something we are not even when being ourselves might hurt those around us. Aquarius detachment isn't about being heartless (although the polarity sign of Aquarius is of course the big hearted - and sometimes equally big ego - of Leo) - but she knows to value safety before freedom will surely be the death of her.

At Sunday's full moon - something from late January/ early February will wrap itself up (check what house Aquarius resides in your natal chart), this could be about finding partners that share our vision, how can we collaborate and benefit everyone? Get outdoors and walk in this full moon. 

Full moons are a powerful time for giving thanks - if we are noticing what we appreciate and noticing what we are grateful for, we can't be noticing (ie putting our attention on) what we don't want or what we don't have. The full moon always shows us what story we are holding onto. 

Feel your moments this weekend and you will know if you are holding onto a story that heals or a story that hurts. xo all

Biz Astrology for Tuesday August 5th - work like a captain, play like a pirate

bs custom designs

Venus aspects Neptune this morning which could make everyone a little thin skinned especially for people like me whose epidermis already resembles onion peel.

Our Moon in Sagittarius wants us to speak from our hearts this afternoon (which could lead to tears this evening for some).  

The moon trines Jupiter in Leo and makes for a day we can expand through playfulness and laughter.

The best universal biz advice for today would be to do what you have to do with a light heart and make it fun - but again do what you have to so. Makers could have some real progress to show for effort put forth now by week's end.

*If you are looking for a day to play hooky this week - today's energy may be your best bet. xo all

(am finishing up a course that requires me to do a daily horoscope, so will likely post it over here this week, too - although general I hope someone finds something useful)

she's gonna sing ....

It's November 21, 1934 and a skinny, 16 year old high school drop out, orphan and dancer named Ella Fitzgerald is called up on stage at the famous Apollo Theater during amateur night after her name is randomly drawn from a hat.

The announcer probably says something like, "And now ladies and gentlemen our next contestant is Miss Ella Fitzgerald and she is going to dance for us tonight".

Maybe the audience shifts in their seats. Certainly ice cubes tinkle against the sides of glasses and cigarette smoke fills the room.

Maybe Ella tugged on his sleeve or maybe she whispered in his ear.

"Hold on now everyone", the announcer suddenly continues, "Miss Fitzgerald has changed her mind. She's not gonna dance. She's gonna sing."

(she then goes on to do three encores, win first prize ... and change music forever)

NOTE - many years later during an interview with NPR, Ella admitted she switched from dancing to singing that night after deciding she didn't measure up to the talented dancers in the act that preceded hers - she even admitted she flubbed the first couple lines and the announcer had to step in to calm her nerves and protect her from what he thought would be a jeering crowd ... then she started AGAIN and brought down the house ....

Here's to following our hearts right now.

Biz Horoscope for Monday August 4th - the early bird catches the worm

rachel lewis - sleep late

We start the week with a LEO Sun, a SCORPIO Moon, the Moon conjunct Saturn and Mars firing hot or maybe mis-firing.

(if we have something we fired off in haste over the last few days we need to make amends for or correct, maybe wait for the Sagittarius moon later in the week when cooler heads will prevail - today's Scorpio Moon makes it a great time to dig deep and figure out how we got to this place though)

If you have a business or a life that requires you to get down to business today - get stuff done early. Saturn rewards a good game plan. It's not the best time to wing it. The moon turns void of course in early evening so don't start anything new then. And if you feel a bit un-ruddered yourself tonight, just call it a day. Sleep fixes everything (truly, we build a new body while sleeping and wake up a new person - we can reinforce fast life change by sleeping on a different side of the bed, moving our alarm clock and changing our morning routine!).

We have a lovely Moon/Venus trine that rewards the creative biz working from a place of personal integrity with popularity now.

This is a great day to:

Work hard
Be the early bird (of course, the opposite strategy works best for the worm - if you have already overslept just consider yourself a wise worm and get to work!)
Plan our next move - think strategy with this
Have some fun (this is still summer after all - but get your work done first or you will not enjoy your fun as much)
Skip any kind of manipulation - don't do it or allow it
If we have done something impulsive or "misfired" somehow - this is a good day to figure out why we did it
Have an emotional connection with our creativity - what calls to your heart now?!

 xo all
(am finishing up a course that requires me to do a daily horoscope, so will likely post it over here this week, too - although general I hope someone finds something useful)

when there is no 'away' ....

 
In my early craft show days with recycled jewelry I had a sign in my booth that read:  
don't throw it away - there is no "away"

I found the sign this morning, a decade later. Today I not only can't throw anything away - I can't look away, get away with it or run away either! Life has definitely pushed me into the here and now and rooted this formerly rootless girl to the ground I stand on.

Maybe the whole idea of "away" is going away!

I had an astrology teacher who regularly said "during this time of apocalypse"

note - the word apocalypse is often used to describe a great devastation, but the actual, literal meaning (ancient Greek) of apocalypse is an unveiling or revealing.

She freaked us out at first, but over time we got de-sensitized to the word and could feel gratitude to be living at a time when the truth is being revealed to us - even as we fight daily to stay grounded at its unveiling on both personal and global levels.

The internet is the physical manifestation of revelation after all.

With the Sun in Leo right now there is an emphasis on courage and confidence, celebration, somber awareness, and of course, powerful creativity.

I have a friend who recently accepted a new job. After giving her two weeks notice at her old job she realized she would not get a vacation for many months (and she hadn't had one in her old job for almost a year). She then delayed the start of her new job (with the help of a white lie) by a few days so she could get away. She rented a little cottage in the woods, but with the white lie and new job 'hanging over her head' she could not enjoy herself.

This is kind of how the energy of the next couple weeks of Leo may feel to many people.

When Mars moved into Scorpio on July 25th, whatever we held back for the last 8 months while he passive-aggressively worked his way through Libra- turned into active aggression (we see this in world events, too), truth will sting, we will be much more productive and since Mars is joining Saturn - the breakthroughs and struggle can lead to a new stability.

For me, personally, with a Scorpio ascendant (first house of self) - the extra fire/heat made me physically sick and I am still working through it. I should have seen it coming and now have to work harder to rebuild my immune system - the warning signs of illness come as “permission” to slow down and recharge - we ignore them at our own peril.

xo all

welcoming august plus a backyard update

I hope everyone is enjoying the summer months!

My visiting family flew home yesterday (sniffle).

During their visit I somehow managed to end up in urgent care (with what I thought was strep throat, but turned out to be a sinus infection) just two weeks after my emergency room visit which was one week after my 'sliced my leg open' injury, so am hoping I am done with medical emergencies for awhile.

On the bright side the strange left leg rash I have been trying to avoid thinking about for the last two years has miraculously almost disappeared. Is this all TMI? I agree ... I just can't help myself though.

We finished the semi-inground pool just in time - hopefully in September we will figure out what to do about that concrete block wall under the ground and open area (yikes) next to the pool wall before someone gets a foot stuck in there!

The extra depth in the middle of the pool (it is 5' deep in the center) was well worth the extra money - it makes the pool feel so much more like an in-ground than above ground. I highly recommend it to anyone planting an above ground pool in the ground like we have.

New post over on my other blog - the Armchair Astrologer today if you are following the stars. Now it's time for me to get back to business (my retail has been open, but my wholesale peeps have been extremely patient with me this July!) - it would have been nice if hubs and I had taken an actual vacation for us, but hopefully we will have a few evenings in the backyard pool in August that make up for all this summer work. As my grandma would say I am bone tired, folks! xo all

Jupiter Moves into Leo - do you feel LUCKY?

Jupiter changes signs on July 16th; moving from Cancer into Leo. Jupiter loves drama. Leo loves drama. The drama will be IMMENSE - pull up a chair (yes, a recliner) and make some popcorn (not the kind with the fake butter though)!

Jupiter takes about 12 years to circle through the zodiac so spends a little over one year in each sign. He is masculine energy and rules both Pisces and Sagittarius; the 9th and 12th houses.

If your age is divisible by 12 (24, 36, 48, 60, etc) you were probably born with Jupiter in Leo (check your natal chart HERE) and this year will be even more special for you - it's your Jupiter return, you lucky duck!

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system - in fact if we put all the other planets and the moon and all the asteroids and all the meteors and comets together on a scale - mighty Jupiter would still outweigh them. Astrophysicists believe he was almost our second sun (and he definitely thinks so, too).

Jupiter graciously generates more heat than he receives from the sun - and is associated with expansion, generosity and abundance.

Jupiter is the space that views our life as a journey of prosperity and expansion - from the moment we are born he is widening our vista, nudging us toward new horizons and whispering shouting in our ears GROW dammit!

So we have the planet of abundance and more moving into the sign (Leo) of abundance and more!

This is an especially powerful year for Leos (sun, ascendants and moons - they need only be brave to have Jupiter with them every step of the way) and also the other fire signs - Aries and Sagittarius (and the air signs, too) and everyone will find the house in their natal chart holding Leo expanding in a good way with this transit!

Read more about this on my Armchair Astrologer blog.

full moon in capricorn July 12th ... plus it's sink or swim time

no, this is not our pool - this is our inspiration pool

I think this has been my longest blog break in 5 years!

I usually blog on the weekends and my weekends have been spent fixing up

(I use the word fixing rather loosely here)

my house for this month's guests.

We have an intense full moon in Capricorn on Saturday - lots of great info about this on my Armchair Astrologer Blog, so check that out.

We I have been thinking / talking / meditating / obsessing about moving for the last couple years. After Hurricane Sandy took out most of our trees, swimming pool and front bucket loader (don't ask) - it seemed like a good time.

Last year when I blew our chance at an almost free house (oops) I knew life might need a little extra time to line us up with the right move, so I decided to settle in and work with what I already have - what a novel idea for a professional recycler.

Hubs and I kept coming back to the pool question. A pool seems a crazy thing to re-build when you are not planning on living in a house for very long, but we have always had a pool. We don't have air conditioning so a pool has always seemed essential.

Anyhoo, I discovered something (on Pinterest) called a semi-inground pool. It was almost too good to be true - the feel of an inground pool (sort of) without the price tag. I should add that along with our trees we lost a lot of privacy in our backyard and replacing the four ft. tall above ground pool and deck we used to have was feeling a lot less appealing. We also discovered we could make the new pool a saltwater pool with a cell system to eliminate the chemicals.

To make a long story short shorter we bought a pool that could go into the ground and the pool store set us up with an experienced installation company. Everyone knew what we were doing - they all told me they had done this whole "put an above ground pool half way into the ground" thing many times before.

I should back up and say we very, very rarely hire anyone. We do almost everything here ourselves - even though I know the way life works is if we want people to pay us for our expertise we need to pay other people for theirs.

So the pool is delivered, the installers come with a backhoe/bobcat (?) and dig a hole, they assemble the pool in the hole, the pool looks great, the filter is hooked up, the water starts moving - this is all on schedule even during the mercury retrograde period and I am congratulating myself on framing this work as "re"placing our old pool, which I am certain is the reason everything is going so swimmingly.

Then ... there's a knock at the door (I am nursing two bites from a wasp attack with an icepack at exactly this moment) - the installers tell me they are finished. I go outside and am standing in a backyard that looks like a bomb has gone off or maybe something like the aftermath of the final episode of Goldrush.

"OK" I say calmly, "doesn't the area around the pool get filled in with this dirt?" And the installer says "we don't back-fill."

(this has now become hubs and my go-to expression for stuff we don't want to do. Hubs - "did you go to the post office today", me - "look buddy, it's hot out and I don't back-fill.")

Then the guy drops the real bomb - "you need to build a cement wall around this thing first anyway" ....

Now, I told you I did some research. I did. I didn't see any cement walls being built in the ground to protect the pool from the dirt side walls caving in. I didn't think too much about this part - this is why we hired professional help, after all! I ask the guy if they can do this and he tells me no. I ask him if he can recommend anyone, he says no.

the real deal - 2 feet above ground, 3 feet in the ground

To make a long story short shorter hubs and I and Chris (mostly hubs) buy, carry home (yes on our backs like mules) and stack 144 cement cinder blocks and sixty four 60 pound bags of concrete mix.

We (mostly hubs, I may have been pinning avocado recipes on Pinterest at this point) mix and pour 3000 lbs of concrete (mixed with water and sand so maybe 4000 lbs!) into the cinder block holes to secure a wall - a wall in the ground that we then cover with shovels of dirt - you can almost see the tops of the 2 ft tall cinder block wall in this picture at the base of the pool.

You can't see the 7 ft pile of dirt to the right of this whole thing. You can't see my family who are arriving from Oregon and Washington in 12 days for a family reunion. You can't see me running around like a maniac which is quickly followed by lying on the ground in a sweaty puddle of overwhelm.

On the bright side the water is testing perfectly and does not taste salty ...

(you know me and looking at the bright side - it's the reason I have four pairs of prescription sunglasses after all or wait, that could be my inability to keep my Ray Ban aviators scratch-free for more than a minute)

I will update this again next week - I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Hopefully we will get the platform built and ladder in so we can get the inspector out here to approve this thing - then we have to figure out the dirt situation plus clean up the yard and house, paint the porch floor and finish painting the shutters. Luckily we have a Capricorn full moon to get a lot done - just hoping it doesn't rain! xo all

New Moon in Cancer June 27th

We have a wonderful New Moon in Cancer now.

Cancer is a cardinal (initiating change) water (emotion, fluidity) sign - the archetype of the mother and healer.

Latin for crab - think about how vulnerable a crab is! To survive she must grow a shell - she has to grow a wall between herself and the rest of the world. This shell is the armor she needs just to stay alive.

See the rest of this post on my new blog the Armchair Astrologer. 
 
xo all

storage wars ....

Two weeks ago I woke before dawn, pushed my scary-ass morning hair into a baseball cap, put on my larger than any sunglasses ever need to be in real life aviators,

(hey, is that Jennifer Aniston?)

bought a padlock (with non-traceable cash), packed up my car - in the dark, drove one town over and ... rented a storage unit.

(disclosure - I have not actually ever been mistaken for Jennifer Aniston. Actually, I don't look anything like Jennifer Aniston. But there was that few months, weeks, days in 2009 - sniffle - that my hair did. I just can't seem to let it go)

I am in the middle of re-arranging (note the 're' during this month's mercury retrograde, my friends) the upstairs rooms and needed somewhere to re-locate stuff as I work.

Yes, I realize what this says about me and the state of a four bedroom house (two of the bedrooms I swear are no larger than walk in closets, but because they have closets we get to call them bedrooms) that houses two people right now. Yes, I spring clean every year. Yes, I let go of stuff regularly.

Yes, I still have a lot of crap.

No doubt my Viking ancestors would have buried their plunder and I did look around my backyard and briefly considered a shady spot under a dogwood, but then I thought about my still-healing shoulder and googled 'storage unit central new jersey'.

There may come a day when I go into the ground myself surrounded by my treasures anyway.

(Hopefully not anytime soon, of course, but when my favorite uncle died a few years ago, my husband asked the undertaker what we could put in the coffin with him. At the time I thought George was nuts, but it did give me a little glimpse into my destiny ... at least I can rest assured that any future Mrs. Ivins will not get her hands on my corks and car parts.)

Anyhoo, now that I have started renting my useless stuff its own little apartment I am getting much more done on the house. I always seem to need something I have stored though.

I have actually made trips back and forth to unit 505 - I have nicknamed her Wit's End - 16 times.

Yes, in 14 days (I left my wallet there on Sunday and had to make two round trips).

It seems like this is actually a pretty common practice. I have seen entire three generation families hanging out by their units and grilling hamburgers - I don't ask questions, unless of course, I need someone to pass me the ketchup.

In 16 days (by the end of Mercury Retrograde and my rental contract) I will let go of the unit and bring any remaining stuff/plunder/crap home. I will have a yard sale or a bonfire, but I will let Wit's End go. I will not become one of these people paying $1200 a year to store $500 (if you squint in the dark and use replacement value) worth of stuff.

I will let this stuff go. I will let this stuff go. I will let this stuff go.

(and maybe even my Jennifer Aniston hair obsession which will greatly please my poor hairstylist)

the Summer Solstice begins tomorrow - new beginnings, time to play, manifest your dreams with this one!

The sun moves into the sign of Cancer on Saturday. At 0 degrees Cancer we start the Summer Solstice (the southern hemisphere starts the Winter Solstice).

A chart drawn up for the morning of the Summer Solstice will give us an idea of the overall energy for the summer (the 2nd celestial quarter of the year) - just like a new chart drawn on our birthday can give us the themes for our new personal year.

Solstice means standstill: the Summer Solstice is the time when the sun halts its journey over the Tropic of Cancer on its tropical journey north - then after three days, turns in its tracks and begins its journey south. The time of symbolic marriage (the new moon next week is called the honey moon) - we call this period midsummer.

See the rest of this post on my new Armchair Astrologer Blog.  

I hope everyone had a nice week. I have been distracted with my house. I have family coming in next month and no where to put anyone and then my niece will be living with us at the end of summer for the school year since we are near her college (!). On the down side we won't be moving anytime soon .... xo all

four reasons I haven't blogged all week plus a FULL MOON in Sagittarius

First, I am going to post this --->

(you're welcome)

I tried to write a blog post but my brain has turned to mush. I blame:

1. My new Pinterest account 

(did I tell you I took a class that advises 100 pins a day to start, yes ONE HUNDRED PINS A DAY, aren't you glad you aren't following me - wait why aren't you following me?)

I do have one piece of advice after 3 weeks of pinning for anyone taking a picture of their new tattoo - please wait for it to HEAL - the tortured pink skin around your mermaid is freaking me out and wrecking the vibe of my "save the mermaids" board.

2. My near death experience.

The brakes on my car stopped working, yes they STOPPED WORKING (sorry for all the shouting). A warning "ABS brake ... something" light came on a couple blocks from my house. I had about two seconds to read this before the "tire pressure sensor" warning light, which has been warning me for months and about which hubs always says "don't worry about it", came back on.

I thought maybe this brake warning alerts us after a certain number of miles - NOTE - I cannot read my mileage due to the ever present "tire pressure warning light".

The guy in front of me puts on his left turn signal. I brake. My foot goes to the floor and my car keeps moving. With split second reflexes trained through years of grabbing stuff away from Olive just before she has the chance to latch on with her "jaws like a pitbull", I quickly grab the emergency brake next to my right hand which, of course, turns out to be my gear shifter.

(I am still rather proud of my reflexes though.)
 
I have about two seconds of total panic when I realize I have no idea where my emergency brake is or if I even have an emergency brake - NOTE - I have had this car for six years - when the guy in front of me makes a quick left. I limp home at 5 miles an hour and somehow manage to stop in my driveway in exactly the spot I always do (I am thinking my car works on muscle memory).

3. I wrote this post for Create and Thrive

4. I wrote this post about the Full Moon in Sagittarius

OK- gotta head back to Pinterest and keep working on my carpal tunnel injury. I'll be back. Enjoy George girls.

UPDATE - while my car is in George's shop I am driving his truck - the one with the 5 foot antenna on the roof (this is not an exaggeration). He says, "don't go through any drive-thru's" which annoys me because obviously this antenna is hard to miss. I drive to the post office, sit in my car for two minutes to fill out a deposit slip and drive into the bank drive-thru. :)

FURTHER UPDATE - after pulling into the bank drive-thru I backed out slowly (and yes I can hear the antenna screeching along the drive-thru roof). The antenna looked o.k. to me.

This morning at breakfast (ie we are feeding the dog) I say to George "You need to take that antenna down. I drive through many areas with low hanging trees (!?) (he somehow seems to believe this - maybe he thinks I am off-roading it on my way to Staples). I wonder if that antenna would bounce back if I did go through a drive thru." And he says "it might be o.k. just make sure you keep going - don't try to BACK UP. That will definitely wreck it." :)

xo all

blog changes ... and mercury retrogrades, neptune retrogrades ....

Going to dial this blog back a bit for the summer - I have a few tutorials planned, since I recently joined Pinterest (yes, I am that girl - late to the party and worrying I didn't bring anything). I  just finished a class that advises pinning 100 items a day to start, so if you follow me be prepared to be a bit blitzed for a while. I did eliminate (sniffle) my Save the Unicorns board when my sister emailed me sternly "NO MORE UNICORNS" - that girl can be kind of a wet blanket when it comes to unicorns, luckily she doesn't mind mermaids and sasquatches.

When I first saw Pinterest a couple years ago (?) I stopped doing tutorials because it felt like everything was already done - the eye candy over there has always overwhelmed me plus it is very tricky to take good pictures while making something - the "only have two hands" thing. But, I miss making recycled stuff so will be popping up a few - only for things I would be making anyway though and of course my tutorials are always upcycled and easy-peasy.

(I am after all the girl more likely to whip up a batch of muffins from a recipe that starts with the words "four ingredients" and ends with "bake 20 minutes" than something from a secret family recipe - it's funny my family has lots of secrets but no secret family recipes, dammit, what's up with that family?! - something that took all day to prepare in a traveling rubbermaid. Hell, I don't even own a traveling rubbermaid - sniffle again)

We have active Mercury coming to a halt and turning retrograde on the 7th and Neptune following two days later. Mercury's reverse cycle lasts three weeks, cycles through Cancer and Gemini this time and ends on July 1. Neptune's runs through November in Pisces (and of course Neptune will be in Pisces until 2025 - so if this dreamy duo has us ungrounded - think mass awakening and mass delusion here - it isn't going away and we need some practices to ground ourselves).

I am moving my astrology posts to the Armchair Astrologer (although that name may be changing - I recently discovered a site called the Comfy Chair Astrologer that I like very much. I don't want her to think I am trying to take over the astrological living room and I don't want to confuse people) - the link will stay the same though and I will continue to post here when something posts over there at least until the end of the year.

Anyhoo, just a heads up you will likely see some changes over here this summer as I transition this blog back to Olive Bites and add some Pinterest content.
 
Info on the retrogrades is on the Armchair Astrologer - think "re". All the retrogrades this year are in water signs and the left hemisphere of our brain will feel like it has abandoned us and sailed out to sea for a long vacation - perfect time for one actually, but only if you visit a place you have already been and expect the unexpected!

xo all

New Moon in Gemini - May 28

my gemini aromatherapy locket

On May 28th, we have a New Moon in Gemini.

This new moon is also forming a very tight square to dreamy Neptune and we have Mercury about to go retrograde.

(yes, another retrograde!)

Gemini is our middle air sign - a sign of the mind, the archetype of the 'teacher' - the storyteller. If you are a Gemini sun sign this is basically the way you process life.

Gemini isn't the teacher with all the answers; she isn't here to talk at us and have us regurgitate her belief system. She is the teacher who appears when the student is ready and since she has been mentally exploring and noticing stuff her entire life - she is ready.

Gemini has more to do with questions than answers. Geminis are supposed to know a hell of a lot of stuff that will never make them any money (unless they make it into the final rounds of Jeopardy) - this is the sign of curiosity.

Gemini is also the sign of confusion and distraction; potential can get scattered, ends can stay loose, stuff can get spread so thin it pretty much disappears.

Sometimes we focus on too many things, because we are really afraid to fail at the one big important thing. 

I would never preach to a Gemini the importance of intellectual commitment, of staying mentally put for a while - there are other energies to take care of that. Ruled by Mercury, Gemini is bound to language so this is a very powerful new moon to be anchored by our language.

(the sun is in Gemini until June 20th, so our words are our fortune this month folks)

Gemini is also the sign of the twins - one mortal and one immortal - our right brain/left brain - changing our mind, networking - you get the idea with this. At this new moon we have Gemini - the sign with two faces squaring off with changing and often deceptive Neptune - so stay awake for things that feel too good to be true, for people who are saying one thing to your face and something else to somebody else.

Opportunities to practice discernment will come now.

(I recently had a very large company interested in my lockets and after much back and forth and me figuring out how to fill an order this large I was about to offer some very good news to a few artists when the company told me they wanted to sell the lockets under their own company name -  not Polarity Lockets. I slept on it. Or I should say I lay on my bed and stared at the ceiling until morning. The money would be mighty nice but after seven years building my business ... this would be a big pill to swallow - like one of those giant chalky vitamins that always go down the wrong way and sit in my throat for hours.)

A few hours after the new moon, Venus moves into Taurus, her home base - making this a great time to align our talk with our values. Are we doing what we say we are doing? Do our words and actions support our values?

June's skies feel kind of vacationy (yes, this is totally a word - just offer up this post and not a dictionary if you must have proof of this in your next game of scrabble - it is an extra 4 points) - July is all action, so if you get the chance for some R&R in June - grab it! In the meantime be ready for opportunities to hit you out of the blue!

GEMINI NEW MOON AFFIRMATIONS

This is a great time for affirmations for Gemini stuff like: movement, communication, logic, social graces and ease, siblings, mental anxiety, our nervous system, hands, wrists, arms, shoulders and our lungs so some good affirmations for today might be:

I communicate in a way that allows others to really hear me. I take the time to listen.
I easily accept other people's ideas as true for them.
I am totally comfortable having light, interesting conversations with others (other than Olive).
I am decisive and make solid decisions.
Total healing occurs in my right shoulder.

AFFIRMATION TIPS: get into a happy frame of mind - always make affirmations from a  positive place - write your affirmations down by hand, speak them out loud - I always write my affirmations by hand in script on strips of paper - then release your attention from them knowing that your intention is known. Know these things are already yours. xo

happy memorial day weekend everyone

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone - I am hoping the weekend isn't a washout here. I just heard the most wonderful talk on Hayhouse Radio that I want to link to HERE - it is part of a talk by Dr. Joe Dispenza (breaking the habit of being yourself) and he explained so well the way this quantum world is evolving and how we can make the impossible possible in our own lives - pure science magic - loved it!

owning our impact - the value of being ourselves part V

Let's get back to Hal and his hometown music store. It might look like the internet has not done Hal any favors. His competition is global now. His website has not made up for the lack of foot traffic in his brick and mortar. He has transitioned from a sales business into a service business which has him trading hours for dollars and he is tired.

He's swimming in uncharted waters and that little piece of green land he can see through his wet binoculars keeps getting clouded over by other swimmers splashing around beside him.  

If Hal is asking what he should do next Hal is asking the wrong question. 

If we know what we want and if we know why we want it and we take action, life can use whatever action we take - to get us where we want to be.

So, Hal goes deeper with his question. We ask Hal what he wants. Hal says X amount of dollars coming in. OK, fair enough - the man needs to eat. We ask Hal why he wants X amount of dollars coming in. Hal thinks about this. He wants security. He wants the self-esteem that comes from knowing his business is doing well. He wants peace.

So, we know Hal thinks that money will give him security and self-esteem and peace. This is the key to allowing more money into his life - not the action he takes.

Allowing more of these qualities into his life is the key to his becoming more magnetic to money (and I know a thing or two about magnets - have you seen my new lockets?). Whatever we think having more money will give us - security, peace, self-esteem - are the qualities we need to develop to be more magnetic to money.

View money as a tool to help us fully express our potential (our value to the planet) instead of something we create to fill a lack.

For example Hal thinks money will bring him peace and simplicity. It does not matter if this is actually true. Obviously money can make things more complex, too. It doesn't matter if this statement is true to you or me. This is true to Hal and remember he has spent decades building his body and mind around a truth like this.

So, how does Hal develop the quality of peace? How can he simplify things? Maybe he starts a meditation practice (yes that again), maybe he looks at his hectic schedule and realizes instead of giving individual music lessons 4X a month, each student can get one group lesson a month and he will free up X amount of hours per month to do something relaxing.

If he wants more security in his life - he can stop, get quiet, ask himself what quality he could develop that would help him feel more secure.

Security does not come from accumulating wealth. I worked in banking for 10 years with very wealthy clients and most were very insecure about their money - sometimes more money only intensified their fears.

Maybe Hal decides he will feel more secure if he can participate more in his community so takes a public speaking class to increase his confidence. It doesn't look like that class will directly affect his bank account, but if it increases his security and money is tied to security for him, it absolutely will.

If we decide that money will give us the freedom to relax and do the stuff we love we need to find ways to do that now. That's the action that raises our vibration and lines us up with the money.

As he expresses the higher qualities that he thinks money will give him he will radiate those qualities outward with his words, actions and being and become more magnetic to money.

This is how life on planet earth works. We don't actually create money. We line our vibration up with money by being of value and valuing ourselves. How we do this is different for everyone - no one outside yourself can tell you how to do this. We do this by working with our money beliefs or letting go of them.

After trying several times to use his newly found hours to relax Hal realized he needed to develop the quality of self respect, because every time he tried to take time to relax or do the stuff he wanted to do, other obligations and duties would stop him. I told him if he put those hours back into his work schedule it would actually work against him attracting more money. He needed to value himself and give himself permission to relax.

If Hal keeps asking himself what he wants, why he wants it and takes action - life can truly use any action he takes to get him where he needs to go.

This is a process for all of us. I can still make myself crazy over a decision - even when I know that both choices wouldn't be in front of me if they couldn't both get me where I need to go!

Of course, I am talking about the big picture of where we need to go which is always toward growth and expansion. I also believe there are certain specific areas of growth we are here to work with (and these areas are very individual things which is why what works for one person will not always work for another person) but it is up to us how we work with them.

Have a nice weekend all.

mars stations direct in libra - may 2014

 After his long retrograde (since early March) in Libra - Mars finally stationed direct Tuesday night!

When any planet goes retrograde, it actually goes through the same space three times (forward, backward and then forward again). When it changes direction, it doesn't just haul its big bulky self full speed ahead back the way it came. The planet slows down until it pauses for up to a few days (we say it stations) - then it gradually starts moving again in the opposite direction.

See the full post HERE

Note - I am migrating the astrology posts to another blog, but will continue to post a link here, too. Please have patience while I try to get the astrology blog looking like this one (we need more patience when Mars is stationed!) - I forgot how I set this one up, so it is slow going!

owning our impact - the value of being ourselves part IV

See part I, part II and part III

(yes, my posts have more parts than your Ikea bookshelves)

Now Mars (the planet of action and passion and desire) just stationed direct last night after his two month retrograde so I will post about that tomorrow - for now, just be careful of fire and electrical issues - appliances and batteries tend to go bust when Mars begins to change direction - sparks of creativity and clarity will start to fly, too! Anything that rubs against something else can ignite right now - use this energy wisely (wink).

OK- back to this series. We've got our burned out brick and mortar music store owner, our own online business in a sea of other online businesses, Russell Simmons talking about creating the kind of value within our business that makes it sell-able (ie able to stand on its own) - how does this all tie together?

(of course you already know everything always ties together - that's how life works)

Let me call the music store owner Hal. Well, Hal has been a smart cookie and transitioned his business very wisely. The only problem with Hal's thinking is that he expects his transition to last more than 18 months (or 18 weeks or 18 days). It won't.

Things have sped up now and the transition isn't the wobbly space between two stable places anymore - the place we work through to get to the other side - the entire space is the transition - there is no other side.

This is the same lesson for us - the end zone is gone. We have to vanish the thought of it right out of our head, it was never real anyway.

Think about this - when we think back 10 years in our life or 20 years, we have big chunks of time that all meld together - "I worked there for 10 years" we say, or "I lived with that guy for 6 years" as if that 10 years or that 6 years was all the same space. It wasn't. It only feels like the same space in hindsight. 

Most people (and businesses) stepping into a transition period - that space between our old self and our new self - get so uncomfortable they step right back into their old self. We all do it dozens (hundreds?) of times a day.

Usually we tell ourselves "this just feels right" - what we really mean is "this feels familiar." 

Remember our body isn't looking for stuff that feels good, our body is looking for stuff that feels familiar!

If we know the cravings for stability we battle in the midst of change are real withdrawals from the chemical addictions of our body - we can ride it out! 

Not because there is some rainbow at the end of our choices, but because we know the space of making choices is what we are here for - we didn't come for the rainbow!

If we understand we are changing at a cellular level we really can soldier on - we are doing nothing less than reconstructing our genes for our future, future generations and our own future lives when we stay focused and inspired!

Hal can't answer the question of what he should do next (and neither can we). There is no answer. We're all asking the wrong question.

Life is designed to focus us on the "now" - the place of creation.

Do we think our ancestors thought too far ahead of their raging winters? They climbed into bed and dared to make babies they probably would not get to see grow up! How could our own choices be any harder ....

Conclusion Part V on Thursday - so what's the right question? (our action plan) plus tomorrow a post on Mars direct!

Full Moon in Scorpio Today - May 14th

Just before the full moon (this afternoon on the east coast of the U.S.) - the moon makes a conjunction to Scorpio. Saturn has been in Scorpio since late 2012.

So, we've got the sun in Taurus which is all about our values (the stuff money can buy and the stuff money can't) - a full moon in Scorpio which is about deep release and transformation and this conjunction with Saturn making this transformation with our values a structural change. Since Scorpio is a water sign we have emotional power with this.

Saturn in Scorpio doesn't like to yield or compromise - he likes to be in control and wants to hold his ground. The area of your life where you can relate to this posture is the area you can get a real breakthrough now.

I can't think of one person I know who is not undergoing some kind of restructuring with their basic foundation right now. I really feel a very strong push toward "having to look at what we don't want to look at, having to do what we do not want to do" in this energy.

There is a "living with the unknown" space with this - lots of uneasiness and everyone trying to figure out the best way to move forward in whatever area of your life this shows up.

Remember we always get the breakthrough and not the breakdown when we release our grip.

Think clear and empty today - eat lightly. Use your words mindfully - say less. Work up a sweat (outdoors if possible). Take an epsom salt bath. Spend some time tonight in meditation. Let any sense of fear, judgement, need to control or feeling of victim-hood (why is this happening to me) be released now. The energy at play is totally supportive and will help us do this.

NOTE - this energy isn't just about today - this is stuff that has been at play in our life for months and years and even ages - we are always safe. We can let go.

Full Moon in Scorpio Tomorrow - part II - it wasn't curiosity that killed the cat

We can't blame Hollywood for our Saturn problem.

We have seen so many movies where our heroine, ie Jamie Lee Curtis, hears a noise and goes outside on a dark, rainy night to investigate or she goes down into the basement of a strange house with a flashlight that promptly stops working. 

We are yelling at the screen for her to stay safely tucked away on the couch with her blanket and bowl of popcorn. She never listens.

Our heroine must always overcome her fear - that's what makes her a heroine after all.

(of course if she is not the heroine of the movie this scene will not end well for her)

Now, I am convinced (after a lifetime of study and listening to this kid) that the best way to look at life is to see our journey here on planet Earth as a quest.

Us questers (and I am not liking that word now because it sounds too much like sequester and I am thinking of budget cuts and O.J. juries) do not get to know what is around every corner or how every situation we encounter is going to turn out.

It's this lack of certainty that makes us heroes. Our ancestors were born for their times. We were born for this.

If you are a student of A Course in Miracles (a self-study course I highly recommend) you will learn the course's most important lesson:
 Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.

Herein lies the peace of God.

Knowing that our real life quest is more of a movie quest makes this whole quest business a lot easier. Nothing we can lose is real anyway - the real stuff can't be lost.

We know everything turns out all right in the end and if everything isn't alright it isn't the end.

If we know we are forever beings on a continuous series of quests, the stumbling blocks that show up on our path (which may look more like hatchet wielding orks) are easier to face. 

This is what we are here to do after all. 

If we turn away from our quest, ie stay safely tucked on our couch with a blanket and popcorn, life will take away our popcorn. Then life will take away our blanket. Then life will take away our couch.

This is where Saturn comes in.

During times of transition it can be a clearing exercise to check out what Saturn is doing in our charts. Saturn moves every couple years bringing changes to whatever part of our chart he is hitting and every seven years he creates some hard aspects to shake things up.

The incredibly rich narrative of Saturn in Roman and Greek (Cronus) mythology is too important for me to do it justice here in a paragraph - astrologer Liz Greene has a wonderful book on Saturn and of course the web has lots of info if you are drawn to finding out more.

In astrology Saturn is an aspect of the father/authority figure - the 2nd largest planet, the planet of contraction (Jupiter, the largest planet, is the planet of expansion so we expand a little more than we contract) - he's about boundaries, responsibilities, karma, commitments, self-control - the stuff that defines (meaning = outlines) us.

Some of Saturn's harder tests are our first Saturn return (Saturn takes 28 -29 years to come full circle back to the place he occupied at our birth) in our late 20's and our second Saturn return in our late 50's.

(there are also other aspects like the Neptune Square Neptune at about the age of 41 and the Uranus/Uranus opposition at about the age of 43 - one or both of which throws pretty much every one of us into a mid-life crisis, Chiron return 48-50, Pluto trines Pluto at 58, Uranus Squares Uranus at 63 - both new beginnings)

Saturn has been working his way through Scorpio since October 5, 2012. This will continue until December 23, 2014; and then he finishes up his transit from June 14, 2015 to September 17, 2015.

Tomorrow we have the last full moon in Scorpio while Saturn is housed there.

I can't believe I am turning a Full Moon post into 3 posts, but I am! Back tomorrow to finish this up with the best ways to work with this energy.

Full Moon In Scorpio May 14th - letting go of our need for certainty and seeing the truth coming to light

We are building toward Wednesday's full moon in Scorpio - this is the culmination of November's Scorpio New Moon, so something from that time may be coming to closure now.

Ruled by Pluto, Scorpio is a very powerful energy for transformation - any shaky ground we have built our life on now will come to light for us to clearly see or will tumble away altogether. The moon is conjunct Saturn, so take this stuff seriously. If we need to grow a backbone Saturn will see to it that we do, one way or the other.

Any time we let go of anything that is not true in our life (the stuff that is weighing us down) - we raise our vibration (live in our truth). This is vibration raising time, folks - and sometimes this doesn't feel so good.

Scorpio is about honesty (which can be a wonderful thing and a cruel thing, too). 

True honesty is ferocious. 

With the full moon (the emotions we are holding) in Scorpio the universe is asking us "Can you be deep? Can you live gracefully in a world that scares the hell out of you? Can you let go of the stuff you know isn't working before you can see what will? Can you live with the fact that maybe nothing will?".

Scorpio is wired for intensity.

If you are a Scorpio sun sign (born October 23- November 21st) you know you have to keep your sense of humor. A sense of humor will go a long way for all of us right now. It is actually a very powerful discipline and effective practice for living a happier life - if you have a lot of Plutonian energy (or are just living on planet earth) comedy on Pandora Radio is your friend.

I have a Scorpio rising sign so people's first reactions to me have always been complex

(our rising sign is kind of the mask we wear - it influences others first impressions of us, how we interact socially and how we view and relate to others - I also have Saturn conjunct my sun which seems to amplify this, but I won't get into that).

People either really like me or really dislike me immediately. I was the girl on the playground the other little girls wanted to be best friends with ... or beat up. There was never any middle ground for me.

I did not understood this intense energy was working through me and interacting with other people's intense (and often uncomfortable) energy; their loose ends. I just thought I had no social skills. Now, I know I do have social skills - they are just the kind that get you invited to coffee when people are hurting or looking for answers but not to the neighborhood barbecues. And this is all ok and more than ok actually, words are probably more important than cole slaw after all (well, unless the cole slaw is very, very good of course).

I will write more about this tomorrow - I have lockets to weld and orders to get out - and still want to get into the sun a bit today (I can feel my Vitamin D level increasing and my garden fairies celebrating with every plant that goes into the ground right now).

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day!

BACK TOMORROW - how to work with the full moon energy at play now

changing our grip - the value of being ourselves part III

See Part I and Part II

Sometimes we talk a good talk about change and growth, but when it comes to our makings we think what we wanted to do yesterday is what we want to do today and what we will want to do tomorrow.

(We have a full moon in Scorpio next week - I am going to do a big post on this for Monday - there is much Plutonian energy with this one and since Pluto is the planet of karma ie our beliefs that create our reality - if we can release our emotional grip on what we are so afraid of losing we can get a huge emotional growth from this period. We can work on "our stuff" now or our stuff will work on us.)

I saw Russell Simmons (yes, the hip-hop business magnate and gazillionaire) speak a couple years ago. On the surface it was about growing a fashion business (specifically a t-shirt brand, I think), but what it was really about was growing a business to sell and by "sell" I mean "sell the business" not sell your t-shirt, although obviously we would have to sell a whole lot of t-shirts before our t-shirt brand was sell-able.

The goal though was clearly to sell the business (ie the brand) at some point. It seemed like it was a foregone conclusion that this would be our goal, too.

This whole "growing a business to sell it" kind of made my heart ache. I could see all the pitfalls with this way of thinking - unsustainable growth, the kind of corner cutting and number crunching that results in poverty wages, damage to the planet, do whatever it takes to make this work stress and unbalance - the more is more is more thinking that is so unsustainable and so damaging and truly not the way the energy at play in the world now is leading us.

(now I am not saying this is what he was saying - this is just what I was hearing)

Obviously there isn't anything wrong with selling our business or our brand (one day I will no doubt be sick to death of all this and accepting a fair trade of a lifetime supply of avocados and milk-bones) - it would be better than a slow, painful death after all. 

It was having this goal at the beginning that bothered me. 

It's not that I thought we should all be building generational businesses - although I do have a fondness (sniffle) for them, in a small town diner kind of way, but I was an artist after all, this was my creative baby, how could anyone ever love her like I do?

Flash ahead two years and I run across some clips from this same talk and I get something totally different from it now.

(it's amazing how much smarter Russell has become ... ha!)

Probably one of the truest things in life is that we just don't know what we don't know. 

There is real value in separating ourselves from our businesses and brands.

emily mcdowell - joan of arc quote

This doesn't mean we won't continue to work from our hearts - knowing when to tighten our grip, when to loosen up, when to switch grips

(I'm starting to feel like one of the Williams sisters, hopefully my biceps are listening)

and when to let go like we are holding a hot potato takes courage and inner work. This stuff will never come from our head.

My friend with the music store is exhausted. Most of us are. Life has sped up and we were all born from energy that moved at a slower pace. We need to trust ourselves with this stuff.

We truly were born to do this.

I realized with my second listen that had I embraced the "building a business to sell" thinking even a little bit I would have been much more likely to have built a business that could get along without me more often. I would take things a little less personally. I would have asked for help when I needed it. It would be easier to change my grip.

Of course if I had fully embraced this thinking I would not have built anything truly real because it would not have been built from the energy I came here to use - I would have been too busy playing for an audience.

(creativity and children both fall into the 5th house of our astrology chart and birthing creative babies that keep us up all night or crying babies that do the same thing produce equally strong emotional attachments and this is a good and necessary thing ... until it isn't anymore)

We have a full moon in Scorpio in a few days - the period of this full moon and the days after will be a powerful time to release some of the emotional attachment we have with our businesses. Scorpio is our fixed (unchanging) water (emotions) sign - he really likes to hold on to emotional experiences as long as possible - ruled by Pluto if we are clinging to the wrong stuff this can be devastating. Scorpio will be in Saturn so not taking any crap - we either loosen our grip or life forces open our fingers (this is the culmination of November's new moon in Scorpio).

NEXT UP PART IV - owning our impact - the value of being ourselves (so what might the music store do next and what does it have to do with Russell Simmons and what does it have to do with our business)

going downstream with an upstream business - the value of being ourselves part II

It wasn't that long ago, of course I think in evolutions and age myself in dog years now, that I sold things from mall carts because there was no place of commerce called the internet.

(there was an internet of course, but people didn't trust it so much for shopping in those days)

I had to build my business to appeal to the local customer. This is what business makers had been doing for generations.

If I wanted to focus my business on what I wanted to do I had to plant my business in a place the thing I wanted to do was needed.

Or I could try to figure out what was needed in the place I wanted to plant my business (ie the local mall) and focus my business on that.

I couldn't just decide what I wanted to do and do it wherever I wanted to do it - I had to work upstream with an upstream business.

We live in a very different world now.

(although it looks like the internet created this change, what really happened is we changed and the internet was created by us to support our new way of being - this is why we really need to defend what we have created here - if you haven't educated yourself on net neutrality, please do so and take some action to support it)

The stuff I sold from my mall carts had a very broad appeal. It had to. I had to appeal to as many people who came into that mall as possible or I wouldn't stay in business.

This mindset is the reason so many people in business before the internet have so much trouble translating their success to an online business. With 60% of U.S. sales anticipated to involve the internet by 2017 we all need to figure this thing out.

I have a friend who owns a local music store selling musical instruments and supplies. He has been in business for decades and was smart enough to see the internet as a great opportunity. He got in early and set up a website.

It pretty much looked like a one dimensional version of his music store.

This seemed like a good idea at the time (the aisles in his store became sections in his website - he even had pictures of his retail store on his front page) because we really couldn't see how this was all going to work yet.

Of course what happened is his website never took off. Yes, millions of people were buying online, but they weren't buying from him (most of the money made from local stores going online without a doubt went to web designers).

His physical store sales plummeted. Yes, customers still came in to pick the brains of his seasoned staff, but then they went online (and to the big box stores), with its price comparison and Amazon free shipping.

The very internet that was supposed to open up his little business to the world destroyed his retail sales platform because he was selling the same thing everyone else was.

Now he is a very savvy and smart business man and switched his retail sales business model to a service model - he now makes most of his money on music lessons and has become the go-to local place for this. He was able to go downstream and do what we loves in an upstream business.

This works for him because he is a musician and loves music - if he had been just a guy who opened a music store because he saw his town needed a music store he would have been in a whole lot of trouble. Those guys are dead in the water now.

There is not a Happily Ever After ending to this tale however

(and if he really thought it through he wouldn't really want there to be, we came to this planet for contrast and growth after all - the end is never really the end).

His service business model is exhausting. His sales staff do not easily transition to teachers. Some are excellent, some not so much. He is now trading hours for dollars. Even in his little upscale community parents will only pay so much per hour for lessons. Other music stores are making similar transitions. There is more competition all the time. He still has a store filled with musical merchandise and a website that looks like his store. He is swimming in brand new waters.

(and so are we)

Next part III - loosening our grip

why we have to know we're awesome to sell online - the value of being ourselves part I

 

The challenge with integrating our spiritual life and our business is that in order to be fully ourselves we have to stop catering ourselves to an audience, and of course, our customers are kind of an audience.

They don't eat popcorn and we don't tell them to silence their cell phones

(well, maybe they do eat popcorn - I hope not with any of that fake butter though)

but we are in business to trade value with them - the stuff we make for that stuff in their wallet; the stuff that got into their wallet when they traded their value for the stuff in somebody's else's wallet. We are all in this together after all.

Since Business 101 taught us to figure out our customer, get inside her head - who is she? what does she look like? what does she want?, then cater to that - this is all good solid advice, until it isn't anymore and the truth is - this way of thinking has always made artists a little itchy.

Maybe we quit our day job to fire our boss and now we have dozens of bosses (we call them customers or clients these days) and instead of working for a paycheck we are working for the possibility of a paycheck. We really need to know what the hell we are doing here.

I have had a couple businesses before this one and before that I was in banking. I have made many mistakes over the years, but the one thing I have done right (and this is totally because of the Course in Miracles and my spiritual practice) is this:

I have always seen myself as the primary value in my business or my job. Not the stuff I make, not the stuff I do - because I know these forms can and will change - I know the value is really me.

I know from past experience that when one business winds down I can make another one because I have done it before. Seeing ourselves as the primary value we have to offer the world rather than our makings being the primary value is an important distinction. This works the same way when we have a job.

I have many friends who sell online who are selling less and less because the marketplace is more and more crowded (and other reasons, but this is one of them). They are a little panicky. Many people have turned to teaching and coaching and this in itself is OK and a good thing really - we all teach what we need to learn after all, that's how life works - but the coaching business online is starting to look like a giant pyramid scheme (which is not in any way sustainable) with coaches just coaching people to be coaches! 

(I have to do a post on the proliferation of online coaching and the asteroid/minor planet Chiron - the wounded healer- soon)

So what is the answer here?

We always have to know our ability to make money is in our own hands.

It isn't in our customers' hands or our boss's hands - the money looks like it comes through our customer or through our paycheck. It comes from the Universe (God/Higher Self - we should pick our most comfortable word here because we really need to get this and hold it in a place we vibrate with) - the money comes from Source.

It is like air. We breathe it in. We breathe it out.

The more we try to hold on to money the more it runs through our fingers - and in fact if money is running through your fingers right now, loosen your grip! Spend a little more. Trust that life has got your back!

Some experts advise us to play out worst case scenarios with our fears - they tell us to think of the worst possible thing that could happen if we lose our job or our business and this is supposed to make us see how preposterous our fears are so we can release them -

the problem is that all of us have past life experiences where the worst possible things that could happen to us really did happen to us (and if you don't resonate with past lives, think of your familial ancestry here) and part of us knows this.

How freeing would it be to really absorb into the very DNA of our business that we just have to be who we truly are and trust that the universe will deliver to us exactly the people who will benefit from us and our work and that is exactly what will happen.

(this does not mean we will make a lot of money - it does however guarantee to make us rich)

Part II next week - going downstream with an upstream business

Have a nice weekend everyone - I had a stressful week and it is now 70 degrees and sunny so I plan to be meditating (ie gardening) in the sun as much as possible for the next two days. I had a terrible Vitamin D reading of 16 (!) recently and have decided sun (and supplements) are my friend right now. I will try to do another auto-immune thyroid/hormone post next week. Would love to hear what anyone else is doing.

Also Venus is moving into Aries May 2nd - so this is a great time for us to take any action that brings beauty and love into our world. Will write about that next time!