Tag: retrograde

Venus Retrograde 2018

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Venus begins its retrograde phase in Scorpio today and then pushes back into Libra at the start of November. The entire process will take us until November 16th, at which point we’ll have to retrace its steps again. Plenty of opportunity to integrate the lessons.

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Venus rules our relationships, to each other, to money, art, and beauty, to love, and to our own sense of self-worth. So, when it’s in Scorpio, we become a bit all or nothing with what we want, who we want, and how we want he/she/they/it to be. We can intensify conversations and situations, at times for no reason, just to get our point across and take up space. It can become a war between the masculine and feminine, so apparent in this current political landscape. We must be careful not to wage war within ourselves but instead to use this energy to fight and accomplish something good for the collective.

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This retrograde time asks us to make sure that we’re self-respecting ourselves enough to not take any bullshit from outside sources. At times, we can’t help it. We’re under the thumb of an unaware somebody (boss, government, partner) and their issues. But we do choose how we respond. We choose how we let it affect our hearts. And we cannot allow another person’s insecurities in to mingle with our own well-being.

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With Scorpio and then Libra affecting, continue to align yourself with people who share your vision for the world. Those who share your values. Whose example you take. Think about those who light you up. Who when you’re together, you can go all the win in with. Consider the company you keep to be reflections of you. If you keep company with petty minds, what does that say about you? We can’t always be “love and light”. It’s not realistic. But we can still do our best to bring our best to the table. Ultimately, this retrograde time wants to challenge you to take greater responsibility for your relationships, for your integrity, and for your future.

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If you haven’t yet, please check out The Spiritual Gayz. It’s the twice-monthly podcast my husband and I started to explore the wide reaches of spirituality without pretending that it all makes sense. We deep dive into subjects like, astrology, crystals, and energy healing, as well as interview folks whose daily lives intersect with spirituality on the regular. This latest episode has an interview with Hollywood triple-threat, Lena Waithe. We had a blast discussing all things writing, vision boards, Whitney Houston, and manifestation.

Click HERE to check it out!!

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Sending you all love and vibes!

That Libra New Moon When You Pulled It Together

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Life is too precious to be wasting time on shit that doesn’t make us feel happy

As this comes to print, the Libra New Moon is spreading its energy around, calling upon us all to begin again in some aspect of our lives. The last few weeks have all been a bit of a clusterfuck, shall we say? Mercury was in a hell of a retrograde, causing all of us to reboot in various ways, whether it was in a relationship, a job sitch, or in some inner element of ourselves. I can say for myself that it really wore me down. I felt like I had a minor breakdown every other day (and maybe like two major breakdowns). In all, it was a struggle, as it forced me to reconsider some of my usual ways of being. And with that, came some understandings about things I need to change about myself, and about how I take on my world. What about you? Have you had any sorts of revelations about yourself and the way you take on life over these last few weeks? Well, the Libra New Moon is here to help both you and me integrate the lessons of these past weeks into our daily lives so that we can manifest some necessary evolution for ourselves.

Libra is all about balance. So what areas of your life are out of whack? What parts of you are you ignoring? Hopefully you have taken some stock of what is missing from your life, or at least have felt the inner stirrings that it is time to shake things up a bit. Life is too precious to be wasting time on shit that doesn’t make us feel happy. Sometimes, we end up spending most of our days in jobs or environments that completely deplete us. Well, if there is no way to get entirely out of those situations at this time, then how do you balance them better with activities that you do like? And this goes for relationships, your home life, or any path of study or education. If you are immersed too far into something that isn’t entirely feeding you mind, body, and soul, then you need to teeter back the other direction and work some more joyful elements into your life.

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This Libra New Moon has a lot of work for you to do

Analyze and make a plan. Over the last few weeks, what has caused you the most grief? Where have you been overwhelmed? What have you been craving but haven’t been giving yourself the time to enjoy? Ponder these questions and give yourself some honest answers. Then, make a plan to incorporate the things you’re missing into your life more while detaching yourself from things that are draining you. And yes, obviously the shit that is bringing you down is probably just unnecessary to your life right now, so it should go. But this doesn’t just have to be about ridding yourself of all the bad in exchange for some good. Maybe your job is great but you’re so buried in it that it’s keeping you from enjoying your partner or your family. Or perhaps you are just being plain lazy these days and enjoying lots of taquitos, which can be fulfilling, but you’re pushing aside some creative pursuit that would actually fulfill you a hell of a lot more.

You must find your balance. One key to this is meditation. I prescribe meditation in all of my chart readings with clients now. It is so necessary to taming the mind and seeing through the mental clutter. And meditation doesn’t have to be sitting cross-legged on a pillow for twenty minutes. It can be different for everyone. For some, free writing is meditative. For others, it’s gardening. But the intention is always the same – close your mental space off to wandering though and connect to the present. We cannot fully see what is missing, or what is in abundance, in our lives if we can’t tune in from the present.

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You must get still with what your unique spirit wants for you

Another element on the path to balance is finding our unique truth. Sometimes, we tell ourselves that we should be focusing on our family, or our jobs, or our creative pursuits more, but then it’s actually just external pressure masquerading as our internal voice causing us to think this way. We have to make sure that we want isn’t what someone else wants for us. We can try so hard to please others in our lives that we convince ourselves that what they want is what we want too. It’s just easier that way, right? Yeah, until you’re staring in the mirror, crying yourself silly while some old sad ballad plays, wondering how you ended up here. Okay, maybe that’s just me. But seriously, you must get still with what your unique spirit wants for you. And you have to try to honor it in a way that honors your personal integrity and your authentic self. It is easy to lose sight of our authenticity, especially in a society based around fitting in, getting “likes”, etc. Move on from that mentality and ground in to what matters to you. And then move more of that into your life.

This Libra New Moon has a lot of work for you to do. I know, it seems like we just got out of a damn retrograde and here I am offering you more mountains to climb. Well, that’s life. But these should also be much more fun if you approach from a place of joy. Joy for being the kind of person who wants to figure your shit out, who wants to be the best damn you that you can be, and for wanting to try and fearlessly actualize your dreams. Also, there is one more element to Libra, and that is partnership. So you don’t have to do all of this alone. You have people in your life who care for you and want to be a part of your happiness and growth. So connect with them, get their advice or just ask them to lend an ear as you work it all out. And you will work it all out. I have so much faith in you. You should too.

Happy Libra New Moon!

That Cancer New Moon When You Went In

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The Cancer New Moon is all about connecting to and nurturing your innermost self

I was recently talking to some folks about Mercury Retrograde and how this current one has been doing a number on me. In short, I’ve been a hot mess. Most agreed, but one said that he hadn’t felt any sort of communication breakdown with anyone.

My response to him: “How about a communication breakdown with yourself?

His response: “Well damn”, followed by a nod.

See, sometimes we focus too much on the outward communication in our lives that we forget about communicating with ourselves. And that is the most important kind of communication. That is why meditation and self-reflection are so damn important. If we aren’t taking the time to ask ourselves the right questions about our lives and what we want, then we end up in a constant state of “I don’t know”. Because we don’t even know what it is we want to know. We’re either too afraid to face the truth of what we want, or we don’t even want to bother pining for something we already believe is out of our reach.

Well, that’s just bullshit.

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With the right nurturing and focus, we can attain anything we want to in this lifetime. It may not show up on your doorstep tomorrow with a bow wrapped around it. But hell, it just may. Or at least, it will show up when it needs to and when you’ve prepared yourself enough to receive it. Trust that if you believe, it will show up.

Given the Springtime and all of the recent astrological happenings, I believe that all of you have been planting seeds and making way for some big shifts, changes, projects, and occurrences in your lives. And it hasn’t all been easy. We’ve all been meeting challenges to our ideas, plans, and desires, but the good in this process is that we should be able to enter into these next few months with more clarity. Again, that is unless you’re not taking the time to really analyze what it is you’re doing, why, and what you ultimately want out of it. If that hasn’t been the case, well don’t worry, you still have time to regroup and get in touch with your deepest intentions and needs. But you have to be willing to go in and do the deeper work.

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Show yourself that you matter and are something magical in this world

The Cancer New Moon is all about connecting to and nurturing your innermost self. In astrology, the Moon rules our emotional, inner being, so we can use this New Moon time to forge a new relationship with ourselves. And because we have this retrograde energy in effect (it starts to dissipate early next week, thank god), we should really reflect on how we’ve related to ourselves and reexamine the relationship we have with our thoughts. Do we wholeheartedly support our own dreams? Do we tell ourselves the motivational things we need to hear, or do we just spend time cutting ourselves down? And how are we showing ourselves with what we do in our lives that we want to nurture our best selves?

Now is the time to recommit to loving yourself in a massive way.

Now is the time to reconnect to the truth of you in a massive way.

Now is the time to give yourself the love you deserve in a massive way.

Now is the time to be you, to nurture you, and to show yourself that you matter and are something magical in this world.

Let’s take a closer look at each sign and how this Cancer New Moon could be affecting you. Again, if you know your rising sign, read that too. And if you don’t know it, hit me up with your birth info and I can look it up for you.

Continue reading “That Cancer New Moon When You Went In” →

Your Rebirth is Now

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Just see the new you emerging and dive into the wave of it

My plan this morning was to wake up early and channel the Scorpio new moon’s energy to write one of my usual posts on it. However, Uranus, the ruler of surprise, was directly involved in my personal new moon and where it fell in my chart, so it brought on an unexpected turn of events. I awoke to some messages that a relative had gone into the hospital and was not doing very well. After speaking to my parents, it was revealed that he would probably not make it for much longer. Though not incredibly close to him, I knew it was important for me to go and be with my family. Thus my afternoon of writing turned into a day in the hospital, feeling grief and sadness. In a way, it was actually an experience suited to the Scorpio new moon as it was literally about the sign’s greatest marker. Death. But it also allowed me to spend some very intimate time with the people I love most dearly in life, and to see the other important element of Scorpio. Rebirth.

My family and I are not the same people we were a decade or two ago. Once divided by pain, anger, and addiction, we have since transformed into a clan that now puts love first. Sure, we still have some collective healing to do, but we have truly evolved in a remarkably positive way. However, our family’s rebirth hasn’t kept me from still reacting to them from those old feelings of pain or anger. At times, it would be like the twelve year old me was in the room again, feeling all of the same emotions that tore him up inside so many years ago. And then I would be frustrated at myself for still holding onto the past in such an emotional way. It was a vicious cycle.

Today though, I saw that I was able to engage them without feeling any of the old childhood crap at my feet. The young me wasn’t even in the room. Instead, today I was just present as the man I am now. I guess you could say that seeing another man at death’s door will force you into the moment. I have also been experiencing a pretty powerful inner shift leading up to today. The old elements of me that no longer belong have been seriously put on trial as of late. And I think today’s experience helped them to get their final sentencing. I also know I’m not the only one feeling this inner urge to shift and evolve.

Continue reading “Your Rebirth is Now” →

I’m So Over Mercury Retrograde

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It’s now become synonymous with the general state of things just going into “all fucked-up” mode

You’ve probably seen it in your Facebook newsfeed or overheard it in the kitchen at work. Or perhaps you yourself have uttered it out loud. “Mercury is in retrograde”. It’s now become synonymous with the general state of things just going into “all fucked-up” mode. Yes, it does signify a time when computers go all bonkers and important pieces of work don’t save properly or disappear all together. Mercury does rule communication. So Mercury was probably looking the other way when Carrie Bradshaw’s Mac got the “sad face”, and she learned the harsh rule of needing to back up her work. Hell, even I was hit with the device breakdown of it all when my Ipod had its recent meltdown (Mercury on Shuffle). But I do think people amplify the effects of this transit by looking for it in everything. A miscommunication occurs. Mercury retrograde. That check gets lost in the mail. Mercury retrograde. An entire bag of chocolate chip cookies finds its way into your house and then into your belly, all in one night. Mercury retrograde. Sure, its hazy ways can confuse or complicate things. But the point of it isn’t to just make your life harder, or to assign it blame when something seemingly goes wrong. In fact, Mercury and its current retrograde have some important business for you to attend to at this time.

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So what’s the deal, Mercury?

Continue reading “I’m So Over Mercury Retrograde” →

That Full Moon When You Dared to be Different

Embrace your uniqueness to a point that you feel uncomfortable

I was very excited and overwhelmed when I found out that we are having two Aquarius full moons this year.  It’s not usual to have two full moons in the same sign in one year.  But occasionally, the world turns in a way that allows us to catch one at the very beginning and one at the very ending of a sign.  Being that I have a number of Aquarius’s in my life, including my mother and the man who I share my life with, I am pretty familiar with their energy.  It’s quirky, out-of-the-box, inventive, and a bit unpredictable.  In total, this can all translate to being rather exciting or extremely tiring.  Thus, the next month or so will be a bit of both.  I know, we’re all pretty exhausted from Mercury’s little stint in retrograde.  However, this will be a good kind of exhaustion.  It’s the kind of exhaustion that will stem from personal productivity toward an important goal rather than just sheer mental worry and confusion, which is something I’m sure all of us could use a break from right now.  Especially when that worry is built from trying to please everyone around us.

It’s interesting how much stock we all can put into how others perceive us.  We will all make important decisions for our lives based off of what we think other people will think of our choices.  Now that is some tiring shit.  I mean you’re already worrying about what you want.  Then, add the concern of what you think other people will think about what you want, and you’re totally wiped out from the stress of worrying about you and everyone else.  Well, Aquarius doesn’t have time for worry.  It wants you to embrace your uniqueness to a point that you feel uncomfortable.  That way, the thought of how others perceive you will vanish from the equation.  Aquarius simply thrives on being completely different from everyone else.  So with these two full moons, the rest of this summer is all about the need to own that special something we each possess inside.

Give over to the wave of your own crazy sexy coolness

You have to be okay with showing people who you really are.  Some may be shocked by how verbally passionate you seem to suddenly be about an issue or project.  Or they may wonder why you’re now deciding to go back to school or take up a seemingly odd hobby.  But the great thing is that you have no reason to care about what they think.  You are the only one on the path of your internal compass.  You are the only one who has to stand accountable to yourself at the end of the day.  And you are the only one who is in charge of your personal happiness.  So stand in your power and give over to the wave of your own crazy sexy coolness.  If you can, it will wash away the bullshit layer you have allowed others to place on your mind, your heart, and your life.  And from there, you can start the process of coming clean.

So know that this is a two-parter.  Again, we have another Aquarius full moon next month, so you have a lot to release around one aspect of yourself.  So start gently and prepare to get real.  Let’s take a closer look at how all this could work for you:

Continue reading “That Full Moon When You Dared to be Different” →

Mercury on Shuffle

Yes, we are smack dab in the middle of a Mercury Retrograde

I had often referred to my Ipod as “my child”.  It was this tiny, fragile creature that I had been entrusted to take care of, and I loved it with all of my heart.  It practically went everywhere that I went.  I had even named it.  Dove.  So you can imagine my heartache when last week, Dove wouldn’t sync up with my computer and then just wiped clean of all its contents.  Multiple attempts to resuscitate Dove failed.  And as I rushed Dove to the Genius Bar at my nearby Apple Store, I already felt that its spirit had left me.  Dove had become a victim of Mercury’s retrograde, squeezing electronic devices of their proper, happy lives.  And thus, frustrating their owners when their beloved possessions crapped out.  Thankfully, I had purchased an extended warranty, so I was handed a brand new Ipod that I immediately began to love as strongly as the old one.  But still, I had to bow to the Mercury influence.  Perhaps why I have chosen to name this new Ipod just that – Mercury – with the hopes that the two will be friends moving forward.

Yes, we are smack dab in the middle of a Mercury Retrograde.  So that means we have to be patient when communication breaks down.  We have to forgive people when they don’t hear us correctly and do the exact opposite of what we wanted them to do.  We cannot go to the rage place when travel gets delayed or our reservations are incorrect.  And we must chill when our computers, TV’s, or other electronic BFF’s, who usually make our lives easier, decide to turn the tables and make life hell.  It’s all just a response to the planetary energy at play.  And we want to get emotional about it.  We want to take it all to heart and place blame on our choices or ourselves for things not working out.  I mean, I wanted to throw that damn Ipod against a wall or out the window.  But we all must take a step back and a long deep breath before we can really take in what’s going on and discover the best proper solution for it.

Now is the time to go back over some of the pieces of the past and communicate with them

Mercury is the messenger.  So when he stalls in retrograde, the messages are no longer clear.  So how do we make the most of this?  Well, we still have a ton of information that we took in before the retrograde began on June 26th.  We have projects that we started and never finished.  Messes we created but didn’t fully get around to cleaning.  Conversations we told ourselves we wanted to have but didn’t have the courage to initiate.  Well, now is the time to go back over some of the pieces of the past and communicate with them.

Continue reading “Mercury on Shuffle” →

One Man’s Pain is Another Man’s Retrograde

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Shit’s gonna go down when you least expect it

For the past few months now, I have been unhappy in my day job.  It had just ceased being challenging and creative in the way I needed it to be.  And I had been talking to friends about my “next steps” while mentally laboring over the things I needed to be doing in order to achieve the real professional success I was looking for in my life.  Yeah, lots of words.  Lots of me, talking.  Therefore, I wasn’t making much tangible progress.  In particular, these last few weeks saw me making light attempts to flesh out some of my creative projects, but the work always found itself overshadowed by my inner chatter – a white noise wall of questions.  Am I really meant to be a writer?  How should I go about bringing it into my life?  What is this astrology thing about for me?  Is it a legitimate path?  How can I find clarity when I have to report daily to a job that leaves me passionless?

Then, life offered me a nudge – I was abruptly laid off from my job.  In a way, it wasn’t sudden.  I had the feeling that I needed to move along.  I just thought that perhaps I would be a bit more in the driver’s seat.  However, when Saturn, the planet of structure, is hovering over Uranus, the ruler of sudden surprise, and it’s going on in your chart’s 6th House, the place that rules your daily work routine, shit’s gonna go down when you least expect it.  And how you least expect it.  But I haven’t responded in a way that most would in this situation.  In fact, I have surprised myself with how positive I am seeing the whole thing.

I am choosing to utilize this moment as a call to order

I know that this is a gift of retrograde.  The universe is urging me to review how I want to spend my days and reinterpret my daily routine to fit that ideal.  All I can see here is opportunity.  Sure, there is some fear and imminent limitation in the situation, which are all things Saturn, but I am choosing to utilize this moment as a call to order.  And, in a way, it’s a chance to reboot my life.  That is the exact gift of a retrograde for each and every one of us – a do-over.

We need to make sure that we’re asking the necessary questions

Everyone is going through some major questioning right now.  Not only are Mercury and Saturn in retrograde, but we also have five planets and the celestial cousin Chiron all moving through the sign of Pisces.  That means we are either getting deeply in touch with our inner selves or we are feeling so confused that we just can’t drink three glasses of wine fast enough.  And coupled with the retrograde energy, we’re second-guessing our ideas and goals.  Are we sure that we know what we’re doing?  The good thing is, we don’t need to have the answers right away.  We just need to make sure that we’re asking the necessary questions.  That way, we can then open ourselves up to receiving all of the important information that is going to help us understand where we need to go next in life.

Let’s take a closer look at how all of these planetary influences are affecting each sign:

Continue reading “One Man’s Pain is Another Man’s Retrograde” →

What Mercury Taught Me (And Maybe You Too)

Stop looking at what’s going wrong long enough to see the gift’s that are being offered to you at this time

From July 14th to August 8th, Mercury sat in retrograde.  As I’ve mentioned before, I always look at Mercury Retrograde as a time to pause and reflect, renew, remember.  Yes, Mercury in retrograde also represents a time when communication breaks down.  Computers mess up, phone service sucks more than usual, and your TiVo forgets to record the season finale of Dance Moms.  But I don’t like to focus on the negative.  All of that shit is just going to happen anyway.  In fact, it’s going to happen any time of the year too.  Mercury being in retrograde only amplifies its effects.  So what kind of good can come out of a time that most associate with personal chaos and disaster?  A lot!  You just have to stop looking at what’s going wrong long enough to see the gift’s that are being offered to you at this time.  Gifts, you say?  “I ain’t seen no fucking gifts in the last few weeks, Angel.  You crazy.”  Well yes, I am.  But still, hear me out.

Continue reading “What Mercury Taught Me (And Maybe You Too)” →