The most important thing to remember this week is no one can make you feel anything. They activate feelings for sure, but they are not responsible for how you interpret them and what their actions mean to you. Are you ready to really live that truth? Because if you are this week sets you free from a lot of uncomfortable thought patterns with the goal of you being more authentically you, regardless of circumstances. It’s a different kind of power and one you may enjoy so much more than you know until you try it.
Commit to interpreting what happens to you with fresh eyes, fresh perspective with some recognition that nothing is happening to you, it’s happening for you. Really. I know, I know, that can be a tough thought to swallow at times when you’re convinced of another’s intent to do you injury. The more committed you are to those kind of power struggles the harder this week will be on you. What are you responsible for and where are you taking on what is not yours? Overdoing is a control mechanism that brings down one kind of anxiety but ratchets up a whole different problem where you are imprisoned through your own efforts to control an outcome. This week watch out for the place of overcommitted and impossibly busy as a safe place to hide from some big lessons. Lessons you really want to take in before the eclipses happen.
Let things flow as you learn to trust yourself moment by moment. What do you need and what do you feel?b Let that be a broken record you keep hearing this week whenever you feel awful. From there revisit the old stories, drag them into the light with any rotten bits where you felt unloved or unlovable burning off in the light of a new perspective.
You are here to bring what is uniquely you to everything you do. So spend time discovering what makes you come alive and do more of that without fear that the icky spots are the whole story. They aren’t the total picture. Those bumps aren’t so bad when you see they are just a part of each day. Whatever makes you dance with joy (literally or figuratively) include it, include it, include it. Make time for it, tell a friend about it, show someone that divine spark. Reach for those moments no matter what else happens each day. You’ll feel much better when you do. There’s power, passion and creative solutions in that spark.
This week find your authentic flame of within you… no matter how big a mess it’s sitting in at the moment. The cards and stars can help…
Card of the Week: The Forest Lovers
This week collaboration is how you learn about YOU. Most of us have protection mechanisms and defenses in place to keep ourselves from being hurt in relationships. That goes for relationships of all kinds and the automatic walls become so normal we don’t even realize we have them up. There are some challenges this week that invite you to let them down. Not all the time and in every place, but consciously choose at least one place where you can let your inner mess be seen and acknowledged. It’s that simple and that hard. There’s no promise of a magical breakthrough when you do it. It may just feel like an awkward moment. But the very act of doing it sets in motion a powerful chain of change much like the butterfly wings that create a hurricane across the ocean. Don’t worry about where it will wind up for now. Just do it. If you can muster the courage, do it more than once. We benefit tremendously when we experience what it feels like to be seen in our human moments without our shields up. Those places when shared with a trusted ‘other’ help us create a richer, happier life than our defended strongholds.
Monday: The Stag
The Moon moves into Scorpio and Venus into Cancer today. Two water signs can be an emotional day and it’s natural that all those feelings can bring up the need to protect our sensitive emotional underbelly. Be grateful if someone triggers you because your goal this week is to notice where you are defensive so that you can stop being so blind to how that operates in your life. You are not helpless, you are not at the mercy of anyone although our fear brain can take us to that young place quickly where parents had all the power and we had little. You are your own authority now. Where do the voices in your conscious speak with a harsh or punishing tone? Any time you want to show someone how wrong they are you are defended and most likely missing out. This is not to say you are meant to drop healthy boundaries. Quite the opposite. It’s about finding your healthy boundaries through experience. Allow others their choice and actions and be clear about what behavior works or doesn’t work for you without making them wrong. It just doesn’t work for you. Enough said. If the moment calls for it you can leave it open to what else is possible, the magic phrase that allows all kinds of things to happen if you ask it. Try it today and see if for yourself.
Take Action: If something winds you up today, try saying ‘that doesn’t work for me, what else is possible’ and see what happens when you do.
Tuesday: Eight of Arrows
We have an emotionally wired day today thanks to Moon walking over the tight square between Jupiter and Pluto. Expansion and Transformation are in a wrestling match and you are going to feel it. Remember our card of the week and let this eight remind you that what you put out there comes back to you. So if you let fear, doubt and pessimism rule your thoughts you will get that reflected back. Don’t try to squash them, instead ask them how real the fear is? Check in with where you are triggered and throw some kind attention on that so you can redirect those pesky thoughts that picture the worst case scenario. If your mind serves up the worst case, acknowledge it and then bookend that thought with a picture of the best case scenario. One is just as possible as the next. Your mind will try to lie and convince you only the bad is real, and it gives you a chance to practice, practice, practice redirecting it with love. By evening the habit of bookending your fears gets easier and easier. So don’t fear the mind chatter, redirect it instead.
Take Action: Bookending the worst with the best is your absolute must today. Worst case is always followed up with best case possible outcomes. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Wednesday: Ten of Bows
Wow, Uranus joins the other heavy-hitter planets in retrograde today, which means the insights keep on rolling about YOU. The three outer planets which represent the world around us and the state of the whole global community are turned backwards right now. This means it’s time to decide how we want to behave as a world moving forward. But don’t panic if you don’t have the answer to global problems, you aren’t meant to focus there. This Ten says do your own heavy lifting and that creates the ripples outward that shift and change the big picture. Being more authentically you, allowing other people to be more themselves without editing or punishing is your work this week. Can we be human together and trust that bad behavior is not the sum total of the person. Instead we heal and grow when we accept where we start from with our mistakes and shortcomings and work together to get to a better place. So spend time today really looking at where you hide you from the people in your life for fear of disappointing or being hurt. Just notice for now and start adding up the places where it’s hard to be you versus where it’s safe to by you. Ten is an empowered one and your best attention is always spent getting to know YOU.
Take Action: Take one sneaky little habit you constantly hide from those closest to you and see if you can share it with one person.
Thursday: Five of Arrows (Reversed)
Congratulations, the work you’ve been doing this week is going to pay off today. With a little help from Moon in tense aspect to Chiron, you find you want to feel something other than suffering over the old story. Whew, is that a welcome relief. It’s like a pair of too tight shoes that you finally take off and let your feet go free. You just can’t spend another minute standing in pain. You get some nice lightning bolts of enlightenment thanks to Uranus, the Great Awakener, about how to see it with fresh eyes and choose another interpretation just like you choose a more comfortable pair of shoes. Don’t worry if your fear brain serves up some scary scenarios, you know how to bookend, it feels much easier and believable with your practice this week and it feels so much better! Ah, now that’s a good day.
Take Action: Give yourself some credit, a mental pat on the back for the way you’ve turned your fear brain into a mental gym this week. Practice that bookend technique and it will keep paying off!
Friday: Queen of Bows
Ah this fiery Queen wants us to learn how to use power today more wisely than we have up until now. Fire can be something that warms, provides light, nourishes us with cooked food and so many good uses. Still it can destroy and damage when it is uncontrolled and has fuel. With Pluto and Jupiter in a big pushing match today, the Dark Transformer meets the great Expander. Power struggles are often part of the recipe with these two. Your job is to remember that you have all the resources you need for this moment. No one controls you and be mindful of where you try to control another in the name of protection or security. Those fears get exaggerated and blown all out of proportion to justify a power grab by individuals. Your work is to stay in command of you, separate out behavior from the individual and go to work finding what else is possible if you can’t agree on the current circumstances. Sometimes a break to go check out those deep unacknowledged needs is the best use of your time so history doesn’t highjack your power to choose a fresh path, a fresh belief, a fresh direction. Be patient with yourself today when something or someone lights you up. It’s just a chance to get to the bottom of what drives your behavior so you can take command back.
Take Action: If you feel anger boiling over, step back and revisit the story you tell yourself that has you so angry. Ask spirit to help you ‘re-view’ it seeing how powerful you are in the moment and breathe that in before you act.
Saturday: Six of Arrows
Sweet relief the storm is passing with a little help from your mental gymnastics this week. The effects of those deep emotional stories come up so that you can practice bookending, take a break to see what’s underneath the strong emotions and give yourself your quality time and attention before you do anything further with someone else. The old patterns can fall like dominoes this week if you put your attention on you and off whoever or whatever provoked intense feelings. From there you have all the power you need to bring you to the situation and effect real change. Sixes are always about healing and Arrows mean you help heal your mind of needless worries with a few simple but effective tools. Stay present for you, what you feel and what you need. That’s the basis for everything. Use the Breath of Love if you need to reset because anxiety has your mind and heart racing. It can get you out of your brain stem and into the frontal lobe which is the smart part of your brain. Plus it oxygenates your brain and body at the same time. It’s free, legal and portable, so what have you got to lose.
Take Action: Start your day with the Breath of Love and if you need it during the day – do it again. What have you got to lose except some stress and anxiety?
Sunday: Four of Arrows
Exhale please, we have a quiet day today with both the cards and the stars requesting you take a break and REST. Fours show you how to put things on a firm foundation and the Arrows are our mind. So the best way to reset after the week you had and get ready for the eclipse is to take a break. That might mean a couch and remote control or it could mean something that is physically active but doesn’t require any thought. So take a hike someplace beautiful or dig in the garden if that feels restful to you. The goal here is to make sure there is a safe place for you to do nothing mental for a little while today. After so much mentally heavy lifting this week you have to rest and not push yourself. So find a little quality time for you in the way that feels best and let your mind go free.
Take Action: Choose your favorite music to dance to where no one can see, or sing along where no one can hear. Pharrell’s video Happy always works for me!
