Well, as Mercury inches forward and Mars is about to go direct, the energy this week is an exercise in how you take care of yourself. Do you trust you have what you need for adequate protection or do your defenses step in and narrow your field of dreams? Often we walk around defended, thanks to the brain stem which operates on pattern recognition that is keyed to your childhood. It hunts for survivable patterns and can go a little haywire in times of change. In case you haven’t seen the news lately, we are in an era of change.
Therefore, brains ramp up and grab a metaphorical sword and shield as the first reaction. This week you get to see where another option feels better. It has much to do with the story you tell yourself about what anything means. If you find yourself ascribing motives or values to someone else’s behavior, that’s likely to be defense mode. When you get to the place where you let life reveal more of what you need and how you feel, you’re centered and ready to protect what’s important to you.
We’ve got the Goddesses Pallas, Ceres and Vesta right out of the gate Monday to help with those stories. The one Goddess that isn’t on the guest list is Juno, so it isn’t time to act yet. Instead explore whether or not the beliefs that guide your reactions and choices still fit you now. After all, the caterpillar is very different than the butterfly that emerges in the coming weeks. Let the knew certainty about who you are finish forming and dry off a bit. The Cards and the Stars will help.
All the best,
Lisa Greenfield
P.S. Video or audio extras will be back next forecast. Thank you for your patience.
Card of the Week: Four of Stones, Protection
The Wildwood Tarot says of this Four, ‘building on a foundation of ethical beliefs, boundaries and skills, we can be assured when the test comes we are secure in our self-knowledge and confidence’. First let’s tackle self knowledge. This is not about a deep philosophical take on the sum total of you. Instead go back to ‘what do I feel, what do I need’. When you know that you can operate effectively in any situation. You will have a chance this week to dig deeper underneath what you feel and what it means, but it happens organically. You don’t have to hunt for it, you’ll feel it like seismic waves. Second, let’s tackle the ‘confidence’ portion of the card. Confidence is a factor of what you’ve already lived and survived. You have had success and failure at this point in your life. You’ve been up and you’ve been down. Nothing stays the same forever. Where you were once weak, you have gown stronger. Where you’ve been the champion, you’ve probably also seen the decline after the glorious high. Building confidence is a great time to look back and give yourself credit with the big picture and how you survived and even thrived in your life. Don’t let fear focus on just the places you felt helpless. You came through it. See what that means, too. So know you are armed and ready to face the week. Fours are always represent firm foundation. The caution is to put four corners underneath you rather than four walls around you, no door. Protection allows you to take risks, defense doesn’t.
Monday: Ace of Stones, Foundation of Life
Now that’s a nice way to begin the week. The four corners beneath us thanks to the Four of Stones and the Ace of Stones for steps in the right direction. What makes it the right direction is because you decide what you feel and what you need. The three Goddesses team up with the Moon and then the Moon teams up with the Sun to give you a fresh start on what you want to create in life. Don’t worry if you don’t have a brand new job, relationship, or opportunity pop up, it’s an internal state of beginning. Look at your life, your choices with a fresh eye. Tell a new story. Interpret other people’s actions without an old story attached. Most likely they don’t fit their old story any more either. Give yourself and them a chance and see what you can create today. Baby steps, as the Ace of Stones advises you take it a step at a time.
Tuesday: Balance
There are very few astrological aspects today, just one that challenges you to see yourself as more than a sum of your actions. However, your actions are where you show up in the world to create a life. Time to examine where you can express yourself more fully than you do now. People shared with me they researched singing lessons, took a pole dancing class, started a youth outreach, or jewelry making classes as one expression of this. Try on each new thing you feel drawn to and picture yourself doing it. Before you act on something, try it on mentally. See yourself doing it. How do you feel when you see that picture in your head? Now is the day that the old layers of limitation may show up as those pesky creation fears raise their heads. Best not to push anything. Observe, be curious about what they say to you. Fear always guards power, because your power takes you into unknown places and the brain stem isn’t familiar with that pattern. So it’s going to want to scare you back into familiar space, no matter how limited it feels. Balance, breathe in and out. Give those old stories a moment and realize they may have been true once, but they aren’t true now. That’s a good start for the day. Rest tonight…
Wednesday: The Green Woman
Today the creation fears can be more effectively explored. Where did you give up what you want in order to fit in or meet loved ones expectations? Time to check in and see if it’s a trade off you still want to make or is there another way to handle conflict? Your mirror neurons have been storing up information about what succeeds for other people and has a wealth of options for you to try on and take a lap in to decide. This is where you can take the old compare and despair mentality and replace it with the compare and dare. It isn’t easy to change long standing patterns on either side of the relationship and yet it can be done. Not only that but your desire to do things a new way may give other people permission to do the same once the shock wears off. As the Sun moves into Virgo, let the influence inspire you to create new ways to bring a little change about.
Thursday: Ten of Bows, Responsibility
Ah, the ragged edge of responsibility is the line you walk today. The Moon meets up with Retrograde Mars and also touches Chiron, the wounded place. We use our wounds to justify a great many defenses in the present that rob us of choice. With eyes trained backwards on the pain in the past, your interpretation on the meaning is your choice. Will you look to where you were the weaker or loser in a situation? Or can you instead look at how what happened taught you much more than where to guard against it happening again? The Moon has a little assistance from the shock jock, Uranus, so it requires an adjustment to separate us from a familiar pattern. Any place you cling to a outdated belief is going to get challenged today. The definition of responsibility is, “the opportunity or ability to act independently and make decisions without authorization”. Where can you decide from a more independent place?
Friday: The Pole Star
Well, we start the day with a stack up of aspects that says if you want your dreams to be, dig in and make them real. Real happens when you take informed risks, partner with people who share your goals, release the need for others to make up for past injustices and invest for the long haul. This is another day where the obstacles, failures and setbacks of the past present themselves for inspection. What you do with them determines how much of what you want to create can show up in the world. People still live their lives when they walk around deeply defended. They just have more fear than fun while they do. If you harness runaway emotions and contain them in a way that brings passion to what you do, then you’ve called out the Star stuff in you to add light to your world. You don’t have to drop the fear, you act in spite of it. Let the fear point you to where the greater expansion is possible as you go beyond what you know now and add more life to your life. By 9:30pm you get to see some results from this shift thanks to the Moon and Venus meet up in the night sky. Go make a wish…
Saturday: Two of Bows, Decision
Oh do you have some great traction today on those dreams you imagined. You do have to confront the wound, which hates to be left out of the picture. Remind yourself that the old sore spots are like grains of sand in an oyster. It’s up to you to make a pearl out of it when the pain shows up. Decide to add something beautiful to transform pain into art. You get a lot of help and with the timekeeper Saturn in the picture, the results can last a lifetime. Later this evening the Moon moves into Pisces and you can feel where your efforts are part of the whole worlds movement toward taking the ugly and creating something appealing out of it, one individual contribution at a time.
Sunday: Six of Vessels, Reunion Full Moon
There is tension to be dealt with today for the Full Moon in Pisces. Harmony is achievable for the tension and how you get to it is part of what this Full Moon is here to teach you. Where are your needs going unmet or unacknowledged? The body often says NO for us when we fail to put our own healthy boundaries down so pay careful attention to your body today. When you are out of balance, pain lets you know. Then there are the other people in the equation. Time to do a check in on what they need out of the relationship. Expectations are trouble, my colleague Rhonda Britten calls them premeditated resentments. See if you can drag a couple of your expectations out of hiding and come clean. You invite others to do the same when you model the self examination with honesty and vulnerability. Six is the number of wholeness and healing. Reunion and harmony bring a return to health, be that a situation, a relationship or even your connection with the divine. The rich expanse of dreamy Pisces where we are all one in the whole cosmic scene, is balanced by the solid anchor of the Virgo Sun to make dreams real. The easy relationship of a Grand Trine with the Sun, Saturn and Uranus makes it a clear path to dreams becoming reality one invested, healthy step at a time. Enjoy…
