So maybe last week began a little process for you. Perhaps there was a small explosion in an area of your life that you thought was okay, or secure, but maybe underneath you knew there was a little problem, a resentment, something out of balance. I certainly heard many such stories in just a few days. Emotional affairs discovered, financial issues brought to light, huge trust issues, small and large betrayals, commitments made and broken, decisions to buy or sell property. It has been a time to be truthful and clear about what’s working and what’s not.  Mars and Saturn amped up the power of this eclipse so there was an additional flavor of “I want to do what I want to do!” up against feelings of formidable obstruction or blockage, commitments and responsibilities. No way out.

The Taurus Solar Eclipse on May 9 is a powerful new moon start to stabilizing new patterns of security, trust and groundedness.  This is the medicine we need to heal the exposed wounds. Taurus likes flow and ease. Any new moon is a good time to start new projects or relationships. An Eclipse will magnify the power of our intentions, affirmations, thoughts, words and deeds, and will also extend the length of time that this initiating force is powerful. This power may be added to our intentions if we are clear, or it can become an event that happens to us. It’s probably what’s best for us, whether we like it or not!

So this is the week to get clear. To talk to our partners. To budget and negotiate, and to make a plan that works in a way that we feel really taken care of, by ourselves and by those we share out lives with. Taurus asks us to value ourselves so that we make good choices; Scorpio requires digging to the bottom of sometimes ugly terrain to get to truth, intimacy and real financial strength. This is the time to find our own power and to balance power in our intimate relationships. 

There are many challenging explosions in the world at this time, both literal and symbolic. We are letting go of an old paradigm and transforming our world, financial and political. I know sometimes these larger world issues feel simply overwhelming. Each of us also needs to decide where we can be part of enduring solutions. In the meantime, each step we take toward balance and solidity within ourselves and within our personal relationships creates healing structures linked through our shared consciousness. The world benefits through our courageous healing journey.

Take a breath. Feel your feet. Reach out.

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Disease is initially created by energy out of balance. Each of us is born with an energetic blueprint based on the unresolved emotional experience of all previous incarnations. This blueprint forms the basis of our aura and chakra system. This is how karma is moved from one incarnation to another. It is not as if there is a karma committee punishing us as some would imagine. It is simply the truth of energy.

Energy is cleared by forgiveness and love. We can forgive the person who harmed us, be forgiven for our part in the situation, and we forgive ourselves (often the hardest part) for the part we played in the experience. I know many people find the idea of forgiveness challenging, especially in crimes against children. And yet, still, at the perfect time, forgiveness is the key to healing. Simply for our own healing and peace we must forgive and let go. Forgiveness cannot be rushed or pretended. Sometimes the best we can do is get to neutrality. However, the lack of forgiveness holds the energy of the wounding experience and will draw that same experience to us in modified forms, in this life and in future lives, over and over again, until finally we experience a spiritual breakthrough, and forgive totally.

As healers, I believe the format of much spiritual healing work is simply to satisfy the ego. Our human self wants to learn a system, know what we’re doing. We want to see the dark energy, remove it, replace it with new energy. Balance and align chakras. When we go to a healer, we like to have a name for their system, to believe, to trust in the training. We can do this and it works. There is a certain satisfaction to being actively involved in the healing or believing the healing modality is special. It gives the mind something to do. Ultimately, however, healing is simply the release of energy and acceptance of love in its place. It is amazingly simple.

Sometimes I do detailed spiritual healings; sometimes I go the simple route–calling in love from Spirit and friends to the person I’m facilitating. Often the person receiving healing feels the simple forms the most.
In daily life, we all have the capacity to facilitate our own healing, by surrounding ourselves by people who love us rather than settle for “friends” who are meanspirited. We can visualize ourselves surrounded and filled with love, at any time of the day, rather than dwell in fearful and negative thoughts.

Life can be filled with spiritual healing. Practice breathing, meditation, yoga or tai chi. Take long walks in natural settings. Clear up old issues and open your heart. Love yourself enough to eat well. Focus on the present moment. Get healings and massage from others. Practice sending healing with a friend. Laugh. With every breath, fill yourself up with gratitude and love. You are spiritual healing (or not!) in every moment.

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Is your life in perfect harmony and balance? Probably not, at least not all of the time. Even when we think we’re in balance it’s easy to suddenly feel, well, it’s kind of boring and too stable. Or perhaps you find yourself suddenly over-scheduled, overwhelmed, over-everything — when suddenly there’s one thing too many to do, or an unexpected event crashes the perfectly aligned balance, the way your brother (or younger sister in my case) would smash your Barbie doll house just when you got it to be perfect.

It’s possible to see balance like a house made out of wooden blocks. Not enough blocks and it’s not really a house; too many blocks and it falls over.

Noticing the imbalance before the house falls down requires mindfulness and intuition. And then comes the math. What is one thing you can subtract today? How can you cancel something you planned on, were sure you needed to do — and give yourself an hour or maybe even a few hours of free, unconstructed time. If no one else knows about it, all the better. You can hide in your little fort with a good book and a cup of tea and rejoice in found time and a more balanced schedule.

If you only have a half built house and you’re kicking around feeling bored and lonely, what is just one thing you can add? Maybe one exciting thing added for one day, or perhaps something lovely added once a week. A class, a volunteer position or choosing to put energy into a languishing friendship? Breathe into your core and allow an idea to bubble up.

Given that we have a stellium of planets hanging out in Pisces this week, it’s probably subtraction time. Turn the phone off, take a bath and surrender to the perfectly unfolding Universe, and the shenanigans of the Mercury retrograde.  In a few weeks we’ll be playing in a Aries stellium; that will be the time to buzz forward with new activities and lively additions for most.

Either way, your balance, your house under construction, is unique and perfect for you.

This is the simple intuitive math of balance.

The post Intuitive Math: The Joy of Adding and Subtracting appeared first on Kay Taylor.

I usually love the turn of the year energy and spend much of January 1st in meditation and contemplation, considering the year past and my intentions for the new year. This year, the day kind of rolled along without much focus. Of course, it is true that usually it’s almost the same old list, carefully redrafted and updated, but still, there’s a slow evolution over time.

This turn of the year into 2013 felt different to me than other years. Much of the energy shift was focused on the Solstice and I feel some part of my lack of resolve is a deep tiredness from the collective soul level work we have all done to shift this world more deeply to the new paradigm (and that’s a whole other topic I’m working on).

For this year, I had one main personal intention for the year and that was to get back to my protein/veggie cleansing diet that had felt so good last August. Slowly over the months a little dairy, gluten and sugar had crept back in. It’s not like it’s a big change to creep it back out, but it was my little intention. But New Year’s day felt like it needed a bit of a celebration, and of course it was a Tuesday, and Tuesday doesn’t seem like a real ‘start’ date. So the Monday after the New Year became the new start date.

Of course that was the week we were heading into a new moon in Capricorn. How ideal to start something new on a new moon … except it turned out to be a Friday and by Friday I was feeling kind of ‘weekendy’ and felt inspired to bake brownies, an extravaganza of my evil three. So now Monday became the start date, but the moon was in dreamy, indulgent Pisces, discipline nowhere to be found, and so now, finally, here we are in February, moving forward day by day, sometimes indulgent and other times more focused on my health and other virtuous goals.

I’m wondering if my resolve to give my body the fuel it deserves is much greater than my desire for pleasure. And I’m wondering if we’re all just too hard on ourselves in our seeking of transformation, change, perfection. Often we have overly high standards for ourselves and fail to find the beauty and joy in each moment and in our selves. It doesn’t have to be around food; it can be money, success, our spiritual seeking, or relationship, or any other intention or goal we have. The inner drive for transformation (Scorpio) is in opposition to the longing for pleasure and comfort, the security of staying the same (Taurus). Somewhere in this continuum is our inner balance point.

I think we find that balance when we remember the path is the important part. The perfection in each moment. The giggles I’ve been having as I kept kicking the can of my intention down the road. The self respect of kale for breakfast. The indulgence of a treat before dinner. A long sweaty yoga practice followed by a delicious brownie. Or another kale salad. When each moment is viewed with compassion and humor the path becomes delightful and the end result is way more healing than a strict diet will ever accomplish.

At least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

PS: the 2013 – The Year Ahead workshop mp3 recordings from January 12th are now available in the Distance Learning shop. This was a great class with lots of information about the changing energy we’re in and includes a five part meditation for cleansing and creating.

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If you too slept through the 3:11 meditation, there were global meditations all day devoted to connecting love, peace and harmony with the earth and all light workers and spiritual souls to birth the Ascension.

Tomorrow, December 22 there are continued meditations for this designated ‘birth day’. The weekend is marked by an interesting and powerful astrological formation, a yod, sometimes called a “finger of god”. It holds within it a pattern of energy that implies potential for expansion and connectedness of all world cultures and beliefs as we transform and restructure the old paradigm. The apex planet of the yod is Jupiter in Gemini, but since it’s retrograde (apparently moving backwards) there’s an indication that the work is continuing and unfinished and we’ll see more powerful changes when it moves direct over the same spot, Interestingly, that occurs in March and by the Spring Equinox — a natural starting point of every year — the yod is reformed along with some strong Mars (action) Uranus (awakening) energies. It’s the yod on steroids!

There are also global meditations for the full moon on December 28th and beyond. Basically if there’s any interesting planetary alignments, there’s global meditation for peace and love. If you haven’t participated with this type of huge group meditation it really does feel good and can create beautiful results.

We’ve been doing these meditations since the 80′s and the difference in the felt sense has been escalating. I can remember in early world meditations feeling that our group was a point of light and we were attached to other little points of light around the world with thin threads of light in between. Now the blanket of light surrounding the world is thick and deep. We are creating a new vibrational grid that is the form for the new paradigm even as the old is still collapsing. With this energy now in place, concepts we’ve been talking about and working toward are happening to us with greater frequency and ease. True self-love, delightful synchronicity, a sense of connection are some of the experiences reported to me daily. Many people are having unusual experiences in their meditations with rapid results. I see and hear of heart centered joy and openness, true surrender, and bliss states that last for long periods of time. Even the pain of life can feel bittersweet and lead to greater heart opening.

Although this is technically the starting point, the energetic changes have already been strong over the past couple of months. I don’t really expect there will be one day that is radically different for everyone (this will give the naysayers something to talk about initially). I am not expecting spaceships to land or to take people away. I see this as a spiritual renaissance with changes that are both powerful and subtle, phased in safely and yet very rapid in these next months and years.

And if you’re not having these blissful peak experiences know there is still time. The frontrunners have been working hard in meditation and personal work to be ready for this time, creating the critical mass for consciousness shift. This is about Oneness, not about separation or exclusion, so as the energy builds it will be easier for you or anyone who wishes to connect.

Also if you have missed any particular meditation time you can always just connect to it in your own time. Any time, any day, is a good day to meditate for world peace and to see yourself as part of the Oneness. Every intention counts.

Oh … and washing the dishes. That was my initial thought this morning as I woke up after this first Solstice moment. I felt light, loving and clear, and then walked into my kitchen to see yesterday’s dishes that clearly had not ascended!

Washing each dish with love and care, grateful to be alive at this fascinating time. Delight in every moment.

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Have you been overtaken by joy and a sense of life moving forward in positive ways? Perhaps you experienced an amazing synchronicity, or an idea manifested virtually instantly? These are some of the lovely higher consciousness experiences that seem to be more easily available. Every day I hear more amazing stories.

Then there are interesting physical symptoms, intense tiredness, powerful dreams, very clear intuitive information about what to eat or not eat, or old patterns that now seem completely irrelevant. Relationships are being healed or gently released. We can lose our way for a moment but reconnect quickly. We’re being given time to get used to the new frequency.

The astrology is powerful, indicating opportunities for new directions and change. Today is 12-12-12, one of the many energetic pivot points in our world process. We then have a New Moon on 12-13, 12:41 am Pacific time. This moon is in Sagittarius, the sign of optimism and hope, higher teachings and philosophical beliefs. What do you believe in, and are you ready to make the leap?

Uranus moves direct at 4:01 am Pacific time, indicating even more of an inner signal to break through or break out, becoming our own unique, authentic selves. Uranus is the planet of awakening. We get to choose how awake we wish to be with every moment, every breath.

Then of course the YOD formation for the Solstice. I will be holding a webinar on Thursday, December 20th to talk about this formation and lead a healing meditation to align with the energies. You can sign up to be online for the call or simply get the recording to work with on your own.

If you are able to get more down time in the next two weeks, take it as a gift for the alignment. Extra sleep, bodywork, meditation, inner work … This is the moment we’ve been working toward and now it’s here. It is a magnificent change in planetary consciousness, and it’s still day by day, step by step, chop wood, carry water.

The post Happy 12-12-12! With a New Moon too! appeared first on Kay Taylor.

This 5th dimensional vibration has been grounded more deeply into our world, and we’re able to stay aligned with it for longer and longer period of time. This may be minutes or a few hours. It’s like bobbing in water filled with rapids and vortexes. Our head pops out and we see the clear air and bright sun sparkling in the misty water droplets and then we’re pulled back under again. As we go under we might be consciously aware of old patterns that no longer serve us. The vortex spins them off of us like a set of clothes that don’t fit, and then we come back up for air again. Ah, the clear, timeless breath of pure air!

In the new vibration, we find our thoughts and feelings manifesting quite instantly. Play with this. Notice what you can create. If you wish more joy, pleasure, calmness — simply make the choice to be that. Taking a breath with the choice helps ground it into the body. If it’s a thing you want, go ahead and play with that too. If it’s in alignment with who you are it will be easy to create. It’s best not to become too caught up in the thing creation track though, because then we start to fall back into old ways of attached thinking.

Listen to your intuition and be open to change. What you thought you wanted or was true for you a few months ago may not be now, and especially in another month. Feel the change within and maybe not rush to make radical changes yet.

The new energy is more about playfulness, openness to change, trusting that whatever we need is there when we need it. We are boundless creativity and expansive healing and freedom. This is the ascension, embodying in our plane of existence. Many years of preparation have led to this time. We will connect with like minded others through the eyes. We don’t have to go anywhere, do anything. We are remembering who we are on a soul level and living from that perspective within the earth plane dimension. Others will follow in their own time but for the next few years it will seem as if there are two worlds living in the same space. And that is true.

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We cannot underestimate the disruption in the energetic field via the east coast hurricane. We really are all connected. Whenever we have major disasters most of us feel particularly tired as our energy goes to others, in thoughts or prayers or even unconsciously. We share in all experience. Since we’re in a time period of ever increasing climate disasters remembering the need for extra sleep and deep rest throughout the day is essential.

The election conflict was another intense energy to deal with. I’m happy it’s over and imagine most of you are as well. (Here is an example of paragraph one: This next sentence with its link was timely a few days ago, now I’m not so sure, but leave it in as an example of how fast we move on and in case you didn’t see it: “The delightful four year old spoke truth in frustration of endless negative campaigning”.)

Half of us are thrilled or at least satisfied with the election results; half are disappointed or frightened about what the future will bring. We all want change and hope. We just don’t agree on how to get there. The planetary configurations in the upcoming years and the “Light” council that channels through me are very clear. We will progress, transform, and change. The direction is already set. We just have to stay connected to our hearts and continually allow the layers of the old paradigm to peal away.

Each one of us is asked to step more fully into our power and play our personal role in the change and as we close in on this dynamic year of 2012, spiritual revolution and finding and acting from a place of soul purpose might be the most important personal energy we’re feeling. Yet, when so much is changing, how can we make a clear choice? Intuition can be our only true guide because thinking things through is more than challenging, sometimes impossible!

Speaking truth in committed relationships is a major theme of the month. This is not the time to hold back. Intimacy and empowered connection depends on it. And as you can see from news headlines (Petraeus and others whose sexual affairs are being exposed), if you’re not honest it’s also likely for the truth to be exposed. Financial stress is another theme, with a need to take solid long term action to bring about financial stability in alignment with one’s truth and higher purpose (this is especially notable around the Solstice). The new Moon Solar Eclipse on the 13th of November is a good start point for any new process of cleansing, transformation, or deepening of your projects. Many are experiencing increased food sensitivities (I wonder if GMO foods are part of the problem here. They are now throughout our food supply in subtle ways unless we are immaculate in buying and cooking non GMO organics ourselves and never eat in restaurants). Healthy choices and support from our healing teams continues this month and in the foreseeable future to be very important.

The vibrational energies within which we live and align are slowly increasing in readiness for the energetic shift of 2012. Whether we mark the 12-12-12 turning or the Solstice or simply the end of 2012, the end of one Mayan calendar and the beginning of a new calendar or in western astrology the movement toward the Age of Aquarius, this is a time of radical change. We are lobsters in the pot being brought to a boil. And I imagine we’ll be quite delicious when we’re cooked!

Astrology keypoints:

Mercury retrograde November 6th @ 4:17 Sagittarius back to 18:11 Scorpio on the 27th
Neptune direct on November 10th @ 00:21 Pisces
New Moon Solar Eclipse on November 13th at 21:56 Scorpio
Yod formation at the Solstice: Saturn in Scorpio sextile Pluto in Capricorn both quincunx to Jupiter in Gemini — approximately 8 degrees

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Pluto is square both Uranus and the nodes as we continue to transform all existing outmoded structures in our personal lives and in our larger world paradigm. Transform or die! Go big or go home!

Meanwhile the balance of relationship needs and of personal will becomes more evident as Venus squares Mars and the transiting lunar nodes. There could be some relationship tension. The Mars is in Scorpio conjunct the north node indicating a strong need to act in the direction of soul’s growth, leaving behind the comfort, security and placidity of Taurus, as well as a strong urge to act from a place of power and integrity. Scorpio is often about truth telling, and here the Universe leaves no planet unturned.

Mercury is widely conjunct Saturn in Libra at this full Moon indicating the need to speak clearly from a place of one’s solid commitment, deepest sense of personal authority and clear, grounded boundaries. By early October Saturn will be in Scorpio for the next two and one half years, adding great depth and power to the already challenging times we find ourselves in. Saturn in Pluto’s sign of Scorpio; Pluto in Saturn’s sign of Capricorn. These two are going to be talking and they’re going to be in total agreement. “Let’s break down and transform everyone’s stuck lives, so they can really work hard at solving all the world’s problems.” “Oh yes, absolutely, you are so right on, it’s what I love to do the most!” “Totally, I can almost remember the last time I trashed a world, it was so great, everyone grew by leaps and bounds and they were so much happier … or at least their grandchildren were!”

So how can you be this Full Moon? How can you be intuitively clear, emotionally grounded and absolutely in your divine soul presence?

Do what it takes for you to get calm. Meditate, exercise, do yoga, chant, sleep and eat well. Hold the vision for peace, balance and clarity within yourself and in all of your relationships. Let go of outmoded immature, selfish egocentric ideas about yourself. Let them go fast, like a sharp crack in the veils, so that Uranus can be fully embodied. Uranus is offering us a gift of authentic emotional freedom. Focus on your deepest truth and what it takes to make it happen. Embody Mars. Make it happen. Take a step. It’s almost guaranteed that one of those steps is to speak your truth to someone you’re close to. Do it with love, embodying loyalty to truth, and the full knowledge that when you take a step in any soul centered direction, the next step becomes evident, and then the next and the next.

Evolved Mars action and Aries flavor is the willingness to risk, to be brave and courageous beyond that line of safety you’ve drawn in the sand.

Be the Full Moon and you’ll be rewarded with a lovely step upward along the grid of expanding dimensional consciousness. Hang onto your old sense of safety and the pain might be quite challenging.

Using astrology to understand how to embody energies is our greatest gift. Resisting and avoiding change only delays the inevitable. We will transform, this life or another … or another. The Universe is a patient place.

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To trace the sexual abuse pattern in the start, the entry point is Pluto, because Pluto represents wounding, especially of a sexual nature, and also signifies control and manipulation. Plutonian experiences leave us feeling shame and deep fear, and are often steeped in karmic memory. Then we look for the connections to Mars and/or Venus. In every (verified or well remembered) sexual abuse case I looked at one or both of these planets are in a relatively tight aspect to Pluto. Mars can signify the act of sex as well as impulsive, ego driven, self centered actions and tends to correlate with more violent acts. Venus represents one’s relationship function and often Venus will indicate charm and relationship skill used to entice a victim. Pluto connected to Mars and/or Venus is the core structure, but often in more serious cases the other planets mentioned below figure prominently as well. Just a Mars/Pluto or Venus/Pluto connection alone (and not in the water houses) tends to signify less wounding types of abuse, uncertain or not well remembered events, or other manifestations. For instance Mars/Pluto alone might indicate growing up with a particularly angry father and subsequent anger issues oneself. Venus/Pluto might correlate with compulsive relationship urges and a successful art career in later life.

Saturn, Jupiter and Neptune also figure prominently in many cases of sexual abuse. Saturn often represents a father or authority figure involved in the abuse; the energy imbued will be one of control, rigidity and perhaps the cultivation of feelings of guilt and ultimate sexual blockages. Jupiter and Neptune are both the Pisces planets and often represent drugs and/or alcohol involved in the abuse. Sometimes they show religious influences, such as Church based abusers or a religious imprinting that encouraged absolute devotion or the edict to follow elders’ wishes unquestioningly. Additionally Neptune conveys a sense of loss and suffering while Jupiter’s influence tends to indicate grandiose, narcissistic, inflated tendencies of the perpetrator.

The lunar nodes were not reliable indicators of abuse, although the karmic importance of the abuse is delineated by the nodes, especially when there are strong aspects of the core planets to the nodes.

The other planets can often be interpreted as archetypal figures in the story, or as descriptive influences. For example, Mercury might indicate the involvement as a perpetrator or also as a victim, yet it might also signify verbal sexual abuse, such as making inappropriate comments. Uranus might indicates something that happened fast and unexpectedly, or a particularly detached or rebellious individual.

The aspects between all of the planets involved or the tightness of the orbs create descriptive differences. Hard aspects can indicate stress and intensity while the soft aspects (trine and sextile) often indicate a flow or ease which with Pluto can mean lots of abuse and perhaps a sense that healing can be more easily accomplished. Stelliums are often quite significant. Planets in Scorpio or in the 8th house are as well. In general, the planets delineated above in relationship to each other and found in the water houses, 4th (home & family), 8th (sexuality and wounding) and 12th (loss and karma) are found more frequently in charts of those abused.

Healing of sexual abuse takes tremendous time and effort, although when the abuse is reported in childhood and psychological healing is started early it can be very helpful. Most people go through many years or even decades before they can face what happened to them and begin the healing journey. In those unhealed years the effects of sexual abuse include poor relationships, sexual difficulties, alcohol and drug use, difficulty with boundaries, depression, stress, anxiety and more. In extreme case some become perpetrators themselves or victims of adult rape situations, and are also unlikely to be able to protect their own children from abuse because they just can’t ‘see’ what they can’t face in themselves. Or, they became terrified and overprotective of their children, instilling fear and anxiety.

As healing occurs, a person begins to feel empowered, realizing what happened to them was wrong, even when they sometimes felt as a child that somehow they were to blame. Some people find healing in helping children or adult victims of sexual abuse and violence through volunteer programs or through a healing career. Others find a good counselor or survivor’s group. They learn how to feel their own feelings (recovering their moon), set boundaries (healthy Saturn), and identify and pursue their own inner call and drive (healthy Mars). Healthy Pluto manifests as connection to one’s deepest sense of intimacy and sexuality, absolute honesty and integrity, and clear soul centered power. Many survivors of sexual abuse initially feel badly about their body, as it seems as if it has betrayed them, and take little joy in their beauty or seductiveness. Others go overboard and are ‘sexualized’ — seducing everyone without a true connection to the deeper meaning of sexuality. In healing this wounded Venus, there is a healthy connection with body, sexuality beauty and relationship potential. If Jupiter or Neptune were involved in the astrological abuse story, a reconnection to that which is spiritual and magical might be called for, or there may be a need to resolve addiction issues in later life.

All in all, healing takes a long time, coming in layers and waves, whether there was one incident or many, whether we were seduced or battered. Our  world will be a much better place when we can grow up with our bodies even relatively intact from infancy through adulthood, our Pluto powerful, our other planets free to express themselves without such wounding.

The post Dark Truth: Sexual Wounding in the Chart appeared first on Kay Taylor.

Our swan didn’t really do anything to transform or change himself. He simply grew and evolved into his true self, and was finally able to see himself clearly, not through the eyes of critical others. These others were different than he was and were disapproving of differences. He took this criticism personally, believing there was something fundamentally wrong with him. How thoughtfully this child’s tale resonants with the experience many of us have had growing up in a world that doesn’t see us clearly, so that we come to have a tarnished lens. Through this darkened lens we might feel discouragement and self-criticism, or find ourselves caught in the endless seeking of perfection.

In our spiritual communities we often champion transformation. We wish to transform our ‘negative’ qualities and learn to be peaceful, loving individuals. The pattern of wanting to be better is deep within. As we work on ourselves we often feel much better emotionally, mentally or physically. We do find a greater sense of peace, and our relationships improve. We dive into the pool of swans, hoping for external acceptance. Perhaps we risk and change jobs or move to a new place as we feel empowered to be who we are. Seeking healing and transformation is an important part of our evolutionary path.

The other side of our journey includes cultivating a sense of acceptance. In our diligence to transform often we forget this balancing perspective. We need to look into the pool and see our beautiful reflection and realize we are perfect as we are. Despite the negative feedback of bullies, well meaning ‘honest’ people and the tyranny of media, we are beautiful, elegant and spiritually exactly where we’re supposed to be.

In our balanced life we accept our fundamental perfection and the okayness of exactly where we are right now, balanced with our calling to evolve and transform.

The post A Tale of Transformation and Acceptance appeared first on Kay Taylor.

This is why I haven’t written a blog post for a few weeks, and the ‘monthly’ newsletter skipped July. In the face of feeling too busy and unbalanced, I scheduled more yoga classes as commitments in my calendar. That’s one place where I am absolutely in the moment with breath and connection to my own feelings, both emotions and the precise feeling of each part of the body. Now I’m looking at scheduling more unstructured time to be completely free to follow my intuition and creativity. I don’t know for sure where I’ll find those hours, but I notice over and over again that when we make a different choice that is soul centered, somehow the time/energy/healing/resources are there.

Speaking to a friend on the phone the other day, I was telling her that I’d received a message from Spirit to work harder at setting up my life so I could do my work without so many interruptions. At that exact moment, my cell phone rang loudly, turning out to be a pocket call, the Universe making the point strongly and giggling with me!

We have choice about these things. Cell phones can be turned off for hours. Computers can be allowed to sleep so we can be awake — while we spend more time living in connection with people and nature. The treadmill of technology is always there, but a beautiful summer day with an opportunity to laugh with a friend or cook a meal that takes hours to prepare and enjoy might be perfect in just that moment, an opportunity to be present with life in a slow, mindful way.

I’ve noticed that as I’ve focused on slowing down in the past few weeks, that my experience of life is in fact slower. While normally I find life speeding by, losing days and weeks in a blur, my choice for slowness has reaped rewards. Days feel slower, kind of like they do in areas of the world that choose slowness. I’m reminded of leisurely strolls through the palazzos of Italy, or how neighbors in Taos hang out with each other on porches, sitting in a line, facing the sky.

Time is a construct that is unraveling in a way that allows us to feel either endlessly busy and stressed or slower and spacious. Seems like choosing slowness might have its advantages.

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The energies are complex as we begin this season. Much of this year so far has been dominated by the retrogrades of Mars and Saturn and the movement toward the first exact square of Pluto and Uranus. Mars reflected our review of right use of will and our inner initiating force. Saturn shows our final days of reviewing the structures of our lives and will move direct (along with Venus) by the end of the month. The Pluto/Uranus square has us looking deep at our shadow material, the need for authentic freedom and the revolutionary process we are here to birth. At the moment of the Solstice, the Moon has already moved into Cancer, creating a T-square by opposing the transformative force of Pluto, and yet also moving to kiss Mercury, the ruler of all of this Gemini activity. Venus has been retrograde since May 5th, asking us to revisit relationships, cleaning up the past of this and prior lives, understanding our worth, our money and acknowledging the details of beauty and harmony — just a little more deeply. Her power was particularly focused on our earth as she crossed the Sun, solar energies infusing directly through her to us. Two eclipses have occurred recently, triggering energies for those whose charts they touch. The first, a solar eclipse just past 0 degrees Gemini; the second, a lunar eclipse at 15 Sag/Gemini. The transiting south node of the moon is in early Gemini, sandwiched by Venus and Jupiter. Here we feel our karmic patterns around relationship and expansion, beliefs and the possibility of hope; communication will pay off in expanded understanding, especially if we can harness the intuitive, compassionate potential of Neptune which squares the Nodes. And then today we had a New Moon in Gemini (29 degrees), just to make sure the message does not go unnoticed, we are assured it is time to begin, this mercurial forcefield touches us most definitely with its messages.

How can we make sense of so much celestial activity as we move into the summer season? It makes my head spin just to list it all!

Communication, creativity and relationship connections are essential to work through the transformation and karmic relationship patterns brought to the surface. We might find ourselves distracted with too many possibilities and a tendency to stress and mental anxiety. As always, spiritual centering and meditation will help, perhaps with a healthy dose of balancing physical activity. We might be drawn to trips, to taking classes, to books and information. We are learning to detach from the non-essential, to value our connections with each other, to talk and to play. Projects in alignment with our true purpose will be moving forward more easily beginning in July, and connections and projects that are not of our highest values may move out of our lives rapidly and unexpectedly. Listen to the voice of Spirit; pay attention to your dreams. The dream state has been amazing lately. Visions are everywhere.

We now remember what we came here to do, and who we came here to do it with. Gemini rarely seems focused, and this is no exception. The difference is the intention is to bring the non essential to our attention so that we can focus on meaningful transformation and the relationships that honor our soul.

(Photo courtesy of Ivar Palsson in Iceland)

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After the class finished I found myself in the hotel store, perusing the typical assortment of magazines and various gadgets one might have forgotten. I stared longingly at the chocolate section, hoping to find a bit of European or organic chocolate to pamper myself. As I turned away from the meager selection, refusing to lower my standards, I remember spontaneously thinking, “God, I wish they had some really great chocolate.”

The very next afternoon I was on the phone when a loud knock interrupted my call. I saw a bellman through the peephole, holding a large tray with an ice bucket and a bottle. I assumed he had the wrong room and opened the door. He came in and set it down with a gift card with an apology note from the hotel for an issue that was so minor to me that I’d already forgotten about it. The tray contained an assortment of incredible handmade chocolate truffles and an iced bottle of Evian water. I was thrilled and grateful, impressed with the particularly spectacular nature of the arrival of the best possible chocolate to my very door.

Whether I somehow manifested this chocolate through a strong wish, or whether it’s simple hotel protocol and I’m the recipient of a synchronicity, I’m very grateful. I believe in the magic of thought, yet the speed of manifestation was amazing even to me. I see this as a reminder to all of us to keep our thoughts positive and very clear.

And I’m thinking next time … “God, I wish I had a villa in the south of France”!

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