Showing posts with label Creativity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Creativity. Show all posts

Thursday, July 22, 2021

Full Moon in Aquarius: The Call of the Wayshower


The Star-XVII, Universal Waite Tarot


This Friday, we welcome the Full Moon in the fixed air sign of Aquarius, the Water Bearer. Aquarius is symbolized by The Star in the Tarot, and the Eleventh House of Astrology. Here we find ideals and friends, groups and communities, and that which we call “The Future.” Aquarius is the sign of revolution, rebellion, and doing one’s own thing. Marching to one’s own drum.  Breaking rules, or changing them to suit one’s own values and perspectives du jour. At its healthiest expression, ‘taint nothin’ better than being an Aquarius and/or embracing the Aquarian Age – ‘specially if you’re a real freedom lover at heart.

Aquarius needs to break away, as she is the wayshower and not meant to fit in. If we all fit in and were accepted or acceptable by society, there would be no such thing as evolution of consciousness. We need Aquarian energy to give us the chutzpah to say what we see, to stand apart from the crowd, to tell the truth even if it means we aren’t understood for five, ten, fifty or five hundred years.

When we begin to accept this part of ourselves, rather than vilifying it or rejecting it simply because it seems too weird or challenging to our current perspectives, we begin to embrace and love being a truth-teller. We begin to realize that the truth of who we are can never be threatened, for we are timeless consciousness. The body and the reputation and the popularity and the bank account and the relationship? Well, they’re all appearances in time and space and they will certainly come and go. But the truth of who we are is infinite and eternal.

 Opening the Time Capsule

Fifteen years ago, at the Full Moon in Aquarius of 2006, I broke away myself from a safe professional role as a content manager and producer of the world’s #1 independent astrology and tarot websites. In the year or so prior, I’d begun having kundalini activation symptoms in my body-mind – some uncomfortable, some pleasurable, including insomnia, heat, shaking, and intensive series of lucid dreams every night. I was burning hot and so high I could not come down until I acknowledged the core of the message from my soul:

  • I needed to leave my 9 to 5 stable career
  • I needed to acknowledge my own intuitive, tarot, and astrological gifts
  • I needed to start reading for others

When I sent out the announcement to my community at large, that I was now ready to read for others, my knees were knocking. I knew there was no real turning back: I was out of the broom closet. I had to walk through and with my fear of rejection, of ostracism, and of exile – all Aquarian themes – and the decision had a snowball effect.

In actuality, that was my last day job. I began piecing together a makeshift alt.career in which I was a freelance writer and editor (travel, astrology, new thought, etc.), indie author, and astrologer and tarot professional from the road – I spent the next five years living out of a rucksack, based in India, and working from whatever Internet cafĂ© I could stumble upon – and began giving readings remotely, as well as to travelers from all over the world, paying anywhere from 100 Rupees to 100 dollars. 

Business Card, 2006

 

San Francisco, 2006

What Mainstream?

This is what it means to take a Leap of Faith. To listen to your individuality, your psyche, your body (remember the Kundalini activations?). To trust. Now, of course, I had done a boatload of personal work – psychological, recovery, metaphysical, financial – to prepare for this mid-thirties leap. But surrendering “fitting in,” having a real job, having a stable platform, and becoming a real entrepreneur is, in a way, a form of ART.

I have lived as a working artist (intuitive and spiritual arts) for the past 15 years. I’m way out of the closet now – y’all know who I am and what I’m up to. I’ve been this way my whole life, actually – it’s a bit like being queer… you simply know. Yet to offer myself up publicly this way, and more and more and more – is to consistently risk being misunderstood, and to face that ongoing Aquarius strange situation of possible ostracism from the community.

Aquarius is the antithesis of mainstream. This is the job of the Water Bearer: to bring our attention to that which is “out there,” not just for perverse, selfish purposes, no. Rather, for the collective, for the good of the whole. Aquarius is the sign of humanity. Ironic, since most Aquarius- oriented individuals (or those with a strong Uranus influence) feel like they are from another planet. Perhaps many are Star Children –from Sirius or the Pleiades or another dimension – maybe they are from Atlantis or Lemuria of yore. They must to be, in order to deliver such different frequencies to us. It is the sacrifice of Aquarius to feel odd, to try to have a human experience. The only solution is to, as I said, continue to embrace and appreciate this unique role they have come in with.

At this time of the Full Moon of the Aquarian, see if you can be a little more forgiving with that oddball part of yourself. If you can be a little more faith-full when it comes to “doing your own thing,” of not fitting in, of taking a leap of faith. See if you can consider some of the quirky things you know in your heart, your body, your being to be real. See that you actually are onto something. See if you can release the need for approval or the need for being understood by others (boy that one is a real trap!).

This latter one is vital if you want to be free. Stop trying to make yourself understood by others. Simply acknowledge your own sense of things, validate your own heart. That is more than enough: it is healing, and one secret to ease and grace, and – some would say, in its highest definition – it is SUCCESS.

Trust the beat of your own heart!


Erin Reese, M.S. is a contemporary non-dual spiritual teacher, author and guide. A modern mystic with over thirty years of experience, Erin Reese offers incisive, practical intuitive readings to her clients worldwide. She is a counselor, guide and mentor to those seeking an alternative to traditional psychotherapy or business coaching. Erin also offers non-dual meetings and retreats on embodied liberation and freedom from suffering. Visit erinreese.com for more information. 
 

Thursday, January 28, 2021

Full Moon in Leo: Your Inner Child Needs You

Konkan Coast, South India

Today we greet the full moon in the fixed fire sign of Leo the Lion. Leo rules the fifth house of the horoscope, the home of love affairs and play, drama and romance, gambling and risks, self-expression and creativity, children, and the Inner Child.

In my recent New Year’s and January 20th Meditation and Messages online meetings, the theme of the Inner Child featured prominently in the transmissions. It is clearly important in 2021 to stay connected to this part of self, no matter what age or condition they are appearing to us.

This lunation is unstable and potentially volatile with Venus conjunct Pluto in Capricorn, and the Sun conjunct Jupiter in Aquarius opposing the Full Moon. There is a clear conflict in the messages we are being given as a society and the messages that Nature is giving to us. The media and popular leadership are telling us to prepare for normalcy again, to start making plans to travel, to run around, to spend money, to get together with folks as quickly as possible. In short, the input we are receiving is “get busy, get back to normal.”

The pressure in our culture is to go back to where you were a year ago, to get busy, stimulated (and spend your stimulus check), make plans (lots of them).

Well…

Intuitively our bodies and inner children are confused as to what that means. The truth is, there is no return to normal, at least if you've shifted into the new paradigm. Many of us are stabilizing in a completely different reality and it is going to create a ton of stress to pretend to revert to pre-2020 activities and modes of living.

Kushinagar, India

Whether you are feeling hopeful, skeptical, or daunted by the idea of “getting back to normal” this year, there is one aspect of the lived human experience that comes along with you every day, integrated or not, and that is the Inner Child – the young part of self.

Check within and see how she is showing herself to you these days. A cheery five-year-old, a sad seven-year-old, a wailing infant, a cranky toddler, a wistful preteen, a rebellious or brokenhearted adolescent?

The Sun - XIX
The flavor of the age you are working with will not necessarily reflect your memory of yourself at said age. What is important is how the Inner Child is presenting itself to you now. You may have more than one age showing up. I often tend to my five-year-old sensitive and magical Little Erin, but my hormonal, misbehaving sixteen-year-old has been known to make an appearance.  A depressed infant pops up on occasion, as does a confused sixth grader.

An easy way to reconnect to your Inner Child is to commit to spending a half or full day only doing that which they need from you. Usually this is away from the computer, phone, adult duties. You might need to read quietly with your Little One envisioned beside you on the sofa. You might let your little one choose the book or magazine to read, or the movie to watch together. (I recently watched Taika Waititi’s The Hunt for the Wilderpeople which I highly recommend as an Inner Child playdate flick; I’m sure you will have fun picking your own!).

Like Leo and the Sun card of the Tarot, the Inner Child needs time to play, to shine, to be seen and acknowledged. And the most important person to revel in your goods is… YOU. Sure, hamming it up with others in your household or community or job is fab, especially for our extroverted aspects and the part of us that likes to put on a show – Leo’s fave. But even when we are uninterested or unable to socialize or perform, or it is not received, remember that we will benefit most by going within. We are the parent. We can celebrate and revel in our little one’s creations or fascinations – and play along.

Performing with the Inner Child, 2007

Inner children often like to draw, paint, collage, sketch or scribble – badly or goodly as it appears. You might try drawing with your non-dominant hand to let them express themself unedited. Perfection, goals, intentions, and getting it right are blocks and bugaboos, so let yourself go. What is most important is to stay present with the body and feelings, pleasant or unpleasant.

A nation of non-recovered Inner Children is a world filled with Walking Wounded. The Child is the squeaky wheel that gets the grease, whether consciously (through tending to their needs) or unconsciously (acting out). Without paying attention and listening, we have an immature, reactive, cranky, needy, upset, confused self leading the show, and we’re left wondering how it could be so.

With the tumultuous energies in the world right now, it is time to hold on to your Inner Child. Remember it is healthy to allow this part of self to be the Center of the Universe – the leonine Sun. Everything rises and sets on the energy of the Inner Child.

Erin Reese performing, 2007
Erin Reese, M.S. is a contemporary non-dual spiritual teacher, author and guide. A modern mystic with over thirty years of experience, Erin Reese offers incisive, practical intuitive readings to her clients worldwide. She is a counselor, guide and mentor to those seeking an alternative to traditional psychotherapy or business coaching. Erin also offers non-dual meetings and retreats on embodied liberation and freedom from suffering. Visit erinreese.com for more information.

  

A few resources and books:

  • adultchildren.org
  • Recovery of Your Inner Child, Linda Capacchione (1991) 
  • Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential, Caroline Myss (2001)
  • Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child, John Bradshaw (1990)

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Frighten Me and Make Me Shy




"The day I no longer do anything that frightens me and makes me shy I will know I am finished as a writer."  
~ Ellen Gilchrist, Falling Through Space
Bill's Place, West Harlem Speakeasy, NYC

As I wrote in my blog to all of you at the end of 2019, I intended to veer away from astrological writing and forecasts as we moved into 2020. Why?


For a long time I have felt like I’ve been hobbling along with astro forecasting, like I’ve been trying to cram the aspects of full and new moons into what I want to really say, e.g. I would start an article with, “Today we welcome the New Moon in the fixed air sign of Aquarius, the rebellious, unpredictable Water Bearer. It is a time of embracing our inner freak, misfit, humanitarian.”


Maceo Parker, Blue Note, West Village, NYC
When what I really wanted to say was much more straightforward, not fitting it into the stars, i.e. “What happens when we open ourselves up to spontaneity, trust, and flow? 

We have a night in New York that includes a granddaddy of funk horn, Maceo Parker, in a night at the Blue Note in the West Village. Just like that, you’re meeting two new friends who are Native New Yorkers, around your same age and vibe, and are music freaks just like you. The night is made complete by catching a favorite DJ, Rich Medina, whom you know from Oakland, who happens to be spinning in the Meatpacking District. All this is topped off the next night at a true-blue speakeasy in West Harlem (Bill’s Place) at the same joint where Billie Holiday was discovered in 1933.”


Now that’s getting my juices going!


Children's Sculpture Garden, Morningside Heights, NYC
For the last few years, I would box myself in and would write a forecast instead of what I really wanted to say. As I mentioned the other day, I wanted to get back to the type of writing which is really a way of LIVING AND SEEING THE WORLD. Writing is really a way of life. And my life is my art. In fact: Life is Art.


I’m hoping that you, my beloved clients and readers, will continue to devour my words. That you’ll come along with me on the journey. That you’ll find inspiration in these musings. Because, in addition to being an intuitive consultant and spiritual counselor, I am a teacher, a truly free Aquarian, a communicator. A visionary. 


A writer.

For God’s sake, capitalize that sh*t.


A Writer.


The Gilchrist quote at the top of this piece says it all. So good, I'll repeat it:


"The day I no longer do anything that frightens me and makes me shy I will know I am finished as a writer."  
~ Ellen Gilchrist, Falling Through Space

We found the Journals of Ellen Gilchrist (Falling Into Space, 1987), American novelist, in our Upper West Side Airbnb. I only had to flip it open to a random spot to feel my heart soaring. A writer! Writing about the life of a writer! Gush, gush, swoon, swoon!


Lennon Memorial, Strawberry Fields, Central Park, NYC

Reminded me of another kindred spirit, May Sarton, who inspired me some years back with her Journal of a Solitude (1973). 

I always get a bit nervous when I read such pieces, because they make me quiver with The Fear, the possibility that bleeds into a knowing, seeing out of the corner of my psyche, that I might just very well drop out of society as I current live in it, and settle into a long summer or winter nap and write my brains out.


How to do that while keeping my pocketbook flush, my retirement going, all of that noise?


I’m pretty much trusting that all of you are going to stay with me on this journey - whether as clients, students, or inspired readers. That you won’t run and hide because you prefer to hear what the Moon is up to. That you’ll find some steam hidden in these posts, steam that will power up your own creative engine: Your Heart. And start chugging toward that latent dream of yours.


It might be starting a Tarot consultation practice (want to join my Tarot mentoring group that starts tomorrow?), or having a baby (go for it! Why wait if that’s your dream! Twasn't my destiny as I’m far too in need of solitude, but I want YOU to be a mother or father if it makes you swoon!). Or falling in love (are you online? Try OK Cupid and pay for premium service!), or publishing your book (really, no excuse these days with Amazon online publishing options – ignore the inner critic that says it must be a New York Times Bestseller. I cannot tell you how many "NY Times Bestsellers" I’ve picked up and promptly tossed aside as the writing is often horribly basic and the content is obvious. What’s the word? Pedestrian? Think about it.)


Your Life is Your Art. You are Art. Life Itself, is Art. And You are That.


Start mixing your colors, baby.


Nightclub, Meatpacking District, NYC
Erin Reese is a modern psychic, non-dual teacher, author, and intuitive consultant based in the SF Bay Area. Erin has a Master of Science in Counseling and has been reading the Tarot for over thirty years. She works with personal clients, business executives, artists, and beautiful people just like You, all over the world.

In-Person Tarot Mastery Course with Erin Reese
Starts Tomorrow! 2 slots left!
Online Tarot Mentoring Group with Erin Reese


EVENING SECTION:
Wednesdays, 7pm to 8:30pm Pacific.
Starts January 29th
Ends February 26th


PLUS: I'm excited to introduce my new website. Check it out! www.ErinReese.com

erinreese.com


Follow me on Instagram!
IG & Twitter: @erin_reese

Friday, January 24, 2020

On Wilier Writing (and Wilco)



Alice in Wonderland, José de Creeft (1959). Central Park, New York City

I’m experimenting with a new form of writing. It reminds me of when I was living in India. Between 2006-2010, I felt safer to write and expose myself because I was quite literally 10,000 miles from California, my largest reader base. Distance gives a sort of psychological protection. When I returned to the U.S., I returned to writing from a different voice – yes, a strong voice – but one that didn’t feel as risky. I rarely wrote about my own direct life.

Last week, I took a risk by writing about my experience at the New York Public Library and my spiritual encounter with J.D. Salinger. This may not feel like a stretch to others – just reporting on the facts, of what I witness, stringing together the pieces of art and literature, non-duality and spirituality. But what I’ve noticed is that when I write from the heArt, it is vulnerable. When I write about things that blow me out of the water, whether an encounter with my spiritual teacher, or a piece of art, I feel vulnerable. I’ve let you see me – the personal me.

Once upon a time, many years ago, at a house party in San Francisco's Mission District, I was trying to explain this level of vulnerability in being a writer, to a Harvard-educated woman who is an actual crossword creator of The New York Times puzzle. While a different sort of writing, this woman knows her words. So, we had words.

She said to me, “The more personal, the more universal.” It struck such a strong chord I inscribed that line in my journal, and it traveled with me to India, where I tried to go as deep as I could in my “Bindi Girl” spiritual travel blog, to convey my experiences to the folks and readers back home.*

The Mad Hatter 'n Me, Central Park
Words with Wilco

Over Christmas on holiday in Hawaii, I read the book Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back) by the musician Jeff Tweedy, founding member of the indie-alt country-rock group Wilco. I’ve appreciated Wilco ever since seeing them live at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, on tour for their 2004 album A Ghost Is Born. I can still hear the beautiful guitar ruckus of the encore song, “Spiders (Kidsmoke),” smell the pungent herb wafting thru the airwaves, my SF buddies and I rocking out at the top of the outdoor concert forum under a clear moonlit sky. Music-loving heart exploding at the unleashing of distortion at all the right moments. Nights like that never leave us.

Jeff Tweedy of Wilco
Memoirs and autobiographies are my favorite genres – and rock and literary (and spiritual) memoirs are at the top of my list. So when I read Tweedy’s memoir, I was delighted to receive his wisdom on writing techniques, especially the following passage in which he describes how he learned to get to the juice, to pen the lyrics that make an impression and stick with us, even when we don’t know why:

"When I write in this mode, I write for myself first, pretending that the audience isn’t even there, and will never be there. I can get things off of my chest, I can invent versions of myself that are better than I believe I am . . . or worse, are even downright awful and murderous. I can expose shadow selves that I believe I should keep my eye on. I can admit things about myself without really having to take ownership of anything. Having it all feel private and insular creates a sense of authenticity I’m not sure I’m able to explain in an understandable way. It’s a trick I play to coax myself into being okay with exposing things that feel powerful and intimate because they’re the types of things people often hide about themselves, or even from themselves. This style of writing felt new and exciting, and even more so when it came to perfecting the songs and recording them." -Jeff Tweedy, Let's Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc.

Woohoo! When I read that passage, I immediately highlighted it in my Kindle and noted to self: Yes, it’s time to get back to that kind of writing. Can I do it? Can I really do it? Write unedited and share it publicly? Pretend that no one is going to read it?

Well, since we’re publishing this on the Internet, no filter, I may not let it all rip, but I will certainly try…

NYC Taxi Cab Winter, 2020
Erin Reese is a modern psychic, non-dual teacher, author, and intuitive consultant based in the SF Bay Area. Erin has a Master of Science in Counseling and has been reading the Tarot for over thirty years. She works with personal clients, business executives, artists, and musicians all over the world.
In-Person Tarot Mastery Course, Fall 2019
Starts next Wednesday
Online Tarot Mentoring Group with Erin Reese


EVENING SECTION:
Wednesdays, 7pm to 8:30pm Pacific.
Starts January 29th
Ends February 26th
 Early Bird Pricing ends today!