Fire in the Heart 🔥 New Moon in Leo

If you’ve been reading my articles, or had a session or attended a group with me over the past few months, you’ll note that I’ve often mentioned the incredible amount of HEAT on the planet right now. Mars’ long journey through the cardinal fire sign of Aries, due to a retrograde, lasts seven months, until the beginning of January 2021. Right now, this is being exacerbated due to a square to the prevailing ominousness of the Jupiter-Pluto-Saturn stellium in Capricorn that is raising hell with all structures, public health, political institutions, and control issues. Need I say more?

I’ve been talking about the heat, the fire, the kundalini shakti being raised all summer. I’ve suggested to my students and clients to stay ultra-aware of their energy field. To manage their internal energy systems with the keenest consciousness. To take responsibility for their own volatility, and tend carefully to what is needed internally and externally. I’ve discussed sex, food, cooling, electricity, anger, and family relations. I’ve advised exquisitely detailed listening to the body, mind, spirit. This is the way of responding and balance. 

As always, and obviously now, we must listen to the finest points of what our souls are asking. We will always know exactly what to do, and when to do it, so long as we are in the present moment. If you are fretting about the future, or dwelling in the past, you are already long-gone, and you will not be able to make any decision with clarity and confidence. This is why I teach Freedom in the Eternal Now and Unshakeable Presence.

Your life is always here, here, here. Nowhere else. (If you need assistance to see through the illusion of future-tripping, or past-melancholy, consider coming to an Awakening Group spiritual talk on Thursday morning, 9am PT. Email me directly for details.) It is vital that you drop into the moment, and embodied presence, if you want to be at peace through this great Transformation.

Things are heating up and will continue to do so over the next several months. Where is the reprieve? It is in your own heart. The opportunity hidden in disastrous planetary, political, and viral upheaval is to bring you back to what is already here, inside of the Self. It is from this place that you are able to make the move you need to make, to take the action that is being provoked, poked, and pushed by Mars’ fire at the moment.

Allyson Grey, Jewel Net of Indra, 1988

At this week’s New Moon in Leo (Tuesday, August 18, 19:42 PT) the Sun and Moon are trining volcanic Mars, and there is a grand opportunity to make a superpowered leap into your next life circumstance. It is vital that you listen. There is always a window to jump through, a hole in the net, a portal. What is it that your fiery courageous heart is telling you? Now is the time to have 100% trust in the Self, and be carried into the next chapter. We cannot sit back and wallow, eating up only what we are being fed from the fear-based collective, no. Go beyond, to that place in your self that is ready to risk it all, to make a move even when it doesn’t make “sense.” Your very heart knows what I’m talking about. Pack light, and make the leap.

I love you,

Erin

The real world is beyond the mind's ken; we see it through the net of our desires, divided into pleasure and pain, right and wrong, inner and outer. To see the universe as it is, you must step beyond the net. It is not hard to do so, for the net is full of holes.

~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That

Erin Reese, M.S. is a contemporary 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.

New Moon Eclipse: Grounding Cosmic Energies

Christmas Day, we have a New Moon Solar Eclipse in the cardinal earth sign of Capricorn, sign of the Sea Goat. This image is a wondrous animal to behold. Usually, when we think of Capricorn, we think of a serious, driven creature, committed to climbing mountains and securing authority in the world at large. However, what does it mean when we consider the oceanic depths available in the “sea” aspect?

If one has done the earthly, embodied ‘work,’ whether with family, with career, or most importantly, the inner work, one has the reward available to swim freely in spaciousness. 

Eclipses take something away; eclipses bring change that is outside of our control. This is different than a self-will egoic decision to “pivot.” The Universe pivots, and we are not separate.

Moving into 2020, the ground is shifting. We are moving into a collective new paradigm. Some of us are already stabilized there – moving between the crack between worlds, the veil. The old reality is still happening around us, but we are not affected at the core. We are in flow. We are in not just an altered state; we know ourselves to be That which is beyond states. The I Am.

This is important! It does not mean that we abandon planet earth, politics, or people. Rather, it means that doing the inner work of knowing who we truly Are, we are able to toggle back and forth between rest and engagement without reactivity or identification with the cause or the outcome. In this way, we can actually be a bigger help to humanity, to the natural world and ecosystems, and to Consciousness as a whole.

If you find that you’re getting all caught up in the drama, remember, you are playing a role in the entire Lila, or cosmic play. Remember that, yes, while you’re here performing a certain job, having a seeming impact on those around you and on the evolutionary process, you are inextricable from the Whole. 

There is no reason to cling to your role, and there is no reason to not do this role, either. Remember your Shakespeare! All the world’s a stage, and we are merely players. The Bard was spot on.

Spend some time during this eclipse deepening into your inner self. Use the body, use your reactivity, see through the issues. The stories that you are so identified with are only relatively true – one tiny perception of the whole – so why cling to them with such fervor? The stories of your past or your present are always subject to change, according to how we view them from moment to moment.

At this time of the New Moon Eclipse, remember that while you can only be that which you cannot not be (read that about 108 times to internalize that one!), you also could never not play the role that Consciousness has you in. 

This is the blessing of the Sea Goat this Christmas – a worldly animal, grounded on Mother Earth, doing its thing as it must do – and resting in the Eternal Ocean of Consciousness, of Spaciousness, understanding it is inextricable from All that Is.

In Oneness,

Erin
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The July Eclipses: Staying Centered

Last week, just before Independence Day, we experienced a pivotal solar eclipse in Cancer, the cardinal water sign ruling home, family, mothering, lunar mysteries and sensitivities of all sorts. Almost every client I’ve spoken with over the past two weeks has reported a sudden, surprising occurrence, whether personal, intimate, or professional. Something big has shifted.
 

Sophia, 1989. Alex Gray

I liken eclipses to the cosmic chessboard. The hand of God, karma if you will, takes a piece – say, a bishop or knight, and plucks it from one square to another. You are the chess piece. The universe has deemed it time for a new perspective entirely. This movement has been entirely out of your control. It had to happen, however. This is your destiny. Everything looks different. And now, here you are. 

Speaking of chess, I’ve been reading The Art of Learning by international chess champ Josh Waitzkin, profiled in the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993). After Waitzkin’s wildly successful youth chess career, he took up the martial art of Tai Chi Push Hands, and became an international champion in that sport as well. Waitzkin writes about “controlling the center,” no matter what is going on outside of you – whether on the chessboard or with a martial arts opponent.

We notice and respond to the tugs and pulls that are occurring, never losing contact with the center. Even if we are playing or favoring one side of the board, we always orient at the center. This is the true key to peace and real happiness.

I call it the seat of the Self. Resting in the I Am. I am never not here. I am nowhere, and everywhere, simultaneously.

Does this make me untouchable, such as during wild eclipse season? Disengaged? Unaffected by chaotic or disturbing events occurring in my life? No, and yes.

There is a place and a space, a plane, in which I live both in this Reality, and outside of this Reality. As I said, I am nowhere and everywhere. 

This is always the case. It is never not true. I am the constant, abiding awareness. I am the eternal subject.

The body comes and goes. Relationship comes and goes. All that exists in duality comes and goes.

If you want peace, you must Realize the Self – that which never comes and goes. It is outside of Time.

Imagine it as “freedom within bondage.” This is because we simultaneously must live through the experience of existence. The pains, the pleasures, the joys and heartaches, the relative successes and failures. It is all a play, an unfolding of maya. This is not to spiritually bypass, no. We still take action and make effort to change, to grow and develop, as our soul – and external and internal influences – dictate.

We are not separate from everything else, an infinite (infinite!) number of causes and effects occurring all at once. We both have volition, and we are subject to all – freedom in bondage. We live in paradox. When this is fully realized, there is no need to remember, and nothing to forget.

We have another eclipse – a full moon, lunar in Capricorn – coming up on Tuesday, July 16. During eclipse season, it’s wise to remember the above teaching. This will help you keep your serenity – to be the center – even when everything or everyone around you is rattled, reactive, insecure. Settle into the seat of the Self, pop the popcorn, and watch the show.

Summertime in the High Sierra

Erin Reese is an author, spiritual guide, teacher, and modern psychic reader based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with clients all over the world. For readings and spiritual counseling by Skype, phone or email, contact her directly. She can be reached at erin@erinreese.com.

New Moon in Aries: Get Your Motor Running

Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
Lookin' for adventure
And whatever comes our way.

~ Steppenwolf, “Born to Be Wild” (1969)

Ready for blast-off? Today we welcome the New Moon in Aries, cardinal fire sign of the Ram. Aries is the first sign of the zodiac, the supersonic seed that bursts through the ground, proclaiming new life. While all new moons are ‘seed planting times’ for the next lunar cycle, April’s new moon packs extra punch. Think, bursting life, fresh DNA uncoiling out of the seed coat as it erupts into the soil. Think, raw potential, kinetic energy, creative life force. This. Is. Your. Life.

Get ready for a seed idea to be revealed, or your life to take up a new course in the area of your birth chart that Aries lights up. It is bound to be noticeable! This New Moon in Aries is about: risk, courage, and the reward of experiencing something ENTIRELY new and unknown. 

EXPRESS YOUR “I AM” FACTOR 

At this New Moon-time, we are called – nay, make that provoked – to be even more authentically ourselves, and to make that self even more known to the Other, to the world. If we try to hang on the bench, cling to the sidelines, then we’re bound to feel stifled, to crumple, to cave in. This could cause resentment, irritability, and – in the deepest cases of entrenchment – even illness.

And if we have this fore-knowledge, we can use it. That’s the gift of astrology. So, where are you holding back? Where are you playing it safe? Where are you afraid to ‘make yourself known’ to the world?

Like a true nature's child
We were born, born to be wild
We can climb so high
I never wanna die

This is important. We can pay attention to the temptation to lull for years at a stretch, to chunks of time where we may be trying to rest on our laurels, chilling out, cruising through life comfortably. But if we listen closely, we realize something is nagging. Something is pricking. We can’t sleep at night. We know we have more to offer, we know there's more to learn, to develop, to bring to the surface. This is indeed that Aries seed, poking through the soil. Your calling. It’s time to burst forth and climb higher. Is this the moment to actualize your potential? You must, for it is Who You Are.

MAKE IT HAPPEN

The competitive, driven, and willful tone of “Just Do It!” Aries urges us to get going NOW on new projects. We are spurred to initiate fresh ventures and embark on journeys of great significance. Something new wants to burst forth in our life; most of us already know what that “Something” is, for it’s been rumbling under the surface for several months.

Sun and New Moon in impatient, achievement-oriented Aries are urging us to keep our eyes on the prize, to go for the mighty goal that makes us quiver in our boots.  Aries provides us a phenomenal amount of courage. Aries hates boredom and stagnation, turning to adventure, risk, and change to keep life perpetually interesting.

You know you need to make that move, take that leap, quit that job, start that project – and even if you’re spooked, you know the adrenalin rush will carry you through. If you have doubts because facing the unknown is just plain scary, take comfort in one of my favorite quotes from William Hutchison Murray (oft attributed to Goethe): 

“What you can do, or dream you can, begin it,
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”

That’s the way! So tap into your courage reserves, inhale a big breath of life-giving oxygen, and start climbing, steady as she goes. At this New Moon in Aries, bolstered by the raw energy of your wild man or woman spirit, you really can move those mountains.
 

Yeah Darlin' go make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space

Go make it happen!

Erin Reese is an author, spiritual guide, astrologer, and modern psychic reader based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with clients all over the world. For readings and spiritual counseling by Skype, phone or email, contact her directly. She can be reached at erin@erinreese.com.