New Moon in Libra: Truth, Unfiltered

Today, we welcome a New Moon in the cardinal air sign of Libra, the scales of balance, justice, equanimity. The seventh house of the horoscope is Libra’s home – the domain of self and other, formal marriage, contracts, partnership, you ‘n me. While it is the natural house of “we,” most of us don’t realize is also the traditional house of open enemies – those situations where the disagreement or confrontation is clearly on the table. The seventh house of Libra is also the terrain of counseling, and other close one-to-one situations (like meetings with an attorney or consultant or advisor), and of course, therapy.

Since we’re on the subject of therapy and counseling, let's enter today's edgier realm.

This past month, I’ve had a couple of dreams about my former therapist. In waking life, she was a fantastic practitioner – masterful in attachment therapy and Jungian psychology. We worked together intensively every single week – see you Tuesday at 11am – for over three years. A large chunk of cash, to be sure, and worth every penny. I will forever be grateful to her and our deep work together.

In these dreams of late, I’ve seen her as a crunchier, older version of her usual, polished, fashionable self. Her dream self smokes cigarettes, has a side gig as a bad pizza delivery person, has personal friendships with past clients (verboten in licensed therapy), and lolls about in red crushed-velvet robes on the therapy chaise lounge, making herself and others more comfy. She’s undergoing early menopause, her face is aging. She hates spiritual platitudes and pop positivity psychology, and rejects formal religion. She’s a rebel, and a somewhat unkempt one at that. Truly, she simply doesn’t care.

After having two of such dreams, I got the message. This dream therapist is an integrating aspect of my own self and my own work with clients and students. While I wouldn’t be so messy, unbounded, sloppy, or careless, I might also not be following the usual cultural expectations of traditional therapy. I would bring my rock-and-roll, bohemian self to the fore, use the F-word, hear about your favorite beer, and be so frank as to make a person start to feel more Frank herself.

Truth, Unfiltered 

A spiritual teacher is going to tell you the Truth. By being and embodying the truth, sans artifice. The boundaries of one’s personality are seen and experienced as that which they truly are – edges, hues, skeins of color and light indeed, but they are no longer identified with. 

When a person works with a spiritual teacher, they’re not going to receive traditional talk therapy or trauma/attachment work, though that might be an aspect of it. Working with a spiritual teacher is a facing of your self, and even more True, it is a facing of the Self – where is your soul aching to go, what is Life Itself longing to express? Where are you telling yourself a story, where are you believing the lie, perpetuating the lie, indulging in the lie?

Spiritual teachers are not necessarily going to help your egoic self feel better, though you may end up that much closer to knowing you are truly Free, and that is the ultimate “feel better.” Embodied liberation does not come and go. It is not contingent on outside people, circumstances, politics, health, finances, relationships, and all of that. It is not a state.

The Truth is unlimited, as You are unlimited. The Truth is not bound by an idea of what should be happening, or what might occur next. 

The throes of achievement, accomplishment, and aspiration come and go, no longer important – unless, of course, it’s what’s happening. Status, recognition, image no longer sub for the real thing.

Yes, it may look normal, it may look buttoned-up, professional, smiley and welcoming.

But Truth may also smoke cigarettes (unfiltered), loll around on the couch in red crushed velvet robes, and eat bad pizza. Nothing is excluded. Truth faces everything, because it is everything. And that's pure Love.

Truth. It's What's for Dinner.

Truth. It's what's for dinner.

It's what's for dinner, lunch, breakfast, and your midnight snack.

Truth. Open 24x7.

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.

*Weekly nondual satsang in the advaita lineage is held Thursdays, 9am Pacific. Email Erin for more information. The November 13-15 retreat is currently full yet there is a waiting list available.

Fun with Memes

I’ve been getting creative on Instagram and Twitter, finding new modes of creative, visual pointers to the Absolute. Here’s a few of late:

Full Moon Lunar Eclipse: Healing Separation and Division

Prayer I, Angu Walters (Cameroon)

Today, we have a full moon lunar eclipse in the mutable fire sign of Sagittarius, most ardent seeker of truth, the big picture philosopher, thrusting for wisdom.

Where, we ask, is the wisdom in our world these days? The people are in great pain. Our nation is pain, our world is in pain, our Black brothers and sisters are in pain, our collective hearts are breaking. How to respond wisely, skillfully?

Each of us will make choices based on what we feel is good and true and congruent in our hearts. Sometimes, within the same family, individuals will react differently to world events, protesting or pandemics. Partners may be on on different, yet allied, pages. Your girlfriend may be more politically involved and engaged than you. Your husband may be wired to read the news and dialogue constantly. Your best friend may be sick with rage while your neighbor seems to have left for another planet, opting out of everything all at once.

As for myself, I am a bit of a modern monk, with a hint of anchorite. I want to say a few words to those readers who also work from a more internal, contemplative realm...

We cultivate serenity in the midst of suffering. Some of us act as go-to allies, as healers or empaths. Our job is to keep cleaning up the internal shadow, and through that, we aid the collective to face its own shadow. Our task is to remain fiercely aware of calcified beliefs and duality, aware of all forms of entrapment, within and without.

Becoming attached to any point of view perpetuates divisiveness and strife. Our job is to keep cleaning up on the internal level, plumbing the depths. Resisting nothing: all places of horror and pain, disgust and rejection that we carry within ourselves. Our job is to face everything. The ego, the superego, cultural expectations, separations and division within the self. Everything.

"To be free means to open your heart and your being to the fullness of who you are, because only when you are resting in the place of unity can you truly honor and appreciate others and the incredible diversity of the universe." ~ Ram Dass

Trust the unfolding. If your guidance is to be an activist right now, do it. If you are outraged, use your voice. If you need to take a break so you can keep on keeping on, take a time out. You will be no good to anyone if you are strung out. Come back to center. Stay grounded. Remember your infallible connection to Source. This will nourish you in every way.

This is not a spiritual bypass. I repeat: this is not a spiritual bypass. This is because, until one is ready and actually doing the “work” to FACE EVERYTHING – everything arising in the world, the Self, Existence – every horror and racial injustice, evil, shadow, within and without. Nothing must be excluded.

This work is not for sissies. We are talking about freedom, in the here and now. One must be willing to allow the passing away of beliefs, concepts, ideas of right and wrong. Attachments to image, appearances, the ego. It’s a fire sale: everything must go.

Use your sword of discernment, activating the principle of viveka - the ability to discern the true from the false. When you come up against a calcified bit of consciousness, a belief that is ultimately entrapment in disguise, use your sword – yes, use it skillfully, but use it you must. Cut away that which is not true. It is from this place that we do our very best work, within and without.

Erin Reese, M.S. is a contemporary intuitive, spiritual counselor, author and guide. A modern mystic with over thirty years of experience, Erin offers incisive, practical intuitive readings to her clients worldwide. She is a spiritual counselor, guide and mentor to those seeking an alternative to traditional psychotherapy or business coaching. For more information, visit erinreese.com.

Women's Spiritual Counseling Group - Thursdays, 9am PT

Sophia - Alex Grey

Dear Women Readers,
 

Are you feeling a call for deep feminine support? 

I'm offering an alternative and affordable form of

spiritual counseling for women.

Announcing openings to join the Thursday Women's Group! 9am PT weekly

Receive deep spiritual support and counseling with a small group of sister-goddesses. Remember... we are all emanations of the Divine Feminine. We all have the Triple Goddess - maiden, mother, crone - within and without. She guides our every movement, and we are Her.

In recent sessions, the group has been focusing on women's spirituality, self-healing, and psycho-spiritual holding. Some of the topics we have been discussing include sexuality, body image, aging, mothers and fathers, cultural misogyny, grief and loss, recovery from codependence, boundaries, and more.

We may fold in discussions of the tarot and other ways of knowing, intuition, the enneagram, the inner child, and creative expression. We will continue this work starting this week, and we have an opening for a few new women members.

Details

Thursdays, 9am to 10:15am Pacific (75 minutes, weekly)
The group will last four weeks. These sessions will be 4-6 participants. 
May 14, May 21, May 28, June 3

Each group asks for a four-week commitment. After four weeks, the timing will be reevaluated together. We may very well continue the group.

Cost
Series of Four Group Sessions: Sliding Scale $150 to $250

PayPal, Card, or Venmo

Description
In this four-week group, you will receive the holding and spiritual direction you most need at this time in a supportive, loving environment. We will adhere to group confidentiality. As a facilitator, teacher and spiritual therapist, I will create a safe container for you and the other women. I will guide you – sometimes gently, sometimes with fierce grace – to self-heal and examine your intuitive and knowing, your fears and state of consciousness.

Each session will begin with a few minutes’ presentation on a prominent theme that I sense the group is facing, i.e. principles and tools for self-healing and awakening. This will be followed by consulting and dialoguing, one-on-one, with me in the group setting.

You will learn and grow through your own one-on-one work with me, by witnessing other’s processes, and through your own wholehearted presence. The understanding and support will be amplified by the group alchemy.

Prerequisites:

• Having had some background in your own personal spiritual development and or therapy or counseling.
• A brief check-in with Erin by email to confirm your interest and enrollment.
• Agreement to group confidentiality and guidelines
• A willingness to listen and witness others’ processes of psychospiritual unfoldment, to examine your own self and practice self-reflection on a regular basis; a commitment to develop an inner life and connection to self.

 It is for women who would like to:

• Grow in connection and self-understanding with a group of women
• Have access to affordable counseling
• Benefit from a group shared experience
• Supplement individual counseling

If you are called, I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

With love,

Erin

Erin Reese, M.S. in Counseling, has facilitated the following groups, among others:

• Grief and Bereavement
• The Artist’s Way
• Goddess Circles
• Women’s Groups
• The Art of the Tarot
• Intuition Mastery
• Non-Dual Satsang 
• Financial Recovery

Erin Reese is a contemporary intuitive, spiritual counselor, 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 spiritual counselor, guide and mentor to those seeking an alternative to traditional psychotherapy or business coaching. For more information, visit erinreese.com.

 

erinreese.com