Wake Up and Use Your Anger!

Hello friends! How's your anger?

Remember, there is an incredible amount of energy on the planet right now. It can show up as a rock in the belly until it starts to move. Once it starts to move, you might feel afraid of the unfamiliarity as it can show up as anger. It is important not to hold it back. This is energy you can’t try to meditate away, or go into a cave, or numb out with Netflix. It is here for a reason. It is here to help you make the necessary changes in your life.

First, feel it, get in touch with the energy sans story. It’s pure energy. You might first identify it as anxiety. It can be a vibration. You may also feel it in the jaw, and maybe the neck or shoulders. It can show up as disrupted sleep, or even exhaustion.

Yes, ultimately it is all energy; yet it wants to be acknowledged! It needs to be felt – consciously.

Once you’re in touch with the physical energy, start writing. Start talking to a safe other if you’re not much of a journaler. It’s time for you to start unpacking who or what you are angry about; use free association, brainstorming until you hit the core. Ultimately, this is not about blaming another person, place, or situation. It’s about the CLARITY that anger offers, so that you can start to pinpoint exactly what needs to happen next.

Angry art performance, 2005

It might take you a few hours or even a few days to narrow it down. Anger is often a sign that a big BOUNDARY needs to be put into place. A clear NO wants to come forward. It may also be a clue that you NEED SOMETHING. You will get honest with yourself and others about that certain thing that you need to bring into your life. This is how we make effective, non-shaming REQUESTS. A clear request will be usually be fulfilled; a demand is often met with resistance.

I am bringing this up to remove all shame and guilt around the honest, necessary, and powerful fuel that anger brings. Centered usually in the gut, and the solar plexus, the color is orange, red, yellow. Mars is in Aries right now – and we have been experiencing this build-up of raw fuel for the past month. It’s going to take a few more months to digest and integrate it all, so get used to the process.

We don’t need to fear anger. We are not going to harm self or another once we are conscious of what needs to happen next. Anger is information. While it can be volatile, it does not necessitate ignorant or unnecessary damage. No need to fear the truth.

Remember, FEEL the FUEL. Locate it in the body. Then, work with your words, your voice, your artistic self-expression, your body to get CLEAR on WHAT needs to happen next. Once you identify the direction this rocket ship needs to be pointed, you will come to realize that you are 100% EFFECTIVE and UNSTOPPABLE.

No one can argue with the Truth. It’s what’s clear, and it’s what’s here.

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 in Libra: Jupiter's Gifts

This Friday we celebrate the New Moon in the cardinal air sign of Libra, bringing our attention to justice, balance, fairness, and grace. At this time, the great benefactor Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, is just getting ramped up on his one-year journey through the sign of Libra (September 9, 2016 until October 10, 2017). Jupiter is closely conjunct this New Moon, unfurling his evolutionary message for all to receive.

Jupiter aka Jove aka Zeus at his best is our generous uncle who brings us big presents with his huge presence, his grand largesse. This means that wherever Libra is in our chart, we can get ready to expand, grow, receive gifts. Fantastic! Yet like most events astrological and cosmological, we must look out for signs and keep our antennae attuned. Remember: Luck is preparedness meets opportunity.

Jupiter is also known as the guru or teacher planet. The generous one often knows better than we do, what is good for us. So pay attention to what he is offering!

In the sign of Libra, the themes may have to do with updating our contracts, spoken and unspoken, written or unwritten. This could be our social contracts, our relationship with society or institutions. It could involve the way you do business, the way you express yourself with others, the way you relate to your lover, spouse, friend. Whatever is being highlighted, you won’t be able to ignore the push for growth, for learning, for – ahem – that five-letter word ‘change.’ Jupiter stretches us in order to evolve.

As a taster and teaser, I’ve put together a list of zodiac signs, along with a hint of how Jupiter’s expansion might stretch your life. You may wish to read your Sun, Moon, and Rising Sign. In fact, the Rising Sign will be the best indicator of this transit’s influence.

Since we are on the topic of stretching and expanding, as a treat I’m including a yoga pose (asana) that I intuitively sense will assist you as you grow into Jupiter’s current teachings for your sign. Try it out, and have fun contemplating your growth and evolution while you practice.

Jupiter in Libra: Yoga Asana by Zodiac Sign

Aries: You are expanding in the area of partnerships. New revisions, agreements are highlighted. Contracts are favored, legal disputes will be successful. Yoga asana: Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II)

Taurus: Jupiter wants you to expand your daily habits. Do more in your regular activities to stay in balance. Your health should thrive and your job should bring you happiness. Yoga asana: Tree Pose (Vrksasana)

Gemini: Play! Expand your berth (but not your girth!). Flirt! Go out to shows. Dress in costume. Have a great time. Throw romance in! Yoga asana: Bird of Paradise (Svarga Dvijasana)

Cancer: Focus on your home. Things are improving there. Good luck in real estate, rental agreements, roommates. Foundations. Yoga asana: Squat (Malasana)

Leo: Grow your local community. Talk to your neighbors. Be seen in your ‘hood. Make yourself known to folks. Get the word out to those in your daily life. Yoga asana: Warrior I (Virabhadrasana I)

Virgo: Expand your earning capacity! Build up your wealth and reserves. Money is good right now. Be grateful and don’t overspend. Yoga asana: Chair pose (Uktatasana)

Libra: You are making your presence known to the world and to your own self. Watch your waistline! Sometimes having Jupiter in your First House can mean that it is actually YOU that grows. Focus on the new you. Yoga asana: Easy pose (Sukhasana)

Scorpio: You are protected spiritually. Even when you don’t know what to do, you have a guardian angel or an aura of light surrounding you. Trust the process and let go. Yoga asana: Legs up the wall (Viparita Karani)

Sagittarius: Expand your network, grow your global community. Disseminate all the good wisdom you’ve stored up and connect to your friend base. The world needs to hear more of and from you. Yoga asana: Half-Moon Pose (Ardha Chandrasana)

Capricorn: Succeed. Attain your ambition through taking on more responsibility and a bigger role. Shine your light and take a big leap in your career. Yoga asana: Warrior III (Virabhadrasana II)

Aquarius: The world is looking to you as teacher and philosopher. Travel further and wider, break rules and teach us how to do the same. Yoga asana: Fierce Goddess Pose (Utkata Konasana)

Pisces: It’s time for a reinvention, rebirth and rising up from the ashes. Transformation is being supported right now. While you go through the metamorphosis, you will be shedding lots and lots of old skin. Yoga asana: Cobra pose (Bhujangasana)

If the pose offered is too advanced, feel free to find another one that expresses the qualities of Jupiter presented. Enjoy the play of the cosmos expressed on your yoga mat, and honor the guru within you!

  

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.

New Moon in Aries: Self-Actualization

This Thursday, April 7, we have a New Moon in the cardinal fire sign of Aries, 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. The Sun and Moon are dancing closely with Uranus, also in Aries. Uranus is the great waker-upper, the individuator, the one who does not play by the rules. This energy can feel like très shaky ground if we are too stuck in our ways; yet, if we willingly heed the call of initiative this month, it will be a lot less disruptive.

A forthright Aries friend (and yes, I know “forthright Aries” is redundant) who is also an astrologer reminds me that Aries is holding that “A” for pure Authenticity. Aries’ motto is “I AM,” and is here to exist in all its potential and fullness of expression. Nothing is subtle for the fiery Ram; what’s done is done to the hilt, and with effectivity and potency.

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? Helpfully, this New Moon is also nicely trine to Saturn, the workhorse of the zodiac, in fellow fire sign Sagittarius. With Saturn’s practical support, we are assisted in bringing our purposefulness to earth with a useful, grounded sense of meaning. Those passions are planted in reality; they are important, even necessary for Existence. Your energy, vitality, voice, and contribution matter.

Self-Actualization and the Hierarchy of Needs

If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being,

you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.

~ Abraham Maslow

Most of us are familiar with Abraham Maslow’s psychological Hierarchy of Needs, first presented in his 1943 paper entitled “A Theory of Motivation.” While this model has been around for a long time, I find it truly meaningful, and beautiful in its simplicity, clarity, and potency – a lot like Aries. In fact, as I type these words, I have an intuitive hunch that Abraham Maslow is an Aries – for his model is energetically Aries, with a pyramid shaped like an apex arrow pointed straight up, like the glyph of Mars, planetary ruler of the Ram. So I check and boom! Wikipedia reveals he is born on April 1, 1908 – a happy, wise April Fool indeed.

You’ll notice at the top of the Needs pyramid, the mountain peak, we find “self-actualization.” Once the basic human needs (physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem) have been fulfilled, we are left with expression of the highest: creativity, spiritual enlightenment, quest for knowledge, and the desire to give back to society, to serve.

It is at this point that things that may seem like a luxury to some, become a necessity to others who have the potential, the resources, the gifts. For example, for an impoverished family in the Sudan, it would seem unreasonable to expect that such a person could have the time or energy to explore philosophical questions or desire deepened states of meditation and spiritual development. They are far too busy getting food on their table. However, if you take a well-fed, well-educated individual from the U.S., who has sufficiently fulfilled all of the other aspects of the pyramid, they are only going to be antsy if they don’t strive for a higher realm of expression. It becomes not a luxury, but a necessity – even a responsibility to self – to give back to society, to attain higher heights, to self-actualize.

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 nigh time, once again, to burst forth and climb higher. Is this the moment to actualize your potential? You must, for it is Who You Are.

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.