Full Moon in Capricorn: Slow Your Roll

When Your Love Takes You to a Barn Dance

 

Today, we welcome the full moon in the cardinal earth sign of Capricorn, the Sea Goat. The Sun in watery Cancer trines the fortuitous planet of expansive Jupiter in Pisces, harmonizing well with the Moon right now. Earthy Capricorn connects us to Mother Nature and Cancer/Pisces brings in the cooling, yin, feminine side of life This is good: we need a little ease as the recent yang Gemini (air)/Sagittarius (fire) eclipses and Mercury Retrograde, along with unseasonal heat waves, put many of us on edge mentally and physically.

What is happening under the surface is that the messages from the culture (i.e. mainstream) tell us that it’s time to get back to “normal.” The state of California,for instance, is declared “open” and it’s magically time to socialize, see everyone again, move about, get busy, spend money, and do a lot of things that weren’t available to us over the past year of lockdown, whether because they were officially shut down or the fear factor was too high.

The problem is that our animal bodies and our soft underbellies, and our intuitive souls, may not be ready to get back into gear. The empathic wisdom in all of us is attuned to something much deeper than what is being fed to us on the social media feed or the news… If you’re one of the empathic people or sensitive spirits who feels this, you are not alone. Trust your body’s wisdom. Just because the society tells you to come out of your lockdown hermitage and run around again, it may not be time to do that for you.

When Kitty Encounters Her First Stag

As the veil covering that which is hidden has been fully ripped open since the past year, empaths and intuitives are acutely aware of what is behind the curtain. The collective shadow is knocking hard on the door – some of us can’t sleep at night as our guides are speaking to us, our ancestors are teaching us, our souls are doing heavy lifting and processing in the nighttime hours. If that is you, it is vital that you adjust your lifestyle to rest more often during the day. Take more naps, lie flat on your back, and definitely schedule less on the calendar.

Explain to your family or friends that you are needing more time to rest. If they’re in tune to you, and attuned to themselves and their own processes, they will understand and support you in this. Speak up: you are practicing good modeling!

When You Finally Attempt to Garden

If you do travel, whether by air or land, make sure you build in ample time (like, weeks) before and especially after your journey to ground, to earth yourself. Let yourself be in an “ordinary” lifestyle and chop wood, carry water, hang your clothes on the line, plant flowers, take a walk in the woods. Driving in cars and getting on planes stimulates vata, the air element, which in Ayurveda can create pain or stiffness, anxiousness, and confusion in the body-mind. Slow down, do less, especially talk less. Bed earlier, cook your own food, sit quietly and feel into your spine and hips and legs.

Same thing goes for social events and visiting friends and family: before and after the event, make sure you have plenty of time built in for quietude. The theme is spaciousness. Our bodies and souls are begging for more space and a slower pace. It’s totally OK to let loose or attend highly stimulating events or crowded situations – we just need to ground, root, and center all along.

Last but not least: IF you have plans to go somewhere, to have a visitor, to do something, and you feel a sense of unease or even dread about said plan – stop immediately and reevaluate. Adjust, minimize, or cancel. No hemming and hawing. This is a time in our evolution that we cannot compromise that which is for our body-mind-soul’s highest good. If you’re still hearing the internal message that “it would be good for you” or “it’s not nice to cancel on someone” or “it’s good to keep your commitments always,” realize that it is completely outdated conditioning. What is good for you IS what is good for everyone else, for the whole. When you are tuned into your body, your spirit... When you slow down and listen... When you pay attention to your belly, your root, your heart... it is absolutely PERFECT to change or cancel plans. You can trust that is perfect for the collective and everyone involved.

Do not deny any insights you are having.

Do not gaslight your soul. Honor your soul’s truth, and be free.

Enjoy your precious Presence.

with love,

Erin 

When You Take a Long, Solo Hike to a Secluded Beach

 

 

THE KING (OR QUEEN) IS AWAKE!

from Rumi

 

There are people with their eyes open

whose hearts are shut. What do they see? Matter.

But someone whose love is alert,

even if the eyes go to sleep,

he or she will be waking up thousands of others.

If you are not one of those light-filled lovers,

restrain your desire-body's intensity.

Put limits on how much you eat

and how long you lie down.

But if you are awake here in the chest,

sleep long and soundly.

Your spirit will be out roaming and working,

even on the seventh level.

Muhammed says, I close my eyes and rest in sleep,

but my love never needs to rest.

The guard at the gate drowses.

The king stays awake. You have a king inside

who listens for what delights the soul.

That king's wakefulness

cannot be described in a poem.

- RUMI

Have you read Truth Seeker yet? If you prefer supporting your local brick and mortar bookstore, you can order the book straight from your local bookseller. Otherwise, it’s available on Amazon Prime in paperback and Kindle here. I continue to be touched by the reviews (keep 'em coming, please), like this one from an appreciative reader in Berkeley, CA:

 5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, inspiring, and a joy to read

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2021

This book took me on a journey through India, and through spiritual awakening, with a front-seat view from the author's perspective. The honesty of the author's writing made it a joy to read, and her tone always remains humble and relatable, even when she shares her experience of awakening. I gained a greater understanding of the core principles on non-duality and I was moved by the piercing description of her love for her guru. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a spiritual "seeker", and to anyone who shares a passion for travel in India.

 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.  

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Mahashivaratri: The Great Night of Shiva (video)

Mahashivaratri, Arunachala temple, Tiruvannamalai

This weekend welcomes the New Moon in Pisces and tonight is the great night of Shiva – lord of creation and destruction and preservation – all in one.

Shiva is not only considered an incarnate god. Shiva is Oneness, Consciousness, All that Is. It truly depends on whether one is speaking of manifestation, or the plenum. Even to speak of Shiva, is too much. You lose it straightaway in the naming. The best we can do is recite the name – Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva. I Bow to Existence.

I honor Shiva as grace on his Big Night, realizing that arises in whatever way Consciousness deems – no hopes, no expectations, Nothing. There is nothing and everything in the fullness of What Is. This evening, I’m going to soak up the sounds of a Piscean-led jazz trio in an intimate venue with my Beloved, his son, and son's girlfriend. Music is a great way to celebrate this lord of the dance, Nataraja. And jazz does a fine job of capturing the beautiful chaos of tandava, dance of creation and destruction. Shiva, Shiva, Shiva…

Shiva tandava with damaru drum, Rishikesh

THIS IS SHIVA

A few words from my satsang teachings to kick things off this weekend:

The non-dual. Consciousness. Beyond the Beyond. You are That. You must know this now. You must know that what is happening, is the Truth. This is beyond anyone's individual will, power, or comprehension. This must be understood. Any ego inclination of separation, of belief in separate intention or causality, is ultimately false, or an appearance.

How does this help right now? To know that there is nothing that can ever be done, or that will possibly happen, good or bad, positive or negative, that is not the perfect will of God, aka Cosmic Law, aka Existence. This removes any shame or guilt of what is occurring. Rest in What Is. That which you are is eternal. It is untouched by this play. Rest there. Even while taking apparent separate action, in duality. Consciousness is running the whole show - cause, outcome, all of it.

PILGRIMAGE (video)

There are no words to describe my connection to India. I’ve thought about reposting a few Mahashivatri stories from my past. I wonder if they will have any impact, or why I should repost. They hold so much shakti (energy, power) and I get emotional and start to careen internally when I reread them. I’ll suffice with an old-school video I made on one of my pilgrimages circumambulating Arunachala, holy mountain of Shiva, on Mahashivaratri.

Here you are:

Travel writer Erin Reese, author of The Adventures of Bindi Girl, takes us on a journey around the holy mountain of Shiva, Arunachala, in Tiruvannamalai, India. This 14 km pilgrimage is called "girivalam" (circumambulation) or Pradakshina (the Hindu rite of going round the object of worship).

With love and a deep bow to the Oneness

of which you are always a part of

and never not connected,

Erin

Erin Reese, M.S. is a spiritual teacher, author, and intuitive consultant based in the SF Bay Area. Visit her website at erinreese.com for more information on her intuitive readings, counseling services and non-dual wisdom.

Virgo Season: Hard at Work or Hardly Working?

The Virgin, Gustav Klimt - 1913

Last week, we welcomed a New Moon in the mutable, discriminating earth sign of Virgo. Lady Luna and her mate, the Sun, were joined by a cavalcade of accompanying planets, all in Virgo: Mercury (communication, learning, travel), Venus (love, relationships, arts), Mars (action, drive, passion), and the asteroid Juno (marriage and creative partnerships).

With such a large bevy of luminaries working diligently together in the cosmic conference room, one specific area of life is demanding cohesion, congruence, and clarity. No longer can we get away with pretending we don’t know the next right action – or non-action, as the case may be. The Universe has made it blaringly clear what needs to happen next in our consciousness. And, She is giving us the tools and fortitude to see it through.

Virgo embodies the German word fleißige (“hard-working, industrious”).  It’s no surprise that Virgo season is typically “Back to School” time around the world. Kids of all ages return to their education, whether in an actual classroom or by gearing up for a new work cycle after the Labor Day holidays.

Ruled by information-savvy, rational Mercury, Virgo energy brings us into alignment with the practical, discerning mind. Unlike info-hungry air sign Gemini, also Mercury-ruled, earthy Virgo carefully filters input, deriving the most pertinent points. Virgo then rolls up its sleeve and takes the organized data into the world to get down to business in a useful, formative manner.

And that’s what we’re asked to do now: look at the details of our lives, take stock, get down to business. Where are we being called to be of service in a hands-on fashion? Where do we need to go back to work, or back to school as the case may be? Where and how do we need to get organized?

We can establish good foundations and systems in our lives right now, preparing for the Harvest Moon on September 14, in dreamy, boundless Pisces. Sound structures in our lives enable us to trust the flow. With effective and tested systems, we will be able to make good use of the imagination and expansiveness sure to come during the Full Moon in Pisces. Maybe you need to get your calendaring up to date, your software installed, your proposals outlined, your tool shed de-cluttered, your kitchen cupboards organized. You’re going to want to do it before mid-September, making best use of the New Moon and her parade of planetary paramours also passing through Virgin territory.

At this time of New Moon in Virgo, remember: long-term planning and projects are favored, along with attention to detail, tempered and effective action, and patience. Hard work will be asked of you, but there is a guaranteed payout at the end of the road. You can achieve anything right now, so long as you apply the Virgo discriminating mind to it! Have fortitude and confidence that your ambition and dedication will enable to you to successfully launch a completely new chapter in your life, leaving a legacy that is uniquely yours.

One caveat for those of you who tend toward workaholism: everything stated above does not apply, UNLESS it means organizing your life so that you don’t have to lift a finger for a few hours, days, weeks. Your work is to use the smarts of Virgo to know when to STOP, put yourself on hiatus, and REST. This is applied wisdom – knowing when to let off the gas and coast. Use your Virgoan powers of viveka (Sanskrit for discernment and the discriminating mind); you will know which category you’re in.

Erin Reese, M.S. is a non-dual spiritual teacher, author, and intuitive consultant based in the SF Bay Area. Erin is deeply rooted in the the Divine Feminine and a channel of Kundalini. She spent many years studying yoga and non-dual philosophies in India, receiving transmission from masters and sacred sites. Erin works online with clients all over the world.