Sun in Taurus: Time Out to Tune Up

How's your nervous system?

We’ve just come off a radical jolt of a Full Moon in Scorpio week where themes of death and regeneration, purging and transmogrification shook most everyone up internally – if you are paying attention. Shedding, morphing, regenerating through shamanic experiences, radical release, and strange illnesses have arisen for folks to help us evolve, release, surrender to the collective evolution. The Sun in Taurus conjoined radical change agent Uranus to surprise and shift us all – a sci fi movie that is not fiction at all – these changes are happening, and our body-minds are along for the ride, like it or not.

What’s a body to “do”? Ride the ride, and take care of your self best you can while the Cosmos goes through this quickening dance. The Sun continues his sojourn through the fixed sign of Taurus, the Bull, for another two-and-a-half weeks. For myself, I turn to All Things Taurean to make myself feel better. The springtime sign of the earthy four-footed Bull is best honored with the five senses: smell, sight, taste, and touch.

Staying glued to a device, whether phone, laptop, TV screen would not be healthy these days. Our eyes need a break – they need to see things far off in the distance. They need dimensionality, perspective, varying hues of color, especially green, and movement that is not programmed bytes of zeroes and ones.

Snow melt in the canyon

Our noses need the smells of the forests, of chocolate chip cookies baking, of our lover’s neck in a nuzzle, of the blossoms on a walk.

Our bodies need to feel, to be massaged, to stretch and strengthen.

Our ears need breaks from headsets and Bluetooth. Many folks have had tinnitus lately, and it seems to clear up a great deal by stopping the use of constant headphones, especially Bluetooth. Another way to take care of the ears is to sit quietly in a room or out of doors, just letting the energy purge off the ears. I also love ayurvedic ear oil (nose oil, too!) as a way to care for the ears.

And taste – try new recipes, even if we don’t know how they’ll turn out. I love Google recipe searches for this reason – just put in “tilapia” and “instant pot” and few hours later I’m smelling a fish curry wafting through the house, waiting for rice at dinner time.

But most of all, most of all… in time of Taurus… do get outside.

This past weekend, my Beloved and I went for a three-day backpacking stretch along the Pacific Crest Trail. A shorter trek, we wanted to slip it in before the crowds head up to the mountains. Incredibly healing, I could barely stomach turning my phone on again once we reentered civilization.

Was it the best night’s sleep? Was I cozy and warm all the time? Was it easy hauling straight up a mountain face with a pack for 8.5 miles?  No, it isn’t the Ritz. But it’s got a much larger return on investment, believe you me.

High Sierra Salamander

I saw a beautiful salamander on the trail, many American dippers (aka water ouzel, the only true aquatic songbird!) in the river, at least eight snakes (luckily not rattlers), a deer bounding away up ahead. We ate cheesy potatoes for breakfast, took a freezing cold bath in a raging snow-melt stream, and watched the campfire dance at night, a beautiful nod to Beltane (May Day) fires.  I savored Nescafe, instant oatmeal, beans 'n rice, and maxed out on trail mix.

My Beloved and I pondered doing the entire Pacific Crest Trail in chunks – he might do it solo with me joining in for certain stretches. I feel ready now to get out there solo myself, albeit for shorter periods at a time.

Another great thing about hiking for a few days in uncrowded trails is that it is a natural walking meditation retreat. It’s wonderful, if you’re with another, to allow at least a long distance between your pacing. No talking, texting, looking anything up on Google. It’s just you and the trail. And you have to pay laser sharp attention, or you might step on a snake. For reals.

Rattlesnake Spring

While walking and looking for snakes, thoughts often turned to the current World Changes, and how I am embodying this in my work and personally. I keep a lot of this to myself, though am hopeful that I can start to share this with others in private sessions. Having moved up to the High Sierra this past year, I have more time and space and access to a direct line of what is happening cosmically. The information I get is definitely far outside the norm (when have I ever been of the norm?) and it takes courage to admit even to myself what I am downloading. I am grateful for the few individuals that I am able to speak about this with. Talking to the trees and the sky and the mountains is a gift; they simply know.

Being in the woods for even a few days – absolutely no one around, early in the season, far away from restrooms, cell towers, and highways – is a blessing. It may sound hard, but perhaps you yourself can find a way to go for it, alone or with others. You may be uncomfortable, but the rivers will cleanse your bloodstream and the cold mountain air can clear your mind faster than any meditation practice.

Blessings to you in time of Taurus and always!

Heading Out on the PCT

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.  

The Saturn-Uranus Square and the Collective Crunch

 

From French sculptor Etienne Meneau's Elastic House

This week, we are experiencing a transpersonal, global transit that is affecting everyone, consciously or otherwise. I am noticing it in almost every client I talk to, and as an empath, in my own body. Saturn in Aquarius is squaring (90-degrees) Uranus in Taurus. The aspect was exact on Wednesday, February 17 and is still in full effect.

There will be two more passes of this aspect this year due to retrogrades: June 14 and December 23. Essentially, all of 2021 we will feel this influence. The first pass was particularly strong this week due to the large amounts of planets in fixed signs resisting change. Liken it to having a strong dose of what's being asked this year, and a huge preview of what needs adjusting in your personal sphere this year.

There can be a feeling of whiplash as these two big boy planets are having a loud and rather bitter argument. Uranian disruptive events, personalities, circumstances will challenge your sense of order, of what makes sense, of what you belief to be reasonable and disciplined (Saturn). Physical tensions could arise as there is an attempt to hold on to the old order.

Stability is all well and good but here we have the influence of evolution – Uranus the awakener – asking you to be not only flexible, but even radical in your willingness to change, if need be. Where do you need to break free?

Any rigid beliefs or constructs are being thrown up in your face. If your beliefs or desires feel blocked or thwarted from the outside, ask yourself what you are holding on to, and is it worth it? How flexible are you with time, lifestyle, energy, money, goals, focus? Are you being willful when Life is clearly asking you to adjust?

The more unconscious the need for change is, the more physical and mental stress you will feel at this time. It is a good idea to talk with someone or write about it openly and honestly, to face yourself and ask yourself the hard questions. You can trust that the release of these old beliefs, goals, ideas and structures will make room for massive amounts of creative, free-flowing energy and life force.

Take good care of your animal body and tenderheartedness during this time. With such huge collective pushes occurring from 2020-2024 (involving Pluto, Uranus, and Saturn), we will do best to stay in wonder and flexibility with all that wants to unfold in, around, and through us. Try not to hold on so tight. Trust the process. All will be well.

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.

P.S. If you missed the February Aquarius Transmission - Meditation and Messages - you can download the audio from my website here.

Topics include:

individuation in order to evolve
money as energy and ease

the embodiment imperative

the future is here and now

 

 

Full Blue Moon in Taurus 🌕 The Unspookable

This weekend, we welcome a Full Moon on Samhain/Halloween, Dia de los Muertos/All Souls’ Day, All Saints’ Day, and a Blue Moon on October 31st. Mercury is still retrograde, and we are in the middle of an election that can only be described as tragicomedy. Kids are struggling to stay in brick-and-mortar school, the slightest scratchy throat brings paranoia, friends ‘n family relations tense up when it comes to heated topics such as anti-vaxxers, mask-wearing, race relations and oh hey, what about the environment?

After all, we are about to experience a Full Moon in the fixed earth sign of Taurus, tightly conjunct Uranus, the Great Awakener and planet of disruption, earthquakes, tornadoes, Kundalini rising, surprises and shocks, the totally unexpected and the flat-out bizarre. What’s a body to do? How to cope? Do we hide out like trolls, burrowing even further down into our bunkers? Hold our breaths and stress out? Implode in a news consumption frenzy?

Is there another alternative? Of course there is. 

Come along with me…

Imagine if you will that you are in a carnival or adventure theme park. You’re around twelve years old, and about to board, for the very first time, a massive wooden roller coaster. This could be the Giant Dipper at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, or the old Cyclone at Coney Island.  You’re simultaneously scared, and super excited. You’ve absolutely no idea what to expect once they strap you into your seat and pull the safety bar over your lap. Such is the nature of our upcoming days on Planet Earth…

Or, apropos of the season, imagine you are touring a pitch-black Halloween funhouse at night – terrified – as you put your hands through black curtains to feel something in the dark. “It’s the decapitated bloody head of Lizzie Borden’s axe-murdered mother,” your guide whispers to you. Your brain knows it’s actually a mannequin head with a wig soaked in greasy oil – after all, you know it’s not real! – but it’s fully freaking you out, nonetheless.

You place your hands in the next hole in the black curtain. “These are the eyeballs,” your guide whispers. You know it’s a bucket of peeled grapes but – O.M.G! – it sure feels like eyeballs! Completely grossed out, you turn to see a posed couple in turn-of-century garb soaked in blood. You know it’s ketchup – it’s got to be! You’re about at your limit when you see a man dressed as Freddy Krueger revving up a chainsaw in the corner. Quickly, you try to get out – get out! – of the haunted fun house.

Are you having a good time? Stumbling into the outdoor courtyard, you squeal, groan, and laugh with your friends and say simultaneously, “Never again!” and “That was so great!” “Totally excellent!”

Yes, you know it’s a haunted house. You know it’s a nightmare. And, you know deep in the truest part of yourself, that the truth of who you are IS SAFE.

“We live in illusion [and] the appearance of things. There is a reality. We are that reality. When you understand this, you see that you are nothing, and being nothing you are everything. That is all.” – Kalu Rinpoche, as quoted by Ram Dass

At this time of wild world happenings, we may have the luxury of getting spooked. This is the luxury of consciously experiencing the power of the human mind. The ability to believe. To believe that the stories you hear, imagine, watch are, in fact, real.

We all know about suspending disbelief, such as when we are watching a scary movie on Netflix, or tripping through a haunted house. Yet the real angst – the suffering – comes when we actually suspend belief. Suspending belief gives an appearance of a happening – which is all perspective – the illusion of a duration in time and space. Belief gives the appearance the quality of realness. It is a quality like stickiness – this belief stuff. The appearance seems to stick due to the nature of the mind. Embodied understanding of this illusion is the key to freedom – true happiness.

When you get spooked by what you hear, see, smell, sense, simply STOP. Halt, and wait. Do it quietly and internally, on the spot. It’s easy to watch the nature of the mind.

Can you allow yourself to watch the movie of current events, even feel the blood pressure rise, the sweat on the palms, the rising pulse, i.e. the somatic responses labeled as anger, fear, anxiety – when you tune into what appears on the movie screen known as “The World”? Can you realize it is a response of the conditioned mind, perceiving conditioning itself, and that it is all Consciousness playing the starring role, writing the script, and producing the show?

You can see the mind grasping concepts like a Venus flytrap snaps its jaws shut to claim its prey. It reaches out and gobbles up an idea – some news bit, something a friend sends you on social media, some advice or opinion from a family member about this or that. Whatever your mind takes in, consumes, it then must alchemize, digest, spit out the junk. It adds more work. Not ultimately a problem, nothing to blame, but also not necessary.

Can you see beyond the appearance of good and bad, notice that it is all conditioned preference? Whether the emphasis is on personal freedom, the environment, justice, health, responsibility? Or mystery, intrigue, shadow, conspiracy theory, the Dark, the Light, peace, conflict, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera?

Currently in the world play (lila), as always, it is much simpler to stay seated in the Self. Know that You Are the Eternal Self. Rest there. If you are not seated (or seeded) in the Self, it’s going to be a sticky mess when it comes to picking up ideas, notions of intentionality, cause and effect, and playing with them as if they are real. Check to see if you are truly ready for the PG-13 movie, let alone the R-rated director’s cut.

If, on the other hand, you know the Truth of Who You Are, as Consciousness, then – ONLY then – it’s no problem at all diving headlong into the land of maya, with politics, pandemics, plans, or purposes. Once it is all seen through… when there is no suspended belief in any of it – then go ahead and play fully in the divine lila game – the fun house. Play in it, and be happy all the time.

Live in samsara and be happy all the time

Nirvana and samsara are one.

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 vedanta lineage is held Thursdays, 9am Pacific. Email Erin for more information. The November 13-15 retreat in the High Sierra has one spot remaining!