New Moon in Leo: The Heart of a Lion

This Sunday, August 8, we have a New Moon in the fixed fire sign of Leo the Lion. This quality of time is a portal to higher consciousness known as the Lion’s Gate. This portal occurs every year on August 8^th; it’s super-charged this year due to the fact that it falls exactly on a New Moon. Seeds planted in your life, your heart, your relationships, and your community are extra-potent, and will bear fruit over the next six months to a year, so pay attention.

The energy of Leo has a charge in this life: stand up, stand tall – be courageous. Sometimes, Leo has to roar loudly and fiercely; most of the time, the Lion is content to proudly traverse his Serengeti and take care of his personal pride-community, and the lioness hunts and kills only that which is needed.

Wherever Leo is in our chart we will see where this new powerful fire can come in and ignite our lives. Leo rules the physical heart as well as the back. Pay attention to this part of the body in these days. Breathwork can help the heart center and back body to open up and receive more love and light. Alongside stretching and strengthening practices, it can help keep you healthy.

With so much fear and polarization spreading across the globe it can be hard or downright scary to speak up and out for our personal truth, for what is good and right and true for us as individuals. This is sovereignty – focusing on what we personally need and being willing to stand tall for it, alongside others, with love and respect.

Personal courage is needed these days. With Saturn in rebellious Aquarius opposing this New Moon, we are going to be challenged to hold strong in the face of opposition. Fear may arise, but that’s OK. Leo has courage, remember? Every single one of us has lionheartedness in our astrological charts somewhere.

Remember, courage is fear that has said its prayers. Fear and faith stand side by side. You may be quivering in your body-mind, but your feet will carry you forward and your voice will speak up even if it’s shaking.

Strength - VIII - Major Arcana of the Tarot

Trusting Your Heart: Discernment and Disinformation

In the media and social circles lately, there is much discussion of disinformation. Many alternative health practitioners and doctors are being censored, cancelled for recommending treatments and methods of staying healthy during the current pandemic. Individuals opting for natural immunity methods are being pressured and criticized for their choices. Information regarding access to affordable treatments or medications that may be helpful is disallowed on mainstream platforms. Why?

People are feeling confused, or even numb. Who can I trust? When is a fact a fact? What is going to keep me stay healthy or recover if I get ill? Can I trust my doctor or HMO? Can I trust the government? Why are videos and articles being taken down off of YouTube, Twitter, Facebook on the regular?

These are great questions. But the ultimate question here is, Can I trust myself?

Can you trust your gut? How practiced are you in listening to your own body, your intuition, your dreamtime guidance? Are you aware of your hunches when things ring true? How about when they feel “off” or “Not for me, thanks,” or even “I need more information” or “I need to wait for now”? Have you learned how to listen to your inner voice and trust it, 100%? This is what many of us have been working toward for decades. And it’s a great time to start practicing now if you’re new to other ways of knowing, aka “direct knowing.”

Think of how many times science and facts change over one’s lifetime. Eggs are bad for you. Fats are bad for you. Oh, wait, eggs and fat are good now? Asbestos is a great solution for insulation. Lead paint is the best for houses. Oh, wait, that’s now a hard no? I see, I see… everything changes. Facts are fluid. Information can be presented in a zillion ways. Reality is simply the agreed-upon collective narrative that we are aware of in any given moment. No one ever has the entire picture.

And yet, there is one way to know… And that is, trust the heart. Trust the gut. Trust your intuition. Learn to listen. Have courage. What is good and true and right for you cannot be falsified. It cannot be taken away. Stay present – one must be present to win the prize of direct knowing.

Keep your consciousness connected to the Divine, in Present Time. Because you are not separate from All That Is, whenever you act upon that which is good and true for you, your action’s outcome is going to be good and true for the other when it arises from a conscious and aware space. How could it not be?

There is no need to worry that you will make a mistake. From the perspective of the Infinite, there is no such thing. Rest your consciousness in the Self, as the Self, and know it is all unfolding perfectly.

And at this time of the Lion’s Gate, the portal of Truth and Courage and Strength, feel the natural resonance and strength and love and joy that comes from sovereign confidence. Your positive energy is a force of nature that will carry you, your loved ones, and your global community forth.

Stand tall. With love.

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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A spiritual memoir, an off-the-beaten path India travel tale, and a bittersweet love story all rolled into one wild ride.

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The author in Varanasi, India on the ghats of the Ganges

CLICK HERE TO GET TRUTH SEEKER

THE STORY OF A WOMAN'S EXISTENTIAL CRISIS,

THE END OF SEEKING,

AND THE WILLINGNESS TO LOSE EVERYTHING 

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A combined off-the-beaten path India travel adventure, bittersweet romance, and deeply personal spiritual memoir, this book shares the profound, inexpressible grace of encountering one's spiritual teacher, or guru, and is an homage to the absolute faith and fearlessness required to be released from the shackles of suffering.

Truth Seeker: A Spiritual Adventure of Love, Loss, and Liberation is the long-awaited follow-up to the spiritual travel memoir, The Adventures of Bindi Girl: Diving Deep Into the Heart of India (2012).

Praise for Erin Reese's new book

TRUTH SEEKER:

A SPIRITUAL ADVENTURE OF

LOVE, LOSS, AND LIBERATION

 “With razor-sharp wit and breathtaking pace, Truth Seeker immerses readers in the India few travelers see—the authentic India in all its beauty and abomination. Equal parts love story, spiritual quest, and travelogue, Truth Seeker, ultimately, is an homage to India itself and the extraordinary teacher Erin Reese found—and lost—there. This book is exactly what many of us need right now—spiritual sustenance, a glimpse of the majestic potential of humans, and a good, hard laugh.” —Lynn Braz, author of Flying Free: Life Lessons Learned on the Flying Trapeze

 

Full Moon in Aquarius: The Call of the Wayshower

The Star-XVII, Universal Waite Tarot

This Friday, we welcome the Full Moon in the fixed air sign of Aquarius, the Water Bearer. Aquarius is symbolized by The Star in the Tarot, and the Eleventh House of Astrology. Here we find ideals and friends, groups and communities, and that which we call “The Future.” Aquarius is the sign of revolution, rebellion, and doing one’s own thing. Marching to one’s own drum.  Breaking rules, or changing them to suit one’s own values and perspectives du jour. At its healthiest expression, ‘taint nothin’ better than being an Aquarius and/or embracing the Aquarian Age – ‘specially if you’re a real freedom lover at heart.

Aquarius needs to break away, as she is the wayshower and not meant to fit in. If we all fit in and were accepted or acceptable by society, there would be no such thing as evolution of consciousness. We need Aquarian energy to give us the chutzpah to say what we see, to stand apart from the crowd, to tell the truth even if it means we aren’t understood for five, ten, fifty or five hundred years.

When we begin to accept this part of ourselves, rather than vilifying it or rejecting it simply because it seems too weird or challenging to our current perspectives, we begin to embrace and love being a truth-teller. We begin to realize that the truth of who we are can never be threatened, for we are timeless consciousness. The body and the reputation and the popularity and the bank account and the relationship? Well, they’re all appearances in time and space and they will certainly come and go. But the truth of who we are is infinite and eternal.

 Opening the Time Capsule

Fifteen years ago, at the Full Moon in Aquarius of 2006, I broke away myself from a safe professional role as a content manager and producer of the world’s #1 independent astrology and tarot websites. In the year or so prior, I’d begun having kundalini activation symptoms in my body-mind – some uncomfortable, some pleasurable, including insomnia, heat, shaking, and intensive series of lucid dreams every night. I was burning hot and so high I could not come down until I acknowledged the core of the message from my soul:

• I needed to leave my 9 to 5 stable career
• I needed to acknowledge my own intuitive, tarot, and astrological gifts
• I needed to start reading for others

When I sent out the announcement to my community at large, that I was now ready to read for others, my knees were knocking. I knew there was no real turning back: I was out of the broom closet. I had to walk through and with my fear of rejection, of ostracism, and of exile – all Aquarian themes – and the decision had a snowball effect.

In actuality, that was my last day job. I began piecing together a makeshift alt.career in which I was a freelance writer and editor (travel, astrology, new thought, etc.), indie author, and astrologer and tarot professional from the road – I spent the next five years living out of a rucksack, based in India, and working from whatever Internet café I could stumble upon – and began giving readings remotely, as well as to travelers from all over the world, paying anywhere from 100 Rupees to 100 dollars. 

Business Card, 2006

 

San Francisco, 2006

What Mainstream?

This is what it means to take a Leap of Faith. To listen to your individuality, your psyche, your body (remember the Kundalini activations?). To trust. Now, of course, I had done a boatload of personal work – psychological, recovery, metaphysical, financial – to prepare for this mid-thirties leap. But surrendering “fitting in,” having a real job, having a stable platform, and becoming a real entrepreneur is, in a way, a form of ART.

I have lived as a working artist (intuitive and spiritual arts) for the past 15 years. I’m way out of the closet now – y’all know who I am and what I’m up to. I’ve been this way my whole life, actually – it’s a bit like being queer… you simply know. Yet to offer myself up publicly this way, and more and more and more – is to consistently risk being misunderstood, and to face that ongoing Aquarius strange situation of possible ostracism from the community.

Aquarius is the antithesis of mainstream. This is the job of the Water Bearer: to bring our attention to that which is “out there,” not just for perverse, selfish purposes, no. Rather, for the collective, for the good of the whole. Aquarius is the sign of humanity. Ironic, since most Aquarius- oriented individuals (or those with a strong Uranus influence) feel like they are from another planet. Perhaps many are Star Children –from Sirius or the Pleiades or another dimension – maybe they are from Atlantis or Lemuria of yore. They must to be, in order to deliver such different frequencies to us. It is the sacrifice of Aquarius to feel odd, to try to have a human experience. The only solution is to, as I said, continue to embrace and appreciate this unique role they have come in with.

At this time of the Full Moon of the Aquarian, see if you can be a little more forgiving with that oddball part of yourself. If you can be a little more faith-full when it comes to “doing your own thing,” of not fitting in, of taking a leap of faith. See if you can consider some of the quirky things you know in your heart, your body, your being to be real. See that you actually are onto something. See if you can release the need for approval or the need for being understood by others (boy that one is a real trap!).

This latter one is vital if you want to be free. Stop trying to make yourself understood by others. Simply acknowledge your own sense of things, validate your own heart. That is more than enough: it is healing, and one secret to ease and grace, and – some would say, in its highest definition – it is SUCCESS.

Trust the beat of your own heart!

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. 

 

Sun Enters Aries: Spring and the Super-Powered Seed

Jet Martinez, Te Quiero Tantito (2016)

Tomorrow in the wee hours of March 20, the Sun enters fiery Aries, the sign of “I AM.” We celebrate the vernal equinox with its full potential of springtime, and all that is new. Our hearts and minds, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, are prickling with fresh energy.

At this point, however, we know not exactly how this potential energy will take shape. It is tempting to force it into being, to have a plan, to make up a story with your ideas of how this, that, and the other thing are going to unfold this season and into summer. We immediately impose a mental framework onto this new baby potential of springtime. When this happens, we are in great danger of missing the magic.

I am about to launch my second book, Truth Seeker: A Spiritual Adventure of Love, Loss, and Liberation, into the world. It’s a matter of days now before the paperback and Kindle version go live on Amazon. I’m relieved, and thrilled, that this seed is going to burst onto the scene – finally! People will be able to read this spiritual memoir that I’ve toiled with for over ten years. Finally!

Now, have I any firm intention as to how this book is going to find its way in the world? How and when it will start walking and talking? To find its way to a bookstore virtual reading, an interview, a top-book-pick list? Nope. Do I have an agenda as to what it’s going to result in – more recognition, more students, more money, more, more, more…?

Nope. When I think of imposing a limited collection of thoughtforms – ideas of how it should be – onto this book baby, I lose all the magic, all the wonder, all the faith in Existence to show the way.

Of course, I absolutely hope that people enjoy the book and benefit from it, are inspired by it, or even transformed. But is that up to me? Not a chance.

I’ve done my part. I’ve fertilized the soil, I’ve weeded and tilled and toiled. I’ve been pregnant for years, had many false labors, premature contractions. I was in the delivery room for eons, it seemed, without epidural. Without drugs. A raw, natural childbirth that had both mother and emerging babe screaming and wailing in fits and starts. So many breach moments, so many crownings, fantasizing about forceps, asking for help, and more help, and more help.

Until finally, the little truth-seeking infant lands on the scene. Just about ready to be shown to the world. Packed chock-full with all its DNA ready at the helm, a life stored within from start to finish, a blessed star is born.

And of course, I have heard, seen, and felt pressure within and without to do a book launch the right way, the correct way. To get Facebook ads, more advance reviewers, a larger mailing list. To which I say, let’s see what happens! Let’s let the baby herself have a moment to show me the way.

At this time of Spring Equinox, when the potential energy within and without is throbbing, pulsing, ready to burst forth, see if you can take a moment to let it reveal itself to you, rather than imposing an idea of what should happen next.

We are coming off a year of being isolated, limited in movement, and more turned inward than ever before. We are ourselves blessed new seeds. Rumblings of reentry back into the bustling world are being heard across the globe. They are real rumblings, and surely we will reengage in a new way. Yet, let Life lead the way, try not to push too quickly or too hard. Lest you miss the magic.

Art by Casey Weldon

Equinox 2021

 

Reenter the world

come out gently but slowly

like a tiny bud at the tip of a branch

barely quivering at first sun.

A babe is borne, really raw

very tender and fragile.

 

What have you learned this past year?

Must you pick up all the old crap?

Can you leave those old patterns,

dust motes, habits, compulsions,

convictions aside?

Salvador Dali, Rosa Papilio

Can you accept the spaciousness

of a raw, empty palate-palette?

 

This is the opportunity you have been

waiting for.

The unknown, the void

with pure potential.

A seed with all life force energy

packed inside.

 

Release the need to control the outcome.

Trust the unfoldment of life.

 

Allow the sun, the rain, the

rainbow to feed the seed.

No need to know.

All by itself, life will grow.

~ Erin Reese

 

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. 

 

 

New Moon in Capricorn: Reclaiming Inner Authority

Tomorrow, we receive the New Moon in Capricorn, cardinal earth sign of power, politics, authorities, and authoritarianism. The Moon is conjunct Pluto-Hades, assuring intensity and power grabs with the tone of total transformation, one in which many forms may fall away in order to make room for the new. We see those who are lusting for power and control, and those who are in opposition. With Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury and asteroid goddess Pallas-Athena converging tightly in radical Aquarius nearby, we see those who are revolutionaries, resisters, and change-makers, whether we agree with them or not. The playing field is changing from moment to moment and it’s close to impossible to know who’s in charge anymore.

Let’s understand who’s really in charge: Consciousness. The Eternal. When we settle into this, we settle into our own inner authority, which is always moment to moment. This is where true peace and freedom lie. It requires a dropping of the need for things to make sense or to go the way one thinks they should. It requires a much deeper trust in Nature, in Reality, in a wisdom that is beyond politics, religion, or belief systems.

Trusting Inner Authority

I was raised by a Capricorn single mother in the 1970’s when there was no such thing as helicopter parenting or awards and trophies passed out to every child in class. Times were more than often tough in our struggling household, to be sure, and one key thing I learned straight out of the gate from my mother: work hard, buck up, don’t complain, and take care of yourself because nobody is going to come a-running to rescue you, skinned knee or broken heart or hurt feelings or anything of the sort.

Tough Love, indeed. I don’t condone this sort of parenting overall – but to be honest, I’d rather have been raised to fall back on myself, my own inner authority, than not. Eventually, I had to recover to reclaim my sensitivity and creative and emotional life, and learn to offer myself a sweeter side, to nurture and comfort myself, and to offer words and acts of self-care, self-tenderness and self-compassion. I learned to receive, to let others help me, to soften and relax. And to trust the Divine, thank Goddess.

And yet, with the staunch tone of the striving Sea-Goat, the climbing Capricorn at the helm, there’s no time for victimhood. No one else is going to come from outside to make you happy or rescue you. It’s all an inside job.

As I look at the New Moon chart, I see the intensity rising as we head toward the U.S. presidential inauguration. Many folks are on tenterhooks, wondering what will come, whether freedoms will return or be revoked. Whether we will heal as a nation or further be fractured and opposed to each other.

No matter one’s political leanings, those scrambling to find answers in the external are distressed. Again and again over the past year (and since time began), Consciousness makes it impossibly obvious: we see that there are no external answers, and serenity is not found outside of ourselves. Many reading this have been preparing for peace for their entire lives. This is called relying on a higher wisdom, and trusting  your self, your inner authority, and The Self. No longer can we wait for answers to our happiness and peace to come from the media, from D.C., from Twitter or CNN, The New York Times, Facebook or FOX News.

Anything can happen right now – the veil is lifted. We are offered the opportunity to awaken, to stabilize our peace within. If we keep holding on to the old ways of governing, of leading, of attempting to control, we are going to be miserable.

Stabilize in Present Time

How to stabilize? It is absolutely vital to stay in the Present Moment.

Turn off your phone. Go for a walk. Breathe.

If you are a news junkie or find yourself falling into a “scroll hole” regularly, make concerted efforts to take breaks. Set a timer or an alarm if you need to. Your serenity need not be determined by what you are reading, hearing, watching.

Remember: you will always know exactly what to do in the NOW, in the present moment. This is the only way.

If you are feeling fear, more than likely you are not in the present moment. You are living in the future, which is ultimately false and unreal, bring yourself back to the now by tuning into your body. Find your feet. Breathe from your belly. Trust your intuition completely.

If the fear and anxiety are continuing, check in with your Inner Child. Did she get spooked by what she heard or read? Is he feeling afraid because the adults around are losing their minds and behaving crazily? Perhaps the madness in the world – fear of illness, infighting, treachery – mimics the early childhood environment. Children of all ages can easily go into shock – fight, flight, freeze reactions – when “caregivers” or “authority figures” are behaving unpredictably or are just flat out mentally ill or behaving like raging alcoholics. What is happening in our greater society resembles the craziness of being in an alcoholic or abusive home environment. Power grabbing, gaslighting, controlling, terrorizing – it’s all here. So, work with your tools of detachment and healing from codependence. Reassure your archetypal inner child that they are loved, cared for, safe –that you are paying attention to them and that you will look after them and protect them no matter what. You will immediately find a relaxation occurring.

The truth of Who You Are, can never be contained. No person, institution, virus, politician, cranky family member or opinionated friend can take away your peace once it is firmly established in the Self, the Ground of Being. If you are still jacked around by belief systems, religions, politics, ideologies – allow the smoldering power of Pluto-Hades in Capricorn to burn it all, to take it and transform it at this New Moon time. Release the identification with the external. It is so unnecessary – the belief that things must go this-a-way or that-a-way. The Truth is What Is unfolding, in the here and now. Once this is realized completely, one can easily relax.

At this Capricorn New Moon, we have an opportunity to reclaim our inner authority, which is always in present time. Again: you will always know exactly what to do in the moment. Not a hair’s breadth before or after. Drop the stories, and stabilize in the Now.

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.