Keep India Beautiful: Etiquette for female travelers

I got busted the other day by the cleaning ladies at my ashram. I had committed a monumental Indian fashion faux pas. My calves were showing.

During the past few days of monsoon rain, no sunshine had graced our terraces and all my clothes were dirty. All I had left in the trouser department was a pair of Bermuda shorts that just covered my knees. I wore them one time to go up and down the ashram stairs to get water at the communal filter.

The next day, it was still raining, and I still couldn’t do laundry. I donned a semi-clean tank top, covered my bare shoulders with my shawl, and wore the same Bermuda shorts to lunch in the dining hall. It felt so good, cool, and free to have my legs exposed that the NEXT morning I wore same said short trousers OUT of the ashram to run a few errands. For shame, for shame!  My calves were on display for all the world to see!

Later, at lunchtime, I was again filling my water bottles where the cleaning ladies were eating nearby, sitting cross-legged on their mats on the floor. We smiled at each other and head-wobbled hellos as usual. Then I felt them silently watching me from behind as I waited for the water filter to run. I could feel their gaze on my back. Something was coming, I could sense it. Sure enough, out it came. The bolder, older woman piped up:

“INDIAN DRESS BETTER.”

“Huh?” I replied, turning around.

“Indian dress better. You wear Indian dress,” she said, tugging at her own salwaar kameez (long kurta blouse) and loose, flowing trousers to indicate proper garb. She had seen me wearing these nice, conservative clothes in days prior, and now she was appalled at my cheeky choice of Bermuda shorts.

“Haan ji. Yes, yes, I know. Ek dress I have,” I sputtered, embarrassed, and tried to explain, holding my raised index finger in the air to indicate I only had one proper Indian ladies suit on hand. “Nehi dhobi milega (no laundry possible). Tomorrow, tomorrow, ji.”  Busted. She half-smiled, half-frowned back at me, indicating that I needed to pay heed to her little lesson in dressing-for-ashram-success, pronto.

Oops. I stood corrected by the cleaning lady. This, from a Bindi Girl who literally writes the book on India travel.

Anytime I push it and try to expose more skin because it’s comfortable or convenient, I get a big kick in the butt by Mother India: I don’t care how much cooler you are in temperature, Erin. It’s not cool. Pay attention. Dress proper.

This is not because it’s wrong to show the female body. It’s because of culture and respect. Do we travel all the way to India to get the same sensation as walking down Broadway in NYC? No. We come to India because of its vast differences, the beauty in contrast, the richness of culture.

Therefore, I’d like to offer a few notes on proper Indian dressing for women travelers in traditional India, along with a few other etiquette tips. (Some of these go for guys, too.)

1. Cover your butt. I don’t care how sexy your Bikram hot-yoga bum looks. No yoga pants without covered behind.
2. Cover your shoulders, and cover your cleavage with a shawl. Also, if you’re wearing an especially tight t-shirt which looks chic in the West, if your boobs are on inordinate display, you can be sure you’re inviting a lot of leering attention.
3. Shorts are a NO-NO (see my example of what not to do). The same goes for skirts worn above the calf. My jaw has dropped regularly at the sight of spaghetti-strapped tank-topped touristas with Daisy Duke short-shorts sashaying down the village lane.
4. Ignore cat calls, whistles, “Hello, hello” as much as possible. Even if you’re wearing full coverage, young boys will invariably try to get your attention just to provoke you. Eye contact is inviting. Keep your eyes straight ahead or slightly to the ground to avoid harassment.
5. No see-through skirts. There’s an item called a petticoat (slip) you can buy for about 100 Rs ($2) – wear it under those gorgeous-but-flimsy sheer Indian skirts.
6. No bikinis in Rishikesh on the holy river Ganga. And please, Euro-Brazilian travelers, don’t go topless or wear thongs in India, even in Goa.
7.  Smooching your beloved is best done in your room.
8. IF you smoke, realize that as a lady, it looks inviting and cheap. Hardly any women in India smoke publicly. Try to smoke in tourist cafes with good ventilation or in your own guest house.
9. Prayer shawls with mantras are NOT sarongs to wrap below the waist, nor are they beach towels. Prayer cloths can be worn on the head as a turban and as a shawl and even as a shirt, but not below the waist. Even though designers are making them now because of demand, the wrap-around trousers and skirts endowed with Hindi and Sanskrit prayers to Shiva, Ram and Krishna are considered disrespectful to the deities.
10. Carry a light shawl at all times to cover your head to wear in temples, to protect you from the sun, and to cover your shoulders. At just a few ounces, a shawl is worth more than its weight in gold. You can also use it to shield your nose and mouth from road grime while riding in rickshaws and buses, or to stave off foul, unexpected stenches.

No doubt, women travelers who dress in a salwaar kameez/Punjabi (three-piece outfit with trousers, long blouse, and shawl) are treated better. Indians will often tell you directly how much they appreciate the effort to respect their customs.

Keep India beautiful. Cover your butt.

The Amazing Grace of Failure

Success and failure may come and go, but there is a Source that is holding us far beyond any external happening.

THE AMAZING GRACE OF FAILURE

 

We know we’re starting to disidentify with the ego’s stronghold on our soul when we experience no difference between success and failure. No good, no bad. I’m sure many of you have read or heard the following Taoist parable in various forms:

We'll See
There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit.
"Such bad luck," they said sympathetically.
"We'll see," the farmer replied.
The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses.
"How wonderful," the neighbors exclaimed.
We'll see," replied the old man.
The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg.
The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.
"We'll see," answered the farmer.
The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.
"We'll see" said the farmer.

We never know what is going to bring us real happiness so why not be happy no matter what the external circumstances? 

Believe it or not, I came to realize I had made real progress in my humble evolution when I fell flat on my face and failed miserably in front of a crowd of 2,000 people, and lived to tell about it. The ground did not swallow me up. I did not go to Hell for all eternity. People still spoke to me the next day. I probably dropped a few levels down in their rating book for about 20 minutes – then they forgot. People, and the world, all have A.D.D. these days – no one remembers what happens, the past doesn’t exist too long; most folks are so self-involved, it hardly matters what occurs. So it all goes back to the spiritual axiom, Keep the focus on your Self.

The day I failed miserably was the grand finale of my yoga teaching certification course at the Swami Vivekananda Yoga University in Bangalore, India. On the last night of the one-month course, a massive talent show was held for the students, faculty, and staff. The few of us foreigners were a tiny minority of the populace. Sara, an Austrian actress friend of mine and I decided to perform an experimental art piece in front of the school, based on poetry in motion. In the piece, I would half-sing, half-rap  a piece I had written on personality, and my willowy, talented friend would perform modern dance movements behind a screen with backlighting, creating abstract shadow effects. We recruited two of our male cohorts, Eduardo and Kamal (a long-haired Spanish hippie and a North Indian from Himachal Pradesh, respectively), to play “drums” for us on massive overturned plastic buckets.

All afternoon in rehearsal, prior to the evening performance, we were on fire! The song was strong, the visuals were intriguing, the beat added soul. We were excited to share our passions with the rest of the crowd.

The night of the gig, the Indians at the event – both the audience and dozens of other acts performing – were in typical Indian “fever pitch” mode. This is when it hardly matters what is happening, there is sheer revelry in adrenalin, loud music and extreme acts however vulgar or sublime. The crowd went wild as students performed Bollywood pieces, folk dances, and comedy sketches in Hindi. As the night played on, our little four-piece Euro-Indo-American experimental ensemble was discriminated against as we were consistently edged out and nudged off the lineup. Pushy broad that I can be (ignoring the adage, don’t push the river), I argued with the MC, feeling it imperative: “Our show must also go on!” Though it was getting late, the crowd had clearly hit its peak, and the four of us had also lost our spark, somehow, I felt the hands of the gods with us. We had to perform!

After the audience was entirely spent from three hours of chaotic hysteria…they finally let us go on. And that’s when everything went wrong.

The screen behind which Sara was to move was too small, and the shadow-dance effects were blown. Our Spanish drummer was missing his cues, distracted by a gorgeous Indian girl in the audience he’d just fallen in love with. I was doing my best to keep time, out of time, and perspiring buckets under the spotlights, having stupidly chosen to wear jeans for the "cool" factor. Flop sweat.

And two thousand pairs of big brown eyes stared back at us. What in Lord Shiva’s name are these people doing up there? The whole dang avant garde shebang went right over their heads. Mixed media? Modern dance? Garage band bucket drumming? Spoken word rap? What the heck is she talking about?

HUH?

Culture clash. Burn and crash!

Yes, we were the bomb. And not in any hip sense. We actually BOMBED.

A meager clap or two came when the stage went black at the end of our piece. As we walked off stage it was clear to me: we had failed. Especially me. I was the lead, the writer of the piece, and the provocateur of the whole damned thing.

As I gathered my things and walked into the night to my dorm room, a few pals walked past without making eye contact. Surely, they were embarrassed for me. One friend gave me back my camera (I had asked her to take a few pictures of the show) and scurried away without so much as a good night.

Yes, it really was that bad.

Then, it washed over me in a flush of realization: FANTASTIC LESSON! One of the most important teachings of my yoga teaching course, implemented surreptitiously the final night – a timely coup de grace, indeed. I had failed, big time, and I was still alive! Breathing. Nothing had changed! I was still the same person I was before I went on stage and no one came and murdered me, the Earth didn't bury me alive. No! 

I’d just had a firsthand experience that WHO WE ARE is not outside ourselves. It is not others’ approval or disapproval. Success and failure may come and go, but there is a Source that is holding us far beyond any external happening. Staying connected to the Source (God, Universe, Higher Power, Existence, Consciousness) at all times is the only job. When that connection is unshakable, NOTHING can throw us. Nothing.

In that moment of realization, I felt, Heck. You know, I could have been on Oprah, live on national television at that moment, and bombed. It would have been okay. I would have survived.

I had learned to fail, with Grace.

A Peek at Penang, Malaysia

Pulau Penang is an island off the northwest coast of mainland Malaysia. The vibrant colony Georgetown, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is a multicolored pedigree of Tamil (South) Indian Hindu, Chinese Buddhist, and Malay Muslim mix, not to mention a touch of Thai and Singaporean spice. A brilliant cultural cacophony.

Let's have a peek at Penang, shall we?

Coke poster with Malay young people

April 2012

Georgetown, Penang

Malaysia

The sound of the mosque permeates the Indian/Chinese border of the Georgetown colony in the afternoon. La ilaha illallah. La ilaha illallah. There is nothing but God.

From time to time throughout Asia, I’ve stayed in guest houses jutted up against mosques with horrible singers. Today, I’m blessed. This mosque’s prayer-caller has a good voice.

A light rain speckles down as it is simultaneously bright with sunlight, giving the streets a glisten. I turn the corner into Little India as the heat rises up in a steam off the sidewalk. I chow down on a veg thali (south Indian vegetarian plate lunch) served up on a huge banana leaf. As I thrust the tasty bits into my mouth with clean fingers, I marvel that the food in this Malaysian Indian quarter is better than some places in the Motherland herself.

Here in Georgetown, Tamil Indians comfortably live their lives in this little nook. Tamil India (Tamil Nadu is the southeast state of India of which Chennia is the capital city) is a notably conservative region; yet here, the colonists seem much freer in spirit and expression – the Tamil women reveal a little more skin here and there, maybe even an ankle or two. I surmise this is likely because of the mix of Chinese, Malay, and even Thai and Singaporean cultures in the mix. In Little India, Tamil girls with short dresses (!) wearing tikka bindi blessing marks painted on their forehead indicate that, Yes ma, we’ve done our daily prayer.

The next block over, Chinese culture mixes with Malay-Thai street life and street walking. Ladyboys with rail thin, hip-less figures in skintight Lycra micro-minis stand tall and proud on the corner, with visible – ahem – packages on display, posing in their rhinestone bedecked CFM platform stilettos. Stick-straight, shiny black-bobbed south Asian hair, left hand raised and poised coyly with a ciggie, as the cars cruise alongside… Hi there...

Welcome to the World Heritage UNESCO colony of Georgetown-Penang, Malaysia.

Georgetown, Penang sunset

Facade Carvings, Georgetown, Malaysia

 

Arrival of Chief Minister, Penang

Arrival of Chief Minister, Guards

Chinese Buddhist Temple, Georgetown

 

And now for something fun -

a Bindi Girl peek at Georgetown's Little India!

(Click full-screen for better viewing.)

Bindi Girl now in paperback!

"There are three trips you take to India: the one you think you're going to have – that you plan for, the one you actually have, and the one you live through once you go back home."

~ The Adventures of Bindi Girl

We are thrilled to announce the long-awaited release of Erin Reese's high-energy travel memoir, The Adventures of Bindi Girl: Diving Deep Into the Heart of India. Now in paperback on Amazon.

Support your local travel writer - order your paperback copy of Bindi Girl today and join the unforgettable journey!

http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Bindi-Girl-Diving-Heart/dp/0615547664

• Paperback: 260 pages
• Publisher: Travel and Soul Media (January 10, 2012)

The Adventures of Bindi Girl: Diving Deep Into the Heart of India

Product Description

Erin Reese is a one-of-a-kind travel writer—a spiritual seeker and solo backpacker who dropped out of a successful career in corporate America, hit the road, and never looked back.

A SPIRITUAL TRAVELER'S SASSY TALE

Packed with plenty of spicy curry, cows, and comedy, Bindi Girl takes us on one heck of a wild ride across India. From Dharamsala and the Dalai Lama to ashrams, yoga schools, and meditation melodramas, Bindi educates and entertains as she goes. We discover the Hindu deities, the tourist trap mafia, and the beach havens of the hippie trail. From "Guru Disney" to the holy hell of Varanasi, Bindi's got us clamoring for more masala chai all the way.

When Bindi meets an attractive young stranger who is more than her mental and physical match, her fiery spirit is put to the test. He whisks her off to the furthest reaches of India—the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. There, in an isolated jungle, they attempt to live out a Robinson Crusoe fantasy. Will it be the Garden of Eden or end up a natural disaster? Among the wild beauty and danger of the islands and the kooky madness of "typical India," Reese takes us deep into the heart of a country and her very self.

Bindi Girl is a gift to the traveler, the spiritual seeker, and the armchair tourist—anyone yearning for honest inspiration and a real kick to get out and truly live!


"India – a land where the last thing one needs to bother with is looking good. In India – at least in the circles I moved in – it's natural to look beautiful by the smile in your heart and the way you move through the world."

~ The Adventures of Bindi Girl

back cover

Not for the Meek: Spirituality in Kali's Realm

Calling oneself a “spiritual person” is all fine and dandy when we are comfy and cozy in our life setup, when we are admiring Ganesha the elephant god as a cute, pot-bellied pachyderm and a sweet deity to put on the wall as a tapestry. “Spiritual life” is fine when our downward dogs and hot yoga classes are helping us look hotter at the next office party.

Spirituality is especially peachy-keen when we have enough money in the bank to afford all-organic food and to pay for our fair trade, shade-grown coffee. Then we love to talk about how we’re “all one” and that “love is the answer.” Then it’s just darned great.

But what is spirituality when we can barely move, when we’re clobbered by our very human existence? When we’re slammed with a debilitating health crisis? When someone near and dear to us dies unexpectedly? When we feel trapped by our life circumstances, of which we feel no way out of, in a million ways, with nowhere to turn? When we absolutely, positively feel there is no solution to the hell du jour and only an airlift from God is going to help? Where do we go when we have nowhere to go? How far does our cute, pot-bellied pachyderm take us then, hmm? What then?

Yes, this is where the rubber meets the road – when we’re in a real, honest to goodness crisis. IF we’re lucky, we may be able to remain conscious during the meltdown. By conscious here, I mean remaining semi-mindful – able to offer up a prayer, still keeping our side of the street clean and doing our best to keep an internal equilibrium. But this is still the realm of the ego, and when we are really, truly losing it (which most churches, spiritual feel-good junkies and self-help gurus will never, ever tell you), the ego is being burnt to a crisp.

If we can’t remain conscious during a life crisis, maybe, just maybe, we can remain aware that we are unconscious, like a person in a coma who can’t quite get out of it but who knows that they are in a coma. We may be able to remain aware – in touch with the witness, or the watcher – that the shit is really hitting the fan and we haven’t a chance.

Calling In the Big Guns

The gods and goddesses of India are archetypes that represent states of existence. Whether or not one embraces the deities as incarnations doesn’t matter. Makes no difference if you’re a yogi or a Christian or an atheist or a Hindu: the quantum realities of the gods are real – as energies, as forces of nature.

When things are truly falling apart and we haven’t an ice cube’s chance in hell to stop it, perhaps it’s time to get out of the way and let the darker archetypes do their job. Let us genuflect to the biggies, Lord Shiva and Mother Kali.

Shiva, god of transformation, is always on the job when things are dying, dancing His eternal tandava dance as Nataraja, lord of creation and destruction of the universe. Create, destroy, live, die. Evolve, rinse, repeat. We egoic humans cling mightily to the pretty, to the living, to the pleasant. Sure, that is our nature – that’s how life goes on, through the life force pulsing through us. But when everything in our life is breaking down, from body to home to pocketbook to profession to marriage, quite frankly, Shiva doesn’t give a shit.

That’s why we worship Him, even if symbolic, and bow down to His altar in great humility. Perhaps, if we’re lucky, Shiva may grant us a shred of grace, once we’ve accepted that He is leading the tandava dance, and we are merely following. This is real tantra. And it doesn’t mean you get to have it your way. It’s not Burger King.

And then… and then there are the heavier-duty cases, where we enter the ghastlier realms of life experience. Now we are in Kali’s realm. We can avoid Her, this darkest of the dark goddesses, and play hide and seek for a long time. Who wouldn’t prefer to hang with Saraswati, who plays a veena harp and rides a swan? Or lovely lady Lakshmi, perched on a pretty pink lotus bed, distributing coins of gold and health and wealth?

But, when the rubble just keeps tumbling down on us and we have no hope and there is no way out and the whole stewpot is too horrifying to face and we want to call it a day but somehow the life force and the cosmic joke keeps us here without release from human existence… THEN we meet Beloved Kali, the dark one, the slayer of illusions. Once again.

O Maa Kali! Lolling tongue, gnashing teeth, severed heads and bloodshed. Here we are now in the realm of the wrathful one, Shiva’s dark consort. Kali comes not when the Tower of our lives is crashing down, no. Kali IS the crash! She makes sure our life structures and petty constructs are totally, 100% annihilated. There is a plan and a divine orchestrator, and we…are…not…it.

How can we feel less than an absolute failure when the Tower is crashing? The error is in mistaking this meltdown to be our own doing, that we have somehow made this happen and could do something to fix it – and fix it now! – rather than accepting and worshipping the annihilation of our life as we know it.

We are cautioned not to mistake the illusion of our own doer-ship as real lest we add a mistaken dose of shame to the mix. Shame arises when we confuse the process and think we are the doer. NO. That is where we get the truth wrong. This complete and total destruction, as messy and ugly as it is, is exactly what is supposed to happen, and it is going to take as long as it takes. So… pop the popcorn, pull up a chair, and watch the show. There is nothing you can do to change the movie reel. It’s gotta play out.

Prostrating to Maa Kali at this point, believe it or not, is to say Thank You! to Her for destroying your life. Sound like a tall order? Keep fighting it. See how long it lasts.

Realization at this point is to SEE that, if you’re still in the battlefield of breakdown, She is not done yet hacking away at anyone and anything – the demons of illusion and suffering – that do not fit.

Best to stay down. On your knees. Let Her finish the job.

Now you can relax.

Jai Maa.

Popular Highlights In The Adventures of Bindi Girl: Diving Deep Into the Heart of India

It's hard to be a writer. Writers, like other artists who present their work publicly, are constantly exposed. It's not for the meek. Sometimes, writers want to play ostrich, and hide from reviewers. But we rely on our readers to give us feedback, airplay, and an audience to write for.

Much to my delight, not only are people *reading* Bindi Girl; the adventure memoir is making an impact. Today, I discovered a cool feature on Amazon's Kindle in which the most popular parts of a book are noted, based on the number of times readers highlight a passage while reading on their Kindle device or app. Thought to share these passages with you today. I hope you add a few of your own - and your own review on Amazon.

Love,

Erin

Link to this list on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Bindi-Girl-Diving-Heart-ebook/dp/B004SBP6X8

Most Popular Highlights of Erin Reese's travel memoir, The Adventures of Bindi Girl: Diving Deep Into the Heart of India - noted by Amazon Kindle readers as of January 8, 2012

Amazon displays Popular Highlights by combining the highlights of all Kindle customers and identifying the passages with the most highlights. The resulting Popular Highlights help readers focus on passages that are meaningful to the greatest number of people.

“I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.” (Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903, Letters to a Young Poet)

Highlighted by 6 Kindle users

Therefore, if today is the day you are going to die, how will you live today?

Highlighted by 5 Kindle users

So when I woke up in the morning on Day Three, I asked myself, if this is the day I will die, is this place where I choose to be? Is this exactly what I choose to be doing?

Highlighted by 4 Kindle users

“You can’t work your way out by working it out with the mind. Better to follow your heart if you can find it. If you can’t find it, just jump. Your heart will start beating so fast there will be no mistake about where it is!”

Highlighted by 4 Kindle users

India – a land where the last thing one needs to bother with is “looking good,” or buying this, that, and the other. In India – at least in the circles I moved in – it’s natural to look beautiful by the smile in your heart and the way you move through the world. The lack of a “consumer culture” and less consumption choices leaves more room for honest expression; there’s more room to focus on the person beneath the facade.

Highlighted by 3 Kindle users

philosophy of death embraced by many Buddhists: to look each day squarely in the face and say, “This is the day I will die.”

Highlighted by 3 Kindle users

there are three trips you take to India: the one you think you’re going to have – that you plan for; the one you actually have; and the one you live through once you go back home.”

Highlighted by 3 Kindle users

January 2012 Tarotscopes by Erin Reese

Happy 2012!

Astrology and tarot are two alchemical magical arts that combine for astounding mystical revelations. Here are your Tarotscopes for January 2012! Be sure to read for your Sun, Moon, and Rising Sign for best results.

If you like the Tarotscopes free service, consider making a donation to keep the site – and your astro-intuitive – happy and motivated! It's a lot of work to prepare these goodies for you, my lovely readers. Even the amount of a cappuccino is super! Click on the ‘donate’ link to the right, or simply click here.

Your feedback is appreciated so I can know how many people enjoy this and whether to keep it up in the future.

Enjoy and many blessings!
Erin

INTEGRATION: King of Pentacles **BONUS CARD FOR EVERYONE!**

This January, we are all called to be philanthropists and supporters. No need to be Bill Gates to show that you care about your community. Treat others and your own body-mind as if we are all royalty. We can afford to be generous with each other, we can share the wealth – it doesn’t have to be about the money. A home-cooked meal, a hug, a phone call, a place to sleep for the night… there are so many little ways to take care of folks. We are spiritual beings having a human experience, and so while we’re in the material world, let’s make the most of it and be generous and benevolent leaders this month.

For a close-up of the card images, be sure to watch the little video here!

Aries: Ace of Pentacles

cha-CHING! That’s the sound of your cosmic cash register, Aries! Get your financial ducks in a row, lively Ram! Do not wait: January is your month to hit the ground running in business and money affairs. New business is likely to come your way: a new project, a work opportunity, a solid investment, a foundational idea. More than any other sign, Aries, you love to rush in. So say YES when opportunity knocks. It’s a new material beginning.

Taurus: Ten of Wands

You’re almost there, sweet Bull! That l-o-o-o-ng project you’ve been working on forever is about to come to a grand finish. A big deal that you’ve been trudging along with for about nine months to one year is about complete! Don’t stop now. It’s very important that you stay the course. You’re almost at the peak of the mountain! Be sure to delegate little tasks and details now so you can focus on the MOST important aspects of your vision. Keep it close at heart. Tenacity is your middle name. I’ve no doubt you’ll persevere to a successful finish.

Gemini: Nine of Wands

If you’re feeling a bit discouraged as the New Year kicks off, Gem, don’t despair. It’s a temporary thing. Perhaps your career or life vision needs a little more self-love and attention. Take care of your grander visions and step back from the grueling details. Self-care can be tough for you as you’re always running around, so incredibly busy and multitasking. You love to do 18 million things at once and can easily forget that Health is Wealth! Stop letting little things and annoyances suck you dry. Take a stand for that which is most important in your life: your own heart and well-being. If you’re feeling beat up by life, it’s OK to step out of the ring for a while to regroup. No one says you have to get it ALL done in one day, dear Twin.

Cancer: Nine of Pentacles

Home is where your heart is, dear Crab. You’re feeling fine, getting reconnected to your home base. You need a cozy nook to make fabulous comfort food and a hearth that nourishes your soul. You also need regular doses of nature, art, and the garden. Yes, you’re one of the most sensitive signs of the Zodiac, Cancer, but that doesn’t mean you’re not strong! You get double strength and footing this January by investing in your home. Spruce up your space and make your nest luxurious enough to relax in, anytime of day or night.

Leo: Knight of Wands

Consider January to be the kickoff of a year of adventure and fresh horizons, lovely Lion. Sometimes, you get grumpy or complacent, especially when you’ve hidden away in your den or cubicle too much. It’s now time to get back on the horse and out in the zip of life. Don’t forget that life is a spectacular funhouse. So put on the Ritz, take the leap, and dive full on into your magic kingdom or queendom. You have the courage, so put ‘em up, put ‘em up!

Virgo: Seven of Swords

You need some alone time to regroup, Virgo. It’s okay to step away from community and interactive busy-ness now and again. If you’ve been feeling gobbled up by doing this and doing that, book a few days or even a week in your planner to focus on YOU. Maybe you need to cancel an engagement or a commitment this month. Pare down your calendar and make space to organize your own life and deepest personal calling. Even if others squawk, they’ll live.

Libra: Four of Wands

Celebrate life and emerge victorious this month, dear Libra! You are a natural social phenomenon. Don’t forget: that is one of your best traits. Playing host and hostess and laying on the charm, chatting people up, looking good and making others feel fine – these are your gifts. Use this approach to achieve your goals this January. Consider having an open house at the home or office to boost sales and expand your network. Just because the holidays are over doesn’t mean people don’t appreciate a good time and good cheer. Turn on that smile magnet. It will pay off!

Scorpio: Ten of Cups

Reconnect to your family this month, Scorp. What many folks don’t know about you is that you are deeply sentimental underneath it all. People, pastimes, loyalty and emotional ties are super meaningful to you. It’s time for you to put a little reinvestment into your loved ones this January. Let others show their love for you and vice versa. Get a little closer to your dearest ones and enjoy the rewards of real intimacy. Have some tender moments.

Sagittarius: The Lovers

Ooh, la la! Have you been feeling a bit more amorous than usual lately, Sag? Or do you have an itch to partner up? This is a good month to make a move in that direction. Let the universe know you’re sincere about it. Dating sites could be fun, and meeting with real humans for contact and connection is even better. Keep your sense of fab humor about it all, boisterous Archer – it’s one of your best traits. Sag, you know how to have a ball – so bring in a tango partner this month!

Capricorn: Queen of Swords

We all know you like to be the boss, the responsible one. Are you making yourself clear and standing up for yourself in a no-nonsense fashion, Cappy? Don’t shy away from speaking the necessary truths. Passive aggression is not becoming to you, so be careful not to let that sneak in. Try the mature approach. If you need to fine tune your professional communication skills, especially with regard to getting along with others, now is the time to step up to the plate.

Aquarius: Five of Cups

Oh, Aquarius – you’ve got the Five of Cups again this January. Don’t despair! There is something you are still in the process of letting go, that’s all. Don’t ever forget that little deaths and endings are a part of life. Your birthday time is almost here – from January 20 – so shine your little heart light of faith that whatever you’re working through is about preparing the ground for your real new birthday beginning. Remember to make a gratitude list: try listing at least ten things that you are grateful for. Keep it in perspective.

Pisces: Knight of Swords

Get a move on, Fish! You’re raring to start the new year and it doesn’t really matter what action you take: just do it! You will be invigorated by trying anything, really. Speak up, speak out, and charge ahead. Don’t hold back, and don’t give a hoot about doing anything perfectly either. Haven’t you heard that perfection is the enemy of the good? It’s also the enemy of creativity. The important thing now is to get the show on the road. Onward!