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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The Gemini-Sag Eclipses: Be Crazy Dumbsaint of Mind

Holy Fool in Convertible on New England Coast

These are wild times, eclipse days. Many of us felt the recent Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in Sagittarius like being in a washing machine on ultra-spin cycle. Sagittarius – expanding our view, stretching us even further beyond the beyond. And now, we gear up for the New Moon solar eclipse on June 10 in the mutable air sign of Gemini. Whew, another wild card en route!

Yakety-yak, don’t talk back – or DO talk back. Gemini Twin energies want us to keep talking, writing, dialoguing with self and other. We need new information, and we need to think critically (remember that?) about what we are reading, imbibing, hearing. How do you know what you read or hear is True? Because your heart, gut, intuition give you a green light. How do you know if what you read or hear or even think is false? Because, if you give yourself a second to sit with it, you’ll feel a subtle or strong feeling of disgust, heaviness, repulsion, insidious anxiety. Allow serenity to be your barometer to Truth. And, that doesn’t mean you are never angry, sad, frustrated, upset. These are gifts, pointers to Truth as well.Simply remember that peace is the ultimate root underneath it all.

Another theme with Gemini/Sag eclipses is dissemination of information, through books and travel and movement, long and short distances. Where are you being moved to gather new inspiration? Are your mental moorings needing to be loosened, freed? Are you, as Kerouac wrote, allowing yourself to “be crazy dumbsaint of mind”? As we gear up for next week’s New Moon Solar Eclipse, we might have a chance of enjoying, loving, laughing and easing through it by cultivating our HOLY FOOL archetype.

Pilgrimages to Cultivate Your Holy Fool

Recently, my Beloved and I took a trip to the East Coast for a family wedding on the Maine coast (see Exhibit A: Holy Fool in Convertible). We also spent time in Boston and Western Mass. I took the opportunity to make many a literary pilgrimage to bless my Book Baby. I took my new book Truth Seeker to all of these sites to request the spirit of writers whom I admire to imbue the book with their love and to show them what their inspiration contributed to! Thoreau, Dickinson, Emerson – and most importantly, to me – Kerouac.

I invite you to make large and small pilgrimages to sites and spots that symbolize that which inspire you, that you want to amplify. Pilgrimages are powerful nods to the personal and collective psyche. I wanted to not only enhance my own connection to these writers’ work, I was remembering the metaphysical principle that “as we do one thing, we do all things.” We are not separate. My visitation to these sites was not just for me, for Truth Seeker – it was for YOU, too. I wish for YOU to keep reading, learning, thinking CRITICALLY and questioning the mainstream narrative. To keep digging in deeper. To keep jumping off your cliffs, and diving in to deeper evolutionary waters. Tell yourself the truth. What do you KNOW? What do you most need to admit to yourself? Even if you don’t consider yourself a writer, or barely journal – you can use the principle of journalistic observation to tell yourself the Truth about how you feel, what you sense about the world, the cosmos, Consciousness within and without.

For this reason, I made an effort to visit these great masters of the written word.

#1 Parker House Hotel in Boston, MA, where Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathanial Hawthorne et al gathered to discuss topics of the day and their Transcendentalist writing. Parker House is the oldest running hotel in Boston and an historical hotspot, no doubt. Erin’s key inspiration in high school: Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” (1854) – a treatise on individuation; highly recommend.

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” - Emerson

Walden Pond, Concord, MA

 #2 Walden Pond in Concord, MA to pay respects to Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862). Literary pilgrimage, asking for blessings for my new book from this great Transcendentalist and early environmentalist advocating simple living; Thoreau was of course a disciple of Emerson and author of "Civil Disobedience."

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

-Walden; or Life In the Woods, 1854

#3 Paying respects at the Amherst, MA grave the great poetess Emily Dickinson, way ahead of her time. She inspires me in her depth of wisdom and clarity and soul. If you're a fan, I recommend watching The Belle of Amherst (1976) with Tony winner Julie Harris.  Streaming on Kanopy with your library subscription. 

Here’s another I drool over:

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church – 236

I keep it, staying at Home –

With a Bobolink for a Chorister –

And an Orchard, for a Dome –

 

Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice –

I, just wear my Wings –

And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,

Our little Sexton – sings.

 

God preaches, a noted Clergyman –

And the sermon is never long,

So instead of getting to Heaven, at last –

I’m going, all along.

-Emily Dickinson, 1864

 

#4 THE CRESCENDO. At the Lowell, MA grave of Jack Kerouac. “The road is life.” Bless you, Ti Jean.

I am a Beat Lit freak. Kerouac is a cornerstone, yet just the tip of the iceberg. I devour it all – Kerouac, Burroughs, Ginsberg, Snyder, and the women Beats Joyce Johnson, Diane Di Prima, Patti Smith, JoAnne Kyger – these are my people. Spontaneous Bop Prosody. Allow Consciousness to do the writing.

We placed a cig for Jack on the grave, next to my book and the empty minis of tequila others had left. Inspiration: Belief and Technique for Modern Prose – must read! Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind.

As I said, pilgrimages are beyond recognized spiritual spots. It can be a coffee shop where you first met your lover. A chaparral trail where you saw your first phainopepla. Any place where magic has occurred. Where your hero/heroine was born, walked, loved, ate, taught, died. Your psyche, your soul will know – you are connected. Let Gemini move your feet to the beat.

Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind. Your Consciousness will live forever, for it is not separate from All That Is, and Ever Was and Ever Will Be.

All my love,

Erin
 

BOOK REPORT!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I’ve been busy with my book launch, which turned out GREAT. If you were there, THANK YOU. I appreciate the support! It was a lot of fun, and I was totally astounded by the geographical range of turnout. The two live Zoom calls, celebrating the birth of my book, Truth Seeker: A Spiritual Adventure of Love, Loss, and Liberation, had folks from the following places (among others!) in true Full Moon in Sagittarius international spirit:

 

Croatia

London, England

Glastonbury, UK

Berlin, Germany

Essen, Germany

The Netherlands

Malaysia

Bali, Indonesia

Japan

NY, NY

Philadelphia, PA

Portland, OR

San Francisco

Los Angeles

Joshua Tree

Santa Fe, NM

Tucson, AZ

Phoenix, AZ

Costa Rica

Oakland/East Bay

Mallorca, Spain

Chicago, IL

Portugal

Lake Tahoe, CA

Baton Rouge, LA

Florida

Sacramento, CA

Houston, TX

 

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 Washington State:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is alive!

Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2021

This story is an energetic and forthright articulation of a personal journey written in easy flowing prose. The narrative flows outward from the pages and engages one's deeper attention in a subtle manner becoming a bridge of consciousness - as if one were bathing in her vision. It is a "living" experience pointing at the core, inexpressible truth of love and life shared from the heart.

 

Holy Fool in Convertible on the New England Coast

 

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.