A healing message about the U.S. election

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Before I went to sleep last night, I tuned into the planet, my clients and the community. I knew I had to get real clear, real fast about the election results. I needed to fully align with spirit, truth, and love immediately, to ensure that I could be as supportive and helpful as possible when the fallout of this election began to rain down...

Here are the things that came to me in meditation, and I share them with you. They apply today, and they need to be practiced for the coming weeks, months or years.

1.       Stay in PRESENT TIME. Stay in the NOW.

We need to manage our anxiety, and not let fear overtake us. Anxiety feeds off of future-tripping, ruminating and dwelling on the past. If we are totally, 100% in the Now, there is immediate seeing that the Self, in the Ground of Being, is OK. Even if there is crisis afoot, the Self in present time will be able to make healthy, wise choices. No matter what, there is a sanctuary within that you can rest in. Do whatever practice or method or teaching you must in order to stay in the Now. We must wake up and drop the addiction to anxiety-producing story out there, over there. Be here. Stay in the Now.

2.       Stay GROUNDED.

What are your grounding practices? Exercise, run, walk, hike, swim. Walk on the earth. Garden. Eat healthy foods. It is VITAL to get enough sleep, not optional. Practice DEEP BREATHING. Get the air down into your belly, your abdomen, your diaphragm. Practice yoga, stretching, tai chi. Make love. Hug each other more tightly, hold hands longer. Spend time with a pet or with animals. Take a hot bath or shower. Reduce anxiety within you and around you. Simplify. Monitor screen time. Get off the computer. Go outside. Massage your feet. Meditate on the spot, at the drop of a hat. Center yourself. Drop in to yourself.

3.       MONITOR INPUT. Reduce time spent listening to, watching or reading the News.

Yes, it’s good to be informed. To get the facts. But we must keep it in serious check right now. The anxiety that comes flooding in by over-stimulating newscasts, commentaries, and dramatic storylines is destructive in large amounts. Step away, take breaks. Turn it off. You are part of an ecosystem. Remember: garbage in = garbage out. Process what you’ve taken in before you imbibe further.

4.       BUILD COMMUNITY

Truly be with friends, neighbors, families, housemates. This is the time to join together. To appreciate the color of our nation, the marginalized groups, the rainbow and kaleidoscope of beauty around us. Celebrate diversity. It is a time of bonding. Cook together, laugh together, make music together. We need each other more than ever now. Practice kindnesses toward each other, toward strangers. Give the guy or gal next to you a leg-up.  Smile and compliment and encourage each other. Have a potluck for your block. Come together.

5.       Express JOY and GRATITUDE

Dysfunction and ignorance want others to be brought down, to wallow in the same quagmire. Don’t fall prey to negative thinking and destructive, hateful tendencies. Keep the vibration UP, UP, UP. Keep living, loving, laughing. In our household, we started a new practice immediately this morning on an erasable white board in the kitchen. We have written “TODAY I AM GRATEFUL FOR…” and each of us are writing three things a day that bring us joy and appreciation. Take a look around at how incredibly abundant you are. Maybe you have all of your arms and legs, you are healthy, you have a friend, you have a meal in your belly, you had a good cup of coffee, you are a kind person. Find that gratitude and grow it.

6.       Heal the greater family ECOSYSTEM.

This is the really important one to get. We are in a situation that resembles a dysfunctional family. If we wake up and see the problem, coming out of denial, we can heal and get better. Maybe some people will have to hit bottom, which is sad, but it doesn’t have to take you down with it. By staying healthy, you will be less susceptible to being taken in by the illness, and getting sick yourself. Realize that you have to change your own actions and take personal responsibility. Keep the focus on yourself and what you do have control over. Pointing fingers and blaming will do no good.

Strengthen your own emotional, physical, mental immune system. Resist cancerous, toxic elements. Understand that there are lots of families and ecosystems all over the world that have had to deal with a poisonous or destructive presence and still overcame. This is no different. The United States is also a system. The rest of the elements must get stronger in order to continue thriving and stay in balance. Today’s election marks a disruption to our homeostasis. It is as if the great volcano Vesuvius blew, or the great flood arose. In response we now build together, protecting our cherished treasures of love, nature, diversity, compassion. Individually, we must do our part. Together, we thrive.

Stay focused on the solution, NOT the problem.  Commit to staying grounded, in the Now. Don’t buy into the fear. Manage anxiety. Cultivate joy, community, gratitude. As Thich Nhat Hanh says, “No mud, no lotus.” Awakening, beauty, and truth can all emerge from this election when we change our perception. Make the choice now, and commit to healing.

As I write this, I hear school children playing in the neighborhood school grounds. They are laughing. The sun is shining, the autumn leaves are rustling in the breeze…

These kiddos are alive, vibrant, thriving. Like these children, who need us, we must remain strong and healthy and keep building.

Flourish and heal, dear friends. Flourish and heal.

 

Erin Reese is an author, spiritual guide, astrologer, and modern psychic reader based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with clients all over the world. For readings and spiritual counseling by Skype, phone or email, contact her directly. She can be reached at erin@erinreese.com.

NO MUD, NO LOTUS: "Both suffering and happiness are of an organic nature, which means they are both transitory; they are always changing. The flower, when it wilts, becomes the compost. The compost can help grow a flower again. Happiness is also organic and impermanent by nature." ~Thich Nhat Hanh

“Are we part of the solution or part of the pollution?” ~ Michael Franti

New Moon in Scorpio: The Alchemy of Death

No new life can arise, say the alchemists, without the death of the old.

They liken the art to the work of the sower, who buries the grain in the earth:

it dies only to waken to new life.

~ Carl Jung

Today, October 30, we have a New Moon in Scorpio, most potent water sign of transformation. Here we have our allies the great serpent eagle and the phoenix rising from the ashes. A perfect fit for this Halloween-Samhain and Dia de los Muertos honoring of death and rebirth. Wise witches, healers, and alchemists know it is far less painful to embrace an inevitable disintegration process, than to resist it.

At this autumnal dark of the new moon, we may observe and experience important things falling away: people, relationships, ways of life. And the more we can even ‘settle in’ with the death and dying process, the easier and – daresay – more relaxing it becomes. Maybe not enjoyable, but probably more full-filling or meaning-full. Satisfying. Ripe.

When something dies, it is often overly ripe, far past its sell-by date. The German word reife relates to ripe, meaning maturity. Extract to the English word rife, which means unchecked or in a widespread manner. If something is overly ripe, and resists the death process, it is putrid, rotting, uncontrolled. Rife can cause damage, like a virus or cancer. Pruning occurs to reduce the chance of overly ripe things running amok. Balance is restored. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, we awaken again to everlasting life through the death process.

I know: All this is simple, on paper, but to remember it when someone we love is in the dying process, or when our cherished intimate relationship is ending, or our professional life is taking a walloping turn – well, that’s another story. It is at these times, that the ancient principles of alchemy can help, with its motto "solve et coagula (dissolve and coagulate)". Two of the key alchemical stages signified by our New Moon in Scorpio are putrefactio and mortifactio.

The Putrefactio

The process of putrefactio is a transition stage. A gate, a station of decomposition. The matter itself is literally rotting. We know not what lies on the other side of the door. It is a secret, a mystery. One senses power and potential energy on the other side, a garden of delights. But the transition through the portal requires a trust to endure great shadow, to not bolt during this stage when all is in decay. We rely on the ancients, the seers, and our contemporary mentors and guides. Even our selves-as-teachers, who have already lived through various forms of the death process before. These previous experiences remind us that we do live on. Yes, changed in form, and garnered with hard-earned wisdom.

Solve et Coagula: Dissolve and Coagulate

In the mortifactio, we are reminded that the final death knell can be mortifying, bringing us to our knees. We experience the mourning during the blackest and the bleakest. The sensation of grief, whether pre- or post-bereavement, can feel like the wind has been completely sucked out of us. We are empty, deflated, and the world is on hold. Close cousins with depression and anger – totally normal reactions, by the way – the mortificatio stage can last for months or even years.

It is a soul-driven process, and the rational mind does what it can to move it along. Alas, the extent of the enmeshment or identification with the person or situation that is no more, may require a good long work of disentangling to make sense of the matter. Meaning-making returns to reclaim the pieces of Self that were projected onto the lost object. Healthy grieving is invaluable, filled with power as the soul does what it must to clear the ground for what is to come.

Navigating the mourning, the mortifactio, is deep work requiring great courage. It may require a guide, a person who has gone before and is familiar with the terrain of the cremation grounds. But even without a helper or wise teacher, the miraculous force of Life itself will naturally lead a soul to new ground, to plant a seed, and start again. Fresh compost tops the soil, the ripeness is now a readiness to receive the seed and eventually bear new fruit. But first we must endure and respect the alchemical stages of putrefactio and mortifactio.

Honoring, even celebrating the transition – the transformation – is the secret magic and the message of this New Moon in Scorpio.

Erin Reese is an author, spiritual guide, astrologer, and modern psychic reader based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with clients all over the world. For readings and spiritual counseling by Skype, phone or email, contact her directly. She can be reached at erin@erinreese.com.

Further Reading:

• Experiencing the Mortificatio: Jung on Grief, Grieving and Mourning by Sue Mertens
• The Principles of the Yoga Philosophy of the Rosicrucians and Alchemists

Full Moon in Aries: Peaceful Warriors

The truth will set you free but first it will piss you off. 
 ~ Gloria Steinem, Sun in Aries

This weekend, we have a Full Moon in Aries - our red-hot, Mars-ruled sign of the Warrior. We can use the fuel of the red planet Mars to get moving, correct imbalances and inequalities. The Sun is still shining in the sign of the Scales, Jupiter is fully in his Libra groove, and social justice is ever more highlighted on the personal and world stage. The U.S. Election, Black Lives Matter, Climate Change, Anti-Bullying awareness… people are talking, motivating, and speaking up right, left, and center.

Our Full Moon is tightly conjunct Uranus in Aries, revolutionary change agent. This is a social justician’s Moon. Do you have a boss or a politician, a system or an organization that is pushing you around? October is National Bullying Prevention Month. Just say NO to bullying in all its insidious forms. Take action. You can be smart about it. You can write an anonymous letter to the editor, take a concern to the HR department, to the CEO. Speak up and tell the truth. Now is the time.

You know that sickly feeling in the pit of your stomach, called disgust, that indicates you’re being used, abused, taken by a ruse? Well, that discomfort simply won’t let up until you get in gear, gather the details, compile the data. Are others feeling the same way? Encourage them to exhibit great self-care, and also speak up for themselves. Only when we are in it together will a larger difference be made.

Activists Need Rest, Too

Driving home on October 10, Columbus Day aka Indigenous Peoples' Day, I flipped on KPFA 94.1, a Berkeley, CA station just to see what was goin’ down in ‘community-powered’ radio land. It happened to be the hour of Hard Knock Radio – a hip-hop daily show. The host, Davey D., was interviewing artist and activist Karega Bailey, a leading voice of Black Lives Matter in Oakland. Just as I tuned in, Karega was saying, “You can’t be on the front lines 24/7. You take a break and you heal!” That got my attention.

Concerning teaching urban youth at an inner city school, Bailey wisely spoke of the importance of restoring the mind and body in order to make the most impact: “I have to be well enough to love [the kids]... I have to be well enough to go in there with an abundance of love...that’s what our young folks need – right? Before they get the theories and what’s goin’ on, they need to be filled with love. So being an educator, activist, artist I realized how important self-care was gonna be to my longevity of showing them that it’s worth it!”

Yes, it is worth it, my brother and sister. Staying in good shape ourselves, we can make a difference. Sleep well, rest up. Eat good food, share it with your loved ones. Watch a comedy show and laugh, lighten up. Smile at the trees and their changing colors, sing with the birds, feel the love in your tender, open heart. Take it easy, come out strong. Clear in mind, invigorated in body. That’s the Self-Care approach to healthy activism.

On the playground, at home, in the office, and on the world political stage, this Full Moon feel the fire and the fury of the peaceful warrior(ess). Get up, stand up. Stand up for your rights. Don’t give up the fight.

APROPOS ~ This Just In!
Songwriter Bob Dylan wins Nobel Prize for Literature

Bob Dylan and Joan Baez

Come gather 'round people where ever you roam
And admit that the waters around you have grown
And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone,
For the times they are a' changin'.

Erin Reese is an author, spiritual guide, astrologer, and modern psychic reader based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with clients all over the world. For readings and spiritual counseling by Skype, phone or email, contact her directly. She can be reached at erin@erinreese.com.

New Moon in Libra: Jupiter's Gifts

This Friday we celebrate the New Moon in the cardinal air sign of Libra, bringing our attention to justice, balance, fairness, and grace. At this time, the great benefactor Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, is just getting ramped up on his one-year journey through the sign of Libra (September 9, 2016 until October 10, 2017). Jupiter is closely conjunct this New Moon, unfurling his evolutionary message for all to receive.

Jupiter aka Jove aka Zeus at his best is our generous uncle who brings us big presents with his huge presence, his grand largesse. This means that wherever Libra is in our chart, we can get ready to expand, grow, receive gifts. Fantastic! Yet like most events astrological and cosmological, we must look out for signs and keep our antennae attuned. Remember: Luck is preparedness meets opportunity.

Jupiter is also known as the guru or teacher planet. The generous one often knows better than we do, what is good for us. So pay attention to what he is offering!

In the sign of Libra, the themes may have to do with updating our contracts, spoken and unspoken, written or unwritten. This could be our social contracts, our relationship with society or institutions. It could involve the way you do business, the way you express yourself with others, the way you relate to your lover, spouse, friend. Whatever is being highlighted, you won’t be able to ignore the push for growth, for learning, for – ahem – that five-letter word ‘change.’ Jupiter stretches us in order to evolve.

As a taster and teaser, I’ve put together a list of zodiac signs, along with a hint of how Jupiter’s expansion might stretch your life. You may wish to read your Sun, Moon, and Rising Sign. In fact, the Rising Sign will be the best indicator of this transit’s influence.

Since we are on the topic of stretching and expanding, as a treat I’m including a yoga pose (asana) that I intuitively sense will assist you as you grow into Jupiter’s current teachings for your sign. Try it out, and have fun contemplating your growth and evolution while you practice.

Jupiter in Libra: Yoga Asana by Zodiac Sign

Aries: You are expanding in the area of partnerships. New revisions, agreements are highlighted. Contracts are favored, legal disputes will be successful. Yoga asana: Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II)

Taurus: Jupiter wants you to expand your daily habits. Do more in your regular activities to stay in balance. Your health should thrive and your job should bring you happiness. Yoga asana: Tree Pose (Vrksasana)

Gemini: Play! Expand your berth (but not your girth!). Flirt! Go out to shows. Dress in costume. Have a great time. Throw romance in! Yoga asana: Bird of Paradise (Svarga Dvijasana)

Cancer: Focus on your home. Things are improving there. Good luck in real estate, rental agreements, roommates. Foundations. Yoga asana: Squat (Malasana)

Leo: Grow your local community. Talk to your neighbors. Be seen in your ‘hood. Make yourself known to folks. Get the word out to those in your daily life. Yoga asana: Warrior I (Virabhadrasana I)

Virgo: Expand your earning capacity! Build up your wealth and reserves. Money is good right now. Be grateful and don’t overspend. Yoga asana: Chair pose (Uktatasana)

Libra: You are making your presence known to the world and to your own self. Watch your waistline! Sometimes having Jupiter in your First House can mean that it is actually YOU that grows. Focus on the new you. Yoga asana: Easy pose (Sukhasana)

Scorpio: You are protected spiritually. Even when you don’t know what to do, you have a guardian angel or an aura of light surrounding you. Trust the process and let go. Yoga asana: Legs up the wall (Viparita Karani)

Sagittarius: Expand your network, grow your global community. Disseminate all the good wisdom you’ve stored up and connect to your friend base. The world needs to hear more of and from you. Yoga asana: Half-Moon Pose (Ardha Chandrasana)

Capricorn: Succeed. Attain your ambition through taking on more responsibility and a bigger role. Shine your light and take a big leap in your career. Yoga asana: Warrior III (Virabhadrasana II)

Aquarius: The world is looking to you as teacher and philosopher. Travel further and wider, break rules and teach us how to do the same. Yoga asana: Fierce Goddess Pose (Utkata Konasana)

Pisces: It’s time for a reinvention, rebirth and rising up from the ashes. Transformation is being supported right now. While you go through the metamorphosis, you will be shedding lots and lots of old skin. Yoga asana: Cobra pose (Bhujangasana)

If the pose offered is too advanced, feel free to find another one that expresses the qualities of Jupiter presented. Enjoy the play of the cosmos expressed on your yoga mat, and honor the guru within you!

  

Erin Reese is an author, spiritual guide, astrologer, and modern psychic reader based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with clients all over the world. For readings and spiritual counseling by Skype, phone or email, contact her directly. She can be reached at erin@erinreese.com.