Insightful eclipse season

by with 2 Comments Astrology and me

The current eclipse season has been an interesting one so far.

I know people struggling with different things and different areas of their life. And I also know that some are feeling rather inspired lately.

During this liminal space between new and full moon, in eclipse season, there is so much that we can do or become aware of. This time is a potentially powerful one, if you care to pay attention to.

What feelings have been coming up to you? What thoughts or needs are becoming insistent?

Since I finished my master’s dissertation, my time management has changed completely. The freedom to think about and learn new things has been exhilarating, until the feeling of overwhelm hit me the other day.

I’ll explain.

I was focusing a lot of my thinking on business, marketing and money mindset things. I felt I had enough of being so informal with my astrology practice, since this is the only thing I can see myself doing. For some reason, no, I am not normal and able to have a ‘side job’.

Perhaps the Scorpio rising ‘all or nothing’ attitude dictates how I do things. Perhaps not having kids or financial responsibilities of that sort enables me to. I don’t know.

What I know is that I could never just have a regular job and do my passion on my spare time. That never worked for me.

So there I was, feeling excited, learning a lot about business, and launches and money mindset, when a sudden feeling of overwhelm took me over. It was intense. So much so that I had to drop everything and go to my yoga mat and meditate.

Anything that would help me regain balance was welcomed.

And that’s when I realised the solar eclipse was happening in my twelfth house and on my natal Pluto. I was dealing with things that were deeply unconscious and part of many generations’ story in my family.

The days went by, with the intense emotional release of that day still in my awareness.

Then boom, another massive insight!

I realised that I am a highly sensitive person.

Have you heard about HSP and Elaine Aron’s work? This is such a huge game changer for me, that I will have to write a whole post about it.

For now, I just want to say, eclipse season can be powerful for insights and clarity around your path and purpose in life. Watch those intense feelings and events, they have something to tell you that can be utterly empowering. If you care to pay attention to…

Embodying the planets

by with 11 Comments Astrological InsightsAstrology and meProfessional Astrologer

Im currently writing a research project for the MA about the outsider’s perspective of astrology with a target group that came to ASHA for a training course on Holistic Education.

My search for literature review on Holistic Education turned out to be quite inspiring. Im finding many of its themes really interesting, particularly the idea that knowledge could and should be experienced through different channels, not only through the mind.

In traditional/formal sets, education is mainly connected with thinking and developing logic, but we also have our emotional bodies, our spiritual bodies as well as our physical bodies!

This quote from one of the papers I’ve read for my project summarises really well:

‘Education is longing for a deeper more connected, more inclusive, and more aware way of knowing. One that connects heart and hand and head and does not split knowledge into dualities of thought and being, mind and body, emotion and intellect, but resonates with a wholeness and fulness that engages every part of one’s being.’

With that in mind, yesterday, with the help of a lovely actress that has been coming to ASHA for a while now, I gave a session on embodied astrology to the group of EVS volunteers. I have been teaching them astrology for a while but it was the first time that I dared coming out of my comfort zone of brainy virgoan lectures into the fluidity of performance and feeling the knowledge.

The result was really positive!

I’ve been interested in experiential astrology for a long time but did not have the courage to experiment with it.

We worked with both the Sun and the Moon yesterday and after incorporating each we had a little chat and discussion about how that would personally manifest for each one of us by bringing the qualities of the star signs in, but also, a discussion about how it felt to embody each luminary.

It was very powerful and enlightening as another layer of understanding was added to our previous discussions. Even to me, who has been studying and reading charts for a number of years, it was quite mind blowing to play the planets like that.

At the end of our session I was really excited and thinking about eventually experimenting with a constellation exercise involving someone’s astrology chart, with each participant playing one of the planets of that particular chart.

I have heard of that before, I wonder if any of you have heard or experimented with it before?! Any experiences, tips or insights to share?  🙂

Saturnian growth pos Plutonic apocalypse…

by with 2 Comments Astrological InsightsAstrology and meSearch for home

Saturn is transiting around 14 degrees Capricorn and just about to form the first of 3 or 4 exact squares to my natal Moon in Libra. I can feel this transit reflecting couple of different processes within myself.

On one hand I felt the urge to communicate my need to cut down my hours at my current job as a chef so I can dedicate more of my time to what I believe is my call and vocation: astrology.  Saturn is currently transiting my second house so material issues and my values in general have been taken under consideration before I made this decision.

Interestingly, people have been in touch with me inquiring about my services, and when I was travelling in Brazil earlier this month, I had about 6 clients (plus 3 that I did not have time to see before coming back to the UK), which in a way is telling me to get back on track and follow my bliss!

(I also did a successful talk for the Psychedelic Society in Bristol at the end of November last year in which a scholar from Bristol University was present, and later on he contacted me saying how much he appreciated my talk and invited me to participate of one of his projects about paganism and well being!)

Last week I also started to go to the gym, for the first time in my life, and Im actually really enjoying it! I feel so good after exercising (I used to cycle regularly when I lived in London but not anymore since I’ve moved to the forest) that I don’t really need to eat all the sugar and comfort food that I needed in order to make me happier. It’s interesting that just the act of exercising more seems to naturally make you want to choose healthier foods. This is also a lunar theme, the daily routine and diet, which seems to be going under transformation at the moment.

Saturn in Capricorn reflects the gift of discipline and the potential to develop will power. Im doing my best to take this moment as an opportunity to strengthen and bring myself closer to the kind of life that I want to live rather than wait for people to change or opportunities to be given.

I believe this is a DIY time!

Another theme connected with the Moon in Libra is love relationships.

Me and my partner have been living together for a few months and Im realising more and more that this relationship isn’t fulfilling my needs (Moon again) and that I have been oblivious to this fact for quite some time. The feeling that I’ve been having lately is strongly motivating me to fill up the gaps myself and to move out eventually (when is the right time I suppose, I don’t really want to rush anything under a Saturn transit…).

I am not sure how this process is going to unfold, but Im feeling a strong urge not only to be self contained but also to be self motivated enough to create my own happiness instead of expecting someone else to change.

I feel like I have done my homework when Pluto was transiting my Moon and a lot of the challenges that came up were met head on. Many of my “libran” fears connected with relationships, including the fear of being alone (fear of doing things on my own, like travelling or moving houses, etc), was addressed in the last 5 or 6 years and I feel so much stronger now.

I feel that I can do anything by myself! Hah!

We shall see how things unfold, with new awareness and my commitment to the process of individuation and growth, and I hope that all of you out there are making the most of the energies available for your individuation and growth as well.

Jupiterianism and the academia.

by with No Comment Astrology and meProfessional Astrologer

This is a strong Jupiterian time for me.

Transiting Jupiter is making an exact conjunction to my ascendant, while transiting Saturn is conjunct my natal Jupiter.

Interestingly, my Solar Arc Venus has just moved into Scorpio and is forming a conjunction to my natal Pluto in the 12th house. I have been aware of this change for a long time and wondered what would that be reflecting in practical terms.

I thought maybe a crisis in my relationship, falling in love with someone else, an obsessive passion of some kind, perhaps my partner would fall in love with someone else.

It turns out, at least for now, that the obsession that Im getting myself into is actually researching the esoteric in the academia!

Jupiter in my chart rules the 2nd, 5th house and the South Node and I remember in 2009/2010, when transiting Pluto was conjunct my Jupiter, I had a sort of “awakening” regarding my interest in the occult.

I started researching it more deeply.

It was when I learned how to read tarot cards, when I got in touch with Jungian ideas for the first time, when I started understanding astrology with more depth.

Both Saturn and Pluto in Scorpio (the sign connected with the Occult) are placed in the 12th house in my chart and I think about Gaquelin’s connection of Saturn in the 12th with research (he says this placement is common in Scientists).

I have started a master degree in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology (slowly, as a part time Postgraduate certificate student first) and the amount of (academic) reading that I have done already is quite incredible.

Transiting Pluto, after the last hit to my natal Moon (which, by the way, rules the 9th house of higher education in my chart), made its way to my 3rd house (of reading, writing, ideas, etc) and it is going to be there for quite a while now. My progressed moon has moved into the 3rd also and transiting Saturn will move there sometime next year.

I can sense how much the intellectual stimulation, by exposing myself to academic work on the esoteric and the classics (Im currently reading Plato’s Timaeus for this week’s discussion in class), will have an impact on how I think and communicate, without even mentioning the impact on my work as an astrologer.

I know this journey is going to be really powerful and it is so exciting that a lot of the time I feel like screaming inside.

I think this is a good sign…

In between worlds

by with 7 Comments Astrology and meInner lifeSearch for home

Im on a haze.

It has been challenging to concentrate in the last couple of months and again I find myself struggling to keep up with my writing.

The full super blue blood moon eclipse on the 31 of January at 11 degrees Leo/Aquarius (bang on my MC/IC) has been truly intense.

It culminated with me finding out that I got the job at the Forest of Dean and everything in my life (regarding home and belonging) changes once more.

I am happy… and although surprisingly busy with astrology work, I just can’t seem to be able to focus a hundred per cent in my career at this moment.

Readings and lectures are going quite well but my process of change and becoming is taking over for now. The whole Pluto-Moon stuff that has been happening within me still going strong.

I would love to be doing and writing more, but there doesn’t seem to be much separation between my process of growth and the services that I can offer people. And at the moment, growth and change takes me over.

I have been reading a lot about greek mythology and psychology though, and have a strong feeling regarding a master course on the subject.

We will see.

For now, Im in between worlds. And that’s that.

Acceptance.

 

Travels again..

by with 2 Comments Astrology and meInner lifeProfessional AstrologerTrip

I have been traveling for quite a bit this month.

Even though all that I can think of and feel truly excited about is dedicating myself to my work and career, I couldn’t refuse the opportunity to go away for a little.

Im in Barcelona visiting my brother. (And managing to work from here.)

I had one client two days ago and today have another one for an astrology reading.

The feeling of freedom is incredible when you work for yourself!

I also feel that the time is ripe for me as I witness many different opportunities opening up.

Transiting Jupiter is making its last conjunction to my natal Moon and at the same time my progressed Moon in Capricorn is approaching a conjunction to my natal Jupiter.

A double whammy that propelled me to take the opportunity and travel.

Buddhafield was also incredible. Once more (like in the previous year) I had a very powerful experience of healing and profound exchanges with people. (I also managed to do some work there!)

Different than last year though, Pluto’s square to my natal Moon wasn’t exact anymore (the transit is beginning to move away now, even if slowly..) and I could feel the difference internally (also externally with all the changes that have occurred in my life).

More solidity and sturdiness, less destruction and feeling the void within.

The void has actually somehow become the gravity centre that allows me to be present..

Pain(s) and beauty(s) of self-employment..

by with 9 Comments Astrology and meProfessional Astrologer

Im having a bit of an issue getting in touch with a client that still has to pay for my service and doesn’t get back to me.

And I wonder, has every astrologer/freelancer gone through something similar?! Do we have to ask for guarantees beforehand and mistrust people’s sense of integrity?

Maybe this person is very busy… with a very sick mother.. and/or the telephone sank in the toilet.. who knows?!

To be honest isn’t even the lack of payment that bothers me, but the potential lack of respect.

Anyways, apart from this situation, things are developing well for me.

I have recently set up another talk at the same spot here in Bristol and feel excited about it. The first one went pretty well and I felt so energised afterwards.. also with great feedback from people.

Public speaking seems to be a very strong part of my call and I am looking forward to doing more and more of it.

With my progressed Moon currently in Capricorn I am finding great pleasure in getting on with “To do” lists like never before.

More fun than dancing or having idle time… very appreciative of increasing productivity at the moment ..

A sense of calling..

by with No Comment Inner lifeProfessional Astrologer

I just felt the need to come here and write for a bit.

Is already 12:31 AM and Im having trouble sleeping.

Im not sure exactly what is going on but I definitely feel charged with an extra amount of energy which I need dispelling..

Today was sort of a day off that I have given myself (even though I have worked a little on my blog) but now I am rolling in bed from one side to another having astrological ideas and mini insights.

I am currently reading James Hillman’s “The soul’s code – In search of character and calling” and can’t stop thinking about the idea of having a “daimon”. The author is basically defending the hypotheses that we are all born with an intrinsic call, a soul or spirit guidance, to become something.

He calls this “the acorn theory”, “which proposes that each life is formed by a particular image, an image that is the essence of that life and calls it to a destiny, just as the mighty oak’s destiny is written in the tiny acorn”.

I am thinking about that in relation to astrology, in one sense about how astrology can be helpful in finding the thread of our “destiny” (what we were born to be according to the archetypes in our charts), but also in the context of my life and my own calling.

Yesterday’s talk was truly refreshing and inspiring.

It felt like I belonged there in that place of sharing insight/knowledge/stories. It was like actualising something strong and deeper, something somehow bigger than just a desire to be a teacher.

Im not sure if I can convey in words that certainty, that feeling of somehow being back home and revelling in my element.

It felt great though.

Now, at this peculiar “insomnian” sleepless moment to me, I can’t help but have ideas for the next talk that I want to do….!