June 2012 Astrological Update

June 4th, 2012

This month starts off with a bang with a Full Moon, Lunar Eclipse on June 4th, 14º 13′ Sagittarius seen only in Eastern Asia, Australia and in the western portion of North America.

This Super full moon (last in a series of three), packs a punch with the duality of Gemini Sun and Sagittarius Moon, asking us to Walk our Talk in life situations. Once again we have a box in the heavens, (MC and Mars both square Sun and Moon), accented with Mars exactly square Venus.

These aspects do not bode well for our relationships, so watch out for conflict with authority, emotional issues with boss and family, unconscious habits surfacing and irking others, arguing, impulsive behavior, anger, and frustration.   Although you may be tempted to simply stay in bed and shut off your phone and computer, please note that Mars will stay in a close orb with Venus from June 1-12, making it difficult for you to escape your relationship issues entirely.

Hopefully the Venus/Sun conjunction will help to temper things a bit and keep you optimistically confident that all will be well. Later that day Neptune goes retrograde until November 11 of this year, helping us to move inward and work on our spirituality by dissolving old, rigid structures we have blindly depended on.

Two days later on June 6th, Venus occults the Sun in a rare eclipse.  Many see this alignment as realigning us with the Divine Solar Feminine and helping to birth a new consciousness for humanity.  While connecting our mind with our heart, Venus in Gemini will also help us reassess our beliefs toward this new paradigm.
Throughout the month Uranus and Pluto are in a tight square, continuing to push your core issues to the surface.  Jupiter moves into Gemini on June 12th for the next year,  reinforcing June’s lunar eclipse, Summer Solstice is on June 20th, and Saturn turns Directon June 25th helping you to organize projects that have been on hold.The New Moon falls on June 19th at 28º 43′ Gemini. Here we have Mars (squaring) and Saturn/Neptune (trining) the Sun and Moon, along with Venus retrograde in an exact sextile to Uranus.  It is another New Moon featuring the polarization in the world.  Do you choose to create chaos with your emotions or do you embrace the new paradigm of Love, cooperation and a sense of responsibility to the collective?

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Unconditional Love

June 4th, 2012

We are all familiar with Personal Love as a deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection we have toward people, pets, or treasured items in our lives. Often used as a term of endearment, we usually see personal love as an intense, emotional attachment or attraction to those we care about. However, when we hold grudges against others, and concentrate on suffering, we hinder the effectiveness of our love in relationships, as well as, our own wellbeing.

If we allow ourselves to focus on Divine or Unconditional Love, we can learn to look at our glass of life, as being half full, instead of being half empty, and to release the need to emote and feel anger, jealousy, envy and greed. Pure, Unconditional Love, works without expectation, or attachment to the outcome, and asks for nothing in return.   It’s radiant light can resist and overcome every other energy it encounters, for it is the binding force of the universe.

So how do we bridge the gap between Personal Love and Unconditional Love? The first step in this mighty process is learning how to love and accept yourself for who you are. The second step is to expect love in your life, in all your relationships, and with everyone else you encounter. Here we must remember the Universal Law that says energy follows thought. If we think it, it will happen!   Finding goodness in others will help you achieve your own goals, by attracting the same to you. The third step is to work for the highest good of all, by surrendering all your expectations to Spirit.

Obviously, you will need to do an enormous amount of innerwork to find true, Unconditional Love in your life. However, an exercise I have found most valuable in shifting my vibration and consciousness is to silently or verbally chant Divine Love for five minutes to an indefinite amount of time. You will be amazed at how quickly your mood shifts to one of peace, and the outcome of any situation becomes favorable to all concerned. When we have Love in our heart, life becomes a joy to behold!

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Totem Animal: Fox

June 4th, 2012

The other afternoon as I was sitting out on my deck amongst my flower garden, waiting for a client to arrive, I spotted a fox walking out of the woods. “It’s a fox!”, I whispered out loud.   Probably 40 feet away, the fox’s acute hearing picked up my voice.  Stopping momentarily, he turned his head in my direction , and then resumed his walk down my driveway.

As you may know, the fox is an evening and twilight creature so it is a rare sight to see one during the daytime.  A fox’s magic can teach us the art of camouflage, invisibility and shapeshifting, and these skills may help us to go with the flow in our rapidly changing times,  work behind the scenes and be unnoticed as we observe others.

Because the fox is a guardian of our daily twilight times, it can help us to connect with the fairy realms.  The quality of a foxes tail, it’s gait and under belly fur all reflect the feminine and creative life force in all things.

If fox has popped up in your life, it may be time to reexamine or address how you are working with others and connect more with the feminine parts of your nature.

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Myths and Storytelling

June 4th, 2012

The most ancient form of myth-making began not as a verbal tale, but as a cave or canyon painting and petroglyph. Some of these First Stories can be seen in France, Australia, Northern Africa and the Americas depicting shamanic rituals, hunting patterns and how to world was made.

Seen as sacred stories, myths are usually linked in some way to the spirituality of an ancient people. Through the generations, their priests or tribal storytellers would memorize, retell and pass down their community’s history, important values, ethics, and cosmology. In this way, ancient societies were able to reenact and return to their mythological beginnings and be at one with the cosmos.

Want to see and hear how this works?  Check out this three minute film on the story of Truth.

 

About the Author…
 Barbara-Lynn Freed has over twenty years experience in Shamanism and teaches a 3 year Shamanic apprenticeship called Resurrecting the Old Ways:  Walking the Land & Honoring the Spirits in Right Relationship.  To find out more about this program and how to sign-up visit her website.

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May 2012 ~ Astrological Update

May 1st, 2012

The Planetary Highlight this month is Venus as it goes Retrograde on May 15th and lingers there until June 27th. This indicates a time of going inward and working on your inner beauty, and how to better relate to those you love.  Because you may be feeling a little insecure and awkward while relating to others it’s probably best not to pursue romance at this time.

The Full Moon on May 5th, 16º Scorpio 01′ promises to be a mixed bag of energies. A heavenly box represents the low road and will create a lot of tension (Mars square N. Node, square Neptune/Chiron, square S. Node, square Mars), so watch out for anxiety as you move through the day. But beware…if you allow frustration and irritation to get the best of you, being out of synch with everyone else will be the norm. Adding to the fray, Mercury opposing Saturn may hold you down with defensiveness and depression that can prevent you from recognizing opportunities.

In polarity, we find Jupiter conjoining Sun, Pluto sextile Moon and trine Mars, with Uranus quincunx Mars. This combination of aspects gives us a positive outlook and help to accomplish our aims by focusing on the good of the whole, while learning how to act quickly and independently without being rebellious or provoking others. By taking the high road, Pluto shows us how to regenerate our vitality, and personal lives through constructive action, and by replacing old emotional patterns with new ones.

The New Moon and Solar Eclipse occurs on May 20th at  0º Gemini 21′ at 7:23 pm. EST. Although we will not see the eclipse on the east coast, its path will cover parts of China, Japan, California/Oregon border, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

This eclipse has brought a lot of attention from New Agers who feel it is a grand portal to a new consciousness, to Apocalypse mongers who see it as the beginning of the world’s doom. Although everyone has the right to an opinion, let’s look at the astrology for a more pragmatic and balanced interpretation.

The term eclipse means releasing or taking away. When we have a New Moon, Solar Eclipse we are releasing old patterns and bringing in new ones in a very dynamic way. So eclipses can serve as a catalyst for change in the world and in our personal lives. Those of you who have planets, or angular points (Ascendant, Descendant, Nadir, Midheaven) close to 0 degrees Gemini will be affected the most. Planetary aspects to this degree of Gemini will also be affected.

Being an Air sign, this Gemini, New Moon, Solar Eclipse is showing us that we need to adjust our attitudes in some way for clear sailing. With retrograde Venus in the mix, looking at our values, how we relate to others, and our financial concerns in a new light helps to shift our consciousness.

With sobering Saturn being trine to Venus, and quincunx to Mercury and Jupiter, we are asked to reevaluate how we feel about the needs of others less fortunate than ourselves, overcome pessimism, develop a sense of humor, and participate in the exploration of new ideas.

Jupiter conjoining Sun, Moon and Mercury attracts good luck when we are concerned for the good of all. But with Neptune square the Sun and Moon we must be careful not to give in to delusions of grandeur and loose our grip on reality.

Both the Full and New Moons this month are certainly pointing out the polarization in our culture today.  Will you cling to the old ways with temper tantrums and only self-concern, or will you turn the other cheek and welcome in the new regime? 

The choice is yours!

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Nabta Playa ~ Oldest Known Astronomical Observatory

May 1st, 2012

Part of a large archaeological complex, Nabta Playa’s oldest ruins date back 11,000 years to pre-dynastic Egypt, while it’s megalithic, astronomical observatory, 1000 years older than Stonehenge, dates to 7500 years ago. Astrophysicist, Thomas G. Brophy, Ph.D, has studied the complexities of its eight mile wide, 1.8 mile long ancient planetarium.

According to Brophy’s extensive research the ancients encoded the Orion star grouping into the layout of its thirteen-foot stone circle, as well as Sighting Stones for the rising and setting summer solstice sun. Large sighting stones in the center of the megalithic circle also marked the zenith or noon sun three weeks before and after the summer solstice. Although it is known that vertical stones near the Tropic of Cancer during summer solstice will not cast a shadow, we can only guess at why this was important to these people.

These early Egyptians kept track of the heavens for thousands of years with this sophisticated, astronomical, observatory, and it’s interesting to note that only in the last twenty years our own astronomers have been able to come up with similar data.

If this type of information excites you as much as it does me…I strongly encourage you to take the time (10 min. each) and watch Part 1 and 2 of Dr. Brophy’s videos explaining in illustrated detail how this  complex stone circle works.

Nabta Playa Video #1  

Nabts Playa Video #2

 

About the Author…
 Barbara-Lynn Freed has over twenty years experience in Shamanism and teaches a 3 year Shamanic apprenticeship called Resurrecting the Old Ways:  Walking the Land & Honoring the Spirits in Right Relationship.  To find out more about this program and how to sign-up visit her website.

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Rosemary’s Shamanic & Magical Uses

May 1st, 2012

This spring my Rosemary plant bloomed for the first time and it was a delight to see it’s delicate off white flowers.  I always love the scent left on my hands after they rub against my plant’s little spiked leaves.

Traditionally, Rosemary was seen as a protecting, magical herb.  When grown in a pot close to your house it was believed to protect that dwelling, plus all its inhabitants.  It was also said that a bush of Rosemary growing by your door  only allows love to enter and in turn, was also given as a token of friendship, reflecting its qualities of mental stimulation and remembrance.

Considered sacred by many, this herb was  burned for its dense smoke (smudge) during religious and mystical settings when frankincense or myrrh were not available.   Naturally antibacterial, Rosemary’s smudge was also used during times of plague to clear airborne infections and given to mourners as a protection from illness.

Looking for a new herb to grow in your plant bed?  Give Rosemary a try and maybe some of its magical properties will rub off on you!

 

About the Author…
 Barbara-Lynn Freed has over twenty years experience in Shamanism and teaches a 3 year Shamanic apprenticeship called Resurrecting the Old Ways:  Walking the Land & Honoring the Spirits in Right Relationship.  To find out more about this program and how to sign-up visit her website.

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April 2012 Astrology Update

April 5th, 2012

This month Mercury turns Direct on April 4th so is a time to work on all the projects you’ve had on hold the last three weeks.   Also in the news: Venus moves from Taurus to Gemini, helping you become more flexible in your relationships, and Pluto turns Retrograde on April 10th, until September 18th, 2012, indicating a good time to turn within and take care of your inner growth and transforming old patterns into new ones.

The Full Moon happens this month on April 6th at
17º 23′ Libra and  in the Northern Hemisphere is known as the Pink Moon that celebrates the return of spring with pink flowers.

The key theme here is creating balance while relating to yourself and others.   With an exact square between Mars & Venus, this is an excellent time to maintain a low profile when relating with loved ones or business partners, as emotions will run high, with the potential for heated arguments.

A close square between Venus and Neptune/Chiron, emphases the need for authentic relationships and personal growth.  With Neptune/Chiron opposing Mars we will need to be on the look-out of what is actually fact and what is an imaging of our over active emotions.

Neptune trine Saturn enhances the idea of staying home alone to do your inner work and meditation instead of going out and raising hoopla with friends on the Full Moon.

The New Moon on 21st April at 1º Taurus is as complex as last month because the heavens have produced another Grand Kite configuration.  This time we have the same Grand Trine in Earth signs: Pluto in Capricorn, Sun/Moon in Taurus, and Mars in Virgo, with the Neptune/Chiron in Pisces sextile both the Sun/Moon and Pluto, along with Neptune/Chiron opposing Mars in Virgo.

In summary this complex configuration is reminding us that in this important time of seeding ideas and visions, we need to recognize that the Earth is our Mother and to form Right Relationship with her and all her inhabitants. It’s also an excellent time to use creative visualization to change our cultural dream so it begins to serve humanity instead of colliding with it.  In this way you can ride the higher energies and not get sucked into the doom and gloom of Sun/Moon opposing Saturn.

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Book review: Frank Joseph’s Survivors of Atlantis

April 5th, 2012

Book Review
Right now I am reading a fascinating book that has a fresh, new look of when Atlantis existed and where the survivors of Atlantis went.  If you are open to new interpretations of this famous Land and are able to leave your mythological attachments behind, this may be the book for you.

Author Frank Joseph has done a superb job in Survivors of Atlantis, Their Impact on World Culture by using scientific evidence along with archaeology, mythology, ancient literature, astronomy and geology of many world cultures to bring us an in-depth study of our earliest historical beginnings.

According to Joseph, after several cosmic catastrophes and a ” Mediterranean world war” that was waged against Egypt and her allies, Atlantis sunk only 3,200 years ago.  Joseph also links Atlantis with highly sophisticated copper mining that took place around the US Great Lakes district in ancient times and it’s subsequent connection with the Bronze Age.

By working with the recorded mass migrations of the Peruvian Incas, Celtic Irish, classical Greeks, and the Aztecs of Mexico, Joseph, shows how the sinking of Atlantis is a credible part of our own world history.

 

About the Author…
 Barbara-Lynn Freed has over twenty years experience in Shamanism and teaches a 3 year Shamanic apprenticeship called Resurrecting the Old Ways:  Walking the Land & Honoring the Spirits in Right Relationship.  To find out more about this program and how to sign-up visit her website.

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Bee Totem

April 5th, 2012

It certainly seems like we have gone from winter to summer this year with daytime temperatures in the 80’s.  Although many creatures are out a month early building or repairing their homes, I am still a little wary of the weather because I know that we can still have a frost as late as mid April.  So I am waiting to purchase my warm weather annuals until the frost time is past.

A group of little beings that I have seen hard at work already is the bee population.  This is the perfect totem for spring because bees traditionally represent fertility.  This symbolism has come about because of their role in plant pollination.   As bees go from flower to flower pollen attached to their legs is transferred to other flowers creating fertilization.

Bees are also great symbols of productivity, organization and community awareness.   Determined at birth whether a bee will be a queen, drone or worker, bees always know their place in the pecking order of the hive and work tirelessly to preserve the survival of their home and queen.

If bees have shown up in your life recently perhaps you need to examine your own productivity.   Are you too busy and not enjoying the fruits of your labor?  The bee reminds us that if we work consistently to follow our dreams, we can reach the end of our rainbow and savor the honey in our lives.

Here’s a video to help you savor the honey in your life! 


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