Celebrating Nine Years of Taraloma Earth Temple

We extend our heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you who has contributed to our success. Taraloma Earth Temple was founded with a vision to create a sanctuary where individuals could find solace, reconnect with nature, and cultivate inner peace. We express our gratitude to our incredible community, both near and far, whose unwavering support has been the backbone of our existence. Whether you have attended our workshops, participated in our ceremonies, or held us in your thoughts from afar, it is thanks to you that Taraloma Earth Temple has grown in so many ways these past nine years. Your presence has created a tapestry of unity and shared purpose that makes our endeavors worthwhile.

To our loyal clients, we extend a deep appreciation for your trust and support. Your belief in our offerings has allowed us to expand and diversify the services we provide, ensuring that Taraloma Earth Temple remains an enriching and transformative space for all who seek solace and growth.

Please Celebrate with Us!

This August marks nine years of Taraloma Earth Temple! To celebrate, Taraloma will offer sale prices on many services all month. Taraloma will also launch a new course packed with ancient knowledge of home design and how to create a sweet life for yourself & your family through simple or dramatic changes in your living and work spaces.

For Taraloma’s birthday we are asking our friends, customers, and clients to share a gratitude for the way this mom run small spiritual business has helped, inspired, and blessed your life. (You can share anonymously if you like.) We would love to feature your gratitudes during the month of August! Thank you for sending Taraloma your gratitude through the form below :)

Send Taraloma a gratitude gift (kind words) here:

FINANCIAL GIFTS

You can also make purchases from Taraloma during August to show the love <3 Since Covid my business took a hit with new challenges of school from home and work from home. Taraloma hasn’t returned to her potential. We are discerning some new avenues to explore in the months ahead. We appreciate your support & are honored to support your soul healing processes.

We will also be making “the books” transparent, so you can see my small treasury, and directly support services that help people thriving physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Most of my deep work comes out of the challenges in my own life, and so it is with much gratitude I celebrate this small lotus’ blooming for 9 years, for my healing journey, and for others, for the benefit of all <3 I always felt strongly that if you learned something and it helped you, it was your duty to pass it on. Taraloma Earth Temple has been where I store my library of healing tools and modalities to be of service to others.

Ever blooming lotus of my soul’s migration of consciousness into everlasting truth, bloom!

Taraloma supports people:

From Shakti Lady Women’s Retreat November, 2019

Yoga, a way of life of the soul’s own journey, practices & postures that enrich your life, many yogas for many clients

  • Prenatal Yoga & Mom & Baby Support

  • Womb Healing from the ancient palm leaf manuscripts, attributed to a lineage of Jesus in India includes 3 private sessions with me. This process helps make the womb a peaceful place, and heal from heartbreak

  • Five Element Mantra Training, in a time of climate change, healing our relationship to the sacred elements of creation is important now more than ever. Begin a purification process & a reunion with the Divine Mother in her nature through this ancient process. Includes 3 private sessions with me

  • New & Full Moon Healing Ceremonies, book healing sessions close to these times with me to amplify the healing effects. Join us for a healing fire ceremony at most new & full moons

  • Hand Drawn Astrology Charts: “know thyself” look into the mirror of the cosmos and discovery your true north, flesh out some blind spots, target your strengths, and avoid those pitfalls of the past wrong action, stay on track, and calendar your life as you would check the weather before taking a trip! This is a wonderful tool to build compassion with family members, learn to mitigate the moon’s negative affects, and “see” one another more clearly too!

  • Oracle Readings: scan the symbols, stories and myths surrounding your present situation& gain clarity on your life & wise decisions. Traditional Tarot, Oracle Cards & Rune casts

  • Sacred Ceremony, weddings, special occasions, healings

  • And more! See my Services Page
    Thank you so much for supporting me & Taraloma!

Namaste <3 Jess

Jessica Zdenek
Founder & Director, Taraloma Earth Temple
From the Mud the Lotus Blooms
Sai Shakti Healings & Ancient Oracle Arts

Blessed Virgo New Moon!

Artemis mandala by my mom, Julie.

My Virgo New Moon Astro report is ready! Here’s the highlights:

  • Sun and Moon on the fairy degree

  • Mars square Sun and Moon ~ sensational exploits of the fairies?

  • Uranus square Venus- disruptive voltage to romance ~ or breakthroughs

  • Venus opposite Saturn ~ beauty vs cold practicality

    Get a hand drawn natal chart reading with me and look at how these transits may impact you personally from fall to march. Readings are $120 for 90 min.

Siva Full Moon in Aquarius

Join women for a relaxing day retreat in nature! I’ll be there leading meditation & ceremony <3

If you’re feeling like things are intense lately, here’s why: so many squares with Mars & Uranus! The good news: The lady of luck is on our side!

Hand drawn astrology sessions: need exact birth time! Natal chart, partner sessions, children, family $120.

Blessed Guru Purnima! Jai Ma! Auspicious Capricorn Full Moon July 13

What boon will you ask of the Guru Parampara? What deepest heart’s wish is planted by the divine that it might come to manifest on earth in your lifetime? Do you know what you truly have need of? (I usually add to my requests “this or better for the greatest good” or if I don’t truly know “I surrender to you God—You know best”).

This full moon is ripe with divine feminine and Shiva Sati energies! It is said that this moon comes with the promise of receiving answers, gifts, and boons from the divine! Getting clear on your request is an important spiritual preparation to help us be ready to receive.

How hard is it for you to receive? Do you give and receive in equal measure? Or do you get stuck on one end of the spectrum? I often wonder how we could ever give near as much as God does. Sometimes knowing we are worthy of receiving, resting, and simply being is the rewarding work. <3

Here’s the highlights:

  • Moon shining her beams on Pluto, Lord of the Underworld — dun dun dun. I mean Dionysus threw some fun parties I hear—can’t be all bad? As the god of ritual madness as well as wine, these transits could have some spiritual frenzy to them. Ceres, Goddess of the grain is across from the Moon and Pluto, and this could bring about that “oh no my daughter is lost in the underworld, nothing grows until I find her (find the soul)” kind of energies. Well let’s face it humanity—(spoiler alert) we are the daughter lost in the underworld. This transit is an opportune time for those transformation and resurrection energies—a powerful alchemy of trading sins for joy, washing our illusions, purifying our souls, opening our hearts and simply finding bliss in the stillness.

  • Saturn/Shiva trines Venus in the air signs—Shiva is studying the veneer of the “calm” beautiful scientist and comparing contrasting with the wisdom of double sided Gemini near the galactic edge (the divine mother’s eye - or foot) with Parvarti, Black Moon Lilith, Kaali, Sati & Vesta. Shiva studies how the various faces of the Goddess all belong to his One Shakti, Divine Mother.

Lakshmi & Kali transmissions are available now! Kali’s transmission includes a powerful mantra to begin under the full moon light. Each week a new Goddess activation is released on Friday.

Cancer New Moon & Mother Divine Sound Activations & Roe Wade in the stars

Blessed new moon!

Highlights:

  • Mars conjunct Eris, Goddess of Chaos! Ride the waves for greater shadow work and self consciousness

  • Lilith and Black Moon Lilith conjunct Sun and Moon, powerful female yoni, Sovereign mother goddess energy coming through to protect the ones we love

  • Venus in Gemini (sextile Jupiter) expansive self expression with the grace to balance both wings of the bird

Taraloma
New Moon Fires

Tuesday June 28, 9 p.m.
RSVP by replying to this email!
Option to bring fire offerings of honey, milk, flowers, journal pages to burn
We will sing and drum and let the fires purify us
No cost

New Yoga Class:
Restore & Meditate

Sundays 3:30 Restore & Meditate

Join me at Mojo Fit Studios for a new spin on an old class that has been requested by many students! 30 min of restorative yoga—laying on pillows, deep relaxation, yoga nidra, and 30 min of journaling. This is a deeply healing way to calm the body and release trauma. Bring your journal & writing utensil, I will bring writing prompts if needed.

Yoga with Jess at Mojo Fit Studios

Tuesday 4:30 Northside Hot Yoga Express (50 min)
Wednesday 8:15 West Yin Yoga (no heat)
Friday Noon West Hot Yoga
Saturday Noon West Hot Yoga
Sunday 2pm West Hot Yoga
Sunday 3:30 Restore & Meditate

Sagittarius Full Moon

Highlights:

  • Mars conjunct Chiron, ouch. Get conscious of the wound so we can get the medicine.

  • Sun and Moon at Galactic Center and Galactic edge: big energy incoming as we head to the summer solstice

  • Sun and Moon square Neptune: illusions continue to play on the tension to discover the truth

  • Saturn squares the nodes, and Shiva is dancing a new mystery

Watch the full report below (and thank you for liking and subscribing!)
I would be honored to draw up your chart (and mail it to you!) I offer natal charts, relationships, family and solar returns for $120. Schedule one with me here.

And you’re invited to join me on-line for a Full Moon Ceremony Monday June 13 at 7 p.m. to help clear these ancient star gates (our own) with our prayers, intentions, meditations, journaling, mantras and more. Just $10

On the Mysteries of the Moon

Should we disconnect from the moon energy?

I feel called to write on this topic as I have seen conversations popping up in some of my circles about how the moon is an artificial object, and (merited) concerns about a negative alien agenda, the dark Lilith/ dark Saturn matrix, and mind control technologies that use the moon to influence humanity. Some are renouncing any sort of moon rituals and doing other kinds of ceremonies or rituals to disconnect themselves from moon energy as I have decidedly increased my study, and spiritual practices on full and new moons. Whenever people are throwing around words like—‘innately evil’ my hairs raise on my skin and I think—oh no, are we really doing another round of witch hunts, and yet again pointing fingers at one another and saying (in a new way) you’re anathematized—or you’re a heretic/evil/against God/on the outside of what’s holy or socially acceptable? Well, probably.

First, a little about me and my background, as I believe it’s about as easy to escape our cultural influences as it may be to escape the moons influence on us (even if you’re rejecting—you’re still reacting). Like all of us in the West, I have been shaped (for better and worse) by Christianity. After a mystical experience in college, I saw beyond what I had initially felt was boring and out of touch, to a renewed interest in God. This could also be because my family are active practicing Christians who sing in their churches, who teach, preach, and serve the poor in their neighborhoods, and those influences carry on as well.

But what kind of Christian since there are about as many varieties in the US as ice cream?

In college I struggled to explain to my peers when I told them I was embracing being a Christian and they immediately thought of frantic televangelists like Jim and Tammy Baker. My boyfriend thought I was losing it. Friends thought that there was no way I could be an intellectual and also have faith which only put more fire under my feet to achieve high marks and honors while also exploring my spirituality. I come from a long line of Lutheran pastors on my mother’s side, and my mother was a worship leader at many of the churches I grew up in. Since my father was in the Air Force, we moved about every three years to a new place. My parents would find a church they felt God was calling them to be a part of, and they were actively involved in church life. My brother and sister and I would sometimes be pulled in to sing with Mom and her worship band and Dad would play bass and help with sound. We went to all kinds of churches growing up: Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, non-denominational, and charismatic to name a few. Not only that—but every school day we would be woken up to do family devotions at 5:30 a.m. which involved reading a psalm (103 was a favorite) a gospel, and each of us had to say a prayer out loud. I still giggle recalling my little brother curled up on the floor underneath his blanket and we’d usually have to nudge him to wake up and say his sleepy prayer.

By the time I had graduated from high school I was a little confused about what to believe because every new church we attended had different theologies and a different vision of external/internal threat to spiritually protect against. After college, and this mystical experience, I decided to go to seminary where I naively thought I could sort it all out. At the very least, I was able to begin to piece together my own theology and spiritual practices that seemed a best fit for me as a woman recovering from sexual abuse, in a church with predominately male leadership, with a lack of divine feminine imagery, practices that looked at the feminine perspective, at a seminary where they were still debating if women could be in the pulpit and ordaining women to do just that. After seminary I no longer felt guilty when some (usually) male pastors would come at me with a theological diatribe about women or my faith personally—I felt I could now stand my own and not fall apart internally or be blown about by every person’s opinions on God.

My Grandpa, who was also a Lutheran pastor, shared his love of the stars with the family and I recently inherited one of his favorite books on the constellations. My father was a weather man who also worked with expensive military satellites also directed our imagination up to the heavens as he would often give us a weather report (which I rarely understood) before school. (I still don’t know what isobars are) but the men I admire taught me to look up.

Somewhere along the way, things like the study of the stars and planets became relegated to the realm of science not faith. Science and faith were in a way agreed upon to be at odds in exploring consciousness in different realms, though today faith and science are now in dialogue again. But like Galileo disrupting the zeitgeist of his time with his discoveries, the conversations are still sometimes heated. Study of the stars was to be on the other side of the fence of faith. When I was growing up—and still today—to blend things like Tarot and Jesus, or Astrology and Christianity, or even exploring the Goddess spirituality and yoga (which I now teach) is considered by some to be “doing the devils work.”

Family and cultural taboos were always such a mystery to me. I wanted to know why, while I also held the innate fear of something “other” and potentially “evil” my persistent curiosities often led to the discoveries: it’s myself I fear—my own feminine nature that men fear and are projecting on me—or it’s “the other” or “the unknown” I fear.

The Old Testament prohibits the building of Ashura poles which were connected to rituals of the Goddess cults derived from the worship of Ishtar & Inanna and the honoring of the planet Venus. The Temple Mount, where the three Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Muslim, and Christianity hold claim, buried beneath is a temple to Venus. I discovered later in the Apocrypha—the books of the Bible sometimes included between the Old and New Testament—which are from the time of second temple Judaism—you can find The Book of Enoch where it describes that the practices of reading the stars and performing oracles are connected to the Archons (demonic rulers of the planets—or High Holy Sophia’s fallen children) and are forbidden.

and if God ever hits you with a don’t –
He has His fingers crossed,
He is just fibbing
for your own
good.

-Hafiz

On the Necessary Sin

Carl Jung explores the notion of “the necessary sin” as a requirement for individuation. At the beginning of life a child is taking in all the rules, and usually about two the child starts to push back and express their own budding self awareness of wanting to do things their own way. Tough love literature may have encouraged breaking a child’s will and spirit—but healthier psychological models recognize that the development of a self is not “selfish” but an innate process—and very challenging work and capstone of human development. In order to move from the psychological stage of mere obedience to external rules towards an inner motivation towards the good (or an Old Testament God to a New Testament God) often the mystics would encourage people to have their own experience of God, or gnosis, or even to choose their own path of faith. (I would recommend Stages of Faith by James W. Fowler on consciousness development corresponding to faith expression.) Jung says there is often a necessary sin that the individual must make and this comes when one realizes that the rules in society are sometimes imperfect, and at times harmful, and so the archetype of the prophet, the rebel, the artist arises to tear down the old gods which no longer work for a new generation and to move towards a more just society whose values and spirituality more accurately reflect the consciousness stage of an emerging generation. The necessary sin is disobedience to the external law, in favor of an internal one that helps the self grow in integrity, while also helping the community to reach new potentials. The sin is consciousness, eating the apple and taking on the heavy responsibility for what we know.

How did I get from Christianity to Moon practices?

When you explore the roots of Christianity you go back to Judaism, and back further to Egypt, where life danced with the lunar calendar. When Roman conquerors invaded the Egyptian & Greek culture, solar time also took over, which included naming months after emperors, and having to readjust the calendars over and over to fit more appropriately with the seasons. The lunar calendar worked, many argue, better than the solar.

Mindfulness of moon cycles is as old as humanity and likely one of the first methods used to tell time. The lunar calendar was used by the Hebrews and is still used in Judaism today to determine holidays such as when Passover falls. The book, The Red Tent is a beautiful depiction of how these women’s mysteries were hidden within the dominant culture as patriarchal values shifted from Goddess worship to worship of God as Father, from the lunar calendar to the solar. (I also recommend Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna, by Betty De Shong Meador on this time period). As I was having my own divine feminine awakening after seminary—going back to the moon cycles felt like an important part of my own reclamation and acceptance of womanhood and understanding the way my body worked and how to honor her cycles better.

Instead of twelve months (twelve disciples, twelve constellations), the lunar calendar marks 13 (a Goddess number), as menstruating women tend to bleed and ovulate 13 times a year. Before artificial light and before it was more challenging for a group of women to live together in community, women also bled together. I’ve read and remembered traditions of women leaving the town once a month to let men and older children take over their duties were probably not because they were really ‘unclean’ but because women needed to rest on their cycles, they needed to connect with one another and share wisdom. When they came back to town refreshed, they were also appreciated for the work that they did for the city had carried it without them for a brief time. In our modern “liberated” life I often grieve how difficult it is to take a few down days and connect with other women once a month, or how I’m forcing my body to keep going when I have cramps or I’m tired but life goes on non-stop like the shining sun rather than the ebb and flow of the moon.

Interestingly, in Norse mythology, the Sun is considered feminine (Sol) and the Moon is masculine (Mani). In the great white North it was the Sun who hid most of the year, and the moon was more visible, and so people yearned for the hidden feminine as the light and the warmth. And in The Bhagavad Gita, Krisha says, “among the stars of the zodiac, I am the rabbit-marked moon.” I wonder if similar to Shiva and Shakti, maybe the moon is actually both masculine and feminine. I also wonder, maybe depending on our level of mirrored consciousness, we are either experiencing the energies as Lilith/Saturn or Mary/Jesus. From a Jungian perspective, the shadow not integrated is projected outward. Personal complexes and unconscious materials make up an inner “shadow government” that runs the show without the conscious minds awareness. So are we just projecting this onto the moon? Are these the illusions we are co-creating? I don’t know, but I wonder.

As the moon affects the tide, and I’m not sure we can actually totally escape it’s influence, but I do think we can co-participate and make it a holy experience rather than a negative one during full and new moons. In places in India the moon cycles are so sacred, they do not work or have school on full and new moons, but celebrate with pujas!

Galactic Histories & Negative Aliens

In the lore around Lilith, much from ancient Jewish literature, she was Adam’s first wife. In one telling her and Adam fight for several hundred years before God decides maybe this isn’t working and created a more submissive woman—Eve. Still (like many men) Adam is still torn between them (the virgin-whore complex). Lilith did not want to submit to man. Maybe she was older, sometimes depicted with bird feet, the animal woman of the ancient primal. Ereshkigal was also depicted as having bird feet. In another myth Lilith is the life force inside of the Tree of Life. She’s the serpent. She’s Eve’s shadow counter part. Legends say when Gilgamesh cut down the life tree to make a marriage bed, Lilith fled. She would not be domesticated, and maybe in all women, no matter what we have been through, also exists a spirit that will not be domesticated either, there’s a wild part of our woman nature too. Barbara Black Kultov in The Book of Lilith points out that she holds the memories of all that was thrown out of consciousness in the repression of Goddess cults. For her rage, many amulets of protection were made for people to wear, to protect babies and women in childbirth. Lilith is noted at the middle of the tree of life in the Kabbalah, also where Venus and the Devil are also placed. Carl Jung says she represents a necessary stage of consciousness. She’s not at the top, but she is a stage along the way. She also represents the unconscious desires of man, as Lilith is a temptress and as such she reports to God men’s failing—in a way she keeps them honest before God. She was charged to kill humans at the point where their soul would not spoil and they could still become fragrant.

It is said that at the end of time, Lilith and her children of aliens and demons present to God a scroll upon which are the sins of mankind. Like the Tree of Life has branches above and branches below, the realm of Lilith is the shadow, and whenever dealing with a shadow the only way to remedy is to make it conscious. Denial, avoidance, only make it bigger. One can only become possessed by that which is unconscious. This would be my main argument in dealing with the “dark lunar nature” and “mind control” and a “negative alien agenda”. This is shadow content and the work with the shadow is to face it, to make it conscious, not to avoid it. Maybe even as some teachers would say: I am that. I am Lilith. And also, I am not. She exists somewhere in our collective consciousness. To face the inner dichotomy is to unlock it for the collective grip. If Lilith energy is traditionally known to be stronger during the waning phase until the new moon, then that would be the ideal time to become more aware of our own Lilith tendencies to tempt others with our sexuality, to note other’s sins, to make conscious the inner feminine war between Eve/Lilith or Ereshkigal/Inanna Magdalene/Mary and the work of integrating the lower body energies that deal with survival, sex and power, with the upper body energies of unconditional love, soul voice, and the activation of our human dignity.

Ok so maybe a planet did explode in a galactic war and more advanced beings came in and reset the system, placed an artificial moon around the earth, and some black stones that hold the consciousness of that old planet here on earth that holds the collective unconsciousness of those beings not from earth and many reincarnated here at different levels of consciousness so they could finish up their life cycle and here we all are at the end of the age still wondering wtf has been going on. (It would take another blog and maybe some more courage for me to share my own alien experiences). And maybe the earth is a prison planet (I have seen underground bases and clones in visions before I heard other people talk about this sort of thing—and while Roe v. Wade is distracting—what about the alien hybrid program? anyone?) and maybe the military is collecting our consciousness through AI and our devices and they are projecting programs from the lunar base. What can we actually do about it? Well we could try and avoid or we could actually take back the star gates. We could take back our body temples and stop playing victim to these agendas as the light of God can take it all out. If the star gates are connected to our own chakras, and to the deep unconscious currents and realms beyond our seeing, then like any human journey, the work is to become more embodied, more conscious, more present, more filled with God’s light, or simply more aware and evolved. The saints recommend praying. If Lilith is the shadow of the Goddess we have rejected and demonized, then somehow the Divine Mother, the Shekinah in all her glory and High Holy Sophia herself is also connected to her (she’s at the top of the tree), as Lower Sophia is deep in the consciousness of the earth, and so with reverence and prayer at full and new moons we not only face the shadow feminine (and our own shadow) we also face the potential bliss of Mother Divine we have forgotten. Maybe too this is the work of integration of the upper Sophia with the lower Sophia, or the repairing of the life tree that was cut.

The practices that I have been doing for the past few years were written on ancient palm leafs and hidden for over two thousand years and only recently released to the public in my lifetime. They are connected to a lineage of Jesus and Mary and they hold the codes and practices for a purification of our womb chakras (which both men and women have—which is an interesting revelation with men appearing pregnant on name brand ads recently—maybe a refocus here to the spiritual meaning is in order) so that we can connect to the Holy Mother again. The practices are intense. They ask that you refrain from meat, sex, any fluid exchange with another (no wet kisses or touching other’s sweat), and alcohol three days around the full or new moons. There are also mantras to recite and yantras to draw. And fires to burn away the obstacles. It’s a work of “winning the mother’s heart” again. (Learn more about this at DivineLineage.org or in a private session with me.) Another basic recommendation is to stare at the full moon as it is rising while reciting the Gayatri mantra! (find my recording of it here.)

There was one Cancer full moon recently where I held strong to the practices and instead of feeling wonky or overly emotional, I felt totally washed clean. Like a new born child. Bliss.

So maybe there are agendas to block or distort the energy at this time, or maybe our karmas and past actions and collective unconsciousness is flowing back to us at these moments as it is the mother’s prerogative to “put the illusions” on your soul and reflect back to us our own distortions. I sense there are practices that we as humanity can pick up again that will help take the star gates back, and help connect the light from our hearts across this galaxy all the way back to the heart of the mother, which is connected to our own heart and the heart of the earth (and the sacred elements). I see the moon as a sort of mirror. One that requires a pass code, a prayer, a golden key through the more difficult unconscious layers of the feminine psyche to find Mother Divine again—and our own true faces.

I’ve begun to offer experiences to practice honoring the new and full moons to reconnect with Mother Divine, and if you’re interested, please consider joining me for this next Scoripo full moon ceremony! This Saturday at 4:30 p.m. CT. I will upload a pre-recorded meditation (as I’m up in the mountains and my wifi is not great this month). This ceremony will include a mantra series, simple movements, a reading and more. Join us for $10 at www.taraloma.com and bring a candle and wear cozy clothes. It will be available for a week, though the most powerful time is the three day window. The exact full moon is late Sunday 11:14 p.m. CT. And this one comes with a full lunar eclipse which will be a powerful time to realign ourselves.

Detoxing God: A Memoir
By Zdenek, Jessica

If you’d like to read more about my personal journey of faith check out my memoir.

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Scorpio Full Moon Total Lunar Eclipse

Highlights

  • Mercury Retrograde begins May 10- June 2nd

  • Jupiter moves into Aries May 10 -big GO SPRING energy

  • Eclipses can bring about sudden interruptions or changes over the next six months—these will be in the areas of fixed water (deep emotions and power) and fixed earth (everlasting structures/money)

  • Saturn square Sun and Moon for Full Moon -tension in the airwaves during a big emotional time

Join me for a full moon ceremony on Saturday 4 pm Mountain/5 pm Central
This will include meditation, clearing, mantras, reflections, gentle movement and more. Wear cozy clothes and bring a candle to light.

New Moon in Aquarius, January 31, 2022 Astro Weather

Highlights

  • Moon & Sun are hanging with Saturn in Aquarius adding some weight to that square with Uranus. Tensions for business man structure vs. the liberation of a woman planting rows of flowers.

  • Venus finishes her retrograde this Saturday! And joins Mars in some potentially steamy romance just in time for Valentines Day.

  • Mercury is still retro till Feb 4/5, and adding some trickster energy as this planet squares Eris Goddess of Chaos to this new moon

  • Nodes have shifted from Gemini/Sagittarius to Taurus/Scorpio inviting us deep into lasting structures on earth, built on deep feelings of true empowerment.

Full Moon in Cancer January 17, 2022 Astrology Report

Blessed full moon coming up next Monday!

Some of the highlights to note:

  • Right now: Mars squares Neptune exact. Watch for themes of going to war with illusions, hiding keeping secrets for power, deep spiritual initiations

  • January 14 Mercury goes retrograde until Feb. 5. Double check communications, make allowances for travel delays, avoid signing contracts.

  • Tuesday January 18 Uranus goes direct. Revolutionary energy rising on earth.

  • Wednesday January 19 Nodes shift into Taurus/Scorpio. Fixed Earth & Water elements take focus and bring about new changes.

  • February 22 USA Pluto Return. Reviewing the depths. Major transformations for rebirth. Looking at our shadow as a country. Reckoning with core values.

New Moon Communication Chaos: Astrology Update

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I’ve been sensing that October is going to be some of the most intense astrological alignments of the year. I’m writing this report with a fever after a day of laying on the couch and mindful that many of our social media sites are not working today. Mercury rules the throat chakra and communication, and for this new moon early Wednesday morning is making a trine with Jupiter—so easy amplification of communications. This Grand Air Trine with the Mid Heaven of the New Moon event time (MC is directly over head in the sky) is making a kite to Eris, the Goddess of Chaos. To summarize: Big (Jupiter) Communications (Mercury) Chaos (Eris) Overhead (MC). The stars call it again.

The Sun and Moon approach 13.25 Libra for this New Moon at a Sabian symbol degree that reads: children blowing soap bubbles. This degree has a sort of playfulness and innocence as well as some of the popping of the bubbles and small disappointments that come when our illusions break as Neptune sits at the Vertex for this event moment, expect some illusions to pop. Asteroids Lucifer and Medusa join the party here bringing in their own touch of malevolence, trickster, and wrath. Maybe that’s influencing our public discourse wherever compassion is lacking towards other humans.

Joining Sun and Moon is Mars which in the Vedic tradition, is said to be at war with the Sun in this degree. Both Sun and Mars are in a fall in Libra—too much fire for a sign that prefers to find balance (and since I have both my natal Pluto and Moon here—I’m feeling the heat in this fever.) If you’re also feeling like taking a nap in all this tension—Mars is on the “siesta” degree; the Sabian reads: in the heat of noon a person takes a siesta. Opposite the Sun, Moon and Mars is Chiron the wound, still asking us to balance our responsibility with our ecstasy, to find the I AM worthy of existing, and I don’t need to prove it, I can enjoy life while honoring the sacred boundaries of creation.

Mercury is also making a square with Pluto, adding tension to communications around underworld situations, and Pluto and Eris will have an almost exact square coming up on Saturday October 9. While Eris brings chaos, she also brings liberation. She throws light on the inner world and the lies that have held our illusory worlds together and helps us face our shadows so we can get on with our consciousness journey. As a figure who was not invited to the wedding and left out, she is an advocate for all who feel lost on the borderlands of society. So although it doesn’t feel good to have the structures of society rearranged as the conjunction back in January 2020 foretold—the chaos is helping to bring about a more fair and balanced society for all members—especially the outcasts. Chiron may be reminding us of those left out feelings, so we can really celebrate as we find a new way of being together.

This week, October 7, Pluto goes direct and October 10 Saturn goes direct. We’ve had so many planets retrograde this will also be a big shift in energy, and not necessarily pleasant energy as Pluto rules the underworld aspects of Capricorn earth energies and Saturn the structures of the air in Aquarius now. Pluto is on the degree: a woman entering a convent, and we may find ourselves seeking more alone privacy and solidifying what is Virgin and whole and unique about ourselves so that we can find that depth and authentic presence more. And taking more time for introspection while Mercury is still in retrograde until October 18 is a wise move.

As always take what serves and leave the rest. If things feel super intense, you can tell yourself—it’s the astrology—it will pass. And 2022 will have a lot more expansive spiritual energies in it with Jupiter in Pisces. If you are wanting some more support at this time, contact me for a peek at your personal astrology, join my meditation class series, come to some yoga classes or have an oracle reading with me.

Good luck, we’re gonna need it! ~Jess

4 Week Meditation Challenge with Jessica

4 week meditation challenge.png

Just in time for Mercury Retro, and some really intense planetary alignments in October— this month may feel a little birth canal-like, an energetic “squeeze”, just the PERFECT time to increase our meditation practice, calm the mind, and connect to divine channels through tending our inner life.

Each Sunday for 4 weeks in October you’ll receive two meditations from me to practice throughout your week. I’ve just finished charging up these element mantras from Swami Sri Kaleshwar and I’m so happy to share the benefits with others. I’m also offering some of my own that I use regularly in my yoga classes. My hope is that you will simply increase your time in meditation; maybe that’s three times a week. Ideally the goal is to get to 40 min a day! Maybe that’s 20 in the morning at 20 at night or maybe it’s all in one sitting! Some of the meditations i offer you can listen to lying down. One you can do in the bath!

WEEK ONE: Get Grounded
—Guided Meditation: Clearing, Grounding, Opening (10 min)
—108 Sung Earth Mantra (30 min)

WEEK TWO: Fire Up
—Guided Meditation: Soul Retrieval (10 min)
—108 Sung Fire Mantra (30 min)

WEEK THREE: Flowing Open
—Guided Meditation: 10, 000 Lotuses of Light (10 min)
—108 Sung Water Mantra (30 min)

WEEK FOUR: Spirit Fly
—Guided Meditation: Loving Kindness Meditation (10 min)
—108 Sung Water + Sky Mantra (40 min)

I’ll also give you access to my library of yoga videos from my on line classes in 2020 so you can throw some yoga practice in the mix too.

You’re also invited to join me Sunday mornings for a group meditation from 11-11:30 Central Time to practice together, to send powerful collective intentions out in the world, and have some accountability for keeping up your practice.

Meditation through connecting with the five sacred elements helps heal our connection to love in all creation, expressing itself through these forms which make up our universe— and our bodies. Ready to take on the challenge? (Energy exchange $108)

Want to hear more? Here’s my 12 min info-mercial about the program. I share my first traumatic meditation experience and how meditation changed my life in crisis:

Chiron Retrograde 2021: The Socially Acceptable Matrix vs. The Undiscovered Self

Jason and His Teacher by Maxfield Parrish (1909)

Jason and His Teacher by Maxfield Parrish (1909)

Today Chiron stations and begins his retrograde until December 19. The Sun is at 23 Cancer opposite Pluto in Capricorn—shinning the full light of awareness on the emotional depths of the deep traumas on earth. Mercury is at the Galactic Edge in the early degrees of Cancer, surveying the perimeter of this whole situation.

The centaur Chiron is often referred to as a wounded healer. It reveals aspects of what is visible and what is invisible, what is conscious and what is unconscious. It orbits the sun every 50 years, so between ages 48-51 people have their “Chiron return" which marks a time to revisit the original wound of one’s overall life. Christian mystics often talk about the concept of “the wound is the way” based on Jesus’ teachings: to take up your cross and follow me. Chiron’s original wound was that his mother was raped by Saturn and he lived his life as an outcast in a cave. Because he was part god, when he was hit with a stray arrow, he did not die, but continued to feel the eternal wound. He is part Shaman, part god, part horse, part sea nymph (as his mother). He grew up to become a wise teacher who helped raise Achilles and guide other centaurs away from mad wild wars of raping and pillaging and into bodily mastery and focused wisdom.

Chiron is also called the rainbow bridge as it lies between the inner and the outer planets in the asteroid belt—which legends say is actually remnants of the ancient planet of Tiamat which was destroyed during the Galactic Wars. Where Chiron is located in your natal chart is where your work of making a bridge from your deepest wounds back to the celestial heavens happens for your own soul expansion. Where in your life does “an ancient hatred become a present love”? And just as the gods finally took pity on the endless suffering of Chiron, and lifted him up to the stars, we too can follow that way of facing our suffering consciously, (rather than distracting, disassociating, denying, projecting) and find true remedy in bearing our cross, hanging on the tree of life until wisdom comes to revive us and lift us up. The story of Chiron marks the significance of making our deep wounds and suffering conscious, not so we can wallow in shame or guilt or low vibe, but so that we can alchemize this energy—make the unconscious conscious—and so transform led to gold, and death into life.

Chiron’s wound holds the mysteries of secrets we must keep. The places where we are deeply wounded need to be protected in some way as we are working with making the wound conscious. In the tarot deck, the Strength card depicts a woman taming a lion (which is 8 or 11 depending on the deck) and points to mastery over the animal world, our personal instincts, and the power of love overcoming all (which was also Chiron’s work). The woman is often veiled or hiding under a hat the eternity symbol and her crown, pointing to a supreme mastery over what is eternal. It’s a strength that moves beyond will without wisdom, beyond those energies that force and threaten and coerce others into self betrayal in order to get results, beyond a sort of material rule that leads to slavery, and into the power of love simply unfolding at the root of all creation. The Strength card also reveals the power of Durga, the divine mother who rides the tiger, who’s gentle heart is enough to tame any beast. And yet it is this gentleness that is often hidden and masked lest it be mistaken for weakness or exploited by those with darker intentions. The true initiates know not to throw pearls before swine. Know when the cat must hold their tongue. Know the power of the silence, of the cave, of the wound.

Last weekend I was walking the streets of downtown Fargo and I realized I was suddenly surrounded by a group of men, possibly drunk and a little wild. I looked up and saw that there weren’t many other people on the street except for me and this group. My instincts were to stand as tall as I could and walk as deliberately and powerfully as I could. One man stood up and opened his arms and began walking towards me making cat calls as if to simply grab me. At that moment, the piece of information that I needed to hide was that I am so gentle, I don’t even kill bugs. And instead I used the energy of “Judo”. Judo know if I am a master self defense trainer with the skills to kick you in the balls and take out all fifteen of you. Judo know if I’ve got angels the size of sky scrapers that will take you out with a flash of lightning. Though I didn’t know what was about to happen or what I would actually do if this man put his hand on me, suddenly another guy jumped up between us and pulled that man off the sidewalk and said—hey man, leave her alone and I walked through that frenzied crowd unscathed.

Sometimes we must access the Judo. The secret. The unknown. Faith in things unseen. This is the more noble expression of the trickster energy. Sometimes the divine plays tricks. It must. I see this as the veils of reality. In the myth In the Book of Ra, it says that humans on this planet have thicker veils than humans on other planets where they can more easily recall their past lives and lessons. There are simply sides of reality we can’t fully see. And as Elisabeth Hiach points out in her book, Initiation: that longing we all have to overcome the puzzle pieces that just don’t fit perfectly, is simply the longing for God. If we were to finally reach that longed for state of unity, reality would cease to exist, as if it were going through a black hole. And so for this whole experience of embodied existence to play out—for the shattering of God until the final regathering of God—we live in this state of unresolvable angst—and we agree to live with a certain amount of friction, in order to have this human experience, in order for the soul to have the chance to grow. So suffering is a part of the way that we can be here, soul light enfleshed in human form, pieces of God experiencing other pieces of God, for the benefit of God’s wisdom.

The image of the veil has been prominent this week, as people in the disclosure movement are hoping for more and more reveals and clarity, while a millionaire is piercing the veils of space travel, while others are warning about transhumanism technology which would veil the human form and keep it from seeing it’s full potential by trading soul for a veil of AI. I also read this week a myth of a goddess’ lending her veil to a young god to disguise himself as a woman from Poseidon so he could swim safely across the sea. Issues of tender times when we still need the mother’s protection before we are strong enough to stand on our own and be fully seen. Issues that come to play in our deep unconscious driving fears: Would we prefer to be externally controlled because the burden of self expression and personal freedom is too great? Enter the saga of Saturn square Uranus as the main drama of 2021.

Chiron is currently in Aries, the sign of the Ram, and connected with the energies of the self. So we are reviewing wounds around our own right to have a self, to be a self, to have a place in the cosmos, to even be different than other selves. Chiron is presently at 9 degrees Aries and will move back to 8 Aries. The sabian symbols can give us some clues here to see what we are reviewing collectively:

Aries 9: A seer gazes intently into a crystal ball in front of them

Aries 8: A large hat with streamers flying, facing east.

Aries 9 has to do with focus. I personally have found it very difficult with all the dramas from the fall out of 2020, shifting schedules, cancelations, home school, new rules, to be incredibly difficult to focus. I used to sit and read. Now I find myself sitting for shorter amounts of time. I am still keeping up meditation practices, though I notice how more fears and worries are driving me rather than my soul passion and purpose. My worry basket just keeps getting new things put into it. So Chiron is reviewing where our attention is, what we are giving our power away to, wounds of the third eye, wounds of the “move the carrot” game, wounds of trauma which create soul fractures and fantasies to escape the inescapable. Chiron is asking us to find that original wound, the psychic split from our “first love” and refocus diligently to tame our own animal natures.

If you can’t meditate for one hour,

Then meditate for two.

Student: What is the greatest obstacle to enlightenment?

Master: Fear.

Student: What do we fear the most?

Master: Love.

Aries 8 reveals a focus on the head, as the word “corona” also does. This head is covered in a hat with streamers flying, facing east. This points to all of the new ideas that come from the east, the light where the sun rises, a taking in of lots of external information to activate the atman, or the truth of the soul light in communion with source light. This could also point to the activation of the pineal gland, the awakened human and the innate protection or spiritual veil that is provided by God for this tender growth period. This points to the place of soul growth, that edge between the known self and the undiscovered self. The hat with streamers may be a visual of the prenatal time of the enlightened being before one is suddenly streaming with internal conscious light—an activation of the crown chakra.

Often our socially approved world view denies that there is even an undiscovered self at play and holds out that everything is already known, and great mysteries are often reduced down into “nothing but” and living symbols are flattened into exacting signs. And here we find ourselves in the realm of the karma of Saturn’s raping where trauma compressed reality. Are we brave to let the light illuminate our deepest wounds, to stop the distraction fantasies, the running into artificial life, to sit still and face where it hurts, to stop where we are hurting others, to honor the mother principal again instead of raping her resources?

The unconscious rules, says Carl Jung. So only that which we shine the full light of awareness upon is what we can affect in the iceberg of the unknown. Taboos, phobias, shadowy sides of personality, fragmented selves from traumas, or even the actual experience of having to hide in a cave for survival (as legends say Mary did after Jesus’ crucifixion) bring up the soul’s need to shield the developing self from the King Herod’s who would murder the Christ child. Just as the womb protects until the baby is ready, life often conceals certain aspects and revelations until the soul is ready.

Secrets are for initiates. In the Bible in the book of Luke it says: “what was once hidden in secret will be announced from the rooftops!” So there is a mystery here too in the sort of secret seeds we each are tending. What will the fruits be? There are womb secrets too that hold the mysteries of the divine mother as the ultimate programmer, (which is why our wombs have been targeted since the fall of the Goddess cult). There are secrets that for reasons of national security, trauma based population control via generational sexual abuse will not be discussed in our highest courts (see Cathy O’Brien’s testimony—one of the first DC sex slave whistleblowers). Here I see the karma of Saturn’s rape still playing out in our country and around the world. The resistance to facing the wounds still strong, but shifting as more do the brave work to admit their suffering and give voice to the collective so it can be transformed.

What wounds are coming up for us personally in the past few days that we will be reviewing? Just before Chiron retrograde, Carol P. Christ, a force in resurrecting Goddess consciousness passed away.

Religions centered on the worship of a male God create “moods” and “motivations” that keep women in a state of psychological dependence on men and male authority, while at the same time legitimating the political and social authority of fathers and sons in the institutions of society.”

Because religion has such a compelling hold on the deep psyches of so many people, feminists cannot afford to leave it in the hands of the fathers. When people who no longer “believe in God” or participate in the institutional structure of patriarchal religion still may not be free of the power of the symbolism of God the Father… religion fulfills deep psychic needs by providing symbols and rituals that enable people to cope with limit situations (death, evil. suffering) and to pass through life’s important transitions (birth, sexuality, death).

-Carol P. Christ


Goddess asteroids Hecate (representing the ancient triple goddess as Mother, Maiden Crone), and Lilith (ancient rage of the Goddess at Gilgamesh cutting down of the life tree) both recently crossed over Chiron. So in his retrograde review, you can bet that this ancient potent Goddess wounding will also be up for reevaluation in our human consciousness.

Other prophetic female voices I value recently expressing the wounds on Facebook:

Trauma-healing
will never happen if you’re still domesticated by colonization.

-Ashley Aurora


And

Don't think for one second I don't see the layers of reality that are disturbing..

That I don't know what NATO is doing in Libya..

That I don't know about the human trafficking crisis..

The threat of corporate elite government take over

And the many other atrocities I witness on going and playing out..

I see it..

I also see a lot of incredible things happening,

Human beings coming to terms with our vulnerability, our interdependence, our toxic dependency and wanting to purify the relationships we have with our inner and outer environments.

As consciousness is literally blooming inside many humans it is shedding light and putting pressure on all the unchecked areas that have been syphoning permission and power away from unsuspecting beings.

The level of awareness coming through many is creating a generation of leaders that will diligently and actively work together to rectify the over stepping toxic function of many aspects of our reality.

-Kandice Ko

Issues of healthy boundaries were coming up huge last week in many of my conversations with family and clients. How much of myself must I hide to please the other? What is the line between keeping the peace and self betrayal? How can I enter win-win relationships that are helping build communities of greater human flourishing? What happens if I say no? Can I survive the rejection if people don’t like me when I stand up for who I am? Or will I be publicly destroyed or cancelled?

This brave facing of wounds, is not always at the ready of our socially culturally approved matrix— or the collective public mind with it’s many yet unintegrated shadows. I’m reminded that there are souls who share different galactic histories and may not remember (or feel deep in their bones as I do) the take out of the grandmother’s wisdom, the attacks on the herbalists and the homeopathic practitioners, and before that, natives, Druids, and the denigration of the belief in magic so that it could be repackaged and sold back to us in safe sterilized religious structures where the wild earth goddess was scrubbed out.

Brave facing of wounds for me also includes: integrating the karmas from “witches” who were burned and betrayed (many for simply being women or holding different views than the state approved religion); wounds stemming as far back as the banning of priestesses to channel the earth or the Pleiadean dove mothers; wounds from the fall of Merlin into stasis by a mighty enchantress; wounds from the Piscean age where we fawned our public religion to fit in, and secretly held other beliefs; wounds from inquisition times where we were forced to deny the Old Ways, the earth based religions, in order to abide by religions that were state approved; wounds from Big Business approved narratives imposing too flat, too concrete, too non living symbols that are sucking us into the void of nihilism and the hungry ghosts of consumerism living out of balance with the earth (the US consumes ~70% of the worlds resources); wounds held in the scary fairytales as the rise of reason and the scientific method chopped up all that was unseen (like feelings and love and wombs) as it took front stage over the mytho-poetic truths. Wounds from denial of the shamanic invisible realms, denial and loss of the truths of dream time, awareness of ancestral karmas, and psychic chords, to name just a few.

One of the deeper wounds that is coming up for me personally are the wounds of Hypatia who’s asteroid is presently in the beginning degrees of Libra. As the rise of “trust the science” is emerging in our collective conversations, let’s also remember the history of what happened to scientific women such as Hypatia, who was publicly ripped limb from limb.

According to contemporary sources, Hypatia was murdered by a Christian mob after being accused of exacerbating a conflict between two prominent figures in Alexandria: the governor Orestes and the Bishop of Alexandria. Kathleen Wider proposes that the murder of Hypatia marked the end of Classical antiquity, and Stephen Greenblatt observes that her murder "effectively marked the downfall of Alexandrian intellectual life".

-Wikipedia

If you’re interested in going deeper into the myth of Hypatia, check out this Galactic Shaman Astrologer’s chat on the topic of female dismemberment:

The death of the Muse, Hypatia. Rome will fall. The library of Alexandria. The record of death for an oracle. This is what is in the deep unconscious of why... it is difficult to STAND UP. Asking us to kiss the holy JAB>>> if we wish for our life. "The mutilated body... flung into flames." WHAT DO WE FEAR... remember and then move forward. This is deep in the psyche and some family members may be pushing you to kiss the jab because they fear you will be slayed for your sovereignty. It’s definitely time to be free. First published January 2020.

-Lalita Karoli, Galactic Shaman Astrologer

Hypatia’s story gives me great pause as to whether the current leaders in the cult of science in bed with big pharma and big business have faced, and have made amends and rectified the karmas of Hypatia. In other words, is the era of the take out of Alexandrian intellectual life over? Or is humanity still oppressed under the same ancient visible and invisible forces of tyranny? If the scientific method is king (Shadow Saturn/Dark Father), then all that is invisible and unmeasurable—things like feelings and love—are still left out of this reality, the Queen is left out, the sacred heart.

The idea that we chose our wounds is an interesting one as well. It frees us from the victim consciousness that can keep us stuck in feeling powerless, as if the evil in the world only exists “out there” and instead we can kiss that place within us that is most tender in ourselves, we can accept and love that which we may instinctually hate or want to project on others. Mother wounds, father wounds, childhood wounds, past life wounds, the masters teach that the samsara of suffering keeps repeating until finally someone is able to make the patterns conscious. Or as Carl Jung taught: the unconscious suffering of wounds lead to neurosis, suffering consciously leads to healing; bearing one’s cross may not alleviate suffering entirely, but it will invite you to become fully human, which is the ultimate path to divinity: love for this fragile human form, this mysterious wonder of it all.

The wound has the potential to become your greatest gift. The wound is the place from which comes your greatest medicine. So as it may be socially acceptable to pretend that we are invincibly strong, the deeper truth is that our weaknesses and our vulnerabilities are actually our greatest strengths.

When Chiron finishes his retrograde on December 19, the moon will be in the sign of Cancer the mother. Ceres/Demeter asteroid will be at our North Node of human destiny at the Pleaides. The Sun will be at the Galactic Center at the last degrees of Sagittarius (The Centaur) directly opposite of where Mercury began this initiation in early Cancer at the Galactic Edge. And Venus, Goddess of beauty and love will be conjunct Pluto Lord of the Underworld in Capricorn wrapping up the depths of our journey of conscious awareness of the wounds with her Persephone ability to rule and even rise as a queen and a phoenix from the underworld. All of this just days before the final exact square between Uranus and Saturn on December 24, where Chiron’s wound wisdom has the potential to balance this Aquarian air structure tension with earthy Taurus wild genius.

The cracks are how the light gets in.

-Leonard Cohen

At it’s root Chiron asks us to consider: how does one bridge the opposites? How do I gracefully hold compassion for the opposite in a world that doesn’t always have room for different voices, different family histories, and different paths of healing?

If anyone can help bridge our present challenges and redirect our focus to the highest spiritual truths at this time, it is Chiron.

If you’d like to schedule a personal astrology reading with me to see where Chiron is located in your natal chart and get some guidance on how the current planetary transits are influencing the facets of your life, you may visit my services page: https://www.taraloma.com/new-products/hand-drawn-natal-chart-amp-intro-to-your-personal-astrology

Inanna's Scorpion Sting, The Way of Inner Initiation

Odin sacrificing himself upon Yggdrasil (1895) by Lorenz Frølich

Odin sacrificing himself upon Yggdrasil (1895) by Lorenz Frølich

I dreamed the other night that I was inside of a tree, as the very life force of the tree and I was turned upside-down and ready to transition into the roots or be born into the other side or maybe, I feared, to be in the tree for a hundred or thousand years. I was not quite ready to face this dread and I awoke suddenly grateful to be back in human form.

What does this mean as Venus is preparing to cross the Sun and transition to the other side? I thought too of the Tarot Card, The Hanged Man who hangs upside-down on the life tree—and then I thought of Odin, who spent nine days on the life tree and surrendered his higher self to gain the wisdom and teachings of the runes, a study I have also recently begun.

This too as Mars has been moving across the constellation of Taurus, giving the Bull of Heaven, Ereshkigal’s husband who was lost defending the Goddess fighting Gilgamesh (Orion), now has TWO red eyes instead of one. Aldebaran, the red eye of the Bull paired up with the red planet Mars. I began to wonder about myths and stories pertaining to the masculine figure receiving sight, St. Paul, and Odin again. Receiving second sight is an initiation of being able to see beyond the physical into the emotional and spiritual nature of things. Of seeing the three tiered reality, or the 9 worlds of which this one is linked, of seeing beyond the archonic matrix of nature without spirit, or spirit without nature. Real technology can only advance as far as our spirituality. Maybe the Bull with two red eyes is a symbol of the sacred masculine initiation of second sight, and as Odin rules the third eye, three worlds are now available for viewing. Eyes wide open as Venus crosses the Sun early Friday. An event I will be staying awake for.

Initiations all involve facing fear of some kind, and facing fear with bravery. For all the rational reasons we have made up that if we do this, and this and then this, then everything will be fine; this may be true and maybe not. For there are always at least two sides to every situation. And many more sides and perspectives coming from cultures around the world. Still the divine truth cannot be made unreal. It stands in the eternity of time. Many experiences, still only one world. Sometimes the stories we tell ourselves are simply to deny the fear, to cover it up, and to stay busy in avoidance. Or to surrender our power completely so that someone else (or AI) can do it for us.

What is organic can never be patented. But Congress recently passed a law that if AI alters genetic information, then the DNA is no longer naturally occurring, and so it can be owned. This should be something we consider in taking any experimental non organic technology into our bodies. I see this danger being pushed on humanity at this time, for those with ears to hear. Quite an initiation as well for those who have practiced commanding and healing the elements.

In our collective buying into ONE narrative, one world view we must, especially those of us in the West, make sure we are not just participating in further colonialism with all our ideas of “rational science”. (Please watch the movie What the Bleep do we Know if you have not yet to see where our modern science touted in media is still way behind the edges of where science actually is… and this is not a new movie now). We must have the spiritual maturity to see the difference between forced conformity, and true cosmic unity which allows for each individual’s journey and personal growth experience and sovereignty. For all our love of science, is this also reflective of our love for what feels more powerful—the father over the mother? Doctors over shamans? The stuff made in labs verses the stuff of mother nature? Swami Shri Kaleshwar teaches that the mother is supremely powerful. And that the mother and the father co-exists within one another. Many of the stories we are being told and sold, do not have the right balance of divine mother and father working together as a loving team. Duality is real when you see the two sides of the tree, but the fake duality being shown to us, the conquer and divide, is the trick.

The Goddess however, never tires of the fight. She loves it. In her morning star aspect, Venus/Inanna is a battle goddess. She will never stop. Although soon she will make her transition to evening star and reveal the other side of her war like nature, which is love. Aphrodite was married to Aries/Mars. She is a Goddess of love and war. Just as Freia and Frigg reveal two sides of the Goddess, and Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene, so too Ereshkigal and Inanna.

Much of the confusion I think from our Western roots is that the feminine was devalued and downplayed or hardly mentioned in our religious traditions. And so we don’t really know the Mother aspect and we have devalued those aspects in ourselves. We are lacking discernment, we may fear her wrath, and so we don’t taste her sweetness or explore her depths, or we have become too disconnected from the earth and our own natural cycles and feelings and bodies and so live a little disconnected running fast in our minds. Or the cosmic mother image has been replaced with an AI replication that teaches a different sort of wrath, one that is not in defense of organic matter, but one that simply obliterates it to have power without love. Yes both creatrix and destructive powers are with the mother. But can we see the difference between the real and the copy cat? Between love and not love?

When we are being initiated into the Goddess realms, she often tests us. She has a temper. But Swami Shri Kaleshwar says, once you win her heart, She will protect you. She may disguise herself as ugly. Scary. Only the true of heart will see her transform into a swan or a maiden. She tests the heart to see that it is pure, as Freia would gather those who died in battle who had worthy hearts to Valhalla.

There seems to have been a long frequency battle (Orion wars), as well as a fight for the airways. Battles between technology and nature. (Saturn in air sign Aquarius squaring Uranus in earth sign Taurus for a lot of 2021). Maybe this goes back to our understanding of what it meant when God told Adam to have dominion over creation. Was it really dominance that was asked (shadow Saturn)? Or was it noble sacrifice? Dominance or protection? It seems that Jesus answers this, as did Odin. Sacrifice to the life force, to the life tree, to the five sacred elements, to love herself. These are the great mysteries.

What honors the divine feminine? Does nature need to be dominated and controlled with inorganic technology? Rewritten and changed? Who has access to be the DNA manipulators and who doesn’t? Why aren’t healing technologies such as sound healings present in our hospitals? Or are ancient ways such of laying on of hands and shamanic traditions simply dismissed as “barbaric”? Or like a forest, are some things strengthened by simply leaving it alone or letting nature do her thing? How much do we know about how to build our immune systems and how living viruses and right balance with bacteria actually help us to have better health? Or do we give the responsibility of our health away just as we have given our relationship to the divine mother away? And in our fear generated by a public narrative, we force others to join our story and share fears that we might find the “answer”. While not allowing space to consider the story may not be one that is even the right story, or the bigger, truer story. Are we too uncomfortable with the very matter/Mother to deal with her in us? Modern medicine seems to prefer advertising health by pushing fear, which seems contradictory. If you question how cell phones or other invisible electricity currents affect the human body, you are laughed at in a world that believes only what is seen is real. The invisible realms are pressing in on us, asking us to see. To become conscious of what we fear. And She is watching to see where will we place our hope and find courage. All while transhumanism walks in, as far as we give it permission. The body snatchers maybe have to come to take what is so easily given to them. We choose to be possessed of ourselves, the holy spirit, or the collective spirit, and sometimes they are not the same. That is the deep work. The recovery and discovery of self with integrity and strength to stand against all that is not self, to reclaim all that is ours to reclaim, to know the true power of the life we have been given, as well as our limits, within our duty to care for creation.

When the cosmic boundaries are crossed, the Goddess will fight. That’s her nature. Jesus was also called the morning star. As was Queen Esther. Esther was known to hold her beauty so eloquently she won a kings heart and saved her people. Jesus was known to flip tables in temples and drive out the money changers. Two faces of the Goddess' expression, battle goddess and goddess of love and beauty. They are the same, though usually women and girls are told and sold one face: we must simply be beautiful and meek in order to be good. But that is the fake opposite. For beauty has her terror, and her fear (which is yours) that must be faced. For what is it that we fear most but true love? The initiation is not easy. But that’s how growth works. We press into the unknown. And our third chakras must be strong to resist the pressures that come against the self in the unconsciousness of the crowd as we seek to open the mysteries of the heart. The heart must have roots.

Are we ready to receive Her communion?
To look clearly in Her mirror?
Do we receive the inner scorpion sting which would herald our own death and rebirth?
Or are we still at war with the earth, ourselves, the unknown, and our divine mother?

If I were to read the symbols of our society: the metaphor of wearing a mask, would be the step in consciousness where you realize that you are indeed wearing a mask, you are playing roles and archetypes. But are you doing it consciously? Some people wear masks, other people have become the mask—they are vacant drivers attached to just one or a few roles and fixed stories. At some point though, we are asked to drop all the stories, all the roles, and simply be in the moment.

The needles and shots symbolize to me the sting of the mother. The bee sting. Inanna is connected as well to the scorpion sting. The sting of the mother who can become so small as to pierce your heart even through all your armor. Bees were known to tend the great world tree. And bees were associated with the Goddess, and the Oracles of the Goddess at Delphi and Dodona and also ones who gave sweetness to the Tree of Life. The three fates who watered the Tree of Life had the ability to see the past and the future, and hold the sight your destiny. Will we take the sting of our karmas, our heartbreaks, our rage, our wounds? Will we brave to face the fates where all men and women are pronounced guilty, just as Inanna the Queen of Heaven was also pronounced guilty?

The trick of this initiation is to know those are the judges and you are not the judge. You are merely in a robe, a soul in human form, innocently passing through. And that is how you pass through to the other side. That is how you connect to the cosmic ancestors. You do not identify with your accusers. You do not even accuse yourself.

The sting of the Goddess is not always brute, she doesn’t need to open you all the way. Just a prick. Just a needle. Just a drop of honey is enough, though she overflows with honey.

But in a mad world, in an upside-down world, where what is right is wrong, and what is inside is outside, in the inverted pyramid, we have a man with a needle promising us so much. Is this how the Goddess comes to us in disguise? Will we exchange the outer prick for the inner initiation?

Thinking so much about the forks in the road, and those who are choosing one path, and others walking another entirely. This is the freedom of sovereignty on earth. In the tree of life, both paths are right. Both have their initiations. Both reach up to a breast of Sophia. She feeds both sides of the tree. Morning Star. Evening Star. She of Two. The Priestess. There are honors for obedience. And there are honors for disobedience. The Goddess was known as one who must disobey in her Lilith form, for she wears our disowned shadows which she presents to God. How much more scattering before the gathering? How busy has Set been all these years in his tunnels of hiding. How busy Cain in his running.

If I walk by faith and not by sight, I have to trust the divine process and it’s not a straight line. The work of becoming conscious, even just attending to meditation and connection to the earth even as I learn more of the mysteries of the universe and strive to live under cosmic law. I trust that in times of great need, in times of great transitions and in times of death that Enki will send help, that Jesus will hear Sophia’s singing.

For to live according to the laws of love, there is no sin. Only that which we make. It is not God who is angry at us. It is we who have violated cosmic law who are angry at ourselves for an unresolved and often unconscious inner/outer war. And yet at the very heart of that war, is the holy mother and the holy father, in perfect love and unity waiting for us when we are ready to see. And it is the divine mother who knows exactly the words to speak over us to return our light to us, when we are completely lost in our falling.

As Venus moves to into her evening star aspect, we may also experience with her a transformation of the heart, a revelation of more spiritual sight, and maybe too some of her sweet the sting love medicine. Blessings on this Venus transit. And good luck.

Remembering Ireland

Irish Coastline, Image: A. J. Abel 9/2019

Irish Coastline, Image: A. J. Abel 9/2019

I expected the land to be filled with trees, and the old Jungian professor I spoke with said something like: ey, ye remember there were trees here long ago? Indeed. He confirmed the forests were cut and the land later filled with marshy bogs. Ireland has long been in my heart, though my family was Czechoslovakian, Polish, and Viking Norwegian, my father recently found an ancestor baptized in a catholic church in Ireland by the name of Jessie Grace, and that sort of landed like a Somewhere in Time, confirmation: I was there.

Dark green stone native to Galway, rimmed the sinks and tubs. I wore it as jewelry. I can’t remember the name of the stone right now. It looked like jade. My travels were before cell phones and digital pictures. After the divorce I don’t know where all those photographs went. But I remember the way the stone made me feel. How it grounded me into the vibrant landscape where roads weren’t built in straight lines, but rounded the fairy forts as not to offend “the other folk”.

I felt that strange sense of home that has always been evasive as a military child, that place of belonging somewhere where I had never been before, among people with twinkles in their eyes, secrets and poetry, places for songs and passion for dancing. The land made my heart open and see beyond the western “scientific mind” of straight lines and laughable things such as invisible worlds and mysterious creatures beyond the veil.

We traveled one day to an ancient sacred Druid site and found caution tape surrounding land that had been clawed by a man who went mad the previous night and began digging up the earth in a frenzy with his bare hands before being taken away. The crowd of us tourists gaped at what was possible for a mad man to do with his hands as it appeared like something only a large machine could dent at a construction site. The guide seemed to downplay the scene with an offhanded, “that happens sometimes around here.” Not too long after that a woman began telling a terrible story of a friend who standing on a great cliff as such as this one we were upon, over looking the blue Atlantic Ocean, watching waves crash against the rock. And the woman relayed how a great wind rose up and took her friend’s hat away, and her friend just loved the hat and so reached for it and fell off the cliff to her death. And just at that moment a great wind rushed up and blew this woman’s hat off and we all screamed when the woman reached for her hat at the edge of the cliff and we snapped her out of the spell and pulled her back down to the earth. Shaken the woman remarked: all I could think of was how much I didn’t want to lose my hat! We all marveled at the great magic afoot and how easily one could manifest and amplify energy at such a spot as this, and we all watched our words and stories much closer.

Ireland revealed to me the magic of the earth and stone and words. When a man offered me his hand to dance, it revealed to me my own forgetfulness of dancing, and my own fear of moving my body among strangers, my own freeze response to attracting unwanted attention. The man and I shared a wide eyed exchange and for a moment he tried to force me to the floor by tugging my arm a little harder, and I remained still as stone. This moment initiated me into healing trauma through body movement, and now I teach yoga.

Ireland is home to The Hill of Tara, a place where Kings were married to the land through the Priestesses of Gaia. A place of deep suffering and great resilience. A place where the snakes and Druids were driven out, or simply hidden in deeper mysteries beyond the veil as colonial Catholicism clashed with ancient mother earth religion.

The fairies and the fey are known by the locals, and the stories are filled with layers of mysteries. Doctors and scholars would talk of the other folk and share personal stories of seeing leprechauns and other such creatures right along side their rigorous academic work without batting an eye. I couldn’t imagine talking that way when I was in university or even seminary in the US. Respect of the land was palpable. It made me wistful for more conscious ways in the US. We once came upon the skeleton remains of a human layers deep in an earthy hill and the guide was quick to remind us to bless the dead and not disturb them. As he spoke and we ate lunch I couldn’t get over that there were just bones sticking out of the earth behind him. My western mind wasn’t used to eating with death, but then again monks and nuns were known to carry the bones of the wise with them and set them at their own tables to join with their wisdom.

I recall a cozy bar overlooking rolling green hills and the sea. The building was made of stones and dark wood, and with a glass of the best tasting Guinness in hand I could almost hear the land speak. I found a piano tucked in the corner, and after my drink, I found the courage to play it. When I finished my song I found suddenly a room full of warm support and applause. I often dream of that bar, and some small stone house I would find near it. Some place where I could become so quiet as to simply listen to the land and write and sing what I hear. Some days I feel so full of untold stories and unsung songs paralleled with a deep wondering if these are to be hidden yet, or finally spoken again. Some things only the stones know and only the trees see.

It comforts me to know, that all the earth is connected, like a certain place in all our hearts, in mysterious pathways and veils where illusions can suddenly vanish and old friends and other worldly ones appear. You never know when or where the portals may open to you, so you keep listening and looking, and keeping the magic alive in you so as to be ready.

May the Irish hills caress you.
May her lakes and rivers bless you.
May the luck of the Irish enfold you.