Year of the Water Dragon: Thunder EnLightening

We're in the midst of a pretty incredible ride: it's 2012, a Leap Year, an election year, we're OccupyingEverything, and now we're about to enter the Chinese Year of the Water Dragon, on the New Moon in Aquarius.

The dragon is a formidable, flamboyant, magical creature, calling us to enter the alchemical fire. According to astrologer Stephanie Austin, "Of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac, the dragon is the only mythological creature, setting it apart from ordinary reality. On a spiritual level, dragons symbolize kundalini, the cosmic or 'serpent' energy coiled at the base of the spine, which leads to unity consciousness. That the Chinese Year of the Dragon occurs in 2012, a year considered by the Mayans, Hopis, and many others to offer the potential for a huge leap in consciousness, further emphasizes the evolutionary nature of this year."

And since this year is a Water Dragon, it's also about balance: fire and water. I just learned from a Twitter connection that "a fulgerite is fossilized lightning. It forms when a powerful lightning bolt melts the soil into a glass-like state." So 2012 might be described as a Water Dragon fulgerite year: enLightening melting what's soiled, watering our individual and collective Soul with awareness and possibility.

In fact, Water Dragon Inc. confirms, "Most people know that water covers two-thirds of our planet and comprises 95% of our bodies; we simply cannot live without it. In Chinese element theory, water produces wood, which signifies growth and is the natural element of the dragon. The dragon governs east/southeast, wealth accumulation and the hours of 7 a.m. - 9 a.m. Associated with thunder, lightning and arousal, the Water Dragon personifies creativity at its best.

As visionary activist astrologer Caroline Casey pointed out during a recent delightful duet on An Organic Conversation: "It's a Water Dragon year: we can ride this thing!"

Let's OccupyMythology, create a new millennial mythos, and ride the fire/water fulgerite dragon off the edge of the known maps, right on into a new dawn.

Wealth Is An Inside Job

I spent this past weekend in a San Francisco hotel room with close to 150 other holistic practitioners of every stripe: life coaches to sound healers, acupuncturists to nutritionists, business organizers to psychotherapists. The event was called, "Rejuvenate Your Practice," and the essence of the weekend was something Jesse and Sharla, the creators of the workshop, call Heartselling.

Based on the Chinese 5 Element model (Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, Wood), they discovered and now teach what we're all awakening to in one form or another now: the Heart is our greatest natural (and renewable) resource.

When you come from the heart, from a place of truly wanting to serve, and place the focus on the other person (in this case, your potential client), asking questions that elicit their needs and desires rather than talking about yourself, and acknowledging their greatness, you'll become irresistible ~ they'll be ready to work with you in a ~ yes, heartbeat.

For me, one of the coolest experiences of the weekend (and we engaged in a lot of experiential exercises) was having 10 participants first say "no" when we asked if they were ready to start working with us ~ followed by 10 who said "Yes!" with wild enthusiasm. The demonstration imbued a visceral sense of expecting "yes's" from the Universe ~ which then, of course, is what happens, since we receive that which we hold in our thoughts.

Ready to get unstuck and move to a new level of creativity, health, wealth and joy in your life? Let's talk: amara@liveyourlight.com.

∞ Blessings and abundance to you! ∞

The Burning Times

We've entered the season of Fire, and boy, are we feeling it here in northern California, where the 100+ degree temperatures and heat lightning have touched off hundreds of wildfires, many raging unchecked as there are simply not enough firefighters to attend to all the blazes. Smoke diffuses the sunlight; the air hangs heavy and rank, and we are advised to remain indoors with windows shut.

Amusingly, my favorite healthy cereal heralded this conflagration: when I bought a new box of it several days ago, just before the fires broke out, it tasted charred. I returned it for another, and the second box was the same. It seemed the company had burnt the entire batch. Micro-macro; as above, so below. Coincidence? Not really ...

In these times of alchemical transmutation, when everything that no longer serves must burn clean, synchronicity runs as high as ancient emotions, and promises a wealth of new doorways. I decided to type "fireandwater.com" into a search engine, since Fire and Water is the title of several different articles I've penned and a long-running theme in my life, and behold, it's the site for renowned author Paulo Coehlo, who wrote The Alchemist. So far this is the only book of his I've enjoyed, but I've now found a relevant source for summer reading. The Witch of Portobello is a highly intriguing title, especially for these Burning Times ...