Dancing With the Shadow: Mercury Retrograde

It's that time again: Mercury is retrograde (Rx), and as the past cycles back (or recycles, if you see Mercury as an environmentally-minded messenger!) we have an opportunity to claim/reclaim what's been hiding in the shadows. Mercury Rx is also when technology, travel and the best-laid plans often go haywire — especially in the season of fire.

For instance: three days ago I discovered that "Live Your Light" (my website URL) was at last available as a Twitter handle (it had been parked, unused, since 2008) and joyfully added it to my existing Twitter presence. The next day, the power cord to my laptop appeared to short-circuit; it wasn't working at all last night. Today, after sending my Mac and its accoutrements some good juju, all systems are go — but the refrigerator in my van isn't cooling.

This might be because it's been well over 100º, highly unusual for northern California. I mentioned the soaring temps to a friend back East, who opined, "The mercury at 112 is certainly in retrograde." It's all highly amusing, when we can get a bit of perspective.

Dancing with our unhealed/unacknowledged aspects, observing how they control us in ways that do not serve our highest good, reveals a potent opportunity to live into Aretha Franklin's song Respect, where she sings: "Re-re-re-re". You know: review, redefine, renew, reform, reimagine …

This particular Mercury Rx began in Leo, seguing quickly into Virgo, where it remains until September 12th. What do you need to release to the fires of transmutation? What needs to be planted in fertile soil for the future?

Astrologer Allison Rae counsels, "Mercury's transiting back through Virgo, so pay attention to details. Take the time to get things right. Also pay attention to your health and well being. Mercury Rx check-ups aren't just for cars and computers. On a deeper level, our path of service is highlighted in the sign of the Vestal Virgin, goddess of hearth and harvest. What did you come to do in this lifetime? Are you tending the flames of your soul's passion? It's time to remember and recommit. Soon, it will be time to take action."

As we surge towards 2012 we're in the midst of the most accelerated period of personal and planetary transformation in history. The energetic of the new exhorts us to live as large as possible NOW, not some time in a shadowy future. It's a continual process of reinventing ourselves.

We can use the energy of Mercury retrograde to release our resistance to going higher. The world needs all of our gifts, especially now. We've never been so primed "to boldly go where no one has gone before." This star trek begins in our bodies, minds and hearts as we begin to burn brightly with purpose and to activate our true potential in every realm.

You are the gift; open yourself now. It's time to shake hands with the shadow, unbox its message, and multiply our power exponentially.

For further illumination:

What's shadowing your potential? Is there:

∞ Someone you need to forgive (including yourself)?
∞ A phone call you're afraid to make?
∞ A long-standing debt (monetary or otherwise) you've not yet fulfilled?
∞ A health challenge?
∞ A relationship issue that's quarantined your emotional energy?
∞ A job that leaves you too drained to think about anything else?
∞ Or "simply" an all-encompassing fear of living your light?

The 8/8 Lion's Gate: Your Portal to Power

Each year on July 26th, a gateway opens with the heliacal rise of the star Sirius in Egypt: the Nile floods, enriching the land, even as the Heavens flood us with cosmic illumination from the Galactic Center. Known as The Lion's Gate, this powerful portal of light code transmissions reaches its peak on 8/8. The Stargate closes about August 12th.

To handle the intensity, we can take comfort from Viktor Frankl's quote: "What is to give light must endure burning." The author of Man's Search for Meaning spent World War II in a concentration camp, and went on to write the landmark text about what it takes to continue to say "yes" to life under the most extreme conditions. READ THE REST!

Barter: It's the New Money

When I discovered a gorgeous but flawed sweater at a clothing designer's semi-annual sale, the small company gave it to me: they weren't going to be able to sell a sweater that had one long sleeve and one cropped mid-forearm. And what was I going to do with a lopsided designer cardigan, anyway?

Request help. I posted on Waccobb.net, my local equivalent of CraigsList.com, to see if anyone could repair the sweater sleeve in exchange for writing, coaching, office organization, or other assistance in lieu of cash. A woman responded that she knits and sews "for fun" and would be happy to take a look. READ THE REST!

Recess and Reassess

With our focus on The Shift taking place worldwide, it's easy to forget we have the power to effect change at the very local level ~ within our own beings ~ by altering how we think. Simply shifting our emphasis allows "I feel depressed" to morph into "I feel deep rest".

I also realized the root of "recession" is "recess": it's summer, time to take a break and allow ourselves the deep rest and rejuvenation we deliciously deserve in these tumultuous times!

All the players I've encountered recently say the same, in their own unique ways. Visionary spoken word artist DreamingBear Baraka Kanaan, a modern-day Rumi, exhorts us, "Play hooky from your have-to's, Will you marry freedom with me? Let's elope into ecstasy…"

Clearly, the keynote of now is, "Ain't it awe-full?" READ THE REST!

Summer Solstice: An Opportunity to Become More Whole

Summer Solstice celebrates the sun at the peak of its power. Both the sun (male energy) and the moon (female energy) are waxing, or increasing, now. June 21st marks the longest day and shortest night of the year, in the northern hemisphere (Winter Solstice for our southern hemisphere allies). It's a stillpoint. A time to reflect. A potent moment to set your intention, because the manifestation momentum is strong.

The day goes by many names: All-Couples Day, Feast of Epona, Gathering Day, Midsummer, Litha, Vestalia. In ancient times, June was a popular marriage month, since summer offered a window between the sowing and reaping seasons. The June full moon was considered the best time to harvest honey from the hives, and newlyweds were fed honey during the wedding feast to encourage love and fertility. The tradition lives on in our modern post-nuptial getaway, the honeymoon.

How might we translate our ancestors' emphasis on love and union at Solstice to our lives today? In other words, how can we best live this light? READ THE REST!

Becoming Homeopathic: You Are Your Own Medicine

Just as our planet contains all of the resources we need to create and heal — awaiting only our discovery and ingenuity — we contain the ability to self-heal on an intrinsic level. This was brought home to me the other day when, in the midst of a strong (and highly unusual for me) allergy reaction, I was looking at a homeopathic remedy.

To my great astonishment and amusement, one of the chief ingredients in the remedy I selected was ignatia amara. I picked another remedy off the shelf for insomnia, and discovered ignatia amara listed there as well. In fact, when I did an online search of the remedy, it seemed to describe my very nature to a "T": "Women of sensitive nature, mild disposition, quick to perceive, rapid in execution. Rapid change of mental and physical condition, opposite to each other." The website also stated a supreme aversion to coffee — and I can't bear the smell of brewing coffee! READ THE REST

The Gold Standard: True Wealth Means Stepping Fully into Life

"You sit here for days saying, 'This is strange business.'
You're the strange business. You have the energy of the sun
in you, but you keep knotting it up at the base of your spine.
You're some weird kind of gold that wants to stay melted in
the furnace, so you won't have to become coins."

~ Rumi
While many of us realize this pivotal moment we're living heralds a return to unity among all peoples and all life on Earth, visionary author Moira Timms takes the shift a step further, painting a lucid picture of how wealth and wholeness are one. As we remember and reclaim our wholeness/holiness, we elevate the concept of abundance to a "whole" new level.

In Beyond Prophecies and Predictions: Everyone's Guide to the Coming Changes, Timms describes our emerging "true wealth" consciousness this way: "The mind analyzes — the heart synthesizes. The turning point is where the heart is awakening. The United States motto (inscribed on the banner in the beak of the eagle found on the Great Seal, on the back of a one dollar bill), reminds us that America was founded on the principle of 'E Pluribus Unum' — 'Out of the Many, One.'"

Further, the inscription beneath the Great Pyramid (also part of the Great Seal) says, "Novus Ordo Seclorum" — which translates, appropriately, as "A New Order of the Ages". Isn't this amusing? The answer is in money, but it's not about who can become the richest at others' expense. READ THE REST!

Memorial Day: Releasing the war within us

This weekend the United States observes Memorial Day, a federal holiday enacted after the Civil War to commemorate the men and women who died in military service. Yet there is no recognition of a more insidious war that's being waged globally, every day, by billions of people: the one we're fighting with ourselves.

In our civilized, industrialized, pasteurized, homogenized world, we're frozen into form, ossified in the material — and inured to the whispers of tree leaves, the murmur of brooks, the hissing of summer lawns. Now it takes a rock and roll band pounding 110 decibels directly into our ears, and still most of us, earbuds securely in place, walk on placidly. It's a false peace, and we know it. The uneasiness stirs in our bones, barely kept at bay by the jackhammer rhythm of life in the 21st century.

It's as if we've all been secretly anesthetized against the pain of those who yearn — and it's our yearning, our fear, our wounding, our wonder, that's wanting. But turning to face the music means accepting the invitation to the Dance. And most of us have forgotten how to dance — if indeed we ever knew. We find it easier to lash out in anger: rage, the undiscovered country. If being "outrageous" means getting the rage out, Americans are black belts. READ THE REST!

Marketing 101: The Heart of Money

It's been awhile since I last wrote about money — one of my greatest apprenticeships this lifetime. I discovered a fabulous local networking group with the intriguing title, "New Consciousness Entrepreneurs," and knew upon arriving that I was home. The woman who conceived of and facilitates the group, Maggie Ostara, has, in the synchronous way our lives intertwine these days, been on my What Shines newsletter mailing list for years.

Maggie's topic for the first meeting I attended was, "Marketing is Not A Four-Letter Word!" The other women seated around the table chuckled, because, while we come from diverse backgrounds, what we all have in common is an ingrained terror of taking our spiritual work public in a way that also supports us financially — something we have no trouble doing for our clients. READ THE REST!

Stand! Mother's Day Message for World Peace

This Sunday the United States celebrates Mother's Day, a holiday that was originally not a Hallmark occasion, but a call for women to put an end to war. Poet, author and activist Julia Ward Howe first championed a Mother's Peace Day in 1870. In her Mother's Day Proclamation, she exhorted, "Arise, then, women of this day! 
Arise all women who have hearts…solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
 whereby the great human family can live in peace..."

More than a century hence, women everywhere are heeding the call, thanks to Sharon Mehdi's seminal book, The Great Silent Grandmother Gathering. Written for her newborn granddaughter, the book tells the tale of two grandmothers who chose to stand silently in a local park. When asked why, they responded, "We are saving the world." People laughed at them, even as other women — and men — joined the vigil. Pretty soon more than 2,000 people filled the park, and word quickly spread until similar groups were standing all over the country.

Mehdi's book touched a chord. The Great Silent Grandmother Gathering meteorically morphed from fiction to fact as StandingWomen.org was born. READ THE REST!

Beltane: Celebrate Your Planet, Yourself

In the West, we often water down our sacred days to become mere children's celebrations: Samhain, ushering in the dark half of the year, becomes a specter of itself as Halloween; Imbolc, heralding the return of the light on February 2nd, morphs to Groundhog Day; Beltane becomes a chance to dance around the Maypole.

Yet the deeper meanings reflect our lost connection with natural rhythms, with seasonal shifts we actually embody. READ THE REST!

It's Not About You

Don Miguel Ruiz's classic, The Four Agreements, is a template for conscious living — yet his core wisdom is essentially what your mother taught, as well as the Golden Rule deconstructed:

1. Be Impeccable with Your Word.
2. Don't Take Anything Personally.
3. Don't Make Assumptions.
4. Always Do Your Best.

For me, the greatest challenge is usually not taking something personally. I resonate with author Marya Mannes' quote: "Women are repeatedly accused of taking things personally. I cannot see any other honest way of taking them." READ THE REST!

What's Green and Blue and Brown All Over? Earth Day!

April 22nd marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, an environmental event that, according to founder Senator Gaylord Nelson, was "self-organizing" — like the Earth, Herself.

We've come a long way in consciousness since 1970. We're awakening en masse in these creational times, when living the NOW places us in sync with the ineffable.

It's a potent moment to ponder this primordial quote from renowned sustainable development architect William McDonough ... READ THE REST!

Terms of Endearment: What does "I love you" mean?

"I love you." No expression of emotion is more powerful, more sought after, more fraught with meaning. But what does "I love you" mean?

A decade ago, I was in closure with a companion who helped to radically shapeshift my life. One morning, just after midnight, we were driving in his van when he glanced at the car clock and said, almost absent-mindedly, "Good morning, Amara, I love you!" This had been a catchphrase for us, arising from his teaching that it's preferable to awaken to a hug, a "good morning" and an "I love you" than to one's typical daily dramas or complaints.

This time, however, instead of echoing the sentiment or smiling my love back, I responded, "What does that mean?" READ THE REST!

A Passover Question: Are You Fleeing — or Returning?

"You were once wild here. Don't let them tame you."

~ Isadora Duncan

Today marks the beginning of Passover, a holy week on the Jewish calendar that commemorates the Jews' exodus from Egypt and freedom from slavery. Yet the Jews were not only fleeing subjugation; they were also making a pilgrimage home.

Every encounter with what we might call the Divine presence within is a call to return home — not necessarily to a physical location, but to the truth of who we are. In a stunning essay on Moses' encounter with the burning bush, Rev. Charles Hoffacker declares, "The encounter with the Eternal is the essence of every call story … Eternity calls out to us through a moment of time, and though the moment disappears, Eternity leaves its impress and we are not as we were before."

T.S. Eliot poetically concurs in Four Quartets: "Quick now, here now, always — A condition of complete simplicity / (Costing not less than everything)." READ THE REST!

Health, Wealth and Wisdom: Health care reform a step in right direction

"The greatest wealth is health," said the Roman poet Virgil. Ben Franklin noted, "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man, healthy, wealthy and wise." Both men clearly possessed the wisdom embodied by the 44th president of the United States, who is bringing greater health and well being (an older definition of wealth) to more than 30 million uninsured Americans.

I am one of them.

Except for a few brief years when I had coverage through a visionary, now-defunct plan that paid for visits to alternative medical practitioners (e.g., chiropractors, acupuncturists), I haven't had health insurance in close to two decades. A protracted health crisis for which mainstream medicine was actually harmful, made paying for such coverage superfluous. Instead, I paid out of pocket and through the nose to reclaim my health, and have funded my own health care ever since.

Of course, a few items tend to fall through the cracks. READ THE REST

Atom and Eve

[Originally appeared in What Shines newsletter Issue #22, April 2003]

"Regard the universe often as one living being, having one substance and one soul;

and observe how all things act with one movement;

and how all things cooperate as the causes of all that exists;

observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the single texture of the web."

~ from Meditationsby Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor, AD 161-180

It's official: the universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate, fueled by a mysterious substance astronomers call "dark energy". Satellite maps reveal the universe to be just four percent atoms by weight, 23 percent dark matter (presumably, elementary particles left over from the Big Bang) and 73 percent dark energy.

This turns what we used to believe about the composition of the cosmos on its ear. All this time, we thought the universe was mainly atoms, yet this is only the tip of the evolutionary iceberg. We've been looking at ocean froth, thinking it's the ocean.

Here on Earth, we're in an era of diving deep, mapping a new world as a planetary organism. In the midst of our collective birth process, the astronomical course correction suggests a macro-micro view: "as above, so below."

The journey to self-knowing is frequently referred to as the "dark night of the soul." We descend to the depths of our being, releasing the "ordinary world" of everyday awareness to discover what has been hidden in the "Underworld." It's an initiation. The successful navigation of this often arduous passage signifies a quantum shift in consciousness.

The dark also equates to the Feminine, because it embodies the rhythms of Nature: a dwindling and replenishing, an ebb and a flow. It's an instinctual process: trees shed their leaves in fall and bud again in spring; we heed the call and step into an inner wilderness. This transformation awakens our cellular memory. Like a snake shedding its skin, we leave behind what no longer "fits" as we expand into the fullness of remembering who we are.

Is the mass of dark energy the cosmic oversoul, ready to reveal itself to a species on the brink of deeper development? If we are collectively at that liminal place between the worlds, we might think of it as the Eve of our planetary emergence into unity. Reunion means no duality. Dark and light are simply aspects of The One, life's spiral, the yin/yang. "Uni-verse" is, quite literally, one song.

It's a concept. Since scientists have no idea what either dark matter or dark energy is, these substances that comprise 96 percent of the universe ... maybe it's us, along with the highly probable life out there in other star systems. Perhaps dark energy is our readiness and intention to evolve.

© Copyright 2010 by Amara Rose. All rights reserved.

Equinox Wisdom: A Solar Wave to Heal Earth and Us

This Saturday the Sun enters the sign of the Ram (Aries), creating an equal balance of dark and light on Earth. We call it Spring. The Vernal Equinox (Autumn Equinox for our Southern Hemisphere allies) is a time of rebirth and renewal.

Aries likes action. The first sign of the zodiacal wheel initiates a physical, spiritual, mental and emotional renaissance. It's time to plant the seed, invoke (give voice to) your vision, conceive the next steps in our personal and planetary unfolding. READ THE REST!

"Beware the Ides of March!" Does the day signal danger — or opportunity?

Five centuries after the astrologer in Shakespeare's play counseled Julius Caesar, "Beware the Ides of March!" we still shudder at the thought that March 15th might harbor some hidden hazard.

But it's just another day, albeit one that was part of a convoluted calendar. In ancient Rome, each month had an "ides," a mid-month division of the calendar based on phases of the moon; "ides" means, "to divide." In March, May, July and October, the ides fell on the 15th. In the other eight months, the ides fell on the 13th. READ THE REST!

Daylight "Savings" and the Truth About Time

This coming weekend and throughout the following six weeks, approximately 70 countries worldwide will participate in an annual illusion: saving time. We move the hands of our clocks ahead and think we've harnessed the sun.

Time, like space, is elastic. Athletes know this. When athletes move into "the zone," time slows down. They see every move or play with perfect clarity, and execute the correct maneuvers as if in a dream, sensing the triumphant outcome. Something expands within them that translates into success.

How many people do you know who never seem to have "enough" time? We are each gifted with the same twenty-four hour cycle to use as we choose. People who are time-deprived are exhibiting one aspect of our pervasive scarcity consciousness. READ THE REST!