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Open the Door and Let the Magick In
Imbolc marked the halfway point between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox – a time to celebrate a return of the Sun and light, a fresh and fertile beginning access point, stirrings of new life, and contemplation of the seeds we want to plant literally and metaphorically.
Synchronously, some seeds I ordered were shipped off on Imbolc and so I look forward to planting some new life through the greens that will sprout for us and Astrid come Spring. A friend had told me about how I could easily grow greens all year in tubs that would act as mini greenhouses. I’d been wanting to have that ability and so I ordered the tubs and soil and now am waiting on the seeds. Then I received a sync wink from Faery Sis, Laura, when she posted a video about the very same thing, which she was contemplating to do maybe next year!
A lot of new ideas are coming together in easy ways that I/we had been contemplating, but felt on hold with for some time. The floodgates opened once I made the decision to just pick a choice (neither wrong or right or better or worse) and the decision put things in motion quickly.
This end of Winter and inklings of Spring portal helps kindle your inner fire of power and whispers encouraging words…”catalyze, innovate, birth, and build….you got this.”
The above photo was taken on the first of February at this gateway – a day also shared by the Lunar New Year (aka the Chinese New Year) and my dear Nestor’s birthday. I love the subtle rainbow brilliance of the Sun’s rays permeating the landscape. Interestingly, we were called to go to the same ski resort we went to on Cosmo’s anniversary of coming home to us – the only two times we’ve done so. For some reason my soul companions in rabbit bodies seem to draw us to explore and be in extra peaceful communion to receive communications.
This next photo is from Sunday, nearing end of January, on our Winter kayaking adventure. I love the dance of lights that kept showing up.
Indeed Nature is celebrating that return of light…and perhaps you may feel a bit of extra warmth and brilliance beginning to stir from within too.
As I’ve been redecorating, I’ve been extra drawn to the pair of antlers I found in October. You may recall these along with all the wild turkey feathers that I discovered then. Again, I found each antler on separate days, miles apart, but they were a near perfect pair of opposite sides.
These were the very first antlers I have ever found and it felt so powerful that I ended up finding two at once, creating wholeness.
Antlers speak to the magick of the regenerative force in Nature, but also of our own ability to transform again and again.
Synchronously, a sweet, creative, and sacred Earth Keeper, faery friend of mine who lives in the Ozarks had just told me a few days ago that she found an antler that completed a pair. She sent me a photo and they were also nearly a perfect match, although hers were found a year apart.
We were both in awe of us both finding these and how their messaging was perfect for Imbolc.
Until recently, the antlers were just sitting on my desk next to where I work, as I loved their energy supporting my days. But they found their place – one of my favorite nooks in our Wonderland room – creating a potent altar space, as you can see, just to the left of my desk.
They sit between Cassiopeia and Sirius – The Star Collectors, as they were named by an artisan friend in England who made them (they carry vials filled with stars that they collect on their solo long journeys across mystical lands) – and at the entrance of the golden portal door surrounded with butterflies, rabbit, and the addition of other magickal items including an antler handled wand.
The door says, “Open the door and let the magic(k) in.”
I don’t know about you, but I feel that we are being invited to welcome in the new energy and experiences…that we need to look for, encourage, nurture, and create the things we want to see…the hope…the beauty…the peace…the kindness…and not wait for it to materialize.
I know these are challenging times.
I know some tough things keep flying around us.
It’s up to each of us to choose to see and build something different.
To anchor something more.
Even if that is simply within your heart and your personal experience behind closed doors.
What we can strengthen and amplify from the inside, will emanate outwardly.
It may not show up right away in the way you want it, but when each of us do this, we are building the new.
When each of us feel and embody this, we are making it possible.
Don’t wait for someone to hand you the keys.
The alchemy of your heart is the key that will open the door and let the magick in.
New Moon Rainbow Magick ~ Live in the Moment
On yesterday’s New Moon we seized the moment and went on one of our favorite bike rides, which we missed doing this summer, due to the smoke and fires.
Despite forecasts of 40% showers where we were headed, the morning sunshine welcomed us and we decided that even a little bit of rain would be refreshing and not worth dropping our inspiration to enjoy the day anyway, and get some fresh air and healthy exercise in.
We modified our 43 mile ride to a 24 mile ride and the above and below photos were just as we approached our starting point.
We were gifted a gorgeous day, no rain, the trails mostly deserted with the least number of people we’ve ever seen here, and a couple of rainbows at each end of the lake.
The first one, near the start of the drive to our destination, was just a prelude hint to the full one we saw later. By the time we snapped a photo though, its full color range had already faded. Not to worry, because the other end of the lake had the full surprise awaiting us!
It was obvious that the rain forecast had come earlier than predicted, leaving us with rainbows, autumn splendor, and sunshiny serenity.
We enjoyed lake and river vistas, small rolling cascades, fall colors, bridges and sweeping mountain landscapes all along our ride.
And the best part was the peace and silence, with only nature music to accompany us.
The message always seems to be clear.
Don’t put off what you can do today, as tomorrow isn’t promised.
June Energy Update with Lee
We welcome in June today and edge closer to nearly half way through 2021 already. I read this morning how the Earth is spinning at a faster rate than it has in the last 50 years and with the increase in everything, things are actually being sped up even though it feels like dragging your feet in the mud at times.
This is a big month for me personally, with some key things hitting mid-month and a threefold anniversary on the upcoming Summer Solstice, as well as a big life shift birthing that will begin come end of the month I sense, but as you’ll see from Lee’s update, it’s also energetically big for the collective.
I’m no longer surprised when I listen to Lee’s updates about the nearly exact synchronicity of themes and wording used to describe current energies and experiences that I have either just shared in a blog, have come through as messages and revelations in my personal life, or that I was about to share. We are all connected and share the web of energy waves. Whether we’re conscious of that or not, it’s happening and the echoes are confirmations to that unified field.
I think you’ll see what I mean in the upcoming blog I post, which I’ve been piecing together as it channels through over the last few days. There’s a lot involved with it and I’ve been told to take my time with it, as the frequency of anything put out is very key, especially these days.
The rest of what I add here is a summary in either exact or paraphrased words from Lee’s beautiful share, just in case you don’t listen to it.
I’ve added a few photos from recently, of the trail out back in the forest I journey often. They felt like the perfect reflection of June energy emerging and I particularly loved the dance of light and shadow playing together, as well as the rainbow lining the path below.
A rainbow bridge connecting the two in harmony.
Here begins info included in Lee’s share:
None of us are here to do this alone, as he says. “We’re all taking care of our patch of the garden…we’re all a whole group of gardeners creating a very different garden together.” – That felt like an echo to my last blog, The Many Faces of My Garden.
Pressure around restrictions has been felt, but we’re going to start feeling ease and see restrictions crumble faster because of the wave of people gathering together to do this.
Density is being lessened as far as its hold on people, partially because of our exhaustion with it all and being done with it – more people will be breaking out of the chrysalis and cocoon. Heart power is coming back out in a bigger way.
Revelations and things being revealed that have been lied about, the shadow that’s been hidden and misused will continue to come to light in the next few years. Things you thought or were told are going to have a hanged man result in showing you a whole other perspective you had hidden from you.
Lean into balancing yourself while revelation and reckoning continues on for the next few years.
Different beliefs over things is what’s caused war against others. You can still love one another and have different beliefs. This is where we need to focus and be with these feelings to make greater peace with the fact that different realities will be experienced by everyone and different layers of experience will be all around you the next few years. We need to reckon with how we feel and react, as that is going to play a huge part in it.
Most of you will be here now to birth the new, not to clean up or battle the old world. You need to create and have a creative practice in some way even if just behind closed doors.
Emergence of higher mind and clarity is on the rise around what you do and don’t resonate with and then taking action on that clarity. June presents support for visionary ideas on new things this month and activating forward direction and momentum.
Energy spikes will be lively and on the rise collectively with heightened experiencing. Lee recommends waiting out the spikes before rearranging your life. The amplified energy can feel like a super power in the moment, but let it settle so you have greater clarity from a more peaceful space where things will be smoother and cleaner when you do take action. Your body is slower than your soul to move, so let things settle and integrate, while you tend to your inner garden and allow a more natural mergence to flow.
Deep internal healing is leading to group awakening. More tenderness and vulnerability is awakening within people, taking us away from autopilot and robotic experiencing. It’s like relearning a whole new way of being like fresh curious children emerging from the cocoon womb.
Unification is on the rise even though we see and experience division. The awareness of feeling of the division indicates the process of change is in motion for group awakening.
The integration is happening from the inside out and life reviewing may be more prevalent right now to support new life directions. Upgrades will continue to be presented, so don’t be desperate to take the first offering.
Many of these themes I’ll be expounding on in my own personal share soon. But for now, here’s Lee:
Cycles of Mourning Leading to Renewal ~ Flower Moon Blossoming Potential
Waking up to Jack Frost’s sneak appearance heralded an interlude blog post before returning to the shares lined up in my intuitive queue. 😉
I’ve continued to experience strange, but mysteriously beautiful and odd things, as well as powerful messengers, findings, and even dreamscapes – both my own and of me appearing in other people’s dreams they share with me.
Coyote continues to cross my path – she just did again two days ago – I found another Algiz Rune in the forest (below), discovered nearly half of a transitioned female mallard duck, and held space for my dear Cosmo, whose birthday it just was four days ago.
Finding the female mallard came right after seeing mallards swimming in the pond with only one duckling. The others may not have made it, but then seeing the one female dead was like a rebirth cycle right before my eyes.
Bones and transitioned animals always seem to find me amongst other discoveries. It appears to be my role as a bridge to also witness and hold space for the natural cycles. I honor every one I find in their own way, bury, do energy work, and receive the messages.
Finding the female mallard also spoke to my own shifts and rebirthing I feel underway, although the form is unknown as to what will unfold.
The enchanted and mystical sightings of late on hiking trails hold promise that whatever does, will be in divine flow. In these times, having these supportive messages has brought much needed comfort.
There’s a sacred feminine aspect transmuting across the collective. It is this depth I’ve been navigating recently as to its merging with the new.
The winds of change indeed keep blowing and in fact we have Spring snow blanketing everything today. It came in late yesterday and continues on as I write this. We’re at about five or six inches where we are and more up at the mountain tops.
So, yes, just as the blooms begin to pop along the trails here, a Spring snow storm blows in. Continuing in the theme of “expect the unexpected” these beauties you see in all the photos from yesterday, above and below, are under a little snow blanket today that tucked them in last night.
The weather shifted mid-hike yesterday and as we climbed up the trail with full lake view the whole way, we watched as the clouds started to engulf the north end of the lake and edge toward us. On our descent, the warm sunshine turned to brisk wind and clouds.
There were so many beauties starting to emerge, including the very first wild irises, and to think this is just the beginning though is incredible, as there will be so many wildflowers everywhere in all varieties from miniature for only faery eyes to see, to large and center stage for all eyes to gaze upon.
Indeed you know I stop to smell all the flowers and marvel at their beauty. Their time in the sunlight is fleeting so I embrace every moment I have to experience them when I can. You never know what’s coming next and the time you’ll have to enjoy something. “Do it now” is my way of living life fully.
A Spring snow blanket now casts its wand of enchantment everywhere and actually feels so perfect for what I’m experiencing within, as the waves of intensities and softness ebb and flow. Cocooning in reflection and transformative incubation is where I find myself still, so it doesn’t surprise me that Jack Frost is still sneaking about. In fact, I find him comforting.
That’s also mountain life for you, as if you choose to live in the mountains of any region, nature and weather patterns are ever-changing, moment-to-moment. That’s the beauty of why we live here and personally I have found every change to be consistent with my inner world. Perhaps it is for others, too, even if they choose not to embrace it.
But the element of surprising changes is also reflective of the unpredictability of these times and we can either fight or flow with – the latter being more like Mother Earth.
There’s a constant cycling of death and rebirth, mourning and renewal happening, but with everything speeding up, it all seems as though it’s intensified more than usual. I continue to hear of the loss of loved ones, including animal companions, everywhere and even if one is not experiencing these literal physical losses it may come in the form of symbolic transitions within certain areas of our lives or certain aspects of our individuality and human expression.
Many souls are not meant for the new frequencies coming in and others are able to support the new frequencies far better from off-planet. And even their transition itself aids the shifts in motion, as everything carries an energy signature and key codes that are connected to the whole continuum of what is in momentum.
A lot of transitions continue as the Earth collective recalibrates and everyone decides, on a soul level and within their divine contracts, where their role is most useful. If we only identify as human, this can all be confusing and devastating. When we begin to soften our scope into curious exploration of more than just these physical bodies, we start to understand a bigger picture at hand.
We are mourning and celebrating every moment.
Having experienced the worst loss in my life has helped prepare me for every loss that’s come after and helped me transmute them as the gifts, rather than punishments, that they in fact are. That doesn’t mean our human hearts don’t feel pain, but every feeling is a portal to The Great Mystery.
As I ride another wave of complex and contrasting energies, I see that we’re in the doorway of the next Lunar cycle and so everything I’ve been seeing around me and feeling within doesn’t feel out of sorts.
I’ve always been extra connected to Earth and her cycles – in fact since I was young, I’ve actually seen how I’m tied into her expressions including earthquakes and shifting weather patterns. Interestingly, we’ve felt quite a few earthquakes over the last month or so that have taken place on the California side. We live on the Nevada side, but these recent shakes have echoed inner shifts and my own “letting off steam” during processing. We actually had never really ever felt any rocking and rolling while living here in the years now, or previously. And suddenly 4 to 5 rumbles have rolled in closer proximity and I found it reminiscent of years ago when I would have something huge change in my life or an epiphany happen and boom!
But like the blossoms that have emerged, I have in fact felt a softening of the rough edges to collective energies I’m transmuting. I am also taking steps to amp up my energetic boundaries, do some intentional personal spell castings of my own, and getting my hands in another faery kitchen alchemy creation from yesterday’s gorgeous manzanita harvest – the last of the season.
I don’t know what it is about these blossoms, but they really touch my heart and feel like the perfect ingredients needed right now. I managed to harvest eighteen cups this time of the sweetest little faery blossoms that tickle my heart. And as the snow falls today, I’ll be cooking up batches of delight with them.
With a heart full of gratitude, I thank the Elementals of the land for their gifts and blessings. All I want to do these days is immerse in the richness of Earth all around me. Thank goodness for the bounty of nature we live in. There is nothing to complain about and everything to be thankful for.
There’s been a plethora of enchanted and mysterious little finds, including a bunch of portals and vortex areas like these:
I’ve definitely been anchoring more into my inner Forest Witch lately.
Finding this incredible giant tree root creating a witchy throne portal full of deep mystery and powerful energy, was just the perfect activation.
This coming Wednesday the 26th ignites the Sagittarius Super Blood Moon Total Lunar Eclipse – this Full Moon is also known as the Flower Moon (synchronous to all the wildflowers in bloom right now) and will undoubtedly continue to inspire a plethora of blossoming transformation in our lives.
It’s a time to be explorative and adventurous, add variety – the spice of life to our lives, communicate with clarity, be open to possibilities and options beyond your limited scope, stay open minded in general, release attachments to anything rigid and that blocks you to your wholeness, and embrace the potential for emotional cleansing that leads to renewal.
Full Moons are a time for taking stock of all you DO have to be grateful for and to be extra mindful of all that you complain about day-to-day and moment-to-moment.
How might you refocus that attitude to be more effective in actually funneling energy toward change, rather than constantly spinning a web of negativity and limited perspective? Everything that bothers you holds the alchemy needed to free you.
Look at what needs a little clean up in your life and pluck things out so you can recreate more with conscious intention.
Try to recognize the good in your life and all the blessings around you, including the people around you who despite any perceived shortcomings have their own challenges they face relative to their life path, which we have no idea about since we’re only here living out our own – and may not even really connect the dots to all of that ourselves.
This is a time to reflect and then plant literal and symbolic seeds, then water them with more true, unconditional and compassionate love.
Reaching for the Sunshine and a Warm Thank You
Even though we continue to experience days of snow and we are getting out to ski still, Spring is pushing through here in the high mountain altitudes. It’s so exciting to see all my iris, tulip and daffodil bulbs reaching for the sunshine across our yard. They are eager to join the dance in celebration of the Equinox here shortly.
My birthday irises being the first to blossom, as you know, but the others are not far behind. And there’s much more on the way than what I captured here to share with you.
Soon it will be garden time. I have a ton of wildflower seeds ready to join last year’s perennials I planted and I’ll of course pick up some new beauties to add to what will return. My garden and garden tower are already showing signs of returning growth. It’s always fun to see what surprises the Fae of the land have in store.
Every season has so much enchantment, mystery, and gifts to offer – each reflecting our inner landscapes and sharing with us the answers to how we can more effectively align with life.
And speaking of life alignment, I was unable to share this video thank you the last time, but forgot I could upload it to my YouTube Channel. So, I pasted it in below, as it was important to me to connect more personally with each of you here as well, to extend deep gratitude to everyone sharing interest and courage to join this space and invite me to walk with you.
The five month immersives that I refer to can be found here, along with how to move forward with applying:
The Mentor Muse ~ Guiding Inspiration for Life’s Work Alignment
The video was taken last week, right before the New Moon in Pisces and Sunday’s Intuition Class, but the message of gratitude is timeless.
Immersives begin the week of April 12th and March 20th is the last day to turn in applications – that’s now only two days away. I’m processing the last ones I’ve received so far, today and tomorrow, and it looks like two of the three spots are filled currently.
Stay tuned for a little Spring Equinox surprise.
Letting Go, Listening, Purpose & Celebration ~ Autumn Equinox Portal Preparations
Fall is in the air and everything is falling all around, including my hair. Well, not quite like that, but I’m letting it go as easily as the trees let their leaves shift and drop. More on that shortly.
I read a short share from Avia Venefica exploring where the phrase “turning over a new leaf” came from. She writes:
“…many types of trees can detect changes in their environment. They sense a shift in weather before it happens. It’s as if they predict the weather. Trees adjust to these changes to prepare themselves for pending change. For example, deciduous trees like maples and poplars turn their leaves as a protective measure before a storm hits.
Rather than flippantly tossing about the catch-phrase of ‘turning over a new leaf’, maybe we can embrace the idea that a deeper presence within and around us is beckoning us to shift our position. Maybe a powerful, sentient energy sees a positive purpose for making a motion for our betterment – for our safety – for our future.”
She points to how the inherent awareness we have is easily distracted, whereas Nature continues to listen to the signals no matter what is going on in the outside world. There’s an innate wisdom that can guide us just like trees. Surrendering to that space of knowing how and when to change will lead us to our most optimal life experience.
Yesterday morning kicked off with an Autumn celebration of joy and change with a procession of over twenty quail, a chipmunk and a squirrl, with chattering birds to accompany, all parading in front of me with a grand show.
I shared a video of the fun on Instagram yesterday, which followed the quail from fence to fence of the perimeter of our yard, with a chipmunk and squirrel who kept zipping by to add giggles to the show. It all made me so happy!
The quail use our yard for grazing and as their path into the forest. This is the sweet family we’ve seen since the babies were tiny ones, now all grown. I was doing my usual morning feeding and cleaning routine with Astrid when I caught glimpse of the action. The quail were lined up along our fence and squirrel was enjoying his pine cone not far from them and then ran closer, as if to make sure he was in camera focus (as seen above and below).
I went outside to enjoy both their presence and purposeful journey, as they hopped down into the yard, grazed a bit and hopped back up to the forest-side fence to continue on. While watching them, a chipmunk got super excited and started to zip back and forth in front of me several times, which I caught on the video. And then squirrel (this is the same little guy who always comes to tease me when I’m in the garden) decided that looked like fun and wanted to steal the show. So he ran up closer and made sure to look straight into the camera and then over to the quail and back to me.
It was so cute watching all the activity and observing the quail, one-by-one hopping up to the fence, surveying the forest, and then jumping down onto the forest floor. One of them was so excited she overshot the fence and when leaping with flutter to the top, toppled right over instead.
This reminded me of a dream I had last night where I was flying. I have dreams of being in flight, although many of them are about the effort and concentration it takes to lift off the ground and keep rising, but I prove that flying is possible. This dream was very different. Like the little quail who overshot the fence with propulsion, I had almost too much propulsion and force behind my flight. So much so that I was able to bring two other people along with me, as we held hands in a line (reminding me of Peter Pan flying with Wendy and the kids) and I flew us up and far, doing all kinds of tricky maneuvers along the way. By the end of the dream, I was in fact learning to harness, refine, and dial back my energy a little because it was on full force and I was having to navigate us to a very specific coordinate that I couldn’t overshoot. That seemed like a significant dream to have at this change in cycles right now and with all that I’ve been experiencing.
But back to the quail – I adore them and love that our home is such a welcome place for all the forest creatures. They, along with the activity of the other little animals in Autumn prep, herald the change of seasons to me.
This traveling troupe, I read, take us on a journey of reflecting upon our life story and the symbolism around purpose and progress…to see if the details are aligning us to where we want to go and what we want to create as contribution. And synchronously, this HAS been a big focus for me recently.
They speak to any action being sacred and that even the smallest of steps in the direction of purpose will propel momentum and create opportunity. So, in this way they encourage action toward our goals and to seize what is showing up.
Quail are also very social, aware, instinctual, confident, connected, and community-oriented. So there are varying levels of how these messengers may show up in our lives. As always, only we can decipher how that translates for us.
And yesterday afternoon, Hope made a reappearance in the garden just outside of my office that I share with Astrid, my rabbit. She was enjoying yard munchies and even had a fun encounter with squirrel where they nearly ran into each other, and she bounded off in surprise. Of course, I giggled out loud. She sat under the fence a while just exposing her cute little cottontail and I enjoyed watching her explorations. I discovered later that she likely ate my comfrey plant, which is funny because it’s the first plant that finally took after about four efforts. I took it as a sign she’s blessing it for next year’s abundance. 😉
While watering, two chickadees were flying and perching next to me, chatting with curiosity and of course my squirrel friend made me laugh, as he ran right up to me on the top of the fence I was standing near, looked me in the eye, chattered and then ran off. He’s such a tease, as I said.
So, it was a big day of forest celebrations for tomorrow’s Equinox, the circle of life, sacred community, purpose and the journey, and enrichment even within the transitioning seasons of change.
I’m very much hunkering into the change of seasons, which includes inner preparations matching outer ones. I’m also loving to wear the Fall colors and matching the natural environment around me. It seems to be quite a full time recently for getting a LOT done.
Do you find yourself making any shifts too, whether consciously or instinctively? Or engaging in more things than normal?
I have a full couple of weeks of bulb planting, cutting old growth, bookkeeping, house cleaning, updating our Magick Rabbit Etsy shop (which I’m hoping I can get up for Equinox tomorrow since there’s a couple of sweet Autumn additions), Reiki 2 online training and road trip prep, alongside new focuses I’m developing. So, I feel a bit like the squirrels and chipmunks in seasonal production mode. Yet, like them, am making sure to integrate some fun along the way.
Which leads to the opening about “letting go of my hair,” as tomorrow I have my first appointment with my hairstylist that got rescheduled by divine alignment to Equinox. She only sees one person at a time now so that works well. I’m planning on the first big cut I’ve had in years, since I’ve been mostly just letting my hair grow during these transitional and deepening years.
Yet, I feel so ready for something lighter, fresher, softer and releasing all the years of old at the ends. Normally, I’ve been trimming about four inches off, but it grows so fast, it never seems like I do.
I’m not yet sure what will evolve this time, but it makes me excited because I love change and get bored pretty easily. This may just be the first stage of cuts to come, but whatever and whenever they happen, it is a way I align myself with the new. And since it’s been years since I have done anything more drastic, it undoubtedly reflects big, apparent, upgrading change.
I thought this was interesting. My hair is currently a little past my waist, as you can see in the left photo, which was taken Friday to document the before. The lighting wasn’t direct, so it was a little more accurate to my medium brown hair (of course I have silver too, as you can see in the photo above this one). Then just a couple of days ago, Dave saw the light on my hair streaming in from outside and took the photo on the right. It completely transformed my hair to a honey gold, or slightly strawberry blonde, which made me look like a completely different person from behind and actually mirrors my hair in photos from when I was a little girl. I had both pixie hair when I was super young, and then hair down to my butt for years. The right photo reminds me of little Tania and seems fitting to have recaptured that, since a lot of focus for me has been about retrieval of my parts.
Now, it’s about reinventing something new.
The shifting light of the season casting a glow of change and reflection.
I also have an eye appointment Thursday to upgrade my prescription, as I can tell my vision is shifting. Vision changes reflect, to me, a different perspective on life. Vision and perspective feels important, as it relates to everything shifting so much in the way we are experiencing the world and collective right now. There seems to be a call to alter our perceptions overall and even a mass movement in terms of the things more people are becoming ready to see now. As layers of the veil peel back, we are being asked to see with new eyes and trust what is being shown/felt because that will be more key in creating a different reality than the one we may have thought was the only version of reality available.
As always, I am fascinated by connecting dots of the journey and share these experiences as one of the ways in which we can invite awareness and creative energy to the process.
Nature reminds us that we need to relinquish the need to hold on tightly with fear and to trust in the process – to allow ourselves to have everything we thought we knew about ourselves to be stripped away, only to discover a greater truth to our authenticity beneath the temporary structures.
And in the process you’ll discover the only thing that is eternal is the core essence of who you are beneath the temporal layers. You learn then that the rest isn’t as serious as you make it and is simply part of the journey to that core.
We let go, just as the trees effortlessly allow their leaves to shift colors and float off in the wind. We embrace the only permanence, which is change. And we take grateful stock of what we do have, while preparing for a new birthing that will be incubating during the symbolic stillness.
Seasonal transitions mirror the evolution of human consciousness and the dynamic shifts of life cycles.
If you feel so called, perhaps you might create an intentional space, moment, or ritual of your pleasure to connect within and without as a way to unify through love.
I wish you a beautiful change of seasons that represents the merging of two into one and a balance between contrasting energies, at the portal point of Autumn Equinox (for Northern hemisphere folks) and Spring Equinox (for Southern Hemisphere folks). May it illuminate your inner journey in enriching and deepening ways.
Summer’s Lazy Haze
As Summer sweetens into a lazy haze, my bare feet find solace in the thick cool clover reminding me that my blossom friends will return again.
Hints of auburn and gold Autumn hide between pine needles and sneak up each morning after anointment of faery wands dancing through the night.
Late afternoons and darkening evenings glow by the silvery song of the tree frog.
He croaks outside the door to call in a mate and his voice is both sweet and sad. I hope he won’t be alone for long.
This bitter and sweet lingers on the air of transition, as I say goodbye to the last of the foxgloves and hello to the seasonal wildflowers that seem to come and go in a blink.
Life spans are shortened like the days and light, as a mystique rolls in on the Zephyr winds.
Change is rumbling through the Earth and our bones, as seasonal circadian rhythms take on a new dance with the forest creatures in preparation.
My feet sink deeper into the cool clover; toes curling into their memories.
Whimsical Wednesdays ~ The Artist’s Corner: Be Like Nature
Creating life as a work of art is my personal motto and nature is such a guiding light example for this kind of artistry. I used to make life hard for so many years – part of that due to not having boundaries, which drowned out my voice of origins. The rest was a much needed excavation journey, but all along the nature of my heart kept singing. I just couldn’t hear it loud enough nor trusted it above the conditioned and accepted patterns and cycles I was caught up in.
The more I spent time in nature, the more I relaxed into my own.
I find all the answers to questions reflected around me always on nature’s canvas. Every tree, plant, flower, animal, insect, rock, terrain, season, and weather pattern displays a lesson for life and demonstrates how simply we can recreate, blend, merge, and resiliently design what is needed in each moment.
Perhaps that’s part of why rabbits speak to me so much too, as there’s still so much wild in them even if domesticated, and their Earth connection is richly woven into their bodies and souls.
I shared some of this on an Instagram post recently, but it goes along with this share:
I find it beneficial to embrace, and allow myself to experience, all of who I am without judgment. As I embrace all of my parts and their purpose for having been, a new perspective is born that rewrites my experience. As a result it creates a new template for a more loving, flowing relationship with myself of experiences filled with greater grace every step of the way. It’s not always easy, especially in the beginning, but with practice it becomes more natural and seamless.
I no longer need a catastrophe, physical crises, break down, or shove up against a wall in my life to know what my heart and soul needs and what changes are necessary in the bigger picture of things. My process is more about alignment, trust, and flexibility.
Support and expansion is there when I am in that flow.
While it might seem more logical to make changes when there’s a challenge, I say it’s quite empowering to make them when there aren’t.
For this reason I have understood why some people have thought I might be going through a challenge of some sort to make decisions like taking sabbaticals or changing courses altogether in areas like work, home, life and love, but the decisions are based on choice following inner knowing. I’m grateful to experience things in this new way – a way that reminds me of how nature simply unfolds in every moment, whole and complete.
Nature is my constant guide for life.
My time in nature gifts me endlessly. I find it to be the most profound for channeling, receiving inspiration, the most supportive for deep conversations, and abundant with messages and answers I’ve been pondering.
Nature helps me weave life as a work of art, as not only is she full of creative potency, but she offers me so many options and perspectives for how I want to paint each experience.
This was a feather treasure from Sunday’s long trek on the Flume Trail above Lake Tahoe. It’s very peachy gold and at first reminded me of many of my hawk guide feathers although wondered about owl since the feathers have many similarities. Upon further exploration of my feather collection and hearing from bird experts we confirmed it as great horned owl. I have several feathers from owl and hawk in my treasured collection. The timing of this one and finding it on a steep ledge upside down – nearly undetectable to the naked eye unless meant to be seen – felt very aligned.
Just some of great horned owl’s symbolism includes timing, hearing the unspoken, seeing and protecting the unseen, harbinger of new cycles and life transitions, piercing beyond the veil, shape-shifting, Great Mystery, wise action, recognizing light and dark coexisting, higher intuition, knowing, able to pierce through shadows and fears and see the darkness of others’ souls – therefore not easily being deceived.
The “knowing” aspect was synchronously peculiar, as I’d just been explaining to Dave about the form of psychic awareness I have and is continuing to grow, which comes through as a “knowing” that is part of me rather than separate to me or in some flash of channeling from outside myself. There is no separation between the things I experience and receive, making them feel very normal, natural, and seamless, possibly easily dismissed in this fashion, but I’ve learned over time to trust. Owl has shown up in readings in my past as my life path.
More interesting is what I discovered upon further exploration of great horned owl showing up that speaks to what I’m feeling. Owl can speak to stillness, slowing down, and silent observation, with perhaps even removing oneself from things to see truths all around. Owl also indicates releasing part of our lives to stay aligned and continuing to steer true to the course of inner truth guidance.
The avian clan is around me always in many forms, but the bird family of hawks, owls, osprey and falcons have been especially meaningful to my life as spirit guides, visionary teachers, and protective sentinels. Hawks are the most frequent creative life partners, with owls, osprey and falcons showing up less frequently, but at crucial points.
I’ve definitely been in a recalibration mode recently, as I have had to readjust to returning from sabbatical at a challenging worldwide crisis time while also opening to more work. Things have gotten busier than I imagined (all good things with integral purpose), but it’s very different from the quiet three months. I’m back to having client sessions and doing Reiki Healing Attunements – more than I thought but understandable, am beginning work on a book cover for an author that feels to be an important portal creation, and trying to still get my novel moving forward. I’ve also been spending extra time in the garden, cleaning up, planting, seeding, and watering and getting longer miles in than usual of exercise with hiking and biking in new areas to keep my equilibrium for well being. That alongside day-to-day things we all do like taking care of a household, three fur babies, cooking, cleaning, handling a shared side business with Dave, interacting with my community online with posts and blogs, and making sure there’s pure relaxing, do-nothing-time that’s a must in every day for me – all takes initiative, intention, focus and commitment.
After early years of strict security-based regimes, I unfolded into the freedom loving, wispy, part of me not wanting to be bound by anything and wanting to avoid hard work (escapism), and now I am creating a marriage of both as my artist’s way of life. Synchronously aligned with my actual marriage upcoming, which we just got our license for yesterday.
Now is a time for constructive use of freedom through healthy self-discipline in my life – in essence, creating a delicate balance between freedom and structure. This involves using levels of freedom wisely and well, which just so happens to also point to the numerology trajectory I’ve activated with this year’s birthday.
I’ve lived at both extremes and most of my life is now focused on implementing and embodying moderation through merging of organization, commitment, routine and responsible choices to the honoring of freedom that I also seek. This is a newer undertaking that merges the natural aspects of myself and focuses on their strengths with understanding of how committing to a certain sense of structure can actually offer the true freedom I desire. It also assists with attaining goals, manifesting, and experiencing greater clarity.
Nature reflects this for me in how she embodies so many seeming opposites together that work beautifully as a unit. There is a natural cycle, structure, inherent wisdom, sacred geometry, and symbiotic relationship that abides by certain unspoken universal ground rules, but there is also incredible variety, unusual evolutions, surprising mutations and resilient behaviors, and freedom to be wildly you that she speaks to so beautifully.
When I face frustrations in my process or feel restricted in some way, while I teach myself new, more freeing ways, I’m reminded of how nature doesn’t complain, but simply discovers new ways to thrive or renew. She reminds me of the resiliency inherent within and that sticking to my commitments will see me through and the balanced way to that is by remaining flexible, but disciplined, and focused, but open to change.
This has led me to start creating a guiding, daily time schedule while I have multiple things going on. I’m putting that together in a way that feels balanced, manageable and reasonable, while being flexible when necessary. That said, it feels incredibly important to create this in a way that is motivating and fun, but keeps me on track. Life isn’t about force and punishment. Those are old patterns of conditioning that have no place in the now. In the past I’ve been more of a one-off kind of person wanting to get each things done fully before I moved on and was an extremist. Now I’ve taught myself to be okay with things constantly in motion and giving time to each as I can in a way that feels aligned and fluid. This is healthier for me to maintain daily variety, momentum in all areas, creates a more natural rhythm and takes pressure away.
It’s also how nature creates.
I’ve also learned to say no over the years to projects and things in general, which I continue to, and to only say yes to what resonates. I newly implemented weekends to not being available so I get time away from it all too. In the past, any day seemed like a free-for-all. In all, there’s a slowing down and flow in order to not create anxiety and I remove pressures of “should’s”. I’m finding life much more rewarding and rich and I’ve never felt more vibrant.
We each have our roles and parts to play and mine is definitely as an “as within, so without” process in constantly holding that mirror up to Nature and the world at large to make those adjustments in reflection.
By working on greater equilibrium in all areas of my life, continuing to support my joy and needs alongside others as equally important, and letting go, and committing to living in alignment, all of that has balanced out before my eyes, including physically with natural changes I’m going through at my age.
And speaking of blossoming, the above and below photos are of our first blooming tree here. That seems reflective of little bits of new growth and opening in my life happening one step at a time. Things don’t just burst open all at once here in the mountains until a momentum kicks in.
Much like my own process, as I keep the wheels turning and do whatever I can in some way, inevitably there’s a chain reaction of further results that come from my continued forward movement. And soon the garden and forest will cycle into full bloom.
In the meantime, nature is in slow, steady growth right now here in the mountains, with constantly shifting weather. It speaks to me that my own life creations are needing to take their own time, too. So, I plan to relax and pick up a new color to paint life with, as the moment dictates. I will paint a little here and a little there so as to bring all parts of life together with joy and connection, be present to how each piece is integral to the next, and how there’s purpose in every brushstroke.
The idea of schedules always was daunting, but I now see it as crucial to creating life as art where I bring through all strengths together just as nature creates her masterpiece as a unit.
This doesn’t mean I don’t get things done when some of them do actually have deadlines, but I create more gentleness and joy around it all along with extra room for each by stretching them out and letting go in general when things unfold differently than I thought. Life continues to open in new ways the more I open to the true nature of me.
I’m going to be a little more “in between” worlds again, as I am needing to go to places more fully to receive what the open door is ready to channel through. I seem to be going through an evolution of sorts on several levels, to include greater access to more latent parts of me now rising. I’ll continue to keep balancing my “me” and “sharing” times with increased vigilance in order to maintain that natural rhythm and alignment.
Like the Sibyls, from which the ancient heritage within me is rooted, who lived hidden and out of reach in order to filter the energies that accessed them so they could remain devoted to the sacred purity of their connection with Mother Earth and the Cosmos through sound, there is a place within me calling for that path, moving in and out, at times unreachable, and yet ever more connected.
Since this is an Artist’s Corner post, Astrid and I share a little reminder that our Magick Rabbit Beltane Sale (the largest to date) continues through June 20th, Summer Solstice. We’re down to just 14 items (thanks to your loving support), which include updated versions with new bunny colors of our last three (UPDATE SOLD OUT) Serenity Silhouette Magick Rabbit Talisman Necklaces – all in the Cosmic Egg Style. There’s a royal blue with silvery white rabbit with a blue eye (SOLD), a sunflower yellow with gold rabbit with blue eye (SOLD), and an olive/green gold with black golden rabbit with green eye (SOLD).
And we also wanted to share a gratitude update that with your help our Magick Rabbit Etsy Shop has been able to raise donations of a little over $3100 for rescue rabbits, over the last 15+ months. We’ve sent portions of sales and auction items, as well as donated items to raise money, including 50% of proceeds from several original paintings to various non-profit rabbit organizations and micro sanctuaries with your help. The larger ticket items (original paintings) have been super helpful with this. We have six beloved ones remaining that include three animal spirit guide portals and three Magick Rabbit mini portals all found at the link below.
The sale includes 30-50% off, which makes owning an original painting like this a huge bargain. Smaller whimsical items still available too. Limited stock remains on greeting cards, notebooks and prints – all at incredible steals to bring joy to hearts and support to lives.
Nature is Helping Me to Embody the New
I thought I’d hop on briefly after being away from blogging the last ten days, just to share some of the beauty, special moments, and reflections I’ve experienced during this time. Maybe you’ve felt similar things or this little burst of nature’s inspiration may be exactly the breath of fresh air for you right now. In any event, I hope that you had a beautiful Summer Solstice, however you chose to welcome it in.
I’m still spending most of my time within the inner landscapes, but that is reflected in an increased deepening with nature and immersing even more in her realm.
This mirrors the time we lived in the Magick Bus exploring nature and National Parks for nearly a year and a half when life called me in a new direction. It’s only now that I’m getting what it all meant and where the embodiment of that change was leading.
It’s almost been like getting my feet wet again in body, from what was a resurrection of sorts from the waters of life – actually most literally. I have needed the last couple of years to reacquaint myself with things from a new perspective, which has had me dipping in and out of some things from before, tried out in the now.
Some clothes just haven’t fit, either feeling too tight or too loose – meaning they were still too tied in with the past and the energy I had completed, or they were so new that I wasn’t sure how I felt about them and hence all the extra room to explore.
It’s been a time of allowing what ever wants to move through, letting go of to-do’s, and softening the reflections so that even my process with things doesn’t mirror how I used to process stuff. Life is a soft and gentle focus now. In this way, not only will what ever the new is that comes through be different than before, but the journey will be too.
I find it important for me that nothing mirrors the past, although can weave in the possibilities it held.
It still feels very fresh and I’m only beginning to immerse, as last week was more about the surrender, continued nurturing, and letting nature guide me.
So, with Solstice ringing in Summer, there’s been a ton of outdoor activity. It started Wednesday of last week while we explored a new hike to Cascade Falls – a shorter one, but climbs technically quite a bit. That felt invigorating and perfect for allowing the flow just like the gushes of water cascading down the mountain. Both the climb and the being with the water were perfect metaphors for things.
That same day we went to Baldwin Beach – another new beach for us. There, a mother duck and her seven ducklings visited and after they explored the higher activity of people down a ways from us, they came to rest in peace in front of our umbrella. Another beautiful reflection.
Thursday was a very special day – the two year anniversary of Astrid’s coming home to me at the gateway of Solstice. That’s what these first three photos celebrate. Since Astrid is such a huge part of this new life journey for me, I felt it important to capture some beautiful moments between us in the forest portal backyard of our house.
She was a surprise to me, but as I navigate this next part of my life, Astrid is my greatest guide. Where I have no example for the new I reinvent, she emulates the potential I most admire.
I love this photo below where she and I look merged as one – almost creating a Yin/Yang effect in how her body curves into mine.
Solstice is a very special time of the year for me ever since three years ago my beloved bunny, Joy, transitioned through its portal on that day in a place very dear to me – Montana. She and Astrid came from the same rabbit rescue and I feel that their entering and exiting at this gateway is significant.
The Mayans celebrated Solstice for spiritual initiation and change, creating ceremony to be in harmony with the Earth and Cosmic energies.
I remember the words from my dear shaman friend Amaru in Peru, “Nokan Inti Kani” – meaning “I am the Sun.”
Solstice extends an invitation to join the Sun’s energy and connect with your Higher Self, follow inspiration and dreams, and tune inside to the alchemy of “as within, so without.”
I find nature to be that gateway for me, as are my rabbit companions, and the Cosmos.
The Solstice gateway gifted me this beautiful golden hawk feather that I’m so grateful for.
So every day since Wednesday, nature time increased with tons of mountain biking, hiking, and beach time, as well as late afternoon/evening gardening time upon returning home from the physical activity.
To say I slept well is an understatement, as the deepening into body and moving a lot of energy in a grounding way was both nourishing and took me through cycles of decharge and recharge.
Solstice saw us in Squaw Valley where I enjoyed an intentional walk in the gorgeous meadows by myself anchoring in that new while Dave enjoyed his last day of skiing on the first day of Summer. You’ll see photos below of how beautiful this area is, reminding me of both the Swiss Alps (where I haven’t yet been, but seen photos of) and adored Iceland, as well as my favorite spots in Montana.
Seventeen miles of biking along the Truckee River that day was a way to move the energy and flow like the river.
Twenty two miles of biking the next day continued moving that energy along more gorgeous vistas.
All the while during each ride, allowing visions, thoughts, and feelings to flow, as my body did the integrating.
Two back-to-back hikes to different lakes Sunday followed by a vegan potluck picnic provided continued anchoring and as I said, each day I’d come home and plop myself in the garden planting perennials to create a low maintenance, inspiring, and beautiful backdrop that blends wild with a little intention.
I promised the Faeries of the land many things when moving here and I’m happy to create a special sanctuary for them to play in.
I’ll share more of the front and side gardens, as things blossom, but for now here are my beautiful Portulaca blooms that I adore!
The forest out back is in early stages of bloom, but as you can see they are already creating a welcome carpet to our home for the Faeries.
I just love how the wildflowers are blooming with joy everywhere – and it’s just the beginning. They feel like a love spell on my heart.
And as you can see from the below photos of Squaw Valley meadows, the Truckee River, and Cascade Falls, there’s been an abundance of inspiration all around from Mother Earth – the best nurturer there is.
As mentioned, I’m just beginning to immerse into a new realm of exploration within, so all of these good nature vibes are very nurturing to the vulnerable parts feeling safe to come through.
Because I feel that I haven’t much example to draw upon for that new, I feel nature provides me the best template and reflection for the journey.
Cultivating the garden is also very supportive, as my heart guides its creation in reflection of me as well – mostly wild, with woven threads of cultivated pockets that create synergy and harmony.
This last Wednesday I went to my third meditation group meeting that ended in a lovely picnic dinner at the beach with everyone who joined, however I feel it will likely be my last time going (at least for now) because I’m clear my work at home is more aligned for me at this time. I did leave the group with a few book recommendations to help with the “self love” topic, so they at least have some tools for any exploration they may decide to embark on past this month’s theme.
I feel called to explore on my own for now, dipping in and out when the moment calls.
The good news is (at least to me), I feel like I’m in greater alignment with the new path I’m creating than I was before. Remember I mentioned those clothes that felt too tight or too big and loose?
Energetically the ones that felt too big are now taking root and feeling more like home.
And on the literal, tangible level, the continued cleansing of, and weeding through, my closet leaves me with what feels to be the perfect essence of a place I now feel comfortable in heading to.
What’s fascinating is that the five Portal Paintings that found their new home, only just departed from Nevada on the Solstice – Yes! The Solstice of all days! Talk about divine alignment. Even though I dropped them off a week and a half earlier, they didn’t get crated and shipped out until then and so that also feels reflective of this anchoring in and clarity beginning.
The whole wild journey to get them to that point has mirrored so much of the changes I’m going through.
I’m excited for them to arrive in their new home across the country in Athens, Georgia with their amazing co-guardian where they will be open to anyone who wants to visit and meditate/work with them. This new home is being created into a form of a mini healing center welcome to people wanting to immerse in a conscious journey. As things evolve with that, I’ll keep you posted. It’s a way that people can experience them and more, and if at some point they are ready to journey on, they will be available via that portal.
I leave you now to return to my garden so I can complete the last planting I didn’t get a chance to finish yet. It feels integral to the next phase beginning.
What I love is that although the future is unknown and the vision is yet to be seen of how things look, the journey is so much more gentle and peaceful. There are those ebbs and flows, but it’s all naturally unfolding if I listen, allow, honor, and observe.
Do you experience reflections in your life that mirror the changes you’re going through?
My guess is we all do and if we stop to observe things, we’ll see it and make those connections.
If not, how might you create intention around something – like a project, gardening, etc. – to embody the potential you’re being guided to?
It will be interesting to see where the journey leads all of us.
Giveaway Recipients & A Break
I’ll keep this post short and sweet by kicking off with thanking those of you who joined in on the New Moon Gratitude Giveaway. Because of a busy week, it took me a while to go through the lists from people who decided to see it all the way through with me and us. I hadn’t had opportunity until this morning to go through things and post the recipients of the four gifts I promised as a way of honoring your commitment.
The four people in no particular order are:
Reid Reichardt
Ana Pena
Jane Guzman
Lisa Gonzales
I’ll be contacting each of you to get your gifts out. I was truly moved by the experiences you had with this and how meaningful you found it to be. I honor each of you for doing this challenging work.
This last week has been both full and full circle for me. It has solidified some things and put others into motion. Wednesday through Friday were particularly shifting, as well as a bit exhausting, yet pivotal clarity came as to a phase I chose three years ago.
I had only snippets of what it meant, but am understanding more what is in alignment with it. It’s a new phase that hasn’t an example to reflect for me, so it will be both a challenge and adventure to reinvent things.
It is because of this that the regular Ask Astrid Fridays blog didn’t come in yesterday and because of things she and I are committing to working on together, we’ll be taking at least the next week off from any blogging as well.
Depending on how much we move through, will depend on how the next week looks, but I at least want one full week to dive in deep so that I can get a handle on and anchor in a new experience we’re reinventing.
Once it feels to be in motion, I’ll be better able to schedule in other things.
This feels supportive also to my being very inward these days and needing more space for myself.
Thursday is a big day for the two of us leading into Summer Solstice on Friday. This is a special time and sacred portal that feels especially supportive for igniting what we’re focusing on right now.
We hope it will be a beautiful doorway for your light as well.
Thank you again to everyone who delved into the self gratitude and giving in the way that felt right for you. I hope you’ll continue to implement this into your life to become a natural part of living.
Tania Marie 