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Ask Astrid Fridays ~ The Rabbit’s Corner: Exploring Sacred Relationships
I noticed how Astrid has deliberately placed herself in positions lately for me to take note of, as seen above and in the below photo. In both cases, reflecting something about relationship and partnership, as she stood beside the enchanted stuffed rabbit, Jellybean, and underneath the giraffe temple. I felt her wanting to expound upon some of what I shared in Whimsical Wednesdays’ blog about the upcoming Full Super Moon in Libra. But it goes beyond just this Moon’s phase, and speaks to the heart of sacred relationship.
The way things are set up here on Earth, in a land of duality and human need for connection, many of us find ourselves in search or desire of that union within a relationship. It makes sense, as all relationships are a desire to know and love ourselves and so our relating with “other” is a perfect vehicle to reflect that, as well as learn to understand and accept all of the colored parts of who we are.
And let’s face it, a relationship just feels good, right? There’s nothing wrong with this desire to connect on this kind of level, as it is very nurturing and supportive to the journey. It also makes sense, since we are all connected, that we love others because we, in essence, are love.
This is a reminder that all relationships are sacred, since All That Is is love.
And so, too, do we learn about our relationship to things and beliefs from the examples, teaching, conditioning, and patterns that we’ve learned through our relationships on all levels.
(Side note: Astrid began preparing for this post with me under my desk laying by my feet and nudging me – a way she sends her energy and messages, as well as gives the “okay”. And while I wrote this last part she had quickly hopped upstairs and all I could hear above me is her racing around like crazy in the living room doing laps! She’s quite excited and moving the energy. She just returned for a refreshing drink of goji-infused water and is settling back with me now.)
Now that she’s back, let’s see if she wants to share something directly.
Astrid: “Every relationship is sacred and the way to experience how all is sacred, is without resistance. Resistance comes through separation, and while not all relationships feel ‘good’ there is an underlying magnetism to understand it more, which may result in repulsion. You needn’t agree or condone something, but sacredness is there. Even the way you relate to a pattern or experience you have that you’d rather not anymore, is sacred, for it inherently drives and inspires you deeper into the love that you are, with or without the pattern. When you separate things, an invisible gap is created that seems insurmountable. A dance does not have to be intimate to learn to move with the rhythm. You need only to be willing to hear the music and allow it to move through you.”
Me: “That makes sense to me, as everything has a frequency that can unlock something if allowed simply to flow.”
Astrid: “Yes, it’s like fine-tuning a piano or one of those old radios.”
Me: “I’ve noticed a lot of people experiencing big relationship changes lately. Ending a long-time relationship for a new one. Walking away from friends, family, and community in their lives as a new life calls. Taking stands on issues more directly in the world because things are hitting home. Opening more courageously to a new relationship with themselves and willing to dig into the shadows. Inviting new forms of relationships in that don’t have to look like the kind of union we think of traditionally. And deciding to have a more deliberate and conscious relationship with deep patterns that may not even be personal anymore, but dig into a collective part of the DNA that is ready to be unveiled, unleashed, and released. The latter has been true for me.”
Astrid: “Yes, and what is your take-away from this my friend?”
Me: “That we are ready to walk in greater alignment of the love that we are without apologizing for things that were never wrong to begin with.”
Astrid: “The resistance is lifting because courage of the heart is awakening. What lies within is the greatest sacred journey of all, as it leads to everything. Any desire pulling you, is love’s journey to unify the discovery of what is already sacred within.”
Me: “I think that it’s challenging for some to believe that some of the really icky feeling things, frustrating, darker, or harsher things can be part of that equation.”
Astrid: “Aw, yes. But again, one needn’t condone something to create a new relationship to it. One’s way of relating can be the bridge to sacred being.”
Me: “Once again, you’ve given us a lot to ponder. Thank you my wise, sweet friend.”
I wonder if any of you have been experiencing more recently around this relationship theme lately, in any aspect of relating in your life?
Do you find yourself exploring a different version of relationship to someone or something?
Does it bring up a lot of emotions when you dig deeper into what that means for you?
And how is that being reflected in changes you’re experiencing?
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
As a sweet bunny reminder, the Spring Equinox and St. Patrick’s Day mini rabbit garden sale started yesterday and will go through end of March 20th. A creative way to put into action the alchemy of recreating, re-patterning, and rewriting your own life with the energies and intentions you desire as a new reality, while you share in the co-creating.
You’ll find some incredible, one-of-a-kind gardens sharing in the whimsy that include beautiful procured vintage pieces at amazing prices.
There’s also some mini worlds that include some of my favorite themes like Peter Rabbit and his triplet sisters Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail, Wonderland, Watership Down, Faerytales, portals and more.
You can tell I get excited. 🙂
At the link below, you’ll find an item category at left that makes browsing the sale items easy as well as the type of mini garden you’re interested in.
Wishing you a beautiful weekend, as you explore your relationships of life.
Ask Astrid Fridays ~ The Rabbit’s Corner: Surprises That Change Your Life in Wondrous Ways
You’ve all experienced the element of surprise – the moments that take you off-guard or provide quite the shock to your life. These jolts can take the form of unwelcome and shattering surprises, sweet and exciting ones, and a whole gamut in between. In any of these cases, surprises herald shifts in your feelings and experiences that act like defining moments in your life that provide opportunity and greater possibility.
Today’s message from Astrid is about learning to find greater peace with surprise and to know that while sometimes these surprises feel painful or challenging, they can also be eye-opening, nurturing, and reflections of you being ready for so much more.
Being that tomorrow marks the official day four years ago that I adopted Cosmo, our special needs bunny extraordinaire, Astrid is inviting him into today’s message because she knows that like her appearance in my life, he was a huge surprise to me, too. One that brought along more than I knew anything about at the time, but became the defining moment of life shifts, heart healing, and greater essence embodiment for me.
Surprises can jolt you into greater recognition of who you are.
And while some surprises you may want to fight, challenge, or feel defeated and crushed by, each provides you the opportunity to drop into more presence of the moment and see where you’ve been invited to rise to the occasion of you.
Something simple like a surprise gift, a smile, a “thank you,” or an “I love you” might drop you into the opportunity to receive, feel how special you are, flip a switch on your current emotional state, or to open and give more freely.
Something much larger like a surprise injury, illness, a move, a break-up, loss of a job, stress, or having to say “goodbye” to someone or something might drop you into slowing down, nurturing yourself more, making adjustments that are more enriching for you, realizing how much there is to be grateful for, creating more balance, aligning you with better opportunities and fulfillment, is speaking to your having more strength and resiliency than you think, and is inviting you to step out in bigger ways, as you have more now to support and inspire others with while you expand and evolve through the experience.
Yes, surprises can be jolting in what you define as good and not-so-good ways, but ultimately the Universe or All That Is doesn’t judge them as either. They are simply the next part of the web you are stretching out to weave.
There was once a time that the continual, not-so-fun surprises used to hit my life and I’d wonder what the heck I was doing so wrong to have them take place. Even injuries used to initially be a downer and questioning of my efforts gone in vain.
But I learned quickly this was no way to approach things if I actually wanted the peace and joy I desired. It would only put me in a downward spiral, creating greater difficulty and effort to rise out of.
And along came Cosmo.
He had every bit of his bunny joy cut away when an injury at his foster home left him unable to walk. He became a “down” bunny, unable to run, binky, jump, fully clean himself, or even get to his cecotropes on his own. He endured daily pain from his spinal injury and growing arthritis.
And yet his demeanor remained unconditionally loving, compassionate, and joyful. Everything was sweetness to him and he never hesitated to show you his love.
Although I’d learned that these “surprises” in life were not my fault or something to punish myself about, or to get angry and defeated by, it wasn’t until Cosmo came along that I truly learned how to embody these ideas, as his example and presence in my life revealed his consistent and constant embodiment of rising to the occasion.
“He knew the way to your heart,” Astrid says. “Only he could make the lasting impression that would linger with you forever and make the next needed shifts. And so your worlds collided because you both were ready. Even though you’d never cared for a special needs child, he knew your heart would find the way because of the love you both shared. Although all of us – the rabbits in your life – have been children to you, he was truly your baby, sharing a bond of mother and child in every sense of that relationship. And yet, he was also your teacher to help you into the next chapter.”
“He was definitely a huge surprise to me on so many levels. The circumstances bringing us together were highly unusual and came out of no where. Not to mention, at a time when so much was changing and unknown – when I didn’t even think I’d be around much longer. I didn’t even know the full circumstances of what his condition was and what would be involved to care for him. He just pushed open the door I left a crack open to in my heart and everything flooded in. I was constantly surprised how much deeper my heart grew, how bonded we became so fast, and how much joy every aspect of caring for his special needs brought to me. While I cared for him, I know I was caring for myself. He was the little broken parts of the inner child me and all of the pains I’d carried over the years and lives, now come to be seen as whole and perfect, as I saw him whole and perfect. We didn’t have anything to heal. We needed only to love. Love erased any wrongs and was the valuable residue that would always remain long after,” I answer. “Life suddenly became sweeter and consistently seen only through love.”
“Surprises come in many forms and bring along with them a string of gifts and potentials when you move with them rather than against them,” Astrid adds. “Just like your most recent injury.”
“Yes, I’ve not once been upset over my knee and it’s interesting how immediately through that moving with it, as you said, I noticed my body surrendering into what it wanted with ease. Resting, slowing down, refocusing, making changes – it all just flowed and seems seamless,” I answer. “And interestingly, my leg has been undergoing rapid healing. I was completely embracing of it potentially taking months, but things have been shifting so fast.”
“You didn’t fight the surprise, nor judge it. When you live life with greater presence and experience it as a whole – not one aspect being better or worse, but simply pieces of purpose and promise – things move quickly. You become conscious of the gifts sooner and even humor finds a sweet spot within the experience. Some thing may be harder to grasp in such a way, but each smaller surprise, and some of the larger ones you’ve already moved through, will help act as reminders. You don’t always get to see what might have been, had these surprises not happened. Sometimes they are detours to something you might deem far worse. Sometimes they are detours to something incredible you can’t imagine yet. Sometimes they’re simply growing pains. And still, perhaps they needn’t be any of these. Could not surprises be revealing an opportunity to experience something simply different or new? Could not surprises swing you back and forth through contrasting experiences to help you to release the idea of an ideal. That maybe, just maybe, surprises are calculated perfection within all that is naturally in harmony,” Astrid concludes.
Ask Astrid Fridays ~ The Rabbit’s Corner: Cracking the Code
Well, just when you thought things couldn’t get any better, they sure do. You might recall this blog post from April of last year, Full Circle ~ Amethyst Rabbit Returns where I chronicled how the rabbit ears and another smaller piece of the giant Amethyst geode I once had, returned to me and Astrid. I mentioned in that post, how the Amethyst had split in several pieces, but it wasn’t until just this week (right as the Super Full Moon was in full illumination) that those other pieces were ready to move on again.
Astrid had called them in then and now she has done it again.
My dear friend, Yasmin, of The Sun Moon & Stars NY messaged me about all of the pieces ready to be with new guardians and since that day we’ve been engaging in a flurry of messages and astounding unfoldings with not only this Amethyst giant, but a Lemurian Seed Crystal giant – master crystals like no other.
I had told her if the pieces wanted to release, to please let me know, as I felt strongly that some would want to return. And that they did – in fact three large pieces have come home. That leaves me with five – my favorite, magick, and Nestor connected number.
She kept three large pieces for herself, and the rest were put out to the universe to draw in the perfect guardians to co-create with next.
It’s going to be impossible to share the depth of meaning around all of this, but Astrid does have things to impart for now to help us grasp what is happening.
Let me just back track for a brief summary about this Amethyst.
It came to me after I’d lost my twin soul in rabbit body, Nestor. I didn’t actually see that it was in the shape of a rabbit until it set foot into my home. When I first purchased it from a dear friend and crystal guardian at the Tucson Gem Show (I’d purchased many from him) we had seen it as a Gnome, not a rabbit. And I literally cracked open and bawled when I discovered it was in fact a rabbit – only seeing this once it was in my energy zone in Tahoe and with me, my tortoise Gaia, and new rabbit soulmate Joy.
It has always been a portal, timelink, and guide in our lives – a way for us to connect with Nestor and for me and my animal companions to have access to the beyond.
We parted ways when my life had reached the depths of beyond in full detachment of everything. When I released all I thought myself to be, I opened to knowing something far greater. This is where the journey began anew.
Since, I, and friends of mine have continued to report exploding crystals spontaneously taking place. A lot of transformations too. It’s no wonder why my blog post, When Crystals Have “Accidents” – What Does It Mean? is one of my two top blog posts of all times with 182 comments from people everywhere sharing and asking about their crystals falling, breaking, changing…before their eyes.
While there will definitely be direct personal reflections for these intimate experiences, I am being told it’s a collective phenomena and that the crystalline matrix is transforming along with us.
But beyond this, I clearly got loud and clear from Astrid, the bunnies, and Gaia today when the giant Lemurian Seed Crystal Master started exploding too, that it reflects our “cracking a code.”
These giants have decided it’s time for more to be part of the matrix of these codes, and therefore called, or are getting ready to call in, co-creators to assist.
I just received my three pieces of the Amethyst yesterday (just in time to activate some things for my upcoming birthday next week), along with a large jar of individual little points and mini clusters) and it was a beautiful homecoming – we have yet to unravel the work we’ll be doing, but upon their arrival I laid them out on the center rug to my shared room with Astrid, near the Master Tahoe Quartz she loves and works with, so she could have time to herself while we left for dinner, to connect with them.
I know she’s called them in and I’m looking forward to what more she will reveal beyond what she shares today.
The same day, two other people connected to me and the bunnies also received their pieces of the Amethyst.
I found it quite fascinating that four people deeply connected to me were all called to bring a piece home – including two of my Reiki students, a coaching client, and my own Reiki Master Teacher, Laura – but in essence, and above all else, all dear friends and all having worked together in “past” lives with the crystal matrix for collective good.
Some of the pieces that made it to their new home with Kat
A piece I helped procure and is home with Laura
Then there were those friends and clients of Yasmin’s as well, and so a collective grid across this continent has been anchored, taking pieces of the Amethyst to where they are needed.
It was also very interesting that the same night all of these pieces of the Amethyst rabbit found new homes, Yasmin messaged me in shock telling me about the rabbit she was seeing in the Super Full Moon for the first time. I found that quite telling that after she embraced surrendering to assisting the rabbit energy to get where it needed to go, she then had her awareness shifted in “seeing” the rabbit that has always been there.
As Yasmin and I talked, we discovered all the vast locations they were going off to and even how she’d be taking a piece to a Costa Rica retreat she was going to, as an offering to our Earth Mother. Synchronously, I was supposed to be in Costa Rica next month, but the trip dates with family got changed, making it so that we couldn’t go. It seems Yasmin and I traded places.
It’s things like this that demonstrate the connections we have and how we are doing work together with soul family.
I wondered to myself yesterday if the Giant Lemurian Seed Crystal would be releasing more, as only a few smaller pieces had released around the base that did also move on at the same time. Yet, none of them had called to me. Not much after that, Yasmin shared how a shard literally exploded and a point cracked in two, and then today it further dismantled and a large full point released, with more on the way. You can imagine how this has been deeply emotional for her, just as it was and always is when crystals have moved on from me – bitter sweet indeed. We both feel that a part of the Lemurian will remain with her, some larger points will come to me, and the rest will move on to others.
Each one of us all going through huge transformations in our lives, again, just as I know and am hearing/seeing about from so, so many others of you out there.
So, what the heck is it all about?
I’d like to preface that this morning Astrid was amped up. She was running back and forth, up and down the stairs. She wanted to connect with me a lot, and she had a lot of energy to move. She was anxious. This, all after having had time with the Amethyst babies last night and this morning to herself.
I told her I’d be back to receive her message, needing some nature time to ground.
She was waiting for me, wide awake, when normally she’d be resting. I said hi and had to leave to go get lunch ready, but told her we’d start her blog once I was done.
She was then waiting for me under my desk when I returned, fully alert.
I snuggled her a bit, as she chattered her teeth in delight, and then put my third eye to hers to receive.
We journeyed in light speed down a dark cosmic tunnel with specks of light gliding by and revolving all around us. It was very intense…so much so that she pulled away.
I knew it was time. That was the channel she created for me to receive.
I began and she nudged my foot and ankle with her nose, then went off to lay inside her dark castle tunnel to send me what was needed.
I keep seeing images of the Cosmos and stars moving in warp speed, or perhaps it is me traveling as such through them. Explosions, cosmic flames, and almost electric nebulae all around morphing like wombs birthing stars.
Astrid is ready.
“When you heard ‘cracking a code’ this was meant in a literal way. The One – these Crystal Masters represent – have been awaiting like time capsules. Embodied as you once saw them with much to share as was. Yet, like much of what has been seeded here on Earth, each thing you see is much more than what they appear. And also will be far more than you think even if less than your mind originally perceives. Every spiral of the cycle will bring forward more. It’s never-ending, and yet you reach a pinnacle of the spiral where a wider experience is made possible. There has been a large impact of late, fusing together the key to the next spiral. Many are ‘cracking the codes’ and this has unlocked the puzzle pieces to be accessed and revealed further. This could not have happened until enough were ready. And so it is that many more than you think, are. And so it is that things are in fact shifting under your nose, even though I hear many of you unsure, unaware, or thinking it still is yet so far. No, it’s here. It’s now,” she sends me. “Go ahead. Yes, share the word you heard.”
“Okay. Identity,” I reply.
“Yes, you heard right when that came. Identity. Please share its definition so I might point out some things,” she adds.
“According to Merriam-Webster:
1a: the distinguishing character or personality of an individual : INDIVIDUALITY
b: the relation established by psychological identification
2: the condition of being the same with something described or asserted
5: IDENTITY ELEMENT: an element (such as 0 in the set of all integers under addition or 1 in the set of positive integers under multiplication) that leaves any element of the set to which it belongs unchanged when combined with it by a specified operation
I think I can feel where you’re going with this.”
“Through the search of identity – a very important part of what you call the journey – you have never left the One. Each piece of these Crystal Giants, although have left their origin, never relinquish it either. Every piece, every you, are part of the greater Whole. And yet, you are each the Whole. This you know already. So much you journey away, to, here, and there, in discovery…and rightfully with yearning to understand. But the journey has also been an illusion. Just as distinctions or connections are used to evade truths. In uncovering the individual identity, you have seen the grace of All That Is. Truths have been seeded within the crystal matrix – this is some of what you’ve learned to be things like record-keepers and other names you call the identities within each crystal. The same truths seeded within each of you. This has opened doors with what appears like the disintegration of these crystalline beings, and yet the truths they hold will always remain even when you no longer see them before you. You are disintegrating the concepts into truths. You are emerging into truths, as the shells that have held you bound, crack open. You feel it’s a journey, but it’s an acceleration of uniting once again and this acts like spontaneous combustion. When rapid essence occurs, it can no longer be contained and accelerates into something untouchable, yet extraordinarily impactful,” she adds.
“I see. So could it be that each of these crystal beings reflects a whole universe of identity returned to essence?” I ask.
“Or identity AS essence,” she answers. “There truly is no search needed and no journey to embark upon. This you are uncovering and piecing together, as the pieces of the puzzle fall apart. As the crystals explode, and “crack” apart. The codes within them are the same within you. While the pieces grow smaller, it is simply the proximity to your combustion that has accelerated. And by this I do not mean you, too, need “explode,” but rather, truly shine,” she ends.
“It’s a lot to take in, Astrid. I feel your words as codes themselves. Thank you. I know you plan for us to continue this decoding together. And that these crystal beings spread out all over, will continue both revealing and reflecting the transmutation at hand.”
I’ll leave you with this.
I just “randomly” found this video from one of my favorites, M83, called Lower Your Eyelids to Die with the Sun because not only does it have similar visions I was seeing, but the music truly embodies the essence of this message today.
Ask Astrid Fridays ~ The Rabbit’s Corner: In Opening Wider, We Remembered
Astrid’s back after a busy week internally and externally for us both to share more about what took place during and after channeling last Friday’s message in her blog, Spiraling Through the Next Door. She’s had time since Friday to sit with everything and although won’t be able to share the depth of it all, will try her best to share what she can. And I’ll do my best to help her voice it here for you.
Something you likely have noticed, like us, is how things manifest instantly and some of the exact words and phrases in her last post did just that on Friday.
A storm was in fact preparing to hit and last through the weekend, just as Astrid spoke about how things might feel “relentless with one storm after another hitting” … “out of the blue.”
(I have to pause, as Astrid is vigorously chewing on cardboard right now, which is a sign she is moving energy again.)
She also spoke about the unique energies she has that can also “create road blocks, as a means of forging massive reminders and breakthroughs when she unwraps their gifts” and then a blockage of energy manifested in her body physically within seconds of sharing this.
She went on to say you might not “understand why they aren’t moving, or moving as fast as you’d like” and demonstrated that evening how she was able to move through the physical challenge and the energy that was manifesting as such, within just a few hours. Something that for bunnies isn’t always the case, as they can have difficulty when it comes to their digestive systems.
I prefaced all of that before we delve in a bit, to put it all in context.
As you might then recall, she went on to share how there are things under the surface that run the show and may be locked within the recesses of your deepest emotions placed there by a collective and likely unconscious belief system and that she carries a whole bloodline of rabbit history running through her and patterns of prey-like mentality within her DNA. So she, too, experiences triggers and has diligently worked on reversing this for not only herself, but for the rabbit collective and their relationship with humans.
We each have our own stuff and when the pain hits, there is potential to forget or lose sight of the bigger picture.
Well, while channeling this on Friday, Astrid went through an immediate physical manifestation of what she was speaking about, which I feel was threefold in 1) immediately reflecting pieces she was working on releasing at the time 2) reflecting to me how connected we (she and I) are as I have been working on things alongside her, and 3) was reflecting things for the collective and anyone who might be following along and experiencing your own version of this.
She went from bouncing bunny to slowing down and coming to lay right behind me while I was channeling her message. She literally was directly behind my chair on the carpet and started to become agitated, uncomfortable, and fidgety. I heard and watched her move every 30 seconds or so from position to another, while her face became pained, her eyes lost their spark, and her breathing labored as well as quickened. She would then contort her body and press her stomach to the ground with butt and legs pushing upward. And reposition again.
She was not her happy self and I could feel the pain inside she was going through.
I felt her temperature drop, as I pet her, with her ears getting cold, and so I covered her with her blanket and laid next to her, giving her Reiki and massaging her lower body to help move things. She let me touch her in ways she normally wouldn’t approve of, which indicated she not only felt relief from it, but knew and accepted my help.
Of course I talked with her the whole time and talked her through things. Let her know I understood and that she was not alone.
After a while I felt I she wanted me to finish her message to help with this, as it was nearly complete, so I did so within minutes, but didn’t send it off, as I felt energetically it wasn’t the time.
I then went back to her and continued with caring for her on all levels.
Although I knew this was energetically created, the physical manifestation is not one to play around with, especially with bunnies. Things only have one way to move through them, as they don’t purge through the mouth as we and other animals do. They are much like horses in this way and in fact share a lot in terms of the physical and even in their prey instincts, as well as sensitivities.
Digestive things are serious stuff and can be fatal. And although I felt it was likely a gas block she was experiencing, even that has fatal consequences if not taken care of, or the bunny isn’t able to move it through.
So, I did call her vet, who is a wonderful rabbit doctor, to get advice.
She was in an appointment, but did call me back and talked to me, like she has in the past. She’s such a great doctor and soul.
I’d already gotten out the Metacam I keep on hand for emergencies. The doctor walked me through feeling for things on Astrid and telling me things to do to assist her if it is in fact gas – one of which is to keep her moving – and things to do and not to do if it was a different kind of obstruction, which included not force feeding her. (Astrid didn’t want any food during this time.)
That makes sense if you think about it, as when you have pain, you want to curl up in a ball, right? But pain as such is a blockage, so it makes sense to keep movement going in all ways possible because energy innately does that – it moves. So if there is a block, that means there’s something not allowing it the natural release and flow it would otherwise have.
This indicated to me that Astrid had found a deep core challenge and had brought it to the surface, now manifesting. And she then had a choice of how to handle it. It was triggering her with pain to make her aware of what she was dealing with, but now she could either resist letting it go or breathe into that pain, acknowledge it, but let it move out as no longer necessary to be running the show anymore.
And in my Reiki and energetic work I was doing with her, I visualized that movement and gentle release with her, while massaging and helping to move things since it was painful for her. But her readjustments indicated she was also wanting to move it out. She wasn’t going to just lay there idle. She was bravely facing this and I would support that courage.
Anyway, the vet explained it either was gas or a blockage, which might be worse as in a hairball or something ingested that was having difficulty leaving. And unfortunately, this took place at 5pm and the her office closes at 5:30pm, as well as is an hour away.
There was a lot of snow with more coming and she’d already checked a few other places she knew of to help that were all closed as well.
My only options were to manage things myself and/or if things progressed worse, to drive to UC Davis where the best doctors and surgeons are, which is 3 hours away – more with the snow.
The weather and timing was making it so that she and I would have to work through these energies together and on our own. Both a scary, but empowering thing, if we took that challenge.
And it appears we/she set it up as so, since all things were creating a bubble around us to only be able to focus together and inward to work through it.
Of course, I’d jump in that car without hesitation if I felt she needed me to and drive through any storm and any amount of driving time for her. I’d also give anything, including myself, to support her and stated that when working with our support guides. She is, after all, an extension of me, my best friend, and soul companion. There’s nothing more important than love.
But, after feeling her abdomen and tuning in, I felt it was likely gas and not an obstruction of physical nature.
It was hard to give her Metacam, as she is very sensitive with being touched around her mouth, jaw, and sides of her face. She struggled and grunted, and smacked it away, and went to hide in her castle tunnel. So I couldn’t do it alone.
Dave had been out, but when I called to ask for help, he made his way home to do so.
In the meantime, after laying with Astrid for some time and Reiki massaging her, I decided to pick her up and lay her close to my heart.
I held her that way for at least a half hour, close to me, while I continued to do Reiki massage, kiss and snuggle her, and we breathed together as one. I helped her envision things moving through her gently and easily and that there was no longer a need for that energy to be a part of us – yes I said “us” as we’re connected and I was going to release my own stuff right along with her. She was not going to do this alone. I would be brave like her and do it too.
I could feel her soften in my arms, her face becoming more alert, and she opened to this process of receiving and working together to move out what we both no longer needed to have working behind the scenes, even if it wasn’t just our stuff. That collective stuff in our DNA patterns and subconscious was important work to do and as a team we could do far more efficiently.
I could feel her energy shift and already sensed things were turning around.
Dave arrived home and came down to see us. He also felt her abdomen and concluded what I had that it felt like gas. I then had him help with the Metacam, as I held her lovingly and told her he was here to help. She accepted it and I continued holding her a few more minutes, then let her down.
She, of course, gave out a huge thump.
It wasn’t more than minutes that she ran off to the other room. The most she’d moved since it started.
I decided to test placing her pellets in front of her (which she loves) and she took one, indicating she was feeling better, but knew to take it slow, as well as to indicate to me things were shifting.
I decided to let her be for a little bit and went up to get dinner ready, checking on her in between.
She continued moving around the other room and headed back into our shared room, where she began to eat again normally on her own.
After a couple of hours she’d eaten everything, including some apple sauce I’d put out next to her regular food dish, in case she preferred something softer and soothing.
She eventually ate them both 🙂
And she continued well after that – the whole thing lasting about 3 hours – and was back to racing around and binkies in the morning!
Meanwhile, upon her indicating to me, I’d sent off her Friday message at one of the intervals of my caring for her, as she felt it would assist things to make it complete and put it out there. So, I did, and heard from others how her post had been helpful and timely for them.
We’re hoping this one will be too.
The solar plexus, where Astrid was having the energy block in the form of gas, deals with your personal power, where you do and don’t have boundaries, how you take responsibility for your life and/or take back control or power if given away, how beliefs create patterns in beneficial or challenged ways, confidence levels, emotional manifestations around beliefs, patterns, conditioning, judgments, that may be yours or taken on because of your extreme sensitivities that are flowing or creating charged blocks….etc.
So, it all made sense physically, what was going on emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
This is why I treat holistically, as you still have something physical happening that needs attention, as a result of other things working behind the scenes.
And with a sensitive bunny, even as strong and brave as Astrid is, that body is set up as more fragile and complex, needing a level of attention that simply asks that you can’t brush aside things. You must deal with it now – not later. A great message, in general, I feel.
Another reason that rabbits aren’t ideal as solely a child’s companion, besides the fact that they can run up vet bills when going through things that need immediate attention.
Just food for thought.
But back to Astrid, I couldn’t be more proud of her and how she moved through this piece of her work with courage of the heart and willingness to face it for her and the rabbit collective.
Astrid has wanted me to recount this in today’s share to impart different levels of messages as you read it, that you’ll be able to find bits of value from where they touch a place within.
Our work will continue, but we’ll be doing it together. The timing was so synchronized with what I had also just started working on for the collective and family stuff deep in my own DNA, that it’s more than beautiful to experience how close Astrid and I have become in such a short time.
We really are breathing in life together as one and everything we do is shared, as well as instantly manifests when we decide to take it on.
Astrid also knew she wanted to help me with a lot of the things we were preparing with our new Etsy shop creations and that releasing our stuff before the week of focus on that, would allow us to be clear and flowing for the joy of all of it – also freeing up space and energy so that we can do things less tethered by a hidden weight behind the scenes.
Will this be the only challenge she/we will face?
Of course not, but it demonstrated that the more we embrace the journey and desire to move through it, the more gently we can weather the storm and find the way within us to move into greater peace, however the result manifests for the highest good.
So, I’ll let Astrid share anything she wants directly now, although all of this is the experience, as she and I both went through it.
“Thank you dear friend and life partner. I am at loss on how to express my gratitude, but I know you can feel it since we have become as one – something I believed could be possible with another soul, but until now had no hint of it being in sight to take place this Earth cycle. Everything you shared was as it was. I was scared to go there and how it might affect my body, but also scared for how it might affect you given your history with the souls in rabbit bodies we both know and love, as well as how it might affect my rabbit family if I had not gone there. And yet, you demonstrated equally, your bravery, but more so the enormous amount of love within you. And I sense there is movement out there taking place in ways we both can’t see yet, but is evident in the way this “went down,” as I know humans say. It’s true, it pained me greatly what was coming up. I felt the enormous weight pulse through my body and then hit an invisible, but impenetrable wall. The wall, of course, did not exist except for the pain that veiled it as so. I remembered things you’ve said recently about the existence of such things not making any sense to be running the show. And having felt the same, and both of our frustrations, I just couldn’t let that pain sit there. You knew this and stayed right there with me. I read your thoughts that you would not have left my side all night and however much I needed you. I made a decision that I could open wider my heart, as you were, despite the anguish you’ve been through with your rabbit loves and past, and allow myself to receive from you – a soul in human body – what you purely had to share, rather than allow my rabbit instincts to fear what has come through other humans who simply have had pain of their own they’ve not understood. In that moment of opening the channels of receiving, I know that I was giving to you as well, and we both were transforming a little piece of that human/rabbit/animal relating. This additionally opened a passageway within that invisible wall to release and the flow began to return, and balance was slowly restoring. It may not make sense or appear as of yet out “there,” but in that moment you and I were one….we remembered, as it has always been….but we forgot.”
Ask Astrid Fridays ~ The Rabbit’s Corner: Spiraling Through the Next Door
Today’s message from Astrid is a bit delayed, as it felt to be something that needed time to percolate and is deeper than even the two of us can express in words. So, instead of my usual morning blog time, Astrid encouraged me to go skiing while she felt into things and I cleared my head while getting some exercise before the next storm hits later today through the weekend.
And that’s just what Astrid seems to be picking up on and wanting to share about…..how your journey may at times seem relentless with one storm after another hitting, either in cycles or out of the blue.
She knows how things can seem hopeless or like you’re running in circles sometimes (and not the fun zipping around in binky-infused circles that rabbits do), but a lot of this can be compounded by the fact that you may be attached to ideas about how things “should” look or you give up just before the breakthrough.
And then there are things to be aware of that may be running the show, like what natal energies and propulsion you were born with – in essence the gifts of this life’s expression.
This is where the journey becomes very individual, as while we share collective themes, each person has their own deck of cards they’ve been dealt in terms of expressions chosen to experience, genetics running through your veins and DNA, and deep-seeded belief systems that have followed your family history – both birth family and collective family.
It can get tricky and sticky when focused on repatterning and breaking forth to blaze a new trail.
And while doing so, you will likely lose sight of the journey because the goal or the pain becomes the focus.
Astrid feels like although this isn’t a new message, it is one so many continue to struggle with and so she wants to come at it from as many angles as possible to assist the process.
Some things just feel really hard and almost like you can’t get a handle on them or understand why they aren’t moving, or moving as fast as you’d like.
These are the core challenges that run the show and ask of us to look so much further than mentalizing, or shuffling things around on the surface.
Once again, you will find the most challenging pieces to be locked within the recesses of your deepest emotions, placed there by a belief system you may only have recently become aware of running the show.
Astrid carries the same within her. Although she has made leaps and bounds, and is much more than who she appears to be, she knows that a whole bloodline of rabbit history is running through her bunny veins and patterns of prey-like mentality is deeply rooted in her DNA.
So, although she is breaking free of much of the triggers she experienced since birth in this life, she has devoted her life to transforming the collective rabbit experience and especially their relationship with humans.
She tells me that, like me, she has a unique set of energies that will aid this process, but that also create road blocks, as a means of forging massive reminders and breakthroughs when she unwraps their gifts.
Astrid gives me a wink, as I put two-and-two together.
I’m beginning to see where she’s going with this, as I’ve recently been very focused on one of my own natal placements that runs a lot of the show for me – in essence is a missing link.
The energies of having Mars in my First House is enough to handle, but having so much Capricorn energy there and accompanying it has been an interesting journey.
One energy wants at it, and the other would like to restrict it.
It boils down to action with purpose, as the productive use of it.
Sounds simple, and yet, you can imagine there would be a whole gamut of pendulum swings in one way or another, to get there.
Not to mention, having Mars in the First House as a woman, let alone a woman in my family, is simply a whole other thing.
I haven’t had any role model for what this looks like and so I have had a lifelong journey to figure it out, which includes unraveling what’s at the heart of restrictions before even being able to utilize it and thrive, as it’s set up to be.
“You and I are so much alike,” Astrid shares. “We both innately have a lot of energy within us to express, but through our sensitivities and paths, we both lived very restrictively because life, our families, the world…haven’t been ready yet. We learned to survive before we could know how to thrive. It is like this for so many. Collective shifts are just that….collective. We can do our parts, but we mustn’t be too hard on ourselves, as we do not act alone. Every piece is a thread of the whole tapestry and while we may appear to be painstakingly working on one little area of it for ages, it is undoubtedly weaving the full image together. Yet, we need the other threads. Some of them belong to others, and some of them are the interwoven parts of our own thread. It really is a masterpiece when you look at it this way, but feels like the stuff you throw out in the litter box when you’re in the middle of it.”
“That it does,” I reply with a giggle. “And is why I have worked at creating peace and greater joy around all aspects of my life, as best I can, so that the pieces that might take longer and involve deeper exploring, do not get the best of me.”
“I’ve noticed how you do that and how each time you’ve spiraled back around to get at another layer, you create a new version and path to greater assist the process. It may seem like you run circles, but you’re actually on a different level of the spiral with each new invention,” Astrid adds.
“I hadn’t thought about that, but now that you say it, I can see exactly what you’ve described. It does seem that with each piece I understand more, I find a better approach…”
“Or more currently aligned place,” Astrid interjects.
“Yes, you’re right,” I answer.
“The process seems to be that you try out different doors each time, but only if you have the right key can one open. And if the guardian of the door knows you’re coming and what you’re about to use to attempt opening it, they will find a stronger lock to keep it shut. So, by trying different versions, or going about it at different angles – softening here, innovating there…you can be in more harmony with them and find doors open more easily,” Astrid adds.
“We’re creative beings after all, so it seems part of our time here seems to be about imagining all the different possibilities and potentials, being curious, and finding the alchemy of each puzzle,” I say.
“Exactly my thoughts, dear friend,” Astrid says, “And this is why you and I are so good together. We are birds of a feather, as they say. Always exploring what has yet to be discovered and although it might hurt when a door closes, we brush ourselves off and try the next.”
~ Today has been full and so I was only able to sit for moments here and there to write this message. After several hours away from it I’m returning to end it here and send as is since we want the message to go out. Astrid and I are moving through something right now that came up before I was able to finish this post of hers. I’ll update you with things in the days to come. Her words and message have had deep impact.
Ask Astrid Fridays ~ The Rabbit’s Corner: Your Higher Heart Can Free You
As we celebrate this first day of February, many things come to mind for this month of “LOVE” ignited by today’s celebration of the magickal Imbolc (the halfway mark between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox) and a very magickal soul’s birthday. For any of you new here to my blog, Nestor is my twin soul in rabbit body who departed this Earth plane 11 years ago. Today is her Earth birthday – she would have been 16.
February also happens to be my birthday month, although I’m at the end – so our hearts hold each side of the bridge of love celebrated in this month.
I always honor and celebrate Nestor and Astrid shares this deep respect for her, as her mentor. The two of them are very similar in many ways – more so than any of my bunnies have been in relation to each other.
In fact, Nestor has seen to it that others of our soul family (like Astrid, Joy, Cosmo, and Gaia) have found their way to me and me to them. She constantly watches over and guides me, cares for my human self when she feels me in need, sends me messages and signs, supports me with my path and life’s work, and fuels my heart with greater and deeper love – much like Astrid does on Earth for me.
And where there is love, there is no separation.
Astrid wants today’s message to be about moving into our hearts more deeply, but also more expansively. She senses that while many are experiencing great openings in their lives, she feels those of you who still struggle and are finding yourself feeling trapped in a dark place you feel you can’t get out of, which may in fact reflect a tipping point opportunity.
She wants me to share a short story about what happened this morning and then will share why this was important and how it reflects her message for today.
I was busy cleaning up her bunny kingdom today and had left the usually closed bathroom door, slightly ajar after having gone in to get some paper towels to wipe down her litter box.
After I was done, and passed it to go get her fresh water and goji juice for her bowl, I closed the door fully. I returned not seeing her and went on a search to find her throughout the house, calling her name and looking under every one of her hiding places or potential unseen areas by the naked eye that she might have run off to.
She was nowhere to be found and I was a bit frantic, wondering if she’d fallen through a portal or something. 🙂
Finally, after surveying both floors three times, I wondered if she might have gotten deep into my closet and I closed the door on her by accident – nope.
Lastly, I thought, hmmm, could she have snuck by me and gotten into the bathroom in that short period it was slightly open and I closed the door on her?
The latter was in fact the case.
As I reached for the old vintage door knob and opened it, I saw her sitting on top of the toilet seat staring at me. She had in fact been closed into the dark bathroom and decided if she couldn’t get out the way she came in, she’d get higher, sit still, and hope I’d hear her heart in answer to my calls of her name.
“So what does this have to do with your message for today, Astrid?” I ask.
She replies, “This was my way of identifying with the people who find themselves struggling and feeling trapped in a dark place they can’t find a way out of. It happens to all of us and to struggle more is like sinking deeper into quicksand. It simply won’t help. These are the times to find your center, sit still while immersed in the dark, and elevate into your higher heart so that you can send and receive the clearest communication of love to where it’s needed the most, within and without.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Well, when you feel lost, lonely, in pain, and are struggling, much of this involves a separation from love – the most expansive and unconditional kind. The gap grows wider between your ability to understand things because you enter the mind’s reasoning alone and abandon the heart’s knowing. While I sat in the dark I could feel all of that fear and anxiety – mine and the collective’s rush through me – and realized I could either go mad trying to claw my way a tunnel through impossible doors, OR I could elevate my heart and mind and open to a wider perspective that would free me. I could move into my higher heart and find the well of love there I could use to create the peace I needed for myself and the situation, while I calmed myself and used that clarity of heart to speak to you in the language of love telepathy that I knew would reach your heart,” Astrid explains.
“Wow! Well said, Astrid. It makes perfect sense to me.”
“Yes, and when you were stressed today about unexpected things,” she continues, “you didn’t realize how you did the same.”
“Oh, you’re right! After that initial rush of anxiety, I did what elevates me into my heart the most and thought of this being Nestor’s birthday, and looked at you and cuddled with you for a bit. That brought me back to my peace and center, nurtured my truth, and my heart suddenly bridged a new perspective to my mind that shifted me out of the stress instantly and enabled me to detach completely,” I reply.
“Exactly,” Astrid answers.
“I guess we both found our way through the darkness and each other today,” I said.
“Through love,” Astrid replies. “An elevated kind of love, which is where we are headed. Just like you shared yesterday about your new teal hair feeling to reflect the higher heart. That is no coincidence my dear friend.”
I smile.
“As you said, where there is love there is no separation. We only feel lost, alone, scared, angry, or sad, because we have yet to BE this love. Love has been intellectualized and analyzed, with only short spurts of actually residing in it – if in fact we haven’t denied or repressed it altogether. Yet, we often live outside of it and only venture into its home in dire circumstances, by accident, or as a fleeting moment. We’ve forgotten that we were never homeless and we’ve forgotten how rich we are in the only currency that we can take with us beyond Earth – LOVE,” Astrid concludes.
I had a feeling that this morning’s experience with Astrid getting locked in the bathroom was no arbitrary thing once I saw her sitting there so purposefully, like a wise soul, atop the toilet seat throne.
Her message feels important to me and perhaps it will to you too on a level that is needed at this time. I feel she is speaking to us moving beyond what we think we’ve known as love into a much more expansive, bigger picture, and harmonic experience of love – very fitting for the first day of the month of love.
It’s no wonder that this little rose quartz tree sitting atop an amethyst mound was the only thing I returned back from Sedona with. I visited Crystal Magic and was only drawn to the beautiful crystal trees, and when I couldn’t decide between about four of them, I tuned into Astrid and asked which she would like me to bring home for her and me.
The answer was clear, as you can below.
Rose quartz is the stone of the heart and unconditional love. Amethyst is February’s stone and is spiritually elevating in ways that transmute energies into higher frequencies of love.
Rabbits are reflections of growth, rebirth, awareness, harmony, abundance, creativity, fertility, vulnerability, and Mother Earth’s changing seasons and rabbits (especially white rabbits) are traditionally symbolic of Imbolc, Candlemas, and Spring. They really help us leap into the energies available to us this new month, as shared in Lee’s Energy Update below that synchronously holds a similar vibe to Astrid’s message.
Astrid, Nestor and all of my rabbit soul companions have been powerful way-showers of these energies, and most importantly of love for me. Cosmo, as you may remember, was and is the epitome of this steadfast love Astrid speaks of. And all of my bunny partners help me to return there when needed.
Nestor was always a great reflector for me of what I was missing and needed to take care of within myself. And she continues to be a daily reminder in my heart, keeping me on track and not straying from my own need for consistent inner harmony. Thank you Nestor and Astrid for today’s insight and lesson.
I wish you all an extra love-filled February and to end this share here’s Lee Harris to expound on this month’s themes he is feeling for the continuation of this new 7-year cycle of elevation we’re in – “The Era of Higher Harmonics, Elevated Love & Abundance Shifts.”
Update: Today marked the end of our Giveaway on Instagram celebrating the upcoming launch of our new Etsy shop. We announced the recipient and surprised four others with a gift too. We’re so grateful to everyone who joined and for helping to raise money for rescue rabbits, as for each entry I committed to donating $1 to a rabbit rescue of my choice. February is starting off full of LOVE!
Ask Astrid Fridays ~ The Rabbit’s Corner: The Struggle Isn’t You
As this is Astrid’s last message for 2018, I was curious what she would want to share. She’s been extra playful and cuddly these days, which has added another layer to our together-time, and it also speaks to some of what her message is that she wants to leave you with.
And what might that be?
Astrid says, “The end to struggle.”
We’ve been immersed in year-end closure here, went deep with watching all four parts of the new Watership Down rabbit movie, along with prepping for new whimsical ventures in 2019 together – this to include our new book, art, and rabbit Faery fun. Our little Wonderland Faery realm has become a true Otherworld for creative manifesting, as we threaded together a Rabbit Hole of delight we feel enriched in every day. We’ve also been examining the reality we want to live and leave behind.
There’s been a lot of creative work and anchoring this last year to set up and define our intentions, and although this New Year, for us, will continue to be one of vision, setting priorities, and determination, it will also be one of breakthroughs and embodied beliefs. This, Astrid shares, to be done with joy, ease, and peace – with the knowing that we can trust our essence to guide us in flow and fun through the next leg of the journey.
If we find ourselves struggling, where can we be curious about ways in which we might be holding on to old patterns and realities, lower ideals, or stringent and limited attachments?
Astrid says, “The struggle is a detour to who you really are. The struggle is a way to stay small. The struggle is a way to keep you away from what you believe you don’t deserve. The struggle keeps illusion as an interference to seeing the possibilities and beauty available. The struggle isn’t you.”
For most of the first part of my life I struggled on many levels. I was constantly inflicting inner torment upon myself with voices of knowing battling voices of fear, pain, confusion, and conflicting patterns that weren’t even mine in many cases.
And this kept me from being me and being able to expand further. It was like being tethered to a post and always hitting the end that snapped me back.
That is, until I realized the post didn’t truly exist except for believing it did.
Astrid has been through her own struggles and in seeing her come to this place of surrender and no longer feeling the need to fight, she is finding the love and joy her essence exudes, feeling right at home.
And so are we both experiencing this, which is creating greater peace daily.
“There is always another way,” she says, “and while we feel things serve us, truly they serve our patterned beliefs – not our hearts. Love is not a struggle. Creative energy simply flows. When we relax into these spaces, spend more time nurturing and cultivating the love in our hearts, we find greater comfort in things we never thought we could. We open ourselves to different opportunities, see new perspectives, and realize there are a multitude of ways to experience what we want, rather than believe it can only be in one form.”
“And what about those old realities and lower ideals so many of us struggle to hold on to?” I ask her.
“Like the unlimited dimensional experiences you can’t see, but still exist, why is it that you feel there to be only one reality? You struggle to hold on because you are so close to letting go. It is that last piece that will change everything. The release and fall into your grace. You fight to stay small because being more means greater empowerment and awareness. It’s been easier to let others and even beliefs power over you then to truly live without constraints. Hope, love, imagination…these things no one controls, but you. They are the keys to a new reality no one can take away. They live where struggle does not exist. When you go there, you know what I mean. If you can learn to stay there, you will know what is possible,” Astrid says.
We have both been embracing this experience where struggle need not be anymore and gently breathing deeper into our hearts to help it move through.
This has brought Astrid to a place of exuberant and loving expression as her norm now, without need to struggle and fight within, as a way of preserving it only for special moments. We have both learned to trust who we each really are and that life is meant to be a joyful, creative, and wondrous experience.
The other things may exist and they may knock on our door to try to tether us back, but they will meet with surprise when they find there is no knot on the other end. We’ll see the rope and when the knocking thinks it has us, we will let go of the other end and watch them disappear.
Let this be a year we all let go of the struggle and fight.
Let this be a year to create a new reality.
For me and Astrid it is a storybook year we are weaving together, piece by piece, heart to heart.
We both wish you all a wondrous New Year – a year of greater creativity, transformation, fertile and abundant potential, and alignment for the collective with it being a 3 year in numerology.
Astrid will be back next year on January 4th, 2019.
Ask Astrid Fridays ~ The Rabbit’s Corner: You Can Run, but You Can’t Hide
Today Astrid would like to speak to that little voice inside of many of you that sometimes wishes to just curl up in a ball and shrink back into a dark corner or closet – maybe even just pull the covers over your head and pretend the world has no idea you exist. Maybe you prefer being invisible sometimes and this can serve well in specific cases, but perhaps you’re holding yourself back out of fear or a deep-seeded experience that leaves you afraid to put yourself out there.
Living so close to, and intimately with, the ground and Earth, rabbits know how to “hide” well, but this can have a two-fold meaning of either having the need to camouflage and blend in or that you have made yourself so small that you are un/under-recognized for who you are and the gifts that you embody.
Rabbits know the importance of awareness and protection, but they are not shy about exhibiting their exuberance and big personalities when they feel the urge to do so. In fact, they will leap with glee when the moment moves them, or rise to the challenge with fierceness, despite being seen as small, timid and fragile creatures.
They are extraordinary sound navigators who know when to seize the moment and “hop” into new territories and experiences. Their ultra-sensitivities create the light when all seems lost and dark.
And this is the place Astrid wants to address for those of you who find yourself feeling lost so much, desire to shrink away, or aren’t even aware that you are diminishing your light when it’s needed the most right now in the world.
Invisibility can definitely be a gift, but it doesn’t serve you or the collective to live in the dark eternally.
Life can’t go on, nor thrive, without light.
Astrid knows there are times she’s been afraid and that she’s needed to regulate her energy so as to find that balance of protection and safety, while also making herself known and asserted.
If she had remained purely in fear by her circumstances and triggers, she would not only not have survived, but not have been recognized for the gifts she has. Marcy of SaveABunny and her staff of volunteers saw her because of the big energy she put out, and of course we know that this is also how she and I made the connection.
We both had to rise to our highest and most whole, to have a meeting of equals merge into partnership and recognition of reflection.
We could easily have missed a beautiful chance if we both stayed small.
How many times might you have missed out on an opportunity because you kept yourself small?
How much of your dreams are you not able to experience because you hesitate to share your gifts?
How much love do you hold back from yourself because you’re scared to show others who you really are or to feel how worthy you are?
Is it disappointment, hurt, anger, or guilt that makes us fear ourselves and our power?
I often wonder why these feelings win out over love over and over again.
Astrid shares that responsibility can play a part in this process we seem to be learning in exercising our gifts and powers.
But she and I both agree that responsibility can can carry its own weight that isn’t always tempered with love, but analyzed and dissected by ego.
So in fact it, too, can lead us astray of going bigger, as it tries to work out every angle to satisfy another excuse not to shine forth.
While we think that hiding serves us well, in most cases it is a reaction to something now or from a “past” that didn’t go the way we hoped. And even though those triggers and experiences are gone, we are still operating as if they are happening right now.
This perpetuates our “staying small” and unable to shine our inner lights, like rabbits do, to navigate us through the dark tunnel labyrinths of experience.
And in some cases, we devise ingenious ways of talking ourselves out of letting our energy out bigger to serve our ego fears and can even find spiritual bypassing ways of describing it and why it makes sense to do so.
Truth is, if you want to find a reason not to do something you can always find one.
And when it comes to our wholeness and embodying our potential, we have all the excuses in the world why not to do that.
Whether or not those excuses are valid is between you and yourself.
Astrid wants to remind you that it’s okay to recognize when camouflage and invisibility can serve us and be a magickal tool in our back pocket to pull out now and then, but “hiding” when rising would benefit you most, is not the healthiest choice to always fall back on.
It’s okay to learn as you go and make instant adjustments along the way. Chances are, you’ve already done years of work so truly, now is about the experiential classroom. This is about being both student and teacher and bringing integrity and humbleness to the process of being.
Now, more then ever your gifts, your light, your essence is needed in the world.
And while you think you may be alone in facing those frightful triggers, experiences, and the things that feel scary in the world, you are not.
More and more souls are finding that the way out of hiding is to actually step out. No one is going to force you out nor pull you out. Only you can make that choice, but it’s a very liberating choice that once made – even in small steps – suddenly helps make sense of an upside down world and brings authentic power to the forefront.
Astrid says, “The more you wear a mask, the less you will ever know yourself. It’s not just others you hide from in doing so, nor whom are robbed of knowing your beauty and experiencing your ripple across the world. You are the one who is hurt the most when your light is kept small.”
Astrid knows how I, too, have kept myself small in the past and straddled timidly between two worlds of fears and hopes.
“And what did that do for you?” she asks me.
“It kept me stuck,” I replied. “Torn and tormented between two worlds warring against each other, rather than teaming together and empowering myself into truly living, rather than merely surviving.”
That reminds me of a favorite line Julia Roberts says in Steel Magnolias, “I’d rather have 30 seconds of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special.”
How about you?
If coming out of hiding gave you the most enriching and fulfilling experience you’ve ever known and was better than your wildest dreams, wouldn’t it be worth “going bigger” for, even if it wasn’t forever?
Not that it couldn’t or wouldn’t be forever, but you won’t know it until you try it.
Or is the known feeling of suffering and smallness, more comforting?
“Everyone has the ability to go bigger, no matter what their circumstances are. You are creative beings and therefore have unlimited ways to bring through more of your potential. Feel bigger! Thinking is only half the story, but your heart will guide you past the limits of your mind,” Astrid says.
It’s not easy, I know, and can be quite sticky with layers, but personally I decided that the possibility of that total enrichment far outweighed the illusion of safety in the darkness.
Astrid says, “That safety is an illusion that keeps you away from your truth….away from being who you really are and experiencing what you have available. That illusion is the fix to experiencing the true power within your heart.”
And she’s so right.
We think we stay safe by staying small and hidden, but by making that our “norm” we not only get to experience more of it, but are dying a slow death.
Choosing to go bigger and stop hiding happens for each person at different times in their life or soul journey and in different ways, by different triggers, and timings, so there isn’t just “one” way to get there.
Yet the one thing we all have in common is “potential.”
And the more each of us do our best to rise to that potential, the easier it becomes for others to do the same.
Rather than spend time trying to make others step into their potential, why not utilize our resources to “be” the potential?
Rabbit doesn’t wait for snake to see the “potential” when it threatens her kits rather than finding something else to eat that day. Rabbit rises to her “potential” and becomes the bigger rabbit she knows herself to be and chases off the snake.
Yep, that’s right. There are videos out there that catch mother rabbits fighting off poisonous, deadly snakes to save their babies. It’s incredible, but this is the truth of their wholeness they weave in and out of, as they carry it at their core always.
And I’ve seen this happen not only with people, but myself as well, where we’re put into dire situations and then rise to the occasion.
But wouldn’t it be wonderful to rise always, rather than only when threatened or in our darkest hour?
Those moments demonstrate that we have it in us, but we choose not to always shine the light.
Astrid carries this bigger energy with her always. You can see it and feel it, even if not demonstrated every second, but when she wants to, she does. She’s not afraid to let you know it’s simply who she is, nor is she worried how you might judge her. She knows the truth of who she is will reach the truth of each of us and when truth meets, that’s the most authentic and fulfilling experience, regardless of result. Yet, it also helps reflect and draw to her exactly what she needs and wants to see, while not missing out on what it feels to be alive.
I asked Astrid if she has any advice to offer to someone wanting not to hide anymore, but is too afraid.
She thinks a moment and replies in her own way, “There will never be a perfect moment to wait to do something and tomorrow is not always a promise. We can’t survive alone in the dark forever. Night turns into day and it is your nature to do the same. In and out you weave, but weave you must, or cease to be. Both the Sun and Moon know just when to shine on the Earth or how to allow others the same. Yet they DO and WILL shine in fullness and never cease to shine while others are. They dance in and out, sharing the stage of the grand show. You may not know how stepping forth and being bigger will be embraced, but embrace it for yourself and you will find your place on the horizon amidst the other stars. It’s there that we will meet, heart-to-heart.”
What I’ve learned, and Astrid describes so beautifully, is that the truth of who you are is not something you can hide from forever. It catches up to us, no matter how fast we run away. Just as the Sun’s light keeps shining, despite your only seeing it half the day, so does your light, despite blanketing it in vein.
Eventually, your essence will see its way through, so why not give it a boost out?
“That’s right! Being who you really are is what we need most in the world at this time and is the greatest service to humanity,” concludes Astrid.
Ask Astrid Fridays ~ The Rabbit’s Corner: The Worth of Waiting
I was reminded yesterday when I gave Astrid the first batch of her holiday gifts, just how much joy it brings to my heart to see her happy and giving her the things she deserves. This continued later in the evening over conversation with my sweet friend, Lynne, who is visiting, as I shared with her about the first time Astrid saw her Wonderland realm I’d created just for her and she dropped into a deep state of heartfelt gratitude. She stopped in her tracks and took it all in, then sat in overwhelming feelings she had always believed were possible, but hadn’t materialized outside of her belief until now. That was the most moving moment for me when she looked at everything then turned to me and wanted to snuggle – if her eyes could have shed tears they would have, but mine sure did. I heard her expression of gratitude and felt her love, as she thanked me for seeing her and making her dreams a reality.
We both dropped into a timeless shared moment that is etched in my heart forever.
Last night I went to bed knowing today was Astrid’s share time and asked her to let me know what she wanted to write about.
She said, “the worth of waiting.”
So, I went to sleep with the intention to hear her message and bring that through now.
Astrid knows that so many of us feel like we are waiting forever for the things we want. That constantly we’re told to be patient just a little while longer. To keep believing. To not let go of our dreams. And to keep moving forward when all we want to do is give up with disappointment, exhaustion, and feelings of overwhelming sadness.
She knows I have so many times gone through that myself – feeling like nothing was ever going to happen. That I kept working on things, giving my all, making changes, devoting myself to figuring out what I’m missing, and still had only my hope to go on.
She knows that so many times I wanted to give up and was brought to my knees in painful soul-felt tears and couldn’t understand why.
And she knows somehow I kept going.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons she and I connect so much. Because Astrid has been through the same in her life.
Her background is filled with disappointment, fear, sadness, the unknown, and yet she kept fighting and kept going.
This eventually brought her to SaveABunny where she was finally treated with respect and tenderness, and at least was out of danger.
Yet, she still had a couple of years ahead of having people come and go, but never seeing her, nor wanting to adopt her.
She kept believing when all seemed hopeless.
And although she was there one of the longest of any bunnies, awaiting a forever home, it did happen.
We found each other.
Two souls who kept believing.
Two souls who have never given up.
We found our happy ending in each other.
Astrid says, she easily could have let her health go and gone into full-on depression, but she kept strong, took care of herself, and remained a robust picture of well -being.
She knew one day….one day….her dream would come true.
And she wanted to be at her best when it did.
I can so relate, as so many times I wanted to give up on things in my life I hoped for and never saw evidence of getting closer to.
And yet they did come and I was reminded, like Astrid, that time is an idea we attach to. The spirit and heart don’t experience it the same. There is no timeline for when things unfold. There’s the journey and how we embrace it.
No matter when something happens in our lives, even if it’s just for a minute of blissful depth, that one moment will be worth all of the pain, struggle, and work we put into our lives.
Astrid says, “It needn’t be that way though. If you embrace that the future is now and live your life backwards with the beauty being in your heart to experience whenever you want, then you will know how to ride the eternal.”
In essence, we don’t have to suffer, as the only reason we do is the acceptance of separation from that which is in our heart awaiting our opening to.
Hard to embrace when your physical reality seems to say something else, but that doesn’t have to be the story if we tell it differently.
And this provides the hope and the ability to experience life more fully now with whatever our situation is.
It makes what we desire more tangible and draws it in as a manifestation.
Astrid knows this isn’t easy to embrace when heartache becomes overwhelming.
But she knows it’s possible, as it’s been her experience.
And I do too.
I keep using these techniques and keep listening to her reminders, as I continue to embrace hope for manifesting more things my heart is feeling.
I see and experience them as done and so the journey is much sweeter. It also makes it so that if they manifest or not, it’s not as important because I already am enjoying the possibility within my heart where it counts the most.
It creates a feeling of wholeness and from there anything is possible.
Astrid says, “You are a timeless being living a blip of your immensity. Open to your fullness and you’ll open to the potentials in greater ways than you think.”
There are reasons things align as they do and if we remove the time constraints, the worth of waiting reveals itself.
You might even find that you’re living rather than waiting.
Take care of you. You are worth it.
Ask Astrid Fridays ~ The Rabbit’s Corner: Upgrades & Overloads of Rebirthing Change
Rebirthing seems to be a theme running through the collective and just today it came through to me through five different streams of experiences and messages from others. One of them being Astrid, as rabbits reflect this symbolism well. She’s been very eager the last couple of days to not only nudge me hard at my ankle, but has bee-lined to me in order to grab a hold of my pant leg with her teeth to get my attention.
Likely she knew of the energy overload I was experiencing and the upgrade about to take place, but it also seems she’s been really keen on my being with her so that we can navigate the unknowns together.
Rabbits are very at home in the labyrinth Netherworld where intricate underground passageways and dark twisting tunnels are the norm and where they feel secure navigating their travels by intuition and inner light alone.
Change is no stranger to them and they are accustomed to making decisions in the face of fear and maintain peaceful focus amidst chaos.
After all, their survival relies on it.
This sense of self and ingenuity is a gift that reflects to us our ability to master the same within us awaiting our reclaiming.
As Lee shared in his December Energy Update yesterday, “We are built to handle change.”
And as the ever-rebirthing rabbit says, “You, too, can get in touch with change and ride the sands of time, as the seasons weave their cycles.”
Astrid knows change very intimately and has braved the new every step of the way. Recently she shared about her own upgrade to a Castle Tower, and while it had mirrored our own shifts up until then, it was also foreshadowing more change upcoming for me.
That hit yesterday, as I’ve added a heap load of new into my life recently (including a wave of new energy painting) and its been a process to integrate a balanced schedule with it all.
I’ve been feeling a build-up of energy in a way I can’t describe and it catapulted me to this suspended point outside of this or that. It released tethers that provided any sense of familiarity and detached me even more.
Astrid says, “This is the Cosmic way, and when you are at home within this unknown, you realize the power of your own inner light above all else.”
It keeps coming at me with the expression of new inspiration and focuses, along with the stripping away of layers, the joy of surrendering things to others ready to own their own level of responsibility and reclaiming, and the deepening gratitude that stretches me to farther reaches of heart generosity that lives for today.
Astrid often sits tall and looks me straight into my heart with piercing wisdom that seems both so far away and so tangibly rich.
She says, “This is because I reflect the heart’s Great Mystery that can only be experienced by way of both loving and letting go more. Then you experience the vastness and beautiful complexity of Cosmic Love.”
She continues sharing “This overload of energy is a liminal space you’ve been experiencing as a compilation of layering new pieces onto pieces you don’t want to forget, while juggling ways to hold them within the still limited version of unrealized potential, rather than relaxing into these things already being who you are. The reminders have already done their work and the memory can now let go into the ease of embodiment. It’s time to create from the impetus of fertile inspiration and allow these to rebirth completely anew.”
And so, yesterday, my mini Notebook (the computer I’ve been using the last 5 years) finally and fully overloaded. I’ve been receiving messages from it over the past few months that there was no space remaining and our attempts to delete things went in vein.
Then my computer said, “No more.”
Just as Astrid said, “Come join me as you already are.”
Ironically and synchronously this took place yesterday directly after I posted Lee’s December Energy Update and right after I received an email from a very special spirit and artisan who after a couple of months since onset of our correspondence, had completed creating “a celestial muse” she was working on in collaboration with me that happens to embody “creation” and not surprisingly, but without me saying anything, wove the song of my heart into being.
It just so happened that I was ready for this, as anything of importance to me – truly only my new novel – is stored on a tiny little chip, and things that might “seem” important, but speak of the old days for me, were surrendered away. I let it all go, including several years of saved emails and work correspondence from days of the past and embraced Dave’s extra, heavy duty computer as my new replacement, which I’ve been using for our shared side business bookkeeping.
The overload caused everything to run in circles, take forever to implement, reverse working at all without hours of dissecting, and simply not listen to or understand commands.
In essence, I would not be moving forward unless I walked into a much more expansive field where pieces are not even present to remind me and only embodiment speaks for itself.
All of the new energy couldn’t keep piling on to things working in the background and using up space in one way or form. A larger playing field within the vortex of my heart had to be opened where things move freely and are simply an intrinsic part of me.
I said goodbye to the memories while closing all access of return and this new and vastly larger platform now provides the space for that “impetus of fertile inspiration” Astrid spoke of.
Better yet, I have no attachment to it and anything on it, which feels extra freeing, as I don’t feel the computer to be mine. It is more of a portal and conduit to bring things through, but to shut away and detach from at end of each day.
And then today, some wonderful and full circle soulful unfoldings took place when the perfect guardian said yes to my passing on three sacred items that speak of what has been some of the greatest importance to me and my lifetimes, which I only recently had also been nudged to surrender over in trust.
Astrid was specifically involved in this, literally getting my attention and moving these pieces into my awareness.
I couldn’t ask for a wiser companion.
I’ve also found myself giving out in bigger ways than ever lately, feeling that vastness and abundance, without need to hold on. There are infinite ways for things to come about. To hold onto something as an idea of insurance was also robbing the good it could do in so many other ways now, including the very way I thought it might one day help.
Astrid has been quite the muse in all of this – amusing and musing!
When I do something from that infinite place she binkies with delight – I call it a Cosmic Binky.
When I’m missing the point or urgency, she grabs hold of my pant leg.
When I’m “getting it” and download her wisdom, she peers deeply through me in her Buddha Bunny- like stance with eyes dark as the Cosmos and a twinkle of starlight at center.
This morning, as we were still prepping Dave’s computer for me I was upstairs at our usual Ask Astrid blog time so Queen Astrid came running upstairs to get me. She waited patiently beneath the graceful towering giraffes – her grounded sentinels of grace and divine purpose.
From there she was downloading today’s message, as she helped me to connect the dots with all the latest happenings.
Every day a new layer of fine-tuning is integrated.
She reminded me that every time my energy gets an “upgrade,” so do my computers and cell phones.
And we both know that this is true for many of you out there as well.
Our energy shifts affect things around us.
Rabbits are finely attuned to energies and reflect them to the tiniest degree.
My two other rabbits, Nestor and Joy, used to have physical blow-outs because of the expansive energy they would channel and their bodies had to readjust, which isn’t the easiest always for bunnies.
Astrid is much better at managing her energy and wants me to understand those tweaks and fine-tunings that can help with optimizing my own.
This time it wasn’t about forcing a change by crashing my computer and losing things, but more about mindfulness that gave me the option of tweaking realizations and moving forward more effectively and in bigger ways.
As we go through changes, which right now everyone is experiencing in varying degrees of relative intensity, there are ways to tune into those little tweaks so that we can all optimize our energy.
Sometimes they’re easier to see and feel than others, so reflections like these can assist us.
For me, it seems Astrid is sharing that just as she fully chewed down and got rid of her Carrot Cottage so it no longer takes up any space, in order to make space for her Castle Tower, so too did I need to look at the tiny ways space was being held by things I already embody.
I had even saved the top roof of the Carrot Cottage with the idea to create a little house upstairs for her and she was not interested in the least bit.
So I’ve since removed it completely once she said, “I told you we’re done mom. I love the memories it held of my being welcome to my forever home, but our love is now permanent and the cardboard house takes up space our hearts can use to create and anchor new growth in.”
So, in reflection, while I may have given up the work and things of the past, if it still sits there even as storage space on a computer, or as an item tucked away on a shelf, they’re still taking up space I could breathe more freely in and by removing them I brush away the dust of memories and awaken the sparkle of birthing new stars.
Astrid smiles. “Change is like the beautiful birth of a star.”
