Pisces, the fish, is also connected to unfathomable deeps, underscoring this watery theme. It speaks to dissolving boundaries, metaphorical or literal; an innate awareness of wholeness and interconnectedness; and compassion, in particular a desire to help those it feels are disempowered. The Spiritualist Movement began during the last pass of Neptune through Pisces in the mid-19^th Century, and we should again see renewed explorations into consciousness and its boundaries, with a strong spiritual leaning, during this new transit. Other boundary-dissolving movements and revelations which appeared during Neptune’s last trek through Pisces include Darwin’s On the Origins of Species (unifying the life sciences through the theory of evolution), the suffragist and abolitionist movements (offering equality and empowerment for the oppressed), and the Communist Manifesto (announcing Marx’s dream of a classless society).

February 7^th brings a full moon across the signs of Leo and Aquarius, asking us weigh our needs as an individual against those of our community to determine if we have the right balance. Is our subjective world (what makes me happy, where do I find my joy) aligned with our objective world (what is equitable, where do I contribute)? Have you become such a good citizen that you’ve stifled the creative, playful child in you, or have you been so immersed in what you want that you’ve neglected the world around you? Use the illumination of the full moon to reveal disparities between your desires and your obligations.

The full moon falls directly between the planets of Venus and Pluto, in a powerful midpoint configuration, demanding we pay attention to our relationships this month, including those to money and values. Fixed and rigid positions are set for reevaluation. If we haven’t been managing these areas of our life well, the following week may shake things up so that we see any discontinuities clearly.

The theme of the full moon continues the next day, February 8^th, when Saturn stations in Libra and Venus moves into Aries. Saturn, planetary statesman of tradition and duty, desires responsibility and integrity, and Libra seeks fairness, especially in one-on-one relationships. As Saturn turns retrograde – seeming to stop and turn direction in the sky – he asks that we slow down, take stock, and restructure our relationships to bring them into balance.

Conversely, Venus, goddess of love and pleasure, moving into self-reliant, independent Aries on the same day, speaks to honoring ourselves. Between February 8^th and February 15^th Venus makes tense aspects with Uranus (February 10^th) and Pluto (February 15^th). If handled skillfully, we are presented an opportunity to unfetter ourselves from false burdens. However, acting impulsively or without integrity may lead to sudden upsets or power struggles, financial setbacks, even a damaged a relationship. Remember to proceed with caution this week and to mediate your needs and those of others fairly. A childlike insistence on your own way will only backfire, but so will acquiescing solely out of a sense of obligation.

February 21^st brings a new moon in expansive Pisces and a lessening of tensions. The new moon, tied closely to Neptune and Chiron this month, calls us to tap into our healing dreams and expand our possibilities. Are you at the end of the tether in some area of our life? Are you limiting yourself from going after what you want because of an old wound? This is the moon cycle for applying healing balm and also for entertaining visions of what could be.

A good place to start is to ask a few key questions:

• If reality were limitless, where would I be, what would I be doing, and what shape would my life take?
• Do I feel deserving of my dreams? What healing do I need?
• What self-imposed limits do I need to expand beyond?

Conjure the ocean of your dreams and splash in the waves. Allow yourself the luxury of being a dreamy, inspired, poetic visionary during this moon, remembering that every great triumph began as a wispy vision and someone daring to believe.

But don’t just sit there. Develop a strategy. Supportive aspects from Saturn and Jupiter this new moon provide an opportunity to start managing the process. Envision your future; then map it out so the process feels controllable. Jupiter gives us the enthusiasm and vision to see ahead, but Saturn gives us the discipline and practical know-how to make that vision a reality.

To underscore this message, this month Mars remains retrograde in Virgo, which also speaks to the need for practical action. Taking a moment to review recent steps and refine plans can help prepare for the hard work of moving forward.

One note: with Mars in stressful relationship to Mercury in Pisces at the new moon, we must eventually ensure that our ideas are realistic. Mars sharpens whatever it touches, cutting away excess, so our minds (Mercury) and others’ minds may develop a critical edge. Those plans and ideas which can’t hold water may be challenged by other people – not so you throw up your hands and walk away, but to help you refine your vision and correct potential problems.

So dream large, my friend. Put no limits on your imagination. Once you have your vision firmly in your mind’s eye—but not before—you can give it proper shape. This moon calls for both limitless imagination and the further definition of dreams.

If you know the sign rising at the time of your birth (also known as the rising sign), read that sign as well as your birth sign, otherwise read your sun sign. If you don’t know your rising sign and would like to find out, click here for instructions.

A broad, monthly horoscope is no substitution for a consultation using your exact birth time. Consult my services page for more information or call me at 800.604.0299.

Aries: Put on your party dress on and circulate through the first half of the month. There’s fun to be had and an opportunity to meet new (and old) friends, so isolating at home won’t do. Work continues to be demanding this month, but you like a challenge. It’s all the more reason for you to go blow off some steam when the opportunity arises. Gemstone: Yellow Jasper

Taurus: You may find yourself out of sorts this month as Venus heads into Aries. Sticking close to the house helps, as does working through prickly feelings which may be bristling underneath the surface, especially with those near and dear. By the end of the month, seek out friends and share your heart’s desires. You’ll find a supportive audience. Gemstone: Ocean Jasper

Gemini: The first half of the month is a good period to ask yourself whether you’re walking your talk. If your values aren’t reflected in your day-to-day environment, look for ways to bring them in. Friends can be stimulating or disruptive right now. Paying attention to which of the two categories fit – especially at midmonth – may be revealing. Gemstone: Sodalite

Cancer: You’ve been holding your cards close to your chest of late and – so it continues, especially during the first part of the month. Use the time through the 7^th to look at your finances and fiscal plans. Work relationships may be tense the second half of the month. You’ll do well to focus on your big-picture values and what really matters, avoiding any drama. Gemstone: Orange Calcite

Leo: The fulcrum between yours and other’s needs may be difficult to keep balanced this month, with demands from others running high. Call on your well-known generosity of spirit and vitality to pull you through. Use the latter part of the month to pull back a bit and revisit your finances. Ensure they’ll meet your needs going forward, no matter how large you dream. Gemstone: Prehnite

Virgo: With Mars moving through your sign, you’re busier than normal and feeling the pressure. Good health routines – enough sleep, downtime, nutritious food, exercise – do much to ease any tension. Midmonth you may find yourself feeling touchy. Take a deep breath: cut wood, carry water. Feeling put upon will only increase the stress and dull your effectiveness. Gemstone: Red Jasper

Libra: With Saturn stationing in the last degree of your sign, you may feel like Sisyphus this month. You’re almost done pushing that boulder, but not quite ready to face the altered reality of finally getting it up the hill for good. Do something fun early in the month; by the second week there’s work to do. If tempers fly or people become erratic, draw upon your graciousness and tact to reel them in. Gemstone: Selenite

Scorpio: Ideally, what you do in the world aligns with who you are at core. This month evaluate if your current direction reflects your essential self. Reorient yourself if necessary and shore up your foundation to support your growing sense of new direction. Coworkers can be a source of frustration right now, so lean on friends to help keep perspective. Gemstone: Apophylite

Sagittarius: Your mind tends to be overactive right now, but unless you hitch your ideas to your fundamental values and motivations you’re likely to spin in place. Better yet, quiet your mind by with the simple remedy of taking care of what’s in front of you, especially on the job. When you need sanctuary, nights at home provide respite. Gemstone: Howlite

Capricorn: Early in the month you may want to calibrate your finances to bring them under control. Come the new moon, though, it’s time to connect with others. Circulate. You need to share your ideas and do a bit of intellectual cross-pollination. Sitting at home may make you feel stir crazy. Gemstone: Azurite

Aquarius: The ball is in your court, Aquarius, so state your position at the start of the month and let yourself be heard. Midmonth, take care that fuzzy math or inattention doesn’t turn costly. In fact, pragmatic strategies to tackle debt and unfetter yourself should pay off beautifully through June. If, after the first couple of weeks, communications begin to misfire, seek common ground. Gemstone: Blue Aventurine

Pisces: You may find you have more influence operating behind the scenes in the first half of the month. It’s a good time to evaluative your health and work routines to ensure they genuinely support your wellbeing. Come the new moon, bring the focus to your desires for yourself and the world, and to what work needs to be done in your one-on-one relationships. Gemstone: Chalcopyrite

TO FIND YOUR RISING SIGN (the Ascendant):

You’ll need the following information: date of birth, place of birth, and, most importantly, time of birth. Go to the following Astrodeinst webpage and select “Extended Chart Selection” at the bottom right section of the page.

• Select the bar which says “Click here to show the chart,” which is to the right and above the “Options” area of the page.
• You should find yourself at another page. Select “Click here to go directly to data entry page.”
• You’ll be taken to the data entry page. Enter your birth data and click on “Continue.”
• Your natal chart with the positions will appear. At the upper left, look for the information in red text. Your rising sign appears after the word “Ascendant.”
• You can print the chart if you like, too.

2012 sweeps in on the coattails of a wild 2011. The changes we saw beginning, on a global level but also for each of us personally, continue to develop in 2012, so prepare yourselves for an enlivening, transformative year.

With so much change in the air, from upheavals in the Middle East to intimations of a revolution even in our understanding of energy and matter, we need to be gentle with ourselves and with each other. Change brings uncertainty, and uncertainty may conjure fear. When in doubt, we should always summon our better natures and the genuine panacea of generosity and humor.

And love. Let’s throw in love, the very essence of our nature once stripped of its mundane concerns and personas. When we begin sharing that essential self, which is whole and never lacking, we can become the presence of love in all we do — not just to family and friends, but to all.

Here’s my New Year’s wish for each of us in 2012: May we walk through this year recognizing the love within us, and may that love touch and heal all we meet. And may that same blessing be passed from hand to hand until all are touched.  By year end, we may realize a revolution indeed.

2012 Forecast

If you know your rising sign (the sign on the ascendant at the time of your birth), read that description as well as your birth sign.  If you don’t know your rising sign and would like to find out, click here for instructions.

As always, a broad analysis such as this is no substitute for a personal astrological consultation based your full birth data.  If you are interested in setting up an appointment, please email me or call me at 800.604.0299.

ARIES              TAURUS           GEMINI                    CANCER                 LEO                   VIRGO

LIBRA              SCORPIO         SAGITTARIUS        CAPRICORN          AQUARIUS        PISCES

ARIES

Traditional gemstones: Red coral, Carnelian, Diamond, Bloodstone

In 2011 you began an eight-year cycle in which you will be called to become your most authentic self. Stultifying routines, drowsy habits – any debilitating pattern which shackles your freedom and interferes with your ability to be wholly yourself – will be shaken from its slumber by Uranus’ journey through your sign. The areas of your life that limit your range of motion may be unlocked by liberating jolts from the outside.

It’s not so much that you’ve been untrue to yourself but that you’re life hasn’t kept up with your need for freshness and sparks of the unexpected. If you feel trapped in the identity that you have built for yourself, the next few years will update the way you see yourself and the world sees you. Rams born in March will find 2012 particularly significant, especially during early spring.

The more open to change and the more in need of fresh air you are, the more revitalizing and exciting 2012 has the possibility of being. If you primarily define yourself by what you “do,” i.e., your career, that area is ripe for metamorphosis.  If you define yourself by the roles you play, especially if you are overly attached to a public image – mother, father, successful entrepreneur, spouse, do-gooder – be open to reinvention.

Should you find this disruptive, ask yourself if your current world order is truly an authentic expression of your whole person or whether it is simply comfortable and familiar. Any changes coming in now will help you sweep the relics of the past out the door so you ultimately feel more energized, alive, and fully present.  Think of it this way, when you jump on a roller coaster you have two choices: you can close your eyes and pray that it ends soon, or your can open your eyes, embrace the moment, and allow yourself to relish the rush of adrenaline, the fine line between excitement and fear.

You’ll do best if you relax and enjoy the ride. To enforce control or take a my-way-or-the-highway approach will just frustrate you and those around you.

2012 brings you an opportunity to broaden your values and perhaps to increase your income–that is, if you don’t outdistance your preparations, especially in the first half of the year. In the second half, you’ll be able to sell others on your ideas and have the opportunity to expand your outlook if you have carefully grounded your plans. Hard work and attention to detail in your day-to-day work environment, mapping out procedures, and initiating a new work or wellness routine can pay lasting dividends.

Choose to have an exhilarating ride. If you find yourself clinging to the past, remember that the new day is an opportunity for elation, if you are willing to take the risk.

TAURUS

Traditional gemstones: Diamond, White Coral, Zircon, Emerald, Amber

Opportunities abound for you this year, if you’re open to growth and willing to kick-start the action.  The first half of the year is particularly fertile ground for self-improvement programs that bring you increased self-confidence and a sense of optimism.  If you put forth the effort, goals that may have seemed difficult in the past will find purchase.

Take advantage of this window for expansion. Identify at least one thing you want to change about or do for yourself, and start on it in the early months of 2012.  Self-reassessment works magic this year. Putting into motion a plan, especially the first part of the year, has the potential to profoundly impact your life for the next twelve years.  Roll up your sleeves and do the groundwork early this year to get the momentum going.  Don’t wait.

But keep this in mind: nothing happens without your effort, and streamlined, simple plans are easier to put in place than elaborate ones.  The opportunities are there, but they can’t come into being unless you make the first move. You must be self-directed, action-oriented, and willing to push past inertia or complacency.  If you do nothing, the promise of this year comes to nothing, with the only expansion, sadly, appearing in your waistline.

Have you had a growing feeling that your current direction isn’t everything for which you hoped? Do you feel a nagging tug of dissatisfaction or an inkling that something more magical that awaits you, if you could just put your finger on it? Pay attention to your dreams. They will provide clues to your nascent self and new direction.

If you allow yourself to question your assumptions about life and how it operates, even your beliefs and moral strictures, you open up yourself to profound epiphanies; your entire world order may be turned on its head, and you may begin to see life anew.  Secrets about yourself, your past, and your limiting assumptions may reveal themselves, freeing you to reconstruct your understanding of the world. You may find your spiritual life revitalized in the process.

This questioning and re-evaluation of your beliefs and assumptions will provide the foundation for yet unformed dreams of the future, so while you push ahead to create opportunities this year, also schedule a bit of quiet time to let the slow currents building underneath the placid surface of your life gain power.

GEMINI

Traditional Gemstones:  Emerald, Peridot, Jade, Sapphire

Though you are always adept at tapping into the flow of ideas and information, 2102 positions you to catch a new glimpse of the future, to awaken to intimations of what is to come.

You may have been feeling a little restless the past few years, sensing the need to make a few changes. The next several years will be interesting times for you, as you turn your head away from the life you have now and shift toward a new direction. If your birthday falls in May, you will find 2012 a particularly creative year, with insights and ideas coming in fast and furious. Put them to good use.

Use the first half of the year to dig a little deeper into what it is you want, especially in terms of your career and relationships, and what might be limiting you in those arenas. If there are blocks there, the common denominator is you.  An honest assessment on how and why you might be sabotaging yourself can be extremely fruitful the first half of the year.

Are your home life and finances structured in a way that will let you take advantage of opportunities that crop up, or are you saddled with debts and obligations that could hinder your ability to seize the moment?

You have between now and mid-June to tie up loose ends and take care of details which you may have been putting off, especially concerning your home and family. Now is the time to streamline and create order.

If your life has been a bit chaotic or you’ve been less than attentive to your day-to-day routines, get yourself organized. Clean out your house and take care of your obligations so you have a firm foundation for the second half of the year. Repairing you home, supporting those who live with you, addressing family issues, and reorganizing the household all demand your attention. Get these areas in order before June, so you can propel yourself forward starting mid-summer and into 2013.

Mid-June brings opportunities to break out of your rut and make yourself heard. Sitting at home ruminating won’t do the trick: Fortune favors those who circulate, so connect with others and share your ideas.  If you’ve brought your home life into order, you’ll be better able to tap into the creative flow and win over others with your ideas. You’ll be in the position to ride the wave coming your way.

Part of bringing in the new is acknowledging what is over. As part of the general housecleaning you’ll be doing in 2012, you should be willing to release those aspects of your attitudes, habits, or circumstances – perhaps residual from childhood – that prevent you from moving forward. Late April through the third week of May could bring into focus an aspect of your life which must brought to some sort of closure. This is a threshold, not a dead end, so be willing to eliminate whatever might impede you from moving ahead.

CANCER

Traditional Gemstones: Natural Pearl, Moonstone, Ruby

This year brings big changes to sensitive Cancer, if you’re willing to take some risks in your career and allow your relationships to be transformed.

In some ways the two issues are intertwined. Your caring nature makes it difficult for you to put yourself first, especially if a change will impact your loved ones, but you are being called to do just that: put yourself first, make some selfish decisions regarding what it is you want from life, even though you look crazy or reckless to others, and ask the people in your life to adjust their expectations of you.

More importantly, if you’re attached to being the nurturer and helpmate, it also requires you altering your own expectations about how you love, support, and nurture those around you, as well as how you want others to love, support, and nurture you.

Now is the time to be your own best mother, to offer vital sustenance to yourself and your dreams. Don’t wait for others to provide you with the confidence to go for what you truly want. You have the resources within you. Daily prayer or meditation can remind you just how much support surrounds you.

From now through May, restructure your home life and put your ideas for the future on paper. What changes do you need to implement at home to better support changes to your outer life?  Do you need a home office, help with the household chores, a block of quiet time?  Get those in place now.

Then create a pragmatic, step-by-step plan for what you want to happen in your career and relationships. Putting your vision on paper will build your sense of safety and confidence. The concreteness of the roadmap will keep you on path and ease your doubts and worries. If you become overwhelmed with this process, bounce your ideas off of a trusted friend.

Expect time and activity to pick up pace from May through September. If you feel you’re busy now, brace yourself because the speed will only increase.  Keep checking in: Are you still on task with your vision plan or are you allowing yourself to be distracted from your own work by others’ needs and demands?  The better you set boundaries – within yourself and with others – the more successful you’ll be at managing the changes which will appear.

Change is definitely coming, so set your intentions, and position yourself for the future. This year has the potential to be a watershed for you, moving you into unchartered territory and allowing you more freedom than you’ve ever had, but only if you embrace the metamorphoses approaching rather than clinging to the past.

Whether through wholesale reinvention and rebirth…or change within the modest parameters of an already familiar backyard, the universe is handing you an awesome responsibility, one for which you are prepared and for which you have been waiting. You are ready. Dare to dream large, my friend.

LEO

Traditional Gemstones: Ruby, Red Spinel, Rhodolite, Peridot, Golden Topaz

Over the past few years, your work and daily routines have been changing. Old routines have fallen away and new ones have taken their place. What was once unquestioned may have been undermined or upended so it holds a less important place in your life. In short, what has power in your daily life is shifting, allowing for greater creativity but perhaps also bringing some turbulence as you reevaluate and transform your day-to-day world.

This process continues and strengthens in 2012. Formerly stable beliefs may receive shocks which force you to break from past traditions. New ideas and people may arrive, revolutionizing your way of seeing the world and awakening you to yet unconsidered possibilities. Whether you find this exciting or shocking depends on how attached you are to your current situation and how primed you are for revitalizing the organizing truths of your life.

If you remain open to possibility, you may discover this year to be one of adventure, unexpected travels, and electrifying new ideas that reignite your passion and clarify your worldview. Trusting your enthusiasm and your inspirations will land you in the right places.

Resist impulse purchases through the first half of the year, as what you see might not be what you get. Through June, in fact, economic gains tend to come through sheer hard work and personal effort. If you haven’t been paying attention to the financial details of your life, the first half of the year is a good time to straighten out your finances and create a budget.

Throughout the year you have a knack of being in the right place at the right time to make important contacts with people who can further your goals. Your ability to communicate your creative vision inspires others and catalyzes their support.

With your ability to generate energy and excitement running high, you may want to be strategic with your focus and put the spotlight on only those projects for which you wish to build support, lest you spread yourself too thin.  Do you want recognition for your work? Get out there and let yourself be seen.

When fall arrives, however, it’s time to bring your attention to home and family. You may want to restructure a home office or rebalance your work/home schedule to better meet the obligations of family. Take stock. Is your home your private sanctuary, providing you the stability you need to soar in the world? If not, how might you restructure it to strengthen your foundation?

VIRGO

Traditional Gemstones: Emerald, Peridot, Jade, Sapphire

Think of 2012 as your DIY year. If you want to make something happen, the surest bet is to roll up your sleeves and do it yourself. This is especially true through the first half of the year. As you’re no stranger to hard work, you might as well jump in and get the party started.

You can make enormous gains in any self-improvement plan you initiate, and if you are willing to do a bit of self-promotion, you have the capacity to push forward some personal project dear to your heart or position yourself for a job you want. But this means hustling and nonstop activity for the first half of the year.

Consider: do you want forward someone else’s agenda or your own? This year asks you put yourself and your interests first. Be willing to stand up and take credit for your work, to communicate and network with others about your ideas, above all to keep moving forward. You are enormously creative this year, and primed for a breakthrough if you keep the focus on your creative output and what you want to bring into the world.

If you keep grounded in your true aspirations – big picture, long term – and avoid getting caught up in petty, short-term frustrations or obsessing about what’s broken, you can take a giant step toward your ultimate goal.

In short, it will be your passion, competency, and excitement that wins over others and it will be your impatience, resentment and/or anger that will turn them away. 2012 is a high-energy, high-demand year. You can push you through to a new level or you can let the cumulative pressures of stress and your own high standards undo you.

You can an enormously productive this year, particularly when allowed to work independently. If your work requires you to work collaboratively, find time to decompress. Use physical activity to deal with stress, and work in appointments for self-care, such as massage or walks in nature.

Finances have been tight for the past few years, and you will need to continue to budget through fall of 2012, but with hard work this year, the tide will begin to turn. In short, don’t stop now. With continued effort on your end, the latter half of the year will bring a lighter load and you’ll begin seeing the fruits of your labor.

Relationships can at times feel a bit murky and may be colored more by wishful thinking and fantasy than informed by facts. To avoid mistaken assumptions about another’s motivations or suffering unnecessary ambiguity, make time for in-depth conversation. You can’t err by asking for clarity. Upfront dialogue will help disperse the distorting clouds.

LIBRA

Traditional Gemstones: Diamond, White Coral, Zircon, Opal, Peridot

For the past several years, you’ve been stepping up your game and redefining who you are and how you respond to the world around. You’re finding new ways to put limits on yourself, and you’re less willing to give up what is important to you for the sake of keeping peace with others.

Your ability to set boundaries and define what you want will continue to be an important theme through 2012. This maturation process – a maturation of your very identity – is in its final stages. Through fall of 2012, your work is to continue to redefine your responses to the people in your life, to your family, and to yourself.

Your ability to define your expectations, needs, and limits and to state them clearly and directly will be critical for laying the foundation for the next seven years. Holding others accountable when they do not respect your expectations – rather than discounting your needs or rationalizing their behavior – will also be critical for the continued development of your new authority.

This new maturity in your relationships will steer you well through years when many around you may seem to be falling apart or acting erratically. Calling on your inner authority to guide you in such turbulent situations will anchor you in right action and will in turn help anchor others.

In some ways, you may feel like you’ve been completely reconstituted, right down to the cellular level, over the past few years. If you want to make the most of these transformational times, be willing to dig deep into your past and question everything on which you have built your foundation, including youthful expectations about home, family, and tradition.  Take ownership of where things stand now.

Root out anything that undermines your ability to be effective and responsible in your current life. Let go of anything that limits your confidence or negates your personal power.  Be uncompromisingly true to yourself and release any limiting assumptions that take away your power. You are your own power source.

This period is one of the most profound of your life. Can you control everything? No, but whether this period is fruitful or barren depends wholly on how you choose to define your experience and respond to your life as it is now.  See it as a deep-sea adventure. Time is your ship, and you are the well-qualified captain, at the helm and ready to steer.

SCORPIO

Traditional Gemstones: Red Coral, Carnelian, Citrine, Obsidian

Always perceptive, with a knack of looking through the surface into the underbelly of the conversation, you have always understood that words have power, as do secrets.  In the past few years you have been gaining greater understanding of just how deep that truism runs.

You are at the precipice of a new cycle, which begins in fall.  Until that time, you are behind the scenes, preparing for the change.  You’re feeling a bit restless, ready to act on your ideas, and becoming more bored with the status quo.  This is natural.  However, a few key decisions must be made before moving into the next phase; you must spend the first six months of the year mapping out the details of your plan and rooting out any potential problems with its execution.

In short, you have the seed within you, but if you want your vision to grow strong, you must first fertilize the soil. Otherwise, it may never take root.

In the first half of the year, other people may bring talents and skills to the table that you lack. Trust their insights and their ability to ground your vision in practical steps. If you do not have the expertise you need, be humble, reach out. Consult with those who have the necessary resources. And keep an open mind. Your thinking is profound right now, but sometimes inflexible. Your vision may need to change to accommodate a real world setting.

Relax and let go. The more you try to control, limit, or hide your thinking, the less opportunity others have to facilitate and speed up this ongoing process. Their ideas bring opportunities and plain good luck to your table. If you’re not yet certain of particular people in your circle, revelations around late May will help you clarify any remaining questions.

The second half of the year, pay attention to how and where your money is being spent. Keep your debt under control.

By the end of the year, October through December, serious decisions will have to be made that impact the next twenty-eight years.  Choose well, choose carefully, choose based on well-researched facts and materials.  Take all the advice and information you’ve gathered, and take your first tentative steps into the future.

It may feel chaotic and like time is speeding up, especially come late fall, but this is what you have been preparing for all year.

SAGITTARIUS

Traditional Gemstones: Yellow Sapphire, Topaz, Citrine, Ruby

Broadminded and tolerant, you typically make yourself at home wherever your travels land you, Sagittarius. Lately, though, a sense of belonging – a deep rootedness – has eluded you.

You may be struggling with questions of where to live, or your home situation may be uncertain or unmoored. Creating a sense of stability may prove elusive at this moment, blocked by a deep-seated longing for something you can’t quite describe.

Even with a stable home and family, there may be an underlying dissatisfaction, a lack of charm or delight you may wish to remedy.  In the next eight years, you are on a quest to make home and family a place of sanctuary, to spiritualize your life at its most fundamental level.

You may need to set up an altar space or plant a garden. It may mean creating a little sacred time each day at home, one that your family honors, a quiet period each morning in which you drift, dream, praise, and connect with something larger than yourself. The struggle is to make the ordinary extraordinary: how can you make your most familiar surroundings reflect a little of the universe’s magic?

2011 was an amazingly creative year for you, and 2012 is lining up to be equally prolific. You generate original ideas effortlessly and with a childlike enthusiasm that others find appealing. That said, this isn’t a period for unmitigated risk-taking and wild, faith-based gambles.  Rely on good financial planning with the help of someone qualified to check that you’ve dotted your i’s and crossed your t’s. Simple budgets that help you maintain financial discipline can prevent you from careening off course.

As carefree and optimistic as you naturally are, a healthy dose of caution will help. Try not to take on more than you can easily manage, as you can easily overextend yourself this year, especially during the first six months when your day-to-day schedule and workload are prone to explode in scale.

The second half of the year brings opportunity in the guise of others, but also can also bring confusion to the table. You may meet the right people with all the right information, but they might not be able to deliver as promised, especially in the period between mid-June and mid-July. Avoiding serious contractual obligations during this time – especially pertaining to home, property, and family – might save you a few headaches.  If you do go forward, make sure both parties’ expectations are spelled out clearly and in detail. Then keep the lines of communication open. Unspoken assumptions can create unwonted chaos and misunderstandings.

Finish off the year by pulling in and taking stock.  Starting in fall and over the next two and a half years, you are preparing for a new cycle. Part of this preparation entails a bit of restlessness and figuring out what really matters to you. You can’t start pruning the unnecessary until you become wholly clear on what is essential.

CAPRICORN

Traditional Gemstones: Blue sapphire, Amethyst, Tanzanite, Garnet, Black Onyx

Home and family continue to be rocky and unpredictable, Capricorn. And though it may feel disruptive, trust that a breath of new life will free up additional energy for the profound changes you are experiencing.

Moving or a change of scenery is a possibility, especially if your birthday falls in December.  Even if you can’t move, find ways to bring your home into line with your evolving self. Clear out closets, redecorate, shake things up a bit. Still have the old lamp bequeathed by your Aunt Mary that you’ve never liked? Now is the time to give it to someone who appreciates it (if you can find one) or simply let it go. Traditions are being overturned. So be it.

Sometimes our attachment to the past keeps us frozen in time. Let go. You are being called to transform who you are and your path through the world.  This year you have the energy to accelerate this process tremendously, and this is especially true if you were born between December 28^th and January 2^nd.  It may be a tumultuous time, but it will be one of the most memorable and fruitful of your life.

You need to spend some time alone. With so much inner tumult, you can feel moody at times, and solitude will provide you the space you need to gestate the deep changes going on within you. Look around you. Are the people, places, and objects of your life the right ones? Does its music provide the proper cadence?

If not, be ruthlessly honest and true to yourself. Release and relinquish. Make room for the unknowable, and surround yourself with the people and circumstances that represent who you wish to be. Standing still can only create unnecessary pain.

As pressure builds and wanes through the year, find time for physical activity. It will relieve your stress, move physical energy, and aid in the whole-life detoxification you are immersed in.  As you slough off old aspects of your personality and identity, you may want to support that process with a gentle cleansing routine or breath work to release old emotions.  You may find yourself embracing a new health regime, one that strengthens your body and your emerging new life.

The first half of the year brings opportunity for love and a growing self-expressiveness. Foster it. Though you need solitude, you also need friends and fun.  Blow some fresh air to your hermitage. Grounding yourself in life’s pleasures is a healthy antidote to the brooding and shedding that’s also a necessary feature of the year. Just make sure that your fun aligns with your values and supports the person you are becoming.

By fall, Saturn leaves your house of career and Jupiter sits in your house of work, bringing with it opportunities and more joy in day-to-day routines. You may find your load a bit lighter and sense a hint of renewal in the crisp fall air.

AQUARIUS

Traditional Gemstones: Blue Sapphire, Amethyst, Tanzanite, Moss Agate

2012 presents you with a chance to break free of limiting mental constructs and work with innovative people and technologies. If you aren’t talking, sharing ideas, and connecting with your community – be it through a blog or over a cup of coffee – you miss a point of entry to change and revitalization. The more you network and connect with like-minded others, the more the chains and limitations of your life slip free.

You’ve always been an inventive thinker, but this year your ideas can potentially overturn the status quo, opening you – and others around you – to a new way of seeing and approaching your day-to-day environment. With your sharp eye, you can spot ways to revitalize processes and jump-start stalled relationships. By doing so, you benefit us all.

Endings this year may be as important beginnings. The first half of the year, put your energy into tying down whatever is dangling in your life. You may need to take care of old debts, be they financial or personal, to clear the way for an emerging you.  Pay off old loans, work with your partner on your joint finances to bring them into alignment. Doing so may breathe new life into your home life.

Do you need to acknowledge someone who has been important to you?  Do you need to let go of old resentments that now only tether you to your youth? Look into the shadowy recesses of your psyche to find the cobwebbed relics that must be pulled out, dusted off, and pushed to the curb.

Be ready to acknowledge the ways you hold yourself back, perhaps through inflexible stands around your values, which, in truth, stem from early pain or situations in which you weren’t valued for your intrinsic self. Consciously choosing to apply healing compassion to those wounds will release the ties that bind you to ancient suffering.

A thoughtful housekeeping can free up enormous amounts of energy. If, in the first six months of the year, you finish up projects you’ve left incomplete, you’ll find your physical energy increasing in the process.

Late fall, as Saturn enters your house of career and public standing, you enter a two- and a-half year period in which duties and responsibility build. If you are on track, expect more authority and autonomy – and hard-won recognition.  If you find your professional life unsatisfying or your ability to meet your responsibilities wobbly, reality checks may arise to help you clarify and restructure your role.

Right now your ideas are innovative, original and highly creative. Remember to apply them to your own life, not just your community. Set aside time, both for yourself and with loved ones, to recharge your batteries and loosen ancient tangles. With this downtime, you home life will improve in the first half of the year, allowing for a creative burst of energy in the latter half.

PISCES

Traditional Gemstones: Yellow Sapphire, Topaz, Citrine, Aquamarine, Rock Crystal

You’ve always been comfortable losing yourself in the ocean of life. Your fluidity allows you to see everything around you as interconnected and enables you to tap into an oceanic oneness with the world, from which your enormous capacity for compassion springs.

With the planet Neptune entering your sign, your tendency to diffuse your own boundaries and merge with others and the world will increase. As your sense of separation from others begins to further dissolve, you are presented with an opportunity to deepen your innate mystical gifts and connection to the divine. Those of you born between February 20^th and February 24^th will feel this influence particularly strongly this year. Vision quests and spiritual retreats will renew you this year and support the new direction you sense growing within you.

Taken too far, however, this dissolution may make it difficult for you to tap into what you want, enough that you risk losing yourself in an idealistic – but unrealistic – fog.  Lean on friends with practical know-how and solid common sense as sounding boards for your ideas.

Actively working and doing tasks tied to others – building your relationships, repairing what is broken, advocating in practical ways for others – help ground you, especially during the first half of the year. Taking care of the ones you love, in practical and visible ways, during the first half of the year will help renew home and family in the second half.

Your finances may continue to be a bit erratic this year, so avoid unnecessary gambles.  You have an opportunity to revitalize and renew your values over the next eight years. Part of this shift is a growing appreciation that you are thirsty for enlivening experience, not stuff that bogs you down. Recalibrate your life to reflect that awareness.

On a grander scale, your hopes and dreams are being utterly transformed. What held your interest before no longer retains its shine. People important to you in the past may feel corrupt or flawed, and new friends and people keep arriving, which is a good thing, given your longing for a soul tribe.

You have begun to overthrow the old world order of your dreams, and your trajectory now points in a different direction. This direction may not seem clear yet, but only because your compass no longer points to the same North.

In some ways, 2012 is a year in which you operate on a hope and a prayer.  You sense your old dreams are dying and that you need to attend to the details of this passage by tying up loose ends and dealing with the contingencies that arise, but you don’t have a clear sense of direction yet – only the knowledge that something is coming.

Get your house in order and nurture your spirit.  Call on your most powerful ally: faith.

TO FIND YOUR RISING SIGN (the Ascendant):

You’ll need the following information: date of birth, place of birth, and, most importantly, time of birth.  Go to the following webpage: http://www.astro.com/horoscopes and select “Extended Chart Selection” at the bottom right section of the page. (Warning, clicking on the above link will take you away from this webpage!  If you don’t want to lose this site, copy the above link to a new tab in your browser to keep both webpages open.)

• Select the bar which says “Click here to show the chart,” which is to the right and above the “Options” area of the page.
• You should find yourself at another page. Select “Click here to go directly to data entry page.”
• You’ll be taken to the data entry page. Enter your birth data and click on “Continue.”
• Your natal chart with the positions will appear.  At the upper left, look for the information in red text. Your rising sign appears after the word “Ascendant.”
• You can print the chart if you like, too.

Michelle Gould is a consulting astrologer living in Gainesville, Florida.  For more information about her services, visit her website: www.heavenlywriting.com.

Thursday, December 8

5:30 – 7:30pm

Wild Iris Books

About One Spirit Place:

The journey of the soul and the physical person are closely intertwined. The soul needs a physical body to experience and create; the body needs a soul to be human. Incarnated souls often find themselves in a quandary: the person doesn’t hear the elusive voice of their soul, and so they are unable to co-create the life they came to experience.

If your desire is to have a higher understanding of your life purpose and create profound positive change in your current life situation, the key lies in understanding the powerful connection between the physical person and their soul.

The first step is to reacquaint yourself with higher levels of spiritual truths and universal laws. Relevant stories will assist you in understanding your true essence of energy and spirit.

The second step is to honestly evaluate yourself on your life experiences and decisions to determine if you are moving toward or away from your oneness with soul. A questionnaire is provided to assist you in this assessment.

The goal is to understand how to realign your consciousness and physical body with the voice of your soul to achieve union and harmony and create whatever life experiences you desire.

About Beverly:

Beverly Anderson was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She relocated to Gainesville, Florida in 1986 from Milwaukee, Wisconsin where Beverly earned a BS degree in counseling from the University of Wisconsin.

For the past 16+ years Beverly Anderson has studied and practiced metaphysical philosophies. She has attended numerous workshops and classes including those given by John Edwards, spiritualist Robert Brown and Esther and Jerry Hicks. She has studied Reiki Healing and Hypnotherapy with the emphasis on past-life regression. She attended and later hosted a spiritual circle for the purpose of studying, practicing and sharing metaphysical beliefs.

Beverly is an ordained minister with the Alliance of Divine Love. Her religious upbringing was Methodist and she attended Trinity United Methodist Church in Gainesville where she taught Sunday school. Her past career choices include crisis counseling with families, working with emotionally disturbed children, small business owner and real estate agent during which she served as president of the Women’s Council of Realtors. Beverly is currently enrolled in the University of Sedona where she is pursuing a PhD. in Philosophy.

She is married to Michael Culpepper, her best friend and confidante for the past twenty-six years. They share a love of travel, music and spending quality time with their 5 children, 4 grandchildren, two cats and a dog named Enzo.

At the moment fall began, the sun was in dynamic aspects to Pluto, Lord of the Underworld, and Uranus, Lord of the Sky. Both of these planets foster change but in very different ways. Pluto asks us to root out and destroy all that inhibits our growth, while Uranus brings revelations and disruptions that force us to break with the past.

Pluto rules death and things which are buried or hidden. Symbolically, it represents a period in which we release some aspect of our lives or ourselves that no longer serves us. Something must be destroyed so energy can be freed up and transmuted into new life.

We may need to examine our ugly little secrets, shameful motivations, or disowned aspects of our personality.  As we reclaim that which we have suppressed or cast off as unacceptable—don’t forget to apply a loving dose of compassion to our human foibles—we ignite our capacity to heal and regenerate. This healing cannot take place if we insist that we are “fine” and mask our pain. And resisting our powerful ability for transmutation means we risk externalizing that power and inviting outer agents and situations to act catalysts for change rather than own that power ourselves.

Uranus, on the other hand, demands our awareness and our authenticity. Ripe for a bolt-from-the-blue awakening from Uranus: any aspect of yourself that you hide because you have judgment around it or you think others will. Also ripe are routines and set ways of being that slowly drain the life, joy, and creativity from you.

Where do you tamp down on your uniqueness and individuality? If no one at your office knows you like to don your Klingon costume once a year at the Star Trek convention, why is that? Uranus wants you to be untethered.  There is nothing shameful about being you. In fact, it’s all the little oddities that make each of us so delicious and wonderful. Uranus asks that we liberate ourselves from stifling notions about our lives and ourselves. Now is the time to cut your ties to some old way of being and claim some part of you which you’ve previously cloistered or limited.

One thing is for certain, we cannot go on as we have been. Collectively, we feel a stirring. We are being called out and asked to be the change for which we yearn.  Areas ripe for change?  Look to those places in which your life is out of balance, deadened, or routine. Any situation or relationship which is unfair, polarized, skewed, or unhealthy. Anyway in which you have disempowered yourself. The goal is to negotiate a life which enlivening, enriching, and a genuine reflection of who you are. Caveat: No one is looking for the lone cowboy striding in, demanding his terms, and acting infantile. Tact, grace, fair-mindedness and equilibrium will take you further than ultimatums and tantrums.

We are being called to negotiate and work collaboratively. This means mature, fair, and equitable solutions, not just for ourselves but for everyone impacted. Long-term success depends on your ability to meet your needs and accommodate the needs of those around you. Inequities and rigidity bode further trouble and adjustments down the road.

Lastly, this is not about having all the answers, but about owning your end of the stick, putting it out there for all to see, and letting others participate in the problem-solving.  With Mercury in the solar 12th house, what we don’t share and what we assume others know can get us in trouble over the next few months. Be direct, be scrupulous, and be transparent. State what you need, hear out the concerns of others, and start working through it. Together.

The full moon of October 11th speaks to our need to balance our enthusiasms with maturity and caution. Challenges and obstacles need to be handled with a bit of tact and a lot of perseverance. Emotional restraint and self-discipline may be called for in relationships and with your own desires. Unfortunately, this is also a time in which we may be feeling a bit impulsive and reactive. It’s easy during this period to slip into roles in relationships, with one partner playing the adult to the other’s child. On the other hand, there’s enormous emotional restraint and, on the other, a desire to give into one’s hedonistic urges.

This full moon we’re being asked to balance our needs and others’ needs without sliding into austerity measures (or throwing up our hands and sliding into excess), playing the role of parent (or child) to others, or writing off our own emotional needs as selfish or infantile. This month try honoring both the wild, enthusiastic kid and the wise, elder statesman within you. Reconciling and illuminating dichotomies is a primary task.

By the new moon on October 26, the high-pace energy of September/early October needs to be harnessed and drawn inward to better integrate it. Perception is heightened and a deepening can take place, if you’re willing to keep the spotlight on yourself, your need to change, and examine how your thinking might facilitate or hinder your progress. What fears need to be addressed and can you approach them in a practical, adult manner rather than spinning into “What ifs?”

At the end of the month, sensitivity is amplified and intensified. At its best, self-reflection will allow you to see new ways to push through old barriers and creative insights abound. At worst, every word can feel like an assault and every interaction like sandpaper on bare skin. Put aside some alone time for the end of the month. Use this darkening of the moon for self-discovery and emotional exploration that is fruitful.

If you the sign of your rising (your ascendant), read that monthly horoscope first, followed by your sun sign. Otherwise, read your sun sign. Also, a monthly column written for the masses will never substitute for an in-depth analysis of your chart. If you would like an individual consultation, please contact me: 800.604.0299 or michelle@heavenlywriting.com. Or visit my website for more information: www.heavenlywriting.com

Aries: If everyone around you is making you crazy, it’s a sign from the universe to slow down and pay closer attention. Don’t expect everyone to move at your lightning pace toward change and you may need to heed a warning or two. Sometimes obstacles make the best speed bumps.  Gemstone: Tree Agate

Taurus: What starts off as a comfy month curling up at home could become more intense by month end. If others seem to be harboring resentments, open up a conversation, clear the air, and get to the heart of the hurt underneath their anger. Your relationships will strengthen from the process. Gemstone: Selenite

Gemini: Balancing work and play can be a challenge this month, as you’re being pulled in multiple directions. If the month started off more social, by the end of the month expect to hunker down to work. Take care not to overdo it on either front – work or play – or it can take a toll on your health.  Gemstone: Rhodochrosite

Cancer: It’s been an intense year, Cancer. Change can be a challenge for you, but everything in your life at present seems designed to force you to make changes. Sometimes we use pressure to push us toward our destination so we can’t turn back. Though the road might seem exhausting at present, remember you’re a step nearer to the terminus. Gemstone: Apophylite

Leo: You may feel re-energized this fall. Get your ideas out there in the world: write, blog, talk, network. You have something to say and people willing to listen. By month’s end it’s time to stoke the home fires and deepen your connection to those nearest and dearest. Enjoy the warmth. Gemstone: Flourite

Virgo: Right now you are scheduled to talk about your values. But talk often ignites our passions and our desire to fix what we see as broken. This fall, you’re more effective educating and informing others about the problem than taking direct action. Wait. Avoid bombast or intellectual arrogance. Share your perceptions, gather information, and facilitate dialog. Action comes later this year.  Gemstone:  Apatite.

Libra: This fall, focus on yourself: assess your needs and develop strategies to keep your balance in the midst of chaos. By month’s end, you need to shore up your resources – emotional, financial, spiritual – to support the boundaries you’re establishing. If you really want to prime the pump: create a budget on the day of the new moon.  Gemstone: Red Tiger Eye.

Scorpio: If you are blaming another for some wrong committed against you, you have stepped into a trap that will only harm you. The call is for you to change your thinking. Your thinking shapes your world and, if unconscious, it’s destructive. What are you obsessing about this fall?  Whatever it is, it’s your Achilles’ heel. Let it go, own your power in shaping the situation, and stop conspiring to be your own worst enemy.  Gemstone: Citrine

Sagittarius: How you envision your future needs revision. Now is the time to rewrite your story. The challenge is to edit so that it is a mature story, rather than the rambling, unending epic you’ve imagined. Reign it in. Does it fit within your budget? Does it align with your values? Recklessness in love or bombastic philosophies could also undo your plans. Find your inner, cautious elder and honor her. Gemstone: Mookaite

Capricorn: Have you placed so much emphasis on your direction and who you will become in the world that all hell is breaking loose at home? Where do you reside? What is “home” to you? Figure out these answers now. You need a place from which to grow, fertile soil. Who you are to be is secondary. If you cannot not create a rich foundation this fall, your current confusion will only continue. Gemstone: Jade

Aquarius: You’re a bit like Copernicus right now: you have a cosmology that the universe is forcing you to rethink. Do it. Rigidity won’t help your revisioning. Recognize where your childhood wounds may keep you trapped in a paradigm that doesn’t exist anymore. It’s time to mature your philosophy and rebalance your sense of equity. Gemstone: Carnelian

Pisces: You probably feel as if you’re going through an extended death ceremony. Pushed to the edge, there’s nowhere else to go. You’ve exhausted all your knowledge, and your resources are being rocked. Breathe in, breathe out. Begin your vision quest: your dreams for the future need completely transformed. Why not aim a bit higher?  Gemstone: Celestite

As I have written in many articles so far, the most ancient practice of spirituality on the planet is shamanism, and it teaches that we already ARE DREAMING OUR REALITY! We are spiritual beings having a human experience, yes! And, even when we accept this as a philosophy we embrace, it can seem daunting to actually find ways to ground this philosophy into practical ways of living for creating the world we desire to live in.

Consider that you may have greater power than you realize when you can learn to focus your mind through the eyes of your heart. The Cosmos is shifting and supporting an awakening on the planet within the heart of humanity at this time. The Prophecy of 2012 has been written by many indigenous peoples for 1,000s of years, telling of a time when there would be a shift in the collective dream, bringing death to the old ways, and ultimately rebirth into a new cycle. The unrest we are experiencing in our world today is the breaking apart of the old dream, and old ways of being … shaking things up so we can reach into our hearts and find the answers that live within us, and that are latent to our true nature as spiritual beings living in elemental bodies.

Now is the time to embrace your path as the Dreamer of your future! To live a more empowered way of being with greater freedom, consider implementing some of the following tips into your life. Expand beyond the limitations of the mind and any fear patterns holding you back.

The 11 Top Tips for How to Dream the Future Are…

1. Dream from an Enlightened Heart.
Each day find time to go into your own heart and connect to nature, to Spirit, to what you love, to how you love. The answers for dreaming your future live in your heart center. These answers are free of struggle, free of limitations, free of ego and fear. The enlightened heart knows unlimited potential and possibility. The enlightened heart recognizes ease, grace and flow. The enlightened heart reaches into the depths of the unknown, trusting in love, joy and peace as the answers to living life. When there is struggle, go to the heart, and discover the guidance of the heart to shape your future.

2. Admit You Need a New Dream!
First of all, you have to know that you want and need a change. Once you have recognized you don’t want to struggle any more, then you can begin to change your life and let go of the behaviors, people, jobs and experiences that don’t make life fun or fulfilling. Ask with an earnest heart what change is needed and desired, and let that guide you.

3. Release the Old Dream
Now that you have admitted you need a new dream, honor the old dream so you can let it go. What are the old stories, the old attitudes and behaviors that you desire to let go of? What are the old fears that keep you playing out old patterns?

Get some blank paper, and write these stories out with all the passion and feelings you can muster, until you can’t write any more. Embellish all you can. What do you need to forgive and let go of? Forgive yourself, and each person or situation you feel you need to forgive. Forgiveness is the foundation of freedom and the ability to dream again.

When you have written the stories all out create a ceremony to release the Old. Now is a great time and cycle to do this. It is important to let go of what was so we can move into what we desire to create anew. A ceremony may be as simple as lighting a candle and sending a prayer to Spirit to take this from you now that you have written it all out. Or if you have access to a fireplace or outdoor fire, take what you have written with an earnest heart and throw it into that fire (which represents the Eternal Flame of Spirit). Let Spirit burn up this old energy, recycling it and making it ready for your new dreams!

4. Be Grateful for What You Have
Sit quietly and reflect upon your life. Use all your senses to image all that you have to be grateful for – your health, your loved ones, your skills and talents, your home, etc. As you connect to all the good through your gratitude, imagine the most amazing love expanding in your heart, filled with joy and peace. Imagine that this lives in the gratitude at all times. Imagine this gratitude feeds all your new dreams. When you are through sitting in this peaceful state, write, journal, paint, create art, dance, sing… Commit to flowing the gratitude into an activity that brings it beyond your mind and into your physical world.

5. Journey with Spirit for a New Dream
If you can, move directly from your gratitude imaging and activity into a Spirit Journey. Put on music that helps you continue to move inward into your heart… double drum beat journey music, meditation music, high energy ecstatic dance music… make sure you have plenty of undisturbed time to commit to this experience. This is a sacred time for you to connect to the Dream that lives within you that wants to emerge in the next cycle. Focus on your desire for a New Dream. Call your guides, angels and totem animals to come with you and help you. Breathe in and breathe out, connecting to your breath and your Spirit. Allow your breath and the music to relax you deeper and deeper into a dreamlike state. Now allow yourself to get the feeling, thoughts, imagery and guidance awaiting you. Trust what comes to you, then commit it to a journal when you are through.

6. Create an Expectation of a Miraculous Life
Cultivate an attitude of the New Dream being one of only love. Try on the “rose colored glasses for a while” and dream from the power of a positive focus. What if this shift in your point of view brought miracles to you? What if you could dream blessings into your life beyond anything you have been able to imagine before by simply opening to the possibility?

7. Protect Your Dream
The next part requires relentless honesty and discipline. Cut out the negative chatter of the mind. Be on constant guard for words of doubt, fear and criticism – both from yourself or others. These words and attitudes always kill dreams. You must protect your dream inwardly and outwardly. Pay attention to who you share it with. Do not share it with people you know who are nay sayers. Only share it with people who honor you and will support you in creating a different dream.

8. Have a Constant Conversation with the New Dream
Trust in your intuition, your dream journey and your inner guidance to help you unfold your new dream for the new cycle of your life.

Create regular times each week for prayer, meditation and working with intention. Journal your desires, then image yourself living what you have asked for and intended. To manifest your new life is to focus on the qualities and feelings of this new dream, as well as the way you will live it. Be in a conversation with your inner dream, get to know it, love it, thank it, then give life to it through your attitude and actions. What you give focus to will expand… it is a law of quantum physics as well as metaphysics.

Work with the concept and attitude that a beautiful New Dream is being given to you right now. It lives in the quantum field and is expanding for you to receive. Be aware of synchronicities that reflect the energy of the new dream expanding. Admit these, write them down, and you will begin to see the formation of the dream manifesting in your physical world!

9. Practice Patience and Trust
Once you have focused on bringing in a new dream and new life, be patient and trust that it is being given. Imagine you have planted a seed in your garden. Now you must water and feed that seed so it may grow up into a full plant that blossoms and bears fruit. It requires the right amount of sunshine (your attention and love), water and plant food, (again your attention, nourishment and actions that give to its growth) and sufficient time to make its journey from the seedling state (from the inner levels of consciousness) to its state as a full blown plant that has busted through the ground and grown into a flourishing plant (new lifestyle and way of being). Weed that garden along the way, pulling out any negative thoughts or obstacles in your thinking and actions that deny life to your new way of life. Never dig up the soil to see if your plant is growing… be patient and nourish your seeds.

10. Bless Your Dream Often
The action of blessing is an action of affirming and nourishing what you desire. It is the process of watering the seeds in your garden, of giving them plant food to help the seedlings to grow into strong plants. Bless yourself and the world around you and watch how you magnetize nothing but blessings to your dream, and all aspects of your life.

11. Let Your Heart Guide You Always, in All Ways
If you desire to live a dream born of love and of the enlightened heart, then you must learn to trust the guidance of this heart. Move out of your head, of “what you should do” to what you desire from within your soul self. Seeds of the heart need the nourishment of the heart for them to grow.

Your new dream urges you to ask yourself questions such as the following, and then to find the answers in your heart, not your head.

* What would it be like to live in a world guided by love?
* What would you feel like and who would be around you?
* What work would you do in your new world?
* What talents would you fulfill and experience?
* What adventures would you take?

Dream well for your personal world… and trust, this is how the larger matrix shifts when we love ourselves and our lives, for it ripples into the larger pond of humanity and shapeshifts the bigger dream!

Though it took me a little while to embrace this very clear guidance, I am now living and working as a full time visionary artist and intuitive painter of souls. I have discovered over the last 16 years or so, and more than 1,000 soul portraits later, that healing truly does occur through revealing the higher octaves of the soul self in color, imagery, symbol and channeled messages.

Soul Portraits are a visionary art process, rich in the shamanic traditions of using art and imagery as a healing tool of the soul. Each Soul Portrait opens a gateway or portal to one’s higher self and touches on the potential of one’s assignment in this life, bringing the higher octaves of the soul song to an individual in the language of imagery, color, light and words of divine guidance.

As the painter of souls, I can tell you that we are multi-dimensional beings, expressing just a portion of our own potential and greatness. Having this as one of my life tasks, I have come to understand that this process can help one to see more clearly her gifts, as well as an inspiration to move toward her true heart desires. When a person can be witnessed and seen for her higher expression, her hopes, her dreams, her true self, she can often receive the energy needed to move forward toward her life dreams with courage, calm and assurance.

Over the years I have seen people receive a healing during the soul portrait painting process, releasing tears of joy while feeling the energy shift up, as lower energies shift out. I have received emails and phone calls of people telling me how their lives have changed by working with the painting as they would a mandala or healing tool, or as they would in speaking to a guide or angel.

Each soul portrait is a reflection of a facet of the soul revealing something pertinent that the individual needs to see at that moment. The colors and symbols will move beyond the conscious mind and intellect into the subconscious, or inner part of the soul self. This will help in triggering an expansion within the conscious waking state, awakening a deep inner recognition of the true Self. This assists the individual in remembering who they are (beyond the personality) and why they are here.

To learn more about soul portraits with Katherine Skaggs, you can watch the following video.

And if you have an interest in receiving a soul portrait in person at Wild Iris Bookstore you can schedule a session when Katherine visits in August.

Katherine Skaggs Visionary Art Soul Portrait Session on Youtube

See more samples of soul portraits at Katherine Skaggs’ page on Wild Iris Market

Read more of Katherine Skaggs articles, including shamanism, the goddess, inspiration, psychic and…

In March 2010 I was fortunate enough to meet up with some amigos to make a shamanic pilgrimage to ancient, sacred lands in Mexico. This is a place of ancient shamans and peoples who have for centuries walked this land in ceremony and ritual. This 5-day pilgrimage brought vision and timeless teachings for walking an every day life in greater joy, peace and love.

A Few Timeless Teachings

Sacrifice (to make Sacred through offering devotion, love, worship.)

Lead from the Heart – Pray ceaselessly with an earnest heart.

Call upon your Allies and Ancestors – Ask and you will receive help.

Call upon your allies, seen and unseen, to assist you every moment. They are with you, loving you, holding you, guiding you and protecting you. Give gratitude and offerings, as well as your heart prayers, and know Spirit will work through your allies to bring you wellness, love, joy, abundance and answers to your prayers.

We gave prayers and offerings not only at the altar, but also to all the spirits and ancestors of the land. We thanked the plant life and the rock life, and the spirits of the water and mountains, and desert and sun, of Mother Earth, Father Sky, and fire… we asked for their help as our allies, to clear us and clean us of our patterns that no longer served us, and to help us to open and heal our hearts.

While on this pilgrimage, it was apparent that I had many allies, including the an ancient shaman who works with me from “the other side.” As I awoke my third morning in Mexico after many heart prayers for healing, I experienced Mama Maria and Jesucristie in the presence of my heart and inner knowing. They were there to relieve the old patterns, and to bring assurances of the love and healing coming because we had asked, and were ready.

After breakfast we all gathered to walk to the top of a sacred mountain, to pray as a group and to call in healing for ourselves, our families, our communities, and the family of humanity. All the way up the mountain I found myself in prayer and conversation with Mother Mary in the form of Guadalupe (the Aztec dark Mother of the people), and with Jesucristie (very clearly the presentation of the Christ energy in the form of the indigenous peoples of this sacred land.) I felt the sense of hope, love and strength as I walked from 9,000 feet to 11,000 feet up the mountain over the next few hours. It was Spring Equinox and we were right on schedule to send our prayers to Spirit at this powerful time of planetary alignment and seasonal change.

Be present – for you are always exactly where you need to be, and you are never alone on the journey.

We live in times of great change, excitement and challenge, personally and globally. Each day we are exposed to troubling headlines, from the destruction of the bp oil spill, to financial scares in our national and global market, to war around our planet, just to name a few things that can bring us into a state of unrest. Though many positive things are happening on the planet, our news and the consciousness of the masses are focused on fear and trouble.

How do we navigate these stresses that seem all around us and find not only relief, but peace, joy and a sense of it all being okay? Is that possible? As life flows in its ups and downs it seems like all we can do is sit down, tired from all the drama, sometimes from struggle, and other times from the experience of great heights.

As the world turns and the planets re-arrange themselves, 2012 comes closer and closer with the promise of Armageddon.. of one world dying and a new era being born. The new era is actually a promise of greater love and light, often referred to as a new Golden Age. All we have to do is look around us and know that the change is not eminent, it is happening NOW. We are experiencing man made destruction such as the bp oil spill, as well as many Earth changes, with the Great Mama spewing volcanoes and cracking up in earth quakes. Our great Mother Gaia is doing all she can to help us crack open our hearts as we break away our old patterns of fear, stubbornness and separation. She is asking us to come together as humankind once more, with compassion and assistance for all.

Not only do I see these many changes in our earth and the patterns of our climate, but I see these volcanoes erupting in the minds and emotions of many people around me. Their lives are breaking apart, just as the Earth Mother’s body is breaking apart in places. I see people letting off steam, cracking patterns of fear that have held them hostage to relationships, jobs, attitudes and habits of being. The changes are difficult, like giving birth in hot lava, so uncomfortable. Yet, there is no waiting for the change, it is upon us all. And for any who have ignored their discomfort and pushed it aside over the years, you can be assured that the eruptions will be all the more powerful, urging to make a change, to let go, and to fill up with something different than what has been accepted in the past.

It can be overwhelming when we are being pressured to change. There is no escaping it all. The stars are truly achangin’… sending energies through us and rearranging the very molecules that create our reality. Yet, if we will only stop for a moment, we will know we are not alone, that this is manageable, if only we will slow down and breathe. If only we will know that all we have to do is take one step at a time.

Recently I was on a beautiful sacred pilgrimage in Mexico to some ancient, Aztec lands. Upon this journey I trekked to the top of a sacred mountain one day with a small group of fellow pilgrims. We went from 9,000 to 11,000 feet over the course of a few hours, each of us in our own prayerful spaces. At the top of the mountain we stopped in several places to pray in ceremony together. Each stopping place held great power and gave us all healing, support and personal power. We were on the mountain for several hours, receiving great guidance, love and healing. Finally it was time to complete our time on the mountain and to begin our journey back down to town, to rest, to walk in the village and to have an evening dinner and celebration.

Upon the walk down the mountain I realized I was very tired. I had not only walked this mountain and been on it for many hours how, but I was completing several days of pilgrimage. I had driven many hours to reach our sacred lands, had already done a full day and night ceremony with no sleep, and had little sleep the night before this ceremonial day. Though I was so filled with love, joy, gratitude and satisfaction, my body was tired and the walk was long even for a walk down a mountain. Yet, as I walked I was in conversation with Jesus, Mary and Grandfather. I was being instructed the entire way down the mountain to “just take one more step.”

At times I felt alone when I could not see any amigos on the trail, and I would be told, “there are many before you and behind you. If you keep walking you will eventually find the ones before you. There is always someone waiting. And if you get tired, sit down, and someone will find you. And if you will just take one more step, then another, then another, you will eventually arrive at your destination… along the way, enjoy the beauty. We are with you supporting you through your tiredness. Focus on the beauty and you will be there before you know it.”

As I adjusted my attention to the joy of my conversation with my amazing guides, and to the beauty and teachings along the path, I found myself in town shortly. And, as I walked across the bridge that leads to this small mountain town, I looked up and saw a dear amigo from my group, waiting. Tears came to my eyes as my heart opened even wider and I knew how my guides had gifted me with an experience confirming their words of guidance. “If you will just take one more step, someone will be there for you.”

So my dear friends, as you walk through this time of deep transformation, “just take one more step.” You are not alone. There are many around you, seen and unseen, who love you and support you through times of change. Keep your eyes and your heart on the beauty. Do not be afraid to let go of the pressure within, and break away the old patterns that are born of fear, self deprecation and resistance to your own beauty. You will be refreshed and regenerated when you let go and move to your heart. Trust in a new pattern of greater love replacing what has been hard. Just take one more step. Just one more. And then another. You will move through what is difficult if only you will appreciate the scenery as you go on the path. Look to what is good, what is beauty, what is nourishing. You will find your way. You are not lost. Someone is before you, and someone is behind you. You are exactly where you need to be. Just take one more step.

Read more articles by Katherine Skaggs on shamanism, world-wide spiritual travels (including the jungles of Peru, Babaji’s ashram in India and a pilgrimage to sacred lands of Mexico… to name a few), the goddess, personal transformation and empowerment.

Though Isis was recognized and worshiped thousands of years ago, She is here with us today, calling us to work with Her. She beckons us to remember our heritage and her-story. She lives within our very cells and DNA.

With a bit of focus, attention and intention, you will begin to hear her in your guidance, and feel her in your presence. Believe me, she is alive and well and calling each of us to our posts as priestesses once again.

Isis is here to help us trust that as women, we have the power to heal, the power to trust and follow our intuition, and the power to be fully creative beings manifesting our desires from the wellspring of creativity that is our Divine essence! Here are a few ways to work directly with Isis for your own personal empowerment.

Call the Power of Isis, the Egyptian Goddess into your life.

Create an Isis altar. Set a sacred space in your home that is dedicated to Isis and the power of the Divine Feminine. It doesn’t require a lot of room, even a dresser in your bedroom will work. Get an small statuette or image of Isis, or an item representing Isis and place at the center of the altar. Choose a candle to burn when you give your attention and prayers to Isis, to honor the Light of Her wisdom returning into you. You can place other items in honor of Isis such as flowers, crystals, a small container of water… all dedicated to honor Isis as a female deity of intuition, healing and fertility, but also to honor these same powers of the High Priestess that live inside of you.

Invoke Isis and her energies to your altar and your life. Call out to Isis in your mind, in your heart, and in your words. Ask her to become present to you and to assist you. Call her with your earnest heart to know her love and her gifts within your own consciousness. Ask her to help you remember your own gifts of healing, intuition and fertility to create your life in love and joy. When you give your attention to this intention, you will draw her easily to you and the altar. The greater your intention and attention, the easier it will be to connect and perceive her gifts to you.

Sit in contemplation and prayer at the altar. Set aside some time each day to sit at your altar, putting your attention on your heart, and the heart of this Great Divine Mother Isis. When you sit you might burn incense or play music that assists you in going inward to connect to your intuition, and to the assistance of the great one of Isis. She lives in the inner levels of your heart, in the inner levels of your own higher consciousness. When you are quiet and focused, you begin to open to the messages she holds for you. When you sit, you create a space to become the sacred vessel to receive not only the messages, but the healing energies of her higher consciousness.

Create an Isis Journal and Psychic Log. Upon leaving contemplation at the altar, take time to write notes about your experiences… of any messages or guidance that you hear inwardly, or feel, or just know… and of any visions that may come through. Make notes from other times during the day when she just “pops” into your mind or you feel her in your presence.  Write down your awareness of “coincidences” and instances of intuition, healing and manifestation. Once you have begun to call Isis and her qualities to your attention, you will begin to notice an expansion of these gifts in your life! Claim them!!

Leave prayers and messages of love and gratitude on the altar. Take time to write out your prayers and notes to Isis, always thanking her for her for fulfilling your desires, for healing your life, for all the assistance that she so lovingly gives to you and all of humanity. Not only ask, but also be grateful for the vast love of the Divine Mother flowing to you once you have asked. This keeps the flow of your life going, and the flow of communication expanding with the Divine Mother Isis.

Call Isis into your night dreams. Before you go to sleep at night, call the healing and creative forces of Isis into your dreams. Ask her for her teachings to come to you in the astral realms during the time of your night dreams. This is a powerful time to access her wisdom and let her teach you when you are most ready.

It is your heritage to claim the gifts and wisdom of the Egyptian Goddess Isis and the Great Mother. Isis is one face of the Mother God who is here to help us re-member and reclaim the power of the Divine Feminine for sacredly living our lives. May you find she comes to you easily and powerfully, restoring the goddess within, and the High Priestess of your own life!

In the Mythical Goddess Tarot, Isis is the II card of the major arcana, the High Priestess. When she arrives in your tarot card spread, she shows you how to live and navigate your life through honoring your inner guidance and intuitive knowing. She urges you to take no counsel outside of your own wisdom! Go deep within your own inner world and discover the guidance you seek is found there.