Festive season family dynamics, the new moon and new year
I’ve noticed the theme of fulfilment being brought by clients to this week’s sessions. They have been asking for clarity about their mission and purpose and wondering why their businesses and clients have stalled. Some are trying to understand the lessons they must learn and the blocks they need to shift. Others feel annoyed at The Universe/God/Source/Spirit for not facilitating opportunities where they can be truly useful to others.
It can be painful to encounter the cognitive dissonance of being a spiritual person and feeling frustrated at The Universe for not providing fulfilment (and financial security) through our passion. There are a few nervous system strategies people use to avoid difficult emotions – often they go into their heads and then swing between self-blame and disappointment in others (and in Spirit).
How this is showing up in client sessions
This week I have been guiding clients to tune in and connect to their intuition...helping them notice how strong their intuitive guidance is even when they feel Spirit is not helping them realise their desires for their business.
When they reconnect to themselves and their intuition, and can feel the trust inside, I will gently pose a question…
“Do you think it could be possible that…?”
Client case examples
For one client, she had to examine the possibility that her business wasn’t flourishing because she had allowed her former business coach to plant energetic hooks in her heart space. My client came to the session convinced she wasn’t on her path because her business wasn’t working, but the reality was that she had given her former coach a lot of power over her perception of ‘wealth’ and ‘abundancea’ and my client’s version of that was being blocked by her former coach’s. Once we shifted that, my client was able to see a possible area of expansion for her business.
For another client, she realised she was still mastering her lessons in ‘over-giving’, and it was far kinder and gentler to master lessons in areas of her life that weren’t as critical for her self-esteem as her livelihood and life purpose.
Another client told me that she had been asking Spirit to show her how to let go, but whenever she fell ill and had to let go of her clients due to reduced capacity, she thought she was being punished. Through embodiment training we helped her to ground her experience of a recent and transformative health challenge, she was able to realise, at an embodied, visceral level, that she had been helped by Spirit to let go of something she wouldn’t have been able to do on her own.
How does all this relate to the current astrological weather?
Aries - the sign of FREEDOM and Individuation
On 20th/21st December, 2022, Jupiter re-entered Aries and will stay in Aries until 16th/17th May, 2023.
Jupiter - the planet of EXPANSION
Jupiter is the planet of expansion, and when it’s in Aries, it’s big and bold. From December 2022 until May 2023, there will be five months of Aries opportunities on steroids.
On December 23rd/24th there is a new moon in Capricorn which may bring tremendous pressure to “do” something. Not only is the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Pluto all in Capricorn, but six out of ten planets are in cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn). Planets in cardinal signs make things happen – they are the movers and shakers of this world.
With cardinal energy as well as Capricorn energy, there is ‘doing’ energy on steroids.
Except…
The ruler of the new moon, Saturn, has finished with the Saturn-Uranus square that plagued us throughout 2021 and 2022. During that time, Saturn constantly reminded us of what wasn’t working in our life and initiated systemic change at the Collective level – change which is yet to be realised.
Chocolate tea lights - lighting candles for peace
Making peace with Saturn
Back in 2018, I received an intuitive nudge to make peace with Saturn. I had spent my entire life hating routine and avoiding planning, organisation, and time management. But I intuited I needed to master Saturnian energy (which is associated with limitation and restriction and maintaining existing power structures and the status quo). To me, Saturn was a stick-in-the-mud old BORE!
But I did my inner work with Saturn in 2019-2020, and by 2021, boring old ‘Father Time’ and I were able to co-exist in genuine, respectful partnership. Then, in 2021-2022, Saturn relentlessly forced change upon the whole world, and little by little, rearranged different aspects of everyone’s lives, pushed us outside our comfort zone, and demanded we “do our inner work”.
With such a powerful Capricorn energy heralding the start of 2023, we will feel anxious to get started on ideas for next year. But with no other planets aspecting Saturn this new moon, we are being invited to consider responding differently.
Do less - at the level of your nervous system
As a specialist in the nervous system, I’ve been teaching about learning to do less at the level of the nervous system for years, and the astrological energy has finally arrived at the same point.
2023 is not about ‘doing more’.
It’s also not about withdrawing and isolating from harsh realities or bingeing on Netflix. The energy of 2023 is inviting us to get clear about what we want to focus on and not spread ourselves too thinly. We must treat our vitality as precious - without hoarding or withholding it from those who need it. As well as Lightbearers, we are also Fertilizers.
How do we get this clarity?
The Hopi Elders tell us that we must “Know our garden.” By this they mean, find out who you are in every situation and then prepare for all seasons and eventualities (including sharing resources).
Start by asking yourself,
“Who am I?”
This is both a rhetorical and metaphorical question. But the invitation of every new moon is to go back to your centre and reconnect to who you are.
The twist
There’s a twist on the usual new moon energy though, because when the new moon is in Capricorn, the concern is not, “Who am I?” but,
“Who do I want to become?”
This is what I’ve been seeing in client sessions. When there’s a new moon in Capricorn, people’s focus shifts away from digging into who they are; rather, their attention goes towards clarifying what the best version of themselves will be.
The DOUBLE twist
But there’s a double twist this month. The Jupiter in Aries square asks us to remember what makes us happy – who we are in the present moment.
To align with this energy, ask yourself,
“What lights me up?”
“What fuels my heart with passion and excitement?”
Nothing vague like, “Helping people” or “Freedom”, “Being fulfilled and on purpose”, “Living my best life.”
To all those vague answers, I might ask, “Why do you want to help people?” “Why do you want to be free?” “Why do you want to be fulfilled?” etc.
The ‘Middle Way’
The square highlights tension between the side of us that wants to achieve and grow (Capricorn) and the side of us that lives in the present moment, guided by our intuition (Aries), not by our goals and plans.
The solution to this tension is taking the middle way – something in between “stop making plans and be true to yourself” (Aries), and “strive to do better, go set some goals” (Capricorn).
To do this, we call forth an energy or a presence that honours the creative genius inside us, and is something clear and measurable enough that it helps us remember who we really are, as opposed to who we want to be.
Letting go
When we let go the depression of not living up to our own idealised standards of perfection and fantasy lives, we give ourselves permission to be fully human and joyful, spirited, creative – even messy – not just useful and of service.
These days, when I get a spark of inspiration, before I head off excitedly in that direction, I ask myself, “Am I feeding my old pattern of being of service?” I recently considered returning to University to study medicine. But I realised I was being drawn into my pattern. My family of origin treated me like a slave and a receptacle of rubbish and unwanted junk (both emotional and physical). As a result, I have ingrained patterns of servitude and excess modesty which I have unpacked, but that can still show up as unconscious habits if I’m not aware.
Healing the ‘Wounded Healer’
Chiron stations direct in Aries today (my natal placement) and I am reminded that I evolve and grow through the challenges presented by the Wounded Healer (Chiron), but that doesn’t mean I have to be a victim. For many years, I was gaslit by my family of origin and my truth suppressed, causing me to doubt myself and ultimately, lose myself in the whirlwind created by my mother’s dysregulated nervous system. For all of us, this placement gives us the strength to make the transition to being the boldest version of ourselves in the upcoming new year.
After my father passed a year ago, the chaos and coercive control escalated, so I chose to go ‘no contact’ and took the radical step of forcing my mother to abandon me. I had tried to leave her many times before, but my guilt eventually took me back. I knew abandonment was her core wound, and I couldn’t do it to her. But I knew her irrational hatred would allow her to do it to me. I also knew I would be free if I got her to leave me. Free of her manipulation and abuse, and free of the hooks that held me in the cycle of intergenerational trauma.
By working through my grief and the loss of my family, I have reclaimed parts of myself I didn’t know were missing. I have set myself free by letting go of what I most desired: family connection. I am ready to enter 2023 and embark upon the next stage of healing my ancestral lineage – a service I joyfully perform because it serves the evolution of MY soul – but without attachment to the outcome of my labour.
Read more about spirituality here.
Christmas lights in trees - public street
Support for neuro-sensitive healers
In my trauma informed counseling group program for healers and neuro-sensitives, I teach methods to eliminate overwhelm and rewire patterns of protection, banish procrastination and self-sabotage and metabolize trauma that's holding back neurodivergent practitioners from thriving. All set within a safe container of shamanic wisdom practices.
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