Monthly Archives: May 2014

An Astrological New Year

Just recently, the astrological influences were full of Chiron in almost every aspect of my chart.
Fortunate to be offered a chance to be a “case study” for a friend undertaking post graduate qualifications, I saw this as an opportunity to work on “The Wounded Healer”.

Interesting what came up for me at this time and I have started working on an outline for a new book as a result.

I’m happy to have help from all areas, including Astrology, Tarot and the spirit world, if it brings some clarity to my life.
I subscribe to a daily forecast for Gemini and find that the readings are generally pretty spot on for me…. today’s was interesting!

“Despite the fact that you’re now in the early days of your birthday month and new solar year and you even have a New Moon in 2 days time that will ask that you draw a new line in the sand, it’s too soon to fully turn your back on the past. Instead you have the luxury of being able to leave the doors to the past open, retaining a clear view of the rear view mirror and the road ahead. At any time, when you’re unsure what new steps you should take, you’re free to look back to the past for inspiration.

 It’s crossroads time again……
I’m drawn to spending more time up at the retreat ….. but that requires some building extensions and serious electrical and plumbing work to make it work. As well as deciding whether I will go to live up there full time at some stage,.
Then there is a decision to make as to whether I keep paying rent on the clinic room I have at present (especially if I’m not there all the time). It might make more economic sense to let it go and use my home office again, now that dear old Ben the Labrador is no longer there to cry at the closed door.

I turned to Colette Baron-Reid’s The Enchanted Map this morning for a 6 card reading. 5 cards fell on the floor as I was shuffling, so I kept them and laid them out in the order they fell, then picked a final card from the cut deck to make up the 6.

  1. Past Influence – Magic Stream (Reversed)Swimming against the current… time to stop “trying”, jump into the stream and float……immersing yourself and be fully present in the moment. Many of my talks have been on Meditation and Mindfulness. I have an emWave (which sat idle for many months … time to walk the talk and be fully present.
  2. Present Point – Rock Bottom – This is the point where you can go no further doing what you have been doing. The old way of doing things must be discarded in order to move fully onward and upward. A new direction & strategy are needed. Surrender, accept things as they are & synchronicity will sort things out. By letting go completely a miracle can occur…Wasn’t it Einstein who said that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again? Time to get over myself and use the gifts and therapy tools in a different way. Let go and let God is another saying that one of my teachers gave me…..
  3. What you resist – Intention – Inspired intentions are like magic arrows shot into the sky….connect to the power of intention, let others help to co-create reality & allow synchronicity to work the magic. Own the life you want to lead & live deliberately…..Rather than daydreaming, it’s time to focus the intention on what I really  want…. making some positive goals, setting time frames …. all the very things I ask clients to do……..
  4. Unexpected Help – Rescue You are always safe and secure, and free to be yourself are the words at the top of the guide to this card…Asking for help isn’t easy for many successful people. However, that’s what you need to do now as you expand your life. Ask and assistance will come your way and the expected support will come from Spirit. With the right relationship with the Divine, conditions will line up and help will arrive….. It’s easy to forget to ask Spirit and the Angels for help. It has always come in the past and for that I have been grateful. I’m sure gratitude is the key ….
  5. The next right action – Encouragement The last card in this deck... “you are receiving a nudge in the right direction”…. Step into your power, into the dream of your life. New things are out there to be explored and the universe is giving you a nudge in the right direction. You will get the help you need and won’t be alone in your quest. Every step is supported by the wisdom of the universe. You are on the right path….. keep going! Not the time to give upMemo to self…. stop wallowing, take the Victim stamp off your forehead…. yes the past has had some difficult circumstances, but it is the past and like the astrological reading says, view it in the rear view mirror as you drive  with a clear view to a new destination – the future…
  6. Probable future destination – Mountain “You have the capacity to flow around any obstacle. This is the time to adapt”…. what seems to be an insurmountable obstacle, like a mountain is in the path of success. Rather than climb it, be like the rivers that flow around mountains naturally. Adapt to circumstances. If you do climb it, take one step at a time…. 

And so the reading comes full circle….. I do have to chuckle at what a random set of cards will come up with.

Just to be sure I drew one more card for my Soul’s Intention. 
Home – Peace, security, safety, belonging are all features one would want from “Home” are indicated now. Time for opening your eyes to your tribe of like minded people. … home is love & it’s all around you ….you are where you are meant to be and will reap great benefits by staying on this path, regardless of where it leads  – Home is where the heart is!! I found this reading to be quite educational. Certainly there are layers that need to be further unpacked.  
Already we are beginning to come into the energy of the New Moon on Thursday. This makes it an excellent time to do a series of meditations on this reading and create the intent to move forward at the same time as letting go of ego’s investment in the outcome. 
A great time to set new goals, which model to use?  
SMART, GROW, Be Do Have or another? 
Maybe all of the them as an exercise to gain clarity.
Behavioural flexibility is yet another key…… I can’t change the world, but I can change the way I think, what I do, which in turn will change my physiology and my perspective.


 

Sun in Gemini

A new Solar Year for happy Gemini’s began on May 21st and for me, there has been a number of changes that have taken place.
For instance, a few weeks ago Chiron (The Wounded Healer or The Teacher of Higher Knowledge) was influencing most areas of my chart, bringing some emotional ups and downs, but most of all the message was to address old issues and patterns that have been laid down from early childhood.
 It is a relatively new planet, only discovered in 1977, but exerts a powerful influence.
Chiron is about identity and balance.  Healing the roots of the emotional wound, particularly childhood wounds can then lead to a greater connection to self and in turn identity.
Chiron also is about Spirituality and the Higher Self. Two recent cards from one of my favourite decks were Transformation and Self Recognition!
I’m looking at the plethora of Chiron transits on my chart as an opportunity for Transformation and to discover a new sense of identity.
With both Scorpio ascendant and Scorpio moon, I’m probably not the most typical Gemini, but that’s another story…..
The Scorpio passion for causes sometimes leads me a little off track……and as we head into the dark side of the moon….(which used to be a term for lunacy) and head towards the New Moon on May 29th…. it’s a time for reflection on how the last year went…..making plans for the new year and watering the seeds that have been planted……

” Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it’s sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way but you’re older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.

Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I’d something more to say. “

Mason, Waters, Wright, Gilmour
The Dark Side of The Moon

Values

TruthAs Tony Robbins put so succinctly in his book Awaken the Giant Within,

Values guide our every decision and, therefore, our destiny. Those who know their values and live by them become the leaders of our society.”

It is helpful to go over and review what our values are from time to time to see if we are heading in the right direction. Occasionally we can discover that we are in conflict with our values and then dig around a little to discover the emotions around the conflict.

One of my values is honesty. There have been times in my life where there has been conflict around this, particularly when I’m self sabotaging my success and I’m not overly proud of repeating the patterns.

Lately the values of honesty, trust and integrity have been coming up for me. Are they one and the same?

I’ll give you a couple of examples:

Firstly, I recently bought a floodlight for the shed up at the retreat. Not overly expensive but with a compact fluorescent globe in it to save on power.  I took it up to the retreat and discovered on opening the box that the globe had broken – there had been a small impact to the side of the box which caused the damage. The consensus amongst the gathered people was to take it back to the supplier on return to the city.

“No big deal “,you might say.

I didn’t sleep that night. I woke at one stage and realized that I had opened the box in the store and checked the globe against a shelf of other globes for size and pricing. The globe had been broken in transit…….I felt sick…..

When I mentioned this at breakfast, the group opinion was to take it back anyway and get a new one. Perhaps sensible as the cost of a new globe is more than the assembled floodlight.

I reflected on the night’s lack of sleep and what values and energy I intend to bring to the retreat and decided that I would buy a new globe regardless, and did so on my trip to the local hardware store later that day.

Secondly, a little while ago a woman called for an appointment.

I booked her in and when she arrived, she commented that it was a little further than she expected to drive. I asked her why and she said that when she looked at the website, the address was closer to home.

I had been working on a commission basis at a colleague’s practice and she had found me on that website, not my own. Oops!

I explained the difference and the session proceeded.

As she left she said, “Well you don’t have to tell xxxxx that I came here”…… But with my values, how could I not?  (& yes I did tell)

 

How do others perceive honesty?

Over the past few weeks I have observed that there are many shades of honesty and dishonesty. Layers of trust and distrust all wrapped up in the cloak of integrity…….

For example:

Is it dishonest to keep a $50 note found in a carpark?

How would you know the owner? I remember finding a note when I was a child and my mother taking me to tIntegrity 2he police station to hand it in. I returned months later and was given the note. Just last year I found a $50 note in a large, city carpark. Most of the other cars had departed and I pocketed the note, using it to pay the carparking and donated the balance to a good will tin at my local bakery.

What if the checkout person didn’t scan an item correctly so that it didn’t record?

Would you go back to pay for that item? Or think that the supermarket makes enough profit anyway or see it as a bonus for your loyalty in shopping there?

What if you went to a therapist and couldn’t use your credit card there? (maybe the internet was down or they didn’t have facilities for credit)

Would you try to pay as promptly as possible through a bank deposit or ignore the invoice? Perhaps you might make excuses that the therapy didn’t work. How would you know it hadn’t worked? Wouldn’t you still be paying for the time that person spent with you? Is the failure to pay, as much breaking the trust the therapist has in you as a lack of trust within yourself?

So does it boil down to honesty or is it integrity?

Susan M Heathfield says “Honesty and trust are central to integrity.”

I see it as a triangle – each side supporting the other and crucial to the strength within. When one is absent the structure no longer exists……

 

 

 

Progress at the Retreat

The Paddock December 2013 The Paddock May 2014 Paddock viewed from North boundary Dec 2013 Paddock viewed from North Boundary May 2014Visible changes are taking place, and whilst the photos aren’t taken in the same spot, this gives a sense of the work that has been done.

It was too hot from December to March to do any slashing of the scrub without creating a fire hazard.

The scrub, commonly called Chinese bush is self seeded and is a fire hazard even when it is wet and green.

It seeds prolifically, and just one plant can produce over a million seeds in a season.

What it does tell us; is that the soil here has either been overgrazed in the past or is depleted in nutrients.

One method of controlling the bush is to overplant the area once it is slashed with a green crop, such as clover – which will smother the emerging seedlings and provide green manure for the soil.

The difficulty in removing this scrub, is that there are also young saplings of gum trees and a couple of varieties of wattle, including Golden Wattle to avoid.

Poison is not an option as we want to develop the property as organically as possible. What has been made apparent, now that the scrub has gone, are the contours of the property.  It slopes gently down to the centre of the property, revealing the natural flow of water that feeds the two dams.

Plans for the future include developing much of the area using Permaculture principles.

Labyrinth site Easter Labyrinth outline 13 Centre of the Labyrinth 14 Centre of the labyrinthAnother problem is Guildford Grass or Onion Grass and this is prolific in the area of the labyrinth.

Single blades of grass that come up from a bulb and toxic to stock in large quantities.

Not even the kangaroos seem to have a taste for this.

Again, chemical removal is not really an option as it will leave residual poison in the ground for several seasons. Apparently use of a rotary hoe on a regular basis helps to keep it in check and reduce the incidence of re-infestation.

At present, I’m in the process of removing the top layer of soil, with the intention of getting rid of weeds so that I can put a topping on the path.

However the Onion Grass is very resilient and just bends with the shovel, so after reading the agricultural notes about it, am thinking of using a small tilling machine in the area.

This will most likely save time and my back!

In the meantime, work continues and mapping the progress with photos makes for a welcome break from digging.

We want to observe a full year of seasons before commencing any building projects. The first project is to restore the soil and then we can start to plan what plants to put in and where.

Already I am growing some oak seedlings and whilst the trees would not be used or harvested in my lifetime, future generations will have access to them.