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Tag Archive

Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “embodied alchemy”

Healing Your Defenses

admin October 2, 2018

An introduction to healing our defenses in the mind and body.

depth psychologyembodied alchemyhealingimmune system healingmindy nettifeenettleoregonplant alliesportlandpsychic defensesomaticstraumavenus retrograde

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On Monday morning at 1:16am PST, the moon peaks in On Monday morning at 1:16am PST, the moon peaks in fullness at 4° of Gemini - that’s the degree of two twos, in the sign of twoness, and Twins, and the cosmic Lovers. Mystically speaking, Gemini is an archetype of separation and unification; wholes dividing into parts, entering the world of drama and complexity and conflict and longing, then finding their way back into wholes, then multiplying again. On a personal development level, Gemini is responsible for evolving our self-definitions and self-expressions through connection and interaction with others and our immediate world. It’s extremely fluid and inquisitive, seeking new and distinct experiences to distraction. It sees all knowledge as provisional, and rejects fixed positions and simplicity, including polarization and either/or-ness. It thinks it’s possible to integrate it all and exist as a gorgeous paradox. Gemini normally loves the celebration and initiation of change on its full moon, but this one is happening under very stressful conditions. Mars just joined the Sun in Sagittarius, firing up the oppositional tension. Both Gemini and Sagittarius like expression and action. But Sagittarius insists those actions have purpose and vision, a single supreme throughline of meaning and Truth. Gemini wants to stay in process, forever finding new perspectives, never forced to stop and arrive at a conclusion. These opposite sides of us are meant to find ways to harmonize, Sagittarius deepening Gemini’s breadth, Gemini keeping Sagittarius from dogmatic rigidity. But Mars is not known for harmonious cooperation. And, Saturn in Pisces is squaring all of it, intensfying the limits of our powers and efforts. If you’re feeling some harsh, humbling, limiting realities right now, take a breath. Gemini operates on the breath. Breathe in the permission you need to be in a process, and to change in the ways you want to and need to change. Breathe out the pressure you are putting on yourself to have it all figured out. Remember Gemini’s wisdom, that we get to keep defining and redefining things for ourselves, and that the way we define ourselves and the world has self-fulfilling potency. For more, visit my Substack 🌕
At 1:27am PT Monday morning, while many of us will At 1:27am PT Monday morning, while many of us will be asleep and dreaming, the moon goes dark and renews herself, finally, at 20° of Scorpio. Due to the eclipses, we haven’t had a new moon since the new moon in Virgo on September 13th, meaning this is our first new moon of fall. Scorpio was also hosting the south node until this summer, so we have not had a new moon in Scorpio since 2021. New moons are times of deep contraction, a time for recharging. The moon and the sun are in conjunction, so there is no opposition or tension between them. It’s like the soul and the body get to unite in the endlessly listening, receiving dark; resting in the kind of knowing that just being is. This prepares us for fresh action and expansion. This particular new moon marks the official close of the eclipse season, a turning point in the year. It also heralds a renewal of the part of our lives and psyches that Scorpio leads. We might sense that we are completing our descent into the underworld, a process of undoing. It might be possible to slow down, take stock, tend a little more tenderly; to feel around for a light. Having said all that, Scorpio is not necessarily a restful or easy place for the moon or the sun to be. Scorpio rules our most intense feelings—our deepest water—the emotions that make us the most vulnerable. Ruled by Mars, Scorpio is known for fierce, stealth defensiveness, for stinging first. But in its mature form, Scorpio is a shamanic archetype, guiding us through the initiation of trauma and healing, through our dark nights of the soul. Scorpio helps us learn how to soften our armor and dismantle those same defenses; how to create and enter sacred space; how to strip down, and allow our raw selves to be exposed, and our feelings to flow. Our most frightening feelings, in the right dose, in the right empathetic conditions, are the agent of healing. As we grow in understanding of our own darkness and depth, as we address our own woundedness, we become real adults, capable of meeting the pain of the world… For the full reading, head over to my Substack! New and full moon readings are free there. No matter what, take exquisite care, of yourself and eachother.
Saturday at 1:24pm PST, the full moon will pass in Saturday at 1:24pm PST, the full moon will pass in to the shadow of the earth, giving us a partial lunar eclipse at 5° of Taurus, the final eclipse in the series. Here’s an excerpt from my Substack: We are entering the time of the year where we honor the dead and the unseen world, everything that’s at home in the dark, and this eclipse feels very connected to that. Grief portals. Ancestral memories. Old selves. Hidden spirits. The way everything is invisibly interconnected, becoming visible only when we turn up the earth, or brave another underworld journey, or face some sudden eruption from the unconscious. The Sabian symbol for 5° of Taurus is “a widow at an open grave,” so this is a coming to terms with loss, maybe a specific one, but I’m guessing it’s bigger and more complicated than that. The material world really matters to Taurus, and secure attachment is a big part of its work. But achievements and possessions really are fleeting. Alliances and bodies and even fiercely held beliefs fall apart. Everything that wants to endure must change form… Maybe a moment will naturally arrive in the coming days that feels a little like this standing at the grave of all that has come before, or like a confrontation with the fragile, ephemeral nature of things. Maybe a destabilizing wave of feeling will move through you. If this were a regular full moon, Taurus would help you plant your feet, connect with the earth and the Great Mother, and ground through the wave of feelings and change. Since it’s an eclipse, we’ll see. Some many are losing their religion right now, and for good reason. Let’s try not to be alarmed by how human and vulnerable we are, how little we can control…This Pema Chödrön quote has been making the rounds: “Things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. The come together again, and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.” I like remembering this, too: I am a room for life, and I can make room. Even for this… Hang in there everybody 🌑 Send psychic lifeboats to your people, take exquisite care.
Portland friends! If you didn’t already know, or Portland friends! If you didn’t already know, or need a reminder, Brian Ellis (@brianstephenellis) is the best, he’s really quite devastating. He has a brand new book of poems out on Limit Zero, it’s called Against Common Sense. We are celebrating this Saturday under the hangar at Zidell Yards, on the west side of the Willamette river, from 3-6, with coffee & beer by Coffee Beer (@coffeebeerme), Halloween candy, and readings by myself, Carrie Ivy (@carrie_seitzinger_ ), Jenna Fletcher (@hi_jenna), Stephen Meads (@whoisthespirit), and of course Brian Ellis. No cover charge. All ages, though adult content will be very adult. Performances at 3:45pm. Should be a cloudy moody day - perfect conditions for protesting fascism by being artists and walking the beauty/punk way. Hope to see some of you!! Address is up on my website if needed.
Saturday at 10:55am PST, the moon eclipses the sun Saturday at 10:55am PST, the moon eclipses the sun at 21° of Libra, an annular “ring of fire” eclipse. Eclipses are energetically unstable, like power outages or surges. They cause eruptions from the shadow or unconscious, and coincide with fate-like events. They are transformational vortexes that illuminate what is always true: we are not fully in control. We are at the mercy of forces that are larger than us, both without and within. Libra has been hosting the south node since July. South node eclipses are the ones that clear, release, cleanse, and send back out into the world. Libra is primarily about relationships. It’s ruled by Venus, who wants those relationships to be beautiful, loving, most importantly, just. Libra gives us some of our greatest gifts - our instincts for inclusion and cooperation and harmony - and it has a tendency to avoid conflict just to preserve the peace, which, over time, makes that peace more and more fragile. Some conflicts need to be had. Some deeper realities need to be called out. Relationships and entire societies can only thrive when harmful behaviors, injustices, or even just misattunements and misunderstandings, are able to be openly addressed. If you’ve have been feeling this eclipse brewing personally, you’ve likely noticed some old relationship wounds surfacing. Situations might be drawing your attention to unhealthy dynamics or inequities, and your part in creating or allowing them. You may also notice some of these situations resolving and releasing in novel ways; others just starting to really cook and get uncomfortable. Eclipses are times to pause all forceful effort, to let go of ego agendas, and attempts to know the answers. If tensions are rising, hold those tensions; resist the temptation to dissociate or flee. Libra is taking us right to the edge of its territory of knowledge, showing us all that is compromising our ability to just live and let live, all the unhealed wounds, all the righteous anger. Healing and forgiveness cannot be rushed or even made, only invited, prayed for, worked for. May forces of love surround all of us who are hurting. May the road open.
In the early hours of Friday morning, the moon is In the early hours of Friday morning, the moon is full at 6° of Aries. Aries is the fiery, holy-shit-starting ram. It’s the first sign of spring, and it has to have enough physical energy to get us through the crisis of rebirth. Try to imagine what it takes for the life in a seed that’s been buried in the dark, in the stiff frozen earth, to break through its protective shell and push itself upward toward a warmth and light it cannot feel or see, but knows is there. That’s Aries — pure, personal, irrational, ecstatic, life-making instinct. Arriving a week into Libra season, where the general call is for dim golden tones and smooth jazz and pleasing social harmonies, the Aries full moon turns on the hot bright lights and blasts the horn. Where Libra centers empathy, Aries centers agency. Where Libra uses honey, Aries uses charge and heat. Whether we love or hate this kind of energy might depend on the current condition of our sympathetic nervous systems, or how far we’ve progressed in healing from shame and people pleasing. Full moons in general can have us feeling a little overwhelmed, and if we are arriving in a state of burnout, it exaggerates that state. An Aries full moon is definitely going to try us in that way, and it’s often best to just hideout and wait for the extremeness to pass. It could also open a portal to some passionate agitation, some push to use more freedom than you are using. There’s been a lot of healing and growth energy in Aries for awhile now, trying to get us to clean up our relationship with our own power. You might feel like a living exclamation point in the part of your chart Aries rules. The Sabian symbol for 6° of Aries is “a square with one of its sides brightly illumined,” which James Burgess reads as “crystallization of life-purpose,” so this full moon is also about that reckoning. There is a light trying to come through each of us. You have to believe in your own gifts, and in your own style of giving them, for that light to properly shine. Whatever is still hesitating in you, about showing up more fully, about taking up some space and making some noise, this Aries moon wants you let it go, to risk more, to be less afraid.
Thursday evening, at 6:40pm PST, the moon goes dar Thursday evening, at 6:40pm PST, the moon goes dark and renews herself at 21° of Virgo, priestess of systems, keeper of the holy order. Virgo is ruled by Mercury, who has been retrograding in Virgo the last three weeks, sending us into a deep process edit and analysis of our inner systems. Now, at the same time and sign as this new moon, Mercury is slowing down, coming to a stop, and by Friday, stationing direct. And so the final week of summer arrives as a kind of doorway opening, a turning point, one we are strongly encourage to pause at thoughtfully, conscientiously, meaningfully — Virgo-like — before we enter fall, and start a new cycle. We really might need a full minute — or a weekend, or a week. This summer has been wild retrograde ride, full of surprising depths and healings. Take a few days if you can to slow down, stop, and come direct yourself before making any big moves. Reflect on what’s happened in the last six months for you especially, since your Virgo full moon brought Saturn’s entrance into Pisces. Virgo is mutable earth, so her new moon is generally solid for setting intentions that organize our life into a higher harmony, or for ritually supporting our creative lives. If you have a new, creative idea brewing, or even an idea for an idea, one that might take months or years to manifest, one that might take a team or community or entire city to pull off, consider this a good time to make some vows. Just keep in mind that only way to escape the bondage of the past, and the tyranny of a default survival mode, to make a new life and a new world real, is to fully occupy a new dimension of consciousness. Not just in our minds and intentions—in our everyday actions. Virgo and the magician Mercury both want you to recommit, wholeheartedly, maybe even gladly(!), to the daily, consistent self-discipline necessary to embody and actualize the vision you have for your life and for the world. It wants you sense what you need to pull that off, to build or repair a system or two to make that kind of consistency possible. It really matters how many of us can embody our Virgo attributes enough to be the change, and keep being it.
Hey friends, two more weeks of technical summer an Hey friends, two more weeks of technical summer and then the descent of fall begins! Our next (and last, for now) Embodied Alchemy cohort, starts in October, with the first videos dropping October 4th, and the first live meeting happening on the 10th. There are two spots left in the live group journey! If you’ve been considering this year or in previous years, it’s a good time to tune into whether this might be the right time. Registration for the solo journey is also now open. The process of death, rebirth, and transformation that alchemy describes is one of our most powerful teachers for meeting this time of change. Embodied Alchemy roots these teachings in the intelligence of the body and the more-than-human world. Over 8 months, this course covers essential philosophies and practices for ritual somatic meditation as an aid in personal healing and transformation, including movement meditations, dream work, boundary work, and a lot more. It’s offered remotely, and includes weekly readings and talks, somatic experientials and practices, and a small-group process group to bring your feelings and insights for witnessing. It's co-facilitated by myself and Trinity Capili of @creaturepace (!) and it's designed to work with and carry us through the descent of fall, the chrysalis of winter, and the rebirth of spring. Honestly it packs a punch. It creates some ideal conditions for reconnecting with yourself, and I witnessed it over the two years support and accelerate some dramatic healing. DM if you have questions, or head to my website for more details. You can also book an introductory call if needed. We would be honored to have you in the alchemy boat :) *** The final animation comes from the artwork of @monicaeunjikim and @waleedzaiter
Wednesday evening, at 6:36pm PST, the moon peaks i Wednesday evening, at 6:36pm PST, the moon peaks in fullness at 7° of Pisces, the cosmic fish. It’s a rare Super blue moon—the next one will be in January 2037. And as with all full moons, a current of manifestation is culminating, while a current of liberation is beginning. Pisces loves a good ending/beginning. It also loves poetry, swelling up with emotion, humming beautifully and tunelessly, and dissolving the boundaries of the self just enough to melt back into the great Is that both Is and Isn’t. Pisces is essentially tidal—a wave becoming a wave, then remembering it’s the ocean, then enjoying imagining itself as an individual wave again, rising, crashing, starting over. The Piscean move is to go with the flow, and trust the intelligence of that flow—to be in the river of what’s happening now. The shift in energy might be subtle for you, and it might be not subtle. Last week we transitioned from the intense emotional drama of Leo season and entered the survey-and-organize-the-wreck drama of Virgo season, just as Mercury stationed retrograde in Virgo. We’ve been auditing and editing, reviewing the details, getting a real grip where we haven’t really been able to get a grip. If you were at all enjoying that, feeling a little clearer-headed, don’t worry, it will return. But not until this full moon and its tide does it thing. There is a deep emotional or spiritual truth rising with this tide, an insistent inner voice that wants to speak and be heard. It’s connected to what got stirred up on the new moon in Leo, and the healing of this Venus retrograde, which completes this Sunday. To hear it properly, we will need to settle down out of the “doingness” of Virgo into more of the “beingness” of Pisces. And with so many planets in retrograde (7 as of Monday), time itself this week is likely to get sloshy, as Bayo Akomolafe says. Not great conditions for a work week or task lists or deadlines. Perfect for synchronicities and healing breakthroughs and surrendering to love and divine timing. … To get the whole reading, head over to my Substack, reading it is free, and there are free and paid subscription options to get these moon songs directly in your inbox!
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