Two weeks ago, I valiantly attempted to cut through the tough leaf stem of a particularly large houseplant, using a mediumish pair of desk scissors. (It was handy.) Though still not sure how, I managed to pinch the pad of my right middle finger between the handles. Hard.

It made me dance.

Not in a good way.

The injury became a long thin angry blood-blister. Then it turned rusty and now it is slowly fading. At least it didn’t hurt much after I did healing on it for a few minutes. (After the dancing part.)

Looking at my widdew boo-boo this morning, I became amazed at the physical process of healing. Right there, in my body, was a powerful Life process. Even better, since life is fractal, it is one we can learn from and use in other areas, too.

You could say I had made a “mistake” that had hurt me (have you ever done that? lol), and immediately, my body started coping.

1. It rushed resources to the hurt area (blood, fluids). And there were plenty to go around. The finger swelled, it hurt, it turned RED. By doing this, my body patched things up — the blood blister became like a scab beneath my skin. Great temporary measures.

2. Then, over the next several days, it started to clean up the patch itself and get back to the ideal finger state. The swelling subsided, the scab faded. Some day soon, my fingerpad will be all clear and happy again.

What struck me as so amazing is the two-phase reaction: First, emergency fixing. Then, longer-term healing.

Isn’t life like that?

This process is why I congratulate clients for getting medical attention and recommend that yesofcourse, they continue to take their meds until their doc says they can taper off — that’s the temporary fix.

And there they are in my office seeking longer-term healing, to clear the underlying anomaly that triggered the illness or condition in the first place. That’s the healing part.

It’s a beautiful thing. And it works.

One, two. Fix, heal.

Share Your Wisdom

Where in your life have you experienced this one-two, fix-then-heal approach?

Did it work for you, or did you run into glitches?

(c) Daria Boissonnas 2013  All rights reserved.

‎”Pain is a part of life, but suffering is optional,” said the guest speaker at church a few Sundays ago now, a Zen Buddhist spiritual teacher.

Though I’ve heard it a zillion times, I love this saying. It reminds me that it is not life itself that is painful as much as my demands and assumptions about what happens (or should happen) that really makes me miserable. It’s not what happens but my grasping expectations and demands about how life should be that hurt.

We suffer when we hold on to our wouldas, shouldas, and couldas. We suffer when we grasp tightly to what used to be or what might have been. Our choices make the difference, and this quote says suffering is a choice we can make or not make (whether we choose mindfully or through unconscious habits of thought doesn’t really matter here).

Whatever happens, we can choose to heal. I love to be reminded of that!

But Wait, Isn’t Pain a Form of Suffering?

This morning while washing dishes, a new thought snuck into my mental landscape, however… It wondered, “Isn’t pain itself…well, inherently painful, a form in fact of suffering?” When I am in pain, I am miserable. It hurts, darnit. I am physically suffering! When I am depressed, I am suffering mental/emotional/spiritual pain. Ouchies! So isn’t pain the same as suffering?

But that thought seems to contradict what the quote says. If pain is a form of suffering, the first part of the quote implies that suffering is a part of life, while the second half says suffering is entirely optional, not necessarily a part of life — we do not have to suffer.

Ut oh. I have contradicted the quote I love.

Interestingly, since the first half of the quote says that pain is always a part of life, the quote implies that pain cannot be suffering.

Whoa. Though my theory is now that pain and suffering are one, the quote implies that they are two unrelated things.

Already I’m super curious as to how exactly one can experience pain without suffering, and I have only washed two dishes.

What Does No-Pain Feel Like?

In detaching, in letting go of the grasping that causes pain, does life then stop hurting? Does your bum knee start to feel great again? Does thinking of your dead loved one bring only a smile to your face, without tears and sadness? What would a life without pain (aka suffering) even look like?

That depends on what you think pain is. After pondering my experiences as an energy healer, it is easy to conclude that yes, in fact, pain ONLY arises from attachment, from hanging on to expectations, from demanding that the world be somehow other than it is.

As they say in energy healing, pain is stuck energy. In my experience, I have found you can heal severe pain by eliminating these thought patterns and aberrations in the energy field, allowing Life Force to flow unimpeded once again.

THAT I can totally believe, based on what I’ve seen of pain and its causes in my healing office. Physical pain seems to filter down from other levels of our conscious being, such as fears and doubts that come from or create attachments.

Pain is stuck energy. The important question is now: why is the energy stuck?

In a perfect world, energy, consciousness, and information flow freely as life unfolds. Acorns become magnificent oak trees. Baby otters grow up to become adult otters, without anyone instructing them in otterness. The only way this beautiful process of unfoldment and evolution gets stuck and therefore painful, is because of an attachment. An idea or thought or action that stopped the free flow of energy and consciousness in our divine unfolding.

Whether it was a thought you created yourself or one you downloaded from the collective consciousness, there it is, a tether, holding back some part of a divine or natural process that cannot be stopped.

But life happens, relentlessly. As you continue to move forward through time and your life evolves, this tether or limitation starts to gum up the works. It becomes a sticking point, and requires you to cope with it. It can manifest in your life as a mental limitation (“I’m not good enough”) or a bum knee. Eventually, this tether causes so much interference between you and your perfect unfoldment that we come to understand the feeling of this interference as pain.

Ouch.

Pain is a symptom of attachment, of limitation, of not allowing life to unfold in its brilliance, whatever form that takes. Pain is a result of trying to control and dictate Life itself.

Of this I am sure.

So what about the initial quote? Do I still agree with it? Yes, but I might rephrase it for clarity. Try this one on for size:

“Pain often happens in life due to habitual or unconscious grasping, controlling, and attachment,
but (once you notice it) continuing to suffer because of these limitations is entirely optional.”

Yes, I will still use the initial quote, since mine is pretty unwieldy. But this newly realized rewriting is the deeper meaning I will give to that quote when I say it.

So, what did you think of while washing the dishes this morning?

© Daria Boissonnas 2013

About 14 years ago, I enthusiastically started what may be an unusual spiritual practice, one that seems very simple yet has challenged me and fascinated me ever since. This practice also has brought tremendous relief and inner peace as it has helped me see the world as a nonduality or unified whole — a friendly place.

I stopped believing in causality.

Yep.

This is such an odd practice, it may be hard to imagine at first. It took quite a bit of effort to slide into at first, to catch myself thinking in terms of “what caused this” and “who is to blame?” But let’s take a look at this practice and its benefits.

What Does No-Causality Look Like?

How about a nice concrete example to ponder –

Suppose you fall and scrape your knee by tripping on a heaved sidewalk tile. Without causality, you did not fall because of the heaved sidewalk tile. Nor because you happened to be thinking about a recent painful fight you had with your best friend which distracted you so that you didn’t notice the heaved section. There is no because. All three things are one, like different facets on a cut diamond. They are all the same diamond, seen from different angles at different (sequential, as we experience them) points in time.

Consider the scraped knee, a place in the body that bends and flexes and supports forward movement. Now it is hurting.

Consider the fight with a friend, their inflexibility about something that triggered your inflexibility about their inflexibility and the angry words you tossed back and forth. Perhaps you are afraid the fight will end your friendship, which has been a great support to your changing directions in life.

Consider the sidewalk, which helps us move forward in a straight line, to go where we want to go more easily than treading on grass and stones. It is heaved, its even pace broken, as broken as you feel with this new rift in your friendship. You and your friend took different positions on the issue, like the two squares of sidewalk that no longer meet eye to eye. (See the common threads?)

Not believing in causality means that what we would usually separate as cause and effect are one. Both what we call the cause and the effect are expressions of some latent pool or system of energy and consciousness. In the stream of time as we experience it, we happen to see one (which we call cause) before the next (we call that effect). But, like telephone poles along the road, they are all actually there the whole time, we just experience them sequentially.

This is an easy world of 100% responsibility, and it makes for a very pleasant place to live. Of course people in this world care about the “consequences” of their actions, or, shall we say, the far-reaching aspects of the energy and consciousness that their actions were a small part of. They know they are connected to everything, a part of everything, belong to everything.

This world is a place of deep peace, a blameless stillness and ease which allows one to focus on positive reactions.

The Effects of No Cause and Effect

OK, that subhead was a pun. There is no effect of not believing in causality. The shift transcends the mindset of blame and you simply experience the world without this filter, as it is.

For me, over the years, what I have experienced while not believing in causality is that I tend look at the world increasingly as a metaphorical representation of energy and consciousness that we happen to perceive largely through our physical and mental perceptions. What happens becomes less important than what it means and what it tells me about my resistance and hangups and how I am not experiencing the world as a safe and loving place. It has also helped me become a crackerjack interpreter of dreams, daydreams, persistent mental images, hangups and more (so my clients enthusiastically say).

I believe this shift in consciousness has empowered my healing, in a sense by allowing me to step aside more easily to let more healing flow through me. And I simply love looking at the world in this way.

It was not an instant shift, but took place over many years of catching myself in old thinking habits of blame and causality, and then applying my new philosophy of no-causality to see the situation from that viewpoint. Eventually, my habits shifted and the world became a beautiful, harmonious place of oneness.

May it become so for you, too.

© 2013 Daria Boissonnas  All Rights Reserved

My friend is putting together a class on clearing clutter, and this perennial struggle has been top of my mind.  Then this morning, my meditation gave me an unexpected insight into the piles and disorganization we call clutter.

As I sat in meditation enjoying an unusually deep peace and nothingness, I began to see myself sitting at my desk, as if my eyes were open.

Oh dear.

I’m still in the throes of removing the large desk (and emptying seven large drawers) in my office. Stacks of paper dot the office countertops as well as my massage therapy table.  Evicted empty drawers huddle in one corner.  The shredder has been throwing a week-long confetti party on the far side of the room.  And a few accretions of miscellaneous… I’ll be nice — stuff… are now seeping across my desk like a glacier field.

As I “saw” this (with eyes closed), I could vividly feel how stressed I used to get about clutter.

Clutter used to drive me nuts.  Whenever I needed to concentrate or start a new project that required thinking or creativity, I would instantly become super-distracted by things out of place in my environment.  (Coincidentally, I lived a fairly ordered but cluttered life, so there was lots to be distracted by.)  The piles around me would scream: “You don’t have time for THAT, you have to take care of THIS.”  And send me reeling into uncertainty.

Ugh.

But this morning, in that lovely meditative place, I felt my old reaction with compassion and love.  (Awww…)  Then the stressed feeling faded completely, and I was looking at my office clutter while once again feeling that kind of deep peace you can only experience far out in nature or in meditation.

Peace? Amidst clutter like this? But… yes. I could feel Peace in the desk, in the papers, in the… stuff. Peace. Stillness. The scene suspended itself, as if it was waiting for me.  And I got it: clutter is OK.  Clutter doesn’t matter.  Only what I thought and how I felt about clutter made it miserable.  Inside the clutter is stillness.  Inside me is stillness.  Inside each atom of clutter is Tao, Presence, or God.  Inside chaos is the deepest Peace.

And I can (and may) find that stillness, in the midst of any chaos.

I sat with that for a while, until I felt I could reach it again in a non-meditative state. Even now, hours later, I feel deeply peaceful.

Do I still want to create systems so clutter does not build up in my life?  Of course. But this I know: should clutter creep up on me, like when I’m moving furniture around or when I get too busy to file for a while, there will be stillness and holiness in the center of that clutter.

Today I activated this insight by plopping my laptop on top of the clutter and peacefully writing this out for you.

How can you find Peace and Stillness in your clutter?

© 2013 Daria Boissonnas

A few months ago, I went looking for that quote from the Gospel of Thomas — the one that artists, writers, and healers love — the one that says something like: if you do not bring forth what is within you, it will just kiiiiiiiill you.

Oh yeah.

In the throes of our artistic angst, especially when not doing our art, our teaching, or our healing, we can identify with the feeling of slowly dying.

But when I finally located the quote, I discovered it was misquoted. Among the three main scholarly translations and several others I found, none translate logon #70 the way I have seen it on facebook and twitter.

Here is the misquote, directly from BrainyQuote.com (a website that any serious writer or facebook quoter avoids like the plague):

INACCURATE:
“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you.
If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”  (emphasis mine)

Instead, the real quote speaks of something deeper and even more profound. 

What do official translations say?

Part 1: What Saves You Is What You HAVE… If You Express It

ACCURATE (first half of quote):

Translated by Thomas O. Lambdin:
(70) Jesus said, “That which you have will save you if you bring it forth from yourselves.”

Translated by Stephen Patterson and Marvin Meyer:
70. Jesus said, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you.”

Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson:
(70) Jesus says: (1) “If you bring it into being within you, (then) that which you have will save you.

Rendered by Pico Iyer (Source: The Gospel According to Thomas: With Complementary Texts, ed. Raghavan Iyer, Concord Grove Press, 1983, often miscredited online to a mysterious Nancy Johnson.)
70.) When you produce this within, what you have will save you.

The Coptic Ecumenical Project, translated into English and Spanish by Paterson Brown:
70. Yeshua says: When you bring forth that which is within yourselves, this that you have shall save you. (Again, my bolding for easy comparison to the misquote.)

Three Intentions for Awakening

What does this new understanding mean for those of us who produce creative or healing works?

1. Stop looking for what will save you “out there.” Know that you already have something wonderful inside you, something worth sharing, something can turn your life around, every time you need it to. You will not find it out there, although some of what you find out there may remind you of what you already have inside. Drop any jealousy of other people’s published works, too, because those are mere shadows of what counts. Wonderful though they may be, the works don’t matter. What YOU already have counts for a lot.

Translations #3 and 4 even seem to imply that all you have to do is develop this thing within you, to “bring it forth” within, perhaps by simply exploring it, listening to it, or acknowledging it. Turn inward.

2. Express your something wonderful. If you are a dancer, dance. If you are a writer, write. If you are a healer, heal. Do it behind closed doors and unpublished if you have to at first. Explore what is within you. It’s more important that you acknowledge what is in you and EXPRESS it, than you or your works be seen or approved of. It may be that our most sacred duty is simply expressing what is inside us, if only to ourselves and our loved ones.

Well, all right, we kind of knew that already, but let it soak in: It’s not what you have, but THAT you have something wonderful already. It’s not what you produce but THAT you produce it.

3. And, finally, stop counting jelly beans. It’s not the size of your, er, body of work that counts. Contrary to the misquote, what you’ve produced is not what saves you. The painter with the most canvases hanging in the Louvre does not win. The vast potential you don’t even know you have inside is what makes the difference… if you connect with it. If you seek it and “bring it into being.” So stop counting the other kids’ jelly beans while you focus on your own.

This teaching reminds me of Jesus’s admonition to pray in secret. There, alone, it’s what you do in your heart that counts — what you do when it’s just you and God looking, not what you show to others. This teaching also reminds me of the Tao Te Ching’s saying that, “Those who know don’t talk and those who talk don’t know.”

I had no idea this quote would turn out to be about a lot more than artistic angst. What counts, in my words, is your Inner Healer: your naturally healing gifts and your inner connection to them.

And you will be “saved” by awakening this within you.

Would you like a small challenge to activate this teaching? Take 10 seconds right now, and name ONE thing you can do immediately (or later today) to connect with the real you, inside you. (Whether that part of you looks like what you think other people want… or not.) How could you honor this hidden part of you? How could you begin to explore it more deeply?

One thing.

Let me know what you discover, in the comment section below.

ARTICLE PART 2: THE THING ABOUT THE THING THAT KILLS YOU… next time

© 2013 Daria Boissonnas

“I come forth and from the plane of mind I rule.”

I’ve just returned from facilitating another Radiant Life Retreat in Ojai, California. We dove deep and broke through to new, rich ground. What moved me deeply was the moment each woman chose to bust through into new territory. Can you imagine what it takes for a seedling to burst through the soil after winter? These women summoned everything they had to get a glimpse of the light.  Now, today, as the sun moves into Aries tonight at 10:15 pm pacific time, we all get a chance to enter new and stimulating territory in our lives.

We are welcoming Spring into our lives — as we do each year. And each year we get to leave a little something behind that no longer serves us so we can travel lighter and brighter. Both the shedding of winter and the embrace of Spring require DARING. We ask ourselves,”Can I live without that?” Or “If I really dare to launch, spring forth, break through, will it take hold? Will I thrive in the new land?”

Aries’ gift is daring. Sometimes it moves forward too impulsively or with too much effort, but when we ride the energy of Aries with grace, we have the capacity to summon our troupes, march forward, break through and be the pioneer of our own unexplored horizon. It’s inspiring to others. It’s inspiring for ourselves.

At its best, Aries seeds bold new ideas that will grow something worthwhile for all humanity. Aries comes forth with the power of the mind and says, “What about this, mankind? Have you considered THIS.” It offers THE NEW — served up (at times) with a little bravado, strut and a wink that says, ‘and I did it all by myself.”

Of course as an Aries grows and matures, he learns that nothing can be done alone and that while his part may be to plunge in with gusto, he’ll need a ton of support to see it through, to tend and grow his initial brilliant idea into a fully formed YES. Libras are great allies for Aries as they know how to choose wisely, work together and take the necessary time.

This month– daring ones–breathe in hope, innocence and chutzpah. If you have been hesitating, PLUNGE. If you have been sad, diligently search for a little spring in your heart and tend it lovingly. If you have an idea and have been brewing for a time, THE TIME IS NOW to ignite it, spark it, fire it up and send it out.

Come forth, my friends, with what you have to offer. Give your gift. You are, after all, the only one to give it.

Big love.

Heidi Rose Robbins grew up learning the zodiac with her alphabet. As a practicing astrologer for over 15 years, Heidi takes a practical, sensitive, and inspiring approach to astrology. It is Heidi’s passion and commitment to speak to the depth of who we are and to help us grow into the next outrageous blossoming of our true selves. Her thriving worldwide practice includes transformative retreats for women twice a year in Ojai, California. GIA is pleased to offer Heidi as a regular guest columnist.

A Poem for Aries

For a New Beginning

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

~ John O’Donohue ~

When you have a fight or other painful event in a relationship, how do you get back on track?

Many folks would say forgiveness.

I agree — that is a great place to start! However, I’m going to step out on a limb here so you can give your forgiveness practice more power. Forgiveness is not, as many believe, the entire healing process. It is the first step.

But it is an extremely important first step that allows the rest of healing to happen.

This came up for me recently, a little too close to home, when someone I love took dramatic offense and hurt at something I said with all good intentions. They were done with me; I was devastated. Several days later, a friend brilliantly and lovingly asked me, “What else do you need from this situation in order to heal?”

Great question! You can’t go anywhere if you don’t know where you want to go! It’s so easy to get stuck in the emotions of a crisis without looking for the healing solution.

I went within. I… I wanted to be forgiven. Even though I had technically done nothing wrong, they were genuinely hurting. I wanted this person to say, “That’s OK dear, I understand, things like this happen sometimes, I’ll get over it, I forgive you.”

The Power of Forgiveness Is Disconnection

When we are stressed by a negative event, our energy and consciousness freezes. It locks us into the event(s), which is now in the past. Even today, many of us are locked to painful events from earlier in your life. (Some vividly, as if it happened yesterday. Is there anything left from your upbringing that can rile you up upon thinking of it?)

When you maintain connections to the past, you must power those connections with your energy and consciousness. They are distractions and energy drains. You struggle where there could be ease. You feel adrift, confused, or vaguely dissatisfied with life when you tend these old wounds. It is as if you are carrying them around in a massive backpack, bending under their weight.

This I know: the heart of healing is connection. It is connection to that which sustains and nourishes, and disconnection from that which drains and demoralizes.

Forgiveness is a letting go, a healthy disconnection of your energy and consciousness from the painful experience. It is a release of blame and the need to receive anything back. Forgiveness turns you around, from being stuck in the past, attached to what happened, to facing forward again, being present in today, and moving forward into healing.

Sometimes, it’s easy to get over an offense. Hey, things happen and we can move on. But in situations where stress, outrage, shock, hurt, and other emotions have firmly attached us to that original fight or event, forgiveness is golden. It initiates the healing process.

But What If They Won’t Forgive You?

What do you do when you are the transgressor — intentional and repenting, or unintentional — and the person you hurt will not forgive you? What do you when the other person is refusing to reconcile?

You heal. You step beyond this situation, by disconnecting yourself. And the #1 rule about healing is this: you have all the resources you need at all times.

The way energy works, the only way you can experience or perceive someone not forgiving you is if, in some way, you have not fully forgiven yourself. This you must do. As soon and as much as you can.

Surprisingly, and wonderfully, when you forgive yourself — when you disconnect from that event and the pain around it — you make it much easier for the person you hurt to do so, too.

Now THAT is healing. (You healer, you!)

You are not dependent on other things or people for your happiness and spiritual journey. Any thought that says otherwise is Resistance. You can find everything in the world within you, including forgiveness.

I know this spiritual principle, but I’m human and I had gotten caught up in my emotions and forgotten. When I remembered that no forgiveness on the outside means no forgiveness on the inside, I knew it was 100% right. I was devastated and shocked, and had not forgiven myself in the uproar.

Forgive Yourself and Free Yourself to Heal

After a nice meditation of self-forgiveness (“I choose to forgive myself, I choose to let this go, I hand this situation over to God for resolution, I choose to forgive them for not forgiving me,” etc etc), I felt less upset. You may choose to take a physical action of forgiveness, too, like a donation to a relevant charity or sharing your newfound wisdom with someone.

I will repeat this meditation a few times. Connections of energy and consciousness are a bit insidious. Once built, they tend to resonate with similar connections and entwine themselves where they don’t  belong. To truly forgive and fully let go, it helps to repeat your forgiveness exercises and touch on the situation from a variety of angles. You might want to get help from a healer or counselor.

Once you have forgiven yourself, you will be able to freely look at the situation and see what you reacted emotionally to and do some healing (eliminating or rewriting patterns) around those issues. Sometimes this stage is so easy, once we let go/forgive, that we assume forgiveness was all that was necessary. Hallelujah!

When I am done with my self-forgiveness, I will no longer need forgiveness from the other person. I have not abandoned them or the situation, but I will have completely let go of the source of the painful rift between us. It will be water under the bridge. And I will rest in that wonderful place of genuine spiritual independence, where others truly have no power over my happiness.

I pray for them to find this inner release, too.

© 2012 Daria Boissonnas

Have you struggled to forgive yourself? Do you have advice or a different perspective? Please share it in the comments below!

Friends! The Sun moves into Aquarius today at 8:10 am pacific time. We leave the silence of Capricorn to rally our passionate troupes. Here’s the big question: Who do you want to be playing with this year? With whom do you feel most alive? Who inspires you, lifts you, awakens you? This month is the time to summon your allies.

Aquarius is the sign of the water bearer. Its phrase is “Water of life am I, poured forth for thirsty men.” Aquarius as the world server wants to pour forth its gift for all in need. But Aquarius is particularly interested in offering up this water of life with his true peers. This is the sign of group collaboration and nothing thrills an Aquarian more than the opportunity to build something together.

Cautionary note: It is easy to feel like the lone wolf in Aquarius as well. When we try to collaborate, all kinds of wretchedness can surface.

We might feel that there is no one that gets us, no one that sees as we do, no one as passionate about what we are passionate about. The moment we give into these inner monologues, we have begun to radically limit ourselves. We must dare to sound our most unique LEO note consistently, summoning those of like mind and heart. The response may begin with just one steadfast ally, but if our LEO song is true and generous and powerful and meant to “pour forth for thirsty men” then be patient and sing. Before you know it, you will have a whole “da-who-doray-Grinch-Who-Stole-Christmas” chorus of allies singing your song.

Carolyn Casey, one of my favorite astrological allies, suggests we speak this out into the world:

“Let the winds of change blow through my life, bringing the most radically enlivening thing that could possibly happen. I am hoisting my sails. Parasail me into the place where I can connect with my allies, and together we can do the most good.”

Here, she is writing about Uranus, one of the rulers of Aquarius. She speaks not only to the willingness to dance with change but to actually strongly invite change into our lives so that it can do its work without our resistance. Bring on the change! Bring on the allies!

And remember, Allies aren’t always our best friends. They may be someone like Carolyn Casey who whispers to me through her excellent writing and inspires me to forge ahead on my journey. And remember too the words of David Whyte as you begin to sound your call:

….anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.

Aquarius is the final air sign and wants to distribute, circulate and gather. Stay open. Be curious. Talk to people. Join forces. Do it differently. Gather for salons and share your creative genius with your pals. SHARE. Come down from your mountain top and offer it up. Experiment. Improvise.

Be the lightening rod for your bolt out of the blue. Then speak that inspiration, share it, dance it, engage it, sing it. Take a breath and in that silent moment between inhale and exhale, listen for the sweet sound of your approaching allies.

Heidi Rose Robbins grew up learning the zodiac with her alphabet. As a practicing astrologer for over 15 years, Heidi takes a practical, sensitive, and inspiring approach to astrology. It is Heidi’s passion and commitment to speak to the depth of who we are and to help us grow into the next outrageous blossoming of our true selves. Her thriving worldwide practice includes transformative retreats for women twice a year in Ojai, California. GIA is pleased to offer Heidi as a regular guest columnist.

***************************

A Poem for Aquarius

Everything is Waiting for You – David Whyte

Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into
the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.

This article series is about the many forms of human intuition. Do you know your strongest type?

To recap our intro article, intuition is a way you can receive information through the parts of your consciousness other than your physical body or rational, thinking mind.

Intuition is perfectly normal. Your job, my dear spiritual traveler, is to learn to recognize and decipher your intuition, and then use it to live a good life and help people.

Types of Intuition – 2. Clairaudience

Most flavors of intuition begin with the prefix “clair-”, French for “clear.” Not all are voluntary, able to be turned on and off, though you can get there with practice. In clairaudience, you receive information through what feels like a sense of hearing.

Sometimes, the information feels like it has actually been said aloud. Many clients and healers have told me of such events. They heard a profound and simple statement as if it was very clearly said aloud (except nobody was there or nobody else heard it). Those messages were deeply clarifying and became turning points in their spiritual journeys. This is one kind of clairaudient event.

Clairaudience can be subtle, too. When working with clients, I have heard clear messages for the client from his or her guides, higher wisdom, or dead relatives (can often tell who or describe them). It feels like I hear the entire phrase, as if it is being said to them. To me it does not feel like I’m hearing a physical sound. It often comes with emotions or the feeling of the consciousness that is “saying” it. So I pass these messages along as best I can. They are often super easy to forget, like waking from a dream and trying to tell someone what it was right away. For the client, the message is often profound. While random statements to me (tho often clerly loving), they are “wow” to the client, even to the point of tears.

You can think of clairaudience as a form of channeling, where the words of another consciousness come through you as if you are hearing them said. You are a conscious relay, shifting from your clairaudient higher consciousness down to the part of your consciousness that talks or writes. This type of channeling differs from claircognizance, which is like a brain dump: you know a lot of information in a deep way all at once.

Are You Clairaudient?

All right, I’ve had decades of practice as a psychic or empath, but I suspect many folks hear clairaudient messages and cannot tell them apart from our own thoughts. Instead, they assume this valuable guidance is just a random thought. That’s too bad when they brush off what could be a profoundly healing statement.

All the information you need in any situation is available to you. If your overtaxed thinking mind cannot figure it out, your higher guidance has an infinite number of alternatives. To create healing, we should always search with our hearts and higher consicousness for solutions beyond what the mere thinking mind can create.

To get better at recognizing how a clairaudient message feels different from random thoughts, simply listen. See if you can begin to feel the difference in how your thoughts feel. Pay special attention to statements or thoughts you hear in meditation, on nature walks, or during those wonderful times when our physical consciousness is just busy enough to let us drift into higher layers of consciousness: driving, showering, doing dishes or other routine physical tasks, for instance.

As with practicing any kind of intuition, you both need to hear it and get some feedback to test how accurate it is. Practice does not get you to Carnegie Hall — but practice with accurate feedback does. Keep a notebook handy and see how you do.

Yes, you are intuitive. All the information you need is available to you. How can you use your gifts to live a blissful life that benefits others?

Better Healing with Clairaudience

To listen is to pay attention to what you are hearing. Clairaudience goes beyond the physical ears and brain, however. It is an open state of receiving information.

If you are a healer or would like to create the permanent positive transformation that we call healing, then develop intuitive listening. Create a state of what feels like listening with your entire body and being. Then train your mind to receive it, bypassing the thinking mind’s habit of judging, measuring, categorizing, rationalizing, and rejecting. Enjoy the journey!

Next time:  clairemotional or empathic (not the same as empathetic).

What Next?

If you are looking for spiritual and intuitive development, consider a membership in GIA. Check out our benefits here: GIAwaken.com/benefits.

To ask Daria a question or share a comment, use the comment section below!

“I see the goal, I reach the goal and then I see another.”

Have things been a bit intense of late? Can I hear a hallelujah? Wow.

Everyone around me has been in the thick of transformation. The month of Scorpio is always a ride. It requires a full address of the darkness. It requires tenacity and it requires firmly holding a vision of the light.

But now…..Ahhhhhh. Now we welcoming Sagittarius. No matter how much we love Scorpio for its intensity and power, we are all ready for the  the optimism and freedom of Sagittarius when the Sun moves into this fiery sign.

(And by the way, the Sun moved moves into Sagittarius at  8:08 am pacific time today).

Sagittarius brings momentum. It brings forward movement. It brings the big, gorgeous goal and the white stallion even shows up for us to ride on toward it. Jupiter rules Sagittarius bringing good fortune, generosity and expansions of consciousness. Everything grows bigger, richer, fuller, stronger under Jupiter and the sign of Sagittarius.

The legs are ruled by Sagittarius allowing us to run, ski, jump, kick with vigor and passion. We STAND UNDER what we believe in with the power of our legs, our roots and our connection to the earth. And we UNDER-STAND the biggest ideas and visions and begin to make them our own.

Sagittarius is the physical philosopher. He wants to travel the world and come to understand who we are as Humanity. He wants to be free and unbounded and full of aspiration and desire. The KEY with Sagittarius is to gather all that gorgeous, vital energy and DIRECT it towards a tangible goal. This way we can become ‘the one pointed disciple’ of Sagittarius and harness all our vitality in the name of our vision.

Pay attention this month to Mercury Retrograde IN Sagittarius. Mercury goes retrograde on November 23rd and again goes direct on December 13th. (This might not be a ton of fun for Thanksgiving travel, but breathe and bring a good book). In general, during this time let the ride be an inner one.

Dream. Envision. Discuss. But don’t necessarily focus on huge outer action.

Mercury Retrograde is a time to turn inward and focus all your inner yearning, passion and visionary strength to rally around the goal. If you Do take action, be clear, one-pointed and lead with your JOY.

Heidi Rose Robbins grew up learning the zodiac with her alphabet, and has been a practicing astrologer for over 15 years. She has a practical, sensitive, and inspiring approach to astrology. It is Heidi’s passion and commitment to speak to the depth of who we are and to help us grow into the next outrageous blossoming of our true selves. Her thriving world-wide practice includes transformative retreats for women twice a year in Ojai, California. GIA is proud to have Heidi as a regular guest columnist.

Poem for Sagittarius

A (very) Sagittarius Song

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause

And I know if I’ll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I’m laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star

With energies shifting, more and more of us are becoming aware of our intuitive abilities. How about you? Do you know what form your intuition takes? Do you know how to recognize it and what to do with it?

Intuition comes in many guises. Intuition is simply a way of receiving information via the parts of your consciousness that are other than your physical body or rational, thinking mind.

Intuition is perfectly normal. We are all born with a vast spectrum of consciousness, a rainbow of flavors, which can receive information. So there are many ways you receive information, in addition to your five standard senses and your thinking mind.

Your job, my dear spiritual traveler, is to learn to be unafraid of your intuition, as you would be perfectly OK with sight or sound or other inputs you are used to. Your spiritual responsibility is to learn to recognize and decipher this additional information, and then figure out how to live a good life with it, and even use it to help people.

Intuition is a great source of objective information and guidance. When information comes in through these channels, it does not flow through the fallible human mind. It stays in its purest form, from God’s mouth to your ear, you might say. As we process or think about this intuitive info, or rationalize it, or interpret it, however, we begin to dirty the waters. A skillful intuitive does as little interpretation as possible.

To access your inner wisdom, you must first familiarize yourself with the way the extra info comes in. Learn to recognize it, and especially discern it from random thoughts — because your thinking mind can be mistaken. (Actually, the mind is quite famous for being mistaken, and for making up false stories of all kinds.)

I’m sorry to say that your intuition did not come with an owners manual. In this article series, we will take a good look at the several different kinds of intuition.

Types of Intuition – 1. Claircognizance

Most flavors of intuition begin with the prefix “clair-”, which comes to us from French, meaning “clear”. You can slap “clair” on the front end of any kind of word describing how you receive your information.  Er, that is, any word describing the way it feels like you receive your information. Er, that is, describing the most similar “normal” way of receiving information.

Oh, let’s just jump in, shall we?

1. Claircognizance — clear knowing. You just know. You know who is calling, and it turns out to be them. You know your lover will be home late, and they are. You know something bad will happen this morning, and you’re in a fender-bender. It is not belief or thoughts. You. Know.

Claircognizance may be the most common form of intuition today. I suspect it is more widespread than any survey can uncover… because you can have this form of intuition and not even know it! Ask yourself this: how many times a week do you experience or refer to what you may call: a funny feeling, impression, gut feeling, hunch, inkling, forboding, instinct, premonition or even a plain old thought! If you are not good at recognizing your intuition, claircognizance will totally feel like thoughts.

One close friend who is very claircognizant honestly believed he was a good guesser. He could find things in 20 minutes that other experts could not find for days, but he thought nothing of it. He didn’t know that everyone is born with perfectly normal levels of consciousness, beyond the thinking mind, that can gather information.

Now you know this.

For a few years, he didn’t believe me about being claircognizant. Now, he admits it. Better yet, he’s learning to differentiate this cleaner information from his chaotic monkey-minded thoughts.

When we don’t recognize the value of our intuition, we don’t benefit from it as well as we can. If he had admitted how valuable, incisive, and consistently accurate his gift was, he could have made a very highly paid living focusing on finding things that other experts could not. A great living based on one of his Divine Gifts!

Are You Claircognizant?

So think about it over the next few days… when you get a hunch, what does it feel like? Does it come with words or pictures? A feeling of calmness and peace? Or is it a random (but recognizable) blip of information in a river of thoughts?

Another clue to our intuition often comes from childhood. We tend to train ourselves to ignore our intuitive gifts as we grow up, but we can often see them in hindsight. Can you think of hunches you had regularly as a kid? Did you have a good people sense? Feel like animals talked to you or you to them? Good sense for how the grownups were feeling? Imaginary friends? Talked to fairies or your dead grandmother?

When I was little, I always had a “feeling” about trips. I knew exactly how I would feel emotionally during them, and I was 100% correct. In my early 20s, starting a Sunday night trip home, I felt like I was driving to my death. Spooked, I crashed with a friend and drove home at 4am. Even in the morning light, I almost wiped out on black ice in the mountains. We will never know for sure what would have happened, but I’m glad I listened to my gut and drove the next day.

Another gift I’ve had for as long as I can remember is being able to either predict coin tosses or know when the answer was blocked and I had no idea. 100% right when extensively tested by a disbelieving boyfriend once upon a time, LOL.

See if you can now begin to separate out your claircognizance from your other sensory inputs and mind activity. If you get a hunch about something, see if you can verify the extra information. Keep a notebook handy and see how you do. You may surprise yourself. You may completely validate what you’ve suspected for years, more like!

You are intuitive. How can you use your gifts to live a blissful life that benefits others?

Next time:  clairaudience.

Still Confused?

If you are looking for support in walking your spiritual path, consider a membership in GIA, where you learn to manage and confidently use your intuition and Divine Gifts, ultimately to make a great living fulfilling your Divine Purpose. Check out our benefits here: GIAwaken.com/benefits.

If you have another form of intuition, please comment below.

Enjoying facebook yesterday, I found this poster. If you can’t see the visual, it says:

“Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.” ~Albert Einstein

Hmmm, Einstein? I doubt it.

Now don’t get me wrong. I love the sentiment. And I have been a huge fan of Einstein’s since high school, when I read his little 1916 book on Relativity (delightful little volume). The man invented the field of theoretical physics and innovated how we view the world.

Einstein looked at the world from a new perspective, one in which things were not fixed and stationery, as western science typically viewed the world.  For instance, western science has said the hardest substance in the world is a diamond, while eastern philosophy names water as the hardest substance because over time it can eat away anything. Though this is changing, Western science has tended to take a snapshot view of things, dissected and frozen in time. (Physiology was such a great step forward from anatomy! )

Einstein moved us into understanding that perspective mattered, that the same thing can be validly, scientifically experienced differently from two viewpoints. It was radical.

So where did this Law of Attraction-sounding quote come from?

Granted, I am a lay person, a mere fan of Einstein and not a scholar. But, sorry, I don’t remember Einstein’s theories on the Law of Attraction. Attributing quotes about magical manifestation and subtle energy to Einstein is, in my opinion, going rawther overboard.

Therefore, I would like to see the source of this quote. Anyone have a footnote? (Please comment with your source. The source of the poster was not mentioned in the post, and I sincerely apologize to anyone who owns the copyright to it, please also comment with your information, too.)

This quote is not in wikiquotes, for instance: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_einstein.  (But the disputed and misattributed sections of Einstein’s page are enlightening.)

Why Am I Picking on This Quote?

I am not trying to be a party pooper here! On the contrary, I have been a student of energy healing, consciousness, intuition, manifestation and many other “soft subjects” for a decade and a half, if not my whole life.

But I am disturbed that we are relying on a fictional quote to inspire us, when the truth is so much stronger.

Share this inaccurate poster, and this quote can be debunked and used to debunk anything else you stand for, too. Why bother?

We don’t need fictional quotes.

We don’t need to induct Einstein into the New Age to make the New Age valid or “real”.

Einstein did worlds of good exactly as he was. And we can do good exactly the way we are, too. Those who are ready will recognize the truth in this quote, without the Einstein byline at the bottom. Let it go.

A false attribution weakens the quote, weakens your argument, weakens your reputation, and weakens the public opinion of what you are doing.

The truth is so much stronger.

The lesson here is this: check your sources before you post. Even if you LOVE the sentiment, make sure you are accurate. (For example, in my first book, Gift of the Healer, I even use a  quote often misattributed to Einstein, but I note its vague source.)

The Truth is all you need. It is the only thing that sets you free.

“Warrior am I and from the battle I emerge triumphant”

The Sun moves into Scorpio today at 2:30 pm. We now plunge into the one of the most intense, penetrating, deep times of the year. In Scorpio, we are all warriors and as such we all have the opportunity to wrestle with our stuff.

The energy of Scorpio carries a willingness to dive in and explore all the dark corners. There’s a look in the eyes of Scorpio warriors that says, “Yes, I WILL. I will emerge triumphant.” And this is the month we all get to have that look in our eyes. We all get to say, “I’m tired of this darkness. I insist on LIGHT.”

The wrestling is what’s interesting. It’s not an easy journey. There are tears, fears and inner turmoil. But each step–each TINY step–we take towards something brighter, lighter or better for us is a victory.

I just gathered 19 women for my Radiant Life Retreat about 10 days ago and I watched each woman breathe through her dark corners. Each woman embodied part of what I like to call ‘our wretchedness’ and got to see it transform into LOVE. Emerging triumphant is emerging with more potency, love or wisdom in our lives. It’s emerging more FREE.

I think we must wrestle with the chains that bind us in the name of FREEDOM. Our charts offer our Maps to Freedom and we must call on every tool available– every gift in the chart — to keep us on a path of liberation. Because if we are FREE, we are authentic, generous, vital and unencumbered. We are choosing our lives every moment.  We are offering ourselves without agenda or accounts. We are soaring inwardly and outwardly.

Here, however, we need a word about wrestling. There is wrestling that stays entangled and emeshed in the dark OR there is wrestling that keeps its eye on the light. As we wrestle, we must keep our hearts open and we must breathe as deeply as we can muster. We can fight using LIGHT at our sword. We can fight with the right word, the right touch, the right choice. We can be warriors — who though they may have cause to strike something dead — instead make the choice to kill with LOVE and liberate another being with that love. In Scorpio, we can set ourselves or others FREE with our ability to wield power well.

There are a few dates of note this month. On November 2nd, both Venus and Mercury move in Sagittarius taking all the depth and soul-searching of the last month and putting it in to action. There should be a surge of creative optimism and a willingness to dream big. Also, on November 10th, the planet Mars will move into the industrious and analytical sign of Virgo. Virgo and Scorpio together make for tenacious, rigorous work. Get into it and get it done.

May this month allow you to be your own alchemist taking all that is dead or lead in you and transforming it into the gold light of the soul. Or in brass tacks terms, let’s transform another small piece of the wretchedness in our lives and feel a little lighter, more generous and with more room to breathe in the beauty of our lives.

Heidi Rose Robbins grew up learning the zodiac with her alphabet, and has been a practicing astrologer for over 15 years. She has a practical, sensitive, and inspiring approach to astrology. It is Heidi’s passion and commitment to speak to the depth of who we are and to help us grow into the next outrageous blossoming of our true selves. Her thriving world-wide practice includes transformative retreats for women twice a year in Ojai, California. GIA is proud to have Heidi as a regular guest columnist.

Poem for Scorpio

The Sonnets to Orpheus, II, 29 — Ranier Maria Rilke (Mitchell Translation)

Silent friend of many distances, feel
how your breath enlarges all of space.
Let your presence ring out like a bell
into the night.  What feeds upon your face

grows mighty from the nourishment thus offered.
Move through transformation, out and in.
What is the deepest loss that you have suffered?
If drinking is bitter, change yourself to wine.

In this immeasurable darkness, be the power
that rounds your senses in their magic ring,
the sense of their mysterious encounter.

And if the earthly no longer knows your name,
whisper to the silent earth: I’m flowing.
To the flashing water say: I am.

~ Ranier Maria Rilke ~

I looooooooove eating pomegranates and have since I was a kid.  An ancient fruit of myth, symbolism, and medicine, today the pomegranate is known for its antiviral and other healing and health properties. 

It’s easy to find pomegranate in many fruit juice mixes, but if you don’t want to drink straight sugar, there’s nothing like the fresh fruit!  They are generally in season in November & December.

One day in my 20s I rediscovered pomegranates in the grocery store and took one home.  There it sat until it dried out because I had NO idea how to cut it!  Luckily, being the persistent type, through trial & error and dozens more pommies, I put together this easy routine for cutting and serving pomegranates.

What You Need to Know:  A pomegranate is a tight jumble of lobes of red juicy seeds, encased in a rind about 1/4″ thick.  All you have to do is cut the rind open, and then you can tease apart the lobes. 

So get out your cutting board and a nice sharp knife.  You may also want to wear a full apron in case a seed or two squirts at you.

Step 1:  I slice off the flower thingy on the end, about even with the rind.  (It leaves messy dried flower parts sometimes.)

Step 2:  Cutting only about 1/4″ or so into the fruit, slice the skin all the way around, ending where your cut started.  Gently pry apart the two halves.  Do this well into the counter space because lonely seeds will often fly out of the fruit.  Admire the beautiful arrangement of seeds inside!

Step 3:  Cutting only 1/4″ into the fruit again, cut each rind in half again, creating quarter wedges.  Pry apart gently, following the lobes.

Step 4:  One more time, cut each piece in half by the rind.  I often just bend each 1/4 fruit backwards and tear the rind into its final 1/8th piece size. 

Step 5:  Make it look pretty & serve!  Peel of excess white membrane to reveal the beautiful seeds.  Arrange the eighths attractively, seed sides up, in a flat wide bowl.  These sizes are perfect for the kids, tho our youngest will eat 4 of 5 of them if she can, heh.

Enjoy!  Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions about my pomegranate cutting method.

The most powerful “cure” for feeling blue, sad, tired or depressed is helping others.

Now, even in the middle of the night, you can be inspired by healing and helping stories. KarmaTube.org offers videos about people who have helped others and overcome their own challenges. It inspires me to stop feeling like I am struggling or feeling sorry for my poor ego and get back on the bike again.

It is not often I come across an outside resource I recommend whole-heartedly, but I urge you to browse the FREE videos at KarmaTube. You can even join to support their mission.

Go here:  http://www.karmatube.org/

Now share your discoveries! In the comments below, please share your favorite video link there, and why it inspired you.

Did you like this KarmaTube? Then enjoy GIA’s FREE inspirational and educational series of audio interviews called “I Am a Healer” — 100 Inspiring Stories of Ordinary People Who are Changing the World and How You Can Too.

“I Am a Healer” — Register here to listen for FREE!

~ Daria’s Wednesday Wisdom column ~

The client called out of the blue. “You have to help me!” he said, “I’ve scheduled an important event and now my astrology says it’s a terrible day where everything will go wrong!”

While some people scoff at astrology, I find that as you step onto your spiritual path and further awaken your healing gifts, you actually become more sensitive to these background energies in the universe. In a sense, your readings can become increasingly accurate (especially with a good practitioner). At some point, you may become fearful of a negative prediction like Mercury retrograde, or a Saturn/Uranus alignment that makes you want to stay in bed all day and wait for next week to arrive.

Here are three key insights you are missing if you are afraid of the big bad astrologer, and how to resolve the problem.

1. As with all intuitive senses, much depends on interpretation.

Of course it helps to have a good reader who can tune into you and the meaning you need to hear in that moment. But even smashingly good intuitives and psychics often interpret the symbols they see through their own filters, and commonly make mistakes not in what they saw but in how they described it. That means there are many other valid interpretations of meaning, on many levels, whatever a reader or astrologer tells you.

This client was looking at a general chart of planetary energies and what they could, generally, mean. That means the astrologer did not customize the prediction to him. So we looked them over. Yes, I said, Saturn is the great teacher who brings lessons. When you are resisting his teachings, you might end up learning the hard way, ouch. Or, Saturn can mean that you will learn something wonderful and new from the event in question!

Uranus is an energy of great change and turnover–out with the old and in with the new. One way of interpreting that energy is that everything will go to heck in a hand basket. Another way is to say that transformation is coming. And I knew my client intended to create transformation with this event in question. He was relieved to hear these other, more specific interpretations, to say the least.

2. Events and forces in your personal spiritual journey may powerfully override astrological or other external forces.

I once had a dream where I was falling in love in a war zone. I was not fighting the war (was too young) and could hear it going on around me. Yet I was sappily, happily falling head over heels. In that moment, the environment of war was not affecting my spiritual journey with my beloved nearly as much as the forces of love and the hormones of youth.

Back to my client. Since I speak to bodies and higher selves, I asked his energy and received the message: “Yes yes yes, go go go! Having this event on that day ranks at a 10 out of 10 for him!” Something in his personal energy wanted that even then, no matter what was happening in the skies.

At this point in his life, the worrisome event represented a new, greater way of operating for him. He was stepping it up, moving forward. He would learn something new from this event and transform not only his own path but his students as well. His specific situation required a different interpretation from the negative general one.

3. There is ALWAYS something positive you can do in “negative” energy.

This is the greatest insight of them all. Don’t sit at home waiting for better energies to arrive next week! Whatever the prediction, there is some way you can turn it into something positive or at least something transformational. You are a natural born healer, and you have the gift to turn anything — anything — a positive way. That is the Gift of the Healer, which I discuss in detail in my book coming out this fall. We each have it.

If you must stay home, why not clean out the closet you’ve been meaning to? If you are going to postpone your event, how can you spin it to your advantage and do something extra with the time? Best of all, how can you stand firm in your intentions and move through the predicted negativity with aplomb and the eternal mind of a student? Even negative energies can have a purging effect when they take you through the darkness and out the other side.

There is ALWAYS something positive you can do in “negative” situations.

And it is your job as a healer to go find them. You can do this.

Wondering about the nutritional content of foods that don’t come in labeled boxes? Their caloric, sugar or protein content? Cholesterol or transfatty acid content?

This morning, in searching for the potassium content in your average banana, I happened upon this useful and information-packed nutrition website, from Self magazine, which I recommend you take a peek at.

Check this out:

http://nutritiondata.self.com

Why do I love this site so much?

1. So many listed foods!
You can find nutritional information for all kinds of foods: fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, condiments, generic foods, you name it.  Type in “pasta” and you get a listing of both general and brand-name foods. You can search by restaurant chain, too!

2. Choose your serving size!
I can see nutritional numbers for a cup of mashed banana, a small, medium or large banana, etc. It does the math for me. Love it.

3. So much more than calories!
In addition to the usual facts in the government “Nutrition Facts” label, you can see fascinating factors like:

• Estimated Glycemic Load™
• Inflammation Factor™
• Nutrient Balance Indicator™
• protein quality/amino acid score
• ALL the vitamins and minerals, even if zero
• calories
• DETAILED carb, protein, and fatty acid profiles
• sterols
• and a great “other” category including caffeine, alcohol, and theobromine!

4. Footnotes and explanations!
Footnotes include sources for data, so you can look them up yourself. There are links to more information about the fact they are listing, other names for some of them, and what they mean. Lots to learn.

Most tables do include the recommended daily values (DV). Just remember that the DV number tends to be how much of a nutrient you need in minimum to have fairly normal functioning or to avoid becoming deficient. I’ve found in my healing practice that some bodies need much more of certain nutrients, even 10 times as much as the DV. Listen to your body. 

Enjoy your research! Here is the link again: http://nutritiondata.self.com

And by the way, a medium banana has 422mg potassium, or 12% the Daily Value. (http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1846/2)

A Recommendation for Supplements

While we are talking nutrition, if you are looking to buy supplements, I use and recommend iHerb.com. Their prices are good, service excellent, and shipping is free over $40. They have many ways you can earn discounts, including volume pricing, specials, and affiliate recommendations.

$5 off your first order: By entering our affiliate code, NAS875, at check out, you can earn $5 off your first order!

After your first purchase, you can even sign up for your own referral code and email it to all your clients, family, and friends.  I love iHerb! in fact, it’s top of mind because I just ordered this past weekend. Try it out: iherb.com.

Note: we do earn affiliate commissions, at no expense to you, when you use our code NAS875 in your purchases from iHerb. Of course, we like iHerb so much, we recommend using it even if you don’t type in the code to give us a referral commission.

Today at  4:21 am PDT, the sun moved into Virgo. It’s harvest time, friends. Most of us don’t have much of a connection with sheathing wheat or gathering the bounty of the earth to prepare for the winter. The closest we get to a seed’s fruition is the farmer’s market.

But let’s take the harvest as a grand metaphor. What did you plant in the spring, that soaked in the summer’s heat and is now RIPE? Perhaps a great deal grew over the summer and your field is wild with abundance. Now you begin to gather what has grown and separate the wheat from the chaff. What will actually aid in your next life steps? Now you decide what you will store for future use. You come in out of the sun and see what you really have to work with.

The month of Virgo brings in the energy of hard work, discrimination and refinement. It works in and with the physical world to prepare the way for love to flow. It asks what systems, structures or rhythms are NOT working in your life. Virgo pays careful and systematic attention to what needs to be adjusted. It studies with care and executes with precision. There is no nonsense with Virgo. There is work to be done and Virgo loves work.

We go back to school in Virgo. We return from summer vacation. We buy new notebooks and new clothes. We prepare for the coming winter. We apply ourselves to what we love with great devotion and care. We cleanse, purify and pay attention to our health on all levels.

These are the days we sign up for a new yoga class, start to eat with great care or clear out patterns of thought or belief that no longer serve us. These are the days we assess what will need to be done in order for us to survive another winter. This is the time to clean up summer’s excess and buckle down for the work ahead.

Maybe it doesn’t sound like so much fun. But there’s nothing like making a few adjustments in our daily living that allow so much more beauty and life and love to pour through. There are many gifts that present themselves as we pay closer attention – as we freely give our attention – to what matters most in our life. Virgo pays attention. Virgo registers the most minute clue. Virgo offers herself in service to our greatest purpose.

I was always one of those children that LOVED going back to school. There was something about a fresh notebook and a fresh start. And a sense of growth and progression. Even if you didn’t particularly love to return to the classroom, ask yourself now where you’d like to apply your love, devotion and work. Let the month of Virgo launch you.

Heidi Rose Robbins grew up learning the zodiac with her alphabet, and has been a practicing astrologer for over 15 years. She has a practical, sensitive, and inspiring approach to astrology and a thriving world-wide practice that includes transformative retreats for women twice a year in Ojai, California. It is her passion and commitment to speak to the depth of who we are and to help us grow into the next outrageous blossoming of our true selves.

A Poem by Mary Oliver –celebrating the energy of Virgo

Flare
12.

When loneliness comes stalking, go into the fields, consider
the orderliness of the world. Notice
something you have never noticed before,

like the tambourine sound of the snow-cricket
whose pale green body is no longer than your thumb.

Stare hard at the hummingbird, in the summer rain,
shaking the water-sparks from its wings.

Let grief be your sister, she will whether or no.
Rise up from the stump of sorrow, and be green also,
like the diligent leaves.

A lifetime isn’t long enough for the beauty of this world
and the responsibilities of your life.

Scatter your flowers over the graves, and walk away.
Be good-natured and untidy in your exuberance.

In the glare of your mind, be modest.
And beholden to what is tactile, and thrilling.

~ Mary Oliver ~
(The Leaf and the Cloud: A Poem)

~I am that and that am I~

We roar forth into Leo today at 9:12 pm. Do you have a party invite for this weekend? Go! It’s time to cut loose. Leo is a fire sign and has much to do with the full expression of the Self. During this month, we can all take center stage in our lives and generously offer what we are here to give.

Recently I spoke to a potent group of artists who had taken the phrase, “No Apologies, Manifest, Be Seen” as their motto for the year. This is Leo incarnate. In the energy of Leo, we don’t mind being seen for what we are here to give. We don’t apologize for our gift and we offer our Selves up to tangibly express.

Leo is a sign of leadership. We lead the way through offering our particular gift — the gift we each have to singly give. We offer it to our community so we can all thrive. In Leo, we take responsibility for generously giving of ourselves, holding nothing back.

Use this month to warm those near you with your particular gift. Learn more about your true identity — who you ARE — through all forms of artistic expression. Cook, paint, act, sing, dance, write, create. Or for that matter, LIVE your life embodying a quality like grace or tenacity or courage. And let the living BE the artistry.

The phrase for Leo is “I am that and that am I.” In Leo, we discover we are always more than we thought we were. The “I” grows under Leo. The “I” grows into the we. We expand our ideas of identity and recognize that part of leadership is recognizing our oneness with those we lead. We recognize that any brilliance we express is part of the one brilliance from which we all emerge. That’s why Leo is also associated with the heart and with the true identification with another. Namaste — “I bow to the divinity in you” — is actually a very Leo greeting. “Hello Love,” my homespun Namaste, is likewise acknowledging the heart of another as part of the one heart, the one love, the love that connects us all.

So, during this month, be courageously YOU. Greet the lion of love in others and recognize it in yourself. Dare to express. Dare to stand in the light as a generous act. Offer it up.

Big love.

Heidi Rose Robbins grew up learning the zodiac with her alphabet, and has been a practicing astrologer for over 15 years. She has a practical, sensitive, and inspiring approach to astrology and a thriving world-wide practice. She offers transformative retreats for women twice a year in Ojai, California. It is her passion and commitment to speak to the depth of who we are and to help us grow into the next outrageous blossoming of our true selves.

A Leo Poem

Now I become myself. It’s taken
Time, many years and places,
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people’s faces,
Run madly, as if Time were there,
Terribly old, crying a warning,
“hurry, you will be dead before —–”
(What? Before you reach the morning?
or the end of the poem, is clear?
Or love safe in the walled city?)
Now to stand still, to be here,
Feel my own weight and density!…..
Now there is time and Time is young.
O, in this single hour I live
All of myself and do not move
I, the pursued, who madly ran,
Stand still, stand still, and stop the Sun!

~ May Sarton ~

~ Daria’s Wednesday Wisdom column ~

There is an uplifting saying that “everything is energy.” It reminds us that nothing is solid, nothing is permanent, and anything is changeable. But technically, this statement is not true. If everything were energy, you would experience a gray canvas of nothingness, the static fuzz between radio stations. Entropy would have won. The world would be an everything soup of nothingness.

But wait, you say, it really is all energy! Everything we see is electromagnetic energy. Stuff is made of physical energy stored in molecules and atoms. Alternative healers work with non-electromagnetic energies called prana, chi, subtle energy, meridian energy, or chakra energy to name a few flavors.

I agree, but there is something else, something carried by energy that creates the world we see, something very important. Understanding it, and how it is affected by healing, will help you understand healing on a very deep level.

What is missing is the patterns in that energy. Those patterns give us information. And healing can affect both these patterns of information themselves and the energy that carries them.

This makes all the difference.

What you perceive as the world around you is the information that the energy carries, more than the energy itself. Sight, sound, touch, mood, intuition—whether it arrives via your senses or through subtle energy channels, your world is made of the information you receive.

What is information? Consider a pair of jeans. The color blue is information, and the exact wavelength or dye color is more specific. Other information defines your jeans: the denim weave pattern, thread count, style number, manufacturer, size, stitching style, yardage of fabric, weight, the store where you bought them…and much more. (An even more interesting question is this: how little information do you need to represent something? What is it that makes a table table-like? What makes you, only you? What is the essence of a thing?)

Energy is the messenger of the universe, carrying information everywhere. When the information being carried becomes corrupted, so does your world. When the energy flow breaks down under stress, the information may be lost or distorted, and so will your perception of the world be.

(c) Daria Boissonnas 2011, excerpt from Gift of the Healer, due out fall 2011